shall melt with fervent heat,' &c. Compare with this, Deut. xxxii. 22, Heb. xii. 26: and observe that, by elements, are understood the Mosaic elements, Gal. iv. 9, Colos. ii. 20: and you will not doubt, that St. Peter speaks only of the conflagration of Jerusalem, the destruction of the nation, and the abolishing the dispensation of Moses.

"Rev. vi. 12 – 14, 'The sun became black as sackcloth of hair, &c.; and the heavens departed as a scroll when it is rolled together,' &c. Where if we take notice of the foregoing plagues, by which, according to the most frequent threatenings, he destroyed that people, viz. the sword, ver. 4, famine, ver. 5, 6, and the plague, ver. 8 ; withal comparing those words, They say to the mountains, Fall on us and cover us,' with Luke xxiii. 30; — it will sufficiently appear, that, by these phrases, is understood the dreadful judgment and overthrow of that nation and city. With these also agrees that of Jer. iv., from ver. 22 to 28, and clearly enough explains this phrase. To this appertain those and other such expressions, as we meet with ; 1 Cor. x. 11,' On us the ends of the world are come;' tnot the very last times of the world, for the world hath lasted sixteen hundred years since Paul spake that; and how long yet it may last, who knoweth? but the end of that old world of the Jewish state which then hasted on very fast :† - and 1 Pet. iv. 7, 'The end of all things is at hand;' †not the end of the world, but of that city, nation, and economy.t

+"The ruin and destruction of Jerusalem and the Jewish commonwealth and economy is set forth in Scripture in such expressions, as if it were the destruction and dissolution of the whole world. Moses beginneth this style in Deut. xxxii. 22, where he is speaking of that vengeance : 'For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and it shall burn to the lowest hell, and it shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains.' Would you not think that the dissolution of all things were in mention? Look upon the context, and you find it to mean no other

than the destruction of that nation. Jeremiah yet higher, chap. iv. 23; 'I beheld the earth, and lo, it was without form and void and the heavens, and they had no light.' You would think all the world were returning there to her old chaos again. Add yet farther, ‘I beheld the mountains, and lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly. I beheld, and lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled.' You would think, that the whole universe were dissolving; but look but in ver. 27, and it speaks no other than the dissolution of that people, For thus hath the Lord said, the whole land shall be desolate.'

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"Our Saviour yet higher, Matt. xxiv. 29; 'The sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man,' &c. Who would not conclude, that these expressions mean no other thing in the world, than the last dissolution of the world, and Christ's coming to judgment? Yet look well upon the context, and it speaketh plainly, that the meaning is only of the dissolving of the Jews' city and state: and Christ speaks it out most plainly at ver. 34, where he asserts, that that present generation should not pass, till all those things were fulfilled.'

"The beloved disciple follows his Master's style, upon the very same subject, in the sixth of his Revelation; where, after he had described the means of the destruction of this wretched people, under the opening of certain seals, by sword, famine, and plague; he comes at last, in ver. 12 – 14, to speak their final dissolution itself in the very like terms: "The sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood: and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, and the heavens departed as a scroll that is rolled together, and every mountain and island were removed out of their places.' One would think, the final dissolution of all the world were spoken of; but look in ver. 16, and you find

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the very same words that our Saviour applies to the destruction of that people; They said unto the mountains, Fall on us and hide us,' &c. Our apostle Peter's meaning is no other in the expression before my text, where, when he speaks of the heavens being dissolved by fire, the earth and the works therein burnt up, and the elements melting with fervent heat,' he intends no other thing, than the dissolving of their church and economy by fiery vengeance, the consumption of their state by the flame of God's indignation, and the ruin of their elements of religion by God's fury. Not 'the elements' in Aristotle's sense, of fire, air, earth, and water; but the elements' in his brother Paul's sense, whom he mentions presently after my text, - the nal and beggarly elements' of their Mosaic rites and traditionary institutions. †

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❝ II. With reference to this, and under this notion, the times immediately preceding this ruin are called the last days,' and the last times,' '': that is, the last times of the Jewish city, nation, economy. This manner of speaking frequently occurs, which let our St. John himself interpret; 1 John ii. 13, There are many antichrists, whereby we know that it is the last time:' and that this nation is upon the very verge of destruction, when as it hath already arrived at the utmost pitch of infidelity, apostasy, and wickedness.

