by their disruption And as for Winds they could not be either impetuous or irregular in that Earth seeing there were neither Mountains nor any other inequalities to obstruct the course of the Vapours nor any unequal Seasons or unequal action of the Sun nor any contrary and strugling motions of the Air Nature was then a stranger to all those disorders But as for watery Meteors or those that rise from watery Vapours more immediately as Dews and Rains there could not but be plenty of these in some part or other of that Earth for the action of the Sun in raising Vapours was very strong and very constant and the Earth was at first moist and soft and according as it grew more dry the Rays of the Sun would pierce more deep into it and reach at length the great Abyss which lay underneath and was an unexhausted storehouse of new Vapours But 't is true the same heat which extracted these Vapours so copiously would also hinder them from condensing into Clouds or Rain in the warmer parts of the Earth and there being no Mountains at that time nor contrary Winds nor any such causes to stop them or compress them we must consider which way they would tend and what their course would be and whether they would any where meet with causes capable to change or condense them for upon this 't is manifest would depend the Meteors of that Air and the Waters of that Earth And as the heat of the Sun was chiefly towards the middle parts of the Earth so the copious Vapours rais'd there were most rarified and agitated and being once in the open Air their course would be that way where they found least resistance to their motion and that would certainly be towards the Poles and the colder Regions of the Earth For East and West they would meet with as warm an Air and Vapours as much agitated as themselves which therefore would not yield to their progress that way but towards the North and the South they would find a more easie passage the Cold of those parts attracting them as we call it that is making way to their motion and dilatation without much resistance as Mountains and Cold places usually draw Vapours from the warmer So as the regular and constant course of the Vapours of that Earth which were rais'd chiefly about the Aequinoctial and middle parts of it would be towards the extream parts of it or towards the Poles And in consequence of this when these Vapours were arriv'd in those cooler Climats and cooler parts of the Air they would be condens'd into Rain for wanting there the cause of their agitation namely the heat of the Sun their motion would soon begin to languish and they would fall closer to one another in the form of Water For the difference betwixt Vapours and Water is only gradual and consists in this that Vapours are in a flying motion separate and distant each from another but the parts of Water are in a creeping motion close to one another like a swarm of Bees when they are setled as Vapours resemble the same Bees in the Air before they settle together Now there is nothing puts these Vapours upon the wing or keeps them so but a strong agitation by Heat and when that fails as it must do in all colder places and Regions they necessarily return to Water again Accordingly therefore we must suppose they would soon after they reacht these cold Regions be condens'd and fall down in a continual Rain or Dew upon those parts of the Earth I say a continual Rain for seeing the action of the Sun which rais'd the Vapours was at that time always the same and the state of the Air always alike nor any cross Winds nor any thing else that could hinder the course of the Vapours towards the Poles nor their condensation when arriv'd there 't is manifest there would be a constant Source or store-house of Waters in those parts of the Air and in those parts of the Earth And this I think was the establisht order of Nature in that World this was the state of the Ante-diluvian Heavens and Earth all their Waters came from above and that with a constant supply and circulation for when the croud of Vapours rais'd about the middle parts of the Earth found vent and issue this way towards the Poles the passage being once open'd and the Chanel made the Current would be still continued without intermission and as they were dissolv'd and spent there they would suck in more and more of those which followed and came in fresh streams from the hotter Climates Aristotle I remember in his Meteors speaking of the course of the Vapours saith there is a River in the Air constantly slowing betwixt the Heavens and the Earth made by the ascending and descending Vapours This was more remarkably true in the Primitive Earth where the state of Nature was more constant and regular there was indeed an uninterrupted flood of Vapours rising in one Region of the Earth and flowing to another and there continually distilling in Dews and Rain which made this Aereal River As may be easily apprehended from this Scheme of the Earth and Air. Book 2d. fig. 1st p. 155. Thus we have found a Source for Waters in the first Earth which had no communication with the Sea and a Source that would never fail neither diminish or overflow but feed the Earth with an equal supply throughout all the parts of the year But there is a second difficulty that appears at the end of this How these Waters would flow upon the even surface of the Earth or form themselves into Rivers there being no descent or declivity for their course There were no Hills nor Mountains not high Lands in the first Earth and if these Rains fell in the frigid Zones or towards the Poles there they would stand in Lakes and Pools having no descent one way more than another and so the rest of the Earth would be no better for them This I confess appear'd as great a difficulty as the former and would be unanswerable for ought I know if that first Earth was not water'd by Dews only as I believe some Worlds are or had been exactly Spherical but we noted before that it was Oval or Oblong and in such a Figure 't is manifest the Polar parts are higher than the Aequinoctial that is more remote from the Center as appears to the eye in this Scheme This affords us a present remedy and sets us free of the second difficulty for by this means the Waters which fell about the extreme parts of the Earth would have a continual descent towards the middle parts of it this Figure gives them motion and distribution and many Rivers and Rivulets would flow from those Mother-Lakes to refresh the face of the Earth bending their course still towards the middle parts of it Booke 2d. fig. 2d. p. 156. 'T is true These derivations of the Waters at first would
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
an hollow Sphere with Water in it which the heat of the Fire rarefies and turns into Vapours and Wind. The Sun here is as the Fire and the exteriour Earth is as the Shell of the Aeolipile and the Abysse as the Water within it now when the heat of the Sun had pierced through the Shell and reach'd the Waters it began to rarefie them and raise them into Vapours which rarefaction made them require more space and room than they needed before while they lay close and quiet And finding themselves pen'd in by the exteriour Earth they press'd with violence against that Arch to make it yield and give way to their dilatation and eruption So we see all Vapours and Exhalations enclos'd within the Earth and agitated there strive to break out and often shake the ground with their attempts to get loose And in the comparison we us'd of an Aeolipile if the mouth of it be stopt that gives the vent the Water raresi'd will burst the Vessel with its force And the resemblance of the Earth to an Egg which we us'd before holds also in this respect for when it heats before the Fire the moisture and Air within being rarefi'd makes it often burst the Shell And I do the more willingly mention this last comparison because I observe that some of the Ancients when they speak of the doctrine of the Mundane Egg say that after a certain period of time it was broken But there is yet another thing to be consider'd in this case for as the heat of the Sun gave force to these Vapours more and more and made them more strong and violent so on the other hand it also weaken'd more and more the Arch of the Earth that was to resist them sucking out the moisture that was the cement of its parts drying it immoderately and chapping it in sundry places And there being no Winter then to close up and unite its parts and restore the Earth to its former strength and compactness it grew more and more dispos'd to a dissolution And at length these preparations in Nature being made on either side the force of the Vapours increas'd and the walls weaken'd which should have kept them in when the appointed time was come that All-wise Providence had design'd for the punishment of a sinful World the whole fabrick brake and the frame of the Earth was torn in pieces as by an Earthquake and those great portions or fragments into which it was divided fell down into the Abysse some in one posture and some in another This is a short and general account how we may conceive the dissolution of the first Earth and an universal Deluge arising upon it And this manner of dissolution hath so many examples in Nature every Age that we need not insist farther upon the Explication of it The generality of Earthquakes arise from like causes and often end in a like effect a partial Deluge or Inundation of the place or Country where they happen and of these we have seen some instances even in our own times But whensoever it so happens that the Vapours and Exhalations shut up in the caverns of the Earth by rarefaction or compression come to be straitned they strive every way to set themselves at liberty and often break their prison or the cover of the Earth that kept them in which Earth upon that disruption falls into the Subterraneous Caverns that lie under it And if it so happens that those Caverns are full of Water as generally they are if they be great or deep that City or tract of Land is drown'd And also the fall of such a mass of Earth with its weight and bulk doth often force out the Water so impetuously as to throw it upon all the Country round about There are innumerable examples in History whereof we shall mention some hereafter of Cities and Countires thus swallow'd up or overflow'd by an Earthquake and an Inundation arising upon it And according to the manner of their fall or ruine they either remain'd wholly under water and perpetually drown'd as Sodom and Plato's Atlantis Bura and Helice and other Cities and Regions in Greece and Asia or they partly emerg'd and became dry Land again when their situation being pretty high the Waters after their violent agitation was abated retir'd into the lower places and into their Chanels Now if we compare these partial dissolutions of the Earth with an universal dissolution we may as easily conceive an Universal Deluge from an Universal Dissolution as a partial Deluge from a partial If we can conceive a City a Country an Island a Continent thus absorpt and overflown if we do but enlarge our thought and imagination a little we may conceive it as well of the whole Earth And it seems strange to me that none of the Ancients should hit upon this way of explaining the Universal Deluge there being such frequent instances in all Ages and Countries of Inundations made in this manner and never of any great Inundation made otherwise unless in maritime Countries by the irruption of the Sea into grounds that lie low 'T is true they would not so easily imagine this Dissolution because they did not understand the true from of the Ante-diluvian Earth but methinks the examination of the Deluge should have led them to the discovery of that For observing the difficulty or impossibility of an Universal Deluge without the Dissolution of the Earth as also frequent instances of these Dissolutions accompany'd with Deluges where the ground was hollow and had Subterraneous Waters this methinks should have prompted them to imagine that those Subterraneous Waters were universal at that time or extended quite round the Earth so as a dissolution of the exteriour Earth could not be made any where but it would fall into Waters and be more or less overflow'd And when they had once reacht this thought they might conclude both what the form of the Ante-diluvian Earth was and that the Deluge came to pass by the dissolution of it But we reason with ease about the finding out of things when they are once found out and there is but a thin paper-wall sometimes between the great discoveries and a perfect ignorance of them Let us proceed now to consider whether this supposition will answer all the conditions of an Universal Deluge and supply all the defects which we found in other Explications The great difficulty propos'd was to find Water sufficient to make an Universal Deluge reaching to the tops of the Mountains and yet that this Water should be transient and after some time should so return into its Chanels that the dry Land would appear and the Earth become again habitable There was that double impossibility in the common opinion that the quantity of Water necessary for such a Deluge was no where to be found or could no way be brought upon the Earth and then if it was brought could no way be remov'd again Our explication quite takes off the edge
that Earth being even and smooth without Hills and eminencies and might lay it all under water to some depth so as the Ark if it could not float upon those Rain-waters at least taking the advantage of a River or a Dock or Cistern made to receive them it might be a float before the Abysse was broken open For I do not suppose the Abysse broken open before any Rain fell And when the opening of the Abysse and of the Flood-gates of Heaven are mention'd together I am apt to think those Flood-gates were distinct from the common Rain and were something more violent and impetuous So that there might be preparatory Rains before the disruption of the Abysse and I do not know but those Rains so covering up and enclosing the Earth on every side might providentially contribute to the disruption of it not only by softning and weakning the Arch of the Earth in the bottom of those cracks and Chasms which were made by the Sun and which the Rain would first run into but especially by stopping on a sudden all the pores of the Earth and all evaporation which would make the vapors within struggle more violently as we get a Fever by a Cold and it may be in that struggle the Doors and the Bars were broke and the great Abysse gusht out as out of a womb However when the Rains were faln we may suppose the face of the Earth cover'd over with water and whether it was these waters that S. Peter refers to or that of the Abysse afterwards I cannot tell when he saith in his first Epistle Chap. 3. 20. Noah and his Family were sav'd by water so as the water which destroy'd the rest of the World was an instrument of their conservation in as much as it bore up the Ark and kept it from that impetuous shock which it would have had if either it had stood upon dry land when the Earth fell or if the Earth had been dissolv'd without any water on it or under it However things being thus prepar'd let us suppose the great frame of the exteriour Earth to have broke at this time or the Fountains of the great Abyss as Moses saith to have been then open'd from thence would issue upon the fall of the Earth with an unspeakable violence such a Flood of waters as would over-run and overwhelm for a time all those fragments which the Earth broke into and bury in one common Grave all Mankind and all the Inhabitants of the Earth Besides if the Flood-gates of Heaven were any thing distinct from the Forty days Rain their effusion 't is likely was at this same time when the Abyss was broken open for the sinking of the Earth would make an extraordinary convulsion of the Regions of the Air and that crack and noise that must be in the falling World and in the collision of the Earth and the Abyss would make a great and universal Concussion above which things together must needs so shake or so squeeze the Atmosphere as to bring down all the remaining Vapours But the force of these motions not being equal throughout the whole Air but drawing or pressing more in some places than in other where the Center of the Convulsion was there would be the chiefest collection and there would fall not showers of Rain or single drops but great spouts or caskades of water and this is that which Moses seems to call not improperly the Gataracts of Heaven or the Windows of Heaven being set open Thus the Flood came to its height and 't is not easie to represent to our selves this strange Scene of things when the Deluge was in its fury and extremity when the Earth was broken and swallow'd up in the Abyss whose raging waters rise higher than the Mountains and fill'd the Air with broken waves with an universal mist and with thick darkness so as Nature seem'd to be in a second Chaos and upon this Chaos rid the distrest Ark that bore the small remains of Mankind No Sea was ever so tumultuous as this nor is there any thing in present Nature to be compar'd with the disorder of these waters All the Poetry and all the Hyperboles that are us'd in the description of Storms and raging Seas were literally true in this if not beneath it The Ark was really carry'd to the tops of the highest Mountains and into the places of the Clouds and thrown down again into the deepest Gulfs and to this very state of the Deluge and of the Ark which was a Type of the Church in this World David seems to have alluded in the name of the Church Psal. 42. 7. Abysse calls upon Abysse at the noise of thy Cataracts or water-spouts all thy waves and billows have gone over me It was no doubt an extraordinary and miraculous Providence that could make a Vessel so ill man'd live upon such a Sea that kept it from being dasht against the Hills or overwhelm'd in the Deeps That Abyss which had devour'd and swallow'd up whole Forests of Woods Cities and Provinces nay the whole Earth when it had conquer'd all and triumph'd over all could not destroy this single Ship I remember in the story of the Argonauticks when Iason set out to fetch the Golden Fleece the Poet saith all the Gods that day look'd down from Heaven to view the Ship and the Nymphs stood upon the Mountain-tops to see the noble Youth of Thessaly pulling at the Oars We may with more reason suppose the good Angels to have look'd down upon this Ship of Noah's and that not out of couriosity as idle spectators but with a passionate concern for its safety and deliverance A Ship whose Cargo was no less than a whole World that carry'd the fortune and hopes of all posterity and if this had perish'd the Earth for any thing we know had been nothing but a Desart a great ruine a dead heap of Rubbish from the Deluge to the Conflagration But Death and Hell the Grave and Destruction have their bounds We may entertain our selves with the consideration of the face of the Deluge and of the broken and drown'd Earth in this Scheme with the floating Ark and the guardian Angels pag. 68. Thus much for the beginning and progress of the Deluge It now remains only that we consider it in its decrease and the state of the Earth after the waters were retir'd into their Chanels which makes the present state of it Moses saith God brought a wind upon the waters and the tops of the Hills became bare and then the lower grounds and Plains by degrees the waters being sunk into the Chanels of the Sea and the hollowness of the Earth and the whole Globe appearing in the form it is now under There needs nothing be added for explication of this 't is the genuine consequence of the Theory we have given of the Deluge and whether this wind was a descending wind to depress and keep down the swellings and inequalities of the Abyss or
course of the Vapours which cool'd the open Plains and made the weather temperate as well as fair But we have spoken enough in other places upon this subject of the Air and the Heavens Let us now descend to the Earth The Earth was divided into two Hemispheres separated by the Torrid Zone which at that time was uninhabitable and utterly unpassable so as the two Hemispheres made two distinct Worlds which so far as we can judge had no manner of commerce or communication one with another The Southern Hemisphere the Ancients call'd Antichthon the Opposite Earth or the Other World And this name and notion remain'd long after the reason of it had câ—ast Just as the Torrid Zone was generally accounted uninhabitable by the Ancients even in their time because it really had been so once and the Tradition remain'd uncorrected when the causes were taken away namely when the Earth had chang'd its posture to the Sun after the Deluge This may be lookt upon as the first division of that Primaval Earth into two Hemispheres naturally sever'd and disunited But it was also divided into five Zones two Frigid two Temperate and the Torrid betwixt them And this distinction of the Globe into â—â—ve Zones I think did properly belong to that Original Earth and Primitive Geography and improperly and by translation only to the present For all the Zones of our Earth are habitable and their distinctions are in a manner but imaginary not fixt by Nature whereas in that Earth where the Rivers fail'd and the Regions became uninhabitable by reason of driness and heat there begun the Torrid Zone and where the Regions became uninhabitable by reason of cold and moisture there begun the Frigid Zone and these being determin'd they became bounds on either side to the Temperate But all this was alter'd when the posture of the Earth was chang'd and chang'd for that very purpose as some of the Ancients have said That the uninhabitable parts of the Earth might become habitable Yet though there was so much of the first Earth uninhabitable there remain'd as much to be inhabited as we have now for the Sea since the breaking up of the Abyss hath taken away half of the Earth from us a great part whereof was to them good Land Besides We are not to suppose that the Torrid Zone was of that extent we make it now twenty three degrees and more on either side of the Aequator these bounds are set only by the Tropicks and the Tropicks by the obliquity of the course of the Sun or of the posture of the Earth which was not in that World Where the Rivers stopt there the Torrid Zone would begin but the Sun was directly perpendicular to no part of it but the middle How the Rivers flow'd in the first Earth we have before explain'd sufficiently and what parts the Rivers did not reach were turn'd into Sands and Desarts by the heat of the Sun for I cannot easily imagine that the Sandy Desarts of the Earth were made so at first immediately and from the beginning of the World from what causes should that be and to what purpose in that age But in those Tracts of the Earth that were not refresht with Rivers and moisture which cement the parts the ground would moulder and crumble into little pieces and then those pieces by the heat of the Sun were bak'd into Stone And this would come to pass chiefly in the hot and scorch'd Regions of the Earth though it might happen sometimes where there was not that extremity of heat if by any chance a place wanted Rivers and Water to keep the Earth in due temper but those Sands would not be so early or ancient as the other As for greater loose Stones and rough Pebbles there were none in that Earth Deucalion and Pyrrha when the Deluge was over found new made Stones to cast behind their backs the bones of their mother Earth which then were broken in pieces in that great ruine As for Plants and Trees we cannot imagine but that they must needs abound in the Primitive Earth seeing it was so well water'd and had a soil so fruitful A new unlabour'd soil replenistht with the Seeds of all Vegetables and a warm Sun that would call upon Nature early for her First-Fruits to be offer'd up at the beginning of her course Nature 〈◊〉 a wild luxuriancy at first which humane industry by degrees gave form and order to The Waters flow'd with a constant and gentle Current and were easily led which way the Inhabitants had a mind for their use or for their pleasure and shady Trees which grow best in most and warm Countries grac'd the Banks of their Rivers or Canals But that which was the beauty and crown of all was their perpetual Spring the Fields always green the Flowers always fresh and the Trees always cover'd with Leaves and Fruit But we have occasionally spoken of these things in several places and may do again hereafter and therefore need not inlarge upon them here As for Subterraneous things Metals and Minerals I believe they had none in the first Earth and the happier they no Gold nor Silver nor courser Metals The use of these is either imaginary or in such works as by the constitution of their World they had little occasion for And Minerals are either for Medicine which they had no need of further than Herbs or for Materials to certain Arts which were not then in use or were suppli'd by other ways These Subterraneous things Metals and metallick Minerals are Factitious not Original bodies coaeval with the Earth but are made in process of time after long preparations and concoctions by the action of the Sun within the bowels of the Earth And if the Stamina or principles of them risâ—e from the lower Regions that lie under the Abyss as I am apt to think they do 〈◊〉 doth not seem probable that they could be drawn through such a mass of Waters or that the heat of the Sun could on a sudden penetrate so deep and be able to loosen them and raise them into the exteriour Earth And as the first Age of the World was call'd Golden though it knew not what Gold was so the following Ages had their names from several Metals which lay then asleep in the dark and deep womb of Nature and see not the Sun till many Years and Ages afterwards Having run through the several Regions of Nature from top to bottom from the Heavens to the lower parts of the Earth and made some observations upon their order in the Ante-diluvian World Let us now look upon Man and other living Creatures that make the Superiour and Animate part of Nature We have observ'd and sufficiently spoken to that difference betwixt the Men of the old World and those of the present in point of Longaevity and given the reasons of it but we must not imagine that this long life was peculiar to Man all other Animals had their
other and the Deluge being once truly explain'd we shall from thence know the Form and Quality of the Ante-diluvian Earth Let us then proceed to the explication of that great and fatal Inundation whose History is well known and according to Moses the best of Historians in a few words is this Sixteen Hundred and odd years after the Earth was made and inhabited it was over-flow'd and destroy'd in a Deluge of Water Not a Deluge that was National only or over-run some particular Country or Region as Iudea or Greece or any other but it overspread the face of the whole Earth from Pole to Pole and from East to West and that in such excess that the Floods over-reacht the Tops of the highest Mountains the Rains descending after an unusual manner and the fountains of the Great Deep being broke open so as a general destruction and devastation was brought upon the Earth and all things in it Mankind and other living Creatures excepting only Noah and his Family who by a special Providence of God was preserv'd in a certain Ark or Vessel made like a Ship and such kinds of living Creatures as he took in to him After these Waters had rag'd for some time on the Earth they began to lessen and shrink and the great waves and fluctuations of this Deep or Abysse being quieted by degrees the Waters retir'd into their Chanels and Caverns within the Earth and the Mountains and Fields began to appear and the whole habitable Earth in that form and shape wherein we now see it Then the World began again and from that little Remnant preserv'd in the Ark the present race of Mankind and of Animals in the known parts of the Earth were propagated Thus perish'd the Old World and the present arose from the ruines and remains of it This is a short story of the greatest thing that every yet hapned in the World the greatest revolution and the greatest change in Nature and if we come to reflect seriously upon it we shall find it extremely difficult if not impossible to give an account of the Waters that compos'd this Deluge whence they came or whither they went It it had been only the Inundation of a Country or of a Province or of the greatest part of a Continent some proportionable causes perhaps might have been found out but a Deluge overflowing the whole Earth the whole Circuit and whole Extent of it burying all in Water even the greatest Mountains in any known parts of the Universe to find Water sufficient for this Effect as it is generally explained and understood I think is impossible And that we may the better judge of the whole matter let us first compute how much Water would be requisite for such a Deluge or to lay the Earth consider'd in its present form and the highest Mountains under Water Then let 's consider whether such a quantity of Water can be had out of all the stores that we know in Nature And from these two we will take our Ground and Rise and begin to reflect whether the World hath not been hitherto mistaken in the common opinion and explication of the general Deluge To discover how much Water would be requisite to make this Deluge we must first suppose enough to cover the plain surface of the Earth the Fields and lower Grounds then we must heap up so much more upon this as will reach above the tops of the highest Mountains so as drawing a Circle over the tops of the highest Mountains quite round the Earth suppose from Pole to Pole and another to meet it round the middle of the Earth all that space or capacity contin'd within these Circles is to be fill'd up with Water This I confess will make a prodigious mass of Water and it looks frightfully to the imagination 't is huge and great but 't is extravagantly so as a great Monster It doth not look like the work of God or Nature However let 's compute a little more particularly how much this will amount to or how many Oceans of Water would be necessary to compose this great Ocean rowling in the Air without bounds or banks If all the Mountains were par'd off the Earth and so the surface of it lay even or in an equal convexity every where with the surface of the Sea from this surface of the Sea let us suppose that the height of the Mountains may be a mile and a half or that we may not seem at all to favour our own opinion or calculation let us take a mile only for the perpendicular height of the Mountains Let us on the other side suppose the Sea to cover half the Earth as 't is generally believ'd to do and the common depth of it taking one place with another to be about a quarter of a mile or 250 paces I say taking one place with another for though the middle Chanel of the great Ocean be far deeper we may observe that there is commonly a descent or declivity from the shore to the middle part of the Chanel so that one comes by degrees into the depth of it and those shory parts are generally but some fathoms deep Besides in arms of the Sea in Straits and among Islands there is commonly no great depth and some places are plain shallows So as upon a moderate computation one place compar'd with another we may take a quarter of a mile or about an hundred fathoms for the common measure of the depth of the Sea if we were cast into a Chanel of an equal depth every where This being suppos'd there would need four Oceans to lie upon this Ocean to raise it up to the top of the Mountains or so high as the Waters of the Deluge rise then four Oceans more to lie upon the Land that the Water there might swell to the same height which together make eight Oceans for the proportion of the Water requir'd in the Deluge 'T is true there would not be altogether so much Water requir'd for the Land as for the Sea to raise them to an equal height because Mountains and Hills would fill up part of that space upon the Land and so make less Water requisite But to compensate this and confirm our computation we must consider in the first place that we have taken a much less height of the Mountains than is requisite if we respect the Mediterraneous Mountains or those that are at a great distance from the Sea For their height above the surface of the Sea computing the declivity of the Land all along from the Mountains to the Sea-side and that there is such a declivity is manifest from the course and descent of the Rivers is far greater than the proportion we have taken The height of Mountains is usually taken from the foot of them or from the next Plain which if it be far from the Sea we may reasonably allow as much for the declension of the Land from that place to the Sea as for 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
an equal share and concern in it Moses saith also the Fountains of the grear Abyss were burst asunder to make the Deluge and what means this Abyss and the bursting of it if restrain'd to Iudaea or some adjacent Countries What appearance is there of this Disruption there more than in other Places Furthermore S. Peter plainly implies that the Antediluvian Heavens and Earth perish'd in the Deluge and opposeth the present Earth and Heavens to them as different and of another constitution and saith that these shall perish by Fire as the other perish'd by Water So he compares the Conflagration with the Deluge as two general dissolutions of Nature and one may as well say that the Conflagration shall be only National and but two or three Countries burnt in that last Fire as to say that the Deluge was so I confess that discourse of S. Peter concerning the several States of the World would sufficiently convince me if there was nothing else That the Deluge was not a particular or National Inundation but a mundane change that extended to the whole Earth and both to the lower Heavens and Earth All Antiquity we know hath spoke of these Mundane Revolutions or Periods that the World should be successively destroy'd by Water and Fire and I do not doubt but that this Deluge of Noah's which Moses describes was the first and leading instance of this kind and accordingly we see that after this Period and after the Flood the blessing for multiplication and for replenishing the Earth with Inhabitants was as solemnly pronounc'd by God Almighty as at the first Creation of Man Gen. 9. 1. with Gen. 1. 28. These considerations I think might be sufficient to give us assurance from Divine Writ of the universality of the Deluge and yet Moses affords us another argument as demonstrative as any when in the History of the Deluge he saith Gen. 7. 19. The waters exceedingly prevailed upon the Earth and all the high Hills that were under the whole Heavens were covered All the high Hills he saith under the whole Heavens then quite round the Earth and if the Mountains were coverâ—d quite round the Earth sure the Plains could not scape But to argue with them upon their own grounds Let us suppose only the Asiatick and Armenian Mountains covered with these waters this they cannot deny then unless there was a miracle to keep these waters upon heaps they would flow throughout the Earth for these Mountains are high enough to make them fall every way and make them joyn with our Seas that environ the Continent We cannot imagine Hills and Mountains of water to have hung about Iudaea as if they were congeal'd or mass of water to have stood upon the middle of the Earth like one great drop or a trembling Jelly and all the places about it dry and untouch'd All liquid bodies are dissusive for their parts being in motion have no tye or connexion one with another but glide and fall off any way as gravity and the Air presseth them so the surface of water doth always conform into a Spherical convexity with the rest of the Globe of the Earth aud every part of it falls as near to the Center as it can wherefore when these waters began to rise at first long before they could swell to the heighth of the Mountains they would diffuse themselves every way and thereupon all the Valleys and Plains and lower parts of the Earth would be filled throughout the whole Earth before they could rise to the tops of the Mountains in any part of it And the Sea would be all raised to a considerble heighth before the Mountains could be covered For let 's suppose as they do that this water fell not throughout the whole Earth but in some particular Country and there made first a great Lake this Lake when it begun to swell would every way discharge it self by any descents or declivities of the ground and these issues and derivations being once made and supplied with new waters pushing them forwards would continue their course till they arriv'd at the Sea just as other Rivers do for these would be but so many Rivers rising out of this Lake and would not be considerably deeper and higher at the Fountain than in their progress or at the Sea We may as well then expect that the Leman-Lake for instance out of which the Rhone runs should swell to the tops of the Alpes on the one hand aud the Mountains of Switzerland and Burgundy on the other and then stop without overflowing the plainer Countries that lie beyond them as to suppose that this Diluvian Lake should rise to the Mountains tops in one place and not diffuse it self equally into all Countries about and upon the surface of the Sea in proportion to its heighth and depth in the place where it first fell or stood Thus much for Sacred History The universality of the Deluge is also attested by profane History for the fame of it is gone through the Earth and there are Records or Traditions concerning it in all parts of this and the new-found World The Americans do acknowledge and speak of it in their Continent as Acosta witnesseth and Laet in their Histories of them The Chineses have the Tradition of it which is the farthest part of our Continent and the nearer and Western parts of Asia is acknowledg'd the proper seat of it Not to mention Deucallon's Deluge in the European parts which seems to be the same under a disguise So as you may trace the Deluge quite round the Globe in profane History and which is remarkable every one of these people have a tale to tell some one way some another concerning the restauration of mankind which is an argument that they thought all mankind destroy'd by that Deluge In the old dispute between the Scythians and the Aegyptians for Antiquity which Iustin mentions they refer to a former destruction of the World by Water or Fire and argue whether Nation first rise again and was original to the other So the Babylonians Assyrians Phoenicians and others mention the Deluge in their stories And we cannot without offering violence to all Records and Authority Divine and Humane deny that there hath been an universal Deluge upon the Earth and if there was an universal Deluge no question it was that of Noah's and that which Moses describ'd and that which we treat of at present These considerations I think are abundantly sufficient to silence that opinion concerning the limitation and restriction of the Deluge to a particular Country or Countries It ought rather to be lookt upon as an Evasion indeed than Opinion seeing the Authors do not offer any positive argument for the proof of it but depend only upon that negative argument That an universal Deluge is a thing unintelligible This stumbling-stone we hope to take away for the future and that men shall not be put to that unhappy choice either to deny matter of fact well
