DISCOURSE XXIV.

POSTSCRIPT OF THE EPISTLE.

1 Pet. v. 12-14.—By Silvanus, a faithful brother unto you (as I suppose) I have written briefly, exhorting, and testifying that this is the true grace of God, wherein ye stand. The church that is at Babylon, elected together with you, saluteth you, and so doth Marcus my son. Greet ye one another with a kiss of charity. Peace be with you all that are in Christ Jesus. Amen.

"ALL Scripture is given by inspiration of God," and "all Scripture," too, "is profitable for doctrine, and for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished for every good work." In the mines of Peru, there are veins of peculiar riches, but even their rubbish is valuable. In the Holy Scriptures, there are portions of peculiar importance, excellence, and usefulness, but there is nothing trivial, nothing valueless in them. The superficial thinker may, indeed, find it difficult, it may be impossible, for him to derive instruction or improvement from passages of Scripture, and may, on this account, rashly call in question their Divine origin, or indulge in reflections against the Divine wisdom, for allowing such a passage a place in the inspired volume; but it is his own imbecility, or ignorance, or inattention, that is wholly to blame; for it may be safely affirmed, that there is no passage of Scripure respecting which the pious, diligent, docile inquirer, cannot easily see that it may have served, or may yet serve, some important and useful purpose; and that there are very few from which, after serious consideration, he cannot draw for himself lessons which may be turned to account for the guidance of his conduct, and the improvement of his character.

To be able to extract from what have been called the barren, from what ought to be called the less exuberant, passages of Scripture, the instruction, and warning, and reproof, and consolation which they are intended and fitted to communicate, is a talent which every Christian should be desirous of acquiring, as, without the possession and employment of it, a considerable part of those Scriptures which are "able to make men wise to salvation," will be utterly useless to him; and it is not one of the least important duties of a public teacher of Christianity, to instruct his audience in the best way of extracting spiritual improvement from this class of scripture passages; on the one hand, guarding them against that passion for allegory, which leads men to make the plainest statements of the sacred writers the vehicle of the dreams of their own imagination, thus converting a

Divine oracle into a human figment; and, on the other, showing how important purposes are served, by what at first sight may seem inappropriate and unnecessary statements, and how replete such passages, when viewed in their connection and design, often are with religious and moral instruction.

The subject of to-day's discourse, the postscript of the First Epistle of the Apostle Peter, belongs to the class of scripture passages of which we have been speaking. It is not, indeed, to be compared, in point of intrinsic importance, deep personal interest, and extensive usefulness, with the admirable doctrinal and practical discussions by which it is preceded, and which, for a considerable time past, have not unpleasantly nor unprofitably, I trust, formed the subject of our consideration, when we have come together on the first day of the week, to wait on the "doctrine of the apostles," but it is far indeed from being unimportant, uninteresting, or useless; and if it want many of the attractions which belong to them, it will be found to have attractions peculiar to itself. It is with the word, as it is with the works of God. "There is one glory in the sun, and another glory in the moon, and another glory in the stars, and one star differeth from another star in glory." Let us look at the passage a little more closely, that we may perceive its meaning and ascertain its

use.

It obviously forms a postscript to the epistle, which, as a doctrinal and hortatory address, is most appropriately and gracefully concluded in the eleventh verse. This postscript is occupied with recapitulation, salutation, exhortation, and benediction. The recapitulation is contained in the twelfth verse. The salutation in the thirteenth. The exhortation in the first clause, and the benediction in the last clause, of the fourteenth. Let us attend to them briefly, in their order.

1.-RECAPITULATION.

It has been supposed by some interpreters of high name, that the twelfth verse has in it nothing recapitulatory, and that the epistle referred to in it, is not that which the apostle had just finished, but one that he had sent to the same churches on some former occasion.

This supposition is an entirely gratuitous one. It is not required by the words, though, were it otherwise supported, the words might easily be reconciled with it. But there is no trace in Scripture, or in ecclesiastical history, of the apostle having written such an epistle; and there is satisfactory evidence that he did not write it, for he terms an epistle which he subsequently addressed to these churches, his second epistle. "This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which, I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance."

The recapitulation refers to three things, the subject of the epistle, and the duty of Christians in reference to it; the form of it, a testimony and an exhortation, and a brief testimony and exhortation; the testimony, that "the grace of God," which is the great subject of the epistle, is "the true grace of God," and the exhortation to stand, with

regard to that grace; and, finally, the mode of writing or transmitting the epistle, "By Silvanus, a faithful brother."

CHAP. I.THE SUBJECT OF THE EPISTLE.

§ 1.-The grace of God.

