were diffused as also that the brightest and most resplendent Stars were composed of this chaotic Matter neither that there were any before the Birth and Creation of this our Earth Which is what the very Letter of the Hexaemeron seems to import and absolutely contradictory to the Nature of Things as well as to all Philosophical Reasons 'T is most certain that the fixed Stars are fiery Bodies that they do not all rest upon the same Superficies being some more remote from the Earth and more profoundly immers'd in the Heavens than others and that upon this score there can be no common Center assigned to all of them at least to believe our modern Earth a blind and sordid particle of the Universe inferiour to each of the fixed Stars as well in bulk as in dignity to be the Heart the most noble and most vital Part of so vast a Body is altogether irrational and repugnant to the Nature of Things I speak it again with Indignation that to say or almost to think that this Earth the Dregs the meer Scum of Nature is the Supream Head of all Things and as it were the first born Product of the whole Creation cannot be without an Abuse and Scandal as well to the Operator as to the Work Besides if that earthyly Chaos had been extended throughout the vast Face of the Universe and that this Earth were the only Center in which all the grosser parts convened the same Earth or middle Body being the common Recepticle of all the grosser Parts would have grown up to a bulk infinitely bigger than this little Earth of ours For that the sublunary Chaos or which reaches to the Moon is of it self sufficient to make up this Earth and if to this you add the whole visible Heaven and those spaces above the Heavens which are not obvious to our Senses but surpass all our imagination Neither the Sun nor any visible Body is of so great a magnitude as would be that Body composed in the midst of the Chaos Moreover that as well the corporeal as the incorporeal World is more ancient than this inhabitable Earth may in some measure be proved out of Ecclesiastical Authors if we strictly examin the thing Many Fathers of the Christian Church were of Opinion that before the Earth or Mosaic World there had been Angels for many Ages unknown to us and some also mention the same of the highest Heaven or Firmament But this Opinion of the Angels is a thing more positively asserted and by a greater number Not to speak of Origen St. Basilius says this in his Hexaemeron Chrysostom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cap. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Gregorius Nazianzenus Orat. 38. and in other Places Iohannes Damascenus l. 2. Orth. Fid. cap. 3. Ioh. Philoponus de Creatione mundi lib. 1. cap. 10. ult Olympiodorus upon Iob. 38. and others of the Greeks have taught the same not a few also of the Latins have been of this Opinion Hilarius l. 12. de Trin. St. Ierom Ambrosius in Hexam l. 1. c. 5. Isidorus Hispalensis Beda and others Accordingly these are St. Ierom's own words upon the subject Our World has not yet seen Six Thousand Years and what Eternities what vast Tracts of Time what inexhaustible Fountains of Ages ought we to suppose have been before it in which the Angels Thrones Powers and other Vertues have served God In the Book de Trinitate whether it was written by Novatian or Tertullian as well the Angelical World as the spaces above the Firmament are said to have been made before the Mosaical World in these words Although in the higher Regions viz. those above the Firmament it self he did before institute Angels spiritual Vertues Thrones and Powers as also create many other vast Tracts of the Heavens c. Insomuch that this World appears rather to be the last Work of God than his sole and only one To which Passage adds Damelius Novatian was not only of this Opinion but also St. Jerom together with all the Greeks that the Angels were sooner instituted viz. before any part of the Creation of our present World Lastly Cassian tells us That this was the common Opinion of the Catholics in his time which was at the beginning of the fifth Age Whereof says he none of the Faithful doubt And having more fully explained this generally received Opinion he afterwards adds 'T is most certain and undoubted that God created all those Celestial Powers before that Temporal beginning of the Creation But to remove all doubt concerning the preexistence of Angels we have the very words which the Lord himself spake to Iob chap. 38.4 c. Where were thou when I said the Foundations of the Earth when the morning Stars sang my praises and all the Sons of God shouted for joy Whereupon says Olympiodorus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 'T is plain from this Passage that in the Creation of the World the Angels were first made Forasmuch as these words certainly imploy that before the Foundations of the Earth were laid there were Angels and that they sang praises to God at the first Building of our World Likewise if you take the Morning Stars according to the very Letter it is most certain that the Stars and Heavens also preceded the Foundation of our Earth Besides St. Ierom makes intellectual Beings pre-existent to the World by those Passages of Scripture where something is said to have been done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tit. 1.2 2 Tim. 1.9 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 2.7 before the World began Nor is there less included in this Expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 1.20 Ephes. 