(Ver. 2.) How utterly inconsistent are these blessings, with bitter controversies and deadly feuds, which have usually laid claim to the honour of contending for the faith! Far be from us all such carnal weapons of contention, as wrath, or scorn, fraud, or violence! No; we would maintain truth, but not stir up strife. With the firm conviction that we hold the true faith, we must unite a kind demeanour towards those who are in error. And our abhorrence of the sinfulness of heresy and schism, must be tempered with a tender and affectionate concern, for those who are entangled in these deadly sins. We must remember on the one hand, that the wrath of man is never so thoroughly out of place, as when it aims to promote the righteousness of God. (See James 1. 20.) And on the other hand we must never forget, that it is a part of charity to rejoice in the truth; and that to be indifferent to its excellency, and to take no part in its defence, comes neither of love for man, nor of love for God, but of selfishness, and sloth, or of regard to the praise of man

in preference to the praise of God. Oh, brethren, give not ear to the voice of that pretended liberality, which is near akin to actual infidelity. Neither take ye part in that sort of contention about the things of heaven, which is in reality only strife for the things of earth. Oh, brethren, bear in mind, on this subject, what St. Paul said to the Philippians, and what I would now desire to say myself to you, Only let your conversation be as becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, striving together for the faith of the gospel." (Phil. 1. 27.)

66

But what then is that faith, for which St. Paul bids us strive together, for which St. Jude exhorts us to contend? Let us turn to the verse next after the text; where we may see what points of doctrine St. Jude would enforce, by observing what errors he denounces. "For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the

E

grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ." These were fundamental errors. Or rather, they were wilful perversions of fundamental truth. And the fearful end which St. Jude afterwards assigns to the authors of these heresies, namely, "the blackness of darkness for ever," (ver. 13,) is enough to alarm us in behalf of all who harbour any notions of the kind, and to make us watchful over our own opinions, lest we approach to harbouring them ourselves.

Denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ," this is the weight of the offence here denounced; this the great departure from the faith here recommended. Now it cannot be supposed that any teachers professing to be Christians could deny that there is a God. This certainly is not the sense, in which the heretics here spoken of denied "the only Lord God." No; they denied "the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ." That is to say, they denied the divinity of Christ; they denied that Christ was

12

God. Being perplexed with the mystery of three Persons in one Godhead, a mystery beyond the depth of man's understanding, and being also resolved to believe nothing which they could not completely understand, they denied this foundation truth of the faith once delivered to the saints, namely, that though there is only one living and true God, yet Jesus Christ is God the Son of God the Father. And in like manner they were probably disposed to deny that the Holy Ghost, proceeding from the Father and from the Son, is really and truly God. For it is to these connected errors, or rather heresies, that St. Jude seems to refer in the latter part of his Epistle, when he says, "But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life." (Ver. 20, 21.) And again, in the last verses he speaks of God and of our Saviour as of one, saying, "Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling,

and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen." (Ver. 24, 25.)

And here observe in what a practical light these great mysteries of our faith are set forth by St. Jude. In these verses, we have no formal, dry, cold, abstract statements of the truth; such as have oftentimes been contrived by man's ingenuity, rather tending to narrow the number of believers, than to enlighten the way towards belief. When God is here mentioned, it is in connexion with the love of Him. (See ver. 21.) When the Holy Ghost is spoken of as a distinct person, we are reminded of his office, to help us in our prayers. (See ver. 20.) When Christ is mentioned, it is "the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ" that is spoken of, and its blessed effect on us unto "eternal life." (Ver. 21.) And when glory is ascribed "to the only wise God our Saviour," if it be implied that God is one, and also that Christ is God, it is no less