it is expresly affirmed that both Sexes in distinct Persons were then created Male and female created he them and such transpositions are not unusual neither in the Holy History nor in other Histories The first Chapter gives the brief and orderly Relation of the whole Series of Times and Things done in them and the second Chapter is only a fuller and more explicit Declaration of some things that are briefly and compendiously delivered in the first Chapter as appears not only by the Relation of the Formation of Eve but divers other passages relating to what was transacted in the first Chapter 7. The Formation of Man was the last Work of the Creation the last Work of the last Day and the Reasons of this Order seem to be these 1. Because in the Method of the Creation of Sublunary Natures Almighty God proceeded from the less to the more perfect and curious Parts of the visible Creation as first he made Vegetables then Fishes and Birds then Brutes and Man in the last place as the most perfect and containing not only the Faculties of Vegetables and Animals and that in a more perfect nature but also a superadded intellectual spiritual Soul So he was the noblest part of the Creation at least of this lower World 2. Because Mankind should be furnished to his hand with all things convenient and useful to his existence and operation as the Grass was provided before the Brutes were created so before the Creation of Mankind Fruits of the Earth were provided for his food and delight a Paradise for his entertainment and employment of his Senses and Industry Idleness being not indulged even in Paradise and the goodly Furniture of the visible World both Celestial and Sublunary to raise his Admiration Contemplation and Delight 3. Because God Almighty intended him a liberal Patrimony which he would furnish and compleat in all its numbers before Man was created and as soon as he had created him gave him this inferior World as his Usufructuary and Steward at least but yet withall gave him a subordinate dominion of that whereof he made him his Steward and this great Benefactor prepared this Gift of this inferior Terrestrial World to be ready for his Creature Man's reception as soon as he had a Being and accordingly gave it him with all its Furniture Gen. 1.28 29. 8. That Man was by Almighty God in his first Creation in a state of perfect Felicity and Immortality but under a condition of Obedience to the Divine Will Command and Law that he had implanted in his Mind and Conscience certain Principles of Moral Goodness and Righteousness which are the Original of those common Notions of Good and Evil as so many secret Byasses and Inclinations to the observance of the Good and avoidance of the Evil. And as even the inferior Animals have implanted in them secret Instincts and Tendences for the preservation and advance of their sensible individual and specifical natures so these implanted Notions and Moral Inclinations in the Mind of Man were therein lodged to guide and lead him in a conformity to his excellent Constitution and for the attainment of an intellectual and eternal Good and these though the vigour and brightness of them were much abated by his Fall yet were transmitted with his nature to his Descendents And this is the Original of those common Notions which yet remain in the Humane Nature though refracted and abated by the Fall of Man this is that common Light and Law of Nature which to this day in some measure prevails in the generality of Mankind to the Acknowledgment Adoration and Reverence of a Deity and Moral Righteousness this is that Law of Nature mentioned by the Apostle Rom. 1. written in the Hearts of Men wherby they do by Nature the things contained in the Law But of this I shall write somewhat fuller in the ensuing Chapter 9. Besides this Moral inscribed Law God Almighty for the tryal of Man's Obedience gave him a positive Law prohibiting the eating of the forbidden Fruit under pain of temporal and eternal Death and Curse and Man was left in the hands of his own liberty to obey or disobey it 10. That Man being left to the free liberty of his own Will though furnished with sufficient abilities to have obeyed Almighty God yet by the temptation of Satan his own sensual appetite and ambitious affectation violated his Maker's Law and broke that Condition upon which much of his Perfection and Happiness was conferred upon him and although he retained his Essentials namely his Essential Constitution this Spirituality and Immortality of his Soul his Faculties of Understanding and Will he thereby incurred these unhappy deprivations 1. A loss of the immortal state of his Composition being now obnoxious to the separation of Soul and Body 2. A very great abatement of that temporal Felicity he had in this Life and obnoxious to the everlasting separation from God with the Death of the Soul 3. An abatement and diminution of those Habits of Knowledge and Rectitude of Soul and a great weakning and decay of the vigour and activity of connatural implanted Notions or Inclinations 4. A great disorder in the due subordination of his Faculties and a great confusion and corruption prevailing upon his noble Faculties and weakning disordering and abasing them 5. An impair of that Sovereignty and Dominion over the Creatures who rebelled against Man as soon as he forsook his Maker 6. Diseases Disorders Weaknesses Sicknesses Harbingers and Forerunners of Death attaquing his Bodily Constitution 7. A transmission of these Hereditary Imperfections and Decays to his Posterity And herein and hereby we have an Account of that great Quaesitum among the Learned Heathen where yet for want of this Discovery by the Holy Scriptures they could never attain the full knowledge and reason namely the Original of Sin and Evil and those many Corruptions Defections and Miseries of Mankind And thus much concerning the Divine History of the Creation and Defection of Man CAP. IV. The Reasonableness of this Hypothesis of the Origination of the World and particularly of the Humane Nature and the great Advantages it hath above all other Hypotheses touching the same THat the World had a beginning of its Being at least in that order and consistence that it now holds I have shewed in the beginning of this Book Again if there could be any imaginable doubt or question whether the great Integrals of the World were eternal and without beginning yet I have shewed that Mankind or the successive Generations thereof ex ante genitis is in Nature and Reason impossible and in Fact and Experience apparently improbable and therefore that there were some common Parents of Mankind who had their beginning of existence and that in some other way than they are now produced All that have supposed an Origination of Mankind ex non genitis have admitted something either of Matter analogous to it out of which Mankind hath had such his Origination
whom Bochart upon very probable reasons supposeth to be Gedeon called Jerubbaal and having set up an Ephod in his City might be supposed a Priest and from the intercourse between them the Idol Baal-berith was brought from Berith the City of Sancuniathon into Judea Touching the Egyptians they pretended to the greatest antiquity both of Government and Learning the latter they principally derived from Hermes stiled by some Mercurius Trismegistus and by the Egyptians Thoth the Phenicians made claim to this man as theirs attributed to him the Invention of Letters of Navigation of the Virtues of Herbs Euseb lib. 1. Praeparat sect 10. de Phoenicum Theologia he is supposed more ancient than Moses but we have nothing authentick existing which he wrote The ancientest Historian of the Affairs of Egypt was Manethes the Egyptian Priest who lived about or as some think before the time of Alexander he carries up the Res Aegyptiacas to an excessive Antiquity and yet with great particularity and pretended certainty some account him fabulous because he carries up the Egyptian Dynasties before the Flood yea and long before the Creation others assert the probability of the Egyptian Dynasties to over-reach the universal Flood but salve that prodigious excess of their numerous Years by reducing them to Months or Anni Lunares which were anciently so accounted among the Egyptians The Egyptians have had other Writers of their Histories but of a later date as Ptolemeus Mendesius mentioned sometimes by Eusebius and those Arabick Historians mentioned by Kircher in that Book that delivers the History of the succession of their Dynasties Lastly I come to the Jewish History begun by Moses and continued down in a clear succession and series of times till their return from the Babylonish Captivity and this History hath a just prelation above all the Writings of other Historians in these ensuing respects 1. It hath the greatest and most particular certainty and far beyond any of the Historians before mentioned it contains the certain Periods of Times Names Men Places Actions and all Circumstances requirable in a History to inform it is not involved in Mystical expressions or Mythologies but is plain familiar and intelligible 2. It hath the greatest evidence of Truth that can be expected by a reasonable man namely Evidence from it self the particularity and circumstances of the things it relates Evidence from the ancientest Heathen Authors especially Sancuniathon Berosus and Abydenus before mentioned Evidence from the several parts thereof the Book of one Age bearing witness to another as the Books of Joshua to those of Moses the Books of Kings to those of Moses and Joshua though written in several Ages Evidentia rei or facti there cannot be greater Evidence than the Regiment of a People for so many Ages according to the Laws given and recorded by their first Historian Moses and the enjoyment of their Possessions according to the distribution of their next Historian Joshua 3. It is no broken Piece or Historical Fragment but it is carried down from the beginning of Time to all the ensuing Ages of the Jewish State without any chasma or interval 4. It hath the evidence of the highest credibility that any thing of that nature is capable of That the Books of Moses especially which are the Caput Historiae Judaicae were written by that Man Moses and that he lived in that Age wherein he is supposed to write 1. The constant uninterrupted Tradition of that Kingdom and Nation from it first coalition even to this day 2. The attestation of all the succeding Writers of that Historical Series of the Jewish Affairs 3. The inviolable Observation of those Laws given by Moses and recorded in that History as of the Laws given by him 4. The Suffrage of all Heathen Authors both modern and ancient that have occasion to mention the concerns of that People 5. It is a History that contains matters of far greater moment and antiquity than any other Writers but such as in probability made their Collections out of it namely of the Transactions from the first Creation of the World until the Universal Flood and from thence to the time of him that first wrote it namely Moses 6. It is a History that was really written by Moses who was far more ancient than all the Heathen Writers above mentioned excepting only Trismegistus of whose Writings we have nothing extant and more ancient than most of those Things or Notes recorded by those most ancient Heathen Writers which for the most part filled their Books He wrote 540 years before Homer 200 years before Sancuniathon according to Bochart's account 300 years before the Expedition of the Argonauts 350 years before the Trojan War and a considerable time before the Apotheoses or Inaugurations of many of the Heathenish Deities So that as the Matter of his History so the Time of his writing is far more ancient than the writing of the most ancient Heathen Historians that are at all extent Much of this I shall have occasion to resume and enlarge in the ensuing Chapters yet this was necessary in this place The Inference that is made from hence is That probably if the World of Mankind had been Eternal or if it had any such vast distance from its Beginning as some suppose we should have had Historical Monuments and Writings long before the Age of Moses But for all this I must needs say this Consideration singly I say singly taken and weighed maketh not much against an eternal or at least a vaster Epocha of the first Origination of Man than is ordinarily supposed I shall therefore set down those allays that make against the strength of the consequence drawn from this Topick 1. It is evident that the use of Letters and Writing were far more ancient than the time of Moses the Egyptians and Phenicians carry up the original of the invention thereof to Mercurius Trismegistus which is supposed long before Moses And although Cadmus is supposed to have brought the use of Letters out of Phoenicia into Greece some time after the Age of Moses according to Polydore Virgil lib. 1. cap. 6. out of Pliny Herodotus and others yet it appears by what is before mentioned that there were in Phoenicia very ancient written Volumes called Volumina Ammonaeorum long before the time of Sancuniathon And if we believe the Tradition of Josephus the Pillars of Seth were extant in his time and according to Tertullian some Fragments of the Writings of Enoch were traditionally extant in his time But howsoever Moses if he be the Author of the History of Job whom some think to be contemporary at least with Jacob mentions Books and Writings to have been common things in the time of Job Job 19.23 Josephus lib. 1. cap. 3. Tertull. de Habitu Mulierum 2. Surely if Writing were so ancient it is probable that many Histories might be before the time of Moses which were lost in succession of time as it must be agreed that most of
