Christ Preaching to the Spirits in Prison [pp. 636-650]

CHRIST PREACHING TO THE SPIRITS IN PRISON.
"disobeclient" in chap. iii. 20. This would seem to imply that
some at least of those antediluvians did not co?~tiwe to be disobedient, but received Noah's testimony at last, though too late
to be admitted into the ark, even if tihe offer could have been
madcle to them. It is certainly not improbable that some of
those who remained disobedient (unil)elieving) while the ark was
preparing, changed their minds wilhen they saw the floods rising.
Nor is there any necessity for supposing,hat all who wAere out
of the ark perished in their sins,: a}y more than that every one
in the ark (Ham, e.y.) was spiritualiy saved. And although it is
not a thing clearly revealed, we may be allow-ed at least to conjecture that these particular repentant souls, execluded froLio the
ark which was open only to the famnily of Noah, and yet unprepared to enter the heavenly part of Hades, were preserv,ed in a
sort of intermediate custody (?ltia: until Ch,irist came and
preached the gospel to them. Thus, although they had in the
flesh been judged according to men, they were now- in the spirit
saved according to God. Of course they were prepared at once
to welcome the message which Christ brought, and to join the
penitent thief, and perhaps those who came out of their graves
at the time of our Lord's resurrection, in gracing his triumphant
ascension to heaven. May it not have been thus that he "led
captivity captive, (or, as in thle margin,'a multitude of captives,') when he ascended up on high."-(Eph. iv. 8.)
We are no where else informed how the spirit of Christ was
employed while his body lay in the tomb of Joseph. We cannot suppose it to have been inactive. We are here told that it
was " quickened;" and what can be more probable than that lihe
should continue to be employed upon his great mission of saving souls-a spirit preaching als3 to spirits, just as while in
the flesh he had preached to men in the flesh.
We are now prepared to consider the parenthetict allusion to
baptism, which is introduced in vs. 20, 21, without anyv apparent reference to the scope of the passage as designed to afford
comfort to suffering Christians. We shlall better understand
the force and significance of this allusion, and the propriety of
t Brown (on 1st Peter) says: "We pl, -untce no judgment as to the eternal
state of all the antediluvians. It is possible that some of them in a right spirit,
amid the rising waters of the deluge, sought mlercy; and if they did, who dare say,
who dare think, that t was refused them?"
614
[LOct.