William Jenkyn
2. In regard of God there’s no chance, Observ. 2. nor any event by fortune. All which ever was, is, or shall be, was written before him as in a book. In regard of men, Vid. Aug. retr. l. 1. c. 1. et Alex. Alens. p. 1. q. 24. Deus cognoscit praeterita et futura praesentialiter, temporalia aeternaliter, mutabilia immutabiliter, futura contingentia infallibiliter. nature may seem to have many mischances, being not (as it were) brought to bed with her ordinary effects. But we who know the true God, should acknowledge instead of chance, only his divine providence. That blind goddesse Fortune, holds her Deity only by the tenure of mens ignorance. Infinitely too weak is the axel-tree of Fortune, for the least motion of the world to be turned upon it. Punishments directed by Gods providence, are not to be entertain’d as the pastimes of fortune. That which is casuall to us, is ordained by God.
3. 3 Observ. Occurrere periculo voluit Judas, ne quos rei novitas turbaret. Calv. in loc. The faithfull should not be surprized with wonder at the disturbance of the Church by Seducers. The opposition of the truth by such as would be, and have been accounted its greatest maintainers, is oft to Christians the most unexpected evil. It may make an honest heart not only to fear its own apostacy from the truth, but even to question whether ever heretofore it did embrace the truth or no. This fore-ordaining of many glistering professors to this condemnation, should be a preservative from such a distemper. Alas! God did not only see through them, when they were in their fairest appearances, but fore-saw when they would prove, before they either were men, or were appearing Christians. Church-disturbers are no men of yesterday. He that fore-saw, would have prevented their entrance into the Church, had he not intended not only the preservation of his elect from them, Mat. 24.24. but the benefiting of the elect by them.
4. Observ. 4. There’s no judging of any ones reprobation. We are comanded to read over Gods oracles, but we are not so much as admitted to look into his rolls. Who is before of old ordained, written down, shall never be known till the books be opened. There’s a peradventure of Gods giving repentance even to opposers. 2 Tim. 2.25. De nullius hominis salute de. sperandum, quem Dei patientia sinit vivere; de sui ipsius minime omnium. Tanquam caput omnis noxiae tentationis repellatur ab animo Christiani, haec mortifera conclusio, Sum ex reprobis. Aug. Observ. 5. Justus quis est nisi qui amanti se Deo, vicem rependit amoris? quod non fit, nisi revelante spiritu per fidem homini aeternum Dei propositum super salute sua futura. Bern. Ep. 107. Censure thou mayst their actions, but not determine their end. Many a Saint recollecting how far himselfe was suffered to go before he returned, may truely say, Ile never despair of any; for surely Lord, there never will be a baser heart then mine, for thee to deal with. Sinners must have thy pity, not thy despair. That the end of their wayes will be death, it’s thy duty to declare: That the end of those, who for the present walk in those wayes, will be death, it’s thy sin, thy danger to determine. Least of all despair of thine own salvation. This conclusion [I am one of the reprobates] ought to be repelled as a tentation not more groundlesse than dangerous.
5. Whosoever is exempted from this appointment to condemnation, is engaged to be eminent and singular in his love to God. No motive to love is so effectuall as to be prevented by love: Gods love to the elect was early, eternall. They were chosen by God, before they could chuse God. How due a debt is love to him when we were, who loved us without due debt before we were! We ought to love him more than others, who is incomparably more lovely, and who loved us more than others, when we were no more lovely than others. Should not we single him out for our God, who infinitely excels all, and who singled us out for his people when we were no better than any? What was it beside election, that made Saints by grace, of sinners by nature, and (as I may say) white paper of the foulest dunghill rags? what but this went between the holiest Saint, and the most flagitious sinner? both were cut off from the same piece, and formed out of the same clay.
6. Observ. 6. Luk. 12.32. Rom. 8.33.35 &c. An timendum est ne tunc de se homo desperet, quando spes ejus ponenda demonstratur in Deo, non autem desperaret si eam in scipso superbissimus & infelicissimus poneret. Aug. de bon. pers. l. 2. c. 22. The faithfull may be strongly armed against tentations to despair. The decrees of God depend not upon the pleasure of mans, but Gods will. The Angels and Adam, who fell from integrity, plainly shew what would become of man, who (now) hath the treachery of sin within him, and the battery of tentation without him, if divine predestination were removed. Forbear then, wretched Pelagian, to make the supposed dependence of predestination upon mans will, a ground of courage; and the certain dependence of mans will upon predestination, a ground of despair. Proud potsheard! expect not happinesse without more humility. Lord, how soon should I embezzel my happinesse, and prove a beggerly prodigall, shouldst thou give me my portion into mine own hands!
7. Observ. 7. incite the best to humility. He who fares best hath no cause of insultation over him who speeds worst. The least mercy deserves thankfulnesse, the greatest allowes not pride. The reading of what the worst are, and shall be, should instruct us what the best had been, and should be without free-grace, which alone makes the difference. Col. 3.12. Humble tendernesse is the badge of election; as the elect of God, put on bowels. Grace found the richest Saint but a beggerly sinner; Mat. 5.3. 1 Cor. 1.27. and grace makes the richest in possession to be poorest in spirit. God hath chosen the weak to confound the mighty; not the mighty to domineer over the weak. Every receipt is an almes, and the best furnished Christian doth but proclaim that he hath been oftenest at the door of mercy. The taller thou art in grace, the more need thou hast to stoop, would’st thou enter into the meditation of thy present estate without danger.
8. Observ. 8. Forbearance of punishment is no argument to the finally impenitent of their totall immunity from punishment. They are bill’d and book’d by God, and at length God will call in his debts; and, the longer he stayes, with the more interest. The judgements of God are sure, if they be late. With God, delay wears nothing out of memory, nor is any thing gained by protraction. All things to the Ancient of dayes are present. How fruitlesse is a sinners league with hell! The Lord laugheth at him, for he seeth that his day is coming. Mundi laetitia impunita nequitia. Grudge not to see impenitency and prosperity go together. What’s all a sinners mirth but a litle unpunish’d wickednesse! The thunder-clap of wrath will soon make his wine of mirth soure. He who now goes on so pertinaciously in sin, must either undo, or be undone. His chear may seem excessive, but there’s a reckoning coming, which though it be the last, yet is it as sure as any part of the entertainment.
9. Observ. 9. Ministers ought not to propound to the people, a reprobation absolute from the means. Reprobation is not so to be preached, as though men were to be damned whatsoever they doe; Nempe hoc verissimum est: ita sanè sed improbissimum, importunissimum, incongruentissimum, non falso eloquio, sed non salubri ter valetudini humanae infirmitatis apposito. Aug. de bo. per. l. 2. c. 22. but so, as that it may be manifested that destruction is the fruit of impiety. It’s possible a Minister may preach what is true concerning Gods absolute decree to save and reprobate men, and yet not in that due manner in which he ought to speak. For example; should a minister preach thus to his people, Whatsoever you doe, ye shall be such as God decreed ye should be, &c. This is indeed a true doctrine, but it seeming to separate the end from the means, it is so true, that withall, as Augustin saith, it is most inconvenient and pernicious, because it is not wholsomely applied to humane infirmity. Now it is the part of an unskilfull, Dolosi vel imperiti Medici est, etiam utile medicameutum sic alligare, ut aut non profit, aut obsit. Aug. de bo. pers. l. 2. cap. 21. or deceitfull Physician, so to apply a good playster, that either it shall do no good, or do hurt. Therefore Paul speaking of the reprobates, whose end is destruction, addeth, whose God is their belly, whose glory is their shame, &c. and here Jude having said that these seducers were ordayned to condemnation, subjoyneth, ungodly men, who turn the grace of God into lasciviousness. To the handling whereof I now proceed.
This for the first part of the first argument to move the Christians Earnestly to contend, &c. The Argument is the dangerousness of the company of these seducers. The first part whereof was a description of their entrance.
The Second followes, the description of their impiety they having got entrance. Two wayes the Apostle describes it.
1. More generally he calls them ungodly men.
2. More particularly he shews wherein their ungodliness appeared; they turn the grace of God into lasciviousness, and deny, &c.
1. Explicat. 〈Greek〉. 1. 〈Greek〉, used indifferently of true and false worship, Act. 18.13. Act. 13.50. Act. 16.14. 2. 〈Greek〉 signifies to worship God aright, and duly. 3. 〈Greek〉 noteth one who is of no religion, who worships not at all. The Apostle expresseth the ungodliness of seducers more generally, calling them ungodly: Ungodly men.
For Explication; I shall first express more briefly and generally what the Apostle here intends by the term ungodly.
2. More fully and particularly explain wherein that ungodliness of which he speaks did consist, or what it is to be ungodly.
