[a] virtue] The word ἀρετή, virtue, beside the ordinary known notion of it for probity of manners among men, as the generical word that contains all moral and Christian virtues under it, (in which sense it is used Phil. iv. 8,) doth in this chapter signify two things very distant from one another, and both of them differing from this. In this verse it signifies the power of God which he shewed in Christ, especially the miracles which he was enabled to work: and so it is here joined with the glory; whether the descent of the Holy Ghost on him and on the apostles, (which is ordinarily called schechina, and δόξα, glory, see note [c] on Matt. iii.) or whether the glory that shone in his works and doctrine be meant by it. So 1 Pet. ii. 9, ἀρίται καλίσαντος, the virtues (in the plural) of him that called us out of darkness into this great light; that is, his miraculous power, divine actions and words together. But then in the 5th verse of this chapter the word seems to have yet a third notion, and belonging there evidently to men, not God, as here, it cannot yet be fitly interpreted by that word virtue, which is the general comprehensive title of all virtues; for many of them are after named, as continence, patience, &c., and required to be superstructed upon this of ἀρετή, virtue, which would not be so proper: but it seems rather to signify, (in that notion wherein both the Greek ἀρετή and the Latin virtus are often used,) ἀνδρίξασθαι, 1 Cor. xvi. 13, manhood, courage, or fortitude, in adhering to Christ, Matt. xvi. 24, which the Gnostics, against whom he arms them, would so fain rob them of now in time of persecutions; so as in those verses of k Euripides, Θάρσος δὲ πρὸς τὰς συμφορὰς μέγα σθένει· Ἔστι καὶ πταίσαντ' ἀρετὴν ἐπιδείξεσθαι θανάτῳ. "Fortitude is very useful against afflictions; a man may shew virtue in his death." For there fortitude and virtue are all one. And so to their virtue or courage they must add knowledge, that is, that true Christian knowledge, to which their ψευδώνυμος γνῶσις, knowledge falsely so styled, was opposed; and to that, continence, contrary to their uncleanness and filthiness; and to that, perseverance, &c.; just as, 2 Cor. vi. 6, after patience in afflictions, ver. 4, and purity, is γνῶσις, knowledge: which again that it is set opposite to that pretended of the Gnostics, see the context there, and note [a] on that chapter. By which two, as evidences and engagements of the truth of them, huge promises have been made over to us of a most glorious and valuable nature, on purpose to allure and attract you to all divine purity, by receiving the faith of Christ, and forsaking that abominable course of unnatural lusts and other like sins, which through the sect of the Gnostics is now become so common and ordinary among the professors of Christianity: (see note [a] ch. ii.) [b] corruption] Φθείρεσθαι, corrumpí, signifies sometimes to be debauched to sin, particularly, and in the most eminent manner, to those sins against nature, abominable heathen lusts: so, 2 Cor. vii. 2, οὐδίνα ἐφθείραμεν, we have corrupted no man, seems to relate to those false teachers, the Gnostics, among them, who did thus corrupt and seduce k In Bellerophon. In respect of whom it is necessary that you be very careful and diligent, that constancy, courage, perseverance (see note [a]) be superstructed on your profession of the Christian faith; that knowledge of mysteries be joined to that courage, and that it supplant it not; [c] knowledge] The true notion of the word γνῶσις, knowledge, in this and many other places, will be best discerned by observing that the word is used 1 Cor. xii. 8, as a peculiar χάρισμα, or gift, of the Spirit, (see note [c] on 1 Cor. i, and note [c] on 1 Pet. iii,) and signifies the understanding of the word of God, that is, the scriptures, in the diviner and more mysterious sublime sense, such as the Judaizing Gnostics pretended to have an abstract of, Rom. ii. 20, called there μόρφωσις γνώσεως, such as to which the Jews pretend in their Cabala. So again, ch. xiii. 2, where πᾶσα γνῶσις, all knowledge, is the same with εἰδῶ τὰ μυστήρια, know mysteries, precedent, and differs from πᾶσα πίστις, all faith, in this, that πᾶσα γνῶσις, all knowledge, is that more subtle mysterious understanding of the Old Testament; and πᾶσα πίστις, all faith, is all kind of Christian faith, even that that hath the gift of miracles annexed to it. So again, ver. 8, where it is mentioned as an extraordinary gift, and joined with tongues and prophesyings: so ch. xiv. 6, revelation, knowledge, tongues, prophecy: and from thence it comes to signify κοινῶς, the more exquisite knowledge of Christ and the mysteries of the gospel, as Col. ii. 3, the hidden treasures of knowledge; which is also intimated by κλείδα τῆς γνώσεως, the key of knowledge, Luke xi. 52, that knowledge which is locked up. So Rom. xi. 33, γνῶσις Θεοῦ, the knowledge of God, of which there was such a βάθος, pro- That strict continence be one thing that accompanies that knowledge; then, to that continence, in avoiding the pollutions of the flesh, to which the Gnostics would seduce you under pretence of mysterious knowledge, add a cheerful patience or resolution of bearing whatsoever may fall on you from the enemies of your profession, whether Jews or false heretical Christians: to that patience, piety, and frequenting of the public service of God, not giving over the assembly, as some of the Hebrews did, Heb. x. 15, to avoid persecution; Then to your piety, kindness to all your fellow-Christians, (contrary to the fiery contentions and factions among them, caused by the Gnostics;) and to that kindness to your fellow-Christians, perfect charity to all men, even your enemies and persecutors. For the practice of these virtues, especially if they be in you in any eminent degree, will render you good and faithful servants of Christ, and such as becomes your Christian profession. And he that falls back into any of those sins, contrary to those virtues, is like a purblind man that This, brethren, must oblige and engage you to all care and diligence to make God's mercies in calling you to be Christians, and designing you deliverances, effectual to you. This must be done by your vigilancy over yourselves, that you relapse not into those former sins from which you came out at