Another triplet, answering to the triplet of Sodom, the evil angels, the unbelieving Israelites. In both triplets there was an outrage against nature, a contempt for Divine sovereignty, a revolt against dignities.

I. A DENUNCIATION OF JUDGMENT. "Woe unto them!"

1. Wickedness has its end in woes. The end of it is "death."

2. The most fearful woes are those which are spiritual in their nature. No outward calamity is so terrible as the wrath of God, no worldly misfortune so great as a seared conscience.

3. The woe does not come without warning. God foretells the ruin that it may be averted, as in the notable case of the Ninevites.

4. Ministers ought to exhibit the terrors of the Law as well as the sweet promises of the gospel.

II. THE GROUNDS OF THIS DENUNCIATION OF JUDGMENT. There is a threefold variety in godless transgression.

1. There is an outrage against the laws of nature. "For they went in the way of Cain."

(1) That was a way of hypocrisy. Cain offered a sacrifice, but in a faithless spirit.

(2) It was a way of envy. "The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy." In the case of Cain it was "the inlet to murder." Who is able to stand before envy? It is its own punishment.

(3) It was a way of selfishness and hatred. Hatred led to the murder of Abel, and selfishness was stamped upon the interrogative answer to God's question: "Am I my brother's keeper?"

(4) It was a way of violence and cruelty. "He who cared not how he served God regarded not how he used his brother. Cain begins with sacrifice and ends with murder." Those who plead for most liberty are apt to be most selfish and cruel.

2. There is a religious opposition to God from interested motives. "And ran riotously in the error of Balaam for hire."

(1) Their guide - Balsam.

(a) He was a false prophet; he is called both a prophet (2 Peter 2:16) and a soothsayer (Joshua 13:22).

(b) The devil uses the ablest instruments to serve his ends.

(c) God often endows wicked persons with high gifts. Great, accordingly, is their responsibility.

(2) The error of Balsam.

(a) This does not refer to his being deceived in the expectation of reward for his wicked work.

(b) It refers rather to his deviation from God's will and commandment in the whole history of his relations with Balak. "His way was perverse before the Lord." He made the Israelites to err from the way of righteousness by teaching Balak to cast a stumbling-block before them - to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit fornication (Revelation 2:14).

(c) It was a deviation in doctrine that led to a deviation from holiness. Thus false teachers are usually evil-workers (Philippians 3:2). Their "minds are defiled, they are reprobate to every good work." "Truth reforms as well as informs."

(3) The motive of Balaam's conduct. "For hire."

(a) There was profanity in such conduct. Covetousness is idolatry; but it is something like blasphemy in a religious guide. The guide to heaven ought to be above the base love of lucre.

(b) There was hypocrisy in such conduct. There was an apparent concern for God's honour and the good of man; but under all was the eager lust for reward.

(4) The impetuous and eager pace of seducers. "They ran riotously."

(a) They are not checked by God's judgments.

(b) The desire for gain hurries men forward to many an act of wickedness and sin. He that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent" (Proverbs 28:20).

(c) Sinners pursuing a downward course know not where they may stop.

(d) There is a Divine hand to punish the greatest sinners.

(e) How sad that the saints of God should not run as eagerly in the way of God as sinners in the way of wickedness and folly! They ought, surely, to "press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God."

3. There is a contempt for sacred ordinances which brings its own retribution. "And perished in the gainsaying of Korah."

(1) The history of Korah. He was a Levite of the tribe of Levi, and cousin-german of Moses. He was, therefore, employed in an honourable department of the ecclesiastical service - " to wait upon the sons of Aaron in the service of the house of the Lord."

(2) His insurrection. "The gainsaying of Korah." He opposed the exclusive privileges of Moses and Aaron, saying that they "took too much upon them," and he claimed the privileges of the priesthood for himself and others. "And seek ye the priesthood also?" says Moses. The conduct of Korah finds its counterpart in the seducers of Jude's day, who despised ecclesiastical ordinances, and set at naught the order of the Church. Their conduct showed

(a) contempt for Divine order and appointment;

(b) discontent with their existing privileges;

(c) envy at the rulers of the Church;

(d) ingratitude to God for his privileges.

(3) His punishment. "Perished in the gainsaying of Korah." The facts of Korah's destruction are familiar to all. They suggest:

(a) That seducers ordinarily involve others in their own destruction. So it was with Korah. Two hundred and fifty - "famous in the congregation, and men of renown" - were drawn into the conspiracy. "He would neither be alone in woe nor in wickedness."

