The CONTENTS.

The Salutation and Design of the Epistle; viz. To arm them against the Errors and Vices of False and Heretical Teachers. The Certainty of their severe Punishment, inferred from the Instances of the Rebellious Ifraelites, the Fallen Angels, Sodom and Gomorrah. Very Black Descriptions of these Hereticks. The Traditional History of Michael, and Prophecy of Enoch referred to. Christians not to be surprized at these Hereticks, because foretold by the Prophets, and by Christ Himself. He Exhorts them to Steddiness in the True Faith. Prays for them, and concludes.

J

UDE the servant of Jesus Chrift,

and brother of James, to them that are fanctified by God the Father, and preferved

in Jesus Christ, and called.

2 Mercy unto you, and peace, and love be multiplied.

1 & 2.

UDE

FD Talled Witter.

(called in the Gof- Written

beus, to diftinguish him from Judas ✓
Iscariot) the Brother of James,
Bishop of Jerusalem, an Apostle of
Jesus Christ, sendeth this Epiftle to
the Jewish Christians, to all that in
these Corrupted, Perfecuting and A-
postatizing Times, remain firm and
fteddy to their Profession: Wishing
you the utmost Degree of Divine
Favour and Happiness.

3 Beloved, when
I gave all diligence to
write unto you of the
common falvation; it
was needful for me to
write unto you, and
exhort you, that ye
should earnestly con-
tend for the faith which was once * delivered unto the saints.

3. In Writing to you, dear Brethren, upon the great Subject of our Christianity, the chief and most necessary Argument I can chuse to infist upon is, that of Courage and Constancy to the plain and original Doctrines of it *.

A.D.67.

4 For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this con

4. One would think, indeed, this were a needless Topick to Men really profeffing themselves Disciples of Chrift: But, that Lewd and Wicked Set of Men, whose Vices and Punishment were * foretold by the Prophets and by Christ himself, fome of them denying Chrift to be the True Meffiah at all, others || affirming He Lived, and Preached, and Died in Appearance only, and not in Reality; and all of them, by promoting some Vicious Practice or other, have so infinuated themselves into, and corrupted the Chriftian Church, that we are forced to run back to the Defence of its first and plainest Principles.

demnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasci↑ The Jewish viousness, and deny ing the only Lord Hereticks. God, and our Lord John xiii. Jesus Chrift.

Zealots.

See Pref.

5 I will therefore
put you in remem-
brance, though ye
once knew this, how
that the Lord having

faved the people out
of the land of Egypt,

afterward destroyed
them that believed

not.

5. Wherefore, to prevent you from being drawn into that desperate Principle of theirs, viz. That the External Profeffion of Religion, and the Privilege of being Member's of the true Church, is enough to fave a Man, whatever his Practice be; and, at the same time, to fatisfy you, how certain the Punishment

of fuch Wretches will be ; let me remind you of the former Dealings of God in the like Cafes. The Ifraelites you know were the Chosen People, and Church of God: Yet how were They, that had the Favour of a Miraculous Deliverance from Egyptian Bondage, destroyed for their Disobedience, and never faw the promised Land!

6. And

* Of Old fore-ordained to this Condemnation : προγεγραμμένοι εἰς τῦτο το αίμα; Men of whom it was before-written that they would deserve this Condemnation, 2 Pet. ii. 3.

Ibid. Denying the only Lord God; i. e. denying Him, in effect, by denying Christ his Son, or by corrupting the True Religion, as to defeat all the main Designs of it. See 1 John ii. 22, 23.

6 And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation,

he hath reserved in

everlafting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.

6. Nay, to go higher, the very A. D. 67. Angels themselves, that acted unworthy of the blissful Station and ... Dig- ··· ἄρχὴνο nity God has placed them in, were thrust down from those bright Regions of Light and Happiness, and are here kept in this dark and lower | World, as Prisoners referved in || 2 Pet. ii. 4. Chains, against the Great Day of

Judgment upon them, and all Wicked Men.

7 Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them, in like manner giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal

7. What was the total and irreparable Destruction of those Lewd and Beastly Cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, but an Emblem of that more dreadful and Eternal Punishment that will be the final Portion of the Debauched † Hereticks of these See 2 Pet.

Times? fire.

