ever after was as may be seen in the Figure an Oval or Oblong Sphaeroid whose longer Axis ab would determine the highest extant Parts of the Earth and whose shorter Axis cd by a Revolution about the Center perpendicularly to the longer Axis would alike determine the lowest or most depress'd Parts thereof When therefore as many Waters were run down into the Earth as the Apertures could receive all that remain'd excepting the ancient lesser Seas somewhat augmented every where must be found in the lowest Vallies or near the shorter Axis's Revolution all round the Globe composing a mighty Ocean while the two elevated Regions near the two ends of the longer Axis were extant above the Waters and compos'd those two opposite Continents of the Earth made mention of in this Proposition Corollary 1. 'T is probable that America is intirely separated from our Continent by the interpos'd Ocean without any Neck of Land by which it has been by many imagin'd to communicate with Tartary Coroll 2. America was peopled from this Continent some Ages after the Deluge by Navigation For seeing there is no Communication between us and them by Land seeing also the Ancient Inhabitants of it perish'd intirely at the Deluge as the Testimony of the Sacred Scriptures the consideration of their lesser Numbers and the impossibility of any Preservation of Men by an Ark any where but at the Mountain Caucasus the highest Hill near the Center of the highest Continent in the World appearing from what has been said do conspire to demonstrate 'T is evident they must have been repeopled by Sea from this Continent Coroll 3. Navigation tho' it was not before the Flood or till then very inconsiderable yet is not so wholly new and late in the World as some imagine Which Observation is very agreeable with the Sacred Records which intimate no less than three Years Voyages in the days of Solomon and with Herodotus who mentions a Voyage through the Red-Sea round Africa and so through the Straights of Gibraltar into the Mediterranean in the days of Neco LXIII One of these Continents is considerably larger than the other LXIII Since in all Tides and so in those Protuberances which occasion'd the present Continents that which respects the Body producing the same is larger than its opposite one 't is evident so it ought to be here and the Continent situate about the Point b considerably larger than the opposite one about a agreeably to this Proposition Corollary In this posture of the Abyss and its incumbent Orb the Earth is correspondent to the Egg its ancient Symbol and Representative not only in its inward and intire Constitution but in some measure in its external Figure also the resemblance between them becoming by this means in a manner Universal LXIV The larger Continent lies most part on the North-side of the Equator and the smaller most part on the South LXIV The Position of the Continents depended mainly on the time of the year when the Comet passed by For since the Comet descended in the Plain of the Ecliptick from the Regions almost opposite to the Sun and came to its nearest distance about 130 degrees onward from the Point in the Ecliptick opposite to the Sun before which and yet scarce till after the Comet were past 90 degrees or the Periphery of the Ecliptick would the Tides be great enough to burst the Orb of Earth and fix the Centers of the Continents By considering the place of the Earth in the Ecliptick and counting about 100 degrees onward one may determine the Latitude of the Point on the Earth directly expos'd to the Comet 's Body and by consequence of its opposite Point also about which Points the two Continents lay Now the Earth being about the middle of Taurus to an eye at the Sun which I always in such cases suppose at the time of the passing by of the Comet about the middle of the second Month from the Autumnal Equinox the latter part of Leo being 100 degrees onward from the Point opposite to the Sun will nearly determine the Latitude of the larger Continent d b c as by consequence will the latter part of Aquarius that of the smaller d a c On which accounts 'tis evident that the larger must be mostly on the North and the smaller mostly on the South-side of the Equator LXV The Middle or Center of the North Continent is about sixteen or eighteen degrees of Northern Latitude and that of the South about sixteen or eighteen degrees of Southern Latitude LXV This Proposition which more nicely determines that Position of the Continents which the last more generally asserted is thus demonstrated Each Continent must retain that Position which it had when its Compages was burst by the Elevation of the Abyss Now the bursting of the Orb is to be suppos'd before the Comets nearest distance and by consequence the Centers of the two Continents a and b ought to have the Latitude of the Points about 90 or rather nearer an 100 degrees onward beyond that opposite to the Sun or beyond the Sun it self So that the Center of the Northern Continent near the South-East point of Arabia and of the Southern near the Source of the vast River De la Plata ought to be about the same Latitude with the 20 th degree of Leo and of Aquarius or near 16 degrees the former of Northern the latter of Southern Latitude as this Proposition asserts them really to be Corollary 1. If therefore we were to determine the time of the Year of the Comet 's passing by the Earth or the commencing of the Deluge from the Position of the Centers of our two opposite Continents which depend thereon we ought to assign it near the middle of the second Month from the Autumnal Equinox agreeably to the time already fixt both from the Sacred History and the Calculations of Astronomy at the tenth Hypothesis foregoing Coroll 2. Hence all those Corollaries to the third and fourth Argument of the said tenth Hypothesis are mightily confirm'd To which I refer the Reader for their second perusal the importance of their Subject well-deserving the same at his hands Coroll 3. Hence perhaps we may derive the occasion of that ancient current and much insisted-on Tradition concerning the high or elevated situation of Paradise which is so very much attested to by Antiquity and yet so very strange and obscure in it self For since Paradise as has been already prov'd was very near that point where the Center of our Continent is the East or Southeast Border of Arabia And since withal as we have shewn the same Regions were by the Comet at the Deluge elevated more than any others on the intire Globe and since lastly it would for a long time retain in good measure such its most rais'd situation and continue higher than any other correspondent parts of the Earth this appears a rational Occasion or Foundation of that celebrated Tradition here refer'd
Order of the Heavenly Bodies in the Solar System is as follows First of all The vast and glorious Body of the Sun is plac'd in the middle very near the Center of Gravity of the intire System in the common Focus of every one of the Planetary Orbits Next to him Mercury describes his Ellipsis and that so near that we on Earth rarely obtain a distinct view of him Next to Mercury is the Elliptick Orbit of Venus our glorious Morning and Evening Star Next to Venus our Earth with its attendant the Moon perform a joint Course and Measure out the Annual Period Next to the Earth the fiery Star Mars alone without any visible Guard accompanying him revolves about the same Center Next to Mars tho' at a mighty distance from him the largest of the Planets Jupiter with his four remarkable Satellits and lastly Saturn with his five little Moons about him describe the farthest and most remote Orbits and compleat the intire Planetary Chorus as the Frontispiece of the Book represents them to the Contemplation of the Reader SCHOLIUM Besides the Planets whose Orbits are not very different from Circles there are another Species of Bodies revolving about the Sun in such Ellipses as may pass for Parabola's they are so exceeding Eccentrical but as regularly retaining their several Periods and Orbits as the Planets now mention'd But because these Bodies will be more distinctly consider'd hereafter I shall wave their farther Consideration at present and proceed XXXI The periodical Times of each Planet's Revolution about the Sun are as follow   Y. D. H. Mercury revolves about the Sun in the space of 00 088 00 Venus 00 224 18 The Earth 00 365 06 Mars 01 315 00 Jupiter 12 000 00 Saturn 30 000 00 XXXII The middle distances of the Planets from the Sun are as follow Mercury is distant from the Sun 020952000 Statute Miles each 5000 Paris Feet Venus 039096000 The Earth 054000000 Mars 082242000 Jupiter 280582000 Saturn 513540000 SCHOLIUM The Proportions of these Numbers are unquestionable But the Numbers themselves only within about a fourth part under or over The Reason of such uncertainty is That the Sun's Parallax or Angle which the Diameter of the Earth would subtend to an eye at the Sun on which the whole depends is not yet accurately determined by Astronomers so that between 24 and 40 Seconds no number can be certainly pitch'd upon till farther Observations put an end to our Doubts On which Account I have endeavour'd to come as near to Probability as possible and have suppos'd the Sun's Parallax 32 in a middle between the two foremention'd Extreams and from this Hypothesis made these and the following Calculations which therefore cannot well be above a fourth part under or over the truth but very probably are much nearer it XXXIII The quantity of Matter in such of the Heavenly Bodies as afford us means of determining the same is in the Proportions following The Sun 's 66690. Jupiter's 000601 2. Saturn's 000281 4. The Earth's 00001. The Moon 's 000001 26. SCHOLIUM Because the Solidity or Quantity of Matter in Bodies is in a triplicate Proportion of their Diameters that small uncertainty in the Sun's Parallax beforemention'd imports a great deal in the present Calculation I shall therefore give the Reader the Proportions of the Quantity of Matter in the Heavenly Bodies on the two extream Hypotheses as well as I have done on the middle one only informing him that the Hypothesis of 24 seems nearer the truth than the opposite extream of 40 as being nearest the accurate Observations of our great Astronomer Mr. Flamsteed The quantities of Matter therefore are as follow The Sun's 28700 If the Sun's Parallax be 40 The Sun's 136560 If the Sun's Parallax be 24 Jupiter's 000261 11 Jupiter's 0001241 7 Saturn 's 000121 6 Saturn 's 0000579 10 The Earth's 00001 The Earth's 000001 The Moon 's 000001 26 The Moon 's 0000001 26 Corollary The weight of Bodies at equal distances from the Sun and Planets being in the same Proportion with the Quantity of their Matter as has been Lem. 7 already said the same Numbers assign'd in the last priùs Lemma which explain the latter serve equally to explain the former also XXXIV The Diameters of the Sun and Planets are as follows The Sun's 494100 Statute Miles each 5000 Paris Feet Saturn's 043925 Jupiter's 052522 Mar's 002816 The Earth's 008202 The Moon 's 002223 Venus's 004941 Mercury's 002717 XXXV The weight of Bodies on the Surface of the Sun and those Planets mention'd in the 33 d Lemma before is as follows On the Surface of The Sun 10000. The Earth 012581 2 Jupiter 008041 2. The Moon 00630. Saturn 00536. XXXVI The Densities of the same whatever be the Sun's Parallax is as follows The Moon 's 700. The Earth's 387. The Sun 's 100. Jupiter's 076. Saturn's 060. XXXVII As the weight of Bodies without the Superficies of the Heavenly Bodies increases in a duplicate Proportion of their nearness to their Centers so within the same Superficies does it decrease in a simple Proportion thereof and is consequently greatest upon the Superficies themselves Thus a Body at 10000 Miles distance from the Earth's Center is four times so heavy as it would be at 20000. But within the Earth if a Body were twice as near its Center as 't is on the Surface it would be but half so heavy as 't is here if thrice as near it would be but a third part so heavy if four times as near it would be but a quarter so heavy and so for ever proportionably Gravity therefore is most considerable on the Surface decreasing both ways upward in a duplicate Proportion of the reciprocal Distance and downward in a simple direct Proportion thereof XXXVIII If the central Regions of a Globe contain a sphaerical Cavity within the same Bodies plac'd therein from the equality of Attraction on every side will not tend any way or gravitate at all but be as perfectly at liberty as if they were not affected by any such Law of Attraction or Gravitation XXXIX The Moon revolves about the Earth from West to East in 27 Days 7 Hours 43 Minutes and in the very same space of Time by a strange Correspondence and Harmony of the two Motions revolves the same way about its own Axis whereby one Motion as much converting it to as the other turns it from the Earth the same side is always expos'd to our sight XL. The Librations of the Moon 's Body which cause not exactly the same Hemisphere thereof to be perpetually expos'd to our sight arise from the Eccentricity of the Moon 's Orbit from the Perturbations by the Sun's Attraction and from the Obliquity of the Axis of the Diurnal Rotation to the Moon 's own Orbit without the knowledge of which Circumstances her Phoenomena were inexplicable but by the consideration of them are very demonstrable XLI In the 2365 th year of the Julian Period the Autumnal Equinox was on
and Interstices thereof which Waters on the opening of the Fissures would from all sides ouze into and fill up the Inferiour parts of the same and rest upon the Face of the Abyss the Dense Fluid of the Abyss in its violent Ascent through the Fissures would carry before it and throw out at the tops of the said Fissures great quantities of the same and if its force were any where sufficient would cast it self also out at the same passages and by both or either ways would mightily add to the quantity of the Waters already on the Face of the Earth and become a fresh and a prodigious augmentation of that Deluge which began already to overwhelm and destroy the Inhabitants thereof For the better apprehension of this matter let us imagine the following Experiment were made Suppose a Cylinder of Stone or Marble fitted so exactly to a hollow Cylindrical Vessel that it may just Ascend or Descend freely within it Let the Cylinder of Stone or Marble have small holes bored quite through it parallel to the Axis thereof Let the Vessel be fill'd half full of Water and the Cylinder as gently as you please be put into the Vessel till it touch the Water Let then each of the holes through the Cylinder be fill'd in part with Oyl or any other Fluid lighter than the Water to Swim upon the Surface thereof Things being thus provided you have the very case of the Deluge before you and what effects you here in a lesser degree will observe are but the representations of those great and remarkable ones of which we are now speaking For as the weight of the Cylinder pressing upon the Surface of the Water would squeeze the Oyl upon its Surface through the holes and cast it out thereat with some violence and cast it self too out at the same passages if the holes were not too high in comparison to the quantity of the intire pressure upon the Surface of the Water just so the Weight of the Columns of Earth augmented by the additional Waters of the Comet would squeeze and press upon the Surface of the Abyss which being a Fluid Mass and incapable of sustaining a pressure in one part without equally communicating it to all the rest any way whatsoever must burst out wherever such pressure was wanting and throw it self up the Fissures carrying up before it and throwing out upon the Earth those Waters which like Oyl on the Water in the Experiment lay upon its Surface and for the altitude perhaps of some Miles cover'd the same and thereby mightily increasing the greatness of the Deluge and having a main stroke in that destruction which it brought upon the Earth All which I think gives us a clear easie and mechanical account of this hitherto inexplicable Secondary Cause of the Deluge the breaking up the Fountains of the Great Deep and thereat the elevating the Subterraneous Waters and bringing them out upon the Face of the Earth Corollary 1. These Chaps or Fissures at the Deluge would commonly be the same with those at the commencing of the Diurnal Rotation It being easier to break the Compages of the Earth where it had once been broken already and was never united well again than in other places where it was intire and continued And those parts which sustain'd the rather greater force at the former Convulsion would at least as well sustain this of which we are now speaking and preserve their former continuity still as they did before the Flood Coroll 2. Hence if these Fissures are the occasion and source of Fountains as Dr. Woodward very probably asserts The Antediluvian and Postdiluvian Springs must be generally the very same as arising from the same Originals so far as the mutations at the Earth's Surface to be afterward explain'd would permit and allow in the case Coroll 3. Since we have before shew'd that the Mountainous Columns of the Earth are the loosest the least compacted and least solid of all others The Earth would be the most subject to the Fissures and Breaches in those parts and the generality of Springs and Rivers would now proceed from thence Unless the peculiar Stony or other firm Compages of the same prevented the Effects here mention'd as sometimes perhaps might happen in the present case Coroll 4. Hence 't is evident that there was no great Ocean but only smaller Lakes and Seas before the Flood For otherwise the Tule or Flux of the Ocean would have been so great and violent as to have superseded almost all the designs of the ensuing Deluge and have withal extremely endanger'd if not certainly destroy'd the Ark and all those Creatures which were entring into it Which the small Tides in the small Lakes and Seas would not at all affect or disturb XLIX All these Fountains of the great Deep were broken up on the very first day of the Deluge or the very first day when the Rains began XLIX This is very easily understood from the space of time that the Comet was near the Earth For the duration of this Disruption or breaking of the Orb of Earth occasion'd by the nearness of the Comet must be commensurate thereto which tho' we should take in all the space it was nearer than the Moon could not possibly as is easie to Calculate amount to Nine Hours which is indeed much more than need be allow'd and is yet sufficiently within that Days space which this Phaenomenon if occasion were could allow us to suppose and so fully satisfies the same L. Yet the very same day Noah his Family and all the Animals entred into the Ark. L. Tho' 't is otherwise not a little strange that the entry into the Ark should be defer'd till this Day yet 't is clear and easie on the present Hypothesis For as to the Fountains of the great Deep which were broken up this Day thereby the Earth and its Contents were only gradually and insensibly elevated but no other disturbance given to Noah in his Entry into the Ark at the same time The Fissures indeed were now made but till the weight of the Waters from the Comet could operate no Water would from thence arise to disturb him And tho' they had yet unless there were some of the great Fissures or Spouts just where he was no interruption could this day be given him therefrom As to the Rains themselves tho' they all fell first upon the Earth nearly within the compass of this Day and so must cause a most prodigious destruction and confusion upon the Earth where they so fell yet the peculiar situation of Mount Caucasus on or near which the Ark was did secure it this day tho' so outragious and destructive a one to the Inhabitants of the other parts of the Globe was yet here fair and calm as at other times Which is thus demonstrated 'T is evident that Mount Caucasus is ficuate pretty near the Center of our Northern Continent or indeed some 20 or 25 degrees Northeast
God himself says I form the light and create darkness I make peace and create evil I the Lord do all these things Where the objects of the Divine Creation being not real and substantial Beings could not be capable of a proper production out of nothing Which also is the case in the verse immediately following Let righteousness spring up together I the Lord have created it Thus also says God by the same Prophet I create new Heavens and a new Earth which tho' the very case before us yet would odly enough be expounded of an annihilation of the World and a reproduction of it again But what comes still more home to our purpose is that in the very History of the Creation it self the word Create as well as Make is us'd in the sense we contend for the very same things being ascrib'd to the Creating and Making Power of God which are also describ'd as the regular offspring of the Earth and Seas God created great Whales and every living Creature that moveth which the waters brought forth abundantly after their kind And God said Let the Earth bring forth the living Creature after his kind Cattel and creeping thing and Beast of the Earth after his kind and it was so And God made the Beast of the Earth after his kind and Cattel after their kind and every thing that creepeth upon the Earth after his kind and God saw that it was good So that when the words made use of in the History of the Creation are there and every where taken promiscuously when some of them are by the confession of all of no larger importance than the Proposition before us will admit and when lastly that word of which the greatest doubt can arise has been prov'd not only in other Texts of Scripture but in the very History of which we are treating to be of no more determinate signification than the rest and alike capable of the sense we here put upon it I think 't is a clear Case that if no Argument can be drawn from such words for yet neither can there justly be any against that Proposition we are now upon III. Those synonymous Phrases The World or the Heavens and the Earth under which the Object of the six days Creation is comprehended every where in Scripture do not always denote the whole System of Beings no nor any great and general Portion of them but are in the Sacred Stile frequently if not mostly to be restrained to the terraqueous Globe with its dependances and consequently both may and if the subject matter require it ought to be understood in such a restrained sense and no other That by these Phrases the Mosaick Creation or six days work is usually understood is evident every where in Scripture as the following Texts will easily evince God who made the World and all things therein The Divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was in the World and the World was made by Him and the World knew Him not Hence those frequent expressions From the Foundation of the World from the Beginning of the World from the Creation of the World and before the World was which tho' capable of including more must yet be allow'd to have generally a peculiar nay sometimes a sole regard to the six days work particularly stil'd by St. Mark The Beginning of the Creation which God created In the same manner and with the like frequency the other Phrase Heaven and Earth denote the same six days work also Thus the Heavens and the Earth were finished and all the Host of them These are the Generations of the Heavens and of the Earth when they were created in the day that the Lord God made the Earth and the Heavens In six days the Lord made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that in them is and rested the seventh day which being so express I shall not need to look out for any other parallel places And that both the World and Heaven and Earth signify the terraqueous Globe alone with its Air or Atmosphere and other Appurtenances without including the whole Universe nay or Solar System also which yet I do not deny sometimes to be comprehended therein the following Texts will sufficiently shew Our Lord says of the Woman who poured the Oyntment on him Wheresoever this Gospel shall be preached in the whole World there shall also this which this Woman hath done be told for a memorial of her His Charge and Commission to his Apostles was Go ye into all the World and preach the Gospel to every Creature The Tempter came to Jesus and shew'd him all the Kingdoms of the World and the Glory of them In all which places no other than the habitable Earth can be understood and 't is still so frequent and natural for Men to use this manner of Speech in the same restrained Sense to this very day that one may the less wonder at the Sacred Stile in this Case But this word the World having not so much difficulty in it nor being so much stood upon as those which follow the Heavens and the Earth I shall no longer insist upon it but proceed And here when the World as a totum integrale is divided into its two contradistinct Parts the Heavens and the Earth it will be said That by such a Phrase or Enumeration of the Parts of the Universe no less can be meant than the whole World in the largest acceptation or however more must be intended than the bare Earth which is but one Member or Branch and so certainly less than that whole of which it is a part In answer whereto I freely confess That the Heavens and the Earth do not seldom denote the intire Universe an instance of which the first words of Genesis have already afforded us but that they always do so I have reason to deny As the Signification of the Earth is known and capable of no Ambiguity so 't is quite otherwise in the word Heaven which in common use and the sacred Authors sometimes refers to the Seat of the Blessed or the third Heaven sometimes to the place of the Sun Moon and Stars and otherwhiles is no farther to be extended than the Clouds or the open Expansum about the Earth where the Air Atmosphere Meteors Clouds and Volatils have their abode Instances of the two former Significations were it pertinent to my present purpose might easily be produc'd but that not being so I shall wave the same and only prove the third and last Signification namely That by the Heavens is frequently understood nothing more than the Atmosphere of the Earth with its appendant or contained Bodies Thus God made the Firmament and divided the Waters which were under the Firmament from the Waters which were above the Firmament and it was so And God called the Firmament Heaven Which place is so express and in the very History it self which we
are now about also that it ought to be of peculiar force in the present case Thus also the Builders of Babel said Go to Let us build us a City and a Tower whose top may reach unto Heaven So mention is made of Cities great and fenced up to Heaven The Clouds pass by the name of the Clouds of Heaven nay they are by the Psalmist agreeably to the Interposition of the Expansum Firmament or Heaven on the second day of the Creation between the superior and inferior Waters made as it were its farthest Boundaries and Limits the Waters contain'd in them being call'd Waters which are above the Heavens The very Fowls which still reside nearer to the Earth are stil'd the Fowls of Heaven and were originally appointed to fly above the Earth in the open Firmament of Heaven By all which places 't is evident That the word Heaven is commonly so far from including the Sun or Planetary Chorus much less the fix'd Stars with all their immense Systems that the Moon our attending and neighbour Planet is not taken in The utmost bounds of our Atmosphere being so of this our Heaven also which was the only Point which remain'd to be clear'd But here before I proceed farther I must take notice of a considerable Objection which threatens to wrest this Argument out of my hands and indeed to subvert the intire Foundation of the Proposition before us and is I freely own the main difficulty in this whole matter and 't is this That such a Sense of the words World and Heaven and Earth as has been pleaded for whatever may be said in other cases will yet by no means fit here nor take in all the extent of the Mosaick Creation because 't is certain that neither the Light by whose Revolution Night and Day are distinguish'd nor the Sun Moon and Stars which are set in our Firmament belong to our Atmosphere or are contain'd within those Boundaries within which we confine the present History and 't is equally certain that both of them belong to the Mosaick Creation and are the first and fourth days works therein and by consequence it may be said the Subject of the six days Creation must be the whole System of the heavenly Bodies or at least that particular one in which the Earth is and is stil'd the Solar System Now this Objection is in part already taken off by the Sense in which the Production and Creation of things has been shewn to be frequently taken in the Holy Scriptures whereby there appears to be no necessity of believing these Bodies to have been then brought into being when they are first mention'd in the Mosaick Creation But because this is not meerly the chief but only considerable Objection against the Proposition we are upon because it seems to have been the principal occasion of men's Mistakes and Prejudices about this whole History and because 't is the single instance wherein this intire Theory as far as I know seems to recede from the obvious Letter of Scripture 't will be but proper to give it a particular review and clear withal not only this but several other like Expressions and Passages in the Holy Scripture Now in order to the giving what satisfaction I can in this Point let it be consider'd That the Light being not said to be created by Moses its Original were without difficulty to be accounted for if the other Point the making of the Heavenly Bodies were once setled which therefore is the sole remaining difficulty in the case before us And that would be no harder if the Translation of the Words of Moses were but amended and the Verses hereto relating read thus And God said Let there be lights in the firmament of the Heaven to divide the day from the night and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years and let them be for lights in the firmament of the Heaven to give light upon the Earth and it was so And God having before made two great lights the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night and having before made the stars also God set them in the firmament of Heaven to give light upon the Earth c. or which is all one And God had before made two great lights the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night he had before made the stars also and God set them in the firmament c. In which rendring 't is only changing the perfectum for the plusquam perfectum and every thing is clear and easy and the Objection vanishes of its own accord the Creation of the heavenly Bodies being hereby assigned to a former time and the Work of the fourth day no other than the placing them in our Firmament according as the account hereafter to be given does require Now to prove this a fair and just Interpretation to omit the Creation of the Heavens and Heavenly Bodies already related before the six days work 't is only necessary to observe that the Hebrew Tongue having no plusquam perfectum must and does express the Sense of it by the perfectum and that accordingly the particular circumstances of each place must alone determine when thereby the time present and when that already past and gone is to be understood How many knots in the Scripture the omission of this Observation has left unsolv'd and which being observ'd would be immediately untied I shall not go about to enumerate there being so many in the very History before us of the Origin of the World that I shall not go one jot farther for instances to confirm the before-mention'd Translation and which on the account of their agreement in place will more forcibly plead for a like agreement in Sense also On the seventh day God had ended his work which he had made and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made He had rested from all his work which God had created and made The Lord God had not caused it to rain on the Earth and there had not been a man to till the Ground but there had gone up a mist from the Earth and had water'd the whole face of the ground and the Lord God had formed man of the dust of the ground and had breathed into his nostrils the breath of life And the Lord God had planted a Garden eastward in Eden And out of the ground had the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food And out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every fowl of the air In all which places the whole Context is so clear'd by this rendring and so many strange Absurdities avoided that there is I think all imaginable reason to acquiesce in it And tho' the fourth days work is among those other
the Formation of things began and there was the principal occasion for their presence and efficacy that ever was or could possibly be A strange method of Generation To take away the Cause at the very instant when it was to produce its Effects and to recount the Effects not before but as soon as ever the Cause is taken away But to proceed 4. The now undoubted property of the Universal Gravitation of Matter contradicts and overthrows this fancy of the Heavenly Bodies having been originally included in and at the Creation extracted from the Chaos of which we are speaking For on this Hypothesis when once they were mingled with the parts of the Earth and are since at immense distances from it they must have fled off every way from their former place and in a small space of time have thrown themselves to those vastly remote seats which they have ever since possess'd Now if instead of the vis centripeta a vis centrifuga instead of mutual attraction a mutual repulse or avoidance were found to be the standing unchang'd Law of Nature and Property of Matter this might have look'd like a possible at least if not a probable Hypothesis and the whole Order of Nature ever since need not have been contradicted in this primary formation of things But when the contrary force that I mean of mutual tendency attraction or gravitation obtains and that as far as we have any means of knowing universally which Mr. Newton has demonstrated there is no room or foundation in Nature for such an Imagination 'T is by no means impossible that all the Bodies in the Universe should approach to one another and at last unite in the common Center of Gravity of the intire System Nay from the universality of the Law of Gravitation and the finiteness of the World in length of time without a miraculous power interpose and prevent it it must really happen But by what Law of Nature or Property of Bodies they when once conjoin'd as those I now oppose must affirm should be separated 't is hard to conceive Which difficulty is increas'd by the prodigious velocity of their motions when according to the vulgar Hypothesis but a few hours can be allow'd the Heavenly Bodies to waft them to those immensly yet variously distant Seats which they were immediately and for ever after to possess All which harsh and ungrounded fictions are intirely avoided and all things represented according to the known Laws of Matter and Motion in that natural and easie Hypothesis we take and which therefore is as consonant to as the other is averse from the Make and Constitution of the Natural World 5. This fancy that the Heavenly Bodies proceeded originally from the Terrestrial Chaos and cast themselves off from it every way supposes the Earth to be the Center of the World or of all that System of Bodies and they plac'd in a kind of circumference every way about it How well soever such a Notion would agree with the Vulgar or Ptolomaick System of the World I fear the Pythagorean which has forc'd its reception and is universally receiv'd by Astronomers will not at all square therewith In that account which would only include the Planetary or Solar System within the six days Creation the Sun it s known and undoubted Center seems the only proper place for such a Chaos as were to be the common source and promptuary of the whole But in the vulgar account where all the Stars and Planets of the Universe are to be suppos'd at a Center together we who know not the bounds and circumference of the World cannot be suppos'd able to pitch upon a Center proper for so immense and strange a Chaos Only one may venture to say that the Earth a small moveable Planet revolving about the Sun is an ill-chosen one however And now upon a recollection and view of this whole Argument I do not question but an unprejudic'd person who knew nothing of the sentiments of Commentators or of the opinions of the vulgar and who had only been conversant in the Works and Word of God the Book of External Nature and the Book of Scripture would easily find the bounds of the Mosaick Creation and on a little consideration and comparison of the Sacred and Profane Accounts of the Primitive Chaos with the present Nature and Situation of the Heavenly Bodies would quickly be convinc'd that our Earth alone were therein concern'd he could scarce be suppos'd once to Dream that the Origin of the Sun and Planets much less of innumerable Suns and Planets and of the intire Universe was there accounted for Such Notions how general soever are not the result of Nature and Scripture carefully consider'd and compar'd one with another but the effects of ignorance of the frame of the World and of the stile of Scripture of an unacquaintedness with the Works and thence an inability of judging concerning the Word of God relating to them or indeed commonly of a certain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or narrowness of Soul which Temper Education Conversation Application to some particular Studies and Authors with a strangeness to free and generous Enquiries some or all have been the unhappy occasions of In short 't is because men are not able to give themselves or others a satisfactory account of such things that they are forced to fall into a beaten path and content themselves with those poor and jejune Schemes which when carefully examin'd prove neither Rational nor Scriptural but as perfectly contradictory to sound Philosophy as the genuine sense of those very Texts on which they build their conclusions Every unbyass'd Mind would easily allow that like Effects had like Causes and that Bodies of the same general Nature Uses and Motions were to be deriv'd from the same Originals and consequently that the Sun and the fixed Stars had one as the Earth and the other Planets another sort of Formation If therefore any free Considerer found that one of the latter sort that Planet which we Inhabit was deriv'd from a Chaos by a parity of Reason he would suppose every one of the other to be so deriv'd also I mean each from its peculiar Chaos Nay truly I might carry this matter still higher and if one Planet must be made Parent to another justly claim the principal place for Jupiter about sixty times as big as our Earth and the largest and most considerable of all the Sun's Chorus and so with greater shew of Probability assert that from its Chaos any of the other Planets were deriv'd than himself from theirs Particularly the Earth is so small a Globe that in point of Dignity or Origination very many of the Celestial Bodies may most fairly claim the precedence of her and curb her aspiring pretensions to any such mighty Prerogatives above her Fellows There is in reality no occasion for any such childish reasoning on either side and every one of the Planets especially the Moon so exactly resembling her
of those Beings he has made That we ought to be very wary of Arguing from Man to God without due allowance for these considerations and consequently mighty cautious of affirming or denying whatever is ascrib'd to him from such a comparison In particular wherever a clear Revelation interposes we are bound to quit our fallible reasonings and fully to acquiesce in such a decision It being impossible for God to Lye but by no means so that we may be mistaken But then this necessary prudence and wariness is chiefly if not only concern'd in sublime and mysterious points concerning the incomprehensible Nature or unsearchable Providences of God which Doctrines sometimes are so much above the present Scene of things so remote from the notions and affairs of this World relate to and depend on such other Systems of Beings or circumstances of the Invisible World that we ought not rashly to pass our Judgment of them but wait till our Souls become so improv'd and our Understandings enlightened in a future state till our means of information and opportunities of looking through the whole Chain and System be so many more than now they are that we may justly be suppos'd more competent Judges and equal Arbitrators than at present the imperfection of our condition will permit us in reason to pretend to But this being again precaution'd to prevent any misconstruction or abuse of this reasoning I cannot but say that since 't will be hard to prove the case before us to be of so exalted a nature as to transcend our faculties and perhaps still harder to prove the plainness of the revelation on the side of the common exposition I am fully persuaded that while the Perfections of God are as to our assent deduc'd from their effects they may in good measure within certain bounds as was before discours'd be judg'd of by what is observable among Men. And as whatsoever is worthy good and valuable among our selves is rightly own'd as an efflux and gift of God so whatsoever is preposterous absurd or disorderly whatsoever is unworthy base or despicable in humane affairs cannot without great indignity be believed of him and where we have no other ways of determining such reasonings ought to be persuasive and decretory Now therefore all this being said by way of Introduction to this and some following Arguments let us apply it to the case before us and supposing which yet I need not allow that the matter were indifferent on all other considerations let us speak freely whether such a method such time and such proportion of the several parts as the Ordinary Scheme of the Creation sets before us be in any degree so well contriv'd and suitably dispos'd as I say not a Divine but a meer Humane Architect may be suppos'd the Author of I need not here give a particular account of the vulgar exposition of the first Chapter of Genesis 'T is sufficiently known as to the main parts of it But the disproportions I would take notice of in it under this Head are these three 1. The length of the Day usually assign'd is wholly disproportionate to the business done upon it 2. When the Works of each of the other Days are single distinct and of a sort the Third Day has two quite different nay incompatible Works assigned to it 3. And Principally the Earth with its furniture how inconsiderable a Body soever it is takes up four intire days at least of those six which were allotted to the whole Creation when the Sun Moon and Stars those vastly greater and more considerable bodies are crowded into one single day together 1. The Length of the Day usually assign'd of Twenty four Hours is wholly disproportionate to the business done upon it This plainly appears by the History it self where to omit other instances the whole train in the generation or first production of Animals has no longer a space afforded to it when yet all experience shews that a much longer is necessarily requir'd and has obtain'd in all the subsequent Ages Now I do not question but it will be confess'd by all that according to the constant process of Nature this time is utterly insufficient for this purpose But what will be said is that a Divine Power immediately interpos'd and either form'd every thing in its grown and mature state or at least accelerated and hasten'd the course of Nature so as to enable her to perfect each Creature in so short a space and that consequently no straitness of time ought to be alledg'd on this account In answer whereto I freely grant that God can produce all things in their most perfect state in a moment and if that could be prov'd to have been the method here this exception were of no validity But as on such a supposition 't is strange that six intire and successive days should be requisite to or pitch'd upon by an Infinite and Unlimited Agent when the instantaneous Creation of the whole appears more agreeable to the Dignity and Power of the Creator so I am pretty secure that this Hypothesis how common soever is repugnant to the Mosaick History The Sacred Penman does there ascribe indeed the Origin of every thing to the Divine Power yet no otherwise than the like would be and is done by the Holy Writers afterwards nay by every body at this day when yet the constant method of Generation is exactly observ'd If any of us were ask'd who made us We should soon answer God without the least imagination that we were excused from that nine months abode and gradual growth in our Mothers Womb which every one by the general Rule and Method of Nature is oblig'd to undergo Which appears in the present case to be the intention of the Holy Writer because he makes these very Animals productions of the Water and Earth as well as the proper effects of the Divine Power as has been observ'd already on another occasion And those who deny this gradual Generation according to the course of Nature must without reason recede from the Letter of Moses and that when by so doing they render this Sacred History more difficult and unintelligible than it really is But if instead of immediate Creation it be said that 't was only a supernatural acceleration of natural causes without any other alteration of the process which is I think the only probable evasion and the fairest supposition of all other I reply That this is gratis dictum without any foundation in the Scripture and so as easily denied as asserted it is introduc'd only to salve the shortness of time mention'd in the History which will be prov'd hereafter to stand in no need of it and it overthrows all attempts of accounting for this six days Creation in a rational and natural way for if a miraculous power be allow'd in a needless case we shall be ever at a loss how far to extend it and where mechanical causes ought to take place On which considerations I take
