Reflections on our obligation to relative duties. 25 For ye were as sheep going astray: but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls. 275 we being dead to sin, For it is He, who himself bore the punishment SECT. should live unto righte- of our sins in his own body, when he hung in the iv. ousness: hy whose stripes ye were healed. agonies of crucifixion on the accursed tree; that 1 Peter we being freed from the guilt of our sins, II. 24. and the misery to which they exposed us, might live unto righteousness: by whose stripes and bruises ye are healed of evils infinitely greater than the cruelty of the severest masters can bring upon you; according to the well-known phrase of the prophet, (Isaiah liii. 4, 5, 6.) For ye 25 were like sheep going astray, exposed to want and danger, and wandering in the way to destruction; but now ye are by Divine grace recovered, and turned again to him who bears the important and tender character of the great Shepherd and Bishop of your souls, who has graciously received you under his pastoral care, and will maintain that inspection over you which shall be your continued security from returning to those fatal wanderings; and the sense of this may cheer and comfort you under any oppres sion or injuries to which you may be exposed, IMPROVEMENT. As the honour of God is eminently concerned in the regard Ver. shewn by his people to their relative duties, let us out of a due re- 13--18 spect to that, pay a very careful and diligent attention to them; that the ignorance of foolish men, of those who reproach our good 15 conversation in Christ, may be utterly silenced. Let magistrates 13, 14 especially be reverenced, and in all things lawful, obeyed. And if they desire to secure reverence to their persons and authority, let them remember the end and design of their office, namely, to be a terror to evil doers, and a praise and encouragement to the regular and virtuous. And let us, who rejoice in our liberty, that liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, be very careful, that it h That being freed from sin: rais apapmers amolavauty. That our common translation is agreeable to the frequent signification of the original word, is certain. But so is the version I have chosen, which is approved by Beza, and is preferred and adopted by that judicious and learned critic Erasmus Schimidius. i By whose stripes, &c.] Mr. Cradoc supposes the meaning of this is, as if he had said, The blood of Christ, by which your souls are saved, may be a sufficient baim for those wounds and bruises which VOL. X. be your cruel masters may inflict upon you; k Bishop of your souls.] This is an in- Mm 276 iv. Wives should be subject to their husbands: SECT. be not abused as a cloke of licentiousness; but as we would manifest our fear and reverence of God, let us remember to honour the 16 king; yea, to render every man, and every station and character, 17 the esteem and respect which he justly claims; feeling at the same time, the constraints of a peculiar affection to all those who are united to us by the endearing character of our brethren in the Lord. Should men who fill superior stations and relations in life, not be so regular, and without exception, in their private and public deportment as they ought, let us perform our duty, not only to the gentle and obliging, but to the perverse and froward; remembering our Lord's example, which was set before us that we 21 might follow his steps. And let his marvellous love in bearing our 24 sins in his own sacred body on the tree, endear both his example and his precepts to our souls, and constrain us to a holy conformity to him. 18 Since he who is the great Shepherd and Bishop of souls, came on the most gracious and condescending errand of seeking and saving that which was lost, of gathering us into his fold, who were 25 wandering in the way to perdition; let us shew so much gratitude and wisdom, as not to wander any more; but as we regard our security and our very life, let us keep our Shepherd in our eye, submit ourselves to his pastoral inspection, and chearfully follow him, in whatsoever path he shall condescend to conduct us. SECT. v. 1 Peter SECT. V. Christian wives are exhorted to submit themselves to their husbands, and to study the ornaments of their minds, rather than of their persons; and likewise husbands are exhorted to treat their wives in a becoming and honourable manner, from a tender sense of those in firmities to which the sex is peculiarly liable. 1 Pet. III. 1-7. 1 PETER III. 1. I HAVE been discoursing of the duty of a ser- III. I. some other relations; and particularly urge it 1 PETER III. 1. LIKEWISE, yewives be in subjection to your own husbands; that if any obey not the without the word he word, they also may in subjection to your own husbands, in all things won by the conversajust and lawful; that if any of them be disobedi- tion of the wives, ent to the word of the gospel, and have refused to yield to all the other mighty arguments by which Christianity is supported, they may, without attending upon the word, be gained over, to the love and practice of it, by the amiable and 2 edifying deportment of [their] wives: Particu larly, 2 While they behold your your chaste conversation coupled with fear: 3 Whose adorning let it not be that outward gold, or of putting on of apparel; heart, in that which is is in the sight of God great price. And should study internal ornaments. 277 V. larly, beholding your chaste and spotless conver- SECT. sation, in the fear of God, and with a due reverence to your husbands, for his sake, and not Peter merely on constraint. Be careful to behave in III. 3. adorning of plaiting the every respect as becomes those whose happihair, and of wearing of ness it is to be acquainted with the great principles of Christianity; and particularly consider, how they should influence your conduct in the adorning of your persons 2. And as to this, let it not be merely external, nor consist in the plaiting and braiding the hair, or in putting on chains of gold about the neck, or earrings, or bracelets of gold on the arms, or in wearing of sumptuous and splendid apparel: 4 But let it be the But let your ornament be of a much more glo- 4 hidden man of the rious nature; let it consist in a well-regulated not corruptible, even temper of mind, in having the hidden man of the ornament of a meek the heart rightly formed: let it be seated in and quiet spirit, which what is more incorruptible by far than gold, or gems, which, stable as they are, may in time wear away, and are liable to a variety of accidents; I mean, in the beautiful and harmonious disposition of a meek and quiet spirit, silently submitting to the conduct of your husbands, and gently accommodating yourselves to them as far as reasonably you can; which argues an inward wisdom and goodness, that is highly precious in the sight of God himself; who looks with comparative contempt