〈◊〉 Luke 18. 17. I tell you he will avenge them speedily All these places the forementioned Dr. Hammond still applies to that famous Period of the destruction of the City Temple and Polity of the Iews only in his Note upon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that everlasting destruction mentioned 2 Thess. 1. 9. he hath some qualification saying thus Mean while not excluding the eternal torments of Hell-fire which expect all impenitent sinners that thus fall but looking particularly on the visible destruction and vengeance which seizeth on whole Nations or Multitudes at once in this life And in conclusion hath left us but one place in the N. Testament to prove the general Conâ—lagration of the World viz. 2 Pet. 7. 7. Now because some have been offended at these Interpretations of his others have spoken very slightingly of them I shall briefly sum up what hath been alledged in defence of them by this great Man 1. That the Prophets use to set down their Predictions in Tropes and Figures and not in plain Expressions their Style being Poetical And therefore in describing those hideous Judgments which fell upon that People of the Iews beyond all that ever before fell upon them or indeed any other People they â—ound it necessary to employ those High and Tragical Phrases of the passing away and dissolving Heaven and Earth and Elements And that this was the manner of the Prophets may be proved because we find the destruction of other places described in as high Strains as lofty and tragical Expressions as this of Ierusalem For example that of Idumaea Isai. 34. 9. The streams thereof shall be turned into pitch and the dust thereof into brimstone and the land thereof shall become burning pitch It shall not be quenched night nor day the smoke thereof shall go up for ever And in the fourth Verse he seems but to Preface to this Destruction in these words And all the host of Heaven shall be dissolved and the Heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll and all their hosts shall fall down as the leaf falleth off from the Vine and as a falling Fig from the Fig-tree for my Sword shall be bathed in Heaven Behold it shall come down upon Idumaea And in the Burden of Babylon Chap. 13. 8 9. we have these words Behold the day of the Lord cometh cruel both with wrath and fierce anger to lay the Land desolate For the Stars of Heaven and the Constellations thereof shall not give their light The Sun shall be darkened in his going forth and the Moon shall not cause her Light to shine 2. All the Predictions in that famous place Matth. 24. to which all other places in the New Testament relating to this matter are parallel are by our Saviour himself restrained to the destruction of Ierusalem and the full completion of them limited to the duration of that Age Verse 34. Verily I say unto you This generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled What reason then can we have to extend them further 3. In most of the places where this coming of Christ is mentioned it is spoken of as near and at hand as in the places last cited Now saith the Learned Doctor in his Note upon Luke 18. 7. I tell you he will avenge them speedily All which if when it is said to approach and to be at the door it belonged to the Day of Judgment now after so many hundred years not yet come what a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were this what a delaying of his coming and consequently what an Objection against the truth of the Christian Religion As Mahomet having promised after his death he would presently return to life and having not performed his Promise in a thousand years is by us justly condemned as an Impostor 4. That this place of S. Peter out of which I have taken my Text doth not belong to the end of the World sufficiently appears saith he by the purport of this whole Epistle which is to arm them with constancy and perseverance till that Day come and particularly in this Chapter to confute them who object against the truth of Christ's Predictions and resolve it should not come at all against whom he here opposes the certainty the speediness and the terribleness of its coming And for that other famous place 2 Thess. 1. 8 9. that it belongs to the same Period see how he makes it out in his Annotations I shall now superadd some places out of the Old Testament which seem to speak of the Dissolution of the World Iob 14. 12. Man lieth down and riseth not till the Heavens be no more Psal. 102. 5 6. quoted Hebr. 1. 10 11. Of old hast thou laid the foundations of the Earth and the Heavens are the works of thy hands They shall perish but thou remainest and they all shall wax old as doth a garment and as a vesture shalt thou change them and they shall be changed Isai. 34. 