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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	cold_a	earth_n	zone_n	67	3	13.0369	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A65672	A new theory of the earth, from its original to the consummation of all things wherein the creation of the world in six days, the universal deluge, and the general conflagration, as laid down in the Holy Scriptures, are shewn to be perfectly agreeable to reason and philosophy : with a large introductory discourse concerning the genuine nature, stile, and extent of the Mosaick history of the creation / by William Whiston ...	Whiston, William, 1667-1752.	1696 (1696)	Wing W1696; ESTC R20397	280,059	488

Country or Region with the same exactness determin'd by Geography XXXI The Earth in its Primitive State had only an Annual Motion about the Sun But since it has a Diurnal Rotation upon its own Axis also Whereby a vast difference arises in the several States of the World XXXI This has been at large explain'd and prov'dalr eady XXXII Upon the first commencing of this Diurnal Rotation after the Fall its Axis was oblique to the Plain of the Ecliptick as it still is or in other words the present Vicissitudes of Seasons Spring Summer Autumm and Winter arising from the Sun's access to and recess from the Tropicks have been ever since the Fall of Man XXXII This has in some measure been insisted on already in the Hypothesis last mention'd and needs no other direct and positive proof than the present Obliquity of the Earth's Axis It being evident that without a miraculous Power the same Situation or Inclination which it had originally would and must invariably remain for all succeeding Ages CHAP. III. A Solution of the Phaenomena relating to the Antediluvian State of the Earth XXXIII The Inhabitants of the Earth were before the Flood vastly more numerous than the present Earth either actually does or perhaps is capable to maintain and supply XXXIII THIS Proposition will not appear strange if we consider 1. The much greater fertility of the Antediluvian Earth to be presently accounted for whereby it was capable of maintaining a much greater number of Inhabitants than the present even on the same space of Ground 2. The Earth was more equally habitable all over before than since the Deluge For before the acquisition of those heterogeneous mixtures which the Deluge occasion'd and which I take to be the Causes of all our violent and pernicious Heat and Cold in the Torrid and Frigid Zones of our Earth 't is probable the Earth was pretty equally habitable all over by reason of the Vicinage of the Central Heat to the Polar Regions and the more direct Exposition of the middle Regions to that of the Sun I do not mean that the Frigid Zones were equally hot with the Torrid but that the Heat in the one and the Cold in the other were more kindly and the excesses of each much less considerable than at present since the Introduction of the before-mention'd Mixtures and particularly of such Sulphureous and Nitrous Effluvia as are now I believe become Calorifick and Frigorifick Particles in our Air the main occasions of the violence and pernicious Qualities of the Heat and Cold thereof and the most affecting to our Senses of all other So that 't is probable before the Acquisition of these Advensitious Masses the Antediluvian Air was every where sufficiently temperate to permit the comfortable Habitation of Mankind on all parts of the Globe and the Antediluvian Earth was by consequence capable of many more Inhabitants than the present is or can be as every one will readily grant who considers how few Inhabitants in comparison three of the five Zones of our present Earth do maintain 3. The dry Land or habitable Earth it self was by reason of the absence of the intire Ocean full as large and capacious again as the present For the Ocean I think takes up now at the least one half of the intire Globe but then afforded as large spacious and habitable Countries as the other parts of the Earth 4. The Mountains which are now generally bare and barren were before the Deluge so far as they were suppli'd with Water as fruitful as the Plains or Vallies and by reason of a larger Surface were capable of maintaining rather more Animals than the Plains on which they stand would otherwise have been The present defect of a fruitful Soil being owing to the Deluge and there being no good reason that I know of to be assign'd why on a primary Formation and in a calm and still State of the Air the higher Parts of the Earth should not be cover'd with a fruitful Soil or Mold as well as the level or lower adjoyning to them All which Accounts taken together will I think give reasonable Foundation for such vast numbers of Inhabitants as according to the Computation of this Proposition the Antediluvian World was replenish'd withal Corollary 1. Since by very reasonable Computations of the numbers of the Inhabitants of the Earth at the Deluge according to the Hebrew Chronology they appear to have been sufficient abundantly to replenish the intire Globe and as many as in reason the same could sustain The Septuagints addition of near six hundred Years in this Period of the World to the Hebrew Accounts is so far from clearing Difficulties thereto relating that it rather increases the same and enforces the allowance of more Inhabitants at the Deluge than we can well tell where they could live and be maintain'd Coroll 2. Since according to the Hebrew Chronology from the Deluge till the time of Abraham's going into Canaan was the intire space