be very irregular and diffuse till the Chanels were a little worn and hollowed and though that Earth was smooth and uniform yet 't is impossible upon an inclining surface but that Waters should find a way of creeping downwards as we see upon a smooth Table or a flagg'd Pavement if there be the least inclination Water will flow from the higher to the lower parts of it either directly or winding to and fro So the smoothness of that Earth would be no hindrance to the course of the Rivers provided there was a general declivity in the site and libration of it as 't is plain there was from the Poles towards the Aequator The Current indeed would be easie and gentle all along and if it chanc'd in some places to rest or be stopt it would spread it self into a pleasant Lake till by fresh supplies it had rais'd its Waters so high as to overflow and break loose again then it would pursue its way with many other Rivers its companions through all the temperate Climates as far as the Torrid Zone But you 'll say When they were got thither what would become of them then How would they end or finish their course This is the third difficulty concerning the ending of the Rivers in that Earth what issue could they have when they were come to the middle parts of it whether it seems they all tended There was no Sea to lose themselves in as our Rivers do nor any Subterraneous passages to throw themselves into how would they die what would be their fate at last I answer The greater Rivers when they were come towards those parts of the Earth would be divided into many branches or a multitude of Rivulets and those would be partly exhal'd by the heat of the Sun and partly drunk up by the dry and sandy Earth But how and in what manner this came to pass requires a little further Explication We must therefore observe in the first place that those Rivers as they drew nearer to the Aequinoctial parts would find a less declivity or descent of ground than in the beginning or former part of their course that is evident from the Oval Figure of the Earth for near the middle parts of an Oval the Semidiameters as I may call them are very little shorter one than another and for this reason the Rivers when they were advanc'd towards the middle parts of the Earth would begin to flow more slowly and by that weakness of their Current suffer themselves easily to be divided and distracted into several lesser streams and Rivulets or else having no force to wear a Chanel would lie shallow upon the ground like a plash of Water and in both cases their Waters would be much more expos'd to the action of the Sun than if they had kept together in a deeper Chanel as they were before Secondly We must observe that seeing these Waters could not reach to the middle of the Torrid Zone for want of descent that part of the Earth having the Sun always perpendicular over it and being refresht by no Rivers would become extremely dry and parch'd and be converted at length into a kind of sandy Desart so as all the Waters that were carried thus far and were not exhal'd and consum'd by the Sun would be suckt up as in a Spunge by these Sands of the Torrid Zone This was the common Grave wherein the Rivers of the first Earth were buried and this is nothing but what happens still in several parts of the present Earth especially in Africk where many Rivers never flow into the Sea but expire after the same manner as these did drunk up by the Sun and the Sands And one arm of Euphrates dies as I remember amongst the Sands of Arabia after the manner of the Rivers of the first Earth Thus we have conquer'd the greatest difficulty in my apprehension in this whole Theory To find out the state of the Rivers in the Primitive and Ante-diluvian Earth their origin course and period We have been forc'd to win our ground by Inches and have divided the difficulty into parts that we might encounter them single with more ease The Rivers of that Earth you see were in most respects different and in some contrary to ours and if you could turn our Rivers backwards to run from the Sea towards their Fountain-heads they would more resemble the course of those Ante-diluvian Rivers for they were greatest at their first setting out and the Current afterwards when it was more weak and the Chanel more shallow was divided into many branches and little Rivers like the Arteries in our Body that carry the Blood they are greatest at first and the further they go from the Heart their Source the less they grow and divide into a multitude of little branches which lose themselves insensibly in the habit of the flesh as these little Floods did in the Sands of the Earth Book 2d. fig. 3. p. 158. Because it pleaseth more and makes a greater impression upon us to see things represented to the Eye than to read their description in words we have ventur'd to give a model of the Primaeval Earth with its Zones or greater Climates and the general order and tracts of its Rivers Not that we believe things to have been in the very same form as here exhibited but this may serve as a general Idea of that Earth which may be wrought into more exactness according as we are able to enlarge or correct our thoughts hereafter And as the Zones here represented resemble the Belts or Eusciae of Iupiter so we suppose them to proceed from like causes if that Planet be in an Ante-diluvian state as the Earth we here represent As for the Polar parts in that first Earth I can say very little of them they would make a Scene by themselves and a very particular one The Sun would be perpetually in their Horizon which makes me think the Rains would not fall so much there as in the other parts of the Frigid Zones where accordingly we have made their chief seat and receptacle That they flow'd from thence in such a like manner as is hero represented we have already prov'd And sometimes in their passage swelling into Lakes and towards the end of their course parting into several streams and branches they would water those parts of the Earth like a Garden We have before compar'd the branchings of these Rivers towards the end of their course to the ramifications of the Arteries in the Body when they are far from the Heart near the extream parts and some it may be looking upon this Scheme would carry the comparison further and suppose that as in the Body the Bloud is not lost in the habit of the flesh but strain'd thorough it and taken up again by the little branches of the Veins so in that Earth the Waters were not lost in those Sands of the Torrid Zone but strain'd or percolated thorough them and receiv'd into the
attested or admit an effect whereof they cannot see any possible causes And so having stated and propos'd the whole difficulty and try'd all ways offer'd by others and found them ineffectual let us now apply our selves by degrees to unty the knot The excessive quantity of water is the great difficulty and the removal of it afterwards Those eight Oceans lay heavy upon my thoughts and I cast about every way to find an expedient or to find some way whereby the same effect might be brought to pass with less Water and in such a manner that that Water might afterwards conveniently be discharg'd The first thought that came into my mind upon that occasion was concerning the form of the Earth which I imagin'd might possibly at that time be different from what it is at present and come nearer to plainness and equality in the surface of it and so might the more easily be overflow'd and the Deluge perform'd with less water This opinion concerning the plainness of the first Earth I also found in Antiquity mention'd and refer'd to by several Interpreters in their Commentaries upon Genesis either upon occasion of the Deluge or of that Fountain which is said Gen. 2. 6. to have watered the face of the whole Earth And a late eminent person the honour of his profession for Integrity and Learning in his discourse concerning the Origination of mankind hath made a like judgment of the State of the Earth before the Deluge that the face of it was more smooth and regular than it is now But yet upon second thoughts I easily see that this alone would not be sufficient to explain the Deluge nor to give an account of the present from of the Earth unequal and Mountainous as it is 'T is true this would give a great advantage to the waters and the Rains that fell for forty days together would have a great power over the Earth being plain and smooth but how would these waters be dispos'd of when the Deluge ceas'd or how could it ever cease Besides what means the disruption of the great Deep or the great Abysse or what answers to it upon this supposition This was assuredly of no less consideration than the Rains nay I believe the Rains were but preparatory in some measure and that the violence and consummation of the Deluge depended upon the disruption of the great Abysse Therefore I saw it necessary to my first thought concerning the smoothness and plainness of the Ante-diluvian Earth to add a second concerning the disruption and dissolution of it for as it often happens in Earthquakes when the exteriour Earth is burst asunder and a great Flood of waters issues out according to the quantity and force of them an Inundation is made in those parts more or less so I thought if that Abysse lay under ground and round the Earth and we should suppose the Earth in this manner to be broken in several places at once and as it were a general dissolution made we might suppose that to make a general Deluge as well as a particular dissolution often makes a particular But I will not anticipate here the explication we intend to give of the universal Deluge in the following Chapters only by this previous intimation we may gather some hopes it may be that the matter is not so desperate as the former representation might possibly make us fansie it Give me leave to add farther in this place that it hath been observ'd by several from the contemplation of Mountains and Rocks and Precipices of the Chanel of the Sea and of Islands and of Subterraneous Caverns that the surface of the Earth or the exteriour Region which we inhabit hath been broke and the parts of it dislocated And one might instance more particularly in several parcels of Nature that retain still the evident marks of fraction and ruine and by their present form and posture show that they have been once in another state and situation one to another We shall have occasion hereafter to give an account of these Phaenomena from which several have rightly argu'd and concluded some general rupture or ruine in the superficial parts of the Earth But this ruine it is true they have imagin'd and explain'd several ways some thinking that it was made the third day after the foundation of the Earth when they suppose the Chanel of the Sea to have been form'd and Mountains and Caverns at the same time by a violent depression of some parts of the Earth and an extrusion and elevation of others to make them room Others suppose it to have come not all at once but by degrees at several times and in several Ages from particular and accidental causes as the Earth falling in upon Fires under ground or water eating away the lower parts or Vapours and Exhalations breaking out and tearing the Earth 'T is true I am not of their opinion in either of these Explications and we shall show at large hereafter when we have propos'd and stated our own Theory how incompetent such causes are to bring the Earth into that form and condition we now find it in But in the mean time we may so far make use of these Opinions in general as not to be startled at this Doctrine concerning the breaking or dissolution of the exteriour Earth for in all Ages the face of Nature hath provok'd men to think of and observe such a thing And who can do otherwise to see the Elements displac'd and disorder'd as they seem to lie at present the heaviest and grossest bodies in the highest places and the liquid and volatile kept below an huge mass of Stone or Rock rear'd into the Air and the water creeping at its feet whereas this is the more light and active body and by the law of Nature should take place of Rocks and Stones So we see by the like disorder the Air thrown down into Dungeons of the Earth and the Earth got up among the Clouds for there are the tops of the Mountains and under their roots in Holes and Caverns the Air is often detain'd By what regular action of Nature can we suppose things first produc'd in this posture and form not to mention how broke and torn the inward substance of the Earth is which of it self is an uniform mass close and compact but in the condition we see it it lies hollow in many places with great vacuities intercepted betwixt the portions of it a thing which we see happens in all ruines more or less especially when the parts of the ruines are great and inflexible Then what can have more the figure and meen of a ruine than Crags and Rocks and Cliffs whether upon the Sea shore or upon the sides of Mountains what can be more apparently broke than they are and those lesser Rocks or great bulky Stones that lie often scatter'd near the feet of the other whether in the Sea or upon the Land are they not manifest fragments and pieces of those greater
World that this Abysse was open'd or that the frame of the Earth broke and fell down into the Great Abysse At this one stroke all Nature would be chang'd and this single action would have two great and visible Effects The one Transient and the other permanent First an universal Deluge would overflow all the parts and Regions of the broken Earth during the great commotion and agitation of the Abysse by the violent fall of the Earth into it This would be the first and unquestionable effect of this dissolution and all that World would be destroyed Then when the agitation of the Abysse was asswag'd and the Waters by degrees were retir'd into their Chanels and the dry land appear'd you would see the true image of the present Earth in the ruines of the first The surface of the Globe would be divided into Land and Sea the Land would consist of Plains and Valleys and Mountains according as the pieces of this ruine were plac'd and dispos'd Upon the banks of the Sea would stand the Rocks and near the shoar would be Islands or lesse fragments of Earth compass'd round by Water Then as to Subterraneous Waters and all Subterraneous Caverns and hollownesses upon this supposition those things could not be otherwise for the parts would fall hollow in many places in this as in all other ruines And seeing the Earth fell into this Abysse the Waters at a certain height would flow into all those hollow places and cavities and would also sink and insinuate into many parts of the solid Earth And though these Subterraneous Vaults or holes whether dry or full of Water would be more or less in all places where the parts fell hollow yet they would be found especially about the roots of the Mountains and the higher parts of the Earth for there the sides bearing up one against the other they could not lie so close at the bottoms but many vacuities would be intercepted Nor are there any other inequalities or irregularities observable in the present form of the Earth whether in the surface of it or interiour construction whereof this hypothesis doth not give a ready fair and intelligible account and doth at one view represent them all to us with their causes as in a glass And whether that Glass be true and the Image answer to the Original if you doubt of it we will hereafter examine them piece by piece But in the first place we must consider the General Deluge how easily and truly this supposition represents and explains it and answers all the properties and conditions of it I think it will be easily allow'd that such a dissolution of the Earth as we have propos'd and fall of it into the Abysse would certainly make an Universal Deluge and effectually destroy the old World which perish'd in it But we have not yet particularly prov'd this dissolution and in what manner the Deluge follow'd upon it And to assert things in gross never makes that firm impression upon our understandings and upon our belief as to see them deduc'd with their causes and circumstances And therefore we must endeavour to shew what preparations there were in Nature for this great dissolution and after what manner it came to pass and the Deluge in consequence of it We have noted before that Moses imputed the Deluge to the disruption of the Abyss and S. Peter to the particular constitution of that Earth which made it obnoxious to be absorpt in Water so that our explication so far is justifi'd But it was below the dignity of those Sacred Pen-men or the Spirit of God that directed them to shew us the causes of this disruption or of this absorption this is left to the enquiries of men For it was never the design of Providence to give such particular explications of Natural things as should make us idle or the use of Reason unnecessary but on the contrary by delivering great conclusions to us to excite our curiosity and inquisitiveness after the methods by which such things were brought to pass And it may be there is no greater trial or instance of Natural Wisdom than to find out the Chanel in which these great revolutions of Nature which we treat on flow and succeed one another Let us therefore resume that System of the Ante-diluvian Earth which we have deduc'd from the Chaos and which we find to answer S. Peter's description and Moses his account of the Deluge This Earth could not be obnoxious to a Deluge as the Apostle supposeth it to have been but by a dissolution for the Abysse was enclos'd within its bowels And Moses doth in effect tell us there was such a dissolution when he saith The fountains of the great Abysse were borken open For Fountains are broken open no otherwise than by breaking up the ground that covers them We must therefore here inquire in what order and from what causes the frame of this exteriour Earth was dissolv'd and then we shall soon see how upon that dissolution the Deluge immediately prevail'd and overflow'd all the parts of it I do not think it in the power of humane wit to determine how long this frame would stand how many Years or how many Ages but one would soon imagine that this kind of structure would not be perpetual nor last indeed many thousands of Years if one consider the effect that the heat of the Sun would have upon it and the Waters under it drying and parching the one and raresying the other into vapours For we must consider that the course of the Sun at that time or the posture of the Earth to the Sun was such that there was no diversity or alternation of seasons in the Year as there is now by reason of which alternation our Earth is kept in an equality of temper the contrary seasons balancing one another so as what moisture the heat of the Summer sucks out of the Earth 't is repaid in the Rains of the next Winter and what chaps were made in it are fill'd up again and the Earth reduc'd to its former constitution But if we should imagine a continual Summer the Earth would proceed in driness still more and more and the cracks would be wider and pierce deeper into the substance of it And such a continual Summer there was at least an equality of seasons in the Ante-diluvian Earth as shall be prov'd in the follwing Book concerning Paradise In the mean time this being suppos'd let us consider what effect it would have upon this Arch of the exteriour Earth and the Waters under it We cannot believe but that the heat of the Sun within the space of some hundreds of years would have reduc'd this Earth to a considerable degree of driness in certain parts and also have much raresi'd and exhal'd the Waters beneath it And considering the structure of that Globe the exteriour crust and the Waters lying round under it both expos'd to the Sun we may fitly compare it to an Aeolipile or
another World out of curiosity to see our Earth the first discovery or observation he would make would be this that it was a Terraqueous Globe Thus much he might observe at a great distance when he came but near the borders of our World This we discern in the Moon and most of the Planets that they are divided into Sea and Land and how this division came would be his first remark and inquiry concerning our Earth and how also those subdivisions of Islands or little Earths which lie in the Water how these were form'd and that great Chanel that contains them both The second form that the Earth appears under is that of an uneven and Mountainous Globe When our Traveller had got below tho Circle of the Moon he would discern the bald tops of our Mountains and the long ranges of them upon our Continents We cannot from the Earth discern Mountains and Valleys in the Moon directly but from the motion of the light and shadows which we see there we easily collect that there are such inequalities And accordingly we suppose that our Mountains would appear at a great distance and the shady Valleys lying under them and that this curious person that came to view our Earth would make that his second Enquiry how those Mountains were form'd and how our Globe came to be so rude and irregular for we may justly demand how any irregularity came into Nature seeing all her first motions and her first forms are regular and whatsoever is not so is but secondary and the consequence of some degeneracy or of some decay The Third visible form of our Earth is that of a broken Globe and broken throughout but in the outward parts and Regions of it This it may be you will say is not a visible form it doth not appear to the eye without reasoning that the surface of the Earth is so broken Suppose our new Visitant had now pass'd the middle Region of the Air and was alighted upon the top of Pick Teneriffe for his first resting place and that sitting there he took a view of the great Rocks the wide Sea and of the shores of Africk and Europe for we 'll suppose his piercing Eye to reach so far I will not say that at first sight he would pronounce that the surface of this Globe was broken unless he knew it to be so by comparison with some other Planet like to it but the broken form and figure of many parts of the Rocks and the posture in which they lay or great portions of them some inclin'd some prostrate some erected would naturally lead him to that thought that they were a ruine He would see also the Islands tore from the Continents and both the shores of the Continents and their inland parts in the same disorder and irregular situation Besides he had this great advantage in viewing the Earth at a distance that he could see a whole Hemisphere together which as he made his approaches through the Air would have much what the same aspect and countenance as 't is represented with in the great Scheme And if any man should accidentally hit upon that Scheme not knowing or thinking that it was the Earth I believe his first thought of it would be that it was some great broken body or ruin'd frame of matter and the original I am sure is more manifestly so But we 'll leave our Strange Philosopher to his own observations and wish him good Guides and Interpreters in his Survey of the Earth and that he would make a favourable report at his return home of our little dirty Planet In the mean time let us pursue in our own way this Third Idea of the Earth a little further as it is a broken Globe Nature I know hath dissembled and cover'd this form as much as may be and time hath helpt to repair some of the old breaches or fill them up besides the changes that have been made by Art and Humane industry by Agriculture Planting and Building Towns hath made the face of the Earth quite another thing from what it was in its naked rudeness As mankind is much alter'd from its Pristine state from what it was four thousand years ago or towards the first Ages after the Flood when the Nations liv'd in simplicity or barbarousness so is the Earth too and both so disguis'd and transform'd that if one of those Primitive Fathers should rise from the dead he would scarce know this to be the same World which he liv'd in before But to discern the true form of the Earth whether intire or broken regular or disorder'd we must in the first place take away all those ornaments or additions made by Art or Nature and view the bare carcass of the Earth as it hath nothing on it but Rocks and Mountains Desarts and Fields and hollow Valleys and a wide Sea Then secondly We must in our imagination empty this Chanel of the Sea take out all the Waters that hinder the sight of it and look upon the dry Ditch measure the depth and breadth of it in our mind and observe the manner of its construction and in what a wild posture all the parts of it lie according as it hath been formerly represented And lastly We must take off the cover of all Subterraneous places and deep Caverns to see the inside of the Earth and lay bare the roots of Mountains to look into those holes and Vaults that are under them fill'd sometimes with Fire sometimes with Water and sometimes with thick Air and Vapours The object being thus prepar'd we are then to look fix'dly upon it and to pronounce what we think of this disfigur'd mass whether this Exteriour frame doth not seem to be shatter'd and whether it doth more aptly resemble a new-made World or the ruines of one broken I confess when this Idea of the Earth is present to my thoughts I can no more believe that this was the form wherein it was first produc'd than if I had seen the Temple of Ierusalem in its ruines when defac'd and sack'd by the Babylonians I could have perswaded my self that it had never been in any other posture and that Solomon had given orders for building it so So much for the form of the Earth It remains now that we examine what causes have been assign'd by others of these irregularities in the form of the Earth which we explain by the dissolution of it what accounts any of the Ancients have given or attempted to give how the Earth swell'd into Mountains in certain places and in others was depress'd into low Valleys how the body of it was so broken and how the Chanel of the Sea was made The Elements naturally lie in regular forms one above another and now we find them mixt confounded and transpos'd how comes this disturbance and disordination in Nature The Explications of these things that have been given by others may be reduc'd to two general sorts Philosophical or
same World that our first fore-fathers did nor scarce to be the same race of Men. Our life now is so short and vain as if we came into the World only to see it and leave it by that time we begin to understand our selves a little and to know where we are and how to act our part we must leave the stage and give place to others as meer Novices as we were our selves at our first entrance And this short life is imploy'd in a great measure to preserve our selves from necessity or diseases or injuries of the Air or other inconveniencies to make one Man easie ten must work and do drudgery The Body takes up so much time we have little leisure for Contemplation or to cultivate the mind The Earth doth not yield us food but with much labour and industry and what was her free-will offering before or an easie liberality can scarce now be extorted from her Neither are the Heavens more favourable sometimes in one extreme sometimes in another The Air often impure or infectious and for a great part of the year Nature her self seems to be sick or dead To this vanity the external Creation is made subject as well as Mankind and so must continue till the restitution of all things Can we imagine in those happy Times and Places we are treating of that things stood in this same posture are these the fruits of the Golden Age and of Paradise or consistent with their happiness And the remedies of these evils must be so universal you cannot give them to one place or Region of the Earth but all must participate For these are things that flow from the course of the Heavens or such general Causes as extend at once to all Nature If there was a perpetual Spring and perpetual Aequinox in Paradise there was at the same time a perpetual Aequinox all the Earth over unless you place Paradise in the middle of the Torrid Zone So also the long-lives of the Ante-diluvians was an universal Effect and must have had an universal Cause 'T is true in some single parts or Regions of the present Earth the Inhabitants live generally longer than in others but do not approach in any measure the Age of their Ante-diluvian fore-fathers and that degree of longaevity which they have above the rest they owe to the calmness and tranquility of their Heavens and Air which is but an imperfect participation of that cause which was once Universal and had its effect throughout the whole Earth And as to the fertility of this Earth though in some spots it be eminently more fruitful than in others and more delicious yet that of the first Earth was a fertility of another kind being spontaneous and extending to the production of Animals which cannot be without a favourable concourse from the Heavens also Thus much in general We will now go over those three forementioned Characters more distinctly to show by their unsuitableness to the present state of Nature that neither the whole Earth as it is now nor any part of it could be Paradisiacal The perpetual Spring which belong'd to the Golden Age and to Paradise is an happiness this present Earth cannot pretend to nor is capable of unless we could transfer the Sun from the Ecliptick to the Aequator or which is as easie perswade the Earth to change its posture to the Sun If Archimedes had found a place to plant his Machines in for removing of the Earth all that I should have desir'd of him would have been only to have given it an heave at one end and set it a little to rights again with the Sun that we might have enjoy'd the comfort of a perpetual Spring which we have lost by its dislocation ever since the Deluge And there being nothing more indispensably necessary to a Paradisiacal state than this unity and equality of Seasons where that cannot be 't is in vain to seek for the rest of Paradise The spontaneous fruitfulness of the ground was a thing peculiar to the primigenial soil which was so temper'd as made it more luxuriant at that time than it could ever be afterwards and as that rich temperament was spent so by degrees it grew less fertile The Origin or production of Animals out of the Earth depended not only upon this vital constitution of the soil at first but also upon such a posture and aspect of the Heavens as favour'd or at least permitted Nature to make her best works out of this prepar'd matter and better than could be made in that manner after the Flood Noah we see had orders given him to preserve the Races of living Creatures in his Ark when the Old World was destroy'd which is an argument to me that Providence foresaw that the Earth would not be capable to produce them under its new form and that not only for want of fitness in the soil but because of the diversity of Seasons which were then to take place whereby Nature would be disturb'd in her work and the subject to be wrought upon would not continue long enough in the same due temper But this part of the second Character concerning the Original of Animals deserves to be further examin'd and explain'd The first principles of Life must be tender and ductile that they may yield to all the motions and gentle touches of Nature otherwise it is not possible that they should be wrought with that curiosity and drawn into all those little fine threds and textures that we see and admire in some parts of the Bodies of Animals And as the matter must be so constituted at first so it must be kept in a due temper till the work be finisht without any excess of heat or cold and accordingly we see that Nature hath made provision in all sorts of Creatures whether Oviparous or Viviparous that the first rudiments of Life should be preserv'd from all injuries of the Air and kept in a moderate warmth Eggs are enclos'd in a Shell or Film and must be cherish'd with an equal gentle heat to begin formation and continue it otherwise the work miscarries And in Viviparous Creatures the materials of life are safely lodg'd in the Females womb and conserv'd in a fit temperature 'twixt heat and cold while the Causes that Providence hath imploy'd are busie at work fashioning and placing and joyning the parts in that due order which so wonderful a Fabrick requires Let us now compare these things with the birth of Animals in the new-made World when they first rose out of the Earth to see what provision could be made there for their safety and nourishment while they were a making and when newly made And though we take all advantages we can and suppose both the Heavens and the Earth favourable a fit soil and a warm and constant temper of the Air all will be little enough to make this way of production feasible or probable But if we suppose there was then the same inconstancy of the Heavens
course of the Vapours which cool'd the open Plains and made the weather temperate as well as fair But we have spoken enough in other places upon this subject of the Air and the Heavens Let us now descend to the Earth The Earth was divided into two Hemispheres separated by the Torrid Zone which at that time was uninhabitable and utterly unpassable so as the two Hemispheres made two distinct Worlds which so far as we can judge had no manner of commerce or communication one with another The Southern Hemisphere the Ancients call'd Antichthon the Opposite Earth or the Other World And this name and notion remain'd long after the reason of it had câ—ast Just as the Torrid Zone was generally accounted uninhabitable by the Ancients even in their time because it really had been so once and the Tradition remain'd uncorrected when the causes were taken away namely when the Earth had chang'd its posture to the Sun after the Deluge This may be lookt upon as the first division of that Primaval Earth into two Hemispheres naturally sever'd and disunited But it was also divided into five Zones two Frigid two Temperate and the Torrid betwixt them And this distinction of the Globe into â—â—ve Zones I think did properly belong to that Original Earth and Primitive Geography and improperly and by translation only to the present For all the Zones of our Earth are habitable and their distinctions are in a manner but imaginary not fixt by Nature whereas in that Earth where the Rivers fail'd and the Regions became uninhabitable by reason of driness and heat there begun the Torrid Zone and where the Regions became uninhabitable by reason of cold and moisture there begun the Frigid Zone and these being determin'd they became bounds on either side to the Temperate But all this was alter'd when the posture of the Earth was chang'd and chang'd for that very purpose as some of the Ancients have said That the uninhabitable parts of the Earth might become habitable Yet though there was so much of the first Earth uninhabitable there remain'd as much to be inhabited as we have now for the Sea since the breaking up of the Abyss hath taken away half of the Earth from us a great part whereof was to them good Land Besides We are not to suppose that the Torrid Zone was of that extent we make it now twenty three degrees and more on either side of the Aequator these bounds are set only by the Tropicks and the Tropicks by the obliquity of the course of the Sun or of the posture of the Earth which was not in that World Where the Rivers stopt there the Torrid Zone would begin but the Sun was directly perpendicular to no part of it but the middle How the Rivers flow'd in the first Earth we have before explain'd sufficiently and what parts the Rivers did not reach were turn'd into Sands and Desarts by the heat of the Sun for I cannot easily imagine that the Sandy Desarts of the Earth were made so at first immediately and from the beginning of the World from what causes should that be and to what purpose in that age But in those Tracts of the Earth that were not refresht with Rivers and moisture which cement the parts the ground would moulder and crumble into little pieces and then those pieces by the heat of the Sun were bak'd into Stone And this would come to pass chiefly in the hot and scorch'd Regions of the Earth though it might happen sometimes where there was not that extremity of heat if by any chance a place wanted Rivers and Water to keep the Earth in due temper but those Sands would not be so early or ancient as the other As for greater loose Stones and rough Pebbles there were none in that Earth Deucalion and Pyrrha when the Deluge was over found new made Stones to cast behind their backs the bones of their mother Earth which then were broken in pieces in that great ruine As for Plants and Trees we cannot imagine but that they must needs abound in the Primitive Earth seeing it was so well water'd and had a soil so fruitful A new unlabour'd soil replenistht with the Seeds of all Vegetables and a warm Sun that would call upon Nature early for her First-Fruits to be offer'd up at the beginning of her course Nature 〈◊〉 a wild luxuriancy at first which humane industry by degrees gave form and order to The Waters flow'd with a constant and gentle Current and were easily led which way the Inhabitants had a mind for their use or for their pleasure and shady Trees which grow best in most and warm Countries grac'd the Banks of their Rivers or Canals But that which was the beauty and crown of all was their perpetual Spring the Fields always green the Flowers always fresh and the Trees always cover'd with Leaves and Fruit But we have occasionally spoken of these things in several places and may do again hereafter and therefore need not inlarge upon them here As for Subterraneous things Metals and Minerals I believe they had none in the first Earth and the happier they no Gold nor Silver nor courser Metals The use of these is either imaginary or in such works as by the constitution of their World they had little occasion for And Minerals are either for Medicine which they had no need of further than Herbs or for Materials to certain Arts which were not then in use or were suppli'd by other ways These Subterraneous things Metals and metallick Minerals are Factitious not Original bodies coaeval with the Earth but are made in process of time after long preparations and concoctions by the action of the Sun within the bowels of the Earth And if the Stamina or principles of them risâ—e from the lower Regions that lie under the Abyss as I am apt to think they do 〈◊〉 doth not seem probable that they could be drawn through such a mass of Waters or that the heat of the Sun could on a sudden penetrate so deep and be able to loosen them and raise them into the exteriour Earth And as the first Age of the World was call'd Golden though it knew not what Gold was so the following Ages had their names from several Metals which lay then asleep in the dark and deep womb of Nature and see not the Sun till many Years and Ages afterwards Having run through the several Regions of Nature from top to bottom from the Heavens to the lower parts of the Earth and made some observations upon their order in the Ante-diluvian World Let us now look upon Man and other living Creatures that make the Superiour and Animate part of Nature We have observ'd and sufficiently spoken to that difference betwixt the Men of the old World and those of the present in point of Longaevity and given the reasons of it but we must not imagine that this long life was peculiar to Man all other Animals had their
Romanus whom we cited before S. Austin also speaks upon the same supposition when he would confute the doctrine of the Antipodes or Antichthâ—nes and Macrobius I remember makes it an argument of Providence that the Sun and the Planets in what part of their course soever they are betwixt the two Tropicks have still the Ocean under them that they may be cool'd and nourisht by its moisture They thought the Sea like a Girdle went round the Earth and the temperate Zones on either side were the habitable Regions whereof this was call'd the Oicouméne and the other Antichthon This being observ'd 't is not material whether their Notion was true or false it shews us what their meaning was and what part of the Earth they design'd when they spoke of any thing beyond the Ocean namely that they meant beyond the Line in the other Hemisphere or in the Antichthon and accordingly when they say Paradise or the Fountains of its Rivers were beyond the Ocean they say the same thing in other terms with the rest of those Authors we have cited In Moses Bar Cepha above mention'd we find a Chapter upon this subject Qucmodo trajecerint Mortales inde ex Paradisi terrâ in hanc Terram How Mankind past out of that Earth or Coâ—tinent where Paradise was into that where we are Namely how they past the Ocean that lay betwixt them as the answer there given explains it And so Ephrem Syrus is cited often in that Treatise placing Paradise beyond the Ocean The Essenes also who were the most Philosophick Sect of the Iews plac'd Paradise according to Iosephus beyond the Ocean under a perfect temperature of Air. And that passage in Eusebius in the Oration of Constantine being corrected and restor'd to the true reading represents Paradise in like manner as in another Continent from whence Adam was brought after his transgression into this And lastly there are some Authors whose testimony and authority may deserve to be consider'd not for their own Antiquity but because they are profess'dly transcribers of Antiquity and Traditions such as Strabus Comestor and the like who are known to give this account or report of Paradise from the Ancients that it was interposito Oceano ab Orbe nostro vel à Zonâ nostrâ habitabili secretus Separated from our Orb or Hemisphere by the interposition of the Ocean It is also observable that many of the Ancients that took Tigris Euphrates Nile and Ganges for the Rivers of Paradise said that those Heads or Fountains of them which we have in our Continent are but their Capita secunda their second Sources and that their first Sources were in another Orb where Paradise was and thus Hugo de Sancto Victore says Sanctos communiter sensisse That the Holy Men of old were generally of that opinion To this sence also Moses Bar Cepha often expresseth himself as also Epiphanius Procopius Gazaeus and Severianus in Catenâ Which notion amongst the Ancients concerning the trajection or passage of the Paradisiacal Rivers under-ground or under-Sea from one Continent into another is to me I confess unintelligible either in the first or second Earth but however it discovers their sence and opinion of the Seat of Paradise that it was not to be sought for in Asia or in Africk where those Rivers rise to us but in some remoter parts of the World where they suppos'd their first Sources to be This is a short account of what the Christian Fathers have left us concerning the Seat of Paradise and the truth is 't is but a short and broken account yet 't is no wonder it should be so if we consider as we noted before that several of them did not believe Paradise to be Local and Corporeal Others that did believe it so yet did not offer to determine the place of it but left that matter wholly untoucht and undecided and the rest that did speak to that point did it commonly both in general terms and in expressions that were disguis'd and needed interpretation but all these differences and obscurities of expression you see when duly stated and expounded may signifie one and the same thing and terminate all in this common Conclusion That Paradise was without our Continent accordâ—ng to the general opinion and Tradition of Antiquity And I do not doubt but the Tradition would have been both more express and more universal if the Ancients had understood Geography better for those of the Ancients that did not admit or believe that there were Antipodes or Antichthones as Lactantius S. Austin and some others these could not joyn in the common opinion about the place of Paradise because they thought there was no Land nor any thing habitable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or besides this Continent And yet S. Austin was so cautious that as he was bounded on the one hand by his false Idea of the Earth that he could not joyn with Antiquity as to the place of Paradise so on the other hand he had that respect for it that he would not say any thing to the contrary therefore being to give his opinion he says only Terrestrem esse Paradisum locum ejus ab hominum cognitione esse remotissimum That it is somewhere upon the Earth but the place of it very remote from the knowledge of Men. And as their ignorance of the Globe of the Earth was one reason why the doctrine of Paradise was so broken and obscure so another reason why it is much more so at present is because the chief ancient Books writ upon that subiect are lost Ephrem Syrus who liv'd in the Fourth Century writ a Commentary in Genesin five de Ortu rerum concerning the Origin of the Earth and by those remains that are cited from it we have reason to believe that it contain'd many things remarkable concerning the first Earth and concerning Paradise Tertullian also writ a Book de Paradiso which is wholly lost and we see to what effect it would have been by his making the Torrid Zone to be the Flaming Sword and the partition betwixt this Earth and Paradise which two Earths he more than once distinguisheth as very different from one another The most ancient Author that I know upon this subject at least of those that writ of it literally is Moses Bar Cepha a Syrian Bishop who liv'd about seven hundred years since and his Book is translated into Latin by that Learned and Judicious Man Andreas Masius Bar Cepha writes upon the same Views of Paradise that we have here presented that it was beyond the Ocean in another tract of Land or another Continent from that which we inhabit As appears from the very Titles of his Eighth Tenth and Fourteenth Chapters But we must allow him for his mistaken Notions about the form of the Earth for he seems to have sansied the Earth plain not only as oppos'd to rough and Mountainous for so it was plain but as oppos'd to Spherical and the Ocean to
and Love Friendship and Venus on the other and after a long contest Love got the better of Discord and united the disagreeing principles This is one part of their story Then they make the forming of the World out of the Chaos a kind of Genealogie or Pedigree Chaos was the common Parent of all and from Chaos sprung first Night and Tartarus or Oceanus Night was a teeming Mother and of her were born Aether and the Earth The Earth conceiv'd by the influences of Aether and brought forth Man and all Animals This seems to be a Poetical fiction rather than Philosophy yet when 't is set in a true light and compar'd with our Theory of the Chaos 't will appear a pretty regular account how the World was form'd at first or how the Chaos divided it self successively into several Regions rising one after another and propagated one from another as Children and Posterity from a common Parent We show'd in the first Book Chap. 5. how the Chaos from an uniform mass wrought it self into several Regions or Elements the grossest part sinking to the Center upon this lay the mass of Water and over the Water was a Region of dark impure caliginous Air This impure caliginous Air is that which the Ancients call Night and the mass of Water Oceanus or Tartarus for those two terms with them are often of the like force Tartarus being Oceanus inclos'd and lock'd up Thus we have the first off-spring of the Chaos or its first-born twins Nox and Oceanus Now this turbid Air purifying it self by degrees as the more subtle parts flew upwards and compos'd the Aether so the earthy parts that were mixt with it dropt down upon the surface of the Water or the liquid mass and that mass on the other hand sending up its lighter and more oily parts towards its surface these two incorporate there and by their mixture and union compose a body of Earth quite round the mass of Waters And this was the first habitable Earth which as it was you see the Daughter of Nox and Oceanus so it was the Mother of all other things and all living Creatures which at the beginning of the World sprung out of its fruitful womb This doctrine of the Chaos for the greater pomp of the business the Ancients call'd their Theogonia or the Genealogy of the Gods for they gave their Gods at least their Terrestrial Gods an original and beginning and all the Elements and greater portions of Nature they made Gods and Goddesses or their Deities presided over them in such a manner that the names were us'd promiscuously for one another We also mention'd before some moral principles which they plac'd in the Chaos Eris and Eros Strife discord and disaffection which prevail'd at first and afterward Love kindness and union got the upper hand and in spite of those factious and dividing principles gather'd together the separated Elements and united them into an habitable World This is all easily understood if we do but look upon the Schemes of the rising World as we have set them down in that fifth Chapter for in the first commotion of the Chaos after an intestine struggle of all the parts the Elements separated from one another into so many distinct bodies or masses and in this state and posture things continued a good while which the Ancients after their Poetick or Moral way call'd the Reign of Eris or Contention of hatred flight and disaffection and if things had always continued in that System we should never have had an habitable World But Love and good Nature conquer'd at length Venus rise out of the Sea and receiv'd into her bosom and intangled into her imbraces the falling Aether viz. The parts of lighter earth which were mixt with the Air in that first separation and gave it the name of Night These I say fell down upon the oily parts of the Sea-mass which lay floating upon the surface of it and by that union and conjunction a new Body and a new World was produc'd which was the first habitable Earth This is the interpretation of their mystical Philosophy of the Chaos and the resolution of it into plain natural History Which you may see more fully discuss'd in the Latin Treatise In consequence of this We have already explain'd in several places the Golden Age of the Ancients and laid down such grounds as will enable us to discern what is real and what Poetical in the reports and characters that Antiquity hath given of those first Ages of the World And if there be any thing amongst the Ancients that refers to another Earth as Plato's Atlantis which he says was absorpt by an Earthquake and an inundation as the primaeval Earth was or his Aethereal Earth mention'd in his Phaedo which he opposeth to this broken hollow Earth makes it to have long-liv'd inhabitants and to be without Rains and Storms as that first Earth was also or the pendulous Gardens of Alcinous or such like to which nothing answers in present Nature by reflecting upon the state of the first Earth we find an easie explication of them We have also explain'd what the Antichthon and Antichthones of the Ancients were and what the true ground of that distinction was But nothing seems more remarkable than the inhabitability of the Torrid Zone if we consider what a general fame and belief it had amongst the Ancients and yet in the present form of the Earth we find no such thing nor any foundation for it I cannot believe that this was so universally receiv'd upon a slight presumption only because it lay under the course of the Sun if the Sun had then the same latitude from the Aequator in his course and motion that he hath now and made the same variety of seasons whereby even the hottest parts of the Earth have a Winter or something equivalent to it But if we apply this to the Primaeval Earth whose posture was direct to the Sun standing always fixt in its Equinoctial we shall easily believe that the Torrid Zone was then uninhabitable by extremity of heat there being no difference of seasons nor any change of weather the Sun hanging always over head at the same distance and in the same direction Besides this the descent of the Rivers in that first Earth was such that they could never reach the Equinoctial parts as we have shown before by which means and the want of Rain that Region must necessarily be turn'd into a dry Desart Now this being really the state of the first Earth the fame and general belief that the Torrid Zone was uninhabitable had this true Original and continued still with posterity after the Deluge though the causes then were taken away for they being ignorant of the change that was made in Nature at that time kept up still the same Tradition and opinion currant till observation and experience taught later Ages to correct it As the true miracles that were in the Christian Church at
first occasion'd a fame and belief of their continuance long after they had really ceast This gives an easie account and I think the true cause of that opinion amongst the Ancients generally receiv'd That the Torrid Zone was uninhabitable I say generally receiv'd for not only the Poets both Greek and Latin but their Philosophers Astsonomers and Geographers had the same notion and deliver'd the same doctrine as Aristotle Cleomedes Achilles Tatius Ptolomy Cicero Strabo Mela Pliny Macrobius c. And to speak truth the whole doctrine of the Zones is calculated more properly for the first Earth than for the present for the divisions and bounds of them now are but arbitrary being habitable all over and having no visible distinction whereas they were then determin'd by Nature and the Globe of the Earth was really divided into so many Regions of a very different aspect and quality which would have appear'd at a distance if they had been lookt upon from the Clouds or from the Moon as Iupiter's Belts or as so many Girdles or Swathing-bands about the body of the Earth And so the word imports and so the Ancients use to call them Cinguli and Fasciae But in the present form of the Earth if it was seen at a distance no such distinction would appear in the parts of it nor scarce any other but that of Land and Water and of Mountains and Valleys which are nothing to the purpose of Zones And to add this note further When the Earth lay in this regular form divided into Regions or Walks if I may so call them as this gave occasion of its distinction by Zones so if we might consider all that Earth as a Paradise and Paradise as a Garden for it is always call'd so in Scripture and in Iewish Authors And as this Torrid Zone bare of Grass and Trees made a kind of Gravel-walk in the middle so there was a green Walk on either hand of it made by the temperate Zones and beyond those lay a Canal which water'd the Garden from either side But to return to Antiquity We may add under this Head another observation or doctrine amongst the Ancients strange enough in appearance which yet receives an easie explication from the preceding Theory They say The Poles of the World did once change their situation and were at first in another posture from what they are in now till that inclination happen'd This the ancient Philosophers often make mention of as Anaxagoras Empedocles Diogenes Leucippus Democritus as may be seen in Laertius and in Plutarch and the Stars they say at first were carried about the Earth in a more uniform manner This is no more than what we have observ'd and told you in other words namely That the Earth chang'd its posture at the Deluge and thereby made these seeming changes in the Heavens its Poles before pointed to the Poles of the Ecliptick which now point to the Poles of the Aequator and its Axis is become parallel with that Axis and this is the mystery and interpretation of what they say in other terms this makes the different aspect of the Heavens and of its Poles And I am apt to think that those changes in the course of the Stars which the Ancients sometimes speak of and especially the Aegyptians if they did not proceed from defects in their Calendar had no other Physical account than this And as they say the Poles of the World were in another situation at first so at first they say there was no variety of seasons in the Year as in their Golden Age. Which is very coherent with all the rest and still runs along with the Theory And you may observe that all these things we have instanc'd in hitherto are but links of the same chain in connexion and dependance upon one another When the Primaeval Earth was made out of the Chaos its form and posture was such as of course brought on all those Scenes which Antiquity hath kept the remembrance of though now in another state of Nature they seem very strange especially being disguis'd as some of them are by their odd manner of representing them That the Poles of the World stood once in another posture That the Year had no diversity of Seasons That the Torrid Zone was uninhabitable That the two Hemispheres had no possibility of intercourse and such like These all hang upon the same string or lean one upon another as Stones in the same Building whereof we have by this Theory laid the very foundation bare that you may see what they all stand upon and in what order There is still one remarkable Notion or Doctrine amongst the Ancients which we have not spoken to 't is partly Symbolical and the propriety of the Symbol or of the Application of it hath been little understood 'T is their doctrine of the Mundane Egg or their comparing the World to an Egg and especially in the Original composition of it This seems to be a mean comparison the World and an Egg what proportion or what resemblance betwixt these two things And yet I do not know any Symbolical doctrine or conclusion that hath been so universally entertain'd by the Mystae or Wise and Learned of all Nations as hath been noted before in the fifth Chapter of the First Book and at large in the Latin Treatise 'T is certain that by the World in this similitude they do not mean the Great Universe for that hath neither Figure nor any determinate form of composition and it would be a great vanity and rashness in any one to compare this to an Egg The works of God are immense as his rature is infinite and we cannot make any image or resemblance of either of them but this comparison is to be understood of the Sublunary World or of the Earth And for a general key to Antiquity upon this Argument we may lay this down as a Maxim or Canon That what the Ancients have said concerning the form and figure of the World or concerning the Original of it from a Chaos or about its periods and dissolution are never to be understood of the Great Universe but of our Earth or of this Sublunary and Terrâ—strial World And this observation being made do but reflect upon our Theory of the Earth the manner of its composition at first and the figure of it being compleated and you will need no other interpreter to understand this mystery We have show'd there that the figure of it when finisht was Oval and the inward form of it was a frame of four Regions encompassing one another where that of Fire lay in the middle like the Yolk and a shell of Earth inclos'd them all This gives a solution so easie and natural and shows such an aptness and elegancy in the representation that one cannot doubt upon a view and compare of circumstances but that we have truly found out the Riddle of the Mundane Egg. Amongst other difficulties arising from the Form
