footsteps remain relating to this subject The Jewish and Christian Learning consider'd how far lost as to this Argument and what Notes or Traditions remain Lastly How far the Sacred Writings bear witness to it The Providential conduct of Knowledge in the World A recapitulation and state of the Theory HAving gone through the two First Parts and the two First Books of this Theory that concern the Primitive World the Universal Deluge and the state of Paradise We have leisure now to reflect a little and consider what may probably be objected against a Theory of this nature I do not mean single objections against single parts for those may be many and such as I cannot fore-see but what may be said against the body and substance of the Theory and the credibility of it appearing new and surprising and yet of great extent and importance This I fancy will induce many to say surely this cannot be a reality for if there had been such a Primitive Earth and such a Primitive World as is here represented and so remarkably different from the present it could not have been so utterly forgotten or lain hid for so many Ages all Antiquity would have rung of it the memory of it would have been kept fresh by Books or Traditions Can we imagine that it should lie buried for some thousands of years in deep silence and oblivion and now only when the second World is drawing to an end we begin to discover that there was a first and that of another make and order from this To satisfie this obiection or surmise rather it will be convenient to take a good large scope and compass in our Discourse We must not suppose that this Primitive World hath been wholly lost out of the memory of Man or out of History for we have some History and Chronology of it preserv'd by Moses and likewise in the Monuments of the Ancients more or less for they all suppos'd a World before the Deluge But 't is the Philosophy of this Primitive World that hath been lost in a great measure what the state of Nature was then and wherein it differ'd from the present or Postdiluvian order of things This I confess hath been little taken notice of it hath been generally thought or presum'd that the World before the Flood was of the same form and constitution with the present World This we do not deny but rather think it design'd and Providential that there should not remain a clear and full knowledge of that first state of things and we may easily suppose how it might decay and perish if we consider how little of the remote Antiquities of the World have ever been brought down to our knowledge The Greeks and Romans divided the Ages of the World into three periods or intervals whereof they call'd the first the Obscure Period the second the Fabulous and the third Historical The dark and obscure Period was from the beginning of the World to the Deluge what pass'd then either in Nature or amongst Men they have no Records no account by their own confession all that space of time was cover'd with darkness and oblivion so that we ought rather to wonder at those remains they have and those broken notions of the Golden Age and the conditions of it how they were sav'd out of the common shipwrack than to expect from them the Philosophy of that World and all its differences from the present And as for the other Nations that pretend to greater Antiquities to more ancient History and Chronology from what is left of their Monuments many will allow only this difference that their fabulous Age begun more high or that they had more ancient Fables But besides that our expectations cannot be great from the learning of the Gentiles we have not the means or opportunity to inform our selves well what Notions they did leave us concerning the Primitive World for their Books and Monuments are generally lost or lie hid unknown to us The Learning of the World may be divided into the Eastern Learning and the Western and I look upon the Eastern as far more considerable for Philosophical Antiquities and Philosophical Conclusions I say Conclusions for I do not believe either of them had any considerable Theory or Contexture of Principles and Conclusions together But 't is certain that in the East from what Source soever it came Humane or Divine they had some extraordinary Doctrines and Notions disperst amongst them Now as by the Western Learning we understand that of the Greeks and Romans so by the Eastern that which was amongst the Aegyptians Phoenicians Chaldaeans Assyrians Indians Aethiopians and Persians and of the Learning of these Nations how little have we now left except some Fragments and Citations in Greek Authors what do we know of them The modern Bracmans and the Persees or Pagan Persians have some broken remains of Traditions relating to the Origin and Changes of the World But if we had not only those Books intire whereof we have now the gleanings and reversions only but all that have perisht besides especially in that famous Library at Alexandria if these I say were all restor'd to the World again we might promise our selves the satisfaction of seeing more of the Antiquities and Natural History of the first World than we have now left or can reasonably expect That Library we speak of at Alexandria was a Collection besides Greek Books of Aegyptian Chaldaean and all the â—astern Learning and Cedrenus makes it to consist of an hundred thousand Volumes But Iosephus saith when the Translation of the Bible by the Septuagint was to be added to it Demetrius Phalerius who was Keeper or Governour of it told the King then that he had already two hundred thousand Volumes and that he hop'd to make them five hundred thousand and he was better than his word or his Successors for him for Ammianus Marcellinus and other Authors report them to have increas'd to seven hundred thousand This Liâ—brary was unfortunately burnt in the sacking of Alexandria by Caesar and considering that all these were ancient Books and generally of the Eastern Wisdom 't was an inestimable and irreparable loss to the Commonwealth of Learning In like manner we are told of a vast Library of Books of all Arts and Sciences in China burnt by the command or caprice of one of their Kings Wherein the Chineses according to their vanity were us'd to say greater riches were lost than will be in the last Conflagration We are told also of the Abyssine or Aethiopick Library as something very extraordinary 'T was formerly in great reputation but is now I suppose embezil'd and lost But I was extremely surpriz'd by a Treatise brought to me some few months since wherein are mention'd some Aethiopick Antiquities relating to the Primaeval Earth and the Deluge To both which they give such characters and properties as are in effect the very same with those assign'd them in this Theory They say the First Earth
time of Constantine's Empire But however the Fathers of that Council are themselves our witnesses in this point For in their Ecclesiastical Forms or Constitutions in the chapter about the Providence of God and about the World They speak thus The World was made meaner or less perfect providentially for God foresee that man would sin Wherefore we expect New Heavens and a New Earth according to the Holy Scriptures at the appearance and Kingdom of the great God and our Saviour Iesus Christ. And then as Daniel says ch 7. 18. The Saints of the most High shall take the Kingdom And the Earth shall be Pure Holy the Land of the Living not of the dead Which David foreseeing by the eye of Faith cryes out Ps. 27. 13. I believe to see the good things of the Lord in the Land of the Living Our Saviour says Happy are the meek for they shall inherit the Earth Matt. 5. 5. and the Prophet Isaiuh says chap. 26. 6. the feet of the meek and lowly shall tread upon it So you see according to the judgment of these Fathers there will be a Kingdom of Christ upon Earth and moreover that it will be in the New Heavens and the New Earth And in both these points they cite the Prophets and our Saviour in confirmation of them Thus we have discharg'd our promise and given you an account of the doctrine of the Millennium or future Kingdom of Christ throughout the Three First Ages of the Church before any considerable corruptions were crept into the Christian Religion And those Authorities of single and successive Fathers we have seal'd up all together with the declaration of the Nicene Fathers in a Body Those that think Tradition a Rule of Faith or a considerable motive to it will find it hard to turn off the force of these Testimonies And those that do not go so far but yet have a reverence for Antiquity and the Primitive Church will not easily produce better Authorities more early more numerous or more uncontradicted for any Article that is not Fundamental Yet these are but Seconds to the Prophets and Apostles who are truly the Principals in this Cause I will leave them altogether to be examin'd and weigh'd by the Impartial Reader And because they seem to me to make a full and undeniable proof I will now at the foot of the account set down our second Proposition which is this That there is a Millennial State or a Future Kingdom of Christ and his Saints Prophesied of and Promised