Chapter VII
A brief exposition of Jude, by way of confirmation of the precedent doctrine,
that God s discriminating grace appears in the vast difference he puts be
tween enlightened temporaries and his elect that persevere, with uses and
directions proper to the doctrine out of that epistle.
This hath been the doctrine, and here is a whole epistle made on purpose for it, both for the confirmation of it, by the greatest and most famous in
stance of all others (which I therefore reserved last) and plentifully affording the most pertinent uses fitted unto the doctrine.
An introduction to the exposition. Before I can set out the doctrinal points and uses contained in this epistle, I must first speak some things as to,
1. The inscription. 2. The time, or season.
3. The occasion of writing the epistle. 1. The inscription, To the preserved in Christ. This inscription or dedica
* To the
tion of the epistle in general speaks the argument of the whole.
preserved in Christ, which comes in after beloved in God the Father, of which reading afterwards. A strange and uncouth title, and not found in
other apostolical epistles ; as Beza also observes, he giving withal this wit ness concerning it, that this passage alone fully testifies or argues the epistle to have fallen from an apostle s pen. It is indeed full of a spiritual emphasis in itself, and also breatheth forth the spirit and design of the whole epistle, which is the sum of this doctrine I have insisted on ; for the true reason and
ground of his saluting the Christians under this title of the preserved in
Christ, was the occasion of his writing against another sect and company of men, said to be fore-ordained to a contrary condemnation, ver. 4, which two
sorts of men he sets as in opposition each to other, as those words, ver. 20,
But you, &c., do expressly shew, besides the evidence of the thing itself. And this so glorious a preservation, and that other so dreadful a condemna
tion, do take up the whole. And the epistle containeth nothing else ; I say nothing else, but what belongeth unto these two ; we are therefore called the more deeply to consider this argument, in that one whole and entire
piece of Holy Writ, should be on purpose penned by the Holy Ghost upon this argument, even as Solomon s Book of Ecclesiastes was to shew the
vanity and vexation in all worldly things. I shall not be solicitous about any accurateness of analysis, but will endeavour to give the rays and gleam of it under these heads.
2. The season and time of writing thereof. Jude lived the last of the
apostles but old John ; and at this time when he wrote this it may seem that
Peter, and James, and Paul were dead, with the rest of those apostles, who did not write anything, who yet in their preaching had foretold this great apostasy Jude here speaks of. And this (as Estius hath observed) may not
obscurely be gathered from his manner of citing the other apostles: ver. 17,
CHAP. VII.] OF ELECTION. 197
But, beloved, remember the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, as speaking of them now dead, and not then
extant, as to whose living testimony, otherwise, he might have had recourse ; and therefore also bids them remember their words, as of persons now gone
off the stage ; whereas Peter, when he wrote his second epistle concerning the same men that Jude here writes against, speaks in another strain : 2d
Epistle, iii. 2, Be mindful of the commandments of us the apostles, the most being yet alive as well as himself. Not so Jude. However, it is certain
our Jude wrote in the latter end of that apostolical age, or the last of those
primitive times, whec the profession and course of Christianity had now ran
out well nigh (if not the full) forty years since Christ s ascension into heaven.
In which space as perfect an essay and discovery has been made of what
period, end, or issue, the profession of all, or any sort of professors con
verted by the apostles had come unto. Forty years was long enough for
such a trial, and it is very likely that, as the people of Israel s coming out of
Egypt, and falling in the wilderness through unbelief, Caleb and Joshua
holding out to the end, is made in the New Testament a type of those primi
tive Christians, and of us all to the end of the world, and the issue of us all, one way or other, as 1 Cor. x., Heb. iii. iv, and is here likewise in the first
and chief place of all other old instances remembered by Jude, ver. 5, I
will therefore put you in remembrance, though you once knew this, how that
the Lord having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward des
troyed them that believed not, so that in the very space of time there
might some correspondency have been intended by God, that is, between
that time of tentation then, and this of the first primitive ages, which was
forty years to both.
Now towards the declinings of that age it was that Paul wrote to the Hebrews ; and Peter likewise his second epistle, after Paul ; and then Jude,
this his epistle after that of Peter s. For Peter therein setteth a seal of con
firmation to all Paul s epistles, and also to that of his to the Hebrews, in a
special manner in his second epistle, third chapter ; and both those epistles touch much upon this argument of temporaries, and backsliders. But Jude
wrote after Peter, for he in a manner cites him, if you compare Peter s third
chapter, third verse, and this of Jude, ver. 17, 18 ; as also because he takes
up the instances which Peter useth in his second and third chapters ; yea, the very words whereby Peter had set forth apostates, in that epistle of Jude ;
following Peter herein, as Mark in his Gospel doth that of Matthew.
^ 3. As for the occasion. The thing being thus stated as for the time
^ or
season, the occasion now follows. That age aforesaid of Christians, which
had thus enjoyed the apostles ministry whilst they were all or most of them
alive, I may compare unto the season of a hot and bright summer, such an
one as no age ever since can be supposed to have had the light and heat of.
I also might assimilate John Baptist s and Christ s time to have been as
the spring or beginning of the gospel, as Christ expressly calls it, Mat.
xi. 12, 13, Luke xvi. 16 ; but the very last of that age, wherein Jude and
Peter wrote his second epistle, were as the autumn at the end of the summer; and this of Jude was the last of that autumn, and so the declining of that
age as the fall of the leaf, which John calls the last hour, namely, of that first
day of the apostolic age, and not of the world only in the evening of which
he wrote, and he proves it by this very token, 1 John ii. 18, 19, Even now there are many antichrists ; whereby we know that it is the last time.
They went out from us, &c. And now to return to this my begun allusion. This age was as the
autumn, and so fall of the leaf, after that foregone summer, in which the
198 OF ELECTION. [BOOK III.
goodly fruit of many withered. It is Jude s own comparison, ver. 12 ; he
compareth these apostate professors unto trees whose fruit withered, device,
tpdivonupiva , the use of which words is to signify trees of autumn* (as is well
known), which is translated whose fruit withereth, because fruit and leaves, and all fell off at the expiring of this age, as trees in autumn use to do.
Now, there having fallen out so great a falling away of many, as Christ also
foretold should be afore the end of that age, which was at the dissolution of
Jerusalem (which also fell out towards the end of this autumn), Mat. xxiv.
