- THen, Let us consider what we find delivered in the Holy Scriptures, concerning the Dissolution of the World. And first of all, This place, which I have made choice of for my Text, is in my opinion the most clear and full, as to this particular, in the whole Scripture; and will give light for the Solution of most of the proposed Questions. Vers. 10. The day of the Lord shall come as a thief, &c. This answers the third Question, Whether the Dissolution shall be gradual or sudden? Wherein the Heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat, the Earth also, and all the works that are therein shall be burnt up. And again, Vers. 12. Wherein the Heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat. This answers the second Question, What the Means and Instruments of this Dissolution shall be? Vers. 13. Nevertheless we according to his promise, look for a new Heaven and a new Earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. This gives some light towards the anwering of the last Question, Whether shall the Heavens and the Earth be wholly burnt up and destroyed, or only renewed and purified? These Words as clearly as they seem to refer to the Dissolution of the World, yet Dr. Hammond doubts not to be understood of the remarkable destruction of Ierusalem and the Iewish State, he thus paraphrasing them.
Verse 10. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the Heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat, and the Earth also, and the works that are therein shall be burnt up.
But this Judgment of Christ, so remarkable on the Iews, shall now shortly come, and that very discernably; and the Temple shall suddenly be destroyed, the greater part of it burnt, and the City and People utterly consumed.
Verse 11. Seeing then all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of Persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness.
Seeing then this destruction shall thus involve all, and now approacheth so near, what an engagement doth this lay upon us to live the most pure strict lives that ever Men lived?
Verse 12. Looking for and hastning unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the Heavens, being on fire, shall be dissolved, and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat.
Looking for the coming of Christ, for our deliverance, and by our Christian lives quickning and hastning God to delay it no longer; that Coming of his, I say, which as it signifies great mercy to us, so it signifies very sharp destruction to the whole Iewish State.
Verse 13. Nevertheless we according to his promise, look for new Heavens and a new Earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.
Instead of which we look for a new Christian State, wherein all provision is made by Christ for Righteousness to inhabit, according to the Promise of Christ concerning the Purity that he should plant in the Evangelical State.
How he makes out and confirms this Paraphrase, see in his Annotations upon this place. So confident is he of the Truth of this his Interpretation, that he censures the usual one as a great Mistake, in his Annotation on verse 10. where he thus writes; What is here thus expressed by S. Peter, is ordinarily conceived to belong to the end of the World, and by others applies to the end of this World, and the beginning of the Millennium, or thousand years. And so, as S. Peter here saith, verse 16. many other places in S. Paul’s Epistles, and in the Gospel, especially Matthew 24. are mistaken and wrested. That it doth not belong to either of those, but to this fatal day of the Iews, sufficiently appears by the purport of this whole Epistle, which is, to arm them with Constancy and Perseverance till that day come; and particularly, in this Chapter, to confute them who object against the Truth of Christ’s Predictions, and resolve it should not come at all: Against whom he here opposes the Certainty, the Speediness, and the Terribleness of its coming. That which hath given occasion to those other common Mistakes, is especially the hideousness of those Judgments which fell upon the People of the Iews, beyond all that ever before are related to have fallen upon them, or indeed any other People, which made it necessary for the Prophets, which were to describe it (and who use Tropes and Figures, and not plain Expressions, to set down their Predictions) to express it by these high Phrases, of the passing away and dissolving of Heaven and Earth and Elements, &c. which sounding very tragically, are mistaken for the great and final Dissolution of the World. So far the Doctor. Two things there are in this Chapter which seem to contradict this Interpretation; First, That the Destruction here spoken of, is compared with Noah’s Flood; and the Heaven and Earth to be dissolved by this, made parallel, and of equal extent to the World destroyed by that. Of this the Doctor was well aware, and therefore grants that the seventh Verse, But the Heavens and the Earth which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment, and perdition of ungodly men, is to be understood of the general and final destruction of the World by fire, but the following Verses to be an Answer to the first part of the Atheists Objection, viz. Where is the promise of his coming? To me it seems, that all refer to the same matter. The second thing which seems to contradict the Doctor’s Interpretation, is, the Apostles citing for the instruction and confirmation of the Believers, and in Answer to the Atheists Objection (Where is the promise of his coming?) that place of the Psalmist, Psal. 90. 4. That one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. For the Apostle seems to suppose, that the time of Christ’s coming, might possibly be a thousand years off; and that they were not to think much, or distruct the Promise, if it were so: for though it were predicted as a thing shortly to come, yet they were to consider, that a thousand years in God’s sight is but a very short time; so that it might be foretold as shortly to come, though it were a thousand years off. Whereas it might seem improper to mention a thousand years to support them in expectation of an Event that was not twenty years to come.
