These scorners are said to icalh ofter their own ungodly lusts. Walk- ing implieth their settled course and daily custom of life ; and their lusts are called imgodly lusts, partly to note the profane temper of their spirits, and partly to distinguish them from the motions and lust- ings of the new nature.
The notes are these : —
Obs. 1. What is told to the church in general, we must apprehend it as told to us. Paul telleth Timothy, and Peter telleth the distressed strangers, and Jude saith they told you. So Heb. xii. 5, ' The exhor- tation speaketh to you,' &c. ; as if the Hebrews were the persons to whom the Proverbs were directly written. The scriptures speak to every age, every church, every person, no less than to those to whom they were first directed. Well, then, it showeth us how we should be affected in reading the word ; we should read it as a letter written by the hand of God from heaven to us by name. If an angel should bring us a letter from heaven, certainly we would regard it. The Bible is a message sent from heaven to acquaint us with the mind of God ; if we own the divine authority of it, why do we regard it no more ?
Obs. 2. We should not be troubled at what is foretold ; monsters
VeR. 18.] UrON THE EPISTLE OF JUDE. 325
expected are not wondered at ; expectation, as it deflowereth any good thing that we expect, so it fore-armeth the mind against evil : John xvi. 4, ' These things I have told you, that when the time shall come ye may remember.' I have told you. Why? What good will that do ? A71S. We are the better .prepared to entertain evils when we expect them before they come, and the evil to which the mind is accustomed seemeth the less. Again, we have an experience of God's truth in the prediction, which will help us to believe and depend upon other promises. Finally, it assureth us that the Lord hath a hand and a counsel in all our troubles, for he told us of them before.
Obs. 3. That the scriptures speak much of the evil of the latter times ; there is more knowledge, and yet more sin and error. Know- ledge, where it is not sanctified, puffeth up and maketh men curious, and so they have an itch after novelties ; or else it maketh men wicked, exasperating our evil affections, and so, none so bad as they that sin against light ; hence much of the error and profaneness in the latter days. Again, the latter days are as the bottom and sink that receive the dregs of foregoing ages, and as the world groweth old it is much given to dreams and dotage.^ Once more, much division there will be, and ' beating their felloAv-servants,' Mat. xxiv. 49. Much libertinism ; instead of casting off ceremonies, they will cast off ordinances, and desire to be freed not only from the Pope's laws, but the very law of Christ.
Obs. 4. Among other sins that are found in the latter times, there will be many scoffers, partly because in times of controversy men will lose all awe — when truths are made questionable assent is weakened ; partly because in times of liberty men will give vent to their thoughts ; partly because the scandals of professsing Christians will make many turn atheists ; partly because fabulous conceits concerning the coming and temporal kingdom of Christ will make men question the whole doc- trine of his coming. Well, then, wonder not if you find many scoffing at the authority of the scriptures, Godhead of Christ, day of judgment, the ordinances, fasting and prayer. The latter age will yield such kind of men ; and it is one of the arts of Satan, by his instruments, to make things of the saddest and most serious concernment to seem ridiculous, that when once the awe of these blessed truths is weakened, men may be more easily induced to cast off both the concernment and profession of them.
Obs. 5. Mockers and scoffers are usually the worst of sinners. In the first psalm there are three degrees of sinners mentioned, and the highest rank are those ' that sit in the seat of scorners,' Ps. i. 1. The Septuagint render there Xoi/jlmv, ' the chair of pestilences.' These are the pests of mankind. Scorning cometh from custom in sinning, and maketh way for freedom in sinning. When conscience is seared, and men have lost not only restraints of grace, but natural modesty, then they fall a-scoffing ; and when once they are turned scoffers, nothing will reclaim them. Keproofs enrage them. ' Eebuke a scorner, and he will hate thee,' Prov. ix. 8 ; yea, none do the devil so much ser- vice in preventing others as they. If your feet have been taken in this snare of death, extricate yourselves betimes. Beg earnestly for the more grace ; there is some hope ; God inviteth scorners, Prov. i. 22.
^ ' Mundus senescens patitur pbantasias.' — Gcrson.
326 AN EXPOSITION, WITH NOTES, [VeR. 19,
Obs. 6. Again observe, tliose that cast off the awe of the Lord's coming will certainly give up themselves to biTitish lusts. Those mockers that said, ' Where is the promise of his coming ? ' are said here to ' walk after their own lusts.' Negantes enim 2^cenam, negant et disciplinam, saith Tertullian {De Resurrect., cap. 11) — denying the resurrection of the flesh, they must needs be fleshly ; for therefore they denied the day of his coming, to avoid the fear of his judgment.