Water had formerly This is according to St. Peter's doctrine for he makes the same parts of the Universe to be the subject of both namely the inferiour Heavens and the Earth The Heavens and the Earth which were then perish'd in a Deluge of Water But the Heavens and the Earth that are now are reserv'd to fire The present Heavens and Earth are substituted in the place of those that perish'd at the Deluge and these are to be over-run and destroy'd by fire as those were by water So that the Apostle takes the same Regions and the same space and compass for the one as for the other and makes their fate different according to their different constitution and the different order of Providence This is the sence St. Austin gives us of the Apostle's words and these are the bounds he sets to the last Fire whereof a modern Commentator is so well assur'd that he says They neither understand Divinity nor Philosophy that would make the Conflagration reach above the Elementary Heavens Let these be then its limits upwards the Clouds Air and Atmosphere of the Earth But the question seems more doubtful How far it will extend downwards into the bowels of the Earth I answer still to the same depth that the Waters of the Deluge reach'd To the lowest Abysses and the deepest Caverns within the ground And seeing no Caverns are deeper or lower at least according to our Theory than the bottom of the great Ocean to that depth I suppose the rage of this fire will peneâ—rate and devour all before it And therefore we must not imagine that only the outward turf and habitable surface of the Earth will be put into a flame and laid wast the whole exteriour region of the Earth to the depth of the deepest part of the Sea will suffer in this Fire and suffer to that degree as to be melted down and the frame of it dissolv'd For we are not to conceive that the Earth will be only scorcht or charkt in the last Fire there will be a sort of liquefaction and dissolution it will become a molten Sea mingled with fire according to the expression of Scripture And this dissolution may reasonably be suppos'd to reach as low as the Earth hath any hollownesses or can give 〈◊〉 to smoke and flame Wherefore taking these for the bounds and limits of the last great Fire the next thing to be enquir'd into are the Natural Causes of it How this strange fate will seize upon the Sublunary World and with an irresistible fury subdue all things to it self But when I say Natural Causes I would not be so understood as if I thought the Conflagration was a pure Natural Fatality as the Stoicks seem to do No 't is a mixt Fatality The Causes indeed are Natural but the administration of them is from an higher hand Fire is the Instrument or the executive power and hath no more force given it than what it hath naturally but the concurrence of these Causes or of these fiery powers at such a time and in such a manner and the conduct of them to carry on and compleat the whole work without cessation or interruption that I look upon as more than what material Nature could effect of it self or than could be brought to pass by such a government of matter as is the bare result of its own laws and determinations When a Ship fails gently before the Wind the Mariners may stand idle but to guide her in a storm all hands must be at work There are rules and measures to be observ'd even in these tumults and desolations of Nature in destroying a World as well as in making one and therefore in both it is reasonable to suppose a more than ordinary Providence to superintend the work Let us not therefore be too positive or presumptuous in our conjectures about these things for if there be an invisible hand Divine or Angelical that touches the Springs and Wheels it will not be easie for us to determine with certainty the order of their motions However 't is our duty to search into the ways and works of God as far as we can And we may without offence look into the Magazines of Nature see what provisions are made and what preparations for this great Day and in what method 't is most likely the design will be executed But before we proceed to mark out Materials for this Fire give me leave to observe one condition or property in the Form of this present Earth that makes it capable of Inflammation 'T is the manner of its construction in an hollow eavernous form By reason whereof containing much Air in its cavities and having many inlets and outlets 't is in most places capable of ventilation pervious and passable to the Winds and consequently to the Fire Those that have read the former part of this Theory know how the Earth came into this hollow and broken form from what causes and at what time namely at the Universal Deluge when there was a disruption of the exteriour Earth that fell into the Abyss and so for a time was overflow'd with Water These Ruines recover'd from the Water we inhabit and these Ruines only will be burnt up For being not only unequal in their Surface but also hollow loose and incompact within as ruines use to be they are made thereâ— by capable of a second fate by inflammation Thereby I say they are made combustible for if the exteriour Regions of this Earth were as close and compact in all their parts as we have reason to believe the interiour Regions of it to be the Fire could have little power over it nor ever reduce it to such a state as is requir'd in a compleat Conflagration such as ours is to be This being admitted that the Exteriour Region of the Earth stands hollow as a well set Fire to receive Air freely into its parts and hath issues for smoke and flame It remains to enquire what fewel or Materials Nature hath fitted to kindle this Pile and to continue it on Fire till it be consum'd or in plain words What are the Natural Causes and preparatives for a Conflagration The first and most obvious preparations that we see in Nature for this effect are the Burning Mountains or Volcano's of the Earth These are lesser Essays or preludes to the general Fire set on purpose by Providence to keep us awake and to mind us continually and forewarn us of what we are to expect at last The Earth you see is already kindled blow but the Coal and propagate the Fire and the work will go on Tophet is prepar'd of old and when the Day of Doom is come and the Date of the World expir'd the breath of the Lord shall make it burn But besides these Burning Mountains there are Lakes of pitch and brimstone and oily Liquors disperst in several parts of the Earth These are in enrage the Fire as it goes and to fortifie
being a work of Providence we may be sure such measures are taken as will effectually carry it on when once begun The Body of the Earth will be loosen'd and broken by Earth-quakes the more solid parts impregnated with sulphur and the cavities fill'd with unctuous fumes and exhalations so as the whole Mass will be but as one great funeral Pile ready built and wanting nothing but the hand of a destroying Angel to give it fire I will not take upon me to determine which way this devouring Enemy will steer his course from Italy or in what order he will advance and enter the several Regions of our Continent that would be an undertaking as uncertain as useless But we cannot doubt of his success which way soever he goes unless where the Chanel of the Ocean may chance to stop him But as to that we allow that different Continents may have different Fires not propagated from one another but of distinct sources and originals and so likewise in remote Islands and therefore no long passage or trajection will be requir'd from shore to shore And even the Ocean it self will at length be as Fiery as any part of the Land But that with its Rocks like Death will be the last thing subdued As to the Animate World the Fire will over-run it with a swift and rapid course and all living Creatures will be suffocated or consumed at the first assault And at the same time the beauty of the Fields and the external decorations of Nature will be defac'd Then the Cities and the Towns and all the works of man's hands will burn like stubble before the wind These will be soon dispatch'd but the great burthen of the Work still remains which is that Lâ—quefaction we mention'd before or a melting fire much more strong and vehement than these transient blazes which do but sweep the surface of the Earth This Liquefaction I say we prov'd before out of Scripture as the last state of the fiery Deluge And 't is this which at length will make the Sea it self a Lake of fire and brimstone When instead of Rivers of Waters which used to flow into it from the Land there come streams and rivulets of Sulphureous Liquors and purulent melted matter which following the tract of their natural gravity will fall into this great drain of the Earth Upon which mixture the remaining parts of sweet water will soon evaporate and the salt mingling with the Sulphur will make a Dead Sea an Asphaltites a Lake of Sodom a Cup of the dregs of the Wine of the fierceness of God's Wrath. We noted before two remarkable effects of the Burning Mountains which would contribute to the Conflagration of the World and gave instances of both in former Eruptions of Aetna and Vesuvius One was of those Balls or lumps of Fire which they throw about in the time of their rage and the other of those torrents of liquid Fire which rowl down their sides to the next Seas or Valleys In the first respect these Mountains are as so many Batteries planted by Providence in several parts of the Earth to fling those fiery Bombs into such places or such Cities as are marked out for destruction And in the second respect they are to dry up the Waters and the Rivers and the Sea it self when they fall into its Chanel T. Fazellus a Sicilian who writ the History of that Island tells us of such a River of fire upon an eruption of Aetna near twenty eight miles long reaching from the Mountain to Port Longina and might have been much longer if it had not been stopt by the Sea Many such as these and far greater we ought in reason to imagin when all the Earth begins to melt and to ripen towards a dissolution It will then be full of these Sulphureous juices as Grapes with Wine and these will be squeez'd out of the Earth into the Sea as out of a wine-press into the Receiver to fill up that Cup as we said before with the wine of the fierceness of God's wrath If we may be allow'd to bring Prophetical passages of Scripture to a natural sence as doubtless some of those must that respect the end of the World these phrases which we have now suggested of the Wine-press of the wrath of God Drinking the fierceness of his wine poured without mixture into the cup of his indignation with expressions of the like nature that occur sometimes in the old Prophets but especially in the Apocalypse These I say might receive a full and emphatical explication from this state of things which now lies before us I would not exclude any other explication of less force as that of alluding to the bitter cup or mixt potion that us'd to be given to malefactors but that methinks is a low sence when applyed to these places in the Apocalypse That these phrases signifie God's remarkable judgments all allow and here they plainly relate to the end of the World to the last Plagues and the last of the last Plagues chap. 16. 19. Besides The Angel that presided over this judgment is said to be an Angel that had power over fire And those who are to drink this potion are said to be tormented with fire and brimstone ch 14. 10. This presiding Angel seems to be our Saviour himself â— 19. 15. who when he comes to execute Divine Vengeance upon the Earth gives his orders in these words Gather the clusters of the Vine of the Earth for her grapes are fully ripe And thereupon the Destroying Angel thrust in his sickle into the Earth and gathered the Vine of the Earth and cast it into the great Wine-press of the Wrath of God And this made a potion compounded of several ingredients but not diluted with water ch 14. 10. and was indeed a potion of fire and brimstone and all burning materials mixt together The similitudes of Scripture are seldom nice and exact but rather bold noble and great and according to the circumstances which we have observ'd This Vineyard seems to be the Earth and this Vintage the end of the World The pressing of the Grapes into the cup or vessel that receives them the distillation of burning liquors from all parts of the Earth into the trough of the Sea and that lake of red Fire the bloud of those Grapes so flowing into it 'T is true This judgment of the Vintage and Wine-press and the effects of it seem to aim more especially at some particular region of the Earth â—h 14. 20. And I am not against that provided the substance of the explication be still retained and the universal Sea of Fire be that which follows in the next Chapter under the name of a Sea of Glass mingled with Fire This I think expresses the highest and compleat state of the Conflagration when the Mountains are fled away and not only so but the exterior region of the Earth quite dissolv'd like wax before the Sun
they be turn'd out of Being for our faults The whole material Universe will not be Annihilated at this bout for we are to have Bodies after the Resurrection and to live in Heaven How much of the Universe then will you leave standing or how shall it subsist with this great Vacuum in the heart of it This shell of a World is but the fiction of an empty Brain For God and Nature in their works never admit of such gaping vacuities and emptinesses If we consult Scripture again we shall find that that makes mention of a Restitution and Reviviscency of all things At the End of the World or at the Coming of our Saviour S. Peter whose doctrine we have hitherto followed in his Sermon to the Iews after our Saviour's Ascension tells them that He will come again and that there will be then a Restitution of all things such as was promised by the Prophets The Heavens says he must receive him until the time of Restitution of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of his holy Prophets since the world began If we compare this passage of S. Peter's with that which we alledged before out of his second Epistle it can scarce be doubted but that he refers to the same Promises in both places and what he there calls a New Heaven and a New Earth he calls here a Restitution of all things For the Heavens and the Earth comprehend all and both these are but different phrases for the Renovation of the World This gives us also light how to understand what our Saviour calls the Regeneration or Reviviscency when he shall sit upon his Throne of Glory and will reward his followers an hundred fold for all their Losses in this World Besides Everlasting Life as the Crown of all I know in our English Translation we separate the Regeneration from sitting upon his Throne but without any warrant from the Original And seeing our Saviour speaks here of Bodily goods and seems to distinguish them from everlasting life which is to be the final reward of his Followers This Regeneration seems to belong to his Second Coming when the World shall be renew'd or regenerated and the Righteous shall possess the Earth Other places of Scripture that foretel the fate of this Material World represent it always as a Change not as an Annihilation S. Paul says The Figure of this World passes away 1 Cor. 7. 31. The form fashion and disposition of its parts But the substance still remains As a Body that is melted down and dissolv'd the Form perishes but the Matter is not destroy'd And the Psalmist says The Heavens and the Earth shall be chang'd which answers to this Transformation we speak of The same Apostle in the Eighth Chapter to the Romans shows also that this change shall be and shall be for the better and calls it a Deliverance of the Creation from vanity and corruption and a participation of the glorious liberty of the Children of God Being a sort of Redemption as they have a Redemption of their Bodies But seeing the Renovation of the World is a Doctrine generally receiv'd both by ancient and modern Authors as we shall have occasion to show hereafter We need add no more in this place for confirmation of it Some Men are willing to throw all things into a state of Nothing at the Conflagration and bury them there that they may not be oblig'd to give an account of that state of things that is to succeed it Those who think themselves bound in honour to know every thing in Theology that is knowable and find it uneasie to answer such questions and speculations as would arise upon their admitting a New World think it more adviseable to stifle it in the birth and so to bound all knowledge at the Conflagration But surely so far as Reason or Scripture lead us we may and ought to follow otherwise we should be ungrateful to Providence that sent us those Guides Provided we be always duly sensible of our own weakness and according to the difficulty of the subject and the measure of light that falls upon it proceed with that modesty and ingenuity that becomes such fallible enquirers after Truth as we are And this rule I desire to prescribe to my self as in all other Writings so especially in this where tho' I look upon the principal Conclusions as fully prov'd there are several particulars that are rather propos'd to examination than positively asserted CHAP. II. The Birth of the new Heavens and the new Earth from the second Chaos or the remains of the old World The form order and qualities of the new Earth according to Reason and Scripture HAving prov'd from Scripture that we are to expect New Heavens and a New Earth after the Conflagration it would be some pleasure and satisfaction to see how this new Frame will arise and what foundation there is in Nature for the accomplishment of these promises For tho' the Divine Power be not bound to all the Laws of Nature but may dispence with them when there is a necessity yet it is an ease to us in our belief when we see them both conspire in the same effect And in order to this we must consider in what posture we left the demolish'd World what hopes there is of a Restauration And we are not to be discourag'd because we see things at present wrapt up in a confus'd Mass for according to the methods of Nature and Providence in that dark Womb usually are the seeds and rudiments of an Embryo World Now as to the lower of these two regions the region of melted matter A. A. we shall have little occasion to take notice of it seeing it will contribute nothing to the formation of the new World But the upper region or all above that Orb of fire is the true draught of a Chaos or a mixture and confusion of all the Elements without order or distinction Here are particles of Earth and of Air and of Water all promiscuously jumbled together by the force and agitation of the fire But when that force ceases and every one is left to its own inclination they will according to their different degrees of gravity separate and sort themselves after this manner First the heaviest and grossest parts of the Earth will subside then the watery parts will follow then a lighter sort of Earth which will stop and rest upon the Surface of the Water and compose there a thin film or membrane this membrane or tender Orb is the first rudiment or foundation of a new habitable Earth For according as terrestrial parts fall upon it from all the regions and heighths of the Atmosphere or of the Chaos this Orb will grow more firm strong and immoveable able to support it self and Inhabitants too And having in it all the Principles of a fruitful Soil whether for the production of Plants or of Animals it will want no property or character of an
and of the thousand years reign of Christ does joyn these two as the same thing and common to the same persons yet I know there are some that would distinguish them as things of a different extent and also of a different nature They suppose the Martyrs only will rise from the dead and will be immediately translated into Heaven and there pass their Millennium in celestial glory While the Church is still here below in her Millennium such as it is a state indeed betâ—er than ordinary and free from persecution but obnoxious to all the inconveniences of our present mortal life and a medly of good and bad people without separation This is such an Idea of the Millennium as to my eye hath neither beauty in it nor foundation in Scripture That the Citizens of the New Ierusalem are not a miscellaneous company but a Community of righteous persons we have noted before and that the state of nature will be better than it is at present But besides this what warrant have they for this Ascension of the Martyrs into Heaven at that time Where do we read of that in Scripture And in those things that are not matters of Natural Order but of Divine Oeconomy we ought to be very careful how we add to Scripture The Scripture speaks only of the Resurrection of the Martyrs Apoc. 20. 45. But not a word concerning their Ascension into Heaven Will that be visible We read of our Saviour's Resurrection and Ascension and therefore we have reason to affirm them both We read also of the Resurrection and Ascension of the Witnesses Apoc. 11. in a figurate sence and in that sence we may assert them upon good grounds But as to the Martyrs we read of their Resurrection only without any thing exprest of imply'd about their Ascension By what Authority then shall we add this New Notion to the History or Scheme of the Millennium The Scripture on the contrary makes mention of the descent of the New Ierusalem Apoc. 21. 2. making the Earth the Theatre of all that affair And the Camp of the Saints is upon the Earth ver 9. and these Saints are the same persons so far as can be collected from the text that rise from the dead and reign'd with Christ and were Priests to God ver 4 5 6. Neither is there any distinction made that I find by S. Iohn of two sorts of Saints in the Millennium the one in Heaven and the other upon Earth Lastly The four and twenty Elders ch 5. 10. tho' they were Kings and Priests unto God were content to reign upon Earth Now who can you suppose of a superiour order to these four and twenty Elders Whether they represent the twelve Patriarchs and twelve Apostles or whomsoever they represent they are plac'd next to him that sits upon the Throne and they have Crowns of Gold upon their heads ch 4. 4. There can be no marks of honour and dignity greater than these are and therefore seeing these highest Dignitaries in the Millennium or future Kingdom of Christ are to reign upon Earth there is no ground to suppose the assumption of any other into Heaven upon that account or upon that occasion This is a short and general draught of the Millennial state or future Reign of the Saints according to Scripture Wherein I have endeavour'd to rectifie some mistakes or misconceptions about it That viewing it in its true Nature we may be the better able to judge when and where it will obtain Which is the next thing to be consider'd CHAP. VIII The Third Proposition laid down concerning the Time and Place of the Millennium Several Arguments us'd to prove that it cannot be till after the Conflagration and that the New Heavens and the New Earth are the true Seat of the blessed Millennium WE come now to the Third and last head of our Discourse To determine the Time and Place of the Millennium And seeing it is indifferent whether the proofs lead or follow the Conclusion we will lay down the Conclusion in the first place that our business may be more in view and back it with proofs in the following part of the Chapter Our Third and last Proposition therefore is this That the Blessed Millennium properly so called according as it is describ'd in Scripture cannot obtain in the present Earth nor under the present constitution of Nature and Providence but is to be celebrated in the New Heavens and New Earth after the Conflagration This Proposition it may be will seem a Paradox or singularity to many even of those that believe a Millennium We will therefore make it the business of this Chapter to state it and prove it by such Arguments as are manifestly founded in Scripture and in Reason And to prevent mistakes we must premise this in the first place That tho the Blessed Millennium will not be in this Earth yet we allow that the state of the Church here will grow much better than it is at present There will be a better Idea of Christianity and according to the Prophecies a full Resurrection of the Witnesses and an Ascension into power and the tenth part of the City will fall which things imply ease from Persecution The Conversion of some part of the Christian World to the reformed Faith and a considerable diminution of the power of Antichrist But this still comes short of the happiness and glory wherein the future Kingdom of Christ is represented Which cannot come to pass till the Man of Sin be destroy'd with a total destruction After the Resurrection of the Witnesses there is a Third WOE yet to come and how long that will last does not appear If it bear proportion with the preceding WOES it may last some hundreds of years And we cannot imagine the Millennium to begin till that WOE be finish'd As neither till the Vials be poured out in the 15th chap. which cannot be all pour'd out till after the Resurrection of the Witnesses those Vials being the last plagues that compleat the destruction of Antichrist Wherefore allowing that the Church upon the Resurrection and Ascension of the Witnesses will be advanc'd into a better condition yet that condition cannot be the Millennial state where the Beast is utterly destroy'd and Satan bound and cast into the bottomless pit This being premis'd let us now examine what grounds there are for the Translation of that blessed state into the New Heavens and New Earth seeing that Thought it may be to many persons will appear new and extraordinary In the first place We suppose it out of dispute that there will be New Heavens and a New Earth after the Conflagration This was our first Proposition and we depend upon it as sufficiently prov'd both from Scripture and Antiquity This being admitted How will you stock this New Earth What use will you put it to 'T will be a much nobler Earth and better built than the present and 't is pity it should only float
the foregoing verse but it is the Natural World that is describ'd there the Heavens and the Earth so and so constituted and therefore in fairness of interpretation they ought to be understood here that World being the subject that went immediately before and there being nothing in the words that restrains them to the animate World or to Mankind In the 2d ch ver 5. the Apostle does restrain the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by adding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the World of the ungodly but here 't is not only illimited but according to the context both preceding and following to be extended to the Natural World I say by the following context too for so it answers to the World that is to perish by Fire which will reach the frame of Nature as well as Mankind For a conclusion of this first point I will set down S. Austin ' s judgment in this case who in several parts of his works hath interpreted this place of S. Peter of the natural world As to the heavens he hath these words in his Exposition upon Genesis Hos etiam aerios coelos quondam periisse Diluvio in quâdam earum quae Canonica appellantur Epistolâ legimus We read in one of the Epistles called Canonical meaning this of S. Peter ' s that the aerila heavens perish'd in the Deluge And he concerns himself there to let you know that it was not the starry heavens that were destroy'd the waters could not reach so high but the regions of our air Then afterwards he hath these words Faciliùs eos coelos secundum illius Epistolae authoritatem credimus periisse alios sicut ibi scribitur repositos We do more easily believe according to the authority of that Epistle those heavens to have perish'd and others as it is there written substituted in their plaâ—e In like manner and to the same sence he hath these words upon Psal. 101. Aerii utique coeli perierunt ut propinqus Terris secundum quod dicuntur volucres coeli sunt autem coeli coelorum superiores in Firmamento sed utrùm ipsi perituri sint igni an hi soli qui etiam diluvio perierunt disceptatio est aliquanto scrupulosior inter doctos And in his Book de Civ Dei he hath several passages to the same purpose Quemadmodum in Apostolicâ illâ Epistolâ à toto pars aâ—cipitur quod diluvio periisse dictus est mundus quamvis sola ejus cum suis coelis pars ima perierit These being to the same effect with the first câ—tation I need not make them English and this last place refers to the Earth as well as the Heavens as several other places in S. Austin do whereof we shall give you an account when we come to shew his judgment concerning the second point the diversity of the ante-diluvian and post-diluvian World This being but a foretaste of his good will and inclinations towards this Doctrine These considerations alledg'd so far as I can judge are full and unanswerable proofs that this discourse of the Apostle's comprehends and refers to the Natural World and consequently they warrant our interpretation in this particular and destroy the contrary We have but one step more to make good That there was a change made in this natural world at the Deluge according to the Apostle and this is to confute the second part of their interpretation which supposeth that S. Peter makes no distinction or opposition betwixt the antediluvian Heavens and Earth and the present Heavens and Earth in that respect This second difference betwixt us methinks is still harsher than the first and contrary to the very form as well as to the matter of the Apostle's discourse For there is a plain antithesis or opposition made betwixt the Heavens and the Earth of old ver the 5th and the Heavens and the Earth that are now ver the 7th 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the adversative particle but you see marks the opposition so that it is full and plain according to Grammar and Logick And that the parts or members of this opposition differ in nature from one another is certain from this because otherwise the Apostle's argument or discourse is of no effect concludes nothing to the purpose he makes no answer to the objection nor proves any thing against the Scoffers unless you admit that diversity For they said All things had been the same from the beginning in the Natural World and unless he say as he manifestly does that there hath been a change in Nature and that the Heavens and Earth that are now are different from the ancient Heavens and Earth which perish'd at the Flood he says nothing to destroy their argument nor to confirm the Prophetical doctrine of the future destruction of the Natural World This I think would be enough to satisfie any clear and free mind concerning the meaning of the Apostle but because I desire to give as full a light to this place as I can and to put the sence of it out of controversie if possible for the future I will make some further remarks to confirm this exposition And we may observe that several of those reasons which we have given to prove That the Natural World is understood by S. Peter are double reasons and do also prove the other point in question a diversity betwixt the two Natural Worlds the Ante diluvian and the present As for instance unless you admit this diversity betwixt the two natural Worlds you make the 5th verse in this Chapter superfluous and useless and you must suppose the Apostle to make an inference here without premises In the 6th verse he makes an inference Whereby the World that then was perish'd in a Deluge what does this whereby relate to by reason of what sure of the particular constitution oâ— the Heavens and the Earth immediately be fore describ'd Neither would it have signified any thing to the Scoffers for the Apostle to have told them how the Ante diluvian Heavens and Earth were constituted if they were constituted just in the same manner as the present Besides what is it as I ask'd before that the Apostle tells these Scoffers they were ignorant of does he not say formally and expresly ver 5. that they were ignornat that the Heavens and the Earth were constituted so and so before the Flood but if they were constituted as these present Heavens and Earth are they were not ignorant of their constitution nor did pretend to be ignorant for their own mistaken argument supposeth it But before we proceed any further give me leave to note the impropriety of our Translation in the 5th Verse or latter part of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This we translate standing in the water and out of the water which is done manifestly in compliance with the present form of the Earth and the notions of the Translators and not according to the natural force and
face of the Earth before the Flood And many other transcribers of Antiquity have recorded this Tradition concerning a difference gradual or specifical both in the Ante-diluvian heavens Gloss. Ordin Gen. 9. de Iride Lyran. ibid. Hist. Scholast c. 35. Rab. Maurus Gloss. Inter. Gen. 2. 5 6. Alcuin Quaest. in Gen. inter 135. and in the Ante-diluvian Earth as the same Authors witness in other places As Hist. Schol. o. 34. Gloss. Ord. in Gen. 7. Alâ—uin Inter. 118 c. Not to instance in those that tell us the properties of the Ante-diluvian World under the name and notion of Paradise Thus much concerning this remarkable place in S. Peter and the true exposition of it which I have the more largely insisted upon because I look upon this place as the chief repository of that great Natural Mystery which in Scripture is communicated to us concerning the Triple State or Revolution of the World And of those Men that are so scrupulous to admit the Theory we have propos'd I would willingly know whether they believe the Apostle in what he says concerning the New Heavens and the New Earth to come ver 13. and if they do why they should not believe him as much concerning the Old Heavens and the Old Earth past ver 5 6. which hâ— mentions as formally and describes more distinctly than the other But if they believe neither past nor to come in a natural sence but an unchangeable state of Nature from the Creation to its annihilation I leave them then to their Fellow Eternalists in the Text and to the character or censure the Apostle gives them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 men that go by their own private humour and passions and prefer that to all other evidence They deserve this censure I am sure if they do not only disbelieve but also scoff at this Prophetick and Apostolick doctrine concerning the Vicissitudes of Nature and a Triple World The Apostle in this discourse does formally distinguish Three Worlds for 't is well known that the Hebrows have no word to signifie the Natural World but use that Periphrass The Heavens and the Earth and upon each of them engraves a Name and Title that bears a note of distinction in it He calls them the Old Heavens and Earth the Preseut Heavenâ— and Earth and the New Heavens and Earth 'T is true these Three are one as â—o Matter and Substance but they must differ as to Form and Properties otherwise what is the ground of this distinction and of these three different appeâ—lations Suppose the Iews had expected Ezekiel's Temple for the Third and Last and most perfect and that in the time of the Second Temple they had spoke of them with this distinction or under these different names The Old Temple the Present Temple and the New Temple we expect Would any have understood those Three of one and the same Temple never demolish'd never chang'd never rebuilt always the same both as to Materials and Form no doubtless but of Three several Temples succeeding one another And have we not the same reason to understand this Temple of the World whereof S. Peter speaks to be threefold in succession seeing he does as plainly distinguish it into the Old heavens and earth the Present heavens and earth and the New heavens and earth And I do the more willingly use this comparison of the Temple because it hath been thought an Emblem of the outward World I know we are naturally averse to entertain any thing that is inconsistent with the general frame and texture of our own thoughts That 's to begin the World again and we often reject such things without examination Neither do I wonder that the generality of Interpreters beat down the Apostle's words and sence to their own notions They had no other grounds to go upon and Men are not willing especially in natural and comprehensible things to put such a meaning upon Scripture as is unintelligible to themselves They rather venture to offer a little violence to the words that they may pitch the sence at such a convenient height as their Principles will reach to And therefore though some of our modern Interpreters whom I mention'd before have been sensible of the natural tendency of this discourse of S. Peter's and have much ado to bear of the force of the words so as not to acknowledge that they import a real diversity betwixt the two Worlds spoken of yet having no Principles to guide or support them in following that Tract they are forc'd to stop or divert another way 'T is like entering into the mouth of a Cave we are not willing to venture further than the light goes Nor are they much to blame for this the fault is only in those Persons that continue wilfully in their darkness and when they cannot otherwise resist the light shut their eyes against it or turn their head another way but I am afraid I have staid too long upon this argument not for my own sake but to satisfie others You may please to remember that all that I have said hitherto belongs only to the first Head To prove a Diversity in general betwixt the Ante-diluvian Heavens and Earth and the present not expressing what their particular form was And this general diversity may be argued also by observations taken from Moses his History of the World before and after the Flood From the Longevity of the Antediluvians The Rain-bowu appearing after the Deluge and the breaking open an Abyss capable to overflow the Earth The Heavens that had no Rain-bow and under whose benign and steddy influence Men liv'd seven eight nine hundred years and upwards must have been of a different aspect and constitution from the present Heavens And that Earth that had such an Abyss that the disruption of it made an universal Deluge must have been of another form than the present Earth And those that will not admit a diversity in the two worlds are bound to give us an intelligible account of these Phaenomena How they could possibly be in Heavens and Earth like the present Or if they were there once why they do not continue so still if Nature be the same We need say no more as to the Ante-diluvian Heavens but as to the Earth we must now according to the second Part of the first Head enquire If that Particular Form which we have assign'd it before the Flood be agreeable to Scripture You know how we have describ'd the Form and situation of that Earth namely that it was built over the Abyss as a regular Orb covering and incompassing the waters round about and founded as it were upon them There are many passages of Scripture that favour this description Some more expresly others upon a due explication To this purpose there are two express Texts in the Psalms as Psal. 24. 1 2. The Earth is the Lords and the fulness thereof The habitable World and they that dwell therein FOR he has founded it upon
other and the Deluge being once truly explain'd we shall from thence know the Form and Quality of the Ante-diluvian Earth Let us then proceed to the explication of that great and fatal Inundation whose History is well known and according to Moses the best of Historians in a few words is this Sixteen Hundred and odd years after the Earth was made and inhabited it was over-flow'd and destroy'd in a Deluge of Water Not a Deluge that was National only or over-run some particular Country or Region as Iudea or Greece or any other but it overspread the face of the whole Earth from Pole to Pole and from East to West and that in such excess that the Floods over-reacht the Tops of the highest Mountains the Rains descending after an unusual manner and the fountains of the Great Deep being broke open so as a general destruction and devastation was brought upon the Earth and all things in it Mankind and other living Creatures excepting only Noah and his Family who by a special Providence of God was preserv'd in a certain Ark or Vessel made like a Ship and such kinds of living Creatures as he took in to him After these Waters had rag'd for some time on the Earth they began to lessen and shrink and the great waves and fluctuations of this Deep or Abysse being quieted by degrees the Waters retir'd into their Chanels and Caverns within the Earth and the Mountains and Fields began to appear and the whole habitable Earth in that form and shape wherein we now see it Then the World began again and from that little Remnant preserv'd in the Ark the present race of Mankind and of Animals in the known parts of the Earth were propagated Thus perish'd the Old World and the present arose from the ruines and remains of it This is a short story of the greatest thing that every yet hapned in the World the greatest revolution and the greatest change in Nature and if we come to reflect seriously upon it we shall find it extremely difficult if not impossible to give an account of the Waters that compos'd this Deluge whence they came or whither they went It it had been only the Inundation of a Country or of a Province or of the greatest part of a Continent some proportionable causes perhaps might have been found out but a Deluge overflowing the whole Earth the whole Circuit and whole Extent of it burying all in Water even the greatest Mountains in any known parts of the Universe to find Water sufficient for this Effect as it is generally explained and understood I think is impossible And that we may the better judge of the whole matter let us first compute how much Water would be requisite for such a Deluge or to lay the Earth consider'd in its present form and the highest Mountains under Water Then let 's consider whether such a quantity of Water can be had out of all the stores that we know in Nature And from these two we will take our Ground and Rise and begin to reflect whether the World hath not been hitherto mistaken in the common opinion and explication of the general Deluge To discover how much Water would be requisite to make this Deluge we must first suppose enough to cover the plain surface of the Earth the Fields and lower Grounds then we must heap up so much more upon this as will reach above the tops of the highest Mountains so as drawing a Circle over the tops of the highest Mountains quite round the Earth suppose from Pole to Pole and another to meet it round the middle of the Earth all that space or capacity contin'd within these Circles is to be fill'd up with Water This I confess will make a prodigious mass of Water and it looks frightfully to the imagination 't is huge and great but 't is extravagantly so as a great Monster It doth not look like the work of God or Nature However let 's compute a little more particularly how much this will amount to or how many Oceans of Water would be necessary to compose this great Ocean rowling in the Air without bounds or banks If all the Mountains were par'd off the Earth and so the surface of it lay even or in an equal convexity every where with the surface of the Sea from this surface of the Sea let us suppose that the height of the Mountains may be a mile and a half or that we may not seem at all to favour our own opinion or calculation let us take a mile only for the perpendicular height of the Mountains Let us on the other side suppose the Sea to cover half the Earth as 't is generally believ'd to do and the common depth of it taking one place with another to be about a quarter of a mile or 250 paces I say taking one place with another for though the middle Chanel of the great Ocean be far deeper we may observe that there is commonly a descent or declivity from the shore to the middle part of the Chanel so that one comes by degrees into the depth of it and those shory parts are generally but some fathoms deep Besides in arms of the Sea in Straits and among Islands there is commonly no great depth and some places are plain shallows So as upon a moderate computation one place compar'd with another we may take a quarter of a mile or about an hundred fathoms for the common measure of the depth of the Sea if we were cast into a Chanel of an equal depth every where This being suppos'd there would need four Oceans to lie upon this Ocean to raise it up to the top of the Mountains or so high as the Waters of the Deluge rise then four Oceans more to lie upon the Land that the Water there might swell to the same height which together make eight Oceans for the proportion of the Water requir'd in the Deluge 'T is true there would not be altogether so much Water requir'd for the Land as for the Sea to raise them to an equal height because Mountains and Hills would fill up part of that space upon the Land and so make less Water requisite But to compensate this and confirm our computation we must consider in the first place that we have taken a much less height of the Mountains than is requisite if we respect the Mediterraneous Mountains or those that are at a great distance from the Sea For their height above the surface of the Sea computing the declivity of the Land all along from the Mountains to the Sea-side and that there is such a declivity is manifest from the course and descent of the Rivers is far greater than the proportion we have taken The height of Mountains is usually taken from the foot of them or from the next Plain which if it be far from the Sea we may reasonably allow as much for the declension of the Land from that place to the Sea as for the
immediate height of the Mountain So for instance the Mountains of the Moon in Africa whence the Nile flows and after a long course falls into the Mediterranean Sea by Egypt are so much higher than the surface of that Sea first as the Ascent of the Land is from the Sea to the foot of the Mountains and then as the height of the Mountains is from the bottom to the top For both these are to be computed when you measure the height of a Mountain or of a mountainous Land in respect of the Sea And the height of Mountains to the Sea being thus computed there would be need of six or eight Oceans to raise the Sea alone as high as the highest In-land Mountains And this is more than enough to compensate the less quantity of Water that would be requisite upon the Land Besides we must consider the Regions of the Air upwards to be more capacious than a Region of the same thickness in or near the Earth so as if an Ocean pour'd upon the surface of the dry Land supposing it were all smooth would rise to the height of half a quarter of a mile every where the like quantity of Water pour'd again at the height of the Mountains would not have altogether the same effect or would not there raise the mass half a quarter of a mile higher for the surfaces of a Globe the farther they are from their Center are the greater and so accordingly the Regions that belong to them And lastly we must consider that there are some Countries or Valleys very low and also many Caverns or Cavities within the Earth all which in this case were to be first fill'd with Water These things being compar'd and estimated we shall find that notwithstanding the room that Hills and Mountains take up on the dry Land there would be at least eight Oceans requir'd or a quantity of Water eight times as great as the Ocean to bring an Universal Deluge upon the Earth as that Deluge is ordinarily understood and explained The proportion of Water for the Deluge being thus stated the next thing to be done is to enquire where this Water is to be found if any part of the Sublunary World will afford us so much Eight Oceans floating in the Air make a great bulk of Water I do not know what possible Sources to draw it from There are the Clouds above and the Deeps below and in the bowels of the Earth and these are all the stores we have for Water and Moses directs us to no other for the Causes of the Deluge The Fountains he saith of the great Abysse were broken up or burst asunder and the Rain descended for forty days the Cataracts or Floodgates of Heaven being open'd And in these two no doubt are contain'd the causes of the great Deluge as according to Moses so also according to reason and necessity for our World affords no other treasures of Water Let us therefore consider how much this Rain of Forty Days might amount to and how much might flow out of the Abysse that so we may judge whether these two in conjunction would make up the Eight Oceans which we want As for the Rains they would not afford us one Ocean nor half an Ocean nor the tenth part of an Ocean if we may trust to the Observations made by others concerning the quantity of Water that falls in Rain Mersennus gives us this account of it It appears by our Observations that a Cubical Vessel of Brass whereof we made use is fill'd an inch and an half in half an hours time but because that sucks up noâ—hing of the moisture as the Earth doth let us take an inch for half an hours Rain whence it follows that in the space of 40 days and nights Rain the Waters in the Deluge would rise 160 feet if the Rains were constant and equal to ours and that it rain'd at once throughout the face of the whole Earth But the Rain of the Deluge saith he should have been 90 times greater than this to cover for instance the Mountains of Armenia or to reach 15 Cubits above them So that according to his computation the 40 days Rain would supply little more than the hundredth part of the Water requisite to make the Deluge 'T is true he makes the heighth of the Mountains higher than we do but however if you temper the Calculation on all sides as much as you please the water that came by this Rain would be a very inconsiderable part of what was necessary for a Deluge If it rain'd 40 days and 40 nights throughout the face of the whole Earth in the Northern and Southern Hemisphere all at once it might be sufficient to lay all the lower grounds under water but it would signifie very little as to the over-flowing of the Mountains Whence another Author upon the same occasion hath this passage If the Deluge had been made by Rains only there would not have needed 40 days but 40 years Rain to have brought it to pass And if we should suppose the whole middle Region condens'd into water it would not at all have been sufficient for this effect according to that proportion some make betwixt Air and Water for they say Air turn'd into Water takes up a hundred times less room than it did before The truth is we may reasonably suppose that all the vapours of the middle Region were turn'd into water in this 40 days and 40 nights Rain if we admit that this Rain was throughout the whole Earth at once in either Hemisphere in every Zone in every Climate in every Country in every Province in every Field and yet we see what a small proportion all this would amount to Having done then with these Superiour Regions we are next to examine the Inferiour and the treasures of water that may be had there Moses tells us that the Fountains of the great Abysse were broke open or clove asunder as the word there us'd doth imply and no doubt in this lay the great mystery of the Deluge as will appear when it comes to be rightly understood and explain'd but we are here to consider what is generally understood by the great Abysse in the common explication of the Deluge and 't is commonly interpreted either to be the Sea or Subterraneous waters hid in the bowels of the Earth These they say broke forth and rais'd the waters caus'd by the Rain to such an height that together they overflowed the highest Mountains But whether or how this could be deserves to be a little examin'd And in the first place the Sea is not higher than the Land as some have formerly imagin'd fansying the Sea stood as it were upon a heap higher than the shore and at the Deluge a relaxation being made it overflow'd the Land But this conceit is so gross and so much against reason and experience that none I think of late have ventur'd to make use of it And yet on the
Age of the World And the same Moses tells us that Adam was the first Man and Eve the first Woman from whom sprung the race of Mankind and this within the compass of six thousand years We are also assured from the Prophets and our Christian Records that the world shall have an end and that by a general Conflagration when all Mankind shall be destroy'd with the form and all the furniture of the Earth And as this proves the second part of Aristotle's Doctrine to be false immediately so doth it the first by a true consequence for what hath an end had a beginning what is not immortal was not Eternal That which exists by the strength of its own Nature at first the same Nature will enable to exist for ever and indeed what exists of it self exists necessarily and what exists necessarily exists eternally Having this infallible assurance of the Origin of the Earth and of Mankind from Scripture we proceed to refute the same Doctrine of Aristotle's by Natural Reason And we will first consider the form of the Earth and then Mankind and shew from plain evidence and observation neither of them to have been Eternal 'T is natural to the mind of Man to consider that which is compound as having been once more simple whether that composition be a mixture of many ingredients as most Terrestrial Bodies are or whether it be Organical but especially if it be Organical For a thing that consists of a multitude of pieces aptly joyn'd we cannot but conceive to have had those pieces at one time or another put together 'T were hard to conceive an eternal Watch whose pieces were never separate one from another nor ever in any other form than that of a Watch. Or an eternal House whose materials were never asunder but always in the form of an House And 't is as hard to conceive an Eternal Earth or an Eternal World These are made up of more various substances more ingredients and into a far greater composition and the living part of the World Plants and Animals have much more variety of parts and multifarious construction than any House or any other artificial thing So that we are led as much by Nature and necessity to conceive this great Machine of the World or of the Earth to have been once in a state of greater simplicity than now it is as to conceive a Watch an House or any other structure to have been once in its first and simple materials This I speak without reference to immediate Creation for Aristotle did not own any such thing and therefore the argument stands good against him upon those grounds and notions that he goes yet I guess what answer would be made by him or his followers to this argumentation They would say there is not the same reason for Natural things as for Artificial though equally compounded Artificial things could not be from Eternity because they suppose Man by whose Art they were made pre existent to them the work-man must be before the work and whatsoever hath any thing before it is not Eternal But may not the same thing be said of Natural things do not most of them require the action of the Sun and the influence of the Heavens for their production and longer preparations than any Artificial things do Some Years or Ages would be necessary for the concoction and maturation of Metals and Minerals Stones themselves at least some sorts of them were once liquors or fluid masses and all Vegetable productions require the heat of the Sun to predispose and excite the Earth and the Seeds Nay according to Aristotle 't is not Man by himself that begets a Man but the Sun is his Coadjutor You see then 't was as necessary that the Sun that great Workman of Nature should pre-exist to Natural things producâ—d in or upon the Earth as that Man should pre-exist to Artificial So that the Earth under that form and constitution it now hath could no more be Eternal than a Statue or Temple or any work of Art Besides that form which the Earth is under at present is in some sort preter-natural like a Statue made and broken again and so hath still the less appearance or pretence of being Eternal If the Elements had lain in that order to one another as Aristotle hath dispos'd them and as seems to be their first disposition the Earth altogether in a mass in the middle or towards the Centre then the Water in a Spherical mass about that the Air above the Water and then a Sphere of Fire as he fansied in the highest Circle of the Air If they had lain I say in this posture there might have been some pretence that they had been Eternally so because that might seem to be their Original posture in which Nature had first plac'd them But the form and posture we find them in at present is very different and according to his Doctrine must be look'd upon as unnatural and violent and no violent state by his own Maxim can be perpetual or can have been so But there is still a more pressing consideration against this Opinion If this present state and form of the Earth had been from Eternity it would have long ere this destroy'd it self and chang'd it self the Mountains sinking by degrees into the Vallies and into the Sea and the Waters rising above the Earth which form it would certainly have come into sooner or later and in it continu'd drown'd and uninhabitable for all succeeding Generations For 't is certain that the Mountains and higher parts of the Earth grow lesser and lesser from Age to Age and that from many causes sometimes the roots of them are weaken'd and eaten by Subterraneous Fires and sometimes they are torn and tumbled down by Earthquakes and fall into those Caverns that are under them and though those violent causes are not constant or universal yet if the Earth had stood from Eternity there is not a Mountain would have escap'd this fate in one Age or other The course of these exhalations or Fires would have reach'd them all sooner or later if through infinite Ages they had stood expos'd to them But there are also other causes that consume them insensibly and make them sink by degrees and those are chiefly the Winds Rains and Storms and heat of the Sun without and within the soaking of Water and Springs with streams and currents in their veins and crannies These two sorts of causes would certainly reduce all the Mountains of the Earth in tract of time to equality or rather lay them all under Water For whatsoever moulders or is washt away from them is carried down into the lower grounds and into the Sea and nothing is ever brought back again by any circulation Their losses are not repair'd nor any proportionable recruits made from any other parts of Nature So as the higher parts of the Earth being continually spending and the lower continually gaining they must of necessity at
