terms so express He first says Behold I create new heavens and a new earth wherein you shall rejoyce Then subjoyns immediately Behold I create Ierusalem a rejoycing This rejoycing is still in the same place in the New Heavens and New Earth or in the New Jerusalem And S. Iohn in a like method first sets down the New Earth then the New Jerusalem and expresses the mind of the Prophet Isaiah more distinctly This leads me to a Sixth Argument to confirm our Conclusion The time of the Restitution or Restauration of all things spoken of by S. Peter and the Prophets is the same with the Millennium But that Restauration will not be till the coming of Christ and the end of the World Therefore neither the Millennium That this Restitution of all things will not be till the coming of our Saviour S. Peter declares in his Sermon Act. 3. 21. and that the coming of our Saviour will not be till the end of the World or till the Conflagration both S. Paul and S. Peter signifie to us 1 Thess. 1. 7 8. 2 Pet. 3. 10. Therefore it remains only to prove that this Restitution of all things spoken of here by the Apostle is the same with the Millennium I know that which it does directly and immediately signifie is the Renovation of the World but it must include the Moral World as well as the Natural otherwise it cannot be truly said as S. Peter does there that all the Prophets have spoken of it And what is the Renovation of the Natural and Moral World but the New Jerusalem or the Millennium These Arguments taken together have to me an irresistible evidence for the proof of our Conclusion That the Blessed Millennium cannot obtain in the present Earth or before the Conflagration But when Nature is renew'd and the Saints and Martyrs rais'd from the Dead then they shall reign together with Christ in the New Heavens and New Earth or in the New Jerusalem Satan being bound for a Thousand Years CHAP. IX The chief employment of the Millennium DEVOTION and CONTEMPLATION WE have now done with the substance of our Discourse which is comprehended in these Three Propositions I. After the Conflagration of this World there will be New Heavens and a New Earth and That Earth will be inhabited II. That there is an happy Millennial state Or a future Kingdom of Christ and his Saints prophesied of and promis'd in the Old and New Testament and receiv'd by the Primitive Church as a Christian and Catholick Doctrine III. That this blessed Millennial state according as it is describ'd in Scripture cannot take place in the present Earth nor under the present constitution of Nature and Providence But is to be celebrated in the New Heavens and New Earth after the Conflagration These Three Propositions support this Work and if any of them be broken I confess my design is broken and this Treatise is of no effect But what remains to be spoken to in these last Chapters is more circumstantial or modal and an error or mistake in such things does not wound any vital part of the Argument You must now therefore lay aside your severity and rigorous censures we are very happy if in this Life we can attain to the substance of truth and make rational conjectures concerning modes and circumstances where every one hath right to offer his sence with modesty and submission Revelations made to us from Heaven in this present state are often incompleat and do not tell us all as if it was on purpose to set our thoughts a-work to supply the rest which we may lawfully do provided it be according to the analogy of Scripture and Reason To proceed therefore We suppose as you see the new Heavens and the new Earth to be the seat of the Millennium and that new Creation to be Paradisiacal Its Inhabitants also to be Righteous Persons the Saints of the most High And seeing the ordinary employments of our present Life will then be needless and superseded as Military affairs Sea-affairs most Trades and Manufactures Law Physick and the laborious part of Agriculture it may be wonder'd how this Happy People will bestow their time What entertainment they will find in a state of so much ease and so little action To this one might answer in short by another question How would they have entertain'd themselves in Paradise if Man had continued in Innocency This is a revolution of the same state and therefore they may pass their time as well now as they could have done then But to answer more particularly besides all innocent diversions ingenuous conversations and entertainments of friendship the greatest part of their time will be spent in Devotion and Contemplation O happy employment and next to that of Heaven it self What do the Saints above but sing Praises unto God and contemplate his Perfections And how mean and despicable for the most part are the employments of this present Life if compar'd with those Intellectual Actions If Mankind was divided into ten parts nine of those ten employ their time to get bread to their belly and cloaths to their back And what impertinences are these to a reasonable Soul if she was free from the clog of a Mortal Body or if that could be provided for without trouble or loss of time Corporeal Labour is from need and necessity but intellectual exercises are matter of choice that please and perfect at the same time Devotion warms and opens the Soul and disposes it to receive Divine Influences It sometimes raises the mind into an heavenly ecstasie and fills it with a joy that is not to be exprest When it is pure it leaves a strong impression upon the heart of Love to God and inspires us with a