Ecumenical Christian Library

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Two Sermons upon St Jude 2

1585-160041 min read

— Epist. Jude, vers. 17-21.

But ye, beloved, remember the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ:

How that they told you, that there should be mockers in the last time, which should walk after their own ungodly lusts.

These are makers of Sects, fleshly, having not the Spirit.

But ye, beloved, edify yourselves in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost.

And keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, unto eternal life.

1. HAVING otherwhere spoken of the words of St. Jude, going next before, concerning Mockers, which should come in the last time, and backsliders, which even then fell away from the faith of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; I am now, by the aid of Almighty God, and through the assistance of his good Spirit, to lay before you the words of exhortation which I have read.

2. Wherein first of all, whosoever hath an eye to see, let him open it, and he shall well perceive how careful the Lord is for his children, how desirous to see them profit and grow up to a manly stature in Christ, how loth1 to have them any way misled, either by examples of the wicked, or by enticements of the world, and by provocation of the flesh, or by any other means forcible to deceive them, and likely to estrange their hearts from God. For God is not at that point with us, that he careth not whether we sink or swim. No, he hath written our names in the palm of his hand, in the signet upon his finger are we graven, in sentences not only of mercy, but of judgment also, we are remembered. He never denounceth judgments against the wicked, but he maketh some Proviso for his children, as it were for some certain privileged persons; “2Touch not mine anointed, do my prophets no harm: Hurt not the earth, nor the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of God in their foreheads.” He never speaketh of godless men, but he adjoineth words of comfort, or admonition, or exhortation, whereby we are moved to rest and settle our hearts on him. In the Second to Timothy, the third chapter3, “Evil men,” saith the Apostle, “and deceivers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned.” And in the First to Timothy, the sixth chapter4, “Some men lusting after money, have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But thou, O man of God, fly these things, and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.” In the Second to the Thessalonians, the second chapter5, “They that have not received the love of the truth, that they might be saved, God shall send them strong delusions, that they may believe lies. But we ought to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit, and faith in the truth.” And in this Epistle of St. Jude, “There shall come mockers in the last time, walking after their own ungodly lusts. But, beloved, edify ye yourselves in your most holy faith.”

3. These sweet exhortations, which God putteth every where in the mouths of the prophets and apostles of Jesus Christ, are evident tokens, that God sitteth not in heaven careless and unmindful of our estate. Can a mother forget her child? Surely a mother will hardly forget her child. But if a mother be haply found unnatural, and do forget the fruit of her own womb; yet God’s judgments shew plainly, that he cannot forget the man whose heart he hath framed and fashioned anew in simplicity and truth to serve and fear him. For when the wickedness of man was so great, and the earth so filled with cruelty, that it could not stand with the righteousness of God any longer to forbear, wrathful sentences brake out from him, like wine from a vessel that hath no vent: “My Spirit,” saith he, “can struggle and strive no longer; an end of all flesh is come before me.” Yet then did Noah find grace in the eyes of the Lord: “6I will establish my covenant with thee,” saith God; “thou shalt go into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons’ wives with thee.”

4. Do we not see what shift God doth make for Lot and for his family, in the nineteenth of Genesis, lest the fiery destruction of the wicked should overtake him? Overnight the angels make inquiry, what sons and daughters, or sons-in-law, what wealth and substance he had. They charge him to carry out all, “7Whatsoever thou hast in the city, bring it out.” God seemeth to stand in a kind of fear, lest something or other would be left behind. And his will was, that nothing of that which he had, not a hoof of any beast, not a thread of any garment, should be singed with that fire. In the morning the angels fail not to call him up, and to hasten him forward; “8Arise, take thy wife and thy daughters which are here, that they be not destroyed in the punishment of the city.” The angels having spoken again and again, Lot for all this lingereth out the time still, till at the length they were forced to take “9both him, his wife, and his daughters, by the arms (the Lord being merciful unto him), and to carry them forth, and set them without the city.”

5. Was there ever any father thus careful to save his child from the flame? A man would think, that now being spoken unto to escape for his life, and not to look behind him, nor to tarry in the plain, but to hasten to the mountain, and there to save himself, he should do it gladly. Yet behold, now he is so far off from a cheerful and willing heart to do whatsoever is commanded him for his own weal, that he beginneth to reason the matter, as if God had mistaken one place for another, sending him to the hill, when salvation was in the city. “10Not so, my Lord, I beseeeh thee; behold, thy servant hath found grace in thy sight, and thou hast magnified thy mercy, which thou hast shewed unto me in saving my life. I cannot escape in the mountain, lest some evil take me and I die. Here is a city hard by, a small thing; O, let me escape thither, (is it not a small thing?) and my soul shall live.” Well, God is contented to yield to any conditions. “11Behold, I have received thy request concerning this thing also, I will spare this city for which thou hast spoken; haste thee, save thee there. For I can do nothing till thou come thither.”