The word ἀσεβὴς, ungodly, is compounded of a word which signifieth to worship, or be devout, and of a particle which notes a negation or denyall of that thing with which ‘tis joyned. So that the word made up of both, properly signifieth one who is indevout, or worships not, who yields no adoration, honour or reverence to God, but casteth off his service, or (as we say) is a prophane man, and one of no Religion. For godliness is properly the same with Religion, and Religion is a spirituall bond; not onely a divine impression whereby we are possessed with most high and peerless thoughts of God, and rapt with admiration of that excellency which shines in him; but it’s also a binder, Dictam esse religionem, quòd quasi in fascem Domini vincti, & religati sumus. Hier. ad Am. c. 9. a golden belt or girdle, that ties and confederats, and clasps our souls to God. The faithfull by Religion are Gods bundle made upon earth to be carried to heaven; men tyed together, by being tyed to God. Godliness is this gentle manacle, and bond of love tying us by gratitude to Gods mercy, by faith to his word, by fidelity to his Covenant, by hope to his promises, &c. and godlinesse layes a most sweet and easie yoke upon all the parts of man, voluntarily resigning themselves to draw all together in the service of God; and so it ties the head from wicked imaginations, the heart from evill cogitations, the eyes from vanity, the tongue from profanenesse, the hand from violence, the feet from running into sin. And though both religion and godlinesse in their largest extent, comprehend the whole duty of man, to God and man, 1 Tim. 6.6. even holinesse and righteousnesse, yet properly and primarily they note piety, and the observation of duties belonging immediately to God himselfe. And so though ungodliness be often taken in the largest sense, as importing all kind of wickedness committed against God and man, as Rom. 4.5. 1 Tim. 1.9. &c. yet alwayes properly, and (as I conceive) in this place principally it is to be understood of wickedness, immediatly done against God himself, in denying him that reverence & honour due, Rom. 1.26. Gen. 20. and abusing that worship and service given to him & the Apostle Ungodly by this word at once discovers both the hypocrisie of these Seducers, whose great endeavour was to be accounted in the highest form of Religion, and also the root of all that following wickedness wherewith he chargeth them.
2. More particularly, to consider what it is to be ungodly, or wherein ungodliness consists. I shall open it in three particulars.
1. The deniall to God the honour which is due to him.
2. The attributing of the honour which is due to him to somthing else beside him.
3. The giving to God his honour after a wrong manner.
1. To be ungodly, is to deny that honour to God which is due to him: and that sundry wayes, as 1. To deny God his honour by not knowing him, Fingunt Deum talem qui non videt, non punit, &c. Psal. 14.1. and acknowledging his providence, presence, justice, mercy, power. The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God: he knows no such God as the true God is, no omniscient, just, merciful, powerfull &c. God. He who denies any attribute of God, denyes God himself; 1 Sam. 2.12. thus the sons of Eli knew not the Lord: and thus he, spoken of Psal. 50.21. who thought that God was altogether such an one as himself: thus likewise the ungodly, who say, Job 22.14. How doth God know; can he judg through the dark cloud? Thick clouds are a covering to him that he seeth not, &c. This piece of Atheism is the foundation of all the rest. He who knows not his Landlord, cannot pay his rent. 2. Not to honour God by beleeving him: Ungodly men totally distrust Gods promises, though he seals them with an oath. It’s impossible that God should utter a lie to them, Heb. 6.18. and that ungodly men (while such) should do any other than give the lie to God. They make God a lyar, 1 John 5.10. Heb. 3.12. the greatest dishonour imaginable! an evill heart departs from, depends not upon the living God. 3. Not to honour God by loving him. Ungodly men are haters of God; Rom. 1.30. and ‘tis not for want of poyson, but power, that they expresse not the greatest hatred against him, even the taking away his very being. Psal. 81.11. Hence ‘tis that some have called an ungodly man a deicide, though they meant him not such in regard of execution, but of affection. ‘Tis true, God himself is out of the reach of an ungodly man; but what of him they can come by, as his pictures, Isa. 30.11. his image in his children, Job 21.14. ordinances, they indeavour to destroy and abolish: like theeves, who wish the Judge were dead or hurt, the ungodly desire that God might cease to be God, that he had lost the hand of his justice, the arme of his power, Timor Domini, janitor anim•. the eye of his knowledge, &c. 4. Not to honour God by fearing to sin against him. Ungodly men sometimes presume, sometimes they despair, but never do they reverentially fear him, so as to keep themselves from sin; they fear not an Oath, they fear hell, they feare not God, they say not, How can we doe this great evill, Gen. 39 9. Job 21.14. Hos. 4.16. Psal. 50.17. Jer. 44.16. Tit. 1.10. Luke 19.14. and sin against God? they fear sin for hell, not as hell. 5. Not to honour God by obeying his word. Ungodly men cast off the yoke, they are sons of Belial. They slide back as a back-sliding heyfer. They will none of his ways. They desire not the knowledge of them. They hate instruction, and cast the word of God behind them. In their works they deny God. They will never have Christ for their ruler, nor his word for their rule. 6. Not to honour God by bearing his stroake. Ungodly men are not as children under the rod, but as wild buls in a net, they had rather be able to tear, then willing to kiss the rod. Like chaffe, they fly in the face of, and not like the solid grain, fall downe before him that fans them. They accept not of the punishment of their iniquity, 2 King. 6.33. not wait for deliverance from their punishment: they either faint under, or rage against, or take no notice of the hand of God when ‘tis lifted up against them. 7. Not to honour God by regarding of his worship? The ungodly call not upon the Lord. Psal. 14.4. Only the godly man is made like a man to looke upward. The other in their wants go to Baalzebub the god of Ekron, or the witch of Endor, to earthly and sinfull shifts, rather howling through the sense of their wants, then praying in the beleefe of receiving the blessings they desire. In their obtaining of comforts, Hab. 1.16. they sacrifice to their net, and burn incense to their drags, and are as sensuall in their enjoyments, as unsubmissive in their wants. They can neither pray when they are afflicted, nor sing Psalms when they are merry; instead of praying they dispair, instead of singing Psalms they revell; when they are in want, they are as distrustfull as if God could never help them; when they abound, they are as secure as if God could never hurt them. In a word, they account not the holy duties of prayer, Isai. 56.7. Isai. 58.13. hearing, sacraments, &c. to be their priviledges, but their drudgery. They are not joyfull in the house of prayer; the Sabboth is not a delight; the word of the Lord is a burden; and when they are in holy performances, they are like a fish upon the dry land.
2. Ungodlinesse consists in giving of the honour which is due to God, to somthing else beside God. And this ungodly men do two wayes.
1. Inwardly, in the soul, will, and affections, Jer. 17.5. and the whole inner man; as 1. when they place their trust and confidence upon somthing besides God, and so place it in the room of God, making flesh their arm and support. Thus one ungodly man depends upon his wealth, Job 31.24. making it his hope and confidence; another upon his strength, resting upon man, Psal. 20.7. Prov. 3.5. putting his trust in horses and chariots; another upon his wit and policy, which in a moment God is able to turn into foolishnesse. They will not take the word of a man, who hath once or twice deceived them; but they will relie upon the broken creature, which alway faileth fond expectation, Jon. 2.8. Josh. 62.9. Psal. 62.8. and is no other then a lying vanity; hereby not only disappointing themselves, but dishonouring him, who alone requireth and deserveth our trust and affiance.
2. When they set that love and delight upon other things which is due to God, who is to be loved with all the heart, and soul; and thus sundry there are who love their pleasures more than God, whose belly is their God; 2 Tim. 3.4. Phil. 3.19. Ephes. 5.5. others there are whose gain is godlinesse, and who are fitly therefore by the Apostle called idolaters. That which a man most loves is his God. Psal. 62.10. Ungodly men set their hearts upon that which was made to set their feet upon; with unbounded eagernesse they follow the world. Moderation holds not the reins of their earthly industry, in which they are not carried with the gentle gales of indifferency, but the furious winds of violence. They will be rich, 1 Tim. 6.9. though they lose their souls, their God, and are drowned in perdition.
3. When they bestow that fear upon the creature, which is only due to God; Isai. 8.13. when man, not God, is their fear and their dread. If outward troubles or troublers approach, Isai. 7.2. they shake like the trees of the wood; if man threaten a prison, they tremble more than when God threateneth hell; Isai. 51.12, 13. fearing him more that can kill the body, than him who can throw both body and soul into hell; whence it is that they are insnared by the unlawfull commands of Superiours, willingly walking after the commandement; Hos. 5.11. Prov. 25.26. and falling down before the wicked, become like a troubled fountain, and a corrupt spring; serving instead of the Lord, the times.