(b) God opposes those who oppose his ordinances. "An evil man seeketh only rebellion, therefore a cruel messenger shall be sent against him" (Proverbs 24:22).

(c) We are bound to accept thankfully the privileges which God has provided for us. - T.C.

The "woe" itself was undoubtedly to be proportioned to the extent of their criminality. One decided way of measuring the extent of their criminality was to be found in the evil effects of their speculations and practices. Murderers, in the legal sense of the word, they were not. It is on the consequences of their evil speculations and practices that they were so designated. By the unsoundness of doctrine and by the criminality of their practice, they had diffused around them a fatal taint. Licentiousness of principle and licentiousness of conduct entail a remediless "woe" both upon the body and the soul. It is true the plea might be offered that the fatal consequences had arisen, as it were, incidentally, without their being formally planned. But, according to the decision of the apostle, this circumstance alters not the case. On the contrary, that men are responsible for the effects of their conduct, even though they are directly pursuing other ends, he shows us, by referring to the remarkable history of Balaam. It might not be alleged that even Balaam, perverse as he was, had set himself out of rooted hatred to the Israelites, to plot their destruction. Still, however, for determining the measure of his guilt, it must be marked that his resolution was to enjoy the gratification of his covetousness at any expense. And thus it was exactly in regard to the persons whom St. Jude reprehends. They might be following some scheme of personal aggrandisement. It might only be in pursuing this scheme that they ceased to inculcate the doctrines of Christian self-denial and purity. Besides, to justify the "woe" pronounced, the apostle takes away every excuse for their conduct by showing that their resistance, both to the authority of religion and to the well-being of the Church, was parallel with the "gainsaying of Core." "Core" knew perfectly the origin of the lawgiver's authority — knew the meaning of the Mosaic ordinance and its sanctions, and the utility of obeying it — and yet he "gainsayed" the whole. How easily the application of all this might be made to the irreligious and ungodly of our own time! It applies to the bold speculators who, whatever be their general professions of regard for religion, undermine by false reasonings the foundations of Christianity. It applies to the band of the ambitious who, like Core, would destroy the peace of mankind in rendering themselves celebrated. It applies to the hordes of the covetous who, greedy for filthy lucre as Balaam, care not what a curse they inflict on others, if so be they may enrich themselves with the reward of iniquity. Let me request you, for the sake of illustration, to observe that serious responsibility which men of literary eminence have often incurred by directing their writings against the cause of religion and godliness. When genius degrades itself into the auxiliary of scepticism and licentiousness, it entails on the person who has successfully used it, the corresponding measures of criminality. Think on the mischievous effects which may flow even from a single copy of a profane and immoral writing. But shall the well-gifted sceptics whose genius has been employed to promote over the young and inexperienced the ascendancy of evil principle, escape responsibility for that long train of ills, the origin of which is traceable to their daring speculations? There is blood in their hands. They have destroyed souls. Suffer me, however, to warn you, lest we allow the view of their wickedness to absorb every apprehension of our culpability, and thus remain satisfied with expressing our displeasure at the evils which they have perpetrated, instead of examining our own hearts to learn how far we stand in need of the reproof. In our commonest intercourse we exercise an influence over one another which may operate for good or for evil. We may become the means either of promoting spiritual excellence and happiness, or of vitiating and so destroying the very life of the soul, in those with whom we associate. The consequences of our character and conduct in these respects, therefore, enter justly as items into the sum of our responsibility. The blessing or the "woe" must fall down on us, according as these consequences are beneficial or the reverse. Let me finish the discourse, however, with the pleasing thought, how much good may be done by us in the intercourse of our mutual relationships. Instead of destroying or even weakening the principle of Divine life in our brethren, we may become the effectual means of increasing its power and enlarging the sphere of its exercise. While the influence of irreligion and vice would tend to seal the ruin, the lessons and the example of pious and godly men are advancing the salvation of others.

(W. Muir, D. D.)

I. Like the first murderer, THESE HERETICS WERE FIRED WITH MALICE AGAINST THE REAL AND FAITHFUL FOLLOWERS OF CHRIST. While we are often warned that the world is opposed to the true people of God, it may at the same time be said that no class of men regard them with feelings of such bitter disaffection as those who are false and heretical professors of religion. To the instinctive hostility of nature they add the sullen rancour of religious animosity.

