time of Constantine's Empire But however the Fathers of that Council are themselves our witnesses in this point For in their Ecclesiastical Forms or Constitutions in the chapter about the Providence of God and about the World They speak thus The World was made meaner or less perfect providentially for God foresee that man would sin Wherefore we expect New Heavens and a New Earth according to the Holy Scriptures at the appearance and Kingdom of the great God and our Saviour Iesus Christ. And then as Daniel says ch 7. 18. The Saints of the most High shall take the Kingdom And the Earth shall be Pure Holy the Land of the Living not of the dead Which David foreseeing by the eye of Faith cryes out Ps. 27. 13. I believe to see the good things of the Lord in the Land of the Living Our Saviour says Happy are the meek for they shall inherit the Earth Matt. 5. 5. and the Prophet Isaiuh says chap. 26. 6. the feet of the meek and lowly shall tread upon it So you see according to the judgment of these Fathers there will be a Kingdom of Christ upon Earth and moreover that it will be in the New Heavens and the New Earth And in both these points they cite the Prophets and our Saviour in confirmation of them Thus we have discharg'd our promise and given you an account of the doctrine of the Millennium or future Kingdom of Christ throughout the Three First Ages of the Church before any considerable corruptions were crept into the Christian Religion And those Authorities of single and successive Fathers we have seal'd up all together with the declaration of the Nicene Fathers in a Body Those that think Tradition a Rule of Faith or a considerable motive to it will find it hard to turn off the force of these Testimonies And those that do not go so far but yet have a reverence for Antiquity and the Primitive Church will not easily produce better Authorities more early more numerous or more uncontradicted for any Article that is not Fundamental Yet these are but Seconds to the Prophets and Apostles who are truly the Principals in this Cause I will leave them altogether to be examin'd and weigh'd by the Impartial Reader And because they seem to me to make a full and undeniable proof I will now at the foot of the account set down our second Proposition which is this That there is a Millennial State or a Future Kingdom of Christ and his Saints Prophesied of and Promised in the Old and New Testament and receiv'd by the Primitive Church as a Christian and Catholick Doctrine HAVING dispatch'd this main point To conclude the Chapter and this Head of our Discourse it will be some satisfaction possibly to see How a Doctrine so generally receiv'd and approv'd came to decay and almost wear out of the Church in following Ages The Christian Millenary Doctrine was not call'd into question so far as appears from History before the middle of the third Century when Dionysius Alexandrinus writ against Nepos an Aegyptian Bishop who had declar'd himself upon that subject But we do not find that this Book had any great effect for the declaration or constitution of the Nicene Fathers was after and in S. Ierome's time who writ towards the end of the fourth Century this Doctrine had so much Credit that He who was its greatest adversary yet durst not condemn it as he says himself Quae licet non sequamur tamen damnare non possumus quià multi Ecclesiasticorum virorum Martyres ista dixerunt Which things or doctrines speaking of the Millennium tho' we do not follow yet we cannot condemn Because many of our Church-men and Martyrs have affirmed these things And when Apollinarius replyed to that Book of Dionysius S. Ierome says that not only those of his own Sect but a great multitude of other Christians did agree with Apollinarius in that particular Ut praesagâ mente jam cernam quantorum in me rabies concitanda sit That I now foresee how many will be enrag'd against me for what I have spoken against the Millenary Doctrine We may therefore conclude that in S. Ierome's time the Millenaries made the greater party in the Church for a little matter would not have frighted him from censuring their opinion S. Ierome was a rough and rugged Saint and an unfair adversary that usually run down with heat and violence what stood in his way As to his unfairness he shews it sufficiently in this very cause for he generally represents the Millenary Doctrine after a Judaical rather than a Christian manner And in reckoning up the chief Patrons of it he always skips Iustin Martyr Who was not a Man so obscure as to be overâ—look'd and he was a Man that had declar'd himself sufficiently upon this point for he says both himself and all the Orthodox of his time were of that judgment and applyes both the Apocalypse of S. Iohn and the 65th chap. of Isaiah for the proof of it As we noted before As S. Ierome was an open enemy to this Doctrine so Eusebius was a back friend to it and represented every thing to its disadvantage so far as was tolerably consistent with the fairness of an Historian He gives a slight character of Papias without any authority for it and brings in one Gaius that makes Cerinthus to be the Author of the Apocalypse and of the Millennium and calls the Visions there monstrous stories He himself is willing to shuffle off that Book from Iohn the Evangelist to another Iohn a Presbyter and to shew his skill in the interpretation of it he makes the New Ierusalem in the 21th chap. to be Constantine's Ierusalem when he turn'd the Heathen Temples there into Christian. A wonderful invention As S. Ierome by his flouts so Eusebius by sinister insinuations endeavour'd to lessen the reputation of this Doctrine and the Art they both us'd was to misrepresentâ—â—â— as Iudaical But we must not cast off every doctrine which the Jews believ'd only for