A Practical Commentary on the Epistle of Jude

3. A man of long standing is apt to grow secure and negligent, as if he were now past danger, when his condition was doubtful he seemed to be more diligent and serious; but when the labours and difficulties of our first entering into favour with God are well over, and a man hath gotten some freedom from the terrors of the Law and some peace and confidence, he is in danger of security, by which all runneth to waste in the Soul, see Rev. 3. 17, 18, 19. Well then, this life is never exempted from care, either to get grace or to keep it, we need to be watchful and diligent to the very last; man is a changeable creature and Satan is restless, either he continueth the old suite or altereth the course of temptations, 'tis his subtlety in that he doth not always play the same game, a man may stand one brunt and fail in another: Joab turned after Adonijah though not after Absalom, 1 Kings 2. 28. every new condition bringeth new snares, Ephraim is a cake not turned, Hosea 7. 8. A man may be well baked of one side and yet quite dough of another, the children of God prosperous, differ from the children of God afflicted, Phil. 4. 12. we had need to learn ⟨p. 516⟩how to walk up hill and down hill, that we may keep with God upon all grounds: again, corruptions may be disguised, a man may withstand open enemies and yet fail by the insinuations of those that have a show of goodness; the young Prophet withstood the King stoutly, but yet was perverted by the insinuations of the old Prophet, 1 Kings 13. 4. with nineteenth verse.

3. A man of long standing is apt to grow secure and negligent, as if he were now past danger, when his condition was doubtful he seemed to be more diligent and serious; but when the labours and difficulties of our first entering into favour with God are well over, and a man hath gotten some freedom from the terrors of the Law and some peace and confidence, he is in danger of security, by which all runneth to waste in the Soul, see