Simon, by Christ, whose disciple I was, surnamed Peter, and by him after, with others, sent by commission to preach the gospel, to all the Jews wherever they are dispersed, (see 1 Peter i. 1,) which have received the faith of Christ, (and in that respect are as valuable in God's sight as we the apostles of Christ,) that faith, I say, whose object is the righteousness of Christ our God and Saviour, either as that signifies his way of justifying men now under the gospel, (see note [b] Rom. i,) or as it may note his fidelity and justice in performing what he hath promised us in the gospel: I salute you, and wish you all that felicity which I promise myself you will enjoy by the receiving of the faith, and by your experience and evidence of God's goodness and faithfulness to you in Jesus Christ: [a] sprinkling of the blood] What is meant here by ῥαντισμός αἵματος Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, will be discernible by observing that it is in the same case, and so in conjunction with ὑπακοὴν, obedience, preceding. By this it appears that it must be taken in a passive sense, so as they are susceptible of it who are here said to obey, that is, so as the believers here, through the sanctification of the Spirit, shall be sprinkled with that blood. The only question is, what notion of our being sprinkled with Christ's blood is here referred to. For more possible notions there are of which the matter is capable. The principal, that in reference to the practice, Exod. xxiv. 8, where the people are sprinkled with blood by way of ob- According as he of his goodness, and by exercise of his controlling omnipotent power, hath afforded us all things that pertain to felicity hereafter, or to piety here, by means of our faith, and profession or acknowledgment of Christ, who hath revealed himself unto us, and called us into his school by most convincing arguments of his authority and mission from heaven; first, by that glorious act of the Holy Ghost's descend- * of the apostle: for the copies ordinarily read τοῦ ἀποστόλου Πέτ. That he will raise us also from our state of sin and mortality to an eternal pure estate, designed to you believers as to his sons, begun here, and to be completed to you in heaven, now reserved for you, and when it is bestowed, sure to remain to you to all eternity; Who in the mean time are and shall be preserved from present dangers by the power of Christ, which he hath promised to shew forth in defending of believers, that we may be partakers of that famous deliverance so oft spoken of in the gospel, (see note [h] Matt. x. note [g] Matt. xxiv. note [b] Luke xiii. note [c] Rom. xiii. and note [b] 2 Thess. i.) which is now within few years ready to appear, ver. 7. And this is fit matter of rejoicing to you in the midst of your present afflictions; or though for the present ye are permitted by his divine wisdom to be exercised and saddened with variety of afflictions: That the trial of your faith by sufferings, being a thing that tends much more to your advantage than the trial of gold doth to the advantage of gold, (because gold is apt to be worn out and perish, (see ver. 18,) even after it is tried in the fire and found to be good, whereas your faith, approving itself to God, shall not perish, and so hath the advantage, may prove successful to the obtaining for you approbation and honour and glory at the final day of doom; and the like here at this other day of Christ's coming, to destroy your persecutors, and to give you an honourable, discernible deliverance, ver. 5: (see ver. 13. and ch. iv. 13, and note [b] 2 Thess. i. Whom though you do not know by face, you yet love; on whom, though you see him not, you yet believe; and, so doing, rejoice with that joy that cannot be expressed by you, nor valued sufficiently by others: And shall suddenly receive the crown and reward of your faith, an eminent deliverance here, (when they that have fallen off shall perish by that means by which they meant to preserve themselves,) and eternal salvation hereafter. Of which deliverance (see note [c] Rom. xiii.) Not knowing perfectly to what point of time it was, or what age it should be, of which their prophecies were ultimately to be understood, concerning the sufferings and afflictions which should befall Christ, and the church or the body of Christ, that is, Christians, and after them the resurrection both of him and them, and the visible deliverances out of them, and destructions on their enemies: (see Dan. ix. 22, &c.) Which prophets received revelations also, that the things which they spake of were to be eminently fulfilled, not in their own, but after-times, even the times of the gospel, (called by them the latter times,) and that they were things of so strange and weighty an importance, that the angels were desirous to find them out, but could not. Wherefore, as servants waiting for your Lord, continue vigilant, and hope steadfastly and perseveringly, without any doubting or anxiety, for the deliverance and mercy which is or shall be wrought for you by this coming of