When we speak of the End or Destruction of the World, whether by Fire or otherwise, ’tis not to be imagin’d that we understand this of the _Great Universe_; Sun, Moon, and Stars, and the highest Heavens; as if these were to perish or be destroy’d some few Years hence, whether by Fire or any other Way. This Question is only to be understood of the _sublunary World_, of this Earth and its Furniture; which had its Original about Six thousand Years ago, according to the History of _Moses_; and hath once already been destroyed, when the Exterior Region of it broke, and the Abyss, issuing forth, as out of a Womb, overflow’d all the habitable Earth, _Gen. vii. 17._ _Job xxxviii. 8._ The next Deluge is that of Fire; which will have the same Bounds, and overflow the Surface of the Earth, much what in the same Manner. But the Cœlestial Regions, where the Stars and Angels inhabit, are not concerned in this Fate: Those are not made of combustible Matter; nor, if they were, could our Flames reach them. Possibly those Bodies may have Changes and Revolutions peculiar to themselves, but in Ways unknown to us, and after long and unknown Periods of Time. Therefore, when we speak of the Conflagration of the World, these have no Concern in the Question; nor any other Part of the Universe, than the Earth and its Dependances. As will evidently appear when we come to explain the Manner and Causes of the Conflagration. And as this Conflagration can extend no farther than to the Earth and its Elements, so neither can it destroy the Matter of the Earth; but only the Form and Fashion of it, as it is an habitable World. Neither Fire, nor any natural Agent, can destroy Matter, that is, reduce it to nothing: It may alter the Modes and Qualities of it, but the Substance will always remain. And accordingly the Apostle, when he speaks of the Mutability of this World, says only, _The Figure_ or Fashion of _this World passes away_, _1 Cor. vii. 31._ This Structure of the Earth and Disposition of the Elements; and all the _Works_ of the Earth, as St. _Peter_ says, _2 Epist. iii._ all its natural Productions, and all the Works of Art or human Industry; these will perish, be melted or torn in Pieces by the Fire; but without an Annihilation of the Matter, any more than in the former Deluge. And this will be farther prov’d and illustrated in the Beginning of the following Books.