A GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE PARAPHRASE AND NOTES ON THE CATHOLIC EPISTLE OF ST. JUDE. JUDE, or Judas, the author of this epistle, is often mentioned as one of the apostles of our Lord, and the brother of James the less. The canonical authority of this epistle hath been disputed; but it is not the business of these commentaries to enter largely into such questions. Probably its authenticity would never have been doubted, had it not been for an imagination, ill grounded indeed, that the author had quoted a spurious book, called the prophecy of Enoch. The reader may consult what learned men have written upon this argument, particularly, Dr. Lardner, in his Credibility of the Gospel History; Dr. Whitby, and Dr. Twells, in the second part of his critical examination of the new text and version of the New Testament. The latter hath collected the principal materials with accuracy, and set them in a clear and convincing light. There is a remarkable similarity between this epistle and part of the second epistle of St. Peter, which, (as we observed in the Introduction to that epistle,) was probably owing to this, that both the apostles drew their character of the false teachers, against whom they cautioned their readers, from the character given of the false prophets in some ancient Jewish 342 A general introduction, &c. author; and it is very possible too, (as Bishop Sherlock observes,) that St. Jude might have the second epistle of St. Peter before him. Dr. Mill fixes the date of this epistle about the year 90; (see his Prolegomena, p. 17, sect. 145, edit. Kuster ;) and his principal argument is, that the false teachers, which St. Peter describes as yet to come, St. Jude mentions as already come. But, on a comparison, there does not appear that remarkable difference in their phraseology, which will be sufficient to prove that St. Jude wrote his epistle so long after St. Peter's second epistle as is here supposed, though I acknowledge, it will prove that it was written after it. The design of the apostle is plainly, " by describing the character of the false teachers, and pointing out the Divine judgments which persons of such a character had reason to expect, to caution Christians against listening to their suggestions, and being thereby perverted from the faith and purity of the gospel." For the analysis of the epistle, I refer my reader to the contents prefixed to the two sections, into which I have divided it. : The apostle Jude, after a general salutation, exhorts the Christians to whom he wrote, strenuously to assert the purity of their com mon faith; reminding them of the destruction which came on God's professing people, yea, on the apostate angels, for their sins; us well as on the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah; and then he begins the description of some seditious and abandoned persons, from whom he imagined them in peculiar danger. Jude, ver. 1-11. JUDE 1. UDE the servant Jof Jesus Christ, You to them that are JUDE 1. Jude OU receive this epistle from Jude, who, SECT. like his brethren the other apostles, can- i. and brotherof James, not but rejoice and glory in the title of a sersanctified by God vant of Jesus Christ, and who is the brother of i the Father, and pre- James, so well known by his distinguished serserved in Jesus vices and sufferings in the cause of our Divine Christ, and called: Master; and he inscribes it to those who are sanctified in God the Father, devoted to his service through the influence of his grace; who are also the called and preserved in Jesus Christ, 344 St. Jude inscribes his epistle to Christians ; SECT. brought into the fellowship of his religion, and i. guarded by his grace, in the midst of a thousand snares, which might have tempted them to have made shipwreck of their faith. May mercy, Jude 2 2 Mercy unto you, and peace, and love, from our heavenly Father, and peace, and love, and our compassionate Saviour, be multiplied to be multiplied. you; and may you increase in all the happy fruits of Divine favour and mercy; and especially, in that spirit of candour and charity which is to be numbered among the most precious of 3 them. saints. My beloved, giving all diligence to 3 Beloved, when write to you concerning the common salvation, I gave all diligence to write unto you of to the hope of which we are brought by the the common salvaprofession of the gospel, I judged it necessary tion, it was needful to direct my pen, particularly with respect to for me to write unto those unhappy attempts that have been made, that ye should earnyou, and exhort you, to adulterate Christianity, by some who con- estly contend for the tinue to profess a regard to it. I now there- faith which was once fore write to you, exhorting and beseeching delivered unto the [you] to strive earnestly for the faith, which was once for all delivered to the saints, for the instruction of every future age; and not to suffer any by violence or by fraud, to rob you of so 4 inestimable a treasure. For some crafty and 4 For there are pernicious men have, as it were, with a serpen- unawares, who were certain men crept in tine art glided in among us, who were