ment of the world. But as St. Peter, in his Two Epistles, has come in for his share of the charge of having taught such a doctrine; it will be necessary to enter upon a critical examination of those Epistles. This will be the more necessary as there appear to be some things in those Epistles which have exceedingly perplexed Commentators of all descriptions, accurately to understand. It has generally been agreed, that the First Epistle of Peter was addressed to Christian converts from among the Gentiles, and indeed this is so evident from what is said in different parts of the Epistle, and particularly of the two first chapters, that it may be said to be unquestionable. Thus they are stiled ELECT, according to the foreknowledge of God. They are exhorted not to fashion themselves according to their former lusts in their ignorance, i. e. in the state of heathen darkness, in which they were involved prior to their conversion to Christianity. So again it is said the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries. And still more decisively that FORMERLY they were not a people, but were NOW the people of God, and that they had not obtained mercy, but that now they had obtained mercy. It was extremely natural for the Apostle, when writing to persons of this description, to remind them of the inestimable value of the blessing which had thus been bestowed upon them. This he does, in very strong terms, in the third and following verses, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to his abundant mercy, hath begotten us to a lively hope-or to an hope of life, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead-to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven-or in the heavens, for you who are kept by the power of God to the Salvation which is ready to be revealed in the last time. In the following verse, he tells them that it was in this Salvation that they greatly rejoiced, though now, says he, for a season, if need be-or seeing from the circumstances of the times that it is necessary, ye are in heaviness, through manifold temptations, that the trial of your faith in this Salvation, might be found unto praise, and honor and glory, at the appearing or rather as it should have been 1 i translated translated, (for the word is the same in the original as in the fifth verse), at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Most Commentators appear to have been of opinion that the Salvation ready to be revealed in the last time, in the fifth verse, and the revelation of Jesus Christ, at the close of the seventh verse, relate to the final and everlasting Salvation of mankind, in a future state, and no doubt this is included in it, and is the final object of the Gospel dispensation-but it is submitted to the judicious Reader's attentive considera. tion, whether the course of the Apostle's argument does not require it to be understood of the Salvation to which the Gentiles, as a Nation, were to be introduced at the full revelation, by the destruction of the Jewish Nation, of the extensive designs which Jesus, as the Messiah, had in view, with respect to the Gentile world. This sense seems strongly confirmed, by what the Apostle says in the 10th verse, Of which Salvation, to wit, of the Gentiles-the Prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace or favor that should come or which should be bestowed upon you searching what or what manner of time the spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified before-hand the sufferings of Christ, and the glorythat should follow those sufferings. Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things which are now reported by them that have preached the Gospel unto you, with the holy Ghost sent down from heaven: Which things the Angels desire to look into. * This last expression cannot fail to carry back the Reader's recollection to the history of this Apostle, whose reluctance to believe that the Gentiles were to be taken into the divine favor, is so strikingly displayed upon Cornelius's sending for him. Such language coming from him was peculiarly cha racteristic, and forms a striking proof, in addition to those already mentioned, what the Apostle meant by the Salvation ready to be revealed. But it must not be omitted to be observed, that the ex-pression the Salvation ready to be revealed, appears to have a "Qui prophetaverunt de gratia in vos, sub venturâ, i. e. De adventu "Messiæ et beneficiis evangelii sub umbris. See Hardy in loc." Again he says-Præsignificabant prophetæ Christum passurum multa, Luke xxiv. 25, 26. sed alii obscuriùs, alii clarius. peculiar peculiar propriety in it, if it be compared with Luke xvii. 20, 28, 30. for it was in answer to the question of the Disciples When the kingdom of Godor of the Messiah, should come, that our Lord said-As it was in the days of Lot even thus shall it be when the true nature of the coming of the Son of Man is revealed, i. e. when it will appear that the great object of his mission was not as the Jews fondly imagined, exclusively to benefit them, by raising them to universal empire, but to include within his benevolent views -the Gentile world-or the whole of the human race. The Apostle having thus, in the most plain and unequivocal terms, asserted that the call of the Gentiles was particularly foreseen and foretold by the antient Prophets, founds upon it the following very pertinent and interesting exhortation, ver. 13. Wherefore, gird up the loins of your minds be sober, and hope to the end entertain a firm expectation of the grace or favor which is to be brought to you, as Gentiles, at the Revelation of Jesus Christ.. Here the judicious Reader will scarcely need to be reminded, that the end so often mentioned in the xxivth of Matthew, and the parallel chapters, was the destruction of Jerusalem, for which they were particularly directed to watch, as the final and crowning evidence that the Jews had totally mistaken the true nature of the Messiah's character, for, by that event, the middle wall of partition between Jew and Gentile