Thomas Manton · 16 of 67

Verse 3. · Part 2

3. It showeth that there are not several ways to heaven, there is but one ‘common salvation’ to all the elect, and one ‘common faith,’ as Paul saith, Titus i. 4, ‘To Titus my own son according to the common faith.’ There are a sort of libertines that think a man may be saved in any religion, so he doth not walk against his own light. Do not flatter yourselves; all the elect are brought to heaven the same way, ‘whether Jew or Gentile, bond or free;’ there is a good old way, Jer. vi. 16, which if we miss we are sure to perish.

4. It informeth us who are best to deal in matters of religion; those that are religious, that can call it a ‘common salvation;’ that is, common to them with others; they have share in it, and therefore they can best defend it. Differences are aggravated when carnal men intermeddle in religious controversies, but those are likest to deal with most purity of zeal and love that can say your salvation is their salvation; so in the next verse, ‘They turn the grace of our God into wantonness;’ they that have an interest in grace cannot endure to see it abused.

5. It forbiddeth scorn of the meanest Christian. They have as good hopes through grace as you have in Jesus Christ: all are one, master and servant, rich and poor. Onesimus, a poor runagate servant, yet being converted, Paul calleth him his ‘faithful and beloved brother,’ Philem. 10. In earthly relation there is a difference, yet in regard of the common faith and common salvation we are all one.

I have now done with the first part of the occasion, his earnestness in promoting their good. I now come to the second part, the urgency of the present necessity: It was needful for me to write to you, and exhort you, which is said to show that this epistle was not only occasioned by the fervency of his own love, but the present exigence and necessity as affairs then stood; the school of Simon, the Gnostics, and divers other heretics of a like loose strain and libertine spirit, sought to withdraw and alienate them from the truth, for that was the necessity here expressed, as appeareth by the next verse. Exhortations, the more necessary, the more pressing; need quickens both writer and reader; and the less arbitrary things are, the more tho roughly we go about them.

Obs. 1. Observe from hence, that necessity is a time for duty; necessity is God’s season to work, and therefore it should be ours: ‘For a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness,’ 1 Peter i. 6. Duties are best done when we see they are needful and necessary; things that are arbitrary are done with a loose heart; the creatures’ duty towards God begins at the sense of their own wants: James i. 5, ‘If any man lack wisdom,’ &c. Well, then, take this hint for prayer and other services; if there be a need, omit not to call upon God: as when distempers grow upon the spirit, the heart is unquiet, the affections unruly, a deadness increaseth upon you, temptations are urgent, and, too strong for you, cry out of violence, as the ravished virgins. So when conscience is incessantly clamorous, David could not find ease till he confessed, Ps. xxxii. 5. Silence will cause roaring, and restraint of prayer, disquiet. Again, if there be a need, omit not to call upon men by exhortation and counsel, as when you see things grow worse every day, and can hold no longer: the king’s danger made the king’s dumb son speak: Paul was ‘forced in spirit when he saw the whole city given to idolatry,’ Acts xvii. 16. When we see men by whole droves running into error, and ways destructive to their souls, is there not a need? is it not a time to speak? Men say we are bitter, but we must be faithful. So they say the physician is cruel, and the chirurgeon a tyrant, when their own distempers need so violent a remedy: can we see you perish, and hold our peace?

Obs. 2. Observe again, that ministers must mainly press those doctrines that are most needful. It is but a cheap zeal that declaimeth against antiquated errors, and things now out of use and practice. We are to consider what the present age needeth. What use was it of in Christ’s time to aggravate the rebellion of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram? Or now to handle the case of Henry the Eighth’s divorce? what profit hence to our present auditories? There are ‘present truths’ to be pressed, 2 Peter i. 12; upon these should we bestow our pains and care. Usually when we reflect upon the guilt of the times, people would have us preach general doctrines of faith and repentance. But we may answer, ‘It is needful for us to exhort you,’ &c. To what end is it to dispute the verity of the Christian religion against heathens, when there are many seducers that corrupt the purity of it amongst ourselves? In a country audience, what profit is it to dispute against Socinians, when there are drunkards, and practical atheists and libertines, that need other kind of doctrine? He that crieth out upon old errors not now produced upon the public stage, doth but fight with, ghosts and challenge the dead. So again, to charm with sweet strains of grace when a people need rousing, thundering doctrine, is but to minister cordials to a full and plethoric body, that rather needeth phlebotomy and evacuations. It is a great deal of skill, and God can only teach it us, to be seasonable to deliver what is needful, and as the people are able to bear.