Christ in so discernible a manner: (see note [b] 2 Thess. i.) As new reformed persons, not relapsing into the sins of your former unregenerate life; But after the example of the divine purity of God, who hath thus favoured you as to acknowledge you his children, do you live like such; According to Levit. xi. 44, and xix. 2, which requires all those who are called by the name of God, that receive or hope for mercies from him, to imitate his holiness, to live pure and pious lives. And if you profess to be the children of that Father, that is, of God, who is not partial to Jews above Gentiles, but judgeth both according to their actions, you will be concerned to walk reverently, strictly and watchfully (see note [c] Phil. ii.) all your time, and being strangers among other nations, ver. 1, to behave yourselves like strangers: (see ch. ii. 11.) Considering that Christ by his death hath taken away the legal rites of mere external obedience, which wanted that inward purity which Christ came to teach us, wherein the sages of the Jews placed all their religion, and that therefore the falling back to that is the forfeiting a greater privilege than a redemption out of the power of temporal enemies, such as is wont to be purchased with gold; The blood of Christ the paschal, and consequently immaculate Lamb, (see note [c] Acts vii,) being much more precious than any coin or money, and the deliverance more valuable than that from the destroyer there, Exod. xii. 13. In order to whom was the disposition and economy of all the former times, as visibly as if God had set Christ, and what he hath done and suffered, always before his eyes, as an idea or image, according to which he formed all things from the beginning of the world; and agreeably he hath now at last sent him into the world, on purpose for our sakes; Who by believing on him are far from departing from the God of Israel, but do indeed the more firmly believe and depend on him, as that omnipotent God who hath raised Christ from the dead. Having therefore by yielding obedience to the gospel, (preached to you,) brought your minds, without all mixture of hypocrisy, to the sincerity and purity of Christian charity, be careful that ye continually persevere in the exercise and practice of that virtue one toward another; Considering that ye are regenerate to a new life, not by any human mortal, but supernatural im- Wherefore arming yourselves against the erroneous doctrines and practices of the Gnostic heretics that insinuate themselves among you, to infuse villainy and all kind of deceitfulness and hypocrisy, as also of malice and calumniating of others the purest Christians, WHEREFORE laying aside all 1 malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, Behave yourselves with that simplicity which becometh new-born children, suck in that pure nourishment which by your rulers is afforded you, (see note [a] Rom. xii,) viz. instruction or Christian doctrine, and that pure from all Jewish or heretical mixtures, which may increase your Christian stature, advance you to an higher pitch of Christianity, and at last bring you to salvation. [a] sincere milk] What λογικὸν γάλα, rational milk, signifies, hath been noted note [a] on Rom. xii, that milk or food which men, that is, rational creatures, feed on, and which men, rational creatures again, the apostles of Christ, afford them for their spiritual nourishment or instruction. Such figurative speeches as these are very ordinary, and have no more strangeness in them than νοητή or πνευματικὴ τροφή, intellectual or spiritual food, that is, food to the understanding or to the spirit: νοῦς and λόγος and πνεῦμα, the understanding and reason and spirit being in effect all one, and milk being every where used for that instruction that is fit for those of younger years, Heb. v. 12. Agreeable to this figurative expression of rational milk is that of Plato, when he calls rulers νομεῖς καὶ τροφοὶ ἀγέλης ἀνθρωπίνης, "feeders and pastors of the human herd," this flock of reasonable creatures which are fed with this rational milk. And so in Eustathius on Homer Ἰλιάδ. ε'. Ἀνθρωπίνην ποιμαντικὴν ἀσκούμενοι, "they that exercise this trade of feeding men," (as shepherds feed their flocks,) which have therefore so ordinarily that title of ποιμένες, pastors. Which sure you will do if you have but once (as David saith of God's law, Psalm xxxiv. 