THESE Words contain in them two Parts; 1. An Antecedent or Doctrine, All these things shall be dissolved. 2. A Consequent, or Inference thereupon, What manner of persons ought we to be?
The Doctrine, here only briefly hinted, or summarily proposed, is laid down more fully in the precedent Verse; But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the Heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat, the Earth also, and the works that are therein shall be burnt up.
These words are by the generality of Interpreters, Ancient and Modern, understood of the final destruction or dissolution of Heaven and Earth: in which sense I shall choose rather to accept them at present, than with the Reverend and Learned Dr. Hammond, and some few others, to stem the Tide of Expositors, and apply them to the destruction of Ierusalem and the Jewish Polity. I say then, That this World, (Doctr) and all things therein contained, shall one day be dissolved and destroyed by Fire.
By World in this Proposition We, and by Heaven and Earth in this place, the most rational Interpreters of Scripture, do understand only the whole Compages of this sublunary World, and all the Creatures that are in it; all that was destroyed by the Flood in the days of Noah, and now secured from perishing so again, that I may borrow Dr. Hammond’s words, in his Annotations on this place. And again, the word Heavens (saith he) being an Equivocal word, is used either for the superiour Heavens, whether Empyreal or Ethereal, or for the sublunary Heavens, the Air (as the word World is either the whole Compages of the superiour and inferiour World, as the Author of the Book De Mundo, ascribed falsly to Aristotle, defines […], The Systeme or Compages of Heaven and Earth, and the Beings therein contained: or else only of the sublunary lower World) we may here resolve, that the […] and […], Heaven and Host, or Elements thereof, are litterally the sublunary Aereal Heavens, and all that is therein, Clouds and Meteors, &c. Fowls and flying Creatures, and so, fit to joyn with the Earth and Works that are therein.
In prosecution of this Proposition, and in order to the Proof and Confirmation, and likewise the clearing and illustration of it, shall, (1.) Give you what I find concerning the dissolution of the World; 1. In the Holy Scripture. 2. In Ancient Christian Writers. 3. In the Heathen Philosophers and Sages.
(2.) I shall endeavour to give some answer to these seven Questions, which are obvious and usually made concerning it.
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Whether there be any thing in Nature, which might prove and demonstrate; or argue and infer a future Dissolution of the World?
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Whether shall this Dissolution be brought about and effected by Natural, or by Extraordinary Means and Instruments; and what those Means and Instruments shall be?
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Whether shall the Dissolution be gradual or sudden?
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Whether shall there be any Signs and Fore-runners of it.
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At what Period of Time shall the World be dissolved?
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How far shall this Conflagration extend? Whether to the Ethereal Heavens, and all the Host of them, Sun, Moon and Stars, or to the Aereal only.
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Whether shall the Heavens and Earth be wholly dissipated and destroyed, or only refined and purified?
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