_The Introduction; That the World will not be annihilated in the
last Fire: That we are to expect, according to Scripture and the
Christian Doctrine, new Heavens and a new Earth, when these are
dissolv’d or burnt up._
We are now so far advanc’d in the Theory of the Earth, as to have seen
the End of two Worlds; one destroy’d by Water, and another by Fire. It
remains only to consider, whether we be yet come to the final Period of
Nature; the last Scene of all Things, and consequently the utmost Bound
of our Enquires: Or, whether Providence, which is inexhausted in Wisdom
and Goodness, will raise up, from this dead Mass, new Heavens and a new
Earth; another habitable World, better and more perfect than that which
was destroyed: That, as the first World began with a Paradise, and a
State of Innocency; so the last may be a kind of Renovation of that
happy State, whose Inhabitants shall not die, but be translated to a
blessed Immortality.
I know ’tis the Opinion of some, that this World will be annihilated, or
reduc’d to nothing, at the Conflagration, and that would put an End to
all farther Enquiries. But whence do they learn this? From Scripture or
Reason, or their own Imagination? What Instance or Example can they give
us of this they call _Annihilation_? Or what Place of Scripture can they
produce, that says, the World, in the last Fire, shall be reduc’d to
nothing? If they have neither Instance nor Proof of what they affirm,
’tis an empty Imagination of their own, neither agreeable to Philosophy,
nor Divinity: Fire does not consume any Substance; it changes the Form
and Qualities of it, but the Matter remains. And if the Design had been
_Annihilation_, the employing of Fire would have been of no Use or
Effect: For Smoke and Ashes are at as great a Distance from _Nothing_,
as the Bodies themselves out of which they are made. But these Authors
seem to have but a small Tincture of Philosophy, and therefore it will
be more proper to confute their Opinion from the Words of Scripture,
which hath left us sufficient Evidence, that another World will succeed
after the Conflagration of that we now inhabit.
The Prophets, both of the Old and New Testament, have left us their
Predictions concerning _new Heavens and a new Earth_. So says the
Prophet _Isaiah_, ch. lxv. 17. _Behold I create new Heavens and a new
Earth, and the former shall not be remembered, or come into Mind_; as
not worthy our Thoughts, in comparison of those that will arise when
these pass away. So the Prophet St. _John_ in his _Apocalypse_, when he
was come to the End of this World, says, _And I saw a new Heaven and a
new Earth: For the first Heaven and the first Earth were passed away,
and there was no more Sea, Apoc. xxi. 1._ Where he does not only give us
an Account of a new Heaven and a new Earth in general; but also gives a
distinctive Character of the _new Earth_, that it shall have _no Sea_.
And in the _5th Verse_, he that sate upon the Throne says, _Behold I
make all_ Things _new_: which, consider’d with the Antecedents and
Consequents, cannot be otherwise understood than of a new World.
But some Men make Evasions here, as to the Words of the Prophets, and
say, they are to be understood in a figurative and allegorical Sense;
and to be apply’d to the Times of the Gospel, either at first or towards
the latter End of the World; so as this _new Heaven and new Earth_,
signify only a great Change in the moral World. But how can that be,
seeing St. _John_ places them after the End of the World? And the
Prophet _Isaiah_ connects such Things with his new Heavens and new
Earth, as are not compatible to the present State of Nature, _ch. lxv._
However, to avoid all Shuffling and Tergiversation in this Point, let us
appeal to St. _Peter_, who uses a plain literal Style, and discourses
downright concerning the natural World. In his _2d Epist._ and _3d
Chap._ when he had foretold and explain’d the future Conflagration, he
adds, But we expect _new Heavens and a new Earth, according to his
Promises_. These Promises were made by the Prophets; and this gives us
full Authority to interpret their _new Heavens and new Earth_ to be
after the _Conflagration_. St. _Peter_, when he had describ’d the
Dissolution of the World in the last Fire, in full and emphatical Terms,
as _the passing away the Heavens with a Noise; the melting of the
Elements, and burning up all the Works of the Earth_; he subjoins,
_Nevertheless_ (notwithstanding this total Dissolution of the present
World) _we, according to his Promises, look for new Heavens and a new
Earth, wherein dwelleth Righteousness_. As if the Apostle should have
said, Notwithstanding this strange and violent Dissolution of the
present Heavens and Earth, which I have describ’d to you, we do not at
all distrust God’s Promises, concerning new Heavens and a new Earth,
that are to succeed these, and to be the Seat of the Righteous.
Here’s no room for Allegories, or allegorical Expositions, unless you
will make the Conflagration of the World an Allegory: For, as Heavens
and Earth were destroyed, so Heavens and Earth are restored; and if, in
the first Place, you understand the natural material World, you must
also understand it in the second Place; they are both Allegories, or
neither. But to make the Conflagration an Allegory, is not only to
contradict St. _Peter_, but all Antiquity, sacred or prophane. And I
desire no more Assurance, that we shall have new Heavens and a new
Earth, in a literal Sense, than we have that the present Heavens and
Earth shall be destroyed in a literal Sense, and by material Fire: Let
it therefore rest upon that Issue, as to the first Evidence and Argument
from Scripture.