contempt of this World having tasted the pleasures of the World to come In the state which we speak of seeing the Tabernacle of God will be with men we may reasonably suppose that there will be greater effusions and irradiations of the Holy Spirit than we have or can expect in this region of darkness and consequently all the strength and comfort that can arise from private devotion And as to their publick Devotions all beauties of Holiness all perfection of Divine Worship will shine in their Assemblies Whatsoever David says of Sion and Ierusalem are but shadows of this New Ierusalem and of the glory that will be in those Solemnities Imagine what a Congregation will be there of Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Christian Martyrs and Saints of the first rank throughout all Ages And these all known to one another by their Names and History This very meeting together of such Persons must needs create a joy unspeakable But when they unite in their praises to God and to the Lamb with pure hearts full of divine Love when they sing their Hallelujahs to him that sits upon the Throne that hath wash'd them in his blood and redeem'd them out of every Kingdom and Tongue and
is a dangerous thing to engage the authority of Scripture in disputes about the Natural World in opposition to Reason lest Time which brings all things to light should discover that to be evidently false which we had made Scripture to assert And I remember S. Austin in his Exposition upon Genesis hath laid down a rule to this very purpose though he had the unhappiness it seems not to follow it always himself The reason also which he gives there for his rule is very good and substantial For saith He if the Vnbelievers or Philosophers shall certainly know us to be mistaken and to err in those things that concern the Natural World and see that we alledge our Sacred Books for such vain opinions how shall they believe those same Books when they tell them of the RESVRRECTION of the Dead and the World to come if they find them to be fallaciously writ in such things as lie within their certain Knowledge We are not to suppose that any truth concerning the Natural World can be an Enemy to Religion for Truth cannot be an Enemy to Truth God is not divided against himself and therefore we ought not upon that account to condemn or censure what we have not examin'd or cannot disprove as those that are of this narrow Spirit we are speaking of are very apt to do Let every thing be try'd and examin'd in the first place whether it be True or False and if it be found false 't is then to be consider'd whether it be such a falsity as is prejudicial to Religion or no. But for every new Theory that is propos'd to be alarm'd as if all Religion was falling about our Ears is to make the World suspect that we are very ill assur'd of the foundation it stands upon Besides do not all Men complain even These as well as others of the great ignorance of Mankind how little we know and how much is still unknown and can we ever know more unless something new be Discover'd It cannot be old when it comes first to light when first invented and first propos'd If a Prince should complain of the poorness of his Exchequer and the scarcity of Money in his Kingdom would he be angry with his Merchants if they brought him home a Cargo of good Bullion or a Mass of Gold out of a foreign Countrey and give this reason only for it He would have no new Silver neither should any be Currant in his Dominions but what had his own Stamp and Image upon it How should this Prince or his People grow rich To complain of want and yet refuse all offers of a supply looks very sullen or very fantastical I might mention also upon this occasion another Genius and disposition in Men which often makes them improper for Philosophical Contemplations not so much it may be from the narrowness of their Spirit and Understanding as because they will not take time to extend them I mean Men of Wit and Parts but of short Thoughts and little Meditation and that are apt to distrust every thing for a Fancy or Fiction that is not the dictate of Sense or made out immediately to their Senses Men of this Humour and Character call such Theories as these Philosophick Romances and think themselves witty in the expression They allow them to be pretty amusements of the Mind but without Truth or Reality I am afraid if an Angel should write the Theory of the Earth they would pass the same judgment upon it Where there is variety of Parts in a due Contexture with something of surprizing aptness in the harmony and correspondency of them this they call a Romance but such Romances must all Theories of Nature and of Providence be and must have every part of that Character with advantage if they be well represented There is in them as I may so say a Plot or Mystery pursued through the whole Work and certain Grand Issues or Events upon which the rest depend or to which they are subordinate but these things we do not make or contrive our selves but find and discover them being made already by the Great Author and Governour of the Universe And when they are clearly discover'd well digested and well reason'd in every part there is methinks more of beauty in such a Theory at least a more masculine beauty than in any Poem or Romance And that solid truth that is at the bottom gives a satisfaction to the Mind that it can never have from any Fiction how artificial soever it be To enter no farther upon this matter 't is enough to observe that when we make Judgments and