your conversion to Christ: which if you do, you shall never miscarry, or forfeit that great benefit of being Christians, and of being that remnant that should now be delivered when the rest of the Jews that believe not shall be destroyed. [d] calling and election sure] What is meant by κλῆσις, calling, hath been said at large, note [c] on Matt. xx, the mercy of God in making them Christians; and so what by ἐκλογή, election, note [c] on 1 Pet. ii, that peculiar favour of being the remnant to whom the promises of deliverance belonged, and in whom they should be fulfilled, when the rest of that people, remaining obdurate in their sins, should be destroyed. All the difficulty remaining is to determine what is meant by Βεβαίων ποιεῖν, to make either or both these firm or sure. And For by this means you shall be capable of being the men of which the kingdom of Christ shall be made up, that kingdom which begins in the vengeance executed on the unbelieving, impenitent Jews, and in delivering the believers, and shall last most gloriously for ever in subduing of enemies and delivering of disciples. The vastness of your concernments herein makes me thus solicitous to inculcate these things unto you: not that I think you ignorant in this point of doctrine concerning the method that shall be used by Christ in erecting his kingdom here on earth, viz. by coming in vengeance on the obdurate, and delivering the constant, persevering Christians; for I am sure you have been taught it over and over again, and sufficiently instructed and satisfied in the truth of it. But I think it not amiss, as long as I live in this world, or in this flesh, to be your remembrancer, and refresh these notions, stir up that knowledge which is already in you; Knowing that the time of my dissolution now suddenly approacheth, according as Christ, when he foretold of some that should survive this coming of his to the destruction of the Jews, (which now I speak [e] coming of our coursed on by Moses and Elias (see note [a] Matt. Lord Jesus Christ, xvii, and note [c] Luke ix. 31.) when I and James but were eyewitnes- and John were with Christ on mount Tabor, and saw ses of his majesty. the majesty that was instated on him at his transfigu- ration, Matt. xvii. [e] coming of our Lord] That παρουσία Χριστοῦ, the coming of Christ, signifies the remarkable destruction of the impenitent Jews, and deliverance of the believers among them, hath been often shewed, (see note [b] on Matt. xxiv.) and particularly that it is called his coming with power, Matt. xxiv. 30; that is, as a king or mighty person. Agreeably to that is here the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, δύναμις καὶ παρουσία, in this sense of his coming to discriminate between the persecutors and disciples, so that one should be taken, and the other left, Matt. xxiv. 40, the obstinate obdurate Jews to be utterly destroyed by the Roman eagles, as by Christ's executioners, and the faithful among them delivered out of that ruin. And to that doth the context here, and almost all the rest of this Epistle, direct those words; see ch. iii. 1 and 4. All the difficulty will be, how that which here immediately follows, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty, can belong to this particularly. To which I answer, that the word μεγαλειότης is there set to express that majesty which was by way of vision represented and instated on Christ at the time of his transfiguration on mount Tabor, at which Peter was present as an αὐτόπτης or eyewitness. This is clear from ver. 17, by the voice that came out unto him from the magnificent glory, (that is, from that splendid cloud, Matt. xvii. 5, Mark ix. 7, and Luke ix. 35, and that glorious appearance of angels, called his glory, Luke ix. 31, 32.) This is my beloved Son, &c., the very passage that is there mentioned. Now this transfiguration was meant by Christ to give Peter and John some image and shadow of (a kind of parable to express) this coming of Christ in this glorious manner against his crucifiers, and for the rescue of all persevering disciples. This appears by these two circumstances: first, by the passage immediately precedent, (with which the story of the transfiguration connects in all the three Gospels where it is mentioned,) viz. that he that will save his life, that is, forsake Christianity, to avoid the present pressures, shall lose it, that is, shall be destroyed in that πανωλεθρής: but he that will lose his life for Christ's sake, that is, venture the utmost danger rather than fall off from Christ, shall find or save it, that is, be thus delivered at Christ's coming to execute vengeance on those persecutors: which are the very words again used by Christ in the describing of that coming of his to the destruction of the Jews, Luke xvii. 33. And further, that he that shall be ashamed of Christ, of him HAMMOND ANNOTT. VOL. II. v f [f] received] What is meant here by λαβὼν παρὰ Θεοῦ Πατρὸς τιμὴν καὶ δόξαν, receiving from God the Father honour and glory, will easily be guessed both by what hath been said, note [e], and especially by the μεγαλειώτης, majesty of Christ, of which they are said to have been eyewitnesses. For this verse being by the γὰρ, for, annexed as a proof to the former, it must follow that the honour and glory which Christ received here, ver. 17, is that majesty which they saw, ver. 16. That surely signified the dignity royal that there, by way of vision or prophecy, he was instated in, this commission sent him from heaven, as it were by the hands of two great men, Moses and Elias, who also talked [g] day star] The word ἡμέρα, day, for Christ's coming in vengeance on his crucifiers, hath been interpreted formerly; see note [a] on Heb. x. Rom. xiii. 12; and so most particularly here it signifies ἡμέρα διανγάζουσα, the shining forth of that day that had been before but obscurely prophesied of. Then for the word φωσφόρος, that is a known star, which, as a δάδουςχος or harbinger to the day or sun, ushers him into our hemisphere. Proportionable to this are the particular remarkable passages which Christ foretold, as the immediate harbingers before this coming of his, such as are mentioned Luke xxi. 28, which when they begin to appear, then, saith he, Lift up your heads, take comfort, διότι ἐγγίζει ἡ ἀπολύτρωσις ὑμῶν, for, or