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
and Love Friendship and Venus on the other and after a long contest Love got the better of Discord and united the disagreeing principles This is one part of their story Then they make the forming of the World out of the Chaos a kind of Genealogie or Pedigree Chaos was the common Parent of all and from Chaos sprung first Night and Tartarus or Oceanus Night was a teeming Mother and of her were born Aether and the Earth The Earth conceiv'd by the influences of Aether and brought forth Man and all Animals This seems to be a Poetical fiction rather than Philosophy yet when 't is set in a true light and compar'd with our Theory of the Chaos 't will appear a pretty regular account how the World was form'd at first or how the Chaos divided it self successively into several Regions rising one after another and propagated one from another as Children and Posterity from a common Parent We show'd in the first Book Chap. 5. how the Chaos from an uniform mass wrought it self into several Regions or Elements the grossest part sinking to the Center upon this lay the mass of Water and over the Water was a Region of dark impure caliginous Air This impure caliginous Air is that which the Ancients call Night and the mass of Water Oceanus or Tartarus for those two terms with them are often of the like force Tartarus being Oceanus inclos'd and lock'd up Thus we have the first off-spring of the Chaos or its first-born twins Nox and Oceanus Now this turbid Air purifying it self by degrees as the more subtle parts flew upwards and compos'd the Aether so the earthy parts that were mixt with it dropt down upon the surface of the Water or the liquid mass and that mass on the other hand sending up its lighter and more oily parts towards its surface these two incorporate there and by their mixture and union compose a body of Earth quite round the mass of Waters And this was the first habitable Earth which as it was you see the Daughter of Nox and Oceanus so it was the Mother of all other things and all living Creatures which at the beginning of the World sprung out of its fruitful womb This doctrine of the Chaos for the greater pomp of the business the Ancients call'd their Theogonia or the Genealogy of the Gods for they gave their Gods at least their Terrestrial Gods an original and beginning and all the Elements and greater portions of Nature they made Gods and Goddesses or their Deities presided over them in such a manner that the names were us'd promiscuously for one another We also mention'd before some moral principles which they plac'd in the Chaos Eris and Eros Strife discord and disaffection which prevail'd at first and afterward Love kindness and union got the upper hand and in spite of those factious and dividing principles gather'd together the separated Elements and united them into an habitable World This is all easily understood if we do but look upon the Schemes of the rising World as we have set them down in that fifth Chapter for in the first commotion of the Chaos after an intestine struggle of all the parts the Elements separated from one another into so many distinct bodies or masses and in this state and posture things continued a good while which the Ancients after their Poetick or Moral way call'd the Reign of Eris or Contention of hatred flight and disaffection and if things had always continued in that System we should never have had an habitable World But Love and good Nature conquer'd at length Venus rise out of the Sea and receiv'd into her bosom and intangled into her imbraces the falling Aether viz. The parts of lighter earth which were mixt with the Air in that first separation and gave it the name of Night These I say fell down upon the oily parts of the Sea-mass which lay floating upon the surface of it and by that union and conjunction a new Body and a new World was produc'd which was the first habitable Earth This is the interpretation of their mystical Philosophy of the Chaos and the resolution of it into plain natural History Which you may see more fully discuss'd in the Latin Treatise In consequence of this We have already explain'd in several places the Golden Age of the Ancients and laid down such grounds as will enable us to discern what is real and what Poetical in the reports and characters that Antiquity hath given of those first Ages of the World And if there be any thing amongst the Ancients that refers to another Earth as Plato's Atlantis which he says was absorpt by an Earthquake and an inundation as the primaeval Earth was or his Aethereal Earth mention'd in his Phaedo which he opposeth to this broken hollow Earth makes it to have long-liv'd inhabitants and to be without Rains and Storms as that first Earth was also or the pendulous Gardens of Alcinous or such like to which nothing answers in present Nature by reflecting upon the state of the first Earth we find an easie explication of them We have also explain'd what the Antichthon and Antichthones of the Ancients were and what the true ground of that distinction was But nothing seems more remarkable than the inhabitability of the Torrid Zone if we consider what a general fame and belief it had amongst the Ancients and yet in the present form of the Earth we find no such thing nor any foundation for it I cannot believe that this was so universally receiv'd upon a slight presumption only because it lay under the course of the Sun if the Sun had then the same latitude from the Aequator in his course and motion that he hath now and made the same variety of seasons whereby even the hottest parts of the Earth have a Winter or something equivalent to it But if we apply this to the Primaeval Earth whose posture was direct to the Sun standing always fixt in its Equinoctial we shall easily believe that the Torrid Zone was then uninhabitable by extremity of heat there being no difference of seasons nor any change of weather the Sun hanging always over head at the same distance and in the same direction Besides this the descent of the Rivers in that first Earth was such that they could never reach the Equinoctial parts as we have shown before by which means and the want of Rain that Region must necessarily be turn'd into a dry Desart Now this being really the state of the first Earth the fame and general belief that the Torrid Zone was uninhabitable had this true Original and continued still with posterity after the Deluge though the causes then were taken away for they being ignorant of the change that was made in Nature at that time kept up still the same Tradition and opinion currant till observation and experience taught later Ages to correct it As the true miracles that were in the Christian Church at
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
answer to that difficulty Two suppos'd causes of the Conflagration by the Sun 's drawing nearer to the Earth or the Earth's throwing out the central fire examin'd and rejected WE have now made our way clear to the principal point The Causes of the Conflagration How the Heavens and the Earth will be set on fire what materials are prepar'd or what train of Causes for that purpose The Ancients who have kept us company pretty well thus far here quite desert us They deal more in Conclusions than Causes as is usual in all Traditional Learning And the Stoicks themselves who inculcate so much the doctrine of the Conflagration and make the strength of it such as to dissolve the Earth into a fiery Chaos are yet very short and superficial in their explications how this shall come to pass The latent seeds of fire they say shall every where be let loose and the Element will prevail over all the rest and transform every thing into its own nature But these are general things that give little satisfaction to inquisitive Persons Neither do the modern Authors that treat of the same subject relieve us in this particular They are willing to suppose the Conflagration a superficial effect that so they may excuse themselves the trouble of enquiring after causes 'T is no doubt in a sort supernatural and so the Deluge was yet Moses sets down the Causes of the Deluge the rains from above and the disruption of the Abyss So there must be treasures of fire provided against that day by whose eruption this second Deluge will be brought upon the Earth To state the case fairly we must first represent the difficulty of setting the Earth on Fire Tie the knot before we loose it that so we may the better judge whether the Causes that shall be brought into view may be sufficient to overcome so great opposition The difficulty no doubt will be chiefly from the great quantity of Water that is about our Globe whereby Nature seems to have made provision against any invasion by Fire and secur'd us from that enemy more than any other We see half of the Surface of the Earth cover'd with the Seas whose Chanel is of a vast depth and capacity Besides innumerable Rivers great and small that water the face of the dry Land and drench it with perpetual moisture Then within the bowels of the Earth there are Store-houses of subterraneous Waters which are as a reserve in case the Ocean and the Rivers should be overcome Neither is Water our only security for the hard Rocks and stony Mountains which no Fire can bite upon are set in long ranges upon the Continents and Islands and must needs give a stop to the progress of that furious Enemy in case he should attack us Lastly The Earth it self is not combustible in all its parts 'T is not every Soyl that is fit fewel for the Fire Clay and Mire and such like Soyls will rather choak and stifle it than help it on its way By these means one would think the Body of the Earth secur'd and tho' there may be partial fires or inuâ—â—lations of fire here and there in particular regions yet there cannot be an Universal Fire throughout the Earth At least one would hope for a safe retreat towards the Poles where there is nothing but Snow and Ice and bitter cold These regions sure are in no danger to be burnt whatsoever becomes of the other climates of the Earth This being the state and condition of the present Earth one would not imagine by these preparations 't was ever intended that it should perish by an Universal Fire But such is often the method of Providence that the exteriour face of things looks one way and the design lies another till at length touching a Spring as it were at a certain time all those affairs change posture and aspect and shew us which way Providence inclines We must therefore suppose before the Conflagration begins there will be dispositions and preparatives suitable to so great a work and all antiquity sacred and prophane does so far concur with us as to admit and suppose that a great drought will precede and an extraordinary heat and driness of the Air to usher in this fiery doom And these being things which often happen in a course of Nature we cannot disallow such easie preparations when Providence intends so great a consequence The Heavens will be shut up and the Clouds yield no rain and by this with an immoderate heat in the Air the Springs of Water will become dry the Earth chap'd and parch'd and the Woods and Trees made ready fewel for the Fire We have instances in History that there have been droughts and heats of this Nature to that degree that the Woods and Forests have taken fire and the outward Turf and Surface of the Earth without any other cause than the driness of the Season and the vehemency of the Sun And which is more considerable the Springs and Fountains being dry'd up the greater Rivers have been sensibly lessen'd and the lesser quite emptied and exhal'd These things which happen frequently in particular Countreys and Climates may at an appointed time by the disposition of Providence be more universal throughout the Earth and have the same effects every where that we see by experience they have had in certain places And by this means we may conceive it as feisible to set the whole Earth on fire in some little space of time as to burn up this or that Countrey after a great drought But I mean this with exception still to the main Body of the Sea which will indeed receive a greater diminution from these Causes than we easily imagine but the final consumption of it will depend upon other reasons whereof we must give an account in the following Chapters As to the Mountains and Rocks their lofty heads will sink when the Earthquakes begin to roar at the beginning of the Conflagration as we shall see hereafter And as to the Earth it self 't is true there are several sorts of Earth that are not proper fewel for fire but those Soils that are not so immediately as clayey Soils and such like may by the strength of Fire be converted into Brick or Stone or Earthen Metal and so melted down and vitrified For in conclusion there is no Terrestrial Body that does not finally yield to the force of Fire and may either be converted into flame incorporated fire or into a liquor more ardent than either of them Lastly As to the Polar Regions which you think will be a safe retreat and inaccessible to the fire 'T is true unless Providence hath laid subterraneous treasures of fire there unknown to us those parts of the Earth will be the last consum'd But it is to be observ'd that the cold of those regions proceeds from the length of their Winter and their distance from the Sun when he is beyond the Aequator and both these causes will be
remov'd at the Conflagration For we suppose the Earth will then return to its primitive situation which we have explain'd in the 2d Book of this Theory and will have the Sun always in its Aequator whereby the several Climates of the Earth will have a perpetual Equinox and those under the Poles a perpetual day And therefore all the excess of cold and all the consequences of it will soon be abated However the Earth will not be burnt in one day and those parts of the Earth being uninhabited there is no inconvenience that they should be more slowly consum'd than the rest This is a general answer to the difficulty propos'd about the possibility of the Conflagration and being general only the parts of it must be more fully explain'd and confirm'd in the sequel of this discourse We should now proceed directly to the causes of the Conflagration and show in what manner they do this great execution upon Nature But to be just and impartial in this enquiry we ought first to separate the spurious and pretended Causes from those that are real and genuine to make no false musters nor any show of being stronger than we are and if we can do our work with less force it will be more to our credit as a Victory is more honourable that is gain'd with fewer Men. There are two grand capital Causes which some Authors make use of as the chief Agents in this work the Sun and the Central Fire These two great Incendiaries they say will be let loose upon us at the Conflagration The one drawing nearer to the Earth and the other breaking out of its bowels into these upper regions These are potent Causes indeed more than enough to destroy this Earth if it was a thousand times bigger than it is But for that very reason I suspect they are not the true Causes for God and Nature do not use to employ unnecessary means to bring about their designs Disproportion and over-sufficiency is one sort of false measures and 't is a sign we do not thoroughly understand our work when we put more strength to it than the thing requires Men are forward to call in extraordinary powers to rid their hands of a troublesome argument and so make a short dispatch to save themselves the pains of further enquiries but such methods as they commonly have no proof so they give little satisfaction to an inquisitive mind This supposition of burning the Earth by the Sun drawing nearer and nearer to it seems to be made in imitation of the story of Phaeton who driving the Chariot of the Sun with an unsteddy hand came so near the Earth that he set it on fire But however we will not reject any pretensions without a fair trial Let us examine therefore what grounds they can have for either of these suppositions of the Approximation of the Sun to the Earth or the Eruption of the Central Fire As to the Sun I desire first to be satisfied in present matter of Fact whether by any instrument or observation it hath or can be discover'd that the Sun is nearer to the Earth now than he was in former ages or if by any reasoning or comparing calculations such a conclusion can be made If not this is but an imaginary cause and as easily deny'd as propos'd Astronomers do very little agree in their opinions about the distance of the Sun Ptolomy Albategnius Copernious Ticho Kepler and others more modern differ all in their calculations but not in such a manner or proportion as should make us believe that the Sun comes nearer to the Earth but rather goes further from it For the more modern of them make the distance greater than the more ancient do Kepler says the distance of the Sun from the Earth lies betwixt 700 and 2000 semidiameters of the Earth but Ricciolus makes it betwixt 700 and 7000. And Gottefrid Wendeline hath taken 14656. semidiameters for a middle proportion of the Sun's distance to which Kepler himself came very near in his later years So that you see how groundless our fears are from the approaches of an enemy that rather flies from us if he change posture at all And we have more reason to believe the report of the modern Astronomers than of the ancient in this matter both because the nature of the Heavens and of the celestial Bodies is now better known and also because they have found out better instruments and better methods to make their observations If the Sun and Earth were come nearer to one another either the circle of the Suns diurnal arch would be less and so the day shorter or the Orbit of the Earths annual course would be less and so the Year shorâ—er Neither of which we have any experience of And those that suppose us in the centre of the World need not be afraid till they see Mercury and Venus in a combustion for they lie betwixt us and danger and the Sun cannot come so readily at us with his fiery darts as at them who stand in his way Lastly this languishing death by the gradual approaches of the Sun and that irreparable ruine of the Earth which at last must follow from it do neither of them agree with that Idea of the Conflagration which the Scripture hath given us for it is to come suddenly and unexpectedly and take us off like a violent Feaver not as a lingring Consumption And the Earth is also so to be destroyed by Fire as not to take away all hopes of a Resurrection or Renovation For we are assur'd by Scripture that there will be new Heavens and a new Earth after these are burnt up But if the Sun should come so near us as to make the heavens pass away with a noise and melt the Elements with fervent heat and destroy the form and all the works of the Earth what hopes or possibility would there be of a Renovation while the Sun continued in this posture He would more and more consume and prey upon the Carcass of the Earth and convert it at length either into an heap of Ashes or a lump of vitrified metal So much for the Sun As to the Central Fire I am very well satisfied it is no imaginary thing All Antiquity hath preserv'd some sacred Monument of it The Vestal fire of the Romans which was so religiously attended The Prytoneia of the Greeks were to the same purpose and dedicated to Vesta and the Pyretheia of the Persians where fire was kept continually by the Magi. These all in my opinion had the same origine and the same signification And tho' I do not know any particular observation that does directly prove or demonstrate that there is such a mass of fire in the middle of the Earth yet the best accounts we have of the generation of a Planet do suppose it and 't is agreeable to the whole Oeconomy of Nature as a fire in the heart which gives life to her motions and productions But however the
of it The method of the first Book CHAP. IV. That the Earth and Mankind had an Original and were not from Eternity Prov'd against Aristotle The first Proposition of our Theory laid down viz. That the Ante-diluvian Earth was of a different Form and Construction from the present This is prov'd from Divine Authority and from the Nature and Form of the Chaos out of which the Earth was made CHAP. V. The Second Proposition is laid down viz. That the face of the Earth before the Deluge was smooth regular and uniform without Mountains and without a Sea The Chaos out of which the World rise is fully examin'd and all its motions observ'd and by what steps it wrought it self into an habitable World Some things in Antiquity relating to the first state of the Earth are interpreted and some things in the Sacred Writings The Divine Art and Geometry in the construction of the first Earth is observ'd and celebrated 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 CHAP. VII That the Explication we have given of an Universal Deluge is not an IDEA only but an account of what really came to pass in the Earth and the true explication of Noah's Flood An examination of Tehom-Rabba or the Great Abyss and that by it the Sea cannot be understood nor the Subterraneous Waters as they are at present What the true Notion and Form of it was collected from Moses and other Sacred Writers Observations on Deucalion's Deluge CHAP. VIII The particular History of Noah's Flood is explain'd in all the material parts and circumstances of it according to the preceding Theory Any seeming difficulties remov'd and the whole Section concluded with a Discourse how far the Deluge may be lookt upon as the effect of an Ordinary Providence and how far of an Extraordinary CHAP. IX The Second Part of this Discourse proving the same Theory from the Effects and the present Form of the Earth First by a general Scheme of what is most remarkable in this Globe and then by a more particular induction beginning with an account of Subterraneous Cavities and Subterraneous Waters CHAP. X. Concerning the Chanel of the Sea and the Original of it The causes of its irregular from and unequal depths As also of the Original of Islands their situation and other properties CHAP. XI Concerning the Mountains of the Earth their greatness and irregular Form their Situation Causes and Origin CHAP. XII A short review of what hath been already treated of and in what manner All methods whether Philosophical or Theological that have been offer'd by others for the explication of the Form of the Earth are examin'd and refuted A conjecture concerning the other Planets their Natural Form and State compar'd with ours Especially concerning Jupiter and Saturn THE SECOND BOOK CHAP. I. THE Introduction and Contents of the Second Book The general state of the Primaeval Earth and of Paradise CHAP. II. The great change of the World since the Flood from what it was in the first Ages The Earth under its present Form could not be Paradisiacal nor any part of it CHAP. III. The Original differences of the Primitive Earth from the present or Post-diluvian The three Characters of Paradise and the Golden Age found in the Primitive Earth A particular explication of each Character CHAP. IV. A Digression concerning the Natural Causes of Longaevity That the Machine of an Animal consists of Springs and which are the two principal The Age of the Ante-diluvians to be computed by Solar not Lunar Years CHAP. V. Concerning the Waters of the Primitive Earth What the state of the Regions of the Air was then and how all Waters proceeded from them How the Rivers arose what was their Course and how they ended Several things in Sacred Writ that confirm this Hydrography of the First Earth especially the Post-diluvian Origin of the Rain-bow CHAP. VI. A Recollection and review of what hath been said concerning the Primitive Earth with a more full Survey of the state of the First World Natural and Civil and the comparison of it with the present World CHAP. VII Concerning the place of Paradise It cannot be determin'd from the Theory only nor from Scripture only What the sence of Antiquity was concerning it as to the Iews and Heathens and especially as to the Christian Fathers That they generally plac'd it out of this Continent in the Southern Hemisphere CHAP. VIII The uses of this Theory for the illustration of Antiquity The Chaos of the Ancients explain'd The inhabitability of the Torrid Zone The change of the Poles of the World The Doctrine of the Mundane Egg How America was first peopled How Paradise within the Circle of the Moon CHAP. IX A general Objection against this Theory viz. That if there had been such a Primitive Earth as we pretend the fame of it would have sounded throughout all Antiquity The Eastern and Western Learning consider'd the most considerable Records of both are lost what footsteps remain relating to this subject The Iewish and Christian Learning consider'd how far lost as to this Argument and what Notes or Traditions remain Lastly How far the Sacred Writings bear witness to it The Prâ—vidential conduct of Knowledge in the World A Recapitulation and state of the Theory CHAP. X. Concerning the AUTHOR of NATURE CHAP. XI Concerning Natural Providence Several misrepresentations of it and false methods of Contemplation Preparatives to the true Method and a true representation of the Universe The Mundane Idea and the Universal System of Providence Several subordinate Systems That of our Earth and Sublunary World The Course and Periods of it How much of this is already treated of and what remains Conclusion THE THEORY OF THE EARTH BOOK I. Concerning the Deluge and the Dissolution of the Earth CHAP. I. THE INTRODVCTION An Account of the whole Work of the Extent and general Order of it SINCE I was first inclin'd to the Contemplation of Nature and took pleasure to trace out the Causes of Effects and the dependance of one thing upon another in the visible Creation I had always methought a particular curiosity to look back into the Sources and ORIGINAL of Things and to view in my Mind so far as I was able the Beginning and Progress of a RISING WORLD And after some Essays of this Nature and as I thought not unsuccessful I carried on my enquiries further to try whether this Rising World when form'd and finish'd would continue always the same in the same form structure and consistency or what changes it would successively undergo by the continued action of the same Causes that first produc'd it And lastly what would be its final Period and Consummation This whole Series and compass of things taken together I call'd a COURSE OF NATURE or a SYSTEM OF NATURAL PROVIDENCE and thought there was nothing belonging to the External World more fit or more
immediate height of the Mountain So for instance the Mountains of the Moon in Africa whence the Nile flows and after a long course falls into the Mediterranean Sea by Egypt are so much higher than the surface of that Sea first as the Ascent of the Land is from the Sea to the foot of the Mountains and then as the height of the Mountains is from the bottom to the top For both these are to be computed when you measure the height of a Mountain or of a mountainous Land in respect of the Sea And the height of Mountains to the Sea being thus computed there would be need of six or eight Oceans to raise the Sea alone as high as the highest In-land Mountains And this is more than enough to compensate the less quantity of Water that would be requisite upon the Land Besides we must consider the Regions of the Air upwards to be more capacious than a Region of the same thickness in or near the Earth so as if an Ocean pour'd upon the surface of the dry Land supposing it were all smooth would rise to the height of half a quarter of a mile every where the like quantity of Water pour'd again at the height of the Mountains would not have altogether the same effect or would not there raise the mass half a quarter of a mile higher for the surfaces of a Globe the farther they are from their Center are the greater and so accordingly the Regions that belong to them And lastly we must consider that there are some Countries or Valleys very low and also many Caverns or Cavities within the Earth all which in this case were to be first fill'd with Water These things being compar'd and estimated we shall find that notwithstanding the room that Hills and Mountains take up on the dry Land there would be at least eight Oceans requir'd or a quantity of Water eight times as great as the Ocean to bring an Universal Deluge upon the Earth as that Deluge is ordinarily understood and explained The proportion of Water for the Deluge being thus stated the next thing to be done is to enquire where this Water is to be found if any part of the Sublunary World will afford us so much Eight Oceans floating in the Air make a great bulk of Water I do not know what possible Sources to draw it from There are the Clouds above and the Deeps below and in the bowels of the Earth and these are all the stores we have for Water and Moses directs us to no other for the Causes of the Deluge The Fountains he saith of the great Abysse were broken up or burst asunder and the Rain descended for forty days the Cataracts or Floodgates of Heaven being open'd And in these two no doubt are contain'd the causes of the great Deluge as according to Moses so also according to reason and necessity for our World affords no other treasures of Water Let us therefore consider how much this Rain of Forty Days might amount to and how much might flow out of the Abysse that so we may judge whether these two in conjunction would make up the Eight Oceans which we want As for the Rains they would not afford us one Ocean nor half an Ocean nor the tenth part of an Ocean if we may trust to the Observations made by others concerning the quantity of Water that falls in Rain Mersennus gives us this account of it It appears by our Observations that a Cubical Vessel of Brass whereof we made use is fill'd an inch and an half in half an hours time but because that sucks up noâ—hing of the moisture as the Earth doth let us take an inch for half an hours Rain whence it follows that in the space of 40 days and nights Rain the Waters in the Deluge would rise 160 feet if the Rains were constant and equal to ours and that it rain'd at once throughout the face of the whole Earth But the Rain of the Deluge saith he should have been 90 times greater than this to cover for instance the Mountains of Armenia or to reach 15 Cubits above them So that according to his computation the 40 days Rain would supply little more than the hundredth part of the Water requisite to make the Deluge 'T is true he makes the heighth of the Mountains higher than we do but however if you temper the Calculation on all sides as much as you please the water that came by this Rain would be a very inconsiderable part of what was necessary for a Deluge If it rain'd 40 days and 40 nights throughout the face of the whole Earth in the Northern and Southern Hemisphere all at once it might be sufficient to lay all the lower grounds under water but it would signifie very little as to the over-flowing of the Mountains Whence another Author upon the same occasion hath this passage If the Deluge had been made by Rains only there would not have needed 40 days but 40 years Rain to have brought it to pass And if we should suppose the whole middle Region condens'd into water it would not at all have been sufficient for this effect according to that proportion some make betwixt Air and Water for they say Air turn'd into Water takes up a hundred times less room than it did before The truth is we may reasonably suppose that all the vapours of the middle Region were turn'd into water in this 40 days and 40 nights Rain if we admit that this Rain was throughout the whole Earth at once in either Hemisphere in every Zone in every Climate in every Country in every Province in every Field and yet we see what a small proportion all this would amount to Having done then with these Superiour Regions we are next to examine the Inferiour and the treasures of water that may be had there Moses tells us that the Fountains of the great Abysse were broke open or clove asunder as the word there us'd doth imply and no doubt in this lay the great mystery of the Deluge as will appear when it comes to be rightly understood and explain'd but we are here to consider what is generally understood by the great Abysse in the common explication of the Deluge and 't is commonly interpreted either to be the Sea or Subterraneous waters hid in the bowels of the Earth These they say broke forth and rais'd the waters caus'd by the Rain to such an height that together they overflowed the highest Mountains But whether or how this could be deserves to be a little examin'd And in the first place the Sea is not higher than the Land as some have formerly imagin'd fansying the Sea stood as it were upon a heap higher than the shore and at the Deluge a relaxation being made it overflow'd the Land But this conceit is so gross and so much against reason and experience that none I think of late have ventur'd to make use of it And yet on the
the whole matter intelligible we will proceed no further till that be consider'd being very willing to examine whatsoever may be offer'd in that or any other way for resolving that great difficulty which we have propos'd concerning the quantity of water requisite for such a Deluge And to this they say in short that God Almighty created waters on purpose to make the Deluge and then annihilated them again when the Deluge was to cease And this in a few words is the whole account of the business This is to out the knot when we cannot loose it They shew us the naked arm of Omnipotency such Arguments as these come like lightning one doth not know what Armour to put on against them for they pierce the more the more they are resisted We will not therefore oppose any thing to them that is hard and stubborn but by a soft answer deaden their force by degrees And I desire to mind those persons in the first place of what S. Austin hath said upon a like occasion speaking concerning those that disprov'd the opinion of waters above the Heavens which we mention'd before by natural Reasons We are not saith he to refute those persons by saying that according to the Omnipotence of God to whom all things are possible we ought to believe there are waters there as heavy as we know and feel them here below for our business is now to enquire according to his Scripture how God hath constituted the Nature of things and not what he could do or work in these things by a miracle of Omnipotency I desire them to apply this to the present argument for the first answer Secondly let them consider that Moses hath assign'd causes of the Deluge Forty days Rain and the disruption of the Abysse and speaks nothing of a new creation of water upon that occasion Those were causes in Nature which Providence had then dispos'd for this extraordinary effect and those the Divine Historian refers us to and not to any productions out of nothing Besides Moses makes the Deluge increase by degrees with the Rain and accordingly makes it cease by degrees and that the waters going and returning as the waves and great commotions of the Sea use to do retir'd leisurely from the face of the Earth and settled at length in their Chanels Now this manner of the beginning or ceasing of the Deluge doth not at all agree with the instantaneous actions of Creation and Annihilation Thirdly let them consider that S. Peter hath also assign'd Causes of the Deluge namely the particular constitution of the Earth and Heavens before the Flood by reason whereof he saith the World that was then perisht in a Deluge of water And not by reason of a new creation of water His words are these The Heavens and the Earth were of old consisting of water and by water whereby or by reason whereof the World that then was being overflowed with water perished Fourthly they are to consider that as we are not rashly to have recourse to the Divine Omnipotence upon any account so especially not for new Creations and least of all for the creation of new matter The matter of the Universe was created many Ages before the Flood and the Universe being full if any more was created then there must be as much annihilated at the same time to make room for it for Bodies cannot penetrate one anothers dimensions nor be two or more within one and the same space Then on the other hand when the Deluge ceas'd and these waters were annihilated so much other matter must be created again to take up their places And methinks they make very bold with the Deity when they make him do and undo go forward and backwards by such countermarches and retractions as we do not willingly impute to the wisdom of God Almighty Lastly I shall not think my labour lost if it be but acknowledg'd that we have so far clear'd the way in this controversie as to have brought it to this issue That either there must be new waters created on purpose to make a Deluge or there could be no Deluge as 't is vulgarly explain'd there not being water sufficient in Nature to make a Deluge of that kind This I say is a great step and I think will satisfie all parties at least all that are considerable for those that have recourse to a New Creation of waters are of two sorts either such as do it out of laziness and ignorance or such as do it out of necessity seeing they cannot be had otherwise as for the first they are not to be valu'd or gratifi'd and as for the second I shall do a thing very acceptable to them if I free them and the argument from that necessity and show a way of making the Deluge fairly intelligible and accountable without the creation of new waters which is the design of this Treatise For we do not tye this knot with an Intention to puzzle and perplex the Argument finally with it but the harder it is ty'd we shall feel the pleasure more sensibly when come to loose it It may be when they are beaten from this new Creation of water they will say the Element of Air was chang'd into water and that was the great store-house for the Deluge Forty days Rain we allow as Moses does but if they suppose any other transelementation it neither agrees with Moses's Philosophy nor S. Peter's for then the opening of the Abysse was needless and the form and constitution of the Antediluvian Heavens and Earth which S. Peter refers the Deluge to bore no part in the work it might have been made in that way indifferently under any Heavens or Earth Besides they offend against S. Austin's rule in this method too for I look upon it as no less a miracle to turn Air into Water than to turn Water into Wine Air I say for Vapours indeed are but water made volatile but pure Air is a body of another Species and cannot by any compression or condensation so far as is yet known be chang'd into water And lastly if the whole Atmosphere was turn'd into water 't is very probable it would make no more than 34 foot or thereabouts for so much Air or Vapours as is of the same weight with any certain quantity of water 't is likely if it was chang'd into water would also be of the same bulk with it or not much more Now according to the doctrine of the Gravitation of the Atmosphere 't is found that 34 foot of water does counterbalance a proportionable Cylinder of Air reaching to the top of the Atmosphere and consequently if the whole Atmosphere was converted into water it would make no more than eleven or twelve yards water about the Earth which the cavities of the Earth would be able in a good measure to suck up at least this is very inconsiderable as to our eight Oceans And if you would change the higher Regions into water too
