- r"-/u/1 Boos Ill. ~ Of EleClion. ~. The Se<l[o!Zand timeofWriting tliercnf, :1udt lived the Iall of all the Apollles but Old _7ohn, and at this time when he wrote tliis.it may leem that Peter, and .Jomes, and Paul w<rc DeJd, witli t he rcll of thofe Apo1lles, who did not write any thing, who yet in thtir Preaching, had foretold this great Apo1lacy 1ude here (peaks of. And this (as Ejl11u bath obfcrvcd) may not ob!Curely be gathered from his manner of citing the other Apo1llcs, Verj. •7· But Beloved, Rtmembt~·tbewords tvhicb wae jjlokm before of the Apoj/ler ofour Lord Jejm Chn(l, as ipeak.ng oft hem n01\• dead, and not then extant, as to whofe living Tellimony, otherwife he rni<>ht have had recourfe, and therefore alfo bids them remember their word> at of Perfons now gone oifthe Stage, whereas Pettr when he wrote his Second E– pillle concerning the fame men that 1•de here writes againll, fpeaks in ano– therllrain, 2d. £pts1. ~· 2. Be mindfulof tbeCommtmdmmtsofeutheApo· flies, rhc moll bcmg yet ahve as well as htmfelf. Not fo_'l11de, However 11 is certam our _7ude wrote in the latter end ofthat Apollolical Age, or the !all of thofe Primitive times, when the Profell'ion and courfe ofChrsjltmtity had now ran out well nigh, (if not the full) Forty Years fince Chrills Afcention into Heaven, In which fpace as perfeCl: an Elfay, and difcovery had been mude of what Period, End, or Hfue, the profell'ion ofall, or any fort of Profeffors con– vened by the Apollles had come unto, Forty Years was long enough for fucl1 a trial,and it is very likely,That as the People ofljrtlfls coming out ot· .AJ:g;pt, and fa lling in the Wildernels through Unbeliet~ Ca!e6 and Jofhna, holdmg out to the md, JS made m the New Tej/ammt a Type ofthofe Pnmtttve Chnllians mtdof eu all to the md of the World, andthe tf{ue oftts all, o11e Wttyor other' as 1 Cor. 10. Heb. l· 4th. Chapter, and is here likewife in the firft and cltict" place of all other old in1lances remembrcd by Jr~de,Verf. )lh, I will therefore put ;•ou il! remewbrrmce, though)·ou once ktttW thi&, how tl1<1tthe Lord htJvmg frved the peopll ofll </the Land ofEgypt, afterward drjlroyed them th<1t be· Jirved 1101. So that in the very !pace of time, there might fome corrcfpon– dency have been intended by God, that is, between that time ot.tentlti<'n then, and th is of the firll Primitive Ages, which was Forty Years w both, Now towards the declittings of that Age it was, that Pmtl wrote to the He6rews,nnd Peter likcwtfc his Second Epiillc a.fter Paul, and then }ttdr,this his Ep:lllc afier that ofPrt<rs. For Peter therein lrtteth a Seal ofConfirmation to all PauJs Epi1llcs, and alfo to that ofhis to the Hdrews, in a fpccial manner in his Second Epiflle, Third Chapter; And both thofc Epi1lles touch much up– on this Argument of Trmporarirs, and Bxkj!tder!. But .7ude wrote alt•·•· Pner, lor he in a manner cites him, if you compare 'Peters Third Chapter Third Ver(e, and this of }ude, Vcrj. 17, 18. As alfo becaufc he tal<~s t•p the lnllances \<•hich Peter ufeth in his Second and Third Chapters. Yea,the very words whereby Peter had fet forth thofi: Apoflatcs in that Epi1lle of Jude, following Ptter herein as M,>rk in his Gofpel doth that of Mlt– thew. ~· As for the Occrifiou, The thing being thus llated as for the Time, or Seafon, the Occafiou now lot· lows. That Age alorelaid of Chrillians which had thus enjoyed the Apoflles Minillry whil1l they were all or moll of them alive; I may compare unto the feafon ofa hot and bright Summer,fuch an one,as no Age ever lince,can be fop– pored to have had the light and beat of. I alfo might aaimulatc 1ohn Baptifts, and Chrifts time, to have been as the Spri11g, or 6egimling of the Gojpel, as Chrift exprcfly calls it, Matt. 11 . 12, 1 ~· Luke 16. 16. But the very !all of that Age wherein Jude, and 'Fe· ter, wrote his Second Epiflle, were as the Aflltmm at the end of theSumrnrr ; and this of_7ude, was the Iall of that Autum11, and fo the declining ofthat Age as the fall ofthe Lea{; which _7olm calls the lajl hour, Namely, of that firfl day
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