because, your redemption draweth near. And so the Lucifer or morning star shall signify the immediate forerunners of this day, which till it come they must content themselves with the darker prophecies, and sustain themselves by that means. And if the addition of ἐν ταῖς καρδίαις ὑμῶν, in your hearts, wherein the phosphorus is said to arise, be thought to resist this interpretation, the account of that is ready: first, that the rising of the phosphorus here not being literally to be understood, was by this addition very fitly confined to the metaphorical notation, in our hearts being opposed to in the heavens; secondly, that our hearts being the seat of practical judgment, by which we ponder and consider, this v f 2 But as among those prophets sent and incited by the Holy Ghost, ch. i. 21, some false ones also sly crept in, so also now, according to Christ's prediction, Matt. xxiv. 11, shall there be false teachers among you, viz. the Gnostic Christians, bringing into the true faith, under pretence of greater perfection, most destructive doctrines of liberty and licentiousness, and that count it an indifferent thing to deny Christ in time of persecution, (see 1 Peter ii. 21, and note [b] Rev. ii.) and forswear him who redeemed them, that are thus unlike him, as not to venture any danger for him who died for them; and do also by this means most imprudently incur the dangers which they desire (and pay so dear) to avoid, by complying with the Jews, come to speedy destruction with them, according to that of Christ, Matt. xvi. 25. BUT there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, ¹ even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. For it had been more for the advantage of such never to have been taught the doctrine of Christ and Christian practice, than when they have under- And these carnal doctrines of theirs shall have many followers, Matt. xxiv. 11, and thereby the glorious pure gospel of Christ shall be much defamed, when Christian professors shall live such filthy lives. And with cunning discourses shall they circum- ²⁷ of their own incitation, motion, letting loose. ²⁸ For prophecy was not any time brought, Οὐ γὰρ ἠνέχθη ποτὲ προφητεία. ²⁹ being carried, φερόμενοι. ³⁰ being carried, φερόμενοι. ³¹ and that denying, καὶ ἀρνούμενοι. ³² Or, filthiness: for so many ancient copies, the King's MS. and that in Magdalene college, Oxford, read ἀσελγείας. ³³ Or, the glory of the truth: for the King's MS. reads ἡ δόξα. ⁴⁴ with feigned speeches they will gain you to inordinate lusts, ἐν πλεονεξίᾳ πλαστοῖς λόγοις ὑμᾶς ἐμπορεύσονται. For if God, when the angels rebelled against him, punished them severely, and having decreed them to eternal hell, cast them presently out of heaven into the abyss, a kind of dungeon or dark prison, there to be reserved, as condemned malefactors, to the day of judgment, the time of their execution; And if he punished the whole world of sinners in Noah's time, bringing a deluge on them, and only preserved Noah, (with seven more,) who warned them to amend their abominable lives, or else that vengeance would befall them; [a] the eighth person] Why the word ὄγδος, the eighth, is here prefixed to the mention of Noah, might be matter of some inquiry, were it not so ordinary and proverbial among all writers, Jewish as well as heathens, to express the persons that were saved in the deluge by this style, the eight. Hence the very mountain whereon the ark rested is found to be expressed and called by this style, Themanim, that is, τῶν ὀκτῶ, the mountain of the eight. So Georgius Elmacinus, Hist. Saracen. I. 1. c. 1, "Heraclius weut thence," פִּי קְרִית הַכְּאֹנִין, to the town so called the town of the eight, from תַּאֲמִין, octo, which is here rendered Themaninum, "and ascending to the hill גֻּדּוֹ," it should sure be read גֻּדּוֹ, Gordi, (so those mountains are called promiscuously Cardiei, Cordyei, Cordueni, Gordi, Cordæi, Curdi,) "he saw the place of the ark, the highest of all that region." So m Geographus Nubiensis, Mons יָמִין (Jemanin) it should be תַּמְנִין, Themanin) idem qui Algoude (it should be אַלְגּוֹרְדִי, Algordi, that is, Gordieus) in quo requievit navis illa, navis Noæ, cui pax, "The hill Themanin, which is also called Algordi, on which the ark rested, the ark of Noah—. So n Agathias, Ἀμφὶ τὰ Καρδούχια ὄρη, εἰς κώμην Θαμανῶν, "About the Cardian mountains, at the town called Themanin," that is, "the eight." And if he adjudged the cities and suburbs of Sodom and Gomorrha to utter destruction by fire from heaven, and made them an exemplary spectacle and document to all that should ever live in their sins; At that time delivering Lot, (and his family,) who was a person so far from being guilty of that lewdness and unnatural filthiness, that he was extremely vexed and molested by dwelling among those that lived in those villainies; (For he being a very pure and chaste person, yet inhabiting among them that were so impure, was from day to day continually afflicted and tormented to see them do as they did;) If, I say, all these examples of vengeance on wicked, obdurate rebels and carnal persons, (the patterns of the crucifying Jews and lewd Gnostics,) and withal the deliverances afforded to the righteous in these passages of story, be considered, we may then sure learn from hence, how ready and able God now is to rescue the persecuted, constant Christian out of the persecutors' hand, and to reserve the persecutors themselves, and all wicked livers that join or comply with them, by cutting them off here, to eternal perdition in another world: (see note [b] Rom. xiii.) Of this sort especially are the Gnostics, whose character it is to commit all filthiness, and to despise all kind of authority of magistrates or masters, (1 Tim. iii. 6,) a bold, insolent sort of men, that can without any trembling or fear speak contumeliously of the apostles themselves: (see note [b] on Jude.) Whereas the angels of light, being sure in a condition of greater power and height than any Christians or men on earth, do not deal so with the rulers of darkness, (see note [c] Jude 9,) when upon any occasion they accuse or implead them before God, or wage any dispute with them, Jude 9. But these men, like beasts, ruled only by their natural or brutish appetites, without any reason to restrain and temper them, which