attested or admit an effect whereof they cannot see any possible causes And so having stated and propos'd the whole difficulty and try'd all ways offer'd by others and found them ineffectual let us now apply our selves by degrees to unty the knot The excessive quantity of water is the great difficulty and the removal of it afterwards Those eight Oceans lay heavy upon my thoughts and I cast about every way to find an expedient or to find some way whereby the same effect might be brought to pass with less Water and in such a manner that that Water might afterwards conveniently be discharg'd The first thought that came into my mind upon that occasion was concerning the form of the Earth which I imagin'd might possibly at that time be different from what it is at present and come nearer to plainness and equality in the surface of it and so might the more easily be overflow'd and the Deluge perform'd with less water This opinion concerning the plainness of the first Earth I also found in Antiquity mention'd and refer'd to by several Interpreters in their Commentaries upon Genesis either upon occasion of the Deluge or of that Fountain which is said Gen. 2. 6. to have watered the face of the whole Earth And a late eminent person the honour of his profession for Integrity and Learning in his discourse concerning the Origination of mankind hath made a like judgment of the State of the Earth before the Deluge that the face of it was more smooth and regular than it is now But yet upon second thoughts I easily see that this alone would not be sufficient to explain the Deluge nor to give an account of the present from of the Earth unequal and Mountainous as it is 'T is true this would give a great advantage to the waters and the Rains that fell for forty days together would have a great power over the Earth being plain and smooth but how would these waters be dispos'd of when the Deluge ceas'd or how could it ever cease Besides what means the disruption of the great Deep or the great Abysse or what answers to it upon this supposition This was assuredly of no less consideration than the Rains nay I believe the Rains were but preparatory in some measure and that the violence and consummation of the Deluge depended upon the disruption of the great Abysse Therefore I saw it necessary to my first thought concerning the smoothness and plainness of the Ante-diluvian Earth to add a second concerning the disruption and dissolution of it for as it often happens in Earthquakes when the exteriour Earth is burst asunder and a great Flood of waters issues out according to the quantity and force of them an Inundation is made in those parts more or less so I thought if that Abysse lay under ground and round the Earth and we should suppose the Earth in this manner to be broken in several places at once and as it were a general dissolution made we might suppose that to make a general Deluge as well as a particular dissolution often makes a particular But I will not anticipate here the explication we intend to give of the universal Deluge in the following Chapters only by this previous intimation we may gather some hopes it may be that the matter is not so desperate as the former representation might possibly make us fansie it Give me leave to add farther in this place that it hath been observ'd by several from the contemplation of Mountains and Rocks and Precipices of the Chanel of the Sea and of Islands and of Subterraneous Caverns that the surface of the Earth or the exteriour Region which we inhabit hath been broke and the parts of it dislocated And one might instance more particularly in several parcels of Nature that retain still the evident marks of fraction and ruine and by their present form and posture show that they have been once in another state and situation one to another We shall have occasion hereafter to give an account of these Phaenomena from which several have rightly argu'd and concluded some general rupture or ruine in the superficial parts of the Earth But this ruine it is true they have imagin'd and explain'd several ways some thinking that it was made the third day after the foundation of the Earth when they suppose the Chanel of the Sea to have been form'd and Mountains and Caverns at the same time by a violent depression of some parts of the Earth and an extrusion and elevation of others to make them room Others suppose it to have come not all at once but by degrees at several times and in several Ages from particular and accidental causes as the Earth falling in upon Fires under ground or water eating away the lower parts or Vapours and Exhalations breaking out and tearing the Earth 'T is true I am not of their opinion in either of these Explications and we shall show at large hereafter when we have propos'd and stated our own Theory how incompetent such causes are to bring the Earth into that form and condition we now find it in But in the mean time we may so far make use of these Opinions in general as not to be startled at this Doctrine concerning the breaking or dissolution of the exteriour Earth for in all Ages the face of Nature hath provok'd men to think of and observe such a thing And who can do otherwise to see the Elements displac'd and disorder'd as they seem to lie at present the heaviest and grossest bodies in the highest places and the liquid and volatile kept below an huge mass of Stone or Rock rear'd into the Air and the water creeping at its feet whereas this is the more light and active body and by the law of Nature should take place of Rocks and Stones So we see by the like disorder the Air thrown down into Dungeons of the Earth and the Earth got up among the Clouds for there are the tops of the Mountains and under their roots in Holes and Caverns the Air is often detain'd By what regular action of Nature can we suppose things first produc'd in this posture and form not to mention how broke and torn the inward substance of the Earth is which of it self is an uniform mass close and compact but in the condition we see it it lies hollow in many places with great vacuities intercepted betwixt the portions of it a thing which we see happens in all ruines more or less especially when the parts of the ruines are great and inflexible Then what can have more the figure and meen of a ruine than Crags and Rocks and Cliffs whether upon the Sea shore or upon the sides of Mountains what can be more apparently broke than they are and those lesser Rocks or great bulky Stones that lie often scatter'd near the feet of the other whether in the Sea or upon the Land are they not manifest fragments and pieces of those greater
Age of the World And the same Moses tells us that Adam was the first Man and Eve the first Woman from whom sprung the race of Mankind and this within the compass of six thousand years We are also assured from the Prophets and our Christian Records that the world shall have an end and that by a general Conflagration when all Mankind shall be destroy'd with the form and all the furniture of the Earth And as this proves the second part of Aristotle's Doctrine to be false immediately so doth it the first by a true consequence for what hath an end had a beginning what is not immortal was not Eternal That which exists by the strength of its own Nature at first the same Nature will enable to exist for ever and indeed what exists of it self exists necessarily and what exists necessarily exists eternally Having this infallible assurance of the Origin of the Earth and of Mankind from Scripture we proceed to refute the same Doctrine of Aristotle's by Natural Reason And we will first consider the form of the Earth and then Mankind and shew from plain evidence and observation neither of them to have been Eternal 'T is natural to the mind of Man to consider that which is compound as having been once more simple whether that composition be a mixture of many ingredients as most Terrestrial Bodies are or whether it be Organical but especially if it be Organical For a thing that consists of a multitude of pieces aptly joyn'd we cannot but conceive to have had those pieces at one time or another put together 'T were hard to conceive an eternal Watch whose pieces were never separate one from another nor ever in any other form than that of a Watch. Or an eternal House whose materials were never asunder but always in the form of an House And 't is as hard to conceive an Eternal Earth or an Eternal World These are made up of more various substances more ingredients and into a far greater composition and the living part of the World Plants and Animals have much more variety of parts and multifarious construction than any House or any other artificial thing So that we are led as much by Nature and necessity to conceive this great Machine of the World or of the Earth to have been once in a state of greater simplicity than now it is as to conceive a Watch an House or any other structure to have been once in its first and simple materials This I speak without reference to immediate Creation for Aristotle did not own any such thing and therefore the argument stands good against him upon those grounds and notions that he goes yet I guess what answer would be made by him or his followers to this argumentation They would say there is not the same reason for Natural things as for Artificial though equally compounded Artificial things could not be from Eternity because they suppose Man by whose Art they were made pre existent to them the work-man must be before the work and whatsoever hath any thing before it is not Eternal But may not the same thing be said of Natural things do not most of them require the action of the Sun and the influence of the Heavens for their production and longer preparations than any Artificial things do Some Years or Ages would be necessary for the concoction and maturation of Metals and Minerals Stones themselves at least some sorts of them were once liquors or fluid masses and all Vegetable productions require the heat of the Sun to predispose and excite the Earth and the Seeds Nay according to Aristotle 't is not Man by himself that begets a Man but the Sun is his Coadjutor You see then 't was as necessary that the Sun that great Workman of Nature should pre-exist to Natural things producâ—d in or upon the Earth as that Man should pre-exist to Artificial So that the Earth under that form and constitution it now hath could no more be Eternal than a Statue or Temple or any work of Art Besides that form which the Earth is under at present is in some sort preter-natural like a Statue made and broken again and so hath still the less appearance or pretence of being Eternal If the Elements had lain in that order to one another as Aristotle hath dispos'd them and as seems to be their first disposition the Earth altogether in a mass in the middle or towards the Centre then the Water in a Spherical mass about that the Air above the Water and then a Sphere of Fire as he fansied in the highest Circle of the Air If they had lain I say in this posture there might have been some pretence that they had been Eternally so because that might seem to be their Original posture in which Nature had first plac'd them But the form and posture we find them in at present is very different and according to his Doctrine must be look'd upon as unnatural and violent and no violent state by his own Maxim can be perpetual or can have been so But there is still a more pressing consideration against this Opinion If this present state and form of the Earth had been from Eternity it would have long ere this destroy'd it self and chang'd it self the Mountains sinking by degrees into the Vallies and into the Sea and the Waters rising above the Earth which form it would certainly have come into sooner or later and in it continu'd drown'd and uninhabitable for all succeeding Generations For 't is certain that the Mountains and higher parts of the Earth grow lesser and lesser from Age to Age and that from many causes sometimes the roots of them are weaken'd and eaten by Subterraneous Fires and sometimes they are torn and tumbled down by Earthquakes and fall into those Caverns that are under them and though those violent causes are not constant or universal yet if the Earth had stood from Eternity there is not a Mountain would have escap'd this fate in one Age or other The course of these exhalations or Fires would have reach'd them all sooner or later if through infinite Ages they had stood expos'd to them But there are also other causes that consume them insensibly and make them sink by degrees and those are chiefly the Winds Rains and Storms and heat of the Sun without and within the soaking of Water and Springs with streams and currents in their veins and crannies These two sorts of causes would certainly reduce all the Mountains of the Earth in tract of time to equality or rather lay them all under Water For whatsoever moulders or is washt away from them is carried down into the lower grounds and into the Sea and nothing is ever brought back again by any circulation Their losses are not repair'd nor any proportionable recruits made from any other parts of Nature So as the higher parts of the Earth being continually spending and the lower continually gaining they must of necessity at
three feet deep made up only of little flakes or pieces of Ice which falling from the middle Region of the Air and meeting with the Earth in their descent are there stopt and heapt up one upon another But if we should suppose little particles of Earth to shower down not only from the middle Region but from the whole capacity and extent of those vast spaces that are betwixt us and the Moon we could not imagine but these would constitute an Orb of Earth some thousands of times deeper than the greatest Snow which being increas'd and swoln by that oily liquor it fell into and incorporated with it would be thick strong and great enough in all respects to render it an habitable Earth We cannot doubt therefore but such a body as this would be form'd and would be sufficient in quantity for an habitable Earth Then for the quality of it it will answer all the purposes of a Rising World What can be a more proper Seminary for Plants and Animals than a soil of this temper and composition A finer and lighter sort of Earth mixt with a benign Juice easie and obedient to the action of the Sun or of what other causes were employ'd by the Author of Nature for the production of things in the new-made Earth What sort or disposition of matter could be more fit and ready to catch life from Heaven and to be drawn into all forms that the rudiments of life or the bodies of living Creatures would require What soil more proper for vegetation than this warm moisture which could have no fault unless it was too fertile and luxuriant And that is no fault neither at the beginning of a World This I am sure of that the learned amongst the Ancients both Greeks Egyptians Phoenicians and others have describ'd the primigenial soil or the temper of the Earth that was the first subject for the Generation and Origin of Plants and Animals after such a manner as is truly express'd and I think with advantage by this draught of the primigenial Earth Thus much concerning the matter of the first Earth Let us reflect a little upon the form of it also whether External or Internal both whereof do manifestly shew themselves from the manner of its production or formation As to the External form you see it is according to the Proposition we were to prove smooth regular and uniform without Mountains and without a Sea And the proof we have given of it is very easie The Globe of the Earth could not possibly rise immediately from a Chaos into the irregular form in which it is at present The Chaos being a fluid mass which we know doth necessarily fall into a Spherical surface whose parts are equi-distant from the Center and consequently in an equal and even convexity one with another And seeing upon the distinction of a Chaos and separation into several Elementary masses the Water would naturally have a superiour place to the Earth 't is manifest that there could be no habitable Earth form'd out of the Chaos unless by some concretion upon the face of the Water Then lastly seeing this concrete Orb of Earth upon the face of the Water would be of the same form with the surface of the Water it was spread upon there being no causes that we know of to make any inequality in it we must conclude it equal and uniform and without Mountains as also without a Sea for the Sea and all the mass of Waters was enclos'd within this exteriour Earth which had no other basis or foundation to rest upon The contemplation of these things and of this posture of the Earth upon the Waters doth so strongly bring to mind certain passages of Scripture which will recur in another place that we cannot without injury to truth pass them by here in silence Passages that have such a manifest resemblance and agreement to this form and situation of the Earth that they seem visibly to point at it such are those expressions of the Psalmist God hath founded the Earth upon the Seas And in another Psalm speaking of the wisdom and power of God in the Creation he saith To him who alone doth great wonders to him that by wisdom made the Heavens to him that extended or stretched out the Earth above the Waters What can be more plain or proper to denote that form of the Earth that we have describ'd and to express particularly the inclosure of the Waters within the Earth as we have represented them He saith in another place By the Word of the Lord were the Heavens made he shut up the Waters of the Sea as in Bags for so the word is to be render'd and is render'd by all except the English and laid up the Abysse as in store-houses This you see is very conformable to that System of the Earth and Sea which we have propos'd here Yet there is something more express than all this in that remarkable place in the Proverbs of Solomon where Wisdom declaring her Antiquity and Existence before the foundation of the Earth amongst other things saith When he prepared the Heavens I was there When he drew an Orb over the surface of the Abysse or when he set an Orb upon the face of the Abysse We render it in the English a Compass or Circle but 't is more truly rendred an Orb or Sphere and what Orb or Spherical Body was this which at the formation of the Earth was built and plac'd round about the Abyss but that wonderful Arch whose form and production we have describ'd encompassing the mass of Waters which in Scripture is often call'd the Abysse or Deep Lastly This Scheme of the first Earth gives light to that place we mention'd before of S. Peter's where the first Earth is said to consist of Water and by Water and by reason thereof was obnoxious to a Deluge The first part of this character is plain from the description now given and the second will appear in the following Chapter In the mean time concerning these passages of Scripture which we have cited we may truly and modestly say that though they would not it may be without a Theory premis'd have been taken or interpreted in this sence yet this Theory being premis'd I dare appeal to any unprejudic'd person if they have not a fairer and easier a more full and more emphatical sence when apply'd to that form of the Earth and Sea we are now speaking of than to their present form or to any other we can imagine Thus much concerning the external form of the first Earth Let us now reflect a little upon the Internal form of it which consists of several Regions involving one another like Orbs about the same Center or of the several Elements cast circularly about each other as it appears in the Fourth and Fifth Figure And as we have noted the External form of this primaeâ—al Earth to have been markt and celebrated in the Sacred Writings so
likewise in the Philosophy and Learning of the Ancients there are several remains and indications of this Internal form and composition of it For 't is observable that the Ancients in treating of the Chaos and in raising the World out of it rang'd it into several Regions or Masses as we have done and in that order successively rising one from another as if it was a Pedigree or Genealogy And those Parts and Regions of Nature into which the Chaos was by degrees divided they signified commonly by dark and obscure names as the Night Tartarus Oceanus and such like which we have express'd in their plain and proper terms And whereas the Chaos when it was first set on work ran all into divisions and separations of one Element from another which afterwards were all in some measure united and associated in this primigenial Earth the Ancients accordingly made Contention the principle that reign'd in the Chaos at first and then Love The one to express the divisions and the other the union of all parties in this middle and common bond These and such like notions which we find in the Writings of the Ancients figuratively and darkly deliver'd receive a clearer light when compar'd with this Theory of the Chaos which representing every thing plainly and in its natural colours is a Key to their thoughts and an illustration of their obscurer Philosophy concerning the Original of the World as we have shewn at large in the Latin Treatise Fig 7. pag. 44. Thus much concerning the first Earth its production and form and concerning our Second Proposition relating to it Which being prov'd by Reason the laws of Nature and the motions of the Chaos then attested by Antiquity both as to the matter and form of it and confirm'd by Sacred Writers we may take it now for a well establisht truth and proceed upon this supposition That the Ante-diluvian Earth was smooth and uniform without Mountains or Sea to the explication of the universal Deluge Give me leave only before we proceed any further to annex here a short Advertisement concerning the Causes of this wonderful structure of the first Earth 'T is true we have propos'd the Natural Causes of it and I do not know wherein our Explication is false or defective but in things of this kind we may easily be too credulous And this structure is so marvellous that it ought rather to be consider'd as a particular effect of the Divine Art than as the work of Nature The whole Globe of the Water vaulted over and the exteriour Earth hanging above the Deep sustain'd by nothing but its own measures and manner of construction A Building without foundation or corner-stone This seems to be a piece of Divine Geometry or Architecture and to this I think is to be refer'd that magnificent challenge which God Almighty made to Iob Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the Earth declare if thou hast understanding Who hath laid the measures thereof if thou knowest or who hath stretched the line upon it Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastned or who laid the corner-stone thereof When the morning Stars sang together and all the Sons of God shouted for joy Moses also when he had describ'd the Chaos saith The Spirit of God mov'd upon or sat brooding upon the face of the waters without all doubt to produce some effects there And S. Peter when he speaks of the form of the Ante-diluvian Earth how it stood in reference to the Waters adds By the Word of God or by the Wisdom of God it was made so And this same Wisdom of God in the Proverbs as we observed before takes notice of this very piece of work in the formation of the Earth When he set an Orb over the face of the Deep I was there And lastly the Ancient Philosophers or at least the best of them to give them their due always brought in Mens or Amor as a Supernatural principle to unite and consociate the parts of the Chaos which was first done in the composition of this wonderful Arch of the Earth Wherefore to the great Architect who made the boundless Universe out of nothing and form'd the Earth out of a Chaos let the praise of the Whole Work and particularly of this Master-piece for ever with all honour be given CHAP. VI. The dissolution of the First Earth The Deluge ensuing thereupon And the form of the present Earth rising from the Ruines of the First WE have now brought to light the Ante-diluvian Earth out of the dark mass of the Chaos and not only described the surface of it but laid open the inward parts to shew in what order its Regions lay Let us now close it up and represent the Earth entire and in large proportions more like an habitable World as in this Figure where you see the smooth convex of the Earth and may imagine the great Abysse spread under it which two are to be the only subject of our further contemplation Booke j st p. 46. In this smooth Earth were the first Scenes of the World and the first Generations of Mankind it had the beauty of Youth and blooming Nature fresh and fruitful and not a wrinkle scar or fracture in all its body no Rocks nor Mountains no hollow Caves nor gaping Chanels but even and uniform all over And the smoothness of the Earth made the face of the Heavens so too the Air was calm and serene none of those tumultuary motions and conflicts of vapours which the Mountains and the Winds cause in ours 'T was suited to a golden Age and to the first innocency of Nature All this you 'll say is well we are got into a pleasant World indeed but what 's this to the purpose what appearance of a Deluge here where there is not so much as a Sea nor half so much Water as we have in this Earth or what appearance of Mountains or Caverns or other irregularities of the Earth where all is level and united So that instead of loosing the Knot this ties it the harder You pretend to shew us how the Deluge was made and you lock up all the Waters within the womb of the Earth and set Bars and Doors and a Wall of impenetrable strength and thickness to keep them there And you pretend to shew us the original of Rocks and Mountains and Caverns of the Earth and bring us to a wide and endless plain smooth as the calm Sea This is all true and yet we are not so far from the sight and discovery of those things as you imagine draw but the curtain and these Scenes will appear or something very like them We must remember that S. Peter told us that the Ante-diluvian Earth perish'd or was demolish'd and Moses saith the great Abysse was broken open at the Deluge Let us then suppose that at a time appointed by Divine Providence and from Causes made ready to do that great execution upon a sinful
World that this Abysse was open'd or that the frame of the Earth broke and fell down into the Great Abysse At this one stroke all Nature would be chang'd and this single action would have two great and visible Effects The one Transient and the other permanent First an universal Deluge would overflow all the parts and Regions of the broken Earth during the great commotion and agitation of the Abysse by the violent fall of the Earth into it This would be the first and unquestionable effect of this dissolution and all that World would be destroyed Then when the agitation of the Abysse was asswag'd and the Waters by degrees were retir'd into their Chanels and the dry land appear'd you would see the true image of the present Earth in the ruines of the first The surface of the Globe would be divided into Land and Sea the Land would consist of Plains and Valleys and Mountains according as the pieces of this ruine were plac'd and dispos'd Upon the banks of the Sea would stand the Rocks and near the shoar would be Islands or lesse fragments of Earth compass'd round by Water Then as to Subterraneous Waters and all Subterraneous Caverns and hollownesses upon this supposition those things could not be otherwise for the parts would fall hollow in many places in this as in all other ruines And seeing the Earth fell into this Abysse the Waters at a certain height would flow into all those hollow places and cavities and would also sink and insinuate into many parts of the solid Earth And though these Subterraneous Vaults or holes whether dry or full of Water would be more or less in all places where the parts fell hollow yet they would be found especially about the roots of the Mountains and the higher parts of the Earth for there the sides bearing up one against the other they could not lie so close at the bottoms but many vacuities would be intercepted Nor are there any other inequalities or irregularities observable in the present form of the Earth whether in the surface of it or interiour construction whereof this hypothesis doth not give a ready fair and intelligible account and doth at one view represent them all to us with their causes as in a glass And whether that Glass be true and the Image answer to the Original if you doubt of it we will hereafter examine them piece by piece But in the first place we must consider the General Deluge how easily and truly this supposition represents and explains it and answers all the properties and conditions of it I think it will be easily allow'd that such a dissolution of the Earth as we have propos'd and fall of it into the Abysse would certainly make an Universal Deluge and effectually destroy the old World which perish'd in it But we have not yet particularly prov'd this dissolution and in what manner the Deluge follow'd upon it And to assert things in gross never makes that firm impression upon our understandings and upon our belief as to see them deduc'd with their causes and circumstances And therefore we must endeavour to shew what preparations there were in Nature for this great dissolution and after what manner it came to pass and the Deluge in consequence of it We have noted before that Moses imputed the Deluge to the disruption of the Abyss and S. Peter to the particular constitution of that Earth which made it obnoxious to be absorpt in Water so that our explication so far is justifi'd But it was below the dignity of those Sacred Pen-men or the Spirit of God that directed them to shew us the causes of this disruption or of this absorption this is left to the enquiries of men For it was never the design of Providence to give such particular explications of Natural things as should make us idle or the use of Reason unnecessary but on the contrary by delivering great conclusions to us to excite our curiosity and inquisitiveness after the methods by which such things were brought to pass And it may be there is no greater trial or instance of Natural Wisdom than to find out the Chanel in which these great revolutions of Nature which we treat on flow and succeed one another Let us therefore resume that System of the Ante-diluvian Earth which we have deduc'd from the Chaos and which we find to answer S. Peter's description and Moses his account of the Deluge This Earth could not be obnoxious to a Deluge as the Apostle supposeth it to have been but by a dissolution for the Abysse was enclos'd within its bowels And Moses doth in effect tell us there was such a dissolution when he saith The fountains of the great Abysse were borken open For Fountains are broken open no otherwise than by breaking up the ground that covers them We must therefore here inquire in what order and from what causes the frame of this exteriour Earth was dissolv'd and then we shall soon see how upon that dissolution the Deluge immediately prevail'd and overflow'd all the parts of it I do not think it in the power of humane wit to determine how long this frame would stand how many Years or how many Ages but one would soon imagine that this kind of structure would not be perpetual nor last indeed many thousands of Years if one consider the effect that the heat of the Sun would have upon it and the Waters under it drying and parching the one and raresying the other into vapours For we must consider that the course of the Sun at that time or the posture of the Earth to the Sun was such that there was no diversity or alternation of seasons in the Year as there is now by reason of which alternation our Earth is kept in an equality of temper the contrary seasons balancing one another so as what moisture the heat of the Summer sucks out of the Earth 't is repaid in the Rains of the next Winter and what chaps were made in it are fill'd up again and the Earth reduc'd to its former constitution But if we should imagine a continual Summer the Earth would proceed in driness still more and more and the cracks would be wider and pierce deeper into the substance of it And such a continual Summer there was at least an equality of seasons in the Ante-diluvian Earth as shall be prov'd in the follwing Book concerning Paradise In the mean time this being suppos'd let us consider what effect it would have upon this Arch of the exteriour Earth and the Waters under it We cannot believe but that the heat of the Sun within the space of some hundreds of years would have reduc'd this Earth to a considerable degree of driness in certain parts and also have much raresi'd and exhal'd the Waters beneath it And considering the structure of that Globe the exteriour crust and the Waters lying round under it both expos'd to the Sun we may fitly compare it to an Aeolipile or
an hollow Sphere with Water in it which the heat of the Fire rarefies and turns into Vapours and Wind. The Sun here is as the Fire and the exteriour Earth is as the Shell of the Aeolipile and the Abysse as the Water within it now when the heat of the Sun had pierced through the Shell and reach'd the Waters it began to rarefie them and raise them into Vapours which rarefaction made them require more space and room than they needed before while they lay close and quiet And finding themselves pen'd in by the exteriour Earth they press'd with violence against that Arch to make it yield and give way to their dilatation and eruption So we see all Vapours and Exhalations enclos'd within the Earth and agitated there strive to break out and often shake the ground with their attempts to get loose And in the comparison we us'd of an Aeolipile if the mouth of it be stopt that gives the vent the Water raresi'd will burst the Vessel with its force And the resemblance of the Earth to an Egg which we us'd before holds also in this respect for when it heats before the Fire the moisture and Air within being rarefi'd makes it often burst the Shell And I do the more willingly mention this last comparison because I observe that some of the Ancients when they speak of the doctrine of the Mundane Egg say that after a certain period of time it was broken But there is yet another thing to be consider'd in this case for as the heat of the Sun gave force to these Vapours more and more and made them more strong and violent so on the other hand it also weaken'd more and more the Arch of the Earth that was to resist them sucking out the moisture that was the cement of its parts drying it immoderately and chapping it in sundry places And there being no Winter then to close up and unite its parts and restore the Earth to its former strength and compactness it grew more and more dispos'd to a dissolution And at length these preparations in Nature being made on either side the force of the Vapours increas'd and the walls weaken'd which should have kept them in when the appointed time was come that All-wise Providence had design'd for the punishment of a sinful World the whole fabrick brake and the frame of the Earth was torn in pieces as by an Earthquake and those great portions or fragments into which it was divided fell down into the Abysse some in one posture and some in another This is a short and general account how we may conceive the dissolution of the first Earth and an universal Deluge arising upon it And this manner of dissolution hath so many examples in Nature every Age that we need not insist farther upon the Explication of it The generality of Earthquakes arise from like causes and often end in a like effect a partial Deluge or Inundation of the place or Country where they happen and of these we have seen some instances even in our own times But whensoever it so happens that the Vapours and Exhalations shut up in the caverns of the Earth by rarefaction or compression come to be straitned they strive every way to set themselves at liberty and often break their prison or the cover of the Earth that kept them in which Earth upon that disruption falls into the Subterraneous Caverns that lie under it And if it so happens that those Caverns are full of Water as generally they are if they be great or deep that City or tract of Land is drown'd And also the fall of such a mass of Earth with its weight and bulk doth often force out the Water so impetuously as to throw it upon all the Country round about There are innumerable examples in History whereof we shall mention some hereafter of Cities and Countires thus swallow'd up or overflow'd by an Earthquake and an Inundation arising upon it And according to the manner of their fall or ruine they either remain'd wholly under water and perpetually drown'd as Sodom and Plato's Atlantis Bura and Helice and other Cities and Regions in Greece and Asia or they partly emerg'd and became dry Land again when their situation being pretty high the Waters after their violent agitation was abated retir'd into the lower places and into their Chanels Now if we compare these partial dissolutions of the Earth with an universal dissolution we may as easily conceive an Universal Deluge from an Universal Dissolution as a partial Deluge from a partial If we can conceive a City a Country an Island a Continent thus absorpt and overflown if we do but enlarge our thought and imagination a little we may conceive it as well of the whole Earth And it seems strange to me that none of the Ancients should hit upon this way of explaining the Universal Deluge there being such frequent instances in all Ages and Countries of Inundations made in this manner and never of any great Inundation made otherwise unless in maritime Countries by the irruption of the Sea into grounds that lie low 'T is true they would not so easily imagine this Dissolution because they did not understand the true from of the Ante-diluvian Earth but methinks the examination of the Deluge should have led them to the discovery of that For observing the difficulty or impossibility of an Universal Deluge without the Dissolution of the Earth as also frequent instances of these Dissolutions accompany'd with Deluges where the ground was hollow and had Subterraneous Waters this methinks should have prompted them to imagine that those Subterraneous Waters were universal at that time or extended quite round the Earth so as a dissolution of the exteriour Earth could not be made any where but it would fall into Waters and be more or less overflow'd And when they had once reacht this thought they might conclude both what the form of the Ante-diluvian Earth was and that the Deluge came to pass by the dissolution of it But we reason with ease about the finding out of things when they are once found out and there is but a thin paper-wall sometimes between the great discoveries and a perfect ignorance of them Let us proceed now to consider whether this supposition will answer all the conditions of an Universal Deluge and supply all the defects which we found in other Explications The great difficulty propos'd was to find Water sufficient to make an Universal Deluge reaching to the tops of the Mountains and yet that this Water should be transient and after some time should so return into its Chanels that the dry Land would appear and the Earth become again habitable There was that double impossibility in the common opinion that the quantity of Water necessary for such a Deluge was no where to be found or could no way be brought upon the Earth and then if it was brought could no way be remov'd again Our explication quite takes off the edge
of this Objection for performing the same effect with a far less quantity of Water 't is both easie to be found and easily remov'd when the work is done When the exteriour Earth was broke and fell into the Abysse a good part of it was cover'd with Water by the meer depth of the Abysse it fell into and those parts of it that were higher than the Abysse was deep and consequently would stand above it in a calm Water were notwithstanding reacht and overtop'd by the waves during the agitation and violent commotion of the Abysse For it is not imaginable what the commotion of the Abysse would be upon this dissolution of the Earth nor to what height its waves would be thrown when those prodigious fragments were tumbled down into it Suppose a stone of ten thousand weight taken up into the Air a mile or two and then let fall into the middle of the Ocean I do not believe but that the dashing of the water upon that impression would rise as high as a Mountain But suppose a mighty Rock or heap of Rocks to fall from that height or a great Island or a Continent these would expel the waters out of their places with such a force and violence as to fling them among the highest Clouds 'T is incredible to what height sometimes great Stones and Cinders will be thrown at the eruptions of fiery Mountains and the pressure of a great mass of Earth falling into the Abysse though it be a force of another kind could not but impel the water with so much strength as would carry it up to a great height in the Air and to the top of any thing that lay in its way any eminency high fragment or new Mountain And then rowling back again it would sweep down with it whatsoever it rusht upon Woods Building living Creatures and carry them all headlong into the great gulph Sometimes a mass of water would be quite struck off and separate from the rest and tost through the Air like a flying River but the common motion of the waves was to climb up the hills or inclin'd fragments and then return into the valleys and deeps again with a perpetual fluctuation going and coming ascending and descending till the violence of them being spent by degrees they setled at last in the places allotted for them where bounds are set that they cannot pass over that they return not again to cover the Earth Neither is it to be wonder'd that the great Tumult of the waters and the extremity of the Deluge lasted for some months for besides that the first shock and commotion of the Abysse was extremely violent from the general fall of the Earth there were ever and anon some secondary ruines or some parts of the great ruine that were not well setled broke again and made new commotions And 't was a considerable time before the great fragments that fell and their lesser dependencies could be so adjusted and fitted as to rest in a firm and immoveable posture For the props and stays whereby they lean'd one upon another or upon the bottom of the Abysse often fail'd either by the incumbent weight or the violent impulses of the water against them and so renew'd or continu'd the disorder and confusion of the Abysse Besides we are to observe that these great fragments falling hollow they inclos'd and bore down with them under their concave surface a great deal of Air and while the water compass'd these fragments and overflow'd them the Air could not readily get out of those prisons but by degrees as the Earth and Water above would give way so as this would also hinder the settlement of the Abysse and the retiring of the Water into those Subterraneous Chanels for some time But at length when this Air had found a vent and left its place to the Water and the ruines both primary and secondary were setled and fix'd then the Waters of the Abysse began to settle too and the dry Land to appear first the tops of the Mountains then the high Grounds then the Plains and the rest of the Earth And this gradual subsidency of the Abysse which Moses also hath particularly noted and discovery of the several parts of the Earth would also take up a considerable time Thus a new World appear'd or the Earth put on its new form and became divided into Sea and Land and the Abysse which from several Ages even from the beginning of the World had lain hid in the womb of the Earth was brought to light and discover'd the greatest part of it constituting our present Ocean and the rest filling the lower cavities of the Earth Upon the Land appear'd the Mountains and the Hills and the Islands in the Sea and the Rocks upon the shore And so the Divine Providence having prepar'd Nature for so great a change at one stroke dissolv'd the frame of the old World and made us a new one out of its ruines which we now inhabit since the Deluge All which things being thus explain'd deduc'd and stated we now add and pronounce our Third and last Proposition That the disruption of the Abysse or dissolution of the primaeval Earth and its fall into the Abysse was the cause of the Universal Deluge and of the destruction of the old World CHAP. VII That the Explication we have given of an Vniversal Deluge is not an Idea only but an account of what really came to pass in this Earth and the true Explication of Noah's Flood as is prov'd by Argument and from History An Examination of Tehom-Rabba or the great Abysse and that by it the Sea cannot be understood nor the Subterraneous Waters as they are at present What the true Notion and Form of it was collected from Moses and other Sacred Writers The frequent allusions in Scripture to the opening and shutting the Abysse and the particular stile of Scripture in its reflections on the Origin And the Formation of the Earth Observations on Deucalion's Deluge WE have now given an account of the first great revolution of Nature and of the Universal Deluge in a way that is intelligible and from causes that answer the greatness of the effect We have suppos'd nothing but what is also prov'd both as to the first form of the Earth and as to the manner of its Dissolution and how far from that would evidently and necessarily arise a general Deluge which was that which put a period to the old World and the first state of things And though all this hath been deduc'd in due order and with connexion and consequence of one thing upon another so far as I know which is the true evidence of a Theory yet it may not be sufficient to command the Assent and Belief of some persons who will allow it may be and acknowledge that this is a fair Idea of a possible Deluge in general and of the destruction of a World by it but this may be only an Idea they 'll say