"The grace of God" properly signifies the kindness, the free favor of God, as a principle in the Divine mind; but is often employed to signify the deeds of kindness, the gifts and the benefits, in which this principle finds expression. It has been common to interpret the phrase here as equivalent to the gospel, the revelation of God's grace; and the apostle has been considered as affirming that the doctrine which those he was writing to had embraced, and to which they had adhered, to use the Apostle Paul's phrase, "which they had received, and in which they stood," was the true gospel. But I doubt if the gospel is ever called "the grace of God" in the New Testament; and I equally doubt whether the words, thus understood, are an accurate statement of what this epistle actually contains. There are just two other passages in the New Testament in which "the grace of God" has been supposed to be a designation of the gospel. After stating the message of mercy which the ministers of reconcili ation are called to deliver, the apostle in his Epistle to the Corinthians, says, "We beseech you that ye receive not the grace," or this. grace, "of God in vain." The reference here is, no doubt, to the gospel, but the meaning of the phrase, "the grace of God," is plainly just this Divine favor, this benefit which so expresses, and, as it were, embodies the Divine grace. And, in the Epistle to Titus, the same apostle states, that "the grace of God, bringing salvation to all," has been manifested, or has "appeared, teaching" those who apprehend it "to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly, in the present world." The grace of God is often said to mean here the gospel, but the gospel is the manifestation, the revelation of his grace; and the truth taught in this passage is, that the free, sovereign mercy of God, when it is apprehended by the sinner, is the true principle of holiness in his heart and life. Let a man but really believe the grace of God, know it in truth, and he can be an ungodly, immoral man no longer. And as there is no satisfactory evidence that "the grace of God" is, properly speaking, a synonyme for the gospel; so, on the other hand, if we read this epistle carefully, we shall not find that the sum of it is a testimony that the gospel, as received and held by the churches addressed, was the true gospel. That question is never mooted, but obviously throughout taken for granted. It would be a correct account of the Epistle to the Galatians, that it is a testimony that the gospel preached to them by the apostle was, in opposition to that preached to them by the Judaizing teachers, the true gospel; but the character of this epistle is in no degree controversial. What "the grace of God” in the passage before us means, will be more satisfactorily ascertained, by inquiring what it means in the epistle of which it is represented as

1 2 Cor. vi. 1.

2 Tit. ii. 11, 12.

one of the great subjects. In the tenth verse of the first chapter, the apostle speaks of "the grace" of which the ancient prophets prophesied as to come to Christians, and in the thirteenth verse of that chapter, of "the grace which was to be brought to them at the revelation of Jesus Christ." That grace is obviously the Christian salvation in its heavenly and spiritual blessings, enjoyed partially on earth, fully in heaven. This grace is a leading subject of the epistle. The specific nature, and transcendent glory and excellence of those blessings, in which the grace of God is manifested, is declared. Christians are represented as "elect, according to the foreknowledge of God;" spiritually separated from the world; sprinkled with the blood of Jesus Christ; begotten to a lively hope, to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away; as having tasted that the Lord is gracious, by being constituted a chosen generation, a spiritual temple, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; as having 'salvation, complete deliverance from all evil, laid up for them in heaven, where it is ready to be revealed in the last time, while they are kept for it by the power of God through faith, and on receiving which, at the revelation of the Lord Jesus, they will be glad with exceeding joy, rejoicing "with a joy that is unspeakable and full of glory." This is "the grace of God" concerning which the apostle here says he had given a testimony in the epistle which he has just closed.

§ 2. The Christian's duty in reference to this grace, "to stand."

"But

The other subject of the epistle, according to its author, is the Christian's duty in reference to this grace of God. At first sight, the words in which we think the duty of Christians, in reference to the grace, is very briefly, but very comprehensively summed up-the words rendered by our translators "in which ye stand," seem merely to be a part of the testimony respecting "the grace of God," and to denote rather the Christian's privilege than his duty; just as when the Apostle Paul says, "By faith ye have entrance into this grace wherein ye stand." But the two expressions are not the same. The phrase before us is literally "into which," which may mean, in reference to which, or until which, but which cannot mean strictly in which. It deserves notice, that the apostle speaks of having exhorted in the epistle; but, as the words are ordinarily understood, there is no subject of exhortation referred to. In some ancient manuscripts the reading is not "ye stand," but "stand ye;" expressive not of an assertion, but of a command or exhortation. If that reading be adopted, and it has been by some learned men, then the meaning is, "in reference to which grace of God," or until which grace of God is fully brought unto you, "stand ye." This most certainly is the sum and substance of the duty enjoined on Christians in this epistle; the standing firm, amid all temptations, in the faith and practice of Christianity with a reference to the grace of Christ, as

2

1 Rom. v. 2.

3

2 Eis never can mean èv; as "motion towards" can never be identified with "rest in." 3 Στῆτε. Lachmann.

persons who have already been made partakers of it, as persons who hope to be made partakers of it in far larger measure, and to obtain full participation of it through "standing." As the whole doctrinal subject of the epistle is the grace of Christ, so the whole practical subject of the epistle is the duty of Christians in reference to that grace, and the whole of that duty may be summed up in one word, "stand." The whole practical part of the epistle is just the development of the first exhortation: "Wherefore," that is, seeing ye have received these prontises and hopes, "gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end, for the 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 favorite compendium of Christian duty with the Apostle Paul.'

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, "Testify 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 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 favor, and a great one, "came by Moses, but the grace and truth," the true grace, the great manifestation of 1 Cor. xvi. 13. Gal. v. 1. Eph. vi. 14. Phil. iv. 1. 2 Thess. ii. 15.