d for this
purpose, that he should lead the people out of Egypt; and his brother
Aaron likewise was appointed of God as High Priest. Now Korah was
also of the same tribe, and their friendship should have been
enduring, and something more than common: yet he attaches to himself
two hundred and fifty men of the foremost and most distinguished
among the people, and excites such a commotion and tumult, that Moses
and Aaron are forced to flee. And Moses fell upon his face, and
prayed that God might not accept their sacrifice; and he bade the
congregation of the people draw back from them, and said to them:
"Hereby shall ye surely know if the Lord hath sent me; if these men
die and disappear as all men disappear, then the Lord hath not sent
me; but if the Lord shall do some new thing, so that the earth shall
open her mouth and swallow them up, and they go down alive into hell,
then shall ye know that these men have reviled the Lord." When he had
spoken these words, the earth quaked and opened, and swallowed up
Korah, together with the other leaders of the rebellion, with all
that they had, so that they went down alive into hell; and the fire
consumed the other two hundred and fifty men who had joined
themselves to him.

This example Jude sets forth for these scoffers who blame us for
making a commotion, while we preach against them, for they are the
real ones who make all the trouble. For Christ is our Aaron and
chief-priest, whom we should allow to rule alone; but this the Pope
and bishops have been unwilling to endure. They have set themselves
up, and have wished to have the power to rule along with the
authority, and so have arrayed themselves against Christ; but God has
punished them, in that the earth has swallowed them up and covered
them, since they are absorbed and swallowed up in an earthly life and
pleasure, and are nothing but pure worldliness.

V. 12, 13. _These live on your charities, and are vileness itself,
while they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear; clouds
they are without water, driven about by the wind; barren, fruitless
trees, twice dead and plucked up by the roots; wild waves of the sea,
which foam out their own shame; wandering stars, for whom is reserved
the blackness of darkness forever._ Of this we have heard enough in
St. Peter's Epistle. All the world have brought up their children to
be ecclesiastics, and to have an easy life of it, and not to support
themselves by their own han