- 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.