This must be the same state and the same thousand-years-reign mention'd in the 20th Chapter Where 't is said ver 6. the partakers of it shall be Priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with him a thousand years Another completory Vision that extends it self to the end of the World is that of the seven Vials Ch. 15 16. And as at the opening of the Seals so at the pouring out of the Vials a triumphal Song is sung and 't is call'd the Song of Moses and of the Lamb. 'T is plainly a Song of Thanksgiving for a Deliverance but I do not look upon this deliverance as already wrought before the pouring out of the Vials though it be plac'd before them as often the grand design and issue of a Vision is plac'd at the beginning It is wrought by the Vials themselves and by their effusion and therefore upon the pouring out of the last Vial. The Voice came out of the Temple of Heaven from the Throne saying Consummatum est It is done Now the Deliverance is wrought now the work is at an end or The mystery of God is finish'd as the phrase was before concerning the 7th Trumpet Ch. 10. 7. You see therefore this terminates upon the same time and consequently upon the same state of the Millennium And that they are the same Persons that triumph here and reign there Ch. 20. You may see by the same Characters given to both of them Here those that triumph are said to have gotten the victory over the Beast and over his Image and over his mark and over the number of his name And there Those that reign with Christ are said to be those that had not worshipped the Beast neither his image neither had received his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands These are the same Persons therefore triumphing over the same Enemies and enjoying the same reward And you shall seldom find any Doxology or Hallelujah in the Apocalypse but 't is in prospect of the Kingdom of Christ and the Millennial state That is still the burthen of the Sacred Song The complement of every grand Vision and the life and strength of the whole Systeme of Prophecies in that Book Even those Halleluja's that are sung at the destruction of Babylon in the 19th Chapter are rais'd upon the view of the succeeding state the Reign of Christ. For the Text says And I heard as it were a voice of a great multitude and as the voice of many waters and as the voice of mighty thunders saying Hallelujah FOR THE LORD GOD OMNIPOTENT REIGNETH Let us be glad and rejoyce and give honour to him FOR THE MARRIAGE OF THE LAMB IS COME AND HIS WIFE HATH MADE HER SELF READY This appears plainly to be the New Ierusalem if you consult the 21th ch ver 2. And I Iohn saw the Holy City New Ierusalem coming down from God out of Heaven PREPARED AS A BRIDE ADORNED FOR HER HUSBAND 'T is no doubt the same Bride and Bridegroom in both places the same marriage or preparations for marriage which are compleated in the Millennial bliss in the Kingdom of Christ and of his Saints I must still beg your patience a little longer in pursuing this argument throughout the Apocalypse As towards the latter end of S. Iohn's Revelation this Kingdom of Christ shines out in a more full glory so there are the dawnings of it in the very beginning and entrance into his Prophecies As at the beginning of a Poem we have commonly in a few words the design of the Work in like manner S. Iohn makes this Preface to his Prophecies From Iesus Christ who is the faithful witness the first begotten of the dead and the Prince of the Kings of the Earth unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own bloud And hath made us Kings and Priests unto God and his Father to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever Amen Behold he cometh in the clouds c. In this Prologue the grand argument is pointed at and that happy Catastrophe and last Scene which is to crown the Work The Reign of Christ and of his Saints at his second coming He hath made us Kings and Priests unto God This is always the Characteristick of those that are to enjoy the Millennial Happiness as you may see at the opening of the Seals ch 5. 10. and in the Sons of the First Resurrection ch 20. 6. And this being joyned to the coming of our Saviour puts it still more out of doubt That expression also of being washt from our sins in his bloud is repeated again both at the opening of the Seals Chap. 5. 9. and in the Palm-bearing Company Chap. 7. 14. both which places we have cited before as referring to the Millennial State Give me leave to add further that as in this general Preface so also in the Introductory visions of the Seven Churches there are covertly or expresly in the conclusion of each glances upon the Millennium As in the first to Ephesus the Prophet concludes He that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the Churches TO HIM THAT OVERCOMETH WILL I GIVE TO FAT OF THE TREE OF LIFE WHICH IS IN THE MIDST OF THE PARADISE OF GOD. This is the Millennial happiness which is promised to the Conquerour as we noted before concerning that phrase In like manner in the second to Smyrna He concludes He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death This implyes he shall be partaker of the first Resurrection for that 's the thing understood as you may see plainly by their being joyn'd in the 20th Ch. ver 6. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first Resurrection on such the second death hath no power but they shall be Priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with him a thousand years In the 3d to Pergamus the Promise is to eat of the hidden Manna to have a white stone and a new name written in it But seeing the Prophet adds which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it we will not presume to interpret that new state whatsoever it is In Thyatira the reward is To have power over the Nations and to have the Morning Star Which is to reign with Christ who is the Morning Star in his Millennial Empire both these phrases being us'd in that sence in the close of this Book In Sardis the promise is To be clothed in white raiment and not to be blotted out of the Book of Life And you see afterwards the Palm-bearing Company are clothed in white robes and those that are admitted into the New Ierusalem are such as are written in the Lamb's book of life Ch. 21. 27. Then as to Philadelphia the reward promised there does openly mark the Millennial state by the City of God New Ierusalem which cometh down out of Heaven from God compar'd with Chap.
