Country or Region with the same exactness determin'd by Geography XXXI The Earth in its Primitive State had only an Annual Motion about the Sun But since it has a Diurnal Rotation upon its own Axis also Whereby a vast difference arises in the several States of the World XXXI This has been at large explain'd and prov'dalr eady XXXII Upon the first commencing of this Diurnal Rotation after the Fall its Axis was oblique to the Plain of the Ecliptick as it still is or in other words the present Vicissitudes of Seasons Spring Summer Autumm and Winter arising from the Sun's access to and recess from the Tropicks have been ever since the Fall of Man XXXII This has in some measure been insisted on already in the Hypothesis last mention'd and needs no other direct and positive proof than the present Obliquity of the Earth's Axis It being evident that without a miraculous Power the same Situation or Inclination which it had originally would and must invariably remain for all succeeding Ages CHAP. III. A Solution of the Phaenomena relating to the Antediluvian State of the Earth XXXIII The Inhabitants of the Earth were before the Flood vastly more numerous than the present Earth either actually does or perhaps is capable to maintain and supply XXXIII THIS Proposition will not appear strange if we consider 1. The much greater fertility of the Antediluvian Earth to be presently accounted for whereby it was capable of maintaining a much greater number of Inhabitants than the present even on the same space of Ground 2. The Earth was more equally habitable all over before than since the Deluge For before the acquisition of those heterogeneous mixtures which the Deluge occasion'd and which I take to be the Causes of all our violent and pernicious Heat and Cold in the Torrid and Frigid Zones of our Earth 't is probable the Earth was pretty equally habitable all over by reason of the Vicinage of the Central Heat to the Polar Regions and the more direct Exposition of the middle Regions to that of the Sun I do not mean that the Frigid Zones were equally hot with the Torrid but that the Heat in the one and the Cold in the other were more kindly and the excesses of each much less considerable than at present since the Introduction of the before-mention'd Mixtures and particularly of such Sulphureous and Nitrous Effluvia as are now I believe become Calorifick and Frigorifick Particles in our Air the main occasions of the violence and pernicious Qualities of the Heat and Cold thereof and the most affecting to our Senses of all other So that 't is probable before the Acquisition of these Advensitious Masses the Antediluvian Air was every where sufficiently temperate to permit the comfortable Habitation of Mankind on all parts of the Globe and the Antediluvian Earth was by consequence capable of many more Inhabitants than the present is or can be as every one will readily grant who considers how few Inhabitants in comparison three of the five Zones of our present Earth do maintain 3. The dry Land or habitable Earth it self was by reason of the absence of the intire Ocean full as large and capacious again as the present For the Ocean I think takes up now at the least one half of the intire Globe but then afforded as large spacious and habitable Countries as the other parts of the Earth 4. The Mountains which are now generally bare and barren were before the Deluge so far as they were suppli'd with Water as fruitful as the Plains or Vallies and by reason of a larger Surface were capable of maintaining rather more Animals than the Plains on which they stand would otherwise have been The present defect of a fruitful Soil being owing to the Deluge and there being no good reason that I know of to be assign'd why on a primary Formation and in a calm and still State of the Air the higher Parts of the Earth should not be cover'd with a fruitful Soil or Mold as well as the level or lower adjoyning to them All which Accounts taken together will I think give reasonable Foundation for such vast numbers of Inhabitants as according to the Computation of this Proposition the Antediluvian World was replenish'd withal Corollary 1. Since by very reasonable Computations of the numbers of the Inhabitants of the Earth at the Deluge according to the Hebrew Chronology they appear to have been sufficient abundantly to replenish the intire Globe and as many as in reason the same could sustain The Septuagints addition of near six hundred Years in this Period of the World to the Hebrew Accounts is so far from clearing Difficulties thereto relating that it rather increases the same and enforces the allowance of more Inhabitants at the Deluge than we can well tell where they could live and be maintain'd Coroll 2. Since according to the Hebrew Chronology from the Deluge till the time of Abraham's going into Canaan was the intire space of 427 Years and the Lives of Men during that interval were in a mean three hundred Years long 't is easy on the Grounds proceeded upon in this Phaenomenon's Calculations to prove That there is no need to recede from that Account or introduce the additional Years of the Septuagint in this Period to produce the greatest Numbers of Men which in that or the immediately succeeding Ages any Authentick Histories of those Ancient Times do require us to suppose Coroll 3. The Deluge which destroy'd the whole Race of Mankind those only in the Ark excepted could not possibly be confin'd to one or more certain Regions of the Earth but was without question truly Universal Coroll 4. Seeing it appears That Mankind has a gradual increase and that in somewhat more than four thousand Years our Continent of Europe Asia and Africa has been so entirely Peopled from the Sons of Noah and seeing withal America is much less in extent and I suppose generally speaking was never so full of People In case we suppose that Famines Wars Pestilences and all such sad destroyers of Mankind have equally afflicted the several Continents of the Earth Some light might be afforded to the Peopling of America and about what Age since the Deluge the American's past first from this Continent thither which a more nice enquiry into the Particulars here to be consider'd might assist us in XXXIV The Bruit Animals whether belonging to the Water or Land were proportionably at least more in number before the Flood than they are since XXXIV That part of this Proposition which concerns the Dry-land Animals is sufficiently accounted for by what has been discours'd under the last Head which equally belongs to them as to Mankind And if we extend the other part concerning the Fishes to the Seas then in Being and their comparative Plenitude there will need no additional Solution It being not to be suppos'd that the absolute numbers of Fish before the Deluge should be greater than at
Learning notwithstanding it might have been cultivated and improv'd to great degree before the Deluge as therefore in all probability it was CHAP. II. A Solution of the Phaenomena relating to the Primitive State of the Earth XXIII The Primitive state of the Earth admitted of the primary production of Animals out of the Waters and Dry Ground which the subsequent states otherwise than in the ordinary method of Generation have been uncapable of XXIII 'T IS not to be expected that I should here be able to give a full and methodical account of the growth of the Primitive Pairs of Animals and of the several dispositions of the Primigenial state of Nature subservient or contributary thereto The method of the Generation of Animals is it self in gèneral so little known and the History of this first stage of the World as well so short in the Sacred Writings as so difficult to be in all its circumstances now otherwise understood that such an Attempt might justly be look'd upon as too rash a presumption All that ought to be expected and all that I shall endeavour is this To shew that as far as is known of that Original Earth its properties were as peculiarly fit for as those opposite ones of the succeeding are incapable of such a production of Animals at first as this Proposition takes notice of Which the five following particulars shall include 1. The long and continued spaces of Day and Night in the Primitive state did capacitate it for such productions which the quick returns of the same afterward prohibited 'T will be easily granted that in the Generation of Animals there must be a pretty constant and continual warmth without the frequent interposition of Cold during the most part of the process Now this the long days of half a year afforded these Primary Embrio's which the short ones of only twelve small hours and the sudden and frequent returns of equal Nights has utterly deni'd to any such ever since 2. The Primitive Earth was moist and juicy enough to supply nourishment all the time of the Generation of the Foetus which after it was once become perfectly Dry and Solid was not again to be expected It was before observ'd that upon the descent of the vast quantities of Vapours on the Third Day the ground was so tender soft and full of juices as very naturally answered to what all Antiquity made the fund and promptuary of the rising Plants and Animals the famous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And as that was but a necessary qualification of a Soil which was to produce Animals so the want of it ever since takes away all hopes of a like Propagation 3. The Primitive state of the Earth and Air where the Animals were produc'd had heat sufficient for that purpose which the subsequent has not 'T is evident that a greater heat than the present Earth or Ambient Air can afford is requisite to and made use of in the present Generation of Animals which the Incubation in the Oviparous and the still warmer Position of the Faetus in the Viviparous Animals assure us of On which account the present Earth must needs be incapable of their production But that the Heat in the Primitive Earth and particularly where the Animals were produc'd was much greater will thus appear As to the Heat from the Central Body while the Earth was somewhat loose and pretty freely admitted the ascending steams that would be considerably greater than after its more intire consolidation when these steams were thereby so much confin'd within or diverted to some particular conceptacles Besides The Production of Animals was near Paradise and I suppose no where else Now those middle Regions of which Eden the Country of Paradise was one being situate under the ancient Ecliptick and present Tropick of which before enjoy'd also a greater Heat from the same Central Body by reason of their greater nearness thereto than since they or the corresponding parts of the Torrid Zone do or can partake of For when the Earth was then perfectly Sphaerical the middle and their neighbouring parts were about 10 miles nearer the Central Solid than the same Regions now are They being in that proportion Elevated and the circumpolar depress'd at the commencing of the Diurnal Rotation Which greater Vieinity of the Central Heat must certainly have a suitable effect and cause somewhat warmer Regions thereabouts than they have been ever since Moreover If the real proper heat of the Central Solid be in any considerable proportion diminish'd in near 6000 years time as in some proportion it must be That degree of Heat which it had at first was still the most powerful of all other ever since But then as to the Solar Heat to take no notice of the greater nearness of the Sun's Body before the Deluge than since as not directly reaching the present case 'T is evident that Paradise situate under or near the very Ecliptick it self must receive the utmost power of the same heat which any part of the Globe were capable of which by lying under the Tropick afterward it would not do On all which accounts joyn'd together 't is evident that the heat in the Primitive State was much more considerable and so much more adapted to the Generation of Animals than that in the subsequent ever was or can possibly be 4. The Primitive state was perfectly still and calm free from all such winds storms violent tides or any the like hurries and disorders as at present wholly render the production of Animals impossible Which quiet condition if in some respects it endur'd till the Deluge yet as even in those the Paradisiacal state might have the preheminence so in others particularly the gentleness of the Tides it had still the most peculiar advantage as was before observed 5. The Equability of Seasons and the greater uniformity of the Air 's temperature which in part remain'd till the Deluge but might be more signal in the Paradisiacal state rendred that Earth as proper as the contrary sudden uncertain and violent extreams of heat and cold drought and moisture sultry and frosty Weather now wholly indispose it for such a production of Animals Which Prerogatives of the Primitive Earth and Air will certainly demonstrate if not its intire fitness yet sure it s less unfitness for such an original Generation as was here to be accounted for and is all as was before observ'd that can justly be requir'd and expected in the present case Corollary When it has been before allow'd that all Generation is but Nutrition and that all Seeds as well of Animals as of Plants are the immediate workmanship of God 'T is evident that this Supposition of the Original Production of Animals out of the Waters and Earth according to the plainest letter of the Mosaick History does by no means derogate from the Divine Efficiency and the wonderful Art and Skill in the Structure of their Bodies nor
and compare the States of External Nature before and after the Fall one with another and with those things which the Propositions we are now upon do assert concerning them 'T is evident then from what has been before laid down hereto relating that the Primitive state of things before the Fall was thus The Earth being newly form'd was scarcely as yet intirely consolidated and so pretty uniformly pervious to the warm Steams ascending from beneath It s Figure was perfectly Sphaerical and its Strata or Layers by consequence were even continued and join'd and so the Central Heat being equally distant from all the parts of the Earth's Surface did very equally diffuse it self and equally affect all the Climates of the Globe The Soil or Uppermost Stratum of the Earth was newly moisten'd by the descent of the Waters before they compos'd the Seas on the Third Day of the Creation and by the plenty of Moisture which it still receiv'd every Night The Air was perfectly Clear Homogeneous Transparent and Susceptive of the utmost Power of the Solar Heat The Seasons were equable or gently and gradually distinguish'd from one another by the Rising Setting Descending and Ascending Sun without any quick Interpositions of Day and Night to disturb them The Torrid Zone of the Earth as I may call those Regions near the Solar Course was very much Expos'd to the Sun and very much warm'd withal by its Vicinage to the Central Solid The Moon in twelve Revolutions equally measur'd out the Year and caus'd the most gentle easie and gradual Tides imaginable This with all its natural Consequents was the State of the Primitive World But as soon as Man had sinn'd and render'd that happy State too good for him or indeed rendred himself wholly uncapable thereof And as soon as God Almighty had pronounced a Curse on the Ground and its Productions presently the Earth began a new and strange Motion and revolv'd from West to East on its own Axis A single 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Revolution of Night and Day either immediately or by degrees according as the present Velocity of the Diurnal Rotation was suddenly or gradually acquir'd returned frequently and became no longer than 24 short Hours while the Annual Motion perform'd on a different Axis distinguish'd the Seasons and in Conjunction with the Diurnal describ'd the Equator and the Tropicks and by the access and recess of the Sun from the last named Circles caus'd it to visit the several Regions enclos'd thereby The Face of the Earth was really distinguish'd into Zones by the Tropicks and Polar Circles truly divided from one another with respect whereto the particular Regions of the Earth chang'd their Situation the Equator being that Circle with regard whereto they were now to be determin'd as they had been before with regard to the Ecliptick and so that Paradise which was before at the middle became the Northern boundary of the Torrid Zone The Figure of the Earth which was before truly Sphaerical degenerated into an Oblate Sphaeroid the Torrid Zone rising about 10 Miles upward and the Frigid one subsiding as much downwards The Compages of the Upper Earth and of its Strata became thereby chap'd broken and divided and so carried up the warm Steams from beneath to particular Conceptacles and Volcano's which before serv'd in a more equal and uniform manner to heat and invigorate the intire Earth and its productons The Tides lastly became frequenter and so more sudden and violent than before Which short Summary or Scheme of the States of Nature in our Hypothesis before and after the Fall ought to be all along born in mind and reflected on in order to the passing a right judgment on the accounts of those Phaenomena in the Solution whereof we are now engag'd And which otherwise might seem very odd and unaccountable to the Reader Which being thus dispatch'd I proceed XXIX The Primitive Earth was not equally Paradisiacal all over The Garden of Eden or Paradise being a peculiarly fruitful and happy soil and particularly furnish'd with all the necessaries and delights of an innocent and blessed life above the other Regions of the