6. He could do nothing! Not because of the weakness of his strength (for who is like unto the Lord in power?) but because of the greatness of his mercy, which would not suffer him to lift up his arm against that city, nor to pour out his wrath upon that place, where his righteous servant had a fancy to remain, and a desire to dwell. O the depth of the riches of the mercy and love of12 God! God is afraid to offend us which are not afraid to displease him; God can do nothing till he have saved us, which can find in our hearts rather to do any thing than to serve him. It contenteth him not to exempt us when the pit is digged for the wicked; to comfort us at every mention which is made of reprobates and godless men; to save us as the apple of his own eye when fire cometh down from heaven to consume the inhabitants of the earth; except every prophet, and every Apostle, and every servant whom he sendeth forth, do come loaden with these and the like exhortations, “O beloved, edify yourselves in your most holy faith. Give yourselves to prayer in the Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God. Look for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.”

7. “Edify yourselves.” The speech is borrowed from material builders, and must be spiritually understood. It appeareth in the sixth of St. John’s Gospel by the Jews, that their mouths did water too much for bodily food: “13Our fathers,” say they, “did eat manna in the desert, as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat; Lord, evermore give us of this bread.” Our Saviour, to turn their appetite another way, maketh them this answer: “14I am the Bread of Life; he that cometh to me shall not hunger; and he that believeth in me shall never thirst.”

8. An usual practice it is of Satan, to cast heaps of worldly baggage in our way, that whilst we desire to heap up gold as dust, we may be brought at the length to esteem vilely that spiritual bliss. Christ, in the sixth of Matthew15, to correct this evil affection, putteth us in mind to lay up treasure for ourselves in heaven. The Apostle (1 Tim., third chapter), misliking the vanity of those women, which attired themselves more costly than beseemed the heavenly calling of such as professed the fear of God, willeth them to clothe themselves with 16shamefastness and modesty, and to put on the apparel of good works. Taliter pigmentatæ, Deum habebitis amatorem, 17saith Tertullian. Put on righteousness as a garment; instead of civet18, have faith, which may cause a savour of life to issue from you, and God shall be enamoured, he shall be ravished with your beauty. These are the ornaments, and bracelets, and jewels, which inflame the love of Christ, and set his heart on fire upon his spouse. We see how he breaketh out in the Canticles at the beholding of this attire: “19How fair art thou, and how pleasant art thou, O my love, in these pleasures!”

9. And perhaps St. Jude exhorteth us here not to build our houses, but ourselves, foreseeing by the Spirit of the Almighty which was with him, that there should be men in the last days like to those in the first, which should encourage and stir up each other to make brick, and to burn it in the fire, to build houses huge as cities, and towers as high as heaven, thereby to get them a name upon earth; men that should turn out the poor, and the fatherless, and the widow, to build places of rest for dogs and swine in their rooms; men that should lay houses of prayer even with the20 ground, and make them stables where God’s people have worshipped before the Lord. Surely this is a vanity of all vanities, and it is much amongst men; a special sickness of this age. What it should mean I know not, except God have set them on work to provide fuel against that day, when the Lord Jesus shall shew himself from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire. What good cometh unto the owners of these things, saith Salomon21, but only the beholding thereof with their eyes? “22Martha, Martha, thou busiest thyself about many things; one thing is necessary.” Ye are too busy, my brethren, with timber and brick; they have chosen the better part, they have taken a better course, that build themselves. “23Ye are the temples of the living God, as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and will walk in them; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.”

