2 Peter 3

Ver. 13. According to his promise.—See Isaiali lxv.17. Coimpare (Revelation 21:1), &e. Ver. 16. Of these things—Namely, the patience of God, and the day of judgment, with its solemn consequences.—In which.—These words, as they stand in yur common copies, refer to the things here spoken of, which, indeed, from their mysterious and sublime nature, are necessarily hard to be understood: but some MSS., reading the relative pronoun ‘‘ which” in the feminine, instead of neuter,. necessarily refer to the Epistles; and the writer freely confesses that, in going through Paul’s Epistles, he has in most of them found things hurd to be mortestodd, but especially in those to the Romans and the {Dr. Macknight justly observes, that “ the matters contained in this Epistle are highly worthy of an inspired Apostle; for, besides a variety of important discoveries, all tending to display the perfections of God and the glory of Christ, we find in it exhortations to virtue, and condemnations of vice, delivered with an earnestness of feeling, which shows the author to have been incapable of imposing a forged eriing upon the world; and that his sole design in this Epistle was to promote the interests of truth and virtue.”

With regard to the objection against the oe of this Epistle drawn from the difference of style between this and the former Epistle, it has been counonay said, Sat an author’s style is regulated, in a great measure, by the nature of his subject, diffeyent subjects naturally suggesting different styles; and that this diversity is confined to the second chapter of this Epistle, where the subject is different THE FIRST [Taoven the name of St. John is not affixed to this Epistle, yet it has been received without hesitation a3 the genuine production of that Apostle from the earliest period of the Christian church; and the similarity of sentiment and expression between it and his Gospel, is a full confirmation of the truth of this with respect to the date of this Epistle, there is a considerable diversity of upinion; some placing it, with Benson and Hales, in A.

D. 68; others, with Bishop T’omline, in A. D. 69; others, with Dr. Lardner, in A. D. 90, or even later; others, with Milland Le Clerc, in A. D. 91 or 92; and others, with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have © handled, of the Word of life; Cwap. I. Ver. 1. Looked upon.—Macknight “ contemplated.” Hebrews:—iwhich they that are unlearned—or rather (as Doddridge and Macknight render it) ‘ unteachable’’—and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures—piainly ranking St. Paul’s writings as a part of the sacred book. Of the unstable, see (James 1:8). The term wrest, signifies to torture, as on rack.—Maeknight. Ver. 17. Beware.—Macknight, ‘‘Be on your guard.” He adds, that this ia a military term, alluding to the duty ofsoldiers in a fortress.

Ver. 18. Both now and for ever.—Mackaight, ‘* Unto the day of eternity;” so he remarks the original literally signifies—a day never followed by night. See (Revelation 21:25). from the rest of St. Peter’s writings, and where the style is as different from that of the other two chapters, as it is from the language of the first Epistle. But the fact is, that the style of both Epistles is essentially the same. “I cannot,” says Dr. Blackwall, “‘ with some critics, find any great difference betwixt the style of the first and second Epistles; it is to me no more than we find in the style of the same persons at different times. There is much the same enerzy and clear brevity, the same rapid run of language, and the same commanding majesty in them both.

Take them together, and they are admirable for significant epithets and strong compound words; for beautiful and sprightly figures, adorable and sublime doctrines, pure and heavenly morals, expressed in a chaste, lively, and graceful style.” ]—Bagster. EPISTLE GENERAL OF JOHN. Basnage and Baronius, in A. D. 98 or 99. The most provable of these opinions, however, seems to be that which assigns it an early date: for it would appear from certain expressions, that it was written before the destruction of Jerusalem, (ch. ii. 18,) and while the generation which had seen our Lord in the flesh had not yet passed away, (ch. ii. 13, 14.) It appears, as Lardner, Macknight, and others suppose, to have been addressed to no particular church, but to have been intended as a general address for the use of Christians of every denomination and country, in strict accordance with its title of Catholic or General.|—Bagster.

clare we unto you, that ye also may have fele Juda lowship with us: and truly our fellowship * is Ver. 2. For the life was manifested—i. ec. ae himself,