4. And all the host of Heaven shall be dissolved and the Heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll and all their host shall fall down as a leaf falleth from the Vine c. Isai. 51. 6. The Heavens shall vanish away like smoke and the Earth shall wax old like a garment Joel 2. 31. The Sun shall be turned into darkness and the Moon into blood before that great and terrible day of the Lord comes Malachi 4. 1. Behold the day cometh that shall burn like an Oven c. Deut. 32. 22. For a fire is kindled in my anger and shall burn to the lowest Hell and shall consume the Earth with her encrease and set on fire the foundations of the Mountains I must confess that the Prophetick Books are full of figurative Expressions being written in a Poetick Style and according to the strain of the Oriental Rhetorick which is much different from the European aâ—â—ecting lofty and tumid Metaphors and excessive Hyperbola's and Aggravations which would either sound harsh to our Ears or import a great deal more to us than they did to them This is obvious to any one that reads their Books and may clearly be demonstrated from the Tiâ—lâ—â— that their Kings assumed to themselves as well anciently as lately viz. Sons of the Sun Brethren of the Sun and Moon Partners of the Stars Lions crowned in the Throne of the World Endued with the strength of the whole Heaven and Virtue of the Firmament Now we cannot possibly imagine them so vain as to think themselves litterally to be such no sure all they meant by these Expressions was that they were great and honourable and powerful Now the Prophetick Books of the Old Testament being written in a Style somewhat conformable to the Oratory of those Countreys are not I humbly conceive in every title to be so exactly scanned and litterally expounded but so to be interpreted as a Iew or an Asiatick would then have understood them And this I rather think because there be divers passages
of the great Continents Which thing is especially to be remarked in all the great heaps or swarms of numerous Islands they being all near to the Continents those of the Aegean Sea to Europe and Asia the Hesperides to Africa and the Maldivae which are thought to amount to eleven thousand to India only the Flandricae or Azores seem to be situate in the middle of the Ocean between the Old and New World Besides these Changes about the Sea-coasts by the prevailing of the Land upon the Sea in some places and the Sea upon the Land in others the whole Continents seem to suffer a considerable mutation by the diminution and depression or sinking of the Mountains as I shall have occasion to shew afterward in the third Discourse Aelian in his eighth Book cap. 11. telleth us that not only the Mountain Aetna but Parnassus and Olympus did appear to be less and less to such as sailed at Sea the height thereof sinking Of this lowring and diminution of the Mountains I shall not say much in this place but taking it for granted at present only in brief intimate the Causes of it assigned by that learned Mathematician Iosephus Blaâ—canus which are partly Rain-water and partly Rivers which by continual fretting by little and little wash away and â—at out both the tops and sides and feet of Mountains and fill up the lower places of the Valleys making the one to encrease and the other to decrease whereby it appears saith Dr. Hakewil that what the Mountain loseth the Valley gains and consequently that in the whole Globe of the Earth nothing is lost but only removed from one place to another so that in process of time the highest Mountains may be humbled into Valleys and again which yet I will not allow him the lowest Valleys exaâ—â—ed into Mountains He proceeds Anaxagoras as Diogenes Laertius reports in his Life being demanded what he thought Whether the Mountains called Lapsaceni would in time be covered with Sea answered Yes unless time it self fail which answer of his seems to confirm the opinion of Blancanus De Mundi fabrica cap. 4. where he maintains That if the World should last long enough by reason of this continual decrease of the Mountains and the levelling of the Valleys the Earth would again be overslown with Waters as at first it was Beside these more eminent and remarkable Changes which in process of time after a long succession of many Ages threaten some great effect indeed no less then a reduction of the World to its primitive state before the separation of the Land and Water There have been many other lesser mutations made either by Earthquakes and Eructations of burning Mountains or by great Floods and Shots of Rain or by violent or tempestuous Winds and Hurricans some whereof are mentioned by Naturalists and Historians Strabo Pliny Seneca Ovid and others For Earthquakes Posidonius quoted by Strabo in his first Book writes That