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
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
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
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
that is now the same vicissitude of seasons and the same inequality of heat and cold I do not think it at all possible that they could be so form'd or being new-form'd preserv'd and nourish'd 'T is true some little Creatures that are of short dispatch in their formation and find nourishment enough wheresoever they are brâ—d might be produc'd and brought to perfection in this way notwithstanding any inequality of Seasons because they are made all at a heat as I may so say begun and ended within the compass of one Season But the great question is concerning the more perfect kinds of Animals that require a long stay in the womb to make them capable to sustain and nourish themselves when they first come into the World Such Animals being big and strong must have a pretty hardness in their bones and force and firmness in their Muscles and Joynts before they can bear their own weight and exercise the common motions of their body And accordingly we see Nature hath ordain'd for these a longer time of gestation that their limbs and members might have time to acquire strength and solidity Besides the young ones of these Animals have commonly the milk of the Dam to nourish them after they are brought forth which is a very proper nourishment and like to that which they had before in the womb and by this means their stomachs are prepar'd by degrees for courser food Whereas our Terrigenous Animals must have been wean'd as soon as they were born or as soon as they were separated from their Mother the Earth and therefore must be allow'd a longer time of continuing there These things being consider'd we cannot in reason but suppose that these Terrigenous Animals were as long or longer a perfecting than our Viviparous and were not separated from the body of the Earth for ten twelve eighteen or more months according as their Nature was and seeing in this space of time they must have sufferâ—d upon the common Hypothesis all vicissitudes and variety of seasons and great excesses of heat and cold which are things incompatible with the tender principles of life and the formation of living Creatures as we have shown before we may reasonably and safely conclude that Nature had not when the World began the same course she hath now or that the Earth was not then in its present posture and constitution Seeing I say these first spontaneous Births which both the Holy Writ Reason and Antiquity seem to allow could not be finish'd and brought to maturity nor afterwards preserv'd and nourisht upon any other supposition Longaeviâ—y is the last Character to be consider'd and as inconsistent with the present state of the Earth as any other There are many things in the story of the first Ages that seem strange but nothing so prodigy-like as the long lives of those Men that their houses of Clay should stand eight or nine hundred years and upwards and those we build of the hardest Stone or Marble will not now last so long This hath excited the curiosity of ingenious and learned men in all Ages to enquire after the possible Causes of that longaveity and if it had been always in conjunction with innocency of life and manners and expir'd when that expir'd we might have thought it some peculiar blessing or reward attending that but 't was common to good and bad and lasted till the Deluge whereas mankind was degenerate long before Amongst Natural Causes some have imputed it to the sobriety and simplicity of their diet and manner of living in those days that they eat no flesh and had not all those provocations to gluttony which Wit and Vice have since invented This might have some effect but not possibly to that degree and measure that we speak of There are many Monastical persons now that live abstemiously all their lives and yet they think an hundred years a very great age amongst them Others have imputed it to the excellency of their Fruits and some unknown vertue in their Herbs and Plants in those days But they may as well say nothing as say that which can neither be prov'd nor understood It could not be either the quantity or quality of their food that was the cause of their long lives for the Earth was said to be curst long before the Deluge and probably by that time was more barren and juiceless for the generality than ours is now yet we do not see that their longaevity decreast at all from the beginning of the World to the Flood Methusalah was Noah's Grandfather but one intire remove from the Deluge and he liv'd longer than any of his Fore-fathers That food that will nourish the parts and keep us in health is also capable to keep us in long life if there be no impediments otherwise for to continue health is to continue life as that fewel that is fit to raise and nourish a flame will preserve it as long as you please if you add fresh fewel and no external causes hinder Neither do we observe that in those parts of the present Earth where people live longer than in others that there is any thing extraordinary in their food but that the difference is chiefly from the Air and the temperateness of the Heavens And if the Ante-diluvians had not enjoy'd that advantage in a peculiar manner and differently from what any parts of the Earth do now they would never have seen seven eight or nine hundred years go over their heads though they had been nourish'd with Nectar and Ambrosia Others have thought that the long lives of those Men of the old World proceeded from the strength of their Stamina or first principles of their bodies which if they were now as strong in us they think we should still live as long as they did This could not be the sole and adaequate cause of their longaevity as will appear both from History and Reason Shem who was born before the Flood and had in his body all the vertue of the Ante-diluvian Stamina and constitution fell three hundred years short of the age of his fore-fathers because the greatest part of his life was past after the Flood That their Stamina were stronger than ours are I am very ready to believe and that their bodies were greater and any race of strong Men living long in health would have children of a proportionably strong constitution with themselves but then the question is How was this interrupted We that are their posterity why do not we inherit their long lives how was this constitution broken at the Deluge and how did the Stamina fail so fast when that came why was there so great a Crisis then and turn of life or why was that the period of their strength We see this longaevity sunk half in half immediately after the Flood and after that it sunk by gentler degrees but was still in motion and declension till it was â—ixt at length before David's time in that which hath
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
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
some modern Poets have the notion of the Elysian fields which Homer and the Ancients plac'd remote on the extremities of the Earth and these would make a little green Meadow in Campania Felix to be the fam'd Elysium Thus much concerning the Fathers negatively but to discover as far as we can what their positive Assertions were in this Argument we may observe that though their opinions be differently exprest they generally concenter in this that the Southern Hemisphere was the Seat of Paradise This I say seems manifestly to be the sence of Christian Antiquity and Tradition so far as there is any thing definitive in the remains we have upon that subject Some of the Fathers did not believe Paradise to be Corporeal and Local and those are to be laid aside in the first place as to this point Others that thought it Local did not determine any thing as most of them indeed did not concerning the particular place of it But the rest that did though they have exprest themselves in various ways and under various forms yet upon a due interpretation they all meet in one common and general conclusion That Paradise was seated beyond the Aequinoctial or in the other Hemisphere And to understand this aright we must reflect in the first place upon the form of the Primaeval Earth and of the two Hemispheres of which it consisted altogether incommunicable one with another by reason of the Torrid Zone betwixt them so as those two Hemispheres were then as two distinct Worlds or distinct Earths that had no commerce with one another And this Notion or Tradition we find among Heathen Authors as well as Christian this Opposite Earth being call'd by them Antichthon and its Inhabitants Antichthones For those words comprehend both the Antipodes and Antoeci or all beyond the Line as is manifest from their best Authors as Achilles Tatius and Caesar Germanicus upon Aratus Probus Grammaticus Censorinus Pomponius Mela and Pliny And these were call'd another World and lookt upon as another stock and race of Mankind as appears from Cicero and Macrobius But as the latter part was their mistake so the former is acknowledg'd by Christian Authors as well as others and particularly S. Clement in his Epistle to the Corinthians mentions a World or Worlds beyond the Ocean subject to Divine Providence and the great Lord of Nature as well as ours This passage of S. Clement is also cited by S. Ierom in his Commentary upon Ephes. 2. 