Earth XXIX That all the Primitive Earth could not be equally Paradisiacal and enjoy the same Priviledges and Conveniences beyond the Present is easily prov'd For seeing one of its principal causes of Fertility and other Prerogatives was the greater degree of Heat at the Paradisiacal Regions The Climates near the Solar Course being alone capable of such greater Heat must be alone capable of its Effects also and consequently we are to confine our enquiries for the Garden of Eden to the Countries not very remote from the Ancient Ecliptick Now that some peculiar Spot or Region thereabouts might beyond all the rest be Fertile Pleasant and Paradisiacal 't is not difficult to suppose At the present there is a mighty variety in Countries in the very same Hemisphere Climate and Parallel The particular Prerogatives of one Region beyond another do not intirely depend on the Sun or the Vicinage of the Central Heat But partly on the Nature and Temper of the Soil the kinds of Vegetables and Fossils thereto belonging the number qualities and conflux of Rivers he firmness or looseness of the inferior Strata hindring or freelier permitting the ascent of the Subterraneous Steams Juices and Effluvia From the coincidence of which and of other such things in a peculiar and advantagious manner order'd and dispos'd on purpose by the Divine Providence at the Mosaick Creation the extraordinary pleasantness and felicity of this Earthly Paradise or Garden of Pleasure is I suppose to be deduc'd and which being consider'd will I believe be sufficient to give satisfaction in the Proposition before us XXX The place of Paradise was where the united Rivers Tigris and Euphrates divided themselves into four Streams Pison Gihon Tigris and Euphrates XXX This Situation of Paradise has been already consider'd and need not here be reassum'd Only we may observe That no Scruples would ever have been rais'd about this Matter in case the foremention'd Rivers had still been visible their Course still agreeable to the Mosaick Description and the Metals and Minerals mention'd of the adjoyning Countries had been as evidently there to be found in ours as they appear to have been in those Primitive Times Seeing therefore the following Theory will so clearly assign the Cause of such Diversity that every Reader will be oblig'd to grant it much harder to have accounted for the Phaenomena of Paradise consistently with the other Phaenomena of Nature if all things were now as they were at first than almost any other of the Antediluvian World I may justly hope that this so disputed a Question of the Situation of the Garden of Eden or Primitive Paradise to those who embrace the other parts of the Theory will remain no longer so but be as fix'd and undoubted within at least the limits of that Hypothesis here referr'd to as any other
Original 2. Bodies Unlike in Nature have a like Original 3. Bodies most considerable in themselves have the most inconsiderable accounts given of them 4. No Bodies but the Earth have either time for or particulars of the formation of the several parts assign'd 5. The Light appears before its Cause and Fountain the Sun was made 6. The Excavation of the Channel of the Ocean and the Elevation of the Mountains is unnatural and indecent Of each of which I shall say but a word or two and then as briefly argue from them 1. Bodies Alike in nature have an unlike Original Our Earth is one of the Planets and in all reason belonging to their formation yet is she the Subject of the Second Third Fifth and Sixth days works while the rest are included in the Fourth Day 2. Bodies Unlike in nature have a like Original The Sun a glorious Body of Light with his Fellows the fixt Stars are join'd in the fourth day with the Opake and Dark Globes of the Planets 3. Bodies most considerable in themselves have the most inconsiderable accounts given of them This is very obvious in that mighty adoe about our poor Earth while the vastly greater and nobler Bodies of the Sun and Stars are scarce taken any notice of And how disproportionate such a procedure is the comparison already made of the Earth on one side with the rest of the World on the other does more than sufficiently demonstrate 4. No Bodies but the Earth have either time for or particulars of the formation of the several parts assign'd For when four days are wholly taken up with the particulars relating to our Earth the division of its Aerial from its Earthly Waters the distinguishing the latter from the dry Land and draining 'em into the Channels of the Seas the growth of Plants generation of Fish Fowl and Terrestrial Animals and at last the Creation of Man with several circumstances relating to him and the other Creatures not a syllable as to the particulars of the rest of the World Light is only commanded to shine on the First Day and the Heavenly Bodies made on the Fourth and there 's all as to themselves which occurs here 5. The Light appears before the Creation of the Sun from whence it is deriv'd That being the Work of the First This of the Fourth Day Which how Philosophical and Accountable 't is let the Reader judge 6. The Excavation of the Channel of the Ocean and the Elevation of the Mountains is unnatural and indecent For when the Earth was at first even and cover'd with Waters Expositors imagine that God as it were digg'd a vast Channel for the Ocean and heav'd away the Earth and plac'd it on all parts of the Globe to make the Mountains Which how indecent it is I had rather leave to the judgment of the Reader than stand here to exaggerate especially where the naked representation of the thing it self is a sufficient exposing thereof to free Thinkers These obvious Remarks on the vulgar Scheme of the Mosaick Creation to omit the passing by of the intire invisible World whether within or without the surface of the Earth whether corporeal or spiritual are I think sufficient demonstrations that 't is a very distant one from the true nature of things and such as is both unworthy of the Writer and Author of the Sacred History Whoever will take the pains carefully to consider the System of Nature and compare it with these Remarks and the common Opinion of the proper Creation of all things in the six Days Works will not I believe be at a loss for Arguments to over-turn the old and to prove that a new Theory is to be enquir'd after and a narrower World to be expected in the First Chapter of Genesis than has generally been But Before I conclude this Head I must here observe that the consideration of these matters has had so great influence on our late most Excellent Commentator on Genesis that tho' he keep more strictly to the letter of Moses than others yet he finds occasion and room for these four great Concessions no less contrary to the vulgar than approaching to the present Account of the History of the Creation 1. He is willing to allow that Moses meddles not with the intire Universe but with the Planetary System only 2. He allows the Creation of the World to have been over before the six Days Work begins 3. He grants the same six Days Works to be the regular and orderly reduction of a confused Chaos into a habitable World without any strange Miracles in every part 4. He supposes that for a considerable time before the six Days Work began there were such preparatory agitations fermentations and separations or conjunctions of parts as disposed the whole to fall ino the succeeding method and introduce the six Days Productions following Which Concessions of so great a Man and excellent a Commentator as they argue his sense of the necessity of receding from the vulgar Hypothesis so they I confess lessen and diminish the difficulties in this History Lessen I say and diminish not take them away For besides the want of any foundation in Scripture as far as I see for the distinction between the fixt Stars and Planets the Arguments I have all along urged reach and are fram'd with regard to this limited Hypothesis also and with those yet to come are I think more than sufficient to my purpose still and will demonstrate the unaccountableness of the History of the Creation even on this tho' much more on the common Interpretation VII The Mosaick Creation does not extend beyond this Earth because the alone final cause of all therein contained is the advantage of Mankind the Inhabitant thereof Now that the final cause of all the particulars mention'd in the History before us is here rightly assign'd is not only visible in almost every verse of it and in the places of Scripture afterwards referring to the same thing but commonly acknowledg'd nay contended for by the Patrons of the vulgar account So that I shall here take it for granted But then as to the consequence that therefore the Creation is no farther to be extended or at least not so far as here it must otherwise be to the Sun and Planets nay with the most to the innumerable Systems of the fix'd Stars 't is to me so natural and necessary that methinks 't is perfectly needless to go about the proof of it That so vast and noble a System consisting of so many so remote so different and so glorious Bodies should be made only for the use of Man is so wild a Fancy that it deserves any other treatment sooner than a serious confutation And one may better think silently with ones self than with due deference and decency speak what naturally arises in ones Mind on this occasion If 't is an instance of or consistent with the Divine Wisdom to make thousands of glorious Bodies for the
meerly Corporeal Machines III. All those single Corpuscles of which Bodies are compos'd do attract all other single Corpuscles of which other Bodies are compos'd and are alike mutually attracted by them If this Affection of the Parts of Bodies be consider'd with respect to those towards which the Motion is 't is call'd Attraction and they are said to draw all others But if it be consider'd with respect to those which are mov'd 't is call'd Gravitation or a Tendency in them towards others Thus in Magnetism we imagine a Power of Attraction belonging to the Loadstone and in the Iron a Tendency or as I may call it tho' somewhat improperly Gravitation towards it Tho'indeed by the way the Force or Affection being found to be mutual and equal on both sides the Terms might justly be so too and a Loadstone might as properly be said to tend or gravitate towards the Iron or Iron to attract the Loadstone as the contrary just as 't is in the Point before us This however will serve for an Illustration and explain our meaning in the present case where all the Parts of Bodies are endew'd with such a mutual Gravitation and Attraction with respect to all others SCHOLIUM That no prejudice nor misunderstanding may arise 't is to be observ'd That when we use the terms of Attraction or Gravitation we do not thereby determine the Physical Cause or Seat of any effects as if some innate Power or occult Quality were to be suppos'd in Bodies as will appear presently but only use such familiar Terms whereby our meaning may be easily understood and the Effects of Nature explain'd even where the last and proper efficient Cause is not mechanically assignable Thus we do and may say as before That the Loadstone attracts the Iron or the Iron tends or gravitates to the Loadstone not ascribing thereby any proper and positive Quality or Power to these Bodies but for ease of Expression and for supplying what we cannot otherwise readily explain relating to them Thus also we commonly say That Stones are heavy or tend towards the Center of the Earth and the Expressions rightly understood are true and natural Tho' perhaps in both cases the real cause of those Effects which we ascribe to such an Attraction Tendency or Gravitation is External and some continual Impulse from without not any inherent Power really Existent within is the Original of all But in such cases where the true Agent is invisible or unknown we must have leave to use those terms which the Matter will bear or Custom has rendred familiar without which uneasy and troublesome Circumlocutions will be unavoidable especially seeing that no Error can hereby creep into our Reasonings because 't is evident that all the Effects of Nature are exactly the very same in the World and not otherwise which they certainly would and must be if Bodies did really and properly by their own inherent Virtue or Quality attract and were attracted by all others IV. This Affection of mutual Attraction or Gravitation is universal in extent all Bodies in the whole World as far as we have any means of knowing wherefoever they are plac'd being in common subject thereto and concern'd therein V. This Affection is also universal as to the kinds of its Objects it belonging equally to all the Parts of Matter of what Sort or Form in what Figure or Condition soever they are the difference of Bodies as to Texture and Composition Fluidity and Firmness Motion and Rest Bigness and Subtily or any other such mutable Qualities not in the least diminishing the Influence thereof VI. This Affection is also universal and equable as to Time without all manner of intermission without any increase or diminution in different Ages VII The Quantity of the force of Attraction at equal distances is exactly proportionable to the Quantity of Matter in the attracting Body being in reality nothing but the Result or Summe of the united Forces of all those single Particles of which 't is compos'd Thus if A be double to i. e. has twice as much matter as B A will have a double force of Attraction also at equal distances from their Centers respectively If A represent the Earth B the Moon if B contain but the twenty sixth part of the matter in A as it really does contain no more and a Globe or Ball were plac'd at the same distance from the Center of B at which another equal to it were from that of A it would be but the twenty sixth part so heavy towards B as the other were towards A. VIII This mutual tendency of Bodies is greater or less according as the Bodies themselves are nearer to or farther from each other The same Body more forcibly attracting those which are near than those which are farther off So that Stone or Pillar which is with us very heavy would be comparatively very light if it were as far distant from us as the Moon IX The proportion of the Increase and Decrease of this Gravity of Bodies in their approach to or recess from each other is neither that of Similar Lines nor Solids but of Superficies or Plains The Force of Attraction in several distances being reciprocally in a Duplicate Proportion thereof Thus when the same Body without the Surface of the Earth is twice as near its Center as it was before 't is four times as heavy when thrice as near 't is nine times as heavy when four times as near 't is sixteen times as heavy as before In like manner the same strength which were able to sustain a Body of one hundred weight here would at twice our distance from the Earth's Center be equally able to sustain four hundred weight at three times our distance nine hundred weight at four times our distance sixteen hundred weight and so in infinitum at all other distances For as the Squares of the distances increase so does the Power of Attraction decrease and as the Squares of the distances decrease so does the Power of Attraction at the same time increase proportionably as will be prov'd presently from the known Phaenomena of Astronomy Corollary 1. From the Comparison of the two first Propositions with the seven last 't is evident That this universal force of mutual Attraction or Gravitation of Bodies is not a result from the Nature of Matter which being circumscrib'd within its own bounds being incapable of acting at a distance and besides being intirely passive in its very Essence cannot possibly draw others or tend towards them of it self Coroll 2. This universal force of Gravitation being so plainly above besides and contrary to the Nature of Matter on the formention'd Accounts must be the Effect of a Divine Power and Efficacy which governs the whole World and which is absolutely necessary to its Preservation Coroll 3. When the Divine Power is inseparable from the Essence of God 't is evident the latter is Omnipresent as well as the former and every where equally