Obs. 3. Again, observe, the need of the primitive church was an occasion to complete the canon and rule of faith. We are beholden to the seducers of that age that the scripture is so full as it is: we should have wanted many epistles had not they given the occasion. Thus God can bring light out of darkness, and by errors make way for the more ample discovery of truth.

I have done with the occasion. I come now to the matter and drift of this epistle, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith that was once delivered to the saints; in which there is a necessary duty pressed; and these two circumstances are notable—the act and the object. (1.) The act is to contend earnestly; it is but one word in the original, ἐπαγωνίζεσθαι; but it is a word of a vehement signification, and therefore fitly rendered to ‘contend earnestly,’ (2.) The object of this contention, which is, the faith once delivered to the saints. Faith may be taken either for the doctrine of faith or the grace of faith; both are too good to be lost, either the word which we believe, or faith by which we believe; the former is intended: faith is taken for sound doctrine, such as is necessary to be owned and believed unto salvation, which he presseth them to contend for, that they might preserve it safe and sound to future ages. Now this faith is described—(1st.) By the manner of its conveyance, δοθείση, it is given to be kept; it is not a thing invented, but given; not found out by us, but delivered by God himself; and delivered as to our custody, that we may keep it for posterity, as the oracles of God in the Old Testament were delivered to the Jews to be kept by them, Rom. iii. 1. (2d.) By the time of its giving out to the world: the doctrine of salvation was given but once, as never to be altered and changed, once for all. (3d.) The persons to whom, to the saints; so he calleth the church according to the use of the scriptures, or else by saints is meant the holy apostles, given to them to be propagated by them. I shall first speak of the object, before I come to the duty itself; and because the description here used will agree both to the grace of faith and the doctrine of faith, though the doctrine of faith be mainly intended, yet give me leave a little to apply it to the grace: if it be a diversion, it shall be a short one.

Obs. 1. This faith is said to be given. Observe, that faith is a gift; so Phil. i. 29, ‘To you it is given to believe;’ ὑμῖν ἐχαρίσθη, given freely, Eph. ii. 8, ‘By grace ye are saved, through faith, not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.’ We cannot get it of ourselves; a mere imagination and thinking of Christ’s death is easy, but to bring the soul and Christ together requires the power of God, Eph. i. 19. We cannot merit it, and therefore it is a pure gift. God bestoweth it on them that can give nothing for it: works before conversion cannot engage God, and works after conversion cannot satisfy God. Well, then, let us admire the mercy of God in the covenant of grace. Christ is a gift: John iv. 10, ‘If thou knewest the gift,’ &c. His righteousness is a gift: Rom. v. 16, ‘The free gift is of many offences unto justification;’ and faith, which receiveth this righteousness, is a gift: so that all is carried in a way of grace; in the covenant of grace nothing is required but what is best owed. Again, it teacheth us whither to go for faith: seek it of God, it is his gift; all the endeavour and labour of the creature will never procure it. But must we not use the means of prayer, meditation, and hearing, &c.? I answer—Yes; for (1.) God dispenseth it in a way of means: Mark iv. 24, ‘With what measure ye mete it shall be measured to you again, and unto you that hear more shall be given.’ According unto the measure of our hearing, if the Lord will work, is the measure of our faith: Acts xvi. 14, ‘The Lord opened Lydia’s heart to attend to the things spoken by Paul.’ God stirreth up to the use of means, and whilst we are ‘taught’ we are ‘drawn,’ John vi. 44, 45. (2.) Though faith be God’s gift, man’s endeavours are still necessary, for supernatural grace doth not exclude the ordinary and natural means. Marriage is necessary for the propagation of mankind, though the rational soul is from God; yea, more care is had of women with child than of brute beasts, because the fruit of the womb is the immediate work and blessing of the Lord: so faith is of God’s planting, and therefore we should be the more careful in the use of means.