2. and by Origen Periarchon where the Inhabitants of that other World are call'd Antichthones I make this remark in the first place that we may understand the true sence and importance of those phrases and expressions amongst the Ancients when they say Paradise was in another World Which are not to be so understood as if they thought Paradise was in the Moon or in Iupiter or hung above like a Cloud or a Meteor they were not so extravagant but that Paradise was in another Hemisphere which was call'd Antichthon another Earth or another World from Ours and justly reputed so because of an impossibility of commerce or intercourse betwixt their respective Inhabitants And this remark being premis'd we will now distribute the Christian Authors and Fathers that have deliver'd their opinion concerning the place of Paradise into three or four ranks or orders and though they express themselves differently you will see when duly examin'd and expounded they all conspire and concur in the forementioned conclusion That the Seat of Paradise was in the other Hemisphere In the first rank then we will place and reckon those that have set Paradise in another World or in another Earth seeing according to the foregoing Explication that is the same thing as to affirm it seated beyond the Torrid Zone in the other Hemisphere In this number are Ephrem Syrus Moses Bar Cepha Tatianus and of later date Iacobus de Valentia To these are to be added again such Authors as say that Adam when he was turn'd out of Paradise was brought into our Earth or into our Region of the Earth for this is tantamount with the former And this seems to be the sence of S. Ierom in several places against Iovinian as also of Constantine in his Oration in Eusebius and is positively asserted by Sulpitius Severus And lastly Those Authors that represent Paradise as remote from our World and inaccessible so S. Austin Procopius Gazeus Beda Strabus Fuldensis Historia Scholiastica and others these I say pursue the same notion of Antiquity for what is remote from our World that is from our Continent as we before explain'd it is to be understood to be that Antichthon or Anti-hemisphere which the Ancients oppos'd to ours Another sett of Authors that interpret the Flaming Sword that guarded Paradise to be the Torrid Zone do plainly intimate that Paradise in their opinion lay beyond the Torrid Zone or in the Antihemisphere And thus Tertullian interprets the Flaming Sword and in such words as fully confirm our sence Paradise He says by the Torrid Zone as by a wall of Fire was sever'd from the communication and knowledge of our World It lay then on the other side of this Zone And S. Cyprian or the ancient Author that passeth under his name in his Comment upon Genesis expresseth himself to the same effect so also S. Austin and Isidore Hispalensis are thought to interpret it And Aquinas who makes Paradise inaccessible gives this reason for it Propter vehementiam aestûs in locis intermediis ex propinquitate Solis hoc significatur per Flammeum Gladium Because of that vehement heat in the parts betwixt us and that arising from the nearness of the Sun and this is signified by the Flaming Sword And this interpretation of the Flaming Sword receives a remarkable force and Emphasis from our Theory and description of the Primaeval Earth for there the Torrid Zone was as a wall of Fire indeed or a Region of flame which none could pass or subsist in no more than in a Furnace There is another form of expression amongst the Ancients concerning Paradise which if decyphered is of the same force and signification with this we have already instanc'd in They say sometimes Paradise was beyond the Ocean or that the Rivers of Paradise came from beyond the Ocean This is of the same import with the former Head and points still at the other Hemisphere for as we noted before some of them fixt their Antichthon and Antichthâ—nes beyond the Ocean that is since there was an Ocean Since the form of the Earth was chang'd and the Torrid Zone become habitable and cosequently could not be a boundary or separation betwixt the two Worlds Wherefore as some run still upon the old division by the Torrid Zone others took the new division by the Ocean Which Ocean they suppos'd to lie from East to West betwixt the Tropicks as may be seen in Ancient Authors Geminus Herodotus Cicero de republicâ and Clemens
Romanus whom we cited before S. Austin also speaks upon the same supposition when he would confute the doctrine of the Antipodes or Antichthâ—nes and Macrobius I remember makes it an argument of Providence that the Sun and the Planets in what part of their course soever they are betwixt the two Tropicks have still the Ocean under them that they may be cool'd and nourisht by its moisture They thought the Sea like a Girdle went round the Earth and the temperate Zones on either side were the habitable Regions whereof this was call'd the Oicouméne and the other Antichthon This being observ'd 't is not material whether their Notion was true or false it shews us what their meaning was and what part of the Earth they design'd when they spoke of any thing beyond the Ocean namely that they meant beyond the Line in the other Hemisphere or in the Antichthon and accordingly when they say Paradise or the Fountains of its Rivers were beyond the Ocean they say the same thing in other terms with the rest of those Authors we have cited In Moses Bar Cepha above mention'd we find a Chapter upon this subject Qucmodo trajecerint Mortales inde ex Paradisi terrâ in hanc Terram How Mankind past out of that Earth or Coâ—tinent where Paradise was into that where we are Namely how they past the Ocean that lay betwixt them as the answer there given explains it And so Ephrem Syrus is cited often in that Treatise placing Paradise beyond the Ocean The Essenes also who were the most Philosophick Sect of the Iews plac'd Paradise according to Iosephus beyond the Ocean under a perfect temperature of Air. And that passage in Eusebius in the Oration of Constantine being corrected and restor'd to the true reading represents Paradise in like manner as in another Continent from whence Adam was brought after his transgression into this And lastly there are some Authors whose testimony and authority may deserve to be consider'd not for their own Antiquity but because they are profess'dly transcribers of Antiquity and Traditions such as Strabus Comestor and the like who are known to give this account or report of Paradise from the Ancients that it was interposito Oceano ab Orbe nostro vel à Zonâ nostrâ habitabili secretus Separated from our Orb or Hemisphere by the interposition of the Ocean It is also observable that many of the Ancients that took Tigris Euphrates Nile and Ganges for the Rivers of Paradise said that those Heads or Fountains of them which we have in our Continent are but their Capita secunda their second Sources and that their first Sources were in another Orb where Paradise was and thus Hugo de Sancto Victore says Sanctos communiter sensisse That the Holy Men of old were generally of that opinion To this sence also Moses Bar Cepha often expresseth himself as also Epiphanius Procopius Gazaeus and Severianus in Catenâ Which notion amongst the Ancients concerning the trajection or passage of the Paradisiacal Rivers under-ground or under-Sea from one Continent into another is to me I confess unintelligible either in the first or second Earth but however it discovers their sence and opinion of the Seat of Paradise that it was not to be sought for in Asia or in Africk where those Rivers rise to us but in some remoter parts of the World where they suppos'd their first Sources to be This is a short account of what the Christian Fathers have left us concerning the Seat of Paradise and the truth is 't is but a short and broken account yet 't is no wonder it should be so if we consider as we noted before that several of them did not believe Paradise to be Local and Corporeal Others that did believe it so yet did not offer to determine the place of it but left that matter wholly untoucht and undecided and the rest that did speak to that point did it commonly both in general terms and in expressions that were disguis'd and needed interpretation but all these differences and obscurities of expression you see when duly stated and expounded may signifie one and the same thing and terminate all in this common Conclusion That Paradise was without our Continent accordâ—ng to the general opinion and Tradition of Antiquity And I do not doubt but the Tradition would have been both more express and more universal if the Ancients had understood Geography better for those of the Ancients that did not admit or believe that there were Antipodes or Antichthones as Lactantius S. Austin and some others these could not joyn in the common opinion about the place of Paradise because they thought there was no Land nor any thing habitable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or besides this Continent And yet S. Austin was so cautious that as he was bounded on the one hand by his false Idea of the Earth that he could not joyn with Antiquity as to the place of Paradise so on the other hand he had that respect for it that he would not say any thing to the contrary therefore being to give his opinion he says only Terrestrem esse Paradisum locum ejus ab hominum cognitione esse remotissimum That it is somewhere upon the Earth but the place of it very remote from the knowledge of Men. And as their ignorance of the Globe of the Earth was one reason why the doctrine of Paradise was so broken and obscure so another reason why it is much more so at present is because the chief ancient Books writ upon that subiect are lost Ephrem Syrus who liv'd in the Fourth Century writ a Commentary in Genesin five de Ortu rerum concerning the Origin of the Earth and by those remains that are cited from it we have reason to believe that it contain'd many things remarkable concerning the first Earth and concerning Paradise Tertullian also writ a Book de Paradiso which is wholly lost and we see to what effect it would have been by his making the Torrid Zone to be the Flaming Sword and the partition betwixt this Earth and Paradise which two Earths he more than once distinguisheth as very different from one another The most ancient Author that I know upon this subject at least of those that writ of it literally is Moses Bar Cepha a Syrian Bishop who liv'd about seven hundred years since and his Book is translated into Latin by that Learned and Judicious Man Andreas Masius Bar Cepha writes upon the same Views of Paradise that we have here presented that it was beyond the Ocean in another tract of Land or another Continent from that which we inhabit As appears from the very Titles of his Eighth Tenth and Fourteenth Chapters But we must allow him for his mistaken Notions about the form of the Earth for he seems to have sansied the Earth plain not only as oppos'd to rough and Mountainous for so it was plain but as oppos'd to Spherical and the Ocean to
