THE SACRED THEORY OF THE EARTH

by Thomas Burnet

Book 3

Concerning the Conflagration.

CHAPTER XII

An imperfect description of the Coming of our Saviour, and of the World on Fire.

CERTAINLY there is nothing in the whole course of Nature, or of Humane C affairs, so great and so extraordinary, as the two last Scenes of them, THE COMING OF OUR SAVIOUR, and the BURNING OF THE WORLD. If we could draw in our minds the Pictures of these, in true and lively colours, We should scarce be able to attend to any thing else, or ever divert our imagination from these two objects. For what can more affect us than the greatest Glory that ever was visible upon Earth, and at the same time the greatest Terror. A God descending in the Head of an Army of Angels, and a Burning World under his feet.

These are things truly above expression; And not only so, but so different and remote from our ordinary thoughts and conceptions, that he that comes nearest to a true description of them, shall be looked upon as the most extravagant. ’Tis or unhappiness to be so much used to little trifling things in this life, that when any thing great is represented to us, it appears phantastical: An Idea, made by some contemplative or melancholy person. I will not venture therefore, without premising some grounds out of Scripture, to say any thing concerning This Glorious Appearance. As to the Burning of the World; I think we have already laid a foundation sufficient to support the highest description that can be made of it; But the coming of our Saviour being wholly out of the way of Natural Causes, it is reasonable we should take all directions we can from Scripture, that we may give a more fitting and just account of that Sacred Pomp.

I need not mention those places of Scripture that Evidence the second coming of our Saviour in general, or his return to the Earth again at the end of the World: no Christian can doubt of this, ’tis so often repeated in those Sacred Writings. But the manner and circumstances of this Coming, or of this Appearance, are the things we now enquire into. And in the first place, we may observe that Scripture tells us our Saviour will come in Flaming Fire, and with an Host of mighty Angels; so says St. Paulto the Thessalonians,The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with mighty Angels; in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. In the second place, our Saviour says himself, The Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his Angels. From which two places we may learn, first, that the appearance of our Saviour will be with flames of Fire. Secondly, with an Host of Angels. Thirdly, in the glory of his Father. By which glory of the Father I think is understood that Throne of Glory represented by Danielfor the Ancient of Days. For our Saviour speaks here to the Jews, and probably in a way intelligible to them; And the Glory of the Father which they were most likely to understand, would be either the Glory wherein God appeared at Mount Sinai, upon the giving of the Law, whereof the Apostle speaks largely to the Hebrews; or that which Danielrepresents Him in at the day of Judgment. And this latter being more proper to the subject of our Saviour's discourse, ’tis more likely this expression refers to it. Give me leave therefore to set down that description of the Glory of the Father upon his Throne, from the Prophet Daniel, ch. 7, 9. And I beheld till the Thrones were 1 set, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: His throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him, thousand thousands ministred unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. With this Throne of the glory of the Father, let us, if you please, compare the Throne of the Son of God, as it was seen by St. John in the Apocalypse, ch. 4. 2, &c. And immediately I was in the Spirit: and behold a throne was set in heaven, and one sate on the Throne. And he that sat, was to look upon like a jasper, and a Sardine stone: and there was a Rain-bow round about the Throne, in appearance like unto an Emerald. And out of the Throne proceeded Lightnings, and Thunderings, and Voices, &c. and before the Throne was a Sea of glass like unto Crystal.

In these representations you have some beams of the glory of the Father and of the Son; which may be partly a direction to us, in conceiving the lustre of our Saviour's appearance. Let us further observe, if you please, how external nature will be affected at the sight of God, or of this approaching glory. The Scripture often takes notice of this, and in terms very high and eloquent. The Psalmist seems to have loved that subject above others; to set out the greatness of the day of the Lord, and the consternation of all nature at that time. He throws about his thunder and lightning, makes the Hills to melt like wax at the presence of the Lord, and the very foundations of the Earth to tremble, as you may see in the 18thPsalm, and the 97. and the 104. and several others, which are too long to be here inserted. So the Prophet Habakkuk, in his Prophetick prayer, Chap. 3d. hath many Ejaculations to the like purpose. And the Prophet Nahumsays, The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the Earth is burnt at his presence: yea, the world, and all that dwell therein.

But more particularly, as to the face of Nature just before the coming of our Saviour, that may be best collected from the signs of his coming mentioned in the precedent Chapter. Those all meeting together, help to prepare and make ready a Theater, fit for an angry God to come down upon. The countenance of the Heavens will be dark and gloomy; and a Veil drawn over the face of the Sun. The Earth in a disposition every where to break into open flames. The tops of the Mountains smoaking; the Rivers dry; Earthquakes in several places; the Sea sunk and retied into its deepest Chanel, and roaring, as against some mighty storm. These things will make the day dead and melancholy, but the Night-Scenes will have more of horrour in them. When the Blazing-Starsappear, like so many Furies, with their lighted Torches, threatning to set all on fire. For I do not doubt but the Comets will bear a part in this Tragedy, and have something extraordinary in them, at that time; either as to number, or bigness, or nearness to the Earth. Besides, the Air will be full of flaming Meteors, of unusual forms and magnitudes; Balls of fire rowling in the Skie, and pointed lightnings darted against the Earth; mixt with claps of thunder, and unusual noises from the Clouds. The Moon and the Stars will be confused and irregular, both in their light and motions; as if the whole frame of the Heavens was out of order, all the laws of Nature were broken or expired.

When all things are in this languishing or dying posture, and the Inhabitants of the Earth under the fears of their last end; The Heavens will open on a sudden, and the Glory of God will appear. A Glory surpassing the Sun in its greatest radiancy; which, tho’ we cannot describe, we may suppose it will bear some resemblance or proportion with those representations that are made in Scripture, of God upon his Throne. This wonder in the Heavens, whatsoever its form may be, will presently attract the eyes of all the Christian World. Nothing can more affect them than an object so unusual and so illustrious; and that, (probably) brings along with it their last destiny, and will put a period to all humane affairs.

Some of the Ancients have thought that this coming of our Saviour would be in the dead of the night, and his first glorious appearance in the midst of darkness. God is often described in Scripture as Light or Fire, with darkness round about him.He bowed the Heavens and came down, and darkness was under his feet. He made darkness his secret place: His pavilion round about him were dark Waters and thick Clouds of the Skies. At the brightness that was before him, the thick Clouds passed. And when God appeared upon Mount Sinai, the Mountain burnt with fire unto the midst of Heaven with darkness, clouds, and thick darkness: Or, as the Apostle expresses it, with blacknessand darkness, and tempest. Light is never more glorious than when surrounded with darkness; and it may be the Sun, at that time, will be so obscure, as to make little distinction of Day and Night. But however this Divine Light over-bears and distinguishes it self from common Light, tho’ it be at Mid-day. ’Twas about Noon that the Light shined from Heaven and surrounded St. Paul. And ’twas on the Day-time that St. Stephensaw the Heavens opened; saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. This light, which flows from a more vital source, be it Day or Night, will always be predominant.

That appearance of God upon Mount Sinai, which we mentioned, if we reflect upon it, will help us a little to form an Idea of this last appearance. When God had declared, that he would come down in the sight of the People; The Text says, There were thunders and lightnings, and a thick Cloud upon the Mount, and the voice of the Trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the Camp trembled. And Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire. And the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole Mount quaked greatly. If we look upon this Mount as an Epitome of the Earth, this appearance gives us an imperfect resemblance of that which is to come. Here are the several parts or main strokes of it; first, the Heavens and the Earth in smoke and fire, then the appearance of a Divine Glory, and the sound of a Trumpet in the presence of Angels. But as the second coming of our Saviour is a Triumph over his Enemies, and an entrance into his Kingdom, and is acted upon the Theater of the whole Earth; so we are to suppose, in proportion, all the parts and circumstances of it, more great and magnificent.