Censures upon general presumptions and prejudices they are made rather from the temper and model of our own Spirits than from Reason and therefore if we would neither impose upon our selves nor others we must lay aside that lazy and fallacious method of Censuring by the Lump and must bring things close to the test of True or False to explicit proof and evidence And whosoever makes such Objections against an Hypothesis hath a right to be heard let his Temper and Genius be what it will Neither do we intend that any thing we have said here should be understood in another sence To conclude This Theory being writ with a sincere intention to justifie the Doctrines of the Vniversal Deluge and of a Paradisiacal state and protect them from the Cavils of those that are no well-wishers to Sacred History upon that account it may reasonably expect fair usage and acceptance with all that are well-dispos'd And it will also be I think a great satisfaction to them to see those pieces of most ancient History which have been chiefly preserv'd in Scripture confirm'd a-new and by another Light that of Nature and Philosophy and also freed from those misconceptions or misrepresentations which made them sit uneasie upon the Spirits even of the best Men that took time to think Lastly In things purely Speculative as these are and no ingredients of our Faith it is free to differ from one another in our Opinions and Sentiments and so I remember S. Austin hath observ'd upon this very subject of Paradise Wherefore as we desire to give no offence our selves so neither shall we take any at the difference of Judgment in others provided this liberty be mutual and that we all agree to study Peace Truth and a good Life CONTENTS OF THE CHAPTERS THE FIRST BOOK CHAP. I. THE Introduction An account of the whole Work of the extent and general Order of it CHAP. II. A general account of Noah's Flood A computation what quantity of Water would be necessary for the making of it That the common Opinion and Explication of that Flood is not intelligible CHAP. III. All Evasions concerning the Flood answer'd That there was no Creation of Waters at the Deluge and that it was not particular or National but extended throughout the whole Earth A prelude and preparation to the true account and explication
infer and conclude that the Civil World then as well as the Natural had a very different face and aspect from what it hath now for of these Heads Food and Cloathing Building and Traffick with that train of Arts Trades and Manufactures that attend them the Civil Order of things is in a great measure constituted and compounded These make the business of life the several occupations of Men the noise and hurry of the World These fill our Cities and our Fairs and our Havens and Ports yet all these fine things are but the effects of indigency and necessitousness and were for the most part needless and unknown in that first state of Nature The Ancients have told us the same things in effect but telling us them without their grounds which they themselves did not know they lookt like Poetical stories and pleasant fictions and with most Men past for no better We have shewn them in another light with their Reasons and Causes deduc'd from the state of the Natural World which is the Basis upon which they stand and this doth not only give them a just and full credibility but also lays a foundation for after-thoughts and further deductions when they meet with minds dispos'd to pursue Speculations of this Nature As for Laws Government natural Religion Military and Judicial affaiâ—â— with all their Equipage which make an higher order of things in the Civil and Moral World to calculate these upon the grounds given would be more difficult and more uncertain neither do they at all belong to the present Theory But from what we have already observ'd we may be able to make a better judgment of those Traditional accounts which the Ancients have left us concerning these things in the early Ages of the World and the Primitive state of Nature No doubt in these as in all other particulars there was a great easiness and simplicity in comparison of what is now we are in a more pompous forc'd and artificial method which partly the change of Nature and partly the Vices and Vanities of Men have introduc'd and establisht But these things with many more ought to be the subject of a Philosophick History of the World which we mention'd before This is a short and general Scheme of the Primaeval World compar'd with the Modern yet these things did not equally run through all the parts and Ages of it there was a declension and degeneracy both Natural and Moral by degrees and especially towards the latter end but the principal form of Nature remaining till the Deluge and the dissolution of that Heavens and Earth till then also this Civil frame of things would stand in a great measure And though such a state of Nature and of Mankind when 't is propos'd crudely and without its grounds appear fabulous or imaginary yet 't is really in it self a state not only possible but more easie and natural than what the World is in at present And if one of the old Ante-diluvian Patriarchs should rise from the dead he would be more surpris'd to see our World in that posture it is than we can be by the story and description of his As an Indian hath more reason to wonder at the European modes than we have to wonder at their plain manner of living 'T is we that have left the tract of Nature that are wrought and screw'd up into artifices that