9.) tasted how sweet, how much for our advantage it is, which is designed us in the gospel of Christ; To whom associating or conjoining yourselves (by obedience and worship) as to a living, not dead foundation, or corner-stone, rejected indeed by the Jewish sanhedrim, but in God's account most choice and esteemed, and meant for the foundation of a visible church, Do you accordingly, not as dead but living members, join together, not only in inward piety, but in continual assemblies or church meetings, of which every Christian is to be a part, and so all together make up a spiritual temple, that is, congregation, to pray unto and praise God, to perform to him those acts of the Christian sacrifice to which you are as it were consecrated and set apart by God, and which being now offered to God in the name of Christ, or through what he hath suffered and done for us, will be sure to be acceptable to God, without the bodily sacrifices of the Jews, or observation of their law. According to that which the scripture tells us, that in the erecting the new church under the gospel, Jesus Christ and his doctrine, in opposition to all other, is appointed by God to be the foundation of the foundation, so that all that is in the church must be founded and built on him; and whosoever doth sincerely believe, and is truly built on him, shall never fail of his expectation, he shall never miscarry that lays his weight on that foundation: (see note [m] Rom. ix.) [b] it is contained] The word περιέχει is taken notice of by grammarians as a word fit for the citing any passage out of an author. So in Erotian's Medicinal Lexicon, in the word Κάμμορος, λέξις περιέχουσα is a word which is to be met with in the author and place which he there cites. Here it is used impersonally, as ἀπέχει, (see note [d] on Mark xiv.) and so 1 Macc. xv. 2, and 2 Macc. ix. 18. Accordingly περιοχή is used for any place cited out of the scripture, Acts viii. 32. [c] elect] By occasion of this word ἐκλεκτὸς, elect, in this place, it will not be amiss to give an account, once for all, of the use of that and the like words generally in the scripture. To begin with the Old Testament first. The Hebrew word, which must especially be taken notice of, is בַּחַר, probavit, examinavit, elegit, to approve, examine, choose. From whence is the noun בַּחוּר, directly answerable to ἐκλεκτὸς, elect, here, taken adjectively: [and therefore, Prov. xvii. 3, where the Hebrew hath בַּחוּר, and our English render rightly from thence, the Lord trieth the hearts, the Septuagint read ἐκλεκτὰ καρδίαι παρὰ Κυρίῳ, hearts elect before the Lord.] This word בַּחוּר is from hence taken by them to signify, 1, any choice person fit for employment, especially for war, and from thence is used. 1 Macc. iv. 1, for a choice party, ἐκλεκτὴ ἵππος, a thousand of the choice, that is, best horsemen, and Exod. xiv. 7, chosen chariots; and so the left-handed men, that were such excellent archers, Judges xx. 16, are ἐκλεκτοί, chosen men; and Psalm lxxviii. 31, the chosen men, that is, the soldiers, or military men; and accordingly the word doth signify a young man, who is fittest for military and such other employments. Thus 1 Sam. viii. 16, בַּחוּרִים, we render your goodliest young men, (which the Septuagint mistaking, and reading ק instead of ח, render τὰ βουκέλια ὑμῶν, your herds,) and Deut. xxxii. 25, it is clearly taken for young men, in opposition to maidens, עלכיתון, saith the D d 2 To you therefore that are believers this is matter of infinite advantage; but for those that stand out in unbelief, to them belongs the reproach of that prophecy, that he that is refused by the Jews is honoured by God, and made the sole, total foundation of his church, on which nothing must be built which he hath not taught, no Judaical, old, or heretical new doctrine must be mingled with it. But this foundation-stone such an one as should be apt to hurt and mischief many, who shall apostatize and fall off from the faith of Christ through fear of persecution, and by that means be destroyed among the persecutors. And this is no strange thing, but the very same that is prophesied of, and so appears to be part of God's decree, that they that obey not the gospel of Christ should be destroyed by him, or that the seed sown in stony ground should at the scorching of the sun wither away, that all carnal professors should be thus tried and discovered by persecution; and so that this corner-stone should be the bruising and ruining of many who stumble and fall from Christ because Christianity brings sufferings along with it. [d] appointed] The word τιθέναι, to put or set, is ordinarily used for appointing or ordaining, and being applied to God, or spoken indefinitely, doth oft signify his decree or destination. Thus, John xv. 16, ἴθηκα ὑμᾶς, I have appointed you, as harvesters to go abroad in all the world, and bring in converts to heaven. So of Christ, Acts xiii. 47, Τέθεικά σε εἰς φῶς ἐθνῶν, I have set, that is, appointed or decreed, thee a light for the Gentiles. So 1 Thess. v. 9, Οὐκ ἴθετο ἡμᾶς ὁ Θεὸς εἰς ὀργὴν, ἀλλ' εἰς περιποίησιν σωτηρίας, God hath not set us, that is, decreed, determined us, to wrath or destruction, (as he doth those whom for their obstinate course in sin he forsakes, and no further calls them to repentance,) but for the obtaining of salvation; that is, hath decreed to call us to the knowledge of the truth by the preaching of the gospel, and so to repentance and reformation here, the means to attain eternal salvation hereafter, if we do not resist and evacuate his gracious calls and admonitions. And so without question it is to be understood here, that of the ἀπειθοῦντες τῷ λόγῳ, of them that disobey the word, or gospel, of Christ, and so προσκόπτονσι, fall