10. Which of you will gladly remain or abide in a mishapen, a ruinous, or a broken house? And shall we suffer sin and vanity to drop in at our eyes, and at our ears, at every corner of our bodies, and of our souls, knowing that we are the temples of the Holy Ghost? Which of you receiveth a guest whom he honoureth, or whom he loveth, and doth not sweep his chamber against his coming? And shall we suffer the chamber of our hearts and consciences to lie full of vomiting, full of filth, full of garbage, knowing that Christ hath said, “24I and my Father will come and dwell with you?” Is it meet for your oxen to lie25 in parlours, and yourselves to lodge in cribs? Or is it seemly for yourselves to dwell in your ceiled26 houses, and the house of the Almighty to lie waste, whose house ye are yourselves? Do not our eyes behold, how God every day overtaketh the wicked in their journeys, how suddenly they pop down into the pit? how God’s judgments for their crimes27 come so swiftly upon them, that they have not the leisure to cry, alas? how their life is cut off like a thread in a moment? how they pass like a shadow? how they open their mouths to speak, and God taketh them even in the midst of a vain or an idle word? and dare we for all this lie25 down, take our rest, eat our meat securely and carelessly in the midst of so great and so many ruins? Blessed and praised for ever and ever be his name, who perceiving of how senseless and heavy metal we are made, hath instituted in his Church a spiritual supper, and an holy communion to be celebrated often, that we might thereby be occasioned often to examine these buildings of ours, in what case they stand. For sith God doth not dwell in temples which are unclean, sith a shrine cannot be a sanctuary unto him; and this supper is received as a seal unto us, that we are his house and his sanctuary; that his Christ is as truly united to me, and I to him, as my arm is united and knit unto my shoulder; that he dwelleth in me as verily as the elements of bread and wine abide within me; which persuasion, by receiving these dreadful mysteries, we 28profess ourselves to have, a due comfort, if truly; and if in hypocrisy, then woe worth us:—therefore ere we put forth our hands to take this blessed sacrament, we are charged to examine and to try our hearts whether God be in us of a truth or no: and if by faith and love unfeigned we be found the temples of the Holy Ghost, then to judge whether we have had such regard every one to our building, that the Spirit which dwelleth in us hath no way been vexed, molested, and grieved: or if it have, as no doubt sometimes it hath by incredulity, sometimes by breach of charity, sometimes by want of zeal, sometimes by spots of life, even in the best and most perfect amongst us: (for who can say, his heart is clean?) O then, to fly unto God by unfeigned repentance, to fall down before him in the humility of our souls, begging of him whatsoever is needful to repair our decays, before we fall into that desolation whereof the Prophet speaketh29, saying, “Thy breach is great like the sea, who can heal thee?”

11. Receiving the Sacrament of the Supper of the Lord after this sort (you that are spiritual, judge what I speak) is not all other wine like the water of Marah, being compared to the cup which we bless? Is not manna like to gall, and our bread like to manna? Is there not a taste, a taste of Christ Jesus, in the heart of him that eateth? Doth not he which drinketh behold plainly in this cup, that his soul is bathed in the blood of the Lamb? O beloved in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, if ye will taste how sweet the Lord is, if ye will receive the King of Glory, “build yourselves.”

12. Young men, I speak this to you, for ye are his house, because by faith ye are conquerors over Satan, and have overcome that evil. Fathers, I speak it also to you; ye are his house, because ye have known him, which is from the beginning. Sweet babes, I speak it even to you also; ye are his house, because your sins are forgiven you for his name’s sake30. Matrons and sisters, I may not hold it from you; ye are also the Lord’s building, and, as St. Peter speaketh31, “heirs of the grace of life,” as well as we. Though it be forbidden you to open your mouths in public assemblies, yet ye must be inquisitive in things concerning this building which is of God, with your husbands and friends at home; not as Dalila with Samson32, but as Sara with Abraham; whose daughters ye are, whilst ye do well, and build yourselves.

13. Having spoken thus far of the exhortation, as whereby we are called upon to edify and build ourselves; it remaineth now, that we consider the thing prescribed, namely, wherein we must be built. This prescription standeth also upon two points, the thing prescribed, and the adjuncts of the thing. And that is, our most pure and holy faith.

14. The thing prescribed is faith. For as in a chain, which is made of many links, if you pull the first, you draw the rest; and as in a ladder of many staves, if you take away the lowest, all hope of ascending to the highest will be removed: so, because all the precepts and promises in the law and in the Gospel do hang upon this, Believe; and because the last of the graces of God doth so follow the first, that he glorifieth none, but whom he hath justified, nor justifieth any, but whom he hath called to a true, effectual, and lively faith in Christ Jesus; therefore St. Jude exhorting us to build ourselves, mentioneth here expressly only faith, as the thing wherein we must be edified; for that faith is the ground and the glory of all the welfare of this building.

15. “Ye are not strangers and foreigners, but citizens with the saints, and of the household of God,” saith the Apostle33, and are built upon the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom all the building being coupled together, groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are built together to be the habitation of God by the Spirit.” And we are the habitation of God by the Spirit, if we believe. For it is written34, “Whosoever confesseth that Jesus is the Son of God, in him God dwelleth, and he in God.” The strength of this habitation is great, it prevaileth against Satan, it conquereth sin, it hath death in derision; neither principalities nor powers can throw it down; it leadeth the world captive, and bringeth every enemy35 that riseth up against it to confusion and shame, and all by faith; for “this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcometh the world, but he which believeth that Jesus is the Son of God36?”