12, 13, Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure to the end, the same shall be saved, hence these
saints that continued to keep faith and a good conscience to the end, these
were precious saints indeed; as in the account of God and Christ, so of
these apostles that were left alive. And Peter so styles them in the begin
ning of that his second epistle: ver. 1, To them that have obtained like
precious faith with us ; that is, with us the apostles of Christ, and called
by the communication of the divine nature, ver. 3; and Jude in like manner here. And the mind of this his frontispiece and dedication is as if he hud said, Oh you preserved ones in Christ, I congratulate you, and
Christianity preserved in you, that but for whom the Christian professors of
this decayed age had been like unto Sodom and Gomorrah (unto whom Jude
compareth those other apostates, ver. 7) ; but you remain as lasting monu ments of perseverance, let this be written on your tombs,
* The preserved in
Christ, and called. In you, and upon you, hath that other part of Christ s
prophecy been fulfilled, Mat. xxiv. 24, For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, that shall shew great signs and wonders, insomuch that
if it were 2}ossible, they shall deceive the very elect. And such are you ; it is
apparent that you are them these false Christians could not deceive.
3. The weight and moment of the matter of this epistle, which is industri
ously insinuated in his preface unto it : ver. 3, Beloved, when I gave all
diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me
to write unto you, and exhort that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints, which hath been in these times
vehemently opposed, and in danger to be lost.
In which words I do take notice of three things
(1.) That it was a more than ordinary impulse which he had upon him, caused him to write of this matter and in this manner. It is true indeed,
* I had a great desire upon me to write to you, as some other
says he,
apostles have done, I gave all diligence or study ; that is, I had a purpose and attention of mind to write to you, and waited for the Holy Ghost to come with a stream upon me, &c. But this proceeds not merely out of such an ordinary provocation; for when I did attempt, I found a necessity, Avdyxriv tffjsov (it is undertranslated to say, I thought it needful ), I was constrained or impelled, a necessity lay upon me ; thus Calvin.f And therefore seeing I was thus singularly carried on by the Holy Ghost to write what now I do, it is your part and duty, and a necessity lieth upon you also, to attend unto it.
(2.) Secondly, Whereas this my own desire of writing had pitched upon matters of salvation, as they did in common concern all us Christians, his
word^is the common salvation, that is, to have delivered such points of doctrine about salvation in a promiscuous way, as*Paul and other my fellow
* Willet: In autumnales aut extremi autumni, item finientis autumni, cra^d TO
p&mff&OU rqv fatoguv, a finiente autumno.
t Quod ad scribendum propensus et sedulo intcntus fuisset, ad scribendum necessitas etiam eum coegerit.
CHAP. VII.] OF ELECTION.
apostles have done in their epistles ; when, says he, I began to set pen to
-paper by the impulse of the Holy Ghost, I was diverted by him from out^of
that common channel and general road into this particular channel, to write
singularly and alone of this argument, the fatal condemnation of many the
professors of this age, and the grace vouchsafed you that are sincere Chris
tians in the preservation of you. I found my spirit bound up and con
fined to this ; and this the Holy Ghost directed me unto, and this alone ;
yea, and by a strong hand constrained me, as he did the prophet, Isa. vih. ;
I was $tgou,evo$, earned as with a stream into this channel, and it is all the
message which the Holy Ghost hath, as by my hand, to deliver to you; yea, and though Peter had written afore of the same sort of persons as dreadful
things as I do, yet the Holy Ghost would have me to do it again, he would
have this word set on by two witnesses; and therefore, beloved, do you en
tertain and regard this with the greatest attention, as that which is more
than ordinarily intended for you by God.
(3.) For, thirdly, these things which I write are wholly for you and your
instruction, and therefore I write to you, ver. 3 ; it is to you only I wrote
this. For as for those others whom I write about, I know it to be as to
them but as a sentence of death and condemnation (to which, he says, they
were ordained) pronounced by the Holy Ghost upon them, except some few
there yet may be on whom he did shew compassion with difference, ver. 22,
as of whom there may as yet be hopes ; and therefore take it all as yours,
directed and intended for your admonition. And accordingly we may observe
how, beginning with the apostates, from ver. 4, he ends with the preserved
saints ; with divers exhortations, from verse 20 to the end ; so as indeed what
he had so much enlarged upon concerning these apostates from verse 4 to
verse 20, served but to afford the stronger consolation and more powerful
provocations to incite the called unto those duties he from the first had
intended to exhort them unto. Those that he so declares against had not
been always profane ones of the world, that had never been wrought upon,
or that knew not God ; but such as had been eminent professors of Chris
tianity, but now were corrupted in faith and manners more than the worst
of the heathen. The wrathful vials of woe and destruction he denounceth
against them, as determined and prophesied by Enoch, ver. 16, 17, and by
the apostles, ver. 18. This for the introduction the exposition itself follows.
SECTION I.
The first part of the exposition of Jude s epistle, wherein is demonstrated God s
discriminating grace, as it appears in the vast difference God hath put be
tween enlightened temporaries that fall away, and his elect he doth in Christ
preserve.
These things premised concerning the occasion, &c., I come to the matter
of the epistle itself, which I shall divide into two parts.
Two doctrinals, And two uses suited thereunto.
I. The first part and doctrinal is, the differing fate and condition of these
two sorts of persons.
1. Apostates. 2. Preserved ones. The condition of which apostates is set forth in,
(1.) Their sin.
200 OF ELECTION. [BOOK III.
(2.) Their punishment, from verse 4 unto verse 18, 19. What the condition of the preserved in Christmas,
is scatteredly and pro
miscuously set out up and down in the whole epistle.
And as to this first doctrinal head, there is a singular use made thereof
by the apostle, proper thereunto ; an use consisting of several directions given
upon occasion hereof unto those preserved ones, of what their duties are, that
they may still be kept and preserved, and this from verse 21. And these two 1, the doctrinal part; and, 2, those uses do make up
that which I call the first part of my exposition of this epistle.
In the second part there is,
1. The doctrinal, which concerns the different fountain or original (as in God s heart of old) of both these two so vastly differing conditions of these
two sorts of persons.
(1.) The original causes of the preservation of the one, ver. 1, 2, 21, as
their having been beloved in God the Father (of which reading afterwards), and given to Christ to be preserved and called, ver. 21, 22.
(2.) The original of that condemnation which befell those other : ver. 4,
* Fore-written of old unto this condemnation.