MATHE HALE Miles Capitalis Iustic de Banco Regis Ano 1677 For W. Shrowsbery at The Sign of The Bible In Duck Lane F. H. van Hâ—ue Sculp THE Primitive Origination OF MANKIND CONSIDERED AND EXAMINED According to The Light of Nature WRITTEN By the Honourable Sir MATTHEW HALE KNIGHT Late CHIEF JUSTICE of His MAJESTIES Court of KING'S BENCH LONDON Printed by WILLIAM GODBID for WILLIAM SHROWSBERY at the Sign of the Bible in Duke-Lane MDCLXXVII TO THE READER THE subject Matter of this Book is a free Disquisition according to the Light of Nature and Natural Reason touching the Primitive Origination of Mankind consisting principally of these Parts and Assertions I. That according to the Light of Nature and Natural Reason the Mundus aspectabilis was not Eternal but had a Beginning II. That if there could be any imaginable doubt thereof yet by the necessary Evidence of Natural Light it doth appear that Mankind had a beginning and that the successive Generations of Men were in their Original Ex non genitis III. That this Truth is evident by Reason and Arguments demonstrative or at least little less than apodeictical IV. That there are Moral Evidences of the truth of this Assertion which are herein particularly expended and examined and how far forth they are concludent and how far not which I have impartially delivered V. That those great Philosophers that asserted this Origination of Mankind Ex non genitis both ancient and modern that rendred it by Hypotheses different from that of Moses were mistaken Wherein the several Hypotheses of Aristotle Plato Empedocles Epicurus Avicen Cardanus Cisalpinus Beregardus and others are examined and the absurdity and impossibility thereof detected VI. That the Mosaical System as well of the Creation of Man as of the World in general abstractively considered without relation to the Divine Inspiration of the Writer is highly consonant to Reason and upon a bare rational account highly preferrible before the Sentiments of those Philosphers that either thought Mankind Eternal or substituted Hypotheses of his first Production different from the Mosaical VII I have concluded the whole with certain Corollaries and Deductions necessarily flowing from the things thus asserted as well touching the Existence the Wisdom Power Providence of Almighty God as touching both the Duty and Happiness of Mankind Though this may seem a laborious Work to little purpose since the generality of Christians among whom I write do generally believe this Truth of the Origination of the World and Mankind as it is delivered in the Holy Scriptures and thus to write in proof of a Truth generally received doth rather create Doubts in Mens Minds of what they already believe than any way advantage or confirm their belief I Answer 1. That for my part I think Atheism so unreasonable a thing so abhorrent to the Light of Nature and Sentiments of Conscience that I cannot think there is so much speculative Atheism abroad in the World as many good Men fear and suspect But if there be but one quarter of that Atheism in the World I do not know any better Cure of it or Preservative against it next to the Grace of God than the due Consideration of the Origination of Mankind 2. Again though the Creation of Man be generally acknowledged by Jews and Christians yet we must likewise consider that many take it up only as a part of their Education and not upon any serious deep Conviction of the truth of it and had such Men but an Education in such a Place or Country where it is not believed or where it is doubted they would be at least sceptical and doubtful in the belief of it 3. The best of Men and soundest believers of Divine Revelations may be better confirmed by the accession and suffrage even of Natural Evidences of the Verities they already believe but howsoever it better enables them to convince such Gainsayers as will be governed in their Judgments by no other Light than the Light of Nature and Reason and many such there may be met withal in the World And upon that account my whole Discourse is bottomed upon Natural and Moral Evidences suited to these Mens Principles or Motives by which they are guided and governed yea when I make use of the Sacred and Infallible Scriptures I do use them abstractively from their Divine and Infallible Authority and only as Moral Evidences of the Truth I assert for any Man may easily foresee that an Atheistical Spirit that denies or questions the truth of the Fact therein delivered will not be convinced by the Infallibility of that Scripture which delivers that for a Truth which he denies or questions This whole Book as thou now seest it was written by me some Years since and hath lain ever since in my Chest and surely therein should have lain still but only for Three Reasons 1. Because that some Writings of mine have without my privity come abroad in Print which I never intended and this might have had the same fate if not in my Life time yet after my Death 2. Because possibly there hath some more care been used by me in the Digesting and Writing hereof than of some others that have gone abroad in publick 3. That although I could never be brought to value the Writings of mine that are published as worthy of the publick view yet I find them well accepted by many which encouraged me to let this Book come abroad under my own Name wherein I used more care than in those lesser Tractates although I have not yet confidence enough to say that this may deserve any great acceptation though there be many things in it which may not please yet I do think there be many things useful and such as will not displease Judicious Readers If there be any Faults or Mistakes in Quotations in Syntax in Translations in Transcriptions or if there by any Errours as possibly there may be in my Deductives Inferences or Applications or if the Language be in some places either improper or obscure or if the Expressions or Words which we sometimes use be not so full so significant or proper or delivered from Amphibologies yet I must desire the Reader to take this Apology for it 1. It was written at leisure and broken times and with great intervals and many times hastily as my busie and important Employment of another nature known to the World would give me leave which must needs make such Breaks and Chasms and Incoherences that possibly a continued uninterrupted series of writing would have prevented and carried on the Discourse with a more equal Thred 2. A long indisposition of Health hath much hindred and interrupted me in a strict revising and amending of what possibly might have been requisite to be done 3. A Man whose scope and intent and drift is at some one thing and hath his Eye and Design fixed upon it many times is not so solicitous nor so curious nor so exact in the choice of
temperate Climates is more transparent and beautiful 2. There is no Animal hath any Organ of equal use to the Arm and Hand of a Man that Organum organorum an Organ accommodate to all the useful motions operations arts and uses of his life Man is born without any offensive or defensive weapons like to those of other Animals but by the usefulness and accommodation of this Organ and his Intellective faculty he maketh weapons and useth them he forgeth and mouldeth Metals builds Houses and Ships makes his Cloaths and Ornaments and exerciseth all Arts for use and ornament 3. There is no Creature that I know of hath the like structure of his Leg and Foot the former being only two to support his Body have greater and larger Muscles than any Animal of no greater proportionable bigness and the latter being the Basis of those Pillars are admirably fitted by their length and figure for his gressus progressivus 4. Since the Brain is the great Organ of Intellection in Man and of Imagination in Brutes which are the two noblest Faculties of either Nature it will not be amiss to examine the differences between the Brain of either and the Nerves proceeding from either wherein none that I know hath given more light than Doctor Willis in his Anatomy of the Head all therefore that I shall do herein shall be to gather up the most of those observable differences that lye dispersed in that Book 1. The humane Brain is in proportion to the Body much greater and larger than the Brains of Brutes having regard to the size and proportion of their Bodies and fuller of anfractus or sinuations and so more capable of greater diversity of employments and uses in the Perceptive Faculties 2. There are in the Brain certain portions called protuberantia annularis nates testes and that in those Brutes wherein this protuberantia annularis is largest in proportion those Brutes are of greatest sagacity and subtilty as Foxes Apes c. that though in Man those prominences called nates and testes are the least yet the protuberantia annularis is greater in proportion in Man than in any Animal the structure of this Organ being fitted to a greater degree of natural sagacity 3. That whereas in Brutes the only communication of the Brain with the Heart is by the nervus paris vagi derived from the Cerebellum and spreading its branches into the Muscle of the Heart in Man there is not only the same communication of that Nerve but a ramification of the nervus intercostalis is also inserted into the Muscle of the Heart whereby a greater communication between the Brain and Heart is maintained in Man than in Brutes 4. That other ramifications of this nervus intercostalis are derived into the Chest and Diaphragma whereby principally that peculiar affection of Laughter is excited more appropriate to Man together also those others of Sternutation and other natural actions common to Men and Beasts are excited but not from the like communication of that Nerve in Brutes And thus much shall serve to be spoken of the peculiarities of the Humane Body though what I before said touching the Faculties of the Animal Nature in Man must also be remembred touching the organical parts of his Body There is no Organ in the Brutal Body subservient to the Animal Faculties which is not found in the Humane Body with such variations and additions as render them more curious perfect useful and admirably accommodate to his Animal Life and Faculties But of this more fully hereafter 3. I shall now subjoin a Consideration of Man in his whole Compositum consisting of both his essential parts of Body and Soul and of the aggregation of the Faculties and Organs belonging to either so far forth as they evidence his appropriate and specifical Excellency above the Animal Nature The appropriate or specifical acts of the humane compositum are the capacity and faculty of instituted Signs expressive of the inward conceptions of the Mind which are of two kinds 1. Audible 2. Visible Signs The Audible Signs are instituted Speech or Language the formal nature whereof consists in two things 1. Articulate Voice 2. The accommodation of the Articulate Voice to the rendring or expressing of the inward thoughts or intentions of the Mind And herein is the great preference of the language of Man above that of Brutes or Birds who though they have audible signs that express something of their Imaginations or Appetites yet they extremely differ from humane speech 1. They are but short and transient like Interjections in speech whereby though they express the sudden motions of their Phantasie Appetite or Passions yet they carry not with them any distinct series or long train of their Imaginations they are short and sudden somewhat like Sighs or Ejulations in Man 2. They are not articulate nor orderly but short natural and broken 3. When Birds especially by the fabrick of their Tongue and Palate are taught to use articulate words yet they understand not their import nor do render any conceptions of their Phantasie by them nor can answer a question by them but use them insignificantly as the Organ or Pipe renders the Tune which it understands not And by the help of significant and articulate speech one Man expresseth the notions or conceptions of his Mind to another instructs another mutual commerce and society is maintained which could never be without instituted signs And this Act of instituted signs especially those of Speech or Language proceeds from the entire compositum the Mind instituting the signs and communicating its notions and desires by it and the Palate Larinx Tongue and Lips forming the Voice according to such institution whereunto they are most admirably accommodated by their Apertures Nerves and Muscles 2. The instituted visible Signs are Writings Gestures Tears Motions of the Eye Mouth and Face which were long to enumerate By means of writing former Ages transmit the Memorials of ancient times and things to posterity Men understand the sentiments purposes and desires of one another though absent and the living converse with those ancient Philosophers and others that are long since dead And now in this composition of the humane Nature we have these things observable 1. That in this contexture of the Humane Body and Intellectual Soul we have a Creature made up that is nexus utriusque mundi intellectualis scilicet corporei The next Range of Beings above him are the pure and immaterial Intelligences the next below him is the sensible Nature Man is as it were the Comes limitaneus of each Nature participating of both And we may observe that in the process of Natural Beings there seem some to be Creatures placed as it were in the Confines of several Provinces and participating something of either as in things that have life and that have not there is placed the Minerals between the inanimate and vegetable Province participating something analogical to either Between the vegetable
