SERMONS ON THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER. (Chap. I.) BY H. F. KOHLBRÜGGE, D.D., OF ELBERFELD, GERMANY. BIBL WITH AN INTRODUCTORY PREFACE BY THE REV. OCTAVIUS WINSLOW, D.D. 24 LONDON: PARTRIDGE AND OAKEY, 34, PATERNOSTER ROW, & 70, EDGWARE ROAD. 1853. 100.7.260. INTRODUCTORY PREFACE. 'CAN anything strictly orthodox and deeply spiritual emanate from the German School of Biblical Theology?' is a question, which, if not already and satisfactorily answered by the works of numerous Authors whose names it might be invidious to mention, yet an honour to cherish, surely receives a triumphant reply in the present work of Dr. Kohlbrügge, of Germany. Favoured with an inspection of its sheets as they issued from the press, I confess I opened them not without some latent trembling. Apprehension, however, soon subsided into confidence, and confidence as quickly rose to admiration. I know not when I have perused a foreign work of theology with more unqualified approbation and unmingled delight than the present. Happy in his selection of the inspired Epistle, our Author is equally so in his exegesis of its difficult and varied, yet delightful contents. Thoroughly evangelical in its SERMONS ON THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER, CHAP. I. SERMON I. 'Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ."-1 Peter i. 1, 2. THE apostle Peter in his day, wrote a letter from Babylon to the believers who dwelt in various provinces and different towns in Asia Minor, and who were exposed to every sort of affliction. These believers consisted partly of a remnant of the ten tribes of Israel, who had been long before scattered abroad, and partly of those who from among the heathen had been converted to God, and together with this remnant constituted one people of God-one Israel. Compared with the rest of mankind, these believers were small in number and in power; here, might be but a single individual, there, two or three; here, . might be found ten persons, and there some seventy or a hundred. In their manner of life and of thought, as well as in their worship, they were too different B |