and forerunners of the last day as they usually are of all great changes and calamities The destruction of Ierusalem was a type of the destruction of the World and the Evangelists always mention Earth-quakes amongst the ominous Prodigies that were to attend it But these Earth-quakes we are speaking of at present are but the beginnings of sorrow and not to be compar'd with those that will follow afterwards when Nature is convulst in her last agony just as the flames are seizing on her Of which we shall have occasion to speak hereafter These changes will happen as to the matter and form of the Earth before it is attack'd by the last fire There will be also another change as to the situation of it for that will be rectified and the Earth restor'd to the posture it had at first namely of a right aspect and conversion to the Sun But because I cannot determine at what time this restitution will be whether at the beginning middle or end of the Conflagration I will not presume to lay any stress upon it Plato seems to have imputed the Conflagration to this only which is so far true that the Revolution call'd The Great Year is this very Revolution or the return of the Earth and the Heavens to their first posture But tho' this may be contemporary with the last fire or some way concomitant yet it does not follow that it is the cause of it much less the only cause It may be an occasion of making the fire reach more easily towards the Poles when by this change of situation their long Nights and long Winters shall be taken away These new dispositions in our Earth which we expect before that great day may be look'd upon as extraordinary but not as Miraculous because they may proceed from Natural Causes But now in the last place we are to consider miraculous causes What influence they may have or what part they may bear in this great revolution of Nature By miraculous causes we understand either God's immediate Omnipotency or the Ministry of Angels and what may be perform'd by the latter is very improperly and undecently thrown upon the former 'T is a great step to Omnipotency and 't is hard to define what Miracles on this side Creation require an infinite power We are sure that the Angels are Ministring Spirits and ten thousand times ten thousand stand about the Throne of the Almighty to receive his commands and execute his judgments That perfect knowledge they have of the powers of nature and of conducting those powers to the best advantage by adjusting causes in a fit subordination one to another makes them capable of performing not only things far above our force but even above our imagination Besides they have a radical inherent power belonging to the excellency of their nature of determining the motions of matter within a far greater sphere than humane Souls can pretend to We can only command our spirits and determine their motions within the compass of our own Bodies but their activity and empire is of far greater extent and the outward World is much more subject to their dominion than to ours From these considerations it is reasonable to conclude that the generality of miracles may be and are perform'd by Angels It being less decorous to employ a Sovereign power where a subaltern is sufficient and when we hastily cast things upon God for quick dispatch we consult our own ease more than the honouor of our Maker I take it for granted here that what is done by an Angelical hand is truly providential and of divine administration and also justly bears the character of a miracle Whatsoever may be done by pure material causes or humane strength we account Natural and whatsoever is above these we call supernatural and miraculous Now what is supernatural and miraculous is either the effect of an Angelical power or of a Sovereign and Infinite power And we ought not to confound these two no more than Natural and Supernatural for there is a greater difference betwixt the highest Angelical power and Omnipotency than betwixt an Humane power and Angelical Therefore as the first Rule concerning miracles is this That we must not flie to miracles where Man and Nature are sufficient so the second Rule is this that we must not flie to a sovereign infinite power where an Angelical is sufficient And the reason in both Rules is the same namely because it argues a defect of Wisdom in all Oeconomiles to employ more and greater means than are sufficient Now to make application of this to our present purpose I think it reasonable and also sufficient to admit the ministery of Angels in the future Conflagration of the World If Nature will not lay violent hands upon her self or is not sufficient to work her own destruction Let us allow Destroying Angels to interest themselves in the work as the Executioners of the Divine Justice and Vengeance upon a degenerate World We have examples of this so frequently in Sacred History how the Angels have executed God's Judgments upon a Nation or a People that it cannot seem new or strange that in this last judgment which by all the Prophets is represented as the Great Day of the Lord the day of his Wrath and of his Fury the same Angels should bear their parts and conclude the last scene of that Tragedy which they had acted in all along We read of the Destroying Angel in Aegypt of Angels that presided at the destruction of Sodom which was a Type of the future destrution of the World Iude 7. and of Angels that will accompany our Saviour when he comes in flames of Fire Not we suppose to be Spectators only but Actors and Superintendants in this great Catastrophe This ministery of Angels may be either in ordering and conducting such Natural Causes as we have already given an account of or in adding new ones if occasion be I mean encreasing the quantity of Fire or of fiery materials in and about the Earth So as that Element shall be more abundant and more predominant and overbear all opposition that either Water or any other Body can make against it It is not material whether of these two Suppositions we follow provided we allow that the Conflagration is a work of Providence and not a pure Natural Fatality If it be necessary that there should be an augmentation made of Fiery Matter 't is not hard to conceive how that may be done either from the Heavens or from the Earth The Prophets sometimes speak of multiplying or strengthning the Light of the Sun and it may as easily be conceiv'd of his heat as of his light as if the Vial that was to be pour'd upon it and gave it a power to scorch men with fire had something of a Natural sence as well as Moral But there is another stream of Ethereal matter that flows from the Heavens and recruits the Central Fire with continual supplies
the manners of the people Bohemia Silesia Denmark Norway Sweedland Lapland and Iseland and all the coasts of the Baltick Sea are full of Clifts and Rocks and Crags of Mountains Besides the Riphean Mountains in Muscovy which the Inhabitants there use to call the Stone-girdle and believe that it girds the Earth round about Nor are the other parts of our Continent more free from Mountains than Europe nor other parts of the Earth than our Continent They are in the New World as well as the Old and if they could discover two or three New Worlds or Continents more they would still find them there Neither is there any Original Island upon the Earth but is either all a Rock or hath Rocks and Mountains in it And all the dry Land and every Continent is but a kind of Mountain though that Mountain hath a multitude of lesser ones and Valleys and Plains and Lakes and Marshes and all variety of grounds In America the Andes or a ridge of Mountains so call'd are reported to be higher than any we have reaching above a thousand Leagues in length and twenty in breadth where they are the narrowest In Africk the Mountain Atlas that for its height was said to bear the Heavens on its back runs all along from the Western Sea to the borders of Aegypt parallel with the Mediterranean There also are the Mountains or the Moon and many more whereof we have but an imperfect account as neither indeed of that Country in the remote and inner parts of it Asia is better known and the Mountains thereof better describ'd Taurus which is the principal was adjudg'd by the ancient Geographers the greatest in the World It divides Asia into two parts which have their denomination from it And there is an Anti-Taurus the greater and the less which accordingly divide Armenia into greater and less Then the Cruciform Mountains of Imaus the famous CÃ ucasus the long Chains of Tartary and China and the Rocky and Mountainous Arabia If one could at once have a prospect of all these together one would be easily satisfied that the Globe of the Earth is a more rude and indigested Body than 't is commonly imagin'd If one could see I say all the Kingdoms and Regions of the Earth at one view how they lie in broken heaps The Sea hath overwhelm'd one half of them and what remains are but the taller parts of a ruine Look upon those great ranges of Mountains in Europe or in Asia whereof we have given a short survey in what confusion do they lie They have neither form nor beauty nor shape nor order no more than the Clouds in the Air. Then how barren how desolate how naked are they How they stand neglected by Nature Neither the Rains can soften them nor the Dews from Heaven make them fruitful I have given this short account of the Mountains of the Earth to help to remove that prejudice we are apt to have or that conceit That the present Earth is regularly form'd And to this purpose I do not doubt but that it would be of very good use to have natural Maps of the Earth as we noted before as well as civil and done with the same care and judgment Our common Maps I call Civil which note the distinction of Countries and of Cities and represent the Artificial Earth as inhabited and cultivated But Natural Maps leave out all that and represent the Earth as it would be if there was not an Inhabitant upon it nor evor had been the Skeleton of the Earth as I may so say with the site of all its parts Methinks also every Prince should have such a Draught of his own Country and Dominions to see how the ground lies in the several parts of them which highest which lowest what respect they have to one another and to the Sea how the Rivers flow and why how the Mountains stand how the Heaths and how the Marches are plac'd Such a Map or Survey would be useful both in time of War and Peace and many good observations might be made by it not only as to Natural History and Philosophy but also in order to the perfect improvement of a Country But to return to our Mountains As this View of the multitude and greatness of them may help to rectifie our mistakes about the form of the Earth so before we proceed to examine their causes it will be good to observe farther that these Mountains are plac'd in no order on with another that can either respect use or beauty and if you consider them singly they do not consist of any proportion of parts that is referable to any design or that hath the least footsteps of Art or Counsel There is nothing in Nature more shapeless and ill-figur'd than an old Rock or a Mountain and all that variety that is among them is but the various modes of irregularity so as you cannot make a better character of them in short than to say they are of all forms and figures except regular Then if you would go within these Mountains for they are generally hollow you would find all things there more rude if possible than without And lastly if you look upon an heap of them together or a Mountainous Country they are the greatest examples of confusion that we know in Nature no Tempest or Earthquake puts things into more disorder 'T is true they cannot look so ill now as they did at first a ruine that is fresh looks much worse than afterwards when the Earth grows discolour'd and skin'd over But I fancy if we had seen the Mountains when they were new born and raw when the Earth was fresh-broken and the waters of the Deluge newly retir'd the fractions and confusions of them would have appear'd very gastly and frightful After this general Survey of the Mountains of the Earth and their properties let us now reâ—lect upon the causes of them There is a double pleasure in Philosophy first that of Admiration whilst we contemplate things that are great and wonderful and do not yet understand their Causes for though admiration proceed from ignorance yet there is a certain charm and sweetness in that passion Then the second pleasure is greater and more intellectual which is that of distinct knowledge and comprehension when we come to have the Key that unlocks those secrets and see the methods wherein those things come to pass that we admir'd before The reasons why the World is so or so and from what causes Nature or any part of Nature came into such a state and this we are now to enquire after as to the Mountains of the Earth what their original was how and when the Earth came into this strange frame and structure In the beginning of our World when the Earth rise from a Chaos 't was impossible it should come immediately into this Mountainous form because a mass that is fluid as a Chaos is cannot liâ— in any other figure than what is regular for the
in several Ages and from no other causes but such as still continue to act in Nature namely accidental Earthquakes and Eruptions of Fires and Waters These causes we acknowledge as readily as they do but not as capable to produce so great effects as they would ascribe to them The surface of the Earth may be a little changed by such accidents as these but for the most part they rather sink the Mountains than raise new ones As when Houses are blown up by Mines of Powder they are not set higher but generally fall lower and flatter Or suppose they do sometimes raise an Hill or a little Mount what 's that to the great Mountains of our World to those long and vast piles of Rocks and Stones which the Earth can scarce bear What 's that to strong-backt Taurus or Atlas to the American Andes or to a Mountain that reacheth from the Pyreneans to the Euxine Sea There 's as much difference between these and those factitious Mountains they speak of as betwixt them and Mole-hills And to answer more distinctly to this opinion as before in speaking of Islands we distinguish'd betwixt Factitious and Original Islands so if you please we may distinguish here betwixt Factitious and Original Mountains and allowing some few and those of the fifth or sixth magnitude to have risen from such accidental causes we enquire concerning the rest and the greatest what was their Original If we should suppose that the seven Hills upon which Rome stands came from ruines or eruptions or any such causes it doth not follow that the Alps were made so too And as for Mountains so for the Cavities of the Earth I suppose there may be disruptions sometimes made by Earthquakes and holes worn by subterraneous Fires and Waters but what 's that to the Chanel of the Atlantick Ocean or of the Pacifick Ocean which is extended an hundred and fifty degrees under the Aequator and towards the Poles still further He that should derive such mighty things from no greater causes I should think him a very credulous Philosopher And we are too subject indeed to that fault of credulity in matter of Philosophizing Many when they have found out causes that are proper for certain effects within such a compass they cannot keep them there but they will make them do every thing for them and extend them often to other effects of a superiour nature or degree which their activity can by no means reach to Aetna hath been a burning Mountain ever since and above the memory of Man yet it hath not destroy'd that Island nor made any new Chanel to the Sea though it stands so near it Neither is Vesuvius above two or three miles distant from the Sea-side to the best of my remembrance and yet in so many Ages it hath made no passage to it neither open nor subterraneous 'T is true some Isthmus's have been thrown down by Earthquakes and some Lakes have been made in that manner but what 's this to a Ditch nine thousand miles broad such an one we have upon the Earth and of a depth that is not measurable what proportion have these causes to such an instance and how many thousand Ages must be allow'd to them to do their work more than the Chronology of our Earth will bear Besides When were these great Earthquakes and disruptions that did such great execution upon the body of the Earth Was this before the Flood or since If before then the old difficulty returns how could there be a Flood if the Earth was in this Mountainous form before that time This I think is demonstrated impossible in the Second and Third Chapters If since the Flood where were the Waters of the Earth before these Earthquakes made a Chanel for them Besides Where is the History or Tradition that speaks of these strange things and of this great change of the Earth Hath any writ of the Origins of the Alps In what year of Rome or what Olympiad they were born Or how they grew from little ones how the Earth groan'd when it brought them forth when its bowels were torn by the ragged Rocks Do the Chronicles of the Nations mention these things or ancient fame or ancient Fables were they made all at once or in successive Ages These causes continue still in Nature we have still Earthquakes and subterraneous Fires and Waters why should they not still operate and have the same effects We often hear of Cities thrown down by Earthquakes or Countries swallow'd up but whoever heard of a new chain of Mountains made upon the Earth or a new Chanel made for the Ocean We do not read that there hath been so much as a new Sinus of the Sea ever since the memory of Man Which is far more feasible than what they pretend And things of this nature being both strange and sensible excite admiration and great attention when they come to pass and would certainly have been remembred or propagated in some way or other if they had ever happen'd since the Deluge They have recorded the foundation of Cities and Monarchies the appearance of Blazing Stars the eruptions of fiery Mountains the most remarkable Earthquakes and Inundations the great Eclipses or obscurations of the Sun and any thing that look'd strange or prodigy-like whether in the Heavens or on Earth And these which would have been the greatest prodigles and greatest changes that ever happen'd in nature would these have escap'd all observation and memory of Men That 's as incredible as the things themselves are Lastly To comprehend all these opinions together both of the Ancient and Modern Authors they seem all to agree with us in this That the Earth was once under another form otherwise why do they go about to shew the causes how it came into this form I desire then to know what form they suppose the Earth to have been under before the Mountains were made the Chanel of the Sea or subterraneous Cavities Either they must take that form which we have assign'd it before thâ— Deluge or else they must suppose it cover'd with Water till the Sea-chanels were made and the Mountains brought forth as in that Fig. pag. 37. And no doubt it was once in this form both reason and the authority of Moses assures us of it and this is the Test which every opinion must be brought to how the Earth-emerg'd out of that watery form and in particular as to that opinion which we are now examining the question is how by Earthquakes and fiery eruptions subterraneous Waters and such like causes the body of the Earth could be wrought from that form to this present form And the thing is impossible at first sight for such causes as these could not take place in such an Earth As for subterraneous Waters there could be none at that time for they were all above ground and as for subterraneous Exhalations whether Fiery or Aery there was no place for them neither for the Earth when
He truly supposes the Celestial Bodies and the Inhabitants of them much more considerable than we are and reckons up only Terrestrial things as put in subjection to Man Can we then be so fond as to imagine all the Corporeal Universe made for our use 'T is not the Millioneth part of it that is known to us much less useful We can neither reach with our Eye nor our imagination those Armies of Stars that lie far and deep in the boundless Heavens If we take a good Glass we discover innumerably more Stars in the Firmament than we can with our single Eye and yet if you take a second Glass better than the first that carries the sight to a greater distance you see more still lying beyond the other and a third Glass that pierceth further still makes new discoveries of Stars and so forwards indefinitely and inexhaustedly for any thing we know according to the immensity of the Divine Nature and Power Who can reckon up the Stars of the Galaxy or direct us in the use of them And can we believe that those and all the rest were made for us Of those few Stars that we enjoy or that are visible to the Eye there is not a tenth part that is really useful to Man and no doubt if the principal end of them had been our pleasure or conveniency they would have been put in some better order in respect of the Earth They lie carelesly scatter'd as if they had been sown in the Heaven like Seed by handfuls and not by a skilful hand neither What a beautiful Hemisphere they would have made if they had been plac'd in rank and order if they had been all dispos'd into regular figures and the little ones set with due regard to the greater then all finisht and made up into one fair piece or great Composition according to the rules of Art and Symmetry What a surprizing beauty this would have been to the Inhabitants of the Earth What a lovely Roof to our little World This indeed might have given one some Temptation to have thought that they had been all made for us but lest any such vain imagination should now enter into our thoughts Providence besides more important Reasons seems on purpose to have left them under that negligence or disorder which they appear in to us The second part of this opinion supposeth this Planet where we live to be the only habitable part of the Universe and this is a natural consequence of the former If all things were made to serve us why should any more be made than what is useful to us But 't is only our ignorance of the System of the World and of the grandeur of the Works of God that betrays us to such narrow thoughts If we do but consider what this Earth is both for littleness and deformity and what its Inhabitants are we shall not be apt to think that this miserable Atome hath ingross'd and exhausted all the Divine Favours and all the riches of his goodness and of his Providence But we will not inlarge upon this part of the opinion lest it should carry us too far from the subject and it will fall of its own accord with the former Upon the whole we may conclude that it was only the Sublunary World that was made for the sake of Man and not the Great Creation either Material or Intellectual and we cannot admit or affirm any more without manifest injury depression and misrepresentation of Providence as we may be easily convinc'd from these four Heads The Meanness of Man and of this Earth The Excellency of other Beings The Immensity of the Universe and The infinite perfection of the first Cause Which I leave to your further Meditation and pass on to the second rule concerning Natural Providence In the second place then if we would have a fair view and right apprehensions of Natural Providence we must not cut the chains of it too short by having recourse without necessity either to the First Cause in explaining the Origins of things or to Miracles in explaining particular effects This I say breaks the chains of Natural Providence when it is done without necessity that is when things are otherwise ntelligible from Second Causes Neither is any thing gain'd by it to God Almighty for 't is but as the Proverb says to rob Peter to pay Paul to take so much from his ordinary Providence and place it to his extraordinary When a new Religion is brought into the World 't is very reasonable and decorous that it should be usher'd in with Miracles as both the Iewish and Christian were but afterwards things return into their Chanel and do not change or overflow again but upon extraordinary occasions or revolutions The power Extraordinary of God is to be accounted very Sacred not to be touch'd or expos'd for our pleasure or conveniency but I am afraid we often make use of it only to conceal our own ignorance or to save us the trouble of inquiring into Natural Causes Men are generally unwilling to appear ignorant especially those that make profession of knowledge and when they have not skill enough to explain some particular effect in a way of Reason they throw it upon the First Cause as able to bear all and so placing it to that account they excuse themselves and save their credit for all Men are equally wise if you take away Second Causes as we are all of the same colour if you take away the Light But to state this matter and see the ground of this rule more distinctly we must observe and consider that The Course of Nature is truly the Will of God and as I may so say his first Will from which we are not to recede but upon clear evidence and necessity And as in matter of Religion we are to follow the known reveal'd Will of God and not to trust to every impulse or motion of Enthusiasm as coming from the Divine Spirit unless there be evident marks that it is Supernatural and cannot come from our own So neither are we without necessity to quit the known and ordinary Will and Power of God establisht in the course of Nature and fly to Supernatural Causes or his extraordinary Will for this is a kind of Enthusiasm or Fanaticism as well as the other And no doubt that great prodigality and waste of Miracles which some make is no way to the honour of God or Religion 'T is true the other extream is worse than this for to deny all Miracles is in effect to deny all reveal'd Religion therefore due measures are to be taken betwixt these two so as neither to make the Divine Power too mean and cheap nor the Power of Nature illimited and all-sufficient In the Third place To make the Scenes of Natural Providence considerable and the knowledge of them satisfactory to the Mind we must take a true Philosophy or the true principles that govern Nature which are Geometrical and
G. Kneller Eques Pinxit R White Sculpsit Eâ—â—ies Authâ—ris The Sacred Theory of the EARTH THE THEORY OF THE EARTH Containing an Account OF THE Original of the Earth AND OF ALL THE GENERAL CHANGES Which it hath already undergone OR IS TO UNDERGO Till the CONSUMMATION of all Things THE TWO FIRST BOOKS Concerning The DELVGE AND Concerning PARADISE The Third Edition review'd by the Author LONDON Printed by R. N. for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's-Head in S. Paul's Church-Yard 1697. TO THE KING'S MOST Excellent Majesty SIR NEW found Lands and Countreys accrew to the Prince whose Subject makes the first Discovery And having retriev'd a World that had been lost for some thousands of Years out of the Memory of Man and the Records of Time I thought it my Duty to lay it at Your Majesty's Feet 'T will not enlarge Your Dominions 't is past and gone nor dare I say it will enlarge Your Thoughts But I hope it may gratifie Your Princely curiosity to read the Description of it and see the Fate that attended it We have still the broken Materials of that first World and walk upon its Ruines while it stood there was the Seat of Paradise and the Scenes of the Golden Age when it fell it made the Deluge And this â—â—shapen Earth we now inhabit is the Form it was found in when the Waters had retir'd and the dry Land appear'd These things Sir I propose and presume to prove in the following Treatise which I willingly submit to Your Majesty's Iudgment and Censure being very well satisfied that if I had sought a Patron in all the List of Kings Your Contemporaries Or in the Roll of Your Nobles of either Order I could not have found a more competent Iudge in a Speculatitn of this Nature Your Majesty's Sagacity and happy Genius for Natural History for Observations and Remarks upon the Earth the Heavens and the Sea is a better preparation for Inquiries of this kind than all the dead Learning of the Schools Sir This Theory in the full extent of it is to reach to the last Period of the Earth and the End of all things But this first Volume takes in only so much as is already past from the Origin of the Earth to this present time and state of Nature To describe in like manner the Changes and Revolutions of Nature that are to come and see thorough all succeeding Ages will require a steddy and attentive Eye and a retreat from the noise of the World Especially so to connect the parts and present them all under one view that we may see as in a Mirrour the several faces of Nature from First to Last throughout all the Circle of Successions Your Majesty having been pleas'd to give encouragement to this Translation I humbly present it to Your Gracious Acceptance And 't is our Interest as well as Duty in Disquisitions of this Nature to Address our selves to Your Majesty as the Defender of our Philosophick Liberties against those that would usurp upon the Fundamental privilege and Birth-right of Mankind The Free use of Reason Your Majesty hath always appear'd the Royal Patron of Learning and the Sciences and 't is suitable to the Greatness of a Princely Spirit to favour and promote whatsoever tends to the enlargement of Humane Knowledge and the improvement of Humane Nature To be Good and Gracious and a Lover of Knowledge are methinks two of the most amiable things in this World And that Your Majesty may always bear that Character in present and future Ages and after a long and prosperous Reign enjoy a blessed Immortality is the constant Prayer of Your MAJESTY'S Most Humble and most Obedient Subject THOMAS BVRNET PREFACE TO THE READER HAVING given an account of this whole Work in the first Chapter and of the method of either Book whereof this Volume consists in their proper places there remains not much to be said here to the Reader This Theory of the Earth may be call'd Sacred because it is not the common Physiology of the Earth or of the Bodies that compose it but respects only the great Turns of Fate and the Revolutions of our Natural World such as are taken notice of in the Sacred Writings and are truly the Hinges upon which the Providence of this Earth moves or whereby it opens and shuts the several successive Scenes whereof it is made up This English Edition is the same in substance with the Latin though I confess 't is not so properly a Translation as a new Composition upon the same ground there being several additional Chapters in it and several new-moulded As every Science requires a peculiar Genius so likewise there is a Genius peculiarly improper for every one and as to Philosophy which is the Contemplation of the works of Nature and the Providence that governs them there is no temper or Genius in my mind so improper for it as that which we call a mean and narrow Spirit and which the Greeks call Littleness of Soul This is a defect in the first make of some Mens minds which can scarce ever be corrected afterwards either by Learning or Age. And as Souls that are made little and incapacious cannot enlarge their thoughts to take in any great compass of Times or things so what is beyond their compass or above their reach they are apt to look upon as Fantastical or at least would willingly have it pass for such in the World Now as there is nothing so great so large so immense as the works of Nature and the methods of Providence men of this complexion must needs be very unfit for the contemplation of them Who would set a purblind Man at the top of the Mast to discover Land or upon an high Tower to draw a Landskip of the Country round about for the same reason short-sighted minds are unfit to make Philosophers whose proper business it is to discover and describe in comprehensive Theories the Phaenomena of the World and the Causes of them This original disease of the Mind is seldom cur'd by Learning which cures many others Like a fault in the first Stamina of the Body it cannot easily be rectified afterwards 'T is a great mistake to think that every sort of Learning makes a Man a competent Judge of Natural Speculations We see unhappy examples to the contrary amongst the Christian Fathers and particularly in S. Austin who was unquestionably a Man of Parts and Learning but interposing in a controversie where his Talent did not lie show'd his zeal against the Antipodes to very ill purpose though he drew his Reasons partly from Scripture And if within a few Years or in the next Generation it should prove as certain and demonstrable that the Earth is mov'd as it is now that there are Antipodes those that have been zealous against it and ingag'd the Scripture in the Controversie would have the same reason to repent of their forwardness that S. Austin would have now if he was alive 'T