Some will fancy, it may be, that we shall have new Heavens and Earth,
and yet that these shall be annihilated: They would have these first
reduc’d to nothing, and then others created, spick and span new, out of
nothing. But why so, pray, what’s the Humour of that? Lest Omnipotency
should want Employment, you would have it to do, and undo, and do again;
as if new-made Matter, like new Cloaths, or new Furniture, had a better
Gloss, and was more credible. Matter never wears; as fine Gold, melt it
down never so often, it loses nothing of its Quantity: The Substance of
the World is the same, burnt or unburnt, and is of the same Value and
Virtue, new or old; and we must not multiply the Actions of Omnipotency
without Necessity. God does not make, or unmake things, to try
Experiments: He knows beforehand the utmost Capacities of every thing,
and does no vain or superfluous Work. Such Imaginations as these,
proceed only from want of true Philosophy, or the true Knowledge of the
Nature of God and of his Works, which should always be carefully
attended to in such Speculations as concern the natural World. But to
proceed in our Subject.
If they suppose Part of the World to be annihilated, and to continue so,
they philosophize still worse and worse: How high shall the Annihilation
reach? Shall the Sun, Moon, and Stars be reduc’d to nothing? But what
have they done, that they should undergo so hard a Fate? Must they be
turn’d out of Being for our Faults? The whole material Universe will not
be annihilated at this Bout, for we are to have Bodies after the
Resurrection, and to live in Heaven. How much of the Universe then will
you leave standing? or how shall it subsist with this great _Vacuum_ in
the Heart of it? This Shell of a World is but the Fiction of an empty
Brain; for God and Nature, in their Works, never admit of such gaping
Vacuities and Emptinesses.
If we consult Scripture again, we shall find that that makes mention of
a _Restitution_ and _Reviviscency_ of all Things, at the End of the
World, or at the Coming of our Saviour. St. _Peter_, whose Doctrine we
have hitherto follow’d, in his Sermon to the _Jews_, after our Saviour’s
Ascension, tells them, that he will come again, and that there will be
then a _Restitution of all Things_, such as was promised by the
Prophets. _The Heavens_, says he, _must receive him until the Time of
Restitution of all Things; which God hath spoken by the Mouth of his
holy Prophets, since the World began, Acts iii. 21._ If we compare this
Passage of Saint _Peter’s_, with that which we alledged before, out of
his Second Epistle, it can scarce be doubted but that he refers to the
same Promises in both Places; and what he there calls a _new Heaven_,
and a _new Earth_, he calls here a _Restitution of all Things_: For the
Heavens and the Earth comprehend all, and both these are but different
Phrases for the Renovation of the World. This gives us also Light how to
understand what our Saviour calls the _Regeneration_ or _Reviviscency_,
when he shall sit upon his Throne of Glory, and will reward his
Followers an hundred-fold, for all their Losses in this World, besides
everlasting Life, as the Crown of all, _Mat. xix. 28, 29._ I know, in
our _English_ Translation, we separate _the Regeneration_ from _sitting
upon his Throne_, but without any Warrant from the Original. And seeing
our Saviour speaks here of bodily Goods, and seems to distinguish them
from _everlasting Life_, which is to be the final Reward of his
Followers; this _Regeneration_ seems to belong to his Second Coming,
when the World shall be renew’d or regenerated, and the Righteous shall
possess the Earth.
Other Places of Scripture that foretel the Fate of this material World,
represent it always as a _Change_, not as an _Annihilation_. St. _Paul_
says, _The Figure of this World passeth away, 1 Cor. vii. 31._ The Form,
Fashion, and Disposition of its Parts, but the Substance still remains:
As a Body that is melted down and dissolv’d, the Form perishes, but the
Matter is not destroyed. And the Psalmist says, the Heavens and the
Earth shall be _chang’d_, _Psal. cii. 26._ which answers to this
Transformation we speak of. The same Apostle, in the eighth Chapter to
the _Romans_, ver. 21, 22, 23, 24. shews also, that this _Change_ shall
be, and shall be for the better, and calls it a _Deliverance of the
Creation from Vanity and Corruption_, and a Participation of the
_glorious Liberty of the Children of God_; being a sort of _Redemption_,
as they have a _Redemption of their Bodies_.
But seeing the _Renovation_ of the World is a Doctrine generally
receiv’d, both by antient and modern Authors, as we shall have Occasion
to shew hereafter, we need add no more, in this Place, for Confirmation
of it. Some Men are willing to throw all Things into a State of
_Nothing_ at the Conflagration, and bury them there, that they may not
be oblig’d to give an Account of that State of things that is to succeed
it. Those who think themselves bound in Honour to know every thing in
Theology that is knowable, and find it uneasy to answer such Questions
and Speculations as would arise upon their admitting a new World, think
it more advisable to stifle it in the Birth, and so to bound all
Knowledge at the Conflagration. But surely so far as Reason or Scripture
lead us, we may and ought to follow, otherwise we should be ungrateful
to Providence, that sent us those Guides, provided we be always duly
sensible of our own Weakness: And, according to the Difficulty of the
Subject, and the Measure of Light that falls upon it, proceed with that
Modesty and Ingenuity, that becomes such fallible Enquirers after Truth,
as we are. And this Rule I desire to prescribe to my self, as in all
other Writings, so especially in this; where, though I look upon the
principal Conclusions as fully prov’d, there are several Particulars,
that are rather propos’d to Examination, than positively asserted.