This second doctrine, as the former, hath an use shaped out for it, and
proper to it, as had the former been to its doctrinal specified ; and that use
begins explicitly, ver. 24, 25, in the close and conclusion of the epistle, Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you
faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, now and ever. Amen. And this second-mentioned doctrinal, and this use, I
cast together, to make up a second part of this epistle, and all serving
properly and pertinently unto the main doctrine I at first proposed, con
cerning discriminating grace towards, &c. ; and those two shall be all the
uses I mean to make thereof, these being thus made unto my hands by the
apostle himself.
I. As to the first part, and therein the first doctrinal head, setting forth the
state and condition of these two sorts of persons.
1. What concerns the apostates condition, which I reduce unto these three heads :
(1.) That these he so inveighs against had been professors of the true
Christian religion once ; both enlightened professors and eminent professors.
(2.) Their sin and apostasy.
(3.) The judgment denounced against them.
(1.) They were enlightened professors once.
[1.] Ver. 4 speaks thus of them, men crept in, &c. It would seem by that word that there was a solemn admission ordinarily in use amongst professors of Christianity, which admission was carefully heeded and observed, with a
strictness and wariness about them, when they were admitted. And the
apostles had given all churches warning aforehand that there would be such as would prove false professors in the end, would notwithstanding arise from among themselves ; and some that were wolves in sheep s clothing, as Christ gave warning, and Paul warns the Ephesians, Acts xx., who yet pretended their having had a work of the Holy Ghost upon them, and had been received ; yet on their part (they having never been truly called) their admission is termed but as a creeping in amongst the other that were sin cere. For as Christ said to him that had not the wedding garment, How earnest thou hither? and as John, They were never truly of us, there is one respect for which they are said to be crept in. And it may perhaps be said that many did creep in through negligence and want of strict heed and
CHAP. VII.] OF ELECTION. 201
vigilancy in those that ought to have taken them in upon a thorough know
ledge of them. Elders and churches should diligently inquire into whom
they receive, which in those decaying times they did not.
* known the grace of God ; for so, ver. 4, it is said they turned the doctrine of grace unto wan
[2.] These persons here in Jude were such as have
tonness, both in loose opinions, and also practices, which, if they had not been enlightened in the doctrine of grace more or less, they could not be
said to have so perverted the grace of God ; that is, the gospel way ; for the
doctrine it consisted of is styled the grace of God, which taught the contrary
Tit. ii. 11, 12, For the grace of God, that bringeth salvation, hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, &c. ; and
especially the doctrine of free grace revealed therein, and the love of God in
Christ. Likewise they are here said to have once professed the true and
only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ, in the same 4th verse ; for now
it is said of them, they had denied him, the Lord that bought them, whom once they had owned. Professors, then, of Christianity these had been, and
received into their churches, though crept in.
They were eminent professors ; which the examples he allegeth to set
forth, and paint out their condition by, sufficiently shews. These examples are only such as are taken out of the Old Testament (as the manner of the
apostles allegations and applications unto men under the New was to do), yet of such therein, for the most part, as had been of men enlightened in
the word and law, and had been persons eminent in their profession in their
respective times. He compares them to such as came forth of Egypt at
first, which is attributed to have been done by some light of faith wrought in them, which Moses testifies of them, Exod. iv. 81. The examples of these men whom he prosecutes the description of in the fore-front, ver. 5, of this epistle, I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord having saved the people out of the land of
Egypt, afterwards destroyed them that believed not. Who indeed were
lively types, as 1 Cor. x., of these professors now, who through the light and power of the gospel, by the apostles ministry, had come forth from under that common bondage of wickedness in which the heathenish world
or generality of men doth lie; who, as John says, and as Peter says of them, had escaped from them that lived in pollutions and errors of that world ; and
this through the knowledge of Christ.
His second allusion is yet higher, even to the condition of the angels that
fell : ver. 6, And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness, unto
the judgment of the great day. His drift is to compare like sin and punish ment of the angels that fell from heaven with that of those professors, having once shined in their churches as angels of light, but, out of their own lusts and corrupt free will, have forsaken and fallen from that station, as these
angels did.
* whom the
Thirdly, Likewise to Balaam, the man (as himself speaks)
Spirit of God came upon ; the man whose eyes were open, which saw the
vision of the Almighty, Num. xxiv. 2, 4, and knew the knowledge of the Most High, ver. 16; and what affections he had from that enlightening, you know that passage, Num. xxiii. 10, also shews,
* Let me die the death of the
righteous, and let my last end be like his. Who yet, for a reward, gave that cursed counsel to entice the Israelites from God, by the Moabitish women, drawing them also to idolatry with that mischievous design, so to
bring a curse from God upon them, Num. xxxi. 16.
202 OF ELECTION. [BOOK III.
And he also makes his allusion to Cain, the eldest son of rejection, yea, and of profession ; for he offered sacrifice to God as well as Abel, as I
shewed, yet in the end hated and persecuted his brother, as these also did
the faithful Christians.
Likewise so Korah and his company (you have all these three together, ver. 11). Now you read, Num. xvi. 1, 2, Now Korah, the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, &c., took men : and they rose up before Moses, with
certain of the children of Israel, two hundred princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown. So in like manner these w
rere such as had been famous in the congregation of the saints in their times, but now were rebellious against their elders, churches, and all.
In the same verse he says they had once been trees, that had had fruit on them, and after their first death in Adam, had yet had some life, sap, and
greenness renewed in them, whereby they had put forth that fruit ; but their
fruit was now withered, and they were utterly become without fruit, and were now dead a second time, twice dead ; and so incurably dead for ever, having no life to come into them again.
Lastly ; His allusion is to stars, that had their place and station in the
heavens, and gave forth a shining light, and who had seemed in their motion
to have gone the common course of the other stars ; so these of the profes sion and practice of the churches they lived in ; but now, after some progress of time, were discovered to be but
* wandering stars, and to have had another
by and eccentric motion of their own, differing from the common course of
the rest ; crooked ways, as the psalmist terms the private paths of such, Ps. cxxv. 5. To instance in no more.
(2.) As to their apostasy, and what sort of apostates they proved, and how great.