16. The strength of every building, which is of God, standeth not in any man’s arms or legs; it is only in our faith, as the valour of Samson lay only in his hair. This is the reason, why we are so earnestly called upon to edify ourselves in faith. Not as if this bare action of our minds, whereby we believe the Gospel of Christ, were able in itself, as of itself, to make us unconquerable, and invincible, like stones, which abide in the building for ever, and fall not out. No, it is not the worthiness of our believing, it is the virtue of him in whom we believe, by which we stand sure, as houses that are builded upon a rock. He is a wise man which hath builded his house upon a rock; for he hath chosen a good foundation, and no doubt his house will stand. But how shall it stand? Verily, by the strength of the rock which beareth it, and by nothing else37. Our fathers, whom God delivered out of the land of Egypt, were a people that had no peers amongst the nations of the earth, because they were built by faith upon the rock, which rock is Christ. “And the rock,” saith the Apostle in the First to the Corinthians, the tenth chapter38, “did follow them39.” Whereby we learn not only this, that being built by faith on Christ as on a rock, and grafted into him as into an olive, we receive all our strength and fatness from him; but also, that this strength and fatness of ours ought to be no cause why we should be highminded, and not work out our salvation with a reverent40 trembling, and holy fear. For if thou boastest thyself of thy faith, know this, that Christ chose his Apostles, his Apostles chose not him; that Israel followed not the rock, but the rock followed Israel; and that thou bearest not the root, but the root thee41. So that every heart must this think, and every tongue must thus speak, “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us,” nor unto any thing which is within us, but unto thy name only, only to thy name belongeth all the praise of all the treasures and riches of every temple which is of God. This excludeth all boasting and vaunting of our faith.

17. But this must not make us careless to edify ourselves in faith. It is the Lord that delivereth men’s souls from death, but not except they put their trust in his mercy. It is God that hath given us eternal life, but no otherwise than thus, If we believe in the name of the Son of God; for he that hath not the Son of God, hath not life42. It was the Spirit of the Lord which came upon Samson, and made him strong to tear a lion, as a man would rent a kind; but his strength forsook him, and he became like other men when the razor had touched his head. It is the power of God whereby the faithful “have subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained the promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword43:” but take away their faith, and doth not their strength forsake them? are they not like unto other men?

18. If ye desire yet farther to know how necessary and needful it is that we edify and build up ourselves in faith, mark the words of the blessed Apostles44: “Without faith it is impossible to please God.” If I offer unto God all the sheep and oxen that are in the world; if all the temples that were builded since the days of Adam till this hour, were of my foundation; if I break my very heart with calling upon God, and wear out my tongue with preaching; if I sacrifice my body and my soul unto him, “and have no faith,” all this availeth nothing. “Without faith it is impossible to please God.” Our Lord and Saviour therefore being asked in the sixth of St. John’s Gospel, “What shall we do that we might work the works of God?” maketh answer, “This is the work of God, that ye believe in him whom he hath sent45.”

19. That no work of ours, no building of ourselves in any thing can be available or profitable unto us, except we be edified and built in faith, what need we to seek about for long proof? Look upon Israel, once the very chosen and peculiar of God, to whom the adoption of the faithful, and the glory of Cherubins, and the covenants of mercy, and the law of Moses, and the service of God, and the promises of Christ were made impropriate, who not only were the offspring of Abraham, father unto all them which do believe, but Christ their offspring, which is God to be blessed for evermore.

20. Consider this people, and learn what it is to build yourselves in faith. They were the Lord’s vine: “46He brought it out of Egypt, he threw out the heathen from their places, that it might be planted; he made room for it, and caused it to take root, till it had filled the earth; the mountains were covered with the shadow of it, and the boughs thereof were as the goodly cedars. She stretched out her branches unto the sea, and her boughs unto the river.” But, when God having sent both his servants and his Son to visit this vine, they neither spared the one, nor received the other, but stoned the prophets, and crucified the Lord of glory which came unto them; then began the curse of God to come upon them, even the curse whereof the prophet David hath spoken47, saying, “Let their table be made a snare, and a net, and a stumblingblock, even for a recompense unto them, let their eyes be darkened, that they do not see, bow down their backs for ever,” keep them down. And sithence48 the hour that the measure of their infidelity was first made up, they have been spoiled with wars, eaten up with plagues, spent with hunger and famine; they wander from place to place, and are become the most base and contemptible people that are under the sun. Ephraim, which before was a terror unto nations, and they trembled at his voice, is now by infidelity so vile, that he seemeth as a thing cast out, to be trampled under men’s feet. In the midst of these desolations they cry, “49Return, we beseech thee, O God of hosts, look down from heaven, behold and visit this vine:” but their very prayers are turned into sin, and their cries are no better than the lowing of beasts before him. “Well,” saith the Apostle50, “by their unbelief they are broken off, and thou dost stand by thy faith. Behold therefore the bountifulness and severity of God; towards them severity, because they have fallen, bountifulness towards thee, if thou continue in his bountifulness, or else thou shalt be cut off.” If they forsake their unbelief and be grafted in again, and we at any time for the hardness of our hearts be broken off, it will be such a judgment as will amaze all the powers and principalities which are above. Who hath searched the counsel of God concerning this secret? and who doth not see, that Infidelity doth threaten Lo-ammi51 unto the Gentiles, as it hath brought Lo-ruchama52 upon the Jews? It may be that these words seem dark unto you. But the words of the Apostle, in the eleventh to the Romans, are plain enough; “53If God have not spared the natural branches, take heed, take heed, lest he spare not thee.” Build thyself in faith. Thus much of the thing which is prescribed, and wherein we are exhorted to edify ourselves. Now consider the conditions and properties which are in this place annexed unto faith. The former of them (for there are but two) is this, Edify yourselves in your faith.