2. Outwardly, ungodly men give the honour to the creature, which is due to God; and that they do by outward religious worship, Rom. 1.25. Psal. 95.6. when they worship and serve the creature more than the Creatour, who is God blessed for evermore; before whom religiously we must only kneel, and bow down. Mat. 4.10. How unlike are ungodly men to him who was God and man! Christ refused to bow to the divel, not only because he was a divel, but a creature; denying to him not only inward devotion, but outward reverence. And how unlike to the three godly men, who tell the King, Dan. 3.18. Isai. 40.18.25. Isai. 44.19. commanding them to bow to his image, that they will not serve his gods! What do they but make a lie, when they make an image of an uncircumscriptible infinite God? and shew themselves as blockish as the block they worship, which is no better than that which even now they burnt; Poor is their pretence, who to exempt themselves from this ungodlinesse, plead, though they present their bodies at religious worship, yet they preserve their souls for God; for why could not Christ, for a whole world, with all his wisdome find out such a piece of policy? and make not body and soul one man, that must have but one God, one worship? Are not our bodies the Lords as well as our souls? or can she be accounted a chaste spouse, which gives the use of her body to a stranger, upon pretence of keeping her heart to her husband?
3. Ungodlinesse consists in the giving of honour to God after a false and an undue manner. As 1. When it’s given unwarrantably, and not according to his revealed will. When tradition and humane invention put the Scripture out of place. This is to worship God in vain. 〈Greek〉. Mat. 15.9. Nothing is more counterfeited, and disfigured than religion. Men through naturall unsubmissivenesse to the purity and simplicity of Scripture-commands, through love of their own conceits, novelty, carnality, are prone to make many golden calves. People, like the Lacedemonians, who were wont to dresse their gods after the fashion of the City, love to dresse their devotions after their own humours, being zealous, but not according to knowledge; and like bats, converting the humour of their eyes to make their wings large. These give not God that reasonable service, for the performance whereof, Rom. 12.1. they must produce a word, a Scripture-reason. Mans work is to keep Lawes, not either to be, or make a Law for himselfe or others. 2. Honour is given to God after an undue manner, when ‘tis not given him obediently; when, though what is done be commanded, yet it is not done because it’s commanded, Oculus ad coelum, manus ad clavum. or in obediencee to a precept. The hand must not only be at work, but the eye must also be upon the word. It’s very possible for a work commanded, to be an act of disobedience, in respect of the intent of the performer. 3. When ‘tis not given him inwardly, heartily; when men are eyeservants, and do not the will of God from the heart, Col. 3.23. Rom. 1.9. nor serve him in the spirit. Ungodly men rather act a service, than yield a service; they rather complement with God, Mat. 15.7.8. 2 Tim. 3.5. Ezek. 33.31. than serve him. They bring a bone without marrow. They glister, but they burn not; like some men who lifting with others at a burden, make as loud a cry as the rest, but yet they put to it no strength at all. In Gods account they who do but appear godly, are nothing at all but ungodly. 4. When honour is not given to God impartially. Ungodly men pick out one work, and reject another; chuse an easie, and forbear a difficult work; serve and honour God so far as they may not disserve and dishonour themselves; engaging no further than they may safely come off. Whereas nothing should come amiss to one who rightly serves this Master. Psal. 119.6.128. 1 Tim. 5.21. One piece of his service must not be preferred before another. We must answer to every call. We must not examine what the service is which is commanded, but who the Master is that commands. 5. When honour is not given him cheerfully. Ungodly men do the will of God against their will; Psal. 40.8. 2 Cor. 9.7. it is not their meat and drink, it goeth not down as their food, but as a potion; not upon choice, but constraint; whence ‘tis that their services are neither easie to themselves, nor acceptable to God, whose service is as well our priviledg as our duty. 6. When he is not honour’d constantly. Ungodly men wil have their rest from labour before they dye. The honour which they give to God is full of gapps. Their heart is not stedfast with God. Psal. 78.37. Ungodly men want a fountain, a principle from whence their services should issue, and therefore like a standing water, Hos. 6.4. they will in time dry up. They are not friends, and therefore they love not at all times. The honour they give to God is like the redness of blushing, soon down; not like the ruddiness of complexion, abiding. 7. When honour is not given to God fervently, and diligently with all the might and strength. Ungodly men honour not God as a God, as the best, the greatest, but without cost, slightly and coldly. The heart hath no love, and the hand hath little labour. When the spleen swels, all other parts decay, and those who nourish any lust, will honour God but with lean and thin services. A divided heart will be a lazy heart. 8. When honour is not given to God with single aims, and sincere intentions. Ungodly men propound not to themselves glory-ends; God is not honoured by them for himself. They love not the lesson wherein there is not some gay of pleasure, or profit; they seek themselves and not God, 2 Kin. 10.28, 29. and therefore they lose God and themselves too, remaining ungodly here, and unrewarded hereafter.
1. Observ. 1. Its possible for men to attain to highest estimation for godliness, and yet to be inwardly at the same time ungodly. Men may be accounted the godly party, and yet not have a dram of true godliness in them. Had not these seducers been seemingly godly, they had never been admitted by the Church; and had they not been really ungodly, they had never been by the Spirit of God call’d so. Ungodliness is a close, a secret evill: It may creep into our profession, participation in ordinances, and Church communion, undiscerned. An ungodly heart may be in a glistring professor, 2 Tim. 3.5. even in those who have a form of godliness. Judas, Simon Magus, the Corinthian teachers were not without their estimation from men for piety, nor without detestation from God for hypocrisie. Christians should not, like some tradesmen, live altogether upon credit. Quid juvat bonum nomen, reclamante conscentiâ. What doth a good name help a rotten heart! how poor an advantage to a dying man is it for one to come and say, Sir, I am glad to see you well! Truth of grace is alone beyond the reach of hypocrites. Shape may be pictur’d, life cannot. The Magicians imitated Moses, till God discover’d his own finger in the miracles. True godliness is Gods handywork: of this the most specious pretender falls short. Oh Christian, put not off the soul alone, with shadowes. Labour to be what thou seemest, and then seem to be what thou art.
2. Ungodliness is the root of all lewd, Observ. 2. irregular and licencious practices. The Apostle placeth the ungodlinesse of seducers in the fore-front of all that wickednesse wherewith he chargeth them. A man who hath no care of Gods honour, will make no conscience of any sin. Where God is not served, man will not be obeyed. Abraham rightly collected, Gen. 20.11. that they who fear’d not God, would not fear to take away his life. By the fear of God men depart from evill. Prov. 16.6. Prov. 8.13. Religion in the heart, is the best means to order the hand. Education, exigency of condition, resolutions, humane lawes, shame, fear, &c. may for a while curb, but they cannot change a sinner: They may cloake, not cure sin; They may work a palliative, not an eradicative cure. All they can do, till the heart be changed, is but to sow a piece of new cloth to an old garment, new expressions, professions, to an old disposition, which will but make the rent the greater. How imprudent are those parents, who expect obedience to themselves from their children, who are ever suffered to be disobedient to God! How little policy do those Magistrates express, who only care to make men subjects to them, willingly suffering them to be rebels to God! I confess, Satan loves to lay the brats of wars, treason, and rebellion, &c. at the door of Religion. But as truly may Politicians utter those words, as ever they were uttered, O Religion, if thou hadst been here, our nation had not dyed. And if that death may be attributed to the absence of religion, how little are people beholding to them, who hinder it from coming to the Nation to cure it!
3. Observ. 3. Eminent, if meer, profession will end in eminent profanenesse. A fiery hypocrite will grow from being lukewarm in religion to be stone-cold in irreligion. The seeming piety and glorious appearances of these seducers in advancing Christ; grace, and Christian liberty, was soon followed with the utter rejection of godlinesse. What profane, and even godlesse persons, and how purely neglective of all divine worship did they prove! The higher the building is which wants a foundation, the greater will be its fall. No water is so cold, as that which after greatest heat growes cold. A trades-man who breaks, having traded much, and been trusted much, makes a great noise when he breaks. The hypocrite who flies the highest pitch of religion, is most bruised with fals into profanenesse. Are there any who so much scorn the Ministry of the word, and all holy duties, nay who so much deny and professe they can live above ordinances, as they who have heretofore been the most forward to run after them; though alas! unfruitfull under them when they did so? Who can with tearlesse eyes, or a sorrowlesse heart observe, that sundry who have given golden hopes in their youth for godlinesse, and whose holy education was followed for a while with most pious appearances, should afterwards turn such loose libertines, so atheisticall and irreligious, as if now they studied only to make up their former restraint and forbearance, with a greater profusenesse in all ungodlinesse, &c. How much better therefore is a drop of sincerity, than a sea of appearing sanctity! A Land-floud which rowls and swels to day, will be down and gone, when the fountain will have enough and to spare. Study therefore, O Christian, to lay the foundation deep, before thou raisest the building high. And study first to get into Jesus Christ by an humble diffidence of thy self, & fiduciary recumbence upon him, and to evidence it by the through work and practice of mortification, and an hearty love to holinesse.