have disguis'd our selves and 't is in our World that the Scenes are chang'd and become more strange and Fantastical I will conclude this Discourse with an easie remark and without any particular Application of it 'T is a strange power that custom hath upon weak and little Spirits whose thoughts reach no further than their Senses and what they have seen and been us'd to they make the Standard and Measure of Nature of Reason and of all Decorum Neither are there any sort of Men more positive and tenacicus of their petty opinions than they are nor more censorious even to bitterness and malice And 't is generally so that those that have the least evidence for the truth of their beloved opinions are most peevish and impatient in the defence of them This sort of Men are the last that will be made Wise Men if ever they be for they have the worst of diseases that accompany ignorance and do not so much as know themselves to be sick CHAP. VII The place of Paradise cannot be determin'd from the Theory only nor from Scripture only What the sence of Antiquity was concerning it both as to the Iews and Heathens and especially as to the Christian Fathers That they generally plac'd it out of this Continent in the Southern Hemisphere WE have now prepar'd our work for the last finishing stroaks describ'd the first Earth and compar'd it with the present and not only the two Earths but in a good measure the whole State and Oeconomy of those two Worlds It remains only to determine the place of Paradise in that Primaeval Earth I say in that Primaeval Earth for we have driven the point so far already that the seat of it could not be in the present Earth whose Form Site and Air are so dispos'd as could not consist with the first and most indispensable properties of Paradise And accordingly we see with what ill success our modern Authors have rang'd over the Earth to find a fit spot of ground to plant Paradise in some would set it on the top of an high Mountain that it might have good Air and fair weather as being above the Clouds and the middle Region but then they were at a loss for Water which made a great part of the pleasure and beauty of that place Others therefore would seat it in a Plain or in a River-Island that they might have Water enough but then it would be subject to the injuries of the Air and foul weather at the seasons of the Year from which both Reason and all Authority have exempted Paradise 'T is like seeking a perfect beauty in a mortal Body there are so many things requir'd to it as to complexion Features Proportions and Air that they never meet all together in one person neither can all the properties of a Terrestrial Paradise ever meet together in one place though never so well chosen in this present Earth But in the Primaeval Earth which we have describ'd 't is easie to find a Seat that had all those beauties and conveniences We have every where through the temperate Climates a clear and constant Air a fruitful Soil pleasant Waters and all the general characters of Paradise so that the trouble will be rather in that competition what part of Region to pitch upon in particular But to come as near it as we can we must remember in the first place how that Earth was divided into two Hemispheres distant and separated from one another not by an imaginary line but by a real boundary that could not be past so as the first inquiry will
state And seeing in those places they plainly signified the Millennial state or the Kingdom of Christ and of his Saints they must here signifie the same in this promise of our Saviour to his suffering Followers And as to the word Palingenesia which is here translated Regeneration 't is very well known that both the Greek Philosophers and Greek Fathers use that very word for the Renovation of the World Which is to be as we shall hereafter make appear at or before the Millennial state Our Saviour also in his Divine Sermon upon the Mount makes this one of his Beatitudes Blessed are the Meek for they shall inherit the Earth But how I pray or where or when do the Meek inherit the Earth neither at present I am sure nor in any past Ages 'T is the Great Ones of the World ambitious Princes and Tyrants that slice the Barth amongst them and those that can flatter them best or serve them in their interests or pleasures have the next best shares But a meek modest and humble Spirit is the most unqualified Person that can be for a Court or a Camp to scramble for Preferment or Plundâ—r Both He and his self-denying notions are ridicul'd as things of no use and proceeding from meanness and poorness of Spirit David who was a Person of an admirable devotion but of an unequal Spirit subject to great dejections as well as elevations of mind was so much affected with the prosperity of the wicked in this World that he could scarce forbear charging Providence with injustice You may see several touches of a repining Spirit in his Psalms and in the Seventy-third Psalm compos'd upon that Subject you have both the wound and the cure Now this Beaâ—itâ—de pronounc'd here by our Saviour was spoken before by David psal 37. 