_Wherefore laying aside all malice. St. Peter having put them in mind of the great benefit of Christ's coming to redeem us from sin, exhorts them to avoid sin, to lead a life worthy of their vocation, to follow Christ's doctrine, and imitate his example. (Witham)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Desire the rational [1] milk without guile, or deceit. Without guile, in construction, does not agree with new-born children, but with milk, as appears by the text. The sense is, follow the pure doctrine of the gospel, without mixture of errors. (Witham)_ [BIBLIOGRAPHY] Rationabile sine dolo lac:... [ Continue Reading ]
Whoever has a relish for Jesus Christ, has also for his word; and such as have a relish for neither, are truly deplorable. Let us pray then that God would feed us with his word, and with the holy Eucharist, that contains his body and blood, his soul and his divinity, that we may thereby grow up to s... [ Continue Reading ]
_The living stone, rejected, &c. Christ is the chief foundation of his Church, the corner-stone of the building, whom the Jews, and other obstinate unbelievers, reject to their own condemnation and destruction. See Isaias xxviii. 16.; Matthew xxi. 42.; Acts iv. 11.; Romans ix. 32. (Witham)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_You also....a holy [2] priesthood; and, as he saith again, (ver. 9.) a royal priesthood. 1. Because they had ministers of God, who were truly and properly priests, of whom Christ is the chief. 2. Every good Christian in a less proper sense may be called a priest, inasmuch as he offers to God what i... [ Continue Reading ]
_Whereunto also they are [3] set, or placed, i.e. by God's permission; not that God is the cause of their sins or damnation, (whose will is that every one be saved) but his justice has appointed and decreed punishments against those who, by their own wilful malice, refuse to believe and to follow hi... [ Continue Reading ]
_You are....a purchased people, whom Christ purchased, bought and redeemed with the price of his precious blood. --- That you may declare his [4] virtues; i.e. the excellencies and perfections of God, who hath called you, and now made you his people, which you were not, at least in this matter befor... [ Continue Reading ]
_I beseech you....to refrain, &c. from all unlawful and disorderly passions, that the Gentiles not yet converted may have nothing to blame in your lives and conversation, but may be edified and induced to praise God. (Witham)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_ In the day of visitation. God is said to visit his people, sometimes by afflictions and punishments, and sometimes by graces and favours. Some think St. Peter here, by the day of visitation, means the approaching destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, and that the sense is, that the heathen Roman... [ Continue Reading ]
_To every human creature, [5] to every one whom the order of Providence has placed over you, whether it be to emperors or kings, who have the supreme power in kingdoms, or to governors of provinces; obey your temporal princes, though heathens and idolaters, (as the Roman emperors were at that time e... [ Continue Reading ]
_As free; to wit, from the slavery of sin, but take care not to make this Christian freedom and liberty a cloak for malice, as they do, who pretend that this makes subjects free from their obedience to temporal princes and magistrates; or servants free from the obedience due to their masters, even w... [ Continue Reading ]
Take notice that _this is praiseworthy, an effect of God's grace, a thing acceptable to God, when you suffer injuries patiently; whereas it is not glory, nothing that deserves commendation or reward, either before God or man, to suffer for doing ill, as a malefactor, who deserves punishments. But it... [ Continue Reading ]
Christ, who was incapable of sinning, did not _revile [7] them that reviled him; he suffered all with patience; he willingly gave himself up to Pontius Pilate, that judged him, and condemned him unjustly [8] to the death of the cross: and remember that all he suffered was to satisfy for your sins, t... [ Continue Reading ]