Globe in a Spherical convexity so that if all the Mountains and Hills were scal'd and the Earth made even the Waters would not overflow its smooth surface much less could they overflow it in the form that it is now in where the Shores are higher than the Sea the Inland parts than the Shores and the Mountains still far above all So as no disruption of the Sea could make an universal Deluge by reason of its situation But besides that the quantity of Water contain'd in the Sea is no way sufficient to make a Deluge in the present form of the Earth for we have shewn before Chap. 2. that Eight such Oceans as ours would be little enough for that purpose Then as to the expressions of Moses concerning this Abysse if he had meant the Sea by it and that the Deluge was made by the disruption of the Sea why did he not say so There is no mention of the Sea in all the History of the Deluge Moses had mention'd the Sea before Gen. 1. 10. and us'd a word that was common and known to signifie the Sea And if he had a mind to express the same thing here why should he not use the same word and the same term In an Historical relation we use terms that are most proper and best known but instead of that he useth the same term here that he did Gen. 1. 2. when he saith Darkness was upon the face of the Abysse or of the Deep as we render it there the Abysse was open or cover'd with darkness only namely before the exterior Earth was form'd Here the same Abysse is mention'd again but cover'd by the formation of the Earth upon it and the covering of this Abysse was broken or cloven asunder and the Waters gusht out that made the Deluge This I am sure is the most natural interpretation or signification of this word according as it is us'd in Moses's writings Furthermore we must observe what Moses saith concerning this Abysse and whether that will agree with the Sea or no he saith the Fountains of the great Abysse were broken open now if by the great Abysse you understand the Sea how are its Fountains broken open To break open a Fountain is to break open the ground that covers it and what ground covers the Sea So that upon all considerations either of the word that Moses here useth Tehom-Rabba or of the thing affirmed concerning it breaking open its Fountains or of the effect following the breaking open its Fountains drowning of the Earth from all these heads it is manifest that the Sea cannot be understood by the great Abysse whose disruption was the cause of the Deluge And as the Mosaical Abysse cannot be the Sea so neither can it be those Subterraneous waters that are disperst in the Cells and Caverns of the Earth for as they are now lodg'd within the Earth they are not one Abysse but several Cisterns and Receptacles of water in several places especially under the roots of Mountains and Hills separate one from another sometimes by whole Regions and Countries interpos'd Besides what Fountains if they were broken up could let out this water or bring it upon the face of the Earth When we sink a Mine or dig a Well the waters when uncover'd do not leap out of their places out of those Cavities or at least do not flow upon the Earth 'T is not as if you openâ—d a Vein where the Bloud spirts out and riseth higher than its Source but as when you take off the cover of a Vessel the water doth not fly out for that So if we should imagine all the Subterraneous Caverns of the Earth uncover'd and the waters laid bare there they would lie unmov'd in their beds if the Earth did not fall into them to force them up Furthermore if these waters were any way extracted and laid upon the surface of the ground nothing would be gain'd as to the Deluge by that for as much water would run into these holes again when the Deluge begun to rise so that this would be but an useless labour and turn to no account And lastly These waters are no way sufficient for quantity to answer to the Mosaical Abyss or to be the principal cause of the Deluge as that was Now seeing neither the Sea as it is at present nor the Subterraneous Waters as they are at present can answer to the Mosaical Abysse we are sure there is nothing in this present Earth that can answer to it Let us then on the other hand compare it with that Subterraneous Abyss which we have found in the Ante-diluvian Earth represented 5 Fig. 2. and examine their characters and correspondency First Moses's Abyss was cover'd and Subterraneous for the Fountains of it are said to have been cloven or burst open then it was vast and capacious and thirdly it was so dispos'd as to be capable of a disruption that would cause an universal Deluge to the Earth Our Ante-diluvian Abyss answers truly to all these characters 't was in the womb of the Earth the Earth was founded upon those Waters as the Psalmist saith or they were enclos'd within the Earth as in a Bag. Then for the capacity of it it contained both all the Waters now in the Ocean and all those that are dispers'd in the Caverns of the Earth And lastly it is manifest its situation was such that upon a disruption or dissolution of the Earth which cover'd it an universal Deluge would arise Seeing then this answers the description and all the properties of the Mosaical Abysse and nothing else will how can we in reason judge it otherwise than the same and the very thing intended and propos'd in the History of Noah's Deluge under the name of Tehom-Rabba or the great Abyss at whose disruption the World was over-flow'd And as we do not think it an unhappy discovery to have found out with a moral certainty the feat of the Mosaical Abyss which hath been almost as much sought for and as much in vain as the seat of Paradise so this gives us a great assurance that the Theory we have given of a general Deluge is not a meer Idea but is to be appropriated to the Deluge of Noah as a true explication of it And to proceed now from Moses to other Divine Writers That our Description is a reality both as to the Ante-diluvian Earth and as to the Deluge we may further be convinc'd from S. Peter's discourse concerning those two things S. Peter saith that the constitution of the Ante-diluvian Earth was such in reference to the Waters that by reason of that it was obnoxious to a Deluge we say these Waters were the great Abysse it stood upon by reason whereof that World was really expos'd to a Deluge and overwhelm'd in it upon the disruption of this Abyss as Moses witnesses 'T is true S. Peter doth not specifie what those waters were nor mention either the Sea or the Abyss but seeing
Moses tells us that it was by the waters of the Abyss that the Earth was overwhelm'd S. Peter's waters must be understood of the same Abyss because he supposeth them the cause of the same Deluge And I think the Apostle's discourse there cannot receive a better illustration than from Moses's History of the Deluge Moses distinguishes the Causes of the Flood into those that belong to the Heavens and those that belong to the Earth the Rains and the Abyss S. Peter also distinguisheth the causes of the Deluge into the constitution of the Heavens in reference to its waters and the constitution of the Earth in reference to its waters and no doubt they both aim at the same causes as they refer to the same effect only Moses mentions the immediate Causes the Rains and the Waters of the Abyss and S. Peter mentions the more remote and fundamental causes that constitution of the Heavens and that constitution of the Earth in reference to their respective Waters which made that world obnoxious to a Deluge And these two speaking of Noah's Deluge and agreeing thus with one another and both with us or with the Theory which we have given of a General Deluge we may safely conclude that it is no imaginary Idea but a true account of that Ancient Flood whereof Moses hath left us the History And seeing the right understanding of the Mosaical Abysse is sufficient alone to prove all we have deliver'd concerning the Deluge as also concerning the frame of the Ante-diluvian Earth give me leave to take notice here of some other places of Scripture which we mention'd before that seem manifestly to describe this fame form of the Abyss with the Earth above it Psal. 24. 2. He founded the Earth upon the Seas and establish'd it upon the Floods and Psal. 136. 6. He stretched out the Earth above the Waters Now this Foundation of the Earth upon the Waters or extension of it above the Waters doth most aptly agree to that structure and situation of the Abyss and the Ante-diluvian Earth which we have assign'd them and which we have before describ'd but very improperly and forc'dly to the present form of the Earth and the Waters In that second place of the Psalmist the word may be render'd either he stretch'd as we read it or he fixt and consolidated the Earth above the Waters as the Vulgate and Septuagint translate it For 't is from the same word with that which is used for the Firmament Gen. 1. So that as the Firmament was extended over and around the Earth so was the Earth extended over and about the Waters in that first constitution of things and I remember some of the Ancients use this very comparison of the Firmament and Earth to express the situation of the Paradisiacal Earth in reference to the Sea or Abysse There is another remarkable place in the Psalms to shew the disposition of the Waters in the first Earth Psal. 33. 7. He gathereth the Waters of the Sea as in a Bag he layeth up the Abysses in store-houses This answers very fitly and naturally to the place and disposition of the Abysse which it had before the Deluge inclos'd within the vault of the Earth as in a Bag or in a Store house I know very well what I render here in a Bag is render'd in the English as an heap but that translation of the word seems to be grounded on the old Error that the Sea is higher than the Land and so doth not make a true sence Neither are the two parts of the Verse so well suited and consequent one to another if the first express an high situation of the Waters and the second a low one And accordingly the Vulgate Septuagint and Oriental Versions and Paraphrase as also Symmachus St. Ierome and Basil render it as we do here in a Bag or by terms equivalent To these passages of the Psalmist concerning the form of the Abysse and the first Earth give me leave to add this general remark that they are commonly ushered in or followed with something of Admiration in the Prophet We observ'd before that the formation of the first Earth after such a wonderful manner being a piece of Divine Architecture when it was spoken of in Scripture it was usually ascrib'd to a particular Providence and accordingly we see in these places now mention'd that it is still made the object of praise and admiration In that 136 Psalm 't is reckon'd among the wonders of God Vers. 4 5 6 Give praise to him who alone doth great wonders To him that by wisdom made the Heavens To him that stretched out the Earth above the Waters And in like manner in that 33 Psalm 't is joyn'd with the forming of the Heavens and made the subject of the Divine Power and Wisdom Vers. 6 7 8 9. By the word of the Lord were the Heavens made and all the Host of them by the breath of his mouth He gathereth the Waters of the Sea together as in a Bag he layeth up the Abysse in Store-houses Let all the Earth fear the Lord Let all the Inhabitants of the World stand in awe of him For he spake and it was he commanded and it stood fast Namely all things stood in that wonderful posture in which the Word of his Power and Wisdom had establisht them David often made the works of Nature and the External World the matter of his Meditations and of his praises and Philosophical Devotions reflecting sometimes upon the present form of the World and sometimes upon the primitive form of it And though Poetical expressions as the Psalms are seldom are so determinate and distinct but that they may be interpreted more than one way yet I think it cannot but be acknowledg'd that those expressions and passages that we have instanc'd in are more fairly and aptly understood of the Ancient form of the Sea or the Abysse as it was enclos'd within the Earth than of the present form of it in an open Chanel There are also in the Book of Iob many noble reflections upon the works of Nature and upon the formation of the Earth and the Abysse whereof that in Chap. 26. 7. He stretcheth out the North over the Empty places and hangeth the Earth upon nothing seems to parallel the expression of David He stretched out the Earth upon the Waters for the word we render the empty place is TOHU which is appli'd to the Chaos and the first Abysse Gen. 1. 2. and the hanging the Earth upon nothing is much more wonderful if it be understood of the first habitable Earth that hung over the Waters sustain'd by nothing but its own peculiar form and the libration of its parts than if it be understood of the present Earth and the whole body of it for if it be in its Center or proper place whither should it sink further or whither should it go But this passage together with the foregoing and following Verses requires a
impossible for the Ark to have liv'd upon the raging Abyss or for Noah and his Family to have been preserv'd if there had not been a miraculous hand of Providence to take care of them But 't is hard to separate and distinguish an ordinary and extraordinary Providence in all cases and to mark just how far one goes and where the other begins And writing a Theory of the Deluge here as we do we were to exhibit a Series of causes whereby it might be made intelligible or to shew the proximate Natural Causes of it wherein we follow the example both of Moses and S. Peter and with the same veneration of the Divine Power and Wisdom in the government of Nature by a constant ordinary Providence and an occasional extraordinary So much for the Theory of the Deluge and the second Section of this Discourse CHAP. IX The Second Part of this Discourse proving the same Theory from the Effects and present form of the Earth First by a general Scheme of what is most remarkable in this Globe and then by a more particular Induction beginning with an Account of Subterraneous Cavities and Subterraneous Waters WE have now finisht our explication of the Universal Deluge and given an account not only of the possibility of it but so far as our knowledge can reach of its Causes and of that form and structure of the Earth whereby the Old World was subject to that sort of Fate We have not beg'd any Principles or Suppositions for the proof of this but taking that common ground which both Moses and all Antiquity presents to us viz. That this Earth rose from a Chaos We have from that deduc'd by an easie train of consequences what the first Form of it would be and from that Form as from a nearer ground we have by a second train of consequences made it appear that at some time or other that first Earth would be subject to a dissolution and by that dissolution to a Deluge And thus far we have proceeded only by the intuition of Causes as is most proper to a Theory but for the satisfaction of those that require more sensible arguments and to compleat our proofs on either hand we will now argue from the Effects and from the present state of Nature and the present form of the Earth prove that it hath been broken and undergone such a dissolution as we have already describ'd and made the immediate occasion of the Deluge And that we may do this more perspicuously and distinctly we will lay down this Proposition to be prov'd viz. That the present form and structure of the Earth both as to the surface and as to the Interiour parts of it so far as they are known and accessible to us doth exactly answer to our Theory concerning the form and dissolution of the first Earth and cannot be explain'd upon any other Hypothesis yet known Oratours and Philosophers treat Nature after a very different manner Those represent her with all her graces and ornaments and if there be any thing that is not capable of that they dissemble it or pass it over slightly But Philosophers view Nature with a more impartial eye and without favour or prejudice give a just and free account how they find all the parts of the Universe some more some less perfect And as to this Earth in particular if I was to describe it as an Oratour I would suppose it a beautiful and regular Globe and not only so but that the whole Universe was made for its sake that it was the darling and favourite of Heaven that the Sun shin'd only to give it light to ripen its Fruit and make fresh its Flowers and that the great Concave of the Firmament and all the Stars in their several Orbs were design'd only for a spangled Cabinet to keep this Jewel in This Idea I would give of it as an Oratour But a Philosopher that overheard me would either think me in jest or very injudicious if I took the Earth for a body so regular in it self or so considerable if compar'd with the rest of the Universe This he would say is to make the great World like one of the Heathen Temples a beautiful and magnificent structure and of the richest materials yet built only for a little brute Idol a Dog or a Crocodile or some deformed Creature plac'd in a corner of it We must therefore be impartial where the Truth requires it and describe the Earth as it is really in it self and though it be handsome and regular enough to the eye in certain parts of it single tracts and single Regions yet if we consider the whole surface of it or the whole Exteriour Region 't is as a broken and confus'd heap of bodies plac'd in no order to one another nor with any correspondency or regularity of parts And such a body as the Moon appears to us when 't is look'd upon with a good Glass rude and ragged as it is also represented in the modern Maps of the Moon such a thing would the Earth appear if it was seen from the Moon They are both in my judgment the image or picture of a great Ruine and have the true aspect of a World lying in its rubbish Our Earth is first divided into Sea and Land without any regularity in the portions either of the one or the other In the Sea lie the Islands scatter'd like limbs torn from the rest of the body great Rocks stand rear'd up in the waters The Promontories and Capes shoot into the Sea and the Sinus's and Creeks on the other hand run as much into the Land and these without any order or uniformity Upon the other part of our Globe stand great heaps of Earth or stone which we call Mountains and if these were all plac'd together they would take up a very considerable part of the dry Land In the rest of it are lesser Hills Valleys Plains Lakes and Marishes Sands and Desarts c. and these also without any regular disposition Then the inside of the Earth or inward parts of it are generally broken or hollow especially about the Mountains and high Lands as also towards the shores of the Sea and among the Rocks How many Holes and Caverns and strange Subterraneous passages do we see in many Countries and how many more may we easily imagine that are unknown and unaccessible to us This is the pourtraicture of our Earth drawn without flattery and as oddly as it looks it will not be at all surprising to one that hath consider'd the foregoing Theory For 't is manifest enough that upon the dissolution of the first Earth and its fall into the Abyss this very face and posture of things which we have now describ'd or something extremely like it would immediately result The Sea would be open'd and the face of the Globe would be divided into Land and Water And according as the fragments fell some would make Islands or Rocks in the Sea others would
make Mountains or Plains upon the Land and the Earth would generally be full of Caverns and hollownesse especially in the Mountainous parts of it And we see the resemblance and imitation of this in lesser ruines when a Mountain sinks and falls into Subterraneous water or which is more obvious when the Arch of a Bridge is broken and falls into the water if the water under it be not so deep as to overflow and cover all its parts you may see there the image of all these things in little Continents and Islands and Rocks under water And in the parts that stand above the water you see Mountains and Precipices and Plains and most of the varieties that we see and admire in the parts of the Earth What need we then seek any further for the Explication of these things Let us suppose this Arch of the Bridge as the great Arch of the Earth which once it had and the water under it as the Abyss and the parts of this ruine to represent the parts of the Earth There will be scarce any difference but of lesser and greater the same things appearing in both But we have naturally that weakness or prejudice that we think great things are not to be explain'd from easie and familiar instances We think there must be something difficult and operose in the explication of them or else we are not satisfied whether it is that we are asham'd to see our ignorance and admiration to have been so groundless or whether we fancy there must be a proportion between the difficulty of the explication and the greatness of the thing explain'd but that is a very false Judgment for let things be never so great if they be simple their explication must be simple and easie And on the contrary some things that are mean common and ordinary may depend upon causes very difficult to find out for the difficulty of explaining an effect doth not depend upon its greatness or littleness but upon the simplicity or composition of its causes And the effects and Phaenomena we are here to explain though great yet depending upon causes very simple you must not wonder if the Explication when found out be familiar and very intelligible And this is so intelligible and so easily deducible from the forementioned causes that a Man born blind or brought up all his life in a Cave that had never seen the face of the Earth nor ever heard any description of it more than that it was a great Globe having this Theory propos'd to him or being instructed what the form of the first Earth was how it stood over the waters and then how it was broke and fell into them he would easily of his own accord foretel what changes would arise upon this dissolution and what the new form of the Earth would be As in the first place he would tell you that this second Earth would be distinguish'd and checker'd into Land and Water for the Orb which fell being greater than the circumference it fell upon all the fragments could not fall flat and lie drown'd under water and those that stood above would make the dry Land or habitable part of the Earth Then in the second place he would plainly discern that these fragments that made the dry Land could not lie all plain and smooth and equal but some would be higher and some lower some in one posture and some in another and consequently would make Mountains Hills Valleys and Plains and all other varieties we have in the situation of the parts of the Earth And lastly a blind man would easily divine that such a great ruine could not happen but there would be a great many holes and cavities amongst the parts of it a great many intervals and empty places in the rubbish as I may so say for this we see happens in all ruines more or less and where the fragments are great and hard 't is not possible they should be so adjusted in their fall but that they would lie hollow in many places and many unfill'd spaces would be intercepted amongst them some gaping in the surface of the Earth and others hid within so as this would give occasion to all sorts of fractures and cavities either in the skin of the Earth or within its body And these Cavities that I may add that in the last place would be often fill'd with Subterraneous waters at least at such a depth for the foundations of the Earth standing now within the waters so high as those waters reach'd they would more or less propagate themselves every way Thus far our Blind man could tell us what the New World would be or the form of the Earth upon the great dissolution and we find his reasonings and inferences very true these are the chief lineaments and features of our Earth which appear indeed very irregular and very inaccountable when they are lookt upon naked in themselves but if we look upon them through this Theory we see as in a glass all the reasons and causes of them There are different Genius's of Men and different conceptions and every one is to be allow'd their liberty as to things of this nature I confess for my own part when I observe how easily and naturally this Hypothesis doth apply it self to the general face of this Earth hits and falls in so luckily and surprizingly with all the odd postures of iâ—s parts I cannot without violence bear off my mind from fully assenting to it And the more odd and extravagant as I may so say and the more diversify'd the effects and appearances are to which an Hypothesis is to be apply'd if it answers them all and with exactness it comes the nearer to a moral certitude and infallibility As a Lock that consists of a great deal of workmanship many Wards and many odd pieces and contrivances if you find a Key that answers to them all and opens it readily 't is a thousand to one that 't is the true Key and was made for that purpose An eminent Philosopher of this Age Monsteur des Cartes hath made use of the like Hypothesis to explain the irregular form of the present Earth though he never dream'd of the Deluge nor thought that first Orb built over the Abyss to have been any more than a transient crust and not a real habitable World that lasted for more than sixteen hundred years as we suppose it to have been And though he hath in my opinion in the formation of that first Orb and upon the dissolution of it committed some great oversights whereof we have given an account in the Latin Treatise however he saw a necessity of such a thing and of the disruption of it to bring the Earth into that form and posture wherein we now find it Thus far we have spoken in general concerning the agreement and congruity of our supposition with the present face of the Earth and the easie account it gives of the causes of it And
of things would arise and a new Deluge for that part of the Earth Such removes and interchanges I believe would often happen in the first Ages after the Flood as we see in all other ruines there happen lesser and secondary ruines after the first till the parts be so well pois'd and setled that without some violence they scarce change their posture any more But to return to our Earthquakes and to give an instance or two of their extent and violence Pliny mentions one in the Reign of Tiberius Caesar that struck down Twelve Cities of Asia in one night And Fournier gives us an account of one in Peru that reacht three hundred leagues along the Sea-shore and seventy leagues inland and level'd the Mountains all along as it went threw down the Cities turn'd the Rivers out of their Chanels and made an universal havock and confusion And all this he saith was done within the space of seven or eight minutes There must be dreadful Vaults and Mines under that Continent that gave passage to the Vapours and liberty to play for nine hundred miles in length and above two hundred in breadth Asia also hath been very subject to these desolations by Earthquakes and many parts in Europe as Greece Italy and others The truth is our Cities are built upon ruines and our Fields and Countries stand upon broken Arches and Vaults and so does the greatest part of the outward frame of the Earth and therefore it is no wonder if it be often shaken there being quantities of Exhalations within these Mines or Cavernous passages that are capable of rarefaction and inflammation and upon such occasions requiring more room they shake or break the ground that covers them And thus much concerning Earthquakes A second observation that argues the hollowness of the Earth is the communication of the Seas and Lakes under ground The Caspian and Mediterranean Seas and several Lakes receive into them great Rivers and yet have no visible out let These must have Subterraneous out-lets by which they empty themselves otherwise they would redound and overflow the brims of their Vessel The Mediterranean is most remarkable in this kind because 't is observ'd that at one end the great Ocean flows into it through the straits of Gibralter with a sensible current and towards the other end about Constantinople the Pontus flows down into it with a stream so strong that Vessels have much ado to stem it and yet it neither hath any visible evacuation or out-let nor over-flows its banks And besides that it is thus fed at either end it is sed by the navel too as I may so say it sucks in by their Chanels several Rivers into its belly whereof the Nile is one very great and considerable These things have made it a great Problem What becomes of the water of the Mediterranean Sea And for my part I think the solution is very easie namely that it is discharg'd by Subterraneous passages or convey'd by Chanels under the ground into the Ocean And this manner of discharge or conveyance is not peculiar to the Mediterranean but is common to it with the Caspian Sea and other Seas and Lakes that receive great Rivers into them and have no visible issue I know there have been propos'd several other ways to answer this difficulty concerning the eâ—flux or consumption of the waters of the Mediterranean some have suppos'd a double current in the strait of Gibralter one that carry'd the water in and another that brought it out like the Arteries and Veins in our Body the one exporting our bloud from the heart and the other re-importing it So they suppos'd one current upon the surface which carry'd the water into the Mediterranean and under it at a certain depth a counter-current which brought the water back into the Ocean But this hath neither proof nor foundation for unless it was included in pipes as our bloud is or consisted of liquors very different these cross currents would mingle and destroy one another Others are of opinion that all the water that flows into the Mediterranean or a quantity equal to it is consum'd in Exhalations every day This seems to be a bolder supposition than the other for if so much be consum'd in Vapours and Exhalations every day as flows into this Sea what if this Sea had an out-let and discharg'd by that every day as much as it receiv'd in a few days the Vapours would have consum'd all the rest and yet we see many Lakes that have as free an out-let as an in-let and are not consum'd or sensibly diminisht by the Vapours Besides This Reason is a Summer-reason and would pass very ill in Winter when the heat of the Sun is much less powerful At least there would be a very sensible difference betwixt the height of the waters in Summer and Winter if so much was consum'd every day as this Explication supposeth And the truth is this want of a visible out-let is not a property belonging only to the Mediterranean Sea as we noted before but is also in other Seas and great Lakes some lying in one Climate and some in another where there is no reason to suppose such excessive Exhalations and though 't is true some Rivers in Africk and in others parts of the Earth are thus exhal'd and dry'd up without ever flowing into the Sea as were all the Rivers in the first Earth yet this is where the sands and parch'd ground suck up a great part of them the heat of the Climate being excessively strong and the Chanel of the River growing shallower by degrees and it may be divided into lesser branches and rivulets which are causes that take no place here And therefore we must return to our first reason which is universal for all seasons of the Year and all Climates and seeing we are assur'd that there are Subterraneous Chanels and passages for Rivers often fall into the ground and sometimes rise again and sometimes never return why should we doubt to ascribe this effect to so obvious a cause Nay I believe the very Ocean doth evacuate it self by Subterraneous out-lets for considering what a prodigious mass of water falls into it every day from the wide mouths of all the Rivers of the Earth it must have out-lets proportionable and those Syrtes or great Whirlpools that are constant in certain parts or Sinus's of the Sea as upon the Coast of Norway and of Italy arise probably from Subterraneous out-lets in those places whereby the water sinks and turns and draws into it whatsoever comes within such a compass and if there was no issue at the bottom though it might by contrary currents turn things round within in its Sphere yet there is no reason from that why it should suck them down to the bottom Neither does it seem improbable that the currents of the Sea are from these in-draughts and that there is always a submarine in-let in some part of them to make a circulation of
the Waters But thus much for the Subterraneous communication of Seas and Lakes And thus much in general concerning Subterraneous Cavities and concerning the hollow and broken frame of the Earth If I had now Magick enough to show you at one view all the inside of the Earth which we have imperfectly describ'd if we could go under the roots of the Mountains and into the sides of the broken rocks or could dive into the Earth with one of those Rivers that sink under ground and follow its course and all its windings till it rise again or led us to the Sea we should have a much stronger and more effectual Idea of the broken form of the Earth than any we can excite by these faint descriptions collected from Reason The Ancients I remember us'd to represent these hollow Caves and Subterraneous Regions in the nature of a World under-ground and suppos'd it inhabited by the Nymphs especially the Nymphs of the waters and the Sea-Goddesses so Orpheus sung of old and in imitation of him Virgil hath made a description of those Regions feigning the Nymph Cyrene to send for her son to come down to her and make her a visit in those shades where mortals were not admitted Duc age duc ad nos fas illi limina Divûm Tangere ait Simul alta jubet discedere latè Flumina quà juvenis gressus inferret at illum Curvata in montis faciem circumstitit unda AccepÃtque sinu vasto misÃtque sub amnem Iámque domum â—mirans Genetricis humida regna Speluncisque lacos clausos lucósque sonantes Ibat ingenti motu stupâ—factus aquarum Omnia sub magnâ labentia slumina terrâ Spectabat diversa locis PhasÃmque Licúmque c. Et Thalami matris pendentia pumice tecta c. Come lead the Youth below bring him to me The Gods are pleas'd our Mansions he should see Streight she commands the floods to make him way They open their wide bosom and obey Soft is the path and easie is his tread A watry Arch hends o'er his dewy head And as he goes he wonders and looks round To see this new-found Kingdom under ground The silent Lakes in hollow Caves he sees And on their banks an echoing grove of Trees The fall of waters 'mongst the Rocks below He hears and sees the Rivers how they flow All the great Rivers of the Earth are there Prepar'd as in a womb by Nature's care Last to his mother's bed-chamber he 's brought Where the high roof with Pumice-stone is wrought c. If we now could open the Earth as this Nymph did the Water and go down into the bosom of it see all the dark Chambers and Apartments there how ill contriv'd and how ill kept so many holes and corners some fill'd with smoak and fire some with water and some with vapours and mouldy Air how like a ruine it lies gaping and torn in the parts of it we should not easily believe that God created it into this form immediately out of nothing It would have cost no more to have made things in better order nay it had been more easie and more simple and accordingly we are assured that all things were made at first in Beauty and proportion And if we consider Nature and the manner of the first formation of the Earth 't is evident that there could be no such holes and Caverns nor broken pieces made then in the body of it for the grosser parts of the Chaos falling down towards the Center they would there compose a mass of Earth uniform and compact the water swimming above it and this first mass under the water could have no Caverns or vacuities in it for if it had had any the Earthy parts while the mass was liquid or semi-liquid would have sunk into them and fill'd them up expelling the Air or Water that was there And when afterwards there came to be a crust or new Earth form'd upon the face of the Waters there could be no Cavities no dens no fragments in it no more than in the other And for the same general reason that is passing from a liquid form into a concrete or solid leasurely and by degrees it would flow and settle together in an entire mass There being nothing broken nor any thing hard to bear the parts off from one another or to intercept any empty spaces between them 'T is manifest then that the Earth could not be in this Cavernous form originally by any work of Nature nor by any immediate action of God seeing there is neither use nor beauty in this kind of construction Do we not then as reasonably as aptly ascribe it to that desolation that was brought upon the Earth in the general Deluge When its outward frame was dissolv'd and fell into the great Abyss How easily doth this answer all that we have observ'd concerning the Subterraneous Regions That hollow and broken posture of things under ground all those Caves and holes and blind recesses that are otherwise so inaccountable say but that they are a Ruine and you have in one word explain'd them all For there is no sort of Cavities interior or exterior great or little open or shut wet or dry of what form or fashion soever but we might reasonably expect them in a ruine of that nature And as for the Subterraneous waters seeing the Earth fell into the Abyss the pillars and foundations of the present exteriour Earth must stand immers'd in water and therefore at such a depth from the surface every where there must be water found if the soil be of a nature to admit it 'T is true all Subterraneous waters do not proceed from this original for many of them are the effects of Rains and melted Snows sunk into the Earth but that in digging any where you constantly come to water at length even in the most solid ground this cannot proceed from these Rains or Snows but must come from below and from a cause as general as the effect is which can be no other in my judgment than this that the roots of the exteriour Earth stand within the old Abyss whereof as a great part lies open in the Sea so the rest lies hid and cover'd among the fragments of the Earth sometimes dispers'd and only moistning the parts as our bloud lies in the flesh and in the habit of the body sometimes in greater or lesser masses as the bloud in our Vessels And this I take to be the true account of Subterraneous waters as distinguish'd from Fountains and Rivers and from the matter and causes of them Thus much we have spoke to give a general Idea of the inward parts of the Earth and an easie Explication of them by our Hypothesis which whether it be true or no if you compare it impartially with Nature you will confess at least that all these things are just in such a form and posture as if it was true CHAP. X. Concerning the Chanel of the
Sea and the Original of it The Causes of its irregular form and unequal depths As also of the Original of Islands their situation and other properties WE have hitherto given an account of the Subterraneous Regions and of their general form We now come above ground to view the surface of the Globe which we find Terraqueous or divided into Sea and Land These we must survey and what is remarkable in them as to their frame and structure we must give an account of from our Hypothesis and shew to be inaccountable from any other yet known As for the Ocean there are two things considerable in it the Water and the Chanel that contains it The Water no doubt is as ancient as the Earth and cotemporary with it and we suppose it to be part of the great Abyss wherein the World was drown'd the rest lying cover'd under the hollow fragments of Continents and Islands But that is not so much the subject of our present discourse as the Chanel of the Ocean that vast and prodigious Cavity that runs quite round the Globe and reacheth for ought we know from Pole to Pole and in many places is unsearchably deep When I present this great Gulf to my imagination emptied of all its waters naked and gaping at the Sun stretching its jaws from one end of the Earth to another it appears to me the most ghastly thing in Nature What hands or instruments could work a Trench in the body of the Earth of this vastness and lay Mountains and Rocks on the side of it as Ramparts to enclose it But as we justly admire its greatness so we cannot at all admire its beauty or elegancy for 't is as deform'd and irregular as it is great And there appearing nothing of order or any regular design in its parts it seems reasonable to believe that it was not the work of Nature according to her first intention or according to the first model that was drawn in measure and proportion by the Line and by the Plummet but a secondary work and the best that could be made of broken materials And upon this supposition 't is easie to imagine how upon the dissolution of the primaeval Earth the Chanel of the Sea was made or that huge Cavity that lies between the several Continents of the Earth which shall be more particularly explain'd after we have view'd a little better the form of it and the Islands that lie scatter'd by its shores There is no Cavity in the Earth whether open or Subterraneous that is comparably so great as that of the Ocean nor would any appear of that deformity if we could see it empty The inside of a Cave is rough and unsightly The beds of great Rivers and great Lakes when they are laid dry look very raw and rude The Valleys of the Earth if they were naked without Trees and without Grass nothing but bare ground and bare stones from the tops of their Mountains would have a ghastly aspect but the Sea-chanel is the complex of all these here Caves empty Lakes naked Valleys are represented as in their original or rather far exceeded and out-done as to all their irregularities for the Cavity of the Ocean is universally irregular both as to the shores and borders of it as to the uncertain breadth and the uncertain depth of its several parts and as to its ground and bottom and the whole mould If the Sea had been drawn round the Earth in regular figures and borders it might have been a great beauty to our Globe and we should reasonably have concluded it a work of the first Creation or of Nature's first production but finding on the contrary all the marks of disorder and disproportion in it we may as reasonably conclude that it did not belong to the first order of things but was something succedaneous when the degeneracy of Mankind and the judgments of God had destroy'd the first World and subjected the Creation of some kind of Vanity Nor can it easily be imagin'd if the Sea had been always and the Earth in this Terraqueous form broke into Continents and Islands how Mankind could have been propagated at first through the face of the Earth all from one head and from one place For Navigation was not then known at least as to the grand Ocean or to pass from Continent to Continent And I believe Noah's Ark was the first Ship or Vessel of bulk that ever was built in the World how could then the Posterity of Adam overflow the Earth and stock the several parts of the World if they had been distant or separate then as they are now by the interposal of the great Ocean But this consideration we will insist upon more largely in another place let us reflect upon the irregularities of the Sea-chanel again and the possible causes of it If we could imagine the Chanel of the Sea to have been made as we may imagine the Chanel of Rivers to have been by long and insensible attrition The Water wearing by degrees the ground under it by the â—orce it hath from its descent and course we should not wonder at its irregular form but 't is not possible this Chanel should have had any such original whence should its water have descended from what Mountains or from what Clouds Where is the spring-head of the Sea What force could eat away half the surface of the Earth and wear it hollow to an immeasurable depth This must not be from feeble and lingring causes such as the attrition of waters but from some great violence offer'd to Nature such as we suppose to have been in the general Deluge when the frame of the Earth was broken And after we have a little survey'd the Sea-coast and so far as we can the form of the Sea-chanel we shall the more easily believe that they could have no other original than what we assign The shores and coasts of the Sea are no way equal or uniform but go in a line uncertainly crooked and broke indented and jag'd as a thing torn as you may see in the Maps of the Coasts and the Sea-charts and yet there are innumerable more inequalities than are taken notice of in those draughts for they only mark the greater Promontories and Bays but there are besides those a multitude of Creeks and out-lets necks of Land and Angles which break the evenness of the shore in all manner of ways Then the height and level of the shore is as uncertain as the line of it 'T is sometimes high and sometimes low sometimes spread in sandy Plains as smooth as the Sea it self and of such an equal height with it that the waves seem to have no bounds but the meer figure and convexity of the Globe In other places 't is rais'd into banks and ramparts of Earth and in others 't is wall'd in with Rocks And all this without any order that we can observe or any other reason than that this is what might be