[1.] As to the grace of God, which they had entertained nnd professed, their ungodly hearts turned this grace into wantonness ; their lust abused the doctrine of God s free grace, to warrant all licentiousness or liberty to
sin, which Peter in other words expresseth of them ; they promised, as if
they had had God s warrant and encouragement for it, 2 Pet. ii. 18, 19, For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, &c. ; while they pro mise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption, &c. Simon Magus, they say, the first heretic of the primitive times, began this doctrine from the first, viz., that believers were free to do M hat they would; for men were saved by grace, and not good works ;* and taught that good [works] had come in but by accident, through the envy of the angels, that had laid bands upon men s consciences. Thus Irenaaus. Now, indeed, this Simon Magus having, afore he professed Christianity, been, through his famed sorceries, accounted the power of God, Acts viii.
9, 10, But there was a certain man, called Simon, which beforetime in the same city used sorcery, and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one : to whom all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the great power of God, his pride became
such, now under Christianity, as he took upon him to be the great God him
self; yea, and in imitation of the commonly received doctrine among Chris tians of the three persons, he affirmed of himself that he was both God the
Father, and the Son that was crucified at Jerusalem, and the Holy Ghost ; and so, in imitation of the Christian doctrine, he taught that men were saved by his grace, as being himself alone that God in three persons ; (which is a great confirmation also that to be saved by free grace had been the doc-
Liberos esse credentes agere quse velint ; secundum enim ipsius gratiam servari homines, et non secundum opera justa. /rm , lib. i. cap. 20.
CHAP. VII.] OF ELECTION. 203
trine of the apostles). But he cursedly added, besides his other blasphemy, that all were at a liberty, as himself, to all sorts of actions free (as the cursed
language of some in our age hath been), be it adultery, or any action else never so wicked, there being nothing, as they have said, in itself evil or un
lawful, nothing common, unclean ; and though these latter heretics, in this autumn of the gospel, when Jude wrote against them, after Magus had broke
his neck, were ashamed to own him as their master (so Irenasus* expressly
speaks), yet, saith he, they taught his opinions ; that is, like opinions unto
the example of his, viz., that it was God s free grace indeed that saved men
(not Simon, they were ashamed to own that), yet so as that grace did utterly set them that believed at loose from anything in respect of its being sin to them.
And the ground of this perverting so glorious a principle as God s love and free grace into so high wickedness, is that monster of self-love which,
remaining in enlightened professors wholly unmortified, and the power of it
remaining entire, and only directed unto other new divine objects, but is in them suited to a gratification unto self. Hence self in them drinks in and
entertains this grace greedily ; but like as an impoisoned plant perverts the
rain, yea, a sovereign cordial or water it is bedewed or watered withal, and
by reason of its innate venom, turns all into poison like itself, so doth self-
love the grace of God.
Two principles there are in man s nature, which (when a man is once
enlightened) do endanger him, though to a contrary way, viz., conscience and self-love.
Conscience, not subordinated by faith, sets a man into a legal way, and
calls upon him lor strictness to satisfy conscience, but then turns all per formances into legality, yea, even in gospel duties, and makes them, as it
were, works of the law. Well, if that rock comes to be discovered, and the
light of free grace comes in upon the soul, then self-love meets therewith, which receives the news thereof, that is, the doctrine of free grace, with joy, but converts all of it into itself, takes all to itself; and self is the most dis
ingenuous abominable principle that ever was. We daily see and find, even
amongst men one with another, how self will take all the love and kindness
that another man shews it, and entertains all with selfish ends, and makes for
a time some returns answerable, but in the end proves unthankful. But to God (whom, to be sure, naturally we love not, no, not so much as men do one
another), to him self-love proves a devil, and will take and swallow down all
the love and grace that he declares and revealed towards man ; and not only
proves unthankful to return nothing again, but will in the end turn it all
into an encouragement to sin and injuries to God, and a nourishment of
lusts, which are the darling natural children of self, and not into the service
of God : Deut. xxix. 18-20, Lest there be any among you, man or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth away this day from the Lord our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations ; lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood ; and it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart,
saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart,
to add drunkenness to thirst : the Lord will not spare him ; but then the
anger of the Lord and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the
curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the Lord shall
blot out his name from under heaven. Yourselves that have true love to
God, yet having this bitter root self, find such (many such) springings up. * Quamvis non confiteantur nomen magistri, attamen illius sententiam docent.
Iren., lib. i. cap. 30.
204 OF ELECTION. [BOOK III.
And these two rocks men most ordinarily split upon ; the circumcision did
fall upon the first, these in Jude fell foul on the other.
You have next their sin and apostasy. And therefore you need not wonder at that wickedness in practice that you here read of, as that they ran into sodomy, fornication : ver. 7, Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Ver. 8,
< Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities. They were despisers of dominion, dignities, that is, of ministry, whether ecclesiastical, as apostles, or others set over them, as all civil magistrates power, and therefore are said to persist in the gainsaying of Korah, that rebelled against both Moses and Aaron, Num. xvi. 3. And again, ver. 10, they sinned even against what they knew naturally, as it follows of them, But these speak evil of those things which they know not : but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves. They sinning as freely as brute beasts do actions of nature ; these having first sinned away their
light, you may read the other characters that follow, ver. 11-13, ]5, 16, Woe unto them, for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Korah, &c. (as indeed what wickedness would not hereupon follow). Then, again, in opinions, in the 4th verse, Denying the Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ. For men began soon to turn or change (as the apostle s words is of the heathens concerning their religion)
: Rom. i. 23, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. bo these, the glory of the person of Christ, which consists only of God-man m one person (the man crucified at Jerusalem), into multitudes of specula tions and dotages. They had begun to impose upon the saints, to set up another Christ, even in the time before Paul had wrote his second epistle to the Corinthians : 2 Cor. xi. 3, 4, But I fear lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve, through his subtilty, so your minds should be cor rupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preachanotner Jesus, whom we have not preached, &c. And to err in this point concerning the person of Christ, there is nothing more easy, nor nothing more dangerous ; in nihilo facilius, in nihilo pericidosius, erraiur. his person consists in indivisibili, that is, in what nothing must be de leted from, or added to, and so as by either we do un-Christ him, make no Christ of him. There is an unity of faith concerning the Son of God, ph. iv. 4, 5, in all ages, which if any deflect from in the least, they spoil d evacuate the true Christ unto their faith, and embrace a cloud, and run into fancy or ph&nomenon, which we see hath been verified in the varieties esies about his person in elder times ; and since he is the Son of God, oa united into one person with a perfect man, the man Jesus, who was d at Jerusalem in our Christ, add hereto, or detract from this, and to be Christ, a Saviour ; as take away God, and take Saviour
the text ha h it ^ ^ ^ ^^^ ^ b ih and S denied him RS
Again, these were high-flown, seraphic, super-celestial professors, and rw *
S! T m T
rit as the? P^fessed, that as for all those ordinances
had appointed, and themselves had embraced and once joined withal, as the word separating shews), they pretended to be above them, being S o?