are good for nothing but (as vultures, to tear and pollute, so these) to spoil and debauch all they come near, venturing to speak reproachfully of all that they do not understand, and so consequently of the mysteries of Christianity, taught by apostles, but despised by them, (see note [d] on Jude,) shall be destroyed in their bestial sins, [b] made to be taken] The word ἄλωσις, catching, is here in an active sense to prey, or take, or catch, and not to be taken; and γεγενημένα εἰς ἄλωσιν, made for taking, are creatures, beasts or birds of prey, vultures. So Job xxiv. 5, לְפָרָף (rendered by the Greek εἰς ἄλωσιν, to catch) is in the Chaldee Paraphrase expressed by rising up early to their m Clim. 4. Par. 6. n L. 4. p. 135. And receive that vengeance that is due to them; those, I mean, that in the daytime take pleasure in those villainies which are wont to need the night to cover the shame of them, that are become the reproachers of Christianity, committing all villainy in their sacred assemblies and festivities, and making use of their false doctrines to turn your Christian feasts into unclean lascivious meetings. [c] deceivings] That which is read here ἐν ἀπάταις, in deceits, may not improbably be mistaken by the scribe for ἐν ἀγάπαις αὐτῶν, in their Christian feasts, instituted in order to maintaining of charity, but defiled by the luxury of carnal gospellers. Thus it is read in Jude, ver. 12, (which in most things is agreeable with this second of Peter,) and that verse in the other parts of it is directly parallel to this; there, σπιλίδες, spots, as here, σπίλοι καὶ μῶμοι, spots and blemishes; there, συνενωχούμενοι, feasting together, as here in the same word, and so probably also in this word, which differs so little from ἀπάταις, that it might be easily mistaken for it. Their eyes are so filled with unlawful objects, that they can receive nothing else, nor ever take them off from beholding them; they corrupt young new-converted Christians, and have their hearts, as their eyes, always busied with base, filthy thoughts, persons fit for nothing but a curse: 15, 16. Which have forsaken the Christian doctrine, and brought in heathenish, (so did Simon Magus mix paganism with Christianity; Carpocrates brought in Hesiod's theology to Christ, and adored [d] full of adultery] Μοιχαλὶς signifies distinctly an adulteress, (not adultery,) and the phrase of having eyes full of her, is very agreeable to that of the rhetorician cited by Plutarch De Verecund., who, describing an impure unchaste person, (an ἀναίσχυντος, one without shame,) rhetorically said of him, οὐ κόρας ἀλλὰ πόρνας ἐν τοῖς ὄμμασιν ἔχει, that “he had whores in his eyes instead of κόρας,” which is an equivocal word, and signifies both a maid (or virgin, opposite to πόρνη, whore) and the pupilla oculi, the apple of the eye, also, and is therefore made use of in that rhetor. [e] Bosor] The name Bosor here is Beor in the Old Testament, the Hebrew being בָּעִיר, and the Chaldee pronouncing the ע by פ; and accordingly the Arabic translation reads here the son of Beor, the same that (as here, so Jude 11, Rev. xi. 14.) is made use of to exemplify the heretics that were thus easily crept into the church, the Gnostics so often spoken of. As for the fitness of representing this heresy by ἡ ὁδὸς τοῦ Βαλαὰμ, the way of Balaam, three things may especially be observed. First, that he being a prophet of the true God did yet join in idol-worship with the king of Moab, Num. xxii. 41, being taken up with him into the high places of Baal, and, xxiii. 2, 14, 29, building altars, and offering up sacrifices there. And this was remarkable in the Gnostics, (whose whole divinity was a mixture of Christian and Jewish with heathen doctrine; they made no scruple, for the saving or gaining any thing to themselves, to join with those who offered sacrifice to idols. Secondly, that he complied and joined in faction with the Moabites and Midianites, the enemies of God’s people, was very willing to assist them to his uttermost; and when God permitted him not to curse Israel, yet he associated with the Midianites, as appears Num. xxxi. 8, where he These take upon them to be fountains of all deep knowledge, but have no drop either of truth or good practice among them; they pretend to be sublime above other men, but are only like clouds in the air that darken the sky, but never distil into rain, and those driven impetuously by every wind, be it never so black or dark, from one vicious, hellish doctrine and practice to another; and to these black souls is reserved in the just judgment of God eternal darkness and blackness. For attributing divinity to Simon and Helena, and exalting them idolatrously above the God of Israel, (see note [i] on Jude,) they entice and catch again, bring back to all manner of carnality and filthiness those who had not long since gotten out of the heathen bestiality, (see note [b] on Jude,) and really given them over; And this upon pretence of giving them liberty; whereas they are themselves the greatest slaves in the world, to wit, enslaved to all baseness and filthiness, (see note [b] ch. i,) for the title of victory giving dominion, they must needs be slaves of those lusts which have conquered them, to whom they have yielded themselves captives. This being a principle known to all, that no scripture prophecy is without particular mission and appointment from God; that which the prophets there have foretold being not the suggestions of their own spirits, what they thought good, but what God inspired and moved them to by his Spirit's coming upon them. And this is so far from being extenuated by the privilege of their being Christians, that it is become the greater and more dangerous guilt by this means; for certainly they that have been converted from all their heathen sins by accepting of the faith of Christ, and then again relapse and return to them, this latter estate of theirs, this Christian heathenism, is worse than their bare heathenism at first. [h] interpretation] Ἐπίλυσις here seems to be an agonistical word, to signify the starting, or watchword, or sign, upon which the racers set out or begin their course. The place from whence they set out is called ἀφετήρια, where, when they set out, they are said to be let loose, and this is literally ἐπιλύεσθαι. To this is the sending of prophets here compared, who are said to run, Jer. xxiii. 