thus much may suffice for a summary Explication of the causes of the Sea-chanel and Islands according to our Hypothesis CHAP. XI Concerning the Mountains of the Earth their greatness and irregular Form their Situation Causes and Origin WE have been in the hollows of the Earth and the Chambers of the Deep amongst the damps and steams of those lower Regions let us now go air our selves on the tops of the Mountains where we shall have a more free and large Horizon and quite another face of things will present it self to our observation The greatest objects of Nature are methinks the most pleasing to behold and next to the great Concave of the Heavens and those boundless Regions where the Stars inhabit there is nothing that I look upon with more plaesure than the wide Sea and the Mountains of the Earth There is something august and stately in the Air of these things that inspires the mind with great thoughts and passions We do naturally upon such occasions think of God and his greatness and whatsoever hath but the shadow and appearance of INFINITE as all things have that are too big for our comprehension they fill and over-bear the mind with their Excess and cast it into a pleasing kind of stupor and admiration And yet these Mountains we are speaking of to confess the truth are nothing but great ruines but such as show a certain magnificence in Nature as from old Temples and broken Amphitheaters of the Romans we collect the greatness of that people But the grandeur of a Nation is less sensible to those that never see the remains and monuments they have left and those who never see the mountainous parts of the Earth scarce ever reflect upon the causes of them or what power in Nature could be sufficient to produce them The truth is the generality of people have not sence and curiosity enough to raise a question concerning these things or concerning the Original of them You may tell them that Mountains grow out of the Earth like Fuzz-balls or that there are Monsters under ground that throw up Mountains as Moles do Mole-hills they will scarce raise one objection against your doctrine or if you would appear more Learned tell them that the Earth is a great Animal and these are Wens that grow upon its body This would pass current for Philosophy so much is the World drown'd in stupidity and sensual pleasures and so little inquisitive into the works of God and Nature There is nothing doth more awaken our thoughts or excite our minds to enquire into the causes of such things than the actual view of them as I have had experience my self when it was my fortune to cross the Alps and Appennine Mountains for the sight of those wild vast and indigested heaps of Stones and Earth did so deeply strike my fancy that I was not easie till I could give my self some tolerable account how that confusion came in Nature 'T is true the height of Mountains compar'd with the Diameter of the Earth is not considerable but the extent of them and the ground they stand upon bears a considerable proportion to the surface of the Earth and if from Europe we may take our measures for the rest I easily believe that the Mountains do at least take up the tenth part of the dry Land The Geographers are not very careful to describe or note in their Charts the multitude or situation of Mountains They mark the bounds of Countries the site of Cities and Towns and the course of Rivers because these are things of chief use to civil affairs and commerce and that they design to serve and not Philosophy or Natural History But Cluverius in his description of Ancient Germany Switzerland and Italy hath given Maps of those Countries more approaching to the natural face of them and we have drawn at the end of this Chapter such a Map of either Hemisphere without marking Countries or Towns or any such artificial things distinguishing only Land and Sea Islands and Continents Mountains and not Mountains and 't is very useful to imagine the Earth in this manner and to look often upon such bare draughts as shew us Nature undrest for then we are best able to judge what her true shapes and proportions are 'T is certain that we naturally imagine the surface of the Earth much more regular than it is for unless we be in some Mountainous parts there seldom occur any great inequalities within so much compass of ground as we can at once reach with our Eye and to conceive the rest we multiply the same Iden and extend it to those parts of the Earth that we do not see and so fansie the whole Globe much more smooth and uniform than it is But suppose a man was carri'd asleep out of a Plain Country amongst the Alps and left there upon the top of one of the highest Mountains when he wak'd and look'd about him he would think himself in an inchanted Country or carri'd into another World every thing would appear to him so different to what he had ever seen or imagin'd before To see on every hand of him a multitude of vast bodies thrown together in confusion as those Mountains are Rocks standing naked round about him and the hollow Valleys gaping under him and at his feet it may be an heap of frozen Snow in the midst of Summer He would hear the thunder come from below and see the black Clouds hanging beneath him Upon such a prospect it would not be easie to him to perswade himself that he was still upon the same Earth but if he did he would be convinc'd at least that there are some Regions of it strangely rude and ruine-like and very different from what he had ever thought of before But the Inhabitants of these wild places are even with us for those that live amongst the Alps and the great Mountains think that all the rest of the Earth is like their Country all broken into Mountains and Valleys and Precipices They never see other and most people think of nothing but what they have seen at one time or another These Alps we are speaking of are the greatest range of Mountains in Europe and 't is prodigious to see and to consider of what extent these heaps of Stones and Rubbish are one way they overspread Savoy and Dauphiné and reach through France to the Pyrenean Mountains and so to the Ocean The other way they run along the skirts of Germany through Stiria Pannonia and Dalmatia as far as Thrace and the Black Sea Then backwards they cover Switzerland and the parts adjacent and that branch of them which we call the Appennines strikes through Italy and is as it were the back-bone of that Country This must needs be a large space of ground which they stand upon Yet 't is not this part of Europe only that is laden with Mountains the Northern part is as rough and rude in the face of the Country as in
the manners of the people Bohemia Silesia Denmark Norway Sweedland Lapland and Iseland and all the coasts of the Baltick Sea are full of Clifts and Rocks and Crags of Mountains Besides the Riphean Mountains in Muscovy which the Inhabitants there use to call the Stone-girdle and believe that it girds the Earth round about Nor are the other parts of our Continent more free from Mountains than Europe nor other parts of the Earth than our Continent They are in the New World as well as the Old and if they could discover two or three New Worlds or Continents more they would still find them there Neither is there any Original Island upon the Earth but is either all a Rock or hath Rocks and Mountains in it And all the dry Land and every Continent is but a kind of Mountain though that Mountain hath a multitude of lesser ones and Valleys and Plains and Lakes and Marshes and all variety of grounds In America the Andes or a ridge of Mountains so call'd are reported to be higher than any we have reaching above a thousand Leagues in length and twenty in breadth where they are the narrowest In Africk the Mountain Atlas that for its height was said to bear the Heavens on its back runs all along from the Western Sea to the borders of Aegypt parallel with the Mediterranean There also are the Mountains or the Moon and many more whereof we have but an imperfect account as neither indeed of that Country in the remote and inner parts of it Asia is better known and the Mountains thereof better describ'd Taurus which is the principal was adjudg'd by the ancient Geographers the greatest in the World It divides Asia into two parts which have their denomination from it And there is an Anti-Taurus the greater and the less which accordingly divide Armenia into greater and less Then the Cruciform Mountains of Imaus the famous CÃ ucasus the long Chains of Tartary and China and the Rocky and Mountainous Arabia If one could at once have a prospect of all these together one would be easily satisfied that the Globe of the Earth is a more rude and indigested Body than 't is commonly imagin'd If one could see I say all the Kingdoms and Regions of the Earth at one view how they lie in broken heaps The Sea hath overwhelm'd one half of them and what remains are but the taller parts of a ruine Look upon those great ranges of Mountains in Europe or in Asia whereof we have given a short survey in what confusion do they lie They have neither form nor beauty nor shape nor order no more than the Clouds in the Air. Then how barren how desolate how naked are they How they stand neglected by Nature Neither the Rains can soften them nor the Dews from Heaven make them fruitful I have given this short account of the Mountains of the Earth to help to remove that prejudice we are apt to have or that conceit That the present Earth is regularly form'd And to this purpose I do not doubt but that it would be of very good use to have natural Maps of the Earth as we noted before as well as civil and done with the same care and judgment Our common Maps I call Civil which note the distinction of Countries and of Cities and represent the Artificial Earth as inhabited and cultivated But Natural Maps leave out all that and represent the Earth as it would be if there was not an Inhabitant upon it nor evor had been the Skeleton of the Earth as I may so say with the site of all its parts Methinks also every Prince should have such a Draught of his own Country and Dominions to see how the ground lies in the several parts of them which highest which lowest what respect they have to one another and to the Sea how the Rivers flow and why how the Mountains stand how the Heaths and how the Marches are plac'd Such a Map or Survey would be useful both in time of War and Peace and many good observations might be made by it not only as to Natural History and Philosophy but also in order to the perfect improvement of a Country But to return to our Mountains As this View of the multitude and greatness of them may help to rectifie our mistakes about the form of the Earth so before we proceed to examine their causes it will be good to observe farther that these Mountains are plac'd in no order on with another that can either respect use or beauty and if you consider them singly they do not consist of any proportion of parts that is referable to any design or that hath the least footsteps of Art or Counsel There is nothing in Nature more shapeless and ill-figur'd than an old Rock or a Mountain and all that variety that is among them is but the various modes of irregularity so as you cannot make a better character of them in short than to say they are of all forms and figures except regular Then if you would go within these Mountains for they are generally hollow you would find all things there more rude if possible than without And lastly if you look upon an heap of them together or a Mountainous Country they are the greatest examples of confusion that we know in Nature no Tempest or Earthquake puts things into more disorder 'T is true they cannot look so ill now as they did at first a ruine that is fresh looks much worse than afterwards when the Earth grows discolour'd and skin'd over But I fancy if we had seen the Mountains when they were new born and raw when the Earth was fresh-broken and the waters of the Deluge newly retir'd the fractions and confusions of them would have appear'd very gastly and frightful After this general Survey of the Mountains of the Earth and their properties let us now reâ—lect upon the causes of them There is a double pleasure in Philosophy first that of Admiration whilst we contemplate things that are great and wonderful and do not yet understand their Causes for though admiration proceed from ignorance yet there is a certain charm and sweetness in that passion Then the second pleasure is greater and more intellectual which is that of distinct knowledge and comprehension when we come to have the Key that unlocks those secrets and see the methods wherein those things come to pass that we admir'd before The reasons why the World is so or so and from what causes Nature or any part of Nature came into such a state and this we are now to enquire after as to the Mountains of the Earth what their original was how and when the Earth came into this strange frame and structure In the beginning of our World when the Earth rise from a Chaos 't was impossible it should come immediately into this Mountainous form because a mass that is fluid as a Chaos is cannot liâ— in any other figure than what is regular for the
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
That the Earth rise at first from a Chaos for besides Reason and Antiquity Scripture it self doth assure us of that and that one point being granted we have deduc'd from it all the rest by a direct chain of consequences which I think cannot be broken easily in any part or link of it Besides the great hinge of this Theory upon which all the rest turns is the distinction we make of the Ante diluvian Earth and Heavens from the Post-diluvian as to their form and constitution And it will never be beaten out of my head but that S. Peter hath made the same distinction sixteen hundred years since and to the very same purpose so that we have sure footing here again and the Theory riseth above the character of a bare Hypothesis And whereas an Hypothesis that is clear and proportion'd to Nature in every respect is accounted morally certain we must in equity give more than a moral certitude to this Theory But I mean this only as to the general parts of it for as to particularities I look upon them only as problematical and accordingly I affirm nothing therein but with a power of revocation and a liberty to change my opinion when I shall be better inform'd Neither do I know any Author that hath treated a matter new remote and consisting of a multitude of particulars who would not have had occasion if he had liv'd to have seen his Hypothesis fully examin'd to have chang'd his mind and manner of explaining things in many material instances To conclude both this Chapter and this Section we have here added a Map or Draught of the Earth according to the Natural face of it as it would appear from the Moon if we were a little nearer to her or as it was at first after the Deluge before Cities were built distinctions of Countries made or any alteâ—ations by humane industry 'T is chiefly to expose more to view the Mountains of the Earth and the proportions of Sea and Land to shew it as it lies in it self and as a Naturalist ought to conceive and consider it 'T is true there are far more Mountains upon the Earth than what are here represented for more could not conveniently be plac'd in this narrow Scheme But the best and most effectual way of representing the body of the Earth as it is by Nature would be not in plain Tables but by a rough Globe expressing all the considerable inequalities that are upon the Earth The smooth Globes that we use do but nourish in us the conceit of the Earth's regularity and though they may be convenient enough for Geographical purposes they are not so proper for Natural Science nothing would be more useful in this respect than a rough Globe of the largest dimensions wherein the Chanel of the Sea should be really hollow as it is in Nature with all its unequal depths according to the best soundings and the shores exprest both according to matter and form little Rocks standing where there are Rocks and Sands and Beaches in the places where they are found and all the Islands planted in the Sea-chanel in a due form and in their solid dimensions Then upon the Land should stand all the ranges of Mountains in the same order or disorder that Nature hath set them there And the in-land Seas and great Lakes or rather the beds they lie in should be duly represented as also the vast desarts of Sand as they lie upon the Earth And this being done with care and due Art would be a true Epitome or true model of our Earth Where we should see besides other instructions what a rude Lump our World is which we are so apt to dote upon CHAP. XII A short review of what hath been already treated of and in what manner The several Faces and Schemes under which the Earth would appear to a Stranger that should view it first at a distance and then more closely and the Application of them to our subject All methods whether Philosophical or Theological that have been offer'd by others for the Explication of the Form of the Earth are examin'd and disprov'd A conjecture concerning the other Planets their Natural Form and State compared with ours WE have finish'd the Three Sections of this Book and in this last Chapter we will make a short review and reflection upon what hath been hitherto treated of and add some further confirmations of it The Explication of the Universal Deluge was the first proposal and design of this Discourse to make that a thing credible and intelligible to the mind of Man And the full Explication of this drew in the whole Theory of the Earth Whose original we have deduc'd from its first Source and shew'd both what was its primaeval Form and how it came into its present Form The summ of our Hypothesis concerning the Universal Deluge was this That it came not to pass as was vulgarly believ'd by any excess of Rains or any Inundation of the Sea nor could ever be effected by a meer abundance of Waters unless we suppose some dissolution of the Earth at the same time namely when the Great Abyss was broken open And accordingly we shewed that without such a dissolution or if the Earth had been always in the same form it is in now no mass of water any where to be found in the World could have equall'd the height of the Mountains or made such an Universal Deluge Secondly We shewed that the form of the Earth at first and till the Deluge was such as made it capable and subject to a Dissolution And thirdly That such a dissolution being suppos'd the Doctrine of the Universal Deluge is very reasonable and intelligible And not only the Doctrine of the Deluge but the same supposition is a Key to all Nature besides shewing us how our Globe became Terraqueous what was the original of Mountains of the Sea-chanel of Islands of subterraneous Cavities Things which without this supposition are as unintelligible as the universal Flood it self And these things reciprocally confirming one another our Hypothesis of the Deluge is arm'd both breast and back by the causes and by the effects It remains now that as to confirm our Explication of the Deluge we shew'd all other accounts that had been given of it to be ineffectual or impossible so to confirm our doctrine concerning the dissolution of the Earth and concerning the Original of Mountains Seas and all inequalities upon it or within it we must examine what causes have been assign'd by others or what accounts given of these things That seeing their defectiveness we may have the more assurance and satisfaction in our own method And in order to this let us observe first the general forms under which the Earth may be consider'd or under which it doth appear accordingly as we view it more nearly or remotely And the first of these and the most general is that of a Terraqueous Globe If a Philosopher should come out of
another World out of curiosity to see our Earth the first discovery or observation he would make would be this that it was a Terraqueous Globe Thus much he might observe at a great distance when he came but near the borders of our World This we discern in the Moon and most of the Planets that they are divided into Sea and Land and how this division came would be his first remark and inquiry concerning our Earth and how also those subdivisions of Islands or little Earths which lie in the Water how these were form'd and that great Chanel that contains them both The second form that the Earth appears under is that of an uneven and Mountainous Globe When our Traveller had got below tho Circle of the Moon he would discern the bald tops of our Mountains and the long ranges of them upon our Continents We cannot from the Earth discern Mountains and Valleys in the Moon directly but from the motion of the light and shadows which we see there we easily collect that there are such inequalities And accordingly we suppose that our Mountains would appear at a great distance and the shady Valleys lying under them and that this curious person that came to view our Earth would make that his second Enquiry how those Mountains were form'd and how our Globe came to be so rude and irregular for we may justly demand how any irregularity came into Nature seeing all her first motions and her first forms are regular and whatsoever is not so is but secondary and the consequence of some degeneracy or of some decay The Third visible form of our Earth is that of a broken Globe and broken throughout but in the outward parts and Regions of it This it may be you will say is not a visible form it doth not appear to the eye without reasoning that the surface of the Earth is so broken Suppose our new Visitant had now pass'd the middle Region of the Air and was alighted upon the top of Pick Teneriffe for his first resting place and that sitting there he took a view of the great Rocks the wide Sea and of the shores of Africk and Europe for we 'll suppose his piercing Eye to reach so far I will not say that at first sight he would pronounce that the surface of this Globe was broken unless he knew it to be so by comparison with some other Planet like to it but the broken form and figure of many parts of the Rocks and the posture in which they lay or great portions of them some inclin'd some prostrate some erected would naturally lead him to that thought that they were a ruine He would see also the Islands tore from the Continents and both the shores of the Continents and their inland parts in the same disorder and irregular situation Besides he had this great advantage in viewing the Earth at a distance that he could see a whole Hemisphere together which as he made his approaches through the Air would have much what the same aspect and countenance as 't is represented with in the great Scheme And if any man should accidentally hit upon that Scheme not knowing or thinking that it was the Earth I believe his first thought of it would be that it was some great broken body or ruin'd frame of matter and the original I am sure is more manifestly so But we 'll leave our Strange Philosopher to his own observations and wish him good Guides and Interpreters in his Survey of the Earth and that he would make a favourable report at his return home of our little dirty Planet In the mean time let us pursue in our own way this Third Idea of the Earth a little further as it is a broken Globe Nature I know hath dissembled and cover'd this form as much as may be and time hath helpt to repair some of the old breaches or fill them up besides the changes that have been made by Art and Humane industry by Agriculture Planting and Building Towns hath made the face of the Earth quite another thing from what it was in its naked rudeness As mankind is much alter'd from its Pristine state from what it was four thousand years ago or towards the first Ages after the Flood when the Nations liv'd in simplicity or barbarousness so is the Earth too and both so disguis'd and transform'd that if one of those Primitive Fathers should rise from the dead he would scarce know this to be the same World which he liv'd in before But to discern the true form of the Earth whether intire or broken regular or disorder'd we must in the first place take away all those ornaments or additions made by Art or Nature and view the bare carcass of the Earth as it hath nothing on it but Rocks and Mountains Desarts and Fields and hollow Valleys and a wide Sea Then secondly We must in our imagination empty this Chanel of the Sea take out all the Waters that hinder the sight of it and look upon the dry Ditch measure the depth and breadth of it in our mind and observe the manner of its construction and in what a wild posture all the parts of it lie according as it hath been formerly represented And lastly We must take off the cover of all Subterraneous places and deep Caverns to see the inside of the Earth and lay bare the roots of Mountains to look into those holes and Vaults that are under them fill'd sometimes with Fire sometimes with Water and sometimes with thick Air and Vapours The object being thus prepar'd we are then to look fix'dly upon it and to pronounce what we think of this disfigur'd mass whether this Exteriour frame doth not seem to be shatter'd and whether it doth more aptly resemble a new-made World or the ruines of one broken I confess when this Idea of the Earth is present to my thoughts I can no more believe that this was the form wherein it was first produc'd than if I had seen the Temple of Ierusalem in its ruines when defac'd and sack'd by the Babylonians I could have perswaded my self that it had never been in any other posture and that Solomon had given orders for building it so So much for the form of the Earth It remains now that we examine what causes have been assign'd by others of these irregularities in the form of the Earth which we explain by the dissolution of it what accounts any of the Ancients have given or attempted to give how the Earth swell'd into Mountains in certain places and in others was depress'd into low Valleys how the body of it was so broken and how the Chanel of the Sea was made The Elements naturally lie in regular forms one above another and now we find them mixt confounded and transpos'd how comes this disturbance and disordination in Nature The Explications of these things that have been given by others may be reduc'd to two general sorts Philosophical or
Theological and we will try them both for our satisfaction Of Philosophers none was more concern'd to give an account of such things than Epicurus both because he acknowledged the Origin of the Earth to have been from a Chaos and also admitted no causes to act in Nature but Matter and Motion Yet all the account we have from the Epicureans of the form of the Earth and the great inequalities that are in it is so slight and trivial that methinks it doth not deserve the name of a Philosophical Explication They say that the Earth and Water were mix'd at first or rather the Earth was above the Water and as the Earth was condens'd by the heat of the Sun and the Winds the Water was squeez'd out in certain places which either it found hollow or made so and so was the Chanel of the Sea made Then as for Mountains while some parts of the Earth shrunk and sunk in this manner others would not sink and these standing still while the others fell lower made the Mountains How the subterraneous Cavities were made according to them I do not find This is all the Account that Monsieur Gassendi who seems to have made it his business as well as his pleasure to embellish that Philosophy can help us to out of the Epicurean Authors how the Earth came into this form and he that can content himself with this is in my mind of an humour very easie to be pleas'd Do the Sun and the Wind use to squeaze pools of Water out of the Earth and that in such a quantity as to make an Ocean They dry the Earth and the Waters too and rarifie them into vapours but I never knew them to be the causes of pressing Water out of the Earth by condensation Could they compress the Earth any otherwise than by drying it and making it hard and in proportion as it was more dry would it not the more imbibe and suck up the Water and how were the great Mountains of the Earth made in the North and in the South where the influence of the Sun is not great What sunk the Earth there and made the flesh start from the bones But 't is no wonder that Epicurus should give such a mean account of the Origin of the Earth and the form of its parts who did not so much as understand the general Figure of the Body of it that it was in some manner Spherical or that the Heavens encompast it round One must have a blind love for that Philosophy and for the conclusions it drives at not to see its lameness and defects in those first and fundamental parts Aristotle though he was not concern'd to give an account how the Earth came into this present form as he suppos'd it Eternal yet upon another consideration he seems oblig'd to give some reason how the Elements came into this disorder seeing he supposeth that according to the order of Nature the Water should lie above the Earth in a Sphere as the Air doth above the Water and his Fire above the Air. This he toucheth upon in his Meteors but so gently and fearfully as if he was handling hot coals He saith the Sea is to be consider'd as the Element or body of Waters that belongs to this Earth and that these Waters change places and the Sea is some Ages in one part of the Globe and some Ages in another but that this is at such great distances of time that there can be no memory or record of it And he seems willing to suppose that the Water was once all over the Earth but that it drid up in certain places and continuing in others it there made the Sea What a miserable account is this As to his change or removal of the Sea-chanel in several Ages as it is without all proof or probability if he mean it of the Chanel of the great Ocean so 't is nothing to the purpose here for the question is not why the Chanel of the Sea is in such a part of the Earth rather than in another but why there is any such prodigious Cavity in or upon the Earth any where And if we take his supposition that the Element of Water was once higher than the Earth and lay in a Sphere about it then let him tell us in plain terms how the Earth got above or how the Cavity of the Ocean was made and how the the Mountains rise for this Elementary Earth which lay under the Water was I suppose equal and smooth when it lay there and what reason was there that the Waters should be dri'd in one part of it more than another if they were every where of an equal depth and the ground equal under them It was not the Climates made any distinction for there is Sea towards the Poles as well as under the Aequator but suppose they were dri'd up in certain places that would make no Mountains no more than there are Mountains in our dri'd Marches And the places where they were not dri'd would not therefore become as deep and hollow as the Sea chanel and tear the Earth and Rocks in pieces If you should say that this very Elementary Earth as it lay under the Waters was unequal and was so originally form'd into Mountains and Valleys and great Cavities besides that the supposition is altogether irrational in it self you must suppose a prodigious mass of Water to cover such an Earth as much as we found requisite for the vulgar Deluge namely eight Oceans and what then is become of the other seven Upon the whole I do not see that either in Epicurus's way who seems to suppose that the Waters were at first within the Earth nor in Aristotle's way who seems to suppose them upon the Earth any rational or tolerable account can be given of the present form of the Earth Wherefore some modern Authors dissatisfied as very well they might be with these Explications given us by the Ancients concerning the form of the Earth have pitch'd upon other causes more true indeed in their kind and in their degree but that â—all as much short of those effects to which they would apply them They say that all the irregularities of the body of the Earth have risen from Earthquakes in particular places and from Torrents and Inundations and from eruptions of Fire or such like causes whereof we see some instances more or less every Age And these have made that havock upon the face of the Earth and turn'd things up-side down raising the Earth in some places and making great Cavities or Chasms in others so as to have brought it at length into that torn broken and disorderly form in which we now see it These Authors do so far agree with us as to acknowledge that the present irregular form of the Earth must have proceeded from ruines and dissolutions of one sort or other but these ruines they make to have been partial only in this or in that Country by piece-meal and
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
it lay under the Water was a solid uniform mass compact and close united in its parts as we have shewn before upon several occasions no Mines or hollow Vaults for the Vapours to be lodg'd in no Store-houses of Fire nothing that could make Earthquakes nor any sort of ruines or eruptions These are Engines that cannot play but in an Earth already broken hollow and cavernous Therefore the Authors of this opinion do in effect beg the question they assign such causes of the present form of the Earth as could not take place nor have any activity until the Earth was in this form These causes may contribute something to increase the rudeness and inequalities of the Earth in certain places but they could not be the original causes of it And that not only because of their disproportion to such effects but also because of their incapacity or non-existence at that time when these effects were to be wrought Thus much concerning the Philosophical opinions or the natural Causes that have been assign'd for the irregular form of this present Earth Let us now consider the Theological opinions how Mountains were made at first and the wonderful Chanel of the Sea And these Authors say God Almighty made them immediately when he made the World and so dispatcht the business in a few words This is a short account indeed but we must take heed that we do not derogate from the perfection of God by ascribing all things promiscuously to his immediate action I have often suggested that the first order of things is regular and simple according as the Divine Nature is and continues so till there is some degeneracy in the moral World I have also noted upon several occasions especially in the Lat. Treat Cap. II. the deformity and incommodiousness of the present Earth and from these two considerations we may reasonably infer that the present state of the Earth was not Original but is a state of subjection to Vanity wherein it must continue till the redemption and restitution of all things But besides this general consideration there are many others both Natural and Theological against this opinion which the Authors of it I believe will find unanswerable As first S. Peter's distinction betwixt the present Earth and the Ante-diluvian and that in opposition to certain profane persons who seem to have been of the same opinion with these Authors namely That the Heavens and the Earth were the same now that they had been from the beginning and that there had been no change in Nature either of late or in former Ages These S. Peter confutes and upbraids them with ignorance or forgetfulness of the change that was brought upon Nature at the Deluge or that the Ante-diluvian Heavens and Earth were of a different form and constitution from the present whereby that World was obnoxious to a Deluge of Water as the present is to a Deluge of Fire Let these Authors put themselves in the place of those Objectors and see what answer they can make to the Apostle whom I leave to dispute the case with them I hope they will not treat this Epistle of S. Peter's so rudely as Didymus Alexandrinus did an ancient Christian and one of S. Ierom's Masters he was of the same opinion with these Theological Authors and so fierce in it that seeing S. Peter's doctrine here to be contrary he said this Epistle of S. Peter's was corrupted and was not to be receiv'd into the Canon And all this because it taught that the Heavens and the Earth had chang'd their form and would do so again at the Conflagration so as the same World would be Tâ—iform in success of time We acknowledge his Exposition of S. Peter's words to be very true but what he makes an argument of the corruption of this Epistle is rather in my mind a peculiar argument of its Divine Inspiration In the second place these Writers dash upon the old rock the impossibility of explaining the Deluge if there were Mountains from the beginning and the Earth then in the same form as it is in now Thirdly They make the state of Paradise as unintelligible as that of the Deluge For those properties that are assign'd to Paradise by the Ancients are inconsistent with the present form of the Earth As will appear in the Second Book Lastly They must answer and give an account of all those marks which we have observ'd in Nature both in this Chapter and the Ninth Tenth and Eleventh of fractions ruines and dissolutions that have been on the Earth and which we have shown to be inexplicable unless we admit that the Earth was once in another form These arguments being premis'd let us now bring their opinion close to the Test and see in what manner these Mountains must have been made according to them and how the Chanel of the Sea and all other Cavities of the Earth Let us to this purpose consider the Earth again in that transient incompleat form which it had when the Abyss encompast the whole body of it we both agree that the Earth was once in this state and they say that it came immediately out of this state into its present form there being made by a supernatural Power a great Chanel or Ditch in one part of it which drew off the Waters from the rest and the Earth which was squeez'd and forc'd out of this Ditch made the Mountains So there is the Chanel of the Sea made and the Mountains of the Earth how the subterraneous Cavities were made according to these Authors I do not well know This I confess seems to me a very gross thought and a way of working very un-God-like but however let 's have patience to examine it And in the first place if the Mountains were taken out of the Chanel of the Sea then they are equal to it and would fill it up if they were thrown in again But these proportions upon examination will not agree for though the Mountains of the Earth be very great yet they do not equal by much the great Ocean The Ocean extends to half the surface of the Earth and if you suppose the greatest depth of the Ocean to answer the height of the greatest Mountains and the middle depth to the middle sort of Mountains the Mountains ought to cover all the dry Land to make them answer to all the capacity of the Ocean whereas we suppos'd them upon a reasonable computation to cover but the tenth part of the dry Land and consequently neither they nor the Sea-chanel could have been produc'd in this manner because of their great disproportion to one another And the same thing appears if we compare the Mountains with the Abyss which cover'd the Earth before this Chanel was made for this Chanel being made great enough to contain all the Abyss the Mountains taken out of it must also be equal to all the Abyss but the aggregate of the Mountains will not answer this by many degrees