1.4 Iohn 17.5 and 24. Before the Foundations of the World were laid Which does not denote a bare Eternity but the Periods and Foundation of this World Before both which did exist the Soul of the Mâ—ssias and the Mystery of the Christian Oeconomy But to return again to the Angels Lastly We can evince the same by the Sacred Oracles and Authority of the Fathers as well as by Reason and Arguments The Fall of the Angels was before the Creation of the World therefore they were before creatâ—d and that for some Ages For really 't is not at all probable that the most excellent Creatures were made of so frail a nature as that on the very day of their birth they should fall into evil and misery neither is it consistent with the Deus Opt. Max. the kind Father of all Intelligent Beings to place the most noble part of his work in so slippery a station that no sooner had their Maker taken his hand from off them but they immediately fell head-long into destruction damned to the utmost of torments and a most dismal Hell Which being thus stated let us pass on from the Angels to the Corporeal World wherein we are first to observe That if the Angels had not any ways been united with matter nor had from it received any pleasure or any sort of
he was very strong and lusty he fled to the East of Eden where he associated himself with a pack of Lewd Fellows he set up for the Trade of Padding then married a Wife begot a Son and built a City Likewise the most excellent Poet falls out with his Gods for that his Mistress Eugenia being perjured kept the same Face which she had before or rather became fairer and fairer The same is also the constant complaint of the Elect in Scripture That the Wicked prosper so much in this World Wherefore to me it seems certain that the Imputation of Adam's Sin is no ways an occasion of our Sufferings I know there are some affirm That if Adam had not sinn'd Men should never have died as if Immortality and Eternal Life which nothing but a New Creation could beget should have been bestow'd on Men by Vertue of the First Creation which by its own Nature is subject to Death and Corruption And that those Men should not have died who as the Schools say are naturally Corruptible and were created Mortal Some will here object and say God told Adam That on the Day he eat that Fruit he should die the Death from whence they gather That if Death was given as a Punishment to Adam on that Day wherein he trangress'd the Law of God then surely Adam would never have died if he had never sinn'd But that Consequence I deny for although they die which kill yet they who do not kill are not Immortal Besides to conclude this point 't is altogether inconsistent with God's Attributes of Mercy and Justice to punish all Mankind for one single Persons sin which we could no ways prevent or hinder nor any but God himself who permitted that Evil Spirit to Reign in him The Roman Schools affirm the first Motions of Concupiscence to be no sin because they are involuntary and come upon us whether we will or no then why should they think Original Sin to be really and truly a Sin in us which is altogether as involuntary and unchosen by us as Concupiscence For how can anothers sin wherein we have no hand be imputed to us Eternal Death was not threatned to Adam for his sin and therefore could not from him descend upon us for that which was none of ours The Death that Adam's Sin introduced is such as could have a Remedy or Recompence by Christ but eternal Death hath no Recompence nor can ever be destroy'd whereas temporal Death shall If God should impute Adam's Sin so as to damn us for it then all our Good we receive from God is much less than the Evil saith Dr. Taylor If God will not give Men Heaven by Christ he will not throw them into Hell by Adam if his Goodness will not do the First his Mercy and Justice will not suffer him to do the Last Nor did any Church ever enjoyn Pennance or Repentance for Original Sin wherefore it seems preposterous and unreasonable that any Man should be damn'd for that which no Man is bound to Repent However I do no way find that Dr. Burnet does absolutely declare against Original Sin but rather the contrary acknowledging the Degeneracy of Mankind from its primitive State which must be redeem'd by the Seed of a Woman All Extreams are dangerous as walking upon the Brink of a Precipice or the like and if he be not so violent in this Point what others may only think he wants in Piety may perhaps be really supplied in Charity And what they only fancy they have in Piety may be truly defective in Charity An honest Augure is ever in most danger of his own Fraternity But to proceed it hath been a point very much disputed among several Politicians in the Commonwealth of Learning who was the real and true Author of the Pentateuch A late and great Modern Philosopher of this Nation declares It is not an Argument sufficient to prove those Books were written by Moses because they are call'd the Five Books of Moses for as much as Books often take their Titles from their Subject as well as from their Authors It 's true the History