the Grace of God in them; defending to his Exhortation after- wards, ver. 12. m Viz. while this lite afts, time, 2 C1. 4.17, n If God fee it fit, needtul tor your good, and conducing to his Glory ; intimating, that God doth not always af- flict Belicvers, but when ke ſees juſt cauſe, and never doth it with- out cauſe. 6 Queſt. How could they be in Heavineſs, and yet re- ce? Anſw, Their Grief and jov were 2lout difterent Objetts, they might be in Heavinels by reaton of preſent Amfflietions, and rezoyce 1n hope of future Glory ; they mit grieve as Men, and re- javc? as Saints; Senſe of Suffering might aifet them, and yet the Faith of better thinzs coming, reheve them. If their Heavineſs did in any degree abate tiivir Joy, yet it did not wholly hindcr 1t; and though their Joy did overcoametherr Heavinets, yet it dd not whol- Iy exclude it, þ Ie fo calls Afiidtions from the cnd and effec of them, the Trial of their Faith, Cuke 22. 28. 4%, 29. 10. Gal. 4. I4. James 1.2. 2 Pet. 2. 9. he calls-them manifoid, as being not only gunicrous, but various, and of divers kinds.
= Thar the * ria} of your ftairhg being much more Yeciovs than of gold 7 that perithet /, T though 2 Ned with fire, might be found unto pratte, and our. and glory 7.2t the appraring of Jelus Chrilt.
4 7.6, Your Faith when tried. He compares the Faith of the Saints with Gold, and argues from the leſs to the greater ; q-d. it Men do fo tur eſtcem their Gold, that they w1ll make the excellency and precioulnets of it appear by trying 1t m the Fire, which purgeth 4% the Drofs, and ditcovers the goodneſs of the Metal ; no won- dcr 1f God will have the Faith of the Saints (more precious to him than Gold is to Men) tried by Affiitions, that the excellency of 1t may more fully be diſcovered. r 1.e. Than the Trial of Gold; or Gold tried, compared with . Faith tried. / Is worn away, and conſumed by uſe, as many Particles of it hikewite may be 1n the very Trial of it, ver. 12. whereas Faith is not conſumed nor watt- ed, but encreaſed by being uſed, and made more conſpicuous by being tried. f i.e, May be found to be, or to have turned to praiſe, gc. the Diznity of it being by that means evidenced. Thetz ſeveral words ſhew whither preſent Trials tend, and in what they flue; they may be reproachful and 12nominious now { Heb. 12.2.) but they end in Glory. We need not be critical about the difference of theſe three words, Prarſe, H:mur, and Glory, which may be Synonymous Expretſions (by way of Amplification) of the ſame thing, yct they arc mentioned diſtintly with relation to Be- lievers ellewhere, Praiie, 1 Cor. 4. 5. Honour, 1 Sam. 2. 30. John 12.25, Glory as well as Honour, Rom. 2.10. 4 1.e. At the Day of Judgment frequently fo called, as ver. 13, and Colo/. 3. 4.- 2 Theſ]. L. 7. and Chap. $. 4. Chriſt's Glory is at preſent hid and obſcured, while he is Inſtrufting his Ele, and training them up unto Patience, and defers his Judzing of his Enemies; but at laſt it will he fully manifeſted in the Face of the World, when he comes with Clouds, and every Eye ſhall (ee him, Xc. Rev. I. 7. :
S * Whom .x having not feen y, ve Tove F, in whom though now ve lee bm not 2, yer believing. ye refoyce a with Joy rlorv c.
x Which Chriſt. » With your bodily Eyes. Moſt of theſe Fews lived out of their own Country, and fo had not ſeen Chriſt in the Fleſh ; and this was the Commendation of their Love, that they loved him whom they had not feen, though fight doth ordinarily contribute roward the ſtirring up ot Aftcttion. 7 Neither as others have done in the days of his Flefh, nor as vou vour ſelves hereafter fhall in his Gloryz ye walk by faith, and nat by ſeght, 2 Cor. 5. 7: 2 In hope of ſeeing and enjoving him. © þ Which cannot be ex- prefied with Words. See the hike Phrate, Rom. 8. 25, and 2 Cor. 9. 15. c Both in reſpect of the Object about wich this Joy 18s con- vcrlant, the heavenly Glory ; the Degree, 1t 1> tne higheſt here in the World, thc duration of it, it 1s moſt fold ; as hkewiſe in com- pariſon ot the Joy ot this World which 15 vain and trantitory, and whereof many times Men are afterward: aſhained.
o Receiving f the end & of your faith, ever the {\lvation / oft your louls g.
d Either this word 15 to be taken improperly, and by an Enal- l2e. the Future heing put for the Preſent Tenſe, q.d. being about toreccive; or rather properly in the Preſent Tenſe, and then it intimates the certainty of the thing ſpoken of. e 1. e. The Scope to which Faith tends, or the Reward of Faith, f Either. 1. Salva- tion more cenerally taken, which 15 hezun In this Lite, Epheſ. - Bp Tit. 3. 5. or rather, 2. complcat final Salvation 1n the other, as ver, 2. an then the ſenſe is, cither ye rcjoyce that ve ſhall certainly re- ceive the tull Salvation oi your Souls, or ye rejovce that ve do re- ccive that Salvation, viz. in the Promiſes of it, in thoſe Graces of the "1t wrought 1n you, which begin this Salvation, and are the ” ' .of it, and in the certain Afurance of it. g 1.e. (By an
i Synecdoche) the Salvation of your Perſons.
10 * Of which {alvation þ the Prophets 7 have en-
JC 1?
quired, and ſearched diligently &, who propheficd of
tire grace / that ſhould come unto you. | ) Either, 1. The more full and clear Manifeſtation of Salvation
promited to be at the comin of Chrift, when Life and Immortal:ty
| ſhould be brought to light through the Gojpel, 2 Tim. 1. 19. and then
this place 1s paralle] to Luhe 1042 Or, 2. The Salvation of the diſperſed 7ewwps, 1. C their publick Convertion by the Goſpel, and Eternal Lite following upon 1t ; winch {as well as the Calling of the Gentiles) was reſerved tor the Times and Glory ot the Meſſiah. z Viz. Thoſe under the Old-Teſtament, out ot whoſe Writings the Faith of New-Teſtament-Bclievers 1s to be confirmed, 7obn 5. 3g. Affs 15.11. and whom this Apoftle therefore mentions. thathe might ſtcen»then the Faith of the Chriſtian Fews, by atluring them that the DoFrine he had delivered to them was no new Invention, very Truth of God revealed oz Old to the Prophets. % The at &1-
iS >. OuUEELTIC
words wmply their vehement defire of knowing, as well as gr
. o w. WP = . E ' E ® 4 - * ] WEE _ — once in fceking, 1 What. he called Sa/tauiton before, he calls Grate here, to imiumate their Salyation to be meeriv vf Grace, This
unſpeakable b, and full of
LT ET &5
which 1s but a little |
i