this extraordinary acceleration of natural causes to be tho' not impossible nor were there any intimation or necessity of its interposition from the Sacred History very improbable neither yet in the present case groundless unnecessary perplexing of the cause and by no means a sufficient solution in the present Affair Which being therefore thus answer'd the Argument remains in full force and the length of the days assign'd by the vulgar Hypothesis appears wholly disproportionate to the Works done therein of which farther notice will be taken hereafter 2. When the Works of each of the other Days are single distinct and of a sort the third Day has two quite different nay incompatible ones assigned to it This is plain from the History where the division of the Waters from the Earth or the distinction of the Terraqueous Globe into Seas and dry Land the first work on this Day is succeeded by that of the production of the intire Vegetable Kingdom contrary to the perpetual Tenor of the other periods of the Creation How this comes about or is accountable in the vulgar Scheme I know not and I believe the reason thereof is very little enquir'd into and less understood But because this whole difficulty will be urg'd against the shortness of days in the Vulgar Hypothesis and clear'd in Ours at their proper places hereafter I shall wave the farther insisting upon it here and proceed 3. But principally the Earth with its Furniture how inconsiderable a body soever it is takes up four intire days at least of those six which were allotted to the whole Creation when the Sun Moon and Stars those vastly greater and more considerable Bodies are crowded into one single day together Now in order to our passing a rational judgment in this matter I shall take leave to represent to the Reader 's view a short comparison or parallel between the Earth on one side and the rest of the World on the other and see what resemblance correspondence and proportion there is between the former and the latter either in its several parts or the whole taken together and this shall be done on such certain and undoubted grounds and principles as the late vast advancement of Natural Knowledge has afforded us and will be more at large explain'd in the following Pages This Earth then on which we live though it be in diameter more than 8000 miles and so a vast Globe if compar'd with those Bodies we daily see imagine and converse withal is yet one of the lesser of the primary Planets and with Jupiter Mars and the other her fellows revolves round the great Center of our System the Sun in a years time 'T is an Opake and Dark Body as they all are and in common with them borrows its light and heat from that glorious Body which we just now observ'd to obtain the center of their Orbits without which it as well as the intire Chorus of the other Planets must be soon reduc'd all to one dark heap of matter far beyond the description of the old caliginous and unprofitable Chaos and in no capacity of ever emerging out of that horrid and frightful state In dignity i four Earth expect not to come the last yet is she so exceeded in all things that might seem Characters thereof by several of the rest that there can be no manner of claim to the first Place If she have a secondary Planet the Moon for her attendant tho in truth she is at least as serviceable to that Planet as that Planet is to her Jupiter has certainly four and some good Glasses have discover'd five about Saturn who however is not wholly destitute as all Astronomers confess The density and place of the Earth is pretty near the middle of the Planets and as she exceeds and is higher than some so is she exceeded by and lower than others in those respects Her own Secondary Planet the Moon has an Air much more homogeneous pure and transparent than she at present enjoys and in all probability free from Winds Clouds Storms Tempests Thunder Lightning and such other irregular and pernicious Effects which render our Atmosphere so contagious and pestilent to the Inhabitants of the Earth In which circumstances the generality of the other Planets imitate the Moon and render our miserable Condition the more remarkable and sensible as appearing thereby almost singular Our days and nights are longer than those of some and shorter than those of others of the Planets The figure of the Earth is nearly sphaerical as is that also of the other Heavenly Bodies its surface unequal with Mountains and Valleys as well as that of the rest especially the Moon 's appears to be Only 't is observable that the last though much less in bigness has her Mountains higher than we on Earth The Sea and Land Mountains and Valleys and other such corresponding Phaenomena of the Moon shew that that small Planet is not nearer our Earth in place than in quality and disposition also If we compute the true magnitude or quantity of matter in the Earth it will appear that she is not the 60th part so big as Jupiter nor the 30th as Saturn nor the 60000th as the Sun So that she is very inconsiderable if compar'd with the rest of the Solar Vortex only but if with the intire Universe or Systems of the fixt Stars in the elegancy of the Prophetick Expressions as a drop of a Bucket as the small dust of the Balance yea less than nothing and vanity Insomuch that to all those remote Systems of the Heavenly Bodies this Earth with all its fellow Planets are no more visible than those which 't is probable revolve about any of them are to us in these our Planetary Regions And as we usually little think of those invisible Globes so any of their Inhabitants never once imagine that there is such a Planet as ours about which we make such a mighty stir in the whole World As to the main use of this Earth 't is to afford habitation to a sinful and lapsed Race of Creatures of small Abilities or Capacities at present but of great Vices and Wickedness and is esteemed as far as appears in its present constitution so peculiarly and solely sit for them that when they are gone or their Dispositions and Faculties reform'd and improv'd a better scence of Nature a new Heaven and a new Earth is to be introduc'd for such better and more noble Creatures The Old one which now obtains being it seems only a sort of Prison or Confinement which is to be our Lot whilst we are sinful and miserable but no longer And is this the only Darling of Nature the prime Object of the Creation and Providence of God Can such a Globe's original nay of the external and visible Parts of it only claim four parts of six of that entire space which the Wisdom of God allotted for the Formation of all things in the whole World while the Origin
Original 2. Bodies Unlike in Nature have a like Original 3. Bodies most considerable in themselves have the most inconsiderable accounts given of them 4. No Bodies but the Earth have either time for or particulars of the formation of the several parts assign'd 5. The Light appears before its Cause and Fountain the Sun was made 6. The Excavation of the Channel of the Ocean and the Elevation of the Mountains is unnatural and indecent Of each of which I shall say but a word or two and then as briefly argue from them 1. Bodies Alike in nature have an unlike Original Our Earth is one of the Planets and in all reason belonging to their formation yet is she the Subject of the Second Third Fifth and Sixth days works while the rest are included in the Fourth Day 2. Bodies Unlike in nature have a like Original The Sun a glorious Body of Light with his Fellows the fixt Stars are join'd in the fourth day with the Opake and Dark Globes of the Planets 3. Bodies most considerable in themselves have the most inconsiderable accounts given of them This is very obvious in that mighty adoe about our poor Earth while the vastly greater and nobler Bodies of the Sun and Stars are scarce taken any notice of And how disproportionate such a procedure is the comparison already made of the Earth on one side with the rest of the World on the other does more than sufficiently demonstrate 4. No Bodies but the Earth have either time for or particulars of the formation of the several parts assign'd For when four days are wholly taken up with the particulars relating to our Earth the division of its Aerial from its Earthly Waters the distinguishing the latter from the dry Land and draining 'em into the Channels of the Seas the growth of Plants generation of Fish Fowl and Terrestrial Animals and at last the Creation of Man with several circumstances relating to him and the other Creatures not a syllable as to the particulars of the rest of the World Light is only commanded to shine on the First Day and the Heavenly Bodies made on the Fourth and there 's all as to themselves which occurs here 5. The Light appears before the Creation of the Sun from whence it is deriv'd That being the Work of the First This of the Fourth Day Which how Philosophical and Accountable 't is let the Reader judge 6. The Excavation of the Channel of the Ocean and the Elevation of the Mountains is unnatural and indecent For when the Earth was at first even and cover'd with Waters Expositors imagine that God as it were digg'd a vast Channel for the Ocean and heav'd away the Earth and plac'd it on all parts of the Globe to make the Mountains Which how indecent it is I had rather leave to the judgment of the Reader than stand here to exaggerate especially where the naked representation of the thing it self is a sufficient exposing thereof to free Thinkers These obvious Remarks on the vulgar Scheme of the Mosaick Creation to omit the passing by of the intire invisible World whether within or without the surface of the Earth whether corporeal or spiritual are I think sufficient demonstrations that 't is a very distant one from the true nature of things and such as is both unworthy of the Writer and Author of the Sacred History Whoever will take the pains carefully to consider the System of Nature and compare it with these Remarks and the common Opinion of the proper Creation of all things in the six Days Works will not I believe be at a loss for Arguments to over-turn the old and to prove that a new Theory is to be enquir'd after and a narrower World to be expected in the First Chapter of Genesis than has generally been But Before I conclude this Head I must here observe that the consideration of these matters has had so great influence on our late most Excellent Commentator on Genesis that tho' he keep more strictly to the letter of Moses than others yet he finds occasion and room for these four great Concessions no less contrary to the vulgar than approaching to the present Account of the History of the Creation 1. He is willing to allow that Moses meddles not with the intire Universe but with the Planetary System only 2. He allows the Creation of the World to have been over before the six Days Work begins 3. He grants the same six Days Works to be the regular and orderly reduction of a confused Chaos into a habitable World without any strange Miracles in every part 4. He supposes that for a considerable time before the six Days Work began there were such preparatory agitations fermentations and separations or conjunctions of parts as disposed the whole to fall ino the succeeding method and introduce the six Days Productions following Which Concessions of so great a Man and excellent a Commentator as they argue his sense of the necessity of receding from the vulgar Hypothesis so they I confess lessen and diminish the difficulties in this History Lessen I say and diminish not take them away For besides the want of any foundation in Scripture as far as I see for the distinction between the fixt Stars and Planets the Arguments I have all along urged reach and are fram'd with regard to this limited Hypothesis also and with those yet to come are I think more than sufficient to my purpose still and will demonstrate the unaccountableness of the History of the Creation even on this tho' much more on the common Interpretation VII The Mosaick Creation does not extend beyond this Earth because the alone final cause of all therein contained is the advantage of Mankind the Inhabitant thereof Now that the final cause of all the particulars mention'd in the History before us is here rightly assign'd is not only visible in almost every verse of it and in the places of Scripture afterwards referring to the same thing but commonly acknowledg'd nay contended for by the Patrons of the vulgar account So that I shall here take it for granted But then as to the consequence that therefore the Creation is no farther to be extended or at least not so far as here it must otherwise be to the Sun and Planets nay with the most to the innumerable Systems of the fix'd Stars 't is to me so natural and necessary that methinks 't is perfectly needless to go about the proof of it That so vast and noble a System consisting of so many so remote so different and so glorious Bodies should be made only for the use of Man is so wild a Fancy that it deserves any other treatment sooner than a serious confutation And one may better think silently with ones self than with due deference and decency speak what naturally arises in ones Mind on this occasion If 't is an instance of or consistent with the Divine Wisdom to make thousands of glorious Bodies for the
them I cannot so easily tell Especially if it be consider'd That the Capacities of the Jews to whom Moses peculiarly wrote were very low and mean and their Improvements very small or rather none at all in Philosophick Matters 'T is not to be imagin'd that an intire Account of the Origine of the whole Frame of Nature the noblest and most sublime Theory the highest Philosopher could exercise his thoughts upon should be within the reach of the Jewish Apprehensions We do not find in our Learned and Inquisitive Age such a ready Comprehension and Reception of Truths in Philosophy among the generality of Men and 't is so lately that an easy Proposition of the Earth's Motions diurnal and annual rais'd a mighty Dust and was very difficultly embrac'd by even those who call'd themselves Philosophers that from such an instance we may easily imagine how any natural Notions relating to the Constitution and Original of all the Bodies in the Universe must have been entertain'd among the rude and illiterate Jews newly come from the Egyptian Bondage and destitute of the very first Elements of Natural Knowledge Every one in the History of the Bible may with ease observe That the Abilities and Studies of the Israelites as indeed 't is true of most of them to this day were of another Nature and Size than must here be suppos'd if we bring in all the World into the Mosaick Creation If an indifferent Stander by who had never read the first of Genesis were to judge what a sort of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were to be given to so Ignorant and Unskilful a Nation he could not with common Prudence suppose either that it ought to be perfectly Philosophical or include any more than the Senses and Capacities of the Jews could arrive at the Earth with its Appurtenances and the Heavens so far as they were plainly therewith concern'd Indeed not only the Jews but the generality of Mankind's Apprehensions always were and still are much too narrow for any noble Discoveries relating to Universal Nature and a Chapter about Algebra might almost as suitably to Reason be recommended to them as an Account of the true Origination of all the World Nay de facto it appears That Moses was so far from deeming his People capable of understanding the intire System of Bodies remote and distant that 't is clear he esteem'd it improper to say a word about the internal Constitution and Parts of our own Earth contenting himself with what the Surface afforded and what unavoidably came under the notice of their Senses as is too plain to be deni'd in the History before us And shall we after all this believe or imagine that 't was fit and proper nay or barely possible for Moses to give a full Account of the beginning of all the World And impress a just true and adequate Idea thereof on the Minds of the People I believe 't was so far from it that still after all the Accommodation to the Senses and Capacities of Men which he and the other Holy Writers use on such occasions yet the meer Observation of the Truth of things forc'd them sometimes to speak what the others were not able rightly to comprehend and they seem rather in Natural Truths to have gone too high than descended too low considering the gross Ignorance of their Readers in those Matters Those Expressions of Scripture concerning the roundness of the World the Earth's being founded on the Seas and established on the Floods a Compass or Orb being set on the Face of the Deep the stretching out the Earth above the Waters and its consisting out of the Water and in the Water of most of which we shall take notice hereafter Those Expressions I say are exactly accommodate to the real Constitution of the Earth as will appear in due place but were 't is plain very much mistaken afterward Men generally took the Earth to be round not as a Sphere but a Circle and suppos'd the Abyss on which 't was founded to be the Ocean or Great Sea on whose Surface in their Opinion it swam and which on every side encompass'd it as far as the very Firmament gave leave and the ends of the Heaven would permit That Continent we inhabit was taken for the whole World and its Middle or Center imagin'd by most to be near the place where himself dwelt The Horizon or Sea and the Firmament were believ'd to bound and terminate each other The Sun Moon and Stars were suppos'd at their descending below the Horizon to be immers'd in the Sea and at their ascending above it to emerge out of it again How ridiculous these Conceits are every one will easily judge who has but a small insight into the System of the World and how little they are countenanc'd by the Texts before referr'd to 't were easy to shew but 't is plain They were so apply'd and the particulars pretty handsomely adjusted to Mens own Fancies on these Hypotheses When therefore we observe the Expressions of Scripture about the Constitution of our own Earth to have been so miserably misunderstood and misapply'd we may easily collect what fate any Notions of a sublimer Nature concerning the Heavens and the whole System of Beings must have undergone amongst them If the Apostles in a more Learned Age had began their Preaching with the requiring Mens belief to the Motion of the Earth the being of Antipodes or any other such Paradox in Philosophy nay or given them a true and rational Scheme of the Origin of the Universe in all its Parts we may soon guess at the Reception they would have met with and at the Success of their Ministry This procedure could contribute nothing to their design neither could the People be made to understand and believe such strange Notions And as in this case every one will allow the Absurdity of such a method and never imagine it probable that the Apostles could make use of it so ought we by only changing the Scene to conclude à priori that 't is highly unlikely that Moses would take such a course and that unless the words of the History were too express and plain to be deny'd 't is extremely improbable so great a Lawgiver to go no farther would extend his Cosmogony beyond the ends of his Writing it and the Abilities of those who should read it or in other words 't is extreamly improbable that the Mosaick Creation is of any other Nature or Extent than the Proposition we are upon does assert IX Lastly I prove the Mosaick Creation extends no farther than this Earth and its Appendages because the Deluge and Conflagration whose Boundaries are the same with that of the Mosaick Creation extend no farther I shall here take it for granted That the limits here assign'd to the Deluge and Conflagration are just it being certain as to the former and I think more than probable as to the latter and only quote a place or two to prove the
six Days work to be of the very same and no larger extent than those are and leave the whole to the Judgment of the Reader There shall come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lusts and saying Where is the promise of his coming for since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation For this they willingly are ignorant of that by the word of God the heavens were of old and the earth standing out of the water and in the water whereby the world that then was being overflowed with water perished But the heavens and the earth which are now by the same word are kept in store reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent heat the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up In the day of God the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with fervent heat Nevertheless we according to his promise look for a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness Thou Lord in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth and the heavens are the works of thine hands They shall perish but thou remainest and they all shall wax old as doth a garment and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up and they shall be changed I have now finish'd all those Arguments which to me are fully satisfactory and I think prove beyond rational contradiction That not the vast Universe but the Earth alone with its dependencies are the proper subject of the Six Days Creation And that the Mosaick History is not a Nice Exact and Philosophick account of the several steps and operations of the whole but such an Historical Relation of each Mutation of the Chaos each successive day as the Journal of a Person on the Face of the Earth all that while would naturally have contained The sum of all is this 1. The very Words and Coherence of Moses himself require such a Construction 2. The Words of Creating Making or Framing things here us'd are commonly of no larger importance than this Proposition allows 3. The World or Heaven and Earth the objects of this Creation are alike frequently restrain'd to the sublunary World the Air and Earth 4. The Chaos that known fund and seminary of the Six Days Creation extended no farther 5. On the contrary supposition the time of the Creation of each Body is extremely disproportionate to the work it self 6. On the same supposition there is an intolerable disorder disproportion and confusion in the works themselves 7. The sinal cause of the six days Creation is the advantage of Mankind the Inhabitant of the Earth 8. Neither the intention of the Author nor the capacity of the Readers require or could bear any other account of the origin of things 9. Lastly Neither the Deluge nor Conflagration whose extent appears commensurate to that of this Creation are of any larger compass than is here assign'd Upon this view of the whole matter give me leave to say That to make the Universal Frame of Nature concern'd in the particular Fates and Revolutions of our Earth is at this time of day to demonstrate either very mean thoughts of the Ends of the Divine Workmanship and of the Essects thereof in the World or else very proud and extravagant conceits of our own worth and dignity and at best argues a narrow ignoble and unphilosophical Soul 'T is much such another Wise and Rational Notion as it would be to suppose that the whole Terraqueous Globe with all its parts and dependencies all its furniture and productions was alike concern'd in the Fates and Revolutions pardon the expressions of one single Fly or Worm belonging to it And we may e'en as fairly allow the intire dependence of this sublunary World on the fortune of such a single animalculum That on its peeping into the World the whole Earth must arise out of nothing to afford it a resting place while it was growing and continued in its prime all things below must spring and flourish rejoyce and look gay on its decay all things must put on a mournful countenance and on its destruction Universal Nature here beneath must expire together and return to its primitive nothing This representation will I imagine seem bold and extravagant But 't will be hard to prove it so And I may appeal to Astronomy whether the Earth can be shewn to bear as considerable a proportion to the Universe as such a poor animalculum does certainly bear to it I would not by this or any thing else I have heretofore said in this Discourse be so far mistaken as to be believ'd prone to depretiate and and debase Mankind or to put a slight on all those Works of Nature and Providence which are subservient to it Neither do I deny that in some sense all the Visible World Heaven and Earth are ordain'd for our use and advantage I fully believe that we are the Creatures of God of whom he has a tender regard and over whom he exercises a constant a special Care and Providence As I look upon the Souls of Men in their proper and primitive perfection when they came out of their Maker's Hands to be Noble to be Glorious to be Exalted Beings and perhaps in capacities or faculties in dignity or happiness not inferior to some of the Angelick Orders so I also most undoubtedly believe what our Saviour affirms of good mens state hereafter that they shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equal to the Angels and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Children of God himself While I am perswaded that the Creation of Man was not effected without the concurrence and joint consultation of the Blessed Trinity Nor his Redemption without the Acceptance of the Father the Sacrifice and Death of the Son in his Humane Nature and the Sanctification and Operation of the Holy Spirit While I am perswaded that the Divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 has ever since the Fall of Adam been sollicitous about our Reconciliation to God and made it his constant business even before as well as since his Incarnation to mediate for us and take care of our eternal happiness While I believe that by the new Covenant Good Men even in this Imperfect state are esteem'd Heirs of God joint-Heirs with Christ and denominated the Brethren and Friends of their Glorious Redeemer While I do not doubt but our Humane Nature is now in the Person of our Blessed Saviour in Heaven and there on account of the Hypostatical Union with the Eternal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and as a reward of that Obedience and Suffering it underwent for us on Earth advanc'd above the most exalted Intellectual Orders at the Right Hand of the Majesty on High
While I expect the same Person in the Glory of the Father coming to Judge the World in Righteousness and Mankind after that final doom to be partaker of everlasting Joy or Misery according to their behaviour here on Earth While I say I believe all this as I most sincerely do I can be under no temptation of looking with contempt upon or of entertaining a mean opinion of Mankind or of those Systems of Nature and Providence relating to it Yet all this notwithstanding I think that Opinion I am now exposing deserves no other Character than I have before given of it Tho' I look upon Mankind as one Species of very Noble and Glorious Creatures yet I suppose it but One and that there may be Millions of others at the least not inferior to him Tho' I believe Humane Nature when Innocent and Perfect at that height of Purity and Felicity which it once had and by the Christian Dispensation may be again advanc'd to as so considerable and exalted a Species of Beings yet withal I look upon it at present as under a very different Character We are all now in a deprav'd a sinful and so in a low a miserable state We have by our own wilful Rebellion and Disobedience made it necessary for God to place us in a short a vicious in an uneasie and vexatious World where at present we are under a sort of confinement in a place of Trial and Probation and through a doleful Wilderness must make our way to the Land of Canaan Quisque suos patimur manes We here feel the sad effects and punishments of former Sins We are left to struggle with great difficulties abide many assaults and undergo severe Agonies e're we must expect to recover our native dignity to retrieve our ancient felicity again Exinde per amplum Mittimur Elysium reduces laeta arva tenemus As flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God so that Kingdom is not of this World I see no reason to esteem the present condition of Mortality as at all considerable in it self tho' in its consequences it extremely be so in comparison of the past and future periods of our Beings and therefore without believing the Earth one of the greatest or noblest Globes in the World I can suppose it a very proper and suitable habitation for us at present Most wisely contriv'd as it certainly is and its Funiture peculiarly and wonderfully adapted to our needs capacities and operations I acknowledge that Providence has so constituted our Earth that we receive some advantages from all and very great ones from some other parts of the external and visible World All which were in the Original Creation of things both foreseen and foredesign'd by God and so may not improperly be so far said to have been made for our use and appointed to serve our necessities I do not think that those Systems of the Universe we here speak of are ever a whit the less useful to us or the benefits we reap from them ever the less in themselves or less worthy of our notice and observation our admiration and gratitude to God because they also are subservient to other noble purposes and are by Divine Providence made use of in several great designs over and above those advantages we are able to take notice of or can our selves enjoy from them I cannot imagine that God is peculiarly fond of any particular parts of the Material Creation or any more a Respecter of some inanimate Bodies than of Persons He no doubt equally makes use of them all according to their several kinds and capacities in the service of the various species of Intelligent Creatures and in the bringing about the great Periods of Nature and the Decrees of Heaven which as they are in great measure unknown to us so may they regard Rational Beings very different and remote from us and our concerns If we duly reflect on the Infinite Nature and unlimited Perfections of the Divine Being the Creator and Original of all things as well as on the number vastness and glory of those his works which are within our view we shall see reason to confess there may be millions of Nobler Intellectual Beings interposed between Man and God And the whole World might be more reasonably suppos'd made at the Creation and for the sole use of any one species of those than of Mankind If therefore we be unwilling to be our selves excluded from a share in the intentions and designs of Heaven let us not exclude any other rational Creatures from the same but be willing to suppose as this Earth was form'd in six days for the sake of Man so were the rest of the Heavenly Bodies form'd at other proper times for the sake of other of God's Creatures for whom Providence ought to be allow'd to have taken a proportionable Care and made a suitable provision as we our selves find has been done with regard to us and our affairs Let us learn humble and modest sentiments of our selves from the contemplation of the immensity of the Works of God in the World Which useful Lesson the Holy Psalmist would by his own example teach us With whose Natural and Pious Reflection in this very case I shall conclude this whole discourse When I consider thy Heavens the work of thy fingers the Moon and the Stars which thou hast ordained Lord what is Man that thou art mindful of him And the Son of Man that thou visitest him O Lord our Lord How excellent is thy name in all the Earth POSTULATA 1. THE Obvious or Literal Sense of Scripture is the True and Real one where no evident Reason can be given to the contrary II. That which is clearly accountable in a natural way is not without reason to be ascrib'd to a Miraculous Power III. What Ancient Tradition asserts of the constitution of Nature or of the Origin and Primitive States of the World is to be allow'd for True where 't is fully agreeable to Scripture Reason and Philosophy A NEW THEORY OF THE EARTH BOOK I. LEMMATA I. ALL Bodies will persevere for ever in that state whether of Rest or Motion in which they once are if no other force or impediment act upon them or suffer by them II. All Motion is of it self rectilinear and with the same constant uniform Celerity if no other external Cause disturb it Corollary 1. 'T is evident from these two Propositions that Matter is intirely a passive Substance Coroll 2. No Spontaneous Motion or Action can be the effect of meer Matter Coroll 3. The Soul of Man whose least Power seems to be that of Spontaneous Motion is incorporeal which is also a necessary consequence of the first Corollary for if Matter be perfectly a passive Thing the Soul which is so active a Being cannot be material Coroll 4. The Bruit Creatures giving all possible Demonstrations of Spontaneous Motion and of a principle of Action cannot reasonably be suppos'd
In short while they are mov'd in so exceeding Eccentrical Orbits they can neither acquire or at least not long preserve such a permanent constitution as the Planets have and as the conservation of Plants and Animals do necessarily require and are therefore to be look'd upon in their present state as uninhabitable LX. But in case the Orbit of a Comet were chang'd into that of a Planet i. e. if its Eccentrical Ellipsis were turn'd into a Concentrical Circle or an Ellipsis not much deffering therefrom at a suitable and convenient distance from the Sun there is no reason to doubt but the parts of that confused Atmosphere which now encompass it to such a prodigious distance would subside and settle downwards according to their several Specifick Gravities and both obtain and preserve as setled fixt and orderly a constitution as a Planet has Which Constitution if the Atmosphere of a Comet were as well predispos'd for the same as the original Chaos of a Planet would produce a Planet as fit for the growth of Vegetables and the habitation of Animals as that on which we live or any other in the Solar System LXI Besides the Central Solid or Body of the Comet and its vast Atmosphere encompassing it there is also a long lucid Train which in the approach to the Sun is by it acquir'd and appears to be nothing else but the Lightest and Rarest parts of its Atmosphere rarified by the Sun's heat which becoming thereby lighter than the Sun 's own Atmosphere rise in a mist or steam of vapours towards the parts opposite to the Sun and are call'd the Tail of it LXII This immense Cylindrical Column of rarifi'd Vapour tho' its Crassitude or Diameter be usually more than 400000 miles is so very much expanded and in so exceeding rare a condition that the fix'd Stars may be discern'd quite through the same LXIII This so rare fine expanded Vapour moves regularly with and accompanies the Comet it self in its intire course any way whatsoever even through the System of the Planets and that without any disturbance Coroll The vast spaces between and beyond the Planets are not full of subtile or ethereal matter but either perfectly or at least sensibly a real vacuum or void LXIV The Phaenomena of Comets Motions suppose and depend on the annual motion of the Earth without which they are insoluble Thus they sometimes seem to move with greater sometimes with lesser Velocity than the rules of their own or indeed any other regular motion require or permit Nay sometimes they appear to us Stationary and Retrograde All which as in the Planets will naturally arise from the motion of the Earth and of the Spectators Eye therewith and is thence exactly deducible but without that Hypothesis cannot be accounted for Thus also towards the end of their appearances they seem to deflect from that great Circle in which they before were seen to move the motion of the Earth then being more considerable compar'd with that of the Comets and so causing a more sensible Parallax or diversity of appearance than before while their own motion was so much swifter And the same is observable in their other Phaenomena Corollary Hence arises a convincing argument for the annual motion of the Earth Which as 't was known to be necessary to account for the Phaenomena of Planets before so now appears no less so in relation to those of the Comets All the Heavenly Motions at last attesting the truth and establishing the certainty of the same LXV Some Comets approach in their Perihelia so very near to the Sun that they must be prodigiously heated and scorch'd thereby and this to such a degree that they may not be intirely cool'd in very many thousands of years Thus the last famous Comet 1680 1681. at its Perihelion on the 8 th of December 1680 sustain'd a degree of heat 28000 times as great as that we feel with us in Summer or about 2000 times as intense as is that of a red hot Iron So that by Mr. Newton's Calculation if that Comet were as big as our Earth as Dense and Solid as Iron and were throughout equally heated to the fore-mention'd degree 't would scarce in our Air be fully cool'd in 50000 years And by consequence in the vastly rarer Atmosphere of the Sun in which the Heavenly Bodies revolve not under a vastly longer time Corollary 1. Comets do not wholly consist of vapours exhalations or such other dissipable matter as was formerly suppos'd Otherwise they must have been utterly uncapable of sustaining any part of so violent a heat which yet we see they sometimes do without an intire Dissipation and Dissolution Coroll 2. When the Atmosphere of a Comet is chiefly a Fluid and yet but a small part thereof by the utmost heat capable of rarefaction which appears from the but small diminution of the Atmosphere when the Tail is largest and the Heat most intense 't is evident that its Fluid is a very different one from those we are here acquainted withal For when the main bulk thereof retains its constitution and situation quite through the action of the most violent heat imaginable which would dissipate and rarifie all the Watery and perhaps Earthy parts visible with us it must by its mighty density gravity compactness or some other property not belonging to Fluids here on Earth be uncapable of greater expansion than it has of it self and be a Compact Dense or Heavy Fluid or Mass of Fluids of which we have no obvious example and for which we have no proper Epithet or Name amongst us Coroll 3. Tho' Vapour or the small parts of Water be the soonest subject to rarefaction and the Tail of à Comet before its approach to the Sun be therefore perhaps nothing but a mist or steam of such Vapours yet may the same Tail after the Perihelion be in part composed of more gross heavy and opake corpuscles For when the intenseness of the heat in the Perihelion is sufficient to dissolve and rarifie not vapour alone but Sulphur Niter Coal or other Gross and Earthy Steams and Exhalations whatsoever of such a Nature the Atmosphere of the Comet contains will sure be in some sort affected and elevated with the Vapour into the Tail upon such an approach of the Comet to the Sun as we are speaking of Tho' therefore the Tail should be suppos'd in its descent towards the Sun to be pure unmixed Vapour or Watery Particles as withal the outmost regions of the Atmosphere it self in probability are yet the same Tail after the Perihelion ought to be esteem'd a more Heterogeneous and impure mixture especially in the lowest spaces of it and those parts which are nearest to that Atmosphere it self from whence the whole does proceed LXVI The Diurnal Motion of Planets is in it self perfectly distinct from and wholly independent on the Annual This I hope will be universally granted without any necessity of a demonstration LXVII If a Chaos i. e. a
neither elevated nor depress'd but situate at the Horizon would seem intirely chang'd and particularly at the Intersection of such ancient Ecliptick and the succeeding Northern Tropick the Northern Pole would appear to be elevated above the Southern depress'd below the Horizon and the Sun and Planets whose Motions were before over the Vertex and at right Angles with the Horizon would appear inclin'd or bent towards the Southern parts and that way become oblique and at unequal Angles with the Horizon for ever after Corollary 1. To the Inhabitants of that place last mention'd the beginning of the Night and of the Autumn or Sun-set and the Autumnal Equinox would in such a Primitive State of a Planet be exactly Coincident And vice versa the place to which they were so coincident was that Intersection just now assign'd or at least under the same Meridian therewith Coroll 2. Such a Planet would be more equally habitable in the Second than in the First State For from the Sphaerical Figure of the Planet at first the Central Hot Body of which hereafter would equally reach all the Regions and the Sun chiefly affect the Torrid Zone and still less the Temperate but least of all the Frigid ones as he does at present So that if any one of these Climates by reason of the due proportion of heat afforded it from the Sun were habitable neither of the other could with any sort of equality be so too But when the Figure of the Planet became an oblate Sphaeroid as on the commencing of the Diurnal Rotation we have shew'd it would the proportion of heat would be upon the whole more equable through the several Climates of the Planet the greater vicinity of the Central Hot Body to the Frigid Zones in some measure compensating the greater directness of the Sun's Position to the Torrid one and rendring the compleat surface of the Planet pretty universally habitable on account thereof Coroll 3. Where the States of External Nature are so very different as on the same Planet before and after its Diurnal Rotation begin they appear to be 't is reasonable to suppose that the Natures Constitutions and Circumstances of Creatures which were the Inhabitants in such different States must be suitably and proportionably different from one another Coroll 4. 'T is therefore without due allowance for every thing very unsafe arguing from one State or its Circumstances to another and very unjust to conclude things unaccountable or absurd in one only because they are strange and unknown to the other State The like is to be said of Phrases Descriptions or Relations concerning one which may easily be misunderstood in the other without an exact Consideration and Allowance for the Diversity of things belonging thereto LXXI If the Atmosphere of a Comet or any other such a fluid confused Chaos were by a regular and orderly Digestion and Subsidence brought into a consistent and durable state the universal Law of specifick Gravity must prevail and each Mass take its place generally speaking according to it whether 't were fluid or solid from the Center to the Circumference of the whole LXXII Fluids are capable of all degrees of Density and specifick Gravity as well as Solids Thus the Proportion of the heaviest and lightest Fluids Quicksilver and Oyl are nearly as fifteen and one when yet the Proportion of the heaviest solid Gold and the lightest Earth or Mold which we find here is not quite as ten to one On which account 't is highly reasonable to allow that possibly there may be as much Variety and Diversity in the Fluids belonging to a Planet as we see there is in the Solids thereof Corollary From these two last Lemmata it appears as reasonable to suppose a great part of the internal Constitution of a Planet to be a Fluid or System of Fluids as to be a Solid or System of firm and earthly Strata which yet is usually suppos'd and which of these Hypotheses best suits the Constitution of the Original Chaos and the Phaenomena of Nature afterward is in reason to be embrac'd LXXIII In the Formation of a Planet from a Chaos it must be much more rare and unusual to lodge very heavy Fluids near the superficiary Regions among Bodies of a lighter and rarer Texture than Solids equally so For the Corpuscles of very dense and heavy Solids when they are once entangled among and mixed with others tho' of very different density and specifick Gravity must afterward let the place proper for Bodies of their weight be never so much nearer the Center lye according to their first casual Situation Thus if you take dust of Gold Silver or Brass with Sand Gravel or Saw-dust and mix them or let them subside indifferently together as they place themselves at first so notwithstanding their different weight will they be situate ever after But in Fluids the case is quite otherwise for they will obtain their due place not only when mixed with Fluids but with any solid Corpuscles whatsoever Nay besides that they will penetrate the Interstices of heavier Bodies than themselves and unless where they are firmly consolidated or conjoin'd together will settle into and fill up the same without any regard to the Situation according to specisick Gravity Fluids are compos'd of moveable separable parts diffusing subsiding and flowing every where and thereby will be so far from resting at Regions too high and remote from the Center considering their specifick Gravity that how light soever they are unless the earthy Parts under them be either fixt and consolidated or their Interstices already intirely fill'd and satur'd they will insinuate themselves and by degrees approach as near as possible to the Center of that Planet to which they belong Corollary 1. Tho' our Earth should contain vast quantities of dense and heavy Fluids within as well as like dense and heavy Solids yet 't is more strange that we have near the Surface one Specimen of the former viz. Quicksilver than that we have so many sorts and so much larger Quantities of the latter the Mineral and Metallick Bodies much denser and heavier than that common Earth among which they are found Coroll 2. No Argument can be drawn from the variety of dense and heavy Solids and the single instance of a dense and heavy Fluid to prove the improbability of a vast subterraneous dense and heavy Fluid or System of Fluids on whose Surface our Orb of Earth may be suppos'd to rely if the other Phoenomena of Nature require such an Hypothesis LXXIV If a Chaos were chiefly compos'd of a dense Fluid of greater specifick Gravity than its solid dry or earthy Parts the place of such a dense Fluid upon a regular Formation would be nearest the Center and the solid or earthy Mass would encompass it round enclose it within it self and rest upon its Surface and vice versâ if an Orb of Earth be situate on the Surface of a Fluid that Fluid is denser and heavier