11. The same David that was always so sensible of the hard usage of the Just in this life Our Saviour also and his Apostles preach the Doctrine of the Cross every where and foretell the sufferings that shall attend the Righteous in this World Therefore neither David nor our Saviour could understand this inheritance of the Earth otherwise than of some future state or of a state yet to come But as it must be a future state so it must be a Terrestrial state for it could not be call'd the inheritance of the Earth if it was not so And 't is to be a state of peace as well as plenty according to the words of the Psalmist But the meek shall inherit the Earth and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace It follows therefore from these premisses that both our Saviour and David must understand some future state of the Earth wherein the Meek will enjoy both peace and plenty And this will appear to be the future Kingdom of Christ when upon a fuller description we shall have given you the marks and characters of it In the mean time why should we not suppose this Earth which the Meek are to inherit to be that habitable Earth to come which St. Paul mentions Hebr. 2. 6. and represents as subject to our Saviour in a pecuilar manner at his disposal and under his Government as his Kingdom Why should not that Earth be the subject of this Beatitude The promis'd Land the Lot of the Righâ—eous This I am sure of that both this Text and the former deserve our serious thoughts and tho' they do not expresly and in terms prove the future Kingdom of our Saviour yet upon the fairest interpretations they imply such a state And it will be very uneasie to give a satisfactory account either of the Regeneration or Renovation when our Saviour and his Disciples shall sit upon Thrones Or of that Earth which the Meek shall inherit Or lastly of that Habitable World which is peculiarly subject to the dominion of Jesus Christ without supposing on this side Heaven some other reign of Christ and his Saints than what we see or what they enjoy at present But to proceed in this argument It will be necessary as I told you to set down some notes and characters of this Reign of Christ and of his Saints whereby it may be distinguish'd from the present state and present Kingdoms of the World And these characters are chiefly three Iustice Peace and Divine Presence or Conduct which uses to be called Theocrasie By these characters it is sufficiently distinguish'd from the Kingdoms of this World which are generally unjust in their titles or exercise stain'd with bloud and so far from being under a particular Divine Conduct that humane passions and humane vices are the Springs that commonly give motion to their greatest designs But more particularly and restrainedly the Government of Christ is opposed to the Kingdom and Government of Antichrist whose characters are diametrically opposite to these being Injustice cruelty and humane or diabolical artifices Upon this short view of the Kingdom of Christ let us make enquiry after it amongst the Prophets of the Old Testament And we shall find upon examination that there is scarce any of them greater or lesser but take notice of this mystical kingdom either expresly or under the types of Israel Sion Ierusalem and such like And therefore I am apt to think that when S. Peter in his Sermon to the Iews Act. 3. says All the holy Prophets spoke of The Restitution of all things he does not mean the Renovation of the World separately from the Kingdome of Christ but complexly as it may imply both For there are not many of the old Prophets that have spoken of the Renovation of the Natural World but a great many have spoken of the Renovation of the Moral in the Kingdom of Christ. These are S. Peter's words Act. 3. 19 20 21. Repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. And he shall send Iesus Christ which before was preached unto ye whom the heavens must receive until the times of RESTITUTION OF ALL THINGS The Apostle here mentions three things The Times of refreshing The Second Coming of our Saviour And the Times of Restitution of all things And to the last of these he immediately subjoyns which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy Prophets since the world began This Restitution of all things I say must not be understood abstractly from the reign of Christ but as in conjunction with it and in that sence and no other it is the general subject of the Prophets To enter therefore into the Schools of the Prophets and enquire their sence concerning this Mystery let us first address our selves to the Prophet Isaiah and the Royal Prophet David who seem to have had many noble thoughts or inspirations upon this subject Isaiah in the 65th chap. from the 17th ver to the end treats upon this argument and joyns together the Renovation of the Natural and Moral World as S. Peter in the
not how 't is usher'd in Whether they suppose a visible resurrection of the Martyrs and a visible Ascension and that to be a Signal to all the World that the Jubilee is beginning or whether 't is gradual and creeps upon us insensibly or the fall of the Beast marks it These things need both explication and proof for to me they seem either arbitrary or unintelligible But to pursue our design and Subject That which gives me the greatest scandal in this doctrine of the vulgar Millennium is their joyning things together that are really inconsistent a natural World of one colour and a moral World of another They will make us happy in spight of Nature as the Stoicks would make a man happy in Phalaris his Bull so must the Saints be in full bliss in the Millennium tho' they be under a fit of the Gout or of the Stone For my part I could never reconcile pain to happiness It seems to me to destroy and drown all pleasure as a loud noise does a still voice It affects the Nerves with violence and over-bears all other motions But if according to this modern supposition they