3. * It has indeed been imagined by some great and good men, that as it requires that same almighty power, to annihilate things as to create, to speak into nothing or out of nothing: so no part of, no atom in the universe, will be totally or finally destroyed. Rather, they suppose, that as the last operation of fire, which we have yet been able to observe, is to reduce into glass what by a smaller force it had reduced to ashes: so in the day God hath ordained, the whole earth, if not the material heavens also, will undergo this change, after which the fire can have no farther power over them. And they believe this is intimated by that expression in the _Revelation_ made to St. _John_, _Before the throne there was a sea of glass, like unto chrystal_.[56] We cannot now either affirm or deny this: but we shall know hereafter. 4. * If it be enquired by the scoffers, the minute philosophers, how can these things be? Whence should come such an immense quantity of fire as would consume the heavens and the whole terraqueous globe? We would beg leave, first, to remind them that this difficulty is not peculiar to the Christian system. The same opinion almost universally obtained among the _unbigoted_ Heathens. So one of those celebrated _free-thinkers_ speaks, according to the generally received sentiment; _Esse quoque in fatis reminiscitur, affore tempus, Quo mare, quo tellus, correptaque regia cœli Ardeat, & mundi moles operosa laboret._ But, secondly, it is easy to answer, even from our slight and superficial acquaintance with natural things, that there are abundant magazines of fire ready prepared, and treasured up against the day of the Lord. How soon may a comet, commissioned by him, travel down from the most distant parts of the universe? And were it to fix upon the earth, in its return from the sun, when it is some thousand times hotter than a red-hot cannon-ball, who does not see what must be the immediate consequence? But, not to ascend so high as the ethereal heavens, might not the same lightnings which _give shine to the world_, if commanded by the Lord of nature, give ruin and utter destruction? Or, to go no farther than the globe itself: who knows what huge reservoirs of liquid fire are from age to age contained in the bowels of the earth? _Ætna_, _Hecla_, _Vesuvius_, and all the other vulcanoes that belch out flames and coals of fire, what are they, but so many proofs and mouths of those fiery furnaces? And at the same time so many evidences, that God hath in readiness wherewith to fulfil his word. Yea, were we to observe no more than the surface of the earth, and the things that surround us on every side, it is most certain (as a thousand experiments prove, beyond all possibility of denial) that we ourselves, our whole bodies are full of fire, as well as every thing round about us. Is it not easy, to make this ethereal fire visible even to the naked eye? And so produce thereby the very same effects on