1 Peter 2

They can only teach you what to believe, Christ teaches how to believe. 2. Christ gives us a taste of the word; ministers may set the food of the word before you, and carve it out to you, but it is only Christ causes you to taste it (1 Peter 2:3): If so be you have tasted, the L…

The life that I live in the flesh, is by the faith of the Son of God. 2. There is appetite (1 Peter 2:7). As new born babes, desire the sincere milk of the word.

Theodosius thought it a greater honor to be a servant of Christ than the head of an empire. Servire est Regnare — Christ's servants are called vessels of honor (2 Timothy 2:21), and a royal nation (1 Peter 2:9). Serving of Christ ennobles us with dignity: it's a greater honor to…

Why does a man lay out cost on ground, manure and water it, but that it may grow? The sincere milk of the Word is that we may grow thereby (1 Peter 2:2). The table of the Lord is on purpose for our spiritual nourishment and increase of grace.

It is true they cannot add to his glory, but they may exalt it; they cannot raise him in heaven, but they may raise him in the esteem of others. God has adopted the saints into his family, and made them a royal priesthood that they should show forth the praises of him who has ca…

The word preached is a savor of death; it is not healing, but hardening. In fact, Christ himself is accidentally a rock of offense (1 Peter 2:7). The wicked stumble at a Savior, and suck death from the tree of life.

The Word's teaching, and the Spirit's leading agree together. Fourth Sign: If we are adopted we have an entire love to all God's children (1 Peter 2:17). Love the brotherhood.

Resp. If we can resolve two queries: 1. Have we high appreciations of Jesus Christ? (1 Peter 2:7). To you that believe he is precious, Christ is [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉], all made up of beauties and delights; our praises fall short of his worth, and is like spreading canvas u…

Quest. Well then, how shall we know it is a true faith? Resp. By the noble effects: 1. Faith is a Christ-prizing grace, it puts a high valuation upon Christ (1 Peter 2:7). To you that believe he is precious.

Those stones which are cut out for a building are first hewn and squared. The godly are called, [reconstructed: in non-Latin alphabet], living stones (1 Peter 2:5). And God does first hew and polish them by affliction, that they may be fit for the heavenly building.

Deny not Caesar his civil right, nor God his religious worship: let your loyalty be mixed with piety; here he showed the wisdom of the serpent. And would you see Christ's innocency? (1 Peter 2:22): There was no guile found in his mouth; who when he was reviled, reviled not again…

8. If God be our Father, let us love all that are his children; (Psalm 133:1) How pleasant is it for brothers to dwell together in unity. It is compared to ointment (verse 2) for the sweet fragrance of it: (1 Peter 2:17) Love the brotherhood. Idem est motus animae in imaginem &…

A man may have gifts to admiration, he may speak as an angel dropped out of heaven, yet may be carnal in spiritual things, his services do not come from a renewed principle, nor is he carried upon the wings of delight in duty. A sanctified soul worships God in the Spirit (1 Pete…

We should go to the word for a medicine to cure us; as Naaman the Syrian went to Jordan to be healed of his leprosy. (1 Peter 2:2) Desire the sincere milk of the word, that you may grow thereby. Come to the word to be changed into the similitude of it.

Kings place judges, as cherubims about the throne, for distribution of justice. These political fathers are to be honored: Honor the King (1 Peter 2:17). And this honor is to be shown by a civil respect to their persons, and a cheerful submission to their laws, so far as they ag…

Error is as damnable as vice. (1 Peter 2:1) There shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, denying the Lord, that bought them. (3.) That infect souls, namely by their scandalous lives.

When people do not mind what God speaks to them in his Word, God does as little mind what they say to him in prayer. 2. If you would have the Word preached effectual, come with a holy appetite to the Word (1 Peter 2:2). The thirsting soul is the thriving soul.

