> For the time paſt of our lives may ſuſtice p us 9 wrought the will of the Gentiles 7, when we walked /inlatdvioutnels z, lufts, excels of wine. revel- lines z. 7querings x, and ahominadble I[dolatries y.
þ The Apoſtle doth notmmcan by this Exprefſion meerly that they ſhould forbear their former Luſts, out of a Saciety * and Wearineſs, as having had their fill of them, but ſtir them up to Holineſs by minding them of their former finful Lite, g. d. ye are concerned to run well now, when ve have for fo great a part of your time run Kron. It is a figure whereby he mitigates and Jenifics the ſhafp- neſs &1 his Reproot tor their tormer {inful Life : See the like, Faek. 44-5, and 45. & Mark 14.41. g Some Copies read ye, and that aurecs with the following Verſe, where the ſecond Perion is made ule of, Or if we read according to our Tranſlation, #4, 1t 1s 4 b1- cue called 4noacencfrs, whereby Perer afiumes to himſelf 1n com- mon with them what vet in his own Perſon he was never guilty of, as Tia. 6.4. 6, 7 Dan. 9. 5, tc. or elſe it may be an Enallagy of the Perion, whereby the firſ? is put for the ſecond. r Viz. thoſe that were profane and ipznorant oi God and Chriſt, and fo 1t 1s the ſame as the Luſts of Men, Ter. 2. / Had our Converſation, as Fph. 2. 3. walking being taken for the Courſe of Man's Lite ; and ſome- t1mCes in an evi} way, as 2 Pet. 2, 10. and 3. 3- Jude 16.18. and {ometimes in a good, as Lube 1. 5, t Eſpecially outward Acts, here fet in diſtintion from Lafls, which fignite thoſe inward motions Tom which thoſe outward Defilements procced.. u Unſeatonable and Juvuricus featiin?, Rom. 13, 13. Gal, $5. 2, x Compotations, or mcetin's for Drinkings, Prov. 23. 3O. Tia. 5. 11. 22. y Neſt. Why doth Peter charge the 72ws with Idolatrv, who generally kopt themſelves from it aiter the B.:by/oniſh Captivity ? Anjw. 1. Thougli mot did, ict all might not. 21y, It is a fort of Idolatry to cat things ſacrificed to Idols, which many of the 7ews being diſperied amdnz the Idolatrous Gentiics, and being invited by them to their Idol-Featts, m1ziit poffihly do ; and, being under the Temp- tation of Poverty, mi. ht too tar conform themſelves to the Cu- ſtoms of the Nations amonz v hich they were. 3ly, Probably this Idolatry mi-ht be the Worthip of Angels, frequent among the Gen- tiles, panicularly the Co/riftans tnhabiting a City of Phrygia, which was a part of Aj: where many 7ews were, Chap. t.1. 4ly, The Churches to which he vwrote might be mgde up of Fews and Gentiles, and the Apotiic may, by a Synechdoche, aſcribe that to all in com- mon, winch vet 1> to be underitood only of a part.
+ \Wherein they think it. ſtrange 5, that you run o not with them to the ſame excels þ of rior, {ſpeak- ing ev c of you.
7 Gr. Are Strangers, 1. e, carry themſelves as Strangers, wondring {as at ſome new thing) at the c:1ange the Goſpel hath made in you, and your no more conforming your ſelves to their wicked Courſes ; they ſeem to be in anotncer World, when among you. @ This ſeems to ſiznine the eagerneſs and vehemency of theſe Gentiles in pur- ſuing their Luſts, and may perhaps have ſome reſpect to the Feaſts of Bacchys, to which they were wont madly to run, and there commit the Ahominations mentioned, vey. 3. b Or, Profuſeneſs, or Confif19n of Riot of Luxury, and then it ſuits well with that heap of Sins before-mention<d, whereof this ſeems to be comprehenſive. c Gr. Bliſpheming, or ſpeaking evil, of you is added by the Tranſla- tors : This may therefore he underitood, not only of their ſpeaking cvil of Believers, as void of Humanity, and Enemies to civil Soct- ety, but of God and the Chriſtian Religion, as a dull, moroſe, ſower wav, and which they could not embrace without renouncing al! Mirth and Cheartulncls.
5 Who ſhall give account 4 to him that is ready e to * Judee the quick and the dead f.
a Of their evil-ſpeaking as well as of other Sins, Jude 15. Tt 1s a Metaphor taken from Stewards giving account to their Maſters, Matth. 18.23. Luke 16. 2. e Not only prepared for it, but at nand to do it, Fames s. o. f Thoſe that ſhall be alive at Chriſt's comins, rnd thoſe that diced betore, but then ſhall be raiſed, and brought to Judgment, Hereby he intimates, for their Comfort, that though their Enemies, and 11]-Willers might out-live them, yet they ſha!l not eſcape God's Judgment,
6 For, tor this cauſe * was the Goſpel preached al- { ro them rhar are dead 2. that they might be judg- ed according ro men in the fizcfh þ, but live according to God in the ſpirit z. |
2 Either, x. ſpiritually dead, i. e. dead in Sin, viz. then when the Goſpel was preached to them: Or 21y, naturally dead, wiz. when the Apoſtle wrote this Epiſtle. The Verb are, not being in the Greek, the words may be underſtood cither way, by ſupplying were, ac- cording to the former Expoſition, or are, according to the latter, which our Tranilators favour. Sec the ike, Ruth. 1. 8. þ Either, I. that they might be judged or condemned in the Flelh, 7. e. that their Old Man, and carnal Converſation according to Men walking in their carnal Luſts, might *e deſtroyed and aboliſhed ; and then to be judged in the Fleſh is of the ſame import as to ſuffer in the Fleſh, wer, 1. to be dead to Sin, Rom. 6. 1, 2. Or, 2. That they might be judzed or condemned in the Fleſh according t9 Men, and fo far as they could reach, not only by Cenſures, Reproaches, and cvil-ſpeeches, but even death it ſelf, as it had fallen out already to Stephen, Fames, &c. i That they might live a fpiritual life in their Souls according to the Will of God, and an eternal Lite with him. To live in the Stirit, to the Will of Gad, to walk in newneſs of T.ife, &c. are Phraſes of a hke import in the Language of the Apoitles. According to the latter E::poſition of the former clauſe, the Apoitle ſzems in the whole to remove the Scandal of theſe Comiitians being reproach2d, and condemned by Unbelievers for Moir firikncG in Religion, and Non-conformity to the World, by feliing them. that their Condition was not fingular, but fo it had fared with others before them (though now dead) to whom the Golpei was prexched, with the ſame Event as to the Judsment of worldly men wi» cenſured and condemned them, and yet with the Yn;c liope of Fruit and BeneSt, 4jz, that though they were condemed
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