or bruise themselves, or, (if the comma, as it is in the ordinary copies, be placed after τῷ λόγῳ, the word, not before it,) προσκόπτονσι λόγῳ, fall and bruise themselves at the word, ἀπειθοῦντες, disobeying and rejecting it when it is preached to them, it may truly be said, εἰς ὁ καὶ ἐτέθησαν, that they were ordained thereunto. And of that there are two possible interpretations, both agreeable to analogy of faith; first, that the ἀπειθοῦντες, they that disobey the gospel, that stand out obstinately against it, ἐτέθησαν, were decreed and appointed by God But you are, and so must approve yourselves to be, a special sort of men, a kingdom or multitude of priests, set apart and consecrated for the continual serving and daily waiting upon God; a people that being delivered from the dominion of other your former masters, sin and Satan and persecutors, and set free to be lords of yourselves, with liberty to what Christ commands you, and so kings, must now behave yourselves also like so many priests, (those who spent all their time in sacrificing &c. and so should you,) in the performing constant service unto God in the public assemblies, which God requires of you, as he did the sacrifices of the Levitical priests, (see note [d] Rev. i,) and so a sacred holy nation, (as the whole people of the Jews were an holy people in one respect, Lev. xxv. 23, and as the Levites were in another,) a peculiar treasure of Christ's for him to preserve first, Mal. iii. 17, then to possess as his own; that so by this means, by this constant, public serving of him, you may set forth and illustrate Christ's powerful and gracious workings, (see note [a] 2 Pet. i,) who hath wrought so glorious and blessed a change in you: [e] a peculiar people] What λαὸς εἰς περιποίησιν signifies here, must be discerned from Exod. xix. 5, whence it is taken, (though the words are removed out of their place, and these, which are there before the royal priesthood, here placed after it.) The Hebrew reads there הֲיִיתֶם לִי כְּנֶלֶה, which is literally, you shall be to me a treasure, or κειμήλιον, any thing that is laid up and preserved most carefully. The Greek render it there more according to the sense, ἔσθεσθαι μοι λαὸς περιούσιος, ye shall be unto me a special or peculiar people, as that phrase is used and rendered Tit. ii. 14. And though the apostle here doth not use that whole phrase, yet he takes λαὸς, people, from thence; and for the word כְּנֶלֶה, he renders it from Mal. iii. 17, εἰς περιποίησιν, for an acquisition, or possession; for so there that speech of God's אֲשֶׁר אֲנִי עָשָׂה כְּנֶלֶה, which I make a treasure, or κειμήλιον, (that is, lay up tenderly and carefully, and, as it follows, spare as one spareth his son that serveth him,) is rendered in the Greek, ἦν ἐγὼ ποιῶ εἰς περιποίησιν, which I make for an acquisition, or treasure. What the word περιποίησιν signifies hath been shewed, note [d] on Heb. x, viz. the same with σωτηρία, saving or preserving; and so it perfectly agrees with the Hebrew כְּנֶלֶה, which is a jewel to be preserved, or kept, most safely: Who at first continued in unbelief among your brethren the Jews, and so were become a kind of heathen people, were not at all within the obedience of Christ, the pale of his church, but now are received into it; you that a long time, while Christ lived here on the earth, had not the happiness to believe in him, but have found place of repentance since, and are now received into the church and the favour of God. To you therefore that are at this time dispersed among the nations, ch. i. 1, (see ch. i. 17,) as to so many scattered, travelling persons, who ought of all others to be most wary to avoid dangers, and to behave yourselves tenderly as in the sight of strangers, my present exhortation becomes seasonable, to avoid the doctrines and practices of the Gnostics, and to that end to remember that you are not at home, but in a journey; and so that it is most unseasonable for you at such a time to indulge yourselves to the excesses and jollities which men in their own houses or countries do sometimes indulge to, but do not use them in a strange place, or before those they know not; remembering further the dangerous, malignant nature of such lusts, that they are most pernicious to the soul. But that you, on the contrary, live so as may be of good report among the Gentiles, that they that look on Jews, not only as persons of another religion, but also as rebels and malefactors, may see the Christians to be quite otherwise, and by your actions reverence you, and so entertain a good opinion of Christian religion, which hath such an influence upon you, in making the Christian Jews so much more regular and meek than the other Jews are, more quiet under the heathen government which is now over them, and so more capable of good usage under the emperors, when they send their proconsuls to suppress the seditions, than the unbelieving Jews have appeared to be. [f] behold] The word ἀποπτεύσαντες in this place may probably signify more than looking on; because, first, that will