21. A strange and a strong delusion it is wherewith the Man of Sin hath bewitched the world; a forcible spirit of error it must needs be, which hath brought men to such a senseless and unreasonable persuasion as this is, not only that men clothed with mortality and sin, as we ourselves are, can do God so much service, as shall be able to make a full and perfect satisfaction before the tribunal seat of God for their own sins, yea a great deal more than is sufficient for themselves; but also that a man at the hands of a bishop or a pope, for such or such a price, may buy the overplus of other men’s merits, purchase the fruits of other men’s labours, and build his soul by another man’s faith. Is not this man drowned in the gall of bitterness? Is his heart right in the sight of God? Can he have any part or fellowship with Peter, and with the successors of Peter, who thinketh so vilely of building the precious temples of the Holy Ghost? Let his money perish with him, and he with it, because he judgeth that the gift of God may be sold for money.

22. But, beloved in the Lord, deceive not yourselves, neither suffer ye yourselves to be deceived: ye can receive no more ease nor comfort for your souls by another man’s faith, than warmth for your bodies by another man’s clothes, or sustenance by the bread which another doth eat. The just shall live by his own faith. “Let a saint, yea a martyr content himself, that he hath cleansed himself of his own sins54,” saith Tertullian. No saint or martyr can cleanse himself of his own sins. But if so be a saint or a martyr can cleanse himself of his own sins, it is sufficient that he can do it for himself. Did ever any man by his death deliver another man from death, except only the Son of God? He indeed was able to safe-conduct55 a thief from the cross to paradise: for to this end he came, that being himself pure from sin, he might obey for sinners. Thou which thinkest to do the like, and supposest that thou canst justify another by thy righteousness, if thou be without sin, then lay down thy life for thy brother; die for me. But if thou be a sinner, even as I am a sinner, how can the oil of thy lamp be sufficient both for thee and for me? Virgins that are wise, get ye oil, while ye have day, into your own lamps. For out of all peradventure, others, though they would, can neither give nor sell. Edify yourselves in your own most holy faith. And let this be observed for the first property of that wherein we ought to edify ourselves.

23. Our faith being such, is that indeed which St. Jude doth here term faith: namely, a thing most holy. The reason is this; we are justified by faith: for Abraham believed, and this was imputed unto him for righteousness. Being justified, all our iniquities are covered; God beholdeth us in the righteousness which is imputed, and not in the sins which we have committed.

24. It is true we are full of sin, both original and actual; whosoever denieth it is a double sinner, for he is both a sinner and a liar. To deny sin, is most plainly and clearly to prove it; because he that saith he hath no sin, lieth, and by lying proveth that he hath sin.

25. But imputation of righteousness hath covered the sins of every soul which believeth; God by pardoning our sin hath taken it away: so that now, although our transgressions be multiplied above the hairs of our head, yet being justified, we are as free and as clear as if there were no one spot or stain of any uncleanness in us. For it is God that justifieth; “and who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s chosen?” saith the Apostle in the eighth chapter to the Romans.

26. Now sin being taken away, we are made the righteousness of God in Christ. For David speaking of this righteousness, saith56, “Blessed is the man whose iniquities are forgiven.” No man is blessed, but in the righteousness of God: every man whose sin is taken away is blessed; therefore every man whose sin is covered, is made the righteousness of God in Christ. This righteousness doth make us to appear most holy, most pure, most unblamable before him.

27. This then is the sum of that which I say: faith doth justify; justification washeth away sin; sin removed, we are clothed with the righteousness which is of God; the righteousness of God maketh us most holy. Every of these I have proved by the testimony of God’s own mouth. Therefore I conclude, that faith is that which maketh us most holy; in consideration whereof, it is called in this place, “Our most holy faith.”