21, Ezek. xiii. 6, 7, They run, and I sent them not, that is, οὐκ ἐπέλυσα, I gave them no watchword to run; as in the Psalmist, God gave the word, great was the company of preachers. When any undertakes to prophesy without God's sending, this is ἰδίας ἐπιλύσεως, of his own starting, and this is here denied of the prophets of the Old Testament; for, as it follows, οὐ θελήματι ἀνθρώπου ἡνίχθη ποτέ, it was never brought by the will of man, that is, it was never ἰδίας ἐπιλύσεως, of their own incitation, but holy men, φερόμενοι ὑπὸ πνεύματος, carried by the Spirit, θεοφορούμενοι, inspired and carried by God, did prophesy, &c. For none of the prophets of any time have undertaken that office on their own heads, or prophesied their own fancies or persuasions, but all the scripture prophets have been men called and sent by God on his messages, and inspired and instructed by the holy Spirit of God every word which they have delivered. And therefore you cannot run any hazard in depending upon that which they have foretold shall come to pass in these, which they called the last days, Joel ii. 28. 30, 31, 32, and in many other places. But before this come, there is one thing to precede, a very remarkable defection of many from the Christian profession, (see 2 Thess. ii. 3,) according to what was foretold by Christ, Matt. xxiv. 12; and those that thus forsake Christ shall betake themselves to all unclean practices; and therefore this is now to be expected. [a] scoffers] Ἐμπαικται, scorners, here and Jude 18, is answerable to the Hebrew לְצִים, very frequent in the Old Testament, which denotes the highest degree of defection from and renouncing of piety: so psalm i. 1, of the three degrees of ungodly men the לְצִים, irrisores, scoffers or scorners, are the last. By these therefore are fitly here noted the Christians, which at this time in great numbers fell off to the Gnostic heresy, and by so doing complied and joined with the persecuting Jews, and fell into all the villany in the world, expressed here by κατὰ τὰς ἰδίας αὐτῶν ἐπιθυμίας πορευόμενοι, walking, that is, going on habitually, as in a course, according to their own desires, or, (as when there was no king in Israel,) every one doing that which was right in his own eyes, without any restraint of law, of nature, or Christ, &c. Of these St. Jude saith, that the apostles of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ had foretold they should come in the last time; by the last time, or days, meaning there and here, the time immediately preceding the destruction of the Jews, (as hath been often shewed.) And so, as Christ had foretold, Matt. xxiv. 11, that at that point of time many false prophets should arise, and deceive many; and again, that many should be scandalized, or fall off from Christ, ver. 10; and the love of many, that is, their zeal to the faith of Christ, grow cold, ver. 12: so the apostles of Christ, in their preachings and in their epistles, had also frequently foretold this, 2 Thess. ii. 3, that this coming or day of Christ, ver. 1, 2, was not to be ἰὰν μὴ ἔλθῃ ἡ ἀποστασία πρῶτον, unless the apostasy first come, this apostasy of the many Christians to the foul Gnostic heresy; And they that do thus forsake the faith shall, as a ground of it, pretend that they perceive themselves cheated by those prophecies, which have promised and foretold this coming of his, (see ch. i, and note [b] Matt. xxiv.) which, say they, is so far from being performed, that all things stand unchanged, in the same constant form, from the beginning of the world till now, save only that all the men that have lived upon the earth (father Adam, Noah, Abraham, &c.) ³¹ Or, return backward, or, to what was behind: for the King's MS. reads εἰς τὰ ὀπίσω ἀνακάμψαι. ³² But that of the true proverb is befallen them, The dog returning— Σομβάβηκε δι' αὐτοῖς τὸ τῆς ἀληθοῦς καροιμίας, Κύων ἐπιστρέψας— ¹ your apostles: for the King's MS. reads ὑμῶν ἀνοστόλων. ² the end of the days, ἀρχάτου τῶν ἡμερῶν. ³ except that. [b] since] Ἀφ' ἦς, a qua, or a quo, may be taken in respect of time, as an epocha from whence the writer takes his rise, from such or such a time, excluding what was before, and including all since. But it may also refer to matters as well as to time, and then it notes no more than the excluding or excepting that which is named, and including all that is not named, and will then best be rendered unless it be, or except that. That this must be the notion of it here, and not the former, is evident by what follows, that all things remain in the same manner from the beginning of the creation, where the creation is an epocha of a far longer date than that of the death of the fathers. Besides it would be hard to define what fathers are here meant, if that were the meaning of it: for it cannot be applicable so to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the fathers of the people of the Jews; for to confute this speech of these scoffers, the apostle draws his proof from the times of the flood, which was long before them, which would not be a good way of arguing against them, if they had dated their observation no farther than the times of Abraham; for they might well acknowledge a change in the deluge, though none since Abraham. But in the other notion the matter is clear, From the creation of the world, say they, there hath been no change in any material thing, so as to be fit to deter men from complying with the Jews, for the avoiding of persecutions, so as to make men fear that Christ will now come in any eminent manner to destroy the Jews or Gnostics, or to persevere in hope that he will deliver the persecuted Christians out of their hands. One change they acknowledge there hath been in the world; some men have slept with their fathers, and others have lived in their stead, a succession of fathers and sons to replenish the world; men have not been immortal, the fathers have died, and given way to their children: but except this, (which is an unconsiderable matter, not pertinent to the point in hand,) all things else, say they, have continued in the ordinary constant course, without any discernible interposing of God's providence to punish one, or to relieve another. This sure is the atheist's objection, occasioned