and compare the States of External Nature before and after the Fall one with another and with those things which the Propositions we are now upon do assert concerning them 'T is evident then from what has been before laid down hereto relating that the Primitive state of things before the Fall was thus The Earth being newly form'd was scarcely as yet intirely consolidated and so pretty uniformly pervious to the warm Steams ascending from beneath It s Figure was perfectly Sphaerical and its Strata or Layers by consequence were even continued and join'd and so the Central Heat being equally distant from all the parts of the Earth's Surface did very equally diffuse it self and equally affect all the Climates of the Globe The Soil or Uppermost Stratum of the Earth was newly moisten'd by the descent of the Waters before they compos'd the Seas on the Third Day of the Creation and by the plenty of Moisture which it still receiv'd every Night The Air was perfectly Clear Homogeneous Transparent and Susceptive of the utmost Power of the Solar Heat The Seasons were equable or gently and gradually distinguish'd from one another by the Rising Setting Descending and Ascending Sun without any quick Interpositions of Day and Night to disturb them The Torrid Zone of the Earth as I may call those Regions near the Solar Course was very much Expos'd to the Sun and very much warm'd withal by its Vicinage to the Central Solid The Moon in twelve Revolutions equally measur'd out the Year and caus'd the most gentle easie and gradual Tides imaginable This with all its natural Consequents was the State of the Primitive World But as soon as Man had sinn'd and render'd that happy State too good for him or indeed rendred himself wholly uncapable thereof And as soon as God Almighty had pronounced a Curse on the Ground and its Productions presently the Earth began a new and strange Motion and revolv'd from West to East on its own Axis A single 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Revolution of Night and Day either immediately or by degrees according as the present Velocity of the Diurnal Rotation was suddenly or gradually acquir'd returned frequently and became no longer than 24 short Hours while the Annual Motion perform'd on a different Axis distinguish'd the Seasons and in Conjunction with the Diurnal describ'd the Equator and the Tropicks and by the access and recess of the Sun from the last named Circles caus'd it to visit the several Regions enclos'd thereby The Face of the Earth was really distinguish'd into Zones by the Tropicks and Polar Circles truly divided from one another with respect whereto the particular Regions of the Earth chang'd their Situation the Equator being that Circle with regard whereto they were now to be determin'd as they had been before with regard to the Ecliptick and so that Paradise which was before at the middle became the Northern boundary of the Torrid Zone The Figure of the Earth which was before truly Sphaerical degenerated into an Oblate Sphaeroid the Torrid Zone rising about 10 Miles upward and the Frigid one subsiding as much downwards The Compages of the Upper Earth and of its Strata became thereby chap'd broken and divided and so carried up the warm Steams from beneath to particular Conceptacles and Volcano's which before serv'd in a more equal and uniform manner to heat and invigorate the intire Earth and its productons The Tides lastly became frequenter and so more sudden and violent than before Which short Summary or Scheme of the States of Nature in our Hypothesis before and after the Fall ought to be all along born in mind and reflected on in order to the passing a right judgment on the accounts of those Phaenomena in the Solution whereof we are now engag'd And which otherwise might seem very odd and unaccountable to the Reader Which being thus dispatch'd I proceed XXIX The Primitive Earth was not equally Paradisiacal all over The Garden of Eden or Paradise being a peculiarly fruitful and happy soil and particularly furnish'd with all the necessaries and delights of an innocent and blessed life above the other Regions of the Earth XXIX That all the Primitive Earth could not be equally Paradisiacal and enjoy the same Priviledges and Conveniences beyond the Present is easily prov'd For seeing one of its principal causes of Fertility and other Prerogatives was the greater degree of Heat at the Paradisiacal Regions The Climates near the Solar Course being alone capable of such greater Heat must be alone capable of its Effects also and consequently we are to confine our enquiries for the Garden of Eden to the Countries not very remote from the Ancient Ecliptick Now that some peculiar Spot or Region thereabouts might beyond all the rest be Fertile Pleasant and Paradisiacal 't is not difficult to suppose At the present there is a mighty variety in Countries in the very same Hemisphere Climate and Parallel The particular Prerogatives of one Region beyond another do not intirely depend on the Sun or the Vicinage of the Central Heat But partly on the Nature and Temper of the Soil the kinds of Vegetables and Fossils thereto belonging the number qualities and conflux of Rivers he firmness or looseness of the inferior Strata hindring or freelier permitting the ascent of the Subterraneous Steams Juices and Effluvia From the coincidence of which and of other such things in a peculiar and advantagious manner order'd and dispos'd on purpose by the Divine Providence at the Mosaick Creation the extraordinary pleasantness and felicity of this Earthly Paradise or Garden of Pleasure is I suppose to be deduc'd and which being consider'd will I believe be sufficient to give satisfaction in the Proposition before us XXX The place of Paradise was where the united Rivers Tigris and Euphrates divided themselves into four Streams Pison Gihon Tigris and Euphrates XXX This Situation of Paradise has been already consider'd and need not here be reassum'd Only we may observe That no Scruples would ever have been rais'd about this Matter in case the foremention'd Rivers had still been visible their Course still agreeable to the Mosaick Description and the Metals and Minerals mention'd of the adjoyning Countries had been as evidently there to be found in ours as they appear to have been in those Primitive Times Seeing therefore the following Theory will so clearly assign the Cause of such Diversity that every Reader will be oblig'd to grant it much harder to have accounted for the Phaenomena of Paradise consistently with the other Phaenomena of Nature if all things were now as they were at first than almost any other of the Antediluvian World I may justly hope that this so disputed a Question of the Situation of the Garden of Eden or Primitive Paradise to those who embrace the other parts of the Theory will remain no longer so but be as fix'd and undoubted within at least the limits of that Hypothesis here referr'd to as any other
Month as even the Septuagint by their way of reckoning were oblig'd to express it nor the Seventeenth day of the same Month as the Hebrew Verity and Samaritan Pentateuch do rightly determine it but rather the Fifth of the same Month contrary to the Faith and Agreement of all Copies and Translations in the World So that upon the whole the intire force of this Reasoning and the conjoint Influence of the several ways by which this Hypothesis fixes the day of the Deluge so nicely conspires to confirm and give undoubted Attestation to the Hebrew Verity and consequently to destroy the Authority of the Samaritan and Septuagint so far as they contradict the same in the matters herein concern'd Coroll 7. Hence the Chronology of the Bible is establish'd and all the pretended immense numbers of Years which the Annals of some Nations recount are confuted For as the Year of the Deluge from the Hebrew Chronology given the Day of the beginning of the Deluge therein assign'd is fully attested to and determin'd on our Hypothesis from Astronomy so vice versâ the Day of the beginning of the Deluge from the same Sacred History given and within a Day or two confirm'd from Abydenus and Berosus corrected the number of Years thereby assign'd is at the same time establish'd also The Methods before-mention'd of fixing that Day not permitting the Addition or Subtraction of a few hundreds much less many thousands of Years to or from those Four thousand and forty four which the Holy Scriptures require us to account since that time Which therefore ought to be fully acquiesced in and all other wild and extravagant Numbers be utterly rejected Coroll 8. Hence upon supposition that the Comet was of any given Magnitude the height of the Tide or elevation of the Abyss with its incumbent Orb may be reduc'd to Calculation and its Quantity consider'd and compar'd with the Phaenomena depending on it Thus for instance if the Comet were half as big as the Earth which will hereafter appear not far from truth and consequently approach'd eight times as near as the Moon or Thirty thousand Miles off us at its nearest distance the elevation of the Abyss or the height of the Tide above its former Position must have been near eight Miles For the Moon elevates the Ocean about six Feet above its moderate State a Comet at the same distance half as big as the Earth which is Thirteen times as big as the Moon would elevate the same Thirteen times as high or Seventy eight Feet and at an eighth part of its distance Five hundred and twelve times as high as the last or Thirty nine thousand nine hundred and thirty six Feet which is very near the before-mentioned height of eight Miles Which Elevation of the Abyss seems very agreeable to the Phaenomena afterwards to be observ'd and so within a due Latitude establishes the foregoing Hypotheses of the nearness of the Comets approach and the consequent bigness of the Comet it self before-mention'd SCHOLIUM Having thus establish'd this main Proposition 't will here be proper to describe as near as the Phaenomena of Comets and of the Deluge afford us any guidance the particular Trajectory of the Comet or that part of it which could be concern'd with us and our lower Planetary Regions which accordingly in a mean between such as approach exceeding near to and such as remain at somewhat remoter distances from the Sun in their Perihelia and agreeably to that Historical Trajectory of the last famous Comet delineated by Mr. Newton I shall here attempt For tho' 't were folly to think of delineating the very same in which the Comet revolv'd yet we may easily come pretty near it we may give the Reader a clear and distinct Idea of the whole matter and enable him to judge of any particular consequences occasionally to be drawn therefrom Now verbal Descriptions in such cases being of small advantage compar'd to Schemes and Graphical Delineations I shall wave more words about it and exhibit an intire Figure of the whole to the view and consideration of the Reader From the careful Observation whereof the following inferences may be easily drawn Corollary 1. The Earth would twice pass quite through the Tail of the Comet the first time at the beginning of the Deluge and the second about Fifty three or fifty four Days after Their several Motions then bringing them to the Situation describ'd in the Figure Coroll 2. At the second passing by of the Comet before its cutting the Ecliptick in its Ascent from the Sun about Sixty two Days after the former passage the Moon which at the first was three Days past the New at this last time must have been within a day or two of its Quadrature past the like Conjunction Coroll 3. If at the first passing by of the Comet the Moon was a small matter nearer the Comet than the Earth had been just before she would be accelerated somewhat more than the Earth and by her Position at the second passage she would be a little more retarded than the Earth and upon the whole might afterward retain an equal Velocity with it as 't is certain she still does Coroll 4. That former superabundant Velocity would in the intermediate space cast the Moon farther off the Sun and thereby make it approach nearer the Earth at the Conjunction or New and recede farther from it at the Opposition or Full than it did before Which things being so it may deserve consideration whether the present Eccentricity of the Moon 's Orbit about the Earth might not without any change in its periodical Revolution be hence deriv'd And so Whether the Menstrual Course were not as truly circular before the Deluge as we have already shew'd the Annual to have been Especially when the Situation of the Moon 's Apogaeon was from the present Astronomical Tables somewhat near that place which according to such an Hypothesis and such a Trajectory of the Comet it ought to have been I mean the latter degrees of Cancer or the former of Leo. Coroll 5. 'T was almost the New Moon when the Comet 's Tail involv'd the Earth and the Moon the second time as the Position of the Earth in the Figure with the consideration of the place of the Moon then will easily shew BOOK III. PHAENOMENA CHAP. 1. Phaenomena relating to the Mosaick Creation and the Original Constitution of the Earth I. ALL those particular small Bodies of which our habitable Earth is now compos'd were originally in a mixed confused fluid and uncertain Condition without any order or regularity It was an Earth without form and void had darkness spread over the face of its Abyss and in reality was what it has been ever stil'd a perfect Chaos The Testimonies for this are so numerous and the Consent of all Authors Sacred and Prophane so unanimous that I need only refer the Reader to them for the undoubted Attestation of it II. The Formation of
several Sea Charts relating thereto may easily be observ'd LXIX The greatest part of the Islands of the Globe are situate at small distances from the Edges of the great Continents very few appearing near the middle of the main Ocean This the bare Inspection into a Map or Globe of the World will soon give satisfaction in LXX The Ages of Men decreas'd about one half presently after the Deluge and in the succeeding eight hundred or nine hundred Years were gradually reduced to that standard at which they have stood ever since This the following Tables will easily evince Ages of the Antediluvians in their Years Ages of the Postdiluvians in the present Years Adam 930 Noah 950 Seth 912 Sem 600 Enos 905 Arphaxad 438 Cainan 910 Salah 433 Mahalaleel 895 Heber 464 Jared 962 Phaleg 239 Enoch translated 365 Reu 239 Methuselah 969 Serug 230 Lamech 777 Nahor 148 Noah 950 Terah 205 Sem 600 Abraham 175   Isaac 180   Jacob 147   Joseph 110 The days of our years are threescore years and ten and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years yet is their strength labour and sorrow for it is soon cut off and we fly away In the Days of Moses LXXI Our upper Earth for a considerable depth even as far as we commonly penetrate into it is Factitious or newly acquir'd at the Deluge The ancient one having been covered by fresh Strata or Layers of Earth at that time and thereby spoil'd or destroy'd as to the use and advantage of Mankind I will destroy them with the Earth Neither shall there any more be a flood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to destroy corrupt or spoil the Earth This is moreover evident by the vast numbers of the Shells of Fish Bones of Animals Intire or Partial Vegetables buried at the Deluge and Inclosed in the Bowels of the present Earth and of its most solid and compacted Bodies to be commonly seen at this day Whose truth is attested not only by very many occasional remarks of others but more especially by the careful and numerous Observations of an Eye-witness the Learned Dr. Woodward 'T is true this excellent Author was forc'd to imagine and accordingly to assert That the Ancient Earth was dissolv'd at the Deluge and all its parts separated from one another and so the whole thus dissolv'd and separate taken up into the Waters which then cover'd the Earth till at last they together setled downward and with the fore-mentioned Shells Bones and Vegetables inclosed among the rest of the Mass compos'd again that Earth on which we now live But this Hypothesis is so strange and so miraculous in all its parts 't is so wholly different from the natural Series of the Mosaick History of the Deluge takes so little notice of the forty days rain the principal cause thereof is so contrary to the Universal Law of mutual Attraction and the specifick gravities of Bodies accounts for so few of the before-mention'd Phaenomena of the Deluge fixes the time of the year for its commencing so different from the truth implies such a sort of new Formation or Creation of the Earth at the Deluge without warrant for the same is in some things so little consistent with the Mosaick Relation and the Phaenomena of nature and upon the whole is so much more than his Observations require that I cannot but dissent from this particular Hypothesis tho' I so justly honour the Author and so highly esteem and frequently refer to the Work it self All that I shall say farther is this That the Phaenomena of the interior Earth by this Author so exactly observ'd are on the common grounds or notions of the Deluge which suppose the Waters to have been pure without any other mixtures so unaccountable and yet so remarkable and evident that if no other rational solution could be offer'd 't were but just and necessary to admit whatever is asserted by this Author rather than deny the reality of those Phaenomena or ascribe the plainest remains of the Animal and Vegetable Kingdom to the sportings of Nature or any such odd and Chimaerical occasions as some persons are inclinable to do But withal I must be allow'd to say and the Author himself will not disagree That his Hypothesis includes things so strange wonderful and surprizing that nothing but the utmost necessity and the perfect unaccountableness of the Phaenomena without it ought to be esteem'd sufficient to justifie the belief and introduction of it Which straits that account of the Deluge we are now upon not forcing me into as will appear hereafter I have I think but just reasons for my disbelief thereof and as just or rather the same reason to embrace that Assertion we are now upon That this upper Earth as far as any Shells Bones or Vegetables are found therein was adventitious and newly acquir'd at the Deluge and not only the old one dissolv'd and resetled in its ancient place again LXXII This Factitious Crust is universal upon the Tops of the generality of Mountains as well as in the Plains and Valleys and that in all the known Climates and Regions of the World This is fully attested by the Observations of the same Author and those which he procur'd from all parts of the World conspiring together LXXIII The Parts of the present upper Strata were at the time of the Waters covering the Earth loose separate divided and floated in the Waters among one another uncertainly This is proved by the same Author's Observations LXXIV All this Heterogeneous Mass thus floating in the Waters by degrees descended downwards and subsided to the bottom pretty nearly according to the Law of Specifick Gravity and there compos'd those several Strata or Layers of which our present upper Earth does consist This is prov'd by the same Observations LXXV Vast multitudes of Fishes belonging both to the Seas and Rivers perish'd at the Deluge and their Shells were buried among the other Bodies or Masses which subsided down and compos'd the Layers of our upper Earth This is prov'd by the same Observations LXXVI The same Law of Specifick Gravity which was observ'd in the rest of the Mass was also observ'd in the subsidence of the Shells of Fishes they then sinking together with and accordingly being now found enclos'd among those Strata or Bodies which are nearly of their own several Specifick Gravities The heavier Shells being consequently still enclos'd among the heavier Strata and the lighter Shells among the lighter Strata in the Bowels of our present Earth This is prov'd by the same Observations LXXVII The Strata of Marble of Stone and of all other solid Bodies attained their solidity as soon as the Sand or other matter whereof they consist was arriv'd at the bottom and well setled there And all those Strata which are solid at this day have been so ever since that time This is prov'd by the same Observations LXXVIII These Strata
