and SAVIOUR, JESUS CHRIST, and his APOSTLES, &c. $79 dablifh and confirm them in it: but feeing the doctrine of CHRIST attacked on every fide by Heretics, he conceived it more neceflary to fpend his time in exhorting them to fight manfully_ in defence of the faith once delivered to the faints, and op- pofe the falfe teachers who laboured fo indefatigably to corrupt the truth." It is generally underdood, the Heretics meant in this epiftle, were the Nicolatians, the Gnoftics, the followers ofSimon Magus, and others of the fame kind, whofe morals were as corrupt as their doftrine, trufting to a faith without works, as fufficient to their falvation : fo that the fubjeft of St. Jude's epiftle is nearly the fame with that of the fecond of St. Peter, whofe fenfe he generally follows, and often ufes the very fame expreftìons : only as the infection had fpread itfelf further, and had gotten more ground, he feems to oppofe thofe Heretics- with more zeal and fharpnefs than St. Peter had done : but becaufe true Chriftian cha- rity, though it be zealous, yet is without bitternefs and hatred, he exhorts the Chrif- tians to ufe gentle methods with thofe deluded people, and to pluck them as brands out of the fire ; meaning, by fire, their impious principles and practices, which, if continued in, would certainly confume them. He feems exprefsly to cite St. Peter's fecond epiftle, and to intimate plainly that molt of the apofiles were dead; fo that his epifile feems not to have been written till after- Nero's reign and the de- ítruEtion ofJerufalem by the Romans. 'This epiftle was not at firft generally received in the church : the author indeed, like .St. James, St. John, and fometimes St. Paul himfelf; does not call himfelf an apoftle, filling himfelf only the fervant of Chr : but he has added what is equiva- lent, Jude the brother ofJames, a charafter that can belong to none but our apoftle: and furely the humility of a follower of Jasus fhould beno objeaion againf$ his writings, but rather be a recommendation of them. One great objeaion againft this epifile, was, the apoftle's mentioning the tradition ofMichael the archangel contending with the Devil about the body ofMofes, but he has done no more than St. Paul in naming Jannes and Jambres ; namely, alleging a dory, which was then current and acknow= ledged by the Jews, though nothing of it was inferted in the facred writings : fo that St. Jude reafons with the Jews from their own authors and conceffions, the more eafily to convince and confute them. We have now, we trud, obviated the difficulties that have arifen concerning the epiftle of St. Jude; and Eufebius tells us, that in his time mod churches read it pub- licly : it is indeed evident, that before the clofe of the fourth age, it was acknow- ledged as canonical Scripture, in the coun- cils of Laodicea and Carthage, by general confent. St. T H O M A S, the APOSTLE. THE Jews, when they travelled into foreign countries, or familiarly con- verfed with the Greeks and Romans, were wont to affume a Latin name ofthe fame fignification, or at leaft that bore force af- finity with that by which they were known in their own country. Thus our bleffed Saviour was called CHRIST, anfwering to his Hebrew title Malt, the anointed: Si- mon, who was called Cephas in Hebrew, 3 was fiyled Petros in Greek, both fignifying a rock : Tabitha was called Dorcas, both fignifying a goat : and thus Thomas, ac- cording to the Syriac import of his name, was called Didymus, a twin, which is the meaningof both appellations. There is no mention in the evangelical hifiory eitherofthecountry or kindredof St. Thomas : it is however certain that he was a Jew, and in all probability a Galilean, Metaphrafles
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