We have now made our Way clear to the principal Point, _The Causes of the Conflagration_: How the Heavens and the Earth will be set on Fire, what Materials are prepared, or what Train of Causes, for that purpose. The Antients, who have kept us Company pretty well thus far, here quite desert us: they deal more in Conclusions than Causes, as is usual in all Traditional Learning. And the _Stoicks_ themselves, who inculcate so much the Doctrine of the Conflagration, and make the Strength of it such, as to dissolve the Earth into a fiery Chaos, are yet very short and superficial in their Explications, how this shall come to pass. The latent Seeds of Fire, they say, shall every where be let loose, and that Element will prevail over all the rest, and transform every Thing into its own Nature. But these are general Things, that give little Satisfaction to inquisitive Persons. Neither do the modern Authors, that treat of the same Subject, relieve us in this Particular: They are willing to suppose the Conflagration a superficial Effect, that so they may excuse themselves the Trouble of enquiring after Causes. ’Tis no doubt, in a Sort supernatural; and so the Deluge was: Yet _Moses_ sets down the Causes of the Deluge, the Rains from above, and the Disruption of the Abyss. So there must be Treasures of Fire provided against that Day, by whose Eruption this second Deluge will be brought upon the Earth. To state the Case fairly, we must first represent the Difficulty of setting the Earth on Fire; tye the Knot, before we loose it; that so we may the better judge whether the Causes that shall be brought into View, may be sufficient to overcome so great Opposition. The Difficulty, no doubt, will be chiefly from the great Quantity of Water that is about our Globe; whereby Nature seems to have made Provision against any Invasion by Fire, and secur’d us from that Enemy more than any other. We see half of the Surface of the Earth cover’d with the Seas, whose Channel is of a vast Depth and Capacity: Besides innumerable Rivers, great and small, that water the Face of the dry Land, and drench it with perpetual Moisture. Then within the Bowels of the Earth, there are Store-Houses of subterraneous Waters; which are as a Reserve, in case the Ocean and the Rivers should be overcome. Neither is Water our only Security, for the hard Rocks, and stony Mountains, which no Fire can bide upon, are set in long Ranges upon the Continents and Islands; and must needs give a Stop to the Progress of that furious Enemy, in case he should attack us. Lastly, the Earth itself is not combustible in all its Parts. ’Tis not every Soil that is fit Fewel for the Fire. Clay, and Mire, and such like Soils, will rather choak and stifle it, than help it on its Way. By these Means one would think the Body of the Earth secur’d; and though there may be partial Fires, or Inundations of Fire, here and there, in particular Regions, yet there cannot be an universal Fire throughout the Earth.