Religion & morality > Human nature in its fourfold state

416 The general CorflagrrJion. State TV.
iliall he at Once in flames V how will wretched world¬
lings look, when their darling world (hall be all let on
fire ? Then flnll ftrong cables, and towering palaces, j
with all their rich furniture, go up together in one r
flame with the loweit cottages What heart can fully
conceive the terror of that day to the wicked, when i
the whole fabric of heaven and earth, fball at once be a
diffolvcd by that fire ! when that miferable company
fh.il! be driven from the tribunal to the pit, with fire
within them, and tire without them , and fire behind ,
them, and on every hand of them; and fire before them,
awaiting them in the lake, whither this fire (for ought
appears) may follow diem !
As for the particular place of this judgement, though
fome point us to the valley of Jehofh tphat for it, yet
our Lord whq knew it, being alked the queftion by his
difc'p'es, Where Lord? told them only, IVhercfoevcr
the, body is, thither ovill the eagles be gathered together^
Luke xvii. 37. After which anfwer, it is too much
for men to renew the queftion. As for the time when
it {hall be ; in vain do men fearch for what the Lord
has purpofely kept feertt, Atfts. i. 8. It is not for you
to kno-d! the times or the jcajons, which the Father has
■put in his own power The Apoftle Paul, after having
very plainly rieferihed the fecond coming of Chrift,
I Theft, iv 16, 17. adds, (chap, v 2.) But of the
times and tea/ans, brethren, ye have no need that I write
unto sou. For yourfelves know . perfectiy, that the day
of the.Lord fo corneth as a thief in the night. Never- -
theh is, feme in feveral ages, have made very bold with
the time : and feveraf pirticulur yeais, which are now
p.df, have been given out to the wor-ld, for the time of
the end, by men who have pried into the fecrets of
G,,d. rime has proc'aimed to the world, their rafn- ■
nefs and folly ; and it is likely, they will be no more
},;v py in their conjcflures, wh'ofe determinate time is
vet to come. L t us reft in that he cotneth God
hath kept the d. y hid. from us, that we may be every
day ready for it, Ma.trh xxv 13 Watch therefore. !or 1
ir know neither the day nor the hour, wherein the Son