of Stone of Chalk of Cole of Earth or whatever matter they consisted of lying thus each upon other appear now as if they had at first been parallel continued and not interrupted But as if after some time they had been dislocated and broken on all sides of the Globe had been elevated in some and depress'd in other places from whence the fissures and breaches the Caverns and Grotto's with many other irregularities within and upon our present Earth seem to be deriv'd This is prov'd by the same Observations LXXIX Great numbers of Trees and of other Vegetables were also at this subsidence of the Mass aforesaid buried in the Bowels of the Earth And such very often as will not grow in the places where they are lodg'd Many of which are pretty intire and perfect and to be distinctly seen and consider'd to this very day This is prov'd by the same Observations LXXX It appears from all the tokens and circumstances which are still observable about them That all these Vegetables were torn away from their ancient Seats in the Spring time in or about the Month of May. This is prov'd by the same Observations LXXXI All the Metals and Minerals among the Strata of our upper Earth owe their present frame and order to the Deluge being reposed therein during the time of the Waters covering the Earth or during the subsidence of the before-mention'd Mass. This is prov'd by the same Observations LXXXII These Metals and Minerals appear differently in the Earth according to the different manner of their first lodgment For sometimes they are in loose and small Particles uncertainly inclos'd among such Masses as they chanc'd to fall down withal At other times some of their Corpuscles happening to occur and meet together affix'd to each other and several convening uniting and combining into one Mass form'd those Metallick and Mineral Balls or Nodules which are now found in the Earth And according as the Corpuscles chanc'd to be all of a kind or otherwise so the Masses were more or less simple pure and homogeneous And according as other Bodies Bones Teeth Shells of Fish or the like happen'd to come in their way these Metallick and Mineral Corpuscles affix'd to and became conjoin'd with them either within where it was possible in their hollows and interstices or without on their surface and outsides filling the one or covering the other And all this in different degrees and proportions according to the different circumstances of each individual case All this is prov'd by the same Observations LXXXIII The inward parts of the present Earth are very irregular and confused One Region is chiefly Stony another Sandy a third Gravelly One Country contains some certain kinds of Metals or Minerals another quite different ones Nay the same lump or mass of Earth not seldom contains the Corpuscles of several Metals or Minerals confusedly intermix'd with one another and with its own Earthy parts All which irregularities with several others that might be observ'd even contrary to the Law of Specifick Gravity in the placing of the different Strata of the Earth demonstrate the Original Fund or Promptuary of all this upper Factitious Earth to have been in a very Wild Confus'd and Chaotick condition All this the fore-mention'd and all other Observations of the like nature fully prove LXXXIV The Uppermost and Lightest Stratum of Soil or Garden Mold as 't is call'd which is the proper Seminary of the Vegetable Kingdom is since the Deluge very thick spread usually in the Valleys and Plains but very thin on the Ridges or Tops of Mountains Which last for want thereof are frequently Stony Rocky Bare and Barren This easie Observations of the surface of the Earth in different places will quickly satisfie us of LXXXV Of the four Ancient Rivers of Paradise two still remain in some measure but the other two do not or at least are so chang'd that the Mosaick Description does not agree to them at present This the multitude of unsatisfactory attempts to discover all these Rivers and their courses with an impartial comparison of the Sacred History with the best Geographical descriptions of the Regions about Babylon will easily convince an unbyass'd Person of LXXXVI Those Metals and Minerals which the Mosaick description of Paradise and its bordering Regions takes such particular notice of and the Prophets so emphatically refer to are not now met with so plentifully therein This must be allow'd on the same grounds with the former LXXXVII This Deluge of Waters was a signal Instance of the Divine Vengeance on a Wicked World and was the effect of the Peculiar and Extraordinary Providence of God God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the Earth and it grieved him at his heart And the Lord said I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth both man and beast and the creeping thing and the fowls of the air for it repenteth me that I have made them The earth was corrupt before God and the earth was filled with violence and God looked upon the earth and behold it was corrupt for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the Earth And God said unto Noah the end of all flesh is come before me for the earth is filled with violence through them and behold I will destroy them with the earth Behold I even I do bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh wherein is the breath of life from under heaven and every thing that is in the earth shall dye God spared not the old world but saved Noah the eighth person a preacher of righteousness bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly LXXXVIII Tho' the Moon might perhaps undergo some such changes at the Deluge as the Earth did yet that Face or Hemisphere which is towards the Earth and which is alone expos'd to our view has not acquir'd any such gross Atmosphere or Clouds as our Earth has now about it and which are here suppos'd to have been acquir'd at the Deluge This the present figure and large divisions of Sea and Land visible in the Moon with her continued and uninterrupted brightness and the appearance of the same Spots without the interposition of Clouds or Exhalations perpetually do sufficiently evince LXXXIX Since the Deluge there neither has been nor will be any great and general Changes in the state of the World till that time when a Period is to be put to the present Course of Nature The Lord smelled a sweet savour and the Lord said in his heart I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake for or altho' the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth Neither will I again smite any more every thing
were in a state of greater Capacities and Operations nearer approaching to reason and discourse and partakers of higher degrees of Perfection and Happiness than they have been ever since XXVI Since the Primitive state of External Nature was so exceeding different from the present as has been already prov'd the other Terrestrial Animals as well as Man ought to be suppos'd of a somewhat proportionably different Temper Abilities and Actions Besides The Divine Providence is concern'd to suit one Being to Another and to accommodate still the subordinate to the Superior rank of Creatures in the World On which account 't is not strange that the Bruit Animals were in their Primitive Constitution very much distinguish'd from and advanc'd above such as are now upon the Earth the Diversity with Relation to Mankind to whom in each Period they were to be subservient being so very remarkable For since Mankind upon the Fall degenerated into a Sensual and Bruitish way of Living the Bruit Creatures themselves would very unwillingly have paid their due homage and submission had not they in some degree degenerated from their Primitive Dignity at the same time Which degeneracy suppos'd a former greater degree of Abilities Operations and Happiness is at the same time suppos'd also And to strengthen this conjecture I may venture to Appeal to Anatomy whether the present Bodies of Bruits do not appear capable as far as can be discover'd of nobler operations than we ever now observe from them The advantage of even Mankind in this respect seeming not very considerable over the Bruits that perish XXVII The temper of the Air where our first Parents liv'd was warmer and the Heat greater before the Fall than since XXVII This has been already accounted for in the twenty third Proposition before XXVIII Those Regions of the Earth where our first Parents were plac'd were productive of better and more useful Vegetables with less Labour and Tillage than since they have been XXVIII That we may account for this Proposition and that Curse which was inflicted on the ground at the Fall in good measure included therein we must observe that the growth of Plants and Vegetables depends on a degree of Heat proportionate to the peculiar temper and exigence of each Species and by consequence that let the number of Seeds in any Soil be never so many or their kinds never so diverse yet the Surface of the Earth must remain bare and barren until the peculiar Heat of the Season and Climate be adapted to them Now seeing different kinds of Seeds require different degrees of Heat 't is only such certain kinds of the same that will at once shew themselves or spring out of the Earth the rest to which the Heat is not adjusted lying all the while as Dormant and Dead as if they did not really Exist in Nature Thus we have several distinct Crops of Vegetables in the several Seasons of the Year Those Seeds which the small Heat of February and March is not able to raise lye still in the Earth till the greater force of the Sun in April and May excite them In like manner several others which are too crass and unpliable for the moderate warmth of the Spring are by the yet greater intenseness of the Heat in June July and August rais'd from their Seats and oblig'd to shoot forth and display themselves Nay when in the Months of September and October the Sun's Power is diminish'd and its Heat but about equivalent to that of March and April it again suits the Plants which were then in Season so that they many of them spring up afresh in these Months and flourish over anew as before they did in those as Dr. Woodward very well discourses upon this occasion In like manner we may also consider this matter with relation to the different Climates and Zones of the Earth and their quite different Crops of Plants according to those different degrees of Heat made use of in their Vegetation When therefore we observe in the same Country a various Crop and Order of Vegetables every Year according to the various Power of Heat in each Season a different Face of the Earth being gradually visible from February till July in proportion to the gradual increase of Heat all that space we cannot tell in case the Heat increas'd still to a greater intenseness afterward but a new and unseen Face of things might appear and many unheard-of kinds of Vegetables might put forth and expose themselves to our Observation even in the present State and Age of the World But as to the Primitive World wherein all the Seeds of those Vegetables which God Originally Created were fresh and vegetous and wherein there was a much greater Heat than since has been to invigorate and produce them 't is very reasonable and very agreeable to Nature to suppose that many sorts of Trees Plants Herbs and Flowers which the colder temper of the subsequent Earth were unable to excite and produce were then every Year rais'd and became the principal Recreation and Sustenance of our first Parents in the state of Innocency 'T is very probable they might never see such a Poor Jejune and Degenerate State of the Vegetable Kingdom as we since have done till their unhappy Fall occasion'd the Introduction of that miserable condition of all things which has ever since continued among us Thus as one Country or Climate because of its greater Coldness is now the Seminary of several Vegetables which the warmer Regions are either perfect Strangers to or advance to a greater degree of perfection So upon the degeneracy of the Primeval State into the present and the mighty Abatement of the Ancient Heat taken together with the worse Juices and other effects of that Abatement contributary perhaps to the same thing 't is natural to allow that several such Vegetables suppose Thorns and Thistles which were before either perfect strangers to or had been advanc'd to a greater degree of Perfection by the Juices and Warmth of Paradise became the constant and troublesome Heir-looms there to the no little regret of our first Parents who till then had only seen and enjoy'd the better Set of the Primigenial Vegetables And if we consider withal that a main intention of the Toil Tillage and Manure of the Husbandman seems to be design'd to Enspirit and Envigorate the too Cold and Unactive Soil with Warm and Active Particles we shall not be unwilling to grant that those Labours of the Husbandman on this as well as on several other accounts which might be mention'd must have been in the Primitive state very facile and easie in comparison of those which are necessary in the present state SCHOLIUM 'T will be here I imagin not improper to remind the Reader once for all of the Nature and Effects of that extraordinary Change which the Fall of Man and the Consequent Curse of God brought upon the Earth That he may with the greater ease of his own accord view
Country or Region with the same exactness determin'd by Geography XXXI The Earth in its Primitive State had only an Annual Motion about the Sun But since it has a Diurnal Rotation upon its own Axis also Whereby a vast difference arises in the several States of the World XXXI This has been at large explain'd and prov'dalr eady XXXII Upon the first commencing of this Diurnal Rotation after the Fall its Axis was oblique to the Plain of the Ecliptick as it still is or in other words the present Vicissitudes of Seasons Spring Summer Autumm and Winter arising from the Sun's access to and recess from the Tropicks have been ever since the Fall of Man XXXII This has in some measure been insisted on already in the Hypothesis last mention'd and needs no other direct and positive proof than the present Obliquity of the Earth's Axis It being evident that without a miraculous Power the same Situation or Inclination which it had originally would and must invariably remain for all succeeding Ages CHAP. III. A Solution of the Phaenomena relating to the Antediluvian State of the Earth XXXIII The Inhabitants of the Earth were before the Flood vastly more numerous than the present Earth either actually does or perhaps is capable to maintain and supply XXXIII THIS Proposition will not appear strange if we consider 1. The much greater fertility of the Antediluvian Earth to be presently accounted for whereby it was capable of maintaining a much greater number of Inhabitants than the present even on the same space of Ground 2. The Earth was more equally habitable all over before than since the Deluge For before the acquisition of those heterogeneous mixtures which the Deluge occasion'd and which I take to be the Causes of all our violent and pernicious Heat and Cold in the Torrid and Frigid Zones of our Earth 't is probable the Earth was pretty equally habitable all over by reason of the Vicinage of the Central Heat to the Polar Regions and the more direct Exposition of the middle Regions to that of the Sun I do not mean that the Frigid Zones were equally hot with the Torrid but that the Heat in the one and the Cold in the other were more kindly and the excesses of each much less considerable than at present since the Introduction of the before-mention'd Mixtures and particularly of such Sulphureous and Nitrous Effluvia as are now I believe become Calorifick and Frigorifick Particles in our Air the main occasions of the violence and pernicious Qualities of the Heat and Cold thereof and the most affecting to our Senses of all other So that 't is probable before the Acquisition of these Advensitious Masses the Antediluvian Air was every where sufficiently temperate to permit the comfortable Habitation of Mankind on all parts of the Globe and the Antediluvian Earth was by consequence capable of many more Inhabitants than the present is or can be as every one will readily grant who considers how few Inhabitants in comparison three of the five Zones of our present Earth do maintain 3. The dry Land or habitable Earth it self was by reason of the absence of the intire Ocean full as large and capacious again as the present For the Ocean I think takes up now at the least one half of the intire Globe but then afforded as large spacious and habitable Countries as the other parts of the Earth 4. The Mountains which are now generally bare and barren were before the Deluge so far as they were suppli'd with Water as fruitful as the Plains or Vallies and by reason of a larger Surface were capable of maintaining rather more Animals than the Plains on which they stand would otherwise have been The present defect of a fruitful Soil being owing to the Deluge and there being no good reason that I know of to be assign'd why on a primary Formation and in a calm and still State of the Air the higher Parts of the Earth should not be cover'd with a fruitful Soil or Mold as well as the level or lower adjoyning to them All which Accounts taken together will I think give reasonable Foundation for such vast numbers of Inhabitants as according to the Computation of this Proposition the Antediluvian World was replenish'd withal Corollary 1. Since by very reasonable Computations of the numbers of the Inhabitants of the Earth at the Deluge according to the Hebrew Chronology they appear to have been sufficient abundantly to replenish the intire Globe and as many as in reason the same could sustain The Septuagints addition of near six hundred Years in this Period of the World to the Hebrew Accounts is so far from clearing Difficulties thereto relating that it rather increases the same and enforces the allowance of more Inhabitants at the Deluge than we can well tell where they could live and be maintain'd Coroll 2. Since according to the Hebrew Chronology from the Deluge till the time of Abraham's going into Canaan was the intire space of 427 Years and the Lives of Men during that interval were in a mean three hundred Years long 't is easy on the Grounds proceeded upon in this Phaenomenon's Calculations to prove That there is no need to recede from that Account or introduce the additional Years of the Septuagint in this Period to produce the greatest Numbers of Men which in that or the immediately succeeding Ages any Authentick Histories of those Ancient Times do require us to suppose Coroll 3. The Deluge which destroy'd the whole Race of Mankind those only in the Ark excepted could not possibly be confin'd to one or more certain Regions of the Earth but was without question truly Universal Coroll 4. Seeing it appears That Mankind has a gradual increase and that in somewhat more than four thousand Years our Continent of Europe Asia and Africa has been so entirely Peopled from the Sons of Noah and seeing withal America is much less in extent and I suppose generally speaking was never so full of People In case we suppose that Famines Wars Pestilences and all such sad destroyers of Mankind have equally afflicted the several Continents of the Earth Some light might be afforded to the Peopling of America and about what Age since the Deluge the American's past first from this Continent thither which a more nice enquiry into the Particulars here to be consider'd might assist us in XXXIV The Bruit Animals whether belonging to the Water or Land were proportionably at least more in number before the Flood than they are since XXXIV That part of this Proposition which concerns the Dry-land Animals is sufficiently accounted for by what has been discours'd under the last Head which equally belongs to them as to Mankind And if we extend the other part concerning the Fishes to the Seas then in Being and their comparative Plenitude there will need no additional Solution It being not to be suppos'd that the absolute numbers of Fish before the Deluge should be greater than at
