Radical moisture and heat at the Deluge that it should decay so fast afterwards and last so long before There is a certain temper no doubt of the juices and humours of the Body which is more fit than any other to conserve the parts from driness and decay but the cause of that driness and decay or other inhability in the solid parts whence is that if not from external Nature 'T is thither we must come at length in our search of the reasons of the Natural decay of our Bodies we follow the fate and Laws of that and I think by those Causes and in that order that we have already describ'd and explain'd To conclude this Discourse we may collect from it what judgment is to be made of those Projectors of Immortality or undertakers to make Men live to the Age of Methusalah if they will use their methods and medicines There is but one method for this To put the Sun into his old course or the Earth into its first posture there is no other secret to prolong life Our Bodies will sympathize with the general course of Nature nothing can guard us from it no Elixir no Specifick no Philosopher's-stone But there are Enthusiasts in Philosophy as well as in Religion Men that go by no principles but their own conceit and fancy and by a Light within which shines very uncertainly and for the most part leads them out of the way of truth And so much for this disquisition concerning the Causes of Longaevity or of the long and short periods of Life in the different periods of the World That the Age of the Ante-diluvian Patriarchs is to be computed by Solar or common Years not by Lunar or Months Having made this discourse of the unequal periods of life only in reference to the Ante diluvians and their fam'd Longaevity lest we should seem to have proceeded upon an ill-grounded and mistaken supposition we are bound to take notice of and confute That Opinion which makes the Years of the Ante-diluvian Patriarchs to have been Lunar not Solar and so would bear us in hand that they liv'd only so many Months as Scripture saith they liv'd Years Seeing there is nothing could drive Men to this bold interpretation but the incredibility of the thing as they fansied They having no Notions or Hypothesis whereby it could appear intelligible or possible to them and seeing we have taken away that stumbling-stone and shew'd it not only possible but necessary according to the constitution of that World that the periods of Life should be far longer than in this by removing the ground or occasion of their misinterpretation we hope we have undeceiv'd them and let them see that there is no need of that subterfuge either to prevent an incongruity or save the credit of the Sacred Historian But as this opinion is inconsistent with Nature truly understood so is it also with common History for besides what I have already mention'd in the first Chapter of this Book Iosephus tells us that the Historians of all Nations both Greeks and Barbarians give the same account of the first Inhabitants of the Earth Manetho who writ the story of the Aegyptians Berosus who writ the Chaldaean History and those Authors that have given us an account of the Phoenician Antiquities besides Molus and Hestiaeus and Hieronymus the Aegyptian and amongst the Greeks Hesiodus Hecateus Hellanicus Acusilaus Ephorus and Nicolaus We have the Suffrages of all these and their common consent that in the first Ages of the World Men liv'd a thousand Years Now we cannot well suppose that all these Historians meant Lunar Years or that they all conspir'd together to make and propagate a Fable Lastly as Nature and Profane History do disown and confute this opinion so much more doth Sacred History not indeed in profess'd terms for Moses doth not say that he useth Solar Years but by several marks and observations or collateral Arguments it may be clearly collected that he doth not use Lunar As first because He distinguisheth Months and Years in the History of the Deluge and of the life of Noah for Gen. 7. 11. he saith in the six hundredth year of Noah's life in the second month c. It cannot be imagin'd that in the same verse and sentence these two terms of Year and Month should be so confounded as to signifie the same thing and therefore Noah's Years were not the same with Months nor consequently those of the other Patriarchs for we have no reason to make any difference Besides what ground was there or how was it proper or pertinent to reckon as Moses does there first second third Month as so many going to a Year if every one of them was a Year And seeing the Deluge begun in the six hundredth year of Noah's life and in the second Month and ended in the six hundredth and first Year Chap. 8. 13. the first or second Month all that was betwixt these two terms or all the duration of the Deluge made but one year in Noah's life or it may be not so much and we know Moses reckons a great many Months in the duration of the Deluge so as this is a demonstration that Noah's years are not to be understood of Lunar And to imagine that his Years are to be understood one way and those of his fellow-Patriarchs another would be an inaccountable fiction This Argument therefore extends to all the Ante-diluvians And Noah's life will take in the Post-diluvians too for you see part of it runs amongst them and ties together the two Worlds so that if we exclude Lunar years from his life we exclude them from all those of his Fathers and those of his Children Secondly If Lunar years were understood in the Ages of the Ante-diluvian Patriarchs the interval betwixt the Creation and the Deluge would be too short and in many respects incongruous There would be but 1656 months from the beginning of the World to the Flood which converted into common years make but 127 years and five months for that interval This perverts all Chronology and besides makes the number of people so small and inconsiderable at the time of the Deluge that destroying of the World then was not so much as destroying of a Country Town would be now For from one couple you cannot well imagine there could arise above five hundred persons in so short a time but if there was a thousaâ—d 't is not so many as we have sometimes in a good Country Village And were the Flood-gates of Heaven open'd and the great Abyss broken up to destroy such an handful of people and the Waters rais'd fifteen Cubits above the highest Mountains throughout the face of the Earth to drown a Parish or two is not this more incredible than our Age of the Patriarchs Besides This short interval doth not leave room for Ten Generations which we find from Adam to the Flood nor allows the Patriarchs age enough at the time when they are said
some other Country of Asia the Earth being now as it was then This offends as much in the defect as the other in the excess For it is not any single Region of the Earth that can be Paradisiacal unless all Nature conspire and a certain Order of things proper and peculiar for that state Nor is it of less importance to find out this peculiar Order of things than to find out the particular seat of Paradise but rather pre-requisite to it We will endeavour therefore to discover and determine both so far as a Theory can go beginning with that which is more general 'T is certain there were some qualities and conditions of Paradise that were not meerly Topical but common to all the rest of the Earth at that time and these we must consider in the first place examine what they were and upon what they depended History both Sacred and Profane must tell us what they were and our Theory must shew us upon what causes they depended I had once I confess propos'd to my self another method independent upon History or Effects I thought to have continued the description of the Primitive or Ante-diluvian Earth from the contemplation of its causes only and then left it to the judgment of others to determine whether that was not the Earth where the Golden Age was past and where Paradise stood For I had observ'd three conditions or characters of it which I thought were sufficient to answer all that we knew concerning that first state of things viz. The regularity of its surface The situation or posture of its Body to the Sun and the Figure of it From these three general causes I thought might be deducâ—d all the chief differences of that Earth from the present and particularly those that made it more capable of being Paradisiacal But upon second thoughts I judg'd it more useful and expedient to lay aside the Causes at present and begin with the Effects that we might have some sensible matter to work upon Bare Idea's of things are lookt upon as Romantick till Effects be propos'd whereof they are to give an account 'T is that makes us value the Causes when necessity puts us upon enquiry after them and the reasons of things are very acceptable when they ease the mind anxious and at a loss how to understand Nature without their help We will therefore without more ado premise those things that have been taken notice of as extraordinary and peculiar to the first Ages of the World and to Paradise and which neither do nor can obtain in the present Earth whereof the first is a perpetual Spring or Equinox The second the Long aevity of Animals and the third Their production out of the Earth and the great fertility of the soil in all other things These difficulties guard the way to Paradise like the flaming Sword and must be remov'd before we can enter these are general Preliminaries which we must explain before we proceed to enquire after the particular place of this Garden of Pleasure The Ancients have taken notice of all these in the first Ages of the World or in their Golden Age as they call it and I do not doubt but what they ascrib'd to the Golden Age was more remarkably true of Paradise yet was not so peculiar to it but that it did in a good measure extend to other parts of the Earth at that time And 't is manifest that their Golden Age was contemporary with our Paradise for they make it begin immediately after the production and inhabitation of the Earth which They as well as Moses raise from the Chaos and to degenerate by degrees till the Deluge when the World ended and begun again That this parallel may the better appear we may observe that as we say that the whole Earth was in some sence Paradisiacal in the first Ages of the World and that there was besides one Region or Portion of it that was peculiarly so and bore the denomination of Paradise So the Ancients besides their Golden Age which was common to all the Earth noted some parts of it that were more Golden if I may so say than the rest and which did more particularly answer to Paradise as their Elysian Fields Fortunate Islands Gardens of Hesperides Alcinous c. these had a double portion of pleasantness and besides the advantages which they had common with the rest of the Earth at that time had something proper and singular which gave them a distinct consideration and character from the rest Having made this observation let us proceed and see what Antiquity saith concerning that first and Paradisiacal state of things upon those three Heads forementioned First That there was a perpetual Spring and constant serenity of the Air This is often repeated by the Ancient Poets in their description of the Golden Age Non alios primâ crescentis origine mundi Illuxisse dies aliumve habuisse tenorem Crediderim Ver illud erat Ver magnus agebat Orbis hybernis parcebant flatibus Euri. Such days the new-born Earth enjoy'd of old And the calm Heavens in this same tenour rowl'd All the great World had then one constant Spring No cold East-winds such as our Winters bring For I interpret this in the same sence with Ovid's Verses of the Golden Age Ver erat Aeternum placidÃque tepentibus auris Mulcebant Zephyri natos sine semine flores The Spring was constant and soft Winds that blew Rais'd without Seed Flow'rs always sweet and new And then upon the expiration of the Golden Age He says Iupiter antiqui contraxit tempora Veris c. When Jove begun to reign he chang'd the Year And for one Spring four Seasons made appear The Ancients suppos'd that in the reign of Saturn who was an Ante-diluvian God as I may so call him Time flow'd with a more even motion and there was no diversity of Seasons in the Year but Iupiter they say first introduc'd that when he came to manage affairs This is exprest after their way who seldom give any severe and Philosophical accounts of the changes of Nature And as they suppos'd this perpetual Spring in the Golden Age so they did also in their particular Elysiums as I could shew largely from their Authors if it would not multiply Citations too much 'T is true their Elysiums respected the New Heavens and New Earth to come rather than the past but they are both fram'd upon the same model and have common properties The Christian Authors have no less celebrated the perpetual Spring and Serenity of the Heavens in Paradise such expressions or descriptions you will find in Iustin Martyr S. Basil Damascen Isidore Hispalensis and others insomuch that Bellarmine I remember reflecting upon those Characters of Paradise which many of the Fathers have given in these respects saith Such things could not be unless the Sun had then another course from what he hath now or which is more easie the Earth another situation
intelligent Being I say some measures be taken to determine the primary Motions upon which the rest depend and to put them in a way that leads to the formation of a World The mass must be divided into Regions and Centers fixt and Motions appropriated to them and it must be consider'd of what magnitude the first Bodies or the first divisions of Matter should be and how mov'd Besides there must be a determinate proportion and certain degree of motion imprest upon the Universal Matter to qualifie it for the production of a World if the dose was either too strong or too weak the work would miscarry and nothing but infinite Wisdom could see thorough the effects of every proportion or every new degree of Motion and discern which was best for the beginning progress and perfection of a World So you see the Author of Nature is no way excluded or made useless by the Laws of Motion nor if Matter was promiscuously mov'd would these be sufficient causes of themselves to produce a World or that regular diversity of Bodies that compose it But 't is hard to satisfie Men against their inclinations or their interest And as the regularity of the Universe was always a great stumbling-stone to the Epicuraeans so they have endeavour'd to make shifts of all sorts to give an account and answer to it without recourse to an Intelligent Principle and for their last refuge they say That Chance might bring that to pass which Nature and Necessity could not do The Atoms might hit upon a lucky sett of Motions which though it were casual and fortuitous might happily lead them to the forming of a World A lucky hit indeed for Chance to frame a World But this is a meer shuffle and collusion for if there was nothing in Nature but Matter there could be no such thing as Chance all would be pure Mechanical Necessity and so this answer though it seem very different is the same in effect with the former and Epicurus with his Atomists are oblig'd to give a just mechanical account how all the parts of Nature the most compound and elaborate parts not excepted rise from their Atoms by pure necessity There could be no accidental concourse or coalition of them every step every motion every composition was fatal and necessary and therefore 't is nonsence for an Epicuraean to talk of Chance as Chance is oppos'd to Necessity and if they oppose it to Counsel and Wisdom 't is little better than non-sence to say the World and all its furniture rise by Chance in that notion of it But it will deserve our patience a little to give a more full and distinct answer to this seeing it reacheth all their pleas and evasions at once What proof or demonstration of Wisdom and Counsel can be given or can be desir'd that is not found in some part of the World Animate or Inanimate We know but a little portion of the Universe a meer point in comparison and a broken point too and yet in this broken point or some small parcels of it there is more of Art Counsel and Wisdom shown than in all the works of Men taken together or than in all our Artificial World In the construction of the Body of an Animal there is more of thought and contrivance more of exquisite invention and fit disposition of parts than is in all the Temples Palaces Ships Theaters or any other pieces of Architecture the World ever yet see And not Architecture only but all other Mechanism whatsoever Engines Clock-work or any other is not comparable to the Body of a living Creature Seeing then we acknowledge these artificial works wheresoever we meet with them to be the effects of Wit Understanding and Reason is it not manifest partiality or stupidity rather to deny the Works of Nature which excel these in all degrees to proceed from an Intelligent Principle Let them take any piece of Humane Art or any Machine fram'd by the Wit of Man and compare it with the Body of an Animal either for diversity and multiplicity of Workmanship or curiosity in the minute parts or just connexion and dependance of one thing upon another or fit subserviency to the ends propos'd of life motion use and ornament to the Creature and if in all these respects they find it superiour to any work of Humane production as they certainly must do why should it be thought to proceed from inferiour and senceless Causes ought we not in this as well as in other things to proportion the Causes to the Effect and to speak truth and bring in an honest Verdict for Nature as well as Art In the composition of a perfect Animal there are four several frames or compages joyn'd together The Natural Vital Animal and Genital Let them examine any one of these apart and try if they can find any thing defective or superfluous or any way inept for matter or form Let them view the whole Compages of the Bones and especially the admirable construction texture and disposition of the Muscles which are joyn'd with them for moving the Body or its parts Let them take an account of the little Pipes and Conduits for the Juices and the Liquors of their form and distribution Or let them take any single Organ to examine as the Eye or the Ear the Hand or the Heart In each of these they may discover such arguments of Wisdom and of Art as will either convince them or confound them though still they must leave greater undiscover'd We know little the insensible form and contexture of the parts of the Body nor the just method of their Action We know not yet the manner order and causes of the Motion of the Heart which is the chief Spring of the whole Machine and with how little exactness do we understand the Brain and the parts belonging to it Why of that temper and of that form How Motions are propagated there and how conserv'd How they answer the several operations of the Mind Why such little discomposures of it disturb our Senses and upon what little differences in this the great differences of Wits and Genius's depend Yet seeing in all these Organs whose make and manner of action we cannot discover we see however by the Effects that they are truly fitted for those offices to which Nature hath design'd them we ought in reason to admire that Art which we cannot penetrate At least we cannot but judge it a thing absurd that what we have not wit enough to find out or comprehend we should not allow to be an argument of wit and understanding in the Author or Inventor of it This would be against all Logick common Sense and common Decorum Neither do I think it possible to the mind of Man while we attend to evidence to believe that these and such like works of Nature came by Chance as they call it or without Providence forecast and Wisdom either in the first Causes or in the proximate in the design
