Thomas Manton · 19 of 67

Verse 4. · Part 1

Ver. 4. 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.

Jude having made way into their affections by a salutation, which, according to the wont of the apostles, breatheth out spiritual and heavenly wishes for their good, he doth in the third verse exhort and engage them to a constant defence of the truth; and now the necessity or occasion of such an exhortation is declared, namely, because false teachers were got abroad, and had slyly taken up the general name and profession of Christians; therefore in faithfulness he could not choose but warn them of the danger.

The whole epistle is spent in the description of heretics, their sins and punishments. In this verse they are described by four things:—(1.) By their entrance into the church, certain men crept in unawares. (2.) By their condition before God, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation. (3.) By the disposition of their spirits, ungodly men. (4.) By the course of their doctrines and conversations; where two things are charged upon them:—(1st.) Abusing the gospel, turning the grace of our Lord into lasciviousness. (2d.) Denying Jesus Christ in his nature and offices, denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.

First, Let us begin with the description of their entrance into the church, there are certain men crept in unawares. Some say they are not named, as not being worthy, or rather, it not being necessary, they being so plainly described; and indeed it is usual with apostles, who rather dealt against things than persons, to suppress the name, and describe the error or sin. But what is the meaning of this first thing laid to their charge, ‘they crept in unawares’? I answer:—

1. It may imply their entrance into the church under a colour and show of profession. Wicked men may creep into the best church; God permitteth it not only for their own hardening, but for our trouble and trial. Paul complaineth of ‘false brethren privily brought in to spy out their liberty,’ Gal. ii. 4; and the adversaries of Jerusalem, said, Ezra iv. 1, ‘Let us build with you, for we seek your God as ye do;’ but it was with an intent to hinder the work: so Simon Magus got to be baptized, Acts viii., as thieves seek to be entertained in the house, that they may have the more opportunity to work mischief whilst the good-man is asleep. Learn hence to be more watchful in admissions to the church: no perils so great as those occasioned by false brethren. We think to fill the church, but we do but fill the house with thieves: wicked men ever prove a trouble. It is an easy matter to fill the church by remitting the rigour and severity of discipline; but heaven is never the fuller, but the emptier, for wicked men are hardened and confirmed in their own security; and the church never fareth the better, it loseth in strength what it gets in breadth, as a river doth, and zeal is lessened the more the number is increased: yea, wicked men usually prove a trouble, and we come to wish afterward we had been more strict. It is said, Acts v. 13, 14, ‘Of the rest durst no man join himself unto them, but the people magnified them, and believers were the more added unto the Lord, multitudes both of men and women.’ It is spoken upon the occasion of the sudden death of Ananias and Sapphira; it terrified the hypocrites, but brought in more sound believers; for ‘of the rest durst no man join,’ that is, of such as Ananias and Sapphira were, believers in show, but carnal in heart; they saw it was not dallying with God in such matters. Just so when the church keep a strait hand, hypocrites dare not join, but sound believers will the sooner, and then the church, though it be a lesser body, it is more sound, healthy, and active. But what rule must we go by? we must go by outward and general profession. I answer—This place will give us some direction. As far as we can discern men, so far may we judge of them; for the entrance of these men is here declared to be clancular and surreptitious: if the church had known them, or looked to them so warily as it should, the mischief had been prevented. Bellarmine himself confesseth, that the intention of the church is only to gather believers into a body, and if it knew the wicked and unbelieving, it would either not admit them, or being admitted by chance, it would cast them out. It is good to be strict, lest by promiscuous admissions we bring in such a mischief to the church as we cannot easily get rid of.

2. It may note their intrusion or invasion of the office of preaching; presuming without a warrant, or coming into the fold not by the door, in the regular established way, false teachers usually running unsent; it is often charged upon them in the scriptures: none so prone to errors as those that have a defect in their calling. Christ, when he prayeth for a blessing on the apostles’ labours, he useth that as an argument, John xvii. 18, ‘I have sent them into the world.’ They that are loath to submit their gifts to public approbation draw a just suspicion upon themselves. How came they to you? did they creep in? or were they solemnly admitted? When elements are out of their place they breed confusion. When men are out of their place they are not a blessing but a mischief to the church.

