Jude 14–15 (part 1 of 2)

THese two verses contain the third branch of the description of the lost estate of these seducers in respect of their sin and misery, which in these words are further set forth by the ancient and infallible prophesie of Enoch, and that prophesie is 1. declared and propounded here in these two verses. 2. Applied to these Seducers in the (16, the) following verse.

In the declaration and propounding thereof, I consider,

1. The Preface prefixed by Jude, before it.

2. The Prophesie it self.

1. The Preface, in these words, Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these. Wherein two particulars are considerable:

1. The Excellent person here mentioned, Enooh; describ’d from his descent and Pedegree, the seventh from Adam.

2. His honourable performance, He prophesied of these.

1. In the Prophesie it self of the last judgement. I find,

1. A note of incitement, to cause a regard to the following description of the judgement, in the word Behold.

2. That Description of the judgement, to the regard of which we are incited; which description of the judgement hath two parts: 1. The coming of the Judge to judgement. 2. The Carriage of the Judge in judgement.

1. In His coming to judgement, I observe, 1. His Title, The Lord. 2. His approach, Cometh. 3. His Attendants, With ten thousands of Saints.

2. His Carriage in judgement is observable, 1. Toward the wicked, wherein I consider, 1. The manner of his judging, which is to be by way of conviction: to convince. 2. The Parties to be judged, all the godly: Which Parties are considerable, 1 In their Nature, so they are ungodly. 2 In their Numbers and extent, so they are said to be all the ungodly.

3. The Causes of the judgement, which are two:

1. Their Works, considerable in their general nature, said to be ungodly. 2. In the particular manner how they were committed, which they have ungodly, or ungodlily committed.

2. Their Words, where is to be noted,

1. What kind of speeches they uttered, hard speeches.

2. By whem they were uttered, ungodly sinners.

3. Against whom, against him.

2. In the second, viz: the Application of this Prophesie (v. 16.) Jude shewes, that these Seducers were the ungodly which hereafter are to be judged; and this their ungodliness, Jude there discovers by several signs:

1. Their discontentedness. 2. The following their lusts. 3. Their boasting. 4. Their admiration of mens persons

1. I begin with the Preface, and in that, first with the consideration of the Person here mentioned, Enoch, the seventh from Adam.

EXPLICATION.

Three things here I shall enquire into by way of Explication.

1. In what respect Enoch may be said to be the seventh from Adam.

2. Why the Spirit of God in Scripture, doth exactly set down the genealogies and successions of the Patriarchs, whereby it comes to be known, that Enoch was the seventh from Adam.

3. Why Jude, chusing to alledge the prophesie of Enoch, cals him the seventh from Adam.

1. For the first, Enoch was so the seventh person from Adam, as that both Adam and himself must be computed to be two of that number. Enoch was not so the seventh from, as to be the seventh after, or the seventh that came of Adam. The like expression is used Mat. 1.17. All the generations from Abraham to David, are fourteen generations: into which Abraham and David themselves must be taken to make them up fourteen. And thus the scripture frequently reckons Enoch the seventh, as Luke 3.37, 38. 1 Chron. 1.1, 2, 3. Gen. 5.3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18. 2. Enoch was not so the seventh person from Adam, as that there were no more then seven persons begotten from the time of Adam to Enoch; for all those six Patriarchs, mentioned before Enoch, are said to beget sons and daughters, and of those sons and daughters there came likewise a great number; but Enoch is called the seventh from Adam, because he was exactly the seventh in that particular, direct line from Adam to him.

2. For the second. The Spirit of God so exactly mentions the succession of the Patriarchs of old, for sundry reasons: As first, To discover his care to keep, and uphold his Church, by shewing where it was, in what families it continued, and how it was by his goodnesse preserved and propagated in all, even the worst and most corrupt ages of the world: The posterity of Cain was to be totally destroyed by the flood, and God swept them away with the beesome of destruction; to what end therefore, should they be so fully recorded? but the seed of Seth, was to be preserved both in the deluge of waters, and of all succeeding calamities; and therefore their descents and successions are punctually recorded.