eternal but must be done gradually and successively and from one degree of bigness to another and since that augmentation could never be of an infinite procedure but being successive we must come to the beginning of that increase within the measure of such a portion of time as we now find sufficient for such a production or increase it may be two or three hundred years which being but a finite duration can never be eternal And this necessary Supposition of a successive alteration or increase utterly destroys the possibility of an eternal duration in any thing capable of such alterations 1. Because it necessarily supposeth somewhat precedent to that state wherein it is namely a precedent alteration of it whereby it is now become what it now is and what before it was not so that it had somewhat before its present state which stateth it to be what it now is namely that alteration or augmentation which so preceded its present state and consequently that present state wherein it is could not be eternal for it had somewhat before it 2. Because that very alteration that anteceded that state which it hath cannot possibly be eternal but must be perfected within a certain portion of time destined to it and consequently must have beginning within the compass of a determinate time and cannot be eternally moving to its accomplishment And as this Instance gives the impossibility of an eternal Existence in any thing essentially alterable or corruptible so it would be possibly more conspicuous in the Contemplation of the Humane Nature If we should suppose a Man to have been eternal Was that Man ever an Embryo a Child a Youth a ripe Aged Man Did he grow from a smaller stature to a greater had he vicissitudes of temperaments and distempers did he eat digest c. If he did not then those eternal Men were not of the same Make with the Men that are now but quite another thing which we know not what it was or where to find it But if he had all those changes he could not be eternal he should be eternally a Child and eternally a Man eternally young and eternally old yea eternally living and yet eternally dead for all these must fall within the compass of Eternity 2. But let us now consider how the Case falls out in relation to alterations and corruptions occasioned ab extrinseco and we shall find 1. That as the World is framed and as those that suppose it eternal must suppose it to have been always so framed there must necessarily be incessant mutations alterations generations and corruptions by the invasion and juxta-position of contrary Natures Agents Patients Qualities Motions the Earth naturally dry is moistned by the vicinity of the Water and again dryed by the heat of the Sun the Earth obstructs the fluidity of the Water by mingling its grosser parts with it all things as it were in continual motion and agitation and mutual preying as it were one upon another which as necessarily occasioneth mutations alterations generations and corruptions as the very intrinsecal dissolubility of the natures of mixt Bodies 2. And as we find this now so we must suppose that this hath been always so since the World had a being unless we shall suppose as I have often said another kind of World than what we see And although we are not acquainted with the state of things out of or beyond this sublunary World in which we see this vicissitude of alterations yet whether there may not be some such mutations in the Ethereal World we know not but there may be such though we cannot certainly know them 3. And yet it is most certain that it is impossible that any thing that is capable of these mutations and changes can be eternally under them but must of necessity if it were eternal consist in such a state of fixedness and permanency that were not obnoxious to these changes 4. And since it is not possible for the inferior World at least to be de facto one moment of time without these changes and variations alterations generations and corruptions which as before are not at all consistent with an eternal duration à parte ante of that that is so subject to changes we have just reason to deny and disesteem this imaginary Eternity can belong at least to the sublunary World The late Author of a Book De Aetate Mundi hath given us an Instance herein that if it would hold we need not go farther namely That the great Rocks in the Sea are yet many of them eminently visible to this day and yet daily experience shews us that those Rocks are gradually diminished by the beating of the Sea against them which had they been so dealt with from Eternity though they lost but one grain in a million of millions of years they would not have been but would have been consumed an indefinite time long since elapsed But the Supposition fails because it may be that these Rocks have at least vicissitudes of increase and diminution by the very alluvion of the Sea or which seems far more easily supposed that the Earth and Seas might notwithstanding have been eternal but yet the Sea might not have kept the same Channel where these Rocks now are from eternity but gained it in time the Ancients telling us that the great Atlantick Sea was for the most part of it anciently a Continent or at least a great Island as big as Europe and Asia and after swallowed up and corroded into that vast Sea called the Atlantick Ocean leaving behind it only those reliques now called the Canary Islands I will therefore take my Instance in some other things 1. It is evident that divers Minerals are bred in the Earth from an earthy consistence by the heat of the Sun and other concurrent causes successively as may appear to any man's observation touching Coals Rocks especially of Stone which from a sandy kind of Earth gradually concoct into Free-stone when they were before Earth as may be seen in many Quarries by those pieces of unconcocted Earth not yet perfectly digested into Stone If the Body of the Earth were eternal either these concretions were also as eternal as the Earth gradually and successively digested into these concretions or else the Earth must have had an eternal permanency in that state of simple natural Earth without any such concretions or alterations in it If we shall say the latter we make the Earth another thing than what in truth it now is which by the aid of the Sun hath these concretions and alterations even by a kind of necessity of Nature wrought in it And besides if in that portion of eternal duration wherein the Earth and Sun were in that very same natural state wherein they now are the one active piercing and digestive by its heat the other passive receptive and stored with materials for such a production What should hinder but that there should be such production gradually and successively
of these places from whence People were transplanted to Samaria were places conquered by the Assyrian Monarch who did as Victors use prudently to do transplant the conquered into other places and the same seems evident for some of these places at least and as probably for Babylon also 2 Kings 18.24 Isaiah 10.10 particularly for Hamath Sepharvaim and Avah And accordingly he transplanted the conquered People into Gozan and other places 2 Kings 18.11 which were won by Salmanassar from the Medes by Conquest 2 Kings 19.12 Senacherib succeeded Salmanassar and came up against Hezekiah in the fourteenth year of his Reign where he received that great blow of 185000 Men which sent him back to Nineveh where he was slain and Ezarhaddon his Son reigned in his stead 2 Kings 20.35 36 37. This gave opportunity to the new usurped Kingdom of Babylon again to break the Yoak of Assyrian Monarchy for it evidently appears that Berodach-Baladan the Son of Baladan was King of Babylon and sent to complement Hezekiah when there was another King of Assyria 2 Kings 20.12 Hezekiah having reigned 29 years dyed and Manasseh his Son succeeded him Manasseh reigned 55 years and towards the latter end of his Reign he was carried Captive to Babylon by the King of Assyria 2 Chron. 33.11 whether the King of Assyria had regained Babylon or whether the King of Babylon had overcome the Assyrian and so held the stile of that Monarch appears not though the latter seems probable by comparing the reprehension of Isaiah 2 Kings 20.17 Ammon succeeded and reigned 2 years Josiah succeeded and reigned 31 years Jehoahaz 3 months Jehoiachim 11 years Jehoiachin 3 months Zedekiah 11 years the last year of whose Reign was contemporary with the 19 th year of Nebuchadnezzar Now putting all the years together from the first of Ahaz to the last of Zedekiah are about 155 years and 6 months out of which subducting 19 years for the Reign of Nebuchadnezzar there remains from the first of Ahaz to the first of Nebuchadnezzar 136 years which comes very near to the Aera Nabonassaris for according to the common Calculation the first of Nebuchadnezzar hapned in the 138 th year of Nabonassar which began about two years before the first year of Ahaz or in the second year of the 8 th Olympiad And that in all probability Baladan who was the Father of Merodach-Baladan that sent to visit Hezekiah might be that Nabonassar whose Aera is so much celebrated After the beginning of the Reign of Nebuchadnezzar the entire Assyrian Monarchy was translated to Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar the King thereof Herodotus in his First Book tells us that Cyaxares the Grand-child of Dioces first attempted the taking of Niniveh but was repulsed by the aid of the Scythians and that afterwards he took it and became Master of all Assyria Excepta Babylonica quadam portione But according to the Histories of Tobit and Judith Niniveh was taken by Assuerus and Nebuchadnezzar and afterwards entirely possessed by Nebuchadnezzar Tobit 10.17 Judith 11. But this is obscure because it hath been conceived that Nebuchadnezzar was a common Name used amongst the Babylonian Kings as Pharaoh among the Egyptians only it may not be impossible that Nebuchadnezzar who was certainly contemporary with Cyaxares the Mede might be an assistant in the Destruction of Niniveh with Cyaxares called it may be by Tobit Assuerus but how he came to be sole Possessor after in the time of Judith is hard to unriddle This Nebuchadnezzar made Babylon the Seat of his Empire and so far enlarged it that it seemed as new built as his own arrogant and vain-glorious expression witnesseth Is not this great Babel that I have built Dan. 4.30 Upon all this that hath been said it seems plain 1. That Babylon or Babel was the first or ancient Seat of the Assyrian Empire 2. That the same was first built by Belus or Ninus or Semiramis as the Heathen Writers tell us or by Nimrod as the Holy History tells us who possibly might be the same with Belus 3. That afterward the Seat of the Assyrian Empire was translated to Nineveh the great City of that Empire 4. That afterward Babylon was again either repaired or enlarged by the Assyrian Empire and was the Metropolis of that part of Assyria called Caldaea the Inhabitants whereof were greatly addicted to the Celestial Observation and became so famous for it that a Caldean and an Astrologer were terms equivalent in common appellation 5. That afterward the Babylonians or Caldeans obtained or usurped a divided Kingdom from the Assyrian Empire 6. That the first King of that divided Kingdom was called Nabonassar which give the original to the Aera Nabonassaris beginning about the 8 th Olympiad 7. That about 140 years after the beginning of that Kingdom it grew so potent that it acquired the whole Assyrian Monarchy and became the Seat thereof under Nebuchadnezzar 8. That Nebuchadnezzar again enlarged the City of Babylon with Buildings and Walls of incredible strength and glory This being premised I now come to those Reasons that satisfie me that the Assyrian or Babylonian Monarchy was not of that great Antiquity that the Babylonians and the favourers of their Tradition pretended but had its known Original or Epocha from whence it began 1. The Authority of the Heathen Authors allow not above 1400 years at most for the continuance of the Assyrian Monarchy and lodge the Original of it in Belus the Father of Ninus the beginning of whose Reign is by computation to be cast in the 153 d year after the Flood according to the Jewish Account Vide probationes indè Petavii doctrina temp l. 9. per totum The Account according to Diodorus Siculus runs thus The Assyrian Monarchy beginning with Ninus lasted 1360 years unto the fall of Sardanapalus by Arbaces the Mede after which that Monarchy fell in with the Mede it continued there until Pul became the Head of the Assyrian Monarchy and after him Tiglah Pileser and then Salmanassar and afterwards Senacherib The Proof they add to this Supputation is this That from the Fall of Sardanapalus to the Taking of Babylon by Alexander are accounted 543 years which added to the former number gives 1903 years the Epocha of the Caldean Astrological Calculation brought by Calisthenes to Aristotle at the Taking of Babylon by Alexander which casts the Beginning of the Assyrian Monarchy under Belus or at least under Ninus his Son to be about the year of the World 1717 about 60 years after the Flood according to the Jewish Account though others following also the Jewish Account cast the same to be about 104 years after the Flood But Africanus and others that follow the Account of the 70 Interpreters tell us of seven Kings of the Caldeans and six Kings of the Arabians that were antecedent to Belus in that Empire that successively reigned in Babylon 440 years that Belus obtained by Conquest the Kingdom and reigned 55 years and by this Account the