attested or admit an effect whereof they cannot see any possible causes And so having stated and propos'd the whole difficulty and try'd all ways offer'd by others and found them ineffectual let us now apply our selves by degrees to unty the knot The excessive quantity of water is the great difficulty and the removal of it afterwards Those eight Oceans lay heavy upon my thoughts and I cast about every way to find an expedient or to find some way whereby the same effect might be brought to pass with less Water and in such a manner that that Water might afterwards conveniently be discharg'd The first thought that came into my mind upon that occasion was concerning the form of the Earth which I imagin'd might possibly at that time be different from what it is at present and come nearer to plainness and equality in the surface of it and so might the more easily be overflow'd and the Deluge perform'd with less water This opinion concerning the plainness of the first Earth I also found in Antiquity mention'd and refer'd to by several Interpreters in their Commentaries upon Genesis either upon occasion of the Deluge or of that Fountain which is said Gen. 2. 6. to have watered the face of the whole Earth And a late eminent person the honour of his profession for Integrity and Learning in his discourse concerning the Origination of mankind hath made a like judgment of the State of the Earth before the Deluge that the face of it was more smooth and regular than it is now But yet upon second thoughts I easily see that this alone would not be sufficient to explain the Deluge nor to give an account of the present from of the Earth unequal and Mountainous as it is 'T is true this would give a great advantage to the waters and the Rains that fell for forty days together would have a great power over the Earth being plain and smooth but how would these waters be dispos'd of when the Deluge ceas'd or how could it ever cease Besides what means the disruption of the great Deep or the great Abysse or what answers to it upon this supposition This was assuredly of no less consideration than the Rains nay I believe the Rains were but preparatory in some measure and that the violence and consummation of the Deluge depended upon the disruption of the great Abysse Therefore I saw it necessary to my first thought concerning the smoothness and plainness of the Ante-diluvian Earth to add a second concerning the disruption and dissolution of it for as it often happens in Earthquakes when the exteriour Earth is burst asunder and a great Flood of waters issues out according to the quantity and force of them an Inundation is made in those parts more or less so I thought if that Abysse lay under ground and round the Earth and we should suppose the Earth in this manner to be broken in several places at once and as it were a general dissolution made we might suppose that to make a general Deluge as well as a particular dissolution often makes a particular But I will not anticipate here the explication we intend to give of the universal Deluge in the following Chapters only by this previous intimation we may gather some hopes it may be that the matter is not so desperate as the former representation might possibly make us fansie it Give me leave to add farther in this place that it hath been observ'd by several from the contemplation of Mountains and Rocks and Precipices of the Chanel of the Sea and of Islands and of Subterraneous Caverns that the surface of the Earth or the exteriour Region which we inhabit hath been broke and the parts of it dislocated And one might instance more particularly in several parcels of Nature that retain still the evident marks of fraction and ruine and by their present form and posture show that they have been once in another state and situation one to another We shall have occasion hereafter to give an account of these Phaenomena from which several have rightly argu'd and concluded some general rupture or ruine in the superficial parts of the Earth But this ruine it is true they have imagin'd and explain'd several ways some thinking that it was made the third day after the foundation of the Earth when they suppose the Chanel of the Sea to have been form'd and Mountains and Caverns at the same time by a violent depression of some parts of the Earth and an extrusion and elevation of others to make them room Others suppose it to have come not all at once but by degrees at several times and in several Ages from particular and accidental causes as the Earth falling in upon Fires under ground or water eating away the lower parts or Vapours and Exhalations breaking out and tearing the Earth 'T is true I am not of their opinion in either of these Explications and we shall show at large hereafter when we have propos'd and stated our own Theory how incompetent such causes are to bring the Earth into that form and condition we now find it in But in the mean time we may so far make use of these Opinions in general as not to be startled at this Doctrine concerning the breaking or dissolution of the exteriour Earth for in all Ages the face of Nature hath provok'd men to think of and observe such a thing And who can do otherwise to see the Elements displac'd and disorder'd as they seem to lie at present the heaviest and grossest bodies in the highest places and the liquid and volatile kept below an huge mass of Stone or Rock rear'd into the Air and the water creeping at its feet whereas this is the more light and active body and by the law of Nature should take place of Rocks and Stones So we see by the like disorder the Air thrown down into Dungeons of the Earth and the Earth got up among the Clouds for there are the tops of the Mountains and under their roots in Holes and Caverns the Air is often detain'd By what regular action of Nature can we suppose things first produc'd in this posture and form not to mention how broke and torn the inward substance of the Earth is which of it self is an uniform mass close and compact but in the condition we see it it lies hollow in many places with great vacuities intercepted betwixt the portions of it a thing which we see happens in all ruines more or less especially when the parts of the ruines are great and inflexible Then what can have more the figure and meen of a ruine than Crags and Rocks and Cliffs whether upon the Sea shore or upon the sides of Mountains what can be more apparently broke than they are and those lesser Rocks or great bulky Stones that lie often scatter'd near the feet of the other whether in the Sea or upon the Land are they not manifest fragments and pieces of those greater
masses Besides the posture of these Rocks which is often leaning or recumbent or prostrate shows to the eye that they have had a fall or some kind of dislocation from their Natural site And the same thing may be observed in the Tracts and Regions of the Earth which very seldom for ten miles together have any regular surface or continuity one with another but lie high and low and are variously inclin'd sometimes one way sometimes another without any rule or order Whereas I see no reason but the surface of the Land should be as regular as that of the water in the first production of it And the Strata or beds within lie as even This I am sure of that this disposition of the Elements and the parts of the Earth outward and inward hath something irregular and unnatural in it and manifestly shews us the marks or footsteps of some kind of ruine and dissolution which we shall shew you in its due place happen'd in such a way that at the same time a general Flood of waters would necessarily over-run the face of the whole Earth And by the same fatal blow the Earth fell out of that regular form wherein it was produc'd at first into all these irregularities which we see in its present form and composition so that we shall give thereby a double satisfaction to the mind both to shew it a fair and intelligible account of the general Deluge how the waters came upon the Earth and how they return'd into their Chanels again and left the Earth habitable and likewise to shew it how the Mountains were brought forth and the Chanel of the Sea discover'd How all those inequalities came in the body or face of the Earth and those empty Vaults and Caverns in its bowels which things are no less matter of admiration than the Flood it self But I must beg leave to draw a Curtain before the Work for a while and to keep your patience a little in suspence till materials are prepar'd and all things ready to represent and explain what we have propos'd Yet I hope in the mean time to entertain the mind with scenes no less pleasing though of quite another face and order for we must now return to the beginning of the World and look upon the first rudiments of Nature and that dark but fruitful womb out of which all things sprang I mean the Chaos For this is the matter which we must next work upon and it will be no unpleasing thing to observe how that rude mass will shoot it self into several forms one after another till it comes at length to make an habitable World The steddy hand of Providence which keeps all things in weight and measure being the invisible guide of all its motions These motions we must examine from first to last to find out what was the form of the Earth and what was the place or situation of the Ocean or the great Abyss in that first state of Nature Which two things being determin'd we shall be able to make a certain judgment what kind of dissolution that Earth was capable of and whether from that dissolution an Universal Deluge would follow with all the consequences of it In the mean time for the ease and satisfaction of the Reader we will here mark the order and distribution of the first Book which we divide into Three Sections whereof the First is these Three Chapters past in the Second Section we will shew that the Earth before the Deluge was of a different frame and form from the present Earth and particularly of such a form as made it subject to a dissolution And to such a dissolution as did necessarily expose it to an Universal Deluge And in this place we shall apply our discourse particularly to the explication of Noah's Flood and that under all its conditions of the height of the waters of their universality of the destruction of the World by them and of their retiring afterwards from the Earth and this Section will consist of the Fourth Fifth Sixth Seventh and Eighth Chapters In the Third Section we prove the same dissolution from the effects and consequences of it or from the contemplation of the present face of the Earth And here an account is given of the Origin of Mountains of subterraneous Waters and Caverns of the great Chanel of the Sea and of the first production of Islands and those things are the Contents of the Ninth Tenth and Eleventh Chapters Then in the last Chapter we make a general review of the whole Work and a general review of Nature that by comparing them together their full agreement and correspondency may appear Here several collateral arguments are given for confirmation of the preceeding Theory and some reflections are made upon the state of the other Planets compar'd with the Earth And lastly what accounts soever have been given by others of the present form and irregularities of the Earth are examin'd and shew'd insufficient And this seemeth to be all that is requisite upon this subject CHAP. IV. That the Earth and Mankind had an Original and were not from Eternity Prov'd against Aristotle The first proposition of our Theory laid down viz. That the Antediluvian Earth was of a different form and construction from the present This is prov'd by Divine Authority and from the nature and form of the Chaos out of which the Earth was made WE are now to enquire into the Original of the Earth and in what form it was built at first that we may lay our foundation for the following Theory deep and sure It hath been the general opinion and consent of the Learned of all Nations that the Earth arose from a Chaos This is attested by History both Sacred and Profane only Aristotle whom so great a part of the Christian World have made their Oracle or Idol hath maintain'd the Eternity of the Earth and the Eternity of Mankind that the Earth and the World were from Everlasting and in that very form they are in now with Men and Women and all living Creatures Trees and Fruit Metals and Minerals and whatsoever is of Natural production We say all these things arose and had their first existence or production not six thousand years ago He saith they have subsisted thus for ever through an infinite Series of past Generations and shall continue as long without first or last And if so there was neither Chaos nor any other beginning to the Earth This takes away the subject of our discourse and therefore we must first remove this stone but of the way and prove that the Earth had an Original and that from a Chaos before we shew how it arose from a Chaos and what was the first habitable form that it setled into We are assur'd by Divine Authority that the Earth and Mankind had a beginning Moses saith In the beginning God made the Heavens and the Earth Speaking it as of a certain Period or Term from whence he counts the
length come to an equality and the Waters that lie in the lower parts and in the Chanels those Chanels and Valleys being fill'd up with Earth would be thrust out and rise every where upon the surface of the Earth Which new post when they had once seiz'd on they would never quit it nor would any thing be able to dispossess them for 't is their natural place and situation which they always tend to and from which there is no progress nor regress in a course of Nature So that the Earth would have been both now and from innumerable Generations before this all under water and uninhabitable if it had stood from everlasting and this form of it had been its first original form Nor can he doubt of this argumentation that considers the coherence of it and will allow time enough for the effect I do not say the Earth would be reduc'd to this uninhabitable form in ten thousand years time though I believe it would but take twenty if you please take an hundred thousand take a million 't is all one for you may take the one as easily as the other out of Eternity and they make both equally against their supposition Nor is it any matter how little you suppose the Mountains to decrease 't is but taking more time and the same effect still follows Let them but waste as much as a grain of Mustardseed every day or a foot in an Age this would be more than enough in ten thousand Ages to consume the tallest Mountain upon Earth The Air alone and the little drops of Rain have defac'd the strongest and the proudest monuments of the Greeks and Romans and allow them but time enough and they will of themselves beat down the Rocks into the Sea and the Hills into the Valleys But if we add to these all those other foremention'd causes that work with more violence and the weight of the Mountains themselves which upon any occasion offer'd is ready to sink them lower we shall shorten the time and make the effect more sure We need add no more here in particular Against this Aristotelian Doctrine that makes the present form of the Earth to have been from Eternity for the truth is this whole Book is one continued argument against that Opinion shewing that it hath de facto chang'd its form both in that we have prov'd that it was not capable of an universal Deluge in this form and consequently was once under another and also in that we shall prove at large hereafter throughout the Third and Fourth Sections that it hath been broken and dissolv'd We might also add one consideration more that if it had stood always under this form it would have been under Fire if it had not been under Water and the Conflagration which it is to undergo would have overtaken it long ere this For S. Peter saith the Heavens and the Earth that are now as oppos'd to the Ante-diluvian and considered in their present form and constitution are fitted to be consum'd by Fire And whosoever understands the progress and revolutions of Nature will see that neither the present form of the Earth nor its first form were permanent and immutable forms but transient and temporary by their own frame and constitution which the Author of Nature after certain periods of time had design'd for change and for destruction Thus much for the body of the Earth that it could not have been from Eternity as Aristotle pretended in the form it hath Now let 's consider the Origination of Mankind and that we shall find could much less be Eternal than the other for whatsoever destroy'd the form of the Earth would also destroy Mankind and besidâ—s there are many particular marks and arguments that the Generations of Men have not been from Everlasting All History and all monuments of Antiquity of what kind soever are but of a few thousand of years date we have still the memory of the golden Age of the first state of Nature and how mortals liv'd then in innocency and simplicity The invention of Arts even those that are necessary or useful to humane life hath been within the knowledge of Men How imperfect was the Geography of the Ancients how imperfect their knowledge of the Earth how imperfect their Navigation Can we imagine if there had been Men from Everlasting a Sea as now and all materials for Shipping as much as we have that men could have been so ignorant both of the Land and of the Sea as 't is manifest they have been till of late Ages They had very different fancies concerning the figure of the Earth They knew no Land beyond our Continent and that very imperfectly too and the Torrid Zone they thought utterly uninhabitable We think it strange taking that short date of the World which we give it that Men should not have made more progress in the knowledge of these things But how impossible is it then if you suppose them to have been from Everlasting They had the same wit and passions that we have the same motives that we have can we then imagine that neither the ambition of Princes nor interest or gain in private Persons nor curiosity and the desire of Knowledge nor the glory of discoveries nor any other passion or consideration could ever move them in that endless time to try their fortunes upon the Sea and know something more of the World they inhabited Though you should suppose them generally stupid which there is no reason to do yet in a course of infinite Generations there would be some great Genio's some extraordinary persons that would attempt things above the rest We have done more within the compass of our little World which we can but count as to this from the general Deluge than those Eternal Men had done in their innumerable Ages foregoing You will say it may be they had not the advantages and opportunities for Navigation as we have and for discoveries because the use of the Loadstone and the Mariners Needle was not then known But that 's the wonder that either that invention or any other should not be brought to light till t'other day if the World had stood from Eternity I say this or any other practical invention for such things when they are once found out and known are not easily lost again because they are of daily use And 't is in most other practical Arts as in Navigation we generally know their Original and History who the Inventors and by what degrees improv'd and how few of them brought to any perfection till of late Ages All the Artificial and Mechanical World is in a manner new and what you may call the Civil World too is in a great measure so What relates to Government and Laws to Wars and Discipline we can trace these things to their Origin or very near it The use of Money and of Coins nay the use of the very Elements for they tell us of the first invention of Fire
three feet deep made up only of little flakes or pieces of Ice which falling from the middle Region of the Air and meeting with the Earth in their descent are there stopt and heapt up one upon another But if we should suppose little particles of Earth to shower down not only from the middle Region but from the whole capacity and extent of those vast spaces that are betwixt us and the Moon we could not imagine but these would constitute an Orb of Earth some thousands of times deeper than the greatest Snow which being increas'd and swoln by that oily liquor it fell into and incorporated with it would be thick strong and great enough in all respects to render it an habitable Earth We cannot doubt therefore but such a body as this would be form'd and would be sufficient in quantity for an habitable Earth Then for the quality of it it will answer all the purposes of a Rising World What can be a more proper Seminary for Plants and Animals than a soil of this temper and composition A finer and lighter sort of Earth mixt with a benign Juice easie and obedient to the action of the Sun or of what other causes were employ'd by the Author of Nature for the production of things in the new-made Earth What sort or disposition of matter could be more fit and ready to catch life from Heaven and to be drawn into all forms that the rudiments of life or the bodies of living Creatures would require What soil more proper for vegetation than this warm moisture which could have no fault unless it was too fertile and luxuriant And that is no fault neither at the beginning of a World This I am sure of that the learned amongst the Ancients both Greeks Egyptians Phoenicians and others have describ'd the primigenial soil or the temper of the Earth that was the first subject for the Generation and Origin of Plants and Animals after such a manner as is truly express'd and I think with advantage by this draught of the primigenial Earth Thus much concerning the matter of the first Earth Let us reflect a little upon the form of it also whether External or Internal both whereof do manifestly shew themselves from the manner of its production or formation As to the External form you see it is according to the Proposition we were to prove smooth regular and uniform without Mountains and without a Sea And the proof we have given of it is very easie The Globe of the Earth could not possibly rise immediately from a Chaos into the irregular form in which it is at present The Chaos being a fluid mass which we know doth necessarily fall into a Spherical surface whose parts are equi-distant from the Center and consequently in an equal and even convexity one with another And seeing upon the distinction of a Chaos and separation into several Elementary masses the Water would naturally have a superiour place to the Earth 't is manifest that there could be no habitable Earth form'd out of the Chaos unless by some concretion upon the face of the Water Then lastly seeing this concrete Orb of Earth upon the face of the Water would be of the same form with the surface of the Water it was spread upon there being no causes that we know of to make any inequality in it we must conclude it equal and uniform and without Mountains as also without a Sea for the Sea and all the mass of Waters was enclos'd within this exteriour Earth which had no other basis or foundation to rest upon The contemplation of these things and of this posture of the Earth upon the Waters doth so strongly bring to mind certain passages of Scripture which will recur in another place that we cannot without injury to truth pass them by here in silence Passages that have such a manifest resemblance and agreement to this form and situation of the Earth that they seem visibly to point at it such are those expressions of the Psalmist God hath founded the Earth upon the Seas And in another Psalm speaking of the wisdom and power of God in the Creation he saith To him who alone doth great wonders to him that by wisdom made the Heavens to him that extended or stretched out the Earth above the Waters What can be more plain or proper to denote that form of the Earth that we have describ'd and to express particularly the inclosure of the Waters within the Earth as we have represented them He saith in another place By the Word of the Lord were the Heavens made he shut up the Waters of the Sea as in Bags for so the word is to be render'd and is render'd by all except the English and laid up the Abysse as in store-houses This you see is very conformable to that System of the Earth and Sea which we have propos'd here Yet there is something more express than all this in that remarkable place in the Proverbs of Solomon where Wisdom declaring her Antiquity and Existence before the foundation of the Earth amongst other things saith When he prepared the Heavens I was there When he drew an Orb over the surface of the Abysse or when he set an Orb upon the face of the Abysse We render it in the English a Compass or Circle but 't is more truly rendred an Orb or Sphere and what Orb or Spherical Body was this which at the formation of the Earth was built and plac'd round about the Abyss but that wonderful Arch whose form and production we have describ'd encompassing the mass of Waters which in Scripture is often call'd the Abysse or Deep Lastly This Scheme of the first Earth gives light to that place we mention'd before of S. Peter's where the first Earth is said to consist of Water and by Water and by reason thereof was obnoxious to a Deluge The first part of this character is plain from the description now given and the second will appear in the following Chapter In the mean time concerning these passages of Scripture which we have cited we may truly and modestly say that though they would not it may be without a Theory premis'd have been taken or interpreted in this sence yet this Theory being premis'd I dare appeal to any unprejudic'd person if they have not a fairer and easier a more full and more emphatical sence when apply'd to that form of the Earth and Sea we are now speaking of than to their present form or to any other we can imagine Thus much concerning the external form of the first Earth Let us now reflect a little upon the Internal form of it which consists of several Regions involving one another like Orbs about the same Center or of the several Elements cast circularly about each other as it appears in the Fourth and Fifth Figure And as we have noted the External form of this primaeâ—al Earth to have been markt and celebrated in the Sacred Writings so
likewise in the Philosophy and Learning of the Ancients there are several remains and indications of this Internal form and composition of it For 't is observable that the Ancients in treating of the Chaos and in raising the World out of it rang'd it into several Regions or Masses as we have done and in that order successively rising one from another as if it was a Pedigree or Genealogy And those Parts and Regions of Nature into which the Chaos was by degrees divided they signified commonly by dark and obscure names as the Night Tartarus Oceanus and such like which we have express'd in their plain and proper terms And whereas the Chaos when it was first set on work ran all into divisions and separations of one Element from another which afterwards were all in some measure united and associated in this primigenial Earth the Ancients accordingly made Contention the principle that reign'd in the Chaos at first and then Love The one to express the divisions and the other the union of all parties in this middle and common bond These and such like notions which we find in the Writings of the Ancients figuratively and darkly deliver'd receive a clearer light when compar'd with this Theory of the Chaos which representing every thing plainly and in its natural colours is a Key to their thoughts and an illustration of their obscurer Philosophy concerning the Original of the World as we have shewn at large in the Latin Treatise Fig 7. pag. 44. Thus much concerning the first Earth its production and form and concerning our Second Proposition relating to it Which being prov'd by Reason the laws of Nature and the motions of the Chaos then attested by Antiquity both as to the matter and form of it and confirm'd by Sacred Writers we may take it now for a well establisht truth and proceed upon this supposition That the Ante-diluvian Earth was smooth and uniform without Mountains or Sea to the explication of the universal Deluge Give me leave only before we proceed any further to annex here a short Advertisement concerning the Causes of this wonderful structure of the first Earth 'T is true we have propos'd the Natural Causes of it and I do not know wherein our Explication is false or defective but in things of this kind we may easily be too credulous And this structure is so marvellous that it ought rather to be consider'd as a particular effect of the Divine Art than as the work of Nature The whole Globe of the Water vaulted over and the exteriour Earth hanging above the Deep sustain'd by nothing but its own measures and manner of construction A Building without foundation or corner-stone This seems to be a piece of Divine Geometry or Architecture and to this I think is to be refer'd that magnificent challenge which God Almighty made to Iob Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the Earth declare if thou hast understanding Who hath laid the measures thereof if thou knowest or who hath stretched the line upon it Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastned or who laid the corner-stone thereof When the morning Stars sang together and all the Sons of God shouted for joy Moses also when he had describ'd the Chaos saith The Spirit of God mov'd upon or sat brooding upon the face of the waters without all doubt to produce some effects there And S. Peter when he speaks of the form of the Ante-diluvian Earth how it stood in reference to the Waters adds By the Word of God or by the Wisdom of God it was made so And this same Wisdom of God in the Proverbs as we observed before takes notice of this very piece of work in the formation of the Earth When he set an Orb over the face of the Deep I was there And lastly the Ancient Philosophers or at least the best of them to give them their due always brought in Mens or Amor as a Supernatural principle to unite and consociate the parts of the Chaos which was first done in the composition of this wonderful Arch of the Earth Wherefore to the great Architect who made the boundless Universe out of nothing and form'd the Earth out of a Chaos let the praise of the Whole Work and particularly of this Master-piece for ever with all honour be given CHAP. VI. The dissolution of the First Earth The Deluge ensuing thereupon And the form of the present Earth rising from the Ruines of the First WE have now brought to light the Ante-diluvian Earth out of the dark mass of the Chaos and not only described the surface of it but laid open the inward parts to shew in what order its Regions lay Let us now close it up and represent the Earth entire and in large proportions more like an habitable World as in this Figure where you see the smooth convex of the Earth and may imagine the great Abysse spread under it which two are to be the only subject of our further contemplation Booke j st p. 46. In this smooth Earth were the first Scenes of the World and the first Generations of Mankind it had the beauty of Youth and blooming Nature fresh and fruitful and not a wrinkle scar or fracture in all its body no Rocks nor Mountains no hollow Caves nor gaping Chanels but even and uniform all over And the smoothness of the Earth made the face of the Heavens so too the Air was calm and serene none of those tumultuary motions and conflicts of vapours which the Mountains and the Winds cause in ours 'T was suited to a golden Age and to the first innocency of Nature All this you 'll say is well we are got into a pleasant World indeed but what 's this to the purpose what appearance of a Deluge here where there is not so much as a Sea nor half so much Water as we have in this Earth or what appearance of Mountains or Caverns or other irregularities of the Earth where all is level and united So that instead of loosing the Knot this ties it the harder You pretend to shew us how the Deluge was made and you lock up all the Waters within the womb of the Earth and set Bars and Doors and a Wall of impenetrable strength and thickness to keep them there And you pretend to shew us the original of Rocks and Mountains and Caverns of the Earth and bring us to a wide and endless plain smooth as the calm Sea This is all true and yet we are not so far from the sight and discovery of those things as you imagine draw but the curtain and these Scenes will appear or something very like them We must remember that S. Peter told us that the Ante-diluvian Earth perish'd or was demolish'd and Moses saith the great Abysse was broken open at the Deluge Let us then suppose that at a time appointed by Divine Providence and from Causes made ready to do that great execution upon a sinful
World that this Abysse was open'd or that the frame of the Earth broke and fell down into the Great Abysse At this one stroke all Nature would be chang'd and this single action would have two great and visible Effects The one Transient and the other permanent First an universal Deluge would overflow all the parts and Regions of the broken Earth during the great commotion and agitation of the Abysse by the violent fall of the Earth into it This would be the first and unquestionable effect of this dissolution and all that World would be destroyed Then when the agitation of the Abysse was asswag'd and the Waters by degrees were retir'd into their Chanels and the dry land appear'd you would see the true image of the present Earth in the ruines of the first The surface of the Globe would be divided into Land and Sea the Land would consist of Plains and Valleys and Mountains according as the pieces of this ruine were plac'd and dispos'd Upon the banks of the Sea would stand the Rocks and near the shoar would be Islands or lesse fragments of Earth compass'd round by Water Then as to Subterraneous Waters and all Subterraneous Caverns and hollownesses upon this supposition those things could not be otherwise for the parts would fall hollow in many places in this as in all other ruines And seeing the Earth fell into this Abysse the Waters at a certain height would flow into all those hollow places and cavities and would also sink and insinuate into many parts of the solid Earth And though these Subterraneous Vaults or holes whether dry or full of Water would be more or less in all places where the parts fell hollow yet they would be found especially about the roots of the Mountains and the higher parts of the Earth for there the sides bearing up one against the other they could not lie so close at the bottoms but many vacuities would be intercepted Nor are there any other inequalities or irregularities observable in the present form of the Earth whether in the surface of it or interiour construction whereof this hypothesis doth not give a ready fair and intelligible account and doth at one view represent them all to us with their causes as in a glass And whether that Glass be true and the Image answer to the Original if you doubt of it we will hereafter examine them piece by piece But in the first place we must consider the General Deluge how easily and truly this supposition represents and explains it and answers all the properties and conditions of it I think it will be easily allow'd that such a dissolution of the Earth as we have propos'd and fall of it into the Abysse would certainly make an Universal Deluge and effectually destroy the old World which perish'd in it But we have not yet particularly prov'd this dissolution and in what manner the Deluge follow'd upon it And to assert things in gross never makes that firm impression upon our understandings and upon our belief as to see them deduc'd with their causes and circumstances And therefore we must endeavour to shew what preparations there were in Nature for this great dissolution and after what manner it came to pass and the Deluge in consequence of it We have noted before that Moses imputed the Deluge to the disruption of the Abyss and S. Peter to the particular constitution of that Earth which made it obnoxious to be absorpt in Water so that our explication so far is justifi'd But it was below the dignity of those Sacred Pen-men or the Spirit of God that directed them to shew us the causes of this disruption or of this absorption this is left to the enquiries of men For it was never the design of Providence to give such particular explications of Natural things as should make us idle or the use of Reason unnecessary but on the contrary by delivering great conclusions to us to excite our curiosity and inquisitiveness after the methods by which such things were brought to pass And it may be there is no greater trial or instance of Natural Wisdom than to find out the Chanel in which these great revolutions of Nature which we treat on flow and succeed one another Let us therefore resume that System of the Ante-diluvian Earth which we have deduc'd from the Chaos and which we find to answer S. Peter's description and Moses his account of the Deluge This Earth could not be obnoxious to a Deluge as the Apostle supposeth it to have been but by a dissolution for the Abysse was enclos'd within its bowels And Moses doth in effect tell us there was such a dissolution when he saith The fountains of the great Abysse were borken open For Fountains are broken open no otherwise than by breaking up the ground that covers them We must therefore here inquire in what order and from what causes the frame of this exteriour Earth was dissolv'd and then we shall soon see how upon that dissolution the Deluge immediately prevail'd and overflow'd all the parts of it I do not think it in the power of humane wit to determine how long this frame would stand how many Years or how many Ages but one would soon imagine that this kind of structure would not be perpetual nor last indeed many thousands of Years if one consider the effect that the heat of the Sun would have upon it and the Waters under it drying and parching the one and raresying the other into vapours For we must consider that the course of the Sun at that time or the posture of the Earth to the Sun was such that there was no diversity or alternation of seasons in the Year as there is now by reason of which alternation our Earth is kept in an equality of temper the contrary seasons balancing one another so as what moisture the heat of the Summer sucks out of the Earth 't is repaid in the Rains of the next Winter and what chaps were made in it are fill'd up again and the Earth reduc'd to its former constitution But if we should imagine a continual Summer the Earth would proceed in driness still more and more and the cracks would be wider and pierce deeper into the substance of it And such a continual Summer there was at least an equality of seasons in the Ante-diluvian Earth as shall be prov'd in the follwing Book concerning Paradise In the mean time this being suppos'd let us consider what effect it would have upon this Arch of the exteriour Earth and the Waters under it We cannot believe but that the heat of the Sun within the space of some hundreds of years would have reduc'd this Earth to a considerable degree of driness in certain parts and also have much raresi'd and exhal'd the Waters beneath it And considering the structure of that Globe the exteriour crust and the Waters lying round under it both expos'd to the Sun we may fitly compare it to an Aeolipile or