Rotation of the Earth from West to East will shift continually from East to West and cause that Elevation and Depression of the Ocean twice each Revolution which we so wonder at and take so much notice of amongst us Corollary 1. When therefore the Vicinity of the Moon and the Vastness of the Sun's Body make their force considerable with regard to the Fluids of our Earth their several Attractions must produce two several double Protuberances Tides or Elevations of the Ocean and Atmosphere thereof whence must arise very remarkable Phaenomena relating thereto of which in the following Corollaries Coroll 2. The sensible Elevation or Tide would be only double as if it arose from one of the Luminaries but such as from the Composition of their attractive Power were to be expected Coroll 3. When therefore the Sun and Moon 's Forces unite or when they are situate in or near the same Line through the Center of the Earth which happens only at the New and Full Moon the Tides must be the greatest and when their Forces contradict each other or when they are situate in the middle between the New and Full at the Quadratures the Tides must be the least In the former case the visible Flux and Reflux arises from the Summe and in the latter from the Difference of their Attractions and so the Spring-Tides after the New and Full are the result of the Elevation and Depression of both the Sun and Moon conjoyntly but the Nepe-Tides after the Quadratures the result only of the prevailing Elevation and Depression of the Moon above those of the Sun and by consequence exactly agreeable to experience much less than the other Coroll 4. As if the Luminaries were situate in the Axis of the Earth the Diurnal Revolution would not more expose any places to their force one time than another and no Reciprocation of Flux and Reflux would arise so the nearer they are to such a Position the less must such a Reciprocation be and the farther from such a Position the greater On which account The Elevation or Tide must be greater after the Equinoxial New and Full Moon than after the Solstitial and the highest Spring-Tides be those about March 10. and September 12. as all Experience atlests them to be and the Situation of the Luminaries near the Equator of the Earth and farthest from the Poles does require Coroll 5. When by the Vicinity of the Moon the visible Tides follow her Influence and when withal our Earth in about 243 4 Hours recovers the same Situation with regard to her 't is evident That in the said space each Part of the Ocean must have twice been elevated and twice depress'd or had a double Flux and double Reflux of its Waters as all Observation assures us it really has LXXX The Elevations or Tides caused by two different Bodies at the same distance are always proportionable to the Quantity of Matter in the same attractive Bodies as from the force of Gravitation in general proportionable to the attracting Body will easily be understood Thus if a Comet or Planet whose Quantity of Matter were ten or twelve times as much as the Moon 's were at an equal distance with her from the Center of the Earth the Tides whether of the internal Abyss if such there be or external Air and Water would be ten or twelve times as high as those she is the cause of with us LXXXI The Elevations or Tides caused by the same or an equal Body at various distances are reciprocally in a triplicate Proportion of such distances Thus if the Moon should approach as near again to the Earth's Center as now she is the Tides would be eight times as high if thrice as near twenty seven times as high if four times as near sixty four times as high as those she at her present distance produces Corollary 1. Hence appears which Mr. Bentley has in part also observ'd a signal Instance of the Divine Providence respecting the Constitution of the World in placing the Heavenly Bodies at so vast a distance from each other and the greatest at the greatest distance that when we consider it we cannot but be amazed at it For had they been situate any whit near to one another they would have caus'd prodigious Disorders and in particular such destructive Tides whenever there was vast quantities of Fluids or a great Ocean that neither Plant nor Animal could have avoided its force or sustain'd its fury which by the wise placing the Heavenly Bodies at so vast a distance is intirely prevented Coroll 2. The same careful Providence is alike and on the like accounts conspicuous in the smallness of the secondary Planets whose nearness otherwise being so great must have been attended by the foremention'd Inconveniences but is now perfectly secure from them Thus for instance our secondary Planet the Moon which is so near to us is withal so small but the 26 th part so big as the Earth not the 700 th part so big as Saturn nor the 1400 th as Jupiter nor near the millioneth as the Sun that the Tides so caused are but of some few Feet in height very moderate not at all incommodicus nay in truth very advantagious to us which in the other secondary Planets is also no less true and no less remarkable LXXXII Of the two Protuberances produc'd by the presence of a Comet or other Coelestial Body that which is directly towards that Body as dbc is larger and higher than the opposite one dac This is à priori demonstrable and found agreeable to experience also LXXXIII If such a double Tide were very great and should on a sudden be produc'd in a subterraneous Abyss on whose Surface an Orb of Earth fix'd and consolidated together were situate it would raise or depress the Regions of that Orb as it self was rais'd or depress'd and by putting on the Figure of an Oblong Sphaeroid such as an Ellipsis revolving about its longer Axis would generate and thereby increasing its Surface so much that the Orb of Earth could not fit and enclose it Uniformly as before would strain and stretch the said Orb of Earth would crack and chap it and cause Fissures and Breaches quite through the same All which is easily understood from what has been already said of a Case very agreeable to this we are now upon and so can stand in need of no farther Explication here BOOK II. HYPOTHESES I. THE Ancient Chaos the Origin of our Earth was the Atmosphere of a Comet This Proposition however new and surprizing will I hope appear not improbable when I shall have shewn That the Atmosphere of a Comet has those several Properties which are recorded of the Ancient Chaos That it has such peculiar Properties besides as lay a rational Foundation for some of those Phaenomena of our Earth which can scarce otherwise be Philosophically explain'd and that no other Body or Mass of Bodies now known or ever heard of
'T is evident at first view That the two former of these three last mention'd Phaenomena are inconsistent with the Theorist's Hypothesis and on a little Consideration 't will be so of the last also For while the Poles of the Earth or World remain in being the same as depending on the same proper Axis of the Earth's own Diurnal Revolution 't is plain the Latitude of Places on the Earth or the Elevation of the Pole equal thereto remains invariable and so that Pole which to the Inhabitants of Paradise was elevated at the least 231 2 degrees could not be at the Horizon whatever right Position the Axis of the Earth might have with respect to the Ecliptick On the same account there could even in the Theorist's own Hypothesis be no new Elevation of the one or Depression of the other Pole at the Deluge nor inclination of the Courses of the Sun and Planets towards the South All that could on the Theorist's Principles be effected besides the Earth's Equator and Poles pointing to different fix'd Stars and its Consequences was only this that whereas before the Sun was always in the Equator or middle distance from any Climate it afterwards by turns came nearer to them as we commonly tho' carelessly express it in Summer and went farther from them in Winter than before which upon the whole was no more a bent or inclination to one part of the Heavens than to the other and so of the Planets also And the case is the same as to the Poles of the Ecliptick the Northern one being as much elevated above that of the World at one hour of the Day as depress'd beneath it at another All which is I think sufficient to shew That the Testimonies of Antiquity alledg'd by the Theorist for the peopetual Equinox or the right Position of the Earth's Axis till the Deluge and the oblique Position and different Seasons then acquir'd are sufficient of themselves alone to confute his and establish the present Hypothesis 5. All things consider'd such a Position as the Theorist contends for was more likely to incommode than be useful to Mankind Taking the Matter wholly as the Theorist puts it it would prevent the Peopling of the Southern Hemisphere by the scorching heat just under the Equator without the least Intermission at any time of the Year It would render the Earth utterly unserviceable both under the Equator and Poles and in the Climates adjoyning and so streighten the Capacity of the Earth in maintaining its numerous Inhabitants which were the whole inhabitable will appear but just sufficient to contain them It would by the Perpetuation of one and the same Season continually hinder the variety of Fruits and Vegetables of every Country and many other ways spoil the setled Course of Nature and be pernicious to Mankind 6. No mechanical and rational Cause of the Mutation of the Earth's Axis either has been or I believe can be afsign'd on the Theorist's Hypothesis or any others which should embrace the same Conclusion 7. Lastly to name no more Arguments The Testimonies of Diogenes and Anaxagoras are as express almost to the Time as to this Change it self The words being exceeding remarkable are these as Plutarch himself relates them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 'T was the Doctrine both of Diogenes and Anaxagoras That after the Creation or primary Constitution of the World and the Production of Animals out of the Earth the World as it were of its own accord was bent or inclin'd towards the South And truly 't is probable this Inclination was the Effect of Providence on purpose that some Parts of the World might become habitable and others uninhabitable by reason of the difference of the frigid torrid and temperate Climates thereof Which observable and most valuable Fragment of Antiquity ought to have been before mention'd but was on purpose reserv'd for this place where it not only fully attests the matter of fact the Inclination of the Heavens towards the South not only assigns the final Cause truly enough considering the uninhabitableness of the Torrid as well as of the Frigid Zones in the Opinion of those Ages the Distribution of the Earth into certain and fix'd Zones Torrid Temperate and Frigid but so accurately and nicely specifies the time also That succeeding the Creation agreeably to the present Hypothesis that were I to wish or chuse for a Testimony fully to my mind I could scarcely have desir'd or pitch'd upon a better To these five foregoing Arguments for the proof of my main Conclusion I shall by way of supernumerary ones or Appendages add one or two more and so leave the whole to the Consideration of the Impartial Reader 6. The State of Mankind without question and perhaps that of other Animals was before the Fall vastly different from the present and consequently requir'd a proportionably different State of external Nature of which without the Hypothesis before us no Account can be given or at least has not yet by any been attempted The World as to other things seems to have been at first in great measure put into the same Condition which we still enjoy and yet Reason as well as Scripture assures us That so different a condition of things in the Animal Rational and Moral must be suited with an agreeably different one in the Natural and Corporeal World Which being consider'd and that at the same time no remarkable difference has been or perhaps can be assign'd but what the Hypothesis before us and its consequences afford us and that withal a satisfactory account of the several Particulars is deducible from the same as I hope to make appear hereafter upon the whole I think this a very considerable Attestation to what has been before insisted on 'T is indeed possible that what I look on as an advantage to others may imagine to be a prejudice against the present Hypothesis as inferring among other things a half year of Night as well as a half year of Day which may be suppos'd too disproportionate to the State and Condition of Mankind and especially too inconvenient for so happy and easy a Life as that of Mankind in Paradise undoubtedly was without any consideration of the other Creatures But it ought to be consider'd as has been already remark'd that our judging of one Scheme or System of Nature by another is very fallacious and very unreasonable Almighty God adapts each particular State to such rational and animal Beings as are on purpose design'd for the same but by no means thereby confines his Power and Providence which can with the same ease adapt other Beings or the same in other Circumstances to a very different and clean contrary Condition The Days in Jupiter are not ten hours long those in the Moon near Seventy two times as long as they or a Month yet any one who should thence conclude that either Jupiter or the Moon if not both were uncapable
of Inhabitants he would I think be very rash not to say presumptuous in so doing 'T is true he might justly conclude That such Creatures as dwell on this Earth in their present Circumstances could not or at least could not with conveniency inhabit either of them But the necessary consequence of that is only this That as the State of external Nature appears to be in Jupiter and the Moon very different from ours on Earth now so most probably are the State and Circumstances the Capacitities and Operations of their several Inhabitants equally different from those of Mankind at present upon it which is what I fully allow and plead for in the Case before us and which when rightly consider'd may save me the labour of returning any other Answer to the particular difficulty here mention'd and of enlarging upon several other things which might be said to great satisfaction on the present occasion which in prospect thereof shall therefore be no further prosecuted in this place 7. Lastly The present Hypothesis gives an easy Account of the vast change in the Natural on the change in the Moral World and of the sad Effects of the Divine Malediction upon the Earth after the Fall of Man which till now has not that I know of been so much as attempted by any Several have been endeavouring to account for that change which the Deluge made in the World But they are silent as to the natural causes or occasions of a Change which Antiquity Sacred or Prophane being judge was in all respects vastly more remarkable The State of Innocency and that of Sin being sure on all accounts more different from and contradictory to each other than the Antediluvian and Postdiluvian either in reason can be suppos'd or in fact be prov'd to be Now as to the particulars of this Change and the causes of them and how well on the Hypothesis we are upon they correspond to one another I must leave that to the Judgment of the Reader when I come to treat of 'em in their own place hereafter In the mean time this may fairly be said that This being the first attempt at an Intire Theory or such an one as takes in All the great Mutations of the Earth As it will on that account claim the Candor of the Reader and his unbiass'd Resolution of embracing the Truth however new or unusual the Assertions may seem when sufficiently evidenc'd to him So the coincidence of things from first to last through so many stages and periods of Nature and the solution of all the main Phaenomena of every such different stage and period from the Creation to the consummation of all things if they be found just mechanical and natural will it self deserve to be esteemed one of the most convincing and satisfactory Arguments for any single particular of this Theory that were to be desir'd and shew that not any great Labour or Study of the Author but the happy Advantage of falling into true and real Causes and Principles is under the Divine Providence to be own'd the occasion of the Discoveries therein contain'd In all which may these my poor Endeavours prove as satisfactory to the minds of others as they have been to my own and give them the same assurance of the Verity and Divine Authority of those Holy Books where the several Periods are recorded and the Phaenomena chiefly preserv'd which the discovery of these things has afforded my self and I am sure that my Labours will not be in vain IV. The ancient Paradise or Garden of Eden the Seat of our first Parents in the State of Innocence was at the joynt Course of the Rivers Tigris and Euphrates either before they fall into the Persian Gulf where they now unite together and separate again or rather where they anciently divided themselves below the Island Ormus where the Persian Gulf under the Tropick of Cancer falls into the Persian Sea That somewhere hereabouts on the Southern Regions of Mesopotamia between Arabia and Persia was the place of the ancient Paradise 't is past reasonable doubt from two of its Rivers Tigris and Euphrates occuring in the Description of its Situation by Moses And when the following Theory is understood perhaps there will appear reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the place where more nicely it may be supposâ—d to have been to that other here conjectur'd I say When the following Theory is understood for tho' the particular place assign'd be now under Water and a Branch or Bay of the great Ocean yet in probability it might not be so then as will hereafter appear My reasons for this Situation of Paradise are these 1. The Ancient Tradition of the Jews and Arabians was that Paradise was seated under the Primitive Equinoctial which is impossible unless it were as far South as the Tropick of Cancer Under which therefore it ought to be and accordingly is by this Hypothesis plac'd and determin'd 2. 'T will be easie on this Hypothesis for every one to suppose that the other two Rivers or Branches of these Pison and Gihon which have been in vain hitherto sought for must be now lost in the Persian Sea and therefore not to be discover'd nor their discovery to be expected since the Deluge 3. The Countries encompass'd by and bordering on these four Streams or Rivers being alike in part under Water the difficulties arising from the common mistaken Suppositions relating thereto will cease and Light be afforded to the Mosaick Description on the particular consideration thereof 4. The most literal and obvious sense of the Words of the Sacred Historian concerning the situation of Eden and its Garden or Paradise will be accountable and exactly suitable to the state of these Countries according to the present Geography The words of Moses are And the Lord God planted a Garden eastward in Eden and there he put the man whom he had formed And a River went out of Eden to water the garden and from thence it was parted and became into four heads To which the present Hypothesis is correspondent to the greatest niceness if we suppose that Tigris and Euphrates being united as they are now in Babylonia ran in one Stream quite through that Valley which is now cover'd with Water and call'd the Gulf of Persia I suppose the Country of Eden then upon the Exit of which beyond Ormus the said United Streams divided themselves as Nile into seven into four separate branches and by them as by four Mouths discharged it self into the Persian Sea Two of which Streams retain'd the Names of the Original ones Tigris and Euphrates and the other two acquir'd new ones and were call'd Pison and Gihon just before or about which Division that Country stil'd Paradise or the Garden of Eden was I imagine accordingly situate This I take to be the most probable account of this Point and such an one as takes away the perplexities of this matter agrees to the Letter of Moses and the Geography of the