worthy our study and meditation nor any thing that would conduce more to discover the ways of Divine Providence and to shew us the grounds of all true knowledge concerning Nature And therefore to clear up the several parts of this Theory I was wiling to lay aside a great many other Speculations and all those dry subtleties with which the Schools and the Books of Philosophers are usually fill'd But when we speak of a Rising World and the Contemplation of it we do not mean this of the Great Universe for who can describe the Original of that vast Frame But we speak of the Sublundry World This Earth and its dependencies which rose out of a Chaos about six thousand years ago And seeing it hath faln to our lot to act upon this Stage to have our present home and residence here its seems most reasonable and the place design'd by Providence where we should first imploy our thoughts to understand the works of God and Nature We have accordingly therefore design'd in this Work to give an account of the Original of the Earth and of all the great and General Changes that it hath already undergone or is hence forwards to undergo till the Consummation of all Things For if from those Principles we have here taken and that Theory we have begun in these Two First Books we can deduce with success and clearness the Origin of the Earth and those States of it that are already past Following the same Thred and by the conduct of the same Theory we will pursue its Fate and History through future Ages and mark all the great Changes and Conversions that attend it while Day and Night shall last that is so long as it continues an Earth By the States of the Earth that are already past we understand chiefly Paradise and the Deluge Names well known and as little known in their Nature By the Future States we undâ—rstand the Conslagration and what new Order of Nature may follow upon that till the whole Circle of Time and Providence be compleated As to the first and past States of the Earth we shall have little help from the Ancients or from any of the Philosophers for the discovery or description of them We must often tread unbeaten paths and make a way where we do not find one but it shall be always with a Light in our hand that we may see our steps and that those that follow us may not follow us blindly There is no Sect of Philosophers that I know of that ever gave an account of the Universal Deluge or discover'd from the Contemplation of the Earth that there had been such a thing already in Nature 'T is true they often talk of an alternation of Deluges and Conflagrations in this Earth but they speak of them as things to come at least they give no proof or argument of day that hath already destroyed the World As to Paradise it seems to be represented to us by the Golden Age whereof the Ancients tell many stories sometimes very luxuriant and sometimes very defective For they did not so well understand the difference betwixt the New-made Earth and the Present as to see what were the just grounds of the Golden Age or of Paradise Tho' they had many broken Notions concerning those things As to the Conslagration in particular This hath always been reckon'd One amongst the Opinions or Dogmata of the Stoicks That the World was to be destroy'd by Fire and their Books are full of this Notion but yet they do not tell us the Causes of the Conflagration nor what preparations there are in Nature or will be towards that great Change And we may generally observe this of the Ancients that their Learning or Philosophy consisted more in Conclusions than in Demonstrations They had many Truths among them whereof they did not know themselves the Premisses or the Proofs Which is an argument to me that the knowledge they had was not a thing of their own invention or which they came to by fair Reasoning and observations upon Nature but was delivered to them from others by Tradition and Ancient Fame sometimes more publick sometimes more secret These Conclusions they kept in Mind and communicated to those of their School or Sect or Posterity without knowing for the most part the just grounds and reasons of them 'T is the Sacred Writings of Scripture that are the best Monuments of Antiquity and to those we are chiefly beholden for the History of the First Ages whether Natural History or Civil 'T is true the Poets who were the most Ancient Writers amongst the Greeks and serv'd them both for Historians Divines and Philosophers have deliver'd some things concerning the first Ages of the World that have a fair resemblance of Truth and some affinity with those accounts that are given of the same things by Sacred Authors and these may be of use in due time and place but yet lest any thing fabulous should be mixt with them as commonly there is we will never depend wholly upon their credit nor assert any thing upon the authority of the Ancients which is not first prov'd by Natural Reason or warranted by Scripture It seems to me very reasonable to believe that besides the Precepts of Religion which are the principal subject and design of the Books of Holy Scripture there may be providentially conserv'd in them the memory of things and times so remote as could not be retriev'd either by History or by the light of Nature and yet were of great importance to be known both for their own excellency and also to rectifie the knowledge of men in other things consequential to them Such points may be Our great Epocha or the Age of the Earth The Origination of Mankind The First and Paradisiacal State The destruction of the Old World by an Universal Deluge The Longevity of its Inhabitants The manner of their preservation and of their Peopling the Second Earth and lastly The Fate and Changes it is to undergo These I always lookt upon as the Seeds of great knowledge or heads of Theories fixt on purpose to give us aim and direction how to pursue the rest that depend upon them But these heads you see are of a mixt order and we propose to our selves in this Work only such as belong to the Natural World upon which I believe the trains of Providence are generally laid And we must first consider how God hath order'd Nature and then how the Oeconomy of the Intellectual World is adapted to it for of these two parts consist the full System of Providence In the mean time what subject can be more worthy the thoughts of any serious person than to view and consider the Rise and Fall and all the Revolutions not of a Monarchy or an Empire of the Grecian or Roman State but of an intire World The obscurity of these things and their remoteness from common knowledge will be made an argument by some why we should not undertake
other and the Deluge being once truly explain'd we shall from thence know the Form and Quality of the Ante-diluvian Earth Let us then proceed to the explication of that great and fatal Inundation whose History is well known and according to Moses the best of Historians in a few words is this Sixteen Hundred and odd years after the Earth was made and inhabited it was over-flow'd and destroy'd in a Deluge of Water Not a Deluge that was National only or over-run some particular Country or Region as Iudea or Greece or any other but it overspread the face of the whole Earth from Pole to Pole and from East to West and that in such excess that the Floods over-reacht the Tops of the highest Mountains the Rains descending after an unusual manner and the fountains of the Great Deep being broke open so as a general destruction and devastation was brought upon the Earth and all things in it Mankind and other living Creatures excepting only Noah and his Family who by a special Providence of God was preserv'd in a certain Ark or Vessel made like a Ship and such kinds of living Creatures as he took in to him After these Waters had rag'd for some time on the Earth they began to lessen and shrink and the great waves and fluctuations of this Deep or Abysse being quieted by degrees the Waters retir'd into their Chanels and Caverns within the Earth and the Mountains and Fields began to appear and the whole habitable Earth in that form and shape wherein we now see it Then the World began again and from that little Remnant preserv'd in the Ark the present race of Mankind and of Animals in the known parts of the Earth were propagated Thus perish'd the Old World and the present arose from the ruines and remains of it This is a short story of the greatest thing that every yet hapned in the World the greatest revolution and the greatest change in Nature and if we come to reflect seriously upon it we shall find it extremely difficult if not impossible to give an account of the Waters that compos'd this Deluge whence they came or whither they went It it had been only the Inundation of a Country or of a Province or of the greatest part of a Continent some proportionable causes perhaps might have been found out but a Deluge overflowing the whole Earth the whole Circuit and whole Extent of it burying all in Water even the greatest Mountains in any known parts of the Universe to find Water sufficient for this Effect as it is generally explained and understood I think is impossible And that we may the better judge of the whole matter let us first compute how much Water would be requisite for such a Deluge or to lay the Earth consider'd in its present form and the highest Mountains under Water Then let 's consider whether such a quantity of Water can be had out of all the stores that we know in Nature And from these two we will take our Ground and Rise and begin to reflect whether the World hath not been hitherto mistaken in the common opinion and explication of the general Deluge To discover how much Water would be requisite to make this Deluge we must first suppose enough to cover the plain surface of the Earth the Fields and lower Grounds then we must heap up so much more upon this as will reach above the tops of the highest Mountains so as drawing a Circle over the tops of the highest Mountains quite round the Earth suppose from Pole to Pole and another to meet it round the middle of the Earth all that space or capacity contin'd within these Circles is to be fill'd up with Water This I confess will make a prodigious mass of Water and it looks frightfully to the imagination 't is huge and great but 't is extravagantly so as a great Monster It doth not look like the work of God or Nature However let 's compute a little more particularly how much this will amount to or how many Oceans of Water would be necessary to compose this great Ocean rowling in the Air without bounds or banks If all the Mountains were par'd off the Earth and so the surface of it lay even or in an equal convexity every where with the surface of the Sea from this surface of the Sea let us suppose that the height of the Mountains may be a mile and a half or that we may not seem at all to favour our own opinion or calculation let us take a mile only for the perpendicular height of the Mountains Let us on the other side suppose the Sea to cover half the Earth as 't is generally believ'd to do and the common depth of it taking one place with another to be about a quarter of a mile or 250 paces I say taking one place with another for though the middle Chanel of the great Ocean be far deeper we may observe that there is commonly a descent or declivity from the shore to the middle part of the Chanel so that one comes by degrees into the depth of it and those shory parts are generally but some fathoms deep Besides in arms of the Sea in Straits and among Islands there is commonly no great depth and some places are plain shallows So as upon a moderate computation one place compar'd with another we may take a quarter of a mile or about an hundred fathoms for the common measure of the depth of the Sea if we were cast into a Chanel of an equal depth every where This being suppos'd there would need four Oceans to lie upon this Ocean to raise it up to the top of the Mountains or so high as the Waters of the Deluge rise then four Oceans more to lie upon the Land that the Water there might swell to the same height which together make eight Oceans for the proportion of the Water requir'd in the Deluge 'T is true there would not be altogether so much Water requir'd for the Land as for the Sea to raise them to an equal height because Mountains and Hills would fill up part of that space upon the Land and so make less Water requisite But to compensate this and confirm our computation we must consider in the first place that we have taken a much less height of the Mountains than is requisite if we respect the Mediterraneous Mountains or those that are at a great distance from the Sea For their height above the surface of the Sea computing the declivity of the Land all along from the Mountains to the Sea-side and that there is such a declivity is manifest from the course and descent of the Rivers is far greater than the proportion we have taken The height of Mountains is usually taken from the foot of them or from the next Plain which if it be far from the Sea we may reasonably allow as much for the declension of the Land from that place to the Sea as for the
immediate height of the Mountain So for instance the Mountains of the Moon in Africa whence the Nile flows and after a long course falls into the Mediterranean Sea by Egypt are so much higher than the surface of that Sea first as the Ascent of the Land is from the Sea to the foot of the Mountains and then as the height of the Mountains is from the bottom to the top For both these are to be computed when you measure the height of a Mountain or of a mountainous Land in respect of the Sea And the height of Mountains to the Sea being thus computed there would be need of six or eight Oceans to raise the Sea alone as high as the highest In-land Mountains And this is more than enough to compensate the less quantity of Water that would be requisite upon the Land Besides we must consider the Regions of the Air upwards to be more capacious than a Region of the same thickness in or near the Earth so as if an Ocean pour'd upon the surface of the dry Land supposing it were all smooth would rise to the height of half a quarter of a mile every where the like quantity of Water pour'd again at the height of the Mountains would not have altogether the same effect or would not there raise the mass half a quarter of a mile higher for the surfaces of a Globe the farther they are from their Center are the greater and so accordingly the Regions that belong to them And lastly we must consider that there are some Countries or Valleys very low and also many Caverns or Cavities within the Earth all which in this case were to be first fill'd with Water These things being compar'd and estimated we shall find that notwithstanding the room that Hills and Mountains take up on the dry Land there would be at least eight Oceans requir'd or a quantity of Water eight times as great as the Ocean to bring an Universal Deluge upon the Earth as that Deluge is ordinarily understood and explained The proportion of Water for the Deluge being thus stated the next thing to be done is to enquire where this Water is to be found if any part of the Sublunary World will afford us so much Eight Oceans floating in the Air make a great bulk of Water I do not know what possible Sources to draw it from There are the Clouds above and the Deeps below and in the bowels of the Earth and these are all the stores we have for Water and Moses directs us to no other for the Causes of the Deluge The Fountains he saith of the great Abysse were broken up or burst asunder and the Rain descended for forty days the Cataracts or Floodgates of Heaven being open'd And in these two no doubt are contain'd the causes of the great Deluge as according to Moses so also according to reason and necessity for our World affords no other treasures of Water Let us therefore consider how much this Rain of Forty Days might amount to and how much might flow out of the Abysse that so we may judge whether these two in conjunction would make up the Eight Oceans which we want As for the Rains they would not afford us one Ocean nor half an Ocean nor the tenth part of an Ocean if we may trust to the Observations made by others concerning the quantity of Water that falls in Rain Mersennus gives us this account of it It appears by our Observations that a Cubical Vessel of Brass whereof we made use is fill'd an inch and an half in half an hours time but because that sucks up noâ—hing of the moisture as the Earth doth let us take an inch for half an hours Rain whence it follows that in the space of 40 days and nights Rain the Waters in the Deluge would rise 160 feet if the Rains were constant and equal to ours and that it rain'd at once throughout the face of the whole Earth But the Rain of the Deluge saith he should have been 90 times greater than this to cover for instance the Mountains of Armenia or to reach 15 Cubits above them So that according to his computation the 40 days Rain would supply little more than the hundredth part of the Water requisite to make the Deluge 'T is true he makes the heighth of the Mountains higher than we do but however if you temper the Calculation on all sides as much as you please the water that came by this Rain would be a very inconsiderable part of what was necessary for a Deluge If it rain'd 40 days and 40 nights throughout the face of the whole Earth in the Northern and Southern Hemisphere all at once it might be sufficient to lay all the lower grounds under water but it would signifie very little as to the over-flowing of the Mountains Whence another Author upon the same occasion hath this passage If the Deluge had been made by Rains only there would not have needed 40 days but 40 years Rain to have brought it to pass And if we should suppose the whole middle Region condens'd into water it would not at all have been sufficient for this effect according to that proportion some make betwixt Air and Water for they say Air turn'd into Water takes up a hundred times less room than it did before The truth is we may reasonably suppose that all the vapours of the middle Region were turn'd into water in this 40 days and 40 nights Rain if we admit that this Rain was throughout the whole Earth at once in either Hemisphere in every Zone in every Climate in every Country in every Province in every Field and yet we see what a small proportion all this would amount to Having done then with these Superiour Regions we are next to examine the Inferiour and the treasures of water that may be had there Moses tells us that the Fountains of the great Abysse were broke open or clove asunder as the word there us'd doth imply and no doubt in this lay the great mystery of the Deluge as will appear when it comes to be rightly understood and explain'd but we are here to consider what is generally understood by the great Abysse in the common explication of the Deluge and 't is commonly interpreted either to be the Sea or Subterraneous waters hid in the bowels of the Earth These they say broke forth and rais'd the waters caus'd by the Rain to such an height that together they overflowed the highest Mountains But whether or how this could be deserves to be a little examin'd And in the first place the Sea is not higher than the Land as some have formerly imagin'd fansying the Sea stood as it were upon a heap higher than the shore and at the Deluge a relaxation being made it overflow'd the Land But this conceit is so gross and so much against reason and experience that none I think of late have ventur'd to make use of it And yet on the
attested or admit an effect whereof they cannot see any possible causes And so having stated and propos'd the whole difficulty and try'd all ways offer'd by others and found them ineffectual let us now apply our selves by degrees to unty the knot The excessive quantity of water is the great difficulty and the removal of it afterwards Those eight Oceans lay heavy upon my thoughts and I cast about every way to find an expedient or to find some way whereby the same effect might be brought to pass with less Water and in such a manner that that Water might afterwards conveniently be discharg'd The first thought that came into my mind upon that occasion was concerning the form of the Earth which I imagin'd might possibly at that time be different from what it is at present and come nearer to plainness and equality in the surface of it and so might the more easily be overflow'd and the Deluge perform'd with less water This opinion concerning the plainness of the first Earth I also found in Antiquity mention'd and refer'd to by several Interpreters in their Commentaries upon Genesis either upon occasion of the Deluge or of that Fountain which is said Gen. 2. 6. to have watered the face of the whole Earth And a late eminent person the honour of his profession for Integrity and Learning in his discourse concerning the Origination of mankind hath made a like judgment of the State of the Earth before the Deluge that the face of it was more smooth and regular than it is now But yet upon second thoughts I easily see that this alone would not be sufficient to explain the Deluge nor to give an account of the present from of the Earth unequal and Mountainous as it is 'T is true this would give a great advantage to the waters and the Rains that fell for forty days together would have a great power over the Earth being plain and smooth but how would these waters be dispos'd of when the Deluge ceas'd or how could it ever cease Besides what means the disruption of the great Deep or the great Abysse or what answers to it upon this supposition This was assuredly of no less consideration than the Rains nay I believe the Rains were but preparatory in some measure and that the violence and consummation of the Deluge depended upon the disruption of the great Abysse Therefore I saw it necessary to my first thought concerning the smoothness and plainness of the Ante-diluvian Earth to add a second concerning the disruption and dissolution of it for as it often happens in Earthquakes when the exteriour Earth is burst asunder and a great Flood of waters issues out according to the quantity and force of them an Inundation is made in those parts more or less so I thought if that Abysse lay under ground and round the Earth and we should suppose the Earth in this manner to be broken in several places at once and as it were a general dissolution made we might suppose that to make a general Deluge as well as a particular dissolution often makes a particular But I will not anticipate here the explication we intend to give of the universal Deluge in the following Chapters only by this previous intimation we may gather some hopes it may be that the matter is not so desperate as the former representation might possibly make us fansie it Give me leave to add farther in this place that it hath been observ'd by several from the contemplation of Mountains and Rocks and Precipices of the Chanel of the Sea and of Islands and of Subterraneous Caverns that the surface of the Earth or the exteriour Region which we inhabit hath been broke and the parts of it dislocated And one might instance more particularly in several parcels of Nature that retain still the evident marks of fraction and ruine and by their present form and posture show that they have been once in another state and situation one to another We shall have occasion hereafter to give an account of these Phaenomena from which several have rightly argu'd and concluded some general rupture or ruine in the superficial parts of the Earth But this ruine it is true they have imagin'd and explain'd several ways some thinking that it was made the third day after the foundation of the Earth when they suppose the Chanel of the Sea to have been form'd and Mountains and Caverns at the same time by a violent depression of some parts of the Earth and an extrusion and elevation of others to make them room Others suppose it to have come not all at once but by degrees at several times and in several Ages from particular and accidental causes as the Earth falling in upon Fires under ground or water eating away the lower parts or Vapours and Exhalations breaking out and tearing the Earth 'T is true I am not of their opinion in either of these Explications and we shall show at large hereafter when we have propos'd and stated our own Theory how incompetent such causes are to bring the Earth into that form and condition we now find it in But in the mean time we may so far make use of these Opinions in general as not to be startled at this Doctrine concerning the breaking or dissolution of the exteriour Earth for in all Ages the face of Nature hath provok'd men to think of and observe such a thing And who can do otherwise to see the Elements displac'd and disorder'd as they seem to lie at present the heaviest and grossest bodies in the highest places and the liquid and volatile kept below an huge mass of Stone or Rock rear'd into the Air and the water creeping at its feet whereas this is the more light and active body and by the law of Nature should take place of Rocks and Stones So we see by the like disorder the Air thrown down into Dungeons of the Earth and the Earth got up among the Clouds for there are the tops of the Mountains and under their roots in Holes and Caverns the Air is often detain'd By what regular action of Nature can we suppose things first produc'd in this posture and form not to mention how broke and torn the inward substance of the Earth is which of it self is an uniform mass close and compact but in the condition we see it it lies hollow in many places with great vacuities intercepted betwixt the portions of it a thing which we see happens in all ruines more or less especially when the parts of the ruines are great and inflexible Then what can have more the figure and meen of a ruine than Crags and Rocks and Cliffs whether upon the Sea shore or upon the sides of Mountains what can be more apparently broke than they are and those lesser Rocks or great bulky Stones that lie often scatter'd near the feet of the other whether in the Sea or upon the Land are they not manifest fragments and pieces of those greater
likewise in the Philosophy and Learning of the Ancients there are several remains and indications of this Internal form and composition of it For 't is observable that the Ancients in treating of the Chaos and in raising the World out of it rang'd it into several Regions or Masses as we have done and in that order successively rising one from another as if it was a Pedigree or Genealogy And those Parts and Regions of Nature into which the Chaos was by degrees divided they signified commonly by dark and obscure names as the Night Tartarus Oceanus and such like which we have express'd in their plain and proper terms And whereas the Chaos when it was first set on work ran all into divisions and separations of one Element from another which afterwards were all in some measure united and associated in this primigenial Earth the Ancients accordingly made Contention the principle that reign'd in the Chaos at first and then Love The one to express the divisions and the other the union of all parties in this middle and common bond These and such like notions which we find in the Writings of the Ancients figuratively and darkly deliver'd receive a clearer light when compar'd with this Theory of the Chaos which representing every thing plainly and in its natural colours is a Key to their thoughts and an illustration of their obscurer Philosophy concerning the Original of the World as we have shewn at large in the Latin Treatise Fig 7. pag. 44. Thus much concerning the first Earth its production and form and concerning our Second Proposition relating to it Which being prov'd by Reason the laws of Nature and the motions of the Chaos then attested by Antiquity both as to the matter and form of it and confirm'd by Sacred Writers we may take it now for a well establisht truth and proceed upon this supposition That the Ante-diluvian Earth was smooth and uniform without Mountains or Sea to the explication of the universal Deluge Give me leave only before we proceed any further to annex here a short Advertisement concerning the Causes of this wonderful structure of the first Earth 'T is true we have propos'd the Natural Causes of it and I do not know wherein our Explication is false or defective but in things of this kind we may easily be too credulous And this structure is so marvellous that it ought rather to be consider'd as a particular effect of the Divine Art than as the work of Nature The whole Globe of the Water vaulted over and the exteriour Earth hanging above the Deep sustain'd by nothing but its own measures and manner of construction A Building without foundation or corner-stone This seems to be a piece of Divine Geometry or Architecture and to this I think is to be refer'd that magnificent challenge which God Almighty made to Iob Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the Earth declare if thou hast understanding Who hath laid the measures thereof if thou knowest or who hath stretched the line upon it Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastned or who laid the corner-stone thereof When the morning Stars sang together and all the Sons of God shouted for joy Moses also when he had describ'd the Chaos saith The Spirit of God mov'd upon or sat brooding upon the face of the waters without all doubt to produce some effects there And S. Peter when he speaks of the form of the Ante-diluvian Earth how it stood in reference to the Waters adds By the Word of God or by the Wisdom of God it was made so And this same Wisdom of God in the Proverbs as we observed before takes notice of this very piece of work in the formation of the Earth When he set an Orb over the face of the Deep I was there And lastly the Ancient Philosophers or at least the best of them to give them their due always brought in Mens or Amor as a Supernatural principle to unite and consociate the parts of the Chaos which was first done in the composition of this wonderful Arch of the Earth Wherefore to the great Architect who made the boundless Universe out of nothing and form'd the Earth out of a Chaos let the praise of the Whole Work and particularly of this Master-piece for ever with all honour be given CHAP. VI. The dissolution of the First Earth The Deluge ensuing thereupon And the form of the present Earth rising from the Ruines of the First WE have now brought to light the Ante-diluvian Earth out of the dark mass of the Chaos and not only described the surface of it but laid open the inward parts to shew in what order its Regions lay Let us now close it up and represent the Earth entire and in large proportions more like an habitable World as in this Figure where you see the smooth convex of the Earth and may imagine the great Abysse spread under it which two are to be the only subject of our further contemplation Booke j st p. 46. In this smooth Earth were the first Scenes of the World and the first Generations of Mankind it had the beauty of Youth and blooming Nature fresh and fruitful and not a wrinkle scar or fracture in all its body no Rocks nor Mountains no hollow Caves nor gaping Chanels but even and uniform all over And the smoothness of the Earth made the face of the Heavens so too the Air was calm and serene none of those tumultuary motions and conflicts of vapours which the Mountains and the Winds cause in ours 'T was suited to a golden Age and to the first innocency of Nature All this you 'll say is well we are got into a pleasant World indeed but what 's this to the purpose what appearance of a Deluge here where there is not so much as a Sea nor half so much Water as we have in this Earth or what appearance of Mountains or Caverns or other irregularities of the Earth where all is level and united So that instead of loosing the Knot this ties it the harder You pretend to shew us how the Deluge was made and you lock up all the Waters within the womb of the Earth and set Bars and Doors and a Wall of impenetrable strength and thickness to keep them there And you pretend to shew us the original of Rocks and Mountains and Caverns of the Earth and bring us to a wide and endless plain smooth as the calm Sea This is all true and yet we are not so far from the sight and discovery of those things as you imagine draw but the curtain and these Scenes will appear or something very like them We must remember that S. Peter told us that the Ante-diluvian Earth perish'd or was demolish'd and Moses saith the great Abysse was broken open at the Deluge Let us then suppose that at a time appointed by Divine Providence and from Causes made ready to do that great execution upon a sinful
