wickedly, shall be as Stubble; and the Day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of Hosts, that it shall leave them neither Root nor Branch._ And that Nature herself, and the Earth shall suffer in that Fire, the Prophet _Zephany_ tells us, _c._ iii. 8. _All the Earth shall be devoured with the Fire of my Jealousy._ Lastly, this Consumption of the Earth by Fire, even to the Foundations of it, is exprest livelily by _Moses_ in his Song, _Deut._ xxxii. 22. _A Fire is kindled in my Anger, and shall burn unto the lowest Hell: and shall consume the Earth with her Increase, and set on Fire the Foundations of the Mountains._ If we reflect upon these Witnesses; and especially the first and last, _Moses_ and Saint _Peter_; at what a great Distance of Time they writ their Prophecies, and yet how well they agree, we must needs conclude they were acted by the same Spirit; and a Spirit that saw thorough all the Ages of the World, from the Beginning to the End. These Sacred Writers were so remote in Time from one another, that they could not confer together, nor conspire either in a false Testimony, or to make the same Prediction. But being under one common Influence and Inspiration, which is always consistent with itself, they have dictated the same Things, tho’ at two thousand Years Distance sometimes from one another. This, besides many other Considerations, makes their Authority incontestable. And upon the whole Account, you see, that the Doctrine of the future _Conflagration of the World_, having run thro’ all Ages and Nations, is, by the joint Consent of the Prophets and Apostles, adopted into the Christian Faith. CHAP. IV. _Concerning the Time of the Conflagration, and the End of the World. What the Astronomers say upon this Subject, and upon what they ground their Calculations: The true Notion of the Great Year, or of the Platonick Year, stated and explained._ Having, in this first Section, laid a sure Foundation, as to the Subject of our Discourse; the Truth and Certainty of the _Conflagration_ whereof we are to treat; we will now proceed to enquire after the _Time_, _Causes_, and _Manner_ of it. We are naturally more inquisitive after the End of the World, and the Time of that fatal Revolution, than after the Causes of it: For these, we know, are irresistible, whensoever they come, and therefore we are only solicitous that they should not overtake us, or our near Posterity. The _Romans_ thought they had the Fates of their Empire in the Books of the Sibyls, which were kept by the Magistrates as a Sacred Treasure. We have also our Prophetical Books, more sacred and more infallible than theirs, which contain the Fate of all the Kingdoms of the Earth, and of that glorious Kingdom that is to succeed. And of all Futurities, there is none can be of such Importance to be enquired after, as this last Scene and Close of all human Affairs.