was much greater than the present higher and more advanc'd into the Air That it was smooth and regular in its surface without Mountains or Valleys but hollow within and was spontaneously fruitful without plowing or sowing This was its first state but when Mankind became degenerate and outragious with Pride and Violence The angry Gods as they say by Earthquakes and Concussions broke the habitable Orb of the Earth and thereupon the Subterraneous Waters gushing out drown'd it in a Deluge and destroy'd Mankind Upon this fraction it came into another Form with a Sea Lakes and Rivers as we now have And those parts of the broken Earth that stood above the Waters became Mountains Rocks Islands and so much of the Land as we now inhabit This account is given us by Barnardinus Ramazzinus in his Treatise De Fontium Mutinensium Seaturigine Taken from a Book Writ by Francisco Patricio to whom this wonderful Tradition was deliver'd by persons of credit from an Aethiopian Philosopher then in Spain I have not yet had the good fortune to see that Book of Francisco Patricio 't is writ in Italian with this Title Della Retorica degli Antichi Printed at Venice 1562. This story indeed deserves to be enquired after for we do not any where amongst the Ancients meet with such a full and explicit narration of the state of the First and Second Earth That which comes nearest to it are those accounts we find in Plato from the Aegyptian Antiquities in his Timaeus Politicus and Phoedo of another Earth and another state of Nature and Mankind But none of them are so full and distinct as this Aethiopian Doctrine As for the Western Learning we may remember what the Aegyptian Priest says to Solon in Plato's Timaeus You Greeks are always Children and know nothing of Antiquity And if the Greeks were so much more the Romans who came after them in time and for so great a People and so much civiliz'd never any had less Philosophy and less of the Sciences amongst them than the Romans had They studied only the Art of Speaking of Governing and of Fighting and left the rest to the Greeks and Eastern Nations as unprofitable Yet we have reason to believe that the best Philosophical Antiquities that the Romans had perisht with the Books of Varro of Numa Pompilius and of the ancient Sibyls Varro writ as S. Austin tells us a multitude of Volumes and of various sorts and I had rather retrieve his works than the works of any other Roman Author not his Etymologies and Criticisms where we see nothing admirable but his Theologia Physica and his Antiquitates which in all probability would have given us more light into remote times and the Natural History of the past World than all the Latin Authors besides have done He has left the foremention'd distinction of three Periods of time He had the doctrine of the Mundane Egg as we see in Probus Grammaticus and he gave us that observation of the Star Venus concerning the great change she suffer'd about the time of our Deluge Numa Pompilius was doubtless a contemplative Man and 't is thought that he understood the true System of the World and represented the Sun by his Vestal Fire though methinks Vesta does not so properly refer to the Sun as to the Earth which hath a Sacred fire too that is not to be extinguisht He order'd his Books to be buried with him which were found in a Stone Chest by him four hundred years after his death They were in all Twenty-four whereof Twelve contain'd Sacred Rites and Ceremonies and the other Twelve the Philosophy and Wisdom of the Greeks The Romans gave them to the Praetor Petilius to peruse and to make his report to the Senate whether they were fit to be publisht or no The Praetor made a wise politick report that the Contents of them might be of dangerous consequence to the establisht Laws and Religion and thereupon they were condemn'd to be burnt and Posterity was depriv'd of that ancient Treasure whatsoever it was What the Nine Books of the Sibyl contain'd that were offer'd to King Tarquin we little know She valued them high and the higher still the more they seem'd to slight or neglect them which is a piece of very natural indignation or contempt when one is satisfied of the worth of what they offer 'T is likely they respected besides the fate of Rome the fate and several periods of the World both past and to come and the most mystical passages of them And in these Authors and Monuments are lost the greatest hopes of Natural and Philosophick Antiquities that we could have had from the Romans And as to the Greeks their best and Sacred Learning was not originally their own they enricht themselves with the spoils of the East and the remains we have of that Eastern Learning is what we pick out of the Greeks whose works I believe if they were intirely extant we should not need to go any further for witnesses to confirm all the principal parts of this Theory With what regret does one read in Laertius Suidas and others the promising titles of Books writ by the Greek Philosophers hundreds or thousands whereof there is not one now extant and those that are extant are generally but fragments Those Authors also that have writ their Lives or collected their Opinions have done it confus'dly and injudiciously I should hope for as much light and instruction as to the Original of the World from Orpheus alone if his Works had been preserv'd as from all that is extant now of the other Greek Philosophers We may see from what remains of him that he understood in a good measure how the Earth rise from a Chaos what was its external Figure and what the form of its inward structure The opinion of the Oval Figure of the Earth is ascrib'd to Orpheus and his Disciples and the doctrine of the Mundane Egg is so peculiarly his that 't is call'd by Proclus The Orphick Egg not that he was the first Author of that doctrine but the first that brought it into Greece Thus much concerning the Heathen Learning Eastern and Western and the small remains of it in things Philosophical 't is no wonder then if the account we have left us from them of the Primitive Earth and the Antiquities of the Natural World be very imperfect And yet we have trac'd in the precedent Chapter and more largely in our Latin Treatise the foot-steps of several parts of this Theory amongst the Writings and Traditions of the Ancients and even of those parts that seem the most strange and singular and that are the Basis upon which the rest stand We have shown there that their account of the Chaos though it seem'd to many but a Poetical Rhapsody contain'd the true mystery of the formation of the Primitive Earth We have also shown upon the same occasion that both the External Figure and Internal Form of that Earth