that reason for we have the same Oracles which they had and the same Prophets and they have collected from them same general doctrine that we have namely that There will be an happy and pacifick state of the Church in future times But as to the circumstances of this state we differ very much They suppose the Mosaical Law will be restor'd with all its pomp rites and ceremonies whereas we suppose the Christian Worship or something more perfect will then take place Yet S. Ierome has the confidence even there where he speaks of the many Christian Clergy and Martyrs that held this doctrine has the confidence I say to represent it as if they held that Circumcision Sacrifices and all the Judaical rites should then be restor'd Which seems to me to be a great slander and a great instance how far mens passions will carry them in misrepresenting an opinion which they have a mind to
sence of the Greek words If one met with this sentence in a Greek Author who would ever render it standing in the water and out of the water nor do I know any Latin Translator that hath ventur'd to render them in that sence nor any Latin Father St. Austin and St. Ierome I 'm sure do not but Consistens ex aquâ or de aquâ per aquam for that later phrase also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does not with so good propriety signifie to stand in the water as to consist or subsist by water or by the help of water Tanquam per causam sustinentem as St. Austin and Ierome render it Neither does that instance they give from 1 Pet. 3. 20. prove any thing to the contrary for the Ark was sustain'd by the waters and the English does render it accordingly The Translation being thus rectified you see the ante diluvian Heavens and Earth consisted of Water and by water which makes way for a second observation to prove our sence of the Text for if you admit no diversity betwixt those Heavens and Earth and the present shew us pray how the present Heavens and Earth consist of water and by water What watery constitution have they The Apostle implies rather that The now Heavens and Earth have a fiery constitution We have now Meteors of all sorts in the air winds hail snow lightning thunder and all things engender'd of fiery exhalations â—as well as we have rain but according to our Theory the antediluvian Heavens of all these Meteors had none but dews and vapors or watery Meteors only and therefore might very aptly be said by the Apostle to be constituted of water or to have a watery 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Then the Earth was said to consist by water because it was built upon it and at first was sustain'd by it And when such a Key as this is put into our hands that does so easily unlock this hard passage and makes it intelligible according to the just force of the words why should we pertinaciously adhere to an interpretation that neither agrees with the words nor makes any sence that is considerable Thirdly If the Apostle had made the ante-diluvian Heavens and Earth the same with the present his apodosis in the 7th Verse should not have been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. I say it should not have been by way of antithesis but of identity or continuation And the same Heavens and Earth are kept in store reserv'd unto fire c. Accordingly we see the Apostle speaks thus as to the Logos or the Word of God Verse 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the same Word of God where the thing is the same he expresseth it as the same And if it had been the same Heavens and Earth as well as the same Word of God Why should he use a mark of opposition for the one and of identity for the other to this I do not see what can be fairly answer'd Fourthly the ante-diluvian Heavens and Earth were different from the present because as the Apostle intimates they were such and so constituted as made them obnoxious to a Deluge whereas ours are of such a form as makes them incapable of a Deluge and obnoxious to a Conflagration the just contrary fate If you say there was nothing of natural tendency or disposition in either World to their respective fate but the first might as well have perish'd by fire as water and this by water as by fire you unhinge all Nature and natural providence in that method and contradict one main scope of the Apostle in this discourse His first scope is to assert and mind them of that diversity there was betwixt the ancient Heavens and Earth and the present and from that to prove against those Scoffers that there had been a change and revolution in Nature And his second scope seems to be this to show that diversity to be such as under the Divine conduct leads to a different fate and expos'd that World to a Deluge for when he had describ'd the constitution of the first Heavens and Earth he subjoyns 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quià talis erat saith Grotius qualem diximus constitutio Terrae Coeli WHERE BY the then World perish'd in a Flood of Water This whereby notes some kind of causal dependance and must relate to some means or conditions precedent It cannot relate to Logos or the Word of God Grammar will not permit that therefore it must relate to the state of the Ante-diluvian Heavens and Earth immediately premis'd And to what purpose indeed should he premise the description of those Heavens and Earth if it was not to lay a ground for this Inference Having given these Reasons for the necessity of this Interpretation in the last place let 's consider S. Austin's judgment and his sence upon this place as to the point in question As also the reflections that some other of the Ancients have made upon this doctrine of S. Peter's Didymus Alexandrinus who was for some time S. Ierome's Master made such a seveâ—e reflection upon