Looking for and hasting 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?
Ver. 12. Looking for] As Sisera's mother looked out at a window, and expecting the return of her son, said, "Why are his chariots so long in coming?" so should we look up and long for Christ coming in the clouds, those chariots that carried him up, and shall bring him back again.
And hasting unto] Votis accelerantes, speeding and accelerating. True it is that God hath set the day wherein he will judge the world in righteousness,Acts 17:31, and we cannot alter it; yet we may be said to hasten it by our preparations and prayers. O mora! Christe, veni, " Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly."
The heavens being on fire, &c.] A far greater fire than that at Constantinople, where 7000 houses are said to have been on fire at once, A. D. 1633. (Blount's Voyage.)
And the elements shall melt] And fall like scalding lead or burning bell metal on the heads of the wicked, who shall give a terrible account with the world all on fire about their ears. Whether this shall happen in the year 1657 (as some conjecture, because in the year of the world 1657 the old world was drowned, and because the numeral letters in MU-n-DI Conf-L-agrat-I-o, MDCLVII make up the same number), I have nothing to affirm. (Alsted Chron.) Sure it is, the saints shall take no hurt at all by this last fire, but a great deal of benefit. Methodius writeth that Pyragnus (a certain plant so called) grows green and flourishes in the midst of the flames of burning Olympus, as much as if it grew by the banks of a pleasant river. And of this he saith that himself was an eyewitness. Praeclarum sane novissimi diei indicium et documentum.