3. The two former senses may be allowed, but I rather prefer a third; their creeping into the people’s hearts and affections by plausible pretences and insinuations, instilling their errors drop by drop before they could be observed, and pretending themselves to be friends of truth and piety. I do prefer this sense, partly because he saith only crept in, without mentioning either church or office; but chiefly because this epistle is but the abridgment of the second epistle of Peter, as will easily appear to those that do compare them. Now, there it is said, 2 Peter ii. 1, ‘They shall privily bring in damnable heresies, denying the Lord that bought them.’ From this sense observe—That false teachers use to varnish over and mask the face of error with plausible pretences, that unawares we may take it into our bosoms. The apostle speaketh of their ‘sleights and cunning craftiness,’ Eph. iv. 14. Their sleights and pretences are many; I shall touch upon a few. (1.) Sometimes greater strictness: Col. ii. 18, ‘Which things have a show of wisdom, and neglect of the body;’ rigorous observances and outward mortifications, as the Papists do. (2.) Special meekness: ‘Ravening wolves in sheep’s clothing,’ Mat. vii. 15, as if they were all for love and kindness. Absalom stole away the people’s hearts by this artifice, 2 Sam. xv. 2. (3.) Higher gospel strains; therefore doth Paul speak so much against the ‘other gospel,’ Gal. i. 3, and the ‘other Jesus,’ 2 Cor. xi. 4, namely, such a one as they had set up. (4.) Self-denial; as some false teachers at Corinth would take no maintenance to disgrace Paul, see 2 Cor. xi. 12, &c.; this was their glorying, that they would preach freely; and whereas they contributed to the relief of Paul, to them it needed not. (5.) Greater learning, and notions of a newer and more sublime strain: ‘Oppositions of science falsely so called,’ 1 Tim. vi. 20, Platonic speculations, un grounded subtleties. (6.) Greater favour and liberty to nature: ‘They promise liberty, and allure through the lusts of the flesh,’ 2 Peter ii. 18, representing the faithful ministers of Christ as envying the contentment of your natures, and burdening you with exactions too rigorous; therefore the apostle saith, ‘I am afraid lest any through subtlety beguile you, as the devil did Eve,’ 2 Cor. xi. 3. How was that? I answer—By insinuating a kind of envy in God, as if he did begrudge them the perfection and freedom of their natures: Gen. iii. 5, ‘God knoweth that your eyes shall be opened,’ &c. So they think others are too strict, and lay too many restraints upon your carnal desires, and by this means allure many loose and unstable souls. (7.) Many times pretending the defence of that truth which they secretly impugn; as Pelagius talked altogether of grace, and Faustus Rhegiensis, pretending to oppose the Pelagians, did but more covertly own their cause.