World that this Abysse was open'd or that the frame of the Earth broke and fell down into the Great Abysse At this one stroke all Nature would be chang'd and this single action would have two great and visible Effects The one Transient and the other permanent First an universal Deluge would overflow all the parts and Regions of the broken Earth during the great commotion and agitation of the Abysse by the violent fall of the Earth into it This would be the first and unquestionable effect of this dissolution and all that World would be destroyed Then when the agitation of the Abysse was asswag'd and the Waters by degrees were retir'd into their Chanels and the dry land appear'd you would see the true image of the present Earth in the ruines of the first The surface of the Globe would be divided into Land and Sea the Land would consist of Plains and Valleys and Mountains according as the pieces of this ruine were plac'd and dispos'd Upon the banks of the Sea would stand the Rocks and near the shoar would be Islands or lesse fragments of Earth compass'd round by Water Then as to Subterraneous Waters and all Subterraneous Caverns and hollownesses upon this supposition those things could not be otherwise for the parts would fall hollow in many places in this as in all other ruines And seeing the Earth fell into this Abysse the Waters at a certain height would flow into all those hollow places and cavities and would also sink and insinuate into many parts of the solid Earth And though these Subterraneous Vaults or holes whether dry or full of Water would be more or less in all places where the parts fell hollow yet they would be found especially about the roots of the Mountains and the higher parts of the Earth for there the sides bearing up one against the other they could not lie so close at the bottoms but many vacuities would be intercepted Nor are there any other inequalities or irregularities observable in the present form of the Earth whether in the surface of it or interiour construction whereof this hypothesis doth not give a ready fair and intelligible account and doth at one view represent them all to us with their causes as in a glass And whether that Glass be true and the Image answer to the Original if you doubt of it we will hereafter examine them piece by piece But in the first place we must consider the General Deluge how easily and truly this supposition represents and explains it and answers all the properties and conditions of it I think it will be easily allow'd that such a dissolution of the Earth as we have propos'd and fall of it into the Abysse would certainly make an Universal Deluge and effectually destroy the old World which perish'd in it But we have not yet particularly prov'd this dissolution and in what manner the Deluge follow'd upon it And to assert things in gross never makes that firm impression upon our understandings and upon our belief as to see them deduc'd with their causes and circumstances And therefore we must endeavour to shew what preparations there were in Nature for this great dissolution and after what manner it came to pass and the Deluge in consequence of it We have noted before that Moses imputed the Deluge to the disruption of the Abyss and S. Peter to the particular constitution of that Earth which made it obnoxious to be absorpt in Water so that our explication so far is justifi'd But it was below the dignity of those Sacred Pen-men or the Spirit of God that directed them to shew us the causes of this disruption or of this absorption this is left to the enquiries of men For it was never the design of Providence to give such particular explications of Natural things as should make us idle or the use of Reason unnecessary but on the contrary by delivering great conclusions to us to excite our curiosity and inquisitiveness after the methods by which such things were brought to pass And it may be there is no greater trial or instance of Natural Wisdom than to find out the Chanel in which these great revolutions of Nature which we treat on flow and succeed one another Let us therefore resume that System of the Ante-diluvian Earth which we have deduc'd from the Chaos and which we find to answer S. Peter's description and Moses his account of the Deluge This Earth could not be obnoxious to a Deluge as the Apostle supposeth it to have been but by a dissolution for the Abysse was enclos'd within its bowels And Moses doth in effect tell us there was such a dissolution when he saith The fountains of the great Abysse were borken open For Fountains are broken open no otherwise than by breaking up the ground that covers them We must therefore here inquire in what order and from what causes the frame of this exteriour Earth was dissolv'd and then we shall soon see how upon that dissolution the Deluge immediately prevail'd and overflow'd all the parts of it I do not think it in the power of humane wit to determine how long this frame would stand how many Years or how many Ages but one would soon imagine that this kind of structure would not be perpetual nor last indeed many thousands of Years if one consider the effect that the heat of the Sun would have upon it and the Waters under it drying and parching the one and raresying the other into vapours For we must consider that the course of the Sun at that time or the posture of the Earth to the Sun was such that there was no diversity or alternation of seasons in the Year as there is now by reason of which alternation our Earth is kept in an equality of temper the contrary seasons balancing one another so as what moisture the heat of the Summer sucks out of the Earth 't is repaid in the Rains of the next Winter and what chaps were made in it are fill'd up again and the Earth reduc'd to its former constitution But if we should imagine a continual Summer the Earth would proceed in driness still more and more and the cracks would be wider and pierce deeper into the substance of it And such a continual Summer there was at least an equality of seasons in the Ante-diluvian Earth as shall be prov'd in the follwing Book concerning Paradise In the mean time this being suppos'd let us consider what effect it would have upon this Arch of the exteriour Earth and the Waters under it We cannot believe but that the heat of the Sun within the space of some hundreds of years would have reduc'd this Earth to a considerable degree of driness in certain parts and also have much raresi'd and exhal'd the Waters beneath it And considering the structure of that Globe the exteriour crust and the Waters lying round under it both expos'd to the Sun we may fitly compare it to an Aeolipile or
we desire it may be prov'd from some collateral arguments taken either from Sacred History or from observation that this hath really been exemplified upon the Earth and that Noah's Flood came to pass this way And seeing we have design'd this first Book chiefly for the Explication of Noah's Deluge I am willing to add here a Chapter or two extraordinary upon this occasion to shew that what we have deliver'd is more than an Idea and that it was in this very way that Noah's Deluge came to pass But they who have not this doubt and have a mind to see the issue of the Theory may skip these two Chapters if they please and proceed to the following where the order is continued To satisfie then the doubtful in this particular let us lay down in the first place that conclusion which they seem to admit viz. That this is a possible and consistent Explication of an Universal Deluge and let 's see how far this would go if well consider'd towards the proof of what they desire or towards the demonstration of Noah's Deluge in particular It is granted on both hands that here hath been an Universal Deluge upon the Earth which was Noah's Deluge and it is also granted that we have given a possible and consistent Idea of an Universal Deluge Now we have prov'd Chap. II. and III. that all other ways hitherto assign'd for the Explication of Noah's Flood are incongrous or impossible therefore it came to pass in that possible and competent way which we have propos'd And if we have truly prov'd in the foremention'd Chapters the impossibility or unintelligibility of it in all other ways this argumentation is undeniable Besides we may argue thus as it is granted that there hath been an Universal Deluge upon the Earth so I suppose it will be granted that there hath been but one Now the dissolution of the Earth whensoever it happen'd would make one Universal Deluge and therefore the only one and the same with Noah's That such a Dissolution as we have describ'd would make an Universal Deluge I think cannot be question'd and that there hath been such a dissolution besides what we have already alledg'd shall be prov'd at large from natural Observations upon the Form and Figure of the present Earth in the Third Section and last Chap. of this Book In the mean time we will proceed to History both Sacred and Profane and by comparing our Explication with those give further assurance of its truth and reality In the first place it agrees which is most considerable with Moses's Narration of the Deluge both as to the matter and manner of it The matter of the Deluge Moses makes to be the Waters from above and the Waters from below or he distinguishes the Causes of the Deluge as we do into Superiour and Inferiour and the Inferiour causes he makes to be the disruption of the Abyss which is the principal part and the great hinge of our Explication Then as to the manner of the Deluge the beginning and the ending the increase and decrease he saith it increas'd gradually and decreas'd gradually by going and coming that is after many repeated fluctuations and reciprocations of the waves the waters of the Abysse began to be more compos'd and to retire into their Chanels whence they shall never return to cover the Earth again This agrees wholly with our Theory we suppose the Abysse to have been under an extream commotion and agitation by the fall of the Earth into it and this at first encreas'd more and more till the whole Earth was faln Then continuing for some time at the height of its rage overwhelming the greatest Mountains it afterwards decreas'd by the like degrees leaving first the tops of the Mountains then the Hills and the Fields till the Waters came to be wholly drawn off the Earth into their Chanels It was no doubt a great oversight in the Ancients to fansie the Deluge like a great standing Pool of water reaching from the bottom of the Valleys to the tops of the Mountains every where alike with a level and uniform surface by reason of which mistaken notion of the Deluge they made more water necessary to it than was possible to be had or being had than it was possible to get quit of again for there are no Chanels in the Earth that could hold so much water either to give it or to receive it And the Psalmist speaking of the Deluge as it seems to me notes this violent commotion of the Abysse The Waters went up by the Mountains came down by the Valleys unto the place which thou hast founded for them I know some interpret that passage of the state of the waters in the beginning when they cover'd the face of the whole Earth Gen. 1. 2. but that cannot be because of what follows in the next Verse Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over that they turn not again to cover the Earth Which is not true if the preceding words be understood of the state of the waters at the beginning of the World for they did pass those bounds and did return since that time to cover the Earth namely at the Deluge But if these words be refer'd to the time of the Deluge and the state of the waters then 't is both a just description of the motion of the Abysse and certainly true that the waters since that time are so setled in their Chanels that they shall never overflow the Earth again As we are assured by the promise made to Noah and that illustrious pledge and confirmation of it the Rainbow that the Heavens also shall never pour out so much waters again their state being chang'd as well as that of the Earth or Sea from what they were before the Deluge But before we leave Moses's Narration of the Deluge we must examine further what is or can be understood by his TEHOMRABBA or great Abysse which he saith was broken up at the Deluge for this will help us to discover whether our Explication be the same with his and of the same Flood And first we must consider whether by the Tehom-Rabba or Mosaical Abysse can be understood the Sea or Ocean under that form we see it in at present and 't is plain methinks that the Sea cannot be understood by this great Abysse both because the Sea is not capable upon any disruption to make such an universal Deluge and because the Narration of Moses and his expressions concerning this Abysse do not agree to the Sea Some of the Ancients indeed did imagine that the waters of the Sea were much higher than the Land and stood as it were on an heap so as when these waters were let loose they overflow'd the Earth and made a Deluge But this is known to be a gross mistake the Sea and the Land make one Globe and the Waters couch themselves as close as may be to the Center of this
which proceeded from their opening For as Moses had ascrib'd the Deluge to the opening of these two so when it was to cease he saith these two were shut up as they were really put into such a condition both of them that they could not continue the Deluge any longer nor over be the occasion of a second and therefore in that sence and as to that effect were for ever shut up Some may possibly make that also an Objection against us that Moses mentions and supposes the Mountains at the Deluge for he saith the waters reached fifteen Cubits above the tops of them whereas we suppose the Ante-diluvian Earth to have had a plain and uniform surface without any inequality of Hills and Valleys But this is easily answer'd 't was in the height of the Deluge that Moses mention'd the Mountains and we suppose them to have risen then or more towards the beginning of it when the Earth was broke and these Mountains continuing still upon the face of the Earth Moses might very well take them for a standard to measure and express to Posterity the height of the waters though they were not upon the Earth when the Deluge begun Neither is there any mention made as is observ'd by some of Mountains in Scripture or of Rain till the time of the Deluge We have now finisht our account of Noah's Flood both generally and particularly and I have not wittingly omitted or conceal'd any difficulty that occur'd to me either from the History or from abstract reason Our Theory so far as I know hath the consent and authority of both And how far it agrees and is demonstrable from natural observation or from the form and Phaenomena of this Earth as it lies at present shall be the subject of the remaining part of this First Book In the mean time I do not know any thing more to be added in this part unless it be to conclude with an Advertisement to prevent any mistake or misconstruction as if this Theory by explaining the Deluge in a natural way in a great measure or by natural causes did detract from the power of God by which that great judgment was brought upon the World in a Providential and miraculous manner To satisfie all reasonable and intelligent persons in this particular I answer and declare first That we are far from excluding Divine Providence either ordinary or extraordinary from the causes and conduct of the Deluge I know a Sparrow doth not fall to the ground without the will of our Heavenly Father much less doth the great World fall in pieces without his good pleasure and superintendency In him all things live move and have their being Things that have Life and Thought have it from him he is the Fountain of both Things that have motion only without Thought have it also from him And what hath only naked Being without Thought or Motion owe still that Being to him And these are not only deriv'd from God at first but every moment continued and conserv'd by him So intimate and universal is the dependance of all things upon the Divine Will and Power In the second place they are guilty in my Judgment of a great Error or indiscretion that oppose the course of Nature to Providence St. Paul says Act. 14. 17. God hath not left us without witness in that he gives us Rain from Heaven yet Rains proceed from natural causes and fall upon the Sea as well as upon the Land In like manner our Saviour makes those things instances of Divine Providence which yet come to pass in an ordinary course of Nature In that part of his excellent Sermon upon the Mount that concerns Providence He bids them Consider the Lilies how they grow they toil not neither do they spin and yet Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these He bids them also consider the Ravens they neither sow nor reap neither have they Store-house nor Barn and God feedeth them The Lilies grow and the Ravens are fed according to the ordinary course of Nature and yet they are justly made arguments of Providence by our Saviour nor are these things less Providential because constant and regular on the contrary such a disposition or establishment of second causes as will in the best order and for a long succession produce the most regular effects assisted only with the ordinary concourse of the first cause is a greater argument of wisdom and contrivance than such a disposition of causes as will not in so good an order or for so long a time produce regular effects without an extraordinary concourse and interposition of the First cause This I think is clear to every man's judgment We think him a better Artist that makes a Clock that strikes regularly at every hour from the Springs and Wheels which he puts in the work than he that hath so made his Clock that he must put his finger to it every hour to make it strike And if one should contrive a piece of Clock-work so that it should beat all the hours and make all its motions regularly for such a time and that time being come upon a signal given or a Spring toucht it should of its own accord fall all to pieces would not this be look'd upon as a piece of greater Art than if the Workman came at that time prefixt and with a great Hammer beat it into pieces I use these comparisons to convince us that it is no detraction from Divine Providence that the course of Nature is exact and regular and that even in its greatest changes and revolutions it should still conspire and be prepar'd to answer the ends and purposes of the Divine Will in reference to the Moral World This seems to me to â—e the great Art of Divine Providence so to adjust the two Worlds Humane and Natural Material and Intellectual as seeing thorough the possibilities and futuritions of each according to the first state and circumstances he puts them under they should all along correspond and fit one another and especially in their great Crises and Periods Thirdly Besides the ordinary Providence of God in the ordinary course of Nature there is doubtless an extraordinary Providence that doth attend the greater Scenes and the greater revolutions of Nature This methinks besides all other proof from the Effects is very rational and necessary in it self for it would be a limitation of the Divine Power and Will so to be bound up to second causes as never to use upon occasion an extraordinary influence or direction And 't is manifest taking any Systeme of Natural causes if the best possible that there may be more and greater things done if to this upon certain occasions you joyn an extraordinary conduct And as we have taken notice before that there was an extraordinary Providence in the formation or composition of the first Earth so I believe there was also in the dissolution of it And I think it had been
make Mountains or Plains upon the Land and the Earth would generally be full of Caverns and hollownesse especially in the Mountainous parts of it And we see the resemblance and imitation of this in lesser ruines when a Mountain sinks and falls into Subterraneous water or which is more obvious when the Arch of a Bridge is broken and falls into the water if the water under it be not so deep as to overflow and cover all its parts you may see there the image of all these things in little Continents and Islands and Rocks under water And in the parts that stand above the water you see Mountains and Precipices and Plains and most of the varieties that we see and admire in the parts of the Earth What need we then seek any further for the Explication of these things Let us suppose this Arch of the Bridge as the great Arch of the Earth which once it had and the water under it as the Abyss and the parts of this ruine to represent the parts of the Earth There will be scarce any difference but of lesser and greater the same things appearing in both But we have naturally that weakness or prejudice that we think great things are not to be explain'd from easie and familiar instances We think there must be something difficult and operose in the explication of them or else we are not satisfied whether it is that we are asham'd to see our ignorance and admiration to have been so groundless or whether we fancy there must be a proportion between the difficulty of the explication and the greatness of the thing explain'd but that is a very false Judgment for let things be never so great if they be simple their explication must be simple and easie And on the contrary some things that are mean common and ordinary may depend upon causes very difficult to find out for the difficulty of explaining an effect doth not depend upon its greatness or littleness but upon the simplicity or composition of its causes And the effects and Phaenomena we are here to explain though great yet depending upon causes very simple you must not wonder if the Explication when found out be familiar and very intelligible And this is so intelligible and so easily deducible from the forementioned causes that a Man born blind or brought up all his life in a Cave that had never seen the face of the Earth nor ever heard any description of it more than that it was a great Globe having this Theory propos'd to him or being instructed what the form of the first Earth was how it stood over the waters and then how it was broke and fell into them he would easily of his own accord foretel what changes would arise upon this dissolution and what the new form of the Earth would be As in the first place he would tell you that this second Earth would be distinguish'd and checker'd into Land and Water for the Orb which fell being greater than the circumference it fell upon all the fragments could not fall flat and lie drown'd under water and those that stood above would make the dry Land or habitable part of the Earth Then in the second place he would plainly discern that these fragments that made the dry Land could not lie all plain and smooth and equal but some would be higher and some lower some in one posture and some in another and consequently would make Mountains Hills Valleys and Plains and all other varieties we have in the situation of the parts of the Earth And lastly a blind man would easily divine that such a great ruine could not happen but there would be a great many holes and cavities amongst the parts of it a great many intervals and empty places in the rubbish as I may so say for this we see happens in all ruines more or less and where the fragments are great and hard 't is not possible they should be so adjusted in their fall but that they would lie hollow in many places and many unfill'd spaces would be intercepted amongst them some gaping in the surface of the Earth and others hid within so as this would give occasion to all sorts of fractures and cavities either in the skin of the Earth or within its body And these Cavities that I may add that in the last place would be often fill'd with Subterraneous waters at least at such a depth for the foundations of the Earth standing now within the waters so high as those waters reach'd they would more or less propagate themselves every way Thus far our Blind man could tell us what the New World would be or the form of the Earth upon the great dissolution and we find his reasonings and inferences very true these are the chief lineaments and features of our Earth which appear indeed very irregular and very inaccountable when they are lookt upon naked in themselves but if we look upon them through this Theory we see as in a glass all the reasons and causes of them There are different Genius's of Men and different conceptions and every one is to be allow'd their liberty as to things of this nature I confess for my own part when I observe how easily and naturally this Hypothesis doth apply it self to the general face of this Earth hits and falls in so luckily and surprizingly with all the odd postures of iâ—s parts I cannot without violence bear off my mind from fully assenting to it And the more odd and extravagant as I may so say and the more diversify'd the effects and appearances are to which an Hypothesis is to be apply'd if it answers them all and with exactness it comes the nearer to a moral certitude and infallibility As a Lock that consists of a great deal of workmanship many Wards and many odd pieces and contrivances if you find a Key that answers to them all and opens it readily 't is a thousand to one that 't is the true Key and was made for that purpose An eminent Philosopher of this Age Monsteur des Cartes hath made use of the like Hypothesis to explain the irregular form of the present Earth though he never dream'd of the Deluge nor thought that first Orb built over the Abyss to have been any more than a transient crust and not a real habitable World that lasted for more than sixteen hundred years as we suppose it to have been And though he hath in my opinion in the formation of that first Orb and upon the dissolution of it committed some great oversights whereof we have given an account in the Latin Treatise however he saw a necessity of such a thing and of the disruption of it to bring the Earth into that form and posture wherein we now find it Thus far we have spoken in general concerning the agreement and congruity of our supposition with the present face of the Earth and the easie account it gives of the causes of it And
of things would arise and a new Deluge for that part of the Earth Such removes and interchanges I believe would often happen in the first Ages after the Flood as we see in all other ruines there happen lesser and secondary ruines after the first till the parts be so well pois'd and setled that without some violence they scarce change their posture any more But to return to our Earthquakes and to give an instance or two of their extent and violence Pliny mentions one in the Reign of Tiberius Caesar that struck down Twelve Cities of Asia in one night And Fournier gives us an account of one in Peru that reacht three hundred leagues along the Sea-shore and seventy leagues inland and level'd the Mountains all along as it went threw down the Cities turn'd the Rivers out of their Chanels and made an universal havock and confusion And all this he saith was done within the space of seven or eight minutes There must be dreadful Vaults and Mines under that Continent that gave passage to the Vapours and liberty to play for nine hundred miles in length and above two hundred in breadth Asia also hath been very subject to these desolations by Earthquakes and many parts in Europe as Greece Italy and others The truth is our Cities are built upon ruines and our Fields and Countries stand upon broken Arches and Vaults and so does the greatest part of the outward frame of the Earth and therefore it is no wonder if it be often shaken there being quantities of Exhalations within these Mines or Cavernous passages that are capable of rarefaction and inflammation and upon such occasions requiring more room they shake or break the ground that covers them And thus much concerning Earthquakes A second observation that argues the hollowness of the Earth is the communication of the Seas and Lakes under ground The Caspian and Mediterranean Seas and several Lakes receive into them great Rivers and yet have no visible out let These must have Subterraneous out-lets by which they empty themselves otherwise they would redound and overflow the brims of their Vessel The Mediterranean is most remarkable in this kind because 't is observ'd that at one end the great Ocean flows into it through the straits of Gibralter with a sensible current and towards the other end about Constantinople the Pontus flows down into it with a stream so strong that Vessels have much ado to stem it and yet it neither hath any visible evacuation or out-let nor over-flows its banks And besides that it is thus fed at either end it is sed by the navel too as I may so say it sucks in by their Chanels several Rivers into its belly whereof the Nile is one very great and considerable These things have made it a great Problem What becomes of the water of the Mediterranean Sea And for my part I think the solution is very easie namely that it is discharg'd by Subterraneous passages or convey'd by Chanels under the ground into the Ocean And this manner of discharge or conveyance is not peculiar to the Mediterranean but is common to it with the Caspian Sea and other Seas and Lakes that receive great Rivers into them and have no visible issue I know there have been propos'd several other ways to answer this difficulty concerning the eâ—flux or consumption of the waters of the Mediterranean some have suppos'd a double current in the strait of Gibralter one that carry'd the water in and another that brought it out like the Arteries and Veins in our Body the one exporting our bloud from the heart and the other re-importing it So they suppos'd one current upon the surface which carry'd the water into the Mediterranean and under it at a certain depth a counter-current which brought the water back into the Ocean But this hath neither proof nor foundation for unless it was included in pipes as our bloud is or consisted of liquors very different these cross currents would mingle and destroy one another Others are of opinion that all the water that flows into the Mediterranean or a quantity equal to it is consum'd in Exhalations every day This seems to be a bolder supposition than the other for if so much be consum'd in Vapours and Exhalations every day as flows into this Sea what if this Sea had an out-let and discharg'd by that every day as much as it receiv'd in a few days the Vapours would have consum'd all the rest and yet we see many Lakes that have as free an out-let as an in-let and are not consum'd or sensibly diminisht by the Vapours Besides This Reason is a Summer-reason and would pass very ill in Winter when the heat of the Sun is much less powerful At least there would be a very sensible difference betwixt the height of the waters in Summer and Winter if so much was consum'd every day as this Explication supposeth And the truth is this want of a visible out-let is not a property belonging only to the Mediterranean Sea as we noted before but is also in other Seas and great Lakes some lying in one Climate and some in another where there is no reason to suppose such excessive Exhalations and though 't is true some Rivers in Africk and in others parts of the Earth are thus exhal'd and dry'd up without ever flowing into the Sea as were all the Rivers in the first Earth yet this is where the sands and parch'd ground suck up a great part of them the heat of the Climate being excessively strong and the Chanel of the River growing shallower by degrees and it may be divided into lesser branches and rivulets which are causes that take no place here And therefore we must return to our first reason which is universal for all seasons of the Year and all Climates and seeing we are assur'd that there are Subterraneous Chanels and passages for Rivers often fall into the ground and sometimes rise again and sometimes never return why should we doubt to ascribe this effect to so obvious a cause Nay I believe the very Ocean doth evacuate it self by Subterraneous out-lets for considering what a prodigious mass of water falls into it every day from the wide mouths of all the Rivers of the Earth it must have out-lets proportionable and those Syrtes or great Whirlpools that are constant in certain parts or Sinus's of the Sea as upon the Coast of Norway and of Italy arise probably from Subterraneous out-lets in those places whereby the water sinks and turns and draws into it whatsoever comes within such a compass and if there was no issue at the bottom though it might by contrary currents turn things round within in its Sphere yet there is no reason from that why it should suck them down to the bottom Neither does it seem improbable that the currents of the Sea are from these in-draughts and that there is always a submarine in-let in some part of them to make a circulation of
