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By holy converfation and godliness, we fhall be no fufferers in the univerfal calamity; but may with confidence look for, and even haste to meet, the coming of the day of God; being diligent that we may be found of him in peace; as the fame apostle advifeth. For, as another infpired writer informs us, The Lord himself fhall defcend from, heaven with a fhout; with the voice of the arch-angel; and with the trump of God: And the dead in Chrift fhall rife firft: Then we, fays he, which are alive, and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds; to meet the Lord in the air; and fo fhall we ever be with the Lord*.

Thus, by framing our lives as becomes those that wait for these things; whether we shall be of the number of the quick, or dead; we fhall be changed in a moment; and be removed into regions of fecurity; out of the reach of the deftroying element: Or if we fhall not entirely efcape its fury;

* Theff. iv. 16, 17.

it

it will affect us no otherwife, than in purging away our drofs; and refining us from our fins; as filver is tried and refined in a furnace of earth, purified feven times. For the prophet tells us, that the Lord, at the day of his coming, is like a refiner's fire; and like fuller's foap: And that he shall fit as a refiner, and purifier of filver; and shall purify the fons of Levi; and purge them, as gold and filver *.

“And then, when by that fire, probably, the portion of matter, which was in the bodies of all who have lived upon earth, fhall be fo far refined and fixed, as to become both incorruptible, and immortal; then they fhall be made meet for the foul, that formerly animated them, to re-enter every one into its own body; which shall be then fo moulded, as to be a habitation, fit to give it everlasting joy, or everlasting

torment.

* Bishop Burnet, Exp. of the Articles, Art. iv. p. 67. + Mal. iii. 2, 3.

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On either of the foregoing fuppofitions, whether at this great day, we shall be found alive; or, as is most probable, dead in the Lord; we shall be qualified for the fucceeding happy state.

CHAP.

CHA P. XIII.

OF THE RENOVATION OF THE

I

EARTH.

T was in order to its melioration, that the earth was deftroyed by water: And it is for the fame gracious end, that it is to be destroyed again by fire; that by undergoing these two different kinds of purgation, it may at laft be reduced to fuch an improved and happy state, as was sketched out in the primitive paradise ; which was an emblem, and an earnest of it: And this is an end worthy of the great Creator, and wife Governor of the world; and juftifies his ways to men, in Hh 3

the

the fevere judgments, which he hath, and will have, inflicted upon the world.

That the whole frame of nature, the whole fyftem of the universe, is all to be reftored to this renovated state, is what the fcripture, which hath hitherto been our guide; and which, especially with regard to the view before us, must neceffarily be our guide unto the end-This is what the holy fcripture, I fay, which never misleads us, gives us repeated asfurances of.

This important change will be fo great and universal, that it is expreffed by the infpired writers in the terms of a new creation. For behold, faith the Lord, by his prophet, I create new heavens, and a new earth: And, as the new heavens, and the nere earth, which I will make, fhall remain before me, faith the Lord; fo fhall your feed, and your name remain *

It is with reference to this promife, contained in the words of the prophet, that

* Ifai. lxv. 17-xvi. 22.

St.

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