8 Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities. fications, but in the most Vain and Extravagant Fancies, and Imaginations of the Mind too. They are not only Lawless, Ungovernable and Arrogant against all Temporal Authority, but have Notions that are disgraceful to, and reflecting upon, the Dignity of Heavenly * and Superior Beings.

8. Who, not only equal, but even exceed the Sodomites in their Impieties; indulging themselves not only in the fame Excess of Carnal Grati

9 Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil,

he difputed about the

body of Mofes, durst + not bring against him any railing accusation, but faid, The

Lord rebuke thee.

10 But

ii. 6.

* See 2 Pet. ii. the Note

9 & 10. You cannot but stand a- there.

mazed at their Insolence, when you
compare it with the Traditional Ac-
count you Jews have had about the
Strife between Michael and Samael |||| ||| See Light-
the Devil, called the Angel of Death,
concerning the Body of Moses. Your
Traditions tell you, the Archangel

Dd

returned

+ Ver.9. Durst not bring, &c. ἐκ ἐτόλμησε; He did not think it fit or meet: So that Greek Word is often used to fignify.

foot.

A. D. 67.

10 But these speak evil || of those things || See 2 Pet. which they know not : ii. 11, 12. but what they know naturally, as brate

returned the Devil none of his railing Accufations, but only faid, The Lord rebuke thee*. While these impudent Creatures, like Savage Beasts, fly at and vilify every thing, of what beafts; in those things Rank and Quality foever, without

they corrupt them-
selves.

11. Wo unto them,
for they have gone in
the way of Cain, and
ran greedily after the

error of Balaam for a
reward, and perished
in the gainfaying of

Core.

Reafon or Distinction.

11 Wo unto them! for if Cain's murdering his Brother was so dreadful a Crime, what muft it be in them to perfecute fuch Numbers of

their innocent Brethren ! if Balaam

was so wicked in seducing the Ifraelites to Idolatry, what must be their Guilt, who, against the more clear Light of the Gospel, seduce Christian People into Lewdness, Darkness and Destruction! And, if the Earth was made to swallow up Corah and his Company, for pretending to rival and affront Mofes, what must be the End of them that resist the Authority of Christ, and, by Forgeries and Delusions, set up against his inspired Apostles !

12 These are sports in your I fealts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds;

trees whose fruit wi† σπιλάδες thereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;

Rocks. See 2 Pet. ii.

13-17.

13 Raging

12 & 13. 'Tis impossible to describe them by any Comparisons that are black enough to reach them. When they are invited, to gratify their Appetites, 'tis indifferent to them, whether it be to an Idol-Feast, or a Feast of Charity, among the true Worshippers of God. They bring nothing but Scandal and f Danger to all they communicate with. The Lewdness and Slanders

of

* There is another Interpretation of this Verse, which makes it refer to Zach. iii. 2. For his View and Choice whereof I refer the more curious Reader to Mr. Le Clerk, Not. en Hammond. N. T.

† Feasts of Charity. 'Tis not clear whether these were meant of Sacramental Feasts among Christians, or Jewish Feasts, usual in the Evening of their Sabbaths, called κοινωνία, and ξενοδοχία. I have therefore so expressed it as to include both.

13 Raging waves of the fea, foming out their own shame ; * wandering stars, to whom is referved the blackness of darkness for ever.

of their Conversation are as blasting A. D.67.
as a Tempest, and a virtuous Word ~
or Action is no more to be expected
from them, than Fruit is from a
Tree that is perfectly withered and
stubbed up. They vent their shame-

ful and malicious Calumnies as plentifully as the Sea throws out its Foam in stormy Weather; and while they set up for Teachers and Doctors, Guides and * Lights to other Men, they are no better than those irregular Meteors that deceive and mislead the Mariner in a dark Night: And accordingly, eternal Darkness and the utmost Degree of Mifery will be their final Portion.

Lord cometh with ten thousands of his faints,

14 And Enoch al- 14 & 15. That Traditional Proso, the seventh from phesy the Jews have of Enoch, Adam, prophefied of concerning the Destruction of the these, saying, Behold, Old World, may as fitly be applied to these Men; for as their Impiety and Injustice, both in Words and Actions, do not only equal, but even furpass theirs, the Divine Judgments upon them will certainly be still more folemn, dreadful and exemplary.

15 To execute judg. ment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them, of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches, which ungodly finners have spoken against him.

* Wandering Stars: The Jewish Doctors were stiled, Lights and Spars.