in the Old and New Testament and receiv'd by the Primitive Church as a Christian and Catholick Doctrine HAVING dispatch'd this main point To conclude the Chapter and this Head of our Discourse it will be some satisfaction possibly to see How a Doctrine so generally receiv'd and approv'd came to decay and almost wear out of the Church in following Ages The Christian Millenary Doctrine was not call'd into question so far as appears from History before the middle of the third Century when Dionysius Alexandrinus writ against Nepos an Aegyptian Bishop who had declar'd himself upon that subject But we do not find that this Book had any great effect for the declaration or constitution of the Nicene Fathers was after and in S. Ierome's time who writ towards the end of the fourth Century this Doctrine had so much Credit that He who was its greatest adversary yet durst not condemn it as he says himself Quae licet non sequamur tamen damnare non possumus quià multi Ecclesiasticorum virorum Martyres ista dixerunt Which things or doctrines speaking of the Millennium tho' we do not follow yet we cannot condemn Because many of our Church-men and Martyrs have affirmed these things And when Apollinarius replyed to that Book of Dionysius S. Ierome says that not only those of his own Sect but a great multitude of other Christians did agree with Apollinarius in that particular Ut praesagâ mente jam cernam quantorum in me rabies concitanda sit That I now foresee how many will be enrag'd against me for what I have spoken against the Millenary Doctrine We may therefore conclude that in S. Ierome's time the Millenaries made the greater party in the Church for a little matter would not have frighted him from censuring their opinion S. Ierome was a rough and rugged Saint and an unfair adversary that usually run down with heat and violence what stood in his way As to his unfairness he shews it sufficiently in this very cause for he generally represents the Millenary Doctrine after a Judaical rather than a Christian manner And in reckoning up the chief Patrons of it he always skips Iustin Martyr Who was not a Man so obscure as to be overâ—look'd and he was a Man that had declar'd himself sufficiently upon this point for he says both himself and all the Orthodox of his time were of that judgment and applyes both the Apocalypse of S. Iohn and the 65th chap. of Isaiah for the proof of it As we noted before As S. Ierome was an open enemy to this Doctrine so Eusebius was a back friend to it and represented every thing to its disadvantage so far as was tolerably consistent with the fairness of an Historian He gives a slight character of Papias without any authority for it and brings in one Gaius that makes Cerinthus to be the Author of the Apocalypse and of the Millennium and calls the Visions there monstrous stories He himself is willing to shuffle off that Book from Iohn the Evangelist to another Iohn a Presbyter and to shew his skill in the interpretation of it he makes the New Ierusalem in the 21th chap. to be Constantine's Ierusalem when he turn'd the Heathen Temples there into Christian. A wonderful invention As S. Ierome by his flouts so Eusebius by sinister insinuations endeavour'd to lessen the reputation of this Doctrine and the Art they both us'd was to misrepresentâ—â—â— as Iudaical But we must not cast off every doctrine which the Jews believ'd only for that reason for we have the same Oracles which they had and the same Prophets and they have collected from them same general doctrine that we have namely that There will be an happy and pacifick state of the Church in future times But as to the circumstances of this state we differ very much They suppose the Mosaical Law will be restor'd with all its pomp rites and ceremonies whereas we suppose the Christian Worship or something more perfect will then take place Yet S. Ierome has the confidence even there where he speaks of the many Christian Clergy and Martyrs that held this doctrine has the confidence I say to represent it as if they held that Circumcision Sacrifices and all the Judaical rites should then be restor'd Which seems to me to be a great slander and a great instance how far mens passions will carry them in misrepresenting an opinion which they have a mind to
G. Kneller Eques Pinxit R White Sculpsit Eâ—â—ies Authâ—ris The Sacred Theory of the EARTH THE THEORY OF THE EARTH Containing an Account OF THE Original of the Earth AND OF ALL THE GENERAL CHANGES Which it hath already undergone OR IS TO UNDERGO Till the CONSUMMATION of all Things THE TWO FIRST BOOKS Concerning The DELVGE AND Concerning PARADISE The Third Edition review'd by the Author LONDON Printed by R. N. for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's-Head in S. Paul's Church-Yard 1697. TO THE KING'S MOST Excellent Majesty SIR NEW found Lands and Countreys accrew to the Prince whose Subject makes the first Discovery And having retriev'd a World that had been lost for some thousands of Years out of the Memory of Man and the Records of Time I thought it my Duty to lay it at Your Majesty's Feet 'T will not enlarge Your Dominions 't is past and gone nor dare I say it will enlarge Your Thoughts But I hope it may gratifie Your Princely curiosity to read the Description of it and see the Fate that attended it We have still the broken Materials of that first World and walk upon its Ruines while it stood there was the Seat of Paradise and the Scenes of the Golden Age when it fell it made the Deluge And this â—â—shapen Earth we now inhabit is the Form it was found in when the Waters had retir'd and the dry Land appear'd These things Sir I propose and presume to prove in the following Treatise which I willingly submit to Your Majesty's Iudgment and Censure being very well satisfied that if I had sought a Patron in all the List of Kings Your Contemporaries Or in the Roll of Your Nobles of either Order I could not have found a more competent Iudge in a Speculatitn of this Nature Your Majesty's Sagacity and happy Genius for Natural History for Observations and Remarks upon the Earth the Heavens and the Sea is a better preparation for Inquiries of this kind than all the dead Learning of the Schools Sir This Theory in the full extent of it is to reach to the last Period of the Earth and the End of all things But this first Volume takes in only so much as is already past from the Origin of the Earth to this present time and state of Nature To describe in like manner the Changes and Revolutions of Nature that are to come and see thorough all succeeding Ages will require a steddy and attentive Eye and a retreat from the noise of the World Especially so to connect the parts and present them all under one view that we may see as in a Mirrour the several faces of Nature from First to Last throughout all the Circle of Successions Your Majesty having been pleas'd to give encouragement to this Translation I humbly present it to Your Gracious Acceptance And 't is our Interest as well as Duty in Disquisitions of this Nature to Address our selves to Your Majesty as the Defender of our Philosophick Liberties against those that would usurp upon the Fundamental privilege and Birth-right of Mankind The Free use of Reason Your Majesty hath always appear'd the Royal Patron of Learning and the Sciences and 't is suitable to the Greatness of a Princely Spirit to favour and promote whatsoever tends to the enlargement of Humane Knowledge and the improvement of Humane Nature To be Good and Gracious and a Lover of Knowledge are methinks two of the most amiable things in this World And that Your Majesty may always bear that Character in present and future Ages and after a long and prosperous Reign enjoy a blessed Immortality is the constant Prayer of Your MAJESTY'S Most Humble and most Obedient Subject THOMAS BVRNET PREFACE TO THE READER HAVING given an account of this whole Work in the first Chapter and of the method of either Book whereof this Volume consists in their proper places there remains not much to be said here to the Reader This Theory of the Earth may be call'd Sacred because it is not the common Physiology of the Earth or of the Bodies that compose it but respects only the great Turns of Fate and the Revolutions of our Natural World such as are taken notice of in the Sacred Writings and are truly the Hinges upon which the Providence of this Earth moves or whereby it opens and shuts the several successive Scenes whereof it is made up This English Edition is the same in substance with the Latin though I confess 't is not so properly a Translation as a new Composition upon the same ground there being several additional Chapters in it and several new-moulded As every Science requires a peculiar Genius so likewise there is a Genius peculiarly improper for every one and as to Philosophy which is the Contemplation of the works of Nature and the Providence that governs them there is no temper or Genius in my mind so improper for it as that which we call a mean and narrow Spirit and which the Greeks call Littleness of Soul This is a defect in the first make of some Mens minds which can scarce ever be corrected afterwards either