28. To make a wicked and a sinful man most holy through his believing, is more than to create a world of nothing. Our faith most holy! Surely, Salomon57 could not shew the queen of Saba so much treasure in all his kingdom, as is lapt up in these words. O that our hearts were stretched out like tents, and that the eyes of our understanding were as bright as the sun, that we might throughly know the riches of the glorious inheritance of saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power towards us, whom he accepteth for pure, and most holy, through our believing! O that the Spirit of the Lord would give this doctrine entrance into the stony and brazen heart of the Jew58, which followeth the law of righteousness, but cannot attain unto the righteousness of the law! Wherefore? saith the Apostle. They seek righteousness, and not by faith. Wherefore they stumble at Christ, they are bruised, shivered to pieces as a ship that hath run herself upon a rock. O that God would cast down the eyes of the proud, and humble the souls of the high-minded, that they might at the length abhor the garments of their own flesh, which cannot hide their nakedness, and put on the faith of Christ Jesus, as he did put it on, which hath said, “59Doubtless I think all things but loss, for the excellent knowledge sake of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have counted all things loss, and do judge them to be dung, that I might win Christ, and might be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, even the righteousness which is of God through faith.” O that God would open the ark of mercy, wherein this doctrine lieth, and set it wide before the eyes of poor afflicted consciences, which fly up and down upon the water of their afflictions, and can see nothing but only the gulf and deluge of their sins, wherein there is no place for them to rest their feet. The God of pity and compassion give you all strength and courage, every day, and every hour, and every moment, to build and edify yourselves in this most pure and holy faith. And thus much both of the thing prescribed in this exhortation, and also of the properties of the thing, “Build yourselves in your most holy faith.” I would come to the next branch, which is of prayer; but I cannot lay this matter out of my hands, till I have added somewhat for the applying of it both to others and to ourselves.

29. For your better understanding of matters contained in this exhortation, “Build yourselves,” you must note, that every church and congregation doth consist of a multitude of believers, as every house is built of many stones. And although the nature of the mystical body of the church be such, that it suffereth no distinction in the invisible members, but whether it be Paul or Apollos, prince or prophet, he that is taught, or he that teacheth, all are equally Christ’s, and Christ is equally theirs: yet in the external administration of the church of God, because God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, it is necessary that in every congregation there be a distinction, if not of inward dignity, yet of outward degree; so that all are saints, or seem to be saints, and should be as they seem. But are all Apostles? If the whole body were an eye, where were then the hearing? God therefore hath given some to be Apostles, and some to be Pastors, &c. for the edification of the body of Christ. In which work we are God’s labourers, saith the Apostle, and ye are God’s husbandry, and God’s building.

30. The Church, respected with reference unto administration ecclesiastical, doth generally consist but of two sorts of men, the labourers and the building; they which are ministered unto, and they to whom the work of the ministry is committed; pastors, and the flock over whom the Holy Ghost hath made them overscers. If the guide of a congregation, be his name or his degree whatsoever, be diligent in his vocation, feeding the flock of God which dependeth upon him, caring for it, “60not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind;” not as though he would tyrannize over God’s heritage, but as a pattern unto the flock, wisely guiding them: if the people in their degree do yield themselves framable to the truth, not like rough stone or flint, refusing to be smoothed and squared for the building: if the magistrate do carefully and diligently survey the whole order of the work, providing by statutes and laws, and bodily punishments, if need require, that all things may be done according to the rule which cannot deceive, even as Moses provided that all things might be done according to the pattern which he saw in the Mount; there the words of this exhortation are truly and effectually heard. Of such a congregation every man will say, “Behold a people that are wise, a people that walk in the statutes and ordinances of their God, a people full of knowledge and understanding, a people that have skill in building themselves.” Where it is otherwise, there, “as by slothfulness the roof doth decay;” and as by “idleness of hands the house droppeth thorough61,” as it is in the tenth of Ecclesiastes, verse 18, so first one piece, and then another of their building shall fall away, till there be not a stone left upon a stone.

31. We see how fruitless this exhortation hath been to such as bend all their travail only to build and manage a Papacy upon earth, without any care in the world of building themselves in their most holy faith. God’s people have inquired at their mouths, “What shall we do to have eternally62 life?” Wherein shall we build and edify ourselves? And they have departed home from their prophets, and from their priests, laden with doctrines which are precepts of men; they have been taught to tire out themselves with bodily exercise: those things are enjoined them, which God did never require at their hands, and the things he doth require are kept from them; their eyes are fed with pictures, and their ears filled with melody, but their souls do wither, and starve, and pine away: they cry for bread, and behold stones are offered them; they ask for fish, and see they have scorpions in their hands. Thou seest, O Lord, that they build themselves, but not in faith; they feed their children, but not with food: their rulers say with shame, Bring, and not build. But God is righteous; their drunkenness stinketh, their abominations are known, their madness is manifest, the wind hath bound them up in her wings, and they shall be ashamed of their doings. “63Ephraim,” saith the Prophet, “is joined to idols, let him alone.” I will turn me, therefore, from the priests, which do minister unto idols, and apply this exhortation to them whom God hath appointed to feed his chosen in Israel.