not so well agree with ἐκ καλῶν ἔργων, by your good works, and the supplying it by which they shall behold, supposedly ἐκ καλῶν ἔργων, by your good works, to belong to δοξάζωσι, glorify, following, whereas it is evidently joined with ἀποπτεύσαντες. Secondly, ἀποπτεύειν, to behold, is, ch. iii. 2, put with an accusative case after it, ἀποπτεύσαντες ἀναστροφήν, beholding your conversation. Hesychius hath a word near unto this, ἀπέπιζε, which he renders ἐντρέπουν, revere; and ὑποπτεύειν, proportionable to the Latin suspicere, (looking on the ground, to note modesty and reverence,) is ordinarily taken in that sense. And that which seems most probable is, that either ἀποπτεύειν may have that sense also, or else be by the scribe mistaken for one of those, and so be best rendered revering you, or looking with reverence upon you. [g] day of visitation] What the day of visitation signifies here, may be a matter of some question, but that in part resolved by the use of the same phrase, Isa. x. 3. What will ye do in the day of visitation, and the desolation which shall come from far? where it is evident that the day of visitation, and the coming of desolation, or destruction, are all one. So to visit signifies to punish, to avenge, very frequently in the prophets: Shall I not visit for this? shall I not be avenged? &c.; and, I will visit their offences with a rod. And so the bishop's title, ἀπίσκοπος, visitor, may fitly be given him in respect of the rod or censures, the ecclesiastical punishments intrusted to him, which are εἰς δλεβρον σαρκὸς, for destruction of the flesh, and εἰς καθαίρεσιν, for excision. This then being premised, the only difficulty will be, what day of vengeance this was that here is meant. And the context seems sufficient to answer that. For having admonished the Christian Jews to behave themselves honestly among the Gentiles, that they may not speak against them as evil-doers, and presently specifying wherein this honest conversation consisted, in submitting to and obeying their heathen governors, ver. 13, this evidently refers to the frequent seditions that were stirred up among the Jews against the Roman yoke, which made them looked on by their procurators and the emperors as unquiet turbulent people, and brought the Roman armies and destructions upon them. And so against this it is that he warns the Jews Christians, that they meddle not with them that are given to changes, join not with the seditious, and that upon this Be obedient therefore to every heathen governor, (see note [c] Rom. viii,) upon obligation of conscience, because he is instituted by God: and this whether to Cæsar the emperor in the first place, as the supreme; Or, in the next place, and in subordination to him, to proconsuls and procurators, by commission appointed by him, for the keeping of courts, punishing of malefactors, and rewarding and encouraging the obedient. For to this doth Christian religion oblige all, that by subjection to our heathen superiors, and by all other Christian performances, (see note [f] ch. iv,) we should leave the heathens unable to object any thing against us; As men that are freed by Christ from many yokes, but not from that of subjection to God or to superiors, and therefore not pretending to any such liberty, nor covering sedition, &c. under colour of Christianity, as the Gnostics did, 1 Tim. vi. Give every man the honour and obedience due to him. Love all your fellow-Christians. Fear God; and, in subordination to him, pay all obedience to the emperor. Let all servants approve their obedience to their masters to be sincere, by performing it not only when they use them kindly and favourably, but even when by unjust usage they provoke them to some impatience and resistance; for this is the season for them to shew forth the influence of Christianity upon their hearts. For whereas all human things perish and fade away, (see James i. 10,) and come suddenly to nothing from the greatest beauty and glory, and accordingly the Jewish carnal external ordinances are now abrogated; The word of God now revealed to us by Christ shall never be abrogated, but continue and last for ever: and this is that gospel which hath been preached to and received by you, from which therefore you must not fall off to Judaism again, whatever your temptations or allurements are from the Jews or Gnostics. When they observe your modesty and chastity, joined also with all due respect and reverence to your husbands, vv. 5, 6; or, beholding that modesty in you, which the fear of God, Christian religion, doth infuse into you. And for your attire, that which is likely to become you best is not that external bravery of jewels and gay clothes; But the inward, secret, invisible beauty of the heart, made up of incorruptible materials, meekness, &c., whereas all those external are fading and corruptible; or consisting in the truth and sincerity and constancy of the meek and quiet spirit; meek, in a lowly opinion of yourselves; and quiet, in a contented enjoying of what God sends, without disquieting or disturbing the