2. God hereby shewes the great delight which he took in speaking of his Church and Children, and their concernments, above all other people in the world. The sacred history mentions the posterity of Cain, but occasionally, and by the way, as the relation thereof had a necessary connexion with the history of the Church, and as making it more clear and complete; and therefore the scripture relates not either the successions or actions of those without the Church in a constant course or series of history, nor doth it use that exactnesse and industry in treating of them, which it useth in setting down the affaires of the Church. Hence it is (as Rivet well notes) that those things which seem to be of lesse moment and weight are so diligently described in Scripture story, as Jacobs flocks, his pilled rods of poplar and hasel, the conceiving of the flocks before them, and bringing forth cattle ringstraked, Vid. Riv. exercit. pag. 630 631. in 30. Gen. speckled, and spotted &c. when as the holy story passeth over in neglective silence, the beginnings and progress of the great Empires and Dominations of the world, as of the Assyrians, Egyptians, Grecians, &c. (subjects, in appearance, more worthy the mentioning;) the Lord herein (saith the fore mentioned Author) being like a Master of a family, Ut patri familias cura major est liberorum et domesticorum quam latisundii; sic etiam apud Deum majoris sunt momenti familiae piorum quam quaevis aliae quae in toto orbe dominationi ejus subsunt. Ut parons liberorum et familiae ita curam gerit, ut suorum gestus, sermones & actiones omnes observet, et quaecunque ipsis accidunt diligentissimè consideret: sic Deus in familiis piorum tamquam in domo su• observat et numerat capillos illorum, actiones, studia, et gressus eorum respicit &c. Riv. in Gen. pag. 632. who doth not with so much care and delight regard his grounds and fields abroad, as he doth his familie and children with their carriage and concernments at home in his house, where he diligently and delightfully observes all the speeches, gestures, actions of his little ones, and whatever befals them, &c.

3. God by this exact delivering the successions and genealogies of the Patriarchs, would shew the excellency and antiquity of the scriptures, above all other historical writings in the world, which are not able to afford us a certain Cronologie concerning the times of the Patriarchs before the flood.

4. Especially by this recording the successions of the Patriarchs; the Lord discovers who they were of whom the true Messiah came according to the flesh, and this he doth both for the honour of Christ as man, whose pedigree that it might be perfect, was to be preserved and distinctly drawn as far as from Adam, as also for the confirmation of our faith, touching his incarnation; the Scripture mentioning the order, and names, of all his progenitors, even from Adam; and thereby suffering us not to doubt of the truth of his humane nature, unless we wil imagine that all the names and successions of his progenitors mentioned from the beginning of the world to his birth, were fabulous and fictitious, and so make the continued line from Adam to Christ to be a continued lye, which to imagine were not more blasphemous and antiscriptural, then ridiculous and unreasonable. And the scripture by telling us that Christ came of those ancient Patriarchs, Causa cur Lucas ascenderit ad Adamum usque, 1. Ut doceret beneficia Messiae, non saltem pertinere ad Abrahamum et eos qui illum secuti, sed ad patres Abrabamo anteriores, imo ad ipsum Adamum. 2 Ut vin dicaret Messiae gratiam, non saltem sc extendere ad gentem Judaicam. & filios Abrahae, sed et ad multo, Ada filios extra Abrahami posteritatem, qui benedictionis ejus debeant esse participes, Japheto adducto in tabernacula, Semi. Spanhem. Dub Evang. 19. p. 91. would teach us that the benefits of the Messiah were extended to those who lived far, yea farthest before him, to the patriarchs before the flood, and even to Adam himself, who by his sin gave occasion for a Saviour to visit poor man with mercy, and (as some note) by setting down the progenitors of Christ, who lived before the flood, and so, long before Abraham, the Scripture would teach that the grace of Christ extended it self not only to the Jewes, and the seed of Abraham, but also to many of the sons of Adam, who were not of the posterity of Abraham; but were to be made partakers of the blessing by Christ, when Japhet should be brought to dwel in the tabernacles of Shem.

3. Touching the third, viz. why Jude here terms Enoch the seventh from Adam. Sundry reasons may be assigned. As,

1. To distinguish this Enoch from another of that name, who was the third from Adam, and of the posterity, yea the immediate son of cursed Cain, mentioned Gen. 4.17.

2. To shew how holy and zealous Enoch was in sinful times. In a most dissolute and prophane age, he prophesies of, and foretels the destruction of sinners: Though he perhaps did them but little good by his prophecy, yet they did him as little hurt by their prophaneness. This taper was not extinguish’d by the damps of a sinful generation; this star shined brightly in a black night: Enoch the seventh, as afterward Noah the tenth from Adam, walked with God in a corrupt age, and did not only preserve his own holinesse, but prophesie against others unholiness.

3. He cals Enoch the seventh from Adam, to gaine the more credit and esteem to that prophesie, which he is about to mention, and the more to convince these seducers of the truth thereof; in regard both 1. of the great antiquity, and 2. the eminent piety of him who uttered this prophesie.