of old, as before of old ordainit were, described and registered to this condem- ed to this condemnation, by God's righteous sentence denounc * Giving all diligence to write to you con- tion may be considered as described in the cerning the common salvation, &c.] Some punishment of other notorious sinners, have supposed the meaning is, That who were a kind of representatives of whereas he intended to write them a prac- them. Which interpretation I prefer to tical letter, he was compelled to go into any other, as it tends to clear God of that some controversial subjects. I rather think he intends to declare by this expression, that the exhortation he now gives them, to contend earnestly for the faith, was indeed subservient to promote that common salvation he designed to lead them to the pursuit of Bishop Sherlock thinks the faith delivered to the saints, is the same with the holy commandment delivered, 2 Pet. ii. 21, that is, with the directions and instructions which the council of the apostles had sent them, with regard to these pes tilent teachers. Sherlock on Proph. p. 200, 5th Edit. b Who were registered to this condemnation] The word ggr may well signify described and put upon record; that is, whose character and condemna heavy imputation which it must bring upon his moral attributes, to suppose that he appoints men to sin against him, and then condemns them for doing what they could not but do, and what they were, independent on their own freedom of choice, fated to. A doctrine so pregnant with gloomy, and, as I should fear, with fatal consequences, that I think it a part of the duty I owe to the word of God, to rescue it from the imputation of containing such a tenet. Bishop Sherlock thinks, the word refers to the description given of such kind of persons by an ancient writer of the Jewish nation, cited as he supposes in this epistle, and in the second chapter of the second epistle of Peter. Sherl on Proph. p. 181, 5th Edit. Compare ver. 14, 5, 7, 8. reminding them of God's judgment on the fallen angels : 345 our God into lascivi 4 i. Jude nation, ungodly men, ed against crimes like theirs, long before they SECT. turning the grace of appeared in the world. Impious and ungrate ousness, and deny- ful men, who presume to turn even the grace of ing the only Lord our God itself, which ought to be an everlasting God, and our Lord source of love, and engagement to sanctity and Jesus Christ. obedience, into an occasion of lasciviousness; as if they thought they might with impunity go on to sin, that grace might abound; and denying God the only original Sovereign, and our Lord Jesus Christ, whom he has invested with universal dominion, to be acknowledged by all who 5 I will therefore would not be found rebels against himself! But 5 put you in remem- I would remind you, as you once knew this, that brance, though ye having been taught it, you may never forget it, that the Lord hav- even that the Lord, having saved the people, of ing saved the people Israel from out of the land of Egypt, and rescuout of the land of ed them by so glorious an interposition of his Egypt, afterwards almighty power, afterwards destroyed those that destroyed them that did not believe, though they had once experienc once knew this, how believed not. ed so wonderful a deliverance. And thus should we have reason to fear, that notwithstanding our Christian profession, he would destroy us, if we adulterate and pervert his religion after a manner contrary to its original 6 And the angels design. The angels also who kept not their first 6 which kept not their state, but suffering their minds to be transportfirst estate, but left ed with ambitious and irregular passions, their own habitation, he hath reserved in were discontented in that high rank of being everlasting chains which Providence assigned them, and left their under darkness, unto the judgment of proper abode in the region of glory, instead of the great day. permitting them to advance themselves by their rebellion, he has by his righteous vengeance precipitated into the pit of destruction, and reserved in perpetual bonds, under darkness, in the infernal prison, to be brought forth at the judgment of the great day, and then to receive 7 Even as Sodom their final sentence. And earth has produced 7 * God the Sovereign, and our Lord, &c] Some would reder it, our only Master, God and Lord. See Dr. Watts on the Trin. p. 113. But it seems most agreeable to the general doctrine and phraseology of scripture, to retain our translation. Compare John xvii. 3. Their first state: The axey Baulav.] Some translate these words, the government of themselves. But Dr. Scott interprets it of that place in heaven which was assigned them, and which they were not. content with; and their leaving this first habitation he takes to have been a voluntary thing, and that they chose to come down to the neighbourhood of this earth, that they might seduce mankind to join with them in their revolt. But this does not seem to suit the phrase of their being cast out, 2 Pet. ii. 4. Mr. Boyse would translate it, their own head, that is, Christ. Boyse's Serm. Vol. III. p. 406. Compare Hos. i. 11, in the Seventy. |