the Deluge preserv'd and distinguish'd from all the rest of the World the Divine Providence did conduct the Ark and on this was laid the Foundation of the present Race of Mankind and of all those Terrestrial Animals which are now on the Face of the whole Earth which otherwise had perish'd at their Exit out of the Ark notwithstanding their wonderful Preservation therein during the Rage of the Deluge Coroll 3. Hence we may easily understand whence the Olive-branch was brought by the Dove to Noah For when the Trees adjoyning to the Ark or on the neighbouring Tops of the Hills had suffer'd small damage by the Flood and had since the clearing of the Waters enjoy'd almost the whole Spring and half the Summer they must be as flourishing and full of as many new and tender Sprouts as ever one of which might therefore be easily broken off by the Dove and brought to Noah in her Mouth which new dry and frim Sprout or Branch being a clear evidence that the Waters were not only gone and the Ground dry a great while before but that the Earth was still as formerly fit for the Production of its wonted Trees and Fruits must exceedingly tend to the Satisfaction of Noah and the Confirmation of his Faith and Hope in an entire Deliverance and in the future Renovation of the World LXXII This Factitious Crust is universal upon the Tops of the generality of the Mountains as well as in the Plains and Vallies and that in all the known Climates and Regions of the World LXXII This is a necessary consequent from the Universality of the Deluge already accounted for And tho' the generality of the Mountains would usully have a thinner Sediment or Crust than the Plains or Vallies in proportion to the lesser height of the Waters over each of them respectively yet they being at the Deluge much inferior to the height of Caucasus must be generally cover'd with the same Crust unless the Storms and Waves wash'd it down again after its first setling upon any of them as the Observations shew they really now are Corollary 1. 'T is hence evident even abstractedly from the Sacred History that there has formerly been an Universal Deluge much higher than the generality of the Mountains So that hereafter since the so useful Observations of Naturalists and principally of Dr. Woodward hereto relating we need not endeavour to secure the Credit and Veracity of the Mosaick History of the Deluge by Ancient Records and the universal Attestation of Antiquity which Testimonies yet are too evident and numerous to be denied but may from our own Eyes at the neighbouring Mines and Coal-Pits satisfy our selves of the exact truth of this part of the Sacred Volume which has been so much excepted against by ill-disposed Persons So wonderful is the Method of the Divine Wisdom in its seasonable Attestations afforded to the Sacred Scriptures That not only the Very Day as we have seen when the Flood began assign'd by Moses may still after more than four thousand years be prov'd from Astronomy to have been the true one which the Learned are chiefly capable of judging of and being primarily influenc'd by But the Reality and Universality of the Deluge it self is demonstrable from such common and easie Observations in all parts of the World at the Neighbouring Mines or Coal-pits that the Vulgar and Most Illiterate may be Eye-witnesses of the certain Effects of it and so fully convinc'd of the fidelity of the Sacred Historian therein Coroll 2. 'T is no wonder that none of the Antediluvian Cities Towns Buildings or other Remains are any where to be met with since the Deluge They being all generally buried perhaps above two hundred foot deep in the Earth by the Sediment of the Waters LXXIII The Parts of the present upper Strata were at the time of the Waters covering the Earth loose separate divided and floated in the Waters among one another uncertainly LXXIII This Proposition needs no farther Explication being already plain in what has been already said LXXIV All this Heterogenous Mass thus floating in the Waters by degrees descended downwards and subsided to the Bottom pretty nearly according to the Law of Specifick Gravity and there compos'd those several Strata or Layers of which our present upper Earth does consist LXXIV This Proposition is as easie as the former and included in what has been already said LXXV Vast multitudes of Fishes belonging both to the Seas and Rivers perish'd at the Deluge and their Shells were buried among the other Bodies or Masses which subsided down and compos'd the Layers of our upper Earth LXXV Where so Heterogeneous a Mass of Corpuscles were dispers'd every where through the Waters and towards the bottom especially at the latter end of their subsidence render'd the same very thick and muddy 't is natural to suppose that multitudes of Fishes partly stisled with the Spissitude and grossness of the Fluid scarce there deserving that name and partly poison'd with the kinds of some of those Corpuscles which they took in together with their Nourishment therein would be destroy'd and perish in the Waters Which being granted the rest so easily follows as not to need any farther Explication LXXVI The same Law of Specifick Gravity which was observ'd in the rest of the Mass was also observ'd in the subsidence of the Shells of Fishes they then sinking together with and accordingly being now found enclos'd among those Strata or Bodies which are nearly of their own Specifick Gravities The heavier Shells being consequently still enclos'd among the heavier Strata and the lighter Shells among the lighter Strata in the Bowels of our present Earth LXXVI This Phaeuomenon is so natural and necessary considering the gradual increase of the thickness of the gross Sediment downward and the equal subjection of Shells to the Law of Specifick Gravity with all other Bodies that I shall not insist any farther upon it Corollary This single Phaenomenon of the Shells of Fish inclos'd in the most Solid Bodies as Stone and Marble and that all over the World according to their several Specifick Gravities at great depths within the Bowels of the Earth which is so strange in it self so surprizing to the Spectators and so unaccountable without the most unusual and precarious Miracles be introduc'd on any other principles and yet so easily and naturally solv'd in the Hypothesis before us is a strong I had almost said an Invincible Argument for the verity thereof and as undeniable as a Physical assertion is capable of That is 'T is as far as we can in reason pronounce without a Miracle certainly true LXXVII The Strata of Marble of Stone and of all other solid Bodies attained their solidity as soon as the Sand or other matter whereof they consist was arriv'd at the bottom and well setled there And all those Strata which are solid at this day have been so ever since that time LXXVII Seeing this upper Crust or Sediment was
where no such alteration need be made in which therefore it may seem hard to allow of a single instance against the use in the precedent and subsequent Context in the first Chapter yet the circumstances of that day being peculiar the like mixture of the persectum and plusquam perfectum being in the second Chapter and in other places of Scripture to be observed and a distinct work being still hereby preserv'd to that day the placing the Sun Moon and Stars in our Firmament which otherwise is after a sort double do all in good measure take away the force of such Reasoning and conspire to allow us that Interpretation before given and thereby to secure the Proposition before us from that grand Objection which seemed capable of causing so great an obstruction in our course But if any should be dissatisfied with this Answer I shall for their sakes enter deeper into this matter and without any assistance from what has been already said endeavour to establish the Proposition before us and take away the foundation of the present difficulty And here I observe That the Scripture all along accommodates its self to the vulgar Apprehensions of Men with relation to such Points of Natural Philosophy as they were not able to comprehend and in particular with relation to the Site Distance Magnitude Use and Motions of the Heavenly Bodies Tho' these be really very distinct as well as distant from the Earth with all its dependances yet are they rarely if ever so consider'd in the Holy Scriptures They are all along there represented as fiery Luminaries plac'd in our Atmosphere and as much belonging to and depending on the Earth as the Clouds Meteors or other Aerial Phaenomena And so 't is no wonder that in the History before us they are included among the rest of their Fellows and come within the verge of the Mosaick Creation notwithstanding its limits be no larger than we here assign thereto In order to the accounting for which things I shall 1. Shew the truth of the Observation in several instances from the Holy Scriptures 2. Shew the rational Original and Occasion of such ways of speaking 3. Explain what according to my Notion must be meant by the Creation or Production of these Heavenly Bodies in the Mosaick History before us and demonstrate such a Construction to be agreeable to the Sacred Stile in other places 4. Assign some Reasons why in a History of the Origin of our Earth these remote and distant Bodies come to be taken notice of tho' their own proper Formation did not at all belong to it 1. I shall shew the truth of the Observation in several instances from the Holy Scriptures namely that the Heavenly Bodies are no otherwise there described than with relation to our Earth and as Members and Appurtenances of our Atmosphere And this Observation is confirm'd by the first mention that is made of them in this very History we are upon all the Circumstances whereof fully attest the truth of what is here affirm'd of them When the Light first display'd it self notwithstanding those numberless advantages accruing to the whole World therefrom none are taken notice of but such as respect our Sublunary World 'T was intirely with regard to our Light and Darkness our Day and Night that all was done as far as can be collected from the words of Moses Thus as soon as the Heavenly Bodies are made tho' they be universally useful they are plac'd in the Firmament of Heaven a Phrase us'd in this History for our Air only to divide our day from night to be to us for signs and seasons for days and years to be for lights in the firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth to rule over our day and night to divide our light from darkness And as to the order of their Introduction 't is not that of their proper Greatness or Dignity but that of their respective Appearance and Uses here below All which is far from a full account of the real Original universal Intentions and true Places of these Glorious Bodies but on the Supposition here made use of exactly easy and natural Agreeably whereto when our Air is clogg'd with gross Vapours so as to hide or disfigure their Faces to us The Sun is said to be turn'd into darkness the Moon into blood and when some Aerial Meteors call'd by their Names and for a moment resembling them shoot and drop down in the Air the Stars are said to fall from Heaven The Sun and Moon as if they were two Globes of Fire and Light pendulous in our Air and hanging over certain places are order'd to stand still the one upon Gibeon the other in the Valley of Aijalon The Sun is represented as set in a Tabernacle rejoycing as a Gyant to run his race His going forth is said to be from the end of Heaven or the Horizon and his circuit unto the ends of it All which Expressions with many others through the whole Bible plainly shew That the Scripture did not intend to teach men Philosophy or accommodate it self to the true and Pythagorick System of the World The Holy Writers did not consider the Heavenly Bodies absolutely as they are Great and Noble in themselves main and glorious Parts of the Universe very distinct from our Earth plac'd at various and immense Distances from it and from one another design'd for and subservient to many wise and comprehensive Ends and Methods of the Divine Providence dispos'd in a regular order in proportionate and harmonious Periods and Revolutions and finally endued with mighty Powers and Influences with respect to numerous and vast Systems of Beings Under such a consideration we might have expected another sort of Representation of the Heavenly Bodies their Original Designs Courses and Circumstances than the foregoing Texts or their parallels every where afford us But if we look on them under the Notion of Neighbour-Luminaries which are situate at the utmost bounds of our Atmosphere and belong as well as the Clouds to our Earth which are appointed to be our peculiar Attendants and a part of our Retinue serve our single Necessities and every day rise and set on purpose to provide for our Advantage and Convenience If I say we thus look upon them as all Men not otherwise taught by Philosophy do and must the Texts above-cited and the whole current of the Holy Books will easily accord and correspond to such a System And I dare appeal to any impartial and competent Judge to which of the foremention'd Schemes the most obvious and easy Sense of the Expressions of Scripture hereto relating are adapted and whether it does not usually speak as an honest and inquisitive Countryman who no more doubted of the Heavenly Bodies than of the Clouds appertaining to the Earth rather than as a new Astronomer who knew them to be vastly distant from and to have nothing in a peculiar manner to do with the
six Days work to be of the very same and no larger extent than those are and leave the whole to the Judgment of the Reader There shall come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lusts 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 For this they willingly are ignorant of that by the word of God the heavens were of old and the earth standing out of the water and in the water whereby the world that then was being overflowed with water perished But the heavens and the earth which are now by the same word are kept in store reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men 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 In the day of God the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with fervent heat Nevertheless we according to his promise look for a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness Thou Lord in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth and the heavens are the works of thine hands They shall perish but thou remainest and they all shall wax old as doth a garment and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up and they shall be changed I have now finish'd all those Arguments which to me are fully satisfactory and I think prove beyond rational contradiction That not the vast Universe but the Earth alone with its dependencies are the proper subject of the Six Days Creation And that the Mosaick History is not a Nice Exact and Philosophick account of the several steps and operations of the whole but such an Historical Relation of each Mutation of the Chaos each successive day as the Journal of a Person on the Face of the Earth all that while would naturally have contained The sum of all is this 1. The very Words and Coherence of Moses himself require such a Construction 2. The Words of Creating Making or Framing things here us'd are commonly of no larger importance than this Proposition allows 3. The World or Heaven and Earth the objects of this Creation are alike frequently restrain'd to the sublunary World the Air and Earth 4. The Chaos that known fund and seminary of the Six Days Creation extended no farther 5. On the contrary supposition the time of the Creation of each Body is extremely disproportionate to the work it self 6. On the same supposition there is an intolerable disorder disproportion and confusion in the works themselves 7. The sinal cause of the six days Creation is the advantage of Mankind the Inhabitant of the Earth 8. Neither the intention of the Author nor the capacity of the Readers require or could bear any other account of the origin of things 9. Lastly Neither the Deluge nor Conflagration whose extent appears commensurate to that of this Creation are of any larger compass than is here assign'd Upon this view of the whole matter give me leave to say That to make the Universal Frame of Nature concern'd in the particular Fates and Revolutions of our Earth is at this time of day to demonstrate either very mean thoughts of the Ends of the Divine Workmanship and of the Essects thereof in the World or else very proud and extravagant conceits of our own worth and dignity and at best argues a narrow ignoble and unphilosophical Soul 'T is much such another Wise and Rational Notion as it would be to suppose that the whole Terraqueous Globe with all its parts and dependencies all its furniture and productions was alike concern'd in the Fates and Revolutions pardon the expressions of one single Fly or Worm belonging to it And we may e'en as fairly allow the intire dependence of this sublunary World on the fortune of such a single animalculum That on its peeping into the World the whole Earth must arise out of nothing to afford it a resting place while it was growing and continued in its prime all things below must spring and flourish rejoyce and look gay on its decay all things must put on a mournful countenance and on its destruction Universal Nature here beneath must expire together and return to its primitive nothing This representation will I imagine seem bold and extravagant But 't will be hard to prove it so And I may appeal to Astronomy whether the Earth can be shewn to bear as considerable a proportion to the Universe as such a poor animalculum does certainly bear to it I would not by this or any thing else I have heretofore said in this Discourse be so far mistaken as to be believ'd prone to depretiate and and debase Mankind or to put a slight on all those Works of Nature and Providence which are subservient to it Neither do I deny that in some sense all the Visible World Heaven and Earth are ordain'd for our use and advantage I fully believe that we are the Creatures of God of whom he has a tender regard and over whom he exercises a constant a special Care and Providence As I look upon the Souls of Men in their proper and primitive perfection when they came out of their Maker's Hands to be Noble to be Glorious to be Exalted Beings and perhaps in capacities or faculties in dignity or happiness not inferior to some of the Angelick Orders so I also most undoubtedly believe what our Saviour affirms of good mens state hereafter that they shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equal to the Angels and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Children of God himself While I am perswaded that the Creation of Man was not effected without the concurrence and joint consultation of the Blessed Trinity Nor his Redemption without the Acceptance of the Father the Sacrifice and Death of the Son in his Humane Nature and the Sanctification and Operation of the Holy Spirit While I am perswaded that the Divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 has ever since the Fall of Adam been sollicitous about our Reconciliation to God and made it his constant business even before as well as since his Incarnation to mediate for us and take care of our eternal happiness While I believe that by the new Covenant Good Men even in this Imperfect state are esteem'd Heirs of God joint-Heirs with Christ and denominated the Brethren and Friends of their Glorious Redeemer While I do not doubt but our Humane Nature is now in the Person of our Blessed Saviour in Heaven and there on account of the Hypostatical Union with the Eternal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and as a reward of that Obedience and Suffering it underwent for us on Earth advanc'd above the most exalted Intellectual Orders at the Right Hand of the Majesty on High
