Exposition of Jude, Title page – Publishers advertisement
AN EXPOSITION Of the EPISTLE of St JUDE, Together With many large and uſeful DEDUCTIONS.
LATELY Delivered in XL LECTURES In Chriſt-Church LONDON, BY WILLIAM JENKYN, Miniſter of the Goſpel of JESUS CHRIST.
The FIRST PART. but not printed as it was p…thed
1 TIM. 4.1.
Now the Spirit ſpeaketh expreſly, that in the later times ſome ſhall depart from the faith.
TIT. 1.9.
Holding faſt the faithfull word.
foreign, Epiph. adv. Haer. l. 1. Tom. 2. haer. 25. p. mihi. 92
London, Printed by Th. Maxey, for SAMUEL GELLIBRAND, at the golden BALL in Pauls Church-yard. 1653.
To the Right Worſhipfull, and other my Beloved and Chriſtian Friends.
Inhabitants in the Pariſh of CHRIST-CHURCH LONDON.
THE Souls of men may as certainly be deſtroyed by poyſoning, as ſtarving. If Satan cannot hinder from ſome kind of taſting and receiving the grace of the Goſpel, he often perverts it poyſonfully, by making men to turn it into laſciviouſneſſe, and even by freedome from ſin, to allow themſelves in ſinning freely. The Seducers crept into the Church in Jude's time, under pretence of Chriſtian Liberty, introduced unchriſtian Libertiniſm: No cheaper ſtuffe then Grace would ſerve their turns, wherewith to cloath laſciviouſneſſe; and no other Patron then the Lord Chriſt himſelfe to protect their impieties: Whether they were the Diſciples of Simon Magus or Nicolaitans, or Gnoſticks, (as Epiphanius thinks) I much enquire not; ſure I am, they were of the Synagogue of Satan; he was both their Father and Maſter, whom they reſembled, and whoſe works they did. In this Epiſtle the Apoſtle Jude, not only with Holy zeal oppoſeth them himſelf, but ſounds a Trumpet, for the rouſing up the Chriſtians, (upon whoſe Quarters theſe Seducers had fallen, to ſurpriſe their Treaſure, the Doctrine of Faith,) earneſtly to contend for the preſervation of ſo precious a Depoſitum, once, and once for all delivered to their keeping. The Arguments uſed by the Apoſtle are Cogent, his Directions Prudent, and probable it is, that his Pains were in ſome degree Succeſsfull. I know no Spiritually skilfull Obſerver, but apprehends too great a Reſemblance, between the faces of thoſe, and our times. Sins in our dayes are not only committed under the enjoyment, but (in pretence) by the encouragement of grace; men who now dare not ſin, are by ſome derided as ignorant of their Chriſtian liberty; and evident it is, that many live, as if being delivered from the fear of their enemies, they were delivered from the fear and ſervice of their Deliverer; and as if the Blood of the Paſſeover were not intended by God to be ſprinkled upon the door poſts to ſave them; but upon the threſhould of the door; for them to trample upon. Beloved friends, if God hath appointed that you ſhould reſemble theſe Chriſtians, to whom Jude wrote, in the danger of your times, its your duty to imbrace the directions delivered to theſe Chriſtians, for your defence from thoſe dangers. A gracious heart conſiders not how bitter, but how true; not how ſmart, but how ſeaſonable any truth is. My aime in the publiſhing theſe Lectures, is to advance holineſſe, and (ſo far as I could do it, with following the mind of the Apoſtle) to oppoſe thoſe ſins, which if people hate not moſt, are like to hurt them moſt; and to advance thoſe duties with which, if people be not moſt in love, yet in which they are moſt defective, and thereby moſt indangered. And now again, I beſeech you (that I may teſtifie my unfayned affection, as well by my Epipiſtle as my Book) labour to keep cloſe to God in a looſe age; ſpend not your time in complaining of the licentiouſneſſe of the times, in the mean while ſetting up a toleration in your own Hearts and Lives. That private Chriſtian, who doth not labour to oppoſe prophancneſſe with a river of tears, would never (if he could) bear it down with a ſtream of power. Lay the foundation of Mortification deep. Reſerve no luſt from the ſtroke of Jeſus Chriſt. Take heed of pleaſing your ſelves in a bare formall profeſsion; Labour to be rooted in Chriſt: He who is but a viſible Chriſtian, may in a ſhort time ceaſe to be ſo much as viſible: He who ſpeaks of Chriſt but notionally, may in time be won to ſpeak againſt him: Love not the world. Beware of ſcandals; take them not where they are; make them not where they are not (the common ſin of our times, to black Religion, and then to fear and hate it.) Deſpiſe not the providences of God in the world; they are ſigns of Gods mind, though not of his love: Delight in the publick Ordinances, and highly eſteem of faithfull Miniſters; they and Religion are commonly blaſted together. Shun Seducers; ſit down under a Miniſter, as well as under a Preacher; He who will hear everyone, may at length be brought to hear none; and he who will hear him preach who ought not, may ſoon be left to learn that which he ought not. Preſerve a tender conſcience; Every ſtep you take, fear a ſnare: Read your own hearts in the wickedneſſe of others. Be not ſlight in Cloſet-ſervices; and oft think of God in your ſhops, for there you think you have leaſt leaſure, but ſure you have moſt need to do ſo. Let your ſpeech be alway with grace, and a word or two of Chriſt in every company, if it may be; and yet not out of form, but feeling.