it that he said this Epistle was corrupted and should not be admitted into the Canon because it taught the doctrine of a Triple or Triform World in this third Chapter As you may see in his Enarr in Epist. Canonicas Now this threefold World is first that in the 6th ver The World that then was In the 7th ver The Heavens and the Earth that are now And in the 13th ver We expect new Heavens and a new Earth according to his promise This seems to be a fair account that S. Peter taught the doctrine of a Triple World And I quote this testimony to show what S. Peter's words do naturally import even in the judgment of one that was not of his mind And a Man is not prone to make an exposition against his own Opinion unless he think the words very pregnant and express But S. Austin owns the authority of this Epistle and of this doctrine as deriv'd from it taking notice of this Text of S. Peter's in several parts of his Works We have noted three or four places already to this purpose and we may further take notice of several passages in his Treatise de Civ Dei which confirm our exposition In his 20th Book ch 24. he disputes against Porphyry who had the same Principles with these Eternalists in the Text or if I may so call them Incorruptarians and thought the World never had nor ever would undergo any change especially as to the Heavens S. Austin could not urge Porphyry with the authority of S. Peter for he had no veneration for the Christian Oracles but it seems he had some for the Iewish and arguing against him upon that Text in the Psalms Coeli peribunt he shows upon occasion how he understands S. Peter's destruction of the Old World Legitur Coelum Terra
II. The Birth of the New Heavens and the New Earth from the second Chaos or the remains of the Old World The form order and qualities of the New Earth according to Reason and Scripture CHAP. III. Concerning the Inhabitants of the New Earth That natural reason cannot determine this point That according to Scripture The Sons of the first Resurrection or the heirs of the Millennium are to be the Inhabitants of the New Earth The Testimony of the Philosophers and of the Christian Fathers for the Renovation of the World The first Proposition laid down CHAP. IV. The Proof of a Millennium or of a blessed Age to come from Scripture A view of the Apocalypse and of the Prophecies of Daniel in reference to this Kingdom of Christ and of his Saints CHAP. V. A view of other places of Scripture concerning the Millennium or future Kingdom of Christ. In what sence all the Prophets have born Testimony concerning it CHAP. VI. The sence and testimony of the Primitive Church concerning the Millennium or future Kingdom of Christ from the times of the Apostles to the Nicene Council The second Proposition laid down When by what means and for what reasons that doctrine was afterwards neglected or discountenanc'd CHAP. VII The true state of the Millennium according to Characters taken from Scripture Some mistakes concerning it rectified CHAP. VIII The Third Proposition laid down concerning the Time and Place of the Millennium Several arguments us'd to prove that it cannot be till after the Conflagration and that the New Heavens and New Earth are the true Seat of the Blessed Millennium CHAP. IX The chief employment of the Millennium DEVOTION and CONTEMPLATION CHAP. X. Objections against the Millenniâ—m answer'd With some conjectures concerning the state of things after the Millennium and what will be the final Consummation of this World The Review of the whole Theory THE THEORY OF THE EARTH BOOK III. Concerning the Conflagration CHAP. I. The Introduction With the Contents and Order of this Work SEEING Providence hath planted in all Men a natural desire and curiosity of knowing things to come and such things especially as concern our particular Happiness or the general Fate of Mankind This Treatise may in both respects hope for a favourable reception amongst inquisitive persons seeing the design of it is to give an account of the greatest revolutions of Nature that are expected in future Ages and in the first place of the Conflagration of the World In which Universal Calamity when all Nature suffers every Man 's particular concern must needs be involv'd We see with what eagerness Men pry into the Stars to see if they can read there the Death of a King or the fall of an Empire 'T is not the fate of any single Prince or Potentate that we Calculate but of all Mankind Nor of this or that particular Kingdom or Empire but of the whole Earth Our enquiries must reach to that great period of Nature when all things are to be dissolv'd both humane affairs and the Stage whereon they are acted When the Heavens and the Earth will pass away and the Elements melt with fervent heat We desire if possible to know what will be the face of that Day that great and terrible Day when the Regions of the Air will be nothing but mingled Flame and Smoak and the habitable Earth turn'd into a Sea of molten Fire But we must not leave the World in this disorder and confusion without examining what will be the Issue and consequences of it Whether this will be the End of all Things and Nature by a sad fate lie eternally dissolv'd and desolate in this manner or whether we may hope for a Restauration New Heavens and a New Earth which the Holy Writings make mention of more pure and perfect than the former As if this was but as a Refiner's fire to purge out the dross and courser parts and then cast the Mass again into a new and better Mould These things with God's assistance shall be mattâ—r of our preâ—ent enquiry These make the genâ—ral â—â—bject of thiâ— Treatise and of the remaining parts of this Theory of â—he Earth Which now you see begins to be a kind of Prophecy or Prognostication of things