there was a City in Phoenicia situate above Sidon swallowed up by an Earthquake and that almost two thirds of Sidon it self fell therein though not suddenly and all at once so that there was no great destructioÌ„ or slaughter of men happened The same extended almost over all Syria though not violently and reached as far as some of the Cyclades Islands and Euboea where the Fountains of Arethusa in Chalcis were stopped up by it and after many days broke forth again at another source neither did it cease to shake the Island by parts till the Earth opening in the Field Lelantus vomited out of a River of fiery Clay The same Strabo tells us That Democles mentions huge Earthquakes of old in Lydia and Ionia extending as far as Troas by which many Villages were swallowed up and Sipylus overthrown when Tantalus reigned and great Lakes made of Fens And that Duris saith That the Rhagades Islands by Media were so called from the Lands about the Caspiae Portae being torn and broken by Earthquakes so that many Cities and Villages were overthrown and several Rivers received alterations And Demetrius Calatianus relating the Earthquakes that happened throughout Greece writes That a great part of the Lichades Islands and Cenaeus had been drowned thereby and that the hot Baths at Aedepsus and in Thermophylae having been stopt for three days slowed again and those of Aedepsus from new Sources That the Wall of Oreus on the Sea-side and seven hundred Houses were thrown down and a great part of Echinus and Heraclea Trachinia but the whole building of Phalarnus was overturned from the very Soil or Plain of it the like happened to the Larians and Larissâ—aus and that Scarphia was utterly demolished and subverted from the very foundations and not fewer then 1700 Persons over-whelmed and buried and more then half that number of the Thronii Pliny in his first Book chap. 84. tell us that in the Reign of Tiberius Caesar there happened an Earthquake the greatest that ever was in the memory of Man wherein twelve Cities of Asia were prostrated in one night But what is that to what St. Augustine writes Lib. 2. De Miraculis SS cap. 3. if that Book he his In famoso quodam terroe motu centum Libyae Vrbes corruisse That in a famous Earthquake an hundred Cities of Libya were demolished The City of Antioch where the Disciples of Christ were first called Christians with a great part of Asia bordering upon it was almost wholly subverted and swallowed up by an Earthquake in Trajan's time as Dion Cassius writes Trajan himself then wintering there The same City of Antioch in the time of Iustinian in the Year of our Lord 528. was again shaken with a terrible Earthquake wherein were overwhelmed and buried in the ruins of the Houses above 40000 of the â—itizens And lastly in the 61 Year after the last mentioned Earthquake being again shaken by a new one it lost 60000 of its Inhabitants Gregory the then Bishop being by the Divine Favour and in a manner miraculously preserved the House wherein he abode falling down presently after his going out of it Eusebius and Spartianus make mention of an Earthquake in the Emperour Adrian's time wherein Nicomedia and Nicaea of Bithynia and Nicopolis and Caesarea Cities of Palaestina were thrown down and ruined In the Year 1182. when Saladin set himself to overthrow the Kingdom of Ierusalem there happened an Earthquake in which Antiochia Laodicea Alapia Caesarea Emissa Tripolis and other famous Cities were almost wholly thrown down and destroyed To omit many that are recorded in ancient Histories and to come near to our times Aeneas Sylvius afterwards Pope by the Name of â—ius the Second in a Letter of his to the Emperour Frederick thus pitifully describes an Earthquake that fell out in his time Audies ex latore praesentium quà m mirabilia incredibilia damna fecerit Terraemotus in Reguo Apuliae nam multa oppida funditus corruerunt alia magna ex parte collapsa sunt Neapoli omnes fere
to reconcile the Eternity of Punishments with the Justice and Goodness of God this second part of the Tradition had need be well back'd by Divine Authority to make it credible and current among Men. As for the Last tho' I meddle not with it in this Treatise yet I will take leave to say so much concerning it That I think those who held Sacrificing to have been a positive Command of God and to have had its Original from Divine Institution have the better reason on their side For that it is no eternal and indispensable Law of Nature is clear in that our Saviour abolished it And many of the Ancient Fathers look upon Sacrificing as so unreasonable a Service that therefore they thought God commanded it not to the Primitive Patriarchs and though he did command it to the Iews yet he did it only in condescension to their weakness because they had been used to such Services and also the Nations round about them to restrain them from Idolatry and Sacrificing to strange Gods Origen Homil. 