When therefore this mighty God returns again to that Earth, where he had once been ill treated, not Mount Sinaionly, but all the Mountains of the Earth, and all the Inhabitants of the World, will tremble at his presence. At the first opening of the Heavens, the brightness of his Person will scatter the dark Clouds, and shoot streams of light throughout all the Air. But that first appearance, being far from the Earth, will seem to be onely a great mass of light, without any distinct form; till, by nearer approaches, this bright Body shows it self to be an Army of Angels, with this King of kings for their Leader. Then you may imagine how guilty Mankind will tremble and be astonished; and while they are gazing at this heavenly Host, the Voice of the Archangel is heard, the shrill sound of the Trumpet reaches their ears. And this gives the general Alarum to all the World. For he cometh, for he cometh, they cry, to judge the Earth. The crucified God is returned in Glory, to take Vengeance upon his Enemies: Not onely upon those that pierced his Sacred Body, with Nails and with a Spear, at Jerusalem; but those also that pierce him every day by their prophaneness and hard speeches, concerning his Person and his Religion. Now they see that God whom they have mocked, or blasphemed, laugh’t at his meanness, or at his vain threats; They see Him, and are confounded with shame and fear; and in the bitterness of their anguish and despair call for the Mountains to fall upon them. Fly into the clefts of the Rocks, and into the Caves of the Earth, for fear of the Lord, and the glory of his Majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the Earth.

As it is not possible for us to express or conceive the dread and majesty of this appearance; so neither can we, on the other hand, express the passions and consternation of the People that behold it. These things exceed the measures of humane affairs, and of humane thoughts; we have neither words, nor comparisons, to make them known by. The greatest pomp and magnificence of the Emperors of the East, in their Armies, in their triumphs, in their inaugurations, is but like the sport and entertainment of Children, if compared with this Solemnity. When God condescends to an external glory, with a visible Train and Equipage: When, from all the Provinces of his vast and boundless Empire, he summons his Nobles, as I may so say: The several orders of Angels and Arch-Angels, to attend his Person; tho’ we cannot tell the form or manner of this Appearance, we know there is nothing in our experience, or in the whole history of this World, that can be a just representation of the least part of it. No Armies so numerous as the Host of Heaven: and in the midst of those bright Legions, in a flaming Chariot, will sit the Sun of Man, when he comes to be glorified in his Saints, and triumph over his Enemies. And instead of the wild noises of the rabble, which makes a great part of our worldly state: This blessed Company will breath their Halleluiahsinto the open Air; and repeated acclamations of Salvation to God, which sits upon the Throne, and to the Lamb. Now is come salvation and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ.

But I leave the rest to our silent devotion and admiration. Onely give me leave, whilst this object is before our eyes, to make a short reflection upon the wonderful history of our Saviour; and the different states, which that Sacred Person, within the compass of our knowledge, hath undergone. We now see him coming in the Clouds in glory and triumph, surrounded with innumerable Angels. This is the same Person, who, so many hundred Years ago, entered Jerusalem, with another sort of Equipage: mounted upon an Asse's Colt, while the little people and the multitude cryed, Hosannato the Son of David. Nay, this is the same Person, that, at his first coming into this World, was laid in a Manger instead of a Cradle; A naked Babe dropt in a Crib at Bethlehem: His poor Mother not having wherewithall to get her a better Lodging, when she was to be delivered of this Sacred burthen. This helpless Infant, that often wanted a little Milk to refresh it, and support its weakness: That hath often cryed for the Breast, with hunger and tears: now appears to be the Lord of Heaven and Earth. If this Divine Person had fain from the clouds in a mortal Body, cloathed with Flesh and Blond, and spent his life here amongst sinners; that alone had been an infinite condescension. But as if it had not been enough to take upon him humane Nature, he was content, for many months, to live the life of an Animal, or of a Plant, in the dark cell of a woman's Womb. This is the Lord's doing, it is marvellous in our eyes.

Neither is this all that is wonderful in the story of our Saviour. If the manner of his death be compared with his present glory, we shall think, either the one, or the other, incredible. Look up, first, into the Heavens: see how they bow under him, and receive a new light from the Glory of his Presence. Then look down upon the Earth, and see a naked Body hanging upon a cursed Tree in Golgotha: crucified betwixt two Thieves: wounded, spit upon, mocked, abused. Is it possible to believe that one and the same person can act or suffer such different parts? That he, that is now Lord and Master of all Nature: not only of Death and Hell, and the powers of darkness: but of all Principalities in heavenly places: is the same Infant Jesus, the same crucified Jesus, of whose life and death the Christian records give us an account? The History of this person is the Wonder of this World; and not of this World only, but of the Angels above, that desire to look into it.

Let us now return to our subject. We left the Earth in a languishing condition, ready to be made a Burnt-offering, to appease the wrath of its offended Lord. When Sodomwas to be destroyed,Abrahaminterceded with God that he would spare it for the Righteous sake: And David interceded to save his guiltless People from God's Judgments and the Destroying Angel. But here is no Intercessor for mankind in this last extremity: None to interpose where the Mediator of our Peace is the party offended. Shall then the righteous perish with the wicked? Shall not the judge of all the Earth do right?Or if the Righteous be translated and delivered from This Fire, what shall become of innocent children and Infants? Must these all be given up to the merciless flames, as a Sacrifice to Moloch? and their tender flesh, like burnt incense, send up fumes to feed the nostrils of evil Spirits? Can the God of Israelsmell a sweet savour from such Sacrifices? The greater half of mankind is made up of Infants and Children: and if the wicked be destroyed, yet these Lambs, what have they done?are there no bowels of compassion for such an harmless multitude? But we leave them to their Guardian Angels, and to that Providence which watches over all things.

It only remains therefore, to let fall that Fire from Heaven, which is to consume this Holocaust. Imagine all Nature now standing in a silent expectation to receive its last doom: The Tutelary and Destroying Angels to have their instructions: Every thing to be ready for the fatal hour: And then, after a little silence, all the Host of Heaven to raise their voice and sing aloud, LET GOD ARISE: Let his enemies be scattered. As smoak is driven away, so drive them away: As wax melteth before the fire, so LET the wicked perish at the presence of God. And upon this, as upon a signal given, all the sublunary World breaks into Flames, and all the Treasuries of Fire are opened, in Heaven and in Earth.

Thus the Conflagration begins. If one should now go about to represent the World on Fire, with all the confusions that necessarily must be, in Nature and in Mankind, upon that occasion, it would seem to most men a Romantick Scene. Yet we are sure there must be such a Scene. The heavens will pass away with a noise, and the Elements will melt with fervent heat, and all the works of the Earth will be burnt up. And these things cannot come to pass without the greatest disorders imaginable, both in the minds of Men and in external Nature: and the saddest spectacles that eye can behold. We think it a great matter to see a single person burnt alive: here are Millions, shrieking in the flames at once. ’Tis frightful to us to look upon a great City in flames, and to see the distractions and misery of the people: here is an Universal Fire through all the Cities of the Earth, and an Universal Massacre of their Inhabitants. Whatsoever the Prophets foretold of the desolations of Judea, Jerusalem, or Babylon, in the highest strains, is more than literally accomplished in this last and general Calamity: And those only that are Spectators of it, can make its History.

The disorders in Nature and the inanimate World will be no less, nor less strange and unaccountable, than those in Mankind. Every Element, and every Region, so far as the bounds of this Fire extend, will be in a tumult and a fury, and the whole habitable World running into confusion. A World is sooner destroyed than made, and Nature relapses hastily into that Chaos-state, out of which she came by slow and leisurely motions. As an Army advances into the field by just and regular marches, but when it is broken and routed, it flies with precipitation, and one cannot describe its posture. Fire is a barbarous Enemy, it gives no mercy; there is nothing but fury, and rage, and ruine, and destruction, wheresoever it prevails. A storm or Hurricano, tho’ it be but the force of Air, makes a strange havock where it comes; but devouring flames, or exhalations set on Fire, have still a far greater violence, and carry more terror along with them. Thunder and Earthquakes are the Sons of Fire: and we know nothing in all Nature, more impetuous, or more irresistibly destructive than these two. And accordingly in this last war of the Elements, we may be sure, they will bear their parts, and do great execution in the several regions of the World. Earthquakes and Subterraneous Eruptions will tear the body and bowels of the Earth; and Thunders and convulsive motions of the Air, rend the Skies. The waters of the Sea will boyl and struggle with streams of Sulphur that run into them; which will make them fume, and smoke, and roar, beyond all storms and tempests. And these noises of the Sea will be answered again from the Land by failing Rocks and Mountains. This is a small part of the disorders of that day.

