246 And diligently to make their calling and election sure. i. SECT. ness, that peculiar affection which you owe to ness, brotherly kindyour fellow Christians, as your brethren in the ness; and to brotherLord; and add to this brotherly kindness, uni- ly kindness, charity. i. 7 versal love to all your fellow creatures, extend 2 Pet. shall neither be bar ing your kind affectionate regards to those who are entirely strangers to that religion which you are so happy as to embrace, and even to those who most unrighteously oppose it, and injure you for your profession of it: 8 For if these excellent things which I have now 8 For if these things described, exist and abound in you, they will be in you, and abound, permit [you] to be neither inactive nor unfruitful, they make you that ye in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ; but ren nor unfruitful in as they must put you upon exerting yourselves the knowledge of our in consequence of that knowledge, they will Lord Jesus Christ. make these your endeavours delightful and 9 effectual for that purpose; But he that is de- 9 But he that lackficient in these things, is blind as to the most eth these things, is important objects of knowledge; at best he is far off, and hath forvery shortsighted, his views are limited to a nar- gotten that he was row circle of low and mean objects, which lie purged from his old immediately before him, and cannot take in sins. 10 that enlarged and noble prospect which Christ- blind, and cannot see 10 Wherefore the And as it would be very fatal to fall from these bright views and expectations into a state rather, brethren,give of such aggravated condemnation, therefore my your calling and ediligence to make brethren, endeavour so much the more diligently lection sure: for if to make your calling and your election sure, and ' Calling and election sure.] Mr. Brekel, the ingenious author of the Christian Warfare, hath taken pains to prove that calling and election alludes to the manner in which armies were raised; first, by calling together all of a proper age to bear arms and then, choosing out such as were reckoned most proper for that purpose. And he supposes, that making the calling and election, Belair, steadfast, was acting in such a manner that they might not be cashiered and disbanded, as unworthy a place in the army into which they had been listed. He has indeed proved by a great number of learned quotations, that this was the case in the Grecian armies; and Rev. xvii 14, may perhaps be a further illustration of it, as he well urges. But I cannot think, that by this we are to determine our notion of the Christian calling and election; and whoever should attempt to apply this idea to such phrases in the multitude of places, would find it utterly unsuitable. I have therefore so taken in the idea, which this agreeable writer suggests, as not entirely to drop others, which I think it extremely probable the apostle might have in his view. And it will certainly be a good sense, if we understand the exhortation, Make it an assured thing to yourselves, that you are called and chosen of God. Reflections on the fruits of the knowledge of Christ. 247 i. 2 Pet. ye do these things, firm; that having been called into the church of SECT. ye shall never fall: Christ, and chosen to such exalted external privileges, and such glorious hopes, you may not finally lose them; but may be assured upon i. 10 the best grounds, that you are indeed effectually called by Divine grace, and chosen to the possession of life everlasting, And this important end will be secured, if you resolutely persist in your duty, according to the directions I have now given; for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall; God will support you with communications of grace, suitable to any extraordinary trial, to which you may be called, till the whole is brought to a happy issue and 11 For so an en- conclusion. For so an entrance shall be richly 11 trance shall be min- and abundantly administered unto you in the istered unto you abundantly, into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour everlasting kingdom Jesus Christ; you shall not only be secure of of our Lord and Sav- obtaining happiness there; but shall be received iour Jesus Christ. into it with circumstances of solemn pomp and distinguished honour; and those graces which adorned your profession here on earth, shall, as it were attend you in a radiant train to those mansions of everlasting felicity and glory, which the Divine mercy shall then assign you, through Jesus Christ, to whom the praise of all is to be ascribed, and with whom you shall reign through the endless ages of eternity. IMPROVEMENT. 1 WITH all humility let us adore the Divine goodness, in mak- verse ing us partakers of the like precious faith with that which he bestowed on the primitive believers. And let it often be considered in this comprehensive and edifying view, as terminating on the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ, on that method of justification by him and his gospel which Divine grace hath found out and proposed. With thankfulness let us own the abundant provision made for us, of all things pertaining to life and godliness; and above all, let the exceeding rich and invalu. 3 able promises, contained in the gospel, be reviewed with sincere 4 delight, and be esteemed as our securest and most important treasure. May they actually have all that efficacy they are suited and intended to have, to procure and secure our escape from the pollutions which are in the world through lust, and to advance the Divine resemblance in our souls. How various, and how lovely, are the graces which are here recommended, as what we 5, 7 are with all diligence to add to our faith: courage and temperance, 5,7 248 St. Peter would remind them of what they had been taught; verse 8 SECT. patience and godliness, brotherly kindness, and universal charity ! i. These are the genuine fruits of the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ; these, while they honour him, and adorn our profession, will be no less honourable and beneficial to ourselves. Short9 sighted indeed we are, if we perceive not on the one hand, the happy and delightful consequences which they will finally produce, and on the other, how utterly vain our baptismal honours and engagements, and all external privileges of church communion, will be, if these vitals of Christianity are wanting. In order to excite our indolent minds to pursue these Divine graces with a spirit in some measure proportionable to their excellence, let us frequently reflect on our speedy removal from this world and all its vanities; how soon we must enter upon eternity. O, how 11 desirable then to enter on the kingdom of Christ, to be honoured with an abundant entrance into everlasting mansions, to be received as with a cordial welcome, to sail, as it were, into that blessed harbour with a full gale of consolation and joy! Be not deceived; God is not mocked; it is the invariable design of the gospel to produce and advance our holiness; it is the immutable constitution of the kingdom of Christ, that without it no man shall be permitted to see the Lord. (Heb. xii. 14.) SECT. ii. SECT. I The apostle, in the view of his own approaching dissolution, reminds his Christian brethren that their religion was firmly founded, as it was attested both by the miraculous voice from heaven, which declared Jesus to be the Son of God, and by the divinely inspired prophecies, which also bore testimony to him under that character. 