Obs. 2. This faith is said to be once given. This will also hold concerning grace; for where it is once planted it cannot be totally and finally destroyed; rather it is continually supplied by the care and faithfulness of God: see 1 Cor. i. 8, and 1 Thes. v. 24, and Phil. i. 6. And those hypocrites that fall off after a long profession seldom ‘recover themselves by repentance,’ Heb. vi. 6; 2 Peter ii. 21. Well, then, here is comfort to the people of God, that find so many lusts and so many temptations. They think they shall never hold out; faith is but once given: where it is really given there needeth not a second gift. Again, here is caution. Faith is a precious jewel; if once lost wilfully after the knowledge of the truth, it is not easily regained.

Obs. 3. Consider the persons to whom it is given. It is not given to every one;’ for all men have not faith,’ 2 Thes. iii. 2; and ‘the gospel is hidden to those that are lost,’ 2 Cor. iv. 3; but it is given to the saints, to those who were chosen, that they might be saints: which showeth—(1.) The excellency of faith; it is a privilegiate and peculiar mercy. (2.) That believers are saints; faith giveth an interest in Christ, and therefore they must needs be holy: ‘His blood cleanseth,’ 1 John i. 7; ‘His Spirit sanctifieth,’ 1 Cor. vi. 11. Again, Faith itself hath a cleansing, purifying virtue: ‘Hearts purified by faith,’ Acts xv. 9. Faith applieth the blood of Christ; and the hand of the laundress is as necessary to cleanse the clothes as the soap wherewith they are cleansed. Faith waiteth for the Spirit. It argueth from the love of God. Faith and sin are like the poison and the antidote, always working one upon another, till faith hath gotten the mastery. Well, then, is your faith sanctifying? Strong persuasions of an interest in grace, and a loose life, will not suit: we are not perfectly clean and holy, but there will be strong desires and earnest groans after more holiness; as Ps. li. 10, and Rom. vii. 24, ‘Who shall deliver me?’ &c.; that is, Oh! that I were; questions are put for wishes. So Ps. cxix. 5, ‘Oh! that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes.’ Yea, there will be not only groans under, but strugglings against sin. A child of God may fall into sin, but he cannot rest in it and lie down with ease; as mud may be cast into a pure fountain, or stirred up in it, but the fountain never ceaseth till it work itself clean again. Peter and David stepped aside, but they could find no peace till they were reconciled to God: ‘I will return to my first husband, then it was better than it is now,’ Hosea ii. Again, you may know it by the drift and disposition of the heart. Which way lieth the bent of your spirits? and what are your constant motions and operations? A man that is travelling another way may now and then look back. How is your heart inclined? Ps. cxix. 112, ‘I have inclined my heart to perform thy statutes always unto the end.’ Is there a constant inclination towards God? 1 Chron. xxii. 19, ‘Now set your hearts to seek the Lord.’ Is the heart set? what is your constant course and walk? Rom. viii. 1.

But so much for this digression, occasioned by the suitableness of words to the grace of faith. Let us now come to the other acception, which is more proper in this place, namely, as faith is put for the doctrine of faith. How this was—(1.) Delivered; (2.) Once delivered; (3.) To the saints.

First, Delivered, not invented; it is not the fruit of fancy or human devising, but hath its original from God; it was delivered by him to holy men chosen for that purpose, and by them delivered by word of mouth to the men of that age wherein they lived, and by writing for the use of after ages: and delivered to be kept; it is a sacred depositum which God hath put into the hands of the church: ‘Keep that which is committed to thy trust,’ 1 Tim. vi. 20; and ‘To them were committed the oracles of God.’ Rom. iii. 2. I shall observe—(1.) The mercy of God in delivering this faith or rule of salvation. (2.) The duty of the church concerning it.

