in Law, a term used to imply the uniting of lands or rents to the crown.

ANNIHILATION, the act of reducing any created being into nothing.

Christians, Heathens, Jews, Siamese, Persians, divines, philosophers, &c., have their peculiar systems, sentiments, conjectures, not to say dreams, concerning annihilation; and we find great disputes among them about the reality, the possibility, the means, measures, prevention, ends, &c. of annihilation.

The first notions of the production of a thing from, or reduction of it to, nothing, Dr Burnet shows, arose from the Christian theology; the words creation and annihilation, in the sense now given to them, having been equally unknown to the Hebrews, the Greeks, and the Latins.

The ancient philosophers in effect denied all annihilation as well as creation, resolving all the changes in the world into new modifications, without supposing the production of anything new, or destruction of the old. By daily experience, they saw compounds dissolved; and that in their dissolution nothing perished but their union or connexion of parts: when in death the body and soul were separated, the man they held was gone, but that the spirit remained in its original the great soul of the world, and the body in its earth from whence it came; these were again wrought by nature into new compositions, and entered new states of being which had no relation to the former.

The Persian bramins hold, that after a certain period of time, consisting of 71 jogs, God not only annihilates the whole universe, but every thing else, angels, souls, spirits, and all, by which he returns to the same state he was in before the creation; but that, having breathed a while, he goes to work again, and a new creation arises, to subside 71 jogs more, and then to be annihilated in its turn. Thus they hold there have been almost an infinite number of worlds: but how many jogs are elapsed since the last creation, they cannot certainly tell; only in an almanack written in the Sanscrit language in 1670, the world is said to be then 3,892,771 years old from the last creation.

The Siamese heaven is exactly the hell of some Socinians and other Christian writers; who, shocked with the horrible prospect of eternal torments, have taken refuge in the system of annihilation. This system seems countenanced by Scripture; for that the words death, destruction, and perishing, whereby the punishment of the wicked is most frequently expressed in Scripture, do most properly import annihilation and an utter end of being. To this Tillotson answers, that these words, as well as those corresponding to them in other languages, are often used, both in Scripture and other writings, to signify a state of great misery and suffering, without the utter extinction of the miserable. Thus God is often said in Scripture to bring destruction on a nation, when he sends judgment upon them, but without extinguishing or making an end of them. So, in other languages, it is frequent, by perishing, to express a person's being made miserable; as in that known passage in Tiberius's letter to the Roman senate: *Ita me dixi, deoque omnes, pejus perdant, quam hodie perire me sentio.* As to the word death, a state of misery which is as bad, or worse than death, may properly enough be called by that name; and thus the punishment of wicked men after the day of judgment is in the book of Revelation frequently called the second death.

Some Christian writers allow a long time of the most terrible torments of sinners; and after that suppose that there shall be an utter end of their being. Of this opinion Irenaeus appears to have been; who, according to M. du Pin, taught that the souls, at least of the wicked, would not subside eternally; but that, after having undergone their torments for a certain period, they would at last cease to be at all. But Tillemont, Petit, Didier, and others, endeavour to defend Irenaeus from this imputation, as being too favourable to the wicked.

It has been much disputed among divines, whether, at the consummation of all things, this earth is to be annihilated, or only purified, and fitted for the habitation of some new order of beings. Gerard in his Common Places, and Hakewill in his Apology, contend earnestly for a total abolition or annihilation. Ray, Calmet, and others, think the system of renovation or restitution more probable, and more consonant to Scripture, reason, and antiquity. The fathers who have treated on the question are divided; some holding that the universe shall not be annihilated, but only its external face changed; others affirming, that the substance of it shall be destroyed.

How widely have the sentiments of mankind differed as to the possibility and impossibility of annihilation! According to some, nothing so difficult; it requires the infinite power of the Creator to effect it: some go further, and seem to put it out of the power of God himself. According to others nothing so easy: Existence is a state of violence; all things are continually endeavouring to return to their primitive nothing; it requires no power at all; it will do itself; nay, what is more, it requires an infinite power to prevent it.

Many authors consider preservation as a continual reproduction of a thing, which, subsisting no longer of itself, would every moment return into nothing. Gassendi on the contrary affirms, that the world may indeed be annihilated by the same power which first created it, but that to continue it there is no occasion for any power of preservation.

Some divines, of which number the learned Bishop King seems to be, hold annihilation for the greatest of all evils, worse than even the utmost torments of hell flames; whilst others, with some of the eastern philosophers, acknowledge annihilation for the ultimate pitch of happiness human nature is capable of; that sovereign good, that absolute beatitude, so long vainly sought for by the philosophers, is found here. No wonder it had been so long concealed; for who would have thought of looking for the summum bonum, where others have placed, the sum of misery?

The said prelate proposes it as a question, Whether suffering eternal torments be a greater evil than not existing? He thinks it highly probable, that the damned, will be such fools, that feeling their own misery in the most exquisite degree, they will rather applaud their own conduct, and choose to be, and to be what they are, rather than not to be at all; fond of their condition, however wretched, like people enraged, they will persist in their former sentiments without opening their eyes to their folly, and perforce by way of indignation and revenge. Mr Bayle refutes him on this head; but might, one would think, have saved himself the trouble.

The Talapoins hold it the supreme degree of happiness to have the soul totally annihilated, and freed from the burden and slavery of transmigrations. They speak of three Talapoins, who, after a great number of transmigrations, became gods; and when arrived at this state, procured this further reward of their merit, to be annihilated. The ultimate reward of the highest perfection man can arrive at is neurepon, or annihilation; which at length is granted to those who are perfectly pure and good, after their souls have wandered many thousand years through various bodies.