17 in Numer Deus sicut per alium Prophetam dicit non mandiscat carnes taurorum nec sanguinem hircorum potat Et etiam ut alibi scriptum est Quia non mundavi tibi de Sacrificiis vel victimis in die qua deduxi te de terra Aegypti Sed Moyses hoec ad diuritiem cordis eorum pro consuetudine pessima qua imbuti fuerant in Aegypto mandavit eâ—s ut qui abstinere se non possent ab immolando Deo saltem non Daemoniis immolarent Other Quotations to this purpose may be seen in Dr Outram De Sacrificiis Indeed it seems absurd to think or believe that God should take any pleasure in the slaughter of innocent Beasts or in the Fume and Nidoâ— of burnt Flesh or Fat Nor doth the reason these Fathers alledge of the Institution of Sacrifices or injoyning them to the Iews satisfie whatever truth there may be in it For it is clear that the main end and design of God in institutiing of them was for Types and Adumbrations of that great Sacrifice of Christ to be offered upon the Cross for the expiation of sin and consequently it is probable that those also that were offered by the Ancient Patriarchs before the Law had their Original from some Divine Command or Revelation and the like reason of their Institution in reference to Christ. But to leave that I have in this Edition removed one subject of Apology and added another so that there still remain as many things to be excused or pleaded for They are First Writing so much for which some perchance may censure me I am not ignorant that Men as they are mutable so they love change and affect variety of Authors as well as Books Satiety even of the best things is apt to creep upon us He that writes much let him write never so well shall experience that has last Books though nothing inferiour to his first will not find equal acceptance But for 〈◊〉 own part tho' in general I may be thought to have written too much yet is it but little that I have wrâ—tten relating to Divinity It were a good Rule to be observed both by Writer and Reader Not how much but how well He that cannot write well had better spaâ—e his 〈◊〉 and not write at all Neitherâ—â—s he to be thought to write well who though hâ— hath some good things thin set and dispersed yet â—nâ—â—mbers and accloys the Reader with a deal of useless and impertinent stuff On the contrary he that writes well cannot 〈◊〉 too much For as Pliny the youngeâ— saith well Vt aliae bonae res it a boâ—ms Lâ—ber eò melior est quisque quo major As other good Things so a good Book the bigger it is the better is it which holds as well of the Number as Magnitude of Books Secondly Being too hasty in huddling up and tumbling out of Books wherein I confess I cannot wholly acquit my self of blame I know well that the longer a Book lies by me the perfecter it becomes Something occurs every day in Reading or Thinking either to add or to correct and alter for the better But should I defer the Edition till the Work were absolutely perfect I might wait all my Life-time and leave it to be published by my Executors Now my Age minding me of the approach of Death and Posthumous Pieces generally proving inferiour to those put out by the Authors in their Life-time I need no other excuse for my hast in publishing what I write Yet I shall further add in extenuation of the fault if it be one that however hasty and precipitate I am in writing my Books are but small so that if they be worthless the Purchase is not great nor the Expence of Time wasted in the perusal of them very considerable Yet is not the worth of a Book always answerable to its bulk But on the contrary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is usually esteemed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thirdly The last thing for which I had need to Apologize is the rendring the former Edition of this Treatise worthless by making large Additions to this latter in excuse whereof I have no more to say than I have already written in an Advertisement to the Reader premised to my Discourse concerning the Wisdom of God to which therefore I refer those who desire satisfaction in this particular Place this Half-sheet next after p. 132 before the 3 Plates REflecting upon the length of this Discourse concerning the Original of these Bodies I am suspicious that the vulgar and inconsiderate Reader will be ready to demand What needs all this ado To what purpose so many words about so trivial a Subject What reference hath the consideration of Shells and Bones of Fishes petrified to Divinity Wherefore I shall in a few words shew the great importance of this Disquisition concerning formed Stones and the Determination of their Original For 