blessing of God. And as all mankind, from Adam to Noah, and from Noah to Christ, and from Christ to Ourselves, are of one family, and therefore but brothers and sisters, more or less remotely related; we should feel that relationship in every person we meet, whether rich or poor, a foreigner or a native, and even whether virtuous or vicious; and strive to do good to each other, and ever to counsel, and sympathise with, and relieve each other, in the bonds of a kindred fellowship.

6. The translation of Enoch conspicuously showed the goodness of God. It was a reward for eminent piety, preserved in the midst of an ungodly world. It was an

evidence of a future state. It foreshowed the resurrection of the body. It was a living sign to the patriarchal age. Adam, who talked with God, was dead. Noah, who was hereafter to converse with God, was not yet born. In the middle age, between these two, Enoch was taken to heaven by a miracle. And the subject, and the instruction conveyed, were worthy of a miracle.

7. Pious persons have no cause to regret an early removal from this world of sin. Abel and Enoch, the two most favoured of the antediluvian believers, were sooner taken from earth to heaven, than any others, whose names are left recorded.

8. If all mankind, of all ages, of all nations, of all languages, and of all complexions, have sprung, as it is revealed, from one common Father; how inconsistent, how cruel, how degrading to our species, and how worthy of all condemnation, both human and divine, are War and Slavery.

9. Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. Though long delayed, the time came at last, the sentence was executed. Though the Antediluvians lived so long, they finally died. Not one escaped. In all their glory, in all their goodness, in all their wickedness, in all their ambition, both the heads and the branches, the fathers and the families, went down into the dust of Adam. Whether they lived a thousand, or a hundred years, is now nothing to them. They have made up their account. And we must soon make up ours. Such is the vanity of human life, even in its best, and longest existence. And such is

the importance of living that life well. If life be full of sorrow and sin, it is a blessing that our days are shortened, that we may the sooner prepare to enter into that rest, which remaineth for the people of God. For though man dies, God lives.

10. The Names alone remain. Such is the whole history, and often more than the whole history, of man. Man is born, bequeathes his own likeness, and dies. Millions on millions have died, and are daily dying, without so much as leaving behind them even a bare name, that they once lived. But, if they were good men, although their names be blotted out on earth, they will be found written on the white adamantine stone in heaven.

11. We have reason to believe that, in the World before the Flood, when men lived so long, and there were giants in the earth, there were many renowned men, and great achievements; and towns built, and battles fought; and vineyards planted, and arts invented, and cattle increased; but the particulars of these are all lost and buried in the flood of oblivion. This should remind us of the perishable tenure of men's doings; and lead our thoughts to that second destruction of human hopes, when the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll.

12. Lastly, As we are all descended from that one man Adam, by whom sin and death entered into the world, we should be sensible of our vileness and frailty; and strive to be habitually ready for the stroke of that sweeping scythe, which, in its swathe, cuts down both the dry stalk, and the green blade; and will so soon lay us all, side by side, upon the plain. And as all the incomputable myriads of men, which have peopled, and shall people the earth, through all past and passing generations, will ere long be summoned to the judgment seat of Christ; may we so walk faithful through this thorny wilderness, the Paradise Lost of the first Adam; that we may at death be ushered welcome into the Paradise Regained of the second Adam, who is the Lord from Heaven.

SAINT JUDE'S EPISTLE.

SERMON XLIV.

St Jude, i. 3. -EARNESTLY CONTEND FOR

THE FAITH,

WHICH WAS ONCE DELIVERED UNTO THE SAINTS.

SAINT JUDE, the Apostle, surnamed Thaddeus, and Lebbeus, or the Zealot, Zelotes, was the son of Alpheus, and brother to Saint James the Less, bishop of Jerusalem; and likewise to Joses and Symeon. Saint Jude therefore was also a brother, or cousin-german, to our Lord. Jude, and Judas, and Judah, are the same name, differently spelled. Saint Jude then, it seems, had a good namesake, the patriarch Judah, out of whose loins came lineally the Messiah; and a bad namesake, Judas of Cariot or Kerioth, his contemporary in the Apostleship, and the traitor to the Messiah. But the same names may be common to the best, and the worst persons. Saint Jude is supposed to have been originally a husbandman. He was married, and had children; for two of his grandsons are mentioned as martyrs. Saint Jude is said by some to have suffered martyrdom, by being shot to death with arrows, near mount Ararat, in Armenia; but the most probable account is, that he died a peaceable, natural death, at Berytus, in Syria, at a good old age.

