_Thy Youth shall be renewed like the Eagles_: Which the _Chaldee_ Paraphrast renders, _In mundo venturo renovabis, sicut Aquilæ, juventutem tuam_. These Things to me seem plainly to be Symbolical, representing that World to come, which the Paraphrast mentions, and the firing of this. And this is after the Manner of the Eastern Wisdom; which always lov’d to go fine, cloath’d in Figures and Fancies. And not only the Eastern _Barbarians_, but the Northern and Western also, had this Doctrine of the Conflagration amongst them. The _Scythians_, in their Dispute with the _Ægyptians_ about Antiquity, argue upon both Suppositions, of Fire or Water, destroying the last World, or beginning This. And in the West, the _Celts_, the most ancient People there, had the same Tradition; for the _Druids_, who were their Priests and Philosophers, derived not from the _Greeks_, but of the old Race of Wise Men, that had their Learning traditionally, and, as it were, hereditary from the first Ages: These, as _Strabo_ tells us, _lib. 4._ gave the World a kind of Immortality, by repeated Renovations; and the Principle that destroy’d it, according to them, was always Fire or Water. I had forgot to mention in this List, the _Chaldeans_, whose Opinion we have from _Berosus_, in _Seneca_, _Nat. Quæst. 3._ _c. 29_. They did not only teach the Conflagration, but also fix’d it to a certain Period of Time, when there should happen a great Conjunction of the Planets in _Cancer_. Lastly, we may add, to close the Account, the modern _Indian_ Philosophers, the Reliques of the old _Bragmans_: These, as _Maffeus_ tells us, _lib._ 16. _Hist. Ind._ declare, That the World will be renewed after an universal Conflagration. You see of what Extent and Universality throughout all Nations, this Doctrine of the Conflagration hath been. Let us now consider, what Defects or Excesses there are, in these ancient Opinions, concerning this Fate of the World, and how they may be rectified: That we may admit them no further into our Belief, than they are warranted by Reason, or by the Authority of the Christian Religion. The first Fault they seem to have committed about this Point, is this, That they made these Revolutions and Renovations of Nature, indefinite or endless: As if there would be such a Succession of Deluges and Conflagrations to all Eternity. This the _Stoicks_ seem plainly to have asserted, as appears from _Numenius_, _Philo_, _Simplicius_, and others. S. _Jerome_, _Ep. 60._ imputes this Opinion also to _Origen_; but he does not always hit the true Sense of that Father, or is not fair and just in the Representation of it. Whosoever held this Opinion, ’tis a manifest Error, and may be easily rectified by the Christian Revelation; which teaches us plainly, that there is a final Period and Consummation of all Things that belong to this Sublunary or Terrestrial World; When the _Kingdom shall be delivered up to the Father_; and Time shall be no more.