Another place where mention is made of Christ’s coming to Judgment, and the Dissolution of the World, is Matth. 24. to which may be added as parallel Mark 13. and Luke 21. In which places you have considerable, 1. The Suddenness of Christ’s coming, verse 27. As the lightning comes out of the East, and shineth even unto the West, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be. 2. The Signs of his coming, verse 29. Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the Sun be darkned, and the Moon shall not give her light, and the Stars shall fall from Heaven, and the powers of Heaven shall be shaken. 3. The manner of his coming, verse 30. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in Heaven; and then shall all the Tribes of the Earth mourn, when they shall see the Son of Man coming in the Clouds of Heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his Angels with a great sound of a Trumpet, and they shall gather together his Elect from the four Winds, from one end of Heaven to the other. 4. The uncertainty of the time of his coming, and this dissolution as to us, But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no not the Angels in Heaven: and Mark adds, neither the Son, but the Father only.
All this Prophecy Dr. Hammond understands of the destruction of the City and Temple of Ierusalem, and whole Nation of the Iews; as may be seen in his Paraphrase and Annotations upon this place. And indeed our Saviour himself seems to limit it to this, saying, verse 24. Verily I say unto you, this generation shall not pass away, till all these things be fulfilled. For if these Prophecies look further than the destruction of Ierusalem, even to Christ’s coming to Judgment, how could it be true, that that generation should not pass away till all those things were fulfilled? Whereas we see that that generation is long since passed away, and yet the end is not come? And indeed, Expositors that understand them of the end of the World, and Christ’s second coming to Judgment, are hard put to it to answer this Objection. S. Chrysostom will have this word […] to be understood not of the Generation of Men then living, but of the Generation of the Faithful, which should not fail till the end of the World. […] (saith he) […], &c. He denominates a Generation not only from living together in the same time, but from having the same form and manner of religious Worship and Polity; as in that place, This is the generation of them that seek thee, that seek thy face, O Jacob. Beza understands […] of the present Age, and will have it to be of the same valor with […] in Hebrew, and […] to refer not to all particulars mentioned in this Chapter, but only to those which are spoken of the destruction of the City and Nation of the Iews: But (saith he) if any one urgeth the universal Particle, Vertere licebit, Fiant omnia, viz quae ultimam illam diem pra[…]cessura dixit. Nam ab illo tempore coeperunt fieri, & adhuc perseverant ill signa, suo demum tempore Filio hominis venturo.
But on the other side, 1. Some passages there are in this Chapter, which are hardly applicable to the destruction of Ierusalem, and the Dissolution of the Iewish Commonwealth; as the appearing of the Sign of the Son of Man in Heaven, and the Tribes seeing the Son of Man coming in the Clouds of Heaven, with power and great glory. And his sending his Angels with a great sound of a Trumpet. 2. The coming of Christ is in like manner described in places which undoubtedly speak of his coming to Judgment at the end of the World. As in 1 Cor. 15. 52. mention is made of the Trumpets sounding at the time of the Christ’s coming: and 1 Thess. 4. 16. it is said, The Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God: and verse 17. We that are alive shall be caught up together with them [that are risen] in the Clouds to meet the Lord in the Air. All which places are perfectly parallel, and seem manifestly to allude to the fore-mentioned words Matth. 24. 30, 31. I am apt to think that these Prophecies may have a double respect; one to the City, Temple, and Nation of the Iews: another to the whole World at the great Day of Doom: and that the former is indeed typical of the latter: and so they have a double completion; the first in the destruction of Ierusalem and the Iewish Polity: In reference to which it is truly said, This Generation shall not pass away till all these things be fulfilled. The second in the final Dissolution of the World, which is yet to come.
