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
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
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
share of it and were in their proportion longer-liv'd than they are now Nay not only Animals but also Vegetables and the forms of all living things were far more permanent The Trees of the Field and of the Forest in all probability out-lasted the lives of Men and I do not know but the first Groves of Pines and Cedars that grew out of the Earth or that were planted in the Garden of God might be standing when the Deluge came and see from first to last the entire course and period of a World We might add here with S. Austin another observation both concerning Men and other living Creatures in the first World that They were greater as well as longer-liv'd than they are at present This seems to be a very reasonable conjecture for the state of every thing that hath life is divided into the time of its growth its consistency and its decay and when the whole duration is longer every one of these parts though not always in like proportions will be longer We must suppose then that the growth both in Men and other Animals lasted longer in that World than it doth now and consequently carried their Bodies both to a greater height and bulk And in like manner their Trees would be both taller and every way bigger than ours neither were they in any danger there to be blown down by Winds and Storms or struck with Thunder though they had been as high as the Aeâ—yptian Pyramids and whatsoever their height was if they had Roots and Trunks proportionable and were streight and well pois'd they would stand firm and with a greater majesty The Fowls of Heaven making their Nests in their Boughs and under their shadow the Beasts of the Field bringing forth their Young When things are fairly possible in their causes and possible in several degrees higher or lower 't is weakness of Spirit in us to think there is nothing in Nature but in that one way or in that one degree that we are us'd to And whosoever believes those accounts given us both by the Ancients and Moderns of the Indian Trees will not think it strange that those of the first Earth should much exceed any that we now see in this World â—That Allegorical description of the glory of Assyria in Ezekiel Chap. 31. by allusion to Trees and particularly to the Trees of Paradise was chiefly for the greatness and stateliness of them and there is all fairness of reason to believe that in that first Earth both the Birds of the Air and the Beasts of the Field and the Trees and their Fruit were all in their several kinds more large and goodly than Nature produces any now So much in short concerning the Natural World Inanimate or Animate We should now take a prospect of the Moral World of that time or of the Civil and Artificial World what the Order and Oeconomy of these was what the manner of living and how the Scenes of humane life were different from ours at present The Ancients especially the Poets in their description of the Golden Age exhibit to us an Order of things and a Form of Life very remote from any thing we see in our days but they are not to be trusted in all particulars many times they exaggerate matters on purpose that they may seem more strange or more great and by that means move and please us more A Moral or Philosophick History of the World well writ would certainly be a very useful work to observe and relate how the Scenes of Humane Life have chang'd in several Ages the modes and Forms of living in what simplicity Men begun at first and by what degrees they came out of that way by luxury ambition improvement or changes in Nature then what new forms and modifications were superadded by the invention of Arts what by Religion what by Superstition This would be a view of things more instructive and more satisfactory factory than to know what Kings Reign'd in such an Age and what Battles were fought which common History teacheth and teacheth little more Such affairs are but the little under plots in the Tragi comedy of the World the main design is of another nature and of far greater extent and consequence But to return to the subject As the Animate World depends upon the Inanimate so the Civil World depends upon them both and takes its measures from them Nature is the foundation still and the affairs of Mankind are a superstructure that will be always proportion'd to it Therefore we must look back upon the model or picture of their Natural World which we have drawn before to make our conjectures or judgment of the Civil and Artificial that were to accompany it We observ'd from their perpetual Aequinox and the smoothness of the Earth that the Air would be always calm and the Heavens fair no cold or violent Winds Rains or Storms no extremity of weather in any kind and therefore they would need little protection from the iniuries of the Air in that state whereas now one great part of the affairs of life is to preserve our selves from those inconveniences by building and cloathing How many Hands and how many Trades are imploy'd about these two things which then were in a manner needless or at least in such plainness and simplicity that every man might be his own workman Tents and Bowers would keep them from all incommodities of the Air and weather better than Stone-walls and strong Roofs defend â—s now and Men are apt to take the easiest ways of living till necessity or vice put them upon others that are more laborious and more artificial We also observ'd and prov'd that they had no Sea in the Primitive and Ante-diluvian World which makes a vast difference 'twixt us and them This takes up half of our Globe and a good part of Mankind is busied with Sea-affairs and Navigation They had little need of Merchandizing then Nature suppli'd them at home with all necessaries which were few and they were not so greedy of superfluities as we are We may add to these what concern'd their Food and Diet Antiquity doth generally suppose that Men were not Carnivoâ—us in those Ages of the World or did not feed upon Flesh but only upon Fruit and Herbs And this seems to be plainly confirm'd by Scripture for after the Deluge God Almighty gives Noah and his Posterity a Licence to eat Flesh Gen. 9. 2 3. Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you Whereas before in the new-made Earth God had prescrib'd them Herbs and Fruit for their Diet Gen. 1. 29. Behold I have given you every Herb bearing Seed which is upon the face of all the Earth and every Tree in the which is the Fruit of a Tree yielding Seed to you it shall be for meat and of this Natural Diet they would be provided to their hands without further preparation as the Birds and the Beasts are Upon these general grounds we may