as having nothing Sacred in them more than other good Histories that is truth in matter of fact we cannot doubt but there have been Miracles in the World That Moses and the Prophets our Saviour and his Apostles wrought Miracles I can no more question than that Caesar and Alexander fought Battles and took Cities So also that there were true Prophecies and Inspirations we know from Scripture only consider'd as a true History But as for other supernatural effects that are not recorded there we have reason to examine them more strictly before we receive them at least as to particular instances for I am apt to think they are like Lotteries where there are ten or twenty Blanks for one Prize but yet if there were no Prizes at all the Lottery would not have credit to subsist and would be cry'd down as a perfect Cheat So if amongst those many stories of Prodigies Apparitions and Witchcrafts there were not some true the very fame and thought of them would die from amongst Men and the first broachers of them would be hooted at as Cheats As a false Religion that hath nothing true and solid mixt with it can scarce be fixt upon Mankind but where there is a mixture of true and false the strength of the one supports the weakness of the other As for Sorcery the instances and examples of it are undeniable not so much those few scatter'd instances that happen now and then amongst us but such as are more constant and in a manner National in some Countries and amongst barbarous people Besides the Oracles and the Magick that was so frequent amongst the Ancients show us that there have been always some Powers more than Humane tampering with the affairs of Mankind But this Topick from effects Extraordinary and Supernatural being in a great measure Historical and respecting evil Spirits as well as the Author of Nature is not so proper for this place There is a third Sett or Head of Arguments that to some tempers are more cogent and convictive than any of these namely Arguments abstract and Metaphysical And these do not only lead us to an Author of Nature in general but show us more of his properties and perfections represent him to us as a supream Deity infinitely perfect the fountain of all Being and the steddy Center of all things But reasons of this order being of a finer thred require more attention and some preparation of Mind to make us discern them well and be duly sensible of them When a Man hath withdrawn himself from the noise of this busie World lock'd up his Senses and his Passions and every thing that would unite him with it commanded a general silence in the Soul and suffers not a Thought to stir but what looks inwards Let him then reflect seriously and ask himself What am I and How came I into Being If I was Author and Original to my self surely I ought to feel that mighty Power and enjoy the pleasure of it but alas I am conscious of no such force or Vertue nor of any thing in my Nature that should give me necessary existence It hath no connexion with any part of me nor any faculty in me that I can discern And now that I do exist from what Causes soever Can I secure my self in Being now that I am in possession am I sure to keep it am I certain that three minutes hence I shall still exist I may or I may not for ought I see Either seems possible in it self and either is contingent as to me I find nothing in my Nature that can warrant my subsistence for one day for one hour for one moment longer I am nothing but Thoughts fleeting Thoughts that chase and extinguish one another and my Being for ought I know is successive and as dying as they are and renew'd to me every moment This I am sure of that so far as I know my self and am conscious what I am there is no principle of immutability or of necessary and indefectible existence in my Nature and therefore I ought in reason to believe that I stand or fall at the mercy of other Causes and not by my own will or my own sufficiency Besides I am very sensible and in this I cannot be mistaken that my Nature is in several respects weak and imperfect both as to Will and Understanding I Will many things in vain and without effect and I Wish often what I have no ability to execute or obtain And as to my Understanding how defective is it how little or nothing do I know in comparison of what I am ignorant of Almost all the Intellectual World is shut up to me and the far greatest part of the Corporeal And in those things that fall under my cognizance how often am I mistaken I am confin'd to a narrow sphere and yet within that sphere I often erre my conceptions of things are obscure and confus'd my reason short-sighted I am forc'd often to correct my self to acknowledge that I have judg'd false and consented to an errour In summ all my powers I find are limited and I can easily conceive the same kind of perfections in higher degrees than I possess them and consequently there are Beings or may be greater and more excellent than my self and more able to subsist by their own power Why should I not therefore believe that my Original is from those Beings rather than from my self For every Nature the more great and perfect it is the nearer it approacheth to necessity of existence and to a power of producing other things Yet the truth is it must be acknowledg'd that so long as the perfections of those other Beings are limited and finite though they be far superiour to us there is no necessity ariseth from their Nature that they should exist and the same Arguments that we have us'd against our selves they may in proportion use against themselves and therefore we must still advance higher to find a self originated Being whose existence must flâ—w immediately from his essence or have a necessary connextion with it And indeed all these different degrees of higher and higher perfections lead us directly to an highest or Supream degree which is infinite and unlimited Perfection As subordinate causes lead to the first so Natures more perfect one than another lead us to a Nature infinitely perfect which is the Fountain of them all Thither we must go if we will follow the course of Reason which cannot stop at one more than another till it arrive there And being arriv'd there at that Soveraign and Original Perfection it finds a firm and immoveable ground to stand upon the steddy Center of all Being wherein the Mind rests and is satisfied All the scruples or objections that we mov'd against our selves or other Creatures take no place here This Being is conscious of an All-sufficiency in it self and of immutability as to any thing else including in it all the causes of existence or to
speak more properly all necessity of existence Besides that we exist our selves notwithstanding the imperfection and insufficiency of our Nature is a just collateral proof of the existence of this Supream Being for such an effect as this cannot be without its Cause and it can have no other competent Cause but that we mention And as this Being is its own Origin so it must needs be capable of producing all Creatures for whatsoever is possible must be possible to it and that Creatures or finite Beings are possible we both see by experience and may also discern by Reason for those several degrees of perfection or limitations of it which we mention'd before are all consistent Notions and consequently make consistent Natures and such as may exist but contingently indeed and in dependance upon the first Cause Thus we are come at length to a fair resolution of that great Question Whence we are and how we continue in Being And this hath led us by an easie ascent to the Supreme Author of Nature and the â—irst Cause of all things and presents us also with such a Scheme and Draught of the Universe as is clear and rational every thing in its order and in its place according to the dignity of its Nature and the strength of its principles When the Mind hath rais'd it self into this view of a Being infinitely perfect 't is in a Region of Light hath a free prospect every way and sees all things from top to bottom as pervious and transparent Whereas without God and a First Cause there is nothing but darkness and confusion in the Mind and in Nature broken views of things short interrupted glimpses of Light nothing certain or demonstrative no Basis of Truth no extent of Thought no Science no Contemplation You will say it may be 'T is true something must be Eternal and of necessary existence but why may not Matter be this Eternal necessary Being Then our Souls and all other Intellectual things must be parts and parcels of Matter and what pretensions can Matter have to those properties and perfections that we find in our Souls how limited soever much less to necessary existence and those perfections that are the foundation of it What exists Eternally and from it self its existence must flow immediately from its essence as its cause reason or ground for as Existence hath always something antecedent to it in order of Nature so that which is antecedent to it must infer it by a necessary connexion and so may be call'd the cause ground or reason of it And nothing can be such a ground but what is a perfection nor every perfection neither it must be Sovereign and Infinite perfection for from what else can necessary existence flow or be inferr'd Besides if that Being was not infinitely perfect there might be another Being more powerful than it and consequently able to oppose and hinder its Existence and what may be hinder'd is contingent and arbitrary Now Matter is so far from being a Nature infinitely perfect that it hath no perfection at all but that of bare substance neither Life Sense Will or Understanding nor so much as Motion from it self as we have show'd before And therefore this brute inactive mass which is but as it were the Drudge of Nature can have no right or title to that Sovereign prerogative of Self existence We noted before as a thing agreed upon That something or other must needs be Eternal For if ever there was a time or state when there was no Being there never could be any Seeing Nothing could not produce Something Therefore 't is undeniably true on all hands That there was some Being from Eternity Now according to our understandings Truth is Eternal therefore say we some intellect or Intelligent Being So also the reasons of Goodness and Iustice appear to us Eternal and therefore some Good and Just Being is Eternal Thus much is plain that these perfections which bear the signatures of Eternity upon them are things that have no relation to Matter but relate immediately to an Intellectual Being therefore some such Being to whom they originally belong must be that Eternal Besides We cannot possibly but judge such a Being more perfect than Matter Now every Nature the more perfect it is the more remote it is from Nothing and the more remote it is from Nothing the more it approaches to necessity of existence and consequently to Eternal Existence Thus we have made a short Survey so far as the bounds of a Chapter would permit of those evidences and assurances which we have from abstract Reason and the External World that there is an Author of Nature and That a Being infinitely perfect which we call God We may add to these in the last place that universal consent of Mankind or natural instinct of Religion which we see more or less throughout all Nations Barbarous or Civil For though this Argument 't is true be more disputable than the rest yet having set down just grounds already from whence this Natural Judgment or perswasion might spring we have more reason to impute it to some of those and their insensible influence upon the Mind than to the artifices of Men or to make it a weakness prejudice or errour of our Nature That there is such a propension in Humane Nature seems to be very plain at least so far as to move us to implore and have recourse to invisible Powers in our extremities Prayer is natural in certain cases and we do at the meer motion of our natural Spirit and indeliberately invoke God and Heaven either in case of extreme danger to help and assist us or in case of injustice and oppression to relieve or avenge us or in case of false accusation to vindicate our innocency and generally in all cases desperate and remediless as to Humane Power we seem to appeal and address our selves to something higher And this we do by a sudden impulse of Nature without reflexion or deliberation Besides as witnesses of our Faith and Veracity we use to invoke the Gods or Superiour Powers by way of imprecation upon our selves if we be false and perjur'd and this hath been us'd in most Nations and Ages if not in all These things also argue that there is a Natural Conscience in Man and a distinction of moral Good and Evil and that we look upon those invisible Powers as the Guardians of Vertue and Honesty There are also few or no People upon the Earth but have something of External Religion true or false and either of them is an argument of this natural anticipation or that they have an opinion that there is something above them and above visible Nature though what that something was they seldom were able to make a good judgment But to pursue this Argument particularly would require an Historical deduction of Times and Places which is not suitable to our present design To conclude this Chapter and this Subject If we set Religion apart
remov'd at the Conflagration For we suppose the Earth will then return to its primitive situation which we have explain'd in the 2d Book of this Theory and will have the Sun always in its Aequator whereby the several Climates of the Earth will have a perpetual Equinox and those under the Poles a perpetual day And therefore all the excess of cold and all the consequences of it will soon be abated However the Earth will not be burnt in one day and those parts of the Earth being uninhabited there is no inconvenience that they should be more slowly consum'd than the rest This is a general answer to the difficulty propos'd about the possibility of the Conflagration and being general only the parts of it must be more fully explain'd and confirm'd in the sequel of this discourse We should now proceed directly to the causes of the Conflagration and show in what manner they do this great execution upon Nature But to be just and impartial in this enquiry we ought first to separate the spurious and pretended Causes from those that are real and genuine to make no false musters nor any show of being stronger than we are and if we can do our work with less force it will be more to our credit as a Victory is more honourable that is gain'd with fewer Men. There are two grand capital Causes which some Authors make use of as the chief Agents in this work the Sun and the Central Fire These two great Incendiaries they say will be let loose upon us at the Conflagration The one drawing nearer to the Earth and the other breaking out of its bowels into these upper regions These are potent Causes indeed more than enough to destroy this Earth if it was a thousand times bigger than it is But for that very reason I suspect they are not the true Causes for God and Nature do not use to employ unnecessary means to bring about their designs Disproportion and over-sufficiency is one sort of false measures and 't is a sign we do not thoroughly understand our work when we put more strength to it than the thing requires Men are forward to call in extraordinary powers to rid their hands of a troublesome argument and so make a short dispatch to save themselves the pains of further enquiries but such methods as they commonly have no proof so they give little satisfaction to an inquisitive mind This supposition of burning the Earth by the Sun drawing nearer and nearer to it seems to be made in imitation of the story of Phaeton who driving the Chariot of the Sun with an unsteddy hand came so near the Earth that he set it on fire But however we will not reject any pretensions without a fair trial Let us examine therefore what grounds they can have for either of these suppositions of the Approximation of the Sun to the Earth or the Eruption of the Central Fire As to the Sun I desire first to be satisfied in present matter of Fact whether by any instrument or observation it hath or can be discover'd that the Sun is nearer to the Earth now than he was in former ages or if by any reasoning or comparing calculations such a conclusion can be made If not this is but an imaginary cause and as easily deny'd as propos'd Astronomers do very little agree in their opinions about the distance of the Sun Ptolomy Albategnius Copernious Ticho Kepler and others more modern differ all in their calculations but not in such a manner or proportion as should make us believe that the Sun comes nearer to the Earth but rather goes further from it For the more modern of them make the distance greater than the more ancient do Kepler says the distance of the Sun from the Earth lies betwixt 700 and 2000 semidiameters of the Earth but Ricciolus makes it betwixt 700 and 7000. And Gottefrid Wendeline hath taken 14656. semidiameters for a middle proportion of the Sun's distance to which Kepler himself came very near in his later years So that you see how groundless our fears are from the approaches of an enemy that rather flies from us if he change posture at all And we have more reason to believe the report of the modern Astronomers than of the ancient in this matter both because the nature of the Heavens and of the celestial Bodies is now better known and also because they have found out better instruments and better methods to make their observations If the Sun and Earth were come nearer to one another either the circle of the Suns diurnal arch would be less and so the day shorter or the Orbit of the Earths annual course would be less and so the Year shorâ—er Neither of which we have any experience of And those that suppose us in the centre of the World need not be afraid till they see Mercury and Venus in a combustion for they lie betwixt us and danger and the Sun cannot come so readily at us with his fiery darts as at them who stand in his way Lastly this languishing death by the gradual approaches of the Sun and that irreparable ruine of the Earth which at last must follow from it do neither of them agree with that Idea of the Conflagration which the Scripture hath given us for it is to come suddenly and unexpectedly and take us off like a violent Feaver not as a lingring Consumption And the Earth is also so to be destroyed by Fire as not to take away all hopes of a Resurrection or Renovation For we are assur'd by Scripture that there will be new Heavens and a new Earth after these are burnt up But if the Sun should come so near us as to make the heavens pass away with a noise and melt the Elements with fervent heat and destroy the form and all the works of the Earth what hopes or possibility would there be of a Renovation while the Sun continued in this posture He would more and more consume and prey upon the Carcass of the Earth and convert it at length either into an heap of Ashes or a lump of vitrified metal So much for the Sun As to the Central Fire I am very well satisfied it is no imaginary thing All Antiquity hath preserv'd some sacred Monument of it The Vestal fire of the Romans which was so religiously attended The Prytoneia of the Greeks were to the same purpose and dedicated to Vesta and the Pyretheia of the Persians where fire was kept continually by the Magi. These all in my opinion had the same origine and the same signification And tho' I do not know any particular observation that does directly prove or demonstrate that there is such a mass of fire in the middle of the Earth yet the best accounts we have of the generation of a Planet do suppose it and 't is agreeable to the whole Oeconomy of Nature as a fire in the heart which gives life to her motions and productions But however the
