As for the extent of this Conflagration, they held that not only the Heavens should be burnt, but that the Gods themselves should not escape Scot-free. So Seneca, Resoluto mundo, & Diis in unum confusis. When the World shall be dissolved, and the Gods confounded and blended together into one. And again, Atque omnes pariter Deos Perdet nox aliqua & Chaos. And in like manner a certain Night and Chaos shall destroy all the Gods. Is not this wise Philosophy? If their Morality were no better than their Physicks, their Wise man they boast of might be so denominated κατ᾽ ἀντίφρασιν, as they of Gotham.

But let us look a little further, and we shall find that the Stoicks were not the first Authors of this Opinion of the Conflagration; but that it was of far greater Antiquity than that Sect. Others of the more ancient Philosophers having entertained it, viz. Empedocles, as Clemens Alexandrinus testifies in his 5 Strom. ὡς ἐσομένης ποτὲ εἰς τὴν τοῦ πυρὸς οὐσίαν μεταβολῆς. That there shall sometime be a change of the World into the nature or substance of Fire. 2. Heraclitus, as the same Clemens shews at large out of him in the same place, ὅπως δὲ πάλιν ἀναλαμβάνεται καὶ ἐκπυροῦται, &c. And Laertius in the Life of Heraclitus, He taught ἕνα εἶναι τὸν κόσμον, γεννᾶσθαί τε αὐτὸν ἐκ πυρὸς, καὶ πάλιν ἐκπυροῦσθαι κατὰ τινὰς περιόδους ἐναλλὰξ τὸν σύμπαντα αἰῶνα. That there is but one World, and that it was generated out of Fire, and again burnt up or turned into Fire at certain periods alternately throughout all Ages. I might add to these the Ancient Greek Poets, Sophocles and Diphilus, as we find them quoted by Iustin Martyr and Clemens Alexandrinus. Neither yet were these the first Inventers and Broachers of this Opinion, but they received it by Tradition from their Forefathers, and look’d upon it as an Oracle and Decree of Fate. Ovid speaks of it as such in the first of his Metamorphosis; Esse quoque in fati reminiscitur, affore tempus, Quo mare, quo tellus, correptáque regia coeli Ardeat, & mundi moles operosa laboret. —Besides by Doom Of certain Fate, he knew the time should come, When Sea, Earth, ravisht Heaven, the curious Frame Of this Worlds Mass should shrink in purging Flame. And Lucan (Lib. 7); Hos Caesar, populos si nunc non usserit ignis, Vret cum terris, uret cum gurgite ponti: Communis mundo superest rogus ossibus Astra Misturus.— If now these Bodies want their Fire and Urn, At last with the whole Globe they’ll surely burn; The World expects one general Fire: and Thou Must go where these poor Souls are wandring now. Now though some are of Opinion that by Fata here are to be understood the Sibylline Oracles, and to that purpose do alledge some Verses out of those extant under that Title, as Lactantius in his Book De ir a Dei, cap. 2. 3. Καί ποτε τὴν ὀργὴν θεὸν οὐκέτι πραΰνοντα, Ἀλλ᾽ ἐξεμβρίθοντα, καὶ ἐξολύοντά τε γένναν Ἀνθρώπων ἅπασαν ὑπ᾽ ἐμπρησμοῦ πέρθοντα. And it shall sometime be, that God not any more mitigating his Anger, but aggravating it, shall destroy the whole Race of Mankind, consuming it by a conflagration.

And in another place there is mention made, of a River of Fire that shall descend from Heaven, and burn up both Earth and Sea.

Tunc ardens fluvius coelo manabit ab alto

Igneus, at que locos consumet funditus omnes,

Terrámque, Oceanúmque ingentem, & caerula ponti,

Stagnáque, tum fluvios, fontes, Ditémque severum,

Coelestemque polum, coeli quoque lumina in unum

Haxa ruent, formâ deletâ prorsus eorum,

Astra cadent, etenim de coelo cunca revulsa.

Then shall a burning Flood flow from the Heavens on high,

And with its fiery Streams all places utterly

Destroy, Earth, Ocean, Lakes, Rivers, Fountains, Hell,

And heavenly Poles, the Lights in Firmament that dwell,

Losing their beauteous Form shall be obscur’d, and all

Raught from their places, down from Heaven to Earth shall fall.

Now because the Verses now extant under the Name of Sibylline Oracles are all suspected to be false and Pseudepigrapha; and many of them may be demonstrated to be of no greater Antiquity than the Emperour Antoninus Pius his Reign: and because it cannot be proved, that there was any such thing in the Ancient genuine Sibylline Oracles; I rather think, (as I said before) that it was a Doctrine of ancient Tradition, handed down from the first Fathers and Patriarchs of the World. Iosephus in his Antiquities runs it up as high as Adam; from whom Seth his Son received it; his Father, saith he, soretelling him, ἀφανισμὸν τῶν ὅλων ἔσεσθαι, τὸν μὲν κατ᾽ ἰσχὺν πυρὸς, τὸν δὲ κατὰ βίαν καὶ πλῆθος ὑδάτων. That there should be a destruction of the Universe, once by the violence of Fire, and again by the force and abundance of Water; in consequence whereof he erected two Pillars, one of Brick, which might endure the Fire, and another of Stone, which would resist the Water; and upon them engraved his Astronomical Observations, that so they might remain to Posterity: And one of these Pillars, he saith, continued in Syria until his days. Whether this Relation be true or not, it may be thence collected, that this was an Universal Opinion, received by Tradition, both among Iews and Gentiles. That the World should one day be consumed by Fire. It may be proved by good Authority, that the ancient Gaules, Chaldaeans and Indians had this Tradition among them: which they could not receive from the Greek Philosophers or Poets, with whom they had no entercourse; but it must in all probability be derived down to both from the same Fountain and Original; that is, from the first Restorers of Mankind, Noah and his Sons.

I now proceed to the Third Particular proposed in the beginning; that is, to give answer to the several Questions concerning the Dissolution of the World.

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Footnotes

1. Mlnut. Fellx. ↩