I shall in this brief and hasty discourse, add only one consideration more about the death of Christ to confirm the truth pleaded for. And that is that he is said in dying for sinners, to bear their sins (Isaiah 53:11), he shall bear their iniquities, v. 12, he bare the sins of…

Seventhly, that this love was the same in Father and Son, acted distinctly in the manner that shall be afterwards declared; so vain are the pretences of men who from the love of the Father in this matter, would argue against the love of the Son; or on the contrary. Eighthly, tha…

Isa. 6:1, 2, 3. I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up and his train filled the temple; above it stood the Seraphims, each one had six wings, with twain he covered his face, with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did flye: and one cryed to anoth…

And then was glorified with that glory which he had with the Father before the world was (John 17:3). And as this dispensation was needful to the accomplishment of the whole work which as our Mediator he had undertaken, so in particular, he who was in himself the Lord of Hosts,…

From where also is that prayer of the Apostle for the blessing of God upon the Church, in the use of them (Ephesians 3:16, 17, 18): "That he will grant you according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inward man, that Christ may dwell…

Quest. 19. What is an instituted Church of the Gospel? A society of persons, called out of the world, or their natural worldly state, by the administration of the Word and Spirit, to the obedience of the faith, or the knowledge and worship of God in Christ, joined together in an…

Besides the Church is an house, a Temple, the house of God (1 Timothy 3:15), the house of Christ (Hebrews 3:6), the Temple of God (Ephesians 2:21, 22). Believers singly considered are stones, living stones (1 Peter 2:5). Now how shall these living stones come to be an house, a T…

Quest. 42. To whom is the power and administration of this Discipline committed by Jesus Christ? Answ. As to the authority to be exerted in it in the things wherein the whole Church is concerned, to the Elders; as to trial, judgment and consent in, and to its exercise to the who…

(1) 1 Philippians 10, chapter 2:15; 1 Corinthians 10:32; 1 Thessalonians 2:11, 12; Titus 2:10. (2) John 6:15; Acts 26:18; 1 Peter 2:9; 2 Corinthians 4:3, 4, 6. (3) 1 Timothy 1:19, 20; 2 Timothy 4:3, 4; Titus 1:13; Jude 3.

He knows all the several ranks and classes of men in the state of grace, and according to their ranks, with what sort of temptations to encounter them. For men's temptations are various and manifold (1 Peter 2:6), even as the gifts and operations of the Spirit are (1 Corinthians…

Thirdly, they bring blessings upon a place, by their example: for, when men shall see godly persons, walking before them in the fear of God, and making conscience of all manner of sin, it is a special means to cause others to turn from their wicked ways, to newness of life. And…

Pilgrims take but little delight in their journeys, because they think themselves not at home. This is Saint Peters argument: Dearly beloved, as strangers and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts which fight against the soul, 1 Peter 2.11. For, too much delight in fleshly pleasur…

1. Whose foundation was the living stone, who has life in himself, Jesus the Christ (1 Corinthians 3:11). Seeing other foundation no man can lay, save that is laid, Jesus the Christ (1 Peter 2:4). For there is salvation in none other (Acts 4:12).

We must be dead to the first husband, before we can be married to another. To works of creation there needs no preparation; the almighty power of God calls them to be his people, that were not his people (1 Peter 2:10). And by calling them to be so, he makes them to be so (Roman…

It is against the dignity of Christ, which has qualified his Saints with a proportionable measure of the gifts of the Spirit, for prayer or praise (1 Corinthians 14:15, 16), in making their gifts needless and useless, when they can serve themselves with books, and formes, withou…

(3.) In the effectual illumination of the minds of them that do believe, enabling them spiritually to discern the mysteries so revealed, every one according to the measure of his gift and grace. See concerning it, 1 Peter 2:9; Ephesians 3:17, 18, 19; Chap. 5:8. Fourthly, there b…

We render it sometimes naughtiness (James 1:22), sometimes, malice or maliciousness (1 Peter 1:16), all manner of evil with deceitful guile. Therefore [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉] is he that is free from all evil, fraud or sin; the same absolutely with that of the Apostle Peter (…

(1) God's owning of them to be his in a peculiar manner, according to the tenor and promise of this Covenant, and dealing with them accordingly. [⟨in non-Latin alphabet⟩] (1 Peter 2:5). A peculiar people.