to come as it hath been hitherto an History of things pass'd of such states and changes as Nature hath already undergone And if that account which we have given of the Origin of the Earth its first and Paradisiacal form and the dissolution of it at the Universal Deluge appear fair and reasonable The second dissolution by Fire and the renovation of it out of a Second Chaos I hope will be deduc'd from as clear grounds and suppositions And Scripture it self will be a more visible Guide to us in these following parts of the Theory than it was in the former In the mean time I take occasion to declare here again as I have done heretofore that neither this nor any other great revolutions of Nature are brought to pass by Causes purely Natural without the conduct of a particular Providence And 't is the Sacred Books of Scripture that are the records of this Providence both as to times past and times to come as to all the signal Changes either of the Natural World or of Mankind and the different Oeconomies of Religion In which respects these Books tho' they did not contain a Moral Law would notwithstanding be as the most mystical so also the most valuable Books in the World This Treatise you see will consist of Two Parts The former whereof is to give an account of the Conflagration and the latter of the New Heavens and New Earth following upon it together with the state of Mankind in those New Habitations As to the Conflagration we first enquire what the Antients thought concerning the present frame of this World whether it was to perish or no whether to be destroyed or to stand eternally in this posture Then in what manner they thought it would be destroy'd by what force or violence whether by Fire or other ways And with these opinions of the Antients we will compare the doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles to discover and confirm the truth of them In the second place We will examine what Calculations or Conjectures have been made concerning the time of this great Catastrophe or of the end of this World Whether that period be defineable or no and whether by Natural Arguments or by Prophecies Thirdly We will consider the Signs of the approaching Conflagration Whether such as will be in Nature or in the state of Humane Affairs but especially such as are taken notice of and recorded in Scripture Fourthly Which is the principal point and yet that wherein the Ancients have been most silent What Causes there are in Nature what preparations for this Conflagration Where are the Seeds of this Universal Fire or fewel sufficient for the nourishing of it Lastly In what order and by what degrees the Conflagration will
they get the mastery and overwhelm all the rest and the whole Earth in a Deluge or Conflagration But as they make these Two the Destroying Elements so they also make them the Purifying Elements And accordingly in their Lustrations or their rites and ceremonies for purging sin Fire and Water were chiefly made use of both amongst the Romans Greeks and Barbarians And when these Elements over run the World it is not they say for a final destruction of it but to purge Mankind and Nature from their impurities As for purgation by Fire and Water the stile of our Sacred Writings does very much accommodate it self to that sence and the Holy Ghost who is the great Purifier of Souls is compared in his operation upon us and in our regeneration to fire or water And as for the external world S. Peter makes the Flood to have been a kind of Baptziing or renovation of the World And S. Paul and the Prophet Malachy make the last Fire to be a purging and reâ—ining â—ire But to return to the Ancients The Stoicks especially of all other Sects amongst the Greeks have preserved the doctrine of the Conflagration and made it a considerable part of their Philosophy and almost a character of their order This is a thing so well known that I need not use any Citations to prove it But they cannot pretend to have been the first Authors of it neither For besides that amongst the Greeks themselves Heraclitus and Empedocles more ancient than Zeno the Master of the Stoicks taught this doctrine 't is plainly a branch of the Barbarick Philosophy and taken from thence by the Greeks For it is well known that the most ancient and mystick Learning amongst the Greeks was not originally their own but borrowed of the more Eastern Nations by Orpheus Pythagoras Plato and many more who travel'd thither and traded with the Priests for knowledge and Philosophy and when they got a competent stock returned home and set up a School or a Sect to instruct their Country-men But before we pass to the Eastern Nations let us if you please compare the Roman Philosophy upon this subject with that of the Greeks The Romans were a great people that made a shew of Learning but had little in reality more than Words and Rhetorick Their curiosity or emulation in Philosophical Studies was so little that it did not make different Sects and Schools amongst them as amongst the Greeks I remember no Philosophers they had but such as Tully Seneca and some of their Poets And of these Lucretius Lucan and Ovid have spoken openly of the Conflagration Ovid's Verses are well known Esse quoque in fatis reminiscitur affore tempus Quo mare quo Tellus correptaque Regia Coeli Ardeat mundi moles operosa laboret A Time decreed by Fate at length will come When Heavens and Earth and Seas shall have their doâ—m A fiery doâ—m And Nature 's mighty frame Shall break and be dissolv'd into a flame We see Tully's sence upon this matter in Scipio's Dream When the old man speaks to his Nephew Africanus and shews him from the clouds this spot of Earth where we live He tells him tho' our actions should be great and fortune favour them with success yet there