than the intire Columns of such an Orb of Earth consider'd together LXXV If a Solid be either contain'd in or fall upon a Fluid of greater specifick Gravity than it self it will neither sink to the bottom subside intirely within nor emerge quite out of the same but part of it remaining immers'd the other part will be extant above the Surface of the Fluid and that in a different degree proportionably to the different specifick Gravity of the Solid compar'd with that of the Fluid LXXVI Such a Solid will continue to that certain depth immers'd in the Fluid before-mention'd that if the space taken up thereby were fill'd with the Fluid that Portion of the Fluid were exactly equal in weight to the whole Solid Thus if a Cube of Wood or Brass were immers'd in a Fluid of twice its specifick Gravity it would one half subside within and the other half be extant above the Surface of the Fluid If it were immers'd in a Fluid of thrice its specifick Gravity two thirds of it would be extant and but a third part inclos'd within the said Surface and suitably hereto in all other Proportions whatsoever These two Propositions are demonstrated by Archimedes and are the known Foundations of Hydrostaticks LXXVII If therefore solid Bodies equal in visible Bulk or taking up equal Spaces but of unequal density and specifick Gravity rest upon the Surface of a Fluid denser and heavier than themselves they must remain immers'd in the same in different degrees the heaviest sinking deepest and the lightest being the most extant above the Fluid Thus if six several Cubes of equal apparent Magnitude made of Gold Lead Silver Brass Iron and Stone were laid upon the same Fluid denser and heavier than any of them every one severally would sink so much deeper as it was heavier and thereby the upper Surface arising from them all become very unequal LXXVIII If upon the first general Digestion and Separation of Parts in a Chaos the upper Regions are for the most part compos'd of liquid or fluid Bodies with only a few dry solid or earthy Parts intermixt the outward Surface after the Formation is intirely over will be smooth and even as the Surface of Liqours constantly of it self is But if on the contrary the quantity of dry solid or earthy Parts be vastly greater than of the liquid or fluid ones the Surface will be rugged and uneven by the different degree of the Immersion of the different Columns thereof in that dense Fluid or Abyss upon which the Orb is plac'd Corollary 1. In the former case all the Corpuscles will obtain their proper place the Fluidity freely permitting their passage according to their respective specifick Gravity But in the latter they must take their places rather according as they chanc'd to be before situate than according as their specifick Gravity would of it self determine them The case of that part of the Lemma and of this Corollary being almost the same with that before mention'd where the Dust of Gold Silver or Brass with Sand Gravel or Saw-dust are suppos'd to be let fall uncertainly upon a Fluid heavier than the whole mixed Mass taken together For those Columns where the Gold and other Metallick Dust were predominant sinking farthest and those where Sand or the other lighter Particles were so not so far into the Fluid the upper Surface must be uneven and withal the several Species of Corpuscles retain that place where they chanc'd to be at first dispos'd without any possibility of recovering any other which by the Law of specifick Gravity were due to them Coroll 2. If therefore the upper Regions of a Chaos whose quantity of Liquid is very small in comparison of its solid Corpuscles do subside into a Fluid of greater specifick Gravity than its own Columns taken together are an Orb of earth will be compos'd on the Surface of the Fluid and its different Columns being made up of Bodies of very different Natures and specifick Gravities as must happen in such a confused heterogeneous Mass as we call a Chaos particularly the Atmosphere of a Comet that Orb will sink into the Fluid in different degrees and thereby render its Surface unequal or distinguished into Mountains Plains and Vallies So that by how much any Column was compos'd of rarer more porous and lighter Bodies by so much would it produce a higher Mountain and in like manner by how much a Column was compos'd of more close fix'd dense and solid Bodies by so much would it produce a lower Valley and so vice versâ the higher any Mountain the more rare porous and light its Column and the lower any Valley the more fix'd close dense and solid its Column must needs be suppos'd Coroll 3. If therefore any Planet be immediately on its first Formation of an unequal Surface compos'd of Mountains Plains and Valleys and the order of its internal Strata be disagreeable to the Law of specifick Gravity it has exactly proper Indications to prove that the quantity of Fluids in the upper Regions was originally small in comparison of its earthy Parts and that such an uneven Orb is situate on a Fluid denser and heavier than it self Which case how exactly it corresponds to the known Circumstances of our Earth is left to the consideration of the Reader LXXIX If any of the Heavenly Bodies be plac'd near a Planet by the inequality of its Attraction of the Parts at unequal distances from it a double Tide or Elevation of the Fluids thereto belonging whether they be inclos'd within an Orb of Earth or whether they be on its Surface above must certainly arise and the Diurnal Rotation of such a Planet being suppos'd must cause such a successive Flux and Reflux of the said Fluids as our Ocean is now agitated by Thus if adbc be the Earth and biDh be a Comet or any one of the Heavenly Bodies plac'd near the same and the upper Orb of Earth be situate above a vastly large fluid Abyss the Comet or Heavenly Body will considerably more attract the nearer parts about b than it does those about the Line dc or the middle parts of the Earth by which Attraction whereever the Particles attracted are not solid fixed and unmoveable they will be elevated or raised into a Protuberance dbc In like manner the Comet or Heavenly Body will considerably more attract the middle parts near the Line dc than those more remote about a and thereby occasion their slower Motion towards it self than that of the foresaid middle parts and consequently permit them to remain farther off the Center or which is all one to elevate themselves into the opposite Protuberance dac And this Effect not depending on the Situation of the Fluid under the Orb of Earth is equally evident with respect to the Atmosphere and Ocean upon as any Abyss beneath the same and so must cause a double Tide or Elevation of the Fluids of the Globe And this double Tide by the Diurnal
Rotation of the Earth from West to East will shift continually from East to West and cause that Elevation and Depression of the Ocean twice each Revolution which we so wonder at and take so much notice of amongst us Corollary 1. When therefore the Vicinity of the Moon and the Vastness of the Sun's Body make their force considerable with regard to the Fluids of our Earth their several Attractions must produce two several double Protuberances Tides or Elevations of the Ocean and Atmosphere thereof whence must arise very remarkable Phaenomena relating thereto of which in the following Corollaries Coroll 2. The sensible Elevation or Tide would be only double as if it arose from one of the Luminaries but such as from the Composition of their attractive Power were to be expected Coroll 3. When therefore the Sun and Moon 's Forces unite or when they are situate in or near the same Line through the Center of the Earth which happens only at the New and Full Moon the Tides must be the greatest and when their Forces contradict each other or when they are situate in the middle between the New and Full at the Quadratures the Tides must be the least In the former case the visible Flux and Reflux arises from the Summe and in the latter from the Difference of their Attractions and so the Spring-Tides after the New and Full are the result of the Elevation and Depression of both the Sun and Moon conjoyntly but the Nepe-Tides after the Quadratures the result only of the prevailing Elevation and Depression of the Moon above those of the Sun and by consequence exactly agreeable to experience much less than the other Coroll 4. As if the Luminaries were situate in the Axis of the Earth the Diurnal Revolution would not more expose any places to their force one time than another and no Reciprocation of Flux and Reflux would arise so the nearer they are to such a Position the less must such a Reciprocation be and the farther from such a Position the greater On which account The Elevation or Tide must be greater after the Equinoxial New and Full Moon than after the Solstitial and the highest Spring-Tides be those about March 10. and September 12. as all Experience atlests them to be and the Situation of the Luminaries near the Equator of the Earth and farthest from the Poles does require Coroll 5. When by the Vicinity of the Moon the visible Tides follow her Influence and when withal our Earth in about 243 4 Hours recovers the same Situation with regard to her 't is evident That in the said space each Part of the Ocean must have twice been elevated and twice depress'd or had a double Flux and double Reflux of its Waters as all Observation assures us it really has LXXX The Elevations or Tides caused by two different Bodies at the same distance are always proportionable to the Quantity of Matter in the same attractive Bodies as from the force of Gravitation in general proportionable to the attracting Body will easily be understood Thus if a Comet or Planet whose Quantity of Matter were ten or twelve times as much as the Moon 's were at an equal distance with her from the Center of the Earth the Tides whether of the internal Abyss if such there be or external Air and Water would be ten or twelve times as high as those she is the cause of with us LXXXI The Elevations or Tides caused by the same or an equal Body at various distances are reciprocally in a triplicate Proportion of such distances Thus if the Moon should approach as near again to the Earth's Center as now she is the Tides would be eight times as high if thrice as near twenty seven times as high if four times as near sixty four times as high as those she at her present distance produces Corollary 1. Hence appears which Mr. Bentley has in part also observ'd a signal Instance of the Divine Providence respecting the Constitution of the World in placing the Heavenly Bodies at so vast a distance from each other and the greatest at the greatest distance that when we consider it we cannot but be amazed at it For had they been situate any whit near to one another they would have caus'd prodigious Disorders and in particular such destructive Tides whenever there was vast quantities of Fluids or a great Ocean that neither Plant nor Animal could have avoided its force or sustain'd its fury which by the wise placing the Heavenly Bodies at so vast a distance is intirely prevented Coroll 2. The same careful Providence is alike and on the like accounts conspicuous in the smallness of the secondary Planets whose nearness otherwise being so great must have been attended by the foremention'd Inconveniences but is now perfectly secure from them Thus for instance our secondary Planet the Moon which is so near to us is withal so small but the 26 th part so big as the Earth not the 700 th part so big as Saturn nor the 1400 th as Jupiter nor near the millioneth as the Sun that the Tides so caused are but of some few Feet in height very moderate not at all incommodicus nay in truth very advantagious to us which in the other secondary Planets is also no less true and no less remarkable LXXXII Of the two Protuberances produc'd by the presence of a Comet or other Coelestial Body that which is directly towards that Body as dbc is larger and higher than the opposite one dac This is à priori demonstrable and found agreeable to experience also LXXXIII If such a double Tide were very great and should on a sudden be produc'd in a subterraneous Abyss on whose Surface an Orb of Earth fix'd and consolidated together were situate it would raise or depress the Regions of that Orb as it self was rais'd or depress'd and by putting on the Figure of an Oblong Sphaeroid such as an Ellipsis revolving about its longer Axis would generate and thereby increasing its Surface so much that the Orb of Earth could not fit and enclose it Uniformly as before would strain and stretch the said Orb of Earth would crack and chap it and cause Fissures and Breaches quite through the same All which is easily understood from what has been already said of a Case very agreeable to this we are now upon and so can stand in need of no farther Explication here BOOK II. HYPOTHESES I. THE Ancient Chaos the Origin of our Earth was the Atmosphere of a Comet This Proposition however new and surprizing will I hope appear not improbable when I shall have shewn That the Atmosphere of a Comet has those several Properties which are recorded of the Ancient Chaos That it has such peculiar Properties besides as lay a rational Foundation for some of those Phaenomena of our Earth which can scarce otherwise be Philosophically explain'd and that no other Body or Mass of Bodies now known or ever heard of
the Phaenomena of Nature rendred plain and intelligible For a Comet besides its thinner fluid Atmosphere consisting of a large dense solid central Body and sometimes approaching so near the Sun that the immense Heat acquir'd then tho' sooner failing in the thinner and expos'd Atmosphere will not do so in the central Solid under very many thousands of Years nothing can better suit the case of our present Earth than to allow a Comet 's Atmosphere to have been her Chaos and the Central Body of the Comet the Source and Origin of that Central heat which our Earth appears still to inclose within it 8. The bigness of Comets and their Atmospheres agrees exactly with the supposition we are now upon For tho' the Atmospheres are 10 or perhaps 15 times in Diameter as big as the Central Bodies which yet have been formerly observ'd to be near the Magnitude of the Planets and thereby of a much larger capacity than this Argument supposes yet if from that thin rare expanded state in which they now are they were suppos'd to subside or settle close together and immediately rest upon the Central Body as on a Formation they must do the intire mass would make much such Bodies in Magnitude as the Planets are As Astronomers from the observations made about them must freely confess So that when to all the other inducements to believe these Atmospheres to be the same Masses of Bodies we call Chao's from one of which all Antiquity Sacred and Prophane derive the Origin of our Earth it appears that the Magnitude is also exactly correspondent I know not what can be alledg'd to take off or weaken the force of them Which general conclusion might be confirm'd by some other similitudes between them and the Planets observable in the succeeding Theory or probably deduc'd from their Phaenomena which I shall not at present insist particularly upon So that on the whole matter upon the credit of the foregoing Arguments united together and conspiring to the same Conclusion I may I think venture to affirm That as far as hitherto present Nature and Ancient Traditions are known 't is very reasonable to believe that a Planet is a Comet form'd into a regular and lasting constitution and plac'd at a proper distance from the Sun in a Circular Orbit or one very little Eccentrical and a Comet is a Chaos i. e. a Planet unform'd or in its primaeval state plac'd in a very Eccentrical one And I think I may fairly appeal to all that the most Ancient History or Solid Philosophy can produce hereto relating in attestation to such an Assertion Especially considering withal 9. Lastly That there is no other pretender no other Mass of Bodies now known or ever related to have been known in the whole System of Nature which can stand in competition or so much as seem to agree to the description of the Ancient Chaos but that which is here assign'd and pleaded for Now this I am secure of and all will and must grant They cannot but be forc'd to confess that the Atmosphere of a Comet set aside they have no other Idea of the Nature and Properties of that Mass of Bodies call'd a Chaos but what profane Tradition with the concurrence of the Holy Books afford them without any visible instance or pattern in Nature Which acknowledgement join'd to the remarkable correspondence of the particulars before-mention'd and the no objection of any moment as far as I see to be produc'd to the contrary is I think a mighty advantage in the present case All that can reasonably be requir'd farther is that the Phaenomena of the Earth to be superstructed on this foundation and deriv'd successively through the several Periods to the consummation of all things prove coincidents to this Hypothesis and confirm the same Which being the attempt of the following Theory must be by no means here pretended to before-hand but left to the Impartial Judgment of the Reader when he is arriv'd at the end of his Journey and digested the whole Scheme From the intire and conjoint View whereof and not from any particulars by the way occasionally reflected on a prudent and well-grounded Sentence is to be pass'd upon it and upon several of the prior Conclusions themselves also However when here is a known and visible foundation to depend on and the Reader is refer'd to no other Chaos than what himself has seen or 't is probable may in a few years have opportunity of seeing it must be at the least allow'd a fair and natural procedure and of the consequences whereof every thinking and inquisitive Person will be a proper Judge The reasonings proceeding without begging any precarious Hypothesis at first of the nature of that old fund and promptuary whence all was to be deriv'd or sending the Reader to the utmost Antiquity for his Notion thereof to which yet in the most Authentick accounts of the Primitive Chaos now extant I fear not to appeal and submit my self II. The Mountainous Columns of the Earth are not so dense or heavy as the other Columns This Proposition will also I imagine be new and unexpected to very many but I hope the following Arguments which I shall very briefly propose will demonstrate it to be no unreasonable or precarious one 1. Mountains are usually Stony and Rocky and by consequence lighter than the main Body of the Earth For tho' Stone be somewhat heavier than the uppermost Stratum or Garden Mold as some stile it yet 't is considerably lighter than that beneath the same For if we compare its weight with that in the bottom of our Mines which is alone considerable to our purpose our upper strata as will hereafter appear being generally factitious or acquir'd at the Universal Deluge we shall be forc'd to own the necessity of the consequence of the present Argument The Specifick Gravity of Stone is to that of Water as 14 to 51 3. but the Specifick Gravity of the Earth at the bottom of our Mines is to that of Water as 3 to 1 sometimes as 4 to 1 nay sometimes almost as 5 to 1 and therefore to be sure considerably Denser and Heavier than Stone So that were the Mountainous Columns of the Earth intirely made up of Stone they would without the consideration of those empty Caverns they inclose be plainly the lightest parts of the whole Earth 2. Those very Dense and Heavy Corpuscles of Gold Lead Silver and other such like Metals and Minerals are mostly if not only found in the Bowels of Mountains Now when the Gravity of these Bodies is so great that in a regular formation they ought to have seated themselves one would think much nearer the Center than they now are to account for such their position it must be suppos'd that the Columns under them and the Earth among them were lighter and rarer than the Neighbouring Columns did afford that upon the whole the intire Compositum or Mass taken together may be
allow'd to be if not lighter yet at least not heavier than others at the same distance from the Center So that by a just tho' a little surprizing way of reasoning from the greater weight of some parts of the Mountainous Columns the less weight of the whole is infer'd 3. Mountains are the principal Source and Origin of Springs and Fountains Now Dr. Woodward from his own observations asserts That these are neither deriv'd from Vapours condens'd in the Air at the Tops of Mountains nor from meer Rains or fall of Moisture as several have differently asserted but from the Waters in the Bowels of the Earth and that 't is a Steam or Vapour rais'd by the Subterraneous Heat which affords the main part of their Waters to them On which Hypothesis which I take to be the truest and most rational of all others the Vapours appear to have a more free and open vent or current up the Mountainous Columns than the neighbouring ones and consequently They are more rare laxe and porous or less dense and weighty than the others 4. All Volcano's or subterraneous Fires are in the Bowels of some Mountain to which a Plain or a Valley was never known to be liable Which observation affords a double Argument for such a levity and rareness as we are now contending for The One from the temper of an inflammable Earth Sulphureous and Bituminous which being in part made up of Oily Particles the lightest Fluid we have must in likelihood be the lightest of all Strata whatsoever The other from the free admission of Air into the Bowels of these Mountains without which no Fire or Flame can be preserv'd Which also infers such a porosity and laxeness as we are now concern'd to prove 5. Mountainous Countries are chiefly subject to Earthquakes and consequently are as well Sulphreous and Inflammable as Hollow and Cavernous Loose and Spungy in their inward parts without which properties the Phaenomena of Earthquakes were difficultly accountable Especially according to Dr. Woodward's Hypothesis of them who deriving them from steams of Subterraneous heat ascending from the Central parts and collected in great quantities together must by consequence own that the Bowels of Mountains so commonly subject to Earthquakes are most Pervious Porous and Cavernous of all other All which Arguments especially taken together with some other coincidences hereafter observable will I hope be esteem'd no inconsiderable evidence of the Truth of the Proposition we are now upon III. Tho' the Annual Motion of the Earth commenc'd at the beginning of the Mosaick Creation yet it s Diurnal Rotation did not till after the Fall of Man Tho' I cannot but expect that this will appear the greatest Paradox and most extravagant Assertion of all other to not a few Readers yet I hope to give so great evidence for the same from Sacred as well as Prophane Authority that competent and impartial Judges shall see reason to say that if it be not sufficient to force their assent yet 't is such as they did not expect in so surprizing remote and difficult a case the Records relating to which the Sacred Ones excepted are so few so dubious and so ancient and the constant opinion of the World within the Memory of History so fixt and setled on the contrary side Let it only be by way of Preparation remark'd That the Annual and Diurnal Motions are in themselves wholly independent on each other as was before taken notice and consequently that 't is as rational to suppose the former without the latter if there be evidence for the same in the Original State of Nature as 't is to believe them capable of being conjoin'd from the known Phaenomena of the World in the present state Let it also be observ'd that there is yet no evidence that either the Central Bodies of any of the Comets or that even several of the Planets who undoubtedly have an Annual Motion about the Sun have yet any Diurnal Rotation about Axes of their own And let it lastly be consider'd that when the Diurnal Rotation must have an Original a time when it began that time may as rationally and naturally be suppos'd after the Fall as before the Creation or Six days Work and which was the true and real one must be determin'd by the Testimonies of Antiquity or other Collateral Arguments to be from thence or from the Phaenomena of Nature Ancient or Modern deriv'd and infer'd Which things beings suppos'd I thus attempt to prove the present Assertion If the Primitive State of Nature before the Fall had those peculiar Phaenomena or Characters which certainly belong to a Planet before its Diurnal Rotation began and are as certainly impossible in the present state of the Earth revolving about its own Axis 't is plain the Assertion before us is true and real But that those peculiar Phaenomena or Characters did belong to that Primitive State the Testimonies of Sacred and Profane Antiquity to be presently produc'd do make appear and by consequence the Assertion before us is true and real The Phaenomena or Peculiar distinguishing Characters here intended have been already mention'd and are these five 1. A Day and a Year are all one 2. The Sun and Planets Rose in the West and Set in the East 3. There was through the whole Earth a perpetual Equinox 4. The Ecliptick and Equator were all one or rather the latter was not in Being but all the Heavenly Motions were perform'd about the same invariable Axis that of the former 5. To such as liv'd under the Ecliptick the Poles of the same or of the World they being then not different were neither elevated nor deprest but at the Horizon These are the certain and undeniable Characters of such a state And that they belong'd to the Primitive State of our Earth before the Fall I am now to prove 1. In the Primitive state of the World Days and Years were all one Which Assertion I endeavour to Evince by the following Arguments 1. On this Hypothesis the Letter of Moses is as exactly followed as in the contrary one 'T is agreed that Moses calls the several Revolutions of the Sun in which the Creation was Perfected Days every where in that History Now as a Year is properly the succession of the four several Seasons Spring Summer Autumn and Winter arising from one single Revolution of the Earth about the Sun so a Day is the succession of Light and Darkness once or the space of one single apparent Revolution of the Sun from any certain Semimeridian above or below the Horizon till its return thither again Now in the case before us both these Periods are exactly coincident and both are perform'd in the same space of time Which space therefore in equal propriety of speech belongs to either or both those names indifferently and by consequence may with the exactest Truth and Propriety be stil'd a Day or a Year Which thing duly consider'd if I had no
of the Prophetick numbers I mean the involving their Predictions in so much and no more obscurity as might conceal their meaning till their completion or till such time at least as the Divine Wisdom thought most proper for their manifestation in succeeding Ages So that this Argument demonstrates the present Exposition to afford a natural foundation of accounting for such ways of speaking in 〈◊〉 Holy Scriptures which otherwise are as t 〈…〉 casion and Original unaccountable and consequently proves it to be as truly agreeable to the Stile as the former did to the Letter thereof 3. The six Days of Creation and the seventh of Rest were by Divine Command to be in after Ages commemorated by Years as well as by Days and so in reason answered alike to both those denominations 'T is evident that the Works of the Creation were compleated in six Evenings and Mornings or six Revolutions of the Sun call'd Days and that the seventh was immediately set apart and sanctified as a Day of Rest and Memorial of the Creation just before compleated and 't is evident that this Sanctification of the seventh as well as the operations of the six foregoing belong'd to the Primitive state of the World before the Fall Now that we may know what sort of Days these were 't will be proper to enquire into the ensuing times and observe after the distinction of Days and Years undoubtedly obtain'd what constant Revolutions of six for Work and a seventh for Rest there appear or in what manner and by what spaces these Original ones were commemorated which will go a great way to clear the Point we are upon And here 't is evident that when God gave Laws to the Israelites he allow'd them six ordinary Days of Work and ordain'd the seventh for a Day of Rest or Sabbath in Imitation and Memory of His Working the first six and Resting or keeping a Sabbath on the Seventh Day at the Creation of the World This the Fourth Commandment so expresly asserts that 't is past possibility of question 'T is moreover evident that God upon the Children of Israels coming into the Land of Canaan ordained with reference as 't is reasonable to suppose to the same Primitive State of the World the six Days of Creation and the Sabbath That six Years they should Sow their Fields and six Years they should Prune their Vineyard and gather in the Fruits thereof But in the seventh Year should be a Sabbath of Rest unto the Land a Sabbath for the Lord They were neither to Sow their Field nor Prune their Vineyard Then was the Land to keep a Sabbath unto the Lord. So that if we can justly presume that the primary spaces of the World here refer'd to were proper Evenings and Mornings or Natural Days because they were represented and commemorated by six Proper and Natural Days of Work and the seventh of Rest I think 't is not unreasonable to conclude they were Proper and Natural Years also considering they appear to have been among the same People by the same Divine Appointment represented and commemorated by these six Proper and Natural Years of Work and the seventh of Rest also Nay if there be any advantage on the side of Natural Days from the expressness of the reference they had to the Primitive ones which the Fourth Commandment forces us to acknowledge there will appear in what follows somewhat that may justly be esteem'd favourable on the side of Years Besides the six Days for Work and the seventh for Rest the Jews were commanded on the same account as we may justly suppose to number from the Passover seven times seven Days or seven Weeks of Days and at the conclusion of them to observe a solemn Feast call'd the Feast of Weeks or of Sabbaths once every year In like manner besides the Yearly Sabbath as I may call it or the seventh Year of Rest and Release after the six Years of Work the Jews were commanded on the same account as we may justly suppose to number seven Sabbaths of Years seven times seven Years and at the conclusion thereof to celebrate the great Sabbatical Year the Year of Jubilee They were neither to Sow nor Reap nor Gather in the Grapes but esteem it Holy and suffer every one to return to his Possession again Where that which is remarkable is this that when the Sabbatical Days and Sabbatical Years equally return'd by perpetual revolutions immediately succeeding one another yet the case was not the same as to the Feast of Weeks at the end of seven times seven Days that following the Passover and not returning till the next Passover again and so was but once a Year Whereas its corresponding Solemnities the Jubilees or great Sabbatical Years at the end of seven times seven Years did as the former return by perpetual revolutions immediately succeeding one another for all future Generations All which duely consider'd I think upon the whole 't is but reasonable to conclude That seeing the Primitive spaces or periods of Work and Rest appear by Divine Appointment to have been commemorated among the Jews by Years as well as by Days the same Primitive spaces or periods were equally Days and Years also 4. The Works of the Creation by the Sacred History concurring with Ancient Tradition appear to have been leisurely regular and gradual without any precipitancy or acceleration by a Miraculous hand on every occasion Which is impossible to be suppos'd in those Days of twenty four short hours only but if they were as long as the present Hypothesis supposes they were truly agreeable and proportionable to the same productions Which consequence will be so easily allow'd me that I may venture to say That as certain as is the regular and gentle the natural and leisurely procedure of the Works of the Creation of which I know no good Reason from any Warrant sacred or prophane to make any question so certain is the Proposition we are now upon or so certainly the Primitive Days and Years were all one 5. Two such Works are by Moses ascrib'd to the third Day which if that were not longer than one of ours now are inconceiveable and incompatible On the former part of this Day the Waters of the Globe were to be drain'd off all the dry Lands into the Seas and on the same Day afterward all the Plants and Vegetables were to spring out of the Earth Now the Velocity of running Waters is not so great as in a part of one of our short Days to descend from the middle Regions of the dry Land into the Seas adjoyning to them nor if it were could the Land be dry enough in an instant for the Production of all those Plants and Vegetables which yet we are assur'd appear'd the same Day upon the face of it which Difficulties vanish if we allow the primitive Days to have been Years also as will more fully be made appear in due place 6. Whatever might possibly be
of the Heavens was uniform which thing was the cause and original of the Golden Age and of all that happiness which therein Mankind enjoy'd or external Nature partook of which how well it suits the present Hpothesis I need not say All that exceeding happy State of Nature which innocent Man enjoy'd beyond what he does since the Fall being therein owing to such a Constitution of the World as this Author intimates and I am now proving Which in the last place shall be confirm'd from Baptista Mantuanus who says relating the Opinion of the old Astonomers All the Coelestial Spheres were in the beginning of the World concentrical and uniform in their Motion and the Zodiack of the Primum Mobile and that of the Planets the Equator and Ecliptick were united and coincident by which means all sublunary Bodies were more vivid and vigorous at that time than in the present Ages of the World as the Theorist sums up the force of his Testimony very agreeably to the Hypothesis before us of the Astronomy in the primitive State of the Heavens 5. To the first Inhabitants of the Earth dwelling at the Intersection of the ancient Ecliptick with the present Northern Tropick of which hereafter the Poles of the World were neither elevated nor depress'd but at the Horizon But sometime after the Formation of things they suddenly chang'd their Situation the Northern Pole appear'd to be elevated above and the Southern depress'd below the Horizon and the Course of the Heavens seem'd bent or inclin'd to the Southern Parts of the World or in plain words there was a new Diurnal Rotation began about the present Axis of the Earth which I take to be the true and easy Exposition of the same Phaenomena This Matter is much insisted on by the Ancients and being so will fully confirm our Assertion and give light and strength to some of the former Testimonies Plutarch has a Chapter entituled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of the Inclination of the Earth in which he thus recites the Opinion of Leucippus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the Earth fell or was enclin'd towards the Southern Regions by reason of the rareness of those Parts The Northern Regions being grown rigid and compact while the Southern were scorch'd or on fire Whose Opinion is also recited by Laertius in almost the same words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By reason of the failure in the Sun and Moon the Earth was bent or inclin'd towards the South But the Northern Regions grew rigid and inflexible by the snowy and cold Weather which ensued thereon To the same purpose is the Opinion of Democritus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That by reason of the Southern Ambient Air 's imbecillity or smaller Pressure the Earth in those Parts increas'd in bulk and so sunk and bent that way For the Northern Regions were ill temper'd but the Southern very well whereby the latter becoming fruitful waxed greater and by an over-weight preponderated and inclin'd the whole that way As express to the full is the Testimony of Empedocles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The North by reason of the Air 's yielding to the Sun's force was bent from its former Position whereupon the Northern Regions were elevated and the Southern depress'd as together with them was the whole World To which agrees Anaxagoras in these words which immediately follow those just before quoted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But afterward the Pole receiv'd a turn or inclination These so many and so pregnant Testimonies of Antiquity as to the matters of fact foregoing for as to the several Reasons assign'd by them they being I suppose but the single Conjectures of the Authors must be uncertain and need not be farther consider'd or insisted on in the present case seem to me so weighty that I cannot but build and rely very much upon them How should such strange and surprizing Paradoxes run so universally through the eldest Antiquity if there were not some ground or foundation in earnest for them 'T would be hard wholly to reject what were so unanimously vouched by the old Sages of Learning and Philosophy even tho' there were no other evidence or reason for our belief But when all these Authors the only competent Witnesses in the Case do but confirm what on other Accounts as we have seen and shall farther see there is so good reason to believe and when so great light is thereby afforded to the primitive Constitution of Nature and the Sacred History of the State of Innocency their Attestations are the more credible and the more valuable and in the highest degree worthy of our serious Consideration What I can foresee of Objection deserving our notice against what has been advanc'd from the Testimonies of the old Philosophers is this That they seem to favour the perpetual Equinox before the Flood by the right Position of the present Axis of the Earth parallel to that of the Ecliptick as the Theorist imagines and its Inclination or oblique Position acquir'd at the Deluge as the same Author supposes rather than the original Absence and subsequent commencing of the Diurnal Rotation after the Fall of Man as I here apply them I answer I. The Parallelism of the Axis of a Diurnal to that of an Annual Revolution is as far as I find a perfect stranger to the System of the World there being I think not one of the Heavenly Bodies Sun or Planet but has its own Axis oblique to the Orbit in which it moves 2. It will be farther evinc'd hereafter That de facto before the Flood the Axis of the Earth was Oblique to its Annual Orbit the Plain of the Ecliptick and the Year distinguish'd into the present Seasons Spring Summer Autumn and Winter 3. That equable and healthful Temper of the Air which the Theorist chiefly relied upon as necessary to the Longevity of the Antediluvians and fully prov'd by Antiquity shall be accounted for without such an Hypothesis 4. The Testimonies before alledg'd do not if rightly consider'd suit this Hypothesis nay in truth they fully confute it Of the five Characters before-mention'd under which we have reduc'd the main Testimonies there are two which are common to this and to the Theorist's Hypothesis viz. 1. The perpetual and universal Equinox 2. The coincidence of the Equator and Ecliptick tho' in somewhat a different manner So that the Testimonies for these two can neither establish the one nor the other as equally suiting them both The other three are peculiar to that Hypothesis we have been proving and by consequence at the same time establish that and confute the Theorist's Hypothesis And these three are 1. The Equality of a Day and a Year 2. The Sun and Planet's rising in the West and setting in the East 3. The Position of the Poles at the Horizon with the after Elevation of the Northern the Depression of the Southern Pole and the inclination or bending of the Heavenly Bodies Courses towards the South
that was so far from corresponding to those Seasons and that Revolution of the Sun which a Year was on purpose design'd to be commensurate to Which conclusion is farther confirm'd 2. By the Essential difference of the Ancient Years among several Nations since the Deluge Some of which made use of Solar and others of Lunar ones or endeavour'd to adjust their periods to those of each of these Luminaries This difference of Years is known in Antiquity has been the occasion of great disputes and is not yet a stranger to the World Nay as far as I find some of those Nations who agreed with the most general Standard of three hundred and sixty days suppos'd that number agreeable in some measure to the Lunar as well as to the Solar course as consisting nearly of twelve Synodical or Monthly Revolutions of the former as well as of a single Annual one of the latter and embrac'd it as much if not more on the account of its imagin'd correspondence with the Moon as of a like imagin'd correspondence with the Sun Now this Essential difference of Solar and Lunar Years in the eldest Antiquity after the Flood is on no other grounds so accountable as that the Antediluvian Year having been delivered down from their Fore-fathers to have agreed with the courses both of the Sun and Moon as on the present Hypothesis it really did some Nations followed one Branch and others another of the same Tradition And when they no longer were commensurate accommodated their accounts to the one or the other according as the one or the other was most prevalent and universal among them This is an easie and rational account of this Essential difference of Solar and Lunar Years so variously followed by so many Nations since the Deluge Which otherwise if the Year was of the same length with the present and fixt before the Flood 't is hard to assign the Original of But That it were as in this Hypothesis both a Solar and Lunar Year all is very easie and what must naturally happen upon an imperceptible change at the Deluge Which will be still farther confirm'd if we consider 3. That the Moon 's other Motions Diurnal and Menstrual are still so accurately adjusted and commensurate to each other that 't is very probable the Annual was alike adjusted and commensurate to those in the primitive Constitution of Nature 'T is certain the Moon accompanies our Earth and has her Annual Revolution exactly equal to the others 'T is also certain as has been before observ'd that her Menstrual Periodical Revolution about the Earth is exactly equal to her Diurnal about her own Axis Which wonderful and remarkable coincidence or correspondence of two such intirely distinct motions renders it highly probable that the third or Annual Revolution was not by Providence Originally design'd to be so incommensurate to those others as since the Deluge it most evidently has been and that to the greatest trouble and perplexity of many Ages and the intire disturbance of the Ancient Chronology Where we cannot but in one case acknowledge the most exact interposition of Providence in the Equality of the Menstrual and Diurnal Revolutions and the notable effect thereof the exposition of the same Hemisphere of the Moon to the Earth continually We cannot sure be unwilling to own a like Interposition in the other in the commensurability and correspondency of the same Menstrual and Diurnal Revolutions to the Annual one of it self and of its Companion the Earth Especially where the reason and advantage of such an adjustment the easie and regular accounts of Time through the World thence arising is much more plain and evident than in that other case of which yet there can be no possibility of doubt or hesitation Which therefore considerably enforces the fore-mention'd Hypothesis according to which the Wise and Careful Interposition of Providence in the Original Constitution of the World appears to have been as accurately sollicitous and engag'd in the adjustment of the Annual Motion to the Menstrual as 't is unquestionably true in the like correspondence of the Menstrual to the Diurnal so worthy the present consideration and admiration of Astronomers Which will be most of all confirm'd by the exact agreement of the several Periods to be taken notice of in the next place 4. The Eccentricity of the Sun is so exactly coincident with the Epact of the Moon or the Annual Motion in the Circular Orbit before the Deluge so nicely equal to thirteen Periodical and twelve Synodical Revolutions of the Moon that 't is very improbable it should be wholly by chance or without any relation of one to another The Eccentricities of Planets are various uncertain and boundless and 't will be next to impossible in such cases to observe accurate coincidences where nothing but Chance is concern'd and there is no Analogy or Connexion in Nature for ' em If there were a certain Watch-word out of 500 pitch'd upon among certain Conspirators and a Person was taken on suspicion and prov'd to have nam'd that very word to his supposed Partner it were in reason and the opinion of the World 499. to one he before knew of it and did not by chance only hit upon it If any Ancient Historian should assert that a certain remarkable accident happen'd on such a Day and such an Hour of a given Year and a way was afterward discover'd of determining the time on which if it really did happen it must have done so tho' the Authority of the Author were not considerable otherwise no boubt would be any more made of his veracity in that point if the coincidence was so exact as to determine the same hour mention'd by the Historian Thus if on other intimations it be conjectur'd that the Earth mov'd circularly before the Deluge and the Year was both a Solar and Lunar one and if afterward the Eccentricity of the Earth's Orbit and the Lunar Epact or difference between the Solar and Lunar Year be reduc'd to Calculation and found accurately coincident when the Eccentricity of no other of the Planetary Orbits is at all Correspondent There is I think very great probability to believe that coincidence founded in Nature and that the alteration of the Year just so much as those agreeing-quantities require was the true occasion thereof The Eccentricity requisite to correspond to the Lunar Epact must be 19 1000 of the intire middle distance That of Saturn is 57 1000 that of Jupiter 48 1000 that of Mars 93 1000 that of Venus 10 1000 that of Mercury 210 1000 that of the Moon 42 1000 which all widely differ from the quantity here necessary But when we consider the Eccentricity of the Magnus Orbis or Orbit of the Earth's and Moon 's Annual Course it exactly accords and is 19 1000 of the intire middle distance as we have before particularly observ'd and as the Moon 's Epact most nicely requires 'T is I confess not impossible that Calculations and
