But Notwithstanding the long-suffering of God; the day of the Lord The day of the consummation of all things, and of final judgment; will come, and that as a thief in the night Because thieves commonly break into houses in the nighttime, and occasion great fear to those who are within, any sudden, unexpected event, especially such as occasioned terror, was compared, by the Hebrews, to the coming of a thief in the night. The suddenness, therefore, and unexpectedness of the coming of the day of the Lord, and the terror which it will occasion to the wicked, are the circumstances in which it will resemble the coming of a thief, and not that it will happen in the night-time. In the which the heavens That is, the aerial heavens, the atmosphere which surrounds this earth, and which the apostle calls the heavens, because Moses had called it so; shall pass away The passing away of the heavens and the earth does not mean, it seems, that they will be removed to another part of space, or that they will be annihilated; but that, being burned, their form and constitution will be changed much more, probably, than the constitution or form of the old world was by the flood; destruction by fire being more complete and dreadful than destruction by water; with a great noise Surprisingly expressed by the very sound of the original word, ροιζηδον. “That the thundering noise occasioned by the burning of the whole heavens, or atmosphere, will be terrible beyond description, may be conjectured by considering what a noise is made by those small portions of the air which are burned when it thunders, or which are set in commotion in a storm.” But how much greater will be the noise arising from the general conflagration of the whole earth, with all that it contains. And the elements shall melt with fervent heat Καυσουμενα λυθησονται, burning shall be dissolved. The word στοιχεια, rendered elements, signifies the first principles, or constituent parts of any thing. Hence it denotes the principles of science, (Hebrews 5:12,) as well as the principles of bodies. Estius understands by the word the elements of which this terraqueous globe is composed; but as the melting of these is mentioned 2 Peter 3:12, Macknight is of opinion “that, in this verse, the apostle is speaking of the electrical matter, the sulphureous vapours, the clouds, and whatever else floats in the air, all which, burning furiously, will be disunited and separated.” The earth also, and the works that are therein Whether of nature or of art; shall be burned up And has not God already abundantly provided for this?
1st, By the stores of subterranean fire, which are so frequently bursting out at Ætna, Vesuvius, Hecla, and many other burning mountains; 2d, by the ethereal (vulgarly called electrical) fire, diffused through the whole globe; which, if the secret chain that now binds it up were loosed, would immediately dissolve the whole frame of nature; 3d, By comets, one of which, if it touch the earth in its course toward the sun, must needs strike it into that abyss of fire. If in its return from the sun, when it is heated (as a great man computes) two thousand times hotter than a red-hot cannon ball, it must destroy all vegetables and animals long before their contact, and soon after burn it up.