wou'd be no room for any lasting glory in this World for the World it self is transient and fugitive And a Deluge or a Conflagration which necessarily happen after certain periods of time sweep away all records of humane actions As for Seneca he being a profest Stoick we need not doubt of his opinion in this point We may add here if you please the Sibylline verses which were kept with great Religion in the Capitol at Rome and consulted with much ceremony upon solemn occasions These Sibyls were the Prophetesses of the Gentiles and tho' their Writings now have many spurious additions yet none doubt but that the Conflagration of the World was one of their original Prophecies Let us now proceed to the Eastern Nations As the Romans receiev'd the small skill they had in the Sciences from the Greeks so the Greeks receiv'd their chief Mystick Learning from the Barbarians that is from the Aegyptians Persians Phoenicians and other Eastern Nations For 't is not only the Western or Northern people that they called Barbarians but indeed all Nations besides themselves For that is commonly the vanity of great Empires to uncivilize in a manner all the rest of the World and to account all those People Barbarous that are not subject to their dominion These however whom they call'd so were the most ancient People and had the first Learning that was ever heard of after the Flood And amongst these the Aegyptians were as famous as any whose Sentiment in this particular of the Conflagration is well known For Plato who liv'd amongst them several years tell us in his Timaeus that it was the doctrine of their Priests that the fatal Catastrophes of the World were by Fire and Water In like manner the Persians made their beloved God Fire at length to consume all things that are capable of being consum'd For that is said to have been the doctrine of Hydaspes one of their great Magi or Wise Men. As to the Phoenicians I suspect very much that the Stoicks had their Philosophy from them and amongst other things the Conflagration We shall take notice of that hereafter But to comprehend the Arabians also and Indians give me leave to reflect a little upon the story of the Phoenix A story well known and related by some ancient Authors and is in short this The Phoenix they say is a Bird in Arabia India and those Eastern parts single in her kind never more than one at a time and very long-liv'd appearing only at the expiration of the Great Year as they call it And then she makes her self a Nest of Spices which being set on fire by the Sun or some other secret power she hovers upon it and consumes her self in the flames But which is most wonderful out of these ashes riseth a second Phoenix so that it is not so much a death as a renovation I do not doubt but the story is a fable as to any such kind of Bird single in her species living and dying and reviving in that manner But 't is an Apologue or a Fable with an interpretation and was intended as an Emblem of the World which after a long age will be consum'd in the last fire and from its ashes or remains will arise another World or a new-form'd Heavens and Earth This I think is the true mystery of the Phoenix under which Symbol the Eastern Nations preserv'd the doctrine of the Conflagration and Renovation of the World They tell somewhat a like story of the Eagle soaring a-loft so near the Sun that by his warmth and enlivening rays she renews her age and becomes young again To this the Psalmist is thought to allude Psal. 103. 5. Thy Youth shall be
transibunt Mundus transit sed puto quod praeterit transit transibunt aliquantò mitiùs dicta sunt quà m peribunt In Epistolâ quoque Petri Apostoli ubi aquâ inundatus qui tum erat periisse dictus est Mundus satis clarum est quae pars mundi à toto significata est quatenùs periisse dicta sit qui coeli repositi igni reservandi This he explains more fully afterwards by subjoyning a caution which we cited before that we must not understand this passion of S. Peter's concerning the destruction of the Ante diluvian World to take in the whole Universe and the highest Heavens but only the aerial Heavens and the sublunary World In Apostolicâ illâ Epistolâ à toto parâ— accipitur quod Diluvie periisse dictus est 〈◊〉 quamvis solâ— ejus cum suâ—s coelis pars ima peâ—ierit In that Apostolical Epistle a part is signified by the whole when the World is said to have perish'd in the Deluge although the lower part of it only with the Heavens belonging to at perished that is The Earth with the regions of the Air that belong to it And consonant to this in his exposition of that hundred and first Psalm upon those words The Heavens are the work of thy hands They shall perish but thou shalt endure This perishing of the Heavens he says S. Peter tells us hath been once done already namely at the Deluge Apeâ—â—e dixit hoc Apostolus Petrus Coeli erant olim Terra de aquâ per â—quam constituti Dei verbo per quod qui factus est mundus aquâ 〈…〉 Terra autem coeli qui nunc sunt 〈…〉 ergo dixit perisse coelos per Dilavium These places shew us that S. Austin understood S. Peter's discourse to aim at the Natural World and his periit or periisse ver 6. to be of the same force as 〈◊〉 in the Psalms when 't is said the Heavens shalt perishâ— and consequently that the Heavens and the Earth in this Father's opinion were as really chang'd and transform'd at the time of the Flood as they will be at the Conflagration But we must not expect from S. Austin or any of the Ancients a distinct account of this Apostolical Doctrine as if they knew and acknowledg'd the Theory of the Firsâ— World that does not at all appear but what they said was either from broken Tradition or extorted from them by the force of the Apostle's words and their own sincerity There are yet other places