ver him from death, hell and all
evil,--therefore his conscience has peace and joy. Such is the desire
of St. Peter for those that believed, and it is a true Christian
greeting with which all Christians might well greet one another.

Thus we have the superscription, with the greeting; now he begins the
Epistle, and says:

V. 3-9. _Blessed be God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who,
according to his abundant mercy, has begotten us again to a lively
hope, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an
inheritance imperishable, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away,
reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through
faith to salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time, wherein ye
greatly rejoice, though now for a little time (if need be) ye are sad
through manifold temptations; that the trial of your faith might be
found more precious than the perishable gold (that is tried by fire),
to praise, honor, and glory, when Jesus Christ shall be revealed,
whom ye have not seen and yet love, in whom through ye believe and
see him not, yet for your faith's sake ye rejoice with joy
unspeakable and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, even
the salvation of your soul._

In this preface you perceive a truly Apostolic address and
introduction to the matters in hand, and as I have said already, this
is the model of a noble Epistle. For he has already exhibited and
made manifest what Christ is, and what we have attained through him,
when he says, that God hath begotten us again to a lively hope
through the resurrection of Christ.

Thus all good things are bestowed upon us by the Father, not for any
desert of ours, but of pure mercy. These are true Gospel words which
are to be preached, but how little--God save us--of this kind of
preaching is to be met with in all sorts of books, even those that
must be considered the best; how little agreement is there, as St.
Jerome and St. Augustine have written, in this position,--that Jesus
Christ is to be preached, that he died and rose again, and that he
died and rose again that through such preaching men might believe on
him and be saved. That is preaching the true Gospel. Whatever is not
preached in this wise is not the Gospel, do it who will.

This is now the _summa summarum_ of these words. Christ, through his
resurrection, has brought us to the Father; and so, too, St. Peter
would bring us to the Father by the Lord Christ, a