3. For the manner. With our zeal we should still manifest love and compassion ; and our way of dealing must rather be rational than passionate. There is a holy contemperation of zeal and meekness if we could hit upon it ; the same Spirit that appeared in cloven tongues of fire appeared also in the form of a dove. ' The work of righteous- ness' may be ' sown in peace,' James iii. 18. The church's garden thriveth by the cool gales of the north wind, as well as the sultry heat of the south, Cant. iv. 16 ; God's cause should neither be neglected nor disparaged by an indiscreet carriage.
4. Concerning the principle ; see that it be good ; it must not be zeal for our private concernments, but for the glory of God ; not a strange fire, but a holy fire. Moses was the meekest man upon earth in his own cause : Kum. xii. 3, ' When Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses, the man Moses was meek above all men of the earth.' When our zealous contests come from a heart bleeding for God s dishonour, from hatred of sin, a fear of the public, then they are right. Lot was vexed not with Sodom's injuries, but Sodom's filthiness, 2 Peter ii. 8. When love of our neighbour, desire of his amendment, we are loath to suffer sin upon him, puts us upon this earnestness, our heart is upright with God ; but when we seek to disgrace the men leather than condemn the sins, and we rage most upon the hazard of our own interest, and can be earnest against some sins and errors, and comply with worse, it is not zeal for God, but for a party.
5. Great regard must be had to the end. A reproof aimeth at the conviction or conversion of a sinner, but censure at his disgrace and confusion. Our aim must be as right as our passion is strong ; what- ever we do must not be done out of a spirit of ostentation and popu- larity, or to keep up a devotion to our own interests. John Baptist sharply reproved the Pharisees, not wlien contemning his person, but when coming to his baptism.
Obs. 10. There remaineth nothing of the 9th verse to be discussed but the last clause, t/ie Lord rebuke thee. Though Michael doth not rail, yet he referreth the matter to God. Whence observe, that in re-
264 AN EXPOSITION, WITH NOTES, [VeR. 10.
ligious contests we must carry on the opposition, though not in an unseemly manner. Michael cloth not let Satan alone, so we must not let errors alone, and the devil carry it clearly without rub or oppo- sition. Many, under a pretence of meekness, are still and silent in the cause of Christ. Cursed is this peace and meekness, when we let the envious man sow his tares, and we never give warning. God's mes- sengers are compared to watchful dogs ; when the wolf cometh we must bark ; if the sleepy world be troubled at it we must bear their reproach.
Ohs. 11. Again, he referreth it to God, who is the fittest patron of his own causes. In our contests about religion, God must especially be sought unto for a blessing. Michael contended, but said. The Lord rebuke thee ; disputing times should also be praying times. Prejudices Avill never vanish till God ' send out his light and truth,' Ps. xliii. 3 ; and if the devil be not prayed down, as well as disputed down, little good cometh of our contests.
Ver. 10. But these speak evil of the things ivhich tliey knoio not; hut ivhat they hioiu naturally, as hrute beasts, in those things they cor- rujjt themselves.
In this verse he showeth the disproportion between them and the archangel ; he was modest in a known good cause, but these are con- temptuous, and given to railing in matters of which they are wholly ignorant. Two faults are charged upon them in this verse : — (1.) Pride, in condemning things without knowledge ; (2.) Wickedness, in abusing the knowledge they had.
Bat these, ovrot, the seducers spoken of in the context, sjjeaJc evil, fi\aa(f>r]iJiovaL, take liberty to belch out their reproaches of the things they knoiv not. What are those things ? Some say, the dignities before spoken of ; others, the mysteries of the Christian faith. For the former opinion, that clause may be alleged, ver 8, Ta<i Eo^a<; ^\aa- (j)r)/jiovvTa<;, ' speaking evil of dignities ; ' and so it will imply that they were ignorant of the nature of angels, with whom they pretended so great a familiarity as to know their courses, services, conjugations ; ^ or else of the nature of church ordinances, they taking upon them to speak so reproachfully of the offices which God hath set in the church ; or of the nature of civil power and magistracy, they allowing them- selves in such intemperate language. But for the latter opinion, the universal particle in the text, oaa jxev ovk o'lhaat, ' Whatsoever things they know not ; ' so Peter's phrase is general, 2 Peter ii. 12, ' But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things they understand not.' The scope of both these apostles being to set out these deceivers as ignorant and brutish sen- sualists, and yet under a pretence of great and more curious knowledge than others had, wherefore they were called Gnostics. For my part, I shall interpret the clause generally of their ignorance in all truly spiritual matters, which was bewrayed in that they did deliver their sense in matter of magistracy and church ministries with some im- pudence and reproach. But whoA they know naturally, as hrute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves. Before I come more particu- larly to open the words, let me tell you there is some difference about that clause, as brute beasts ; to what part of the sentence is it to be