4. Observ. 4. Every one should tremble to be branded deservedly with this black mark of ungodliness, by the Apostle here set upon the worst of men. To this end consider. 1. Ungodliness crosseth the end of our election. Ephes. 1.4. We are chosen before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy. Godliness is the eternall design which God had upon every one set a part for happiness. 2. Ephes. 5.26. Luke 1.75. Col. 1.22. It opposeth the end of Christ in redeeming us; which was, that we should be holy and without blemish, and be presented holy and unblameable in his sight; wherever Christ justifies he renewes the ungodly. 3. It’s opposite to our profession. The name atheist we all disclaime. We have renounced ungodliness in our baptism, wherein we took an oath of allegiance and fealty to God; and which is not a sacrament of obsignation of the benefits, unless of obligation to the godliness of a Christian. We have taken God for our God, who is a holy God, and whom we profess to follow. 4. Its opposite to the end of Gods discovering his Gospel, 1 Pet. 1.15. Tit. 2.11, 12. which hath appeared, to teach us that we should deny ungodliness. Let me goe, said the Angell to Jacob, for the day appeareth; much more should Christians bid farewell to all ungodliness, the day of the Gospel so gloriously appearing. 5. It opposeth the acceptation of all our persons and services. Psal. 4.3. God sets a part only him that is godly for himself: godly men alone are his treasure, his portion, his Jewels: an ungodly man, though never so rich and honourable, is but a vile person. Morality without piety is but glistering iniquity. Mal. 1.10. Prov. 15.8. 21.7. The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord. God looketh to the person, before to the gift. Holy and acceptable Rom. 12.1. are put together. Without godliness our performances are provocations. 6. It opposeth our comfortable enjoyment of every benefit. All the comforts of ungodly men are curses. Godliness makes loss to be gain; 1. Tim. 6.6. ungodliness makes gain to be loss. It matters not what things we enjoy, but what hearts we have in the enjoying of them. Unto the defiled nothing is pure. Tit. 1.15. An ungodly man tainteth every thing which he toucheth. 7. Ungodliness opposeth our eternall blessedness, nothing but godliness stands in stead in the great day; then shall we fully discern between him that serveth God, Mal. 3. ult. 2 Pet. 3.11. and him that serveth him not. Seeing these things shall be disolved, what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness! An ungodly man is as unsutable to the work, as he is unworthy of the wages of heaven. 1 Tim. 4.7. 〈Greek〉. If you expect glory, exercise, train up your selves to godliness: labour to be expert therein, by beleeving that the promises of God in Christ shal be made good, by observing his presence in all your actions, by acknowledging his providence over all events, by casting from you what-ever offends him, by taking upon you the yoke of obedience active and passive, doing and undergoing his pleasure cheerfully; and lastly, by fervent prayer for the blessings which you want, and sincere thankfulness for those which you enjoy.
This for the first and more generall expression of the impiety of these Seducers, the Apostle saith they were ungodly. 2. The Apostle expresseth it more particularly, by shewing wherein their ungodliness did appear, and that 1. In their abusing the grace of God in these words, Turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness.
In the words we may consider. 1. What these Seducers did abuse, or their enjoyment, The grace of our God. 2. how they did abuse it, or their mis-improvement of that enjoyment, they turned it into lasciviousness.
In their enjoyment we may take notice, 1. Of the nature of their enjoyment, Grace. 2. Of the owner thereof, God; with the propriety that the faithfull have in him, he being called our God. 〈Greek〉 gratia, gratificari. Judg. 21.22. Am. 5.15. Gen. 6.8. Gen. 39.21. Num. 6.25. χάρις, χαρίζομαι. Luk. 7.42. 2 Cor. 2.10. 2 Cor. 12.12. Eph. 4. ult. Act. 15.40. Heb. 13.9. Rom. 5.15.17 Rom. 4.4.16. Rom. 11.6.
1. Of the kind or nature of that enjoyment which these Seducers abused, it was grace.
Two things I shall briefly here shew by way of explication. 1. What thing it is which the Apostle here intends by the name of grace. 2. Why that thing is so called.
1. Not much to enlarge upon this first thing. Grace in its proper notion signifies that free goodness, favour, or good will whereby one is moved to benefit another, as both the Hebrew and Greek words manifest. But it is not only taken in scripture in that primary and proper sense, but among sundry other acceptations, for the benefits and good things themselves which of free favour, and good will are bestowed; and in this sense, as it often in scripture notes the benefits, almes, and beneficence which we receive from man, 1 Cor. 16.3. 2 Cor. 8.4.6, 19, so in a multitude of places, the gifts and benefits freely bestowed by God; and among them, as redemption, life eternall, the gifts of sanctification, Rom. 6.14.15. 1 Pet. 3.7. 1 Joh. 16. &c. so the very Gospel of salvation, and the revelation of the Mysteries of redemption, and the free pardon of sin through Christ. And this last way it’s taken Acts 14.3. & 20.32. where the Gospel is called the word of grace; called also Acts 20.24. the Gospel of the grace of God; and 2 Cor. 6.1. and Tit. 2.12. grace it self; we beseech you, that ye receive not the grace of God in vain. And, the grace of God hath appeared, &c. In this last signification I take it in this place; wherein what the Apostle had called the faith in the foregoing verse, for which the Christians should Contend, he calls the grace in this, which Seducers did abuse and oppose.
2. Why is the doctrine of the Gospel called by the name of grace?
1. Because it is a gift of grace, and it was onely Gods free good will that bestowed it. These questions, Why it was ever bestowed at all, or why one age or place of the world should receive it rather than another, why God should discover the mystery that was kept secret since the world began, Rom, 16.25, 26. to those who were sinners of the Gentiles, who served dumb Idols, why God should be found of them who sought him not, and made manifest unto them who asked not after him, Isa. 65.1. Mat. 11.26. can only be answered by that reason which Christ gives of Gods hiding these things from the wise and prudent, and revealing them to babes: Even so, Father, because it seemed good in thy sight.
2. Because the subject matter of the Gospel, even all the benefits discovered in it, flowed meerly from freegrace: whether blessings without us, or within us. Without us, Eph. 1.5. Election is the election of grace, and according to the good pleasure of his will: our vocation was according to grace, 2 Tim. 1.9. Regeneration was of Gods own will, Jam. 1.18. Faith the gift of God. Justification is freely by his grace, Phil. 1.29. Rom. 3.24. And a free gift, Rom. 5.15, 18. Forgivenesse of our sins according to the riches of grace, Ephes. 1.7. Eternall life is the gift of God, Acts 15.11. Rom. 6.23. Even the life of glory is the grace of life, 1 Pet. 3.7. Christ himselfe was a token of free love sent to mankind. And as his whole work was to love, so his whole love was free. The portion which he expecteth is nothing but poverty. Isai. 55.1. Would we purchase any benefit of him, we must be sure to leave our money behind us. There’s not one soul that ever he loved, but was poor and empty, sick and impotent, unamiable and filthy, regardlesse of him and ignorant, opposite to him and unkind; and often unfaithfull to him and disloyall. And may not the Gospel which discovers this goodnesse, well be call’d grace?
3. As the Gospel doth discover and reveal, so doth it instrumentally impart and bestow these benefits of free-grace. The Gospel is not only light to discover them, but an invitation to accept them; not only a story, but a testament. The language of the Gospel is, Luke 14.17. Come, for all things are now ready. Nor hath it only an inviting, but a prevailing voice with some. It is made powerfull to overcome the most delaying disobedient sinner, by him who doth not only ordain, Rom. 1.16. Acts 6.7. 2 Thes. 1.8. but accompany it. This grace bringeth salvation, Tit. 2.12. it bringeth it to us, not to look upon, but to take.
1. Observ. 1. What an happy difference is between the Law and the Gospel! The Law affords not a drop of grace; it bestowes nothing freely. The language of the Law is, Do thou and live; if not, dye; No work, no wages: but in the Gospel, the yoke of personall obedience is translated from believers, to their surety; there’s nothing for them to pay, all that they have to do, is to hunger, and feed. Their happinesse is free in respect of themselves, though costly to Christ, who by his merits purchaseth for them, whatsoever they would obtain, and by his Spirit worketh in them whatsoever he requires.