II. The Birth of the New Heavens and the New Earth from the second Chaos or the remains of the Old World The form order and qualities of the New Earth according to Reason and Scripture CHAP. III. Concerning the Inhabitants of the New Earth That natural reason cannot determine this point That according to Scripture The Sons of the first Resurrection or the heirs of the Millennium are to be the Inhabitants of the New Earth The Testimony of the Philosophers and of the Christian Fathers for the Renovation of the World The first Proposition laid down CHAP. IV. The Proof of a Millennium or of a blessed Age to come from Scripture A view of the Apocalypse and of the Prophecies of Daniel in reference to this Kingdom of Christ and of his Saints CHAP. V. A view of other places of Scripture concerning the Millennium or future Kingdom of Christ. In what sence all the Prophets have born Testimony concerning it CHAP. VI. The sence and testimony of the Primitive Church concerning the Millennium or future Kingdom of Christ from the times of the Apostles to the Nicene Council The second Proposition laid down When by what means and for what reasons that doctrine was afterwards neglected or discountenanc'd CHAP. VII The true state of the Millennium according to Characters taken from Scripture Some mistakes concerning it rectified CHAP. VIII The Third Proposition laid down concerning the Time and Place of the Millennium Several arguments us'd to prove that it cannot be till after the Conflagration and that the New Heavens and New Earth are the true Seat of the Blessed Millennium CHAP. IX The chief employment of the Millennium DEVOTION and CONTEMPLATION CHAP. X. Objections against the Millenniâ—m answer'd With some conjectures concerning the state of things after the Millennium and what will be the final Consummation of this World The Review of the whole Theory THE THEORY OF THE EARTH BOOK III. Concerning the Conflagration CHAP. I. The Introduction With the Contents and Order of this Work SEEING Providence hath planted in all Men a natural desire and curiosity of knowing things to come and such things especially as concern our particular Happiness or the general Fate of Mankind This Treatise may in both respects hope for a favourable reception amongst inquisitive persons seeing the design of it is to give an account of the greatest revolutions of Nature that are expected in future Ages and in the first place of the Conflagration of the World In which Universal Calamity when all Nature suffers every Man 's particular concern must needs be involv'd We see with what eagerness Men pry into the Stars to see if they can read there the Death of a King or the fall of an Empire 'T is not the fate of any single Prince or Potentate that we Calculate but of all Mankind Nor of this or that particular Kingdom or Empire but of the whole Earth Our enquiries must reach to that great period of Nature when all things are to be dissolv'd both humane affairs and the Stage whereon they are acted When the Heavens and the Earth will pass away and the Elements melt with fervent heat We desire if possible to know what will be the face of that Day that great and terrible Day when the Regions of the Air will be nothing but mingled Flame and Smoak and the habitable Earth turn'd into a Sea of molten Fire But we must not leave the World in this disorder and confusion without examining what will be the Issue and consequences of it Whether this will be the End of all Things and Nature by a sad fate lie eternally dissolv'd and desolate in this manner or whether we may hope for a Restauration New Heavens and a New Earth which the Holy Writings make mention of more pure and perfect than the former As if this was but as a Refiner's fire to purge out the dross and courser parts and then cast the Mass again into a new and better Mould These things with God's assistance shall be mattâ—r of our preâ—ent enquiry These make the genâ—ral â—â—bject of thiâ— Treatise and of the remaining parts of this Theory of â—he Earth Which now you see begins to be a kind of Prophecy or Prognostication of things to come as it hath been hitherto an History of things pass'd of such states and changes as Nature hath already undergone And if that account which we have given of the Origin of the Earth its first and Paradisiacal form and the dissolution of it at the Universal Deluge appear fair and reasonable The second dissolution by Fire and the renovation of it out of a Second Chaos I hope will be deduc'd from as clear grounds and suppositions And Scripture it self will be a more visible Guide to us in these following parts of the Theory than it was in the former In the mean time I take occasion to declare here again as I have done heretofore that neither this nor any other great revolutions of Nature are brought to pass by Causes purely Natural without the conduct of a particular Providence And 't is the Sacred Books of Scripture that are the records of this Providence both as to times past and times to come as to all the signal Changes either of the Natural World or of Mankind and the different Oeconomies of Religion In which respects these Books tho' they did not contain a Moral Law would notwithstanding be as the most mystical so also the most valuable Books in the World This Treatise you see will consist of Two Parts The former whereof is to give an account of the Conflagration and the latter of the New Heavens and New Earth following upon it together with the state of Mankind in those New Habitations As to the Conflagration we first enquire what the Antients thought concerning the present frame of this World whether it was to perish or no whether to be destroyed or to stand eternally in this posture Then in what manner they thought it would be destroy'd by what force or violence whether by Fire or other ways And with these opinions of the Antients we will compare the doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles to discover and confirm the truth of them In the second place We will examine what Calculations or Conjectures have been made concerning the time of this great Catastrophe or of the end of this World Whether that period be defineable or no and whether by Natural Arguments or by Prophecies Thirdly We will consider the Signs of the approaching Conflagration Whether such as will be in Nature or in the state of Humane Affairs but especially such as are taken notice of and recorded in Scripture Fourthly Which is the principal point and yet that wherein the Ancients have been most silent What Causes there are in Nature what preparations for this Conflagration Where are the Seeds of this Universal Fire or fewel sufficient for the nourishing of it Lastly In what order and by what degrees the Conflagration will