by the delay of Christ's coming to destroy the Jews. And this it is which is punctually confuted in the following For this they [c] willingly are ignorant of, that 5 by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the [d] earth standing out of the water and in the water: [c] willingly] The word θέλοντες seems here to be taken in a sense not ordinary in other places, for being of opinion or affirming, perhaps with this addition of asserting it magisterially, without any reason rendered for it, but a Sic volo, &c., So I will—I command—my will is my reason. Thus in Latin we are wont to use it, Qui hoc volunt, They that will this, for, They that are of this opinion; and thus à βούλομαι, 2 Cor. i. 17, the things that I will, that is, which I teach or affirm. See note [c] on that chapter. And so τοῦτο θέλοντες, they that will this, are they that are of this mind, that affirm this. [d] earth standing out of the water] The meaning of this fifth verse will be best discerned by considering it as preparative to the sixth: for the one thing that was here to be affirmed and proved for the confuting of that atheistical aphorism, ver. 4. that there was no such thing as punishment inflicted on wicked men, or deliverance for the godly, to be expected from any overruling power of heaven, all things going on in a constant course from the beginning of the world to that time, was this, that the whole world was once drowned for the sins of the inhabitants; and that is said, ver. 6. But to prepare for this, here is, in this verse, a description of the frame of this lower world in the first creation, as it was formed τῷ τοῦ Θεοῦ λόγῳ, by the word of God, that word by which he said, Let there be light, and there was light; Let there be a firmament, and there was so; and God saw that it was good, that is, all that he did was designed for such uses as he in his wisdom thought agreeable. And that is thus described, οὐρανοὶ ἦσαν ἵππαλαι, there were heavens from of old, that is, in the beginning the heavens were created, and so the earth also, Gen. i. 1, the earth so formed that, whensoever God pleased, it might be drowned without creating any new thing. For thus it was framed: the very globe of the earth consisted of a great quantity of waters, called the abyss or deep, Gen. i. 1, so great as to cover the face of the earth, till God put it into one place, that dry land might appear, Gen. i. 9. And this is it that now makes the whole body of the ocean, and all other rivers in the world, and besides great quantities of water in the bowels of the earth, breaking forth in fountains, that flow perpetually, and maintaining with supplies all the rivers and seas in the world. And this may fitly own the expression that is here used of the globe of the earth, that it is ἐξ ὕδατος συνεστῶσα, made up of water, hath abundance of water in its compass, which is the water which, Gen. i. 7, is called the water under the רקיע or expansion, that is, under the body of the air, and so makes up, as the philosophers say, one globe with the earth. And so this part of the frame of the earth did competently prepare it for drowning, it being evident that there was so much water in that globe of the earth as, till it was put into receptacles and cavities, it covered the face of the earth, no dry land appeared, Gen. i. 9. But beside this, there was great store of waters in the clouds, which is called the waters above the expansion, Gen. i. 7, the lower region of the air being between them and the earth; and when God is pleased to loosen those clouds, which is called opening the windows of heaven, then the rain falls, and adds to that store of waters which was in the globe of the earth already. And these clouds encompassing the earth on every side, the earth is here also said to be But the world which now is, by the same appointment of God, is now secured that it shall be drowned no more, (God having given his promise for it, Gen. ix. 11,) nor suffer any other kind of destruction but by fire, which is the punishment to be expected by abominable men. [e] the heavens and the earth] The phrase οἱ οὐρανοὶ καὶ ἡ γῆ, the heavens and the earth, are here set to signify the whole compages of this sublunary world, and all the creatures that are in it, all that was destroyed by the flood, and is now secured from perishing so again, and is reserved for fire, by which it is (by perpetual tradition) believed that the world shall finally be destroyed. The Hebrews have no one word to signify this, but ordinarily use שכּוִים וארץ, the heavens and earth. And so the heavens, and elements, and earth, vv. 10 and 12, which would literally denote the world, signify figuratively the whole city of Jerusalem, temple and palace, towers and buildings of the city, not one signified by one, another by another, but all by all together, and proportionably to that the new heavens and new earth are a Christian people, ver. 13. And so it is ordinary in other expressions in that language; as, his body, his flesh, and his bones, Eph. v. 30, signifies him, and no more: and so in other authors, the body and the soul are set severally, when yet they signify nothing distinct, but the whole man together. See A. Gellius, l. 3. c. 1. And so the evening and the morning signify the natural day: see note [n] on Matt. xii. So the elders, high priests, and scribes, everywhere in the Gospels signify the sanhedrim; and so in like manner the phrase father and mother, and wives and children, and fields, &c., signifies this one thing, possessions or comforts of life, and must so be rendered in the gross, and not in the retail, or else the true meaning of some places in the New Testament will not be intelligible. As Mark x. 30, when it is said that he that leaves father and mother, &c., shall receive an hundred-fold more in this life, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers: for it is clear enough that he shall not receive an hundred mothers; but as all these severals put together denote the comforts and possessions of this life, so it is to be expected that the promise of God will be performed to those that part with any thing for Christ's sake. See note [h] on Ephes. v. and note [c] on Col. i. This answer being first given to the latter part of the atheist's objection, ver. 4, that all things continue as