THE Introduction; with the Contents and Order of this Treatise.
The true state of the Question is propos’d. ’Tis the general doctrine of the Ancients, That the present World, or the present Frame of Nature, is mutable and perishable: To which the Sacred Books agree: And natural Reason can alledge nothing against it.
That the World will be destroy’d by Fire, is the doctrine of the Ancients, especially of the Stoicks. That the same doctrine is more ancient than the Greeks, and deriv’d from the Barbarick Philosophy, and That probably from Noah, the Father of all Traditionary Learning. The same doctrine expresly authoriz’d by Revelation, and inroll’d into the Sacred Canon.
Concerning the Time of the Conflagration, and the End of the World. What the Astronomers say upon this Subject, and upon what they ground their Calculations. The true notion of the Great Year, or of the Platonick Year, stated and explain’d.
Concerning Prophecies that determine the End of the World; Of what order soever, Prophane or Sacred: Jewish or Christian. That no certain judgment can be made from any of them, at which distance we are from the Conflagration.
Concerning the Causes of the Conflagration. The difficulty of conceiving how this Earth can be set on fire. With a general answer to that difficulty. Two suppos’d Causes of the Conflagration, by the Sun's drawing nearer to the Earth, or the Earth's throwing out the Central Fire, examin’d and rejected.