But ’tis not possible, from any station, to have a full prospect of this last Scene of the Earth: for ’tis a mixture of fire and darkness. This new Temple is filled with smoak, while it is consecrating, and none can enter into it. But I am apt to think, if we could look down upon this burning World from above the Clouds, and have a full view of it, in all its parts, we should think it a lively representation of Hellit self. For, Fire and darkness are the two chief things by which that state, or that place, uses to be describ'd: and they are both here mingled together: with all other ingredients that make that Tophet that is prepared of old. Here are Lakes of fire and brimstone: Rivers of melted glowing matter: Ten thousand Volcano's vomiting flames all at once. Thick darkness, and Pillars of smoke twisted about with wreaths of flame, like fiery Snakes. Mountains of Earth thrown up into the Air, and the Heavens dropping down in lumps of fire. These things will all be literally true, concerning that day, and that state of the Earth. And if we suppose Beelzebub, and his Apostate crew, in the midst of this fiery furnace: (and I know not where they can be else.) It will be hard to find any part of the Universe, or any state of things, that answers to so many of the properties and characters of Hell, as this which is now before us.

But if we suppose the storm over, and that the fire hath got an entire victory over all other bodies, and subdued every thing to it self, the Conflagration will end in a Deluge of fire: Or, in a Sea of fire, covering the whole Globe of the Earth. For, when the exterior region of the Earth is melted into a fluor, like molten glass, or running metal; it will, according to the nature of other Fluids, fill all vacuities and depressions, and fall into a regular surface, at an equal distance, every where, from its center. This Sea of fire, like the first Abyss, will cover the face of the whole Earth: make a kind of second Chaos: and leave a capacity for another World to rise from it. But that is not our present business. Let us onely, if you please, to take leave of this subject, reflect upon this occasion, on the Vanity and transient glory of all this habitable World. How, by the force of one Element, breaking loose upon the rest, all the Varieties of Nature, all the works of Art, all the labours of Men are reduced to nothing. All that we admired and adored before, as great and magnificent, is obliterated or vanished. And another form and face of things, plain, simple, and every where the same, overspreads the whole Earth. Where are now the great Empires of the World, and their great Imperial Cities? Their Pillars, Trophees, and Monuments of glory? Show me where they stood: read the Inscription, tell me the Victor's name. What remains, what impressions, what difference or distinction do you see in this mass of fire? Romeit self, Eternal Rome, the Great City, the Empress of the World, whose domination and superstition, ancient and modern, make a great part of the history of this Earth: What is become of her now? She laid her foundations deep, and her Palaces were strong and sumptuous: She glorified her self, and lived deliciously: and said in her heart, I sit a Queen, and shall see no sorrow. But her hour is come, she is wiped away from the face of the Earth, and buried in everlasting oblivion. But ’tis not Cities onely, and works of men's hands, but the everlasting Hills, the Mountains and Rocks of the Earth, are melted as Wax before the Sun; and their place is no where found. Here stood the Alpes, a prodigious range of Stone, the Load of the Earth, that covered many Countries, and reached their armes from the Ocean to the Black Sea; This huge mass of Stone is softened and dissolved, as a tender Cloud into rain. Here stood the AfricanMountains, and Atlaswith his top above the Clouds. There was frozen Caucasus, and Taurus, and Imaus, and the Mountains of Asia. And yonder towards the North stood the RiphæanHills, cloathed in Ice and Snow. All these are vanished, dropt away as the Snow upon their heads: and swallowed up in a red Sea of fire.Great and marvellous are thy Works, Lord God Almighty: just and true are thy ways, Thou King of Saints. Hallelujah.

Footnotes

300:1 ’Tis ill rendered in the English, cast down.

THE SACRED THEORY OF THE EARTH

by Thomas Burnet

Book 3

Concerning the Conflagration.

CHAPTER XI

An Account of those extraordinary Phænomena and Wonders in Nature, that, according to Scripture, will precede the coming of Christ, and the Conflagration of the World.

IF we reflect upon the History of Burning Mountains, we cannot but observe, that, before their Eruptions, there are usually some changes in the Earth or in the Air, in the Sea or in the Sun it self; as signs and forerunners of the ensuing storm. We may then easily conclude that when the last great Storm is a coming, and all the Vulcano's of the Earth ready to burst, and the frame of the World to be dissolved, there will be previous signs, in the Heavens and on the Earth,' to introduce this Tragical fate. Nature cannot come to that extremity, without some symptomes of her illness; nor die silently, without pangs or complaint. But we are naturally heavy of belief as to Futurities, and can scarce fancy any other Scenes, or other state of nature, than that is present, and continually before our eyes; we will therefore, to cure our unbelief, take Scripture for our guide, and keep within the limits of its Predictions.

The Scripture plainly tells us of Signs or Prodigies that will precede the coming of our Saviour, and the end of the World; both in the Heavens and on the Earth. The Sun, Moon, and Stars, will be disturbed in their motion or aspect; The Earth and the Sea will roar and tremble, and the Mountains fall at his Presence. These things both the Prophets and Evangelists have told us; But what we do not understand, we are slow to believe; and therefore those that cannot apprehend how such Changes should come to pass in the Natural World, chuse rather to allegorize all these expressions of Scripture, and to make them signifie no more than political changes of Governments and Empires; and the great confusions that will be amongst the People and Princes of the Earth towards the end of the World. So that darkning of the Sun, shaking of the Earth, and such like phrases of Scripture, according to these Interpreters, are to be understood onely in a moral sence.

And they think they have a warrant for this interpretation from the Prophetick style of the old Testament, where the destruction of Cities, and Empires, and great Princes, is often described by such figures, taken from the Natural World. So much is true indeed as to the phrase of the old Prophets in some places; but I take the true reason and design of that, to be a typical adumbration of what was intended should literally come to pass in the great and universal destruction of the World; whereof these partial destructions were onely shadows and pre-figurations. But to determine this case, Let us take the known and apEvidenced rule for interpreting Scripture, Not to recede from the literal sence without necessity, or where the nature of the subject will admit of a literal interpretation. Now as to those cases in the old Testament, history and matter of fact do show that they did not come to pass literally, therefore must not be so understood; But as for those that concern the end of the World, as they cannot be determined in that way, seeing they are yet future; So neither is there any Natural repugnancy or improbability that they should come literally to pass: On the contrary, from the intuition of that state of Nature, one would rather conclude the probability or necessity of them. That there may and must be such disorders in the external World before the general dissolution. Besides, if we admit Prodigies in any case, or Providential indications of God's judgments to come, there can be no case supposed, wherein it will be more reasonable or proper to admit them, than when they are to be the Messengers of an Universal vengeance and destruction.

Let us therefore consider what signs Scripture hath taken notice of, as destined to appear at that time, to publish, as it were, and proclaim the approaching end of the World; And how far they will admit of a natural explication, according to those grounds we have already given, in explaining the causes and manner of the Conflagration. These Signs are chiefly, Earthquakes, and extraordinary commotions of the Seas. Then the darkness or bloudy colour of the Sun and Moon; The shaking of the Powers of Heaven, the fulgurations of the Air and the falling of Stars. As to Earthquakes, we have upon several occasions shown, that these will necessarily be multiplied towards the end of the World; when, by an excess of drought and heat, exhalations will more abound within the Earth; and, from the same causes, their inflammation also will be more frequent, than in the ordinary state of nature. And as all Bodies, when dryed, become more porous and full of Vacuities; so the Body of the Earth will be at that time: And the Mines or Cavities wherein the fumes and exhalations lodge, will accordingly be of greater extent, open into one another, and continued through long tracts and regions; By which means, when an Earthquake comes, as the shock will be more strong and violent, so it may reach to a vast compass of ground, and whole Islands or Continents be shaken at once, when these trains have taken fire. The effects also of such concussions, will not onely affect Mankind, but all the Elements and the Inhabitants of them.