the Waters But thus much for the Subterraneous communication of Seas and Lakes And thus much in general concerning Subterraneous Cavities and concerning the hollow and broken frame of the Earth If I had now Magick enough to show you at one view all the inside of the Earth which we have imperfectly describ'd if we could go under the roots of the Mountains and into the sides of the broken rocks or could dive into the Earth with one of those Rivers that sink under ground and follow its course and all its windings till it rise again or led us to the Sea we should have a much stronger and more effectual Idea of the broken form of the Earth than any we can excite by these faint descriptions collected from Reason The Ancients I remember us'd to represent these hollow Caves and Subterraneous Regions in the nature of a World under-ground and suppos'd it inhabited by the Nymphs especially the Nymphs of the waters and the Sea-Goddesses so Orpheus sung of old and in imitation of him Virgil hath made a description of those Regions feigning the Nymph Cyrene to send for her son to come down to her and make her a visit in those shades where mortals were not admitted Duc age duc ad nos fas illi limina Divûm Tangere ait Simul alta jubet discedere latè Flumina quà juvenis gressus inferret at illum Curvata in montis faciem circumstitit unda AccepÃtque sinu vasto misÃtque sub amnem Iámque domum â—mirans Genetricis humida regna Speluncisque lacos clausos lucósque sonantes Ibat ingenti motu stupâ—factus aquarum Omnia sub magnâ labentia slumina terrâ Spectabat diversa locis PhasÃmque Licúmque c. Et Thalami matris pendentia pumice tecta c. Come lead the Youth below bring him to me The Gods are pleas'd our Mansions he should see Streight she commands the floods to make him way They open their wide bosom and obey Soft is the path and easie is his tread A watry Arch hends o'er his dewy head And as he goes he wonders and looks round To see this new-found Kingdom under ground The silent Lakes in hollow Caves he sees And on their banks an echoing grove of Trees The fall of waters 'mongst the Rocks below He hears and sees the Rivers how they flow All the great Rivers of the Earth are there Prepar'd as in a womb by Nature's care Last to his mother's bed-chamber he 's brought Where the high roof with Pumice-stone is wrought c. If we now could open the Earth as this Nymph did the Water and go down into the bosom of it see all the dark Chambers and Apartments there how ill contriv'd and how ill kept so many holes and corners some fill'd with smoak and fire some with water and some with vapours and mouldy Air how like a ruine it lies gaping and torn in the parts of it we should not easily believe that God created it into this form immediately out of nothing It would have cost no more to have made things in better order nay it had been more easie and more simple and accordingly we are assured that all things were made at first in Beauty and proportion And if we consider Nature and the manner of the first formation of the Earth 't is evident that there could be no such holes and Caverns nor broken pieces made then in the body of it for the grosser parts of the Chaos falling down towards the Center they would there compose a mass of Earth uniform and compact the water swimming above it and this first mass under the water could have no Caverns or vacuities in it for if it had had any the Earthy parts while the mass was liquid or semi-liquid would have sunk into them and fill'd them up expelling the Air or Water that was there And when afterwards there came to be a crust or new Earth form'd upon the face of the Waters there could be no Cavities no dens no fragments in it no more than in the other And for the same general reason that is passing from a liquid form into a concrete or solid leasurely and by degrees it would flow and settle together in an entire mass There being nothing broken nor any thing hard to bear the parts off from one another or to intercept any empty spaces between them 'T is manifest then that the Earth could not be in this Cavernous form originally by any work of Nature nor by any immediate action of God seeing there is neither use nor beauty in this kind of construction Do we not then as reasonably as aptly ascribe it to that desolation that was brought upon the Earth in the general Deluge When its outward frame was dissolv'd and fell into the great Abyss How easily doth this answer all that we have observ'd concerning the Subterraneous Regions That hollow and broken posture of things under ground all those Caves and holes and blind recesses that are otherwise so inaccountable say but that they are a Ruine and you have in one word explain'd them all For there is no sort of Cavities interior or exterior great or little open or shut wet or dry of what form or fashion soever but we might reasonably expect them in a ruine of that nature And as for the Subterraneous waters seeing the Earth fell into the Abyss the pillars and foundations of the present exteriour Earth must stand immers'd in water and therefore at such a depth from the surface every where there must be water found if the soil be of a nature to admit it 'T is true all Subterraneous waters do not proceed from this original for many of them are the effects of Rains and melted Snows sunk into the Earth but that in digging any where you constantly come to water at length even in the most solid ground this cannot proceed from these Rains or Snows but must come from below and from a cause as general as the effect is which can be no other in my judgment than this that the roots of the exteriour Earth stand within the old Abyss whereof as a great part lies open in the Sea so the rest lies hid and cover'd among the fragments of the Earth sometimes dispers'd and only moistning the parts as our bloud lies in the flesh and in the habit of the body sometimes in greater or lesser masses as the bloud in our Vessels And this I take to be the true account of Subterraneous waters as distinguish'd from Fountains and Rivers and from the matter and causes of them Thus much we have spoke to give a general Idea of the inward parts of the Earth and an easie Explication of them by our Hypothesis which whether it be true or no if you compare it impartially with Nature you will confess at least that all these things are just in such a form and posture as if it was true CHAP. X. Concerning the Chanel of the
Sea and the Original of it The Causes of its irregular form and unequal depths As also of the Original of Islands their situation and other properties WE have hitherto given an account of the Subterraneous Regions and of their general form We now come above ground to view the surface of the Globe which we find Terraqueous or divided into Sea and Land These we must survey and what is remarkable in them as to their frame and structure we must give an account of from our Hypothesis and shew to be inaccountable from any other yet known As for the Ocean there are two things considerable in it the Water and the Chanel that contains it The Water no doubt is as ancient as the Earth and cotemporary with it and we suppose it to be part of the great Abyss wherein the World was drown'd the rest lying cover'd under the hollow fragments of Continents and Islands But that is not so much the subject of our present discourse as the Chanel of the Ocean that vast and prodigious Cavity that runs quite round the Globe and reacheth for ought we know from Pole to Pole and in many places is unsearchably deep When I present this great Gulf to my imagination emptied of all its waters naked and gaping at the Sun stretching its jaws from one end of the Earth to another it appears to me the most ghastly thing in Nature What hands or instruments could work a Trench in the body of the Earth of this vastness and lay Mountains and Rocks on the side of it as Ramparts to enclose it But as we justly admire its greatness so we cannot at all admire its beauty or elegancy for 't is as deform'd and irregular as it is great And there appearing nothing of order or any regular design in its parts it seems reasonable to believe that it was not the work of Nature according to her first intention or according to the first model that was drawn in measure and proportion by the Line and by the Plummet but a secondary work and the best that could be made of broken materials And upon this supposition 't is easie to imagine how upon the dissolution of the primaeval Earth the Chanel of the Sea was made or that huge Cavity that lies between the several Continents of the Earth which shall be more particularly explain'd after we have view'd a little better the form of it and the Islands that lie scatter'd by its shores There is no Cavity in the Earth whether open or Subterraneous that is comparably so great as that of the Ocean nor would any appear of that deformity if we could see it empty The inside of a Cave is rough and unsightly The beds of great Rivers and great Lakes when they are laid dry look very raw and rude The Valleys of the Earth if they were naked without Trees and without Grass nothing but bare ground and bare stones from the tops of their Mountains would have a ghastly aspect but the Sea-chanel is the complex of all these here Caves empty Lakes naked Valleys are represented as in their original or rather far exceeded and out-done as to all their irregularities for the Cavity of the Ocean is universally irregular both as to the shores and borders of it as to the uncertain breadth and the uncertain depth of its several parts and as to its ground and bottom and the whole mould If the Sea had been drawn round the Earth in regular figures and borders it might have been a great beauty to our Globe and we should reasonably have concluded it a work of the first Creation or of Nature's first production but finding on the contrary all the marks of disorder and disproportion in it we may as reasonably conclude that it did not belong to the first order of things but was something succedaneous when the degeneracy of Mankind and the judgments of God had destroy'd the first World and subjected the Creation of some kind of Vanity Nor can it easily be imagin'd if the Sea had been always and the Earth in this Terraqueous form broke into Continents and Islands how Mankind could have been propagated at first through the face of the Earth all from one head and from one place For Navigation was not then known at least as to the grand Ocean or to pass from Continent to Continent And I believe Noah's Ark was the first Ship or Vessel of bulk that ever was built in the World how could then the Posterity of Adam overflow the Earth and stock the several parts of the World if they had been distant or separate then as they are now by the interposal of the great Ocean But this consideration we will insist upon more largely in another place let us reflect upon the irregularities of the Sea-chanel again and the possible causes of it If we could imagine the Chanel of the Sea to have been made as we may imagine the Chanel of Rivers to have been by long and insensible attrition The Water wearing by degrees the ground under it by the â—orce it hath from its descent and course we should not wonder at its irregular form but 't is not possible this Chanel should have had any such original whence should its water have descended from what Mountains or from what Clouds Where is the spring-head of the Sea What force could eat away half the surface of the Earth and wear it hollow to an immeasurable depth This must not be from feeble and lingring causes such as the attrition of waters but from some great violence offer'd to Nature such as we suppose to have been in the general Deluge when the frame of the Earth was broken And after we have a little survey'd the Sea-coast and so far as we can the form of the Sea-chanel we shall the more easily believe that they could have no other original than what we assign The shores and coasts of the Sea are no way equal or uniform but go in a line uncertainly crooked and broke indented and jag'd as a thing torn as you may see in the Maps of the Coasts and the Sea-charts and yet there are innumerable more inequalities than are taken notice of in those draughts for they only mark the greater Promontories and Bays but there are besides those a multitude of Creeks and out-lets necks of Land and Angles which break the evenness of the shore in all manner of ways Then the height and level of the shore is as uncertain as the line of it 'T is sometimes high and sometimes low sometimes spread in sandy Plains as smooth as the Sea it self and of such an equal height with it that the waves seem to have no bounds but the meer figure and convexity of the Globe In other places 't is rais'd into banks and ramparts of Earth and in others 't is wall'd in with Rocks And all this without any order that we can observe or any other reason than that this is what might be
constant Laws of Nature do certainly bring all liquors into that form And a Chaos is not call'd so from any confusion or brokenness in the form of it but from a confusion and mixture of all sorts of ingredients in the composition of it So we have already produc'd in the precedent Chapters a double argument that the Earth was not originally in this form both because it rise from a Châ—os which could not of it self or by any immediate concretion settle into a form of this nature as hath been shown in the Fourth and Fifth Chapters as also because if it had been originally made thus it could never have undergone a Deluge as hath been provâ—d in the Second and Third Chapters If this be then a secondary and succedaneous form the great question is from what causes it arises Some have thought that Mountains and all other irregularities in the Earth have rise from Earthquakes and such like causes others have thought that they came from the universal Deluge yet not from any dissolution of the Earth that was then but only from the great agitation of the waters which broke the ground into this rude and unequal form Both these causes seem to me very incompetent and insufficient Earthquakes seldom make Mountains they often take them away and sink them down into the Caverns that lie under them Besides Earthquakes are not in all Countries and Climates as Mountains are for as we have observ'd more than once there is neither Island that is original nor Continent any where in the Earth in what Latitude soever but hath Mountains and Rocks in it And lastly what probability is there or how is it credible that those vast tracts of Land which we see fill'd with Mountains both in Europe Asia and Africa were rais'd by Earthquakes or any eruptions from below In what Age of the World was this done and why not continu'd As for the Deluge which they alledge as another cause I doubt not but Mountains were made in the time of the general Deluge that great change and transformation of the Earth happen'd then but not from such causes as are pretended that is the bare rolling and agitation of the waters For if the Earth was smooth and plain before the Flood as they seem to suppose as well as we do the waters could have little or no power over a smooth surface to tear it any way in pieces no more than they do a meadow or low ground when they lie upon it for that which makes Torrents and Land-floods violent is their fall from the Mountains and high Lands which our Earth is now full of but if the Rain fell upon even and level ground it would only sadden and compress it there is no possibility how it should raise Mountains in it And if we could imagine an universal Deluge as the Earth is now constituted it would rather throw down the Hills and Mountains than raise new ones or by beating down their tops and loose parts help to fill the Valleys and bring the Earth nearer to evenness and plainness Seeing then there are no hopes of explaining the Origin of Mountains either from particular Earthquakes or from the general Deluge according to the common notion and Explication of it these not being causes answerable to such vast effects Let us try our Hypothesis again which hath made us a Chanel large enough for the Sea and room for all subterraneous Cavities and I think will find us materials enough to raise all the Mountains of the Earth We suppose the great Arch or circumference of the first Earth to have fallen into the Abyss at the Deluge and seeing that was large than the surface it fell upon 't is absolutely certain that it could not all fall flat or lie under the water Now as all those parts that stood above the water made dry Land or the present habitable Earth so such parts of the dry Land as stood higher than the rest made Hills and Mountains and this is the first and general account of them and of all the inequalities of the Earth But to consider these things a little more particularly There is a double cause and necessity of Mountains first this now mention'd because the exteriour Orb of the Earth was greater than the interiour which it fell upon and therefore it could not all fall flat and secondly because this exteriour Orb did not fall so flat and large as it might or did not cover all the bottom of the Abyss as it was very capable to do but as we shewed before in explaining the Chanel of the Ocean it left a gaping in the middle or an Abyss-chanel as I should call it and the broader this Abyss-chanel was the more Mountains there would be upon the dry Land for there would be more Earth or more of the falling Orb left and less room to place it in and therefore it must stand more in heaps In what parts of the Earth these heaps would lie and in what particular manner it cannot be expected that we should tell but all that we have hitherto observ'd concerning Mountains how strange soever and otherwise unaccountable may easily be explain'd and deduc'd from this original we shall not wonder at their greatness and vastness seeing they are the ruines of a broken World and they would take up more or less of the dry Land according as the Ocean took up more or less space of our Globe Then as to their figure and form whether External or Internal 't is just such as answers our expectation and no more than what the Hypothesis leads us to For you would easily believe that these heaps would be irregular in all manner of ways whether consider'd apart or in their situation to one another And they would lie commonly in Clusters and in Ridges for those are two of the most general postures of the parts of a ruine when they fall inwards Lastly We cannot wonder that Mountains should be generally hollow For great bodies falling together in confusion or bearing and leaning against one another must needs make a great many hollownesses in them and by their unequal Applications empty spaces will be intercepted We see also from the same reason why mountainous Countries are subject to Earthquakes and why Mountains often sink and fall down into the Caverns that lie under them their joynts and props being decayed and worn they become unable to bear their weight And all these properties you see hang upon one and the same string and are just consequences from our supposition concerning the dissolution of the first Earth And there is no surer mark of a good Hypothesis than when it doth not only hit luckily in one or two particulars but answers all that it is to be apply'd to and is adequate to Nature in her whole extent But to speak the Truth this Theory is something more than a bare Hypothesis because we are assur'd that the general ground that we go upon is true namely
Theological and we will try them both for our satisfaction Of Philosophers none was more concern'd to give an account of such things than Epicurus both because he acknowledged the Origin of the Earth to have been from a Chaos and also admitted no causes to act in Nature but Matter and Motion Yet all the account we have from the Epicureans of the form of the Earth and the great inequalities that are in it is so slight and trivial that methinks it doth not deserve the name of a Philosophical Explication They say that the Earth and Water were mix'd at first or rather the Earth was above the Water and as the Earth was condens'd by the heat of the Sun and the Winds the Water was squeez'd out in certain places which either it found hollow or made so and so was the Chanel of the Sea made Then as for Mountains while some parts of the Earth shrunk and sunk in this manner others would not sink and these standing still while the others fell lower made the Mountains How the subterraneous Cavities were made according to them I do not find This is all the Account that Monsieur Gassendi who seems to have made it his business as well as his pleasure to embellish that Philosophy can help us to out of the Epicurean Authors how the Earth came into this form and he that can content himself with this is in my mind of an humour very easie to be pleas'd Do the Sun and the Wind use to squeaze pools of Water out of the Earth and that in such a quantity as to make an Ocean They dry the Earth and the Waters too and rarifie them into vapours but I never knew them to be the causes of pressing Water out of the Earth by condensation Could they compress the Earth any otherwise than by drying it and making it hard and in proportion as it was more dry would it not the more imbibe and suck up the Water and how were the great Mountains of the Earth made in the North and in the South where the influence of the Sun is not great What sunk the Earth there and made the flesh start from the bones But 't is no wonder that Epicurus should give such a mean account of the Origin of the Earth and the form of its parts who did not so much as understand the general Figure of the Body of it that it was in some manner Spherical or that the Heavens encompast it round One must have a blind love for that Philosophy and for the conclusions it drives at not to see its lameness and defects in those first and fundamental parts Aristotle though he was not concern'd to give an account how the Earth came into this present form as he suppos'd it Eternal yet upon another consideration he seems oblig'd to give some reason how the Elements came into this disorder seeing he supposeth that according to the order of Nature the Water should lie above the Earth in a Sphere as the Air doth above the Water and his Fire above the Air. This he toucheth upon in his Meteors but so gently and fearfully as if he was handling hot coals He saith the Sea is to be consider'd as the Element or body of Waters that belongs to this Earth and that these Waters change places and the Sea is some Ages in one part of the Globe and some Ages in another but that this is at such great distances of time that there can be no memory or record of it And he seems willing to suppose that the Water was once all over the Earth but that it drid up in certain places and continuing in others it there made the Sea What a miserable account is this As to his change or removal of the Sea-chanel in several Ages as it is without all proof or probability if he mean it of the Chanel of the great Ocean so 't is nothing to the purpose here for the question is not why the Chanel of the Sea is in such a part of the Earth rather than in another but why there is any such prodigious Cavity in or upon the Earth any where And if we take his supposition that the Element of Water was once higher than the Earth and lay in a Sphere about it then let him tell us in plain terms how the Earth got above or how the Cavity of the Ocean was made and how the the Mountains rise for this Elementary Earth which lay under the Water was I suppose equal and smooth when it lay there and what reason was there that the Waters should be dri'd in one part of it more than another if they were every where of an equal depth and the ground equal under them It was not the Climates made any distinction for there is Sea towards the Poles as well as under the Aequator but suppose they were dri'd up in certain places that would make no Mountains no more than there are Mountains in our dri'd Marches And the places where they were not dri'd would not therefore become as deep and hollow as the Sea chanel and tear the Earth and Rocks in pieces If you should say that this very Elementary Earth as it lay under the Waters was unequal and was so originally form'd into Mountains and Valleys and great Cavities besides that the supposition is altogether irrational in it self you must suppose a prodigious mass of Water to cover such an Earth as much as we found requisite for the vulgar Deluge namely eight Oceans and what then is become of the other seven Upon the whole I do not see that either in Epicurus's way who seems to suppose that the Waters were at first within the Earth nor in Aristotle's way who seems to suppose them upon the Earth any rational or tolerable account can be given of the present form of the Earth Wherefore some modern Authors dissatisfied as very well they might be with these Explications given us by the Ancients concerning the form of the Earth have pitch'd upon other causes more true indeed in their kind and in their degree but that â—all as much short of those effects to which they would apply them They say that all the irregularities of the body of the Earth have risen from Earthquakes in particular places and from Torrents and Inundations and from eruptions of Fire or such like causes whereof we see some instances more or less every Age And these have made that havock upon the face of the Earth and turn'd things up-side down raising the Earth in some places and making great Cavities or Chasms in others so as to have brought it at length into that torn broken and disorderly form in which we now see it These Authors do so far agree with us as to acknowledge that the present irregular form of the Earth must have proceeded from ruines and dissolutions of one sort or other but these ruines they make to have been partial only in this or in that Country by piece-meal and
for suppose the Abyss was but half as deep as the deep Ocean to make this Calculus answer all the dry Land ought to be cover'd with Mountains and with Mountains as high as the Ocean is deep or doubly high to the depth of the Abyss because they are but upon one half of the Globe And this is the first argument against the reciprocal production of Mountains and the Sea their incongruency or disproportion Secondly We are to consider that a great many Mountains of the Earth are far distant from any Seas as the great in-land Mountains of Asia and of Africk and the Sarmatick Mountains and others in Europe how were these great bodies slung thorow the Air from their respective Seas whence they were taken to those places where they stand What appearance is there in common reason or credibility that these huge masses of Earth and Stone that stand in the middle of Continents were dug out of any Seas We think it strange and very deservedly that a little Chapel should be transported from Palestine to Italy over Land and Sea much more the transportation of Mount Atlas or Taurus thorow the Air or of a range of Mountains two or three thousand miles long would surely upon all accounts appear incongruous and incredible Besides neither the hollow form of Mountains nor the stony matter whereof they commonly consist agrees with that supposition that they were prest or taken out of the Chanel of the Sea Lastly We are to consider that the Mountains are not barely laid upon the Earth as a Tomb-stone upon a Grave nor stand as Statues do upon a Pedestal as this opinion seems to suppose but they are one continued substance with the body of the Earth and their roots reach into the Abyss as the Rocks by the Sea-side go as deep as the bottom of the Sea in one continu'd mass And 't is a ridiculous thing to imagine the Earth first a plain surface then all the Mountains set upon it as Hay-cocks in a Field standing upon their flat bottoms There is no such common surface in Nature nor consequently any such super-additions 'T is all one frame or mass only broken and disjoynted in the parts of it To conclude 'T is not only the Mountains that make the inequalities of the Earth or the irregularity of its surface every Country every Province every Field hath an unequal and different situation higher or lower inclin'd more or less and sometimes one way sometimes another you can scarce take a miles compass in any place where the surface of the ground continues uniform and can you imagine that there were Moulds or Stones brought from the Sea-chanel to make all those inequalities Or that Earthquakes have been in every County and in every Field The inner Veins and Lares the beds or Strata of the Earth are also broken as well as the surface These must proceed from universal causes and all those that have been alledg'd whether from Philosophy or Theology are but particular or Topical I am fully satisfied in contemplation of these things and so I think every unprejudic'd person may be that to such an irregular variety of situation and construction as we see every where in the parts of the Earth nothing could answer but some universal concussion or dislocation in the nature of a general ruine We have now finisht this first part of our Theory and all that concerns the Deluge or dissolution of the Earth and we have not only establisht our own Hypothesis by positive arguments but also produc'd and examin'd all suppositions that have been offer'd by others whether Philosophical or Theological for the Explication of the same things so as nothing seems now to remain further upon this subject For a conclusion of all we will consider if you please the rest of the Earths or of the Planets within our Heavens that appertain to the same common Sun to see so far as we can go by rational conjectures if they be not of the same Fabrick and have undergone the like fate and forms with our Earth It is now acknowledg'd by the generality of Learned Men that the Planets are Opake bodies and particularly our next neighbour the Moon is known to be a Terraqueous Globe consisting of Mountains and Valleys as our Earth does and we have no reason to believe but that she came into that form by a dissolution or from like causes as our Earth did Mercury is so near the Sun that we cannot well discern his face whether spotted or no nor make a judgment of it But as for Venus and Mars if the spots that be observed in them be their Waters or their Sea as they are in the Moon 't is likely They are also Terraqueous Globes and in much what a like form with the Moon and the Earth and for ought we know from like causes Particularly as to Venus 't is a remarkable passage that S. Austin hath preserv'd out of Varro he saith That about the time of the great Deluge there was a wonderful alteration or Catastrophe happen'd to the Planet Venus and that she chang'd her Colour form figure and magnitude This is a great presumption that she suffer'd her dissolution about the same time that our Earth did I do not know that any such thing is recorded concerning any of the other Planets but the body of Mars looks very rugged broken and much disorder'd Saturn and Iupiter deserve a distinct consideration as having something particular and different from the rest of the Planets Saturn is remarkable for his Hoop or Ring which seems to stand off or higher than his body and would strongly induce one to believe that the exteriour Earth of that Planet at its dissolution did not all fall in but the Polar parts sinking into the Abyss the middle or Aequinoctial parts still subsisted and bore themselves up in the nature of an Arch about the Planet or of a Bridge as it were built over the Sea of Saturn And as some have observ'd concerning the figure of Iupiter that it is not wholly Sphaerical but a Sphaeroid protuberant in the Aequator and deprest towards the Poles So I should suspect Saturn to have been much more so before his disruption Namely That the Body of that Planet in its first state was more flat and low towards the Poles and also weaker and thinner and about the Aequator higher fuller and stronger Built By reason of which figure and construction the Polar parts did more easily fall in or were suckt in as Cupping-glasses draw in the Flesh when the Abyss below grew more empty Whereas the middle parts about the Aequator being a more just Arch and strongly built would not yield or sink but stood firm and unbroken and continues still in its first posture Planets break in different ways according to the quality of their matter the manner of their construction and the Nature of the Causes that act upon them Their dissolutions are sometimes total as in