Christ
-Y> ^ now needing no such things ; and upoS d it was that they separated themselves : ver. 19, These be they
Orb
nefited thereb
CHAP. VII.] OF ELECTION. 205
who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit, as being past a
building up by public preaching, or the like action and means, as the Lord s
supper, &c. This you may discern to have been the apostle s meaning in
that expression, separating themselves, by the opposite that follows, But
you, &c., ver. 20, But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy
faith, praying in the Holy Ghost. From these, therefore, and such ordi
nances as these, it was they wholly sequestered themselves ; and it was not
a setting up these same ordinances among themselves, as we do, but a total
relinquishing of them. And yet observe, these would partake in the good cheer of church fellowship therein with the true Christians, and their assem
blings, as to such ends, when they had only feasts of love ; and yet therein
they, by their gluttony and riot, shewed and discovered they were utterly without all reverence or fear of God, from whom those blessings came,
feeding themselves without fear, ver. 12. But truly I would say to all
such, that surely while their bodies needed those ordinances of meat and
drink (the ordinances of nature), to repair their natural spirits, that surely their souls should need the Lord s supper and all the ordinances of grace much more.
They pretended unto a living in the Spirit, and being filled with the
Spirit ; and hence it is that the apostle says of them, ver. 19, These be
they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit, as in perfect contradiction unto what they gave out of themselves, and what they pre tended to, the most of any other. And this their life in Spirit, they pro fessed to consist, 1st, In points of knowledge of higher mystery than the
tenets of that common salvation Jude speaks of did (which yet were gene
rally held forth by the community of Christians, and once delivered by the
apostles), but they pretended unto a knowledge more sublime, and far more
spiritual, which the apostle Paul (it beginning in his time) aims at, whilst he reflects thus upon them, Science, or knowledge (as they cried it up),
1 but falsely so called, 1 Tim. vi. 20 ; as also the evangelist John, Depths, as they speak (says he), but of Satan, Rev. ii. 24. The common
salvation, as Jude here, ver. 3, once delivered to the saints ; the com mon faith, as Tit. i. 4 ; this they, as too common, despised, because of
the commonness of it.
And, 2dly, They pretended to incomes of the Spirit, revelations and en
joyments, &c., which their doctrines and that Spirit raised them up unto, above what the doctrine of Christ and faith in him did elevate the true
Christians unto (though that fills them often with joy unspeakable and full of
glory), so as they boasted themselves to be the only spiritual men. Ire-
na3us says that they styled themselves, <pvffi crvsy/o-ar/xo/, naturally spiritual, and all other men, puovxo/, living but an animal life, as appeareth by Ter-
tullian s title of a book, and themselves to be spirited above all gracious
actings or habits, beyond an having the Spirit communicated by ordinances.
Sensual, says the apostle of them, not having the Spirit. And as to
these their rants and high-flownness, the apostle, by similitudes, fully expresseth both them and their doctrines : Clouds they are, ver. 12, that soar high, and the emptier the higher, but without water, that is, any solid doctrine to make their hearts, or others, fruitful ; and ver. 16, Their mouths speak great
swelling things, supra modum turgida, v-Trsgoyxa, or like bubbles swelled with
wind, which therefore Peter, 2 epist. ii. 8, termed swelling words of vanity. But as for this high pretence of the Spirit, we also find it in 2 Cor. xi. 4,
* For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, &c. ; and the reason of it was, as in those words
206 OF ELECTION. [BOOK III.
< The simplicity of the gospel, of the person, that is, Christ, and the
afore,
truths about him, which they look upon as too mean, and not high enough
for them. But what spirit that was they had got instead of ours, and which
inspected* them, and made a supply to them instead of our Holy Ghost by
ordinances, and which blew them up above all apostolical truths, you may
inform yourselves from the same apostle, in the very same chapter, if you
read ver. 13-15, Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame ;
wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever, &c.
This for their apostasy.
(3.) As for the judgments he denounceth against them, they are the most
dreadful. For Capernaum s case is a universal measure, that the higher men are lift up in enlightenings once, and in their affections unto spiritual
things heavenwards, if they apostatise, the lower they fall into hell hereafter,
and a diabolical frame of spirit hereupon. This Heb. vi. 4th and 8th verses
shews.
Now the dreadfulness of their judgment is set out,
[l.J In general, ver. 4, this condemnation with an eminency and tran
[2.] Particularly. 1, Destroyed, ver. 5 ; 2, reserved irrecoverably m
scendency.
everlasting chains under darkness, to the judgment of the great day, ver.
6, as the devils, to whom in their fall they had there been likened ; 3, suffer
< woe to them, verse 11 ; 5,
ing the vengeance of eternal fire, ver. 7 ; 4,
1 They perish in the gainsaying of Korah ; and 6ih, are trees twice dead,
to be plucked up by the roots, ver. 12 ; 7, to them is reserved the black
ness of darkness for ever. Not darkness only, but the blackness of dark
ness ; if there be any place in hell darker than another, these shall have
it ; and darkness is attributed to hell, as the inheritance of light is to
heaven.
The sole observation I raise from hence is, that in such ages wherein the
light of the gospel shines brightest and with most power, in that age God in
hfs providence disposeth it so, that there shall be enlightened professors to
the highest eminency of profession, that fall into the worst of errors, and the
most abominable of practices.
. Where there hath been such a summer, look for a great fall of the leaf ;
and this, instead of being a stumble or scandal to any against the profession
of the true religion, doth rather give a witness and seal unto the soundness
and power of it. Such an age breeeds up desperate apostates, like as the
excessive heat in Africa doth monsters. The primitive times produced this,
and also the times of Luther and Calvin, and of those other holy reformers,
did the like, which the papists object against us ; and our own experience
in this age, in this nation, hath seen the same ; so as we may say, As it was
then, so it is now. Nor could such hellish abominations have been made
even principles of religion amongst us, had not our light and privileges in
that respect been alike, had not heaven been let down amongst us, or that
we had not been lift up to heaven (as they were), this had not fallen out.