is a dangerous thing to engage the authority of Scripture in disputes about the Natural World in opposition to Reason lest Time which brings all things to light should discover that to be evidently false which we had made Scripture to assert And I remember S. Austin in his Exposition upon Genesis hath laid down a rule to this very purpose though he had the unhappiness it seems not to follow it always himself The reason also which he gives there for his rule is very good and substantial For saith He if the Vnbelievers or Philosophers shall certainly know us to be mistaken and to err in those things that concern the Natural World and see that we alledge our Sacred Books for such vain opinions how shall they believe those same Books when they tell them of the RESVRRECTION of the Dead and the World to come if they find them to be fallaciously writ in such things as lie within their certain Knowledge We are not to suppose that any truth concerning the Natural World can be an Enemy to Religion for Truth cannot be an Enemy to Truth God is not divided against himself and therefore we ought not upon that account to condemn or censure what we have not examin'd or cannot disprove as those that are of this narrow Spirit we are speaking of are very apt to do Let every thing be try'd and examin'd in the first place whether it be True or False and if it be found false 't is then to be consider'd whether it be such a falsity as is prejudicial to Religion or no. But for every new Theory that is propos'd to be alarm'd as if all Religion was falling about our Ears is to make the World suspect that we are very ill assur'd of the foundation it stands upon Besides do not all Men complain even These as well as others of the great ignorance of Mankind how little we know and how much is still unknown and can we ever know more unless something new be Discover'd It cannot be old when it comes first to light when first invented and first propos'd If a Prince should complain of the poorness of his Exchequer and the scarcity of Money in his Kingdom would he be angry with his Merchants if they brought him home a Cargo of good Bullion or a Mass of Gold out of a foreign Countrey and give this reason only for it He would have no new Silver neither should any be Currant in his Dominions but what had his own Stamp and Image upon it How should this Prince or his People grow rich To complain of want and yet refuse all offers of a supply looks very sullen or very fantastical I might mention also upon this occasion another Genius and disposition in Men which often makes them improper for Philosophical Contemplations not so much it may be from the narrowness of their Spirit and Understanding as because they will not take time to extend them I mean Men of Wit and Parts but of short Thoughts and little Meditation and that are apt to distrust every thing for a Fancy or Fiction that is not the dictate of Sense or made out immediately to their Senses Men of this Humour and Character call such Theories as these Philosophick Romances and think themselves witty in the expression They allow them to be pretty amusements of the Mind but without Truth or Reality I am afraid if an Angel should write the Theory of the Earth they would pass the same judgment upon it Where there is variety of Parts in a due Contexture with something of surprizing aptness in the harmony and correspondency of them this they call a Romance but such Romances must all Theories of Nature and of Providence be and must have every part of that Character with advantage if they be well represented There is in them as I may so say a Plot or Mystery pursued through the whole Work and certain Grand Issues or Events upon which the rest depend or to which they are subordinate but these things we do not make or contrive our selves but find and discover them being made already by the Great Author and Governour of the Universe And when they are clearly discover'd well digested and well reason'd in every part there is methinks more of beauty in such a Theory at least a more masculine beauty than in any Poem or Romance And that solid truth that is at the bottom gives a satisfaction to the Mind that it can never have from any Fiction how artificial soever it be To enter no farther upon this matter 't is enough to observe that when we make Judgments and Censures upon general presumptions and prejudices they are made rather from the temper and model of our own Spirits than from Reason and therefore if we would neither impose upon our selves nor others we must lay aside that lazy and fallacious method of Censuring by the Lump and must bring things close to the test of True or False to explicit proof and evidence And whosoever makes such Objections against an Hypothesis hath a right to be heard let his Temper and Genius be what it will Neither do we intend that any thing we have said here should be understood in another sence To conclude This Theory being writ with a sincere intention to justifie the Doctrines of the Vniversal Deluge and of a Paradisiacal state and protect them from the Cavils of those that are no well-wishers to Sacred History upon that account it may reasonably expect fair usage and acceptance with all that are well-dispos'd And it will also be I think a great satisfaction to them to see those pieces of most ancient History which have been chiefly preserv'd in Scripture confirm'd a-new and by another Light that of Nature and Philosophy and also freed from those misconceptions or misrepresentations which made them sit uneasie upon the Spirits even of the best Men that took time to think Lastly In things purely Speculative as these are and no ingredients of our Faith it is free to differ from one another in our Opinions and Sentiments and so I remember S. Austin hath observ'd upon this very subject of Paradise Wherefore as we desire to give no offence our selves so neither shall we take any at the difference of Judgment in others provided this liberty be mutual and that we all agree to study Peace Truth and a good Life CONTENTS OF THE CHAPTERS THE FIRST BOOK CHAP. I. THE Introduction An account of the whole Work of the extent and general Order of it CHAP. II. A general account of Noah's Flood A computation what quantity of Water would be necessary for the making of it That the common Opinion and Explication of that Flood is not intelligible CHAP. III. All Evasions concerning the Flood answer'd That there was no Creation of Waters at the Deluge and that it was not particular or National but extended throughout the whole Earth A prelude and preparation to the true account and explication
Radical moisture and heat at the Deluge that it should decay so fast afterwards and last so long before There is a certain temper no doubt of the juices and humours of the Body which is more fit than any other to conserve the parts from driness and decay but the cause of that driness and decay or other inhability in the solid parts whence is that if not from external Nature 'T is thither we must come at length in our search of the reasons of the Natural decay of our Bodies we follow the fate and Laws of that and I think by those Causes and in that order that we have already describ'd and explain'd To conclude this Discourse we may collect from it what judgment is to be made of those Projectors of Immortality or undertakers to make Men live to the Age of Methusalah if they will use their methods and medicines There is but one method for this To put the Sun into his old course or the Earth into its first posture there is no other secret to prolong life Our Bodies will sympathize with the general course of Nature nothing can guard us from it no Elixir no Specifick no Philosopher's-stone But there are Enthusiasts in Philosophy as well as in Religion Men that go by no principles but their own conceit and fancy and by a Light within which shines very uncertainly and for the most part leads them out of the way of truth And so much for this disquisition concerning the Causes of Longaevity or of the long and short periods of Life in the different periods of the World That the Age of the Ante-diluvian Patriarchs is to be computed by Solar or common Years not by Lunar or Months Having made this discourse of the unequal periods of life only in reference to the Ante diluvians and their fam'd Longaevity lest we should seem to have proceeded upon an ill-grounded and mistaken supposition we are bound to take notice of and confute That Opinion which makes the Years of the