I do not wonder therefore that frequent and great Earthquakes should be made a sign of an approaching Conflagration; and the highest expressions of the Prophets concerning the Day of the Lord, may be understood in a literal sence, if they be finally referred to the general destruction of the World, and not terminated solely upon those particular Countries or People, to whom they are at first directed. Hear what Ezekielsays upon this subject: For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken; Surely in that Day there shall be a great shaking in the Land of Israel. So that the Fishes of the Sea, and the Fowls of the Heaven, and the Beasts of the Field, and all creeping things that creep upon the Earth; and all the Men that are upon the face of the Earth, shall shake at my presence; and the Mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground. And I will rain an over flowing rain, and great hail-stones, fire and brimstone. The Prophet Isaiasdescribes these judgments in terms as high, and relating to the Natural World: The Windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the Earth do shake. The Earth is utterly broken down, the Earth is clean dissolved, the Earth is moved exceedingly. The Earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a Cottage, and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it, and it shall fall and not rise again.

To restrain all these things to Judea, as their adequate and final object, is to force both the words and the sence. Here are manifest allusions and foot-steps of the destruction of the World, and the dissolution of the Earth; partly as it was in the Deluge, and partly as it will be in its last ruine; torn, broken, and shattered. But most Men have fallen into that errour, To fancy both the destructions of the World, by water and by fire, quiet, noiseless things; executed without any ruines or ruptures in Nature; That the Deluge was but a great Pool of still waters, made by the rains and inundation of the Sea: and the Conflagration will be onely a superficial scorching of the Earth, with a running fire. These are false Idea's, and unsuitable to Scripture: for as the Deluge is there represented a Disruption of the Abyss, and consequently of the then habitable Earth; so the future combustion of it, according to the representations of Scripture, is to be ushered in and accompanied with all sort of violent impressions upon Nature; and the chief instrument of these violences will be Earthquakes. These will tear the Body of the Earth, and shake its foundations; rend the Rocks, and pull down the tall Mountains; sometimes overturn, and sometimes swallow up Towns and Cities; disturb and disorder the Elements, and make a general confusion in Nature.

Next to Earthquakes, we may consider the roarings of a troubled Sea. This is another sign of a dying World. St. Luke hath set down a great many of them together; Let us hear his words: And there shall be signs in the Sun, and in the Moon, and in the Stars; and upon the Earth, distress of Nations, with perplexity, The Sea and the Waves roaring. Mens hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the Earth: for the powers of Heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud, with power and great glory, &c. As some would allegorize these Signs, which we noted before; so others would confine them to the destruction of Jerusalem. But ’tis plain, by this coming of the Son of man in the clouds, and the redemption of the faithful, and at the same time, the sound of the last trumpet, which all relate to the end of the World, that something further is intended than the destruction of Jerusalem. And though there were Prodigies at the destruction of that City and State, yet not of this force, nor with these circumstances. ’Tis true, those partial destructions and calamities, as we observed before, of Babylon, Jerusalem, and the RomanEmpire, being types of an universal and final destruction of all God's Enemies, have, in the pictures of them, some of the same strokes, to show they are all from the same hand; decreed by the same wisdom, foretold by the same Spirit; and the same power and providence that have already wrought the one, will also work the other, in due time, the former being still pledges; as well as prefigurations, of the latter.

Let us then proceed in our explication of this sign, The roaring of the Sea, and the Waves, applying it to the end of the World. I do not look upon this ominous noise of the Sea, as the effect of a tempest, for then it would not strike such a terrour into the Inhabitants of the Earth, nor make them apprehensive of some great evil coming upon the World, as this will do; what proceeds from visible causes, and such as may happen in a common course of Nature, does not so much amaze us, nor affright us. Therefore ’tis more likely these disturbances of the Sea proceed from below; partly by sympathy and revulsions from the Land; by Earthquakes there, and exhausting. the subterraneous cavities of waters, which will draw again from the Seas what supplies they can: And partly by Earthquakes in the very Sea it self; with exhalations and fiery Eruptions from the bottom of it. Things indeed that happen at other times, more or less, but at this conjuncture, all causes conspiring, they will break out with more violence, and put the whole Body of the Waters into a tumultuary motion. I do not see any occasion, at this time, for high Winds; neither can think a superficial agitation of the Waves would answer this Phænomenon; but ’tis rather from Contorsions in the bowels of the Ocean, which make it roar, as it were, for pain. Some Causes impelling the Waters one way, and some another, make intestine struglings and contrary motions; from whence proceed unusual noises, and such a troubled state of the Waters, as does not only make the Sea innavigable, but also strikes terror into all the Maritime inhabitants, that live within the view or sound of it.

So much for the Earth and the Sea. The face of the Heavens also will be changed in divers respects. The Sun and the Moon darkned, or of a bloudy, or pale countenance; The Celestial Powers shaken, and the Stars unsetled in their Orbs. As to the Sun and Moon, their obscuration or change of colour is no more than what happens commonly before the Eruption of a fiery Mountain; Dion Cassius, you see, hath taken notice of it in that Eruption of Ætnawhich he describes; and others upon the like occasions in Vesuvius. And ’tis a thing of easie explication; for according as the Atmosphere is more or less clear or turbid, the Luminaries are more or less conspicuous; and according to the nature of those fumes or exhalations that swim in the Air, the face of the Sun is discoloured, sometimes one way, sometimes another. You see, in an ordinary Experiment, when we look upon one another through the fumes of Sulphur, we appear pale like so many Ghosts; and in some foggy days the Sun hangs in the Firmament as a lump of Bloud. And both the Sun and Moon at their rising, when their light comes to us through the thick vapours of the Earth, are red and fiery. These are not changes wrought in the substance of the Luminaries, but in the modifications of their light as it flows to us. For colours are but Light in a sort of disguise; as it passes through Mediumsof different qualities, it takes different forms; but the matter is still the same, and returns to its simplicity when it comes again into a pure air.

Now the air may be changed and corrupted to a great degree, tho’ there appear no visible change to our eye. This is manifest from infectious airs, and the changes of the air before storms and rains; which we feel commonly sooner than we see, and some other creatures perceive much sooner than we do. ’Tis no wonder then if before this mighty storm the dispositions of the Air be quite altered; especially if we consider, what we have so often noted before, that there will be a great abundance of fumes and exhalations through the whole Atmosphere of the Earth, before the last Fire breaks out; whereby the Light of the Sun may be tinctured in several ways. And lastly, it may be so ordered providentially, that the Body of the Sun may contract at that time some Spots or Maculæfar greater than usual, and by that means be really darkened; not to us only, but to all the neighbouring Planets. And this will have a proportionable effect upon the Moon too, for the diminution of her light. So that upon all suppositions these Phænomena are very intelligible, if not necessary forerunners of the Conflagration.

The next Sign given us, is, that the powers of heaven will be shaken. By the Heavensin this place is either understood the Planetary Heavens, or that of the Fixed Stars; but this latter being infinitely distant from the Earth, cannot be really affected by the Conflagration. Nor the powers of it, that is, its motions or the Bodies contained in it, any way shaken or disordered. But in appearance these celestial Bodies may seem to be shaken and their motions disordered; as in a tempest by night, when the ship is tossed with contrary and uncertain motions, the Heavens seem to fluctuate over our heads, and the Stars to reel to and fro, when the motion is only in our own Vessel. So possibly the uncertain motions of the Atmosphere, and sometimes of the Earth it self, may so vary the sight and aspect of this starry Canopy, that it may seem to shake and tremble.

But if we understand this of the Planetary Heavens, They may really be shaken. Providence either ordering some great changes in the other Planets previously to the Conflagration of our Planet; as ’tis probable there was a great change in Venus, at the time of our Deluge. Or the great shakings and concussions of our Globe at that time, affecting some of the neighbouring Orbs, at least that of the Moon, may cause Anomalies and irregularities in their motions. But the sence that I should pitch upon chiefly for explaining this phrase of shaking the powers of heaven, comprehends, in a good measure, both these Heavens, of the Fixed Stars and of the Planets; ’Tis that change of situation in the Axis of the Earth, which we have formerly mentioned; whereby the Stars will seem to change their places, and the whole Universe to take another posture. This is sufficiently known to those that know the different consequences of a strait or oblique posture of the Earth. And as the heavens and the earth were, in this sence, once shaken before; namely at the Deluge, when they lost their first situation; so now they will be shaken again, and thereby return to the posture they had before that first concussion. And this I take to be the true literal sence of the Prophet Haggai, repeated by St. Paul, Yet once more I shake not the Earth only, but also heaven.