While I expect the same Person in the Glory of the Father coming to Judge the World in Righteousness and Mankind after that final doom to be partaker of everlasting Joy or Misery according to their behaviour here on Earth While I say I believe all this as I most sincerely do I can be under no temptation of looking with contempt upon or of entertaining a mean opinion of Mankind or of those Systems of Nature and Providence relating to it Yet all this notwithstanding I think that Opinion I am now exposing deserves no other Character than I have before given of it Tho' I look upon Mankind as one Species of very Noble and Glorious Creatures yet I suppose it but One and that there may be Millions of others at the least not inferior to him Tho' I believe Humane Nature when Innocent and Perfect at that height of Purity and Felicity which it once had and by the Christian Dispensation may be again advanc'd to as so considerable and exalted a Species of Beings yet withal I look upon it at present as under a very different Character We are all now in a deprav'd a sinful and so in a low a miserable state We have by our own wilful Rebellion and Disobedience made it necessary for God to place us in a short a vicious in an uneasie and vexatious World where at present we are under a sort of confinement in a place of Trial and Probation and through a doleful Wilderness must make our way to the Land of Canaan Quisque suos patimur manes We here feel the sad effects and punishments of former Sins We are left to struggle with great difficulties abide many assaults and undergo severe Agonies e're we must expect to recover our native dignity to retrieve our ancient felicity again Exinde per amplum Mittimur Elysium reduces laeta arva tenemus As flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God so that Kingdom is not of this World I see no reason to esteem the present condition of Mortality as at all considerable in it self tho' in its consequences it extremely be so in comparison of the past and future periods of our Beings and therefore without believing the Earth one of the greatest or noblest Globes in the World I can suppose it a very proper and suitable habitation for us at present Most wisely contriv'd as it certainly is and its Funiture peculiarly and wonderfully adapted to our needs capacities and operations I acknowledge that Providence has so constituted our Earth that we receive some advantages from all and very great ones from some other parts of the external and visible World All which were in the Original Creation of things both foreseen and foredesign'd by God and so may not improperly be so far said to have been made for our use and appointed to serve our necessities I do not think that those Systems of the Universe we here speak of are ever a whit the less useful to us or the benefits we reap from them ever the less in themselves or less worthy of our notice and observation our admiration and gratitude to God because they also are subservient to other noble purposes and are by Divine Providence made use of in several great designs over and above those advantages we are able to take notice of or can our selves enjoy from them I cannot imagine that God is peculiarly fond of any particular parts of the Material Creation or any more a Respecter of some inanimate Bodies than of Persons He no doubt equally makes use of them all according to their several kinds and capacities in the service of the various species of Intelligent Creatures and in the bringing about the great Periods of Nature and the Decrees of Heaven which as they are in great measure unknown to us so may they regard Rational Beings very different and remote from us and our concerns If we duly reflect on the Infinite Nature and unlimited Perfections of the Divine Being the Creator and Original of all things as well as on the number vastness and glory of those his works which are within our view we shall see reason to confess there may be millions of Nobler Intellectual Beings interposed between Man and God And the whole World might be more reasonably suppos'd made at the Creation and for the sole use of any one species of those than of Mankind If therefore we be unwilling to be our selves excluded from a share in the intentions and designs of Heaven let us not exclude any other rational Creatures from the same but be willing to suppose as this Earth was form'd in six days for the sake of Man so were the rest of the Heavenly Bodies form'd at other proper times for the sake of other of God's Creatures for whom Providence ought to be allow'd to have taken a proportionable Care and made a suitable provision as we our selves find has been done with regard to us and our affairs Let us learn humble and modest sentiments of our selves from the contemplation of the immensity of the Works of God in the World Which useful Lesson the Holy Psalmist would by his own example teach us With whose Natural and Pious Reflection in this very case I shall conclude this whole discourse When I consider thy Heavens the work of thy fingers the Moon and the Stars which thou hast ordained Lord what is Man that thou art mindful of him And the Son of Man that thou visitest him O Lord our Lord How excellent is thy name in all the Earth POSTULATA 1. THE Obvious or Literal Sense of Scripture is the True and Real one where no evident Reason can be given to the contrary II. That which is clearly accountable in a natural way is not without reason to be ascrib'd to a Miraculous Power III. What Ancient Tradition asserts of the constitution of Nature or of the Origin and Primitive States of the World is to be allow'd for True where 't is fully agreeable to Scripture Reason and Philosophy A NEW THEORY OF THE EARTH BOOK I. LEMMATA I. ALL Bodies will persevere for ever in that state whether of Rest or Motion in which they once are if no other force or impediment act upon them or suffer by them II. All Motion is of it self rectilinear and with the same constant uniform Celerity if no other external Cause disturb it Corollary 1. 'T is evident from these two Propositions that Matter is intirely a passive Substance Coroll 2. No Spontaneous Motion or Action can be the effect of meer Matter Coroll 3. The Soul of Man whose least Power seems to be that of Spontaneous Motion is incorporeal which is also a necessary consequence of the first Corollary for if Matter be perfectly a passive Thing the Soul which is so active a Being cannot be material Coroll 4. The Bruit Creatures giving all possible Demonstrations of Spontaneous Motion and of a principle of Action cannot reasonably be suppos'd
confused fluid mass or congeries of heterogeneous Bodies suppose it were a Comets Atmosphere or any other such like irregular compositum of mingled corpuscles in its formation were subject only to an Annual motion about the Sun without any Diurnal Rotation about an Axis of its own the Figure thereof would be that of a perfect Sphere as from the uniform force of Gravity and consequent equilibration of parts on all sides is easily demonstrable But if during its Formation it had a Diurnal Rotation about an Axis of its own the Figure thereof by reason of the great velocity and consequent conatus recedendi à centro motus diminishing the force of Gravity at the Equatorial parts would be that of an oblate Sphaeroid such as an Ellipsis revolving about its lesser Axis would generate LXVIII If a Planet consisted in great measure of an Abyss or Dense Internal Fluid and a Crust or Shell of Earth plac'd on its Surface tho' the Diurnal Rotation were not begun at the Formation thereof from a Chaos and so its original figure were Sphaerical yet upon the commencing of the said Diurnal Rotation it would degenerate immediately into that of an oblate Sphaeroid and retain it afterward as well as if it had put on the same at its primary formation Corollary When therefore the greater quickness of the vibrations of the same Pendulum and the greater gravitation of Bodies near the Poles than the Equator consequent thereupon demonstrate the former Regions of the Earth to be nearer its Center than the latter and that consequently the Figure is that of an Oblate Sphaeroid 't is evident that either the Diurnal Motion commenc'd before the Orginal of its present constitution or that its internal parts are in some degree Fluid and so were pliable and alterable on the after commencing of such Diurnal Rotation And this Corollary extends equally if not more to Jupiter whose Diurnal Rotation is quicker than our Earth's and by consequence its Figure farther from Sphaerical Thus by Mr. Newton's Calculation the Diameter of the Equator of the Earth is to the Axis thereof only as 692 to 689. But in Jupiter according to the same Mr. Newton's Calculation Corrected as about 8 to 7. Which is very considerable and sensible and accordingly attested to by the concurrent observstions of Cassini and Mr. Flamsteed LXIX If such an Upper Crust or Shell of Earth on the face of the Abyss were Fix'd and Consolidated before the Diurnal Rotation thereof commenc'd it would remain intire continued and united all the time of its Sphaerical Figure or all the time it had no other than an Annual revolution But by the beginning of the Diurnal Rotation which would make the surface of the Abyss and its sustained Orb of Earth put on the Figure of the Oblate Sphaeroid before-mention'd that Upper Orb must be stretch'd chap'd and crack'd and its parts divided by perpendicular Fissures For the Periphery of an Ellipsis being larger than that of a Circle where the Area is equal and the Superficies of a Sphaeroid generated by its circumvolution consequently larger than that of a Sphere generated by the like circumvolution of the Circle which is the present case that Orb of Earth 't is plain which exactly fitted and every way enclos'd the Abyss while it was a Sphere would be too little and straight for it when it after became a Sphaeroid and must therefore suffer such Breaches and Fissures as are here express'd LXX The state of Nature in a Planet constituted as above while it had only an Annual revolution would be as follows 1. By reason of the same face of the Planet's respecting continually the same Plaga of the Heavens or the same fixt Stars and its continual parallellism to it self all the apparent revolution of the Sun must depend on the Annual Motion and a Day and a Year be all one This is evident because as a Year is truly that space in which the Sun seemingly and the Earth really performs a single revolution round the Ecliptick so a Day is truly that space in which the Sun passes or appears to pass from any certain Semi-Meridian to the same again once Which spaces of time are here the very same and so the appellations themselves Year and Day may indifferently and promiscuously be appli'd thereto 2. The course of the Sun and Planets for the fixt Stars were then Fixt indeed having neither a Real nor Seeming motion must be contrary to what it has appear'd since Their Rising being then in the West and their Setting in the East Which from the way of the present Diurnal Rotation has since as all know been quite different 3. There must be a perpetual Equinox or equality of Day and Night through the whole Planet by reason of the Sun 's describing each revolution a great Circle about the same on which alone such an equality depends 4. The Ecliptick must supply the place of an Equator also and the Torrid Temperate and Frigid Zones be almost alike dispos'd with regard to that Circle as with us they are with regard to the real Equator 5. To such as liv'd under or near the said Ecliptick the Poles of the World or Ecliptick the only ones then in Being would be at the Horizon and so not elevated or depress'd to the Inhabitants there But upon the commencing of a quicker Diurnal Rotation the same way with the Annual The case would be in all these particulars quite different For 1. By reason of the quickness of the new Diurnal in comparison of the Ancient and Continued Annual Revolution Days and Years would be intirely distinct spaces of time The Sun returning to the same Semi-Meridian very often while from one Tropick to another and so to the same again he appear'd to have compleated his longer Annual period 2. By the Diurnal Rotation of the Planet from West to East the revolution of the Sun of the other Planets and of all the Heavenly Bodies would be from East to West and they would all Rise at the former and Set at the latter part of the Horizon 3. The perpetual Equinox would be confin'd to the Equatorial parts of the Planet and all other Countries would have longer Days in Summer and shorter in Winter as now obtains in the World When only March 10 and September 12 have Day and Night equal to each other through the whole Earth 4. The Ecliptick and Equator would be intirely different the latter a Real Circle or Line on the Planet equally distant from its own proper Poles The former confin'd to the Heavens and not with respect to the Planet easily to be taken notice of The Torrid Temperate and Frigid Zones would regard the new Equator and be from it distinguish'd and dispos'd almost in the same manner as before they were from the Ecliptick and that with greater niceness and more exact boundaries 5. The Poles of the World which before were to the Inhabitants at or near the ancient Ecliptick
'T is evident at first view That the two former of these three last mention'd Phaenomena are inconsistent with the Theorist's Hypothesis and on a little Consideration 't will be so of the last also For while the Poles of the Earth or World remain in being the same as depending on the same proper Axis of the Earth's own Diurnal Revolution 't is plain the Latitude of Places on the Earth or the Elevation of the Pole equal thereto remains invariable and so that Pole which to the Inhabitants of Paradise was elevated at the least 231 2 degrees could not be at the Horizon whatever right Position the Axis of the Earth might have with respect to the Ecliptick On the same account there could even in the Theorist's own Hypothesis be no new Elevation of the one or Depression of the other Pole at the Deluge nor inclination of the Courses of the Sun and Planets towards the South All that could on the Theorist's Principles be effected besides the Earth's Equator and Poles pointing to different fix'd Stars and its Consequences was only this that whereas before the Sun was always in the Equator or middle distance from any Climate it afterwards by turns came nearer to them as we commonly tho' carelessly express it in Summer and went farther from them in Winter than before which upon the whole was no more a bent or inclination to one part of the Heavens than to the other and so of the Planets also And the case is the same as to the Poles of the Ecliptick the Northern one being as much elevated above that of the World at one hour of the Day as depress'd beneath it at another All which is I think sufficient to shew That the Testimonies of Antiquity alledg'd by the Theorist for the peopetual Equinox or the right Position of the Earth's Axis till the Deluge and the oblique Position and different Seasons then acquir'd are sufficient of themselves alone to confute his and establish the present Hypothesis 5. All things consider'd such a Position as the Theorist contends for was more likely to incommode than be useful to Mankind Taking the Matter wholly as the Theorist puts it it would prevent the Peopling of the Southern Hemisphere by the scorching heat just under the Equator without the least Intermission at any time of the Year It would render the Earth utterly unserviceable both under the Equator and Poles and in the Climates adjoyning and so streighten the Capacity of the Earth in maintaining its numerous Inhabitants which were the whole inhabitable will appear but just sufficient to contain them It would by the Perpetuation of one and the same Season continually hinder the variety of Fruits and Vegetables of every Country and many other ways spoil the setled Course of Nature and be pernicious to Mankind 6. No mechanical and rational Cause of the Mutation of the Earth's Axis either has been or I believe can be afsign'd on the Theorist's Hypothesis or any others which should embrace the same Conclusion 7. Lastly to name no more Arguments The Testimonies of Diogenes and Anaxagoras are as express almost to the Time as to this Change it self The words being exceeding remarkable are these as Plutarch himself relates them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 'T was the Doctrine both of Diogenes and Anaxagoras That after the Creation or primary Constitution of the World and the Production of Animals out of the Earth the World as it were of its own accord was bent or inclin'd towards the South And truly 't is probable this Inclination was the Effect of Providence on purpose that some Parts of the World might become habitable and others uninhabitable by reason of the difference of the frigid torrid and temperate Climates thereof Which observable and most valuable Fragment of Antiquity ought to have been before mention'd but was on purpose reserv'd for this place where it not only fully attests the matter of fact the Inclination of the Heavens towards the South not only assigns the final Cause truly enough considering the uninhabitableness of the Torrid as well as of the Frigid Zones in the Opinion of those Ages the Distribution of the Earth into certain and fix'd Zones Torrid Temperate and Frigid but so accurately and nicely specifies the time also That succeeding the Creation agreeably to the present Hypothesis that were I to wish or chuse for a Testimony fully to my mind I could scarcely have desir'd or pitch'd upon a better To these five foregoing Arguments for the proof of my main Conclusion I shall by way of supernumerary ones or Appendages add one or two more and so leave the whole to the Consideration of the Impartial Reader 6. The State of Mankind without question and perhaps that of other Animals was before the Fall vastly different from the present and consequently requir'd a proportionably different State of external Nature of which without the Hypothesis before us no Account can be given or at least has not yet by any been attempted The World as to other things seems to have been at first in great measure put into the same Condition which we still enjoy and yet Reason as well as Scripture assures us That so different a condition of things in the Animal Rational and Moral must be suited with an agreeably different one in the Natural and Corporeal World Which being consider'd and that at the same time no remarkable difference has been or perhaps can be assign'd but what the Hypothesis before us and its consequences afford us and that withal a satisfactory account of the several Particulars is deducible from the same as I hope to make appear hereafter upon the whole I think this a very considerable Attestation to what has been before insisted on 'T is indeed possible that what I look on as an advantage to others may imagine to be a prejudice against the present Hypothesis as inferring among other things a half year of Night as well as a half year of Day which may be suppos'd too disproportionate to the State and Condition of Mankind and especially too inconvenient for so happy and easy a Life as that of Mankind in Paradise undoubtedly was without any consideration of the other Creatures But it ought to be consider'd as has been already remark'd that our judging of one Scheme or System of Nature by another is very fallacious and very unreasonable Almighty God adapts each particular State to such rational and animal Beings as are on purpose design'd for the same but by no means thereby confines his Power and Providence which can with the same ease adapt other Beings or the same in other Circumstances to a very different and clean contrary Condition The Days in Jupiter are not ten hours long those in the Moon near Seventy two times as long as they or a Month yet any one who should thence conclude that either Jupiter or the Moon if not both were uncapable
passing by of the Comet or of the beginning of the Flood determin'd by the place of the Perihelion is exactly agreeable to that mention'd in the Mosaick History 'T is certain That the place of the Perihelion of the Earth's Orbit is now in the beginning of the eighth degree of Cancer And by Mr. Flamsteed's Astronomical Table of its Motion it goes forward in 4044 Years full 56 Degrees So that by going back to the time following the Deluge the Perihelion must then have been at the beginning of the 12 th Degree of Taurus It has also been before proved that the place of the Comets passing by must have been a few Degrees as five six or seven past the Perihelion that is on or near the 18 th Degree of Taurus Which in the Ancient Year beginning at the Autumnal Equinox will fall upon or near the 17 th Day of the Second Month On which very Day by the express Testimony of the Sacred Historian agreeing within a Day or two with the Corrected Testimonies of Abidenus and Berosus the Deluge began Which exactness of coincidence I look upon as so remarkable and surprizing that nothing can be more so and I need not fear to appeal to the Considering Reader if this be not the most peculiar and convincing Attestation to our Hypothesis which could easily be desir'd or in the least wish'd for That from it not only the several Phaenomena of the Deluge but the time of its commencing is so precisely determin'd also and that in the greatest Correspondence and Harmony with the Sacred History of the same thing imaginable 4. The very day of the Comets passing by or of the beginning of the Deluge determin'd from the Astronomical Tables of the Conjunctions of the Sun and Moon is exactly coincident with that before nearly determin'd by the place of the Perihelion and exactly by the Mosaick History It has been before prov'd that seeing the Moon still accompanies the Earth it must needs have been three Days past the New or Full at the passing by of the Comet It has also been before prov'd that the Flood began in the Year of the Julian Period 2365 or the 2349 th before the Christian AEra Now it appears by the Astronomical Tables of the Conjunctions of the Sun and Moon that the mean New Moon happen'd at the Meridian of Babylon just before Eleven a Clock in the Forenoon on the 24 th day of November in the Julian Year and so at Eleven a Clock on the 27 th of November 't was three days after the New Which being the 17 th day of the Second Month from the Autumnal Equinox is the very same pitched upon from the place of the Perihelion and expresly mention'd in the Sacred History And by so wonderfully corresponding therewith gives the highest Attestation to our Hypothesis that could for the completion and consummation of the foregoing Evidence be reasonably desir'd 5. The Quantity of Acceleration determin'd à priori from the force of the Comets Attraction does very well correspond with that which the present Elliptick Orbit does require Upon Calculation according to the Lemma quoted in the Margin the Velocity acquir'd by the Earth on its first change from a Circular to an Elliptick Orbit appears to have been about 1248 131250 of the intire Velocity or such as would carry it in three hours and a half 's time 1248 Miles 'T is also upon calculation evident from what has been already observ'd that