1. By the antiquity of a prophet who was the seventh from Adam, The Apostle wisely insinuates not only that even from the beginning of the world, holy men have prophesied of the end thereof; but that even then the miserable end of the wicked was foretold; and that they who were farthest remote from these seducers, and who therefore were most impartial, and could not be byast by affection to any fides or parties, prophesied of their overthrow.

2. By the eminent and renowned piety of this Enoch, the seventh from Adam, who walked so closely with God, and did so please God, that he accounted him too good to live long upon earth, and would not stay for his company in heaven, til he had finish’d the ordinary time of living, but took him to himself, before he had lived to half the years either of his father, or of his son. I say, by this admirable holiness of Enoch, Jude might stop the mouths of these seducers, and render them either unable to resist the evidence of this prophesie, or inexcusable in not submitting to it.

This eminent holiness of Enoch, is in Scripture expressed in these words, He walked with God; words few in number, but great in weight; and which (upon this apt occasion) I shall briefly explain.

By this walking with God, more generally, is rather intended, his giving up himself to the worship and service of God, in the leading a hooy life, then a peculiar Ministration, in the discharging the office of the priesthood; this walking with God, being the same with his walking in the way of Gods commandments; and his ordering the whole course and frame of his conversation according to the will and commadment of God; and this metaphor of walking with God, is taken from two friends, unanimously and willingly going the same course and path together as companions. More particularly this his walking with God, 1. Intends a setting of God before his eyes, and a living alwaies as in his sight, and as being present with him, and thereby his humble reverencing of, and fearing to offend God, and a studying to please him, and to approve himself to him, (walk before me, and be thou perfect, Gen. 17.1.) Gods presence with us, being as certain and undoubted, as is his with whom we do after a sensible manner and openly converse.

2. This walking with God, intends a friendly and familiar acquaintance and conversing with God; (for can two walk together unlesse they be agreed?) God did not pass by Enoch as a stranger, These words he walked with God, the 70 read εὐηρέστησε τῷ Θεῷ beneplacuit Deo.** Unde Author Ep. ad Hebr. Cap. 11.5. μεμαρτύρηται εὐηρεστηκέναι nor use him as a page, only to go after him; but (as a friend and companion) he walked with God: Thus Abraham is called Gods friend, and Christ calls his disciples his friends; and his humble familiarity and acquaintance with God, consisted 1. in his apprehension, of a propriety, and interest in God: without this he would have stood far from God, as a foe, a fire, not walked with God as a friend: anothers God cannot comfort us, a souls solace stands in this pronoune my, my Lord, my God: when Enoch foresaw that God was coming to execute judgment upon all the wicked, he then knew that God was his God and friend. 2. Enochs familiar acquaintance with God, consisted in a friendly and mutual speaking and discoursing between God and him; this was no silent walking, no dumb shew; God spake to him by exciting of his graces, and putting into him holy motions, and telling his soul, that he was his salvation, by directing him in his doubts; he spake to God, by daily meditation, ready acceptation of his grace, by pouring forth all his cares by prayer into the bosome of his heavenly father, by repromission of obedience, praying continually; see Psal. 27.8. Psal 119.164. taking his counsel in his doubts. Psal. 119.24.3. This humble and holy acquaintance appeared, in Enochs exercising his fiduciary relying and reposing himself upon God, without anxiety and solicitousness, for the providing for him in all his necessities; he cast all his care upon God, as a faithful friend, who cared for him; he wholly committed himself and all his affaires to his God; he did not wound himself with heart-cutting cares; he was not like the Lion that roars after his prey, but like the sheep that depends upon the care of the shepherd: Thus David, the Lord (saith he) is my shepherd, I shall not want. 4. Enochs humble and sweet acquaintance with God, stood in his enjoying of all his comforts in God, and God in them; he so much esteemed communion with God, that he accounted nothing sweet, but what he had with his love and smile; he was not a slave to sense, delighting himself only in the good things themselves which he enjoyed; he accounted every condition sweet or bitter, so far forth as God did communicate himself in it, or withdraw himself from it; so that he was neither unduly lifted up in his enjoyments, nor dejected in his losses; the God of his delight being ever, and evenly the same: nothing was delightful to Enoch by it self, but only God, other things only as they came with God, as though water is only sweet, when something sweet is put into it; yet hony and sugar are sweet alone by themselves.