of 427 Years and the Lives of Men during that interval were in a mean three hundred Years long 't is easy on the Grounds proceeded upon in this Phaenomenon's Calculations to prove That there is no need to recede from that Account or introduce the additional Years of the Septuagint in this Period to produce the greatest Numbers of Men which in that or the immediately succeeding Ages any Authentick Histories of those Ancient Times do require us to suppose Coroll 3. The Deluge which destroy'd the whole Race of Mankind those only in the Ark excepted could not possibly be confin'd to one or more certain Regions of the Earth but was without question truly Universal Coroll 4. Seeing it appears That Mankind has a gradual increase and that in somewhat more than four thousand Years our Continent of Europe Asia and Africa has been so entirely Peopled from the Sons of Noah and seeing withal America is much less in extent and I suppose generally speaking was never so full of People In case we suppose that Famines Wars Pestilences and all such sad destroyers of Mankind have equally afflicted the several Continents of the Earth Some light might be afforded to the Peopling of America and about what Age since the Deluge the American's past first from this Continent thither which a more nice enquiry into the Particulars here to be consider'd might assist us in XXXIV The Bruit Animals whether belonging to the Water or Land were proportionably at least more in number before the Flood than they are since XXXIV That part of this Proposition which concerns the Dry-land Animals is sufficiently accounted for by what has been discours'd under the last Head which equally belongs to them as to Mankind And if we extend the other part concerning the Fishes to the Seas then in Being and their comparative Plenitude there will need no additional Solution It being not to be suppos'd that the absolute numbers of Fish before the Deluge should be greater than at

'T is evident at first view That the two former of these three last mention'd Phaenomena are inconsistent with the Theorist's Hypothesis and on a little Consideration 't will be so of the last also For while the Poles of the Earth or World remain in being the same as depending on the same proper Axis of the Earth's own Diurnal Revolution 't is plain the Latitude of Places on the Earth or the Elevation of the Pole equal thereto remains invariable and so that Pole which to the Inhabitants of Paradise was elevated at the least 231 2 degrees could not be at the Horizon whatever right Position the Axis of the Earth might have with respect to the Ecliptick On the same account there could even in the Theorist's own Hypothesis be no new Elevation of the one or Depression of the other Pole at the Deluge nor inclination of the Courses of the Sun and Planets towards the South All that could on the Theorist's Principles be effected besides the Earth's Equator and Poles pointing to different fix'd Stars and its Consequences was only this that whereas before the Sun was always in the Equator or middle distance from any Climate it afterwards by turns came nearer to them as we commonly tho' carelessly express it in Summer and went farther from them in Winter than before which upon the whole was no more a bent or inclination to one part of the Heavens than to the other and so of the Planets also And the case is the same as to the Poles of the Ecliptick the Northern one being as much elevated above that of the World at one hour of the Day as depress'd beneath it at another All which is I think sufficient to shew That the Testimonies of Antiquity alledg'd by the Theorist for the peopetual Equinox or the right Position of the Earth's Axis till the Deluge and the oblique Position and different Seasons then acquir'd are sufficient of themselves alone to confute his and establish the present Hypothesis 5. All things consider'd such a Position as the Theorist contends for was more likely to incommode than be useful to Mankind Taking the Matter wholly as the Theorist puts it it would prevent the Peopling of the Southern Hemisphere by the scorching heat just under the Equator without the least Intermission at any time of the Year It would render the Earth utterly unserviceable both under the Equator and Poles and in the Climates adjoyning and so streighten the Capacity of the Earth in maintaining its numerous Inhabitants which were the whole inhabitable will appear but just sufficient to contain them It would by the Perpetuation of one and the same Season continually hinder the variety of Fruits and Vegetables of every Country and many other ways spoil the setled Course of Nature and be pernicious to Mankind 6. No mechanical and rational Cause of the Mutation of the Earth's Axis either has been or I believe can be afsign'd on the Theorist's Hypothesis or any others which should embrace the same Conclusion 7. Lastly to name no more Arguments The Testimonies of Diogenes and Anaxagoras are as express almost to the Time as to this Change it self The words being exceeding remarkable are these as Plutarch himself relates them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 'T was the Doctrine both of Diogenes and Anaxagoras That after the Creation or primary Constitution of the World and the Production of Animals out of the Earth the World as it were of its own accord was bent or inclin'd towards the South And truly 't is probable this Inclination was the Effect of Providence on purpose that some Parts of the World might become habitable and others uninhabitable by reason