Jude 1:20 But you, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, I. Let us consider this mystery AS A RECEIVED TRUTH OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. "But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith." Now the sum of that faith, we are told, is this, "that we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in unity." And the Catholic Church has always been very jealous of this fundamental dogma. She has never hidden it; never shrunk from the definite statement of it. With regard to the mysteriousness of the doctrine, the point is conceded. The question is, whether by a looser theology — by a charitable vagueness of expression, or by a scheme of definitions which should define nothing — we should ever be able to get rid of this mystery? A man must be an angel to understand even an angel's powers; and he must be himself infinite who could comprehend an infinite existence. II. Let us consider this great mystery as it throws light upon THE NATURE AND MORAL GOVERNMENT OF GOD. 1. This it does in that it exhibits God as sustaining towards us the most beneficent personal relations; thus removing the cloud which had been spread before the throne, and presenting the Godhead under a form which, as Burke well expresses it, "softens and humanises the whole idea of Divinity." 2. But in relation to the clearing up of mystery in the Divine procedure, we claim it as a further advantage of the doctrine we are considering, that it is specially revealed in conjunction with a scheme for the pardon and recovery of mankind. (D. Moore, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost,WEB: But you, beloved, keep building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit. |
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