ary.2 In this connection Jude cites a
legend from an apocryphal book, called the "Ascension of Moses,"
of which Origen gives an account.3 The substance of the tradition
is, that, at the decease of Moses, Michael and Satan contended
whether the body should be given over to death or be taken up to
heaven. The appositeness of this allusion is, that, while in this
strife the archangel dared not rail against Satan, yet the wicked
men whom Jude is denouncing do not hesitate to blaspheme the
angels and to speak evil of the things which they know not. "Woe
unto such ungodly men: gluttonous spots, dewless clouds, fruitless
trees plucked up and twice dead, they are ordained to
condemnation." Thirdly, the epistle announces the second coming of
Christ, in the last time, to establish his tribunal. The Prophecy
of Enoch an apocryphal book, recovered during the present century
is quoted as saying, "Behold, the Lord cometh, with ten thousand
of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convict the
ungodly of their ungodly deeds."4 Jude, then, anticipated the
return of the Lord, at "the judgment of the great day," to judge
the world; considered the under world, or abode of the dead, not
as a region of fire, but a place of imprisoning gloom, wherein "to
defiled and blaspheming dreamers is reserved the blackness of
darkness forever;"

2 E. g. Stuart's Dissertation on the Angelology of the Scriptures,
published in vol. i. of the Bibliotheca Sacra.

3 De Principiis, lib. iii. cap 2. See, also, in Michaelis's
Introduction to the New Testament, sect. 4 of the chapter on Jude.

4 Book of Enoch, translated by Dr. R. Laurence, cap. ii.

thought it imminently necessary for men to be diligent in striving
to secure their salvation, because "all sensual mockers, not
having the spirit, but walking after their own ungodly lusts,"
would be lost. He probably expected that, when all free
contingencies were past and Christ had pronounced sentence, the
condemned would be doomed eternally into the black abyss, and the
accepted would rise into the immortal glory of heaven. He closes
his letter with these significant words, which plainly imply much
of what we have just been setting forth: "Everlasting honor and
power, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be unto God, who is able to
keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the face
of his glory with exceeding joy."5

The first chapter of the so called Second Epistle of Peter is not