2. Observ. 2. How shall we escape if we neglect the salvation which the Gospel of grace brings! If they are unexcusable who pay not their own debts under the Law, what are they who will not do so much as accept of free pardon, and a surety under the Gospel! Gospel-grace neglected is the great condemnation of the world. How mindfull should we be of the Apostles counsell, 2 Cor. 6.1. 1 Thes. 5.1. 2 Cor. 3.6. 2 Cor. 3.18. Receive not the grace of God in vain, not only in word, but in power, as it is a quickning spirit, or spirit and life, not begetting only a form of profession, but as changing and transforming into the image of God, and altering the inward disposition of the heart. If the grace of the Gospel make a stop at restraining, it only advantageth men, ut mitiùs ardeant, not to save them.
3. Observ. 3. The sin and folly of those is great, who though poor, are yet so proud, that they submit not themselves to the freenesse of the Gospel; who will not feed upon the supper of Evangelicall benefits, unlesse they may pay the reckoning: who mix at least their own merits with Christs, expecting justification for their own obedience. Alas, what is our rectitude, but crookednesse! what our righteousnesses but filthy rags! How fond an undertaking is it to go about to establish our own righteousnesse; Rom. 10.3. 〈Greek〉. what is it but to endeavour to make a dead carcasse to stand alone! How just is the issue, that rich ones should be sent empty from the Supper! A proud heart can no more be fill’d with Evangelicall grace, then can a vessel with water poured upon its convex out-side. It’s better to be an humble sinner, than a proud justiciary.
4. Observ. 4. How chearfull, free, and forward should all their services be who partake of the grace of the Gospel! Jugum Christi non deterit, sed honestat colla. Bern. If God have removed the insupportable yoke of legall satisfaction, how willingly should we take upon us the easie yoke of Evangelicall obedience! Though Saints be exempted from bondage, yet not from service. Christians, though they serve not God by the compulsive power of the Law, yet they ought by vertue of the Spirit renewing the soul. Their spirits should be free and willing, even when strength and power fail them. They should delight to do the will of God. Psal. 110.3. Psal. 40.8. If Gospel-grace be free, then it’s most unsutable that Gospel-service should be forced. The Evangelicall bond to obedience is strong, though it be silken.
5. Observ. 5. Every one should covet to be interested in the benefits of the Gospel: they are freely bestowed. It is easie to know a house where alms are freely distributed, by the crowding of beggers: When money is freely thrown about the streets, at the Kings coronation, how do the poor thrust, & tread one upon another! There’s no such crowding about a trades-man shop: why? here poor people must pay for what they have. But alas, that men do quite contrary in a spirituall respect, they throng after the world, which makes them pay for what they have dearly, and neglect Christ who offers all they want freely. Why is it that the Kingdom of heaven suffers not more violence. The world is not bread, and yet it requires money; Christ is bread, and requires nothing but a stomack! Pity those, who for lying vanities forsake their own mercy. Call others to partake of this grace with thee: Eat not thy morsels alone. Say, as those lepers did, This is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace. Hast thou received this grace, wish all men were like to thee, thy sins only excepted. When beggers have fared well at a rich mans door, they go away, and by telling it, send others: Tell to others how free an Hous-keeper thy God is; so free that he most delights in comers and company.
This for the kind or nature of the enjoyment, which these seducers abused; Grace. The owner thereof, whose grace it was follows; call’d here by the Apostle our God.
In the Explication, I shall (briefly) shew two things.
1. What it is for God to be our God; or what these words our God import.
2. Why the Apostle here mentioning the grace abused by seducers, cals it not simply the grace of God, but the grace of our God.
1. What it is for God to be our God. In this, three things deserve a large explication, which I (to avoid tediousnesse) shall but touch. 1. Wherein the nature of this propriety consists, or what kind of propriety it is. 2. What there is of God in which the faithfull have an interest and propriety. 3. How sutable and beneficiall a good, this God is to those who have this interest and propriety in him.
1. For the nature of this propriety in God. God may be said to be ours, and we may be said to have a propriety in him by a threefold right. 1. By a right of creation, and thus he is the God of heathens, of divels, of all creatures; Acts 14.17, 18. Acts 17.28, 29 they being all the work of his hands, having from him life, being, and motion. 2. By a right of externall profession, or federall sanctity; and thus God is often called the God of Israel; and in respect of this, the Jewes are said to be the children of the Kingdom. 3. By peculiar grace, and saving interest through Christ; and thus only believers who are really united to Christ by faith, Jer. 31.31. have a propriety in him, with whom God hath covenanted that he will be their reconciled friend and father, pardoning their sin by Christ, putting his law into their inward parts, & writing it in their hearts, that he wil be their God, and that they shal be his people.
2. For the second. The faithfull have a propriety in all of God they can want or wish. Particularly, 1. In all the three Persons of the Godhead. Ephes. 1.6. John 17.12. 2 Pet. 1.3. The Father accepts them for his in his beloved; nay, he gave them to Christ, and chose them before the foundation of the world. The Father of Christ is their Father, to provide for, pardon, and govern them, and to afford them all things which pertain to life and godlinesse. The Son is their Mediatour, their head, 1 Tim. 2.5. Col. 1.18. 1 Thes. 1.10. their brother, their husband; they are his by the Spirit, and he theirs by faith; he delivers them from all the evill they fear; he obtains for them all the good they desire. The Holy Ghost is theirs, John. 14.16. to direct and teach them, to purifie and cleanse them, to furnish and adorn them, to support and comfort them. 1 Thes. 1.10. 2. They have a propriety in the attributes of God. In his omniscience, he knowing whatsoever they want, or hurts them. In his wisdome, to teach and guide them. In his power to protect and defend them. In his love to delight in, pity, and provide for them. In his righteousnesse, Psal. 4.1. Rom. 8.32. Psal. 84.11. Psal. 23.1. 2 Pet. 1.4. to clear and judge their cause. In his al-sufficiency, to supply and furnish them with all needfull blessings, according to every want. One God answers to all exigences. 3. They have a propriety in his promises, great and precious promises, wherein all they want, and infinitely more than they can conceive, or desire, is assured to them, grace, glory, mercies for the throne, and the footstool; nay, God himselfe, in whom all blessings are summed up, and center’d; all being as certain, as if already performed; and for the accomplishment whereof, they have Gods oath, wherein he hath (as I may say) pawn’d his very being; and the seal of the bloud of Christ, Heb. 6.17. that being the bloud of the Covenant, and he the Mediatour of the Covenant, Heb. 12.24. 2 Cor. 1.20. in whom all the promises are yea and amen. 4. They have a propriety in the providences of God, whereby whatsoever may hurt them, is withheld from them; not an hair of their head suffered to perish; Mat. 10.30. and they, though poor, persecuted, sick, dying, yet ever safe; nay, whereby whatever befals them, shall be beneficiall to them; every stone thrown at them, made a precious stone; every twig of every rod sanctified; the issue of every dispensation made sweet and beautifull. In a word, whereby they are enabled to be, and do, and bear, what-ever God either commands, or imposeth; and they relieved with what-ever may do, or make them good.
3. For the third, how sutable and beneficiall a good God is to those who have a propriety in him. John 4.24. 1. He is a spirituall good; drossie and earthy comforts sute not with a spirituall soul; nor are they such food as the soul loveth. Thy soul is no fitter for gold to be put into it, than are thy bags to have grace put into them. 2. He is a living good. Jer. 10.5. The creature is a dead, liveless, lumpish, unactive thing; it may be said of it as ‘tis of an Idol, it must be born, because it cannot goe. We rather uphold it, than it upholdes us. Like Baal, it is not able to plead for it selfe. It helps us not in distress of conscience, the day of wrath. Like Absaloms mule, it goeth from under us, and leaves us in our distresses; but God relieves the soul, and affords strengthning consolation. Heb. 6.18. He is a present help in the needfull time of trouble; and ever either preserves us from, Psal. 50.12. Isa. 59.16. or sustains in adversity. 3. He is an absolute, independent good. He is self-suficient. If he be hungry, he will not tell thee. He depends no more upon the creature, than the fountain upon the stream. He is not hindred from helping us by any deficiencies of the creature he hath somtime complained, that he hath had too many, never that he hath had too few to deliver by. How safe is it to depend upon him, who depends upon none! 4. He is an unmixed good, and hath nothing in him but goodness. He is an ocean of swetness, without a drop of gall. Cant. 5.16. He is altogether lovely, and a beauty without any shadow. There is nothing in him that the soul could spare, or wish were absent. Every creature is a bittersweet, and so poor a comfort, that its bitterness is necessary to the very being of its sweetness; for had it not a bitterness, its sweetness would be fulsome: but though God be altogether delightfull, yet he never clogs, but the more he is enjoyed, Luke 12.33. the more he pleaseth the enjoyer. 5. He is an indeficient, never failing good; a fountain which the hottest summer dryes not, a treasure never emptyed, one whose perfections never leave himself, and one who never leaves any that ever truly enjoyed him. 6. Lastly. He is a most full good, and that in two respects. 1. In respect of the comprehensiveness, or the fulness of the object. In one God is every thing. He is a bundle of all perfections. All the dispersed excellencies in the world are assembled in him. When he saith, I will be thy God, there’s as much said as can be said. And as we can have nothing better than God, so of good we can have nothing more. 2. He is a full good in regard of contentment, or fulness of the subject: whoever hath an interest in him, hath that ἀφθονίαν, that abundant plenty, which observed, will not suffer him to envy the most prosperous sinner: God can fill the vast, capacious soul, like those water-pots of Galilee, up to the very brim. He hath enough for himself, and needs must he then have enough for us. The water which can fill the sea, can much more fill a cup. Jer. 31.14. My people shall be satisfied with goodness, saith the Lord. My God shall supply all your need. The tongue, the wish, the conception, Ephes. 4.19. all fall short of God. In heaven, though we shall comprehend so much as we want, yet not so much as he is.
