For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:
Ver. 5. Willingly ignorant of] A carnal heart is not willing to know what it should do, lest it should do what it would not, Acts 28:27. Ut liberius peccent, libenter ignorant, saith Bernard of such: That they may sin the more freely, they are willingly ignorant. They wink wilfully that they may not see, when some unsavoury potion is ministered to them, as Justin Martyr expresseth it.
That by the word of God] And that by the same word again they may as soon be dissolved, yea, reduced to their first original, nothing. A learned man propoundeth this question, How did the Lord employ himself before the world? And his answer is this: A thousand years to him are but as one day, and one day as a thousand years. Again, Who knoweth (saith he) what the Lord hath done? Indeed, he made but one world to our knowledge; but who knoweth what he did before, and what he will do after? Thus he. (Dr Preston of God's Attrib.)
And the earth standing, &c.] God hath founded the earth upon the seas, and established it upon the floods,Psalms 24:2. This Aristotle reckons among the wonders in nature, and well he may. (Lib. de Mirab.) God hath set the solid earth upon the liquid waters for our convenience, Psalms 104:6,7. This, if wicked atheists would well weigh, it would make them tremble,Jeremiah 5:22. But they have either so much to do, or so little to do, that they think not at all on these standing miracles. Or, if they do, yet for want of grace all their thoughts of this nature soon vanish; they are but like prints made on the water; as soon as the finger is off, all is out.