A Practical Commentary on the Epistle of Jude

From this clause observe, That after great mercies, there ¹do usually follow great judgements, if great sins come between: as after their deliverance out of Egypt, they were destroyed for Unbelief: This may be proved from Christ's advice to the man cured on the Sabbath d•y, John 5. 14. Thou art made whole, sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto th•e. There is the mercy, the duty thence inferred, and the judgment that doth avenge the quarrel of the abused mercy: Often it cometh to pass that many mens preservation is but a reservation to a worse thing, to a greater judgement; So see Joshua 24. 20. He will turn again, and do you hurt, after he hath done you good. So Isa. 63. 10. He b•re them in the arms of his Providence, but they rebelled and vexed his spirit, and he was turned to be their enemy. None usually have greater judgements, then such as formerly have had sweet experience of mercy: Why? There is no hatred so great as that which ariseth out of the corruption of love: Disappointed love, abused love groweth outrageous. When Amnon hated Tamar, 'tis said, The hatred wherewith he hated her, was greater then the love where with he loved her. As 'tis thus with men, such a proportionable severity we may observe in the Dispensations of God, after a taste of his mercies, Joshua 23. 15. It shall come to pass, as all good things are come upon you, which the Lord your God promised you, so the Lord shall bring all evil things upon you, until he hath destroyed you, when ye have transgressed the Covenant of the Lord your God. No evils like those evils which come after mercy. No sins are so great as those sins which are committed against mercies; there is not only filthiness in them, but unkindness, Psal. 106. 7. They provoked him at the Sea, even at the red Sea: Mark, 'tis ingeminated for the more vehemency, that at the Sea, even at the red Sea, where they had seen the miracles of the Lord, and had experience