of this Objection for performing the same effect with a far less quantity of Water 't is both easie to be found and easily remov'd when the work is done When the exteriour Earth was broke and fell into the Abysse a good part of it was cover'd with Water by the meer depth of the Abysse it fell into and those parts of it that were higher than the Abysse was deep and consequently would stand above it in a calm Water were notwithstanding reacht and overtop'd by the waves during the agitation and violent commotion of the Abysse For it is not imaginable what the commotion of the Abysse would be upon this dissolution of the Earth nor to what height its waves would be thrown when those prodigious fragments were tumbled down into it Suppose a stone of ten thousand weight taken up into the Air a mile or two and then let fall into the middle of the Ocean I do not believe but that the dashing of the water upon that impression would rise as high as a Mountain But suppose a mighty Rock or heap of Rocks to fall from that height or a great Island or a Continent these would expel the waters out of their places with such a force and violence as to fling them among the highest Clouds 'T is incredible to what height sometimes great Stones and Cinders will be thrown at the eruptions of fiery Mountains and the pressure of a great mass of Earth falling into the Abysse though it be a force of another kind could not but impel the water with so much strength as would carry it up to a great height in the Air and to the top of any thing that lay in its way any eminency high fragment or new Mountain And then rowling back again it would sweep down with it whatsoever it rusht upon Woods Building living Creatures and carry them all headlong into the great gulph Sometimes a mass of water would be quite struck off and separate from the rest and tost through the Air like a flying River but the common motion of the waves was to climb up the hills or inclin'd fragments and then return into the valleys and deeps again with a perpetual fluctuation going and coming ascending and descending till the violence of them being spent by degrees they setled at last in the places allotted for them where bounds are set that they cannot pass over that they return not again to cover the Earth Neither is it to be wonder'd that the great Tumult of the waters and the extremity of the Deluge lasted for some months for besides that the first shock and commotion of the Abysse was extremely violent from the general fall of the Earth there were ever and anon some secondary ruines or some parts of the great ruine that were not well setled broke again and made new commotions And 't was a considerable time before the great fragments that fell and their lesser dependencies could be so adjusted and fitted as to rest in a firm and immoveable posture For the props and stays whereby they lean'd one upon another or upon the bottom of the Abysse often fail'd either by the incumbent weight or the violent impulses of the water against them and so renew'd or continu'd the disorder and confusion of the Abysse Besides we are to observe that these great fragments falling hollow they inclos'd and bore down with them under their concave surface a great deal of Air and while the water compass'd these fragments and overflow'd them the Air could not readily get out of those prisons but by degrees as the Earth and Water above would give way so as this would also hinder the settlement of the Abysse and the retiring of the Water into those Subterraneous Chanels for some time But at length when this Air had found a vent and left its place to the Water and the ruines both primary and secondary were setled and fix'd then the Waters of the Abysse began to settle too and the dry Land to appear first the tops of the Mountains then the high Grounds then the Plains and the rest of the Earth And this gradual subsidency of the Abysse which Moses also hath particularly noted and discovery of the several parts of the Earth would also take up a considerable time Thus a new World appear'd or the Earth put on its new form and became divided into Sea and Land and the Abysse which from several Ages even from the beginning of the World had lain hid in the womb of the Earth was brought to light and discover'd the greatest part of it constituting our present Ocean and the rest filling the lower cavities of the Earth Upon the Land appear'd the Mountains and the Hills and the Islands in the Sea and the Rocks upon the shore And so the Divine Providence having prepar'd Nature for so great a change at one stroke dissolv'd the frame of the old World and made us a new one out of its ruines which we now inhabit since the Deluge All which things being thus explain'd deduc'd and stated we now add and pronounce our Third and last Proposition That the disruption of the Abysse or dissolution of the primaeval Earth and its fall into the Abysse was the cause of the Universal Deluge and of the destruction of the old World CHAP. VII That the Explication we have given of an Vniversal Deluge is not an Idea only but an account of what really came to pass in this Earth and the true Explication of Noah's Flood as is prov'd by Argument and from History An Examination of Tehom-Rabba or the great Abysse and that by it the Sea cannot be understood nor the Subterraneous Waters as they are at present What the true Notion and Form of it was collected from Moses and other Sacred Writers The frequent allusions in Scripture to the opening and shutting the Abysse and the particular stile of Scripture in its reflections on the Origin And the Formation of the Earth Observations on Deucalion's Deluge WE have now given an account of the first great revolution of Nature and of the Universal Deluge in a way that is intelligible and from causes that answer the greatness of the effect We have suppos'd nothing but what is also prov'd both as to the first form of the Earth and as to the manner of its Dissolution and how far from that would evidently and necessarily arise a general Deluge which was that which put a period to the old World and the first state of things And though all this hath been deduc'd in due order and with connexion and consequence of one thing upon another so far as I know which is the true evidence of a Theory yet it may not be sufficient to command the Assent and Belief of some persons who will allow it may be and acknowledge that this is a fair Idea of a possible Deluge in general and of the destruction of a World by it but this may be only an Idea they 'll say
we desire it may be prov'd from some collateral arguments taken either from Sacred History or from observation that this hath really been exemplified upon the Earth and that Noah's Flood came to pass this way And seeing we have design'd this first Book chiefly for the Explication of Noah's Deluge I am willing to add here a Chapter or two extraordinary upon this occasion to shew that what we have deliver'd is more than an Idea and that it was in this very way that Noah's Deluge came to pass But they who have not this doubt and have a mind to see the issue of the Theory may skip these two Chapters if they please and proceed to the following where the order is continued To satisfie then the doubtful in this particular let us lay down in the first place that conclusion which they seem to admit viz. That this is a possible and consistent Explication of an Universal Deluge and let 's see how far this would go if well consider'd towards the proof of what they desire or towards the demonstration of Noah's Deluge in particular It is granted on both hands that here hath been an Universal Deluge upon the Earth which was Noah's Deluge and it is also granted that we have given a possible and consistent Idea of an Universal Deluge Now we have prov'd Chap. II. and III. that all other ways hitherto assign'd for the Explication of Noah's Flood are incongrous or impossible therefore it came to pass in that possible and competent way which we have propos'd And if we have truly prov'd in the foremention'd Chapters the impossibility or unintelligibility of it in all other ways this argumentation is undeniable Besides we may argue thus as it is granted that there hath been an Universal Deluge upon the Earth so I suppose it will be granted that there hath been but one Now the dissolution of the Earth whensoever it happen'd would make one Universal Deluge and therefore the only one and the same with Noah's That such a Dissolution as we have describ'd would make an Universal Deluge I think cannot be question'd and that there hath been such a dissolution besides what we have already alledg'd shall be prov'd at large from natural Observations upon the Form and Figure of the present Earth in the Third Section and last Chap. of this Book In the mean time we will proceed to History both Sacred and Profane and by comparing our Explication with those give further assurance of its truth and reality In the first place it agrees which is most considerable with Moses's Narration of the Deluge both as to the matter and manner of it The matter of the Deluge Moses makes to be the Waters from above and the Waters from below or he distinguishes the Causes of the Deluge as we do into Superiour and Inferiour and the Inferiour causes he makes to be the disruption of the Abyss which is the principal part and the great hinge of our Explication Then as to the manner of the Deluge the beginning and the ending the increase and decrease he saith it increas'd gradually and decreas'd gradually by going and coming that is after many repeated fluctuations and reciprocations of the waves the waters of the Abysse began to be more compos'd and to retire into their Chanels whence they shall never return to cover the Earth again This agrees wholly with our Theory we suppose the Abysse to have been under an extream commotion and agitation by the fall of the Earth into it and this at first encreas'd more and more till the whole Earth was faln Then continuing for some time at the height of its rage overwhelming the greatest Mountains it afterwards decreas'd by the like degrees leaving first the tops of the Mountains then the Hills and the Fields till the Waters came to be wholly drawn off the Earth into their Chanels It was no doubt a great oversight in the Ancients to fansie the Deluge like a great standing Pool of water reaching from the bottom of the Valleys to the tops of the Mountains every where alike with a level and uniform surface by reason of which mistaken notion of the Deluge they made more water necessary to it than was possible to be had or being had than it was possible to get quit of again for there are no Chanels in the Earth that could hold so much water either to give it or to receive it And the Psalmist speaking of the Deluge as it seems to me notes this violent commotion of the Abysse The Waters went up by the Mountains came down by the Valleys unto the place which thou hast founded for them I know some interpret that passage of the state of the waters in the beginning when they cover'd the face of the whole Earth Gen. 1. 2. but that cannot be because of what follows in the next Verse Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over that they turn not again to cover the Earth Which is not true if the preceding words be understood of the state of the waters at the beginning of the World for they did pass those bounds and did return since that time to cover the Earth namely at the Deluge But if these words be refer'd to the time of the Deluge and the state of the waters then 't is both a just description of the motion of the Abysse and certainly true that the waters since that time are so setled in their Chanels that they shall never overflow the Earth again As we are assured by the promise made to Noah and that illustrious pledge and confirmation of it the Rainbow that the Heavens also shall never pour out so much waters again their state being chang'd as well as that of the Earth or Sea from what they were before the Deluge But before we leave Moses's Narration of the Deluge we must examine further what is or can be understood by his TEHOMRABBA or great Abysse which he saith was broken up at the Deluge for this will help us to discover whether our Explication be the same with his and of the same Flood And first we must consider whether by the Tehom-Rabba or Mosaical Abysse can be understood the Sea or Ocean under that form we see it in at present and 't is plain methinks that the Sea cannot be understood by this great Abysse both because the Sea is not capable upon any disruption to make such an universal Deluge and because the Narration of Moses and his expressions concerning this Abysse do not agree to the Sea Some of the Ancients indeed did imagine that the waters of the Sea were much higher than the Land and stood as it were on an heap so as when these waters were let loose they overflow'd the Earth and made a Deluge But this is known to be a gross mistake the Sea and the Land make one Globe and the Waters couch themselves as close as may be to the Center of this
Globe in a Spherical convexity so that if all the Mountains and Hills were scal'd and the Earth made even the Waters would not overflow its smooth surface much less could they overflow it in the form that it is now in where the Shores are higher than the Sea the Inland parts than the Shores and the Mountains still far above all So as no disruption of the Sea could make an universal Deluge by reason of its situation But besides that the quantity of Water contain'd in the Sea is no way sufficient to make a Deluge in the present form of the Earth for we have shewn before Chap. 2. that Eight such Oceans as ours would be little enough for that purpose Then as to the expressions of Moses concerning this Abysse if he had meant the Sea by it and that the Deluge was made by the disruption of the Sea why did he not say so There is no mention of the Sea in all the History of the Deluge Moses had mention'd the Sea before Gen. 1. 10. and us'd a word that was common and known to signifie the Sea And if he had a mind to express the same thing here why should he not use the same word and the same term In an Historical relation we use terms that are most proper and best known but instead of that he useth the same term here that he did Gen. 1. 2. when he saith Darkness was upon the face of the Abysse or of the Deep as we render it there the Abysse was open or cover'd with darkness only namely before the exterior Earth was form'd Here the same Abysse is mention'd again but cover'd by the formation of the Earth upon it and the covering of this Abysse was broken or cloven asunder and the Waters gusht out that made the Deluge This I am sure is the most natural interpretation or signification of this word according as it is us'd in Moses's writings Furthermore we must observe what Moses saith concerning this Abysse and whether that will agree with the Sea or no he saith the Fountains of the great Abysse were broken open now if by the great Abysse you understand the Sea how are its Fountains broken open To break open a Fountain is to break open the ground that covers it and what ground covers the Sea So that upon all considerations either of the word that Moses here useth Tehom-Rabba or of the thing affirmed concerning it breaking open its Fountains or of the effect following the breaking open its Fountains drowning of the Earth from all these heads it is manifest that the Sea cannot be understood by the great Abysse whose disruption was the cause of the Deluge And as the Mosaical Abysse cannot be the Sea so neither can it be those Subterraneous waters that are disperst in the Cells and Caverns of the Earth for as they are now lodg'd within the Earth they are not one Abysse but several Cisterns and Receptacles of water in several places especially under the roots of Mountains and Hills separate one from another sometimes by whole Regions and Countries interpos'd Besides what Fountains if they were broken up could let out this water or bring it upon the face of the Earth When we sink a Mine or dig a Well the waters when uncover'd do not leap out of their places out of those Cavities or at least do not flow upon the Earth 'T is not as if you openâ—d a Vein where the Bloud spirts out and riseth higher than its Source but as when you take off the cover of a Vessel the water doth not fly out for that So if we should imagine all the Subterraneous Caverns of the Earth uncover'd and the waters laid bare there they would lie unmov'd in their beds if the Earth did not fall into them to force them up Furthermore if these waters were any way extracted and laid upon the surface of the ground nothing would be gain'd as to the Deluge by that for as much water would run into these holes again when the Deluge begun to rise so that this would be but an useless labour and turn to no account And lastly These waters are no way sufficient for quantity to answer to the Mosaical Abyss or to be the principal cause of the Deluge as that was Now seeing neither the Sea as it is at present nor the Subterraneous Waters as they are at present can answer to the Mosaical Abysse we are sure there is nothing in this present Earth that can answer to it Let us then on the other hand compare it with that Subterraneous Abyss which we have found in the Ante-diluvian Earth represented 5 Fig. 2. and examine their characters and correspondency First Moses's Abyss was cover'd and Subterraneous for the Fountains of it are said to have been cloven or burst open then it was vast and capacious and thirdly it was so dispos'd as to be capable of a disruption that would cause an universal Deluge to the Earth Our Ante-diluvian Abyss answers truly to all these characters 't was in the womb of the Earth the Earth was founded upon those Waters as the Psalmist saith or they were enclos'd within the Earth as in a Bag. Then for the capacity of it it contained both all the Waters now in the Ocean and all those that are dispers'd in the Caverns of the Earth And lastly it is manifest its situation was such that upon a disruption or dissolution of the Earth which cover'd it an universal Deluge would arise Seeing then this answers the description and all the properties of the Mosaical Abysse and nothing else will how can we in reason judge it otherwise than the same and the very thing intended and propos'd in the History of Noah's Deluge under the name of Tehom-Rabba or the great Abyss at whose disruption the World was over-flow'd And as we do not think it an unhappy discovery to have found out with a moral certainty the feat of the Mosaical Abyss which hath been almost as much sought for and as much in vain as the seat of Paradise so this gives us a great assurance that the Theory we have given of a general Deluge is not a meer Idea but is to be appropriated to the Deluge of Noah as a true explication of it And to proceed now from Moses to other Divine Writers That our Description is a reality both as to the Ante-diluvian Earth and as to the Deluge we may further be convinc'd from S. Peter's discourse concerning those two things S. Peter saith that the constitution of the Ante-diluvian Earth was such in reference to the Waters that by reason of that it was obnoxious to a Deluge we say these Waters were the great Abysse it stood upon by reason whereof that World was really expos'd to a Deluge and overwhelm'd in it upon the disruption of this Abyss as Moses witnesses 'T is true S. Peter doth not specifie what those waters were nor mention either the Sea or the Abyss but seeing
Moses tells us that it was by the waters of the Abyss that the Earth was overwhelm'd S. Peter's waters must be understood of the same Abyss because he supposeth them the cause of the same Deluge And I think the Apostle's discourse there cannot receive a better illustration than from Moses's History of the Deluge Moses distinguishes the Causes of the Flood into those that belong to the Heavens and those that belong to the Earth the Rains and the Abyss S. Peter also distinguisheth the causes of the Deluge into the constitution of the Heavens in reference to its waters and the constitution of the Earth in reference to its waters and no doubt they both aim at the same causes as they refer to the same effect only Moses mentions the immediate Causes the Rains and the Waters of the Abyss and S. Peter mentions the more remote and fundamental causes that constitution of the Heavens and that constitution of the Earth in reference to their respective Waters which made that world obnoxious to a Deluge And these two speaking of Noah's Deluge and agreeing thus with one another and both with us or with the Theory which we have given of a General Deluge we may safely conclude that it is no imaginary Idea but a true account of that Ancient Flood whereof Moses hath left us the History And seeing the right understanding of the Mosaical Abysse is sufficient alone to prove all we have deliver'd concerning the Deluge as also concerning the frame of the Ante-diluvian Earth give me leave to take notice here of some other places of Scripture which we mention'd before that seem manifestly to describe this fame form of the Abyss with the Earth above it Psal. 24. 2. He founded the Earth upon the Seas and establish'd it upon the Floods and Psal. 136. 6. He stretched out the Earth above the Waters Now this Foundation of the Earth upon the Waters or extension of it above the Waters doth most aptly agree to that structure and situation of the Abyss and the Ante-diluvian Earth which we have assign'd them and which we have before describ'd but very improperly and forc'dly to the present form of the Earth and the Waters In that second place of the Psalmist the word may be render'd either he stretch'd as we read it or he fixt and consolidated the Earth above the Waters as the Vulgate and Septuagint translate it For 't is from the same word with that which is used for the Firmament Gen. 1. So that as the Firmament was extended over and around the Earth so was the Earth extended over and about the Waters in that first constitution of things and I remember some of the Ancients use this very comparison of the Firmament and Earth to express the situation of the Paradisiacal Earth in reference to the Sea or Abysse There is another remarkable place in the Psalms to shew the disposition of the Waters in the first Earth Psal. 33. 7. He gathereth the Waters of the Sea as in a Bag he layeth up the Abysses in store-houses This answers very fitly and naturally to the place and disposition of the Abysse which it had before the Deluge inclos'd within the vault of the Earth as in a Bag or in a Store house I know very well what I render here in a Bag is render'd in the English as an heap but that translation of the word seems to be grounded on the old Error that the Sea is higher than the Land and so doth not make a true sence Neither are the two parts of the Verse so well suited and consequent one to another if the first express an high situation of the Waters and the second a low one And accordingly the Vulgate Septuagint and Oriental Versions and Paraphrase as also Symmachus St. Ierome and Basil render it as we do here in a Bag or by terms equivalent To these passages of the Psalmist concerning the form of the Abysse and the first Earth give me leave to add this general remark that they are commonly ushered in or followed with something of Admiration in the Prophet We observ'd before that the formation of the first Earth after such a wonderful manner being a piece of Divine Architecture when it was spoken of in Scripture it was usually ascrib'd to a particular Providence and accordingly we see in these places now mention'd that it is still made the object of praise and admiration In that 136 Psalm 't is reckon'd among the wonders of God Vers. 4 5 6 Give praise to him who alone doth great wonders To him that by wisdom made the Heavens To him that stretched out the Earth above the Waters And in like manner in that 33 Psalm 't is joyn'd with the forming of the Heavens and made the subject of the Divine Power and Wisdom Vers. 6 7 8 9. By the word of the Lord were the Heavens made and all the Host of them by the breath of his mouth He gathereth the Waters of the Sea together as in a Bag he layeth up the Abysse in Store-houses Let all the Earth fear the Lord Let all the Inhabitants of the World stand in awe of him For he spake and it was he commanded and it stood fast Namely all things stood in that wonderful posture in which the Word of his Power and Wisdom had establisht them David often made the works of Nature and the External World the matter of his Meditations and of his praises and Philosophical Devotions reflecting sometimes upon the present form of the World and sometimes upon the primitive form of it And though Poetical expressions as the Psalms are seldom are so determinate and distinct but that they may be interpreted more than one way yet I think it cannot but be acknowledg'd that those expressions and passages that we have instanc'd in are more fairly and aptly understood of the Ancient form of the Sea or the Abysse as it was enclos'd within the Earth than of the present form of it in an open Chanel There are also in the Book of Iob many noble reflections upon the works of Nature and upon the formation of the Earth and the Abysse whereof that in Chap. 26. 7. He stretcheth out the North over the Empty places and hangeth the Earth upon nothing seems to parallel the expression of David He stretched out the Earth upon the Waters for the word we render the empty place is TOHU which is appli'd to the Chaos and the first Abysse Gen. 1. 2. and the hanging the Earth upon nothing is much more wonderful if it be understood of the first habitable Earth that hung over the Waters sustain'd by nothing but its own peculiar form and the libration of its parts than if it be understood of the present Earth and the whole body of it for if it be in its Center or proper place whither should it sink further or whither should it go But this passage together with the foregoing and following Verses requires a
more critical examination than this Discourse will easily bear There is another remarkable Discourse in Iob that contains many things to our present purpose 't is Chap. 38. where God reproaches Iob with his ignorance of what pass'd at the beginning of the World and the formation of the Earth Vers. 4 5 6. Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the Earth Declare if thou hast understanding Who hath laid the measures thereof if thou knowest or who hath stretched the line upon it Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastned or who laid the corner-stone All these questions have far more force and Emphasis more propriety and elegacy if they be understood of the first and Ante-diluvian form of the Earth than if they be understood of the present for in the present form of the Earth there is no Architecture no structure no more than in a ruine or at least none comparatively to what was in the first form of it And that the exterior and superficial part of the Earth is here spoken of appears by the rule and line appli'd to it but what rule or regularity is there in the surface of the present Earth what line was us'd to level its parts But in its original construction when â—it lay smooth and regular in its surface as if it had been drawn by rule and line in every part and when it hung pois'd upon the Deep without pillar or foundation stone then just proportions were taken and every thing plac'd by weight and measure And this I doubt not was that artificial structure here alluded to and when this work was finisht then the morning Stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy Thus far the questions proceed upon the form and construction of the first Earth in the following verses 8 9 10 11. they proceed upon the demolition of that Earth the opening the Abysse and the present state of both Or who shut up the Sea with doors when it brake forth as if it had issu'd out of a womb Who can doubt but this was at the breaking open of the Fountains of the Abysse Gen. 7. 11. when the waters gusht out as out of the great womb of Nature and by reason of that confusion and perturbation of Air and Water that rise upon it a thick mist and darkness was round the Earth and all things as in a second Chaos When I made the cloud the garment thereof and thick darkness a swadling band for it and brake up for it my decreed place and made bars and doors Namely taking the words as thus usually render'd the present Chanel of the Sea was made when the Abysse was broke up and at the same time were made the shory Rocks and Mountains which are the bars and boundaries of the Sea And said hitherto shalt thou come and no further and here shall thy proud waves be stay'd Which last sentence shows that this cannot be understood of the first disposition of the waters as they were before the Flood for their proud waves broke those bounds whatsoever they were when they overflow'd the Earth in the Deluge And that the womb which they broke out of was the great Abyss the Chaldee Paraphrase in this place doth expresly mention and what can be understood by the womb of the Farth but that Subterraneous capacity in which the Abyss lay Then that which followeth is a description or representation of the great Deluge that ensu'd and of that disorder in Nature that was then and how the Waters were setled and Bounded afterwards Not unlike the description in the 104 Psalm vers 6 7 8 9. and thus much for these places in the book of Iob. There remains a remarkable discourse in the Proverbs of Solomon relating to the Mosaical Abysse and not only to that but to the Origin of the Earth in general where Wisdom declares her antiquity and pre-existence to all the works of this Earth Chap. 8. ver 23. 24 25 26 27 28. I was set up from everlasting from the beginning ere the Earth was When there were no Deeps or Abysses I was brought forth when no fountains abounding with water Then in the 27. verse When he prepared the Heavens I was there when he set a Compass upon the face of the Deep or Abysse When he established the Clouds above when he strengthned the fountains of the Abysse Here is mention made of the Abysse and of the Fountains of the Abysse and who can question but that the Fountains of the Abyss here are the same with the Fountains of the Abyss which Moses mentions and were broken open as he tells us at the Deluge Let us observe therefore what form Wisdom gives to this Abyss and consequently to the Mosaical And here seem to be two expressions that determine the form of it vers 28. He strengthned the fountains of the Abysse that is the cover of those Fountains for the Fountains could be strengthned no other way than by making a strong cover or Arch over them And that Arch is exprest more fully and distinctly in the foregoing verse When he prepar'd the Heavens I was there when he set a Compass on the face of the Abysse we render it Compass the word signifies a Circle or Circumference or an Orb or Sphere So there was in the beginning of the World a Sphere Orb or Arch set round the Abyss according to the restimony of Wisdom who was then present And this shews us both the form of the Mosaical Abyss which was included within this Vault and the form of the habitable Earth which was the outward surface of this Vault or the cover of the Abyss that was broke up at the Deluge And thus much I think is sufficient to have noted out of Scripture concerning the Mosaical Abyss to discover the form place and situation of it which I have done the more largely because that being determin'd it will draw in easily all the rest of our Theory concerning the Deluge I will now only add one or two general Observations and so conclude this discourse The first Observation is concerning the Abyss namely That the opening and shutting of the Abysse is the great hinge upon which Nature turns in this Earth This brings another face of things other Scenes and a New World upon the stage And accordingly it is a thing often mention'd and alluded to in Scripture sometimes in a Natural sometimes in a Moral or Theological sence and in both sences our Saviour shuts and opens it as he pleaseth Our Saviour who is both Lord of Nature and of Grace whose Dominion is both in Heaven and in Earth hath a double Key that of the Abyss whereby Death and Hell are in his power and all the revolutions of Nature are under his Conduct and Providence And the Key of David whereby he admits or excludes from the City of God and the Kingdom of Heaven whom he pleaseth Of those places that refer to the shutting and
opening the Abyss in a natural sence I cannot but particularly take notice of that in Iob Chap. 12. ver 14 15. God breaketh down and it cannot be built again he shutteth up man and there can be no opening Behold he withholdeth the waters and they dry up also he sendeth them out and they overturn the Earth Though these things be true of God in lesser and common instances yet to me it is plain that they principally refer to the Deluge the opening and shutting the Abyss with the dissoluâ—ion or subversion of the Earth thereupon and accordingly they are made the great effects of the Divine Power and Wisdom in the foregoing Verse With God is wisdom and strength he hath counsel and understanding Behold he breaketh down c. And also in the conclusion 't is repeated again With him is strength and wisdom which solemnity would scarce have been us'd for common instances of his power When God is said to build or pull down and no body can build again 't is not to be understood of an House or a Town God builds and unbuilds Worlds and who shall build up that Arch that was broke down at the Deluge Where shall they lay the Foundation or how shall the Mountains be rear'd up again to make part of the Roof This is the Fabrick which when God breaketh down none can build up again He withholdeth the waters and they dry up As we shew'd the Earth to have been immoderately chapt and parcht before its dissolution He sendeth them forth and they overturn the Earth What can more properly express the breaking out of the waters at the disruption of the Abyss and the subversion or dissolution of the Earth in consequence of it 'T is true this last passage may be applied to the breaking out of waters in an ordinary Earthquake and the subversion of some part of the Earth which often follows upon it but it must be acknowledg'd that the sence is more weighty if it be refer'd to the great Deluge and the great Earthquake which laid the World in ruines and in water And Philosophical descriptions in Sacred Writings like Prophecies have often a lesser and a greater accomplishment and interpretation I could not pass by this place without giving this short Explication of it We proceed now to the second Observation which is concerning the stile of Scripture in most of those places we have cited and others upon the same subject The reflections that are made in several parts of the Divine Writings upon the Origin of the World and the formation of the Earth seem to me to be writ in a stile-something approaching to the nature of a Prophetical stile and to have more of a Divine Enthusiasm and Elocution in them than the ordinary text of Scripture the expressions are lofty and sometimes abrupt and often figurative and disguis'd as may be observ'd in most of those places we have made use of and particularly in that speech of Wisdom Prov. 8. where the 26. verse is so obscure that no two Versions that I have yet met with whether Ancient or Modern agree in the Translation of that Verse And therefore though I fully believe that the construction of the first Earth is really intended in those words yet seeing it could not be made out clear without a long and critical discussion of them I did not think that proper to be insisted upon here We may also observe that whereas there is a double form or composition of the Earth that which it had at first or till the Deluge and that which it hath since sometimes the one and sometimes the other may be glanc'd upon in these Scripture phrases and descriptions and so there may be in the same discourse an intermixture of both And it commonly happens so in an Enthusiastick or Prophetick stile that by reason of the eagerness and trembling of the Fancy it doth not always regularly follow the same even thread of discourse but strikes many times upon some other thing that hath relation to it or lies under or near the same view Of this we have frequent examples in the Apocalypse and in that Prophecy of our Saviour's Matth. 24. concerning the destruction of Ierusalem and of the World But notwithstanding any such unevenness or indistinctness in the stile of those places which we have cited concerning the Origin and form of the Earth we may at least make this remark that if there never was any other form of the Earth but the present nor any other state of the Abysse than what it is in now 't is not imaginable what should give occasion to all those expressions and passages that we have cited which being so strange in themselves and paradoxical should yet so much favour and so fairly comply with our suppositions What I have observ'd in another place in treating of Paradise that the expressions of the Ancient Fathers were very extravagant if Paradise was nothing but a little plot of ground in Mesopotamia as many of late have fansied may in like manner be observ'd concerning the ancient Earth and Abysse if they were in no other form nor other state than what they are under now the expressions of the Sacred Writers concerning them are very strange and inaccountable without any sufficient ground that we know or any just occasion for such uncouth representations If there was nothing intended or refer'd to in those descriptions but the present form and state of the Earth that is so well known that in describing of it there would be nothing dark or mysterious nor any occasion for obscurity in the stile or expression whereof we find so much in those So as all things consider'd what might otherwise be made an exception to some of these Texts alledg'd by us viz. that they are too obscure becomes an argument for us as implying that there is something more intended by them than the present and known form of the Earth And we having propos'd another form and structure of the Earth to which those characters suit and answer more easily as this opens and gives light to those difficult places so it may be reasonably concluded to be the very sence and notion intended by the holy Writers And thus much I think is sufficient to have observ'd out of Scripture to verifie our Explication of the Deluge and our Application of it to Noah's Flood both according to the Mosaical History of the Flood and according to many occasional reflections and discourses dispers'd in other places of Scripture concerning the same Flood or concerning the Abysse and the first form of the Earth And though there may be some other passages of a different aspect they will be of no force to disprove our conclusions because they respect the present form of the Earth and Sea and also because expressions that deviate more from the common opinion are more remarkable and more proving in that there is nothing could give occasion to such but