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
other hand if the Sea lie in an equal convexity with the Land or lower generally than the shore and much more than the midland as it is certainly known to do what could the Sea contribute to the Deluge It would keep its Chanel as it doth now and take up the same place And so also the Subterraneous waters would lie quiet in their Cells whatsoever Fountains or passages you suppose these would not issue out upon the Earth for water doth not ascend unless by force But le ts imagine then that force us'd and appli'd and the waters both of the Sea and Caverns under ground drawn out upon the surface of the Earth we shall not be any whit the nearer for this for if you take these waters out of their places those places must be fill'd again with other waters in the Deluge so as this turns to no account upon the whole If you have two Vessels to fill and you empty one to fill the other you gain nothing by that there still remains one Vessel empty you cannot have these waters both in the Sea and on the Land both above ground and under nor can you suppose the Chanel of the Sea would stand gaping without water when all the Earth was overflow'd and the tops of the Mountains cover'd And so for Subterraneous Cavities if you suppose the water pumpt out they would suck it in again when the Earth came to be laid under water so that upon the whole if you thus understand the Abysse or great Deep and the breaking open its Fountains in this manner it doth us no service as to the Deluge and where we expected the greatest supply there we find none at all What shall we do then whither shall we go to find more than seven Oceans of water that we still want We have been above and below we have drain'd the whole middle Region and we have examin'd the Deeps of the Earth they must want for themselves they say if they give us any And besides if the Earth should disgorge all the water that it hath in its bowels it would not amount to above half an Ocean which would not at all answer our occasions Must we not then conclude that the common explication of the Deluge makes it impossible there being no such quantity of water in Nature as they make requisite for an universal Deluge Yet to give them all fair play having examin'd the waters above the Earth or in the Air the waters upon the Earth and the waters under the Earth let us also consider if there be not waters above the Heavens and if those might not be drawn down for the Deluge Moses speaks of waters above the firmament which though it be generally understood of the middle Region of the Air yet some have thought those to be waters plac'd above the highest Heavens or Super-celestial waters and have been willing to make use of them for a supply when they could not find materials enough under the Heavens to make up the great mass of the Deluge But the Heavens above where these waters lay are either solid or fluid if solid as Glass or Crystal how could the waters get through 'em to descend upon the Earth If fluid as the Air or Aether how could the waters rest upon them For Water is heavier than Air or Aether So that I am afraid those pure Regions will prove no fit place for that Element upon any account But supposing these waters there how imaginary soever and that they were brought down to drown the World in that vast quantity that would be necessary what became of them when the Deluge ceas'd Seven or eight Oceans of water with the Earth wrapt up in the middle of them how did it ever get quit of them how could they be dispos'd of when the Earth was to be dri'd and the World renew'd It would be a hard task to lift them up again among the Spheres and we have no room for them here below The truth is I mention this opinion of the Heavenly waters because I would omit none that had ever been made use of to make good the common explication of the Deluge but otherwise I think since the System of the World hath been better known and the Nature of the Heavens there are none that would seriously assert these Super-celestial waters or at least make use of them so extravagantly as to bring them down hither for causes of the Deluge We have now employ'd our last and utmost endeavours to find out waters for the vulgar Deluge or for the Deluge as commonly understood and you see with how little success we have left no corner unsought where there was any appearance or report of water to be found and yet we have not been able to collect the eighth part of what was necessary upon a moderate account May we not then with assurance conclude that the World hath taken wrong measures hitherto in their notion and explication of the general Deluge They make it impossible and unintelligible upon a double account both in requiring more water than can be found and more than can be dispos'd of if it was found or could any way be withdrawn from the Earth when the Deluge should cease For if the Earth was encompass'd with eight Oceans of water heapt one upon another how these should retire into any Chanels or be drain'd off or the Earth any way disengag'd from them is not intelligible and that in so short a time as some months For the violence of the Deluge lasted but four or five months and in as many months after the Earth was dry and habitable So as upon the whole enquiry we can neither find source nor issue beginning nor ending for such an excessive mass of Waters as the Vulgar Deluge requir'd neither where to have them nor if we had them how to get quit of them And I think men cannot do a greater injury or injustice to Sacred History than to give such representations of things recorded there as make them unintelligible and incredible And on the other hand we cannot deserve better of Religion and Providence than by giving such fair accounts of all things propos'd by them or belonging to them as may silence the Cavils of Atheists satisfie the inquisitive and recommend them to the belief and acceptance of all reasonable persons CHAP. III. All Evasions answered That there was no new Creation of waters at the Deluge And that it was not particular or National but extended throughout the whole Earth A prelude and preparation to the true Account and Explication of it The method of the first Book THough in the preceding Chapter we may seem to have given a fair trial to the common opinion concerning the state of the Deluge and might now proceed to sentence of condemnation yet having heard of another plea which some have us'd in its behalf and another way found out by recourse to the Supream Power to supply all defects and to make