for suppose the Abyss was but half as deep as the deep Ocean to make this Calculus answer all the dry Land ought to be cover'd with Mountains and with Mountains as high as the Ocean is deep or doubly high to the depth of the Abyss because they are but upon one half of the Globe And this is the first argument against the reciprocal production of Mountains and the Sea their incongruency or disproportion Secondly We are to consider that a great many Mountains of the Earth are far distant from any Seas as the great in-land Mountains of Asia and of Africk and the Sarmatick Mountains and others in Europe how were these great bodies slung thorow the Air from their respective Seas whence they were taken to those places where they stand What appearance is there in common reason or credibility that these huge masses of Earth and Stone that stand in the middle of Continents were dug out of any Seas We think it strange and very deservedly that a little Chapel should be transported from Palestine to Italy over Land and Sea much more the transportation of Mount Atlas or Taurus thorow the Air or of a range of Mountains two or three thousand miles long would surely upon all accounts appear incongruous and incredible Besides neither the hollow form of Mountains nor the stony matter whereof they commonly consist agrees with that supposition that they were prest or taken out of the Chanel of the Sea Lastly We are to consider that the Mountains are not barely laid upon the Earth as a Tomb-stone upon a Grave nor stand as Statues do upon a Pedestal as this opinion seems to suppose but they are one continued substance with the body of the Earth and their roots reach into the Abyss as the Rocks by the Sea-side go as deep as the bottom of the Sea in one continu'd mass And 't is a ridiculous thing to imagine the Earth first a plain surface then all the Mountains set upon it as Hay-cocks in a Field standing upon their flat bottoms There is no such common surface in Nature nor consequently any such super-additions 'T is all one frame or mass only broken and disjoynted in the parts of it To conclude 'T is not only the Mountains that make the inequalities of the Earth or the irregularity of its surface every Country every Province every Field hath an unequal and different situation higher or lower inclin'd more or less and sometimes one way sometimes another you can scarce take a miles compass in any place where the surface of the ground continues uniform and can you imagine that there were Moulds or Stones brought from the Sea-chanel to make all those inequalities Or that Earthquakes have been in every County and in every Field The inner Veins and Lares the beds or Strata of the Earth are also broken as well as the surface These must proceed from universal causes and all those that have been alledg'd whether from Philosophy or Theology are but particular or Topical I am fully satisfied in contemplation of these things and so I think every unprejudic'd person may be that to such an irregular variety of situation and construction as we see every where in the parts of the Earth nothing could answer but some universal concussion or dislocation in the nature of a general ruine We have now finisht this first part of our Theory and all that concerns the Deluge or dissolution of the Earth and we have not only establisht our own Hypothesis by positive arguments but also produc'd and examin'd all suppositions that have been offer'd by others whether Philosophical or Theological for the Explication of the same things so as nothing seems now to remain further upon this subject For a conclusion of all we will consider if you please the rest of the Earths or of the Planets within our Heavens that appertain to the same common Sun to see so far as we can go by rational conjectures if they be not of the same Fabrick and have undergone the like fate and forms with our Earth It is now acknowledg'd by the generality of Learned Men that the Planets are Opake bodies and particularly our next neighbour the Moon is known to be a Terraqueous Globe consisting of Mountains and Valleys as our Earth does and we have no reason to believe but that she came into that form by a dissolution or from like causes as our Earth did Mercury is so near the Sun that we cannot well discern his face whether spotted or no nor make a judgment of it But as for Venus and Mars if the spots that be observed in them be their Waters or their Sea as they are in the Moon 't is likely They are also Terraqueous Globes and in much what a like form with the Moon and the Earth and for ought we know from like causes Particularly as to Venus 't is a remarkable passage that S. Austin hath preserv'd out of Varro he saith That about the time of the great Deluge there was a wonderful alteration or Catastrophe happen'd to the Planet Venus and that she chang'd her Colour form figure and magnitude This is a great presumption that she suffer'd her dissolution about the same time that our Earth did I do not know that any such thing is recorded concerning any of the other Planets but the body of Mars looks very rugged broken and much disorder'd Saturn and Iupiter deserve a distinct consideration as having something particular and different from the rest of the Planets Saturn is remarkable for his Hoop or Ring which seems to stand off or higher than his body and would strongly induce one to believe that the exteriour Earth of that Planet at its dissolution did not all fall in but the Polar parts sinking into the Abyss the middle or Aequinoctial parts still subsisted and bore themselves up in the nature of an Arch about the Planet or of a Bridge as it were built over the Sea of Saturn And as some have observ'd concerning the figure of Iupiter that it is not wholly Sphaerical but a Sphaeroid protuberant in the Aequator and deprest towards the Poles So I should suspect Saturn to have been much more so before his disruption Namely That the Body of that Planet in its first state was more flat and low towards the Poles and also weaker and thinner and about the Aequator higher fuller and stronger Built By reason of which figure and construction the Polar parts did more easily fall in or were suckt in as Cupping-glasses draw in the Flesh when the Abyss below grew more empty Whereas the middle parts about the Aequator being a more just Arch and strongly built would not yield or sink but stood firm and unbroken and continues still in its first posture Planets break in different ways according to the quality of their matter the manner of their construction and the Nature of the Causes that act upon them Their dissolutions are sometimes total as in
our Earth sometimes partial and both of these may be under great variety In partial dissolutions the middle parts sometimes stand and the Polar are broke or the Polar stand and the middle are broke Or one Hemisphere or part of an Hemisphere may be sunk the rest standing There may be Causes and occasions for all these varieties and many more in diversifying the Phaenomena of an immense Universe But to return to Saturn That this present uncouth form of Saturn was not its Original form I am very well satisfied if that Planet rise from a Chaos as ours did And if this be an adventitious form I know no account can be given of it with more probability than by supposing it the effect of some fraction or disruption in the Polar parts Neither do I know any Phaenomenon hitherto observ'd concerning Saturn that does disprove this Hypothesis or conjecture As to Iupiter that Planet without doubt is also turned about its Axis otherwise how shou'd its four Moons be carried round him And this is also collected from the motion of that permanent Spot if it be found to be so that is upon its Body Which Spot I take to be either a Lake or a Chasm and Hiatus into the Abyss of the Planet That is part of the Abyss open or uncover'd like the Aperture we made in the Seventh Figure And this might either have been left so by Providence at first for some reasons and causes fitting that Earth or it may have fallen in afterwards as Plato's Atlantis or as Soâ—â—m and Gomorrha for some judgment upon part of that World To conclude Seeing all the Planets that are plac'd in this Heaven and are the foster-children of this Sun seem to have some affinity one with another and have much-what the same countenance and the same general Phaenomena It seems probable that they rise much-what the same way and after the like manner as our Earth each one from its respective Chaos And that they had the same Elementary Regions at first and an exteriour Orb â—orm'd over their Abyss And lastly That every one of them hath suffer'd or is to suffer its Deluge as our Earth hath done These I say are probable conjectures according to the Analogy of Reason and Nature so far as we can judge concerning things very remote and inaccessible And these things being thus and our Theory of the Deluge and the Dissolution which brought it having such a general agreement both with our Heavens and our Earth I think there is nothing but the uncouthness of the thing to some mens understandings the custom of thinking otherwise and the uneasiness of entring into a new set of thoughts that can be a bar or hindrance to its reception But it may be improv'd I doubt not in many respects and in some particularities rectified The first attempts in great Things are seldom or never perfect Such is the weakness of our Understandings and the want of a full Natural History And in assigning Causes of such great effects fair conjectures are to be allow'd till they be displac'd by others more evident and more certain Accordingly I readily submit to these terms and leave this and all other parts of the Theory to further examination and enquiries FINIS THE THEORY OF THE EARTH Containing an Account OF THE Original of the Earth AND OF ALL THE GENERAL CHANGES Which it hath already undergone OR IS TO UNDERGO Throughout the whole Course of its Duration THE SECOND BOOK Concerning the PRIMAEVAL EARTH AND Concerning PARADISE LONDON Printed by R. N. for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's-Head in S. Paul's Church-Yard 1697. THE THEORY OF THE EARTH BOOK II. Concerning the Primaeval Earth and concerning Paradise CHAP. I. The Introduction and Contents of the Second Book The general state of the Primaeval Earth and of Paradise WE have already seen a World begin and perish An Earth rais'd from the rudiments of a Chaos and dissolv'd and destroy'd in an Universal Deluge We have given also an imperfect description of that primaeval Earth so far as was necessary to shew the Causes and manner of its dissolution But we must not content our selves with this Seeing that Earth was the first Theater upon which Mortals appear'd and acted and continued so for above Sixteen Hundred Years and that with Scenes as both Reason and History tell us very extraordinary and very different from these of our present Earth 't is reasonable we should endeavour to make a more full discovery and description of it Especially seeing Paradise was there that seat of pleasure which our first Parents lost and which all their posterity have much ado to find again In the First Book we so far describ'd This New-found World as to shew it very different in form and fabrick from the present Earth there was no Sea there no Mountains nor Rocks nor broken Caves 't was all one continued and regular mass smooth simple and compleat as the first works of Nature use to be But to know thus much only doth rather excite our curiosity than satisfie it what were the other properties of this World how were the Heavens how the Elements what accommodation for humane life why was it more proper to be the seat of Paradise than the present Earth Unless we know these things you will say it will seem but an aëry Idea to us and 't is certain that the more properties and particularâ—ties that we know concerning any thing the more real it appears to be As it was our chief design therefore in the precedent Book to give an account of the Universal Deluge by way of a Theory so we propose to our selves chiefly in this Book from the same Theory to give an account of Paradise and in performing of this we shall be led into a more full examination and display of that first Earth and of its qualities And if we be so happy as by the conduct of the same principles and the same method to give as fair an account and as intelligible of the state of Paradise in that Original Earth as we have done of the Deluge by the dissolution of it and of the form of this Earth which succeeded one must be very morose or melancholy to imagine that the grounds we go upon all this while are wholly false or â—ictitious A foundation which will bear the weight of two Worlds without sinking must surely stand upon a firm Rock And I am apt to promise my self that this Theory of the Earth will find acceptance and credit more or less with all but those that think it a sufficient answer to all arguments to say it is a Novelty But to proceed in our disquisition concerning Paradise we may note in the first place two opinions to be avoided being both extreams one that placeth Paradise in the extra-mundane Regions or in the Air or in the Moon and the other that makes it so inconsiderable as to be confin'd to a little spot of ground in Mesopotamia or
some other Country of Asia the Earth being now as it was then This offends as much in the defect as the other in the excess For it is not any single Region of the Earth that can be Paradisiacal unless all Nature conspire and a certain Order of things proper and peculiar for that state Nor is it of less importance to find out this peculiar Order of things than to find out the particular seat of Paradise but rather pre-requisite to it We will endeavour therefore to discover and determine both so far as a Theory can go beginning with that which is more general 'T is certain there were some qualities and conditions of Paradise that were not meerly Topical but common to all the rest of the Earth at that time and these we must consider in the first place examine what they were and upon what they depended History both Sacred and Profane must tell us what they were and our Theory must shew us upon what causes they depended I had once I confess propos'd to my self another method independent upon History or Effects I thought to have continued the description of the Primitive or Ante-diluvian Earth from the contemplation of its causes only and then left it to the judgment of others to determine whether that was not the Earth where the Golden Age was past and where Paradise stood For I had observ'd three conditions or characters of it which I thought were sufficient to answer all that we knew concerning that first state of things viz. The regularity of its surface The situation or posture of its Body to the Sun and the Figure of it From these three general causes I thought might be deducâ—d all the chief differences of that Earth from the present and particularly those that made it more capable of being Paradisiacal But upon second thoughts I judg'd it more useful and expedient to lay aside the Causes at present and begin with the Effects that we might have some sensible matter to work upon Bare Idea's of things are lookt upon as Romantick till Effects be propos'd whereof they are to give an account 'T is that makes us value the Causes when necessity puts us upon enquiry after them and the reasons of things are very acceptable when they ease the mind anxious and at a loss how to understand Nature without their help We will therefore without more ado premise those things that have been taken notice of as extraordinary and peculiar to the first Ages of the World and to Paradise and which neither do nor can obtain in the present Earth whereof the first is a perpetual Spring or Equinox The second the Long aevity of Animals and the third Their production out of the Earth and the great fertility of the soil in all other things These difficulties guard the way to Paradise like the flaming Sword and must be remov'd before we can enter these are general Preliminaries which we must explain before we proceed to enquire after the particular place of this Garden of Pleasure The Ancients have taken notice of all these in the first Ages of the World or in their Golden Age as they call it and I do not doubt but what they ascrib'd to the Golden Age was more remarkably true of Paradise yet was not so peculiar to it but that it did in a good measure extend to other parts of the Earth at that time And 't is manifest that their Golden Age was contemporary with our Paradise for they make it begin immediately after the production and inhabitation of the Earth which They as well as Moses raise from the Chaos and to degenerate by degrees till the Deluge when the World ended and begun again That this parallel may the better appear we may observe that as we say that the whole Earth was in some sence Paradisiacal in the first Ages of the World and that there was besides one Region or Portion of it that was peculiarly so and bore the denomination of Paradise So the Ancients besides their Golden Age which was common to all the Earth noted some parts of it that were more Golden if I may so say than the rest and which did more particularly answer to Paradise as their Elysian Fields Fortunate Islands Gardens of Hesperides Alcinous c. these had a double portion of pleasantness and besides the advantages which they had common with the rest of the Earth at that time had something proper and singular which gave them a distinct consideration and character from the rest Having made this observation let us proceed and see what Antiquity saith concerning that first and Paradisiacal state of things upon those three Heads forementioned First That there was a perpetual Spring and constant serenity of the Air This is often repeated by the Ancient Poets in their description of the Golden Age Non alios primâ crescentis origine mundi Illuxisse dies aliumve habuisse tenorem Crediderim Ver illud erat Ver magnus agebat Orbis hybernis parcebant flatibus Euri. Such days the new-born Earth enjoy'd of old And the calm Heavens in this same tenour rowl'd All the great World had then one constant Spring No cold East-winds such as our Winters bring For I interpret this in the same sence with Ovid's Verses of the Golden Age Ver erat Aeternum placidÃque tepentibus auris Mulcebant Zephyri natos sine semine flores The Spring was constant and soft Winds that blew Rais'd without Seed Flow'rs always sweet and new And then upon the expiration of the Golden Age He says Iupiter antiqui contraxit tempora Veris c. When Jove begun to reign he chang'd the Year And for one Spring four Seasons made appear The Ancients suppos'd that in the reign of Saturn who was an Ante-diluvian God as I may so call him Time flow'd with a more even motion and there was no diversity of Seasons in the Year but Iupiter they say first introduc'd that when he came to manage affairs This is exprest after their way who seldom give any severe and Philosophical accounts of the changes of Nature And as they suppos'd this perpetual Spring in the Golden Age so they did also in their particular Elysiums as I could shew largely from their Authors if it would not multiply Citations too much 'T is true their Elysiums respected the New Heavens and New Earth to come rather than the past but they are both fram'd upon the same model and have common properties The Christian Authors have no less celebrated the perpetual Spring and Serenity of the Heavens in Paradise such expressions or descriptions you will find in Iustin Martyr S. Basil Damascen Isidore Hispalensis and others insomuch that Bellarmine I remember reflecting upon those Characters of Paradise which many of the Fathers have given in these respects saith Such things could not be unless the Sun had then another course from what he hath now or which is more easie the Earth another situation
been the common standard of Man's Age ever since As when some excellent fruit is transplanted into a worse Climate and Soil it degenerates continually till it comes to such a degree of meanness as suits that Air and Soil and then it stands That the Age of Man did not fall all on a sudden from the Antediluvian measure to the present I impute it to the remaining Stamina of those first Ages and the strength of that pristine constitution which could not wear off but by degrees We see the Blacks do not quit their complexion immediately by removing into another Climate but their posterity changeth by little and little and after some generations they become altogether like the people of the Country where they are Thus by the change of Nature that happened at the Flood the unhappy influence of the Air and unequal Seasons weaken'd by degrees the innate strength of their bodies and the vigour of their parts which would have been capable to have lasted several more hundreds of years if the Heavens had continued their course as formerly or the Earth its position To conclude this particular If any think that the Ante-diluvian longaevity proceeded only from the Stamina or the meer strength of their bodies and would have been so under any constitution of the Heavens let them resolve themselves these Questions first Why these Stamina or this strength of constitution fail'd Secondly Why did it fail so much and so remarkably at the Deluge Thirdly Why in such proportions as it hath done since the Deluge And lastly Why it hath stood so long immovable and without any further diminution Within the compass of five hundred years they sunk from nine hundred to ninety and in the compass of more than three thousand years since they have not sunk ten years or scarce any thing at all Who considers the reasons of these things and the true resolution of these questions will be satisfi'd that to understand the causes of that longaevity something more must be consider'd than the make and strength of their bodies which though they had been made as strong as the Behemoth or Leviathan could not have lasted so many Ages if there had not been a particular concurrence of external causes such as the present state of Nature doth not admit of By this short review of the three general Characters of Paradise and the Golden Age we may conclude how little consistent they are with the present from and order of the Earth Who can pretend to assign any place or Region in this Terraqueous Globe Island or Continent that is capable of these conditions or that agrees either with the descriptions given by the ancient Heathens of their Paradise or by the Christian Fathers of Scripture Paradise But where then will you say must we look for it if not upon this Earth This puts us more into despair of finding it than ever 't is not above nor below in the Air or in the subterraneous Regions no doubtless 't was upon the surface of the Earth but of the Primitive Earth whose form and properties as they were different from this so they were such as made it capable of being truly Paradisiacal both according to the forementioned Characters and all other qualities and privileges reasonably ascrib'd to Paradise CHAP. III. The Original differences of the Primitive Earth from the present or Post-diluvian The three Characters of Paradise and the Golden Age found in the Primitive Earth A particular Explication of each Character WE have hitherto only perplext the Argument and our selves by showing how inexplicable the state of Paradise is according to the present order of things and the present condition of the Earth We must now therefore bring into view that Original and Ante-diluvian Earth where we pretend its seat was and show it capable of all those privileges which we have deny'd to the present in vertue of which privileges and of the order of Nature establisht there that primitive Earth might be truly Paradisiacal as in the Golden Age and some Region of it might be peculiarly so according to the receiv'd Idea of Paradise And this I think is all the knowledge and satisfaction that we can expect or that Providence hath allow'd us in this Argument The Primigenial Earth which in the first Book Chap. 5. we rais'd from a Chaos and set up in an habitable form we must now survey again with more care to observe its principal differences from the present Earth and what influence they will have upon the question in hand These differences as we have said before were chiefly three The form of it which was smooth even and regular The posture and situation of it to the Sun which was direct and not as it is at present inclin'd and oblique And the Figure of it which was more apparently and regularly Oval than it is now From these three differences flow'd a great many more inferiour and subordinate and which had a considerable influence upon the moral World at that time as well as the natural But we will only observe here their more immediate effects and that in reference to those general Characters or properties of the Golden Age and of Paradise which we have instanc'd in and whereof we are bound to give an account by our Hypothesis And in this respect the most fundamental of those three differences we mention'd was that of the right posture and situation of the Earth to the Sun for from this immediately follow'd a perpetual Aequinox all the Earth over or if you will a perpetual Spring and that was the great thing we found a wanting in the present Earth to make it Paradisiacal or capable of being so Wherefore this being now found and establisht in the Primitive Earth the other two properties of Longaevity and of Spontaneous and Vital fertility will be of more easie explication In the mean time let us view a little the reasons and causes of that regular situation in the first Earth The truth is one cannot so well require a reason of the regular situation the Earth had then for that was most simple and natural as of the irregular situation it hath now standing oblique and inclin'd to the Sun or the Ecliptick Whereby the course of the year is become unequal and we are cast into a great diversity of Seasons But however stating the first aright with its circumstances we shall have a better prospect upon the second and see from what causes and in what manner it came to pass Let us therefore suppose the Earth with the rest of its fellow Planets to be carried about the Sun in the Ecliptick by the motion of the liquid Heavens and being at that time perfectly uniform and regular having the same Center of its magnitude and gravity it would by the equality of its libration necessarily have its Axis parallel to the Axis of the same Ecliptick both its Poles being equally inclin'd to the Sun And this posture I call a right
the Heavens or Aether The Ancients both the Stoicks and Aristotle have suppos'd that there was something of an Aethereal Element in the Male-geniture from whence the vertue of it chiefly proceeded and if so why may we not suppose at that time some general impression or irradiation of that purer Element to fructifie the new-made Earth Moses saith there was an incubation of the Spirit of God upon the mass and without all doubt that was either to form or fructifie it and by the mediation of this active principle but the Ancients speak more plainly with express mention of this Aether and of the impregnation of the Earth by it as betwixt Male and Female As in the place before-cited Tum Pater omnipotens faecundis imbribus Aether Conjugis in gremium laetae descendit omnes Magnus alit magno commixtus corpore foetus Which notion I remember S. Austin saith Virgil did not take from the fictions of the Poets but out of the Books of the Philosophers Some of the gravest Authors amongst the Romans have reported that this vertue hath been convey'd into the Wombs of some Animals by the Winds or the Zephyri and as I easily believe that the first fresh Air was more impregnated with this Aethereal principle than ours is so I see no reason but those balmy dews that fell every night in the Primitive Earth might be the Vehicle of it as well as the Male-geniture is now and from them the teeming Earth and those vital Seeds which it contain'd were actuated and receiv'd their first fruitfulness Now this Principle howsoever convey'd to those rudiments of life which we call Eggs is that which gives the first stroke towards Animation and this seems to be by exciting a ferment in those little masses whereby the parts are loosen'd and dispos'd for that formation which is to follow afterwards And I see nothing that hinders but that we may reasonably suppose that these Animal productions might proceed thus far in the Primigenial Earth And as to their progress and the formation of the Body by what Agents or Principles soever that great work is carried on in the womb of the Female it might by the same be carried on there Neither would there be any danger of miscarrying by excess of Heat or Cold for the Air was always of an equal temper and moderate warmth And all other impediments were remov'd and all principles ready whether active or passive so as we may justly conclude that as Eve was the Mother of all living as to Mankind so was the Earth the Great Mother of all living Creatures besides The Third Character to be explain'd and the most extraordinary in appearance is that of LONGAEVITY This sprung from the same root in my opinion with the other though the connexion it may be is not so visible We show'd in the foregoing Chapter that no advantage of Diet or of strong Constitutions could have carried their lives before the Flood to that wonderful length if they had been expos'd to the same changes of Air and of Seasons that our Bodies are But taking a perpetual Aequinox and fixing the Heavens you fix the life of Man too which was not then in such a rapid flux as it is now but seem'd to stand still as the Sun did once without declension There is no question but every thing upon Earth and especially the Animate World would be much more permanent if the general course of Nature was more steddy and uniform A stabiâ—ity in the Heavens makes a stability in all things below and that change and contrariety of qualities that we have in these Regions is the fountain of corruption and suffers nothing to be long in quiet Either by intestine motions and fermentations excited within or by outward impressions Bodies are no sooner well constituted but they are tending again to dissolution The Aether in their little pores and chinks is unequally agitated and differently mov'd at different times and so is the Air in their greater and the Vapours and Atmosphere round about them All these shake and unsettle both the texture and continuity of Bodies Whereas in a fixt state of Nature where these principles have always the same constant and uniform motion when they are once suited to the forms and compositions of Bodies they give them no further disturbance they enjoy a long and lasting peace without any commotions or violence within or without We find our selves sensible changes in our Bodies upon the turn of the Year and the change of Seasons new fermentations in the Bloud and resolutions of the Humours which if they do not amount to diseases at least they disturb Nature and have a bad effect not only upon the fluid parts but also upon the more solid upon the Springs and Fibres in the Organs of the Body to weaken them and unfit them by degrees for their respective functions For though the change is not sensible immediately in these parts yet after many repeated impressions every year by unequal heat and cold driness and moisture contracting and relaxing the Fibres their tone at length is in a great measure destroy'd and brought to a manifest debility and the great Springs failing the lesser that depend upon them fall in proportion and all the symptoms of decay and old age follow We see by daily experience that Bodies are kept better in the same medium as we call it than if they often change their medium as sometimes in Air sometimes in Water moisten'd and dry'd heated and cool'd these different states weaken the contexture of the parts But our Bodies in the present state of Nature are put into an hundred different mediums in the course of a Year sometimes we are steept in Water or in a misty foggy Air for several days together sometimes we are almost frozen with cold then fainting with heat at another time of the Year and the Winds are of a different nature and the Air of a different weight and pressure according to the Weather and the Seasons These things would wear our Bodies though they were built of Oak and that in a very short time in comparison of what they would last if they were always incompast with one and the same medium under one and the same temper as it was in the Primitive Earth The Ancients seem to have been sensible of this and of the true causes of those long periods of life for wheresoever they assign'd a great longaevity as they did not only to their Golden Age but also to their particular and topical Paradises they also assign'd there a constant serenity and equality of the Heavens and sometimes expresly a constant Aequinox as might be made appear from their Authors And some of our Christian Authors have gone farther and connected these two together as Cause and Effect for they say that the Longaevity of the Ante-diluvian Patriarchs proceeded from a favourable Aspect and influence of the Heavens at that time which Aspect of the Heavens being rightly
Body spends that Body is in its growth as when they are fewer 't is in its decay And as we compar'd the flesh and tender parts when they are young and in a growing disposition to a muddy soil that opens to the Water swells and incorporates with it so when they become hard and dry they are like a sandy Earth that suffers the Water to glide through it without incorporating or retaining many of its parts and the sooner they come to this temper the sooner follows their decay For the same Causes that set limits to our Growth set also limits to our Life and he that can resolve that Question why the time of our Growth is so short will also be able to resolve the other in a good measure why the time of our Life is so short In both cases that which stops our progress is external Nature whose course while it was even and steddy and the ambient Air mild and balmy preserv'd the Body much longer in a fresh and fit temper to receive its full nourishment and consequently gave larger bounds both to our Growth and Life But the Third thing we mention'd is the most considerable The decay of the Organick parts and especially of the Organs preparatory to Nutrition This is the point chiefly to be examin'd and explain'd and therefore we will endeavour to state it fully and distinctly There are several functions in the Body of an Animal and several Organs for the conduct of them and I am of opinion that all the Organs of the Body are in the nature of Springs and that their action is Tonical The action of the Muscles is apparently so and so is that of the Heart and the Stomach and as for those parts that make secretions only as the Glandules and Parenchymata if they be any more than merely passive as Strainers 't is the Tone of the parts when distended that performs the separation And accordingly in all other active Organs the action proceeds from a Tone in the parts And this seems to be easily prov'd both as to our Bodies and all other Bodies for no matter that is not fluid hath any motion or action in it but in vertue of some Tone If matter be fluid its parts are actually in motion and consequently may impel or give motion to other Bodies but if it be solid or consistent the parts are not separate or separately mov'd from one another and therefore cannot impel or give motion to any other but in vertue of their Tone they having no other motion themselves Accordingly we see in Artificial Machines there are but two general sorts those that move by some fluid or volatile matter as Water Wind Air or some active Spirit And those which move by Springs or by the Tonick disposition of some part that gives motion to the rest For as for such Machines as act by weights 't is not the weight that is the active principle but the Air or Aether that impels it 'T is true the Body of an Animal is a kind of mixt Machine and those Organs that are the Primary parts of it partake of both these principles for there are Spirits and Liquors that do assist in the motions of the Muscles of the Heart and of the Stomach but we have no occasion to consider them at present but only the Tone of the solid Organs This being observ'd in the first place Wherein the force of our Organs consists we might here immediately subjoyn how this force is weaken'd and destroy'd by the unequal course of Nature which now obtains and consequently our Life shorten'd for the whole state and Oeconomy of the Body depends upon the force and action of these Organs But to understand the business more distinctly it will be worth our time to examine upon which of the Organs of the Body Life depends more immediately and the prolongation of it that so reducing our Inquiries into a narrower compass we may manage them with more ease and more certainty In the Body of Man there are several Compages or setts of parts some whereof need not be consider'd in this question There is that Systeme that serves for sence and local-motion which is commonly call'd the ANIMAL Compages and that which serves for generation which is call'd the GENITAL These have no influence upon long Life being parts nourished not nourishing and that are fed from others as Rivers from their Fountain Wherefore having laid these aside there remain two Compages more the NATURAL and VITAL which consist of the Heart and Stomach with their appendages These are the Sources of Life and these are all that is absolutely necessary to the constitution of a Living Creature what parts we find more few or many of one sort or other according to the several kinds of Creatures is accidental to our purpose The form of an Animal as we are to consider it here lies in this little compass and what is superadded is for some new purposes besides that of meer Life as for Sense Motion Generation and such like As in a Watch besides the Movement which is made to tell you the hour of the day which constitutes a Watch you may have a fancy to have an Alarum added or a Minute-motion or that it should tell you the day of the Month and this sometimes will require a new Spring sometimes only new Wheels however if you would examine the Nature of a Watch and upon what its motion or if I may so say its Life depends you must lay aside those secondary Movements and observe the main Spring and the Wheels that immediately depend upon that for all the ret is accidental So for the Life of an Animal which is a piece of Nature's Clockwork if we would examine upon what the duration of it depends we must lay aside those additional parts or Systems of parts which are for other purposes and consider only the first principles and fountains of Life and the causes of their natural and necessary decay Having thus reduc'd our Inquiries to these two Organs The Stomach and the Heart as the two Master-Springs in the Mechanism of an Animal upon which all the rest depend let us now see what their action is and how it will be more or less durable and constant according to the different states of External Nature We determin'd before that the force and action of all Organs in the Body was Tonical and of none more remarkably than of these two the Heart and Stomach for though it be not clearly determin'd what the particular structure of these Organs or of their Fibres is that makes them Tonical yet 't is manifest by their actions that they are so In the Stomach besides a peculiar ferment that opens and dissolves the parts of the Meat and melts them into a fluor or pulp the coats of it or Fibres whereof they consist have a motion proper to them proceeding from their Tone whereby they close the Stomach and compress the Meat when it is