immediate height of the Mountain So for instance the Mountains of the Moon in Africa whence the Nile flows and after a long course falls into the Mediterranean Sea by Egypt are so much higher than the surface of that Sea first as the Ascent of the Land is from the Sea to the foot of the Mountains and then as the height of the Mountains is from the bottom to the top For both these are to be computed when you measure the height of a Mountain or of a mountainous Land in respect of the Sea And the height of Mountains to the Sea being thus computed there would be need of six or eight Oceans to raise the Sea alone as high as the highest In-land Mountains And this is more than enough to compensate the less quantity of Water that would be requisite upon the Land Besides we must consider the Regions of the Air upwards to be more capacious than a Region of the same thickness in or near the Earth so as if an Ocean pour'd upon the surface of the dry Land supposing it were all smooth would rise to the height of half a quarter of a mile every where the like quantity of Water pour'd again at the height of the Mountains would not have altogether the same effect or would not there raise the mass half a quarter of a mile higher for the surfaces of a Globe the farther they are from their Center are the greater and so accordingly the Regions that belong to them And lastly we must consider that there are some Countries or Valleys very low and also many Caverns or Cavities within the Earth all which in this case were to be first fill'd with Water These things being compar'd and estimated we shall find that notwithstanding the room that Hills and Mountains take up on the dry Land there would be at least eight Oceans requir'd or a quantity of Water eight times as great as the Ocean to bring an Universal Deluge upon the Earth as that Deluge is ordinarily understood and explained The proportion of Water for the Deluge being thus stated the next thing to be done is to enquire where this Water is to be found if any part of the Sublunary World will afford us so much Eight Oceans floating in the Air make a great bulk of Water I do not know what possible Sources to draw it from There are the Clouds above and the Deeps below and in the bowels of the Earth and these are all the stores we have for Water and Moses directs us to no other for the Causes of the Deluge The Fountains he saith of the great Abysse were broken up or burst asunder and the Rain descended for forty days the Cataracts or Floodgates of Heaven being open'd And in these two no doubt are contain'd the causes of the great Deluge as according to Moses so also according to reason and necessity for our World affords no other treasures of Water Let us therefore consider how much this Rain of Forty Days might amount to and how much might flow out of the Abysse that so we may judge whether these two in conjunction would make up the Eight Oceans which we want As for the Rains they would not afford us one Ocean nor half an Ocean nor the tenth part of an Ocean if we may trust to the Observations made by others concerning the quantity of Water that falls in Rain Mersennus gives us this account of it It appears by our Observations that a Cubical Vessel of Brass whereof we made use is fill'd an inch and an half in half an hours time but because that sucks up noâ—hing of the moisture as the Earth doth let us take an inch for half an hours Rain whence it follows that in the space of 40 days and nights Rain the Waters in the Deluge would rise 160 feet if the Rains were constant and equal to ours and that it rain'd at once throughout the face of the whole Earth But the Rain of the Deluge saith he should have been 90 times greater than this to cover for instance the Mountains of Armenia or to reach 15 Cubits above them So that according to his computation the 40 days Rain would supply little more than the hundredth part of the Water requisite to make the Deluge 'T is true he makes the heighth of the Mountains higher than we do but however if you temper the Calculation on all sides as much as you please the water that came by this Rain would be a very inconsiderable part of what was necessary for a Deluge If it rain'd 40 days and 40 nights throughout the face of the whole Earth in the Northern and Southern Hemisphere all at once it might be sufficient to lay all the lower grounds under water but it would signifie very little as to the over-flowing of the Mountains Whence another Author upon the same occasion hath this passage If the Deluge had been made by Rains only there would not have needed 40 days but 40 years Rain to have brought it to pass And if we should suppose the whole middle Region condens'd into water it would not at all have been sufficient for this effect according to that proportion some make betwixt Air and Water for they say Air turn'd into Water takes up a hundred times less room than it did before The truth is we may reasonably suppose that all the vapours of the middle Region were turn'd into water in this 40 days and 40 nights Rain if we admit that this Rain was throughout the whole Earth at once in either Hemisphere in every Zone in every Climate in every Country in every Province in every Field and yet we see what a small proportion all this would amount to Having done then with these Superiour Regions we are next to examine the Inferiour and the treasures of water that may be had there Moses tells us that the Fountains of the great Abysse were broke open or clove asunder as the word there us'd doth imply and no doubt in this lay the great mystery of the Deluge as will appear when it comes to be rightly understood and explain'd but we are here to consider what is generally understood by the great Abysse in the common explication of the Deluge and 't is commonly interpreted either to be the Sea or Subterraneous waters hid in the bowels of the Earth These they say broke forth and rais'd the waters caus'd by the Rain to such an height that together they overflowed the highest Mountains But whether or how this could be deserves to be a little examin'd And in the first place the Sea is not higher than the Land as some have formerly imagin'd fansying the Sea stood as it were upon a heap higher than the shore and at the Deluge a relaxation being made it overflow'd the Land But this conceit is so gross and so much against reason and experience that none I think of late have ventur'd to make use of it And yet on the
the whole matter intelligible we will proceed no further till that be consider'd being very willing to examine whatsoever may be offer'd in that or any other way for resolving that great difficulty which we have propos'd concerning the quantity of water requisite for such a Deluge And to this they say in short that God Almighty created waters on purpose to make the Deluge and then annihilated them again when the Deluge was to cease And this in a few words is the whole account of the business This is to out the knot when we cannot loose it They shew us the naked arm of Omnipotency such Arguments as these come like lightning one doth not know what Armour to put on against them for they pierce the more the more they are resisted We will not therefore oppose any thing to them that is hard and stubborn but by a soft answer deaden their force by degrees And I desire to mind those persons in the first place of what S. Austin hath said upon a like occasion speaking concerning those that disprov'd the opinion of waters above the Heavens which we mention'd before by natural Reasons We are not saith he to refute those persons by saying that according to the Omnipotence of God to whom all things are possible we ought to believe there are waters there as heavy as we know and feel them here below for our business is now to enquire according to his Scripture how God hath constituted the Nature of things and not what he could do or work in these things by a miracle of Omnipotency I desire them to apply this to the present argument for the first answer Secondly let them consider that Moses hath assign'd causes of the Deluge Forty days Rain and the disruption of the Abysse and speaks nothing of a new creation of water upon that occasion Those were causes in Nature which Providence had then dispos'd for this extraordinary effect and those the Divine Historian refers us to and not to any productions out of nothing Besides Moses makes the Deluge increase by degrees with the Rain and accordingly makes it cease by degrees and that the waters going and returning as the waves and great commotions of the Sea use to do retir'd leisurely from the face of the Earth and settled at length in their Chanels Now this manner of the beginning or ceasing of the Deluge doth not at all agree with the instantaneous actions of Creation and Annihilation Thirdly let them consider that S. Peter hath also assign'd Causes of the Deluge namely the particular constitution of the Earth and Heavens before the Flood by reason whereof he saith the World that was then perisht in a Deluge of water And not by reason of a new creation of water His words are these The Heavens and the Earth were of old consisting of water and by water whereby or by reason whereof the World that then was being overflowed with water perished Fourthly they are to consider that as we are not rashly to have recourse to the Divine Omnipotence upon any account so especially not for new Creations and least of all for the creation of new matter The matter of the Universe was created many Ages before the Flood and the Universe being full if any more was created then there must be as much annihilated at the same time to make room for it for Bodies cannot penetrate one anothers dimensions nor be two or more within one and the same space Then on the other hand when the Deluge ceas'd and these waters were annihilated so much other matter must be created again to take up their places And methinks they make very bold with the Deity when they make him do and undo go forward and backwards by such countermarches and retractions as we do not willingly impute to the wisdom of God Almighty Lastly I shall not think my labour lost if it be but acknowledg'd that we have so far clear'd the way in this controversie as to have brought it to this issue That either there must be new waters created on purpose to make a Deluge or there could be no Deluge as 't is vulgarly explain'd there not being water sufficient in Nature to make a Deluge of that kind This I say is a great step and I think will satisfie all parties at least all that are considerable for those that have recourse to a New Creation of waters are of two sorts either such as do it out of laziness and ignorance or such as do it out of necessity seeing they cannot be had otherwise as for the first they are not to be valu'd or gratifi'd and as for the second I shall do a thing very acceptable to them if I free them and the argument from that necessity and show a way of making the Deluge fairly intelligible and accountable without the creation of new waters which is the design of this Treatise For we do not tye this knot with an Intention to puzzle and perplex the Argument finally with it but the harder it is ty'd we shall feel the pleasure more sensibly when come to loose it It may be when they are beaten from this new Creation of water they will say the Element of Air was chang'd into water and that was the great store-house for the Deluge Forty days Rain we allow as Moses does but if they suppose any other transelementation it neither agrees with Moses's Philosophy nor S. Peter's for then the opening of the Abysse was needless and the form and constitution of the Antediluvian Heavens and Earth which S. Peter refers the Deluge to bore no part in the work it might have been made in that way indifferently under any Heavens or Earth Besides they offend against S. Austin's rule in this method too for I look upon it as no less a miracle to turn Air into Water than to turn Water into Wine Air I say for Vapours indeed are but water made volatile but pure Air is a body of another Species and cannot by any compression or condensation so far as is yet known be chang'd into water And lastly if the whole Atmosphere was turn'd into water 't is very probable it would make no more than 34 foot or thereabouts for so much Air or Vapours as is of the same weight with any certain quantity of water 't is likely if it was chang'd into water would also be of the same bulk with it or not much more Now according to the doctrine of the Gravitation of the Atmosphere 't is found that 34 foot of water does counterbalance a proportionable Cylinder of Air reaching to the top of the Atmosphere and consequently if the whole Atmosphere was converted into water it would make no more than eleven or twelve yards water about the Earth which the cavities of the Earth would be able in a good measure to suck up at least this is very inconsiderable as to our eight Oceans And if you would change the higher Regions into water too
what must supply the place of that Air which you transform into water and bring down upon the Earth There would be little left but Fire and Aether betwixt us and the Moon and I am afraid it would endanger to suck down the Moon too after it In a word such an explication as this is both purely imaginary and also very operose and would affect a great part of the Universe and after all they would be as hard put to 't to get rid of this water when the Deluge was to cease as they were at first to procure it Having now examin'd and answered all the pleas from first to last for the vulgar Deluge or the old way of explaining it we should proceed immediately to propose another method and another ground for an universal Deluge were it not that an opinion hath been started by some of late that would in effect supplant both these methods old and new and take away in a great measure the subject of the question Some modern Authors observing what straits they have been put to in all Ages to find out water enough for Noah's Flood have ventur'd upon an expedient more brisk and bold than any of the Ancients durst venture upon They say Noah's Flood was not Universal but a National Inundation confin'd to Iudaea and those Countries thereabouts and consequently there would not be so much water necessary for the cause of it as we have prov'd to be necessary for an Universal Deluge of that kind Their inference is very true they have avoided that rock but they run upon another no less dangerous to avoid an objection from reason they deny matter of fact and such matter of fact as is well attested by History both Sacred and prophane I believe the Authors that set up this opinion were not themselves satisfied with it but seeing insuperable difficulties in the old way they are the more excusable in chusing as they thought of two evils the less But the choice methinks is as bad on this hand if all things be considered Moses represents the Flood of Noah as an overthrow and destruction of the whole Earth and who can imagine that in sixteen or seventeen hundred years time taking the lower Chronology that the Earth had then stood mankind should be propagated no further than Iudae or some neighbouring Countries thereabouts After the Floo when the World was renew'd again by eight persons they had made a far greater progress in Asia Europe and Africa within the same space of years and yet 't is likely they were more fruitful in the first Ages of the World than after the Flood and they liv'd six seven eight nine hundred years a piece getting Sons and Daughters Which longevity of the first Inhabitants of the Earth seems to have been providentially design'd for the quicker multiplication and propagation of mankind and mankind thereby would become so numerous within sixteen hundred years that there seems to me to be a greater difficulty from the multitude of the people that would be bâ—fore the Flood than from the want of people For if we aâ—low the first couple at the end of one hundred years or of the first Century to have left ten pair of Breeders which is no hard supposition there would arise from these in fifteen hundred years a greater number than the Earth was capable of allowing every pair to multiply in the same decuple proportion the first pair did But because this would rise far beyond the capacities of this Earth let us suppose them to increase in the following Centuries in a quintuple proportion only or if you will only in a quadruple and then the Table of the multiplication of mankind from the Creation to the Flood would stand thus Century 1 10 2 40 3 160 4 640 5 2560 6 10240 7 40960 8 163840 9 655360 10 2621440 11 10485760 12 41943040 13 167772160 14 671088640 15 2684354560 16 10737418240 This product is too excessive high if compar'd with the present number of men upon the face of the Earth which I think is commonly estimated to be betwixt three and four hundred millions and yet this proportion of their increase seems to be low enough if we take one proportion for all the Centuries for in reality the same measure cannot run equally through all the Ages but we have taken this as moderate and reasonable betwixt the highest and the lowest but if we had taken only a triple proportion it would have been sufficient all things consider'd for purpose There are several other ways of computing this number and some more particular and exact than this is but which way soever you try you shall find the product great enough for the extent of this Earth and if you follow the Septuagint Chronology it will still be far higher I have met with three or four different Calculations in several Authors of the number of mankind before the Hood and never met with any yet but what exceeded the number of the people that are at present upon the face of the Earth So as it seems to me a very groundless and forc'd conceit to imagine that Iudaea only and some parts about it in Asia were stor'd with people when the Deluge was brought upon the old World Besides if the Deluge was confin'd to those Countries I do not see but the Borderers might have escap'd shifting a little into the adjoyning places where the Deluge did not reach But especially what needed so much a-do to build an Ark to save Noah and his Family if he might have sav'd himself and them only by retiring into some neighbouring Countrey as Lot and his family sav'd themselves by withdrawing from Sodom when the City was to be destroyed Had not this been a far easier thing and more compendious than the great Preparations he made of a large Vessel with Rooms for the Reception and Accommodation of Beasts and Birds And now I mention Birds why could not they at least have flown into the next dry Country they might have pearch'd upon the Trees and the tops of the Mountains by the way to have rested themselves if they were weary for the Waters did not all of a sudden rise to the Mountains tops I cannot but look upon the Deluge as a much more considerable thing than these Authors would represent it and as a kind of dissolution of Nature Moses calls it a destroying of the Earth as well as of Mankind Gen. 6. 13. And the Bow was set in the Cloud to seal the Covenant that he would destroy the Earth no more Gen. 9. 11. or that there should be no more a Flood to destroy the Earth And 't is said verse 13. that the Covenant was made between God and the Earth or this frame of Nature that it should perish no more by Water And the Rain-bow which was a Token and pledge of this Covenant appears not only in Iudaea or some other Asiatick Provinces but to all the Regions of the Earth who had