by Learning or Age. And as Souls that are made little and incapacious cannot enlarge their thoughts to take in any great compass of Times or things so what is beyond their compass or above their reach they are apt to look upon as Fantastical or at least would willingly have it pass for such in the World Now as there is nothing so great so large so immense as the works of Nature and the methods of Providence men of this complexion must needs be very unfit for the contemplation of them Who would set a purblind Man at the top of the Mast to discover Land or upon an high Tower to draw a Landskip of the Country round about for the same reason short-sighted minds are unfit to make Philosophers whose proper business it is to discover and describe in comprehensive Theories the Phaenomena of the World and the Causes of them This original disease of the Mind is seldom cur'd by Learning which cures many others Like a fault in the first Stamina of the Body it cannot easily be rectified afterwards 'T is a great mistake to think that every sort of Learning makes a Man a competent Judge of Natural Speculations We see unhappy examples to the contrary amongst the Christian Fathers and particularly in S. Austin who was unquestionably a Man of Parts and Learning but interposing in a controversie where his Talent did not lie show'd his zeal against the Antipodes to very ill purpose though he drew his Reasons partly from Scripture And if within a few Years or in the next Generation it should prove as certain and demonstrable that the Earth is mov'd as it is now that there are Antipodes those that have been zealous against it and ingag'd the Scripture in the Controversie would have the same reason to repent of their forwardness that S. Austin would have now if he was alive 'T
worthy our study and meditation nor any thing that would conduce more to discover the ways of Divine Providence and to shew us the grounds of all true knowledge concerning Nature And therefore to clear up the several parts of this Theory I was wiling to lay aside a great many other Speculations and all those dry subtleties with which the Schools and the Books of Philosophers are usually fill'd But when we speak of a Rising World and the Contemplation of it we do not mean this of the Great Universe for who can describe the Original of that vast Frame But we speak of the Sublundry World This Earth and its dependencies which rose out of a Chaos about six thousand years ago And seeing it hath faln to our lot to act upon this Stage to have our present home and residence here its seems most reasonable and the place design'd by Providence where we should first imploy our thoughts to understand the works of God and Nature We have accordingly therefore design'd in this Work to give an account of the Original of the Earth and of all the great and General Changes that it hath already undergone or is hence forwards to undergo till the Consummation of all Things For if from those Principles we have here taken and that Theory we have begun in these Two First Books we can deduce with success and clearness the Origin of the Earth and those States of it that are already past Following the same Thred and by the conduct of the same Theory we will pursue its Fate and History through future Ages and mark all the great Changes and Conversions that attend it while Day and Night shall last that is so long as it continues an Earth By the States of the Earth that are already past we understand chiefly Paradise and the Deluge Names well known and as little known in their Nature By the Future States we undâ—rstand the Conslagration and what new Order of Nature may follow upon that till the whole Circle of Time and Providence be compleated As to the first and past States of the Earth we shall have little help from the Ancients or from any of the Philosophers for the discovery or description of them We must often tread unbeaten paths and make a way where we do not find one but it shall be always with a Light in our hand that we may see our steps and that those that follow us may not follow us blindly There is no Sect of Philosophers that I know of that ever gave an account of the Universal Deluge or discover'd from the Contemplation of the Earth that there had been such a thing already in Nature 'T is true they often talk of an alternation of Deluges and Conflagrations in this Earth but they speak of them as things to come at least they give no proof or argument of day that hath already destroyed the World As to Paradise it seems to be represented to us by the Golden Age whereof the Ancients tell many stories sometimes very luxuriant and sometimes very defective For they did not so well understand the difference betwixt the New-made Earth and the Present as to see what were the just grounds of the Golden Age or of Paradise Tho' they had many broken Notions concerning those things As to the Conslagration in particular This hath always been reckon'd One amongst the Opinions or Dogmata of the Stoicks That the World was to be destroy'd by Fire and their Books are full of this Notion but yet they do not tell us the Causes of the Conflagration nor what preparations there are in Nature or will be towards that great Change And we may generally observe this of the Ancients that their Learning or Philosophy consisted more in Conclusions than in Demonstrations They had many Truths among them whereof they did not know themselves the Premisses or the Proofs Which is an argument to me that the knowledge they had was not a thing of their own invention or which they came to by fair Reasoning and observations upon Nature but was delivered to them from others by Tradition and Ancient Fame sometimes more publick sometimes more secret These Conclusions they kept in Mind and communicated to those of their School or Sect or Posterity without knowing for the most part the just grounds and reasons of them 'T is the Sacred Writings of Scripture that are the best Monuments of Antiquity and to those we are chiefly beholden for the History of the First Ages whether Natural History or Civil 'T is true the Poets who were the most Ancient Writers amongst the Greeks and serv'd them both for Historians Divines and Philosophers have deliver'd some things concerning the first Ages of the World that have a fair resemblance of Truth and some affinity with those accounts that are given of the same things by Sacred Authors and these may be of use in due time and place but yet lest any thing fabulous should be mixt with them as commonly there is we will never depend wholly upon their credit nor assert any thing upon the authority of the Ancients which is not first prov'd by Natural Reason or warranted by Scripture It seems to me very reasonable to believe that besides the Precepts of Religion which are the principal subject and design of the Books of Holy Scripture there may be providentially conserv'd in them the memory of things and times so remote as could not be retriev'd either by History or by the light of Nature and yet were of great importance to be known both for their own excellency and also to rectifie the knowledge of men in other things consequential to them Such points may be Our great Epocha or the Age of the Earth The Origination of Mankind The First and Paradisiacal State The destruction of the Old World by an Universal Deluge The Longevity of its Inhabitants The manner of their preservation and of their Peopling the Second Earth and lastly The Fate and Changes it is to undergo These I always lookt upon as the Seeds of great knowledge or heads of Theories fixt on purpose to give us aim and direction how to pursue the rest that depend upon them But these heads you see are of a mixt order and we propose to our selves in this Work only such as belong to the Natural World upon which I believe the trains of Providence are generally laid And we must first consider how God hath order'd Nature and then how the Oeconomy of the Intellectual World is adapted to it for of these two parts consist the full System of Providence In the mean time what subject can be more worthy the thoughts of any serious person than to view and consider the Rise and Fall and all the Revolutions not of a Monarchy or an Empire of the Grecian or Roman State but of an intire World The obscurity of these things and their remoteness from common knowledge will be made an argument by some why we should not undertake