Ante-diluvian Patriarchs to have been Lunar not Solar and so would bear us in hand that they liv'd only so many Months as Scripture saith they liv'd Years Seeing there is nothing could drive Men to this bold interpretation but the incredibility of the thing as they fansied They having no Notions or Hypothesis whereby it could appear intelligible or possible to them and seeing we have taken away that stumbling-stone and shew'd it not only possible but necessary according to the constitution of that World that the periods of Life should be far longer than in this by removing the ground or occasion of their misinterpretation we hope we have undeceiv'd them and let them see that there is no need of that subterfuge either to prevent an incongruity or save the credit of the Sacred Historian But as this opinion is inconsistent with Nature truly understood so is it also with common History for besides what I have already mention'd in the first Chapter of this Book Iosephus tells us that the Historians of all Nations both Greeks and Barbarians give the same account of the first Inhabitants of the Earth Manetho who writ the story of the Aegyptians Berosus who writ the Chaldaean History and those Authors that have given us an account of the Phoenician Antiquities besides Molus and Hestiaeus and Hieronymus the Aegyptian and amongst the Greeks Hesiodus Hecateus Hellanicus Acusilaus Ephorus and Nicolaus We have the Suffrages of all these and their common consent that in the first Ages of the World Men liv'd a thousand Years Now we cannot well suppose that all these Historians meant Lunar Years or that they all conspir'd together to make and propagate a Fable Lastly as Nature and Profane History do disown and confute this opinion so much more doth Sacred History not indeed in profess'd terms for Moses doth not say that he useth Solar Years but by several marks and observations or collateral Arguments it may be clearly collected that he doth not use Lunar As first because He distinguisheth Months and Years in the History of the Deluge and of the life of Noah for Gen. 7. 11. he saith in the six hundredth year of Noah's life in the second month c. It cannot be imagin'd that in the same verse and sentence these two terms of Year and Month should be so confounded as to signifie the same thing and therefore Noah's Years were not the same with Months nor consequently those of the other Patriarchs for we have no reason to make any difference Besides what ground was there or how was it proper or pertinent to reckon as Moses does there first second third Month as so many going to a Year if every one of them was a Year And seeing the Deluge begun in the six hundredth year of Noah's life and in the second Month and ended in the six hundredth and first Year Chap. 8. 13. the first or second Month all that was betwixt these two terms or all the duration of the Deluge made but one year in Noah's life or it may be not so much and we know Moses reckons a great many Months in the duration of the Deluge so as this is a demonstration that Noah's years are not to be understood of Lunar And to imagine that his Years are to be understood one way and those of his fellow-Patriarchs another would be an inaccountable fiction This Argument therefore extends to all the Ante-diluvians And Noah's life will take in the Post-diluvians too for you see part of it runs amongst them and ties together the two Worlds so that if we exclude Lunar years from his life we exclude them from all those of his Fathers and those of his Children Secondly If Lunar years were understood in the Ages of the Ante-diluvian Patriarchs the interval betwixt the Creation and the Deluge would be too short and in many respects incongruous There would be but 1656 months from the beginning of the World to the Flood which converted into common years make but 127 years and five months for that interval This perverts all Chronology and besides makes the number of people so small and inconsiderable at the time of the Deluge that destroying of the World then was not so much as destroying of a Country Town would be now For from one couple you cannot well imagine there could arise above five hundred persons in so short a time but if there was a thousaâ—d 't is not so many as we have sometimes in a good Country Village And were the Flood-gates of Heaven open'd and the great Abyss broken up to destroy such an handful of people and the Waters rais'd fifteen Cubits above the highest Mountains throughout the face of the Earth to drown a Parish or two is not this more incredible than our Age of the Patriarchs Besides This short interval doth not leave room for Ten Generations which we find from Adam to the Flood nor allows the Patriarchs age enough at the time when they are said
Romanus whom we cited before S. Austin also speaks upon the same supposition when he would confute the doctrine of the Antipodes or Antichthâ—nes and Macrobius I remember makes it an argument of Providence that the Sun and the Planets in what part of their course soever they are betwixt the two Tropicks have still the Ocean under them that they may be cool'd and nourisht by its moisture They thought the Sea like a Girdle went round the Earth and the temperate Zones on either side were the habitable Regions whereof this was call'd the Oicouméne and the other Antichthon This being observ'd 't is not material whether their Notion was true or false it shews us what their meaning was and what part of the Earth they design'd when they spoke of any thing beyond the Ocean namely that they meant beyond the Line in the other Hemisphere or in the Antichthon and accordingly when they say Paradise or the Fountains of its Rivers were beyond the Ocean they say the same thing in other terms with the rest of those Authors we have cited In Moses Bar Cepha above mention'd we find a Chapter upon this subject Qucmodo trajecerint Mortales inde ex Paradisi terrâ in hanc Terram How Mankind past out of that Earth or Coâ—tinent where Paradise was into that where we are Namely how they past the Ocean that lay betwixt them as the answer there given explains it And so Ephrem Syrus is cited often in that Treatise placing Paradise beyond the Ocean The Essenes also who were the most Philosophick Sect of the Iews plac'd Paradise according to Iosephus beyond the Ocean under a perfect temperature of Air. And that passage in Eusebius in the Oration of Constantine being corrected and restor'd to the true reading represents Paradise in like manner as in another Continent from whence Adam was brought after his transgression into this And lastly there are some Authors whose testimony and authority may deserve to be consider'd not for their own Antiquity but because they are profess'dly transcribers of Antiquity and Traditions such as Strabus Comestor and the like who are known to give this account or report of Paradise from the Ancients that it was interposito Oceano ab Orbe nostro vel à Zonâ nostrâ habitabili secretus Separated from our Orb or Hemisphere by the interposition of the Ocean It is also observable that many of the Ancients that took Tigris Euphrates Nile and Ganges for the Rivers of Paradise said that those Heads or Fountains of them which we have in our Continent are but their Capita secunda their second Sources and that their first Sources were in another Orb where Paradise was and thus Hugo de Sancto Victore says Sanctos communiter sensisse That the Holy Men of old were generally of that opinion To this sence also Moses Bar Cepha often expresseth himself as also Epiphanius Procopius Gazaeus and Severianus in