our Earth sometimes partial and both of these may be under great variety In partial dissolutions the middle parts sometimes stand and the Polar are broke or the Polar stand and the middle are broke Or one Hemisphere or part of an Hemisphere may be sunk the rest standing There may be Causes and occasions for all these varieties and many more in diversifying the Phaenomena of an immense Universe But to return to Saturn That this present uncouth form of Saturn was not its Original form I am very well satisfied if that Planet rise from a Chaos as ours did And if this be an adventitious form I know no account can be given of it with more probability than by supposing it the effect of some fraction or disruption in the Polar parts Neither do I know any Phaenomenon hitherto observ'd concerning Saturn that does disprove this Hypothesis or conjecture As to Iupiter that Planet without doubt is also turned about its Axis otherwise how shou'd its four Moons be carried round him And this is also collected from the motion of that permanent Spot if it be found to be so that is upon its Body Which Spot I take to be either a Lake or a Chasm and Hiatus into the Abyss of the Planet That is part of the Abyss open or uncover'd like the Aperture we made in the Seventh Figure And this might either have been left so by Providence at first for some reasons and causes fitting that Earth or it may have fallen in afterwards as Plato's Atlantis or as Soâ—â—m and Gomorrha for some judgment upon part of that World To conclude Seeing all the Planets that are plac'd in this Heaven and are the foster-children of this Sun seem to have some affinity one with another and have much-what the same countenance and the same general Phaenomena It seems probable that they rise much-what the same way and after the like manner as our Earth each one from its respective Chaos And that they had the same Elementary Regions at first and an exteriour Orb â—orm'd over their Abyss And lastly That every one of them hath suffer'd or is to suffer its Deluge as our Earth hath done These I say are probable conjectures according to the Analogy of Reason and Nature so far as we can judge concerning things very remote and inaccessible And these things being thus and our Theory of the Deluge and the Dissolution which brought it having such a general agreement both with our Heavens and our Earth I think there is nothing but the uncouthness of the thing to some mens understandings the custom of thinking otherwise and the uneasiness of entring into a new set of thoughts that can be a bar or hindrance to its reception But it may be improv'd I doubt not in many respects and in some particularities rectified The first attempts in great Things are seldom or never perfect Such is the weakness of our Understandings and the want of a full Natural History And in assigning Causes of such great effects fair conjectures are to be allow'd till they be displac'd by others more evident and more certain Accordingly I readily submit to these terms and leave this and all other parts of the Theory to further examination and enquiries FINIS THE THEORY OF THE EARTH Containing an Account OF THE Original of the Earth AND OF ALL THE GENERAL CHANGES Which it hath already undergone OR IS TO UNDERGO Throughout the whole Course of its Duration THE SECOND BOOK Concerning the PRIMAEVAL EARTH AND Concerning PARADISE LONDON Printed by R. N. for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's-Head in S. Paul's Church-Yard 1697. THE THEORY OF THE EARTH BOOK II. Concerning the Primaeval Earth and concerning Paradise CHAP. I. The Introduction and Contents of the Second Book The general state of the Primaeval Earth and of Paradise WE have already seen a World begin and perish An Earth rais'd from the rudiments of a Chaos and dissolv'd and destroy'd in an Universal Deluge We have given also an imperfect description of that primaeval Earth so far as was necessary to shew the Causes and manner of its dissolution But we must not content our selves with this Seeing that Earth was the first Theater upon which Mortals appear'd and acted and continued so for above Sixteen Hundred Years and that with Scenes as both Reason and History tell us very extraordinary and very different from these of our present Earth 't is reasonable we should endeavour to make a more full discovery and description of it Especially seeing Paradise was there that seat of pleasure which our first Parents lost and which all their posterity have much ado to find again In the First Book we so far describ'd This New-found World as to shew it very different in form and fabrick from the present Earth there was no Sea there no Mountains nor Rocks nor broken Caves 't was all one continued and regular mass smooth simple and compleat as the first works of Nature use to be But to know thus much only doth rather excite our curiosity than satisfie it what were the other properties of this World how were the Heavens how the Elements what accommodation for humane life why was it more proper to be the seat of Paradise than the present Earth Unless we know these things you will say it will seem but an aëry Idea to us and 't is certain that the more properties and particularâ—ties that we know concerning any thing the more real it appears to be As it was our chief design therefore in the precedent Book to give an account of the Universal Deluge by way of a Theory so we propose to our selves chiefly in this Book from the same Theory to give an account of Paradise and in performing of this we shall be led into a more full examination and display of that first Earth and of its qualities And if we be so happy as by the conduct of the same principles and the same method to give as fair an account and as intelligible of the state of Paradise in that Original Earth as we have done of the Deluge by the dissolution of it and of the form of this Earth which succeeded one must be very morose or melancholy to imagine that the grounds we go upon all this while are wholly false or â—ictitious A foundation which will bear the weight of two Worlds without sinking must surely stand upon a firm Rock And I am apt to promise my self that this Theory of the Earth will find acceptance and credit more or less with all but those that think it a sufficient answer to all arguments to say it is a Novelty But to proceed in our disquisition concerning Paradise we may note in the first place two opinions to be avoided being both extreams one that placeth Paradise in the extra-mundane Regions or in the Air or in the Moon and the other that makes it so inconsiderable as to be confin'd to a little spot of ground in Mesopotamia or
Which conjecture will hereafter appear to have been well-grounded In the mean time let us see the Christian Poetry upon this subject as we have seen the Roman upon the other Alcimus Avitus hath thus describ'd Paradise in his Notes upon Genesis Non hîc alterni succedit temporis unquam Bruma nec aestivi redeunt post frigora Soles Hîc Ver assiduum Coeli clementia servat Turbidus Auster abest sempérque sub aere sudo Nubila diffugiunt jugi cessura sereno Nec poscit Natura loci quos non habet imbres Sed contenta suo dotantur germina rore Perpetuò viret omne solum terraeque benignae Blanda nitet facies Stant semper collibus herbae Arboribúsque comae c. No change of Seasons or excess was there No Winter chill'd nor Summer scorch'd the Air But with a constant Spring Nature was fresh and fair Rough Winds or Rains that Region never knew Water'd with Rivers and the morning Dew The Heav'ns still clear the Fields still green and gay No Clouds above nor on the Earth decay Trees kept their leaves and verdure all the Year And Fruits were never out of Season there And as the Christian Authors so likewise the Iewish have spoken of Paradise in the same manner they tell us also that the days there were always of the same length throughout the whole Year and that made them fancy Paradise to lie under the Aequinoctial as we shall see in its due place 'T is true we do not find these things mention'd expresly in the Sacred Writings but the Effects that flow'd from them are recorded there and we may reasonably suppose providence to have foreseen that when those Effects came to be scan'd and narrowly lookt into they would lead us to a diâ—covery of the Causes and particularly of this great and general Cause that perpetual Aequinox and unity of seasons in the Year till the Deluge The Longaevity of the Ante-diluvians cannot be explain'd upon any other supposition as we shall have occasion to show hereafter and that you know is recorded carefully in Scripture As also that there was no Rainbow before the Flood which goes upon the same ground that there was no variety of Seasons nor any Rain And this by many is thought to be understood by Moses his words Gen. 2. 5 6. which he speaks of the first and Paradisiacal Earth Lastly Seeing the Earth then brought forth the principles of life and all living Creatures Man excepted according to Moses Gen. 1. 24. we must suppose that the state of the Heavens was such as favour'd these Conceptions and Births which could not possibly be brought to perfection as the Seasons of the Year are at present The first time that we have mention made in Scripture of Summer and Winter and the differences of Seasons is at the ending of the Deluge Gen. 8. 22. Hence forward all the days of the Earth Seed-time and Harvest Heat and Cold Summer and Winter Day and Night shall not cease 'T is true these words are so lax that they may be understood either of a new course of Nature then instituted or of an old one restor'd but seeing it doth appear from other arguments and considerations that there was at that time a new course of Nature constituted it is more reasonable to interpret the words in that sence which as it is agreeable to truth according to Reason and Antiquity so it renders that remark of Moses of far greater importance if it be understood as an indication of a new order then setled in Nature which should continue thenceforwards so long as the Earth endur'd Nor do I at all wonder that such things should not be expresly and positively declar'd in Scripture for Natural Mysteries in the Holy Writings as well as Prophetical are many times on set purpose incompleatly deliver'd so as to awaken and excite our thoughts rather than fully resolve them This being often more suitable to the designs of Providence in the government of the World But thus much for this first common or general Character of the Golden Age and of Paradise a perpetual Serenity and perpetual Aequinox The second Character is the Longaevity of Men and as is probable of all other Animals in proportion This methinks is as strange and surprising as the other and I know no difference betwixt the Ante-diluvian World and the present so apt to affect us if we reflect upon it as this wonderful disproportion in the Ages of Men Our fore-fathers and their Posterity They liv'd seven eight nine hundred Years and upwards and 't is a wonder now if a Man live to one hundred Our Oakes do not last so long as their Bodies did Stone and Iron would scarce out-wear them And this property of the first Ages or their Inhabitants how strange soever is well attested and beyond all exception having the joynt consent of Sacred and Profane History The Scripture sets down the precise Age of a sâ—ries of Ante diluvian Patriarchs and by that measures the time from the beginning of the World to the Deluge so as all Sacred Chronology stand upon that bottom Yet I know some have thought this so improbable and incongruous a thing that to save the credit of Moses and the Sacred History they interpret these years of Lunar years or months and so the Ages of these Patriarchs are reduc'd to much what the same measure with the common life of man at this time It may be observ'd in this as in many other instances that for want of a Theory to make things credible and intelligibile men of wit and parts have often deprest the sence of Scripture and that not out of any ill will to Scripture or Religion but because they could not otherwise upon the stock of their notions give themselves a rational account of things recorded there But I hope when we come to explain the Causes of this Longaevity we shall shew that it is altogethâ—r us strange a thing that Men should have such short lives as they have now as that they had such long lives in the first Ages of the World In the mean time there are a great many collateral reasons to assure us that Lunar years cannot be here understood by Moses for all Antiquity gives the same account of those first Ages of the World and of the first Men that they were extremely long-liv'd We meet with it generally in the description of the Golden Age and not only so but in their Topical Paradises also they always suppos'd a great vivacity or longaevity in those that enjoy'd them And Iosephus speaking upon this subject saith the Authors of all the learned Nations Greeks or Barbarians bear witness to Moses's doctrine in this particular And in the Mosaical History it self there are several circumstances and marks that discover plainly that the years of the Patriarchs cannot be understood of Lunar years as we shall have occasion to show in another place We proceed in the mean time
that is now the same vicissitude of seasons and the same inequality of heat and cold I do not think it at all possible that they could be so form'd or being new-form'd preserv'd and nourish'd 'T is true some little Creatures that are of short dispatch in their formation and find nourishment enough wheresoever they are brâ—d might be produc'd and brought to perfection in this way notwithstanding any inequality of Seasons because they are made all at a heat as I may so say begun and ended within the compass of one Season But the great question is concerning the more perfect kinds of Animals that require a long stay in the womb to make them capable to sustain and nourish themselves when they first come into the World Such Animals being big and strong must have a pretty hardness in their bones and force and firmness in their Muscles and Joynts before they can bear their own weight and exercise the common motions of their body And accordingly we see Nature hath ordain'd for these a longer time of gestation that their limbs and members might have time to acquire strength and solidity Besides the young ones of these Animals have commonly the milk of the Dam to nourish them after they are brought forth which is a very proper nourishment and like to that which they had before in the womb and by this means their stomachs are prepar'd by degrees for courser food Whereas our Terrigenous Animals must have been wean'd as soon as they were born or as soon as they were separated from their Mother the Earth and therefore must be allow'd a longer time of continuing there These things being consider'd we cannot in reason but suppose that these Terrigenous Animals were as long or longer a perfecting than our Viviparous and were not separated from the body of the Earth for ten twelve eighteen or more months according as their Nature was and seeing in this space of time they must have sufferâ—d upon the common Hypothesis all vicissitudes and variety of seasons and great excesses of heat and cold which are things incompatible with the tender principles of life and the formation of living Creatures as we have shown before we may reasonably and safely conclude that Nature had not when the World began the same course she hath now or that the Earth was not then in its present posture and constitution Seeing I say these first spontaneous Births which both the Holy Writ Reason and Antiquity seem to allow could not be finish'd and brought to maturity nor afterwards preserv'd and nourisht upon any other supposition Longaeviâ—y is the last Character to be consider'd and as inconsistent with the present state of the Earth as any other There are many things in the story of the first Ages that seem strange but nothing so prodigy-like as the long lives of those Men that their houses of Clay should stand eight or nine hundred years and upwards and those we build of the hardest Stone or Marble will not now last so long This hath excited the curiosity of ingenious and learned men in all Ages to enquire after the possible Causes of that longaveity and if it had been always in conjunction with innocency of life and manners and expir'd when that expir'd we might have thought it some peculiar blessing or reward attending that but 't was common to good and bad and lasted till the Deluge whereas mankind was degenerate long before Amongst Natural Causes some have imputed it to the sobriety and simplicity of their diet and manner of living in those days that they eat no flesh and had not all those provocations to gluttony which Wit and Vice have since invented This might have some effect but not possibly to that degree and measure that we speak of There are many Monastical persons now that live abstemiously all their lives and yet they think an hundred years a very great age amongst them Others have imputed it to the excellency of their Fruits and some unknown vertue in their Herbs and Plants in those days But they may as well say nothing as say that which can neither be prov'd nor understood It could not be either the quantity or quality of their food that was the cause of their long lives for the Earth was said to be curst long before the Deluge and probably by that time was more barren and juiceless for the generality than ours is now yet we do not see that their longaevity decreast at all from the beginning of the World to the Flood Methusalah was Noah's Grandfather but one intire remove from the Deluge and he liv'd longer than any of his Fore-fathers That food that will nourish the parts and keep us in health is also capable to keep us in long life if there be no impediments otherwise for to continue health is to continue life as that fewel that is fit to raise and nourish a flame will preserve it as long as you please if you add fresh fewel and no external causes hinder Neither do we observe that in those parts of the present Earth where people live longer than in others that there is any thing extraordinary in their food but that the difference is chiefly from the Air and the temperateness of the Heavens And if the Ante-diluvians had not enjoy'd that advantage in a peculiar manner and differently from what any parts of the Earth do now they would never have seen seven eight or nine hundred years go over their heads though they had been nourish'd with Nectar and Ambrosia Others have thought that the long lives of those Men of the old World proceeded from the strength of their Stamina or first principles of their bodies which if they were now as strong in us they think we should still live as long as they did This could not be the sole and adaequate cause of their longaevity as will appear both from History and Reason Shem who was born before the Flood and had in his body all the vertue of the Ante-diluvian Stamina and constitution fell three hundred years short of the age of his fore-fathers because the greatest part of his life was past after the Flood That their Stamina were stronger than ours are I am very ready to believe and that their bodies were greater and any race of strong Men living long in health would have children of a proportionably strong constitution with themselves but then the question is How was this interrupted We that are their posterity why do not we inherit their long lives how was this constitution broken at the Deluge and how did the Stamina fail so fast when that came why was there so great a Crisis then and turn of life or why was that the period of their strength We see this longaevity sunk half in half immediately after the Flood and after that it sunk by gentler degrees but was still in motion and declension till it was â—ixt at length before David's time in that which hath
the Heavens or Aether The Ancients both the Stoicks and Aristotle have suppos'd that there was something of an Aethereal Element in the Male-geniture from whence the vertue of it chiefly proceeded and if so why may we not suppose at that time some general impression or irradiation of that purer Element to fructifie the new-made Earth Moses saith there was an incubation of the Spirit of God upon the mass and without all doubt that was either to form or fructifie it and by the mediation of this active principle but the Ancients speak more plainly with express mention of this Aether and of the impregnation of the Earth by it as betwixt Male and Female As in the place before-cited Tum Pater omnipotens faecundis imbribus Aether Conjugis in gremium laetae descendit omnes Magnus alit magno commixtus corpore foetus Which notion I remember S. Austin saith Virgil did not take from the fictions of the Poets but out of the Books of the Philosophers Some of the gravest Authors amongst the Romans have reported that this vertue hath been convey'd into the Wombs of some Animals by the Winds or the Zephyri and as I easily believe that the first fresh Air was more impregnated with this Aethereal principle than ours is so I see no reason but those balmy dews that fell every night in the Primitive Earth might be the Vehicle of it as well as the Male-geniture is now and from them the teeming Earth and those vital Seeds which it contain'd were actuated and receiv'd their first fruitfulness Now this Principle howsoever convey'd to those rudiments of life which we call Eggs is that which gives the first stroke towards Animation and this seems to be by exciting a ferment in those little masses whereby the parts are loosen'd and dispos'd for that formation which is to follow afterwards And I see nothing that hinders but that we may reasonably suppose that these Animal productions might proceed thus far in the Primigenial Earth And as to their progress and the formation of the Body by what Agents or Principles soever that great work is carried on in the womb of the Female it might by the same be carried on there Neither would there be any danger of miscarrying by excess of Heat or Cold for the Air was always of an equal temper and moderate warmth And all other impediments were remov'd and all principles ready whether active or passive so as we may justly conclude that as Eve was the Mother of all living as to Mankind so was the Earth the Great Mother of all living Creatures besides The Third Character to be explain'd and the most extraordinary in appearance is that of LONGAEVITY This sprung from the same root in my opinion with the other though the connexion it may be is not so visible We show'd in the foregoing Chapter that no advantage of Diet or of strong Constitutions could have carried their lives before the Flood to that wonderful length if they had been expos'd to the same changes of Air and of Seasons that our Bodies are But taking a perpetual Aequinox and fixing the Heavens you fix the life of Man too which was not then in such a rapid flux as it is now but seem'd to stand still as the Sun did once without declension There is no question but every thing upon Earth and especially the Animate World would be much more permanent if the general course of Nature was more steddy and uniform A stabiâ—ity in the Heavens makes a stability in all things below and that change and contrariety of qualities that we have in these Regions is the fountain of corruption and suffers nothing to be long in quiet Either by intestine motions and fermentations excited within or by outward impressions Bodies are no sooner well constituted but they are tending again to dissolution The Aether in their little pores and chinks is unequally agitated and differently mov'd at different times and so is the Air in their greater and the Vapours and Atmosphere round about them All these shake and unsettle both the texture and continuity of Bodies Whereas in a fixt state of Nature where these principles have always the same constant and uniform motion when they are once suited to the forms and compositions of Bodies they give them no further disturbance they enjoy a long and lasting peace without any commotions or violence within or without We find our selves sensible changes in our Bodies upon the turn of the Year and the change of Seasons new fermentations in the Bloud and resolutions of the Humours which if they do not amount to diseases at least they disturb Nature and have a bad effect not only upon the fluid parts but also upon the more solid upon the Springs and Fibres in the Organs of the Body to weaken them and unfit them by degrees for their respective functions For though the change is not sensible immediately in these parts yet after many repeated impressions every year by unequal heat and cold driness and moisture contracting and relaxing the Fibres their tone at length is in a great measure destroy'd and brought to a manifest debility and the great Springs failing the lesser that depend upon them fall in proportion and all the symptoms of decay and old age follow We see by daily experience that Bodies are kept better in the same medium as we call it than if they often change their medium as sometimes in Air sometimes in Water moisten'd and dry'd heated and cool'd these different states weaken the contexture of the parts But our Bodies in the present state of Nature are put into an hundred different mediums in the course of a Year sometimes we are steept in Water or in a misty foggy Air for several days together sometimes we are almost frozen with cold then fainting with heat at another time of the Year and the Winds are of a different nature and the Air of a different weight and pressure according to the Weather and the Seasons These things would wear our Bodies though they were built of Oak and that in a very short time in comparison of what they would last if they were always incompast with one and the same medium under one and the same temper as it was in the Primitive Earth The Ancients seem to have been sensible of this and of the true causes of those long periods of life for wheresoever they assign'd a great longaevity as they did not only to their Golden Age but also to their particular and topical Paradises they also assign'd there a constant serenity and equality of the Heavens and sometimes expresly a constant Aequinox as might be made appear from their Authors And some of our Christian Authors have gone farther and connected these two together as Cause and Effect for they say that the Longaevity of the Ante-diluvian Patriarchs proceeded from a favourable Aspect and influence of the Heavens at that time which Aspect of the Heavens being rightly