World that this Abysse was open'd or that the frame of the Earth broke and fell down into the Great Abysse At this one stroke all Nature would be chang'd and this single action would have two great and visible Effects The one Transient and the other permanent First an universal Deluge would overflow all the parts and Regions of the broken Earth during the great commotion and agitation of the Abysse by the violent fall of the Earth into it This would be the first and unquestionable effect of this dissolution and all that World would be destroyed Then when the agitation of the Abysse was asswag'd and the Waters by degrees were retir'd into their Chanels and the dry land appear'd you would see the true image of the present Earth in the ruines of the first The surface of the Globe would be divided into Land and Sea the Land would consist of Plains and Valleys and Mountains according as the pieces of this ruine were plac'd and dispos'd Upon the banks of the Sea would stand the Rocks and near the shoar would be Islands or lesse fragments of Earth compass'd round by Water Then as to Subterraneous Waters and all Subterraneous Caverns and hollownesses upon this supposition those things could not be otherwise for the parts would fall hollow in many places in this as in all other ruines And seeing the Earth fell into this Abysse the Waters at a certain height would flow into all those hollow places and cavities and would also sink and insinuate into many parts of the solid Earth And though these Subterraneous Vaults or holes whether dry or full of Water would be more or less in all places where the parts fell hollow yet they would be found especially about the roots of the Mountains and the higher parts of the Earth for there the sides bearing up one against the other they could not lie so close at the bottoms but many vacuities would be intercepted Nor are there any other inequalities or irregularities observable in the present form of the Earth whether in the surface of it or interiour construction whereof this hypothesis doth not give a ready fair and intelligible account and doth at one view represent them all to us with their causes as in a glass And whether that Glass be true and the Image answer to the Original if you doubt of it we will hereafter examine them piece by piece But in the first place we must consider the General Deluge how easily and truly this supposition represents and explains it and answers all the properties and conditions of it I think it will be easily allow'd that such a dissolution of the Earth as we have propos'd and fall of it into the Abysse would certainly make an Universal Deluge and effectually destroy the old World which perish'd in it But we have not yet particularly prov'd this dissolution and in what manner the Deluge follow'd upon it And to assert things in gross never makes that firm impression upon our understandings and upon our belief as to see them deduc'd with their causes and circumstances And therefore we must endeavour to shew what preparations there were in Nature for this great dissolution and after what manner it came to pass and the Deluge in consequence of it We have noted before that Moses imputed the Deluge to the disruption of the Abyss and S. Peter to the particular constitution of that Earth which made it obnoxious to be absorpt in Water so that our explication so far is justifi'd But it was below the dignity of those Sacred Pen-men or the Spirit of God that directed them to shew us the causes of this disruption or of this absorption this is left to the enquiries of men For it was never the design of Providence to give such particular explications of Natural things as should make us idle or the use of Reason unnecessary but on the contrary by delivering great conclusions to us to excite our curiosity and inquisitiveness after the methods by which such things were brought to pass And it may be there is no greater trial or instance of Natural Wisdom than to find out the Chanel in which these great revolutions of Nature which we treat on flow and succeed one another Let us therefore resume that System of the Ante-diluvian Earth which we have deduc'd from the Chaos and which we find to answer S. Peter's description and Moses his account of the Deluge This Earth could not be obnoxious to a Deluge as the Apostle supposeth it to have been but by a dissolution for the Abysse was enclos'd within its bowels And Moses doth in effect tell us there was such a dissolution when he saith The fountains of the great Abysse were borken open For Fountains are broken open no otherwise than by breaking up the ground that covers them We must therefore here inquire in what order and from what causes the frame of this exteriour Earth was dissolv'd and then we shall soon see how upon that dissolution the Deluge immediately prevail'd and overflow'd all the parts of it I do not think it in the power of humane wit to determine how long this frame would stand how many Years or how many Ages but one would soon imagine that this kind of structure would not be perpetual nor last indeed many thousands of Years if one consider the effect that the heat of the Sun would have upon it and the Waters under it drying and parching the one and raresying the other into vapours For we must consider that the course of the Sun at that time or the posture of the Earth to the Sun was such that there was no diversity or alternation of seasons in the Year as there is now by reason of which alternation our Earth is kept in an equality of temper the contrary seasons balancing one another so as what moisture the heat of the Summer sucks out of the Earth 't is repaid in the Rains of the next Winter and what chaps were made in it are fill'd up again and the Earth reduc'd to its former constitution But if we should imagine a continual Summer the Earth would proceed in driness still more and more and the cracks would be wider and pierce deeper into the substance of it And such a continual Summer there was at least an equality of seasons in the Ante-diluvian Earth as shall be prov'd in the follwing Book concerning Paradise In the mean time this being suppos'd let us consider what effect it would have upon this Arch of the exteriour Earth and the Waters under it We cannot believe but that the heat of the Sun within the space of some hundreds of years would have reduc'd this Earth to a considerable degree of driness in certain parts and also have much raresi'd and exhal'd the Waters beneath it And considering the structure of that Globe the exteriour crust and the Waters lying round under it both expos'd to the Sun we may fitly compare it to an Aeolipile or
been the common standard of Man's Age ever since As when some excellent fruit is transplanted into a worse Climate and Soil it degenerates continually till it comes to such a degree of meanness as suits that Air and Soil and then it stands That the Age of Man did not fall all on a sudden from the Antediluvian measure to the present I impute it to the remaining Stamina of those first Ages and the strength of that pristine constitution which could not wear off but by degrees We see the Blacks do not quit their complexion immediately by removing into another Climate but their posterity changeth by little and little and after some generations they become altogether like the people of the Country where they are Thus by the change of Nature that happened at the Flood the unhappy influence of the Air and unequal Seasons weaken'd by degrees the innate strength of their bodies and the vigour of their parts which would have been capable to have lasted several more hundreds of years if the Heavens had continued their course as formerly or the Earth its position To conclude this particular If any think that the Ante-diluvian longaevity proceeded only from the Stamina or the meer strength of their bodies and would have been so under any constitution of the Heavens let them resolve themselves these Questions first Why these Stamina or this strength of constitution fail'd Secondly Why did it fail so much and so remarkably at the Deluge Thirdly Why in such proportions as it hath done since the Deluge And lastly Why it hath stood so long immovable and without any further diminution Within the compass of five hundred years they sunk from nine hundred to ninety and in the compass of more than three thousand years since they have not sunk ten years or scarce any thing at all Who considers the reasons of these things and the true resolution of these questions will be satisfi'd that to understand the causes of that longaevity something more must be consider'd than the make and strength of their bodies which though they had been made as strong as the Behemoth or Leviathan could not have lasted so many Ages if there had not been a particular concurrence of external causes such as the present state of Nature doth not admit of By this short review of the three general Characters of Paradise and the Golden Age we may conclude how little consistent they are with the present from and order of the Earth Who can pretend to assign any place or Region in this Terraqueous Globe Island or Continent that is capable of these conditions or that agrees either with the descriptions given by the ancient Heathens of their Paradise or by the Christian Fathers of Scripture Paradise But where then will you say must we look for it if not upon this Earth This puts us more into despair of finding it than ever 't is not above nor below in the Air or in the subterraneous Regions no doubtless 't was upon the surface of the Earth but of the Primitive Earth whose form and properties as they were different from this so they were such as made it capable of being truly Paradisiacal both according to the forementioned Characters and all other qualities and privileges reasonably ascrib'd to Paradise CHAP. III. The Original differences of the