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
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
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
likewise in the Philosophy and Learning of the Ancients there are several remains and indications of this Internal form and composition of it For 't is observable that the Ancients in treating of the Chaos and in raising the World out of it rang'd it into several Regions or Masses as we have done and in that order successively rising one from another as if it was a Pedigree or Genealogy And those Parts and Regions of Nature into which the Chaos was by degrees divided they signified commonly by dark and obscure names as the Night Tartarus Oceanus and such like which we have express'd in their plain and proper terms And whereas the Chaos when it was first set on work ran all into divisions and separations of one Element from another which afterwards were all in some measure united and associated in this primigenial Earth the Ancients accordingly made Contention the principle that reign'd in the Chaos at first and then Love The one to express the divisions and the other the union of all parties in this middle and common bond These and such like notions which we find in the Writings of the Ancients figuratively and darkly deliver'd receive a clearer light when compar'd with this Theory of the Chaos which representing every thing plainly and in its natural colours is a Key to their thoughts and an illustration of their obscurer Philosophy concerning the Original of the World as we have shewn at large in the Latin Treatise Fig 7. pag. 44. Thus much concerning the first Earth its production and form and concerning our Second Proposition relating to it Which being prov'd by Reason the laws of Nature and the motions of the Chaos then attested by Antiquity both as to the matter and form of it and confirm'd by Sacred Writers we may take it now for a well establisht truth and proceed upon this supposition That the Ante-diluvian Earth was smooth and uniform without Mountains or Sea to the explication of the universal Deluge Give me leave only before we proceed any further to annex here a short Advertisement concerning the Causes of this wonderful structure of the first Earth 'T is true we have propos'd the Natural Causes of it and I do not know wherein our Explication is false or defective but in things of this kind we may easily be too credulous And this structure is so marvellous that it ought rather to be consider'd as a particular effect of the Divine Art than as the work of Nature The whole Globe of the Water vaulted over and the exteriour Earth hanging above the Deep sustain'd by nothing but its own measures and manner of construction A Building without foundation or corner-stone This seems to be a piece of Divine Geometry or Architecture and to this I think is to be refer'd that magnificent challenge which God Almighty made to Iob Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the Earth declare if thou hast understanding Who hath laid the measures thereof if thou knowest or who hath stretched the line upon it Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastned or who laid the corner-stone thereof When the morning Stars sang together and all the Sons of God shouted for joy Moses also when he had describ'd the Chaos saith The Spirit of God mov'd upon or sat brooding upon the face of the waters without all doubt to produce some effects there And S. Peter when he speaks of the form of the Ante-diluvian Earth how it stood in reference to the Waters adds By the Word of God or by the Wisdom of God it was made so And this same Wisdom of God in the Proverbs as we observed before takes notice of this very piece of work in the formation of the Earth When he set an Orb over the face of the Deep I was there And lastly the Ancient Philosophers or at least the best of them to give them their due always brought in Mens or Amor as a Supernatural principle to unite and consociate the parts of the Chaos which was first done in the composition of this wonderful Arch of the Earth Wherefore to the great Architect who made the boundless Universe out of nothing and form'd the Earth out of a Chaos let the praise of the Whole Work and particularly of this Master-piece for ever with all honour be given CHAP. VI. The dissolution of the First Earth The Deluge ensuing thereupon And the form of the present Earth rising from the Ruines of the First WE have now brought to light the Ante-diluvian Earth out of the dark mass of the Chaos and not only described the surface of it but laid open the inward parts to shew in what order its Regions lay Let us now close it up and represent the Earth entire and in large proportions more like an habitable World as in this Figure where you see the smooth convex of the Earth and may imagine the great Abysse spread under it which two are to be the only subject of our further contemplation Booke j st p. 46. In this smooth Earth were the first Scenes of the World and the first Generations of Mankind it had the beauty of Youth and blooming Nature fresh and fruitful and not a wrinkle scar or fracture in all its body no Rocks nor Mountains no hollow Caves nor gaping Chanels but even and uniform all over And the smoothness of the Earth made the face of the Heavens so too the Air was calm and serene none of those tumultuary motions and conflicts of vapours which the Mountains and the Winds cause in ours 'T was suited to a golden Age and to the first innocency of Nature All this you 'll say is well we are got into a pleasant World indeed but what 's this to the purpose what appearance of a Deluge here where there is not so much as a Sea nor half so much Water as we have in this Earth or what appearance of Mountains or Caverns or other irregularities of the Earth where all is level and united So that instead of loosing the Knot this ties it the harder You pretend to shew us how the Deluge was made and you lock up all the Waters within the womb of the Earth and set Bars and Doors and a Wall of impenetrable strength and thickness to keep them there And you pretend to shew us the original of Rocks and Mountains and Caverns of the Earth and bring us to a wide and endless plain smooth as the calm Sea This is all true and yet we are not so far from the sight and discovery of those things as you imagine draw but the curtain and these Scenes will appear or something very like them We must remember that S. Peter told us that the Ante-diluvian Earth perish'd or was demolish'd and Moses saith the great Abysse was broken open at the Deluge Let us then suppose that at a time appointed by Divine Providence and from Causes made ready to do that great execution upon a sinful
of this Objection for performing the same effect with a far less quantity of Water 't is both easie to be found and easily remov'd when the work is done When the exteriour Earth was broke and fell into the Abysse a good part of it was cover'd with Water by the meer depth of the Abysse it fell into and those parts of it that were higher than the Abysse was deep and consequently would stand above it in a calm Water were notwithstanding reacht and overtop'd by the waves during the agitation and violent commotion of the Abysse For it is not imaginable what the commotion of the Abysse would be upon this dissolution of the Earth nor to what height its waves would be thrown when those prodigious fragments were tumbled down into it Suppose a stone of ten thousand weight taken up into the Air a mile or two and then let fall into the middle of the Ocean I do not believe but that the dashing of the water upon that impression would rise as high as a Mountain But suppose a mighty Rock or heap of Rocks to fall from that height or a great Island or a Continent these would expel the waters out of their places with such a force and violence as to fling them among the highest Clouds 'T is incredible to what height sometimes great Stones and Cinders will be thrown at the eruptions of fiery Mountains and the pressure of a great mass of Earth falling into the Abysse though it be a force of another kind could not but impel the water with so much strength as would carry it up to a great height in the Air and to the top of any thing that lay in its way any eminency high fragment or new Mountain And then rowling back again it would sweep down with it whatsoever it rusht upon Woods Building living Creatures and carry them all headlong into the great gulph Sometimes a mass of water would be quite struck off and separate from the rest and tost through the Air like a flying River but the common motion of the waves was to climb up the hills or inclin'd fragments and then return into the valleys and deeps again with a perpetual fluctuation going and coming ascending and descending till the violence of them being spent by degrees they setled at last in the places allotted for them where bounds are set that they cannot pass over that they return not again to cover the Earth Neither is it to be wonder'd that the great Tumult of the waters and the extremity of the Deluge lasted for some months for besides that the first shock and commotion of the Abysse was extremely violent from the general fall of the Earth there were ever and anon some secondary ruines or some parts of the great ruine that were not well setled broke again and made new commotions And 't was a considerable time before the great fragments that fell and their lesser dependencies could be so adjusted and fitted as to rest in a firm and immoveable posture For the props and stays whereby they lean'd one upon another or upon the bottom of the Abysse often fail'd either by the incumbent