Chanels of the other Hemisphere This indeed would in some measure answer the Notion which several of the Ancient Fathers make use of that the Rivers of Paradise were trajected out of the other Hemisphere into this by Subterraneous passages But I confess I could never see it possible how such a trajection could be made nor how they could have any motion being arriv'd in another Hemisphere and therefore I am apt to believe that doctrine amongst the Ancients arose from an intanglement in their principles They suppos'd generally that Paradise was in the other Hemisphere as we shall have occasion to show hereafter and yet they believ'd that Tigris Euphrates Nile and Gunges were the Rivers of Paradise or came out of it and these two opinions they could not reconcile or make out but by supposing that these four Rivers had their Fountain-heads in the other Hemisphere and by some wonderful trajection broke out again here This was the expedient they found out to make their opinions consistent one with another but this is a method to me altogether unconceivable and for my part I do not love to be led our of my depth leaning only upon Antiquity How there could be any such communication either above ground or under-ground betwixt the two Hemispheres does not appear and therefore we must still suppose the Torrid Zone to have been the Barrier betwixt them which nothing could pass either way We have now examin'd and determin'd the state of the Air and of the Waters in the Primitive Earth by the light and consequences of reason and we must not wonder to find them different from the present order of Nature what things are said of them or relating to them in Holy Writ do testifie or imply as much and it will be worth our time to make some reflection upon those passages for our further confirmation Moses tells us that the Rainbow was set in the Clouds after the Deluge those Heavens then that never had a Rain-bow before were certainly of a constitution very different from ours And S. Peter doth formally and expresly tell us that the Old Heavens or the Ante-diluvian Heavens had a different constitution from ours and particularly that they were compos'd or constituted of Water which Philosophy of the Apostle's may be easily understood if we attend to two things first that the Heavens he speaks of were not the Starry Heavens but the Aereal Heavens or the Regions of our Air where the Meteors are Secondly That there were no Meteors in those Regions or in those Heavens till the Deluge but watery Meteors and therefore he says they consisted of Water And this shows the foundation upon which that description is made how coherently the Apostle argues and answers the objection there propos'd how justly also he distinguisheth the first Heavens from the present Heavens or rather opposeth them one to another because as those were constituted of Water and watery Meteors only so the present Heavens he saith have treasures of Fire fiery Exhalations and Meteors and a disposition to become the Executioners of the Divine wrath and decrees in the final Conflagration of the Earth This minds me also of the Celestial Waters or the Waters above the Firmaments which Scripture sometimes mentions and which methinks cannot be explain'd so fitly and emphatically upon any supposition as this of ours Those who place them above the Starry Heavens seem neither to understand Astronomy nor Philosophy and on the other hand if nothing be understood by them but the Clouds and the middle Region of the Air as it is at present methinks that was no such eminent and remarkable thing as to deserve a particular commemoration by Moses in his six days work but if we understand them not as they are now but as they were then the only Source of Waters or the only Source of Waters upon that Earth for they had not one drop of Water but what was Celestial this gives it a new force and Emphasis Besides the whole middle Region having no other sort of Meteors but them That made it still the greater singularity and more worthy commemoration As for the Rivers of Paradise there is nothing said concerning their Source or their issue that is either contrary to this or that is not agreeable to the general account we have given of the Waters and Rivers of the first Earth They are not said to rise from any Mountain but from a great River or a kind of Lake in Eden according to the custom of the Rivers of that Earth And as for their end and issue Moses doth not say that they disburthen'd themselves into this or that Sea as they usually do in the description of great Rivers but rather implies that they spent themselves in compassing and watering certain Countries which falls in again very easily with our Hypothesis But I say this rather to comply with the opinions of others than of my own judgment For I think that suggestion about the Supercoelestial Waters made by Moses was not so much according to the strict nature and speciality of Causes as for the ease and profit of the People in their belief and acknowledgment of Providence for so great a benefit by what Causes soever it was brought to pass But to return to the Rainbow which we mention'd before and is not to be past over so slightly This we say is a Creature of the modern World and was not seen nor known before the Flood Moses Gen. 9. 12 13. plainly intimates as much or rather directly affirms it for he says The Bow was set in the Clouds after the Deluge as a confirmation of the promise or Covenant which God made with Noah that he would drown the World no more with Water And how could it be a sign of this or given as a pledge and confirmation of such a promise if it was in the Clouds before and with no regard to this promise and stood there it may be when the World was going to be drown'd This would have been but cold comfort to Noah to have had such a pledge of the Divine Veracity You 'll say it may be that it was not a sign or pledge that signified naturally but voluntarily only and by Divine Institution I am of opinion I confess that it signifi'd naturally and by connexion with the effect importing thus much that the state of Nature was chang'd from what it was before and so chang'd that the Earth was no more in a condition to perish by Water But however let us grant that it signified only by institution to make it significant in this sence it must be something new otherwise it could not signifie any new thing or be the confirmation of a new promise If God Almighty had said to Noah I make a promise to you and to all living Creatures that the World shall never be destroy'd by Water again and for confirmation of this Behold I set the Sun in the firmament Would this have been any
intelligent Being I say some measures be taken to determine the primary Motions upon which the rest depend and to put them in a way that leads to the formation of a World The mass must be divided into Regions and Centers fixt and Motions appropriated to them and it must be consider'd of what magnitude the first Bodies or the first divisions of Matter should be and how mov'd Besides there must be a determinate proportion and certain degree of motion imprest upon the Universal Matter to qualifie it for the production of a World if the dose was either too strong or too weak the work would miscarry and nothing but infinite Wisdom could see thorough the effects of every proportion or every new degree of Motion and discern which was best for the beginning progress and perfection of a World So you see the Author of Nature is no way excluded or made useless by the Laws of Motion nor if Matter was promiscuously mov'd would these be sufficient causes of themselves to produce a World or that regular diversity of Bodies that compose it But 't is hard to satisfie Men against their inclinations or their interest And as the regularity of the Universe was always a great stumbling-stone to the Epicuraeans so they have endeavour'd to make shifts of all sorts to give an account and answer to it without recourse to an Intelligent Principle and for their last refuge they say That Chance might bring that to pass which Nature and Necessity could not do The Atoms might hit upon a lucky sett of Motions which though it were casual and fortuitous might happily lead them to the forming of a World A lucky hit indeed for Chance to frame a World But this is a meer shuffle and collusion for if there was nothing in Nature but Matter there could be no such thing as Chance all would be pure Mechanical Necessity and so this answer though it seem very different is the same in effect with the former and Epicurus with his Atomists are oblig'd to give a just mechanical account how all the parts of Nature the most compound and elaborate parts not excepted rise from their Atoms by pure necessity There could be no accidental concourse or coalition of them every step every motion every composition was fatal and necessary and therefore 't is nonsence for an Epicuraean to talk of Chance as Chance is oppos'd to Necessity and if they oppose it to Counsel and Wisdom 't is little better than non-sence to say the World and all its furniture rise by Chance in that notion of it But it will deserve our patience a little to give a more full and distinct answer to this seeing it reacheth all their pleas and evasions at once What proof or demonstration of Wisdom and Counsel can be given or can be desir'd that is not found in some part of the World Animate or Inanimate We know but a little portion of the Universe a meer point in comparison and a broken point too and yet in this broken point or some small parcels of it there is more of Art Counsel and Wisdom shown than in all the works of Men taken together or than in all our Artificial World In the construction of the Body of an Animal there is more of thought and contrivance more of exquisite invention and fit disposition of parts than is in all the Temples Palaces Ships Theaters or any other pieces of Architecture the World ever yet see And not Architecture only but all other Mechanism whatsoever Engines Clock-work or any other is not comparable to the Body of a living Creature Seeing then we acknowledge these artificial works wheresoever we meet with them to be the effects of Wit Understanding and Reason is it not manifest partiality or stupidity rather to deny the Works of Nature which excel these in all degrees to proceed from an Intelligent Principle Let them take any piece of Humane Art or any Machine fram'd by the Wit of Man and compare it with the Body of an Animal either for diversity and multiplicity of Workmanship or curiosity in the minute parts or just connexion and dependance of one thing upon another or fit subserviency to the ends propos'd of life motion use and ornament to the Creature and if in all these respects they find it superiour to any work of Humane production as they certainly must do why should it be thought to proceed from inferiour and senceless Causes ought we not in this as well as in other things to proportion the Causes to the Effect and to speak truth and bring in an honest Verdict for Nature as well as Art In the composition of a perfect Animal there are four several frames or compages joyn'd together The Natural Vital Animal and Genital Let them examine any one of these apart and try if they can find any thing defective or superfluous or any way inept for matter or form Let them view the whole Compages of the Bones and especially the admirable construction texture and disposition of the Muscles which are joyn'd with them for moving the Body or its parts Let them take an account of the little Pipes and Conduits for the Juices and the Liquors of their form and distribution Or let them take any single Organ to examine as the Eye or the Ear the Hand or the Heart In each of these they may discover such arguments of Wisdom and of Art as will either convince them or confound them though still they must leave greater undiscover'd We know little the insensible form and contexture of the parts of the Body nor the just method of their Action We know not yet the manner order and causes of the Motion of the Heart which is the chief Spring of the whole Machine and with how little exactness do we understand the Brain and the parts belonging to it Why of that temper and of that form How Motions are propagated there and how conserv'd How they answer the several operations of the Mind Why such little discomposures of it disturb our Senses and upon what little differences in this the great differences of Wits and Genius's depend Yet seeing in all these Organs whose make and manner of action we cannot discover we see however by the Effects that they are truly fitted for those offices to which Nature hath design'd them we ought in reason to admire that Art which we cannot penetrate At least we cannot but judge it a thing absurd that what we have not wit enough to find out or comprehend we should not allow to be an argument of wit and understanding in the Author or Inventor of it This would be against all Logick common Sense and common Decorum Neither do I think it possible to the mind of Man while we attend to evidence to believe that these and such like works of Nature came by Chance as they call it or without Providence forecast and Wisdom either in the first Causes or in the proximate in the design
speak more properly all necessity of existence Besides that we exist our selves notwithstanding the imperfection and insufficiency of our Nature is a just collateral proof of the existence of this Supream Being for such an effect as this cannot be without its Cause and it can have no other competent Cause but that we mention And as this Being is its own Origin so it must needs be capable of producing all Creatures for whatsoever is possible must be possible to it and that Creatures or finite Beings are possible we both see by experience and may also discern by Reason for those several degrees of perfection or limitations of it which we mention'd before are all consistent Notions and consequently make consistent Natures and such as may exist but contingently indeed and in dependance upon the first Cause Thus we are come at length to a fair resolution of that great Question Whence we are and how we continue in Being And this hath led us by an easie ascent to the Supreme Author of Nature and the â—irst Cause of all things and presents us also with such a Scheme and Draught of the Universe as is clear and rational every thing in its order and in its place according to the dignity of its Nature and the strength of its principles When the Mind hath rais'd it self into this view of a Being infinitely perfect 't is in a Region of Light hath a free prospect every way and sees all things from top to bottom as pervious and transparent Whereas without God and a First Cause there is nothing but darkness and confusion in the Mind and in Nature broken views of things short interrupted glimpses of Light nothing certain or demonstrative no Basis of Truth no extent of Thought no Science no Contemplation You will say it may be 'T is true something must be Eternal and of necessary existence but why may not Matter be this Eternal necessary Being Then our Souls and all other Intellectual things must be parts and parcels of Matter and what pretensions can Matter have to those properties and perfections that we find in our Souls how limited soever much less to necessary existence and those perfections that are the foundation of it What exists Eternally and from it self its existence must flow immediately from its essence as its cause reason or ground for as Existence hath always something antecedent to it in order of Nature so that which is antecedent to it must infer it by a necessary connexion and so may be call'd the cause ground or reason of it And nothing can be such a ground but what is a perfection nor every perfection neither it must be Sovereign and Infinite perfection for from what else can necessary existence flow or be inferr'd Besides if that Being was not infinitely perfect there might be another Being more powerful than it and consequently able to oppose and hinder its Existence and what may be hinder'd is contingent and arbitrary Now Matter is so far from being a Nature infinitely perfect that it hath no perfection at all but that of bare substance neither Life Sense Will or Understanding nor so much as Motion from it self as we have show'd before And therefore this brute inactive mass which is but as it were the Drudge of Nature can have no right or title to that Sovereign prerogative of Self existence We noted before as a thing agreed upon That something or other must needs be Eternal For if ever there was a time or state when there was no Being there never could be any Seeing Nothing could not produce Something Therefore 't is undeniably true on all hands That there was some Being from Eternity Now according to our understandings Truth is Eternal therefore say we some intellect or Intelligent Being So also the reasons of Goodness and Iustice appear to us Eternal and therefore some Good and Just Being is Eternal Thus much is plain that these perfections which bear the signatures of Eternity upon them are things that have no relation to Matter but relate immediately to an Intellectual Being therefore some such Being to whom they originally belong must be that Eternal Besides We cannot possibly but judge such a Being more perfect than Matter Now every Nature the more perfect it is the more remote it is from Nothing and the more remote it is from Nothing the more it approaches to necessity of existence and consequently to Eternal Existence Thus we have made a short Survey so far as the bounds of a Chapter would permit of those evidences and assurances which we have from abstract Reason and the External World that there is an Author of Nature and That a Being infinitely perfect which we call God We may add to these in the last place that universal consent of Mankind or natural instinct of Religion which we see more or less throughout all Nations Barbarous or Civil For though this Argument 't is true be more disputable than the rest yet having set down just grounds already from whence this Natural Judgment or perswasion might spring we have more reason to impute it to some of those and their insensible influence upon the Mind than to the artifices of Men or to make it a weakness prejudice or errour of our Nature That there is such a propension in Humane Nature seems to be very plain at least so far as to move us to implore and have recourse to invisible Powers in our extremities Prayer is natural in certain cases and we do at the meer motion of our natural Spirit and indeliberately invoke God and Heaven either in case of extreme danger to help and assist us or in case of injustice and oppression to relieve or avenge us or in case of false accusation to vindicate our innocency and generally in all cases desperate and remediless as to Humane Power we seem to appeal and address our selves to something higher And this we do by a sudden impulse of Nature without reflexion or deliberation Besides as witnesses of our Faith and Veracity we use to invoke the Gods or Superiour Powers by way of imprecation upon our selves if we be false and perjur'd and this hath been us'd in most Nations and Ages if not in all These things also argue that there is a Natural Conscience in Man and a distinction of moral Good and Evil and that we look upon those invisible Powers as the Guardians of Vertue and Honesty There are also few or no People upon the Earth but have something of External Religion true or false and either of them is an argument of this natural anticipation or that they have an opinion that there is something above them and above visible Nature though what that something was they seldom were able to make a good judgment But to pursue this Argument particularly would require an Historical deduction of Times and Places which is not suitable to our present design To conclude this Chapter and this Subject If we set Religion apart
Mechanical By these you discover the footsteps of the Divine Art and Wisdom and trace the progress of Nature step by step as distinctly as in Artificial things where we see how the Motions depend upon one another in what order and by what necessity God made all things in Number Weiâ—ht and Measure which are Geometrical and Mechanical Principles He is not said to have made things by Forms and Qualities or any combination of Qualities but by these three principles which may be conceiv'd to express the subject of three Mathematical Sciences Number of Arithmetick Weight of Staticks and Measure and Proportion of Geometry If then all things were made according to these principles to understand the manner of their construction and composition we must proceed in the search of them by the same principles and resolve them into these again Besides The nature of the subject does direct us sufficiently for when we contemplate or treat of Bodies and the Material World we must proceed by the modes of Bodies and their real properties such as can be represented either to Sense or Imagination for these faculties are made for Corporeal Things but Logical Notions when appli'd to particular Bodies are meer shadows of them without light or substance No Man can raise a Theory upon such grounds nor calculate any revolutions of Nature nor render any service or invent any thing useful in Humane Life And accordingly we see that for these many Ages that this dry Philosophy hath govern'd Christendom it hath brought forth no fruit produc'd nothing good to God or Man to Religion or Humane Society To these True Principles of Philosophy we must joyn also the True System of the World That gives scope to our thoughts and rational grounds to work upon but the Vulgar System or that which Aristotle and others have propos'd affords no matter of contemplation All above the Moon according to him is firm as Adamant and as immutable no change or variation in the Universe but in those little removes that happen here below one quality or form shifting into another there would therefore be no great exercise of Reason or Meditation in such a World no long Series's of Providence The Regions above being made of a kind of immutable Matter they would always remain in the same form structure and qualities So as we might lock up that part of the Universe as to any further Inquiries and we should find it ten thousand years hence in the same form and state wherein we left it Then in this Sublunary World there would be but very small doings neither things would lie in a narrow compass no great revolution of Nature no new Form of the Earth but a few anniversary Corruptions and Generations and that would be the short and the long of Nature and of Providence according to Aristotle But if we consider the Earth as one of those many Planets that move about the Sun and the Sun as one of those innumerable fixt Stars that adorn the Universe and are the Centers of its greatest Motions and all this subject to fate and change to corruptions and renovations This opens a large Field for our Thoughts and gives a large subject for the exercise and expansion of the Divine Wisdom and Power and for the glory of his Providence In the last place Having thus prepar'd your Mind and the subject for the Contemplation of Natural Providence do not content your self to consider only the present face of Nature but look back into the first Sources of things into their more simple and original states and observe the progress of Nature from one form to another through various modes and compositions For there is no single Effect nor any single state of Nature how perfect soever that can be such an argument and demonstration of Providence as a Period of Nature or a revolution of several states consequential to one another and in such an order and dependance that as they flow and succeed they shall still be adjusted to the periods of the Moral World so as to be ready always to be Ministers of the Divine Justice or beneficence to Mankind This shows the manifold riches of the Wisdom and Power of God in Nature And this may give us just occasion to reflect again upon Aristotle's System and method which destroys Natural Providence in this respect also for he takes the World as it is now both for Matter and Form and supposeth it to have been in this posture from all Eternity and that it will continue to Eternity in the same so as all the great turns of Nature and the principal scenes of Providence in the Natural World are quite struck out and we have but this one Scene for all and a pitiful one too if compar'd with the Infinite Wisdom of God and the depths of Providence We must take things in their full extent and from their Origins to comprehend them well and to discover the Mysteries of Providence both in the Causes and in the Conduct of them That method which David followed in the Contemplation of the Little World or in the Body of Man we should also follow in the Great take it in its first mass in its tender principles and rudiments and observe the progress of it to a compleat form In these first stroaks of Nature are the secrets of her Art The Eye must be plac'd in this point to have a right prospect and see her works in a true light David admires the Wisdom of God in the Origin and formation of his Body My Body says He was not hid from thee when I was made in secret curiously wrought in the lower parts of the Earth Thine eyes did see my substance being yet unperfect and in thy Book all my members were written which in continuance were fashioned when as yet there was none of them or being at first in no form How precious are thy Thoughts to me O God c. This was the subject of David's Meditations how his Body was wrought from a shapeless mass into that marvellous composition which it had when fully fram'd and this he says was under the Eye of God all along and the model of it as it were was design'd and delineated in the Book of Providence according to which it was by degrees fashion'd and wrought to perfection Thine eyes did see my substance yet being imperfect in thy Book all my members were drawn c. Iob also hath aptly exprest those first rudiments of the Body or that little Chaos out of which it riseth Hast thou not poured me out as Milk and crudled me like Cheese Thou hast cloathed me with Skin and Flesh and fenced me with Bones and Sinews Where he notes the first Matter and the last Form of his Body its compleat and most incompleat state According to those examples we must likewise consider the Greater Bodies of Nature The Earth and the Sublunary World we must go to the Origin of them the Seminal Mass
proceed In what manner the frame of the Earth will be dissolv'd and what will be the dreadful countenance of a Burning World These heads are set down more fully in the Argument of each Chapter and seem to be sufficient for the explication of this whole matter Taking in some additional discourses which in pursuing these heads enter of their own accord and make the work more even and entire In the Second Part we restore the World that we had destroy'd Build New Heavens and a New Earth wherein Righteousness shall dwell Establish that new order of things which is so often celebrated by the Prophets A Kingdom of Peace and of Justice where the Enemy of Mankind shall be bound and the Prince of Peace shall rule A Paradise without a Serpent and a Tree of Knowledge not to wound but to heal the Nations Where will be neither curse nor pain nor death nor disease Where all things are new all things are more perfect both the World it self and its Inhabitants Where the First-born from the Dead have the First-fruits of glory We dote upon this present World and the enjoyments of it and 't is not without pain and fear and reluctancy that we are torn from them as if our hopes lay all within the compass of this life Yet I know not by what good fate my thoughts have been always fixt upon things to come more than upon things present These I know by certain experience to be but trifles and if there be nothing more considerable to come the whole being of Man is no better than a trifle But there is room enough before us in that we call Eternity for great and Noble Scenes and the Mind of Man feels it self lessen'd and straiten'd in this low and narrow state wishes and waits to see something greater And if it could discern another World a coming on this side Eternal Life a beginning Glory the best that Earth can bear It would be a kind of Immortality to enâ—oy that prospect before-hand To see when this Theater is dissolv'd where we shall act next and what parts What Saints and Hero's if I may so say will appear upon that Stage and with what luster and excellency How easie would it be under a view of these futurities to despise the little pomps and honours and the momentany pleasures of a Mortal Life But I proceed to our Subâ—ect CHAP. II. The true state of the Question is Propos'd 'T is the general doctrine of the Ancients that the present World or the present frame of Nature is mutable and perishable To which the Sacred Books agree and Natural Reason can alledge nothing against it WHen we speak of the End or destruction of the World whether by Fire or otherwise â—Tis not to be imagin'd that we understand this of the Great Universe Sun Moon and Stars and the Highest Heavens as if these were to perish or be destroy'd some few years hence whether by Fire or any other way This Question is only to be understood of the Sublunary World of this Earth and its Furniture which had its original about six thousand years ago according to the History of Moses and hath once already been destroy'd when the Exteriour Region of it broke and the Abyss issuing forth as out of a womb overflow'd all the habitable Earth The next Deluge is that of Fire which will have the same bounds and overflow the Surface of the Earth muchâ—what in the same manner But the celestial Regions where the Stars and Angels inhabit are not concern'd in this fate Those are not made of combustible matter nor if they were cou'd our flames reach them Possibly those Bodies may have changes and revolutions peculiar to themselves but in ways unknown to us and after long and unknown periods of time Therefore when we speak of â—he Conflagration of the World These have no concern in the question nor any other part of the Universe than the Earth and its dependances As will evidently appear when we come to explain the Manner and Causes of the Conflagration And as this Conflagration can extend no further than to the Earth and its Elements so neither can it destroy the matter of the Earth but only the form and fashion of it as it is an habitable World Neither Fire nor any other Natural Agent can destroy Matter that is reduce it to nothing It may alter the modes and qualities of it but the substance will always remain And accordingly the Apostle when he speaks of the mutability of this World says only The figure or fashion of this World passes away This structure of the Earth and disposition of the Elements And all the works of the Earth as S. Peter says All its natural productions and all the works of art or humane industry these will perish melted or torn in pieces by the Fire but without an annihilation of the Matter any more than in the former Deluge And this will be further prov'd and illustrated in the beginning of the following Book The question being thus stated we are next to consider the sense of Antiquity upon these two Points First Whether this Sublunary World is mutable and perishable Secondly By the force and action of what causes and in what manner it will perish whether by Fire or otherwise Aristotle is very irregular in his Sentiments about the state of the World He allows it neither beginning not ending rise nor fall but wou'd have it eternal and immuâ—able And this he understand not only of the Great Universe but of this Sublunary World this Earth which we inhabit wherein he will not admit there ever have been or over will be either general Deluges or Conflagrations And as if he was ambitious to be thought singular in his opinion about the Eternity of the World He says All the Ancients before him gave some beginning or origin to the World But were not indeed so unanimous as â—o its 〈◊〉 fate Some believing it immutable or as the Philosophers call it incorruptible Others That it had its fatal times and Periods as lesser Bodies have and a term of age prefixt to it by Providence But before we examine this Point any further it will be necessary to reflect upon that which we noted before an ambiguity in the use of the word World which gives frequent occasion of mistakes in reading the Ancients when that which they speak of the great Universe we apply to the Sublunary World or on the contrary what they speak of this Earth we extend to the whole Universe And if some of them besides Aristotle made the World incorruptible they might mean that of the Great Universe which they thought would never be dissolv'd or perish as to its Mass and bulk But single parts and points of it and our Earth is no more may be variously transform'd and made habitable and unhabitable according to certain periods of time without any prâ—â—udiâ—d to their Philosophy So Plato for instance thinks this