in case the Comets nearest distance were a quarter of the Moons or sixty thousand Miles and it self of much the same bigness with the Earth two very probable and easie Hypotheses the time of the Comets Attraction to be solely consider'd is three hours and a half and the quantity of Velocity therein produc'd is the requisite quantity 1248 131250 of the intire Velocity or so much as carries a body 1248 Miles in the fore-mention'd space of three hours and a half And in case the Comets nearest distance were less if the Comet withal be supposed in the same proportion less also the effect will be the same and the fore-mention'd Velocity equal to what the former Calculation assign'd and the Elliptick Orbit of the Earth does exactly require Which accuracy of correspondence in the due quantity of Velocity added to the former Arguments cannot but be esteem'd a mighty Evidence for the reality of our Hypotheses All whose consequents are so surprizingly true and so fully bear Witness to one another Corollary 1. From what has been said under this Proposition we may pretty nearly determine the Constitution of the Antediluvian Year For when it consisted of three hundred and fifty five Days four Hours and nineteen Minutes and had for at least five Months together from the second to the sixth thirty Days to a Month or one hundred and fifty to five Months as we have seen it must in all probability have consisted of twelve Months The first seven whereof had thirty and the last five only twenty nine days apiece Or rather the first eleven Months had thirty and the twelfth only twenty five Days That as in the famous Egyptian Year or that of Nabonassar after the Deluge every Month had thirty Days a piece and the supernumerary five were added by themselves and stil'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so before the Deluge all the Months as near as possible had thirty days apiece also and the five deficient ones were taken from the last and might be denominated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And possibly might give occasion to that method of the before-mention'd Year in the following Ages How often the odd Hours and Minutes were intercalated and came to just even Days before the Deluge 't is not for a certain reason not here to be mention'd easie very exactly to determine nor perhaps of consequence that it should be so determined Only in general every sixth year at least one with another must be Leap-Year and have three hundred and fifty six days as every fourth is Leap-Year and has three hundred and sixty six days now among us Coroll 2 Every Antediluvian Year and Season Spring Summer Autumn and Winter began at Sunset following the Solar ingress into a Cardinal Point and the Full Moon It appears as has been before prov'd that the Autumnal Equinox preceding the Deluge happen'd on the 11 th day of October It also appears by the Astronomical Tables of the Conjunctions of the Sun and Moon that 't was Full Moon the same Day The Night succeeding which Day began the First Day of Autumn and the First Day of the Year also Which being suppos'd and that as we have prov'd the Solar Year was exactly coincident with twelve Synodical Months or the Lunar Year it must necessarily have been ever so And not only the other particular seasons but the Year it self began at the most remarkable time possible The Astronomers had a double coincidence to observe at the
living as I have done While the Earth remaineth seed-time and harvest and cold and heat and Summer and winter and day and night shall not cease And this as to the time past is abundantly confirm'd by all the Ancient History and Geography compar'd with the Modern as is in several particulars well observ'd by Dr. Woodward against the groundless opinions of some others to the contrary CHAP. V. Phaenomena relating to the General Conflagration With Conjectures pertaining to the same and to the succeeding period till the Consummation of all things XC AS the World once perished by Water so it must by Fire at the Conclusion of its present State The heavens and the earth which are now by the word of God are kept in store reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men 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 In the day of God the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with fervent heat But this is so fully attested by the unanimous consent of Sacred and Prophane Authority that I shall omit other particular Quotations and only refer the Reader where he may have more ample satisfaction SCHOLIUM Having proceeded thus far upon more certain grounds and generally allow'd Testimonies as to the most of the foregoing Phaenomena I might here break off and leave the following Conjectures to the same state of Uncertainty they have hitherto been in But being willing to comply with the Title and take in all the great and general Changes from first to last from the primigenial Chaos to the Consummation of all things Being also loth to desert my Postulatum and omit the account of those things which were most exactly agreeable to the Obvious and Literal sense of Scripture and fully consonant to Reason and Philosophy Being lastly willing however to demonstrate that tho' these most remote and difficult Texts be taken according to the greatest strictness of the Letter yet do they contain nothing but what is possible credible and rationally accountable from the most undoubted Principles of Philosophy On all these accounts I shall venture to enumerate and afterward to account for the following Conjectures In which I do not pretend to be Dogmatical and Positive nay nor to declare any firm belief of the same but shall only propose them as Conjectures and leave them to the free and impartial consideration of the Reader XCI The same Causes which will set the World on Fire will also cause great and dreadful Tides in the Seas and in the Ocean with no less Agitations Concussions and Earthquakes in the Air and Earth The Powers of Heaven shall be shaken The Lord shall roar out of Sion and utter his voice from Jerusalem and the heavens and the earth shall shake 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 XCII The mtmosphere of the Earth before the Conflagration begin will be oppress'd with Meteors Exhalations and Steams and these in so dreadful a manner in such prodigious quantities and with such wild confused Motions and Agitations That the Sun and Moon will have the most frightful and hideous countenances and their antient splendour will be intirely obscur'd The Stars will seem to fall from Heaven and all manner of Horrid Representations will terrifie the Inhabitants of the Earth I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth blood and fire and pillars of smoke The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and terrible day of the Lord come The sun shall be darkened and the Moon shall not give her light and the stars shall fall from heaven and the powers of heaven shall be shaken There shall be signs in the sun and in the moon and in the stars and upon the Earth distress of Nations with perplexity Mens hearts failing them for fear and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth XCIII The Deluge and Constagration are referr'd by ancient Tradition to great Conjunctions of the Heavenly Bodies as both depending on and happening at the same Thus Seneca expresly Berosus says he who was an Expositor of Belus affirms That these Revolutions depend on the Course of the Stars insomuch that he doubts not to assign the very times of a Conflagration and a Deluge That first mention'd when all the Stars which have now so different Courses shall be in Conjunction in Cancer All of them being so directly situate with respect to one another that the same right line will pass through them all together That last mention'd when the same company of Stars shall be in conjunction in the opposite sign Capricorn XCIV The space between the Deluge and the Conflagration or between the ancient state of the Earth and its Purgation by Fire Renovation and Restitution again is from ancient Tradition defin'd and terminated by a certain great and remarkable year or Annual Revolution of some of the Heavenly Bodies And is in probability what the Ancients so often refer'd to pretended particularly to determine and stil'd The Great or Platonick Year This year is exceeding famous in old Authors and not unreasonably apply'd to this matter by the Theorist Which it will better suit in this than it did in that Hypothesis XCV This general Conflagration is not to extend to the intire dissolution or destruction of the Earth but only to the Alteration Melioration and peculiar disposition thereof into a new state proper to receive those Saints and Martyrs for its Inhabitants who are at the first Resurrection to enter and to live and reign a thousand years upon it till the second Resurrection the general Judgment and the final consummation of all things The Heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with fervent heat Nevertheless we according to his promise look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness Behold I create new heavens and a new earth and the former shall not be remembered nor come into mind Verily I say unto you That ye which followed me in the regeneration when the Son of Man shall sit upon the throne of his glory ye also shall sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel And every one that hath forsaken houses or brethren or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my names sake shall receive an hundred fold now in this time houses and brethren and sisters and mothers and children and lands with his present persecutions and in the world to come eternal life Of old thou hast laid the foundations of the earth and the heavens are the work of
intire Bodies of all Plants and Animals 't is by no means hard to conceive that he might Create them in what degree of Maturity and Perfection he pleas'd without any manner of infringement of the Order of Nature then to be establish'd And if we have reason to believe that the Bodies of bruit Creatures were created in parvo in a small State such as we now call Seeds and so requir'd a proper Generation i. e. Nutrition and Augmentation of parts as the Mosaick History plainly describes them and had it not done so we could not with any certainty have asserted it We have sure equal reason to believe from the description of the same Author in this other case that the Bodies of our First Parents were Originally created in their Mature Bulk and State of Manhood so as immediately to be capable of the same Operations which at any time afterward they might be thought to be This Miraculous Origination of the Bodies of our First Parents is therefore very rationally ascribed to the Finger of God by Moses And we may justly believe that the Blessed Trinity as 't is represented in the Sacred History was peculiarly concern'd in the Production of that Being which was to bear the Image of God and be made capable of some degree of his Immortality And then as to the Soul of Man 't is certainly a very distinct Being from and one very much advanced above the Body and therefore if we were forc'd to introduce a Divine Power in the Formation of the latter we can do no less than that in the Creation and Infusion of the former And indeed the Dignity and Faculties of the Human Soul are so vastly exalted above all the Material or merely Animal Creation that its Original must be deriv'd from the immediate Finger of God in a manner still more peculiar and Divine than all the rest That nearer resemblance of the Spiritual Nature Immortal Condition Active Powers and Free Rational and Moral Operations of the Divine Being it self which the Souls of men were to bear about them did but require some peculiar and extraordinary Conduct in their first Existence after-Union with Matter and Introduction into the Corporeal World Agreeably whereto we may easily observe a signal distinction in the Sacred History between the formation of all other Animals and the Creation of Man In the former case 't is only said Let the waters bring forth the moving creature that hath life Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind But of the latter the entire Trinity consult And God said Let Us make man in our image after our likeness And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul. As therefore the several parts of the Mosaick Creation before-mention'd are not to be mechanically attempted but look'd upon as the effects of the Extraordinary and Miraculous Power and Providence of God so more especially the Formation of the Body of Man in its mature state and most of all the primary Creation and after-Infusion of the Rational Human Soul is to be wholly ascrib'd to the same wonderful Interposition and Efficiency of the Supreme Being the Creator of all things God blessed for evermore All which taken together and duly considered is I think a sufficient and satisfactory Account of the Proposition before us and attributes as much to the Miraculous and Immediate Hand of God as either Tradition Reason or Scripture require in the present Case III. The Days of Creation and that of Rest had their beginning in the Evening III. This has been already accounted for and need not here be repeated Corollary 1. This Phaenomenon in some measure confirms our Hypothesis that the Primitive Days of the World were Years also For otherwise the space of one single short Night seems too inconsiderable to have been taken such notice of in this History and then and ever after made the first half of the Natural Day But if it were equal to half a Year it was too considerable to be omitted and its memory was very justly preserv'd in succeeding Ages Corollary 2. We may here begin to take notice of the Regularity and Methodicalness of this History of the Creation Which tho' it principally intends the giving an account of the Visible Parts of the World and how the state of Nature in each Period appeared in the Day time yet Omits not the foregoing Night which is very Mechanical and Natural For in the preceding Night all things were so prepar'd and dispos'd that the Work of each Day might upon its appearance display it self might be exhibited not in its unseen beginnings or secret Workings not in its praevious Causes and gradual Procedure which was not the Design of this History but in that more distinct and perfect condition in which things would in the Day time appear to the view of a Spectator and under which chiefly they were to be discribed and recorded in this History IV. At the time immediately preceding the Six Days Creation the Face of the Abyss or superior Regions of the Chaos were involv'd in a Thick Darkness IV. If we consider what has been already said of the Nature of a Comet or peculiarly of that Atmosphere which has been before shewn to have been the ancient Chaos we ought to represent it to our selves as containing a Central Solid Hot Body of about 7000 or 8000 Miles in Diameter and besides that a vastly large fluid heterogeneous Mass or congeries of Bodies in a very rare seperate and expanded condition whose Diameter were twelve or perhaps fifteen times as long as that of the central Solid or about 100000 Miles which is the Atmosphere or Chaos now to be consider'd In which we must remember was contain'd both a smaller quantity of dry solid or earthy Parts with a still much smaller of Aery and Watery and a much larger quantity of dense and heavy Fluids of which the main bulk of the Atmosphere was compos'd all confusedly mix'd blended and jumbled together In which state the Theorist's First Figure excepting the omission of the Central Solid will well enough represent it and in which state we accordingly delineate it in the following Figure But upon the change of the Comet 's Orbit from Elliptical to Circular the Commencing of the Mosaick Creation and the Influence of the Divine Spirit all things would begin to take their own places and each species of Bodies rank themselves into that order which according to the law of specifick gravity were due to them By which method the Mass of dense Fluids which compos'd the main bulk of the intire Chaos being heavier than the Masses of Earth Water and Air would sink downwards with the greatest force and velocity and elevate those Masses inclosed among them upwards Which procedure must therefore distinguish the Chaos or Atmosphere into two very different and
outward Surface too small to be therein consider'd and suppose the Atmosphere somewhat clearer than before the former figure will still serve well enough and represent the progress and state of the Earth at the conclusion of this Third Day Corollary 1. When according to our present accounts of these matters this is the only day of the Creation to which a double work and that the one quite different from the other ought to be ascrib'd and is ascrib'd by Moses The Night being peculiarly fit for the former and the Day for the latter operation which could happen on none of the other Periods This exactness of correspondence ought to be esteem'd an Evidence of the literal sense of the Writer and of his accommodation to the nature of things and a very considerable confirmation of those Hypotheses on which it so naturally depends Coroll 2. Hence arises a Confirmation of what was before asserted that the Antediluvian Earth had only lesser Lakes and Seas not a vast Ocean For when the quantity of Waters belonging to the Earth and Air at first was no more than was elevated in one half year and at once sust ain'd by the Air no one will imagine it sufficient to fill the intire Ocean alone if there had been neither lesser Seas nor Rivers to be supply'd therewith And so vice versa It having been prov'd by other Arguments that there was no Ocean but only lesser Seas before the Flood This Account which affords sufficient quantity of Water for the latter but not for the former is thereby not a little confirm'd Coroll 3. Tho' the Heat and Influence of the Sun was on this Third Day very great yet was his Body not yet Visible For since at his Rising the Earth and lowest Regions of the Air were very full of moisture while the higher Regions were very clear and bright the force of his heat would be so great as to elevate considerable quantities of Vapours on a sudden and thereby e're the lowest Air had deposited its Vapours and rendred it self transparent the Sun would anew hide himself in a thick Mist and so prevent his own becoming conspicuous which otherwise 't is not improbable he might this Day have been VIII The Fourth Day 's Work was the Placing the Heavenly Bodies Sun Moon and Stars in the Expansam or Firmament i. e. The rendring them Visible and Conspicuous on the Face of the Earth Together with their several Assignations to their respective Offices there VIII Altho' the Light of the Sun penetrated the Atmosphere in some sort the first Day and in the succeeding ones had very considerable influence upon it yet is it by no means to be suppos'd that his Body was Visible all that while Tho' we every day enjoy much more Light and Heat from the Sun than the Primitive Earth could for a considerable space be suppos'd to have done yet 't is but sometimes that the Air is so clear as to render his Body discernible by us A very few Clouds or Vapours gather'd together in our Air are able we see to hinder such a prospect for Weeks if not Months together while yet at the same time we are sufficiently sensible of his Force and Influence in the constant productions of Nature Which things being duly consider'd and the vastness and density of the Upper Chaos allow'd for 't will be but reasonable to afford a great space even after the first penetration of Light for the intire clearing of the Atmosphere and the distinct view of the Sun's Body by a Spectator on the Surface of the Earth I suppose no one will think the two first Days or Years of the' Creation too long for such a work or if any one does the particular work and state of the Atmosphere on the second Day will prevent the most probable part of such a surmise and shew the impossibility of the Sun's Appearance at that time And the same reason will in a sufficient tho a less degree prevent any just Expectations on the third Day as was observ'd in the last Corollary But now upon the coming on of this fourth Day and the Sun's descent and abode below the Horizon for an intire half year those Vapours which were rais'd the day before must fall downwards and so before the approach of the Morning leave the Air in the greatest clearness and purity imaginable and permit the Moon first then the Stars and afterward upon the coming on of the Day the Sun himself most plainly to appear and be conspicuous on the Face of the Earth This fourth Day is therefore the very time when acording to this Account and the Sacred History both these Heavenly Bodies which were in being before but so as to be wholly Strangers to a Spectator on Earth were rendred visible and expos'd to the view of all who should be suppos'd to be there at the same time They now were in the Sacred Stile placed in the Firmament of Heaven gave Light upon the Earth began to rule plainly and visibly over the Day and over the Night and to divide the Light from the Darkness as ever since they have continued to do And now the inanimate World or the Earth Air Seas and all their Vegetable Productions are compleat and the Tradition of those Chineses who inhabit Formosa and other Islands appears well-grounded and exactly true who hold That the World when first created was without Form or Shape but by one of their Deities was brought to its full Perfection in four Years Which Progress of the Creation and State of Nature is exactly represented by the Theorist's fifth and last Figure which therefore here follows IX The fifth Day 's Work was the Production of the Fish and Fowl out of the Waters with the Benediction bestow'd on them in order to their Propagation IX The Terraqueous Globe being now become habitable both to the swimming and volatil Animals and the Air clear and so penetrable by that compleat Heat of the Sun which was requisite to the Generation of such Creatures 't is a very proper time for their Introduction Which was accordingly done upon this fifth Day or Year of the Creation Those Seeds or little Bodies of Fish and Fowl which were contain'd in the Water or moist fruitful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of kin to it were now expos'd to the kindly warmth of the Sun and the constant supply of a most gentle and equal Heat from beneath they were neither disturbed by the sudden alteration of the Temperature of the Air from the violence of Winds or by the Agitations of the Tide which was both very small in these small Seas and by reason of the absence of the Diurnal Rotation imperceptibly easy gentle and gradual these Seeds I say when invigorated with the Divine Benediction became now prolifick and in this fifth Day 's time a numerous Off-spring of the swimming and volatil Kinds arose whereby the two fluid Elements Water and Air became