1st If we adhere to their Opinions who hold them to have been original Productions of Nature in imitation only of the Shells and Bones of Fishes We put a Weapon into the Atheists hands affording him a strong Argument to prove that even Animals themselves are casual Productions and not the effects of Counsel or Design For to what end are these Bodies curiously figured and adorned if for no other but to exhibit such a Form for the Ornament of the Vniverse or to gratifie the Curiosity of Man these are but general ends whereas the parts of every Species of Body are formed and fitted to the particular Vses and Conveniences of that Body And if Nature would delineate or imprint Figures upon Bodies only to be Spectacles to Man one would think it should not have made choice of those of the Shells and Bones of Fishes but rather of such as were absolutely new and different from any frequently seen or belonging to Animals which serve rather to amuse than
loss of a multitude I might say infinity of them which seems not agreeable to the Wisdom and Providence of Nature For supposing every Male hath in him all the Animalcules that he shall or may eject they may for ought I know amount to millions of millions and so the greatest part of them must needs be lost Nay if we take but one Coit there must in uniparous Creatures at least abundance be lost But if we suppose the Foetus to be originally in the Egg it is not so For the Eggs of all sorts of Creatures are so proportioned to the nature of the Animals the time that they live the time and number of their gestations and the number they bring forth at all times that they will much about suffice for the time the Creatures are fit to breed and nourish their young so that they may if need be be all brought forth and come to perfection The End of the first Discourse DISCOURSE II. Of the general Deluge in the Days of NOAH its Causes and Effects I Proceed now to say something concerning the General Deluge in the days of Noah which was also a matter of Ancient Tradition I shall not enlarge much upon it so as to take in all that might be said but confine my self to Three Heads 1. I shall confirm the Truth of the History of the Deluge recorded in the Scripture by the Testimonies of some ancient Heathen Writers 2. I shall consider the Natural Causes or Means whereby it was effected 3. I shall enquire concerning the Consequences of it what considerable effects it had upon the Earth CHAP. I. Testimonies of Ancient Heathen Writers concerning the Deluge FIrst then I shall produce some Testimonies of Ancient Heathen Writers concerning the Deluge The first shall be that of Berosus recorded by Iosephus in the fifth Chapter of his first Book of Iewish Antiquities 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. That is Berosus the Chaldaean relating the Story of the Deluge writes thus It is reported that there is some part of the Vessel the Ark still remaining at the Mountain of the Gordyaeans and that certain Persons scraping off the Bitumen or Pitch carry it away and that men make use of it for Amulets to drive away Diseases A second Testimony the same Iosephus affords us in the same place and that is of Nicolaus Damascenus who saith he gives us the History of the Ark and Deluge in these words About Minyas in Armenia there is a great Mountain called Baris to which it is reported that many flying in the time of the Deluge were saved and that a certain person was carried thither in an Ark which rested on the top of it the reliques of the Timber whereof were preserved there a long time Besides these Iosephus tells us in the same place that Hieronymus the Egyptian who wrote the Phoenician Antiquities and Mnaseas and many others whose words he alledges not make mention of the Flood Eusebius superadds two Testimonies more The one of Melon to this effect There departed from Armenia at the time of the Deluge a certain man who together with his Sons had been saved who being cast out of his House and Possessions was driven away by the Natives This man passing over the intermediate Region came into the mountainous part of Syria that was then desolate This Testimony makes the Deluge Topical and not to have reached Armenia The other is of Abydenus an ancient Writer set down by Eusebius Praepar Evangel lib. 9. cap. