who are proud that they can derive their pedigree so far as Adam, may be humble if they would go a little further. Remember whence thou art, and consider whither thou shalt go: nothing so unsuitable as pride for a clod of the earth. A man can never have too low thoughts of himself, but in the bowing down his nature to accompany with sin. He who would not endure pride in the angels of heaven, will not endure it in dust and ashes; and such even great Abraham calls himself; a fitter style, than most illustrious, high and mighty, invincible, &c. When thou art mounting up in proud and self-admiring thoughts, remember thou art from Adam, earthen Adam. Agathocles, a potter's son, when he came to be king, humbled himself with setting earthen vessels on his cupboard. If dust be sprinkled upon the wings of bees, their noises, hummings, risings, will (they say) quickly cease: when thou beginnest to grow proud, sprinkle thy thoughts with this remembrance, I am but dust. Further, we may hence gather the wonderful power of God's blessing, that of one so many millions should come; from one root such multitudes of branches. God can bless one into millions, and blast millions again into one, into nothing: God's powerful benediction multiplied Adam's numerous offspring. He whom God blesses shall be blessed; he whom God curses shall be cursed. We see the way to thrive in any kind; the blessing of God maketh rich, and without it thy own industrious endeavours will not help thee: he cursed the fig-tree, and it withered up at the roots. More particularly, we see from whom to beg the increase of posterity. It is from God that Jacob expected and desired, in his blessing, that Ephraim and Manasseh should grow into a multitude, Gen. xlviii. 16. See also Ruth iv. 11, 12. Hence also we may observe the goodness of God in continuing the blessing of increase to Adam, even after his fall; that sinful Adam should be the father of such a posterity: God might have said, Here is enough of one man, and too much; I will suffer no more to be of the kind. We destroy poisonous and hurtful creatures that they may not breed. But mark further, that merciful power of God to cause a holy offspring, a sanctified seed, though not such as coming of, yet to come of a sinful, fallen parent; that God should make white paper of dunghill rags; that any of Adam's unsanctified nature should partake of the Divine nature; in a word, that Enochs should be from Adam. Truly there was more mercy discovered in the changing one Enoch, than there would have been justice put forth in condemning a whole world. In a word, how should this our derivation from the first, put us upon labouring to get into the Second Adam; he who is but a man, a son of Adam, is a miserable man, a child of wrath. How careful should we be to get off from the old, dead, poisonous root and stock, and to be branches ingrafted into and growing upon the living, life-giving stock, the Lord Christ! In Adam, saith the apostle, all die, and in Christ all are made alive. "As we have borne the image of the earthy," so should we be restless till we bear that of "the heavenly," I Cor. xv. 49.

Obs. 5. It is our duty prudently to take our best advantages for truth's advancement. Thus Jude alleges here the prophecy of such a person as might in likelihood most draw respect and credit.

2. The honourable performance of Enoch, and that was his prophesying; he "prophesied of these." Three things may be inquired into by way of explication.

1. What our apostle intends in this place by prophesying.

2. How Jude came by, or whence he received, the prophecy of Enoch.

3. Why he alleges and instances this particular prophecy.

1. What the apostle intends by prophesying. The word prophesy is in Scripture taken five several

ways.

(1.) Sometimes it signifies no more See Diodate's than to be present at the public minis- Annotations on try, and to partake of the doctrine 1 Cor. xi. 5. thereof. Thus I understand it in that place, "Every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head," 1 Cor. xi. 5; for otherwise women were not allowed to speak in the church.

(2.) Prophecy is taken for the written word, 2 Pet. i. 20.

(3.) Elsewhere to prophesy signifies to expound, interpret, and apply the Scriptures to the edification of the church. "Despise not prophesyings," 1 Thess. v. 20; and, "He that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort," 1 Cor. xiv. 3.

