romise of his
coming? the world has stood so long and continued to abide, is it now
for the first time to be otherwise?" Thus Peter warns us that we
should not be surprised, and that we have a sure sign that the day
will soon come.--It follows, further:

V. 5, 6. _But this in their obstinacy they will not know, that the
heavens of old, besides the earth standing out of the water and in
the water, were (made) by God's word, yet through the same, was the
world in its time destroyed by the flood._ Such people they are, he
says, as show not so much diligence as to read the Scripture, but
obstinately refuse to think and be aware that so also it was of old,
when Noah built the ark; the world which stood and was made through
the water and in the water, was destroyed by water, and the people
were yet so safe and secure that they thought, surely there is no
danger,--yet they were all alike destroyed by water. As though he
should say,--if God has for once destroyed the world by water, and
shown by an example that he can sink it, how much more will he do it
now that he has promised to do it.

But here St. Peter speaks somewhat particularly of the creation. The
heaven and the earth stood fast aforetime; they were made of water
and stood in the water, by the word of God. Heaven and earth have a
beginning; they have not been forever; the heaven was made from the
water, and there was water above and beneath,--but the earth is made
and stands in the water, as Moses writes, whom St. Peter here quotes.
All is sustained by God's word, as it also was made by the same, for
it is not their nature so to stand. Therefore if God did not sustain
it, it must all soon fall down and sink into the water. For God spoke
a word of power when he said, "let the waters under the heavens
gather themselves into a separate place, that the dry land may be
seen;" that is, let the water put itself aside and give room for the
earth to come forth, whereon man might dwell,--yet naturally the
waters should spread themselves over the earth. Therefore this is, at
the present day, one of the greatest miracles that God works.

Now St. Peter would say this: so obstinate and stupid are these
scoffers, that they will not do honor to the Holy Spirit, though they
read how God holds up the earth in the water, whence they should be
convinced that all stands in the hands of God. Therefore, since God
at that time drowned the earth, so he will deal with us even yet
again.