2. Sensual men have little of the quickenings and efficacy of the Spirit ; the more they dissolve and melt away their precious liours and spirits in pleasures, the more do they grow sapless, dead, and careless,
^ ' nXeroJ' eXatov o'ivov oaTrdvrjaas.'
2 • Ebrietas loiige est a me, domine ; crapulaautem nonnunquam surrepit aervo tuo,' — Avg. Conjes.
334 AN EXPOSITION, WITH NOTES, [VeR. 20.
and lose all tenderness of conscience and liveliness of affection : they quench the vigour of nature, much more do they quench the Spirit ; voluptuaries are said to be ' past feeling,' Eph. iv. 19.
3. They have little of the comforts of the Spirit. The comforts of the Spirit arise from meditating on the works of God, Ps. civ, 34 ; or tasting his love, 1 Peter ii. 3 ; or contemplating our great hopes, 2 Cor. iv. 18. Now carnal men can relish none of this ; they cannot exercise love, or faith, or hope, that they may delight themselves in God, and have some lively tastes of eternal life. When the soul lieth under the dominion of carnal and dreggy pleasures, it is incapable of thinking upon God and his works, or relishing inward consolation ; love is pre- occupied.
Well, then, we should the more take heed that we be not sensual. Never had any sensual person any great measure and portion of the Holy Ghost in gifts or graces. The devil easily entereth into swine, but the Holy Spirit of God will not dwell there. A man is put to his choice which he will have — pleasures or the Spirit. It will be sad for you, if you * love pleasures more than God,' 2 Tim. iii. 4, and prefer these dreggy delights before those masculine joys which will accrue to you by communion with God. If we were altogether to renounce delight, it would be mora irksome. No ; you are only called to ex- change it. Which will you choose, then ? to live at large and wallow in carnal contentments, or be employed in the serious and grave exer- cises of religion ? Surely, one moment's communion with God is better than all the mirth we can get by the pastime of an age.
Ver. 20. But ye, beloved, build up yourselves in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost.
Here the apostle cometh to exhort; as all along, with the description of seducers, he intermingleth exhortation. The sum of the exhortation is to quicken them to the use of the means of perseverance and con- stancy. Build up yourselves, iiroiKoSo/jLovvre'; ; the word signifieth the going on with a building already begun, and fitly noteth that care they should take for the growth of their spiritual estate. Yourselves, eavTov<i ; some translate invicem, build up one another ; that I confess is the apostle's intent, but first to press them to a care of their own salvation, and then mutually to care for one another : see 1 Thes. v. 11, ' Comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, as ye also do ;' and possibly this is spoken here by way of opposition to those that separate themselves. In your most holy faith. By faith may be meant either the grace of faith or the doctrine of faith. I rather suppose the latter, that true and pure religion which they had learned from the apostles, which was the foundation already laid, unto which they should keep close. If it be meant of faith, the grace, then he persuadeth them to progress, and to lay hold on the superstructure of good works and final perseverance, Mat. vii. 24. This faith is called most holy, in opposition to the profane mysteries of the Gnostics and JTalentinians, It is a holy rule, and maketh us holy : John xvii. 17, F Sanctify them by thy truth, thy word is truth.' Fraying in the Holy Ghost, iv Trvevfian djlcp, may be rendered, m, with, or by the Holy Ghost ; that is, by his motion and inspiration, and gifts and graces received from him. Elsewhere the Holy Ghost is said to pray
VeR. 20.] UPON THE EPISTLE OF JUDE. 335
in us, Eom. viii. 26 ; and here we pray in the Holy Gliost. He prayeth in us so as we pray in him ; he prayeth in us, to note the excitations of his grace ; we pray in him, to imply the concurrence of our faculties ; which is to he^noted against the familists, who make the Spirit to be the immediate formal cause of all our actions, as if in the productions of grace the Spirit did only make use of us as Bilhah did of Eachel, to ' bring forth upon her knees,' Gen. xxx. 3, and the action were wholly his own^
The notes are these : —
Ohs. 1. It is not sufficient to be established or grounded in the faith, but we must daily increase and grow more and more therein. When the foundation is laid, the building must go on piece by piece ; they that are contented with a little faith have no faith ; graces though im- perfect are always growing, Luke xvii. 5. It is the holy ambition of Christians to be more like God every day; certainly their temper is contrary to the temper of God's people, that think they have learned enough, know enough, are holy enough ; none are so knowing but they may know more, so established but they may be more. Here we are in a state of progress, not of rest and perfection ; the corn in the field groweth, though in the barn it doth not, Eph. iv. 12, 13, Phil, iii. 13. A Christian is always reaching forth and pressing onward, and the nearer he cometh to heaven his motions and tendencies are the more earnest, as a stone moveth faster the nearer it cometh to the centre ; the more he enjoyeth, still he hath new motives to seek more : Prov. i. 5, 'A wise man will hear and will increase learning ;' a good man would go to heaven as fast as he can, not make a hard shift, but ' enter abundantly,' 2 Peter i. 11.