2. The second branch of Explication, was, why the Apostle, here mentioning the grace abused by these seducers, calls it, the grace of OUR God. This he doth to make the fact of these Seducers in abusing it, the more odious among these Christians. Dishonour offered to God, deeply affects the soul of one who hath a propriety in God. Our own child, servant, house, nay beast, or a poorer thing, if it be our own, we suffer not to be wronged, and much more doth our propriety in God make every thing which dishonours him, hatefull to us. And that upon two grounds; 1. As he is our God who loves us, takes us into covenant, and owns us. Holy ingenuity will constrain us to love that grace which saved us, that God who loved us freely when we were unlovely, who loved us abundantly, bestowing his very self, and in himself all things, and who continues thus to love us eternally. 2. As he is our God whom we have taken by covenant to be ours, to love and serve for ever. Now ‘tis both against fidelity and inbred generosity to suffer that thing to be abused, which we have undertaken to serve. This neither agrees with honesty, nor honour; ‘tis not only a sin, but a shame. Hardly is any servant so low spirited, as to think it consistent with his credit to serve an abused, a disgraced Master: but especially are all people tender of the honour of the God whom they have undertaken to serve. The Philistims tread not on the threshold upon which their god Dagon did fall. They who have taken God for their own, cannot endure that his glory should suffer from themselves, or others.
1. Great is their folly and misery who content themselves in a common propriety and interest in God. Observ. 1. It’s a false consequence, to say, Because God made thee, or because thou art reckoned to belong to God by common and visible profession, Isa. 27.11. that therefore God will save thee. A man is not contented to be the Kings subject, he desires to be his favourite. They who have not God for their God in Christ, have him so for their God, as they have him also for their enemy: men think it not enough to have an opinionative, esteemed, unless they have also a reall a legall propriety in their lands; and why should they not also labour to have their interest in God without cracks and flawes?
2. Sin is the greatest evil in the world. Observ. 2. Isa. 59.2. It parts between us and the greatest good. Your iniquities have separated between you and your God. We may be poor, persecuted, disgraced, and yet have God for ours; but living in the love of any sin, we cannot. There’s more evill in a drop of sin, than in a sea of suffering.
3. They who have God for theirs, Observ. 3. may contentedly want all other comforts: They have enough besides. They may answer Satan when he offers worldly glory and preferments, 2 King. 4.13 as that woman did the prophet, I live among mine own people: Psal. 23.1. I have enough: The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. When a Saint sees all worldly vanities, he may say, How many things are there that I want not! Their names I will not take up into my lips (saith David;) Psal. 16.4, 5 The Lord is my portion. The people of God are as some Countries, which can live of themselves, without being beholden to others. A Saint, like a rich man, may spare and spend for a good conscience as much in one day, as a poor worldling would count his utter undoing to part with. And this is the reason why God cuts his people short of outward comforts, they have enough in having of God; and never doth God more delight to let out himself into the soul, than when he deprives of temporalls. Joseph, when he manifested himself to his brethren, caused all to go out of the place where he did it.
4. It’s a false way of valuing ones worth by any worldly enjoyment. Observ. 4. Gaines or losses are to be estimated by enjoyment of more or less of God. The titles of substance, profits, goods, are abusively given to riches: Without an interest in God they are but shadowes, losses, evils. They are onely full (like the sieve in the water) when they are enjoyed in God; empty, when without him.
5. Observ. 5. The true reason of all the wrangling and unquietness of the soul with and in men, is because their soul hath no reall interest in God. Lord, thou hast made us for thee, and we are unquiet till we come to thee! Great is their folly, who, like the child that cryes for want of sleep, and yet will not go to bed, cannot be quiet without God, and yet are most unwilling to have him. If men loved themselves in loving of God, man might hate, and troubles approach, but not hurt, not disquiet them.
6. Observ. 6. It should be the grand design of all those who are without God, to obtain this propriety in him. To this end, 1. Be sensible that you are by nature indigent, godless creatures, broken off from God, by the breach of the first covenant, and without God, Eph. 2.12. Eph. 4.18. Eph. 2.1, 2. hating and hated of God: alienated from his life, and from his love; children both of disobedience and wrath. Judg your selves, for your former rebellion and unfaithfulness in breaking covenant, unworthy that ever God should own you, and that you stand at his mercy, either to be your God or your Judg. 2. Make a friend, who may make up the former breach and disunion between God and you. No readmission is to be expected without a Mediator. God will not be yours, if Christ be none of yours. A Christless soul, is a godless soul; an absolute God is a consuming fire. God wil never be satisfied but by the mediation of a sacrifice: nor can we ever be taken into covenant without the Blood of the Covenant. Exod. 24.8. Psal. 50.5. The blood of Christ is the onely Cement of reuniting and knitting God and man together. 3. Break your league with sin. Expect not a propriety in God, if you continue to love that which first disunited you from him. God and sin draw contrary wayes; Mat. 6.24. there can be no accomodation between them. If God be ours, sin must be none of ours. They are like two ballances, if one goeth up, the other goeth down. A man cannot look heaven-ward and earthward at the same time. God may take many of us for his, we can take only him for ours. 4. Let the propriety be mutuall. Expect not that God should be engaged to you, and that you should be loose from God. Yeild your selves to the Lord, Cant. 6.3. 2 Chro. 30.8. serve him, and give the hand to him. When he makes the strictest commands, be as willing to say, Lord, We are thine; as to say, when he makes the sweetest promises, Lord, Thou art ours. Receive from him the law of your life. Let him make the conditions of the covenant, and the articles of agreement after his own minde. Never startle at the proposall of any service. 1 Cor. 6.20. Consecrate, resign your selves to him, and quit any interest in your selves. 5. Observe his condescending willingness to become yours. How he beseecheth us to accept him for our God; and woos us, though he wants us not: he makes the first motion to every soul. John 6.37. He that cometh to him, he will in no wise cast out. All sight of sin which makes the soul distrust Gods promise, is a sinful sight of sin. Say, Lord, though I am unworthy to be beloved, yet thou art worthy to be beleeved. Take hold of the Covenant, Isa. 56.6. and commit thy soul to Gods offer; verily thou shalt not be rejected. Observ. ult. Psal. 37.5.7. Qui misit Filium, immisit Spiritum, promifit vultum, quid tandem de negaturus est? Psal. 84.11.
7. They who have a propriety in God should express and shew it. And that, 1. By depending upon him for supplies in all straits. He who hath given himself, what can he withhold! he who hath given a Kingdom, will not deny a staff to walk thither. Let them fear want, who have not a God for their portion. Faith fears no Famine. In one God is every thing. All who have this God, shall have what they want, if not what they would. 2. By promoting the honour and service due to him. Propriety is the foundation of true obedience. All that we are, all that we do, all that we have should be his. His honour we should propagate, and make it our only plot and business to make him great, and to leven the world with holy obedience to him. His honour we should preserve, enduring nothing that doth eclipse or impair it. Psal. 69.9. He who toucheth that, should touch the apple of our eye. The reproaches of them that reproach him, we should look upon as falling upon our selves; mourning for that dishonour offered to him which we cannot redress, and hating all that unholiness in the world which we cannot help.
This for the enjoyment under which these Seducers lived. viz. the grace of our God. The second particular, their mis-improvement thereof followes. They turned it into lasciviousness.
Three things are considerable by way of explication. Explicat.
