Ver. 5. I loill therefore 'put you in remembrance, tliourjli ye once hneio this, Jioio that the Lord, having saved, the people out of the land of Egypt, afterwards destroyed, them that believed not.
We have done with the preface. I come now to the examples by which the apostle proveth the danger of defection from the faith. The first is taken trom the murmuring Israelites ; the second from the apostate angels ; the third from the beastly Sodomites. That you may see how apposite and apt for the apostle's purpose these instances are, I shall first insist upon some general observations.
Obs. 1. First observe that God's ancient judgments were ordained to be our warnings and examples. The Bible is nothing but a book of precedents, wherein the Lord would give the world a document or copy of his providence : ' All these things are happened to them for examples,' 1 Cor. x. 11. When we blow off the dust from these old experiences, we may read much of the counsel of God in them ; their destruction should be our caution. His justice is the same that ever it was, and his power is the same, his vigour is not abated with years : ' God is but one,' Gal. iii. 20 ; that is, always the same, without change and variation, as ready to take vengeance of the transgressors of the law as of old ; for that is the point there discussed. So 2 Tim. ii. 13, ' He abideth faithful ; he cannot deny himself.' In all the changes of the world, God is not changed, but is where he was at first. Surely we should tremble more when we consider the examples of those that have felt his justice; for God keepeth a proportion in all his dispen- sations. If he were strict, and holy, and just, then he is strict, and
^ Therefore a merciless disposition is made a denying the faith, 1 Tim. v. 8.
Ver. 5.] UPON THE EPISTLE OF JUDE. 169
hol}'-, and just now. He that struck Ananias and Sapphira dead in the place for a lie, that made Zacharias dumb for unbelief, that kept Moses out of the land of promise for a few unadvised words, that turned Lot's wife into a pillar of salt for looking back, is the same God still, not a jot altered : his judgments may be more spiritual, but then more terrible.
Again, answerable practices make us partakers of their guilt, and therefore involve us in their punishment. Imitation is an evidence of approbation. A man may have more sins charged upon him than those committed in his own person ; you are partakers of their evil deeds that lived before you, if you do as they did. It may be the memory of those that formerly fell under the weight of God's dis- pleasure is execrable to you, yet your walking in the same course is a sign that you like their practices, and therefore you must expect their judgments with advantage and usury : Mat, xxiii. 35, ' That upon you may come all the righteous blood that was shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Barachiah, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.' Why upon them ? and how did they slay him ? No doubt the memory of Cain was accursed among the Jews, but they ' walked in the way of Cain,' and so were to receive Cain's judgment with advantage. No doubt the memory of the murderers of Zechariah the prophet was hateful to them, but they continued prophet- killing and prophet- hating, and therefore did implicitly approve his murder, and so are said to slay him. Jude 11, it is said, ' These perished in the gain- saying of Korah.' How can that be, when they were not as yet born ? These seducers lived long after, but following them in their sin, in their ruin they had a sure pledge of their own destruction. When we see others fall into a deep pit, and yet will adventure the same way, as we sin the worse, so our judgment will be the greater.
Uses. Well, then, let us make every instance of the word a warning, and apply it for our use ; it is excellent when we read the scriptures with a spirit of application. In the miscarriage of others we have experience at a cheap rate ; and in their misery we have as sure a proof of the evil of sin, though not as costly, as if we had felt it ourselves.
Again, when wicked men flourish, be not dismayed. How hath God judged sinners of like kind ? What say your scripture prece- dents ? ' I went into the sanctuary ; there I understood their end,' Ps. Ixxiii. 17.
Again, it showeth how vain their conceit is, that God will not deal so severely with us if we continue in our sins as he hath done with others in former times when the scriptures were written. God's judg- ments, I confess, are more spiritual, but every way as severe to them that continue in their sins ; heretofore they were smitten with death, now with deadness. Nadab and Abihu were quickly dispatched for their unhallowed approaches to God in worship. Lev. x. 3, &c. ; many come now that do not sanctify God in their hearts : their judgment is more spiritual, the ordinances which should quicken, harden them. Bears devoured the children that mocked the prophet, 2 Kings ii. 23-25 : many sit taunting by the walls that are not torn in pieces by