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
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
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
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
same World that our first fore-fathers did nor scarce to be the same race of Men. Our life now is so short and vain as if we came into the World only to see it and leave it by that time we begin to understand our selves a little and to know where we are and how to act our part we must leave the stage and give place to others as meer Novices as we were our selves at our first entrance And this short life is imploy'd in a great measure to preserve our selves from necessity or diseases or injuries of the Air or other inconveniencies to make one Man easie ten must work and do drudgery The Body takes up so much time we have little leisure for Contemplation or to cultivate the mind The Earth doth not yield us food but with much labour and industry and what was her free-will offering before or an easie liberality can scarce now be extorted from her Neither are the Heavens more favourable sometimes in one extreme sometimes in another The Air often impure or infectious and for a great part of the year Nature her self seems to be sick or dead To this vanity the external Creation is made subject as well as Mankind and so must continue till the restitution of all things Can we imagine in those happy Times and Places we are treating of that things stood in this same posture are these the fruits of the Golden Age and of Paradise or consistent with their happiness And the remedies of these evils must be so universal you cannot give them to one place or Region of the Earth but all must participate For these are things that flow from the course of the Heavens or such general Causes as extend at once to all Nature If there was a perpetual Spring and perpetual Aequinox in Paradise there was at the same time a perpetual Aequinox all the Earth over unless you place Paradise in the middle of the Torrid Zone So also the long-lives of the Ante-diluvians was an universal Effect and must have had an universal Cause 'T is true in some single parts or Regions of the present Earth the Inhabitants live generally longer than in others but do not approach in any measure the Age of their Ante-diluvian fore-fathers and that degree of longaevity which they have above the rest they owe to the calmness and tranquility of their Heavens and Air which is but an imperfect participation of that cause which was once Universal and had its effect throughout the whole Earth And as to the fertility of this Earth though in some spots it be eminently more fruitful than in others and more delicious yet that of the first Earth was a fertility of another kind being spontaneous and extending to the production of Animals which cannot be without a favourable concourse from the Heavens also Thus much in general We will now go over those three forementioned Characters more distinctly to show by their unsuitableness to the present state of Nature that neither the whole Earth as it is now nor any part of it could be Paradisiacal The perpetual Spring which belong'd to the Golden Age and to Paradise is an happiness this present Earth cannot pretend to nor is capable of unless we could transfer the Sun from the Ecliptick to the Aequator or which is as easie perswade the Earth to change its posture to the Sun If Archimedes had found a place to plant his Machines in for removing of the Earth all that I should have desir'd of him would have been only to have given it an heave at one end and set it a little to rights again with the Sun that we might have enjoy'd the comfort of a perpetual Spring which we have lost by its dislocation ever since the Deluge And there being nothing more indispensably necessary to a Paradisiacal state than this unity and equality of Seasons where that cannot be 't is in vain to seek for the rest of Paradise The spontaneous fruitfulness of the ground was a thing peculiar to the primigenial soil which was so temper'd as made it more luxuriant at that time than it could ever be afterwards and as that rich temperament was spent so by degrees it grew less fertile The Origin or production of Animals out of the Earth depended not only upon this vital constitution of the soil at first but also upon such a posture and aspect of the Heavens as favour'd or at least permitted Nature to make her best works out of this prepar'd matter and better than could be made in that manner after the Flood Noah we see had orders given him to preserve the Races of living Creatures in his Ark when the Old World was destroy'd which is an argument to me that Providence foresaw that the Earth would not be capable to produce them under its new form and that not only for want of fitness in the soil but because of the diversity of Seasons which were then to take place whereby Nature would be disturb'd in her work and the subject to be wrought upon would not continue long enough in the same due temper But this part of the second Character concerning the Original of Animals deserves to be further examin'd and explain'd The first principles of Life must be tender and ductile that they may yield to all the motions and gentle touches of Nature otherwise it is not possible that they should be wrought with that curiosity and drawn into all those little fine threds and textures that we see and admire in some parts of the Bodies of Animals And as the matter must be so constituted at first so it must be kept in a due temper till the work be finisht without any excess of heat or cold and accordingly we see that Nature hath made provision in all sorts of Creatures whether Oviparous or Viviparous that the first rudiments of Life should be preserv'd from all injuries of the Air and kept in a moderate warmth Eggs are enclos'd in a Shell or Film and must be cherish'd with an equal gentle heat to begin formation and continue it otherwise the work miscarries And in Viviparous Creatures the materials of life are safely lodg'd in the Females womb and conserv'd in a fit temperature 'twixt heat and cold while the Causes that Providence hath imploy'd are busie at work fashioning and placing and joyning the parts in that due order which so wonderful a Fabrick requires Let us now compare these things with the birth of Animals in the new-made World when they first rose out of the Earth to see what provision could be made there for their safety and nourishment while they were a making and when newly made And though we take all advantages we can and suppose both the Heavens and the Earth favourable a fit soil and a warm and constant temper of the Air all will be little enough to make this way of production feasible or probable But if we suppose there was then the same inconstancy of the Heavens
