Obs. Usually wicked men are of an unquiet spirit, restless in evil. They are acted by Satan, who is a restless spirit, and there is a great correspondency between their activeness in sin and the importunity of Satan's malice : 1 Peter v. 8, ' He goeth about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.' Now you shall see the like diligence and readiness in his instruments ; they walk the devil's round: Mat. xxiii.lo, 'Woe unto you. Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ; for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte,' &c. Blind zeal leadeth on men with an incessant rage to poison others with their error, and draw them to their sect. Well, then, we may learn dili- gence from our enemies. Shall they be more busy to pervert the truth than w^e to propagate it ? Dan. xii. 4, ' Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.' Once more, learn that it is a sign of a naughty heart to be restless in sin : Pro v. iv. 16, ' They sleep not unless they have done mischief, and their sleep is taken from them unless they cause some to fall.'
Bag I'ng loaves of the sea. There you have their turbulency ; they fill all places with troubles and strifes.
Obs. Wicked seducers are usually of a turbulent and impetuous spirit. Why? Because they are urged by their own pride and vanity, and have lost all restraints of modesty, and are usually, as to their constitution, of violent and eager spirits. Well, then, be not borne down with impudence and rage ; there may be daring attempts and much resolution in an ill cause ; besides it is an hint to the magistrate to look to seducers betimes, for they are ' raging waves.'
The next expression is foaming out their own shame, as a raging sea casteth up mire and dirt ; or it alludeth to that scum and froth which the waves leave upon the rocks, and so it noteth the abomina- bleness of their opinions and practices. Whence note : — •
Obs. That though errors come in blushing, and with a modest dress, yet usually the}' go out of the world with a great deal of shame. They dash against the rock upon which the church is built, and what is the issue p They are covered with froth and foam : 1 Cor. iii, 13, ' The day shall declare it ;' that is, time, whose daughter truth is : have a little patience, and you shall see that all that is but hay and stubble which is accounted gold. When worldly interests are unconcerned, and the heat of contention a little allayed, that men may have more clear discerning, and the world hath a little more experience of the fruit of false ways and opinions, there will not need any great confuta- tion : evil men will sufficiently bewray their own filthiness. Guic- ciardini saith of the expedition of Charles the Ninth into Italy, that he came in like lightning, and went out like the snuff of a candle.
286 AN EXPOSITION, WITH NOTES, [VeK. 13.
So errors come in like a raging wave, as if tliey would bear all before them, but they go out like foam and froth, in scorn and infamy. Well, then, observe the fruitlessness of all Satan's attempts : ' The gates of hell shall not prevail against this rock,' Mat. xvi. 18. By ' the gates of hell,' is meant strength and counsel, power and policy ; for in the gates were their ammunition and seats of judicature. They that seek to slaver the church or deface the truth, which is the foun- dation of it, they do but spit against the wind, the drivel is returned upon their own faces. We often betray our trust and faith by our passions ; we have not a holy greatness of mind to look above every trouble. Contend for God, but wait upon him ; Satan may prevail a long time, but he can never carry it clearly from Christ : the Arians had a day of it, but they soon grew infamous for their cruelty and baseness.
We come now to the next similitude, loandering stars, ao-repe? •TrkavriTai. It may be taken two ways — properly or improperly. (1.) Properly, for the stars which we call planets, or wandering, though indeed no stars wander less than they do ; they have their name from the oj^inion and common judgment of sense, because they are not car- ried about the whole circuit of the heavens, but in a shorter orb and course. In themselves they have certain stated motions, and do keep the just points of their compass : ' The sun knoweth his going down,' Ps. civ. (2.) Improperly ; there are a second sort of wandering stars, which Aristotle calleth daTepa<; hiadeovra^, running and gliding stars; not stars indeed, but only dry exhalations inflamed, which glare much and deceive the eye with an appearance of light, but soon vanish and are quenched. Now these glancing, shooting stars do excellently ex- press the quality of these seducers, who pretended great knowledge, being therefore called Gnostics, and gave out themselves for illuminate and profound doctors, but were various and uncertain in their motions, and soon extinguished and obscured. It is notable that the apostle ransacketh all the elements for comparisons whereby to set them forth : The air, ' clouds without water ; ' the earth, barren, rotten ' trees ; ' the water, there he compareth them to * raging waves ; ' the fire, to