3. This walking with God, notes, spiritual motion; there cannot be a walking without a moving. Enoch neither stood by God, nor sat with God, but walked with God; the commandments of God, were the way wherein he walked and moved; and every act of obedience was a several step taken in that way: in all his motions, he observed some duty enjoyned, and eschewed some sin forbidden, so that he praised God with the language of his conversation; he could not have walked unless he had been as practical as he was speculative and professing; only works speak, words are silent before God and man; nor did he only practise this walking with God, when he was exercised in the duties of Gods immediate worship, but also when imployed in the works of his particular place and calling. In the performing of the former, he was (as it were) in heaven; in the doing of the latter, heaven was in him; the necessary employments of his calling took him not off from conversing with God; they did not make him at all renounce this: Paul when he was making of tents, did not cast off conversing with God; neither doth piety make us idle in our places, nor doth moderate diligence in our callings make us impious and prophane: and indeed, we cannot walk with God unlesse we serve him both in our general and particular callings.

To conclude this discourse of Enochs walking with God, with a touch of the manner how he performed it; 1. He walked with God solely, he admitted no intruders into, or disturbers of his heavenly converses with his God; the world followed him as a servant, walked not with him as a companion: (this God cannot abide) he rather used the world, than enjoyed it; or rather used it as if he used it not: God cannot bear the the company of Mammon; the love of God and the world cannot stand together. 2. He walked with God evenly, and in a direct course; he halted not, like the Israelites, 1 King. 18.21. between two: he made straight pathes for his feet; he gave allowance to no wandrings, nor false waies; they who wil walk in bypaths, walk not with God, but alone; and therefore Enoch walked in a straight path to heaven, and turned not aside to crooked waies, not treading in the way of any known sin. 3. He walked cheerfully, not unwillingly or constrainedly, or sadly, his walking being with him who is the God of all comfort: and indeed, God takes no pleasure in that mans company, who accounts not walking with him a pleasure; Enoch was not by fear, or force, or restraint detained before the Lord, but he delighted himself in him, looking upon holy duties as his priviledges as wel as his tasks: nor indeed can any walk cheerfully, but when with God; his company makes the valley of the shadow of death to be a pleasant way, a bitter condition sweet, and a sweet condition sweeter. 4. He walked constantly, unweariedly with God, from strength to strength, til he appeared before him in the heavenly Sion. Enochs goodness was not by fits and starts, like that of some hypocrites; he did not take a step or two, but walked with God: this his walking with God, lasted as long as his continuing in the world; he did not set out wel only in the beginning, but held out wel also, til the end of his race.

OBSERVATIONS.

1. The faithful must be holy in unholy times. Enoch in a corrupt age walked with God, Obs. 1. and kept close to him when most left him; Saints must shew that they are not of the world, when they are in it; they must not be conformed to the world, nor run with the world to the same excess of riot; 1 Pet. 4.4. As their righteousnesse must exceed the righteousnesse of hypocrites, so must it condemn the unrighteousness of the profane: the rest of their time, they should not live to the lusts of men, but to the wil of God; they are forbidden to follow a multitude to do evil, to go in the way of evil men, Prov. 4.14. to have fellowship with the unfruitful works of darknesse: Elijah was zealous for God, Eph. 5.11. when he scarce could discern any to joyn with him: as Noah was saved by God, when the earth was overwhelmed with an inundation of water, so did he walk with God, when it was overspread with an inundation of wickedness; Psal. 71 7. Isa. 8.18. Jer. 20.7. when David was looked upon as a monster, Isaiah and the faithful as wonders, yet they retained their integrity; when the wicked have almost made void the law, even then, nay therefore must the godly love Gods Commandments, and esteem all his precepts, Psal. 119.126, 127, 128. concerning all things to be right: God is a friend, a father; and as this friend loves us in the day of our adversity, so should he be beloved, in the day when his honour suffers. May not God say to those that temporise with his enemies for fear, or hope, Is this your kindnesse to your friend? Is there any time, wherein God hath left or forsaken us; and should there be any wherein we are weary of walking with God? Is God our father, and can we endure with a tame patience to see him dishonoured? Its reported of a Son, who though (before) dumb yet seeing enemies about to kill his father, presently cried out, kil not my father. The sons of God, must glorifie their father, and shine as lights in a crooked and perverse nation. Ephes. 2.15. Nor can the truth, much less the strength of grace, or the power of godlinesse, ever be manifested, unless it appears in times of opposition; there is no power seen, where there are no difficulties contended with; wherein doth the life of grace, differ from death in sin, if Christians shal be carried down the stream of their times unholinesse? Grace wil ever conflict with that sin, either in the soul or the world, which it is not able to conquer; it wil condemn it, though it cannot execute it. And what more unreasonable (lastly) then for us to mete to God with one measure, and to expect that he should mete to us with another! How can we expect that he should love us in that day, wherein he wil leave the most, if we wil not walk with him in this day when most forsake him! Study then (O Saints) to give the name of God reparations for all the disgrace which wicked men cast upon it: Discover the true noblenesse of your Christian spirit, and of minds spiritually generous, by gathering vigour, and growing invincible, from the very oppositions of the wicked, and the impieties of your times.

