First, he teaches us, that Nature, as it ftands now, is made fubject to Vanity, and shall be freed from the Bondage of Corruption when the Sons of God fhall enjoy a glorious Archeol. Liberty: But that this Difcourfe of the APhilof. 1. poftle is to be understood of the natural 2. C. 2. World, has, I believe, in another Place been

fufficiently prov'd. Laftly, the fame Apoftle acquaints us, that τὴν οικεμήνην τὴν μέλο Xsoav, the future World fhall be inhabited when the Figure of this fhall have pass'd away; and fubjects it to Christ, as to Its proper Master, Heb. ii. 5. 1 Cor. vii. 31. But the Difcourfe of St. Peter, in his fecond general Epiftle, Chap. iii. is much more clear and open than all thefe; where he treats of this Matter diftinctly, and not only afferts that there will be new Heavens and a new Earth, but likewife makes Mention of the two that precede them, and distinguishes them into the Antediluvian and the Present. But now fince this Paffage

of St. Peter feems to me to be irrefutable and unanfwerable, befides what we have already faid fuccinctly, it will be highly worth our while to dwell fomething longer upon it.

THE Adverfaries of this Opinion convert into Allegories whatever has been faid by the Prophets concerning this new Heaven, and this new Earth, and fo pretend to elude it; but the forefaid Difcourfe of St. Peter about these fame new Heavens and new Earth, can, by no Strength of human Un

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derstanding,

derstanding, and no human Art, be refolv'd into Allegories, or wrefted from the literal Sense. 'Tis exprefly ordain'd, and indus triously instituted, to fhew the mutable Nature of Things, and a fucceffive threefold World; I mean the natural World, concerning which the Dispute was with those Scoffers, Ver. 3.

And 'tis remarkable, that by the Words Heaven and Earth, the Hebrews understood the vifible World, or the Nature of Things. But let us, if you please, take a View of the Words of the Apoftle relating to this Matter, (Ver. 11, 12, 13.)

SEEING then that all thefe Things fhall be diffolv'd, what Manner of Perfons ought we to be in all holy Converfation and Godlinefs; looking for, and hafting unto the Coming of the Day of God, wherein the Heavens being on Fire, fhall be diffolv'd, and the Elements fhall melt with fervent Heat. Nevertheless we, according to his Promife, look for new Heavens, and a new Earth, wherein Righteoufnefs fhall dwell.

THERE are feveral Things in this Dif course of the Apoftle, which, compar'd with what precedes it, plainly difcover, that the Words new Heaven and new Earth, are confin'd in their fignification to the vifible and natural World: First, the Force, the Ufe, and the Signification of the fame Words, or of the fame Phrafeology, in the Verfes that are antecedent to it; fecondly, the very Form, Structure, and Context of the Speech,

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by which this Renovation is exprefs'd; and laftly, the Time to which it relates. All thefe are fo many Witneffes, which prove that the Apostle here fpeaks of material and real, and not imaginary and allegorical Earth and Heavens. As for the firft Proof of this, the fame Diction, or the fame Manner of fpeaking, no less than twice occurs to us in this very Chapter. In the fifth Verse of it we have, the Earth and the Heavens which formerly were, or which are past, that is to fay, the Antediluvian World. In the feventh Verse we have, the Earth and the Heavens which now are, that is, which are present to us, or the Poft-diluvian World. Laftly, in the thirteenth Verse we find, the new Heavens, and new Earth, that are to come, that is, after the Conflagration. But now fince, by the Confent of all, the Heavens and the Earth, both in the fifth and the seventh Verse, are to be understood literally of the material and natural Frame and Structure of the Earth and the Heavens, I would fain know by what Right, or by what Rule of Interpreting, we can be justify'd in wresting the very fame Words, or the very fame Expreffion, in the fame Chapter, in the fame Context, in the Continuation of the fame Argument, to a foreign Signification? So that by the first and fecond Paffage we understand the natural World; but a figurative and allegorical World by the third Paffage; and this without the leaft Mark from

the

the Author, that he has chang'd his Style, or the least Neceffity on the Part of the Subject Matter.

BUT now fecondly, the Form of this Dif course, and the Manner by which 'tis coherent with and dependant on what precedes it, both equally testify the fame Thing. After the Apostle had defcrib'd the Burning of the prefent, World, he adds, But, or nevertheless we expect new Heavens, and a new Earth. He fubftitutes thefe new Heavens and this new Earth in the room of those that were burnt and perifh'd. These, then, must be of the fame Kind with those that perish'd, that is to fay, material, and not allegorical; which is the fame Thing as if the Apostle had faid, Tho' the prefent Heavens and the prefent Earth must one Day perish, as we have already explain'd to you; yet here will not be an abfolute End, (which perhaps you may suspect,) but only a Renovation of all Things; for we expect, according to the Promife which we have receiv'd from God, that other Heavens, and another Earth, in which the Righteous fhall dwell, will fucceed thofe which are now. But thirdly, and laftly, fince this new World, or this Renovation, be that what it will, is not to appear till after the general Conflagration, we may certainly infer from the Time, that by this Renovation cannot be understood any Evangelical Renovation, (as our allegorical Adverfaries are pleas'd

to affert,) or any other in this Life. And thefe Arguments, unless I am mistaken, prove unanswerably, that the Heavens and Earth, in this Difcourfe of the Apostle, are to be taken,_naτa xvojoλiav, according to the geκυριολεξίαν, nuine Force of the Words, and the manifeft Nature of the Thing.*

THESE Things being thus laid down and granted, let this be the firft Conclufion drawn from them, That the natural World, or the Heavens, and the Earth, will be renewed after the Conflagration: And then let this be the fecond Conclufion to be prov'd by what is to follow, That the Millennium, or the millennian Kingdom of Chrift, is to be celebrated in the World renewed, or the Renovation of Earth and Heaven.

THE millennian Kingdom of Chrift was esteem'd an orthodox Doctrine by the primitive Chriftians, and continued for a while unpolluted, and for that Reafon uncontroverted:

*We very juftly accufe the Socinians of their unfair and perverfe Interpretation, in wrefting what St. John fays in the Beginning of his Gofpel about the natural World, into a moral and allegorical Senfe: But they who, in the prefent Cafe, *** * **fall into the very fame Error, are equally culpable, whilft they interpret what St. Peter fo plainly fays of the material World, as though he had meant it of a moral and allegorical one. * For I will be bold to affirm, that St. John, in the Beginning of his Gospel, does not more clearly or diftinétly intend the natural World, than St. Peter does here, when he fpeaks of new Heavens and a new Earth.

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