on those little artifices by which the notice of vain men is often attract5 For after this man- ed. This has long been the prevailing fashion 5 ner in the old time, in God's family; for so the holy women also, who trusted in God, who hoped in God, and served him in the inadorned themselves, tegrity of their hearts, long since, adorned thembeing in subjection un- selves, being, agreeably to the exhortations I have been giving you, in subjection to their own 6 Even as Sarah husbands: As you may particularly recollect 6 obeyed Abraham, cal- in the instance of Sarah, who you know obeyed ling him lord: whose daugh- Abraham her husband, calling him constantly, when she spoke of him, her lord, though she the holy women also to their own husbands; a Whose adorning, &c.] Plutarch quotes a passage from Crates, in which he observes, in words greatly resembling these, "That neither gold, nor emeralds, nor pearls give grace and ornament to a woman; but all those things, which clearly express, and set off her gravity, regularity, and modesty." Præcept. Cong. p. 86. But St. Peter's precept is enriched with a variety of much more noble and agreeable was thoughts; especially when recommending b Let it not be, &c.] This is not to be M m 2 © Not 278 V. Husbands should treat their wives honourably. SECT. was not only of the same family with him, but was herself in so peculiar a manner dignified by 1 Peter God, and had her name changed in token of III. 6. her being a mother of many nations, and of the veneration in which she was to be held in all succeeding ages. Remember therefore the character of this excellent woman, whom those of you, who are of Jewish extraction, are so fond of calling your mother; and whose daughters you indeed are, so long as ye do well. and preserving, by such a conduct, your inward tranquillity and fortitude, are not meanly terrified, so as to act out of character, with any amazement, or danger, which may meet you in the way of your duty. The want of a becoming and necessary fortitude in this case, would indeed be attended with fatal consequences, and render you unwor7thy of so honourable a title. And that the duty of the wife may be rendered more easy and agreeable, and husbands may have more reason to expect it to be chearfully performed, let it be your care likewise that ye dwell with your wives] according to knowledge, and in such a manner as becomes those who have been instructed in that great system of wisdom and duty, the gospel of Christ. And particularly be careful so to order your affairs, that you may not be prevented from allotting an honourable and comfortable subsistence to the women"; for this is a piece of respect which is due to the tenderness and infirmity of her sex, as being upon the whole the weaker vessel, less able to endure ye c Not terrified with any amazement.] Many have apprehended this last clause is suggested as an argument to persuade them to do well, that they would be preserved from those alarms and terrors which a perverse and rebellious contest with superior power might bring along with it, and which would indeed prove as injurious to their peace as to their character. But the structure of the Greek sentence makes it evident, that he speaks of the condition on which they were to preserve the character's of daughters of Sarah. Possibly the apostle might have in his mind the instance in which Sarah acted beneath her usual character, when through fear and sudden amazement she denied her having laughed. Gen. xviii. 15. And if he had, it is the design of this sentence to intimate, that though in that instance she failed she generally acted in a very different manner: but the daughters ye are long as ye do well, and are not afraid with any amazement. Likewise, ye hus bands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto as the hint is very oblique, 1 choose not tò express it very strongly in the paraphrase, though I have indeed glanced upon it. d Allotting an honourable subsistence to the woman.] The reader may see a very different, and truly I think, a very unjustifiable interpretation of these words in Dr. Whitby; which I shall not so much as transcribe.-It is to be remembered, that many of the Christians were persons of low rank in life; which might make such a precept of maintaining their wives decently, and not subjecting them to harder labour than they could bear, (which they might be tempted to do from their indigent circumstances,) exceeding proper. The sense of the word run, (as signifying subsistence or maintenance,) is so much confirmed by 1 Tim. v. 17, that I think I need say no more to vindicate it. e That the weaker vessel, and Reflections on our relative duties. 279 Y. unto the wife as unto the fatigue of labour, and subject to various in- SECT. as being heirs together dispositions which peculiarly require succour and of the grace of life; accommodation. See therefore that this duty 1 Peter that your prayers be not be properly and carefully performed, that your III. 7. hindered. hearts may be endeared to each other; and upon IMPROVEMENT. LET us observe with a pleasing attention, how greatly soli- Ver. citous all the apostles are, not only to establish the doctrines of Christianity, but to inculcate its precepts; particularly those, which refer to the relative duties of life. The comprehensive argument by which St. Peter enforces those of one peculiar relation, may be considered also as enforcing all the rest; I mean, the tendency of 1 our exemplary behaviour, to win over those who are without the word, or are disobedient to it. In this manner let us all plead the cause of our Lord and Master. And this silent, this winning eloquence will, by the Divine blessing, be powerful and effectual.—2 The veil of modesty is decent in all, and an humble caution, and fear of offending, are to be considered as duties of universal obligation. But if the weaker sex are commanded to aim at a noble superiority to the concerns of this animal life, and to the parade and 3 4 vanity of dress, it may with greater reason be expected from men, who boast of their superior understanding and larger experience. They, not only from Christian humility, but, one would think, even from a manly pride, should be raised above such childish ornaments, in contriving and adjusting which, many who are stiled rational creatures, spend much too large a portion of their precious time, and for the sake of which they neglect the cultivation and embellishment of their intelligent and immortal part, and the securing a happiness that will never have an end: as if glittering in the eyes of our fellow-worms were so desirable a thing, that it were worth while, for the sake of it, to expose ourselves to condemnation from e That your prayers may not be hindered.] These words seem strongly to intimate the great importance of social prayer; as, when we shortly expect to unite in acts of domestic devotion, a concern not to be no- |