(4.) Sometimes it signifies to know and to be able to declare things either past or present, which a man either by nature or industry is not able to know; and so it signifies to divine: thus it is taken Matt. xxvi. 68; Mark xiv. 65, &c., where they who had blinded Christ bid him, by way of derision, prophesy who it was that smote him: to this purpose said the Pharisee, Luke vii. 39, "This man, if he were a prophet, would have known," &c.

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(5.) Strictly and properly to prophesy, is to foreshow or foretell things to come, or that afterward shall be fulfilled. Thus it is taken Acts xxi. 9, Philip had four daughters, virgins, which did prophesy." Thus Ezek. xxi. 2, compared with ver. 7. So Ezek. xxix. 2; xxx. 2; xxxiv. 2; xxxviii. 2. And thus it must necessarily be taken in this place. "Enoch prophesied of these" by way of prediction, or he foretold their punishment.

2. Whence Jude received this prophecy or prediction of Enoch. To this some say that Jude took this prophecy out of an ancient book, written of old by this" Enoch the seventh from Adam." True it is, that in ancient times there were some writings dispersed abroad in the church, under the name of Enoch, and called by the name of Enoch's book; and of these Origen makes mention in his last homily on Numbers. And Tertullian, in his third chapter, de habitu muliebri, affirms that the book of Enoch was preserved by Noah in the ark and brought forth after the flood; and he attributes the opinion of its want of authority to the malice of the Jews, who, saith he, because some eminent testimonies concerning Christ may be produced out of it, endeavoured to suppress it. Augustine also mentions books bearing Enoch's name. That, then, there were such books called by the name of Enoch, it is not denied; but that Enoch was indeed the author of them, and that Jude made use of them, none can either probably or soberly

suppose. The books, saith Augustine, Non sunt scripta

vabatur in templo.

fidei, &c.

proferuntur, con

Recte a prudenti

which under the name of Enoch are in canone qui serproduced are to be suspected for false, Cur autem hoc and none of his, because the Jews never nisi quia suspecte accounted them canonical, nor kept la quæ sub them in the temple as such; and they Enochi uomine abound with fables. Among the rest, tinent tabulas. that fond and erroneous conceit, so con- bus judicantur trary both to Scripture and reason, that non ipsius esse the angels in their assumed bodies 1. 15 de Civ. Dei, went in unto the daughters of men, and c. 23. so begat those giants mentioned Gen. vi. 4. Though this fabulous error, being entitled to so holy and ancient an author as Enoch, was embraced by Justin Martyr, Cyprian, Clemens Alexandrinus, and some

credenda. Aug.

Libros Enochi plane supposititios esse ut mihi

persuadeam, facit

quod in ecclesia Dei ante Baby

lonicam captivitaphetarum libris ht mentio tam rari non credibile est,

thesauri, quem

si in rerum natura fuisset, Mosem

lafuisse, qui etiam Enochi meminis

scriptorum

set in hac historia

si tunc extitissent.

others. Besides, had there been any such true book or prophecy of Enoch in writing, no doubt but it would have been very famous and highly set by among the Jews, both for the antiquity and holiness of the author, as also for the preciousness of the matter, of which some mention would have been made by the holy prophets, or by Philo and Josephus, who were curious preservers and writers of Jewish antiquities, who yet never discovered to us that rare Rivet. in Exerc. treasure. And that Moses was the first in Gen. xlix. of all the holy writers, I think is the constant judgment of all learned divines, protestant and popish; nor does Christ acknowledge any holy writer to be more ancient than Moses; for, Luke xxiv. 27, it is said, that "beginning at Moses, he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself." Now if Enoch had written a book, probable it is that Christ would have begun at him, he being so long before Moses, to have explained the prophecies of his humility and glory; the latter whereof this prophecy of Enoch, here mentioned by Jude, so clearly discovers. It is therefore the opinion of some learned men, that if there were in Jude's time any writing which went under Enoch's name, it was written by some Jews, who mixed some things good and true, which peradventure they received by tradition concerning the prophecies of Enoch, with other things false and fabulous; which book of theirs might be more and more in the progress of time corrupted, and was deservedly rejected as apocryphal. Possibly out of this book Jude might