should not the flame of life as well as any other flame if you give it fewel continue in its force without languishing or decay You will say it may be The case is not the same in a simple Body such as a Lamp or a Fire and in an Organical Body which being variously compounded of multiplicity of parts and all those parts put in connexion and dependance one upon another if any one fail it will disorder the whole frame and therefore it must needs be more difficult for such a body to continue long in the same state than for a simple Body that hath no variety of parts or operations I acknowledge such a Body is much more subject to diseases and accidents than a more simple but barring all diseases and accidents as we do it might be of as long a duration as any other if it was suppli'd with nourishment adequately to all its parts As this Lamp we speak of if it consisted of twenty branches and each of these branches was to be fed with a different Oil and these Oils could be all mix'd together in some common Cistern whence they were to be distributed into the several branches either according to their different degrees of lightness one rising higher than another or according to the capacity and figure of the little pipes they were to pass thorough such a compounded Lamp made up of such artifices would indeed be more subject to accidents and to be out of order by the obstruction of some of the little pipes or some unfit qualities in the Oils but all these casualties and disorders excepted as they are in our case if it was suppli'd with convenient liquors it would burn as long as any other though more plain and simple To instance yet for more plainness in another sort of Machine supppose a Mill where the Water may represent the nourishment and humours in our Body and the frame of Wood and Stone the solid parts if we could suppose this Mill to have a power of nourishing it self by the Water it receiv'd and of repairing all the parts that were worn away whether of the Wood work or of the Stone feed it but with a constant stream and it would subsist and grind for ever And 't is the same thing for all other Artificial Machines of this nature if they had a faculty of nourishig themselves and repairing their parts And seeing those natural Machines we are speaking of the Body of Man and of other Animals have and enjoy this faculty why should they not be able to preserve themselves beyond that short period of time which is now the measure of their life Thus much we have said to shew the difficulty propos'd and inforce it We must now consider the true answer and resolution of it and to that purpose bring into view again those causes which we have assign'd both of the long periods of life before the Flood and of the short ones since That there was a perpetual Aequinox and stability of the Heavens before the Flood we have show'd both from History and Reason neither was there then any thing of Clouds Rains Winds Storms or unequal weather as will appear in the following Chapter And to this steddiness of Nature and universal calmness of the External World we have imputed those long periods of life which Men enjoy'd at that time As on the contrary when that great change and revolution happen'd to Nature at the Deluge and the Heavens and the Earth were cast in another mould then was brought in besides many other new Scenes that shortness and vanity in the life of Man and a general instability in all sublunary things but especially in the Animate World It is not necessary to show more than we have done already how that Primitive state of Nature contributed to long life neither is it requir'd that it should actively contribute but only be permissive and suffer our Bodies to act their parts for if they be not disturb'd nor any harm done them by External Nature they are built with art and strength enough to last many hundreds of years And as we observ'd before concerning the posture of the Earth that that which it had at first being simple and regular was not so much to be accounted for as its present posture which is irregular so likewise for the life of Man the difficulty is not why they liv'd so long in the old World that was their due and proper course but why our Bodies being made after the same manner should endure so short a time now This is it therefore which we must now make our business to give an account of namely how that vicissitude of Seasons inconstancy of the Air and unequal course of Nature which came in at the Deluge do shorten Life and indeed hasten the dissolution of all Bodies Animate or Inanimate In our Bodies we may consider three several qualities on dispositions and according to each whereof they suffer decay First Their continuity Secondly That disposition whereby the are capable of receiving nourishment which we may call Nutribility and Thirdly The Tone or Tonick disposition of the Organs whereby they perform their several functions In all these three respects they would decay in any state of Nature but far sooner and faster in the present state than in the Primaeval As for their Continuity we have noted before that all consistent Bodies must be less durable now than under that first order of the World because of the unequal and contrary motions of the Elements or of the Air and Aether that penetrato and pervade them and 't is part of that vanity which all things now are subject to to be more perishable than in their first Constitution If we should consider our Bodies only as breathing Statues consisting of those parts they do and of that tenderness the Air which we breath and wherewith we are continually incompast changing so often 'twixt moist and dry hot and cold a slew and eager motion these different actions and restless changes would sooner weaken and destroy the union of the parts than if they were always in a calm and quiet medium But it is not the gross and visible Continuity of the parts of our Body that frist dacays there are finer Textures that are spoil'd insensibly and draw on the decay of the rest such are those other two we mention'd That disposition and temper of the parts whereby they are fit to receive their full nourishment and especially that construction and texture of the Organs that are preparatory to this Nutrition The Nutribility of the Body depends upon a certain temperament in the parts soft and yielding which makes them open to the Blood and Juices in their Circulation and passage through them and mixing intimately and universally hold fast and retain many of their Particles as muddy Earth doth the parts of the Water that runs into it and mixeth with it And when these Nutritious Particles retain'd are more than the
