THere remains now only the Seventh Question to be resolved, Whether shall the World be wholly consumed, burnt up and destroyed, or annihilated; or only refined, purified, or renewed? To this I answer, That the latter part seems to me more probable, viz. That it shall not be destroyed and annihilated, but only refined and purified. I know what potent Adversaries I have in this case. I need name no more than Gerard in his Common Places, and Dr. Hakewil […]n his Apology and the Defence of it, who contend earnestly for the Abolition or Annihilation. But yet upon the whole matter, the Renovation or Restitution seems to me most probable, as being most consonant to Scripture, Reason, and Antiquity. The Scripture speaks of an […], or Restitution, Acts 3. 21. Whom the Heavens must contain until the time of the restitution of all things. Speaking of our Saviour: and […], or Regeneration of the World, the very word the Stoicks and Pythagoreans use in this case, Mat. 19. 28, 29. Verily, I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit on the Throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve Thrones, &c. Psal. 102. 26. As a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed. Which words are again taken up and repeated, Heb. 1. 12. Now it is one thing to be changed, another to be annihilated and destroyed. 1 Cor. 7. 31. […] The fashion of this world passeth away. As if he had said, It shall be transfigured, or its outward form changed, not its matter or substance destroyed. Isa. 65. 17. Behold I create new Heavens and a new Earth, and the former shall not be remembred, nor come into mind. Isa. 66. 22. As the new Heavens and new Earth, which I shall make, shall remain before me. To which places the Apostle Peter seems to refer in those words, 2 Pet. 3. 13. Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new Heavens, and a new Earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. This new Heaven and new Earth we have also mentioned, Rev. 12. 1. 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. These places, I confess, may admit of an Answer or Solution by those who are of a contrary Opinion, and are answered by Doctor Hakewil: yet all together, especially being back’d by ancient Tradition, amount to a high degree of probability. I omit that place, Rom. 8. 21, 22. The creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the sons of God: tho’ it be accounted the strongest proof of our Opinion, because of the obscurity and ambiguity thereof.
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For Antiquity, I have already given many Testimonies of the ancient Fathers and Doctors of the Church, and could, if need were, produce many more, the whole stream of them running this way. And tho’ Dr. Hakewill saith, That if we look back to higher times before S. Hierome, we shall not easily find any one who maintained the World’s Renovation: yet hath he but two Testimonies to alledge for its Abolition; the one out of Hilary upon the Psalms, and the other out of Clemens his Recognitions. To this Restitution of the World after the Conflagration many also of the Heathen Philosophers bear witness; whose Testimonies Mr. Burnet hath exhibited in his Theory of the Earth, lib. 4. cap. 5. Of the Stoicks, Chrysippus de Providentia, speaking of the Renovation of the World,1 saith, […]. We after death, certain Periods of time being come about, shall be restored to the form we now have. To Chrysippus Stobaeus adds Zeno and Cleanthes, and comprehends together with Men all natural things, […]. Zeno and Cleanthes and Chrysippus were of Opinion, That the Nature or Substance of Things changes into Fire, as it were into a Seed; and out of this again· such a World or Frame of Things is effected as was before. This Revolution of Nature antoninus in his Meditations often calls […], The Periodical Regeneration of all things. And (Lib. 5) Origen against Celsus […]aith of the Stoicks in general. […] The Stoicks say, That at certain Periods of time there is a Conflagration of the Vniverse; and after that a Restitution thereof having exactly the same Disposition and Furniture the former World had. More to the like purpose concerning the Stoicks, we have in2 Eusebius out of Numenius. Nature, faith he, returns, […], to the Resurrection which makes the Great Year, wherein there is again a restitution made from it self alone to it self. For returning according to the order wherein it began first to frame and dispose things, (as reason would) it again observes the same Oeconomy or Administration; the like Periods returning eternally without ceasing. He that desires more Authorities of the Heathen Philosophers and Poets in consirmation of the World’s Restitution after the Conflagration, may consult the same Mr. Burnet in the place forequoted; where he also shews, that this Doctrine of the Mundane Periods was received by the Grecians from the Nations they call barbarous. Pythagoras, saith Porphyry, brought it first into Greece: and Origen witnesseth of the Egyptian Wise Men that it was delivered by them. Laertius out of Theopompus relates, That the Persian Magi had the same Tradition: and Berosus saith, that the Chaldeans also. In fine, among all the barbarous Nations, who had among them any Person or Sect, and Order of Men, noted for Wisdom or Philosophy, this Tradition was current. The Reader may consult the Book we refer to, where is a notable passage taken out of Plutarch’s Tractate, Di Iside & Osiride, concerning a War between Oromazes, and Arimanius, somewhat parallel to that mentioned in the Revelation between Michael and the Dragon.