they were since the creation, I now proceed, in the second place, (by way of regressus, ordinary in scripture, see note [b] Matt. vii,) to answer the former part proposed by way of question, Where is the promise of his coming? that is, Sure God's promise in the Old Testament repeated by Christ, Matt. xxiv, of his coming to punish the obdurate Jews and Gnostics, and delivering the pure, persevering believers, is not performed. And my answer is this, That you may be mistaken in reckoning of times, in thinking that what the prophets have foretold of the latter days, the times of the Messias, must be instantly performed, as soon as Christ is gone to heaven, or else it will not be performed at all. In this matter it must be considered who it is that makes the promise, ver. 2, an infinite As for any slowness in performing his promise of coming, which they that expect and desire to reap a sudden fruit of it in their deliverance, or that others, which would corrupt them, and make them fall off through despair of it, are apt to charge upon God, it is merely a mistake in them; for it is not thus deferred out of want of kindness to the persevering Christians, but out of abundance of patience and long-sufferance to the worst, and an earnest desire that they may all amend and be delivered, without which amendment, whensoever this coming shall be, all are infallibly destroyed: (see note [a] Acts iii. 19.) But this judgment of Christ, so remarkable on the Jews, shall now shortly come, and that very indiscernibly, (see Luke xvii. 20, 1 Thess. v. 2,) and the temple shall be suddenly destroyed, the greater part of it burnt, and the city and people utterly consumed: (see note [d], and Matt. xxiv. 30, and Acts ii. 19, 20.) [f] with a great noise] 'Ροίξει, διώκει, ὁρμᾷ, τρέχει' ῥοιζηδόν, σφοδρῶς, μετὰ ἤχον, saith Phavorinus: so that it signifies swiftly as well as with a noise. And that the former is the meaning of it here, is probable, because it is added to the coming of that day as a thief, unexpectedly, and in order to that is this of swiftness, not that other notion of μετὰ ἤχον, with noise; for thieves in the night do not willingly do [g] melt with fervent heat] The destruction of Judæa is here, vv. 10 and 12, described by dissolution, or consumption, by fire; and so Isa. ix. 5, and lxvi. 15, 16, and Mal. iv. 1, and Joel ii. 3, 30, where that destruction is described; so 2 Thess. i. 8, in flaming fire taking vengeance; (which that it belongs to that matter, see the context of that place, and note [b];) so Heb. x. 27, πυρὸς ζῆλος, a burning of fire to consume the ἀντικείμενοι, all that obdurately stand out against Christ, and that belonging to this matter also, as will appear by comparing verses 25 and 37; see note [a] on that chapter; and so perhaps 1 Cor. iii. 13, 15. And this either, first, figuratively, after the manner of prophetic style, wherein fire, and burning, and melting signifies destruction and utter desolation: or else, secondly, in relation to the zealots, and that πύρωσις raised by them, the fearful combustion and conflagration within the nation and city, the fire of sedition and contention, which was so great an instrument of destruction among them, killing vast multitudes at once, Joseph. de Bel. Jud. lib. 7. c. 14, rifling the palace and all the wealth of the city, (being at that time carried thither,) and many other particulars of that kind in that story: or else, thirdly, in reference to the exact truth of the fact, (of which this is a literal description,) the burning of Jerusalem, mentioned by Josephus, lib. 7. c. 14, where it is said of the Romans that they fired all unto Siloa; and again in the same chapter that the Sicarii, the other faction in the city, contrary to the zealots, got into vaults, from whence they fired the city more than the Romans, and murdered them that, escaping the flames, fled into the caves: and again, c. 16, "The Romans being entered fired houses, and," saith he, "many things that were fired were quenched with the blood of the slain, with which the streets of the city flowed:" and again, "All the night long the fire increased, and in the morning, Sept. 8th, all was on fire:" and, c. 17, "They fired the outward parts of the city." Then for the burning of the temple particularly, that is set down lib. 3. c. 9, first of the doors, where the silver plate being melted first, the flame quickly fired the wood, and from thence increased to the next porch; and that day and all the next night the fire increased, till Titus caused the army to quench it: but, as it follows, "the sentence of God had already determined that it should be consumed with fire;" and so it was on August 10; of which he pronounceth, "Now the fatal day was come after many years," the phrase so usual in the New Testament, the day, and the coming of that day. And, c. 10, "a soldier without command cast a firebrand into the golden gate," and presently it set a flaming; and when Titus came violently in to quench it, nobody would hear him, but cried the more to set it on fire; and neither his commands nor entreaties would serve turn, but it was (absolutely against his will) burnt down, and no help for it, saith he, because the destinies had so determined, that is, the counsel and decree of God, testified by predictions. What is here thus expressed by St. Peter is ordinarily conceived to belong to the end of the world, and by others applied to the end of this world, and the beginning of the millennium or thousand years. And so, as St. Peter here saith, ver. 16, many other places, in St. Paul's Epistles and in the Gospel, especially Matt. xxiv, are mistaken 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! Looking for the coming of Christ for our deliverance, and by our Christian lives quickening and hastening God to delay it no longer, (see ver. 9,) that coming of his, I say, which as it signifies great mercy to us, so it signifies very sharp destruction to the whole Jewish state: (see note [d].) Instead of which we look for a new, a Christian state, in which all provision is made by Christ for righteousness to inhabit, according to the promise of Christ, concerning the purity that Christ should plant in the evangelical state: (see note [d], and Rev. xxi. 1, and note [a].) This therefore being your expectation, you must in reason