weight or the violent impulses of the water against them and so renew'd or continu'd the disorder and confusion of the Abysse Besides we are to observe that these great fragments falling hollow they inclos'd and bore down with them under their concave surface a great deal of Air and while the water compass'd these fragments and overflow'd them the Air could not readily get out of those prisons but by degrees as the Earth and Water above would give way so as this would also hinder the settlement of the Abysse and the retiring of the Water into those Subterraneous Chanels for some time But at length when this Air had found a vent and left its place to the Water and the ruines both primary and secondary were setled and fix'd then the Waters of the Abysse began to settle too and the dry Land to appear first the tops of the Mountains then the high Grounds then the Plains and the rest of the Earth And this gradual subsidency of the Abysse which Moses also hath particularly noted and discovery of the several parts of the Earth would also take up a considerable time Thus a new World appear'd or the Earth put on its new form and became divided into Sea and Land and the Abysse which from several Ages even from the beginning of the World had lain hid in the womb of the Earth was brought to light and discover'd the greatest part of it constituting our present Ocean and the rest filling the lower cavities of the Earth Upon the Land appear'd the Mountains and the Hills and the Islands in the Sea and the Rocks upon the shore And so the Divine Providence having prepar'd Nature for so great a change at one stroke dissolv'd the frame of the old World and made us a new one out of its ruines which we now inhabit since the Deluge All which things being thus explain'd deduc'd and stated we now add and pronounce our Third and last Proposition That the disruption of the Abysse or dissolution of the primaeval Earth and its fall into the Abysse was the cause of the Universal Deluge and of the destruction of the old World CHAP. VII That the Explication we have given of an Vniversal Deluge is not an Idea only but an account of what really came to pass in this Earth and the true Explication of Noah's Flood as is prov'd by Argument and from History An Examination of Tehom-Rabba or the great Abysse and that by it the Sea cannot be understood nor the Subterraneous Waters as they are at present What the true Notion and Form of it was collected from Moses and other Sacred Writers The frequent allusions in Scripture to the opening and shutting the Abysse and the particular stile of Scripture in its reflections on the Origin And the Formation of the Earth Observations on Deucalion's Deluge WE have now given an account of the first great revolution of Nature and of the Universal Deluge in a way that is intelligible and from causes that answer the greatness of the effect We have suppos'd nothing but what is also prov'd both as to the first form of the Earth and as to the manner of its Dissolution and how far from that would evidently and necessarily arise a general Deluge which was that which put a period to the old World and the first state of things And though all this hath been deduc'd in due order and with connexion and consequence of one thing upon another so far as I know which is the true evidence of a Theory yet it may not be sufficient to command the Assent and Belief of some persons who will allow it may be and acknowledge that this is a fair Idea of a possible Deluge in general and of the destruction of a World by it but this may be only an Idea they 'll say
Moses tells us that it was by the waters of the Abyss that the Earth was overwhelm'd S. Peter's waters must be understood of the same Abyss because he supposeth them the cause of the same Deluge And I think the Apostle's discourse there cannot receive a better illustration than from Moses's History of the Deluge Moses distinguishes the Causes of the Flood into those that belong to the Heavens and those that belong to the Earth the Rains and the Abyss S. Peter also distinguisheth the causes of the Deluge into the constitution of the Heavens in reference to its waters and the constitution of the Earth in reference to its waters and no doubt they both aim at the same causes as they refer to the same effect only Moses mentions the immediate Causes the Rains and the Waters of the Abyss and S. Peter mentions the more remote and fundamental causes that constitution of the Heavens and that constitution of the Earth in reference to their respective Waters which made that world obnoxious to a Deluge And these two speaking of Noah's Deluge and agreeing thus with one another and both with us or with the Theory which we have given of a General Deluge we may safely conclude that it is no imaginary Idea but a true account of that Ancient Flood whereof Moses hath left us the History And seeing the right understanding of the Mosaical Abysse is sufficient alone to prove all we have deliver'd concerning the Deluge as also concerning the frame of the Ante-diluvian Earth give me leave to take notice here of some other places of Scripture which we mention'd before that seem manifestly to describe this fame form of the Abyss with the Earth above it Psal. 24. 2. He founded the Earth upon the Seas and establish'd it upon the Floods and Psal. 136. 6. He stretched out the Earth above the Waters Now this Foundation of the Earth upon the Waters or extension of it above the Waters doth most aptly agree to that structure and situation of the Abyss and the Ante-diluvian Earth which we have assign'd them and which we have before describ'd but very improperly and forc'dly to the present form of the Earth and the Waters In that second place of the Psalmist the word may be render'd either he stretch'd as we read it or he fixt and consolidated the Earth above the Waters as the Vulgate and Septuagint translate it For 't is from the same word with that which is used for the Firmament Gen. 1. So that as the Firmament was extended over and around the Earth so was the Earth extended over and about the Waters in that first constitution of things and I remember some of the Ancients use this very comparison of the Firmament and Earth to express the situation of the Paradisiacal Earth in reference to the Sea or Abysse There is another remarkable place in the Psalms to shew the disposition of the Waters in the first Earth Psal. 33. 7. He gathereth the Waters of the Sea as in a Bag he layeth up the Abysses in store-houses This answers very fitly and naturally to the place and disposition of the Abysse which it had before the Deluge inclos'd within the vault of the Earth as in a Bag or in a Store house I know very well what I render here in a Bag is render'd in the English as an heap but that translation of the word seems to be grounded on the old Error that the Sea is higher than the Land and so doth not make a true sence Neither are the two parts of the Verse so well suited and consequent one to another if the first express an high situation of the Waters and the second a low one And accordingly the Vulgate Septuagint and Oriental Versions and Paraphrase as also Symmachus St. Ierome and Basil render it as we do here in a Bag or by terms equivalent To these passages of the Psalmist concerning the form of the Abysse and the first Earth give me leave to add this general remark that they are commonly ushered in or followed with something of Admiration in the Prophet We observ'd before that the formation of the first Earth after such a wonderful manner being a piece of Divine Architecture when it was spoken of in Scripture it was usually ascrib'd to a particular Providence and accordingly we see in these places now mention'd that it is still made the object of praise and admiration In that 136 Psalm 't is reckon'd among the wonders of God Vers. 4 5 6 Give praise to him who alone doth great wonders To him that by wisdom made the Heavens To him that stretched out the Earth above the Waters And in like manner in that 33 Psalm 't is joyn'd with the forming of the Heavens and made the subject of the Divine Power and Wisdom Vers. 6 7 8 9. By the word of the Lord were the Heavens made and all the Host of them by the breath of his mouth He gathereth the Waters of the Sea together as in a Bag he layeth up the Abysse in Store-houses Let all the Earth fear the Lord Let all the Inhabitants of the World stand in awe of him For he spake and it was he commanded and it stood fast Namely all things stood in that wonderful posture in which the Word of his Power and Wisdom had establisht them David often made the works of Nature and the External World the matter of his Meditations and of his praises and Philosophical Devotions reflecting sometimes upon the present form of the World and sometimes upon the primitive form of it And though Poetical expressions as the Psalms are seldom are so determinate and distinct but that they may be interpreted more than one way yet I think it cannot but be acknowledg'd that those expressions and passages that we have instanc'd in are more fairly and aptly understood of the Ancient form of the Sea or the Abysse as it was enclos'd within the Earth than of the present form of it in an open Chanel There are also in the Book of Iob many noble reflections upon the works of Nature and upon the formation of the Earth and the Abysse whereof that in Chap. 26. 7. He stretcheth out the North over the Empty places and hangeth the Earth upon nothing seems to parallel the expression of David He stretched out the Earth upon the Waters for the word we render the empty place is TOHU which is appli'd to the Chaos and the first Abysse Gen. 1. 2. and the hanging the Earth upon nothing is much more wonderful if it be understood of the first habitable Earth that hung over the Waters sustain'd by nothing but its own peculiar form and the libration of its parts than if it be understood of the present Earth and the whole body of it for if it be in its Center or proper place whither should it sink further or whither should it go But this passage together with the foregoing and following Verses requires a