1. What the Apostle here intends by lasciviousness.
2. How the grace of God was turned into lasciviousness.
3. Wherein appears the sinfulnes of turning the grace of God into lasciviousness.
1. For the first. The word lasciviousness in the Originall is 〈Greek〉. The derivation thereof is by all, agreed upon, to be from the particle α and σέλγη, Selge; which Selge was a City between Galatia and Capadocia, whose inhabitants (say some) were most modest and temperate, and these make α to be a note of privation of modesty and temperance, and importing the lasciviousnesse of these seducers, Cives istius oppidi ut vires amissas recuperarent, nervosque debilitatos confirmarent, invenerunt oleum nervis utile, quod de nomine illorum Veteres appellaverunt Selgiticum: cujus meminit Plinius, l. 15. Nat. Hist. c. 7. Ἀσελγέστερος τῶν ὄνων. Lucian. 2 Cor. 12.21. ἀκαθαρσία, πορνεία, ἀσέλγεια. Gal. 5.19. μοιχεία, πορνεία, ἀκαθαρσία, ἀσέλγεια. Eph. 4.19. tradiderunt seipsos τῇ ἀσελγείᾳ, εἰς ἐργασίαν ἀκαθαρσίας πάσης. 2 Pet. 2.7. 〈Greek〉. Sap. 14.25. In commemoratione flagitiorum à gentilibus commissorum, conjunguntur, γενέσεως ἐναλλαγὴ, γάμων ἀταξία, μοιχεία, καὶ ἀσέλγεια. Gerh.** in 2 Pet. ἀσελγὴς usurpatur pro lascivo, qui petulanter indulget libidinibus. 〈Greek〉, preterva lascivia. Complectitur omne genus obscoenitatis, quando procacibus, verbis & gestibus interior libido proditur, Gerb. in 1 Pet. 4.3. Perkins saith, it is An open ostentation of incontinency. in Gal. 5.19. by their being unlike the people of Selge, even destitute and void of all modesty and temperance. Others (upon better ground) say, that this Selge was a most dissolute and lascivious place, where the inhabitants were given to all manner of luxury and unclean profusenesse; and these make α to be intensive, dilating and increasing the sense, and so importing the lasciviousnesse of these seducers by their being most like the people of Selge, namely, violent and unbridled in all lust and filthinesse. The word (as all agree) notes a monstrous open profusion, & pouring out, and spending ones selfe without measure, in lasciviousnesse and obscene lustfull practices: I it is translated Rom. 13.13. wantonnesse, and it’s joyned with rioting, drunkunesse, chambering. And 1 Pet. 4.3. with Lusts, Excesse of wine, Revellings, Banquetings.
This word (lascivionsnesse) is 2 Cox. 12. ult. joyned with unole anness and fornication. And in Gal. 5.19. with adultery, fornication, uncleanesse. And Eph. 4.19. this lasciviousnesse is expounded by the working of all uncleannesse with greediness. And 2 Pet. 2.7. this word here translated lasciviousnesse is put for all the filthinesse of Sodom. Lot was vexed with the filthy, or lascivious conversation of the wicked; and that Apostle v. 18. speaking of seducers, (the same kind of men of which Jude here speaks) mentions this lasciviousnesse as the bait with which they baited their hooke of error. They allure (saith he) those who were clean, &c. through wantonness, or lasciviousness; which was that encouragement which they gave to people to exercise carnall lusts, under the pretence of Christian liberty. By comparing of these places, its conceived that this sin of lasciviousness properly importeth all kind of carnal defilements, and fleshly polutions, as also all outward obscenity and filthinesse expressed in mens behaviour, either by shamelesse words or gestures; and noteth withall, the prosecution of these unclean courses with impudency, petulancy, Simon docebat turpitudinem indifferenter utendi foeminis. Aug. de haeres. cap. 1. Eusebius, Irenaeus, Epiphanius, Augustin. Danaeus. 〈Greek〉. &c. Euseb. Hist. Eccl. l. 2. c. 12. Grostici, qui à nonnullis vocati sunt Borboriti, quasi coeno•, propter nimiam turpitudinem, &c. Aug. Ib. Menan driani omnem turpitudinem libenter amplexi sunt, tanquam gratiae Dei erga bomines fructum; bonos etiam & sanctos mores, qui lege Dei praescribuntur, per gratiae Dei praedicationem, ut jam inutiles & vanum studium tolli & antiquari sentiebant. Aug. de haeres. defence, violence and contempt of all opposition or observation from men. It is a manifest wickedness. They who are guilty of it, do not blush at it: they declare their sin as Sodom, Is. 3.9. they are not like the harlot, that wipes her lips; but like Absolom, that spreads his incestuous pallet on the roof, and calls the Sun a blushing witness to his filthinesse. They glory in their shame. Their hand is the Organ of wickednesse, and their mouth the Trumpet: they out-sin all shame; they crown uncleannesse with Garlands of honour. Their sin abandons secrecy; and admonition to it is as a powring of oyl down the chimny. Thus Rev. 2.14. Some there were who taught fornication. Simon Magus taught that women might indifferently be used; The prodigious impurity of whose followers, Ecclesiasticall Writers tell us, would astonish any sober hearer, and is such as no modest man can either write, or speak without offence. The Gnosticks, who arrogated that name to themselves for their pretended excellency of knowledg above all others, were called, for their filthiness, Borboriti, or the dirty miry sect. They used all kind of uncleanesse, as the fruit of the Grace of God. And they declared, that all holy and righteous courses commanded in the law of God, were antiquated and taken away by the preaching of the Grace of God. Carpocrates taught men how to speak filthily and uncleanly, and how to live leudly. Carpocrates docebat omnem turpem orationem, omnemque adinventionem peccati. Aug. de haeres. And although by [lasciviousnesse] is properly understood the open profession, and ostentation of incontinency; yet must it here be taken more generally (as the following description of these seducers declares) for a licencious profane kind of living in, and liberty of sinning.
2 For the second, how grace is said to be turned into lasciviousnesse.
The word in the originall, by which the Apostle expresseth this turning, 〈Greek〉. Oecum. Heb. 11.5. 〈Greek〉, Act. 7.16. 〈Greek〉. Gal. 1.6. Heb. 7.12. is μετατιθέντες, which signifieth properly, the transposing, or removing of a thing from the place of its ordinary abode, to some other; but it’s used to note the alteration or removal, 1. Of persons from former opinions or practices which they have embraced, and thus the Apostle tells the Galatians, Gal. 1.6. I marvell that ye are so soon removed (μετατίθεσθε) from him that called you, &c. And, 2. Of things, both from their former uses, and ends; and thus the Apostle saith, (μετατιθεμένης ἱερωσύνης) the priesthood being changed, or translated, there was (μετάθεσις) a translation, or change of the law: and thus Jude saith, these seducers did translate or remove the grace of God from its true and appointed, to a false and wrong use and end. The end and use of the doctrine of grace, and justification by faith in Christ, was the serving of God without fear, in holinesse and righteousness, Luk. 1.75. Tit. 2.12. the denying of ungodliness and worldly lusts, and the living soberly, righteously and godly in this present world; but these Seducers transposed and removed this evangelicall grace from the ends and uses appointed by God, unto such as were contrived by themselves; they teaching that Christ had fulfilled the law, and freed Christians from it, that so they might have a liberty to live as they list, and be freed from the Law not onely as a Covenant, which cursed those who broke it; but as a rule also, prescribing the good to be done, and the evil to be avoyded.
And thus the grace of God may be said to be abused and perverted to a wrong end and use sundry wayes; five especially.
1. When men abuse this grace of God to an empty, bare profession of it; to a resting in the meer outward shew of enjoying that grace, and the benefits of the Gospel; they never labouring for a true and reall interest in the benefits themselves; Rev. 3.1. 2 Cor. 6.1. herein resembling such bondmen, who being made free, think it enough to be accounted free, and to be out of their time, to be such as may put on their hats, and wear a gown; but never care for setting up, or falling to their Trades, that they may thrive. Thus there are many who onely care to have a name to live; who receive the grace of God in vain; and are meer titular Christians, never really thriving in godlinesse, and as very slaves to sin as ever: But they who here professe vainly, shall hear God professe severely, I never knew you, Matt. 7.23. Depart, &c.