peace of the family, (as in greater societies, emulation, ambition, covetousness, are the disturbing and shaking of whole kingdoms;) and this, as it is the greatest ornament in the eyes of men, so is it most highly valued and rewarded in the sight of God. [a] hidden man of the heart] Κρυπτὸς καρδίας ἄνθρωπος, is a phrase made up of two Hebraisms: 1. τὸ κρυπτὸν καρδίας, the hidden, or secret, of the heart, is an Hebrew form of speech; as when, Ps. li. 8, the original hath בְּכָתֵב, in clauso, secretly thou hast made wisdom known to me, the Targum read בְּשֵׁמוֹר לְבָא, in the hidden of the heart, that is, in the heart which is hidden. Then for κρυπτὸς ἄνθρωπος, the hidden man, that is by the same analogy that παλαιὸς ἄνθρωπος, the old man, and καινὸς ἄνθρωπος, the new man, and καινὴ κτίσις, the new creature, as they signify continuing in sin and renovation of life, and ὁ ἔσω ἄνθρωπος, the inner man, that is, the mind of man, opposite to the carnal or sensitive appetite; and so κρυπτὸς καρδίας ἄνθρωπος, the hidden man of the heart, shall be no more than its opposition to ὁ ἔξωθεν, the outward, &c. ver. 3, will enforce, viz. the inward invisible accomplishments or beauty of the heart, according to that of the poet, Γυναικὶ κόσμος ὁ τρόπος, κ' αὖ χρυσία, "behaviour, not golden ornaments, are the setting out of a woman." [b] not corruptible] Τὸ ἀφθαρτον, incorruptible, here may signify as For after this manner of external simplicity of attire and inward meekness the saintly women of ancient times, that were taken notice of for their piety, did beautify and set out themselves, viz. living in obedience to their husbands. Thus did Sarah live in obedience to her husband, calling him by a title of honour, not equality: to whom you shall be like, as children to a mother, if you discharge a good conscience in all the duties of life, and be not by any fear (to which your sex is subject) driven out of your duty. Let the husbands in like manner live conjugally with their wives, and behave themselves toward them as Christianity requires of them, or as the mystical understanding of the story of their creation directs, ¹ gained, κερδηθησανται. ² which is in, or, with fear, τὴν ἐν φόβῳ. ³ gold chains, χρυσίον. ⁴ in the sincerity of a meek. ⁵ of any terror, μηδεμίαν πτόησιν. [c] according to knowledge] That κατὰ γνῶσιν, according to knowledge, doth here more probably denote that knowledge of duty by which a Christian's life and actions must be directed, is the opinion of Hugo Grotius, who applies to this sense those other places, Rom. xv. 14, filled with all knowledge, able to instruct others; and 1 Cor. i. 5, enriched in all knowledge; and 2 Cor. vi. note [b], in purity and in knowledge. To this it may perhaps be fit to add, (what hath been noted, 1 Cor. i. note [c], and will again be enlarged on 2 Pet. i. [c], that the word γνῶσις, knowledge, hath a critical notion in these books for a special χάρισμα, or gift of the Spirit, 1 Cor. xii. 8, viz. that sort of Christian knowledge which consists in explaining of parables or mysterious expressions in scripture. And that may be thus applicable to this place: The duty of the husband toward the wife is best to be learned from the mystical explication of the words, and story of the creation of the man and woman, Gen. i. 27, God created them male and female, and blessed them, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And, ch. ii. 22, God took out one of Adam's ribs, and made it a woman; And Adam said, This is now bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh—Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. That by this rule of the creation the Christian doctrine of the duties of husbands and wives is regulated, appears Matt. xix. 4, where, to that question about divorces, Christ answers, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, &c. What therefore God hath joined together, let no man put asunder. And so Mark x. 6. So 1 Cor. vi. 16, What? know you not (making this a special piece of knowledge) that he which is joined to an harlot is one body with the harlot? for they two, saith he, shall be one flesh. And [d] honour] The word τιμὴ ordinarily signifies maintenance: so 1 Tim. v. 3, τὰς χῆρας τίμα, honour, that is, maintain, relieve, the widows; d Tom. iv. p. 157. lib. 23. [e] grace of life] The several notions of the word χάρις, grace, in the sacred dialect have been often taken notice of. See note [k] on Luke i, [f] on Acts ii, [d] on Heb. xiii, [e] on Acts xviii; all of them springing from that primary notion of it for charity and liberality. Thus is the word used, 1 Cor. xvi. 3, τὴν χάριν ὑμῶν, your charity or liberality to the poor Christians. So Ecclus. xvii. 22, ἡ χάρις, &c. the charity of a man, and ch. xx. 13, χάριτες μωρῶν, the charities of fools; for so it follows, ver. 14, the gift of a fool, &c.; and ch. xl. 17, it is rendered bountifulness. Thus in Aristotle χάρις is defined ὅταν τις ὑπουργῇ καὶ βοηθῇ τῷ δεομίνῳ, μὴ ἀντί τινος μηδ' ἵνα τι αὐτῷ τῷ ὑπουργοῦντι, ἀλλὰ ἵνα τῷ ἐκείνῳ τι, Rhet. l. 2. c. 7, "When any man