Uses of this point are divers. (1.) For information; it showeth us the reason why we cannot set down the precise beginning of errors, because they are privily brought in. Mystery is written in the whore’s forehead, Rev. xvii. 5; the leak is not espied many times, though the ship be ready to sink. The originals of heresy are like the fountain of Nile, obscure and hidden; a man may lose himself in the labyrinth of antiquity before he can find them out. The Roman apostasy is a mystery of iniquity, that stole into the church disguised and by degrees, so that the beginning of it is not so easily stated as of other heresies that are full grown at their first appearance. (2.) It informeth us of the odiousness of error; it dareth not appear in its own colours, nor be seen in its own face; therefore Satan, when he would set any error on foot, he maketh choice of the most subtle instruments, that they may put a varnish upon it; as when he tempted Eve, he made use of the serpent, ‘the most subtle of all the beasts of the field,’ Gen. iii. 1, whereas the Lord chooseth the plainest instruments, and hath commanded them to use ‘all simplicity and godly sincerity,’ 2 Cor. i. 12, for truth is so lovely in itself, that it needeth no borrowed colours. (3.) It informeth us what reason those that are over you in the Lord have to press you to caution; excuse their ‘holy jealousy,’ 2 Cor. xi. 2, all is but need. We must bark when we see a wolf, though in a sheep’s garment; our silence and negligence doth but give them an advantage: ‘Whilst the husbandman slept, the enemy came and sowed tares,’ Mat. xiii. 25. (4.) It presseth you to skill and watchfulness; you had need be sound in the faith, that you may discern between good and evil, yea, to ‘have your senses exercised,’ Heb. v. 15. A soft credulity is soon abused: Prov. xiv. 15, ‘The simple believeth every word.’ There is no reason but knowledge should cost us pains as well as gracious conversation. It is a matter of great skill to be a thorough Christian; there is a great deal of sophistry and cunning about. If you follow the cry, you are in danger of engaging in a confederacy against God; if you stick to received customs, there may be error there too. If you run after every novelist on the other hand, you will soon be led into the bogs of error and profaneness; therefore go to him for direction that hath the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. But you need not only skill, but care and watchfulness. It is not good to drink too freely of suspected fountains; let not your affections surprise your judgment; we admire the persons, the gifts, and so easily swallow the doctrine: ‘Try the spirits,’ 1 John iv. 1; 1 Thes. v. 21. When there is counterfeit gold abroad, we use the touchstone. Truth loseth nothing by being tried, and you lose nothing, for then your affections are better grounded: ‘Prove all things.’ No man is infallible; an implicit faith begets but a fond affection.

Secondly, These seducers are described by their condition before God, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, πάλαι, of old, that is, from all eternity, for so the matter here spoken of imports; προγεγραμμένοι, we translate it before ordained, but the word signifieth written as in a book; it is usual in scripture to compare God’s decrees to a book; as Christ, alleging God’s decree for his mission into the world, saith, Ps. xl. 8, ‘In the volume of thy book it is written of me.’ The meaning of the metaphor is to show that these decrees are as certain and determinate as if he had a book wherein to write them. Now, these are said to be ‘written before of old,’ to show, that though they crept in unawares as to the church, yet not as to God; they fell under the notice of his decrees before ever they acted in this evil way. It is further added, that they were ordained or written down in God’s book, εἰς κρῖμα, ‘for judgment’ or ‘condemnation;’ the word is in different to either sense, for κρῖμα is often put for κατακρῖμα; thus it is to be taken here for condemnation, appeareth by that place of Peter, αἱρέσεις τῆς ἀπωλείας, ‘damnable heresies,’ 2 Peter ii. 1, and ver. 3, ‘Whose damnation of a long time slumbereth not;’ as he saith here, ‘of old ordained to this judgment.’ The meaning of the whole is, that they were such as were left to themselves, to bring upon themselves by their own sins and errors a just condemnation.

Obs. 1. That the object of the divine decrees are not only men’s ways, but men’s persons. He doth not only say that their condemnation was pre-ordained, but they also were ordained of old to this condemnation. I observe this, because many say that God’s decrees do only respect actions and the events; we see they respect persons also; we have no cause to mince matters when the scriptures speak up to the point so fully and roundly.

Obs. 2. Again, from that ordained, or forewritten, observe, God hath his books and registers, wherein the persons, behaviours, and eternal estates of all men are recorded. At the day of judgment these books shall be opened, Rev. xx. 12. Therefore it should be our care to be able to read that our names are written in ‘the book of life,’ than which there cannot be a greater privilege, Luke x. 20. And it presseth caution; all that we do standeth upon record: our speeches, Mal. iii. 16, 17; our thoughts, 1 Cor. iv. 5; our actions, Jer. xvii. 1.

Obs. 3. Again observe, that in all those things which appertain to the judgment of sinners, God doth nothing rashly, but proceedeth by foresight and pre-ordination.