in S. Austin worthy our consideration upon this subject especially his exposition of this 3d. chap. of S. Peter as we find it â—n that same Treatise de Civ Dei There he compares again the destruction of the World at the Deluge with that which shall be at the Confâ—agration and supposeth both the Heavens and Earth to have perish'd Apostelus â—ominemorans factum ante Diluvium videtur admonâ—â—sse quodaminodo quatenus in fiâ—e hujus secuâ—â— mundum istum periturium esse credamus Nam illo tempore periisse dixit qui tunc erat mundum nec solum otbem terrae verùm etiam coelos Then giving his usual caution That the Stars and Starry Heavens should not be comprehended in that mundane destruction He goes on Atque hoc modo pene totus aer cum terra periorat cujus Terrae utÃque prior facies nempe ante-diluviana fuerat deleta Diluvio Qui autem nunc sunt coeli terra eodem verbo repâ—siti sunt igni reservandi Proinde qui coeli quae Terra id est qui mundus pro â—o mundo qui Diluvio periit ex eâdem aquâ reposâ—tus est ipse igni novissimo reservatur Here you see S. Austin's sence upon the whole matter which is this That the Natural World the Earth with the Heavens about it was destroyed and chang'd at the Deluge into the present Heavens and Earth which shall again in like manner be destroyed and chang'd by the last Fire Accordingly in another place to add no more he saith the figure of the subâ—â—nary World shall be chang'd at the Conflagration as it was chang'd at the Deluge Tunc figura huius mundi c. cap. 16. Thus you see we have S. Austin on our side in both parts of our interpretation that S. Peter's discourse is to be referr'd to the natural inanimate World and that the present Natural World is distinct and different from that which was before the Deluge And S. Austin having applyed this expresly to S. Peter's doctrine by way of Commentary it will free us from any crime or affectation of singularity in the exposition we have given of that place Venerable Bede hath â—ollowed S. Austin ' s footsteps in this doctrine for interpreting S. Peter ' s Original World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Peti 2. 5. he refers both that and this chap. 3. 6. to the natural inanimate World which he supposeth to have undergone a change at the Deluge His words are these Idem ipse mundus est nempe quoad materiam in quo nunc humanum genus habitat quem inhabitaverunt hi qui ante diluvium fuerunt fed tamen rectè Originalis Mundus quasi alius dicitur quia sicut in consequentibus bujus Epistolae â—â—riptum continetur Ille tunc mundus aquâ inundatus periâ—â— Coelis videlicet qui eranâ— prius id est cunctis aeris hujus turbulentâ— spaciis aquanum accrescentium altitudine consumptis ac Terrâ in alteram faciem excedentibus aquis immutatâ Nam etsi montes aliqui atque convalles ab initio facti creduntur non tament anti quanti nunc in orbe cernuntur universo T is the same World namely as to the matter and substance of it which mankind lives in now and did live in before the Flood but yet that is truly call'd the ORIGINAL WORLD being as it were another from the present For 't is said in the sequel of this Epistle that the World that was then perish'd in the Deluge namely The regions of the air were consumed by the height and excess of the waters and by the same waters the Earth was chang'd into another form or face For although some Mountains and Valleys are thought to have been made from the beginning yet not such great ones as now we see throughout the whole Earth You see this Author does not only own a change made at the Deluge but offers at a further explication wherein that change consisted viz. That the Mountains and inequalities of the Earth were made greater than they were before the Flood and so he makes the change or the difference betwixt the two Worlds gradual rather than specifical if I may so term it But we cannot wonder at that if he had no principles to carry it further or to make any other sort of change intelligible to him Bede also pursues the same sence and notion in his interpretation of that fountain Gen. 2. 5. that watered the
face of the Earth before the Flood And many other transcribers of Antiquity have recorded this Tradition concerning a difference gradual or specifical both in the Ante-diluvian heavens Gloss. Ordin Gen. 9. de Iride Lyran. ibid. Hist. Scholast c. 35. Rab. Maurus Gloss. Inter. Gen. 2. 5 6. Alcuin Quaest. in Gen. inter 135. and in the Ante-diluvian Earth as the same Authors witness in other places As Hist. Schol. o. 34. Gloss. Ord. in Gen. 7. Alâ—uin Inter. 118 c. Not to instance in those that tell us the properties of the Ante-diluvian World under the name and notion of Paradise Thus much concerning this remarkable place in S. Peter and the true exposition of it which I have the more largely insisted upon because I look upon this place as the chief repository of that great Natural Mystery which in Scripture is communicated to us concerning the Triple State or Revolution of the World And of those Men that are so scrupulous to admit the Theory we have propos'd I would willingly know whether they believe the Apostle in what he says concerning the New Heavens and the New Earth to come ver 13. and if they do why they should not believe him as much concerning the Old Heavens and the Old Earth past ver 5 6. which hâ— mentions as formally and describes more distinctly than the other But if they believe neither past nor to come in a natural sence but an unchangeable state of Nature from the Creation to its annihilation I leave them then to their Fellow Eternalists in the Text and to the character or censure the Apostle gives them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 men that go by their own private humour and passions and prefer that to all other