2. It is a singular and blessed priviledg to walk with God. Observ. 2. It was the great happinesse and ennoblement of Enoch, this seventh from Adam. The happinesse of walking with God, appears in these particulars. 1. It is a persons greatest honour: tis honourable to follow, much more to walk with a King; how great is the dignity then of walking with the King of Kings! Its Gods lowest condescension to walk with us, and our highest advancement to walk with him. The company of sin debaseth, and the walking with God dignifieth a man. God with man, is the greatest with the least; Henoch was one of the greatest on earth, he was royally descended, the seventh from Adam in the blessed line; he had six such tutors and teachers, (viz the six first patriarchs) to make him learned, as never man had; but that which is testified of him as his honour, was this his walking with God. Oh unconceiveable dignity, conferred upon poor impure dust and ashes, to walk with him who is attended with ten thousand times ten thousand of glorious Saints and Angels for his followers! 2. In this walking with God, is greatest delight and solace: solitarinesse is uncomfortable, company sweet, but none so delightful as Gods; he who hath not God to bear him company is alone, though he hath all the comforts of the world to accompany him. Of all the creatures, there was not found a fit companion for Adam, nor can any creature fitly sute the soul with its society; good company is the life of our lives, the sweetnesse of our abodes on earth; but Gods company is the truly good company; there is no melody in any consort to which this delight is not added. A man is said to be alone, though he have many beasts with him, if he be without the company of man; and a Christian is alone notwithstanding all the world be with him, if God be absent. Whom (saith the Psalmist) have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee, Psal. 73.25. A sinner is the truly solitary, sad person: oh how sweetly contentful is his life, who when all his outward comforts leave him, can say (as did Christ when his disciples left him alone) yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me. John 16.37. Quid timet homo in sinu Dei positus? 3. In walking with God, there is true safety; what need that man fear who lies in the bosome, or walks by the side of such a father, though he walks in the vale of the shadow of death? who dares offer that man any injury that walks with a King? Of this largely before, part. 1. pag. 58.59, 60, &c. 63. no evil is so insolent as to arrest us, when the King of Kings graciously accompanies us. Fear not Abraham (saith God) I am thy shield, Gen. 15.1. If God be with us, who shall be against us; If he wil help, what shall hurt us? his society is our true safety; so long as God was with Samson, the Philistins could not conquer him; but when the Lord was departed from him, Judg. 16.20 he soon becomes a prey to his enemies: Gods presence is a Saints life-guard; til God leave him, dangers are but trifles; He ever keeps those who walk with him, either from the presence of every misery, or from the hurt and misery of the misery. Lastly, In this walking with God, is the greatest gain and profit to be found; what good thing can he deny us, Psal. 8.4. who denies us not himself? God is not only a shield, but an exceeding great reward: How can he want who is with, and hath him that is all things? God mine, and all mine; he wil fulfil the desire of all that fear him: no good thing shall be wanting to them; nor wil God deny them any blessing, which doth not oppose their blessedness; Psal. 23.1. nor any good, which hinders, not from enjoying the chiefest good; and if he thinks it meet to keep away these externals, he will supply their absence with himself. The Almighty wil be thy gold, Job 22 25.