an intention to express the very truth So for instance if there was one place of Scripture that said the Earth was mov'd and several that seem'd to imply that the Sun was mov'd we should have more regard to that one place for the motion of the Earth than to all the other that made against it because those others might be spoken and understood according to common opinion and common belief but that which affirm'd the motion of the Earth could not be spoke upon any other ground but only for truth and instruction sake I leave this to be appli'd to the present subject Thus much for the Sacred Writings As to the History of the ancient Heathens we cannot expect an account or Narration of Noah's Flood under that name and notion but it may be of use to observe two things out of that History First that the Inundations recorded there came generally to pass in the manner we have describ'd the Universal Deluge namely by Earthquakes and an eruption of Subterraneous waters the Earth being broken and falling in and of this we shall else-where give a full account out of their Authors Secondly that Deucalion's Deluge in particular which is suppos'd by most of the Ancient Fathers to represent Noah's Flood is said to have been accompained with a gaping or disruption of the Earth Apollodorus saith that the Mountains of Thessaly were divided asunder or separate one from another at that time And Lucian de deâ Syriâ tells a very remarkable story to this purpose concerning Deucalion's Deluge and a ceremony observ'd in the Temple of Hieropolis in commemoration of it which ceremony seems to have been of that nature as impli'd that there was an opening of the Earth at the time of the Deluge and that the waters subsided into that again when the Deluge ceas'd He saith that this Temple at Hieropolis was built upon a kind of Abysse or had a bottomless pit or gaping of the Earth in one part of it and the people of Arabia and Syria and the Countries the eabouts twice a year repair'd to this Temple and brought with them every one a vessel of water which they pour'd out upon the floor of the Temple and made a kind of an Inundation there in memory of Deucalion's Deluge and this water sunk by degrees into a Chasm or opening of a Rock which the Temple stood upon and so left the floor dry again And this was a rite solemnly and religiously perform'd both by the Priests and by the People If Moses had left such a Religious rite among the Iews I should not have doubted to have interpreted it concerning his Abysse and the retiring of the waters into it but the actual disruption of the Abysse could not well be represented by any ceremony And thus much concerning the present question and the true application of our Theory to Noah's Flood CHAP. VIII The particular History of Noah's Flood is explain'd in all the material parts and circumstances of it according to the preceding Theory Any seeming difficulties removed and the whole Section concluded with a Discourse how far the Deluge may be lookt upon as the effect of an ordinary Providence and how far of an extraordinary WE have now proved our Explication of the Deluge to be more than an Idea or to be a true piece of Natural History and it may be the greatest and most remarkable that hath yet been since the beginning of the World We have shown it to be the real account of Noah's Flood according to Authority both Divine and Humane and I would willingly proceed one step further and declare my thoughts concerning the manner and order wherein Noah's Flood came to pass in what method all those things happen'd and succeeded one another that make up the History of it as causes or effects or other parts or circumstances As how the Ark was born upon the waters what effect the Rains had at what time the Earth broke and the Abysse was open'd and what the condition of the Earth was upon the ending of the Flood and such like But I desire to propose my thoughts concerning these things only as conjectures which I will ground as near as I can upon Scripture and Reason and am very willing they should be rectifi'd where they happen to be amiss I know how subject we are to mistakes in these great and remote things when we descend to particulars but I am willing to expose the Theory to a full trial and to shew the way for any to examine it provided they do it with equity and sincerity I have no other design than to contribute my endeavours to find out the truth in a subject of so great importance and wherein the World hath hitherto had so little satisfaction And he that in an obscure argument proposeth an Hypothesis that reacheth from end to end though it be not exact in every particular 't is not without a good effect for it gives aim to others to take their measures better and opens their invention in a matter which otherwise it may be would have been impenetrable to them As he that makes the first way through a thick Forest though it be not the streightest and shortest deserves better and hath done more than he that makes it streighter and smoother afterwards Providence that ruleth all things and all Ages after the Earth had stood above sixteen hundred Years thought fit to put a period to that World and accordingly it was reveal'd to Noah that for the wickedness and degeneracy of men God would destroy mankind with the Earth Gen. 6. 13. in a Deluge of water whereupon he was commanded in order to the preserving of Himself and Family as a stock for the new World to build a great Vessel or Ark to float upon the waters and had instructions given him for the building of it both as to the matter and as to the form Noah believed the word of God though against his senses and all external appearances and set himself to work to build an Ark according to the directions given which after many years labour was finish'd whilst the incredulous World secure enough as they thought against a Deluge continu'd still in their excesses and insolencies and laught at the admonition of Noah and at the folly of his design of building an extravagant Machine a floating house to save himself from an imaginary Inundation for they thought it no less seeing it was to be in an Earth where there was no Sea nor any Rain neither in those parts according to the ordinary course of Nature as shall be shown in the second Book of this Treatise But when the appointed time was come the Heavens began to melt and the Rains to fall and these were the first surprizing causes and preparatives to the Deluge They fell we suppose tho we do not know how that could proceed from natural causes throughout the face of the whole Earth which could not but have a considerable effect on
make Mountains or Plains upon the Land and the Earth would generally be full of Caverns and hollownesse especially in the Mountainous parts of it And we see the resemblance and imitation of this in lesser ruines when a Mountain sinks and falls into Subterraneous water or which is more obvious when the Arch of a Bridge is broken and falls into the water if the water under it be not so deep as to overflow and cover all its parts you may see there the image of all these things in little Continents and Islands and Rocks under water And in the parts that stand above the water you see Mountains and Precipices and Plains and most of the varieties that we see and admire in the parts of the Earth What need we then seek any further for the Explication of these things Let us suppose this Arch of the Bridge as the great Arch of the Earth which once it had and the water under it as the Abyss and the parts of this ruine to represent the parts of the Earth There will be scarce any difference but of lesser and greater the same things appearing in both But we have naturally that weakness or prejudice that we think great things are not to be explain'd from easie and familiar instances We think there must be something difficult and operose in the explication of them or else we are not satisfied whether it is that we are asham'd to see our ignorance and admiration to have been so groundless or whether we fancy there must be a proportion between the difficulty of the explication and the greatness of the thing explain'd but that is a very false Judgment for let things be never so great if they be simple their explication must be simple and easie And on the contrary some things that are mean common and ordinary may depend upon causes very difficult to find out for the difficulty of explaining an effect doth not depend upon its greatness or littleness but upon the simplicity or composition of its causes And the effects and Phaenomena we are here to explain though great yet depending upon causes very simple you must not wonder if the Explication when found out be familiar and very intelligible And this is so intelligible and so easily deducible from the forementioned causes that a Man born blind or brought up all his life in a Cave that had never seen the face of the Earth nor ever heard any description of it more than that it was a great Globe having this Theory propos'd to him or being instructed what the form of the first Earth was how it stood over the waters and then how it was broke and fell into them he would easily of his own accord foretel what changes would arise upon this dissolution and what the new form of the Earth would be As in the first place he would tell you that this second Earth would be distinguish'd and checker'd into Land and Water for the Orb which fell being greater than the circumference it fell upon all the fragments could not fall flat and lie drown'd under water and those that stood above would make the dry Land or habitable part of the Earth Then in the second place he would plainly discern that these fragments that made the dry Land could not lie all plain and smooth and equal but some would be higher and some lower some in one posture and some in another and consequently would make Mountains Hills Valleys and Plains and all other varieties we have in the situation of the parts of the Earth And lastly a blind man would easily divine that such a great ruine could not happen but there would be a great many holes and cavities amongst the parts of it a great many intervals and empty places in the rubbish as I may so say for this we see happens in all ruines more or less and where the fragments are great and hard 't is not possible they should be so adjusted in their fall but that they would lie hollow in many places and many unfill'd spaces would be intercepted amongst them some gaping in the surface of the Earth and others hid within so as this would give occasion to all sorts of fractures and cavities either in the skin of the Earth or within its body And these Cavities that I may add that in the last place would be often fill'd with Subterraneous waters at least at such a depth for the foundations of the Earth standing now within the waters so high as those waters reach'd they would more or less propagate themselves every way Thus far our Blind man could tell us what the New World would be or the form of the Earth upon the great dissolution and we find his reasonings and inferences very true these are the chief lineaments and features of our Earth which appear indeed very irregular and very inaccountable when they are lookt upon naked in themselves but if we look upon them through this Theory we see as in a glass all the reasons and causes of them There are different Genius's of Men and different conceptions and every one is to be allow'd their liberty as to things of this nature I confess for my own part when I observe how easily and naturally this Hypothesis doth apply it self to the general face of this Earth hits and falls in so luckily and surprizingly with all the odd postures of iâ—s parts I cannot without violence bear off my mind from fully assenting to it And the more odd and extravagant as I may so say and the more diversify'd the effects and appearances are to which an Hypothesis is to be apply'd if it answers them all and with exactness it comes the nearer to a moral certitude and infallibility As a Lock that consists of a great deal of workmanship many Wards and many odd pieces and contrivances if you find a Key that answers to them all and opens it readily 't is a thousand to one that 't is the true Key and was made for that purpose An eminent Philosopher of this Age Monsteur des Cartes hath made use of the like Hypothesis to explain the irregular form of the present Earth though he never dream'd of the Deluge nor thought that first Orb built over the Abyss to have been any more than a transient crust and not a real habitable World that lasted for more than sixteen hundred years as we suppose it to have been And though he hath in my opinion in the formation of that first Orb and upon the dissolution of it committed some great oversights whereof we have given an account in the Latin Treatise however he saw a necessity of such a thing and of the disruption of it to bring the Earth into that form and posture wherein we now find it Thus far we have spoken in general concerning the agreement and congruity of our supposition with the present face of the Earth and the easie account it gives of the causes of it And
the Waters But thus much for the Subterraneous communication of Seas and Lakes And thus much in general concerning Subterraneous Cavities and concerning the hollow and broken frame of the Earth If I had now Magick enough to show you at one view all the inside of the Earth which we have imperfectly describ'd if we could go under the roots of the Mountains and into the sides of the broken rocks or could dive into the Earth with one of those Rivers that sink under ground and follow its course and all its windings till it rise again or led us to the Sea we should have a much stronger and more effectual Idea of the broken form of the Earth than any we can excite by these faint descriptions collected from Reason The Ancients I remember us'd to represent these hollow Caves and Subterraneous Regions in the nature of a World under-ground and suppos'd it inhabited by the Nymphs especially the Nymphs of the waters and the Sea-Goddesses so Orpheus sung of old and in imitation of him Virgil hath made a description of those Regions feigning the Nymph Cyrene to send for her son to come down to her and make her a visit in those shades where mortals were not admitted Duc age duc ad nos fas illi limina Divûm Tangere ait Simul alta jubet discedere latè Flumina quà juvenis gressus inferret at illum Curvata in montis faciem circumstitit unda AccepÃtque sinu vasto misÃtque sub amnem Iámque domum â—mirans Genetricis humida regna Speluncisque lacos clausos lucósque sonantes Ibat ingenti motu stupâ—factus aquarum Omnia sub magnâ labentia slumina terrâ Spectabat diversa locis PhasÃmque Licúmque c. Et Thalami matris pendentia pumice tecta c. Come lead the Youth below bring him to me The Gods are pleas'd our Mansions he should see Streight she commands the floods to make him way They open their wide bosom and obey Soft is the path and easie is his tread A watry Arch hends o'er his dewy head And as he goes he wonders and looks round To see this new-found Kingdom under ground The silent Lakes in hollow Caves he sees And on their banks an echoing grove of Trees The fall of waters 'mongst the Rocks below He hears and sees the Rivers how they flow All the great Rivers of the Earth are there Prepar'd as in a womb by Nature's care Last to his mother's bed-chamber he 's brought Where the high roof with Pumice-stone is wrought c. If we now could open the Earth as this Nymph did the Water and go down into the bosom of it see all the dark Chambers and Apartments there how ill contriv'd and how ill kept so many holes and corners some fill'd with smoak and fire some with water and some with vapours and mouldy Air how like a ruine it lies gaping and torn in the parts of it we should not easily believe that God created it into this form immediately out of nothing It would have cost no more to have made things in better order nay it had been more easie and more simple and accordingly we are assured that all things were made at first in Beauty and proportion And if we consider Nature and the manner of the first formation of the Earth 't is evident that there could be no such holes and Caverns nor broken pieces made then in the body of it for the grosser parts of the Chaos falling down towards the Center they would there compose a mass of Earth uniform and compact the water swimming above it and this first mass under the water could have no Caverns or vacuities in it for if it had had any the Earthy parts while the mass was liquid or semi-liquid would have sunk into them and fill'd them up expelling the Air or Water that was there And when afterwards there came to be a crust or new Earth form'd upon the face of the Waters there could be no Cavities no dens no fragments in it no more than in the other And for the same general reason that is passing from a liquid form into a concrete or solid leasurely and by degrees it would flow and settle together in an entire mass There being nothing broken nor any thing hard to bear the parts off from one another or to intercept any empty spaces between them 'T is manifest then that the Earth could not be in this Cavernous form originally by any work of Nature nor by any immediate action of God seeing there is neither use nor beauty in this kind of construction Do we not then as reasonably as aptly ascribe it to that desolation that was brought upon the Earth in the general Deluge When its outward frame was dissolv'd and fell into the great Abyss How easily doth this answer all that we have observ'd concerning the Subterraneous Regions That hollow and broken posture of things under ground all those Caves and holes and blind recesses that are otherwise so inaccountable say but that they are a Ruine and you have in one word explain'd them all For there is no sort of Cavities interior or exterior great or little open or shut wet or dry of what form or fashion soever but we might reasonably expect them in a ruine of that nature And as for the Subterraneous waters seeing the Earth fell into the Abyss the pillars and foundations of the present exteriour Earth must stand immers'd in water and therefore at such a depth from the surface every where there must be water found if the soil be of a nature to admit it 'T is true all Subterraneous waters do not proceed from this original for many of them are the effects of Rains and melted Snows sunk into the Earth but that in digging any where you constantly come to water at length even in the most solid ground this cannot proceed from these Rains or Snows but must come from below and from a cause as general as the effect is which can be no other in my judgment than this that the roots of the exteriour Earth stand within the old Abyss whereof as a great part lies open in the Sea so the rest lies hid and cover'd among the fragments of the Earth sometimes dispers'd and only moistning the parts as our bloud lies in the flesh and in the habit of the body sometimes in greater or lesser masses as the bloud in our Vessels And this I take to be the true account of Subterraneous waters as distinguish'd from Fountains and Rivers and from the matter and causes of them Thus much we have spoke to give a general Idea of the inward parts of the Earth and an easie Explication of them by our Hypothesis which whether it be true or no if you compare it impartially with Nature you will confess at least that all these things are just in such a form and posture as if it was true CHAP. X. Concerning the Chanel of the
mention'd its vast Cavity and universal irregularity is all one can desire an account of as to the form of it we will therefore from this ground take our rise and first measures for the Explication of the Sea-chanel Let us suppose then in the dissolution of the Earth when it began to fall that it was divided only into three or four fragments according to the number of our Continents but those fragments being vastly great could not descend at their full breadth and expansion or at least could not descend so fast in the middle as towards the extremities because the Air about the edges would yield and give place easily not having far to go to get out of the way but the Air that was under the middle of the fragment could not without a very swift motion get from under the concave of it and consequently its descent there would be more resisted and suspended but the sides in the mean time would continually descend bending the fragment with their weight and so making it of a lesser compass and expansion than it was before And by this means there would be an interval and distance made between the two falling fragments and a good part of the Abyss after their descent would lie uncover'd in the middle betwixt them as may be seen in this Figure where the fragments A. B. bending downwards in their extremities separate as they go and after they are faln leave a good space in the Abyss betwixt them altogether uncover'd This space is the main Chanel of the great Ocean lying betwixt two Continents and the inclining sides shew the declivity of the Shores This we have represented here only in a Ring or Circle of the Earth in the first Figure but it may be better represented in a broader surface as in the second Figure where the two fragments A. B. that are to make the two opposite Continents fall in like double Doors opening downwards the Hinges being towards the Land on either side so as at the bottom they leave in the middle betwixt them a deep Chanel of water a. a. a. such as is betwixt all Continents and the water reaching a good height upon the Land on either side makes Sea there too but shallower and by degrees you descend into the deepest Chanel fig. 1. page 92. fig. 2. fig. 3. We must in the first place distinguish between Original Islands and Factitious Islands Those I call factitious that are not of the same date and Antiquity with the Sea but have been made some at one time some at another by accidental causes as the aggestion of Sands and Sand-beds or the Sea leaving the tops of some shallow places that lie high and yet flowing about the lower skirts of them These make sandy and plain Islands that have no high Land in them and are but mock-Islands in effect others are made by divulsion from some Continent when an Isthmus or the neck of a Promontory running into the Sea sinks or falls in by an Earthquake or otherwise and the Sea entring in at the gap passeth through and makes that Promontory or Country become an Island Thus the Island Sicily is suppos'd to have been made and all Africa might be an Island if the Isthmus between the Mediterranean and the red Sea should sink down And these Islands may have Rocks and Mountains in them if the Land had so before Lastly There are Islands that have been said to rise from the bottom of the Sea History mentions such in both the Archipelago's Aegaean and Indian and this seems to argue that there are great fragments or tracts of Earth that lie loose at the bottom of the Sea or that are not incorporated with the ground which agrees very well with our Explication of the Sea-chanel But besides these Islands and the several sorts of them there are others which I call Original because they could not be produc'd in any of the forementioned ways but are of the same Origin and Antiquity with the Chanel of the Sea and such are the generality of our Islands They were not made of heaps of Sands nor torn from any Continent but are as ancient as the Continents themselves namely ever since the Deluge the common Parent of them both Nor is there any difficulty to understand how Islands were made at the dissolution of the Earth any more than how Continents were made for Islands are but lesser Continents or Continents greater Islands and according as Continents were made of greater masses of Earth or greater fragments standing above the Water so Islands were made of less but so big always and in such a posture as to bear their tops above the Water Yet though they agree thus far there is a particular difference to be taken notice of as to their Origin for the Continents were made of those three or four primary masses into which the falling Orb of the Earth was divided but the Islands were made of the fractures of these and broken off by the fall from the skirts and extremities of the Continents We noted before that when those great masses and primary fragments came to dash upon the Abyss in their fall the sudden stop of the motion and the weighty bulk of the descending fragment broke off all the edges and extremities of it which edges and extemities broken off made the Islands and accordingly we see that they generally lie scatter'd along the sides of the Continents and are but splinters as it were of those greater bodies 'T is ture besides these there were an infinite number of other pieces broke off that do not appear some making Rocks under water some shallows and banks in the Sea but the greatest of them when they fell either one upon another or in such a posture as to prop up one another their heads and higher parts would stand out of the water and make Islands Thus I conceive the Islands of the Sea were at first produc'd we cannot wonder therefore that they should be so numerous or far more numerous than the Continents These are the Parents and those are the Children Nor can we wonder to see along the sides of the Continents several Islands or sets of Islands sown as it were by handfuls or laid in trains for the manner of their generation would lead us to think they would be so plac'd So the American Islands lie scatter'd upon the Coast of that Continent the Maldivian and Philippine upon the East-Indian shore and the Hesperides upon the Africk and there seldom happen to be any towards the middle of the Ocean though by an accident that also might come to pass Lastly It suits very well with our Explication that there should be Mountains and Rocks sometimes in clusters sometimes in long chains in all Islands as we find there are in all that are true and Original for 't is that makes them high enough to appear above the water and strong enough to continue and preserve themselves in that high situation And
constant Laws of Nature do certainly bring all liquors into that form And a Chaos is not call'd so from any confusion or brokenness in the form of it but from a confusion and mixture of all sorts of ingredients in the composition of it So we have already produc'd in the precedent Chapters a double argument that the Earth was not originally in this form both because it rise from a Châ—os which could not of it self or by any immediate concretion settle into a form of this nature as hath been shown in the Fourth and Fifth Chapters as also because if it had been originally made thus it could never have undergone a Deluge as hath been provâ—d in the Second and Third Chapters If this be then a secondary and succedaneous form the great question is from what causes it arises Some have thought that Mountains and all other irregularities in the Earth have rise from Earthquakes and such like causes others have thought that they came from the universal Deluge yet not from any dissolution of the Earth that was then but only from the great agitation of the waters which broke the ground into this rude and unequal form Both these causes seem to me very incompetent and insufficient Earthquakes seldom make Mountains they often take them away and sink them down into the Caverns that lie under them Besides Earthquakes are not in all Countries and Climates as Mountains are for as we have observ'd more than once there is neither Island that is original nor Continent any where in the Earth in what Latitude soever but hath Mountains and Rocks in it And lastly what probability is there or how is it credible that those vast tracts of Land which we see fill'd with Mountains both in Europe Asia and Africa were rais'd by Earthquakes or any eruptions from below In what Age of the World was this done and why not continu'd As for the Deluge which they alledge as another cause I doubt not but Mountains were made in the time of the general Deluge that great change and transformation of the Earth happen'd then but not from such causes as are pretended that is the bare rolling and agitation of the waters For if the Earth was smooth and plain before the Flood as they seem to suppose as well as we do the waters could have little or no power over a smooth surface to tear it any way in pieces no more than they do a meadow or low ground when they lie upon it for that which makes Torrents and Land-floods violent is their fall from the Mountains and high Lands which our Earth is now full of but if the Rain fell upon even and level ground it would only sadden and compress it there is no possibility how it should raise Mountains in it And if we could imagine an universal Deluge as the Earth is now constituted it would rather throw down the Hills and Mountains than raise new ones or by beating down their tops and loose parts help to fill the Valleys and bring the Earth nearer to evenness and plainness Seeing then there are no hopes of explaining the Origin of Mountains either from particular Earthquakes or from the general Deluge according to the common notion and Explication of it these not being causes answerable to such vast effects Let us try our Hypothesis again which hath made us a Chanel large enough for the Sea and room for all subterraneous Cavities and I think will find us materials enough to raise all the Mountains of the Earth We suppose the great Arch or circumference of the first Earth to have fallen into the Abyss at the Deluge and seeing that was large than the surface it fell upon 't is absolutely certain that it could not all fall flat or lie under the water Now as all those parts that stood above the water made dry Land or the present habitable Earth so such parts of the dry Land as stood higher than the rest made Hills and Mountains and this is the first and general account of them and of all the inequalities of the Earth But to consider these things a little more particularly There is a double cause and necessity of Mountains first this now mention'd because the exteriour Orb of the Earth was greater than the interiour which it fell upon and therefore it could not all fall flat and secondly because this exteriour Orb did not fall so flat and large as it might or did not cover all the bottom of the Abyss as it was very capable to do but as we shewed before in explaining the Chanel of the Ocean it left a gaping in the middle or an Abyss-chanel as I should call it and the broader this Abyss-chanel was the more Mountains there would be upon the dry Land for there would be more Earth or more of the falling Orb left and less room to place it in and therefore it must stand more in heaps In what parts of the Earth these heaps would lie and in what particular manner it cannot be expected that we should tell but all that we have hitherto observ'd concerning Mountains how strange soever and otherwise unaccountable may easily be explain'd and deduc'd from this original we shall not wonder at their greatness and vastness seeing they are the ruines of a broken World and they would take up more or less of the dry Land according as the Ocean took up more or less space of our Globe Then as to their figure and form whether External or Internal 't is just such as answers our expectation and no more than what the Hypothesis leads us to For you would easily believe that these heaps would be irregular in all manner of ways whether consider'd apart or in their situation to one another And they would lie commonly in Clusters and in Ridges for those are two of the most general postures of the parts of a ruine when they fall inwards Lastly We cannot wonder that Mountains should be generally hollow For great bodies falling together in confusion or bearing and leaning against one another must needs make a great many hollownesses in them and by their unequal Applications empty spaces will be intercepted We see also from the same reason why mountainous Countries are subject to Earthquakes and why Mountains often sink and fall down into the Caverns that lie under them their joynts and props being decayed and worn they become unable to bear their weight And all these properties you see hang upon one and the same string and are just consequences from our supposition concerning the dissolution of the first Earth And there is no surer mark of a good Hypothesis than when it doth not only hit luckily in one or two particulars but answers all that it is to be apply'd to and is adequate to Nature in her whole extent But to speak the Truth this Theory is something more than a bare Hypothesis because we are assur'd that the general ground that we go upon is true namely
That the Earth rise at first from a Chaos for besides Reason and Antiquity Scripture it self doth assure us of that and that one point being granted we have deduc'd from it all the rest by a direct chain of consequences which I think cannot be broken easily in any part or link of it Besides the great hinge of this Theory upon which all the rest turns is the distinction we make of the Ante diluvian Earth and Heavens from the Post-diluvian as to their form and constitution And it will never be beaten out of my head but that S. Peter hath made the same distinction sixteen hundred years since and to the very same purpose so that we have sure footing here again and the Theory riseth above the character of a bare Hypothesis And whereas an Hypothesis that is clear and proportion'd to Nature in every respect is accounted morally certain we must in equity give more than a moral certitude to this Theory But I mean this only as to the general parts of it for as to particularities I look upon them only as problematical and accordingly I affirm nothing therein but with a power of revocation and a liberty to change my opinion when I shall be better inform'd Neither do I know any Author that hath treated a matter new remote and consisting of a multitude of particulars who would not have had occasion if he had liv'd to have seen his Hypothesis fully examin'd to have chang'd his mind and manner of explaining things in many material instances To conclude both this Chapter and this Section we have here added a Map or Draught of the Earth according to the Natural face of it as it would appear from the Moon if we were a little nearer to her or as it was at first after the Deluge before Cities were built distinctions of Countries made or any alteâ—ations by humane industry 'T is chiefly to expose more to view the Mountains of the Earth and the proportions of Sea and Land to shew it as it lies in it self and as a Naturalist ought to conceive and consider it 'T is true there are far more Mountains upon the Earth than what are here represented for more could not conveniently be plac'd in this narrow Scheme But the best and most effectual way of representing the body of the Earth as it is by Nature would be not in plain Tables but by a rough Globe expressing all the considerable inequalities that are upon the Earth The smooth Globes that we use do but nourish in us the conceit of the Earth's regularity and though they may be convenient enough for Geographical purposes they are not so proper for Natural Science nothing would be more useful in this respect than a rough Globe of the largest dimensions wherein the Chanel of the Sea should be really hollow as it is in Nature with all its unequal depths according to the best soundings and the shores exprest both according to matter and form little Rocks standing where there are Rocks and Sands and Beaches in the places where they are found and all the Islands planted in the Sea-chanel in a due form and in their solid dimensions Then upon the Land should stand all the ranges of Mountains in the same order or disorder that Nature hath set them there And the in-land Seas and great Lakes or rather the beds they lie in should be duly represented as also the vast desarts of Sand as they lie upon the Earth And this being done with care and due Art would be a true Epitome or true model of our Earth Where we should see besides other instructions what a rude Lump our World is which we are so apt to dote upon CHAP. XII A short review of what hath been already treated of and in what manner The several Faces and Schemes under which the Earth would appear to a Stranger that should view it first at a distance and then more closely and the Application of them to our subject All methods whether Philosophical or Theological that have been offer'd by others for the Explication of the Form of the Earth are examin'd and disprov'd A conjecture concerning the other Planets their Natural Form and State compared with ours WE have finish'd the Three Sections of this Book and in this last Chapter we will make a short review and reflection upon what hath been hitherto treated of and add some further confirmations of it The Explication of the Universal Deluge was the first proposal and design of this Discourse to make that a thing credible and intelligible to the mind of Man And the full Explication of this drew in the whole Theory of the Earth Whose original we have deduc'd from its first Source and shew'd both what was its primaeval Form and how it came into its present Form The summ of our Hypothesis concerning the Universal Deluge was this That it came not to pass as was vulgarly believ'd by any excess of Rains or any Inundation of the Sea nor could ever be effected by a meer abundance of Waters unless we suppose some dissolution of the Earth at the same time namely when the Great Abyss was broken open And accordingly we shewed that without such a dissolution or if the Earth had been always in the same form it is in now no mass of water any where to be found in the World could have equall'd the height of the Mountains or made such an Universal Deluge Secondly We shewed that the form of the Earth at first and till the Deluge was such as made it capable and subject to a Dissolution And thirdly That such a dissolution being suppos'd the Doctrine of the Universal Deluge is very reasonable and intelligible And not only the Doctrine of the Deluge but the same supposition is a Key to all Nature besides shewing us how our Globe became Terraqueous what was the original of Mountains of the Sea-chanel of Islands of subterraneous Cavities Things which without this supposition are as unintelligible as the universal Flood it self And these things reciprocally confirming one another our Hypothesis of the Deluge is arm'd both breast and back by the causes and by the effects It remains now that as to confirm our Explication of the Deluge we shew'd all other accounts that had been given of it to be ineffectual or impossible so to confirm our doctrine concerning the dissolution of the Earth and concerning the Original of Mountains Seas and all inequalities upon it or within it we must examine what causes have been assign'd by others or what accounts given of these things That seeing their defectiveness we may have the more assurance and satisfaction in our own method And in order to this let us observe first the general forms under which the Earth may be consider'd or under which it doth appear accordingly as we view it more nearly or remotely And the first of these and the most general is that of a Terraqueous Globe If a Philosopher should come out of
it lay under the Water was a solid uniform mass compact and close united in its parts as we have shewn before upon several occasions no Mines or hollow Vaults for the Vapours to be lodg'd in no Store-houses of Fire nothing that could make Earthquakes nor any sort of ruines or eruptions These are Engines that cannot play but in an Earth already broken hollow and cavernous Therefore the Authors of this opinion do in effect beg the question they assign such causes of the present form of the Earth as could not take place nor have any activity until the Earth was in this form These causes may contribute something to increase the rudeness and inequalities of the Earth in certain places but they could not be the original causes of it And that not only because of their disproportion to such effects but also because of their incapacity or non-existence at that time when these effects were to be wrought Thus much concerning the Philosophical opinions or the natural Causes that have been assign'd for the irregular form of this present Earth Let us now consider the Theological opinions how Mountains were made at first and the wonderful Chanel of the Sea And these Authors say God Almighty made them immediately when he made the World and so dispatcht the business in a few words This is a short account indeed but we must take heed that we do not derogate from the perfection of God by ascribing all things promiscuously to his immediate action I have often suggested that the first order of things is regular and simple according as the Divine Nature is and continues so till there is some degeneracy in the moral World I have also noted upon several occasions especially in the Lat. Treat Cap. II. the deformity and incommodiousness of the present Earth and from these two considerations we may reasonably infer that the present state of the Earth was not Original but is a state of subjection to Vanity wherein it must continue till the redemption and restitution of all things But besides this general consideration there are many others both Natural and Theological against this opinion which the Authors of it I believe will find unanswerable As first S. Peter's distinction betwixt the present Earth and the Ante-diluvian and that in opposition to certain profane persons who seem to have been of the same opinion with these Authors namely That the Heavens and the Earth were the same now that they had been from the beginning and that there had been no change in Nature either of late or in former Ages These S. Peter confutes and upbraids them with ignorance or forgetfulness of the change that was brought upon Nature at the Deluge or that the Ante-diluvian Heavens and Earth were of a different form and constitution from the present whereby that World was obnoxious to a Deluge of Water as the present is to a Deluge of Fire Let these Authors put themselves in the place of those Objectors and see what answer they can make to the Apostle whom I leave to dispute the case with them I hope they will not treat this Epistle of S. Peter's so rudely as Didymus Alexandrinus did an ancient Christian and one of S. Ierom's Masters he was of the same opinion with these Theological Authors and so fierce in it that seeing S. Peter's doctrine here to be contrary he said this Epistle of S. Peter's was corrupted and was not to be receiv'd into the Canon And all this because it taught that the Heavens and the Earth had chang'd their form and would do so again at the Conflagration so as the same World would be Tâ—iform in success of time We acknowledge his Exposition of S. Peter's words to be very true but what he makes an argument of the corruption of this Epistle is rather in my mind a peculiar argument of its Divine Inspiration In the second place these Writers dash upon the old rock the impossibility of explaining the Deluge if there were Mountains from the beginning and the Earth then in the same form as it is in now Thirdly They make the state of Paradise as unintelligible as that of the Deluge For those properties that are assign'd to Paradise by the Ancients are inconsistent with the present form of the Earth As will appear in the Second Book Lastly They must answer and give an account of all those marks which we have observ'd in Nature both in this Chapter and the Ninth Tenth and Eleventh of fractions ruines and dissolutions that have been on the Earth and which we have shown to be inexplicable unless we admit that the Earth was once in another form These arguments being premis'd let us now bring their opinion close to the Test and see in what manner these Mountains must have been made according to them and how the Chanel of the Sea and all other Cavities of the Earth Let us to this purpose consider the Earth again in that transient incompleat form which it had when the Abyss encompast the whole body of it we both agree that the Earth was once in this state and they say that it came immediately out of this state into its present form there being made by a supernatural Power a great Chanel or Ditch in one part of it which drew off the Waters from the rest and the Earth which was squeez'd and forc'd out of this Ditch made the Mountains So there is the Chanel of the Sea made and the Mountains of the Earth how the subterraneous Cavities were made according to these Authors I do not well know This I confess seems to me a very gross thought and a way of working very un-God-like but however let 's have patience to examine it And in the first place if the Mountains were taken out of the Chanel of the Sea then they are equal to it and would fill it up if they were thrown in again But these proportions upon examination will not agree for though the Mountains of the Earth be very great yet they do not equal by much the great Ocean The Ocean extends to half the surface of the Earth and if you suppose the greatest depth of the Ocean to answer the height of the greatest Mountains and the middle depth to the middle sort of Mountains the Mountains ought to cover all the dry Land to make them answer to all the capacity of the Ocean whereas we suppos'd them upon a reasonable computation to cover but the tenth part of the dry Land and consequently neither they nor the Sea-chanel could have been produc'd in this manner because of their great disproportion to one another And the same thing appears if we compare the Mountains with the Abyss which cover'd the Earth before this Chanel was made for this Chanel being made great enough to contain all the Abyss the Mountains taken out of it must also be equal to all the Abyss but the aggregate of the Mountains will not answer this by many degrees
