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I. THE OBJECT OF THEIR MINDFULNESS.

1. "Words," for their plain certainty; not shadows and abstruse paradoxes.

2. "Spoken before," for their antiquity; not things of yesterday; no new devices.

3. "By the prophets," for the authority; men that had their commission immediately from God Himself.

4. "Holy prophets," for the sanctity; they passed not through the lips of a Balaam, or Caiaphas.

5. "The commandment of us," etc. The prophets were legal apostles, the apostles are evangelical prophets. Both these came to the world with commandments.

(1) Neither prophets nor apostles did ever command in their own names; but the former came with "Thus saith the Lord," and the other in the name of Christ.

(2) St. Peter refers us to the words of the prophets and commandments of the apostles, and precisely chargeth our mindfulness with these lessons.

(3) Neither the prophets without the apostles, nor the apostles without the prophets, but both together. The gospel without the law may lift men up to presumption; the law without the gospel may sink them down to desperation.

(4) The rule of truth is delivered to us by the prophets and apostles.

II. THEIR MINDFULNESS OF THAT OBJECT. This consists in two things:

1. Observation. God never meant His Word for a vanishing sound; that which is kept upon eternal record in heaven, and is a constant dweller in the elected heart (Colossians 3:16), must not be a sojourner, much less a passenger, with us.

2. Conversation. It is a barren mindfulness that does not declare itself in a holy fruitfulness. Conclusion:

1. Let us desire the faculty and facility of doing; earnestly to desire it is one half, yea, the best half.

2. Let us be thrifty husbands of time and means to be spiritually rich.

3. Let us reduce all to practice.

(Thos. Adams.)

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KJV: This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance:

WEB: This is now, beloved, the second letter that I have written to you; and in both of them I stir up your sincere mind by reminding you;