Exposition of Jude, Exegesis of Jude · Verse 6 · Part 4
OBSERVATIONS.
1. Holineſſe, Obſer. 1.the image of God makes the difference between an angel and a divel. When an angel leaves his integrity, he becomes a divell. If he keep not his primitive purity, he parts with his primitive preheminence. The originall holineſſe of the angels is ſet out by the word foreign, which ſignifies dignity. Cut off Samſons locks, and he will be even as another man. Though never ſo many other accompliſhments be left behind, as ſpirituality, ſtrength, wiſdome, immortality, &c. Yet if holineſſe be gone, the truly angelicall part is gone. That which is to be deſired in a man, yea an angel, is goodneſſe. All the ſtars cannot make a day. Should a whole ſheet of paper be fill'd only with cyphers, they could not all amount to the ſmalleſt number; nor can the rareſt endowments without grace, make a perſon excellent. The righteous, not the rich, the honourable, the learned, is more excellent than his neighbour. There's nothing will have a luſtre at the day of Judgement, but purity. Riches, honours, &c. like Glowworms, in the dark, blind night of this world, gliſter and ſhine in mens eſteems; but when the ſun of righteouſneſſe ſhall ariſe in his glory, all theſe beauties will die and decay. How much are they miſtaken, who ſhun and abhor Chriſtians as divels, becauſe they are poor, deformed, diſgraced, though they keep their integrity! and how great their ſin, who hate them becauſe they keep their integrity! but the world will love its own. Black-mores account the blackeſt beautifulleſt. Would we look upon men with a renewed eye, and Scripture ſpectacles, we would judge otherwiſe. The pooreſt Saint is an angel in a diſguiſe, in raggs; and the richeſt ſinner is (for the preſent) little better then a gilded divell. Holineſſe, though veyled with the moſt contemptible outſide, is accompany'd with a ſilent majeſty; and ſin, even in the higheſt dignity, bewrayes a ſecret vileneſſe.
2.Obſerv. 2. Truth and holineſſe can only plead antiquity. The first eſtate of the fallen angels was holy: Sin came, or rather crept in afterwards; Holineſſe is as ancient as the Ancient of days; and the eſſentiall holineſſe of God, the pattern of that which was at the firſt created in angels and man, is eternall and increated. Sin is but an innovation, and a meer invention of the creatures. A ſinner is but an upſtart. They who delight in ſin, do but keep alive the adventitious blemiſhes of their originall, and the memory of their traiterous defection from God. O that we might rather remember from whence we are fallen, and in Chriſt recover a better than our firſt eſtate. To any who pretend the greateſt antiquity and longeſt cuſtome for error, or any other ſin, it may be ſaid, From the beginning it was not ſo. Mat. 19.8. Conſuetudo ſine veritate, vetuſtas eſt erroris. Tert. Hoſ. 5.10. Prov. 22.22.And cuſtome without truth, is at the beſt, but the antiquity of error. The old path and the good way, are put for the ſame, Jerem. 6.16. If the removall of the ancient bounds and landmarks which our fathers have ſet, be a ſin ſo frequently prohibited; how heinous is the violation of the ancient boundary of holineſſe, which at the firſt was fixed by God himſelf?
3. The depravation of nature, Obſerv. 3.introduceth all diſorder in practice. When theſe angels had left their originall purity, they ſoon forſake their originall employment: and, Mat. 7.18.the divel abiding not in the truth, becomes a murderer. All the irregularities of life, are but derivations from unholy principles. The corrupt tree yeelds not good fruit: Luk. 6.45.Out of the evill treaſure of the heart, are evill things brought forth. The wheels of the Clock going wrong, needs muſt the hand do ſo; the Tranſlation will be according to the Original. We ſee at what door to lay all the prodigious impieties in the world, which are but the deformed iſſues of corrupted nature. How fooliſhly are men angry with themſelves for outward and viſible tranſgreſſions in their lives, when they tamely and quietly endure an unchanged nature? like men who dung and water the roots of their trees, and yet are angry for their bearing of fruit. How prepoſterous, and how plainly begun at the wrong end, are thoſe endeavours of reformation, which are accompanyed with the hatred of renovation. If the tree be bitter and corrupt, all the influences and ſhowrs of heaven cannot make the fruit good. When theſe angels had loſt the integrity of nature, even heaven it ſelf did not help them to it. How miſerable, laſtly, is he, who hath no better fountain than corrupted nature for the iſſuing forth of all his ſervices! Even the beſt performances of an unrenewed perſon, cannot be good, coming not from a pure heart, Phil. 1.11. Eph 2.10.a good conſcience, and faith unfained; they are but dead carcaſſes embalmed; and at the beſt, but hedg-fruit, ſowre and unſavoury, till they who bear them are ingrafted into Chriſt, and partake of his life.
4. Corrupt nature cares not for the joyes, Obſerv. 4.joyned with the holineſſe of heaven. As ſoon as theſe angels had left their firſt eſtate of integrity, they forſook even that holy, though moſt happy habitation. Heaven it ſelfe, was no heaven to them, when they became unholy. A ſinner may not unfitly be compared to a common beggar, who had rather live poorly and idly, than plentifully in honeſt imployment. How great is the antipathy of corrupt nature to heavenly performances, when they will not down though never ſo ſweetened! The enmity of ſin againſt God and holineſſe, is not to be reconcil'd. How little are we to wonder, that heaven is a place only for the pure in heart, and that Chriſt at the laſt day, will ſay to the workers of iniquity, Mat. 7.23. Job 22.17Depart from me; ſince they not only in this life ſay to God, Depart from us, Job 21.14. but ſhould they be admitted into that habitation of bliſſe with unholy hearts, they would be unwilling there to continue with him? Let it be our care to be made meet for the inheritance of the Saints in light, if we expect to have, nay to love the joyes thereof.
