that this is no idle and unnecessary Discourse but very momentous and important and this Subject as mean as it seems worthy the most serious consideration of Christian Philosophers and Divines concerning which though I have spent many thoughts yet can I not fully satisfie my self much less then am I likely to satisfie others But I promise my self and them more full satisfaction shortly from the Labours of those who are more conversant and better acquainted with these Bodies than I who have been more industrious in searching them out and happy in discovering them who have been more curious and diligent in considering and comparing them more critical and exact in observing and noting their nature texture figure parts places differences and other accidents than my self and particularly that learned and ingenious Person before remembred The following Tables containing some Species of the most different Genera of these Bodies viz. Shark's Teeth Wolf-fish's Teeth Cockles or Concha Periwinkles or Turbens Cornua Ammonis or Serpent stones Sea-urchins and their Prickles Vertebres and other Bones of Fishes entire Fishes Petrifi'd and of those some singly some represented as they lye in Beds and Quarries under Ground for the information of those who are less acquainted with such Bodie were thought fit to be added to this Edition TAB II. Pag. 162. FIG 1 2. Several Fragments and Lumps of petrify'd Shells as they lie in Quarries and Beds under ground on many of these Petrifactions there still remain some Laminae or Plates of the Original Shells which prove them not to be Stones primarily so figur'd Fig 3. The Cornu Ammonis lying in Rocks with other petrify'd Bodies TAB III. Pag. 162. FIG 1 2. Two petrify'd Fishes lying in Stone with their Seales and Bones Fig. 3. A Sea-Urchin petrify'd with its prickles broken off which are a sort of Lapis Iudaicus or Iew-Stones their Insertions on the Studs or Protuberances of the Shell are here shewn See their History and Manner of Lying in Stone and Beds in Agostino Scilla 4. Napoli TAB IV. Pag. 162. FIG 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14. Several petrify'd Teeth of Dog-Fishes Sharks and other Fishes Fig. 15 16. The same lying in a Tophaceous Bed and also in a Jaw-Bone Fig. 17. The petrify'd Teeth of a Wolf-Fish in a piece of the Jaw the Round Ones or Grinders are sold in Maltha for petrify'd Eyes of Serpents and by our Jewellers and Goldsmiths for Toad-stones commonly put in Rings Fig. 18 19 20. Other petrify'd Bones of Fishes especially Joynts or Vertebra's of Back-bones one with two stony Spines issuing out f. 20. See them more at large in the Draughts of that curious Sicilian Painter Agostino Scilla Place this before Tab. II. p. 162. The CONTENTS DISCOURSE I. Of the Primitive CHAOS and Creation of the WORLD CHAP. I. Testimonies of the Ancient Heathen Writers Hesiod Ovid Aristophanes Lucan Euripides concerning the Chaos and what they meant by it Chap. II. That the Creation of the World out of a Chaos is not repugnant to the Holy Scripture if soberly understood p 5 6 7 8. Chap. III. Of the separating the Land and Water and raising up the Mountains p. 9 c. By what means the Waters were gathered together into one place and the dry Land made to appear p. 10. That subterraneous Fires and Flatus's might be of power sufficient to produce such an effect proved from the force and effects of Gunpowder and the raising up of new Mountains p. 11 12 13. The shaking of the whole known World by an Earthquake p. 13 14. That the Mountains Islands and whole Continents were probably at first raised up by subterraneous Fires proved by the Authority of Lydiate and Strabo p. 15 16 17. Of subterraneous Caverns passing under the bottom of the Sea p. 19 20 21 c. A Discourse concerning the Equality of the Sea and Land both as to the extent of each and the height of one to the depth of the other taken from the Shores p. 25 26 27 31 32 33. That the motion of the Water levels the bottom of the Sea p. 28 29 30. A Discourse concerning the Use of the Mountains 35 36 37 c. The Sum of what hath been said of the Division and Disposition of the Water and Earth p. 44. Chap. IV. Of the Creation of Animals some Questions concerning them resolved p. 46. That God Almighty did at first create either the Seeds of all Animate Bodies and dispersed them all the Earth over or else the first Sett of Animals themselves in their full state and perfection giving each Species a power by Generation to propagate their like p. 46 47. Whether God at first created a great number of each Species or only two a Male and a Female p. 47 48. Whether all individual Animals which already have been and hereafter shall be were at first actually created by God or only the first Sett of each Species the rest proceeding from them by way of Generation and being a new produced p. 49 50 51 c. Objections against the first part answered 1. That it seems impossible that the Ovaries of the first Animals should actually include the innumerable Myriads of those that may proceed from them in so many Generations as have been and shall be to the end of the World This shewn not to be so incredible from the multitude of parts into which Matter may be and is divided in many Experiments p. 51 52 53 54. c. 2. If all the Members of Animals already formed do pre exist in the Egg how can the Imagination of the Mother change the shape and that so notoriously sometimes as to produce a Calve's-head or Dog's-face or the like monstrous Members Several Answers to thus Objection offered p. 57 58 59 DISCOURSE II. Of the General DELUGE in the Days of Noah its Causes and Effects p. 62. CHAP. I. Testimonies of Ancient Heathen Writers and some Ancient Coyns or Medals verifying the Scripture-History of the Deluge p. 63 64 65 66. That the Ancient Poets and Mythologists by Deucalion understood Noah and by Deucalion's Flood the General Deluge proved 66 67 68 69. Chap. II. Of the Causes of the General Deluge 70 1. A miraculous transmutation of Air into Water rejected 70 71 72. That Noah's Flood was not Topical 73. 2 3. The emotion of the Center of the Earth or a violent depression of the Surface of the Ocean the most probable partial Causes of the Deluge but the immediate Causes assigned by the Scripture are the breaking up of the Fountains of the Great Deep and the opening of the Windows of Heaven 73. That those Causes are sufficient to produce a Deluge granting a change of the Centre of the Earth to prevent the Waters running off 73 74 75. That all the Vapours suspended in the Air might contribute much towards a Flood ibid. Concerning the Expence of the Sea by Vapour 76 77 78 c. Of the Waters keeping its Level An
Mankind whose right the Kingdom was 6. The sending out of a Dove to try whether the Waters were abated and the Flood gone off is we have seen by Plutarch attributed to Deucalion 7. Lucian in his Timon and in his Book De Dea Syria sets forth the Particulars of Deucalion's after the Example of Noah's Flood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Deucalion was the only Man that was left for a second Generation for his Prudence and Piety sake And he was saved in this manner He made a great Ark and got aboard it with his Wife and Children And to him came Swine and Horses and Lions and Serpents and all other living Creatures which the Earth maintains according to their kinds by pairs and he received them all and they hurt him not for there was by Divine Instinct a great friendship among them and they sailed together in the Ark so long as the Waters prevailed And in his Timon he saith That Noah laid up in the Ark plenty of all Provisions for their sustenance TAB I. pag 69 The two ancient Apamian Coyns taken out of Octav. Falconieri de Nummo Apamensi Deucalionaei Diluvij typum exhibente 8 â—â— Romae By the Greek inscriptions they were stamp under Philippus Marcus Aurelius Alexander and Septimius Severus Howbeit I do not deny that there was such a particular Flood in Thessaly as they call Deucalion's which happened Seven Hundred and Seventy Years or thereabouts after the general Deluge I acknowiedge also a more ancient Flood in Attica in the time of Ogyges about Two hundred and thirty years before Deucalion's by which the Countrey was so marred that it lay waste and uncultivated without Inhabitants for almost Two hundred years CHAP. II. Of the Causes of the Deluge WHat were the instrumental Causes or Means of the Flood Whether was it effected by natural or supernatural Means only Whether was God no further concerned in it than in so ordering second Causes at first as of themselves necessarily to bring it in at such a time First Those that hold this Deluge was altogether miraculous and that God Almighty created Waters on purpose to serve this occasion and when they had done their work destroyed them again dispatcht the Business and loose or cut the Knot in a few words And yet this Hypothesis is not so absurd and precarious as at first sight it may seem to be For the World being already full there needed not nor indeed could be any Creation of Water out of nothing but only a Transmutation of some other Body into Water Now if we grant all Natural Bodies even the Elements themselves to be mutually transmutable as few Men doubt and some think they can demonstrate why might not the Divine Power and Providence bring together at that time such natural Agents as might change the Air or Aether or both together into Water and so supply what was wanting in Rains and extraordinary Eruptions of Springs To them that argue the Improbability of such a change from the great quantity of Air requisite to the making of a little Water it may be answered That if Air and all Bodies commixt with it were together changed into Water they must needs make a bulk of Water of equal quantity with themselves unless we will grant a Peripatetical Condensation and Rarefaction and hold that the same Matter may have sometimes a greater sometimes a lesser quantity or extension This Cause the conversion of Air into Water the Learned Jesuite Athanasius Kircher in his Book De Arca Noae alledges as the undoubted instrumental Cause or Means of the Deluge in these words Dico totum illud aereum spatium usque ad supremam regionem aeris praepotentis Dei virtute in aquas per inexplicabilem nubium coacervatarum multitudinem quâ replebatur conversam esse cujus ubertas tanta fuit ut Aer supremus cum inferiori in Oceanum commutatus videri potuerit non naturae viribus sed illius cujus voluntati imperio cuncta subsunt That is I affirm That all that Aereal space that reaches up to the supreme Region of the Air was by the power of the Omnipolent God and instrumentality of an inexplicable multitude of Clouds amassed together wherewith it was filled changed into Water so that the upper and lower Air might seem to be 〈◊〉 into an Ocean not by the strength of Naâ—â—â—e but of him to whose Will and 〈◊〉 all things are subject And he is so confident that this Deluge in which the 〈…〉 raised fifteen Cubits above the highest by Mountains was not nor could be effected by natural Causes but by the right hand of the most High God only that he saith No Man can deny it but he who doth not penetrate how far the power of Nature can extend and where it is limited To conclude this Hypothesis hath the Suffrages of most Learned Men. But because the Scripture assigning the Causes or Means of the Inundation makes no mention of any conversion of Air into Water but only of the breaking up the Fountains of the Great Deep and the opening of the Windows of Heaven I suppose those Causes may be sufficient to work the Effect and that we need not have recourse to such an Assistance As for those that make the Deluge Topical and restrain it to a narrow compass of Land their Opinion is I think sufficiently confuted by a late ingenious Author to whom therefore I refer the Reader I shall not undertake the Defence or Confutation of those or any other Hypothesis only tell you which at present seems to me most probable and that is theirs who for a partial cause of the Deluge assign either a change of the Center of the Earth or a violent depression of the Surface of the Ocean and a forcing the Waters up from the subterraneous Abyss through the Channels of the Fountains that were then broken up and opened First then let us consider what Causes the Scripture assigns of the Flood and they are two 1. The breaking up the Fountains of the great Deep 2. The opening of the Windows of Heaven I shall first treat of this last By the opening of the Windows of Heaven is I suppose to be understood the causing of all the Water that was suspended in the Air to descend down in Rain upon the Earth the effect hereof here mentioned being a long continuing Rain of Forty days And that these Treasuries of the Air will afford no small quantity of Water may be made appear both by Scripture and Reason 1. By Scripture which opposes the Waters that are above the Heavens or Firmament to those that are under them which if they were not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in some measure equal it would never do Gen. 1. 6. God is said to make a Firmament in the midst of the Waters and to divide the Waters which were under the Firmament from the Waters which were above the Firmament And this was the work of a whole