length come to an equality and the Waters that lie in the lower parts and in the Chanels those Chanels and Valleys being fill'd up with Earth would be thrust out and rise every where upon the surface of the Earth Which new post when they had once seiz'd on they would never quit it nor would any thing be able to dispossess them for 't is their natural place and situation which they always tend to and from which there is no progress nor regress in a course of Nature So that the Earth would have been both now and from innumerable Generations before this all under water and uninhabitable if it had stood from everlasting and this form of it had been its first original form Nor can he doubt of this argumentation that considers the coherence of it and will allow time enough for the effect I do not say the Earth would be reduc'd to this uninhabitable form in ten thousand years time though I believe it would but take twenty if you please take an hundred thousand take a million 't is all one for you may take the one as easily as the other out of Eternity and they make both equally against their supposition Nor is it any matter how little you suppose the Mountains to decrease 't is but taking more time and the same effect still follows Let them but waste as much as a grain of Mustardseed every day or a foot in an Age this would be more than enough in ten thousand Ages to consume the tallest Mountain upon Earth The Air alone and the little drops of Rain have defac'd the strongest and the proudest monuments of the Greeks and Romans and allow them but time enough and they will of themselves beat down the Rocks into the Sea and the Hills into the Valleys But if we add to these all those other foremention'd causes that work with more violence and the weight of the Mountains themselves which upon any occasion offer'd is ready to sink them lower we shall shorten the time and make the effect more sure We need add no more here in particular Against this Aristotelian Doctrine that makes the present form of the Earth to have been from Eternity for the truth is this whole Book is one continued argument against that Opinion shewing that it hath de facto chang'd its form both in that we have prov'd that it was not capable of an universal Deluge in this form and consequently was once under another and also in that we shall prove at large hereafter throughout the Third and Fourth Sections that it hath been broken and dissolv'd We might also add one consideration more that if it had stood always under this form it would have been under Fire if it had not been under Water and the Conflagration which it is to undergo would have overtaken it long ere this For S. Peter saith the Heavens and the Earth that are now as oppos'd to the Ante-diluvian and considered in their present form and constitution are fitted to be consum'd by Fire And whosoever understands the progress and revolutions of Nature will see that neither the present form of the Earth nor its first form were permanent and immutable forms but transient and temporary by their own frame and constitution which the Author of Nature after certain periods of time had design'd for change and for destruction Thus much for the body of the Earth that it could not have been from Eternity as Aristotle pretended in the form it hath Now let 's consider the Origination of Mankind and that we shall find could much less be Eternal than the other for whatsoever destroy'd the form of the Earth would also destroy Mankind and besidâ—s there are many particular marks and arguments that the Generations of Men have not been from Everlasting All History and all monuments of Antiquity of what kind soever are but of a few thousand of years date we have still the memory of the golden Age of the first state of Nature and how mortals liv'd then in innocency and simplicity The invention of Arts even those that are necessary or useful to humane life hath been within the knowledge of Men How imperfect was the Geography of the Ancients how imperfect their knowledge of the Earth how imperfect their Navigation Can we imagine if there had been Men from Everlasting a Sea as now and all materials for Shipping as much as we have that men could have been so ignorant both of the Land and of the Sea as 't is manifest they have been till of late Ages They had very different fancies concerning the figure of the Earth They knew no Land beyond our Continent and that very imperfectly too and the Torrid Zone they thought utterly uninhabitable We think it strange taking that short date of the World which we give it that Men should not have made more progress in the knowledge of these things But how impossible is it then if you suppose them to have been from Everlasting They had the same wit and passions that we have the same motives that we have can we then imagine that neither the ambition of Princes nor interest or gain in private Persons nor curiosity and the desire of Knowledge nor the glory of discoveries nor any other passion or consideration could ever move them in that endless time to try their fortunes upon the Sea and know something more of the World they inhabited Though you should suppose them generally stupid which there is no reason to do yet in a course of infinite Generations there would be some great Genio's some extraordinary persons that would attempt things above the rest We have done more within the compass of our little World which we can but count as to this from the general Deluge than those Eternal Men had done in their innumerable Ages foregoing You will say it may be they had not the advantages and opportunities for Navigation as we have and for discoveries because the use of the Loadstone and the Mariners Needle was not then known But that 's the wonder that either that invention or any other should not be brought to light till t'other day if the World had stood from Eternity I say this or any other practical invention for such things when they are once found out and known are not easily lost again because they are of daily use And 't is in most other practical Arts as in Navigation we generally know their Original and History who the Inventors and by what degrees improv'd and how few of them brought to any perfection till of late Ages All the Artificial and Mechanical World is in a manner new and what you may call the Civil World too is in a great measure so What relates to Government and Laws to Wars and Discipline we can trace these things to their Origin or very near it The use of Money and of Coins nay the use of the very Elements for they tell us of the first invention of Fire
description of a Chaos And so it is understood by the general consent of Interpreters both Hebrew and Christian. We need not therefore spend any time here to prove that the Origin of the Earth was from a Chaos seeing that is agreed on by all that give it any Origin But we will proceed immediately to examine into what form it first rise when it came out of that Chaos or what was the primaeval form of the Earth that continued till the Deluge and how the Deluge depended upon it and upon its dissolution And that we may proceed in this enquiry by such easie steps as any one may readily follow we will divide it into Three Propositions whereof the first is this in general That the Form of the Antediluvian Earth or of the Earth that rise first from the Chaos was different from the Form of the present Earth I say different in general without specifying yet what its particular form was which shall be exprest in the following Proposition This First Proposition we have in effect prov'd in the Second Chapter where we have shewn that if the Earth had been always in this form it would not have been capable of a Deluge seeing that could not have been effected without such an infinite mass of water as could neither be brought upon the Earth nor afterwards any way removed from it But we will not content our selves with that proof only but will prove it also from the nature of the Chaos and the manifest consequences of it And because this is a leading Proposition we think it not improper to prove it also from Divine Authority there being a pregnant passage to this purpose in the writings of S. Peter Where treating of this very subject the Deluge He manifestly puts a difference between the Ante-diluvian Earth and the present Earth as to their form and constitution The Discourse is in the Second Epistle of S. Peter the Third Chapter where certain Deists as they seem to have been laught at the Prophecy of the day of Judgment and of the Conflagration of the World using this argument against it That since the Fathers fell asleep all things have continued as they were from the beginning All external Nature hath continued the same without any remarkable change or alteration and why should we believe say they there will be any What appearance or what foundation is there of such a revolution that all Nature will be dissolv'd and the Heavens and the Earth consum'd with Fire as your Prophecies pretend So from the permanency and immutability of Nature hitherto they argu'd its permanency and immutability for the future To this the Apostle answers that they are willing to forget that the Heavens and the Earth of old had a particular form and constitution as to Water by reason whereof the World that then was perisht by a Deluge And the Heavens and the Earth that are now or since the Deluge have a particular constitution in reference to Fire by reason whereof they are expos'd to another sort of destruction or dissolution namely by Fire or by an universal Conflagration The words of the Apostle are these For this they are willingly ignorant of that by the Word of God the Heavens were of old and the Earth consisting of Water and by Water or as we render it standing out of the Water and in the Water whereby the World that then was being overslow'd with Water perisht But the Heavens and the Earth that are now by the same Word are kept in store reseru'd unto Fire against the day of Iudgment We shall have occasion it may be hereafter to give a full illustration of these words but at present we shall only take notice of this in general that the Apostle here doth plainly intimate some difference that was between the old World and the present World in their form and constitution or betwixt the Ante-diluvian and the present Earth by reason of which difference that was subject to perish by a Deluge as this is subject to perish by Conflagration And as this is the general Air and Importance of this discourse of he Apostle's which every one at first sight would discover so we may in several particular ways prove from it our first Proposition which now we must return to viz. That the form and constitution of the Ante-diluvian Earth was different from that of the present Earth This may be infer'd from the Apostle's discourse first because he makes an opposition betwixt these two Earths or these two natural Worlds and that not only in respect of their fate the one perishing by Water as the other will perish by Fire but also in respect of their different disposition and constitution leading to this different fate for otherwise his fifth verse is superfluous and his Inference in the sixth ungrounded you see he premiseth in the fifth verse as the ground of his discourse what the constitution of the Ante-diluvian Heavens and Earth was and then infers from it in the sixth verse that they therefore perisht in a Deluge of Water Now if they had been the same with ours there had neither been any ground for making an opposition betwixt them nor any ground of making a contrary inference as to their fate Besides in that he implies that the constitution of the Ante-diluvian Earth was such as made it subject to a Deluge he shews that it was different from the constitution of the present Earth for the form of that is such as makes it rather incapable of a Deluge as we have shewn in the second Chapter Then we are to observe further that when he saith verse 6. that the first World perish'd in a Deluge or was destroy'd by it this is not to be understood of the Animate World only Men and living Creatures but of the Natural World and the frame of it for he had describ'd it before by the Heavens and the Earth which make the Natural World And the objection of the Atheists or Deists rather which he was to answer proceeded upon the Natural World And lastly this perishing of the World in a Deluge is set against or compar'd with the perishing of the World in the Conflagration when the frame of Nature will be dissolv'd We must therefore according to the tenor of the Apostle's arguing suppose that the Natural World was destroy'd or perish'd in the Deluge and seeing it did not perish as to matter and substance it must be as to the form frame and composition of it that it perish'd and consequently the present Earth is of another form and frame from what it had before the Deluge which was the thing to be proved Lastly Let us consider what it is the Apostle tells these Scoffers that they were ignorant of Not that there was a Deluge they could not be ignorant of that nor doth he tell them that they were But he tells them that they were ignorant that the Heavens and the Earth of old were so and so
settle into the same form which they had when they were last liquid and are always solid within and smooth without unless they be cast in a mould that hinders the motion and flux of the parts So that the first concrete state or consistent surface of the Chaos must be of the same form or figure with the last liquid state it was in for that is the mould as it were upon which it is cast as the shell of an Egg is of a like form with the surface of the liquor it lies upon And therefore by analogy with all other liquors and concretions the form of the Chaos whether liquid or concrete could not be the same with that of the present Earth or like it And consequently that form of the first or primigenial Earth which rise immediately out of the Chaos was not the same nor like to that of the present Earth Which was the first and preparatory Proposition we laid down to be prov'd And this being prov'd by the authority both of our Reason and our Religion we will now proceed to the Second which is more particular CHAP. V. The Second Proposition is laid down viz. That the face of the Earth before the Deluge was smooth regular and uniform without Mountains and without a Sea The Chaos out of which the World rise is fully examin'd and all its motions observ'd and by what steps it wrought it self into an habitable World Some things in Antiquity relating to the first state of the Earth are interpreted and some things in the Sacred Writings The Divine Art and Geometry in the construction of the first Earth is observ'd and celebrated WE have seen it prov'd in the foregoing Chapter That the form of the first or Ante-diluvian Earth was not the same nor like the form of the present Earth this is our first discovery at a distance but 't is only general and negative tells us what the form of that Earth was not but tells us not expresly what it was that must be our next enquiry and advancing one step further in our Theory we lay down this Second Proposition That the face of the Earth before the Deluge was smooth regular and uniform without Mountains and without a Sea This is a bold step and carries us into another World which we have never seen nor ever yet heard any relation of and a World it seems of very different scenes and prospects from ours or from any thing we have yet known An Earth without a Sea and plain as the Elysian fields if you travel it all over you will not meet with a Mountain or a Rock yet well provided of all reqnisite things for an habitable World and the same indeed with the Earth we still inhabit only under another form And this is the great thing that now comes into debate the great Paradox which we offer to be examin'd and which we affirm That the Earth in its first rise and formation from a Chaos was of the form here describ'd and so continu'd for many hundreds of years To examine and prove this we must return to the beginning of the World and to that Chaos out of which the Earth and all Sublunary things arose 'T is the motions and progress of this which we must now consider and what form it setled into when it first became an habitable World Neither is it perhaps such an intricate thing as we imagine at first sight to trace a Chaos into an habitable World at least there is a particular pleasure to see things in their Origin and by what degrees and successive changes they rise into that order and state we see them in afterwards when compleated I am sure if ever we would view the paths of Divine Wisdom in the works and in the conduct of Nature we must not only consider how things are but how they came to be so 'T is pleasant to look upon a Tree in the Summer cover'd with its green Leaves deckt with Blossoms or laden with Fruit and casting a pleasing shade under its spreading Boughs but to consider how this Tree with all its furniture sprang from a little Seed how Nature shap'd it and fed it in its infancy and growth added new parts and still advanc'd it by little and little till it came to this greatness and perfection this methinks is another sort of pleasure more rational less common and which is properly the contemplation of Divine Wisdom in the works of Nature So to view this Earth and this Sublunary World as it is now compleat distinguisht into the several orders of Bodies of which it consists every one perfect and admirable in its kind this is truly delightful and a very good entertainment of the mind But to see all these in their first Seeds as I may so say to take in pieces this frame of Nature and melt it down into its first principles and then to observe how the Divine Wisdom wrought all these things out of confusion into order and out of simplicity into that beautiful composition we now see them in this methinks is another kind of joy which pierceth the mind more deep and is more satisfactory And to give our selves and others this satisfaction we will first make a short representation of the Chaos and then shew how according to Laws establisht in Nature by the Divine Power and Wisdom it was wrought by degrees from one from into another till it setled at length into an habitable Earth and that of such a frame and structure as we have describ'd in this second Proposition By the Chaos I understand the matter of the Earth and Heavens without from or order reduc'd into a fluid mass wherein are the materials and ingredients of all bodies but mingled in confusion one with another As if you should suppose all sorts of Metals Gold Silver Lead c. melted down together in a common mass and so mingled that the parts of no one Metal could be discern'd as distinct from the rest this would be a little Metallick Chaos Suppose then the Elements thus mingled Air Water and Earth which are the principles of all Terrestrial Bodies mingled I say without any order of higher or lower heavier or lighter solid or volatile in such a kind of confus'd mass as is here represented in this first Scheme pag. 36 fig. 1 Let this then represent to us the Chaos in which the first change that we should imagine to happen would be this that the heaviest and grossest parts would sink down towards the middle of it for there we suppose the center of its gravity and the rest would float above These grosser parts thus sunk down and compress'd more and more would harden by degrees and constitute the interiour parts of the Earth The rest of the mass which swims above would be also divided by the same principle of gravity into two orders of Bodies the one liquid like Water the other Volatile like Air. For the more fine and active parts disentangling
three feet deep made up only of little flakes or pieces of Ice which falling from the middle Region of the Air and meeting with the Earth in their descent are there stopt and heapt up one upon another But if we should suppose little particles of Earth to shower down not only from the middle Region but from the whole capacity and extent of those vast spaces that are betwixt us and the Moon we could not imagine but these would constitute an Orb of Earth some thousands of times deeper than the greatest Snow which being increas'd and swoln by that oily liquor it fell into and incorporated with it would be thick strong and great enough in all respects to render it an habitable Earth We cannot doubt therefore but such a body as this would be form'd and would be sufficient in quantity for an habitable Earth Then for the quality of it it will answer all the purposes of a Rising World What can be a more proper Seminary for Plants and Animals than a soil of this temper and composition A finer and lighter sort of Earth mixt with a benign Juice easie and obedient to the action of the Sun or of what other causes were employ'd by the Author of Nature for the production of things in the new-made Earth What sort or disposition of matter could be more fit and ready to catch life from Heaven and to be drawn into all forms that the rudiments of life or the bodies of living Creatures would require What soil more proper for vegetation than this warm moisture which could have no fault unless it was too fertile and luxuriant And that is no fault neither at the beginning of a World This I am sure of that the learned amongst the Ancients both Greeks Egyptians Phoenicians and others have describ'd the primigenial soil or the temper of the Earth that was the first subject for the Generation and Origin of Plants and Animals after such a manner as is truly express'd and I think with advantage by this draught of the primigenial Earth Thus much concerning the matter of the first Earth Let us reflect a little upon the form of it also whether External or Internal both whereof do manifestly shew themselves from the manner of its production or formation As to the External form you see it is according to the Proposition we were to prove smooth regular and uniform without Mountains and without a Sea And the proof we have given of it is very easie The Globe of the Earth could not possibly rise immediately from a Chaos into the irregular form in which it is at present The Chaos being a fluid mass which we know doth necessarily fall into a Spherical surface whose parts are equi-distant from the Center and consequently in an equal and even convexity one with another And seeing upon the distinction of a Chaos and separation into several Elementary masses the Water would naturally have a superiour place to the Earth 't is manifest that there could be no habitable Earth form'd out of the Chaos unless by some concretion upon the face of the Water Then lastly seeing this concrete Orb of Earth upon the face of the Water would be of the same form with the surface of the Water it was spread upon there being no causes that we know of to make any inequality in it we must conclude it equal and uniform and without Mountains as also without a Sea for the Sea and all the mass of Waters was enclos'd within this exteriour Earth which had no other basis or foundation to rest upon The contemplation of these things and of this posture of the Earth upon the Waters doth so strongly bring to mind certain passages of Scripture which will recur in another place that we cannot without injury to truth pass them by here in silence Passages that have such a manifest resemblance and agreement to this form and situation of the Earth that they seem visibly to point at it such are those expressions of the Psalmist God hath founded the Earth upon the Seas And in another Psalm speaking of the wisdom and power of God in the Creation he saith To him who alone doth great wonders to him that by wisdom made the Heavens to him that extended or stretched out the Earth above the Waters What can be more plain or proper to denote that form of the Earth that we have describ'd and to express particularly the inclosure of the Waters within the Earth as we have represented them He saith in another place By the Word of the Lord were the Heavens made he shut up the Waters of the Sea as in Bags for so the word is to be render'd and is render'd by all except the English and laid up the Abysse as in store-houses This you see is very conformable to that System of the Earth and Sea which we have propos'd here Yet there is something more express than all this in that remarkable place in the Proverbs of Solomon where Wisdom declaring her Antiquity and Existence before the foundation of the Earth amongst other things saith When he prepared the Heavens I was there When he drew an Orb over the surface of the Abysse or when he set an Orb upon the face of the Abysse We render it in the English a Compass or Circle but 't is more truly rendred an Orb or Sphere and what Orb or Spherical Body was this which at the formation of the Earth was built and plac'd round about the Abyss but that wonderful Arch whose form and production we have describ'd encompassing the mass of Waters which in Scripture is often call'd the Abysse or Deep Lastly This Scheme of the first Earth gives light to that place we mention'd before of S. Peter's where the first Earth is said to consist of Water and by Water and by reason thereof was obnoxious to a Deluge The first part of this character is plain from the description now given and the second will appear in the following Chapter In the mean time concerning these passages of Scripture which we have cited we may truly and modestly say that though they would not it may be without a Theory premis'd have been taken or interpreted in this sence yet this Theory being premis'd I dare appeal to any unprejudic'd person if they have not a fairer and easier a more full and more emphatical sence when apply'd to that form of the Earth and Sea we are now speaking of than to their present form or to any other we can imagine Thus much concerning the external form of the first Earth Let us now reflect a little upon the Internal form of it which consists of several Regions involving one another like Orbs about the same Center or of the several Elements cast circularly about each other as it appears in the Fourth and Fifth Figure And as we have noted the External form of this primaeâ—al Earth to have been markt and celebrated in the Sacred Writings so
more critical examination than this Discourse will easily bear There is another remarkable Discourse in Iob that contains many things to our present purpose 't is Chap. 38. where God reproaches Iob with his ignorance of what pass'd at the beginning of the World and the formation of the Earth Vers. 4 5 6. Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the Earth Declare if thou hast understanding Who hath laid the measures thereof if thou knowest or who hath stretched the line upon it Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastned or who laid the corner-stone All these questions have far more force and Emphasis more propriety and elegacy if they be understood of the first and Ante-diluvian form of the Earth than if they be understood of the present for in the present form of the Earth there is no Architecture no structure no more than in a ruine or at least none comparatively to what was in the first form of it And that the exterior and superficial part of the Earth is here spoken of appears by the rule and line appli'd to it but what rule or regularity is there in the surface of the present Earth what line was us'd to level its parts But in its original construction when â—it lay smooth and regular in its surface as if it had been drawn by rule and line in every part and when it hung pois'd upon the Deep without pillar or foundation stone then just proportions were taken and every thing plac'd by weight and measure And this I doubt not was that artificial structure here alluded to and when this work was finisht then the morning Stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy Thus far the questions proceed upon the form and construction of the first Earth in the following verses 8 9 10 11. they proceed upon the demolition of that Earth the opening the Abysse and the present state of both Or who shut up the Sea with doors when it brake forth as if it had issu'd out of a womb Who can doubt but this was at the breaking open of the Fountains of the Abysse Gen. 7. 11. when the waters gusht out as out of the great womb of Nature and by reason of that confusion and perturbation of Air and Water that rise upon it a thick mist and darkness was round the Earth and all things as in a second Chaos When I made the cloud the garment thereof and thick darkness a swadling band for it and brake up for it my decreed place and made bars and doors Namely taking the words as thus usually render'd the present Chanel of the Sea was made when the Abysse was broke up and at the same time were made the shory Rocks and Mountains which are the bars and boundaries of the Sea And said hitherto shalt thou come and no further and here shall thy proud waves be stay'd Which last sentence shows that this cannot be understood of the first disposition of the waters as they were before the Flood for their proud waves broke those bounds whatsoever they were when they overflow'd the Earth in the Deluge And that the womb which they broke out of was the great Abyss the Chaldee Paraphrase in this place doth expresly mention and what can be understood by the womb of the Farth but that Subterraneous capacity in which the Abyss lay Then that which followeth is a description or representation of the great Deluge that ensu'd and of that disorder in Nature that was then and how the Waters were setled and Bounded afterwards Not unlike the description in the 104 Psalm vers 6 7 8 9. and thus much for these places in the book of Iob. There remains a remarkable discourse in the Proverbs of Solomon relating to the Mosaical Abysse and not only to that but to the Origin of the Earth in general where Wisdom declares her antiquity and pre-existence to all the works of this Earth Chap. 8. ver 23. 24 25 26 27 28. I was set up from everlasting from the beginning ere the Earth was When there were no Deeps or Abysses I was brought forth when no fountains abounding with water Then in the 27. verse When he prepared the Heavens I was there when he set a Compass upon the face of the Deep or Abysse When he established the Clouds above when he strengthned the fountains of the Abysse Here is mention made of the Abysse and of the Fountains of the Abysse and who can question but that the Fountains of the Abyss here are the same with the Fountains of the Abyss which Moses mentions and were broken open as he tells us at the Deluge Let us observe therefore what form Wisdom gives to this Abyss and consequently to the Mosaical And here seem to be two expressions that determine the form of it vers 28. He strengthned the fountains of the Abysse that is the cover of those Fountains for the Fountains could be strengthned no other way than by making a strong cover or Arch over them And that Arch is exprest more fully and distinctly in the foregoing verse When he prepar'd the Heavens I was there when he set a Compass on the face of the Abysse we render it Compass the word signifies a Circle or Circumference or an Orb or Sphere So there was in the beginning of the World a Sphere Orb or Arch set round the Abyss according to the restimony of Wisdom who was then present And this shews us both the form of the Mosaical Abyss which was included within this Vault and the form of the habitable Earth which was the outward surface of this Vault or the cover of the Abyss that was broke up at the Deluge And thus much I think is sufficient to have noted out of Scripture concerning the Mosaical Abyss to discover the form place and situation of it which I have done the more largely because that being determin'd it will draw in easily all the rest of our Theory concerning the Deluge I will now only add one or two general Observations and so conclude this discourse The first Observation is concerning the Abyss namely That the opening and shutting of the Abysse is the great hinge upon which Nature turns in this Earth This brings another face of things other Scenes and a New World upon the stage And accordingly it is a thing often mention'd and alluded to in Scripture sometimes in a Natural sometimes in a Moral or Theological sence and in both sences our Saviour shuts and opens it as he pleaseth Our Saviour who is both Lord of Nature and of Grace whose Dominion is both in Heaven and in Earth hath a double Key that of the Abyss whereby Death and Hell are in his power and all the revolutions of Nature are under his Conduct and Providence And the Key of David whereby he admits or excludes from the City of God and the Kingdom of Heaven whom he pleaseth Of those places that refer to the shutting and
opening the Abyss in a natural sence I cannot but particularly take notice of that in Iob Chap. 12. ver 14 15. God breaketh down and it cannot be built again he shutteth up man and there can be no opening Behold he withholdeth the waters and they dry up also he sendeth them out and they overturn the Earth Though these things be true of God in lesser and common instances yet to me it is plain that they principally refer to the Deluge the opening and shutting the Abyss with the dissoluâ—ion or subversion of the Earth thereupon and accordingly they are made the great effects of the Divine Power and Wisdom in the foregoing Verse With God is wisdom and strength he hath counsel and understanding Behold he breaketh down c. And also in the conclusion 't is repeated again With him is strength and wisdom which solemnity would scarce have been us'd for common instances of his power When God is said to build or pull down and no body can build again 't is not to be understood of an House or a Town God builds and unbuilds Worlds and who shall build up that Arch that was broke down at the Deluge Where shall they lay the Foundation or how shall the Mountains be rear'd up again to make part of the Roof This is the Fabrick which when God breaketh down none can build up again He withholdeth the waters and they dry up As we shew'd the Earth to have been immoderately chapt and parcht before its dissolution He sendeth them forth and they overturn the Earth What can more properly express the breaking out of the waters at the disruption of the Abyss and the subversion or dissolution of the Earth in consequence of it 'T is true this last passage may be applied to the breaking out of waters in an ordinary Earthquake and the subversion of some part of the Earth which often follows upon it but it must be acknowledg'd that the sence is more weighty if it be refer'd to the great Deluge and the great Earthquake which laid the World in ruines and in water And Philosophical descriptions in Sacred Writings like Prophecies have often a lesser and a greater accomplishment and interpretation I could not pass by this place without giving this short Explication of it We proceed now to the second Observation which is concerning the stile of Scripture in most of those places we have cited and others upon the same subject The reflections that are made in several parts of the Divine Writings upon the Origin of the World and the formation of the Earth seem to me to be writ in a stile-something approaching to the nature of a Prophetical stile and to have more of a Divine Enthusiasm and Elocution in them than the ordinary text of Scripture the expressions are lofty and sometimes abrupt and often figurative and disguis'd as may be observ'd in most of those places we have made use of and particularly in that speech of Wisdom Prov. 8. where the 26. verse is so obscure that no two Versions that I have yet met with whether Ancient or Modern agree in the Translation of that Verse And therefore though I fully believe that the construction of the first Earth is really intended in those words yet seeing it could not be made out clear without a long and critical discussion of them I did not think that proper to be insisted upon here We may also observe that whereas there is a double form or composition of the Earth that which it had at first or till the Deluge and that which it hath since sometimes the one and sometimes the other may be glanc'd upon in these Scripture phrases and descriptions and so there may be in the same discourse an intermixture of both And it commonly happens so in an Enthusiastick or Prophetick stile that by reason of the eagerness and trembling of the Fancy it doth not always regularly follow the same even thread of discourse but strikes many times upon some other thing that hath relation to it or lies under or near the same view Of this we have frequent examples in the Apocalypse and in that Prophecy of our Saviour's Matth. 24. concerning the destruction of Ierusalem and of the World But notwithstanding any such unevenness or indistinctness in the stile of those places which we have cited concerning the Origin and form of the Earth we may at least make this remark that if there never was any other form of the Earth but the present nor any other state of the Abysse than what it is in now 't is not imaginable what should give occasion to all those expressions and passages that we have cited which being so strange in themselves and paradoxical should yet so much favour and so fairly comply with our suppositions What I have observ'd in another place in treating of Paradise that the expressions of the Ancient Fathers were very extravagant if Paradise was nothing but a little plot of ground in Mesopotamia as many of late have fansied may in like manner be observ'd concerning the ancient Earth and Abysse if they were in no other form nor other state than what they are under now the expressions of the Sacred Writers concerning them are very strange and inaccountable without any sufficient ground that we know or any just occasion for such uncouth representations If there was nothing intended or refer'd to in those descriptions but the present form and state of the Earth that is so well known that in describing of it there would be nothing dark or mysterious nor any occasion for obscurity in the stile or expression whereof we find so much in those So as all things consider'd what might otherwise be made an exception to some of these Texts alledg'd by us viz. that they are too obscure becomes an argument for us as implying that there is something more intended by them than the present and known form of the Earth And we having propos'd another form and structure of the Earth to which those characters suit and answer more easily as this opens and gives light to those difficult places so it may be reasonably concluded to be the very sence and notion intended by the holy Writers And thus much I think is sufficient to have observ'd out of Scripture to verifie our Explication of the Deluge and our Application of it to Noah's Flood both according to the Mosaical History of the Flood and according to many occasional reflections and discourses dispers'd in other places of Scripture concerning the same Flood or concerning the Abysse and the first form of the Earth And though there may be some other passages of a different aspect they will be of no force to disprove our conclusions because they respect the present form of the Earth and Sea and also because expressions that deviate more from the common opinion are more remarkable and more proving in that there is nothing could give occasion to such but
an intention to express the very truth So for instance if there was one place of Scripture that said the Earth was mov'd and several that seem'd to imply that the Sun was mov'd we should have more regard to that one place for the motion of the Earth than to all the other that made against it because those others might be spoken and understood according to common opinion and common belief but that which affirm'd the motion of the Earth could not be spoke upon any other ground but only for truth and instruction sake I leave this to be appli'd to the present subject Thus much for the Sacred Writings As to the History of the ancient Heathens we cannot expect an account or Narration of Noah's Flood under that name and notion but it may be of use to observe two things out of that History First that the Inundations recorded there came generally to pass in the manner we have describ'd the Universal Deluge namely by Earthquakes and an eruption of Subterraneous waters the Earth being broken and falling in and of this we shall else-where give a full account out of their Authors Secondly that Deucalion's Deluge in particular which is suppos'd by most of the Ancient Fathers to represent Noah's Flood is said to have been accompained with a gaping or disruption of the Earth Apollodorus saith that the Mountains of Thessaly were divided asunder or separate one from another at that time And Lucian de deâ Syriâ tells a very remarkable story to this purpose concerning Deucalion's Deluge and a ceremony observ'd in the Temple of Hieropolis in commemoration of it which ceremony seems to have been of that nature as impli'd that there was an opening of the Earth at the time of the Deluge and that the waters subsided into that again when the Deluge ceas'd He saith that this Temple at Hieropolis was built upon a kind of Abysse or had a bottomless pit or gaping of the Earth in one part of it and the people of Arabia and Syria and the Countries the eabouts twice a year repair'd to this Temple and brought with them every one a vessel of water which they pour'd out upon the floor of the Temple and made a kind of an Inundation there in memory of Deucalion's Deluge and this water sunk by degrees into a Chasm or opening of a Rock which the Temple stood upon and so left the floor dry again And this was a rite solemnly and religiously perform'd both by the Priests and by the People If Moses had left such a Religious rite among the Iews I should not have doubted to have interpreted it concerning his Abysse and the retiring of the waters into it but the actual disruption of the Abysse could not well be represented by any ceremony And thus much concerning the present question and the true application of our Theory to Noah's Flood CHAP. VIII The particular History of Noah's Flood is explain'd in all the material parts and circumstances of it according to the preceding Theory Any seeming difficulties removed and the whole Section concluded with a Discourse how far the Deluge may be lookt upon as the effect of an ordinary Providence and how far of an extraordinary WE have now proved our Explication of the Deluge to be more than an Idea or to be a true piece of Natural History and it may be the greatest and most remarkable that hath yet been since the beginning of the World We have shown it to be the real account of Noah's Flood according to Authority both Divine and Humane and I would willingly proceed one step further and declare my thoughts concerning the manner and order wherein Noah's Flood came to pass in what method all those things happen'd and succeeded one another that make up the History of it as causes or effects or other parts or circumstances As how the Ark was born upon the waters what effect the Rains had at what time the Earth broke and the Abysse was open'd and what the condition of the Earth was upon the ending of the Flood and such like But I desire to propose my thoughts concerning these things only as conjectures which I will ground as near as I can upon Scripture and Reason and am very willing they should be rectifi'd where they happen to be amiss I know how subject we are to mistakes in these great and remote things when we descend to particulars but I am willing to expose the Theory to a full trial and to shew the way for any to examine it provided they do it with equity and sincerity I have no other design than to contribute my endeavours to find out the truth in a subject of so great importance and wherein the World hath hitherto had so little satisfaction And he that in an obscure argument proposeth an Hypothesis that reacheth from end to end though it be not exact in every particular 't is not without a good effect for it gives aim to others to take their measures better and opens their invention in a matter which otherwise it may be would have been impenetrable to them As he that makes the first way through a thick Forest though it be not the streightest and shortest deserves better and hath done more than he that makes it streighter and smoother afterwards Providence that ruleth all things and all Ages after the Earth had stood above sixteen hundred Years thought fit to put a period to that World and accordingly it was reveal'd to Noah that for the wickedness and degeneracy of men God would destroy mankind with the Earth Gen. 6. 13. in a Deluge of water whereupon he was commanded in order to the preserving of Himself and Family as a stock for the new World to build a great Vessel or Ark to float upon the waters and had instructions given him for the building of it both as to the matter and as to the form Noah believed the word of God though against his senses and all external appearances and set himself to work to build an Ark according to the directions given which after many years labour was finish'd whilst the incredulous World secure enough as they thought against a Deluge continu'd still in their excesses and insolencies and laught at the admonition of Noah and at the folly of his design of building an extravagant Machine a floating house to save himself from an imaginary Inundation for they thought it no less seeing it was to be in an Earth where there was no Sea nor any Rain neither in those parts according to the ordinary course of Nature as shall be shown in the second Book of this Treatise But when the appointed time was come the Heavens began to melt and the Rains to fall and these were the first surprizing causes and preparatives to the Deluge They fell we suppose tho we do not know how that could proceed from natural causes throughout the face of the whole Earth which could not but have a considerable effect on
Sea and the Original of it The Causes of its irregular form and unequal depths As also of the Original of Islands their situation and other properties WE have hitherto given an account of the Subterraneous Regions and of their general form We now come above ground to view the surface of the Globe which we find Terraqueous or divided into Sea and Land These we must survey and what is remarkable in them as to their frame and structure we must give an account of from our Hypothesis and shew to be inaccountable from any other yet known As for the Ocean there are two things considerable in it the Water and the Chanel that contains it The Water no doubt is as ancient as the Earth and cotemporary with it and we suppose it to be part of the great Abyss wherein the World was drown'd the rest lying cover'd under the hollow fragments of Continents and Islands But that is not so much the subject of our present discourse as the Chanel of the Ocean that vast and prodigious Cavity that runs quite round the Globe and reacheth for ought we know from Pole to Pole and in many places is unsearchably deep When I present this great Gulf to my imagination emptied of all its waters naked and gaping at the Sun stretching its jaws from one end of the Earth to another it appears to me the most ghastly thing in Nature What hands or instruments could work a Trench in the body of the Earth of this vastness and lay Mountains and Rocks on the side of it as Ramparts to enclose it But as we justly admire its greatness so we cannot at all admire its beauty or elegancy for 't is as deform'd and irregular as it is great And there appearing nothing of order or any regular design in its parts it seems reasonable to believe that it was not the work of Nature according to her first intention or according to the first model that was drawn in measure and proportion by the Line and by the Plummet but a secondary work and the best that could be made of broken materials And upon this supposition 't is easie to imagine how upon the dissolution of the primaeval Earth the Chanel of the Sea was made or that huge Cavity that lies between the several Continents of the Earth which shall be more particularly explain'd after we have view'd a little better the form of it and the Islands that lie scatter'd by its shores There is no Cavity in the Earth whether open or Subterraneous that is comparably so great as that of the Ocean nor would any appear of that deformity if we could see it empty The inside of a Cave is rough and unsightly The beds of great Rivers and great Lakes when they are laid dry look very raw and rude The Valleys of the Earth if they were naked without Trees and without Grass nothing but bare ground and bare stones from the tops of their Mountains would have a ghastly aspect but the Sea-chanel is the complex of all these here Caves empty Lakes naked Valleys are represented as in their original or rather far exceeded and out-done as to all their irregularities for the Cavity of the Ocean is universally irregular both as to the shores and borders of it as to the uncertain breadth and the uncertain depth of its several parts and as to its ground and bottom and the whole mould If the Sea had been drawn round the Earth in regular figures and borders it might have been a great beauty to our Globe and we should reasonably have concluded it a work of the first Creation or of Nature's first production but finding on the contrary all the marks of disorder and disproportion in it we may as reasonably conclude that it did not belong to the first order of things but was something succedaneous when the degeneracy of Mankind and the judgments of God had destroy'd the first World and subjected the Creation of some kind of Vanity Nor can it easily be imagin'd if the Sea had been always and the Earth in this Terraqueous form broke into Continents and Islands how Mankind could have been propagated at first through the face of the Earth all from one head and from one place For Navigation was not then known at least as to the grand Ocean or to pass from Continent to Continent And I believe Noah's Ark was the first Ship or Vessel of bulk that ever was built in the World how could then the Posterity of Adam overflow the Earth and stock the several parts of the World if they had been distant or separate then as they are now by the interposal of the great Ocean But this consideration we will insist upon more largely in another place let us reflect upon the irregularities of the Sea-chanel again and the possible causes of it If we could imagine the Chanel of the Sea to have been made as we may imagine the Chanel of Rivers to have been by long and insensible attrition The Water wearing by degrees the ground under it by the â—orce it hath from its descent and course we should not wonder at its irregular form but 't is not possible this Chanel should have had any such original whence should its water have descended from what Mountains or from what Clouds Where is the spring-head of the Sea What force could eat away half the surface of the Earth and wear it hollow to an immeasurable depth This must not be from feeble and lingring causes such as the attrition of waters but from some great violence offer'd to Nature such as we suppose to have been in the general Deluge when the frame of the Earth was broken And after we have a little survey'd the Sea-coast and so far as we can the form of the Sea-chanel we shall the more easily believe that they could have no other original than what we assign The shores and coasts of the Sea are no way equal or uniform but go in a line uncertainly crooked and broke indented and jag'd as a thing torn as you may see in the Maps of the Coasts and the Sea-charts and yet there are innumerable more inequalities than are taken notice of in those draughts for they only mark the greater Promontories and Bays but there are besides those a multitude of Creeks and out-lets necks of Land and Angles which break the evenness of the shore in all manner of ways Then the height and level of the shore is as uncertain as the line of it 'T is sometimes high and sometimes low sometimes spread in sandy Plains as smooth as the Sea it self and of such an equal height with it that the waves seem to have no bounds but the meer figure and convexity of the Globe In other places 't is rais'd into banks and ramparts of Earth and in others 't is wall'd in with Rocks And all this without any order that we can observe or any other reason than that this is what might be