II. To run after the error of Balaam is TO TEACH DOCTRINES CALCULATED TO FOSTER THE DEPRAVED AFFECTIONS OF THE HEART — doctrines pleasing to flesh and blood, for personal and pecuniary ends. Such was the case with the seducers in the text, and such is the case with false teachers in every age. Having neither the knowledge nor the love of the truth in them, their main concern must necessarily be to turn their teaching to account in the way of advancing their temporal interests. With this view they study to accommodate their doctrines to the prejudices and private likings of human nature, being well aware that, without some dilutions and transmutations of the truth, they will not be so successful in their object. But of all the varied forms of error, the most attractive is that which has the twofold effect of soothing the conscience, and at the same time giving some scope and licence to sin.

III. The apostle declares THAT THESE SEDUCERS WERE ALSO ANIMATED BY THE SPIRIT, AND DESTINED TO SUFFER THE DOOM OF THAT AMBITIOUS AND MISCHIEVOUS REBEL, CORE. Those who "deny the only Lord God" as they did, and who make light of the law of heaven, need not be expected to be very submissive to any authority established among men; and hence heretics have in every age been found to be seditious subjects and dangerous members of civil society. The very same qualities of character by which they are led to spurn at the will of the Supreme, will necessarily dispose them to resist and despise all other dominion.

(A. E. Gilvray, D. D.)

This short Epistle is chiefly directed against false teachers who were endeavouring to introduce pestilent doctrines into the Church, and to lead away its members from truth and godliness. It appears as though the apostle here tracked them through three different stages of guilt — "the way of Cain," "the error of Balaam," and "the gainsaying of Core."

I. THE WAY OF CAIN. The apostle is not to be supposed here as referring to the atrocious act of slaying his brother. Whensoever reason is set up above revelation, whether the one be altogether rejected to make way for the other, or its statements reduced and modified that they may not exceed the other, then is there an imitation of "the way of Cain." And if there be what approaches at least very closely to a rejection of Scripture, may it not be contended that men have taken the first step in a course, of which utter destruction is the probable termination? It was not at once that Cain became a murderer; but when he had adopted his deistical creed, he had brought himself into the position of one whom Satan might attack with incalculable advantage, and we marvel not that, when fierce jealousy was excited, he raised his hand against his brother. And thus with those who follow him in setting up reason as a standard, by which all proof should be measured; they have no security, no defence against the setting light by all their better convictions, till they have confounded all moral distinctions and persuaded themselves into the most unlawful practices.

II. THE ERROR OF BALAAM. It is evident that covetousness was a ruling passion with these troublers of the Church; the apostle expressly says that it was "for reward" that they "ran greedily after the error of Balaam," so that their imitation of the prophet, who wished to curse Israel but was constrained to bless, must have been in the love of the wages of unrighteousness. Balaam knew what was right; Balaam knew the future consequence of what was wrong; but, swayed by present interest, he determined on doing the wrong, and sought only that, whilst doing it, he might by some equivocation keep his conscience at ease; he was not ignorant, he was not insensible, but he was bent on securing a present advantage, and his whole concern was that in doing this he might not fly openly in the face of an explicit command. And is this a rare or unusual case? What! does not the world swarm with men who are thoroughly conscious that they can gain what they wish only through disobeying God, who are not moved by this consciousness to the resisting the desire, but who look about to subterfuges and palliations, that they may secure what they long for, and yet have some apology to cloak the disobedience? Is it unusual to find an individual who, with his moral eyesight in a great degree opened to the nature and consequence of his conduct, resolves on persisting in that conduct in hope of obtaining a favourite object, but who all the while attempts some process of self-deceit, that he may hide the offence he knows he is committing?