solving this Phaenomenon and that is by supposing that the Divine Power might at that time by the instrumentality of some natural Agent to us at present unknown so depress the Surface of the Ocean as to force the Waters of the Abyss through the forementioned Channels and Apertures and so make them a partial and concurrent Cause of the Deluge That there are at some times in the course of Nature extraordinary pressures upon the Surface of the Sea which force the Water outwards upon the Shores to a great height is evident We had upon our Coasts the last Year an extraordinary Tide wherein the Water rose so high as to overflow all the Sea-Banks drown multitudes of Cattel and fill the lower Rooms of the Houses of many Villages that stood near the Sea so that the Inhabitants to save themselves were â—orced to get up into the upper Rooms and Garrets of their Houses Now how this could be effected but by an unusual pressure upon the Superficies of the Ocean I cannot well conceive In like manner that the Divine Providence might at the time of the Deluge so order and dispose second Causes as to make so strong a pressure upon the face of the Waters as to force them up to a height sufficient to overflow the Earth is no way unreasonable to believe These Hypotheses I propose as seeming to me at present most facile and consonant to Scripture without any concern for either of them and therefore am not solicitous to gather together and heap up Arguments to confirm them or to answer Objections that may be made against them being as ready to relinquish them upon better information as I was to admit and entertain them CHAP. III. Of the Effects of the Deluge I Come now to the Third Particular proposed that is To Enquire concerning the Consequents of the Deluge What considerable Effects it had upon the Earth and and its Inhabitants It had doubtless very great in changing the Superficies of the dry Land In some places adding to the Sea in some taking from it making Islands of Peninsulae and joining others to the Continent altering the Beds of Rivers throwing up lesser Hills and washing away others c. The most remarkable Effects it 's likely were in the skirts of the Continents because the Motion of the Water was there most violent Athanasius Kircher gives us a Map and Description of the World after the Flood shewing what Changes were made therein by it or upon occasion of it afterward as he fansies or conjectures But because I do not love to trouble the Reader with uncertain Conjectures I shall content my self to have said in general that it may rationally be supposed there were then great Mutations and Alterations made in the superficial part of the Earth but what they were though we may guess yet can we have no certain knowledge of and for Particulars refer the Curious to him One malignant effect it had upon Mankind and probably upon other Animals too in shortning their Age or the duration of their lives which I have touched before and shewn that this diminution of Age is to be attributed either to the change of the Temperature of the Air as to Salubrity or Equality sudden and frequent changes of Weather having a very bad influence upon the Age of Man in abbreviating of it as I could easily prove or else to the deteriority of the Diet or to both these Causes But how the Flood should induce or occasion such a change in the Air and productions of the Earth I do not comprehend CHAP. IV. Of formed Stones Sea-shells and other Marine-like Bodies found at great distances from the Shores supposed to have been brought in by the Deluge ANother supposed Effect of the Flood was a bringing up out of the Sea and scattering all the Earth over an innumerable multitude of Shells and Shell-fish there being of these shell-like Bodies not only on lower Grounds and Hillocks but upon the highest Mountains the Appennine and Alps themselves A supposed Effect I say because it is not yet agreed among the Learned whether these Bodies formerly called petrified Shells but now a-days passing by the name of formed Stones be original Productions of Nature formed in imitation of the Shells of Fishes or the real Shells themselves either remaining still entire and uncorrupt or petrified and turned into Stone or at least Stones cast in some Animal Mold Both parts have strong Arguments and Patrons I shall not balance Authorities but only consider and weigh Arguments Those for the latter part wherewith I shall begin are First Because it seems contrary to that great Wisdom of Nature which is observable in all its Works and Productions to design every thing to a determinate end and for the attaining that end make use of such ways as are most aggreeable to Man's reason that these prettily shaped Bodies should have all those curious Figures and Contrivances which many of them are formed and adorned with generated or wrought by a Plastic Vertue for no higher end than only to exhibite such a form This is Mr. Hook's Argumentation To which Dr. Plot answers That the end of such Productions is to beautifie the World with those Varieties and that this is no more repugnant to the Prudence of Nature than is the production of most Flowers Tulips Anemones c. of which we know as little use of as of formed Stones But hereto we may reply That Flowers are for the Ornament of a Body that hath some degree of life in it a Vegetaâ—ive Soul whereby it performs the actions of Nutrition Auction and Generation which it is reasonable should be so beautified And Secondly Flowers serve to embrace and cherish the Fruit while it is yet tender and to desend it from the injuries of Sun and Weather especially for the protection and security of the Apices which are no idle or useless part but contain the Masculine Sperm and serve to give fecundity to the Seed Thirdly Though formed Stones may be useful to Man in Medicine yet Flowers afford us abundantly more uses both in Meat and Medicine Yet I must not dissemble that there is a Phaenomenon in Nature which doth somewhat puzzle me to reconcile with the prudence observable in all its works and seems strongly to prove that Nature doth sometimes ludere and delineate Figures for no other end but for the Ornament of some Stones and to entertain and gratifie our Curiosity or exercise our Wits That is those elegant Impressions of the Leaves of Plants upon Cole-state the knowledge whereof I must confess my self to owe to my Learned and Ingenious Friend Mr. Edward Lloyd of Oxford who observed of it in some Cole-pits in the way from Wychester in Glocestershire to Bristol and afterwards communicated to me a Sample of it That which he found was marked with the Leaves of two or three kinds of Ferns and of Harts-tongue He told me also that Mr. Woodward a Londoner shewed him
day and consequently no inconsiderable thing By the Heavens or Firmament in this place is to be understood the inferiour Region of the Air wherein the Fowls fly who Gen. 1. 20. are said to fly above the Earth in the open Firmament of Heaven though elsewhere it be taken for the Celestial Regions wherein the Sun and Moon and Stars are placed 2. The same may be made appear by Reason grounded upon Experience I my self have observed a Thunder-Cloud in passage to have in less than two hours space powred down so much Water upon the Earth as besides what sunk into the parched and thirsty ground and filled all Ditches and Ponds caused a considerable Flood in the Rivers setting all the Meadows on flote And Dr. Wittie in his Scarborough Spaw tells us of great Spouts of Rain that ordinarily fall every year some time or other in Summer that set the whole Countrey in a Flood Now had this Cloud which might for ought I know have moved Forty miles forward stood still and emptied all its Water upon the same spot of Ground it first hung over what a sudden and incredible Deluge would it have made there and yet what depth or thickness of Vapours might remain uncondensed in the Air above this Cloud who knows Now it is to be considered that not only the Air upon the dry Land but also all that covers the whole Ocean is charged with Vapours which are nothing else but diffused Water all which was brought together by Winds or what others Means seem'd good to God and caused to destil down in Rain upon the Earth And you may easily guess that it was no small quantity of Water that was supplyed this way in that it sufficed for a Rain that lasted Forty natural days And that no ordinary Rain neither but Catarracts or Spouts of Water for so the Septuagint interprets the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the Catarracts or Spouts of Heaven were opened I return now to the first Cause or Means of the Deluge assigned by the Scripture and that is the breaking up of all the Fountains of the great Deep By the great Deep in this place I suppose is to be understood the Subterraneous Waters which do and must necessarily communicate with the Sea For we see that the Caspian and some other Seas receive into themselves many great Rivers and yet have no visible Outlets and therefore by Subterraneous Passages must needs discharge their Waters into the Abyss of Waters under the Earth and by its intervention into the Ocean again That the Mediterranean Sea doth not as I sometimes thought communicate with the Ocean by any subterraneous Passages nor thereby impart any Water to it or receive any from it may be demonstrated from that the Superficies of it is lower than the Superficies of the Ocean as appears from the Waters running in at the Streights of Gibraltar for if there were any such Communications the Water keeping its Level the Mediterranean being the lowest must by those Passages receive Waters from the Ocean and not the Ocean which is as we have proved the highest from the Mediterranean But that it doth not receive any by Subterraneous Passages is most likely because it receives so much above Ground Hence it necessarily follows that the Mediterranean spends more in Vapour than it receives from the Rivers which is Mr. Halley's Conclusion though in some of his Premises or Hypotheses he is I think mistaken as 1. In that he numbers the Tyber amongst his nine great Rivers each of which may yield ten times as much Water as the Thames whereas I question whether that yields once so much and whereas he passes by all the rest of the Rivers as smaller than it there are two that I have seen in Italy it self whereof the one viz. the Arnus on which Florence and Pisa stand seemed to me not inferiour in bigness to the Tiber and the other viz. the Athesis on which Verona stands I could not guess to be less than twice as big 2. In that he thinks himself too liberal in allowing these nine Rivers to carry down each of them ten times so much Water as the Thames doth Whereas one of those nine and that none of the biggest neither viz. the River Po if Ricciolus his Hypotheses and Calculations be good affords more Water in an hour than Mr. Halley supposes the Thames to do in a day the hourly Effusions of the Po being rated at eighteen millions of Cubical Paces by Ricciolus whereas the daily ones of the Thames are computed to be no more than twenty five millions three hundred forty four thousand Cubical yards of Water by Mr. Halley but a Geometrical Pace contains five Feet i. e. 1 â—â— of a Yard Now if the Po pours so much Water hourly into the Sea what then must the Danow and the Nile do each of which cannot I guess be less than troble of the Po. Tanais Borysthenes and Rhodanus may equal if not exceed it Howbeit I cannot approve Ricciolus his Hypotheses judging them to be too excessive but do believe that as to the whole Mr. Halley comes nearer the truth Sure enough it is that in the Mediterranean the Receipts from the Rivers fall short of the Expence in Vapour though in part of it that is the Euxine the Receipts exceed as appears from that there is a constant Current sets outward from thence through the Thracian Bosphorus and Hellespont But though the Mediterranean doth indeed evaporate more than it receives from the Rivers yet I believe the Case is not the same with the Caspian Sea the Superficies whereof seems to me not to bear any greater proportion to the Waters of the Rivers that run into it than that of the Euxine doth to its which we have observed not to spend the whole Receipt in Vapour You 'l say Why then do not great Floods raise the Seas I answer as to the Caspian if it communicates with the Ocean whether the Rivers bring down more or less it s all one if more then the Water keeping its Level the Caspian raiseth the Ocean if less then the Ocean communicates to the Caspian and raises that But as to the Mediterranean we may say that when it receives more on the one side it receives less on the other the Floods and Ebbs of the Nilus and the other Rivers counterbalancing one another Besides by reason of the Snows lying upon the Mountains all Winter the greatest Floods of those great Rivers in Europe do not happen when the Mediterranean evaporates leà st in the Winter time but in the Spring You 'l demand further if the Mediterranean evaporates so much what becomes of all this Vapour I answer It is cast off upon the Mountains and on their sides and tops is condensed into Water and so returned again by the Rivers unto the Sea If you proceed to ask what becomes of the Surplusage of the Water which the Mediterranean receives from the Ocean and spends in vapour