take this passage. The penmen of Holy Scripture

have, not seldom, taken several passages which tended to edification out of profane authors, and thereby sanctified them to the use of the church, Acts xvii. 28; 1 Cor. xv. 33; Tit. i. 12; and yet, as Rivet well notes, since Jude saith that Enoch prophesied, it was necessary that Jude should have a peculiar revelation from the Holy Ghost, to assure him that the prophecy, recited by an apocryphal author, did indeed come from Enoch; for otherwise, should he only rely upon the authority of an apocryphal book, the prophecy related by Jude would no more be canonical than it was as set down by the apocryphal writer.

Capta occasione

ex prophetia Herata a Juda, libros

nochi commemo

quasi antiquitus scriptos publicarunt. Perer, in

de Orig. fac.

Others, protestants and papists, assert, that after the death of the apostles, some impostors, taking occasion by Jude's alleging the prophecy of Enoch, published and set forth a book under the name of Enoch, that so by its bearing the name of one so pious and ancient, it might find the Gen. Nieremberg better acceptance. Of this opinion is scrip. pa. mihi 51. the learned Gomarus, who withal gives a parallel instance of the feigning of an epistle, under Paul's name, to be written to the Laodiceans, by occasion of that passage of Col. iv. 16; so that according to this opinion some took occasion to write this fictitious book of Enoch by reading Jude's Epistle; not that Jude ever saw any book under Enoch's name extant, or took his prophecy out of it. Many learned men therefore very probably conceive that our apostle received this prophecy from common and undoubted tradition, transmitted from the patriarchs, and so handed from generation to generation, till such time as it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, by the apostle Jude, to make it a part of Scripture. And thus the apostle mentions the withstanding of Moses by Jannes and Jambres; Jacob's worshipping upon the top of his staff; Moses's saying that the sight upon the mount was so terrible, that "I exceedingly fear and quake." Thus it is said that

Joseph's feet were hurt with fetters, and that he was laid in irons. All which passages, being no where mentioned in their proper stories, were received by tradition from generation to generation; the Spirit of God nevertheless sanctifying them, and giving them the stamp of Divine authority, to be most certain and infallible, by putting the penmen of holy writ to insert them into the Scripture. And by this which has been said, we answer, those who argue against this Epistle being canonical, from Jude's alleging, as they conceive, an apocryphal author, or his bringing in a tradition no where recorded in Scripture, the citing of these by our apostle, if he did cite them out of any author, being so far from making him apocryphal, that he makes them, so far as he uses them, canonical; as also, we hereby answer the papists, who because the apostles have sometimes transferred some things from human writings and tradition into Holy Scripture, take the boldness to do the like, and to join traditions with the Holy Scripture; not considering that they want that Spirit of discerning which the apostles had, who, by making use of traditions, gave them Divine authority. They were immediately influenced by the Holy Ghost in all their writings; but we are not endowed with the same measure of the Spirit, and therefore neither are able nor ought to imitate them herein.

3. The third thing to be explained is, why the apostle alleged and instanced this particular prophecy of Enoch.

The reasons why Jude made choice of this prophecy may be reduced to these two heads; (1.) The first taken from the prophet.

