21, 22. Having mentioned the case of Noah and his family being saved by water, he was led by it to the case of Christians being saved by baptism; but he observes, that it does not save men by its property of washing, or cleansing the body; for that this is effected, not by water, but by purity of heart and life. He farther observes, that our salvation, or the doctrine of our salvation, is confirmed by the resurrection of Christ, who, being exalted to the right hand of God, and all power being given to him, will, in due time, appear to the complete salvation of all his faithful followers. IV. The exhortation contained in this chapter chiefly respects a state of persecution, a subject which we may observe frequently occurs in this epistle, which shews that the apostle wrote from the fulness of his heart, without much regard to method.

1,† 2. Here the sufferings of Christ are represented in the same light with those of his followers. Christians are exhorted to exert the same fortitude, that suffering in the flesh, as he did, they might be free from sin as he was.

S.§ From this passage it may be clearly inferred, that many of those to whom this epistle was addressed were Gentiles, whose public festivals are justly characterized as scenes of dissoluteness and debauchery, by means of which the common people were much attached to their religion. Yet, though vices of every kind were countenanced by the rites of the Heathen religion, the philosophers and legislators made no attempts to abolish, or even to reform them. The festival of Bacchus in Greece, and the Lupercalia at Rome, were as abominably indecent in the age of Augustus, as in the rudest times of antiquity.

4, 5. Attached as the Heathens were to these indecent festivals, they wondered that the Christians should desert them, and censured them for their preciseness. But the judgments of men are of little value when compared with that of God, who will finally judge all men.

6. But it is for this reason that the Gospel is preached

• See Doddridge. "But the sprinkling (exippavτiopa) of a good conscience." Bowyer.

+He that hath suffered in the flesh. "He who is dead, with respect to sensua lity. The flesh, in the beginning of the verse, signifies, frail, mortal nature; in the latter part it signifies, corrupted, sinful nature." N. T. 1729. See Doddridge.

"He that suffered in the flesh, hath died for our sins, that we should no longer, &c." Bentley in Bowyer.

"Of our life, omitted by all the versions but the Arabic." Wakefield. See Doddridge; Harmer, IV. pp. 384-388, 391-393.

See Whitby, &c. in Doddridge; Alexander (on Rom. vi.), pp. 100, 101; Wakefield.

to those who are, as it were, dead with respect to rational life, that they might be subject to censure for the life they lived according to the lusts of men in the flesh, and live a spiritual life according to the will of God.

7. Since the time of righteous judgment is not very distant, be vigilant, and prepare for it. There is no doubt but that the apostles, and the primitive Christians in general, expected the second coming of Christ to be much nearer than it was, though they did not look for it in their own times, and did not pretend to fix any particular time for it. They knew that he was to come [1 Thess. v. 2] unexpectedly, as a thief in the night. Jesus himself said, [Matt. xxiv. 36,] that the time of this event was known to his Father only. Their mistake, therefore, on this subject, is no argument against the reality of this event in particular, or the truth of Christianity in general.

10. The gift in this place, probably means spiritual gifts, not riches, though they are the gifts of God.

11. Let the presbyters, whose office it is to teach, and the deacons, who attend to the external concerns of the church, be attentive to their respective duties. Here the apostle seems to have closed his epistle, but the case of Christians then exposed to persecution, being much upon his mind, he reverts to it again.

12. They had been fully apprized of their state of trial by our Saviour himself, who gave his followers no expectation of any thing but persecution, in this life, and happiness in the life to come.

13. Here again, the sufferings of Christ are represented in the same light with those of his followers. So the apostle Paul observed, [Rom. viii. 17,] that if we suffer with Christ, we shall also reign with him, and be glorified together.

14. [The spirit of glory.] That is, the glorious spirit of God.†

16. Give glory to God by a patient and becoming behaviour under persecution, and even be thankful that you are called to suffer in so glorious a cause. Thus, of the apostles

"The end of all approacheth, that is, the end of all your commonwealth, legal worship, temple, and service, is now within a few years. Be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer, that ye may be the more happy in that day of vengeance and wrath upon our nation." Mede, p. 664. See Doddridge.

+ "The spirit of God's glory,' as in Isaiah xi. 2." Wall in Bowyer. See supra, p. 236, Note †. On Ver. 15, see Wakefield. Busy-body "intends one that affects the inspection and direction of the affairs of other men; and in this place relates to the public affairs of other people." Lardner, I. p. 199. See Doddridge.

it is said, (Acts v. 41,) they rejoiced that they were accounted worthy to suffer shame for the name of Christ.

18. The sufferings of the righteous, though great, are always represented as small, compared with those which are reserved for the wicked. This Jesus expressed by saying, [Luke xxiii. 31,] If these things be done in the green wood, what will be done in the dry, which will burn with much more violence?

19. Let them who die in this persecution, commit their lives (for so it ought to have been rendered) unto God, who as he at first formed them, and gave them life, can, and will restore it, in his appointed time.

V. The apostle closes his epistle with repeating several of the exhortations which he had urged before, and on which it may therefore be supposed that he laid particular stress.

1. Though he might have assumed a higher rank, and more authority, he chose to consider himself as on a level with other teachers in the Christian church; so that what he said, might appear like the advice of one Christian brother to another.

Here we have the testimony of Peter to the sufferings of Jesus, having been himself a witness of them. And though he expected, according to his Master's prediction, to suffer a violent death himself, he was not discouraged by it, but speaks with confidence of the glory which he should share along with him, in order to encourage other Christians to suffer with the same fortitude.