after the Rains are fallen the Ground sated and the Ditches full the Stream of this River during the whole Winter following is for the most part unless in Frosts double of what it was in Summer Which Excess can proceed from nothing but Rain and Mists at least it would be rashness to assign any other Cause when there is so obvious and manifest an one Moreover that Rain affords no small quantity of water is clear also from great Floods wherein it might be proved that in few days there descends more water than would supply the ordinary Stream for a good part of Summer Now to compare great things with small I have seen many of the biggest Rivers in Europe the Danow Rhine Rhosne and Po and when I consider the length of their Courses the multitude of considerable Rivers and Brooks they receive and all these from their first rise made up by degrees of little Rivulets and Gills like my neighbouring Brook the huge Mountains and vast extent of higher Grounds they drain To me it seems and I have seen all their Streams near their Out-lets except the Danows and it 's after four hundred Miles descent that they do not bear any greater proportion to the Rivers and Rivulets they receive and the immense Tracts of Land that â—eed them than my Brook doth to its small 's Rills and compass of Ground But in this I confess I do not descend to the niceness of Measuring and Calculation but satisfie my self with rude Conjectures taking my Measures as the Cestrians say by the Scale of the Eye It will here be objected That the Rain never sinks above ten Foot deep at most into the Earth and therefore cannot supply the Springs Answ. This indeed if it were true would much enervate nay quite overthrow our Opinion And therefore we must fortifie this Point and effectually demonstrate beyond all possibility of denial or contradiction That Rain-water doth sink down and make its way into the Earth I do not say Ten or Twenty nor Forty but an Hundred nay Two or three hundred Foot or more First then in Pool-hole in the Peak of Darbyshire there are in some places constant droppings and destillations of water from the Roof under each of which to note that by the by rises up a Stone Pillar the water precipitating some of those stony Particles which it had washed off the Rocks in passing through their Chinks These droppings continue all the Summer long Now it seems clear to me that the Rain-water making its way through the Veins and Chinks of the Rocks above it and yet but slowly by reason of the thickness of the Mountain and straitness of the Passages supplies that dropping all the year round at least this is much more rational than any different Hypothesis If the water distills down faster in Winter time and wet Weather than it doth in Summer which I forgot to ask the Experiment would infallibly prove our Assertion In confirmation of this Argument Albertus Magnus as I find him quoted in Dr. Wittie's Scarborough Spaw tells us That at the bottom of a solid Rock one hundred and thirty Fathoms deep he saw drops of water distilling from it in a rainy season Secondly It is well known and attested to me by the People at Buxton when I was there that out of the mouth of the same Pool hole after great and long continuing Rains a great stream of water did usually issue forth And I am sure it must make its way through a good thickness of Earth or Rocks before it could come in there Thirdly What becomes of all the water that falls on Newmarket-Heath and Gogmagog Hills I presume also Salisbury-Plain and the like Spungy Grounds all Winter long where we see very little run off any way It must needs sink into the Ground more than Ten Foot deep Fourthly Many Wells whose Springs lye at least Twenty Foot deep we find by experience do often fail in great Droughts in Summer time Fifthly In Coal Delfs and other Mines in wet Weather the Miners are many times drown'd out as they phrase it though no water runs down into the Mouths of their Pits or Shaâ—ts Nay Dr. Wittie tells us in his Description of the Vertues of the Scarborow Spaw pag. 105. That after great Inundations of Rain the Miners find the water frequently distilling through the solid Earth upon their Heads whereas in Summer or dry Seasons they find no interruption from thence at all Further to confirm this Particular I wrote to my Honoured Friend Sir Thomas Willughby Baronet desiring him to examine his Colliers concerning it and send me word what report they make and from him received this account If there be Springs lye before you come at the Coal they carry the Water away but if there be none it falls into the Works in greater or less quantity according as the Rains fall Which Answer is so much the more considerable in that it gives me a further clear Proof that Springs are fed by Rain water and not by any communications from the Sea their original being above the Beds of Coal they receiving the Rain-water into their Veins and deriving it all along to their Fountains or Eruptions above the Coals I might add out of him Dr. Witty Fifthly pag. 85. That the Scarborow Spaw notwithstanding it breaks out of Ground within Three or four yards off the foot of the Cliff which is near Forty yards high and within a quarter of a mile there is another Hill that is more than as high again as the Cliff and a descent all the way to the Cliff so as the Rain-water cannot lye long upon the Ground yet it is observable that after a long Rain the water of the Spaw is altered in its taste and lessened in its operation whereas a rainy day or two will not sensibly hurt it And now I am transcribing out of this Author give me leave to add an Observation or two in confirmation of Rains being the Original of Springs The first is pag. 97 this In England in the years 1654 55. and 56. when our Climate was drier than ever it had been mentioned to be in any Stories so as we had very little Rain in Summer or Snow in Winter most of our Springs were dried up such as in the memory of the eldest Men living had never wanted water but were of those Springs we call Fontes perennes or at least were esteemed so He instances also a Parallel Story out of Heylin ' s Geography in the Description of Cyprus where the Author relates That in the days of Constantine the Great there was an exceeding long drought there so as in Thirty six years they had no Rain insomuch as all the Springs and Torrents or Rivers were dried up so that the Inhabitants were forced to forsake the Island and to seek for new Habitations for want of fresh water The second is p. 84. That in the Wolds or Downs of Yorkshire they have many Springs break
out after great Rains which they call Gypsies which jet and spout up a great height Neither is this Eruption of Springs after long Rains proper and peculiar only to the Wolds of Yorkshire but common to other Countreys also as Dr. Childrey witnesseth in these words Sometimes there breaks out water in the manner of a sudden Land-flood out of certain Stones that are like Rocks standing aloft in open Fields near the rising of the River Kynet in Kent which is reputed by the Common People a fore-runner of Dearth That the sudden eruption of Springs in places where they use not always to run should be a sign of Dearth is no wonder For these unusual Eruptions which in Kent we call Nailbourns are caused by extream gluts of Rain or lasting wet Weather and never happen but in wet years witness the year 1648. when there were many of them and to our purpose very remarkable it was that in the year 1654. several Springs and Rivulets were quite dried up by reason of the precedent Drought which raged most in 1651 1652 and 1653. As the Head of the Stour that rises near Elham in Kent and runs through Canterbury was dry for some Miles space and the like happened to the Stream that crosseth the Road-way between Sittingburn and Canterbury at Ospring near Feversham which at other times ran with a plentiful Current but then wholly failed So we see that it is not infrequent for new Springs to break out in wet years and for old ones to fail in great Droughts And Strabo in his first Book out of Xanthus the Lydian tells us That in the time of Artaxerxes there was so great a Drought that Rivers and Lakes and Wells of water failed and were dried up I cannot here also forbear to add the probable account he Dr. Witty gives of the Supply of the Spring-well on the Castle-hill at Scarborough at which I confess I was somewhat puzzled This Well saith he though it be upon the top of the Rock not many yards deep and also upon the edge of the Cliff is doubtless supplied by secret Channels within the Ground that convey the Rain and Showers into it being placed on a dependent part of the Rock near unto which there are also Cellars under an old ruinated Chappel which after a great Rain are full of Water but are dried up in a long Drought As for what is said concerning the River Volgas pouring out so much water into the Caspian Sea as in a years time would make up a mass of water equal to the Globe of the Earth and of the hourly effusions of the River Po in Italy which Ricciolus hath computed to amount to 18000000 cubical Paces of water Whence a late learned Writer hath probably inferred that all the Rivers in the World together do daily discharge half an Ocean of waters into the Sea I must confess my self to be unsatisfied therewith I will not question their Calculations but I suspect they are out in their Hypotheses The Opinion of Mr. Edmund Halley that Springs and Rivers owe their Original to Vapours condensed on the sides of Mountains rather than unto Rains I acknowledge to be very ingenious grounded upon good Observations and worthy of its Author and I will not deny it to be in part true in those hot Countreys in the Torrid Zone and near it where by reason of the great Heats the Vapours are more copiously exhaled out of the Earth and its likely carried up high in the â—â—rm of Vapours The inferiour Aâ—r at least is so charged with them and by that means so very moist that in some places their Knives rust even in their Pockets and in the Night so very fresh and cold partly also by reason of the length of the Nights that exposing the Body to it causes Colds and Catarrhs and is very dangerous Whence also their Dews are so great as in good measure to recompence the want of Rain and serve for the nourishment of Plants as they do even in Spain it self I shall first of all propose this Opinion in the Words of the Author and then discourse a little upon it After he had enumerated many of the high Ridges and Tracts of Mountains in the four Quarters of the World he thus proceeds Each of which far surpass the usual height to which the Aqueous Vapours of themselves ascend and on the tops of which the Air is so cold and rarified as to retain but a small part of those Vapours that shall be brought thither by the Winds Those Vapours therefore that are raised copiously in the Sea and by the Winds are carried over the low Lands to those Ridges of Mountains are there compelled by the stream of the Air to mount up with it to the tops of the Mountains where the water presently precipitates gleeting down by the Crannies of the Stone and part of the Vapour entring into the Cavities of the Hills the water thereof gathers as in an Alembick into the Basons of Stone it finds which being once filled all the overpâ—us of water that comes thither runs over by the lowest place and breaking out by the sides of the Hills forms single Springs Many of these running down by the Valleys or Guts between the Ridges of the Hills and coming to unite form little Rivulets or Brooks Many of these again meeting in one common Valley and gaining the plain ground being grown less rapid become a River and many of these being united in one common Channel make such Streams as the Rhine the Rhosne and the Danube which latter one would hardly think the Collection of Water condensed out of Vapour unless we consider how vast a Tract of Ground that River drains and that it is the sum of all those Springs which break out on the South side of the Carpathian Mountains and on the North side of the immense Ridge of the Alps which is one continued Chain of Mountains from Switzerland to the Black Sea And it may almost pass for a Rule that the magnitude of a River or the quantity of water it evacuates is proportionable to the length and height of the Ridges from whence its Fountains arise Now this Theory of Springs is not a bare Hypothesis but founded on Experience which it was my luck to gain in my abode at St. Helena where in the night time on the tops of the Hills about Eight hundred yards above the Sea there was so strange a condensation or rather precipitation of the Vapours that it was a great impediment to my Celestial Observations for in the clear Sky the Dew would â—all â—o â—ait as to cover each half quarter of an hour my Glasses with little drops so that I was necessitated to wipe them off so often and my Paper on which I wrote my Observations would immediately be so wet with the Dew that it would not bear Ink by which it may be supposed how fast the water gathers in those mighty high Ridges I but