this Earth or the Change of that Chaos into an habitable World was not a meer result from any necessary Laws of Mechanism independently on the Divine Power but was the proper effect of the Influence and Interposition and all along under the peculiar Care and Providence of God The Testimonies for this are so numerous and so express both in the Mosaick History it self in the other parts of Scripture relating thereto and in all Antiquity that I may refer the Reader to almost every place where this matter is spoken of without quoting here any particulars He who is at all acquainted with the Primitive Histories of this rising World whether Sacred or Prophane can have no reason to make any doubt of it III. The Days of the Creation and that of Rest had their beginning in the Evening The Evening and the Morning were the first Day And so of the rest afterward IV. At the time immediately preceding the six days Creation the face of the Abyss or superior Regions of the Chaos were involv'd in a thick Darkness Darkness was upon the face of the Deep To which Testimony the Prophane Traditions do fully agree as may be seen in the Authors before refer'd to V. The visible part of the first days Work was the Production of Light or its successive appearance to all the Parts of the Earth with the consequent distinction of Darkness and Light Night and Day upon the face of it God said Let there be Light and there was Light And God saw the Light that it was good and God divided the light from the darkness And God called the light Day and the darkness he called Night And the Evening and the Morning was the first day VI. The visible part of the Second Days Work was the elevation of the Air with all it s contained Vapours the spreading it for an Expansum above the Earth and the distinction thence arising of Superior and Inferior Waters The former consisting of those Vapours rais'd and sustain'd by the Air the latter of such as either were enclosed in the Pores Interstices and Bowels of the Earth or lay upon the Surface thereof God said Let there be a firmament or Expansum in the midst of the waters and let it divide the waters from the waters And God made the firmament and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament And it was so and God called the firmament Heaven And the Evening and the Morning were the second day VII The visible parts of the Third Day 's Works were two the former the Collection of the inferior Waters or such as were now under the Heaven into the Seas with the consequent appearance of the dry Land the latter the production of Vegetables out of that Ground so lately become dry God said Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together unto one place and let the dry land appear and it was so And God called the dry land Earth and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas And God saw that it was good And God said Let the Earth bring forth grass the herb yielding seed and the fruit-tree yielding fruit after his kind whose seed is in it self upon the earth and it was so And the earth brought forth grass and herb yielding seed after his kind and the tree yielding fruit whose seed was in it self after his kind and God saw that it was good And the Evening and the Morning were the third day VIII The Fourth Day 's Work was the Placing the Heavenly Bodies Sun Moon and Stars in the Expansum or Firmament i. e. The rendring them Visible and Conspicuous on the Face of the Earth Together with their several Assignations to their respective Offices there God said Let there be lights in the Expansum or firmament of heaven to divide the day from the night and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years and let them be for lights in the firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth and it was so And God made two great lights the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night he made the stars also And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth and to rule over the day and over the night and to divide the light from the darkness and God saw that it was good And the Evening and the Morning were the fourth day IX The Fifth Day 's Work was the Production of the Fish and Fowl out of the Waters with the Benediction bestow'd on them in order to their Propagation God said Let the Waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven And God created great Whales and every living creature that moveth which the waters brought forth abundantly after their kind and every winged fowl after his kind and God saw that it was good And God blessed them saying Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the Seas and let fowl multiply in the earth And the Evening and the Morning were the fifth day X. The Sixth Day 's Work was the Production of all the Terrestrial or Dry-land Animals and that in a different manner For the Bruit Beasts were produc'd out of the Earth as the Fish and Fowl had been before out of the Waters But after that the Body of Adam was form'd of the Dust of the Ground who by the Breath of Life breath'd into him in a peculiar manner became a Living Soul Some time after which on the same day he was cast into a deep Sleep and Eve was form'd of a Rib taken from his side Together with several other things of which a more particular account has been already given on another occasion God said Let the Earth bring forth the living creature after his kind cattel and creeping thing and beast of the Earth after his kind and it was so And God made the beast of the earth after his kind and cattel after their kind and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind and God saw that it was good And God said Let us make man in Our Image after Our likeness and let them have dominion over the Fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over the cattel and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth So God created Man in his own image in the image of God created he him Male and Female created he them c. Vid. ver 28 29 30 31. and Cap. 2. 7 15 c. XI God having thus finish'd the Works of Creation Rested on the Seventh day from the same and Sanctified or set that day apart for a Sabbath or day of Rest to be then and afterward observ'd as a Memorial of his Creation of the World in
the six foregoing and his Resting or keeping a Sabbath on this seventh day Which Sabbath was reviv'd or at least its Observation anew enforc'd on the Jews by the Fourth Commandment Thus the Heavens and the Earth were finished and all the host of them and on the seventh day God had ended his work which he had made and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made And God blessed the seventh day and sanctifyed it because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day Six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God in it thou shalt do no manner of work thou nor thy son nor thy daughter nor thy man-servant nor thy maid-servant nor thy cattel nor the stranger which is within thy gates For in six days the Lord made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that in them is and rested the seventh day wherefore the Lord blessed the seventh day and hallowed it XII There is a constant and vigorous heat diffused from the Central towards the Superficiary parts of our Earth Tho' I might bring several Arguments from Ancient Tradition the Opinion of great Philosophers and the present Observations of Nature for this Assertion yet I shall chuse here for brevities sake to depend wholly on the last evidence and refer the inquisitive Reader to what the Learned Dr. Woodward says in the present case which I take to be very satisfactory XIII The Habitable Earth is founded or situate on the Surface of the Waters or of a deep and vast Subterraneous fluid This Constitution of the Earth is a natural result from such a Chaos as we have already assign'd affords foundation for an easie account of the Origin of Mountains renders the Histories of the several states of the Earth and of the Universal Deluge very intelligible is as Philosophical and as agreeable to the common Phaenomena of Nature as any other without this supposition 't will be I believe impossible to explain what Antiquity Sacred and Prophane assures us of relating to the Earth and its great Catastrophes but this being allow'd 't will not be difficult to account for the same to the greatest degree of satisfaction as will appear in the progress of the present Theory And Lastly The same assertion is most exactly consonant to and confirm'd by the Holy Scriptures as the following Texts will fairly evince When the Lord prepared the heavens I was there When he set a compass Circle or Orb on the face of the deep When he established the clouds above when he strengthened the fountains of the deep When he gave to the sea his decree that the waters should not pass his commandment when be appointed the foundations of the earth He hath founded the earth upon the seas and establish'd it upon the floods To him that stretched out the earth above the waters for his mercy endureth for ever This they willingly are ignorant of that by the word of God the heavens were of old and the Earth standing out of the water and in the water whereby the world that then was being overflowed with waters perished The fountains of the great deep were broken up The fountains of the deep were stopped XIV The interior or intire Constitution of the Earth is correspondent to that of an Egg. 'T is very well known that an Egg was the solemn and remarkable Symbol or Representation of the World among the most venerable Antiquity and that nothing was more celebrated than the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the most early Anthors which if extended beyond the Earth to the System of the Heavens is groundless and idle if referr'd to the Figure of the Earth is directly false and so is most reasonably to be understood of the intire and internal Constitution thereof XV. The Primi ive Earth had Seas and Dry-land distinguish'd from each other in great measure as the present and those situate in the same places generally as they still are This is put past doubt by part of the third the intire fifth and part of the sixth Day 's Works One half of the third being spent in distinguishing the Seas from the Dry-land the intire fifth in the Production of Fish and Fowl out of the Waters and in the assigning the Air to the latter sort and the Seas to the former for their respective Elements and on the sixth God bestows on Mankind the Dominion of the Inhabitants as well of the Seas as of the Dry-land All which can leave no doubt of the truth of the former part of this Assertion And that their Disposition was originally much what as it is at present appears both by the Rivers Tigris and Euphrates running then into the same Persian Sea that now they do And by the Observations of Dr. Woodward fully confirming the same XVI The Primitive Earth had Springs Fountains Streams and Rivers in the same manner as the present and usually in or near the same places also This is but a proper consequence of the Distinction of the Earth into Seas and Dry-land the latter being uninhabitable without them and such Vapours as are any way condensed into Water on the higher parts of the Dry-land naturally descending and hollowing themselves Channels till they fall into the Seas However the other direct proofs for both parts of the Assertion are sufficiently evident I was set up from everlasting from the beginning or ever the earth was When there were no depths I was brought forth when there were no fountains abounding with water A river went out of Eden to water the garden and from thence it was parted and became into four heads Pison Gihon Tigris and Euphrates The two latter of which are well-known Rivers to this very day And the same thing is confirm'd by Dr. Woodward's Observations XVII The Primitive Earth was distinguish'd into Mountains Plains and Vallies in the same manner generally speaking and in the same places as the present This is a natural consequent of the two former The Caverns of the Seas with the extant Parts of the Dry-land being in effect great Vallies and Mountains and the Origin and Course of Rivers necessarily supposing the same For tho' the Earth in the Theorist's way were Oval which it is not 't is demonstrable there could be no such descent as the course of Rivers requires However the direct proofs are evident The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way before his works of old I was set up from everlasting from the beginning or ever the Earth was Before the mountains were setled before the Hills was I brought forth While as yet he had not made the earth nor the fields nor the highest part of the dust of the world Art thou the first man that was born or
wast thou made before the hills Lord thou hast been our dwelling place from one generation to another Before the mountains were brought forth or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God And indeed these three last Phaenomena are in their own Natures so linked together they so depend on and infer one another mutually that the proofs of each of them singly may justly be esteemed under the same Character to both the other and all of them are thereby establish'd past all rational Contradiction Of which whole matter Dr. Woodward's Observations are a sufficient Attestation also XVIII The Waters of the Seas in the Primitive Earth were Salt and those of the Rivers Fresh as they are at present and each as now were then stor'd with great plenty of Fish This appears from the difference of the Species and Natures of Fishes some being produc'd and nourish'd by Salt Water others by Fresh and yet all created on the fifth Day And this in all its parts is confirm'd by Dr. Woodward's Observations XIX The Seas were agitated with a like Tide or Flux and Reflux as they are at present There is in it self no reason to doubt of this and 't is moreover attested by Dr. Woodward's Observations XX. The Productions of the Primitive Earth as far as we can guess by the remainders of them at the Deluge differ'd little or nothing from those of the present either in Figure Magnitude Texture of Parts or any other correspondent respect This is prov'd by Dr. Woodward's Observations XXI The Primitive Earth had such Metals and Minerals in it as the Present has In the land of Havilah there was gold and the gold of that land was good there was bdellium and the onyx-stone Tubal-cain was an instructer of every artificer in brass and iron Which is withal attested by Dr. Woodward's Observation XXII Arts and Sciences were invented and improv'd in the first Ages of the World as well as they since have been Abel was a keeper of sheep but Cain was a tiller of the ground Cain builded a city and called it after the name of his son Enoch Jabal was the father of such as dwell in tents and of such as have cattel Jubal was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ Tubal-cain was an instructer of every artificer in brass and iron See also the Right Reverend Bishop Patrick on Gen. iv 20 21 22 25. and v. 18. CHAP. II. Phaenomena relating to the Primitive State of the Earth XXIII THE Primitive State of the Earth admitted of the primary Production of Animals out of the Waters and dry Ground which the subsequent States otherwise than in the ordinary method of Generation have been incapable of This appears from the History of the Creation compar'd with that of Nature ever since By the former of which agreeing with the oldest Traditions 't is evident That the Fishes and Fowls were the immediate Productions or Off-spring of the Waters and the Terrestrial Animals of the Dry-land in the Primitive State of the Earth And by the latter 't is equally so that neither of those Elements have assorded the like ever since XXIV The Constitution of Man in his Primitive State was very different from that ever since the Fall not only as to the Temper and Perfections of his Soul but as to the Nature and Disposition of his Body also This the whole Drift and Series of the Sacred History of this Primitive State supposes in which these two Particulars may here be taken notice of 1. Nakedness was no shame and so no sense of any need to cover it does appear Those Inclinations which provide for the Propagation of Mankind were it seems so regular and so intirely under the command of Reason that not so much as an Apron was esteem'd necessary to hide those Parts which all the World have since thought proper to do 2. The Temper of the Humane Body was more soft pliable and alterable than now it is Some sorts of Fruits and Food were capable of causing a mighty change therein either to fix and adapt it to its present Condition or discompose and disorder it i. e. in other words either to render it Permanent and Immortal on the one hand or to devolve upon it Diseases Corruption and Mortality on the other What concerns the Soul or its moral Perfections is without the compass of this Theory and not here to be consider'd XXV The Female was then very different from what she is now particularly she was in a state of greater equality with the Male and little more subject to Sorrow in the Propagation of Posterity than he 1. Her Names were as much as possible the very same with his The Husband was call'd Adam the Wife Adamah the Husband Issch the Wife Isschah God called their Name Adam in the day that they were created She shall be called Isschah because she was taken out of Issch. 2. We find little to infer any Inequality or Subjection till after the Fall Adam said This is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife and they shall be one flesh Unto the woman God said after the Fall thy desire shall be subject to thine husband and he shall rule over thee 3. Her pains in Conception and Childbirth were inconsiderable in comparison of what they since have been Unto the woman God said after the Fall I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children XXVI The other Terrestrial Animals were in a state of greater Capacities and Operations nearer approaching to reason and discourse and partakers of higher degrees of Perfection and Happiness than they have been ever since This appears 1. From the necessity or occasion of a particular view and distinct consideration of each Species of Animals before Adam was satisfied that none of them were a Help meet for him or suitable to his Faculties and Condition 2. From the Serpent's discourse with the Woman In which tho' the Old Serpent the Devil was also concern'd yet the particular Subtilty of the Serpent is taken notice of as a means of her Deception and a Curse denounced and inflicted on the same Beast upon account thereof Now the Serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made c. I fear lest by any means as the Serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty The Lord God said unto the serpent Because thou hast done this thou art cursed above all cattel and above every beast of the field upon thy belly shalt thou go and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life 3. From St. Paul's Discourse in the Eighth Chapter to the Romans For the earnest expectation of the
Arithmetical proportion of such their longer lives after the duration of the first Fathers is expir'd and a gradual decrease of the Ancient stock going off as well as a gradual increase of the New stock coming on to be allow'd for Till which time the proportion is not to be diminish'd So that on this account for the first nine hundred years of the World the number of Inhabitants on the Face of the Earth must be esteem'd forty times as great as in so long time are now derivable from a single Couple and afterwards twenty times so which Postulata suppos'd I shall propose a Calculation built upon certain matter of fact first how many they might have been by the Deluge and afterward another or two relying alike on Matter of fact how many 't is probable they really were and must have been at the same time 1. 'T is evident from the Sacred History and not to be denied by those who forsake the Hebrew Chronology themselves or who would lessen the numbers of the Antediluvians That in the space of about two hundred sixty six years the Posterity of Jacob alone by his Sons without the consideration of Dinah his Daughter amounted to six hundred thousand Males above the Age of Twenty all able to go forth to War Now by Mr. Graunts Observations on the Bills of Mortality it appears that about 34 100 are between the Ages of sixteen and fifty six Which may be near the proportion of the Males numbred to the intire number of them all So that as thirty four to an hundred by the Golden Rule must six hundred thousand be to the intire number of the Males of Israel at that time Which was therefore one Million seven hundred sixty four thousand and seven hundred To which add Females near 1 15 fewer as suppose to make the sum even one Million six hundred thirty five thousand three hundred the Total is three millions and three hundred thousand add forty three thousand for the Levites not included in the former accounts the intire Sum will at last amount to three millions and three hundred forty three thousand Souls Now if we suppose the increase of the Children of Israel to have been gradual and equal through the whole two hundred sixty six years it will appear that they doubled themselves every fourteen years at least which proportion if we should continue it through the entire hundred and fourteen Periods which the space from the Creation to the Deluge admits the product or number of People on the face of the Earth at the Deluge would be the hundredth and fourteenth place in a Geometrick double proportion or series of numbers two four eight sixteen c. where every succeeding one were double to that before it Which to how immense a Sum it would arise those who know any thing of the nature of Geometrick Progressions will easily pronounce and may be soon tried by any ordinary Arithmetician So that without allowing for the Longaevity and that Coexistence and more numerous Off-spring thereon depending without taking as advantagious an Hypothesis as one might precariously tho' possibly do in such a case If the Antediluvians had only multiplied as fast before as 't is certain the Israelites did since the Flood for the assigned term the numbers of Mankind actually Alive and Coexisting at the Deluge must have been not only more than the Earth now does or possibly could maintain but prodigiously more than the whole number of Mankind can be justly suppos'd ever since the Deluge nay indeed with any degree of likelihood ever since the Creation of the World On which account this Calculation must not be at all esteem'd a real one or to exhibit in any measure the just number of the Posterity of Adam alive at the Universal Deluge But it serves to shew how vastly numerous according to the regular method of humane Propagation the Off-spring of a single person may certainly be and this on a Calculation from undoubted matter of fact not from a meer possible Hypothesis according to which numbers prodigiously greater would still arise It demonstrates the probability if not certainty of Mankind's Original from a common head as well before as since the Deluge and that within a few Millenaries of years It lastly is more than sufficient to demonstrate the Proposition we are upon that the whole Earth must have been peopled long before the Flood and at its approach have contain'd vastly more in number than the present does or can do So that altho' I do not pretend to give a particular guess at the number of the Antediluvians thereby yet I thought it not improper to be here inserted Which first Computation being thus dispatch'd I come to the 2. which I take to be very probable and very rational and perhaps within certain limits to be admitted in the present case Namely That the Primary increase of Mankind after the Creation that the World might not be destitute of Inhabitants for many Ages was not at least considering their greater Longaevity less than that of the Israelites in Egypt before-mention'd But that afterwards which was the case of the Israelites also a much less proportion obtain'd Upon which fair and modest Postulata I shall demonstrate the truth of that proposition we are now upon In order to which I observe from Mr. Graunt that at this day the number of People does so increase that in two hundred and eighty years the Country doubles its People and the City of London much sooner Let us therefore suppose that after the first two hundred and sixty six years of the World the former of those proportions were observed and that must by all be own'd sufficiently fair and compute how many the number of People must on such a Calculation arise to before the Deluge When therefore after the first two hundred and sixty six years there was near five periods each of two hundred and eighty years if the Longaevity of the Antediluvians and the consequent Coexistence and more numerous posterity were excluded the number of the Inhabitants by the Deluge would amount to about thirty times the former sum of three millions three hundred forty three thousand or one hundred millions two hundred and ninety thousand of Souls But if we withal allow as we ought that this number is on account of Coexistence to be twenty times as great and on account of more numerous posterity forty times so which is on both accounts eight hundred times as great as the last mention'd the number of People at the Deluge will amount to eighty thousand two hundred and thirty two millions which number since the present Inhabitants of the Earth as some conjecture scarcely exceed three hundred and fifty millions is above two hundred and twenty nine times as great as the Earth now actually contains upon it and by consequence many more than at present it could contain and supply And this Hypothesis and Calculation are
confirm'd by what I shall propose in the 3. Place and which must by all be allow'd very fair and reasonable namely That tho' Mankind Caeteris Paribus increas'd but in the same proportion before as they have done since the Deluge we shall find upon a due allowance for the two things before-mention'd Coexistence and more numerous Posterity that the number last assign'd is rather too small than too great and the numbers of the Inhabitants of the Earth were more than the present Earth does or can maintain many years before the approach of the Deluge For if the number of years before had been the same as that since the Flood the Inhabitants tho' they had been no longer livers than we now are would have been as numerous as the present But because the number of years before the Deluge wanted about two thousand four hundred of that since we must allow or abate the increase which has arisen in the last two thousand and four hundred years Which since in these latter ages it has been double in two hundred and eighty years and so in two thousand and four hundred years about three hundred times as great as before the Antediluvians if their lives had been no longer than ours since must have been but the three hundredth part so many as the Earth now contains upon it But when on the two foremention'd accounts the number is to be eight hundred times as great and on this only three hundred times as small the excess is on the side of the Antediluvians and their number five hundred times as great as that of the present Inhabitants of the Earth So that on this last Hypothesis which I suppose none can justly except against tho' the present Earth be allow'd capable of maintaining five times as many People as are now by computation upon it yet will it appear that the Antediluvian Earth maintain'd an hundred times as many Which I imagin not to be wide from probability and being so near the calculation before may be allow'd as reasonable in the present case XXXIV The Bruit Animals whether belonging to the Water or Land were proportionably at least more in number before the Flood than they are since This is I think generally look'd upon as no other than a reasonable deduction from the last Proposition and is very fully attested by Dr. Woodward's Observations as far as the remains of those Ages afford any means of knowing the same And so ought in reason to be universally allow'd XXXV The Antediluvian Earth was much more fruitful than the present and the multitude of its vegetable productions much greater This is both necessary to be allow'd by reason of the multitude of its Inhabitants rational and irrational maintained by them of which before And abundantly confirm'd also by Dr. Woodward's Observations XXXVI The Temperature of the Antediluvian Air was more equable as to its different Climates and its different Seasons without such excessive and sudden heat and cold without the scorching of a Torrid Zone and of burning Summers or the freezing of the Frigid Zones and of piercing Winters and without such sudden and violent changes in the Climates or Seasons from one extreme to another as the present Air to our sorrow is subject to These Characters are extremely agreeable to and attested by the ancient Accounts of the Golden Age. The gentleness of the Torrid and Frigid Zones is necessary to be suppos'd in order to the easie Peopling of the World with the dispertion and maintenance of those numerous Inhabitants we before prov'd it to have contain'd Which if they were as now they are would be very difficultly accountable The gentleness of Summer and Winter with the easie and gradual coming on and going off of the same Seasons are but necessary in order to the very long lives of the Antediluvians which else 't were not so easie to account for And indeed the most of those Testimonies which have been suppos'd favourable to a perpetual Equinox before the Deluge are resolv'd into this Proposition and if it can be separately establish'd need not be extended any farther XXXVII The Constitution of the Antediluvian Air was Thin Pure Subtile and Homogeneous without such gross Steams Exhalations Nitrosulphureous or other Heterogeneous mixtures as occasion Coruscations Meteors Thunder Lightening Contagions and Pestilential Infections in our present Air and have so very pernicious and fatal tho' almost insensible effects in the World since the Deluge This is the natural consequent or rather original of the before-mention'd equability and uniformity of the Antediluvian Air This must be suppos'd on the account of the Longaevity of the Inhabitants And this is very agreeable to the last cited descriptions of the Golden Age. The contrary Heterogeneous and Gross Atmosphere which now encompasses the Earth is disagreeable to a regular state which an original formation from the Chaos supposes as containing such Dense and Bulky Exhalations and Masses which at first must have obtain'd a lower situation and were not to be sustain'd by the Primitive Thin and Subtile Air or AEther Such mixtures as this Proposition takes notice of or those effects of them therein mention'd have no Footsteps in Sacred or Prophane Antiquity relating to the first Ages of the World there is no appearance of them in the Serene and Pellucid Air of the Moon or of the generality of the Heavenly Bodies and so there can be no manner of reason to ascribe them to the Antediluvian state XXXVIII The Antediluvian Air had no large gross Masses of Vapours or Clouds hanging for long seasons in the same It had no great round drops of Rain descending in multitudes together which we call Showers But the Ground was watered by gentle Mists or Vapours ascending in the Day and descending in great measure again in the succeeding Night This Assertion is but a proper consequent of such a Pure Thin Rare AEther as originally encompass'd the Earth 'T is very agreeable to the descriptions of the Golden Age and to the present Phaenomena of most of the Planets especially of the Moon whose face tho' so near us is never obscur'd or clouded from us 'T is necessary to be suppos'd in an Air without a Rainbow as the Antediluvian was of which presently and is indeed no other than the words of the Sacred History inform us of The Lord God had not caused it to Rain upon the Earth But there went up a Mist from the Earth and watered the whole face of the ground XXXIX The Antediluvian Air was free from violent Winds Storms and Agitations with all their effects on the Earth or Seas which we cannot now but be sufficiently sensible of This the foregoing Phaenomena enforce So Homogeneous Pure and Unmix'd a Fluid as that Air has been describ'd to have been by no means seeming capable of exciting in it self or undergoing any such disorderly commotions or fermentations Where no Vapours were collected into Clouds there must have been
no Winds to collect them where the Climates preserv'd their own proper temperature no Storms must have hurried the Air from colder to hotter or from hotter to colder Regions where was no Rainbow there must have been no driving together the separate Vapours into larger Globules or round drops of Rain the immediate requisite thereto This is also highly probable by reason of the perpetual tranquility of the Air for the first five intire Months of the Deluge as will be prov'd anon which is scarce supposable if Storms and Tempests were usual before XL. The Antediluvian Air had no Rainbow as the present so frequently has God said after the Deluge This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you for perpetual generations I do set my bow in the cloud and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth And it shall come to pass when I bring a cloud over the earth that the bow shall be seen in the cloud And I will remember my covenant which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh And the bow shall be in the cloud and I will look upon it that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth And God said unto Noah this is the token of the covenant which I have establish'd between me and all flesh that is upon the earth XLI The Antediluvians might only Eat Vegetables but the Use of Flesh after the Flood was freely allow'd also God said to our first Parents in Paradise Behold I have given you every herb bearing seed which is upon the face of all the earth and every tree in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed to you it shall be for meat and to every beast of the earth and to every fowl of the air and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth wherein there is life I have given every green herb for meat And it was so God blessed Noah and his sons after the flood and said unto them Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every fowl of the air upon all that moveth upon the earth and upon all the fishes of the sea into your hand are they delivered Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you even as the green herb have I given you all things To which when the Prince of Latin Poets so exactly agrees let us for once hear him in the present case Ante etiam sceptrum Dictaei Regis antè Impia quà m caesis gens est epulata juvencis Aureus in terris hanc vitam Saturnus agebat XLII The Lives of the Antediluvians were more universally equal and vastly longer than ours now are Men before the Flood frequently approaching near to a thousand which almost none now do to a hundred years of Age. This is both fully attested by the most ancient Remainders of prophane Antiquity and will be put past doubt hereafter by a Table of the Ages of the Antediluvians out of the fifth Chapter of Genesis Semotique priùs tarda necessitas Leti corripuit gradum XLIII Tho' the Antediluvian Earth was not destitute of lesser Seas and Lakes every where disper'd on the Surface thereof yet had it no Ocean or large receptacle of Waters separating one Continent from another and covering so large a portion of it as the present Earth has This is evident Because 1. the number of the Antediluvians before assign'd must have been too numerous for the Continents alone to maintain 2. The Ark appears to have been the first Pattern and Instance for Navigation which had there been an Ocean must have been very perfect long before and this seems probable from the constant silence concerning Navigation in the Golden Age from the common Opinion of all Authors and from the necessity of the most minute and particular Directions from God himself to the Fabrick of it in the Mosaick History 3. That famous Tradition among the Ancients of the drowning a certain vast Continent call'd Atlantis bigger than Africa and Asia seems to be a plain Relique of the Generation of the Ocean at the Deluge and consequently of that Antediluvian State where the greatest part of what the Ocean now possesses was Dry-land and inhabited as well as the rest of the Globe 4. The Generation of the Ocean with the Situation of the present great Continents of the Earth will be so naturally and exactly accounted for at the Deluge that when that is understood there will remain to those who are satissied with the other Conclusions small reason to doubt of the truth of this before us 5. The Testimony of Josephus if the Theorist hit upon his true Sense is agreeable who says At the Deluge God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 chang'd the Continent into Sea CHAP. IV. Phaenomena relating to the Universal Deluge and its Effects upon the Earth XLIV IN the Seventeenth Century from the Creation there happen'd a most extraordinary and prodigious Deluge of Waters upon the Earth This general Assertion is not only attested by a large and special Account of it in the Sacred Writings but by the universal Consent of the most ancient Records of all Nations besides as may be seen in the Authors quoted in the Margin and is put moreover past doubt by Dr. Woodward's Natural Observations XLV This prodigious Deluge of Waters was mainly occasion'd by a most extraordinary and violent Rain for the space of forty Days and as many Nights without intermission Yet seven days and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights The windows of heaven were opened and the rain was upon the Earth forty days and forty nights And the flood was forty days upon the earth XLVI This vast quantity of Waters was not deriv'd from the Earth or Seas as Rains constantly now are but from some other Superior and Coelestial Original This is evident Because 1. the Antediluvian Air as was before prov'd never retain'd great quantities of Vapours or sustained any Clouds capable of producing such considerable and so lasting Rains as this most certainly was 2. The quantity of Waters on the Antediluvian Earth where there was no Ocean as we saw just now was very small in comparison of that at present and so could contribute very little towards the Deluge 3. If the quantity of Waters on the Face of the Earth had then been as great as now and had all been elevated into Vapours and descended on the Dry-land alone it were much too small to cause such a Deluge as this was 4. But because if the
Waters were all rais'd into Vapours and descended in Rain they must either fall upon or run down into the Ocean the Seas and those Declivities they were in before they could only take up and possess their old places and so could not contribute a jot to that standing and permanent Mass of Waters which cover'd the Earth at the Deluge 5. The Expression us'd by the Sacred Historian that the Windows Flood-gates or Cataracts of Heaven were open'd at the fall and shut at the ceasing of these Waters very naturally agrees to this Superior and Coelestial Original XLVII This vast fall of Waters or forty Days rain began on the fifth day of the Week or Thursday the twenty seventh day of November being the seventeenth day of the second Month from the Autumnal Equinox corresponding this Year 1696. to the twenty eighth day of October In the six hundredth year of Noah's life in the second month the seventeenth day of the month the windows of heaven were opened and the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights Thus Abydenus and Berosus say it began on the fifteenth day of Daesius the second Month from the Vernal Equinox which if the mistake arising 't is probable from the ignorance of the change in the beginning of the Year at the Exodus out of Egypt be but corrected is within a day or two agreeable to the Narration of Moses and so exceedingly confirms the same XLVIII The other main cause of the Deluge was the breaking up the Fountains of the great Abyss or the causing such Chaps and Fissures in the upper Earth as might permit the Waters contain'd in the Bowels of it when violently press'd and squeez'd upwards to ascend and so add to the quantity of those which the Rains produced All the fountains of the great deep were broken up The sea brake forth as if it had issued out of the womb XLIX All these Fountains of the great Deep were broken up on the very first day of the Deluge or the very first day when the Rains began In the six hundredth year of Noah's life in the second month the seventeenth day of the month the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up and the windows of heaven were opened L. Yet the very same day Noah his Family and all the Animals entred into the Ark. In the self-same day last mention'd entred Noah and Shem and Ham and Japheth the sons of Noah and Noah's wife and the three wives of his sons with them into the ark They and every beast after his kind and all the cattel after their kind and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind and every fowl after his kind every bird of every sort LI. Tho' the first and most violent Rains continued without intermission but forty days yet after some time the Rains began again and ceased not till the seventeenth day of the seventh Month or a hundred and fifty days after the Deluge began This is very probably gather'd from the mighty increase of the Waters even after the first forty days Rain were over and from the express fixing of the stoppage of the Rains to the last day here assigned The Waters prevailed and were increased greatly And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the Earth The waters prevailed or were increased upon the Earth an hundred and fifty days And God remembred Noah and every living thing and all the Cattel that was him in the Ark And God made a wind to pass over the Earth and the waters asswaged The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped and the rain from heaven was restrained LII This second and less remarkable Rain was deriv'd from such a cause as the former was This Proposition is 1. Very fair and probable in it self 2. Gives an account of the augmentation of the Waters by their fall when had they been only exhaled and let fall again as our Rains now are they would have added nothing thereto 3. Is exactly agreeable to the expressions in Moses who says the Windows of Heaven which were open'd at the beginning of the first were not shut or stopped till the end of this second Rain thereby plainly deriving this latter as well as the former from a Superiour and Celestial original The fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped and the rain from heaven was restrained LIII Tho' the fountains of the great deep were broken up and the forty days Rain began at the same time yet is there a very observable mention of a threefold growth or distinct augmentation of the Waters as if it were on three several accounts and at three several times The flood was forty days upon the earth and the waters increased and bare up the ark and it was lift up above the earth And the waters prevailed and were increased greatly and the ark went upon the face of the waters And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth and all the high hills that were under the whole heaven were cover'd LIV. The Waters of the Deluge increas'd by degrees till their utmost height and then decreas'd by degrees till they were clearly gone off the face of the earth This is evident from the intire series and course of the Mosaick History in the seventh and eighth chapters of Genesis LV. The Waters of the Deluge were Still Calm free from Commotions Storms Winds and Tempests of all sorts during the whole time in which the Ark was afloat upon them This is evident from the impossibility of the Ark's abiding a Stormy Sea considering the vast bulk and particular figure of it For since it was three hundred Cubits long fifty Cubits broad and thirty Cubits high Which is according to the most accurate determination of the Cubits length by the Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of Peterborough above five hundred and forty seven English feet long above ninety one feet broad and near fifty five feet high And since withal it appears to have been of the figure of a Chest without such a peculiar bottom and proportion of parts as our great Ships are contrived with 't is evident and will be allow'd by Persons skill'd in Navigation that 't was not capable of enduring a Stormy Sea It must whenever either the Ridges or Hollows of vast Waves were so situate that it lay over-cross the one or the other have had its back broken and it self must have been shatter'd to pieces which having not happen'd 't is a certain evidence of a calm Sea during the whole time it was afloat LVI Yet during the Deluge there were both Winds and Storms of all sorts in a very violent manner God made a wind to pass over the earth and the waters asswaged Thou coveredst the earth with the deep as with a garment the waters stood above the mountains At thy rebuke they fled