III. THE GAINSAYING OF CORE. This appears to be given as the final stage of depravity, the reaching which is the reaching destruction: "they perished in the gainsaying of Core." It was a gainsaying which was directed alike against the throne and the altar. And the two are commonly combined. We say not that an irreligious man must be also a disloyal; but we affirm that a disloyal is almost always an irreligious. We know not how it can be otherwise. We know not how a good Christian can fail to be a good subject, "submitting himself to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake." For our own part we will never believe that loyalty is merely an acquired principle, drilled into men by education and fostered by custom. We are persuaded, on the contrary, that we are born with a reverence of authority, that God placed it in us as a part of that moral cordage by which He would have society knit together. Whether or no they admire his personal character, whether or no they approve the acts of his government, most men, we are convinced, tacitly acknowledge the sacredness of a king, and are moved by awe of the office to manifest devotion to him who holds it. We regard the enthusiasm thus simultaneously called forth as expressive of a kind of irrepressible consciousness that a king is, in some sense, the vicegerent of Deity, as proving what we might almost call an innate persuasion that there is a majesty in him who wears a crown, which it is a species of sacrilege to refuse to acknowledge. The unbidding acclamations of a peasantry pass with us as echoes of a voice which is speaking irresistibly in their breasts, proclaiming that it is by God that princes reign, and that whom He delegates the world should honour. And if we may thus contend that loyalty is a natural sentiment, we aggravate most grievously the sin of disobedience to all those precepts of Scripture that set themselves against the gainsaying of authority. And who shall marvel that "the gainsaying of Core," inasmuch as it proved an utter contempt of all instituted authority, both in civil and spiritual things, provoked signally the anger of God? It is given as the description of the last stage of enormity. The man who could join this gainsaying must have thrown off all fear of his Maker; for how otherwise could he take part in a league whose professed object it was to strip of power the persons of Divine appointment and to give to the meanest of the people that right of officiating with which one order could prove themselves exclusively entrusted? Thus it was with these seducers in the days of St. Jude. They had gone in "the way of Cain," and run "after the error of Balaam"; but there was a great obstacle to their schemes; the authority of the apostles or of their appointed successors was held in reverence in the Church, and was directly opposed to their proceedings. Sooner or later they would have to undertake the overthrow of this authority, and thus add imitation of Core to that of Cain and of Balaam. But God would at length interpose, and, having suffered them to fill up the measure of their iniquities, would visit them with the weight of His indignation. They should work their own ruin. And thus would it come to pass that they who had to describe their career would have to follow up the announcement that "they had gone in the way of Cain, and run greedily after the error of Balaam for reward," by an account at once of a crime and its punishment — "and they perished in the gainsaying of Core."

(H. Melvill, B. D.)

I. THE WAY OF CAIN IS THE WAY OF SINNERS IN GENERAL.

1. A way of ignorance. He murdered his brother because he hated him; he hated him because his sacrifice was accepted of the Lord, whilst his own was rejected; his sacrifice was rejected because he offered the wrong offering upon the altar; he gave the wrong offering because he was ignorant of his own state before God, and ignorant of God's requirements. He was willing to worship, but it must be a worship dictated by his taste, and not one in obedience to God's will. Cain's religion is now the most respectable and popular religion of the day. It involves no abasement in the dust; no humiliating confession of sinnership; no absolute dependence out of self. It flatters man's pride, exalts his reason, and just suits the carnal heart that wants a religion to make his respectability complete. Cain's religion is the curse of the day. It chloroforms men into insensibility and indifference. Had they none there would perhaps be more hope for them, for when sinners were appealed to they would feel they were addressed, but as it is they put themselves down as part of "the religious world," and perhaps a better name could hardly be found to describe them, for they have a religious worldliness, or if you prefer the title a worldly religiousness.

2. A way of worldliness. Hardened and despairing he goes out from the presence of the Lord, builds a city, and seeks to drown remorse in pleasure. He and his descendants busy themselves in trying to make this world a pleasant place of residence, and with the sound of the harp and the organ the guilty man tries to drown the voice of his brother's blood. This is the way of Cain. This is just what the vast majority of mankind is doing. It is trying in the business and pleasures of the city to find its all — forget its God — and drown unpleasant thoughts. But remember, your burying yourself in this world's pleasures does not remove the brand of Cain from off your brow.

3. The way to hell. No scripture sheds one gleam of hope upon the way of Cain. Direct reference is only made twice to him in the New Testament, and in both instances he is held up as a warning, and nothing else. The first you will find in the first Epistle of John, the third chapter and twelfth verse — "Not as Cain who was of that wicked one"; and the second is found in our text and the verses following. Thus you see no hope is even hinted at. The end of the way of Cain is blackness of darkness for ever.

