Preached July 11, 1673.
“Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness?” — 2 Pet. iii. 11.
My design is only to go over a few texts of Scripture that may give us light into that instruction which is wrapped up in these words, and a little, if it may be, whet it upon us.
It is not certain what is meant by “All these things,” whether all the things of the world, the heavens and the earth, and all that is in them; or whether it be the “all things,” the heavens and the earth, of an apostatized church, such as was the church of the Jews, at that time drawing nigh to a fiery destruction. I shall not detain you in discussing the difficulties of it. But that which I would leave with you from the words, and which without all doubt is in them, is this, that all things in and of the world are liable and obnoxious to a destructive dissolution. Our things, and other men’s things, the things of the nation, and the things of families, so far as they are in and of this world, are liable to a destructive dissolution.
And then there is this again, I am sure, in the words, that upon the near approach of great, destructive dissolutions, it is highly incumbent upon all professors of the gospel to be signal in holiness and godliness, or assuredly they will not escape the pressure and evil of that destructive dissolution.
I pray let us believe that there is nothing in this world, but only the gospel of Christ, and the interest of Christ, and the grace and mercy of God in the covenant, but it is liable to a destructive dissolution. It is the law that hath passed upon all things since the entrance of sin. All alterations tend to dissolution, and all things in this world are put into a course of change. Things alter every day, and the end of all that alteration is dissolution. Our relations, they must all be dissolved. There is a dissolution lies at the door between you and your estates, between you and your wives, between you and your children. And it is not a perfective dissolution, it is a destructive dissolution; for this dissolution ends it: and it lies at the door of us all, and every day leads us towards it. But there is a gathering up of the spirit of all things into a consistency in Christ Jesus, Eph. i. 10. God hath reconciled all, and gathered all as the first-fruit and spirit of the whole into one head; that is, into Christ. What is gathered up into him never changes, it is obnoxious to no dissolution. Whatever is gathered up into Christ, be it never so little, if all the world should set themselves to dissolve it, they can never do it, — no, nor the gates of hell to boot; and whatever is not gathered up into Christ, if all the world should combine to preserve it, it shall never do it, — it will come to its dissolution. Ps. lxxv. 3 are the words of Christ: “The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved: I bear up the pillars of it. Selah.” ‘Let there be a mark,’ saith he, ‘set upon that, their being dissolved.’ “Are,” that is only, being obnoxious to dissolution. They have nothing in themselves to give them a consistency or a stability. Christ is pleased for a season to put some pillars in it.
The conclusion made from thence is, that there is a great deal of madness and folly in all men, to pride themselves in any thing hero below; as in the next words, “I said unto the fools, Deal not foolishly: and to the wicked, Lift not up the horn: lift not up your horn on high; speak not with a stiff neck.” All pride and elation of mind from the things here below is mere folly and madness, and from want of considering that in their principle they are all dissolvable, and nothing stands but what Christ gives a pillar to. You may see the law of this, Rom. viii. 20, “The creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope.” Verse 22, “For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.” The “creature” in one place is the “whole creation” in the other; and by the entrance of sin it is brought into this state and condition, is “subject unto vanity.” “Vanity,” that is, to changes and alterations, which will issue in a destructive dissolution. It groans for deliverance. Every thing you see in the world of order, of power, they are all but endeavours in the creation to free itself from this state of vanity, to preserve itself as long as it can from dissolution; and they are but vain endeavours, for there is a dissolution waiteth for it. ‘Some things will be excepted, surely, from this dissolution. It may reach our small concernments, but the heavens and the earth, they will stand firm; there is no danger of those more noble and glorious parts of the creation.’ Why, truly, if there were not, yet as long as our interest in them is subject to it, we are not much concerned; but there is [an end] to them also: Ps. cii. 25, 26, “Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of thy hands.” What will he conclude from thence? ‘Therefore they shall endure? It is quite otherwise; “They shall perish, but thou shalt endure,” are the next words: “yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed.” A man would have thought from that great preface, “Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of thy hands,” the conclusion would certainly have been, ‘Then they should endure.’ No, saith the psalmist; “They shall perish.” God only shall endure, and an especial interest in God only shall endure; as I shall show you afterward from those words.