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. After whom others reigned and then Siâ—ithrus so he calls Noah To whom Saturn foretold that there should be a great Flood of Waters upon the fifteenth Day of the Month Desius and commanded him to hide all Writings or whatever was committed to writing in Heliopolis of the Sypparians Which so soon as Sisithrus had performed he presently sailed away to Armenia where what God had predicted to him immediately came to pass or came upon him The third day after the Waters ceased he sent forth Birds that he might try whether they could espy any Land uncovered of Water But they finding nothing but Sea and not knowing whither to betake themselves returned back to Sisithrus In like manner after some days he sent out others with like success But being sent out the third time they returned with their feet fouled with Mud. Then the Gods caught up Sisithrus from among Men but the Ship remained in Armenia and its Wood afforded the Inhabitants Amâ—lets to chase away many Diseases These Histories accord with the Scripture as to the main of the being of a 〈…〉 Noah escaping out of it only 〈…〉 the Truth by the admixture 〈…〉 â—abulous stuff 〈…〉 first Book against Iulian to 〈◊〉 Deluge alledges a passage out of Alexander Polyhistor Plato himself saith he gives us an obscure intimation of the Deluge in his Timaeus bringing in a certain Egyptian Priest who related to Solon out of the Sacred Books of the Egyptians that before the particular Deluges known and celebrated by the Grecians there was of old an exceeding great Inundation of Waters and devastation of the Earth which seems to be no other than Noah's Flood Plutarch in his Book De Solertia Animalium â—tells us That those who have written of Deucalion's Flood report that there was a Dove sent out of the Ark by Deucalion which returning again into the Ark was a sign of the continuance of the Flood but flying quite away and not returning any more was a sign of Serenity and that the Earth was drained Indeed Ovid and other Mythologists make Deucalion's Flood to have been universal and it 's clear by the Description Ovid gives of it that he meant the general Deluge in the days of Noah And that by Deucalion the Ancients together with Ovid understood Noah Kircher in his Arca Noae doth well make out First For that the Poet Apollonius makes him the Son of Prometheus in his third Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where Prometheus the Son of Iapetus begat the Renowned Deucalion 2. Berosus affirms Noah to have been a Scythian And Lucian in his Book De Dea Syria tells us that many make Deucalion to have been so too 3. The Scripture testifies that Men were generally very corrupt and wicked in the days of Noah And Andro Teius a very ancient Writer testifies that in Deucalion's time there was a great abundance of wicked Men which made it necessary for God to destroy Mankind 4. The Scripture saith that Noah was a Just Man and Perfect in his Generation And Ovid saith of Deucalion that Non illo mâ—lior quisquam nec amantior aequi Vir fuit aut illâ Pyrrhâ uxore ejus reverentior ulla Deorum And a little after Innocuos ambos cultores numinis ambos 5. Apollonius saith of Deucalion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He first ruled over Men. Which may very well be attributed to Noah the Father and Restorer of
wherewith otherwise they would indanger to be obstructed and choaked up which Engines they call Cava-fango's Thus in the Camarg or Isle that the River Rhosne makes near Arles in Provence there hath been so much lately gained from the Sea that the Watch-tower had in the memory of some Men living 1665. been removed forward three times as we were there informed And it seems to me probable that the whole Low-Countreys were thus gained from the Sea For Varenius in his Geography tells us That sinking a Well at Amsterdam at near an hundred foot depth they met with a bed or floor of Sand and Cockle-shells whence it is evident one would think that of old time the bottom of the Sea lay so deep and that that hundred foot thickness of Earth above the Sand arose from the Sediments of the Waters of those great Rivers the Rhine Scheld Maes c. which there abouts emptied themselves into the Sea and in times of Floods brought down with them abundance of Earth from the upper Grounds The same Original doubtless had that great Level of the Fens running through the Isle of Ely Holland in Lincolnshire and Marshland in Norfolk That there hath been no small quantity of Earth thus brought down appears also in that along the Channels of most great Rivers as for Example the Thames and Trent in England especially near their Mouths or Out-lets between the Mountains and higher Grounds on each side there are large Levels and Plains which seem to have been originally part of the Sea raised up and atterrated by Earth and Silt brought down by those Rivers in great Floods Strabo in the first Book of his Geography 〈◊〉 much to this purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And after a while he adds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is For this landing up and aâ—â—erration of the skirts of the Sea is for the most part about the mouths of Rivers as about the Out-lets of