have the same Bodies and breath the same air in the Millennium as we do now there will be both private and Epidemical distempers in the same manner as now Suppose then a Plague comes and sweeps away half an hundred thousand Saints in the Millennium is this no prejudice or dishonour to the State Or a War makes a Nation desolate or in single Persons a lingring disease makes life a burthen or a burning Fever or a violent Colick tortures them to death Where such evils as these reign christen the thing what you will it can be no better than a Mock-Millennium Nor shall I ever be perswaded that such a state as our present life where an akeing Tooth or an akeing Head does so discompose the Soul as to make her unfit for business study devotion or any useful employment And that all the powers of the mind all its vertue and all its wisdom are not able to stop these little motions or to support them with tranquillity I can never perswade my self I say that such a state was designed by God or Nature for a state of happiness Our third argument is this The future Kingdom of Christ will not take place till the Kingdom of Antichrist be wholly destroy'd But that will not be wholly destroy'd till the end of the World and the appearing of our Saviour Therefore the Millennium will not be till then Christ and Antichrist cannot reign upon Earth together their Kingdoms are opposite as Light to darkness Besides the Kingdom of Christ is universal extends to all the Nations and leaves no room for other Kingdoms at that time Thus it is describ'd in Danielâ—s in the place mention'd before Chap. 7. 13 14. I saw in the Night visions and behold one like the Son of man came with the Clouds of Heaven and came to the Ancient of days And there was given him dominion and glory and a Kingdom that all People Nations and Language should serve him And again ver 27. And the Kingdom and dominion and the greatness of the Kingdom under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the Saints of the most High whose Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom and all dominion shall serve and obey him The same characterâ— of universality is given to the Kingdom of Christ by David Isaih and other Prophets But the most direct proof of this is from the Apocalypse where the Beast and false Prophet are thrown into the Lake of Fire and Brimstone Chap. 19. 20 before the Millennium comes on ch 20. This being cast into a Lake of fire burning with brimstone must needs signifie utter destruction Not a diminution of power only but a total perdition and consumption And that this was before the Millennium both the order of the narration shows and its place in the Prophecy And also because notice is taken at the end of the Millennium of the Beast and false Prophet's being in the Lake of fire as of a thing past and formerly transacted For when Satan at length is thrown into the same Lake 't is said He is thrown into the Lake of fire and brimstone where the Beast and false Prophet are Apoc. 20. â—0 They were there before it seems namely at the beginning of the Millennium land now at the conclusion of it the Devil is thrown in to them Besides the Ligation of Satan proves this point effectually For so long as Antichrist reigns Satan cannot be said to be bound but he is bound at the beginning of the Millennium therefore Antichrist's reign was then totally expir'd Lastly the destruction of Babylon and the destruction of Antichrist go together but you see Babylon utterly and finally destroy'd Apoc. 18. and 19. before the Millennium comes on I say utterly and finally destroy'd For she is not only said to be made an utter desolation but to be consum'd by fire and absorpt as a Milstone thrown into the Sea and that he shall be found no more at all Chap. 18. 21. Nothing can express a total and universal destruction more effectually or more emphatically And this is before the Millennium begins as you may see both by the order of the Prophecies and particularly in that upon this destruction the Hallelujah's are sung Chap. 19. and concluded thus ver 6. 7. Hallelujah for the God omnipotent reigneth Let us be glad and rejoyce and give honour to him for the marriage of the Lamb is come and his wife hath made her self ready This I suppose every one allows to be the Millennial state which now approaches and is making ready upon the destruction of Babylon Thus much for the first part of our argument That the Kingdom of Christ will not take place till the Kingdom of Antichrist be wholly destroy'd We are now to prove the second part That the Kingdom of Antichrist will not be wholly destroy'd till end of the World and the coming of our Saviour This one would think is sufficiently prov'd from St. Paul's words alone 2 Thess. 2. 8. The Lord shall consume the man of sin who is suppos'd the same with Antichrist with the Spirit of his mouth and shall destroy him with the brightness of his coming He will not then be destroy'd before the coming of our Saviour and that will not be till the end of the World For St. Peter says Act. 3. 21. The Heaven must receive him speaking of Christ until the times of restitution of all things that is the renovation of the World And if we consider that our Saviour's coming will be in flames of fire as the same Apostle St. Paul tells us 2 Thess. 1. 7 8. 't is plain that his coming will not be till the Conflagration in which last flames Antichrist will be universally destroy'd This manner of destruction agrees also with the Apocalypse and with Daniel and the Prophets of the