320 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book VII. 



of his death ; for we are often feveral years a dyhig. And if a linger- 

 ing deatli is fo great a mifery, how miferable murt: the end of the 

 fpecies be, if it were to die out, as I fuppofe. But our facred books 

 have informed us, that the wifdom and goodnefs of God are to in- 

 t^rpofe to prevent fo milerable a cataftrophe ot the fpecies ; for we 

 are told not only in the revelation of St. John, but in feveral other 

 paiTages *, that by fome great convuHion of nature, this world fhall 

 end,, and a new heaven and earth come in its place : And as the 

 fame God governs both the natural and the moral world, his infi- 

 nite wifdom will, no doubt, fo order things, that the convulfion of 

 nature, which fhall put an end to our fpecies and to this fyftem of 

 things, will happen in the ordinary courfe of nature ; for to fuppofe 

 extraordinary interpofitions of divine power is not agreeable to that 

 fyftem which we muft fuppofe in the univerfe. Nor do I think it 

 is necefiary to fuppofe that all at once the whole frame of things 

 here below {hall be changed, but the change may be in different 

 countries at different times. That there have been great alterations 

 of the ordinary courfe of nature in particular countries by the means 

 of the two elements of fire and water, we are affured from hiftory : 

 Such was the flood of Noah in Afia, and the flood of Ogyges and Deu- 

 calion in Greece ; and alfo the finking of the Atlantic ifland, which, I 

 think, from the account that Plato has given us of it from the informa- 

 tion which Solon got in Egypt, and which was related by him to Criti- 

 asfj is very well vouched. And as to fire, there has been much deftruc- 

 tion by earthquakes and the eruptions of burning mountains in feve- 

 ral countries : By an earthquake in the reign of Tiberius there were 

 1 2 cities in Afia deftroyed in one night ; and within thefe few years, 

 feveral cities have been deftroyed in Calabria and Sicily in that way. 

 And not many years ago, Jeddo, the Capital of Jappan, was deftroy- 

 ed b) the earth opening and by an eruption of fire, in which it 



is 

 * Mat. chap. 24. V. 29. and 30. — II Peter, chap. 3. v. 10. 

 'j- See Plato, in the Dialogues entitled The Timaeus and 27-6' Critiaj. 