for suppose the Abyss was but half as deep as the deep Ocean to make this Calculus answer all the dry Land ought to be cover'd with Mountains and with Mountains as high as the Ocean is deep or doubly high to the depth of the Abyss because they are but upon one half of the Globe And this is the first argument against the reciprocal production of Mountains and the Sea their incongruency or disproportion Secondly We are to consider that a great many Mountains of the Earth are far distant from any Seas as the great in-land Mountains of Asia and of Africk and the Sarmatick Mountains and others in Europe how were these great bodies slung thorow the Air from their respective Seas whence they were taken to those places where they stand What appearance is there in common reason or credibility that these huge masses of Earth and Stone that stand in the middle of Continents were dug out of any Seas We think it strange and very deservedly that a little Chapel should be transported from Palestine to Italy over Land and Sea much more the transportation of Mount Atlas or Taurus thorow the Air or of a range of Mountains two or three thousand miles long would surely upon all accounts appear incongruous and incredible Besides neither the hollow form of Mountains nor the stony matter whereof they commonly consist agrees with that supposition that they were prest or taken out of the Chanel of the Sea Lastly We are to consider that the Mountains are not barely laid upon the Earth as a Tomb-stone upon a Grave nor stand as Statues do upon a Pedestal as this opinion seems to suppose but they are one continued substance with the body of the Earth and their roots reach into the Abyss as the Rocks by the Sea-side go as deep as the bottom of the Sea in one continu'd mass And 't is a ridiculous thing to imagine the Earth first a plain surface then all the Mountains set upon it as Hay-cocks in a Field standing upon their flat bottoms There is no such common surface in Nature nor consequently any such super-additions 'T is all one frame or mass only broken and disjoynted in the parts of it To conclude 'T is not only the Mountains that make the inequalities of the Earth or the irregularity of its surface every Country every Province every Field hath an unequal and different situation higher or lower inclin'd more or less and sometimes one way sometimes another you can scarce take a miles compass in any place where the surface of the ground continues uniform and can you imagine that there were Moulds or Stones brought from the Sea-chanel to make all those inequalities Or that Earthquakes have been in every County and in every Field The inner Veins and Lares the beds or Strata of the Earth are also broken as well as the surface These must proceed from universal causes and all those that have been alledg'd whether from Philosophy or Theology are but particular or Topical I am fully satisfied in contemplation of these things and so I think every unprejudic'd person may be that to such an irregular variety of situation and construction as we see every where in the parts of the Earth nothing could answer but some universal concussion or dislocation in the nature of a general ruine We have now finisht this first part of our Theory and all that concerns the Deluge or dissolution of the Earth and we have not only establisht our own Hypothesis by positive arguments but also produc'd and examin'd all suppositions that have been offer'd by others whether Philosophical or Theological for the Explication of the same things so as nothing seems now to remain further upon this subject For a conclusion of all we will consider if you please the rest of the Earths or of the Planets within our Heavens that appertain to the same common Sun to see so far as we can go by rational conjectures if they be not of the same Fabrick and have undergone the like fate and forms with our Earth It is now acknowledg'd by the generality of Learned Men that the Planets are Opake bodies and particularly our next neighbour the Moon is known to be a Terraqueous Globe consisting of Mountains and Valleys as our Earth does and we have no reason to believe but that she came into that form by a dissolution or from like causes as our Earth did Mercury is so near the Sun that we cannot well discern his face whether spotted or no nor make a judgment of it But as for Venus and Mars if the spots that be observed in them be their Waters or their Sea as they are in the Moon 't is likely They are also Terraqueous Globes and in much what a like form with the Moon and the Earth and for ought we know from like causes Particularly as to Venus 't is a remarkable passage that S. Austin hath preserv'd out of Varro he saith That about the time of the great Deluge there was a wonderful alteration or Catastrophe happen'd to the Planet Venus and that she chang'd her Colour form figure and magnitude This is a great presumption that she suffer'd her dissolution about the same time that our Earth did I do not know that any such thing is recorded concerning any of the other Planets but the body of Mars looks very rugged broken and much disorder'd Saturn and Iupiter deserve a distinct consideration as having something particular and different from the rest of the Planets Saturn is remarkable for his Hoop or Ring which seems to stand off or higher than his body and would strongly induce one to believe that the exteriour Earth of that Planet at its dissolution did not all fall in but the Polar parts sinking into the Abyss the middle or Aequinoctial parts still subsisted and bore themselves up in the nature of an Arch about the Planet or of a Bridge as it were built over the Sea of Saturn And as some have observ'd concerning the figure of Iupiter that it is not wholly Sphaerical but a Sphaeroid protuberant in the Aequator and deprest towards the Poles So I should suspect Saturn to have been much more so before his disruption Namely That the Body of that Planet in its first state was more flat and low towards the Poles and also weaker and thinner and about the Aequator higher fuller and stronger Built By reason of which figure and construction the Polar parts did more easily fall in or were suckt in as Cupping-glasses draw in the Flesh when the Abyss below grew more empty Whereas the middle parts about the Aequator being a more just Arch and strongly built would not yield or sink but stood firm and unbroken and continues still in its first posture Planets break in different ways according to the quality of their matter the manner of their construction and the Nature of the Causes that act upon them Their dissolutions are sometimes total as in
our Earth sometimes partial and both of these may be under great variety In partial dissolutions the middle parts sometimes stand and the Polar are broke or the Polar stand and the middle are broke Or one Hemisphere or part of an Hemisphere may be sunk the rest standing There may be Causes and occasions for all these varieties and many more in diversifying the Phaenomena of an immense Universe But to return to Saturn That this present uncouth form of Saturn was not its Original form I am very well satisfied if that Planet rise from a Chaos as ours did And if this be an adventitious form I know no account can be given of it with more probability than by supposing it the effect of some fraction or disruption in the Polar parts Neither do I know any Phaenomenon hitherto observ'd concerning Saturn that does disprove this Hypothesis or conjecture As to Iupiter that Planet without doubt is also turned about its Axis otherwise how shou'd its four Moons be carried round him And this is also collected from the motion of that permanent Spot if it be found to be so that is upon its Body Which Spot I take to be either a Lake or a Chasm and Hiatus into the Abyss of the Planet That is part of the Abyss open or uncover'd like the Aperture we made in the Seventh Figure And this might either have been left so by Providence at first for some reasons and causes fitting that Earth or it may have fallen in afterwards as Plato's Atlantis or as Soâ—â—m and Gomorrha for some judgment upon part of that World To conclude Seeing all the Planets that are plac'd in this Heaven and are the foster-children of this Sun seem to have some affinity one with another and have much-what the same countenance and the same general Phaenomena It seems probable that they rise much-what the same way and after the like manner as our Earth each one from its respective Chaos And that they had the same Elementary Regions at first and an exteriour Orb â—orm'd over their Abyss And lastly That every one of them hath suffer'd or is to suffer its Deluge as our Earth hath done These I say are probable conjectures according to the Analogy of Reason and Nature so far as we can judge concerning things very remote and inaccessible And these things being thus and our Theory of the Deluge and the Dissolution which brought it having such a general agreement both with our Heavens and our Earth I think there is nothing but the uncouthness of the thing to some mens understandings the custom of thinking otherwise and the uneasiness of entring into a new set of thoughts that can be a bar or hindrance to its reception But it may be improv'd I doubt not in many respects and in some particularities rectified The first attempts in great Things are seldom or never perfect Such is the weakness of our Understandings and the want of a full Natural History And in assigning Causes of such great effects fair conjectures are to be allow'd till they be displac'd by others more evident and more certain Accordingly I readily submit to these terms and leave this and all other parts of the Theory to further examination and enquiries FINIS THE THEORY OF THE EARTH Containing an Account OF THE Original of the Earth AND OF ALL THE GENERAL CHANGES Which it hath already undergone OR IS TO UNDERGO Throughout the whole Course of its Duration THE SECOND BOOK Concerning the PRIMAEVAL EARTH AND Concerning PARADISE LONDON Printed by R. N. for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's-Head in S. Paul's Church-Yard 1697. THE THEORY OF THE EARTH BOOK II. Concerning the Primaeval Earth and concerning Paradise CHAP. I. The Introduction and Contents of the Second Book The general state of the Primaeval Earth and of Paradise WE have already seen a World begin and perish An Earth rais'd from the rudiments of a Chaos and dissolv'd and destroy'd in an Universal Deluge We have given also an imperfect description of that primaeval Earth so far as was necessary to shew the Causes and manner of its dissolution But we must not content our selves with this Seeing that Earth was the first Theater upon which Mortals appear'd and acted and continued so for above Sixteen Hundred Years and that with Scenes as both Reason and History tell us very extraordinary and very different from these of our present Earth 't is reasonable we should endeavour to make a more full discovery and description of it Especially seeing Paradise was there that seat of pleasure which our first Parents lost and which all their posterity have much ado to find again In the First Book we so far describ'd This New-found World as to shew it very different in form and fabrick from the present Earth there was no Sea there no Mountains nor Rocks nor broken Caves 't was all one continued and regular mass smooth simple and compleat as the first works of Nature use to be But to know thus much only doth rather excite our curiosity than satisfie it what were the other properties of this World how were the Heavens how the Elements what accommodation for humane life why was it more proper to be the seat of Paradise than the present Earth Unless we know these things you will say it will seem but an aëry Idea to us and 't is certain that the more properties and particularâ—ties that we know concerning any thing the more real it appears to be As it was our chief design therefore in the precedent Book to give an account of the Universal Deluge by way of a Theory so we propose to our selves chiefly in this Book from the same Theory to give an account of Paradise and in performing of this we shall be led into a more full examination and display of that first Earth and of its qualities And if we be so happy as by the conduct of the same principles and the same method to give as fair an account and as intelligible of the state of Paradise in that Original Earth as we have done of the Deluge by the dissolution of it and of the form of this Earth which succeeded one must be very morose or melancholy to imagine that the grounds we go upon all this while are wholly false or â—ictitious A foundation which will bear the weight of two Worlds without sinking must surely stand upon a firm Rock And I am apt to promise my self that this Theory of the Earth will find acceptance and credit more or less with all but those that think it a sufficient answer to all arguments to say it is a Novelty But to proceed in our disquisition concerning Paradise we may note in the first place two opinions to be avoided being both extreams one that placeth Paradise in the extra-mundane Regions or in the Air or in the Moon and the other that makes it so inconsiderable as to be confin'd to a little spot of ground in Mesopotamia or
same World that our first fore-fathers did nor scarce to be the same race of Men. Our life now is so short and vain as if we came into the World only to see it and leave it by that time we begin to understand our selves a little and to know where we are and how to act our part we must leave the stage and give place to others as meer Novices as we were our selves at our first entrance And this short life is imploy'd in a great measure to preserve our selves from necessity or diseases or injuries of the Air or other inconveniencies to make one Man easie ten must work and do drudgery The Body takes up so much time we have little leisure for Contemplation or to cultivate the mind The Earth doth not yield us food but with much labour and industry and what was her free-will offering before or an easie liberality can scarce now be extorted from her Neither are the Heavens more favourable sometimes in one extreme sometimes in another The Air often impure or infectious and for a great part of the year Nature her self seems to be sick or dead To this vanity the external Creation is made subject as well as Mankind and so must continue till the restitution of all things Can we imagine in those happy Times and Places we are treating of that things stood in this same posture are these the fruits of the Golden Age and of Paradise or consistent with their happiness And the remedies of these evils must be so universal you cannot give them to one place or Region of the Earth but all must participate For these are things that flow from the course of the Heavens or such general Causes as extend at once to all Nature If there was a perpetual Spring and perpetual Aequinox in Paradise there was at the same time a perpetual Aequinox all the Earth over unless you place Paradise in the middle of the Torrid Zone So also the long-lives of the Ante-diluvians was an universal Effect and must have had an universal Cause 'T is true in some single parts or Regions of the present Earth the Inhabitants live generally longer than in others but do not approach in any measure the Age of their Ante-diluvian fore-fathers and that degree of longaevity which they have above the rest they owe to the calmness and tranquility of their Heavens and Air which is but an imperfect participation of that cause which was once Universal and had its effect throughout the whole Earth And as to the fertility of this Earth though in some spots it be eminently more fruitful than in others and more delicious yet that of the first Earth was a fertility of another kind being spontaneous and extending to the production of Animals which cannot be without a favourable concourse from the Heavens also Thus much in general We will now go over those three forementioned Characters more distinctly to show by their unsuitableness to the present state of Nature that neither the whole Earth as it is now nor any part of it could be Paradisiacal The perpetual Spring which belong'd to the Golden Age and to Paradise is an happiness this present Earth cannot pretend to nor is capable of unless we could transfer the Sun from the Ecliptick to the Aequator or which is as easie perswade the Earth to change its posture to the Sun If Archimedes had found a place to plant his Machines in for removing of the Earth all that I should have desir'd of him would have been only to have given it an heave at one end and set it a little to rights again with the Sun that we might have enjoy'd the comfort of a perpetual Spring which we have lost by its dislocation ever since the Deluge And there being nothing more indispensably necessary to a Paradisiacal state than this unity and equality of Seasons where that cannot be 't is in vain to seek for the rest of Paradise The spontaneous fruitfulness of the ground was a thing peculiar to the primigenial soil which was so temper'd as made it more luxuriant at that time than it could ever be afterwards and as that rich temperament was spent so by degrees it grew less fertile The Origin or production of Animals out of the Earth depended not only upon this vital constitution of the soil at first but also upon such a posture and aspect of the Heavens as favour'd or at least permitted Nature to make her best works out of this prepar'd matter and better than could be made in that manner after the Flood Noah we see had orders given him to preserve the Races of living Creatures in his Ark when the Old World was destroy'd which is an argument to me that Providence foresaw that the Earth would not be capable to produce them under its new form and that not only for want of fitness in the soil but because of the diversity of Seasons which were then to take place whereby Nature would be disturb'd in her work and the subject to be wrought upon would not continue long enough in the same due temper But this part of the second Character concerning the Original of Animals deserves to be further examin'd and explain'd The first principles of Life must be tender and ductile that they may yield to all the motions and gentle touches of Nature otherwise it is not possible that they should be wrought with that curiosity and drawn into all those little fine threds and textures that we see and admire in some parts of the Bodies of Animals And as the matter must be so constituted at first so it must be kept in a due temper till the work be finisht without any excess of heat or cold and accordingly we see that Nature hath made provision in all sorts of Creatures whether Oviparous or Viviparous that the first rudiments of Life should be preserv'd from all injuries of the Air and kept in a moderate warmth Eggs are enclos'd in a Shell or Film and must be cherish'd with an equal gentle heat to begin formation and continue it otherwise the work miscarries And in Viviparous Creatures the materials of life are safely lodg'd in the Females womb and conserv'd in a fit temperature 'twixt heat and cold while the Causes that Providence hath imploy'd are busie at work fashioning and placing and joyning the parts in that due order which so wonderful a Fabrick requires Let us now compare these things with the birth of Animals in the new-made World when they first rose out of the Earth to see what provision could be made there for their safety and nourishment while they were a making and when newly made And though we take all advantages we can and suppose both the Heavens and the Earth favourable a fit soil and a warm and constant temper of the Air all will be little enough to make this way of production feasible or probable But if we suppose there was then the same inconstancy of the Heavens
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
be very irregular and diffuse till the Chanels were a little worn and hollowed and though that Earth was smooth and uniform yet 't is impossible upon an inclining surface but that Waters should find a way of creeping downwards as we see upon a smooth Table or a flagg'd Pavement if there be the least inclination Water will flow from the higher to the lower parts of it either directly or winding to and fro So the smoothness of that Earth would be no hindrance to the course of the Rivers provided there was a general declivity in the site and libration of it as 't is plain there was from the Poles towards the Aequator The Current indeed would be easie and gentle all along and if it chanc'd in some places to rest or be stopt it would spread it self into a pleasant Lake till by fresh supplies it had rais'd its Waters so high as to overflow and break loose again then it would pursue its way with many other Rivers its companions through all the temperate Climates as far as the Torrid Zone But you 'll say When they were got thither what would become of them then How would they end or finish their course This is the third difficulty concerning the ending of the Rivers in that Earth what issue could they have when they were come to the middle parts of it whether it seems they all tended There was no Sea to lose themselves in as our Rivers do nor any Subterraneous passages to throw themselves into how would they die what would be their fate at last I answer The greater Rivers when they were come towards those parts of the Earth would be divided into many branches or a multitude of Rivulets and those would be partly exhal'd by the heat of the Sun and partly drunk up by the dry and sandy Earth But how and in what manner this came to pass requires a little further Explication We must therefore observe in the first place that those Rivers as they drew nearer to the Aequinoctial parts would find a less declivity or descent of ground than in the beginning or former part of their course that is evident from the Oval Figure of the Earth for near the middle parts of an Oval the Semidiameters as I may call them are very little shorter one than another and for this reason the Rivers when they were advanc'd towards the middle parts of the Earth would begin to flow more slowly and by that weakness of their Current suffer themselves easily to be divided and distracted into several lesser streams and Rivulets or else having no force to wear a Chanel would lie shallow upon the ground like a plash of Water and in both cases their Waters would be much more expos'd to the action of the Sun than if they had kept together in a deeper Chanel as they were before Secondly We must observe that seeing these Waters could not reach to the middle of the Torrid Zone for want of descent that part of the Earth having the Sun always perpendicular over it and being refresht by no Rivers would become extremely dry and parch'd and be converted at length into a kind of sandy Desart so as all the Waters that were carried thus far and were not exhal'd and consum'd by the Sun would be suckt up as in a Spunge by these Sands of the Torrid Zone This was the common Grave wherein the Rivers of the first Earth were buried and this is nothing but what happens still in several parts of the present Earth especially in Africk where many Rivers never flow into the Sea but expire after the same manner as these did drunk up by the Sun and the Sands And one arm of Euphrates dies as I remember amongst the Sands of Arabia after the manner of the Rivers of the first Earth Thus we have conquer'd the greatest difficulty in my apprehension in this whole Theory To find out the state of the Rivers in the Primitive and Ante-diluvian Earth their origin course and period We have been forc'd to win our ground by Inches and have divided the difficulty into parts that we might encounter them single with more ease The Rivers of that Earth you see were in most respects different and in some contrary to ours and if you could turn our Rivers backwards to run from the Sea towards their Fountain-heads they would more resemble the course of those Ante-diluvian Rivers for they were greatest at their first setting out and the Current afterwards when it was more weak and the Chanel more shallow was divided into many branches and little Rivers like the Arteries in our Body that carry the Blood they are greatest at first and the further they go from the Heart their Source the less they grow and divide into a multitude of little branches which lose themselves insensibly in the habit of the flesh as these little Floods did in the Sands of the Earth Book 2d. fig. 3. p. 158. Because it pleaseth more and makes a greater impression upon us to see things represented to the Eye than to read their description in words we have ventur'd to give a model of the Primaeval Earth with its Zones or greater Climates and the general order and tracts of its Rivers Not that we believe things to have been in the very same form as here exhibited but this may serve as a general Idea of that Earth which may be wrought into more exactness according as we are able to enlarge or correct our thoughts hereafter And as the Zones here represented resemble the Belts or Eusciae of Iupiter so we suppose them to proceed from like causes if that Planet be in an Ante-diluvian state as the Earth we here represent As for the Polar parts in that first Earth I can say very little of them they would make a Scene by themselves and a very particular one The Sun would be perpetually in their Horizon which makes me think the Rains would not fall so much there as in the other parts of the Frigid Zones where accordingly we have made their chief seat and receptacle That they flow'd from thence in such a like manner as is hero represented we have already prov'd And sometimes in their passage swelling into Lakes and towards the end of their course parting into several streams and branches they would water those parts of the Earth like a Garden We have before compar'd the branchings of these Rivers towards the end of their course to the ramifications of the Arteries in the Body when they are far from the Heart near the extream parts and some it may be looking upon this Scheme would carry the comparison further and suppose that as in the Body the Bloud is not lost in the habit of the flesh but strain'd thorough it and taken up again by the little branches of the Veins so in that Earth the Waters were not lost in those Sands of the Torrid Zone but strain'd or percolated thorough them and receiv'd into the
be in whether of these Hemispheres was the Seat of Paradise To answer this only according to our Theory I confess I see no natural reason or occasion to place it in one Hemisphere more than in another I see no ground of difference or pre-eminence that one had above the other and I am apt to think that depended rather upon the will of God and the Series of Providence that was to follow in this Earth than upon any natural incapacity in one of these two Regions more than in the other for planting in it the Garden of God Neither doth Scripture determine with any certainty either Hemisphere for the place of it for when 't is said to be in Eden or to be the Garden of Eden 't is no more than the Garden of pleasure or delight as the word signifies And even the Septuagint who render this word Eden as a proper name twice Gen. 2. ver 8 10. do in the same story render it twice as a common name signifying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pleasure Chap. 2. 15. and Chap. 3. 24. and so they do accordingly render it in Ezekiel Chap. 31. 9. 16 18. where this Garden of Eden is spoken of again Some have thought that the word Mekiddim Gen. 2. 8. was to be render'd in the East or Eastward as we read it and therefore determin'd the site of Paradise but 't is only the Septuagint Translate it so all the other Greek Versions and S. Ierome the Vulgate the Chaldee Paraphrase and the Syriack render it from the beginning or in the beginning or to that effect And we that do not believe the Septuagint to have been infallible or inspir'd have no reason to prefer their single authority above all the rest Some also think the place of Paradise may be determin'd by the four Rivers that are named as belonging to it and the Countries they ran thorough but the names of those Rivers are to me uncertain and two of them altogether unintelligible Where are there four Rivers in our Continent that come from one Head as these are said to have done either at the entrance or issue of the Garden 'T is true if you admit our Hypothesis concerning the fraction and disruption of the Earth at the Deluge then we cannot expect to find Rivers now as they were before the general Source is chang'd and their Chanels are all broke up but if you do not admit such a dissolution of the Earth but suppose the Deluge to have been only like a standing Pool after it had once cover'd the surface of the Earth I do not see why it should make any great haveck or confusion in it and they that go that way are therefore the more oblig'd to show us still the Rivers of Paradise Several of the Ancients as we shall show hereafter suppos'd these four Rivers to have their Heads in the other Hemisphere and if so the Seat of Paradise might be there too But let them first agree amongst themselves concerning these Rivers and the Countries they run thorough and we will undertake to show that there cannot be any such in this Continent Seeing then neither the Theory doth determine nor Scripture where the place of Paradise was nor in whether Hemisphere we must appeal to Antiquity or the opinions of the Ancients for I know no other Guide but one of these three Scripture Reason and Ancient Tradition and where the two former are silent it seems very reasonable to consult the third And that our Inquiries may be comprehensive enough we will consider what the Iews what the Heathens and what the Christian Fathers have said or determin'd concerning the Seat of Paradise The Iews and Hebrew Doctors place it in neither Hemisphere but betwixt both under the Aequinoctial as you may see plainly in Abravanel Manasses Ben-Israel Maimonides Aben Ezra and others But the reason why they carried it no further than the Line is because they suppos'd it certain as Aben Ezra tells us that the days and nights were always equal in Paradise and they did not know how that could be unless it stood under the Aequinoctial But we have shown another method wherein that perpetual Aequinox came to pass and how it was common to all the parts and Climates of that Earth which if they had been aware of and that the Torrid Zone at that time was utterly uninhabitable having remov'd their Paradise thus far from home they would probably have remov'd it a little further into the temperate Climates of the other Hemisphere The Ancient Heathens Poets and Philosophers had the notion of Paradise or rather of several Paradises in the Earth and 't is remarkable that they plac'd them generally if not all of them out of this Continent in the Ocean or beyond it or in another Orb or Hemisphere The Garden of the Hesperides the Fortunate Islands the Elysian Fields Ogygia and Toprabane as it is describ'd by Diodorus Siculus with others such like which as they were all characteriz'd like so many Paradises so they were all feared out of our Continent by their Geography and descriptions of them Thus far Antiquity seems to incline to the other Hemisphere or to some place beyond the bounds of our Continent for the Seat of Paradise But that which we are most to depend upon in this affair is Christian Antiquity the Judgment and Tradition of the Fathers upon this Argument And we may safely say in the first place negatively that none of the Christian Fathers Latin or Greek ever plac'd Paradise in Mesopotamia that is a conceit and invention of some Modern Authors which hath been much encouraged of late because it gave Men ease and rest as to further inquiries in an argument they could not well manage Secondly We may affirm that none of the Christian Fathers have plac'd Paradise in any determinate Region of our Continent Asia Africk or Europe I have read of one or two Authors I think that fansied Paradise to have been at Ierusalem but 't was a meer fansie that no body regarded or pursu'd The controversie amongst the Fathers concerning Paradise was quite another thing from what it is now of late They disputed and controverted whether Paradise was Corporeal or Intellectual only and Allegorical This was the grand point amongst them Then of those that thought it Corporeal some plac'd it high in the Air some inaccessible by Desarts or Mountains and many beyond the Ocean or in another World And in these chiefly consisted the differences and diversity of opinions amongst them nor do we find that they nam'd any particular place or Country in the known parts of the Earth for the Seat of Paradise or that one contested for one spot of ground and another for another which is the vain temerity of modern Authors as if they could tell to an Acre of Land where Paradise stood or could set their foot upon the Centre of the Garden These have corrupted and misrepresented the notion of our Paradise just as
some modern Poets have the notion of the Elysian fields which Homer and the Ancients plac'd remote on the extremities of the Earth and these would make a little green Meadow in Campania Felix to be the fam'd Elysium Thus much concerning the Fathers negatively but to discover as far as we can what their positive Assertions were in this Argument we may observe that though their opinions be differently exprest they generally concenter in this that the Southern Hemisphere was the Seat of Paradise This I say seems manifestly to be the sence of Christian Antiquity and Tradition so far as there is any thing definitive in the remains we have upon that subject Some of the Fathers did not believe Paradise to be Corporeal and Local and those are to be laid aside in the first place as to this point Others that thought it Local did not determine any thing as most of them indeed did not concerning the particular place of it But the rest that did though they have exprest themselves in various ways and under various forms yet upon a due interpretation they all meet in one common and general conclusion That Paradise was seated beyond the Aequinoctial or in the other Hemisphere And to understand this aright we must reflect in the first place upon the form of the Primaeval Earth and of the two Hemispheres of which it consisted altogether incommunicable one with another by reason of the Torrid Zone betwixt them so as those two Hemispheres were then as two distinct Worlds or distinct Earths that had no commerce with one another And this Notion or Tradition we find among Heathen Authors as well as Christian this Opposite Earth being call'd by them Antichthon and its Inhabitants Antichthones For those words comprehend both the Antipodes and Antoeci or all beyond the Line as is manifest from their best Authors as Achilles Tatius and Caesar Germanicus upon Aratus Probus Grammaticus Censorinus Pomponius Mela and Pliny And these were call'd another World and lookt upon as another stock and race of Mankind as appears from Cicero and Macrobius But as the latter part was their mistake so the former is acknowledg'd by Christian Authors as well as others and particularly S. Clement in his Epistle to the Corinthians mentions a World or Worlds beyond the Ocean subject to Divine Providence and the great Lord of Nature as well as ours This passage of S. Clement is also cited by S. Ierom in his Commentary upon Ephes. 2. 2. and by Origen Periarchon where the Inhabitants of that other World are call'd Antichthones I make this remark in the first place that we may understand the true sence and importance of those phrases and expressions amongst the Ancients when they say Paradise was in another World Which are not to be so understood as if they thought Paradise was in the Moon or in Iupiter or hung above like a Cloud or a Meteor they were not so extravagant but that Paradise was in another Hemisphere which was call'd Antichthon another Earth or another World from Ours and justly reputed so because of an impossibility of commerce or intercourse betwixt their respective Inhabitants And this remark being premis'd we will now distribute the Christian Authors and Fathers that have deliver'd their opinion concerning the place of Paradise into three or four ranks or orders and though they express themselves differently you will see when duly examin'd and expounded they all conspire and concur in the forementioned conclusion That the Seat of Paradise was in the other Hemisphere In the first rank then we will place and reckon those that have set Paradise in another World or in another Earth seeing according to the foregoing Explication that is the same thing as to affirm it seated beyond the Torrid Zone in the other Hemisphere In this number are Ephrem Syrus Moses Bar Cepha Tatianus and of later date Iacobus de Valentia To these are to be added again such Authors as say that Adam when he was turn'd out of Paradise was brought into our Earth or into our Region of the Earth for this is tantamount with the former And this seems to be the sence of S. Ierom in several places against Iovinian as also of Constantine in his Oration in Eusebius and is positively asserted by Sulpitius Severus And lastly Those Authors that represent Paradise as remote from our World and inaccessible so S. Austin Procopius Gazeus Beda Strabus Fuldensis Historia Scholiastica and others these I say pursue the same notion of Antiquity for what is remote from our World that is from our Continent as we before explain'd it is to be understood to be that Antichthon or Anti-hemisphere which the Ancients oppos'd to ours Another sett of Authors that interpret the Flaming Sword that guarded Paradise to be the Torrid Zone do plainly intimate that Paradise in their opinion lay beyond the Torrid Zone or in the Antihemisphere And thus Tertullian interprets the Flaming Sword and in such words as fully confirm our sence Paradise He says by the Torrid Zone as by a wall of Fire was sever'd from the communication and knowledge of our World It lay then on the other side of this Zone And S. Cyprian or the ancient Author that passeth under his name in his Comment upon Genesis expresseth himself to the same effect so also S. Austin and Isidore Hispalensis are thought to interpret it And Aquinas who makes Paradise inaccessible gives this reason for it Propter vehementiam aestûs in locis intermediis ex propinquitate Solis hoc significatur per Flammeum Gladium Because of that vehement heat in the parts betwixt us and that arising from the nearness of the Sun and this is signified by the Flaming Sword And this interpretation of the Flaming Sword receives a remarkable force and Emphasis from our Theory and description of the Primaeval Earth for there the Torrid Zone was as a wall of Fire indeed or a Region of flame which none could pass or subsist in no more than in a Furnace There is another form of expression amongst the Ancients concerning Paradise which if decyphered is of the same force and signification with this we have already instanc'd in They say sometimes Paradise was beyond the Ocean or that the Rivers of Paradise came from beyond the Ocean This is of the same import with the former Head and points still at the other Hemisphere for as we noted before some of them fixt their Antichthon and Antichthâ—nes beyond the Ocean that is since there was an Ocean Since the form of the Earth was chang'd and the Torrid Zone become habitable and cosequently could not be a boundary or separation betwixt the two Worlds Wherefore as some run still upon the old division by the Torrid Zone others took the new division by the Ocean Which Ocean they suppos'd to lie from East to West betwixt the Tropicks as may be seen in Ancient Authors Geminus Herodotus Cicero de republicâ and Clemens