Primitive Earth from the present or Post-diluvian The three Characters of Paradise and the Golden Age found in the Primitive Earth A particular Explication of each Character WE have hitherto only perplext the Argument and our selves by showing how inexplicable the state of Paradise is according to the present order of things and the present condition of the Earth We must now therefore bring into view that Original and Ante-diluvian Earth where we pretend its seat was and show it capable of all those privileges which we have deny'd to the present in vertue of which privileges and of the order of Nature establisht there that primitive Earth might be truly Paradisiacal as in the Golden Age and some Region of it might be peculiarly so according to the receiv'd Idea of Paradise And this I think is all the knowledge and satisfaction that we can expect or that Providence hath allow'd us in this Argument The Primigenial Earth which in the first Book Chap. 5. we rais'd from a Chaos and set up in an habitable form we must now survey again with more care to observe its principal differences from the present Earth and what influence they will have upon the question in hand These differences as we have said before were chiefly three The form of it which was smooth even and regular The posture and situation of it to the Sun which was direct and not as it is at present inclin'd and oblique And the Figure of it which was more apparently and regularly Oval than it is now From these three differences flow'd a great many more inferiour and subordinate and which had a considerable influence upon the moral World at that time as well as the natural But we will only observe here their more immediate effects and that in reference to those general Characters or properties of the Golden Age and of Paradise which we have instanc'd in and whereof we are bound to give an account by our Hypothesis And in this respect the most fundamental of those three differences we mention'd was that of the right posture and situation of the Earth to the Sun for from this immediately follow'd a perpetual Aequinox all the Earth over or if you will a perpetual Spring and that was the great thing we found a wanting in the present Earth to make it Paradisiacal or capable of being so Wherefore this being now found and establisht in the Primitive Earth the other two properties of Longaevity and of Spontaneous and Vital fertility will be of more easie explication In the mean time let us view a little the reasons and causes of that regular situation in the first Earth The truth is one cannot so well require a reason of the regular situation the Earth had then for that was most simple and natural as of the irregular situation it hath now standing oblique and inclin'd to the Sun or the Ecliptick Whereby the course of the year is become unequal and we are cast into a great diversity of Seasons But however stating the first aright with its circumstances we shall have a better prospect upon the second and see from what causes and in what manner it came to pass Let us therefore suppose the Earth with the rest of its fellow Planets to be carried about the Sun in the Ecliptick by the motion of the liquid Heavens and being at that time perfectly uniform and regular having the same Center of its magnitude and gravity it would by the equality of its libration necessarily have its Axis parallel to the Axis of the same Ecliptick both its Poles being equally inclin'd to the Sun And this posture I call a right
situation as oppos'd to oblique or inclin'd or a parallel situation if you please Now this is a thing that needs no proof besides its own evidence for 't is the immediate result and common effect of gravity or libration that a Body freely left to it self in a fluid medium should settle in such a posture as best answers to its gravitation and this first Earth whereof we speak being uniform and every way equally balanc'd there was no reason why it should incline at one end more than at the other towards the Sun As if you should suppose a Ship to stand North and South under the Aequator if it was equally built and equally ballasted it would not incline to one Pole or other but keep its Axis parallel to the Axis of the Earth but if the ballast lay more at one end it would dip towards that Pole and rise proportionably higher towards the other So those great Ships that fail about the Sun once a year or once in so many years whilst they are uniformly built and equally pois'd they keep steddy and even with the Axis of their Orbit but if they lose that equality and the Center of their gravity change the heavier end will incline more towards the common Center of their motion and the other end will recede from it So particularly the Earth which makes one in that aëry Fleet when it scap'd so narrowly from being shipwrackt in the great Deluge was however so broken and disorder'd that it lost its equal poise and thereupon the Center of its gravity changing one Pole became more inclin'd towards the Sun and the other more remov'd from it and so its right and parallel situation which it had before to the Axis of the Ecliptick was chang'd into an oblique in which skew posture it hath stood ever since and is likely so to do for some Ages to come I instance in this as the most obvious cause of the change of the situation of the Earth tho' it may be upon this followed a change in its Magnetism and that might also contribute to the same effect However This change and obliquity of the Earth's posture had a long train of consequences depending upon it whereof that was the most immediate that it alter'd the form of the year and brought in that inequality of Seasons which hath since obtain'd As on the contrary while the Earth was in its first and natural posture in a more easie and regular disposition to the Sun That had also another respective train of consequences whereof one of the first and that which we are most concern'd in at present was that it made a perpetual Aequinox or Spring to all the World all the parts of the year had one and the same tenour face and temper there was no Winter or Summer Seed-time or Harvest but a continual temperature of the Air and Verdure of the Earth And this fully answers the first and fundamental character of the Golden Age and of Paradise And what Antiquity whether Heathen or Christian hath spoken concerning that perpetual serenity and constant Spring that reign'd there which in the one was accounted fabulous and in the other hyperbolical we see to have been really and Philosophically true Nor is there any wonder in the thing the wonder is rather on our side that the Earth should stand and continue in that forc'd posture wherein it is now spinning yearly about an Axis I mean that of the Aequator that doth not belong to the Orbit of its motion This I say is more strange than that it once stood in a posture that was streight and regular As we more justly admire the Tower at Pisa that stands crook'd than twenty other streight Towers that are much higher Having got this foundation to stand upon the rest of our work will go on more easily and the two other Characters which we mention'd will not be of very difficult explication The spontaneous fertility of the Earth and its production of Animals at that time we have in some measure explain'd before supposing it to proceed partly from the richness of the Primigenial soil and partly from this constant Spring and benignity of the Heavens which we have now establisht These were always ready to excite Nature and put her upon action and never to interrupt her in any of her motions or attempts We have show'd in the Fifth Chapter of the First Book how this primigenial soil was made and of what ingredients which were such as compose the richest and fattest soil being a light Earth mixt with unctuous juices and then afterwards refresh'd and diluted with the dews of Heaven all the year long and cherisht with a continual warmth from the Sun What more hopeful beginning of a World than this You will grant I believe that whatsoever degree or whatsoever kind of fruitfulness could be expected from a Soil and a Sun might be reasonably expected there We see great Woods and Forests of Trees rise spontaneously and that since the Flood for who can imagine that the ancient Forests whereof some were so vastly great were planted by the hand of Man why should we not then believe that Fruit-trees and Corn rose as spontaneously in that first Earth That which makes Husbandry and Humane Arts so necessary now for the Fruits and productions of the Earth is partly indeed the decay of the Soil but chiefly the diversity of Seasons whereby they perish if care be not taken of them but when there was neither Heat nor cold Winter nor Summer every Season was a Seed-time to Nature and every Season an◠Harvest This it may be you will allow as to the Fruits of the Earth but that the same Earth should produce Animals also will not be thought so intelligible Since it hath been discover'd that the first materials of all Animals are Eggs as Seeds are of Plants it doth not seem so hard to conceive that these Eggs might be in the first Earth as well as those Seeds for there is a great analogy and similitude betwixt them Especially if you compare these Seeds first with the Eggs of Insects or Fishes and then with the Eggs of Viviparous Animals And as for those juices which the Eggs of Viviparous Animals imbibe thorough their coats from the womb they might as well imbibe them or something analogous to them from a conveniently temper'd Earth as Plant-Eggs do And these things being admitted the progress is much-what the same in Seeds as Eggs and in one sort of Eggs as in another 'T is true Animal-Eggs do not seem to be fruitful of themselves without the influence of the Male and this is not necessary in Plant-Eggs or Vegetable Seeds But neither doth it seem necessary in all Animal Eggs if there be any Animals sponte orta as they call them or bred without copulation And as we observ'd before according to the best knowledge that we have of this Male influence it is reasonable to believe that it may be supplied by