But to proceed; Another place which is usually understood of the Dissolution of the World by fire, is 2 Thess. 1. 7, 8. When the Lord Iesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire, &c. Other parallel places may be seen, Rev. 6. 12. 13, 14. Rev. 10. 6. Rev. 21. 1. And I saw a new Heaven and a new Earth, for the first Heaven and the first Earth were passed away, and there was no more Sea, Hebr. 12. 26, 27. These places speak more directly of the Dissolution of the World, and the coming of Christ to Judgment. Others there are that speak only concerning the time of it, 1 Pet. 4. 7. But the end of all things is at hand. James 5. 9. Behold the Iudge standeth before the door. 1 John 2. 18. Little Children it is the last time; or as some translate it, the last hour, […]. Hebr. 10. 37. Yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. […]. Luke 18. 17. I tell you he will avenge them speedily. All these places the forementioned Dr. Hammond still applies to that famous Period of the destruction of the City, Temple and Polity of the Iews; only in his Note upon […], that everlasting destruction mentioned 2 Thess. 1. 9. he hath some qualification, saying thus, Mean while not excluding the eternal torments of Hell-fire, which expect all impenitent sinners that thus fall, but looking particularly on the visible destruction and vengeance which seizeth on whole Nations or Multitudes at once in this life. And in conclusion hath left us but one place in the N. Testament, to prove the general Conflagration of the World, viz. 2 Pet. 7. 7.
Now because some have been offended at these Interpretations of his, others have spoken very slightingly of them: I shall briefly sum up what hath been alledged in defence of them by this great Man.
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That the Prophets use to set down their Predictions in Tropes and Figures, and not in plain Expressions, (their Style being Poetical.) And therefore in describing those hideous Judgments which fell upon that People of the Iews, beyond all that ever before fell upon them, or indeed any other People, they […]ound it necessary to employ those High and Tragical Phrases of the passing away and dissolving Heaven, and Earth, and Elements. And that this was the manner of the Prophets, may be proved; because we find the destruction of other places described in as high Strains, as lofty and tragical Expressions as this of Ierusalem. For example, that of Idumaea, Isai. 34. 9. The streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch. It shall not be quenched night nor day, the smoke thereof shall go up for ever. And in the fourth Verse he seems but to Preface to this Destruction in these words, And all the host of Heaven shall be dissolved, and the Heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their hosts shall fall down as the leaf falleth off from the Vine, and as a falling Fig from the Fig-tree; for my Sword shall be bathed in Heaven: Behold it shall come down upon Idumaea. And in the Burden of Babylon, Chap. 13. 8, 9. we have these words, Behold the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger to lay the Land desolate: For the Stars of Heaven and the Constellations thereof shall not give their light: The Sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the Moon shall not cause her Light to shine.
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All the Predictions in that famous place, Matth. 24. to which all other places in the New Testament relating to this matter are parallel, are by our Saviour himself restrained to the destruction of Ierusalem, and the full completion of them limited to the duration of that Age: Verse 34. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled. What reason then can we have to extend them further.
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In most of the places where this coming of Christ is mentioned, it is spoken of as near, and at hand; as in the places last cited. Now, (saith the Learned Doctor) in his Note upon Luke 18. 7. I tell you he will avenge them speedily. All which, if (when it is said to approach and to be at the door) it belonged to the Day of Judgment (now after so many hundred years not yet come) what a […] were this? what a delaying of his coming? and consequently, what an Objection against the truth of the Christian Religion? As Mahomet having promised after his death he would presently return to life, and having not performed his Promise in a thousand years is by us justly condemned as an Impostor.
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That this place of S. Peter, out of which I have taken my Text, doth not belong to the end of the World, sufficiently appears (saith he) by the purport of this whole Epistle, which is to arm them with constancy and perseverance till that Day come, and particularly in this Chapter to confute them who object against the truth of Christ’s Predictions, and resolve it should not come at all; against whom he here opposes the certainty, the speediness, and the terribleness of its coming. And for that other famous place, 2 Thess. 1. 8, 9. that it belongs to the same Period; see how he makes it out in his Annotations.