Waters were all rais'd into Vapours and descended in Rain they must either fall upon or run down into the Ocean the Seas and those Declivities they were in before they could only take up and possess their old places and so could not contribute a jot to that standing and permanent Mass of Waters which cover'd the Earth at the Deluge 5. The Expression us'd by the Sacred Historian that the Windows Flood-gates or Cataracts of Heaven were open'd at the fall and shut at the ceasing of these Waters very naturally agrees to this Superior and Coelestial Original XLVII This vast fall of Waters or forty Days rain began on the fifth day of the Week or Thursday the twenty seventh day of November being the seventeenth day of the second Month from the Autumnal Equinox corresponding this Year 1696. to the twenty eighth day of October In the six hundredth year of Noah's life in the second month the seventeenth day of the month the windows of heaven were opened and the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights Thus Abydenus and Berosus say it began on the fifteenth day of Daesius the second Month from the Vernal Equinox which if the mistake arising 't is probable from the ignorance of the change in the beginning of the Year at the Exodus out of Egypt be but corrected is within a day or two agreeable to the Narration of Moses and so exceedingly confirms the same XLVIII The other main cause of the Deluge was the breaking up the Fountains of the great Abyss or the causing such Chaps and Fissures in the upper Earth as might permit the Waters contain'd in the Bowels of it when violently press'd and squeez'd upwards to ascend and so add to the quantity of those which the Rains produced All the fountains of the great deep were broken up The sea brake forth as if it had issued out of the womb XLIX All these Fountains of the great Deep were broken up on the very first day of the Deluge or the very first day when the Rains began In the six hundredth year of Noah's life in the second month the seventeenth day of the month the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up and the windows of heaven were opened L. Yet the very same day Noah his Family and all the Animals entred into the Ark. In the self-same day last mention'd entred Noah and Shem and Ham and Japheth the sons of Noah and Noah's wife and the three wives of his sons with them into the ark They and every beast after his kind and all the cattel after their kind and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind and every fowl after his kind every bird of every sort LI. Tho' the first and most violent Rains continued without intermission but forty days yet after some time the Rains began again and ceased not till the seventeenth day of the seventh Month or a hundred and fifty days after the Deluge began This is very probably gather'd from the mighty increase of the Waters even after the first forty days Rain were over and from the express fixing of the stoppage of the Rains to the last day here assigned The Waters prevailed and were increased greatly And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the Earth The waters prevailed or were increased upon the Earth an hundred and fifty days And God remembred Noah and every living thing and all the Cattel that was him in the Ark And God made a wind to pass over the Earth and the waters asswaged The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped and the rain from heaven was restrained LII This second and less remarkable Rain was deriv'd from such a cause as the former was This Proposition is 1. Very fair and probable in it self 2. Gives an account of the augmentation of the Waters by their fall when had they been only exhaled and let fall again as our Rains now are they would have added nothing thereto 3. Is exactly agreeable to the expressions in Moses who says the Windows of Heaven which were open'd at the beginning of the first were not shut or stopped till the end of this second Rain thereby plainly deriving this latter as well as the former from a Superiour and Celestial original The fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped and the rain from heaven was restrained LIII Tho' the fountains of the great deep were broken up and the forty days Rain began at the same time yet is there a very observable mention of a threefold growth or distinct augmentation of the Waters as if it were on three several accounts and at three several times The flood was forty days upon the earth and the waters increased and bare up the ark and it was lift up above the earth And the waters prevailed and were increased greatly and the ark went upon the face of the waters And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth and all the high hills that were under the whole heaven were cover'd LIV. The Waters of the Deluge increas'd by degrees till their utmost height and then decreas'd by degrees till they were clearly gone off the face of the earth This is evident from the intire series and course of the Mosaick History in the seventh and eighth chapters of Genesis LV. The Waters of the Deluge were Still Calm free from Commotions Storms Winds and Tempests of all sorts during the whole time in which the Ark was afloat upon them This is evident from the impossibility of the Ark's abiding a Stormy Sea considering the vast bulk and particular figure of it For since it was three hundred Cubits long fifty Cubits broad and thirty Cubits high Which is according to the most accurate determination of the Cubits length by the Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of Peterborough above five hundred and forty seven English feet long above ninety one feet broad and near fifty five feet high And since withal it appears to have been of the figure of a Chest without such a peculiar bottom and proportion of parts as our great Ships are contrived with 't is evident and will be allow'd by Persons skill'd in Navigation that 't was not capable of enduring a Stormy Sea It must whenever either the Ridges or Hollows of vast Waves were so situate that it lay over-cross the one or the other have had its back broken and it self must have been shatter'd to pieces which having not happen'd 't is a certain evidence of a calm Sea during the whole time it was afloat LVI Yet during the Deluge there were both Winds and Storms of all sorts in a very violent manner God made a wind to pass over the earth and the waters asswaged Thou coveredst the earth with the deep as with a garment the waters stood above the mountains At thy rebuke they fled
several Sea Charts relating thereto may easily be observ'd LXIX The greatest part of the Islands of the Globe are situate at small distances from the Edges of the great Continents very few appearing near the middle of the main Ocean This the bare Inspection into a Map or Globe of the World will soon give satisfaction in LXX The Ages of Men decreas'd about one half presently after the Deluge and in the succeeding eight hundred or nine hundred Years were gradually reduced to that standard at which they have stood ever since This the following Tables will easily evince Ages of the Antediluvians in their Years Ages of the Postdiluvians in the present Years Adam 930 Noah 950 Seth 912 Sem 600 Enos 905 Arphaxad 438 Cainan 910 Salah 433 Mahalaleel 895 Heber 464 Jared 962 Phaleg 239 Enoch translated 365 Reu 239 Methuselah 969 Serug 230 Lamech 777 Nahor 148 Noah 950 Terah 205 Sem 600 Abraham 175   Isaac 180   Jacob 147   Joseph 110 The days of our years are threescore years and ten and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years yet is their strength labour and sorrow for it is soon cut off and we fly away In the Days of Moses LXXI Our upper Earth for a considerable depth even as far as we commonly penetrate into it is Factitious or newly acquir'd at the Deluge The ancient one having been covered by fresh Strata or Layers of Earth at that time and thereby spoil'd or destroy'd as to the use and advantage of Mankind I will destroy them with the Earth Neither shall there any more be a flood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to destroy corrupt or spoil the Earth This is moreover evident by the vast numbers of the Shells of Fish Bones of Animals Intire or Partial Vegetables buried at the Deluge and Inclosed in the Bowels of the present Earth and of its most solid and compacted Bodies to be commonly seen at this day Whose truth is attested not only by very many occasional remarks of others but more especially by the careful and numerous Observations of an Eye-witness the Learned Dr. Woodward 'T is true this excellent Author was forc'd to imagine and accordingly to assert That the Ancient Earth was dissolv'd at the Deluge and all its parts separated from one another and so the whole thus dissolv'd and separate taken up into the Waters which then cover'd the Earth till at last they together setled downward and with the fore-mentioned Shells Bones and Vegetables inclosed among the rest of the Mass compos'd again that Earth on which we now live But this Hypothesis is so strange and so miraculous in all its parts 't is so wholly different from the natural Series of the Mosaick History of the Deluge takes so little notice of the forty days rain the principal cause thereof is so contrary to the Universal Law of mutual Attraction and the specifick gravities of Bodies accounts for so few of the before-mention'd Phaenomena of the Deluge fixes the time of the year for its commencing so different from the truth implies such a sort of new Formation or Creation of the Earth at the Deluge without warrant for the same is in some things so little consistent with the Mosaick Relation and the Phaenomena of nature and upon the whole is so much more than his Observations require that I cannot but dissent from this particular Hypothesis tho' I so justly honour the Author and so highly esteem and frequently refer to the Work it self All that I shall say farther is this That the Phaenomena of the interior Earth by this Author so exactly observ'd are on the common grounds or notions of the Deluge which suppose the Waters to have been pure without any other mixtures so unaccountable and yet so remarkable and evident that if no other rational solution could be offer'd 't were but just and necessary to admit whatever is asserted by this Author rather than deny the reality of those Phaenomena or ascribe the plainest remains of the Animal and Vegetable Kingdom to the sportings of Nature or any such odd and Chimaerical occasions as some persons are inclinable to do But withal I must be allow'd to say and the Author himself will not disagree That his Hypothesis includes things so strange wonderful and surprizing that nothing but the utmost necessity and the perfect unaccountableness of the Phaenomena without it ought to be esteem'd sufficient to justifie the belief and introduction of it Which straits that account of the Deluge we are now upon not forcing me into as will appear hereafter I have I think but just reasons for my disbelief thereof and as just or rather the same reason to embrace that Assertion we are now upon That this upper Earth as far as any Shells Bones or Vegetables are found therein was adventitious and newly acquir'd at the Deluge and not only the old one dissolv'd and resetled in its ancient place again LXXII This Factitious Crust is universal upon the Tops of the generality of Mountains as well as in the Plains and Valleys and that in all the known Climates and Regions of the World This is fully attested by the Observations of the same Author and those which he procur'd from all parts of the World conspiring together LXXIII The Parts of the present upper Strata were at the time of the Waters covering the Earth loose separate divided and floated in the Waters among one another uncertainly This is proved by the same Author's Observations LXXIV All this Heterogeneous Mass thus floating in the Waters by degrees descended downwards and subsided to the bottom pretty nearly according to the Law of Specifick Gravity and there compos'd those several Strata or Layers of which our present upper Earth does consist This is prov'd by the same Observations LXXV Vast multitudes of Fishes belonging both to the Seas and Rivers perish'd at the Deluge and their Shells were buried among the other Bodies or Masses which subsided down and compos'd the Layers of our upper Earth This is prov'd by the same Observations LXXVI The same Law of Specifick Gravity which was observ'd in the rest of the Mass was also observ'd in the subsidence of the Shells of Fishes they then sinking together with and accordingly being now found enclos'd among those Strata or Bodies which are nearly of their own several Specifick Gravities The heavier Shells being consequently still enclos'd among the heavier Strata and the lighter Shells among the lighter Strata in the Bowels of our present Earth This is prov'd by the same Observations LXXVII The Strata of Marble of Stone and of all other solid Bodies attained their solidity as soon as the Sand or other matter whereof they consist was arriv'd at the bottom and well setled there And all those Strata which are solid at this day have been so ever since that time This is prov'd by the same Observations LXXVIII These Strata
thy hand They shall perish but thou shalt endure yea all of them shall wax old like a garment as a vesture shalt thou change them and they shall be changed I saw thrones and they sat upon them and judgment was given unto them And I saw the Souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus and for the word of God and which had not worshipped the beast neither his image neither had received his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished This is the first resurrection Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection on such the second death hath no power But they shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with him a thousand years c. But so much has been said on this head to omit others by the Theorist that I shall refer the Reader thither for the other Testimonies of the Holy Scriptures and the unanimous consent of the most Primitive Fathers Both which he at large and to excellent purpose some particulars excepted has insisted on XCVI The state of Nature during the Millennium will be very different from that at present and more agreeable to the Antediluvian Primitive and Paradisiacal ones Whom the heavens must receive until the time of the restitution of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy Prophets since the world began See more in the Theory Book 4. Chap. 9. and in the proofs of the former Proposition XCVII The Earth in the Millennium will be without a Sea or any large receptacle fill'd with mighty collections and quantities of Waters I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away and there was no more sea XCVIII The Earth in the Millennium will have no succession of Light and Darkness Day and Night but a perpetual Day The gates of the new Jerusalem shall not be shut at all by day for there shall be no night there And there shall be no night there XCIX The state of the Millennium will not stand in need of and so probably will be without the light and presence of the Sun and Moon And the City had no need of the Sun neither of the Moon to shine in it And they need no candle neither light of the sun C. At the conclusion of the Millennium the Final Judgment and Consummation of all things The Earth will desert its present Seat and Station in the World and be no longer found among the Planetary Chrous I saw a great white throne and him that sat on it from whose face the earth and the heavens fled away and there was found no place for them BOOK IV. SOLUTIONS OR An Account of the foregoing Phaenomena from the Principles of Philosophy already laid down CHAP. 1. A Solution of the Phaenomena relating to the Mosaick Creation and the original Constitution of the Earth I. All those particular small Bodies of which our habitable Earth is now compos'd were originally in a mixed confused fluid and uncertain Condition without any order or regularilty It was an Earth without form and void had darkness spread over the face of its Abyss and in reality was what it has been ever stil'd A perfect Chaos I. THIS has been already sufficiently accounted for and need not be here again insisted on II. The Formation of this Earth or the Change of that Chaos into an habitable World was not a meer result from any necessary Laws of Mechanism independently on the Divine Power but was the proper effect of the Influence and Interposition and all along under the peculiar Care and Providence of God II. 