this article, and its connection there, might be, and probably was, to "the elect sojourners," to whom it was originally addressed, perfectly plain and intelligible. Of the spirits in prison, they had probably learned before-of how and when our Lord preached to them of the death, also, which they had suffered. They, we have also reason to believe, from the mouth of Peter, or other apostles or evangelists of Jesus Christ, had heard the whole story. But to us, this passage comes under the head of the difficult ones. How we understand it, or how it has been understood by some of our great and good men, whose expositions of scripture have been oracles for the many, may be learned from the following extract of an essay in the London Christian Messenger, under the caption of "SCRIPTURE DIFFICULTIES, No. X," by "J. D.:"

"Our early translators seem to have adopted the Roman Catholic notion of the gospel being preached to departed souls-'For whi for this thing it is preeched also to deed men.'-Wickliff. For unto thys purpose verely was the gospel preached also unto the deed.'-Cranmer. Later translators have entertained very various opinions. Whitby, Macknight, and Wakefield, consider the dead' to be the Gentile world, 'dead in sins.' Wesley understands the apostle to say, 'the gospel was preached ever since it was given to Adam, to them that are now dead, in their several generations.' Scott thinks 'the gospel had before this been preached to those (righteous persons) who were dead when the apostle wrote, either as martyrs for the truth, or dying in the course of providence.' Knatchbull, by giving the words a scarcely justifiable construction, makes easy sense: For this cause was the gospel preached to them that were dead, that they who live according to men in the flesh may be condemned; but they who live according to God in the spirit may live.' Boothroyd regards the dead as being martyrs, who, though they were condemned as to men in the flesh, yet lived as to God in the spirit. Adam Clarke takes the dead to be antedeluvians, who, although dead in sins and condemned to death by the righteous judgment of God, yet were respited and preached to, that they might live a blessed life in eternity."

"J. D." having all these lights before him, and having consulted such authorities as were within his reach,' thinks that the whole connexion of the passage may be fairly rendered thus: "Who, (evil speakers) shall give account to him that is ready to judge the living and the dead; for, for this purpose, hath the gospel been preached also to the dead, that (although) they might be condemned according to men in the flesh, yet (might) live according to God in the spirit; but the end of all (these) things is at hand."

The "all things," the end of which is here declared to be at hand, he considers to be "the destruction" [then] "coming upon Jerusa

lem and the Jewish people;" and from his reasoning and proofs under his first head, establishing, to his satisfaction, this view, he considers, "Second. It follows that 'the living and the dead' were the believing and the infidel Jews." The believing, the “ living;" and the infidel, the "dead." "Third. It is now obvious," he says, "for what end the gospel had been preached to the 'dead' or unbelieving Jews; namely, that the judge might stand just in judgment, as not seeking to reap where he had not sown," &c., &c.

O, Peter! Which—who of all these doctors is right? "To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." To these, therefore, let

us come:

"For Christ also hath once suffered for our sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit. By which, also, he went and preached unto the spirits in prison, which sometime were disobedient, when once the long suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls, were saved by water. * * * Who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and dead? For, for this cause, was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit."-1 Pet., iii., 18, 19, 20, and iv., 5, 6.

So reads the passage and its connection-the text and contextin our Common Translation; and so in the New Version, also, received by the "current reformation," with this difference-that the latter gives "made alive" for "quickened,” “living” for “ quick," "who," as the relative pronoun following "spirits," for "which," "indeed," twice, (a translation of men in the original,) which in the Old Version is omitted; and "made proclamation" for "went and preached."

Now for the meaning of this passage-the facts it declares, the doctrine it teaches. "Christ," says Peter, "once suffered for us, the just for the unjust." When? How? Where? "Being put to death in the flesh." But how "put to death?" To what death? How did, how could Christ die? "In the flesh." And what is the import of this? Did Christ, being a just and righteous Jew, become an unjust and infidel one, and so suffer and die for us? Was this the death of Christ, which he suffered that he might bring us to God? Does "in the flesh" here mean in sin, or in a carnal mind? Had we never seen or heard of the Testimonies of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and there were no narrative extant of the life, sufferings and death of Christ-had we of Christ only the information which

this passage in Peter contains, as we depend on him in what follows for knowledge of the spirits in prison; we might, perhaps, conclude that Christ suffered and died for us, in being changed from a just into an unjust and infidel Jew or Gentile. We might understand the import of "put to death in the flesh" here to be "made a sinner :" but, with the light which has beamed on us from the sacred Testimonies, above referred to, we understand that Peter here speaks of the crucifixion of our Lord Christ, on Mount Calvary-that "in the flesh," means in the body-the same in which he dwelt among us, and displayed his glory-the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. "In the flesh" here, we understand Peter to mean the same as Job meant by "in the flesh," when he said, "And though after my skin, worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God." And by "death" here-the death Peter speaks of Christ suffering for us-we understand the same as Job speaks of in the destruction of his body. It was a dissolution of soul and body-a putting off of this tabernacle-he expired, he yielded up his spirit.