"There is much mention of the 'last days' in Scripture, which in most places is not to be understood of the last days of the world, as some take them and so mistake, but of the last days of Jerusalem and the Jewish state. And indeed, the greatest mercies that were promised to that people were promised to occur in those last days; as Isa. ii. 2, Hos. iii. 5, Joel ii. 28, as he is cited by this our apostle, Acts ii. 17. These things are not to be allotted to the last days of the world, but to the last days of that city; as Peter's very allegation out of Joel makes it plain, if there were no more

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proof. 'Now (saith he) is fulfilled that which was spoken by the prophet Joel, In the last days I will pour out,' &c. These are the last days' there intended, and now the thing hath received its accomplishment. For how improper is it to construe him in such a sense as some do,-This is that which, Joel foretold, should come to pass in the last days of the world, two or three thousand years hence.

"And so, on the contrary, the worst of men and times are foretold to be in those last days of Jerusalem, because they did not improve those mercies, 1 Tim. iv. 1, and 2 Tim. iii. 1; and our apostle in the third verse of this chapter [2 Pet. iii. 3].+ And see 1 Pet. i. 20; Christ was manifest in these last times.' ‡

"III. With the same reference it is, that the times and state of things immediately following the destruction of Jerusalem are called, a 6 new creation,' 'new heavens,' and a ‘new earth,' — Isa. lxv. 17, ‘Behold I create a new heaven and a new earth.' When should that be? Read the whole chapter; and you will find the Jews rejected and cut off; and from that time is that new creation of the evangelical world among the Gentiles. Compare 2 Cor. v. 17, and Rev. xxi. 1, 2: where, the old Jerusalem being cut off and destroyed, a new one succeeds; and new heavens and a new earth are created.

"2 Pet. iii. 13: We, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth: '- The heavens and the earth of the Jewish church and commonwealth must be all on fire, and the Mosaic elements burnt up: but we, according to the promise made to us by Isaiah the prophet, when all these things are consumed, look for the new creation of the evangelical state.

"It is well they might so, [look for new heavens and a new earth,] and had warrant of promise so to do; otherwise where had their expectation been? The verses immediately before speak nothing but devastation and ruin of heaven

and earth; and if there had been nothing beyond that to be looked after, their hopes and expectancy had been ruined also; but we (says our apostle) look for new heavens and a new earth.'

“But of what nature they, is all the question. I doubt some men construe these words of the apostle as far distant from his sense almost, as the earth is distant from the heavens; whilst they conceive from hence, that after the dissolution of all things, yet there shall be a renewing of heaven and earth, and they shall be as before as to their substance and form, only their quality changed. To this they apply Rom. viii. 19, 20; For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God,' &c. 'They would make our apostle say Sibboleth, whether he will or no; whereas he speaks Shibboleth, plain enough, to a far differing sense. †

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"Here belong those things which are said of the r

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, the world to come,' when they refer to the times of the Messiah. For the destruction of Jerusalem was the Téλos Toû aiŵvos, 'finis sæculi Judaici,'' the end of the Jewish age,' (or of that y, or age, during which the institutions of Moses were to continue, of which it is said that they were to endure [commonly translated for ever]); and thereupon was the commencement of a new world and age, in which Christ was to reign among the Gentiles, and all the nations were to submit to the sceptre of his gospel.

"And here by the way let us remark, that that is a harder interpretation, which explains in the last days,' vaguely and generally, in the days of the gospel, that is, from its first preaching to the end of the world. It is, I say, a harder interpretation to call those times which are distinguished by the appellation of the new world' or the new creation,' the last days.

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"IV. The day, the time, and the manner, of the execu tion of this vengeance upon this people, are called, The