Beginning of the Assyrian Kingdom under Ninus was 631 years after the Flood and one Age after the Confusion of Languages in the time of Phaleg But which way soever we take yet we find a Beginning of the Assyrian Empire though they that suppose it 440 years before Belus thrust the Deluge and the Creation farther back than the Jewish Account 2. The Authority of the Holy Scripture by the Pen of Moses gives us the Original of the Babylonian or Assyrian Monarchy in Nimrod which possibly may be the Name in Hebrew of Belus the first Founder of it And here I do not take advantage of the Divine Authority of the Sacred Scripture but make use of it only as a History and singly upon that account hath greater evidence of its truth than any Heathen Historian whatsoever 1. The Writer thereof was most certainly nearer the times of the first Foundation of that Monarchy by above 800 years than any other Historian that gives us the account of the Assyrian and Babylonian Monarchy which is a great advantage in point of evidence touching the truth of any Historical Relation Again 2. He was not very far distant from the Place or Seat of that Monarchy the Wilderness and Palestine being not far distant from Assyria 3. He was descended from him that was the native of that Country namely Abraham who was born and lived many years in the Caldean Country and doubtless did bring along with him and transmit to his Posterity a fair Tradition of that Empire being contemporary with Peleg in whose time the famous dissipation of Mankind and distinction of Languages hapned 4. He was educated in Egypt the people whereof were greatly learned especially in Chronological Computations 5. The coherence and synchronism of all the parts of the Mosaical Chronology especially after the Flood bears a most singular testimony to the truth of his History and Computation for although he draws not down the lineal Descendents of Ham and Japhet down to his time but only mentions their Children and Grand-children for two or three Generations at most yet he draws down the lineal Pedigree from Sem in the Sacred Line down to his very Age together with their Births and Ages which are a great evidence of the probability of the rest of his Account So that if we take the History of Moses upon a bare Moral account abstracted from the Authority of Divine Revelation he hath greater evidence of the truth of what he relates than any Historian whatsoever that takes upon him the narrative of the Antiquity of Kingdoms or Empires the ancientest of which Historians were above 1000 years later than Moses But this I shall have occasion farther to improve hereafter The Objections against this late Original of the Assyrian or Babylonian Monarchy for it had its successive translation into these denominations are principally these 1. That it appears by the Account of ancient Historians that the Caldeans in whom the Assyrian Monarchy began and ended at the Taking of Babylon by Alexander had preserved Astronomical Calculations for about 400000 years thus Diodorus Siculus lib. 3. cap. 8. Quadringenta tria annorum millia usque ad ascensum Alexandri numerant and Tully in his second Book de Divinatione mentions the number to be greater Quadringenta septuaginta millia annorum in periclitandis experiendisque Pueris quicunque essent nati Babylonios posuisse 2. That it seems impossible that if their Monarchy began but in Nimrod or so short a time after the Universal Deluge that in the time of Ninus by some supposed the first by some the second King of the Assyrians or Babylonians the Empire could have grown so populous as to build that vast City of Babylon and that of Nineveh whose state and magnificence and amplitude were of incredible greatness or that his Widow Semiramis could at once bring into the field against Zoroastres an Army of 1700000 Foot-men 500000 Horse-men 100000 Chariots 2000 Ships as Diodorus Siculus out of Ctesias l. 3. cap. 5. And therefore as well Mankind as the Empire of Assyria must have had a longer continuance to have set out such an Army than the succession of an Empire for two or three Governours at most or the successions or propagations of Mankind within so short a time as this is supposed to succeed the Universal Deluge could afford To the first I answer 1. That some will have these Years to be but Months which they suppose to be accounted Years by the ancient Babylonians and Egyptians But as we have no certain evidence that they used to account a Month a Year but if we had yet that reduction will not serve for that number of Lunar Months reduced to Solar Years will arise to above 40000 Years which will over-reach the Creation of Mankind 2. Therefore we may with the same Tully and Diodorus Siculus pronounce it to be an incredible and fabulous Account warranted by no credible evidence but meerly their own fancy or imposture that because they held the World eternal would gratifie their people with a succession of an incredible Antiquity And it appears to be fabulous 1. For that in all this time they would probably have gotten the perfect Theory of the Planetary Motions and Positions which it is plain they did not if we believe the same Author for they were at a loss touching the true discoveries and periods of the Eclipses especially of the Sun 2. For that Calisthenes who was very curious in searching the famous Periods of the Babylonian or Caldean Celestial Observations at the very time when they pretended so great an Antiquity namely at the Taking of Babylon by Alexander upon a strict enquiry found their Astronomical Observations not to be above 1903 years old which he accordingly reported to Aristotle that employed him specially in that Enquiry as Simplicius reports in his Commentaries upon the Book of Aristotle de Caelo The prodigious Accounts therefore of the Caldeans of the Times past deserve as little credit as their Predictions of things to come who as the same Tully there observes flattered both Caesar and Pompey with long Lives and happy and peaceable Death both which fell out in the success to both extremely contrary 2. I come to the second Objection namely That it seems altogether impossible that the General Flood should put a period to all former Governments and indeed to the whole Race of Mankind except eight persons and yet that from these in so short a time such vast and powerful Monarchies especially as that of the Babylonian or Syrian should arise To which I answer 1. That if we should admit the Computation of the Seventy now much magnified by Vossius and others it would easily deliver us from that difficulty for whereas the Hebrew Computation gives the Universal Flood to be but 1656 years after the Creation of Mankind the Septuagint gives it to be 2262 years and whereas the Hebrew Account gives us about 300 years from the Flood to
the Birth of Abraham and consequently about 104 and according to some only 58 years from the Flood to the beginning of Ninus the Son of Belus the Septuagint gives us from the Flood to the Birth of Abraham 1132 years and consequently the beginning of Ninus though admitted to have been about 250 years before the Birth of Abraham would yet have hapned near 800 years after the Flood which would not only give a competent time for Mankind to grow to that great multitude that is supposed but would satisfie those preceding thirteen Kings in Babylon that are supposed to have worn out 440 years before 〈◊〉 the beginning of Belus the Father of Ninus 2. But the Objection needs not that help neither doth enforce us to desert the Hebrew Account to satisfie that or the like Objections For considering the long Life of the Ancients that lived within 300 years after the Flood and consequently their coexistence with those that descended from them we may without the help of a miraculous fertility find that in 104 years Mankind descended from Noah and his three Sons and their Wives might arise to a stupendious multitude by that Arithmetical Progression that would be found in their Generations I shall not need to set down the process of the Computation or the product it is excellently done to my hand by Temporarius in his second Book Chronologicarum demonstrationum and out of him by Petavius his Doctrina temporum lib. 10. and out of both by Kircherus in the first Book of his first Tome of his Oedipus Aegyptiacus where he undertakes that in the progress of 200 years after the Flood the multitude of the coexisting People might be so great that if they were cast into a square Battalia allowing to every person but one square foot of ground the side of that Square would be 372 Astronomical miles or 25 Heavenly degrees And thus far touching the Original of the Assyrian Caldean or Babylonian Monarchy 2. Touching the Egyptians they maintained the Origination of Mankind and that the same was not Eternal as it seems by Diodorus Siculus in his second Book for they supposed in respect of the fruitfulness of their soil and the convenience of their situation that the first Original of Mankind was among them and that the Egyptians were the ancientest People in the World But though they admitted the Origination of Man yet they pretended to a very great antiquity of their Nation and Government and because they would exceed all others they suppose their first Governours were Gods Diodorus tells us that in the 180 th Olympiad they pretended a succession of Government of 33000 years whereof the first 18000 years they were governed by Gods and Heroes and the last 15000 years by Men. Manetho that wrote the History of the Egyptians about the beginning of the Grecian Monarchy under Alexander with very great pretence hath carried up their Government to an incredible distance before the Creation of Mankind for he digested the successive Governments of the Egyptians into 32 Dynasties and to each Dynasty a great number of Governours and Years whereof 15 exceeded the time of the Flood and therefore are omitted by Africanus and others that yet are fond of the credit of Manetho the other 17 Dynasties are supposed to be extended unto the beginning of the Grecian Empire for about 1694 years after the Flood But 1. This Account even of Diodorus Siculus is very uncertain for it appears by Censorinus de die Natali cap. 19. that the ancient Egyptian year was bimestris and after that trimestris and after that in latter time of 13 months and 5 days And some tell us that yet their most ancient year was but one month namely one revolution of the Moon through the Zodiack which if it should be admitted may shorten their Account of 33000 years to 3600 years or thereabout But yet this Answer serves not for in all probability their years continued to be 365 days ever since the time of the Jewish Exody at least which will carry up the Account far beyond the Creation of Man though their former years should be supposed menstrui or bimestres Therefore it seems either a plain Imposture of Manetho out of an emulation of the pretended Antiquity of the Babylonian Monarchy or at least a very plain mistake by reckoning all these 32 Dynasties or Principatus successivè when it seems they were all contemporary and that after Mene which is supposed the first Head of these Dynasties the Regiment of Egypt was divided into several Principalities and each had his Dynasty but the particular Regiment of each several Principality Mene being the Head to them all which is so well evinced by Vossius in his little Tract de Aetate Mundi out of Eratosthenes contemporary with Manetho Herodotus and others that nothing can be added to it or reasonably objected against it though Kircherus in the first Book of his Egyptian Antiquities endeavours to carry on the 17 last Dynasties in continued succession from Cham to the dissolution of the Egyptian Monarchy by Alexander and supposeth the first 15 Dynasties to have incurred before the Flood and the traditional memory thereof derived down by Cham to his Posterity But of this also more hereafter Touching the Grecians it is true the Grecian Monarchy had its known Epocha in Alexander about the 114 th Olympiad but they were a People long before though divided into smaller Kingdoms or States but the Memorials of the Babylonians and Egyptians were far more ancient than those of Greece which derived much of its Learning from the Egyptians Censorinus in his golden Book de die Natali gives us out of Varro a threefold Period of the Grecian Histories or Monuments or Times Cap. 21. namely 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or incognitum from the first Origination of Mankind if it had an Original ad cataclysmum priorem or the Ogygian Flood 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or fabulosum from the Ogygian Flood to the first Olympiad 3. Historicum from the first Olympiad until his time For the first of these times Sive semper fuit sive habuit initium certè quot annorum sit non potest comprehendi for the second Non planè quidem scitur sed creditur esse annos circiter mille sexcentos though he reduceth it by his account to a shorter time namely 400 years from the Ogygian Flood to Inachus and from him to the first Olympiad according to some 400 according to others 395 407 or 417 I shall not trouble my self with the curious enquiry into the number or the different Account of Chronologers touching it But within the compass of this tempus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Periodus fabulosa hapned many of those Relations of the Greeks namely the Age of Prometheus the Flood of Deucalion shortly after the beginning of the Dynasty of the Athenians in the time of Cretopus King of the Argives Incendium Idae Cadmus and Europa Ganymedis raptus Phaetontis