and therefore I presume that all the rest do so too as the Inabitants affirmed But in the Summer time after the Snow hath been some time melted their Streams decay again notwithstanding any Vapours condensed upon them proportionable to the Droughts neither are there any Floods but upon falls of Rain 3. That the Snow dissolved and soaking into the Earth is the Original of the Alpine Springs a probable Argument may be taken from the colour of the Water of those Rivers which descend from the Alps at least on this Northern side which I observed to be of a Sea-green even to a great distance from their Heads which whence can it proceed unless from the Nitrous Particles of the Snow water of which they consist Another also from the Bronchocele or gutturine tumour an Endemial Disease of the Natives of those parts which Physicians and Naturalists attribute to the water they drink not without good reason because say they it consists of melted Snow which gives it that malignant quality Scaliger speaking of this Disease Saith Id ab aqua fit è nivibus liquefactis quae multum terrestris crudi continet But because Iulius Palmarius may possibly be in the right who imputes this Disease to the steams of the Minerals especially Mercurial wherewith these Mountains abound which insect the waters and render them noxious to the nervous parts I shall not insist upon this particular In confirmation of what I have said concerning the Original of the Alpine Springs I shall add the Opinion of the Learned Alphonsus Borellus concerning the Fountains springing up or issuing out of the sides of Mount Aetna in Sicily They are probably saith he either generated or at least encreased from the melting of the Snow which doth perpetually occupy the top of the Mountain And this is manifest in that they are not dimished nor decrease in Summer as alsewhere it happens but often flow more plentifully Lib. De incendiis Aetnae What Mr. Halley saith of Springs that they are perpetual and without diminution even when no Rain falls for a long space of time If he understands it generally of all Springs I add that are accounted quick ones too I deny his assertion that some there may be of that nature I grant a reason whereof may be given viz. that the Out-let is too small to empty the water of all the Veins and Earth that lye above it in a long time In our Native Country of England there are living and lasting Springs rising at the feet of our small Hills and Hillocks to which I am sure the Vapours contribute very little which is so obvious to every man that I think I need not spend time to prove it Yet must I not dissemble or deny that in the Summer time the Vapours do ascend or are carried up in that form by the sides of the Mountains to their highest tops and above them for there falls no Snow there in the heat of Summer and that which lies there is for the most part dissolved But that Rain falls plentifully there I my self can witness having been on the two highest Tops of the Mount Iura which keeps the Snow all Winter on the one called Thuiri in a Thunder shower and on the other called la Dolaz in a smart and continuing Rain So that I will not deny but in Summer time the Vapours may contribute somewhat to the Springs as I have elsewhere intimated Clouds almost continually hanging upon the tops of the Mountains and the Sun having there but little power And now that I am discoursing of these things give me leave to set down an Observation I made in the last great Frost the sharpest that was ever known in the memory of Man which I had before met with in Books but did not give firm credit to that is that notwithstanding the violence of the Frost all the Springs about us brake out and ran more plentifully than usually they did at any other time which I knew not what to impute to unless perchance the close stopping the Pores of the Earth and keeping in that part which at other times was wont to vapour away which Account I neither then could nor can yet fully acquiesce in To this I will here add an Abstract of a Letter written by my honoured Friend Dr. Tancred Robinson YOV may peradventure meet with some opposition against your Hypothesis of Fountains though indeed I am more and more confirm'd in your Opinion of them and the use of the Mountains Father Tachart in his second Voyage to Siam says when he went up to the top of the Table Mountain at the Cape of Good Hope the Rocks and Shrubs were perpetually dropping and feeding the Springs and Rills below there being generally Clouds hanging on the sides near the top This constant distillation of Vapours from the Ocean on the many high Ridges of that great Promontory may peradventure be one cause of the wonderful fertility and luxury of the Soil which produces more rare Plants and Animals then any known Spot of Ground in the World the Discovery whereof is owing to the Curiosity and Wisdom of the Dutch The same observation hath been frequently made by our English Merchants in the Madera and Canary Islands the first of which is near in the same Latitude on the North of the Aequator that the afore-mentioned Cape is in on the South especially in their Iourneys up to the Pike of Tenerist in which at such and such heights they were always wet to the skin by the droppings of the great Stones yet no Rain over head the same I have felt in passing over some of the Alps. The Trees which in the Islands of Ferro St. Thomas and in Guiny are said to furnish the Inhabitants with most of their water stand on the sides of vast Mountains Vossius in his Notes on Pomponius Mela affirms them to be Arborescent Ferula's though indeed according to Paludanus his dry'd Sample sent to the Duke of Wirtenberg they seem rather to be of the Laurel kind perhaps there are many different sorts of them I believe there is something in the many Relations of Travellers and Voyagers concerning these Trees but then I fancy they are all mistaken when they say the water issues out of the Trees The Vapors stop't by the Mountains condense and distil down by the Boughs There being no Mountains in Egypt may be one reason why there is little or no Rain in that Country and consequently no fresh Springs therefore in their Caravans they carry all their water with them in great Borracio's and they owe the Inundation of their River Nile to the stationary or periodical Rains on the high parts of Aethiopia This may be the cause that the vast Ridge and Chain of Mountains in Peru are continually water'd when the great Plains in that Countrey are all dry'd up and parch't This Hypothesis concerning the Original of Springs from Vapours may hold better in those hot Regions within
if not about the Center yet certainly in profound Caverns and even under the very bottoms of the Seas to which some and no mean Philosophers have attributed the Ebbing and flowing of its waters Let us then suppose that the Rivers do daily carry down to the Sea half an Ocean of water and that the Rain supplies all that as our Opinion is and see what we can infer from thence I think it will be granted that ordinarily communibus annis the Rain that falls in a whole year amounts not to above one quarters continual Rain Now if this suffices for a daily eâ—â—usion of half an Ocean 〈…〉 that if it should rain without any 〈◊〉 all the year round the Rivers would 〈◊〉 out two Oceans into the Sea 〈◊〉 And so in forty days continual Rain 〈◊〉 would distil down upon the Earth 〈…〉 of Water A prodigious quantity 〈◊〉 and â—â—arce credible which if the 〈…〉 as fast as it comes on 〈…〉 a quantity of water 〈…〉 twice in twenty four 〈…〉 then that so much water 〈…〉 upon the â—arth I argue thus 〈…〉 upon the Earth must have 〈…〉 down to the Sea and according â—o the small declivity of the 〈…〉 the Mountains pared off and 〈…〉 a considerable one too 〈…〉 it actually hath so that the Floods 〈…〉 some days after the 〈…〉 upon the higher grounds And 〈…〉 the general Deluge 〈…〉 down to the Sea as fast 〈…〉 the Earth would permit 〈…〉 the Fountains of the 〈…〉 Clouds 〈…〉 could than they run down 〈…〉 the Earth it deserves 〈…〉 whether by the end of 〈…〉 Mountains fifteen Cubits high And yet the Scripture doth not in plain terms say that ever the waters of the Flood arose fifteen Cubits above the tops of the highest Mountains as Mr. Warren well observes Besides we are further to consider that this forty days Rain at the time of the Deluge was no ordinary one such as those that usually distil down leisurely and gently in Winter time but like our Thunder-storms and violent Showers Catarracts and Spouts which pour forth more water in an hour then they do in four and twenty So that in forty natural days the Clouds would empty out upon the Earth not eighty Oceans of water but above twenty times that quantity If by the Windows of Heaven are meant Catarracts as the Septuagint interpret the word And so we need not be to seek for water for a Floud for the Rain alone falling at that rate we have mentioned would if the Opinion of those men who hold that the Rivers discharge into the Sea half an Ocean daily were true in the space of forty natural days afford water enough supposing it run off no faster than usually it doth to cover the Earth Mountains and all Neither yet did the Mountains help but rather hinder the descent of the waters down to the Sea straitning it into Channels obstructing its passage and forcing it to take Circuits till it got above the Ridges and Tops of them As to this Argumentation and Inference the case is the same if we hold that the Water circulates through the 〈◊〉 of the Earth For supposing the Rivers pour 〈◊〉 half an Ocean daily and granting that in times of Floods their streams are but double of their usual Currents though I verily believe they are more than quadruple and that the eâ—fusions of the Fountains be in like measure augmented it will follow that the daily discharge of the Rivers will amount to two Oceans Now at the time of the general Deluge both these Causes concurred For there being a constant Rain of forty days there must on that account be a continual Flood and the Fountains of the great Deep â—eing broken up they must in all likelyhood afford as much Water as the Rain which whether it would not suffice in forty natural days to produce a Flood as big as that of Noah notwitâ—standing the continual descent and going off of the Waters I propose to the consideration of the Ingenious Especially if we allow as is not unreasonable 〈◊〉 suppose that the Divine Providence 〈◊〉 at first cause a contrary Wind to stop 〈◊〉 â—nhibit the descent of the Waters as afterwards he raised an assisting one to carry them off I have but one thing more to add upon this Subject that is that I do not see how their Opinion can be true who hold that some Seas are lower than others as for Example the Red Sea than the Mediterranean For it being true that the Water keeps its level that is holds its Superficies every where equidistant from the Center of Gravity or if by accident one part be lower the rest by reason of their fluidity will speedily reduce the Superficies again to an equality The Waters of all Seas communicating either above or under ground or both ways one Sea cannot be higher or lower than another but supposing any accident should elevate or depress any by reason of this confluence or communication it would soon be reduced to a level again as might demonstratively be proved But I return to tell the Reader what I think the most probable of all the Causes I have heard assigned of the Deluge which is the Center of the Earth being at that time changed and set nearer to the Center or middle of our Continent whereupon the Atlantick and Pacifick Oceans must needs press upon the Subterraneous Abyss and so by mediation thereof force the Water upward and at last compel it to run out at those wide Mouths and Apertures made by the Divine Power breaking up the Fountains of the great Deep And we may suppose this to have been only a gentle and gradual Emotion no faster than that the Waters running out at the bottom of the Sea might accordingly lowre the Superficies thereof sufficiently so that none needed run over the Shores These Waters thus poured out from the Orifices of the Fountains upon the Earth the declivity being changed by the removal of the Center could not flow down to the Sea again but must needs stagnate upon the Earth and overflow it and afterwards the Earth returning to its old Center return also to their former Receptacles If any shall object against this Hypothesis because by it the Flood will be render'd Topical and restrained only to the Continent we live in though I might plead the Unnecessariness of drowning America it being in all probability unpeopled at that time yet because the Scripture useth general expressions concerning the extent of the Flood saying Gen. 1. 19. And all the high hills that were under the whole Heaven were covered and again verse 22. All in whose nostrils was the breath of lìfe of all that was in the dry land died And because the Americans also are said to have some ancient Memorial Tradition of a Deluge and the Ingenious Author of the Theory of the Earth hath by a moderate Computation demonstrated that there must be then more People upon the Earth than now I will propose another way of