(2.) The second from the prophecy itself. And the consideration of the prophet Enoch induced Jude to use the prophecy, because the prophet was, 1. Eminent for his antiquity; he was the seventh from Adam: this seems to put great respect upon the prophecy; as if Jude had said, The sins of these seducers, which had judgment threatened against them almost from the very beginning of the world, so many thousands of years before they were committed, must needs be heinous and odious now when these sinners are acting them; and those sins which God has so anciently threatened, will at length be most severely punished. 2. This prophet was famous both for his piety and privileges; he was not only eminent for his piety in walking with God, which was his own benefit, and for his public usefulness, in warning and instructing that corrupt age in which he lived, keeping up the name of God in the world, opposing the profaneness of his times; but also for that glorious and unheard-of privilege of being taken to God, who thereby proclaimed him to be fit for no company but his own, and one for whom no place was good enough but heaven; a child, though sent abroad into the world as the rest, yet whom his Father so tenderly loved, that he would not suffer him to stay half so long from home as his other children; one who had done much work in a little time, and who having made a proficiency in that heavenly art of holiness above all his fellows, had that high degree of heavenly glory conferred upon him long before the ordinary time.

(2.) In respect of the suitableness of the prophecy itself to Jude's present occasion. And, I. It was most suitable in respect of its certainty; it was a prophecy. Enoch prophesied, he spake from God, not uttering his own inventions, but God's inspirations; the foretelling of things to come being a Divine prerogative, and such which without revelation from God the creature cannot attain. And the Scripture assures us that it was God who "spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world

began," Luke 1. 70. How suitable was it to produce a prophecy sure to be fulfilled, coming from God by the mouth of a holy prophet, against these fearless, scornful sinners, who mocked at the last judgment! 2. Of its severity; what prophecy more fit for the secure scorners than a prophecy of judgment, the last, universal, unavoidable, unsupportable, eternal judgment? They might possibly slight the particular examples of God's judgments upon the angels, the Sodomites, the Israelites; but the arrow of the general judgment, prophesied of by Enoch against all the ungodly, would not perhaps be so easily shaken out of their sides. If any denunciation could affect them, surely it would be that which was prophetical; and if any prophetical denunciation, that of the last judgment. If the last judgment has made heathens tremble when but discoursed of before them, how should it dismay those who profess to know God when threatened against them! How bold in sin are they who will not fear the judgment! How can he who believes judgment to be dreadful, but dread to do that which shall be punished in that judgment? Even the devils at the sight of their Judge trembled to think of their judgment, Matt. viii. 29.

Honorandi prop

non adorandi propter religionem. Aug. de Ver. Rel.cap. 55.

Obs. 1. The greatest honour to departed saints is to embrace their holy instructions. Enoch's person was not to be worshipped, but his prophecy to be believed. Saints are to be honoured by ter imitationem, following their doctrines, by imitation of their practices, not by religious adoration. It is easy to commend their memories by our words, and to reverence their relics; but the art of Christianity appears in praising them with the language of our conversations, 1 Cor. xi. 1. The bark of a tree may be carried upon a man's shoulder without any pain or difficulty, but it requires strength and labour to carry away the body of the tree: the outside or shell of superstitious, popish adorations men easily perform; the heart and life of religion, which is that of the heart and life, men cannot away with. The Pharisees, who painted the sepulchres of the deceased prophets, opposed their piety, as also those holy ones in their times who were influenced by the same spirit of holiness which showed itself in those prophets of old. The Jews who boasted that they had Abraham for their father, did not the works of their father Abraham, but of their father the devil. Many are like Samson, that took honey out of the dead lion, praise dead ancient saints to be sweet and holy men; who, were they alive, would roar upon them for their lusts, would oppose and hate them: the right way (then) to reverence the godly who are departed this life, is to be led by that Spirit whereby they were led while they

lived.