expected in a ruine As to the depths and soundings of the Sea they are under no rule nor equality any more than the figures of the Shores Shallows in some places and Gulphs in others beds of Sands sometimes and sometimes Rocks under water as Navigators have learn'd by a long and dangerous experience And though we that are upon dry Land are not much concern'd how the Rocks and the Shelves lie in the Sea yet a poor shipwreckt Mariner when he hath run his Vessel upon a Rock in the middle of the Chanel expostulates bitterly with Nature who it was that plac'd that Rock there and to what purpose Was there not room enough saith he upon the Land or the Shore to lay your great stones but they must be thrown into the middle of the Sea as it were in spite to Navigation The best Apology that can be made for Nature in this case so far as I know is to confess that the whole business of the Sea-chanel is but a ruine and in a ruine things tumble uncertainly and commonly lie in confusion Though to speak the truth it seldom happens unless in narrow Seas that Rocks or Banks or Islands lie in the middle of them or very far from the Shores Having view'd the more visible parts of the Chanel of the Sea we must now descend to the bottom of it and see the form and contrivance of that but who shall guide us in our journey while we walk as Iob saith in the search of the deep Or who can make a description of that which none hath seen It is reasonable to believe that the bottom of the Sea is much more rugged broken and irregular than the face of the Land There are Mountains and Valleys and Rocks and ridges of Rocks and all the common inequalities we see upon Land besides these 't is very likely there are Caves under water and hollow passages into the bowels of the Earth by which the Seas circulate and communicate one with another and with Subterraneous waters Those great Eddees and infamous Syrtes and Whirlpools that are in some Seas as the Baltick and the Mediterranean that suck into them and overwhelm whatever comes within their reach show that there is something below that sucks from them in proportion and that drinks up the Sea as the Sea drinks up the Rivers We ought also to imagine the Shores within the water to go inclin'd and sloping but with great inequality there are many Shelves in the way and Chambers and sharp Angles and many broken Rocks and great stones lie rolled down to the bottom 'T is true these things affect us little because they are not expos'd to our senses and we seldom give our selves the trouble to collect from reason what the form of the invisible and inaccessible parts of the Earth is or if we do sometimes those Idea's are faint and weak and make no lasting impression upon our imagination and passions but if we should suppose the Ocean dry and that we lookt down from the top of some high Cloud upon the empty Shell how horridly and barbarously would it look And with what amazement should we see it under us like an open Hell or a wide bottomless pit So deep and hollow and vast so broken and confus'd so every way deform'd and monstrous This would effectually waken our imagination and make us enquire and wonder how such a thing came in Nature from what causes by what force or engines could the Earth be torn in this prodigious manner did they dig the Sea with Spades and carry out the molds in hand-baskets Where are the entrails laid and how did they cleave the Rocks asunder If as many Pioneers as the Army of Xerxes had been at work ever since the beginning of the World they could not have made a ditch of this greatness Nor is it the greatness only but that wild and multifarious confusion which we see in the parts and fashion of it that makes it strange and inaccountable 't is another Chaos in its kind who can paint the Scenes of it Gulfs and Precipices and Cataracts Pits within Pits and Rocks under Rocks broken Mountains and ragged Islands that look as if they had been Countries pull'd up by the roots and planted in the Sea If we could make true and full representations of these things to our selves I think we should not be so bold as to make them the immediate product of Divine Omnipotence being destitute of all appearance of Art or Counsel The first orders of things are more perfect and regular and this Decorum seems to be observ'd that Nature doth not fall into disorder till Mankind be first degenerate and leads the way Monsters have been often made an argument against Providence if a Calf have two heads or five legs streight there must not be a God in Heaven or at least not upon Earth and yet this is but a chance that happens once in many years and is of no consequence at all to the rest of the World But if we make the standing frame of Nature monstrous or deform'd and disproportion'd and to have been so not by corruption and degeneracy but immediately by Divine Creation or Formation it would not be so easie to answer that objection against Providence Let us therefore prevent this imputation and supposing according to our Theory that these things were not originally thus let us now explain more distinctly how they came to pass at the Deluge or upon the dissolution of the first Earth And we will not content our selves with a general answer to these observations concerning the Sea-chanel as if it was a sufficient account of them to say they were the effects of a ruine there are other things to be consider'd and explain'd besides this irregularity as the vast hollowness of this Cavity bigger incomparably than any other belonging to the Earth and also the declivity of the sides of it which lie shelving from top to bottom For notwithstanding all the inequalities we have taken notice of in the Chanel of the Sea it hath one general form which may though under many differences be observ'd throughout and that is that the shores and sides within the water lie inclin'd and you descend by degrees to the deepest part which is towards the middle This I know admits of many exceptions for sometimes upon a rocky shore or among rocky Islands the Sea is very deep close to the Rocks and the deeper commonly the higher and sleeper the Rocks are Also where the descent is more leisurely 't is often after a different manner in some coasts more equal and uniform in others more broken and interrupted but still there is a descent to the Chanel or deepest part and this in the deep Ocean is fathomless And such a deep Ocean and such a deep Chanel there is always between Continents This I think is a property as determinate as any we can pitch upon in the Chanel of the Sea and with those other two
mention'd its vast Cavity and universal irregularity is all one can desire an account of as to the form of it we will therefore from this ground take our rise and first measures for the Explication of the Sea-chanel Let us suppose then in the dissolution of the Earth when it began to fall that it was divided only into three or four fragments according to the number of our Continents but those fragments being vastly great could not descend at their full breadth and expansion or at least could not descend so fast in the middle as towards the extremities because the Air about the edges would yield and give place easily not having far to go to get out of the way but the Air that was under the middle of the fragment could not without a very swift motion get from under the concave of it and consequently its descent there would be more resisted and suspended but the sides in the mean time would continually descend bending the fragment with their weight and so making it of a lesser compass and expansion than it was before And by this means there would be an interval and distance made between the two falling fragments and a good part of the Abyss after their descent would lie uncover'd in the middle betwixt them as may be seen in this Figure where the fragments A. B. bending downwards in their extremities separate as they go and after they are faln leave a good space in the Abyss betwixt them altogether uncover'd This space is the main Chanel of the great Ocean lying betwixt two Continents and the inclining sides shew the declivity of the Shores This we have represented here only in a Ring or Circle of the Earth in the first Figure but it may be better represented in a broader surface as in the second Figure where the two fragments A. B. that are to make the two opposite Continents fall in like double Doors opening downwards the Hinges being towards the Land on either side so as at the bottom they leave in the middle betwixt them a deep Chanel of water a. a. a. such as is betwixt all Continents and the water reaching a good height upon the Land on either side makes Sea there too but shallower and by degrees you descend into the deepest Chanel fig. 1. page 92. fig. 2. fig. 3. We must in the first place distinguish between Original Islands and Factitious Islands Those I call factitious that are not of the same date and Antiquity with the Sea but have been made some at one time some at another by accidental causes as the aggestion of Sands and Sand-beds or the Sea leaving the tops of some shallow places that lie high and yet flowing about the lower skirts of them These make sandy and plain Islands that have no high Land in them and are but mock-Islands in effect others are made by divulsion from some Continent when an Isthmus or the neck of a Promontory running into the Sea sinks or falls in by an Earthquake or otherwise and the Sea entring in at the gap passeth through and makes that Promontory or Country become an Island Thus the Island Sicily is suppos'd to have been made and all Africa might be an Island if the Isthmus between the Mediterranean and the red Sea should sink down And these Islands may have Rocks and Mountains in them if the Land had so before Lastly There are Islands that have been said to rise from the bottom of the Sea History mentions such in both the Archipelago's Aegaean and Indian and this seems to argue that there are great fragments or tracts of Earth that lie loose at the bottom of the Sea or that are not incorporated with the ground which agrees very well with our Explication of the Sea-chanel But besides these Islands and the several sorts of them there are others which I call Original because they could not be produc'd in any of the forementioned ways but are of the same Origin and Antiquity with the Chanel of the Sea and such are the generality of our Islands They were not made of heaps of Sands nor torn from any Continent but are as ancient as the Continents themselves namely ever since the Deluge the common Parent of them both Nor is there any difficulty to understand how Islands were made at the dissolution of the Earth any more than how Continents were made for Islands are but lesser Continents or Continents greater Islands and according as Continents were made of greater masses of Earth or greater fragments standing above the Water so Islands were made of less but so big always and in such a posture as to bear their tops above the Water Yet though they agree thus far there is a particular difference to be taken notice of as to their Origin for the Continents were made of those three or four primary masses into which the falling Orb of the Earth was divided but the Islands were made of the fractures of these and broken off by the fall from the skirts and extremities of the Continents We noted before that when those great masses and primary fragments came to dash upon the Abyss in their fall the sudden stop of the motion and the weighty bulk of the descending fragment broke off all the edges and extremities of it which edges and extemities broken off made the Islands and accordingly we see that they generally lie scatter'd along the sides of the Continents and are but splinters as it were of those greater bodies 'T is ture besides these there were an infinite number of other pieces broke off that do not appear some making Rocks under water some shallows and banks in the Sea but the greatest of them when they fell either one upon another or in such a posture as to prop up one another their heads and higher parts would stand out of the water and make Islands Thus I conceive the Islands of the Sea were at first produc'd we cannot wonder therefore that they should be so numerous or far more numerous than the Continents These are the Parents and those are the Children Nor can we wonder to see along the sides of the Continents several Islands or sets of Islands sown as it were by handfuls or laid in trains for the manner of their generation would lead us to think they would be so plac'd So the American Islands lie scatter'd upon the Coast of that Continent the Maldivian and Philippine upon the East-Indian shore and the Hesperides upon the Africk and there seldom happen to be any towards the middle of the Ocean though by an accident that also might come to pass Lastly It suits very well with our Explication that there should be Mountains and Rocks sometimes in clusters sometimes in long chains in all Islands as we find there are in all that are true and Original for 't is that makes them high enough to appear above the water and strong enough to continue and preserve themselves in that high situation And
thus much may suffice for a summary Explication of the causes of the Sea-chanel and Islands according to our Hypothesis CHAP. XI Concerning the Mountains of the Earth their greatness and irregular Form their Situation Causes and Origin WE have been in the hollows of the Earth and the Chambers of the Deep amongst the damps and steams of those lower Regions let us now go air our selves on the tops of the Mountains where we shall have a more free and large Horizon and quite another face of things will present it self to our observation The greatest objects of Nature are methinks the most pleasing to behold and next to the great Concave of the Heavens and those boundless Regions where the Stars inhabit there is nothing that I look upon with more plaesure than the wide Sea and the Mountains of the Earth There is something august and stately in the Air of these things that inspires the mind with great thoughts and passions We do naturally upon such occasions think of God and his greatness and whatsoever hath but the shadow and appearance of INFINITE as all things have that are too big for our comprehension they fill and over-bear the mind with their Excess and cast it into a pleasing kind of stupor and admiration And yet these Mountains we are speaking of to confess the truth are nothing but great ruines but such as show a certain magnificence in Nature as from old Temples and broken Amphitheaters of the Romans we collect the greatness of that people But the grandeur of a Nation is less sensible to those that never see the remains and monuments they have left and those who never see the mountainous parts of the Earth scarce ever reflect upon the causes of them or what power in Nature could be sufficient to produce them The truth is the generality of people have not sence and curiosity enough to raise a question concerning these things or concerning the Original of them You may tell them that Mountains grow out of the Earth like Fuzz-balls or that there are Monsters under ground that throw up Mountains as Moles do Mole-hills they will scarce raise one objection against your doctrine or if you would appear more Learned tell them that the Earth is a great Animal and these are Wens that grow upon its body This would pass current for Philosophy so much is the World drown'd in stupidity and sensual pleasures and so little inquisitive into the works of God and Nature There is nothing doth more awaken our thoughts or excite our minds to enquire into the causes of such things than the actual view of them as I have had experience my self when it was my fortune to cross the Alps and Appennine Mountains for the sight of those wild vast and indigested heaps of Stones and Earth did so deeply strike my fancy that I was not easie till I could give my self some tolerable account how that confusion came in Nature 'T is true the height of Mountains compar'd with the Diameter of the Earth is not considerable but the extent of them and the ground they stand upon bears a considerable proportion to the surface of the Earth and if from Europe we may take our measures for the rest I easily believe that the Mountains do at least take up the tenth part of the dry Land The Geographers are not very careful to describe or note in their Charts the multitude or situation of Mountains They mark the bounds of Countries the site of Cities and Towns and the course of Rivers because these are things of chief use to civil affairs and commerce and that they design to serve and not Philosophy or Natural History But Cluverius in his description of Ancient Germany Switzerland and Italy hath given Maps of those Countries more approaching to the natural face of them and we have drawn at the end of this Chapter such a Map of either Hemisphere without marking Countries or Towns or any such artificial things distinguishing only Land and Sea Islands and Continents Mountains and not Mountains and 't is very useful to imagine the Earth in this manner and to look often upon such bare draughts as shew us Nature undrest for then we are best able to judge what her true shapes and proportions are 'T is certain that we naturally imagine the surface of the Earth much more regular than it is for unless we be in some Mountainous parts there seldom occur any great inequalities within so much compass of ground as we can at once reach with our Eye and to conceive the rest we multiply the same Iden and extend it to those parts of the Earth that we do not see and so fansie the whole Globe much more smooth and uniform than it is But suppose a man was carri'd asleep out of a Plain Country amongst the Alps and left there upon the top of one of the highest Mountains when he wak'd and look'd about him he would think himself in an inchanted Country or carri'd into another World every thing would appear to him so different to what he had ever seen or imagin'd before To see on every hand of him a multitude of vast bodies thrown together in confusion as those Mountains are Rocks standing naked round about him and the hollow Valleys gaping under him and at his feet it may be an heap of frozen Snow in the midst of Summer He would hear the thunder come from below and see the black Clouds hanging beneath him Upon such a prospect it would not be easie to him to perswade himself that he was still upon the same Earth but if he did he would be convinc'd at least that there are some Regions of it strangely rude and ruine-like and very different from what he had ever thought of before But the Inhabitants of these wild places are even with us for those that live amongst the Alps and the great Mountains think that all the rest of the Earth is like their Country all broken into Mountains and Valleys and Precipices They never see other and most people think of nothing but what they have seen at one time or another These Alps we are speaking of are the greatest range of Mountains in Europe and 't is prodigious to see and to consider of what extent these heaps of Stones and Rubbish are one way they overspread Savoy and Dauphiné and reach through France to the Pyrenean Mountains and so to the Ocean The other way they run along the skirts of Germany through Stiria Pannonia and Dalmatia as far as Thrace and the Black Sea Then backwards they cover Switzerland and the parts adjacent and that branch of them which we call the Appennines strikes through Italy and is as it were the back-bone of that Country This must needs be a large space of ground which they stand upon Yet 't is not this part of Europe only that is laden with Mountains the Northern part is as rough and rude in the face of the Country as in
Theological and we will try them both for our satisfaction Of Philosophers none was more concern'd to give an account of such things than Epicurus both because he acknowledged the Origin of the Earth to have been from a Chaos and also admitted no causes to act in Nature but Matter and Motion Yet all the account we have from the Epicureans of the form of the Earth and the great inequalities that are in it is so slight and trivial that methinks it doth not deserve the name of a Philosophical Explication They say that the Earth and Water were mix'd at first or rather the Earth was above the Water and as the Earth was condens'd by the heat of the Sun and the Winds the Water was squeez'd out in certain places which either it found hollow or made so and so was the Chanel of the Sea made Then as for Mountains while some parts of the Earth shrunk and sunk in this manner others would not sink and these standing still while the others fell lower made the Mountains How the subterraneous Cavities were made according to them I do not find This is all the Account that Monsieur Gassendi who seems to have made it his business as well as his pleasure to embellish that Philosophy can help us to out of the Epicurean Authors how the Earth came into this form and he that can content himself with this is in my mind of an humour very easie to be pleas'd Do the Sun and the Wind use to squeaze pools of Water out of the Earth and that in such a quantity as to make an Ocean They dry the Earth and the Waters too and rarifie them into vapours but I never knew them to be the causes of pressing Water out of the Earth by condensation Could they compress the Earth any otherwise than by drying it and making it hard and in proportion as it was more dry would it not the more imbibe and suck up the Water and how were the great Mountains of the Earth made in the North and in the South where the influence of the Sun is not great What sunk the Earth there and made the flesh start from the bones But 't is no wonder that Epicurus should give such a mean account of the Origin of the Earth and the form of its parts who did not so much as understand the general Figure of the Body of it that it was in some manner Spherical or that the Heavens encompast it round One must have a blind love for that Philosophy and for the conclusions it drives at not to see its lameness and defects in those first and fundamental parts Aristotle though he was not concern'd to give an account how the Earth came into this present form as he suppos'd it Eternal yet upon another consideration he seems oblig'd to give some reason how the Elements came into this disorder seeing he supposeth that according to the order of Nature the Water should lie above the Earth in a Sphere as the Air doth above the Water and his Fire above the Air. This he toucheth upon in his Meteors but so gently and fearfully as if he was handling hot coals He saith the Sea is to be consider'd as the Element or body of Waters that belongs to this Earth and that these Waters change places and the Sea is some Ages in one part of the Globe and some Ages in another but that this is at such great distances of time that there can be no memory or record of it And he seems willing to suppose that the Water was once all over the Earth but that it drid up in certain places and continuing in others it there made the Sea What a miserable account is this As to his change or removal of the Sea-chanel in several Ages as it is without all proof or probability if he mean it of the Chanel of the great Ocean so 't is nothing to the purpose here for the question is not why the Chanel of the Sea is in such a part of the Earth rather than in another but why there is any such prodigious Cavity in or upon the Earth any where And if we take his supposition that the Element of Water was once higher than the Earth and lay in a Sphere about it then let him tell us in plain terms how the Earth got above or how the Cavity of the Ocean was made and how the the Mountains rise for this Elementary Earth which lay under the Water was I suppose equal and smooth when it lay there and what reason was there that the Waters should be dri'd in one part of it more than another if they were every where of an equal depth and the ground equal under them It was not the Climates made any distinction for there is Sea towards the Poles as well as under the Aequator but suppose they were dri'd up in certain places that would make no Mountains no more than there are Mountains in our dri'd Marches And the places where they were not dri'd would not therefore become as deep and hollow as the Sea chanel and tear the Earth and Rocks in pieces If you should say that this very Elementary Earth as it lay under the Waters was unequal and was so originally form'd into Mountains and Valleys and great Cavities besides that the supposition is altogether irrational in it self you must suppose a prodigious mass of Water to cover such an Earth as much as we found requisite for the vulgar Deluge namely eight Oceans and what then is become of the other seven Upon the whole I do not see that either in Epicurus's way who seems to suppose that the Waters were at first within the Earth nor in Aristotle's way who seems to suppose them upon the Earth any rational or tolerable account can be given of the present form of the Earth Wherefore some modern Authors dissatisfied as very well they might be with these Explications given us by the Ancients concerning the form of the Earth have pitch'd upon other causes more true indeed in their kind and in their degree but that â—all as much short of those effects to which they would apply them They say that all the irregularities of the body of the Earth have risen from Earthquakes in particular places and from Torrents and Inundations and from eruptions of Fire or such like causes whereof we see some instances more or less every Age And these have made that havock upon the face of the Earth and turn'd things up-side down raising the Earth in some places and making great Cavities or Chasms in others so as to have brought it at length into that torn broken and disorderly form in which we now see it These Authors do so far agree with us as to acknowledge that the present irregular form of the Earth must have proceeded from ruines and dissolutions of one sort or other but these ruines they make to have been partial only in this or in that Country by piece-meal and
it lay under the Water was a solid uniform mass compact and close united in its parts as we have shewn before upon several occasions no Mines or hollow Vaults for the Vapours to be lodg'd in no Store-houses of Fire nothing that could make Earthquakes nor any sort of ruines or eruptions These are Engines that cannot play but in an Earth already broken hollow and cavernous Therefore the Authors of this opinion do in effect beg the question they assign such causes of the present form of the Earth as could not take place nor have any activity until the Earth was in this form These causes may contribute something to increase the rudeness and inequalities of the Earth in certain places but they could not be the original causes of it And that not only because of their disproportion to such effects but also because of their incapacity or non-existence at that time when these effects were to be wrought Thus much concerning the Philosophical opinions or the natural Causes that have been assign'd for the irregular form of this present Earth Let us now consider the Theological opinions how Mountains were made at first and the wonderful Chanel of the Sea And these Authors say God Almighty made them immediately when he made the World and so dispatcht the business in a few words This is a short account indeed but we must take heed that we do not derogate from the perfection of God by ascribing all things promiscuously to his immediate action I have often suggested that the first order of things is regular and simple according as the Divine Nature is and continues so till there is some degeneracy in the moral World I have also noted upon several occasions especially in the Lat. Treat Cap. II. the deformity and incommodiousness of the present Earth and from these two considerations we may reasonably infer that the present state of the Earth was not Original but is a state of subjection to Vanity wherein it must continue till the redemption and restitution of all things But besides this general consideration there are many others both Natural and Theological against this opinion which the Authors of it I believe will find unanswerable As first S. Peter's distinction betwixt the present Earth and the Ante-diluvian and that in opposition to certain profane persons who seem to have been of the same opinion with these Authors namely That the Heavens and the Earth were the same now that they had been from the beginning and that there had been no change in Nature either of late or in former Ages These S. Peter confutes and upbraids them with ignorance or forgetfulness of the change that was brought upon Nature at the Deluge or that the Ante-diluvian Heavens and Earth were of a different form and constitution from the present whereby that World was obnoxious to a Deluge of Water as the present is to a Deluge of Fire Let these Authors put themselves in the place of those Objectors and see what answer they can make to the Apostle whom I leave to dispute the case with them I hope they will not treat this Epistle of S. Peter's so rudely as Didymus Alexandrinus did an ancient Christian and one of S. Ierom's Masters he was of the same opinion with these Theological Authors and so fierce in it that seeing S. Peter's doctrine here to be contrary he said this Epistle of S. Peter's was corrupted and was not to be receiv'd into the Canon And all this because it taught that the Heavens and the Earth had chang'd their form and would do so again at the Conflagration so as the same World would be Tâ—iform in success of time We acknowledge his Exposition of S. Peter's words to be very true but what he makes an argument of the corruption of this Epistle is rather in my mind a peculiar argument of its Divine Inspiration In the second place these Writers dash upon the old rock the impossibility of explaining the Deluge if there were Mountains from the beginning and the Earth then in the same form as it is in now Thirdly They make the state of Paradise as unintelligible as that of the Deluge For those properties that are assign'd to Paradise by the Ancients are inconsistent with the present form of the Earth As will appear in the Second Book Lastly They must answer and give an account of all those marks which we have observ'd in Nature both in this Chapter and the Ninth Tenth and Eleventh of fractions ruines and dissolutions that have been on the Earth and which we have shown to be inexplicable unless we admit that the Earth was once in another form These arguments being premis'd let us now bring their opinion close to the Test and see in what manner these Mountains must have been made according to them and how the Chanel of the Sea and all other Cavities of the Earth Let us to this purpose consider the Earth again in that transient incompleat form which it had when the Abyss encompast the whole body of it we both agree that the Earth was once in this state and they say that it came immediately out of this state into its present form there being made by a supernatural Power a great Chanel or Ditch in one part of it which drew off the Waters from the rest and the Earth which was squeez'd and forc'd out of this Ditch made the Mountains So there is the Chanel of the Sea made and the Mountains of the Earth how the subterraneous Cavities were made according to these Authors I do not well know This I confess seems to me a very gross thought and a way of working very un-God-like but however let 's have patience to examine it And in the first place if the Mountains were taken out of the Chanel of the Sea then they are equal to it and would fill it up if they were thrown in again But these proportions upon examination will not agree for though the Mountains of the Earth be very great yet they do not equal by much the great Ocean The Ocean extends to half the surface of the Earth and if you suppose the greatest depth of the Ocean to answer the height of the greatest Mountains and the middle depth to the middle sort of Mountains the Mountains ought to cover all the dry Land to make them answer to all the capacity of the Ocean whereas we suppos'd them upon a reasonable computation to cover but the tenth part of the dry Land and consequently neither they nor the Sea-chanel could have been produc'd in this manner because of their great disproportion to one another And the same thing appears if we compare the Mountains with the Abyss which cover'd the Earth before this Chanel was made for this Chanel being made great enough to contain all the Abyss the Mountains taken out of it must also be equal to all the Abyss but the aggregate of the Mountains will not answer this by many degrees
our Earth sometimes partial and both of these may be under great variety In partial dissolutions the middle parts sometimes stand and the Polar are broke or the Polar stand and the middle are broke Or one Hemisphere or part of an Hemisphere may be sunk the rest standing There may be Causes and occasions for all these varieties and many more in diversifying the Phaenomena of an immense Universe But to return to Saturn That this present uncouth form of Saturn was not its Original form I am very well satisfied if that Planet rise from a Chaos as ours did And if this be an adventitious form I know no account can be given of it with more probability than by supposing it the effect of some fraction or disruption in the Polar parts Neither do I know any Phaenomenon hitherto observ'd concerning Saturn that does disprove this Hypothesis or conjecture As to Iupiter that Planet without doubt is also turned about its Axis otherwise how shou'd its four Moons be carried round him And this is also collected from the motion of that permanent Spot if it be found to be so that is upon its Body Which Spot I take to be either a Lake or a Chasm and Hiatus into the Abyss of the Planet That is part of the Abyss open or uncover'd like the Aperture we made in the Seventh Figure And this might either have been left so by Providence at first for some reasons and causes fitting that Earth or it may have fallen in afterwards as Plato's Atlantis or as Soâ—â—m and Gomorrha for some judgment upon part of that World To conclude Seeing all the Planets that are plac'd in this Heaven and are the foster-children of this Sun seem to have some affinity one with another and have much-what the same countenance and the same general Phaenomena It seems probable that they rise much-what the same way and after the like manner as our Earth each one from its respective Chaos And that they had the same Elementary Regions at first and an exteriour Orb â—orm'd over their Abyss And lastly That every one of them hath suffer'd or is to suffer its Deluge as our Earth hath done These I say are probable conjectures according to the Analogy of Reason and Nature so far as we can judge concerning things very remote and inaccessible And these things being thus and our Theory of the Deluge and the Dissolution which brought it having such a general agreement both with our Heavens and our Earth I think there is nothing but the uncouthness of the thing to some mens understandings the custom of thinking otherwise and the uneasiness of entring into a new set of thoughts that can be a bar or hindrance to its reception But it may be improv'd I doubt not in many respects and in some particularities rectified The first attempts in great Things are seldom or never perfect Such is the weakness of our Understandings and the want of a full Natural History And in assigning Causes of such great effects fair conjectures are to be allow'd till they be displac'd by others more evident and more certain Accordingly I readily submit to these terms and leave this and all other parts of the Theory to further examination and enquiries FINIS THE THEORY OF THE EARTH Containing an Account OF THE Original of the Earth AND OF ALL THE GENERAL CHANGES Which it hath already undergone OR IS TO UNDERGO Throughout the whole Course of its Duration THE SECOND BOOK Concerning the PRIMAEVAL EARTH AND Concerning PARADISE LONDON Printed by R. N. for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's-Head in S. Paul's Church-Yard 1697. THE THEORY OF THE EARTH BOOK II. Concerning the Primaeval Earth and concerning Paradise CHAP. I. The Introduction and Contents of the Second Book The general state of the Primaeval Earth and of Paradise WE have already seen a World begin and perish An Earth rais'd from the rudiments of a Chaos and dissolv'd and destroy'd in an Universal Deluge We have given also an imperfect description of that primaeval Earth so far as was necessary to shew the Causes and manner of its dissolution But we must not content our selves with this Seeing that Earth was the first Theater upon which Mortals appear'd and acted and continued so for above Sixteen Hundred Years and that with Scenes as both Reason and History tell us very extraordinary and very different from these of our present Earth 't is reasonable we should endeavour to make a more full discovery and description of it Especially seeing Paradise was there that seat of pleasure which our first Parents lost and which all their posterity have much ado to find again In the First Book we so far describ'd This New-found World as to shew it very different in form and fabrick from the present Earth there was no Sea there no Mountains nor Rocks nor broken Caves 't was all one continued and regular mass smooth simple and compleat as the first works of Nature use to be But to know thus much only doth rather excite our curiosity than satisfie it what were the other properties of this World how were the Heavens how the Elements what accommodation for humane life why was it more proper to be the seat of Paradise than the present Earth Unless we know these things you will say it will seem but an aëry Idea to us and 't is certain that the more properties and particularâ—ties that we know concerning any thing the more real it appears to be As it was our chief design therefore in the precedent Book to give an account of the Universal Deluge by way of a Theory so we propose to our selves chiefly in this Book from the same Theory to give an account of Paradise and in performing of this we shall be led into a more full examination and display of that first Earth and of its qualities And if we be so happy as by the conduct of the same principles and the same method to give as fair an account and as intelligible of the state of Paradise in that Original Earth as we have done of the Deluge by the dissolution of it and of the form of this Earth which succeeded one must be very morose or melancholy to imagine that the grounds we go upon all this while are wholly false or â—ictitious A foundation which will bear the weight of two Worlds without sinking must surely stand upon a firm Rock And I am apt to promise my self that this Theory of the Earth will find acceptance and credit more or less with all but those that think it a sufficient answer to all arguments to say it is a Novelty But to proceed in our disquisition concerning Paradise we may note in the first place two opinions to be avoided being both extreams one that placeth Paradise in the extra-mundane Regions or in the Air or in the Moon and the other that makes it so inconsiderable as to be confin'd to a little spot of ground in Mesopotamia or
Which conjecture will hereafter appear to have been well-grounded In the mean time let us see the Christian Poetry upon this subject as we have seen the Roman upon the other Alcimus Avitus hath thus describ'd Paradise in his Notes upon Genesis Non hîc alterni succedit temporis unquam Bruma nec aestivi redeunt post frigora Soles Hîc Ver assiduum Coeli clementia servat Turbidus Auster abest sempérque sub aere sudo Nubila diffugiunt jugi cessura sereno Nec poscit Natura loci quos non habet imbres Sed contenta suo dotantur germina rore Perpetuò viret omne solum terraeque benignae Blanda nitet facies Stant semper collibus herbae Arboribúsque comae c. No change of Seasons or excess was there No Winter chill'd nor Summer scorch'd the Air But with a constant Spring Nature was fresh and fair Rough Winds or Rains that Region never knew Water'd with Rivers and the morning Dew The Heav'ns still clear the Fields still green and gay No Clouds above nor on the Earth decay Trees kept their leaves and verdure all the Year And Fruits were never out of Season there And as the Christian Authors so likewise the Iewish have spoken of Paradise in the same manner they tell us also that the days there were always of the same length throughout the whole Year and that made them fancy Paradise to lie under the Aequinoctial as we shall see in its due place 'T is true we do not find these things mention'd expresly in the Sacred Writings but the Effects that flow'd from them are recorded there and we may reasonably suppose providence to have foreseen that when those Effects came to be scan'd and narrowly lookt into they would lead us to a diâ—covery of the Causes and particularly of this great and general Cause that perpetual Aequinox and unity of seasons in the Year till the Deluge The Longaevity of the Ante-diluvians cannot be explain'd upon any other supposition as we shall have occasion to show hereafter and that you know is recorded carefully in Scripture As also that there was no Rainbow before the Flood which goes upon the same ground that there was no variety of Seasons nor any Rain And this by many is thought to be understood by Moses his words Gen. 2. 5 6. which he speaks of the first and Paradisiacal Earth Lastly Seeing the Earth then brought forth the principles of life and all living Creatures Man excepted according to Moses Gen. 1. 24. we must suppose that the state of the Heavens was such as favour'd these Conceptions and Births which could not possibly be brought to perfection as the Seasons of the Year are at present The first time that we have mention made in Scripture of Summer and Winter and the differences of Seasons is at the ending of the Deluge Gen. 8. 22. Hence forward all the days of the Earth Seed-time and Harvest Heat and Cold Summer and Winter Day and Night shall not cease 'T is true these words are so lax that they may be understood either of a new course of Nature then instituted or of an old one restor'd but seeing it doth appear from other arguments and considerations that there was at that time a new course of Nature constituted it is more reasonable to interpret the words in that sence which as it is agreeable to truth according to Reason and Antiquity so it renders that remark of Moses of far greater importance if it be understood as an indication of a new order then setled in Nature which should continue thenceforwards so long as the Earth endur'd Nor do I at all wonder that such things should not be expresly and positively declar'd in Scripture for Natural Mysteries in the Holy Writings as well as Prophetical are many times on set purpose incompleatly deliver'd so as to awaken and excite our thoughts rather than fully resolve them This being often more suitable to the designs of Providence in the government of the World But thus much for this first common or general Character of the Golden Age and of Paradise a perpetual Serenity and perpetual Aequinox The second Character is the Longaevity of Men and as is probable of all other Animals in proportion This methinks is as strange and surprising as the other and I know no difference betwixt the Ante-diluvian World and the present so apt to affect us if we reflect upon it as this wonderful disproportion in the Ages of Men Our fore-fathers and their Posterity They liv'd seven eight nine hundred Years and upwards and 't is a wonder now if a Man live to one hundred Our Oakes do not last so long as their Bodies did Stone and Iron would scarce out-wear them And this property of the first Ages or their Inhabitants how strange soever is well attested and beyond all exception having the joynt consent of Sacred and Profane History The Scripture sets down the precise Age of a sâ—ries of Ante diluvian Patriarchs and by that measures the time from the beginning of the World to the Deluge so as all Sacred Chronology stand upon that bottom Yet I know some have thought this so improbable and incongruous a thing that to save the credit of Moses and the Sacred History they interpret these years of Lunar years or months and so the Ages of these Patriarchs are reduc'd to much what the same measure with the common life of man at this time It may be observ'd in this as in many other instances that for want of a Theory to make things credible and intelligibile men of wit and parts have often deprest the sence of Scripture and that not out of any ill will to Scripture or Religion but because they could not otherwise upon the stock of their notions give themselves a rational account of things recorded there But I hope when we come to explain the Causes of this Longaevity we shall shew that it is altogethâ—r us strange a thing that Men should have such short lives as they have now as that they had such long lives in the first Ages of the World In the mean time there are a great many collateral reasons to assure us that Lunar years cannot be here understood by Moses for all Antiquity gives the same account of those first Ages of the World and of the first Men that they were extremely long-liv'd We meet with it generally in the description of the Golden Age and not only so but in their Topical Paradises also they always suppos'd a great vivacity or longaevity in those that enjoy'd them And Iosephus speaking upon this subject saith the Authors of all the learned Nations Greeks or Barbarians bear witness to Moses's doctrine in this particular And in the Mosaical History it self there are several circumstances and marks that discover plainly that the years of the Patriarchs cannot be understood of Lunar years as we shall have occasion to show in another place We proceed in the mean time
been the common standard of Man's Age ever since As when some excellent fruit is transplanted into a worse Climate and Soil it degenerates continually till it comes to such a degree of meanness as suits that Air and Soil and then it stands That the Age of Man did not fall all on a sudden from the Antediluvian measure to the present I impute it to the remaining Stamina of those first Ages and the strength of that pristine constitution which could not wear off but by degrees We see the Blacks do not quit their complexion immediately by removing into another Climate but their posterity changeth by little and little and after some generations they become altogether like the people of the Country where they are Thus by the change of Nature that happened at the Flood the unhappy influence of the Air and unequal Seasons weaken'd by degrees the innate strength of their bodies and the vigour of their parts which would have been capable to have lasted several more hundreds of years if the Heavens had continued their course as formerly or the Earth its position To conclude this particular If any think that the Ante-diluvian longaevity proceeded only from the Stamina or the meer strength of their bodies and would have been so under any constitution of the Heavens let them resolve themselves these Questions first Why these Stamina or this strength of constitution fail'd Secondly Why did it fail so much and so remarkably at the Deluge Thirdly Why in such proportions as it hath done since the Deluge And lastly Why it hath stood so long immovable and without any further diminution Within the compass of five hundred years they sunk from nine hundred to ninety and in the compass of more than three thousand years since they have not sunk ten years or scarce any thing at all Who considers the reasons of these things and the true resolution of these questions will be satisfi'd that to understand the causes of that longaevity something more must be consider'd than the make and strength of their bodies which though they had been made as strong as the Behemoth or Leviathan could not have lasted so many Ages if there had not been a particular concurrence of external causes such as the present state of Nature doth not admit of By this short review of the three general Characters of Paradise and the Golden Age we may conclude how little consistent they are with the present from and order of the Earth Who can pretend to assign any place or Region in this Terraqueous Globe Island or Continent that is capable of these conditions or that agrees either with the descriptions given by the ancient Heathens of their Paradise or by the Christian Fathers of Scripture Paradise But where then will you say must we look for it if not upon this Earth This puts us more into despair of finding it than ever 't is not above nor below in the Air or in the subterraneous Regions no doubtless 't was upon the surface of the Earth but of the Primitive Earth whose form and properties as they were different from this so they were such as made it capable of being truly Paradisiacal both according to the forementioned Characters and all other qualities and privileges reasonably ascrib'd to Paradise CHAP. III. The Original differences of the Primitive Earth from the present or Post-diluvian The three Characters of Paradise and the Golden Age found in the Primitive Earth A particular Explication of each Character WE have hitherto only perplext the Argument and our selves by showing how inexplicable the state of Paradise is according to the present order of things and the present condition of the Earth We must now therefore bring into view that Original and Ante-diluvian Earth where we pretend its seat was and show it capable of all those privileges which we have deny'd to the present in vertue of which privileges and of the order of Nature establisht there that primitive Earth might be truly Paradisiacal as in the Golden Age and some Region of it might be peculiarly so according to the receiv'd Idea of Paradise And this I think is all the knowledge and satisfaction that we can expect or that Providence hath allow'd us in this Argument The Primigenial Earth which in the first Book Chap. 5. we rais'd from a Chaos and set up in an habitable form we must now survey again with more care to observe its principal differences from the present Earth and what influence they will have upon the question in hand These differences as we have said before were chiefly three The form of it which was smooth even and regular The posture and situation of it to the Sun which was direct and not as it is at present inclin'd and oblique And the Figure of it which was more apparently and regularly Oval than it is now From these three differences flow'd a great many more inferiour and subordinate and which had a considerable influence upon the moral World at that time as well as the natural But we will only observe here their more immediate effects and that in reference to those general Characters or properties of the Golden Age and of Paradise which we have instanc'd in and whereof we are bound to give an account by our Hypothesis And in this respect the most fundamental of those three differences we mention'd was that of the right posture and situation of the Earth to the Sun for from this immediately follow'd a perpetual Aequinox all the Earth over or if you will a perpetual Spring and that was the great thing we found a wanting in the present Earth to make it Paradisiacal or capable of being so Wherefore this being now found and establisht in the Primitive Earth the other two properties of Longaevity and of Spontaneous and Vital fertility will be of more easie explication In the mean time let us view a little the reasons and causes of that regular situation in the first Earth The truth is one cannot so well require a reason of the regular situation the Earth had then for that was most simple and natural as of the irregular situation it hath now standing oblique and inclin'd to the Sun or the Ecliptick Whereby the course of the year is become unequal and we are cast into a great diversity of Seasons But however stating the first aright with its circumstances we shall have a better prospect upon the second and see from what causes and in what manner it came to pass Let us therefore suppose the Earth with the rest of its fellow Planets to be carried about the Sun in the Ecliptick by the motion of the liquid Heavens and being at that time perfectly uniform and regular having the same Center of its magnitude and gravity it would by the equality of its libration necessarily have its Axis parallel to the Axis of the same Ecliptick both its Poles being equally inclin'd to the Sun And this posture I call a right
by their disruption And as for Winds they could not be either impetuous or irregular in that Earth seeing there were neither Mountains nor any other inequalities to obstruct the course of the Vapours nor any unequal Seasons or unequal action of the Sun nor any contrary and strugling motions of the Air Nature was then a stranger to all those disorders But as for watery Meteors or those that rise from watery Vapours more immediately as Dews and Rains there could not but be plenty of these in some part or other of that Earth for the action of the Sun in raising Vapours was very strong and very constant and the Earth was at first moist and soft and according as it grew more dry the Rays of the Sun would pierce more deep into it and reach at length the great Abyss which lay underneath and was an unexhausted storehouse of new Vapours But 't is true the same heat which extracted these Vapours so copiously would also hinder them from condensing into Clouds or Rain in the warmer parts of the Earth and there being no Mountains at that time nor contrary Winds nor any such causes to stop them or compress them we must consider which way they would tend and what their course would be and whether they would any where meet with causes capable to change or condense them for upon this 't is manifest would depend the Meteors of that Air and the Waters of that Earth And as the heat of the Sun was chiefly towards the middle parts of the Earth so the copious Vapours rais'd there were most rarified and agitated and being once in the open Air their course would be that way where they found least resistance to their motion and that would certainly be towards the Poles and the colder Regions of the Earth For East and West they would meet with as warm an Air and Vapours as much agitated as themselves which therefore would not yield to their progress that way but towards the North and the South they would find a more easie passage the Cold of those parts attracting them as we call it that is making way to their motion and dilatation without much resistance as Mountains and Cold places usually draw Vapours from the warmer So as the regular and constant course of the Vapours of that Earth which were rais'd chiefly about the Aequinoctial and middle parts of it would be towards the extream parts of it or towards the Poles And in consequence of this when these Vapours were arriv'd in those cooler Climats and cooler parts of the Air they would be condens'd into Rain for wanting there the cause of their agitation namely the heat of the Sun their motion would soon begin to languish and they would fall closer to one another in the form of Water For the difference betwixt Vapours and Water is only gradual and consists in this that Vapours are in a flying motion separate and distant each from another but the parts of Water are in a creeping motion close to one another like a swarm of Bees when they are setled as Vapours resemble the same Bees in the Air before they settle together Now there is nothing puts these Vapours upon the wing or keeps them so but a strong agitation by Heat and when that fails as it must do in all colder places and Regions they necessarily return to Water again Accordingly therefore we must suppose they would soon after they reacht these cold Regions be condens'd and fall down in a continual Rain or Dew upon those parts of the Earth I say a continual Rain for seeing the action of the Sun which rais'd the Vapours was at that time always the same and the state of the Air always alike nor any cross Winds nor any thing else that could hinder the course of the Vapours towards the Poles nor their condensation when arriv'd there 't is manifest there would be a constant Source or store-house of Waters in those parts of the Air and in those parts of the Earth And this I think was the establisht order of Nature in that World this was the state of the Ante-diluvian Heavens and Earth all their Waters came from above and that with a constant supply and circulation for when the croud of Vapours rais'd about the middle parts of the Earth found vent and issue this way towards the Poles the passage being once open'd and the Chanel made the Current would be still continued without intermission and as they were dissolv'd and spent there they would suck in more and more of those which followed and came in fresh streams from the hotter Climates Aristotle I remember in his Meteors speaking of the course of the Vapours saith there is a River in the Air constantly slowing betwixt the Heavens and the Earth made by the ascending and descending Vapours This was more remarkably true in the Primitive Earth where the state of Nature was more constant and regular there was indeed an uninterrupted flood of Vapours rising in one Region of the Earth and flowing to another and there continually distilling in Dews and Rain which made this Aereal River As may be easily apprehended from this Scheme of the Earth and Air. Book 2d. fig. 1st p. 155. Thus we have found a Source for Waters in the first Earth which had no communication with the Sea and a Source that would never fail neither diminish or overflow but feed the Earth with an equal supply throughout all the parts of the year But there is a second difficulty that appears at the end of this How these Waters would flow upon the even surface of the Earth or form themselves into Rivers there being no descent or declivity for their course There were no Hills nor Mountains not high Lands in the first Earth and if these Rains fell in the frigid Zones or towards the Poles there they would stand in Lakes and Pools having no descent one way more than another and so the rest of the Earth would be no better for them This I confess appear'd as great a difficulty as the former and would be unanswerable for ought I know if that first Earth was not water'd by Dews only as I believe some Worlds are or had been exactly Spherical but we noted before that it was Oval or Oblong and in such a Figure 't is manifest the Polar parts are higher than the Aequinoctial that is more remote from the Center as appears to the eye in this Scheme This affords us a present remedy and sets us free of the second difficulty for by this means the Waters which fell about the extreme parts of the Earth would have a continual descent towards the middle parts of it this Figure gives them motion and distribution and many Rivers and Rivulets would flow from those Mother-Lakes to refresh the face of the Earth bending their course still towards the middle parts of it Booke 2d. fig. 2d. p. 156. 'T is true These derivations of the Waters at first would