3. Even of the longest lived Patriarchs, there was a succession, not a constant continuation. Adam the first, Seth the second, Eccles. 1.4. Enosh the third, &c. Enoch the seventh; One generation goeth, another cometh: The coming of new generations, shewes the going and passing away of the old; the later crowds the former out of the world; one goeth away to make roome for another: The longest lived of these ancient Patriarchs, had in the world but his time and turn, which at length ended. It hath been observed by some, that none of them lived (no not Methuselah) a thousand years; and some say the reason thereof was, because God would by their dying before the end of a thousand years, make good his threatning; Ratio valde diluta. Riv. in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt die; it being said that a thousand years with God, are but as one day: but in this there seems to be more wit then weight. A more solid reason of their dying within the foresaid terme, seems to be because thereby God would shew, that the longest life of any of the sons of men, in respect of God himself, is but very short, and not able to reach to that space, which in respect of Gods eternity is not a day; Confer longissimam nostram aetatem, cum aeternitate, in ea prope modum aetate quâ illae bestiolae, reperiemur. Cic. l. 1. Tusc. for which cause Cicero 1. Tusc. quaest. compares the longest life of man to that of that beast brought forth by the river Hippanis, which lives not above one day, and dying when the sun sets, dyes then decrepit. Compare (saith he) our longest age with eternity, and we shal be found after a sort, in the same age with that beast. Tis added to the relation of the long lives of every one of the ancient Patriarchs, And he dyed. The repetition whereof, seems not to be vvithout great reason, vvhich was not only to shew the brittlenesse and srailty of mans continuance (even as nothing in comparison of eternity,) but principally to shew the immoveable certainty of that threatning of death against the disobedience of our first parents, notwithstanding the vaine and deceitful promise of the divel; as also to manifest that the holiest men (whose death was the wages of sin) were in this life without that perfect holinesse, required to the seeing of God, Per mortem defecantur, ut fomite pecati cum corpere mortue ad immortaiitatemp; puri resurg•nt. Rivet in Ge•. exerc. 48. prop. fin. and therefore that they were to be cleansed by death, that with their body of flesh, they laying off the corruption of their nature, might arise pure and spotlesse to immortality. The consideration whereof, should put the strongest, and those who are most likely to live, upon a constant and serious meditation of death; and warn them not to expect immortality in this life, but daily to wait for their certain and appointed change. That blessed saint now with God, Mr. Richard Rogers (who was another Enoch in his age, Sometime of Wethersfield in Essex, my Dear and deceased Grandfather. a man whose walking with God appeared by that incomparable directory of a Christian life, his book called the Seven Treatises, woven out of Scripture and his own experimental practise) sometime said in his life time, That he should be sorry, if every day were not to him as his last day: Every morning we arise, let us say, Art thou my last day, or do I look for another? Let us live as if we were alwaies dying, and yet as such as are ever to live. In short, the successions and conclusions of generations, should put us upon holiness of life; as for the preserving a sweet and precious remembrance of our selves in that generation which followes, so especially, that we may by our holy example, transmit holinesse to posterity; that we (with Enoch) walking with God, the Church of God, and a seed of Saints may be continued (as much as in us lies) in our line. And truly, as otherwise we shall die while we live in the world, so hereby, we shall live when we are taken out of the world, and be like Civet, which when tis taken out of the box, leaves a sweet savour behind it.

4. Observ. 4. All issue from Adam. As Enoch was, so all others were and are from Adam; from him all descend by natural propagation: He was the root, all others but branches; he the fountain, all others but streams. All were hewen out of this rock; an observation which puts us upon sundry useful considerations. It teacheth us humility. As we were from Adam, so he was from the dust of the earth, and that dust from nothing. Our father was Adam, our grandfather dust, our great grandfather nothing. They who are proud that they can derive their pedigree so far as Adam, may be humble if they would goe a little farther: Remember whence thou art, and consider whither thou shalt goe; nothing so unsuteable 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, wil not endure it in dust and ashes; and such even great Abraham calls himself; a fitter stile, then 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 potters 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, wil (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 Gods blessing, that of one, so many millions should come; from one root such multitudes of branches: God can blesse one into millions, and blast millions again into one, into nothing; Gods powerful benediction multiplied Adams numerous off-spring. He whom God blesseth, shall be blessed; he whom God curseth, 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 Manasseth should grow into a multitude, Gen. 48.16. See also Ruth 4.11, 12. Hence also, we may observe the goodnesse 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; Ile suffer no more to be of the kind. We destroy poysonful and hurtful creatures that they may not breed. But mark further, that merciful power of God to cause a holy off-spring, a sanctified seed (though not such, as coming of; yet) to come of a sinful faln parent; that God should make white paper of dunghil rags: that any of Adams unsanctified nature, should partake of the divine nature: in a word, that Enochs should be from Adam. Truely, 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, poysonful 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 dye, and in Christ all are made alive; as we have born the image of the earthly, so should we be restlesse til we bear that of the heavenly. 1 Cor. 15.49.

5. It is our duty, prudently to take our best advantages, for truths advancement. Thus Jude alledgeth here the prophesie of such a person as might in likelihood most draw respect and credit. Of this before, pag. 22. part 1. on these words, the Brother of James.