more critical examination than this Discourse will easily bear There is another remarkable Discourse in Iob that contains many things to our present purpose 't is Chap. 38. where God reproaches Iob with his ignorance of what pass'd at the beginning of the World and the formation of the Earth Vers. 4 5 6. Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the Earth Declare if thou hast understanding Who hath laid the measures thereof if thou knowest or who hath stretched the line upon it Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastned or who laid the corner-stone All these questions have far more force and Emphasis more propriety and elegacy if they be understood of the first and Ante-diluvian form of the Earth than if they be understood of the present for in the present form of the Earth there is no Architecture no structure no more than in a ruine or at least none comparatively to what was in the first form of it And that the exterior and superficial part of the Earth is here spoken of appears by the rule and line appli'd to it but what rule or regularity is there in the surface of the present Earth what line was us'd to level its parts But in its original construction when â—it lay smooth and regular in its surface as if it had been drawn by rule and line in every part and when it hung pois'd upon the Deep without pillar or foundation stone then just proportions were taken and every thing plac'd by weight and measure And this I doubt not was that artificial structure here alluded to and when this work was finisht then the morning Stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy Thus far the questions proceed upon the form and construction of the first Earth in the following verses 8 9 10 11. they proceed upon the demolition of that Earth the opening the Abysse and the present state of both Or who shut up the Sea with doors when it brake forth as if it had issu'd out of a womb Who can doubt but this was at the breaking open of the Fountains of the Abysse Gen. 7. 11. when the waters gusht out as out of the great womb of Nature and by reason of that confusion and perturbation of Air and Water that rise upon it a thick mist and darkness was round the Earth and all things as in a second Chaos When I made the cloud the garment thereof and thick darkness a swadling band for it and brake up for it my decreed place and made bars and doors Namely taking the words as thus usually render'd the present Chanel of the Sea was made when the Abysse was broke up and at the same time were made the shory Rocks and Mountains which are the bars and boundaries of the Sea And said hitherto shalt thou come and no further and here shall thy proud waves be stay'd Which last sentence shows that this cannot be understood of the first disposition of the waters as they were before the Flood for their proud waves broke those bounds whatsoever they were when they overflow'd the Earth in the Deluge And that the womb which they broke out of was the great Abyss the Chaldee Paraphrase in this place doth expresly mention and what can be understood by the womb of the Farth but that Subterraneous capacity in which the Abyss lay Then that which followeth is a description or representation of the great Deluge that ensu'd and of that disorder in Nature that was then and how the Waters were setled and Bounded afterwards Not unlike the description in the 104 Psalm vers 6 7 8 9. and thus much for these places in the book of Iob. There remains a remarkable discourse in the Proverbs of Solomon relating to the Mosaical Abysse and not only to that but to the Origin of the Earth in general where Wisdom declares her antiquity and pre-existence to all the works of this Earth Chap. 8. ver 23. 24 25 26 27 28. I was set up from everlasting from the beginning ere the Earth was When there were no Deeps or Abysses I was brought forth when no fountains abounding with water Then in the 27. verse When he prepared the Heavens I was there when he set a Compass upon the face of the Deep or Abysse When he established the Clouds above when he strengthned the fountains of the Abysse Here is mention made of the Abysse and of the Fountains of the Abysse and who can question but that the Fountains of the Abyss here are the same with the Fountains of the Abyss which Moses mentions and were broken open as he tells us at the Deluge Let us observe therefore what form Wisdom gives to this Abyss and consequently to the Mosaical And here seem to be two expressions that determine the form of it vers 28. He strengthned the fountains of the Abysse that is the cover of those Fountains for the Fountains could be strengthned no other way than by making a strong cover or Arch over them And that Arch is exprest more fully and distinctly in the foregoing verse When he prepar'd the Heavens I was there when he set a Compass on the face of the Abysse we render it Compass the word signifies a Circle or Circumference or an Orb or Sphere So there was in the beginning of the World a Sphere Orb or Arch set round the Abyss according to the restimony of Wisdom who was then present And this shews us both the form of the Mosaical Abyss which was included within this Vault and the form of the habitable Earth which was the outward surface of this Vault or the cover of the Abyss that was broke up at the Deluge And thus much I think is sufficient to have noted out of Scripture concerning the Mosaical Abyss to discover the form place and situation of it which I have done the more largely because that being determin'd it will draw in easily all the rest of our Theory concerning the Deluge I will now only add one or two general Observations and so conclude this discourse The first Observation is concerning the Abyss namely That the opening and shutting of the Abysse is the great hinge upon which Nature turns in this Earth This brings another face of things other Scenes and a New World upon the stage And accordingly it is a thing often mention'd and alluded to in Scripture sometimes in a Natural sometimes in a Moral or Theological sence and in both sences our Saviour shuts and opens it as he pleaseth Our Saviour who is both Lord of Nature and of Grace whose Dominion is both in Heaven and in Earth hath a double Key that of the Abyss whereby Death and Hell are in his power and all the revolutions of Nature are under his Conduct and Providence And the Key of David whereby he admits or excludes from the City of God and the Kingdom of Heaven whom he pleaseth Of those places that refer to the shutting and
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
That the Earth rise at first from a Chaos for besides Reason and Antiquity Scripture it self doth assure us of that and that one point being granted we have deduc'd from it all the rest by a direct chain of consequences which I think cannot be broken easily in any part or link of it Besides the great hinge of this Theory upon which all the rest turns is the distinction we make of the Ante diluvian Earth and Heavens from the Post-diluvian as to their form and constitution And it will never be beaten out of my head but that S. Peter hath made the same distinction sixteen hundred years since and to the very same purpose so that we have sure footing here again and the Theory riseth above the character of a bare Hypothesis And whereas an Hypothesis that is clear and proportion'd to Nature in every respect is accounted morally certain we must in equity give more than a moral certitude to this Theory But I mean this only as to the general parts of it for as to particularities I look upon them only as problematical and accordingly I affirm nothing therein but with a power of revocation and a liberty to change my opinion when I shall be better inform'd Neither do I know any Author that hath treated a matter new remote and consisting of a multitude of particulars who would not have had occasion if he had liv'd to have seen his Hypothesis fully examin'd to have chang'd his mind and manner of explaining things in many material instances To conclude both this Chapter and this Section we have here added a Map or Draught of the Earth according to the Natural face of it as it would appear from the Moon if we were a little nearer to her or as it was at first after the Deluge before Cities were built distinctions of Countries made or any alteâ—ations by humane industry 'T is chiefly to expose more to view the Mountains of the Earth and the proportions of Sea and Land to shew it as it lies in it self and as a Naturalist ought to conceive and consider it 'T is true there are far more Mountains upon the Earth than what are here represented for more could not conveniently be plac'd in this narrow Scheme But the best and most effectual way of representing the body of the Earth as it is by Nature would be not in plain Tables but by a rough Globe expressing all the considerable inequalities that are upon the Earth The smooth Globes that we use do but nourish in us the conceit of the Earth's regularity and though they may be convenient enough for Geographical purposes they are not so proper for Natural Science nothing would be more useful in this respect than a rough Globe of the largest dimensions wherein the Chanel of the Sea should be really hollow as it is in Nature with all its unequal depths according to the best soundings and the shores exprest both according to matter and form little Rocks standing where there are Rocks and Sands and Beaches in the places where they are found and all the Islands planted in the Sea-chanel in a due form and in their solid dimensions Then upon the Land should stand all the ranges of Mountains in the same order or disorder that Nature hath set them there And the in-land Seas and great Lakes or rather the beds they lie in should be duly represented as also the vast desarts of Sand as they lie upon the Earth And this being done with care and due Art would be a true Epitome or true model of our Earth Where we should see