before they were born and many other Historians for a much longer time and we give them credit and certainly such an Occurrence of such remark as the Universal Flood and the Re-peopling of the World must needs be fresh in memory for such a Period of about 800 Years especially considering that the Peopling of the World was a gradual and successive business that must needs preserve its Memory even upon its own account for it was still current and many were concerned in it in the preservation of the laying the first Foundations of their States and Republicks 3. As the Period or distance of time was not great so if we consider the longevity of Mens Lives in those times the Period was not much longer than three Generations and so the Tradition of things might be preserved fresh and certain unto the time of Moses without any great difficulty For Shem that was an Eye-witness of the Flood was contemporary with Abraham Abraham was contemporary with Jacob Cohath the Son of Levi was contemporary with Jacob and with Amram the Father of Moses and Son of Cohath So that the Tradition of the Flood and all that succeeded might be handed from Shem to Abraham from Abraham to Jacob from Jacob to Cohath from him to Amram and from him to Moses 4. Besides all this without any more Hands in the delivery of it over it appears that Abraham Isaac Jacob were great Men had great Families and Wealth were Men of great Note and Observation for their Learning and Knowledge Men that had great Expectations having a Promise of that Land to be given to their Posterity and although they kept Sheep and Cattel according to the custom of those Eastern Countries yet they were great Princes and Men of excellent Education doubtless Abraham instructed his Son in all the Knowledge that he had received by Tradition from his Ancestors the like did Isaac and after him Jacob. And therefore it might very reasonably be thought that the Traditions of former things were kept fresh and pure in this Line of Men. And though we have no Writings extant ancienter than Moses yet probably in his time there might be Books or at least Monuments and Inscriptions of things done before his time which might preserve the Memory of things past as well as our Books do now For it is not to be doubted but Writing was much ancienter than Moses his time Job speaks of Writing as a thing in use in his time Job 19.23 24. and Josephus tells us of certain Pillars erected by Seth wherein the Monuments of Learning and History were preserved Joseph l. 1. Antiquitat cap. 2. and Moses mentions Books written by others either before or in his time I very well know that Moses had a greater means to know all those things that to a Jew or a Christian are of greater weight than all these namely the Infallible Conduct Revelation and Inspiration of the Divine Spirit But the truth is we are faln into an Age of many Christians in Name and Profession that yet think it below them to believe upon that account without some farther Evidence that may satisfie their Reason I have therefore subjoyned these and the following Considerations to make it appear That upon the bare account of Moral Evidence more is to be said for the truth of the History of Moses than may be said for the truth of any other History of things transacted before the life of the Historiographer 2. Again we usually allow such an Historian to be worthy of belief even in those things whereof we have no other Evidence than the Credit of the Historian if we find many things delivered by him to have so great an Evidence of Truth that they cannot well be doubted by any reasonable Man I will admit that Moses delivers many things that were antecedent to him and can have now no other Evidence than the Credit Prudence and Fidelity of the Historian himself as touching the Derivation of the Nations of the Earth from the several Sons of Noah and though possibly when he wrote there was a vigorous and authentical Tradition or other authentick Evidence of the Truth of them which it may be is now so lost that we have no other Evidence thereof but the bare Relation of Moses this I do for the present admit though in the sequel it will appear that there are other concurrent or collateral Evidences that assert and attest it yet it is plain that the same Moses writes many things that have so undoubted and so solid a Tradition asserting it that no Man can doubt it that will not first deny his own Reason As for instance Can there be any doubt but that the Family of the Israelites were derived from Abraham Isaac and Jacob and the 12 Patriarchs that they were brought out of Egypt under the Conduct of Moses that they lived in the Wilderness forty Years and were there miraculously fed by Quails and Manna since this was written in that very Time and Age that could and would have contradicted it if false Can there be any doubt but the History of his making the Ark and the Tabernacle were true since both continued for many hundred Years after Can there be any doubt of the History of the Fiery Serpents and the Cure of their Biting by the Brazen Serpent which continued in the Wilderness until the time of Hezekiah which was many hundred Years after with an unquestionable Tradition of the reason of its Making Can there be any doubt whether he divided the Land of Canaan in such manner as is set down in his life time namely to the two Tribes and a half on the farther side of Jordan and his Prescripts for the future dividing of the rest since it was enjoyed according to those Prescripts for many hundreds of Years after and part of it until the coming of Christ Can there be any doubt that he gave those Laws Moral Judicial and Ceremonial recorded by him since those very Laws have been for the space of near two thousand Years the very Rule and Model by which the Sacred and Civil Concerns of that People were always ruled and governed and that in contemplation of the same Law that was given by the Hand of Moses and so recorded in his Books of Exodus Leviticus Numbers and Deuteronomy I say we have not greater Evidence that there was such a Man as Alfred Edward the Confessor or William the Conqueror or that there were such Laws of the Confessor such a Survey of England called Doomsday made by William the Conqueror such an Abbey founded by him in Memory of his Victory in Sussex called Abbatia de Bello such Laws made by H. 1. as are transcribed in the Red Book of the Exchequer under that name such a Charter of King John made at Reningmead or such a Charter as Magna Charta made by King H. 3. than we have that there were such Laws such Distributions of the Land of Canaan and such
the Continent of Asia about Japan or Cathay so that a Land-passage might be out of Asia into Groenland and thence into America But this is only conjectured and not fully discovered to be so But however the Case now stands with the three known Parts of the World in relation to its contiguity with the Continent of America it is not impossible but in that long tract of 4000 Years at least which hath hapned since the Universal Deluge there hath been great alterations in the situations of the Sea and Earth possibly there might be anciently Necks of Land that maintained passage and communication by Land between the two Continents Many Instances of this kind are remembred by Pliny not only of the great Atlantick Island mentioned by the Egyptian Priest in Plato's Timaeus of a great bigness almost contiguous to the Western parts of Spain and Africa yet wholly swallowed up by that Ocean to which it hath given its Name of the Atlantick Ocean which if true might for ought we know afford a Passage from Africa to America by Land before that Submersion but also many more Instances of the like Variations thus he reports that Sicily was anciently divided from Italy Cyprus from Syria Euboea from Boetia Vide Plin. l. 2. cap. 88 89 90 91. Strabo also in his first Book seems to referr the Straits or Apertures of the Euxin and Mediterranean Seas to the like separations made by the force of the Sea and attributes those great Floods and Inundations to the elevation and subsiding of the Moles terrestris in these words Restat ut causam adscribamus solo sive quod mari subest sive quod inundatur potius tamen ei quod mari subest hoc enim multo est mobilius quod ob humiditatem celerius mutari possit Spiritus enim hujusmodi omnium rerum causa ibi est copiosior Sed sicuti dixi causa horum efficiens accidentium est quod eadem sola alias attolluntur alias subsidunt and he resembles the ordinary Elevations and Depressions whereby the ordinary Fluxes and Refluxes are made to the Exspiration and Respiration of Animals but those greater and extraordinary Elevations and Depressions of the Earth to the greater Accidents Nam diluvia terraemotus eruptiones flatuum tumores subiti terrae in mari latentis mare quoque extollunt subsidentésque in se eaedem terrae faciunt ut mare dimittatur And it is no new or feigned Observation That as the Volcans in the Land as Aetna and Vesuvius raise up those great Protuberances which seem Natural Mountains so the like Volcans or Fiery Eruptions happen sometimes in the Land subjected to the Sea whereby great quantities of Earth together with Fire are thrown up and grow into Islands De quibus videsis Strabonem Plinium in locis citatis And if we may give credit to the Conjectures of Verstegan the Countries of England and France were formerly conjoyned and after separated by the Irruption of the Sea between Dover and Calais And therefore although it may be that at this day there is no Land-passage from this Elder World unto that of America yet within the tract of 4000 Years such there might have been whereby both Men and Beasts especially from about Tartary or China might pass or between Norway or Finland and the Northern part of the American Continent But we need not go so far from home nor resort to the Ages of ancient times for the evincing the great Changes that have been between the Sea and Lands sometimes by tempestuous Winds sometimes by Earthquakes sometimes and that most commonly by the working of the Sea by casting up Silt and Sand and by exaggerations thereby wrought elegantly described by Ovid 15. Metamorph. Vidi ego quod fuerat quondam solidissima tellus Esse fretum vidi factas ex aequore terras Et procul à pelago conchae jacuere marinae Et vetus inventa est in montibus anchora summis Quódque fuit campus vallem decursus aquarum Fecit eluvie mons est deductus in aequor Eque paludosa siccis humus aret arenis The Instances of latter Discoveries which make evident this various state of the Globe of Earth and Water thus described by the Poet are among others those that follow 1. Some Towns that were anciently Havens and Ports where Ships did ride are now by exaggeration of Sand between those Towns and the Sea converted into firm Land 2 3 4 Miles distant from the Sea such was S t Omer in Flanders Old Rumney in Kent Rye in Suffolk vide Mr. Dugdale his History of Draining pag. 173. and the Authors there cited by him 2. some whole Countries as well as the Egyptian Delta recovered to be dry Land partly by the exaggeration of Sand by the Sea or the out-falls of great Rivers thus the whole Country of Holland seems to be an Accretion partly by the Sea partly by the River Rhine Dugdale ibid. p. 12. 3. Some great Continents and Tracts of Ground were anciently firm Land and full of great Woods that could not have less time than 500 Years continuance and yet were afterwards reduced again into the Dominion of the Ocean and after all that re-reduced into firm Land leaving the infallible Signatures of these several Changes though the precise times thereof exceed the Memory of any Men alive Instances whereof are as follow In the great Level near Thorny several Trees of Oak and Firr some severed from their Roots others joyned to their Roots which stand in firm Earth below the Moor and in all probability have lain there hundreds of Years till covered by the inundation of the fresh and salt Waters and the Silt and Moorish Earth exaggerated upon them and the like monuments of great Trees buried in great quantities in the Isle of Axholm about 3 Foot and some 5 Foot under ground whereof there are multitudes some Oaks of 5 Yards in compass Firr-Trees of 30 Foot long Vide Dugd. ubi supra pag. 141 171. Mr. Ray in his Ingenious Observations upon his Travels in the Netherlands c. pag. 6. gives us the like account of great quantities of subterraneous Woods lying 10 and 20 Ells below the Superficies of the Ground prostrate towards the East which are supposed to be anciently thrown down by the irruption of the Sea and strong Western Winds which yet now and for all the time of the Memory of Man or History extant are firm Land namely Bruges in Flanders But that one Instance is instar omnium remembred by Mr. Dugdale ubi supra pag. 172 but of known and notorious truth the Sceleton of a great Sea-fish above 20 Foot long found in the Downs or Uplands of Cammington in Huntingdonshire very far distant from the Sea which is an unquestionable Evidence that the Sea was sometime Master of that Tract of Ground 4. Touching the Conchae marinae of several sorts it is most unquestionable I referr my self herein to the Relation of Mr.