Post-diluvians too they will still be intangled in worse absurdities for they must make their lives miserably short and their Age of getting Children altogether incongruous and impossible Nahor for example when he was but two years and three months old must have begot Abraham's Father And all the rest betwixt him and Shem must have had Children before they were three years old A pretty race of Pigmies Then their lives were proportionably short for this Nahor liv'd but eleven years and six months at this rate and his Grandchild Abraham who is said to have died in a good old age and full of years Gen. 25. 8. was not fourteen years old What a ridiculous account this gives of Scripture-Chronology and Genealogies But you 'll say it may be these Lunar years are not to be carried so far as Abraham neither tell us then where you 'll stop and why you stop in such a place rather than another If you once take in Lunar years what ground is there in the Text or in the History that you should change your way of computing at such a time or in such a place All our Ancient Chronology is founded upon the Books of Moses where the terms and periods of times are exprest by years and often by Genealogies and the Lives of Men now if these years are sometimes to be interpreted Lunar and sometimes Solar without any distinction made in the Text what light or certain rule have we to go by let these Authors name to us the parts and places where and only where the Lunar years are to be understood and I dare undertake to show that their method is not only arbitrary but absurd and incoherent To conclude this Discourse we cannot but repeat what we have partly observ'd before How necessary it is to understand Nature if we would rightly understand those things in holy Writ that relate to the Natural World For without this knowledge as we are apt to think some things consistent and credible that are really impossible in Nature so on the other hand we are apt to look upon other things as incredible and impossible that are really founded in Nature And seeing every one is willing so to expound Scripture as it may be to them good sence and consistent with their Notions in other things they are forc'd many times to go against the easie and natural importance of the words and to invent other interpretations more compliant with their principles and as they think with the nature of things We have I say a great instance of this before us in the Scripture-History of the long lives of the Ante-diluvians where without any ground or shadow of ground in the Narration only to comply with a mistaken Philosophy and their ignorance of the Primitive World many men would beat down the Scripture account of years into months and sink the lives of those first Fathers below the rate of the worst of Ages Whereby that great Monument which Providence hath left us of the first World and of its difference from the Second would not only be defac'd but wholly demolish'd And all this sprung only from the seeming incredibility of the thing for they cannot show in any part of Scripture New or Old that these Lunar years are made use of or that any computation literal or Prophetical proceeds upon them Nor that there is any thing in the Text or Context of that place that argues or intimates any such account We have endeavour'd upon this occasion effectually to prevent this misconstruction of Sacred History for the future both by showing the incongruities that follow upon it and also that there is no necessity from Nature of any such shift or evasion as that is But rather on the contrary that we have just and necessary reasons to conclude That as the Forms of all things would be far more permanent and lasting in that Primitive state of the Heavens and the Earth so particularly the Lives of Men and of other Animals CHAP. V. Concerning the Waters of the Primitive Earth What the state of the Regions of the Air was then and how all Waters proceeded from them how the Rivers arose what was their course and how they ended Some things in Sacred Writ that confirm this Hydrography of the first Earth especially the Origin of the Rainbow HAving thus far clear'd our way to Paradise and given a rational account of its general properties before we proceed to discourse of the place of it there is one affair of moment concerning this Primitive Earth that must first be stated and explain'd and that is How it was water'd from what causes and in what manner How could Fountains rise or Rivers flow in an Earth of that Form and Nature We have shut up the Sea with thick walls on every side and taken away all communication that could be 'twixt it and the External Earth and we have remov'd all the Hills and the Mountains where the Springs use to rise and whence the Rivers descend to water the face of the ground And lastly we have left no issue for these Rivers no Ocean to receive them nor any other place to disburthen themselves into So that our New-found World is like to be a dry and barren Wilderness and so far from being Paradisiacal that it would scarce be habitable I confess there was nothing in this whole Theory that gave such a stop to my thoughts as this part of it concerning the Rivers of the first Earth how they rise how they flow'd and how they ended It seemâ—d at first that we had wip'd away at once the Notion and whole Doctrine of Rivers we had turn'd the Earth so smooth that there was not an Hill or rising for the head of a Spring nor any fall or descent for the course of a River Besides I had suckt in the common opinion of Philosophers That all Rivers rise from the Sea and return to it again and both those passages I see were stopt up in that Earth This gave me occasion to reflect upon the modern and more solid opinion concerning the Origin of Fountains and Rivers That they rise chiefly from Rains and melted Snows and not from the Sea alone and as soon as I had demurr'd in that particular I see it was necessary to consider and examine how the Rains fell in that first Earth to understand what the state of their Waters and Rivers would be And I had no sooner appli'd my self to that Inquiry but I easily discover'd that the Order of Nature in the Regions of the Air would be then very different from what it is now and the Meteorology of that World was of another sort from that of the present The Air was always calm and equal there could be no violent Meteors there nor any that proceeded from extremity of Cold as Ice Snow or Hail nor Thunder neither for the Clouds could not be of a quality and consistency fit for such an effect either by falling one upon another or
by their disruption And as for Winds they could not be either impetuous or irregular in that Earth seeing there were neither Mountains nor any other inequalities to obstruct the course of the Vapours nor any unequal Seasons or unequal action of the Sun nor any contrary and strugling motions of the Air Nature was then a stranger to all those disorders But as for watery Meteors or those that rise from watery Vapours more immediately as Dews and Rains there could not but be plenty of these in some part or other of that Earth for the action of the Sun in raising Vapours was very strong and very constant and the Earth was at first moist and soft and according as it grew more dry the Rays of the Sun would pierce more deep into it and reach at length the great Abyss which lay underneath and was an unexhausted storehouse of new Vapours But 't is true the same heat which extracted these Vapours so copiously would also hinder them from condensing into Clouds or Rain in the warmer parts of the Earth and there being no Mountains at that time nor contrary Winds nor any such causes to stop them or compress them we must consider which way they would tend and what their course would be and whether they would any where meet with causes capable to change or condense them for upon this 't is manifest would depend the Meteors of that Air and the Waters of that Earth And as the heat of the Sun was chiefly towards the middle parts of the Earth so the copious Vapours rais'd there were most rarified and agitated and being once in the open Air their course would be that way where they found least resistance to their motion and that would certainly be towards the Poles and the colder Regions of the Earth For East and West they would meet with as warm an Air and Vapours as much agitated as themselves which therefore would not yield to their progress that way but towards the North and the South they would find a more easie passage the Cold of those parts attracting them as we call it that is making way to their motion and dilatation without much resistance as Mountains and Cold places usually draw Vapours from the warmer So as the regular and constant course of the Vapours of that Earth which were rais'd chiefly about the Aequinoctial and middle parts of it would be towards the extream parts of it or towards the Poles And in consequence of this when these Vapours were arriv'd in those cooler Climats and cooler parts of the Air they would be condens'd into Rain for wanting there the cause of their agitation namely the heat of the Sun their motion would soon begin to languish and they would fall closer to one another in the form of Water For the difference betwixt Vapours and Water is only gradual and consists in this that Vapours are in a flying motion separate and distant each from another but the parts of Water are in a creeping motion close to one another like a swarm of Bees when they are setled as Vapours resemble the same Bees in the Air before they settle together Now there is nothing puts these Vapours upon the wing or keeps them so but a strong agitation by Heat and when that fails as it must do in all colder places and Regions they necessarily return to Water again Accordingly therefore we must suppose they would soon after they reacht these cold Regions be condens'd and fall down in a continual Rain or Dew upon those parts of the Earth I say a continual Rain for seeing the action of the Sun which rais'd the Vapours was at that time always the same and the state of the Air always alike nor any cross Winds nor any thing else that could hinder the course of the Vapours towards the Poles nor their condensation when arriv'd there 't is manifest there would be a constant Source or store-house of Waters in those parts of the Air and in those parts of the Earth And this I think was the establisht order of Nature in that World this was the state of the Ante-diluvian Heavens and Earth all their Waters came from above and that with a constant supply and circulation for when the croud of Vapours rais'd about the middle parts of the Earth found vent and issue this way towards the Poles the passage being once open'd and the Chanel made the Current would be still continued without intermission and as they were dissolv'd and spent there they would suck in more and more of those which followed and came in fresh streams from the hotter Climates Aristotle I remember in his Meteors speaking of the course of the Vapours saith there is a River in the Air constantly slowing betwixt the Heavens and the Earth made by the ascending and descending Vapours This was more remarkably true in the Primitive Earth where the state of Nature was more constant and regular there was indeed an uninterrupted flood of Vapours rising in one Region of the Earth and flowing to another and there continually distilling in Dews and Rain which made this Aereal River As may be easily apprehended from this Scheme of the Earth and Air. Book 2d. fig. 1st p. 155. Thus we have found a Source for Waters in the first Earth which had no communication with the Sea and a Source that would never fail neither diminish or overflow but feed the Earth with an equal supply throughout all the parts of the year But there is a second difficulty that appears at the end of this How these Waters would flow upon the even surface of the Earth or form themselves into Rivers there being no descent or declivity for their course There were no Hills nor Mountains not high Lands in the first Earth and if these Rains fell in the frigid Zones or towards the Poles there they would stand in Lakes and Pools having no descent one way more than another and so the rest of the Earth would be no better for them This I confess appear'd as great a difficulty as the former and would be unanswerable for ought I know if that first Earth was not water'd by Dews only as I believe some Worlds are or had been exactly Spherical but we noted before that it was Oval or Oblong and in such a Figure 't is manifest the Polar parts are higher than the Aequinoctial that is more remote from the Center as appears to the eye in this Scheme This affords us a present remedy and sets us free of the second difficulty for by this means the Waters which fell about the extreme parts of the Earth would have a continual descent towards the middle parts of it this Figure gives them motion and distribution and many Rivers and Rivulets would flow from those Mother-Lakes to refresh the face of the Earth bending their course still towards the middle parts of it Booke 2d. fig. 2d. p. 156. 'T is true These derivations of the Waters at first would
be very irregular and diffuse till the Chanels were a little worn and hollowed and though that Earth was smooth and uniform yet 't is impossible upon an inclining surface but that Waters should find a way of creeping downwards as we see upon a smooth Table or a flagg'd Pavement if there be the least inclination Water will flow from the higher to the lower parts of it either directly or winding to and fro So the smoothness of that Earth would be no hindrance to the course of the Rivers provided there was a general declivity in the site and libration of it as 't is plain there was from the Poles towards the Aequator The Current indeed would be easie and gentle all along and if it chanc'd in some places to rest or be stopt it would spread it self into a pleasant Lake till by fresh supplies it had rais'd its Waters so high as to overflow and break loose again then it would pursue its way with many other Rivers its companions through all the temperate Climates as far as the Torrid Zone But you 'll say When they were got thither what would become of them then How would they end or finish their course This is the third difficulty concerning the ending of the Rivers in that Earth what issue could they have when they were come to the middle parts of it whether it seems they all tended There was no Sea to lose themselves in as our Rivers do nor any Subterraneous passages to throw themselves into how would they die what would be their fate at last I answer The greater Rivers when they were come towards those parts of the Earth would be divided into many branches or a multitude of Rivulets and those would be partly exhal'd by the heat of the Sun and partly drunk up by the dry and sandy Earth But how and in what manner this came to pass requires a little further Explication We must therefore observe in the first place that those Rivers as they drew nearer to the Aequinoctial parts would find a less declivity or descent of ground than in the beginning or former part of their course that is evident from the Oval Figure of the Earth for near the middle parts of an Oval the Semidiameters as I may call them are very little shorter one than another and for this reason the Rivers when they were advanc'd towards the middle parts of the Earth would begin to flow more slowly and by that weakness of their Current suffer themselves easily to be divided and distracted into several lesser streams and Rivulets or else having no force to wear a Chanel would lie shallow upon the ground like a plash of Water and in both cases their Waters would be much more expos'd to the action of the Sun than if they had kept together in a deeper Chanel as they were before Secondly We must observe that seeing these Waters could not reach to the middle of the Torrid Zone for want of descent that part of the Earth having the Sun always perpendicular over it and being refresht by no Rivers would become extremely dry and parch'd and be converted at length into a kind of sandy Desart so as all the Waters that were carried thus far and were not exhal'd and consum'd by the Sun would be suckt up as in a Spunge by these Sands of the Torrid Zone This was the common Grave wherein the Rivers of the first Earth were buried and this is nothing but what happens still in several parts of the present Earth especially in Africk where many Rivers never flow into the Sea but expire after the same manner as these did drunk up by the Sun and the Sands And one arm of Euphrates dies as I remember amongst the Sands of Arabia after the manner of the Rivers of the first Earth Thus we have conquer'd the greatest difficulty in my apprehension in this whole Theory To find out the state of the Rivers in the Primitive and Ante-diluvian Earth their origin course and period We have been forc'd to win our ground by Inches and have divided the difficulty into parts that we might encounter them single with more ease The Rivers of that Earth you see were in most respects different and in some contrary to ours and if you could turn our Rivers backwards to run from the Sea towards their Fountain-heads they would more resemble the course of those Ante-diluvian Rivers for they were greatest at their first setting out and the Current afterwards when it was more weak and the Chanel more shallow was divided into many branches and little Rivers like the Arteries in our Body that carry the Blood they are greatest at first and the further they go from the Heart their Source the less they grow and divide into a multitude of little branches which lose themselves insensibly in the habit of the flesh as these little Floods did in the Sands of the Earth Book 2d. fig. 3. p. 158. Because it pleaseth more and makes a greater impression upon us to see things represented to the Eye than to read their description in words we have ventur'd to give a model of the Primaeval Earth with its Zones or greater Climates and the general order and tracts of its Rivers Not that we believe things to have been in the very same form as here exhibited but this may serve as a general Idea of that Earth which may be wrought into more exactness according as we are able to enlarge or correct our thoughts hereafter And as the Zones here represented resemble the Belts or Eusciae of Iupiter so we suppose them to proceed from like causes if that Planet be in an Ante-diluvian state as the Earth we here represent As for the Polar parts in that first Earth I can say very little of them they would make a Scene by themselves and a very particular one The Sun would be perpetually in their Horizon which makes me think the Rains would not fall so much there as in the other parts of the Frigid Zones where accordingly we have made their chief seat and receptacle That they flow'd from thence in such a like manner as is hero represented we have already prov'd And sometimes in their passage swelling into Lakes and towards the end of their course parting into several streams and branches they would water those parts of the Earth like a Garden We have before compar'd the branchings of these Rivers towards the end of their course to the ramifications of the Arteries in the Body when they are far from the Heart near the extream parts and some it may be looking upon this Scheme would carry the comparison further and suppose that as in the Body the Bloud is not lost in the habit of the flesh but strain'd thorough it and taken up again by the little branches of the Veins so in that Earth the Waters were not lost in those Sands of the Torrid Zone but strain'd or percolated thorough them and receiv'd into the
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
designs of Providence and the general project and method propos'd in the government of the World And I make no question but the state both of the Old World and of that which is to come is exhibited to us in Scripture in such a measure and proportion as is fit for this fore-mentioned purpose not as the Articles of our Faith or the precepts of a good Life which he that runs may read but to the attentive and reflexive to those that are unprejudic'd and to those that are inquisitive and have their minds open and prepar'd for the discernment of mysteries of such a nature Thus much in answer to that general Objection which might be made against this Theory That it is not founded in Antiquity I do not doubt but there may be many particular Objections against Parts and Sections of it and the exposing it thus in our own Tongue may excite some or other it may be to make them but if any be so minded I desire if they be Scholars that it may rather be in Latin as being more proper for a subject of this nature and also that they would keep themselves close to the substance of the Theory and wound that as much as they can but to make excursions upon things accidental or collateral that do not destory the Hypothesis is but to trouble the World with impertinencies Now the substance of the Theory is this THAT there was a Primitive Earth of another form from the present and inhabited by Mankind till the Deluge That it had those properties and conditions that we have ascrib'd to it namely a perpetual Equinox or Spring by reason of its right situation to the Sun Was of an Oval Figure and the exteriour face of it smooth and uniform without Mountains or a Sea That in this Earth stood Paradise the doctrine whereof cannot be understood but upon supposition of this Primitive Earth and its properties Then that the disruption and fall of this Earth into the Abyss which lay under it was that which made the Universal Deluge and the destruction of the Old World And that neither Noah's Flood nor the present form of the Earth can be explain'd in any other method that is rational nor by any other Causes that are intelligible at least that have been hitherto propos'd to the World These are the Vitals of the Theory and the primary Assertions whereof I do freely profess my full belief and whosoever by solid reasons will show me in an Errour and undeceive me I shall be very much oblig'd to him There are other lesser Conclusions which flow from these and may be call'd Secondary as that the Longaevity of the Ante-diluvians depended upon their perpetual Equinox and the perpetual equality and serenity of the Air That the Torrid Zone in the Primitive Earth was uninhabitable And that all their Rivers flow'd from the extreme parts of the Earth towards the Equinoctial there being neither Rain nor Rainbow in the temperate and habitable Regions of it And lastly That the place of Paradise according to the opinion of Antiquity for I determine no place by the Theory was in the Southern Hemisphere These I think are all truly deduc'd and prov'd in their several ways though they be not such essential parts of the Theory as the former There are also besides many particular Explications that are to be consider'd with more liberty and latitude and may be perhaps upon better thoughts or better observations corrected without any prejudice to the General Theory Those places of Scripture which we have cited I think are all truly apply'd and I have not mention'd Moses's Câ—smopoeia because I thought it deliver'd by him as a Lawgiver not as a Philosopher which I intend to show at large in another Treatise not thinking that discussion proper for the Vulgar Tongue Upon the whole we are to remember that some allowances are to be made for every Hypothesis that is new propos'd and untry'd and that we ought not out of levity of wit or any private design discountenance free and fair Essays nor from any other motive but the only love and concern of Truth CHAP. X. Concerning the Author of Nature SEeing the Theory which we have propos'd in this Work is of that extent and comprehension that it begins with the first foundation of this World and is to reach to the last Period of it in one continued Series or chain of Nature It will not be improper before we conclude to make some reflections and remarks what Nature is and upon what superiour Causes she depends in all her Motions and Operations And this will lead us to the discovery of the Author of Nature and to the true Notion and state of Natural Providence which seems to have been hitherto very much neglected or little understood in the World And 't is the more reasonable and fitting that we should explain these Notions before we shut up this Treatise lest those Natural Explications which we have given of the Deluge and other things should be mistaken or misapply'd Seeing some are apt to run away with pieces of a Discourse which they think applicable to their purpose or which they can maliciously represent without attending to the scope or just limitations of what is spoken By Nature in general is understood All the Powers of Finite Beings with the Laws establisht for their action and conduct according to the ordinary course of things And this extends both to Intellectual Beings and Corporeal but seeing 't is only the Material World that hath been the subject of our Discourse Nature as to that may be defin'd the Powers of Matter with the Laws establisht for their action and conduct Seeing also Matter hath no action whether from it self or imprest upon it but Motion as to the Corporeal World Nature is no more than the powers and capacities of Matter with the Laws that govern the Motions of it And this definition is so plain and easie that I believe all parties will agree in it There will also be no great controversie what these Laws are As that one part of Matter cannot penetrate another nor be in several places at once That the greater Body overcomes the less and the swifter the flower That all motion is in a right line till something obstruct it or divert it which are points little disputed as to the matter of fact but the points concerning which the controversie ariseth and which are to lead us to the Author of Nature are these Who or what is the Author of these Laws of this Motion and even of Matter it self and of all those modes and forms of it which we see in Nature The Question useth chiefly to be put concerning Motion how it came into the World what the first Source of it is or how Matter came at first to be mov'd For the simple notion of Matter not divided into parts nor diversified doth not imply Motion but Extension only 'T is true from Extension there necessarily
He truly supposes the Celestial Bodies and the Inhabitants of them much more considerable than we are and reckons up only Terrestrial things as put in subjection to Man Can we then be so fond as to imagine all the Corporeal Universe made for our use 'T is not the Millioneth part of it that is known to us much less useful We can neither reach with our Eye nor our imagination those Armies of Stars that lie far and deep in the boundless Heavens If we take a good Glass we discover innumerably more Stars in the Firmament than we can with our single Eye and yet if you take a second Glass better than the first that carries the sight to a greater distance you see more still lying beyond the other and a third Glass that pierceth further still makes new discoveries of Stars and so forwards indefinitely and inexhaustedly for any thing we know according to the immensity of the Divine Nature and Power Who can reckon up the Stars of the Galaxy or direct us in the use of them And can we believe that those and all the rest were made for us Of those few Stars that we enjoy or that are visible to the Eye there is not a tenth part that is really useful to Man and no doubt if the principal end of them had been our pleasure or conveniency they would have been put in some better order in respect of the Earth They lie carelesly scatter'd as if they had been sown in the Heaven like Seed by handfuls and not by a skilful hand neither What a beautiful Hemisphere they would have made if they had been plac'd in rank and order if they had been all dispos'd into regular figures and the little ones set with due regard to the greater then all finisht and made up into one fair piece or great Composition according to the rules of Art and Symmetry What a surprizing beauty this would have been to the Inhabitants of the Earth What a lovely Roof to our little World This indeed might have given one some Temptation to have thought that they had been all made for us but lest any such vain imagination should now enter into our thoughts Providence besides more important Reasons seems on purpose to have left them under that negligence or disorder which they appear in to us The second part of this opinion supposeth this Planet where we live to be the only habitable part of the Universe and this is a natural consequence of the former If all things were made to serve us why should any more be made than what is useful to us But 't is only our ignorance of the System of the World and of the grandeur of the Works of God that betrays us to such narrow thoughts If we do but consider what this Earth is both for littleness and deformity and what its Inhabitants are we shall not be apt to think that this miserable Atome hath ingross'd and exhausted all the Divine Favours and all the riches of his goodness and of his Providence But we will not inlarge upon this part of the opinion lest it should carry us too far from the subject and it will fall of its own accord with the former Upon the whole we may conclude that it was only the Sublunary World that was made for the sake of Man and not the Great Creation either Material or Intellectual and we cannot admit or affirm any more without manifest injury depression and misrepresentation of Providence as we may be easily convinc'd from these four Heads The Meanness of Man and of this Earth The Excellency of other Beings The Immensity of the Universe and The infinite perfection of the first Cause Which I leave to your further Meditation and pass on to the second rule concerning Natural Providence In the second place then if we would have a fair view and right apprehensions of Natural Providence we must not cut the chains of it too short by having recourse without necessity either to the First Cause in explaining the Origins of things or to Miracles in explaining particular effects This I say breaks the chains of Natural Providence when it is done without necessity that is when things are otherwise ntelligible from Second Causes Neither is any thing gain'd by it to God Almighty for 't is but as the Proverb says to rob Peter to pay Paul to take so much from his ordinary Providence and place it to his extraordinary When a new Religion is brought into the World 't is very reasonable and decorous that it should be usher'd in with Miracles as both the Iewish and Christian were but afterwards things return into their Chanel and do not change or overflow again but upon extraordinary occasions or revolutions The power Extraordinary of God is to be accounted very Sacred not to be touch'd or expos'd for our pleasure or conveniency but I am afraid we often make use of it only to conceal our own ignorance or to save us the trouble of inquiring into Natural Causes Men are generally unwilling to appear ignorant especially those that make profession of knowledge and when they have not skill enough to explain some particular effect in a way of Reason they throw it upon the First Cause as able to bear all and so placing it to that account they excuse themselves and save their credit for all Men are equally wise if you take away Second Causes as we are all of the same colour if you take away the Light But to state this matter and see the ground of this rule more distinctly we must observe and consider that The Course of Nature is truly the Will of God and as I may so say his first Will from which we are not to recede but upon clear evidence and necessity And as in matter of Religion we are to follow the known reveal'd Will of God and not to trust to every impulse or motion of Enthusiasm as coming from the Divine Spirit unless there be evident marks that it is Supernatural and cannot come from our own So neither are we without necessity to quit the known and ordinary Will and Power of God establisht in the course of Nature and fly to Supernatural Causes or his extraordinary Will for this is a kind of Enthusiasm or Fanaticism as well as the other And no doubt that great prodigality and waste of Miracles which some make is no way to the honour of God or Religion 'T is true the other extream is worse than this for to deny all Miracles is in effect to deny all reveal'd Religion therefore due measures are to be taken betwixt these two so as neither to make the Divine Power too mean and cheap nor the Power of Nature illimited and all-sufficient In the Third place To make the Scenes of Natural Providence considerable and the knowledge of them satisfactory to the Mind we must take a true Philosophy or the true principles that govern Nature which are Geometrical and
that Vault did break as we have shown at large and by the dissolution and fall of it the Great Deep was thrown out of its bed forc'd upwards into the Air and overflow'd in that impetuous Commotion the highest tops of the Fragments of the ruin'd Earth which now we call its Mountains And as this was the first great and fatal Period of Nature so upon the issue of this and the return of the Waters into their Chanels the second face of Nature appear'd or the present broken form of the Earth as it is Terraqueous Mountainous and Cavernous These things we have explain'd fully in the First Book and have thereby setled two great Points given a rational account of the Universal Deluge and shown the Causes of the irregular form of the present or Post-diluvian Earth This being done we have apply'd our selves in the Second Book to the description of the Primaeval Earth and the examination of its properties and this hath led us by an easie tract to the discovery of Paradise and of the true Notion and Mystery of it which is not so much a spot of ground where a fine Garden stood as a course of Nature or a peculiar state of the Earth Paradisiacal in many parts but especially in one Region of it which place or Region we have also endeavour'd to determine though not so much from the Theory as from the suffrages of Antiquity if you will take their judgment THUS much is finisht and this contains the Natural Theory of the Earth till this present time for since the Deluge all things have continued in the same state or without any remarkable change We are next to enter upon new Matter and new Thoughts and not only so but upon a Series of Things and Times to come which is to make the Second Part of this Theory Dividing the duration of the World into two parts Past and Future we have dispatch'd the first and far greater part and come better half of our way And if we make a stand here and look both ways backwards to the Chaos and the beginning of the World and forwards to the End and Consummation of all Things though the first be a longer prospect yet there are as many general Changes and Revolutions of Nature in the remaining part as have already happen'd and in the Evening of this long Day the Scenes will change faster and be more bright and illustrious From the Creation to this Age the Earth hath undergone but one Catastrophe and Nature hath had two different faces The next Catastrophe is the CONFLAGRATION to which a new face of Nature will accordingly succeed New Heavens and a New Earth Paradise renew'd and so it is call'd the Restitution of things or Regeneration of the World And that Period of Nature and Providence being expir'd then follows the Consummation of all things or the General Apotheosts when Death and Hell shall be swallowed up in victory When the great Circle of Time and Fate is run or according to the language of Scripture When the Heavens and the Earth shall pass away and Time shall be no more MAY we in the mean time by a true Love of God above all things and a contempt of this Vain World which passeth away By a careful use of the Gifts of God and Nature the Light of Reason and Revelation prepare our selves and the state of things for the great Coming of our Saviour To whom be Praise and Honour for evermore 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 Till the CONSUMMATION of all Things THE TWO LAST BOOKS Concerning the BURNING of the WORLD AND Concerning the NEW HEAVENS and NEW EARTH LONDON Printed by R. N. for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's-Head in S. Paul's Church-Yard 1697. TO THE QUEEN'S MOST Excellent Majesty MADAM HAVING had the honour to present the first part of this Theory to Your ROYAL UNCLE I presume to offer the Second to Your Majesty This part of the Subject I hope will be no less acceptable for certainly 't is of no less importance They both indeed agree in this That there is a WORLD made and destroy'd in either Treatise But we are more concern'd in what is to come than what is past And as the former Books represented to us the Rise and Fall of the First World so These give an account of the present Frame of Nature labouring under the last Flames and of the Resurrection of it in the New Heavens and New Earth which according to the Divine Promises we are to expect Cities that are burnt are commonly rebuilt more beautiful and regular than they were before And when this World is demolish'd by the last Fire He that undertakes to rear it up again will supply the defects if there were any of the former Fabrick This Theory supposes the present Earth to be little better than an Heap of Ruines where yet there is room enough for Sea and Land for Islands and Continents for several Countries and Dominions But when these are all melted down and refin'd in the general Fire they will be cast into a better mould and the Form and Qualities of the Earth will become Paradisiâ—cal But I fear it may be thought no very proper address to shew Your Majesty a World laid in ashes where You have so great an interest Your Self and Such fair Dominions and then to recompence the loss by giving a Reversion in a Future Earth But if that future Earth be a second Paradise to be enjoyed for a Thousand Years with Peace Innocency and constant health An Inheritance there will be an happy exchange for the best Crown in this World I confess I could never perswade my self that the Kingdom of Christ and of his Saints which the Scripture speaks of so frequently was design'd to be upon this present Earth But however upon all suppositions They that have done some eminent Good in this Life will be sharers in the happiness of that State To humble the Oppressors and rescue the Oppressed is a work of Generosity and Charity that cannot want its reward Yet MADAM They are the greatest Benefactors to Mankind that dispose the World to become Vertuous and by their example Influence and Authority retrieve that TRUTH and JUSTICE that have been lost amongst men for many Ages The School-Divines tell us Those that act or suffer great things for the Publick Good are distinguish'd in Heaven by a Circle of Gold about their Heads One would not willingly vouch for that but one may safely for what the Prophet says which is far greater namely that They shall shine like Stars in the Firmament that turn many to Righteousness Which is not to be understood so much of the Conversion of single Souls as of the turning of Nations and People the turning of the World to Righteousness They that lead on that great and happy Work
shall be distinguish'd in Glory from the rest of Mankind We are sensible MADAM from Your Great Example that Piety and Vertue seated upon a Throne draw many to imitation whom ill Principles or the course of the World might have led another way These are the best as well as easiest Victories that are gain'd without Contest And as Princes are the Vicegerents of God upon Earth so when their Majesty is in Conjunction with Goodness it hath a double Character of Divinity upon it and we owe them a double Tribute of Fear and Love Which with constant Prayers for Your MAJESTIES present and future Happiness shall be always Dutifully paid by Your MAJESTY'S Most Humble and most Obedient Subject T. BVRNET PREFACE TO THE READER I HAVE not much to say to the Reader in this Preface to the Third Part of the Theory seeing it treats upon a Subject own'd by all and out of dispute The Conflagration of the World The question will be only about the bounds and limits of the Conflagration the Causes and the Manner of it These I have fix'd according to the truest measures I could take from Scripture and from Nature I differ I believe from the common Sentiment in this that in following S. Peter's Philosophy I suppose that the burning of the Earth will be a true Liquefaction or dissolution of it as to the exteriour Region And that this lays a foundation for New Heavens and a New Earth which seems to me as plain a doctrine in Christian Religion as the Conflagration it self I have endeavour'd to propose an intelligible way whereby the Earth may be consum'd by Fire But if any one can propose another more probable and more consistent I will be the First Man that shall give him thanks for his discovery He that loves Truth for its own sake is willing to receive it from any hand as he that truly loves his Country is glad of a Victory over the Enemy whether himself or any other has the glory of it I need not repeat here what I have already said upon several occasions That 't is the substance of this Theory whether in this part or in other parts that I mainly regard and depend upon Being willing to suppose that many single explications and particularities may be rectified upon further thoughts and clearer light I know our best writings in this life are but Essays which we leave to Posterity to review and correct As to the Style I always endeavour to express my self in a plain and perspicuous manner that the Reader may not lose time nor wait too long to know my meaning To give an Attendant quick dispatch is a civility whether you do his business or no. I would not willingly give any one the trouble of reading a period twice over to know the sence of it lest when he comes to know it he should not think it a recompence for his pains Whereas on the contrary if you are easie to your Reader he will certainly make you an allowance for it in his censure You must not think it strange however that the Author sometimes in meditating upon this subject is warm in his thoughts and expressions For to see a World perishing in Flames Rocks melting the Earth trembling and an Host of Angels in the clouds one must be very much a Stoick to be a cold and unconcerned Spectator of all this And when we are mov'd our selves our words will have a tincture of those passions which we feel Besides in moral reflections which are design'd for use there must be some heat as well as dry reason to inspire this cold clod of clay this dull body of Earth which we carry about with us and you must soften and pierce that crust before you can come at the Soul But especially when things future are to be represented you cannot use too strong Colours if you would give them life and make them appear present to the mind Farewel CONTENTS OF THE CHAPTERS THE THIRD BOOK CHAP. I. THE Introduction with the Contents and Order of this Treatise CHAP. II. The true state of the Question is propos'd 'T is the general doctrine of the Ancients That the present World or the present Frame of Nature is mutable and perishable To which the Sacred Books agree And natural Reason can alledge nothing against it CHAP. III. That the World will be destroy'd by Fire is the doctrine of the Ancients especially if the Stoicks That the same doctrine is more ancient than the Greeks and deriv'd from the Barbarick Philosophy and That probably from Noah the Father of all Traditionary Learning The same doctrine expresly authoriz'd by Revelation and inroll'd into the Sacred Canon 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 explain'd CHAP. V. Concerning Prophecies that determine the End of the World Of what order soever Prophane or Sacred Iewish or Christian. That no certain judgment can be made from any of them at what distance we are from the Conflagration CHAP. VI. Concerning the Causes of the Conflagration The difficulty of conceiving how this Earth can be set on fire With a general 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 CHAP. VII The true bounds of the last Fire and how far it is Fatal The natural Causes and Materials of it cast into three ranks First such as are Exteriour and visible upon Earth Where the Volcano's of this Earth and their Effects are consider'd Secondly such Materials as are within the Earth Thirdly such as are in the Air. CHAP. VIII Some new dispositions towards the Conflagration as to the Matter Form and Situation of the Earth Concerning miraculous Causes and how far the ministry of Angels may be engag'd in this work CHAP. IX How the Sea will be diminish'd and consum'd How the Rocks and Mountains will be thrown down and melted and the whole exteriour Frame of the Earth dissolv'd into a Deluge of Fire CHAP. X. Concerning the beginning and progress of the Conflagration what part of the Earth will first be burnt The manner of the future destruction of Rome according to the Prophetical indications The last state and consummation of the general Fire CHAP. XI An Account of these Extraordinary Phaenomena and Wonders in Nature that according to Scripture will precede the coming of Christ and the Conflagration of the World CHAP. XII An imperfect description of the coming of our Saviâ—ur and of the World on fire The Conclusion THE FOURTH BOOK CHAP. I. THE Introduction That the World will not be annihilated in the last fire That we are to expect according to Scripture and the Christian Doctrine New Heavens and a New Earth when these are dissolv'd or burnt up CHAP.
