nt down to the spirits and preached to them at
the time of His death. For this is his language, _by which same_,--
namely, when He had been put to death in the flesh and made alive
after the spirit,--that is, when He had unclothed Himself of His
fleshly existence and had passed into a spiritual being and life,
just as He now is in heaven,--_thus_ He went and preached. Now He
certainly could not have gone to hell, after He had taken to Himself
such a new existence; wherefore we must understand that He has done
it after His resurrection.

While the words only require that he be considered as speaking here
of spiritual preaching, we may rest in this view, that St. Peter
speaks of the office that Christ performs by means of external
preaching. For He commanded the Apostles personally to preach the
Gospel. But with the word preached He comes Himself, and is
spiritually present there, and speaks and preaches to the people in
their hearts; just as the Apostles speak the word orally and in body
to the ears, so He preaches to the spirits that lie captive in the
prison-house of the devil. So that this also should be understood
spiritually, like the preaching.

But here the expression follows, _to the spirits which aforetime were
unbelieving_, &c. We should observe, in accordance with the divine
account, that in that state of existence in which Christ is at
present, those who have lived aforetime and those that are living
now, are alike to Him, for His control extends itself alike over dead
and living: and in that life, the beginning, middle and end of the
world are all in one. But here on earth it has properly a measure, so
that one age passes on after another, the son succeeds the father,
and so it continues. But to give an illustration: If a high wood lies
before you, or you look upon it as it stretches along in length
before you, you cannot well overlook it; but if it lies near before
you, and you stand above it and can look down directly upon it, then
you have it in full view. So it is, that here on earth we can form no
conception of this life (I speak of), for it passes on (piecemeal as
it were) foot by foot, to the last day. But as to God, it all stands
in a moment. For with Him a thousand years are as one day, as St.
Peter says, in the next Epistle. Thus the first man is just as near
to Him as the last that shall be born, and He sees all at once, just
as the human eye can bring together two things widely separated at a