Chanels of the other Hemisphere This indeed would in some measure answer the Notion which several of the Ancient Fathers make use of that the Rivers of Paradise were trajected out of the other Hemisphere into this by Subterraneous passages But I confess I could never see it possible how such a trajection could be made nor how they could have any motion being arriv'd in another Hemisphere and therefore I am apt to believe that doctrine amongst the Ancients arose from an intanglement in their principles They suppos'd generally that Paradise was in the other Hemisphere as we shall have occasion to show hereafter and yet they believ'd that Tigris Euphrates Nile and Gunges were the Rivers of Paradise or came out of it and these two opinions they could not reconcile or make out but by supposing that these four Rivers had their Fountain-heads in the other Hemisphere and by some wonderful trajection broke out again here This was the expedient they found out to make their opinions consistent one with another but this is a method to me altogether unconceivable and for my part I do not love to be led our of my depth leaning only upon Antiquity How there could be any such communication either above ground or under-ground betwixt the two Hemispheres does not appear and therefore we must still suppose the Torrid Zone to have been the Barrier betwixt them which nothing could pass either way We have now examin'd and determin'd the state of the Air and of the Waters in the Primitive Earth by the light and consequences of reason and we must not wonder to find them different from the present order of Nature what things are said of them or relating to them in Holy Writ do testifie or imply as much and it will be worth our time to make some reflection upon those passages for our further confirmation Moses tells us that the Rainbow was set in the Clouds after the Deluge those Heavens then that never had a Rain-bow before were certainly of a constitution very different from ours And S. Peter doth formally and expresly tell us that the Old Heavens or the Ante-diluvian Heavens had a different constitution from ours and particularly that they were compos'd or constituted of Water which Philosophy of the Apostle's may be easily understood if we attend to two things first that the Heavens he speaks of were not the Starry Heavens but the Aereal Heavens or the Regions of our Air where the Meteors are Secondly That there were no Meteors in those Regions or in those Heavens till the Deluge but watery Meteors and therefore he says they consisted of Water And this shows the foundation upon which that description is made how coherently the Apostle argues and answers the objection there propos'd how justly also he distinguisheth the first Heavens from the present Heavens or rather opposeth them one to another because as those were constituted of Water and watery Meteors only so the present Heavens he saith have treasures of Fire fiery Exhalations and Meteors and a disposition to become the Executioners of the Divine wrath and decrees in the final Conflagration of the Earth This minds me also of the Celestial Waters or the Waters above the Firmaments which Scripture sometimes mentions and which methinks cannot be explain'd so fitly and emphatically upon any supposition as this of ours Those who place them above the Starry Heavens seem neither to understand Astronomy nor Philosophy and on the other hand if nothing be understood by them but the Clouds and the middle Region of the Air as it is at present methinks that was no such eminent and remarkable thing as to deserve a particular commemoration by Moses in his six days work but if we understand them not as they are now but as they were then the only Source of Waters or the only Source of Waters upon that Earth for they had not one drop of Water but what was Celestial this gives it a new force and Emphasis Besides the whole middle Region having no other sort of Meteors but them That made it still the greater singularity and more worthy commemoration As for the Rivers of Paradise there is nothing said concerning their Source or their issue that is either contrary to this or that is not agreeable to the general account we have given of the Waters and Rivers of the first Earth They are not said to rise from any Mountain but from a great River or a kind of Lake in Eden according to the custom of the Rivers of that Earth And as for their end and issue Moses doth not say that they disburthen'd themselves into this or that Sea as they usually do in the description of great Rivers but rather implies that they spent themselves in compassing and watering certain Countries which falls in again very easily with our Hypothesis But I say this rather to comply with the opinions of others than of my own judgment For I think that suggestion about the Supercoelestial Waters made by Moses was not so much according to the strict nature and speciality of Causes as for the ease and profit of the People in their belief and acknowledgment of Providence for so great a benefit by what Causes soever it was brought to pass But to return to the Rainbow which we mention'd before and is not to be past over so slightly This we say is a Creature of the modern World and was not seen nor known before the Flood Moses Gen. 9. 12 13. plainly intimates as much or rather directly affirms it for he says The Bow was set in the Clouds after the Deluge as a confirmation of the promise or Covenant which God made with Noah that he would drown the World no more with Water And how could it be a sign of this or given as a pledge and confirmation of such a promise if it was in the Clouds before and with no regard to this promise and stood there it may be when the World was going to be drown'd This would have been but cold comfort to Noah to have had such a pledge of the Divine Veracity You 'll say it may be that it was not a sign or pledge that signified naturally but voluntarily only and by Divine Institution I am of opinion I confess that it signifi'd naturally and by connexion with the effect importing thus much that the state of Nature was chang'd from what it was before and so chang'd that the Earth was no more in a condition to perish by Water But however let us grant that it signified only by institution to make it significant in this sence it must be something new otherwise it could not signifie any new thing or be the confirmation of a new promise If God Almighty had said to Noah I make a promise to you and to all living Creatures that the World shall never be destroy'd by Water again and for confirmation of this Behold I set the Sun in the firmament Would this have been any
be in whether of these Hemispheres was the Seat of Paradise To answer this only according to our Theory I confess I see no natural reason or occasion to place it in one Hemisphere more than in another I see no ground of difference or pre-eminence that one had above the other and I am apt to think that depended rather upon the will of God and the Series of Providence that was to follow in this Earth than upon any natural incapacity in one of these two Regions more than in the other for planting in it the Garden of God Neither doth Scripture determine with any certainty either Hemisphere for the place of it for when 't is said to be in Eden or to be the Garden of Eden 't is no more than the Garden of pleasure or delight as the word signifies And even the Septuagint who render this word Eden as a proper name twice Gen. 2. ver 8 10. do in the same story render it twice as a common name signifying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pleasure Chap. 2. 15. and Chap. 3. 24. and so they do accordingly render it in Ezekiel Chap. 31. 9. 16 18. where this Garden of Eden is spoken of again Some have thought that the word Mekiddim Gen. 2. 8. was to be render'd in the East or Eastward as we read it and therefore determin'd the site of Paradise but 't is only the Septuagint Translate it so all the other Greek Versions and S. Ierome the Vulgate the Chaldee Paraphrase and the Syriack render it from the beginning or in the beginning or to that effect And we that do not believe the Septuagint to have been infallible or inspir'd have no reason to prefer their single authority above all the rest Some also think the place of Paradise may be determin'd by the four Rivers that are named as belonging to it and the Countries they ran thorough but the names of those Rivers are to me uncertain and two of them altogether unintelligible Where are there four Rivers in our Continent that come from one Head as these are said to have done either at the entrance or issue of the Garden 'T is true if you admit our Hypothesis concerning the fraction and disruption of the Earth at the Deluge then we cannot expect to find Rivers now as they were before the general Source is chang'd and their Chanels are all broke up but if you do not admit such a dissolution of the Earth but suppose the Deluge to have been only like a standing Pool after it had once cover'd the surface of the Earth I do not see why it should make any great haveck or confusion in it and they that go that way are therefore the more oblig'd to show us still the Rivers of Paradise Several of the Ancients as we shall show hereafter suppos'd these four Rivers to have their Heads in the other Hemisphere and if so the Seat of Paradise might be there too But let them first agree amongst themselves concerning these Rivers and the Countries they run thorough and we will undertake to show that there cannot be any such in this Continent Seeing then neither the Theory doth determine nor Scripture where the place of Paradise was nor in whether Hemisphere we must appeal to Antiquity or the opinions of the Ancients for I know no other Guide but one of these three Scripture Reason and Ancient Tradition and where the two former are silent it seems very reasonable to consult the third And that our Inquiries may be comprehensive enough we will consider what the Iews what the Heathens and what the Christian Fathers have said or determin'd concerning the Seat of Paradise The Iews and Hebrew Doctors place it in neither Hemisphere but betwixt both under the Aequinoctial as you may see plainly in Abravanel Manasses Ben-Israel Maimonides Aben Ezra and others But the reason why they carried it no further than the Line is because they suppos'd it certain as Aben Ezra tells us that the days and nights were always equal in Paradise and they did not know how that could be unless it stood under the Aequinoctial But we have shown another method wherein that perpetual Aequinox came to pass and how it was common to all the parts and Climates of that Earth which if they had been aware of and that the Torrid Zone at that time was utterly uninhabitable having remov'd their Paradise thus far from home they would probably have remov'd it a little further into the temperate Climates of the other Hemisphere The Ancient Heathens Poets and Philosophers had the notion of Paradise or rather of several Paradises in the Earth and 't is remarkable that they plac'd them generally if not all of them out of this Continent in the Ocean or beyond it or in another Orb or Hemisphere The Garden of the Hesperides the Fortunate Islands the Elysian Fields Ogygia and Toprabane as it is describ'd by Diodorus Siculus with others such like which as they were all characteriz'd like so many Paradises so they were all feared out of our Continent by their Geography and descriptions of them Thus far Antiquity seems to incline to the other Hemisphere or to some place beyond the bounds of our Continent for the Seat of Paradise But that which we are most to depend upon in this affair is Christian Antiquity the Judgment and Tradition of the Fathers upon this Argument And we may safely say in the first place negatively that none of the Christian Fathers Latin or Greek ever plac'd Paradise in Mesopotamia that is a conceit and invention of some Modern Authors which hath been much encouraged of late because it gave Men ease and rest as to further inquiries in an argument they could not well manage Secondly We may affirm that none of the Christian Fathers have plac'd Paradise in any determinate Region of our Continent Asia Africk or Europe I have read of one or two Authors I think that fansied Paradise to have been at Ierusalem but 't was a meer fansie that no body regarded or pursu'd The controversie amongst the Fathers concerning Paradise was quite another thing from what it is now of late They disputed and controverted whether Paradise was Corporeal or Intellectual only and Allegorical This was the grand point amongst them Then of those that thought it Corporeal some plac'd it high in the Air some inaccessible by Desarts or Mountains and many beyond the Ocean or in another World And in these chiefly consisted the differences and diversity of opinions amongst them nor do we find that they nam'd any particular place or Country in the known parts of the Earth for the Seat of Paradise or that one contested for one spot of ground and another for another which is the vain temerity of modern Authors as if they could tell to an Acre of Land where Paradise stood or could set their foot upon the Centre of the Garden These have corrupted and misrepresented the notion of our Paradise just as
some modern Poets have the notion of the Elysian fields which Homer and the Ancients plac'd remote on the extremities of the Earth and these would make a little green Meadow in Campania Felix to be the fam'd Elysium Thus much concerning the Fathers negatively but to discover as far as we can what their positive Assertions were in this Argument we may observe that though their opinions be differently exprest they generally concenter in this that the Southern Hemisphere was the Seat of Paradise This I say seems manifestly to be the sence of Christian Antiquity and Tradition so far as there is any thing definitive in the remains we have upon that subject Some of the Fathers did not believe Paradise to be Corporeal and Local and those are to be laid aside in the first place as to this point Others that thought it Local did not determine any thing as most of them indeed did not concerning the particular place of it But the rest that did though they have exprest themselves in various ways and under various forms yet upon a due interpretation they all meet in one common and general conclusion That Paradise was seated beyond the Aequinoctial or in the other Hemisphere And to understand this aright we must reflect in the first place upon the form of the Primaeval Earth and of the two Hemispheres of which it consisted altogether incommunicable one with another by reason of the Torrid Zone betwixt them so as those two Hemispheres were then as two distinct Worlds or distinct Earths that had no commerce with one another And this Notion or Tradition we find among Heathen Authors as well as Christian this Opposite Earth being call'd by them Antichthon and its Inhabitants Antichthones For those words comprehend both the Antipodes and Antoeci or all beyond the Line as is manifest from their best Authors as Achilles Tatius and Caesar Germanicus upon Aratus Probus Grammaticus Censorinus Pomponius Mela and Pliny And these were call'd another World and lookt upon as another stock and race of Mankind as appears from Cicero and Macrobius But as the latter part was their mistake so the former is acknowledg'd by Christian Authors as well as others and particularly S. Clement in his Epistle to the Corinthians mentions a World or Worlds beyond the Ocean subject to Divine Providence and the great Lord of Nature as well as ours This passage of S. Clement is also cited by S. Ierom in his Commentary upon Ephes. 2. 2. and by Origen Periarchon where the Inhabitants of that other World are call'd Antichthones I make this remark in the first place that we may understand the true sence and importance of those phrases and expressions amongst the Ancients when they say Paradise was in another World Which are not to be so understood as if they thought Paradise was in the Moon or in Iupiter or hung above like a Cloud or a Meteor they were not so extravagant but that Paradise was in another Hemisphere which was call'd Antichthon another Earth or another World from Ours and justly reputed so because of an impossibility of commerce or intercourse betwixt their respective Inhabitants And this remark being premis'd we will now distribute the Christian Authors and Fathers that have deliver'd their opinion concerning the place of Paradise into three or four ranks or orders and though they express themselves differently you will see when duly examin'd and expounded they all conspire and concur in the forementioned conclusion That the Seat of Paradise was in the other Hemisphere In the first rank then we will place and reckon those that have set Paradise in another World or in another Earth seeing according to the foregoing Explication that is the same thing as to affirm it seated beyond the Torrid Zone in the other Hemisphere In this number are Ephrem Syrus Moses Bar Cepha Tatianus and of later date Iacobus de Valentia To these are to be added again such Authors as say that Adam when he was turn'd out of Paradise was brought into our Earth or into our Region of the Earth for this is tantamount with the former And this seems to be the sence of S. Ierom in several places against Iovinian as also of Constantine in his Oration in Eusebius and is positively asserted by Sulpitius Severus And lastly Those Authors that represent Paradise as remote from our World and inaccessible so S. Austin Procopius Gazeus Beda Strabus Fuldensis Historia Scholiastica and others these I say pursue the same notion of Antiquity for what is remote from our World that is from our Continent as we before explain'd it is to be understood to be that Antichthon or Anti-hemisphere which the Ancients oppos'd to ours Another sett of Authors that interpret the Flaming Sword that guarded Paradise to be the Torrid Zone do plainly intimate that Paradise in their opinion lay beyond the Torrid Zone or in the Antihemisphere And thus Tertullian interprets the Flaming Sword and in such words as fully confirm our sence Paradise He says by the Torrid Zone as by a wall of Fire was sever'd from the communication and knowledge of our World It lay then on the other side of this Zone And S. Cyprian or the ancient Author that passeth under his name in his Comment upon Genesis expresseth himself to the same effect so also S. Austin and Isidore Hispalensis are thought to interpret it And Aquinas who makes Paradise inaccessible gives this reason for it Propter vehementiam aestûs in locis intermediis ex propinquitate Solis hoc significatur per Flammeum Gladium Because of that vehement heat in the parts betwixt us and that arising from the nearness of the Sun and this is signified by the Flaming Sword And this interpretation of the Flaming Sword receives a remarkable force and Emphasis from our Theory and description of the Primaeval Earth for there the Torrid Zone was as a wall of Fire indeed or a Region of flame which none could pass or subsist in no more than in a Furnace There is another form of expression amongst the Ancients concerning Paradise which if decyphered is of the same force and signification with this we have already instanc'd in They say sometimes Paradise was beyond the Ocean or that the Rivers of Paradise came from beyond the Ocean This is of the same import with the former Head and points still at the other Hemisphere for as we noted before some of them fixt their Antichthon and Antichthâ—nes beyond the Ocean that is since there was an Ocean Since the form of the Earth was chang'd and the Torrid Zone become habitable and cosequently could not be a boundary or separation betwixt the two Worlds Wherefore as some run still upon the old division by the Torrid Zone others took the new division by the Ocean Which Ocean they suppos'd to lie from East to West betwixt the Tropicks as may be seen in Ancient Authors Geminus Herodotus Cicero de republicâ and Clemens
have divided it in two parts an Interiour and an Exteriour and in that Exteriour part was Paradise Such allowances must often be made for Geographical mistakes in examining and understanding the writings of the Ancients The rest of the Syrian Fathers as well as Ephrem and Bar Cepha incline to the same doctrine of Paradise and seem to have retain'd more of the ancient notions concerning it than the Greek and Latin Fathers have and yet there is in all some fragments of this doctrine and but fragments in the best We might add in the last place that as the most ancient Treatises concerning Paradise are lost so also the ancient Glosses and Catenae upon Scripture where we might have found the Traditions and Opinions of the Ancients upon this subject are many of them either lost or unpublisht And upon this consideration we did not think it improper to cite some Authors of small Antiquity but such as have transcrib'd several things out of ancient Manuscript-glosses into their Commentaries They living however before Printing was invented or Learning well restor'd and before the Reformation I add that also before the Reformation for since that time the Protestant Authors having lessen'd the Authority of Traditions the Pontificial Doctors content themselves to insist only upon such as they thought were useful or necessary lest by multiplying others that were but matter of curiosity they should bring the first into question and render the whole doctrine of Traditions more dubious and exceptionable And upon this account there are some Authors that writ an Age or two before the Reformation that have with more freedom told us the Tenets and Traditions of the Ancients in these Speculations that are but collateral to Religion than any have done since And I must confess I am apt to think that what remains concerning the doctrine of Paradise and the Primaeval Earth is in a good measure Traditional for one may observe that those that treat upon these subjects quote the true Opinions and tell you some of the Ancients held so and so as That Paradise was in another Earth or higher than this Earth That there were no Mountains before the Flood nor any Rain and such like yet they do not name those ancient Authors that held these Opinions which makes me apt to believe either that they were convey'd by a Traditional communication from one to another or that there were other Books extant upon those subjects or other Glosses than what are now known Finally To conclude this Discourse concerning the Seat of Paradise we must mind you again upon what Basis it stands We declar'd freely that we could not by our Theory alone determine the particular place of it only by that we are assur'd that it was in the Primaeval Earth and not in the present but in what Region or in whether Hemisphere of that Earth it was seated we cannot define from Speculation only 'T is true if we hold fast to that Scripture-conclusion That all Mankind rise from one Head and from one and the same Stock and Lineage which doth not seem to be according to the sentiments of the Heathens we must suppose they were born in one Hemisphere and after some time translated into the other or a Colony of them But this still doth not determine in whether of the two they begun and were first seated before their translation and I am apt to think that depended rather as we noted before upon the Divine Pleasure and the train of affairs that was to succeed than upon Natural causes and differences Some of the Ancients I know made both the Soil and the Stars more noble in the Southern Hemisphere than in ours but I do not see any proof or warrant for it wherefore laying aside all natural Topicks we are willing in this particular to refer our selves wholly to the report and majority of Votes amongst the Ancients who yet do not seem to me to lay much stress upon the notion of a particular and Topical Paradise and therefore use general and remote expressions concerning it And finding no place for it in this Continent they are willing to quit their hands of it by placing it in a Region some-where far off and inaccessible This together with the old Tradition that Paradise was in another Earth seems to me to give an account of most of their Opinions concerning the Seat of Paradise and that they were generally very uncertain where to fix it CHAP. VIII The uses of this Theory for the illustration of Antiquity The ancient Chaos explain'd The inhabitability of the Torrid Zone The change of the Poles of the World The doctrine of the Mundane Egg How America was first peopled How Paradise within the Circle of the Moon WE have now dispatch'd the Theory of the Primaeval Earth and reviv'd a forgotten World 'T is pity the first and fairest works of Nature should be lost out of the memory of Man and that we should so much dote upon the Ruines as never to think upon the Original Structure As the modern Artists from some broken pieces of an ancient Statue make out all the other parts and proportions so from the broken and scatter'd limbs of the first World we have shown you how to raise the whole Fabrick again and renew the prospect of those pleasant Scenes that first see the light and first entertain'd Man when he came to act upon this new-erected Stage We have drawn this Theory chiefly to give an account of the Universal Deluge and of Paradise but as when one lights a Candle to look for one or two things which they want the light will not confine it self to those two objects but shows all the other in the room so methinks we have unexpectedly cast a light upon all Antiquity in seeking after these two things or in retrieving the Notion and Doctrine of the Primaeval Earth upon which they depended For in ancient Learning there are many Discourses and many Conclusions deliver'd to us that are so obscure and confus'd and so remote from the present state of things that one cannot well distinguish whether they are fictions or realities and there is no way to distinguish with certainty but by a clear Theory upon the same subjects which showing us the truth directly and independently upon them shows us also by reflection how far they are true or false and in what sence they are to be interpreted and understood And the present Theory being of great extent we shall find it serviceable in many things for the illustration of such dubious and obscure doctrines in Antiquity To begin with their Ancient CHAOS what a dark story have they made of it both their Philosophers and Poets and how fabulous in appearance 'T is deliver'd as confus'dly as the Mass it self could be and hath not been reduc'd to order nor indeed made intelligible by any They tell us of moral principles in the Chaos instead of natural of strife and discord and division on the one hand
He truly supposes the Celestial Bodies and the Inhabitants of them much more considerable than we are and reckons up only Terrestrial things as put in subjection to Man Can we then be so fond as to imagine all the Corporeal Universe made for our use 'T is not the Millioneth part of it that is known to us much less useful We can neither reach with our Eye nor our imagination those Armies of Stars that lie far and deep in the boundless Heavens If we take a good Glass we discover innumerably more Stars in the Firmament than we can with our single Eye and yet if you take a second Glass better than the first that carries the sight to a greater distance you see more still lying beyond the other and a third Glass that pierceth further still makes new discoveries of Stars and so forwards indefinitely and inexhaustedly for any thing we know according to the immensity of the Divine Nature and Power Who can reckon up the Stars of the Galaxy or direct us in the use of them And can we believe that those and all the rest were made for us Of those few Stars that we enjoy or that are visible to the Eye there is not a tenth part that is really useful to Man and no doubt if the principal end of them had been our pleasure or conveniency they would have been put in some better order in respect of the Earth They lie carelesly scatter'd as if they had been sown in the Heaven like Seed by handfuls and not by a skilful hand neither What a beautiful Hemisphere they would have made if they had been plac'd in rank and order if they had been all dispos'd into regular figures and the little ones set with due regard to the greater then all finisht and made up into one fair piece or great Composition according to the rules of Art and Symmetry What a surprizing beauty this would have been to the Inhabitants of the Earth What a lovely Roof to our little World This indeed might have given one some Temptation to have thought that they had been all made for us but lest any such vain imagination should now enter into our thoughts Providence besides more important Reasons seems on purpose to have left them under that negligence or disorder which they appear in to us The second part of this opinion supposeth this Planet where we live to be the only habitable part of the Universe and this is a natural consequence of the former If all things were made to serve us why should any more be made than what is useful to us But 't is only our ignorance of the System of the World and of the grandeur of the Works of God that betrays us to such narrow thoughts If we do but consider what this Earth is both for littleness and deformity and what its Inhabitants are we shall not be apt to think that this miserable Atome hath ingross'd and exhausted all the Divine Favours and all the riches of his goodness and of his Providence But we will not inlarge upon this part of the opinion lest it should carry us too far from the subject and it will fall of its own accord with the former Upon the whole we may conclude that it was only the Sublunary World that was made for the sake of Man and not the Great Creation either Material or Intellectual and we cannot admit or affirm any more without manifest injury depression and misrepresentation of Providence as we may be easily convinc'd from these four Heads The Meanness of Man and of this Earth The Excellency of other Beings The Immensity of the Universe and The infinite perfection of the first Cause Which I leave to your further Meditation and pass on to the second rule concerning Natural Providence In the second place then if we would have a fair view and right apprehensions of Natural Providence we must not cut the chains of it too short by having recourse without necessity either to the First Cause in explaining the Origins of things or to Miracles in explaining particular effects This I say breaks the chains of Natural Providence when it is done without necessity that is when things are otherwise ntelligible from Second Causes Neither is any thing gain'd by it to God Almighty for 't is but as the Proverb says to rob Peter to pay Paul to take so much from his ordinary Providence and place it to his extraordinary When a new Religion is brought into the World 't is very reasonable and decorous that it should be usher'd in with Miracles as both the Iewish and Christian were but afterwards things return into their Chanel and do not change or overflow again but upon extraordinary occasions or revolutions The power Extraordinary of God is to be accounted very Sacred not to be touch'd or expos'd for our pleasure or conveniency but I am afraid we often make use of it only to conceal our own ignorance or to save us the trouble of inquiring into Natural Causes Men are generally unwilling to appear ignorant especially those that make profession of knowledge and when they have not skill enough to explain some particular effect in a way of Reason they throw it upon the First Cause as able to bear all and so placing it to that account they excuse themselves and save their credit for all Men are equally wise if you take away Second Causes as we are all of the same colour if you take away the Light But to state this matter and see the ground of this rule more distinctly we must observe and consider that The Course of Nature is truly the Will of God and as I may so say his first Will from which we are not to recede but upon clear evidence and necessity And as in matter of Religion we are to follow the known reveal'd Will of God and not to trust to every impulse or motion of Enthusiasm as coming from the Divine Spirit unless there be evident marks that it is Supernatural and cannot come from our own So neither are we without necessity to quit the known and ordinary Will and Power of God establisht in the course of Nature and fly to Supernatural Causes or his extraordinary Will for this is a kind of Enthusiasm or Fanaticism as well as the other And no doubt that great prodigality and waste of Miracles which some make is no way to the honour of God or Religion 'T is true the other extream is worse than this for to deny all Miracles is in effect to deny all reveal'd Religion therefore due measures are to be taken betwixt these two so as neither to make the Divine Power too mean and cheap nor the Power of Nature illimited and all-sufficient In the Third place To make the Scenes of Natural Providence considerable and the knowledge of them satisfactory to the Mind we must take a true Philosophy or the true principles that govern Nature which are Geometrical and
Mechanical By these you discover the footsteps of the Divine Art and Wisdom and trace the progress of Nature step by step as distinctly as in Artificial things where we see how the Motions depend upon one another in what order and by what necessity God made all things in Number Weiâ—ht and Measure which are Geometrical and Mechanical Principles He is not said to have made things by Forms and Qualities or any combination of Qualities but by these three principles which may be conceiv'd to express the subject of three Mathematical Sciences Number of Arithmetick Weight of Staticks and Measure and Proportion of Geometry If then all things were made according to these principles to understand the manner of their construction and composition we must proceed in the search of them by the same principles and resolve them into these again Besides The nature of the subject does direct us sufficiently for when we contemplate or treat of Bodies and the Material World we must proceed by the modes of Bodies and their real properties such as can be represented either to Sense or Imagination for these faculties are made for Corporeal Things but Logical Notions when appli'd to particular Bodies are meer shadows of them without light or substance No Man can raise a Theory upon such grounds nor calculate any revolutions of Nature nor render any service or invent any thing useful in Humane Life And accordingly we see that for these many Ages that this dry Philosophy hath govern'd Christendom it hath brought forth no fruit produc'd nothing good to God or Man to Religion or Humane Society To these True Principles of Philosophy we must joyn also the True System of the World That gives scope to our thoughts and rational grounds to work upon but the Vulgar System or that which Aristotle and others have propos'd affords no matter of contemplation All above the Moon according to him is firm as Adamant and as immutable no change or variation in the Universe but in those little removes that happen here below one quality or form shifting into another there would therefore be no great exercise of Reason or Meditation in such a World no long Series's of Providence The Regions above being made of a kind of immutable Matter they would always remain in the same form structure and qualities So as we might lock up that part of the Universe as to any further Inquiries and we should find it ten thousand years hence in the same form and state wherein we left it Then in this Sublunary World there would be but very small doings neither things would lie in a narrow compass no great revolution of Nature no new Form of the Earth but a few anniversary Corruptions and Generations and that would be the short and the long of Nature and of Providence according to Aristotle But if we consider the Earth as one of those many Planets that move about the Sun and the Sun as one of those innumerable fixt Stars that adorn the Universe and are the Centers of its greatest Motions and all this subject to fate and change to corruptions and renovations This opens a large Field for our Thoughts and gives a large subject for the exercise and expansion of the Divine Wisdom and Power and for the glory of his Providence In the last place Having thus prepar'd your Mind and the subject for the Contemplation of Natural Providence do not content your self to consider only the present face of Nature but look back into the first Sources of things into their more simple and original states and observe the progress of Nature from one form to another through various modes and compositions For there is no single Effect nor any single state of Nature how perfect soever that can be such an argument and demonstration of Providence as a Period of Nature or a revolution of several states consequential to one another and in such an order and dependance that as they flow and succeed they shall still be adjusted to the periods of the Moral World so as to be ready always to be Ministers of the Divine Justice or beneficence to Mankind This shows the manifold riches of the Wisdom and Power of God in Nature And this may give us just occasion to reflect again upon Aristotle's System and method which destroys Natural Providence in this respect also for he takes the World as it is now both for Matter and Form and supposeth it to have been in this posture from all Eternity and that it will continue to Eternity in the same so as all the great turns of Nature and the principal scenes of Providence in the Natural World are quite struck out and we have but this one Scene for all and a pitiful one too if compar'd with the Infinite Wisdom of God and the depths of Providence We must take things in their full extent and from their Origins to comprehend them well and to discover the Mysteries of Providence both in the Causes and in the Conduct of them That method which David followed in the Contemplation of the Little World or in the Body of Man we should also follow in the Great take it in its first mass in its tender principles and rudiments and observe the progress of it to a compleat form In these first stroaks of Nature are the secrets of her Art The Eye must be plac'd in this point to have a right prospect and see her works in a true light David admires the Wisdom of God in the Origin and formation of his Body My Body says He was not hid from thee when I was made in secret curiously wrought in the lower parts of the Earth Thine eyes did see my substance being yet unperfect and in thy Book all my members were written which in continuance were fashioned when as yet there was none of them or being at first in no form How precious are thy Thoughts to me O God c. This was the subject of David's Meditations how his Body was wrought from a shapeless mass into that marvellous composition which it had when fully fram'd and this he says was under the Eye of God all along and the model of it as it were was design'd and delineated in the Book of Providence according to which it was by degrees fashion'd and wrought to perfection Thine eyes did see my substance yet being imperfect in thy Book all my members were drawn c. Iob also hath aptly exprest those first rudiments of the Body or that little Chaos out of which it riseth Hast thou not poured me out as Milk and crudled me like Cheese Thou hast cloathed me with Skin and Flesh and fenced me with Bones and Sinews Where he notes the first Matter and the last Form of his Body its compleat and most incompleat state According to those examples we must likewise consider the Greater Bodies of Nature The Earth and the Sublunary World we must go to the Origin of them the Seminal Mass
and of these no doubt there is great variety and great differences not only of Primary and Secondary or of the principal Planet and its Moons or Attendants but also amongst Planets of the same rank for they may differ both in their original constitution and according to the from and state they are under at present of which sort of differences we have noted some amongst our Planets though they seem to be all of much-what the same original constitution Besides according to external circumstances their distance manner of motion and posture to the Sun which is the Heart of the whole System they become different in many things And we may observe that those leading differences though they seem little draw after them innumerable others and so make a distinct face of Nature and a distinct World which still shows the riches and fecundity of Divine Providence and gives new matter of contemplation to those that take pleasure in studying the works and ways of God But leaving all other Planets or Planetary Systems to our meditations only we must particularly consider our own Having therefore made this general Survey of the great Universe run thorough the boundless Regions of it and with much ado found our way home to that little Planet where our concerns lie This Earth or Sublunary World we must rest here as at the end of our course And having undertaken to give the general Theory of this Earth to conclude the present Treatise we 'll reflect upon the whole work and observe what progress we have hitherto made in this Theory and what remains to be treated of hereafter This Earth though it be a small part or particle of the Universe hath a distinct System of Providence belonging to it or an Order establisht by the Author of Nature for all its Phaenomena Natural or Moral throughout the whole Period of its duration and every interval of it for as there is nothing so great as to be above the Divine care so neither is there any thing so little as to be below it All the Changes of our World are fixt How or how often to be destroy'd and how renew'd What different faces of Nature and what of Mankind in every part of its Course What new Scenes to adorn the Stage and what new parts to be acted What the Entrance and what the Consummation of all Neither is there any sort of knowledge more proper or of more importance to us that are the Inhabitants of this Earth than to understand this its Natural and Sacred History as I may so call it both as to what is past and what is to come And as those greater Volumes and Compositions of the Universe are proportion'd to the understanding of Angels and Superiour Beings so these little Systems are Compendium's of the Divine Wisdom more fitted to our capacity and comprehension The Providence of the Earth as of all other Systems consists of two parts Natural and Sacred or Theological I call that Sacred or Theological that respects Religion and the dispensations of it the government of the Rational World or of Mankind whether under the Light of Nature only or of a Revelation the method and terms of their happiness and unhappiness in a Future Life The State Oeconomy and Conduct of this with all the Mysteries contain'd in it we call Theological Providence in the head whereof stands the Soul of the Blessed Messiah who is Lord of both Worlds Intellectual and Material When we call the other part of Providence Natural we use that word in a restrain'd sence as respecting only the Material World and accordingly this part of Providence others and superintends the state of the Earth the great Vicissitudes and Mutations of it for we must not imagine but that these are under the Eye of Providence as well as Humane Affairs or any revolutions of States and Empires Now seeing both in the Intellectual and Corporeal World there are certain Periods Fulnesses of Time and fixt Seasons either for some great Catastrophe or some great Instauration 'T is Providence that makes a due harmony or Synchronism betwixt these two and measures out the concurrent fates of both Worlds so as Nature may be always a faithful minister of the Divine Pleasure whether for rewards or punishments according as the state of Mankind may require But Theological Providence not being the subject of this work we shall only observe as we said before what account we have hitherto given of the Natural state of the Earth and what remains to be handled in another Treatise and so conclude I did not think it necessary to carry the story and original of the Earth higher than the Chaos as Zoroaster and Orpheus seem to have done but taking that for our Foundation which Antiquity Sacred and Profane doth suppose and Natural Reason approve and confirm we have form'd the Earth from it But when we say the Earth rise from a Fluid Mass it is not to be so crudely understood as if a rock of Marble suppose was fluid immediately before it became Marble no Things had a gradual progression from one form to another and came at length to those more permanent forms they are now setled in Stone was once Earth and Earth was once Mud and Mud was once sluid And so other things may have another kind of progression from fluidity but all was once fluid at least all the exteriour Regions of this Earth And even those Stones and Rocks of Marble which we speak of seem to confess they were once soft or liquid by those mixtures we find in them of Heterogeneous Bodies and those spots and Veins disperst thorough their substance for these things could not happen to them after they were hard and impenetrable in the form of Stone or Marble And if we can soften Rocks and Stones and run them down into their first Liquors as these observations seem to do we may easily believe that other Bodies also that compose the Earth were once in a Fluid Mass which is that we call a Chaos We therefore watch'd the motions of that Chaos and the several transformations of it while it continued Fluid and we found at length what its first Concretion would be and how it setled into the form of an habitable Earth But that form was very different from the present form of the Earth which is not immediately deducible from a Chaos by any known Laws of Nature or by any Wit of Man as every one that will have patience to examine it may easily be satisfied That First Earth was of a smooth regular surface as the Concretions of Liquors are before they are disturb'd or broken under that surface lay the Great Abyss which was ready to swallow up the World that hung over it and about it whensoever God should give the command and the Vault should break and this constitution of the Primaeval Earth gave occasion to the first Catastrophe of this World when it perisht in a Deluge of Water For
that Vault did break as we have shown at large and by the dissolution and fall of it the Great Deep was thrown out of its bed forc'd upwards into the Air and overflow'd in that impetuous Commotion the highest tops of the Fragments of the ruin'd Earth which now we call its Mountains And as this was the first great and fatal Period of Nature so upon the issue of this and the return of the Waters into their Chanels the second face of Nature appear'd or the present broken form of the Earth as it is Terraqueous Mountainous and Cavernous These things we have explain'd fully in the First Book and have thereby setled two great Points given a rational account of the Universal Deluge and shown the Causes of the irregular form of the present or Post-diluvian Earth This being done we have apply'd our selves in the Second Book to the description of the Primaeval Earth and the examination of its properties and this hath led us by an easie tract to the discovery of Paradise and of the true Notion and Mystery of it which is not so much a spot of ground where a fine Garden stood as a course of Nature or a peculiar state of the Earth Paradisiacal in many parts but especially in one Region of it which place or Region we have also endeavour'd to determine though not so much from the Theory as from the suffrages of Antiquity if you will take their judgment THUS much is finisht and this contains the Natural Theory of the Earth till this present time for since the Deluge all things have continued in the same state or without any remarkable change We are next to enter upon new Matter and new Thoughts and not only so but upon a Series of Things and Times to come which is to make the Second Part of this Theory Dividing the duration of the World into two parts Past and Future we have dispatch'd the first and far greater part and come better half of our way And if we make a stand here and look both ways backwards to the Chaos and the beginning of the World and forwards to the End and Consummation of all Things though the first be a longer prospect yet there are as many general Changes and Revolutions of Nature in the remaining part as have already happen'd and in the Evening of this long Day the Scenes will change faster and be more bright and illustrious From the Creation to this Age the Earth hath undergone but one Catastrophe and Nature hath had two different faces The next Catastrophe is the CONFLAGRATION to which a new face of Nature will accordingly succeed New Heavens and a New Earth Paradise renew'd and so it is call'd the Restitution of things or Regeneration of the World And that Period of Nature and Providence being expir'd then follows the Consummation of all things or the General Apotheosts when Death and Hell shall be swallowed up in victory When the great Circle of Time and Fate is run or according to the language of Scripture When the Heavens and the Earth shall pass away and Time shall be no more MAY we in the mean time by a true Love of God above all things and a contempt of this Vain World which passeth away By a careful use of the Gifts of God and Nature the Light of Reason and Revelation prepare our selves and the state of things for the great Coming of our Saviour To whom be Praise and Honour for evermore FINIS THE THEORY OF THE EARTH Containing an Account OF THE Original of the Earth AND OF ALL THE GENERAL CHANGES Which it hath already undergone OR IS TO UNDERGO Till the CONSUMMATION of all Things THE TWO LAST BOOKS Concerning the BURNING of the WORLD AND Concerning the NEW HEAVENS and NEW EARTH LONDON Printed by R. N. for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's-Head in S. Paul's Church-Yard 1697. TO THE QUEEN'S MOST Excellent Majesty MADAM HAVING had the honour to present the first part of this Theory to Your ROYAL UNCLE I presume to offer the Second to Your Majesty This part of the Subject I hope will be no less acceptable for certainly 't is of no less importance They both indeed agree in this That there is a WORLD made and destroy'd in either Treatise But we are more concern'd in what is to come than what is past And as the former Books represented to us the Rise and Fall of the First World so These give an account of the present Frame of Nature labouring under the last Flames and of the Resurrection of it in the New Heavens and New Earth which according to the Divine Promises we are to expect Cities that are burnt are commonly rebuilt more beautiful and regular than they were before And when this World is demolish'd by the last Fire He that undertakes to rear it up again will supply the defects if there were any of the former Fabrick This Theory supposes the present Earth to be little better than an Heap of Ruines where yet there is room enough for Sea and Land for Islands and Continents for several Countries and Dominions But when these are all melted down and refin'd in the general Fire they will be cast into a better mould and the Form and Qualities of the Earth will become Paradisiâ—cal But I fear it may be thought no very proper address to shew Your Majesty a World laid in ashes where You have so great an interest Your Self and Such fair Dominions and then to recompence the loss by giving a Reversion in a Future Earth But if that future Earth be a second Paradise to be enjoyed for a Thousand Years with Peace Innocency and constant health An Inheritance there will be an happy exchange for the best Crown in this World I confess I could never perswade my self that the Kingdom of Christ and of his Saints which the Scripture speaks of so frequently was design'd to be upon this present Earth But however upon all suppositions They that have done some eminent Good in this Life will be sharers in the happiness of that State To humble the Oppressors and rescue the Oppressed is a work of Generosity and Charity that cannot want its reward Yet MADAM They are the greatest Benefactors to Mankind that dispose the World to become Vertuous and by their example Influence and Authority retrieve that TRUTH and JUSTICE that have been lost amongst men for many Ages The School-Divines tell us Those that act or suffer great things for the Publick Good are distinguish'd in Heaven by a Circle of Gold about their Heads One would not willingly vouch for that but one may safely for what the Prophet says which is far greater namely that They shall shine like Stars in the Firmament that turn many to Righteousness Which is not to be understood so much of the Conversion of single Souls as of the turning of Nations and People the turning of the World to Righteousness They that lead on that great and happy Work
shall be distinguish'd in Glory from the rest of Mankind We are sensible MADAM from Your Great Example that Piety and Vertue seated upon a Throne draw many to imitation whom ill Principles or the course of the World might have led another way These are the best as well as easiest Victories that are gain'd without Contest And as Princes are the Vicegerents of God upon Earth so when their Majesty is in Conjunction with Goodness it hath a double Character of Divinity upon it and we owe them a double Tribute of Fear and Love Which with constant Prayers for Your MAJESTIES present and future Happiness shall be always Dutifully paid by Your MAJESTY'S Most Humble and most Obedient Subject T. BVRNET PREFACE TO THE READER I HAVE not much to say to the Reader in this Preface to the Third Part of the Theory seeing it treats upon a Subject own'd by all and out of dispute The Conflagration of the World The question will be only about the bounds and limits of the Conflagration the Causes and the Manner of it These I have fix'd according to the truest measures I could take from Scripture and from Nature I differ I believe from the common Sentiment in this that in following S. Peter's Philosophy I suppose that the burning of the Earth will be a true Liquefaction or dissolution of it as to the exteriour Region And that this lays a foundation for New Heavens and a New Earth which seems to me as plain a doctrine in Christian Religion as the Conflagration it self I have endeavour'd to propose an intelligible way whereby the Earth may be consum'd by Fire But if any one can propose another more probable and more consistent I will be the First Man that shall give him thanks for his discovery He that loves Truth for its own sake is willing to receive it from any hand as he that truly loves his Country is glad of a Victory over the Enemy whether himself or any other has the glory of it I need not repeat here what I have already said upon several occasions That 't is the substance of this Theory whether in this part or in other parts that I mainly regard and depend upon Being willing to suppose that many single explications and particularities may be rectified upon further thoughts and clearer light I know our best writings in this life are but Essays which we leave to Posterity to review and correct As to the Style I always endeavour to express my self in a plain and perspicuous manner that the Reader may not lose time nor wait too long to know my meaning To give an Attendant quick dispatch is a civility whether you do his business or no. I would not willingly give any one the trouble of reading a period twice over to know the sence of it lest when he comes to know it he should not think it a recompence for his pains Whereas on the contrary if you are easie to your Reader he will certainly make you an allowance for it in his censure You must not think it strange however that the Author sometimes in meditating upon this subject is warm in his thoughts and expressions For to see a World perishing in Flames Rocks melting the Earth trembling and an Host of Angels in the clouds one must be very much a Stoick to be a cold and unconcerned Spectator of all this And when we are mov'd our selves our words will have a tincture of those passions which we feel Besides in moral reflections which are design'd for use there must be some heat as well as dry reason to inspire this cold clod of clay this dull body of Earth which we carry about with us and you must soften and pierce that crust before you can come at the Soul But especially when things future are to be represented you cannot use too strong Colours if you would give them life and make them appear present to the mind Farewel CONTENTS OF THE CHAPTERS THE THIRD BOOK CHAP. I. THE Introduction with the Contents and Order of this Treatise CHAP. II. The true state of the Question is propos'd 'T is the general doctrine of the Ancients That the present World or the present Frame of Nature is mutable and perishable To which the Sacred Books agree And natural Reason can alledge nothing against it CHAP. III. That the World will be destroy'd by Fire is the doctrine of the Ancients especially if the Stoicks That the same doctrine is more ancient than the Greeks and deriv'd from the Barbarick Philosophy and That probably from Noah the Father of all Traditionary Learning The same doctrine expresly authoriz'd by Revelation and inroll'd into the Sacred Canon CHAP. IV. Concerning the Time of the Conflagration and the End of the World What the Astronomers say upon this Subject and upon what they ground their Calculations The true notion of the Great Year or of the Platonick Year stated and explain'd CHAP. V. Concerning Prophecies that determine the End of the World Of what order soever Prophane or Sacred Iewish or Christian. That no certain judgment can be made from any of them at what distance we are from the Conflagration CHAP. VI. Concerning the Causes of the Conflagration The difficulty of conceiving how this Earth can be set on fire With a general answer to that difficulty Two suppos'd Causes of the Conflagration by the Sun 's drawing nearer to the Earth or the Earth's throwing out the Central Fire examin'd and rejected CHAP. VII The true bounds of the last Fire and how far it is Fatal The natural Causes and Materials of it cast into three ranks First such as are Exteriour and visible upon Earth Where the Volcano's of this Earth and their Effects are consider'd Secondly such Materials as are within the Earth Thirdly such as are in the Air. CHAP. VIII Some new dispositions towards the Conflagration as to the Matter Form and Situation of the Earth Concerning miraculous Causes and how far the ministry of Angels may be engag'd in this work CHAP. IX How the Sea will be diminish'd and consum'd How the Rocks and Mountains will be thrown down and melted and the whole exteriour Frame of the Earth dissolv'd into a Deluge of Fire CHAP. X. Concerning the beginning and progress of the Conflagration what part of the Earth will first be burnt The manner of the future destruction of Rome according to the Prophetical indications The last state and consummation of the general Fire CHAP. XI An Account of these Extraordinary Phaenomena and Wonders in Nature that according to Scripture will precede the coming of Christ and the Conflagration of the World CHAP. XII An imperfect description of the coming of our Saviâ—ur and of the World on fire The Conclusion THE FOURTH BOOK CHAP. I. THE Introduction That the World will not be annihilated in the last fire That we are to expect according to Scripture and the Christian Doctrine New Heavens and a New Earth when these are dissolv'd or burnt up CHAP.