of Livy denotes the Writer but the History of Tamberlain is denominated from the Subject We read in the last Chapter of Deuteronomy v. 6 th concerning the Sepulcher of Moses that no Man knoweth his Sepulcher to this Day that is to say to the Day wherein those Words were written wherefore it is manifest that those Words were written after his Interment But it may perhaps be alledged That the last Chapter only and not the whole Pentateuch was written by some other hand and the rest by Moses Let us therefore consider that which we find in the Book of Genesis cap. 12. v. 6. and Abraham passed through the Land to the place of Sichem unto the Plain of Moreh and the Canaanite was then in the Land which must be the Words of one that wrote when the Canaanite was not in the Land and consequently not of Moses who died before he came into it Likewise Numb 21. v. 14. the Writer citeth another more ancient Book entituled the Book of the Wars of the Lord wherein were Registred the Acts of Moses at the Red-Sea and at the Brook of Amon which he would never have mention'd of himself but could as well have given us an account himself of what he did in those places Wherefore it is evident That the Five Books of Moses were written by another Hand after his Decease But yet it is rational to believe that Moses wrote the Volume of the Law contain'd in the 11 th of Deuteronomy and the following Chapters to the 27 th which he commanded to be written on Stones in Entry into the Land of Canaan Also Moses himself deliver'd it to the Priests and Elders of Israel to be read every seventh Year to all Israel at their Assembly in the Feast of Tabernacles as we may find in the 31 st Chapter of Deuteronomy v. 9 th Nay it may be also question'd whether the aforesaid was that very Law which Moses delivered since having been a long time lost Helkiah pretended to find it again and so sent it to King Iosias 2 Kings 22.8 and the 23.1 2 3. so that we have only Helkiah's Word for it The Book of Ioshua was also written long after Ioshua's time which may be gather'd out of many places of the Book it self Ioshua had set up twelve Stones in the midst of Iordan for a Monument of their Passage of which the Writer saith Ioshua 4.9 They are there unto this day which Expression Vnto this day is a Phrase that signifieth a Time past And the same is manifest by like Arguments of the Books of Iudges and Ruth that they were written long after the Captivity Iudges chap. 1.21 26. chap. 6.24 chap. 10.4 chap. 15.19 chap. 17.6 and Ruth chap. 1.1 but especially Iudges 18.30 Now the Reason why I make mention of these things is only to shew That our most Reverend
created from Eternity but to prescribe the divine Creation so short an Epocha as the limits of Six Thousand Years 't is what I never durst I had rather leave that together with several other Things amongst the hidden secrets of God Now these short Annotations upon the Account Moses gives us of the first Creation of Things seems to imply that it was not this Sacred Author's design to represent the beginning of the World exactly according to the Physical Truth which would have been of no use to the common People who were uncapable of being made Philosophers but to expound the first Originals of Things after such a method as might breed in the Minds of Men Piety and a worshipping of the true God And forasmuch as all the ancient Nations viz. the Chaldaeans Phaenicians Aegyptians c. had each of them their several Accounts of the Creation of the World placed as an introduction before their Histories or Systems of Divinity so Moses in like manner being to write Laws and Institutions for the Israelites thought it convenient also to prefix as an introductory Preface an Account not only of the Original of his own Nation but even of the whole World However whereas the Heathens Accounts of the Creation were frequently stuffed with Fables and I know not how many Gods and Goddesses to the very great Corruption of Religion he laying aside all those Fooleries has handled this Subject with a great deal of Purity and Innocence When that he might tear up the very Roots of Idolatry he represented the Heavens Sun Moon and Stars which were the chief Deities of other Nations not as eternal or created on their own account but as subservient to this sublunary World as well as to the use of Mankind This to me seems the Scope of our Holy Writer but if we seek only after pure naked Truth and a physical Theory we must go quite upon another Foundation that is we must if I am not mistaken suppose the World which began near upon six Thousand Years ago to have been no other than the sublunary Orb or our Earth together with its Sky and that Chaos from whence it arose not to have been universal or diffused over the vast spaces of the Heavens but contained within the aforesaid bounds which are whatever is below the Moon Likewise the Primitive Earth did not arise out of that Chaos in the same Form as Mâ—ses had represented it For his Description of it was just according to what the People had before their Eyes which was the Post diluvian and modern one nor could he without a great many far fetched obscure terms and a long Chain of Arguments have ascended to its first Form and have brought the Thread of both down to his own Times In short neither the Sun