Well, then — (1.) It informeth us that there may be danger after deliverance ; there are strange changes in providence : ' Man in his best estate is altogether vanity,' Ps. xxxix. 5. When you are at your best, as the sun at the highest, there may be a declension.
(2.) It is a warning to those that enjoy mercies : ' Sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto you.' The next judgment will be more violent. There are some special sins which you should beware of, even those which testify our unthankfulness after the receipt of mer- cies. As (1st.) forgetting the vows of our misery. Jacob voweth, Gen. xxviii. 22, but he forgets his vow, and what followed ? Horrible dis-
176 AN EXPOSITION, WITH NOTES, [VeE. 5.
orders and confusions in his family : Dinah deflowered, Reuben goeth into his father's bed, a murder committed upon the Shechemites under a pretence of rehgion, and then Jacob remembereth his vow. We promise much when we want deUverance, and when we have it, God is neglected ; but he will not put it up so ; by sad and disastrous accidents he puts us in mind of our old promises. (2d.) When you ' kiss your own hand, bless your drag,' ascribe it to your merit and power, Hab. i. 16, Deut. ix. 4, for these things are our mercies blasted. (3d.) When we grow proud, self-confident : if you were never so high, God will bring you low enough ; it is a great sldll to ' know how to abound.' ' She remembered not her last end, therefore she came down wonderfully,' Lam. i. 9. When we forget the changes and mutations to which all outward things are obnoxious, God will give us an experience of them. (4th.) When you continue in your sins, the judgment is but gone cum animo revertendi, to come again in a Avorse manner. See Ps. cvi. 43.
Ohs. 2. The next observation is taken from the cause of their destruction, intimated in those words, tliat believed not. Many were the people's sins in the wilderness, murmuring, fornication, re- bellion, &c. But the apostle comprehendeth all under this, they helieved not. Unbelief is charged upon them as the root of all their miscarriages elsewhere, as Num. xiv. 11, and Deut. i. 32. Whence observe, that unbelief bringeth destruction, or is the cause of all the evil which we do or sufler.
In handling this point, I shall open— (1.) The heinousness of unbe- lief; (2.) The nature of it ; (3.) The cure of it.
1. The heinousness of the sin. That we will consider in general, or more particularly. The general considerations are these : —
[1.] No sin doth dishonour God so much as unbelief doth. It is an interpretative blasphemy, a calling into question of his mercy, power, justice, but especially of his truth : 1 John v. 10, ' He that believetli not God, hath made him a liar.' You judge him a person not fit to be credited. The giving of the lie is accounted the greatest injury and disg]-ace amongst men ; for truth is the ground of commerce and human society. So that to say a man is a liar is as much as to say a man is unfit to keep company with men. But especially is this a great injury to God, because he standeth more upon his word than upon any other part of his name : Ps. cxxxviii. 2, ' He hath magnified his word above all his name.' We have more experience of God in making good his word than in any other thing. As faith honoureth God, so doth unbelief dishonour him. What God doth to the crea- ture, that doth faith to God. God justifieth, sanctifieth, glorifieth the creature, and faith is said to 'justify God,' Luke vii. 29. To justify is to acquit from accusation. So doth faith acquit God's truth in the word from all the jealousies wdiich the carnal world and our carnal hearts do cast upon him. Faith is said to ' sanctify God,' Num. xx. 12. To sanctify is to set apart from common use ; and God is sanctified when we set God aloof, above all ordinary and common causes, and can believe that he wall make good his word, when the course of all things seems to contradict it. Faith is said to ' glorify God,' Eom. iv. 20. We glorify him declaratively when we give him all that ex-
VeR. 5.] UPON THE EPISTLE OF JUDE. 177
cellency which the word giveth him. Now, because unbelief accusetli God, limiteth him to the course of second causes, and denieth him his glory, therefore is it so heinous and hateful to God.
[2.] It is a sin against which God hath declared most of his dis- pleasure. Search the annals, survey all the monuments of time, see if ever God spared an unbeliever. Hence in the wilderness the apostle saith they were destroyed for unbelief. Many were their sins in the wilderness, murmurings, lustings, idolatry ; but the main reason of their punishment was, ' they believed not.' Look to their final exci- sion and cutting off. Why was it? At cnTLarla<i, ' for unbelief were they broken off,' Rom. xi. 20 ; not so much for ' crucifying the Lord of life.' The gospel was tendered to them after Christ was slain. It was for not believing or refusing the gospel. If you will know what company there is in hell, that catalogue will inform you, ' Fearful, and unbelievers,' &c., Rev. xxi. 8. If. you look to temporal judgments, that nobleman was trodden to death for distrusting God's power, 2 Kings viii. 2, and could only see the plenty, but not taste of it. Nay, it is such a sin as God hath not spared in his own children, Moses and Aaron could not enter into the land of promise because of their unbelief, Num. xx. 12. So Luke i. 20, Zacharias was struck dumb for not believing what God had revealed. Christ did never chide his disciples so much for anything as for their unbelief : Luke xxiv. 25, * 0 ye fools, and slow of heart to believe ; ' and ' why doubt ye, 0 ye of little fl^ith?' Mat. viii. 26. He chideth them before he chideth the wind. The storm first began in their own hearts.