Obs. 1. The mercy of God in delivering this faith to chosen men, that by their means the world might come to the knowledge of it. The doctrine of salvation first came out from God, and then was conveyed to us by the hands of holy men. We are not sensible enough of the privilege, Ps. cxlvii. 19, 20, ‘He showeth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and judgments unto Israel, he hath not dealt so with any nation,’ &c. It is not a common mercy, for many nations want it; nor no casual thing. In the primitive times not only the doctrine of the apostles was directed and ordered by the Holy Ghost, but also their journeys; the gospel came not to them by chance, but as a special gift from heaven. But that we may be more sensible of the privilege, I shall show you:—

1. The benefit of the word. By it God’s heart is opened to us, and our own hearts to ourselves; by it we are acquainted with the way of salvation, and come to understand the courses of the Lord’s justice and mercy, and in what manner he will govern and rule the world, which are altogether unknown to them that have not such a revelation delivered to them. We should never have known the cause of our misery, our fall in Adam, nor the means of our recovery, redemption by Jesus Christ, if they had not been delivered to us in this doctrine and rule of faith; we should never have known how to worship God, or enjoy God. If carnal men should have a liberty to let nature work, and set down a divinity of their own, what a goodly religion should we have in the world! a very comely chimera no doubt! For practicals it would be large enough I am sure, for natural conscience hateth fetters and restraints; in doctrinals it would be absurd enough. Man can never take a right draught and image of God. Who can empty an ocean with a cockle-shell? And since the fall we are grown quite brutish; our conceits are not so monstrous in anything as in the worship of God. The pagan philosophers, that were most profound in the researches and inquiries of reason, they sat abrood, and thought of hatching an excellent religion; but what was the issue? ‘Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.’ Rom. i. 22. All that they produced was fables and high strains of folly, mixed with popular rites and customs. There are many things necessary to religion, which the angels themselves could not have known if they had not been revealed, therefore their knowledge increaseth by observing God’s dispensations to the church, Eph. iii. 10. The way of salvation by Christ is such a mystery as could not have entered into the heart of any creature, no, not of an angel. If an angel had been to set down which way man should be redeemed, nay, if all the cherubim and seraphim, thrones, dominions, and powers had met together in a synod and council, and had taken in all the world to their assistance, it would have posed them all to have found out such a way as God hath appointed. But not to speak of mysteries. There is in the word some moralities suitable to the law of nature, which was once written upon man’s heart; but alas! now there remains only some scattered fragments and obscure characters, so defaced that they cannot be read; and how blind are we in these things without the word! Witness the sottish idolatry of those nations that want it, worshipping stocks or stones, yea, a piece of red cloth, or whatever they saw first in the morning. And witness those brutish customs among other nations, whereby uncleanness and unnatural sins have been authorised by a law. Therefore, it is a great mercy that something is delivered, and given out as a rule of faith and manners.