That last Sign we shall take notice of, is that of Falling Stars. And the Stars shall fall from Heaven, says our Saviour, Matt. 24. 29. We are sure, from the nature of the thing, that this cannot be understood either of fixed Stars or Planets; for if either of these should tumble from the Skies, and reach the Earth, they would break it all in pieces, or swallow it up, as the Sea does a sinking ship; and at the same time would put all the inferiour universe into confusion. It is necessary therefore by these Stars to understand either fiery Meteors falling from the middle Region of the Air, or Comets and Blazing Stars. No doubt there will be all sorts of fiery Meteors at that time; and amongst others, those that are called Falling Stars; which, tho’ they are not considerable singly, yet if they were multiplyed in great numbers, falling, as the Prophet says, as leafs from the Vine, or figs from the fig-tree, they would make an astonishing sight. But I think this expression does chiefly refer to Comets; which are dead Stars, and may truly be said to fall from heaven, when they leave their seats above, and those ethereal regions wherein they were fixt, and sink into this lower World; where they wander about with a blaze in their tail, or a flame about their heads, as if they came on purpose to be the Messengers of some fiery Vengeance. If numbers of these blazing Stars should fall into our heaven together, they would make a dreadful and formidable appearance; And I am apt to think that Providence hath so contrived the periods of their motion, that there will be an unusual concourse of them at that time, within the view of the Earth, to be a prelude to this last and most Tragical Scene of the Sublunary World.

I do not know any more in Scripture relating to the last Fire, that, upon the grounds laid down in this discourse, may not receive a satisfactory explication. It reaches, beyond the Signs before mentioned, to the highest expressions of Scripture, As Lakes of fire and brimstone, a molten Sea mingled with fire, the Liquefaction of Mountains, and of the Earth it self. We need not now look upon these things as Hyperbolical and Poetical strains, but as barefaced Prophecies, and things that will literally come to pass as they are predicted. One thing more will be expected in a just hypothesis or Theory of the Conflagration, namely, that it should answer, not only all the conditions and characters belonging to the last Fire, but should also make way and lay the foundation of another World to succeed this, or of New Heavensand a New Earth. For St. Peterhath taught this doctrine of the Renovationof the World, as positively and expressly as that of its Conflagration. And therefore they that so explain the destruction of the present World, as to leave it afterwards in an eternal rubbish, without any hopes of restoration, do not answer the Christian doctrine concerning it. But as to our Hypothesis, we are willing to stand this farther trial, and be accountable for the consequences of the Conflagration, as well as the Antecedents and manner of it. And we have accordingly in the following Book, from the Ashes of this, raised a New Earth; which we leave to the enjoyment of the Readers. In the mean time, to close our discourse, we will bid farewel to the present World, in a short review of its last flames.

THE SACRED THEORY OF THE EARTH

by Thomas Burnet

Book 3

Concerning the Conflagration.

CHAPTER X

Concerning the beginning and progress of the Conflagration, what part of the Earth will first be Burnt. The manner of the future destruction of Rome. The last state and consummation of the general Fire.

HAVING removed the chief obstructions to our design, and drawn a method for weakning the strength of Nature, by draining the Trench, and beating down those Bulwarks, wherein she seems to place her greatest confidence: we must now go to work; making choice of the weakest part of Nature for our first attack, where the fire may be the easiest admitted, and the best maintained and preserved.

And for our better direction, it will be of use to consider what we noted before, viz. That the Conflagration is not a pure Natural Fatality, but a mixt Fatality; or a Divine judgment supported by Natural Causes. And if we can find some part of the Earth, or of the Christian World, that hath more of these natural dispositions to Inflammation than the rest; and is also represented by Scripture as a more peculiar object of God's Judgments at the comeing of our Saviour, we may justly pitch upon that part of the World as first to be destroyed. Nature and Providence conspiring to make that the first Sacrifice to this Fiery Vengeance.

Now as to Natural dispositions, in any Country or Region of the Earth, to be set on Fire, They seem to be chiefly these two, Sulphureousness of the Soil, and an hollow, mountainous construction of the ground. Where these two dispositions meet in the same tract or territory, (the one as to the quality of the matter, and the other as to the form) it stands like a Pile of fit materials, ready set to have the Fire put to it. And as to Divine Indications where this General Fire will begin, the Scripture points to the Seat of Antichrist wheresoever that is, for the beginning of it. The Scripture, I say, points at this, two ways, First, in telling us that our Saviour at his coming in flames of Fire shall consume the wicked one, The Man of sin, the Son of perdition, with the Spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy him with the brightness of his presence. Secondly, under the name of Mystical Babylon; which is allowed by all to be the Seat of Antichrist, and by Scripture always condemned to the Fire. This we find in plain words asserted by St. John in the 18thchap. of his Revelations, and in the 19th. (ver. 3) under the name of the Great Whore; which is the same City and the same Seat, according to the interpretation of Scripture it self. And the Prophet Daniel when he had set the Ancient of Daysupon his fiery Throne, says, The Body of the Beast was given to the burning flame. Which I take to be the same thing with what St. Johnsays afterwards, (Apoc. 19. 20.) The Beast and the false Prophet were cast alive into a Lake of fire burning with brimstone. By these places of Scripture it seems manifest, that Antichrist, and the Seat of Antichrist, will be consumed with Fire, at the coming of our Saviour. And ’tis very reasonable and decorous, that the Grand Traitor and Head of the Apostasie should be made the first example of the divine vengeance.

Thus much being allowed from Scripture, let us now return to Nature again; to seek out that part of the Christian World, that from its own constitution is most subject to burning; by the sulphureousness of its Soil, and its fiery Mountains and Caverns. This we shall easily find to be the Roman Territory, or the Countrey of Italy: which, by all accounts, ancient and modern, is a store-house of fire; as if it was condemned to that fate by God and Nature, and to be an Incendiary, as it were, to the rest of the World. And seeing Mystical Babylon, the Seat of Antichrist, is the same Rome, and its Territory; as it is understood by most Interpreters, of former and later Ages; you see both our lines meet in this point; And that there is a fairness, on both hands, to conclude, that, at the glorious appearance of our Saviour, the Conflagration will begin at the City of Romeand the RomanTerritory.

Nature hath saved us the pains of kindling a fire in those parts of the Earth, for, since the memory of man, there have always been subterraneous fires in Italy. And the Romansdid not preserve their Vestal fire with more constancy, than Nature hath done her fiery Mountains in some part or other of that Territory. Let us then suppose, when the fatal time draws near, all these Burning Mountains to be filled and replenished with fit materials for such a design; and when our Saviour appears in the Clouds, with an Host of Angels, that they all begin to play, as Fire-works at the Triumphal Entry of a Prince. Let Vesuvius, Ætna, Strongyle, and all the VulcanianIslands, break out into flames; and by the Earthquakes, which then will rage, let us suppose new Eruptions, or new Mountains opened, in the Apennines, and near to Rome; and to vomit out fire in the same manner as the old Volcano's. Then let the sulphureous ground take fire; and seeing the Soil of that Countrey, in several places, is so full of brimstone, that the steams and smoke of it visibly rise out of the Earth; we may reasonably suppose, that it will burn openly, and be inflamed, at that time. Lastly, the Lightnings of the Air, and the flaming streams of the melting Skies, will mingle and joyn with these burnings of the Earth. And these three Causes meeting together, as they cannot but make a dreadful Scene, so they will easily destroy and consume whatsoever lies within the compass of their fury.

