A09434:310
A godly and learned exposition upon the whole epistle of Jude, containing threescore and…A godlie and learned exposition upon the whole epistle of Iude, containing threescore and…
A godly and learned exposition upon the whole epistle of Jude, containing threescore and six sermons preached in Cambridge by that reverend and faithful man of God, Master William Perkins, and now at the request of his executors, published by Thomas Taylor, preacher of Gods word ; whereunto is prefixed a large analysis, containing the sum and order of the whole book, according to the authors own method, to which are further added, four brief tables to direct the reader ...A godlie and learned exposition upon the whole epistle of Iude, containing threescore and sixe sermons preached in Cambridge by that reverend and faithfull man of God, Master William Perkins, and now at the request of his executors, published by Thomas Taylor, preacher of Gods word ; whereunto is prefixed a large analysis, containing the summe and order of the whole booke, according to the authors owne method, to which are further added, foure briefe tables to direct the reader ...
London: printed by Felix Kyngston for Thomas Man, 1606
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Verse 4: Vers. 4. For there are certain men crep• in, which were of old before ordained to this…
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
The fourth adjunct whereby the seducers are described, is their doctrine, in these words; They turn the grace of God to wantonness. In which consider two points: first, the sin or vice here condemned. Secondly, the du•ie or contrary virtue commanded. Before we can know the former, we must search out the meaning of the words. And first by [grace] is meant the doctrine of the Gospel, called in the former verse by the name of faith; so it is called, Titus 2.11. The grace of God hath appeared, teaching us &c. because it teacheth us that remission of sins, and life everlasting, are obtained only by the mere grace of God in Christ. By wantonness] is properly understood that sin whereby men addict themselves wholly to intemperance, incontinence, and unlawful pleasures; but here it must be taken generally for a licentious profane kind of living and liberty of sinning. Turn] that is, they displace the grace of God, applying it from a right to a wrong end, and that not only in practise of life, but in propounding of doctrine tending thereunto. As though he had more plainly said, that whereas the doctrine of grace in the Gospel, teacheth men free justification by faith in Christ without the works of the law, these men pervert this gracious doctrine, and teach that therefore men may live as they list, and so themselves do also: by which same sin such seducers are elsewhere noted in the Scripture. Rom. 3.8. Some gathered from Pauls doctrine the same liberty, saying, Why do we not then evil that good •ay come of it? And 2. Pet. 2.19. some such are mentioned, who beguiled divers with wantonness through th• lusts of the flesh, promising unto them liberty. Ecclesiastical histories mention in any such who sprung up after the Apostles days▪ […] the Libertines, Simon Magus and his disciples, who ••ught that men might lawfully commit fornication. So also the disciples of •a•ilides, Eu•omius: and the gnostics. Heretics who taught that men might live as they list, seeing ow such liberty was procured them, being freed from being under the Law any longer: which sin died not with those cursed heretics but the Devil hath in these last days revived it, especially