akes but for ours did they minister
that which is now preached unto you, by those who have preached the
Gospel to you, through the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven;_ that
is, the prophets possessed enough thereof to know the fact. But that
they should have left it behind them (on record) calls for our
gratitude; they have become our servants, and have so ministered to
us, that we, through them, might go to school and learn the same
lesson. There we have an argument to show that our faith should grow
stronger, and we be enabled to arm and sustain ourselves against all
false doctrine.

_Into which also the angels desired to look._ So great things have
the Apostles declared to us, through the Holy Spirit, which descended
upon them from heaven, as even the angels would gladly look into.
When this Spirit opens our eyes and makes us see what the Gospel is,
we shall have an appetite for it and a joy in it, although we cannot
behold it with bodily eyes, but must believe that we are partakers
and fellow-heirs of the righteousness, truth, salvation and all the
blessings which God has to bestow. For since He has given us His only
Son, that highest good, He will also, through Him, give us all good
things, riches and treasures, whereof the angels in heaven have all
their joy, and of which they are most desirous. All this is offered
to us through the Gospel, and if we believe we shall also have a like
desire for them. But our desire for them cannot be as perfect as that
of the angels, so long as we live on earth; but it is a good
beginning in us, if we experience, through faith, something of it.
But in heaven it is so great that no human heart can conceive it; but
if we reach that place we shall ourselves feel it.

Thus you see how St. Peter teaches us to arm and equip ourselves with
Scripture. For hitherto he has described what it is to preach the
Gospel, and shown that as it heretofore has been preached by the
prophets, so it should still be, and should be preached in like
manner. Now he proceeds farther, and admonishes us in this chapter
that we should cleave to the same preaching of the Gospel by faith,
and follow after it by love, and therefore says,--

V. 13-16. _Gird up therefore the loins of your mind; be sober, and
fix your hope firmly on the grace which is offered you through the
revelation of Jesus Christ, as obedient children, not conformable to
the previous lusts of your ignorance; but as He who has called you is