A Quote from William Jenkyn's (1612–1685) Dying Thoughts

Great is the heinousness of sin, since it can provoke a God of much Mercy to express much severity. That drop of Gall must needs be bitter that can imbitter a whole Sea of honey, how offensive must sin then be that can provoke a God, to whose Ocean of pity the Sea is but a drop! God doth not Afflict us willingly: He gives Honey naturally, but stings only when he is provoked by us. So that every Sufferer Coines his own Calamities, & there is no Arrow of Judgment falls down upon us, but what was first (in sinning) shot upwards by us; no shower of miseries sent down upon us, but what was First caused by the ascent of the vapours of our sin; Nor any Print of Calamity made on us, but sin is the Print that makes it. What a folly is it then for us in our suffering to be impatient against God, and yet patient with our sin, or to be angry with the Medicine, and yet in love with the disease. Let us justify God therefore in all our sufferings, and condemn ourselves.

Mr. Jenkins's Dying Thoughts: Who Departed this Life on Monday the 19th of this Instant January, in the Prison of Newgate (London: Printed for Edward Goldwin, 1685).

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Jenkyn is one of my favorite Puritans. It seems that every sentence in his writings is loaded with wisdom and excellent illustrations.

William Jenkyn (1612–1685) on Jude

I just noticed that William Jenkyn's Exposition upon the Epistle of Jude is available on Google books. It's well worth having.

William Jenkyn (1612–1685) on God’s Love

1. There is a love of God to man, though without passion, sympathy, or any imperfection or weakness; these being attributed to him only to relieve the weakness either of our faith or apprehensions. And this love is,

(1.) Considered as a love of desire; as love desires to be carried to the union of the thing beloved. This desire of union with man God shows many ways; as 1. By being near unto, nay, present with him, by his universal care and providence; he being "not far from every one of us: for in him we live," &c., Acts xvii. 27, 28. 2. By assuming the nature of man into a personal conjunction with himself in the Mediator, Christ. 3. By conversing with man by signs of his presence, extraordinary visions, dreams, oracles, inspiration; and ordinarily by his holy ordinances, wherewith his people, as it were, abide with him in his house. 4. By sending his Holy Spirit to dwell in man, and bestowing upon man the Divine nature. 5. By taking man into an eternal habitation in heaven, where he shall be ever in his glorious presence, Psal. xvi. 11.

(2.) There is a love of God to man, considered as a love of benevolence, or of good-will, or of willingness to do good to the thing beloved: what else was his eternal purpose to have mercy upon his people, and of saving them, but, as it is expressed concerning Jacob, this loving them? Rom. ix. 13. And to whom can a will of doing good so properly agree, as to Him, whose will is goodness itself?

(3.) There is a love of God to man, considered as a love of beneficence, bounty, or actual doing good to the thing beloved. Thus he bestows the effects of his love, both for this life, and for that which is to come. And the beneficence of God is called love; "Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God," 1 John iii. 1. And John iii. 16, "God so loved the world, that he gave," &c. By this love of beneficence he bestows the good things of nature, grace, and glory. God does good to every creature, hating, though the iniquity of any one, yet the nature of none; for the being of every creature is good, Gen. i. 31, and God has adorned it with many excellent qualities. According to these loves of benevolence and beneficence, God loves not his creatures equally, but some more than others; inasmuch as he wills to bestow, and also actually bestows, greater blessings upon some than upon others. He makes and preserves all creatures, but his love is more especially afforded to mankind; he styles himself from his love to man, Tit. iii. 4, and not from his love to angels, or any other creature. He is called φιλάνθρωπος, a lover of man, but never φιλάγγελος, or φιλόκτιστος, a friend of angels or creatures without man. His love is yet more peculiarly extended to man in creating him after his own image, Gen. i. 27, and in giving him lordship over the creatures, Psal. viii. 5; in giving his Son to take upon him man's nature, Heb. ii. 16, and exalt it above heavens (Matt. xxviii. 18) and angels, to die for sinning, dying man; offering him to man in the dispensation of the gospel with wooing and beseechings. And yet of men he loves some more especially and peculiarly than others; namely, those whom he loves with an electing, calling, redeeming, justifying, glorifying love. God loves all creatures, and among them the rational, and among them the members of his Son, and much more the Son himself.

(4.) There is a love of God to man, considered as a love of complacency, and delight in the thing beloved. He is pleased through his Son with his servants; and he is much delighted with his own image wheresoever he finds it. He is pleased with the persons and performances of his people: "He hath made us accepted in the Beloved." "The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him," Psal. cxlvii. 11. They reflected his excellencies, and showing forth his virtues; he rejoicing over them with joy, and resting in his love, Zeph. iii. 17: accounting a believer amiable; his soul, a lesser heaven; his prayers, melody; his sighs, incense; his stammerings, eloquence; his desires, performances.

William Jenkyn, An Exposition Upon the Epistle of Jude (Edinburgh: James Nichol, 1863; repr. Minneapolis, MN: James & Klock, 1976), 36.

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William Jenkyn (1612–1685) Quotes on God's Grace, Love, and Christ's Offer

Obs. 1. Grace whereby we are changed, much excels grace whereby we are only curbed. The sanctification wherewith the faithful were said to be adorned, was such as cured sin, as well as covered it; not a sanctification that did abscondere, but abscindere; not only repress, but abolish corruption. The former, restraining grace, is a fruit only of general mercy over all God's works, Psal. cxlv. 9; common to good and bad, binding the hand, leaving the heart free; withholding only from some one or few sins; tying us now, and loosing us by and by; intended for the good of human society, doing no saving good to the receiver: in a word, only inhibiting the exercise of corruption for a time, without any real diminution of it; as the lions that spared Daniel were lions still, and had their ravenous disposition still, as appeared by their devouring others, although God stopped their mouths for that time. But this sanctifying grace with which the faithful are here adorned, as it springs from God's special love in Christ, so it is proper to the elect, works upon every part in some measure, body, soul, and spirit, abhors every sin, holds out to the end, and is intended for the salvation of the receiver. It not only inhibits the exercise of corruption, but mortifies, subdues, diminishes it, and works a real change; of a lion making a lamb; altering the natural disposition of the soul, and making a new man in every part and faculty.

William Jenkyn, An Exposition Upon the Epistle of Jude (Edinburgh: James Nichol, 1863; repr. Minneapolis, MN: James & Klock, 1976), 12.

Obs. 5. Every one should covet to be interested in the benefits of the gospel. They are freely bestowed. It is easy to know a house where alms are freely distributed, by the crowding of beggars: when money is freely thrown about the streets at the king's coronation, how do the poor thrust and tread one upon another! There is no such crowding about a tradesman's shop: why? here poor people must pay for what they have. But, alas, men act quite contrary in a spiritual respect, they throng after the world, which makes them pay for what they have dearly, and neglect Christ, who offers all they want freely. Why is it that the kingdom of heaven suffers not more violence? The world is not bread, and yet it requires money; Christ is bread, and requires nothing but a stomach! Pity those who, for lying vanities, forsake their own mercy. Call others to partake of this grace with thee; eat not thy morsel alone. Say, as those lepers did, This is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace. Hast thou received this grace? wish all men were like to thee, they sins only excepted. When beggars have fared well at a rich man's door, they go away, and by telling it, send others: tell to others how free a housekeeper thy God is; so free that he most delights in comers and company.

William Jenkyn, An Exposition Upon the Epistle of Jude (Edinburgh: James Nichol, 1863; repr. Minneapolis, MN: James & Klock, 1976), 90.

For Jenkyn's teaching on the love of God for mankind, see page 36 in the above exposition on Jude.

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