Catenâ Which notion amongst the Ancients concerning the trajection or passage of the Paradisiacal Rivers under-ground or under-Sea from one Continent into another is to me I confess unintelligible either in the first or second Earth but however it discovers their sence and opinion of the Seat of Paradise that it was not to be sought for in Asia or in Africk where those Rivers rise to us but in some remoter parts of the World where they suppos'd their first Sources to be This is a short account of what the Christian Fathers have left us concerning the Seat of Paradise and the truth is 't is but a short and broken account yet 't is no wonder it should be so if we consider as we noted before that several of them did not believe Paradise to be Local and Corporeal Others that did believe it so yet did not offer to determine the place of it but left that matter wholly untoucht and undecided and the rest that did speak to that point did it commonly both in general terms and in expressions that were disguis'd and needed interpretation but all these differences and obscurities of expression you see when duly stated and expounded may signifie one and the same thing and terminate all in this common Conclusion That Paradise was without our Continent accordâ—ng to the general opinion and Tradition of Antiquity And I do not doubt but the Tradition would have been both more express and more universal if the Ancients had understood Geography better for those of the Ancients that did not admit or believe that there were Antipodes or Antichthones as Lactantius S. Austin and some others these could not joyn in the common opinion about the place of Paradise because they thought there was no Land nor any thing habitable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or besides this Continent And yet S. Austin was so cautious that as he was bounded on the one hand by his false Idea of the Earth that he could not joyn with Antiquity as to the place of Paradise so on the other hand he had that respect for it that he would not say any thing to the contrary therefore being to give his opinion he says only Terrestrem esse Paradisum locum ejus ab hominum cognitione esse remotissimum That it is somewhere upon the Earth but the place of it very remote from the knowledge of Men. And as their ignorance of the Globe of the Earth was one reason why the doctrine of Paradise was so broken and obscure so another reason why it is much more so at present is because the chief ancient Books writ upon that subiect are lost Ephrem Syrus who liv'd in the Fourth Century writ a Commentary in Genesin five de Ortu rerum concerning the Origin of the Earth and by those remains that are cited from it we have reason to believe that it contain'd many things remarkable concerning the first Earth and concerning Paradise Tertullian also writ a Book de Paradiso which is wholly lost and we see to what effect it would have been by his making the Torrid Zone to be the Flaming Sword and the partition betwixt this Earth and Paradise which two Earths he more than once distinguisheth as very different from one another The most ancient Author that I know upon this subject at least of those that writ of it literally is Moses Bar Cepha a Syrian Bishop who liv'd about seven hundred years since and his Book is translated into Latin by that Learned and Judicious Man Andreas Masius Bar Cepha writes upon the same Views of Paradise that we have here presented that it was beyond the Ocean in another tract of Land or another Continent from that which we inhabit As appears from the very Titles of his Eighth Tenth and Fourteenth Chapters But we must allow him for his mistaken Notions about the form of the Earth for he seems to have sansied the Earth plain not only as oppos'd to rough and Mountainous for so it was plain but as oppos'd to Spherical and the Ocean to
was compriz'd and signified in their ancient doctrine of the Mundane Egg which hath been propagated through all the Learned Nations And lastly As to the situation of that Earth and the change of its posture since that the memory of that has been kept up we have brought several testimonies and indications from the Greek Philosophers And these were the three great and fundamental properties of the Primitive Earth upon which all the other depend and all its differences from the present Order of Nature You see then though Providence hath suffer'd the ancient Heathen Learning and their Monuments in a great part to perish yet we are not left wholly without witnesses amongst them in a speculation of this great importance You will say it may be though this account as to the Books and Learning of the Heathen may be lookt upon as reasonable yet we might expect however from the Iewish and Christian Authors a more full and satisfactory account of that Primitive Earth and of the Old World First as to the Iews 't is well known that they have no ancient Learning unless by way of Tradition amongst them There is not a Book extant in their Language excepting the Canon of the Old Testament that hath not been writ since our Saviour's time They are very bad Masters of Antiquity and they may in some measure be excus'd because of their several captivities dispersions and desolations In the Babylonish captivity their Temple was ransack'd and they did not preserve as is thought so much as the Autograph or original Manuscript of the Law nor the Books of those of their Prophets that were then extant and kept in the Temple And at their return from the Captivity after seventy years they seem to have had forgot their Native Language so much that the Law was to be interpreted to them in Chaldee after it was read in Hebrew for so I understand that interpretation in Nehâ—miah 'T was a great Providence methinks that they should any way preserve their Law and other Books of Scripture in the Captivity for so long a time for 't is likely they had not the liberty of using them in any publick worship seeing they return'd so ignorant of their own Language and as 't is thought of their Alphabet and Character too And if their Sacred Books were hardly preserv'd we may easily Believe all others perisht in that publick desolation Yet there was another destruction of that Nation and their Temple greater than this by the Romans and if there were any remains of Learning preserv'd in the former ruine or any recruits made since that time this second desolation would sweep them all away And accordingly we see they have nothing left in their Tongue besides the Bible so ancient as the destruction of Ierusalem These and other publick calamities of the Iewish Nation may reasonably be thought to have wasted their Records of ancient Learning if they had any for to speak truth the Iews are a people of little curiosity as to Sciences and Philosophical enquiries They were very tenacious of their own customs and careful of those Traditions that did respect them but were not remarkable that I know of or thought great Proficients in any other sort of Learning There has been a great fame 't is true of the Iewish Gabala and of great mysteries contain'd in it and I believe there was once a Traditional doctrine amongst some of them that had extraordinary Notions and Conclusions But where is this now to be found The Essenes were the likeliest Sect one would think to retain such doctrines but 't is probable they are now so mixt with things fabulous and fantastical that what one should alledge from thence would be of little or no authority One Head in this Cabala was the doctrine of the Sephiroth and though the explication of them be uncertain the