evidence They deserve this censure I am sure if they do not only disbelieve but also scoff at this Prophetick and Apostolick doctrine concerning the Vicissitudes of Nature and a Triple World The Apostle in this discourse does formally distinguish Three Worlds for 't is well known that the Hebrows have no word to signifie the Natural World but use that Periphrass The Heavens and the Earth and upon each of them engraves a Name and Title that bears a note of distinction in it He calls them the Old Heavens and Earth the Preseut Heavenâ— and Earth and the New Heavens and Earth 'T is true these Three are one as â—o Matter and Substance but they must differ as to Form and Properties otherwise what is the ground of this distinction and of these three different appeâ—lations Suppose the Iews had expected Ezekiel's Temple for the Third and Last and most perfect and that in the time of the Second Temple they had spoke of them with this distinction or under these different names The Old Temple the Present Temple and the New Temple we expect Would any have understood those Three of one and the same Temple never demolish'd never chang'd never rebuilt always the same both as to Materials and Form no doubtless but of Three several Temples succeeding one another And have we not the same reason to understand this Temple of the World whereof S. Peter speaks to be threefold in succession seeing he does as plainly distinguish it into the Old heavens and earth the Present heavens and earth and the New heavens and earth And I do the more willingly use this comparison of the Temple because it hath been thought an Emblem of the outward World I know we are naturally averse to entertain any thing that is inconsistent with the general frame and texture of our own thoughts That 's to begin the World again and we often reject such things without examination Neither do I wonder that the generality of Interpreters beat down the Apostle's words and sence to their own notions They had no other grounds to go upon and Men are not willing especially in natural and comprehensible things to put such a meaning upon Scripture as is unintelligible to themselves They rather venture to offer a little violence to the words that they may pitch the sence at such a convenient height as their Principles will reach to And therefore though some of our modern Interpreters whom I mention'd before have been sensible of the natural tendency of this discourse of S. Peter's and have much ado to bear of the force of the words so as not to acknowledge that they import a real diversity betwixt the two Worlds spoken of yet having no Principles to guide or support them in following that Tract they are forc'd to stop or divert another way 'T is like entering into the mouth of a Cave we are not willing to venture further than the light goes Nor are they much to blame for this the fault is only in those Persons that continue wilfully in their darkness and when they cannot otherwise resist the light shut their eyes against it or turn their head another way but I am afraid I have staid too long upon this argument not for my own sake but to satisfie others You may please to remember that all that I have said hitherto belongs only to the first Head To prove a Diversity in general betwixt the Ante-diluvian Heavens and Earth and the present not expressing what their particular form was And this general diversity may be argued also by observations taken from Moses his History of the World before and after the Flood From the Longevity of the Antediluvians The Rain-bowu appearing after the Deluge and the breaking open an Abyss capable to overflow the Earth The Heavens that had no Rain-bow and under whose benign and steddy influence Men liv'd seven eight nine hundred years and upwards must have been of a different aspect and constitution from the present Heavens And that Earth that had such an Abyss that the disruption of it made an universal Deluge must have been of another form than the present Earth And those that will not admit a diversity in the two worlds are bound to give us an intelligible account of these Phaenomena How they could possibly be in Heavens and Earth like the present Or if they were there once why they do not continue so still if Nature be the same We need say no more as to the Ante-diluvian Heavens but as to the Earth we must now according to the second Part of the first Head enquire If that Particular Form which we have assign'd it before the Flood be agreeable to Scripture You know how we have describ'd the Form and situation of that Earth namely that it was built over the Abyss as a regular Orb covering and incompassing the waters round about and founded as it were upon them There are many passages of Scripture that favour this description Some more expresly others upon a due explication To this purpose there are two express Texts in the Psalms as Psal. 24. 1 2. The Earth is the Lords and the fulness thereof The habitable World and they that dwell therein FOR he has founded it upon