'T is not very easy I confess in such mighty Turns and Changes of the World exactly to determine how far and in what particulars a supernatural or miraculous Interposition of the Divine Power is concern'd and how far the Laws of Nature or Mechanical Powers ought to be extended Nay indeed 't is difficult enough in several instances to determine what is the effect of a natural and ordinary and what of a supernatural and extraordinary Providence 'T is now evident That Gravity the most mechanical Affection of Bodies and which seems most natural depends entirely on the constant and efficacious and if you will the supernatural and miraculous Influence of Almighty God And I do not know whether the falling of a Stone to the Earth ought not more truly to be esteem'd a supernatural Effect or a Miracle than what we with the greatest surprize should so stile its remaining pendulous in the open Air since the former requires an active Influence in the first Cause while the latter supposes Non-annihilation only But besides this Tho' we were able exactly to distinguish in general the ordinary Concurrence of God from his extraordinary yet would the task before us be still sufciently difficult For those Events or Actions are in Holy Scripture attributed immediately to the Power and Providence of God which yet were to all outward appearance according to the constant course of things and would abstractedly from such Affirmations of the Holy Books have been esteem'd no more miraculous than the other common Effects of Nature or usual Accidents of Humane Affairs as those who have carefully consider'd these matters especially the Historical and Prophetical Parts of the Old Testament must be oblig'd to confess Neither is it unreasonable that all things should in that manner be ascribed to the Supream Being on several accounts 'T is from him every thing is ultimately deriv'd He conserves the Natures and continues the Powers of every Creature He not only at first produc'd but perpetually disposes and makes use of the whole Creation and every part thereof as the Instruments of his Providence He foresaw and foreadapted the intire Frame He determin'd his Co-operation or Permission to every Action He so order'd and appointed the whole System with every individual Branch of it as to Time Place Proportion and all other Circumstances that nothing should happen unseasonably unfitly disproportionately or otherwise than the Junctures of Affairs the demerits of his reasonable Creatures and the wise Intentions of his Providence did require In fine he so previously adjusted and contemper'd the Moral and Natural World to one another that the Marks and Tokens of his Providence should be in all Ages legible and conspicuous whatsoever the visible secondary Causes or Occasions might be Seeing then this is the true state of the Case and that consequently Almighty God has so constituted the World that no Body can tell wherein it differs from one where all were solely brought to pass by a miraculous Power 't is by no means untrue or improper in the Holy Books to refer all those things which bare Humane Authors would derive from
Dust would be the lowest and the Water swim uppermost on the surface of the other without mingling therewith yet will the latter immediately sink downwards and so throughly drench and satiate the said Mass before any will remain on the top that its proportion to that of the Solid parts will be very considerable Which being apply'd to the point before us will take away all imaginable difficulty in the case It being evident without this comparison that such Watery Particles as were already intermix'd with the others would remain where they were and with this equally so that the rest which were above the same upon the first subsidence of the Earthy Strata would penetrate pervade and saturate the same So that on this first Day or Year of the Creation the Earthy and Denser parts would take their places lowest on the surface of the great Abyss would settle in part into the same and compose an Orb of Earth and in its Interstices and little Cavities all such Watery Particles as were already in this Region or descended upon it before its consolidation would be enclos'd and that as far above the surface of the Abyss to which they would be contiguous as their quantity could enable them to reach On this first Day or Year also the upper Regions of the Chaos being now in some measure freed from those Earthy and Opake Masses which before excluded the same and caused the before-mention'd thick Darkness would in some degree admit the Rays of the Sun Now therefore that glorious Emanation Light the visible part of this days Work would begin to appear on the face of the Earth Now would It by the Annual Motion successively illuminate the several parts of it And now would it consequently cause that natural Distinction between Darkness and Light Night and Day round the whole Globe which was to be accounted for in this Proposition Which progress of the Chaos and state of Nature is well enough exhibited by the Theorist's third Figure which therefore is here delineated Corollary Hence we may observe the Justness of the Mosaick Creation and how fitly it begins at the Production of Light without taking notice of such prior conditions and such preparations of the Chaos which have been before explain'd and were in order of Nature previous to this days Work For this account reaching only to the Visible World and the Visible Effects in it and keeping still within the bounds of sense and of common observation could not better be accommodated to the truth of things and the capacities of all than by such a Procedure The Ancient condition of the Chaos in former Ages was no way here concern'd and so was intirely to be omitted The State of Darkness which immediately preceded the Six Days Work and which with relation thereto was necessary to be mention'd made a very proper introduction and so very fitly was to be hinted at by way of Preface thereto Both which cases are accordingly by Moses taken care of And so the first Period was the Production of Light the Admission of the Rays of the Sun and the Origin of Day and Night depending thereon as the Method and Decorum of things with the apprehensions of the People did both very naturally require For since in this Sacred History of the Origin of things not only the Visible World and the Visible parts of it were singly concern'd But principally the Effects to be enumerated were such as requir'd the Light and Heat of the Sun the one to be View'd the other to be Produced by and without the latter could no more have Been at all than been Conspicuous without the former 'T was very suitable and very natural in the first place to introduce the Cause or Instrument and afterwards in the succeeding Periods to recount the Effects thereof in the World First to acquaint us that the Light and Heat of the Sun were in some measure admitted into the upper Regions of the Chaos and then to relate those remarkable consequences thereof which the succeeding Periods of the Creation exhibited on the face of the Earth Which Order of Nature and Succession of Things is accordingly very prudently and fitly observ'd and kept pace with in this Sacred History VI. The visible part of the Second Day 's Work was the Elevation of the Air with all it s contained Vapours the spreading it for an Expansum above the Earth and the distinction thence arising of Superior and Inferior Waters The formet consisting of those Vapours rais'd and sustain'd by the Air The latter of such as either were inclos'd in the Pores Interstices and Bowels of the Earth or lay upon the Surface thereof VI. When at the Conclusion of the former Day the Heat of the Sun began considerably to penetrate the Superior Regions of the Chaos and the two different Orbs the Solider Earthy and the Fluider Aery Masses began to be pretty well distinguished the same things would proceed still on this succeeding Day The Lower Earthy Strata would be settling somewhat closer together the Watery parts would subside and saturate their inward Pores and Vacuities and the Atmosphere would free it self more and more from the heaviest and most Opake Corpuscles and thereby become in a greater degree tenuious pure and clear than before Whereupon by that time the Night or first half of this Second Day or Year was over and the Sun arose The Light and Heat of that Luminary would more freely and deeply penetrate the Atmosphere and become very sensible in these Upper or Aery Regions Which being suppos'd the proper Effect which were to be next expected must be that vast quantities of Vapours would be elevated into and there sustained by the now better purified Air while in the mean time all the Earthy Corpuscles which were uncapable of rarefaction and with them all such Watery Particles as were so near the Earth that the Sun's Power could not sufficiently reach them were still sinking downwards and increasing the crassitude and bulk of the Solid Earth and of its included Waters From all which 't is easie to account for the Particulars of this Day 's Work The Expansum or Firmament which was this day spread out above the Earth was plainly the Air now truly so called as being freed from most of its Earthy mixtures The Superior Waters All those which in the form of Vapour a half years heat of the Sun with the continual assistance of the Central Heat could elevate and the Air sustain The Inferior Waters those which were not elevated but remain'd below all that fell down with were enclosed in sunk into and if you will lay upon the Orb of Earth beneath And when it is particularly said by Moses that 't was this Expansum or Firmament which was to divide the Superior from the Inferior Waters that is exactly agreeable to the nature of things and suitable to this account It being the Air which truly and properly sustain'd all those Vapours as now it
present as the case was of the Dry-land Animals because the latter being universally destroy'd those in the Ark alone excepted were to begin their Propagation anew but the former not being so did but increase their still numerous Individuals and must thereby soon recover and surpass their former Multitude as will easily be allow'd on a little consideration of this Matter Corollary Hence arises a strong Confirmation of what is on other grounds already asserted That there were only smaller Lakes and Seas but no great Ocean before the Deluge For since it appears by this Phaenomenon that the Waters of the Antediluvian Earth were much more replenish'd nay crouded with Fish than now they are and since there was no general Destruction of them as there was of Dry-land Animals at the Deluge had there been as great a Compass or as vast an Ocean for their Reception then as at present there is the numbers now in every part of the Ocean or Seas ought to be vastly greater than they then were an being all the Off-spring of those which every where surviv'd the Deluge and which have propagated themselves for more than four thousand Years since the same which being disagreeable to the Observations referr'd to in this Phaenomenon is little less than a Demonstration of the falshood of that Hypothesis on which 't is built or a full Attestation to our Assertion that there were only smaller Lakes and Seas but no great Ocean before the Deluge XXXV The Antediluvian Earth was much more fruitful than the present and the multitude of its vegetable Productions much greater XXXV Before I come directly to solve this and the following Propositions I must premise that 't is usually unreasonable to ask why such Phaenomena belong'd to the Antediluvian World They being commonly but the natural and regular Properties of an Original Earth newly form'd out of a Chaos such as one should rationally expect in a World newly come out of the Hands of its Creator and fitted for the Convenience and Fruition of noble Creatures such as the generality of our fellow Planets especially our next Neighbour the Moon as far as we can observe appear to have had at first and hitherto retain'd All that can in reason be desir'd is this To give a plain and intelligible Account of those opposite Phaenomena of the Earth which we now are sensible of and by what means the Deluge could occasion the same Which therefore shall be frequently the business of the succeeding Solutions And as to the present case the decrease of the Fertility of the Earth at the Deluge these Causes are assignable 1. The decrease of the Sun's Heat by the greater distance of the Earth from him since than before the Deluge It has been before prov'd that till the Deluge the Earth's Orbit was Circular and the Radius of that Circle very little longer than the nearest distance at the Perihelion now So that when the Heat of the Sun is as the density of his Rays or reciprocally as the Squares of the Earth's distance from him If instead of the present Ellipsis we take for Calculations sake as we ought a Circle in the middle between the nearest and farthest distance we shall find that the Sun's Heat on the Earth in general before the Deluge was to its present Heat as almost a hundred to ninety six or a twenty fifth part of his intire Heat greater before than since the same which is by no means inconsiderable in the Case before us 2. The Heat of the Central Body was considerably damp'd and obstructed both by the Waters of the Deluge themselves acquir'd from abroad and now contain'd in the Pores and Caverns of the Earth under us and by that Sediment of them which now composes that upper Crust of Earth we dwell upon and which being setled and consolidated on the Superficies of the Ancient Earth would prove a great hindrance to the ascending Steams not to be overcome but by degrees and in length of time afterwards From both which Causes very a notable Damp would be put to the Influence of the Central Heat on which as well as on the Sun 's the Fertility of every Soil does in part depend 3. The upper Earth or fruitful Soil it self the main Fund and Promptuary of the vegetable Kingdom is now very inconsiderable in quantity if compar'd with that of the Primitive or Antediluvian Earth For when this last mention'd was the intire product of the Ancient Chaos at the original Formation of the Earth and the first what only was afforded from a small part of such a Chaos the Comet 's Atmosphere and by the Storms born off the Tops of Mountains at the Deluge while the old Soil lies buried under the Sediment or Crust on which we live 't is no wonder that our fertile Stratum is now thinner spread and so the Productions less copious in the present than they were in the Antediluvian State of Things And this tho' we suppose the Soil from the Comet or from the Tops of the Mountains to be as good in it self and to have remain'd as pure and unmix'd with any heterogeneous Matter in this confusion of things at the Deluge as it would at the regular Formation of the Earth at first which yet is by no means supposable and the contrary to which being allow'd for will still farther afford us a reason of the present Assertion So that since the present Soil is both much worse in Quality and much less in Quantity than the old one and since the Heat whether of the Sun or Central Solid is so much lessen'd at the Deluge which things include the main Causes of Fertility 't is no wonder that the present Earth is nothing near so fruitful and luxuriant in her Productions as the Autediluvian was XXXVI The Temperature of the Antediluvian Air was more equable as to its different Climates and its different Seasons without such excessive and sudden Heat and Cold without the scorching of a Torrid Zone and of burning Summers or the freezing of the Frigid Zones and of piercing Winters and without such sudden and violent Changes in the Climates or Seasons from one extreme to another as the present Air to our Sorrow is subject to XXXVI Seeing the primary State here mention'd is but a proper result from the first Formation of the Earth all that need be accounted for is the Alteration at the Deluge 1. The mighty difference of Climates especially of the Torrid and Frigid Zones is I suppose owing not wholly to the Sun's Heat or the Nature of the Air it self but partly to those Calorifick and Frigorifick Mixtures which are uncertainly contain'd therein Meer Heat and Cold are very different things from that Pothery and Sultry that Frosty and Congealing Weather which alternately in Summer and Winter at the Line and the Poles we usually now feel These Effects seem plainly deriv'd from Nitrous or sulphureous or other the like Steams exhaled into mixed with and sustained by