to the chargeableness or perpetuity of the World But Ancient Learning is like Ancient Medals more esteemed for their rarity than their real use unless the Authority of a Prince make them currant So neither will these Testimonies be of any great effect unless they be made good and valuable by the Authority of Scripture We must therefore add the Testimonies of the Prophets and Apostles to these of the Greeks and Barbarians that the evidence may be full and undeniable That the Heavens and the Earth will perish or be chang'd into another form is sometimes plainly exprest sometimes suppos'd and alluded to in Scripture The Prophet David's testimony is express both for the beginning and ending of the World in the 102. Psalm Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the Earth and the heavens are the work of thy hands They shall perish but thou shalt endure yea all of them shall wax old like a garment as a vesture shalt thou change them and they shall be changed But thou art the same and thy Years shall have no end The Prophet Esay's testimony is no less express to the same purpose Lift up your Eyes to the heavens and look upon the Earth beneath for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke and the Earth shall was old like a garment and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner These Texts are plain and explicite and in allusion to this day of the Lord and this destruction of the World the same Prophet often useth phrases that relate to it As the Concussion of the Heavens and the Earth The shaking of the foundations of the World The dissolution of the Host of Heaven And our Sacred Writers have expressions of the like force and relating to the same effect As the Hills melting like wax at the presence of the Lord Psal. 97. 5. Shattering once more all the parts of the Creation Hagg. 2. 6. Overturning the mountains and making the pillars of the Earth to tremble Job 9. 5 6. If you reflect upon the explication given of the Deluge in the first part of this Theory and attend to the manner of the Conflagration as it will be explain'd in the sequel of this Discourse you will see the justness and fitness of these expressions That they are not Poetical Hyperboles or random expressions of great and terrible things in general but a true account of what hath been or will be at that great day of the Lord. 'T is true the Prophets sometimes use such-like expressions figuratively for commotions in States and Kingdoms but that is only by way of Metaphor and accommodation the true basis they stand upon is that ruine overthrow and dissolution of the Natural World which was once at the Deluge and will be again after another manner at the general Conflagration As to the New Testament our Saviour says Heaven and Earth shall pass away but his words shall not pass away Matth. 24. 35. S. Paul says the Scheme of this World the fashion form and composition of it passeth away 1 Cor. 7. 31. And when mention is made of New Heavens and a New Earth which both the Prophet Isaiah and the Apostles S. Peter and S. Iohn mention 't is plainly imply'd that the old ones will be dissolv'd The same thing is also imply'd when our Saviour speaks of a Renascency or Regeneration Matt. 19. 28. and S. Peter of a Restitution of all things Act. 3. 21. For what is now must be abolish'd before any former order of things can be restor'd or reduc'd In a word If there was nothing in Scripture concerning this subject but that discourse of S. Peter's in his 2d Epistle and 3d. Chapter concerning the triple order and succession of the Heavens and the Earth past present and to come that alone wou'd be a conviction and demonstration to me that this present World will be dissolv'd You will say it may be in the last place we want still the testimony of Natural Reason and Philosophy to make the evidence compleat I answer 't is enough if They be silent and have nothing to say to the contrary Here are witnesses Humane and Divine and if none appear against them we have no reason to refuse their testimony or to distrust it Philosophy will very readily yield to this Doctrine that All material compositions are dissolvable and she will not wonder to see that die which she had seen born I mean this Terrestrial World She stood upon the Chaos and see it rowâ— it self with difficulty and after many struglings into the form of an habitable Earth And that form she see broken down again at the Deluge and can as little hope or expect now as then that it should be everlasting and immutable There would be nothing great or considerable in this Inferiour World if there were not such revolutions of Nature The Seasons of the Year and the fresh Productions of the Spring are pretty in their way But when the Great Year comes about with a new order of all things in the Heavens and on the Earth and a new dress of Nature throughout all her Regions far more goodly and beautiful than the fairest Spring This gives a new Life to the Creation and shows the greatness of its Author Besides These Fatal Catastrophes are always a punishment to degenerate Mankind that are overwhelm'd in the ruines of these perishing Worlds And to make Nature her self execute the Divine Vengeance against Rebellious Creatures argues both the Power and Wisdom of that Providence that governs all things here below These things Reason and Philosophy approve of but if you further require that they should shew a Necessity of this future destruction of the World from Natural Causes with the time and all other circumstances of this effect your demands are unreasonable seeing these things do not depend solely upon Nature But if you will content your self to know what dispositions there are in Nature towards such a change how it may begin proceed and be consummate under the conduct of Providence be pleased to read the following Discourse for your further satisfaction CHAP. III. That the World will be destroy'd by Fire is the doctrine of the Ancients especially of the Stoicks That the same doctrine is more ancient than the Greeks and deriv'd from the Barbarick Philosophy and That probably from Noah the Father of all Traditionary Learning The same doctrine expresly authoriz'd by Revelation and inroll'd into the Sacred Canon THAT the present World or the present frame of Nature will be destroy'd we have already shewn In what manner this destruction will be by what force or what kind of fate must be our next enquiry The Philosophers have always spoken of Fire and Water those two unruly Elements as the only Causes that can destroy the World and work our ruine and accordingly they say all the great and fatal Revolutions of Nature either past or to come depend upon the violence of these Two when
the proud yea and all that do wickedly shall be as stubble and the day that cometh shall burn them up saith the Lord of Hosts that it shall leave them neither root nor branch And that nature her self and the Earth shall suffer in that fire the Prophet Zephany tells us c. 3. 8. All the Earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousie Lastly This consumption of the Earth by fire even to the foundations of it is exprest livelily by Moses in his Song Deut. 32. 22. A fire is kindled in my anger and shall burn unto the lowest Hell and shall consume the Earth with her increase and set on fire the foundations of the Mountains If we reflect upon these Witnesses and especially the first and last Moses and S. Peter at what a great distance of time they writ their Prophecies and yet how well they agree we must needs conclude that they were acted by the same Spirit and a Spirit that see thorough all the Ages of the World from the beginning to the end These Sacred Writers were so remote in time from one another that they could not confer together nor conspire either in a false testimony or to make the same prediction But being under one common influence and inspiration which is always consistent with it self they have dictated the same things tho' at two thousand years distance sometimes from one another This besides many other considerations makes their authority incontestable And upon the whole account you see that the doctrine of the future Conflagration of the World having run through all Ages and Nations is by the joynt consent of the Prophets and Apostles adopted into the Christian Faith CHAP. IV. Concerning the time of the Conflagration and the end of the World What the Astronomers say upon this Subject and upon what they ground their Calculations The true notion of the Great Year or of the Platonick Year stated and explained HAVING in this First Section laid a sure foundation as to the Subject of our Discourse the truth and certainty of the Conflagration whereof we are to treat we will now proceed to enquire after the Time Causes and Manner of it We are naturally more inquisitive after the End of the World and the Time of that Fatal Revolution than after the Causes of it For these we know are irresistible whensoever they come and therefore we are only sollicitous that they should not overtake us or our near posterity The Romans thought they had the fates of their Empire in the Books of the Sibyls which were kept by the Magistrates as a Sacred Treasure We have also our Prophetical Books more sacred and more infallible than theirs which contain the fate of all the Kingdoms of the Earth and of that glorious Kingdom that is to succeed And of all futurities there is none can be of such importance to be enquired after as this last scene and close of all humane affairs If I thought it possible to determine the time of the Conflagration from the bare intuition of Natural Causes I would not treat of it in this place but reserve it to the last after we had brought into view all those Causes weigh'd their force and examin'd how and when they would concur to produce this great effect But I am satisfied that the excitation and concourse of those Causes does not depend upon Nature only and tho' the Causes may be sufficient when all united yet the union of them at such a time and in such a manner I look upon as the effect of a particular Providence and therefore no foresight of ours or inspection into Nature can discover to us the time of this conjuncture This method therefore of Prediction from Natural Causes being laid aside as impracticable all other methods may be treated of in this place as being independent upon any thing that is to follow in the Treatise and it will be an ease to the Argument to discharge it of this part and clear the way by degrees to the principal point which is the Causes and Manner of the Conflagration Some have thought it a kind of impiety in a Christian to enquire after the End of the World because of that check which our Saviour gave his Disciples when after his Resurrection enquiring of him about the time of his Kingdom He answer'd It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father hath put in his own power And before his death when he was discoursing of the Consummation of all things He told them expresly that tho' there should be such and such previous Signs as he had mention'd yet Of that day and hour knoweth no man No not the Angels that are in Heaven but my Father only Be it so that the Disciples deserv'd a reprimand for desiring to know by a particular revelation from our Saviour the state of future times when many other things were more necessary for their instruction and for their ministery Be it also admitted that the Angels at that distance of time could not see thorow all events to the End of the World it does not at all follow from thence that they do not know it now when in the course of Sixteen Hundred Years many things are come to pass that may be marks and directions to them to make a judgment of what remains and of the last period of all things However there will be no danger in our enquiries about this matter seeing they are not so much to discover the certainty as the uncertainty of that period as to humane knowledge Let us therefore consider what methods have been used by those that have been curious and busie to measure the duration of the World The Stoicks tell us When the Sun and the Stars have drunk up the Sea then the Earth shall be burnt A very fair Prophecy but how long will they be a drinking For unless we can determine that we cannot determine when this combustion will begin Many of the Ancients thought that the Stars were nourish'd by the vapours of the Ocean and of the moist Earth and when that nourishment was spent being of a fiery nature they would prey upon the Body of the Earth it self and consume that after they had consum'd the Water This is old-fashion'd Philosophy and now that the nature of those Bodies is better known will scarce pass for currant 'T is true we must expect some dispositions towards the combustion of the World from a great drought and desiccation of the Earth But this helps us nothing on our way for the question still returns When will this immoderate drought or dryness happen and that 's us ill to resolve as the former Therefore as I said before I have no hopes of deciding the question by Physiology or Natural Causes let us then look up from the Earth to the Heavens To the Astronomers and the Prophets These think they can define the age and duration of the World The one
answer to that difficulty Two suppos'd causes of the Conflagration by the Sun 's drawing nearer to the Earth or the Earth's throwing out the central fire examin'd and rejected WE have now made our way clear to the principal point The Causes of the Conflagration How the Heavens and the Earth will be set on fire what materials are prepar'd or what train of Causes for that purpose The Ancients who have kept us company pretty well thus far here quite desert us They deal more in Conclusions than Causes as is usual in all Traditional Learning And the Stoicks themselves who inculcate so much the doctrine of the Conflagration and make the strength of it such as to dissolve the Earth into a fiery Chaos are yet very short and superficial in their explications how this shall come to pass The latent seeds of fire they say shall every where be let loose and the Element will prevail over all the rest and transform every thing into its own nature But these are general things that give little satisfaction to inquisitive Persons Neither do the modern Authors that treat of the same subject relieve us in this particular They are willing to suppose the Conflagration a superficial effect that so they may excuse themselves the trouble of enquiring after causes 'T is no doubt in a sort supernatural and so the Deluge was yet Moses sets down the Causes of the Deluge the rains from above and the disruption of the Abyss So there must be treasures of fire provided against that day by whose eruption this second Deluge will be brought upon the Earth To state the case fairly we must first represent the difficulty of setting the Earth on Fire Tie the knot before we loose it that so we may the better judge whether the Causes that shall be brought into view may be sufficient to overcome so great opposition The difficulty no doubt will be chiefly from the great quantity of Water that is about our Globe whereby Nature seems to have made provision against any invasion by Fire and secur'd us from that enemy more than any other We see half of the Surface of the Earth cover'd with the Seas whose Chanel is of a vast depth and capacity Besides innumerable Rivers great and small that water the face of the dry Land and drench it with perpetual moisture Then within the bowels of the Earth there are Store-houses of subterraneous Waters which are as a reserve in case the Ocean and the Rivers should be overcome Neither is Water our only security for the hard Rocks and stony Mountains which no Fire can bite upon are set in long ranges upon the Continents and Islands and must needs give a stop to the progress of that furious Enemy in case he should attack us Lastly The Earth it self is not combustible in all its parts 'T is not every Soyl that is fit fewel for the Fire Clay and Mire and such like Soyls will rather choak and stifle it than help it on its way By these means one would think the Body of the Earth secur'd and tho' there may be partial fires or inuâ—â—lations of fire here and there in particular regions yet there cannot be an Universal Fire throughout the Earth At least one would hope for a safe retreat towards the Poles where there is nothing but Snow and Ice and bitter cold These regions sure are in no danger to be burnt whatsoever becomes of the other climates of the Earth This being the state and condition of the present Earth one would not imagine by these preparations 't was ever intended that it should perish by an Universal Fire But such is often the method of Providence that the exteriour face of things looks one way and the design lies another till at length touching a Spring as it were at a certain time all those affairs change posture and aspect and shew us which way Providence inclines We must therefore suppose before the Conflagration begins there will be dispositions and preparatives suitable to so great a work and all antiquity sacred and prophane does so far concur with us as to admit and suppose that a great drought will precede and an extraordinary heat and driness of the Air to usher in this fiery doom And these being things which often happen in a course of Nature we cannot disallow such easie preparations when Providence intends so great a consequence The Heavens will be shut up and the Clouds yield no rain and by this with an immoderate heat in the Air the Springs of Water will become dry the Earth chap'd and parch'd and the Woods and Trees made ready fewel for the Fire We have instances in History that there have been droughts and heats of this Nature to that degree that the Woods and Forests have taken fire and the outward Turf and Surface of the Earth without any other cause than the driness of the Season and the vehemency of the Sun And which is more considerable the Springs and Fountains being dry'd up the greater Rivers have been sensibly lessen'd and the lesser quite emptied and exhal'd These things which happen frequently in particular Countreys and Climates may at an appointed time by the disposition of Providence be more universal throughout the Earth and have the same effects every where that we see by experience they have had in certain places And by this means we may conceive it as feisible to set the whole Earth on fire in some little space of time as to burn up this or that Countrey after a great drought But I mean this with exception still to the main Body of the Sea which will indeed receive a greater diminution from these Causes than we easily imagine but the final consumption of it will depend upon other reasons whereof we must give an account in the following Chapters As to the Mountains and Rocks their lofty heads will sink when the Earthquakes begin to roar at the beginning of the Conflagration as we shall see hereafter And as to the Earth it self 't is true there are several sorts of Earth that are not proper fewel for fire but those Soils that are not so immediately as clayey Soils and such like may by the strength of Fire be converted into Brick or Stone or Earthen Metal and so melted down and vitrified For in conclusion there is no Terrestrial Body that does not finally yield to the force of Fire and may either be converted into flame incorporated fire or into a liquor more ardent than either of them Lastly As to the Polar Regions which you think will be a safe retreat and inaccessible to the fire 'T is true unless Providence hath laid subterraneous treasures of fire there unknown to us those parts of the Earth will be the last consum'd But it is to be observ'd that the cold of those regions proceeds from the length of their Winter and their distance from the Sun when he is beyond the Aequator and both these causes will be
remov'd at the Conflagration For we suppose the Earth will then return to its primitive situation which we have explain'd in the 2d Book of this Theory and will have the Sun always in its Aequator whereby the several Climates of the Earth will have a perpetual Equinox and those under the Poles a perpetual day And therefore all the excess of cold and all the consequences of it will soon be abated However the Earth will not be burnt in one day and those parts of the Earth being uninhabited there is no inconvenience that they should be more slowly consum'd than the rest This is a general answer to the difficulty propos'd about the possibility of the Conflagration and being general only the parts of it must be more fully explain'd and confirm'd in the sequel of this discourse We should now proceed directly to the causes of the Conflagration and show in what manner they do this great execution upon Nature But to be just and impartial in this enquiry we ought first to separate the spurious and pretended Causes from those that are real and genuine to make no false musters nor any show of being stronger than we are and if we can do our work with less force it will be more to our credit as a Victory is more honourable that is gain'd with fewer Men. There are two grand capital Causes which some Authors make use of as the chief Agents in this work the Sun and the Central Fire These two great Incendiaries they say will be let loose upon us at the Conflagration The one drawing nearer to the Earth and the other breaking out of its bowels into these upper regions These are potent Causes indeed more than enough to destroy this Earth if it was a thousand times bigger than it is But for that very reason I suspect they are not the true Causes for God and Nature do not use to employ unnecessary means to bring about their designs Disproportion and over-sufficiency is one sort of false measures and 't is a sign we do not thoroughly understand our work when we put more strength to it than the thing requires Men are forward to call in extraordinary powers to rid their hands of a troublesome argument and so make a short dispatch to save themselves the pains of further enquiries but such methods as they commonly have no proof so they give little satisfaction to an inquisitive mind This supposition of burning the Earth by the Sun drawing nearer and nearer to it seems to be made in imitation of the story of Phaeton who driving the Chariot of the Sun with an unsteddy hand came so near the Earth that he set it on fire But however we will not reject any pretensions without a fair trial Let us examine therefore what grounds they can have for either of these suppositions of the Approximation of the Sun to the Earth or the Eruption of the Central Fire As to the Sun I desire first to be satisfied in present matter of Fact whether by any instrument or observation it hath or can be discover'd that the Sun is nearer to the Earth now than he was in former ages or if by any reasoning or comparing calculations such a conclusion can be made If not this is but an imaginary cause and as easily deny'd as propos'd Astronomers do very little agree in their opinions about the distance of the Sun Ptolomy Albategnius Copernious Ticho Kepler and others more modern differ all in their calculations but not in such a manner or proportion as should make us believe that the Sun comes nearer to the Earth but rather goes further from it For the more modern of them make the distance greater than the more ancient do Kepler says the distance of the Sun from the Earth lies betwixt 700 and 2000 semidiameters of the Earth but Ricciolus makes it betwixt 700 and 7000. And Gottefrid Wendeline hath taken 14656. semidiameters for a middle proportion of the Sun's distance to which Kepler himself came very near in his later years So that you see how groundless our fears are from the approaches of an enemy that rather flies from us if he change posture at all And we have more reason to believe the report of the modern Astronomers than of the ancient in this matter both because the nature of the Heavens and of the celestial Bodies is now better known and also because they have found out better instruments and better methods to make their observations If the Sun and Earth were come nearer to one another either the circle of the Suns diurnal arch would be less and so the day shorter or the Orbit of the Earths annual course would be less and so the Year shorâ—er Neither of which we have any experience of And those that suppose us in the centre of the World need not be afraid till they see Mercury and Venus in a combustion for they lie betwixt us and danger and the Sun cannot come so readily at us with his fiery darts as at them who stand in his way Lastly this languishing death by the gradual approaches of the Sun and that irreparable ruine of the Earth which at last must follow from it do neither of them agree with that Idea of the Conflagration which the Scripture hath given us for it is to come suddenly and unexpectedly and take us off like a violent Feaver not as a lingring Consumption And the Earth is also so to be destroyed by Fire as not to take away all hopes of a Resurrection or Renovation For we are assur'd by Scripture that there will be new Heavens and a new Earth after these are burnt up But if the Sun should come so near us as to make the heavens pass away with a noise and melt the Elements with fervent heat and destroy the form and all the works of the Earth what hopes or possibility would there be of a Renovation while the Sun continued in this posture He would more and more consume and prey upon the Carcass of the Earth and convert it at length either into an heap of Ashes or a lump of vitrified metal So much for the Sun As to the Central Fire I am very well satisfied it is no imaginary thing All Antiquity hath preserv'd some sacred Monument of it The Vestal fire of the Romans which was so religiously attended The Prytoneia of the Greeks were to the same purpose and dedicated to Vesta and the Pyretheia of the Persians where fire was kept continually by the Magi. These all in my opinion had the same origine and the same signification And tho' I do not know any particular observation that does directly prove or demonstrate that there is such a mass of fire in the middle of the Earth yet the best accounts we have of the generation of a Planet do suppose it and 't is agreeable to the whole Oeconomy of Nature as a fire in the heart which gives life to her motions and productions But however the
question is not at present about the existence of this fire but the eruption of it and the effect of that Eruption which cannot be in my judgment such a Conflagration as is describ'd in Scripture This Central Fire must be enclos'd in a shell of great strength and firmness for being of it self the lightest and most active of all Bodies it would not be detained in that lowest prison without a strong guard upon it 'T is true we can make no certain judgment of what thickness this shell is but if we suppose this fire to have a twentieth part of the semidiameter of the Earth on either side the centre for its sphere which seems to be a fair allowance there would still remain nineteen parts for our safeguard and security And these nineteen parts of the semidiameter of the Earth will make 3268 miles for a partition-wall betwixt us and this Central Fire Who wou'd be afraid of an Enemy lock'd up in so strong a prison But you 'l say it may be tho' the Central Fire at the beginning of the World might have no more room or space than what is mentioned yet being of that activity that it is and corrosive nature it may in the space of some thousands of years have eaten deep into the sides of its prison and so come nearer to the surface of the Earth by some hundreds or thousands of miles than it was at first This would be a material exception if it could be made out But what Phaenomenon is there in Nature that proves this How does it appear by any observation that the Central Fire gains ground upon us Or is increased in quantity or come nearer to the surface of the Earth I know nothing that can be offered in proof of this and if there be no appearance of a change nor any sensible effect of it 't is an argument there is none or none considerable If the quantity of that fire was considerably increas'd it must needs besides other effects have made the Body of the Earth considerably lighter The Earth having by this conversion of its own substance into fire lost so much of its heaviest matter and got so much of the lightest and most active Element in stead of it and in both these respects its gravity would be manifestly lessen'd Which if it really was in any considerable degree it would discover it self by some change either as to the motion of the Earth or as to its place or station in the Heavens But there being no external change observable in this or any other respect 't is reasonable to presume that there is no considerable inward change or no great consumption of its inward parts and substance and consequently no great increase of the Central Fire But if we should admit both an encrease and eruption of this fire it would not have that effect which is pretended It might cause some confusion and disorder in those parts of the Earth where it broke out but it would not make an universal Conflagration such as is represented to us in Scripture Let us suppose the Earth to be open or burst in any place under the Pole for instance or under the Aequator and let it gape as low as the Central Fire At this chasm or rupture we suppose the fire would gush out and what then would be the consequence of this when it came to the surface of the Earth It would either be dissipated and lost in the air or fly still higher towards the Heavens in a mass of flame But what execution in the mean time would it do upon the Body of the Earth 'T is but like a flash of lightning or a flame issuing out of a pit that dies presently Besides this Central Fire is of that subtilty and tenuity that it is not able to inflame gross Bodies no morethan those Meteors we call Lambent Fires inflame the bodies to which they stick Lastly in explaining the manner of the Conflagration we must have regard principally to Scripture for the explications given there are more to the purpose than all that the Philosophers have said upon that subject Now as we noted before 't is manifest in Scripture that after the Conflagration there will be a Restauration New Heavens and a New Earth 'T is the express doctrine of S. Peter besides other Prophets We must therefore suppose the Earth reduc'd to such a Chaos by this last fire as will lay the foundation of a new World Which can never be if the inward frame of it be broke the Central Fire exhausted and the exterior region suck'd into those central vacuities This must needs make it lose its former poise and libration and it will thereupon be thrown into some other part of the Universe as the useless shell of a broken Granado or as a dead carkass and unprofitable matter These reasons may be sufficient why we should not depend upon those pretended causes of the Conflagration The Suns advance towards the Earth or such a rupture of the Earth as will let out the Central Fire These Causes I hope will appear superfluous when we shall have given an account of the Conflagration without them But young Philosophers like young Soldiers think they are never sufficiently armed and often take more weapons than they can make use of when they come to fight Not that we altogether reject the influence of the Sun or of the Central Fire especially the latter For in that great estuation of Nature the Body of the Earth will be much open'd and relaxated and when the pores are enlarg'd the steams of that fire will sweat out more plentifully into all its parts but still without any rupture in the vessels or in the skin And whereas these Authors suppose the very Veins burst and the vital blood to gush out as at openflood gates we only allow a more copious perspiration and think that sufficient for all purposes in this case CHAP. VII The true bounds of the Last Fire and how far it is fatal The natural Causes and Materials of it cast into three ranks First such as are exterior and visible upon the Earth where the Volcano's of the Earth and their effects are consider'd Secondly such materials as are within the Earth Thirdly such as are in the Air. AS we have in the preceding Chapter laid aside those Causes of the Conflagration which we thought too great and cumbersome so now we must in like manner examine the Effect and reduce that to its just measures and proportions that there may be nothing lest superfluous on either side Then by comparing the real powers with the work they are to do boâ—h being stated within their due bounds we may the better judge how they are proportion'd to one another We noted before that the Conflagration had nothing to do with the Stars and superiour Heavens but was wholly confin'd to this Sublunary World And this Deluge of Fire will have much what the same bounds that the Deluge of