Post-diluvians too they will still be intangled in worse absurdities for they must make their lives miserably short and their Age of getting Children altogether incongruous and impossible Nahor for example when he was but two years and three months old must have begot Abraham's Father And all the rest betwixt him and Shem must have had Children before they were three years old A pretty race of Pigmies Then their lives were proportionably short for this Nahor liv'd but eleven years and six months at this rate and his Grandchild Abraham who is said to have died in a good old age and full of years Gen. 25. 8. was not fourteen years old What a ridiculous account this gives of Scripture-Chronology and Genealogies But you 'll say it may be these Lunar years are not to be carried so far as Abraham neither tell us then where you 'll stop and why you stop in such a place rather than another If you once take in Lunar years what ground is there in the Text or in the History that you should change your way of computing at such a time or in such a place All our Ancient Chronology is founded upon the Books of Moses where the terms and periods of times are exprest by years and often by Genealogies and the Lives of Men now if these years are sometimes to be interpreted Lunar and sometimes Solar without any distinction made in the Text what light or certain rule have we to go by let these Authors name to us the parts and places where and only where the Lunar years are to be understood and I dare undertake to show that their method is not only arbitrary but absurd and incoherent To conclude this Discourse we cannot but repeat what we have partly observ'd before How necessary it is to understand Nature if we would rightly understand those things in holy Writ that relate to the Natural World For without this knowledge as we are apt to think some things consistent and credible that are really impossible in Nature so on the other hand we are apt to look upon other things as incredible and impossible that are really founded in Nature And seeing every one is willing so to expound Scripture as it may be to them good sence and consistent with their Notions in other things they are forc'd many times to go against the easie and natural importance of the words and to invent other interpretations more compliant with their principles and as they think with the nature of things We have I say a great instance of this before us in the Scripture-History of the long lives of the Ante-diluvians where without any ground or shadow of ground in the Narration only to comply with a mistaken Philosophy and their ignorance of the Primitive World many men would beat down the Scripture account of years into months and sink the lives of those first Fathers below the rate of the worst of Ages Whereby that great Monument which Providence hath left us of the first World and of its difference from the Second would not only be defac'd but wholly demolish'd And all this sprung only from the seeming incredibility of the thing for they cannot show in any part of Scripture New or Old that these Lunar years are made use of or that any computation literal or Prophetical proceeds upon them Nor that there is any thing in the Text or Context of that place that argues or intimates any such account We have endeavour'd upon this occasion effectually to prevent this misconstruction of Sacred History for the future both by showing the incongruities that follow upon it and also that there is no necessity from Nature of any such shift or evasion as that is But rather on the contrary that we have just and necessary reasons to conclude That as the Forms of all things would be far more permanent and lasting in that Primitive state of the Heavens and the Earth so particularly the Lives of Men and of other Animals CHAP. V. Concerning the Waters of the Primitive Earth What the state of the Regions of the Air was then and how all Waters proceeded from them how the Rivers arose what was their course and how they ended Some things in Sacred Writ that confirm this Hydrography of the first Earth especially the Origin of the Rainbow HAving thus far clear'd our way to Paradise and given a rational account of its general properties before we proceed to discourse of the place of it there is one affair of moment concerning this Primitive Earth that must first be stated and explain'd and that is How it was water'd from what causes and in what manner How could Fountains rise or Rivers flow in an Earth of that Form and Nature We have shut up the Sea with thick walls on every side and taken away all communication that could be 'twixt it and the External Earth and we have remov'd all the Hills and the Mountains where the Springs use to rise and whence the Rivers descend to water the face of the ground And lastly we have left no issue for these Rivers no Ocean to receive them nor any other place to disburthen themselves into So that our New-found World is like to be a dry and barren Wilderness and so far from being Paradisiacal that it would scarce be habitable I confess there was nothing in this whole Theory that gave such a stop to my thoughts as this part of it concerning the Rivers of the first Earth how they rise how they flow'd and how they ended It seemâ—d at first that we had wip'd away at once the Notion and whole Doctrine of Rivers we had turn'd the Earth so smooth that there was not an Hill or rising for the head of a Spring nor any fall or descent for the course of a River Besides I had suckt in the common opinion of Philosophers That all Rivers rise from the Sea and return to it again and both those passages I see were stopt up in that Earth This gave me occasion to reflect upon the modern and more solid opinion concerning the Origin of Fountains and Rivers That they rise chiefly from Rains and melted Snows and not from the Sea alone and as soon as I had demurr'd in that particular I see it was necessary to consider and examine how the Rains fell in that first Earth to understand what the state of their Waters and Rivers would be And I had no sooner appli'd my self to that Inquiry but I easily discover'd that the Order of Nature in the Regions of the Air would be then very different from what it is now and the Meteorology of that World was of another sort from that of the present The Air was always calm and equal there could be no violent Meteors there nor any that proceeded from extremity of Cold as Ice Snow or Hail nor Thunder neither for the Clouds could not be of a quality and consistency fit for such an effect either by falling one upon another or
was much greater than the present higher and more advanc'd into the Air That it was smooth and regular in its surface without Mountains or Valleys but hollow within and was spontaneously fruitful without plowing or sowing This was its first state but when Mankind became degenerate and outragious with Pride and Violence The angry Gods as they say by Earthquakes and Concussions broke the habitable Orb of the Earth and thereupon the Subterraneous Waters gushing out drown'd it in a Deluge and destroy'd Mankind Upon this fraction it came into another Form with a Sea Lakes and Rivers as we now have And those parts of the broken Earth that stood above the Waters became Mountains Rocks Islands and so much of the Land as we now inhabit This account is given us by Barnardinus Ramazzinus in his Treatise De Fontium Mutinensium Seaturigine Taken from a Book Writ by Francisco Patricio to whom this wonderful Tradition was deliver'd by persons of credit from an Aethiopian Philosopher then in Spain I have not yet had the good fortune to see that Book of Francisco Patricio 't is writ in Italian with this Title Della Retorica degli Antichi Printed at Venice 1562. This story indeed deserves to be enquired after for we do not any where amongst the Ancients meet with such a full and explicit narration of the state of the First and Second Earth That which comes nearest to it are those accounts we find in Plato from the Aegyptian Antiquities in his Timaeus Politicus and Phoedo of another Earth and another state of Nature and Mankind But none of them are so full and distinct as this Aethiopian Doctrine