would be completely removed, and so AN ENTRANCE would be administered unto them ABUNDANTLY, into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. This interpretation is so clear, and affords so decided a refutation of the opinion that St. Peter spoke of, the end of the world as at hand, and gives so natural and easy an explanation of the phrase the revelation of Jesus Christ, that it will be deemed, by all good Judges of evidence, to be entirely satisfactory, even though it should, upon examination, be found to be impossible to remove the obscurity which appears to hang over some of the subsequent parts of this Epistle. The Apostle having congratulated the Gentile Converts upon their election to the distinguished privileges and blessings of the Gospel Dispensation, and that that election was the subject of antient prophecy-his great object, throughout the Epistle, appears to have been, to exhort them to behave them selves in a manner suitable to their new and exalted character as Christians. This he doth, first in general Terms, in chap. i. 14, 15. As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your state of ignorance-but as he who hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation. He afterwards, in the second chapter, descends to particulars, and instances the particular duties of obedience to Government, as they were members of society at large; and the more private and domestic duties— as masters and servants-husbands and wives; and he tells them in the third chapter, that their good and upright conduct in these several relations would, generally speaking, have the most friendly influence upon the happiness of their lives. Chap. iii. 10. He that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile. Let him eschew evil and do good let him seek peace and pursue it or endeavour, by all honourable means, to obtain it. Such a conduct, says the Apostle, would, generally speaking, secure the love and good-will of mankind, ver. 13. And, who is he that will harm you, if ye be fol lowers of that which is good? But if, says he, it should so happen, through the wickedness of men-even if you suffer for righteousness sake, happy are ye, for it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing. He then, in this connection, instances the example of Christ, ver. 18. For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the power of the spirit. In the beginning of the following chapter he carries * The verses which follow to the end of the chapter have much perplexed Commentators to understand, and no part of the New Testament has been considered as more difficult and obscure. But whatever be the meaning of the whole of them; it appears that our Translators have stumbled, in the very threshold, by rendering the word Phulake a Prison; for though it unquestionably has that signification; yet the primary sense of it is, not a Prison but preservation, and from hence it very naturally was made use of, to signify a place for preservation; whether a Prison, a Garrison, or any other place of security. That the Greek word should have been translated preservation can not admit of a doubt; for the object of the preaching of Noah most indisputably was, the preservation of the disobedient. It is equally evident, that the long suffering of God, mentioned in the subsequent part of the verse, was exercised for the same benevolent purpose, and no one can possibly doubt that ries on the thread of his reasoning thus, ver. 1. Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh-Arm yourselves with the same mind-with the same heroic fortitude, to suffer as just men, as he did for he that hath suffered in the flesh for the sake of a good conscience, hath by that act declared his resolution to cease or to desist from sin, * i. e. to suffer for well doing rather than for evil doing, that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh, to the lusts of men, but to the will of God; for the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, révellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries: wherein or for which reason they think it strange that ye run not with them into the same excess of riot; speaking evil of you. These were the vices to which the Apostle seems to have alluded when he speaks of ceasing from sin, and of which, in the following verse, he says, they who practised them should give an account to him who was ready to judge the quick and dead. There is a considerable difficulty in ascertaining with precision, what is meant by this last expression; for it has, at least, the semblance, especially when it is taken in cor nection with what follows, particularly with the Apostle's assertion in the 7th verse, that the end of all was at hand, as if he realy expected the near approach of the end of the world. that it was for the like benevolent purpose that Noah prepared an Ark, that all who were disposed to listen to his preaching might flee to it, as to a place of refuge, from the impending Deluge, This is so natural an interpretation of the word here rendered a Prison, and harmonizes so exactly with the context, and with the history to which it confessedly relates, that scarcely a single doubt can exist, in the mind of any impartial person, that this is the true meaning of the Apostle, even if no other could have been produced. But most fortunately there is still stronger evidence that this, and this only was the Apostle's meaning; for, in his Second Epistle, when speaking again upon this very subject, he uses the same word as a verb, to point out Noah's own preservation. And what is remarkable, our Translators have, very properly rendered it, to save in the sense of preserving. What better evidence can possibly be required of the Apostle's meaning, in the passage under consideration ? Upon the use of the preposition joined with the word---the Reader will consult Dr. Blackwell to advantage. * Or hath ceased from such sins as would subject him to the charge of suffering for evil doing. Hardy's Note is---Abstinet in posterum à peccatis. The |