Concerning miraculous Causes and how far the ministery of Angels may be engaged in this Work WE have given an account in the preceding Chapter of the ordinary preparatious of Nature for a general fire We now are to give an account of the extraordinary or of any new dispositions which towards the End of the World may be superadded to the ordinary state of Nature I do not by these mean things openly miraculous and supernatural but such a change wrought in Nature as shall still have the face of Natural Causes and yet have a greater tendency to the Conflagration As for example suppose a great Drought as we noted before to precede this fate or a general heat and dryness of the Air and of the Earth because this happens sometimes in a course of Nature it will not be lookt upon as prodigious 'T is true some of the Ancients speak of a Drought of Forty Years that will be a forerunner of the Conflagration so that there will not be a watery Cloud nor a Rainbow seen in the Heavens for so long time And this they impute to Elias who at his coming will stop the Rain and shut up the Heavens to make way for the last Fire But these are excessive and ill-grounded suppositions for half forty years drought will bring an universal sterility upon the Earth and thereupon an Universal Famine with innumerable diseases so that all mankind would be destroyed before the Conflagration could overtake them But we will readily admit an extraordinary drought and desiccation of all bodies to usher in this great fatality And therefore whatsoever we read in Natural History concerning former droughts of their drying up Fountains and Rivers parching the Earth and making the outward Turf take fire in several places filling the Air with fiery impressions making the Woods and Forests ready Fewel and sometimes to kindle by the heat of the Sun or a flash of Lightning These and what other effects have come to pass in former droughts may come to pass again and that in an higher measure and so as to be of more general extent And we must also allow that by this means a great degree of inflammability or easiness to be set on Fire will be superinduc'd both into the body of the Earth and of all things that grow upon it The heat of the Sun will pierce deeper into its bowels when it gapes to receive his beams and by chinks and widened pores makes way for their passage to its very heart And on the other hand it is not improbable but that upon this general relaxation and incalescency of the Body of the Earth the General Fire may have a freer efflux and diffuse it self in greater abundance every way so as to affect even these exteriour Regions of the Earth so far as to make them still more catching and more combustible From this external and internal heat acting upon the Body of the Earth all Minerals that have the seeds of fire in them will be open'd and exhale their effluvium's more copiously as Spices when warm'd are more odoriferous and fill the Air with their perfumes so the particles of fire that are shut up in several bodies will easily flie abroad when by a further degree of relaxation you shake off their chains and open the Prison-doors We cannot doubt but there are many sorts of Minerals and many sorts of Fire-stones and of Trees and Vegetables of this nature which will sweat out their oily and sulphureous atomes when by a general heat and driness their parts are loosen'd and agitated We have no experience that will reach so far as to give us a full account what the state of Nature will be at that time I mean after this drought towards the end of the world But we may help our imagination by comparing it with other seasons and temperaments of the Air. As therefore in the Spring the Earth is fragrant and the Fields and Gardens are fill'd with the sweet breathings of Herbs and Flowers especially after a gentle rain when their Bodies are softned and the warmth of the Sun makes them evaporate more freely So a greater degree of heat acting upon all the bodies of the Earth like a stronger fire in the Alembick will extract another sort of parts or particles more deeply incorporated and more difficult to be disintangled I mean oily parts and such undiscover'd parcels of fire as lie fix'd and imprison'd in hard bodies These I imagine will be in a great measure set a float on drawn out into the Air which will abound with hot and dry Exhalations more than with vapours and moisture in a wet season and by this means all Elements and elementary Bodies will stand ready and in a proximate disposition to be inflam'd Thus much concerning the last drought and the general effects of it In the next place we must consider the Earthquakes that will precede the Conflagration and the consequences of them I noted before that the cavernous and broken construction of the present Earth was that which made it obnoxious to be destroy'd by fire as its former construction over the Abyss made it obnoxious to be destroy'd with Water This hollowness of the Earth is most sensible in mountainous and hilly Countreys which therefore I look upon as most subject to burning but the plain Countreys may also be made hollow and hilly by Earth-quakes when the vapours not finding an easie vent raise the ground and make a forcible eruption as at the springing of a Mine And tho' plain Countreys are not so subject to Earthquakes as Mountainous because they have not so many cavities and subterraneous Vaults to lodge the vapours in yet every Region hath more or less of them And after this drought the vacuities of the Earth being every where enlarg'd the quantity of exhalations much encreas'd and the motion of them more strong and violent they will have their effects in many places where they never had any before Yet I do not suppose that this will raise new ridges of Mountains like the Alpes or Pyreneans in those Countreys that are now plain but that they will break and loosen the ground make greater inequalities in the surface and greater cavities within than what are at present in those places And by this means the fire will creep under them and find a passage thorow them with more ease than if they were compact and every where continued and unbroken But you will say it may be how does it appear that there will be more frequent Earth-quakes towards the end of the World If this precedent drought be admitted 't is plain that fiery exhalations will abound every where within the Earth and will have a greater agitation than ordinary and these being the causes of Earth-quakes when they are rarified or inflam'd 't is reasonable to suppose that in such a state of Nature they will more frequently happen than at other times Besides Earth-quakes are taken notice of in Scripture as signs
This may be encreas'd and strengthned and its effects convey'd throughout the whole Body of the Earth But if an augmentation is to be made of Terrestrial Fire or of such terrestrial principles as contain it most as Sulphur Oyl and such like I am apt to believe these will encrease of their own accord upon a general drought and desiccation of the Earth For I am far from the opinion of some Chymists that think these principles immutable and incapable of diminution or augmentation I willingly admit that all such particles may be broken and disfigur'd and thereby lose their proper and specifick virtue and new ones may be generated to supply the places of the former Which supplies or new productions being made in a less or greater measure according to the general dispositions of Nature when Nature is heightned into a kind of Feaver and Ebullition of all her juices and humours as she will be at that time we must expect that more parts than ordinary should be made inflammable and those that are inflam'd should become more violent Under these circumstances when all Causes lean that way a little help from a superior power will have a great effect and make a great change in the state of the World And as to the power of Angels I am of opinion that it is very great as to the Changes and Modifications of Natural Bodies that they can dissolve a Marble as easily as we can crumble Earth and Moulds or fix any liquor in a moment into a substance as hard as Crystal That they can either make flames more vehement and irresistible to all sorts of Bodies or as harmless as Lambent Fires and as soft as Oyl We see an instance of this last in Nebuchadnezzar's fiery Furnace where the three Children walk'd unconcern'd in the midst of the Flames under the charge and protection of an Angel And the same Angel if he had pleas'd could have made the same Furnace seven times hotter than the wrath of the Tyrant had made it We will therefore leave it to their ministery to manage this great Furnace when the Heavens and the Earth are on Fire To conserve encrease direct or temper the flames according to instructions given them as they are to be Tutelary or Destroying Neither let any body think it a diminution of Providence to put things into the hands of Angels 'T is the true rule and method of it For to employ an Almighty power where it is not necessary is to debase 〈◊〉 and give it a task fit for lower Beings Some think it devotion and piety to have recourse immediately to the arm of God to salve all things This may be done sometimes with a good intention but commonly with little judgment God is as jealous of the glory of his Wisdom as of his Power and Wisdom consists in the conduct and subordination of several causes to bring our purposes to effect but what is dispatched by an immediate Supreme Power leaves no room for the exercise of Wisdom To conclude this point which I have touch'd upon more than once We must not be partial to any of God's Attributes and Providence being a complexion of many Power Wisdom Justice and Goodness when we give due place and honour to all these then we most honour DIVINE PROVIDENCE CHAP. IX How the Sea will be diminish'd and consum'd How the Rocks and Mountains will be thrown down and melted and the whole exteriour frame of the Earth dissolv'd into a Deluge of Fire WE have now taken a view of the Causes of the Conflagration both ordinary and extraordinary It remains to consider the manner of it How these Causes will operate and bring to pass an effect so great and so prodigious We took notice before that the grand obstruction would be from the Sea and from the Mountains we must therefore take these to task in the first place and if we can remove them out of our way or overcome what resistance and opposition they are capable to make the rest of the work will not be uneasie to us The Ocean indeed is a vast Body of Waters and we must use all our art and skill to dry it up or consume it in a good measure before we can compass our design I remember the advice a Philosopher gave Amasis King of Egypt when he had a command sent him from the King of Aethiopia That he should drink up the Sea Amasis being very anxious and sollicitous what answer he should make to this strange command the Philosopher Bias advis'd him to make this round answer to the King That he was ready to perform his command and to drink up the Sea provided he would stop the rivers from flowing into his cup while he was drinking This answer baffled the King for he could not stop the rivers but this we must do or we shall never be able to drink up the Sea or burn up the Earth Neither will this be so impossible as it seems at first sight if we reflect upon those preparations we have made towards it by a general drought all over the Earth This we suppose will precede â—he Conflagration and by drying up the Fountains and Rivers which daily feed the Sea will by degrees starve that Monster or reduce it to such a degree of weakness that it shall not be able to make any great resistance More than half an Ocean of Water flows into the Sea every day from the Rivers of the Earth if you take them all together This I speak upon a moderate computation Aristotle says the Rivers carry more water into the Sea in the space of a year thâ—n would equal in bulk the whole Globe of the Earth Nay some have ventur'd to affirm this of one single River The Volga that runs into the Caspian Sea 'T is a great River indeed and hath seventy mouths and so it had need have to disgorge a mass of Water equal to the Body of the Earth in a years time But we need not take such high measures There are at least an hundred great Rivers that flow into the Sea from several parts of the Earth Islands and Continents besides several thousands of lesser ones Let us suppose these all together to pour as much water into the Sea-chanel every day as is equal to half the Ocean And we shall be easily convinc'd of the reasonableness of this supposition if we do but examine the daily expence of one River and by that make an estimate of the rest This we find calculated to our hands in the River Po in Italy a River of much what the same bigness with our Thames and disburthens it self into the Gulph of Venice Baptista Riccioli hath computed how much water this River discharges in an hour viz. 18000000. cubical paces of Water and consequently 432000000. in a day which is scarce credible to those that do not distinctly compute it Suppose then an hundred Rivers as great as this or greater to fall into the Sea from
with the Hypothesis As to the present Form of the Earth we call all Nature to witness for us The Rocks and the Mountains the Hills and the Valleys the deep and wide Sea and the Caverns of the Ground Let these speak and tell their origine How the Body of the Earth came to be thus torn and mangled If this strange and irregular structure was not the effect of a ruine and of such a ruine as was universal over the face of the whole Globe But we have given such a full explication of this in the first part of the Theory from Chapt. the 9th to the end of that Treatise that we dare stand to the judgment of any that reads those four Chapters to determine if the Hypothesis does not answer all those Phaenomena easily and adequately The next Phaenomenon to be consider'd is the Deluge with its adjuncts This also is fully explain'd by our Hypothesis in the 2d 3d. and 6th Chapters of the first Book Where it is shewn that the Mosaical Deluge that is an universal Inundation of the whole Earth above the tops of the highest Mountains made by a breaking open of the Great Abyss for thus far Moses leads us is fully explain'd by this Hypothesis and cannot be conceiv'd in any other method hitherto propos'd There are no sources or stores of Water sufficient for such an effect that may be drawn upon the Earth and drawn off again but by supposing such an Abyss and such a Disruption of it as the Theory represents Lastly As to the Phaenomena of Paradise and the Ante-diluvian World we have set them down in order in the 2d Book and apply'd to each of them its proper explication from the same Hypothesis We have also given an account of that Character which Antiquity always assign'd to the first age of the World or the Golden Age as they call'd it namely Equality of Seasons throughout the Year or a perpetual Equinox We have also taken in all the adjuncts or concomitants of these States as they are mention'd in Scripture The Longevity of the Ante-diluvians and the declension of their age by degrees after the Flood As also that wonderful Phaenomenon the Rainbow which appear'd to Noah for a Sign that the Earth should never undergo a second Deluge And we have shewn wherein the force and propriety of that Sign consisted for confirming Noah's faith in the promise and in the divine veracity Thus far we have explain'd the past Phaenomena of the Natural World The rest are Futurities which still lie hid in their Causes and we cannot properly prove a Theory from effects that are not yet in being But so far as they are foretold in Scripture both as to substance and circumstance in prosecution of the same Principles we have ante dated their birth and shew'd how they will come to pass We may therefore I think reasonably conclude That this Theory has performed its task and answer'd its title having given an account of all the general changes of the Natural World as far as either Sacred History looks backwards or Sacred Prophecy looks forwards So far as the one tells us what is past in Nature and the other what is to come And if all this be nothing but an appearance of truth 't is a kind of fatality upon us to be deceiv'd SO much for Natural Evidence from the Causes or Effects We now proceed to Scripture which will make the greatest part of this Review The Sacred Basis upon which the whole Theory stands is the doctrine of S. Peter deliver'd in his Second Epistle and Third Chapter concerning the Triple Order and Succession of the Heavens and the Earth That comprehends the whole extent of our Theory which indeed is but a large Commentary upon S. Peter's Text. The Apostle sets out a threefold state of the Heavens and Earth with some general properties of each taken from their different Constitution and different Fate The Theory takes the same threefold state of the Heavens and the Earth and explains more partâ—cularly wherein their different Constitution consists and how under the conduct of Providence their different fate depends upon it Let us set down the Apostle's words with the occasion of them and their plain sence according to the most easie and natural explication Ver. 3. Knowing this first that there shall come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lusts 4. And saying Where is the promise of his coming for since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation 5. For this they willingly are ignorant of that by the word of God the heavens were of old and the earth consisting of water and by water 6. Whereby the world that then was being overflowed with water perished 7. But the heavens and the earth that are now by the sâ—me word are kept in store reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men 10. The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent heat the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up 13. Nevertheless we according to his promise look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness This is the whole Discourse so far as relates to our Subject S Peter you see had met with some that scoff'd at the future destruction of the World and the coming of our Saviour and they were men it seems that pretended to Philosophy and Argument and they use this argument for their opinion Seeing there hath been no change in Nature or in the World from the beginning to this time why should we think there will be any change for the future The Apostle answers to this That they willingly forget or are ignorant that there were Heavens of old and an Earth so and so constituted consisting of Water and by Water by reason whereof that World or those Heavens and that Earth perish'd in a Deluge of Water But saith he the Heavens and the Earth that are now are of another constitution fitted and reserved to another fate namely to perish by Fire And after these are perish'd there will be New Heavens and a New Earth according to God's promise This is an easie Paraphrase and the plain and genuine sence of the Apostle's discourse and no body I think would ever look after any other sence if this did not carry them out of their usual road and point to conclusions which they did not fancy This sence you see hits the objections directly or the Cavil which these scoffers made and tells them that they vainly pretend that there hath been no change in the World since the beginning for there was one sort of Heavens and Earth before the Flood and another sort now the first having been destroy'd at the Deluge So that the Apostle's argument stands upon this Foundation That there
of the Scripture-Abyss The Mother-Abyss is no doubt that in the beginning of Genesis v. 2. which had nothing but darkness upon the face of it or a thick caliginous air The next news we hear of this Abyss is at the Deluge Gen. 7. 11. where 't is said to be broke open and the waters of it to have drowned the World It seems then this Abyss was clos'd up some time betwixt the Creation and the Deluge and had got another cover than that of darkness And if we will believe Wisdom Prov. 8. 27. who was there present at the formation of the Earth an Orb was set upon the face of the Abyss at the beginning of the World That these three places refer to the same Abyss I think cannot be questioned by any that will compare them and consider them That of the Deluge Moses calls there Tehom-Rabbah the Great Abyss and can there be any greater than the forementioned Mother-Abyss And WISDOME in that place in the Proverbs useth the same phrase and words with Moses Gen. 1. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon the face of the Deep or of the Abyss changâ—ng darkness for that Orb of the exteriour Earth which was made afterwards to inclose it And in thâ—s vault it lay and under this cover when the Psalmist speaks of it in these words Psal. 33. 7. He gathereth the waters of the Sea as in a bag he layeth up the Abyss in store-houses Lastly we may observe that 't was this Mother-Abyss whose womb was burst at the Deluge when the Sea was born and broke forth as if it had issued out of a womb as God expresseth it to Iob ch 38. 8. in which place the Chaldee Paraphrase reads it when it broke forth coming out of the Abyss Which disruption at the Deluge seems also to be alluded to Iob 12. 14 15. and more plainly Prov. 3. 20. by his knowledge the Abysses are broken up Thus you have already a threefold state of the Abyss which makes a short History of it first Open at the beginning then covered till the Deluge Then broke open again as it is at present And we pursue the History of it no further but we are told Apoc. 20. 3. That it shall be shut up again and the great Dragon in it for a Thousand years In the mean time we may observe from this form and posture of the Ante diluvian Abyss how suitable it is and coherent with that form of the Ante-diluvian Earth which St. Peter and the Psalmist had describ'd sustain'd by the waters founded upon the waters stretcht above the waters for if it was the cover of this Abyss and it had some cover that was broke at the Deluge it was spread as a Crust or Ice upon the face of those waters and so made an Orbis Terrarum an habitable sphere of Earth about the Abyss SO much for the form of the Ante-diluvian Earth and Abyss which as they aptly correspond to one another so you see our Theory answers and is adjusted to both and I think so fitly that we have no reason hitherto to be displeas'd with the success we have had in the examination of it according to Scripture We have dispatch'd the two main points in question first to prove a diversity in general betwixt the two natural Worlds or betwixt the Heavens and the Earth before and after the Flood Secondly to prove wherein this diversity consisted or that the particular form of the Ante-diluvian Heavens and Earth was such according to Scripture as we have describ'd it in the Theory You 'l say then the work is done what needs more all the rest follows of course for if the Antediluvian Earth had such a â—orm as we have propos'd and prov'd it to have had there could be no Deluge in it but by a dissolution of its parts and exteriour frame And a Deluge so made would not be in the nature of a standing Pool but of a violent agitation and commotion of the Waters This is true These parts of the Theory are so cemented that you must grant all if you grant any However we will try if even these two particulars also may be prov'd out of Scripture That is if there be any marks or memorandums left there by the Spirit of God of such a fraction or dissolution of the Earth at the Deluge And also such characters of the Deluge it self as show it to have been by a fluctuation and impetuous commotion of the Waters To proceed then That there was a Fraction or Dissolution of the Earth at the Deluge the history of it by Moses gives us the first account seeing he tells us as the principol cause of the Flood That the Fountains of the Great Abyss were cloven or burst asunder and upon this disruption the waters gush'd out from the bowels of the Earth as from the widen'd mouths of so many Fountains I do not take Fountains there to signifie any more than Sources or Stores of Water noting also this manner of their eruption from below or out of the ground as Fountains do Accordingly in the Proverbs chap. 3. 20. 't is only said the Abysses were broken open I do not doubt but this refers to the Deluge as Bede and others understand it the very word being us'd here both in the Hebrew and Septuagint that express'd the disruption of the Abyss at the Deluge And this breaking up of the Earth at that time is elegantly exprest in Iob by the bursting of the Womb of Nature when the Sea was first brought to light when after many pangs and throes and dilacerations of her body Nature was delivered of a burthen which she had born in her Womb Sixteen Hundred Years These three places I take to be memorials and proofs of the disruption of the Earth or of the Abyss at the universal Deluge And to these we may add more out of the Prophets Iob and the Psalms by way of allusion commonly to the state of Nature at that time The Prophet Isaiah in describing the future destruction of the World chap. 24. 18 19. seems plainly to allude and have respect to the past destruction of it at the Deluge as appears by that leading expression the windows from an high are open 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taken manifestly from Gen. 7. 11. Then see how the description goes on the windows from an high are open and the foundations of the Earth do shake The Earth is utterly broken down the Earth is quite dissolv'd the Earth is exceedingly moved Here are Concussions and Fractions and dissolutions as there were in the Mundane Earth-quake and Deluge which we had exprest before only by breaking open the Abyss By the Foundations of the Earth here and elsewhere I perceive many understand the Centre so by moving or shaking the foundations or putting them out of course must be understood a displacing of the Centre which was really done at the Deluge as we have shewn in its proper place
am bound to make good I said at first that our Hypothesis concerning the Deluge was more agreeable not only to Scripture in general but also to the particular History of the Flood left us by Moses I say more agreeable to it than any other Hypothesis that hath yet been propos'd This may be made good in a few words For in Moses's History of the Deluge there are two principal points The extent of the Deluge and the Causes of it and in both these we do fully agree with that sacred Author As to the extent of it He makes the Deluge universal All the high hills under the whole heaven were cover'd fifteen cubits upwards We also make it universal over the face of the whole Earth and in such a manner as must needs raise the waters above the top of the highest Hills every where As to the canses of it Moses makes them to be the disruption of the Abyss and the Rains and no more and in this also we exactly agree with him we know no other causes nor pretend to any other but those two Distinguishing therefore Moses his narration as to the substance and circumstances of it it must be allowed that these two points make the substance of it and that an Hypothesis that differs from it in either of these two differs from it more than Ours which at the worst can but differ in matter of circumstance Now seeing the great difficulty about the Deluge is the quantity of Water required for it there have been two explications proposed besides ours to remove or satisfie this difficulty One whereof makes the Deluge not to have been universal or to have reacht only Iudea and some neighbouring Countries and therefore less water would suffice The other owning the Deluge to be universal supplies it self with Water from the Divine Omnipotenty and says new Waters were created then for the nonce and again annihilated when the Deluge was to cease Both these explications you see and I know no more of note that are not obnoxious to the same exceptions differ from Moses in the substance or in one of the two substantial points and consequently more than ours doth The first changeth the Flood into a kind of national inundation and the second assigns other causes of it than Moses had assigned And as they both differ apparently from the Mosaical History so you may see them refuted upon other grounds also in the third Chapter of the First Book of the Theory This may be sufficient as to the History of the Flood by Moses But possibly it may be said the principal objection will arise from Moses his Six-days Creation in the first Chapter of Genesis where another sort of Earth than what we have form'd from the Chaos is represented to us namely a Terraqueous Globe such as our Earth is at present 'T is indeed very apparent that Moses hath accommodated his Six days Creation to the present form of the Earth or to that which was before the eyes of the people when he writ But it is a great question whether that was ever intended for a true Physical account of the origine of the Earth or whether Moses did either Philosophize or Astronomize in that description The ancient Fathers when they answer the Heathens and the adversaries of Christianity do generally deny it as I am ready to make good upon another occasion And the thing it self bears in it evident marks of an accommodation and condescention to the vulgar notions concerning the form of the World Those that think otherwise and would make it literally and physically true in all the parts of it I desire them without entring upon the strict merits of the cause to determine these Preliminaries First whether the whole universe rise from a Terrestrial Chaos Secondly what Systeme of the World this Six-days Creation proceeds upon whether it supposes the Earth or the Sun for the Center Thirdly Whether the Sun and Fixt Stars are of a later date and a later birth than this Globe of Earth And lastly Where is the Region of the Super-celestial Waters When they have determin'd these Fundamentals we will proceed to other observations upon the Six-days work which will further assure us that 't is a narration suited to the capacity of the people and not to the strict and physical nature of things Besides we are to remember that Moses must be so interpreted in the first Chapter of Genesis as not to interfere with himself in other parts of his History nor to interfere with S. Peter or the Prophet David or any other Sacred Authors when they treat of the same matter Nor lastly so as to be repugnant to clear and uncontested Science For in things that concern the natural World that must always be consulted With these precautions let them try if they can reduce that narrative of the Origine of the World to physical truth so as to be consistent both with Nature and with Divine Revelation every where It is easily reconcileable to both if we suppose it writ in a Vulgar style and to the conceptions of the People And we cannot deny that a Vulgar style is often made use of in the holy Writings How freely and unconcernedly does Scripture speak of God Almighty according to the opinions of the vulgar of his passions local motions parts and members of his body Which all are things that do not belong or are not compatible with the Divine Nature according to truth and Science And if this liberty be taken as to God himself much more may it be taken as to his works And accordingly we see what motion the Scripture gives to the Sun what figure to the Earth what figure to the Heavens All according to the appearance of sence and popular credulity without any remorse for having transgressed the rules of intellectual truth This vulgar style of Scripture in describing the natures of things hath been often mistaken for the real sence and so become a stumbling-block in the way of truth Thus the Anthropomorphites of old contended for the humane shape of God from the Letter of Scripture and brought many express Texts for their purpose but sound reason at length got the upper hand of Literal authority Then several of the Christian Fathers contended that there were no Antipodes and made that doctrine irreconcileable to Scripture But this also after a while went off and yielded to reason and experience Then the Motion of the Earth must by no means be allow'd as being contrary to Scripture for so it is indeed according to the Letter and Vulgar style But all intelligent Persons see thorough this Argument and depend upon it no more in this case than in the former Lastly The original of the Earth from a Chaos drawn according to the rules of Physiology will not be admitted because it does not agree with the Scheme of the Six-days Creation But why may not this be writ in a Vulgar style as well as the rest Certainly