present as the case was of the Dry-land Animals because the latter being universally destroy'd those in the Ark alone excepted were to begin their Propagation anew but the former not being so did but increase their still numerous Individuals and must thereby soon recover and surpass their former Multitude as will easily be allow'd on a little consideration of this Matter Corollary Hence arises a strong Confirmation of what is on other grounds already asserted That there were only smaller Lakes and Seas but no great Ocean before the Deluge For since it appears by this Phaenomenon that the Waters of the Antediluvian Earth were much more replenish'd nay crouded with Fish than now they are and since there was no general Destruction of them as there was of Dry-land Animals at the Deluge had there been as great a Compass or as vast an Ocean for their Reception then as at present there is the numbers now in every part of the Ocean or Seas ought to be vastly greater than they then were an being all the Off-spring of those which every where surviv'd the Deluge and which have propagated themselves for more than four thousand Years since the same which being disagreeable to the Observations referr'd to in this Phaenomenon is little less than a Demonstration of the falshood of that Hypothesis on which 't is built or a full Attestation to our Assertion that there were only smaller Lakes and Seas but no great Ocean before the Deluge XXXV The Antediluvian Earth was much more fruitful than the present and the multitude of its vegetable Productions much greater XXXV Before I come directly to solve this and the following Propositions I must premise that 't is usually unreasonable to ask why such Phaenomena belong'd to the Antediluvian World They being commonly but the natural and regular Properties of an Original Earth newly form'd out of a Chaos such as one should rationally expect in a World newly come out of the Hands of its Creator and fitted for the Convenience and Fruition of noble Creatures such as the generality of our fellow Planets especially our next Neighbour the Moon as far as we can observe appear to have had at first and hitherto retain'd All that can in reason be desir'd is this To give a plain and intelligible Account of those opposite Phaenomena of the Earth which we now are sensible of and by what means the Deluge could occasion the same Which therefore shall be frequently the business of the succeeding Solutions And as to the present case the decrease of the Fertility of the Earth at the Deluge these Causes are assignable 1. The decrease of the Sun's Heat by the greater distance of the Earth from him since than before the Deluge It has been before prov'd that till the Deluge the Earth's Orbit was Circular and the Radius of that Circle very little longer than the nearest distance at the Perihelion now So that when the Heat of the Sun is as the density of his Rays or reciprocally as the Squares of the Earth's distance from him If instead of the present Ellipsis we take for Calculations sake as we ought a Circle in the middle between the nearest and farthest distance we shall find that the Sun's Heat on the Earth in general before the Deluge was to its present Heat as almost a hundred to ninety six or a twenty fifth part of his intire Heat greater before than since the same which is by no means inconsiderable in the Case before us 2. The Heat of the Central Body was considerably damp'd and obstructed both by the Waters of the Deluge themselves acquir'd from abroad and now contain'd in the Pores and Caverns of the Earth under us and by that Sediment of them which now composes that upper Crust of Earth we dwell upon and which being setled and consolidated on the Superficies of the Ancient Earth would prove a great hindrance to the ascending Steams not to be overcome but by degrees and in length of time afterwards From both which Causes very a notable Damp would be put to the Influence of the Central Heat on which as well as on the Sun 's the Fertility of every Soil does in part depend 3. The upper Earth or fruitful Soil it self the main Fund and Promptuary of the vegetable Kingdom is now very inconsiderable in quantity if compar'd with that of the Primitive or Antediluvian Earth For when this last mention'd was the intire product of the Ancient Chaos at the original Formation of the Earth and the first what only was afforded from a small part of such a Chaos the Comet 's Atmosphere and by the Storms born off the Tops of Mountains at the Deluge while the old Soil lies buried under the Sediment or Crust on which we live 't is no wonder that our fertile Stratum is now thinner spread and so the Productions less copious in the present than they were in the Antediluvian State of Things And this tho' we suppose the Soil from the Comet or from the Tops of the Mountains to be as good in it self and to have remain'd as pure and unmix'd with any heterogeneous Matter in this confusion of things at the Deluge as it would at the regular Formation of the Earth at first which yet is by no means supposable and the contrary to which being allow'd for will still farther afford us a reason of the present Assertion So that since the present Soil is both much worse in Quality and much less in Quantity than the old one and since the Heat whether of the Sun or Central Solid is so much lessen'd at the Deluge which things include the main Causes of Fertility 't is no wonder that the present Earth is nothing near so fruitful and luxuriant in her Productions as the Autediluvian was XXXVI The Temperature of the Antediluvian Air was more equable as to its different Climates and its different Seasons without such excessive and sudden Heat and Cold without the scorching of a Torrid Zone and of burning Summers or the freezing of the Frigid Zones and of piercing Winters and without such sudden and violent Changes in the Climates or Seasons from one extreme to another as the present Air to our Sorrow is subject to XXXVI Seeing the primary State here mention'd is but a proper result from the first Formation of the Earth all that need be accounted for is the Alteration at the Deluge 1. The mighty difference of Climates especially of the Torrid and Frigid Zones is I suppose owing not wholly to the Sun's Heat or the Nature of the Air it self but partly to those Calorifick and Frigorifick Mixtures which are uncertainly contain'd therein Meer Heat and Cold are very different things from that Pothery and Sultry that Frosty and Congealing Weather which alternately in Summer and Winter at the Line and the Poles we usually now feel These Effects seem plainly deriv'd from Nitrous or sulphureous or other the like Steams exhaled into mixed with and sustained by
that thick and gross Atmosphere which now encompasses the Earth All which I mean as well the gross Atmosphere it self as those its Heterogeneous Mixtures are a very natural Off-spring of the Deluge according to the present Account thereof For seeing we at that time pass'd clear through the Chaotick Atmosphere of a Comet and through the Tail deriv'd from it we must needs bear off and acquire vast quantities of such heterogeneous and indigested Masses as our Air now contains in it whence those Effects here mention'd would naturally proceed 'T is probable the original Air was too pure rare and thin to sustain any gross and earthy Particles tho' they had been left in it at the first and so its Heat both for kind and degree was no other than the proper Place and Influence of the Sun could require And 't was then sure more uniform through the several Climates of the Earth than now it is when our Air in the Torrid Zone being full of Sulphureous and Sultry and in the Frigid ones of Nitrous and Freezing Effluvia or Exhalations the violence of an unkindly in Heat the one and of the like unkindly Cold in the other are so sensible and so pernicious as all experience attests them now to be 2. The uncertainty of our Seasons with the sudden and unexpected changes in the Temper of our Air are on the same accounts equally visible with the former For the Temper of the Air since the Deluge especially with regard to our Sensations not resulting from the external Heat only but from the Kinds and Quantities of its heterogeneous and adventitious Mixtures will not now depend on the Season of the Year alone but on the veering of the Wind and its uncertain removal of the Air and its Steams from one Region to another Thus if in Summer the North Wind chance to blow any long time together 't will bring along with the Air so great quantities of the Cold Freezing Nitrous Steams as may quite overcome the Sun's Heat and cause a very cold Season of a sudden if the South Wind do the like in the Winter the contrary Effect will follow and we shall have a warm Season when Frost and Snow were more naturally to be expected Thus accordingly frequent experience shews the Sun to be so little master of the Seasons of the Year that sometimes January and July for several Days are hardly distinguishable It sometimes happens that we have this Day a Frost the next proves so warm that the former Cold is forgotten till perhaps the succeeding Night puts us more affectingly in mind of it again Nay in a very few Hours space a sultry and a freezing Air not seldom do succeed each other to the great harm and misery of Mankind and of all their fellow Animals in our present State from which therefore we have good reason to believe our happier Progenitors before the Deluge were intirely free 3. That our Seasons are so extream in their several Kinds is easy to be hence accounted for also For were there no sulphureous or calorifick Steams in the Air all pothery and sultry Weather and such sort of Heat as chiefly affects our Bodies would be quite avoided and the great increase thereof after the Summer Solstice which arises 't is probable in part from the Airs retention of one days Heat till the next augments it again would in good measure cease among us And the like is to be said of the Cold in Winter in all the respects before-mention'd The original of all which Effects being so easily deducible from the present Account of the Deluge 't is no question but the Antediluvians might to their comfort be wholly Strangers to them Their Climates were not of so very different Temper their Seasons leisurely and gradual intirely following the Solar Course And their Summers and Winters not so mighty different at the most in the single Proportion of the Sun's Presence or Absence Direct or Oblique Situation In this equable State the Polar Inhabitants might with little danger cut the Line and the Ethiopians visit the Frigid Zones In this condition of the World the peculiar Air of every Country went not far from home to disturb that of others A few Days never made any sensible Alteration in the temperature of the Air and all that an intire Spring or Autumn could do would still leave the same pretty equable to be sure very tolerable On all which and several other consequential Accounts we have but too much reason to envy the Ancient Happiness of our Forefathers and to be sensible of that fatal and destructive Catastrophe which the wickedness of Mankind brought upon themselves and all their Posterity to this very Day at the Deluge we are now speaking of XXXVII The Constitution of the Antediluvian Air was Thin Pure Subtile and Homogeneous without such gross Steams Exhalations Nitrosulphureous or other Heterogeneous Mixtures as occasion Coruscations Meteors Thunder Lightning with Contagious and Pestilential Infections in our present Air and have so very pernicious and fatal tho' almost insensible Effects in the World since the Deluge XXXVII The consideration of the foregoing Solution is sufficient to clear the present Phaenomenon also to which therefore the Reader is referr'd XXXVIII The Antediluvian Air had no large gross Masses of Vapours or Clouds hanging for long seasons in the same It had no great round drops of Rain descending in multitudes together which we call Showers But the Ground was watered by gentle Mists or Vapours ascending in the Day and descending in great measure again in the succeeding Night XXXVIII This is also easily understood from what has been already said So rare thin pure and subtile an Air as the Antediluvian was would scarce sustain such gross and heavy Masses as the Clouds are It would not precipitate the superior Vapours upon the inferior in such quantities and with such violence as is necessary to the Production of great round sensible Drops of Rain It had no gross Steams to retain Heat after the cause of it was gone and the Sun set and so the Vapours which were rais'd in the Day would descend again in the Night with the greatest regularity and gentleness In all which respects the different Nature Crassitude and irregular Composition of our present gross Atmosphere acquir'd at the Deluge from the Comet 's in which such Opake Masses as the Clouds are frequently to be observ'd must naturally admit and require those contrary Effects which the present Proposition takes notice of and were to be here accounted for XXXIX The Antediluvian Air was free from violent Winds Storms and Agitations with all their Effects on the Earth and Seas which we cannot but now be sufficiently sensible of XXXIX These Phaenomena are such proper consequents of a Primitive Formation and the original of those opposite ones ever since the Deluge so naturally thence to be deriv'd that there is no reason to imagine them to have been before A Comet 's Atmosphere is
a very stormy Fluid wherein Masses of Opake Matter are continually hurried about all manner of ways in a very uncertain and violent manner Seeing therefore we acquir'd at the Deluge so great a quantity of the same Atmosphere of which ours is now in part compos'd 't is impossible to expect any other State of things than such as this Phaenomenon mentions and was to be here accounted for Corollary Hence it appears That the Wind of the Day of which Moses makes mention at the Fall of Man was not a constant Phaenomenon of the Earth but peculiar to that time And this is very agreeable to the Hypothesis before laid down of the commencement of the Diurnal Rotation at the very Day here mention'd according to which a Wind must necessarily arise at that point of Time tho' there were none before or after till the Deluge On that beginning of the Diurnal Rotation 1. The Equatorial Regions would be elevated the Polar depress'd the Orb of Earth would be chap'd and broken and warm Steams burst out at the Fissures thereby produc'd all which could scarce happen without some Agitation of the Air. But 2. What is more certain and more considerable when the Terraqueous Globe began on a sudden to revolve from West to East the Air could not presently accompany it and so must cause a Wind from East to West till receiving by degrees the Impression it kept at last equal pace therewith and resting respectively caused a constant Calm afterwards Which Wind being therefore from the Earth's Velocity there greatest towards the Equator and Tropicks near the latter of which was the place of Paradise would be considerable enough especially in a state otherwise still and calm to be taken notice of by the Sacred History and be a kind of Relick or Footstep of the then Commencement of that Diurnal Rotation which is so necessary to account for it and has been from other Arguments already prov'd in its proper place XL. The Autediluvian Air had no Rain-bow as the present so frequently has XL. This is easily accountable from what has been already said For 1. The descent of the Vapours necessary to it was usually if not only in the Night when the absence of the Sun rendred its appearance impossible 2. The descending Vapours compos'd only a gentle Mist not sensible round Drops of Rain as we have before seen on which yet the Rain-bow entirely depends as those who understand the Nature and Generation thereof will easily confess So that tho' the Sun were above the Horizon at the fall of the Vapours the appearance of the Rainbow was not to be expected 3. Were the Vapours that fell compos'd of sensible round Drops and fell in the day-time and this in sufficient Quantities yet for want of a Wind which might drive them together on one side and thereby clear the Air on the other for the free admission of the Rays of Light a Rain-bow were seldom or never to be suppos'd before the Deluge all which circumstances being now quite otherwise give us clear reasons for the present frequent appearance of that beautiful and remarkable Phaenomenon tho' till the Deluge it was a perfect Stranger to the World XLI The Antediluvians might only eat Vegetables but the Use of Flesh after the Flood was freely allow'd also XLI That a State of Nature as to the Air Earth Fruits and other circumstances so very different from ours at present should require a suitable difference in the Food and Sustenance of Mankind is very reasonable to believe But besides 1. When the Lives of Animals were naturally so long as in correspondence to Mankind is fairly to be suppos'd before the Deluge 't is not improbable that God Almighty would not permit them to be taken away on any other occasion than that of Sacrifice or Oblation to himself 2. Perhaps in the tender and even Condition of the Antediluvians the eating of Flesh would have spoil'd their Tempers and shortened their Lives such Food being I suppose fitter for our gross and short-liv'd State since the Flood than that refin'd and lasting one before it 3. Perhaps the Antediluvian Vegetables were more juicy nourishing and wholsome not only than Flesh but than themselves have since been which the better and more fertile Soil out of which they grew then gives some reason to conjecture And whether they had not then some Vegetables which we have not now may deserve the consideration of such as search after their remains in the Bowels of the Earth The same care of the Vegetable as of the Animal-Kingdom not appearing in the Sacred History relating to the Deluge However 4. If we observe that even at this day the warm Seasons and Countries are less dispos'd to the eating of Flesh than the cold ones and remember that the Antediluvian Air was in some degree warmer than the present we shall not be wholly to seek for a particular reason of this Phoenomenon XLII The Lives of the Antediluvians were more universally equal and vastly longer than ours now are Men before the Flood frequently approaching near to a thousand which almost none now do to a hundred years of Age. XLII Tho' several other things might here deserve to be consider'd yet I shall only insist upon the difference between the Antediluvian Air and that since the Flood to give an account of this Proposition The consideration of the Pure Unmixed Equable and Gentle Constitution of the former compar'd with the Gross Thick Hetorogeneous Mutable and Violent Condition of the latter of it self affording a sufficient Solution of this difficulty That Air which is drawn in every breath whose included Particles 't is probable insinuate themselves continually into our Blood and the other Fluids of our Bodies and on which all experience shews humane Life and Health exceedingly to depend being at the Deluge chang'd from a Rare and Thin to a Thick and Gross Consistence from an equability or gradual and gentle warmth and coolness of Temperature to extremity of Heat and Cold and that with the most sudden and irregular steps from one to another from True and Pure Air or an Homogeneous Elastical Fluid to a mix'd and confused Compositum or Atmosphere wherein all sorts of Effluvia Sulphureous Nitrous Mineral and Metallick c. are contain'd Which circumstances if there were no other will I imagine give a satisfactory account of the mighty difference as to the point of Longaevity between the Antediluvians and those which ever since have dwelt on the Face of the Earth We may obtain some small and partial resemblance of it in a person who had liv'd many years upon the top of a high Mountain above the Clouds and Steams of our Earth and whose temperament of Body was peculiarly dispos'd for so Pure Thin and Undisturb'd an AEther as there he enjoy'd and afterward were confin'd to the most Foggy Marshy and Stinking part of the Hundreds in Essex or of the Boggs in Ireland What Effect in Point