Obs. 4. Again, no man ever perverted the truths of God but to his own loss. They were ordained to this judgment, that is, that by their sins they should come to such a ruin. We play with opinions, but do not consider that damnation is the end of them; the way of truth is the way of life, but error tendeth to death.

These things might be observed, but I shall rather pitch upon two points: one particular, and restrained to the scope of the context; the other general, as being taken from the consideration of the expressions in their full latitude. The first is:—

Obs. 5. That heresies and errors do not fall out by chance, but according to the certain pre-ordination and foreknowledge of God. There are two reasons for it:—Nothing can come to pass without his will, and nothing can come to pass against his will. (1.) Not without his will. If a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without our heavenly Father, Mat. x. 29, that is, cannot be taken and slain without the will of God, then certainly nothing can be imagined which God did not foresee, or which he could not have hindered. There is nothing so small but the Lord taketh cognisance of it; nothing so evil but he turneth it to good. Exempt anything from providence, and you weaken that respect which is due from the creatures to God. If Satan may do what he will, and God only be a looker-on, then the devil-worship of the heathens would seem more rational; it was their custom first to appease the angry gods, lest they should hurt them, and then to invoke the propitious. Upon this doctrine we might fear the devil and carnal men, though God be propitious; for many things are done whether he will or no. (2.) Not against his will; for then God should make a creature too hard for himself. Things may be against his revealed will, for that is a rule to try the creatures; but not against his secret will, for that would make God impotent and weak. Things that are most against his revealed will yet fall under the ordination of his secret will; and whilst men break commandments they fulfil decrees. His revealed will showeth what should be done, his secret will what will be done. Briefly, the concurrence of God in and about the errors of men may be conceived in these things:—(1st.) He denieth grace and light, which might direct and sanctify; he is debtor to no man, and may do with his own according to his good pleasure, Mat. xx. 15. He is not bound to give grace to all, and therefore it is no prejudice to his goodness to pass by some. (2d.) He leaveth difficulty enough in the word, that men who will not be satisfied may be hardened: Mark iv. 11, 12, ‘All these things are spoken in parables, that seeing they might see and not perceive;’ that is, for a punishment of their wilful blindness and hardness. Corrupt nature stumbles in God’s plainest ways; the word is clear enough to them that have a mind to understand it, and yet difficult enough to them that have a mind to harden themselves into a prejudice. Non periclitor dicere (saith Tertullian), ipsas scripturas ita dispositas esse, ut materiam subministrarent hereticis. So the Lord himself saith, Jer. vi. 21, ‘Behold I will lay stumbling-blocks before this people;’ that is, suffer them to stumble at their own prejudices. (3d.) God leaveth them to follow the course of their own hearts; he doth not incline and compel their wills, or infuse evil to them, only suffereth them to follow the carnal bent and corrupt ambition of their own hearts: Hosea iv. 17, ‘Let him alone;’ 1 Kings xxii. 22, ‘Go forth and do so;’ Ps. lxxxi. 12, ‘I gave them up to their own counsels;’ he hindereth not their wickedness; yea, permitteth it, that so his wise counsels may take place. (4th.) God ordereth it for good, thereby bringing great advantage to his own name: Exod. ix. 16, ‘For this cause have I raised thee up, to show in thee my power;’ great shakings and tumults discover much of God to the world; the devil picketh out the most polished shafts in all the quiver of mankind; and yet still the Lord maintaineth the lot of his inheritance. Yea, God doth not only advance his name, and discover the glory of his providence, in protecting the church, notwithstanding Satan’s factors, and the abettors of his cause and kingdom, but also causes the truths that are questioned to shine the more brightly, as being more strongly vindicated and asserted, as a torch shineth the brighter when it is waved with the wind. Such times put men the more upon the study and love of truth, doctrines not being taken up upon trust, but sound conviction; besides error being permitted ‘manifests the approved,’ 1 Cor. xi. 19, as a quick smart wind separateth the solid grain from the chaff; and it is a means to engage our dependence upon God for knowledge and instruction. Christ’s prophetical office would lie idle and useless were not the chains of consent sometimes broken, and the language divided, some saying one thing, some another, as the difference between the Jews and the Samaritans about the place of worship maketh the woman to go to Christ for satisfaction, John iv. 20. Once more, God’s permission of error conduceth to the just ruin of his enemies: ‘Offences must be, but woe be to that man by whom they come,’ Mat. xviii. 6, 7. So 1 Sam. ii. 25, Eli’s sons would not ‘hearken to the voice of their father, because the Lord had a mind to slay them.’ By their own voluntary sins God bringeth them to their just ruin and condemnation. God lets them alone to wanton and play away their own salvation; if they will turn seekers, familists, ranters, atheists, let them alone.