proceed In what manner the frame of the Earth will be dissolv'd and what will be the dreadful countenance of a Burning World These heads are set down more fully in the Argument of each Chapter and seem to be sufficient for the explication of this whole matter Taking in some additional discourses which in pursuing these heads enter of their own accord and make the work more even and entire In the Second Part we restore the World that we had destroy'd Build New Heavens and a New Earth wherein Righteousness shall dwell Establish that new order of things which is so often celebrated by the Prophets A Kingdom of Peace and of Justice where the Enemy of Mankind shall be bound and the Prince of Peace shall rule A Paradise without a Serpent and a Tree of Knowledge not to wound but to heal the Nations Where will be neither curse nor pain nor death nor disease Where all things are new all things are more perfect both the World it self and its Inhabitants Where the First-born from the Dead have the First-fruits of glory We dote upon this present World and the enjoyments of it and 't is not without pain and fear and reluctancy that we are torn from them as if our hopes lay all within the compass of this life Yet I know not by what good fate my thoughts have been always fixt upon things to come more than upon things present These I know by certain experience to be but trifles and if there be nothing more considerable to come the whole being of Man is no better than a trifle But there is room enough before us in that we call Eternity for great and Noble Scenes and the Mind of Man feels it self lessen'd and straiten'd in this low and narrow state wishes and waits to see something greater And if it could discern another World a coming on this side Eternal Life a beginning Glory the best that Earth can bear It would be a kind of Immortality to enâ—oy that prospect before-hand To see when this Theater is dissolv'd where we shall act next and what parts What Saints and Hero's if I may so say will appear upon that Stage and with what luster and excellency How easie would it be under a view of these futurities to despise the little pomps and honours and the momentany pleasures of a Mortal Life But I proceed to our Subâ—ect CHAP. II. The true state of the Question is Propos'd 'T is the general doctrine of the Ancients that the present World or the present frame of Nature is mutable and perishable To which the Sacred Books agree and Natural Reason can alledge nothing against it WHen we speak of the End or destruction of the World whether by Fire or otherwise â—Tis not to be imagin'd that we understand this of the Great Universe Sun Moon and Stars and the Highest Heavens as if these were to perish or be destroy'd some few years hence whether by Fire or any other way This Question is only to be understood of the Sublunary World of this Earth and its Furniture which had its original about six thousand years ago according to the History of Moses and hath once already been destroy'd when the Exteriour Region of it broke and the Abyss issuing forth as out of a womb overflow'd all the habitable Earth The next Deluge is that of Fire which will have the same bounds and overflow the Surface of the Earth muchâ—what in the same manner But the celestial Regions where the Stars and Angels inhabit are not concern'd in this fate Those are not made of combustible matter nor if they were cou'd our flames reach them Possibly those Bodies may have changes and revolutions peculiar to themselves but in ways unknown to us and after long and unknown periods of time Therefore when we speak of â—he Conflagration of the World These have no concern in the question nor any other part of the Universe than the Earth and its dependances As will evidently appear when we come to explain the Manner and Causes of the Conflagration And as this Conflagration can extend no further than to the Earth and its Elements so neither can it destroy the matter of the Earth but only the form and fashion of it as it is an habitable World Neither Fire nor any other Natural Agent can destroy Matter that is reduce it to nothing It may alter the modes and qualities of it but the substance will always remain And accordingly the Apostle when he speaks of the mutability of this World says only The figure or fashion of this World passes away This structure of the Earth and disposition of the Elements And all the works of the Earth as S. Peter says All its natural productions and all the works of art or humane industry these will perish melted or torn in pieces by the Fire but without an annihilation of the Matter any more than in the former Deluge And this will be further prov'd and illustrated in the beginning of the following Book The question being thus stated we are next to consider the sense of Antiquity upon these two Points First Whether this Sublunary World is mutable and perishable Secondly By the force and action of what causes and in what manner it will perish whether by Fire or otherwise Aristotle is very irregular in his Sentiments about the state of the World He allows it neither beginning not ending rise nor fall but wou'd have it eternal and immuâ—able And this he understand not only of the Great Universe but of this Sublunary World this Earth which we inhabit wherein he will not admit there ever have been or over will be either general Deluges or Conflagrations And as if he was ambitious to be thought singular in his opinion about the Eternity of the World He says All the Ancients before him gave some beginning or origin to the World But were not indeed so unanimous as â—o its 〈◊〉 fate Some believing it immutable or as the Philosophers call it incorruptible Others That it had its fatal times and Periods as lesser Bodies have and a term of age prefixt to it by Providence But before we examine this Point any further it will be necessary to reflect upon that which we noted before an ambiguity in the use of the word World which gives frequent occasion of mistakes in reading the Ancients when that which they speak of the great Universe we apply to the Sublunary World or on the contrary what they speak of this Earth we extend to the whole Universe And if some of them besides Aristotle made the World incorruptible they might mean that of the Great Universe which they thought would never be dissolv'd or perish as to its Mass and bulk But single parts and points of it and our Earth is no more may be variously transform'd and made habitable and unhabitable according to certain periods of time without any prâ—â—udiâ—d to their Philosophy So Plato for instance thinks this
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
question is not at present about the existence of this fire but the eruption of it and the effect of that Eruption which cannot be in my judgment such a Conflagration as is describ'd in Scripture This Central Fire must be enclos'd in a shell of great strength and firmness for being of it self the lightest and most active of all Bodies it would not be detained in that lowest prison without a strong guard upon it 'T is true we can make no certain judgment of what thickness this shell is but if we suppose this fire to have a twentieth part of the semidiameter of the Earth on either side the centre for its sphere which seems to be a fair allowance there would still remain nineteen parts for our safeguard and security And these nineteen parts of the semidiameter of the Earth will make 3268 miles for a partition-wall betwixt us and this Central Fire Who wou'd be afraid of an Enemy lock'd up in so strong a prison But you 'l say it may be tho' the Central Fire at the beginning of the World might have no more room or space than what is mentioned yet being of that activity that it is and corrosive nature it may in the space of some thousands of years have eaten deep into the sides of its prison and so come nearer to the surface of the Earth by some hundreds or thousands of miles than it was at first This would be a material exception if it could be made out But what Phaenomenon is there in Nature that proves this How does it appear by any observation that the Central Fire gains ground upon us Or is increased in quantity or come nearer to the surface of the Earth I know nothing that can be offered in proof of this and if there be no appearance of a change nor any sensible effect of it 't is an argument there is none or none considerable If the quantity of that fire was considerably increas'd it must needs besides other effects have made the Body of the Earth considerably lighter The Earth having by this conversion of its own substance into fire lost so much of its heaviest matter and got so much of the lightest and most active Element in stead of it and in both these respects its gravity would be manifestly lessen'd Which if it really was in any considerable degree it would discover it self by some change either as to the motion of the Earth or as to its place or station in the Heavens But there being no external change observable in this or any other respect 't is reasonable to presume that there is no considerable inward change or no great consumption of its inward parts and substance and consequently no great increase of the Central Fire But if we should admit both an encrease and eruption of this fire it would not have that effect which is pretended It might cause some confusion and disorder in those parts of the Earth where it broke out but it would not make an universal Conflagration such as is represented to us in Scripture Let us suppose the Earth to be open or burst in any place under the Pole for instance or under the Aequator and let it gape as low as the Central Fire At this chasm or rupture we suppose the fire would gush out and what then would be the consequence of this when it came to the surface of the Earth It would either be dissipated and lost in the air or fly still higher towards the Heavens in a mass of flame But what execution in the mean time would it do upon the Body of the Earth 'T is but like a flash of lightning or a flame issuing out of a pit that dies presently Besides this Central Fire is of that subtilty and tenuity that it is not able to inflame gross Bodies no morethan those Meteors we call Lambent Fires inflame the bodies to which they stick Lastly in explaining the manner of the Conflagration we must have regard principally to Scripture for the explications given there are more to the purpose than all that the Philosophers have said upon that subject Now as we noted before 't is manifest in Scripture that after the Conflagration there will be a Restauration New Heavens and a New Earth 'T is the express doctrine of S. Peter besides other Prophets We must therefore suppose the Earth reduc'd to such a Chaos by this last fire as will lay the foundation of a new World Which can never be if the inward frame of it be broke the Central Fire exhausted and the exterior region suck'd into those central vacuities This must needs make it lose its former poise and libration and it will thereupon be thrown into some other part of the Universe as the useless shell of a broken Granado or as a dead carkass and unprofitable matter These reasons may be sufficient why we should not depend upon those pretended causes of the Conflagration The Suns advance towards the Earth or such a rupture of the Earth as will let out the Central Fire These Causes I hope will appear superfluous when we shall have given an account of the Conflagration without them But young Philosophers like young Soldiers think they are never sufficiently armed and often take more weapons than they can make use of when they come to fight Not that we altogether reject the influence of the Sun or of the Central Fire especially the latter For in that great estuation of Nature the Body of the Earth will be much open'd and relaxated and when the pores are enlarg'd the steams of that fire will sweat out more plentifully into all its parts but still without any rupture in the vessels or in the skin And whereas these Authors suppose the very Veins burst and the vital blood to gush out as at openflood gates we only allow a more copious perspiration and think that sufficient for all purposes in this case CHAP. VII The true bounds of the Last Fire and how far it is fatal The natural Causes and Materials of it cast into three ranks First such as are exterior and visible upon the Earth where the Volcano's of the Earth and their effects are consider'd Secondly such materials as are within the Earth Thirdly such as are in the Air. AS we have in the preceding Chapter laid aside those Causes of the Conflagration which we thought too great and cumbersome so now we must in like manner examine the Effect and reduce that to its just measures and proportions that there may be nothing lest superfluous on either side Then by comparing the real powers with the work they are to do boâ—h being stated within their due bounds we may the better judge how they are proportion'd to one another We noted before that the Conflagration had nothing to do with the Stars and superiour Heavens but was wholly confin'd to this Sublunary World And this Deluge of Fire will have much what the same bounds that the Deluge of
Water had formerly This is according to St. Peter's doctrine for he makes the same parts of the Universe to be the subject of both namely the inferiour Heavens and the Earth The Heavens and the Earth which were then perish'd in a Deluge of Water But the Heavens and the Earth that are now are reserv'd to fire The present Heavens and Earth are substituted in the place of those that perish'd at the Deluge and these are to be over-run and destroy'd by fire as those were by water So that the Apostle takes the same Regions and the same space and compass for the one as for the other and makes their fate different according to their different constitution and the different order of Providence This is the sence St. Austin gives us of the Apostle's words and these are the bounds he sets to the last Fire whereof a modern Commentator is so well assur'd that he says They neither understand Divinity nor Philosophy that would make the Conflagration reach above the Elementary Heavens Let these be then its limits upwards the Clouds Air and Atmosphere of the Earth But the question seems more doubtful How far it will extend downwards into the bowels of the Earth I answer still to the same depth that the Waters of the Deluge reach'd To the lowest Abysses and the deepest Caverns within the ground And seeing no Caverns are deeper or lower at least according to our Theory than the bottom of the great Ocean to that depth I suppose the rage of this fire will peneâ—rate and devour all before it And therefore we must not imagine that only the outward turf and habitable surface of the Earth will be put into a flame and laid wast the whole exteriour region of the Earth to the depth of the deepest part of the Sea will suffer in this Fire and suffer to that degree as to be melted down and the frame of it dissolv'd For we are not to conceive that the Earth will be only scorcht or charkt in the last Fire there will be a sort of liquefaction and dissolution it will become a molten Sea mingled with fire according to the expression of Scripture And this dissolution may reasonably be suppos'd to reach as low as the Earth hath any hollownesses or can give 〈◊〉 to smoke and flame Wherefore taking these for the bounds and limits of the last great Fire the next thing to be enquir'd into are the Natural Causes of it How this strange fate will seize upon the Sublunary World and with an irresistible fury subdue all things to it self But when I say Natural Causes I would not be so understood as if I thought the Conflagration was a pure Natural Fatality as the Stoicks seem to do No 't is a mixt Fatality The Causes indeed are Natural but the administration of them is from an higher hand Fire is the Instrument or the executive power and hath no more force given it than what it hath naturally but the concurrence of these Causes or of these fiery powers at such a time and in such a manner and the conduct of them to carry on and compleat the whole work without cessation or interruption that I look upon as more than what material Nature could effect of it self or than could be brought to pass by such a government of matter as is the bare result of its own laws and determinations When a Ship fails gently before the Wind the Mariners may stand idle but to guide her in a storm all hands must be at work There are rules and measures to be observ'd even in these tumults and desolations of Nature in destroying a World as well as in making one and therefore in both it is reasonable to suppose a more than ordinary Providence to superintend the work Let us not therefore be too positive or presumptuous in our conjectures about these things for if there be an invisible hand Divine or Angelical that touches the Springs and Wheels it will not be easie for us to determine with certainty the order of their motions However 't is our duty to search into the ways and works of God as far as we can And we may without offence look into the Magazines of Nature see what provisions are made and what preparations for this great Day and in what method 't is most likely the design will be executed But before we proceed to mark out Materials for this Fire give me leave to observe one condition or property in the Form of this present Earth that makes it capable of Inflammation 'T is the manner of its construction in an hollow eavernous form By reason whereof containing much Air in its cavities and having many inlets and outlets 't is in most places capable of ventilation pervious and passable to the Winds and consequently to the Fire Those that have read the former part of this Theory know how the Earth came into this hollow and broken form from what causes and at what time namely at the Universal Deluge when there was a disruption of the exteriour Earth that fell into the Abyss and so for a time was overflow'd with Water These Ruines recover'd from the Water we inhabit and these Ruines only will be burnt up For being not only unequal in their Surface but also hollow loose and incompact within as ruines use to be they are made thereâ— by capable of a second fate by inflammation Thereby I say they are made combustible for if the exteriour Regions of this Earth were as close and compact in all their parts as we have reason to believe the interiour Regions of it to be the Fire could have little power over it nor ever reduce it to such a state as is requir'd in a compleat Conflagration such as ours is to be This being admitted that the Exteriour Region of the Earth stands hollow as a well set Fire to receive Air freely into its parts and hath issues for smoke and flame It remains to enquire what fewel or Materials Nature hath fitted to kindle this Pile and to continue it on Fire till it be consum'd or in plain words What are the Natural Causes and preparatives for a Conflagration The first and most obvious preparations that we see in Nature for this effect are the Burning Mountains or Volcano's of the Earth These are lesser Essays or preludes to the general Fire set on purpose by Providence to keep us awake and to mind us continually and forewarn us of what we are to expect at last The Earth you see is already kindled blow but the Coal and propagate the Fire and the work will go on Tophet is prepar'd of old and when the Day of Doom is come and the Date of the World expir'd the breath of the Lord shall make it burn But besides these Burning Mountains there are Lakes of pitch and brimstone and oily Liquors disperst in several parts of the Earth These are in enrage the Fire as it goes and to fortifie
Fiery Mountains burst out and discharge themselves in flames of fire tear up the roots of the Earth throw hot burning stones send out streams of flowing Metals and Minerals and all other sorts of ardent matter which Nature hath lodg'd in those Treasuries If all these Engines I say were to play at once the Heavens and the Earth would seem to be in a flame and the World in an universal combustion But we may reasonably presume that against that great Day of vengeance and execution not only all these will be employ'd but also new Volcano's will be open'd and new Mountains in every Region will break out into smoke and flame just as at the Deluge the Abyss broke out from the Womb of the Earth and from those hidden stores sent an immense quantity of water which it may be the Inhabitants of that World never thought of before So we must expect new Eruptions and also new sulphureous Lakes and Fountains of Oyl to boyl out of the ground And these all united with that Fewel that naturally grows upon the Surface of the Earth will be sufficient to give the first onset and to lay wast all the habitable World and the Furniture of it But we suppose the Conflagration will go lower pierce under-ground and dissolve the substance of the Earth to some considerable depth therefore besides these outward and visible preparations we must consider all the hidden invisible Materials within the Veins of the Earth Such are all Minerals or Mineral juices and concretions that are igniferous or capable of inflammation And these cannot easily be reckon'd up or estimated Some of the most common are Sulphur and all sulphureous bodies and Earths impregnated with Sulphur Bitumen and bituminous concretions inflammable Salts Coal and other fossiles that are ardent with innumerable mixtures and compositions of these kinds which being open'd by heat are unctuous and inflammable or by attrition discover the latent seeds of fire But besides consistent Bodies there is also much volatile fire within the Earth in fumes steams and exudations which will all contribute to this effect From these stores under-ground all Plants and Vegetables are fed and supply'd as to their oily and sulphureous parts And all hot Waters in Baths or Fountains must have their original from some of these some mixture or participation of them And as to the British Soyl there is so much Coal incorporated with it that when the Earth shall burn we have reason to apprehend no small danger from that subterraneous Enemy These dispositions and this Fewel we find in and upon the Earth towards the last Fire The third sort of Provision is in the Air All fiery Meteors and Exhalations engender'd and form'd in those Regions above and discharg'd upon the Earth in several ways I believe there were no fiery Meteors in the ante-diluvian Heavens which therefore St. Peter says were constituted of water had nothing in them but what was watery But he says the Heavens that are now have treasures of fire or are reserv'd for fire as things laid up in a store house for that purpose We have thunder and lightning and fiery tempests and there is nothing more vehement impetuous and irresistible where their force is directed It seems to me very remarkable that the Holy Writers describe the coming of the Lord and the destruction of the wicked in the nature of a tempest or a storm of fire Upon the wicked the Lord shall rain coals fire and brimstone and a burning tempest this shall be the portion of their cup. And in the lofty Song of David Psal. 18. which in my judgment respects both the past Deluge and the future Conflagration 't is said The Lord also thundred in the heavens and the Highest gave his voice hailstones and coals of fire Yea he sent forth his arrows and scattered them and he shot out lightnings and discomfited them Then the Chanels of waters were seen and the foundations of the World were discover'd at thy rebuke O Lord at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils And a like fiery coming is describ'd in the ninety seventh Psalm as also by Isaiah Daniel and S. Paul And lastly in the Apocalypse when the World draws to a conclusion as in the seventh Trumpet ch 11. 19. and the seventh Vial ch 16. 18. we have still mention made of this Fiery Tempest of Lightnings and Thunderings We may therefore reasonably suppose that before the Conflagration the Air will be surcharg'd every where by a precedent drought with hot and fiery exhalations And as against the Deluge those regions were burthened with water and moist vapours which were pour'd upon the Earth not in gentle showres but like rivers and cataracts from Heaven so they will now be fill'd with hot fumes and sulphureous clouds which will sometimes flow in streams and fiery impressions throgh the Air sometimes make Thunder and Lightnings and sometimes fall down upon the Earth in flouds of Fire In general there is a great analogy to be observed betwixt the two Deluges of Water and of Fire not only as to the bounds of them which were noted before but as to the general causes and sources upon which they depend from above and from below At the Floud the Windows of Heaven were opened above and the Abyss was opened below and the Waters of these two joyn'd together to overflow the World In like manner at the Conflagration God will rain down Fire from Heaven as he did once upon Sodom and at the same time the subterraneous store-houses of Fire will be broken open which answers to the disruption of the Abyss And these two meeting and mingling together will involve all the Heaven and Earth in flames This is a short account of the ordinary stores of Nature and the ordinary preparations for a general Fire And in contemplation of these Pliny the Naturalist said boldly It was one of the greatest wonders of the World that the World was not every day set on fire We will conclude this Chapter with his words in the second Book of his Natural History having given an account of some fiery Mountains and other parts of the Earth that are the seats and sources of Fire He makes this reflection Seeing this Element is so fruitful that it brings forth it self and multiplies and encreases from the least sparks what are we to expect from so many fires already kindled on the Earth How does nature feed and satisfie so devouring an Element and such a great voracity throughout all the World without loss or diminution of her self Add to these fires we have mentioned the Stars and the Great Sun then all the fires made for humane uses fire in stones in wood in the clouds and in thunder IT EXCEEDS ALL MIRACLES IN MY OPINION THAT ONE DAY SHOULD PASS WITHOUT SETTING THE WORLD ALL ON FIRE CHAP. VIII Some new dispositions towards the Conflagration as to the matter form and situation of the Earth
Concerning miraculous Causes and how far the ministery of Angels may be engaged in this Work WE have given an account in the preceding Chapter of the ordinary preparatious of Nature for a general fire We now are to give an account of the extraordinary or of any new dispositions which towards the End of the World may be superadded to the ordinary state of Nature I do not by these mean things openly miraculous and supernatural but such a change wrought in Nature as shall still have the face of Natural Causes and yet have a greater tendency to the Conflagration As for example suppose a great Drought as we noted before to precede this fate or a general heat and dryness of the Air and of the Earth because this happens sometimes in a course of Nature it will not be lookt upon as prodigious 'T is true some of the Ancients speak of a Drought of Forty Years that will be a forerunner of the Conflagration so that there will not be a watery Cloud nor a Rainbow seen in the Heavens for so long time And this they impute to Elias who at his coming will stop the Rain and shut up the Heavens to make way for the last Fire But these are excessive and ill-grounded suppositions for half forty years drought will bring an universal sterility upon the Earth and thereupon an Universal Famine with innumerable diseases so that all mankind would be destroyed before the Conflagration could overtake them But we will readily admit an extraordinary drought and desiccation of all bodies to usher in this great fatality And therefore whatsoever we read in Natural History concerning former droughts of their drying up Fountains and Rivers parching the Earth and making the outward Turf take fire in several places filling the Air with fiery impressions making the Woods and Forests ready Fewel and sometimes to kindle by the heat of the Sun or a flash of Lightning These and what other effects have come to pass in former droughts may come to pass again and that in an higher measure and so as to be of more general extent And we must also allow that by this means a great degree of inflammability or easiness to be set on Fire will be superinduc'd both into the body of the Earth and of all things that grow upon it The heat of the Sun will pierce deeper into its bowels when it gapes to receive his beams and by chinks and widened pores makes way for their passage to its very heart And on the other hand it is not improbable but that upon this general relaxation and incalescency of the Body of the Earth the General Fire may have a freer efflux and diffuse it self in greater abundance every way so as to affect even these exteriour Regions of the Earth so far as to make them still more catching and more combustible From this external and internal heat acting upon the Body of the Earth all Minerals that have the seeds of fire in them will be open'd and exhale their effluvium's more copiously as Spices when warm'd are more odoriferous and fill the Air with their perfumes so the particles of fire that are shut up in several bodies will easily flie abroad when by a further degree of relaxation you shake off their chains and open the Prison-doors We cannot doubt but there are many sorts of Minerals and many sorts of Fire-stones and of Trees and Vegetables of this nature which will sweat out their oily and sulphureous atomes when by a general heat and driness their parts are loosen'd and agitated We have no experience that will reach so far as to give us a full account what the state of Nature will be at that time I mean after this drought towards the end of the world But we may help our imagination by comparing it with other seasons and temperaments of the Air. As therefore in the Spring the Earth is fragrant and the Fields and Gardens are fill'd with the sweet breathings of Herbs and Flowers especially after a gentle rain when their Bodies are softned and the warmth of the Sun makes them evaporate more freely So a greater degree of heat acting upon all the bodies of the Earth like a stronger fire in the Alembick will extract another sort of parts or particles more deeply incorporated and more difficult to be disintangled I mean oily parts and such undiscover'd parcels of fire as lie fix'd and imprison'd in hard bodies These I imagine will be in a great measure set a float on drawn out into the Air which will abound with hot and dry Exhalations more than with vapours and moisture in a wet season and by this means all Elements and elementary Bodies will stand ready and in a proximate disposition to be inflam'd Thus much concerning the last drought and the general effects of it In the next place we must consider the Earthquakes that will precede the Conflagration and the consequences of them I noted before that the cavernous and broken construction of the present Earth was that which made it obnoxious to be destroy'd by fire as its former construction over the Abyss made it obnoxious to be destroy'd with Water This hollowness of the Earth is most sensible in mountainous and hilly Countreys which therefore I look upon as most subject to burning but the plain Countreys may also be made hollow and hilly by Earth-quakes when the vapours not finding an easie vent raise the ground and make a forcible eruption as at the springing of a Mine And tho' plain Countreys are not so subject to Earthquakes as Mountainous because they have not so many cavities and subterraneous Vaults to lodge the vapours in yet every Region hath more or less of them And after this drought the vacuities of the Earth being every where enlarg'd the quantity of exhalations much encreas'd and the motion of them more strong and violent they will have their effects in many places where they never had any before Yet I do not suppose that this will raise new ridges of Mountains like the Alpes or Pyreneans in those Countreys that are now plain but that they will break and loosen the ground make greater inequalities in the surface and greater cavities within than what are at present in those places And by this means the fire will creep under them and find a passage thorow them with more ease than if they were compact and every where continued and unbroken But you will say it may be how does it appear that there will be more frequent Earth-quakes towards the end of the World If this precedent drought be admitted 't is plain that fiery exhalations will abound every where within the Earth and will have a greater agitation than ordinary and these being the causes of Earth-quakes when they are rarified or inflam'd 't is reasonable to suppose that in such a state of Nature they will more frequently happen than at other times Besides Earth-quakes are taken notice of in Scripture as signs
and forerunners of the last day as they usually are of all great changes and calamities The destruction of Ierusalem was a type of the destruction of the World and the Evangelists always mention Earth-quakes amongst the ominous Prodigies that were to attend it But these Earth-quakes we are speaking of at present are but the beginnings of sorrow and not to be compar'd with those that will follow afterwards when Nature is convulst in her last agony just as the flames are seizing on her Of which we shall have occasion to speak hereafter These changes will happen as to the matter and form of the Earth before it is attack'd by the last fire There will be also another change as to the situation of it for that will be rectified and the Earth restor'd to the posture it had at first namely of a right aspect and conversion to the Sun But because I cannot determine at what time this restitution will be whether at the beginning middle or end of the Conflagration I will not presume to lay any stress upon it Plato seems to have imputed the Conflagration to this only which is so far true that the Revolution call'd The Great Year is this very Revolution or the return of the Earth and the Heavens to their first posture But tho' this may be contemporary with the last fire or some way concomitant yet it does not follow that it is the cause of it much less the only cause It may be an occasion of making the fire reach more easily towards the Poles when by this change of situation their long Nights and long Winters shall be taken away These new dispositions in our Earth which we expect before that great day may be look'd upon as extraordinary but not as Miraculous because they may proceed from Natural Causes But now in the last place we are to consider miraculous causes What influence they may have or what part they may bear in this great revolution of Nature By miraculous causes we understand either God's immediate Omnipotency or the Ministry of Angels and what may be perform'd by the latter is very improperly and undecently thrown upon the former 'T is a great step to Omnipotency and 't is hard to define what Miracles on this side Creation require an infinite power We are sure that the Angels are Ministring Spirits and ten thousand times ten thousand stand about the Throne of the Almighty to receive his commands and execute his judgments That perfect knowledge they have of the powers of nature and of conducting those powers to the best advantage by adjusting causes in a fit subordination one to another makes them capable of performing not only things far above our force but even above our imagination Besides they have a radical inherent power belonging to the excellency of their nature of determining the motions of matter within a far greater sphere than humane Souls can pretend to We can only command our spirits and determine their motions within the compass of our own Bodies but their activity and empire is of far greater extent and the outward World is much more subject to their dominion than to ours From these considerations it is reasonable to conclude that the generality of miracles may be and are perform'd by Angels It being less decorous to employ a Sovereign power where a subaltern is sufficient and when we hastily cast things upon God for quick dispatch we consult our own ease more than the honouor of our Maker I take it for granted here that what is done by an Angelical hand is truly providential and of divine administration and also justly bears the character of a miracle Whatsoever may be done by pure material causes or humane strength we account Natural and whatsoever is above these we call supernatural and miraculous Now what is supernatural and miraculous is either the effect of an Angelical power or of a Sovereign and Infinite power And we ought not to confound these two no more than Natural and Supernatural for there is a greater difference betwixt the highest Angelical power and Omnipotency than betwixt an Humane power and Angelical Therefore as the first Rule concerning miracles is this That we must not flie to miracles where Man and Nature are sufficient so the second Rule is this that we must not flie to a sovereign infinite power where an Angelical is sufficient And the reason in both Rules is the same namely because it argues a defect of Wisdom in all Oeconomiles to employ more and greater means than are sufficient Now to make application of this to our present purpose I think it reasonable and also sufficient to admit the ministery of Angels in the future Conflagration of the World If Nature will not lay violent hands upon her self or is not sufficient to work her own destruction Let us allow Destroying Angels to interest themselves in the work as the Executioners of the Divine Justice and Vengeance upon a degenerate World We have examples of this so frequently in Sacred History how the Angels have executed God's Judgments upon a Nation or a People that it cannot seem new or strange that in this last judgment which by all the Prophets is represented as the Great Day of the Lord the day of his Wrath and of his Fury the same Angels should bear their parts and conclude the last scene of that Tragedy which they had acted in all along We read of the Destroying Angel in Aegypt of Angels that presided at the destruction of Sodom which was a Type of the future destrution of the World Iude 7. and of Angels that will accompany our Saviour when he comes in flames of Fire Not we suppose to be Spectators only but Actors and Superintendants in this great Catastrophe This ministery of Angels may be either in ordering and conducting such Natural Causes as we have already given an account of or in adding new ones if occasion be I mean encreasing the quantity of Fire or of fiery materials in and about the Earth So as that Element shall be more abundant and more predominant and overbear all opposition that either Water or any other Body can make against it It is not material whether of these two Suppositions we follow provided we allow that the Conflagration is a work of Providence and not a pure Natural Fatality If it be necessary that there should be an augmentation made of Fiery Matter 't is not hard to conceive how that may be done either from the Heavens or from the Earth The Prophets sometimes speak of multiplying or strengthning the Light of the Sun and it may as easily be conceiv'd of his heat as of his light as if the Vial that was to be pour'd upon it and gave it a power to scorch men with fire had something of a Natural sence as well as Moral But there is another stream of Ethereal matter that flows from the Heavens and recruits the Central Fire with continual supplies
This may be encreas'd and strengthned and its effects convey'd throughout the whole Body of the Earth But if an augmentation is to be made of Terrestrial Fire or of such terrestrial principles as contain it most as Sulphur Oyl and such like I am apt to believe these will encrease of their own accord upon a general drought and desiccation of the Earth For I am far from the opinion of some Chymists that think these principles immutable and incapable of diminution or augmentation I willingly admit that all such particles may be broken and disfigur'd and thereby lose their proper and specifick virtue and new ones may be generated to supply the places of the former Which supplies or new productions being made in a less or greater measure according to the general dispositions of Nature when Nature is heightned into a kind of Feaver and Ebullition of all her juices and humours as she will be at that time we must expect that more parts than ordinary should be made inflammable and those that are inflam'd should become more violent Under these circumstances when all Causes lean that way a little help from a superior power will have a great effect and make a great change in the state of the World And as to the power of Angels I am of opinion that it is very great as to the Changes and Modifications of Natural Bodies that they can dissolve a Marble as easily as we can crumble Earth and Moulds or fix any liquor in a moment into a substance as hard as Crystal That they can either make flames more vehement and irresistible to all sorts of Bodies or as harmless as Lambent Fires and as soft as Oyl We see an instance of this last in Nebuchadnezzar's fiery Furnace where the three Children walk'd unconcern'd in the midst of the Flames under the charge and protection of an Angel And the same Angel if he had pleas'd could have made the same Furnace seven times hotter than the wrath of the Tyrant had made it We will therefore leave it to their ministery to manage this great Furnace when the Heavens and the Earth are on Fire To conserve encrease direct or temper the flames according to instructions given them as they are to be Tutelary or Destroying Neither let any body think it a diminution of Providence to put things into the hands of Angels 'T is the true rule and method of it For to employ an Almighty power where it is not necessary is to debase 〈◊〉 and give it a task fit for lower Beings Some think it devotion and piety to have recourse immediately to the arm of God to salve all things This may be done sometimes with a good intention but commonly with little judgment God is as jealous of the glory of his Wisdom as of his Power and Wisdom consists in the conduct and subordination of several causes to bring our purposes to effect but what is dispatched by an immediate Supreme Power leaves no room for the exercise of Wisdom To conclude this point which I have touch'd upon more than once We must not be partial to any of God's Attributes and Providence being a complexion of many Power Wisdom Justice and Goodness when we give due place and honour to all these then we most honour DIVINE PROVIDENCE CHAP. IX How the Sea will be diminish'd and consum'd How the Rocks and Mountains will be thrown down and melted and the whole exteriour frame of the Earth dissolv'd into a Deluge of Fire WE have now taken a view of the Causes of the Conflagration both ordinary and extraordinary It remains to consider the manner of it How these Causes will operate and bring to pass an effect so great and so prodigious We took notice before that the grand obstruction would be from the Sea and from the Mountains we must therefore take these to task in the first place and if we can remove them out of our way or overcome what resistance and opposition they are capable to make the rest of the work will not be uneasie to us The Ocean indeed is a vast Body of Waters and we must use all our art and skill to dry it up or consume it in a good measure before we can compass our design I remember the advice a Philosopher gave Amasis King of Egypt when he had a command sent him from the King of Aethiopia That he should drink up the Sea Amasis being very anxious and sollicitous what answer he should make to this strange command the Philosopher Bias advis'd him to make this round answer to the King That he was ready to perform his command and to drink up the Sea provided he would stop the rivers from flowing into his cup while he was drinking This answer baffled the King for he could not stop the rivers but this we must do or we shall never be able to drink up the Sea or burn up the Earth Neither will this be so impossible as it seems at first sight if we reflect upon those preparations we have made towards it by a general drought all over the Earth This we suppose will precede â—he Conflagration and by drying up the Fountains and Rivers which daily feed the Sea will by degrees starve that Monster or reduce it to such a degree of weakness that it shall not be able to make any great resistance More than half an Ocean of Water flows into the Sea every day from the Rivers of the Earth if you take them all together This I speak upon a moderate computation Aristotle says the Rivers carry more water into the Sea in the space of a year thâ—n would equal in bulk the whole Globe of the Earth Nay some have ventur'd to affirm this of one single River The Volga that runs into the Caspian Sea 'T is a great River indeed and hath seventy mouths and so it had need have to disgorge a mass of Water equal to the Body of the Earth in a years time But we need not take such high measures There are at least an hundred great Rivers that flow into the Sea from several parts of the Earth Islands and Continents besides several thousands of lesser ones Let us suppose these all together to pour as much water into the Sea-chanel every day as is equal to half the Ocean And we shall be easily convinc'd of the reasonableness of this supposition if we do but examine the daily expence of one River and by that make an estimate of the rest This we find calculated to our hands in the River Po in Italy a River of much what the same bigness with our Thames and disburthens it self into the Gulph of Venice Baptista Riccioli hath computed how much water this River discharges in an hour viz. 18000000. cubical paces of Water and consequently 432000000. in a day which is scarce credible to those that do not distinctly compute it Suppose then an hundred Rivers as great as this or greater to fall into the Sea from