at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away They go up by the mountains they go down by the vallies unto the place which thou hast appointed for them LVII This Deluge of Waters was universal in its extent and effect reaching to all the parts of the Earth and destroying all the Land-animals on the intire Surface thereof those only excepted which were with Noah in the Ark. The following Texts especially if compar'd with the thirty third foregoing Phaenomenon and added to Dr. Woodward's Observations attesting the same thing will put this Assertion beyond rational Exception God looked upon the earth and behold it was corrupt for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth And God said unto Noah The end of all flesh is come before me Behold I even I do bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destory all flesh wherein is the breath of life from under heaven and every thing that is in the earth shall dye Every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth All the high hills that were under the whole heaven were covered And all flesh died that moved upon the earth both of fowl and of cattel and of beast and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth and every man All in whose nostrils was the breath of life all that was in the dry land died And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground both man and cattel and the creeping thing and the fowl of the heaven and they were destroyed from the earth and Noah only remain'd alive and they that were with him in the Ark. LVIII The Waters at their utmost height were fifteen Cubits above the highest Mountains or three Miles at the least perpendicular above the common Surface of the Plains and Seas All the high hills under the whole heaven were cover'd Fifteen cubits upwards did the waters prevail and the mountains were cover'd LIX Whatever be the height of the Mountain Caucasus whereon the Ark rested Now it was at that time the highest in the whole World This is evident from what has been already observ'd That tho' the utmost height of the Waters were fifteen Cubits above the highest Mountains and so many hundreds nay thousands above the most of them yet did the Ark rest on the very first day on which the Waters began to diminish more than two Months before the emerging of the tops of the other Mountains As is evident from the Texts following The waters prevailed upon the earth from the seventeenth day of the second to the seventeenth day of the seventh month an hundred and fifty days And God remembred Noah and all the cattel that was with him in the Ark and God made a wind to pass over the earth and the waters asswaged The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped and the rain from heaven was restrained And the waters returned from off the earth continually and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated And the Ark rested in the seventh month on the seventeenth day of the month upon the mountains of Ararat And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month in the tenth month on the first day of the month were the tops of the mountains seen LX. As the Fountains of the great Deep were broken up at the very same time that the first Rains began so were they stopp'd the very same time that the last Rains ended on the seventeenth day of the seventh Month. The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped and the rain from heaven was restrained LXI The abatement and decrease of the Waters of the Deluge was first by a Wind which dried up some And secondly by their descent through those Fissures Chaps and Breaches at which part of them had before ascended into the Bowels of the Earth which received the rest To which latter also the Wind by hurrying the Waters up and down and so promoting their lighting into the beforemention'd Fissures was very much subservient God made a wind to pass over the earth and the waters asswaged The waters returned from off the earth continually or going and returning Who shut up the sea with doors when it brake forth as if it had issued out of the womb When I brake up for it my decreed place and set bars and doors and said Hitherto shalt thou come but no further and here shall thy proud waves be stayed Thou coveredst the earth with the deep as with a garment the waters stood above the mountains At thy rebuke they fled at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away They went up by the mountains they went down by the vallies unto the place which thow hadst appointed for them Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass that they turn not again to cover the earth LXII The dry Land or habitable Part of the Globe is since the Deluge divided into two vast Continents almost opposite to one another and separated by a great Ocean interpos'd between them This every Map of the Earth is a sufficient proof of LXIII One of these Continents is considerably larger than the other This is evident the same way with the former LXIV The larger Continent lies most part on the North-side of the Equator and the smaller most part on the South This if we take South-America the most considerable and intire Branch of the whole for the Continent here referr'd to as 't is reasonable to do is also evident the same way with the former LXV The Middle or Center of the North-Continent is about sixteen or eighteen degrees of Northern Latitude and that of the South about sixteen or eighteen degrees of Southern Latitude This may soon be found by measuring the Boundaries of the several Continents on a Globe or Map and observing the Position of their Centers LXVI The distance between the Continents measuring from the larger or Northern South-Eastward is greater than that the contrary way or South-Westward This is evident by the like means with the former It being farther from China or the East-Indies to America going forward South-East than from Europe or Africa going thither South-West LXVII Neither of the Continents is terminated by a round or even circular Circumference but mighty Creeks Bays and Seas running into them and as mighty Peninsula's Promontories and Rocks jetting out from them render the whole very unequal and irregular This none who ever saw a Globe or Map of the World can be ignorant of LXVIII The depth of that Ocean which separates these two Continents is usually greatest farthest from and least nearest to either of the same Continents there being a gradual descent from the Continents to the middle of the Ocean which is the deepest of all This is a Proposition very well-known in Navigation and in
of Stone of Chalk of Cole of Earth or whatever matter they consisted of lying thus each upon other appear now as if they had at first been parallel continued and not interrupted But as if after some time they had been dislocated and broken on all sides of the Globe had been elevated in some and depress'd in other places from whence the fissures and breaches the Caverns and Grotto's with many other irregularities within and upon our present Earth seem to be deriv'd This is prov'd by the same Observations LXXIX Great numbers of Trees and of other Vegetables were also at this subsidence of the Mass aforesaid buried in the Bowels of the Earth And such very often as will not grow in the places where they are lodg'd Many of which are pretty intire and perfect and to be distinctly seen and consider'd to this very day This is prov'd by the same Observations LXXX It appears from all the tokens and circumstances which are still observable about them That all these Vegetables were torn away from their ancient Seats in the Spring time in or about the Month of May. This is prov'd by the same Observations LXXXI All the Metals and Minerals among the Strata of our upper Earth owe their present frame and order to the Deluge being reposed therein during the time of the Waters covering the Earth or during the subsidence of the before-mention'd Mass. This is prov'd by the same Observations LXXXII These Metals and Minerals appear differently in the Earth according to the different manner of their first lodgment For sometimes they are in loose and small Particles uncertainly inclos'd among such Masses as they chanc'd to fall down withal At other times some of their Corpuscles happening to occur and meet together affix'd to each other and several convening uniting and combining into one Mass form'd those Metallick and Mineral Balls or Nodules which are now found in the Earth And according as the Corpuscles chanc'd to be all of a kind or otherwise so the Masses were more or less simple pure and homogeneous And according as other Bodies Bones Teeth Shells of Fish or the like happen'd to come in their way these Metallick and Mineral Corpuscles affix'd to and became conjoin'd with them either within where it was possible in their hollows and interstices or without on their surface and outsides filling the one or covering the other And all this in different degrees and proportions according to the different circumstances of each individual case All this is prov'd by the same Observations LXXXIII The inward parts of the present Earth are very irregular and confused One Region is chiefly Stony another Sandy a third Gravelly One Country contains some certain kinds of Metals or Minerals another quite different ones Nay the same lump or mass of Earth not seldom contains the Corpuscles of several Metals or Minerals confusedly intermix'd with one another and with its own Earthy parts All which irregularities with several others that might be observ'd even contrary to the Law of Specifick Gravity in the placing of the different Strata of the Earth demonstrate the Original Fund or Promptuary of all this upper Factitious Earth to have been in a very Wild Confus'd and Chaotick condition All this the fore-mention'd and all other Observations of the like nature fully prove LXXXIV The Uppermost and Lightest Stratum of Soil or Garden Mold as 't is call'd which is the proper Seminary of the Vegetable Kingdom is since the Deluge very thick spread usually in the Valleys and Plains but very thin on the Ridges or Tops of Mountains Which last for want thereof are frequently Stony Rocky Bare and Barren This easie Observations of the surface of the Earth in different places will quickly satisfie us of LXXXV Of the four Ancient Rivers of Paradise two still remain in some measure but the other two do not or at least are so chang'd that the Mosaick Description does not agree to them at present This the multitude of unsatisfactory attempts to discover all these Rivers and their courses with an impartial comparison of the Sacred History with the best Geographical descriptions of the Regions about Babylon will easily convince an unbyass'd Person of LXXXVI Those Metals and Minerals which the Mosaick description of Paradise and its bordering Regions takes such particular notice of and the Prophets so emphatically refer to are not now met with so plentifully therein This must be allow'd on the same grounds with the former LXXXVII This Deluge of Waters was a signal Instance of the Divine Vengeance on a Wicked World and was the effect of the Peculiar and Extraordinary Providence of God God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the Earth and it grieved him at his heart And the Lord said I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth both man and beast and the creeping thing and the fowls of the air for it repenteth me that I have made them The earth was corrupt before God and the earth was filled with violence and God looked upon the earth and behold it was corrupt for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the Earth And God said unto Noah the end of all flesh is come before me for the earth is filled with violence through them and behold I will destroy them with the earth Behold I even I do bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh wherein is the breath of life from under heaven and every thing that is in the earth shall dye God spared not the old world but saved Noah the eighth person a preacher of righteousness bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly LXXXVIII Tho' the Moon might perhaps undergo some such changes at the Deluge as the Earth did yet that Face or Hemisphere which is towards the Earth and which is alone expos'd to our view has not acquir'd any such gross Atmosphere or Clouds as our Earth has now about it and which are here suppos'd to have been acquir'd at the Deluge This the present figure and large divisions of Sea and Land visible in the Moon with her continued and uninterrupted brightness and the appearance of the same Spots without the interposition of Clouds or Exhalations perpetually do sufficiently evince LXXXIX Since the Deluge there neither has been nor will be any great and general Changes in the state of the World till that time when a Period is to be put to the present Course of Nature The Lord smelled a sweet savour and the Lord said in his heart I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake for or altho' the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth Neither will I again smite any more every thing
living as I have done While the Earth remaineth seed-time and harvest and cold and heat and Summer and winter and day and night shall not cease And this as to the time past is abundantly confirm'd by all the Ancient History and Geography compar'd with the Modern as is in several particulars well observ'd by Dr. Woodward against the groundless opinions of some others to the contrary CHAP. V. Phaenomena relating to the General Conflagration With Conjectures pertaining to the same and to the succeeding period till the Consummation of all things XC AS the World once perished by Water so it must by Fire at the Conclusion of its present State The heavens and the earth which are now by the word of God are kept in store reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men The heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent heat The earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up In the day of God the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with fervent heat But this is so fully attested by the unanimous consent of Sacred and Prophane Authority that I shall omit other particular Quotations and only refer the Reader where he may have more ample satisfaction SCHOLIUM Having proceeded thus far upon more certain grounds and generally allow'd Testimonies as to the most of the foregoing Phaenomena I might here break off and leave the following Conjectures to the same state of Uncertainty they have hitherto been in But being willing to comply with the Title and take in all the great and general Changes from first to last from the primigenial Chaos to the Consummation of all things Being also loth to desert my Postulatum and omit the account of those things which were most exactly agreeable to the Obvious and Literal sense of Scripture and fully consonant to Reason and Philosophy Being lastly willing however to demonstrate that tho' these most remote and difficult Texts be taken according to the greatest strictness of the Letter yet do they contain nothing but what is possible credible and rationally accountable from the most undoubted Principles of Philosophy On all these accounts I shall venture to enumerate and afterward to account for the following Conjectures In which I do not pretend to be Dogmatical and Positive nay nor to declare any firm belief of the same but shall only propose them as Conjectures and leave them to the free and impartial consideration of the Reader XCI The same Causes which will set the World on Fire will also cause great and dreadful Tides in the Seas and in the Ocean with no less Agitations Concussions and Earthquakes in the Air and Earth The Powers of Heaven shall be shaken The Lord shall roar out of Sion and utter his voice from Jerusalem and the heavens and the earth shall shake The sea and the waves roaring Mens hearts failing them for fear and for looking after those things which are coming on the Earth for the powers of heaven shall be shaken XCII The mtmosphere of the Earth before the Conflagration begin will be oppress'd with Meteors Exhalations and Steams and these in so dreadful a manner in such prodigious quantities and with such wild confused Motions and Agitations That the Sun and Moon will have the most frightful and hideous countenances and their antient splendour will be intirely obscur'd The Stars will seem to fall from Heaven and all manner of Horrid Representations will terrifie the Inhabitants of the Earth I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth blood and fire and pillars of smoke The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and terrible day of the Lord come The sun shall be darkened and the Moon shall not give her light and the stars shall fall from heaven and the powers of heaven shall be shaken There shall be signs in the sun and in the moon and in the stars and upon the Earth distress of Nations with perplexity Mens hearts failing them for fear and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth XCIII The Deluge and Constagration are referr'd by ancient Tradition to great Conjunctions of the Heavenly Bodies as both depending on and happening at the same Thus Seneca expresly Berosus says he who was an Expositor of Belus affirms That these Revolutions depend on the Course of the Stars insomuch that he doubts not to assign the very times of a Conflagration and a Deluge That first mention'd when all the Stars which have now so different Courses shall be in Conjunction in Cancer All of them being so directly situate with respect to one another that the same right line will pass through them all together That last mention'd when the same company of Stars shall be in conjunction in the opposite sign Capricorn XCIV The space between the Deluge and the Conflagration or between the ancient state of the Earth and its Purgation by Fire Renovation and Restitution again is from ancient Tradition defin'd and terminated by a certain great and remarkable year or Annual Revolution of some of the Heavenly Bodies And is in probability what the Ancients so often refer'd to pretended particularly to determine and stil'd The Great or Platonick Year This year is exceeding famous in old Authors and not unreasonably apply'd to this matter by the Theorist Which it will better suit in this than it did in that Hypothesis XCV This general Conflagration is not to extend to the intire dissolution or destruction of the Earth but only to the Alteration Melioration and peculiar disposition thereof into a new state proper to receive those Saints and Martyrs for its Inhabitants who are at the first Resurrection to enter and to live and reign a thousand years upon it till the second Resurrection the general Judgment and the final consummation of all things The Heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with fervent heat Nevertheless we according to his promise look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness Behold I create new heavens and a new earth and the former shall not be remembered nor come into mind Verily I say unto you That ye which followed me in the regeneration when the Son of Man shall sit upon the throne of his glory ye also shall sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel And every one that hath forsaken houses or brethren or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my names sake shall receive an hundred fold now in this time houses and brethren and sisters and mothers and children and lands with his present persecutions and in the world to come eternal life Of old thou hast laid the foundations of the earth and the heavens are the work of
thy hand 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 I saw thrones and they sat upon them and judgment was given unto them And I saw the Souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus and for the word of God and which had not worshipped the beast neither his image neither had received his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished This is the first resurrection Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection on such the second death hath no power But they shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with him a thousand years c. But so much has been said on this head to omit others by the Theorist that I shall refer the Reader thither for the other Testimonies of the Holy Scriptures and the unanimous consent of the most Primitive Fathers Both which he at large and to excellent purpose some particulars excepted has insisted on XCVI The state of Nature during the Millennium will be very different from that at present and more agreeable to the Antediluvian Primitive and Paradisiacal ones Whom the heavens must receive until the time of the restitution of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy Prophets since the world began See more in the Theory Book 4. Chap. 9. and in the proofs of the former Proposition XCVII The Earth in the Millennium will be without a Sea or any large receptacle fill'd with mighty collections and quantities of Waters 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 XCVIII The Earth in the Millennium will have no succession of Light and Darkness Day and Night but a perpetual Day The gates of the new Jerusalem shall not be shut at all by day for there shall be no night there And there shall be no night there XCIX The state of the Millennium will not stand in need of and so probably will be without the light and presence of the Sun and Moon And the City had no need of the Sun neither of the Moon to shine in it And they need no candle neither light of the sun C. At the conclusion of the Millennium the Final Judgment and Consummation of all things The Earth will desert its present Seat and Station in the World and be no longer found among the Planetary Chrous I saw a great white throne and him that sat on it from whose face the earth and the heavens fled away and there was found no place for them BOOK IV. SOLUTIONS OR An Account of the foregoing Phaenomena from the Principles of Philosophy already laid down CHAP. 1. A Solution of the Phaenomena relating to the Mosaick Creation and the original Constitution of the Earth I. All those particular small Bodies of which our habitable Earth is now compos'd were originally in a mixed confused fluid and uncertain Condition without any order or regularilty It was an Earth without form and void had darkness spread over the face of its Abyss and in reality was what it has been ever stil'd A perfect Chaos I. THIS has been already sufficiently accounted for and need not be here again insisted on II. The Formation of this Earth or the Change of that Chaos into an habitable World was not a meer result from any necessary Laws of Mechanism independently on the Divine Power but was the proper effect of the Influence and Interposition and all along under the peculiar Care and Providence of God II. 'T is not very easy I confess in such mighty Turns and Changes of the World exactly to determine how far and in what particulars a supernatural or miraculous Interposition of the Divine Power is concern'd and how far the Laws of Nature or Mechanical Powers ought to be extended Nay indeed 't is difficult enough in several instances to determine what is the effect of a natural and ordinary and what of a supernatural and extraordinary Providence 'T is now evident That Gravity the most mechanical Affection of Bodies and which seems most natural depends entirely on the constant and efficacious and if you will the supernatural and miraculous Influence of Almighty God And I do not know whether the falling of a Stone to the Earth ought not more truly to be esteem'd a supernatural Effect or a Miracle than what we with the greatest surprize should so stile its remaining pendulous in the open Air since the former requires an active Influence in the first Cause while the latter supposes Non-annihilation only But besides this Tho' we were able exactly to distinguish in general the ordinary Concurrence of God from his extraordinary yet would the task before us be still sufciently difficult For those Events or Actions are in Holy Scripture attributed immediately to the Power and Providence of God which yet were to all outward appearance according to the constant course of things and would abstractedly from such Affirmations of the Holy Books have been esteem'd no more miraculous than the other common Effects of Nature or usual Accidents of Humane Affairs as those who have carefully consider'd these matters especially the Historical and Prophetical Parts of the Old Testament must be oblig'd to confess Neither is it unreasonable that all things should in that manner be ascribed to the Supream Being on several accounts 'T is from him every thing is ultimately deriv'd He conserves the Natures and continues the Powers of every Creature He not only at first produc'd but perpetually disposes and makes use of the whole Creation and every part thereof as the Instruments of his Providence He foresaw and foreadapted the intire Frame He determin'd his Co-operation or Permission to every Action He so order'd and appointed the whole System with every individual Branch of it as to Time Place Proportion and all other Circumstances that nothing should happen unseasonably unfitly disproportionately or otherwise than the Junctures of Affairs the demerits of his reasonable Creatures and the wise Intentions of his Providence did require In fine he so previously adjusted and contemper'd the Moral and Natural World to one another that the Marks and Tokens of his Providence should be in all Ages legible and conspicuous whatsoever the visible secondary Causes or Occasions might be Seeing then this is the true state of the Case and that consequently Almighty God has so constituted the World that no Body can tell wherein it differs from one where all were solely brought to pass by a miraculous Power 't is by no means untrue or improper in the Holy Books to refer all those things which bare Humane Authors would derive from
intire Bodies of all Plants and Animals 't is by no means hard to conceive that he might Create them in what degree of Maturity and Perfection he pleas'd without any manner of infringement of the Order of Nature then to be establish'd And if we have reason to believe that the Bodies of bruit Creatures were created in parvo in a small State such as we now call Seeds and so requir'd a proper Generation i. e. Nutrition and Augmentation of parts as the Mosaick History plainly describes them and had it not done so we could not with any certainty have asserted it We have sure equal reason to believe from the description of the same Author in this other case that the Bodies of our First Parents were Originally created in their Mature Bulk and State of Manhood so as immediately to be capable of the same Operations which at any time afterward they might be thought to be This Miraculous Origination of the Bodies of our First Parents is therefore very rationally ascribed to the Finger of God by Moses And we may justly believe that the Blessed Trinity as 't is represented in the Sacred History was peculiarly concern'd in the Production of that Being which was to bear the Image of God and be made capable of some degree of his Immortality And then as to the Soul of Man 't is certainly a very distinct Being from and one very much advanced above the Body and therefore if we were forc'd to introduce a Divine Power in the Formation of the latter we can do no less than that in the Creation and Infusion of the former And indeed the Dignity and Faculties of the Human Soul are so vastly exalted above all the Material or merely Animal Creation that its Original must be deriv'd from the immediate Finger of God in a manner still more peculiar and Divine than all the rest That nearer resemblance of the Spiritual Nature Immortal Condition Active Powers and Free Rational and Moral Operations of the Divine Being it self which the Souls of men were to bear about them did but require some peculiar and extraordinary Conduct in their first Existence after-Union with Matter and Introduction into the Corporeal World Agreeably whereto we may easily observe a signal distinction in the Sacred History between the formation of all other Animals and the Creation of Man In the former case 't is only said Let the waters bring forth the moving creature that hath life Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind But of the latter the entire Trinity consult And God said Let Us make man in our image after our likeness And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul. As therefore the several parts of the Mosaick Creation before-mention'd are not to be mechanically attempted but look'd upon as the effects of the Extraordinary and Miraculous Power and Providence of God so more especially the Formation of the Body of Man in its mature state and most of all the primary Creation and after-Infusion of the Rational Human Soul is to be wholly ascrib'd to the same wonderful Interposition and Efficiency of the Supreme Being the Creator of all things God blessed for evermore All which taken together and duly considered is I think a sufficient and satisfactory Account of the Proposition before us and attributes as much to the Miraculous and Immediate Hand of God as either Tradition Reason or Scripture require in the present Case III. The Days of Creation and that of Rest had their beginning in the Evening III. This has been already accounted for and need not here be repeated Corollary 1. This Phaenomenon in some measure confirms our Hypothesis that the Primitive Days of the World were Years also For otherwise the space of one single short Night seems too inconsiderable to have been taken such notice of in this History and then and ever after made the first half of the Natural Day But if it were equal to half a Year it was too considerable to be omitted and its memory was very justly preserv'd in succeeding Ages Corollary 2. We may here begin to take notice of the Regularity and Methodicalness of this History of the Creation Which tho' it principally intends the giving an account of the Visible Parts of the World and how the state of Nature in each Period appeared in the Day time yet Omits not the foregoing Night which is very Mechanical and Natural For in the preceding Night all things were so prepar'd and dispos'd that the Work of each Day might upon its appearance display it self might be exhibited not in its unseen beginnings or secret Workings not in its praevious Causes and gradual Procedure which was not the Design of this History but in that more distinct and perfect condition in which things would in the Day time appear to the view of a Spectator and under which chiefly they were to be discribed and recorded in this History IV. At the time immediately preceding the Six Days Creation the Face of the Abyss or superior Regions of the Chaos were involv'd in a Thick Darkness IV. If we consider what has been already said of the Nature of a Comet or peculiarly of that Atmosphere which has been before shewn to have been the ancient Chaos we ought to represent it to our selves as containing a Central Solid Hot Body of about 7000 or 8000 Miles in Diameter and besides that a vastly large fluid heterogeneous Mass or congeries of Bodies in a very rare seperate and expanded condition whose Diameter were twelve or perhaps fifteen times as long as that of the central Solid or about 100000 Miles which is the Atmosphere or Chaos now to be consider'd In which we must remember was contain'd both a smaller quantity of dry solid or earthy Parts with a still much smaller of Aery and Watery and a much larger quantity of dense and heavy Fluids of which the main bulk of the Atmosphere was compos'd all confusedly mix'd blended and jumbled together In which state the Theorist's First Figure excepting the omission of the Central Solid will well enough represent it and in which state we accordingly delineate it in the following Figure But upon the change of the Comet 's Orbit from Elliptical to Circular the Commencing of the Mosaick Creation and the Influence of the Divine Spirit all things would begin to take their own places and each species of Bodies rank themselves into that order which according to the law of specifick gravity were due to them By which method the Mass of dense Fluids which compos'd the main bulk of the intire Chaos being heavier than the Masses of Earth Water and Air would sink downwards with the greatest force and velocity and elevate those Masses inclosed among them upwards Which procedure must therefore distinguish the Chaos or Atmosphere into two very different and
distinct Regions The lower and larger whereof would be a collection or system of dense and heavy Fluids or a vast Abyss immediately encompassing the central solid Body The higher and lesser would be a collection or system of earthy watery and aery Parts confusedly mix'd together and encompassing the said Abyss in the same manner as that did the central Solid And this I take to be the state of Darkness which the Proposition we are upon mentions And that the Chaos particularly the Face or upper Regions of it were at this time in such a dark and caliginous Condition will easily appear For all those Opake or Earthy Corpuscles which before rov'd about the immense Regions of the Atmosphere and frequently even then obscur'd the Central Solid to any external Spectator were now crouded nearer together and instead of flying up and down in or possessing an Orb of 40000 or 50000 Miles in thickness were reduced to a narrower Sphere and confin'd within a space not perhaps in Diameter above the thousandth part of the former and must by consequence exclude the Rays of the Sun in anotherguess manner than before We cannot but observe in our present Air That the very same Vapours which when dissipated and scatter'd through the Atmosphere whose extent yet is not great freely admit the Rays of the Sun and afford us clear and lightsome days when they are collected into Clouds become opake Masses and are capable of obscuring the Sky and rendring it considerably dark to us In the same manner 't is easy to suppose that those Opake and Earthy Masses which in those vaster Regions would but in a less degree and in some places exclude the Beams of the Sun must when collected and crowded closer together on the surface of the Abyss exclude them in a degree vastly surpassing the former must occasion an entire darkness in all its Regions and particularly in those upper ones over which they were immediately collected And if from the former comparison we estimate how few Vapours collected into a Cloud with us will cause no inconsiderable degree of darkness and allow as is but reasonable a proportionably greater degree of darkness to a proportionably greater number of Earthy and Opake Corpuscles crowded to gether we shall not doubt but all manner of communication with the Heavenly Bodies and the External World must be intirely interrupted and the least imaginable Ray or Beam of Light from the Sun excluded not only from the lowest but even all excepting the very highest Regions of this superior Chaos Which state of Nature belonging to this time immediately preceding the Hexameron is not amiss represented by the Theorist's Second Figure which is accordingly here delineated V. The Visible part of the First Day 's Work was the Production of Light or its successive Appearance to all the parts of the Earth with the consequent distinction of Darkness and Light Night and Day upon the face of it V. If we remember in what state we left the Chaos in the last Proposition and suffer our thoughts to run naturally along with its succeeding mutations we shall find that the next thing to be here consider'd for the Subterraneous System of dense Fluids or the great Abyss not coming directly within the Design of Moses is not here to be particularly prosecuted any farther is the Separation of this Upper and Elementary Chaos or Congeries of Earthy Watery and Aery Corpusoles into two somewhat different Regions the one a Solid Orb of Earth with great quantities of Water in its Pores the other an Atmosphere in a peculiar sense or Mass of the lightest Earthy with the rest of the Watery and the Aery Particles still somewhat confusedly mixt together For since this Upper Chaos tho' in general much lighter than the Abyss beneath consisted of parts very Heterogeneous and of different specifick gravities the Earthy being heavier than the Watery and those yet heavier than the Aery Particles 't is evident that in the same manner as this whole mixed Mass was separated from the heavier Abyss beneath must it again separate and divide it self into two such general Orbs as were just now mention'd The former consisting of the denser and solider parts such as the Earthy Claiy Sandy Gravelly Stony Strata of the present Earth with so many of the Watery Particles as either being already in those Regions must be inclosed therein or could descend from above and have admittance into the Pores thereof The latter of the less Solid Lighter and Earthy with the rest of the Watery and the Aery Particles not yet sufficiently distinguish'd from each other This process will I suppose easily be allow'd excepting what relates to the enclosing of the Watery parts within the Earth with relation to which 't is commonly suppos'd that because Water is specifically lighter than Earth it must in the regular digestions of a Chaos take the Upper situation and cover that highest Orb as that would others of greater gravity than it self 'T is also commonly imagin'd that the Mosaick Cosmogony favours such an Hypothesis and supposes the Waters to have encompass'd the Globe and cover'd its surface till on the third day they were deriv'd into the Seas Now as I by no means apprehend any necessity of understanding the Mosaick Creation in this sense so I am very sure 't is contrary to a Philosophick account of the Formation of the Chaos unless one of these two things were certain Either that the quantity of Water were so much greater than that of Earth that all the Pores and Interstices of the latter could not contain it or else that it was generally elevated into the Air in the form of Vapour and sustained there while the Earth setled and consolidated together and did not till then descend and take its own proper place The former of which is neither reconcilable to the Mosaick Creation nor will be asserted by any who knows even since the Deluge how small the quantity of Fluids in comparison to that of the Solids is in the Earth on which we live And the latter is too much to be granted in the present case by any considering person who knows that a Comet 's Vapours constitute the main part of that Tail or Mist which is sometimes equal to a Cylinder whose Basis is 1000000 Miles in Diameter and its Altitude as far as from the Sun to the Earth or 54000000 Miles as it was in the last famous Comet in 1681. represented in Mr. Newton's own Scheme Let the rarity of the same be suppos'd as great as any Phaenomena shall require For to clear this matter by a familiar Instance or Experiment Take Sand or Dust and let them fall gently into a Vessel till it be near full Take afterwards some Water and pour it alike gently into the same Vessel And it will soon appear that notwithstanding the greater specifick gravity of the Dry and Earthy than of the Moist and Watery parts whence one might imagine that the Sand or
outward Surface too small to be therein consider'd and suppose the Atmosphere somewhat clearer than before the former figure will still serve well enough and represent the progress and state of the Earth at the conclusion of this Third Day Corollary 1. When according to our present accounts of these matters this is the only day of the Creation to which a double work and that the one quite different from the other ought to be ascrib'd and is ascrib'd by Moses The Night being peculiarly fit for the former and the Day for the latter operation which could happen on none of the other Periods This exactness of correspondence ought to be esteem'd an Evidence of the literal sense of the Writer and of his accommodation to the nature of things and a very considerable confirmation of those Hypotheses on which it so naturally depends Coroll 2. Hence arises a Confirmation of what was before asserted that the Antediluvian Earth had only lesser Lakes and Seas not a vast Ocean For when the quantity of Waters belonging to the Earth and Air at first was no more than was elevated in one half year and at once sust ain'd by the Air no one will imagine it sufficient to fill the intire Ocean alone if there had been neither lesser Seas nor Rivers to be supply'd therewith And so vice versa It having been prov'd by other Arguments that there was no Ocean but only lesser Seas before the Flood This Account which affords sufficient quantity of Water for the latter but not for the former is thereby not a little confirm'd Coroll 3. Tho' the Heat and Influence of the Sun was on this Third Day very great yet was his Body not yet Visible For since at his Rising the Earth and lowest Regions of the Air were very full of moisture while the higher Regions were very clear and bright the force of his heat would be so great as to elevate considerable quantities of Vapours on a sudden and thereby e're the lowest Air had deposited its Vapours and rendred it self transparent the Sun would anew hide himself in a thick Mist and so prevent his own becoming conspicuous which otherwise 't is not improbable he might this Day have been VIII The Fourth Day 's Work was the Placing the Heavenly Bodies Sun Moon and Stars in the Expansam or Firmament i. e. The rendring them Visible and Conspicuous on the Face of the Earth Together with their several Assignations to their respective Offices there VIII Altho' the Light of the Sun penetrated the Atmosphere in some sort the first Day and in the succeeding ones had very considerable influence upon it yet is it by no means to be suppos'd that his Body was Visible all that while Tho' we every day enjoy much more Light and Heat from the Sun than the Primitive Earth could for a considerable space be suppos'd to have done yet 't is but sometimes that the Air is so clear as to render his Body discernible by us A very few Clouds or Vapours gather'd together in our Air are able we see to hinder such a prospect for Weeks if not Months together while yet at the same time we are sufficiently sensible of his Force and Influence in the constant productions of Nature Which things being duly consider'd and the vastness and density of the Upper Chaos allow'd for 't will be but reasonable to afford a great space even after the first penetration of Light for the intire clearing of the Atmosphere and the distinct view of the Sun's Body by a Spectator on the Surface of the Earth I suppose no one will think the two first Days or Years of the' Creation too long for such a work or if any one does the particular work and state of the Atmosphere on the second Day will prevent the most probable part of such a surmise and shew the impossibility of the Sun's Appearance at that time And the same reason will in a sufficient tho a less degree prevent any just Expectations on the third Day as was observ'd in the last Corollary But now upon the coming on of this fourth Day and the Sun's descent and abode below the Horizon for an intire half year those Vapours which were rais'd the day before must fall downwards and so before the approach of the Morning leave the Air in the greatest clearness and purity imaginable and permit the Moon first then the Stars and afterward upon the coming on of the Day the Sun himself most plainly to appear and be conspicuous on the Face of the Earth This fourth Day is therefore the very time when acording to this Account and the Sacred History both these Heavenly Bodies which were in being before but so as to be wholly Strangers to a Spectator on Earth were rendred visible and expos'd to the view of all who should be suppos'd to be there at the same time They now were in the Sacred Stile placed in the Firmament of Heaven gave Light upon the Earth began to rule plainly and visibly over the Day and over the Night and to divide the Light from the Darkness as ever since they have continued to do And now the inanimate World or the Earth Air Seas and all their Vegetable Productions are compleat and the Tradition of those Chineses who inhabit Formosa and other Islands appears well-grounded and exactly true who hold That the World when first created was without Form or Shape but by one of their Deities was brought to its full Perfection in four Years Which Progress of the Creation and State of Nature is exactly represented by the Theorist's fifth and last Figure which therefore here follows IX The fifth Day 's Work was the Production of the Fish and Fowl out of the Waters with the Benediction bestow'd on them in order to their Propagation IX The Terraqueous Globe being now become habitable both to the swimming and volatil Animals and the Air clear and so penetrable by that compleat Heat of the Sun which was requisite to the Generation of such Creatures 't is a very proper time for their Introduction Which was accordingly done upon this fifth Day or Year of the Creation Those Seeds or little Bodies of Fish and Fowl which were contain'd in the Water or moist fruitful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of kin to it were now expos'd to the kindly warmth of the Sun and the constant supply of a most gentle and equal Heat from beneath they were neither disturbed by the sudden alteration of the Temperature of the Air from the violence of Winds or by the Agitations of the Tide which was both very small in these small Seas and by reason of the absence of the Diurnal Rotation imperceptibly easy gentle and gradual these Seeds I say when invigorated with the Divine Benediction became now prolifick and in this fifth Day 's time a numerous Off-spring of the swimming and volatil Kinds arose whereby the two fluid Elements Water and Air became