Inferiour Sephiroth in the Corporeal World cannot so well be appli'd to any thing as to those several Orbs and Regions infolding one another whereof the Primigenial Earth was compos'd Yet such conjectures and applications I know are of no validity but in consort with better Arguments I have often thought also that their first and second Temple represented the first and second Earth or World and that of Ezekiel's which is the third is still to be erected the most beautiful of all when this second Temple of the World shall be burnt down If the Prophecies of Enoch had been preserv'd and taken into the Canon by Eâ—ra after their return from Babylon when the Collection of their Sacred Books is suppos'd to have been made we might probably have had a considerable account there both of times past and to come of Antiquities and futuritions for those Prophecies are generally supposâ—d to have containâ—d both the first and second fate of this Earth and all the periods of it But as this Book is lost to us so I look upon all others that pretend to be Ante-Mosaical or Patriarchal as Spurious and Fabulous Thus much concerning the Iews As for Christian Authors their knowledge must be from some of these foremention'd Iews or Heathens or else by Apostolical Tradition For the Christian Fathers were not very speculative so as to raise a Theory from their own thoughts and contemplations concerning the Origin of the Earth We have instanc'd in the last Chapter in a Christian Tradition concerning Paradise and the high situation of it which is fully consonant to the site of the Primitive Earth where Paradise stood and doth seem plainly to refer to it being unintelligible upon any other supposition And 't was I believe this elevation of Paradise and the pensile structure of that Paradisiacal Earth that gave occasion to Celsus as we see by Origen's answer to say that the Christian Paradise was taken from the pensile Gardens of Alcinous But we may see now what was the ground of such expressions or Traditions amongst the Ancients which Providence left to keep mens minds awake not fully to instruct them but to confirm them in the truth when it should come to be made known in other methods We have noted also above that the ancient Books and Authors amongst the Christians that were most likely to inform us in this Argument have perisht and are lost out of the World such as Ephrem Syrus de ortu rerum and Tertulâ—ian de Paradiso and that piece which is extant of Cepha's upon this subject receives more light from our Hypothesis than from any other I know for correcting some mistakes about the Figure of the Earth which the Ancients were often guilty of the obscurity or confusion of that Discourse in other things may be easily rectifi'd if compar'd with this Theory Of this nature also is that Tradition that is common both to Iews and Christians and which we have often mention'd before that there was a perpetual serenity and perpetual Equinox in Paradise which cannot be upon this Earth not so much as under the
Mechanical By these you discover the footsteps of the Divine Art and Wisdom and trace the progress of Nature step by step as distinctly as in Artificial things where we see how the Motions depend upon one another in what order and by what necessity God made all things in Number Weiâ—ht and Measure which are Geometrical and Mechanical Principles He is not said to have made things by Forms and Qualities or any combination of Qualities but by these three principles which may be conceiv'd to express the subject of three Mathematical Sciences Number of Arithmetick Weight of Staticks and Measure and Proportion of Geometry If then all things were made according to these principles to understand the manner of their construction and composition we must proceed in the search of them by the same principles and resolve them into these again Besides The nature of the subject does direct us sufficiently for when we contemplate or treat of Bodies and the Material World we must proceed by the modes of Bodies and their real properties such as can be represented either to Sense or Imagination for these faculties are made for Corporeal Things but Logical Notions when appli'd to particular Bodies are meer shadows of them without light or substance No Man can raise a Theory upon such grounds nor calculate any revolutions of Nature nor render any service or invent any thing useful in Humane Life And accordingly we see that for these many Ages that this dry Philosophy hath govern'd Christendom it hath brought forth no fruit produc'd nothing good to God or Man to Religion or Humane Society To these True Principles of Philosophy we must joyn also the True System of the World That gives scope to our thoughts and rational grounds to work upon but the Vulgar System or that which Aristotle and others have propos'd affords no matter of contemplation All above the Moon according to him is firm as Adamant and as immutable no change or variation in the Universe but in those little removes that happen here below one quality or form shifting into another there would therefore be no great exercise of Reason or Meditation in such a World no long Series's of Providence The Regions above being made of a kind of immutable Matter they would always remain in the same form structure and qualities So as we might lock up that part of the Universe as to any further Inquiries and we should find it ten thousand years hence in the same form and state wherein we left it Then in this Sublunary World there would be but very small doings neither things would lie in a narrow compass no great revolution of Nature no new Form of the Earth but a few anniversary Corruptions and Generations and that would be the short and the long of Nature and of Providence according to Aristotle But if we consider the Earth as one of those many Planets that move about the Sun and the Sun as one of those innumerable fixt Stars that adorn the Universe and are the Centers of its greatest Motions and all this subject to fate and change to corruptions and renovations This opens a large Field for our Thoughts and gives a large subject for the exercise and expansion of the Divine Wisdom and Power and for the glory of his Providence In the last place Having thus prepar'd your Mind and the subject for the Contemplation of Natural Providence do not content your self to consider only the present face of Nature but look back into the first Sources of things into their more simple and original states and observe the progress of Nature from one form to another through various modes and compositions For there is no single Effect nor any single state of Nature how perfect soever that can be such an argument and demonstration of Providence as a Period of Nature or a revolution of several states consequential to one another and in such an order and dependance that as they flow and succeed they shall still be adjusted to the periods of the Moral World so as to be ready always to be Ministers of the Divine Justice or beneficence to Mankind This shows the manifold riches of the Wisdom and Power of God in Nature And this may give us just occasion to reflect again upon Aristotle's System and method which destroys Natural Providence in this respect also for he takes the World as it is now both for Matter and Form and supposeth it to have been in this posture from all Eternity and that it will continue to Eternity in the same so as all the great turns of Nature and the principal scenes of Providence in the Natural World are quite struck out and we have but this one Scene for all and a pitiful