II. The Birth of the New Heavens and the New Earth from the second Chaos or the remains of the Old World The form order and qualities of the New Earth according to Reason and Scripture CHAP. III. Concerning the Inhabitants of the New Earth That natural reason cannot determine this point That according to Scripture The Sons of the first Resurrection or the heirs of the Millennium are to be the Inhabitants of the New Earth The Testimony of the Philosophers and of the Christian Fathers for the Renovation of the World The first Proposition laid down CHAP. IV. The Proof of a Millennium or of a blessed Age to come from Scripture A view of the Apocalypse and of the Prophecies of Daniel in reference to this Kingdom of Christ and of his Saints CHAP. V. A view of other places of Scripture concerning the Millennium or future Kingdom of Christ. In what sence all the Prophets have born Testimony concerning it CHAP. VI. The sence and testimony of the Primitive Church concerning the Millennium or future Kingdom of Christ from the times of the Apostles to the Nicene Council The second Proposition laid down When by what means and for what reasons that doctrine was afterwards neglected or discountenanc'd CHAP. VII The true state of the Millennium according to Characters taken from Scripture Some mistakes concerning it rectified CHAP. VIII The Third Proposition laid down concerning the Time and Place of the Millennium Several arguments us'd to prove that it cannot be till after the Conflagration and that the New Heavens and New Earth are the true Seat of the Blessed Millennium CHAP. IX The chief employment of the Millennium DEVOTION and CONTEMPLATION CHAP. X. Objections against the Millenniâ—m answer'd With some conjectures concerning the state of things after the Millennium and what will be the final Consummation of this World The Review of the whole Theory THE THEORY OF THE EARTH BOOK III. Concerning the Conflagration CHAP. I. The Introduction With the Contents and Order of this Work SEEING Providence hath planted in all Men a natural desire and curiosity of knowing things to come and such things especially as concern our particular Happiness or the general Fate of Mankind This Treatise may in both respects hope for a favourable reception amongst inquisitive persons seeing the design of it is to give an account of the greatest revolutions of Nature that are expected in future Ages and in the first place of the Conflagration of the World In which Universal Calamity when all Nature suffers every Man 's particular concern must needs be involv'd We see with what eagerness Men pry into the Stars to see if they can read there the Death of a King or the fall of an Empire 'T is not the fate of any single Prince or Potentate that we Calculate but of all Mankind Nor of this or that particular Kingdom or Empire but of the whole Earth Our enquiries must reach to that great period of Nature when all things are to be dissolv'd both humane affairs and the Stage whereon they are acted When the Heavens and the Earth will pass away and the Elements melt with fervent heat We desire if possible to know what will be the face of that Day that great and terrible Day when the Regions of the Air will be nothing but mingled Flame and Smoak and the habitable Earth turn'd into a Sea of molten Fire But we must not leave the World in this disorder and confusion without examining what will be the Issue and consequences of it Whether this will be the End of all Things and Nature by a sad fate lie eternally dissolv'd and desolate in this manner or whether we may hope for a Restauration New Heavens and a New Earth which the Holy Writings make mention of more pure and perfect than the former As if this was but as a Refiner's fire to purge out the dross and courser parts and then cast the Mass again into a new and better Mould These things with God's assistance shall be mattâ—r of our preâ—ent enquiry These make the genâ—ral â—â—bject of thiâ— Treatise and of the remaining parts of this Theory of â—he Earth Which now you see begins to be a kind of Prophecy or Prognostication of things to come as it hath been hitherto an History of things pass'd of such states and changes as Nature hath already undergone And if that account which we have given of the Origin of the Earth its first and Paradisiacal form and the dissolution of it at the Universal Deluge appear fair and reasonable The second dissolution by Fire and the renovation of it out of a Second Chaos I hope will be deduc'd from as clear grounds and suppositions And Scripture it self will be a more visible Guide to us in these following parts of the Theory than it was in the former In the mean time I take occasion to declare here again as I have done heretofore that neither this nor any other great revolutions of Nature are brought to pass by Causes purely Natural without the conduct of a particular Providence And 't is the Sacred Books of Scripture that are the records of this Providence both as to times past and times to come as to all the signal Changes either of the Natural World or of Mankind and the different Oeconomies of Religion In which respects these Books tho' they did not contain a Moral Law would notwithstanding be as the most mystical so also the most valuable Books in the World This Treatise you see will consist of Two Parts The former whereof is to give an account of the Conflagration and the latter of the New Heavens and New Earth following upon it together with the state of Mankind in those New Habitations As to the Conflagration we first enquire what the Antients thought concerning the present frame of this World whether it was to perish or no whether to be destroyed or to stand eternally in this posture Then in what manner they thought it would be destroy'd by what force or violence whether by Fire or other ways And with these opinions of the Antients we will compare the doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles to discover and confirm the truth of them In the second place We will examine what Calculations or Conjectures have been made concerning the time of this great Catastrophe or of the end of this World Whether that period be defineable or no and whether by Natural Arguments or by Prophecies Thirdly We will consider the Signs of the approaching Conflagration Whether such as will be in Nature or in the state of Humane Affairs but especially such as are taken notice of and recorded in Scripture Fourthly Which is the principal point and yet that wherein the Ancients have been most silent What Causes there are in Nature what preparations for this Conflagration Where are the Seeds of this Universal Fire or fewel sufficient for the nourishing of it Lastly In what order and by what degrees the Conflagration will
proceed In what manner the frame of the Earth will be dissolv'd and what will be the dreadful countenance of a Burning World These heads are set down more fully in the Argument of each Chapter and seem to be sufficient for the explication of this whole matter Taking in some additional discourses which in pursuing these heads enter of their own accord and make the work more even and entire In the Second Part we restore the World that we had destroy'd Build New Heavens and a New Earth wherein Righteousness shall dwell Establish that new order of things which is so often celebrated by the Prophets A Kingdom of Peace and of Justice where the Enemy of Mankind shall be bound and the Prince of Peace shall rule A Paradise without a Serpent and a Tree of Knowledge not to wound but to heal the Nations Where will be neither curse nor pain nor death nor disease Where all things are new all things are more perfect both the World it self and its Inhabitants Where the First-born from the Dead have the First-fruits of glory We dote upon this present World and the enjoyments of it and 't is not without pain and fear and reluctancy that we are torn from them as if our hopes lay all within the compass of this life Yet I know not by what good fate my thoughts have been always fixt upon things to come more than upon things present These I know by certain experience to be but trifles and if there be nothing more considerable to come the whole being of Man is no better than a trifle But there is room enough before us in that we call Eternity for great and Noble Scenes and the Mind of Man feels it self lessen'd and straiten'd in this low and narrow state wishes and waits to see something greater And if it could discern another World a coming on this side Eternal Life a beginning Glory the best that Earth can bear It would be a kind of Immortality to enâ—oy that prospect before-hand To see when this Theater is dissolv'd where we shall act next and what parts What Saints and Hero's if I may so say will appear upon that Stage and with what luster and excellency How easie would it be under a view of these futurities to despise the little pomps and honours and the momentany pleasures of a Mortal Life But I proceed to our Subâ—ect CHAP. II. The true state of the Question is Propos'd 'T is the general doctrine of the Ancients that the present World or the present frame of Nature is mutable and perishable To which the Sacred Books agree and Natural Reason can alledge nothing against it WHen we speak of the End or destruction of the World whether by Fire or otherwise â—Tis not to be imagin'd that we understand this of the Great Universe Sun Moon and Stars and the Highest Heavens as if these were to perish or be destroy'd some few years hence whether by Fire or any other way This Question is only to be understood of the Sublunary World of this Earth and its Furniture which had its original about six thousand years ago according to the History of Moses and hath once already been destroy'd when the Exteriour Region of it broke and the Abyss issuing forth as out of a womb overflow'd all the habitable Earth The next Deluge is that of Fire which will have the same bounds and overflow the Surface of the Earth muchâ—what in the same manner But the celestial Regions where the Stars and Angels inhabit are not concern'd in this fate Those are not made of combustible matter nor if they were cou'd our flames reach them Possibly those Bodies may have changes and revolutions peculiar to themselves but in ways unknown to us and after long and unknown periods of time Therefore when we speak of â—he Conflagration of the World These have no concern in the question nor any other part of the Universe than the Earth and its dependances As will evidently appear when we come to explain the Manner and Causes of the Conflagration And as this Conflagration can extend no further than to the Earth and its Elements so neither can it destroy the matter of the Earth but only the form and fashion of it as it is an habitable World Neither Fire nor any other Natural Agent can destroy Matter that is reduce it to nothing It may alter the modes and qualities of it but the substance will always remain And accordingly the Apostle when he speaks of the mutability of this World says only The figure or fashion of this World passes away This structure of the Earth and disposition of the Elements And all the works of the Earth as S. Peter says All its natural productions and all the works of art or humane industry these will perish melted or torn in pieces by the Fire but without an annihilation of the Matter any more than in the former Deluge And this will be further prov'd and illustrated in the beginning of the following Book The question being thus stated we are next to consider the sense of Antiquity upon these two Points First Whether this Sublunary World is mutable and perishable Secondly By the force and action of what causes and in what manner it will perish whether by Fire or otherwise Aristotle is very irregular in his Sentiments about the state of the World He allows it neither beginning not ending rise nor fall but wou'd have it eternal and immuâ—able And this he understand not only of the Great Universe but of this Sublunary World this Earth which we inhabit wherein he will not admit there ever have been or over will be either general Deluges or Conflagrations And as if he was ambitious to be thought singular in his opinion about the Eternity of the World He says All the Ancients before him gave some beginning or origin to the World But were not indeed so unanimous as â—o its 〈◊〉 fate Some believing it immutable or as the Philosophers call it incorruptible Others That it had its fatal times and Periods as lesser Bodies have and a term of age prefixt to it by Providence But before we examine this Point any further it will be necessary to reflect upon that which we noted before an ambiguity in the use of the word World which gives frequent occasion of mistakes in reading the Ancients when that which they speak of the great Universe we apply to the Sublunary World or on the contrary what they speak of this Earth we extend to the whole Universe And if some of them besides Aristotle made the World incorruptible they might mean that of the Great Universe which they thought would never be dissolv'd or perish as to its Mass and bulk But single parts and points of it and our Earth is no more may be variously transform'd and made habitable and unhabitable according to certain periods of time without any prâ—â—udiâ—d to their Philosophy So Plato for instance thinks this
is burning will be the last consum'd And I am apt to think if they could keep in the same posture they stand in now and preserve themselves from falling the fire could never get an entire power over them But Mountains are generally hollow and that makes them subject to a double casualty First Of Earth-quakes Secondly Of having their roots eaten away by Water or by Fire but by Fire especially in this case For we suppose there will be innumerable subterraneous Fires smothering under ground before the general Fire breaks out and these by corroding the bowels of the Earth will make it more hollow and more ruinous And when the Earth is so far dissolv'd that the cavities within the Mountains are fill'd with Lakes of Fire then the Mountains will sink and fall into those boyling Caldrons which in time will dissolve them tho' they were as hard as Adamant There is another Engine that will tear the Earth with great violence and rend in pieces whatsoever is above or about those parts of it And that is the Element of Water so gentle in it self when undisturb'd But 't is found by experience that when Water falls into liquid Metals it flies about with an incredible impetuosity and breaks or bears down every thing that wou'd stop its motion and expansion This force I take to come from the sudden and strong rarefaction of its parts which make a kind of explosion when it is sudden and vehement And this is one of the greatest forces we know in Nature Accordingly I am apt to think that the marvellous force of Volcano's when they throw out lumps of Rocks great fragments of Earth and other heavy Bodies to such a vast height and distance that it is done by this way of explosion And that explosion made by the sudden rarefaction of Sea-waters that fall into Pans or receptacles of molten Ore and ardent Liquors within the cavities of the Mountain and thereupon follow the noises roarings and eruptions of those places 'T is observ'd that Volcano's are in Mountains and generally if not always near the Sea And when its waters by subterraneous passages are driven under the Mountain either by a particular Wind or by a great agitation of the Waves they meet there with Metals and fiery Minerals dissolv'd and are immediately according to our supposition rarefied and by way of explosion fly out at the mouth or funnel of the Mountain bearing before then whatsoever stands in their way Whether this be a true account or no of the present Volcano's and their Eruptions 't is manifest that such cases as we have mention'd will happen in the Conflagration of the Earth and that such eruptions or disruptions of the Earth will follow thereupon and that these will contribute very much to the sinking of Mountains the splitting of Rocks and the bringing of all strong Holds of Nature under the power of the General Fire To conclude this point the Mountains will all be brought low in that state of Nature either by Earthquakes or subterraneous fires Every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill shall be made low Which will be literally true at the second coming of our Saviour as it was figuratively apply'd to his first coming Now being once level'd with the rest of the Earth the question will only be how they shall be dissolv'd But there is no Terrestrial Body indissolvable to Fire if it have a due strength and continuance and this last Fire will have both in the highest degrees So that it cannot but be capable of dissolving all Elementary compositions how hard or solid soever they be 'T is true these Mountains and Rocks as I said before will have the priviledge to be the last destroy'd These with the deep parts of the Sea and the Polar Regions of the Earth will undergo a flower fate and be consum'd more leisurely The action of the last Fire may be distinguish'd into two Times or two assaults The first assault will carry off all Mankind and all the works of the Earth that are easily combustible and this will be done with a quick and sudden motion But the second assault being employ'd about the consumption of such Bodies or such Materials as are not so easily subjected to fire will be of long continuance and the work of some years And 't is fit it should be so that this Flaming World may be view'd and consider'd by the neighbouring Worlds about it as a dreadful spectacle and monument of God's wrath against disloyal and disobedient Creatures That by this example now before their eyes they may think of their own fate and what may befal them as well as another Planet of the same Elements and composition Thus much for the Rocks and Mountains which you see according to our Hypothesis will be level'd and the whole face of the Earth reduc'd to plainness and equality nay which is more melted and dissolv'd into a Sea of liquid Fire And because this may seem a Paradox being more than is usually supposed or taken notice of in the doctrine of the Conflagration it will not be improper in this place to give an account wherein our Idea of the Conflagration and its effects differs from the common opinion and the usual representation of it 'T is commonly suppos'd that the Conflagration of the World is like the burning of a City where the Walls and materials of the Houses are not melted down but scorch'd inflam'd demolish'd and made unhabitable So they think in the Burning of the World such Bodies or such parts of Nature as are sit Fewel for the Fire will be inflam'd and it may be consum'd or reduc'd to smoke and ashes But other Bodies that are not capable of Inflammation will only be scorch'd and defac'd the beauty and furniture of the Earth spoil'd and by that means say they it will be laid wast and become unhabitable This seems to me a very short and imperfect Idea of the Conflagration neither agreeable to Scripture nor to the deductions that may be made from Scripture We therefore suppose that this is but half the work this destroying of the outward garniture of the Earth is but the first onset and that the Conflagration will end in a dissolution and liquefaction of the Elements and all the exteriour region of the Earth so as to become a true Deluge of Fire or a Sea of Fire overspreading the whole Globe of the Earth This state of the Conflagration I think may be plainly prov'd partly by the expressions of Scripture concerning it and partly from the Renovation of the Earth that is to follow upon it S. Peter who is our chief Guide in the doctrine of the Conflagration says The Elements will be melted with fervent heat besides burning up the works of the Earth Then adds Seeing all these things shall be dissolv'd c. These terms of Liquefaction and Dissolution cannot without violence be restrained to simple devastation and superficial scorching Such
The Chanel of the Sea fill'd with a mass of fluid fire and the same fire overflowing all the Globe and covering the whole Earth as the Deluge or the first Abyss Then will the Triumphal Songs and Hallelujah's be sung for the Victories of the Lamb over all his Enemies and over Nature it self Great and marvellous are thy works Lord God Almighty Iust and true are thy ways thou King of Saints Who shall not fear thee O Lord and glorisie thy name for thou only art holy for all nations shall come and worship before thee for thy judgments are made manifest CHAP. XI An account of those extraordinary Phaenomena and Wonders in Nature that according to Scripture will precede the coming of Christ and the Conflagration of the World IF we reflect upon the History of Burning Mountains we cannot but observe that before their Eruptions there are usually some changes in the Earth or in the Air in the Sea or in the Sun it self as signs and forerunners of the ensuing storm We may then easily conclude that when the last great Storm is a coming and all the Volcano's of the Earth ready to burst and the frame of the World to be dissolv'd there will be prevlous signs in the Heavens and on the Earth to introduce this Tragical fate Nature cannot come to that extremity without some symptomes of her illness nor die silently without pangs or complaint But we are naturally heavy of belief as to Futurities and can scarce fancy any other Scenes or other state of Nature than what is present and continually before our eyes we will therefore to cure our unbelief take Scripture for our guide and keep within the limits of its Predictions The Scripture plainly tells us of Signs or Prodigies that will precede the coming of our Saviour and the end of the World both in the Heavens and on the Earth The Sun Moon and Stars will be disturb'd in their motion or aspect The Earth and the Sea will roar and tremble and the Mountains fall at his Presence These things both the Prophets and Evangelists have told us But what we do not understand we are flow to believe and therefore those that cannot apprehend how such Changes should come to pass in the Natural World chuse rather to allegorize all these expressions of Scripture and to make them signifie no more than political changes of Governments and Empires and the great confusions that will be amongst the People and Princes of the Earth towards the end of the World So that darkning of the Sun shaking of the Earth and such like phrases of Scripture according to these Interpreters are to be understood only in a moral sence And they think they have a warrant for this interpretation from the Prophetick style of the Old Testament where the destruction of Cities and Empires and great Princes is often describ'd by such Figures taken from the Natural World So much is true indeed as to the phrase of the old Prophets in some places but I take the true reason and design of that to be a typical adumbration of what was intended should literally come to pass in the great and universal destruction of the World whereof these partial destructions were only shadows and prefigurations But to determine this case Let us take the known and approved rule for interpreting Scripture Not to recede from the literal sence without necessity or where the nature of the subject will admit of a literal interpretation Now as to those cases in the Old Testament History and matter of fact do show that they did not come to pass literally therefore must not be so understood But as for those that concern the end of the World as they cannot be determin'd in that way seeing they are yet future So neither is there any Natural repugnancy or improbability that they should come literally to pass On the contrary from the intuition of that state of Nature one would rather conclude the probability or necessity of them That there may and must be such disorders in the external World before the general dissolution Besides If we admit Prodigies in any case or Providential indications of God's judgments to come there can be no case suppos'd wherein it will be more reasonable or proper to admit them than when they are to be the Messengers of an universal Vengeance and Destruction Let us therefore consider what signs Scripture hath taken notice of as destin'd to appear at that time to publish as it were and proclaim the approaching end of the World and how far they will admit of a natural explication according to those grounds we have already given in explaining the causes and manner of the Conflagration These Signs are chiefly Earth-quakes and extraordinary commotions of the Seas Then the darkness or bloudy colour of the Sun and Moon The shaking of the Powers of Heaven the fulgurations of the Air and the falling of Stars As to Earth-quakes we have upon several occasions shown that these will necessarily be multiplied towards the end of the World when by an excess of drought and heat exhalations will more abound within the Earth and from the same causes their inflammation also will be more frequent than in the ordinary state of Nature And as all Bodies when dry'd become more porous and full of Vacuities so the Body of the Earth will be at that time And the Mines or Cavities wherein the fumes and exhalations lodge will accordingly be of greater extent open into one another and continued through long tracts and regions By which means when an Earth-quake comes as the shock will be more strong and violent so it may reach to a vast compass of ground and whole Islands or Continents be shaken at once when these trains have taken fire The effects also of such concussions will not only affect Mankind but all the Elements and the Inhabitants of them I do not wonder therefore that frequent and great Earth-quakes should be made a sign of an approaching Conflagration and the highest expressions of the Prophets concerning the Day of the Lord may be understood in a literal sence if they be finally referr'd to the general destruction of the World and not terminated solely upon those particular Countries or People to whom they are at first directed Hear what Ezekiel says upon this subject For in my Iealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken surely in that Day there shall be a great shaking in the Land of Israel So that the Fishes of the Sea and the Fowls of the Heaven and the Beasts of the Field and all creeping things that creep upon the Earth and all the Men that are upon the face of the Earth shall shake at my presence and the Mountains shall be thrown down and the sâ—eep places shall fall and every wall shaâ—l fall to the ground And I will rain an over-flowing rain and great hail-stones fire and brimstone The Prophet Isaias describes these judgments in terms
as high and relating to the Natural World The Windows from on high are open and the foundations of the Earth do shake The Earth is utterly broken down the Earth is clean dissolv'd the Earth is moved exceedingly The Earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard and shall be removed like a Cottage and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it and it shall fall and not rise again To restrain all these things to Iudaea as their adequate and final object is to force both the words and the sence Here are manifest allusions and foot-steps of the destruction of the World and the dissolution of the Earth partly as it was in the Deluge and partly as it will be in its last ruine torn broken aâ—d shatter'd But most Men have fallen into that errour To fancy both the destructions of the World by Water and by Fire quiet noiseless things executed without any ruines or ruptures in Nature That the Deluge was but a great Pool of still Waters made by the rains and inundation of the Sea and the Conflagration will be only a superficial scorching of the Earth with a running fire These are false Idea's and unsuitable to Scripture for as the Deluge is there represented a Disruption of the Abyss and consequently of the then habitable Earth so the future combustion of it according to the representations of Scripture is to be usher'd in and accompanied with all sorts of violent impressions upon Nature and the chief instrument of these violences will be Earth-quakes These will tear the Body of the Earth and shake its foundations rend the Rocks and pull down the tall Mountains sometimes overturn and sometimes swallow up Towns and Cities disturb and disorder the Elements and make a general confusion in Nature Next to Earth-quakes we may consider the roarings of a troubled Sea This is another sign of a dying World S. Luke hath set down a great many of them together Let us hear his words And there shall be signs in the Sun and in the Moon and in the Stars and upon the Earth distress of Nations with perplexity The Sea and the Waves roaring Mens hearts failing them for fear and for looking after those things which are coming on the Earth for the powers of Heaven shall be shaken And then shall they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory c. As some would allegorize these Signs which we noted before so others would confine them to the destruction of Ierusalem But 't is plain by this coming of the Son of man in the clouds and the redemption of the faithful and at the same time the sound of the last trumpet which all relate to the end of the World that something further is intended than the destruction of Ierusalem And though there were Prodigies at the destruction of that City and State yet not of this force nor with these circumstances 'T is true those partial destructions and calamities as we observ'd before of Babylon Ierusalem and the Roman Empire being types of an universal and final destruction of all Godâ—s Enemies have in the pictures of them some of the same strokes to show they are all from the same hand decreed by the same wisdom foretold by the same Spirit and the same power and Providence that have already wrought the one will also work the other in due time the former being still pledges as well as prefigurations of the latter Let us then proceed in our explication of this sign The roaring of the Sea and the Waves applying it to the end of the World I do not look upon this ominous noise of the Sea as the effect of a tempest for then it would not strike such a terror into the Inhabitants of the Earth nor make them apprehensive of some great evil coming upon the World as this will do what proceeds from visible causes and such as may happen in a common course of Nature does not so much amaze us nor affright us Therefore 't is more likely these disturbances of the Sea proceed from below partly by sympathy and revulsions from the Land by Earth-quakes there and exhausting the subterraneous cavities of Waters which will draw again from the Seas what supplies they can And partly by Earth-quakes in the very Sea it self with exhalations and fiery Eruptions from the bottom of it Things indeed that happen at other times more or less but at this conjuncture all causes conspiring they will break out with more violence and put the whole Body of the Waters into a tumultuary motion I do not see any occasion at this time for high Winds neither can think a superficial agitation of the Waves would answer this Phaenomenon but 't is rather from Contorsions in the bowels of the Ocean which make it roar as it were for pain Some Causes impelling the Waters one way and some another make intestine struglings and contrary motions from whence proceed unusual noises and such a troubled state of the Waters as does not only make the Sea innavigable but also strikes terror into all the Maritime Inhabitants that live within the view or sound of it So much for the Earth and the Sea The face of the Heavens also will be chang'd in divers respects The Sun and the Moon darkned or of a bloudy or pale countenance The Celestial Powers shaken and the Stars unsetled in their Orbs. As to the Sun and Moon their obscuration or change of colour is no more than what happens commonly before the Eruption of a fiery Mountain Dion Cassius you see hath taken notice of it in that Eruption of Aetna which he describes and others upon the like occasions in Vesuvius And 't is a thing of easie explication for according as the Atmosphere is more or less clear or turbid the Luminaries are more or less conspicuous and according to the nature of those fumes or exhalations that swim in the Air the face of the Sun is discolour'd sometimes one way sometimes another You see in an ordinary Experiment when we look upon one another through the fumes of Sulphur we appear pale like so many Ghosts and in some foggy days the Sun hangs in the Firmament as a lump of Bloud And botlâ— the Sun and Moon at their rising when their light comes to us through the thick vapours of the Earth are red and fiery These are not changes wrought in the substance of the Luminaries but in the modifications of their light as it flows to us For colours are but Light in a sort of disguise as it passes through Mediums of diffâ—rent qualities it takes different forms but the matter is still the same and returns to its simplicity when it comes again into a pure air Now the air may be changed and corrupted to a great degree tho' there appear no visible change to our eye This is manifest from infectious airs and the changes of the air before storms and rains which we feel
This is a small part of the disorders of that day But 't is not possible from any station to have a full prospect of this last Scene of the Earth for 't is a mixture of fire and darkness This New Temple is fill'd with smoak while it is consecrating and none can enter into it But I am apt to think if we could look down upon this burning World from above the Clouds and have a full view of it in all its parts we should think it a lively representation of Hell it self For Fire and darkness are the two chief things by which that state or that place uses to be describ'd and they are both here mingled together with all other ingredients that make that Tophet that is prepar'd of old Here are Lakes of fire and brimstone Rivers of melted glowing matter Ten thousand Volcano's vomiting flames all at once Thick darkness and Pillars of smoak twisted about with wreaths of flame like fiery Snakes Mountains of Earth thrown up into the Air and the Heavens dropping down in lumps of fire These things will all be literally true concerning that day and that state of the Earth And if we suppose Beelzebub and his Apostate crew in the midst of this fiery furnace and I know not where they can be else It will be hard to find any part of the Universe or any state of things that answers to so many of the properties and characters of Hell as this which is now before us But if we suppose the storm over and that the fire hath got an entire victory over all other bodies and subdued every thing to it self the Conflagration will end in a Deluge of fire Or in a Sea of fire covering the whole Globe of the Earth For when the exterior region of the Earth is melted into a fluor like molten glass or running metal it will according to the nature of other Fluids fill all vacuities and depressions and fall into a regular surface at an equal distance every where from its center This Sea of fire like the first Abyss will cover the face of the whole Earth make a kind of second Chaos and leave a capacity for another World to rise from it But that is not our present business Let us only if you please to take leave of this subject reflect upon this occasion on the transient and 〈◊〉 glory of all this habitable World How by the force of one Element breaking loose upon the rest all the Varieties of Nature all the works of Art all the labours of Men are reduc'd to nothing All that we admir'd and ador'd before as great and magnificent is obliterated or vanish'd And another form and face of things plain simple and every where the same overspreads the whole Earth Where are now the great Empires of the World and their great Imperial Cities Their Pillars Tropheâ—s and Monuments of glory Show me where they stood read the Inscription tell me the Victorâ—s name What remains what impressions what difference or distinction do you see in this mass of fire Rome it self Eternal Rome the Great City the Empress of the World whose domination and superstition ancient and modern make a great part of the History of this Earth What is become of her now She laid her foundations deep and her Palaces were strong and sumptuous She glorified her self and liv'd deliciously and said in her heart I sit a Queen and shall see no sorrow But her hour is come she is wip'd away from the face of the Earth and buried in perpetual oblivion But 't is not Cities only and works of Men's hands but the everlasting Hills the Mountains and Rocks of the Earth are melted as Wax before the Sun and their place is no where found Here stood the Alpes a prodigious range of Stone the Load of the Earth that cover'd many Countries and reach'd their arms from the Ocean to the Black Sea This huge mass of Stone is soften'd and dissolv'd as a tender Cloud into rain Here stood the African Mountains and Atlas with his top above the Clouds There was frozen Caucasus and Taurus and Imaus and the Mountains of Asia And yonder towards the North stood the Riphaean Hills cloath'd in Ice and Snow All these are vanish'd dropt away as the Snow upon their heads and swallowed up in a red Sea of fire Great and marvellous are thy Works Lord God Almighty Iust and true are thy ways Thou King of Saints Hallelujah The CONCLVSION IF the Conflagration of the World be a reality as both by Scripture and Antiquity we are assur'd it is If we be fully perswaded and convinc'd of this 'T is a thing of that nature that we cannot keep it long in our thoughts without making some moral reflections upon it 'T is both great in it self and of universal concern to all Mankind Who can look upon such an Object A World in Flames without thinking with himself Whether shall I be in the midst of these â—lames or no What is my security that I shall not fall under this fiery vengeance which is the wrath of an angry God St. Peter when he had deliver'd the doctrine of the Conflagration makes this pious reflection upon it Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolv'd what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conversation and godliness The strength of his argument depends chiefly upon what he had said before in the 7th Verse where he told us that the present Heavens and Earth were reserv'd unto fire against the Day of Iudgment and the perdition of irreligious men We must avoid the crime then if we would escape the punishment But this expression of irreligious or ungodly men is still very general St. Paul when he speaks of this fiery indignation and the Persons it is to fall upon is more distinct in their characters He seems to mark out for this destruction three sorts of men chiefly The Atheists Infidels and the Tribe of Antichrist These are his words When the Lord Iesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Iesus Christ. Then as for Antichrist and his adherents he says in the 2d Chapt. and 8th Verse The Lord shall consume that Wicked one with the Spirit of his mouth and shall destroy him with the brightness of his coming or of his Presence These you see all refer to the same time with St. Peter namely to the coming of our Saviour at the Conflagration and three sorts of Persons are characteriz'd as his Enemies and set out for destruction at that time First those that know not God that is that acknowledge not God that will not own the Deity Secondly those that hearken not to the Gospel that is that reject the Gospel and Christian Religion when they are preach'd and made known to them For you must not think that it is the poor barbarous and
requires much Learning Art or Science to be Master of it But a love and thirst after Truth freedom of Iudgment and a resignation of our Understanding to clear Evidence let it carry us which way it will An honest English Reader that looks only at the Sence as it lies before him and neither considers nor cares whether it be New or Old so it be true may be a more competent Iudge than a great Scholar fall of his own Notions and puff'd up with the opinion of his mighty knowledge For such men think they cannot in honour own any thing to be true which they did not know before To be taught any new knowledge is to confess their former ignorance and that lessens them in their own opinion and as they think in the opinion of the World which are both uneasie reflections to them Neither must we depend upon age only for soundness of Iudgment Men in discovering and owning truth seldom change their Opinions after threescore especially if they be leading Opinions It is then too late we think to begin the World again and as we grow old the Heart contracts and cannot open wide enough to take in a great thought The Spheres of mens Understandings are as different as Prospects upon the Earth Some stand upon a Rock or a Mountain and see far round about Others are in an hollow or in a Cave and have no prospect at all Some men consider nothing but what is present to their Senses Others extend their thoughts both to what is past and what is future And yet the fairest prospect in this Life is not to be compar'd to the least we shall have in another 〈◊〉 clearest day here is â—â—irty and hazy We see not far and what we do see is in a had light But when we have got better Bodies in the first Resurrection whereof we are going to Treat better Senses and a better Understanding a clearer light and an higher station our Horizon will be enlarg'd every way both as to the Natural World and as to the Intellecual Two of the greatest Speculations that we are capable of in this Life are in my Opinion The REVOLUTION OF WORLDS and the REVOLUTION OF SOULS one for the Material World and the other for the Intellectual Toward the former of these Our Theory is an Essay and in this our Planet which I hope to conduct into a Fix'd Star before I have done with it we give an instance of what may be in other Planets 'T is true we took our rise no higher than the Chaos because that was a known principle and we were not willing to amuse the Reader with too many strange Stories as that I am sure would have been thought one TO HAVE brought this Earth from a Fix'd Star and then carried it up again into the same Sphere Which yet I believe is the true circle of Natural Providence As to the Revolution of Souls the footsteps of that Speculation are more obscure than of the former For tho' we are assur'd by Scripture that all good Souls will at length have Celestial Bodies yet that this is a returning to a Primitive State or to what they had at their first Creation that Scripture has not acquainted us with It tells us indeed that Angels fell from their Primitive Celestial Glory and consequently we might be capable of a lapse as well as they if we had been in that high condition with them But that we ever were there is not declared to us by any revelation Reason and Morality would indeed suggest to us that an innocent Soul fresh and pure from the hands of its Maker could not be immediately cast into Prison before it had by any act of its own Will or any use of its own Understanding committed either error or sin I call this Body a Prison both because it is a confinement and restraint upon our best Faculties and Capacities and is also the seat of diseases and loathsomness and as prisons use to do commonly tends more to debauch mens Natures than to improve them But tho' we cannot certainly tell under what circumstances humane Souls were plac'd at first yet all Antiquity agrees Oriental and Occidental concerning their pre existence in general in respect of these mortal Bodies And our Saviour never reproaches or corrects the Jews when they speak upon that supposition Luk. 9. 18 19. Joh. 9. 2. Besides it seems to me beyond all controversie that the Soul of the Messiah did exist before the Incarnation and voluntarily descended from Heaven to take upon it a Mortal Body And tho' it does not appear that all humane Souls were at first plac'd in Glory yet from the example of our Saviour we see something greater in them Namely a capacity to be united to the Godhead And what is possible to one is possible to more But these thoughts are too high for us while we find our selves united to nothing but diseased bodies and houses of clay The greatest fault we can commit in such Speculations is to be over-positive and Dogmatical To be inquisitive into the ways of Providence and the works of God is so far from being a fault that it is our greatest perfection We cultivate the highest principles and best inclinations of our Nature while we are thus employ'd and 't is littleness or secularity of Spirit that is the greatest Enemy to Contemplation Those that would have a true contempt of this World must suffer the Soul to be sometimes upon the Wing and to raise her self above the sight of this little dark Point which we now inhabit Give her a large and free prospect of the immensity of God's works and of his inexhausted wisdom and goodness if you would make her Great and Good As the warm Philosopher says Give me a Soul so great so high Let her dimensions stretch the Skie That comprehends within a thought The whole extent 'twixt God and Nought And from the World's first birth and date Its Life and Death can calculate With all th' adventures that shall pass To ev'ry Atome of the Mass. But let her be as GOOD as GREAT Her highest Throne a Mercy-Seat Soft and dissolving like a Cloud Losing her self in doing good A Cloud that leaves its place above Rather than dry and useless move Falls in a showre upon the Earth And gives ten thousand Seeds a birth Hangs on the Flow'rs and infant Plants Sucks not their Sweets but feeds their Wants So let this mighty Mind diffuse All that 's her own to others use And free from private ends retain Nothing of SELF but a bare Name THE THEORY OF THE EARTH BOOK IV. Concerning the new Heavens and new Earth AND Concerning the Consummation of all things CHAP. I. THE INTRODVCTION That the World will not be annihilated in the last Fire That we are to expect according to Scripture and the Christian Doctrine New Heavens and a New Earth when these are dissolv'd or burnt up WE are now so far advanc'd
in the Theory of the Earth as to have seen the End of Two Worlds One destroy'd by Water and another by Fire It remains only to consider whether we be yet come to the final period of Nature The last Scene of all things and consequently the utmost bound of our enquiries Or whether Providence which is inexhausted in Wisdom and Goodness will raise up from this dead Mass New Heavens and a New Earth Another habitable World better and more perfect than that which was destroyed That as the first World began with a Paradise and a state of Innocency so the last may be a kind of Renovation of that happy state whose Inhabitants shall not die but be translated to a blessed Immortality I know 't is the opinion of some that this World will be annihilated or reduc'd to nothing at the Conflagration and that would put an end to all further enquiries But whence do they learn this from Scripture or Reason or their own imagination What instance or example can they give us of this they call Annihilation Or what place of Scripture can they produce that says the World in the last Fire shall be reduc'd to nothing If they have neither instance nor proof of what they affirm 't is an empty Imagination of their own neither agreeable to Philosophy nor Divinity Fire does not consume any substance It changes the form and qualities of it but the matter remains And if the design had been Annihilation the employing of fire would have been of no use or effect For smoak and ashes are at as great a distance from Nothing as the bodies themselves out of which they are made But these Authors seem to have but a small tincture of Philosophy and therefore it will be more proper to confute their opinion from the words of Scripture which hath left us sufficient evidence that another World will succeed after the Conflagration of that we now inhabit The Prophets both of the Old and New Testament have left us their predictions concerning New Heavens and a New Earth So says the Prophet Isaiah ch 65. 17. Behold I create New Heavens and a New Earth and the former shall not be remembred or come into mind As not worthy our thoughts in comparison of those that will arise when these pass away So the Prophet S. Iohn in his Apocalypse when he was come to the End of this World says And I saw a new heaven and a new earth For the first heaven and the first earth were passed away and there was no more Sea Where he does not only give us an account of a New Heaven and a New Earth in general but also gives a distinctive character of the New Earth that it shall have no Sea And in the 5th ver He that sat upon the Throne says Behold I make all things New which consider'd with the antecedents and consequents cannot be otherwise understood than of a New World But some Men make evasions here as to the words of the Prophets and say they are to be understood in a figurate and allegorical sence and to be applyed to the times of the Gospel either at first or towards the latter end of the World So as this New Heaven and New Earth signifie only a great change in the moral World But how can that be seeing S. Iohn places them after the end of the World And the Prophet Isaiah connects such things with his New Heavens and New Earth as are not competible to the present state of Nature However to avoid all shuffling and tergiversation in this point let us appeal to S. Peter who uses a plain literal style and discourses down-right concerning the Natural World In his 2d Epist. and 3d. Chap when he had foretold and explain'd the Future Conflagration he adds But we expect New Heavens and a New Earth according to his promises These Promises were made by the Prophets and this gives us full authority to interpret their New Heavens and New Earth to be after the Conflagration S. Peter when he had describ'd the Dissolution of the World in the last Fire in full and emphatical terms as the passing away of the Heavens with a noise the melting of the Elements and burning up all the works of the Earth he subjoyns Nevertheless notwithstanding this total dissolution of the present World We according to his promises look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness As if the Apostle should have said Notwithstanding this strange and violent dissolution of the present Heavens and Earth which I have describ'd to you we do not at all distrust God's Promises concerning New Heavens and a New Earth that are to succeed these and to be the seat of the Righteous Here 's no room for Allegories or allegorical expositions unless you will make the Conflagration of the World an Allegory For as Heavens and Earth were destroy'd so Heavens and Earth are restored and if in the first place you understand the natural material World you must also understand it in the second place They are both Allegories or neither But to make the Conflagration an Allegory is not only to contradict S. Peter but all Antiquity Sacred or Prophane And I desire no more assurance that we shall have New Heavens and a New Earth in a literal Sence than we have that the present Heavens and Earth shall be destroyed in a literal Sence and by material Fire Let it therefore rest upon that issue as to this first evidence and argument from Scripture Some will fancy it may be that we shall have New Heavens and Earth and yet that these shall be annihilated They would have These first reduc'd to nothing and then others created spick and span New out of nothing But why so pray what 's the humour of that Lest Omnipotency should want employment you would have it do and undo and do again As if new-made Matter like new Clothes or new Furniture had a better Gloss and was more creditable Matter never wears as fine Gold melt it down never so often it loses nothing of its quantity The substance of the World is the same burnt or unburnt and is of the same Value and Virtue New or Old and we must not multiply the actions of Omnipotency without necessity God does not make or unmake things to try experiments He knows before hand the utmost capacities of every thing and does no vain or superfluous work Such imaginations as these proceed only from want of true Philosophy or the true knowledge of the Nature of God and of his Works which should always be carefully attended to in such Speculations as concern the Natural World But to proceed in our Subject If they suppose part of the World to be annihilated and to continue so they Philosophize still worse and worse How high shall this Annihilation reach Shall the Sun Moon and Stars be reduc'd to nothing but what have They done that they should undergo so hard a fate must
and not to the Angels In the second chapter to the Hebrews ver 5. he says For unto the Angels hath he not put in subjection the WORLD TO COME So we read it but according to the strictest and plainest Translation it should be The habitable Earth to come Now what Earth is this where our Saviour is absolute Soveraign and where the Government is neither Humane nor Angelical but peculiarly Theocratical In the first place this cannot be the present World or the present Earth because the Apostle calls it Future or the Earth to come Nor can it be understood of the days of the Gospel seeing the Apostle acknowledges ver 8. That this subjection whereof he speaks is not yet made And seeing Antichrist will not finally be destroy'd till the appearance of our Saviour 2 Thess. 2. 8. nor Satan bound while Antichrist is in power during the reign of these two who are the Rulers of the darkness of the World our Saviour cannot properly be said to begin his reign here 'T is true He exercises his Providence over his Church and secures it from being destroy'd He can by a power paramount stop the rage either of Satan or Antichrist Hitherto shall you go and no further As sometimes when he was upon Earth he exerted a Divine Power which yet did not destroy his state of Humiliation so he interposes now when he thinks fit but he does not finally take the power out of the hands of his Enemies nor out of the hands of the Kings of the Earth The Kingdom is not deliver'd up to him and all dominion and power That all Tongues and Nations should serve him For S. Paul can mean no less in this place than that Kingdom in Daniel Seeing he calls it putting all things in subjection under his feet and says that it is not yet done Upon this account also as well as others our Saviour might truly say to Pilate Ioh. 18 36. my kingdom is not of this World And to his Disciples The Son of man came not to be ministred unto but to minister Matt. 20. 28. When he comes to receive his Kingdom he comes in the clouds of Heaven Dan. 7. 13 14. not in the womb of a Virgin He comes with the equipage of a King and Conquer or with thousands and ten thousands of Angels not in the form of a Servant or of a weak Infant as he did at his first coming I allow the phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or in the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The World to come is sometimes us'd in a large sence as comprehending all the days of the Messiah whether at his First or Second Coming for these two Comings are often undistinguish'd in Scripture and respect the Moral World as well as the Natural But the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Orbis habitabilis which S. Paul here uses does primarily signifie the Natural World or the Habitable Earth in the proper use of the word amongst the Greeks and frequently in Scripture Luke 4. 5. and 21. 26. Rom. 10. 18. Heb. 1. 6. Apoc. 3. 10. Neither do we here exclude the Moral World or the Inhabitants of the Earth but rather necessarily include them Both the Natural and Moral World to come will be the seat and subject of our Saviour's Kingdom and Empire in a peculiar manner But when you understand nothing by this phrase but the present moral World it neither answers the proper signification of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the first or second part of the expression And tho such like phrases may be us'd for the Dispensation of the Messiah in opposition to that of the Law yet the height of that distinction or opposition and the fulfilling of the expression depends upon the second coming of our Saviour and upon the Future Earth or habitable World where he shall Reign and which does peculiarly belong to Him and His Saints Neither can this World to come or this Earth to come be understood of the Kingdom of Heaven For the Greek word will not bear that sence nor is it ever us'd in Scripture for Heaven Besides the Kingdom of Heaven when spoken of as future is not properly till the last resurrection and final judgment Whereas This World to come which our Saviour is to govern must be before that time and will then expire For all his Government as to this World expires at the day of Judgment and he will then deliver up the kingdom into the hands of his father that he may be all in all Having reigned first himselfe and put down all rule and all authority and power So that S. Paul in these two places of his Epistles refers plainly to the same time and the same reign of Christ which must be in a future World and before the last day of Iudgment and therefore according to our deductions in the New Heavens and the New Earth CHAP. III. Concerning the Inhabitants of the New Earth That Natural Reason cannot determine this point That according to Scripture The Sons of the first Resurrection or the Heirs of the Millennium are to be the Inhabitants of the New Earth The Testimony of the Philosophers and of the Christian Fathers for the Renovation of the World The first Proposition laid down THUS we have setled the True Notion according to Reason and Scripture of the New Heavens and New Earth But where are the Inhabitants you 'l say You have taken the pains to make us a New World and now that it is made it must stand empty When the first World was destroyed there were Eight Persons preserv'd with a Set of Living Creatures of every Kind as a Seminary or foundation of another World But the Fire it seems is more merciless than the Water for in this destruction of the World it does not appear that there is one living Soul left of any sort upon the face of the Earth No hopes of posterity nor of any continuation of Mankind in the usual way of propagation And Fire is a barren Element that breeds no living Creatures in it nor hath any nourishment proper for their food or sustenance We are perfectly at a loss therefore so far as I see for a new race of Mankind or how to People this new-form'd World The Inhabitants if ever there be any must either come from Heaven or spring from the Earth There are but these two ways But Natural Reason can determine neither of these sees no tract to follow in these unbeaten paths nor can advance one step further Farewel then dear Friend I must take another Guide and leave you here as Moses upon Mount Pisgah only to look into that Land which you cannot enter I acknowledge the good service you have done and what a faithful Companion you have been in a long journey from the beginning of the World to this hour in a tract of time of six thousand years We have travel'd together through the dark