as Rains constantly now are but from some other Superior and Coelestial Original XLVI This is already evident from what has been just now said The source of all these Rains being one of those Superior or Coelestial Bodies which we call Comets or more peculiarly the Atmosphere and Tail thereof XLVII This vast Fall of Waters or forty Days Rain began on the fifth day of the Week or Thursday the twenty seventh day of November being the seventeenth day of the second Month from the Autumnal Equinox corresponding this Year 1696. to the twenty eighth day of October XLVII This has been already explain'd in effect in the Hypothesis hereto relating where it was prov'd that a Comet on that very day here nam'd pass'd by the Earth and by consequence began those Rains which for the succeeding forty days space continued without any Interruption XLVIII The other main cause of the Deluge was the breaking up the Fountains of the great Abyss or causing such Chaps and Fissures in the upper Earth as might permit the Waters contain'd in the Bowels of it when violently press'd and squeez'd upwards to ascend and so add to the quantity of those which the Rains produced XLVIII This has in part been explain'd in the Lemmata hereto relating and will be more fully understood from the Figure there also refer'd to For Let adbc represent the Earth moving along the Ecliptick GH from G towards H. 'T is evident that the Figure of the Earth before the approach of the Comet as far as 't is here concern'd was Sphaerical But now let us suppose the Comet bi Dh as it was descending towards its Perihelion along its Trajectory EF from E towards F to approach very near and arrive at the nearest Position represented in the Figure 'T is evident that this presence of the Comet would cause a double Tide as well in the Seas above as in the Abyss below the former of which being less considerable in it self and not to our present purpose need not be taken any farther notice of But the latter would be vastly great suppose seven or eight Miles high above its former Position would produce mighty Effects on the Orb above it and so deserves a nicer consideration in this place As soon therefore as the Comet came pretty near as suppose within the Moon 's distance this double Tide would begin to rise and increase all the time of its approach till the Comet was nearest of all as in the Figure And then these Tides or double Protuberances of the Abyss would be at their utmost height So that the Surface of the Abyss and of its incumbent Orb of Earth would put on that Elliptick or rather truly and exactly Oval Figure under which 't is here represented Now 't is certain that this Sphoeroid Surface of the Abyss is larger than its former Sphoerical one 't is also certain that the Orb of Earth which rested on this Abyss must be oblig'd to follow its Figure and accommodate it self to this large Oval which being impossible for it to do while it remain'd Solid continued and conjoyn'd it must of necessity enlarge it self and by the violent force of the encreasing Surface of the Abyss be stretch'd crack'd broken and have innumerable Fissures made quite through it from the upper to the under Surface thereof nearly perpendicular to the same Surfaces So that this Orb of Earth which originally in its primary formation was Sphaerical its inward Compages or Strata even conjoin'd and continual which had afterward at the commencing of the Diurnal Rotation been chang'd into an Oblate Sphoeroid and at the same time been thereby broken chap'd and disjointed by that time its wounds had been well healed and it was in some measure setled and fix'd in such a condition receiv'd this new Disruption at the Deluge It s old Fissures were open'd and the Fountains of the Abyss most Naturally and Emphatically so stil'd according to Dr. Woodward's Account of the Origin of Fountains broken up and sufficient Gaps made for a Communication between the Abyss below and the Surface of the Earth above the same if any occasion should be given for the Ascent of the former or Descent of any thing from the latter And here 't is to be noted that these Chaps and Fissures tho' they were never so many or so open could not of themselves raise any Subterraneous Waters nor contribute one jot to the drowning of the Earth The Upper Orb was long ago setled and sunk as far into the Abyss as the Law of Hydrostaticks requir'd and whether 't were intire or broken would cause no new pressure and no more than maintain its prior situation on the Face of the Deep These Fissures had been at least as open and extended in their Original Generation when the Diurnal Rotation began as at this time and yet was there no danger of a Deluge So that tho' this breaking up of the Fountains of the Deep was a prerequisite condition and absolutely necessary to the Ascent of the Subterraneous Waters yet was it not the proper and direct cause or efficient thereof That is to be deriv'd from another original and is as follows As soon as the presence of the Comet had produc'd those vast Tides or double elevation and depression of the Abyss and thereby disjointed the Earth and caus'd the before-mentiond patent holes or breaches quite through the Body of it the Fall of Waters began and quickly cover'd the Earth and crouded the Air with vast quantities there of Which Waters being adventitious or additional ones and of a prodigious weight withal must press downward with a mighty force and endeavour to sink the Orb of Earth deeper into the Abyss according as the intire weight of each column of Earth and its incumbent Waters together agreeably to the Law of Hydrostaticks did now require And had the Earth as it was in its first subsiding into the Abyss been loose separate and unfix'd so as to admit the Abyss between its parts and suffer a gentle subsidence of the Columns of Earth in the requisite proportion we could scarce have expected any Elevation of the Subterraneous Waters But the Strata of the Earth were long ago setled fastened and consolidated together and so could not admit of such a farther immersion into the fluid On which account the new and vast pressure of the Orb of Earth upon the Abyss would certainly force it upward or any way wheresoever there were a passage for it To which therefore the Breaches Holes and Fissures so newly generated or rather open'd afresh by the violence of the Tides in the Abyss beneath would be very ready and natural Outlets through which it would Ascend with a mighty force and carry up before it whatever was in its way whether Fluid or Solid whether 't were Earth or Water And seeing as we before saw the Lower Regions of the Earth were full of Water pervading and replenishing the Pores
from the same that is as will hereafter appear pretty near the Point b or somewhat below it towards c Which Mountain Caucasus was directly expos'd therefore to the Comet at its nearest distance represented in the Figure When the Comet therefore was moving from E to F so soon as the Earth came within its Atmosphere and Tail a Cylindrical Column of Vapours would be intercepted and bore off by the Earth in its passage whose Basis were somewhat larger than a great Circle on the Earth and whose Direction or Axis from the compound Motion of the Comet and of the Earth were at about 45 degrees of Inclination with the Ecliptick or parallel to cd the lesser Axis of the Earth That is the first fall of the Vapours would affect one Hemisphere of the Earth at a time that namely which were properly expos'd to their descent and the other would be not at all affected therewith till the Earth's Diurnal Rotation by degrees expos'd the other parts in like manner and brought every one at last within the verge of that Hemisphere on which was the first and most violent descent of the Vapours Now this Hemisphere would be represented in the Figure by a d b and the opposite one which intirely escap'd at the same time by a c b. So that seeing the Ark or Mount Caucasus was below the Point b and by the Diurnal Rotation quickly got farther within the fair Hemisphere it would remain in the same during all the time of this first violent Fall of the Waters and have a calm and quiet day for the entry into the Ark while the other Regions of the Globe were subject to so violent a Storm and such fury of descending Vapours as no Age past or future had been or were to be exposed to This place could only be capable of some falling Vapours three or four hours after Sun-set in case the Earth were not at that time got clear of the Tail of the Comet in which it had been all the preceding day And consequently Noah had as fair and calm a time of entring into the Ark with all his Family and the other Animals as could be desir'd when no other parts of the Globe but those agreeing in such a peculiar situation with him could have permitted the same Which is I think not a meer Satisfactory but a very Surprizing account of the present Proposition Corollary 1. Hence the time of the breaking open of the Fountains of the Deep and of the beginning of the Rains very nearly coincident therewith is determin'd and that agreeably to the Mosaick History much nearer than to a Day with which exactness we have hitherto contented our selves in the case And indeed almost to an Hour For seeing all the Fountains of the great Deep were broken up on this day seeing the forty days Rain began on the same day seeing Noah with all his Family and all the other Creatures entred on this self-same day into the Ark all which certainly require very near an intire day and yet seem very incompatible there is no other way but to assert that tho' the breaking up of the Fountains of the Great Deep and the Fall of the Waters were coincident and upon the same day with the Entry into the Ark as the Text most expresly asserts yet the place where the Ark was escap'd the effects of the same till the Evening and while the rest of the Earth was abiding the fury of the same enjoy'd so calm fair and undisturb'd a day as permitted their regular and orderly going into the Ark before the Waters overtook them So that the Deluge must according to the Sacred History have commenc'd in the Morning and yet not reach'd the particular place where Noah was till the Evening or the coming on of the ensuing Night Which how exactly the present Hypothesis is correspondent to I shall leave the Reader to judge from what has been said under this last Proposition according to which 't is plain that the Comet pass'd by the Earth broke up the Fountains of the Deep and began the forty days Rains after Sun-rising about Eight or Nine a Clock in the Morning from which time till Eight or Nine a Clock at Night and long after Sun-set tho' the Waters fell with the greatest violence on the Earth yet they affected a single Hemisphere at a time only into which the Diurnal Rotation did not all that while convert the Regions near the Ark and this most nicely and wonderfully corresponds to the greatest accuracy of the present case and of the Mosaick History So that now we may agreeably both to the Sacred History and the Calculations from the present Hypothesis assert that the Deluge began at the Meridian of Mount Caucasus on Thursday the twenty seventh day of November in the year of the Julian Period 2365 between Eight and Nine a Clock in the Morning Which exactness of Solution wherein not only the Day but almost Hour assign'd from the Mosaick History is correspondent to the present Hypothesis how remarkable an Attestation it is to the same and how full a confirmation of the most accurate Verity of the Mosaick History I need not remark Such reflections when Just being very Natural with every careful Reader Corollary 2. Here is an instance of the peculiar Providence of God in the Preservation of the Ark by ordering the Situation so as to escape the Violence of the thick Vapours in their first precipitate fall which otherwise must probably have dash'd it to pieces For considering their Velocity of Motion which indeed was incredible no less than eight hundred Miles in the space of a Minute 't is not easy to suppose that any Building could sustain and preserve it self under the violence thereof which we see the Ark by the peculiar place of its Situation twenty or twenty five degrees North-East from the Center of our Northern Continent was wonderfully secured from while the other Regions of the Earth were exposed thereto and in great measure 't is probable destroy'd thereby Coroll 3. Hence 't is evident That the place of the Ark before assign'd at Mount Caucasus was its true one and not any Mountain in or near Armenia For had it been there seated it had been expos'd to the violence of the falling Vapours and instead of a quiet entry into the Ark on this first day of the Deluge the Ark it self with all the Creatures that were to be preserv'd in it would have utterly perish'd in the very beginning thereof Coroll 4. Hence the reason may easily be given why the History of the Deluge takes no notice of this passing by of the Comet viz. because none of those who surviv'd the Deluge could see or perceive the same For at the time of the approach of the Comet at first both the latter end of the Night-season when all were asleep and the Mists which according to the Nature of the Antediluvian Air were probably then upon the Earth and obscur'd
the Ancient Earth in greater quantities than usual and so might by a violent Rarefaction or Explosion burst through the Upper Crust and cause all those Fissures little Hills Caverns Grotto's and Inequalities which Dr. Woodwards Observations require and this Proposition takes notice of In this case therefore the particular and distinct consideration of the Phaenomena must determine and arbitrate between the former more natural and gentle and this latter more violent and extraordinary method of accounting for the present face of Nature upon and within the Earth LXXIX Great numbers of Trees and other Vegetables were also at this subsidence of the Mass aforesaid buried in the Bowels of the Earth And such very often as will not grow in the places where they are lodg'd Many of which are pretty intire and perfect and to be distinctly seen and consider'd to this very day LXXIX Seeing the latter part of the Deluge after the seventeenth day of the seventh Month or the twenty seventh day of March with us at present was very Windy Stormy and Tempestuous the most Extant and Mountainous parts of the Earth would be mightily expos'd to the fury both of the Winds and Waves Which consequently would tear up or wash away the loose and unsolid Upper Earth with all its Furniture of Trees and Plants and not seldom carry them great distances from their former Seats Now these Vegetables if no Earthy Metallick or Mineral Masses adher'd to them being bulk for bulk lighter than the Earthy Sediment would settle down last of all and would lye upon the Surface of the Earth and there rot away and disappear But if considerable quantities of the heaviest Strata or of Metallick or Mineral Matter as would sometimes happen adher'd to them they would sink lower and be inclosed in the Bowels of the Earth either near to or far from the place of their own growth according as the Billows and Storms happen'd to dispose of them All which Changes and Dislocations of the Soil and Surface with their Fruits and Plants might leave once Fertile Countries Bare and Barren and lodge such Vegetables in others which of themselves before the new Sediment much more since the same were wholly incapable of such productions according to the exigency of the Proposition before us LXXX It appears from all the tokens and circumstances which are still observable about them That all these Vegetables were torn away from their ancient Seats in the Spring time in or about the Month of May. LXXX When we have already prov'd that the Windy and Stormy Weather which tore up these Vegetables did not begin till the seventeenth day of the seventh Month from the Autumnal Equinox answering to our March the twenty seventh now and when it appears that the higher any Mountain or Continent was the less while and in a less degree would the Waters prevail upon it and so little sometimes as not wholly to destroy the growing Vegetables at this due time of the Year 't is evident that whether the Sediment were newly setled and had enclos'd them or not so many as were torn up from these highest parts of the Earth must be in that forwardness as the Months succeeding the beginning of the Storms April May and June usually bring them to very agreeably to the Proposition before us And that we have rightly suppos'd these Fossil Plants to have been such as grew on the elevated parts of the Earth only how far distant soever the fury of the Waves and Storms may have lodg'd them and so to have been torn up by the Storms in the assigned manner appears both by the heaps in which they are frequently found crouded together and by the kinds of Plants thus buried in the Earth Of which latter tho' his opinion according to his own Hypothesis be that all sorts were originally lodg'd in the Earth tho' some be since perish'd Dr. Woodward's words are in his kind and free Letter in answer to my Queries about them The Fossil Plants are very numerous and various and some of them intire and well preserv'd I have met with many of the same Species with those now growing on our Hills Woods Meadows Heaths c. But none of the Water-Plants I mean such as are peculiar to Lakes Rivers and the Sea Which Testimony is a peculiar Confirmation of the present Hypothesis Corollary Hence the Ancient Years beginning at the Autumnal Equinox and the consequent commencing of the Deluge the seventeenth Day of the second Month from thence and from the Spring is evidenc'd by this very Observation which Dr. Woodward the Author thereof supposes wou'd prove the contrary So that the time of the Deluge's commencing assign'd by our Hypothesis appears at last to be confirm'd both by the Scriptures by the Ancients by Astronomy by Geography and by Natural Observation and is consequently by so very remarkable a Concurrence and Correspondence of 'em all put beyond any reasonable Doubt or Scruple LXXXI All the Metals and Minerals among the Strata of our upper Earth owe their present Frame and Order to the Deluge being repos'd therein during the time of the Waters covering the Earth or during the Subsidence of the before-mention'd Mass. LXXXI This can have no difficulty in it seeing our upper Earth is factitious and compos'd of the foresaid Sediment of the Waters of the Deluge which including the Corpuscles of Metals and Minerals as well as others wou'd alike afford every one those places which they have ever since possess'd LXXXII These Metals and Minerals appear differently in the Earth according to the different manners of their first Lodgment For sometimes they are in loose and small Particles uncertainly inclos'd among such Masses as they chanc'd to fall down withall At other times some of their Corpuscles happening to occur and meet together affix'd to each other and several convening aniting and combining into one Mass form'd those Metallick and Mineral Balls or Nodules which are now found in the Earth And according as the Corpuscles chanc'd to be all of a kind or otherwise so the Masses were more or less simple pure and homogeneous And according as other Bodies Bones Teeth Shells of Fish or the like happen'd to come in their way these Metallick and Mineral Corpuscles assix'd to and became conjoyn'd with 'em either within where it was possible in their Hollows and Interstices or without on their Surface and Outsides filling the one or covering the other And all this in different Degrees and Proportions according to the different Circumstances of each individual Case LXXXII All these things are but proper Effects of such a common Subsidence of all these Masses and Corpuscles together in the Chaotick Sediment as is above-mention'd And no longer or more particular Account is necessary or can be satisfactory till Dr. Woodwards larger Work which we in time hope for affords us the Observations more nicely and particularly than we yet have them To which therefore the Inquisitive Reader must be
