atonement and intercession; and all the powerful and impressive motives to an obedient and upright life are derived from his redeeming mercy, and from the sovereign authority with which he is invested.

These principles, which form the very elements of revealed truth, are deeply impressed upon the mind of every sincere and wellinstructed Christian. They are identified with all his spiritual enjoyments and hopes, and with all his efforts to please God.

Hence it is that the Apostles not unfrequently appealed to the knowledge of the churches to whom they addressed their epistles. Thus St. Paul, when writing to the Corinthians, says, "Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich." (2 Cor. viii. 9.) As much as if he had said, "You can never forget your former state of ignorance and moral wretchedness, as contrasted with your present state of purity and happiness; nor can you ever forget the means by which this mighty change has been effected in your condition. Your enlightened and regenerated minds are permanently impressed with the abounding grace' of your Saviour, who was rich' in all the glories of the divine nature, and yet voluntarily submitted to the lowest abasement and most bitter suffering, that he might enrich you with all the blessings of his love." "Ye know," and ye contemplate with feelings of grateful admiration, "the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Similar to this is the language of St. Peter in the text before us. He is urging upon the people to whom he wrote the duty of practical holiness; and the passage is a continuation of his argument. "As he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy. And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear." An appeal is then made to the knowledge of the people on the subject of what Christ had done for them; and an intimation is given, that his death laid them under the most sacred obligations to comply with his will, and to spend their days in holiness and circumspection. The text, which is thus connected, presents a somewhat comprehensive and striking view of the doctrine of human redemption; and to the several particulars which it contains we invite your devout and prayerful attention.

I. The necessity of redemption is here stated. The persons addressed had been the subjects of a "vain conversation," which they had "received by tradition" from their "fathers."

To perceive the full force of this statement it will be requisite to determine who the persons were concerning whom the statement is given. They are described in the first verse of the epistle as "strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia ;" and are generally understood to have been Jewish believers

in Jesus Christ, who were driven from their native land by persecution, and whose lot was thus cast in heathen countries. This is doubtless true to a considerable extent. The two epistles of St. Peter were addressed to the same people; and as both of them abound with references to the facts and characters of the Old Testament, the inspired writer assumes that the persons for whose benefit they were written were familiar with those sacred books. This circumstance serves greatly to fix the character of the "strangers" in question. The Hebrew Christians were acquainted by education and early habit with the writings of Moses and the Prophets; but in those times, when books were only obtained by transcription, and were therefore both scarce and dear, we have some reason to doubt whether those inspired records were generally familiar to the minds of Gentile converts.

But that Jewish believers, exiles for Christ's sake, were the only people who are here addressed by St. Peter, is justly questionable. Such an assumption, we think, can never be reconciled with the third verse of the fourth chapter of this epistle, where we read, "The time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the GENTILES, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and ABOMINABLE IDOLATRIES." This was not the character of even the unconverted Jews in the apostolical times. At different periods of their national existence they had been strongly prone to idolatry; but after their return from the Babylonian captivity they do not appear, in any considerable numbers, to have been guilty of this terrible evil. In the days of our Lord there is no proof that a single idol-temple existed in the Holy Land, or that idolatry was at all practised there. He and his Apostles, who reproved the Jews with unsparing severity, never charged them with this sin. The Jews who in those times lived in heathen cities for commercial purposes are spoken of as having their synagogues for the public reading of the Scriptures, and the worship of the God of their fathers, and as observing their Sabbaths. In the New Testament they are never described as participating in the impure and polluting rites of idol-worship. It would seem, therefore, that "the strangers" to whom St. Peter wrote consisted partly of believing Jews, and partly of Heathens, converted to the faith of Christ, who were all united together in holy fellowship, adorning the doctrine of their common Saviour. Justly are they denominated "strangers ;" for such is the character of good men in all ages. In this world they are sojourners and pilgrims. Their home is not on earth, but in heaven.

This view of the subject is confirmed by facts which are related in the Acts of the Apostles; where we are informed that the believing Jews who were "scattered abroad" by persecution when Stephen was put to death, carried their evangelical light and influence wherever they went, and were a means of turning many Gentiles to Christianity, and of forming various flourishing Christian churches in

heathen lands. To several of the churches that were thus raised up, and consisted of these two distinct classes of people, the Epistles of St. Peter were evidently addressed; and of these people, before they were converted and saved by Christ, the Apostle declares that they were the subjects of a "vain conversation." Whether they were Jews or Gentiles by birth, their character was substantially the

same.

The word which is here rendered "conversation" bears a very extensive meaning. It properly signifies conduct, behaviour, manner of life; and comprehends the prevailing thoughts and dispositions of the heart, as well as the outward actions. In this proper and classical sense the word "conversation," with perhaps one or two exceptions, is always to be understood in our authorized version of the holy Scriptures.

When it is said that their "conversation" had been "vain," we are to understand that their entire conduct was marked, not by wisdom, but by folly; and had led to no truly beneficial result. Their minds were blinded by ignorance and error; and their course of life was dishonourable to God, and to their own intelligent and immortal nature. While they were laboriously occupied in the pursuit of good, they not only fell short of that good which they sought, but exposed themselves to the greatest evils. Their reasonings, their pleasures, their hopes, were empty and delusive. They walked in a shadow, and nothing relating to them was substantial but their misery.