of the difference of the frigid torrid and temperate Climates thereof Which observable and most valuable Fragment of Antiquity ought to have been before mention'd but was on purpose reserv'd for this place where it not only fully attests the matter of fact the Inclination of the Heavens towards the South not only assigns the final Cause truly enough considering the uninhabitableness of the Torrid as well as of the Frigid Zones in the Opinion of those Ages the Distribution of the Earth into certain and fix'd Zones Torrid Temperate and Frigid but so accurately and nicely specifies the time also That succeeding the Creation agreeably to the present Hypothesis that were I to wish or chuse for a Testimony fully to my mind I could scarcely have desir'd or pitch'd upon a better To these five foregoing Arguments for the proof of my main Conclusion I shall by way of supernumerary ones or Appendages add one or two more and so leave the whole to the Consideration of the Impartial Reader 6. The State of Mankind without question and perhaps that of other Animals was before the Fall vastly different from the present and consequently requir'd a proportionably different State of external Nature of which without the Hypothesis before us no Account can be given or at least has not yet by any been attempted The World as to other things seems to have been at first in great measure put into the same Condition which we still enjoy and yet Reason as well as Scripture assures us That so different a condition of things in the Animal Rational and Moral must be suited with an agreeably different one in the Natural and Corporeal World Which being consider'd and that at the same time no remarkable difference has been or perhaps can be assign'd but what the Hypothesis before us and its consequences afford us and that withal a satisfactory account of the several Particulars is deducible from the same as I hope to make appear hereafter upon the whole I think this a very considerable Attestation to what has been before insisted on 'T is indeed possible that what I look on as an advantage to others may imagine to be a prejudice against the present Hypothesis as inferring among other things a half year of Night as well as a half year of Day which may be suppos'd too disproportionate to the State and Condition of Mankind and especially too inconvenient for so happy and easy a Life as that of Mankind in Paradise undoubtedly was without any consideration of the other Creatures But it ought to be consider'd as has been already remark'd that our judging of one Scheme or System of Nature by another is very fallacious and very unreasonable Almighty God adapts each particular State to such rational and animal Beings as are on purpose design'd for the same but by no means thereby confines his Power and Providence which can with the same ease adapt other Beings or the same in other Circumstances to a very different and clean contrary Condition The Days in Jupiter are not ten hours long those in the Moon near Seventy two times as long as they or a Month yet any one who should thence conclude that either Jupiter or the Moon if not both were uncapable

peculiar and strange Effect of the most wise and sagacious Providence of God in this mighty Revolution But 8. Lastly to omit repeating some things before observ'd as we pass'd along The precise time of the passing by of the Comet and thereby of destroying the World is in the most peculiar manner and highest degree the result of the Divine Providence That exactly at a time which was fit and proper and in an Age that justly deserv'd so great a Judgment the Comet shou'd come by and over-whelm the World is very remarkably and extraordinarily the Finger of God himself That Omnilscient Being who foresaw when the degeneracy of Human Nature wou'd be arriv'd at an unsufferable degree of Wickedness the Iniquities of the World wou'd be compleatly full and when consequently his Vengeance ought to fall upon them praedisposed and praeadapted the Orbits and Motions of both the Comet and the Earth so that at that very time and only at that time the former shou'd pass close by the latter and bring that dreadful Punishment upon them Had not God Almighty on purpose thus adjusted the Moments and Courses of each 't were infinite odds that such a Conjunction or Coincidence of a Comet and a Planet wou'd never have happen'd during the whole space between the Creation and Conflagration of this World much more at such a critical Point of time when Mankind by their unparallell'd Wickedness were deserving of and only dispos'd for this unparallell'd Vengeance no less than almost an utter Excision And this I take to be the Secret of the Divine Providence in the Government of the World and that whereby the Rewards and Punishments of God's Mercy and Justice are distributed to his Rational Creatures without any disturbance of the setled Course of Nature or a miraculous interposition on every Occasion Our Imperfection is such that we can only act pro re natâ can never know before-hand the Behavious or Actions of Men neither can we foresee what Circumstances and Conjunctures will happen at any certain time hereafter and so we cannot provide for future Events nor praedispose things in such a manner that every one shall be dealt with or every thing done no otherwise than if we were then alive and present we shou'd think proper and reasonable and shou'd actually do But in the Divine Operation 't is quite otherwise God's Praescience enables him to act after a more sublime manner and by a constant Course of