Pamphlets which give a greater Demonstration of the Gradual Increase of Mankind upon the face of the Earth than a hundred notional Arguments can either evince or confute and therefore I think them worthy of being mentioned to this purpose Upon all which and much more that might be said it is evident That according to the ordinary course of Nature though those common and usual Accidents of common Sicknesses ordinary Casualties and common Events are incident to Humane Nature the number of Mankind doth and must necessarily increase in the World and the Natural Supplies of Mankind are greater and more numerous than the Decays thereof I now therefore come to the Second Consideration namely The Examination of the extraordinary or more universal Correctives of the Multiplication of Mankind which because it will be large I shall allow unto it a distinct Chapter CAP. IX Concerning those Correctives of the Excess of Mankind which may be thought to be sufficient to reduce it to a greater Equability I Come now to the Second premised Consideration and Inquiry viz. Whether there may not be found some extraordinary Occurrences and Correctives that may reduce that otherwise Natural and ordinary Increase of Mankind to an Equability And I call them Extraordinary not simply in respect of themselves but in opposition to those daily and ordinary Casualties which happen to Humane Nature and in respect of those great Distances and Periods whether certain or casual wherein they may be supposed to happen And I shall improve this Objection against the Increase de facto of Mankind with the greatest impartiality and advantage that may be It is certain that the Increase of Brutes and other Animals which are perfect and univocally generated is very great in the World Aristotle that inquisitive Searcher into Nature in his 4 th Book of the History of Animals hath given us an Account touching most Animals of the length of their Lives times of their Breeding intervals of their Birth wherein though possibly there may be variation in several Climates yet his Account may give a near estimate proportionable also to other places For Instance the Cow breeds in the second Year brings forth the tenth Month lives 15 or 20 Years the Mare breeds the third Year brings forth in the twelfth Month lives 25 30 and sometimes 40 Years the Sheep and Goat bear in the second Year bring forth in the beginning of the sixth Month sometimes two ordinarily but one lives 10 12 or 13 Years Sows breed in the second Year bring forth after four Months their Young numerous Bitches breed in the latter end of the first or beginning of the second Year bring forth after threescore Days or in the ninth Week their Young many 5 6 or sometimes 12 they live 10 or 12 sometimes 15 or 20 Years Wolves breed and bring forth as Dogs only their number fewer sometimes 2 sometimes 3 sometimes 4 the Doe brings forth after eight Months complete but one and sometimes two and live long the Fox breeds 4 the Cat 5 or 6 and lives 6 Years many times more the speedy and numerous increase of Mice is prodigious Aristotle mentions 120 produced of one Female in a very little time Pliny in his 11 th Book Cap. 63. hath in effect transcribed Aristotle herein By this it appears That the Natural Increase of these Animals is much greater than of Men yet their numbers have not arrived to that great excess because those that are for food have their reduction by their application for that purpose those that are domestical and not for food as Cats and Dogs are kept within compass by drowning or destroying their Young and those that are noxious as Wolves and Foxes are reduced by that common destruction that Men pursue them with Touching Birds their Increase seems to be much greater than of Men or Brutes but they have those reductions that bring them to a fair equability unless it be in those Islands and Rocks in the Sea unaccessible by Men where Sea-Fowls breed First their number is reduced by Man for food 2. For destruction as in Birds that are noxious 3. By the natural shortness of the Lives of many that are yet numerous breeders 4. By the mutual destruction of the weaker by Birds of prey whereof more particularly hereafter 5. By the Winter cold which starves very many either for want of heat or food and of this more hereafter Fishes are infinitely more numerous or increasing than Beasts or Birds as appears by the numerous Spawn of any one Fish though ordinarily they breed but once a Year and if all these should come ro maturity even the Ocean it self would have been long since over-stored with Fish Now the Correctives and Reductions of these are very many 1. Aristotle observes in his 6 th de Historia Animalium cap. 13. Those Eggs that are not sprinkled aspergine seminis genitalis maris prove unfruitful a great part are devoured by the Male and much more by other Fish some of their Eggs are buried in the slime and corrupted 2. Many are taken by Men and employed for food 3. As among Birds and Beasts they are Beasts and Birds of prey which are less numerous than others so especially among Fish And though the Wisdom of Providence hath given certain Expedients to Animals especially Fishes of the weaker nature to escape the voracious as swiftness to some smalness to others whereby they escape to Shallows and Shoars unaccessible to the greater and to those that are not able to move or at least not to move swiftly the protection of Shells as Oysters Escalops Crabs Lobsters and other Shell-fish yet a very great number are devoured by the voracious kind I do remember that a Friend of mine having stored a very great Pond of 3 or 4 Acres of ground with Carps Tench and divers other Pond-fish of a very great number and only put in two very little small Pikes at 7 Years end upon the draught of his Pond not one Fish was left but the two Pikes grown to an excessive bigness and all the rest together with their millions of Fry devoured by those pair of Tyrants 4. Birds also of prey as Storks Herons Cormorants and other Fowl of that kind destroy many both in the Sea Rivers Ponds and Lakes 5. Extreme Frost especially in Ponds and Lakes make a great destruction of Fish partly by freezing them partly by the exclusion of the ambient Air which insinuates it self into the Water and is necessary for the preservation of the Lives of those watry Inhabitants 6. By great Heats and Droughts not only drying up Lakes Ponds and Rivers but also tainting the Water with excessive heat and though these two do not so much concern Sea-fish who have more scope and room yet they have a great influx upon Rivers Ponds and Lakes Again to say something of Insects whether aiery terrestrial or watry they seem to be more numerous than the common sorts of univocal Animals who have
de Physiologia Stoicorum cap. 21 22 c. hath given us a large Account out of Seneca especially and others which are not necessary to be repeated and the rather because they do suppose that Mankind is neither Eternal nor Perpetual according to the course of Natural Generation For these mighty Concussions of Nature especially that of the Universal Conflagration puts an end to all the Race of Mankind and all living Bodies though in the Redintegration of the World after these Destructions there is also a Re-production of Mankind but not by the ordinary method of Propagation as now Again as to those others that held also certain Periodical Cataclysms and Conflagrations yet they held them not to be Universal nor any Universal Dissolution or Destruction of the inferior World thereby but they were such as were great and notable Devastations sometimes in one part of the Earth sometimes in another either by certain Rotations or at least in some places more than in other acocrding to the accommodation or disaccommodation of them to such Calamities As the Vallies and lower grounds were more subject to devastation by Floods so the more Mountainous parts were more subject to the desolations by Fire and Conflagrations Plato who seems very uncertain and unsetled in his Philosophy seems yet to agree with this partial kind of exhausting the numbers of Men and Brutes by such partial Floods and Conflagrations In his third Book of Dialogues de Legibus he gives us an Account of various Methods of the Declinations of Civil Societies and of those Laws and Customs Arts and Sciences in several parts of the World and again how and by what degrees they have been repaired and recovered the means whereof he assigns not only to be Wars and Epidemical Diseases but great Floods and Conflagrations which together with those of Aristotle relating thereunto I shall transcribe out of the Latin Translation because perchance more significant than the English though not so significant as the Language wherein they wrote And this I do intend to transcribe more largely because they seem to contain the full declaration of the Instances of this nature He tells us therefore in the beginning of his third Book de Legibus Multos hominun interitus ex diluviis morbis aliÃsque permultis olim accidisse ex quibus pauci homines superstites fuerunt Again Eos qui cladem tum evaserunt scilicet ex diluviis montanos quosdam pastores fuisse in montium cacuminibus pauca semina ad propagandum genus humanum conservata atqui necesse est eos aliarum artium fuisse expertes campestres autem maritimae urbes funditus illo tempore perierunt Instrumenta igitur omnia quaecunque artium sive ad disciplinam civilem sive ad facultatem aliam pertinentium extabant inventa concidisse illis temporibus And afterwards Ex ea itaque devastatione magnam terribilémque humanis in rebus desolationem tunc accidisse arbitramur fertilium agrorum magnitudinem desertam caeterÃsque animalibus corruptis vix boum caprarúmque genus illud quidem rarum relictum fuisse quibus pascendis tunc homines vitam agebant civitatis verò disciplinae civilis legum memoriam quidem nullam fuisse putamus Tempore igitur progrediente c. genere hominum multiplicato ad eum quem nunc videmus habitum provecta omnia sunt Again the same Plato though in his Timaeus he gives us an Account of the Origination of Mankind yet he supposeth that a vast Period interceded between that Origination and the Age wherein he lived and within the compass of that Period that there happened very great and very many vicissitudes of Floods and Conflagrations in this inferior World whereby the state of things here was variously altered and the Numbers of Mankind and Animals corrected and reduced at several times to small proportions only sufficient to replenish the World until such time as its Excess and Increase received again a like Correction or Reduction by the like Revolutions of Floods and Conflagrations though still without a total destruction of the Species In this Book he gives us a personated Discourse between Solon and an Egyptian Priest who after some discourse of the Antiquity of Athens the Priest tells him Vos Graeci semper pueri estis nec quisquam è Graecia senex quia juvenis semper vobis est animus in quo nulla est ex vetustatis commemoratione prisca opinio nulla cana scientia Nam quod apud vos fertur Phaetontem quondam Solis filium currus ascendisse paternos nec patris aurigatione servata exussisse terrena ipsúmque flammis coelestibus conflagrasse quamvis fabulosum videatur verum quodammodo esse putandum est Fit enim longo temporis intervallo coelestis circuitus permutatio quaedam quam inflammationis vastitas necessario sequitur tunc hi qui edita incolunt loca magis pereunt quam mari fluviÃsque vicini Nobis prorò Nilus cum in plerisque rebus nobis salutaris est tum hujusmodi à nobis arcet exitium Quando verò Dii aquarum colluvione sordes terrarum diluunt pastores ovium atque bubulci qui juga montium habitant periculum illud evadunt vestrae autem civitates in planitie sitae impetu fluminum ad mare rapiuntur Sed in nostra regione neque tunc neque alias unquam aqua in agros supernè descendit contra verò sursum è visceribus terrae scaturit quamobrem antiquissimarum rerum apud nos monumenta servantur Proinde ubicunque nec imbrium tempestas nimia nec incendium ingens contingit licèt alias plures alias pauciores semper tamen homines sunt Quaecunque verò sive à nostris sive à vestris sive aliis nationibus gesta sunt memoratu digna modo ad aures nostrorum pervenerunt nostris in templis descripta servantur Apud vos quidem alias gentes res gestae nuper literis monumentÃsque traduntur sed certis temporum curriculis illuvies immensa coelitus omnia populatur ideo qui succedunt literis Musis orbati sunt quo fit ut quasi juvenes iterum sitis rudes praeteritarum rerum omnium prorsus ignari Nam ea ipsa quae modo ex vestris historiis recensentur à fabulis puerilibus parum distant primò quod unius tantum inundationis memineritis cum multae praecesserint deinde quod genus majorum vestrorum in regione vestra clarissimum ignoretis ex quo tu Athenienses cateri nati estis exiguo semine quondam publicae cladi superstite quod propterea vos latuit quia superstites illi eorúmque posteri literarum usu multis seculis caruerunt Then he tells him of the Building of Athens by the Goddess Athena 9000 Years since ex terra Vulcano accipiens semina the great Wars between them and the Inhabitants of the vast Island Atlantis greater than Lybia and Asia the swallowing up of that Island