and that the Sea daily encroached upon them That they had Accounts from several parts of those Islands of Mischâ—eâ—s done by the Earthquake From St. Anns they heard of above 1000 Acres of Woodland changed into Sea carrying with it whole Plantations And lastly That he was told by some that they still heard bellowings and noises in the Mountains which made them very apprehensive of an eruption of Fire which if so he feared might be more destructive then the Earthquake But I think causlesly for I never heard or read of any great destruction of Men made by any eruptions of Fire even out of burning Mountains 4. The Account he gives of his own unexpected and strange preservation take his own words After I had been at Church reading Prayers which I did every day since I was Rector of the Place to keep up some shew of Religion and was gone to a place hard by the Church where the Merchants meet and where the President of the Council was who came into my Company and engaged me to take a Glass of Wormwood Wine as a whet before dinner he being my very great Friend I staid with him upon which he lighted a Pipe of Tobacco which he was pretty long in taking and not being willing to leave him before it was out this detained me from going to dinner to one Captain Ruden's whither I was invited whose House upon the first concussion sunk first into the Earth and then into the Sea with his Wife and Family and some that were come to dine with him Had I been there I had been lost But to return to the President and his Pipe of Tobacco before that was out I found the ground rowling and moving under my feet upon which I said to him Lord Sir what is this He replyed very composedly being a very grave Man It is an Earthquake be not afraid it will soon be over but it increased c. Then he relates how he went to his own Lodging and found all things in order there nothing stirred out of its place and going into his Balcony to view the Street he saw never a House down there nor the ground so much a crackt And that after he had prayed 〈…〉 People at their earnest request and 〈◊〉 them some serious Exhortations to Repâ—ntance in which Exercises he spent near an hour and half there came some Merchants of the place to him desiring him to go aboard some Ship in the Harbour and refresh himself telling him that they had gotten a Boat to carry him off Whom he accompanâ—ed and passing over the tops of some Houses which lay levelled with the Surface of the Water got first into a Canoe and then into a â—ong Boat which put him-on board a Ship 5. The last thing I shall take notice of in these Letters shall be the influence and effect this Judgment had upon the Remainder of the People to bring them to a sence of their Sins and Repentance for them and to resolve upon and begin a Reformation and Amendment of their Lives It is a true saying Vexatio dat intellectum In their affliction they will seek me early The pious inclination of the People appeared in that they were so glad to see their Minister in the midst of this Disaster and so earnest with him to come down and pray with them when they saw him in the Balcony before-mentioned and that when he came down into the Street every one laid hold on his Cloaths and embraced him so that with their fear and kindness he was almost stifled And that not only at the instant of the Distress but afterwards when he went a-shore to bury the Dead and pray with the Sick and baptize the Children and preach among them the People were over-joyed to see him and wept bitterly when he preached to them Fear is a more powerful Passion then Love and whatever creates terrour is a more effectual Curb to restrain and rule Men as well as Children then any Favours or Benefits the most powerful Motives of Love and Affection For though the Bonds of Love are called the Cords of a Man and are indeed very strong ones to rational and ingenuous Persons yet the greatest part of Mankind are so far degenerated that they have broken these bonds and cast these cords from them and upon trial one shall find little of Gratitude or Ingenuity among them I shall add one or two Remarks upon the precedent Paper First It is very remarkable that the day when all this befel Port-Royal and the whole Island of Iamaica was very clear not affording the least suspicion of any evil so that the Inhabitants had no warning at all of it but were surprised of a sudden without time sufficient to escape and save themselves For in the short space of three Minutes the Town was shaken and shattered to pieces and sunk into and covered for the greatest part by the Sea In which respect this Judgment resembled those on the Old World and on Sodom which the Scripture tells us were to the People involved in them sudden and unexpected as also the second coming of Christ and future Dissolution of the World by Fire is predicted to be That the Cause of Earthquakes is the same with that of Thunder I doubt not and most learned Men are agreed that is Exhalations or Steams set on fire the one in the Clouds the other in the Caverns of the Earth which is sufficiently proved from the great deflagrations and â—ruptions of Vulcano's or burning Mountains they being always either preceded or attended by Earthquakes and Earthquakes even here in England being as far as I can understand for the most part accompanied with a noise But now of what nature this steam is that is thus inflamed and what causes the accension I must confess my self not to be yet fully satisfied That it is at least partly Sulphureous is certain and well proved by Dr. Lister from the Sulphureous stink of waters smelt before and of the very Air it self after them That it conceives fire of its self and is not kindled after the manner of Gunpowder by the touch of fire is as clear there being no fire praeexisting in the Clouds but how it should kindle unless by a colluctation of parts after the manner of fermentations I cannot conceive And if so then the steam must be a dissimilar Body composed of parts of different Natures else would there be no colluctation and consequently no accension the parts friendly conspiring and agreeing in the same motion I am not ignorant that water either in the gross body or in vapour may and doth so far work upon some solid Bodies as for example Quicklime Hay in a Mow the Pyrites or Firestone c. as to cause an incalescency and even an accension but still this is by the discord or contrariety of the parts of water or vapour and those of the forementioned Bodies meeting and strugling together So in Tempests of Thunder and
are certain times when Iniquity doth abound and Wickedness overflow in a Nation or City and that long Peace and Prosperity and great Riches are apt to create Pride and Luxury and introduce a general Corruption of Manners And that at such times God usually sends some sweeping Judgment either utterly destroying such a People who have filled up the measure of their iniquity or at least grievously afflicts and diminishes them So when in the old World the wickedness of man was great upon the earth and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually Gen. 6. 5. And the earth was corrupt before God and filled with violence all flesh having corrupted their ways vers 11. 12. God brought in the Flood and drowned them all The like vengeance we find executed on the Cities of Sodom and Gomorrha after such a monstrous height of wickedness as the Inhabitants were generally arrived at And we shall find it noted by Historians That before any great publick Calamity or utter Excision of a Nation the People were become universally vicious and corrupt in their Manners and without all fear of God or sence of Goodness For God doth not stand by as an idle and unconcerned Spectator and suffer things to run at random but his Providence many times interposes and stops the usual course and current of Natural Causes Nay I believe and affirm That in all great and notable Revolutions and Mutations he hath the greatest hand and interest himself ordering and governing them by his special Superintendence and influence So though the Instruments and Materials wherewith this devastation in Iamaica was made as a subterraneous fire and inflamable materials were before in the Earth yet that they should at this time break forth and work when there was such an inundation of wickedness there and particularly and especially at Port-Royal this we may confidently say was the finger of God and effected perchance by the ministery of an Angel Moreover This Relator's being called aside and stopped from going to a place whither if he had then gone he had certainly perished we have good reason to think an effect of Providence designing thereby his preservation as Gregory the Bishop of Antioch his going out of the House wherein he abode immediately before it fell down was rationally thought to be in respect of him But to proceed I should now have done concerning Earthquakes it being my design only to take notice of such as have made considerable mutations in the superficial part of the Earth passing by those which after a short trembling and succussion have left the Earth as they found it making no alteration at all therein But at the very time this sheâ—t of Earthquakes was Composing there happening a notable one though of this latter kind in our own Country I was partly by the coincidence of it with the composure before-mentioned partly at the request of the Bookseller induced to make some mention of it and add what I knew or could learn of its History which is indeed very little and inconsiderable we having as yet but a very lame and imperfect account of the Accidents of it As for the time when it happened it was the 8th of September 1692. about 4 Minutes past Two of the Clock in the Afternoon as was observed at London hereabouts I can hear of no body that was so critical in noting the time only they agree that it was about Two of the Clock Had we a punctual and exact notice of the very Minute that it happened in far distant places we might thence gather something concerning the motion and progress of it However it is remarkable that it happened in the Autumn one of the Seasons in which Aristotle tells us such effects are most frequent the other being the Spring and likewise in the Month of September in the which that about Oxford in the Year 1683. fell out and moreover in a wet Season as that also did though the Forenoon of the day was clear and fair yet in the Afternoon when the Earthquake was past it rained hard till Night the whole precedent Summer to this I mean having been cold and wet which what influence it can have toward the production of an Earthquake unless by stopping the Pores of the Earth and hindring the evaporation of those sulphureous steams which are the efficients of it I know not The same Night succeeded some strokes of Thunder and Flashes of Lightning both here and at London and since then we have had great storms of Wind. I might have taken notice that for some Mornings before we had smart Frosts for the time of the Year Since this was written and sent away in order to printing I am advis'd by Letter from my honoured Friend Dr. Tancred Robinson that this Earthquake was not confin'd to some Counties of England as Middlesex Essex Kent Sussex Hampshire c. but spread far into Foreign Parts an Account whereof I shall give you in the Doctor 's own words The Concussion or Vibration of our late Earthquake was felt in most parts of the Dutch and Spanish Netherlands as also in Germany and France It affected places most upon the Sea-Coasts and near the great Rivers as Zealand Cologn Mentz and the Bridge of London It went not beyond 52 Degrees and 40 Minutes of Northern Latitude how far it reach'd to the South and East is not yet certainly known for want of good Intelligence we have already traced it beyond Paris to the 48 degree of N. Latitude and beyond the Rhine on the East to Francfort so that we know at present of 260 Miles square shaken by it The motions of some Machines were very sensibly stop't or retarded by the Choc especially Pendulums and there were some alterations in the Air as to its smell spring and gravity both before and after The time of its happening here in England and beyond the Seas seems to vary some Minutes but that may easily be accounted for by the difference of Meridians Thus far the Doctor Dat. Septemb. 22. The duration or continuance of it as I am informed by some curious and attentive Observers about London was about Two Minutes here not so long The manner of the motion as I am assured by my Learned and Ingenious Friend and Neighbour Mr. Allen Physitian in Braintree who had it from several intelligent and observant Persons hereabouts and that lived in distant places was first a manifest heaving upwards and after that a trembling or vibration or agitation to and fro So that in the first respect its motion seemed to resemble that of the Blood in an Artery stretching the Channel as it passed The motion of it was most considerable upon Hills and in Valleys The effect it had upon those who were sensible of it was a swimming or dizziness in their Heads and this was general upon all In some it affected their Stomacks and created a loathing and inclination to vomit Some of the tenderer Sex
