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150 AN EXPOSITION, WITH NOTES, [VeR. 4.
but within a little while they grow wanton : 1 Sam. iii. 1, ' The word of God was precious in those days, for there was no open vision,' Whilst visions are scarce they are highly prized, but when they are open and public, men begin to grow giddy, cannot be contented with the simplicity of God's ordinances, but must be fed with ungrounded subtleties and quintessential extracts ; when spiritual appetite groweth wanton it is an ill sign, when plain truths will not down, and all things must be carried in an airy, subtle, and notional way ; God will have a scourge for such a wanton people.
But let us come closer to the matter in hand. This text speaketh of doctrinal discoveries of grace, of the abuse of the gospel, and the principles thereof. Now it were a hard task to give you an account of all the paralogisms and corrupt inferences which men draw from the gospel ; there is no doctrine but, one way or another, a carnal heart is apt to abuse it. The most usual abuses are these : —
1. The doctrine of election is abused ; men say they may live as they list; if God hath elected them they shall be saved, and so allow themselves in their careless neglect of the means of salvation. Be not deceived; God, that decreeth the end, decreeththe means: ' God hath predestinated us to be conformed to the image of his Son,' Rom. viii. 29 ; in grace here as well as in glory hereafter.
2. The doctrine of the attributes of God's mercy and long-suffering. Men will say they are sinners, and so are others ; but God is merciful, and so poor, ignorant drunkards, adulterers, and swearers, as they are, they die with this principle in their mouths, God is merciful. But ' be not deceived ; neither fornicators nor adulterers, &c., shall enter into the kingdom of God,' 1 Cor. vi. 9 ; so Eph. v. 6, ' Let no man deceive you with vain words, for because of these things cometh the wrath of God.' Both these places show there were divers which had such deceitful thoughts, as if living and dying drunkards, adulterers, &c., they should go to heaven. Others abuse the long-suffering of God to their delaying and putting off their repentance, as if, after a long vicious life, provided they could be devote at the last gasp, they should at length be saved, and of a sudden from swine become saints. As many delayed their baptism heretofore, because they would have longer time to sin in, and to walk after their own lusts, and when they were warned of their licentious course, their answer was, Tunc demum apeccatis desistam cum haptizatus ero — when I am baptized I will live otherwise. Thou fool ! besides the uncertainty of thy having time or grace to repent, this is a manifest abuse of God's patience, and will turn to thy greater ruin, Rom. ii. 4, 5.
3. The doctrine of gospel grace is abused many ways. Sometimes to exclude the fear and reverence of God, as if fear were an antiquated grace, suiting only with a legal dispensation : whereas the children of God think the more grace the more fear : Ps. cxxx. 4, ' There is mercy with thee, therefore thou shouldst be feared ; ' and Hosea iii. 5, ' They shall fear the Lord and his goodness.' The goodness of God doth not make them presumptuous, but is the greater matter of reverence and holy trembling : fear is so far from being abolished in the gospel that it continueth in heaven, it being an essential and necessary respect from the creature to the creator. Again, it is abused to deny all humilia-
VeR. 4.] UPON THE EPISTLE OF JUDE, 151
tion and sorrow for sins, yea, all confession of sins, as if to be humbled for sins were legal ; whereas repentance and all the acts of it is a mere gospel duty ; the law knew no such thing, and the truest and most genuine sorrow ariseth from a sense of pardon : Zech. xii. 10, ' They shall look upon him whom they have pierced, and mourn ; ' so Luke vii. 47, that Christian Niobe loved much and wept much, and all be- cause much was forgiven. John speaketh to believers, to them that w^alked in the light, to confess their sins, 1 John i. 9 ; we cannot have pardon in God's way till this be done : ' If we confess,' &c. It is a con- dition not for lohich, but without loMch, pardon is not obtained ; it doth not show the cause, but the 07^der of graces working. Again, sometimes it is abused to the neglecting of circumspection and heed in us. We are preserved in Christ, say they, and therefore we may be careless, and though we cast ourselves upon snares, temptations, and occasions to sin, be confident that God will keep us. The devil sets upon Christ with such a temptation : Mat. iv. 6, ' Cast thyself down, and he shall give his angels charge over thee.' Libertines scoff at the niceness and scrupulousness of former professors, that were will- ing to keep at such a distance from a temptation, as if their strict and exact walking were a fruit of their darkness and legal spiritedness ; whereas the apostle maketh it a main property of ' children of light ' thus to do, Eph. V. 15. So God's doing all in the covenant of grace is abused to exclude all care of duty, and to keep men in a lazy osci- tancy, and gaping for grace without all care or endeavour on our part ; whereas God loveth to be met with in his own way, and cometh in with supplies of grace according to our diligence in the use of means ; see Mark iv. 34 ; and as it is abused, to shut out all endeavours after grace, so all actings and operations under grace ; as if we were mere logs rather than rational agents, and God so did all that the act of our own faculties were quite abolished or suspended ; whereas though the grace be from God, yet the act is ours, for otherwise the faintness and defectiveness of the operation would be chargeable upon him, and the Lord doth so draw us that we have a motion of our own : ' Draw me and we will run after thee,' Cant. i. 4. It is he that ' treads down Satan,' but ' under our feet,' Kom. xvi. 20. The doc- trine of Christian liberty, which is one part of the gospel, is abused to exclude the moral law, as a rule of duties to God and man ; whereas the apostle saith, I am not avofio<;, but evvo/j,o<i, ' not without the law to God, but under the law to Christ,' 1 Cor. ix. 21. Sometimes it is abused to a living to the height of the creature (as some carnal wretches phrase it), or an immoderate use of carnal comforts ; whereas to restrain us in this kind, the scripture forbiddeth licentiousness in the use of the creatures under such terms as do imply the lawful use. See Luke xvii. 27, and Isa. xxii. 13. The things mentioned there are necessary for the supportation of life ; but the immoderate use is intended, because they did nothing else but mind these things. He that will do all that he may, will soon do more than he should. The doctrine of spiritual worship, and abolishing the shadows of the law, which is another part of the gosjjel, is abused to the neglect and con- tempt of ordinances and acts of solemn worship, as if all were but forms, not suiting with that spirituality unto which they think they