As for the Western Learning we may remember what the Aegyptian Priest says to Solon in Plato's Timaeus You Greeks are always Children and know nothing of Antiquity And if the Greeks were so much more the Romans who came after them in time and for so great a People and so much civiliz'd never any had less Philosophy and less of the Sciences amongst them than the Romans had They studied only the Art of Speaking of Governing and of Fighting and left the rest to the Greeks and Eastern Nations as unprofitable Yet we have reason to believe that the best Philosophical Antiquities that the Romans had perisht with the Books of Varro of Numa Pompilius and of the ancient Sibyls Varro writ as S. Austin tells us a multitude of Volumes and of various sorts and I had rather retrieve his works than the works of any other Roman Author not his Etymologies and Criticisms where we see nothing admirable but his Theologia Physica and his Antiquitates which in all probability would have given us more light into remote times and the Natural History of the past World than all the Latin Authors besides have done He has left the foremention'd distinction of three Periods of time He had the doctrine of the Mundane Egg as we see in Probus Grammaticus and he gave us that observation of the Star Venus concerning the great change she suffer'd about the time of our Deluge Numa Pompilius was doubtless a contemplative Man and 't is thought that he understood the true System of the World and represented the Sun by his Vestal Fire though methinks Vesta does not so properly refer to the Sun as to the Earth which hath a Sacred fire too that is not to be extinguisht He order'd his Books to be buried with him which were found in a Stone Chest by him four hundred years after his death They were in all Twenty-four whereof Twelve contain'd Sacred Rites and Ceremonies and the other Twelve the Philosophy and Wisdom of the Greeks The Romans gave them to the Praetor Petilius to peruse and to make his report to the Senate whether they were fit to be publisht or no The Praetor made a wise politick report that the Contents of them might be of dangerous consequence to the establisht Laws and Religion and thereupon they were condemn'd to be burnt and Posterity was depriv'd of that ancient Treasure whatsoever it was What the Nine Books of the Sibyl contain'd that were offer'd to King Tarquin we little know She valued them high and the higher still the more they seem'd to slight or neglect them which is a piece of very natural indignation or contempt when one is satisfied of the worth of what they offer 'T is likely they respected besides the fate of Rome the fate and several periods of the World both past and to come and the most mystical passages of them And in these Authors and Monuments are lost the greatest hopes of Natural and Philosophick Antiquities that we could have had from the Romans And as to the Greeks their best and Sacred Learning was not originally their own they enricht themselves with the spoils of the East and the remains we have of that Eastern Learning is what we pick out of the Greeks whose works I believe if they were intirely extant we should not need to go any further for witnesses to confirm all the principal parts of this Theory With what regret does one read in Laertius Suidas and others the promising titles of Books writ by the Greek Philosophers hundreds or thousands whereof there is not one now extant and those that are extant are generally but fragments Those Authors also that have writ their Lives or collected their Opinions have done it confus'dly and injudiciously I should hope for as much light and instruction as to the Original of the World from Orpheus alone if his Works had been preserv'd as from all that is extant now of the other Greek Philosophers We may see from what remains of him that he understood in a good measure how the Earth rise from a Chaos what was its external Figure and what the form of its inward structure The opinion of the Oval Figure of the Earth is ascrib'd to Orpheus and his Disciples and the doctrine of the Mundane Egg is so peculiarly his that 't is call'd by Proclus The Orphick Egg not that he was the first Author of that doctrine but the first that brought it into Greece Thus much concerning the Heathen Learning Eastern and Western and the small remains of it in things Philosophical 't is no wonder then if the account we have left us from them of the Primitive Earth and the Antiquities of the Natural World be very imperfect And yet we have trac'd in the precedent Chapter and more largely in our Latin Treatise the foot-steps of several parts of this Theory amongst the Writings and Traditions of the Ancients and even of those parts that seem the most strange and singular and that are the Basis upon which the rest stand We have shown there that their account of the Chaos though it seem'd to many but a Poetical Rhapsody contain'd the true mystery of the formation of the Primitive Earth We have also shown upon the same occasion that both the External Figure and Internal Form of that Earth
was compriz'd and signified in their ancient doctrine of the Mundane Egg which hath been propagated through all the Learned Nations And lastly As to the situation of that Earth and the change of its posture since that the memory of that has been kept up we have brought several testimonies and indications from the Greek Philosophers And these were the three great and fundamental properties of the Primitive Earth upon which all the other depend and all its differences from the present Order of Nature You see then though Providence hath suffer'd the ancient Heathen Learning and their Monuments in a great part to perish yet we are not left wholly without witnesses amongst them in a speculation of this great importance You will say it may be though this account as to the Books and Learning of the Heathen may be lookt upon as reasonable yet we might expect however from the Iewish and Christian Authors a more full and satisfactory account of that Primitive Earth and of the Old World First as to the Iews 't is well known that they have no ancient Learning unless by way of Tradition amongst them There is not a Book extant in their Language excepting the Canon of the Old Testament that hath not been writ since our Saviour's time They are very bad Masters of Antiquity and they may in some measure be excus'd because of their several captivities dispersions and desolations In the Babylonish captivity their Temple was ransack'd and they did not preserve as is thought so much as the Autograph or original Manuscript of the Law nor the Books of those of their Prophets that were then extant and kept in the Temple And at their return from the Captivity after seventy years they seem to have had forgot their Native Language so much that the Law was to be interpreted to them in Chaldee after it was read in Hebrew for so I understand that interpretation in Nehâ—miah 'T was a great Providence methinks that they should any way preserve their Law and other Books of Scripture in the Captivity for so long a time for 't is likely they had not the liberty of using them in any publick worship seeing they return'd so ignorant of their own Language and as 't is thought of their Alphabet and Character too And if their Sacred Books were hardly preserv'd we may easily Believe all others perisht in that publick desolation Yet there was another destruction of that Nation and their Temple greater than this by the Romans and if there were any remains of Learning preserv'd in the former ruine or any recruits made since that time this second desolation would sweep them all away And accordingly we see they have nothing left in their Tongue besides the Bible so ancient as the destruction of Ierusalem These and other publick calamities of the Iewish Nation may reasonably be thought to have wasted their Records of ancient Learning if they had any for to speak truth the Iews are a people of little curiosity as to Sciences and Philosophical enquiries They were very tenacious of their own customs and careful of those Traditions that did respect them but were not remarkable that I know of or thought great Proficients in any other sort of Learning There has been a great fame 't is true of the Iewish Gabala and of great mysteries contain'd in it and I believe there was once a Traditional doctrine amongst some of them that had extraordinary Notions and Conclusions But where is this now to be found The Essenes were the likeliest Sect one would think to retain such doctrines but 't is probable they are now so mixt with things fabulous and fantastical that what one should alledge from thence would be of little or no authority One Head in this Cabala was the doctrine of the Sephiroth and though the explication of them be uncertain the Inferiour Sephiroth in the Corporeal World cannot so well be appli'd to any thing as to those several Orbs and Regions infolding one another whereof the Primigenial Earth was compos'd Yet such conjectures and applications I know are of no validity but in consort with better Arguments I have often thought also that their first and