2. When men abuse grace, to the disobeying of Authority. A sin to which our natures are too prone. And it’s cleer by the context of 1 Pet. 2.16. Unusquisque habet animum Regis. Calv. in 1 Pet. 5.5. that when the Apostle forbids the Christians to use their liberty as a cloak of maliciousnesse, he intends by maliciousnesse, disobedience to the lawfull commands of the Magistrate: and this was one way whereby these Seducers perverted the grace of God; namely, by despising of Dominions, and speaking evill of Dignities; as if, Jude 8. because Christ had taken away our thraldom to sin and Satan, he had disannulled duty to all Superiours; Non eripit mortalia, qui Sceptra dat coelestia. Prud. as if grace were violated by humane lawes. In a word, as if, because Christ bestows an heavenly, he takes away earthly Crowns. Thus the Papists pervert the grace of God, who turn his grace, Docent, Christianum Magistratus partibus omnino non posse defungi, nullúmque se in Ecclesia Magistratum agnoscere quàm Christū. Colloqu. Emdan. Act. 112. §. 1. Non licet Christianis tolerare regem haereticum, &c. Bel. lib. 5. de Rom. Pon. c. 7. in giving to his Church the power of the Keyes to open and shut heaven, into an instrument of rebellion against lawfull Magistrates, deposing them, and freeing subjects from their Allegeance; whom they stir up to seditions and conspiracies, though obedience for conscience sake be a divine command, and resistance of lawfull Authority have a divine commination, and that no lesse then damnation. Thus the Anabaptists from the grace of the New Testament, and our freedom purchased by Christ, teach the unlawfulnesse of Magistracy, and of obedience to it; pretending that it infringeth the liberty of our consciences, which are only subject to God; Whereas the bond of conscience consists not in the particular lawes of men, but in the generall command of God; the conscience being bound to obey Gods command of obeying Magistrates.
3. 1 Cor. 8.9. When the grace of God, in the liberty which it affords, is abused to the offence of the weak consciences of our brethren: When we remit nothing of the extremity of that right and power we have in things of indifferent nature, Rom. 15.15. 1 Cor. 7.23. Gal. 5.13. 1 Cor. 9.19. Omnia libera per fidem, omnia serva per charitatem. Luth. to please our neighbonr for his good unto edification. Although we must not be the servants of men, yet we must by love serve one another; yea all, that by all means we may (with the Apostle) win some. Wee should be perswaded with the perswasion of faith, that all things are lawfull; and yet we should resolve for charity sake to forbear the use of many things, if we find them inexpedient; and as well consider what is usefull for others, as lawfull for our selves.
4. When the grace of God is abused in the excessive, immoderate enjoyment of things in themselves lawfull: When men think they are limited to no measure in the enjoyment of a lawfull comfort; suppose, recreation, diet, apparell, &c. As if, because the thing is lawfull to be used, therefore all use of that thing is lawfull; as if lawfull things could not be used unlawfully. He who alwayes goeth as far as he may, sometimes goeth further than he should. Satan never falls upon us so much to our disadvantage, as when he lyes in ambush behind our lawfull enjoyments.
5. When the grace of God is abused to the casting off our obedience to the law of God as a Rule. When men will discharge themselves from duty to, because God dischargeth them from condemnation by the Law; and because grace frees from sin, therefore they will sin freely: as if because God prohibits the opinion of works, therefore he dispenceth with the performance of works. That we are by nature apt Scholers to learn this hellish Sophistrie, it’s plain by Paul’s supposition, that some would conclude from the doctrine of free Justification by Christ, that they might continue in sin, to the end that grace might abound: and that evill might be done, Heb. 6.1. that good might come of it: that there are some who are forward to teach it, is cleer from Peter’s description of Seducers, who allure people through much wantonnesse, 1 Pet. 2.19. promising them liberty. Conformable to whom are 1. the Antinomians, who from the grace of God in mitigating the Law, would infer an utter abrogation of the Law; denying that it hath a directive, regulating power over a beleever. True it is, the Law is abrogated 1. In respect of Justification, beleevers expecting acceptation from God not for what they are, or do; but by relying upon Christ. 2. In respect of condemnation, Christ having been made a curse for them. 3. In respect of compulsion by terrour, so far as they are regenerate, there being in them a delight in the Law. 4. In respect of rigid and perfect obedience: imperfect, Phil. 2.24, 25. λύσας & καταργήσας, Heb. 7.12. μετάθεσις. Heb. 7.18. ἀθέτησις. Heb. 8. ult. παλαιούμενον, & γηράσκον. if sincere obedience being accepted through Christ, though by the Law we are obliged to that which is perfect. 5. In respect of the irritation and increase of sin by the Law, it not stirring up, but subduing corruption in beleevers, who partake of sanctifying grace: But yet as a Rule of life, it ever continues, even to beleevers. That the Ceremonial law vanisheth, decayeth, waxeth old, is broken down, changed, disannulled, abrogated, the Scripture testifieth; but not one of these words are used concerning the Morall Law. And of what doth the Spirit of God more frequently admonish beleevers, than not to refuse obedience to the Law, under pretext of Christian liberty, Gal. 5.13. Use not your liberty as an occasion to the flesh, not taking a rise (as the word signifieth) from your deliverance from the Law, 〈Greek〉, Noli libertate abuti ad liberè peccandum. Aug. Tr. 41. in Johan. to the satisfying of your lusts. And 2 Pet. 2.16. Use not your liberty as a cloak of maliciousnesse: i. e. Abuse not your liberty, by grace to cover licenciousnesse in sin. In a word, If disobedience to the Law be still a sin in the beleever, the power of the Law is not abolished: For there can be no sin, unlesse it be a transgression of a Law. 2. The Papists abuse the grace of God to a rejecting of the law; who from the doctrine of absolving repenting sinners, plead for a power in the Pope to give Licenses and Indulgences to the greatest of sins; who for his Corban, forgives sins both past, and future, (both alike;) and sends his Briefs to be left in as many Countries as he pleaseth, for granting liberty to sin for many yeers to come, the price whereof is set by the Court of Faculties in Rome; which fils up the measure of Europe’s sins, by exhausting of Europe’s Revenues. How great a wantonness must this produce? Why should any rich man now care how he live or die, seeing all shall be well with him for a little money?
3. For the Third, Wherein appears the sinfulnesse of turning this grace into lasciviousnesse?
1. It comprehends the sin of hypocrisie. Sin is the fouler for receiving a cover. To do that which is in it self evill, must needs offend God: but to do evill by appearing to do the contrary, comprehends both the sin it self which we endeavour to hide, and a sinning by endeavouring to hide it; to the sin it self is added a practicall lye, by speaking in our practice, that we are and do, contrary to what we are or doe. As God is a God of pure eyes, he hates all sin; but as he is a God that loveth a pure heart, of all sins, hee most hates hypocrisie. All Murderers sin hainously; but none so hainously as those who imploy a mans own hands to kill himself. An hypocrite labours to destroy Religion by Religion.
2. As it is hypocrisie to cover lasciviousnesse, so is it even heightned profanenesse to cover it with the grace of God. Will no cheaper stuffe then grace serve to cloath lasciviousnesse? The excellency of any thing adds to the fault of abusing it; To make a King’s Son Lacquey to a beggar, to make hay with the Scepter Royall, to dig in a dunghill with a golden spade, to stop an oven with the Robes of an Emperour, are all actions of greatest unworthinesse, and wild unsutablenesse; but to make Religion a stirrup to profanenesse, and the grace of God a credit to lasciviousnesse is a presumption of an higher and far more unsufferable degree. This is to make God accounted a patron of impiety, and the Judg of all the Earth to seem the greatest malefactor, Ezek. 36.20. and to profane his holy Name
4. This turning the grace of God into lasciviousnesse, argueth the grossest folly; it is a forsaking of our own mercy, a receiving the grace of God in vain. What is, if this be not to neglect great salvation; to be prodigall of blessednese; to ravell out, and to wanton away the offers of Christ himself? Who would not heartily chide himself, that by toying, trifling, or unnecessary lingring in the way to the Exchange, misseth of a bargain by which he might have gained a thousand pounds? Foolish Sinner! Lasciviousnesse under grace is the losse of glory: and the losse of heaven can never be redeemed with the tears of hell.
4. Grace turned into lasciviousnesse is the top of all Ingratitude. What greater unkindnesse, then to be evill because God is good? If it be a sin for thee to have an evill eye against another, because God is good to him; what is it to have an evill eye against God, because he is good to thee? If it be a sin to reward a man evil for evil, what is it to return to God evil for good? To be lascivious because God is gracious, is to fight against God with his own weapons, to wound God with that arm which he hath cured, Hos. 7.15. to kill and crucifie him who hath freed us from death: In a word, to make that a pillow for presumption, which God appointed for an antidote against despair.
5. by grace to grow lascivious, is destruction even to desperate irrecoverablenesse. No poyson is so deadly as the poyson extracted out of grace. Abused mercy pleads against a sinner most perswasively. If that which was appointed for a sinners rising and standing, makes him fall, how irrecoverable must his falling be! If Mercy be his foe, how should Justice ever be his friend! Lamentable was the death of Zimri, who was burnt by the flames of that house which was for his safety. Grace is the sweetest friend, but the sorest enemy. Lead, of it self, is very cold and cooling, but nothing so scalding, if it be throughly heated. The lowest place in hell is provided for those who have been lifted up neerest to heaven. Grace discovered and abused, is THE condemnation. Out of him who lavishly spends riches of grace, God will recover riches of glory. God will not lose by any.