World that this Abysse was open'd or that the frame of the Earth broke and fell down into the Great Abysse At this one stroke all Nature would be chang'd and this single action would have two great and visible Effects The one Transient and the other permanent First an universal Deluge would overflow all the parts and Regions of the broken Earth during the great commotion and agitation of the Abysse by the violent fall of the Earth into it This would be the first and unquestionable effect of this dissolution and all that World would be destroyed Then when the agitation of the Abysse was asswag'd and the Waters by degrees were retir'd into their Chanels and the dry land appear'd you would see the true image of the present Earth in the ruines of the first The surface of the Globe would be divided into Land and Sea the Land would consist of Plains and Valleys and Mountains according as the pieces of this ruine were plac'd and dispos'd Upon the banks of the Sea would stand the Rocks and near the shoar would be Islands or lesse fragments of Earth compass'd round by Water Then as to Subterraneous Waters and all Subterraneous Caverns and hollownesses upon this supposition those things could not be otherwise for the parts would fall hollow in many places in this as in all other ruines And seeing the Earth fell into this Abysse the Waters at a certain height would flow into all those hollow places and cavities and would also sink and insinuate into many parts of the solid Earth And though these Subterraneous Vaults or holes whether dry or full of Water would be more or less in all places where the parts fell hollow yet they would be found especially about the roots of the Mountains and the higher parts of the Earth for there the sides bearing up one against the other they could not lie so close at the bottoms but many vacuities would be intercepted Nor are there any other inequalities or irregularities observable in the present form of the Earth whether in the surface of it or interiour construction whereof this hypothesis doth not give a ready fair and intelligible account and doth at one view represent them all to us with their causes as in a glass And whether that Glass be true and the Image answer to the Original if you doubt of it we will hereafter examine them piece by piece But in the first place we must consider the General Deluge how easily and truly this supposition represents and explains it and answers all the properties and conditions of it I think it will be easily allow'd that such a dissolution of the Earth as we have propos'd and fall of it into the Abysse would certainly make an Universal Deluge and effectually destroy the old World which perish'd in it But we have not yet particularly prov'd this dissolution and in what manner the Deluge follow'd upon it And to assert things in gross never makes that firm impression upon our understandings and upon our belief as to see them deduc'd with their causes and circumstances And therefore we must endeavour to shew what preparations there were in Nature for this great dissolution and after what manner it came to pass and the Deluge in consequence of it We have noted before that Moses imputed the Deluge to the disruption of the Abyss and S. Peter to the particular constitution of that Earth which made it obnoxious to be absorpt in Water so that our explication so far is justifi'd But it was below the dignity of those Sacred Pen-men or the Spirit of God that directed them to shew us the causes of this disruption or of this absorption this is left to the enquiries of men For it was never the design of Providence to give such particular explications of Natural things as should make us idle or the use of Reason unnecessary but on the contrary by delivering great conclusions to us to excite our curiosity and inquisitiveness after the methods by which such things were brought to pass And it may be there is no greater trial or instance of Natural Wisdom than to find out the Chanel in which these great revolutions of Nature which we treat on flow and succeed one another Let us therefore resume that System of the Ante-diluvian Earth which we have deduc'd from the Chaos and which we find to answer S. Peter's description and Moses his account of the Deluge This Earth could not be obnoxious to a Deluge as the Apostle supposeth it to have been but by a dissolution for the Abysse was enclos'd within its bowels And Moses doth in effect tell us there was such a dissolution when he saith The fountains of the great Abysse were borken open For Fountains are broken open no otherwise than by breaking up the ground that covers them We must therefore here inquire in what order and from what causes the frame of this exteriour Earth was dissolv'd and then we shall soon see how upon that dissolution the Deluge immediately prevail'd and overflow'd all the parts of it I do not think it in the power of humane wit to determine how long this frame would stand how many Years or how many Ages but one would soon imagine that this kind of structure would not be perpetual nor last indeed many thousands of Years if one consider the effect that the heat of the Sun would have upon it and the Waters under it drying and parching the one and raresying the other into vapours For we must consider that the course of the Sun at that time or the posture of the Earth to the Sun was such that there was no diversity or alternation of seasons in the Year as there is now by reason of which alternation our Earth is kept in an equality of temper the contrary seasons balancing one another so as what moisture the heat of the Summer sucks out of the Earth 't is repaid in the Rains of the next Winter and what chaps were made in it are fill'd up again and the Earth reduc'd to its former constitution But if we should imagine a continual Summer the Earth would proceed in driness still more and more and the cracks would be wider and pierce deeper into the substance of it And such a continual Summer there was at least an equality of seasons in the Ante-diluvian Earth as shall be prov'd in the follwing Book concerning Paradise In the mean time this being suppos'd let us consider what effect it would have upon this Arch of the exteriour Earth and the Waters under it We cannot believe but that the heat of the Sun within the space of some hundreds of years would have reduc'd this Earth to a considerable degree of driness in certain parts and also have much raresi'd and exhal'd the Waters beneath it And considering the structure of that Globe the exteriour crust and the Waters lying round under it both expos'd to the Sun we may fitly compare it to an Aeolipile or
of things would arise and a new Deluge for that part of the Earth Such removes and interchanges I believe would often happen in the first Ages after the Flood as we see in all other ruines there happen lesser and secondary ruines after the first till the parts be so well pois'd and setled that without some violence they scarce change their posture any more But to return to our Earthquakes and to give an instance or two of their extent and violence Pliny mentions one in the Reign of Tiberius Caesar that struck down Twelve Cities of Asia in one night And Fournier gives us an account of one in Peru that reacht three hundred leagues along the Sea-shore and seventy leagues inland and level'd the Mountains all along as it went threw down the Cities turn'd the Rivers out of their Chanels and made an universal havock and confusion And all this he saith was done within the space of seven or eight minutes There must be dreadful Vaults and Mines under that Continent that gave passage to the Vapours and liberty to play for nine hundred miles in length and above two hundred in breadth Asia also hath been very subject to these desolations by Earthquakes and many parts in Europe as Greece Italy and others The truth is our Cities are built upon ruines and our Fields and Countries stand upon broken Arches and Vaults and so does the greatest part of the outward frame of the Earth and therefore it is no wonder if it be often shaken there being quantities of Exhalations within these Mines or Cavernous passages that are capable of rarefaction and inflammation and upon such occasions requiring more room they shake or break the ground that covers them And thus much concerning Earthquakes A second observation that argues the hollowness of the Earth is the communication of the Seas and Lakes under ground The Caspian and Mediterranean Seas and several Lakes receive into them great Rivers and yet have no visible out let These must have Subterraneous out-lets by which they empty themselves otherwise they would redound and overflow the brims of their Vessel The Mediterranean is most remarkable in this kind because 't is observ'd that at one end the great Ocean flows into it through the straits of Gibralter with a sensible current and towards the other end about Constantinople the Pontus flows down into it with a stream so strong that Vessels have much ado to stem it and yet it neither hath any visible evacuation or out-let nor over-flows its banks And besides that it is thus fed at either end it is sed by the navel too as I may so say it sucks in by their Chanels several Rivers into its belly whereof the Nile is one very great and considerable These things have made it a great Problem What becomes of the water of the Mediterranean Sea And for my part I think the solution is very easie namely that it is discharg'd by Subterraneous passages or convey'd by Chanels under the ground into the Ocean And this manner of discharge or conveyance is not peculiar to the Mediterranean but is common to it with the Caspian Sea and other Seas and Lakes that receive great Rivers into them and have no visible issue I know there have been propos'd several other ways to answer this difficulty concerning the eâ—flux or consumption of the waters of the Mediterranean some have suppos'd a double current in the strait of Gibralter one that carry'd the water in and another that brought it out like the Arteries and Veins in our Body the one exporting our bloud from the heart and the other re-importing it So they suppos'd one current upon the surface which carry'd the water into the Mediterranean and under it at a certain depth a counter-current which brought the water back into the Ocean But this hath neither proof nor foundation for unless it was included in pipes as our bloud is or consisted of liquors very different these cross currents would mingle and destroy one another Others are of opinion that all the water that flows into the Mediterranean or a quantity equal to it is consum'd in Exhalations every day This seems to be a bolder supposition than the other for if so much be consum'd in Vapours and Exhalations every day as flows into this Sea what if this Sea had an out-let and discharg'd by that every day as much as it receiv'd in a few days the Vapours would have consum'd all the rest and yet we see many Lakes that have as free an out-let as an in-let and are not consum'd or sensibly diminisht by the Vapours Besides This Reason is a Summer-reason and would pass very ill in Winter when the heat of the Sun is much less powerful At least there would be a very sensible difference betwixt the height of the waters in Summer and Winter if so much was consum'd every day as this Explication supposeth And the truth is this want of a visible out-let is not a property belonging only to the Mediterranean Sea as we noted before but is also in other Seas and great Lakes some lying in one Climate and some in another where there is no reason to suppose such excessive Exhalations and though 't is true some Rivers in Africk and in others parts of the Earth are thus exhal'd and dry'd up without ever flowing into the Sea as were all the Rivers in the first Earth yet this is where the sands and parch'd ground suck up a great part of them the heat of the Climate being excessively strong and the Chanel of the River growing shallower by degrees and it may be divided into lesser branches and rivulets which are causes that take no place here And therefore we must return to our first reason which is universal for all seasons of the Year and all Climates and seeing we are assur'd that there are Subterraneous Chanels and passages for Rivers often fall into the ground and sometimes rise again and sometimes never return why should we doubt to ascribe this effect to so obvious a cause Nay I believe the very Ocean doth evacuate it self by Subterraneous out-lets for considering what a prodigious mass of water falls into it every day from the wide mouths of all the Rivers of the Earth it must have out-lets proportionable and those Syrtes or great Whirlpools that are constant in certain parts or Sinus's of the Sea as upon the Coast of Norway and of Italy arise probably from Subterraneous out-lets in those places whereby the water sinks and turns and draws into it whatsoever comes within such a compass and if there was no issue at the bottom though it might by contrary currents turn things round within in its Sphere yet there is no reason from that why it should suck them down to the bottom Neither does it seem improbable that the currents of the Sea are from these in-draughts and that there is always a submarine in-let in some part of them to make a circulation of
our Earth sometimes partial and both of these may be under great variety In partial dissolutions the middle parts sometimes stand and the Polar are broke or the Polar stand and the middle are broke Or one Hemisphere or part of an Hemisphere may be sunk the rest standing There may be Causes and occasions for all these varieties and many more in diversifying the Phaenomena of an immense Universe But to return to Saturn That this present uncouth form of Saturn was not its Original form I am very well satisfied if that Planet rise from a Chaos as ours did And if this be an adventitious form I know no account can be given of it with more probability than by supposing it the effect of some fraction or disruption in the Polar parts Neither do I know any Phaenomenon hitherto observ'd concerning Saturn that does disprove this Hypothesis or conjecture As to Iupiter that Planet without doubt is also turned about its Axis otherwise how shou'd its four Moons be carried round him And this is also collected from the motion of that permanent Spot if it be found to be so that is upon its Body Which Spot I take to be either a Lake or a Chasm and Hiatus into the Abyss of the Planet That is part of the Abyss open or uncover'd like the Aperture we made in the Seventh Figure And this might either have been left so by Providence at first for some reasons and causes fitting that Earth or it may have fallen in afterwards as Plato's Atlantis or as Soâ—â—m and Gomorrha for some judgment upon part of that World To conclude Seeing all the Planets that are plac'd in this Heaven and are the foster-children of this Sun seem to have some affinity one with another and have much-what the same countenance and the same general Phaenomena It seems probable that they rise much-what the same way and after the like manner as our Earth each one from its respective Chaos And that they had the same Elementary Regions at first and an exteriour Orb â—orm'd over their Abyss And lastly That every one of them hath suffer'd or is to suffer its Deluge as our Earth hath done These I say are probable conjectures according to the Analogy of Reason and Nature so far as we can judge concerning things very remote and inaccessible And these things being thus and our Theory of the Deluge and the Dissolution which brought it having such a general agreement both with our Heavens and our Earth I think there is nothing but the uncouthness of the thing to some mens understandings the custom of thinking otherwise and the uneasiness of entring into a new set of thoughts that can be a bar or hindrance to its reception But it may be improv'd I doubt not in many respects and in some particularities rectified The first attempts in great Things are seldom or never perfect Such is the weakness of our Understandings and the want of a full Natural History And in assigning Causes of such great effects fair conjectures are to be allow'd till they be displac'd by others more evident and more certain Accordingly I readily submit to these terms and leave this and all other parts of the Theory to further examination and enquiries FINIS THE THEORY OF THE EARTH Containing an Account OF THE Original of the Earth AND OF ALL THE GENERAL CHANGES Which it hath already undergone OR IS TO UNDERGO Throughout the whole Course of its Duration THE SECOND BOOK Concerning the PRIMAEVAL EARTH AND Concerning PARADISE LONDON Printed