to have got Children One hundred twenty seven years for Ten Generations is very strait and of these you must take off forty six years for one Generation only or for Noah for he liv'd six hundred years before the Flood and if they were Lunar they would come however to forty six of our years so that for the other Nine Generations you would have but eighty one years that is nine years a-piece at which Age they must all be suppos'd to have begun to get Children which you cannot but think a very absurd supposition Thus it would be if you divide the whole time equally amongst the Nine Generations but if you consider some single instances as they are set down by Moses 't is still worse for Mahaleel and his Grandchild Enoch are said to have got Children at sixty five years of Age which if you suppose months they were but five years old at that time now I appeal to any one Whether it is more incredible that men should live to the age of nine hundred years or that they should beget Children at the age of five years You will say it may be 't is true these inconveniences follow if our Hebrew Copies of the Old Testament be Authentick but if the Greek Translation by the Septuagint be of better Authority as some would have it to be that gives a little relief in this case for the Septuagint make the distance from the Creation to the Flood six hundred years more than the Hebrew Text does and so give us a little more room for our Ten Generations And not only so but they have so conveniently dispos'd those additional years as to salve the other inconvenience too of the Patriarchs having Children so young for what Patriarchs are found to have got Children sooner than the rest and so soon that upon a computation by Lunar years they would be but meer Children themselves at that time to these more years are added and plac'd opportunely before the time of their getting Children so as one can scarce forbear to think that it was done on purpose to cure that inconvenience and to favour and protect the computation by Lunar years The thing looks so like an artifice and as done to serve a turn that one cannot but have a less opinion of that Chronology for it But not to enter upon that dispute at present methinks they have not wrought the cure effectually enough for with these six hundred Lunar years added the summ will be only one hundred seventy three common years and odd months and from these deducting as we did before for Noah forty six years and for Adam or the first Generation about eighteen for he was two hundred and thirty years old according to the Septuagint when he begot Seth there will remain but one hundred and nine years for eight Generations which will be thirteen years a-piece and odd months a low age to get children in and to hold for eight Generations together Neither is the other inconvenience we mention'd well cur'd by the Septuagint account namely the small number of people that would be in the World at the Deluge for the Septuagint account if understood of Lunar years adds but forty six common years to the Hebrew account and to the age of the World at the Deluge in which time there could be but a very small accession to the number of Mankind So as both these incongruities continue though not in the same degree and stand good in either account if it be understood of Lunar years Thirdly 'T is manifest from other Texts of Scripture and from other considerations that our first Fathers liv'd very long and considerably longer than men have done since whereas if their years be interpreted Lunar there is not one of them that liv'd to the age that Men do now Methusalah himself did not reach threescore and fifteen years upon that interpretation Which doth depress them not only below those that liv'd next to the Flood but below all following Generations to this day and those first Ages of the World which were always celebrated for strength and vivacity are made as weak and feeble as the last dregs of Nature We may observe that after the Flood for some time till the pristine Crasis of the Body was broken by the new course of Nature they liv'd five four three two hundred years and the Life of Men shortn'd by degrees but before the Flood when they liv'd longer there was no such decrease or gradual declension in their lives For Noah who was the last liv'd longer than Adam and Methusalah who was last but two liv'd the longest of all So that it was not simply their distance from the beginning of the World that made them live a shorter time but some change which happen'd in Nature after such a period of time namely at the Deluge when the declension begun Let 's set down the Table of both states A Table of the Ages of the Ante-diluvian Fathers  Years Adam 930 Seth 912 Enos 905 Cainan 910 Mahaleel 895 Iared 962 Enoch 365 Methusalah 969 Lamech 777 Noah 950 A Table of the Ages of the Post-diluvian Fathers from Shem to Joseph  Years Shem 600 Arphaxad 438 Salah 433 Eber 464 Peleg 239 Reu 239 Serug 230 Nahor 148 Terah 205 Abraham 175 Isaac 180 Iacob 147 Ioseph 110 From these Tables we see that Mens Lives were much longer before the Flood and next after it than they are now which also is confirm'd undeniably by Iacob's complaint of the shortness of his life in comparison of his Fore-fathers when he had liv'd one hundred and thirty years Gen. 47. 9. The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years few and evil have the days of the years of my life been and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my Fathers There was then 't is certain long-liv'd men in the World before Iacob's time when were they before the Flood or after We say both according as the Tables shew it But if you count by Lunar years there never were any either before or after and Iacob's complaint was unjust and false for he was the oldest Man in the World himself or at least there was none of his Fore-fathers that liv'd so long as he The Patrons of this opinion must needs find themselves at a loss how or where to break off the account of Lunar years in Sacred History if they once admit it If they say that way of counting must only be extended to the Flood then they make the Post-diluvian Fathers longer liv'd than the Ante-diluvian did the Flood bring in Longaevity how could that be the cause of such an effect Besides if they allow the Post-diluvians to have liv'd six hundred common years that being clearly beyond the standard of our lives I should never stick at two or three hundred years more for the first Ages of the World If they extend their Lunar account to the
