fulfilment in one part, even at this early period, of the first prophecy,-as regards, namely, the "enmity" against the promised "Seed." For this is not a description of ordinary wickedness or licentiousness, but (if we may again anticipate the term) of Antichristianity: not only "ungodly deeds committed," but "hard speeches spoken against Him," that is, against "the Lord" whose coming was the subject of promise and of expectation on the part of the godly: these "ungodly" being, on the other hand, the development of "the seed of the serpent," "the children of the wicked one," and the agents of the arch-enemy carrying into effect, then as now, his opposition to the Christ.

Such the character of Enoch's day, and such those with whom he had to contend. Against this tide of overflowing ungodliness had he to maintain his "walk with God:" and more, in the face of this opposition to make the fearless testimony recorded in the text! Which leads us, from the circumstances under which it was uttered, to notice,—

II. In the second place,-The Prophecy itself, and its fulfilment.

1. That, although the second Prophecy of the, Redeemer's coming, it is a prophecy not of His first, but of His second and yet future appearing, has been already remarked, and is too obvious to require proof. The only question there can be is as to, its appropriateness, in this view, to the times when it was given; or the application to those to whom

it was addressed-the world of Enoch's day-of a prediction the fulfilment of which was so remote. Though when it is remembered that of this interval nothing was then revealed-that then, as now, it could be said, “of that day and hour knoweth no man," the difficulty that we find in this fact is in great measure removed: since we can well understand how, notwithstanding this long delay, the threatened judgment would have all the effect of present warning to the men of that generation.

Still, it is admitted, there does appear to be some more immediate and special application to the ungodly of that day, and a reference to some more imminent judgment in the words, "Behold, the Lord cometh to execute judgment," .... especially as addressed to a faction actually combined in open defiance of the Lord, and whose opposition to the Truth had arrived at so fearful a height: and such an application and reference it may be shown accordingly to have had a primary fulfilment, and in a way which throws a very important light on the fulfilment of Prophecy in general.

For, as the language of the wicked in reference to the Lord's coming in judgment ever is, "Let Him make speed and hasten His work that we may see it, and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come that we may know it;" and as experience proves that "because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil;" so He, "to whom are known all His works

from the beginning of the world," has provided that, in the long period during which the judgment of this and the first Promise should be deferred, it should be "brought near" at certain intervals in vivid types, or primary fulfilments of the Prophecy, according as the advance of the apostacy to consummation from time to time called for such an intervention to check it until the purposes of God in the continuance of the enemy's power should be matured. One of these types-the most perfect and accurate of all-by which the Lord's coming was (as it were) anticipated, was THE DELUGE; and in so saying, be it observed, we do not go upon conjecture or any fancied analogy (the only foundation for many alleged types), but on the warrant of our Lord Himself and one of His Apostles. Of our Lord, when in His prophecy of His Second Coming He gave this as one of the signs of it," As it was in the days of Noah, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be;" the antitype in this particular especially the ungodliness and worldliness of the age which shall render men incredulous as to the warning of that coming judgment: as He adds, "they did eat, they drank, they married and were given in marriage, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded,"—that is, they went on as usual notwithstanding the notice of coming judgment, first by Enoch, and afterwards by Noah-" until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all." (St. Matt. xxiv. 37; St. Luke, xvii. 27). In accordance with which, St. Peter also,

having rehearsed the facts of the Deluge, says (2 Ep. iii. 7)—“But the heavens and earth which are now are by the same word reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men:" not -observe-" the day of judgment" in the sense of the great assize or last judgment of all flesh, but in the first instance of the "judgment and perdition of the ungodly" of that age, of whom the Apostle is there speaking—a matured apostacy like to that visited by the Deluge, and which shall be the cause, morally speaking, of that second destruction of the world by fire, as of old by water,-when "the long-suffering of God," on which it is now suspended, shall no longer "wait," and "His Spirit shall no longer strive with man."

The Deluge was thus a type of the coming of the Lord foretold by Enoch; and here there was an impending judgment which gave to the prophecy before us a proximate fulfilment and special application to the ungodly of his day: for, as Noah was but three generations from Enoch, a calculation of the ages in the genealogy shows that many of the persons who heard the prophecy lived to see it thus signally verified.*

But that it was not then fulfilled (as some have asserted) is demonstrated by the context of the Epistle in which it is found, where we have the positive confirmation of the fact just stated, as in

* Enoch being contemporary with Lamech, the father of Noah, for 113 years, and not with Noah only because he was translated at less than half the then natural age of man.

66

ferred from its proximate reference to the Delugethat the ungodly" immediately contemplated in the judgment which it predicts were the types of an Antichristian faction upon which the Lord is revealed in judgment at his next appearing. "And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam [says the Apostle Jude], prophesied of these." Of whom? For the answer to this question we are sent to the beginning of the Epistle, where he thus announces his design in writing it :-" Beloved, when I gave [or in giving] all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation [quare, in the prophecies of them uttered of old?]; ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ."* (ver. 3, 4.) And then, after adducing several instances of God's judgments upon apostates in former times, he thus proceeds to denounce these:

"Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.

"These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are

*Or, "denying our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ" (see the Greek, omitting eòv on good authority).