second Temple represented the first and second Earth or World and that of Ezekiel's which is the third is still to be erected the most beautiful of all when this second Temple of the World shall be burnt down If the Prophecies of Enoch had been preserv'd and taken into the Canon by Eâ—ra after their return from Babylon when the Collection of their Sacred Books is suppos'd to have been made we might probably have had a considerable account there both of times past and to come of Antiquities and futuritions for those Prophecies are generally supposâ—d to have containâ—d both the first and second fate of this Earth and all the periods of it But as this Book is lost to us so I look upon all others that pretend to be Ante-Mosaical or Patriarchal as Spurious and Fabulous Thus much concerning the Iews As for Christian Authors their knowledge must be from some of these foremention'd Iews or Heathens or else by Apostolical Tradition For the Christian Fathers were not very speculative so as to raise a Theory from their own thoughts and contemplations concerning the Origin of the Earth We have instanc'd in the last Chapter in a Christian Tradition concerning Paradise and the high situation of it which is fully consonant to the site of the Primitive Earth where Paradise stood and doth seem plainly to refer to it being unintelligible upon any other supposition And 't was I believe this elevation of Paradise and the pensile structure of that Paradisiacal Earth that gave occasion to Celsus as we see by Origen's answer to say that the Christian Paradise was taken from the pensile Gardens of Alcinous But we may see now what was the ground of such expressions or Traditions amongst the Ancients which Providence left to keep mens minds awake not fully to instruct them but to confirm them in the truth when it should come to be made known in other methods We have noted also above that the ancient Books and Authors amongst the Christians that were most likely to inform us in this Argument have perisht and are lost out of the World such as Ephrem Syrus de ortu rerum and Tertulâ—ian de Paradiso and that piece which is extant of Cepha's upon this subject receives more light from our Hypothesis than from any other I know for correcting some mistakes about the Figure of the Earth which the Ancients were often guilty of the obscurity or confusion of that Discourse in other things may be easily rectifi'd if compar'd with this Theory Of this nature also is that Tradition that is common both to Iews and Christians and which we have often mention'd before that there was a perpetual serenity and perpetual Equinox in Paradise which cannot be upon this Earth not so much as under the
with the Hypothesis As to the present Form of the Earth we call all Nature to witness for us The Rocks and the Mountains the Hills and the Valleys the deep and wide Sea and the Caverns of the Ground Let these speak and tell their origine How the Body of the Earth came to be thus torn and mangled If this strange and irregular structure was not the effect of a ruine and of such a ruine as was universal over the face of the whole Globe But we have given such a full explication of this in the first part of the Theory from Chapt. the 9th to the end of that Treatise that we dare stand to the judgment of any that reads those four Chapters to determine if the Hypothesis does not answer all those Phaenomena easily and adequately The next Phaenomenon to be consider'd is the Deluge with its adjuncts This also is fully explain'd by our Hypothesis in the 2d 3d. and 6th Chapters of the first Book Where it is shewn that the Mosaical Deluge that is an universal Inundation of the whole Earth above the tops of the highest Mountains made by a breaking open of the Great Abyss for thus far Moses leads us is fully explain'd by this Hypothesis and cannot be conceiv'd in any other method hitherto propos'd There are no sources or stores of Water sufficient for such an effect that may be drawn upon the Earth and drawn off again but by supposing such an Abyss and such a Disruption of it as the Theory represents Lastly As to the Phaenomena of Paradise and the Ante-diluvian World we have set them down in order in the 2d Book and apply'd to each of them its proper explication from the same Hypothesis We have also given an account of that Character which Antiquity always assign'd to the first age of the World or the Golden Age as they call'd it namely Equality of Seasons throughout the Year or a perpetual Equinox We have also taken in all the adjuncts or concomitants of these States as they are mention'd in Scripture The Longevity of the Ante-diluvians and the declension of their age by degrees after the Flood As also that wonderful Phaenomenon the Rainbow which appear'd to Noah for a Sign that the Earth should never undergo a second Deluge And we have shewn wherein the force and propriety of that Sign consisted for confirming Noah's faith in the promise and in the divine veracity Thus far we have explain'd the past Phaenomena of the Natural World The rest are Futurities which still lie hid in their Causes and we cannot properly prove a Theory from effects that are not yet in being But so far as they are foretold in Scripture both as to substance and circumstance in prosecution of the same Principles we have ante dated their birth and shew'd how they will come to pass We may therefore I think reasonably conclude That this Theory has performed its task and answer'd its title having given an account of all the general changes of the Natural World as far as either Sacred History looks backwards or Sacred Prophecy looks forwards So far as the one tells us what is past in Nature and the other what is to come And if all this be nothing but an appearance of truth 't is a kind of fatality upon us to be deceiv'd SO much for Natural Evidence from the Causes or Effects We now proceed to Scripture which will make the greatest part of this Review The Sacred Basis upon which the whole Theory stands is the doctrine of S. Peter deliver'd in his Second Epistle and Third Chapter concerning the Triple Order and Succession of the Heavens and the Earth That comprehends the whole extent of our Theory which indeed is but a large Commentary upon S. Peter's Text. The Apostle sets out a threefold state of the Heavens and Earth with some general properties of each taken from their different Constitution and different Fate The Theory takes the same threefold state of the Heavens and the Earth and explains more partâ—cularly wherein their different Constitution consists and how under the conduct of Providence their different fate depends upon it Let us set down the Apostle's words with the occasion of them and their plain sence according to the most easie and natural explication Ver. 3. Knowing this first that there shall come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lusts 4. And saying Where is the promise of his coming for since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation 5. For this they willingly are ignorant of that by the word of God the heavens were of old and the earth consisting of water and by water 6. Whereby the world that then was being overflowed with water perished 7. But the heavens and the earth that are now by the sâ—me word are kept in store reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men 10. The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent heat the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up 13. Nevertheless we according to his promise look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness This is the whole Discourse so far as relates to our Subject S Peter you see had met with some that scoff'd at the future destruction of the World and the coming of our Saviour and they were men it seems that pretended to Philosophy and Argument and they use this argument for their opinion Seeing there hath been no change in Nature or in the World from the beginning to this time why should we think there will be any change for the future The Apostle answers to this That they willingly forget or are ignorant that there were Heavens of old and an Earth so and so constituted consisting of Water and by Water by reason whereof that World or those Heavens and that Earth perish'd in a Deluge of Water But saith he the Heavens and the Earth that are now are of another constitution fitted and reserved to another fate namely to perish by Fire And after these are perish'd there will be New Heavens and a New Earth according to God's promise This is an easie Paraphrase and the plain and genuine sence of the Apostle's discourse and no body I think would ever look after any other sence if this did not carry them out of their usual road and point to conclusions which they did not fancy This sence you see hits the objections directly or the Cavil which these scoffers made and tells them that they vainly pretend that there hath been no change in the World since the beginning for there was one sort of Heavens and Earth before the Flood and another sort now the first having been destroy'd at the Deluge So that the Apostle's argument stands upon this Foundation That there