relieves him that wants, not that he himself may gain any thing by it, but only that the other may." Where the anonymous Scholiast expounds it χάριν, ἤτοι δωρεάν, grace, that is, gift; and so Hesychius, χάρις, δωρεά. So in Callimachus, εἰς Δῆλον, Σώζεο, μὴ σὺ γ' ἐμείο πάθης κακὸν εἵνεκα, τῆσθε 'Αντ' ἐλεημοσύνης, χάριτος δέ σοι ἔσσετ' ἀμοιβή. "I wish you may suffer no ill for this mercy to me, but that you may be rewarded for your charity:" where χάρις is clearly interpreted by alms or mercy. So 2 Cor. viii. 1, and 4, it is clearly used for a gift or liberal beneficence to the poor. Thus in this epistle, ch. iv. 18, ποικίλη χάρις Θεοῦ, the manifold grace of God, is God's liberality of divers kinds, particularly the wealth that he hath given to men, as to stewards, to distribute to them that stand in need of it; and at the beginning of the verse it is called χάρισμα, Ἔκαστος καθὼς ἔλαβε χάρισμα, Every man as he hath received wealth, or any other such gift of God. So the grace of God, so often mentioned, is the mercy and gift of God; as in the benedictions, The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, all one with ἀγάπη, God's In brief, or, to sum up all, let this union of minds be not only between husbands and wives, but among all Christians whatsoever, and let that express itself in a fellow-feeling of one another's afflictions, in love to all the brethren, ch. ii. 17, in tenderness of kindness, to do good to all that stand in any need of it, in humble, courteous, friendly behaviour toward all: Never permitting yourselves in the least degree to act or meditate revenge on any that hath been most injurious to you, remembering and considering the example given you by Christ, and the obligation that lies on you as Christians, Matt. v. 44, that so by doing good and blessing others you may receive a blessing from God in this and in another life. According to that of the psalmist, psal. xxxiv. 12, that the only way to obtain the blessings of this life, and so now, under the gospel, of another, is observing strict rules of charity and justice, Abstaining from all sin, abounding in works of mercy, seeking and pursuing of all peaceableness with all men. For God looks propitiously upon all his obedient servants, but for all wicked men he sets himself as an enemy against them. And so sure are these promises of his to be made good unto you, that if you perform your part, live blamelessly in a ready discharge of your duty, this will be the most probable course to keep you safe from all evil. But if (as sometimes it will fall out) you do But be thankful to God for all, or, set up God in your hearts as your God and Lord, and whensoever there is occasion, confess him before men, and when you are asked, give an account of the hope and faith you profess, with all meekness to their authority, if they be your superiors, the kings and magistrates which are set over you, and with all care to approve yourselves to God (see note [c] Phil. ii.): Keeping yourselves blameless before all men, (particularly in this of maintaining that duty of meekness and reverence toward the heathen rulers, ver. 15, and ch. ii. 12, see note [f] ch. iv,) that they that accuse you as malefactors, or seditious persons, may be convinced and put to shame, and confess that the lives of Christians are very honest and inoffensive, and that they have most foully calumniated you in saying otherwise of you. For if it please God that a man suffer innocently, there is no matter of sorrow in that: there is much more danger, that a man by desiring to avoid that should fall into some evil, and then suffer justly for that, and then that will be a sad thing indeed, without any allay or matter of comfort in it. For Christ is an example of the former, in his dying for sins not his own, but ours; he being righteous died for us who are unrighteous, (that when we were aliens and enemies to God he might reconcile us to him, and give us authority to approach him;) wherein yet for our example and comfort it must be observed, that though as a man clothed in our flesh he was put to death, and that innocently, to purchase redemption for us; yet by the power of God in him he was most gloriously raised from the dead, (see ch. i. 11,) and shall consequently, by raising and rescuing us out of the present sufferings, and destroying all obdurate sinners, shew forth wonderful evidences of power and life; And this will be accepted graciously and rewarded by God, (see Luke vi. 32, and note [A] Luke i,) if upon sight of our duty to God we bear with all patience those pressures which most unjustly light upon us. The very same in effect that of old he did at the time in which, beyond all others, he shewed himself in power and majesty against his enemies, but ¹² an account, ἀπολογίαν. ¹³ Or, hath died for us once for sins: for the King's MS. reads ἅπαξ περὶ ἁμαρτιῶν ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν ἀπέθανεν. ¹⁴ through the flesh, σαρκί. [ʃ] spirits in prison] For the explicating of this very obscure place, the best rise will be that which