A Practical Commentary on the Epistle of Jude

But as yet we have spoken but of the casket wherein the Jewel lieth; the Soul, that divine spark and blast; how quick, nimble, various and indefatigable in its motions? how comprehensive in its capacities? how it animateth the body, and is like God himself all in every part? Who can trace the flights of Reason? What a value hath God set upon the Soul? He made it after his Image, he redeemed it with Christs Blood, &c. Well then, God that made such a body, such a soul, deserveth love; He that made the Soul, hath most right to dwell in it; 'tis a curious house of his own framing: But he will not enter by force and violence, but by consent; he expecteth when love will give up the keys: Rev. 3. 17. Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any man open to me, I will come in and sup with him. Why should Christ stand at the door and knock, and ask leave to enter into his own house? he hath right enough to enter, only he expecteth till we open to him.

2. Preservation: We are not apprehensive enough of¹ daily mercies: The Preservation of the World is a constant Miracle; The World is hanged upon nothing (as 'tis in the Book of Job:) A feather will not stay in the air; and yet what hath the World to support it but the thin fluid air that is round about it? 'Tis easy to prove that the Waters are higher then the Land: so that we are always in the case the ⟨p. 107⟩Israelites were in, when they passed through the Red Sea; Nos sumus etiam tanquam in medio rubri maris (saith Luther,) the Waters are round about us and above us, bound up in an heap as it were by God, and yet we are not swallowed up: 'Tis true, the danger is not so sensible and immediate as that of the Red Sea, because of the constant rampire of Providence, More particularly, from the womb to the grave we have hourly maintenance from God. Look as the beams in the air are no longer continued then the Sun shineth; so we do no longer continue then God upholdeth our beings by the word of his Power,