Thus you may suppose the beginning of the General Fire; And it will be carried on by like causes, tho’ in lesser degrees, in other parts of the Earth. But as to Rome, there is still, in my opinion, a more dreadful fate that will attend it; namely, to be absorpt or swallowed up in a Lake of fire and brimstone, after the mariner of Sodomand Gomorrha. This, in my judgment, will be the fate and final conclusion of Mystical Babylon, to sink as a great Milstone into the Sea, and never to appear more. Hear what the Prophet says, A mighty Angel took up a stone, like a great Milstone, and cast it into the Sea, saying, thus, with violence, shall that great City Babylon be thrown down; and shall be found no more at all. Simply to be burnt, does not at all answer to this description of its perishing, by sinking like a Milstone into the Sea, and never appearing more, nor of, not having its place ever more found;that is, leaving no remains or marks of it. A City that is onely burnt, cannot be said to fall like a Milstone into the Sea; or that it can never more be found: For after the burning of a City, the ruines stand, and its place is well known. Wherefore, in both respects, besides this exteriour burning, there must be an absorption of this Mystical Babylon, the Seat of the Beast; and thereupon a total disappearance of it. This also agrees with the suddenness of the judgment, which is a repeated character of it: Chap. 18. 8, 10, 17, 19. Now what kind of absorption this will be, into what, and in what manner, we may learn from what St. Johnsays afterwards, (ch. 19. 20) The Beast and the false Prophet were cast alive into a Lake of fire and brimstone. You must not imagine that they were bound, hand and foot, and so thrown headlong into this Lake, but they were swallowed up alive, they and theirs, as Corahand his company. Or, to use a plainer example, after the manner of Sodomand Gomorrha; which perish’t by fire, and at the same time sunk into a Dead Sea, or a Lake of brimstone.

This was a lively type of the fate of Rome, or Mystical Babylon; and ’tis fit it should resemble Sodom, as well in its punishment, as in its crimes. Neither is it a hard thing to conceive how such an absorption may come to pass; That being a thing so usual in Earthquakes, and Earthquakes being so frequent in that Region. And lastly, that this should be after the manner of Sodom, turned into a Lake of fire, will not be at all strange, if we consider, that there will be many subterraneous Lakes of fire at that time, when the bowels of the Earth begin to melt, and the Mountains spew out streams of liquid fire. The ground therefore being hollow and rotten in those parts, when it comes to be shaken with a mighty Earthquake, the foundations will sink, and the whole frame fall into an Abyss of fire below, as a Milstone into the Sea. And this will give occasion to that Cry, Babylon the Great is fallen, is fallen, and shall never more be found.

This seems to be a probable account, according to Scripture and reason, of the beginning of the general fire, and of the particular fate of Rome. But it may be proposed here as an objection against this Hypothesis, that the Mediterranean Sea, lying all along the Coast of Italy, must needs be a sufficient guard to that Countrey against the invasion of fire; or at least must needs extinguish it, before it can do much mischief there, or propagate it self into other Countreys. I thought we had in a good measure prevented this objection before, by showing how the Ocean would be diminished before the Conflagration, and especially the Arms and Sinus's of the Ocean; and of these none would be more subject to this diminution than the Mediterranean, for receiving its supplies from the Ocean and the Black Sea, if these came to sink in their chanels, they would not rise so high, as to be capable to flow into the Mediterranean, at either end. And these supplies being cut off, it would soon empty it self so far, partly by evaporation, and partly by subterraneous passages, as to shrink from all its shores, and become onely a standing Pool of water in the middle of the Chanel: Nay, ’tis possible, by flouds of fire descending from the many Volcano's upon its shores, it might it self be converted into a Lake of fire, and rather help than obstruct the progress of the Conflagration.

It may indeed be made a question, whether this fiery Vengeance upon the seat of Antichrist, will not precede the general Conflagration, at some distance of time, as a fore-runner and forewarner to the World, that the rest of the People may have space to repent; And particularly the Jews, being Spectators of this Tragedy, and of the miraculous appearance of our Saviour, may see the hand of God in it, and be convinced of the truth and divine authority of the Christian Religion. I say, this supposition would leave room for these and some other prophetick Scenes, which we know not well where to place; But seeing The Day of the Lordis represented in Scripture as one entire thing, without interruption or discontinuation, and that it is to begin with the destruction of Antichrist, we have warrant enough to pursue the rest of the Conflagration from this beginning and introduction.

Let us then suppose the same preparations made in the other parts of the Earth to continue the fire; for the Conflagration of the World being a work of providence, we may be sure such measures are taken, as will effectually carry it on when once begun. The Body of the Earth will be loosened and broken by Earthquakes, the more solid parts impregnated with sulphur, and the cavities filled with unctuous fumes and exhalations; so as the whole Mass will be but as one great funeral Pile, ready built, and wanting nothing but the hand of a destroying Angel, to give it fire. I will not take upon me to determine which way this devouring Enemy will steer his course from Italy, or in what order he will advance and enter the several Regions of our Continent; that would be an undertaking, as uncertain, as useless. But we cannot doubt of his success, which way soever he goes: unless where the Chanel of the Ocean may chance to stop him. But as to that, we allow, that different Continents may have different Fires; not propagated from one another, but of distinct sources and originals; and so likewise in remote Islands; and therefore no long passage or trajection will be required from shore to shore. And even the Ocean it self, will at length be as Fiery as any part of the Land; But that, with its Rocks, like Death, will be the last thing subdued.

As to the Animate World, the Fire will over-run it with a swift and rapid course, and all living Creatures will be suffocated or consumed, at the first assault. And at the same time, the beauty of the Fields and the external decorations of Nature will be defaced. Then the Cities and the Towns, and all the works of man's hands, will burn like stubble before the wind. These will be soon dispatched; but the great burthen of the Work still remains; which is that Liquefactionwe mentioned before, or a melting fire, much more strong and vehement than these transient blazes, which do but sweep the surface of the Earth. This Liquefaction, I say, we Evidenced before out of Scripture, as the last state of the fiery Deluge. And ’tis this, which, at length, will make the Sea it self a Lake of fire and brimstone. When instead of rivers of Waters which used to flow into it from the Land, there come streams and rivulets of Sulphureous Liquors, and purulent melted matter, which, following the tract of their natural gravity will fall into this great drain of the Earth. Upon which mixture, the remaining parts of sweet water will soon evaporate, and the salt mingling with the Sulphur will make a Dead Sea, an Asphaltites, a Lake of Sodom, a Cup of the Wine of the fierceness of God's wrath.

We noted before two remarkable effects of the Burning Mountains, which would contribute to the Conflagration of the World; and gave instances of both in former Eruptions of Ætnaand Vesuvius. One was, of those Balls or lumps of Fire, which they throw about in the time of their rage; and the other, of those torrents of liquid Fire, which rowl down their sides to the next Seas or Valleys. In the first respect these Mountains are as so many Batteries, planted by Providence in several parts of the Earth, to fling those fiery Bombs into such places, or such Cities, as are marked out for destruction. And in the second respect, they are to dry up the Waters, and the Rivers, and the Sea it self, when they fall into its chanel. T. Fazellus, a Sicilian, who writ the History of that Island, tells us of such a River of fire (upon an eruption of Ætna) near twenty eight miles long; reaching from the Mountain to Port Longina; and might have been much longer if it had not been stopt by the Sea. Many such as these, and far greater, we ought in reason to imagin, when all the Earth begins to melt, and to ripen towards a dissolution. It will then be full of these Sulphureous juices, as Grapes with Wine; and these will be squeezed out of the Earth into the Sea, as out of a wine-press into the Receiver; to fill up that Cup with the wine of the fierceness of God's wrath.

If we may be allowed to bring Prophetical passages of Scripture to a natural sence, as doubtless some of those must that respect the end of the World, these phrases which we have now suggested, of the Wine press of the wrath of God. Drinking the fierceness of his wine, poured, without mixture, into the cup of his indignation, with expressions of the like nature that occur sometimes in the old Prophets, but especially in the Apocalypse; These, I say, might receive a full and emphatical explication from this state of things which now lies before us. I would not exclude any other explication of less force, as that of alluding to thebitter cupor mixt potionthat used to be given to malefactors: but that, methinks, is a low sence when applyed to these places in the Apocalypse. That these phrases signifie God's remarkable judgments, all allow, and here they plainly relate to the end of the World, to the last Plagues, and the Last of the last Plagues, chap. 16. 19. Besides, the Angel that presided over this judgment, is said to be an Angel that had power over fire; And those who are to drink this potion, are said to be tormented with fire and brimstone, ch. 14. 10. This presiding Angel seems to be our Saviour himself (c. 19. 15.) who when he comes to execute Divine Vengeance upon the Earth, gives his orders in these words, Gather the clusters of the Vine of the Earth, for her grapes are fully ripe. And thereupon the Destroying Angel thrust in his sickle into the Earth, and gathered the Vine of the Earth, and cast it into the great Wine press of the Wrath of God. And this made a potion, compounded of several ingredients, but not diluted with water; (ch. 14. 10.) 1 and was indeed a potion of fire and brimstone and all burning materials mixt together. The similitudes of Scripture are seldom nice and exact, but rather bold, noble and great; and according to the circumstances which we have observed, This Vineyardseems to be the Earth, and this Vintagethe end of the World; The pressing of the Grapes into the cup or vessel that receives them, the distillation of burning liquors from all parts of the Earth into the trough of the Sea; and that lake of red Fire, the bloud of those Grapes so flowing into it.

