which we are
compelled to be ashamed. Here St. Peter has evidently spoken of
future joy,--and there is scarcely so clear a passage on the subject
of the future joy as the one in this place,--and still he finds
himself unable to express it.

This is one point of the introduction, in which the Apostle has shown
what faith in Christ is, and how we must be tried and purified by
reverse and suffering when God appoints it for us.--Now follows
further how this faith is in Scripture constituted and denominated.

V. 10, 11, 12. _Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and
searched diligently, who have prophesied of the grace that should
come unto you; searching what or as to what time, the spirit of
Christ which was in them, designated and testified beforehand the
sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow; to whom it was
revealed, that not for their own sake, but for ours, did they
minister that which is now preached to you, by those who have
preached the Gospel, through the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven;
into which also the angels desired to look._

Here St. Peter directs us back to the Holy Scriptures, that we may
therein see that God keeps whomsoever He has called of us, for no
merit of ours, but of mere grace; for the whole of Scripture is
directed to this end, that it may draw us away from our own works and
bring us to faith. And it is necessary that we should study the
Scriptures carefully that we may be well assured of our faith. Paul
also teaches us the same thing in the Epistle to the Romans, chap.
i., where he says that God promised the Gospel before by His prophets
in the Holy Scriptures. So Rom. iii.: that the faith whereby we are
justified, is testified of through the law and the prophets.

So we read also in Acts xvii. how Paul preached faith to the
Thessalonians, leading them to the Scripture and explaining it to
them, and how day by day they had recourse to the Scripture, and
examined whether those things which Paul had taught them were so. So
likewise ought we to do, going back, and from the Old Testament
learning on what to base the New. Besides, we shall there discover
the promise of Christ, as Christ himself also says, John v.: "Search
the Scriptures, for it is they that testify of me." And "if ye
believe Moses, ye must also believe me, for he wrote of me."
Therefore we should let vain babblers go who despise the Old
Testament, and say it is of no further use,--since from thence