and not till then was Man created and introduc'd into the World Then and not before was He constituted the Lord and Governor of the whole and all things put in subjection under his feet In which intire procedure the Wisdom and Goodness of the Creator and the Dignity and Honour of his principal Creature here below are equally consulted and the greatest occasion imaginable given to our first Parents and all their Posterity of adoring and celebrating the Divine Bounty to them in the present and succeeding Ages Which naturally leads us to the next Proposition XI God having thus finish'd the Works of Creation Rested on the Seventh day from the same and Sanctified or set that Day apart for a Sabbath or Day of Rest to be then and afterward obsrev'd as a Memorial of his Creation of the World in the six foregoing and his resting or keeping a Sabbath on this Seventh day Which Sabbath was reviv'd or at least its Observation anew enforc'd on the Jews by the Fourth Commandment XI Nothing sure could be more sit and proper at this time than the praising and worshipping of that Powerful and Munificent Creator who in the foregoing six Days Productions had so operously and so liberally provided for the well-being and happiness of Mankind And seeing this intire Fabrick was design'd for the use and advantage of all succeeding Generations as well as the present it could not but be reasonable to perpetuate the Memory of this Creation and devote one Period in seven to the peculiar Worship and Service of that God who was both the Author of the Works themselves and of this Institution of the Sabbath to perpetuate the memory of such his six Days of Work and of this seventh of Rest to all future Generations What relates to the Fall of Adam and the intire Moral State of the World comes not within the compass of this Physical Theory and so notwithstanding it naturally enough belongs to this Day and might I imagine be shewn not to be so difficult as for want of a right understanding thereof 't is usually imagin'd to be and that without receding from the literal obvious and usual Sense of Scripture must be wholly omitted in this place XII There is a constant and vigorous Heat diffused from the Central towards the superficiary Parts of our Earth XII This has been already accounted for and need not here be resum'd Corollary From the consideration of the very long time that the Heat of a Comet 's central Solid may endure 't is easy to account for that otherwise strange Phaenomenon of some of those Bodies viz. That tho' the Tails of the Comets appear to be no other than Steams of Vapours rarified by the prodigious Heat acquir'd in their approaches to the Sun yet some at least of these Comets have no inconsiderable ones as they are descending towards the Sun long before they approach near enough to acquire new ones by a fresh Rarefaction of their Vapours in his Vicinity For since the prodigious Heat acquir'd at the last Perihelion must remain for so many thousands of Years tho' the Tail which the Sun 's own Heat rais'd at that time must have been either dispersed through the Ether or by its Gravitation return'd to its old place in the Atmosphere yet will there still remain a Tail and its Position will be no other than if the Sun 's own Heat had elevated the same For by what Heat soever the Vapours in a Comet 's Atmosphere become rarer than the Parts of the Solar Atmosphere in which they are or subject to the Power and Velocity of the Sun's Rays elevating the same a Tail must be as certainly produc'd as if the Sun 's own Heat were the occasion of it Which Observation rightly consider'd will afford light to the foremention'd Phaenomenon and will deserve the consideration of Astronomers to whom it is submitted XIII The habitable Earth is founded or situate on the Surface of the Waters or of a deep and vast Subterraneous Fluid XIII This has been sufficiently explain'd already and is observable in the foregoing Figures of the four latter periods of the Mosaick Creation XIV The interior or intire Constitution of the Earth is correspoudent to that of an Egg. XIV This is also very easily observable in the same Figures Where 1. the Central Solid is answerable to the Yolk which by its fiery Colour great Quantity and innermost Situation exactly represents the same Where 2. the great Abyss is analogous to the White whose Density Viscosity moderate Fluidity and middle Positition excellently express the like Qualities of the other Where 3. the upper Orb or habitable Earth corresponds to the Shell whose Lightness Tenuity Solidity little inequalities of Surface and uppermost Situation admirably agree to the same 'T is indeed possible to suppose that the Quantities specifick Gravities and Crassitudes of each Orb to instance in nothing else here may be in the Earth proportionable to their Analogous ones in an Egg but because the Similitude is so very obvious and full in the foregoing more certain respects and more than sufficient on those accounts to solve the present Phaenomenon and because a bare possibility or fancied probability cannot deserve any more nice consideration I forbear and look upon the Coincidences already observ'd not a little surprizing and remarkable XV. The Primitive Earth had Seas and Dry land distinguish'd from each other in great measure as the present and those situate in the same places generally as they still are XV. The former part of this has been already sufficiently explain'd and of the latter part there can then be no reason to make any question since the same Earth that was made at first does still as to its main parts remain as it was to this Day XVI The Primitive Earth had Springs Fountains Streams and Rivers in the same manner as the present and usually in or near the same places also XVI The Origin of Fountains and Rivers is undoubtedly either from Vapours descending from without the Surface of the Earth or from Steams elevated by the heat within And which way soever we chuse to solve the present 't will also serve to solve the Primitive Phaenomena here mention'd 'T is only to be observ'd That before the upper Earth was chap'd and broken at the commencing of the Diurnal Rotation and indeed before the Strata became so firmly consolidated as they afterward were the subterraneous Steams would arise and pass through the same more uniformly and more easily and so more equally dispense their Waters over every Part and Region of the Earth than afterward Corollary If therefore Dr. Woodward be right in asserting That the Cracks and Fissures which he calls perpendicular ones since the intire Consolidation of the Strata of the Earth are necessary to the Origin of Springs and I believe he may have good grounds for his Opinion from the Being of such Springs and Fountains after the
Consolidation of the Strata and before the Flood 't is evident that the Diurnal Motion did not commence till after the Annual nay till after the Formation and Consolidation of the Earth And so what on other grounds was before rendred highly probable will appear nearer to certainty on This For 't is plain If the present Diurnal Motion commenc'd either with the Annual or indeed any time before the Formation of the Earth the Figure of the Chaos and so of the Abyss and Upper Earth would originally be that of an Oblate Sphaeroid as it is now the Strata would be all coherent united and continued without any Cracks or Perpendicular Fissures at all and the Origin of Springs on the Doctor 's Grounds must in a natural way be plainly impossible Since therefore the Diurnal Rotations commencing after the Consolidation of the Strata gives a Mechanical and Natural Account of the Chaps and perpendicular Fissures since without the same in the present Case no natural Cause of them is by any assigned since withal 't is unquestionable that there were Springs and Rivers before the Flood and since lastly it appears that such Fissures were necessary to the being of those Springs and Rivers 't is very reasonable nay necessary to suppose that the Diurnal Rotation did not commence till after the Formation and Consolidation of the Earth was over or which is almost all one till the Fall of Man as we formerly asserted XVII The Primitive Earth was distinguish'd into Mountains Plains and Vallies in the same manner generally speaking and in the same places as the present XVII This has been sufficiently explain'd already and need not here be reassum'd And that each of these Seas Springs with their Rivers and Mountains were generally the same and in the same places as the present there is no reason to doubt they being usually the very same individuals then and now and so unquestionably cannot have chang'd their primary Situations XVIII The Waters of the Seas in the Primitive Earth were Salt and those of the Rivers Fresh as they are at present and each as now were then stor'd with great plenty of Fish XVIII This has no difficulty in it seeing our present Seas and Rivers are the very same or of the same nature and their several Inhabitants the Spawn or Off-spring of those primitive ones XIX The Seas were agitated with a like Tide or Flux and Reflux as they are at present XIX The presence of the Moon and Sun being the cause of the Tides and those Bodies by consequence being equally dispos'd before as since the Deluge to produce them this Proposition can have no manner of difficulty Only we may take notice of these two things 1. That in the State of Innocence before the Diurnal Revolution began the frequency of the Tide must depend on the Lunar Period and happen but twice in each Month as now it does in somewhat above a days time with us On which account the increase and decrease of the Waters would be extreamly gentle leisurely and gradual without any imaginable Violence or Precipitation 2. That in the whole Antediluvian State the Tides were lesser than since by reason of the smallness of the Seas then in comparison of the great Ocean from whence now the most considerable ones are deriv'd All which yet hinders not but they might be sensible enough in some Creeks Bays and Mouths of Rivers The peculiar circumstances of those places in that as well as in the present State rendring the Tides the Elevations and Depressions of the Waters there most considerable and violent of all others XX. The Productions of the Primitive Earth as far as we can guess by the remainders of them at the Deluge differ'd little or nothing from those of the present either in Figure Magnitude Texture of Parts or any other correspondent respect XX. These things seem to depend on two Particulars viz. partly on the primary Bigness Figure and Constitution of the constituent insensible Parts or Elements of Bodies and partly on the quantity of Heat made use of in their Production or Coalition Which being suppos'd the Proposition will easily be establish'd For as to the first I suppose they remain invariably the same in all Ages and are by any natural Power unalterable And as to the last whatever be to be said of the State of Innocence or the first Ages succeeding on some peculiar accounts which I believe might be warmer than at present yet as to the times here referr'd to there is no need to suppose any great difference of Heat either from the Sun or the Central Body And indeed all the difference on any accounts to be suppos'd between the Heat before and since the Deluge must be too inconsiderable to be taken notice of in any such sensible Effects as this Proposition does refer to For the Sun's heat was not above a twenty fifth part greater than 't is now and the space of four or five thousand Years makes but a small difference in that of the Central Solid if at first it were heated any whit near the degree mention'd in the Calculation referr'd to in the Margin And tho' its real Heat were decreas'd yet in case its facility of Penetration were increas'd in the same Proportion the heat on the Face of the Earth would still be equal and invariable And so by these accounts the Productions of Nature in all Ages must be pretty equal and agreeable as this Proposition requires Corollary Tho' the Lives of the Antediluvians were so much longer than ours at present yet were they not generally of a more Gygantick Stature than the past or present Generations since have been In all which Ages notwithstanding there have been some of an extraordinary Bigness and Stature and will be still no doubt in the future Ages to the end of the World XXI The Primitive Earth had such Metals and Minerals in it as the present has XXI This is easily accounted for For since the Antidiluvian and the present Earth are either the very same as the lower Regions or at least of the same nature the Off-spring of a Comets Atmosphere as even that acquir'd Crust at the Deluge was 't is no wonder if each of them contain the same Species of Bodies within it XXII Arts and Sciences were invented and improved in the first Ages of the World as well as they since have been XXII There is little need of giving particular Reasons for this All I shall observe is That seeing the Ignorance and Barbarity of the Ages after the Deluge is the greatest Objection against this Proposition 't is avoided in our Hypothesis The insensible tho' prodigious Change of the State of Nature and the perishing of all the Monuments of the old Learning or Arts at the Flood with the want of correspondence in the latter Years to the former Tradition reducing the few remainders of the former State wholly to seek for their
Learning notwithstanding it might have been cultivated and improv'd to great degree before the Deluge as therefore in all probability it was CHAP. II. A Solution of the Phaenomena relating to the Primitive State of the Earth XXIII The Primitive state of the Earth admitted of the primary production of Animals out of the Waters and Dry Ground which the subsequent states otherwise than in the ordinary method of Generation have been uncapable of XXIII 'T IS not to be expected that I should here be able to give a full and methodical account of the growth of the Primitive Pairs of Animals and of the several dispositions of the Primigenial state of Nature subservient or contributary thereto The method of the Generation of Animals is it self in gèneral so little known and the History of this first stage of the World as well so short in the Sacred Writings as so difficult to be in all its circumstances now otherwise understood that such an Attempt might justly be look'd upon as too rash a presumption All that ought to be expected and all that I shall endeavour is this To shew that as far as is known of that Original Earth its properties were as peculiarly fit for as those opposite ones of the succeeding are incapable of such a production of Animals at first as this Proposition takes notice of Which the five following particulars shall include 1. The long and continued spaces of Day and Night in the Primitive state did capacitate it for such productions which the quick returns of the same afterward prohibited 'T will be easily granted that in the Generation of Animals there must be a pretty constant and continual warmth without the frequent interposition of Cold during the most part of the process Now this the long days of half a year afforded these Primary Embrio's which the short ones of only twelve small hours and the sudden and frequent returns of equal Nights has utterly deni'd to any such ever since 2. The Primitive Earth was moist and juicy enough to supply nourishment all the time of the Generation of the Foetus which after it was once become perfectly Dry and Solid was not again to be expected It was before observ'd that upon the descent of the vast quantities of Vapours on the Third Day the ground was so tender soft and full of juices as very naturally answered to what all Antiquity made the fund and promptuary of the rising Plants and Animals the famous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And as that was but a necessary qualification of a Soil which was to produce Animals so the want of it ever since takes away all hopes of a like Propagation 3. The Primitive state of the Earth and Air where the Animals were produc'd had heat sufficient for that purpose which the subsequent has not 'T is evident that a greater heat than the present Earth or Ambient Air can afford is requisite to and made use of in the present Generation of Animals which the Incubation in the Oviparous and the still warmer Position of the Faetus in the Viviparous Animals assure us of On which account the present Earth must needs be incapable of their production But that the Heat in the Primitive Earth and particularly where the Animals were produc'd was much greater will thus appear As to the Heat from the Central Body while the Earth was somewhat loose and pretty freely admitted the ascending steams that would be considerably greater than after its more intire consolidation when these steams were thereby so much confin'd within or diverted to some particular conceptacles Besides The Production of Animals was near Paradise and I suppose no where else Now those middle Regions of which Eden the Country of Paradise was one being situate under the ancient Ecliptick and present Tropick of which before enjoy'd also a greater Heat from the same Central Body by reason of their greater nearness thereto than since they or the corresponding parts of the Torrid Zone do or can partake of For when the Earth was then perfectly Sphaerical the middle and their neighbouring parts were about 10 miles nearer the Central Solid than the same Regions now are They being in that proportion Elevated and the circumpolar depress'd at the commencing of the Diurnal Rotation Which greater Vieinity of the Central Heat must certainly have a suitable effect and cause somewhat warmer Regions thereabouts than they have been ever since Moreover If the real proper heat of the Central Solid be in any considerable proportion diminish'd in near 6000 years time as in some proportion it must be That degree of Heat which it had at first was still the most powerful of all other ever since But then as to the Solar Heat to take no notice of the greater nearness of the Sun's Body before the Deluge than since as not directly reaching the present case 'T is evident that Paradise situate under or near the very Ecliptick it self must receive the utmost power of the same heat which any part of the Globe were capable of which by lying under the Tropick afterward it would not do On all which accounts joyn'd together 't is evident that the heat in the Primitive State was much more considerable and so much more adapted to the Generation of Animals than that in the subsequent ever was or can possibly be 4. The Primitive state was perfectly still and calm free from all such winds storms violent tides or any the like hurries and disorders as at present wholly render the production of Animals impossible Which quiet condition if in some respects it endur'd till the Deluge yet as even in those the Paradisiacal state might have the preheminence so in others particularly the gentleness of the Tides it had still the most peculiar advantage as was before observed 5. The Equability of Seasons and the greater uniformity of the Air 's temperature which in part remain'd till the Deluge but might be more signal in the Paradisiacal state rendred that Earth as proper as the contrary sudden uncertain and violent extreams of heat and cold drought and moisture sultry and frosty Weather now wholly indispose it for such a production of Animals Which Prerogatives of the Primitive Earth and Air will certainly demonstrate if not its intire fitness yet sure it s less unfitness for such an original Generation as was here to be accounted for and is all as was before observ'd that can justly be requir'd and expected in the present case Corollary When it has been before allow'd that all Generation is but Nutrition and that all Seeds as well of Animals as of Plants are the immediate workmanship of God 'T is evident that this Supposition of the Original Production of Animals out of the Waters and Earth according to the plainest letter of the Mosaick History does by no means derogate from the Divine Efficiency and the wonderful Art and Skill in the Structure of their Bodies nor
were in a state of greater Capacities and Operations nearer approaching to reason and discourse and partakers of higher degrees of Perfection and Happiness than they have been ever since XXVI Since the Primitive state of External Nature was so exceeding different from the present as has been already prov'd the other Terrestrial Animals as well as Man ought to be suppos'd of a somewhat proportionably different Temper Abilities and Actions Besides The Divine Providence is concern'd to suit one Being to Another and to accommodate still the subordinate to the Superior rank of Creatures in the World On which account 't is not strange that the Bruit Animals were in their Primitive Constitution very much distinguish'd from and advanc'd above such as are now upon the Earth the Diversity with Relation to Mankind to whom in each Period they were to be subservient being so very remarkable For since Mankind upon the Fall degenerated into a Sensual and Bruitish way of Living the Bruit Creatures themselves would very unwillingly have paid their due homage and submission had not they in some degree degenerated from their Primitive Dignity at the same time Which degeneracy suppos'd a former greater degree of Abilities Operations and Happiness is at the same time suppos'd also And to strengthen this conjecture I may venture to Appeal to Anatomy whether the present Bodies of Bruits do not appear capable as far as can be discover'd of nobler operations than we ever now observe from them The advantage of even Mankind in this respect seeming not very considerable over the Bruits that perish XXVII The temper of the Air where our first Parents liv'd was warmer and the Heat greater before the Fall than since XXVII This has been already accounted for in the twenty third Proposition before XXVIII Those Regions of the Earth where our first Parents were plac'd were productive of better and more useful Vegetables with less Labour and Tillage than since they have been XXVIII That we may account for this Proposition and that Curse which was inflicted on the ground at the Fall in good measure included therein we must observe that the growth of Plants and Vegetables depends on a degree of Heat proportionate to the peculiar temper and exigence of each Species and by consequence that let the number of Seeds in any Soil be never so many or their kinds never so diverse yet the Surface of the Earth must remain bare and barren until the peculiar Heat of the Season and Climate be adapted to them Now seeing different kinds of Seeds require different degrees of Heat 't is only such certain kinds of the same that will at once shew themselves or spring out of the Earth the rest to which the Heat is not adjusted lying all the while as Dormant and Dead as if they did not really Exist in Nature Thus we have several distinct Crops of Vegetables in the several Seasons of the Year Those Seeds which the small Heat of February and March is not able to raise lye still in the Earth till the greater force of the Sun in April and May excite them In like manner several others which are too crass and unpliable for the moderate warmth of the Spring are by the yet greater intenseness of the Heat in June July and August rais'd from their Seats and oblig'd to shoot forth and display themselves Nay when in the Months of September and October the Sun's Power is diminish'd and its Heat but about equivalent to that of March and April it again suits the Plants which were then in Season so that they many of them spring up afresh in these Months and flourish over anew as before they did in those as Dr. Woodward very well discourses upon this occasion In like manner we may also consider this matter with relation to the different Climates and Zones of the Earth and their quite different Crops of Plants according to those different degrees of Heat made use of in their Vegetation When therefore we observe in the same Country a various Crop and Order of Vegetables every Year according to the various Power of Heat in each Season a different Face of the Earth being gradually visible from February till July in proportion to the gradual increase of Heat all that space we cannot tell in case the Heat increas'd still to a greater intenseness afterward but a new and unseen Face of things might appear and many unheard-of kinds of Vegetables might put forth and expose themselves to our Observation even in the present State and Age of the World But as to the Primitive World wherein all the Seeds of those Vegetables which God Originally Created were fresh and vegetous and wherein there was a much greater Heat than since has been to invigorate and produce them 't is very reasonable and very agreeable to Nature to suppose that many sorts of Trees Plants Herbs and Flowers which the colder temper of the subsequent Earth were unable to excite and produce were then every Year rais'd and became the principal Recreation and Sustenance of our first Parents in the state of Innocency 'T is very probable they might never see such a Poor Jejune and Degenerate State of the Vegetable Kingdom as we since have done till their unhappy Fall occasion'd the Introduction of that miserable condition of all things which has ever since continued among us Thus as one Country or Climate because of its greater Coldness is now the Seminary of several Vegetables which the warmer Regions are either perfect Strangers to or advance to a greater degree of perfection So upon the degeneracy of the Primeval State into the present and the mighty Abatement of the Ancient Heat taken together with the worse Juices and other effects of that Abatement contributary perhaps to the same thing 't is natural to allow that several such Vegetables suppose Thorns and Thistles which were before either perfect strangers to or had been advanc'd to a greater degree of Perfection by the Juices and Warmth of Paradise became the constant and troublesome Heir-looms there to the no little regret of our first Parents who till then had only seen and enjoy'd the better Set of the Primigenial Vegetables And if we consider withal that a main intention of the Toil Tillage and Manure of the Husbandman seems to be design'd to Enspirit and Envigorate the too Cold and Unactive Soil with Warm and Active Particles we shall not be unwilling to grant that those Labours of the Husbandman on this as well as on several other accounts which might be mention'd must have been in the Primitive state very facile and easie in comparison of those which are necessary in the present state SCHOLIUM 'T will be here I imagin not improper to remind the Reader once for all of the Nature and Effects of that extraordinary Change which the Fall of Man and the Consequent Curse of God brought upon the Earth That he may with the greater ease of his own accord view
and compare the States of External Nature before and after the Fall one with another and with those things which the Propositions we are now upon do assert concerning them 'T is evident then from what has been before laid down hereto relating that the Primitive state of things before the Fall was thus The Earth being newly form'd was scarcely as yet intirely consolidated and so pretty uniformly pervious to the warm Steams ascending from beneath It s Figure was perfectly Sphaerical and its Strata or Layers by consequence were even continued and join'd and so the Central Heat being equally distant from all the parts of the Earth's Surface did very equally diffuse it self and equally affect all the Climates of the Globe The Soil or Uppermost Stratum of the Earth was newly moisten'd by the descent of the Waters before they compos'd the Seas on the Third Day of the Creation and by the plenty of Moisture which it still receiv'd every Night The Air was perfectly Clear Homogeneous Transparent and Susceptive of the utmost Power of the Solar Heat The Seasons were equable or gently and gradually distinguish'd from one another by the Rising Setting Descending and Ascending Sun without any quick Interpositions of Day and Night to disturb them The Torrid Zone of the Earth as I may call those Regions near the Solar Course was very much Expos'd to the Sun and very much warm'd withal by its Vicinage to the Central Solid The Moon in twelve Revolutions equally measur'd out the Year and caus'd the most gentle easie and gradual Tides imaginable This with all its natural Consequents was the State of the Primitive World But as soon as Man had sinn'd and render'd that happy State too good for him or indeed rendred himself wholly uncapable thereof And as soon as God Almighty had pronounced a Curse on the Ground and its Productions presently the Earth began a new and strange Motion and revolv'd from West to East on its own Axis A single 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Revolution of Night and Day either immediately or by degrees according as the present Velocity of the Diurnal Rotation was suddenly or gradually acquir'd returned frequently and became no longer than 24 short Hours while the Annual Motion perform'd on a different Axis distinguish'd the Seasons and in Conjunction with the Diurnal describ'd the Equator and the Tropicks and by the access and recess of the Sun from the last named Circles caus'd it to visit the several Regions enclos'd thereby The Face of the Earth was really distinguish'd into Zones by the Tropicks and Polar Circles truly divided from one another with respect whereto the particular Regions of the Earth chang'd their Situation the Equator being that Circle with regard whereto they were now to be determin'd as they had been before with regard to the Ecliptick and so that Paradise which was before at the middle became the Northern boundary of the Torrid Zone The Figure of the Earth which was before truly Sphaerical degenerated into an Oblate Sphaeroid the Torrid Zone rising about 10 Miles upward and the Frigid one subsiding as much downwards The Compages of the Upper Earth and of its Strata became thereby chap'd broken and divided and so carried up the warm Steams from beneath to particular Conceptacles and Volcano's which before serv'd in a more equal and uniform manner to heat and invigorate the intire Earth and its productons The Tides lastly became frequenter and so more sudden and violent than before Which short Summary or Scheme of the States of Nature in our Hypothesis before and after the Fall ought to be all along born in mind and reflected on in order to the passing a right judgment on the accounts of those Phaenomena in the Solution whereof we are now engag'd And which otherwise might seem very odd and unaccountable to the Reader Which being thus dispatch'd I proceed XXIX The Primitive Earth was not equally Paradisiacal all over The Garden of Eden or Paradise being a peculiarly fruitful and happy soil and particularly furnish'd with all the necessaries and delights of an innocent and blessed life above the other Regions of the Earth XXIX That all the Primitive Earth could not be equally Paradisiacal and enjoy the same Priviledges and Conveniences beyond the Present is easily prov'd For seeing one of its principal causes of Fertility and other Prerogatives was the greater degree of Heat at the Paradisiacal Regions The Climates near the Solar Course being alone capable of such greater Heat must be alone capable of its Effects also and consequently we are to confine our enquiries for the Garden of Eden to the Countries not very remote from the Ancient Ecliptick Now that some peculiar Spot or Region thereabouts might beyond all the rest be Fertile Pleasant and Paradisiacal 't is not difficult to suppose At the present there is a mighty variety in Countries in the very same Hemisphere Climate and Parallel The particular Prerogatives of one Region beyond another do not intirely depend on the Sun or the Vicinage of the Central Heat But partly on the Nature and Temper of the Soil the kinds of Vegetables and Fossils thereto belonging the number qualities and conflux of Rivers he firmness or looseness of the inferior Strata hindring or freelier permitting the ascent of the Subterraneous Steams Juices and Effluvia From the coincidence of which and of other such things in a peculiar and advantagious manner order'd and dispos'd on purpose by the Divine Providence at the Mosaick Creation the extraordinary pleasantness and felicity of this Earthly Paradise or Garden of Pleasure is I suppose to be deduc'd and which being consider'd will I believe be sufficient to give satisfaction in the Proposition before us XXX The place of Paradise was where the united Rivers Tigris and Euphrates divided themselves into four Streams Pison Gihon Tigris and Euphrates XXX This Situation of Paradise has been already consider'd and need not here be reassum'd Only we may observe That no Scruples would ever have been rais'd about this Matter in case the foremention'd Rivers had still been visible their Course still agreeable to the Mosaick Description and the Metals and Minerals mention'd of the adjoyning Countries had been as evidently there to be found in ours as they appear to have been in those Primitive Times Seeing therefore the following Theory will so clearly assign the Cause of such Diversity that every Reader will be oblig'd to grant it much harder to have accounted for the Phaenomena of Paradise consistently with the other Phaenomena of Nature if all things were now as they were at first than almost any other of the Antediluvian World I may justly hope that this so disputed a Question of the Situation of the Garden of Eden or Primitive Paradise to those who embrace the other parts of the Theory will remain no longer so but be as fix'd and undoubted within at least the limits of that Hypothesis here referr'd to as any other
Country or Region with the same exactness determin'd by Geography XXXI The Earth in its Primitive State had only an Annual Motion about the Sun But since it has a Diurnal Rotation upon its own Axis also Whereby a vast difference arises in the several States of the World XXXI This has been at large explain'd and prov'dalr eady XXXII Upon the first commencing of this Diurnal Rotation after the Fall its Axis was oblique to the Plain of the Ecliptick as it still is or in other words the present Vicissitudes of Seasons Spring Summer Autumm and Winter arising from the Sun's access to and recess from the Tropicks have been ever since the Fall of Man XXXII This has in some measure been insisted on already in the Hypothesis last mention'd and needs no other direct and positive proof than the present Obliquity of the Earth's Axis It being evident that without a miraculous Power the same Situation or Inclination which it had originally would and must invariably remain for all succeeding Ages CHAP. III. A Solution of the Phaenomena relating to the Antediluvian State of the Earth XXXIII The Inhabitants of the Earth were before the Flood vastly more numerous than the present Earth either actually does or perhaps is capable to maintain and supply XXXIII THIS Proposition will not appear strange if we consider 1. The much greater fertility of the Antediluvian Earth to be presently accounted for whereby it was capable of maintaining a much greater number of Inhabitants than the present even on the same space of Ground 2. The Earth was more equally habitable all over before than since the Deluge For before the acquisition of those heterogeneous mixtures which the Deluge occasion'd and which I take to be the Causes of all our violent and pernicious Heat and Cold in the Torrid and Frigid Zones of our Earth 't is probable the Earth was pretty equally habitable all over by reason of the Vicinage of the Central Heat to the Polar Regions and the more direct Exposition of the middle Regions to that of the Sun I do not mean that the Frigid Zones were equally hot with the Torrid but that the Heat in the one and the Cold in the other were more kindly and the excesses of each much less considerable than at present since the Introduction of the before-mention'd Mixtures and particularly of such Sulphureous and Nitrous Effluvia as are now I believe become Calorifick and Frigorifick Particles in our Air the main occasions of the violence and pernicious Qualities of the Heat and Cold thereof and the most affecting to our Senses of all other So that 't is probable before the Acquisition of these Advensitious Masses the Antediluvian Air was every where sufficiently temperate to permit the comfortable Habitation of Mankind on all parts of the Globe and the Antediluvian Earth was by consequence capable of many more Inhabitants than the present is or can be as every one will readily grant who considers how few Inhabitants in comparison three of the five Zones of our present Earth do maintain 3. The dry Land or habitable Earth it self was by reason of the absence of the intire Ocean full as large and capacious again as the present For the Ocean I think takes up now at the least one half of the intire Globe but then afforded as large spacious and habitable Countries as the other parts of the Earth 4. The Mountains which are now generally bare and barren were before the Deluge so far as they were suppli'd with Water as fruitful as the Plains or Vallies and by reason of a larger Surface were capable of maintaining rather more Animals than the Plains on which they stand would otherwise have been The present defect of a fruitful Soil being owing to the Deluge and there being no good reason that I know of to be assign'd why on a primary Formation and in a calm and still State of the Air the higher Parts of the Earth should not be cover'd with a fruitful Soil or Mold as well as the level or lower adjoyning to them All which Accounts taken together will I think give reasonable Foundation for such vast numbers of Inhabitants as according to the Computation of this Proposition the Antediluvian World was replenish'd withal Corollary 1. Since by very reasonable Computations of the numbers of the Inhabitants of the Earth at the Deluge according to the Hebrew Chronology they appear to have been sufficient abundantly to replenish the intire Globe and as many as in reason the same could sustain The Septuagints addition of near six hundred Years in this Period of the World to the Hebrew Accounts is so far from clearing Difficulties thereto relating that it rather increases the same and enforces the allowance of more Inhabitants at the Deluge than we can well tell where they could live and be maintain'd Coroll 2. Since according to the Hebrew Chronology from the Deluge till the time of Abraham's going into Canaan was the intire space of 427 Years and the Lives of Men during that interval were in a mean three hundred Years long 't is easy on the Grounds proceeded upon in this Phaenomenon's Calculations to prove That there is no need to recede from that Account or introduce the additional Years of the Septuagint in this Period to produce the greatest Numbers of Men which in that or the immediately succeeding Ages any Authentick Histories of those Ancient Times do require us to suppose Coroll 3. The Deluge which destroy'd the whole Race of Mankind those only in the Ark excepted could not possibly be confin'd to one or more certain Regions of the Earth but was without question truly Universal Coroll 4. Seeing it appears That Mankind has a gradual increase and that in somewhat more than four thousand Years our Continent of Europe Asia and Africa has been so entirely Peopled from the Sons of Noah and seeing withal America is much less in extent and I suppose generally speaking was never so full of People In case we suppose that Famines Wars Pestilences and all such sad destroyers of Mankind have equally afflicted the several Continents of the Earth Some light might be afforded to the Peopling of America and about what Age since the Deluge the American's past first from this Continent thither which a more nice enquiry into the Particulars here to be consider'd might assist us in XXXIV The Bruit Animals whether belonging to the Water or Land were proportionably at least more in number before the Flood than they are since XXXIV That part of this Proposition which concerns the Dry-land Animals is sufficiently accounted for by what has been discours'd under the last Head which equally belongs to them as to Mankind And if we extend the other part concerning the Fishes to the Seas then in Being and their comparative Plenitude there will need no additional Solution It being not to be suppos'd that the absolute numbers of Fish before the Deluge should be greater than at
present as the case was of the Dry-land Animals because the latter being universally destroy'd those in the Ark alone excepted were to begin their Propagation anew but the former not being so did but increase their still numerous Individuals and must thereby soon recover and surpass their former Multitude as will easily be allow'd on a little consideration of this Matter Corollary Hence arises a strong Confirmation of what is on other grounds already asserted That there were only smaller Lakes and Seas but no great Ocean before the Deluge For since it appears by this Phaenomenon that the Waters of the Antediluvian Earth were much more replenish'd nay crouded with Fish than now they are and since there was no general Destruction of them as there was of Dry-land Animals at the Deluge had there been as great a Compass or as vast an Ocean for their Reception then as at present there is the numbers now in every part of the Ocean or Seas ought to be vastly greater than they then were an being all the Off-spring of those which every where surviv'd the Deluge and which have propagated themselves for more than four thousand Years since the same which being disagreeable to the Observations referr'd to in this Phaenomenon is little less than a Demonstration of the falshood of that Hypothesis on which 't is built or a full Attestation to our Assertion that there were only smaller Lakes and Seas but no great Ocean before the Deluge XXXV The Antediluvian Earth was much more fruitful than the present and the multitude of its vegetable Productions much greater XXXV Before I come directly to solve this and the following Propositions I must premise that 't is usually unreasonable to ask why such Phaenomena belong'd to the Antediluvian World They being commonly but the natural and regular Properties of an Original Earth newly form'd out of a Chaos such as one should rationally expect in a World newly come out of the Hands of its Creator and fitted for the Convenience and Fruition of noble Creatures such as the generality of our fellow Planets especially our next Neighbour the Moon as far as we can observe appear to have had at first and hitherto retain'd All that can in reason be desir'd is this To give a plain and intelligible Account of those opposite Phaenomena of the Earth which we now are sensible of and by what means the Deluge could occasion the same Which therefore shall be frequently the business of the succeeding Solutions And as to the present case the decrease of the Fertility of the Earth at the Deluge these Causes are assignable 1. The decrease of the Sun's Heat by the greater distance of the Earth from him since than before the Deluge It has been before prov'd that till the Deluge the Earth's Orbit was Circular and the Radius of that Circle very little longer than the nearest distance at the Perihelion now So that when the Heat of the Sun is as the density of his Rays or reciprocally as the Squares of the Earth's distance from him If instead of the present Ellipsis we take for Calculations sake as we ought a Circle in the middle between the nearest and farthest distance we shall find that the Sun's Heat on the Earth in general before the Deluge was to its present Heat as almost a hundred to ninety six or a twenty fifth part of his intire Heat greater before than since the same which is by no means inconsiderable in the Case before us 2. The Heat of the Central Body was considerably damp'd and obstructed both by the Waters of the Deluge themselves acquir'd from abroad and now contain'd in the Pores and Caverns of the Earth under us and by that Sediment of them which now composes that upper Crust of Earth we dwell upon and which being setled and consolidated on the Superficies of the Ancient Earth would prove a great hindrance to the ascending Steams not to be overcome but by degrees and in length of time afterwards From both which Causes very a notable Damp would be put to the Influence of the Central Heat on which as well as on the Sun 's the Fertility of every Soil does in part depend 3. The upper Earth or fruitful Soil it self the main Fund and Promptuary of the vegetable Kingdom is now very inconsiderable in quantity if compar'd with that of the Primitive or Antediluvian Earth For when this last mention'd was the intire product of the Ancient Chaos at the original Formation of the Earth and the first what only was afforded from a small part of such a Chaos the Comet 's Atmosphere and by the Storms born off the Tops of Mountains at the Deluge while the old Soil lies buried under the Sediment or Crust on which we live 't is no wonder that our fertile Stratum is now thinner spread and so the Productions less copious in the present than they were in the Antediluvian State of Things And this tho' we suppose the Soil from the Comet or from the Tops of the Mountains to be as good in it self and to have remain'd as pure and unmix'd with any heterogeneous Matter in this confusion of things at the Deluge as it would at the regular Formation of the Earth at first which yet is by no means supposable and the contrary to which being allow'd for will still farther afford us a reason of the present Assertion So that since the present Soil is both much worse in Quality and much less in Quantity than the old one and since the Heat whether of the Sun or Central Solid is so much lessen'd at the Deluge which things include the main Causes of Fertility 't is no wonder that the present Earth is nothing near so fruitful and luxuriant in her Productions as the Autediluvian was XXXVI The Temperature of the Antediluvian Air was more equable as to its different Climates and its different Seasons without such excessive and sudden Heat and Cold without the scorching of a Torrid Zone and of burning Summers or the freezing of the Frigid Zones and of piercing Winters and without such sudden and violent Changes in the Climates or Seasons from one extreme to another as the present Air to our Sorrow is subject to XXXVI Seeing the primary State here mention'd is but a proper result from the first Formation of the Earth all that need be accounted for is the Alteration at the Deluge 1. The mighty difference of Climates especially of the Torrid and Frigid Zones is I suppose owing not wholly to the Sun's Heat or the Nature of the Air it self but partly to those Calorifick and Frigorifick Mixtures which are uncertainly contain'd therein Meer Heat and Cold are very different things from that Pothery and Sultry that Frosty and Congealing Weather which alternately in Summer and Winter at the Line and the Poles we usually now feel These Effects seem plainly deriv'd from Nitrous or sulphureous or other the like Steams exhaled into mixed with and sustained by