2. That this tradition is written, and put into a stated course in those books which we call scriptures. If the revelation of God’s will had been left to the tradition of men of such a rank or order, what a liberty might they take of coining oracles, and obtruding their fancies upon the world! It is a great mercy that our faith does not depend upon uncertain suggestions, but some main public records, to which all may appeal and find satisfaction. Heretofore the Lord revealed himself by visions, oracles, and dreams, to persons of eminent holiness and sanctity, that they might instruct others; which course was sure enough while the people of the world were but a few families, and the persons entrusted with God’s message had authority and credit sufficient with the present age, and lived long to continue the tradition with the more certainty to future ages. But afterwards the Lord was pleased to speak to his church both by word and writing. His word was necessary for further revealing and clearing up the doctrine of salvation; and writing was necessary, because when precepts were multiplied it was needful for men’s memories that they should be written; the long life of God’s witnesses was lessened, corruptions began to increase, Satan giving out lying oracles and visions, idolatrous rites and customs crept into the best families, Josh. xxiv. 3, Gen. xxxi. 19; the people of God were grown numerous enough to make a commonwealth and politic body; therefore, to avoid man’s corruptions and Satan’s deceits, the Lord thought fit that we should have a written rule at hand, as a public standard for the trial of all doctrines. God himself wrote the first scripture with his own finger upon tables of stone, Exod. xxiv. 12, and he commanded Moses and the prophets to do the same, Exod. xvii. 14, and xxxiv. 27; which dispensation of word and writing continued till Christ’s time, who, as the great doctor of the church, perfected the rule of faith, and by the apostles, as so many public notaries, consigned it to the use of the church in all ages. When the canon began to be complete, the latter apostles pressed the receiving of it; and John, as the last, and as one who outlived all the rest, closeth up his prophecy thus, Rev. xxii. 18, 19, ‘If any man add,’ &c., and ‘if any man take away,’ &c., which doth not only seal up the book of the Revelation, but the whole canon and rule of faith; which indeed was a great mercy to the world: the Lord knew to what a liberty we inclined in divine things, and therefore we needed to be tied up to a rule, which here is given us.

3. The mercy of God appeareth in preserving it, that it may be delivered from one age to another. No doctrine so ancient as the doctrine of the scriptures; it describeth the whole history of the world from the very creation, and the original of all things. Where are there records so ancient? and yet they have been preserved even to our time. We have some ancient writings of the heathens, though nothing so ancient as scripture; but these are not contrary to men’s lusts, and have been cherished by them, and yet they have felt the tooth of time, and are in a great measure mangled; but the word of God hath been maligned and opposed, and yet it continueth, and holdeth up its head in the world: not only the main doctrine of the scriptures hath been continued, but no part of the word hath been falsified, corrupted, destroyed: the world wanted not malice nor opportunity; the powers of the world have been against it, and corrupt persons in the church have been always given to other-gospelling, Gal. i. 6, 7; 1 Tim. vi. 3; but still the scriptures have been wonderfully preserved, as the three children in the furnace, not a hair singed, not a jot and tittle of truth perished.

4. That God doth continually stir up men in the church, and be stow gifts upon them, for the opening and application of this faith and doctrine of salvation. Christ, that hath given prophets and apostles to the church to write scripture, hath also given pastors and teachers to open and apply scripture, that so still it might be delivered to the saints, and also to vindicate the doctrine of it when opposed. Every age that hath yielded the poison hath also yielded the antidote, that the world might not be without a witness. If there hath been an Arius, there hath been an Athanasius; if a Pelagius, there is also an Austin: the church hath never wanted help in this kind. Look, as in war, as the arts of battery and methods of destruction do increase, so also doth skill in fortification; and in the church God still bestoweth gifts for the further explication of truth.

5. That the light cometh to us, and shineth in this land. The gospel is a great national privilege: ‘To you is this word of salvation sent,’ Acts xiii. 26. Pray mark, it is sent; he doth not say we have brought it to you, but it is sent; it is a token sent from heaven in love. There is a mighty providence accompanieth the gospel; the journeys of the apostles, as I said but now, were ordered by the Spirit as well as their doctrine: Acts viii. 26, ‘The angel of the Lord said to Philip, Arise, and go towards the south, towards the way that goeth. down to Jerusalem.’ They went not as their own good affection carried them, but according to the Spirit’s direction. So Acts xvi. 7-9, ‘The Spirit suffered them not,’ &c., as ‘prophecy came not by the will of man,’ 2 Peter i. 21; that is, the doctrine itself, so the delivery of it; the doctrine they had from the Holy Ghost, and also their commission and passport. You would stand wondering, and think it a special benefit, if in a time of drought the rain should fall on your field, and none else, if, as Gideon’s fleece, your heritage should be wet, and all is dry round about you; or if the sun should be shut up to others, and shine only in your horizon, as it did in Goshen. This is a better blessing, and God hath a special hand in the progress of it; it goeth from place to place as the Lord will. Why should it come to us? our ancestors were of all nations most barbarous and portentous for their idolatries. Why to us? No cause can be assigned but the free grace and gift of God.