by R. N. for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's-Head in S. Paul's Church-Yard 1697. THE THEORY OF THE EARTH BOOK II. Concerning the Primaeval Earth and concerning Paradise CHAP. I. The Introduction and Contents of the Second Book The general state of the Primaeval Earth and of Paradise WE have already seen a World begin and perish An Earth rais'd from the rudiments of a Chaos and dissolv'd and destroy'd in an Universal Deluge We have given also an imperfect description of that primaeval Earth so far as was necessary to shew the Causes and manner of its dissolution But we must not content our selves with this Seeing that Earth was the first Theater upon which Mortals appear'd and acted and continued so for above Sixteen Hundred Years and that with Scenes as both Reason and History tell us very extraordinary and very different from these of our present Earth 't is reasonable we should endeavour to make a more full discovery and description of it Especially seeing Paradise was there that seat of pleasure which our first Parents lost and which all their posterity have much ado to find again In the First Book we so far describ'd This New-found World as to shew it very different in form and fabrick from the present Earth there was no Sea there no Mountains nor Rocks nor broken Caves 't was all one continued and regular mass smooth simple and compleat as the first works of Nature use to be But to know thus much only doth rather excite our curiosity than satisfie it what were the other properties of this World how were the Heavens how the Elements what accommodation for humane life why was it more proper to be the seat of Paradise than the present Earth Unless we know these things you will say it will seem but an aëry Idea to us and 't is certain that the more properties and particularâ—ties that we know concerning any thing the more real it appears to be As it was our chief design therefore in the precedent Book to give an account of the Universal Deluge by way of a Theory so we propose to our selves chiefly in this Book from the same Theory to give an account of Paradise and in performing of this we shall be led into a more full examination and display of that first Earth and of its qualities And if we be so happy as by the conduct of the same principles and the same method to give as fair an account and as intelligible of the state of Paradise in that Original Earth as we have done of the Deluge by the dissolution of it and of the form of this Earth which succeeded one must be very morose or melancholy to imagine that the grounds we go upon all this while are wholly false or â—ictitious A foundation which will bear the weight of two Worlds without sinking must surely stand upon a firm Rock And I am apt to promise my self that this Theory of the Earth will find acceptance and credit more or less with all but those that think it a sufficient answer to all arguments to say it is a Novelty But to proceed in our disquisition concerning Paradise we may note in the first place two opinions to be avoided being both extreams one that placeth Paradise in the extra-mundane Regions or in the Air or in the Moon and the other that makes it so inconsiderable as to be confin'd to a little spot of ground in Mesopotamia or
Which conjecture will hereafter appear to have been well-grounded In the mean time let us see the Christian Poetry upon this subject as we have seen the Roman upon the other Alcimus Avitus hath thus describ'd Paradise in his Notes upon Genesis Non hîc alterni succedit temporis unquam Bruma nec aestivi redeunt post frigora Soles Hîc Ver assiduum Coeli clementia servat Turbidus Auster abest sempérque sub aere sudo Nubila diffugiunt jugi cessura sereno Nec poscit Natura loci quos non habet imbres Sed contenta suo dotantur germina rore Perpetuò viret omne solum terraeque benignae Blanda nitet facies Stant semper collibus herbae Arboribúsque comae c. No change of Seasons or excess was there No Winter chill'd nor Summer scorch'd the Air But with a constant Spring Nature was fresh and fair Rough Winds or Rains that Region never knew Water'd with Rivers and the morning Dew The Heav'ns still clear the Fields still green and gay No Clouds above nor on the Earth decay Trees kept their leaves and verdure all the Year And Fruits were never out of Season there And as the Christian Authors so likewise the Iewish have spoken of Paradise in the same manner they tell us also that the days there were always of the same length throughout the whole Year and that made them fancy Paradise to lie under the Aequinoctial as we shall see in its due place 'T is true we do not find these things mention'd expresly in the Sacred Writings but the Effects that flow'd from them are recorded there and we may reasonably suppose providence to have foreseen that when those Effects came to be scan'd and narrowly lookt into they would lead us to a diâ—covery of the Causes and particularly of this great and general Cause that perpetual Aequinox and unity of seasons in the Year till the Deluge The Longaevity of the Ante-diluvians cannot be explain'd upon any other supposition as we shall have occasion to show hereafter and that you know is recorded carefully in Scripture As also that there was no Rainbow before the Flood which goes upon the same ground that there was no variety of Seasons nor any Rain And this by many is thought to be understood by Moses his words Gen. 2. 5 6. which he speaks of the first and Paradisiacal Earth Lastly Seeing the Earth then brought forth the principles of life and all living Creatures Man excepted according to Moses Gen. 1. 24. we must suppose that the state of the Heavens was such as favour'd these Conceptions and Births which could not possibly be brought to perfection as the Seasons of the Year are at present The first time that we have mention made in Scripture of Summer and Winter and the differences of Seasons is at the ending of the Deluge Gen. 8. 22. Hence forward all the days of the Earth Seed-time and Harvest Heat and Cold Summer and Winter Day and Night shall not cease 'T is true these words are so lax that they may be understood either of a new course of Nature then instituted or of an old one restor'd but seeing it doth appear from other arguments and considerations that there was at that time a new course of Nature constituted it is more reasonable to interpret the words in that sence which as it is agreeable to truth according to Reason and Antiquity so it renders that remark of Moses of far greater importance if it be understood as an indication of a new order then setled in Nature which should continue thenceforwards so long as the Earth endur'd Nor do I at all wonder that such things should not be expresly and positively declar'd in Scripture for Natural Mysteries in the Holy Writings as well as Prophetical are many times on set purpose incompleatly deliver'd so as to awaken and excite our thoughts rather than fully resolve them This being often more suitable to the designs of Providence in the government of the World But thus much for this first common or general Character of the Golden Age and of Paradise a perpetual Serenity and perpetual Aequinox The second Character is the Longaevity of Men and as is probable of all other Animals in proportion This methinks is as strange and surprising as the other and I know no difference betwixt the Ante-diluvian World and the present so apt to affect us if we reflect upon it as this wonderful disproportion in the Ages of Men Our fore-fathers and their Posterity They liv'd seven eight nine hundred Years and upwards and 't is a wonder now if a Man live to one hundred Our Oakes do not last so long as their Bodies did Stone and Iron would scarce out-wear them And this property of the first Ages or their Inhabitants how strange soever is well attested and beyond all exception having the joynt consent of Sacred and Profane History The Scripture sets down the precise Age of a sâ—ries of Ante diluvian Patriarchs and by that measures the time from the beginning of the World to the Deluge so as all Sacred Chronology stand upon that bottom Yet I know some have thought this so improbable and incongruous a thing that to save the credit of Moses and the Sacred History they interpret these years of Lunar years or months and so the Ages of these Patriarchs are reduc'd to much what the same measure with the common life of man at this time It may be observ'd in this as in many other instances that for want of a Theory to make things credible and intelligibile men of wit and parts have often deprest the sence of Scripture and that not out of any ill will to Scripture or Religion but because they could not otherwise upon the stock of their notions give themselves a rational account of things recorded there But I hope when we come to explain the Causes of this Longaevity we shall shew that it is altogethâ—r us strange a thing that Men should have such short lives as they have now as that they had such long lives in the first Ages of the World In the mean time there are a great many collateral reasons to assure us that Lunar years cannot be here understood by Moses for all Antiquity gives the same account of those first Ages of the World and of the first Men that they were extremely long-liv'd We meet with it generally in the description of the Golden Age and not only so but in their Topical Paradises also they always suppos'd a great vivacity or longaevity in those that enjoy'd them And Iosephus speaking upon this subject saith the Authors of all the learned Nations Greeks or Barbarians bear witness to Moses's doctrine in this particular And in the Mosaical History it self there are several circumstances and marks that discover plainly that the years of the Patriarchs cannot be understood of Lunar years as we shall have occasion to show in another place We proceed in the mean time
that is now the same vicissitude of seasons and the same inequality of heat and cold I do not think it at all possible that they could be so form'd or being new-form'd preserv'd and nourish'd 'T is true some little Creatures that are of short dispatch in their formation and find nourishment enough wheresoever they are brâ—d might be produc'd and brought to perfection in this way notwithstanding any inequality of Seasons because they are made all at a heat as I may so say begun and ended within the compass of one Season But the great question is concerning the more perfect kinds of Animals that require a long stay in the womb to make them capable to sustain and nourish themselves when they first come into the World Such Animals being big and strong must have a pretty hardness in their bones and force and firmness in their Muscles and Joynts before they can bear their own weight and exercise the common motions of their body And accordingly we see Nature hath ordain'd for these a longer time of gestation that their limbs and members might have time to acquire strength and solidity Besides the young ones of these Animals have commonly the milk of the Dam to nourish them after they are brought forth which is a very proper nourishment and like to that which they had before in the womb and by this means their stomachs are prepar'd by degrees for courser food Whereas our Terrigenous Animals must have been wean'd as soon as they were born or as soon as they were separated from their Mother the Earth and therefore must be allow'd a longer time of continuing there These things being consider'd we cannot in reason but suppose that these Terrigenous Animals were as long or longer a perfecting than our Viviparous and were not separated from the body of the Earth for ten twelve eighteen or more months according as their Nature was and seeing in this space of time they must have sufferâ—d upon the common Hypothesis all vicissitudes and variety of seasons and great excesses of heat and cold which are things incompatible with the tender principles of life and the formation of living Creatures as we have shown before we may reasonably and safely conclude that Nature had not when the World began the same course she hath now or that the Earth was not then in its present posture and constitution Seeing I say these first spontaneous Births which both the Holy Writ Reason and Antiquity seem to allow could not be finish'd and brought to maturity nor afterwards preserv'd and nourisht upon any other supposition Longaeviâ—y is the last Character to be consider'd and as inconsistent with the present state of the Earth as any other There are many things in the story of the first Ages that seem strange but nothing so prodigy-like as the long lives of those Men that their houses of Clay should stand eight or nine hundred years and upwards and those we build of the hardest Stone or Marble will not now last so long This hath excited the curiosity of ingenious and learned men in all Ages to enquire after the possible Causes of that longaveity and if it had been always in conjunction with innocency of life and manners and expir'd when that expir'd we might have thought it some peculiar blessing or reward attending that but 't was common to good and bad and lasted till the Deluge whereas mankind was degenerate long before Amongst Natural Causes some have imputed it to the sobriety and simplicity of their diet and manner of living in those days that they eat no flesh and had not all those provocations to gluttony which Wit and Vice have since invented This might have some effect but not possibly to that degree and measure that we speak of There are many Monastical persons now that live abstemiously all their lives and yet they think an hundred years a very great age amongst them Others have imputed it to the excellency of their Fruits and some unknown vertue in their Herbs and Plants in those days But they may as well say nothing as say that which can neither be prov'd nor understood It could not be either the quantity or quality of their food that was the cause of their long lives for the Earth was said to be curst long before the Deluge and probably by that time was more barren and juiceless for the generality than ours is now yet we do not see that their longaevity decreast at all from the beginning of the World to the Flood Methusalah was Noah's Grandfather but one intire remove from the Deluge and he liv'd longer than any of his Fore-fathers That food that will nourish the parts and keep us in health is also capable to keep us in long life if there be no impediments otherwise for to continue health is to continue life as that fewel that is fit to raise and nourish a flame will preserve it as long as you please if you add fresh fewel and no external causes hinder Neither do we observe that in those parts of the present Earth where people live longer than in others that there is any thing extraordinary in their food but that the difference is chiefly from the Air and the temperateness of the Heavens And if the Ante-diluvians had not enjoy'd that advantage in a peculiar manner and differently from what any parts of the Earth do now they would never have seen seven eight or nine hundred years go over their heads though they had been nourish'd with Nectar and Ambrosia Others have thought that the long lives of those Men of the old World proceeded from the strength of their Stamina or first principles of their bodies which if they were now as strong in us they think we should still live as long as they did This could not be the sole and adaequate cause of their longaevity as will appear both from History and Reason Shem who was born before the Flood and had in his body all the vertue of the Ante-diluvian Stamina and constitution fell three hundred years short of the age of his fore-fathers because the greatest part of his life was past after the Flood That their Stamina were stronger than ours are I am very ready to believe and that their bodies were greater and any race of strong Men living long in health would have children of a proportionably strong constitution with themselves but then the question is How was this interrupted We that are their posterity why do not we inherit their long lives how was this constitution broken at the Deluge and how did the Stamina fail so fast when that came why was there so great a Crisis then and turn of life or why was that the period of their strength We see this longaevity sunk half in half immediately after the Flood and after that it sunk by gentler degrees but was still in motion and declension till it was â—ixt at length before David's time in that which hath
