2 Peter 3:11-17

"Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, (12) 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? (13) Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. (14) Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless. (15) And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; (16) As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction. (17) Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness."

I beg the Reader not to overlook the tender solicitude of the Apostle, directed by the Holy Ghost, towards the Church. Like the pillar of cloud in the camp of Israel, which became light to God's chosen, and darkness to their foes; so here the great day of God, whichever, for a moment, if thought on, damps all the prosperity of sinners, is, and must be, to every justified child of God in Jesus Christ, a subject of endless and unceasing joy. Reader! I never can say enough to you, (under the presumption that the Lord hath wrought a saving work of grace upon your soul), on this great point of faith and assurance in the Lord's promise. Depend upon it, Peter could never have said, that he was looking for, and hasting unto, the coming of the day of God, had he entertained the least doubt, or been at any uncertainty as. to the issue of his own everlasting happiness in that day. The Apostle knew the certainty of the ground on which he stood. He had already passed from death unto life. He had gone under the sentence of God's holy law, which he had broken. He had found redemption in the blood of the cross, and stood perfectly, freely, and fully justified in the righteousness of Christ, his Head and Surety. Hence, he had long maintained through grace, fellowship, interest, and communion with God in Christ; and he now only waited for that great day of God, when Jesus would confess him before God and men, among all his redeemed in glory. Reader! is it so with you? Peter's privilege was not singular. All Christ's redeemed ones are the same. And every child of God who hath been saved, and called with an holy calling, is supposed to be daily, and hourly, living in the faith and enjoyment of it. Yea, the Church is said to be risen with Christ, and made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ. Ephesians 2:6. And very sure I am, that it is not only among the triumph's of faith, so to live, and so to walk with God, in full assurance of hope; but it is a duty they owe to God in giving the credit of believing him as God, in accepting and trusting to the record which the Lord hath given of his dear Son. And this is the record, that he hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life. And this, as surely in the life that now is, as in that which is to come. 1 John 5:11; John 3:36, Oh! for grace then, that, like Peter, yea, like all the faithful gone before, to be always looking for, and hasting unto, the coming of the day of God. And, as the Apostle saith, to be diligent in the use of all the appointed means of grace, that agreeably to our God and Father's original and eternal purpose, who hath chosen us in Christ, we may then be found in Christ, having peace in the blood of his cross, and being washed from sin, and robed in Him, we shall be without spot, and blameless.

And, Reader! what a sweet note on long suffering the Apostle dwells upon. And what child of God, but in his own experience, can, and doth, sing the same. Oh! the long suffering of my God, in the long, long years of my unregeneracy! Was not this salvation and observe also the love of Peter to Paul. How sweetly hath he here endeared Paul's writings to the Church, and how delightfully doth he determine concerning the supposed difficulties in Paul's writings. Hard to be understood, he saith. But by whom? Not by any who are taught of God. None of those who are come to Christ for Jesus saith, that every man who hath heard and learned of the Father cometh to him. John 6:45. None of those taught of God the Spirit. For John saith, that the regenerate have an anointing from the Spirit, and know all things, 1 John 2:27. Who then are these, the unlearned, and unstable, spoken of? Namely, the self-taught, the wise, and learned of this world, from whom divine truths are hidden, and who wrest the word of God, yea, all the scriptures to their own destruction. Hence Jesus thanked the Father when upon earth, Matthew 11:25. And all the faithful thank him now,