A09434:506
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.
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.
Clouds they are without water, carried about of winds.] These words contain the eighth and ninth sins of these wicked men: which the better to know what they are, let us a little consider the meaning of them. [Clouds they are without water,] I• pleaseth the Spirit of God in many places of the old Testament, to compare Prophets and Teachers unto clouds; and their doctrine unto the dropping and distilling of the rain and sweet showers falling from these clouds.1 So the Prophet Ezekiel is commanded to set his face towards the way of Teman, and drop his word toward the South, and his prophecy towards the forrest. Deut. 32.2. My doctrine shall drop as the rain, and my speech shall distil as the dew, as the shower upon the herbs, and as the great rain upon the grass. Mich. 2.7. and 11. The word translated *prophecy, signifieth properly to drop or distil: The reason of which comparison is rendered Isai. 55.10.11. Because as the rain falleth upon the earth, and returneth not in vain, but moistneth it, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to him that eateth: so the word in the mouth of the Ministers returneth not void, but accomplisheth the Lords will, and prospereth in the thing whereto it is sent; in becoming the savour of life to the salvation of some, and of death unto the death of them that perish. The words then standing upon this similitude bear this sense; Though the property and use of clouds is to carry water and rain for the use of the earth, yet some clouds are without water: even so, though all Teachers ought to be filled and fitted with store of wholesome doctrine, to pour it out for the use of the Church; yet these seducers are utterly destitute thereof. And again, as those clouds without water are light, and fitter for nothing than to be carried about with every wind: so these are altogether variable and unconstant, carried about with every blast of strange doctrine. The former of these similitudes condemneth their sin of barrenness and unfruitfulness: the latter their ninth sin of inconstancy and variableness.