been the common standard of Man's Age ever since As when some excellent fruit is transplanted into a worse Climate and Soil it degenerates continually till it comes to such a degree of meanness as suits that Air and Soil and then it stands That the Age of Man did not fall all on a sudden from the Antediluvian measure to the present I impute it to the remaining Stamina of those first Ages and the strength of that pristine constitution which could not wear off but by degrees We see the Blacks do not quit their complexion immediately by removing into another Climate but their posterity changeth by little and little and after some generations they become altogether like the people of the Country where they are Thus by the change of Nature that happened at the Flood the unhappy influence of the Air and unequal Seasons weaken'd by degrees the innate strength of their bodies and the vigour of their parts which would have been capable to have lasted several more hundreds of years if the Heavens had continued their course as formerly or the Earth its position To conclude this particular If any think that the Ante-diluvian longaevity proceeded only from the Stamina or the meer strength of their bodies and would have been so under any constitution of the Heavens let them resolve themselves these Questions first Why these Stamina or this strength of constitution fail'd Secondly Why did it fail so much and so remarkably at the Deluge Thirdly Why in such proportions as it hath done since the Deluge And lastly Why it hath stood so long immovable and without any further diminution Within the compass of five hundred years they sunk from nine hundred to ninety and in the compass of more than three thousand years since they have not sunk ten years or scarce any thing at all Who considers the reasons of these things and the true resolution of these questions will be satisfi'd that to understand the causes of that longaevity something more must be consider'd than the make and strength of their bodies which though they had been made as strong as the Behemoth or Leviathan could not have lasted so many Ages if there had not been a particular concurrence of external causes such as the present state of Nature doth not admit of By this short review of the three general Characters of Paradise and the Golden Age we may conclude how little consistent they are with the present from and order of the Earth Who can pretend to assign any place or Region in this Terraqueous Globe Island or Continent that is capable of these conditions or that agrees either with the descriptions given by the ancient Heathens of their Paradise or by the Christian Fathers of Scripture Paradise But where then will you say must we look for it if not upon this Earth This puts us more into despair of finding it than ever 't is not above nor below in the Air or in the subterraneous Regions no doubtless 't was upon the surface of the Earth but of the Primitive Earth whose form and properties as they were different from this so they were such as made it capable of being truly Paradisiacal both according to the forementioned Characters and all other qualities and privileges reasonably ascrib'd to Paradise CHAP. III. The Original differences of the Primitive Earth from the present or Post-diluvian The three Characters of Paradise and the Golden Age found in the Primitive Earth A particular Explication of each Character WE have hitherto only perplext the Argument and our selves by showing how inexplicable the state of Paradise is according to the present order of things and the present condition of the Earth We must now therefore bring into view that Original and Ante-diluvian Earth where we pretend its seat was and show it capable of all those privileges which we have deny'd to the present in vertue of which privileges and of the order of Nature establisht there that primitive Earth might be truly Paradisiacal as in the Golden Age and some Region of it might be peculiarly so according to the receiv'd Idea of Paradise And this I think is all the knowledge and satisfaction that we can expect or that Providence hath allow'd us in this Argument The Primigenial Earth which in the first Book Chap. 5. we rais'd from a Chaos and set up in an habitable form we must now survey again with more care to observe its principal differences from the present Earth and what influence they will have upon the question in hand These differences as we have said before were chiefly three The form of it which was smooth even and regular The posture and situation of it to the Sun which was direct and not as it is at present inclin'd and oblique And the Figure of it which was more apparently and regularly Oval than it is now From these three differences flow'd a great many more inferiour and subordinate and which had a considerable influence upon the moral World at that time as well as the natural But we will only observe here their more immediate effects and that in reference to those general Characters or properties of the Golden Age and of Paradise which we have instanc'd in and whereof we are bound to give an account by our Hypothesis And in this respect the most fundamental of those three differences we mention'd was that of the right posture and situation of the Earth to the Sun for from this immediately follow'd a perpetual Aequinox all the Earth over or if you will a perpetual Spring and that was the great thing we found a wanting in the present Earth to make it Paradisiacal or capable of being so Wherefore this being now found and establisht in the Primitive Earth the other two properties of Longaevity and of Spontaneous and Vital fertility will be of more easie explication In the mean time let us view a little the reasons and causes of that regular situation in the first Earth The truth is one cannot so well require a reason of the regular situation the Earth had then for that was most simple and natural as of the irregular situation it hath now standing oblique and inclin'd to the Sun or the Ecliptick Whereby the course of the year is become unequal and we are cast into a great diversity of Seasons But however stating the first aright with its circumstances we shall have a better prospect upon the second and see from what causes and in what manner it came to pass Let us therefore suppose the Earth with the rest of its fellow Planets to be carried about the Sun in the Ecliptick by the motion of the liquid Heavens and being at that time perfectly uniform and regular having the same Center of its magnitude and gravity it would by the equality of its libration necessarily have its Axis parallel to the Axis of the same Ecliptick both its Poles being equally inclin'd to the Sun And this posture I call a right
interpreted is the same thing that we call the Position of the Heavens or the right situation of the Sun and the Earth from whence came a perpetual Aequinox And if we consider the present Earth I know no place where they live longer than in that little Island of the Bermudas where according to the proportion of time they hold out there after they are arriv'd from other parts one may reasonably suppose that the Natives would live two hundred Years And there 's nothing appears in that Island that should give long life above other places but the extraordinary steddiness of the Weather and of the temper of the Air throughout the whole Year so as there is scarce any considerable difference of Seasons But because it would take up too much time to show in this place the full and just reasons why and how these long periods of life depend upon the stability of the Heavens and how on the contrary from their inconstancy and mutability these periods are shorten'd as in the present order of Nature we will set apart the next Chapter to treat upon that subject yet by way of digression only so as those that have a mind may pass to the following where the thred of this discourse is continued In the mean time you see we have prepar'd an Earth for Paradise and given a fair and intelligible account of those three general Characters which according to the rules of method must be determin'd before any further progress can be made in this Argument For in the doctrine of Paradise there are two things to be consider'd the state of it and the place of it And as it is first in order of Nature so it is much more material to find out the state of it than the Region where it stood We need not follow the Windings of Rivers and the interpretation of hard names to discover this we take more faithful Guides The unanimous reports of Antiquity Sacred and Profane supported by a regular Theory Upon these grounds we go and have thus far proceeded on our way which we hope will grow more easie and pleasant the nearer we come to our journeys end CHAP. IV. A digression concerning the Natural Causes of Longaevity That the Machine of an Animal consists of Springs and which are the two principal The Age of the Ante-diluvians to be computed by Solar not Lunar Years TO confirm our opinion concerning the reasons of Longaevity in the first Inhabitants of the World it will not be amiss to deduce more at large the Natural Causes of long or short periods of life And when we speak of long or short periods of life we do not mean those little differences of ten twenty or forty Years which we see amongst Men now adays according as they are of stronger or weaker constitutions and govern themselves better or worse but those grand and famous differences of several hundreds of Years which we have examples of in the different Ages of the World and particularly in those that liv'd before and since the Flood Neither do we think it peculiar to this Earth to have such an inequality in the lives of Men but the other Planets if they be inhabited have the same property and the same difference in their different periods All Planets that are in their Ante-diluvian state and in their first and regular situation to the Sun have long-liv'd Inhabitants and those that are in an oblique situation have short-liv'd unless there be some counter-causes that hinder this general rule of Nature from taking place We are now so us'd to a short life and to drop away after threescore or fourscore years that when we compare our lives with those of the Ante-diluvians we think the wonder lies wholly on their side why they liv'd so long and so it doth popularly speaking but if we speak Philosophically the wonder lies rather on our side why we live so little or so short a time For seeing our Bodies are such Machines as have a faculty of nourishing themselves that is of repairing their lost or decay'd parts so long as they have good nourishment to make use of why should they not continue in good plight and always the same as a flame does so long as it is supplied with fewel And that we may the better see on whether side the wonder lies and from what causes it proceeds we will propose this Problem to be examin'd Why the frame or Machine of an humane Body or of another Animal having that construction of parts and those faculties which it hath lasts so short a time And though it fall into no disease nor have any unnatural accident within the space of eighty years more or less fatally and inevitably decays dies and perisheth That the state and difficulty of this question may the better appear let us consider a Man in the prime and vigour of his life at the age of twenty or twenty four years of an healthful constitution and all his Vitals sound let him be nourish'd with good food use due exercise and govern himself with moderation in all other things The Question is Why this Body should not continue in the same plight and in the same strength for some Ages or at least why it should decay so soon and so fast as we see it does We do not wonder at things that happen daily though the causes of them be never so hard to find out We contract a certain familâ—arity with common events and fancy we know as much of them as can be known though in reality we know nothing of them but matter of fact which the vulgar knows as well as the Wise or the Learned We see daily instances of the shortness of man's life how soon his race is run and we do not wonder at it because 't is common yet if we examine the composition of the Body it will be very hard to find any good reasons why the frame of it should decay so soon I know 't is easie to give general and superficial answers and accounts of these things but they are such as being strictly examin'd give no satisfaction to an inquisitive mind You would say it may be that the Interiour parts and Organs of the Body wear and decay by degrees so as not performing so well their several offices and functions for the digestion and distribution of the food and its juices all the other parts suffer by it and draws on insensibly a decay upon the whole frame of the Body This is all true but why and how comes this to pass from what causes where is the first failure and what are the consequences of it The inward parts do not destroy themselves and we suppose that there is no want of good food nor any disease and we take the Body in its full strength and vigour why doth it not continue thus as a Lamp does if you supply it with Oil The causes being the same why doth not the same effect still follow why
should not the flame of life as well as any other flame if you give it fewel continue in its force without languishing or decay You will say it may be The case is not the same in a simple Body such as a Lamp or a Fire and in an Organical Body which being variously compounded of multiplicity of parts and all those parts put in connexion and dependance one upon another if any one fail it will disorder the whole frame and therefore it must needs be more difficult for such a body to continue long in the same state than for a simple Body that hath no variety of parts or operations I acknowledge such a Body is much more subject to diseases and accidents than a more simple but barring all diseases and accidents as we do it might be of as long a duration as any other if it was suppli'd with nourishment adequately to all its parts As this Lamp we speak of if it consisted of twenty branches and each of these branches was to be fed with a different Oil and these Oils could be all mix'd together in some common Cistern whence they were to be distributed into the several branches either according to their different degrees of lightness one rising higher than another or according to the capacity and figure of the little pipes they were to pass thorough such a compounded Lamp made up of such artifices would indeed be more subject to accidents and to be out of order by the obstruction of some of the little pipes or some unfit qualities in the Oils but all these casualties and disorders excepted as they are in our case if it was suppli'd with convenient liquors it would burn as long as any other though more plain and simple To instance yet for more plainness in another sort of Machine supppose a Mill where the Water may represent the nourishment and humours in our Body and the frame of Wood and Stone the solid parts if we could suppose this Mill to have a power of nourishing it self by the Water it receiv'd and of repairing all the parts that were worn away whether of the Wood work or of the Stone feed it but with a constant stream and it would subsist and grind for ever And 't is the same thing for all other Artificial Machines of this nature if they had a faculty of nourishig themselves and repairing their parts And seeing those natural Machines we are speaking of the Body of Man and of other Animals have and enjoy this faculty why should they not be able to preserve themselves beyond that short period of time which is now the measure of their life Thus much we have said to shew the difficulty propos'd and inforce it We must now consider the true answer and resolution of it and to that purpose bring into view again those causes which we have assign'd both of the long periods of life before the Flood and of the short ones since That there was a perpetual Aequinox and stability of the Heavens before the Flood we have show'd both from History and Reason neither was there then any thing of Clouds Rains Winds Storms or unequal weather as will appear in the following Chapter And to this steddiness of Nature and universal calmness of the External World we have imputed those long periods of life which Men enjoy'd at that time As on the contrary when that great change and revolution happen'd to Nature at the Deluge and the Heavens and the Earth were cast in another mould then was brought in besides many other new Scenes that shortness and vanity in the life of Man and a general instability in all sublunary things but especially in the Animate World It is not necessary to show more than we have done already how that Primitive state of Nature contributed to long life neither is it requir'd that it should actively contribute but only be permissive and suffer our Bodies to act their parts for if they be not disturb'd nor any harm done them by External Nature they are built with art and strength enough to last many hundreds of years And as we observ'd before concerning the posture of the Earth that that which it had at first being simple and regular was not so much to be accounted for as its present posture which is irregular so likewise for the life of Man the difficulty is not why they liv'd so long in the old World that was their due and proper course but why our Bodies being made after the same manner should endure so short a time now This is it therefore which we must now make our business to give an account of namely how that vicissitude of Seasons inconstancy of the Air and unequal course of Nature which came in at the Deluge do shorten Life and indeed hasten the dissolution of all Bodies Animate or Inanimate In our Bodies we may consider three several qualities on dispositions and according to each whereof they suffer decay First Their continuity Secondly That disposition whereby the are capable of receiving nourishment which we may call Nutribility and Thirdly The Tone or Tonick disposition of the Organs whereby they perform their several functions In all these three respects they would decay in any state of Nature but far sooner and faster in the present state than in the Primaeval As for their Continuity we have noted before that all consistent Bodies must be less durable now than under that first order of the World because of the unequal and contrary motions of the Elements or of the Air and Aether that penetrato and pervade them and 't is part of that vanity which all things now are subject to to be more perishable than in their first Constitution If we should consider our Bodies only as breathing Statues consisting of those parts they do and of that tenderness the Air which we breath and wherewith we are continually incompast changing so often 'twixt moist and dry hot and cold a slew and eager motion these different actions and restless changes would sooner weaken and destroy the union of the parts than if they were always in a calm and quiet medium But it is not the gross and visible Continuity of the parts of our Body that frist dacays there are finer Textures that are spoil'd insensibly and draw on the decay of the rest such are those other two we mention'd That disposition and temper of the parts whereby they are fit to receive their full nourishment and especially that construction and texture of the Organs that are preparatory to this Nutrition The Nutribility of the Body depends upon a certain temperament in the parts soft and yielding which makes them open to the Blood and Juices in their Circulation and passage through them and mixing intimately and universally hold fast and retain many of their Particles as muddy Earth doth the parts of the Water that runs into it and mixeth with it And when these Nutritious Particles retain'd are more than the