3. How little regard was paid to this by Christian bishops in after times, when they assumed dominion not only over the inferior clergy, but even over princes; and one of them, the bishop of Rome, claimed to himself all power in heaven and earth!

5. No one virtue is so frequently recommended to us as this of humility, and no vice so earnestly cautioned against as pride, the reverse of it, in the Old Testament. There meekness often stands for piety and virtue in general, and pride for impiety and vice. In fact, virtue may be considered as obedience to a rule or law, in opposition to being subject to no will but our own. Humility makes this easy to us, but pride submits with reluctance.

8. By this adversary, or devil, we may understand the enemies of Christianity in general, Jews or Heathens, who

Clothed, rather adorned. See Le Cene, p. 629. "Cloaked with humility. ExouCaua was the short white cloak worn by slaves. See Pollux, L. iv." N. T. 1729

were always watching to surprise and injure the Chris

tians.

9. The case of those to whom the apostle wrote was not peculiar to them. All their brethren on this side the grave were subject to the same.

10. The great ground of consolation under all the trials of this life is, that they tend to perfect the human character, and prepare us for that glory which is reserved for those who shall be so improved. Our Saviour himself was made perfect through suffering. (Heb. ii. 10.)

11. It has been well observed, that this phrase, I suppose, is a proof that this epistle was not written under any consciousness of divine inspiration. Since the Divine Being could not speak of any thing with uncertainty, Peter only took it for granted, or presumed, that this Sylvanus was a faithful brother, but would not absolutely warrant it.* By him he assures them that the gospel which they had received from him, and which he hoped they retained, was the truth, and therefore that they ought to be on their guard againt all who would lead them from it.

13. This is the evangelist Mark, who, though he once attended Paul, [Acts xii. 25,] is said to have attached himself afterwards to Peter, and to have written his gospel from his instruction. He was, after this, bishop of Alexandria, in Egypt.‡

II. PETER.

THIS second epistle of Peter was for some time classed among the books of doubtful authenticity,§ though there are in it evident references to the former, the same spirit prevails through the whole, and the same simplicity and dignity in the composition. This epistle was evidently written not long before the death of the apostle, and as all the ancients say that this was at Rome, in A. D. 64 or 65, he was probably there then.||

"This is such a lessening of the character of a very good man, that I cannot imagine St. Peter would have suggested it. His meaning seems plainly to be, that he had now written this letter, and intended to send it, by Sylvanus; but he could not be sure, since some accident might intervene." Hallett, III. pp. 42, 45. See Doddridge.

+ ZUVEKλEKTY. "Eclecta, a lady at Babylon." Clem. Alex. in N. T. 1729.

See Lardner, V. pp. 38, 171; VI. pp. 582, 583; Doddridge. On Babylon, see Lardner, V. pp. 251, 269, 272; VI. p. 581; Doddridge.

"It deserves to be considered, that not one writer of the two first centuries, ever made use of its authority. See Dr. Mill's Prol. 213." N. T. 1729, II. p. 903. See Eusebius, Origen, Didymus, ibid, pp. 903, 904.

"See Lardner, VI. pp. 568-566; Doddridge's Introd. VI. pp. 279, 280; Michaelis's Introd. Lect. (Šect. cxlvi.), p. 317.

This second epistle may be considered as a supplement to the former. In it the apostle warns Christians more particularly of their danger, from those who corrupted the gospel, alluding, no doubt, to the Gnostic teachers of that age, whose practices were generally believed to be as corrupt as their principles. He also exhorts to vigilance and constancy in the discharge of our duties, from the consideration of the dissolution of the world, and the coming of Christ to judgment.

СНАР. І. 1. Righteousness does not always mean strict justice, but rather virtue and goodness in general, and sometimes even mercy and favour, as when Paul says of God, [Rom. iii. 26,] "that he might be just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus."

3. In the original it is δια δοξης και αρετης, through glory and virtue, the meaning of which it is not easy to ascertain. It is probably a Hebraism. Mr. Wakefield renders it, by a glorious kindness, aperη having sometimes that meaning, as well as that of virtue in general, of which it is a branch.

According to the Alexandrian MS. it is, By his own glory and virtue.t

4. Christians who live up to their profession, are here said to become partakers of a divine nature; but by this is only meant to become like God, or to be one with him, in the sense in which our Saviour used that phrase in his prayer before his death, when he prayed, [John xvii. 11,] that his disciples might be one with him and his Father, as they two were one. Had it so happened that this phrase, partaker of a divine nature, had been used with respect to Christ only, it would have been deemed a most unanswerable argument for his proper divinity. For what, it would have been said, could more clearly express this, than his having the same nature?

5.§ By virtue, in this place, must be meant fortitude, to enable us to bear persecution.||

7. Charity means something more general than brotherly love, and therefore must be universal benevolence.

8. We see here that the end of the Gospel is the forming

* See Clarke (S. D.), 289; Doddridge; Belsham's Inquiry, p. 231.

"Par ses miracles, qui sont nommés la gloire de Jésus-Christ, Jean i. 14, et par la sainteté de sa vie. Ces deux choses donnent un très-grand poids à la doctrine de Jésus-Christ, par laquelle, à proprement parler, nous sommes appellés au salut." Le Clerc. See Doddridge.

"Imitateurs des vertus de Dieu." Le Clerc. God's moral perfections." Doddridge.

§ Besides this, "for this purpose." Doddridge.

"Transformed into the image

See ibid.

of