Nature and Chain of Mechanical Causes to do every thing so as it shall not be distinguishable from a particular Interposition of his Power nor be otherwise than on such a particular Interposition wou'd have been brought to pass He who has created all things and given them their several Powers and Faculties foresees the Effects of 'em all At once looks through the intire Train of future Causes Actions and Events and sees at what Periods and in what manner t will be necessary and expedient to bring about any changes bestow any Mercies or inflict any Punishments on the World Which being unquestionably true 't is evident he can as well provide and praedispose natural Causes for those Mutations Mercies or Judgments before-hand he can as easily put the Machin into such Motions as shall without a necessity of his mending or correcting it correspond to all these foreseen Events or Action as make way for such Alterations afterward by giving a random force to the whole And when these two ways are equally possible I need not say which is most agreeable to the Divine Perfections and most worthy of God So that when the Universal Course of Nature with all the Powers and Effects thereof were at first deriv'd from and are continually upheld by God and when nothing falls out any otherwise or at any other time than was determin'd by Divine Appointment in the Primitive Formation of the Universe To assign Physical and Mechanical causes for the Deluge or such mighty Judgments of God upon the Wicked is so far from taking away the Divine Providence therein that it supposes and demonstrates its Interest in a more Noble Wise and Divine manner than the bringing in a miraculous Power wou'd do Let us suppose a Fulmen or Thunderbolt originally and on purpose put into such a Motion as without any farther Interposition of Providence wou'd direct it to the Head of a Blasphemer and whilst he was cursing his Maker strike him dead upon the Spot which the Praescience and Power of God shew to be equally possible with a present Miracle I think such a violent Death wou'd be as properly extraordinary and a Divine Judgment as any other whatsoever Which I take to have been the very case of the Deluge which I am here peculiarly concern'd about Nature is God's Constitution and ever subservient to him and the state of the Natural is always accommodated to that of the Moral World What is done by Nature and second Causes is most properly done by God at last who is ultimately and really almost all we can mean by those Names Corollary What has been here said upon this Occasion if rightly understood and apply'd to all other Cases would clear our Minds from many of those Perplexities about the Divine Providence which are ready to disturb ' em For Instance We pray to God for fruitful Seasons for Health for Peace for the Success of our Endeavours for a Blessing on our Food and Physick and deprecate the contrary Miseries from us Yet at the same time we see the Seasons depend on the settled Course of the Sun or other natural and necessary Causes we find our Health or Sickness to be the proper Effects of our Diet and Regiment we observe Peace and War subject to the Intrigues of Princes and the plain Results of visible Conjunctures in Humane Affairs we know that Worldly Prudence and Cunning has a main Stroke in the Success of Mens Labours we feel the advantagious Effects of some Food and Physick and have Reason to believe the same does very much result from the Goodness of the Druggs the Fitness of the Proportion the Disposition of the Body and the Skill of the Physician and can frequently give a plain and mechanical Reason of the different Operations of all those things neither do we hope for the Exercise of a miraculous Power in these or the like Cases The Consideration and Comparison of all these things together frequently puzzles the Minds of good Men especially those that are more Contemplative and Philosophical and makes 'em wonder what Interest our Devotions or what Advantage our Prayers can have Second Causes will work according to their Natures let Mens Supplications be never so importunate And to expect a Miracle in answer to every Petition is more than the most Religious dare pretend to This Dilemma has had a contrary Effect upon the Minds of Men while the Philosopher was in Danger of doubting of the Success and so ready to grow cold in his Devotions and

the more unthinking yet not less religious Man rejected the Consideration of the Manner or the Operation of second Causes and more wisely look'd up only to God and imagin'd him immediately concern'd in every Occurrence and on that Principle doubted not the Effect of his Prayers But 't is methinks evident that neither of these were exactly in the Right and equally so that the due Consideration of what has been above-said would prevent the Dilemma and take away all reasonable Scruple 'T is true that Natural Causes will operate as usual 'T is also true that Miracles are not ordinarily to be expected But withal 't is as true that the same all-wise Creator who appointed that constant Course of Nature foresaw at the same time all those Dispositions of Men and in particular those Devotions of his Worshippers to which suitable Rewards were to be provided and suitable Answers returned and therefore so order'd the Series of Natural Causes as to make that very Provision for the same which otherwise he would have done by the miraculous Interposition of his Providence and which therefore is equally to be asscrib'd to him with the greatest Wonders 'T is true the Frame of Nature