32. If there be any feeling of Christ, and drop of heavenly dew, or any spark of God’s good Spirit within you, stir it up, be careful to build and edify, first yourselves, and then your flocks, in this most holy faith.

33. I say, first yourselves; for, he which will set the hearts of other men on fire with the love of Christ, must himself burn with love. It is want of faith in ourselves, my brethren, which maketh us retchless64 in building others. We forsake the Lord’s inheritance, and feed it not. What is the reason of this? Our own desires are settled where they should not be. We ourselves are like those women which have a longing to eat coals, and lime, and filth; we are fed, some with honour, some with ease, some with wealth; the gospel waxeth lothsome65 and unpleasant in our taste; how should we then have a care to feed others with that which we cannot fancy ourselves? If faith wax cold and slender in the heart of the prophet, it will soon perish from the ears of the people. The Prophet Amos speaketh of a famine, saying, “66I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst of water, but of hearing the word of the Lord. Men shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north unto the east shall they run to and fro, to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it.” “67Judgment must begin at the house of God,” saith Peter. Yea, I say, at the sanctuary of God this judgment must begin. This famine must begin at the heart of the prophet. He must have darkness for a vision, he must stumble at noon-day68, as at the twilight, and then truth shall fall in the midst69 of the streets; then shall the people wander from sea to sea, and from the north unto the east shall they run to and fro, to seek the word of the Lord.

34. In the second of Haggai, “70Speak now,” saith God to his prophet, “speak now to Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, prince of Judah, and to Jehoshua, the son of Jehozadak the high priest, and to the residue of the people, saying, Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory, and how do you see it now? Is not this house in your eyes, in comparison of it, as nothing?” The prophet would have all men’s eyes turned to the view of themselves, every sort brought to the consideration of their present state. This is no place to shew what duty Zerubbabel or Jehoshua doth owe unto God in this respect. They have, I doubt not, such as put them hereof in remembrance. I ask of you, which are a part of the residue of God’s elect and chosen people, Who is there amongst you that hath taken a survey of the house of God, as it was in the days of the blessed Apostles of Jesus Christ? Who is there amongst you that hath seen and considered this holy temple in her first glory? And how do you see it now? Is it not in comparison of the other almost as nothing71? When ye look upon them that have undertaken the charge of your souls, and know how far these are for the most part grown out of kind, how few there be that tread the steps of their ancient predecessors, ye are easily filled with indignation, easily drawn unto these complaints, wherein the difference of present from former times is bewailed, easily persuaded to think of them that lived to enjoy the days which now are gone72, “Surely they were happy in comparison of us that have succeeded them: were not their bishops men unreprovable, wise, righteous, holy, temperate, well reported of, even of those which were without? Were not their pastors, guides, and teachers, able and willing to exhort with wholesome doctrine, and to improve73 which gainsaid the truth? had they priests made of the refuse of the people? were men, like to the children which were in Nineveh74, unable to discern between the right hand and the left, presented to the charge of their congregation? did their teachers leave their flocks, over which the Holy Ghost had made them overseers? did their prophets enter upon holy things as spoils, without a reverend calling? were their leaders so unkindly affected towards them, that they could find in their hearts to sell them as sheep or oxen, not caring how they made them away?” But, beloved, deceive not yourselves. Do the faults of your guides and pastors offend you? It is your fault if they be thus faulty. Nullus, qui malum rectorem patitur, eum accuset; quia sui fuit meriti perversi pastoris subjacere ditioni, saith St. Gregory75; “Whosoever thou art whom the inconvenience of an evil governor doth press, accuse thyself, and not him: his being such is thy deserving.” “76O ye disobedient children, turn again,” saith the Lord, “and then will I give you pastors according to mine own heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.” So that the only way to repair all ruins, breaches, and offensive decays, in others, is to begin reformation at yourselves. Which that we may all sincerely, seriously, and speedily do, God the Father grant for his Son our Saviour Jesus’ sake, unto whom, with the Holy Ghost, three Persons, one eternal and everlasting God, be honour, and glory, and praise, for ever. Amen.

