But as to the word _flesh_, you are to understand, as I said above, that the entire man is called flesh, according as he lives, just as he also is called in respect to his whole nature, spiritual, while he follows after that which is spiritual. Still there is also a commingling of the two things with one another, just as I say of a man who is wounded, that he is whole and yet is wounded; and so, too, though the sound part is greater than the wounded part, still he is spoken of only with reference to the injured part as wounded; and such, too, is the method of the Spirit here: therefore he says, that they as to their outward being are condemned, but inwardly, as respects the spirit, are preserved in life. But how does that, where He says that they live, agree with that which he subjoins, that they are dead? I will explain it according to my understanding, yet not so as to limit the Holy Ghost in that he calls the unbelieving dead. For I cannot accept the sense that to those that are dead and perished, the Gospel has been preached. This, then, would be what St. Peter means, that the Gospel has been freely published and universally spread abroad, concealed neither from dead nor living--neither from angels nor yet from devils, and preached not secretly in a corner, but so publicly that all creatures might hear it that have ears to hear, as Christ gave command in the last of Mark: "Go ye forth and preach the Gospel to all creatures." If, therefore, it is preached in such a manner, there will those be found who are condemned after the flesh, but live after the spirit. V. 7. _But the end of all things is at hand._ This is also a remarkable passage, for already nearly 1500 years are passed since then. St. Peter preached that the time is neither near nor brief, yet he says, _that the end of all things is at hand_; as John also declares in his first epistle, chap, ii., "It is the last hour." If it were not the Apostle's language, we might say it was contradictory: but by this we must firmly abide, that the Apostle has truth with him. Yet what he means here he shall explain himself in the second epistle, where he tells us why the time is said to be near, and says: "One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day;" of which I have spoken above. So that we must explain it in this manner, that it shall not be as long hereafter to the end of the world as it has been from the beginning to the present time. And it is not to be expected that one should live two or three thousand years after the birth of Christ, so that the end shall come before we look for it. Wherefore he further adds: V. 7, 8. _Be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer. And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins._