1 Peter 1

Therefore heaven is called entering into the joy of our Lord (Matthew 25:21). The seeing of God, the loving of God, and being beloved of God, will cause a jubilation of spirit, and create such holy raptures of joy in the saints, as is unspeakable and full of glory (1 Peter 1:8).…

Quest. To what has Christ redeemed us? Resp. He has redeemed us to a glorious inheritance (1 Peter 1:4): To an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fades not away, reserved in heaven for you. 1. To an inheritance.] Christ has not only redeemed us out of prison, but…

Christ's life, says Chrysostom, was brighter than the sunbeams. Let us be like him in this (1 Peter 1:16). Be holy in all manner of conversation.

Resp. By law, and by love: 1. He rules by law. It is one of the Iura Regalia, the flowers of the crown, to enact laws; Christ as King makes laws, and by his laws he rules: the law of faith, Believe in the Lord Jesus; the law of sanctity (1 Peter 1:15), Be holy in all manner of c…

Quest. From what does God call men? Resp. 1. From sin; he calls them from their ignorance and unbelief (1 Peter 1:14). By nature the understanding is enveloped with darkness, God calls men from darkness to light (Ephesians 5:8), as if one should be called out of a dungeon to beh…

Question 1. How many ways may a Christian be said to grow in grace? Response 1. He grows Vigore, in the exercise of grace; his lamps are burning and shining; therefore we read of a lively hope (1 Peter 1:3). Here is the activity of grace; the Church prays for the blowing of the…

In Deo quadam dulcedine delectatur anima immo rapitur; the love of God drops such infinite suavity into the soul as is unspeakable and full of glory. If there be so much delight in God, when we see him only by faith (1 Peter 1:8), what will the joy of vision be when we shall see…

The apostles seldom speak of the new creation, but they join some thankful praises with it. 1 Peter 1:3: Blessed be God, who according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again to a lively hope. Colossians 1:12: Giving thanks to the Father, who has made us meet for the inherit…

May you not set up your Ebenezer? God has kept your grace hitherto as a spark in the main ocean, and is not he able still to keep your grace, (1 Peter 1:5). We are kept by the power of God, etc.

We were all involved in guilt, none of us could plead, Not Guilty; and being guilty we lay under a sentence of death; now that the judge himself should find out a way to justify us, and the creditor himself contrive a way to have the debt paid, and not distress the debtor; this…

1 Peter 1:2. Grace to you, and peace be multiplied. Having spoken of the first fruit of sanctification, assurance, I proceed to the second, namely peace — peace be multiplied.

1 Peter 1:5. Who are kept by the power of God through faith to salvation. The fifth and last fruit of sanctification is perseverance in grace.

1 Peter 1:5. Who are kept by the power of God through faith to salvation. Use 1. See the excellency of grace, it perseveres: Other things are but [in non-Latin alphabet], for a season; health and riches are sweet, but they are but for a season, but grace is a blossom of eternity.

Or how should God wipe away the tears from their eyes in heaven, if on earth they shed none? Doubtless God sees there is need that his children should be sometimes in the House of Bondage (1 Peter 1:6). [reconstructed: in non-Latin alphabet], If need be, you are in heaviness.

Such as scoff at holiness shall be cast out of heaven. Use 2. of Exhortation: Is God so infinitely holy, then let us endeavor to imitate God in holiness (1 Peter 1:16): "Be holy for I am holy." There's a twofold holiness: a holiness of equality, and a holiness of similitude.

3. Nor could any angel in Heaven be the author of Scripture. Because 1. the angels pry and search into the abyss of gospel mysteries (1 Peter 1:12), which implies their nescience of some parts of Scripture; and sure they cannot be authors of that book which themselves do not ful…

He has a perfect idea of wisdom in himself: He knows the fittest means to bring about his own designs; the angels light at his lamp. In particular, this is one branch of his wisdom, that he knows what is best for us: An earthly parent knows not in some intricate cases how to adv…

Weeds grow of themselves, flowers are planted. Sanctification is a flower of the Spirit's planting, therefore it is called, the Sanctification of the Spirit (1 Peter 1:2). 2. Sanctification is an intrinsic thing; it lies chiefly in the heart.

In the creation there was but speaking a word (Psalm 148:5). In the redeeming us there was shedding of blood (1 Peter 1:18-19). The creation was the work of God's fingers (Psalm 8:3).

Only the pure in heart shall see God. Get your souls inlaid and enameled with holiness (1 Peter 1:16). It is not enough that we cease to do evil (which is all the evidence some have to show) — this is to lose heaven by short shooting; but we must be inwardly sanctified.

To have a chaste body, but an unclean soul, is like a fair face with bad lungs; or a gilt chimney-piece, that is all soot within. (1 Peter 1:16) Be you holy, for I am holy. The soul cannot be lovely to God, till it has Christ's image stamped upon it, which image consists in righ…

It is of divine inspiration (2 Timothy 3:16). The oracles of Scripture must be surer to us than a voice from heaven (1 Peter 1:18). Unbelief enervates the virtue of Scripture, and renders it ineffectual.

It is better, because it is surer; it is made in Christ, and cannot be reversed; Christ has engaged his strength to keep every believer. In the first covenant we had à posse stare, a power of standing: in the second we have à non posse cadere, an impossibility of falling finally…

(2.) Faith. Faith ends in salvation (1 Peter 1:9). Receiving the end of your faith, salvation.

We may as well quarrel with the works of creation, as the works of providence. 3. Consideration, which may make us humbly to submit to God's will is, that there is a necessity of affliction (1 Peter 1:6): (If need be) you are in grief. It is needful some things be kept in brine.