probable also which is I think abundantly sufficient to clear this Matter LXXXIX Since the Deluge there neither has been nor will be any great and general Changes in the State of the World till the time when a Period is to be put to the present Course of Nature LXXXIX Seeing we know no other Natural Causes that can produce any great and general Changes in our Sublunary World but such Bodies as can approach to the Earth or in other Words but Comets and seeing withal the next Approach of the Comet will in probability bring the present State of things to a Conclusion and Burn the World of which presently 'T is evident the Earth is secure enough all the intermediate space And as hitherto we accordingly find it has been so we need not fear but it will be preserv'd till the foremention'd Conflagration CHAP. V. Phaenomena relating to the General Conflagration with Conjectures pertaining to the same and to the succeeding Period till the Consummation of all things XC AS the World once perish'd by Water so it must by Fire at the Conclusion of its present State XC As we have given an Account of the Universal Deluge from the Approach of a Comet in its descent towards the Sun so will it not be difficult to account for the General Conflagration from the like Approach of a Comet in its ascent from the Sun For 't is evident from what has been already explain'd that in case a Comet pass'd behind the Earth tho' it were in its Descent yet if it came near enough and were it self big enough it wou'd so much retard the Earth's annual Motion and oblige it to revolve in an Ellipsis so near to the Sun in its Perihelion that the Sun it self wou'd scorch and burn dissolve and destroy it in the most prodigious degree and this Combustion being renew'd every Revolution wou'd render the Earth a perfect Chaos again and change it from a Planet to a Comet for ever after 'T is evident this is a sufficient cause of a general Conflagration with a Witness and such an one as wou'd intirely ruine the Make of the present and the possibility of a future World On which last account if we allow the following Phaenomena we must not introduce this at this Period however but see whether a Conflagration of a less destructive and more refining Nature be not to be expected and may not be accounted for And here let it be observ'd that the Central Heat of it self seems sufficient to burn up and dissolve the upper Earth as those who with Dr. Woodward know the Power and Vehemence of the same now and its astonishing Force and terrible Effects in Earthquakes Eruptions of Volcano's and other Phaenomena of present Nature ought to allow if these two things were by any means remov'd I mean the Waters of the Seas and Ocean and the Coldness of the Air For 't is the vast quantity of Waters of the Earth and the Coldness of the middle Region of the Air every where and of the whole Air in the Frigid Zones returning the Vapours cold down again which were sent up into 'em never so hot which seems still to prevent the effects of the Subterraneous Heat and to hinder the Conflagration of the Earth If therefore the passing by of a Comet be capable of emptying the Seas and Ocean and of rendring the Air and its contiguous upper Surface of the Earth extreamly hot and inflam'd no more I suppose will be necessary to a general Conflagration Or if any more Assistance be afforded by the Presence of the Comet it will be ex abundanti and only contribute still the more certainly and the more suddenly to kindle such a fatal Fire and so dreadful a Combustion Now that both those requisite conditions for a general Conflagration wou'd be the consequents of this Passage of the ascending Comet is plain and evident For 1. on the Approach of the Comet a vast Tide wou'd arise in the great Abyss and by the new more considerable and more violent Elevations thereof into the Protuberances and the Sphaeroid Surface of the whole the old Fissures and Breaches wou'd be open'd again and not a few new ones generated not only as at the Deluge in the Mountainous or more loose Columns extant above the Surface of the Waters of the Globe but in all Parts and under the Seas and Ocean as well as in other places which Fissures must immediately swallow up the main Mass or Bulk of the Waters upon the Face of the Ground and send 'em to their Fellow-Waters in the Bowels of the Earth which was the first and principal step towards a general Conflagration And then 2. the Vapours acquir'd from the Comet 's Atmosphere which at the Deluge were by reason of their long absence from the Sun in the remote Regions beyond Saturn pretty cool at this time must be suppos'd by reason of their so late and near approach to the Sun about the Perihelion exceeding hot and burning and that to so extraordinary a degree that nothing but the Idea of the Mouth of a Volcano just belching out immense quantities of liquid and burning Streams or Torrents of fiery Matter can in any measure be suitable to the Violence thereof Imagine therefore the Earth to pass through the very middle of this Atmosphere for 7000 or 8000 Miles together and to bear off with it a Cylindrical Column thereof whose Basis were somewhat larger than a great Circle on the Earth and whose Altitude were the Number of Miles just now mention'd and then tell me whether the Air and its adjoining uppermost Region of the Earth will not be sufficiently hot and scorching which was the other Step to the general Conflagration Besides all which what quantities of this fiery Exhalation or Torrent of melted liquid Matter wou'd run down the Fissures into the Bowels of the Earth and by joining with the central hot Steams already there invigorate them and accelerate the direful Inflammation and what piercing and scorching fiery Corpuscles the central Body it self during its vicinity wou'd also send out and what an additional Power wou'd thereby be afforded the prevailing Heat I need not say Upon the whole I may appeal to the Reader if the concurrence of all these external Causes to say nothing here of any internal Dispositions in the Earth it self thereto do not appear abundantly sufficient within a little time to set the World on Fire and bring on that terrible Conflagration which both Sacred and Profane Testimonies conspire to forewarn us of and so whether the Theory of Comets does not afford us almost as commensurate and compleat an Account of the last burning as it already has done of the ancient drowning of the Earth XCI The same Causes which will set the World on Fire will also cause great and dreadful Tides in the Seas and Ocean with no less Agitations Concussions and Earthquakes in the Air and Earth XCI Seeing the Eruption of the central
Heat the cause 't is probable of all our Earthquakes the presence of a Comet the cause once already of the most prodigious Tides that ever were and the enflam'd Chaos or scorch'd Atmosphere of the Comet a smaller part of which occasion'd all our Tempests our Meteors our Thunder and Lightning ever since the Deluge will all concur at once and with joint Forces conspire together nothing in the World can be suppos'd more terrible nor more exactly correspondent to the Phaenomenon before us XCII The Atmosphere of the Earth before the Conflagration begin will be oppress'd with Meteors Exhalations and Steams and these in so dreadful a manner in such prodigious quantities and with such wild confus'd Motions and Agitations that the Sun and Moon will have the most frightful and hideous Countenances and their ancient Splendor will be intirely obscur'd The Stars will seem to fall from Heaven and all manner of horrid Representations will terrifie the Inhabitants of the Earth XCII Those who consider how a Comet 's Atmosphere appears to us after its Perihelion and what large quantities of its newly scorch'd Masses our Air must be clog'd and burthen'd withal will expect no other effects than those here mention'd and will easily believe that all such horrible Appearances wou'd ensue and that in the most amazing Degree and extravagant Instances possible The Theorist's Representation of this Matter will be generally speaking but a fair and just Idea thereof XCIII The Deluge and Conflagration are referr'd by ancient Tradition to great Conjunctions of the Heavenly Bodies as both depending on and happening at the same XCIII In our Accounts of the Deluge and Conflagration there is a notable conjunction of the Heavenly Bodies indeed not such an Imaginary one as the Astrologers so ridiculously make a stir about the bare Position of two or more of the Celestial Bodies in or near the same streight Line from the Eye of the Spectator while they are at the most remote Distances from one another which is a poor jejune thing indeed But a real one with a Witness when three of the Heavenly Bodies the Earth the Moon and the Comet not only are in an Astrological Heliocentrick Conjunction or only seem to an Eye in the Sun to be conjoyn'd together but are really so near as to have the mightyest effects and Influences on one another possible which we have sufficiently shewn in the present Theory and which does peculiarly correspond to the Phenomenon before us Corollary 'T is not improbable but the ancient Tradition that the Deluge and Conflagration some way depended on certain remarkable Conjunctions of the Heavenly Bodies mis-understood and afterward precariously and widely mis-apply'd might give occasion and rise to Astrology or that mighty quoil and pother so many in all Ages have made about the Conjunctions Oppositions and Aspects of the Heavenly Bodies and the Judiciary Fredictions therefrom which even the Improvements of solid Philosophy in our Age have not been able yet to banish wholly from among us the occasion whereof is otherwise exceeding dark and unaccountable XCIV The space between the Deluge and the Conflagration or between the ancient State of the Earth and its Purgation by Fire Renovation and Restitution again is from ancient Tradition defin'd and terminated by a certain great and remarkable Year or Annual Revolution of some of the Heavenly Bodies and is in probability what the Ancients so often referr'd to pretended particularly to determine and stil'd the Great or Platonick Year XCIV If we allow as we ought that in all probability the same Comet that brought on the Deluge will bring on the Conflagration and that the same Comet has not return'd nor is to return till the Conflagration this matter is easie and the correspondence accurate and remarkable For this single Revolution is truly an Annual one and as proper a Year with regard to the Comet as that of our Earth is with respect to us and so may most fitly and naturally suit the Great or Platonick Year taken notice of in the Proposition before us XCV This general Conflagration is not to extend to the intire Dissolution or Destruction of the Earth but only to the Alteration Melioration and peculiar Disposition thereof into a new State proper to receive those Saints and Martyrs for its Inhabitants who are at the first Resurrection to enter and to live and reign a thousand Years upon it till the second Resurrection the general Judgment and the final Consummation of all things XCV Seeing the Abyss consists of a dense and compact Fluid not capable of any Rarefaction or Dissolution by the most violent Heat imaginable 't is evident that the causes here assign'd can only extend to the upper Orb or habitable Earth without any farther Progress So that the effect of this Conflagration will be the reduction of this upper Earth and its Atmosphere into a confus'd mixt and Chaotick State much such an one as was before observ'd to have preceded the Original Formation of it So that as the Heat decreases 't is but reasonable to expect a kind of Reiteration of the Mosaick six Days Creation or a Renovation of the Primitive State of the Earth to the Description of which therefore I must refer the Reader XCVI The State of Nature during this Millennium will be very different from that at present and more agreeable to the Antediluvian Primitive and Paradisiacal ones XCVI This is apparent from the conclusion of the former Solution XCVII The Earth in the Millennium will be without a Sea or any large Receptacle fill'd with mighty Collections and Quantities of Water XCVII The Primitive Seas depended on two things the former the concurrence of the Central and Solar Heat for an intire half Year together in the Elevation of sufficient quantities of Vapours The latter the Earth's considerable solidity attain'd before the descent of the same Vapours which were to compose the Seas of which we are speaking So that if either of these be wanting in this reiterated Formation of the Earth t is evident the Effect must fail and the Globe be no longer a Terraqueous one after the Conflagration Now the next Proposition but one asserting the probability of the intire absence of the Sun must infer an equal probability of the entire Absence of Seas also according as this Proposition asserts XCVIII The Earth in the Millennium will have no Succession of Light and Darkness Day and Night but a perpetual Day XCVIII In case the Earth's Diurnal Rotation upon which these Vicissitudes depend was retarded so as to be only exactly equal and commensurate to its Annual Motion as the case in the Moon 's Diurnal and Menstrual Revolutions is at present as we have before observ'd the Earth wou'd constantly expose the same Hemisphere to the Sun as the Moon does now to the Earth and all succession of Day and Night for ever cease the one half of the Globe enjoying a perpetual Day while the other
was involv'd in Darkness or excluded all advantages from him and thereby enduring a continual Night so far as natural Causes are here to be consider'd And that this Retardation of the Earth's Diurnal Rotation even without a recurring to the miraculous Power of its first Author is accountable from that passing by of a Comet which we assign for the occasision of the Conflagration is very easie and obvious For in case its Ascent and Passage by be on the East side or before the Earth and in case it approach so near as to rub against it 't is evident such an Impulse is contrary to the course of the Diurnal Rotation and is therefore capable the Proportions of every thing being adjusted by-Divine Providence of putting such a stop to the same as is necessary to the present Phaenomenon and so may put a Period to that constant Succession of Light and Darkness Day and Night which has obtain'd ever since the Fall of Man and withal distinguish the Surface of the Earth into two quite different and contrary Hemispheres near the Vertex of one of which the Sun it self and near that of the other its opposite Point in the Heavens will be always situate Corollary Seeing such a rub of the Comet wou'd affect the Annual Motion of the Earth as well as the Diurnal 't is possible it might retard the former as well as the latter and reduce the Elliptical Course and Orbit of the Earth to its ancient Circular one again XCIX The State of the Millennium will not stand in need of and so probably will be without the Light and Presence of the Sun and Moon XCIX Seeing the Earth wou'd be on the foregoing Supposition distinguish'd into two quite different Hemispheres the one of which wou'd be wholly destitute of the Light and presence of the Sun and as far as appears by St. John supply'd by a Supernatural Light fixt and permanent above its Horizon 't is clear that the first Branch of this Proposition is accountable thereby as far as this Physical Theory is concern'd therein And as to the Moon seeing 't was only a signal and peculiar Providence that caus'd her equal acceleration and consequent accompanying the Earth at the former passing by of the Comet and that no such Providence is again to be expected 't is evident that that Rub or Stoppage of the Earth's Annual Motion which retards the same and does not retard the Moon 's also will separate these Planets and procure their Orbits Courses and Periods to be quite different from one another's ever after according to the greatest rigour of the present Proposition C. At the Conclusion of the Millennium the Final Judgment and the Consummation of all things the Earth will desert its present Seat and Station in the World and be no longer found among the Planetary Chorus C. If any Comet instead of passing by or gently rubbing the Earth hit directly against it in its Course either towards or from the Sun it must desert its ancient Station and move in a quite different Elliptick Orbit and so of a Planet become again a Comet for the future Ages of the World COROLLARIES FROM THE WHOLE I. SEing the new and solid Improvements of Philosophy do all along give so rational Accounts of those Ancient Theorems which have been propagated down from the eldest Ages without being then either understood or intelligible to their Propagators 't is reasonable to trust and rely on such Ancient Traditions not only Sacred but prophane also in these or any other paralled Cases they being in all probability the most valuable Remains and most venerable Truths which the primitive Parents of the World deliver'd down to their Posterity in succeeding Generations II. Seeing most of these Ancient Theorems are very much beyond the distinct Knowledge of those who deliver them contrary to the common Opinion of Mankind judging usually by sensible Appearances and in themselves considering the low State of Natural Knowledge at the same times were highly improbable if not utterly incredible to inquisitive Minds and indeed several of them relating to the Chaos the Creation the primary Constitution and State of the World and the Deluge it self impossible to be discover'd without Supernatural Revelation and yet seeing after all they do now appear as agreeable to Reason and the most solid Mechanical Philosophy as any new Discoveries built on the exactest Observations of present Nature whatsoever 'T is apparent that these Ancient Accounts especially those contain'd in the Holy Scriptures were not originally deriv'd from the Natural Skill and Observation of the first Authors or any other meerly Humane Means but from the immediate and Supernatural Revelation of God Almighty who was therefore much more conversant with Mankind in the first than he has been in these last Ages of the World as the Old Testament-History assures us III. The Measure of our present Knowledge ought not to be esteem'd the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Test of Truth or to be oppos'd to the Accounts receiv'd from Profane Antiquity much less to the inspir'd Writings For notwithstanding that several Particulars relating to the Eldest Condition of the World and its great Catastrophe's examin'd and compar'd with so much Philosophy as was till lately known were plainly unaccountable and naturally speaking impossible yet we see now Nature is more fully more certainly and more substantially understood that the same things approve themselves to be plain easie and rational IV. 'T is therefore Folly in the highest degree to reject the Truth or Divine Authority of the Holy Scriptures because we cannot give our Minds particular Satisfaction as to the manner nay or even possibility of some things therein asserted Since we have seen so many of those things which seem'd the most incredible in the whole Bible and gave the greatest Scruple and Scandal to Philosophick Minds so fully and particularly attested and next to demonstrated from certain Principles of Astronomy and Natural Knowledge 't is but reasonable to expect in due time a like Solution of the other Difficulties 'T is but just sure to depend upon the Veracity of those Holy Writers in other Assertions whose Fidelity is so intirely establish'd in these hitherto equally unaccountable ones V. The Obvious Plain or Literal Sense of the Sacred Scriptures ought not without great Reason to be eluded or laid aside Several of those very Places which seem'd very much to require the same hitherto appearing now to the minutest Circumstances true and rational according to the strictest and most Literal Interpretations of them VI. We may be under an Obligation to believe such things on the Authority of the Holy Scriptures as are properly Mysteries that is though not really Contradictory yet plainly Unaccountable to our present degree of Knowledge and Reason Thus the Sacred Histories of the Original Constitution and great Catastrophe's of the World have been in the past Ages the Objects of the Faith of Jews and Christians though the Divine Providence