II. ONE PARTICULAR IN CAIN'S WAY WHICH IS THE WAY OF MANY PROFESSORS. I mean his indifference about his murdered brother. "Where is Abel thy brother?" These were the words that arrested Cain's attention. May they arrest yours! I am glad to see you here this evening, but where is your brother? Christian young men, where have you left your brethren this evening? Where are those who are related to you by ties of blood? Where are those bound to you by friendship? Where are those who are your brethren in daily labour — those who work with you in the office, shop, warehouse, or docks? Where is he? You are here singing God's praises and listening to God's Word, but where did you leave him? Alas, in the way of Cain, I hear some of you reply, "I know not." Stop, sir! that answer will never do. Not know! I think I see Cain as he utters the words. A burning blush crimsons his brow, and his downcast eyes and quivering face all give the lie to the assertion. He did know. Christian, such a miserable falsehood as Cain's is unworthy of you. You feel it as you try to tell it. You ought to know. Come, be bold, speak out the truth, though it condemns you. Then I will answer for you? Like Cain, you have left your brother in his blood. His soul is dead if his body lives. Indifference about souls is the crying sin of the Church.

(A. G. Brown.)

Adam begat a son in his own likeness — not God's — that was gone — but his own — and his own bore the imprint of the evil one, to whose subtle agency he had sinfully succumbed. Thus the first man born into the world was not only the child of Adam, but also, in some sense, the child of the devil, and demonstrably our brother, though it be not either politic or pleasant flatly to affirm it. Cain was not the abnormal monster that he is commonly supposed to be, but a representative man, a religious man, a polite and accomplished man, and in many respects a model man, with the exception of a single rash and unfortunate deed, perpetrated in a fit of passion. And yet, as "the way of Cain" is so severely deprecated in God's Word, let us study the way-marks that we may learn to beware of it.

1. It was a religion without an atonement. He regarded himself as God's creature; he recognised God's claims upon his gratitude; and accordingly he reared an altar dedicated to the Deity, and laid upon it votive offerings such as were not only aesthetically beautiful, but seemed to be ethically appropriate and sufficient. Hard by Cain's altar stands another, a simpler, ruder structure, on which no flowers breathe their fragrance, nor ripened fruits are found. It is only blood-besprinkled, and a slain lamb lies upon it. Strange offering this to a God of love, and stranger still is the attitude of Abel, as he stands beside his altar, with his head bowed as if in profoundest penitence. "By faith Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice than Cain," for his faith humbly grasped the great doctrine of the atonement. It was the lack of any conscious need of an atonement that broadly distinguished the way of Cain, and there be hundreds of thousands that to-day do follow him. Far be it from me to disparage any of the rich and generous fruits of the earth, that spring from germs indigenous in the soil of the human soul. Though fallen, there is much left of beauty and of native nobleness. There are such things as truth and honesty, and generosity, and natural affection, and broad philanthropy. There are such things outside the Church that go to show that human nature is not utterly depraved, nor is a world hopelessly cursed that holds the roots from which spring such fruits. And yet it is of infinite moment for us to remember that the offering to heaven of these alone will not suffice to make sure of heaven. For unfallen man these would be quite enough, but for guilty man there is needed an atonement.

2. The way of Cain was a heart without love. Religion does indeed address itself to our intelligence, and challenges the severest scrutiny of its character and claims, and yet it constantly recognises the sadly significant fact that the radical difficulty in the way of man's salvation is not so much in his head as his heart. Cain's offering was costly and beautiful, but there was no heart in it, and no love back of it, and therefore it was that God sternly rejected both him and it. If love had been the animating motive, then the moment he discovered its defective character, he would with eager haste have sought to remedy the defect. Instead of that his brow was clouded, his countenance fallen, and his bosom wroth. The slumbering demon within him was roused. The carnal enmity of his depraved nature flamed out, and like an exasperated serpent he was ready to strike with a mortal blow. We stand aghast in the presence of this first dread tragedy — that strikes us most just because it was the first. Cain is only the leader of a long and infamous historic line. "And wherefore slew he him?" the Scripture asks, and then it answers the question of its own propounding. "Because his own works were evil and his brother's righteous." And every age has borne witness to the prevalence of the very same spirit, and for the very same reason. True, the age of bodily butchery is now happily past, and the followers of Christ are no longer thrown to lions, immured in dungeons, or stretched upon the rack. The world has grown too decent for that, and the devil too shrewdly politic. And yet it is just as true to-day as ever that they who will live godly — meaning thereby uncompromising and fearless Christians — shall suffer persecution. There is still the old antipathy and enmity to the worshippers at the blood-besprinkled altar.