found in themselves such a disposition as they have had before a swooning fit All which must be the effects either of the heaving or tremulous motion or both and yet no motion of Boat or Coach doth so suddenly affect and disturb the Head or Stomack Lastly It was attended with a noise as our Earthquakes generally in England are as is observed by Mr. Pigot in that of Oxford in the Year 1683. and by my self when I lived in Sutton â—â—field in 〈◊〉 that happen'd there in the Winter time as I remember in the Year 1677 and extended at least 40 Miles in length into Worcestershire The noise I heard seem'd to be in the Air. This noise hereabouts was heard but in few places and by few persons but yet I am well assured by some and those of the Vulgar and Ignorant sort who reported it of themselves having no reason to seign it and who had never heard that any such thing accompanied Earthquakes From many of the fore-mentioned particulars it may be collected That the Caverns in which the inflamed Damp causing this Earthquake was contained lye deep in the Earth else could it not have shook such a vast extent of Ground both Hills and Valleys passing under the Channels of great Rivers and even Creeks of the Sea and not being stop't by them and if it had not lain deep it would in all likelyhood some where or other have rent the Earth and broken forth And yet notwithstanding the depth it should seem it found so much vent as to affect the external Air and create a sound for if the Caverns wherein the Damp was had been close shut up with such a thick Coat of Earth I doubt whether the trembling and vibration of the soft Earth alone would have produced such a noise abroad in the Air and the vapour of it also made a shift to struggle through the Pores of the Earth into the open Air in such quantity as to affect the sence a sulphurous scent having been observed in the Air both before and after the Concussion It is moreover very remarkable That there were some particular spots which were not at all stirred in those Countreys where the places not far distant round about were shaken as Sturbridge-Fair before remembred and that where my Dwelling is neither my self nor any of my Family though they were above stairs nor any of our near Neighbours being sensible of the least motion or impression of it and yet those living within less then half a mile had their Houses considerably shaken by it It is also worth the noting That both this and all other Earthquakes I have heard or read of in England have been very short and finished at one explosion which is an argument that the Cavities and Cuniculi wherein the enflamed matter is contained and moves are very strait and of small dimensions Explosion I call it because by the quickness of the motion it seems rather to resemble that of Powder in a Gun then that of a Squib running in a Train of Powder Though others I have read of whose motion was very slow as that observed by the Honourable Mr. Boyl and described in the Philosophical Transactions Numb 11. Had we certain knowledge where the greatest force of this Earthquake was we might thence learn where its first accension was and which way it spread it self But I have not time to enlarge further concerning it or to give an account of all its Phoenomena lest I injure the Printer by stopping the Press neither indeed would it be prudence to attempt it till we have a more particular and perfect History of it Since this was written and sent away to the Printer intelligence is come from beyond the Seas that Flanders and all Holland part of France and Germany were shaken by this Earthquake and consequently the interjacent Provinces which is a clear demonstration of our Opinion That the inflamed Damp which caused it was lodged deep in the Earth the Cuniculi or Caverns which contained it passing under the very bottom of the Sea It is also a great confirmation of what we have delivered concerning the Mountains of Aetna Stromboli and Vesuvius communicating by Submarine passages Add hereto that Gassendus in the Life of Peireskius reports That at the Mountain Semo in Aethiopia there happened a burning at the same time with that of Vesuvius in Campania viz. in the Year 1633. So that not only Vesuvius communicates with Aetna by subterraneous Vaults but also as he rationally infers Aetna with the Mountains of Syria the Tunnels running under the depths of the Mediterranean Sea and those with the Arabian and lastly the Arabian with Mount Semo in Aethiopia That an inflamed Damp or subterraneous Fire is the cause of all Earthquakes in general and not only such as precede the eruptions of Vulcano's may be proved by an eminent instance of an Earthquake happening May 12. 1682. which shook the greatest part of France and Switzerland and reach't as far as Collen in Germany an Account whereof we have in the Iournal des Scavans set forth Iune 1. 1682. inserted in the Weekly Memorials printed for Mr. Faithorne Numb 23. In which they write That it was perceived in Lionnois which was wont 〈◊〉 pass for a place exempt from such Accidents in Pâ—phiny and Beaujolois though very 〈◊〉 and without any ill consequence That at Mets in Lorrain the Watch-place of a Bulwark was thrown down into the 〈◊〉 with the Soldier that stood Sentinel 〈◊〉 That at Tonnerre the Houses and Churches were so terribly shaken as if several Coaches with six Horses had driven along full speed through the Streets and that it threw down several Rocks on the side of Bourbirant They tell also that it stop't a Fountain at Raviere hard by which at fifty paces from its head turns a Mill for half an hour That it was perceived in Provence by the shaking of Windows and Beds and opening of Doors and that it had two several motions or pulses as ours also was by some observed to have and that the Domestick Animals as Sheep Cows Horses and Poultry did discover their fear by unusual motions and cries And the Sheep at Dijon in Burgundy could not be stopt from getting into their Stalls at four of the Clock in the Afternoon which were not then wont to betake themselves thither till Sun-set That the Cities of Orleans Troyes Sens Chalons Ioinville Reims Soissons Laon Mascon Dole Strasbourg c. felt the Effects of it But at Remiremont upon the Moselle where it exerted its greatest force throwing down several Houses insomuch that the Inhabitants were forced to betake themselves into the Fields for six weeks time there was a noise heard like Thunder and flames frequently broke out of the Earth of a noisome scent but not Sulphureous and which burnt nothing yet was there no rift or chap in the ground save only in one place the depth whereof was in vain search't and which afterwards closed up
Town who retired thither perished there with many other persons there remaining only one Abby and about fifty Houses and those so shattered that they fell one after another There were about six hundred of the Inhabitants drown'd the rest being abroad in the Field gathering their silk fled to the Mountains where they suffered very much for want of Provisions The Goods Trees Stone Sand and other Rubbish which the Waters carried away were in so great abundance that they made a bank above the Water two Miles in length near the mouth of the River where before the Sea was very deep This Town is situate in that part of Sicily called the Valley of Demona on the side of the River Tortorica about five and Twenty Miles from the Tuscan Sea The Towns of Randazzo and Francaville and several others have likewise been destroyed by this great Flood It is added that Mount Aetna casts out such abundance of Water that all the neighbouring Country is drowned Which if it be true as I see no reason to doubt it this is a further proof against Borellius that the Caverns of Aetna are more then superficial and reach down to the very Roots and Foundations of that Mountain communicating with the Subterraneous Abyss and the Sea its self from whence in all likelyhood these Waters were derived as is evident in those poured out by Vesuvius Many other Floods we read of in Histories whether caused by Rains or Inundations of the Sea is uncertain and therefore I shall not spend time in setting them down The effect of all which relating to the Earth in general is the wasting and washing away of Mountains and high Grounds the raising of the Valleys and Bottoms and consequently levelling of the Earth and landing up of the Sea Thirdly The last thing I shall mention which hath effected considerable Changes in the Earth is boisterous and outragious Winds and Hurricanes of which I need not give Instances they every year almost happening These I conceive have a great Interest in the Inundations of the Sea we have before mentioned These raise up those great Hills or Downs of Sand we see all along the Coasts of the Low-Countreys and the Western-shores of England and the like places These sometimes blow up so much Sand and drive it so far as to cover the adjacent Countreys and to mar whole Fields yea to bury Towns and Villages They are also a concurrent cause of those huge Banks and Shelves of Sand that are so dangerous to Mariners and bar up Havens and ruin Port-Towns of which many Instances might be given I find in Dr. Hakewil's Apology a story or two shewing the great force and strength of Winds the one taken out of Bellarmine's Book De ascensu mentis in Deum per scal creat grad 2. Vidi ego saith the Cardinal quod nisi vidissem non crederem à vehementissimo vento effossam ingentem terrae molem eámque delatam super pagum quendam ut fovea altissima conspiceretur unde terra eruta fuerat pagus totus coopertus quasi sepultus manserit ad quem terra illa devenerat i. e. I my self have seen which if I had not seen I should not have believed a very great quantity of Earth digged out and taken up by the force of a strong Wind and carried up a Village thereby so that there remained to be seen a great empty hollowness in the place from whence it was lifted and the Village upon which it lighted was in a manner all covered over and buried in it The other out of Stow who reports That in the Year 1095. during the Reign of King William Rufus there happened in London an outragious Wind which bore down in that City alone six hundred Houses and blew off the Roof of Bow-Church with which the Beams were born into the Air a great height six whereof being 27 foot long with their fall were driven 23 foot deep into the ground the streets of the City lying then unpaved Now then to sum up what we have said The Changes and Alterations that have been made in the Superficial Part of the Terraqueous Globe have been effected chiefly by Water Fire and Wind. Those by Water have been either by the Motions of the Sea or by Rains and both either ordinary or extraordinary The ordinary Tides and Spring-tides of the Sea do wash away the shores and change Sand-banks and the like The extraordinary and tempestuous motions of the Sea raised by raging and impetuous Winds subterraneous Fires or some other hidden causes overwhelm Islands open Fretum's throw up huge beds and banks of Sand nay vast baiches of Stone extending some Miles and drown whole Countreys The ordinary Rains contribute something to the daily diminution of the Mountains filling up of the Valleys and atterrating the skirts of the Seas The extraordinary Rains causing great Floods and Deluges have more visible and remarkable influences upon such mutations doing that in a few days which the ordinary Weather could not effect it may be in an hundred years In all these Changes the Winds have a great interest the motion of the Clouds being wholly owing to them and in a great measure also the overflowings and inundations of the Sea Whatever Changes have been wrought by Earthquakes Thunders and Eruptions of Vulcano's are the effects of Fire All these Causes co-operate toward the lowring of the Mountains levelling of the Earth straitning and landing up of the Sea and in fine compelling the Waters to return upon the dry Land and cover the whole Surface of it as at the first How to obviate this in a natural way I know not unless by a transmutation of the two Elements of Water and Earth one into another which I can by no means grant 'T is true indeed the rocky parts of the Mountains may be so hard and impenetrable as to resist and hold out against all the Assaults of the Water and utmost rage of the Sea but then all the Earth and Sand being washed from them nothing but as it were their Skeletons will remain extant above the Waters and the Earth be in effect drowned But though I cannot imagine or think upon any natural means to prevent and put a stop to this effect yet do I not deny that there may be some and I am the rather inclinable so to think because the World doth not in any degree proceed so fast towards this Period as the force and agency of all these Causes together seem to require For as I said before the Oracle predicting the carrying on the shore of Cilicia as far as Cyprus by the Earth and Mud that the turbid River Pyramus should bring down and let fall in the interjacent strait is so far from being filled up that there hath not any considerable progress been made towards it so far as I have heard or read in these 2000 years And we find by experience that the longer the World lasts the fewer Concussions and