Romanus whom we cited before S. Austin also speaks upon the same supposition when he would confute the doctrine of the Antipodes or Antichthâ—nes and Macrobius I remember makes it an argument of Providence that the Sun and the Planets in what part of their course soever they are betwixt the two Tropicks have still the Ocean under them that they may be cool'd and nourisht by its moisture They thought the Sea like a Girdle went round the Earth and the temperate Zones on either side were the habitable Regions whereof this was call'd the Oicouméne and the other Antichthon This being observ'd 't is not material whether their Notion was true or false it shews us what their meaning was and what part of the Earth they design'd when they spoke of any thing beyond the Ocean namely that they meant beyond the Line in the other Hemisphere or in the Antichthon and accordingly when they say Paradise or the Fountains of its Rivers were beyond the Ocean they say the same thing in other terms with the rest of those Authors we have cited In Moses Bar Cepha above mention'd we find a Chapter upon this subject Qucmodo trajecerint Mortales inde ex Paradisi terrâ in hanc Terram How Mankind past out of that Earth or Coâ—tinent where Paradise was into that where we are Namely how they past the Ocean that lay betwixt them as the answer there given explains it And so Ephrem Syrus is cited often in that Treatise placing Paradise beyond the Ocean The Essenes also who were the most Philosophick Sect of the Iews plac'd Paradise according to Iosephus beyond the Ocean under a perfect temperature of Air. And that passage in Eusebius in the Oration of Constantine being corrected and restor'd to the true reading represents Paradise in like manner as in another Continent from whence Adam was brought after his transgression into this And lastly there are some Authors whose testimony and authority may deserve to be consider'd not for their own Antiquity but because they are profess'dly transcribers of Antiquity and Traditions such as Strabus Comestor and the like who are known to give this account or report of Paradise from the Ancients that it was interposito Oceano ab Orbe nostro vel à Zonâ nostrâ habitabili secretus Separated from our Orb or Hemisphere by the interposition of the Ocean It is also observable that many of the Ancients that took Tigris Euphrates Nile and Ganges for the Rivers of Paradise said that those Heads or Fountains of them which we have in our Continent are but their Capita secunda their second Sources and that their first Sources were in another Orb where Paradise was and thus Hugo de Sancto Victore says Sanctos communiter sensisse That the Holy Men of old were generally of that opinion To this sence also Moses Bar Cepha often expresseth himself as also Epiphanius Procopius Gazaeus and Severianus in Catenâ Which notion amongst the Ancients concerning the trajection or passage of the Paradisiacal Rivers under-ground or under-Sea from one Continent into another is to me I confess unintelligible either in the first or second Earth but however it discovers their sence and opinion of the Seat of Paradise that it was not to be sought for in Asia or in Africk where those Rivers rise to us but in some remoter parts of the World where they suppos'd their first Sources to be This is a short account of what the Christian Fathers have left us concerning the Seat of Paradise and the truth is 't is but a short and broken account yet 't is no wonder it should be so if we consider as we noted before that several of them did not believe Paradise to be Local and Corporeal Others that did believe it so yet did not offer to determine the place of it but left that matter wholly untoucht and undecided and the rest that did speak to that point did it commonly both in general terms and in expressions that were disguis'd and needed interpretation but all these differences and obscurities of expression you see when duly stated and expounded may signifie one and the same thing and terminate all in this common Conclusion That Paradise was without our Continent accordâ—ng to the general opinion and Tradition of Antiquity And I do not doubt but the Tradition would have been both more express and more universal if the Ancients had understood Geography better for those of the Ancients that did not admit or believe that there were Antipodes or Antichthones as Lactantius S. Austin and some others these could not joyn in the common opinion about the place of Paradise because they thought there was no Land nor any thing habitable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or besides this Continent And yet S. Austin was so cautious that as he was bounded on the one hand by his false Idea of the Earth that he could not joyn with Antiquity as to the place of Paradise so on the other hand he had that respect for it that he would not say any thing to the contrary therefore being to give his opinion he says only Terrestrem esse Paradisum locum ejus ab hominum cognitione esse remotissimum That it is somewhere upon the Earth but the place of it very remote from the knowledge of Men. And as their ignorance of the Globe of the Earth was one reason why the doctrine of Paradise was so broken and obscure so another reason why it is much more so at present is because the chief ancient Books writ upon that subiect are lost Ephrem Syrus who liv'd in the Fourth Century writ a Commentary in Genesin five de Ortu rerum concerning the Origin of the Earth and by those remains that are cited from it we have reason to believe that it contain'd many things remarkable concerning the first Earth and concerning Paradise Tertullian also writ a Book de Paradiso which is wholly lost and we see to what effect it would have been by his making the Torrid Zone to be the Flaming Sword and the partition betwixt this Earth and Paradise which two Earths he more than once distinguisheth as very different from one another The most ancient Author that I know upon this subject at least of those that writ of it literally is Moses Bar Cepha a Syrian Bishop who liv'd about seven hundred years since and his Book is translated into Latin by that Learned and Judicious Man Andreas Masius Bar Cepha writes upon the same Views of Paradise that we have here presented that it was beyond the Ocean in another tract of Land or another Continent from that which we inhabit As appears from the very Titles of his Eighth Tenth and Fourteenth Chapters But we must allow him for his mistaken Notions about the form of the Earth for he seems to have sansied the Earth plain not only as oppos'd to rough and Mountainous for so it was plain but as oppos'd to Spherical and the Ocean to
have divided it in two parts an Interiour and an Exteriour and in that Exteriour part was Paradise Such allowances must often be made for Geographical mistakes in examining and understanding the writings of the Ancients The rest of the Syrian Fathers as well as Ephrem and Bar Cepha incline to the same doctrine of Paradise and seem to have retain'd more of the ancient notions concerning it than the Greek and Latin Fathers have and yet there is in all some fragments of this doctrine and but fragments in the best We might add in the last place that as the most ancient Treatises concerning Paradise are lost so also the ancient Glosses and Catenae upon Scripture where we might have found the Traditions and Opinions of the Ancients upon this subject are many of them either lost or unpublisht And upon this consideration we did not think it improper to cite some Authors of small Antiquity but such as have transcrib'd several things out of ancient Manuscript-glosses into their Commentaries They living however before Printing was invented or Learning well restor'd and before the Reformation I add that also before the Reformation for since that time the Protestant Authors having lessen'd the Authority of Traditions the Pontificial Doctors content themselves to insist only upon such as they thought were useful or necessary lest by multiplying others that were but matter of curiosity they should bring the first into question and render the whole doctrine of Traditions more dubious and exceptionable And upon this account there are some Authors that writ an Age or two before the Reformation that have with more freedom told us the Tenets and Traditions of the Ancients in these Speculations that are but collateral to Religion than any have done since And I must confess I am apt to think that what remains concerning the doctrine of Paradise and the Primaeval Earth is in a good measure Traditional for one may observe that those that treat upon these subjects quote the true Opinions and tell you some of the Ancients held so and so as That Paradise was in another Earth or higher than this Earth That there were no Mountains before the Flood nor any Rain and such like yet they do not name those ancient Authors that held these Opinions which makes me apt to believe either that they were convey'd by a Traditional communication from one to another or that there were other Books extant upon those subjects or other Glosses than what are now known Finally To conclude this Discourse concerning the Seat of Paradise we must mind you again upon what Basis it stands We declar'd freely that we could not by our Theory alone determine the particular place of it only by that we are assur'd that it was in the Primaeval Earth and not in the present but in what Region or in whether Hemisphere of that Earth it was seated we cannot define from Speculation only 'T is true if we hold fast to that Scripture-conclusion That all Mankind rise from one Head and from one and the same Stock and Lineage which doth not seem to be according to the sentiments of the Heathens we must suppose they were born in one Hemisphere and after some time translated into the other or a Colony of them But this still doth not determine in whether of the two they begun and were first seated before their translation and I am apt to think that depended rather as we noted before upon the Divine Pleasure and the train of affairs that was to succeed than upon Natural causes and differences Some of the Ancients I know made both the Soil and the Stars more noble in the Southern Hemisphere than in ours but I do not see any proof or warrant for it wherefore laying aside all natural Topicks we are willing in this particular to refer our selves wholly to the report and majority of Votes amongst the Ancients who yet do not seem to me to lay much stress upon the notion of a particular and Topical Paradise and therefore use general and remote expressions concerning it And finding no place for it in this Continent they are willing to quit their hands of it by placing it in a Region some-where far off and inaccessible This together with the old Tradition that Paradise was in another Earth seems to me to give an account of most of their Opinions concerning the Seat of Paradise and that they were generally very uncertain where to fix it CHAP. VIII The uses of this Theory for the illustration of Antiquity The ancient Chaos explain'd The inhabitability of the Torrid Zone The change of the Poles of the World The doctrine of the Mundane Egg How America was first peopled How Paradise within the Circle of the Moon WE have now dispatch'd the Theory of the Primaeval Earth and reviv'd a forgotten World 'T is pity the first and fairest works of Nature should be lost out of the memory of Man and that we should so much dote upon the Ruines as never to think upon the Original Structure As the modern Artists from some broken pieces of an ancient Statue make out all the other parts and proportions so from the broken and scatter'd limbs of the first World we have shown you how to raise the whole Fabrick again and renew the prospect of those pleasant Scenes that first see the light and first entertain'd Man when he came to act upon this new-erected Stage We have drawn this Theory chiefly to give an account of the Universal Deluge and of Paradise but as when one lights a Candle to look for one or two things which they want the light will not confine it self to those two objects but shows all the other in the room so methinks we have unexpectedly cast a light upon all Antiquity in seeking after these two things or in retrieving the Notion and Doctrine of the Primaeval Earth upon which they depended For in ancient Learning there are many Discourses and many Conclusions deliver'd to us that are so obscure and confus'd and so remote from the present state of things that one cannot well distinguish whether they are fictions or realities and there is no way to distinguish with certainty but by a clear Theory upon the same subjects which showing us the truth directly and independently upon them shows us also by reflection how far they are true or false and in what sence they are to be interpreted and understood And the present Theory being of great extent we shall find it serviceable in many things for the illustration of such dubious and obscure doctrines in Antiquity To begin with their Ancient CHAOS what a dark story have they made of it both their Philosophers and Poets and how fabulous in appearance 'T is deliver'd as confus'dly as the Mass it self could be and hath not been reduc'd to order nor indeed made intelligible by any They tell us of moral principles in the Chaos instead of natural of strife and discord and division on the one hand
and Love Friendship and Venus on the other and after a long contest Love got the better of Discord and united the disagreeing principles This is one part of their story Then they make the forming of the World out of the Chaos a kind of Genealogie or Pedigree Chaos was the common Parent of all and from Chaos sprung first Night and Tartarus or Oceanus Night was a teeming Mother and of her were born Aether and the Earth The Earth conceiv'd by the influences of Aether and brought forth Man and all Animals This seems to be a Poetical fiction rather than Philosophy yet when 't is set in a true light and compar'd with our Theory of the Chaos 't will appear a pretty regular account how the World was form'd at first or how the Chaos divided it self successively into several Regions rising one after another and propagated one from another as Children and Posterity from a common Parent We show'd in the first Book Chap. 5. how the Chaos from an uniform mass wrought it self into several Regions or Elements the grossest part sinking to the Center upon this lay the mass of Water and over the Water was a Region of dark impure caliginous Air This impure caliginous Air is that which the Ancients call Night and the mass of Water Oceanus or Tartarus for those two terms with them are often of the like force Tartarus being Oceanus inclos'd and lock'd up Thus we have the first off-spring of the Chaos or its first-born twins Nox and Oceanus Now this turbid Air purifying it self by degrees as the more subtle parts flew upwards and compos'd the Aether so the earthy parts that were mixt with it dropt down upon the surface of the Water or the liquid mass and that mass on the other hand sending up its lighter and more oily parts towards its surface these two incorporate there and by their mixture and union compose a body of Earth quite round the mass of Waters And this was the first habitable Earth which as it was you see the Daughter of Nox and Oceanus so it was the Mother of all other things and all living Creatures which at the beginning of the World sprung out of its fruitful womb This doctrine of the Chaos for the greater pomp of the business the Ancients call'd their Theogonia or the Genealogy of the Gods for they gave their Gods at least their Terrestrial Gods an original and beginning and all the Elements and greater portions of Nature they made Gods and Goddesses or their Deities presided over them in such a manner that the names were us'd promiscuously for one another We also mention'd before some moral principles which they plac'd in the Chaos Eris and Eros Strife discord and disaffection which prevail'd at first and afterward Love kindness and union got the upper hand and in spite of those factious and dividing principles gather'd together the separated Elements and united them into an habitable World This is all easily understood if we do but look upon the Schemes of the rising World as we have set them down in that fifth Chapter for in the first commotion of the Chaos after an intestine struggle of all the parts the Elements separated from one another into so many distinct bodies or masses and in this state and posture things continued a good while which the Ancients after their Poetick or Moral way call'd the Reign of Eris or Contention of hatred flight and disaffection and if things had always continued in that System we should never have had an habitable World But Love and good Nature conquer'd at length Venus rise out of the Sea and receiv'd into her bosom and intangled into her imbraces the falling Aether viz. The parts of lighter earth which were mixt with the Air in that first separation and gave it the name of Night These I say fell down upon the oily parts of the Sea-mass which lay floating upon the surface of it and by that union and conjunction a new Body and a new World was produc'd which was the first habitable Earth This is the interpretation of their mystical Philosophy of the Chaos and the resolution of it into plain natural History Which you may see more fully discuss'd in the Latin Treatise In consequence of this We have already explain'd in several places the Golden Age of the Ancients and laid down such grounds as will enable us to discern what is real and what Poetical in the reports and characters that Antiquity hath given of those first Ages of the World And if there be any thing amongst the Ancients that refers to another Earth as Plato's Atlantis which he says was absorpt by an Earthquake and an inundation as the primaeval Earth was or his Aethereal Earth mention'd in his Phaedo which he opposeth to this broken hollow Earth makes it to have long-liv'd inhabitants and to be without Rains and Storms as that first Earth was also or the pendulous Gardens of Alcinous or such like to which nothing answers in present Nature by reflecting upon the state of the first Earth we find an easie explication of them We have also explain'd what the Antichthon and Antichthones of the Ancients were and what the true ground of that distinction was But nothing seems more remarkable than the inhabitability of the Torrid Zone if we consider what a general fame and belief it had amongst the Ancients and yet in the present form of the Earth we find no such thing nor any foundation for it I cannot believe that this was so universally receiv'd upon a slight presumption only because it lay under the course of the Sun if the Sun had then the same latitude from the Aequator in his course and motion that he hath now and made the same variety of seasons whereby even the hottest parts of the Earth have a Winter or something equivalent to it But if we apply this to the Primaeval Earth whose posture was direct to the Sun standing always fixt in its Equinoctial we shall easily believe that the Torrid Zone was then uninhabitable by extremity of heat there being no difference of seasons nor any change of weather the Sun hanging always over head at the same distance and in the same direction Besides this the descent of the Rivers in that first Earth was such that they could never reach the Equinoctial parts as we have shown before by which means and the want of Rain that Region must necessarily be turn'd into a dry Desart Now this being really the state of the first Earth the fame and general belief that the Torrid Zone was uninhabitable had this true Original and continued still with posterity after the Deluge though the causes then were taken away for they being ignorant of the change that was made in Nature at that time kept up still the same Tradition and opinion currant till observation and experience taught later Ages to correct it As the true miracles that were in the Christian Church at
first occasion'd a fame and belief of their continuance long after they had really ceast This gives an easie account and I think the true cause of that opinion amongst the Ancients generally receiv'd That the Torrid Zone was uninhabitable I say generally receiv'd for not only the Poets both Greek and Latin but their Philosophers Astsonomers and Geographers had the same notion and deliver'd the same doctrine as Aristotle Cleomedes Achilles Tatius Ptolomy Cicero Strabo Mela Pliny Macrobius c. And to speak truth the whole doctrine of the Zones is calculated more properly for the first Earth than for the present for the divisions and bounds of them now are but arbitrary being habitable all over and having no visible distinction whereas they were then determin'd by Nature and the Globe of the Earth was really divided into so many Regions of a very different aspect and quality which would have appear'd at a distance if they had been lookt upon from the Clouds or from the Moon as Iupiter's Belts or as so many Girdles or Swathing-bands about the body of the Earth And so the word imports and so the Ancients use to call them Cinguli and Fasciae But in the present form of the Earth if it was seen at a distance no such distinction would appear in the parts of it nor scarce any other but that of Land and Water and of Mountains and Valleys which are nothing to the purpose of Zones And to add this note further When the Earth lay in this regular form divided into Regions or Walks if I may so call them as this gave occasion of its distinction by Zones so if we might consider all that Earth as a Paradise and Paradise as a Garden for it is always call'd so in Scripture and in Iewish Authors And as this Torrid Zone bare of Grass and Trees made a kind of Gravel-walk in the middle so there was a green Walk on either hand of it made by the temperate Zones and beyond those lay a Canal which water'd the Garden from either side But to return to Antiquity We may add under this Head another observation or doctrine amongst the Ancients strange enough in appearance which yet receives an easie explication from the preceding Theory They say The Poles of the World did once change their situation and were at first in another posture from what they are in now till that inclination happen'd This the ancient Philosophers often make mention of as Anaxagoras Empedocles Diogenes Leucippus Democritus as may be seen in Laertius and in Plutarch and the Stars they say at first were carried about the Earth in a more uniform manner This is no more than what we have observ'd and told you in other words namely That the Earth chang'd its posture at the Deluge and thereby made these seeming changes in the Heavens its Poles before pointed to the Poles of the Ecliptick which now point to the Poles of the Aequator and its Axis is become parallel with that Axis and this is the mystery and interpretation of what they say in other terms this makes the different aspect of the Heavens and of its Poles And I am apt to think that those changes in the course of the Stars which the Ancients sometimes speak of and especially the Aegyptians if they did not proceed from defects in their Calendar had no other Physical account than this And as they say the Poles of the World were in another situation at first so at first they say there was no variety of seasons in the Year as in their Golden Age. Which is very coherent with all the rest and still runs along with the Theory And you may observe that all these things we have instanc'd in hitherto are but links of the same chain in connexion and dependance upon one another When the Primaeval Earth was made out of the Chaos its form and posture was such as of course brought on all those Scenes which Antiquity hath kept the remembrance of though now in another state of Nature they seem very strange especially being disguis'd as some of them are by their odd manner of representing them That the Poles of the World stood once in another posture That the Year had no diversity of Seasons That the Torrid Zone was uninhabitable That the two Hemispheres had no possibility of intercourse and such like These all hang upon the same string or lean one upon another as Stones in the same Building whereof we have by this Theory laid the very foundation bare that you may see what they all stand upon and in what order There is still one remarkable Notion or Doctrine amongst the Ancients which we have not spoken to 't is partly Symbolical and the propriety of the Symbol or of the Application of it hath been little understood 'T is their doctrine of the Mundane Egg or their comparing the World to an Egg and especially in the Original composition of it This seems to be a mean comparison the World and an Egg what proportion or what resemblance betwixt these two things And yet I do not know any Symbolical doctrine or conclusion that hath been so universally entertain'd by the Mystae or Wise and Learned of all Nations as hath been noted before in the fifth Chapter of the First Book and at large in the Latin Treatise 'T is certain that by the World in this similitude they do not mean the Great Universe for that hath neither Figure nor any determinate form of composition and it would be a great vanity and rashness in any one to compare this to an Egg The works of God are immense as his rature is infinite and we cannot make any image or resemblance of either of them but this comparison is to be understood of the Sublunary World or of the Earth And for a general key to Antiquity upon this Argument we may lay this down as a Maxim or Canon That what the Ancients have said concerning the form and figure of the World or concerning the Original of it from a Chaos or about its periods and dissolution are never to be understood of the Great Universe but of our Earth or of this Sublunary and Terrâ—strial World And this observation being made do but reflect upon our Theory of the Earth the manner of its composition at first and the figure of it being compleated and you will need no other interpreter to understand this mystery We have show'd there that the figure of it when finisht was Oval and the inward form of it was a frame of four Regions encompassing one another where that of Fire lay in the middle like the Yolk and a shell of Earth inclos'd them all This gives a solution so easie and natural and shows such an aptness and elegancy in the representation that one cannot doubt upon a view and compare of circumstances but that we have truly found out the Riddle of the Mundane Egg. Amongst other difficulties arising from the Form
Equinoctial for they have a sort of Winter and Summer there a course of Rains at certain times of the Year and great inequalities of the Air as to heat and cold moisture and drought They had also Traditions amongst them That there was no Rain from the beginning of the World till the Deluge and that there were no Mountains till the Flood and such like These you see point directly at such an Earth as we have describ'd And I call these Traditions because we cannot find the Original Authors of them The ancient ordinary Gloss upon Genesis which some make Eight hundred years old mentions both these Opinions so does Historia Scholastica Alcuinus Rabanus Maurus Lyranus and such Collectors of Antiquity Bede also relates that of the plainness or smoothness of the Antediluvian Earth Yet these are reported Traditionally as it were naming no Authors or Books from whence they were taken Nor can it be imagin'd that they feign'd them themselves to what end or purpose it serv'd no interest or upon what ground Seeing they had no Theory that could lead them to such Notions as these or that could be strengthen'd and confirm'd by them Those opinions also of the Fathers which we recited in the seventh Chapter placing Paradise beyond the Torrid Zone and making it therefore inaccessible suit very well to the form qualities and bipartition of the Primaeval Earth and seem to be grounded upon them Thus much may serve for a short Survey of the ancient Learning to give us a reasonable account why the memory and knowledge of the Primitive Earth should be so much lost out of the World and what we retain of it still which would be far more I do not doubt if all Manuscripts were brought to light that are yet extant in publick or private Libraries The Truth is one cannot judge with certainty neither what things have been recorded and preserv'd in the monuments of Learning nor what are still not what have been because so many of those Monuments are lost The Alexandrian Library which we spoke of before seems to have been the greatest Collection that ever was made before Christianity and the Constantinopolitan begun by Constantine and destroy'd in the Fifth Century when it was rais'd to the number as is said of one hundred twenty thousand Volumes the most valuable that was ever since and both these have been permitted by Providence to perish in the merciless Flames Besides those devastations of Books and Libraries that have been made in Christendom by the Northern barbarous Nations overflowing Europe and the Saracens and Turks great parts of Asia and Africk It is hard therefore to pronounce what knowledge hath been in the World or what accounts of Antiquity Neither can we well judge what remain or of what things the memory may be still latently conserv'd for besides those Manuscripts that are yet unexamin'd in these parts of Christendom there are many doubtless of good value in other parts Besides those that lie hid in the unchristianiz'd dominions The Library of Fez is said to contain thirty two thousand Volumes in Arabick and though the Arabick Learning was mostwhat Western and therefore of less account yet they did deal in Eastern Learning too for Avicenna writ a Book with that Title Philosophia Orientalis There may be also in the East thousands of Manuscripts unknown to us of greater value than most Books we have And as to those subjects we are treating of I should promise my self more light and confirmation from the Syriack Authors than from any others These things being consider'd we can make but a very imperfect estimate what evidences are left us and what accounts of the Primitive Earth and if these deductions and defalcations be made both for what Books are wholly lost and for what lie asleep or dead in Libraries we have reason to be satisfied in a Theory of this nature to â—nd so good attestations as we have produc'd for the several parts of it which we purpose to enlarge upon considerably at another time and occasion But to carry this Objection as far as may be let us suppose it to be urgâ—d still in the last place that though these Humane Writings have perisht or be imperfect yet in the Divine Writings at least we might expect that the memory of the Old World and of the Primitive Earth should have been preserv'd To this I answer in short That we could not expect in the Scriptures any Natural Theory of that Earth nor any account of it but what was general and this we have both by the Tehom-Rabba of Moses and the description of the same Abyss in other places of Scripture as we have shown at large in the First Book Chap. 7. And also by the description which S. Peter hath given of the Ante-diluvian Heavens and Earth and their different constitution from the present which is also prov'd by the Rainbow not seen in the first World You will say it may be that that place of S. Peter is capable of another interpretation so are most places of Scripture if you speak of a bare capacity they are capable of more than one interpretation but that which is most natural proper and congruous and suitable to the words suitable to the Argument and suitable to the Context wherein is nothing superfluous or impertinent That we prefer and accept of as the most reasonable interpretation Besides in such Texts as relate to the Natural World if of two interpretations propos'd one agrees better with the Theory of Nature than the other caeteris paribus that ought to be prefer'd And by these two rules we are willing to be try'd in the exposition of that remarkable Discourse of S. Peter's and to stand to that sence which is found most agreeable to them Give me leave to conclude the whole Discourse with this general Consideration 'T is reasonable to suppose that there is a Providence in the conduct of Knowledge as well as of other affairs on the Earth and that it was not design'd that all the mysteries of Nature and Providence should be plainly and clearly understood throughout all the Ages of the World but that there is an Order establisht for this as for other things and certain Periods and Seasons And what was made known to the Ancients only by broken Conclusions and Traditions will be known in the latter Ages of the World in a more perfect way by Principles and Theories The increase of Knowledge being that which changeth so much the face of the World and the state of Humane affairs I do not doubt but there is a particular care and superintendency for the conduct of it by what steps and degrees it should come to light at what Seasons and in what Ages what evidence should be left either in Scripture Reason or Tradition for the grounds of it how clear or obscure how disperst or united all these things were weigh'd and consider'd and such measures taken as best suit 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
and of these no doubt there is great variety and great differences not only of Primary and Secondary or of the principal Planet and its Moons or Attendants but also amongst Planets of the same rank for they may differ both in their original constitution and according to the from and state they are under at present of which sort of differences we have noted some amongst our Planets though they seem to be all of much-what the same original constitution Besides according to external circumstances their distance manner of motion and posture to the Sun which is the Heart of the whole System they become different in many things And we may observe that those leading differences though they seem little draw after them innumerable others and so make a distinct face of Nature and a distinct World which still shows the riches and fecundity of Divine Providence and gives new matter of contemplation to those that take pleasure in studying the works and ways of God But leaving all other Planets or Planetary Systems to our meditations only we must particularly consider our own Having therefore made this general Survey of the great Universe run thorough the boundless Regions of it and with much ado found our way home to that little Planet where our concerns lie This Earth or Sublunary World we must rest here as at the end of our course And having undertaken to give the general Theory of this Earth to conclude the present Treatise we 'll reflect upon the whole work and observe what progress we have hitherto made in this Theory and what remains to be treated of hereafter This Earth though it be a small part or particle of the Universe hath a distinct System of Providence belonging to it or an Order establisht by the Author of Nature for all its Phaenomena Natural or Moral throughout the whole Period of its duration and every interval of it for as there is nothing so great as to be above the Divine care so neither is there any thing so little as to be below it All the Changes of our World are fixt How or how often to be destroy'd and how renew'd What different faces of Nature and what of Mankind in every part of its Course What new Scenes to adorn the Stage and what new parts to be acted What the Entrance and what the Consummation of all Neither is there any sort of knowledge more proper or of more importance to us that are the Inhabitants of this Earth than to understand this its Natural and Sacred History as I may so call it both as to what is past and what is to come And as those greater Volumes and Compositions of the Universe are proportion'd to the understanding of Angels and Superiour Beings so these little Systems are Compendium's of the Divine Wisdom more fitted to our capacity and comprehension The Providence of the Earth as of all other Systems consists of two parts Natural and Sacred or Theological I call that Sacred or Theological that respects Religion and the dispensations of it the government of the Rational World or of Mankind whether under the Light of Nature only or of a Revelation the method and terms of their happiness and unhappiness in a Future Life The State Oeconomy and Conduct of this with all the Mysteries contain'd in it we call Theological Providence in the head whereof stands the Soul of the Blessed Messiah who is Lord of both Worlds Intellectual and Material When we call the other part of Providence Natural we use that word in a restrain'd sence as respecting only the Material World and accordingly this part of Providence others and superintends the state of the Earth the great Vicissitudes and Mutations of it for we must not imagine but that these are under the Eye of Providence as well as Humane Affairs or any revolutions of States and Empires Now seeing both in the Intellectual and Corporeal World there are certain Periods Fulnesses of Time and fixt Seasons either for some great Catastrophe or some great Instauration 'T is Providence that makes a due harmony or Synchronism betwixt these two and measures out the concurrent fates of both Worlds so as Nature may be always a faithful minister of the Divine Pleasure whether for rewards or punishments according as the state of Mankind may require But Theological Providence not being the subject of this work we shall only observe as we said before what account we have hitherto given of the Natural state of the Earth and what remains to be handled in another Treatise and so conclude I did not think it necessary to carry the story and original of the Earth higher than the Chaos as Zoroaster and Orpheus seem to have done but taking that for our Foundation which Antiquity Sacred and Profane doth suppose and Natural Reason approve and confirm we have form'd the Earth from it But when we say the Earth rise from a Fluid Mass it is not to be so crudely understood as if a rock of Marble suppose was fluid immediately before it became Marble no Things had a gradual progression from one form to another and came at length to those more permanent forms they are now setled in Stone was once Earth and Earth was once Mud and Mud was once sluid And so other things may have another kind of progression from fluidity but all was once fluid at least all the exteriour Regions of this Earth And even those Stones and Rocks of Marble which we speak of seem to confess they were once soft or liquid by those mixtures we find in them of Heterogeneous Bodies and those spots and Veins disperst thorough their substance for these things could not happen to them after they were hard and impenetrable in the form of Stone or Marble And if we can soften Rocks and Stones and run them down into their first Liquors as these observations seem to do we may easily believe that other Bodies also that compose the Earth were once in a Fluid Mass which is that we call a Chaos We therefore watch'd the motions of that Chaos and the several transformations of it while it continued Fluid and we found at length what its first Concretion would be and how it setled into the form of an habitable Earth But that form was very different from the present form of the Earth which is not immediately deducible from a Chaos by any known Laws of Nature or by any Wit of Man as every one that will have patience to examine it may easily be satisfied That First Earth was of a smooth regular surface as the Concretions of Liquors are before they are disturb'd or broken under that surface lay the Great Abyss which was ready to swallow up the World that hung over it and about it whensoever God should give the command and the Vault should break and this constitution of the Primaeval Earth gave occasion to the first Catastrophe of this World when it perisht in a Deluge of Water For