one too if compar'd with the Infinite Wisdom of God and the depths of Providence We must take things in their full extent and from their Origins to comprehend them well and to discover the Mysteries of Providence both in the Causes and in the Conduct of them That method which David followed in the Contemplation of the Little World or in the Body of Man we should also follow in the Great take it in its first mass in its tender principles and rudiments and observe the progress of it to a compleat form In these first stroaks of Nature are the secrets of her Art The Eye must be plac'd in this point to have a right prospect and see her works in a true light David admires the Wisdom of God in the Origin and formation of his Body My Body says He was not hid from thee when I was made in secret curiously wrought in the lower parts of the Earth Thine eyes did see my substance being yet unperfect and in thy Book all my members were written which in continuance were fashioned when as yet there was none of them or being at first in no form How precious are thy Thoughts to me O God c. This was the subject of David's Meditations how his Body was wrought from a shapeless mass into that marvellous composition which it had when fully fram'd and this he says was under the Eye of God all along and the model of it as it were was design'd and delineated in the Book of Providence according to which it was by degrees fashion'd and wrought to perfection Thine eyes did see my substance yet being imperfect in thy Book all my members were drawn c. Iob also hath aptly exprest those first rudiments of the Body or that little Chaos out of which it riseth Hast thou not poured me out as Milk and crudled me like Cheese Thou hast cloathed me with Skin and Flesh and fenced me with Bones and Sinews Where he notes the first Matter and the last Form of his Body its compleat and most incompleat state According to those examples we must likewise consider the Greater Bodies of Nature The Earth and the Sublunary World we must go to the Origin of them the Seminal Mass
regenerate and rise into a Spiritual Life 'T is said here The rest of the Dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished That implyes that at the end of these thousand years the rest of the dead did live again which according to the Allegory must be that after a thousand years all the wicked will be regenerate and rais'd into a Spiritual Life These absurdities arise upon an allegorical exposition of this Resurrection if apply'd to single Persons But Dr. Hammond a Learned and worthy Divine but one that loves to contract and cramp the sence of Prophecies making this First Resurrection allegorical applies it not to single Persons but to the state of the Church in general The Christian Church he says shall have a Resurrection for a thousand years that is shall rise out of Persecution be in a prosperous condition and an undisturb'd profession of the true Religion for so long a time But this agrees with the Prophecy as little as the former If it be a state of the Church in general and of the Church then in being why is this Resurrection apply'd to the Martyrs Why are they said to rise seeing the state they liv'd in was a troublesome state of the Church and it would be no happiness to have that reviv'd again Then as to the Time of this Resurrection of the Church where will you fix it The Prophet Daniel places this Reign of Christ at or after the dissolution of the fourth Monarchy and S. Iohn places it a thousand years before the last Day of Judgment How will you adjust the Allegorical Resurrection of the Church to these limits Or if in point of time you was free as to Prophecy yet how would you adjust it to History Where will you take these thousand years of happiness and prosperity to the Church These Authors suppose them past and therefore must begin them either from the first times of the Gospel or from the time of Constantine Under the first Ages of the Gospel were you know the great Persecutions by the Heathen Emperours Could those be call'd the Reign of Christ and of His Saints Was Sathan then bound or was this Epoclâ—a but a thousand years before the Day of Judgment And if you begin this Resurrection of the Church from the days of Constantine when the Empire became Christian how will you reckon a thousand years from that time for the continuance of the Church in peace and purity for the reign of Christ and of his Saints must necessarily imply both those Characters Besides who are the rest of the Dead that liv'd after the expiration of those thousand years if they begun at Constantine And why is not the Second Resurrection and the Day of Judgment yet come Lastly You ought to be tender of interpreting the First Resurrection in an Allegorical sence left you expose the second Resurrection to be made an allegory also To conclude The words of the Text are plain and express for a literal Resurrection as to the First as well as the Second and there is no Allegorical interpretation that I know of that will hold through all the particulars of the Text consistently with it self and with History And when we shall have prov'd this future Kingdom of Christ from other places of the Apocalypse and of Holy Writ you will the more easily admit the literal sence of this place Which you know according to the receiv'd rule of Interpreters is never to be quitted or forsaken without necessity But when I speak of confirming this Doctrine from other passages of Scripture I do not mean as to that definite time of a thousand years for that is no where else mention'd in the Apocalypse or in Scripture that I know of and seems to be mention'd here in this close of all things to mind us of that type that was propos'd in the beginning of all things Of Six days and a Sabbath Whereof each Day Comprehends a thousand years and the Sabbath which is the Millennial state hath its thousand According to the known Prophecy of Elias which as I told you before was not only receiv'd amongst the Iews but also own'd by very many of the Christian Fathers To proceed therefore to other parts of S. Iohn ' s Prophecies that set forth this Kingdom of Christ. The Vision of the Seven Trumpets is one of the most remarkable in the Apocalypse and the Seventh Trumpet which plainly reaches to the end of the World and the Resurrection of the Dead opens the Scene to the Millennium Hear the sound of it The seventh Angel sounded and there were great voices in heaven saying The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ and he shall reign for ever and â—ver And the four and twenty Elders which sat before God on their Seats fell upon their faces and worshipped God Saying We give thee thanks O Lord God Almighty which art and wast and art to come because thou hast taken to thee thy great power and hast reigned And the Nations were angry and thy wrath is come and the time of the Dead that they should be judged and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the Prophets and to the Saints and them that fear thy Name small and great and shouldest destroy them that destroy the Earth c. This is manifestly the Kingdom of Christ and with this is joyn'd the Resurrection of the Dead and the rewarding of the suffering Prophets and Saints as in the 20th Chapter This is that mystery of God that was to be finish'd in the days of the voice of the seventh Angel as is said in the 20th Chap. ver 7. As he hath declared to his servants the Prophets Namely the mystery of this Kingdom which was foretold by the Prophets of the Old Testament and more especially by Daniel as we shall see hereafter The New Ierusalem as it is set down Apoc. 21. 2 3 4 5 6 7. is another instance or image of this Kingdom of Christ. And the Palm-bearing Company Chap. 7. 9 c. are some of the Martyrs that shall enjoy it They are plainly describ'd there as Christian Martyrs ver 14. And their reward or the state of happiness they are to enjoy ver 15 16 17. is the same with that of the Inhabitants of the New Ierusalem Ch. 21. 2 3 4 c. as upon comparing those two places will easily appear Furthermore at the opening of the Seals Chap. 5. which is another principal Vision and reaches to the end of the World there is a prospect given us of this Kingdom of Christ and of that reward of his Saints For when they sing the new Song to the Lamb ver 9 10. they say Thou art worthy to take the Book and to open the Seals thereof For thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy bloud And hast made us unto our God Kings and Priests and we shall reign on the Earth
