608_ Cl1;ap.x4:" -..Expafition`;Ton the Bookof Jos. Verf. 12. be faJbioned like to theglorious Bodyof Chrift, according to the mighty Power of God, whereby he is. able to fubdue all things to Himfelf ; So the vileft part of the Frame of the World, much more the Heavens,fhaIl be-put into a more excellent fafhion then now they are : Thefaíhion-of the Woldpaffethaway, but God will put it in a fafhion which ¡hall not pafs. I (hall not here interpofe my own fenfe in fo great a Variety of Judgment among Learned men, efpecially, becaufe it is all one to the fcope of the Text I am upon, whether we under- fland itof a total Abolitionof thefeHeavens, or of the Reftitu- tion and Renovation of them. For as according to the former Interpretation thefe Heavens will be no more at all, fo accord- ing, to the latter, thefe Heavens will be no more as now they are, and fo though then theybe yet they may be faid to be no more. AndVntilthe Heavens in one of thefe fenfes /hall be no more, man' lyethdown andarifeth no more, yea, as it followeth in the clofe of theVerfe, They 'ball not awakenor be railed out of theirfleep. Death is here compared to fleep, and the Refurrecgion to a- waking. The Metaphor is very Elegant, and it hathbeen open- ed at the i3th Verfe of the 3d Chapter, thither I refer the Reader. Obferve firft, From the former words. That the anoft durable Creatures are perifhing, changeable Crea- tures. The Heavens are an emblem of continuance : And (as hath been ¡hewed) to fay filch a thing (hall be till the Heavens be no more, is to fay it 'hall ever he : Yet thefe Heavens are in a perifhing condition, and ¡hall be, if not totally Annihilated, yet fo much altered fromwhat they are, as will amount to this, thy are no more :All thofe Scriptures come up to that, if they reach not the other fenfe, - °to which they put very hard. What is there of the Creature to be,trufted ? Earth is fading, yea, and Heaven too : Truft not in theHeavens,htit in the Godof Heaven, of whom it is faid, In him'therc is no variablenafs nor íhadow of change,God is-4 far froth' a real change, that the hathnot the least Ihadowof change. But Creatures are fo changeable, that there is not in then' a íhadow of nnchangeablenefs. It is no wonder to f;e the fubliñary World change, to fee the fiate of Men change, the
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