besides other instructions what a rude Lump our World is which we are so apt to dote upon CHAP. XII A short review of what hath been already treated of and in what manner The several Faces and Schemes under which the Earth would appear to a Stranger that should view it first at a distance and then more closely and the Application of them to our subject All methods whether Philosophical or Theological that have been offer'd by others for the Explication of the Form of the Earth are examin'd and disprov'd A conjecture concerning the other Planets their Natural Form and State compared with ours WE have finish'd the Three Sections of this Book and in this last Chapter we will make a short review and reflection upon what hath been hitherto treated of and add some further confirmations of it The Explication of the Universal Deluge was the first proposal and design of this Discourse to make that a thing credible and intelligible to the mind of Man And the full Explication of this drew in the whole Theory of the Earth Whose original we have deduc'd from its first Source and shew'd both what was its primaeval Form and how it came into its present Form The summ of our Hypothesis concerning the Universal Deluge was this That it came not to pass as was vulgarly believ'd by any excess of Rains or any Inundation of the Sea nor could ever be effected by a meer abundance of Waters unless we suppose some dissolution of the Earth at the same time namely when the Great Abyss was broken open And accordingly we shewed that without such a dissolution or if the Earth had been always in the same form it is in now no mass of water any where to be found in the World could have equall'd the height of the Mountains or made such an Universal Deluge Secondly We shewed that the form of the Earth at first and till the Deluge was such as made it capable and subject to a Dissolution And thirdly That such a dissolution being suppos'd the Doctrine of the Universal Deluge is very reasonable and intelligible And not only the Doctrine of the Deluge but the same supposition is a Key to all Nature besides shewing us how our Globe became Terraqueous what was the original of Mountains of the Sea-chanel of Islands of subterraneous Cavities Things which without this supposition are as unintelligible as the universal Flood it self And these things reciprocally confirming one another our Hypothesis of the Deluge is arm'd both breast and back by the causes and by the effects It remains now that as to confirm our Explication of the Deluge we shew'd all other accounts that had been given of it to be ineffectual or impossible so to confirm our doctrine concerning the dissolution of the Earth and concerning the Original of Mountains Seas and all inequalities upon it or within it we must examine what causes have been assign'd by others or what accounts given of these things That seeing their defectiveness we may have the more assurance and satisfaction in our own method And in order to this let us observe first the general forms under which the Earth may be consider'd or under which it doth appear accordingly as we view it more nearly or remotely And the first of these and the most general is that of a Terraqueous Globe If a Philosopher should come out of
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
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
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
to the chargeableness or perpetuity of the World But Ancient Learning is like Ancient Medals more esteemed for their rarity than their real use unless the Authority of a Prince make them currant So neither will these Testimonies be of any great effect unless they be made good and valuable by the Authority of Scripture We must therefore add the Testimonies of the Prophets and Apostles to these of the Greeks and Barbarians that the evidence may be full and undeniable That the Heavens and the Earth will perish or be chang'd into another form is sometimes plainly exprest sometimes suppos'd and alluded to in Scripture The Prophet David's testimony is express both for the beginning and ending of the World in the 102. Psalm Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the Earth and the heavens are the work of thy hands They shall perish but thou shalt endure yea all of them shall wax old like a garment as a vesture shalt thou change them and they shall be changed But thou art the same and thy Years shall have no end The Prophet Esay's testimony is no less express to the same purpose Lift up your Eyes to the heavens and look upon the Earth beneath for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke and the Earth shall was old like a garment and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner These Texts are plain and explicite and in allusion to this day of the Lord and this destruction of the World the same Prophet often useth phrases that relate to it As the Concussion of the Heavens and the Earth The shaking of the foundations of the World The dissolution of the Host of Heaven And our Sacred Writers have expressions of the like force and relating to the same effect As the Hills melting like wax at the presence of the Lord Psal. 97. 5. Shattering once more all the parts of the Creation Hagg. 2. 6. Overturning the mountains and making the pillars of the Earth to tremble Job 9. 5 6. If you reflect upon the explication given of the Deluge in the first part of this Theory and attend to the manner of the Conflagration as it will be explain'd in the sequel of this Discourse you will see the justness and fitness of these expressions That they are not Poetical Hyperboles or random expressions of great and terrible things in general but a true account of what hath been or will be at that great day of the Lord. 'T is true the Prophets sometimes use such-like expressions figuratively for commotions in States and Kingdoms but that is only by way of Metaphor and accommodation the true basis they stand upon is that ruine overthrow and dissolution of the Natural World which was once at the Deluge and will be again after another manner at the general Conflagration As to the New Testament our Saviour says Heaven and Earth shall pass away but his words shall not pass away Matth. 24. 35. S. Paul says the Scheme of this World the fashion form and composition of it passeth away 1 Cor. 7. 31. And when mention is made of New Heavens and a New Earth which both the Prophet Isaiah and the Apostles S. Peter and S. Iohn mention 't is plainly imply'd that the old ones will be dissolv'd The same thing is also imply'd when our Saviour speaks of a Renascency or Regeneration Matt. 19. 28. and S. Peter of a Restitution of all things Act. 3. 21. For what is now must be abolish'd before any former order of things can be restor'd or reduc'd In a word If there was nothing in Scripture concerning this subject but that discourse of S. Peter's in his 2d Epistle and 3d. Chapter concerning the triple order and succession of the Heavens and the Earth past present and to come that alone wou'd be a conviction and demonstration to me that this present World will be dissolv'd You will say it may be in the last place we want still the testimony of Natural Reason and Philosophy to make the evidence compleat I answer 't is enough if They be silent and have nothing to say to the contrary Here are witnesses Humane and Divine and if none appear against them we have no reason to refuse their testimony or to distrust it Philosophy will very readily yield to this Doctrine that All material compositions are dissolvable and she will not wonder to see that die which she had seen born I mean this Terrestrial World She stood upon the Chaos and see it rowâ— it self with difficulty and after many struglings into the form of an habitable Earth And that form she see broken down again at the Deluge and can as little hope or expect now as then that it should be everlasting and immutable There would be nothing great or considerable in this Inferiour World if there were not such revolutions of Nature The Seasons of the Year and the fresh Productions of the Spring are pretty in their way But when the Great Year comes about with a new order of all things in the Heavens and on the Earth and a new dress of Nature throughout all her Regions far more goodly and beautiful than the fairest Spring This gives a new Life to the Creation and shows the greatness of its Author Besides These Fatal Catastrophes are always a punishment to degenerate Mankind that are overwhelm'd in the ruines of these perishing Worlds And to make Nature her self execute the Divine Vengeance against Rebellious Creatures argues both the Power and Wisdom of that Providence that governs all things here below These things Reason and Philosophy approve of but if you further require that they should shew a Necessity of this future destruction of the World from Natural Causes with the time and all other circumstances of this effect your demands are unreasonable seeing these things do not depend solely upon Nature But if you will content your self to know what dispositions there are in Nature towards such a change how it may begin proceed and be consummate under the conduct of Providence be pleased to read the following Discourse for your further satisfaction CHAP. III. That the World will be destroy'd by Fire is the doctrine of the Ancients especially of 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 THAT the present World or the present frame of Nature will be destroy'd we have already shewn In what manner this destruction will be by what force or what kind of fate must be our next enquiry The Philosophers have always spoken of Fire and Water those two unruly Elements as the only Causes that can destroy the World and work our ruine and accordingly they say all the great and fatal Revolutions of Nature either past or to come depend upon the violence of these Two when