3. Another distinguishing feature of this still much trodden way is the substitution of culture for cleansing — culture of the mind for cleansing by the blood of Christ. God has abandoned me, thought the proto-murderer, but hope has not. The earth has indeed been cursed, but it shall yet be made a tolerable place to dwell in. I will fertilise it by toilsome tillage, and embellish it with choicest art. I will drown its wail of woe by concourse of melody and "notes of linked sweetness long drawn out." By the power of cultivation I will redeem the world from the power of the curse. Accordingly Cain built a city that was doubtless a marvel of architectural beauty, while in his immediate family were to be found artificers in brass and iron, and the fast-flying fingers of cunning performers on the harp and the organ. Had he lived in our day he would doubtless have been a patron of the arts, a school director, a member of the city government, a founder or fosterer of great enterprises having for their object the instruction of the ignorant and the mitigation of human misery. Having no hope of heaven to lure him on, he was determined to make the most of earth. Now, far be it from me to despise or even to disparage such things. We hail them as the outcome of that enlightened enterprise or broad philanthropy which distinguishes all Christian lands. We rejoice in them not only for the sake of man, whose elevation and comfort they are adapted to promote, but for God's sake, to whose glory they are destined to be so largely tributary. And yet all these mere human agencies are powerless to effect redemption. All this magnificent engineering of modern civilisation is, when taken by itself, as impotent to rescue man from sin and guilt as the rudest barbarism that ever degraded humanity. Knowledge is power indeed, but whether the power shall be beneficent or baneful will depend entirely on the principle that controls it. A rifle is a thing of power, but a dreadful thing in the hands of a bloodthirsty Modoc. So knowledge is power, and yet mere knowledge without religious principle "doth only make men clever devils." Nay, verily, what the world wants is not so much culture as cleansing. Then culture comes indeed, but in its purest, noblest forms. Then there are gathered the richest fruits of the highest Christian civilisation — fruits indeed that are fruits of the ground, and yet not fruits of the ground alone, but the outcome of the blood, for the ground has been enriched by the blood of the Cross.

(P. S. Henson, D. D.)

The way of Cain is that course of life which Cain took up to himself in following the lusts of his own heart against the will of God. It is described in Genesis 4, of which way there be seven steps or degrees, but every one out of the right way.

1. The first step was hypocrisy: he worshipped God by offering sacrifice as Abel did, but his heart was not a believing heart as Abel's was; his worship was outward and ceremonious, but not in spirit and truth, for his heart was an evil heart of unbelief.

2. The second his hatred of his own and natural brother, prosecuting him with his wrath and indignation.

3. The third his murder, whereby he slew his righteous brother.

4. The fourth his lying unto God, saying he knew not where his brother was.

5. The fifth his desperation, after that God had convicted him and pronounced sentence against him.

6. The sixth his security and carelessness; he regardeth not his sin nor the conscience of it, but busieth himself in building a city and calleth it after the name of his child, that, seeing his name was not written in heaven, he might yet preserve his name and memory in the earth.

7. The seventh and last, which was the highest step of his way, was his profaneness; for from thenceforth he cast off and contemned all the care and practice of God's worship, which appeareth (Genesis 4:26).

(W.Perkins.)

Covetousness is the root of all evil, the spawn of all sins, a common factor for most villainies of the world: the east wind that blasteth all the trees of virtue. And verily, if men would but consider three things: first, how uncertain; secondly, how unprofitable; thirdly, how hurtful these earthly things are which we so covet, our desire after them will soon be quenched.

(S. Otes.)