If such be the fact declared-such the import of the Apostle Peter's teaching here, by "put to death in the flesh," of the death of Christ; "dead" and "in the flesh" must have the same import in the following 4th and 5th verses, chap. iv. By the "quick," or living, “and the dead," is meant the living in the flesh, and the dead from it; and by "to them that are dead," is meant persons who have departed this life and are disembodied spirits. It hence follows, that the spirits in prison, to whom our Lord went and preached the gospel, were not infidel Jews nor Gentiles of the apostles' times; but the antedeluvian dead, "who were formerly disobedient, when the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was preparing, in which few, that is, eight souls, were saved by water." They were in hades--the unseen world-the receptacle of all the dead; and in prison there. Christ being put to death in the flesh, because then like them, a disembodied spirit, and then conducted by the spirit which afterwards quickened him-made him alive again in the flesh, by re-uniting his soul to the body he left upon the cross-he visited their dark abodes-he preached deliverance to the captives, the opening of the prison to them that were bound. Why he did so, is very plainly declared in the words following: "For, for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit." Now for the import of this. "To be judged according to men in the flesh," we understand was, as living

men in the world, possessed of a body, soul and spirit, after hearing the gospel are to be judged-justified or condemned, as they believed and obeyed, or disbelieved and rejected it; and "to live according to God in the spirit," was obeying the gospel and living a life of holiness, as disembodied spirits could obey and live, till the general resurrection, when the souls and bodies of all the just are to be re united and glorified.

That the above is the true exposition of this passage in Peter, I am confirmed in my convictions by the following additional PROOFS :

1. To the thief, who believed in Christ, and confessed and prayed to him on the cross, our Lord said, "To-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise." Both died that day.

2. The patriarch David uttered a prediction, which the Apostle Peter quotes and applies in his discourse on the day of Pentecost, thus: "Being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne; he seeing this before, spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hades, (the unseen world--not hell,) neither did his flesh see corruption." It hence appears that the soul of Christ was to go, and went to hades. Hence, the first clause, art. 6, of the apostle's creed, "He descended into hades."

3. On the morning of the first day of the week, the third after the crucifixion, in the recorded appearance of our Lord to Mary, he said: "Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father." From Friday till Sunday morning the body of our Lord was a lifeless lump of clay, and his soul was in the unseen world. It was not dead. What was it doing there? This, we suppose, to have been the question which was asked by the primitive disciples of Christ, and in which they felt much interest; for they were not Sadduceesthey believed, and had been taught by their Lord to believe, in the existence both of angels, and of departed, living, conscious, disemhodied human spirits. And this question was answered to them. The passage in Peter which we have been considering, tells us what that answer was.

4. The testimony of Celsus, "the famous Epicurean philosopher of the middle or latter part of the second century." He wrote against the Christians; and was answered by Origen. After these things, says Origen, he speaks to us in this manner: Surely you will not say, that when he could not persuade those that were here, SERIES IV.-VOL. I.

12*

he went to hades to persuade those who are there.' B. 2, S. 43, p. 85. See 1 Peter, iii., 19-20.*

5. "The gospel of Nicodemus, formerly called the Acts of Pontus Pilate." 'This gospel, by some among the learned,' we are informed, is supposed to have been really written by Nicodemus, who became a disciple of Jesus Christ, and conversed with him; while others conjecture it was a forgery towards the close of the third century. Whether it be canonical or not, it is of very great antiquity, and is appealed to by several of the ancient Christians." In this gospel we have the narrative of Charinus and Lenthius, the two sons of Simeon, said to have been raised from the dead at the time of our Lord's resurrection, and to have been seen by many in Jerusalem. It occupies nearly half the book, from the beginning of the 13th to the middle of the 21st chapter, the great subject of which is the visit of Christ to hades; and what he did and said, and what others did and said while he was there. It begins thus:

"O Lord Jesus and Father, who art God, also the resurrection and life of the dead, give us leave to declare thy mysteries, which we saw after death belonging to thy cross; for we are sworn in thy name. For thou hast forbid thy servants to declare the secret things which were wrought by thy divine power in hell," (hades.)†

The sum of this testimony is, that Christ our Lord, after his crucifixion and before he arose from the dead, went to hades; and that the belief of Christians in the apostles' times, and for some two or three hundred years afterwards, was, that while there, he preached to the spirits in prison.

OBJECTIONS. This exposition cannot be true; because,

1. It is contrary to the text, "And if the tree fall towards the south, or towards the north, in the place where the tree falleth, there it shall be ;" and to the comment, "As death leaves us, judgment will find us."

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2. It contradicts the poet:

"There are no acts of pardon pass'd,

In the cold grave to which we haste."

3. It is Romish and not Protestant, giving support to the doctrine of a purgatory, bridging over the impassable gulph, which our Lord, in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, declared was placed between the wicked and righteous dead.

To all which, I ANSWER: Not at all. which Peter speaks, were not all the dead;

* Christian Preacher's Companion, p. 91. ment, Boston stereotype edition, p. 68.

The spirits in prison, of but only they who were Apocryphal New Testa