terrae tractus eosdem hos Mare illos Continentem non esse sed tempore cuncta permutari I have mentioned these places of these Masters of Learning and Reason the more at large not only because they herein give the sharpest Objections against the necessity of a Temporary Beginning of Mankind by applying these Suppositions as Correctives or Reductions of the excess of the Generation of Men and Animals but also they do discover herein some things that are useful in this Inquiry For Instance 1. It appears hereby that the Inventions of Arts Sciences and Laws might be far more ancient than those times that Historians gave for their Invention for they might be in other Places or Ages and either by a successive rotation brought from one place to another or if they were lost yet succession of Ages might retrive new Discoveries of them again 2. We have a plain detection of the means whereby possibly the American People might have their deduction from the Europeans or Asiaticks because it is not impossible but the Continents might be in some Ages or other contiguous though now disjoyned by the mutations of the situations of Seas though the certain times of those Changes are not transmitted by History to our Age. 3. That the ancient Histories of things by Depopulations Wars Famines Inundations Transmigrations of People and other Accidents may be lost in after Ages which possibly in former Ages might be known and some Monuments thereof than extant which are now obliterated and forgotten Thus far concerning these Reductives by Inundations and Conflagrations out of the Princes of the Academical and Peripatetical Philosophers We shall find the like Suppositions frequently among the Stoicks Seneca may be an Instance for all that Sect only these vary from the former for although they do with the former admit and instance in temporary and partial Inundations by Earthquakes and other Accidents de quibus vide Senecam l. 3. Nat. Quaest de Terrae motu yet these go farther and suppose Universal Deluges and Conflagarations which will quite alter the whole Frame of this lower World and the whole Face thereof See the Rhetorical Description thereof Senec. in sine lib. 3. Nat. Quaest. Qua ratione inquis Eadem qua conflagratio futura est utrumque fit cum Deo visum ordiri meliora vetera finire Aqua ignis terrenis dominatur ex his ortus ex his interitus And out of Berosus assigns the Times and Periods of these Universal Deluges and Conflagrations Arsura enim terrena quando omnia sidera quae nunc diversos agunt cursus in Cancrum convenerint sic sub eodem posita vestigio ut recta linea exire per omnes omnium possit Inundationem futuram cum eadem siderum turba in Capricornum convenerit illìc solstitium hîc bruma confinitur But yet he supposeth a Restitution of the World after these Destructions Nec ea semper licentia undis erit sed peracto exitio humani generis extinctÃsque pariter feris in quarum homines ingenia transierant iterum aquas terra sorbebit natura pelagus stare aut intra terminos furere coget rejectus è nostris sedibus in sua secreta pelletur Oceanus antiquus ordo revocabitur omne ex integro animal generabitur dabitúrque terris homo inscius scelerum melioribus auspiciis natus sed illis quoque innocentia non durabit nisi dum novi sunt citò nequitia subrepit virtus difficilis inventu est rectorem ducémque desiderat etiam sine magistro vitia discuntur I shall spare mentioning any more to this purpose though many more Instances may be given out of the Philosophers of all Sects and Poets as Ovid and others Only I shall subjoyn these two Inquiries and so conclude this Objection 1. Whence it is that these Ancients had these Conjectures touching these Floods and Conflagarations so as to frame them into an Hypothesis either for the Castigation of the Excesses of Generation as Aristotle and Plato or to the total Dissolution thereof as the Stoicks and the means that wrought this Perswasion seem to be these 1. The things that seem to prevail with the Academicks and Peripateticks for these Partial Floods and Conflagrations seem to be those dark and obscure Histories of the things of that nature which had twice before happened in Greece Namely for Floods the Tradition of the Diluvium Ogygium or Diluvium antiquius which is supposed by Chronology to be under Ogyges King of Attica about 1000 Years before the first Olympiad about 248 Years before the Flood of Deucalion in Thessaly about 532 after the General Flood in the time of Noah and about the 2951 Year of the Julian Period and of the World 2187 though there is some variation among the Computations of Chronologers This was a Partial Flood as it seems in Attica part of Greece 2. Diluvium Deucalionis which was also Partial and about 248 Years after the former in the time of Cecrops first King of Athens or as others in the time of Cranaus his Son This is that mentioned by Plato and Aristotle that drowned a great part of Greece only some saved by Deucalion by bringing them to the top of Parnassus And out of the History of Moses touching the Universal Flood and the History of Deucalion Ovid made up his first Book attracting in a great measure to the latter what was written of the former by Moses And for Conflagrations they had two traditional Conflagrations in and near Greece which might give some countenance to this Perswasion namely 1. That of Phaeton Incendium Phaetontis which seems not to be long after the Flood of Deucalion though much of the Relation thereof as the Grecians and Ovid after them made was a Poetical Fiction yet it seems it had something of reality in it as is observed by Plato ubi supra 2. Idae Incendium which was no great business but an Eruption of Fire out of the Hill Ida as now in Etna this was about 73 Years after the Flood of Deucalion 2. As to the Stoicks who held Universal Inundations and Conflagrations possibly they might have the former of these from the Traditional Relation of the Universal Flood of Noah which Relation they believed and upon that founded their Supposition of the like Inundations being acquainted with the History of the Flood but not with the Covenant that God made never to bring a Flood again 2. As to that of the Universal Conflagration of the World it seems it was a known ancient and received Tradition among the Jews before our Saviour's time reinforced by him and his Disciples This seems to be implied in that Prophecy of Enoch Jude 14. and by ancient Tradition either from Noah or the ancient Jews this Perswasion might be Traditionally derived to the Gentiles and believed by the Stoicks 2. It appears by what hath been before transcribed That these Philosophers supposed those Inundations and Conflagrations to be at great distances
by Wars Oppressions and Internecions Plagues Famines and other Calamities we find the Product of one Nation derived from only two Persons Isaac and Rebecca in the compass of about 5000 Years swoln into incredible numbers of Millions of Persons now existing and known to be of that Linage and Descent and still continuing unquestionably in that Distinction besides those multitudes derived from the Line of Esau and the ten Tribes which are as it were lest and confounded without any distinction among other Nations And thus far of the first Instance concerning the Multiplication of the Nation of the Jews The next Instance that I shall give shall be nearer home the Kingdom of England I shall not give any Instance touching it before the Conquest because those times are dark and besides the Vicissitudes and Successions of various Nations in this Kingdom renders the discovery of the Progress of Generations of Men or the Increases thereof difficult as Britons Romans Picts Saxons and Danes The ancient Inhabitants were the Britons the Body of which People hath been in a great measure shut up and contained within the Country of Wales but what by the transplanting of many of the Welsh into England and by transplanting of the English into Wales it is not possible to say that all the Britons are confined to the Country of Wales or that none but Britons are there and therefore there can be no particular or evident Conclusion made touching their Increase or Multiplication But I shall take a shorter Period or Compass of Time namely the last 600 Years or thereabouts since the Norman Conquest And although it may be true that many Persons of Forein Countries have come into England and planted themselves here so that the whole Increase of this Kingdom cannot be singly attributed to those that were either Natives or such as came in with the Conquerour but many Scotcâ— Irish Dutch but especially French either by Naturalizations or Transmigrations have increased the Inhabitants of this Island yet considering that probably the Migrations of the English into Scotland Holland France and other Countries have made amends for their Migrations hither We may make a reasonable Conjecture that the Descendents from those that inhabited this Kingdom in the time of the Conquerour have increased exceedingly above what they were in that time And the Evidence thereof is this King William the First after his Victory over Herald did in the 16 th Year of his Reign over England caule a Survey to be made of all the Cities Towns Mannors and inhabited Lands in England Northumberland Cumberland Durham and North-Wales This Survey was finished in the 20 th Year of his Reign and the Book it self preserved to this Day among the Records of the Exchequer not only a Transcript or Copy but the very Original Book it self and is called Doomsday In this Book are entred the Names of the Mannors or inhabited Townships Boroughs and Cities and the Owner of them the Number of Plough-Lands that each contains and the Number of the Inhabitants upon them under the several Names appropriate to those Places As for Instance Ibi 12 Burgenses 5 Villani 5 Bordarii 5 Nativi 5 Radiminches 5 Cotterelli and the like according to the quality or condition of the Inhabitants So that this Book in effect gives an Account not only of the Manurable Lands in every Mannor Town or Vill but also of the Number and Natures of their several Inhabitants To make a Calculation of the Number of Plough-Lands and Inhabitants through all England as they are recorded and to make therewith a Comparison unto the present State and Number of Inhabitants at this Day throughout England is a laborious piece of work but it is not difficult to be done in any one County I have tryed the Comparison in the County of Gloucester through some great Boroughs as Gloucester it self Thornbury Tetbury and other places and in effect through the whole County and I do find 1. That there are very many more Vills and Hamlets now than there were then and very few Villages Towns or Parishes then which continue not to this Day but now there are as many as then and many more The 5 th of March 9 E. 2. there issued Writs to the Sheriffs of the several Counties to return the Names of the several Vills and Land-Owners in their several Bayliwicks which was accordingly done and remains of Record in the Exchequer under the stile of Nomina Villarum and the Sum of the Vills of Gloucestershire together with the five Boroughs of Gloucester Bristol Berkley Dursly and Newenham amounted to 234 which I take it are more than are in Doomsday and yet not so many as are at this day and those that continue to this day are far more populous than they were at the taking of either of those Surveys 2. That there is much more Tillage and more Plough-Lands now than there were then which happens by the reduction of many great Wasts and Commons into Tillage or Meadow or Pasture which then were only Wasts and therefore not particularly surveyed because of no considerable Value and not taken notice of in that Survey 3. That the number of Inhabitants now are above twenty times more than they were at that time as well in particular Towns Boroughs and Mannors as in the general extent of the County and yet that Survey even as to the number and quality of those that resided in those Towns or Mannors at least as Housholders is very precise and particular I have not yet made an exact particular Calculation of the Number recorded in that Book through the whole County but I will give a few Instances of particular Towns which may give an estimate touching the whole Gloucester is now a very great and populous City formerly before the time of H. 8. a Borough In the Survey of Doomsday it is surveyed distinct from the Bertun of Glouc ' the gross of the Borough is surveyed together in the beginning of the County but there are some other particular Burgages thereof mentioned under the Titles of particular Mens Possessions as Terra Rogeri de Lacy Terra Elnuffi de Hesding c. The whole concretion of the City of Gloucester consists partly of what was the ancient Borough partly of accessions from the Mannors or Villages adjacent as Barton and some others I shall therefore cast up the whole Number of all that were in Gloc ' or Barton In the Survey of Gloucester there are reckoned 23 Burgages and Houses 16 that were demolished for the building of the Castle 14 that were wasted and some that belonged to Osbertus Episcopus not numbred but yielded the yearly Rent of 10 Shillings which according to the usual rate of the Houses in Gloucester at that time which was at 5 d or 6 d a House might produce 20 Houses in toto 73. Besides these there are surveyed under the Titles of several Owners of Lands sparsim through the Book as under the Title
