Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	consider_v	earth_n	zone_n	13	3	13.7210	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

'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

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

to Which otherwise how to give any tolerable account of upon any solid Principles I confess I am and have always been wholly to seek LXVI The distance between the Continents measuring from the larger or Northern South-Eastward is greater than that the contrary way or South-Westward LXVI Seeing the Motion of the Comet about its nearest Position was much more considerable than the Diurnal one of the Earth and seeing withal the greater and higher protuberance would arrive at a sufficient force to burst its incumbent Orb or Continent somewhat sooner than the lesser and lower it will follow that the Point b would not be just opposite to the Point a but nearer the place q in the Figure By which means the distance from q by c to a would be greater than from the same q by d to a or from the Center of the greater Continent to that of the lesser South-eastward than South-westward Exactly as this Proposition requires LXVII Neither of the Continents is terminated by a round or even circular Circumference but mighty Creeks Bays and Seas running into them and as mighty Peninsula's Promontories and Rocks jetting out from them render the whole very unequal and irregular LXVII If the Surface of the Earth before the Deluge had been even and smooth without Mountains and Valleys and their Consequents Seas and Dry Land the passing by of the Comet must indeed as before have certainly caus'd a distinction of the two Continents and must have interpos'd an Ocean between them but then these two circumstances would have obtain'd also first that all the Waters of the intire Globe would have left the Continents and solely compos'd an Ocean and secondly That the Termination or Boundaries of the Ocean and the Continents would have been circular round and even on every side But since the Surface of the Earth was uneven irregular and distinguish'd every where into Mountains Plains and Valleys into Seas and Dry Land the present Terraqueous Globe with those inequalities of the Termination of each Continent mention'd in this Proposition is a most easie and natural nay plainly necessary result of this great Mutation at the Deluge Coroll 1. Hence 't is farther evident that the Surface of the Antediluvian Earth was not plain and even but had those distinctions of Mountains and Valleys Seas and Dry Land which from other Arguments has been before establish'd Coroll 2. Hence therefore it appears what should have been before observ'd that all the Earth might be Planted and Peopled before the Deluge tho' Navigation were then either not at all or not considerably known There being no Ocean or separate Continents and scarce any such thing as an Island or Country but what with ease might be gone to by Land LXVIII The depth of that Ocean which separates these two Continents is usually greatest farthest from and least nearest to either of the same Continents there being a gradual descent from the Continents to the middle of the Ocean which is the deepest of all LXVIII The reason of this gradual declivity towards the middle of the Ocean is very plain from the Figure hereto belonging For since the Earth's Surface became in some degree an Oval or oblong Sphaeroid 't is necessary that there should be as far as the other irregularities of the Globe would permit a descent from the ends of the longer Axis b and a to those of the shorter c and d in their intire circumvolution which gives a most obvious account of the present Phaenomenon LXIX The greatest part of the Islands of the Globe are situate at small distances from the Edges of the great Continents very few appearing near the middle of the Main Ocean LXIX Since Islands are only such high Regions as would be extant above the Surface of the Waters tho' they cover'd the Neighbouring parts and since the Ocean as we have now shewn was deepest in the middle between the two Continents 't is plain that Caeteris paribus the higher Regions would more frequently be extant near the Continents than about the middle of the said Ocean as this Proposition asserts LXX The Ages of Men decreas'd about one half presently after the Deluge and in the succeeding eight hundred or nine hundred Years were gradually reduced to that standard at which they have stood ever since LXX The first part of this is already sufficiently accounted for in that Proposition where the causes of the change in the duration of Mens lives at the Flood were in general enquir'd into But the reasons of the gradual Decay in the succeeding Ages are here to be assign d. Now here 't is not impossible that the considerably long lives of the first Postdiluvian Patriarchs might in part depend on the vigorous Constitution of their Fathers not to be immediately impair'd to the utmost or destroy'd in their Posterity till by degrees and in length of time it was effected But besides 't is to be consider'd which I take to be the principal thing that seeing the corrupted Atmosphere with the pernicious Steams arising from the newly acquir'd Chaotick Crust or Sediment of the Waters and their unhappy Effects on the Fruits as well as living Creatures upon the Earth must be allow'd the occasion and cause of the shortning of Humane Life such Regions as were freest from or most elevated above the said Sediment or Chaotick Atmosphere must have chiefly continued as they were before and so the ancient Longevity would chiefly be preserv'd therein Which being suppos'd and what has been already advanc'd withal consider'd this Proposition will be easy plain and natural and a peculiar Attestation of the present Hypothesis For seeing Noah and the Ark were landed on Caucasus the most elevated Region of the Earth and freest from the Sediment of the Waters as well as the grossness of the Chaotick Atmosphere below that place would scarce differ for a good while from the Antediluvian State of things and the lives of Animals would retain very near their ancient Duration which accordingly we find was really done Noah survived the Deluge no less than 350 Years and compleated 950 in the whole somewhat beyond the moderate proportion of the Antediluvians themselves as the Table will easily shew But then by reason both of the descent of his Posterity into the Plains and lower Grounds and principally by the gradual subsidence of those Regions themselves into the gross Atmosphere below they became gradually liable to those Diseases and that shortness of Life which we before shew'd to have been the sad Effects thereof and to which all Mankind has since been subject Corollary 1. Mankind increased vastly more soon after the Deluge than in these latter Ages of the World For whereas a Country is 280 Years now in doubling its Inhabitants had the same rate held ever since the Deluge Mankind at this day would not have reach'd the number of two hundred thousand Souls which yet is esteem'd to be between three and four hundred Millions or near two