Saint Paul who had a vision of glory, and Saint John who was carried away in the Spirit, and saw the holy Jerusalem descending out of heaven, having the glory of God in it (Revelation 21:11), how did the world after appear in an eclipse to them. (2.) The meditation of the heaven…

First, this is certain: there is no grace God tries more than this grace of faith. Therefore in 1 Peter 1:7: 'You are in heaviness through manifold trials, that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold which perishes though it is tried in the fire, might be…

God out of a temporary anger chastising them for a moment, as with a temporary favor he shines upon the other. That as they for a season rejoice in that light (John 5:35), so God's dearest children may be for a season in much heaviness (as the apostle speaks, 1 Peter 1:6) and wa…

But God's name and his Son's name, rested upon, will never fail you. Lean on these — not by halves in distress — but trust perfectly, as the apostle says (1 Peter 1:13), on that mercy you hear is in God, upon that grace revealed. That is: throw and cast your whole soul, your who…

If God uses his children thus, 'Curse God and die,' says Job's wife, as the foolish men and women of the world do. Fourth, pass your sojourning here in fear and serve him with fear (1 Peter 1:17), for 'even our God is a consuming fire' (Hebrews 12). Keep your heart in awe with t…

Where we see this end of temptation set down, To manifest the gift of patience wrought in the heart. And Saint Peter says to the Church of God, That they were in heaviness through manifold temptations, that the trial of their faith being much more precious than gold that perishe…

Now, his will herein he brings thus to pass; All must be perfected in Christ: But he will not have Christ to come and suffer, till the fullness of time came, in these last days, Hebrews 1:2 (as the Apostle speaks) that the believers living in these last days, might have time of…

Secondly, the state of the Elect in heaven, is not only sure, but everlasting; that is, without end: Psalm 37:18. the Inheritance of holy men is perpetual: And therefore Saint Peter, 1 Peter 1:4, says, that the inheritance reserved in heaven for us is immortal, and not fading aw…

3. Let us consider the signification of the Passover. For the Paschal Lamb was a sign of Christ the true Lamb of God, shadowing out diverse things worthy our observation: as first the Lamb; for the Passover was to be a Lamb of a year old, without spot or blemish: which signified…

- The little child is never well but when it is in the father's lap, or under the mother's wing: and the children of God are never in better case, than when in affection and spirit they can come into the presence of their heavenly father, and by prayer, as it were to creep into…

And Saint John says, The blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanses us from all sin (1 John 1:7). And Peter says, Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold from your vain conversation, etc. but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb undef…

The Lord will give whole kingdoms to ransom them (Isaiah 43:3). I gave Egypt for your ransom: that was when God destroyed Egypt in the Red Sea for the saving of Israel; nay, God gave his own Son to die for their ransom (1 Peter 1:18). And if God esteem so highly of his people no…

In the temple under the law, upon the ark were placed two cherubim signifying the good angels of God, and they looked downward upon the mercy seat covering the ark, which was a figure of Christ. Their looking downward figured their desire to see into the mystery of Christ's inca…

Malachi 3:3: The children of Levi must be purified in a purging fire of affliction. 1 Peter 1:7: Afflictions are called the fiery trial whereby men are cleansed from their corruptions, as gold from the dross by the fire. Secondly, the blood of Christ is a purgatory of our sins.

This use is threefold: in respect of God, of man, and of ourselves. Works are to be done in respect of God: that his commandments may be obeyed — 1 John 5:12; that his will may be done — 1 Thessalonians 4:3; that we may show ourselves to be obedient children to God our Father —…

And though the body is said to be sanctified (1 Thessalonians 5:23), yet the immediate subject is the soul; and that primitively, originally: the body by derivation from the soul. And hence it is, the soul (when a man dies) carries with it all the grace by inherency: all flesh i…

The Chaldee Paraphrase has long since glossed upon it, It returns to God, that it may stand in judgment before him. In this life it came to God by faith, as the apostle speaks, believing that God is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him; and now at the end…

5. Look to the nature of the offer made by Christ, and to the end of it, and you will find that the great thing called for is the receiving of it, which is nothing else but believing; and all our preachings of Christ, and of His benefits, are useless without it. Without this he…

Is there anything more like Popery working in a mystery, yea more Popish than to say that the motions of corruption in Believers are no sins, that a man or woman may attain to perfection in holiness here, and yet to carry on this with that subtlety, as confidently to aver that i…

That word of the Apostle (Philippians 3:12) is apposite, and excellent to this purpose: "That I may apprehend that for which I am apprehended of Christ Jesus." As is also that of (1 Peter 1:10): "Who are kept through faith by the power of God." So then in answer to both the ques…

4. See here the truth of the perseverance of elect, and regenerate saints, who are appointed to be the fruit of His soul-travel, and a satisfaction to Him for the same; for, if they should fail, and not persevere to the end, the promise here made to the Mediator should be cast l…

He having the Devil and the world without, and a deceitful heart, and a fickle humor within themselves to encounter with: so many sins to mortify, and snares to lead through; yet none plucks His sheep out of His hand. Therefore, they are said to be kept by the power of God, thro…

It was wonderfully much to suffer, and to die so cheerfully, but to pour out His soul to death, to take His life in His own hand, and to be so holily prodigal of it, as to pour it out, there having never been such a precious life, and so precious blood poured out; this was much…

Seldom out of humor (to speak so). Now, if we stand in need of all the afflictions we are met with in all their most sad and sorrowful circumstances (as certainly we do, because God who cannot lie or mistake has said it (1 Peter 1:6),) why should we not submit ourselves to his w…

Was not this the wit of free grace to find out such a mysterious and profound dispensation, as that God and man personally should both do and suffer, so as justice should want nothing, mercy be satisfied, peace should kiss righteousness, and war go on, in justice, against a sinl…