Thomas Manton · 45 of 67
Verse 16. · Part 3
7. The more you walk after your lusts, the more you may. They are not quenched when they are satisfied, but increased rather, as the fire is, by laying on new fuel; the distemper groweth every day, till you are quite enslaved: ‘Given to much wine,’ Titus i. 7, ii. 3; it is δεδουλωμένας, ‘enslaved to wine,’ in the Greek. In this sense we are said to be ‘brought under the power ‘of the creature, 1 Cor. vi. 12; so that whatever shame or loss ensueth, you cannot leave your lusts: Jer. xviii. 12, ‘There is no hope,’ &c.; they see it is bad, and cannot see how it should be otherwise.
8. What can we get by sin but a little pleasure? Titus iii. 3, ‘Serving divers lusts and pleasures.’ This is the great sorceress that enchants the whole world, the root of all sin; they ‘loved pleasures more than God,’ 2 Tim. iii. 4. It is not imaginable that an intelligent creature should rest in his own actions; we aim at somewhat in walking after our own lusts; if we balk that which is honest, it must be profit or pleasure. Now, that a man should enslave himself for ever, and that for a little pleasure, which is base in itself, and lost as soon as enjoyed, is monstrous and absurd. Breve est quod delectat, aeternum quod cruciat—the pleasure is but short, vanishing, but the pain is for ever. And will you for a thing of nought break with God, and forfeit your immortal souls? Oh! let it not be.
Let all this now persuade you to deny your lusts, rather than to feed and cherish them, to renounce them, and not to walk after them. There are three degrees of this denial:—(1.) They must be prevented, and kept from rising; (2.) Suppressed and kept from growth; (3.) We must not accomplish them, and if they gain consent, keep them, from execution. Suitable to which three degrees there are three duties:—(1st.) , that we may prevent them. (2d.) Watchfulness, that we may suppress them; (3d.) Resolution, that we may not accomplish them.
1. To begin with the top and highest degree, to prevent the lust: 1 Peter ii. 11, ‘Abstain from fleshly lusts.’ It is not enough to abstain from acts of sin, but we must abstain from lusts; yea, the root must be deadened: Gal. v. 24, ‘Crucify the flesh.’ She is chaste that checketh an unclean solicitation, but she is more worthy of praise whose grave carriage forbiddeth all assaults and attempts in that kind; so should we be so mortified as to prevent a temptation, not to have a lust stirring. But because this cannot always be—
2. The next degree is, timely to suppress them, laus est aliqua in secundis stare—to conquer lust when we cannot curb it, and wholly keep it under. Dash Babylon’s brats against the stones, and take the little foxes; smother it in the conception, James i. 15. It is a great sin to quench the Spirit’s motion, so it is a great neglect not to take notice of the first thoughts and risings of sin; the little sticks kindle first, and set the great ones on fire; crush the cockatrice in the egg. The flesh riseth up in arms against every graceful motion; so should the spirit, the better part, against every sinful motion, Gal. v. 17. Chide away your thoughts, and let them not find harbour. If the envious man throw weeds over the garden wall, the gardener will not let them root there. If Satan cast in thoughts, cast them out again with indignation.
3. Let not. lusts be put in execution. If thou hast neglected the mortification and deadening of the affections, if sin hath got the start of thee, and gained a consent, yet at least restrain the practice: James i. 15, ‘Lust, when it hath conceived, bringeth forth sin,’ that is, an external sinful action; there are ‘works of the flesh,’ that follow ‘the lusts of the flesh,’ Gal. v. 19. It is good to stop at lust; though the lust grieveth the Spirit of God, yet the work, besides the grief, bringeth dishonour to God, giveth an ill example, bringeth scandal to religion, maketh way for a habit and further proneness to sin; therefore if thou hast not prevented the lust, act not the sin: Micah ii. 1, 2, ‘Woe be to them that devise evil upon their beds, and when the morning is light, they practise it.’ It is naught to harbour the motion, to plot and muse upon sin, but it is worse to practise it, for every act strengthens the inclination; as a brand that hath been once in the fire is more ready to burn again. If the devil have kindled a fire in thy bosom, let not the sparks fly abroad, but keep the temptation within doors, lest thou more betray thyself into Satan’s hands.