Theſe Lectures here preſented might ſooner have ſeen the light, had I not lately met with ſuch hinderances (ſufficiently known) as I once expected ſhould have ſtopp'd them altogether. The main of this imployment hath lien upon me ſince that time, which, conſidering my many other Imployments (you know) hath not been long, though otherwiſe long enough to have performed this work much more exactly. I here preſent you, though not with half of the Epiſtle, yet with more then the one half of that which upon the whole I preach'd. I have not knowingly left out any paſſages delivered in the Pulpit. The other part I promiſe in the ſame Volume with this (ſo ſoon as God gives ſtrength & more leiſure) if this find acceptance with the Church of God. And now (Brethren) I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are ſanctified; Reſting
Your Servant in the Work of Chriſt, WIL. JENKYN.
ERRATA.
PAge 8. line 11. for four read three; p. 29. l. 27. for going to him for. r. we feel its; p. 44. l. 15. for them r. it. p. 119. l. 32. for feaſt r. food, p. 121. marg. r. differenter p. 123. l. 19 for lover r. love. p. 128. l. 5. r. (ſaith the ſoul) p. 152. marg. r. beneficentia, and under it Nieremb. p. 164. l. 9. for may r. might. p. 202. marg. r. omnes. p. 212. l. 8. for explication r. exhortation. p. 228. l. 12. r. intruſted. p. 234. l. 30. r. invincible. p. 266. l. 12. r. opinions. marg. r. foreign. p. 288. l. 24. r. School-men. p. 305. marg. dele. Joſh. 62.9. p. 339. marg. r. ſolatia. p. 388. marg. r. foreign frangere. p. 409. l. 34. r. diſtempered. p. 449. l. 27. r. ſubſtances. p. 460. for any one is r. men are. p. 363. l. 31. for and r. or. p. 464. l. 21. r. by. p. 465. marg. r. Enchir. p. 472. l. 36. r. put. p. 494. l. 19. r. alwayes continuing. p. 504. marg. r. comparativus. l. 31. r. heaven. l. 35. for in heaven. r. there. p. 512. marg. r. ſeveritas. p. 574 Obſer. 5. r. helliſhly. p. 579. l. 23. r. Domoeritus. l. 26. r. in minde, blinde. p. 585. marg. r. Joſh. ibid. r. perpetuo. p. 623. l. 1. for juriſdictionem r. in juriſdiction.
READER,
be pleaſed to take notice, that there is now publiſhed the ſecond, third, and fourth Part of that moſt learned and judicious Treatiſe of the SABBATH, by M.DANIEL CAWDREY, and M. HERBERT PALMER.
Alſo a Treatiſe of GRACE and ASSURANCE, intituled,SPIRITUALL REFININGS, being one hundred and twenty Sermons by M. ANTHONY BURGESSE.
An EXPOSITION upon the Epiſtle of JUDE.
I Begin with the firſt part of the Epiſtle, the Title of, or Entrance into it, contained in the two firſt Verſes, which are theſe: