reserve for them,
which was purchased by the precious blood of Christ, and the dignity and
blessedness of suffering for Christ's sake, with the assurance of God's
faithful presence and protection. With these encouragements he
intermingles admonitions suited to their circumstances. He exhorts them
as strangers and pilgrims to abstain from fleshly lusts and all the
other vices of their former life in ignorance; to commend their religion
by a holy deportment which shall put to shame the calumnies of their
adversaries; to perform faithfully all the duties of their several
stations in life; to be humble, sober, vigilant, and ready always to
give a reason of their Christian hope; and above all things to have
fervent charity among themselves. The fervent spirit of the great
apostle of the circumcision, chastened and mellowed by age, shines forth
conspicuously in this epistle. The closing chapter, where he addresses
first the elders, then the younger, then the whole body of believers,
charms the reader by the holy tranquillity which pervades it
throughout--a tranquillity deeply grounded in that faith which is "the
substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."

11. THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER. The _address_ of this epistle is
general (chap. 1:1); yet the reference which it contains to the first
(chap. 3:1) shows that the apostle had in mind primarily the same circle
of churches. The character of this reference--"This second epistle,
beloved, I now write unto you, in which [two epistles] I stir up your
pure minds by way of reminding [you]"--indicates that the second was not
separated from the first by a very great space of _time_, certainly not
many years. The apostle wrote with the conviction that his decease was
near at hand (chap. 1:13-15). There is a tradition, the correctness of
which, however, is doubted by many, that he suffered martyrdom at Rome
under the persecution raised by Nero against the Christians. This would
be about A.D. 67. As to the _place_ from which the epistle was written
we have no information.

12. The present epistle is one of the _disputed_ books. Chap. 5, No. 7,
and Chap. 6. The question respecting its genuineness may be conveniently
considered under the two heads of _external_ and _internal_ evidence.

The _external_ testimony to the present epistle is scanty.
Passing by some doubtful references we come first to Origen who
says (in Eusebius, Hist. Eccl., 6. 25): "But Pe