I. As RELATING TO THE FACT OF KORAH AND HIS COMPANY.

1. The nature of the faction which was raised by them.(1) The design that was laid for that, and all other circumstances of the story, we must have resort to the account that is given of it (Numbers 16.), where we shall find that the bottom of the design was the sharing of the government among themselves. They intend to lay aside Moses, but this they knew to be a very difficult task, considering what wonders God had wrought by him in their deliverance out of Egypt, what wisdom he had hitherto showed in the conduct of them, what care for their preservation, what integrity in the management of his power, what reverence the people did bear towards him, and what solemn vows and promises they had made of obedience to him. But ambitious and factious men are never discouraged by such an appearance of difficulties. Groundless suspicions and unreasonable fears and jealousies will pass for arguments and demonstrations. Then they who can invent the most popular lies against the government are accounted the men of integrity, and they who most diligently spread the most infamous reports are the men of honesty, because they are farthest from being flatterers of the court.(2) The persons who were engaged in it. At first they were only some discontented Levites who murmured against Moses and Aaron, because they were not preferred to the priesthood, and of these Korah was the chief. Korah, being active and busy in his discontents, had the opportunity of drawing in some of the sons of Reuben, for they pitched their tents near each other, both on the south side of the tabernacle of the congregation; and these were discontented on the account of their tribe having lost the privilege of primogeniture. Thus whatever the pretences are, how fair and popular soever in the opposition men make to authority, ambition and private discontents are the true beginners of them; but these must be covered over with the deepest dissimulation, nothing must be talked of but a mighty zeal for religion and the public interest.(3) The colours and pretences under which these persons sought to justify the proceedings of the faction.(a) The asserting the rights and liberties of the people in opposition to the government of Moses. There were, then, two great principles among them by which they thought to defend them selves.(i) That liberty and a right to power is so inherent in the people that it can not be taken from them. What means, then, this outery for liberty? Is it that they would have no government at all among them, but that every one might have done what he pleased himself? If any man can imagine himself in such a state of confusion, which some improperly call a state of nature, let him consider whether the contentment he could take in his own liberty and power to defend himself would balance the fears he would have of the injury which others in the same state might be able to do him. It follows, then, that what liberty is inconsistent with all government must never be pleaded against one sort of it. But is there, then, so great a degree of liberty in one mode of government more than another that it should be thought reasonable to disturb government merely to alter the form of it? Would it have been so much better for the people of Israel to have been governed by the two hundred and fifty men here mentioned than by Moses? Would not they have required the same subjection and obedience to themselves, though their commands had been much more unreasonable than his? What security can there be that every one of these shall not be worse in all respects than him whom they were so willing to lay aside? So that the folly of these popular pretences is as great as the sin in being persuaded by them.(ii) Another principle which tends to the subverting government under a pretence of liberty is that, in case of usurpation upon the rights of the people, they may resume the exercise of power and punish the supreme magistrate himself if he be guilty of it. Than which there can be no principle imagined more destructive to civil societies and repugnant to the very nature of government. For it destroys all the obligations of oaths and compacts.(b) Another pretence of this rebellion of Korah was the freeing themselves from the encroachments upon their spiritual privileges which were made by the usarpations of Aaron and the priesthood. This served for a very popular pretence, for they knew no reason that one tribe should engross so much of the wealth of the nation to themselves, and have nothing to do but to attend the service of God for it. This hath always been the quarrel at religion by those who seldom pretend to it but with a design to destroy it.

II. THE JUDGMENT WHICH WAS INFLICTED UPON THEM FOR IT. They had provoked heaven by their sin, and disturbed the earth by their faction; and the earth, as if it were moved with indignation against them, trembled and shook, and then with a horrid noise it rends asunder and opens its mouth to swallow those in its bowels who were unfit to live upon the face of it. They had been dividing the people, and the earth, to their amazement and ruin, divides itself under their feet. By which we see God interprets striving against the authority appointed by Him to be a striving against Himself. This was the first formed sedition that we read of against Moses. The people had been murmuring before, but they wanted heads to manage them. Now all things concur to a most dangerous rebellion upon the most popular pretences of religion and liberty, and now God takes the first opportunity of declaring His hatred of such actions, that others might hear and fear and do no more so presumptuously.

(Abp. Stillingfleet.)

Adam, Balaam, Cain, Core, Enoch, James, Judas, Jude, Korah, MichaelEgypt, Ephesus, Gomorrah, SodomAbandon, Alas, Balaam, Balaam's, Cain, Core, Curse, Deceit, Destroyed, Destruction, Error, Evil, Followed, Gain, Gainsaying, Greedily, Headlong, Hire, Korah, Korah's, Pay, Perish, Perished, Profit, Ran, Rebellion, Reward, Riotously, Run, Running, Rush, Rushed, Sake, Saying, Steps, Themselves, Uncontrolled, Walk, Wo, Woe1. He exhorts them to be constant in the profession of the faith.
4. false teachers crept in to seduce them, for whose evil doctrine a horrible punishment is prepared;
20. whereas the godly may persevere, grow in grace, and keep the faith.

Jude 1:11

     5337   hiring
     5465   profit
     5857   fame
     6221   rebellion

Jude 1:3-23

     6169   godlessness

Jude 1:4-19

     5714   men

Jude 1:8-16

     8706   apostasy, warnings

Jude 1:10-12

     6241   seduction

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