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The Restitution of the World seems more consonant to Reason than its Abolition. For if the World were to be annihilated, what needed a Conflagration? Fire doth not destroy or bring things to nothing, but only separate their parts. The World cannot be abolished by it, and therefore had better been annihilated without it. Wherefore the Scripture mentioning no other Dissolution than is to be effected by the Instrumentality of Fire, its clear, we are not to understand any utter Abolition or Annihilation of the World· but only a Mutation and Renovation, by those phrases of perishing, passing away, dissolving, being no more, &c. They are to be no more in that state and condition they are now in.
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There must be a material Heaven, and a material Hell left. A place for the glorified Bodies of the Blessed to inhabit and converse in; and a place for the Bodies of the Damned, a […], or Prison for them to be shut up in. Now if the place of the Blessed be an Empyreal Heaven far above these visible Heavens, as Divines generally hold; and the place of the Damned be beneath, about the middle of the Earth; as is the Opinion of the School-men, and the Church of Rome, and as the name Inferi imports, and as the ancient Heathen described their Tartarus, —[…]3 […], […]. Then when all the intermediate Bodies shall be annihilated, what a strange Universe shall we have? Consisting of an immense Ring of Matter, having in the middle a vast vacuity, or space void of all Body, save only one small point for an infernal Dungeon. Those that are of this Opinion have too narrow and mean thoughts of the Greatness, I had almost said Immensity of the Universe, the glorious and magnisick Products of the Creator’s Almighty Power: and are too partial to themselves, to think the whole World was created for no other end but to be serviceable to Mankind: But of this I have said somewhat in a former Discourse, and therefore shall not at present enlarge upon it.
But let us hear what they have to say for the Abolition.
Their first and most weighty Argument is taken from the End of the World’s Creation,4 which was partly and chiefly the Glory of the Creater, and partly the use of Man, the Lord Deputy, as it were, or Viceroy thereof. Now for the Glory of the Creator, it being by the admirable Frame of the World manifested unto Man, Man being removed out of the World, and no Creature being capable of such a Manifestation besides him, we cannot imagine to what purpose the Frame itself should be left, and restored to a more perfect Estate. The other End, being for Man’s Vse, either to supply his Necessity in matter of Diet, of Physick, of Building, of Apparel; or for his Instruction, Direction, Recreation, Comfort and Delight; or lastly, that therein, as in a Looking-glass he might contemplate the Wisdom, the Goodness and Power of God: when he shall attain that blessed Estate, as he shall have no further use of any of these, enjoying perfect Happiness and seeing God as he is, face to face, the second or subordinate End of the World’s Being must needs be likewise frustrate. And what other End can be given or conceived for the remaining or restoring thereof? &c.
To this I answer, there may be an end of the restoring of the World, tho’ we are not able to find out or determine what. We are too short-sighted to penetrate the Ends of God. There may be a new Race of rational Animals brought forth to act their parts upon this Stage, which may give the Creator as much Glory as Man ever did or could. And yet if there should be no material and visible rational Creature made to inhabit the Earth, there are spiritual and intellectual Beings, which may be as busie, and as much delighted in searching out, and contemplating the Works of God in this new Earth, and rendring him the Praise of his Wisdom and Power as Man could be. These things we may conjecture; but we must leave it to the only wise God to determine what use shall be made of it. It seems to me to be too great presumption, and over-valuing our selves to think that all this World was so made for us, as to have no other end of its Creation; or that God could not be glorified but by us.
This first and principal Argument being answered, the second admits of an easie Solution. They enquire whether the Vegetables, and Creatures endued with Sense shall all be restored, or some only? namely such as shall be found in being at the Day of Judgment. If all, where shall we find Stowage for them? Surely we may in this case properly apply that which the Evangelist in another useth figuratively, if they should all be restored, even the World itself could not contain the things which should be restored. If some only, then would I gladly know, why those some should be vouchsafed this great Honour, and not all, or how those Creatures without a Miracle shall be restrain’d from propagating and multiplying, and that infinitely in their kinds by a perpetual Generation. Or lastly, How the several Individuals of these kinds, shall contrary to their primitive Natures, live and dure immortally?
To all this I answer, That not only all Animals, but all Vegetables too, yea, and their Seeds also, will doubtless be mortified and destroyed by the violence of the Conflagration; but that the same should be restored, and endued with eternal life, I know no reason we have to believe; but rather that there should be new ones produced, either of the same with the former, or of different kinds, at the will, and by the power of the Almighty Creator, and for those Ends and Uses for which he shall design them. This Question being answered in this manner, all that follows concerning the Earth remaining without any Furniture or Inhabitants, &c. falls to the Ground. So I have dispatch’d these Seven Questions concerning the Dissolution of the World, there remains now only the Inference or Use of the precedent Doctrine.
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