There is no particular record of the time and manner, in which Saint Jude became a disciple of our Lord. None of the Evangelists have said any thing of Saint Jude, after he became an apostle, except Saint John; and that is the mention of one unimportant question, which he asked our Lord, at the last supper. Saint Jude was one of those, to whom Jesus appeared, at different times, after his resurrection. He was also one of the

hundred and twenty, upon whom the Holy Spirit descended, in the visible shape of flames of fire, like cloven tongues, which rested on their heads, on the memorable day of Pentecost. Saint Jude, like the prophet Obadiah, wrote only One Chapter. But even this is more than can be said of more than half of the Apostles, who wrote nothing at all. They were preachers, not writers. As Saint Jude wrote but little, perhaps, though not much is said about it, he preached and laboured the more. Probably, he went on missions, and wrought miracles, in different countries. This Epistle is supposed to have been written in the latter part of the apostolical age, and not long before the death of Saint Jude. It is placed last in order of the Apostolic Epistles in the New Testament.

For a time, some hesitation as to the authenticity of this Epistle prevailed; but now, both from the internal evidence, and the general current of antiquity, the book of Jude is conceded to be canonical. The Epistle was doubted, because Saint Jude is thought to have quoted Apocryphal books; to wit, the book called the Assumption of Moses; and the book called the Prophecy of Enoch. But Saint Paul quoted from the Heathen poets; to wit, from Epimenides, Aratus, and even from the iambics of the comic Menander. He adduced what was true in them to good purpose, without at all sanctioning the fables they contained. The first uncanonical allusion of Saint Jude relates to Saint Michael, the Archangel. As Michael was the head of all the angelic orders, so Satan was the head of all the diabolic orders. It is supposed, that these two chiefs, who, with their angels, fight against each other, disputed about the restoration of the Jewish Church. The other allusion is to the patriarch Enoch. The prophecy of Enoch to the Antediluvians was not committed to writing by Moses, but is preserved only by tradition. If Enoch was so good, as to be translated without death to heaven, there is little doubt that he prophesied. In this prophecy, even so soon after the Creation, Enoch foresaw the coming of our Lord to Judg

ment.

But Saint Jude, even in his one little chapter, has another difficulty to overcome. He is charged with being

a plagiarist from Saint Peter. It is true, that there is a great similarity, both of sentiment and phraseology, between the epistle of Saint Jude, and the second chapter of the second epistle of Saint Peter. Some think, that Peter and Jude both quoted from some Ancient Book, or Records, now lost. It is more likely, however, that as Saint Jude wrote upon the same topic, and against the same men whom Peter had opposed; in order to give more effect to his own, he adopted and imitated many of Saint Peter's thoughts and expressions.

The short Circular Letter of Saint Jude is strictly Catholic, or General; being addressed, not to one particular Church, but to all Christians throughout the world. It contains a Salutation, an Exhortation, and a Doxology. Its warning Title is, Contend earnestly for the Faith, and Beware of False Teachers. Particularly, and circumstantially, he contends against the false teachers, the Gnostics, Nicolaitans, and Simonians; who corrupted the doctrine, and disturbed the peace of the Church.'' These men had glided into the infant church, like serpents. The danger of listening to these men, is argued from the tremendous judgments of God brought upon the old sinners, in the first ages. The whole Epistle is designed to warn against abducers, and their abductions; and to inspire a love to truth and holiness. It likewise teaches, how to act towards the erroneous, and the scandalous. Though it was not immediately addressed to any one person, or family, or church; but to the universal society of new converts, whether from Judaism, or Paganism; it will be of general use to all Christians, to the end of time. The style of Saint Jude is manly and nervous. His description of the false teachers is bold, happy, and energetic; the exhortation and apostolic farewell are both forcible and affectionate; and the doxology is peculiarly reverential and sublime.

We will now proceed with an explanatory Paraphrase of the Epistle.