use all diligence to keep yourselves from all pollution, spot or blemish, from indulging to any of the carnal invitations that are now soliciting you, and so to continue till this coming of his, that you may then be found acceptable before him, and that then you may reap the profit of it, that all may be prosperous with you. And resolve that the end of God's delaying this judgment, this execution so long, hath been (see ver. 9.) on purpose to bring in and increase the number of convert Jews, those to whom this deliverance is promised, according as St. Paul hath also said, Rom. ii. 4, 5, and especially Rom. xi, to which this place seems to refer: (see the sum of that chapter at the conclusion of the paraphrase of it.) And indeed in most, if not in all his epistles, hath he said somewhat of this matter, concerning this famous day of vengeance on the obdurate Jews, and deliverance of the faithful, and deferring that day of destruction on the former on purpose (ver. 15.) to gather in as many of the latter as he could. So Rom. ix. 29. 33, Rom. x. 8—10, &c., Rom. xi. 5, Rom. xiii. 11, 12, 1 Cor. i. 7, 8, and ch. iii. 13, 1 Thess. ii. 16, and ch. v. 1, 2, 3. 9, and 2 Thess. i. 6—10, and ch. ii. 1, 2, 3. 8, and 1 Tim. iv. 1, and ch. vi. 14. In which matter some things there are concealed by God purposely from the knowledge of men and angels, as the punctual time of the coming of it, &c., from whence some unskilful, unsettled Christians have taken occasion to fall off from the faith of Christ, and to ruin themselves by so doing. This they do by deductions from some places of scripture, wrested by them, (as it is ordinary with them to wrest and distort the writings of the prophets, &c.); but it is through their ignorance and ungroundedness on the Christian faith that they do so. [h] in which] In this place the king's MS. reading ἐν υἱς, in which, in the feminine gender, (which if it be true, then it must refer to the epistles forementioned,) but other copies, and the printed ones generally reading ἐν οἷς in the neuter, which cannot agree with epistles, but with περὶ τούτων, of these things, it is not certain which reading must be adhered to. That which seems to me most probable is, that the ordinary reading should be retained, ἐν οἷς, &c., and that rendered among which things some are hard to be understood, &c. If this be the sense, then St. Peter doth not at all give this character of any parts of St. Paul's epistles, that they are δυσνόητα, hard to be understood, but that among those things, (of which St. Peter is now a treating, and of which, saith he, St. Paul hath written in all his epistles, and generally the prophets of the Old and the apostles of the New Testament, ver. 2,) ἐστι δυσνόητα τινα, some are hard to be understood, &c. What the things here spoken of are hath been cleared by the paraphrase of this and the former epistle, viz. in general the coming of Christ to destroy his crucifiers, and deliver the pious Christians out of their persecutions. This is apparently spoken of by the prophets, and by Christ, and by the apostles, both in their preaching (see note [a] on the title of the Epistle to the Romans) and in their epistles, written but a little before it was to come. That it was so long deferred was matter of some trouble to some, and objection against the truth of these predictions, ver. 4; to which this apostle here answers, ver. 9, that the reason why God doth make some stay in this matter is, that men may have time to repent, and reform, and escape this vengeance, which when it comes will come so suddenly and unexpectedly as to surprise many that look not for it, ver. 10; and that he repeats again, ver. 15, bidding them count the longsuffering of the Lord (that is, this deferring his judgments) salvation, that is, a means designed by God to bring men to repentance. And for this particular it is that he cites St. Paul as concurring with him in this account of the reason of Christ's delaying his coming, adding only this of St. Paul, that in all his epistles he hath spoken of these things, that is, said a great deal concerning this coming of Christ. Having gone thus far, he passeth his observation of the then present temper of men, and behaviour in this matter, that there were some giddy, unsettled Christians, which upon occasion of some things not so clearly revealed by those that have foretold this coming of Christ, have fallen into pernicious errors. What things those were which are here said to be δυσνόητα, hard to be understood, and what dangerous errors drawn from thence, will perhaps be hardly defined by us at this distance. That Cerinthus, by misunderstanding some of these predictions, came to think that Christ should have a temporal kingdom upon earth, where men should enjoy all carnality, see note [a] on Rev. ii; and he and his followers may be thought to be these ἀστήρικτοι here, the unstable Christians that distorted these predictions. Or because it is added of the same men, that they do distort other scriptures also to their own destruction, it will not so fitly be restrained to Cerinthus, but more generally be spoken of the Gnostics, who by a You therefore, my brethren, whom I have thus timely warned and instructed, ought to make this prudent use of my admonitions, to take all care that ye be not ensnared by the filthy, unnatural practices of the Gnostics, (see note [b] Jude,) and so apostatize from the faith. ¹² Or, deliverance, σωτηρίαν. ¹³ Or, in all his epistles: for the King's MS. leaves out ὡς καί. ¹⁴ among which things some are hard—ἐν οἷς ἐστι δυσνόητά τινα, but the King's MS. reads ἐν αἷς, referring to epistles. ¹⁵ by the seduction of abominable men, τῇ τῶν ἀδείσμων πλάγῳ. [f] tempest] Δαίλαψ is by Hesychius rendered καταιγίς and ἀνέμου συστροφή. What καταιγίς notes is by him best expressed elsewhere, ἐπιφορά ἀνέμου σφοδρῶν, the violence of a strong wind. To this Phavorinus adds, σκότος μετὰ συστροφῆς ἀνέμου, darkness with a violent wind: and so it is here fitly set to signify that black wind, as it were, of dark heathen errors and practices, by which these νεφέλαι, clouds, to which St. Jude adds ἄνυδροι, empty, waterless clouds, the Gnostics, are driven and carried about; to which therefore is apportioned ὁ ζόφος τοῦ σκότους, the blackness of darkness for ever, in the end of the verse.