Secondly in the preface here used by Jude before the prophesie, the performance of Enoch is to be noted, and that was, his prophesying. Jude saith that he prophesied of these.

EXPLICATION.

Three things may be enquired 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 prophesie of Enoch.

3. why he alledgeth and instanceth in this particular prophesie.

1. For the first, the word prophesie is in Scripture taken five several waies.

1. See Diodats annotations on 1 Cor. 11.5. Sometimes it signifies no more then to be present at the publick Ministry, and to partake of the doctrine thereof. Thus I understand it in that place, 1 Cor. 11.5. Every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered, dishonoureth her head; for otherwise women were not allowed to speak in the Church.

2. Prophesie is taken for the written word. 2 Pet. 1.20.

3. Elsewhere to prophesie, signifieth to expound, interpret, and apply the Scriptures, to the edification of the Church. 1 Thes. 5.20. Despise not prophesying, and 1 Cor. 14.3. He that prophesieth, speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort. So verse 24.

4. Sometimes it signifieth 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, Matth. 26.68. Mark. 14.65. &c. where they who had blinded Christ, bid him by way of derision, prophesie who it was that smote him; to this purpose said the Pharisee, Luke 7.39. This man, if he were a Prophet, would have known, &c.

5. Strictly and properly to prophesie, is to foreshew, or foretel things to come, or that afterward shall be fulfilled. Thus it is taken Acts 21.9. Philip had four daughters, Virgins, which did prophesie. Thus Ezek. 21.2. compared with ver. 7. So Ezek. 29.2. 30.2. 34.2. 38.2. And thus it must necessarily be taken in this place. Enoch prophesied of these by way of prediction, or he foretold their punishment.

2. For the second, whence Jude received this prophesie or prediction of Enoch. To this some say, that Jude took this prophesie 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, Tertul. de hab. mul. cap. 3. and called by the name of Enochs 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, Non sunt scripta in Canone qui scrvabatur in templo. Cur aut•m hoc nisi quia sus• c•tae fidei &c. Illa quae sub Enochi nomine proferuntur, continent fabulas. Rectè à prudentibus judicantur non ipsius esse credenda. Aug. l. 15. de civ. D. c. 23. and he attributes the opinion of its want of authoritie, to the malice of the Jewes, who (saith he) because some eminent testimonies concerning Christ may be produced out of it, endeavoured to suppresse it. Augustin also mentions books bearing Enochs name. That then there were such books called by the name of Enochs, tis not denyed; 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) which under the name of Enoch are produced are to be suspected for false, and none of his, because the Jewes never accounted them cononical, nor kept them in the temple as such; and they ahound with fables: Among the rest, that fond and erroneous conceit, so contrary both to Scripture and reason, that the Angels in their assumed bodies went in unto the daughters of men, and so begat those Gyants mentioned Gen. 6.4 (Though this fabulous error (being intituled to so holy and ancient an author as Enoch) was imbraced by Justin Martyr, Cyprian, Clemens Alexandrinus, Libros Enochi plane supposititios esse, ut mihi persuadeam, fa cit quod in Ecclesia Dei ante Baby•enicam cap tivite•em in nullis prophetar um libris, fit meutio tam rari thesauri, quem non credibile est si in rerum naturâ fuisset, Mosem latuisse, qui etiam scriptorum Enochimeminisset, in hac historia si tunc extitisent. Rivet. in exerc. in Gen. 49 and some others.) Besides, had there been any such true book or prophesie of Enoch in writing, no doubt but it would have been very famous and highly set by among the Jewes, both for the antiquity and holinesse of the Author, as also for the preciousness of the matter, in regard whereof some mention would have been made thereof by the holy Prophets, or by Philo and Josephus, who were curious preservers, and writers of Jewish antiquities; who yet, did never discover to us that rare treasure. And that Moses was the first of all the holy writers, I think is the constant judgment of all learned divines, protestant and popish; nor doth Christ, Luke 24.27. acknowledg any holy writer to be more ancient then Moses; for Luke 24.27. 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 prophesies of his humility and glory; the later whereof this prophesie of Enoch here mentioned by Jude, doth so clearly discover. Its therefore the opinion of some learned men, that if there were in Judes time any writing which went under Enochs name, it was written by some Jewes, who mixed some things Good and true, (which peradventure they received by tradition concerning the prophesies 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 seldome) taken several passages which tended to edification, out of profane Acts 17.28. 1 Cor. 15.33. Tit. 1.12. Authors, and thereby sanctified them to the use of the Church; and yet (as Rivet wel 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 prophesie recited by an apochryphal Author, did indeed come from Enoch: for otherwise, should he only rely upon the Authority of an apochryphal book, the prophesie related by Jude would no more be canonical, then it was as set down by the apocryphal writer.