time of Constantine's Empire But however the Fathers of that Council are themselves our witnesses in this point For in their Ecclesiastical Forms or Constitutions in the chapter about the Providence of God and about the World They speak thus The World was made meaner or less perfect providentially for God foresee that man would sin Wherefore we expect New Heavens and a New Earth according to the Holy Scriptures at the appearance and Kingdom of the great God and our Saviour Iesus Christ. And then as Daniel says ch 7. 18. The Saints of the most High shall take the Kingdom And the Earth shall be Pure Holy the Land of the Living not of the dead Which David foreseeing by the eye of Faith cryes out Ps. 27. 13. I believe to see the good things of the Lord in the Land of the Living Our Saviour says Happy are the meek for they shall inherit the Earth Matt. 5. 5. and the Prophet Isaiuh says chap. 26. 6. the feet of the meek and lowly shall tread upon it So you see according to the judgment of these Fathers there will be a Kingdom of Christ upon Earth and moreover that it will be in the New Heavens and the New Earth And in both these points they cite the Prophets and our Saviour in confirmation of them Thus we have discharg'd our promise and given you an account of the doctrine of the Millennium or future Kingdom of Christ throughout the Three First Ages of the Church before any considerable corruptions were crept into the Christian Religion And those Authorities of single and successive Fathers we have seal'd up all together with the declaration of the Nicene Fathers in a Body Those that think Tradition a Rule of Faith or a considerable motive to it will find it hard to turn off the force of these Testimonies And those that do not go so far but yet have a reverence for Antiquity and the Primitive Church will not easily produce better Authorities more early more numerous or more uncontradicted for any Article that is not Fundamental Yet these are but Seconds to the Prophets and Apostles who are truly the Principals in this Cause I will leave them altogether to be examin'd and weigh'd by the Impartial Reader And because they seem to me to make a full and undeniable proof I will now at the foot of the account set down our second Proposition which is this That there is a Millennial State or a Future Kingdom of Christ and his Saints Prophesied of and Promised in the Old and New Testament and receiv'd by the Primitive Church as a Christian and Catholick Doctrine HAVING dispatch'd this main point To conclude the Chapter and this Head of our Discourse it will be some satisfaction possibly to see How a Doctrine so generally receiv'd and approv'd came to decay and almost wear out of the Church in following Ages The Christian Millenary Doctrine was not call'd into question so far as appears from History before the middle of the third Century when Dionysius Alexandrinus writ against Nepos an Aegyptian Bishop who had declar'd himself upon that subject But we do not find that this Book had any great effect for the declaration or constitution of the Nicene Fathers was after and in S. Ierome's time who writ towards the end of the fourth Century this Doctrine had so much Credit that He who was its greatest adversary yet durst not condemn it as he says himself Quae licet non sequamur tamen damnare non possumus quià multi Ecclesiasticorum virorum Martyres ista dixerunt Which things or doctrines speaking of the Millennium tho' we do not follow yet we cannot condemn Because many of our Church-men and Martyrs have affirmed these things And when Apollinarius replyed to that Book of Dionysius S. Ierome says that not only those of his own Sect but a great multitude of other Christians did agree with Apollinarius in that particular Ut praesagâ mente jam cernam quantorum in me rabies concitanda sit That I now foresee how many will be enrag'd against me for what I have spoken against the Millenary Doctrine We may therefore conclude that in S. Ierome's time the Millenaries made the greater party in the Church for a little matter would not have frighted him from censuring their opinion S. Ierome was a rough and rugged Saint and an unfair adversary that usually run down with heat and violence what stood in his way As to his unfairness he shews it sufficiently in this very cause for he generally represents the Millenary Doctrine after a Judaical rather than a Christian manner And in reckoning up the chief Patrons of it he always skips Iustin Martyr Who was not a Man so obscure as to be overâ—look'd and he was a Man that had declar'd himself sufficiently upon this point for he says both himself and all the Orthodox of his time were of that judgment and applyes both the Apocalypse of S. Iohn and the 65th chap. of Isaiah for the proof of it As we noted before As S. Ierome was an open enemy to this Doctrine so Eusebius was a back friend to it and represented every thing to its disadvantage so far as was tolerably consistent with the fairness of an Historian He gives a slight character of Papias without any authority for it and brings in one Gaius that makes Cerinthus to be the Author of the Apocalypse and of the Millennium and calls the Visions there monstrous stories He himself is willing to shuffle off that Book from Iohn the Evangelist to another Iohn a Presbyter and to shew his skill in the interpretation of it he makes the New Ierusalem in the 21th chap. to be Constantine's Ierusalem when he turn'd the Heathen Temples there into Christian. A wonderful invention As S. Ierome by his flouts so Eusebius by sinister insinuations endeavour'd to lessen the reputation of this Doctrine and the Art they both us'd was to misrepresentâ—â—â— as Iudaical But we must not cast off every doctrine which the Jews believ'd only for that reason for we have the same Oracles which they had and the same Prophets and they have collected from them same general doctrine that we have namely that There will be an happy and pacifick state of the Church in future times But as to the circumstances of this state we differ very much They suppose the Mosaical Law will be restor'd with all its pomp rites and ceremonies whereas we suppose the Christian Worship or something more perfect will then take place Yet S. Ierome has the confidence even there where he speaks of the many Christian Clergy and Martyrs that held this doctrine has the confidence I say to represent it as if they held that Circumcision Sacrifices and all the Judaical rites should then be restor'd Which seems to me to be a great slander and a great instance how far mens passions will carry them in misrepresenting an opinion which they have a mind to