If I thought it possible to determine the Time of the _Conflagration_ from the bare Intuition of natural Causes, I would not treat of it in this Place, but reserve it to the last; after we had brought into View all those Causes, weigh’d their Force, and examin’d how and when they would concur to produce this great Effect. But I am satisfied, that the Excitation and Concourse of those Causes does not depend upon Nature only; and tho’ the Causes may be sufficient, when all united, yet the Union of them at such a Time, and in such a Manner, I look upon as the Effect of a particular Providence; and therefore no Fore-sight of ours, or Inspection into Nature, can discover to us the Time of this Conjuncture. This Method, therefore, of Prediction from natural Causes being laid aside as impracticable, all other Methods may be treated of in this Place, as being independent upon any Thing that is to follow in the Treatise; and it will be an Ease to the Argument to discharge it of this Part, and clear the Way by Degrees to the principal Point, which is, The _Causes_ and _Manner_ of the Conflagration. Some have thought it a Kind of Impiety in a Christian, to enquire after the End of the World; because of that Check which our Saviour gave his Disciples, when, after his Resurrection, enquiring of him about the Time of his Kingdom, he answer’d, _It is not for you to know the Times or the Seasons, which the Father hath put in his own Power, Acts i. 7._ And before his Death, when he was discoursing of the Consummation of all Things, He told them expresly, that though there should be such and such previous Signs as he had mention’d, yet, _Of that Day and Hour knoweth no Man; no, not the Angels that are in Heaven, but my Father only, Matt. xxiv. 36._ Be it so, that the Disciples deserv’d a Reprimand, for desiring to know, by a particular Revelation from our Saviour, the State of future Times; when many other Things were more necessary for their Instruction, and for their Ministry. Be it also admitted, that the Angels, at that Distance of Time, could not see thorow all Events to the End of the World; it does not at all follow from thence, that they do not know it now; when, in the Course of 1600 Years, many Things are come to pass, that may be Marks and Directions to them to make a Judgment of what remains, and of the last Period of all Things. However, there will be no Danger in our Enquiries about this Matter, seeing they are not so much to discover the Certainty, as the Uncertainty of that Period, as to human Knowledge. Let us therefore consider what Methods have been used, by those that have been curious and busy to measure the Duration of the World.