:

grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance; but as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation." This is a favourite compendium of Christian duty with the Apostle Paul.1

CHAP. II. THE FORM OF THE EPISTLE.

It is a testimony and exhortation respecting the grace of God. The apostle notices not only the subjects of the epistle, but the form in which he has treated them. His statements with regard to the grace of God take the form of a "testimony." His statements with regard to the Christian's duty take the form of "an exhortation:" "I have written, exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God, in reference to which do ye stand." We would naturally have expected, from " exhorting" coming before "testifying," that the sum of the exhortation should have preceded the sum of the testimony. But it is a common peculiarity in Hebrew composition, of which we have many instances in the New Testament, after dividing a subject into two parts, to take up the second part first, and then revert to the first. It would be more according to the usage of modern language to say, "Testifying that the grace of God, which ye as Christians enjoy, is the true grace of God, and exhorting you to stand in reference to this grace."

The testimony in the epistle respecting the grace of God which they enjoyed, that is, the blessings of the Christian salvation, is, that it is the true grace of God. The sum of that part of the epistle that is occupied with doctrine is just : Ye Christians are the true spiritual people of God, of whom the Jews, his ancient external people, were types; and the 11 Cor. xvi. 13; Gal. v. 1; Eph. vi. 14; Phil. iv. 1; 2 Thess. ii. 15.

blessings you enjoy are the true spiritual blessings, of which the external blessings of the ancient economy were the types. To use the language of John, "They, out of the fulness of him who is the Only-begotten of God, the revealer of him in whose bosom he was from the beginning, who is full of grace and truth, true grace, had received grace for," in the room of "grace," the blessings of the new dispensation in the room of the blessings of the old; "for the law," which was a grace, a favour, and a great one, given by Moses, but the grace and truth," the true grace, the great manifestation of the love of God in the blessings of a spiritual and eternal salvation, "came by Jesus Christ." This, says Peter, is "the grace that is come to you," and "this is the true grace of God."

1

"was

The apostle's declaration on this subject takes the form of a testimony. Not a demonstration on abstract principles, not a statement of his own individual opinion, but the declaration of a testimony with which, in common with his apostolic brethren, he had been "put in trust" by God. "The grace" to be brought to the true people of God under the Messiah, was "a mystery, kept secret from former ages and generations;" "as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God had prepared for them that love him.” That was "the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom, which God had ordained before the world, unto the glory" of his people under the last and best dispensation of his grace. "But God revealed these things" unto his holy apostles "by his Spirit, and they, having received the Spirit which is of God, and having the mind of Christ, testified the things which he revealed to them, not in words taught by man's wisdom, but in words taught by the Holy Ghost."

1 John i. 16, 17.

2 Rom. xvi. 25; 1 Cor. ii. 7, 9, 13.

As the declaration respecting truth took the form of "testimony," so the declaration with regard to duty took the form of "exhortation." The practical part of the epistle is not a dry system of ethics, but a warm exhortation, showing Christians what it is to stand, how they were to be enabled to stand, and why they should stand.

The apostle further notices, that the testimony and the exhortation contained in this epistle were a brief testimony and exhortation: "In few words exhorting and testifying." Here, as well as in the Epistle to the Hebrews, where the apostle says, at the close of the comparatively long Epistle to the Hebrews, "I have written a letter to you in few words," we apprehend the reference is rather to the condensation than to the brevity, strictly so called, of the compositions. This is not a short epistle, and the Epistle to the Hebrews is one of the longest in the New Testament; but there is no unnecessary diffuseness, no waste of words; and on this account, as well as higher ones, Peter's letter, like Paul's, is "weighty and powerful." In our illustrations of the epistle, we have had abundant opportunities of observing in how few words Peter wraps up pregnant thoughts, exhibits far-reaching views.

What the apostle represents as the characteristics of his epistle, are equally those of the apostolic epistles generally. They are occupied with brief, condensed testimonies and exhortations respecting the grace of God, and the duty of Christians in reference to that grace. And as the apostles' discourses, recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, are the models which Christian ministers should follow in preaching the gospel to the world lying under the wicked one, so their epistles are the models which they should follow in teaching the doctrine and the law of Christ to the churches of the saints, to "them who have believed through grace." Every Christian teacher's system of instruction should embrace in

it a clear, distinct statement of the true grace of God, of the exceeding great and precious blessings of the Christian salvation; he should conduct his people throughout the length and breadth of the goodly heritage assigned them even here below; and he should often take them up as it were into an exceeding high mountain, and, teaching them to apply the prospective glass of the gospel to the eye of faith, show them the glories of the kingdom which awaits them in the land that is far off. If he does not do this, he is not a minister of the gospel at all. And his system should equally embrace in it a clear statement and a powerful enforcement of the duties which lie on Christians, as partakers of the grace of God in truth. And his doctrinal preaching must all wear the form of "a testimony," a declaration, of what God the Lord says, of what is the mind of Christ, of what the Holy Ghost has declared,—not of human conjectures and reasonings, but of divine revelations; and his practical preaching must all have the form of exhortation, -not occupying the mind with ethical disquisitions and questions, but pressing home clearly announced divine injunctions on the conscience and the heart. The testimony and the exhortation must go together, and be presented as closely connected, the one the foundation, the other the building. The grace, the true grace, must be declared, in order that they who believe in Christ may be careful to maintain good works. It is also very desirable that all this should be done briefly, "in few words;" that is, that the teaching, though plain, should be condensed. The time afforded for Christian teaching is necessarily very limited, and many Christians have few means of Christian instruction besides public teaching. It is therefore a matter of great, importance that the discourses of a Christian minister should contain as much matter as can be brought into them, without overtasking the minds of the hearers.

CHAP. III. THE MODE OF THE WRITING OR TRANSMISSION OF THE EPISTLE.

The only other thing in the recapitulatory part of the postscript that requires attention, is the mode of the writing or of the transmission of the letter: "By Silvanus, a faithful brother unto you, as I suppose, I have written." In the Acts of the Apostles, and in the epistles of Paul, we read of a person of this name. In the epistles he is always termed Silvanus; in the Acts his name is always contracted into Silas. Some have supposed, from the last name and Tertius, the one a Hebrew, the other a Latin word, having the same signification, that he is the person who performed the office of amanuensis to Paul when writing to the Romans.1 All that we know of him with certainty is, that he was a distinguished "teacher and prophet" in the church of Jerusalem, "a chief man among the brethren;" that he was associated along with Barsabas, surnamed Judas, and sent with Paul and Barnabas to the Gentile churches in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia, to carry those letters of the apostles, elders, and brethren, which contained their decision of the question respecting the obligation of the law on Christian Gentiles which had been referred to them; that on the disagreement between Paul and Barnabas, he accompanied the former on his journey through Asia Minor to Macedonia; that he remained behind at Berea for a short time, when Paul was obliged to flee from that place, but rejoined the apostle at Corinth; and that he is mentioned along with Timothy by the apostle in the inscription of the Epistles to the Thessalonians. It would appear that he had

1 Acts xv. 22, 27, 34, 40, xvi. 25, xvii. 7, 10, 15; 2 Cor. ii. 19; 1 Thess. i. 1; Rom. xvi. 22; Burmanni Exercitationes, p. 161; Wolfii Curæ, 2 Cor. i. 19; Walchii. Miscellan. Exercitatt. ii. p. 39; Capelli Spicileg. p. 97; Witsii Meletem. Leid. p. 99; Hilleri Onomasticon, p. 680.