This I have before sufficiently proved. So Christ bare the sins of many; and so the signification of this word is determined and limited by the Apostle Peter, by whom alone it is used on the same occasion (1 Peter 2:24): [⟨ in non-Latin alphabet ⟩], who himself bare our sins in…

But in the latter sense they cannot be so. It is Christ himself, and he only, who is so the Foundation as to bear the weight, and to support the whole Building of the Church of God (Isaiah 28:16; Matthew 16:18; 1 Corinthians 3:10, 11; Ephesians 1:20, 21, 22; 1 Peter 2:4, 5). He…

And in this case this patient long-suffering works three ways. (1) By committing our whole cause to God; as it did in Christ (1 Peter 2:23). (2) By patient waiting for the pleading of our cause under a sense of our own sin, and an acknowledgement of the righteousness of God (Mic…

And it was ordinarily in the primitive times, accompanied with excellent graces and privileges. For, (1.) God usually gave them hereon great joy and exultation with peace in their own minds (1 Peter 2:9). Has translated us out of darkness into his marvellous light.

But yet the expression is such as argues a nearer conjunction or concurrence between those two things, their illumination, and these days of affliction; the one followed as it were immediately on the other. This enlightening was that work of God's grace mentioned (1 Peter 2:9).…

The inheritance of the saints in light. And the state which men are thereby brought into, is so called in opposition to the darkness that is in the world without it (1 Peter 2:9). The world without the Gospel is the kingdom of Satan; [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉] (1 John 5:19).

But yet it was so sanctified by the perfection of grace, and fortified by the fulness of the Spirit dwelling therein, as that it was not possible it should be touched with the least taint or guilt of sin. And this also was absolutely necessary to the work whereunto it was design…

And this is manifested in the effects of his wisdom and love in his mediation. For hereby do we declare and show forth [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉], the virtues of him who has called us (1 Peter 2:9), or the efficacious power of the mediation of Christ, which these fruits are the…

He is wonderful (Isaiah 9:6): it is his name; and as is his name, so is he: not only in himself; but in some measure, in the eyes of those that are his. See also 1 Peter 2:7. To such as believe, he is precious: and unless when they slumber, and neglect him, he is more and more s…

But the misery is, our minds are full of darkness: we walk in the thick, dark shades of our natural blindness, until God call us out of it: and though the light shine in the word, and in the dispensation of it, never so brightly, our darkness comprehendeth it not, as (John 1:5).…

Shall not Flowers be sweeter than Weeds? You must be A peculiar People, 1 Peter 2.9. Not only peculiar in regard of dignity, but deportment.

After the Sop the Devil enters. 4. Christ himself works for hurt to desperate sinners; he is [...], a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense, 1 Peter 2.7. He is so accidentally and occasionally, through the pravity of men's hearts; instead of believing in him, they are offend…

Yes, undoubtedly. And yet this is the spiritual madness that takes place everywhere among men: for God has prepared for us two houses, one is this our body which we bear about us, which is a house of clay, as Job says (Job 4:19), "We dwell in houses of clay whose foundation is d…

And those who look on the things spoken of all church members of old, as that they were saints by calling, lively stones in the house of God, justified and sanctified, separate from the world, etc., as those which were in them, and did indeed belong to them, but even deride the…

Christ is a treasure, but a hid treasure. But a gracious soul has the veil taken off, he sees the amazing excellencies of Christ (1 Peter 2:7). To you that believe he is precious, his merits, graces, benefits are precious: a righteous man has Christ's eye-salve to see his tried…