5.Obſerv. 5. How irrationall is every ſinner! There's no perſon in love with any ſin, but is indeed out of love with his owne happineſſe; Theſe angels, for a meer ſuppoſed imaginary happineſſe of their own contriving, part with the reall bleſſedneſſe of enjoying the ſatisfying preſence of the bleſſed God. None can become a divell, till firſt he become a beaſt. A ſinner can with no better plea of reaſon yeeld to any tentation of ſin, Jud. 16.6.then could Samſon to that motion of Delilah, Tel me where thy great ſtrength lieth, and wherewith thou mighteſt be bound to afflict thee. Wicked men are rightly call'd unreaſonable, 2. Theſ. 3.2. foreign. Jud. 10. Pſal. 49. ult.or abſur'd, ſuch whom no reaſon will ſatisfie; and brute beaſts, led with humour and ſenſe againſt all reaſon. Who, that had not laid aſide even reaſon, would loſe his ſoul for a trifle, a ſhadow, and die (as Jonathan ſaid) for taſting of a little hony? He who accounts it unreaſonable to part with the pooreſt worldly commodity without a valuable conſideration, much more to exchange a conveyance of a thouſand pound per annum for a painted paper, is yet much more abſur'd in ſinning againſt any command of God, which is back'd with the very height of reaſon, both in reſpect of our duty to the Commander, and benefit by the command.
6. Its a ſin for any, even the higheſt, Obſervat. 6.to exempt himſelfe from ſervice. Angels have their tasks ſet them by God, which they muſt not leave: There's no creature but hath an allotment of duty. Though we cannot be profitable, yet muſt we not be idle. God allowes the napkin to none, upon whom he hath beſtowed a talent; nor hath he planted any to cumber the ground, and only to be burdens to the earth. If wee are all of him, we muſt be all for him. Its not conſiſtent with the ſoveraignty of this great King, to ſuffer any ſubject within his dominions who will be abſolute, and not yeeld him his homage; nor to his wiſdome, to make any thing which he intends not to uſe. The firſt who adventur'd to ceaſe from working was a divel, and they who follow him in that ſin, ſhall partake with him in the ſutable puniſhments of chains and darkneſſe. Its a ſingular mercy to have opportunities of ſervice, abilities for it, and delight in it at the ſame time. Its the priviledg of the glorious angels to be confirmed in their work, as well as in their happineſſe. God never is ſo angry with any, as thoſe whom he turns out of his ſervice.
7. The glorifyed are in heaven as in an habitation. Obſerv. 7. Luk. 16.9. Joh. 14.2. 2 Cor. 5.1. Heb. 11.10, 16 Heb. 13.14. Heb. 4.9. Omnis homo eſt advena naſcendo, incola vivendo, quia compellitur migrare moriendo. Aug. in q. 91. ſup. Lev.Heaven is in Scripture often ſet out by expreſſions importing it to be a place of ſtability, ſetlement, and abode; as, Everlaſting habitations, a Fathers houſe, Manſions, a building of God, an Houſe not made with hands, eternall in the heavens. A city, a city which hath foundations, a continuing city, a Reſt. How ſutable are fixed and immovable affections to this permanent and ſtedfaſt happineſſe! everything on this ſide Heaven is tranſitory. The faſhion of this world paſſeth away: here we have no continuing city. Our bodies are tabernacles and cottages of clay, which ſhortly ſhall bee blown down by the wind of death; *foreign. Iſid. Peluſ. l. 1. ep. 65.yea their falling begins with their very building; and this whole world is an habitation which ere long will be conſumed by fire. Let us love the world, as alway about to leave it; and delight in the beſt of earthly enjoyments, only as refreſhments in our journey, not as in the comforts of our country; only as things without which we cannot live, not as things for which we do live; not making them fetters, but only uſing them as furtherances to our place of ſetlement. Wicked Cain was the firſt that ever built a city (and yet even then the Holy Ghoſt brands him with the name of a Vagabond.) The godly of old dwelt in tabernacles, Heb. 11.9. and the reaſon was, becauſe they looked for a city which hath foundations, whoſe builder and maker is God. To conclude, Let the ſin of theſe angels in leaving this habitation, make us fear leſt we ſhould fall ſhort of it; let us be throughly ſenſible of our miſery by nature, in being born without a right to it, and intereſt in it. Let us ſpeedily get into, and conſtantly keep in the way that leads unto it: Chriſt is that way, let us by faith procure him, as one who hath purchaſed it for us by the merit of his obedience; and in him let us continue, that he may prepare us for it by his ſpirit of holineſſe. Let us profitably improve thoſe ordinances which are the gates of heaven; let us content our ſelves with no degree of proficiency by them, but proceed from ſtrength to ſtrength, till at laſt we appear before God in this habitation.
The third branch of this firſt part of the text containing the ſin of theſe angels, is this, Wherein this defection of the angels was ſeen, and did conſiſt.
This is expreſſed two ways. 1. foreign 2. foreign. Gerh. in 2 Pet.1. Negatively, They kept not, &c. 2. Affirmatively, They left their, &c.