designs of Providence and the general project and method propos'd in the government of the World And I make no question but the state both of the Old World and of that which is to come is exhibited to us in Scripture in such a measure and proportion as is fit for this fore-mentioned purpose not as the Articles of our Faith or the precepts of a good Life which he that runs may read but to the attentive and reflexive to those that are unprejudic'd and to those that are inquisitive and have their minds open and prepar'd for the discernment of mysteries of such a nature Thus much in answer to that general Objection which might be made against this Theory That it is not founded in Antiquity I do not doubt but there may be many particular Objections against Parts and Sections of it and the exposing it thus in our own Tongue may excite some or other it may be to make them but if any be so minded I desire if they be Scholars that it may rather be in Latin as being more proper for a subject of this nature and also that they would keep themselves close to the substance of the Theory and wound that as much as they can but to make excursions upon things accidental or collateral that do not destory the Hypothesis is but to trouble the World with impertinencies Now the substance of the Theory is this THAT there was a Primitive Earth of another form from the present and inhabited by Mankind till the Deluge That it had those properties and conditions that we have ascrib'd to it namely a perpetual Equinox or Spring by reason of its right situation to the Sun Was of an Oval Figure and the exteriour face of it smooth and uniform without Mountains or a Sea That in this Earth stood Paradise the doctrine whereof cannot be understood but upon supposition of this Primitive Earth and its properties Then that the disruption and fall of this Earth into the Abyss which lay under it was that which made the Universal Deluge and the destruction of the Old World And that neither Noah's Flood nor the present form of the Earth can be explain'd in any other method that is rational nor by any other Causes that are intelligible at least that have been hitherto propos'd to the World These are the Vitals of the Theory and the primary Assertions whereof I do freely profess my full belief and whosoever by solid reasons will show me in an Errour and undeceive me I shall be very much oblig'd to him There are other lesser Conclusions which flow from these and may be call'd Secondary as that the Longaevity of the Ante-diluvians depended upon their perpetual Equinox and the perpetual equality and serenity of the Air That the Torrid Zone in the Primitive Earth was uninhabitable And that all their Rivers flow'd from the extreme parts of the Earth towards the Equinoctial there being neither Rain nor Rainbow in the temperate and habitable Regions of it And lastly That the place of Paradise according to the opinion of Antiquity for I determine no place by the Theory was in the Southern Hemisphere These I think are all truly deduc'd and prov'd in their several ways though they be not such essential parts of the Theory as the former There are also besides many particular Explications that are to be consider'd with more liberty and latitude and may be perhaps upon better thoughts or better observations corrected without any prejudice to the General Theory Those places of Scripture which we have cited I think are all truly apply'd and I have not mention'd Moses's Câ—smopoeia because I thought it deliver'd by him as a Lawgiver not as a Philosopher which I intend to show at large in another Treatise not thinking that discussion proper for the Vulgar Tongue Upon the whole we are to remember that some allowances are to be made for every Hypothesis that is new propos'd and untry'd and that we ought not out of levity of wit or any private design discountenance free and fair Essays nor from any other motive but the only love and concern of Truth CHAP. X. Concerning the Author of Nature SEeing the Theory which we have propos'd in this Work is of that extent and comprehension that it begins with the first foundation of this World and is to reach to the last Period of it in one continued Series or chain of Nature It will not be improper before we conclude to make some reflections and remarks what Nature is and upon what superiour Causes she depends in all her Motions and Operations And this will lead us to the discovery of the Author of Nature and to the true Notion and state of Natural Providence which seems to have been hitherto very much neglected or little understood in the World And 't is the more reasonable and fitting that we should explain these Notions before we shut up this Treatise lest those Natural Explications which we have given of the Deluge and other things should be mistaken or misapply'd Seeing some are apt to run away with pieces of a Discourse which they think applicable to their purpose or which they can maliciously represent without attending to the scope or just limitations of what is spoken By Nature in general is understood All the Powers of Finite Beings with the Laws establisht for their action and conduct according to the ordinary course of things And this extends both to Intellectual Beings and Corporeal but seeing 't is only the Material World that hath been the subject of our Discourse Nature as to that may be defin'd the Powers of Matter with the Laws establisht for their action and conduct Seeing also Matter hath no action whether from it self or imprest upon it but Motion as to the Corporeal World Nature is no more than the powers and capacities of Matter with the Laws that govern the Motions of it And this definition is so plain and easie that I believe all parties will agree in it There will also be no great controversie what these Laws are As that one part of Matter cannot penetrate another nor be in several places at once That the greater Body overcomes the less and the swifter the flower That all motion is in a right line till something obstruct it or divert it which are points little disputed as to the matter of fact but the points concerning which the controversie ariseth and which are to lead us to the Author of Nature are these Who or what is the Author of these Laws of this Motion and even of Matter it self and of all those modes and forms of it which we see in Nature The Question useth chiefly to be put concerning Motion how it came into the World what the first Source of it is or how Matter came at first to be mov'd For the simple notion of Matter not divided into parts nor diversified doth not imply Motion but Extension only 'T is true from Extension there necessarily
Oeconomy of it we have all the evidence and ground that can be in arguing from things visible to things invisible that there is an Author of Nature Superiour both to Humane Power and Humane Wisdom Before we proceed to give any further proofs or discoveries of the Author of Nature let us reflect a little upon those we have already insisted upon which have been taken wholly from the Material World and from the common course of Nature The very existence of Matter is a proof of a Deity for the Idea of it hath no connexion with existence as we shall show hereafter however we will take leave now to set it down with the rest in order as they follow one another 1. The existence of Matter 2. The Motion of Matter 3. The just quantity and degree of that Motion 4. The first form of the Universe upon Motion imprest both as to the Divisions of Matter and the Leading Motions 5. The Laws for communication and regulation of that Motion 6. The regular effects of it especially in the Animate World 7. The Oeconomy of Nature and fit Subordination of one part of the World to another The five first of these Heads are prerequisites and preparatives to the formation of a World and the two last are as the image and character of its Maker of his Power Goodness and Wisdom imprest upon it Every one of them might well deserve a Chapter to it self if the subject was to be treated on at large but this is only an occasional dissertation to state the Powers of Matter lest they should be thought boundless and the Author of Nature unnecessary as the Epicuraeans pretend but notwithstanding their vain confidence and credulity I defie them or any man else to make sence of the Material World without placing a God at the Center of it To these considerations taken wholly from the Corporeal World give me leave to add one of a mixt nature concerning the Union of our Soul and Body This strange effect if rightly understood doth as truly discover the Author of Nature as many Effects that are accounted more Supernatural The Incarnation as I may so say of a Spiritual Substance is to me a kind of standing miracle That there should be such an union and connexion reciprocally betwixt the motions of the Body and the actions and passions of the Soul betwixt a substance Intellectual and a parcel of organiz'd Matter can be no effect of either of those substances being wholly distinct in themselves and remote in their natures from one another For instance When my Finger is cut or when 't is burnt that my Soul thereupon should feel such a smart and violent pain is no consequence of Nature or does not follow from any connexion there is betwixt the Motion or Division of that piece of Matter I call my Finger and the passion of that Spirit I call my Soul for these are two distinct Essences and in themselves independent upon one another as much as the Sun and my Body are independent and there is no more reason in strict Nature or in the essential chain of Causes and Effects that my Soul should suffer or be affected with this Motion in the Finger than that the Sun should be affected with it nay there is less reason if less can be for the Sun being Corporeal as the finger is there is some remote possibility that there might be communication of Motion betwixt them but Motion cannot beget a thought or a passion by its own force Motion can beget nothing but Motion and if it should produce a thought the Effect would be more noble than the Cause Wherefore this Union is not by any necessity of Nature but only from a positive Institution or Decree establisht by the Author of Nature that there should be such a communication betwixt these two substances for a time viz. during the Vitality of the Body 'T is true indeed if Thought Apprehension and Reason was nothing but Corporeal Motion this Argument would be of no force but to suppose this is to admit an absurdity to cure a difficulty to make a Thought out of a local Motion is like making a God out of a Stock or a Stone for these two are as remote in their Nature and have as different Idea's in the Mind as any two disparate things we can propose or conceive Number and Colour a Triangle and Vertue Free-will and a Pyramid are not more unlike more distant or of more different forms than Thought and local Motion Motion is nothing but a Bodies changing its place and situation amongst other Bodies and what affinity or resemblance hath that to a Thought How is that like to Pain or to a doubt of the Mind to Hope or to Desire to the Idea of God to any act of the Will or Understanding as judging consenting reasoning remembring or any other These are things of several orders that have no similitude nor any mixture of one another And as this is the nature of Motion so on the other hand in a Thought there are two things Consciousness and a â—epresentation Consciousness is in all Thoughts indifferently whether distinct or confus'd for no Man thinks but he is conscious that he thinks nor perceives any thing but he is conscious that he perceives it there is also in a Thought especially if it be distinct a representation 't is the image of that we think upon and makes its Object present to the Mind Now what hath local Motion to do with either of these two Consciousness or Representativeness How doth it include either of them or hold them any way affixt to its Nature I think one may with as good sence and reason ask of what colour a Thought is green or scarlet as what sort of Motion it is for Motion of what sort soever can never be conscious not represent things as our Thoughts do I have noted thus much in general only to show the different nature of Motion and Cogitation that we may be the more sensible that they have no mutual connexion in us nor in any other Creature from their essence or essential properties but by a supervenient power from the Author of Nature who hath thus united the Soul and the Body in their operations We have hitherto only consider'd the ordinary course of Nature and what indications and proofs of its Author that affords us There is another remarkable Head of Arguments from effects extraordinary and supernatural such as Miracles Prophecies Inspirations Prodigies Apparitions Witchcraft Sorceries c. These at one step lead us to something above Nature and this is the shortest way and the most popular several Arguments are suited to several tempers and God hath not left himself without a proper witness to every temper that is not wilfully blind Of these witnesses we now speak of the most considerable are Miracles and the most considerable Records of them are the Books of Scripture which if we consider only as an History and
and consider the Deist and Atheist only as two Sects in Philosophy or their doctrine as two different Hypotheses propos'd for the explication of Nature and in competition with one another whether should give the more rational account of the Universe of its Origin and Phaenomena I say if we consider them only thus and make an impartial estimate whether System is more reasonable more clear and more satisfactory to me there seems to be no more comparison than betwixt light and darkness The Hypothesis of the Deist reacheth from top to bottom both thorough the Intellectual and Material World with a clear and distinct light every where is genuine comprehensive and satisfactory hath nothing forc'd nothing confus'd nothing precarious whereas the Hypothesis of the Atheist is strain'd and broken dark and uneasie to the Mind commonly precarious often incongruous and irrational and sometimes plainly ridiculous And this judgment I should make of them abstractly from the interest of Religion considering them only as matter of Reason and Philosophy And I dare affirm with assurance if the faculties of our Souls be true that no Man can have a System of Thoughts reaching thorough Nature coherent and consistent in every part without a Deity for the Basis of it CHAP. XI Concerning NATURAL PROVIDENCE Several incroachments upon Natural Providence or misrepresentations of it and false methods of Contemplation A true method propos'd and a true representation of the Vniverse The Mundane Idea and the Vniversal System of Providence Several subordinate Systems That of our Earth and Sublunary World The Course and Periods of it How much of this is already treated of and what remains The Conclusion WE have set bounds to Nature in the foregoing Chapter and plac'd her Author and Governour upon his Throne to give Laws to her Motions and to direct and limit her Power in such ways and methods as are most for his honour Let us now consider Nature under the conduct of Providence or consider Natural Providence and the extent of it And as we were cautious before not to give too much power or greatness to Nature consider'd apart from Providence so we must be careful now under this second consideration not to contract her bounds too much lest we should by too mean and narrow thoughts of the Creation Eclipse the glory of its Author whom we have so lately own'd as a Being infinitely perfect And to use no further Introduction In the first place we must not by any means admit or imagine that all Nature and this great Universe was made only for the sake of Man the meanest of all Intelligent Creatures that we know of Nor that this little Planet where we sojourn for a few days is the only habitable part of the Universe These are Thoughts so groundless and unreasonable in themselves and also so derogatory to the Infinite Power Wisdom and Goodness of the First Cause that as they are absurd in Reason so they deserve far better to be mark'd and censur'd for Heresies in Religion than many Opinions that have been censur'd for such in former Ages How is it possible that it should enter into the thoughts of vain Man to believe himself the principal part of God's Creation or that all the rest was ordain'd for him for his service or pleasure Man whose follies we laugh at every day or else complain of them whose pleasures are vanity and his Passions stronger than his Reason Who sees himself every way weak and impotent hath no power over external Nature little over himself cannot execute so much as his own good resolutions mutable irregular prone to evil Surely if we made the least reflection upon our selves with impartiality we should be asham'd of such an arrogant Thought How few of these Sons of Men for whom they say all things were made are the Sons of Wisdom How few find the paths of Life They spend a few days in folly and sin and then go down to the Regions of death and misery And is it possible to believe that all Nature and all Providence are only or principally for their sake Is it not a more reasonable character or conclusion which the Prophet hath made Surely every Man is vanity Man that comes into the World at the pleasure of another and goes out by an hundred accidents His Birth and Education generally determine his fate here and neither of those are in his own power His wit also is as uncertain as his fortune He hath not the moulding of his own Brain however a knock on the Head makes him a Fool stupid as the Beasts of the Field and a little excess of passion or melancholy makes him worse Mad and Frantick In his best Senses he is shallow and of little understanding and in nothing more blind and ignorant than in things Sacred and Divine He falls down before a stock or a stone and says Thou art my God He can believe non-sence and contradictions and make it his Religion to do so And is this the great Creature which God hath made by the might of his Power and for the honour of his Majesty Upon whom all things must wait to whom all things must be subservient Methinks we have noted weaknesses and sollies enough in the Nature of Man this need not be added as the top and accomplishment That with all these he is so Vain as to think that all the rest of the World was made for his sake And as due humility and the consideration of our own meanness ought to secure us from any such vain opinion of our selves so the perfection of other Beings ought to give us more respect and honour for them With what face can we pretend that Creatures far superiour to us and more excellent both in Nature and condition should be made for our sake and service How preposterous would it be to ascribe such a thing to our Maker and how intolerable a vanity in us to affect it We that are next to the Brutes that perish by a sacrilegious attempt would make our selves more considerable than the highest Dignities It is thought to have been the crime of Lucifer who was thrown down from Heaven to Hell that he affected an equality with the Almighty and to affect to be next to the Almighty is a crime next to that We have no reason to believe but that there are at least as many orders of Beings above us as there are ranks of Creatures below us there is a greater distance sure betwixt us and God Almighty than there is betwixt us and the meanest Worm and yet we should take it very ill if the Worms of the Earth should pretend that we were made for them But to pass from the invisible World to the visible and Corporeal Was that made only for our sake King David was more wise and more just both to God and Man in his 8th Psalm where he says He wonders when he considers the Heavens that the Maker of them could think on Man