The third clause in this application of Enoch’s prophecy is, that their mouth speaketh great swelling words. In Enoch’s prophecy not only unholy deeds are noted, but hard speeches. These Gnostics were faulty both ways, both in word and deed; that which is charged here is a fault in their speech. It is said, Dan. xi. 36, ‘The king shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods,’ In the Septuagint the same phrase is used that is here, καὶ ὁ βασιλεὺς ὑψωθήσεται καὶ μεγαλυνθήσεται ἐπὶ πάντα θεὸν, καὶ λαλήσει ὑπερογκα, and so possibly it may imply their blasphemies against God, a crime of which these wretches were guilty, in exalting Simon Magus above the true God. Or else these ‘swelling words’ may relate to their boasting of their own knowledge, from they were called Gnostics; and Tertullian saith of them, Omnes tument, omnes scientiam pollicentur; ipsae mulieres haereticae, quam sunt procaces!—they all swell with pride, and make ostentation of deeper knowledge; their very women, how conceited are they! Or else it may signify their proud censures of others, their scorning of the guides of the church, as it is said of some: Ps. lxxiii. 9, ‘They speak loftily, they set their mouth against the heavens, their tongue walketh through the earth.’ They took a liberty to speak of all things and persons at pleasure, without any restraint, which was and is the very genius of these and other seducers. Bather, I suppose, though not excluding the other senses, these swelling words relate to their phraseology and unsavoury gibberish which they used in representing their opinions. Peter calleth them ‘swelling words of ,’ 2 Peter ii. 18. The note hence is this:—
Obs. 3. That the pride and vanity of seducers is usually bewrayed in the fondness and affectedness of their expressions. The affected language of the Gnostics and Valentinians may be seen in Irenaeus; and how much this pattern hath been improved by men of a fanatical spirit, may be found in those that have written of the heresies of succeeding ages. Jerome taxeth Jovinian with his swelling words. In times more modern, Swinkfield was observed to be always talking of illumination, deification, &c.; and the familists’ cant is not unknown, of being godded with God, and christed with Christ. So Jacob Behmen’s greening of the inward root, &c.; and Calvin saith of the libertines of his time, communi sermone spreto, exoticum nescio quid idioma sibi fingunt, interea nihil spirituale afferunt, they pretend to matter more spiritual, and when all cometh to all, it is but noisome errors disguised, or common things represented in uncouth forms of speech, which the scriptures own not, rational and truly spiritual men understand not. The same unsavoury and unintelligible forms of speech may be observed in a wicked book lately put forth by a knight of this country, called ‘The Retired Man’s Meditations,’ wherein the highest principles of our most holy faith are endeavoured to be undermined by this artifice of covert and affected speech; but that by the of God the book fell under neglect and scorn presently upon the publication. Now the reason of this affectation is, I suppose, to amuse the reader with the pretence of mystery and depths, Rev. ii. 24, that, despising the simplicity of the word, and the common and avowed principles, he may be the more pliable to their carnal fancies, which, if nakedly exposed at first, would have nothing of allurement and temptation in them to any well-disposed minds. Well, then, be not rapt into admiration with novel and conceited expressions, nor troubled with ‘oppositions of science falsely so called,’ 1 Tim. vi. 20. This is the devil’s device, first to maze people, as birds are with a light and a bell in the night, and then to drive them into the net. If you would keep to wholesome doctrine, keep to a form of wholesome words, and do not place religion in conceited speaking; a holy dialect I know becometh , but an affected phraseology is one of Satan’s lures, and a means to corrupt many.
The fourth clause is, having men’s persons in admiration because of advantage. Junius applieth this to those that set up angels, and unknown names and persons in the church, instead of Christ; but I think it is rather to be applied to men. Person is therefore put for the outward state and appearance, in which sense it is said, ‘Thou shalt have no respect of persons in judgment,’ that is, of their outward condition and estate. Accepting of persons, as Gen. xix. 21, is rendered in the Septuagint by θαυμάζειν τὸ πρόσωπον, wondering at a man’s face or outside, as being overcome and dazzled at the splendour of it. Accordingly our apostle saith here, ‘Having men’s persons in admiration.’ Now this they did ‘for advantage,’ that is, either to gain men to their party, by crying them up as holy and knowing, to the contempt of others who were more valuable for the sincerity of their religion; or else for worldly profit’s sake, those whom they feared, or from whom they expected any worldly profit, as the rich and powerful, upon these would they fawn, and with these in a servile manner in sinuate themselves, commending their actions and magnifying their persons.