course of the Vapours which cool'd the open Plains and made the weather temperate as well as fair But we have spoken enough in other places upon this subject of the Air and the Heavens Let us now descend to the Earth The Earth was divided into two Hemispheres separated by the Torrid Zone which at that time was uninhabitable and utterly unpassable so as the two Hemispheres made two distinct Worlds which so far as we can judge had no manner of commerce or communication one with another The Southern Hemisphere the Ancients call'd Antichthon the Opposite Earth or the Other World And this name and notion remain'd long after the reason of it had câ—ast Just as the Torrid Zone was generally accounted uninhabitable by the Ancients even in their time because it really had been so once and the Tradition remain'd uncorrected when the causes were taken away namely when the Earth had chang'd its posture to the Sun after the Deluge This may be lookt upon as the first division of that Primaval Earth into two Hemispheres naturally sever'd and disunited But it was also divided into five Zones two Frigid two Temperate and the Torrid betwixt them And this distinction of the Globe into â—â—ve Zones I think did properly belong to that Original Earth and Primitive Geography and improperly and by translation only to the present For all the Zones of our Earth are habitable and their distinctions are in a manner but imaginary not fixt by Nature whereas in that Earth where the Rivers fail'd and the Regions became uninhabitable by reason of driness and heat there begun the Torrid Zone and where the Regions became uninhabitable by reason of cold and moisture there begun the Frigid Zone and these being determin'd they became bounds on either side to the Temperate But all this was alter'd when the posture of the Earth was chang'd and chang'd for that very purpose as some of the Ancients have said That the uninhabitable parts of the Earth might become habitable Yet though there was so much of the first Earth uninhabitable there remain'd as much to be inhabited as we have now for the Sea since the breaking up of the Abyss hath taken away half of the Earth from us a great part whereof was to them good Land Besides We are not to suppose that the Torrid Zone was of that extent we make it now twenty three degrees and more on either side of the Aequator these bounds are set only by the Tropicks and the Tropicks by the obliquity of the course of the Sun or of the posture of the Earth which was not in that World Where the Rivers stopt there the Torrid Zone would begin but the Sun was directly perpendicular to no part of it but the middle How the Rivers flow'd in the first Earth we have before explain'd sufficiently and what parts the Rivers did not reach were turn'd into Sands and Desarts by the heat of the Sun for I cannot easily imagine that the Sandy Desarts of the Earth were made so at first immediately and from the beginning of the World from what causes should that be and to what purpose in that age But in those Tracts of the Earth that were not refresht with Rivers and moisture which cement the parts the ground would moulder and crumble into little pieces and then those pieces by the heat of the Sun were bak'd into Stone And this would come to pass chiefly in the hot and scorch'd Regions of the Earth though it might happen sometimes where there was not that extremity of heat if by any chance a place wanted Rivers and Water to keep the Earth in due temper but those Sands would not be so early or ancient as the other As for greater loose Stones and rough Pebbles there were none in that Earth Deucalion and Pyrrha when the Deluge was over found new made Stones to cast behind their backs the bones of their mother Earth which then were broken in pieces in that great ruine As for Plants and Trees we cannot imagine but that they must needs abound in the Primitive Earth seeing it was so well water'd and had a soil so fruitful A new unlabour'd soil replenistht with the Seeds of all Vegetables and a warm Sun that would call upon Nature early for her First-Fruits to be offer'd up at the beginning of her course Nature 〈◊〉 a wild luxuriancy at first which humane industry by degrees gave form and order to The Waters flow'd with a constant and gentle Current and were easily led which way the Inhabitants had a mind for their use or for their pleasure and shady Trees which grow best in most and warm Countries grac'd the Banks of their Rivers or Canals But that which was the beauty and crown of all was their perpetual Spring the Fields always green the Flowers always fresh and the Trees always cover'd with Leaves and Fruit But we have occasionally spoken of these things in several places and may do again hereafter and therefore need not inlarge upon them here As for Subterraneous things Metals and Minerals I believe they had none in the first Earth and the happier they no Gold nor Silver nor courser Metals The use of these is either imaginary or in such works as by the constitution of their World they had little occasion for And Minerals are either for Medicine which they had no need of further than Herbs or for Materials to certain Arts which were not then in use or were suppli'd by other ways These Subterraneous things Metals and metallick Minerals are Factitious not Original bodies coaeval with the Earth but are made in process of time after long preparations and concoctions by the action of the Sun within the bowels of the Earth And if the Stamina or principles of them risâ—e from the lower Regions that lie under the Abyss as I am apt to think they do 〈◊〉 doth not seem probable that they could be drawn through such a mass of Waters or that the heat of the Sun could on a sudden penetrate so deep and be able to loosen them and raise them into the exteriour Earth And as the first Age of the World was call'd Golden though it knew not what Gold was so the following Ages had their names from several Metals which lay then asleep in the dark and deep womb of Nature and see not the Sun till many Years and Ages afterwards Having run through the several Regions of Nature from top to bottom from the Heavens to the lower parts of the Earth and made some observations upon their order in the Ante-diluvian World Let us now look upon Man and other living Creatures that make the Superiour and Animate part of Nature We have observ'd and sufficiently spoken to that difference betwixt the Men of the old World and those of the present in point of Longaevity and given the reasons of it but we must not imagine that this long life was peculiar to Man all other Animals had their