St. Hierome on Isaiah hath suggested to us, by looking on the words of God to Noah, concerning the sins of the old world, and his judgments designed against them, Gen. vi. 3, where, considering Noah as a prophet, (and preacher of repentance to the old world,) it will not be strange if the expression be prophetical and figurative. The Hebrew hath it thus, לא ירון רוחי באדם, which the ordinary English render, My spirit shall not always strive with man; the Greek, Οὐ καταμενεῖ πνεῦμά μου ἐν τοῖς ἀνθρώποις τούτοις, My spirit shall not abide in these men, perhaps reading לא ילין from לון, to lodge, or abide. The English render the Hebrew ירון, as if it came from רון, disceptavit, judicio contendit, "to contend," or "go to law;" but the word comes from נָדָן, which signifies a sheath, 1 Chron. xxi. 27, and is used for a body, Dan. vii. 15, My spirit in the midst of my body, as being the sheath or receptacle of the soul: and so the writers of the Talmud ordinarily use it, and Tertullian de Resurrect. Caro vagina afflatus Dei, "Flesh is the sheath of the breath of God," no doubt referring to this place; and accordingly לא ירון is literally to be rendered, shall not abide as a sword &c. in a sheath. For the removing all improbableness of thus reading ירון, (not ילין, pernoctabit,) and taking it in the notion of abiding, or continuing, in flesh, and not of striving, as the Interlinear and our English render it, and as ירון indeed would require to be rendered, I shall only add two things: first, That the ancient interpreters with one accord agree in the sense of abiding or inhabiting. The Chaldee read, לא יתכיים דרא בישא הדין קדמי לילם, This evil generation shall not always remain before me: the Syriac and Arabic, My spirit shall not dwell in man for ever; the LXXII, as we said, οὐ μὴ καταμενεῖ, shall not abide; and so the Latin, non permanebit, shall not abide. This is a strong argument, that they who, when they meet with ירון, uniformly render it κρινεῖ, &c. by words of judging, yet rendering this in so distant a manner, did not read that word, or in that sense, but ירון, as all copies have it, in a notion of abiding or being in another. And although the scripture of the Old Testament give us no For what great matter is it, worth considering or rewarding, what heroical action is it to which honour is thought to be due, if men endure submissly those punishments which fall justly on them for their demerits? but on the other side, if when ye have done no ill, and are then by your superiors abused and used contumeliously, if this be borne patiently and humbly by you, and do not provoke you to any resistance or return of violence, this is that Christian virtue of meekness which God will certainly reward in you. [g] disobedient] The word ἀπειθοῦντες, disobedient, is used for a course of great notorious sin, spoken of the παραπικραίνοντες, exasperators, provokers, Heb. iii 16, 18; against whom God's oath was gone out, that they should not enter into his rest, ver. 19. They are here certainly the wicked men of the old world, on whom the flood came, called ἀσεβῶν κόσμος, the world of the ungodly, 2 Pet. ii. 5, which are there joined with the wicked of Sodom. From whence, and from some other evidences, it is probably to be concluded what their sin was which brought the flood upon them, viz. the sin of unnatural uncleanness, or sodomy, contrary to that breath of God breathed on them, the light of law, and reason, and nature, and the very soul within them. For so, Gen. vi. 2, upon the sons of God taking them wives of the daughters of men, presently follows the decree of God to send the deluge upon them. The sons of God, and of men, were certainly the worshippers of the one true, and the many false gods; and the marrying of those idolaters was the means of ensnaring the godly in the heathen idol-worships, and all the villanies in their practices or sacrifices, (as after it was, Num. xxv. 2.) This is there in general expressed, ver. 5, by, The wickedness of man was great upon the earth; meaning by πονηρία, wickedness, villany, (as ἀκρασία, incontinence, Matt. xxiii. 25, is πονηρία, wickedness, Luke xi. 39.) and, ver. 11, by, The earth was corrupt before God, and filled with all violence; by corruption, signifying these unnatural lusts, so ordinarily called φθορὰ, and φθείρεσθαι, corruption and being corrupted, (see note [b] on 2 Pet. i. and note [b] on 2 Pet. ii.) and by violence, either the same again in the most enormous kind, such as was by the Sodomites offered to the angels, (see note [h] on 1 Cor. v.) or else persecuting all others that would not go on with them in all their riotous courses, and both together expressed, ver. 12, by one of them, corrupt, And all flesh corrupted his way; and both again by violence, For unto this your Christianity directs and leads you, and Christ himself hath given you an eminent example, to be transcribed and imitated by you: Who, though he were perfectly innocent, Isa. liii. 9, was yet adjudged to all the contumelies that the most shameful death could bring along with it;