Obs. 2. Threatenings denounced by Divine warrant should deter us from sin. If Enoch's prophecy, which was of Divine authority, foretell judgments, they must not be slighted. As Divine promises should uphold and comfort us in our lowest and weakest estate; so should Divine threatenings make us tremble, and affright us from sin, in our greatest strength and highness. The Ninevites, by fearing evils foretold by Jonah against them, prevented the feeling of them. Josiah holily feared, and his "heart was tender," and he humbled himself when he heard what the Lord spake against Jerusalem, 2 Kings xxii. 19. When "Micah the Morashite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, Zion shall be ploughed like a field," &c., Hezekiah feared, “and besought the Lord,” Jer. xxvi. 18, 19. A judgment denounced by God cannot be kept off by power: there is no might or strength against the Lord. The hand of the Lord is not weakened, nor is his arm shortened, when he deals

with his most potent adversaries. As God can create deliverances when he intends to show mercy, so can he create judgments when he purposes to punish. The truth of a threatening will break through the greatest improbabilities of its approaching. Though the Chaldeans were all as wounded men, if he threaten to punish by them, they shall be victorious against the unrepenting Jews, Jer. xxxvii. 10. There is no way of flying from God but by flying to him: the way to get out of the reach of judgments threatened, is to repent at the threatening of them: nothing but our repenting sincerely can make God repent mercifully. Oh how foolish a madness is it by politic endeavours to imagine a prevention of judgments divinely threatened, or by persecuting the prophet to think to overthrow the prophecy! "The prophets, do they live for ever?" yet" my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not take hold of your fathers?" Zech. i. 5, 6. Paul suffered trouble" even unto bonds; but the word of God" (saith he) "is not bound," 2 Tim. ii. 9.

Obs. 3. Sinners should look upon the threatenings denounced against others for sin as belonging to them without repentance. The wicked against whom Enoch immediately prophesied were such as lived ungodlily in his time; and yet the apostle saith that he prophesied against these seducers: the reason is, because these lived in the same sins with those wicked ones of old. As the promises made to the godly who lived in former times belong to those who imitate them in succeeding ages, so the threatenings denounced against former sinners are denounced also against those who follow them in sin; and that by the constant analogy and proportion of justice, unless these repent, they shall likewise perish, Luke xiii. 3. Strong is the inference of the apostle, "If God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee," Rom. xi. 21. Threatenings denounced against and inflicted upon those who lived in former times, manifest God's equal dislike of those who shall live in the same sins in succeeding ages; showing thereby that he is prepared, if they will also sin, to do what he has done against those who lived before them. Though God's forbearance towards some shows that sometimes he can spare sinners, yet his punishing others shows that he never loves sin. In all ages God is the same, he abhors sin in all the ages of the world; nor will he go out of his way to gratify men's lusts: changing is not God's property, but the sinner's duty. "If he turn not, he will whet his sword," Psal. vii. 12.

tus. Ignat.

quitatis traducem

fallacia. Aug. qu.

Obs. 4. Doctrines of greatest antiquity are only to be embraced as they consent with the testimonies which come from the infallible Spirit of Mihi pro archivis God, Psal. cxix. 100. Enoch, though est Jesus Christhe seventh from Adam, and so very ancient, yet only is to be believed in what he said, as speaking by prophecy, and receiving what he delivered from Divine revelation. Whatever doctrines proceed not from or agree not to this, are, not- Mos diabolicus withstanding all pretences of antiquity, est, ut per antito be rejected as spurious. The pa- commendetur pists who have no patronage from Scrip- 114. Nov. et Vet. ture, have but a rotten support for their Test. opinions which pretend to greatest antiquity. Custom without truth is but the antiquity of error. The most proudly swelling allegations of the ancients are but like a swollen leg, which though it be large, is yet but weak, and unable to bear up the body: the authority of Religionis autorireligion must not be measured by time. tas non est temWe reverence the ancient fathers, and Arob, contr. hold it our duty to rise up before the Gent. 1.2. hoary head, and to honour the person of quitatis, sed an

Cypr. Ep. 74.

pore metienda.