I shall now superadd some places out of the Old Testament, which seem to speak of the Dissolution of the World, Iob 14. 12. Man lieth down and riseth not till the Heavens be no more. Psal. 102. 5, 6. quoted Hebr. 1. 10, 11. Of old hast thou laid the foundations of the Earth, and the Heavens are the works of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment, and as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed, Isai. 34. 4. And all the host of Heaven shall be dissolved, and the Heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll, and all their host shall fall down as a leaf falleth from the Vine, &c. Isai. 51. 6. The Heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the Earth shall wax old like a garment, Joel 2. 31. The Sun shall be turned into darkness, and the Moon into blood, before that great and terrible day of the Lord comes. Malachi 4. 1. Behold the day cometh that shall burn like an Oven, &c. Deut. 32. 22. For a fire is kindled in my anger, and shall burn to the lowest Hell, and shall consume the Earth with her encrease, and set on fire the foundations of the Mountains. I must confess that the Prophetick Books are full of figurative Expressions, being written in a Poetick Style, and according to the strain of the Oriental Rhetorick, which is much different from the European, affecting lofty and tumid Metaphors and excessive Hyperbola’s and Aggravations, which would either sound harsh to our Ears, or import a great deal more to us than they did to them. This is obvious to any one that reads their Books; and may clearly be demonstrated from the Ti[…]l[…] that their Kings assumed to themselves as well anciently as lately, viz. Sons of the Sun, Brethren of the Sun and Moon· Partners of the Stars, Lions crowned in the Throne of the World, Endued with the strength of the whole Heaven, and Virtue of the Firmament. Now we cannot possibly imagine them so vain as to think themselves litterally to be such: no sure, all they meant by these Expressions was that they were great, and honourable, and powerful. Now the Prophetick Books of the Old Testament being written in a Style somewhat conformable to the Oratory of those Countreys, are not (I humbly conceive) in every title to be so exactly scanned and litterally expounded, but so to be interpreted as a Iew or an Asiatick would then have understood them. And this I rather think, because there be divers passages in the Prophets, which cannot be verified in a strict literal sense; as in the place before quoted, Isa. 34. 9. It is said of the streams of Idumaea that they should be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone; and the Land thereof should become burning pitch, and should not be quenched night nor day; but the smoke thereof should go up for ever. And of the City of Tyre it is said, Ezek. 26. 14. It shall be built no more. And verse 19. When I shall make thee a desolate City, like the Cities that are not inhabited, when I shall bring up the Deep upon thee, and great waters shall cover thee. And verse 21. which is thrice repeated, I will make thee a terror, and thou shalt be no more: though thou be sought for, thou shalt never be found again, saith the Lord God. And yet we see that the City of Tyre, though it was indeed wholly dis-peopled at that time, the Inhabitants transferring themselves into Africa, when it was besieged by Nebuchadnezzar; yet was it afterward peopled again, and continues a City inhabited to this day. And of Babylon· it is said that there should none remain in it, neither man nor beast, but that it should be desolate for ever, Jer. 51. 62. Isai. 13. 20. and of the Land of Babylon, Vers. 29. that it should be a desolation without an Inhabitant. And though indeed this Prophesy was, I think, as to the City, at last verified in the Letter; yet did Babylon long continue a great City after this Prophesy: And the Land of Babylon is now inhabited, there being at this day a great City not far from the place where Babylon stood. So that these places import no more, then that there should be a very great Destruction and Devastation of those Cities and Countries. As for those places in the Old and New Testament, wherein mention is made of the last Days and the last Times, it is clear that they are to be understood of the Age of the Messiah, all the time from the Exhibition of the Messiah to the end of the World. Isaiah 2. 1. And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the Mountain of the Lords House shall be established in the top of the Mountains, and shall be exalted above the Hills, and all Nations shall flow to it; which very words we have repeated Michah 4. 1. So in that Prophesie of Ioel 2. 28. quoted Acts 2. 17. And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh, &c. it is clear the last days are to be understood. The Apostle Peter interpreting the Prophesie, (verse 16.) of the gift of Tongues bestowed upon the Disciples at that time. Hence the last Days have among the Iews proverbially signified the days of the Messiah, as Doctor Hammond in his Annotations upon this place tells us; who also notes, that in that place of Ioel the last days do literally signifie the last days of the Iews, immediately preceding their destruction, called there the great and terrible day of the Lord. So Hebr. 1. 2. by […], in these last days is meant the days of the Messias. So 1 Pet. 1. 20. 2 Pet. 3. 3. 1 Tim. 4. 1. 2 Tim. 3. 1. mention is made of the last days in this sense. In like manner the end of the World, […]. Hebr. […]. 20. But now once in the end of the world with he appeared to put away sin by the Sacrifice of himself· […] […] the Ends of the Wo[…]d· […] 1 Cor. 1. 11. Vpon whom the Ends of the World are come, signifie the Age of the Messias, though indeed the former seems more peculiarly to denote the shutting up of the Jewish Age or Oeconomy.
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