beloved City That Camp and that City therefore were upon the Earth And fire came down from Heaven and devoured them If it came down from Heaven it came upon the Earth Furthermore those Persons that are rais'd from the Dead are said to be Priests of God and of Christ and to reign with him a thousand years Now these must be the same Persons with the Priests and Kings mention'd in the Fifth Chapter which are there said expresly to reign upon Earth or that they should reign upon Earth It remains therefore only to determine What Earth this is where the Sons of the first Resurrection will live and reign It cannot be the present Earth in the same state and under the same circumstances it is now For what happiness or priviledge would that be to be call'd back into a mortal life under the necessities and inconveniences of sickly Bodies and an incommodious World such as the present state of mortality is and must continue to be till some change be made in Nature We may be sure therefore that a change will be made in Nature before that time and that the state they are rais'd into and the Earth they are to inhabit will be at least Paradisiacal And consequently can be no other than the New Heavens and New Earth which we are to expect after the Conflagration From these Considerations there is a great fairness to conclude both as to the Characters of the Perons and of the place or state that the Sons of the first Resurrection will be Inhabitants of the New Earth and reign there with Christ a thousand years But seeing this is one of the principal and peculiar Conclusions of this Discourse and bears a great part in this last Book of the Theory of the Earth it will deserve a more full explication and a more ample proof to make it out We must therefore take a greater compass in our discourse and give a full account of that State which is usually call'd the Millennium The Reign of the Saints a thousand years or the Kingdom of Christ upon Earth But before we enter upon this new Subject give me leave to close our present Argument about the Renovation of the World with some Testimonies of the Ancient Philosophers to that purpose 'T is plain to me that there were amongst the Ancients several Traditions or traditionary conclusions which they did not raise themselves by reason and observation but receiv'd them from an unknown Antiquity An instance of this is the Conflagration of the World A Doctrine as ancient for any thing I know as the World it self At least as ancient as we have any Records And yet none of those Ancients that tell us of it give any argument to prove it Neither is it any wonder for they did not invent it themselves but receiv'd it from others without proof by the sole authority of Tradition In like manner the Renovation of the World which we are now speaking of is an ancient Doctrine both amongst the Greeks and Eastern Philosophers But they shew us no method how the World may be renew'd nor make any proof of its future Renovation For it was not a discovery which they first made but receiv'd it with an implicite faith from their Masters and Ancestors And these Traditionary Doctrines were all fore-runners of that Light that was to shine more clearly at the opening of the Christian dispensation to give a more full account of the fate and revolutions of the Natural World as well as of the Moral The Iews 't is well known held the Renovation of the World and a Sabbath after six thousand years according to the Prophecy that was currant amongst them whereof we have given a larger account in the precedent Book ch 5. And that future state they call'd Olam Hava or the World to come which is the very same with St. Paul's Habitable Earth to come Heb. 2. 6. Neither can I easily believe that those constitutions of Moses that proceed so much upon a Septenary or the number Seven and have no ground or reason in the nature of the thing for that particular number I cannot easily believe I say that they are either accidental or humoursome without design or signification But that they are typical or representative of some Septenary state that does eminently deserve and bear that Character Moses in the History of the Creation makes six days work and then a Sabbath Then after six years he makes a Sabbath-year and after a Sabbath of years a year of Jubilee Levit. 25. All these lesser revolutions seem to me to point at the grand Revolution the great Sabbath or Iubilee after six Millenaries which as it answers the type in point of time so likewise in the nature and contents of it Being a state of Rest from all labour and trouble and servitude a state of joy and triumph and a state of Renovation when things are to return to their first condition and pristine order So much for the Iews The Heathen Philosophers both Greeks and Barbarians had the same doctrine of the Renovation of the World currant amongst them And that under several names and phrases as of the Great Year the Restauration the Mundane periods and such like They suppos'd stated and fix'd periods of time upon expiration whereof there would always follow some great revolution of the World and the face of Nature would be renew'd Particularly after the Conflagration the Stoicks always suppos'd a new World to succeed or another frame of Nature to be erected in the room of that which was destroy'd And they use the same words and phrases upon this occasion that Scripture useth Chrysippus calls it Apocatastalis as St. Peter does Act. 3. 21. Marcus Antoninus in his Meditations several times calls it Palingenesia as our Saviour does Mat. 19. 28. And Numenius hath two Scripture-words Resurrection and Restitution to express this renovation of the World Then as to the Platonicks that Revolution of all things hath commonly been call'd the Platonick year as if Plato had been the first author of that opinion But that 's a great mistake he receiv'd it from the Barbarick Philosophers and particularly from the Aegyptian Priests amongst whom he liv'd several years to be instructed in their learning But I do not take Plato neither to be the first that brought this doctrine into Greece for besides that the Sibylls whose antiquity we do not well know sung this Song of oâ—d as we see it copyed from them by Virgil in his fourth Eclogue Pythagoras taught it before Plato and Orpheus before them both And that 's as high as the Greek Philosophy reaches The Barbarick Philosophers were more ancient namely the Aegyptians Persians Chaldeans Indian Brackmans and other Eastern Nations Their Monuments indeed are in a great measure lost yet from the remains of them which the Greeks have transcrib'd and so preserv'd in their writings we see plainly they all had this doctrine of the
state And seeing in those places they plainly signified the Millennial state or the Kingdom of Christ and of his Saints they must here signifie the same in this promise of our Saviour to his suffering Followers And as to the word Palingenesia which is here translated Regeneration 't is very well known that both the Greek Philosophers and Greek Fathers use that very word for the Renovation of the World Which is to be as we shall hereafter make appear at or before the Millennial state Our Saviour also in his Divine Sermon upon the Mount makes this one of his Beatitudes Blessed are the Meek for they shall inherit the Earth But how I pray or where or when do the Meek inherit the Earth neither at present I am sure nor in any past Ages 'T is the Great Ones of the World ambitious Princes and Tyrants that slice the Barth amongst them and those that can flatter them best or serve them in their interests or pleasures have the next best shares But a meek modest and humble Spirit is the most unqualified Person that can be for a Court or a Camp to scramble for Preferment or Plundâ—r Both He and his self-denying notions are ridicul'd as things of no use and proceeding from meanness and poorness of Spirit David who was a Person of an admirable devotion but of an unequal Spirit subject to great dejections as well as elevations of mind was so much affected with the prosperity of the wicked in this World that he could scarce forbear charging Providence with injustice You may see several touches of a repining Spirit in his Psalms and in the Seventy-third Psalm compos'd upon that Subject you have both the wound and the cure Now this Beaâ—itâ—de pronounc'd here by our Saviour was spoken before by David psal 37. 11. The same David that was always so sensible of the hard usage of the Just in this life Our Saviour also and his Apostles preach the Doctrine of the Cross every where and foretell the sufferings that shall attend the Righteous in this World Therefore neither David nor our Saviour could understand this inheritance of the Earth otherwise than of some future state or of a state yet to come But as it must be a future state so it must be a Terrestrial state for it could not be call'd the inheritance of the Earth if it was not so And 't is to be a state of peace as well as plenty according to the words of the Psalmist But the meek shall inherit the Earth and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace It follows therefore from these premisses that both our Saviour and David must understand some future state of the Earth wherein the Meek will enjoy both peace and plenty And this will appear to be the future Kingdom of Christ when upon a fuller description we shall have given you the marks and characters of it In the mean time why should we not suppose this Earth which the Meek are to inherit to be that habitable Earth to come which St. Paul mentions Hebr. 2. 6. and represents as subject to our Saviour in a pecuilar manner at his disposal and under his Government as his Kingdom Why should not that Earth be the subject of this Beatitude The promis'd Land the Lot of the Righâ—eous This I am sure of that both this Text and the former deserve our serious thoughts and tho' they do not expresly and in terms prove the future Kingdom of our Saviour yet upon the fairest interpretations they imply such a state And it will be very uneasie to give a satisfactory account either of the Regeneration or Renovation when our Saviour and his Disciples shall sit upon Thrones Or of that Earth which the Meek shall inherit Or lastly of that Habitable World which is peculiarly subject to the dominion of Jesus Christ without supposing on this side Heaven some other reign of Christ and his Saints than what we see or what they enjoy at present But to proceed in this argument It will be necessary as I told you to set down some notes and characters of this Reign of Christ and of his Saints whereby it may be distinguish'd from the present state and present Kingdoms of the World And these characters are chiefly three Iustice Peace and Divine Presence or Conduct which uses to be called Theocrasie By these characters it is sufficiently distinguish'd from the Kingdoms of this World which are generally unjust in their titles or exercise stain'd with bloud and so far from being under a particular Divine Conduct that humane passions and humane vices are the Springs that commonly give motion to their greatest designs But more particularly and restrainedly the Government of Christ is opposed to the Kingdom and Government of Antichrist whose characters are diametrically opposite to these being Injustice cruelty and humane or diabolical artifices Upon this short view of the Kingdom of Christ let us make enquiry after it amongst the Prophets of the Old Testament And we shall find upon examination that there is scarce any of them greater or lesser but take notice of this mystical kingdom either expresly or under the types of Israel Sion Ierusalem and such like And therefore I am apt to think that when S. Peter in his Sermon to the Iews Act. 3. says All the holy Prophets spoke of The Restitution of all things he does not mean the Renovation of the World separately from the Kingdome of Christ but complexly as it may imply both For there are not many of the old Prophets that have spoken of the Renovation of the Natural World but a great many have spoken of the Renovation of the Moral in the Kingdom of Christ. These are S. Peter's words Act. 3. 19 20 21. Repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. And he shall send Iesus Christ which before was preached unto ye whom the heavens must receive until the times of RESTITUTION OF ALL THINGS The Apostle here mentions three things The Times of refreshing The Second Coming of our Saviour And the Times of Restitution of all things And to the last of these he immediately subjoyns which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy Prophets since the world began This Restitution of all things I say must not be understood abstractly from the reign of Christ but as in conjunction with it and in that sence and no other it is the general subject of the Prophets To enter therefore into the Schools of the Prophets and enquire their sence concerning this Mystery let us first address our selves to the Prophet Isaiah and the Royal Prophet David who seem to have had many noble thoughts or inspirations upon this subject Isaiah in the 65th chap. from the 17th ver to the end treats upon this argument and joyns together the Renovation of the Natural and Moral World as S. Peter in the
time of Constantine's Empire But however the Fathers of that Council are themselves our witnesses in this point For in their Ecclesiastical Forms or Constitutions in the chapter about the Providence of God and about the World They speak thus The World was made meaner or less perfect providentially for God foresee that man would sin Wherefore we expect New Heavens and a New Earth according to the Holy Scriptures at the appearance and Kingdom of the great God and our Saviour Iesus Christ. And then as Daniel says ch 7. 18. The Saints of the most High shall take the Kingdom And the Earth shall be Pure Holy the Land of the Living not of the dead Which David foreseeing by the eye of Faith cryes out Ps. 27. 13. I believe to see the good things of the Lord in the Land of the Living Our Saviour says Happy are the meek for they shall inherit the Earth Matt. 5. 5. and the Prophet Isaiuh says chap. 26. 6. the feet of the meek and lowly shall tread upon it So you see according to the judgment of these Fathers there will be a Kingdom of Christ upon Earth and moreover that it will be in the New Heavens and the New Earth And in both these points they cite the Prophets and our Saviour in confirmation of them Thus we have discharg'd our promise and given you an account of the doctrine of the Millennium or future Kingdom of Christ throughout the Three First Ages of the Church before any considerable corruptions were crept into the Christian Religion And those Authorities of single and successive Fathers we have seal'd up all together with the declaration of the Nicene Fathers in a Body Those that think Tradition a Rule of Faith or a considerable motive to it will find it hard to turn off the force of these Testimonies And those that do not go so far but yet have a reverence for Antiquity and the Primitive Church will not easily produce better Authorities more early more numerous or more uncontradicted for any Article that is not Fundamental Yet these are but Seconds to the Prophets and Apostles who are truly the Principals in this Cause I will leave them altogether to be examin'd and weigh'd by the Impartial Reader And because they seem to me to make a full and undeniable proof I will now at the foot of the account set down our second Proposition which is this That there is a Millennial State or a Future Kingdom of Christ and his Saints Prophesied of and Promised in the Old and New Testament and receiv'd by the Primitive Church as a Christian and Catholick Doctrine HAVING dispatch'd this main point To conclude the Chapter and this Head of our Discourse it will be some satisfaction possibly to see How a Doctrine so generally receiv'd and approv'd came to decay and almost wear out of the Church in following Ages The Christian Millenary Doctrine was not call'd into question so far as appears from History before the middle of the third Century when Dionysius Alexandrinus writ against Nepos an Aegyptian Bishop who had declar'd himself upon that subject But we do not find that this Book had any great effect for the declaration or constitution of the Nicene Fathers was after and in S. Ierome's time who writ towards the end of the fourth Century this Doctrine had so much Credit that He who was its greatest adversary yet durst not condemn it as he says himself Quae licet non sequamur tamen damnare non possumus quià multi Ecclesiasticorum virorum Martyres ista dixerunt Which things or doctrines speaking of the Millennium tho' we do not follow yet we cannot condemn Because many of our Church-men and Martyrs have affirmed these things And when Apollinarius replyed to that Book of Dionysius S. Ierome says that not only those of his own Sect but a great multitude of other Christians did agree with Apollinarius in that particular Ut praesagâ mente jam cernam quantorum in me rabies concitanda sit That I now foresee how many will be enrag'd against me for what I have spoken against the Millenary Doctrine We may therefore conclude that in S. Ierome's time the Millenaries made the greater party in the Church for a little matter would not have frighted him from censuring their opinion S. Ierome was a rough and rugged Saint and an unfair adversary that usually run down with heat and violence what stood in his way As to his unfairness he shews it sufficiently in this very cause for he generally represents the Millenary Doctrine after a Judaical rather than a Christian manner And in reckoning up the chief Patrons of it he always skips Iustin Martyr Who was not a Man so obscure as to be overâ—look'd and he was a Man that had declar'd himself sufficiently upon this point for he says both himself and all the Orthodox of his time were of that judgment and applyes both the Apocalypse of S. Iohn and the 65th chap. of Isaiah for the proof of it As we noted before As S. Ierome was an open enemy to this Doctrine so Eusebius was a back friend to it and represented every thing to its disadvantage so far as was tolerably consistent with the fairness of an Historian He gives a slight character of Papias without any authority for it and brings in one Gaius that makes Cerinthus to be the Author of the Apocalypse and of the Millennium and calls the Visions there monstrous stories He himself is willing to shuffle off that Book from Iohn the Evangelist to another Iohn a Presbyter and to shew his skill in the interpretation of it he makes the New Ierusalem in the 21th chap. to be Constantine's Ierusalem when he turn'd the Heathen Temples there into Christian. A wonderful invention As S. Ierome by his flouts so Eusebius by sinister insinuations endeavour'd to lessen the reputation of this Doctrine and the Art they both us'd was to misrepresentâ—â—â— as Iudaical But we must not cast off every doctrine which the Jews believ'd only for that reason for we have the same Oracles which they had and the same Prophets and they have collected from them same general doctrine that we have namely that There will be an happy and pacifick state of the Church in future times But as to the circumstances of this state we differ very much They suppose the Mosaical Law will be restor'd with all its pomp rites and ceremonies whereas we suppose the Christian Worship or something more perfect will then take place Yet S. Ierome has the confidence even there where he speaks of the many Christian Clergy and Martyrs that held this doctrine has the confidence I say to represent it as if they held that Circumcision Sacrifices and all the Judaical rites should then be restor'd Which seems to me to be a great slander and a great instance how far mens passions will carry them in misrepresenting an opinion which they have a mind to
about empty and useless in the wild Air. If you will not make it the seat and habitation of the Just in the blessed Millennium what will you make it How will it turn to account What hath Providence design'd it for We must not suppose New Worlds made without counsel or design And as on the one hand you cannot tell what to do with this New Creation if it be not thus employ'd so on the other hand it is every way fitted and suited to be an happy and Paradisiacal habitation and answers all the natural Characters of the Millennial state which is a great presumption that it is design'd for it But to argue this more closely upon Scripture-grounds S. Peter says the Righteous shall inhabit the New Heavens and the New Earth 2. Pet. 3. 13. Nevertheless according to his promise we look for New Heavens and New Earth WHEREIN DWELLETH RIGHTEOUSNESS that is a Righteous People as we have shewn before But who are these Righteous People That 's the great question If you compare S. Peter's New Heavens and New Earth with S. Iohn's Apoc. 21. 1 2. it will go far towards the resolution of this question For S. Iohn seems plainly to make the Inhabitants of the New Ierusalem to be in this New Earth I saw says he New Heavens and a New Earth and the New Ierusalem descending from God out of Heaven therefore descending into this New Earth which he had mention'd immediately before And there the Tabernacle of God was with men ver 3. and there He that sat upon the Throne said Behold I make all things New Referring still to this New Heavens and New Earth as the Theatre where all these things are acted or all these Scenes exhibited from the first Verse to the eighth Now the New Jerusalem state being the same with the Millennial if the one be in the New Heavens and New Earth the other is there also And this interpretation of S. Iohn's word is confirm'd and fully assur'd to us by the Prophet Isaiah who also placeth the joy and rejoycing of the New Ierusalem in the New Heavens and New Earth Chap. 65. 17 18. For behold I create new Heavens and a new Earth and the former shall not be remembred but be you glad and rejoyce for ever in that which I create for behold I create Ierusalem a rejoycing and her people a joy Namely in that New Heavens and New Earth Which answers to S. Iohn's Vision of the New Ierusalem being let down upon the New Earth To these Reasons and deductions from Scripture we might add the testimony of several of the Fathers I mean of those that were Millenaries For we are speaking now to such as believe the Millennium but place it in the present Earth before the Renovation whereas the ancient Millenaries suppos'd the regeneration and renovation of the World before the Kingdom of Christ came As you may see in Irenaeus Iustin Martyr Tertullian Lactantius and the Author ad Orthodoxos And the neglect of this I look upon as one reason as we noted before that brought that doctrine into discredit and decay For when they plac'd the Kingdom of the Saints upon this Earth it becâ—me more capable of being abus'd by fanatical spirits to the disturbance of the World and the invasion of the rights of the Magistrate Civil or Ecclesiastical under that notion of Saints And made them also dream of sensual pleasures such as they see in this life Or at least gave an occasion and opportunity to those that had a mind to make the doctrine odious of charging it with these consequences All these abuses are cut off and these scandals prevented by placing the Millennium aright Namely not in this present Life or on this present Earth but in the New Creation where Peace and Righteousness will dwell And this is our first Argument why we place the Millennium in the New Heavens and New Earth and 't is taken partly you see from the reason of the thing it self the difficulty of assigning any other use of the New Earth and its fitness for this and partly from Scripture-evidence and partly from Antiquity The second argument for our opinion is this The present constitution of Nature will not bear that happiness that is promis'd in the Millennium or is not consistent with it The diseases of our Bodies the disorders of our Passions the incommodiousness of external Nature Indigency servility and the unpeaceableness of the World These are things inconsistent with the happiness that is promis'd in the Kingdom of Christ. But these are constant attendants upon this Life and inseparable from the present state of Nature Suppose the Millennium was to begin Nine or Ten Years hence as some pretend it will How shall this World all on a sudden be metamorphos'd into that happy state No more sorrow nor crying nor pain nor death says S. Iohn All former things are past away But how past away Shall we not have the same Bodies and the same external Nature and the same corruptions of the Air and the same excesses and intemperature of Seasons Will there not be the same baâ—â—enness of the ground the same number of People to be fed and must they not get their living by the sweat of their brows with servile labour and drudgery How then are all former evils past away And as to publick affairs while there are the same necessities of humane Life and a distinction of Nations those Nations sometimes will have contrary interests will clash and interfere one with another whence differences and contests and Wars will arise and the Thousand Years Truce I am afraid will be often broken We might add also that if our Bodies be not chang'd we shall be subject to the same appetites and the same passions and upon those vices will grow as bad fruit upon a bad Tree To conclude so long as our Bodies are the same external Nature the same The necessities of humane Life the same which things are the roots of evil you may call it a Millennium or what you please but there will be still diseases vices wars tears and cries pain and sorrow in this Millenuium and if so 't is a Millennium of your own making for that which the Prophets describe is quite another thing Furthermore if you suppose the Millennium will be upon this Earth and begin it may be ten or twenty years hence How will it be introduc'd how shall we know when we are in it or when we enter upon it If we continue the same and all Nature continue the same we shall not discern when we slip into the Millennium And as to the Moral state of it shall we all on a sudden become Kings and Priests to God wherein will that change consist and how will it be wrought St. Iohn makes the First Resurrection introduce the Millennium and that 's a conspicuous mark and boundary But as to the modern or vulgar Millennium I know
terms so express He first says Behold I create new heavens and a new earth wherein you shall rejoyce Then subjoyns immediately Behold I create Ierusalem a rejoycing This rejoycing is still in the same place in the New Heavens and New Earth or in the New Jerusalem And S. Iohn in a like method first sets down the New Earth then the New Jerusalem and expresses the mind of the Prophet Isaiah more distinctly This leads me to a Sixth Argument to confirm our Conclusion The time of the Restitution or Restauration of all things spoken of by S. Peter and the Prophets is the same with the Millennium But that Restauration will not be till the coming of Christ and the end of the World Therefore neither the Millennium That this Restitution of all things will not be till the coming of our Saviour S. Peter declares in his Sermon Act. 3. 21. and that the coming of our Saviour will not be till the end of the World or till the Conflagration both S. Paul and S. Peter signifie to us 1 Thess. 1. 7 8. 2 Pet. 3. 10. Therefore it remains only to prove that this Restitution of all things spoken of here by the Apostle is the same with the Millennium I know that which it does directly and immediately signifie is the Renovation of the World but it must include the Moral World as well as the Natural otherwise it cannot be truly said as S. Peter does there that all the Prophets have spoken of it And what is the Renovation of the Natural and Moral World but the New Jerusalem or the Millennium These Arguments taken together have to me an irresistible evidence for the proof of our Conclusion That the Blessed Millennium cannot obtain in the present Earth or before the Conflagration But when Nature is renew'd and the Saints and Martyrs rais'd from the Dead then they shall reign together with Christ in the New Heavens and New Earth or in the New Jerusalem Satan being bound for a Thousand Years CHAP. IX The chief employment of the Millennium DEVOTION and CONTEMPLATION WE have now done with the substance of our Discourse which is comprehended in these Three Propositions I. After the Conflagration of this World there will be New Heavens and a New Earth and That Earth will be inhabited II. That there is an happy Millennial state Or a future Kingdom of Christ and his Saints prophesied of and promis'd in the Old and New Testament and receiv'd by the Primitive Church as a Christian and Catholick Doctrine III. That this blessed Millennial state according as it is describ'd in Scripture cannot take place in the present Earth nor under the present constitution of Nature and Providence But is to be celebrated in the New Heavens and New Earth after the Conflagration These Three Propositions support this Work and if any of them be broken I confess my design is broken and this Treatise is of no effect But what remains to be spoken to in these last Chapters is more circumstantial or modal and an error or mistake in such things does not wound any vital part of the Argument You must now therefore lay aside your severity and rigorous censures we are very happy if in this Life we can attain to the substance of truth and make rational conjectures concerning modes and circumstances where every one hath right to offer his sence with modesty and submission Revelations made to us from Heaven in this present state are often incompleat and do not tell us all as if it was on purpose to set our thoughts a-work to supply the rest which we may lawfully do provided it be according to the analogy of Scripture and Reason To proceed therefore We suppose as you see the new Heavens and the new Earth to be the seat of the Millennium and that new Creation to be Paradisiacal Its Inhabitants also to be Righteous Persons the Saints of the most High And seeing the ordinary employments of our present Life will then be needless and superseded as Military affairs Sea-affairs most Trades and Manufactures Law Physick and the laborious part of Agriculture it may be wonder'd how this Happy People will bestow their time What entertainment they will find in a state of so much ease and so little action To this one might answer in short by another question How would they have entertain'd themselves in Paradise if Man had continued in Innocency This is a revolution of the same state and therefore they may pass their time as well now as they could have done then But to answer more particularly besides all innocent diversions ingenuous conversations and entertainments of friendship the greatest part of their time will be spent in Devotion and Contemplation O happy employment and next to that of Heaven it self What do the Saints above but sing Praises unto God and contemplate his Perfections And how mean and despicable for the most part are the employments of this present Life if compar'd with those Intellectual Actions If Mankind was divided into ten parts nine of those ten employ their time to get bread to their belly and cloaths to their back And what impertinences are these to a reasonable Soul if she was free from the clog of a Mortal Body or if that could be provided for without trouble or loss of time Corporeal Labour is from need and necessity but intellectual exercises are matter of choice that please and perfect at the same time Devotion warms and opens the Soul and disposes it to receive Divine Influences It sometimes raises the mind into an heavenly ecstasie and fills it with a joy that is not to be exprest When it is pure it leaves a strong impression upon the heart of Love to God and inspires us with a contempt of this World having tasted the pleasures of the World to come In the state which we speak of seeing the Tabernacle of God will be with men we may reasonably suppose that there will be greater effusions and irradiations of the Holy Spirit than we have or can expect in this region of darkness and consequently all the strength and comfort that can arise from private devotion And as to their publick Devotions all beauties of Holiness all perfection of Divine Worship will shine in their Assemblies Whatsoever David says of Sion and Ierusalem are but shadows of this New Ierusalem and of the glory that will be in those Solemnities Imagine what a Congregation will be there of Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Christian Martyrs and Saints of the first rank throughout all Ages And these all known to one another by their Names and History This very meeting together of such Persons must needs create a joy unspeakable But when they unite in their praises to God and to the Lamb with pure hearts full of divine Love when they sing their Hallelujahs to him that sits upon the Throne that hath wash'd them in his blood and redeem'd them out of every Kingdom and Tongue and
a state as any Terrestrial state can be For besides Health and Plenty Peace Truth and Righteousness will flourish there and all the evils of this Life stand excluded There will be no Ambitious Princes studying mischief one against another or contriving methods to bring their own Subjects into slavery No mercenary Statesmen to assist and intrigue with them No oppression from the Powerful no snares or traps laid for the Innocent No treacherous Friends no malicious Enemies No Knaves Cheats Hypocrites the Vermin of this Earth that swarm every where There will be nothing but Truth Candor Sincerity and Ingenuity as in a Society or Commonwealth of Saints and Philosophers In a word 't will be Paradise restor'd both as to Innocency of Temper and the Beauties of Nature I believe you will be apt to say If this be not True 't is pity but that it should be True For 't is a very desirable state where all good People would find themselves mightily at ease What is it that hinders it then It must be some ill Genius For Nature tends to such a Renovation as we suppose and Scripture speaks loudly of an happy state to be some time or other on this side Heaven And what is there pray in this present World Natural or Moral if I may ask with reverence that could make it worth the while for God to create it if it never was better nor ever will be better Is there not more Misery than Happiness Is there not more Vice than Virtue in this World as if it had been made by a Manichean God The Earth barren the Heavens inconstant Men wicked and God offended This is the posture of our Affairs such hath our World been hitherto with Wâ—rs and Bloudshed Sickness and Diseases Poverty servitude and perpetual Drudgery for the necessaries of a Mortal Life We may therefore reasonably hope from a God infinitely good and powerful for better Times and a better State before the last period and consummation of all things But it will be objected it may be that according to Scripture the vices and wickedness of Men will continue to the end of the World and so there will be no room for such an happy state as we hope for Our Saviour says When the son of man cometh shall he find faith upon the Earth They shall eat and drink and play as before the destruction of the old World or of Sodom Luk. 17. 26 c. and the wickedness of those Men you know continued to the last This objection may pinch those that suppose the Millennium to be in the present Earth and a thousand years before the coming of our Saviour for his words seem to imply that the World will be in a state of wickedness even till his coming Accordingty Antichrist or the Man of Sin is not said to be destroy'd till the coming of our Saviour 2 Thess. 2. 8. and till he be destroy'd we cannot hope for a Millennium Lastly The coming of our Saviour is always represented in Scripture as sudden surprising and unexpected As Lightning breaking suddenly out of the clouds Luk. 17. 24. and ch 21. 34 35 or as a thief in the night 1 Thess. 5. 2 3 4. 2 Pet. 3. 10. Apoc. 16. 15. But if there be such a forerunner of it as the Millennial state whose bounds we know according as that expires and draws to an end Men will be certainly advertis'd of the approaching of our Saviour But this objection as I told you does not affect our Hypothesis for we suppose the Millennium will not be till after the coming of our Saviour and the Conflagration And also that his coming will be sudden and surprising and that Antichrist will continue in being tho' not in the same degree of power till that time So that they that place the Millennium in the present Earth are chiefly concern'd to answer this first objection But you will object it may be in the second place That this Millennium wheresoever it is would degenerate at length into sensuality and a Mahometan Paradise For where there are earthly pleasures and earthly appetites they will not be kept always in order without any excess or luxuriancy especially as to the senses of Touch and Taste I am apt to think this is true if the Soul have no more power over the Body than she hath at present and our Senses Passions and Appetites be as strong as they are now But according to our explication of the Millennium we have great reason to hope that the Soul will have a greater dominion over the Resurrection-body than she hath over this And you know we suppose that none will truly inherit the Millennium but those that rise from the Dead Nor do we admit any propagation there nor the trouble or weakness of Infants But that all rise in a perfect age and never die being translated at the final judgment to meet our Saviour in the clouds and to be with him for ever Thus we easily avoid the force of this objection But those that place the Millennium in this Life and to be enjoy'd in these Bodies must find out some new preservatives against vice otherwise they will be continually subject to degeneracy Another objection may be taken from the personal Reign of Christ upon Earth which is a thing incongruous and yet asserted by many modern Millenaries That Christ should leave that right hand of his Father to come and pass a thousand years here below living upon Earth in an heavenly Body This I confess is a thing I never could digest and therefore I am not concern'd in this objection not thinking it necessary that Christ should be personally present and resident upon Earth in the Millennium I am apt to believe that there will be then a Celestial Presence or Christ or a Shekinah as we noted before As the Sun is present to the Earth yet never leaves its place in the Firmament so Christ may be visibly conspicuous in his Heavenly Throne as he was to S. Stephen and yet never leave the right hand of his Father And this would be a more glorious and illustrious presence than if he should descend and converse amongst Men in a personal shape But these things not being distinctly reveal'd to us we ought not to determine any thing concerning them but with modesty and submission We have thus far pretty well escap'd and kept our selves out of the reach of the ordinary objections against the Millennium But there remains one concerning a double Resurrection which must fall upon every Hypothesis and 't is this The Scripture they say speaks but of one Resurrection whereas the doctrine of the Millennium supposes two one at the beginning of the Millennium for the Martyrs and those that enjoy that happy state and the other at the end of it which is universal and final in the last day of judgment 'T is true Scripture generally speaks of the Resurrection in gross without distinguishing first and second
and so it speaks of the Coming of our Saviour without distinction of first or second yet it does not follow from that that there is but one Coming of our Saviour so neither that there is but one Resurrection And seeing there is one place of Scripture that speaks distinctly of two Resurrections namely the 20th chap. of the Apocalypse that is to us a sufficient warrant for asserting two As there are some things in one Evangelist that are not in another yet we think them Authentick if they be but in one There are also some things in Daniel concerning the Messiah and concerning the Resurrection that are not in the rest of the Prophets yet we look upon his single testimony as good authority S. Iohn writ the last of all the Apostles and as the whole series of his Prophecies is new reaching through the later times to the Consummation of all things so we cannot wonder if he had something more particular reveal'd to him concerning the Resurrection That which was spoken of before in general being distinguish'd now into First and Second or particular and universal in this last Prophet Some think S. Paul means no less when he makes an order in the Resurrection some rising sooner some later 1 Cor. 15. 23 24. 1 Thess. 4. 14 15 c. but whether that be so or no S. Iohn might have a more distinct revelation concerning it than S. Paul had or any one before him After these Objections a great many Queries and difficulties might be propos'd relating to the Millennium But that 's no more than what is found in all other matters remote from our knowledge Who can answer all the Queries that may be made concerning Heaven or Hell or Paradise When we know a thing as to the substance we are not to let go our hold tho' there remain some difficulties unresolv'd otherwise we should be eternally Sceptical in most matters of Knowledge Therefore tho' we cannot for example give a full account of the distinction of habitations and inhabitants in the Future Earth or of the order of the First Resurrection whether it be performed by degrees and successively or all the Inhabitants of the New Jerusalem rise at once and continue throughout the whole Millennium I say tho' we cannot give a distinct account of these or such like particulars we ought not therefore to deny or doubt whether there will be a New Earth or a First Resurrection For the Revelation goes clearly so far and the obscurity is only in the consequences and dependances of it Which Providence thought fit without further light to leave to our search and disquisition Scripture mentions one thing at the end of the Millennium which is a common difficulty to all and every one must contribute their best thoughts and conjectures towards the solution of it 'T is the strange doctrine of Gog and Magog which are to rise up in rebellion against the Saints and besiege the holy City and the holy Camp And this is to be upon the expiration of the thousand years when Satan is loosen'd For no sooner will his Chains be knock'd off but he will put himself in the head of this Army of Gyants or Sons of the Earth and attack Heaven and the Saints of the most High But with ill success for there will come down fire and lightning from Heaven and consume them This methinks hath a great affinity with the History of the Gyants rebelling and assaulting Heaven and struck down by thunder-bolts But that of setting mountains upon mountains or tossing them into the Skie that 's the Poetical part and we must not expect to find it in the Prophecy The Poets told their Fable as of a thing past and so it was a Fable But the Prophets speak of it as of a thing to come and so it will be a reality But how and in what sence it is to be understood and explain'd every one has the liberty to make the best judgment he can Ezekiel mentions Gog and Magog which I take to be only types and shadows of these which we are now speaking of and not yet exemplified no more than his Temple And seeing this People is to be at the end of the Millennium and in the same Earth with it We must according to our Hypothesis plant them in the Future Earth and therefore all former conjectures about the Turks or Scythians or other Barbarians are out of doors with us seeing the Scene of this action does not lie in the present Earth They are also represented by the Prophet as a People distinct and separate from the Saints not in their manners only but also in their seats and habitations For they are said to come up from the four corners of the Earth upon the breadth of the Earth and there to besiege the Camp of the Saints and the beloved City This makes it seem probable to me that there will be a double race of Mankind in that Future Earth very different one from another both as to their temper and disposition and as to their origine The one born from Heaven Sons of God and of the Resurrection who are the true Saints and heirs of the Millennium The others born of the Earth Sons of the Earth generated from the slime of the ground and the heat of the Sun as brute Creatures were at first This second Progeny or Generation of Men in the Future Earth I understand to be signified by the Prophet under these borrowed or feigned names of Gog and Magog And this Earth-born race encreasing and multiplying after the manner of Men by carnal propagation after a thousand years grew numerous as the Sand by the Sea and thereupon made an irruption or inundation upon the face of the Earth and upon the habitations of the Saints As the barbarous Nations did formerly upon Christendom Or as the Gyants are said to have made War against the Gods But they were soon confounded in their impious and sacrilegious design being struck and consum'd by fire from Heaven Some will think it may be that there was such a double race of Mankind in the first VVorld also The Sons of Adam and the Sons of God because it is said Gen. 6. When men began to multiply upon the face of the Earth that the SONS OF GOD SAW THE DAUGHTERS OF MEN that they were fair and they took them Wives of all that they lik'd And it is added presently ver 4. There were Gyants in the Earth in those days and also after that when the Sons of God came in unto the daughters of men and they bare children to them the same became mighty men which were of old men of renown Here seem to be two or three orders or races in this Ante-diluvian VVorld The Sons of God The Sons and Daughters of Adam and a third sort arising from the mixture and copulation of these which are call'd Mighty men of old or Hero's Besides here are Gyants mention'd and to which
Cor. 15. 54. But in the Eighth Chapter to the Romans He extends it to all Nature The Creation it self also shall be deliver'd from the bondage of Corruption into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God And accordingly S. Iohn speaking of the same time with St. Paul in that place to the Corinthians namely of the general Resurrection and day of Judgment says Death and Hades which we render Hell were cast into the lake of fire This is their being swallowed up in victory which S. Paul speaks of when Death and Hades that is all the Region of mortality The Earth and all its dependances are absorpt into a mass of Fire and converted by a glorious Victory over the powers of darkness into a Luminous Body and a region of Light This great Issue and Period of the Earth and of all humane affairs tho' it seem to be founded in nature and supported by several expressions of Scripture yet we cannot for want of full instruction propose it otherwise than as a fair Conjecture The Heavens and the Earth shall flie away at the day of Judgment says the Text Apoc. 20. 11. And their place shall not be found This must be understood of our Heavens and our Earth And their flying away must be their removing to some other part of the Universe so as their place or residence shall not be found any more here below This is the easie and natural sence of the Words and this translation of the Earth will not be without some change preceding that makes it leave its place and with a lofty flight take its seat amongst the Stars There we leave it Having conducted it for the space of Seven Thousand Years through various changes from a dark Chaos to a bright Star FINIS A REVIEW OF THE THEORY OF THE EARTH And of its PROOFS ESPECIALLY IN REFERENCE TO SCRIPTURE LONDON Printed by R. N. for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's-Head in S. Paul's Church-Yard 1697. A REVIEW OF THE THEORY OF THE EARTH TO take a review of this Theory of the Earth which we have now finish'd We must consider first the extent of it and then the principal parts whereof it consists It reaches as you see from one end of the World to the other From the first Chaos to the last day and the Consummation of all things This probably will run the length of Seven Thousand Years which is a good competent space of time to exercise our Thoughts upon and to observe the several Scenes which Nature and Providence bring into View within the compass of so many Ages The matter and principal parts of this Theory are such things as are recorded in Scripture We do not feign a Subject and then descant upon it for diversion but endeavour to give an intelligible and rational account of such matters of Fact past or future as are there specifi'd and declar'd What it hath seem'd good to the Holy Ghost to communicate to us by History or Prophecy concerning the several States and general Changes of this Earth makes the Argument of our Discourse Therefore the things themselves must be taken for granted in one sence or other seeing besides all other proofs they have the Authority of a Revelation and our business is only to give such an explication of them as shall approve it self to the faculties of Man and be conformable to Scripture We will therefore first set down the things themselves that make the subject matter of this Theory and remind you of our explication of them Then recollect the general proofs of that explication from Reason and Nature but more fully and particularly shew how it is grounded upon Scripture The primary Phaenomena whereof we are to give an account are these Five or Six I. The Original of the Earth from a Chaos II. The state of Paradise and the Ante-diluvian World III. The Universal Deluge IV. The Universal Conflagration V. The Renovation of the World or the New Heavens and New Earth VI. The Consummation of all things These are unquestionably in Scripture and these all relate as you see to the several forms sâ—â—tes and revolutions of this Earth We are therefore oblig'd to give a clear and coherent account of these Phaeâ—oâ—ena in that orâ—er and consecution wherein tâ—ey stand to 〈◊〉 another There are also in Scripture some other things relating to the same Subjects that may be call'd the Secondary Ingredients of this Theory and are to be referr'd to their respective primary heads Such are for instance I. The Longevity of the Ante-diluvians II. The Rupture of the Great Abyss at the Deluge III. The appearing of the Rainbow after the Deluge as a sign that there neveâ—â—hould be a second Flood â—hese â—hings Scripâ—ure hath alâ—â— left upon â—â—cord as directions and indications how to understand the Ante-diluvian state and the Deluge it self Whosoever therefore shall undertake to write the Theory of the Earth must think himself bound to give us a just explication of these secondary Phaenomena as well as of the primary and that in such a dependance and connexion as to make them give and receive light from one another The former part of the Task is concerning the World behind us Times and Things past that are already come to light The later is concerning the World before us Times and Things to come That lie yet in the bosom of Providence and in the â—eeds of Nature And these are chiefly the Conflagration of the World and the Renovation of it When these are over and expir'd then comes the end as S. Paul says Then the Heavens and the Earth fly away as S. Iohn says Then is the Consummation of all things and the last period of this sublunary World whatsoever it is Thus â—ar the Theorist must go and pursue the motions of Nature till all things are brought to rest and silence And in this latter part of the Theory there is also a collateral Phaenomenon the Millennium or Thousand Years Reign of Christ and his Saints upon Earth to be consider'd For this according as it is represented in Scripture does imply a change in the Natural World as well as in the Moral and therefore must be accounted for in the Theory of the Earth At least it must be there determin'd whether that state of the World which is singular and extraordinary will be before or after the Confâ—agration These are the Principals and Incidents of this Theory of the Earth as to the Matter and Subject of it which you see is both impâ—rtant and wholly taken out of Scripture As to our explication of these points that is sufficiently known being set down at large in four Books of this Theory Therefore it remains only having seen the Matter of the Theory to examine the Form of it and the proofs of it for from these two things it must receive its censure As to the form the characters of a Regular Theory seem to be these three Few and easie Postulatums Union
of Parts and a Fitness to answer fully and clearly all the Phaenomend to which it is to be apply'd We think our Hypothesis does not want any of these Characters As to the First we take but one single Postulatum for the whole Theory and thaâ— an easie one warranted both by Scripture and Antiquity Namely That this Earth rise at first from a Chaos As to the second Union of Parts The whole Theory is but one Series of Causes and Effects from that first Chaos Besides you can scarce admit any one part of it first last or intermediate but you must in consequence of that admit all the rest Grant me but that the Deluge is truly explain'd and I 'le desire no more for proof of all the Theory Or if you begin at the other end and grant the New Heavens and New Earth after the Conflagration you will be led back again to the first Heavens and first Earth that were before the Flood For St. Iohn says that New Earth was without a Sea Apoc. 21. 1. And it was a Renovation or Restitution to some former state of things there was therefore some former Earth without a Sea which not being the present Earth it must be the Ante diluvian Besides both St. Iohn and the Prophet Isaias have represented the New Heavens and New Earth as Paradisiâ—cal According as is prov'd Book the 4th chap. 2. And having told us the form of the New future Earth that it will have no Sea it is a reasonable inference that there was no Sea in the Paradisiâ—cal Earth However from the form of this Future Earth which St. Iohn represents to us we may at least conclude That an Earth without a Sea is no Chimaera or impossibility but rather a fit seat and habitation for the Just and the Innocent Thus you see the parts of the Theory link and hold fast one another according to the second character And as to the third of being 〈◊〉 to the Phaenomena we must refer that to the next head of Proofs It may be tâ—â—ly said that bare coherence and union of parts is not a sufficient proof The parts of a â—able or Romance may hang aptly together and yet have no truth in them This is enough indeed to give the title of a just Composition to any work but not of a true one till it appear that the conclusions and expâ—tations are grounded upon good natural evidence or upon good Divine authority We must therefore proceed now to the third thing to be consider'd in a Theory What its Proofs are or the grounds upon which it stands whether Sacred or Natural According to Natural evidence things are proved from their Causes or their Effects And we think we have this double order of proofs for the truth of our Hypothesis As to the method of Causes we proceed from what is more simple to what is more compound and build all upon one foundation Go but to the Head of the Theory and you will see the Causes lying in a train before you from first to last And tho' you did not know the Natural History of the World past or future you might by intuition foretell it as to the grand revolutions and successive faces of Nature through a long series of Ages If we have given a true account of the motions of the Chaos we have also truly form'd the first habitable Earth And if that be truly form'd we have thereby given a true account of the state of Paradise and of all that depends upon it And not of that only but also of the universal Deluge Both these we have shewn in their causes The one from the Form of that Earth and the other from the Fall of it into the Abyss And tho' we had not been made acquainted with these things by Antiquity we might in contemplation of the Causes have truly conceiv'd them as properties or incidents to the First Earth But as to the Deluge I do not say that we might have calculated the Time manner and other circumstances of it These things were regulated by Providence in subordination to the Moral World But that there would be at one time or oâ—her a disruption of that Earth or of the Great Abyss and in consequence of it an universal Deluge So far I think the light of a Theory might carry us Furthermore In consequence of this disruption of the Primeval Earth at the Deluge the present Earth was made hollow and cavernous and by that means due preparations being used capable of Combustion or of perishing by an universal Fire Yet to speak ingenuously This is as hard a step to be made in vertue of Natural causes as any in the whole Theory But in recompence of that defect the Conflagration is so plainly and literally taught us in Scripture and avow'd by Antiquity that it can fall under no dispute as to the thing it self And as to a capacity or disposition to it in the present Earth that I think is sufficiently made out Then the Conflagration admitted in that way it is explain'd in the Third Book The Earth you see is by that fire reduc'd to a second Chaos A Chaos truly so call'd And from that as from the First arises another Creation or New Heavens and a New Earth By the same causes and in the same form with the Paradisiacal This is the Renovation of the World The Restitution of all things mentioned both by Scripture and Antiquity And by the Prophet Isaiah St. Peter and St. Iohn call'd the New Heaven and New Earth With this as the last period and most glorious Scene of all humane affairs our Theory concludes as to this method of Causes whereof we are now speaking I say here it ends as to the method of Causes For tho' we pursue the Earth still further even to its last Dissolution which is call'd the Consummation of all things yet all that we have superadded upon that occasion is but Problematical and may without prejudice to the Theory be argued and disputed on either hand I do not know but that our conjectures there may be well grounded but however not springing so directly from the same root or at least not by ways so clear and visible I leave that part undecided Especially seeing we pretend to write no more than the Theory of the Earth and therefore as we begin no higher than the Chaos so we are not obliged to go any further than to the last state of a Terrestrial consistency which is that of the New Heavens and the New Earth This is the first natural proof From the order of Causes The second is fâ—om the consideration of Effects Namely of such effects as are already in being And therefore this proof can extend only to that part of the Theory that explains the present and past form and Phaenomena of the Earth What is Future must be left to a further trial when the things come to pass and present themselves to be examin'd and compar'd
with the Hypothesis As to the present Form of the Earth we call all Nature to witness for us The Rocks and the Mountains the Hills and the Valleys the deep and wide Sea and the Caverns of the Ground Let these speak and tell their origine How the Body of the Earth came to be thus torn and mangled If this strange and irregular structure was not the effect of a ruine and of such a ruine as was universal over the face of the whole Globe But we have given such a full explication of this in the first part of the Theory from Chapt. the 9th to the end of that Treatise that we dare stand to the judgment of any that reads those four Chapters to determine if the Hypothesis does not answer all those Phaenomena easily and adequately The next Phaenomenon to be consider'd is the Deluge with its adjuncts This also is fully explain'd by our Hypothesis in the 2d 3d. and 6th Chapters of the first Book Where it is shewn that the Mosaical Deluge that is an universal Inundation of the whole Earth above the tops of the highest Mountains made by a breaking open of the Great Abyss for thus far Moses leads us is fully explain'd by this Hypothesis and cannot be conceiv'd in any other method hitherto propos'd There are no sources or stores of Water sufficient for such an effect that may be drawn upon the Earth and drawn off again but by supposing such an Abyss and such a Disruption of it as the Theory represents Lastly As to the Phaenomena of Paradise and the Ante-diluvian World we have set them down in order in the 2d Book and apply'd to each of them its proper explication from the same Hypothesis We have also given an account of that Character which Antiquity always assign'd to the first age of the World or the Golden Age as they call'd it namely Equality of Seasons throughout the Year or a perpetual Equinox We have also taken in all the adjuncts or concomitants of these States as they are mention'd in Scripture The Longevity of the Ante-diluvians and the declension of their age by degrees after the Flood As also that wonderful Phaenomenon the Rainbow which appear'd to Noah for a Sign that the Earth should never undergo a second Deluge And we have shewn wherein the force and propriety of that Sign consisted for confirming Noah's faith in the promise and in the divine veracity Thus far we have explain'd the past Phaenomena of the Natural World The rest are Futurities which still lie hid in their Causes and we cannot properly prove a Theory from effects that are not yet in being But so far as they are foretold in Scripture both as to substance and circumstance in prosecution of the same Principles we have ante dated their birth and shew'd how they will come to pass We may therefore I think reasonably conclude That this Theory has performed its task and answer'd its title having given an account of all the general changes of the Natural World as far as either Sacred History looks backwards or Sacred Prophecy looks forwards So far as the one tells us what is past in Nature and the other what is to come And if all this be nothing but an appearance of truth 't is a kind of fatality upon us to be deceiv'd SO much for Natural Evidence from the Causes or Effects We now proceed to Scripture which will make the greatest part of this Review The Sacred Basis upon which the whole Theory stands is the doctrine of S. Peter deliver'd in his Second Epistle and Third Chapter concerning the Triple Order and Succession of the Heavens and the Earth That comprehends the whole extent of our Theory which indeed is but a large Commentary upon S. Peter's Text. The Apostle sets out a threefold state of the Heavens and Earth with some general properties of each taken from their different Constitution and different Fate The Theory takes the same threefold state of the Heavens and the Earth and explains more partâ—cularly wherein their different Constitution consists and how under the conduct of Providence their different fate depends upon it Let us set down the Apostle's words with the occasion of them and their plain sence according to the most easie and natural explication Ver. 3. Knowing this first that there shall come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lusts 4. And saying Where is the promise of his coming for since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation 5. For this they willingly are ignorant of that by the word of God the heavens were of old and the earth consisting of water and by water 6. Whereby the world that then was being overflowed with water perished 7. But the heavens and the earth that are now by the sâ—me word are kept in store reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men 10. The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent heat the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up 13. Nevertheless we according to his promise look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness This is the whole Discourse so far as relates to our Subject S Peter you see had met with some that scoff'd at the future destruction of the World and the coming of our Saviour and they were men it seems that pretended to Philosophy and Argument and they use this argument for their opinion Seeing there hath been no change in Nature or in the World from the beginning to this time why should we think there will be any change for the future The Apostle answers to this That they willingly forget or are ignorant that there were Heavens of old and an Earth so and so constituted consisting of Water and by Water by reason whereof that World or those Heavens and that Earth perish'd in a Deluge of Water But saith he the Heavens and the Earth that are now are of another constitution fitted and reserved to another fate namely to perish by Fire And after these are perish'd there will be New Heavens and a New Earth according to God's promise This is an easie Paraphrase and the plain and genuine sence of the Apostle's discourse and no body I think would ever look after any other sence if this did not carry them out of their usual road and point to conclusions which they did not fancy This sence you see hits the objections directly or the Cavil which these scoffers made and tells them that they vainly pretend that there hath been no change in the World since the beginning for there was one sort of Heavens and Earth before the Flood and another sort now the first having been destroy'd at the Deluge So that the Apostle's argument stands upon this Foundation That there