Constitution of these Semina and so upon the whole account it is fortuitous 2. Some assign a natural determined Cause of the first production of Mankind namely the due preparation of the fat and slimy Earth after a long incubation of Waters and some admirable Conjunction of 〈◊〉 the Heavenly and Planetary Bodies in some certain Period of Time at a long distance from us which as naturally and necessarily produced the first Couples of Mankind and likewise of other perfect Animals as necessarily and naturally as the return of the Vernal Sun produceth divers sorts of Insects which though they are called sponte orientia yet they arise meerly from a Connexion of Natural Causes and the various Ferments and Dispositions of the Elementary and Positions and Influxions of the Heavenly Bodies Thus some of the Ancients and also Avicen Cardanus Caesalpinus Berogardus 3. Some of the Ancients that most truly assign the Origination of Mankind to the most High Intelligent Powerful Beneficent Being viz. Almighty God and the Beneplacitum and Fiat of his Omnipotent Will as Zeno Citicus And thus their differences arose touching the Cause of this Origination As to the second namely the different Manner of the Origination of Mankind Censorinus ubi supra Euseb praepar Evang. lib. 1. cap. 7 8 9. and others give it as followeth 1. The Opinion of Anaximander Videri sibi ex aqua terráque calefactos exortos esse sive pisces sive piscibus simillima animalia in his homines crevisse foetúsque ad pubertatem intus retentos tum demum ruptis illis viros mulierésque qui jam se alere possent processisse 2. The Opinion of Empedocles and Parmenides Primò membra singula ex terra quasi praegnante edita deinde coisse effecisse solidi hominis materiam igni simul humori permixtam 3. The Opinion of Democritus and Epicurus Ex aqua limóque primùm homines procreatos viz. uteros limo calefacto radicibus terrae cohaerentes primùm increvisse infantibus ex se editis ingenitum lactis humorem natura ministrante praebuisse quos ita educatos adultos genus hominum propagasse 4. The Opinion of Zeno Citicus the Founder of the Stoical Sect Principium humano generi ex novo mundo constitutum putavit primósque homines ex solo adminiculo divini ignis id est Dei providentia genitos Ovid though he were a wanton Poet and his Metamorphosis full of Fictions yet in the Description of the Creation he hath out-done many of the more serious Philosophers and I believe was not only acquainted with the Mosaical History but with most of those Writings that were extant in that time containing the Origination of the World and Mankind though he mingle his own Fancies with what he so learned He gives us an account of the Origination of Man Lib. 2 Fab. 2. and of other Animals Ibid. Fab. 8. Of the former Natus homo est sive hunc divino semine fecit Ille Opifex rerum mundi melioris origo Sive recens tellus seductaque nuper ab alto Aethere cognati retinebat semina eoeli Quam natus Iapeto mistam fluvialibus undis Finxit in effigiem moderantum cunct a deorum Touching the latter the Origination of other Animals after the Deluge he gives an elegant Description and from the Instance of the Productions after the Inundation of Nilus Ex eodem corpore sapè Altera pars vivit rudis est pars altera tellus So after the Flood by the moisture of the Ground and heat of the Sun Tellus Intulenta recenti Solibus aethereis altóque recanduit aestu Reddidit innumeras species As to the Origination of brute Animals he seems to ascribe the same in effect as happens in the equivocal production of Insects But as to the Origination of Man he seems to agree with the Stoicks but gives thereof a fuller Explication namely 1. That it was a Seminal Production and not so fortuitous as that of Animals 2. That these Semina humanae naturae were either the immediate Productions of the great Opifex rerum or at least were left in the Earth by the Celestial Nature while it stood mingled therewith in massa Chaotica By which means it seems he thought not that the production of Mankind was by a gradual process and maturation in the Earth and from it like the ordinary course of the Formative process in utero matris in the ordinary course of Generation but by a shorter and more compendious Method For according to the ancient Mythology Japetus signified the Heaven and Japeti satus or Prometheus the Son of the Heaven the Divine Providence which Almighty God exercised by the instrumentality of the Heavenly Motions And the Ancients attributed the Formation or Configuration of the humane Body in its first original to this Divine Providence whereby those Seminal Particles before described being taken and included in convenient Elementary Matter the whole Composition was by the Divine Providence moulded up into the humane Shape and Consistency in its first Origination This was that Notion that divers of the Ancients and Ovid out of them had concerning the first Origination of Mankind vide Caelium Rhodogin l. 7. cap. 19 20. and seems to have some analogy with that Hypothesis of Plato in his Timaeus hereafter mentioned Thus we have an account of the Opinions 1. Of the Pythagorean Philosophers 2. Of the old Academicks 3. Of the Peripateticks all seeming to agree in the Supposition of the Eternity of the World 4. Of the Epicureans under which I include that of Anaximander and Empedocles differing only in the modus 5. Of the Stoicks which give a true Account both of the Origination of Mankind and of the Manner of it where I have been the longer because it is a Key to all that follows and gives us a Scheme of it These several Opinions and the Authors and Assertors thereof I shall here farther illustrate and examin 1. Touching the Opinion of the Pythagoreans because we have nothing extant of his writing I can say little more touching his Opinion though some suppose he was not of Opinion that the World or Mankind was Eternal 2. Touching Plato it is true he seems very various and Poetical in his writing and by reason of the Method of his Discourses by way of Dialogues it is hard to determin what his Opinion was concerning the Eternity of the World or of the Generations of Mankind In the beginning of his third Book de Legibus but especially in the middle of his sixth under the Persons of Atheniensis hospes and Clinias he intimates his Opinion of the Eternity of the World and Mankind Athen. Scire omnes oportet hominum generationem vel nullum prorsus unquam initium habuisse neque terminum habiturum sed fuisse omninò semper fore aut si coepit inaestimabili ante nos temporis magnitudine incepisse Clin. Plané And again in his Menexemus under
instituted and statuminated Nature is his Law and his Institution and the connexion of natural Effects to their natural Causes is his Institution his Law his Order And therefore we do neither deny a Law of Nature or a connexion between natural Causes and Effects but that which we justly blame in these Men that pretend themselves to be the great Priests of Nature and admirers and adorers of it is 1. That they do not sufficiently consider and observe that this which they and we call Nature and the Law of Nature and the Power of Nature is no other but the wise instituted Law of the most wise powerful and intelligent Being as really and truly as an Edict of Trajan or Justinian was a Law of Trajan or Justinian Sic parvis magna and 2. That they do not warily distinguish between that first Law in rebus constituendis and this second Law of Nature in rebus constitutis but inconsiderately misapply that Law and Rule and Method which is ordinary and regular constituted and fitted and accommodate to Nature already setled as if the same were and ought to be necessarily the Rule and Law in the first formation and setling of things which is an Errour that proceeds from the over-much fixing of our Minds to that which in the present course of things is obvious to Sense and not adverting that the first Constitution and Order of things is not in Reason or Nature manageable by such a Law which is most excellently adequated and proportioned to things fully setled Therefore besides that Law which the Divine Wisdom Power and Goodness hath fixed in Nature fully statuminated we must also suppose a Law and Order of the Divine Wisdom not rigorously bound either to second Causes or present stated Methods in the first production of things And this the due Consideration of the different nature of the state of things in fieri and in facto esse will easily perswade that the most wise God that hath established a fixed regular ordinary Law in things already setled which he rarely departs from yet used another kind of order namely the regiment of his own Will and Wisdom and if I may with humility speak it a dictatorian power more accommodate to the first production of things And thus much for the comparison between the Mosaical and Philosophical Theories touching things and the great advantage and preference of the former as most suitable to the true nature state and reason of things And now I draw towards a conclusion of this long Discourse and shall therefore in the last place give an account of those Consectaries Consequences and Corollaries which are evidently deducible from this Consideration of the Origination of Mankind by the immediate Efficiency of this Supreme Intelligent Being Almighty God and indeed principally for the sake of these Consequences and Corollaries hath all been written that precedes in this Book and it is the Scope End and Use of the whole Book which I shall absolve in the next Chapter CAP. VII A Collection of certain evident and profitable Consequences from this Consideration That the first Individuals of Humane Nature had their Original from a Great Powerful Wise Intelligent Being I Now come to that upon which I had my Eye from the first Line that was written touching this Subject namely the Consequences and Illations that arise from this great Truth contained in these Conclusions 1. That Mankind had an Original of his Being ex non genitis 2. That this Origination of Mankind was neither casual nor meerly natural 3. That the Efficient of Man's Origination was and is an Intelligent Efficient of an incomparable Wisdom and Power First therefore we have here a most evident sensible and clear conviction of a Deity and a confirmation of Natural Religion which consists principally in the acknowledging of Almighty God to be a most perfect Eternal Being of infinite Wisdom Goodness and Power and a due habitude of Mind Life and Practice arising from that Principle It hath been commonly observed that the particular or instituted Religions since the Creation have had their Proofs by Miracles which were as it were the Credentials to subdue the Minds of Men to assent to it Thus the instituted Religion of the Jews given by the hand of Moses was confirmed by the great Miracles done by God by the hand of Moses in Egypt and in the Wilderness and the Christian Religion had its Confirmation by the Miracles of Christ and his Apostles who did wonderful things beyond the reach and power of created Agents or Activities which were therefore Miracles such as were governing of the Winds and Seas healing of the Sick by a touch or word raising the Dead c. But it is farther said That Almighty God never used Miracles to evidence the truth of his own Existence Power Wisdom Goodness or for the establishing of Natural Religion or the confuting of Atheism But I take it that there are really as many Miracles for the evincing of the truth of Natural Religion viz. the Existing of Almighty God as there are Works in Nature For although it be a great truth that the Laws of Nature as the Positions of the Heavenly and Elementary Bodies their Motion Light Influence Regularity Position propagation of Vegetables Animals Men and the whole Oeconomy of the Universe is by the Divine Wisdom Power and Goodness setled in a regular course so that now we call things Natural and Works and Laws and Order of Nature and being so setled and fixed cease to be Miracles yet in their first Institution and Constitution they were all or many Miracles Works exceeding the activity of any created or natural power and accordingly ought to be valued and really are so and it is nothing else but their commonness and our inadvertence and gross negligence that hinders the actual estimate of them as great and wonderful Miracles As I have often said if at this moment all the Motions of the Heavenly Bodies should cease or there should be a general stop of the Propagation of Animals Vegetables or Men if Mens Reason should generally fail them and for the most part they should become like Brutes if the Light of the Sun were darkned or the great Luminous or Planetary Bodies should bulge and fall foul one upon the other or that disorder or confusion should generally fall upon the Works of Nature and break that excellent Order that now obtains among them we should be full of admiration of such a Change and account them Miraculous And the reason is because the sense of the Change is at present incumbent upon us and we cannot choose but take notice of them as strong unusual miraculous Prodigies When all this while Natures course holds regularly the Wonder and Miracle is ten times greater in the state of things as they now stand than it would be in such a discomposure of Nature The Motion and Light and Position and Order of the Heavenly and Elementary Bodies is a greater