conscien<'e;" the soul, on<'e a""11.kene<l, ,er. Hl, "he W<'nt and preached ("1rop,u- seeks continunlly fuller purification, hungers 6•ls)" (comp. Eph. iv. 9, "Now thl\t he and thin;ts after righteousness. This gives ascended, what is it but that ho l\lso 11 good sense, but seems less Sllitllble in this descended first into the lower pnrts of the context. It is 1ioseible also to join the earth? "). And is on the right hand of God pr<'position ,ls with <rw,/071,ns in the sense (comp. Ps. ex. 1; Rom. viii. 3-l; Col. iii. 1 ; of a good conscience in relation to God; Eph. i. 20; Heb. i. 3). It is better to auffer but it seems much more natural to connect for well-doing thnn for evil-doing, for he it with ,..-,pw.-11,ua. Some commentators who is the signal Example, who auffered, follow .2Rcumenius in pamphrasing,..-,pw.-71µa the Just for the unjust, is now exalted to by a.p{,af3C:,v, i!v,xvpov, mr&o,~,s; they fake the right hand of the Majesty on high; and the ground that, in legal language, the word "is able to save them to the uttermost that wns used in the sense of a contract, and come to God by him, seeing he ever liveth tl1cy sec in St. Peter's words a reference to make intercession for them." Angels and to the co,enant made with God in br,ptism, authorities and powers being made subject nnd to the questions a.nd answers in whi<'h, unto him. God " hath set him at his own from the earliest times, that covenant was right hand in the heavenly places, for above expressed ; <Tr<pC:,.,-71µa being used in a ell principality, and power, and might, and general sense so RS to cover answer, IIS well dominion, a.nd every no.me that is named, w, questions. This is a. possible alternntivc, not only iu this world, but also in that but the word seems to ha,e acquired this which is to come." All the angels of God, meanin~ in later times. lly the resurrection in the various grades of the heavenly o! J'esUB Christ. These words refer back to hierarchy, are made subject t,) Christ. The "baptism doth also now save us." Baptism words seem to include, especially when derives its sa,ing effect from the resnrrection read in comparison with Col. ii. 15, tbe evil of our Lord ; without tho.t resnrrectioa it angels nlso; they are made subject against :"'?,nld be a.n empty form (see note on eh. their will to Christ; they nsked him once I . .:,). if he was come to torment them before the Ter. 22.-Who is gone into heaven. The time. He can restrll.in their ma.lice and word here rendered "gone" is that used in save hie people from their power.
HOMILETICS. Vers. 1-1.-Duties of husbands and wives. I. DUTIES OF WIVES. 1. Obedie-nce. Holy matrimony is a very sacred thing. It is not a mere human ordinance (?iv6pwmrn, KTi<ris, eh. ii. 13); it is not a creation of human law. Human law, indeed, surrounds it with its sanctions, regarding it as a civil contract; but it was instituted of God in the time of man's innocency; it is an image of the mystical union between Cbrist and his Church. It is a school of holy love, a discipline of sweet self-denials for the l~ved one's sake, which ought to help Cbristian people greatly in the pursuit of boliness. But it is Christianity that has restored wedlock to what it was at the first, and given it a yet deeper and a far holier meaning. The frequency of divorce among both Jews and beathens; the dislike of marriage, which had become so serious at Rome; the Greek habit of regarding the wife as the mistress of her husband's house, the mother of his children, but not as the helpmeet, the partner of bis cares, the sharer of his joys and sorrows; the depreciation of woman ;-all this had made the ordinary view of marriage ,ery different from what God had intended it to be, from what it now is in Christian families. It is to Christianity, not to civilization (for the Greeks and Romans were as civilized as we are), that we owe the sweet sanctities of wedded life and the quiet happiness of home. But at first Christianity introduced a fresh element of division. J'rom time to time one member of e. family circle would have to put the constraining love of Christ above the love due to father or mother, husband, wife, or child. '!'he case of a Christian wife with an unbelieving husband would be one of especial difficulty. She would probably have to hear her religion derided, her Saviour insulted; she would have to endure constant reproach,~s and sarcasms, often hardships, and even brutal cruelty. St. Paul had considered the case in 1 Cor. vii. 13-17. St. Peter here counse)9 submission ; the power of gentleness might succeed in winning those who could be won in no other wav. Let Christian wives be very careful to respect their husband's authority; let thcm fear to give them so much as the shaJow of a reason to suspect their purity. Let the holy fear of God lt·ad them to regard even the unbeliov;ng en. m. 1-22.) THE FIRST EPISTLE GENERAL OF PETER. 139