a very stormy Fluid wherein Masses of Opake Matter are continually hurried about all manner of ways in a very uncertain and violent manner Seeing therefore we acquir'd at the Deluge so great a quantity of the same Atmosphere of which ours is now in part compos'd 't is impossible to expect any other State of things than such as this Phaenomenon mentions and was to be here accounted for Corollary Hence it appears That the Wind of the Day of which Moses makes mention at the Fall of Man was not a constant Phaenomenon of the Earth but peculiar to that time And this is very agreeable to the Hypothesis before laid down of the commencement of the Diurnal Rotation at the very Day here mention'd according to which a Wind must necessarily arise at that point of Time tho' there were none before or after till the Deluge On that beginning of the Diurnal Rotation 1. The Equatorial Regions would be elevated the Polar depress'd the Orb of Earth would be chap'd and broken and warm Steams burst out at the Fissures thereby produc'd all which could scarce happen without some Agitation of the Air. But 2. What is more certain and more considerable when the Terraqueous Globe began on a sudden to revolve from West to East the Air could not presently accompany it and so must cause a Wind from East to West till receiving by degrees the Impression it kept at last equal pace therewith and resting respectively caused a constant Calm afterwards Which Wind being therefore from the Earth's Velocity there greatest towards the Equator and Tropicks near the latter of which was the place of Paradise would be considerable enough especially in a state otherwise still and calm to be taken notice of by the Sacred History and be a kind of Relick or Footstep of the then Commencement of that Diurnal Rotation which is so necessary to account for it and has been from other Arguments already prov'd in its proper place XL. The Autediluvian Air had no Rain-bow as the present so frequently has XL. This is easily accountable from what has been already said For 1. The descent of the Vapours necessary to it was usually if not only in the Night when the absence of the Sun rendred its appearance impossible 2. The descending Vapours compos'd only a gentle Mist not sensible round Drops of Rain as we have before seen on which yet the Rain-bow entirely depends as those who understand the Nature and Generation thereof will easily confess So that tho' the Sun were above the Horizon at the fall of the Vapours the appearance of the Rainbow was not to be expected 3. Were the Vapours that fell compos'd of sensible round Drops and fell in the day-time and this in sufficient Quantities yet for want of a Wind which might drive them together on one side and thereby clear the Air on the other for the free admission of the Rays of Light a Rain-bow were seldom or never to be suppos'd before the Deluge all which circumstances being now quite otherwise give us clear reasons for the present frequent appearance of that beautiful and remarkable Phaenomenon tho' till the Deluge it was a perfect Stranger to the World XLI The Antediluvians might only eat Vegetables but the Use of Flesh after the Flood was freely allow'd also XLI That a State of Nature as to the Air Earth Fruits and other circumstances so very different from ours at present should require a suitable difference in the Food and Sustenance of Mankind is very reasonable to believe But besides 1. When the Lives of Animals were naturally so long as in correspondence to Mankind is fairly to be suppos'd before the Deluge 't is not improbable that God Almighty would not permit them to be taken away on any other occasion than that of Sacrifice or Oblation to himself 2. Perhaps in the tender and even Condition of the Antediluvians the eating of Flesh would have spoil'd their Tempers and shortened their Lives such Food being I suppose fitter for our gross and short-liv'd State since the Flood than that refin'd and lasting one before it 3. Perhaps the Antediluvian Vegetables were more juicy nourishing and wholsome not only than Flesh but than themselves have since been which the better and more fertile Soil out of which they grew then gives some reason to conjecture And whether they had not then some Vegetables which we have not now may deserve the consideration of such as search after their remains in the Bowels of the Earth The same care of the Vegetable as of the Animal-Kingdom not appearing in the Sacred History relating to the Deluge However 4. If we observe that even at this day the warm Seasons and Countries are less dispos'd to the eating of Flesh than the cold ones and remember that the Antediluvian Air was in some degree warmer than the present we shall not be wholly to seek for a particular reason of this Phoenomenon XLII The Lives of the Antediluvians were more universally equal and vastly longer than ours now are Men before the Flood frequently approaching near to a thousand which almost none now do to a hundred years of Age. XLII Tho' several other things might here deserve to be consider'd yet I shall only insist upon the difference between the Antediluvian Air and that since the Flood to give an account of this Proposition The consideration of the Pure Unmixed Equable and Gentle Constitution of the former compar'd with the Gross Thick Hetorogeneous Mutable and Violent Condition of the latter of it self affording a sufficient Solution of this difficulty That Air which is drawn in every breath whose included Particles 't is probable insinuate themselves continually into our Blood and the other Fluids of our Bodies and on which all experience shews humane Life and Health exceedingly to depend being at the Deluge chang'd from a Rare and Thin to a Thick and Gross Consistence from an equability or gradual and gentle warmth and coolness of Temperature to extremity of Heat and Cold and that with the most sudden and irregular steps from one to another from True and Pure Air or an Homogeneous Elastical Fluid to a mix'd and confused Compositum or Atmosphere wherein all sorts of Effluvia Sulphureous Nitrous Mineral and Metallick c. are contain'd Which circumstances if there were no other will I imagine give a satisfactory account of the mighty difference as to the point of Longaevity between the Antediluvians and those which ever since have dwelt on the Face of the Earth We may obtain some small and partial resemblance of it in a person who had liv'd many years upon the top of a high Mountain above the Clouds and Steams of our Earth and whose temperament of Body was peculiarly dispos'd for so Pure Thin and Undisturb'd an AEther as there he enjoy'd and afterward were confin'd to the most Foggy Marshy and Stinking part of the Hundreds in Essex or of the Boggs in Ireland What Effect in Point
of Life and Health such a Change must have on the Person before-mention'd 't is not difficult to imagine And as easie on a like comparison of the Antediluvian AEther and the present Atmosphere to account for the Proposition before us and shew as well why men dye at all uncertain Periods of Years and have while they live a Precarious State of Health with frequent sicknesses as why none reach any whit near the long Ages of those that before the Deluge continued in Health and Security for near a thousand Years XLIII Tho' the Antediluvian Earth was not destitute of lesser Seas and Lakes every where dispers'd on the Surface thereof yet had it no Ocean or large receptacle of Waters separating one Continent from another and covering so large a portion of it as the present Earth has XLIII From the Original Formation of the Earth above describ'd and its unequal subsidence into the Abyss beneath while in the mean time vast quantities of Vapours were sustain'd above and afterwards let fall upon the Earth its Surface would be unequal its lowest Valleys fill'd with Water and a truly Terraqueous Globe would arise But these two plain Reasons may be assigned why any great Ocean were not to be expected at the same time 1. So Vast and Deep a Valley as the Ocean implies is not in reason to be deriv'd from such a regular formation of the Earth from a Chaos as we have above describ'd No good reason being assignable why in such a confused mixture as we call a Chaos the parts should be so strangely dispos'd that on one side all the Upper Orb for some scores of Degrees and some thousands of Miles together should be Denser and Heavier than the rest and by its sinking deepest into the Abyss produce the vast Channel of the Ocean while on another side the same Orb for as many Degrees and Miles should be universally Rare and Light enough to be very much extant and compose a mighty Continent as the case is in our present Earth Tho' the Atmosphere of a Comet be so truly Heterogeneous and it s Opake or Earthy Masses so unequally scatter'd abroad on the different sides thereof as even setting aside the inequality of the Density and Specifick Gravity of the several Columns might compose an Orb of different Thickness or Crassitude and so cause an unequal Orb on the Face of the Abyss like that we before suppos'd it originally to have been Yet so mighty an inequality as the present Division of the Earth into an Ocean and Continents must suppose is by no means to be allow'd in the Primitive Chaos nor would I suppose by any be asserted if the Generation of those grand Divisions of our Globe were otherwise accountable which on our Principles being so easily done as will soon appear no reason can plead here for their Primitive Introduction And sure those Agitation and Motions of Parts visible in some sort now in Comets Atmospheres and to be however granted in the digestion of its parts at first must sure mix and jumble the parts together to a degree sufficient to prevent so strange an inequality as the Original Existence of the Ocean and Continents must needs imply However 2. The quantity of Water preserv'd above ground was little or nothing more as we have shew'd than the Heat of the Sun and Central Solid was able to elevate and the Air at once to sustain during half a years space the day time of the second Period of the Creation Which how insufficient it must have been to the filling of the great Ocean is easily understood Which things consider'd the Absence of the Ocean as well as the Existence of Seas is very easily accountable in the Antediluvian World CHAP. IV. A Solution of the Phaenomena relating to the Universal Deluge and its Effects upon the Earth XLIV In the Seventeenth Century from the Creation there happen'd a most extraordinary and prodigious Deluge of Waters upon the Earth XLIV WHatever difficulties may hitherto have rendred this most Noted Catastrophe of the Old World that it was destroy'd by Waters very hard if not wholly inexplicable without an Omnipotent Power and Miraculous Interposition since the Theory of Comets with their Atmospheres and Tails is discover'd they must vanish of their own accord For if we consider that a Comet is no other than a Chaos including the very same Bodies and Parts of which our own Earth is compos'd that the outward Regions of its Atmosphere are plain Vapours or such a sort of Mist as we frequently see with us and the Tail a column of the same Vapours rarified and expanded to a greater degree as the Vapours which in the clearest Days or Nights our Air contains at present are and that withal such a Comet is capable of passing so close by the Body of the Earth as to involve it in its Atmosphere and Tail a considerable time and leave prodigious quantities of the same Condensed and Expanded Vapours upon its Surface we shall easily see that a Deluge of Waters is by no means an impossible thing and in particular that such an individual Deluge as to the Time Quantity and Circumstances which Moses describes is no more so but fully accountable that it might be nay almost demonstrable that it really was All which the Solutions following will I think give an easie and mechanical account of XLV This prodigious Deluge of Waters was mainly occasion'd by a most extraordinary and violent Rain for the space of forty Days and as many Nights without intermission XLV When the Earth passed clear through the Atmosphere and Tail of the Comet in which it would remain for about 10 or 12 hours as from the Velocity of the Earth and the Crassitude of the said Tail on Calculation does appear it must acquire from the violence of the Column of Vapours descend towards the Sun impeded by the Earth's Interposition and Reception of the same and from the Attractive Power of the Earth it self withal enforcing more to descend it must I say acquire upon its Surface immense quantities of the Vapours before mention'd A great part of which being in a very Rare and Expanded condition after their Primary Fall would be immediately mounted upward into the Air and afterward descend in violent and outragious Rains upon the Face of the Earth All those Vapours which were rarer and lighter than that Air which is immediately contiguous to the Earth must certainly ascend to such a height therein where its Density and Specifick Gravity were correspondent as far as that Croud of their fellow Vapours with which the Air was oppress'd would give leave And so afterwards as they cool'd thicken'd and collected together like our present Vapours must descend in most prodigious Showers of Rain for a long time afterwards and very naturally occasion that forty Days and forty Nights Rain mention'd in the Proposition before us XLVI This vast quantity of Waters was not deriv'd from the Earth or Seas
as Rains constantly now are but from some other Superior and Coelestial Original XLVI This is already evident from what has been just now said The source of all these Rains being one of those Superior or Coelestial Bodies which we call Comets or more peculiarly the Atmosphere and Tail thereof XLVII This vast Fall of Waters or forty Days Rain began on the fifth day of the Week or Thursday the twenty seventh day of November being the seventeenth day of the second Month from the Autumnal Equinox corresponding this Year 1696. to the twenty eighth day of October XLVII This has been already explain'd in effect in the Hypothesis hereto relating where it was prov'd that a Comet on that very day here nam'd pass'd by the Earth and by consequence began those Rains which for the succeeding forty days space continued without any Interruption XLVIII The other main cause of the Deluge was the breaking up the Fountains of the great Abyss or causing such Chaps and Fissures in the upper Earth as might permit the Waters contain'd in the Bowels of it when violently press'd and squeez'd upwards to ascend and so add to the quantity of those which the Rains produced XLVIII This has in part been explain'd in the Lemmata hereto relating and will be more fully understood from the Figure there also refer'd to For Let adbc represent the Earth moving along the Ecliptick GH from G towards H. 'T is evident that the Figure of the Earth before the approach of the Comet as far as 't is here concern'd was Sphaerical But now let us suppose the Comet bi Dh as it was descending towards its Perihelion along its Trajectory EF from E towards F to approach very near and arrive at the nearest Position represented in the Figure 'T is evident that this presence of the Comet would cause a double Tide as well in the Seas above as in the Abyss below the former of which being less considerable in it self and not to our present purpose need not be taken any farther notice of But the latter would be vastly great suppose seven or eight Miles high above its former Position would produce mighty Effects on the Orb above it and so deserves a nicer consideration in this place As soon therefore as the Comet came pretty near as suppose within the Moon 's distance this double Tide would begin to rise and increase all the time of its approach till the Comet was nearest of all as in the Figure And then these Tides or double Protuberances of the Abyss would be at their utmost height So that the Surface of the Abyss and of its incumbent Orb of Earth would put on that Elliptick or rather truly and exactly Oval Figure under which 't is here represented Now 't is certain that this Sphoeroid Surface of the Abyss is larger than its former Sphoerical one 't is also certain that the Orb of Earth which rested on this Abyss must be oblig'd to follow its Figure and accommodate it self to this large Oval which being impossible for it to do while it remain'd Solid continued and conjoyn'd it must of necessity enlarge it self and by the violent force of the encreasing Surface of the Abyss be stretch'd crack'd broken and have innumerable Fissures made quite through it from the upper to the under Surface thereof nearly perpendicular to the same Surfaces So that this Orb of Earth which originally in its primary formation was Sphaerical its inward Compages or Strata even conjoin'd and continual which had afterward at the commencing of the Diurnal Rotation been chang'd into an Oblate Sphoeroid and at the same time been thereby broken chap'd and disjointed by that time its wounds had been well healed and it was in some measure setled and fix'd in such a condition receiv'd this new Disruption at the Deluge It s old Fissures were open'd and the Fountains of the Abyss most Naturally and Emphatically so stil'd according to Dr. Woodward's Account of the Origin of Fountains broken up and sufficient Gaps made for a Communication between the Abyss below and the Surface of the Earth above the same if any occasion should be given for the Ascent of the former or Descent of any thing from the latter And here 't is to be noted that these Chaps and Fissures tho' they were never so many or so open could not of themselves raise any Subterraneous Waters nor contribute one jot to the drowning of the Earth The Upper Orb was long ago setled and sunk as far into the Abyss as the Law of Hydrostaticks requir'd and whether 't were intire or broken would cause no new pressure and no more than maintain its prior situation on the Face of the Deep These Fissures had been at least as open and extended in their Original Generation when the Diurnal Rotation began as at this time and yet was there no danger of a Deluge So that tho' this breaking up of the Fountains of the Deep was a prerequisite condition and absolutely necessary to the Ascent of the Subterraneous Waters yet was it not the proper and direct cause or efficient thereof That is to be deriv'd from another original and is as follows As soon as the presence of the Comet had produc'd those vast Tides or double elevation and depression of the Abyss and thereby disjointed the Earth and caus'd the before-mentiond patent holes or breaches quite through the Body of it the Fall of Waters began and quickly cover'd the Earth and crouded the Air with vast quantities there of Which Waters being adventitious or additional ones and of a prodigious weight withal must press downward with a mighty force and endeavour to sink the Orb of Earth deeper into the Abyss according as the intire weight of each column of Earth and its incumbent Waters together agreeably to the Law of Hydrostaticks did now require And had the Earth as it was in its first subsiding into the Abyss been loose separate and unfix'd so as to admit the Abyss between its parts and suffer a gentle subsidence of the Columns of Earth in the requisite proportion we could scarce have expected any Elevation of the Subterraneous Waters But the Strata of the Earth were long ago setled fastened and consolidated together and so could not admit of such a farther immersion into the fluid On which account the new and vast pressure of the Orb of Earth upon the Abyss would certainly force it upward or any way wheresoever there were a passage for it To which therefore the Breaches Holes and Fissures so newly generated or rather open'd afresh by the violence of the Tides in the Abyss beneath would be very ready and natural Outlets through which it would Ascend with a mighty force and carry up before it whatever was in its way whether Fluid or Solid whether 't were Earth or Water And seeing as we before saw the Lower Regions of the Earth were full of Water pervading and replenishing the Pores
from the same that is as will hereafter appear pretty near the Point b or somewhat below it towards c Which Mountain Caucasus was directly expos'd therefore to the Comet at its nearest distance represented in the Figure When the Comet therefore was moving from E to F so soon as the Earth came within its Atmosphere and Tail a Cylindrical Column of Vapours would be intercepted and bore off by the Earth in its passage whose Basis were somewhat larger than a great Circle on the Earth and whose Direction or Axis from the compound Motion of the Comet and of the Earth were at about 45 degrees of Inclination with the Ecliptick or parallel to cd the lesser Axis of the Earth That is the first fall of the Vapours would affect one Hemisphere of the Earth at a time that namely which were properly expos'd to their descent and the other would be not at all affected therewith till the Earth's Diurnal Rotation by degrees expos'd the other parts in like manner and brought every one at last within the verge of that Hemisphere on which was the first and most violent descent of the Vapours Now this Hemisphere would be represented in the Figure by a d b and the opposite one which intirely escap'd at the same time by a c b. So that seeing the Ark or Mount Caucasus was below the Point b and by the Diurnal Rotation quickly got farther within the fair Hemisphere it would remain in the same during all the time of this first violent Fall of the Waters and have a calm and quiet day for the entry into the Ark while the other Regions of the Globe were subject to so violent a Storm and such fury of descending Vapours as no Age past or future had been or were to be exposed to This place could only be capable of some falling Vapours three or four hours after Sun-set in case the Earth were not at that time got clear of the Tail of the Comet in which it had been all the preceding day And consequently Noah had as fair and calm a time of entring into the Ark with all his Family and the other Animals as could be desir'd when no other parts of the Globe but those agreeing in such a peculiar situation with him could have permitted the same Which is I think not a meer Satisfactory but a very Surprizing account of the present Proposition Corollary 1. Hence the time of the breaking open of the Fountains of the Deep and of the beginning of the Rains very nearly coincident therewith is determin'd and that agreeably to the Mosaick History much nearer than to a Day with which exactness we have hitherto contented our selves in the case And indeed almost to an Hour For seeing all the Fountains of the great Deep were broken up on this day seeing the forty days Rain began on the same day seeing Noah with all his Family and all the other Creatures entred on this self-same day into the Ark all which certainly require very near an intire day and yet seem very incompatible there is no other way but to assert that tho' the breaking up of the Fountains of the Great Deep and the Fall of the Waters were coincident and upon the same day with the Entry into the Ark as the Text most expresly asserts yet the place where the Ark was escap'd the effects of the same till the Evening and while the rest of the Earth was abiding the fury of the same enjoy'd so calm fair and undisturb'd a day as permitted their regular and orderly going into the Ark before the Waters overtook them So that the Deluge must according to the Sacred History have commenc'd in the Morning and yet not reach'd the particular place where Noah was till the Evening or the coming on of the ensuing Night Which how exactly the present Hypothesis is correspondent to I shall leave the Reader to judge from what has been said under this last Proposition according to which 't is plain that the Comet pass'd by the Earth broke up the Fountains of the Deep and began the forty days Rains after Sun-rising about Eight or Nine a Clock in the Morning from which time till Eight or Nine a Clock at Night and long after Sun-set tho' the Waters fell with the greatest violence on the Earth yet they affected a single Hemisphere at a time only into which the Diurnal Rotation did not all that while convert the Regions near the Ark and this most nicely and wonderfully corresponds to the greatest accuracy of the present case and of the Mosaick History So that now we may agreeably both to the Sacred History and the Calculations from the present Hypothesis assert that the Deluge began at the Meridian of Mount Caucasus on Thursday the twenty seventh day of November in the year of the Julian Period 2365 between Eight and Nine a Clock in the Morning Which exactness of Solution wherein not only the Day but almost Hour assign'd from the Mosaick History is correspondent to the present Hypothesis how remarkable an Attestation it is to the same and how full a confirmation of the most accurate Verity of the Mosaick History I need not remark Such reflections when Just being very Natural with every careful Reader Corollary 2. Here is an instance of the peculiar Providence of God in the Preservation of the Ark by ordering the Situation so as to escape the Violence of the thick Vapours in their first precipitate fall which otherwise must probably have dash'd it to pieces For considering their Velocity of Motion which indeed was incredible no less than eight hundred Miles in the space of a Minute 't is not easy to suppose that any Building could sustain and preserve it self under the violence thereof which we see the Ark by the peculiar place of its Situation twenty or twenty five degrees North-East from the Center of our Northern Continent was wonderfully secured from while the other Regions of the Earth were exposed thereto and in great measure 't is probable destroy'd thereby Coroll 3. Hence 't is evident That the place of the Ark before assign'd at Mount Caucasus was its true one and not any Mountain in or near Armenia For had it been there seated it had been expos'd to the violence of the falling Vapours and instead of a quiet entry into the Ark on this first day of the Deluge the Ark it self with all the Creatures that were to be preserv'd in it would have utterly perish'd in the very beginning thereof Coroll 4. Hence the reason may easily be given why the History of the Deluge takes no notice of this passing by of the Comet viz. because none of those who surviv'd the Deluge could see or perceive the same For at the time of the approach of the Comet at first both the latter end of the Night-season when all were asleep and the Mists which according to the Nature of the Antediluvian Air were probably then upon the Earth and obscur'd
the Face of the Heavens hindred any prospect of this dreadful Body And soon after the Morning came they were actually involv'd in the Atmosphere of the Comet and so in its Tail presently after which would only appear a strange and unusual Mist or Cloud at a distance wholly depriving them of the distinct view of the Comet it self and leaving them utterly ignorant of the true occasion of the following Catastrophe unless any intimation should have been given them thereof by a Divine Revelation LI. Tho' the first and most violent Rains continued without intermission but forty Days yet after some time the Rains began again and ceased not till the seventeenth Day of the seventh Month or a hundred and fifty Days after the Deluge began LI. It has been already abserv'd That the Comet would involve the Earth in its Tail a second time about fifty four or fifty five Days after its first passing by as well as it did before as 't is also represented in the Figure Which being suppos'd the Earth must receive a new stock of Vapours as before and the Rains which had intermitted for fourteen or fifteen Days must begin again The differences between the former and latter Rains would be 1. These latter Vapours proceeding from the Tail whereas the former did principally from the much denser Atmosphere of the Comet would be less copious and less violent than the other and cause a gentler Rain 2. These Vapours being newly rarified by the prodigious Heat at the Perihelion and rais'd thereby to a mighty height in the Tail from their greater rarity and lightness higher ascent in our Air consequent thereupon and longer time thence necessary to their cooling and descent in Rains upon the Earth would be much longer in falling and produce a continual Rain of many more days than the former did Both which are exactly agreeable to the Mosaick History whence it appears that the first Rains had the principal stroke in the Deluge and that if this secondary Rain commenc'd at the time here assign'd it must have continued 95 or 96 days which is considerably more than double the number of those 40 within which the former Rains were confin'd LII This second and less remarkable Rain was deriv'd from such a cause as the former was LII This is sufficiently evident already since the same Comet afforded the matter for both Rains equally LIII Tho' the Fountains of the great Deep were broken up and the forty days Rain began at the same time yet is there a very observable mention of a threefold growth or distinct augmentation of the Waters as if it were on three several accounts and at three several times LIII This is particularly correspondent to the present Hypothesis wherein 1. The principal Rain of 40 days 2. The Eruption and Ascent of the Subterraneous Waters occasion'd by their weight and pressure 3. The lesser Rain of 95 or 96 days were both different in themselves and in their time of commencing and caus'd a distinct augmentation of the Waters agreeably to the greatest nicety of this Proposition LIV. The Waters of the Deluge increas'd by degrees till their utmost height and then decreas'd by degrees till they were clearly gone off the Face of the Earth LIV. This is evident as to the increase of the Deluge by what has been already said and will equally be so of its decrease when we come to it hereafter LV. The Waters of the Deluge were Still Calm free from Commotions Storms Winds and Tempests of all sorts during the whole time in which the Ark was afloat upon them LV. It has already appear'd that there were no Storms Tempests or other violent Commotions in the Antediluvian Air till the Deluge and that during the space here referr'd to none would arise 't is but reasonable to allow For as to the first and principal Rain it was so constant so downright and so uninterrupted that no little commotion in the Air could have place or if it had could disturb it which is commonly the case of long and setled Rains with us at this day As to the Subterraneous Waters ascending with some violence they were confin'd to several particular places and not universal and though they might cause some commotions at the bottom of the Waters yet might the surface of the same and the Air be sufficiently calm and undisturb'd But as to the third Cause of the Deluge It must be granted agreeably to what has been before observ'd That the descending Vapours would not be merely such but mix'd with many heterogenerous Particles of all sorts Sulphur Brimstone Niter Coal Mineral Effluvia Metallick Steams and the like which the prodigious heat at the Perihelion had dissolv'd and elevated into the Tail of the Comet From the confused mixture irregular fermentations and disagreeing motions of all which 't is probable the preternatural and violent commotions in the Atmosphere then and since are mainly to be deduc'd So that assoon as the latter 94 or 95 days Rains were almost over assoon as these rarified Corpuscles were descended into the lower and narrower Regions of the Air and being crouded closer were by the greater heat there predominant put into such irregular fermentations as they were already disposed for 'T is natural to suppose that Winds and Storms of all sorts and those in a very extraordinary manner would arise and cause the most sensible and extream perturbations of the Waters now covering to a vast depth the face of the whole Earth that could easily be conceiv'd Of which the following Proposition will give farther occasion to discourse LVI Yet during the Deluge there were both Winds and Storms of all sorts in a very violent manner LVI Seeing as we just now saw that at the end of the latter Rains the greatest Storms possible were to be expected and seeing yet the Ark which had been afloat so long and was so still the Waters being now at the very highest was incapable of abiding a stormy Sea as we prov'd under the former Phaenomenon there at first view appears the greatest danger imaginable of its perishing in the future immoderate and extraordinary Commotions And this danger is increased by this Reflection That as probably it had been afloat during the most part of the 150 days while the Waters were gradually and gently augmenting so one would imagine ought it to be for at least as many days during the at least as gentle and gradual decrease of the same afterwards i. e. The Ark ought to have been as long afloat in the stormy as it had been in the calm part of the Deluge But this difficulty which is to appearance so entirely insoluble will soon vanish if we consider that the Ark rested upon Caucasus the then highest Mountain in the world For seeing the Waters prevailed above the same Mountain 15 Cubits only a great part of which depth of Water would be drawn by the Ark it self upon the
very first ceasing of the Rains from above and of the Waters from the Abyss beneath which permitted the least subsiding and diminution of the Deluge the Ark must immediately rest upon the ground and thereby secure it self from the impending Storms And that accordingly it did so at the time assign'd on the conclusion of the 150 days or the very same individual day when the Wind began is particularly and expresly observ'd and affirm'd by Moses Which being a very remarkable coincidence exactly agreeable to the present Hypothesis as well as to the Sacred History and of very considerable Importance I shall set down the words at large as follows The waters prevailed upon the Earth an hundred and fifty days viz. from the seventeenth of thesecond to the seventeenth of the seventh Month And God remembred Noah and every living thing and all the Cattel that was with him in the Ark And God made a wind to pass over the earth and the waters asswaged The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped and the rain from heaven was restrained And the waters returned from off the earth continually and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated And the ark rested in the seventh month on the seventeenth day of the month upon the mountains of Ararat Corollary Hence 't is obvious to remark the wonderful Providence of God for the Preservation of the Ark and the sole Remains of the old World therein contain'd in ordering all circumstances so that it was afloat just all the calm Season of the Deluge but as soon as ever any tempestuous Weather arose was safe landed on the top of Caucasus LVII This Deluge of Waters was universal in its extent and effect reaching to all the parts of the Earth and destroying all the Land-Animals on the intire Surface thereof those only excepted which were with Noah in the Ark. LVII This might justly have been made a Corollary of the next Proposition for if the Waters in any one Region much more a compleat Hemisphere exceeded the tops of the highest Mountains it would certainly diffuse it self and overflow the other also But being capable in the present Hypothesis of a separate Proof deserves a distinct Consideration Now of the several Causes of the Deluge those Vapours which were deriv'd from the Comet 's Tail both at the first and second passage of the Earth through the entire Column thereof by reason of the Earth's Mora or abiding therein about 12 hours or a semi-revolution and the fall of the Vapours on an entire Hemisphere at the same time would affect the whole Earth and though not exactly equally yet pretty universally make a Deluge in all the Regions of the Globe The subterraneous Waters being the proper effect of the weight of the other would also be as universal as they and that every where generally speaking in the same proportion 'T is true the Waters which were derived from the Atmosphere of the Comet the principal Source of the 40 days Rain were not wholly so universal as the former at first by reason of the shorter Mora or abiding of the Earth therein though even much above half of the Earth's entire surface would hence be immediately affected But if we consider the Velocity of the Earth's Diurnal Rotation and that the Mass of newly acquir'd Vapours was not at first partaker of the same but by degrees to receive the impression thereof we shall with ease apprehend that a few of the first Rotations would wind or wrap these as well as the other Vapours quite round the Earth and thereby cause a very equal distribution of them all in the Atmosphere and at last render the Rains very evenly Universal To which uniform distribution the Nature of the Air it self as at present it I suppose does might contribute Such an Elastical Fluid as the Air scarce suffering a lasting Density or Croud of Vapours in one Region without communicating some part to the others adjoining that so a kind of Equilibrium in the weight crassitude and density of its several Columns may be preserv'd through the whole So that at last the Deluge must have been Universal because every one of the Causes thereof appear to have been truly so LVIII The Waters at their utmost height were fifteen Cubits above the highest Mountains or three Miles at the least perpendicular above the common Surface of the Plains and Seas LVIII In order to make some estimate of the quantity of Water which this Hypothesis affords us let us suppose that the one half came from the Comet or the Rains and the other half from the Subterraneous Water Tho' 't is not impossible that much the greater part might arise from the latter Let us also suppose that the tenth part of the rest arose from the Tail of the Comet at both the times of its enclosing the Earth and the other nine from its Atmosphere tho' 't is possible that a much less proportion ought to be deriv'd from the former 'T is evident from the Velocity of Comets at the distance from the Sun here to be consider'd and the usual Crassitude or Diameter of the Tails thereof that the Earth would be near half a day or 12 hours each time within the limits thereof and by consequence that it would intercept and receive upon it self a Cylindrical Column of Vapour whose Basis were equal to that of a great Circle on the Earth and whose Altitude were about 750000 Miles If we therefore did but know the proper density of the Vapour compesing the Tail of the Comet or what proportion it bears to that of Water 't were easie to reduce this matter to Calculation and very nearly to determine the quantity enquired after That the Tail of a Comet especially at any considerable distance from the Comet it self is exceeding rare is evident by the vastness of its extent and the distinct appearance of the sixt Stars quite through the immense Crassitude of its entire Column Let us for computation's sake suppose that the Density of Water to that of this Expanded Column of Vapour is as 3400000 to one or which is all one since Water is to our Air in Density as 850 to one that the Density of our Air is to the Density of this Coulmn of Vapour as 4000 to one which degree of rareness if it be not enough at a great distance from the Comet as at the second passage yet I suppose may be more than sufficient at the very Region adjoining thereto as at the first passage and so upon the whole no unreasonable Hypothesis So that if we divide the Altitude of this Cylindrical Column of 750000 Miles or 3750000000 Feet by 3400000 37500 by 34 we shall have a Column of Water equal thereto By which Calculation the quantity of Water acquir'd at each time of the passage through the Tail would equal a Cylinder whose Basis were a great Circle on the Earth as above and whose
Altitude were 1103 Feet Which quantity being twice acquir'd must be doubled and then will amount to a Cylinder whose Basis were the same as above and whose Altitude were double the others or 2206 Feet Now Archimedes has demonstrated that the intire Superficies of a Sphere or Globe is four times as large as the Area of one of its great Circles And by consequence the Column of Vapour before-mention'd when converted into Rain Water and spread upon the Face of the Earth would cover the Globe intirely round had there been no Dryland or Mountains extant above the Surface of the Plains and Seas a quarter of the height last assign'd or 5411 2 Feet every way Which being suppos'd and what was at the first Postulated of the Atmosphere's quota the whole Water afforded by the Comet-will cover the Earth intirely to the perpendicular height of the 541c1 2 Feet To which add by the Original Postulatum the equal quantity ascending from the Bowels of the Earth the Total amounts to 10821 Feet or above two Miles perpendicular Altitude Which when allowance is made for those large spaces taken up by the extant Dry Land and Mountains will approach very near that three Miles perpendicular height requir'd by the present Phaenomenon Corollary If the several particulars requisite to the nice adjustment of these Computations were more exactly enquir'd into some light on the present Hypothesis might be afforded to the Density of the Atmospheres and Tails of Comets which is hitherto undetermin'd the consideration of which matter must be refer'd to Astronomers LIX Whatever be the height of the Mountain Caucasus whereon the Ark rested now it was at that time the highest in the whole World LIX If we consult the Figure here refer'd to we shall easily apprehend the Reason of this otherwise strange Phicnomenon For seeing this Mountain was the highest in Asia or the middle Regions of our Continent and seeing withal that intire Continent and chiefly the middle Regions thereof were elevated by the greatest protuberance of the Abyss dbc above any other correspondent parts of the whole Globe the absolute or intire height of this Mountain arises not only from its proper Altitude above the neighbouring Plains but also from the Elevation of the whole Continent or peculiarly of its middle Regions above the Ancient Surface of the Seas so that by this advantage of situation it was at the time here concern'd higher not only than its Neighbours which its own Elevation was sufficient for but than any other on the Face of the whole Earth Some of which otherwise it could I believe by no means have pretended to match much less to out-do in Altitude Now altho' the presence of the Comet which produc'd these Tides in the Abyss and elevated the intire Continents above their ancient level did not remain after the Disruption of the Fountains of the Deep on the first day of the Deluge yet the Effect thereof the Elevation of the Continents above their ancient Level would not so soon nay would scarce ever intirely cease We know by common observation that if a Solid or Setled Mass of Bodies be torn or pull'd in pieces 't is not easie to put every thing into its place and reduce the whole to the same fixed Position and within the same fixed limits it had before If a solid compacted mound of Earth were once shatter'd and divided were levell'd and remov'd tho' afterward every individual Dust of the former Earth were laid together again upon the very same Plot and Compass yet would individual Dust of the former Earth were laid together again upon the very same Plot and Compass yet would it not be immediately confin'd within its ancient dimensions its height would be at first considerably greater than before and tho' that in length of time would be by degrees diminish'd by the gradual setling and crouding together of the parts and so some approaches would be made thereby towards its ancient density and lesser elevation yet neither would be intirely attain'd in any moderate space of time at least And this is the very case before us That Oval Figure which the Orb of Earth was stretch'd to at the Deluge would remain for a considerable time and be many years in setling so close together that it might afterward remain fixt and firm for the following generations before which time 't is evident that the Regions near the Center of our Northern or Larger Continent were the highest and those at 90 degrees distance every where the lowest and by consequence at the time of the Arks resting the Mountain Caucasus near the Center of the Northern Continent was elevated above the rest and particularly above the Pike of Teneriff which seems to be at present the highest of all others And thus that terrible Phaenomenon is solv'd which the Reverend Mr. Warren was so puzzled with that even on the allowance of so much Miracle as the creation of the Waters of the Deluge and Annihilation of the same afterward yet could he not account for the Letter of Moses without a forc'd and ungrounded Supposition to the same purpose with the Proposition before us As you will find him and not without reason very emphatically expressing himself on this occasion Corollary 1. Here is a visible instance of the Divine Providence for the preservation of the Remains of the Old World by ordering the building of the Ark near that which would be the highest Mountain in the World that so upon the very first ceasing of the Rains and the beginning of the Winds and Storms it might immediately be safe on the top thereof Coroll 2. The same careful and wise providence is conspicuous in the so accurately adjusting all the circumstances of the Deluge that tho' it should be high enough to destroy the whole stock of the Dry-land Animals and yet but just so much above the Mountain Caucasus as permitted the Ark to rest at the very first decrease of the Waters and the commencing perturbations of the Air and the Waves necessarily ensuing which otherwise must still have destroy'd it notwithstanding the advantage of its situation before observ'd Coroll 3. Supposing the Truth of our first Postulatum of the Verity of the Letter of the Mosaick History as certain as is the greater height of the Pike of Teneriff or of any other Mountain in the World above that of Caucasus Now of which I suppose no body makes any question so certain is it bating unknown causes and a miraculous Power as is always in such cases to be suppos'd that a Comet was the cause of the Mosaick Deluge For 't is certain by the plainest deduction from the express words of Scripture that the Mountain on which the Ark rested was at that time the highest in the World 'T is therefore certain that the Continent or Basis on which Mount Caucasus stand was elevated higher at the Deluge than 't is at present and 't is also certain that no Body or Mass