and forerunners of the last day as they usually are of all great changes and calamities The destruction of Ierusalem was a type of the destruction of the World and the Evangelists always mention Earth-quakes amongst the ominous Prodigies that were to attend it But these Earth-quakes we are speaking of at present are but the beginnings of sorrow and not to be compar'd with those that will follow afterwards when Nature is convulst in her last agony just as the flames are seizing on her Of which we shall have occasion to speak hereafter These changes will happen as to the matter and form of the Earth before it is attack'd by the last fire There will be also another change as to the situation of it for that will be rectified and the Earth restor'd to the posture it had at first namely of a right aspect and conversion to the Sun But because I cannot determine at what time this restitution will be whether at the beginning middle or end of the Conflagration I will not presume to lay any stress upon it Plato seems to have imputed the Conflagration to this only which is so far true that the Revolution call'd The Great Year is this very Revolution or the return of the Earth and the Heavens to their first posture But tho' this may be contemporary with the last fire or some way concomitant yet it does not follow that it is the cause of it much less the only cause It may be an occasion of making the fire reach more easily towards the Poles when by this change of situation their long Nights and long Winters shall be taken away These new dispositions in our Earth which we expect before that great day may be look'd upon as extraordinary but not as Miraculous because they may proceed from Natural Causes But now in the last place we are to consider miraculous causes What influence they may have or what part they may bear in this great revolution of Nature By miraculous causes we understand either God's immediate Omnipotency or the Ministry of Angels and what may be perform'd by the latter is very improperly and undecently thrown upon the former 'T is a great step to Omnipotency and 't is hard to define what Miracles on this side Creation require an infinite power We are sure that the Angels are Ministring Spirits and ten thousand times ten thousand stand about the Throne of the Almighty to receive his commands and execute his judgments That perfect knowledge they have of the powers of nature and of conducting those powers to the best advantage by adjusting causes in a fit subordination one to another makes them capable of performing not only things far above our force but even above our imagination Besides they have a radical inherent power belonging to the excellency of their nature of determining the motions of matter within a far greater sphere than humane Souls can pretend to We can only command our spirits and determine their motions within the compass of our own Bodies but their activity and empire is of far greater extent and the outward World is much more subject to their dominion than to ours From these considerations it is reasonable to conclude that the generality of miracles may be and are perform'd by Angels It being less decorous to employ a Sovereign power where a subaltern is sufficient and when we hastily cast things upon God for quick dispatch we consult our own ease more than the honouor of our Maker I take it for granted here that what is done by an Angelical hand is truly providential and of divine administration and also justly bears the character of a miracle Whatsoever may be done by pure material causes or humane strength we account Natural and whatsoever is above these we call supernatural and miraculous Now what is supernatural and miraculous is either the effect of an Angelical power or of a Sovereign and Infinite power And we ought not to confound these two no more than Natural and Supernatural for there is a greater difference betwixt the highest Angelical power and Omnipotency than betwixt an Humane power and Angelical Therefore as the first Rule concerning miracles is this That we must not flie to miracles where Man and Nature are sufficient so the second Rule is this that we must not flie to a sovereign infinite power where an Angelical is sufficient And the reason in both Rules is the same namely because it argues a defect of Wisdom in all Oeconomiles to employ more and greater means than are sufficient Now to make application of this to our present purpose I think it reasonable and also sufficient to admit the ministery of Angels in the future Conflagration of the World If Nature will not lay violent hands upon her self or is not sufficient to work her own destruction Let us allow Destroying Angels to interest themselves in the work as the Executioners of the Divine Justice and Vengeance upon a degenerate World We have examples of this so frequently in Sacred History how the Angels have executed God's Judgments upon a Nation or a People that it cannot seem new or strange that in this last judgment which by all the Prophets is represented as the Great Day of the Lord the day of his Wrath and of his Fury the same Angels should bear their parts and conclude the last scene of that Tragedy which they had acted in all along We read of the Destroying Angel in Aegypt of Angels that presided at the destruction of Sodom which was a Type of the future destrution of the World Iude 7. and of Angels that will accompany our Saviour when he comes in flames of Fire Not we suppose to be Spectators only but Actors and Superintendants in this great Catastrophe This ministery of Angels may be either in ordering and conducting such Natural Causes as we have already given an account of or in adding new ones if occasion be I mean encreasing the quantity of Fire or of fiery materials in and about the Earth So as that Element shall be more abundant and more predominant and overbear all opposition that either Water or any other Body can make against it It is not material whether of these two Suppositions we follow provided we allow that the Conflagration is a work of Providence and not a pure Natural Fatality If it be necessary that there should be an augmentation made of Fiery Matter 't is not hard to conceive how that may be done either from the Heavens or from the Earth The Prophets sometimes speak of multiplying or strengthning the Light of the Sun and it may as easily be conceiv'd of his heat as of his light as if the Vial that was to be pour'd upon it and gave it a power to scorch men with fire had something of a Natural sence as well as Moral But there is another stream of Ethereal matter that flows from the Heavens and recruits the Central Fire with continual supplies
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
regions of a First and Second Chaos seen the World twice shipwrackt Neither Water nor Fire could separate us But now you must give place to other Guides Welcom Holy Scriptures The Oracles of God a Light shining in darkness a Treasury of hidden Knowledge and where humane faculties cannot reach a seasonable help and supply to their defects We are now come to the utmost bounds of their dominion They have made us a New World but how it shall be inhabited they cannot tell know nothing of the History or affairs of it This we must learn from other Masters inspir'd with the knowledge of things to come And such Masters we know none but the holy Prophets and Apostles We must therefore now put our selves wholly under their conduct and instruction and from them only receive our information concerning the moral state of the future habitable Earth In the first place therefore The Prophet Isaiah tells us as a preparation to our further enquiries The Lord God created the Heavens God himselfe that formed the Earth He created it not in vain he formed it to be inhabited This is true both of the present Earth and the Future and of every habitable World whatsoever For to what purpose is it made habitable if not to be inhabited That would be as if a man should manure and plough and every way prepare his ground for seed but never sow it We do not build houses that they should stand empty but look out for Tenants as fast as we can as soon as they are made ready and become Tenantable But if man could do things in vain and without use or design yet God and Nature never do any thing in vain much less so great a work as the making of a World Which if it were in vain would comprehend ten thousand vanities or useless preparations in it We may therefore in the first place safely conclude That the New Earth will be inhabited But by whom will it be inhabited This makes the second enquiry S. Peter answers this question for us and with a particular application to this very subject of the New Heavens and New Earth They shall be inhabited he says by the Iust or the Righteous His words which we cited before are these When he had describ'd the Conflagration of the World he adds But we expect New Heavens and a New Earth WHEREIN DWELLETH RIGHTEOUSNESS By Righteousness here it is generally agreed must be understood Righteous Persons For Righteousness cannot be without Righteous Persons It cannot hang upon Trees or grow out of the ground 'T is the endowment of reasonable Creatures And these Righteous Persons are eminently such and therefore call'd Righteousness in the abstract or purely Righteous without mixture of Vice So we have found Inhabitants for the New Earth Persons of an high and noble Character Like those describ'd by S. Peter 1 Ep. 2. 