The Lond is not flack concerning his Promife, as fome Men count flackness; but is long-fuffering, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to Repentance.

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prit 'N the beginning of this Chapter, the Apostle puts the Chriftians, to whom he writes, in mind of the Predictions of the ancient Prophets, and of the Apoftles of our Lord and Saviour, concerning the general Judgment of the World, which by many (and perhaps by the Apoftles themfelves) had been thought to be very near, and that it would prefently follow the destruction of Jerufalem; but

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w he tells them, that before that, there Vol. VII would arife a certain Sect, or fort of

Men, that would deride the expectation of a future Judgment, defigning probably the Carpocratians (a branch of that large Sect of the Gnofticks) of whom St. Austin exprefsly fays, "That they denied the Refurrection, and confequently a future Judgment. Thefe St. Peter calls Scoffers, v. 3, 4. Knowing this firft, that there fball come in the last days fcoffers, walking after their own lufts, and faying, Where is the promife of his coming? The word is Tyynia, which fignifies a Declaration in general, whether it be by way of Promife or Threatning. What is become of that Declaration of Chrift fo frequently repeated in the Gospel, concerning his coming to Judgment? For fince the Fathers fell asleep,or, faving that the Fathers are fallen asleep, except only that Men die, and one Generation fucceeds another, all things continue as they were from the creation of the world; that is, the World continues ftill as it was from the beginning, and there is no fign of any fuch change and alteration as is foretold. To this he anfwers two things. T

1. That

1. That these Scoffers, tho' they took themselves to be Wits, did be- Vol. VII. tray great Ignorance, both of the condition of the World, and of the na ture of God. They talk'd very ignorantly concerning the World, when they faid, All things continued as they were from the Creation of it, when fo remarkable a change had already hapned, as the deftruction of it by Water; and therefore the Prediction concerning the deftruction of it by Fire, before the great and terrible day of Judgment,was no ways incredible. And they fhewed themfelves likewife very ignorant of the Perfection of the Divine Nature, to which, being eternally the fame, a thousand years and one day are all one; and if God make good his word fome thousand of Years hence, it will make no fenfible diffe rence, confidering his eternal duration, it being no matter when a duration begins, which is never to have an end; v. 8. Be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years,and a thousand jears aš one day. This, it feems, was a common faying among the Jews, to fignifie, that to the Eternity of God, no finite duration bears any proportion

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and therefore with regard to Eternity, Vol. VII. it is all one whether it be a thousand Years or one Day. The Pfalmift hath an Expreffion much to the fame purpose, Pfal. 90. 4. For a thousand years in thy fight are but as yesterday when it is paft; and as a watch in the night. And the Son of Sirach likewife, Ecclus. 18. 10. As a drop of water to the fea, and as a grain of fand to the fea fhore, fo are a thousand years to the days of eternity. The like Expreffion we meet with in Heathen Writers; To the Gods no time is long, faith Pythagoras: And Plutarch, The whole space of a Man's life to the Gods is as nothing. And in his excellent Difcourfe of the flowness of the Divine Vengeance, (the very Argument St. Peter is here upon) he hath this Paffage, That a thousand, or ten thousand years, are but as an indivifible point to Ian infinite duration. And therefore when the Judgment is to be eternal, the delay of it, though it were for a thousand Years, is an Objection of no force, againfi either the certainty, or the terror of it; for to Eternity,all time is equally fhort; and it matters not when the punishment of Sinners begins,if it fhall never have an end.

2. But because the diftance between the Declaration of a future Judgment, and the coming of it, tho' it be nothing to God, yet it feemed long to them; therefore he gives fuch an account of it, as doth not in the leaft impeach the truth and faithfulness of God, but is a clear argument and demonftration of his goodness. Admitting what they faid to be true, that God delays Judgment for a great while, yet this gives no ground to conclude that Judgment will never be; but it fhews the great goodness of God to finners, that he gives them fo long a space of repentace, that fo they may prevent the terror of that day whenever it comes, and escape

that dreadful ruin which will certainly overtake, fooner or later, all impenitent finners; The Lord is not flack concerning his promife; that is, as to the Declaration which he hath made of a future Judgment, as fome Men account flackness; That is, as if the delay of Judgment were an argument it would never come. This is a falfe inference from the delay of punishment, and an ill interpretation of the goodness of God to finners, who bears long with them, and delays Judgment, on pur

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