when all nature was in confusion And though there may be some things here intermixt to make up the Scene that are not so close to the subject as the rest or that may be referr'd to the future destruction of the World yet that is not unusual nor amiss in such descriptions if the great strokes be fit and rightly plac'd That there was Smoke and Fire and Water and Thunder and Darkness and Winds and Earth-quakes at the Deluge we cannot doubt if we consider the circumstances of it Waters dash'd and broken make a smoke and darkness and no Hurricano could be so violent as the motions of the Air at that time Then the Earth was torn in pieces and its Foundations shaken And as to Thunder and Lightning the encounters and collisions of the mighty Waves and the cracks of a falling World would make flashes and noises far greater and more terrible than any that can come from vapours and clouds There was an Universal Tempest a conflict and clashing of all the Elements and David seems to have represented it so with God Almighty in the midst of it ruling them all But I am apt to think some will say all this is Poetical in the Prophet and these are Hyperbolical and figurate expressions from which we cannot make any inference as to the Deluge and the Natural World 'T is true those that have no Idea of the Deluge that will answer to such a Scene of things as is here represented must give such a slight account of this Psalm But on the other hand if we have already an Idea of the Deluge that is rational and also consonant to Scripture upon other proofs and the description here made by the Prophet answer to that Idea whether then is it not more reasonable to think that it stands upon that ground than to think it a meer fancy and Poetical Scene of things This is the true state of the case and that which we must judge of Methinks 't is very harsh to suppose all this a bare fiction grounded upon no matter of fact upon no Sacred Story upon no appearance of God in Nature If you say it hath a moral signification so let it have we do not destroy that it hath reference no doubt to the dangers and deliverances of the Church but the question is whether the words and natural sence be a fancy only a bundle of randome hyperboles or whether they relate to the history of the Deluge and the state of the Ark there representing the Church This makes the Sence doubly rich Historically and Morally and grounds it upon Scripture and Reason as well as upon Fancy That violent eruption of the Sea out of the Womb of the Earth which Iob speaks of is in my judgment another description of the Deluge 'T is Chap. 38. 8 9 10 11. Who shut up the Sea with doors when it broke forth as if it had issued out of a Womb When I made the eloud the garment thereof and thick darkness a swadling band for it And broke up for it my decreed place hitherto shalt thou come c. Here you see the birth and nativity of the Sea or of Oceanus describ'd how he broke out of the Womb and what his first garment and swadling cloaths were namely clouds and thick darkness This cannot refer to any thing that I know of but to the face of Nature at the Deluge when the Sea was born and wrapt up in clouds and broken waves and a dark impenetrable mist round the body of the Earth And this seems to be the very same that David had exprest in his description of the Deluge Psal. 18. 11. He made darkness his secret place his pavilion round about him were dâ—rk waters and thick clouds of the skies For this was truly the face of the World in the time of the Flood tho' we little reflect upon it And this dark confusion every where above and below arose from the violent and confus'd motion of the Abyss which was dasht in pieces by the falling Earth and flew into the air in misty drops as dust flies up in a great ruin But I am afraid we have stayed too long upon this particular the form of the Deluge seeing 'tis but a Corollary from the precedent article about the dissolution of the Earth However time is not ill spent about any thing that relates to natural Providence whereof the two most signal instances in our Sacred Writings are the Deluge and the Conflagration And seeing Iob and David do often reflect upon the works of God in the external creation and upon the administrations of Providence it cannot be imagin'd that they should never reflect upon the Deluge the most remarkable change of Nature that ever hath been and the most remarkable judgment upon mankind And if they have reflected upon it any where 't is I think in those places and those instances which I have noted and if those places do relate to the Deluge they are not capable in my judgment of any fairer or more natural interpretation than that which we have given them which you see how much it favours and confirms our Theory I have now finisht the heads I undertook to prove that I might shew our Theory to agree with Scripture in these three principal points first in that it supposeth a diversity and difference betwixt the Ante-diluvian Heavens and Earth and the present Heavens and Earth Secondly in assigning the particular form of the Ante-diluvian Earth and Abyss Thirdly in explaining the Deluge by a dissolution of that Earth and an eruption of the Abyss How far I have succeeded in this attempt as to others I cannot tell but I am sure I have convinc'd my self and am satisfied that my thoughts in that Theory have run in the same tract with the holy Writings with the true intent and spirit of them There are some persons that are wilfully ignorant in certain things and others that are willing to be ignorant as the Apostle phraseth it speaking of those Eternalists that denied the doctrine of the change and revolutions of the Natural World And 't is not to be expected but there are many still of the same humour and therefore may be called willingly ignorant that is they will not use that pains and attention that is necessary for the examination of such a doctrine nor impartiality in judging after examination they greedily lay hold on all evidence on one side and willingly forget or slightly pass over all evidence for the other this I think is the character of those that are willingly ignorant for I do not take it to be so deep as a down-right wilful ignorance where they are plainly conscious to themselves of that wilfulness but where an insensible mixture of humane passions inclines them one way and makes them averse to the other and in that method draws on all the consequences of a willing ignorance There remains still as I remember one Proposition that I