nor Stars were composed out of this terrestrial Chaos but Moses having made Man to be the Head and under God the supream Lord of all things he represented the whole Universe as it were created and compiled purely for his sake This to me seems the Reason of both the physical and ethical Account of the Creation for so I call the Mosaical Relation since it seems not to have been Instituted so much 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the mean time if to other Peoples Optics this appears in a different view I do not desire to trouble or disturb any one in their Opinion Let every one please and hug himself in his own But we are all bound to make use of that Portion of Reason God Almighty has distributed to each of us till we have some more clear Light to illuminate us from Above AN APPENDIX Concerning the Modern BRACHMINS IN THE INDIES Together with their generally received Opinions HAving already spoken of the Modern Brachmins in the Indies whom besides the near resemblance of their Studies and Customs we have several other Arguments to show they are descended from the ancient Race I think it may be neither impertinent nor unpleasant to add some few Words here by way of Appendix about their Opinions concerning the Originals and Revolutions of Things which Opinions are 't is true neglected by most People because they are delivered in a mythological way and that Truth is very much clouded with Fables Under the name of Indies we here comprehend besides the Chineze Empire and Kingdom of Indostan or Dominion of the Great Mogul the Kingdoms of Siam of the Malabars of Cochinchina of Coromandel and whatever others are known to us in the East that have in some measure shaken off their Barbarity Now in each of these are a certain sort of Philosophers or Divines and in the Kingdoms of Indostan Siam and the other adjacent Parts there are some who seem to be the Progeny of the ancient Brachmins being different and distinguished from the rest of the People by their Manner and Way of Living as well as by a Doctrin and Language wholly peculiar to themselves They have a certain Cabala or Body of Learning which they receive by Tradition from one to the other Now this Body of Learning does not treat of each little Point or Nicety in Philosophy as our modern Philosophers used to do but like the natural Theology of the Ancients it treats of God of the World of the Beginning and Ending of Things of the Periods of the World of the Primitive State of Nature together with its repeated Renovations All which Opinions are by some more plainly by others more obscurely and fabulously delivered but that they were of old spread amongst these Nations is plain from several Footsteps of them at this day remaining For a Specimen whereof we will give you some short Remarks out of our late Voyages upon several Heads of this now barbarous Theology or Philosophy Nor is it of Moment with what Kingdom or Country we begin The Mogul's Kingdom call'd Indâ—stan is extreamly large and has been visited by several Europeans whose Credit and Authority are sufficient to make them be believed There are in this Kingdom besides Mahometans those they call Gentiles or Pagans among which Gentiles is a certain Tribe or Order of Men who bear the Title and perform the Offices of Sâ—ges Priests or Philosophers They have a Language peculiar to themselves which they call Hanscrit or the pure Tongue in this Language they have some very ancient Books which they call Sacred and say were given by God to the Great Prophet Brahma as formerly the Law of the Israelites was to Moses Athan Kircher gives you an Alphabet of this Brachmin's Language written by the Hand of Father Henry Roth who for several Years in the Indies apply'd himself to the Learning of Brachmins And in this they not only write and conceal their Divinity but also their Opinions in Philosophy of all Kinds besides the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which are Opinions of a very ancient Date They likewise Philosophize after the manner of
the Ancients upon the Creation of the Universe together with its End and Destruction for they explain these Things by the Efflux or Emanation of all things from God and by their Reflux or Restoration into him again But this they propound in a Cabalistical Mythological way For they â—eign a certain immense Spider to be the first Cause of all Things and that she with the Matter she exhausted out of her own Bowels spun the Web of this whole Universe and then disposed of it with a most wonderful Art whilst she her self in the mean time sitting on the Top of her Work feels rules and governs the Motion of each part At last when she has sufficiently pleas'd and diverted her self in adorning and contemplating her own Web she retracts the Threads she had unfolded and swallows them up again into her self whereby the whole Nature of Things created vanishes into nothing After this manner our modern Brachmins represent the Birth Order and Perishing of the World Nor does this much differ from the Opinions of the Ancients we have above mentioned lib. I. cap. 7. page 63 64 c. provided that taking off the fabulous Shell we go to the Kernel If you have leisure to read a larger Account of the Indostan Gentiles 't is what you may find in Henry Lord F. Bernier and other