as Rains constantly now are but from some other Superior and Coelestial Original XLVI This is already evident from what has been just now said The source of all these Rains being one of those Superior or Coelestial Bodies which we call Comets or more peculiarly the Atmosphere and Tail thereof XLVII This vast Fall of Waters or forty Days Rain began on the fifth day of the Week or Thursday the twenty seventh day of November being the seventeenth day of the second Month from the Autumnal Equinox corresponding this Year 1696. to the twenty eighth day of October XLVII This has been already explain'd in effect in the Hypothesis hereto relating where it was prov'd that a Comet on that very day here nam'd pass'd by the Earth and by consequence began those Rains which for the succeeding forty days space continued without any Interruption XLVIII The other main cause of the Deluge was the breaking up the Fountains of the great Abyss or causing such Chaps and Fissures in the upper Earth as might permit the Waters contain'd in the Bowels of it when violently press'd and squeez'd upwards to ascend and so add to the quantity of those which the Rains produced XLVIII This has in part been explain'd in the Lemmata hereto relating and will be more fully understood from the Figure there also refer'd to For Let adbc represent the Earth moving along the Ecliptick GH from G towards H. 'T is evident that the Figure of the Earth before the approach of the Comet as far as 't is here concern'd was Sphaerical But now let us suppose the Comet bi Dh as it was descending towards its Perihelion along its Trajectory EF from E towards F to approach very near and arrive at the nearest Position represented in the Figure 'T is evident that this presence of the Comet would cause a double Tide as well in the Seas above as in the Abyss below the former of which being less considerable in it self and not to our present purpose need not be taken any farther notice of But the latter would be vastly great suppose seven or eight Miles high above its former Position would produce mighty Effects on the Orb above it and so deserves a nicer consideration in this place As soon therefore as the Comet came pretty near as suppose within the Moon 's distance this double Tide would begin to rise and increase all the time of its approach till the Comet was nearest of all as in the Figure And then these Tides or double Protuberances of the Abyss would be at their utmost height So that the Surface of the Abyss and of its incumbent Orb of Earth would put on that Elliptick or rather truly and exactly Oval Figure under which 't is here represented Now 't is certain that this Sphoeroid Surface of the Abyss is larger than its former Sphoerical one 't is also certain that the Orb of Earth which rested on this Abyss must be oblig'd to follow its Figure and accommodate it self to this large Oval which being impossible for it to do while it remain'd Solid continued and conjoyn'd it must of necessity enlarge it self and by the violent force of the encreasing Surface of the Abyss be stretch'd crack'd broken and have innumerable Fissures made quite through it from the upper to the under Surface thereof nearly perpendicular to the same Surfaces So that this Orb of Earth which originally in its primary formation was Sphaerical its inward Compages or Strata even conjoin'd and continual which had afterward at the commencing of the Diurnal Rotation been chang'd into an Oblate Sphoeroid and at the same time been thereby broken chap'd and disjointed by that time its wounds had been well healed and it was in some measure setled and fix'd in such a condition receiv'd this new Disruption at the Deluge It s old Fissures were open'd and the Fountains of the Abyss most Naturally and Emphatically so stil'd according to Dr. Woodward's Account of the Origin of Fountains broken up and sufficient Gaps made for a Communication between the Abyss below and the Surface of the Earth above the same if any occasion should be given for the Ascent of the former or Descent of any thing from the latter And here 't is to be noted that these Chaps and Fissures tho' they were never so many or so open could not of themselves raise any Subterraneous Waters nor contribute one jot to the drowning of the Earth The Upper Orb was long ago setled and sunk as far into the Abyss as the Law of Hydrostaticks requir'd and whether 't were intire or broken would cause no new pressure and no more than maintain its prior situation on the Face of the Deep These Fissures had been at least as open and extended in their Original Generation when the Diurnal Rotation began as at this time and yet was there no danger of a Deluge So that tho' this breaking up of the Fountains of the Deep was a prerequisite condition and absolutely necessary to the Ascent of the Subterraneous Waters yet was it not the proper and direct cause or efficient thereof That is to be deriv'd from another original and is as follows As soon as the presence of the Comet had produc'd those vast Tides or double elevation and depression of the Abyss and thereby disjointed the Earth and caus'd the before-mentiond patent holes or breaches quite through the Body of it the Fall of Waters began and quickly cover'd the Earth and crouded the Air with vast quantities there of Which Waters being adventitious or additional ones and of a prodigious weight withal must press downward with a mighty force and endeavour to sink the Orb of Earth deeper into the Abyss according as the intire weight of each column of Earth and its incumbent Waters together agreeably to the Law of Hydrostaticks did now require And had the Earth as it was in its first subsiding into the Abyss been loose separate and unfix'd so as to admit the Abyss between its parts and suffer a gentle subsidence of the Columns of Earth in the requisite proportion we could scarce have expected any Elevation of the Subterraneous Waters But the Strata of the Earth were long ago setled fastened and consolidated together and so could not admit of such a farther immersion into the fluid On which account the new and vast pressure of the Orb of Earth upon the Abyss would certainly force it upward or any way wheresoever there were a passage for it To which therefore the Breaches Holes and Fissures so newly generated or rather open'd afresh by the violence of the Tides in the Abyss beneath would be very ready and natural Outlets through which it would Ascend with a mighty force and carry up before it whatever was in its way whether Fluid or Solid whether 't were Earth or Water And seeing as we before saw the Lower Regions of the Earth were full of Water pervading and replenishing the Pores
and Interstices thereof which Waters on the opening of the Fissures would from all sides ouze into and fill up the Inferiour parts of the same and rest upon the Face of the Abyss the Dense Fluid of the Abyss in its violent Ascent through the Fissures would carry before it and throw out at the tops of the said Fissures great quantities of the same and if its force were any where sufficient would cast it self also out at the same passages and by both or either ways would mightily add to the quantity of the Waters already on the Face of the Earth and become a fresh and a prodigious augmentation of that Deluge which began already to overwhelm and destroy the Inhabitants thereof For the better apprehension of this matter let us imagine the following Experiment were made Suppose a Cylinder of Stone or Marble fitted so exactly to a hollow Cylindrical Vessel that it may just Ascend or Descend freely within it Let the Cylinder of Stone or Marble have small holes bored quite through it parallel to the Axis thereof Let the Vessel be fill'd half full of Water and the Cylinder as gently as you please be put into the Vessel till it touch the Water Let then each of the holes through the Cylinder be fill'd in part with Oyl or any other Fluid lighter than the Water to Swim upon the Surface thereof Things being thus provided you have the very case of the Deluge before you and what effects you here in a lesser degree will observe are but the representations of those great and remarkable ones of which we are now speaking For as the weight of the Cylinder pressing upon the Surface of the Water would squeeze the Oyl upon its Surface through the holes and cast it out thereat with some violence and cast it self too out at the same passages if the holes were not too high in comparison to the quantity of the intire pressure upon the Surface of the Water just so the Weight of the Columns of Earth augmented by the additional Waters of the Comet would squeeze and press upon the Surface of the Abyss which being a Fluid Mass and incapable of sustaining a pressure in one part without equally communicating it to all the rest any way whatsoever must burst out wherever such pressure was wanting and throw it self up the Fissures carrying up before it and throwing out upon the Earth those Waters which like Oyl on the Water in the Experiment lay upon its Surface and for the altitude perhaps of some Miles cover'd the same and thereby mightily increasing the greatness of the Deluge and having a main stroke in that destruction which it brought upon the Earth All which I think gives us a clear easie and mechanical account of this hitherto inexplicable Secondary Cause of the Deluge the breaking up the Fountains of the Great Deep and thereat the elevating the Subterraneous Waters and bringing them out upon the Face of the Earth Corollary 1. These Chaps or Fissures at the Deluge would commonly be the same with those at the commencing of the Diurnal Rotation It being easier to break the Compages of the Earth where it had once been broken already and was never united well again than in other places where it was intire and continued And those parts which sustain'd the rather greater force at the former Convulsion would at least as well sustain this of which we are now speaking and preserve their former continuity still as they did before the Flood Coroll 2. Hence if these Fissures are the occasion and source of Fountains as Dr. Woodward very probably asserts The Antediluvian and Postdiluvian Springs must be generally the very same as arising from the same Originals so far as the mutations at the Earth's Surface to be afterward explain'd would permit and allow in the case Coroll 3. Since we have before shew'd that the Mountainous Columns of the Earth are the loosest the least compacted and least solid of all others The Earth would be the most subject to the Fissures and Breaches in those parts and the generality of Springs and Rivers would now proceed from thence Unless the peculiar Stony or other firm Compages of the same prevented the Effects here mention'd as sometimes perhaps might happen in the present case Coroll 4. Hence 't is evident that there was no great Ocean but only smaller Lakes and Seas before the Flood For otherwise the Tule or Flux of the Ocean would have been so great and violent as to have superseded almost all the designs of the ensuing Deluge and have withal extremely endanger'd if not certainly destroy'd the Ark and all those Creatures which were entring into it Which the small Tides in the small Lakes and Seas would not at all affect or disturb XLIX All these Fountains of the great Deep were broken up on the very first day of the Deluge or the very first day when the Rains began XLIX This is very easily understood from the space of time that the Comet was near the Earth For the duration of this Disruption or breaking of the Orb of Earth occasion'd by the nearness of the Comet must be commensurate thereto which tho' we should take in all the space it was nearer than the Moon could not possibly as is easie to Calculate amount to Nine Hours which is indeed much more than need be allow'd and is yet sufficiently within that Days space which this Phaenomenon if occasion were could allow us to suppose and so fully satisfies the same L. Yet the very same day Noah his Family and all the Animals entred into the Ark. L. Tho' 't is otherwise not a little strange that the entry into the Ark should be defer'd till this Day yet 't is clear and easie on the present Hypothesis For as to the Fountains of the great Deep which were broken up this Day thereby the Earth and its Contents were only gradually and insensibly elevated but no other disturbance given to Noah in his Entry into the Ark at the same time The Fissures indeed were now made but till the weight of the Waters from the Comet could operate no Water would from thence arise to disturb him And tho' they had yet unless there were some of the great Fissures or Spouts just where he was no interruption could this day be given him therefrom As to the Rains themselves tho' they all fell first upon the Earth nearly within the compass of this Day and so must cause a most prodigious destruction and confusion upon the Earth where they so fell yet the peculiar situation of Mount Caucasus on or near which the Ark was did secure it this day tho' so outragious and destructive a one to the Inhabitants of the other parts of the Globe was yet here fair and calm as at other times Which is thus demonstrated 'T is evident that Mount Caucasus is ficuate pretty near the Center of our Northern Continent or indeed some 20 or 25 degrees Northeast
of Bodies in the whole World can elevate or depress a Continent of the Earth but such as are capable of approaching the same or in other words but Comets and consequently a Comet did approach near the Earth at the time assigned and was the cause of the Deluge Which Chain or Connexion I take to be so strong that I believe 't will not be possible to evade its force and so what on other arguments has been already establish'd is fully confirm'd by this Coroll 4. 'T is equally dcmonstrable that the Upper Orb or Habitable Earth is founded on a Subterraneous Fluid denser and heavier than it self This circumstance being absolutely necessary to account for the Phaenomenon we are now upon For if the internal Regions of the Globe were firm and solid as is commonly suppos'd tho' wholly gratis and without ground Tho' the Comet had pass'd by yet there could have been no elevation of any Continent and the Proposition before us must still have remain'd Insoluble LX. As the Fountains of the great Deep were broken up at the very same time that the first Rains began so were they stopp'd the very same time that the last Rains ended on the seventeenth day of the seventh Month. LX. Tho' I cannot say that the Account of the Deluge now given can determine to a Day the time of the Subterraneous Waters ceasing to spout forth this stoppage of the Fountains of the Deep in Moses yet 't is evident that the time defin'd by the History is very agreeable to that which from the consideration of the thing it self one should naturally pitch upon For since the Ascent of the Subterraneous Waters depended on the Waters produc'd by the Rains as on the beginning of those Rains it began to ascend on the continuance thereof continued to do the like so at the ceasing probably enough might it cease also as this Proposition assures us it really did LXI The abatement and decrease of the Waters of the Deluge was first by a Wind which dried up some And secondly by their descent through those Fissures Chaps and Breaches at which part of them had before ascended into the Bowels of the Earth which received the rest To which latter also the Wind by hurrying the Waters up and down and so promoting their lighting into the before-mention'd Fissures was very much subservient LXI In order to the giving a satisfactory account of this Proposition and of the draining the Waters of the Deluge off the Surface of the Earth which to some has seem'd almost as difficult to solve as their first Introduction It must first be granted that the Air could receive and sustain but very inconsiderable quantities in comparison of the intire Mass which lay upon the Earth yet some it might and would naturally do which accordingly both the Wind here mentioned and the Sun also took away and turn'd into Vapour immediately after the ceasing of the latter Rains But as to all the rest there is no imaginable place for their Reception or whither their natural Gravity oblig'd them to retreat to excepting the Bowels of the Earth which must therefore be distinctly consider'd in this place Now we may remember from what has been formerly said that the quantity of Solids or earthy Parts in the upper Orbs primary Formation was very much greater than that of Fluids or watery Parts and consequently that the inward Regions of the Earth being generally dry and porous were capable of receiving mighty quantities of Waters without any swelling without any alteration of the external Figure or visible Bulk And indeed if we allow as we ought any considerable Crassitude to this upper Orb its interior Regions might easily contain a much greater quantity of Waters than what was upon the Earth at the Deluge especially when so great a part of them was before there and would only fill up their old places again So that all the difficulty is now reduc'd to this By what Pipes Canals or Passages these Waters could be convey'd into the Bowels of the Earth Which in truth can admit of no dispute nothing sure being to be conceiv'd more natural Inlets to these Waters than those very perpendicular Fissures which were the Outlets to so great a part of them before As soon therefore as the Waters ceas'd to ascend upwards through those Breaches they must to be sure descend downward's by the same and this descent is more natural than the prior ascent could be esteem'd to be which was a force upon them compelling them against their Natures to arise upwards when this retreat into the same Interstices is no other than their own proper Gravity requir'd and inclin'd them to The case here is in part like that of a Sive first by force press'd down into a Vessel of Water till it were fill'd therewith and then suffer'd to emerge again where through the very same Holes at which the Waters ascended into they afterward descended out of the Sive again and retreated into their own Element as before All that in particular deserves here to be farther noted is the Interest of the Wind or of the Agitations of the Waters goings and returnings in the Hebrew Phrase made mention of in this Proposition And these Commotions are in truth very useful and very necessary assistants to the draining of the Waters from off the Earth For when the most part of the Fissures were in the Mountains 't would have been a difficult thing to clear the Vallies and lower Grounds had there been a perfect Calm and every Collection of Waters remain'd quietly in its own place But when the Waters were so violently agitated and hurried from one place to another they would thereby very frequently light into the Fissures and Breaches and so descend as well as the rest into the heart of the Earth very agreeable to the Assertion of this Proposition Corollary 1. Seeing the most of the Fissures were in the Mountains the decrease and going off of the Waters would be greatest at first while the generality of the Mountains were under water and less and gentler afterwards Coroll 2. Several low Countries now bordering on the Seas might for many Years after the Deluge be under Water which by the descent of more of the Waters into the Bowels of the Earth might become Dry-land afterward and by their smoothness and equability shew their once having lain under and been made so plain by the Waters Instances of which are now very observable in the World In particular those parts of Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire which border on the German Ocean appear very evidently to have originally been in the same case as any careful Observer will easily pronounce LXII The dry Land or habitable Part of the Globe is since the Deluge divided into two vast Continents almost opposite to one another and separated by a great Ocean interpos'd between them LXII The Figure in which the Comet left the Earth and which it would in some measure retain