9. A chosen generation a Royal Priesthood an Holy Nation a peculiar People As if into that World as into S. Iohn's New Ierusalem nothing impure or unrighteous was to be admitted These being then the happy and holy Inhabitants The next enquiry is Whence do they come From what off-spring or from what Original We noted before that there was no remnant of Mankind left at the Conflgration as there was at the Deluge nor any hopes of a Restauration that way Shall we then imagine that these New Inhabitants are a Colony wafted over from some neighbouring World as from the Moon or Mercury or some of the higher Planets You may imagine what you please but that seems to me not imaginary only but impracticable And that the Inhabitants of those Planets are Persons of so great accomplishments is more than I know but I am sure they are not the Persons here understood For these must be such as inhabited this Earth before WE look for New Heavens and New Earth says the Apostle Surely to have some share and interest in them otherwise there would be no comfort in that expectation And the Prophet Isaiah said before I create New Heavens and a New Earth and the former shall come no more into remembrance But be YOU glad and rejoyce for ever in that which I create The truth is none can have so good pretensions to this spot of ground we call the Earth as the Sons of Men seeing they once possest it And if it be restor'd again 't is their propriety and inheritance But 't is not Mankind in general that must possess this New World but the Israel of God according to the Prophet Isaiah or the Iust according to S. Peter And especially those that have suffer'd for the sake of their Religion For this is that Palingenesia as we noted before that Renovation or Regeneration of all things where our Saviour says Those that suffer loss for his sake shall be recompenced Matt. 19. 28 29. But they must then be raised from the Dead For all Mankind was destroy'd at the Conflagration and there is no resource for them any other way than by a Resurrection 'T is true and S. Iohn gives us a fair occasion to make this supposition That there will be some raised from the Dead before the General Day of Judgment For he plainly distinguisheth of a First and Second Resurrection and makes the First to be a Thousand Years before the Second and before the general Day of Judgment Now If there be truly and really a two-fold Resurrection as St. Iohn tells us and at a thousand Years distance from one another It may be very rationally presum'd that Those that are raised in the first Resurrection are those Iust that will inhabit the New Heavens and new Earth Or whom our Saviour promis'd to reward in the Renovation of the World For otherwise who are those Iust that shall inhabit the New Earth and whence do they come Or when is that Restauration which our Saviour speaks of wherein those that suffer'd for the sake of the Gospel shall be rewarded St. Iohn says the Martyrs at this first Resurrection shall live again and reign with Christ. Which seems to be the reward promis'd by our Saviour to those that suffer'd for his sake and the same Persons in both places And I saw the Souls of them says St. Iohn that were beheaded for the witness of Iesus and for the Word of God and which had not worshipped the Beast c. and They lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years These I say seem to be the same Persons to whom Christ had before promis'd and appropriated a particular reward And this rewaâ—d of theirs or this Reign of theirs is upon Earth upon some Earth new or old not in Heaven For besides that we read nothing of their Ascension into Heaven after their Resurrection There are several marks that shew it must necessarily be understood of a state upon Earth For Gog and Magog came from the four quarters of the Earth and besieged the Camp of the Saints and the
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
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
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
is a diversity betwixt the present Heavens and Earth and the Ante-diluvian Heavens and Earth take away that and you take away all the force of his Answer Then as to his New Heavens and New Earth after the Conflagration they must be material and natural in the same sence and signification with the former Heavens and Earth unless you will offer open violence to the Text. So that this Triplicity of the Heavens and the Earth is the first obvious plain sence of the Apostle's discourse which every one would readily accept if it did not draw after it a long train of Consequences and lead them into other Worlds than they ever thought of before or are willing to enter upon now But we shall have occasion by and by to examine this Text more fully in all its circumstances Give me leave in the mean time to observe That S. Paul also implyes that triple Creation which S. Peter expresses S. Paul I say in the 8th Chap. to the Rom. ver 20 21. tells us of a Creation that will be redeem'd from Vanity which are the New Heavens and New Earth to come A Creation in subjection to Vanity which is the present state of the World And a Creation that was subjected to Vanity in hopes of being restor'd which was the first Paradisiacal Creation And these are the Three States of the Natural World which make the subject of our Theory To these two places of S. Peter and S. Paul I might add that third in S. Iohn concerning the New Heavens and New Earth with that distinguishing Character that the Earth was without a Sea As this distinguisheth it from the present Earth so being a Restitution or Restauration as we noted before it must be the same with some former Earth and consequently it implies that there was another precedent state of the Natural World to which this is a Restitution These three places I alledge as comprehending and confirming the Theory in its full extent But we do not suppose them all of the same force and clearness S. Peter leads the way and gives light and strength to the other two When a Point is prov'd by one clear Text we allow others as auxiliaries that are not of the same clearness But being open'd receive light from the primary Text and reflect it upon the Argument So much for the Theory in general We will now take one or two principal heads of it which vertually contain all the rest and examine them more strictly and particularly in reference to their agreement with Scripture The two Heads we pitch upon shall be our Explication of the Deluge and our Explication of the New Heavens and New Earth We told you before these Two were as â—he Hinges upon which all the Theory moves and which hokâ— the parts of it in firm union one with another As to the Deluge if I have explain'd that aright by the Disruption of the Great Abyss and the Dissolution of the Earth that cover'd it all the rest follows in such a chain of Consequences as cannot be broken Wherefore in order to the proof of that Explication and of all that depends upon it I will make bold to lay down this Proposition That our Hypothesis concerning the Universal Deluge is not only more agreeable to Reason and Philosophy thaâ— any other yet propos'd to the World but is also more agreeable to Scripture Namely to such places of Scripture as reflect upon the Deluge the Abyss and the form of the first Earth And particularly to the History of Noah's Flood as recorded by Moses If I can make this good it will doubtless give satisfaction to all that are free and intelligent And I desire their patience if I proceed slowly and by several steps We will divide our task into parts and examine them separately First by Scripture in general and then by Moses his History and description of the Flood Our Hypothesis of the Deluge consists of Three Principal Heads or differs remarkably in Three things from the common Explication First In that we suppose the Ante diluvian Earth to have been of another Form and Constitution from the present Earth with the Abyss placed under it Secondly In that we suppose the Deluge to have been made not by any inunâ—ation of the Sea or overflowing of Fountains and Rivers nor principally by any excess of Rains but by a real dissolution of the Exteriour Earth and disruption of the Abyss which it cover'd These are the two principal points to which may be added as a Corollary Thirdly That the Deluge was not in the nature of a standing Pool The Waters lying every where level of an equal depth and with an uniform Surface But was made by a fluctuation and commotion of the Abyss upon the disruption Which commotion being over the Waters retired into their Chanels and let the dry Land appear These are the most material and fundamental parts of our Hypothesis and these being prov'd consonant to Scripture there can be no doubt of the rest We begin with the first That the Ante-diluvian Earth was of another form and constitution from the present Earth with the Abyss placed under it This is confirm'd in Scripture both by such places as assert a diversity in general and by other places that intimate to us wherein that diversity consisted and what was the form of the first Earth That discourse of S. Peter's which we have set before you concerning the past present and future Heavens and Earth is so full a proof of this diversity in general that you must either allow it or make the Apostle's argumentation of no effect He speaks plainly of the Natural World The Heavens and the Earth And he makes a plain distinction or rather opposition betwixt those before and after the Flood so that the least we can conclude from his words is a diversity betwixt them in answer to that Identity or Immutability of Nature which the Scoffers pretended to have been ever since the beginning But tho' the Apostle to me speaks plainly of the Natural World and distinguishes that which was before the Flood from the present Yet there are some that will allow neither of these to be contain'd in S. Peter's words and by that means would make this whole Discourse of little or no effect as to our purpose And seeing we on the contrary have made it the chief Scripture-basis of the whole Theory of the Earth we are oblig'd to free it from those false glosses or mis-interpretations that lessen the force of its testimony or make it wholly ineffectual These Interpreters say That S. Peter meant no more than to mind these Scoffers that the World was once destroy'd by a Deluge of Water meaning the Animate World Mankind and living Creatures And that it shall be destroy'd again by another Element namely by Fire So as there is no opposition or diversity betwixt the two Natural Worlds taught or intended by the Apostle but only in reference to their different
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
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