is now constant and settled But 't is true also that it was so settled on the Prospect of the moral Behaviour and in Correspondence to the good or bad Actions of Mankind foreseen and praesupposed in the Primitive Constitution of all and by Consequence whataever Benefits or Afflictions the constant Course of Nature and second Causes bring to us are equally capable to be the Matter of our Prayers or Deprecations of our Humiliation or Gratitude before God as the immediate Effects of a miraculous Power and the Divine Providence no less to be acknowledg'd and address'd to in the former than in the latter Case But because our Imperfection is so great that the Consideration of the Priority of the future Actions Men to the Praescience of God in the Order of Nature and the Dependence of the latter on the former is too high for our Comprehension and tho' demonstrable by yet inscrutable to the Reason of Mankind and because we are therefore still ready to conceive what is foreknown by God to be necessary and inevitable let the moral Behaviour of Men be as it will Because I say this Praescience of God is too Divine a thing to be easily penetrated and aply'd by us to all Occasions I confess 't is the most obvious and the most prudent as well as the most Scriptural Way to keep within our Faculties and alway to suppose an immediate Exerting of a new Power in every new Turn in the World and without the troublesome Inquisition into the Nature and Design of the Primitive Constitution of the Material World to refer all things to an immediate Providence Into which every one must ultimately and originally be resolv'd and which has as well and as congruously taken care of all Events as if such a miraculous Efficiency were really concern'd on every individual Occasion Which whole Matter thus explain'd may be of Use to those who through the not understanding the Method of the Divine Providence and its Consistency with an uninterrupted Course of Nature have perplex'd their own Minds and endanger'd their Religion Which pernicious scruples true Philosophy when rightly understood is the only Means of dispelling and preventing Nothing being more true or momentous than this that 'T is as ever our Ignorance or Mistakes only that fully the Providence of God or diminish our Religious Affections to him LXXXVIII Tho' the Moon might perhaps undergo some such Changes at the Deluge as the Earth yet that Face or Hemisphere which is towards the Earth and which is alone expos'd to our View has not acquir'd any such gross Atmosphere or Clouds as our Earth has now about it and which are here suppos'd to have been acquir'd at the Deluge LXXXVIII Seing the Moon appears to be of a Constitution so like that of the Earth and seeing she is so near a Neighbour and constant Companion thereof she seems at first Sight liable to the same Catastrophe with the Earth at the Deluge But that we may consider how far the Comet could affect her we must remember that at the first Passage of the Comet Her Situation seems almost dipos'd to convey her just after the Earth along that large void Cylindrical Space whose Vapours the Earth had intercepted and born away before it as by comparing the 2d and 4th Figures is easie to understand Besides tho' she caught her Share of the Vapours from the Atmosphere and Tail of the Comet yet her Mountains are so much higher compar'd with those on Earth that at the most only an inconsiderable Inundation of Waters on one Hemisphere not an universal Deluge were to be suppos'd For lastly by Reason of the Slowness of her Diurnal Revolution those Vapours which were caught by one Hemisphere and indeed by very little more than one at the utmost would fall near the same Places in Rain which they at first fell upon when Vapour and still affect little more than a single Hemisphere thereof So that the most that can be suppos'd of the Moon 's Deluge is that the lower Grounds on one Hemisphere should be overflow'd especially if we except the second Passage through the Tail of the Comet after its Perihelium For it must be confess'd that those secondary and less principal Rains of about 97 Days Continuance which we before observ'd the Earth to have been liable to must needs be allow'd to have affected the Moon also and seeing from them the Impurities and Commotions of our Atmosphere appear to have been deriv'd it seems at first View necessary that the Moon should have acquir'd such a gross Atmosphere such Clouds and Meteors as we saw the Earth did at the same time which looks very unlike to her Phaenomena or the latter Part of this Proposition we are now upon But this Difficulty which at first sight seems so formidable will intirely vanish if we observe the then Position of the Moon and thence consider which Hemisphere would be affected therewith For as we before in Part observ'd the Moon wanted but two or three Days of the New when she with the Earth pass'd the second time thro' the Tail of the Comet and by Consequence the Vapours ascending from the Sun fell pretty exactly upon that Hemisphere of the Moon which is never expos'd to the Earth without Affecting that which we can observe and with which we are alone concern'd In a Word in this second Passage the Moon ought to have acquir'd a gross Atmosphere on the opposite Hemisphere and its bordering Parts the Limb of her Body while the visible Hemisphere retained its ancient Purity and Clearness The latter Part of which is known to be true and if the Reader consults the Right Reverend and Learned Author quoted in the Margent he may see reason to esteem the other very