Non veritas anti

tiquitas veritatis ecclesiæ authoriRiv. contr. Q. 7.

tatem confert.

p. 924.

the aged; but still with reservation of the respect we owe to their Father and ours, that "Ancient of days, the hair of whose head is like the pure wool," Dan. vii. 9. In opposition to him we must "call no man father," Matt. xxiii. 9. Nor yet is this said as if papists were able to produce better proof out of the testimony of the ancients for their errors than we can do for the truth; but to give the word of God its due, which is that rock upon which alone we build our faith. The truth is, papists have removed the ancient land-mark which the fathers set, that so they may invade another's possession; their traditions are new boundaries; their doctrines of merits, image worship, equivocation, transubstantiation, denial of priests' marriage, power of the pope, are new and upstart, not only to the Scripture, but even to the writings of the ancients.

So much for the preface.

II. The prophecy itself of the last judgment. And in that, first the note of incitement, to cause regard to the following description of the judgment, in the word "behold."

The word behold is in Scripture used principally these two ways.

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1. As a note of manifestation of the truth, reality, certainty of a thing to be observed or believed. Thus it is used Matt. xxviii. 20, " Behold, I am with you to the end of the world." "Behold, I have given every herb bearing seed," Gen. i. 29. "Behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee," Gen. xxviii. 15. "Behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison," Rev. ii. 10. "Behold, there come two woes more," Rev. ix. 12. "Behold, the hour is at hand; and the Son of man is betrayed," &c., Matt. xxvi. 45. hold, happy is the man whom the Lord correcteth," Job v. 17. 66 Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him," Psal. xxxiii. 18; Rev. iii. 8, 9, 11, 20; Psal. xxxvii. 36; Zech. ix. 9; Matt. xxviii. 20; Gal. v. 2.

66

"Be

2. As a note of admiration, or to stir up attention for the great and stupendous wonderfulness of something that falls out. Thus it is taken 2 Kings vi. 17, "Behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire." "Behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain," Matt. xxvii. 51. And, "Behold, there was a great earthquake," Matt. xxviii. 2. Behold, a virgin shall conceive," Isa. vii. 14. Behold, I show you a mystery," &c., 1 Cor. xv. 51; Luke xiii. 16; Acts i. 10; vii. 56; xii. 7; Gen. xxix. 6. The word behold in this place may, suitably to the subject in hand, the coming of Christ to judgment, be considered as denoting both these.

(1.) The certainty and truth thereof, it being a thing as sure as if it were before our eyes, and already accomplished, like that minatory prediction of the prophet concerning the house of Jeroboam, 1 Kings xiv. 14, "But what? even now;" a thing that ought to sink into the hearts of hearers, and that which they cannot too firmly and fixedly believe. The infallible predictions of Scripture which must be fulfilled, the judgments of God already executed upon some sinners, the fears of natural conscience, God's justice, which will render to every one according to his works; and lastly, the fitness that the body shall have its due retribution as well as the soul, all prove the certainty of the last judgment, Acts i. 11; Matt. xxiv. 30; 2 Thess. i. 7-12; Acts xvii. 32; xxiv. 25; Gen. xviii. 25; 1 Thess. i. 10; 2 Cor. v. 10; Rev. xx. 12.

(2.) The word behold may be considered as a note of admiration, denoting a most wonderful and strange thing, like that behold Hab. i. 5, " Behold, and wonder marvellously, for I will work a work in

your days which ye will not believe, though it be told you." And this coming of Christ is wonderful and strange, 1. In respect of the wicked, to whom it is unexpected, they thereby being unprepared for it; it comes as a snare upon them, in a day wherein they look not for it, in an hour wherein they are not aware, Luke xii. 46, " as a thief in the night. When they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape," 1 Thess. v. 2, 3. 2. It is wonderful in respect of the astonishing glory of the coming of Christ to judgment, together with the judgment itself, of which I have largely spoken before.