’Tis true, this judgment of the Vintage and Wine-press, and the effects of it, seem to aim more especially at some particular region of the Earth, ch. 14. 20. And I am not against that, provided the substance of the explication be still retained, and the universal Sea of Fire be that which follows in the next Chapter, under the name of a Sea of Glass, mingled with Fire; This I think expresses the highest and compleat state of the Conflagration; when the Mountains are fled away, and not only so, but the exteriour region of the Earth quite dissolved, like wax before the Sun; The Chanel of the Sea filled with a mass of fluid fire, and the same fire overflowing all the Globe, and covering the whole Earth, as the Deluge, or the first Abyss. Then will the Triumphal Songs and Hallelujah's be sung for the Victories of the Lamb over all his Enemies and over Nature it self. Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty: just and true are thy ways thou King of Saints. Who shall not fear thee O Lord, and glorifie thy name? for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest.

Footnotes

293:1 το κεκουρασμένου κράτου.

THE SACRED THEORY OF THE EARTH

by Thomas Burnet

Book 3

Concerning the Conflagration.

CHAPTER IX

How the Sea will be diminished and consumed. How the Rocks and Mountains will be thrown down and melted, and the whole exteriour frame of the Earth dissolved into a Deluge of Fire.

WE have now taken a view of the Causes of the Conflagration, both ordinary and extraordinary: It remains to consider the manner of it; How these Causes will operate, and bring to pass an effect so great and so prodigious. We took notice before that the grand obstruction would be from the Sea, and from the Mountains; we must therefore take these to task in the first place; and if we can remove them out of our way, or overcome what resistance and opposition they are capable to make, the rest of the work will not be uneasie to us.

The Ocean indeed is a vast Body of Waters; and we must use all our art and skill to dry it up, or consume it in a good measure, before we can compass our design. I remember the advice a Philosopher gave AmasisKing of Egypt, when he had a command sent him from the King of Æthiopia, That he should drink up the Sea. Amasisbeing very anxious and solicitous what answer he should make to this strange command, the Philosopher Bias advised him to make this round answer to the King; That he was ready to perform his command and to drink up the Sea, provided he would stop the rivers from flowing into his cup while he was drinking. This answer baffled the King, for he could not stop the rivers; but this we must do, or we shall never be able to drink up the Sea, or burn up the Earth.

Neither will this be so impossible as it seems at first sight, if we reflect upon those preparations we have made towards it, by a general drought all over the Earth. This we suppose will precede the Conflagration, and by drying up the Fountains and Rivers, which daily feed the Sea, will by degrees starve that Monster, or reduce it to such a degree of weakness, that it shall not be able to make any great resistance. More than half an Ocean of Water flows into the Sea every day, from the Rivers of the Earth, if you take them all together. This I speak upon a moderate computation. Aristotlesays the Rivers carry more water into the Sea, in the space of a year, than would equal in bulk the whole Globe of the Earth. Nay some have ventured to affirm this of one single River, The Volga, that runs into the CaspianSea. ’Tis a great River indeed, and hath seventy mouths; and so it had need have, to disgorge a mass of Water equal to the Body of the Earth, in a years time. But we need not take such high measures; There are at least an hundred great Rivers that flow into the Sea, from several parts of the Earth, Islands and Continents, besides several thousands of lesser ones; Let us suppose these, all together, to pour as much water into the Sea-chanel, every day, as is equal to half the Ocean. And we shall be easily convinced of the reasonableness of this supposition, if we do but examine the daily expence of one River, and by that make an estimate of the rest. This we find calculated to our hands in the River Poin Italy; a River of much what the same bigness with our Thames, and disburthens it self into the Gulph of Venice. Baptista Riccioli, hath computed how much water this River discharges in an hour, viz. 18000000 cubical paces of Water, and consequently 432000000 in a day; which is scarce credible to those that do not distinctly compute it. Suppose then an hundred Rivers as great as this or greater, to fall into the Sea from the land; besides thousands of lesser, that pay their tribute at the same time into the great Receit of the Ocean; These all taken together, are capable to renew the Sea every twice four and twenty hours. Which suppositions being admitted, if by a great and lasting drought these Rivers were dryed up, or the Fountains from whence they flow, what would then become of that vast Ocean, that before was so formidable to us?

’Tis likely you will say, These great Rivers cannot be dryed up, tho’ the little ones may; and therefore we must not suppose such an Universal stop of waters, or that they will all fail, by any drought whatsoever. But great Rivers being made up of little ones, if these fail, those must be diminished, if not quite drained and exhausted. It may be all Fountains and Springs do not proceed from the same causes, or the same original; and some are much more copious than others; for such differences we will allow what is due; but still the driness of the Air and of the Earth continuing, and all the sources and supplies of moisture, both from above and from below, being lessened or wholly discontinued, a general decay of all Fountains and Rivers must necessarily follow, and consequently of the Sea, and of its fulness that depends upon them. And that's enough for our present purpose.

The first step therefore towards the Consumption of the Ocean will be the diminution or suspension of the Rivers that run into it. The next will be an Evacuation by Subterraneous passages; And the last, by Eruptions of fires in the very Chanel of it, and in the midst of the waters. As for Subterraneous evacuations, we cannot doubt but that the Sea hath out-lets (sic.)at the bottom of it; whereby it discharges that vast quantity of water that flows into it every day, and that could not be discharged so fast as it comes from the wide mouths of the Rivers, by percolation or straining thorough the Sands. Seas also communicate with one another by these internal passages; as is manifest from those particular Seas that have no external outlet or issue, tho’ they receive into them many great Rivers, and sometimes the influx of other Seas. So the CaspianSea receives not onely Volga, which we mentioned before, but several other Rivers, and yet hath no visible issue for its waters. The MediterraneanSea, besides all the Rivers it receives, hath a current flowing into it, at either end, from other Seas; from the AtlantickOcean at the streights of Gibraltar, and from the Black Sea, above Constantinople:and yet there is no passage above-ground, or visible derivation of the Mediterraneanwaters out of their Chanel; which seeing they do not over-fill, nor overflow the Banks, ’tis certain they must have some secret conveyances into the bowels of the Earth, or subterraneous communication with other Seas. Lastly, from the Whirl-pools of the Sea, that suck in Bodies that come within their reach, it seems plainly to appear, by that attraction and absorption, that there is a descent of waters in those places.