Mutations are made in the upper or superficial Region of the Earth the parts thereof seeming to tend to a greater quiet and settlement Besides the Superficies of the Sea notwithstanding the overwhelming and submersion of Islands and the straitning of it about the Outlets of Rivers and the Earth it washes from the shores subsiding and elevating the bottom seems not to be raised higher nor spread further or bear any greater proportion to that of the Land then it did a thousand years ago So have I finished my second Discourse concerning the Deluge and its Effects and the Mutations that have been since made in the Earth and their Causes DISCOURSE III. OF THE DISSOLUTION OF THE WORLD THE INTRODUCTION TO THE Third Discourse THERE is implanted in the Nature of Man a great desire and curiosity of fore-knowing future Events and what shall befal themselves their Relations and Dependents in time to come the Fates of Kingdoms and Commonwealths especially the Periodical Mutations and final Catastrophe of the World Hence in ancient times Divination was made a Science or Mystery and many Nations had their Colledges or Societies of Wise-men Magicians Astrologers and Sooth-sayers as for example the Egyptians Babylonians and Romans Hence the Vulgar are very prone to consult Diviners and Fortune-tellers To gratifie in some measure this Curiosity and that his People might not in any Priviledge be inferiour to the Nations about them it pleased God besides the standing Oracle of Vrim not only upon special occasions to raise up among the Iews extraordinary Prophets by immediate Mission but also to settle a constant Order and Succession of them for the maintenance and upholding whereof there were Colledges and Seminaries instituted for the educating and fitting young Men for the Prophetick Function These were the Sons of the Prophets of whom we find so frequent mention in Scripture Moreover it pleased God so far to condescend to the weakness of the Iews that in the Infancy of their State he permitted them to consult his Prophets concerning ordinary accidents of life and affairs of small moment As we see Saul did Samuel about the loss of his Fathers Asses which it 's not likely he would have done had it not been usual and customary so to do In the latter times of that State we read of no consulting of Prophets upon such occasions At last also by their own confession the Spirit of Prophecy was quite taken away and nothing left them but a Vocal Oracle which they called Bath col i. e. the Daughter of a Voice or the Daughter of Thunder a Voice out of a Voice This Dr. Light foot thinks to have been a meer Fancy or Imposture Quae de Bath Kol referunt Iudaei ignoscant illi mihi si ego partim pro fabulis habeam Iuduicis partim pro praestigis Diabolicis What the Iews report concerning Bath Kol I beg their pardon if I esteem them no other then either Jewish Fables or Diabolical Illusions It is a Tradition among them that after the death of the last Prophets Haggai Zachary and Malachy the Holy Spirit departed from Israel But why I beseech you was Prophecy withdrawn if Coelestial Oracles were to be continued Why was Vrim and Thummim taken away or rather not restored by their own confession after the Babylonish Captivity It were strange indeed that God taking away his ordinary Oracles from a People should bestow upon them one more or equally noble and that after they were extremely degenerated and fallen into all manner of Impiety Superstition and Heresy c. And a little after if I may freely speak what I think those innumerable Stories which every where occur in the Jewish Writings concerning Bath Kol are to be reduced to two Heads viz. 1. The most of them are meer Fables invented in honour of this or that Rabbin or to gain credit to some History 2. The rest meer Magical and Diabolical Illusions c. In the Primitive Churches of Christians planted by the Apostles there was also an Order of Prophets 1 Cor. 12. 28. God hath set some in the Church first Apostles secondarily Prophets c. This Spirit of Prophecy was an extraordinary and temporary Gift as were the Gifts of Healing and Speaking with Tongues continuing not long after the Death of the Apostles and Consignation of the Canon of Scripture So that now we have no means left us of coming to the knowledge of future Events but the Prophecies contained in the Writings of the Holy Penmen of Scripture which we must search diligently consider attentively and compare together if we desire to understand any thing of what shall befal the Christian Church or State in time to come This Text which I have made choice of for my Subject is part of a Prophecy concerning the greatest of all Events the Dissolution of the World 2 PETER iii. 11. Seeing then all these things shall be dissolved what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness CHAP. 1. The Division of the Words and Doctrine contained in them with the Heads of the following Discourse THESE Words contain in them two Parts 1. An Antecedent or Doctrine All these things shall be dissolved 2. A Consequent or Inference thereupon What manner of persons ought we to be The Doctrine here only briefly hinted or summarily proposed is laid down more fully in the precedent Verse But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night in which the Heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat the Earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up These words are by the generality of Interpreters Ancient and Modern understood of the final destruction or dissolution of Heaven and Earth in which sense I shall choose rather to accept them at present than with the Reverend and Learned Dr. Hammond and some few others to stem the Tide of Expositors and apply them to the destruction of Ierusalem and the Jewish Polity I say then That this World and all things therein contained shall one day be dissolved and destroyed by Fire By World in this Proposition We and by Heaven and Earth in this place the most rational Interpreters of Scripture do understand only the whole Compages of this sublunary World and all the Creatures that are in it all that was destroyed by the Flood in the days of Noah and now secured from perishing so again that I may borrow Dr. Hammond's words in his Annotations on this place And again the word Heavens saith he being an Equivocal word is used either for the superiour Heavens whether Empyreal or Ethereal or for the sublunary Heavens the Air as the word World is either the whole Compages of the superiour and inferiour World as the Author of the Book De Mundo ascribed falsly to Aristotle defines 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Systeme or Compages of Heaven and Earth and the Beings therein contained or
purpose but that hath been already done by others But this Opinion how general soever it was formerly was inconsiderately and without sufficient ground taken up at first and afterwards without due examination embraced and followed as appears by Dr. Hakewil's Apology wherein it is so fundamentally confuted that it hath since been rejected by all considerate Persons For that Author hath at large demonstrated that neither the pretended decay of the Heavenly Bodies in regard of Motion Light Heat or Influence or of any of the Elements neither the pretended decay of Animals and particularly and especially of Mankind in regard of Age and Duration of Strength and Stature of Arts and Wits of Manners and Conversation do necessarily infer any decay in the World or any tendency to a Dissolution For though there be at times great Changes of Weather as long continuing Droughts and no less lasting Rains excessive Floods and Inundations of the Sea prodigious Tempests and Storms of Thunder Lightning and Hail which seem to threaten the ruin of the World violent and raging Winds Spouts and Hurricanes which turn up the Sea to the very bottom and spread it over the Land formidable and destructive Earthquakes and furious Eruptions of Vulcano's or burning Mountains which waste the Country far and wide overwhelming or subverting great Cities and burying the Inhabitants in their ruins or as the Scripture speaks Making of a City a heap of a defenced City a ruin Though these and many other Changes do frequently happen at uncertain Seasons as to us yet are they so ordered by the wise Providence of the Almighty Creatour and Governour of the World as nearly to balance one another and to keep all things in an Aequilibrium so that as it is said of the Sea that what it gains in one place it loses in another it may be said proportionably of the other Elements and Meteors That for Example a long Drought in one Place is compensated probably at the same time by as long a Rain in another and at another time the Scene being changed by as durable a Drought in this as lasting a Rain in that The same may be said of violent and continuing Heats and Colds in several Places that they have the like Vicissitudes and Changes whereby in the whole they so balance and counterpoise one another that neither prevails over other but continue and carry on the World as surely and steddily as if there were no such Contrarieties and Fights no such Tumults and Commotions among them The only Objection against this Opinion is the Longaevity of the Antediluvian Patriarchs and of some also I mean the first of the Postdiluvian For immediately after the Flood the Age of Man did gradually decrease every Generation in great proportions so that had it continued so to do at that rate the Life of Man had soon came to nothing Why it should at last settle at Threescore and ten Years as a mean Term and there continue so many Ages without any further Change and Diminution is I confess a Mystery too hard for me to reveal However there must be a great and extraordinary Change at the time of the Flood either in the Temperature of the Air or Quality of the Food or in the Temper and Constitution of the Body of Man which induced this decrement of Age. That the Temper and Constitution of the Bodies of the Antediluvians was more firm and durable than that of their Posterity after the Flood and that this Change of Term of Life was not wholly to be attributed to Miracle may both be demonstrated from the gradual decrease of the Age of the Postdiluvians For had it been miraculous why should not the Age of the very first Generation after the Flood have been reduced to that Term And what account can we give of their holding out for some Generations against the Inconveniencies of the Air or deteriority of Diet but the strength and firmness of their Constitutions which yet was originally owing to the Temperature of the Air or Quality of their Diet or both seeing a Change in these for there was no other visible Cause did by degrees prevail against and impair it What influence the lying so long of the Water upon the Earth might have upon the Air and Earth in châ—nging them for the worse and rendring them more unfit for the maintenance and continuance of Humane Life I will not now dispute But whatever might be the Cause of the Longaevity of the Antediluvians and the contracting of the Age of the Postdiluvians it is manifest that the Age of these did at the last settle as I said at or about the Term of Threescore and ten and hath there continued for Three thousand years without any diminution I proceed now to the Accidents which might possibly in process of Time infer a Dissolution of the World 1. The possibility of the Water in process of Time again overflowing and covering of the Earth For first of all the Rains continually washing down and carrying away Earth from the Mountains it is necessary that as well the height as the bulk of them that are not wholly rocky should answerably decrease and that they do so is evident in Experience For as I have elsewhere noted I have been informed by a Gentleman of good Credit that whereas the Steeple of Craich in the Peak of Derbyshire in the memory of some old Men then living 1672. could not have been seen from a certain Hill lying between Hopton and Wirksworth now not only the Steeple but a great part of the Body of the Church may from thence be seen which comes to pass by the sinking of a Hill between the Church and the place of view a parallel example whereto the learned Dr. Plot gives us in a Hill between Sibbertoft and Hasleby in Northamptonshire Hist Nat. Stafford p. 113. And thus will they continue to do so long as there falls any Rains and as they retain any declivity that is till they be levelled with the Plains In confirmation of this Particular I have received from my ingenious Friend Mr. Edward Lloyd some notable Observations of his own making concerning the Mountains of Wales which do demonstrate that not only the looser and the lighter parts of the Mountains as Earth Sand Gravel and small Stones may be washed down by the Rains but the most solid and bulky Rocks themselves by the violent descent of the Waters down their Chinks and Precipices be in time undermined and subverted Take them in his own words Vpon the reading of your Discourse of the Rains continually washing away and carrying down Earth from the Mountains I was put in mind of something pertinent thereto which I have observed in the Mountains of Caernarvonshire viz 1. First That generally the higher the Hills are the more steep are their Precipices and Declivities I except the Sea-rocks thus Moelâ—y Wydhrha y Gâ—îb gôtch and twenty others that might be named reputed the highest Hills in Wales have