← Two Sermons upon St Jude 1 · Contents · A Sermon found among the Papers of Bishop An →

Footnotes

  1. a loath, 1614. ↩

  2. [Psal. cv. 15; Rev. vii. 3.] ↩

  3. [Ver. 13, 14.] ↩

  4. [Ver. 10, 11.] ↩

  5. [Ver. 10, 11, 13.] ↩

  6. Gen. vi. 3, 13; ver. 8, 18. ↩

  7. Gen. xix. 12. ↩

  8. Ver. 15. ↩

  9. Ver. 16. ↩

  10. Ver. 18-20. ↩

  11. Ver. 21, 22. ↩

  12. b om. of, 1614. ↩

  13. [Ver. 31, 34.] ↩

  14. [Ver. 35.] ↩

  15. Matt. vi. 20; 1 Tim. ii. 9, 10. ↩

  16. [“shamefacedness,” Keble, but not the early edd. Cf. Spenser, F. Q. v. iii. 23, and Skeat’s Etym. Dict.] ↩

  17. [De Cult. Fœmin. ad fin. p. 161. Paris, 1664.] ↩

  18. c civit, 1614, 1618, 1622. ↩

  19. [vii. 6.] ↩

  20. d om. the, 1614. ↩

  21. e Solomon, 1614. ↩

  22. [Luke x. 41, 42.] ↩

  23. [2 Cor. vi. 16.] ↩

  24. [John xiv. 23.] ↩

  25. f lay, 1614. ↩ ↩2

  26. [“setled,” 1614, 1622: “settled,” 1618.] ↩

  27. [“times,” 1614, 1618, 1622.] ↩

  28. [“We profess ourselves to have a due comfort, if truely; and if in hypocrisy, then woe worth us. Therefore ere, &c.” Edit. 1622, not 1618. “We profess ourselves to have; a due comfort, if truly, and if in hypocrisy, then woe worth us. Therefore ere,” &c. 1614.] ↩

  29. Lam. ii. 13. ↩

  30. g name-sake, 1614. ↩

  31. [1 Pet. iii. 7.] ↩

  32. h et passim, Sampson, 1614. ↩

  33. Ephes. ii. 19-22. ↩

  34. [1 John iv. 15.] ↩

  35. i enimie, 1614. ↩

  36. 1 John v. 4, 5. ↩

  37. Matt. vii. 25. ↩

  38. [Ver. 4.] ↩

  39. k him, 1614, 1618, 1622. ↩

  40. l reverent, trembling, 1614. ↩

  41. Rom. xi. 18. ↩

  42. 1 John v. 12. ↩

  43. [Heb. xi. 33, 34.] ↩

  44. [Heb. xi. 6.] ↩

  45. John vi. 28, 29. ↩

  46. [Psalm lxxx. 8-11.] ↩

  47. Psalm lxix. 22, 23; Rom. xi. 9, 10. ↩

  48. m sithens, 1614, 1618, 1622. ↩

  49. Psalm lxxx. 14. ↩

  50. Rom. xi. 20, 22. ↩

  51. Hosea i. 9. “not my people.” ↩

  52. Verse 6. “not obtaining mercy.” ↩

  53. Rom. xi. 21. ↩

  54. [De Pudicitia, c. xxii. “Sufficiat martyri propria delicta purgasse.” p. 575.] ↩

  55. [“Safe-conducting the rebels from their ships.” Richard III. iv. 4. 483.] ↩

  56. [Psalm xxxii. 1.] ↩

  57. n Solomon, 1614. ↩

  58. [Rom. ix. 31-33.] ↩

  59. [Phil. iii. 8, 9.] ↩

  60. [1 Pet. v. 2.] ↩

  61. o So 1614;thorow, 1618, 1622. ↩

  62. p so 1622: eternall, 1614, 1618. ↩

  63. [Hosea iv. 17.] ↩

  64. Careless [margin, early edd.]. ↩

  65. q loathsome, 1614. ↩

  66. Amos viii. 11, 12. ↩

  67. 1 Pet. iv. 17. ↩

  68. [noondays Ed. 1614, 1618, 1622.] ↩

  69. [“in middest” 1614, 1618, 1622.] ↩

  70. [Hagg. ii. 2, 3.] ↩

  71. [The ed. 1614 puts no stop; 1618 and 1622 put a comma after “nothing.”] ↩

  72. [Edd. 1614, 1618, 1622 put a full stop at “gone.”] ↩

  73. [That is, “to reprove such as gainsaid the truth.”] ↩

  74. r Niniveh, 1614, 1618, 1622. ↩

  75. [Moral. in Job. lib. xxv. § 34; t. i. 807. A. ed. Bened.] ↩

  76. Jer. iii. 14, 15. ↩

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