proceed In what manner the frame of the Earth will be dissolv'd and what will be the dreadful countenance of a Burning World These heads are set down more fully in the Argument of each Chapter and seem to be sufficient for the explication of this whole matter Taking in some additional discourses which in pursuing these heads enter of their own accord and make the work more even and entire In the Second Part we restore the World that we had destroy'd Build New Heavens and a New Earth wherein Righteousness shall dwell Establish that new order of things which is so often celebrated by the Prophets A Kingdom of Peace and of Justice where the Enemy of Mankind shall be bound and the Prince of Peace shall rule A Paradise without a Serpent and a Tree of Knowledge not to wound but to heal the Nations Where will be neither curse nor pain nor death nor disease Where all things are new all things are more perfect both the World it self and its Inhabitants Where the First-born from the Dead have the First-fruits of glory We dote upon this present World and the enjoyments of it and 't is not without pain and fear and reluctancy that we are torn from them as if our hopes lay all within the compass of this life Yet I know not by what good fate my thoughts have been always fixt upon things to come more than upon things present These I know by certain experience to be but trifles and if there be nothing more considerable to come the whole being of Man is no better than a trifle But there is room enough before us in that we call Eternity for great and Noble Scenes and the Mind of Man feels it self lessen'd and straiten'd in this low and narrow state wishes and waits to see something greater And if it could discern another World a coming on this side Eternal Life a beginning Glory the best that Earth can bear It would be a kind of Immortality to enâ—oy that prospect before-hand To see when this Theater is dissolv'd where we shall act next and what parts What Saints and Hero's if I may so say will appear upon that Stage and with what luster and excellency How easie would it be under a view of these futurities to despise the little pomps and honours and the momentany pleasures of a Mortal Life But I proceed to our Subâ—ect CHAP. II. The true state of the Question is Propos'd 'T is the general doctrine of the Ancients that the present World or the present frame of Nature is mutable and perishable To which the Sacred Books agree and Natural Reason can alledge nothing against it WHen we speak of the End or destruction of the World whether by Fire or otherwise â—Tis not to be imagin'd that we understand this of the Great Universe Sun Moon and Stars and the Highest Heavens as if these were to perish or be destroy'd some few years hence whether by Fire or any other way This Question is only to be understood of the Sublunary World of this Earth and its Furniture which had its original about six thousand years ago according to the History of Moses and hath once already been destroy'd when the Exteriour Region of it broke and the Abyss issuing forth as out of a womb overflow'd all the habitable Earth The next Deluge is that of Fire which will have the same bounds and overflow the Surface of the Earth muchâ—what in the same manner But the celestial Regions where the Stars and Angels inhabit are not concern'd in this fate Those are not made of combustible matter nor if they were cou'd our flames reach them Possibly those Bodies may have changes and revolutions peculiar to themselves but in ways unknown to us and after long and unknown periods of time Therefore when we speak of â—he Conflagration of the World These have no concern in the question nor any other part of the Universe than the Earth and its dependances As will evidently appear when we come to explain the Manner and Causes of the Conflagration And as this Conflagration can extend no further than to the Earth and its Elements so neither can it destroy the matter of the Earth but only the form and fashion of it as it is an habitable World Neither Fire nor any other Natural Agent can destroy Matter that is reduce it to nothing It may alter the modes and qualities of it but the substance will always remain And accordingly the Apostle when he speaks of the mutability of this World says only The figure or fashion of this World passes away This structure of the Earth and disposition of the Elements And all the works of the Earth as S. Peter says All its natural productions and all the works of art or humane industry these will perish melted or torn in pieces by the Fire but without an annihilation of the Matter any more than in the former Deluge And this will be further prov'd and illustrated in the beginning of the following Book The question being thus stated we are next to consider the sense of Antiquity upon these two Points First Whether this Sublunary World is mutable and perishable Secondly By the force and action of what causes and in what manner it will perish whether by Fire or otherwise Aristotle is very irregular in his Sentiments about the state of the World He allows it neither beginning not ending rise nor fall but wou'd have it eternal and immuâ—able And this he understand not only of the Great Universe but of this Sublunary World this Earth which we inhabit wherein he will not admit there ever have been or over will be either general Deluges or Conflagrations And as if he was ambitious to be thought singular in his opinion about the Eternity of the World He says All the Ancients before him gave some beginning or origin to the World But were not indeed so unanimous as â—o its 〈◊〉 fate Some believing it immutable or as the Philosophers call it incorruptible Others That it had its fatal times and Periods as lesser Bodies have and a term of age prefixt to it by Providence But before we examine this Point any further it will be necessary to reflect upon that which we noted before an ambiguity in the use of the word World which gives frequent occasion of mistakes in reading the Ancients when that which they speak of the great Universe we apply to the Sublunary World or on the contrary what they speak of this Earth we extend to the whole Universe And if some of them besides Aristotle made the World incorruptible they might mean that of the Great Universe which they thought would never be dissolv'd or perish as to its Mass and bulk But single parts and points of it and our Earth is no more may be variously transform'd and made habitable and unhabitable according to certain periods of time without any prâ—â—udiâ—d to their Philosophy So Plato for instance thinks this
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
Fiery Mountains burst out and discharge themselves in flames of fire tear up the roots of the Earth throw hot burning stones send out streams of flowing Metals and Minerals and all other sorts of ardent matter which Nature hath lodg'd in those Treasuries If all these Engines I say were to play at once the Heavens and the Earth would seem to be in a flame and the World in an universal combustion But we may reasonably presume that against that great Day of vengeance and execution not only all these will be employ'd but also new Volcano's will be open'd and new Mountains in every Region will break out into smoke and flame just as at the Deluge the Abyss broke out from the Womb of the Earth and from those hidden stores sent an immense quantity of water which it may be the Inhabitants of that World never thought of before So we must expect new Eruptions and also new sulphureous Lakes and Fountains of Oyl to boyl out of the ground And these all united with that Fewel that naturally grows upon the Surface of the Earth will be sufficient to give the first onset and to lay wast all the habitable World and the Furniture of it But we suppose the Conflagration will go lower pierce under-ground and dissolve the substance of the Earth to some considerable depth therefore besides these outward and visible preparations we must consider all the hidden invisible Materials within the Veins of the Earth Such are all Minerals or Mineral juices and concretions that are igniferous or capable of inflammation And these cannot easily be reckon'd up or estimated Some of the most common are Sulphur and all sulphureous bodies and Earths impregnated with Sulphur Bitumen and bituminous concretions inflammable Salts Coal and other fossiles that are ardent with innumerable mixtures and compositions of these kinds which being open'd by heat are unctuous and inflammable or by attrition discover the latent seeds of fire But besides consistent Bodies there is also much volatile fire within the Earth in fumes steams and exudations which will all contribute to this effect From these stores under-ground all Plants and Vegetables are fed and supply'd as to their oily and sulphureous parts And all hot Waters in Baths or Fountains must have their original from some of these some mixture or participation of them And as to the British Soyl there is so much Coal incorporated with it that when the Earth shall burn we have reason to apprehend no small danger from that subterraneous Enemy These dispositions and this Fewel we find in and upon the Earth towards the last Fire The third sort of Provision is in the Air All fiery Meteors and Exhalations engender'd and form'd in those Regions above and discharg'd upon the Earth in several ways I believe there were no fiery Meteors in the ante-diluvian Heavens which therefore St. Peter says were constituted of water had nothing in them but what was watery But he says the Heavens that are now have treasures of fire or are reserv'd for fire as things laid up in a store house for that purpose We have thunder and lightning and fiery tempests and there is nothing more vehement impetuous and irresistible where their force is directed It seems to me very remarkable that the Holy Writers describe the coming of the Lord and the destruction of the wicked in the nature of a tempest or a storm of fire Upon the wicked the Lord shall rain coals fire and brimstone and a burning tempest this shall be the portion of their cup. And in the lofty Song of David Psal. 18. which in my judgment respects both the past Deluge and the future Conflagration 't is said The Lord also thundred in the heavens and the Highest gave his voice hailstones and coals of fire Yea he sent forth his arrows and scattered them and he shot out lightnings and discomfited them Then the Chanels of waters were seen and the foundations of the World were discover'd at thy rebuke O Lord at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils And a like fiery coming is describ'd in the ninety seventh Psalm as also by Isaiah Daniel and S. Paul And lastly in the Apocalypse when the World draws to a conclusion as in the seventh Trumpet ch 11. 19. and the seventh Vial ch 16. 18. we have still mention made of this Fiery Tempest of Lightnings and Thunderings We may therefore reasonably suppose that before the Conflagration the Air will be surcharg'd every where by a precedent drought with hot and fiery exhalations And as against the Deluge those regions were burthened with water and moist vapours which were pour'd upon the Earth not in gentle showres but like rivers and cataracts from Heaven so they will now be fill'd with hot fumes and sulphureous clouds which will sometimes flow in streams and fiery impressions throgh the Air sometimes make Thunder and Lightnings and sometimes fall down upon the Earth in flouds of Fire In general there is a great analogy to be observed betwixt the two Deluges of Water and of Fire not only as to the bounds of them which were noted before but as to the general causes and sources upon which they depend from above and from below At the Floud the Windows of Heaven were opened above and the Abyss was opened below and the Waters of these two joyn'd together to overflow the World In like manner at the Conflagration God will rain down Fire from Heaven as he did once upon Sodom and at the same time the subterraneous store-houses of Fire will be broken open which answers to the disruption of the Abyss And these two meeting and mingling together will involve all the Heaven and Earth in flames This is a short account of the ordinary stores of Nature and the ordinary preparations for a general Fire And in contemplation of these Pliny the Naturalist said boldly It was one of the greatest wonders of the World that the World was not every day set on fire We will conclude this Chapter with his words in the second Book of his Natural History having given an account of some fiery Mountains and other parts of the Earth that are the seats and sources of Fire He makes this reflection Seeing this Element is so fruitful that it brings forth it self and multiplies and encreases from the least sparks what are we to expect from so many fires already kindled on the Earth How does nature feed and satisfie so devouring an Element and such a great voracity throughout all the World without loss or diminution of her self Add to these fires we have mentioned the Stars and the Great Sun then all the fires made for humane uses fire in stones in wood in the clouds and in thunder IT EXCEEDS ALL MIRACLES IN MY OPINION THAT ONE DAY SHOULD PASS WITHOUT SETTING THE WORLD ALL ON FIRE CHAP. VIII Some new dispositions towards the Conflagration as to the matter form and situation of the Earth
Concerning miraculous Causes and how far the ministery of Angels may be engaged in this Work WE have given an account in the preceding Chapter of the ordinary preparatious of Nature for a general fire We now are to give an account of the extraordinary or of any new dispositions which towards the End of the World may be superadded to the ordinary state of Nature I do not by these mean things openly miraculous and supernatural but such a change wrought in Nature as shall still have the face of Natural Causes and yet have a greater tendency to the Conflagration As for example suppose a great Drought as we noted before to precede this fate or a general heat and dryness of the Air and of the Earth because this happens sometimes in a course of Nature it will not be lookt upon as prodigious 'T is true some of the Ancients speak of a Drought of Forty Years that will be a forerunner of the Conflagration so that there will not be a watery Cloud nor a Rainbow seen in the Heavens for so long time And this they impute to Elias who at his coming will stop the Rain and shut up the Heavens to make way for the last Fire But these are excessive and ill-grounded suppositions for half forty years drought will bring an universal sterility upon the Earth and thereupon an Universal Famine with innumerable diseases so that all mankind would be destroyed before the Conflagration could overtake them But we will readily admit an extraordinary drought and desiccation of all bodies to usher in this great fatality And therefore whatsoever we read in Natural History concerning former droughts of their drying up Fountains and Rivers parching the Earth and making the outward Turf take fire in several places filling the Air with fiery impressions making the Woods and Forests ready Fewel and sometimes to kindle by the heat of the Sun or a flash of Lightning These and what other effects have come to pass in former droughts may come to pass again and that in an higher measure and so as to be of more general extent And we must also allow that by this means a great degree of inflammability or easiness to be set on Fire will be superinduc'd both into the body of the Earth and of all things that grow upon it The heat of the Sun will pierce deeper into its bowels when it gapes to receive his beams and by chinks and widened pores makes way for their passage to its very heart And on the other hand it is not improbable but that upon this general relaxation and incalescency of the Body of the Earth the General Fire may have a freer efflux and diffuse it self in greater abundance every way so as to affect even these exteriour Regions of the Earth so far as to make them still more catching and more combustible From this external and internal heat acting upon the Body of the Earth all Minerals that have the seeds of fire in them will be open'd and exhale their effluvium's more copiously as Spices when warm'd are more odoriferous and fill the Air with their perfumes so the particles of fire that are shut up in several bodies will easily flie abroad when by a further degree of relaxation you shake off their chains and open the Prison-doors We cannot doubt but there are many sorts of Minerals and many sorts of Fire-stones and of Trees and Vegetables of this nature which will sweat out their oily and sulphureous atomes when by a general heat and driness their parts are loosen'd and agitated We have no experience that will reach so far as to give us a full account what the state of Nature will be at that time I mean after this drought towards the end of the world But we may help our imagination by comparing it with other seasons and temperaments of the Air. As therefore in the Spring the Earth is fragrant and the Fields and Gardens are fill'd with the sweet breathings of Herbs and Flowers especially after a gentle rain when their Bodies are softned and the warmth of the Sun makes them evaporate more freely So a greater degree of heat acting upon all the bodies of the Earth like a stronger fire in the Alembick will extract another sort of parts or particles more deeply incorporated and more difficult to be disintangled I mean oily parts and such undiscover'd parcels of fire as lie fix'd and imprison'd in hard bodies These I imagine will be in a great measure set a float on drawn out into the Air which will abound with hot and dry Exhalations more than with vapours and moisture in a wet season and by this means all Elements and elementary Bodies will stand ready and in a proximate disposition to be inflam'd Thus much concerning the last drought and the general effects of it In the next place we must consider the Earthquakes that will precede the Conflagration and the consequences of them I noted before that the cavernous and broken construction of the present Earth was that which made it obnoxious to be destroy'd by fire as its former construction over the Abyss made it obnoxious to be destroy'd with Water This hollowness of the Earth is most sensible in mountainous and hilly Countreys which therefore I look upon as most subject to burning but the plain Countreys may also be made hollow and hilly by Earth-quakes when the vapours not finding an easie vent raise the ground and make a forcible eruption as at the springing of a Mine And tho' plain Countreys are not so subject to Earthquakes as Mountainous because they have not so many cavities and subterraneous Vaults to lodge the vapours in yet every Region hath more or less of them And after this drought the vacuities of the Earth being every where enlarg'd the quantity of exhalations much encreas'd and the motion of them more strong and violent they will have their effects in many places where they never had any before Yet I do not suppose that this will raise new ridges of Mountains like the Alpes or Pyreneans in those Countreys that are now plain but that they will break and loosen the ground make greater inequalities in the surface and greater cavities within than what are at present in those places And by this means the fire will creep under them and find a passage thorow them with more ease than if they were compact and every where continued and unbroken But you will say it may be how does it appear that there will be more frequent Earth-quakes towards the end of the World If this precedent drought be admitted 't is plain that fiery exhalations will abound every where within the Earth and will have a greater agitation than ordinary and these being the causes of Earth-quakes when they are rarified or inflam'd 't is reasonable to suppose that in such a state of Nature they will more frequently happen than at other times Besides Earth-quakes are taken notice of in Scripture as signs
as high and relating to the Natural World The Windows from on high are open and the foundations of the Earth do shake The Earth is utterly broken down the Earth is clean dissolv'd the Earth is moved exceedingly The Earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard and shall be removed like a Cottage and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it and it shall fall and not rise again To restrain all these things to Iudaea as their adequate and final object is to force both the words and the sence Here are manifest allusions and foot-steps of the destruction of the World and the dissolution of the Earth partly as it was in the Deluge and partly as it will be in its last ruine torn broken aâ—d shatter'd But most Men have fallen into that errour To fancy both the destructions of the World by Water and by Fire quiet noiseless things executed without any ruines or ruptures in Nature That the Deluge was but a great Pool of still Waters made by the rains and inundation of the Sea and the Conflagration will be only a superficial scorching of the Earth with a running fire These are false Idea's and unsuitable to Scripture for as the Deluge is there represented a Disruption of the Abyss and consequently of the then habitable Earth so the future combustion of it according to the representations of Scripture is to be usher'd in and accompanied with all sorts of violent impressions upon Nature and the chief instrument of these violences will be Earth-quakes These will tear the Body of the Earth and shake its foundations rend the Rocks and pull down the tall Mountains sometimes overturn and sometimes swallow up Towns and Cities disturb and disorder the Elements and make a general confusion in Nature Next to Earth-quakes we may consider the roarings of a troubled Sea This is another sign of a dying World S. Luke hath set down a great many of them together Let us hear his words And there shall be signs in the Sun and in the Moon and in the Stars and upon the Earth distress of Nations with perplexity The Sea and the Waves roaring Mens hearts failing them for fear and for looking after those things which are coming on the Earth for the powers of Heaven shall be shaken And then shall they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory c. As some would allegorize these Signs which we noted before so others would confine them to the destruction of Ierusalem But 't is plain by this coming of the Son of man in the clouds and the redemption of the faithful and at the same time the sound of the last trumpet which all relate to the end of the World that something further is intended than the destruction of Ierusalem And though there were Prodigies at the destruction of that City and State yet not of this force nor with these circumstances 'T is true those partial destructions and calamities as we observ'd before of Babylon Ierusalem and the Roman Empire being types of an universal and final destruction of all Godâ—s Enemies have in the pictures of them some of the same strokes to show they are all from the same hand decreed by the same wisdom foretold by the same Spirit and the same power and Providence that have already wrought the one will also work the other in due time the former being still pledges as well as prefigurations of the latter Let us then proceed in our explication of this sign The roaring of the Sea and the Waves applying it to the end of the World I do not look upon this ominous noise of the Sea as the effect of a tempest for then it would not strike such a terror into the Inhabitants of the Earth nor make them apprehensive of some great evil coming upon the World as this will do what proceeds from visible causes and such as may happen in a common course of Nature does not so much amaze us nor affright us Therefore 't is more likely these disturbances of the Sea proceed from below partly by sympathy and revulsions from the Land by Earth-quakes there and exhausting the subterraneous cavities of Waters which will draw again from the Seas what supplies they can And partly by Earth-quakes in the very Sea it self with exhalations and fiery Eruptions from the bottom of it Things indeed that happen at other times more or less but at this conjuncture all causes conspiring they will break out with more violence and put the whole Body of the Waters into a tumultuary motion I do not see any occasion at this time for high Winds neither can think a superficial agitation of the Waves would answer this Phaenomenon but 't is rather from Contorsions in the bowels of the Ocean which make it roar as it were for pain Some Causes impelling the Waters one way and some another make intestine struglings and contrary motions from whence proceed unusual noises and such a troubled state of the Waters as does not only make the Sea innavigable but also strikes terror into all the Maritime Inhabitants that live within the view or sound of it So much for the Earth and the Sea The face of the Heavens also will be chang'd in divers respects The Sun and the Moon darkned or of a bloudy or pale countenance The Celestial Powers shaken and the Stars unsetled in their Orbs. As to the Sun and Moon their obscuration or change of colour is no more than what happens commonly before the Eruption of a fiery Mountain Dion Cassius you see hath taken notice of it in that Eruption of Aetna which he describes and others upon the like occasions in Vesuvius And 't is a thing of easie explication for according as the Atmosphere is more or less clear or turbid the Luminaries are more or less conspicuous and according to the nature of those fumes or exhalations that swim in the Air the face of the Sun is discolour'd sometimes one way sometimes another You see in an ordinary Experiment when we look upon one another through the fumes of Sulphur we appear pale like so many Ghosts and in some foggy days the Sun hangs in the Firmament as a lump of Bloud And botlâ— the Sun and Moon at their rising when their light comes to us through the thick vapours of the Earth are red and fiery These are not changes wrought in the substance of the Luminaries but in the modifications of their light as it flows to us For colours are but Light in a sort of disguise as it passes through Mediums of diffâ—rent qualities it takes different forms but the matter is still the same and returns to its simplicity when it comes again into a pure air Now the air may be changed and corrupted to a great degree tho' there appear no visible change to our eye This is manifest from infectious airs and the changes of the air before storms and rains which we feel
This is a small part of the disorders of that day But 't is not possible from any station to have a full prospect of this last Scene of the Earth for 't is a mixture of fire and darkness This New Temple is fill'd with smoak while it is consecrating and none can enter into it But I am apt to think if we could look down upon this burning World from above the Clouds and have a full view of it in all its parts we should think it a lively representation of Hell it self For Fire and darkness are the two chief things by which that state or that place uses to be describ'd and they are both here mingled together with all other ingredients that make that Tophet that is prepar'd of old Here are Lakes of fire and brimstone Rivers of melted glowing matter Ten thousand Volcano's vomiting flames all at once Thick darkness and Pillars of smoak twisted about with wreaths of flame like fiery Snakes Mountains of Earth thrown up into the Air and the Heavens dropping down in lumps of fire These things will all be literally true concerning that day and that state of the Earth And if we suppose Beelzebub and his Apostate crew in the midst of this fiery furnace and I know not where they can be else It will be hard to find any part of the Universe or any state of things that answers to so many of the properties and characters of Hell as this which is now before us But if we suppose the storm over and that the fire hath got an entire victory over all other bodies and subdued every thing to it self the Conflagration will end in a Deluge of fire Or in a Sea of fire covering the whole Globe of the Earth For when the exterior region of the Earth is melted into a fluor like molten glass or running metal it will according to the nature of other Fluids fill all vacuities and depressions and fall into a regular surface at an equal distance every where from its center This Sea of fire like the first Abyss will cover the face of the whole Earth make a kind of second Chaos and leave a capacity for another World to rise from it But that is not our present business Let us only if you please to take leave of this subject reflect upon this occasion on the transient and 〈◊〉 glory of all this habitable World How by the force of one Element breaking loose upon the rest all the Varieties of Nature all the works of Art all the labours of Men are reduc'd to nothing All that we admir'd and ador'd before as great and magnificent is obliterated or vanish'd And another form and face of things plain simple and every where the same overspreads the whole Earth Where are now the great Empires of the World and their great Imperial Cities Their Pillars Tropheâ—s and Monuments of glory Show me where they stood read the Inscription tell me the Victorâ—s name What remains what impressions what difference or distinction do you see in this mass of fire Rome it self Eternal Rome the Great City the Empress of the World whose domination and superstition ancient and modern make a great part of the History of this Earth What is become of her now She laid her foundations deep and her Palaces were strong and sumptuous She glorified her self and liv'd deliciously and said in her heart I sit a Queen and shall see no sorrow But her hour is come she is wip'd away from the face of the Earth and buried in perpetual oblivion But 't is not Cities only and works of Men's hands but the everlasting Hills the Mountains and Rocks of the Earth are melted as Wax before the Sun and their place is no where found Here stood the Alpes a prodigious range of Stone the Load of the Earth that cover'd many Countries and reach'd their arms from the Ocean to the Black Sea This huge mass of Stone is soften'd and dissolv'd as a tender Cloud into rain Here stood the African Mountains and Atlas with his top above the Clouds There was frozen Caucasus and Taurus and Imaus and the Mountains of Asia And yonder towards the North stood the Riphaean Hills cloath'd in Ice and Snow All these are vanish'd dropt away as the Snow upon their heads and swallowed up in a red Sea of fire Great and marvellous are thy Works Lord God Almighty Iust and true are thy ways Thou King of Saints Hallelujah The CONCLVSION IF the Conflagration of the World be a reality as both by Scripture and Antiquity we are assur'd it is If we be fully perswaded and convinc'd of this 'T is a thing of that nature that we cannot keep it long in our thoughts without making some moral reflections upon it 'T is both great in it self and of universal concern to all Mankind Who can look upon such an Object A World in Flames without thinking with himself Whether shall I be in the midst of these â—lames or no What is my security that I shall not fall under this fiery vengeance which is the wrath of an angry God St. Peter when he had deliver'd the doctrine of the Conflagration makes this pious reflection upon it Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolv'd what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conversation and godliness The strength of his argument depends chiefly upon what he had said before in the 7th Verse where he told us that the present Heavens and Earth were reserv'd unto fire against the Day of Iudgment and the perdition of irreligious men We must avoid the crime then if we would escape the punishment But this expression of irreligious or ungodly men is still very general St. Paul when he speaks of this fiery indignation and the Persons it is to fall upon is more distinct in their characters He seems to mark out for this destruction three sorts of men chiefly The Atheists Infidels and the Tribe of Antichrist These are his words When the Lord Iesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Iesus Christ. Then as for Antichrist and his adherents he says in the 2d Chapt. and 8th Verse The Lord shall consume that Wicked one with the Spirit of his mouth and shall destroy him with the brightness of his coming or of his Presence These you see all refer to the same time with St. Peter namely to the coming of our Saviour at the Conflagration and three sorts of Persons are characteriz'd as his Enemies and set out for destruction at that time First those that know not God that is that acknowledge not God that will not own the Deity Secondly those that hearken not to the Gospel that is that reject the Gospel and Christian Religion when they are preach'd and made known to them For you must not think that it is the poor barbarous and
habitable Earth And particularly will become such an Earth and of such a form as the first Paradisiacal Earth was Which hath been fully describ'd in the first and second Books of this Theory There is no occasion of examining more accurately the formation of this Second Earth seeing it is so much the same with that of the First which is set down fully and distinctly in the Fifth Chapter of the first Book of this Theory Nature here repeats the same work and in the same method only the materials are now a little more refin'd and purg'd by the fire They both rise out of a Chaos and That in effect the same in both cases For though in forming the first Earth I suppos'd the Chaos or confus'd Mass to reach down to the Center I did that only for the ease of our imagination that so the whole Mass might appear more simple and uniform But in reality that Chaos had a solid kernel of Earth within as this hath and that matter which fluctuated above in the regions of the Air was the true Chaos whose parts when they came to a separation made the several Elements and the form of an habitable Earth betwixt the Air and Water This Chaos upon separation will fall into the same form and Elements and so in like manner create or constitute a second Paradisiacal World I say a Paradisiacal World for it appears plainly that this new-form'd Earth must agree with that Primigenial Earth in the two principal and fundamental properties First It is of an even entire uniform and regular Surface without Mountains or Sea Secondly That it hath a straight and regular situation to the Sun and the Axis of the Ecliptick From the manner of its formation it appears manifestly that it must be of an even and regular Surface For the Orb of liquid fire upon which the first descent was made being smooth and uniform every where the matter that fell upon it would take the same form and mould And so the second or third Region that were superinduc'd would still imitate the fashion of the first there being no cause or occasion of any inequality Then as to the situation of its Axis this uniformity of figure would determine the center of its gravity to be exactly in the middle and consequently there would be no inclination of one Pole more than another to the general center of its motion But upon a free libration in the liquid Air its Axis would lie parallel with the Axis of the Ecliptick where it moves But these things having been deduc'd more fully in the second Book about Paradise and the Primigenial Earth they need no further explication in this place If Scripture had left us several distinct Characters of the New Heavens and the New Earth we might by compare with those have made a full proof of our Hypothesis One indeed St. Iohn hath left us in very express terms There was no Sea there He says His words are these And I saw a New Heaven and a New Earth for the first Heaven and the first Earth were passed away AND THERE WAS NO MORE SEA This character is very particular and you see it exactly answers to our Hypothesis for in the new-form'd Earth the Sea is cover'd and inconspicuous being an Abyss not a Sea and wholly lodg'd in the Womb of the Earth And this one Character being inexplicable upon any other supposition and very different from the present Earth makes it a strong presumption that we have hit upon the true model of the New Heavens and New Earth which S. Iohn saw To this sight of the New Heavens and New Earth S. Iohn immediately subjoyns the sight of the New Ierusalem ver 2. as being contemporary and in some respects the same thing 'T is true the Characters of the New Ierusalem in these two last Chapters of the Apoâ—alypse are very hard to be understood some of them being incompetible to a Terrestrial state and some of them to a Celestial so as it seems to me very reasonable to suppose that the New Ierusalem spoken of by S. Iohn is twofold That which he saw himself ver 2. and that which the Angel shewed him afterwards ver 9. For I do not see what need there was of an Angel and of taking him up into a great and high mountain only to shew him that which he had seen before at the foot of the Mountain But however that be we are to consider in this place the Terrestrial New Ierusalem only or that which is in the New Heavens and New Earth And as St. Iohn hath joyned these two together so the Prophet Isaiah had done the same thing before when he had promised New Heavens and a New Earth he calls them under another name Ierusalem and they both use the same character in effect in the description of their Ierusalem Isaiah says And I will rejoyce in Ierusalem and joy in my people and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her nor the voice of crying S. Iohn says also in his Jerusalem God shall dwell with them and they shall be his people And he shall wipe away all tears from their eyes and there shall be no more death neither sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more pain Now in both these Prophets when they treat upon this subject we find they make frequent allusions to Paradise and a Paradisiacal state so as that may be justly taken as a Scripture-Character of the New Heavens and the New Earth The Prophet Isaiah seems plainly to point at a Paradisiacal state throughout that Chapter by an universal innocency and harmlesness of animals and peace plenty health longaevity or immortality of the inhabitants S. Iohn also hath several allusions to Paradise in those two Chapters where he describes the New Jerusalem And in his discourse to the seven Churches in one place ch 2. 7. To him that overcometh is promised to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God And in another place ch 3. 12. to him that overcometh is promised to have the name of the New Ierusalem writ upon him These I take to be the same thing and the same reward of Christian Victors The New Ierusalem or the New Heavens and New Earth and the Paradise of God Now this being the general Character of the New Earth That it is Paradifiacals and the particular Character That it hath no Sea and both these agreeing with our Hypothesis as apparently deducible from those principles and that manner of its formation which we have set down We cannot but allow that the Holy Scriptures and the Natural Theory agree in their Testimony as to the conditions and properties of the New Heavens and New Earth From what hath been said in this and the precedent Chapter it will not be hard to interpret what S. Paul meant by his Habitable Earth to come which is to be subjected to our Saviour