Uses. The point may be applied many ways. (1.) Here is comfort to those that regard the affairs of Sion; all the confusion and troubles that are in the church are ordered by a wise God; he will bring some good issue out of them, some glory to his name, wherein the saints rejoice as much as in their own welfare; some good to the church. Observe, hast not thou been more confirmed in the truth? engaged to a more frequent recourse to Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge? Hast thou not seen more of God’s providence displayed by these tumults? &c. (2.) It checketh fear; it is all in the hands of a good God; as God trieth you to see what you will do, so you must wait upon God to see what he will do: let him alone; in and by all he will bring forth his work in due time. (3.) It showeth their wickedness that take occasion to turn atheists from the multitude of errors. When the church is rent into so many factions, men fool it, as if there were no God, and the whole gospel were but an imposture and well-devised fable; that is the reason why Christ prayeth, John xvii. 21, ‘Let them be perfect in one, that the world may know that thou hast sent me,’ i.e., that they might not suspect me for an impostor. Usually we find that thoughts of atheism are wont to haunt us upon these occasions; but there is little reason for it, for all these things are foreknown by God, foretold by God: they ‘must be,’ 1 Cor. xi. 19; Mat. xxiv. 6. And never is there so much of God and of the beauty of truth discovered as when errors abound; so that if there were not errors there would be more cause of suspicion; where all things run with a smooth and full consent, and were never questioned, then the strength and worth of them is not tried. But ‘the words of the Lord are pure words, as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times: thou shalt keep them, O Lord, thou shalt preserve them from this generation,’ Ps. xii. 6, 7. (4.) It is a ground of prayer in times of delusion: Lord, this was ordained by thee in wisdom, let us discern thy glory in it and by it more and more. The church argueth that there was not only Pilate’s malice and Herod’s malice, but God’s ‘hand and counsel,’ in the crucifixion of Christ: Acts iv. 28, ‘To do whatsoever thy hand and counsel determined be fore to be done: ‘Lord, we know there is thy counsel in it, and thy counsel still tendeth to good, &c. God loveth to be owned in every providence, and to be entreated to fulfil his own decrees. (5.) It informeth us what a foolish madness it is to think that God seeth not the sin which we secretly commit: surely he seeth it, for he foresaw it before it was committed; yea, from all eternity.

Obs. 6. So much for the first point, the next is, That from all eternity some were decreed by their sins to come unto judgment or condemnation. Because this is one of the texts which divines bring to prove the general doctrine of reprobation, I shall here take occasion—(1.) To open this doctrine; (2.) To prove it; (3.) To vindicate it; (4.) To apply it. In the first, you will understand the nature; in the second, the reasons; in the third, the righteousness; in the fourth, the profit, of this decree.