A character of "vanity" was impressed even upon their religion. Those of the Jews who held the Sadducean tenets were rather sceptics than religious men. Denying the resurrection of the dead, and the very existence of the world of spirits, they in effect denied the moral government of God; and the result of their impious speculations was the practical adoption of the Epicurean maxim, "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." With a better creed, the Pharisees were scarcely superior in practice. Their religion consisted merely in outward things; and even these were performed, not for the purpose of honouring and pleasing God, but to be seen and admired of men, and as a cloak for their wicked rapacity. They paid "tithe of mint, and anise, and cummin," but "neglected the weightier matters of the law;" justice between man and man, compassion for the wretched, and piety to God. Such was their ungodliness, that they "devoured widows' houses, and for a pretence made long prayers." Their religion, therefore, if such it might be called, was "vanity," and a thing of nought. It led to no cheering and sanctifying intercourse with God. It rather strengthened than mortified the evils of their fallen nature; it inspired them with no well-grounded hope of future blessedness; and it left them in a state of full exposure to the vengeance of eternal fire. Addressing these boastful professors of a vain religion, the Lord Jesus said, with mingled indignation and pity,

"Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?"

Of the Heathen it may be said with still greater truth, that their religion was "vain." They had indeed "gods many, and lords many;" but not a few of these had only an imaginary being; and those of them who had a real existence were destitute both of intelligence and power. They knew not the necessities of their worshippers; much less had they any ability to save. Eyes had they, but they saw not. They had ears, but they could not hear. Costly sacrifices were offered to them, accompanied by loud, urgent, and long-continued supplications; but "there was neither voice, nor any to answer, nor any that regarded." And indeed heathen worshippers never contemplated the attainment of spiritual blessings, as the effect of their sacrifices and prayers. They asked for success in battle, deliverance from temporal calamities, and the communication of worldly good; but they neither solicited nor expected justification to eternal life, a pure and holy nature, strength and comfort in adversity, and final admittance into a heaven of unsullied purity and of endless bliss. Their religion supplied no motives to holiness, and no power to practise it. Their very deities were invested with every attribute of caprice, sensuality, and injustice; and notwithstanding their rites and forms of worship, the people were actually "filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant-breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful." (Romans i. 29–31.)

Concerning people of this character, it may be said with truth, that life itself, with all its occupations and pursuits, is "vain." Such men may excel in philosophy, literature, and art, so as to command the highest and most permanent admiration. They may apply themselves to business, so as to accumulate property to the utmost limit of their wishes; and these will supply them with ample means of personal gratification. But what then? The great end for which life was given is unattained. God is neither known nor loved; nor is any preparation made for the enjoyment of him in a future state. The domestic relations are unsanctified, and no blessing is enjoyed with a devout and grateful mind as God's gift. The conscience is polluted with guilt. The heart is hard and corrupt; the seat of every evil principle and feeling, and of unknown terrors and alarms. Every pleasure palls upon the appetite, and is felt to be "vanity and vexation of spirit." Millions of the human race, we have every reason to believe, have thus passed through the momentous period of their probation to their strict and last account. They ought to have been little less than angels in spirituality of mind, in devotedness to God, and in holy circumspection; but they have lived in ignorance and sin,

a sad mixture of the brute and the demon, and have died without hope.

The perfect identity of the doctrine of St. Peter in our text, with that of St. Paul in his epistle to the Romans, is strikingly apparent. We have seen that both Jews and Gentiles are here declared to have been the subjects of a "vain conversation;" and St. Paul says, "We have proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin.” (Rom. iii. 9.) And what a comment does our text supply upon another statement of St. Paul, "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God!" (Rom. iii. 23.) God created man in his own image; a picture of his own wisdom, righteousness, and holiness. Man was intended not only to exhibit that image in all its brightness; but to show forth the glory of God by a spiritual and holy worship and deportment; and then ultimately to behold the glory of God in heaven, and enjoy him for ever. But what is the present state of man, who was formed for objects so grand and ennobling? Behold him in the sin and dishonour of Jewish hypocrisy; and in all the ignorance, pollution, and guilt of Heathenism! He has, indeed, "come short of the glory of God." The divine image is completely effaced from his deathless mind; his title to future glory is forfeited; the crown is fallen from his head; and he is become the willing dupe of the most consummate folly. He sows the wind, and reaps the whirlwind. "He feedeth on ashes; a deceived heart hath turned him aside;" and while he boasts of his wisdom, and grasps what he believes to be solid treasure, he knows not that "there is a lie in his right hand.”

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The evils of which we speak are hereditary. The "vain conversation" in question men receive by tradition from their fathers." Tradition is any thing that is transmitted from one to another; and especially any thing that is transmitted to men in their successive generations. Parents, for instance, transmit to their children an evil and corrupt nature. Adam, after his fall, " begat a son in his own likeness;" not in the likeness and image of God, which he had now lost; and that degenerate son was the murderer of his own brother. Nor was this a peculiar case of the transmission of evil. It is the common lot of mankind; so that every human being may with truth adopt the confession of the penitent Psalmist, "I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me." Children in all ages derive from their parents a darkened understanding; a perverse will; depraved affections; a proneness to evil; an aversion from all spiritual good; a carnal mind which is enmity against God, and which is indeed one characteristic of satanic wickedness. With this corruption guilt is connected; so that men are by nature" not only sinful, but "children of wrath."

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To exasperate this evil, and render it more powerful and influential than it otherwise would be, men generally transmit to their posterity false and misleading principles and maxims. The history of all nations