in his Book De Mundi Fabrica more briefly Pergratum Lectori fore existimavi si rem sâ—itu dignissimam exposuero c. I thought it might be very acceptable to the Reader if I should discover to him a thing most worthy to be known which I have long ago and for a long time observed and am daily more confirmed in especially seeing no former Writer that I know of hath published any thing concerning it It is this That the Superficies of the whole Earth which is now rough and uneven by reason of Mountains and Valleys and so only rudely Sphaerical is daily from the very beginning of the World reducing to a perâ—â—â—t roundness in so much that it will necessarily come to pass in a natural way that it be one day overflown by the Sea and rendred unhabitble First then that we may clearly apprehend the Causes of this thing we must lay down as a Foundation from Holy Writ That the Terraqueous Globe was in the beginning endued with a more perfect Spherical Figure that is without any inequalities of Mountains and Valleys and that it was wholly covered with the Sea and so altogether unfit for Terrestrial Animals to inhabit but it was then rendred habitable when by the beck or command of its Creator the greatest part of the Land was translated from one place to another whereupon here appeared the hollows of the Seas there the heights of the Mountains And all the Waters which before covered the face of the whole Earth receded and flowing down filled those depressed and hollow places and this Congregation of Waters was called the Sea Hence some grave Authors doubt not to assert That the Mountains were made up of that very Earth which before filled the Cavities of the Sea Whence it follows that the Earth as now it is mountainous and elevated above the Waters hath not its Natural Figure but is in a violent state but Nullum violentum est perpetuum Besides the Earth being heavier then the Water none of its parts ought to be extant and appear above its Superficies and yet we see that the Earth is really higher than the Sea especially the mountainous parts of it in which respect also both Land and Water are in a violent state Wherefore it is very convenient to the Nature of both that they should daily return towards their ancient and primigenial state and figure and accordingly we affirm that they do so Moreover we say that the Waters both of Rains and Rivers are the Cause of this Restitution as will appear by the following Observations First we see that Rivers do daily fret and undermine the Roots of the Mountains so that here and there from most Mountains they cause great Ruins and Precipices whence the Mountains appear broken and the Earth so fallen from the Mountains the Rivers carry down to the lower places From these Corrosions of the Rivers proceed these â—low but great Ruines called Labinae à labendo in which some Streets and whole Villages are precipitated into the Rivers 2. We daily see that the Rain-waters wash away the Superficies of the Mountains and carry them down to the lower places Hence it comes to pass that the higher Mountains are also harder and more stony than the rest by means whereof they better resist the Water Hence also it comes to pass that ancient Buildings in Mountains their Foundations being by degrees discovered prove not very durable For which reason the Foundations of the Roman Capitol are now wholly extant above ground which of old at its first erection were sunk very deep into it This same thing all the Inhabitants of the Mountains do confirm all saying that this lowering of Mountains was long since known to them for that formerly some intermediate Mountains intercepted the sight of a Castle or Tower situate in a more remote Mountain which after many Years the intervenient Mountain being depressed came clearly into view And George Agricola is of Opinion which I very much approve of that the Rivers produced the Mountains and Hills in this manner In the beginning of the World there were not so many particular divided Mountains but only perpetual eminent Ridges of Land not dissected into so many Valleys as we now see So for example our Appennine was at first one continued even eminent Ridge of Land not divided into any particular Mountains and Hills by intervening Valleys as now it is but that after the Rivers began to flow down from the top of it by little and little fretting and corroding the Ground they made Valleys and daily more and more and by this means the whole Apennine came to be divided into many Hills and Mountains 3. In Plains we see the directly contrary happens for the Plains are daily more and more elevated because the Waters do let fall in the plain and hollow places the Earth they brought down with them from the Mountains Hence we see that ancient Buildings in such places are almost wholly buried in the ground So in Rome at the foot of the Capitoline Mountain we see the Triumphal Arch of Septimius almost wholly overwhelmed in the Earth and every-where in ancient Cities many Gates and Doors of Houses almost landed up little thereof being extant above ground From which it appears that this sinking and demersion of Buildings into the Earth is a manifest sign of their Antiquity which is so much the greater by how much the deeper they are sunk So for example at Bononia in Italy many of the ancient Gates of the City which the Bolognese call Torresotti are very deeply sunk which is a certain argument of their Antiquity and thence it appears to be true that Histories relate that they were built in the time of S. Petronius about 1200 Years ago But here it is to be noted that other things agreeing those are deeper depressed that are built in lower places than those in higher for the reason above-said So at Bononia that old Port called Il Torresotto di S. Georgio is deeplier buried or landed up than that which is called Il Torresotto di Stra Castilione because that is situated in a lower place and therefore the Earth is more easily raised up about it 4. The same is affirmed by Architects who when they dig their Foundations do every-where in plain places first of all remove the Earth which they call Commota loose or shaken which is mixt with Fragments of Wood Iron Rubbish Coyns ancient Urns and other things which when it is thrown out they come to another sort of Earth that hath never been stirred but is solid compact and not mixt with any heterogeneous things especially artificial That moved Commota and impure Earth is it which the Waters have by little and little brought down from the higher to the more depressed places which is not every-where of equal depth But now because in the Mountains there is no where found such moved or new Earth as is plain from the Experience of
Church to St. Ives and above two Miles distant from the Sea almost covered with the Sand little being extant above it but the Steeple and Ridge of the Roof Nay a great part of St. Ives itself lies buâ—ied in the Sand and I was told there that in one Night there had been a whole Street of Houses so covered with Sand that in the Morning they were fain to dig their way out of their Houses through it All along the Western Shoar of Wales there are great Hills of Sand thus blown up by the Wind. We observed also upon the Coast of Flanders and Holland the like sandy Hills or Downs from which Westerly Winds drive the Sand a great way into the Country But there are not many places liable to this Accident viz. where the bottom of the Sea is sandy and where the Wind most frequently blows from off the Sea where the Wind sets from the Land toward the Sea this happens not where it is indifferent it must in reason carry off as much as it brings on unless other Causes hinder SECT II. The Second possible Cause of the World's Destruction in a Natural Way the Extinction of the Sun II. THE possibility of the Sun's extinction Of which Accident I shall give an Account in Dr. More 's words in the last Chapter of his Treatise of the Immortality of the Soul This saith he though it may seem a Panick Fear at first sight yet if the matter be throughly examined there will appear no contemptible Reasons that may induce Men to suspect that it may at last fall out there having been at certain times such near Offers in Nature towards this sad Accident already Pliny speaks of it as a thing not unfrequent that there should be Prodigiosi longiores Solis defectus qualis occiso Dictatore Caesare Antoniano bello totius anni pollore continuo Hist. Nat. lib. 2. cap. 30. Prodigious and lasting defects of the Sun such as happened when Caesar the Dictator was slain and in the War with Anthony when it was continually pale and gloomy for a whole Year The like happened in Iustinian's time as Cedrenus writes when for a whole Year together the Sun was of a very dim and duskish Hue as if he had been in a perpetual Eclipse And in the time of Irene the Empress it was so dark for seventeen days together that the Ships lost their way in the Sea and were ready to run one against another as Theophanes reports But the late accurate Discovery of the Spots of the Sun by Scheiner and the appearing and disappearing of Fixt Stars and Comets and the excursions of these last do argue it more than possible that after some vast Periods of Time the Sun may be so inextricably inveloped by the Maculae that he may quite lose his Light and then you may easily guess what would become of the Inhabitants of the Earth For without his vivisick heat neither could the Earth put forth any Vegetables for their sustenance neither if it could would they be able to bear the extremity of the Cold which must needs be more rigorous and that perpetually than it is now under the Poles in Winter time But this accident tho' it would indeed extinguish all Life yet being quite contrary to a Dissolution by Fire of which the Apostle speaks I shall pass it over without further consideration and proceed to a Third SECT III. The Third possible Cause of the World's Destruction The Eruption of the Central Fire III. THE Possibility of the Eruption of the Central Fire if any such there be inclosed in the Earth It is the Hypothesis of Monsieur des Cartes that the Earth was originally a Star or great Globe of Fire like the Sun or one of the Fixt Stars situate in the Center of a Vortex continually whirling round with it That by degrees it was covered over or incrustated with Maculae arising on its Surface like the Scum on a boyling Pot which still increasing and growing thicker and thicker the Star losing its light and activity and consequently the motion of the Celestial Vortex about it growing more weak languid and unable to resist the vigorous incroaehments of the neighbouring Vortex of the Sun it was at last drawn in and wholly absorpt by it and forced to comply with its motion and make one in the Quire of the Sun's Satellites This whole Hypothesis I do utterly disallow and reject Neither did the Author himself if we may believe him think it ture that the Earth was thus generated For he saith Quinimo ad res naturales meliùs explicandas earum causas altiùs hic repetam quà m ipsas unquam extitisse existimem Non enim dubium est quin mundus ab initio fuerit creatus cum omni sua perfectione ità ut in eo Sol Terra Luna Stellae extiterint Hoc fides Christiana nos docet hócque etiam ratio naturalis planè persuadet Attendendo enim ad immensam Dei potentiam non possumus existimare illum unquam quidquam fecisse quod non omnibus suis numeris fuerit absolutum That is Moreover for the better explicating of Natural Things I shall bring them from higher or more remote Causes than I think they ever had For there is no doubt but the World was originally created in its full perfection so that in it were contained both Sun and Moon and Earth and Stars c. For this the Christian Faith teacheth us and this also Natural Reason doth plainly persuade for attending to the immense Power of God we cannot think that he ever made any thing that was not complete in all points But thô he did not believe that the Earth was generated or formed according to his Hypothesis yet surely he was of Opinion that it is at present such a Body as he represented it after its perfect Formation viz. with a Fire in the middle and so many several Crusts or Coats inclosing it else would he have given us a mere Figment or Romance instead of a Body of Philosophy But tho' I do reject the Hypothesis yet the being of a Central Fire in the Earth is not so far as I understand any way repugnant to Reason or Scripture For first of all the Scripture represents Hell as a Lake of Fire Mark 9. 43 44 c. Revel 20. 10 14 15. and likewise as a low place beneath the Earth So Pslam 86. 13. and Deut. 32. 22. it is called the nethermost hell Prov. 15. 24. The way of life is above to the wise that he may depart from hell beneath 2. Many of the Ancients understand that Article of the Creed He descended into Hell of our Saviour's Descent into that local Hell beneath the Earth where he trimphed over the Devil and all the Powers of Darkness And particularly Irenaeus interprets that saying of our Saviour That the Son of man should be three days in the heart of the earth of his being three days in