1. I shall open the nature of it in several propositions. (1.) It is an eternal decree. God’s internal acts are the same with his essence, and therefore before all time, as believers are ‘elected before all worlds,’ Eph. i. 4. So are sinners reprobated; they are both in time and order before ever the creature was: Rom. ix. 11, ‘Before the children had done either good or evil, it was said, Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I hated.’ Election and reprobation are not a thing of yesterday, and subsequent to the acts of the creature, but from all eternity. (2.) There is a decree and pre-ordination, not only a naked foresight of those that perish. Some Lutherans say that predestination is proper only to the elect; but as to the reprobate, there is only a prescience or naked foreknowledge: no pre-ordination, lest they should make God the author of the creatures’ sin and ruin. But these men fear where no fear is; the scriptures show that the greatest evil that ever was did not only fall under the foreknowledge, but ‘determinate counsel of God,’ Acts ii. 23; it was not only foreknown, but unchangeably ordained and determined. (3.) This decree of God is founded in his own good-will and pleasure; for there being nothing higher and greater than God, it is a great error to suppose a cause of his will, either be fore it, above it, or without it. God’s actions do all begin in himself, and his will is the supreme reason: Mat. xi. 26, ‘Even so, Father; because it seemed good in thy sight.’ Jesus Christ would give no other reason why the gospel was ‘hidden from the wise and prudent, and revealed unto babes.’ We are often disputing why, of two men that are equal in misery, the one should be taken, the other left; why the Lord will show mercy to some that are no less unworthy than others; but when we have all done, we must merely rest in the will and good pleasure of God: ‘Even so, Father,’ &c.; see Rom. ix. 18, ‘He hath mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth;’ it is not from the foresight of our wills receiving or rejecting grace proposed, for then man’s will would be made a superior cause to an act in God. (4.) In this matter of reprobation, preterition and pre-damnation must be carefully distinguished. Look, as in election, God hath decreed to bestow first grace and then glory; to to the decree of giving grace preterition is opposed, to the decree of giving glory, ordination unto judgment. Now God’s preterition or passing by is merely and barely from the good pleasure of God. But pre-damnation presupposeth consideration of the creatures’ sin; both these parts of the decree are clearly set down in the word—preterition, or passing by: Rev. xvii. 8, ‘Whose names were not written in the book of life, from the foundation of the world;’ so again Rev. xiii. 8. In other places you have pre-damnation expressed, as 1 Thes. v. 9, ‘appointed unto wrath,’ and here, ‘ordained to this judgment,’ (5.) Those who are passed by, or not written in God’s book, never attain to saving grace; it is not given to them: Mat. xiii. 11, ‘To you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom, but to them it is not given.’ Yea, it is said to be ‘hidden from them:’ Mat. xi. 25; they may have common gifts, or be under such a common work of the Spirit as leaveth them without excuse; but because the Lord hath passed them by, effectual grace is not given to them, without which they cannot believe and be saved: John x. 26, ‘Ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep;’ that is, not elected of my Father. Saving grace runneth in the channel of election; so Acts xiii. 48, ‘As many as were ordained to eternal life believed.’ God’s special gifts are dispensed according to his decrees. (6.) Men being left of God, and destitute of saving grace, freely and of their own accord fall into such sins as render them obnoxious to the just wrath and vengeance of God: Rom. xi. 7 ‘The election hath obtained, and the rest were hardened;’ freely and of their own accord they turned all things to their own judgment and ruin: so Rev. xiii. 8, ‘The dwellers on earth did worship the whore, whose names were not written in the book of life;’ that is, they turned aside to antichristian defilements and pollutions. (7.) God’s decree concerning such persons is immutable; it is not rescinded and disannulled, but is fully executed and accomplished in the damnation of the sinner. The Lord’s counsels are all unchangeable, both as to election, 2 Tim. ii. 19; Heb. vi. 17, and as to reprobation; no reprobate can be an elect person, nor an elect person a reprobate: Job xii. 14, ‘He shutteth up a man, and there can be no opening;’ and Job xxiii. 13, ‘He is in one mind, who can turn him?’ In God’s books there is no putting in and crossing out of names; but as the number of the elect is definite and certain, they cannot be more, and they cannot be less; so also of the reprobate. (8.) This eternal, irrevocable purpose of God of leaving sinners to themselves, that by their sins they may come to judgment, is for God’s glory: Rom. ix. 22, ‘What if God, willing to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much long-suffering the vessels fitted to destruction?’ All God’s decrees, works, providences, tend to the further discovery of himself in the eye of the creatures.