Having been so long in the former part of the verse, I shall but mention the notes here,
Obs. 4. None so fawning and base-spirited as the proud for their advantage: these spoke ‘swelling words ‘and yet basely crouched for profit’s sake. Ambrose noteth it of a spirit of ambition: Ut dominetur aliis, prius servit; curvatur obsequio, ut honore donetur—none stoop so as they that have a mind to rise. One observed of our late prelates, that they were willing to take Ham’s curse upon them, to domineer in the tents of Shem, that is, would be ‘servants of servants,’ slaves to great men’s servants, that they might lord it over God’s heritage. Men of proud insulting spirits bow low for their own ends. As Absalom courteth the people to jostle his father out of the throne, 2 Sam. xv. 2-5. And Tacitus observeth the like of Otho, that he did projicere oscula, adorare vulgus, et omnia serviliter pro imperio—adore the people, kiss the meanest, basely dispense his courtesy to the vilest, all to further his designs upon the empire. So Ammianus Marcellinus, lib. xxv., observeth the same of Julian, that out of affectation of popularity he delighted to converse with the meanest of the people. Certainly a proud spirit is no great spirit, no more than a swollen arm can be accounted big.
Obs. 5. Having men’s persons in admiration for advantage is a sin. We may admire the gifts of God in others so as to praise the giver, but not so as to be guilty of anthropolatry, or man-worship, 1 Cor. iii. 21; not so as to ‘despise others,’ who have their usefulness, and it may be as excellent a gift in another kind, 1 Cor. xii. 7-11; not so as to promote our interests thereby, this is servile flattery, condemned in the text and Hosea vii. 8; not so as to be afraid to tell them their own, or for their fear or favour to wrest the truth of God: Matt. xxii. 16, ‘Thou teachest the way of God in truth, neither carest thou for any man, for thou regardest not the person of men.’ Let all regard this, especially the ministers of Christ.
Obs. 6. That seducers are apt to insinuate with great persons and men of power and interest, that having their ear and countenance, they may engage them against the truth. Having not truth of their side, they use the more craft; as the ivy, not being able to support itself, twineth about the oak till it sucketh out its heart. God’s messengers carry it more openly, and with a single plainness; see 2 Cor. i. 12. Creepers and fawning parasites do but draw a suspicion upon themselves. Surely God’s cause is able to stand upon its own legs, and needeth not the support of so base an artifice.
Quest. But is it not lawful to use some prudence in this kind, and to insinuate with great men for the advantage of a good cause?
Ans. To be over solicitous in this kind argueth distrust of God’s providence, and draweth suspicion upon the way which we would needs maintain: that matter is not very combustible where men blow so hard. What favour cometh in the fair way of God’s providence we may accept: ‘All men seek the ruler’s face, but every man’s judgment is of the Lord;’ and what may be gotten by honest, open, and lawful means, as by humble addresses, and the magnetic virtue of truth itself, and the of them that maintain it, may be sought after. Thus the apostles dealt with the rulers and great ones, to gain their respect to Christianity, that they might with less prejudice in sinuate the truth to the people, Acts xviii. 8, and xix. 31. ‘Some of the chief of Asia’ were friends to Paul. But, now, when this respect is to be gotten by clancular and dishonest arts, and cannot be kept without flattering them in their sins, or compliance with their lusts and carnal designs, and men stretch their consciences, and make it their business to humour those that they may advance them, and trample upon all that may be called right and honesty to accomplish their ends, and magnify those whom they would have scorned if their station had not been so high,—this is to ‘have men’s persons in admiration for advantage.’
Obs. 7. Usually men of a false way in religion admire those of their own party above others of known worth and integrity. This is one part of the sense. All of their own way they accounted Gnostics, that is, knowing persons; as if others, how much soever owned by God, as having the stamp and impress of gifts and graces upon them, were not to be compared with them. This is the genius of all sectaries: illic ipsum esse est promereri, saith Tertullian, it is religion enough to be one of them.