He truly supposes the Celestial Bodies and the Inhabitants of them much more considerable than we are and reckons up only Terrestrial things as put in subjection to Man Can we then be so fond as to imagine all the Corporeal Universe made for our use 'T is not the Millioneth part of it that is known to us much less useful We can neither reach with our Eye nor our imagination those Armies of Stars that lie far and deep in the boundless Heavens If we take a good Glass we discover innumerably more Stars in the Firmament than we can with our single Eye and yet if you take a second Glass better than the first that carries the sight to a greater distance you see more still lying beyond the other and a third Glass that pierceth further still makes new discoveries of Stars and so forwards indefinitely and inexhaustedly for any thing we know according to the immensity of the Divine Nature and Power Who can reckon up the Stars of the Galaxy or direct us in the use of them And can we believe that those and all the rest were made for us Of those few Stars that we enjoy or that are visible to the Eye there is not a tenth part that is really useful to Man and no doubt if the principal end of them had been our pleasure or conveniency they would have been put in some better order in respect of the Earth They lie carelesly scatter'd as if they had been sown in the Heaven like Seed by handfuls and not by a skilful hand neither What a beautiful Hemisphere they would have made if they had been plac'd in rank and order if they had been all dispos'd into regular figures and the little ones set with due regard to the greater then all finisht and made up into one fair piece or great Composition according to the rules of Art and Symmetry What a surprizing beauty this would have been to the Inhabitants of the Earth What a lovely Roof to our little World This indeed might have given one some Temptation to have thought that they had been all made for us but lest any such vain imagination should now enter into our thoughts Providence besides more important Reasons seems on purpose to have left them under that negligence or disorder which they appear in to us The second part of this opinion supposeth this Planet where we live to be the only habitable part of the Universe and this is a natural consequence of the former If all things were made to serve us why should any more be made than what is useful to us But 't is only our ignorance of the System of the World and of the grandeur of the Works of God that betrays us to such narrow thoughts If we do but consider what this Earth is both for littleness and deformity and what its Inhabitants are we shall not be apt to think that this miserable Atome hath ingross'd and exhausted all the Divine Favours and all the riches of his goodness and of his Providence But we will not inlarge upon this part of the opinion lest it should carry us too far from the subject and it will fall of its own accord with the former Upon the whole we may conclude that it was only the Sublunary World that was made for the sake of Man and not the Great Creation either Material or Intellectual and we cannot admit or affirm any more without manifest injury depression and misrepresentation of Providence as we may be easily convinc'd from these four Heads The Meanness of Man and of this Earth The Excellency of other Beings The Immensity of the Universe and The infinite perfection of the first Cause Which I leave to your further Meditation and pass on to the second rule concerning Natural Providence In the second place then if we would have a fair view and right apprehensions of Natural Providence we must not cut the chains of it too short by having recourse without necessity either to the First Cause in explaining the Origins of things or to Miracles in explaining particular effects This I say breaks the chains of Natural Providence when it is done without necessity that is when things are otherwise ntelligible from Second Causes Neither is any thing gain'd by it to God Almighty for 't is but as the Proverb says to rob Peter to pay Paul to take so much from his ordinary Providence and place it to his extraordinary When a new Religion is brought into the World 't is very reasonable and decorous that it should be usher'd in with Miracles as both the Iewish and Christian were but afterwards things return into their Chanel and do not change or overflow again but upon extraordinary occasions or revolutions The power Extraordinary of God is to be accounted very Sacred not to be touch'd or expos'd for our pleasure or conveniency but I am afraid we often make use of it only to conceal our own ignorance or to save us the trouble of inquiring into Natural Causes Men are generally unwilling to appear ignorant especially those that make profession of knowledge and when they have not skill enough to explain some particular effect in a way of Reason they throw it upon the First Cause as able to bear all and so placing it to that account they excuse themselves and save their credit for all Men are equally wise if you take away Second Causes as we are all of the same colour if you take away the Light But to state this matter and see the ground of this rule more distinctly we must observe and consider that The Course of Nature is truly the Will of God and as I may so say his first Will from which we are not to recede but upon clear evidence and necessity And as in matter of Religion we are to follow the known reveal'd Will of God and not to trust to every impulse or motion of Enthusiasm as coming from the Divine Spirit unless there be evident marks that it is Supernatural and cannot come from our own So neither are we without necessity to quit the known and ordinary Will and Power of God establisht in the course of Nature and fly to Supernatural Causes or his extraordinary Will for this is a kind of Enthusiasm or Fanaticism as well as the other And no doubt that great prodigality and waste of Miracles which some make is no way to the honour of God or Religion 'T is true the other extream is worse than this for to deny all Miracles is in effect to deny all reveal'd Religion therefore due measures are to be taken betwixt these two so as neither to make the Divine Power too mean and cheap nor the Power of Nature illimited and all-sufficient In the Third place To make the Scenes of Natural Providence considerable and the knowledge of them satisfactory to the Mind we must take a true Philosophy or the true principles that govern Nature which are Geometrical and
answer to that difficulty Two suppos'd causes of the Conflagration by the Sun 's drawing nearer to the Earth or the Earth's throwing out the central fire examin'd and rejected WE have now made our way clear to the principal point The Causes of the Conflagration How the Heavens and the Earth will be set on fire what materials are prepar'd or what train of Causes for that purpose The Ancients who have kept us company pretty well thus far here quite desert us They deal more in Conclusions than Causes as is usual in all Traditional Learning And the Stoicks themselves who inculcate so much the doctrine of the Conflagration and make the strength of it such as to dissolve the Earth into a fiery Chaos are yet very short and superficial in their explications how this shall come to pass The latent seeds of fire they say shall every where be let loose and the Element will prevail over all the rest and transform every thing into its own nature But these are general things that give little satisfaction to inquisitive Persons Neither do the modern Authors that treat of the same subject relieve us in this particular They are willing to suppose the Conflagration a superficial effect that so they may excuse themselves the trouble of enquiring after causes 'T is no doubt in a sort supernatural and so the Deluge was yet Moses sets down the Causes of the Deluge the rains from above and the disruption of the Abyss So there must be treasures of fire provided against that day by whose eruption this second Deluge will be brought upon the Earth To state the case fairly we must first represent the difficulty of setting the Earth on Fire Tie the knot before we loose it that so we may the better judge whether the Causes that shall be brought into view may be sufficient to overcome so great opposition The difficulty no doubt will be chiefly from the great quantity of Water that is about our Globe whereby Nature seems to have made provision against any invasion by Fire and secur'd us from that enemy more than any other We see half of the Surface of the Earth cover'd with the Seas whose Chanel is of a vast depth and capacity Besides innumerable Rivers great and small that water the face of the dry Land and drench it with perpetual moisture Then within the bowels of the Earth there are Store-houses of subterraneous Waters which are as a reserve in case the Ocean and the Rivers should be overcome Neither is Water our only security for the hard Rocks and stony Mountains which no Fire can bite upon are set in long ranges upon the Continents and Islands and must needs give a stop to the progress of that furious Enemy in case he should attack us Lastly The Earth it self is not combustible in all its parts 'T is not every Soyl that is fit fewel for the Fire Clay and Mire and such like Soyls will rather choak and stifle it than help it on its way By these means one would think the Body of the Earth secur'd and tho' there may be partial fires or inuâ—â—lations of fire here and there in particular regions yet there cannot be an Universal Fire throughout the Earth At least one would hope for a safe retreat towards the Poles where there is nothing but Snow and Ice and bitter cold These regions sure are in no danger to be burnt whatsoever becomes of the other climates of the Earth This being the state and condition of the present Earth one would not imagine by these preparations 't was ever intended that it should perish by an Universal Fire But such is often the method of Providence that the exteriour face of things looks one way and the design lies another till at length touching a Spring as it were at a certain time all those affairs change posture and aspect and shew us which way Providence inclines We must therefore suppose before the Conflagration begins there will be dispositions and preparatives suitable to so great a work and all antiquity sacred and prophane does so far concur with us as to admit and suppose that a great drought will precede and an extraordinary heat and driness of the Air to usher in this fiery doom And these being things which often happen in a course of Nature we cannot disallow such easie preparations when Providence intends so great a consequence The Heavens will be shut up and the Clouds yield no rain and by this with an immoderate heat in the Air the Springs of Water will become dry the Earth chap'd and parch'd and the Woods and Trees made ready fewel for the Fire We have instances in History that there have been droughts and heats of this Nature to that degree that the Woods and Forests have taken fire and the outward Turf and Surface of the Earth without any other cause than the driness of the Season and the vehemency of the Sun And which is more considerable the Springs and Fountains being dry'd up the greater Rivers have been sensibly lessen'd and the lesser quite emptied and exhal'd These things which happen frequently in particular Countreys and Climates may at an appointed time by the disposition of Providence be more universal throughout the Earth and have the same effects every where that we see by experience they have had in certain places And by this means we may conceive it as feisible to set the whole Earth on fire in some little space of time as to burn up this or that Countrey after a great drought But I mean this with exception still to the main Body of the Sea which will indeed receive a greater diminution from these Causes than we easily imagine but the final consumption of it will depend upon other reasons whereof we must give an account in the following Chapters As to the Mountains and Rocks their lofty heads will sink when the Earthquakes begin to roar at the beginning of the Conflagration as we shall see hereafter And as to the Earth it self 't is true there are several sorts of Earth that are not proper fewel for fire but those Soils that are not so immediately as clayey Soils and such like may by the strength of Fire be converted into Brick or Stone or Earthen Metal and so melted down and vitrified For in conclusion there is no Terrestrial Body that does not finally yield to the force of Fire and may either be converted into flame incorporated fire or into a liquor more ardent than either of them Lastly As to the Polar Regions which you think will be a safe retreat and inaccessible to the fire 'T is true unless Providence hath laid subterraneous treasures of fire there unknown to us those parts of the Earth will be the last consum'd But it is to be observ'd that the cold of those regions proceeds from the length of their Winter and their distance from the Sun when he is beyond the Aequator and both these causes will be
should throw out so much fiery matter besides all the ashes that were disperst through the Air far and near and could be brought to no account 'T is true all this matter was not actually inflam'd or liquid fire But the rest that was sand stone and gravel might have run into glass or some melted liquor like to it is it had not been thrown out before the heat fully reacht it However sixty million paces of this matter as the same Author computes were liquid fire or came out of the mouth of the pit in that form This made a River of fire sometimes two miles broad according to his computation but according to the observation of others who also viewed it the Torrent of fire was six or seven miles broad and sometimes ten or fifteen fathoms deep and forc'd its way into the Sea near a mile preserving it self alive in the midst of the waters This is beyond all the infernal Lakes and Rivers Acheron Phlegeton Cocytus all that the Poets have talkt of Their greatest fictions about He I have not come up to the reality of one of our burning Mountains upon Earth Imagin then all our Volcano's raging at once in this manner But I will not pursue that supposition yet Give me leave only to add here what I mentioned in the second place The vast Burning Stones which this Mountain in the time of its rage and estuation threw inâ—o the Air with an incredible force This same Author tells us of a stone fifteen foot long that was slung out of the mouth of the pit to a miles distance And when it fell it came from such an height and with such a violence that it buried it self in the ground eight foot deep What trifles are our Mortar-pieces and Bombes when compar'd with these Engines of Nature When she flings out of the wide throat of a Volcano a broken Rock and twirles it in the air like a little bullet then lets it fall to do execution here below as Providence shall point and direct it It would be hard to give an account how so great an impulse can be given to a Body so ponderous But there 's no disputing against matter of fact and as the thoughts of God are not like our thoughts so neither are his works like our works Thus much for Aetna Let us now give an instance in Vesuvius another Burning Mountain upon the coast of the Mediterranean which hath as frequent Eruptions and some as terrible as those of Aetna Dion Cassius one of the best writers of the Roman History hath given us an account of one that happened in the time of Titus Vespatian and tho' he hath not set down particulars as the former Author did of the quantity of fiery matter thrown out at that time yet supposing that proportionable to its fierceness in other respects this seems to me as dreadful an Eruption as any we read of and was accompanied with such Prodigies and commotions in the Heavens and the Earth as made it look like the beginning of the last Conflagration As a prelude to this Tragedy He says there were strange sights in the air and after that followed an extraordinary drought Then the Earth begun to tremble and quake and the Concussions were so great that the ground seem'd to rise and boyl up in some places and in others the tops of the mountains sunk in or tumbled down At the same time were great noises and sounds heard some were subterraneous like thunder within the Earth others above ground like groans or bellowings The Sea roar'd The heavens ratled with a fearful noise and then came a sudden and mighty crack as if the frame of Nature had broke or all the mountains of the Earth had faln down at once At length Vesuvius burst and threw out of its womb first huge stones then a vast quantity of fire and smoke so as the air was â—all darkned and the Sun was hid as if he had been under a great Eclipse The day was turn'd into night and light into darkness and the frighted people thought the Gyants were making war against heaven and fansied they see the shapes and images of Gyants in the smoak and heard the sound of their trumpets Others thought the World was returning to its first Chaos or going to be all consum'd with fire In this general confusion and consternation they knew not where to be safe some run out of the fields into the houses others out of the house into the fields Those that were at Sea hasten'd to Land and those that were at Land endeavour'd to get to Sea still thinking every place safer than that where they were Besides grosser lumps of matter there was thrown out of the Mountain such a prodigious quantity of ashes as cover'd the Land and Sea and fill'd the Air so as besides other damages the Birds Beasts and Fishes with Men Women and Children were destroy'd within such a compass and two entire Cities Herculanium and Pompeios were overwhelm'd with a showre of ashes as the People were sitting in the Theater Nay these ashes were carried by the winds over the Mediterranean into Africk and into Aegypt and Syria And at Rome they choak'd the Air on a sudden so as to hid the face of the Sun Whereupon the People not knowing the cause as not having yet got the News from Campania of the Eruption of Vesuius could not imagine what the reason should be but thought the Heavens and the Earth were coming together The Sun coming down and the Earth going to take its place above Thus far the Historian You see what disorders in Nature and what an alarum the Eruption of one fiery Mountain is capable to make These things no doubt would have made strong impressions upon us if we had been eye-witnesses of them But I know representations made from dead history and at a distance though the testimony be never so credible have a much less effect upon us than what we see our selves and what our senses immediately inform us of I have only given you an account of two Volcano's and of a single Eruption in either of them These Mountains are not very far distant from one another Let us suppose two such Eruptions as I have mention'd to happen at the same time and both these Moutains to be raging at once in this manner By that violence you have seen in each of them singly you will easily imagine what a terrour and desolation they would carry round about by a conjunction of their fury and all their effects in the Air and on the Earth Then if to these two you should joyn two more the Sphere of their activity would still be enlarg'd and the Scenes become more dreadful But to compleat the supposition Let us imagine all the Volcano's of the whole Earth to be prepar'd and set to a certain time which time being come and a signal given by Providence all these Mines begin to play at once I mean All these