I could make a great and large application of all these things, unto the com
plexion of twenty years last past, which was the autumn of a glorious sum mer foregone ; and I believe that yourselves, in these characters I have drawn
out of Jude, made by him of primitive deserters, have had your thoughts all
along, in this my discourse of them, upon a reflexion on our times past which
you have seen, and yonr experience had in your view ; and the monsters of our
times have been painted unto the life, in these portraitures of Jude s drawing
of those of old, of many principles, doctrines, and actings that have been
* Qii. inspired ? ED.
CHAP. VII.] OF ELECTION. 207
found amongst us. The devil hath read over his old collegian methods or
lectures anew, but did it with some refinements, that old serpent growing wiser and learneder every age, and attempers his addition of falsehood to
the temperament of the ages.
* Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless be
The use of the doctrine from those words in Jude 24, 25,
fore the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, now and ever. Amen.
To provoke you, the called and preserved ones in Christ, to give glory to
God, and adore him for those differing dispensations of his, with difference from those other professors, this doxology at the close of the epistle, like a
strong whirlpool, draws down and swallows up into itself the main stream and current of the whole epistle, as matter of praise to God, and that is the
general scope of these two last verses. And it is evident that the main drift
of that stream, from the first to the last, had been to shew how the love of
the Father, and the mercy of Christ, had been the original causes of the
calling, and the contriving causes of the keeping and preservation of those
called ones, whenas others had been not only left, but fore-written, unto so
sad a fate ; so the epistle begins, ver, 1, 2, Jude the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and pre served in Jesus Christ, and called : mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be
multiplied. So it runs on to verse the 4th, For there are certain men
crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation ;
ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ ; and appointed to this condemnation that follows. Thus the epistle begins, and so it continues in
ver. 21, Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And thus drawing to a conclusion, the
apostle celebrateth God for all these specifications, the comprehensive drift
of which celebration, I take up and methodise thus :
1. He takes in all those attributes or acts of God and Christ, mentioned
afore, either in ver. 1, 2, or in the 21st verse ; as love, mercy, which are all one with free-grace, and that we should for these glorify God and our Saviour
is implicitly intended.
2. Those attributes and acts which have had an hand hitherto, and must
have, and still continue to carry on and perfect our salvation ; as (1) his
* to him that is able, ver. 24, which supposeth (2) his willingness to do it, and which being engaged, it will be sure to perfect it to the last and greatest act of it ; which last act or scene he sets forth to be a
power,
presenting them faultless, &c., before the presence of his glory, with ex
ceeding great joy. (3) That great attribute of wisdom, which had secretly and hiddenly in his foreknowledge laid and contrived the whole of the
design, from first to last, so as to glorify his grace the most that might be towards us.
[1.] To the wise God,
[2.] The only wise God ; and this as shewn in being our Saviour, for all which give glory to him again.
3. He mentions the ends which God had in these several designs in lov
ing us, calling us, and preserving us, and to that end lays afore them the
demonstration of his (1) glory, (2) dominion, (3) power, (4) magnificence, as Beza renders the word /AiyaXowiu^ ; and with these, and for these also
themselves, celebrate him also, as those which eminently and above all ap peared therein.
208 OF ELECTION. [BOOK III.
4. He specifies the time and the contrivance of our doing this : (1.) now
at present ; (2.) for ever. The love out of which he did all this was from
everlasting , and therefore good reason we should adore him for ever. There
is added the whole of our souls giving this praise, contracted and poured
out in an AMEN.
You will say unto me, Is not this doxology or praise given to God only
upon that general account, that it is ordinarily elsewhere given, as intending
only the setting forth of his praise, what a glorious, wise, powerful God he
is in himself? And upon that account only to give glory to him, as the
apostle seems also to do, 1 Tim. vi. 15, 16, in that passage, Which in his
times he shall shew, who is the blessed and only potentate, the King of
kings, and Lord of lords, who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto, whom no man hath seen or can see ; to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen.
My answer is, 1, That this being so short an epistle for the matter of it,
and that yet it should have in the close a large enumeration of attributes
(larger for number enumerated) in this his doxology, than in the close of great and large epistles we find the apostles to have used, this must have some
special reason for it, as relating to the eminency of the drift and subject matter therein.
2. And seeing every tittle thereof falls in so aptly, and suits unto that
foregoing matter and scope of the body of the epistle itself, which tends to
magnify God in his love and grace in electing, calling, preserving to the
end, in which his wisdom, power, glory, majesty, dominion do appear.
3. And thirdly, Two of the titles of God here, for which he gives him
praise, do eminently relate to his grace in electing, loving us, calling us, .1 - i * m i ji i 11 i
again considered; and therefore to him, as such a God, be glory and power, &c. And for this reason all the other of glory, majesty, dominion, power, as contributors to this salvation, are to be included, and glory to be given
for them.
4. The instances of the like doxologies, in other epistles, warrant this ;
* Now to him that is of power to stablish you,
as Rom. xvi. 25, 26, 27,
according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the
revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to
the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the
obedience of faith : to God only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ for
ever. Amen. In which the principal matter of that epistle is summarily
wrapt, as the special ground of that praise given to God therefor : and
therefore that epistle is a complete system of the doctrine of the gospel, which had been the great subject delivered in that epistle ; and he winds
in, as you see, and contracts the brief or main of all, as matter for which God is to be praised and adored by us. And Jude doth here the like, and
exceeds that other apostle in enumeration of attributes and praises. The
like you find done by Paul to the Hebrews ; he, in a prayer, summing up the most material matters of that foregoing epistle in the close of it, Heb.
xiii. 20 ; for which, see my sermon on that text. So as, although I will not wholly limit this doxology in Jude unto the matter of his epistle (though most eminently it is suited to it), but also allow it to be extended unto all of this glory attributed to God in himself
(as was objected), yet upon this warrant I shall at least handle all the
CHAP. VII.J OF ELECTION. 209
particulars, only as they may and do relate un-to the love and mercy of God the Father, and of Christ, as the original and continuing causes of our
calling, preservation, &c. As this love is set off by those his differing dis
pensations unto the other apostates, as they have been opened ; and
thereby, by way of me, I shall endeavour to provoke you to bless God for each one of them, as he doth here those he wrote unto ; and shall briefly shew how all these attributes are to be adored by us, in relation to these
dispensations-.