2 Pet. I. 12, to the end. 2 PETER I. 12. 2 PETER I. 12. HAVE been exhorting you to cultivateHEREFORE I the several graces of Christianity, and urg- I will not be 2 Pet. ing this as necessary for the security of your always in rememnegligent to put you i. 12 eternal salvation; therefore I will not neglect, brance of these always to put you in mind of these things; things, though ye though I am aware, know them, and be that you already know them, established in the and are well established by the instruction you present truth. have received in the present truth, relating to 13 the practice of these virtues. But I account it right and expedient, yea, what by my office in the church of Christ I owe to you, and my cle, to stir you up, other brethren, as long as I am in this tabernacle, and inhabit this frail mortal body, from which, God only knows how soon I may be 18 Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this taberna membrance : 249 ii. for they had not followed cunningly devised fables : by putting you in re- dislodged, to stir you up by way of remem- SECT. brance, and to endeavour to keep your hearts under as lively a sense of Divine things as I 14 Knowing that can; Knowing that all these opportunities of shortly I must put off service are confined within very narrow limits; this my tabernacle, and that I must quickly put off this my tabernaJesus Christ hath cle by death, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath even as our Lord shewed me. 2 Pet. i. 14 shewed me by an express prophecy, and that memorable action of his, when, just after his resurrection, he commanded me to follow him in token of my readiness to die for him, by the same kind of death which he suffered. (John 15 Moreover, I xxi. 18, 19, 20.) But I will endeavour, to the 15 will endeavour, that utmost of my ability, while it pleases God to ye may be able, afcontinue me among you, that you may have ter my decease, to have these things these things so familiar to your minds now, always in remem- that ye may also every one of you have them in remembrance after my departure, when I shall have made my exit from the stage of mortality. 16 For we have For we have not been pursuing after a series of 16 not followed cun- artfully devised fables, while we made known bles, when we made unto you the power and coming of our Lord Je known unto you the sus Christ; they were not fallaciously inventpower and coming ed, nor rashly credited by us; but we were of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eye witnesses of his majesty, and of the solemn eye witnesses of his pomp and grandeur with which he appeared majesty. at his transfiguration. For he then received 17 brance. ningly devised fa ed from God the Fa- to him from the ex 17 For he receiv- from God the Father illustrious honour and glother, honour, and ry; sublime honour was done him, and refulglory, when there gent glory was shed round about him,when such came such a voice a voice was sent forth to him from the magnificellent glory, This cent glory of the Shechinah, which then ap is my beloved son, peared so conspicuous and glorious, and made in whom I am well that ever memorable proclamation, This is my pleased. well beloved son in whom Iacquiesce, (Mat. xvii. 5,) and in whom my soul is perfectly well 18 And this voice pleased. And this voice which came down from 18 which came from heaven, we, his three distinguished friends, heaven we heard James and John, as well as myself, actually him in the holy heard, when we were with him in the holy mount, which was, for the time, consecrated by the 19 We have also visible appearance of the Divine glory upon it. a more sure word of And we have a surer and firmer prophetical word,3 19 when we were with mount. • Surer prophetical word.] Some are of only signifies a very sure prophetical word. opinion that the apostle intended no com- As in Heb. xiii. 23, Taxiv is used for parison in this place, but that the comparative is used for the positive; so that it quickly. Acts xxv. 10, nanov for well. Compare 1 Tim. iii. 14; 2 Tim. i. 17, 18. 250 ii. And ancient prophecy came by the will of God. rise in your hearts : SECT. the evidence of which, on the whole, is far prophecy; where- And ungolagos for the least, Mat. xi. 11; recorded. b Lamp shining in a dark place.] Bishop Chandler supposes, prophecy is so called, because it grows gradually brighter and brighter, as it approaches nearer and nearer to its accomplishment. Bishop Chandler's Defence of Christianity, p. 23. No prophecy of scripture is of private impulse] So I render ua; and take it to signify, that men did not work themselves up into such agitations, as led them to utter the predictions and oracles And this, I think, the origin. al will very well bear, and the opposition justify. To interpret it in opposition to the right of private judgment in the interpretation of scripture, is quite foreign to the apostle's purpose, as well as extremely injurious to common sense. See Flem. Christology, Vol. I. p. 147 Dr. Clark and Mr. Baxter have understood this, as if the apostle had said, Scripture is not to be interpreted merely as speaking of this particular person of whom it literally speaks; but as having a further sense, to which the expressions of the prophets were overruled under the influence of the spirit, in reference to the gospel dispensation; in respect to which they sometimes were carried further than they themselves were aware. Mr. Jefferies, (after Dr. Hammond,) observes, that επιλύσεως originally signifies a sign or watch word given to the racers when they were to start. See his Review of the controversy between the author of the grounds, &c. and his adversaries, p. 149. |