Obs. 1. Our thoughts only of those things which are truly great and glorious should be high and admiring. Behold," saith Enoch, as noting the astonishing wonderfulness of the last judgment. This truly great thing should be looked upon as such. It is the folly of most men to look upon small things as great, and upon great things as small; human judgments affright and amaze them, the last judgment they slight and neglect. These want that rectified judgment of the apostle, who calls the day of judgment the appearing of the great God; and so preached of the judgment to come, that he made Felix tremble; whereas he tells us how little he estimated man's judgment, 1 Cor. iv. 3. Thus likewise our Saviour directs his disciples to contemn that which is small and contemptible, Fear not him that kills the body; and to dread that which is truly great and formidable, Fear him who can destroy both body and soul in hell, Matt. x. 28. When the disciples beheld with wonder, and showed to Christ the beautiful buildings of the temple, he, with a holy contempt of those outside beauties, tells them there shall not be one stone of all those stately structures left upon another that shall not be thrown down; and when Satan showed and offered him all the kingdoms of the world with their glory, he showed his contempt of the prospect and promotion, with a "Get thee behind me, Satan;" but when he observed the faith of the centurion, he wonders, and expresses his admiration to the people, Luke vii. 9.

Obs. 2. Great is our natural backwardness to mind and believe the coming of Christ to judgment. Enoch prefixes a note of incitement to his prophecy. The wicked take occasion to be secure, and to cast off the thought of Christ's coming, from the procrastination and delaying thereof. Men scoff at the promise of the coming of Christ, because (say they)" since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation," 2 Pet. iii. 4. That servant who said that his Lord delayed his coming, Luke xii. 45, instead of minding and preparing for it, beat his fellow servants, and also did eat, and drink, and was drunken. Hence it is that men say, Peace and safety, even when sudden destruction is coming upon them, 1 Thess. v. 3. Men are naturally led by sense; what they see not, feel not, they believe not. As Noah's flood was a type of the last judgment, so the disposition of men when that deluge approached resembled that which shall be in sinners at the coming of Christ. As in the days before the flood there was eating, drinking, marrying, &c., "so shall also the coming of the Son of man be," Matt. xxiv. 38, 39. And so great, likewise, is naturally every sinner's self-love, that they love to shun the thoughts of every thing which they love not; they are ready to say to themselves, as did Peter to Christ, "Be it far from thee; this shall not be unto thee;" they put far from them the last day, because they look upon it as the evil day, nay, the worst day; they love the world, and their hearts grow to it, and

therefore it is death to them to think of an unsettlement. Their Sodom they so much delight in, that, like Lot's wife, they cannot endure to think of a shower of fire; herein resembling some, who are therefore unwilling to make their wills, because they cannot away with the thoughts of death. To rectify this distemper, as we should labour to find this great day a good day, and the great Lord our good Lord, and to be such that even out of this devouring lion we may take honey; so, consider that,

Obs. 3. The last judgment is to be looked upon as a matter of greatest certainty; not as a fiction, but as a most real and undoubted thing. We should look upon it to be as certain as if it were already with us. It is the policy of Satan, to make us diffident of that of which we should be confident, and confident of that of which we should be diffident. He presents his own lies as certainties, and God's truths as lies, or at the best as conjectural uncertainties; but our faith must take into its vast comprehension God's whole revealed will, part whereof is this of the last judgment. The last and dreadful judgment will never affright us from sin, if we look upon it in the devil's dress of uncertainty; for then we shall but sport with it, and make it our play-fellow instead of our monitor. Let us therefore labour to make it by prayer and meditation to sink into our hearts, and to believe it, though never so distant from or opposite to sense; taking heed lest the deferring thereof, and the present impunity of sinners, destroy or damp our belief of Christ's coming to judgment; considering that if every offender should now be openly punished, men would think that nothing would be reserved to the last judgment; as on the contrary, if no offender should be plagued, men would

Si nunc omne

peccatum manifesta plecteretur mo judicio reserrursus, si nullum

pœna, nihil ulti

vari crederetur :

peccatum nunc puniret aperte divinitas, nulla

believe that there were no Providence. And let us beware lest we make that esse divina provi- concealment of the last judgment to be an occasion of sin, which God intends should be an incentive to re

dentia putaretur. Aug. de Civ. Dei, cap. 8.

pentance.

