We see with what Eagerness Men pry into the Stars, to see if they can read there the Death of a King, or the Fall of an Empire: ’Tis not the fate of any single Prince or Potentate, that we calculate, but of all Mankind: Nor of this or that particular Kingdom or Empire, but of the whole Earth. Our Enquiries must reach to that great Period of Nature, when all Things are to be dissolv’d; both Human Affairs, and the Stage whereon they are acted; when the Heavens and the Earth will pass away, and the Elements melt with fervent Heat. We desire, if possible, to know what will be the Face of that Day, that great and terrible Day! when the Regions of the Air will be nothing but mingled Flame and Smoke, and the habitable Earth turn’d into a Sea of molten Fire. But we must not leave the World in this Disorder and Confusion, without examining what will be the Issue and Consequences of it. Whether this will be the End of all Things, and Nature, by a sad Fate, lie eternally dissolv’d and desolate in this manner? or, Whether we may hope for a Restoration: _New Heavens_ and a _New Earth_, which the Holy Writings make mention of, more pure and perfect than the former? As if this was but as a _Refiner’s Fire_, to purge out the Dross and coarser Parts, and then cast the Mass again into a new and better Mould. These Things, with God’s Assistance, shall be matter of our present Enquiry: These make the general Subject of this Treatise, and of the remaining Parts of this _Theory_ of the Earth. Which now, you see, begins to be a kind of Prophecy or Prognostication of Things to come, as it hath been hitherto an History of Things past; of such States and Changes as Nature hath already undergone. And if that Account which we have given of the Origin of the Earth, its first and Paradisaical Form, and the Dissolution of it at the universal Deluge, appear fair and reasonable; the second Dissolution by Fire, and the Renovation of it out of a second Chaos, I hope, will be deduc’d from as clear Grounds and Suppositions. And Scripture it self will be a more visible Guide to us in these following Parts of the Theory, than it was in the former. In the mean Time, I take occasion to declare here again, as I have done heretofore, That neither this, nor any other great Revolutions of Nature, are brought to pass, by Causes purely natural, without the Conduct of a particular Providence. And ’tis the sacred Books of Scripture that are the Records of this Providence, both as to Times past, and Times to come; as to all the signal Changes, either of the natural World, or of Mankind, and the different Oeconomies of Religion. In which respects, these Books, tho’ they did not contain a moral Law, would, notwithstanding, be, as the most mystical, so also the most valuable Books in the World.