to Which otherwise how to give any tolerable account of upon any solid Principles I confess I am and have always been wholly to seek LXVI The distance between the Continents measuring from the larger or Northern South-Eastward is greater than that the contrary way or South-Westward LXVI Seeing the Motion of the Comet about its nearest Position was much more considerable than the Diurnal one of the Earth and seeing withal the greater and higher protuberance would arrive at a sufficient force to burst its incumbent Orb or Continent somewhat sooner than the lesser and lower it will follow that the Point b would not be just opposite to the Point a but nearer the place q in the Figure By which means the distance from q by c to a would be greater than from the same q by d to a or from the Center of the greater Continent to that of the lesser South-eastward than South-westward Exactly as this Proposition requires LXVII Neither of the Continents is terminated by a round or even circular Circumference but mighty Creeks Bays and Seas running into them and as mighty Peninsula's Promontories and Rocks jetting out from them render the whole very unequal and irregular LXVII If the Surface of the Earth before the Deluge had been even and smooth without Mountains and Valleys and their Consequents Seas and Dry Land the passing by of the Comet must indeed as before have certainly caus'd a distinction of the two Continents and must have interpos'd an Ocean between them but then these two circumstances would have obtain'd also first that all the Waters of the intire Globe would have left the Continents and solely compos'd an Ocean and secondly That the Termination or Boundaries of the Ocean and the Continents would have been circular round and even on every side But since the Surface of the Earth was uneven irregular and distinguish'd every where into Mountains Plains and Valleys into Seas and Dry Land the present Terraqueous Globe with those inequalities of the Termination of each Continent mention'd in this Proposition is a most easie and natural nay plainly necessary result of this great Mutation at the Deluge Coroll 1. Hence 't is farther evident that the Surface of the Antediluvian Earth was not plain and even but had those distinctions of Mountains and Valleys Seas and Dry Land which from other Arguments has been before establish'd Coroll 2. Hence therefore it appears what should have been before observ'd that all the Earth might be Planted and Peopled before the Deluge tho' Navigation were then either not at all or not considerably known There being no Ocean or separate Continents and scarce any such thing as an Island or Country but what with ease might be gone to by Land LXVIII The depth of that Ocean which separates these two Continents is usually greatest farthest from and least nearest to either of the same Continents there being a gradual descent from the Continents to the middle of the Ocean which is the deepest of all LXVIII The reason of this gradual declivity towards the middle of the Ocean is very plain from the Figure hereto belonging For since the Earth's Surface became in some degree an Oval or oblong Sphaeroid 't is necessary that there should be as far as the other irregularities of the Globe would permit a descent from the ends of the longer Axis b and a to those of the shorter c and d in their intire circumvolution which gives a most obvious account of the present Phaenomenon LXIX The greatest part of the Islands of the Globe are situate at small distances from the Edges of the great Continents very few appearing near the middle of the Main Ocean LXIX Since Islands are only such high Regions as would be extant above the Surface of the Waters tho' they cover'd the Neighbouring parts and since the Ocean as we have now shewn was deepest in the middle between the two Continents 't is plain that Caeteris paribus the higher Regions would more frequently be extant near the Continents than about the middle of the said Ocean as this Proposition asserts LXX The Ages of Men decreas'd about one half presently after the Deluge and in the succeeding eight hundred or nine hundred Years were gradually reduced to that standard at which they have stood ever since LXX The first part of this is already sufficiently accounted for in that Proposition where the causes of the change in the duration of Mens lives at the Flood were in general enquir'd into But the reasons of the gradual Decay in the succeeding Ages are here to be assign d. Now here 't is not impossible that the considerably long lives of the first Postdiluvian Patriarchs might in part depend on the vigorous Constitution of their Fathers not to be immediately impair'd to the utmost or destroy'd in their Posterity till by degrees and in length of time it was effected But besides 't is to be consider'd which I take to be the principal thing that seeing the corrupted Atmosphere with the pernicious Steams arising from the newly acquir'd Chaotick Crust or Sediment of the Waters and their unhappy Effects on the Fruits as well as living Creatures upon the Earth must be allow'd the occasion and cause of the shortning of Humane Life such Regions as were freest from or most elevated above the said Sediment or Chaotick Atmosphere must have chiefly continued as they were before and so the ancient Longevity would chiefly be preserv'd therein Which being suppos'd and what has been already advanc'd withal consider'd this Proposition will be easy plain and natural and a peculiar Attestation of the present Hypothesis For seeing Noah and the Ark were landed on Caucasus the most elevated Region of the Earth and freest from the Sediment of the Waters as well as the grossness of the Chaotick Atmosphere below that place would scarce differ for a good while from the Antediluvian State of things and the lives of Animals would retain very near their ancient Duration which accordingly we find was really done Noah survived the Deluge no less than 350 Years and compleated 950 in the whole somewhat beyond the moderate proportion of the Antediluvians themselves as the Table will easily shew But then by reason both of the descent of his Posterity into the Plains and lower Grounds and principally by the gradual subsidence of those Regions themselves into the gross Atmosphere below they became gradually liable to those Diseases and that shortness of Life which we before shew'd to have been the sad Effects thereof and to which all Mankind has since been subject Corollary 1. Mankind increased vastly more soon after the Deluge than in these latter Ages of the World For whereas a Country is 280 Years now in doubling its Inhabitants had the same rate held ever since the Deluge Mankind at this day would not have reach'd the number of two hundred thousand Souls which yet is esteem'd to be between three and four hundred Millions or near two
compos'd in great part of the Earthy Corpuscles or Masses of a Chaos as well as the Primitive Earth was at the Mosaick Creation The very same reasons assignable for the coalescence and consolidation of the former are equally to be suppos'd in the present case and render it equally reasonable with the other And if the Dense Fluid or any parts or steams from that were instrumental to the Original Union of parts at the Primary Formation of the Earth 't is probable there was no want of it at the Deluge The Atmosphere of the Comet and the Fountains of the Deep being both capable of supplying sufficient quantities among the larger plenty of their Watery and Earthy Masses as is plain from what has been already said Neither in case some of it were acquir'd by the means aforemention'd is it to be expected that we ought to see it still on the Face of the Earth as we do the Ocean For seeing this Dense Fluid is much heavier than Water or Earth it would be at the very bottom of all and so either be inclosed in the Pores and Caverns at the bottom of the Sediment or transform'd into a different Body by its composition with the Earthy parts it was enclos'd withal and did consolidate LXXVIII These Strata of Stone of Chalk of Cole of Earth or whatever matter they consisted of lying thus each upon other appear now as if they had at first been parallel continued and not interrupted But as if after some time they had been dislocated and broken on all sides of the Globe had been elevated in some and depress'd in other places from whence the Fissures and Breaches the Caverns and Grotto's with many other irregularities within and upon our present Earth seem to be deriv'd LXXVIII When the Sediment setled down gradually upon the Surface of the Ancient Earth it would compose Strata or Layers as even continued and parallel as one could desire and as the said Surface did permit And had the said Surface been fix'd and unalterable this evenness and parallellism this uniformity and continuity of the Strata would have remain'd unalterable also to this day But since as we have formerly shewn the intire Orb of Earth was at the beginning of the Deluge crack'd chap'd and broken and for many years afterwards would by degrees settle and compose it self towards its former figure and rotundity again tho' the Series and Connexion of the Strata might before they were consolidated be as regular as you can imagine yet when the Basis or Foundation on which they rested and the Surface on which they were spread fail'd by degrees in several places and proportions by the rising of some Columns upwards and the setling of others downwards this Upper Orb or Crust where the Strata were not become intirely Solid like Stone and Marble must follow in great part the fate of the other and be dislocated elevated or depress'd in correspondence to that whereon it rested And have thereby a Set of Chaps and Fissures directly over-against those which were before in the Ancient Earth But as for such places where the new Strata were become Stony or Solid and incapable of a compliance with the under Earth by the settling downward or elevation of its immediate Basis the Primitive Earth those Caverns and Grotto's those Caves and Hollows which appear within the Earth or its Mountains would naturally arise while the Solid Strata like Beams or Arches sustain'd the impending Columns notwithstanding the sinking and failure of their immediate Foundations by which Causes the Surface and Upper Regions of the Earth would become very uneven and full of small irregularities such as the present Phaenomenon assures us of Corollary 1. Hence we see a plain Reason why Mountainous and Stony Countries are only or principally Hollow and Cavernous Some lesser Mountains being perhaps occasion'd by the subsidence of the neighbouring Columns and the Caverns they enclose thereby produc'd and the Solidity of the Strata being the proper Cause of such Caverns in other Cases Of which the softer more loose and pliable Earth was accordingly incapable Corollary 2. Tho' the Ancient Earth were setled and become uneven in the same degree and in the same places as the present is and that before the consolidation of the new Sediment yet the Series of the several Strata one under another on each side of any Fissure would in some measure correspond to one another as if the consimilar Strata had once been united and had afterwards been broken and sunk down unequally as is manifest from the consimilar situation and subsidence of the consimular Corpuscles whereby the like order and crassitude of each Stratum might be still preserv'd tho' not so exactly as if the sustaining Surface had been even and smooth when the Sediment compos'd those Strata and the Fissures had afterward been made through both Orbs at once and caus'd such inequality Coroll 3. Hence would arise mighty and numerous Receptacles of Water within the Earth especially in the Mountainous parts thereof For usually where a solid Stratum sustain'd the Earth above while the parts beneath sunk lower and thereby produc'd a Cavern the Waters would ouze and flow into it from all quarters and cause a conflux or inclosed Sea of Waters in the Bowels of the Earth Which Cavities might sometimes communicate with one another or with the Ocean and sometimes contain Restagnant Waters without any outlet All which are very agreeable to the present Phaenomena of the Earth Coroll 4. Hence appears the Reason of the raging of Earthquakes in Mountainous Countreys and of the bursting forth and continuation of Volcano's there For these Caverns which we have observ'd the Mountainous Countreys to be mainly liable to are fit to receive and contain together Nitrous and Explosive Sulphureous and Inflammable steams in great quantities and withal to admit the Air to fan and assist that Explosion or Inflammation which seems to be the occasion of those dreadful Phaenomena in our present Earth Coroll 5. If therefore there be no other Caverns than these accounted for just now and taking date from the Deluge 't is very probable there were few or no Volcano's or Earthquakes so much depending on them before the Flood Coroll 6. In case what has been or might farther be said be not found sufficient to account for some observations made concerning the inward parts of our Earth but Dr. Woodward's Hypothesis of the Disruption of the before united Strata by a general Earthquake or the explosive force of the Steams of Heat ascending from the Central parts be found necessary such a supposition will by no means disagree with the present Theory For when the Subterraneous ascending Steams were every way stop'd and their ordinary course from the Central to the Superficiary Parts obstructed by the new Sediment or Crust growing fast and setled and in some places Stony and Impenetrable they would be every where preternaturally assembled especially in the cracks breaches and fissures of
probable also which is I think abundantly sufficient to clear this Matter LXXXIX Since the Deluge there neither has been nor will be any great and general Changes in the State of the World till the time when a Period is to be put to the present Course of Nature LXXXIX Seeing we know no other Natural Causes that can produce any great and general Changes in our Sublunary World but such Bodies as can approach to the Earth or in other Words but Comets and seeing withal the next Approach of the Comet will in probability bring the present State of things to a Conclusion and Burn the World of which presently 'T is evident the Earth is secure enough all the intermediate space And as hitherto we accordingly find it has been so we need not fear but it will be preserv'd till the foremention'd Conflagration CHAP. V. Phaenomena relating to the General Conflagration with Conjectures pertaining to the same and to the succeeding Period till the Consummation of all things XC AS the World once perish'd by Water so it must by Fire at the Conclusion of its present State XC As we have given an Account of the Universal Deluge from the Approach of a Comet in its descent towards the Sun so will it not be difficult to account for the General Conflagration from the like Approach of a Comet in its ascent from the Sun For 't is evident from what has been already explain'd that in case a Comet pass'd behind the Earth tho' it were in its Descent yet if it came near enough and were it self big enough it wou'd so much retard the Earth's annual Motion and oblige it to revolve in an Ellipsis so near to the Sun in its Perihelion that the Sun it self wou'd scorch and burn dissolve and destroy it in the most prodigious degree and this Combustion being renew'd every Revolution wou'd render the Earth a perfect Chaos again and change it from a Planet to a Comet for ever after 'T is evident this is a sufficient cause of a general Conflagration with a Witness and such an one as wou'd intirely ruine the Make of the present and the possibility of a future World On which last account if we allow the following Phaenomena we must not introduce this at this Period however but see whether a Conflagration of a less destructive and more refining Nature be not to be expected and may not be accounted for And here let it be observ'd that the Central Heat of it self seems sufficient to burn up and dissolve the upper Earth as those who with Dr. Woodward know the Power and Vehemence of the same now and its astonishing Force and terrible Effects in Earthquakes Eruptions of Volcano's and other Phaenomena of present Nature ought to allow if these two things were by any means remov'd I mean the Waters of the Seas and Ocean and the Coldness of the Air For 't is the vast quantity of