since the memory of man there have always been subterraneous fires in Italy And the Romans did not preserve their Vestal fire with more constancy than Nature hath done her fiery Mountains in some part or other of that Territory Let us then suppose when the fatal time draws near all these Burning Mountains to be fill'd and replenish'd with fit materials for such a design and when our Saviour appears in the Clouds with an Host of Angels that they all begin to play as Fire-works at the Triumphal Entry of a Prince Let Vesuvius Aetna Strongyle and all the Vulcanian Islands break out into flames and by the Earth-quakes which then will rage let us suppose new Eruptions or new Mountains open'd in the Apennines and near to Rome and to vomit out fire in the same manner as the old Volcano's Then let the sulphureous ground take fire and seeing the Soil of that Country in several places is so full of brimstone that the steams and smoke of it visibly rise out of the Earth we may reasonably suppose that it will burn openly and be inflam'd at that time Lastly the Lightnings of the Air and the flaming streams of the melting Skies will mingle and joyn with these burnings of the Earth And these three Causes meeting together as they cannot but make a dreadful Scene so they will easily destroy and consume whatsoever lies within the compass of their fury Thus you may suppose the beginning of the General Fire And it will be carried on by like causes tho' in lesser degrees in other parts of the Earth But as to Rome there is still in my opinion a more dreadful fate that will attend it namely to be absorpt or swallowed up in a Lake of fire and brimstone after the manner of Sodom and Gomorrha This in my judgment will be the fare and final conclusion of Mystical Babylon to sink as a great Milstone into the Sea and never to appear more Hear what the Prophet says A mighty Angel took up a stone like a great Milstone and cast it into the Sea saying thus with violence shall that great City Babylon be thrown down and shall be found no more at all Simply to be burnt does not at all answer to this description of its perishing by sinking like a Milstone into the Sea and never appearing more nor of not having its place ever more found that is leaving no remains or marks of it A City that is only burnt cannot be said to fall like a Milstone into the Sea or that it can never more be found For after the burning of a City the ruines stand and its place is well known Wherefore in both respects besides this exteriour burning there must be an absorption of this Mystical Babylon the Seat of the Beast and thereupon a total disappearance of it This also agrees with the suddenness of the judgment which is a repeated character of it Chap. 18. 8 10 17 19. Now what kind of absorption this will be into what and in what manner we may learn from what St. Iohn says afterwards ch 19. 20. The Beast and the false Prophets were cast alive into a Lake of fire and brimstone You must not imagine that they were bound hand and foot and so thrown headlong into this Lake but they were swallowed up alive they and theirs as Corah and his company Or to use a plainer example after the manner of Sodom and Gomorrha which perisht by fire and at the same time sunk into a Dead Sea or a Lake of brimstone This was a lively type of the fate of Rome or Mystical Babylon and 't is fit it should resemble Sodom as well in its punishment as in its crimes Neither is it a hard thing to conceive how such an absorption may come to pass That being a thing so usual in Earth-quakes and Earth-quakes being so frequent in that Region And lastly that this should be after the manner of Sodom turn'd into a Lake of fire will not be at all strange if we consider that there will be many subterraneous Lakes of fire at that time when the bowels of the Earth begin to melt and the Mountains spew out streams of liquid fire The ground therefore being hollow and rotten in those parts when it comes to be shaken with a mighty Earth-quake the foundations will sink and the whole frame fall into an Abyss of fire below as a Milstone into the Sea And this will give occasion to that Cry Babylon the Great is fallen is fallen and shall never more be found This seems to be a probable account according to Scripture and reason of the beginning of the general fire and of the particular fate of Rome But it may be propos'd here as an objection against this Hypothesis that the Mediterranean Sea lying all along the Coast of Italy must needs be a sufficient guard to that Country against the invasion of fire or at least must needs extinguish it before it can do much mischief there or propagate it self into other Countreys I thought we had in a good measure prevented this objection before by showing how the Ocean would be diminish'd before the Conflagration and especially the Arms and Sinus's of the Ocean and of these none would be more subject to this diminution than the Mediterranean For receiving its supplies from the Ocean and the Black Sea if these came to sink in their chanels they would not rise so high as to be capable to flow into the Mediterranean at either end And these supplies being cut off it would soon empty it self so far partly by evaporation and partly by subterraneous passages as to shrink from all its shores and become only a standing Pool of water in the middle of the Chanel Nay 't is possible by flouds of fire descending from the many Volcano's upon its shores it might it self be converted into a Lake of fire and rather help than obstruct the progress of the Conflagration It may indeed be made a question whether this fiery Vengeance upon the seat of Antichrist will not precede the general Conflagration at some distance of time as a fore-runner and forewarner to the World that the rest of the People may have space to repent And particularly the Iews being Spectators of this Tragedy and of the miraculous appearance of our Saviour may see the hand of God in it and be convinc'd of the truth and divine authority of the Christian Religion I say this supposition would leave room for these and some other prophetick Scenes which we know not well where to place But seeing The Day of the Lord is represented in Scripture as one entire thing without interruption or discontinuation and that it is to begin with the destruction of Antichrist we have warrant enough to pursue the rest of the Conflagration from this beginning and introduction Let us then suppose the same preparations made in the other parts of the Earth to continue the Fire for the Conflagration of the World
The Chanel of the Sea fill'd with a mass of fluid fire and the same fire overflowing all the Globe and covering the whole Earth as the Deluge or the first Abyss Then will the Triumphal Songs and Hallelujah's be sung for the Victories of the Lamb over all his Enemies and over Nature it self Great and marvellous are thy works Lord God Almighty Iust and true are thy ways thou King of Saints Who shall not fear thee O Lord and glorisie thy name for thou only art holy for all nations shall come and worship before thee for thy judgments are made manifest CHAP. XI An account of those extraordinary Phaenomena and Wonders in Nature that according to Scripture will precede the coming of Christ and the Conflagration of the World IF we reflect upon the History of Burning Mountains we cannot but observe that before their Eruptions there are usually some changes in the Earth or in the Air in the Sea or in the Sun it self as signs and forerunners of the ensuing storm We may then easily conclude that when the last great Storm is a coming and all the Volcano's of the Earth ready to burst and the frame of the World to be dissolv'd there will be prevlous signs in the Heavens and on the Earth to introduce this Tragical fate Nature cannot come to that extremity without some symptomes of her illness nor die silently without pangs or complaint But we are naturally heavy of belief as to Futurities and can scarce fancy any other Scenes or other state of Nature than what is present and continually before our eyes we will therefore to cure our unbelief take Scripture for our guide and keep within the limits of its Predictions The Scripture plainly tells us of Signs or Prodigies that will precede the coming of our Saviour and the end of the World both in the Heavens and on the Earth The Sun Moon and Stars will be disturb'd in their motion or aspect The Earth and the Sea will roar and tremble and the Mountains fall at his Presence These things both the Prophets and Evangelists have told us But what we do not understand we are flow to believe and therefore those that cannot apprehend how such Changes should come to pass in the Natural World chuse rather to allegorize all these expressions of Scripture and to make them signifie no more than political changes of Governments and Empires and the great confusions that will be amongst the People and Princes of the Earth towards the end of the World So that darkning of the Sun shaking of the Earth and such like phrases of Scripture according to these Interpreters are to be understood only in a moral sence And they think they have a warrant for this interpretation from the Prophetick style of the Old Testament where the destruction of Cities and Empires and great Princes is often describ'd by such Figures taken from the Natural World So much is true indeed as to the phrase of the old Prophets in some places but I take the true reason and design of that to be a typical adumbration of what was intended should literally come to pass in the great and universal destruction of the World whereof these partial destructions were only shadows and prefigurations But to determine this case Let us take the known and approved rule for interpreting Scripture Not to recede from the literal sence without necessity or where the nature of the subject will admit of a literal interpretation Now as to those cases in the Old Testament History and matter of fact do show that they did not come to pass literally therefore must not be so understood But as for those that concern the end of the World as they cannot be determin'd in that way seeing they are yet future So neither is there any Natural repugnancy or improbability that they should come literally to pass On the contrary from the intuition of that state of Nature one would rather conclude the probability or necessity of them That there may and must be such disorders in the external World before the general dissolution Besides If we admit Prodigies in any case or Providential indications of God's judgments to come there can be no case suppos'd wherein it will be more reasonable or proper to admit them than when they are to be the Messengers of an universal Vengeance and Destruction Let us therefore consider what signs Scripture hath taken notice of as destin'd to appear at that time to publish as it were and proclaim the approaching end of the World and how far they will admit of a natural explication according to those grounds we have already given in explaining the causes and manner of the Conflagration These Signs are chiefly Earth-quakes and extraordinary commotions of the Seas Then the darkness or bloudy colour of the Sun and Moon The shaking of the Powers of Heaven the fulgurations of the Air and the falling of Stars As to Earth-quakes we have upon several occasions shown that these will necessarily be multiplied towards the end of the World when by an excess of drought and heat exhalations will more abound within the Earth and from the same causes their inflammation also will be more frequent than in the ordinary state of Nature And as all Bodies when dry'd become more porous and full of Vacuities so the Body of the Earth will be at that time And the Mines or Cavities wherein the fumes and exhalations lodge will accordingly be of greater extent open into one another and continued through long tracts and regions By which means when an Earth-quake comes as the shock will be more strong and violent so it may reach to a vast compass of ground and whole Islands or Continents be shaken at once when these trains have taken fire The effects also of such concussions will not only affect Mankind but all the Elements and the Inhabitants of them I do not wonder therefore that frequent and great Earth-quakes should be made a sign of an approaching Conflagration and the highest expressions of the Prophets concerning the Day of the Lord may be understood in a literal sence if they be finally referr'd to the general destruction of the World and not terminated solely upon those particular Countries or People to whom they are at first directed Hear what Ezekiel says upon this subject For in my Iealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken surely in that Day there shall be a great shaking in the Land of Israel So that the Fishes of the Sea and the Fowls of the Heaven and the Beasts of the Field and all creeping things that creep upon the Earth and all the Men that are upon the face of the Earth shall shake at my presence and the Mountains shall be thrown down and the sâ—eep places shall fall and every wall shaâ—l fall to the ground And I will rain an over-flowing rain and great hail-stones fire and brimstone The Prophet Isaias describes these judgments in terms
as high and relating to the Natural World The Windows from on high are open and the foundations of the Earth do shake The Earth is utterly broken down the Earth is clean dissolv'd the Earth is moved exceedingly The Earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard and shall be removed like a Cottage and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it and it shall fall and not rise again To restrain all these things to Iudaea as their adequate and final object is to force both the words and the sence Here are manifest allusions and foot-steps of the destruction of the World and the dissolution of the Earth partly as it was in the Deluge and partly as it will be in its last ruine torn broken aâ—d shatter'd But most Men have fallen into that errour To fancy both the destructions of the World by Water and by Fire quiet noiseless things executed without any ruines or ruptures in Nature That the Deluge was but a great Pool of still Waters made by the rains and inundation of the Sea and the Conflagration will be only a superficial scorching of the Earth with a running fire These are false Idea's and unsuitable to Scripture for as the Deluge is there represented a Disruption of the Abyss and consequently of the then habitable Earth so the future combustion of it according to the representations of Scripture is to be usher'd in and accompanied with all sorts of violent impressions upon Nature and the chief instrument of these violences will be Earth-quakes These will tear the Body of the Earth and shake its foundations rend the Rocks and pull down the tall Mountains sometimes overturn and sometimes swallow up Towns and Cities disturb and disorder the Elements and make a general confusion in Nature Next to Earth-quakes we may consider the roarings of a troubled Sea This is another sign of a dying World S. Luke hath set down a great many of them together Let us hear his words And there shall be signs in the Sun and in the Moon and in the Stars and upon the Earth distress of Nations with perplexity The Sea and the Waves roaring Mens hearts failing them for fear and for looking after those things which are coming on the Earth for the powers of Heaven shall be shaken And then shall they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory c. As some would allegorize these Signs which we noted before so others would confine them to the destruction of Ierusalem But 't is plain by this coming of the Son of man in the clouds and the redemption of the faithful and at the same time the sound of the last trumpet which all relate to the end of the World that something further is intended than the destruction of Ierusalem And though there were Prodigies at the destruction of that City and State yet not of this force nor with these circumstances 'T is true those partial destructions and calamities as we observ'd before of Babylon Ierusalem and the Roman Empire being types of an universal and final destruction of all Godâ—s Enemies have in the pictures of them some of the same strokes to show they are all from the same hand decreed by the same wisdom foretold by the same Spirit and the same power and Providence that have already wrought the one will also work the other in due time the former being still pledges as well as prefigurations of the latter Let us then proceed in our explication of this sign The roaring of the Sea and the Waves applying it to the end of the World I do not look upon this ominous noise of the Sea as the effect of a tempest for then it would not strike such a terror into the Inhabitants of the Earth nor make them apprehensive of some great evil coming upon the World as this will do what proceeds from visible causes and such as may happen in a common course of Nature does not so much amaze us nor affright us Therefore 't is more likely these disturbances of the Sea proceed from below partly by sympathy and revulsions from the Land by Earth-quakes there and exhausting the subterraneous cavities of Waters which will draw again from the Seas what supplies they can And partly by Earth-quakes in the very Sea it self with exhalations and fiery Eruptions from the bottom of it Things indeed that happen at other times more or less but at this conjuncture all causes conspiring they will break out with more violence and put the whole Body of the Waters into a tumultuary motion I do not see any occasion at this time for high Winds neither can think a superficial agitation of the Waves would answer this Phaenomenon but 't is rather from Contorsions in the bowels of the Ocean which make it roar as it were for pain Some Causes impelling the Waters one way and some another make intestine struglings and contrary motions from whence proceed unusual noises and such a troubled state of the Waters as does not only make the Sea innavigable but also strikes terror into all the Maritime Inhabitants that live within the view or sound of it So much for the Earth and the Sea The face of the Heavens also will be chang'd in divers respects The Sun and the Moon darkned or of a bloudy or pale countenance The Celestial Powers shaken and the Stars unsetled in their Orbs. As to the Sun and Moon their obscuration or change of colour is no more than what happens commonly before the Eruption of a fiery Mountain Dion Cassius you see hath taken notice of it in that Eruption of Aetna which he describes and others upon the like occasions in Vesuvius And 't is a thing of easie explication for according as the Atmosphere is more or less clear or turbid the Luminaries are more or less conspicuous and according to the nature of those fumes or exhalations that swim in the Air the face of the Sun is discolour'd sometimes one way sometimes another You see in an ordinary Experiment when we look upon one another through the fumes of Sulphur we appear pale like so many Ghosts and in some foggy days the Sun hangs in the Firmament as a lump of Bloud And botlâ— the Sun and Moon at their rising when their light comes to us through the thick vapours of the Earth are red and fiery These are not changes wrought in the substance of the Luminaries but in the modifications of their light as it flows to us For colours are but Light in a sort of disguise as it passes through Mediums of diffâ—rent qualities it takes different forms but the matter is still the same and returns to its simplicity when it comes again into a pure air Now the air may be changed and corrupted to a great degree tho' there appear no visible change to our eye This is manifest from infectious airs and the changes of the air before storms and rains which we feel
disagrace But as we have reason to blame the partiality of those that opposed this doctrine so on the other hand we cannot excuse the Patrons of it from all indiscretions I believe they might partly themselves make it obnoxious by mixing some things with it from pretended Traditions or the Books of the Sibylls or other private Authorities that had so sufficient warrant from Scripture and things sometimes that Nature would not easily bear Besides in later ages they seem to have dropt one half of the doctrine namely the Renovation of Nature which Irenaeus Iustin Martyr and the Ancients joyn inseparably with the Millennium And by this omission the doctrine hath been made less intelligible and one part of it inconsistent with another And when their pretensions were to reign upon this present Earth and in this present state of Nature it gave a jealousie to Temporal Princes and gave occasion likewise to many of Eanatical Spirits under the notion of Saints to aspire to dominion after a violent and tumultuary manner This I reckon as one great cause that brought the doctrine into discredit But I hope by reducing of it to the true state we shall cure this and other abuses for the future Lastly It never pleas'd the Church of Rome and so far as the influence and authority of that would go you may be sure it would be deprest and discountenanc'd I never yet met with a Popish Doctor that held the Millennium and Baron us would have it pass for an Heresie and Papias for the Inventor of it whereas if Irenaeus may be credited it was receiv'd from S. Iohn and by him from the mouth of our Saviour And neither S. Ierome nor his friend Pope Damasus durst ever condemnoit for an heresie It was always indeed uneasie and gave offence to the Church of Rome because it does not suit to that Scheme of Christianity which they have drawn They suppose Christ reigns already by his Vicar the Pope and treads upon the Necks of Emperors and Kings And if they could but suppress the Northern Heresie as they call it they do not know what a Millennium would signifie or how the Church could be in an happier condition than she is The Apocalypse of St. Iohn does suppose the true Church under hardship and persecution more or less for the greatest part of the Christian Ages namely for 1260 years while the Witnesses are in Sack cloth But the Church of Rome hath been in prosperity and greatness and the commanding Church in Christendom for so long or longer and hath rul'd the Nations with a Rod of Iron so as that mark of the true Church does not favour her at all And the Millennium being properly a reward and triumph for those that come out of Persecution such as have liv'd always in pomp and prosperity can pretend to no share in it or benefit by it This has made the Church of Rome have always an ill eye upon this Doctrine because it seem'd to have an ill eye upon her And as she grew in splendor and greatness she eclips'd and obscur'd it more and more so that it would have been lost out of the World as an obsolete errour if it had not been reviv'd by some of the Reformation CHAP. VII The true state of the Millennium according to Characters taken from Scripture some mistakes concerning it examin'd WE have made sufficient proof of a Millennial state from Scripture and Antiquity and upon that firm Basis have setled our second Proposition We should now determine the Time and Place of this future Kingdom of Christ Not whether it is to be in Heaven or upon Earth for that we suppose determin'd already but whether it is to be in the present Earth and under the present constitution of Nature or in the New Heavens and New Earth which are promis'd after the Conflagration This is to make our Third Proposition and I should have proceeded immediately to the examination of it but that I imagine it will give us some light in this affair if we enquire further into the true state of the Millennium before we determine its Time and Place We have already noted some moral Characters of the Millennial state And the great Natural Character of it is this in general That it will be Paradisiacal Free from all inconveniences either of external Nature or of our own Bodies For my part I do not understand how there can be any considerable degree of happiness without Indolency nor how there can be Indolency while we have such Bodies as we have now and such an external constitution of Nature And as there must be Indolency where there is happiness so there must not be Indigency or want of any due comforts of life For where there is Indigency there is sollicitude and distraction and uneasiness and fear Passions that do as naturally disquiet the Soul as pain does the Body Therefore Indolency and Plenty seem to be two essential Ingredients of every happy state and these two in conjunction make that state we call Paradisiacal Now the Scripture seems plainly to exempt the Sons of the New Ierusalem or of the Millennium from all pain or want in those words Apoc. 21. 4. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes And there shall be no more death neither sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more pain for the former things are passed away And the Lord of that Kingdom He that sate upon the Throne said Behold I make all things new ver 5. This Renovation is a restauration to some former state and I hope not to that state of indigency and misery and diseasedness which we languish under at present But to that pristine Paradisiacal state which was the blessing of the first Heavens and the first Earth As Health and Plenty are the Blessings of Nature so in Civil affairs Peace is the greatest blessing And this is inseparably annext to the Millennium an indelible character of the Kingdom of Christ. And by Peace we understand not onely freedom from Persecution upon religious accounts but that Nation shall not rise up against Nation upon any account whatsoever That bloody Monster War that hath devour'd so many Millions of the Sons of Adam is now at length to be chain'd up and the Furies that run throughout the Earth with their Snakes and Torches shall be thrown into the Abyss to sting and prey upon one another All evil and mischievous passions shall be extinguish'd and that not in men onely but even in Brute creatures according to the Prophets The Lamb and the Lyon shall lie down together and the sucking Child shall play with the Basilisk Happy days when not onely the Temple of Ianus shall be shut up for a thousand years and the Nations shall beat their swords into plow-shares but all enmities and antipathies shall cease all acts of hostility throughout all nature And this Universal Peace is a demonstration also of the former character Universal Plenty for where
of Parts and a Fitness to answer fully and clearly all the Phaenomend to which it is to be apply'd We think our Hypothesis does not want any of these Characters As to the First we take but one single Postulatum for the whole Theory and thaâ— an easie one warranted both by Scripture and Antiquity Namely That this Earth rise at first from a Chaos As to the second Union of Parts The whole Theory is but one Series of Causes and Effects from that first Chaos Besides you can scarce admit any one part of it first last or intermediate but you must in consequence of that admit all the rest Grant me but that the Deluge is truly explain'd and I 'le desire no more for proof of all the Theory Or if you begin at the other end and grant the New Heavens and New Earth after the Conflagration you will be led back again to the first Heavens and first Earth that were before the Flood For St. Iohn says that New Earth was without a Sea Apoc. 21. 1. And it was a Renovation or Restitution to some former state of things there was therefore some former Earth without a Sea which not being the present Earth it must be the Ante diluvian Besides both St. Iohn and the Prophet Isaias have represented the New Heavens and New Earth as Paradisiâ—cal According as is prov'd Book the 4th chap. 2. And having told us the form of the New future Earth that it will have no Sea it is a reasonable inference that there was no Sea in the Paradisiâ—cal Earth However from the form of this Future Earth which St. Iohn represents to us we may at least conclude That an Earth without a Sea is no Chimaera or impossibility but rather a fit seat and habitation for the Just and the Innocent Thus you see the parts of the Theory link and hold fast one another according to the second character And as to the third of being 〈◊〉 to the Phaenomena we must refer that to the next head of Proofs It may be tâ—â—ly said that bare coherence and union of parts is not a sufficient proof The parts of a â—able or Romance may hang aptly together and yet have no truth in them This is enough indeed to give the title of a just Composition to any work but not of a true one till it appear that the conclusions and expâ—tations are grounded upon good natural evidence or upon good Divine authority We must therefore proceed now to the third thing to be consider'd in a Theory What its Proofs are or the grounds upon which it stands whether Sacred or Natural According to Natural evidence things are proved from their Causes or their Effects And we think we have this double order of proofs for the truth of our Hypothesis As to the method of Causes we proceed from what is more simple to what is more compound and build all upon one foundation Go but to the Head of the Theory and you will see the Causes lying in a train before you from first to last And tho' you did not know the Natural History of the World past or future you might by intuition foretell it as to the grand revolutions and successive faces of Nature through a long series of Ages If we have given a true account of the motions of the Chaos we have also truly form'd the first habitable Earth And if that be truly form'd we have thereby given a true account of the state of Paradise and of all that depends upon it And not of that only but also of the universal Deluge Both these we have shewn in their causes The one from the Form of that Earth and the other from the Fall of it into the Abyss And tho' we had not been made acquainted with these things by Antiquity we might in contemplation of the Causes have truly conceiv'd them as properties or incidents to the First Earth But as to the Deluge I do not say that we might have calculated the Time manner and other circumstances of it These things were regulated by Providence in subordination to the Moral World But that there would be at one time or oâ—her a disruption of that Earth or of the Great Abyss and in consequence of it an universal Deluge So far I think the light of a Theory might carry us Furthermore In consequence of this disruption of the Primeval Earth at the Deluge the present Earth was made hollow and cavernous and by that means due preparations being used capable of Combustion or of perishing by an universal Fire Yet to speak ingenuously This is as hard a step to be made in vertue of Natural causes as any in the whole Theory But in recompence of that defect the Conflagration is so plainly and literally taught us in Scripture and avow'd by Antiquity that it can fall under no dispute as to the thing it self And as to a capacity or disposition to it in the present Earth that I think is sufficiently made out Then the Conflagration admitted in that way it is explain'd in the Third Book The Earth you see is by that fire reduc'd to a second Chaos A Chaos truly so call'd And from that as from the First arises another Creation or New Heavens and a New Earth By the same causes and in the same form with the Paradisiacal This is the Renovation of the World The Restitution of all things mentioned both by Scripture and Antiquity And by the Prophet Isaiah St. Peter and St. Iohn call'd the New Heaven and New Earth With this as the last period and most glorious Scene of all humane affairs our Theory concludes as to this method of Causes whereof we are now speaking I say here it ends as to the method of Causes For tho' we pursue the Earth still further even to its last Dissolution which is call'd the Consummation of all things yet all that we have superadded upon that occasion is but Problematical and may without prejudice to the Theory be argued and disputed on either hand I do not know but that our conjectures there may be well grounded but however not springing so directly from the same root or at least not by ways so clear and visible I leave that part undecided Especially seeing we pretend to write no more than the Theory of the Earth and therefore as we begin no higher than the Chaos so we are not obliged to go any further than to the last state of a Terrestrial consistency which is that of the New Heavens and the New Earth This is the first natural proof From the order of Causes The second is fâ—om the consideration of Effects Namely of such effects as are already in being And therefore this proof can extend only to that part of the Theory that explains the present and past form and Phaenomena of the Earth What is Future must be left to a further trial when the things come to pass and present themselves to be examin'd and compar'd
of the Scripture-Abyss The Mother-Abyss is no doubt that in the beginning of Genesis v. 2. which had nothing but darkness upon the face of it or a thick caliginous air The next news we hear of this Abyss is at the Deluge Gen. 7. 11. where 't is said to be broke open and the waters of it to have drowned the World It seems then this Abyss was clos'd up some time betwixt the Creation and the Deluge and had got another cover than that of darkness And if we will believe Wisdom Prov. 8. 27. who was there present at the formation of the Earth an Orb was set upon the face of the Abyss at the beginning of the World That these three places refer to the same Abyss I think cannot be questioned by any that will compare them and consider them That of the Deluge Moses calls there Tehom-Rabbah the Great Abyss and can there be any greater than the forementioned Mother-Abyss And WISDOME in that place in the Proverbs useth the same phrase and words with Moses Gen. 1. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon the face of the Deep or of the Abyss changâ—ng darkness for that Orb of the exteriour Earth which was made afterwards to inclose it And in thâ—s vault it lay and under this cover when the Psalmist speaks of it in these words Psal. 33. 7. He gathereth the waters of the Sea as in a bag he layeth up the Abyss in store-houses Lastly we may observe that 't was this Mother-Abyss whose womb was burst at the Deluge when the Sea was born and broke forth as if it had issued out of a womb as God expresseth it to Iob ch 38. 8. in which place the Chaldee Paraphrase reads it when it broke forth coming out of the Abyss Which disruption at the Deluge seems also to be alluded to Iob 12. 14 15. and more plainly Prov. 3. 20. by his knowledge the Abysses are broken up Thus you have already a threefold state of the Abyss which makes a short History of it first Open at the beginning then covered till the Deluge Then broke open again as it is at present And we pursue the History of it no further but we are told Apoc. 20. 3. That it shall be shut up again and the great Dragon in it for a Thousand years In the mean time we may observe from this form and posture of the Ante diluvian Abyss how suitable it is and coherent with that form of the Ante-diluvian Earth which St. Peter and the Psalmist had describ'd sustain'd by the waters founded upon the waters stretcht above the waters for if it was the cover of this Abyss and it had some cover that was broke at the Deluge it was spread as a Crust or Ice upon the face of those waters and so made an Orbis Terrarum an habitable sphere of Earth about the Abyss SO much for the form of the Ante-diluvian Earth and Abyss which as they aptly correspond to one another so you see our Theory answers and is adjusted to both and I think so fitly that we have no reason hitherto to be displeas'd with the success we have had in the examination of it according to Scripture We have dispatch'd the two main points in question first to prove a diversity in general betwixt the two natural Worlds or betwixt the Heavens and the Earth before and after the Flood Secondly to prove wherein this diversity consisted or that the particular form of the Ante-diluvian Heavens and Earth was such according to Scripture as we have describ'd it in the Theory You 'l say then the work is done what needs more all the rest follows of course for if the Antediluvian Earth had such a â—orm as we have propos'd and prov'd it to have had there could be no Deluge in it but by a dissolution of its parts and exteriour frame And a Deluge so made would not be in the nature of a standing Pool but of a violent agitation and commotion of the Waters This is true These parts of the Theory are so cemented that you must grant all if you grant any However we will try if even these two particulars also may be prov'd out of Scripture That is if there be any marks or memorandums left there by the Spirit of God of such a fraction or dissolution of the Earth at the Deluge And also such characters of the Deluge it self as show it to have been by a fluctuation and impetuous commotion of the Waters To proceed then That there was a Fraction or Dissolution of the Earth at the Deluge the history of it by Moses gives us the first account seeing he tells us as the principol cause of the Flood That the Fountains of the Great Abyss were cloven or burst asunder and upon this disruption the waters gush'd out from the bowels of the Earth as from the widen'd mouths of so many Fountains I do not take Fountains there to signifie any more than Sources or Stores of Water noting also this manner of their eruption from below or out of the ground as Fountains do Accordingly in the Proverbs chap. 3. 20. 't is only said the Abysses were broken open I do not doubt but this refers to the Deluge as Bede and others understand it the very word being us'd here both in the Hebrew and Septuagint that express'd the disruption of the Abyss at the Deluge And this breaking up of the Earth at that time is elegantly exprest in Iob by the bursting of the Womb of Nature when the Sea was first brought to light when after many pangs and throes and dilacerations of her body Nature was delivered of a burthen which she had born in her Womb Sixteen Hundred Years These three places I take to be memorials and proofs of the disruption of the Earth or of the Abyss at the universal Deluge And to these we may add more out of the Prophets Iob and the Psalms by way of allusion commonly to the state of Nature at that time The Prophet Isaiah in describing the future destruction of the World chap. 24. 18 19. seems plainly to allude and have respect to the past destruction of it at the Deluge as appears by that leading expression the windows from an high are open 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taken manifestly from Gen. 7. 11. Then see how the description goes on the windows from an high are open and the foundations of the Earth do shake The Earth is utterly broken down the Earth is quite dissolv'd the Earth is exceedingly moved Here are Concussions and Fractions and dissolutions as there were in the Mundane Earth-quake and Deluge which we had exprest before only by breaking open the Abyss By the Foundations of the Earth here and elsewhere I perceive many understand the Centre so by moving or shaking the foundations or putting them out of course must be understood a displacing of the Centre which was really done at the Deluge as we have shewn in its proper place
rais'd up amongst them for that purpose may convince them that he is the true Messiah and convert them to the Christian Faith which will be no more strange than was the first Conversion of the Gentile World But if we be content with a Conversion of the Iews without their restoration and of those Two Tribes only which are now disperst throughout the Christian World and other known parts of the Earth That these should be Converted to the Christian Faith and incorporated into the Christian Commonwealth losing their national character and distinction If this I say will satisfie the Prophecies it is not a thing very difficult to be conceived For when the World is reduc'd to a better and purer state of Christianity and that Idolatry in a great measure remov'd which gave the greatest scandal to the Iews they will begin to have better thoughts of our Religion and be dispos'd to a more ingenuous and unprejudic'd examination of their Prophecies concerning the Messiah God raising up men amongst them of divine and enlarged Spirits Lovers of Truth more than of any particular Sect or Opinion with light to discern it and courage to profess it Lastly it will be a cogent argument upon them to see the Age of the World so far spent and no appearance yet of their long expected Messiah So far spent I say that there is no room left upon any computation whatsoever for the Oeconomy of a Messiah yet to come This will make them reflect more carefully and impartially upon him whom the Christians propose Iesus of Nazareth whom their Fathers Crucified at Ierusalem Upon the Miracles he wrought in his life and after his death and upon the wonderful propagation of his Doctrine throughout the World after his Ascension And lastly upon the desolation of Ierusalem upon their own scatter'd and forlorn condition foretold by that Prophet as a judgment of God upon an ungrateful and wicked People This I have said to state the case of the Conversion of the Iews which will be a sign of the approaching reign of Christ. But alas what appearance is there of this Conversion in our days or what judgment can we make from a sign that is not yet come to pass 'T is ineffectual as to us but may be of use to posterity Yet even to them it will not determine at what distance they are from the end of the World but be a mark only that they are not far from it There will be Signs also in those last days in the Heavens and in the Earth and in the Sea forerunners of the Conflagration as the obscuration of the Sun and Moon Earth-quakes roarings of the troubled Sea and such like disorders in the natural World 'T is true but these are the very pangs of death and the strugglings of Nature just before her dissolution and it will be too late then to be aware of our ruine when it is at the door Yet these being Signs or Prodigies taken notice of by Scripture we intend God willing after we have explained the causes and manner of the Conflagration to give an account also whence these unnatural commotions will proceed that are the beginnings or immediate introductions to the last Fire Thus we have gone through the Prophecies and Signs that concern the last day and the last fate of the World And how little have we learned from them as to the time of that great revolution Prophecies rise sometimes with an even gradual light as the day riseth upon the Horizon and sometimes break out suddenly like a fire and we are not aware of their approach till we see them accomplish'd Those that concern the end of the World are of this latter sort to unobserving men but even to the most observing there will still be a latitude We must not expect to calculate the coming of our Saviour like an Eclipse to minutes and half-minutes There are Times and Seasons which the Father hath put in his own power If it was designed to keep these things secret we must not think to out-wit Providence and from the Prophecies that are given us pick out a discovery that was not intended we should ever make It is determin'd in the Councils of Heaven just how far we shall know these events before hand and with what degree of certainty and with this we must be content whatsoever it is The Apocalypse of S. Iohn is the last Prophetical declaration of the Will of God and contains the fate of the Christian Religion to the end of the World its purity degeneracy and reviviscency The head of this degeneracy is call'd The Beast the false Prophet the Whore of Babylon in Prophetical terms and in an Ecclesiastical term is commonly call'd Antichrist Those that bear Testimony against this degeneracy are call'd the Witnesses who after they have been a long time in a mean and persecuted condition are to have their Resurrection and Ascension that is be advanc'd to power and Authority And this Resurrection of the Witnesses and depression of Antichrist is that which will make the great turn of the World to righteousness and the great Crisis whereby we may judge of its drawing to an end 'T is true there are other marks as the passing away of the Second Woe which is commonly thought to be the Ottoman Empire and the Effusion of the Vials The first of these will be indeed a very conspicuous mark if it follow upon the Resurrection of the Witnesses as by the Prophecy it seems to do But as to the Vials tho' they do plainly reach in a Series to the end of the World I am not satisfied with any exposition I have yet met with concerning their precise time on contents In a word ' Tho the sum and general contents of a Prophecy be very intelligible yet the application of it to Time and Persons may be very lubricous There must be obscurity in a Prophecy as well as shadow in a Picture All its lines must not stand in a full light For if Prophecies were open and bare-fac'd as to all their parts and circumstances they would check and obstruct the course of humane affairs and hinder if it was possible their own accomplishment Modesty and Sobriety are in all things commendable but in nothing more than in the explication of these Sacred Mysteries and we have seen so many miscarry by a too close and particular application of them that we ought to dread the Rock about which we see so many shipwrecks He that does not err above a Century in calculation the last period of Time from what evidence we have at present hath in my opinion cast up his accounts very well But the Scenes will change fast towards the Evening of this long day and when the Sun is near setting they will more easily compute how far he hath to run CHAP. VI. Concerning the Causes of the Conflagration The difficulty of conceiving how this Earth can be set on fire With a general