Ister the places called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Deserts of Scytâ—ia about those of Phasis the Sea-coast of Colchis which is sandy and low and soâ—t About Thermodâ—n and Iris all Themâ—scyra the Plain of the Amazons and the most part of Sidene And the like may be said of other Rivers For all of them imitate the Nile adding to the Continent or Mainland the part lying before their mouths some more some less those less that bring not down much Mud and those more that run a great way over soft and lose Ground and receive many Torrents Of which kind is the River Pyramus which hath added a great part of its Land to Cilicia Concerning which there is an Oracle come abroad importing That there will a time come in future Ages when the River Pyramus shall carry on the Shore and Land up the Sea as far as Cyprus So it might in time happen that the whole Sea should gradually be landed up beginning from the Shores if the Effusions of the Rivers that is the Earth and Mud they bring down did spread so wide as to be continuous Thus far Strabo But the Oracle he mentions predicting the carrying on and continuation of Cilicia as far as Cyprus and the joyning that Island to the Continent proves false there having not been as yet that we hear or read of any considerable advance made towards it in almost 2000 years Now the Rain thus continually washing away and carrying down Earth from the Mountains and higher Grounds and raising up the Valleys near the Sea as long as there is any descent for the Rivers so long will they continue to run carry forward the low Ground and streighten the Sea which also by its working by reason of the declivity easily carries down the Earth towards the lower and middle part of its Channel alveus and by degrees may sill it up Monsieur Loubere in his late Voyage to Siam takes notice of the increase of the Banks and Sands in and near the Mouths of the great Rivers of the Oriental Kingdoms occasion'd by the Sediments brought down from the Countries by the several Streams so that says he the Navigation into and up those Rivers grows more and more difficult and may in process of time be quite interrupted The same Observation I believe may be made in most of our great Europaean Rivers wherein new Beds are rais'd and old ones enlarged Moreover the Clouds still pouring down Rain upon the Earth it will descend as far as there is any declivity and where that fails it will stagnate and joyning with Sea cover first the skirts of the Earth and so by degrees higher and higher till the whole be covered To this we may add that some assistance toward the levelling of the Mountains may be contributed by the Courses and Catarracts of subterraneous Rivers washing away the Earth continually and weakning their â—oundations so by degrees causing them to founder subside and fall in That the Mountains do daily diminish and many of them sink that the Valleys are raised that the skirts of the Sea are atterrated no man can deny That these things must needs in process of time have a very considerable and great effect is as evident which what else can it be then that we have mentioned Moreover towards this levelling of the Mountains and filling up of the Sea the fire also contributes its Mite For the burning Mountains or Vulcano's as for example Aetna and Vesuvius vomit at times out of their Bowels such prodigious quantities of Sand and Ashes and with that force that they are by the Winds carried and dispersed all over the Country nay transported over Seas into foreign and remote Regions but let fall so copiously in the circumjacent places as to cover the Earth to a considerable thickness and not only so but they also pour forth Floods of melted Stones Minerals and other Materials that run down as low as the Sea and fill up the Havens as of old one near Catana and make Moles and Promontories or Points as in the last Eruptions both of Aetna and Vesuvius the Tops of these Mountains falling in and subsiding proportionably to the quantity of the ejected matter as Borellus proves Meeting with a quotation in Dr. Hakewil's Apology out of Iosephus Blancanus his Book De Mundi Fabrica I earnestly desired to get a fight of that Book but could not procure it till the Copy of this Discourse was out of my hands and sent up to London in order to its printing But then obtaining it I found it so exactly consonant to my own thoughts and to what I have here written concerning that Subject and some Particulars occurring therein by me omitted that I could not forbear translating the whole Discourse into English and annexing it to this Chapter especially because the Book is not commonly to be met with The Discourse is first set down in his Book De locis Mathematicis Aristotelis more at large and afterward repeated