Selected quad for the lemma: city_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A63902
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An attempt towards an explanation of the theology and mythology of the antient pagans. The first part by John Turner.
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Turner, John, b. 1649 or 50.
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1687
(1687)
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Wing T3302; ESTC R23755
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145,740
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311
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of Water and great Rains descended from above as also great Rivers or currents from the higher Grounds and the Sea overflowed its banks till all things were covered and immerst in Water and all that Generation was destroyed The same character of a Good and Virtuous person which Ovid and Lucian have given of Deucalion is likewise allow'd him by Apollonius the writer of the Argonauticks who gives him the Title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and says other things concerning him which do sufficiently show that Epithet to have been his due l. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where wen he says that Deucalion was the first that built Cities and Temples and that he was the first Monarch this must be understood of the Period after the Floud for there were Kings and Cities and the true God to say nothing of Idolatry was Worshipped by Adam by Cain and Abel by Seth and Enos and others before it but all that Period though it were not utterly forgotten by the Greeks yet it shall be very clear before I have done that they had but a very obscure remembrance of it Plato in his description of the many Flouds which from time to time were supposed by the Greeks Anciently to have happened affirms every Floud to have wiped away the memory of all things that were before it there being only left a few v. Plat. in Critiâ p. 1100 1101. in l. 3. de leg statimi ab initio Euseb ex Platone praep Evang l. 12. c. 15. Mountainous and Barbarous People ignorant of all things even before the Floud and so taken up with the cares and the necessities of life after it that they had no time to look back into former Ages nor any means to preserve those few Traditions which were left among them and this he makes to be the reason why Arts and Sciences had made so small a progress in his time and why the History of former Ages extended to no higher Antiquity than it did but herein was Plato manifestly deceived that he did not perceive at this rate if only the Inhabitants of Mountains or those that could get thither upon the surprise of a Floud coming upon them escaped that very many Species of Animals must have perished being bred and overtaken by the Floud in the Plains below so that unless we suppose the Earth after every Deluge to have been so prolifick that it could produce all the several species anew which yet as absurd as it is I perceive Plato sometimes to have done and then there would be no need to salve the credit of an universal Deluge for any to be saved upon the tops of Mountains since mankind and all other Species might by this expedient be repaired without it there is no other way to Salve it but by supposing such an Ark or Ship as the Scripture and from thence several profane Authors have done whether some of each Species might betake themselves and be reserved for the replenishing a new World and therefore when Lucian who speaks expresly of the Ark and of all the several Species entring into it speaks afterwards of a Tradition as if Men in the time of Deucalions Floud had saved themselves upon the tops of Mountains and upon the top Branches of the tallest Trees where if they could be saved from the Deluge they would have been sure to have starved with hunger he subjoyns immediately 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ib. p. 899. these things are altogether incredible to me But yet notwithstanding thus much of Plato is agreeable to truth that after any such universal Deluge and by consequence after that of Noah too partly for want of any standing Monuments to preserve Tradition and partly by reason those that escaped must needs be wholly taken up in the cares and necessary incumbrances of Life which must needs lie heavy upon them where there are so few though in a world well Peopled there are many that have plenty and ease that the memory of the Antidiluvian persons and things must be almost utterly extinct and that the Tradition concerning them must needs be very uncertain and obscure and therefore it is no wonder to find Deucalion that is indeed Noah though Apollonius speaks of him as a Native of Thessaly according to the usual vanity of the Greeks who ascribed all these things to themselves represented as the first person that built Cities and Altars the first head of civil society and inventour of Political Administration that is he was the first that was so after the Floud of which Period the Greeks had a more certain and particular knowledge than of that before it though at other times we find some little sparks and strictures among them even of the Antidiluvian interval likewise Further though Plato were mistaken as to the manner of the preservation of Mankind from the Floud and though he is very uncertain as to the number of those universal Flouds that had hapened before his time for one while he says accoâ—dâ—ng to Antient Tradition according to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De Leg. l. 3. init 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that many such universal calamities had happened to mankind by Deluges and Plagues wherein a very small and inconsiderable remnant escaped to repair the loss and propagate themselves to after Ages another while he is very particular and precise in the business and tells us Deucalions was the Fourth such universal Deluge that had happened 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In Critiâ p. 1102. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there being Three other fatal Deluges before that of Deucalion And at others he seems inclinable to believe that Mankind and the World had no beginning at all so that these things might very well have happened though at a good distance from one another yet a prodigious number of times for so he speaks in the Person of an Athenian whom he introduces 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 L. b. De Leg. p. 875. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is that it becomes every Man to know that either Mankind had never any beginning nor shall have end or at least that its Original is at so vast a distance that it is impossible to trace it to its first beginning Yet notwithstanding all this strange variety there is in the midest of it still a constant acknowledgment of such a thing as an universal Deluge and that not founded only upon Fancy or Opinion or Philosophical conjecture but upon the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon Ancient Tradition which if you compare with these Two things First the improbability if not utter impossibility of Plato's expedient to Salve and account for the reparation of Mankind and of all other Animals after such an universal Deluge and Secondly if you consider that even in Plato himself there is no Historical certainty no particular account of any universal Deluge