This briefly for the note of incitement, "Behold.” 2. The description of the judgment, and in that, first, the coming of the Judge to judgment; "The Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints."

And here, 1. The title, 2. Approach, 3. Attendance of the Judge, are all worthy of consideration by way of explication.

Paul, I Cor. vii. 29, its sails almost wound up. The Judge stands at the door. He that shall come will come, and will not tarry." If he were coming in Enoch's time, if in the first, what is he then in the last times, as these are frequently called! Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly. "Behold, I come quickly," Rev. iii. 11. The bride's prayer and the Bridegroom's promise are both for speedy coming. "Behold, he cometh with clouds," Rev. i. 7; not, shall come; he is as good as come already. Christ cometh to us either in Spirit or in person.

[1] In Spirit he cometh, 1. In the ministry, to win and persuade us to come to him: thus he went and preached in Noah's time to the spirits now in prison, I Pet. iii. 19. 2. In some special manifestation of his presence in mercy or judgment: the former, when he meets us with comfort, strength, and increase of grace, John xiv. 18, 23; the latter, in testification of displeasure, Rev. ii. 16; John xvi. 8.

[2.] In person he comes two ways. 1. In carnem. 2. In carne. 1. Into flesh, in humility in his incarnation, to be judged. 2. In flesh, in glory at the last day, to judge all flesh.

Where consider whence, whither, and when he cometh. "The

(1.) Whence he cometh. From heaven. Lord himself shall descend from heaven," 1 Thess. iv. 16; he shall come in the clouds of heaven: to heaven he ascended, and from heaven will he descend. "This Jesus, which is taken from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven," Acts i. 11. And it is necessary that Christ should come from heaven to judge, because it is not meet that the wicked should come thither, to him, though to be judged; for into that holy place can no unclean thing enter.

(2.) Whither cometh he? Some think that the judgment-seat shall be upon the earth, that the sentence may be given where the faults have been committed, and that in some place near Jerusalem, where the Judge was formerly unjustly condemned; and particularly some think it shall be in the valley of Jehoshaphat, though that place, Joel iii. 12, contains but an allegorical or typical prophecy. The apostle seems to intimate that the place of judgment shall be in the air, 1 Thess. iv. 17, where he mentions our being caught up to meet the Lord in the air, it being probable that the judgment shall be in that place where we shall meet the Judge, in the clouds of the air; and the Scripture saith he shall come in the clouds of heaven. Then the devils shall be con

have ruled all this while as princes. But over what place it seems to me a rashness to determine.

Tunc manifeste veniet judicaturus juste, qui occulte venerat judicandus injuste. Aug.

(2.) The approach of the Judge, "the Lord cometh," 0; in which word Jude uses the time past for the time to come, after the manner of the prophets, who are wont to speak of those things which are to come as if they were already past; and this he does for two reasons: First, to note the certainty of Christ's coming to judgment, it being as sure as if it were already. Secondly, to show the nearness thereof, Christ's coming is at hand: "The time is short," saith

(3.) When shall he come? In the end of the world; but the particular age, day, or year is not known to man or angel, Mark xiii. 32: this secret the Spirit revealed not to nor taught the apostles, who yet were led by him into all necessary truths; and Christ must come as a thief in the night, and as in the days of Noah, when men knew nothing. And we are commanded to watch, and to be ever prepared, because we know not the hour. The childish curiosity of sundry in their computation of a set year, wherein the day of judgment shall be, rather deserves our caution than confutation.

3. The third thing to be opened in this coming of the Judge is his attendants, "ten thousand of his saints." The words in the original are iv pvpiáoiv ȧyiaus ȧvrov, word for word, with his holy ten thousands, or myriads.

Four things may here offer themselves to be explained.

1. Their numbers; "ten thousand."