first occasion'd a fame and belief of their continuance long after they had really ceast This gives an easie account and I think the true cause of that opinion amongst the Ancients generally receiv'd That the Torrid Zone was uninhabitable I say generally receiv'd for not only the Poets both Greek and Latin but their Philosophers Astsonomers and Geographers had the same notion and deliver'd the same doctrine as Aristotle Cleomedes Achilles Tatius Ptolomy Cicero Strabo Mela Pliny Macrobius c. And to speak truth the whole doctrine of the Zones is calculated more properly for the first Earth than for the present for the divisions and bounds of them now are but arbitrary being habitable all over and having no visible distinction whereas they were then determin'd by Nature and the Globe of the Earth was really divided into so many Regions of a very different aspect and quality which would have appear'd at a distance if they had been lookt upon from the Clouds or from the Moon as Iupiter's Belts or as so many Girdles or Swathing-bands about the body of the Earth And so the word imports and so the Ancients use to call them Cinguli and Fasciae But in the present form of the Earth if it was seen at a distance no such distinction would appear in the parts of it nor scarce any other but that of Land and Water and of Mountains and Valleys which are nothing to the purpose of Zones And to add this note further When the Earth lay in this regular form divided into Regions or Walks if I may so call them as this gave occasion of its distinction by Zones so if we might consider all that Earth as a Paradise and Paradise as a Garden for it is always call'd so in Scripture and in Iewish Authors And as this Torrid Zone bare of Grass and Trees made a kind of Gravel-walk in the middle so there was a green Walk on either hand of it made by the temperate Zones and beyond those lay a Canal which water'd the Garden from either side But to return to Antiquity We may add under this Head another observation or doctrine amongst the Ancients strange enough in appearance which yet receives an easie explication from the preceding Theory They say The Poles of the World did once change their situation and were at first in another posture from what they are in now till that inclination happen'd This the ancient Philosophers often make mention of as Anaxagoras Empedocles Diogenes Leucippus Democritus as may be seen in Laertius and in Plutarch and the Stars they say at first were carried about the Earth in a more uniform manner This is no more than what we have observ'd and told you in other words namely That the Earth chang'd its posture at the Deluge and thereby made these seeming changes in the Heavens its Poles before pointed to the Poles of the Ecliptick which now point to the Poles of the Aequator and its Axis is become parallel with that Axis and this is the mystery and interpretation of what they say in other terms this makes the different aspect of the Heavens and of its Poles And I am apt to think that those changes in the course of the Stars which the Ancients sometimes speak of and especially the Aegyptians if they did not proceed from defects in their Calendar had no other Physical account than this And as they say the Poles of the World were in another situation at first so at first they say there was no variety of seasons in the Year as in their Golden Age. Which is very coherent with all the rest and still runs along with the Theory And you may observe that all these things we have instanc'd in hitherto are but links of the same chain in connexion and dependance upon one another When the Primaeval Earth was made out of the Chaos its form and posture was such as of course brought on all those Scenes which Antiquity hath kept the remembrance of though now in another state of Nature they seem very strange especially being disguis'd as some of them are by their odd manner of representing them That the Poles of the World stood once in another posture That the Year had no diversity of Seasons That the Torrid Zone was uninhabitable That the two Hemispheres had no possibility of intercourse and such like These all hang upon the same string or lean one upon another as Stones in the same Building whereof we have by this Theory laid the very foundation bare that you may see what they all stand upon and in what order There is still one remarkable Notion or Doctrine amongst the Ancients which we have not spoken to 't is partly Symbolical and the propriety of the Symbol or of the Application of it hath been little understood 'T is their doctrine of the Mundane Egg or their comparing the World to an Egg and especially in the Original composition of it This seems to be a mean comparison the World and an Egg what proportion or what resemblance betwixt these two things And yet I do not know any Symbolical doctrine or conclusion that hath been so universally entertain'd by the Mystae or Wise and Learned of all Nations as hath been noted before in the fifth Chapter of the First Book and at large in the Latin Treatise 'T is certain that by the World in this similitude they do not mean the Great Universe for that hath neither Figure nor any determinate form of composition and it would be a great vanity and rashness in any one to compare this to an Egg The works of God are immense as his rature is infinite and we cannot make any image or resemblance of either of them but this comparison is to be understood of the Sublunary World or of the Earth And for a general key to Antiquity upon this Argument we may lay this down as a Maxim or Canon That what the Ancients have said concerning the form and figure of the World or concerning the Original of it from a Chaos or about its periods and dissolution are never to be understood of the Great Universe but of our Earth or of this Sublunary and Terrâ—strial World And this observation being made do but reflect upon our Theory of the Earth the manner of its composition at first and the figure of it being compleated and you will need no other interpreter to understand this mystery We have show'd there that the figure of it when finisht was Oval and the inward form of it was a frame of four Regions encompassing one another where that of Fire lay in the middle like the Yolk and a shell of Earth inclos'd them all This gives a solution so easie and natural and shows such an aptness and elegancy in the representation that one cannot doubt upon a view and compare of circumstances but that we have truly found out the Riddle of the Mundane Egg. Amongst other difficulties arising from the Form
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