VeR. 4.] UPON THE EPISTLE OF JUDE. 145
and production as filthy lusts and carnal pleasures. (4.) You have a hint of tlie reason why the apostle writeth ai^ainst them with such a zealous indignation in that word ow ; as if he said, That grace, whose sweetness we have tasted, whose power we have felt ; of that God who hath been so kind to us in Christ, whose glory we are bound to promote. Shall we see our God, and that grace upon which all our hopes stand, to be abused to such an unclean use ?
From the words thus opened I observe : —
Obs. 1. That the gospel and grace of God in itself is not pliable to carnal purposes, yieldeth no carnal conclusions. They tujvi it, saith the apostle ; there is no such thing gotten out of the gospel without wresting, and till the art of a deceiver hath passed upon it. I shall prove the point by three arguments.
1. From the constitution of the gospel. It yieldeth no leave to sin, but liberty to serve God : tliis is the great design of it. Christ came not to reconcile God and our sins together, but God and our persons ; to reconcile our persons and destroy our sins ; not to free us from the law, but sin ; to free us from the service of the devil, 1 John iii. 8, not from the service of God ; in short, he came not to make the law less strict, or sin less odious, or us less holy ; for perfection of the law was never so clearly known as since the coming of Christ, see Mat. v., and sin was never so odious as since the abundance of grace. They under the law sinned at a cheaper rate than we can, because they did not sin against so much love and kindness, see Heb. ii. 2, 3 ; neither could Christ come to make us less holy, or to dispense with our care of holi- ness, for then he should come to deface the image of God, and make us more unlike God, which would not be a privilege but a burden to the new creature. Freedom frcni wrath and hell is a privilege, but freedom from duty and obedience is no privilege. In the gospel there is pardon for failings, but not to encourage us in our failings, but our duties. We were never so much obliged to duty as since the gospel, because now we have more help and more advantages, stronger motives and greater encouragements. If we look backward, we are bound in point of gratitude to serve the Lord, being redeemed hereunto by the blood of Jesus ; if we look forward, we are encouraged by the ho];x;s of eternal life. The law could not persuade by such arguments as the gospel doth ; there is more of the rule known, more of the Spirit poured out to give us help to observe it. So that from this short abridgment of larger discourses, it appeareth that the great design of the gospel is to make us more like God, and to free us from the slavery of tlie devil, that we may be better servants and subjects to God.
2. There are frequent and constant dissuasives from this perverting our liberty in Christ to the service of any fleshly design. The Spirit of God foresaw how corrupt nature in us would tempt us to abuse our privileges to an evil purpose ; yea, many had already attempted it in the apostles' days, as the sect of the Nicolaitans, the school of Simon, and, after them, the Gnostics and Basilicans, who, under colour of evangelical liberty, gave up themselves to lawless and brutish prac- tices (as before was hinted) ; therefore, by way of prevention, dissuasives are very frequent everywhere ; as Rom. vi. 1, ' Wliat shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound ? God forbid.' As
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146 AN EXPOSITION, WITH NOTES, [VeR. 4.
if he had said, You will not want such corrupt teachers, nay, your hearts will be marvellous apt to frame such kind of consequences and conclusions; but reject them with indignation. So Gal. v. 13, 'You are called to liberty ; only use not your liberty as an occasion to the flesh.' Christ hath done his part, purchased glorious privileges for you ; only take you heed that you do not abuse them ; your base hearts are apt enough. So 1 Peter ii. 16, * As free, but not using your liberty as a cloak of maliciousness.' Freedom by Christ will be an unfit cover and pretence for so vile a practice.
3. Because in the gospel itself there are quite contrary inferences and conclusions from those which flesh and blood would draw from the gospel. As to instance, in anything wherein the gospel hath been abused, to three ends hath it been abused — to looseness, laziness, licen- tiousness. Now, you shall see the word carrieth things in a quite contrary way to what carnal men do. To looseness : men have been the more loose and careless, because grace hath abounded in the dis- coveries of the gospel ; but the apostle disdaineth it, as a most abhor- rent and strange conclusion from gospel principles : Rom. vi. 1, ' Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid.' Mtj yivoirOy do not cherish such a vile and unworthy thought ; the gospel teacheth quite contrary ; see Titus ii. 11, 12 ; not wantonness, but weanedness, ' to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts.' So see Rom. vi. 16, and 2 Cor. vii. 1. A bee gathereth honey thence from whence a spider sucketh poison. Again, to laziness : men are apt to lie down upon the bed of ease, and say Christ must do all, and so exclude all use of means and the endeavour of the creature. This is a foul abuse ; for the scripture inferreth thence the care and work of the creature, be- cause God doth all, Phil. ii. 12, 13, ' Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God worketh in you both to will and to do.' We must the more humbly wait upon God in the use of ordi- nances, because all dependeth upon his assistance. Again, to licen- tiousness : men have interpreted freedom by Christ in such a perverse sense as to cast off obedience to civil powers, either to masters in the family, or to magistrates in the commonwealth; whereas the word calleth for these duties upon this very ground, because we are made free by Christ, that is, more ready and apt to discharge the duty we owe to God and man : in this sense it is said, 1 Cor. vii. 22, that ' a servant is the Lord's freeman ;' and 1 Peter ii. 16, ' Obey governors as free, but as servants of the Lord.' Christianity giveth us a greater aptness, layeth on us a greater engagement, the bond of conscience ; so that there is, as Salvian spealvcth, in maxima lihertate minima licentia, a great deal of liberty by Christ, and yet the strongest engage- ment to service that may be.