Travellers who have more diligently enquired into their Literature In the Kingdom of Siam which Borders upon the Empire of the Mogul there is the same Progeny of the Brachmins Guido Tachard one of the Jesuits Society who waited upon the French Ambassador to the King of Siam has given us this Account of their Philosophy or Theology They say That the first Men were of greater Stature and longer Liv'd than we now adays are as also that they lived many Ages free from Distempers That this Modern Earth paâ—ched with a long Heat will at length be consumed by Fire the Ocean being dried up the Mountains melted and the whole Surface of the Earth being made level This I find in our aforesaid Author with more of the same in others all which a late Poet has compiled and facetiously explained in these Versicles Stolidus Regni Mysta Siami Octoginta dat perituro Saecula mundo Tunc qui tantum Iam fuerit uno fervidus Oculo Septem pandet lumina Phoebus Quâ—is aequorâ—as ebibet undas Quâ—is immensum vindice flammâ 〈◊〉 O bemâ— Sed duo calidis Qâ—◠〈…〉 favilâ—is Einos homines ova creabunt Qui foecunda semine cultum Iterum poterunt reddere mundum Quem non salsis Neptunus aquis Alluet unquà m tantum rigui Undique fontes Dulcesque lacus Irrorabunt molliter herbas Et perpetuo verè Beatos Spargent variis floribus agros The Siamese Brachmins not only say that this modern Earth must perish and that by Fire but even that out of its ashes a new Earth must arise and without a Sea that is to say such a one as St. Iohn the Prophet saw Apoc. 21.1 and without the yearly Vicissitudes of the Seasons being blest with a perpetual Spring such another Earth as we have described in the Fourth Book of our Theory Cap. 2. T is really a most wonderful thing that a Nation half barbarous should have retained these Opinions from the very times of Noah for they could not have arrived to a Knowledge of these things any â—ther way than by Tradition nor could this Tradition flow from any other Spring than Noah and the Antediluvian Sages But out of what Author or Siames's Traveller the Poet has taken these Things I have not yet been able to learn Moreover the Kingdom of Choromandel on the Southren Coast of the Indies has its Brachmins whose Manners and Doctrine have been with no small Diligence enquired into by Abraham Rogers who wrote the Book called Ianua aperta ad Arcana Gentilsimi Having Himself lived many years there Now they affirm that there are several Worlds which do at one and the same time exist in divers Regions of the Universe and that there are several successive ones for that the same World is destroyed and renewed again according to certain Periods of Time They say also that our Terrestrial World began by a certain Golden Age and will perish by Fire Lastly they retain the Doctrin of the Ovum Mundanum comparing the World to an Egg as did the ancients both Greeks and Barbarians Finally to the Kingdom of Choromandel is Contiguous that of the Malabers where Father Robert Nobilius Founder as t is said of the Maudarian Mission has spent no small part of his life learned as well in the vulgar Indian Language as in that of the Branchmins then he is said to have written a great deal concerning the Theory of the Brachmin but I know not to what language for I have not yet happened to light upon any of his writings neither have I any Accounts of this or the rest of the Countrys of the Indies to be depended upon to furnish me with their Opinions either from eye or ear witnesses We have likewise before mentioned the Chinese a People of great Antiquity but among the Ancients unknown as to matter of Learning they have this in Common with the rest of the Orientals that they compare the World to an Egg and will have it to be born of one In like manner they say their first Man whom they call Puoncuus was born of an Egg whether you will suppose that by it they mean the Chaos or the Primitive Earth and altho they do not seem to have derived their Philosophy or History from the Brachmins yet they set so great a value on their Letters and secret Alphabet that as things sacred and of a very great Antiquity they use to inscribe them on their Idols As for the Mahometans who are spread at large over the East under several different Dominions I pass by them as men of an upstart ignorant kind what an Egyptian Priest formerly told Solon You Greeks always Boys not one of the Greeks ever comes to be Old May changing names be much more properly said to them Nor does the Egyptian give an ill reason for what he says Your are young in your Minds for in them is no tenent of the Ancients that comes by ancient Tradition you retain no Learning that is grey with old Age. These things exactly square with the Mehometans wheresoever they are dispersed they retain nothing of Ancient Wisdom for the Ambition of extending their Dâ—minions has taken from them all manner of Love or Desire of Learning Even in Persia it self where formerly flourished the Mystical Philosophy of the great Zoroaster and the Magi at this day remains nothing worth taking notice of The aforementioned Henry Lord relates that when the Saracens overran all Persia having beaten and slain the King Iezdegird about the Year of our Lord 628. Some of the Persians who could not bearâ— the yoak of a new Slavery and new Religion transported