hose conscious intelligent spirits who were there, and
continued that work till the third day when he was himself raised from the
dead. A thought will show that this picture is wrong, (1) in the time, (2)
in the condition of the people, (3) in the acting agent, and (4) in the
end to be attained. Thus, when Christ had been put to death, he was
"quickened" (or made alive), says the record, "by the Spirit." This was
certainly not a personal disembodied spirit, but that divine agency so
often referred to in the Scriptures. "By which," that is, this Spirit of
God, he went and preached. Then he did not go personally on this work. The
"spirits" were the antediluvians; for they were those who were disobedient
in the days of Noah. Now when were they preached to? Verse 20 plainly
tells us it was "_when_ once the longsuffering of God waited _in the days
of Noah_." In accordance with these statements now let another picture be
presented: Christ, by his Spirit which was in Noah (1 Peter 1:11), and
thus through Noah, preached to the spirits, or persons, in Noah's time,
who were disobedient, in order to save all from the coming flood who would
believe. They were said to be "in prison," though still living, because
they were shut up under condemnation, and had only one hundred and twenty
years granted them in which to repent or perish. Thus Christ was
commissioned to preach to men said to be in prison, because in darkness,
error, and condemnation, though they were still living in the flesh. Isa.
61:1. Dr. Adam Clarke, the eminent Methodist commentator (_in loco_),
places the going and preaching of Christ in the days of Noah, and by the
ministry of Noah for one hundred and twenty years, and not during the time
while he lay in the grave. Then he says:--

"The word {~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON WITH PERISPOMENI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER MU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER SIGMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~} (spirits) is supposed to render this view of
the subject improbable, because this must mean _disembodied_
spirits; but this certainly does not follow; for the _spirits of
just men made perfect_ (Heb. 12:23), certainly means righteous
men, and men _still in the church militant_: and the Father of
spirits (Heb. 12:9) means men still in the body; and the God of
the spirits of all flesh (Num. 16:22 and 27:16), means _men, not