A89503:973
A Practical Commentary on the Epistle of Jude
A practical commentary, or An exposition with notes on the Epistle of Jude. Delivered (for the most part) in sundry weekly lectures at Stoke-Newington in Middlesex. By Thomas Manton, B.D. and minister of Covent-Garden.
London: printed by J.M. for Luke Fawn, 1658
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.
4. If it be bad, it might have been worse, in regard of Gods absolute power and our desert; your sufferings are not so great as your sins, Ezra. 9. 13. Thou hast punished us less then we have deserved▪ God is too just to do us wrong; if he will exchange Hell for Babylon▪ there is much of mercy in it nothing of injustice; if you do not deserve this usage from the hands of men, you have deserved this, and much more from God; 'tis deserved of God, and therefore to be born patiently, 'tis not deserved of men, therefore to be born cheerfully; whose cross would we bear, Christs or the Thieves Cross? when we suffer deservedly and as Malefactors, we bear the Thieves Cross.
4. If it be bad, it might have been worse, in regard of Gods absolute power and our desert; your suffrings are not so great as your sins, Ezra. 9. 13. Thou hast punished us less then we have deserved▪ God is too just to do us wrong; if he will exchange Hell for Babylon▪ there is much of mercy in it nothing of injustice; if you do not deserve this usage from the hands of men, you have deserved this, and much more from God; 'tis deserved of God, and therefore to be born patiently, 'tis not deserved of men, therefore to be born chearfully; whose cross would we bear, Christs or the Theeves Cross? when we suffer deservedly and as Malefactors, we bear the Theeves Cross.
5. The Lord disposeth all for the benefit of his own people, so that if it be not good for the present, it will turn to good. Rom. 8. 28. if God should not thus exercise us, we would have more cause to complain; he is too gentle a Physician that lets his Patient dye for want of putting him to the trouble of physic; consult with Gods aim, rather then your present feeling; let him cut and burn here, that he may save hereafter, Domine hic ure, hic seca, &c.