6. That it is given to us in our persons in particular in the power and efficacy of it. It is offered to the nation, but bestowed upon us: John xiv. 22, ‘How is it that thou wilt reveal thyself to us, and not unto the world?’ Others have only truth presented to them obiter, by the by, for your sakes; but you are ‘called according to purpose.’ Rom. viii. 28. Though in the general means they have a like favour with you, yet you may observe the particular aim of God in continuing the gospel to England for your sakes.

Use. Well, then, acknowledge God in the truths that are delivered to you out of the scriptures. Whatever means are used, God is the author of the doctrine, and the disposer of the message: receive it ‘as the word of God,’ and then it will ‘profit you,’ 1 Thes. ii. 13. If you had an oracle from heaven speaking to you on this wise, you would be more serious. It is as certain, yea, it is βεβαιοτερος λόγος, ‘a more sure word,’ 2 Peter i. 19, more sure than the oracle spoken of in the context. Regard the promises and threatenings of it with more reverence, as if God in person had delivered them to you. If you receive it ‘as the word of God, and not of men,’ what will you venture upon the promises of it? These are bills of exchange given you, that you may draw your estate into another country, that you may lay up ‘treasures in heaven.’ Neglect of the opportunity is a sign of unbelief. If one should proffer you a hundred pounds for the laying out of a penny, and you go away and never heed it, it is a sign you do not believe the offer. The recompenses of the word do far exceed all temporal emolument; if you do not heed them, it is a sign you do not believe them. So what will you forbear upon the threatenings of the word? If there were a law made that every time we deceive or slander one another, we should hold one of our hands in scalding lead for half an hour, men would be afraid of the offence. God hath told us that ‘the wages of sin is death,’ that we shall be plunged for evermore in ‘the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone;’ and yet it doth not deter us from sin, and giving offence to God. If a man were told that he were in danger of a cruel death every moment if he did not presently get a pardon, he would not sleep till it were done. Natural men are in danger of hell every moment by the sentence of the word, and yet how backward are they to make their peace with God!

Obs. 2. The word delivered, implieth a leaving things in another’s hand by way of trust, and so doth not only note the mercy of God, but the duty of the church, to whom ‘the oracles of God are committed ‘to be kept. Whence observe, that God hath delivered the doctrine and rule of faith to the church as a public trustee, that it may be kept and employed to the uses of the truth. Let us a little see what is the church’s duty towards the truth. I answer—(1.) To publish it to the present age. (2.) To keep it and preserve it for ages to come. So that to the present age we are witnesses, to the future trustees, Isa. xliii. 10.

1. To publish, own, and defend the truth, by profession and martyrdom; and therefore the church is called ‘the pillar and ground of truth,’ 1 Tim. iii. 15, namely, in respect of men, and as it holdeth it forth to the world; and therefore we ought to hearken to the church’s testimony till we have better evidence. We do not ultimately resolve our faith into the church’s authority, for the church’s authority is not absolute, but ministerial; as a royal edict doth not receive credit by the officer and crier, he only declareth it and publisheth it; yet the church’s testimony is not to be neglected, for ‘faith cometh by hearing.’ Rom. x. 14, and this publication of the church is a good preparative inducement, John iv. 42. If we would know the truth of a thing, till we have experience we go to those that have experience, and ordinarily the judgment of others whom we respect and reverence causeth us to have a good opinion of a thing till we make trial ourselves: in which respect Austin saith, I had never believed the scriptures unless I had been moved thereunto by the authority of the church; as we should never have known the king’s pleasure unless the messenger had brought us his letters. The church hath not power to make and unmake scripture at pleasure, but only to communicate and hold forth the truth; and till we have further assurance, is so far to be heard. We receive the faith per ecclesiam, by the ministry of the church, though not propter ecclesiam, for the authority of the church.