Waters of the Earth and the Coldness of the middle Region of the Air every where and of the whole Air in the Frigid Zones returning the Vapours cold down again which were sent up into 'em never so hot which seems still to prevent the effects of the Subterraneous Heat and to hinder the Conflagration of the Earth If therefore the passing by of a Comet be capable of emptying the Seas and Ocean and of rendring the Air and its contiguous upper Surface of the Earth extreamly hot and inflam'd no more I suppose will be necessary to a general Conflagration Or if any more Assistance be afforded by the Presence of the Comet it will be ex abundanti and only contribute still the more certainly and the more suddenly to kindle such a fatal Fire and so dreadful a Combustion Now that both those requisite conditions for a general Conflagration wou'd be the consequents of this Passage of the ascending Comet is plain and evident For 1. on the Approach of the Comet a vast Tide wou'd arise in the great Abyss and by the new more considerable and more violent Elevations thereof into the Protuberances and the Sphaeroid Surface of the whole the old Fissures and Breaches wou'd be open'd again and not a few new ones generated not only as at the Deluge in the Mountainous or more loose Columns extant above the Surface of the Waters of the Globe but in all Parts and under the Seas and Ocean as well as in other places which Fissures must immediately swallow up the main Mass or Bulk of the Waters upon the Face of the Ground and send 'em to their Fellow-Waters in the Bowels of the Earth which was the first and principal step towards a general Conflagration And then 2. the Vapours acquir'd from the Comet 's Atmosphere which at the Deluge were by reason of their long absence from the Sun in the remote Regions beyond Saturn pretty cool at this time must be suppos'd by reason of their so late and near approach to the Sun about the Perihelion exceeding hot and burning and that to so extraordinary a degree that nothing but the Idea of the Mouth of a Volcano just belching out immense quantities of liquid and burning Streams or Torrents of fiery Matter can in any measure be suitable to the Violence thereof Imagine therefore the Earth to pass through the very middle of this Atmosphere for 7000 or 8000 Miles together and to bear off with it a Cylindrical Column thereof whose Basis were somewhat larger than a great Circle on the Earth and whose Altitude were the Number of Miles just now mention'd and then tell me whether the Air and its adjoining uppermost Region of the Earth will not be sufficiently hot and scorching which was the other Step to the general Conflagration Besides all which what quantities of this fiery Exhalation or Torrent of melted liquid Matter wou'd run down the Fissures into the Bowels of the Earth and by joining with the central hot Steams already there invigorate them and accelerate the direful Inflammation and what piercing and scorching fiery Corpuscles the central Body it self during its vicinity wou'd also send out and what an additional Power wou'd thereby be afforded the prevailing Heat I need not say Upon the whole I may appeal to the Reader if the concurrence of all these external Causes to say nothing here of any internal Dispositions in the Earth it self thereto do not appear abundantly sufficient within a little time to set the World on Fire and bring on that terrible Conflagration which both Sacred and Profane Testimonies conspire to forewarn us of and so whether the Theory of Comets does not afford us almost as commensurate and compleat an Account of the last burning as it already has done of the ancient drowning of the Earth XCI The same Causes which will set the World on Fire will also cause great and dreadful Tides in the Seas and Ocean with no less Agitations Concussions and Earthquakes in the Air and Earth XCI Seeing the Eruption of the central
Heat the cause 't is probable of all our Earthquakes the presence of a Comet the cause once already of the most prodigious Tides that ever were and the enflam'd Chaos or scorch'd Atmosphere of the Comet a smaller part of which occasion'd all our Tempests our Meteors our Thunder and Lightning ever since the Deluge will all concur at once and with joint Forces conspire together nothing in the World can be suppos'd more terrible nor more exactly correspondent to the Phaenomenon before us XCII The Atmosphere of the Earth before the Conflagration begin will be oppress'd with Meteors Exhalations and Steams and these in so dreadful a manner in such prodigious quantities and with such wild confus'd Motions and Agitations that the Sun and Moon will have the most frightful and hideous Countenances and their ancient Splendor will be intirely obscur'd The Stars will seem to fall from Heaven and all manner of horrid Representations will terrifie the Inhabitants of the Earth XCII Those who consider how a Comet 's Atmosphere appears to us after its Perihelion and what large quantities of its newly scorch'd Masses our Air must be clog'd and burthen'd withal will expect no other effects than those here mention'd and will easily believe that all such horrible Appearances wou'd ensue and that in the most amazing Degree and extravagant Instances possible The Theorist's Representation of this Matter will be generally speaking but a fair and just Idea thereof XCIII The Deluge and Conflagration are referr'd by ancient Tradition to great Conjunctions of the Heavenly Bodies as both depending on and happening at the same XCIII In our Accounts of the Deluge and Conflagration there is a notable conjunction of the Heavenly Bodies indeed not such an Imaginary one as the Astrologers so ridiculously make a stir about the bare Position of two or more of the Celestial Bodies in or near the same streight Line from the Eye of the Spectator while they are at the most remote Distances from one another which is a poor jejune thing indeed But a real one with a Witness when three of the Heavenly Bodies the Earth the Moon and the Comet not only are in an Astrological Heliocentrick Conjunction or only seem to an Eye in the Sun to be conjoyn'd together but are really so near as to have the mightyest effects and Influences on one another possible which we have sufficiently shewn in the present Theory and which does peculiarly correspond to the Phenomenon before us Corollary 'T is not improbable but the ancient Tradition that the Deluge and Conflagration some way depended on certain remarkable Conjunctions of the Heavenly Bodies mis-understood and afterward precariously and widely mis-apply'd might give occasion and rise to Astrology or that mighty quoil and pother so many in all Ages have made about the Conjunctions Oppositions and Aspects of the Heavenly Bodies and the Judiciary Fredictions therefrom which even the Improvements of solid Philosophy in our Age have not been able yet to banish wholly from among us the occasion whereof is otherwise exceeding dark and unaccountable XCIV The space between the Deluge and the Conflagration or between the ancient State of the Earth and its Purgation by Fire Renovation and Restitution again is from ancient Tradition defin'd and terminated by a certain great and remarkable Year or Annual Revolution of some of the Heavenly Bodies and is in probability what the Ancients so often referr'd to pretended particularly to determine and stil'd the Great or Platonick Year XCIV If we allow as we ought that in all probability the same Comet that brought on the Deluge will bring on the Conflagration and that the same Comet has not return'd nor is to return till the Conflagration this matter is easie and the correspondence accurate and remarkable For this single Revolution is truly an Annual one and as proper a Year with regard to the Comet as that of our Earth is with respect to us and so may most fitly and naturally suit the Great or Platonick Year taken notice of in the Proposition before us XCV This general Conflagration is not to extend to the intire Dissolution or Destruction of the Earth but only to the Alteration Melioration and peculiar Disposition thereof into a new State proper to receive those Saints and Martyrs for its Inhabitants who are at the first Resurrection to enter and to live and reign a thousand Years upon it till the second Resurrection the general Judgment and the final Consummation of all things XCV Seeing the Abyss consists of a dense and compact Fluid not capable of any Rarefaction or Dissolution by the most violent Heat imaginable 't is evident that the causes here assign'd can only extend to the upper Orb or habitable Earth without any farther Progress So that the effect of this Conflagration will be the reduction of this upper Earth and its Atmosphere into a confus'd mixt and Chaotick State much such an one as was before observ'd to have preceded the Original Formation of it So that as the Heat decreases 't is but reasonable to expect a kind of Reiteration of the Mosaick six Days Creation or a Renovation of the Primitive State of the Earth to the Description of which therefore I must refer the Reader XCVI The State of Nature during this Millennium will be very different from that at present and more agreeable to the Antediluvian Primitive and Paradisiacal ones XCVI This is apparent from the conclusion of the former Solution XCVII The Earth in the Millennium will be without a Sea or any large Receptacle fill'd with mighty Collections and Quantities of Water XCVII The Primitive Seas depended on two things the former the concurrence of the Central and Solar Heat for an intire half Year together in the Elevation of sufficient quantities of Vapours The latter the Earth's considerable solidity attain'd before the descent of the same Vapours which were to compose the Seas of which we are speaking So that if either of these be wanting in this reiterated Formation of the Earth t is evident the Effect must fail and the Globe be no longer a Terraqueous one after the Conflagration Now the next Proposition but one asserting the probability of the intire absence of the Sun must infer an equal probability of the entire Absence of Seas also according as this Proposition asserts XCVIII The Earth in the Millennium will have no Succession of Light and Darkness Day and Night but a perpetual Day XCVIII In case the Earth's Diurnal Rotation upon which these Vicissitudes depend was retarded so as to be only exactly equal and commensurate to its Annual Motion as the case in the Moon 's Diurnal and Menstrual Revolutions is at present as we have before observ'd the Earth wou'd constantly expose the same Hemisphere to the Sun as the Moon does now to the Earth and all succession of Day and Night for ever cease the one half of the Globe enjoying a perpetual Day while the other
was involv'd in Darkness or excluded all advantages from him and thereby enduring a continual Night so far as natural Causes are here to be consider'd And that this Retardation of the Earth's Diurnal Rotation even without a recurring to the miraculous Power of its first Author is accountable from that passing by of a Comet which we assign for the occasision of the Conflagration is very easie and obvious For in case its Ascent and Passage by be on the East side or before the Earth and in case it approach so near as to rub against it 't is evident such an Impulse is contrary to the course of the Diurnal Rotation and is therefore capable the Proportions of every thing being adjusted by-Divine Providence of putting such a stop to the same as is necessary to the present Phaenomenon and so may put a Period to that constant Succession of Light and Darkness Day and Night which has obtain'd ever since the Fall of Man and withal distinguish the Surface of the Earth into two quite different and contrary Hemispheres near the Vertex of one of which the Sun it self and near that of the other its opposite Point in the Heavens will be always situate Corollary Seeing such a rub of the Comet wou'd affect the Annual Motion of the Earth as well as the Diurnal 't is possible it might retard the former as well as the latter and reduce the Elliptical Course and Orbit of the Earth to its ancient Circular one again XCIX The State of the Millennium will not stand in need of and so probably will be without the Light and Presence of the Sun and Moon XCIX Seeing the Earth wou'd be on the foregoing Supposition distinguish'd into two quite different Hemispheres the one of which wou'd be wholly destitute of the Light and presence of the Sun and as far as appears by St. John supply'd by a Supernatural Light fixt and permanent above its Horizon 't is clear that the first Branch of this Proposition is accountable thereby as far as this Physical Theory is concern'd therein And as to the Moon seeing 't was only a signal and peculiar Providence that caus'd her equal acceleration and consequent accompanying the Earth at the former passing by of the Comet and that no such Providence is again to be expected 't is evident that that Rub or Stoppage of the Earth's Annual Motion which retards the same and does not retard the Moon 's also will separate these Planets and procure their Orbits Courses and Periods to be quite different from one another's ever after according to the greatest rigour of the present Proposition C. At the Conclusion of the Millennium the Final Judgment and the Consummation of all things the Earth will desert its present Seat and Station in the World and be no longer found among the Planetary Chorus C. If any Comet instead of passing by or gently rubbing the Earth hit directly against it in its Course either towards or from the Sun it must desert its ancient Station and move in a quite different Elliptick Orbit and so of a Planet become again a Comet for the future Ages of the World COROLLARIES FROM THE WHOLE I. SEing the new and solid Improvements of Philosophy do all along give so rational Accounts of those Ancient Theorems which have been propagated down from the eldest Ages without being then either understood or intelligible to their Propagators 't is reasonable to trust and rely on such Ancient Traditions not only Sacred but prophane also in these or any other paralled Cases they being in all probability the most valuable Remains and most venerable Truths which the primitive Parents of the World deliver'd down to their Posterity in succeeding Generations II. Seeing most of these Ancient Theorems are very much beyond the distinct Knowledge of those who deliver them contrary to the common Opinion of Mankind judging usually by sensible Appearances and in themselves considering the low State of Natural Knowledge at the same times were highly improbable if not utterly incredible to inquisitive Minds and indeed several of them relating to the Chaos the Creation the primary Constitution and State of the World and the Deluge it self impossible to be discover'd without Supernatural Revelation and yet seeing after all they do now appear as agreeable to Reason and the most solid Mechanical Philosophy as any new Discoveries built on the exactest Observations of present Nature whatsoever 'T is apparent that these Ancient Accounts especially those contain'd in the Holy Scriptures were not originally deriv'd from the Natural Skill and Observation of the first Authors or any other meerly Humane Means but from the immediate and Supernatural Revelation of God Almighty who was therefore much more conversant with Mankind in the first than he has been in these last Ages of the World as the Old Testament-History assures us III. The Measure of our present Knowledge ought not to be esteem'd the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Test of Truth or to be oppos'd to the Accounts receiv'd from Profane Antiquity much less to the inspir'd Writings For notwithstanding that several Particulars relating to the Eldest Condition of the World and its great Catastrophe's examin'd and compar'd with so much Philosophy as was till lately known were plainly unaccountable and naturally speaking impossible yet we see now Nature is more fully more certainly and more substantially understood that the same things approve themselves to be plain easie and rational IV. 'T is therefore Folly in the highest degree to reject the Truth or Divine Authority of the Holy Scriptures because we cannot give our Minds particular Satisfaction as to the manner nay or even possibility of some things therein asserted Since we have seen so many of those things which seem'd the most incredible in the whole Bible and gave the greatest Scruple and Scandal to Philosophick Minds so fully and particularly attested and next to demonstrated from certain Principles of Astronomy and Natural Knowledge 't is but reasonable to expect in due time a like Solution of the other Difficulties 'T is but just sure to depend upon the Veracity of those Holy Writers in other Assertions whose Fidelity is so intirely establish'd in these hitherto equally unaccountable ones V. The Obvious Plain or Literal Sense of the Sacred Scriptures ought not without great Reason to be eluded or laid aside Several of those very Places which seem'd very much to require the same hitherto appearing now to the minutest Circumstances true and rational according to the strictest and most Literal Interpretations of them VI. We may be under an Obligation to believe such things on the Authority of the Holy Scriptures as are properly Mysteries that is though not really Contradictory yet plainly Unaccountable to our present degree of Knowledge and Reason Thus the Sacred Histories of the Original Constitution and great Catastrophe's of the World have been in the past Ages the Objects of the Faith of Jews and Christians though the Divine Providence