< the love of God the
1. Go> up to the original cause. Take, beloved,
Father, ver. 1, and bring it down hither, and say, and cry aloud, To the
only wise God and our Saviour, be glory , &c., for that his love. Bless him that he hath such, and so great a love in him, that he can love some of his creatures so well, who had not, nor could give anything to him, to move him to it ; with which the apostle concludes his doctrine of election : Rom. xi. 35. That he hath loved themso wonderfully,, so immutably, so
infinitely, in his electing love, that although you read he is willing, for his
glory, to pass by others, and to take an occasion to shew the power of hiswrath on such as have prepared themselves by sin for destruction ; that
yet he hath it in his heart, nature, and purposes to love some so singularly transcendently, who was bound to none more than to deal with them
according to the law of their creation, which was and is the covenant of works. Draw but a draught in your own thoughts, an idea of what a love our doctrine of election out of Scriptures hath given ; a love so great, as
everlasting as himself; so free, unlimited, absolute, peremptory, unchange able, invincible, and the same in such respects wherewith he loves the same ; * and then bless him that such a love is in him, which must needs render him lovely, though thou hadst no share in it ; a love of the greatest intimacy, Beloved in God the Father. Let Beza quarrel the phrase as improper ; to my soul, and that as it hath been opened, it is most expres sive, importing that you lie next his very heart, you lay in his very bowels; matrix, in the womb, or mother of his will, as that word in the Canticles
: Cant. iv. 9. Moses says, his people are in his hands ; as Deut. xxxiii. 3, Yea, he loved the people ; all his saints are in thy hands : and they sat down at thy feet ; every one shall receive of thy words. And afterwards he says they are in his everlasting arms. And being in his hand, Christ says, None shall pull them out. Well, but you. are nearer
signifies
7 womb of God, his bowels ; and a
yet, you are in his heart, in the ver}
piece of that must be pulled out, if you be pulled out. The phrase imports, as I have shewed, out of 1 Thes. i. 1, and 2 Thes. i. 1,
< The Church in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ. You would be safe enough in either of them, but for sureness, you are in both.
2. Consider his commending you, and giving you to Christ, as those that were his own, and whom he had loved ; and had loved them with the same love he had loved himself, as John xvii. tells you. And that, therefore, by all the love there was between them two, God the Father and himself, he
supplicates, that God would be sure to love and take care of them. Christ remembered it well, and it stuck with him when he was to die. Thine
they were, and thou gavest them me ; and I have kept them in thy name. Things dear and precious tous, we lay up in safest places. If a king hath a dearest spouse, an only one of his love, and there be armies and dangers round about in the dominions where she is, he will be sure to stow her so as to be preserved in some castle that is impregnable, if he have any such, * Qu. the Son ? ED. VOL. IX. n
210 OF ELECTION. [BOOK III.
and with a garrison to defend her. Now God hath done so with you in
Christ ; he hath committed YOU to Christ, you are the preserved in Christ, and he is your rock, defence, strong tower. Even all that the Psalmist so much and so often celebrates and inculcates, that way is fulfilled in him :
nor are you kept in Christ only as in your castle, but as with a garrison, which is all the power in God : 1 Peter i. 5, Kept as with a garrison, as
the word signifieth. If any have any jewels, where will he bestow them ? In
a cabinet, a strong iron chest. Remember who is your cabinet : it is Christ, who yet is more worth than all your jewels
: in him are hid all God s
treasures ; as of knowledge, and wisdom, and riches, of merit unsearchable
to save you ; so also yourselves, your persons, your salvation are laid up
in him, as God s choicest jewels ; and as, indeed, for whom all those other
: never fear plundering, you are as safe as all ; yea,
treasures are designed
your life is hid with Christ in God, Col. iii. Hid as treasures are, and
therefore you are as sure and safely lodged as Christ himself is.
3. You have the mercy of Jesus Christ, both in ver. 2. andver. 21, The
sure mercies of that David, Christ, as they are called : Isa. Iv. 3, 4, and
Acts xiii. 34 compared. These are the summity, the height, the sum of
mercies God hath to bestow ; the mercies of eternity. Take all other
mercies bestowed on the world, which yet are infinite riches of goodness,
patience and long-suffering, Rom. ii., that are spent upon wicked men, to whom also he vouchsafeth such precious gifts, enlightenings, tastings, which
you read of, short of grace ; yet if you could suppose all such mercies that
have been, from Cain the eldest son of wickedness, shewn and bestowed
upon all of that sort, to the end of the world ; if God should heap them all, and every one of them, in never so great measure, of such kind of mercies
together, with all those gifts of enlightenings, and that man also were to live
as many ages as the years of each man s life that have lived in a succession amount to, which would make a great hole in eternity to come, yet one call
of his grace and loving kindness unto those, whom in Christ he terms the
meanest, poorest, despicablest, miserablest of his called ones, is infinitely more worth than them all : for all that would not amount to the pardon of
so much as the least sin. 0, therefore, look to the mercy of Christ, as
ver. 21. In Ps. xxxvi., David having first discoursed at large of God s common mercies towards the wickedest of men, whose wickedness he had
set out from the first verse to the fifth, he then stands admiring at the
infinite vast heaps of mercies which he leaves with them, notwithstanding that wickedness ; of which I understand the next immediate words: ver. 5, 6,
* Thy mercy, Lord, is in the heavens ; and thy faithfulness reacheth unto
the clouds. Thy righteousness is like the great mountains ; thy judgments are a great deep ; Lord, thou preservest man and beast. Which is to be understood common mercies vouchsafed to man, such as to beasts: that were he not a God that lives in heaven, and in perfect blessedness, from whom those mercies came, he would never leave them with them, nor be in
that manner good unto them. He then, in the contemplation of those other
so far excelling mercies we are speaking of, with which he pursues his
children that know him, breaks out, ver. 7-9, How excellent is thy
loving-kindness, God ! Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings
: they shall be abundantly satisfied with the
fatness of thy house : and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy
pleasures. For with thee is the fountain of light ; in thy light shall we see
light. 0, therefore, bless God for this his mercy in Cbrist; and the
mercy of this Christ our Saviour.
4. Bless God for the continuance of these both from everlasting, after they
CHAP. VII.] OF ELECTION. 211
had been set upon their persons by the Father, until our calling, ver. 1, and
until their being presented to himself before the presence of his glory, as
ver. 24. The real import of the word multiplied, says de Quiros, in ver. 2, imports three things.
(1.) A continuation of them.
(2.1 And that by a multiplication.
(8.) Until all be presented and completed.
