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CHAP. VII. (Book 7)
The Third Question Answered. Whether shall this Dissolution be Gradual and Successive, or Momentaneous and Sudden?
3. THE Third Question is, Whether shall this Dissolution be gradual and successive, or momentaneous and sudden?
I answer, The Scripture resolves for the latter, The day of the Lord shall come as a thief in the night: a Similitude we have often repeated in Scripture, as in the tenth Verse of this Chapter, in 1 Thessal. 15.2. Revel. 3, 3. and 16.15. And the Resur∣rection and Change of Things, it is said shall be in a moment, in the twinkling of a•• eye: 1 Cor. 15.52. Consonant whereto both the Epicureans and Stoicks held thei•• Dissolutions of the World should be sudde•• and brief, as Lucretius and Seneca in th•• places forementioned tell us. And it i•• suitable to the nature of Fire to make a quic•• dispatch of things, suddenly to consume an•• destroy.