of Parts and a Fitness to answer fully and clearly all the Phaenomend to which it is to be apply'd We think our Hypothesis does not want any of these Characters As to the First we take but one single Postulatum for the whole Theory and thaâ— an easie one warranted both by Scripture and Antiquity Namely That this Earth rise at first from a Chaos As to the second Union of Parts The whole Theory is but one Series of Causes and Effects from that first Chaos Besides you can scarce admit any one part of it first last or intermediate but you must in consequence of that admit all the rest Grant me but that the Deluge is truly explain'd and I 'le desire no more for proof of all the Theory Or if you begin at the other end and grant the New Heavens and New Earth after the Conflagration you will be led back again to the first Heavens and first Earth that were before the Flood For St. Iohn says that New Earth was without a Sea Apoc. 21. 1. And it was a Renovation or Restitution to some former state of things there was therefore some former Earth without a Sea which not being the present Earth it must be the Ante diluvian Besides both St. Iohn and the Prophet Isaias have represented the New Heavens and New Earth as Paradisiâ—cal According as is prov'd Book the 4th chap. 2. And having told us the form of the New future Earth that it will have no Sea it is a reasonable inference that there was no Sea in the Paradisiâ—cal Earth However from the form of this Future Earth which St. Iohn represents to us we may at least conclude That an Earth without a Sea is no Chimaera or impossibility but rather a fit seat and habitation for the Just and the Innocent Thus you see the parts of the Theory link and hold fast one another according to the second character And as to the third of being 〈◊〉 to the Phaenomena we must refer that to the next head of Proofs It may be tâ—â—ly said that bare coherence and union of parts is not a sufficient proof The parts of a â—able or Romance may hang aptly together and yet have no truth in them This is enough indeed to give the title of a just Composition to any work but not of a true one till it appear that the conclusions and expâ—tations are grounded upon good natural evidence or upon good Divine authority We must therefore proceed now to the third thing to be consider'd in a Theory What its Proofs are or the grounds upon which it stands whether Sacred or Natural According to Natural evidence things are proved from their Causes or their Effects And we think we have this double order of proofs for the truth of our Hypothesis As to the method of Causes we proceed from what is more simple to what is more compound and build all upon one foundation Go but to the Head of the Theory and you will see the Causes lying in a train before you from first to last And tho' you did not know the Natural History of the World past or future you might by intuition foretell it as to the grand revolutions and successive faces of Nature through a long series of Ages If we have given a true account of the motions of the Chaos we have also truly form'd the first habitable Earth And if that be truly form'd we have thereby given a true account of the state of Paradise and of all that depends upon it And not of that only but also of the universal Deluge Both these we have shewn in their causes The one from the Form of that Earth and the other from the Fall of it into the Abyss And tho' we had not been made acquainted with these things by Antiquity we might in contemplation of the Causes have truly conceiv'd them as properties or incidents to the First Earth But as to the Deluge I do not say that we might have calculated the Time manner and other circumstances of it These things were regulated by Providence in subordination to the Moral World But that there would be at one time or oâ—her a disruption of that Earth or of the Great Abyss and in consequence of it an universal Deluge So far I think the light of a Theory might carry us Furthermore In consequence of this disruption of the Primeval Earth at the Deluge the present Earth was made hollow and cavernous and by that means due preparations being used capable of Combustion or of perishing by an universal Fire Yet to speak ingenuously This is as hard a step to be made in vertue of Natural causes as any in the whole Theory But in recompence of that defect the Conflagration is so plainly and literally taught us in Scripture and avow'd by Antiquity that it can fall under no dispute as to the thing it self And as to a capacity or disposition to it in the present Earth that I think is sufficiently made out Then the Conflagration admitted in that way it is explain'd in the Third Book The Earth you see is by that fire reduc'd to a second Chaos A Chaos truly so call'd And from that as from the First arises another Creation or New Heavens and a New Earth By the same causes and in the same form with the Paradisiacal This is the Renovation of the World The Restitution of all things mentioned both by Scripture and Antiquity And by the Prophet Isaiah St. Peter and St. Iohn call'd the New Heaven and New Earth With this as the last period and most glorious Scene of all humane affairs our Theory concludes as to this method of Causes whereof we are now speaking I say here it ends as to the method of Causes For tho' we pursue the Earth still further even to its last Dissolution which is call'd the Consummation of all things yet all that we have superadded upon that occasion is but Problematical and may without prejudice to the Theory be argued and disputed on either hand I do not know but that our conjectures there may be well grounded but however not springing so directly from the same root or at least not by ways so clear and visible I leave that part undecided Especially seeing we pretend to write no more than the Theory of the Earth and therefore as we begin no higher than the Chaos so we are not obliged to go any further than to the last state of a Terrestrial consistency which is that of the New Heavens and the New Earth This is the first natural proof From the order of Causes The second is fâ—om the consideration of Effects Namely of such effects as are already in being And therefore this proof can extend only to that part of the Theory that explains the present and past form and Phaenomena of the Earth What is Future must be left to a further trial when the things come to pass and present themselves to be examin'd and compar'd
with the Hypothesis As to the present Form of the Earth we call all Nature to witness for us The Rocks and the Mountains the Hills and the Valleys the deep and wide Sea and the Caverns of the Ground Let these speak and tell their origine How the Body of the Earth came to be thus torn and mangled If this strange and irregular structure was not the effect of a ruine and of such a ruine as was universal over the face of the whole Globe But we have given such a full explication of this in the first part of the Theory from Chapt. the 9th to the end of that Treatise that we dare stand to the judgment of any that reads those four Chapters to determine if the Hypothesis does not answer all those Phaenomena easily and adequately The next Phaenomenon to be consider'd is the Deluge with its adjuncts This also is fully explain'd by our Hypothesis in the 2d 3d. and 6th Chapters of the first Book Where it is shewn that the Mosaical Deluge that is an universal Inundation of the whole Earth above the tops of the highest Mountains made by a breaking open of the Great Abyss for thus far Moses leads us is fully explain'd by this Hypothesis and cannot be conceiv'd in any other method hitherto propos'd There are no sources or stores of Water sufficient for such an effect that may be drawn upon the Earth and drawn off again but by supposing such an Abyss and such a Disruption of it as the Theory represents Lastly As to the Phaenomena of Paradise and the Ante-diluvian World we have set them down in order in the 2d Book and apply'd to each of them its proper explication from the same Hypothesis We have also given an account of that Character which Antiquity always assign'd to the first age of the World or the Golden Age as they call'd it namely Equality of Seasons throughout the Year or a perpetual Equinox We have also taken in all the adjuncts or concomitants of these States as they are mention'd in Scripture The Longevity of the Ante-diluvians and the declension of their age by degrees after the Flood As also that wonderful Phaenomenon the Rainbow which appear'd to Noah for a Sign that the Earth should never undergo a second Deluge And we have shewn wherein the force and propriety of that Sign consisted for confirming Noah's faith in the promise and in the divine veracity Thus far we have explain'd the past Phaenomena of the Natural World The rest are Futurities which still lie hid in their Causes and we cannot properly prove a Theory from effects that are not yet in being But so far as they are foretold in Scripture both as to substance and circumstance in prosecution of the same Principles we have ante dated their birth and shew'd how they will come to pass We may therefore I think reasonably conclude That this Theory has performed its task and answer'd its title having given an account of all the general changes of the Natural World as far as either Sacred History looks backwards or Sacred Prophecy looks forwards So far as the one tells us what is past in Nature and the other what is to come And if all this be nothing but an appearance of truth 't is a kind of fatality upon us to be deceiv'd SO much for Natural Evidence from the Causes or Effects We now proceed to Scripture which will make the greatest part of this Review The Sacred Basis upon which the whole Theory stands is the doctrine of S. Peter deliver'd in his Second Epistle and Third Chapter concerning the Triple Order and Succession of the Heavens and the Earth That comprehends the whole extent of our Theory which indeed is but a large Commentary upon S. Peter's Text. The Apostle sets out a threefold state of the Heavens and Earth with some general properties of each taken from their different Constitution and different Fate The Theory takes the same threefold state of the Heavens and the Earth and explains more partâ—cularly wherein their different Constitution consists and how under the conduct of Providence their different fate depends upon it Let us set down the Apostle's words with the occasion of them and their plain sence according to the most easie and natural explication Ver. 3. Knowing this first that there shall come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lusts 4. And saying Where is the promise of his coming for since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation 5. For this they willingly are ignorant of that by the word of God the heavens were of old and the earth consisting of water and by water 6. Whereby the world that then was being overflowed with water perished 7. But the heavens and the earth that are now by the sâ—me word are kept in store reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men 10. The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent heat the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up 13. Nevertheless we according to his promise look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness This is the whole Discourse so far as relates to our Subject S Peter you see had met with some that scoff'd at the future destruction of the World and the coming of our Saviour and they were men it seems that pretended to Philosophy and Argument and they use this argument for their opinion Seeing there hath been no change in Nature or in the World from the beginning to this time why should we think there will be any change for the future The Apostle answers to this That they willingly forget or are ignorant that there were Heavens of old and an Earth so and so constituted consisting of Water and by Water by reason whereof that World or those Heavens and that Earth perish'd in a Deluge of Water But saith he the Heavens and the Earth that are now are of another constitution fitted and reserved to another fate namely to perish by Fire And after these are perish'd there will be New Heavens and a New Earth according to God's promise This is an easie Paraphrase and the plain and genuine sence of the Apostle's discourse and no body I think would ever look after any other sence if this did not carry them out of their usual road and point to conclusions which they did not fancy This sence you see hits the objections directly or the Cavil which these scoffers made and tells them that they vainly pretend that there hath been no change in the World since the beginning for there was one sort of Heavens and Earth before the Flood and another sort now the first having been destroy'd at the Deluge So that the Apostle's argument stands upon this Foundation That there
is a diversity betwixt the present Heavens and Earth and the Ante-diluvian Heavens and Earth take away that and you take away all the force of his Answer Then as to his New Heavens and New Earth after the Conflagration they must be material and natural in the same sence and signification with the former Heavens and Earth unless you will offer open violence to the Text. So that this Triplicity of the Heavens and the Earth is the first obvious plain sence of the Apostle's discourse which every one would readily accept if it did not draw after it a long train of Consequences and lead them into other Worlds than they ever thought of before or are willing to enter upon now But we shall have occasion by and by to examine this Text more fully in all its circumstances Give me leave in the mean time to observe That S. Paul also implyes that triple Creation which S. Peter expresses S. Paul I say in the 8th Chap. to the Rom. ver 20 21. tells us of a Creation that will be redeem'd from Vanity which are the New Heavens and New Earth to come A Creation in subjection to Vanity which is the present state of the World And a Creation that was subjected to Vanity in hopes of being restor'd which was the first Paradisiacal Creation And these are the Three States of the Natural World which make the subject of our Theory To these two places of S. Peter and S. Paul I might add that third in S. Iohn concerning the New Heavens and New Earth with that distinguishing Character that the Earth was without a Sea As this distinguisheth it from the present Earth so being a Restitution or Restauration as we noted before it must be the same with some former Earth and consequently it implies that there was another precedent state of the Natural World to which this is a Restitution These three places I alledge as comprehending and confirming the Theory in its full extent But we do not suppose them all of the same force and clearness S. Peter leads the way and gives light and strength to the other two When a Point is prov'd by one clear Text we allow others as auxiliaries that are not of the same clearness But being open'd receive light from the primary Text and reflect it upon the Argument So much for the Theory in general We will now take one or two principal heads of it which vertually contain all the rest and examine them more strictly and particularly in reference to their agreement with Scripture The two Heads we pitch upon shall be our Explication of the Deluge and our Explication of the New Heavens and New Earth We told you before these Two were as â—he Hinges upon which all the Theory moves and which hokâ— the parts of it in firm union one with another As to the Deluge if I have explain'd that aright by the Disruption of the Great Abyss and the Dissolution of the Earth that cover'd it all the rest follows in such a chain of Consequences as cannot be broken Wherefore in order to the proof of that Explication and of all that depends upon it I will make bold to lay down this Proposition That our Hypothesis concerning the Universal Deluge is not only more agreeable to Reason and Philosophy thaâ— any other yet propos'd to the World but is also more agreeable to Scripture Namely to such places of Scripture as reflect upon the Deluge the Abyss and the form of the first Earth And particularly to the History of Noah's Flood as recorded by Moses If I can make this good it will doubtless give satisfaction to all that are free and intelligent And I desire their patience if I proceed slowly and by several steps We will divide our task into parts and examine them separately First by Scripture in general and then by Moses his History and description of the Flood Our Hypothesis of the Deluge consists of Three Principal Heads or differs remarkably in Three things from the common Explication First In that we suppose the Ante diluvian Earth to have been of another Form and Constitution from the present Earth with the Abyss placed under it Secondly In that we suppose the Deluge to have been made not by any inunâ—ation of the Sea or overflowing of Fountains and Rivers nor principally by any excess of Rains but by a real dissolution of the Exteriour Earth and disruption of the Abyss which it cover'd These are the two principal points to which may be added as a Corollary Thirdly That the Deluge was not in the nature of a standing Pool The Waters lying every where level of an equal depth and with an uniform Surface But was made by a fluctuation and commotion of the Abyss upon the disruption Which commotion being over the Waters retired into their Chanels and let the dry Land appear These are the most material and fundamental parts of our Hypothesis and these being prov'd consonant to Scripture there can be no doubt of the rest We begin with the first That the Ante-diluvian Earth was of another form and constitution from the present Earth with the Abyss placed under it This is confirm'd in Scripture both by such places as assert a diversity in general and by other places that intimate to us wherein that diversity consisted and what was the form of the first Earth That discourse of S. Peter's which we have set before you concerning the past present and future Heavens and Earth is so full a proof of this diversity in general that you must either allow it or make the Apostle's argumentation of no effect He speaks plainly of the Natural World The Heavens and the Earth And he makes a plain distinction or rather opposition betwixt those before and after the Flood so that the least we can conclude from his words is a diversity betwixt them in answer to that Identity or Immutability of Nature which the Scoffers pretended to have been ever since the beginning But tho' the Apostle to me speaks plainly of the Natural World and distinguishes that which was before the Flood from the present Yet there are some that will allow neither of these to be contain'd in S. Peter's words and by that means would make this whole Discourse of little or no effect as to our purpose And seeing we on the contrary have made it the chief Scripture-basis of the whole Theory of the Earth we are oblig'd to free it from those false glosses or mis-interpretations that lessen the force of its testimony or make it wholly ineffectual These Interpreters say That S. Peter meant no more than to mind these Scoffers that the World was once destroy'd by a Deluge of Water meaning the Animate World Mankind and living Creatures And that it shall be destroy'd again by another Element namely by Fire So as there is no opposition or diversity betwixt the two Natural Worlds taught or intended by the Apostle but only in reference to their different
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
the Sea and establish'd it upon the Floods An Earth founded upon the Seas and establish'd upon the Waters is not this the Earth we have describ'd the first Earth as it came from the hands of its Maker Where can we now find in Nature such an Earth as has the Seas and the Water for its foundation Neither is this Text without a second as a fellow-witness to confirm the same truth For in the 136. Psal. ver 4 5 6. we read to the same effect in these words To him who alone does great wonders To him that by wisdom made the Heavens's To him that stretchèd out the Earth above the Waters We can hardly express that form of the Ante-diluvian Earth in words more determinate than these are Let us then in the same simplicity of heart follow the words of Scripture seeing this literal sence is not repugnant to Nature but on the contrary agreeable to it upon the strictest examination And we cannot without some violence turn the words to any other sence What tolerable interpretation can these admit of if we do not allow the Earth ones to have encompass'd and overspread the face of the Waters To be founded upon the waters to be establish'd upon the waters to be extended upon the waters what rational or satisfactory account can be given of these phrases and expressions from any thing we find in the present situation of the Earth or how can they be verified concerning it Consult Interpreters ancient or modern upon these two places see if they answer your expectation or answer the natural importance of the words unless they acknowledge another form of the Earth than the present Because a Rock hangs its â—ose over the Sea must the body of the Earth be said to be stretched over the wà ters Or because there are waters in some subterraneous cavities is the Earth therefore founded upon the Seas Yet such lame explications as these you will meet with and while we have no better light we must content our selves with them but when an explication is offer'd that answers the propriety force and extent of the words to reject it onely because it is not fitted to our former opinions or because we did not first think of it is to take an ill method in expounding Scripture This Foundation or Establishment of the Earth upon the Seas this Extension of it above the waters relates plainly to the body or whole circuit of the Earth not to parcels and particles of it as appears from the occasion and its being joyn'd with the Heavens the other part of the World Besides David is speaking of the Origin of the World and of the Divine power and wisdom in the construction and situation of our Earth and these attributes do not appear from the holes of the Earth and broken Rocks which have rather the face of a ruin than of wisdom but in that wonderful libration and expansion of the first Earth over the face of the waters sustained by its own proportions and the hand of his Providence These two places in the Psalms being duly consider'd we shall more easily understand a third place to the same effect in the Proverbs delivered by WISDOM concerning the Origin of the World and the form of the first Earth in these words Chap. 8. 27. When he prepared the Heavens I was there when HE SET an Orb or Sphere upon the face of the Abyss We render it when we set a Compass upon the face of the Abyss but if we have rightly interpreted the Prophet David 't is plain enough what compass is here to be understood not an imaginary circle for why should that be thought one of the wonderful works of God but that exterior Orb of the Earth that was set upon the waters That was the Master-piece of the Divine art in framing of the first Earth and therefore very fit to be taken notice of by Wisdom And upon this occasion I desire you to reflect upon St. Peter's expression concerning the first Earth and to compare it with Solomon's to see if they do not answer one another St. Peter calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An Earth consisting standing or sustained by the waters And Solomon calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An Orb drawn upon the face of the Abyss And St. Peter says that was done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the wisdom of God which is the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or wisdom that here declares her self to have been present at this work Add now to these two places the two foremention'd out of the Psalmist An Earth founded upon the Seas Psal. 24. 2. and an Earth stretched out above the waters Psal. 136. 6. Can any body doubt or question but all these four Texts refer to the same thing And seeing St. Peter's description refers â—â—rtainly to the Ante-diluvian Earth they must all refer to it and do all as certainly and evidently agree with our Theory concerning the form and situation of it The pendulous form and posture of that first Earth being prov'd from these four places 't is more easie and emphatical to interpret in this sence that passage in Iob ch 26. 7. He stretcheth â—ut the North over the Tohu for so it is in the original and hangeth the Earth upon nothing And this strange foundation or no foundation of the exteriour Earth seems to be the ground of those noble questions propos'd to Iob by God Almighty Ch. 38. Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the Earth Declare if thou hast understanding Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastned and who laid the corner-stone There was neither foundation nor corner-stone in that piece of Architecture and that was it which made the art and wonder of it But I have spoken more largely to these places in the Theory it self And if the four Texts before-mentioned be consider'd without prejudice I think there are few matters of natural Speculation that can be so well prov'd out of Scripture as the Form which we have given to the Ante-diluvian Earth But yet it may be thought a just if not a necessary appendix to this discourse concerning the form of the Ante-diluvian Earth to give an account also of the Ante-diluvian Abyss and the situation of it according to Scripture for the relation which these two have to one another will be a further means to discover if we have rightly determin'd the form of that Earth The Abyss or Tehom-Rabbah is a Scripture notion and the word is not us'd that I know of in that distinct and peculiar sence in Heathen Authors 'T is plain that in Scripture it is not always taken for the Sea as Gen. 1. 2. 7. 11. 49. 25. Deut. 33. 13. Iob 28. 14. 38. 16. Psal. 33. 7. 71. 20 78. 15. 135. 6. Apoc. 20. 1. 3. but for some other mass of waters or subterraneous store-house And this being observ'd we may easily discover the nature and set down the History
of the Scripture-Abyss The Mother-Abyss is no doubt that in the beginning of Genesis v. 2. which had nothing but darkness upon the face of it or a thick caliginous air The next news we hear of this Abyss is at the Deluge Gen. 7. 11. where 't is said to be broke open and the waters of it to have drowned the World It seems then this Abyss was clos'd up some time betwixt the Creation and the Deluge and had got another cover than that of darkness And if we will believe Wisdom Prov. 8. 27. who was there present at the formation of the Earth an Orb was set upon the face of the Abyss at the beginning of the World That these three places refer to the same Abyss I think cannot be questioned by any that will compare them and consider them That of the Deluge Moses calls there Tehom-Rabbah the Great Abyss and can there be any greater than the forementioned mother-Mother-Abyss And WISDOME in that place in the Proverbs useth the same phrase and words with Moses Gen. 1. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon the face of the Deep or of the Abyss changâ—ng darkness for that Orb of the exteriour Earth which was made afterwards to inclose it And in thâ—s vault it lay and under this cover when the Psalmist speaks of it in these words Psal. 33. 7. He gathereth the waters of the Sea as in a bag he layeth up the Abyss in store-houses Lastly we may observe that 't was this Mother-Abyss whose womb was burst at the Deluge when the Sea was born and broke forth as if it had issued out of a womb as God expresseth it to Iob ch 38. 8. in which place the Chaldee Paraphrase reads it when it broke forth coming out of the Abyss Which disruption at the Deluge seems also to be alluded to Iob 12. 14 15. and more plainly Prov. 3. 20. by his knowledge the Abysses are broken up Thus you have already a threefold state of the Abyss which makes a short History of it first Open at the beginning then covered till the Deluge Then broke open again as it is at present And we pursue the History of it no further but we are told Apoc. 20. 3. That it shall be shut up again and the great Dragon in it for a Thousand years In the mean time we may observe from this form and posture of the Ante diluvian Abyss how suitable it is and coherent with that form of the Ante-diluvian Earth which St. Peter and the Psalmist had describ'd sustain'd by the waters founded upon the waters stretcht above the waters for if it was the cover of this Abyss and it had some cover that was broke at the Deluge it was spread as a Crust or Ice upon the face of those waters and so made an Orbis Terrarum an habitable sphere of Earth about the Abyss SO much for the form of the Ante-diluvian Earth and Abyss which as they aptly correspond to one another so you see our Theory answers and is adjusted to both and I think so fitly that we have no reason hitherto to be displeas'd with the success we have had in the examination of it according to Scripture We have dispatch'd the two main points in question first to prove a diversity in general betwixt the two natural Worlds or betwixt the Heavens and the Earth before and after the Flood Secondly to prove wherein this diversity consisted or that the particular form of the Ante-diluvian Heavens and Earth was such according to Scripture as we have describ'd it in the Theory You 'l say then the work is done what needs more all the rest follows of course for if the Antediluvian Earth had such a â—orm as we have propos'd and prov'd it to have had there could be no Deluge in it but by a dissolution of its parts and exteriour frame And a Deluge so made would not be in the nature of a standing Pool but of a violent agitation and commotion of the Waters This is true These parts of the Theory are so cemented that you must grant all if you grant any However we will try if even these two particulars also may be prov'd out of Scripture That is if there be any marks or memorandums left there by the Spirit of God of such a fraction or dissolution of the Earth at the Deluge And also such characters of the Deluge it self as show it to have been by a fluctuation and impetuous commotion of the Waters To proceed then That there was a Fraction or Dissolution of the Earth at the Deluge the history of it by Moses gives us the first account seeing he tells us as the principol cause of the Flood That the Fountains of the Great Abyss were cloven or burst asunder and upon this disruption the waters gush'd out from the bowels of the Earth as from the widen'd mouths of so many Fountains I do not take Fountains there to signifie any more than Sources or Stores of Water noting also this manner of their eruption from below or out of the ground as Fountains do Accordingly in the Proverbs chap. 3. 20. 't is only said the Abysses were broken open I do not doubt but this refers to the Deluge as Bede and others understand it the very word being us'd here both in the Hebrew and Septuagint that express'd the disruption of the Abyss at the Deluge And this breaking up of the Earth at that time is elegantly exprest in Iob by the bursting of the Womb of Nature when the Sea was first brought to light when after many pangs and throes and dilacerations of her body Nature was delivered of a burthen which she had born in her Womb Sixteen Hundred Years These three places I take to be memorials and proofs of the disruption of the Earth or of the Abyss at the universal Deluge And to these we may add more out of the Prophets Iob and the Psalms by way of allusion commonly to the state of Nature at that time The Prophet Isaiah in describing the future destruction of the World chap. 24. 18 19. seems plainly to allude and have respect to the past destruction of it at the Deluge as appears by that leading expression the windows from an high are open 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taken manifestly from Gen. 7. 11. Then see how the description goes on the windows from an high are open and the foundations of the Earth do shake The Earth is utterly broken down the Earth is quite dissolv'd the Earth is exceedingly moved Here are Concussions and Fractions and dissolutions as there were in the Mundane Earth-quake and Deluge which we had exprest before only by breaking open the Abyss By the Foundations of the Earth here and elsewhere I perceive many understand the Centre so by moving or shaking the foundations or putting them out of course must be understood a displacing of the Centre which was really done at the Deluge as we have shewn in its proper place
If we therefore remember that there was both a dislocation as I may so say and a fraction in the body of the Earth by that great fall a dislocation as to the Centre and a fraction as to the Surface and Exterior Region it will truly answer to all those expressions in the Prophet that seem so strange and extraordinary T is true this place of the Prophet respects also and foretels the future destruction of the World but that being by Fire when the Elements shall melt with fervent heat and the Earth with the works therein shall be burnt up these expressions of fractions and concussions seem to be taken originally from the manner of the World's first destruction and to be transferr'd by way of application to represent and signifie the second destruction of it though it may be not with the same exactness and propriety There are several other places that refer to the dissolution and subversion of the Earth at the Deluge Amos 9. 5 6. The Lord of Hosts is he that toucheth the Earth and it shall melt or be dissolv'd and it shall rise up wholly like a Flood and shall be drowned as by the Flood of Egypt By this and by the next verse the Prophet seems to allude to the Deluge and to the dissolution of the Earth that was then This in Iob seems to be call'd breaking down the Earth and overturning the Earth Chap. 12. 14 15. Behold he breaketh down and it cannot be built again He shâ—â—teth upon man and there can be no opening Behold he witholdeth the waters and they dry up also he â—endeth them out and they overturn the Earth Which place you may see paraphras'd Theor. Book 1. p. 91 92. We have already cited and shall hereafter cite other places out of Iob And as that Ancient Author who is thought to have liv'd before the Judaical Oeconoray and nearer to Noah than Moses seems to have had the Praecept a Noachidarum so also he seems to have had the Dogmata Noachidarum which were deliver'd by Noah to his Children and Posterity concerning the mysteries of Natural Providence the origine and fate of the World the Deluge and Ante-diluvian state c. and accordingly we find many strictures of these doctrines in the Book of Iob. Lastly In the Psalms there are Texts that mention the shaking of the Earth and the foundations of the World in reference to the Flood if we judge aright whereof we will speak under the next Head concerning the raging of the Waters in the Deluge These places of Scripture may be noted as left us to be remembrancers of that general ruine and disruption of the Earth at the time of the Deluge But I know it will be said of them That they are not strict proofs but allusions only Be it so yet what is the ground of those allusions something must be alluded to and something that hath past in Nature and that is recorded in Sacred History and what is that unless it be the Universal Deluge and that change and disturbance that was then in all Nature If others say that these and such like places are to be understood morally and allegorically I do not envy them their interpretations but when Nature and Reason will bear a literal sence the rule is that we should not recede from the Letter But I leave these things to every one's thoughts which the more calm they are and the more impartial the more easily they will feel the impressions of Truth In the mean time I proceed to the last particular mention'd The form of the Deluge it self This we suppose to have been not in the way of a standing Pool the Waters making an equal Surface and an equal heighth every where but that the extreme heighth of the Waters was made by the extreme agitation of them caus'd by the weight and force of great Masses or Regions of Earth falling at once into the Abyss by which means as the Waters in some places were prest out and thrown at an excessive height into the Air so they would also in certain places gape and lay bare even the bottom of the Abyss which would look as an open Grave ready to swallow up the Earth and all it bore Whilst the Ark in the mean time falling and rising by these gulphs and precipices sometimes above water and sometimes under was a true Type of the state of the Church in this World And to this time and state David alludes in the name of the Church Psal. 42. 7. Abyss calls unto Abyss at the noise of thy Cataracts or Water-spouts All thy waves and billows have gone over me And again Psal. 46. 2 3. In the name of the Church Therefore will not we fear tho' the Earth be removed and tho' the mountains be carried into the midst of the Seas The waters thereof roar and are troubled the mountains shake with the swelling thereof But there is no description more remarkable or more eloquent than of that Scene of things represented Psal. 18. 7 8 9 c. which still alludes in my opinion to the Deluge-scene and in the name of the Church We will set down the words at large Ver. 6. In my distress I called upon the Lord and cryed unto my God He heard my voice out of his Temple and my cry came before him into his ears 7. Then the Earth shook and trembled the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken because he was wroth 8. There went up a smoke from his nostrils and fire out of his mouth devoured Coals were kindled by it 9. He bowed the Heavens also and came down and darkness was under his feet 10. And he rode upon a Cherub and did flie he did flie upon the wings of the wind 11. He made darkness his secret place his pavilion round about him was dark waters and thick clouds of the skie 12. At the brightness before him the thick clouds passed hail and coals of fire 13. The Lord also thunder'd in the Heavens and the Highest gave his voice hail and coals of fire 14. Yea he sent out his arrows and scatter'd them and he shot out lightnings and discoinfited them 15. Then the Chanels of waters were seen and the foundations of the World were discovered at thy rebuke O Lord at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils He sent from above he took me he drew me out of great waters This I think is a rough* draught of the face of the Heavens and the Earth at the Deluge as the last Verses do intimate and 't is apply'd to express the dangers and deliverances of the Church The Expressions are far too high to be applyed to David in his Person and to his deliverance from Saul no such agonies or disorders of Nature as are here instanc'd in were made in David s time or upon his account but 't is a Scheme of the Church and of her fate particularly as represented by the Ark in that dismal distress
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