Others (Protestants and Papists) assert, Capta occasion e ex prophetia Henochi commemorata à Juda, libros quasi antiquitus scriptos puublicarnt • Perer. in G•n. Nieremberg de Orig. sacscrip. pa. mihi 51. that after the death of the Apostles, some impostors (taking occasion by Judes alledging the prophesie of Enoch) did publish 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 better acceptance. Of this opinion is the learned Gomarus, who withal gives a parallel instance of the feigning of an epistle, (under Pauls name) to be written to the Laodiceans, by occasion of that passage of Colos. 4.16. so that according to this opinion, some took occasion to write this fictitious book of Enoch, by reading of Judes Epistle: not that Jude ever saw any book under Enochs name extant, or took his prophesie out of it. Many learned men therefore very probably conceive, that our Apostle received this prophesie from common and undoubted tradition transmitted from the Patriarchs, and so handed from generation to generation; til 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; Jacobs worshipping upon the top of his staffe; Moses his saying that the sight upon the mount was so terrible, that I exceedingly fear and quake. Thus it is said that Josephs 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 hath been said, we answer, those who argue against the canonicalness of this Epistle, from Judes alledging (as they conceive) an apocriphal Author, or his bringing in a tradition no where recorded in Scripture, the If be did cite it out of any Author. citing of these by our Apostle, being so far from making him apocryphal, that he makes them (so far as he useth them) canonical: as also, we hereby answer the Papists, who because the Apostles have sometimes transferred some things from humane writings and tradition, into holy Scripture; take the boldness to doe the like also, and to joyn traditions with the holy Scripture; they 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 acted 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.

The third thing to be explained is, why the Apostle alledged and instanced in this particular prophesie of Enoch.

The reasons why Jude made choice of this prophesie, may be reduced to these two heads.

1. The first taken from the prophet.

2. The second from the prophesie it self.

And the consideration of the prophet Enoch, induced Jude to use the prophesie, because the Prophet was 1. Eminent for his antiquity; he was the seventh from Adam: This seems to put great respect upon the prophesie, as if Jude had said, The sins of these seducers which had judgment threatned against them, almost from the very beginning of the world, so many thousands of years before they were committed, must needs be hainous and odious, now when these sinners are acting them: and those sins which God hath so anciently threatned, wil at length be most severely punished. 2. This prophet was famous both for his piety and priviledges (of the former of which before,) he was not only eminent for his piety in walking with God, which was his own benefit, and for his publick usefulnesse, 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 (before) unheard of priviledg 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 halfe 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 holines above all his fellows, had that high degree of heavenly glory conferd upon him, long before the ordinary time.

2. Prophetia est mentis illuminatio ad res futuras cognoscendas, reveiante Dco. In respect of the sutableness of the Prophesie it selfe to Judes present occasion. And 1. it was most sutable in respect of its certainty, it was a Prophesie. Enoch prophesied, he spake from God, not uttering his own inventions, but Gods inspirations; the foretelling of things to come being a divine prerogative, and such which without revelation from God, the creature cannot attain. Luc. 1.70. And the scripture assures us that it was God who spake by the mouth of his holy Prophet which have been since the world began. How sutable was it to produce a prophesie sure to be sulfild coming from God by the mouth of an holy prophet against these fearlesse scorneful sinners, who mockt at the last judgment! 2. Of its severity, what prophesie more fit for the secure scorners then a prophesie of judgment, the last, universall, undvoidable, unsupportable, eternall judgment? They might possibly slight the particular examples of Gods judgments upon the Angels, the Sodomites, the Israelites; but the arrow of the generall judgment prophecyed 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 propheticall; and if any propheticall denunciation, that of the last judgment. If the last judgement hath made heathens tremble, Qui male vivit judicandum se diffidit. Chrysol. s. 5.59. when but discourst of before them, how should it dismay those who profess to know God, when threatned against them! How bold in sin are they who will not fear the judgment! Si unicum timendum scire quae in illo sunt punienda, non ageret. Greg. in Job. 19. How can he who beleeves judgment to be dreadful, but dread to do that which shall be punisht in that judgment! Even the devils at thel sight of their Judg, trembled to think of their judgment, Mat. 8.29.