(1.) Bless him for the continuation of these towards you, his love and
mercy, as hath been opened. The constancy whereof I have opened ; for
such, and so great a love to continue the same, fixed and firm, from everlast
ing to everlasting, is of a long continuance ; and for God to have you in his
heart, eye, what can be more ? No lover that ever was, had him or them he loved continually in his actual thoughts, much less for an eternity of time. This is only proper to the eternal and unchangeable God. And that God hath had his people thus in his heart, Isa. xlix. 16, shews, Behold I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands ; thy walls are continually before me. God did portray a model or draught of what he would make, and rear them up to be in glory in the end, and he bore it continually in his heart and thoughts ; and did set them,
* as a seal upon his heart and arm, Cant. viii. 6, as the Church speaks of his love, ver. 7. It is said of Christ, who had chosen them (as God had done), that whom he loved, he loved to the end, John xiii. 1. It ceased not after it first began, Isa. Ixiv. 5, In those is continuance, and we shall be saved. In those ; what things are those ? His ways of mercy and grace, spoken of before, which poor souls
remembering, and having recourse unto by faith ; though God be wroth for
a while when we have sinned, yet in those ways of mercy is continuance, and we shall be saved. I quoted afore the 36th Psalm for the difference of those mercies which God vouchsafes his elect, that know him and trust in
him, from those that are common to the rest of the world
; this in ver. 7-9. And then he continues, ver. 10, continue thy loving-kindness to them
that know thee, and thy righteousness to the upright in heart. The word
* draw out at length. It hath been, one would think, drawn out unto a length great enough, in
in the original, as also in the margin, is varied, is
that it hath been continued from everlasting ; but these mercies, and this
infinite loving-kindness, will be drawn out to an infinity of length further, even to eternity in heaven, which follows, In thy light we shall see light. They will stretch and reach from everlasting to everlasting, Ps. ciii.
(2.) They continue and are drawn out at length, and so have been by their
being multiplied, which was another thing I opened upon ver. 2, Renewed
every moment. And this still proves a higher aggrandizing of this. As they say of beams, or the species, or visual images that flow from the object unto the eye, that they are a multiplication of the same image, without interrup tion falling upon the eye, such as those rays and wings of the sun, it is but one and the same love multiplied in the acts of it continually ; as justifica tion is said to be but actus unicus, and yet is renewed all of the same every moment ; so both is God s choice and love (which shews * overabundantly), that is, what it appertained to ; yea, there is not only a new act of remem
* I will yet choose
brance, but a cannot forget put upon it, Isa. xlix.- 15.
Jerusalem, Isa. xiv. 1, and Zech. ii. 12. Oh ! at once comfort thyself, and
bless and adore God ; thou multipliest to sin, and he multiplieth to love ; thou multipliest breaches between him and thee, and he multiplieth to
pardon, Isa. Iv. 7. And the older you grow, the more you do need this
multiplication of love and mercy the more ; for your sins, take them from * Qu. flows ? ED.
212 OF ELECTION. [BOOK III.
first to last, are multiplied. And all your sins of youth, middle age, are
afore him, and would one day also encompass you round about, as Ps.
xlix. 5, were it not that God multiplies to pardon. Thus also grace, con
tinuing to sanctify, is renewed day by day, 2 Cor. iv. 16. Yea, night and
day ; yea, every moment : Isa. xxvii. 3, I the Lord do keep it ; I will
water it every moment : lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day.
bless him and adore him for this !
(3.) It is continued until all is perfected, even as here, till thou comest
to be presented afore the presence (ver. 24) of his glory, and then thou art
* Wherefore also we pray always for
safe enough. Thus, 2 Thes. i. 11,
you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the
good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power ; and Ps.
xxiii. 6, Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life ; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.
And lastly, When thou art in heaven, that is the time when love and the
kindness of love are drawn out, and drawn at length indeed : That in ages
to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace, in his kindness
towards us through Jesus Christ. Heaven is but the kindness of God,
heaped upon kindness ; kindness indeed, and this continued in the fulness
of it to all eternity.
Hitherto of our celebration of God for those attributes or effects thereof, which we find to have an hand and influence into our salvation in the fore
going part of this epistle.
I come now to those attributes and acts, which here in the conclusion of
his epistle he more directly incites us to give God the glory of, for those his
dispensations towards us, that are called and chosen with such a vast differ
ence from others, as eminently appearing therein ; which part of the epistle
begins at ver. 24, Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and
to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.
These words that celebrate his power, &c., have two scopes or aspects, as
Estius hath observed.
1. The one implicit, yet strongly implied, viz., a support or prop unto
faith, from what in God they should further eye, besides his mercy and love, as which are engaged to preserve them, and that is his power, To him
that is able, &c., or, as in Rom. xvi. 25, To him that is of power to
establish you.
The 2d scope is explicit, and that is, to give glory to God for that his
power joined with his love, as that which would certainly keep them to the end ; and that he should provoke them to praise God for this, afore the work was carried through to perfection (as in those he wrote to, as yet it was not), imports withal God s faithfulness to be joined with that power, which they might be assured of, he would put forth, even all the power that was in him to perform it. Three particular things, then, you have further here to celebrate God for
in this verse.
1. His power ; that is engaged by his love to carry you through, to him that is able, &c ; and that his power is said to be engaged to be put forth,
(1.) in this life, to keep us from falling; (2.) when you come to die, to
present you, &c.
Where, secondly, comes (as a new head to be considered) the end or issue of all, as that which his love had designed (though it is his power must effect
it), which is to bring you to the presence of his own glory faultless; for which so glorious end and issue of all you are to glorify God.
Thirdly, the exceeding joy that will be in God and Christ s heart, when
CHAP. VII.] OF ELECTION. 213
he hath brought you safe home to himself, which argues his great and con stant love. This as to the setting out that division of the words, and the heads drawn out from thence, which I am to enlarge upon.
I. Celebrate his power ; whereto, 1. In general
: Ps. lix. 16, 17, But I will sing of thy power; yea, I will
: for thou hast been my defence and
sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning
refuge in the day of my trouble. Unto thee, my strength, will I sing
: for God is my defence, and the God of my mercy ; where you see mercy and power are still joined ; as also in Ps. Ixii. 11, 12. In Eph. iii., having first prayed, ver. 19, And to know the love of Christ, which passeth know
ledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God : he then adds this
doxology made to his power, as that which must work and effect all in them, ver. 20,
< Now to him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us. The power that worketh in us is all one as to say, the power that is engaged in us, by having begun, is interested to continue to work. And you see how, upon the account of that alone, he gives glory to him (even as here)