sence of the Greek words If one met with this sentence in a Greek Author who would ever render it standing in the water and out of the water nor do I know any Latin Translator that hath ventur'd to render them in that sence nor any Latin Father St. Austin and St. Ierome I 'm sure do not but Consistens ex aquâ or de aquâ per aquam for that later phrase also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does not with so good propriety signifie to stand in the water as to consist or subsist by water or by the help of water Tanquam per causam sustinentem as St. Austin and Ierome render it Neither does that instance they give from 1 Pet. 3. 20. prove any thing to the contrary for the Ark was sustain'd by the waters and the English does render it accordingly The Translation being thus rectified you see the ante diluvian Heavens and Earth consisted of Water and by water which makes way for a second observation to prove our sence of the Text for if you admit no diversity betwixt those Heavens and Earth and the present shew us pray how the present Heavens and Earth consist of water and by water What watery constitution have they The Apostle implies rather that The now Heavens and Earth have a fiery constitution We have now Meteors of all sorts in the air winds hail snow lightning thunder and all things engender'd of fiery exhalations â—as well as we have rain but according to our Theory the antediluvian Heavens of all these Meteors had none but dews and vapors or watery Meteors only and therefore might very aptly be said by the Apostle to be constituted of water or to have a watery 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Then the Earth was said to consist by water because it was built upon it and at first was sustain'd by it And when such a Key as this is put into our hands that does so easily unlock this hard passage and makes it intelligible according to the just force of the words why should we pertinaciously adhere to an interpretation that neither agrees with the words nor makes any sence that is considerable Thirdly If the Apostle had made the ante-diluvian Heavens and Earth the same with the present his apodosis in the 7th Verse should not have been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. I say it should not have been by way of antithesis but of identity or continuation And the same Heavens and Earth are kept in store reserv'd unto fire c. Accordingly we see the Apostle speaks thus as to the Logos or the Word of God Verse 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the same Word of God where the thing is the same he expresseth it as the same And if it had been the same Heavens and Earth as well as the same Word of God Why should he use a mark of opposition for the one and of identity for the other to this I do not see what can be fairly answer'd Fourthly the ante-diluvian Heavens and Earth were different from the present because as the Apostle intimates they were such and so constituted as made them obnoxious to a Deluge whereas ours are of such a form as makes them incapable of a Deluge and obnoxious to a Conflagration the just contrary fate If you say there was nothing of natural tendency or disposition in either World to their respective fate but the first might as well have perish'd by fire as water and this by water as by fire you unhinge all Nature and natural providence in that method and contradict one main scope of the Apostle in this discourse His first scope is to assert and mind them of that diversity there was betwixt the ancient Heavens and Earth and the present and from that to prove against those Scoffers that there had been a change and revolution in Nature And his second scope seems to be this to show that diversity to be such as under the Divine conduct leads to a different fate and expos'd that World to a Deluge for when he had describ'd the constitution of the first Heavens and Earth he subjoyns 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quià talis erat saith Grotius qualem diximus constitutio Terrae Coeli WHERE BY the then World perish'd in a Flood of Water This whereby notes some kind of causal dependance and must relate to some means or conditions precedent It cannot relate to Logos or the Word of God Grammar will not permit that therefore it must relate to the state of the Ante-diluvian Heavens and Earth immediately premis'd And to what purpose indeed should he premise the description of those Heavens and Earth if it was not to lay a ground for this Inference Having given these Reasons for the necessity of this Interpretation in the last place let 's consider S. Austin's judgment and his sence upon this place as to the point in question As also the reflections that some other of the Ancients have made upon this doctrine of S. Peter's Didymus Alexandrinus who was for some time S. Ierome's Master made such a seveâ—e reflection upon it that he said this Epistle was corrupted and should not be admitted into the Canon because it taught the doctrine of a Triple or Triform World in this third Chapter As you may see in his Enarr in Epist. Canonicas Now this threefold World is first that in the 6th ver The World that then was In the 7th ver The Heavens and the Earth that are now And in the 13th ver We expect new Heavens and a new Earth according to his promise This seems to be a fair account that S. Peter taught the doctrine of a Triple World And I quote this testimony to show what S. Peter's words do naturally import even in the judgment of one that was not of his mind And a Man is not prone to make an exposition against his own Opinion unless he think the words very pregnant and express But S. Austin owns the authority of this Epistle and of this doctrine as deriv'd from it taking notice of this Text of S. Peter's in several parts of his Works We have noted three or four places already to this purpose and we may further take notice of several passages in his Treatise de Civ Dei which confirm our exposition In his 20th Book ch 24. he disputes against Porphyry who had the same Principles with these Eternalists in the Text or if I may so call them Incorruptarians and thought the World never had nor ever would undergo any change especially as to the Heavens S. Austin could not urge Porphyry with the authority of S. Peter for he had no veneration for the Christian Oracles but it seems he had some for the Iewish and arguing against him upon that Text in the Psalms Coeli peribunt he shows upon occasion how he understands S. Peter's destruction of the Old World Legitur Coelum Terra
the Sea and establish'd it upon the Floods An Earth founded upon the Seas and establish'd upon the Waters is not this the Earth we have describ'd the first Earth as it came from the hands of its Maker Where can we now find in Nature such an Earth as has the Seas and the Water for its foundation Neither is this Text without a second as a fellow-witness to confirm the same truth For in the 136. Psal. ver 4 5 6. we read to the same effect in these words To him who alone does great wonders To him that by wisdom made the Heavens's To him that stretchèd out the Earth above the Waters We can hardly express that form of the Ante-diluvian Earth in words more determinate than these are Let us then in the same simplicity of heart follow the words of Scripture seeing this literal sence is not repugnant to Nature but on the contrary agreeable to it upon the strictest examination And we cannot without some violence turn the words to any other sence What tolerable interpretation can these admit of if we do not allow the Earth ones to have encompass'd and overspread the face of the Waters To be founded upon the waters to be establish'd upon the waters to be extended upon the waters what rational or satisfactory account can be given of these phrases and expressions from any thing we find in the present situation of the Earth or how can they be verified concerning it Consult Interpreters ancient or modern upon these two places see if they answer your expectation or answer the natural importance of the words unless they acknowledge another form of the Earth than the present Because a Rock hangs its â—ose over the Sea must the body of the Earth be said to be stretched over the wà ters Or because there are waters in some subterraneous cavities is the Earth therefore founded upon the Seas Yet such lame explications as these you will meet with and while we have no better light we must content our selves with them but when an explication is offer'd that answers the propriety force and extent of the words to reject it onely because it is not fitted to our former opinions or because we did not first think of it is to take an ill method in expounding Scripture This Foundation or Establishment of the Earth upon the Seas this Extension of it above the waters relates plainly to the body or whole circuit of the Earth not to parcels and particles of it as appears from the occasion and its being joyn'd with the Heavens the other part of the World Besides David is speaking of the Origin of the World and of the Divine power and wisdom in the construction and situation of our Earth and these attributes do not appear from the holes of the Earth and broken Rocks which have rather the face of a ruin than of wisdom but in that wonderful libration and expansion of the first Earth over the face of the waters sustained by its own proportions and the hand of his Providence These two places in the Psalms being duly consider'd we shall more easily understand a third place to the same effect in the Proverbs delivered by WISDOM concerning the Origin of the World and the form of the first Earth in these words Chap. 8. 27. When he prepared the Heavens I was there when HE SET an Orb or Sphere upon the face of the Abyss We render it when we set a Compass upon the face of the Abyss but if we have rightly interpreted the Prophet David 't is plain enough what compass is here to be understood not an imaginary circle for why should that be thought one of the wonderful works of God but that exterior Orb of the Earth that was set upon the waters That was the Master-piece of the Divine art in framing of the first Earth and therefore very fit to be taken notice of by Wisdom And upon this occasion I desire you to reflect upon St. Peter's expression concerning the first Earth and to compare it with Solomon's to see if they do not answer one another St. Peter calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An Earth consisting standing or sustained by the waters And Solomon calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An Orb drawn upon the face of the Abyss And St. Peter says that was done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the wisdom of God which is the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or wisdom that here declares her self to have been present at this work Add now to these two places the two foremention'd out of the Psalmist An Earth founded upon the Seas Psal. 24. 2. and an Earth stretched out above the waters Psal. 136. 6. Can any body doubt or question but all these four Texts refer to the same thing And seeing St. Peter's description refers â—â—rtainly to the Ante-diluvian Earth they must all refer to it and do all as certainly and evidently agree with our Theory concerning the form and situation of it The pendulous form and posture of that first Earth being prov'd from these four places 't is more easie and emphatical to interpret in this sence that passage in Iob ch 26. 7. He stretcheth â—ut the North over the Tohu for so it is in the original and hangeth the Earth upon nothing And this strange foundation or no foundation of the exteriour Earth seems to be the ground of those noble questions propos'd to Iob by God Almighty Ch. 38. Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the Earth Declare if thou hast understanding Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastned and who laid the corner-stone There was neither foundation nor corner-stone in that piece of Architecture and that was it which made the art and wonder of it But I have spoken more largely to these places in the Theory it self And if the four Texts before-mentioned be consider'd without prejudice I think there are few matters of natural Speculation that can be so well prov'd out of Scripture as the Form which we have given to the Ante-diluvian Earth But yet it may be thought a just if not a necessary appendix to this discourse concerning the form of the Ante-diluvian Earth to give an account also of the Ante-diluvian Abyss and the situation of it according to Scripture for the relation which these two have to one another will be a further means to discover if we have rightly determin'd the form of that Earth The Abyss or Tehom-Rabbah is a Scripture notion and the word is not us'd that I know of in that distinct and peculiar sence in Heathen Authors 'T is plain that in Scripture it is not always taken for the Sea as Gen. 1. 2. 7. 11. 49. 25. Deut. 33. 13. Iob 28. 14. 38. 16. Psal. 33. 7. 71. 20 78. 15. 135. 6. Apoc. 20. 1. 3. but for some other mass of waters or subterraneous store-house And this being observ'd we may easily discover the nature and set down the History
of the Scripture-Abyss The Mother-Abyss is no doubt that in the beginning of Genesis v. 2. which had nothing but darkness upon the face of it or a thick caliginous air The next news we hear of this Abyss is at the Deluge Gen. 7. 11. where 't is said to be broke open and the waters of it to have drowned the World It seems then this Abyss was clos'd up some time betwixt the Creation and the Deluge and had got another cover than that of darkness And if we will believe Wisdom Prov. 8. 27. who was there present at the formation of the Earth an Orb was set upon the face of the Abyss at the beginning of the World That these three places refer to the same Abyss I think cannot be questioned by any that will compare them and consider them That of the Deluge Moses calls there Tehom-Rabbah the Great Abyss and can there be any greater than the forementioned Mother-Abyss And WISDOME in that place in the Proverbs useth the same phrase and words with Moses Gen. 1. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon the face of the Deep or of the Abyss changâ—ng darkness for that Orb of the exteriour Earth which was made afterwards to inclose it And in thâ—s vault it lay and under this cover when the Psalmist speaks of it in these words Psal. 33. 7. He gathereth the waters of the Sea as in a bag he layeth up the Abyss in store-houses Lastly we may observe that 't was this Mother-Abyss whose womb was burst at the Deluge when the Sea was born and broke forth as if it had issued out of a womb as God expresseth it to Iob ch 38. 8. in which place the Chaldee Paraphrase reads it when it broke forth coming out of the Abyss Which disruption at the Deluge seems also to be alluded to Iob 12. 14 15. and more plainly Prov. 3. 20. by his knowledge the Abysses are broken up Thus you have already a threefold state of the Abyss which makes a short History of it first Open at the beginning then covered till the Deluge Then broke open again as it is at present And we pursue the History of it no further but we are told Apoc. 20. 3. That it shall be shut up again and the great Dragon in it for a Thousand years In the mean time we may observe from this form and posture of the Ante diluvian Abyss how suitable it is and coherent with that form of the Ante-diluvian Earth which St. Peter and the Psalmist had describ'd sustain'd by the waters founded upon the waters stretcht above the waters for if it was the cover of this Abyss and it had some cover that was broke at the Deluge it was spread as a Crust or Ice upon the face of those waters and so made an Orbis Terrarum an habitable sphere of Earth about the Abyss SO much for the form of the Ante-diluvian Earth and Abyss which as they aptly correspond to one another so you see our Theory answers and is adjusted to both and I think so fitly that we have no reason hitherto to be displeas'd with the success we have had in the examination of it according to Scripture We have dispatch'd the two main points in question first to prove a diversity in general betwixt the two natural Worlds or betwixt the Heavens and the Earth before and after the Flood Secondly to prove wherein this diversity consisted or that the particular form of the Ante-diluvian Heavens and Earth was such according to Scripture as we have describ'd it in the Theory You 'l say then the work is done what needs more all the rest follows of course for if the Antediluvian Earth had such a â—orm as we have propos'd and prov'd it to have had there could be no Deluge in it but by a dissolution of its parts and exteriour frame And a Deluge so made would not be in the nature of a standing Pool but of a violent agitation and commotion of the Waters This is true These parts of the Theory are so cemented that you must grant all if you grant any However we will try if even these two particulars also may be prov'd out of Scripture That is if there be any marks or memorandums left there by the Spirit of God of such a fraction or dissolution of the Earth at the Deluge And also such characters of the Deluge it self as show it to have been by a fluctuation and impetuous commotion of the Waters To proceed then That there was a Fraction or Dissolution of the Earth at the Deluge the history of it by Moses gives us the first account seeing he tells us as the principol cause of the Flood That the Fountains of the Great Abyss were cloven or burst asunder and upon this disruption the waters gush'd out from the bowels of the Earth as from the widen'd mouths of so many Fountains I do not take Fountains there to signifie any more than Sources or Stores of Water noting also this manner of their eruption from below or out of the ground as Fountains do Accordingly in the Proverbs chap. 3. 20. 't is only said the Abysses were broken open I do not doubt but this refers to the Deluge as Bede and others understand it the very word being us'd here both in the Hebrew and Septuagint that express'd the disruption of the Abyss at the Deluge And this breaking up of the Earth at that time is elegantly exprest in Iob by the bursting of the Womb of Nature when the Sea was first brought to light when after many pangs and throes and dilacerations of her body Nature was delivered of a burthen which she had born in her Womb Sixteen Hundred Years These three places I take to be memorials and proofs of the disruption of the Earth or of the Abyss at the universal Deluge And to these we may add more out of the Prophets Iob and the Psalms by way of allusion commonly to the state of Nature at that time The Prophet Isaiah in describing the future destruction of the World chap. 24. 18 19. seems plainly to allude and have respect to the past destruction of it at the Deluge as appears by that leading expression the windows from an high are open 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taken manifestly from Gen. 7. 11. Then see how the description goes on the windows from an high are open and the foundations of the Earth do shake The Earth is utterly broken down the Earth is quite dissolv'd the Earth is exceedingly moved Here are Concussions and Fractions and dissolutions as there were in the Mundane Earth-quake and Deluge which we had exprest before only by breaking open the Abyss By the Foundations of the Earth here and elsewhere I perceive many understand the Centre so by moving or shaking the foundations or putting them out of course must be understood a displacing of the Centre which was really done at the Deluge as we have shewn in its proper place
am bound to make good I said at first that our Hypothesis concerning the Deluge was more agreeable not only to Scripture in general but also to the particular History of the Flood left us by Moses I say more agreeable to it than any other Hypothesis that hath yet been propos'd This may be made good in a few words For in Moses's History of the Deluge there are two principal points The extent of the Deluge and the Causes of it and in both these we do fully agree with that sacred Author As to the extent of it He makes the Deluge universal All the high hills under the whole heaven were cover'd fifteen cubits upwards We also make it universal over the face of the whole Earth and in such a manner as must needs raise the waters above the top of the highest Hills every where As to the canses of it Moses makes them to be the disruption of the Abyss and the Rains and no more and in this also we exactly agree with him we know no other causes nor pretend to any other but those two Distinguishing therefore Moses his narration as to the substance and circumstances of it it must be allowed that these two points make the substance of it and that an Hypothesis that differs from it in either of these two differs from it more than Ours which at the worst can but differ in matter of circumstance Now seeing the great difficulty about the Deluge is the quantity of Water required for it there have been two explications proposed besides ours to remove or satisfie this difficulty One whereof makes the Deluge not to have been universal or to have reacht only Iudea and some neighbouring Countries and therefore less water would suffice The other owning the Deluge to be universal supplies it self with Water from the Divine Omnipotenty and says new Waters were created then for the nonce and again annihilated when the Deluge was to cease Both these explications you see and I know no more of note that are not obnoxious to the same exceptions differ from Moses in the substance or in one of the two substantial points and consequently more than ours doth The first changeth the Flood into a kind of national inundation and the second assigns other causes of it than Moses had assigned And as they both differ apparently from the Mosaical History so you may see them refuted upon other grounds also in the third Chapter of the First Book of the Theory This may be sufficient as to the History of the Flood by Moses But possibly it may be said the principal objection will arise from Moses his Six-days Creation in the first Chapter of Genesis where another sort of Earth than what we have form'd from the Chaos is represented to us namely a Terraqueous Globe such as our Earth is at present 'T is indeed very apparent that Moses hath accommodated his Six days Creation to the present form of the Earth or to that which was before the eyes of the people when he writ But it is a great question whether that was ever intended for a true Physical account of the origine of the Earth or whether Moses did either Philosophize or Astronomize in that description The ancient Fathers when they answer the Heathens and the adversaries of Christianity do generally deny it as I am ready to make good upon another occasion And the thing it self bears in it evident marks of an accommodation and condescention to the vulgar notions concerning the form of the World Those that think otherwise and would make it literally and physically true in all the parts of it I desire them without entring upon the strict merits of the cause to determine these Preliminaries First whether the whole universe rise from a Terrestrial Chaos Secondly what Systeme of the World this Six-days Creation proceeds upon whether it supposes the Earth or the Sun for the Center Thirdly Whether the Sun and Fixt Stars are of a later date and a later birth than this Globe of Earth And lastly Where is the Region of the Super-celestial Waters When they have determin'd these Fundamentals we will proceed to other observations upon the Six-days work which will further assure us that 't is a narration suited to the capacity of the people and not to the strict and physical nature of things Besides we are to remember that Moses must be so interpreted in the first Chapter of Genesis as not to interfere with himself in other parts of his History nor to interfere with S. Peter or the Prophet David or any other Sacred Authors when they treat of the same matter Nor lastly so as to be repugnant to clear and uncontested Science For in things that concern the natural World that must always be consulted With these precautions let them try if they can reduce that narrative of the Origine of the World to physical truth so as to be consistent both with Nature and with Divine Revelation every where It is easily reconcileable to both if we suppose it writ in a Vulgar style and to the conceptions of the People And we cannot deny that a Vulgar style is often made use of in the holy Writings How freely and unconcernedly does Scripture speak of God Almighty according to the opinions of the vulgar of his passions local motions parts and members of his body Which all are things that do not belong or are not compatible with the Divine Nature according to truth and Science And if this liberty be taken as to God himself much more may it be taken as to his works And accordingly we see what motion the Scripture gives to the Sun what figure to the Earth what figure to the Heavens All according to the appearance of sence and popular credulity without any remorse for having transgressed the rules of intellectual truth This vulgar style of Scripture in describing the natures of things hath been often mistaken for the real sence and so become a stumbling-block in the way of truth Thus the Anthropomorphites of old contended for the humane shape of God from the Letter of Scripture and brought many express Texts for their purpose but sound reason at length got the upper hand of Literal authority Then several of the Christian Fathers contended that there were no Antipodes and made that doctrine irreconcileable to Scripture But this also after a while went off and yielded to reason and experience Then the Motion of the Earth must by no means be allow'd as being contrary to Scripture for so it is indeed according to the Letter and Vulgar style But all intelligent Persons see thorough this Argument and depend upon it no more in this case than in the former Lastly The original of the Earth from a Chaos drawn according to the rules of Physiology will not be admitted because it does not agree with the Scheme of the Six-days Creation But why may not this be writ in a Vulgar style as well as the rest Certainly
there can be nothing more like a Vulgar style than to set God to work by the day and in Six-days to finish his task as he is there represented We may therefore probably hope that all these disguises of truth will at length fall off and that we shall see God and his Works in a pure and naked Light Thus I have finish'd what I had to say in confirmation of this Theory from Scripture I mean of the former part of it which depends chiefly upon the Deluge and the Ante-diluvian Earth When you have collated the places of Scripture on either side and laid them in the balance to be weigh'd one against another If you do but find them equal or near to an equal poise you know in whether Scale the Natural Reasons are to be laid and of what weight they ought to be in an argument of this kind There is a great difference betwixt Scripture with Philosophy on its side and Scripture with Philosophy against it when the question is concerning the Natural World And this is our Case which I leave now to the consideration of the unprejudic'd Reader and proceed to the Proof of the Second Part of the Theory THE later Part consists of the Conflagration of the World and the New Heavens and New Earth And seeing there is no dispute concerning the former of these two our task will now lie in a little compass Being only this To prove that there will be New Heavens and a New Earth after the Conflagration This to my mind is sufficiently done already in the first second and third Chapters of the 4th Book both from Scripture and Antiquity whether Sacred or Prophane and therefore at present we will only make a short and easie review of Scripture-Testimonies with design chiefly to obviate and disappoint the Evasions of such as would beat down solid Texts into thin Metaphors and Allegories The Testimonies Scripture concerning the Renovation of the World are either express â—implicit Those I call express that mention the New Heavens and â—ew Earth And those implicit that signifie the same thing but râ—â— express terms So when our Saviour speaks of a Palingenesia 〈◊〉 Regeneration Matt. 19. 28 29. Or S. Peter of an Apocatastasâ— or Restitution Act. 3. 21. These being words us'd by all Authâ—rs Prophane or Ecclesiastical for the Renovation of the World â—â—ght in reason to be interpreted in the same sence in the Holy Wâ—â—tings And in like manner when S. Paul speaks of his Future Eaâ—â—h or an habitable World to come Hebr. 2. 5. or of a Redemption or â—â—lioration of the present state of Nature Rom. 8. 21 22. These lead 〈◊〉 again in other terms to the same Renovation of the World â—â—t there are also some places of Scripture that set the Heavensâ—â—d â—â—d New Earth in such a full and open view that we must shut ourâ—â—yes not to see them S. Iohn says he saw them and observ'd the fâ—â—m of the New Earth Apoc. 21. 1. The Seer Isaiah spoke of thenâ— in express words many hundred years before And S. Peter marâ—â— the time when they are to be introduc'd namely after the Coâ—â—lagration or after the Dissolution of the present Heavens and Eaâ—â—h 2 Pet. 3. 12 13. These latâ—â—r Texts of Scripture being so express there is but one way left to â—â—lude the force of them and that is by turning the Renovation 〈◊〉 the World into an Allegory and making the New Heavens and â—ew Earth to be Allegorical Heavens and Earth not real and mateâ—â—al as ours are This is a bold attempt of some modern Authors â—ho chuse rather to strain the Word of God than their own Noâ—â—ons There are Allegories no doubt in Scripture but we are not 〈◊〉 allegorize Scripture without some warrant either from an Apoâ—olical Interpretation or from the necessity of the matter and I dâ— not know how they can pretend to either of these in this case â—owever That they may have all fair play we will lay aside at presâ—nt all the other Texts of Scripture and confine our selves wholly to S. Peter's words to see and examine whether they are or can â—e turn'd into an Allegory according to the best rules of Interpreâ—ation S. â—eter's words are these Seeing then all these things shall be dissolv'd what manner of persons ought ye to be in holy conversation and godliâ—â—ss Looking for and hasting the coming of the Day of God wherâ—in the Heavens being on fire shall be dissolv'd and the Elements shall melt with servent heat NEVERTHELESS we according 〈◊〉 his promise look for New Heavens and a New Earth wherein Rigâ—â—eousness shall dwell The Question is concerning this last Verse Wheâ—her the New Heavens and Earth here promis'd are to be real and maâ—â—rial Heavens and Earth or only figurative and allegorical The woâ—ds you see are clear and the general rule of Interpretation is thiâ— That we are not to recede from the letter or the literal sence unâ—ess there be a necessity from the subject matter such a necessity as makes a literal Interpretation absurd But where is that necessity in this Case Cannot God make New Heavens and a New Earth as â—easily as he made the Old ones Is his strength decay'd since that Time or is Matter grown more disobedient 〈◊〉 does not Nature offer her self voluntarily to raise a New Worâ—â— from the Second Chaos as well as from the First and under thâ— conduct of Providence to make it as convenient an habitation as 〈◊〉 Primaeval Earth Therefore no necessity can be pretended of leavinâ— the literal sence upon an incapacity of the subject matter The Second Rule to determine an Interpretatioâ— to be Literal or Allegorical is The use of the same words or phraâ—â— in the Context and the signification of them there Let 's then exaâ—ine our case according to this rule S. Peter had us'd the same pâ—ase of Heavens and Earth twice before in the same Chapter The 〈◊〉 Heavens and Earth ver 5. The Present Heavens and Earth ver 7. and now he uses it again ver 13. The New Heavens and Earth Have we not then reason to suppose that he takes it here in the sâ—me sence that he had done twice before for real and material Heaâ—â—ns and Earth There is no mark set of a new signification nor whâ— we should alter the sence of the words That he us'd them alwâ—ys before for the material Heavens and Earth I think none will â—uestion and therefore unless they can give us a sufficient reason wâ—y we should change the signification of the words we are bound 〈◊〉 this second rule also to understand them in a literal sence Lastly The very form of the Words and the manneâ— of their dependance upon the Context leads us to a literal sence â—nd to material Heavens and Earth NEVERTHELESS says â—he Apostle we expect New Heavens c. Why Nevertheless that is noâ—â—ithstanding the dissolution of the present Heavens and Earth Tâ—e Apostle foresaw what he had
said might raise a doubt in their mâ—â—ds whether all things would not be at an end Nothing more oâ— Heavens and Earth or of any habitable World after the Confâ—â—gration and to obviate this he tells them Notwithstanding that wâ—nderful desolation that I have describ'd we do according to God's â—â—mises expect New Heavens and a New Earth to be an Habitatioâ— for the Righteous You see then the New Heavens and New Earth which the â—postle speaks of are substituted in the place of those that were destâ—â—y'd at the Conflagration and would you substitute Allegorical Hâ—avens and Earth in the place of Material A shadow for a subsâ—â—nce What 〈◊〉 Equivocation would it be in the Apostle when the â—oubt was about the material Heavens and Earth to make an answer â—bout Allegorical Lastly The Timeing of the thing determines the 〈◊〉 When shall this New World appear after the Conflagration the Apostle says Therefore it cannot be understood of any Moral Râ—novation to be made at or in the times of the Gospel as these â—â—llegorists pretend We must therefore upon all accounts conâ—â—de that the Apostle intended a literal sence real and material Heavâ—ns to succeed these after the Conflagration which was the thing to be prov'd And I know not what Bars the Spirit of God can set to keep us within the compass of a Literal Sence if these be not suâ—ficient Thus much for the Explication of S. Peter's Doctrine concerniâ—g the New Heavens and New Earth which secures the Second Paâ—t of our Theory For the Theory stands upon two Pillars or two Pedestals The Ante-diluvian Earth and the Future Earth or in S. Peter's phrase The Old Heavens and Earth and the New Heavens and Earth And it cannot be shaken so long as these two continue firm and immoveable We might now put an end to this Review but it may be expected possibly that we should say something concerning the Millennium which we have contrary to the general Sentiment of the Modern Millenaries plac'd in the Future Earth Our Opinion hath this advantage above others that all fanatical pretensions to power and empire in this World are by these means blown away as chaff before the wind Princes need not fear to be dethron'd to make way to the Saints nor Governments unhing'd that They may rule the World with a rod of Iron These are the effects of a wild Enthusiasm seeing the very state which they aim at is not to be upon this Earth But that our sence may not be mistaken or misapprehended in this particular as if we thought the Christian Church would never upon this Earth be in a better and happier posture than it is in at present We must distinguish betwixt a melioration of the World if you will allow that word and a Millennium We do not deny a reformation and improvement of the Church both as to Peace Purity and Piety That knowledge may increase mens minds be enlarg'd and Christian Religion better understood That the power of Antichrist shall be diminish'd Persecution cease Liberty of Conscience allow'd amongst the Reformed and a greater union and harmony establish'd That Princes will mind the publick good more than they do now and be themselves better examples of Vertue and true Piety All this may be and I hope will be e're long But the Apocalyptical Millennium or the New Ierusalem is still another matter It differs not in degree only from the present state but is a new order of things both in the Moral World and in the Natural and that cannot be till we come into the New Heavens and New Earth Suppose what Reformation you can in this World there will still remain many things inconsistent with the true Millennial state Antichrist tho' weakned will not be finally destroy'd till the coming of our Saviour nor Satan bound And there will be always Poverty Wars Diseases Knaves and Hypocrites in this World which are not consistent with the New Ierusalem as S. Iohn describes it Apoc. 21. 2 3 4 c. You see now what our notion is of the Millennium as we deny this Earth to be the Seat of it 'T is the state that succeeds the first Resurrection when Satan is lockt up in the bottomless pit The state when the Martyrs are to return into Life and wherein they are to have the first lot and chief share A state which is to last a thousand years And Blessed and Holy is he that hath a part in it on such the second death hath no power but they shall be Priests of God and Christ and shall reign with him a thousand years If you would see more particular reasons of our judgment in this case why such a Millennium is not to be expected in this World they are set down in the 8th Chapt. of the 4th Book and we do not think it necessary that they should be here repeated As to that dissertation that follows the Millennium and reaches to the Consummation of all things seeing it is but problematical we leave it to stand or fall by the evidence already given And should be very glad to see the conjectures of others more learned in Speculations so abstruse and remote from common knowledge They cannot surely be thought unworthy or unfit for our Meditations seeing they are suggested to us by Scripture it self And to what end were they propos'd to us there if it was not intended that they should be understood sooner or later I have done with this Review and shall only add one or two reflections upon the whole discourse and so conclude You have seen the state of the Theory of the Earth as to the Matter Form and Proofs of it both Natural and Sacred If any one will substitute a better in its place I shall think my self more obliged to him than if he had shew'd me the Quadrature of the Circle But it is not enough to pick quarrels here and there that may be done by any writing especially when it is of so great extent and comprehension They must build up as well as pull down and give us another Theory instead of this fitted to the same Natural History of the Earth according as it is set down in Scripture and then let the World take their choice He that cuts down a Tree is bound in reason to plant two because there is an hazard in their growth and thriving Then as to those that are such rigorous Scripturists as to require plainly demonstrative and irresistible Texts for every thing they entertain or believe They would do well to reflect and consider whether for every article in the three Creeds which have no support from natural reason they can bring such Texts of Scripture as they require of others or a faiâ—er and juster evidence all things consider'd than we have done for the substance of this Theory We have not indeed said all that might be said as to Antiquity that making no part in this Review and being capable still of great additions But
impossible for the Ark to have liv'd upon the raging Abyss or for Noah and his Family to have been preserv'd if there had not been a miraculous hand of Providence to take care of them But 't is hard to separate and distinguish an ordinary and extraordinary Providence in all cases and to mark just how far one goes and where the other begins And writing a Theory of the Deluge here as we do we were to exhibit a Series of causes whereby it might be made intelligible or to shew the proximate Natural Causes of it wherein we follow the example both of Moses and S. Peter and with the same veneration of the Divine Power and Wisdom in the government of Nature by a constant ordinary Providence and an occasional extraordinary So much for the Theory of the Deluge and the second Section of this Discourse CHAP. IX The Second Part of this Discourse proving the same Theory from the Effects and present form of the Earth First by a general Scheme of what is most remarkable in this Globe and then by a more particular Induction beginning with an Account of Subterraneous Cavities and Subterraneous Waters WE have now finisht our explication of the Universal Deluge and given an account not only of the possibility of it but so far as our knowledge can reach of its Causes and of that form and structure of the Earth whereby the Old World was subject to that sort of Fate We have not beg'd any Principles or Suppositions for the proof of this but taking that common ground which both Moses and all Antiquity presents to us viz. That this Earth rose from a Chaos We have from that deduc'd by an easie train of consequences what the first Form of it would be and from that Form as from a nearer ground we have by a second train of consequences made it appear that at some time or other that first Earth would be subject to a dissolution and by that dissolution to a Deluge And thus far we have proceeded only by the intuition of Causes as is most proper to a Theory but for the satisfaction of those that require more sensible arguments and to compleat our proofs on either hand we will now argue from the Effects and from the present state of Nature and the present form of the Earth prove that it hath been broken and undergone such a dissolution as we have already describ'd and made the immediate occasion of the Deluge And that we may do this more perspicuously and distinctly we will lay down this Proposition to be prov'd viz. That the present form and structure of the Earth both as to the surface and as to the Interiour parts of it so far as they are known and accessible to us doth exactly answer to our Theory concerning the form and dissolution of the first Earth and cannot be explain'd upon any other Hypothesis yet known Oratours and Philosophers treat Nature after a very different manner Those represent her with all her graces and ornaments and if there be any thing that is not capable of that they dissemble it or pass it over slightly But Philosophers view Nature with a more impartial eye and without favour or prejudice give a just and free account how they find all the parts of the Universe some more some less perfect And as to this Earth in particular if I was to describe it as an Oratour I would suppose it a beautiful and regular Globe and not only so but that the whole Universe was made for its sake that it was the darling and favourite of Heaven that the Sun shin'd only to give it light to ripen its Fruit and make fresh its Flowers and that the great Concave of the Firmament and all the Stars in their several Orbs were design'd only for a spangled Cabinet to keep this Jewel in This Idea I would give of it as an Oratour But a Philosopher that overheard me would either think me in jest or very injudicious if I took the Earth for a body so regular in it self or so considerable if compar'd with the rest of the Universe This he would say is to make the great World like one of the Heathen Temples a beautiful and magnificent structure and of the richest materials yet built only for a little brute Idol a Dog or a Crocodile or some deformed Creature plac'd in a corner of it We must therefore be impartial where the Truth requires it and describe the Earth as it is really in it self and though it be handsome and regular enough to the eye in certain parts of it single tracts and single Regions yet if we consider the whole surface of it or the whole Exteriour Region 't is as a broken and confus'd heap of bodies plac'd in no order to one another nor with any correspondency or regularity of parts And such a body as the Moon appears to us when 't is look'd upon with a good Glass rude and ragged as it is also represented in the modern Maps of the Moon such a thing would the Earth appear if it was seen from the Moon They are both in my judgment the image or picture of a great Ruine and have the true aspect of a World lying in its rubbish Our Earth is first divided into Sea and Land without any regularity in the portions either of the one or the other In the Sea lie the Islands scatter'd like limbs torn from the rest of the body great Rocks stand rear'd up in the waters The Promontories and Capes shoot into the Sea and the Sinus's and Creeks on the other hand run as much into the Land and these without any order or uniformity Upon the other part of our Globe stand great heaps of Earth or stone which we call Mountains and if these were all plac'd together they would take up a very considerable part of the dry Land In the rest of it are lesser Hills Valleys Plains Lakes and Marishes Sands and Desarts c. and these also without any regular disposition Then the inside of the Earth or inward parts of it are generally broken or hollow especially about the Mountains and high Lands as also towards the shores of the Sea and among the Rocks How many Holes and Caverns and strange Subterraneous passages do we see in many Countries and how many more may we easily imagine that are unknown and unaccessible to us This is the pourtraicture of our Earth drawn without flattery and as oddly as it looks it will not be at all surprising to one that hath consider'd the foregoing Theory For 't is manifest enough that upon the dissolution of the first Earth and its fall into the Abyss this very face and posture of things which we have now describ'd or something extremely like it would immediately result The Sea would be open'd and the face of the Globe would be divided into Land and Water And according as the fragments fell some would make Islands or Rocks in the Sea others would
make Mountains or Plains upon the Land and the Earth would generally be full of Caverns and hollownesse especially in the Mountainous parts of it And we see the resemblance and imitation of this in lesser ruines when a Mountain sinks and falls into Subterraneous water or which is more obvious when the Arch of a Bridge is broken and falls into the water if the water under it be not so deep as to overflow and cover all its parts you may see there the image of all these things in little Continents and Islands and Rocks under water And in the parts that stand above the water you see Mountains and Precipices and Plains and most of the varieties that we see and admire in the parts of the Earth What need we then seek any further for the Explication of these things Let us suppose this Arch of the Bridge as the great Arch of the Earth which once it had and the water under it as the Abyss and the parts of this ruine to represent the parts of the Earth There will be scarce any difference but of lesser and greater the same things appearing in both But we have naturally that weakness or prejudice that we think great things are not to be explain'd from easie and familiar instances We think there must be something difficult and operose in the explication of them or else we are not satisfied whether it is that we are asham'd to see our ignorance and admiration to have been so groundless or whether we fancy there must be a proportion between the difficulty of the explication and the greatness of the thing explain'd but that is a very false Judgment for let things be never so great if they be simple their explication must be simple and easie And on the contrary some things that are mean common and ordinary may depend upon causes very difficult to find out for the difficulty of explaining an effect doth not depend upon its greatness or littleness but upon the simplicity or composition of its causes And the effects and Phaenomena we are here to explain though great yet depending upon causes very simple you must not wonder if the Explication when found out be familiar and very intelligible And this is so intelligible and so easily deducible from the forementioned causes that a Man born blind or brought up all his life in a Cave that had never seen the face of the Earth nor ever heard any description of it more than that it was a great Globe having this Theory propos'd to him or being instructed what the form of the first Earth was how it stood over the waters and then how it was broke and fell into them he would easily of his own accord foretel what changes would arise upon this dissolution and what the new form of the Earth would be As in the first place he would tell you that this second Earth would be distinguish'd and checker'd into Land and Water for the Orb which fell being greater than the circumference it fell upon all the fragments could not fall flat and lie drown'd under water and those that stood above would make the dry Land or habitable part of the Earth Then in the second place he would plainly discern that these fragments that made the dry Land could not lie all plain and smooth and equal but some would be higher and some lower some in one posture and some in another and consequently would make Mountains Hills Valleys and Plains and all other varieties we have in the situation of the parts of the Earth And lastly a blind man would easily divine that such a great ruine could not happen but there would be a great many holes and cavities amongst the parts of it a great many intervals and empty places in the rubbish as I may so say for this we see happens in all ruines more or less and where the fragments are great and hard 't is not possible they should be so adjusted in their fall but that they would lie hollow in many places and many unfill'd spaces would be intercepted amongst them some gaping in the surface of the Earth and others hid within so as this would give occasion to all sorts of fractures and cavities either in the skin of the Earth or within its body And these Cavities that I may add that in the last place would be often fill'd with Subterraneous waters at least at such a depth for the foundations of the Earth standing now within the waters so high as those waters reach'd they would more or less propagate themselves every way Thus far our Blind man could tell us what the New World would be or the form of the Earth upon the great dissolution and we find his reasonings and inferences very true these are the chief lineaments and features of our Earth which appear indeed very irregular and very inaccountable when they are lookt upon naked in themselves but if we look upon them through this Theory we see as in a glass all the reasons and causes of them There are different Genius's of Men and different conceptions and every one is to be allow'd their liberty as to things of this nature I confess for my own part when I observe how easily and naturally this Hypothesis doth apply it self to the general face of this Earth hits and falls in so luckily and surprizingly with all the odd postures of iâ—s parts I cannot without violence bear off my mind from fully assenting to it And the more odd and extravagant as I may so say and the more diversify'd the effects and appearances are to which an Hypothesis is to be apply'd if it answers them all and with exactness it comes the nearer to a moral certitude and infallibility As a Lock that consists of a great deal of workmanship many Wards and many odd pieces and contrivances if you find a Key that answers to them all and opens it readily 't is a thousand to one that 't is the true Key and was made for that purpose An eminent Philosopher of this Age Monsteur des Cartes hath made use of the like Hypothesis to explain the irregular form of the present Earth though he never dream'd of the Deluge nor thought that first Orb built over the Abyss to have been any more than a transient crust and not a real habitable World that lasted for more than sixteen hundred years as we suppose it to have been And though he hath in my opinion in the formation of that first Orb and upon the dissolution of it committed some great oversights whereof we have given an account in the Latin Treatise however he saw a necessity of such a thing and of the disruption of it to bring the Earth into that form and posture wherein we now find it Thus far we have spoken in general concerning the agreement and congruity of our supposition with the present face of the Earth and the easie account it gives of the causes of it And
for suppose the Abyss was but half as deep as the deep Ocean to make this Calculus answer all the dry Land ought to be cover'd with Mountains and with Mountains as high as the Ocean is deep or doubly high to the depth of the Abyss because they are but upon one half of the Globe And this is the first argument against the reciprocal production of Mountains and the Sea their incongruency or disproportion Secondly We are to consider that a great many Mountains of the Earth are far distant from any Seas as the great in-land Mountains of Asia and of Africk and the Sarmatick Mountains and others in Europe how were these great bodies slung thorow the Air from their respective Seas whence they were taken to those places where they stand What appearance is there in common reason or credibility that these huge masses of Earth and Stone that stand in the middle of Continents were dug out of any Seas We think it strange and very deservedly that a little Chapel should be transported from Palestine to Italy over Land and Sea much more the transportation of Mount Atlas or Taurus thorow the Air or of a range of Mountains two or three thousand miles long would surely upon all accounts appear incongruous and incredible Besides neither the hollow form of Mountains nor the stony matter whereof they commonly consist agrees with that supposition that they were prest or taken out of the Chanel of the Sea Lastly We are to consider that the Mountains are not barely laid upon the Earth as a Tomb-stone upon a Grave nor stand as Statues do upon a Pedestal as this opinion seems to suppose but they are one continued substance with the body of the Earth and their roots reach into the Abyss as the Rocks by the Sea-side go as deep as the bottom of the Sea in one continu'd mass And 't is a ridiculous thing to imagine the Earth first a plain surface then all the Mountains set upon it as Hay-cocks in a Field standing upon their flat bottoms There is no such common surface in Nature nor consequently any such super-additions 'T is all one frame or mass only broken and disjoynted in the parts of it To conclude 'T is not only the Mountains that make the inequalities of the Earth or the irregularity of its surface every Country every Province every Field hath an unequal and different situation higher or lower inclin'd more or less and sometimes one way sometimes another you can scarce take a miles compass in any place where the surface of the ground continues uniform and can you imagine that there were Moulds or Stones brought from the Sea-chanel to make all those inequalities Or that Earthquakes have been in every County and in every Field The inner Veins and Lares the beds or Strata of the Earth are also broken as well as the surface These must proceed from universal causes and all those that have been alledg'd whether from Philosophy or Theology are but particular or Topical I am fully satisfied in contemplation of these things and so I think every unprejudic'd person may be that to such an irregular variety of situation and construction as we see every where in the parts of the Earth nothing could answer but some universal concussion or dislocation in the nature of a general ruine We have now finisht this first part of our Theory and all that concerns the Deluge or dissolution of the Earth and we have not only establisht our own Hypothesis by positive arguments but also produc'd and examin'd all suppositions that have been offer'd by others whether Philosophical or Theological for the Explication of the same things so as nothing seems now to remain further upon this subject For a conclusion of all we will consider if you please the rest of the Earths or of the Planets within our Heavens that appertain to the same common Sun to see so far as we can go by rational conjectures if they be not of the same Fabrick and have undergone the like fate and forms with our Earth It is now acknowledg'd by the generality of Learned Men that the Planets are Opake bodies and particularly our next neighbour the Moon is known to be a Terraqueous Globe consisting of Mountains and Valleys as our Earth does and we have no reason to believe but that she came into that form by a dissolution or from like causes as our Earth did Mercury is so near the Sun that we cannot well discern his face whether spotted or no nor make a judgment of it But as for Venus and Mars if the spots that be observed in them be their Waters or their Sea as they are in the Moon 't is likely They are also Terraqueous Globes and in much what a like form with the Moon and the Earth and for ought we know from like causes Particularly as to Venus 't is a remarkable passage that S. Austin hath preserv'd out of Varro he saith That about the time of the great Deluge there was a wonderful alteration or Catastrophe happen'd to the Planet Venus and that she chang'd her Colour form figure and magnitude This is a great presumption that she suffer'd her dissolution about the same time that our Earth did I do not know that any such thing is recorded concerning any of the other Planets but the body of Mars looks very rugged broken and much disorder'd Saturn and Iupiter deserve a distinct consideration as having something particular and different from the rest of the Planets Saturn is remarkable for his Hoop or Ring which seems to stand off or higher than his body and would strongly induce one to believe that the exteriour Earth of that Planet at its dissolution did not all fall in but the Polar parts sinking into the Abyss the middle or Aequinoctial parts still subsisted and bore themselves up in the nature of an Arch about the Planet or of a Bridge as it were built over the Sea of Saturn And as some have observ'd concerning the figure of Iupiter that it is not wholly Sphaerical but a Sphaeroid protuberant in the Aequator and deprest towards the Poles So I should suspect Saturn to have been much more so before his disruption Namely That the Body of that Planet in its first state was more flat and low towards the Poles and also weaker and thinner and about the Aequator higher fuller and stronger Built By reason of which figure and construction the Polar parts did more easily fall in or were suckt in as Cupping-glasses draw in the Flesh when the Abyss below grew more empty Whereas the middle parts about the Aequator being a more just Arch and strongly built would not yield or sink but stood firm and unbroken and continues still in its first posture Planets break in different ways according to the quality of their matter the manner of their construction and the Nature of the Causes that act upon them Their dissolutions are sometimes total as in