Wherefore when the current of the Rivers into the Sea is stopt, or in a great measure diminished; The Sea continuing to empty it self by these subterraneous passages, and having little or none of those supplies that it used to have from the Land, it must needs be sensibly lessened; and both contract its Chanel into a narrower compass, and also have less depth in the waters that remain. And in this last place, we must expect fiery eruptions in several parts of the Sea-chanel, which will help to suck up or evaporate the remaining waters. In the present state of Nature there have been several instances of such eruptions of fire from the bottom of the Sea; and in that last state of Nature, when Earthquakes and Eruptions will be more frequent every where, we must expect them also more frequently by Sea, as well as by Land. ’Tis true, neither Earthquakes nor Eruptions can happen in the middle of the Great Ocean, or in the deepest Abyss, because there are no cavities, or mines below it, for the vapours and exhalations to lodge in; But ’tis not much of the Sea-chanel that is so deep, and in other parts, especially in streights and near Islands, such Eruptions, like Sea-Volcano's, have frequently happened, and new Islands have been made by such fiery matter thrown up from the bottom of the Sea. Thus, they say, those Islands in the Mediterranean called the VulcanianIslands, had their original; being matter cast up from the bottom of the Sea, by the force of fire; as new Mountains sometimes are raised upon the Earth. Another Island in the Archipelagohad the same original, whereof Strabogives an account. The flames, he says, sprung up thorough the waters, four days together, so as the whole Sea was hot and burning; and they raised by degrees, as with Engines, a mass of Earth, which made a new Island, twelve furlongs in compass. And in the same Archipelago, flames and smoak have several times (particularly in the year 1650) rise out of the Sea, and filled the Air with sulphureous scents and vapours. In like manner, in the Island of St. Michel, one of the Tercera's, there have been, of later years, such eructations of fire and flames; so strong and violent, that, at the depth of an hundred and sixty fathoms, they forced their way through the midst of the waters, from the bottom of the Sea into the open Air. As has been related by those that were eye-witnesses.

In these three ways, I conceive, the great force of the Sea will be broken, and the mighty Ocean reduced to a standing Pool of putrid waters, without vent and without recruits. But there will still remain in the midst of the Chanel a great mass of troubled liquors, like dregs in the bottom of the vessel; which will not be drunk up till the Earth be all on fire, and torrents of melted and sulphureous matter flow from the Land, and mingle with this Dead Sea. But let us now leave the Sea in this humble posture, and go on to attack the Rocks and Mountains which stand next in our way.

See how scornfully they look down upon us, and bid defiance to all the Elements. They have born the thunder and lightning of Heaven, and all the artillery of the Skies, for innumerable Ages; and do not fear the crackling of thorns and of shrubs that burn at their feet. Let the Towns and Cities of the Earth, say they, be laid in ashes; Let the Woods and Forests blaze away; and the fat Soyl of the Earth fry in its own grease; These things will not affect us; We can stand naked in the midst of a Sea of fire, with our roots as deep as the foundations of the Earth, and our heads above the Clouds of the Air. Thus they proudly defie Nature; and it must be confect, that these, being, as it were, the Bones of the Earth, when the Body is burning, will be the last consumed; And I am apt to think, if they could keep in the same posture they stand in now, and preserve themselves from falling, the fire could never get an entire power over them. But Mountains are generally hollow, and that makes them subject to a double casualty; first, of Earth-quakes, secondly, of having their roots eaten away by water or by fire; but by fire especially in this case: for we suppose there will be innumerable subterraneous fires smothering under ground, before the general fire breaks out; and these by corroding the bowels of the Earth, will make it more hollow and more ruinous; And when the Earth is so far dissolved, that the cavities within the Mountains are filled with Lakes of fire, then the Mountains will sink, and fall into those boyling Caldrons; which, in time, will dissolve them, tho’ they were as hard as Adamant.

To conclude this point, the Mountains will all be brought low, in that state of nature, either by Earthquakes or subterraneous fires;Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low. Which will be literally true at the second coming of our Saviour, as it was figuratively applyed to his first coming. Now, being once leveled with the rest of the Earth, the question will onely be, how they shall be dissolved. But there is no Terrestrial Body indissolvable to Fire, if it have a due strength and continuance; and this last fire will have both, in the highest degrees; So that it cannot but be capable of dissolving all Elementary compositions, how hard or solid soever they be.

’Tis true, these Mountains and Rocks, as I said before, will have the priviledge to be the last destroyed. These, with the deep parts of the Sea, and the Polar regions of the Earth, will undergo a slower fate, and be consumed more leisurely. The action of the last Fire may be distinguished into two Times, or two assaults; The first assault will carry off all Mankind, and all the works of the Earth that are easily combustible, and this will be done with a quick and sudden motion. But the second assault, being employed about the consumption of such Bodies or such Materials as are not so easily subjected to fire, will be of long continuance, and the work of some years. And ’tis fit it should be so; that this Flaming World may be viewed and considered by the neighbouring Worlds about it, as a dreadful spectacle, and monument of God's wrath against disloyal and disobedient Creatures. That by this example, now before their eyes, they may think of their own fate, and what may befal them, as well as another Planet of the same Elements and composition.

Thus much for the Rocks and Mountains; which, you see, according to our Hypothesis, will be leveled, and the whole face of the Earth reduced to plainness and equality; nay, which is more, melted and dissolved into a Sea of liquid Fire. And because this may seem a Paradox, being more than is usually supposed, or taken notice of, in the doctrine of the Conflagration, it will not be improper in this place to give an account, wherein our Idea of the Conflagration and its effects, differs from the common opinion and the usual representation of it. ’Tis commonly supposed, that the Conflagration of the World is like the burning of a City, where the Walls and materials of the Houses are not melted down, but scorched, inflamed, demolished, and made unhabitable. So they think in the Burning of the World; such Bodies, or such parts of Nature, as are fit Fewel for the Fire, will be inflamed, and, it may be, consumed, or reduced to smoak and ashes; But other Bodies that are not capable of Inflammation, will only be scorched and defaced, the beauty and furniture of the Earth spoiled, and by that means, say they, it will be laid wast and become unhabitable. This seems to me a very short and imperfect Idea of the Conflagration; neither agreeable to Scripture, nor to the deductions that may be made from Scripture. We therefore suppose that this is but half the work, this destroying of the outward garniture of the Earth is but the first onset, and that the Conflagration will end in a Dissolution and liquefaction of the Elements and all the exteriour region of the Earth; so as to become a true Deluge of Fire, or a Sea of Fire overspreading the whole Globe of the Earth. This state of the Conflagration I think may be plainly Evidenced, partly by the expressions of Scripture concerning it, and partly from the Renovationof the Earth that is to follow upon it. St. Peter, who is our chief Guide in the doctrine of the Conflagration, says, The Elements will be melted with fervent heat; besides burning up the works of the Earth. Then adds, Seeing all these things shall be dissolved, &c. These terms of Liquefactionand Dissolutioncannot, without violence, be restrained to simple devastation and superficial scorching. Such expressions carry the work a great deal further, even to that full sence which we propose. Besides, the Prophets often speak of the melting of the Earth, or of the hills and mountains, at the presence of the Lord, in the day of his wrath. And St. John(Apoc. is. 2.) tells us of a Sea of Glass, mingled with Fire; where the Saints stood, singing the song of Moses, and triumphing over their enemies, the Spiritual Pharaohand his host, that were swallowed up in it. That Sea of Glassmust be a Sea of moltenglass; it must be fluid, not solid, if a Sea; neither can a solid substance be said to be mingled with Fire, as this was. And to this answers the Lake of fire and brimstone, which the Beast and false Prophet were thrown into alive, Apoc. 19. 20. These all refer to the end of the World and the last Fire, and also plainly imply, or express rather, that state of Liquefaction which we suppose and assert.

Furthermore, The Renovationof the World, or The New Heavensand New Earth, which St. Peter, out of the Prophets, tells us shall spring out of these that are burnt and dissolved, do suppose this Earth reduced into a fluid Chaos, that it may lay a foundation for a second World. If you take such a Skeleton of an Earth, as your scorching Fire would leave behind it; where the flesh is torn from the bones, and the Rocks and Mountains stand naked and staring upon you; the Sea, half empty, gaping at the Sun, and the Cities all in ruines and in rubbish; How would you raise a New World from this? and a World fit to be an habitation for the Righteous; for so St. Petermakes that to be, which is to succeed after the Conflagration. And a World also without a Sea, so St. John describes the New Earth he saw. As these characters do not agree to the present Earth, so neither would they agree to your Future one; for if that dead lump could revive and become habitable again, it would however retain all the imperfections of the former Earth, besides some scars and deformities of its own. Wherefore if you would cast the Earth into a new and better mould, you must first melt it down; and the last Fire, being as a Refiner's fire, will make an imEvidencement in it, both as to matter and form. To conclude, it must be reduced into a fluid Mass, in the nature of a Chaos, as it was at first; but this last will be a Fiery Chaos, as that was Watery; and from this state it will emerge again into a Paradisiacal World. But this being the Subject of the following Book, we will discourse no more of it in this place.