of Bodies in the whole World can elevate or depress a Continent of the Earth but such as are capable of approaching the same or in other words but Comets and consequently a Comet did approach near the Earth at the time assigned and was the cause of the Deluge Which Chain or Connexion I take to be so strong that I believe 't will not be possible to evade its force and so what on other arguments has been already establish'd is fully confirm'd by this Coroll 4. 'T is equally dcmonstrable that the Upper Orb or Habitable Earth is founded on a Subterraneous Fluid denser and heavier than it self This circumstance being absolutely necessary to account for the Phaenomenon we are now upon For if the internal Regions of the Globe were firm and solid as is commonly suppos'd tho' wholly gratis and without ground Tho' the Comet had pass'd by yet there could have been no elevation of any Continent and the Proposition before us must still have remain'd Insoluble LX. As the Fountains of the great Deep were broken up at the very same time that the first Rains began so were they stopp'd the very same time that the last Rains ended on the seventeenth day of the seventh Month. LX. Tho' I cannot say that the Account of the Deluge now given can determine to a Day the time of the Subterraneous Waters ceasing to spout forth this stoppage of the Fountains of the Deep in Moses yet 't is evident that the time defin'd by the History is very agreeable to that which from the consideration of the thing it self one should naturally pitch upon For since the Ascent of the Subterraneous Waters depended on the Waters produc'd by the Rains as on the beginning of those Rains it began to ascend on the continuance thereof continued to do the like so at the ceasing probably enough might it cease also as this Proposition assures us it really did LXI The abatement and decrease of the Waters of the Deluge was first by a Wind which dried up some And secondly by their descent through those Fissures Chaps and Breaches at which part of them had before ascended into the Bowels of the Earth which received the rest To which latter also the Wind by hurrying the Waters up and down and so promoting their lighting into the before-mention'd Fissures was very much subservient LXI In order to the giving a satisfactory account of this Proposition and of the draining the Waters of the Deluge off the Surface of the Earth which to some has seem'd almost as difficult to solve as their first Introduction It must first be granted that the Air could receive and sustain but very inconsiderable quantities in comparison of the intire Mass which lay upon the Earth yet some it might and would naturally do which accordingly both the Wind here mentioned and the Sun also took away and turn'd into Vapour immediately after the ceasing of the latter Rains But as to all the rest there is no imaginable place for their Reception or whither their natural Gravity oblig'd them to retreat to excepting the Bowels of the Earth which must therefore be distinctly consider'd in this place Now we may remember from what has been formerly said that the quantity of Solids or earthy Parts in the upper Orbs primary Formation was very much greater than that of Fluids or watery Parts and consequently that the inward Regions of the Earth being generally dry and porous were capable of receiving mighty quantities of Waters without any swelling without any alteration of the external Figure or visible Bulk And indeed if we allow as we ought any considerable Crassitude to this upper Orb its interior Regions might easily contain a much greater quantity of Waters than what was upon the Earth at the Deluge especially when so great a part of them was before there and would only fill up their old places again So that all the difficulty is now reduc'd to this By what Pipes Canals or Passages these Waters could be convey'd into the Bowels of the Earth Which in truth can admit of no dispute nothing sure being to be conceiv'd more natural Inlets to these Waters than those very perpendicular Fissures which were the Outlets to so great a part of them before As soon therefore as the Waters ceas'd to ascend upwards through those Breaches they must to be sure descend downward's by the same and this descent is more natural than the prior ascent could be esteem'd to be which was a force upon them compelling them against their Natures to arise upwards when this retreat into the same Interstices is no other than their own proper Gravity requir'd and inclin'd them to The case here is in part like that of a Sive first by force press'd down into a Vessel of Water till it were fill'd therewith and then suffer'd to emerge again where through the very same Holes at which the Waters ascended into they afterward descended out of the Sive again and retreated into their own Element as before All that in particular deserves here to be farther noted is the Interest of the Wind or of the Agitations of the Waters goings and returnings in the Hebrew Phrase made mention of in this Proposition And these Commotions are in truth very useful and very necessary assistants to the draining of the Waters from off the Earth For when the most part of the Fissures were in the Mountains 't would have been a difficult thing to clear the Vallies and lower Grounds had there been a perfect Calm and every Collection of Waters remain'd quietly in its own place But when the Waters were so violently agitated and hurried from one place to another they would thereby very frequently light into the Fissures and Breaches and so descend as well as the rest into the heart of the Earth very agreeable to the Assertion of this Proposition Corollary 1. Seeing the most of the Fissures were in the Mountains the decrease and going off of the Waters would be greatest at first while the generality of the Mountains were under water and less and gentler afterwards Coroll 2. Several low Countries now bordering on the Seas might for many Years after the Deluge be under Water which by the descent of more of the Waters into the Bowels of the Earth might become Dry-land afterward and by their smoothness and equability shew their once having lain under and been made so plain by the Waters Instances of which are now very observable in the World In particular those parts of Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire which border on the German Ocean appear very evidently to have originally been in the same case as any careful Observer will easily pronounce LXII The dry Land or habitable Part of the Globe is since the Deluge divided into two vast Continents almost opposite to one another and separated by a great Ocean interpos'd between them LXII The Figure in which the Comet left the Earth and which it would in some measure retain
to Which otherwise how to give any tolerable account of upon any solid Principles I confess I am and have always been wholly to seek LXVI The distance between the Continents measuring from the larger or Northern South-Eastward is greater than that the contrary way or South-Westward LXVI Seeing the Motion of the Comet about its nearest Position was much more considerable than the Diurnal one of the Earth and seeing withal the greater and higher protuberance would arrive at a sufficient force to burst its incumbent Orb or Continent somewhat sooner than the lesser and lower it will follow that the Point b would not be just opposite to the Point a but nearer the place q in the Figure By which means the distance from q by c to a would be greater than from the same q by d to a or from the Center of the greater Continent to that of the lesser South-eastward than South-westward Exactly as this Proposition requires LXVII Neither of the Continents is terminated by a round or even circular Circumference but mighty Creeks Bays and Seas running into them and as mighty Peninsula's Promontories and Rocks jetting out from them render the whole very unequal and irregular LXVII If the Surface of the Earth before the Deluge had been even and smooth without Mountains and Valleys and their Consequents Seas and Dry Land the passing by of the Comet must indeed as before have certainly caus'd a distinction of the two Continents and must have interpos'd an Ocean between them but then these two circumstances would have obtain'd also first that all the Waters of the intire Globe would have left the Continents and solely compos'd an Ocean and secondly That the Termination or Boundaries of the Ocean and the Continents would have been circular round and even on every side But since the Surface of the Earth was uneven irregular and distinguish'd every where into Mountains Plains and Valleys into Seas and Dry Land the present Terraqueous Globe with those inequalities of the Termination of each Continent mention'd in this Proposition is a most easie and natural nay plainly necessary result of this great Mutation at the Deluge Coroll 1. Hence 't is farther evident that the Surface of the Antediluvian Earth was not plain and even but had those distinctions of Mountains and Valleys Seas and Dry Land which from other Arguments has been before establish'd Coroll 2. Hence therefore it appears what should have been before observ'd that all the Earth might be Planted and Peopled before the Deluge tho' Navigation were then either not at all or not considerably known There being no Ocean or separate Continents and scarce any such thing as an Island or Country but what with ease might be gone to by Land LXVIII The depth of that Ocean which separates these two Continents is usually greatest farthest from and least nearest to either of the same Continents there being a gradual descent from the Continents to the middle of the Ocean which is the deepest of all LXVIII The reason of this gradual declivity towards the middle of the Ocean is very plain from the Figure hereto belonging For since the Earth's Surface became in some degree an Oval or oblong Sphaeroid 't is necessary that there should be as far as the other irregularities of the Globe would permit a descent from the ends of the longer Axis b and a to those of the shorter c and d in their intire circumvolution which gives a most obvious account of the present Phaenomenon LXIX The greatest part of the Islands of the Globe are situate at small distances from the Edges of the great Continents very few appearing near the middle of the Main Ocean LXIX Since Islands are only such high Regions as would be extant above the Surface of the Waters tho' they cover'd the Neighbouring parts and since the Ocean as we have now shewn was deepest in the middle between the two Continents 't is plain that Caeteris paribus the higher Regions would more frequently be extant near the Continents than about the middle of the said Ocean as this Proposition asserts LXX The Ages of Men decreas'd about one half presently after the Deluge and in the succeeding eight hundred or nine hundred Years were gradually reduced to that standard at which they have stood ever since LXX The first part of this is already sufficiently accounted for in that Proposition where the causes of the change in the duration of Mens lives at the Flood were in general enquir'd into But the reasons of the gradual Decay in the succeeding Ages are here to be assign d. Now here 't is not impossible that the considerably long lives of the first Postdiluvian Patriarchs might in part depend on the vigorous Constitution of their Fathers not to be immediately impair'd to the utmost or destroy'd in their Posterity till by degrees and in length of time it was effected But besides 't is to be consider'd which I take to be the principal thing that seeing the corrupted Atmosphere with the pernicious Steams arising from the newly acquir'd Chaotick Crust or Sediment of the Waters and their unhappy Effects on the Fruits as well as living Creatures upon the Earth must be allow'd the occasion and cause of the shortning of Humane Life such Regions as were freest from or most elevated above the said Sediment or Chaotick Atmosphere must have chiefly continued as they were before and so the ancient Longevity would chiefly be preserv'd therein Which being suppos'd and what has been already advanc'd withal consider'd this Proposition will be easy plain and natural and a peculiar Attestation of the present Hypothesis For seeing Noah and the Ark were landed on Caucasus the most elevated Region of the Earth and freest from the Sediment of the Waters as well as the grossness of the Chaotick Atmosphere below that place would scarce differ for a good while from the Antediluvian State of things and the lives of Animals would retain very near their ancient Duration which accordingly we find was really done Noah survived the Deluge no less than 350 Years and compleated 950 in the whole somewhat beyond the moderate proportion of the Antediluvians themselves as the Table will easily shew But then by reason both of the descent of his Posterity into the Plains and lower Grounds and principally by the gradual subsidence of those Regions themselves into the gross Atmosphere below they became gradually liable to those Diseases and that shortness of Life which we before shew'd to have been the sad Effects thereof and to which all Mankind has since been subject Corollary 1. Mankind increased vastly more soon after the Deluge than in these latter Ages of the World For whereas a Country is 280 Years now in doubling its Inhabitants had the same rate held ever since the Deluge Mankind at this day would not have reach'd the number of two hundred thousand Souls which yet is esteem'd to be between three and four hundred Millions or near two
thousand times as many as the said number deducible from the present rate of the Increase of Mankind So that 't is evident That the Antediluvian Fruitfulness and numerous Stock of Inhabitants which are also themselves hereby fully establish'd must have prevail'd servata proportione among the Primitive Postdiluvians for some Centuries or else no Account were to be given of the present numbers of Men upon the Face of the Earth whereby the Verity of this Proposition the Veracity of Moses therein the great importance thereof and the necessity of the present Solution and of that Theory on which it is built are mightily confirm'd Coroll 2. Hence we may nearly determine the Ages of Men for the first eight or nine hundred Years after the Deluge from the length of their Lives given Thus Job who appears to have liv'd at the least between two and three hundred Years must have been contemporary with some of the Patriarchs between Heber and Abraham to whom that Duration of Humane Life belong'd and thus we may examine and determine the Ages of the most Ancient King 's mention'd in Prophane Histories from the like Duration of their Lives or Reigns as the following Corollary will more particularly observe Coroll 3. Neither the Egyptian Dynasties nor the Assyrian Monarchy could be coeval with the first seven or eight hundred Years after the Deluge none of their Kings Reigns set down by Chronologers reaching that number of Years which the length of Humane Life at that time requir'd nay nor any other than Kings now may and do arrive at in these latter Ages of the World Coroll 4. The Antediluvian and Postdiluvian Years mention'd in Scripture were true Years of twelve not fictitious ones of one Month apiece as some that they might reduce the Age of the first Patriarchs to the short term of Life since usually attain'd to have been willing to surmise This fancy is strangely absurd and contrary to the Sacred History and in particular irreconcilable with this Proposition For had the ancient Years been Lunar of one Month and the latter Solar of a twelve by which the same Duration of Humane Life had been differently measur'd the numbers of Years which Men liv'd must have alter'd in the Proportion of twelve to one of a sudden at such a change in the Year referr'd to and not gradually and gently as 't is here evident they did LXXI Our upper Earth for a considerable depth even as far as we commonly penetrate into it is Factitious or newly acquir'd at the Deluge The ancient one being covered by fresh Strata or Layers of Earth at that time and thereby spoil'd or destroy'd as tothe use and advantage of Mankind LXXI 'T is not to be suppos'd that the Waters of the Deluge were merely the pure Element of Water sincere and unmix'd What came from the Comet 's Atmosphere must partake of its earthly heterogeneous Mixtures and what was squeez'd up from beneath must carry up much Dirt and earthy Matter along with it Besides which as soon as the stormy Weather began the soak'd and loosen'd Tops of Mountains would easily by the Winds and Waves together be wash'd off or carried away into the Mass of Waters and increase the impurity and earthy mixtures thereof On all which accounts the Waters of the Deluge would be a very impure thick and muddy Fluid and afford such a quantity of earthy Matter as would bear some considerable Proportion to that of the Water it self Now this earthy Matter being heavier than the Water would by degrees settle downwards and compose first a mighty thick dirty muddy Fluid in the lower Regions of the Waters and at last a plain earthy Sediment at the bottom of them which would at once spoil and bury the old Surface of the Ground and become a new Cruft or Cover on the face thereof Now that we may see whether this Sediment or Crust could be so thick and considerable as this Phoenomenon requires lot us suppose as before the perpendicular height of the Waters of the Deluge to have been three Miles above the common Surface of the Plains and Seas and the thirtieth part only of the intire Fluid on the Face of the Earth to have been earthy Parts sit to compose the Sediment or Crust beforemention'd Let us also remember what has been already-observ'd from Mr. Newton That Earth is at least three times as dense and heavy as Water so that the thirtieth part in quantity of Matter would only take up the ninetieth part of the whole space either in the Waters or when 't was setled down by it self and became a new Crust or Orb upon the Earth If we then divide 15000 the number of Feet in the whole height of the Waters not here to allow for the spaces posses'd by the extant Parts of the Earth by 90 1500 by 9 the quotient will shew the the Crassitude or Thickness of this Sediment or Crust covering the Face of the Earth viz. 166 2 3 Feet one place taken with another indifferently Which quantity fully accounts for the Proposition we are upon and agrees with the Observations made in the Bowels of our present Earth to as great accuracy as one could desire or expect Corollary 1. Hence it appears That the Earth was generally uninhabitable for several years after the Flood This new factitious Sediment of the Waters requiring no little space of time ere it would be fully setled its Strata consolidated its Surface become hard and dry and its Vegetables sprung out of it before which time 't were uninhabitable by Man and the other Dry-land Animals Coroll 2. Hence we may see the Care and Wisdom of Divine Providence for the Preservation and Maintenance of Noah and of all the Creatures in the Ark after their coming out of the same again by ordering all things so that the Ark should rest on the highest Mountain in the World and that the Waters should so little surpass the same that the Sediment thereof could neither spoil the Fruits of the Ground nor render the Surface uninhabitable as it did on the other Regions of the Earth For since the quantity of the Sediment would generally be proportionable every where to the perpendicular height of the Waters over the Surface of the Ground below tho' it would cover all the other Regions of the whole Earth yet on this highest of all Mountains cover'd but a few Days or perhaps Hours with any Waters and they never above fifteen Cubits perpendicular height the quantity of the Sediment would here be perfectly inconsiderable and the Earth would not be at all alter'd from what it was before nor its Vegetables hurt by this Universal Deluge So that this and this only was the spot of Ground capable of receiving the Ark and of sustaining the Creatures therein till afterwards the rest of the Earth became fit for their Descent and Habitation To this spot therefore by such a wonderful adjustment of all the requisite Circumstances of
the Ancient Earth in greater quantities than usual and so might by a violent Rarefaction or Explosion burst through the Upper Crust and cause all those Fissures little Hills Caverns Grotto's and Inequalities which Dr. Woodwards Observations require and this Proposition takes notice of In this case therefore the particular and distinct consideration of the Phaenomena must determine and arbitrate between the former more natural and gentle and this latter more violent and extraordinary method of accounting for the present face of Nature upon and within the Earth LXXIX Great numbers of Trees and other Vegetables were also at this subsidence of the Mass aforesaid buried in the Bowels of the Earth And such very often as will not grow in the places where they are lodg'd Many of which are pretty intire and perfect and to be distinctly seen and consider'd to this very day LXXIX Seeing the latter part of the Deluge after the seventeenth day of the seventh Month or the twenty seventh day of March with us at present was very Windy Stormy and Tempestuous the most Extant and Mountainous parts of the Earth would be mightily expos'd to the fury both of the Winds and Waves Which consequently would tear up or wash away the loose and unsolid Upper Earth with all its Furniture of Trees and Plants and not seldom carry them great distances from their former Seats Now these Vegetables if no Earthy Metallick or Mineral Masses adher'd to them being bulk for bulk lighter than the Earthy Sediment would settle down last of all and would lye upon the Surface of the Earth and there rot away and disappear But if considerable quantities of the heaviest Strata or of Metallick or Mineral Matter as would sometimes happen adher'd to them they would sink lower and be inclosed in the Bowels of the Earth either near to or far from the place of their own growth according as the Billows and Storms happen'd to dispose of them All which Changes and Dislocations of the Soil and Surface with their Fruits and Plants might leave once Fertile Countries Bare and Barren and lodge such Vegetables in others which of themselves before the new Sediment much more since the same were wholly incapable of such productions according to the exigency of the Proposition before us LXXX It appears from all the tokens and circumstances which are still observable about them That all these Vegetables were torn away from their ancient Seats in the Spring time in or about the Month of May. LXXX When we have already prov'd that the Windy and Stormy Weather which tore up these Vegetables did not begin till the seventeenth day of the seventh Month from the Autumnal Equinox answering to our March the twenty seventh now and when it appears that the higher any Mountain or Continent was the less while and in a less degree would the Waters prevail upon it and so little sometimes as not wholly to destroy the growing Vegetables at this due time of the Year 't is evident that whether the Sediment were newly setled and had enclos'd them or not so many as were torn up from these highest parts of the Earth must be in that forwardness as the Months succeeding the beginning of the Storms April May and June usually bring them to very agreeably to the Proposition before us And that we have rightly suppos'd these Fossil Plants to have been such as grew on the elevated parts of the Earth only how far distant soever the fury of the Waves and Storms may have lodg'd them and so to have been torn up by the Storms in the assigned manner appears both by the heaps in which they are frequently found crouded together and by the kinds of Plants thus buried in the Earth Of which latter tho' his opinion according to his own Hypothesis be that all sorts were originally lodg'd in the Earth tho' some be since perish'd Dr. Woodward's words are in his kind and free Letter in answer to my Queries about them The Fossil Plants are very numerous and various and some of them intire and well preserv'd I have met with many of the same Species with those now growing on our Hills Woods Meadows Heaths c. But none of the Water-Plants I mean such as are peculiar to Lakes Rivers and the Sea Which Testimony is a peculiar Confirmation of the present Hypothesis Corollary Hence the Ancient Years beginning at the Autumnal Equinox and the consequent commencing of the Deluge the seventeenth Day of the second Month from thence and from the Spring is evidenc'd by this very Observation which Dr. Woodward the Author thereof supposes wou'd prove the contrary So that the time of the Deluge's commencing assign'd by our Hypothesis appears at last to be confirm'd both by the Scriptures by the Ancients by Astronomy by Geography and by Natural Observation and is consequently by so very remarkable a Concurrence and Correspondence of 'em all put beyond any reasonable Doubt or Scruple LXXXI All the Metals and Minerals among the Strata of our upper Earth owe their present Frame and Order to the Deluge being repos'd therein during the time of the Waters covering the Earth or during the Subsidence of the before-mention'd Mass. LXXXI This can have no difficulty in it seeing our upper Earth is factitious and compos'd of the foresaid Sediment of the Waters of the Deluge which including the Corpuscles of Metals and Minerals as well as others wou'd alike afford every one those places which they have ever since possess'd LXXXII These Metals and Minerals appear differently in the Earth according to the different manners of their first Lodgment For sometimes they are in loose and small Particles uncertainly inclos'd among such Masses as they chanc'd to fall down withall At other times some of their Corpuscles happening to occur and meet together affix'd to each other and several convening aniting and combining into one Mass form'd those Metallick and Mineral Balls or Nodules which are now found in the Earth And according as the Corpuscles chanc'd to be all of a kind or otherwise so the Masses were more or less simple pure and homogeneous And according as other Bodies Bones Teeth Shells of Fish or the like happen'd to come in their way these Metallick and Mineral Corpuscles assix'd to and became conjoyn'd with 'em either within where it was possible in their Hollows and Interstices or without on their Surface and Outsides filling the one or covering the other And all this in different Degrees and Proportions according to the different Circumstances of each individual Case LXXXII All these things are but proper Effects of such a common Subsidence of all these Masses and Corpuscles together in the Chaotick Sediment as is above-mention'd And no longer or more particular Account is necessary or can be satisfactory till Dr. Woodwards larger Work which we in time hope for affords us the Observations more nicely and particularly than we yet have them To which therefore the Inquisitive Reader must be
refer'd in this and the like Cases LXXXIII The inward parts of the present Earth are very irregular and confus'd One Region is chiefly Stony another Sandy a third Gravelly One Country contains some certain kinds of Metals and Minerals another contains quite different Ones Nay the same Lump or Mass of Earth not seldom contains the Corpuscles of several Metals or Minerals confusedly intermixt one with another and with its own Earthy Parts All which Irregularities with several others that might be observ'd even contrary to the Law of specifick Gravity in the placing of the different Strata of the Earth demonstrates the original Fund or Promptuary of all this upper factitious Earth to have been in a very wild confus'd and Chaotick Condition LXXXIII Seeing the Sediment of the Waters was compos'd of what Earthy Matter was uncertainly brought up out of the inner Earth and of what a true and proper Chaos afforded these Phaenomena are as natural and accountable therefrom as on any other mechanical Hypothesis they must appear strange perplexing and inexplicable to Philosophick Minds LXXXIV The uppermost and lightest Stratum of Soil or Garden-Mold as 't is call'd which is the proper Seminary of the Vegetable Kingdom is since the Deluge very thick spread usually in the Valleys and Plains but very thin on the Ridges and Tops of Mountains Which last for want thereof are frequently stony rocky bare and barren LXXXIV Two plain reasons are to be given for this Phaenomenon 1. The quantity of Water and its Sediment and by consequence of Soil or fertile Earth was less over the Mountains than over the Plains and Valleys 2. After the Subsidence of the Sediment and before its entire Consolidation the Tops of Mountains were most expos'd to the fury of the Winds and Storms which wou'd therefore more easily bear away that lightest and least united Stratum which lay uppermost in those bleak places than in the more retir'd and skreen'd Plains and Valleys and by diminishing the Soil in the former and thereby augmenting it in the latter places most easily make all things correspond in this Proposition LXXXV Of the four ancient Rivers of Paradise two still remain in some measure but the other two do not or at the least are so chang'd that the Masaick Description does not agree to them at present LXXXV That the great Rivers wou'd still retain in great measure their old Courses has been observ'd already and seeing the Fountains and the general inequalities of the Earth on which their Origin and Channels depend were the same generally before as since the Deluge there can be no doubt thereof As to the change with reference to the other two Rivers If the Gulph of Persia were anciently free from Waters and were no other than the very Country of Eden and if the very Entrance of that Gulph into the Persian Sea were the Garden of Eden or Paradise as has been before asserted there can be no difficulty in the case The Channels of these Rivers and indeed of their Fellow-Branches too after their last Partition being now under Water and not to be enquir'd after But tho' we shou'd allow that Paradise was where 't is generally placed near Babylon and upon the Continent yet will there be no wonder at the disappearance of these two Rivers which with their Fellows are bury'd to a sufficient depth under the Sediment we have been speaking so much of before and so no more to be enquir'd after in this than in the former Case LXXXVI Those Metals and Minerals which the Mosaick Description of Paradise and of its bordering Regions takes such particular notice of and the Prophets so emphatically refer to are not now met with so plentifully therein LXXXVI The present upper Earth being as we have seen factitious and a new Crust since the Flood covering over the ancient Surface thereof those Primitive Treasures must lie too deep in the Bowels of the present Earth to be easily approach'd by us and so are entirely lost as to the use or enjoyment of Mankind LXXXVII This Deluge of Waters was a sign alinstance of the Divine Vengoance on a wicked World and was the effect of the peculiar and extraordinary Providence of God LXXXVII Tho' the passing by of a Comet and all those Effects of it in the drowning of the World of which we have so largely discours'd hitherto be not to be stil'd in the common use of the Word Miraculous tho' in no very improper Sense all such Events may have that Appellation of which before yet is there the greatest reason in the World to attribute this mighty Turn and Catastrophe of Nature to the Divine Providence and the immediate voluntary actual interposition of God and that in these ensuing Particulars and on these following Accounts which I shall be the shorter upon as having in the place fore-mention'd explain'd my Mind somewhat largely about things of this Nature 1. The Bodies made use of in this and the like Changes of Nature are originally the Creatures of God and continually preserv'd by Him and so what they are instrumental in ought most justly to be ascrib'd to the principal Cause the great Creator and Conservator of 'em all 2. All those powers of Attraction or Gravitation c. and those Laws of Motion by which these Bodies are capable of producing such Effects are alike owing to the Divine Operation Appointment and Efficacy both in their primitive Impression and continual Energy and so still the Effects themselves are to be ascrib'd to a Divine Original 3. That particular Constitution of the Earth on the Face of the fluid Abyss and other such Dispositions whereby it became subject to a universal Deluge were also the Consequents of the Divine Power and Providence in the formation of the Earth 4. That peculiar Situation or Constitution of the Orbits and Motions of Comets whereby they by reason of their passing thro' the Planetary System each Revolution are fit to cause such great Mutations in it was the Effect of the particualr Order and Disposition of God in the primary frame of the Universe 5. The Coincidence of the Plain of a Comet 's Orbit with that of the Ecliptick can have no other Foundation in Nature than a like design'd and contriv'd Appointment of God 6. The way of the Comet 's Motion from East to West contrary to that of the Planets by which the Particulars of the Deluge were in good Measure provided for cou'd also be nothing but the Effect of the same Design and Providence of God 7. The so nice and exact adjustment of the Motions of both the Comet and the Earth that the former shou'd pass just so near and impart such a certain quantity of Waters and not more or less than wou'd drown the World and just cover the highest Mountain and yet reach no farther in short as wou'd secure the Ark for future Generations and yet not leave one dry-land Animal besides alive this exactness is a most
probable also which is I think abundantly sufficient to clear this Matter LXXXIX Since the Deluge there neither has been nor will be any great and general Changes in the State of the World till the time when a Period is to be put to the present Course of Nature LXXXIX Seeing we know no other Natural Causes that can produce any great and general Changes in our Sublunary World but such Bodies as can approach to the Earth or in other Words but Comets and seeing withal the next Approach of the Comet will in probability bring the present State of things to a Conclusion and Burn the World of which presently 'T is evident the Earth is secure enough all the intermediate space And as hitherto we accordingly find it has been so we need not fear but it will be preserv'd till the foremention'd Conflagration CHAP. V. Phaenomena relating to the General Conflagration with Conjectures pertaining to the same and to the succeeding Period till the Consummation of all things XC AS the World once perish'd by Water so it must by Fire at the Conclusion of its present State XC As we have given an Account of the Universal Deluge from the Approach of a Comet in its descent towards the Sun so will it not be difficult to account for the General Conflagration from the like Approach of a Comet in its ascent from the Sun For 't is evident from what has been already explain'd that in case a Comet pass'd behind the Earth tho' it were in its Descent yet if it came near enough and were it self big enough it wou'd so much retard the Earth's annual Motion and oblige it to revolve in an Ellipsis so near to the Sun in its Perihelion that the Sun it self wou'd scorch and burn dissolve and destroy it in the most prodigious degree and this Combustion being renew'd every Revolution wou'd render the Earth a perfect Chaos again and change it from a Planet to a Comet for ever after 'T is evident this is a sufficient cause of a general Conflagration with a Witness and such an one as wou'd intirely ruine the Make of the present and the possibility of a future World On which last account if we allow the following Phaenomena we must not introduce this at this Period however but see whether a Conflagration of a less destructive and more refining Nature be not to be expected and may not be accounted for And here let it be observ'd that the Central Heat of it self seems sufficient to burn up and dissolve the upper Earth as those who with Dr. Woodward know the Power and Vehemence of the same now and its astonishing Force and terrible Effects in Earthquakes Eruptions of Volcano's and other Phaenomena of present Nature ought to allow if these two things were by any means remov'd I mean the Waters of the Seas and Ocean and the Coldness of the Air For 't is the vast quantity of Waters of the Earth and the Coldness of the middle Region of the Air every where and of the whole Air in the Frigid Zones returning the Vapours cold down again which were sent up into 'em never so hot which seems still to prevent the effects of the Subterraneous Heat and to hinder the Conflagration of the Earth If therefore the passing by of a Comet be capable of emptying the Seas and Ocean and of rendring the Air and its contiguous upper Surface of the Earth extreamly hot and inflam'd no more I suppose will be necessary to a general Conflagration Or if any more Assistance be afforded by the Presence of the Comet it will be ex abundanti and only contribute still the more certainly and the more suddenly to kindle such a fatal Fire and so dreadful a Combustion Now that both those requisite conditions for a general Conflagration wou'd be the consequents of this Passage of the ascending Comet is plain and evident For 1. on the Approach of the Comet a vast Tide wou'd arise in the great Abyss and by the new more considerable and more violent Elevations thereof into the Protuberances and the Sphaeroid Surface of the whole the old Fissures and Breaches wou'd be open'd again and not a few new ones generated not only as at the Deluge in the Mountainous or more loose Columns extant above the Surface of the Waters of the Globe but in all Parts and under the Seas and Ocean as well as in other places which Fissures must immediately swallow up the main Mass or Bulk of the Waters upon the Face of the Ground and send 'em to their Fellow-Waters in the Bowels of the Earth which was the first and principal step towards a general Conflagration And then 2. the Vapours acquir'd from the Comet 's Atmosphere which at the Deluge were by reason of their long absence from the Sun in the remote Regions beyond Saturn pretty cool at this time must be suppos'd by reason of their so late and near approach to the Sun about the Perihelion exceeding hot and burning and that to so extraordinary a degree that nothing but the Idea of the Mouth of a Volcano just belching out immense quantities of liquid and burning Streams or Torrents of fiery Matter can in any measure be suitable to the Violence thereof Imagine therefore the Earth to pass through the very middle of this Atmosphere for 7000 or 8000 Miles together and to bear off with it a Cylindrical Column thereof whose Basis were somewhat larger than a great Circle on the Earth and whose Altitude were the Number of Miles just now mention'd and then tell me whether the Air and its adjoining uppermost Region of the Earth will not be sufficiently hot and scorching which was the other Step to the general Conflagration Besides all which what quantities of this fiery Exhalation or Torrent of melted liquid Matter wou'd run down the Fissures into the Bowels of the Earth and by joining with the central hot Steams already there invigorate them and accelerate the direful Inflammation and what piercing and scorching fiery Corpuscles the central Body it self during its vicinity wou'd also send out and what an additional Power wou'd thereby be afforded the prevailing Heat I need not say Upon the whole I may appeal to the Reader if the concurrence of all these external Causes to say nothing here of any internal Dispositions in the Earth it self thereto do not appear abundantly sufficient within a little time to set the World on Fire and bring on that terrible Conflagration which both Sacred and Profane Testimonies conspire to forewarn us of and so whether the Theory of Comets does not afford us almost as commensurate and compleat an Account of the last burning as it already has done of the ancient drowning of the Earth XCI The same Causes which will set the World on Fire will also cause great and dreadful Tides in the Seas and Ocean with no less Agitations Concussions and Earthquakes in the Air and Earth XCI Seeing the Eruption of the central
Heat the cause 't is probable of all our Earthquakes the presence of a Comet the cause once already of the most prodigious Tides that ever were and the enflam'd Chaos or scorch'd Atmosphere of the Comet a smaller part of which occasion'd all our Tempests our Meteors our Thunder and Lightning ever since the Deluge will all concur at once and with joint Forces conspire together nothing in the World can be suppos'd more terrible nor more exactly correspondent to the Phaenomenon before us XCII The Atmosphere of the Earth before the Conflagration begin will be oppress'd with Meteors Exhalations and Steams and these in so dreadful a manner in such prodigious quantities and with such wild confus'd Motions and Agitations that the Sun and Moon will have the most frightful and hideous Countenances and their ancient Splendor will be intirely obscur'd The Stars will seem to fall from Heaven and all manner of horrid Representations will terrifie the Inhabitants of the Earth XCII Those who consider how a Comet 's Atmosphere appears to us after its Perihelion and what large quantities of its newly scorch'd Masses our Air must be clog'd and burthen'd withal will expect no other effects than those here mention'd and will easily believe that all such horrible Appearances wou'd ensue and that in the most amazing Degree and extravagant Instances possible The Theorist's Representation of this Matter will be generally speaking but a fair and just Idea thereof XCIII The Deluge and Conflagration are referr'd by ancient Tradition to great Conjunctions of the Heavenly Bodies as both depending on and happening at the same XCIII In our Accounts of the Deluge and Conflagration there is a notable conjunction of the Heavenly Bodies indeed not such an Imaginary one as the Astrologers so ridiculously make a stir about the bare Position of two or more of the Celestial Bodies in or near the same streight Line from the Eye of the Spectator while they are at the most remote Distances from one another which is a poor jejune thing indeed But a real one with a Witness when three of the Heavenly Bodies the Earth the Moon and the Comet not only are in an Astrological Heliocentrick Conjunction or only seem to an Eye in the Sun to be conjoyn'd together but are really so near as to have the mightyest effects and Influences on one another possible which we have sufficiently shewn in the present Theory and which does peculiarly correspond to the Phenomenon before us Corollary 'T is not improbable but the ancient Tradition that the Deluge and Conflagration some way depended on certain remarkable Conjunctions of the Heavenly Bodies mis-understood and afterward precariously and widely mis-apply'd might give occasion and rise to Astrology or that mighty quoil and pother so many in all Ages have made about the Conjunctions Oppositions and Aspects of the Heavenly Bodies and the Judiciary Fredictions therefrom which even the Improvements of solid Philosophy in our Age have not been able yet to banish wholly from among us the occasion whereof is otherwise exceeding dark and unaccountable XCIV The space between the Deluge and the Conflagration or between the ancient State of the Earth and its Purgation by Fire Renovation and Restitution again is from ancient Tradition defin'd and terminated by a certain great and remarkable Year or Annual Revolution of some of the Heavenly Bodies and is in probability what the Ancients so often referr'd to pretended particularly to determine and stil'd the Great or Platonick Year XCIV If we allow as we ought that in all probability the same Comet that brought on the Deluge will bring on the Conflagration and that the same Comet has not return'd nor is to return till the Conflagration this matter is easie and the correspondence accurate and remarkable For this single Revolution is truly an Annual one and as proper a Year with regard to the Comet as that of our Earth is with respect to us and so may most fitly and naturally suit the Great or Platonick Year taken notice of in the Proposition before us XCV This general Conflagration is not to extend to the intire Dissolution or Destruction of the Earth but only to the Alteration Melioration and peculiar Disposition thereof into a new State proper to receive those Saints and Martyrs for its Inhabitants who are at the first Resurrection to enter and to live and reign a thousand Years upon it till the second Resurrection the general Judgment and the final Consummation of all things XCV Seeing the Abyss consists of a dense and compact Fluid not capable of any Rarefaction or Dissolution by the most violent Heat imaginable 't is evident that the causes here assign'd can only extend to the upper Orb or habitable Earth without any farther Progress So that the effect of this Conflagration will be the reduction of this upper Earth and its Atmosphere into a confus'd mixt and Chaotick State much such an one as was before observ'd to have preceded the Original Formation of it So that as the Heat decreases 't is but reasonable to expect a kind of Reiteration of the Mosaick six Days Creation or a Renovation of the Primitive State of the Earth to the Description of which therefore I must refer the Reader XCVI The State of Nature during this Millennium will be very different from that at present and more agreeable to the Antediluvian Primitive and Paradisiacal ones XCVI This is apparent from the conclusion of the former Solution XCVII The Earth in the Millennium will be without a Sea or any large Receptacle fill'd with mighty Collections and Quantities of Water XCVII The Primitive Seas depended on two things the former the concurrence of the Central and Solar Heat for an intire half Year together in the Elevation of sufficient quantities of Vapours The latter the Earth's considerable solidity attain'd before the descent of the same Vapours which were to compose the Seas of which we are speaking So that if either of these be wanting in this reiterated Formation of the Earth t is evident the Effect must fail and the Globe be no longer a Terraqueous one after the Conflagration Now the next Proposition but one asserting the probability of the intire absence of the Sun must infer an equal probability of the entire Absence of Seas also according as this Proposition asserts XCVIII The Earth in the Millennium will have no Succession of Light and Darkness Day and Night but a perpetual Day XCVIII In case the Earth's Diurnal Rotation upon which these Vicissitudes depend was retarded so as to be only exactly equal and commensurate to its Annual Motion as the case in the Moon 's Diurnal and Menstrual Revolutions is at present as we have before observ'd the Earth wou'd constantly expose the same Hemisphere to the Sun as the Moon does now to the Earth and all succession of Day and Night for ever cease the one half of the Globe enjoying a perpetual Day while the other
was involv'd in Darkness or excluded all advantages from him and thereby enduring a continual Night so far as natural Causes are here to be consider'd And that this Retardation of the Earth's Diurnal Rotation even without a recurring to the miraculous Power of its first Author is accountable from that passing by of a Comet which we assign for the occasision of the Conflagration is very easie and obvious For in case its Ascent and Passage by be on the East side or before the Earth and in case it approach so near as to rub against it 't is evident such an Impulse is contrary to the course of the Diurnal Rotation and is therefore capable the Proportions of every thing being adjusted by-Divine Providence of putting such a stop to the same as is necessary to the present Phaenomenon and so may put a Period to that constant Succession of Light and Darkness Day and Night which has obtain'd ever since the Fall of Man and withal distinguish the Surface of the Earth into two quite different and contrary Hemispheres near the Vertex of one of which the Sun it self and near that of the other its opposite Point in the Heavens will be always situate Corollary Seeing such a rub of the Comet wou'd affect the Annual Motion of the Earth as well as the Diurnal 't is possible it might retard the former as well as the latter and reduce the Elliptical Course and Orbit of the Earth to its ancient Circular one again XCIX The State of the Millennium will not stand in need of and so probably will be without the Light and Presence of the Sun and Moon XCIX Seeing the Earth wou'd be on the foregoing Supposition distinguish'd into two quite different Hemispheres the one of which wou'd be wholly destitute of the Light and presence of the Sun and as far as appears by St. John supply'd by a Supernatural Light fixt and permanent above its Horizon 't is clear that the first Branch of this Proposition is accountable thereby as far as this Physical Theory is concern'd therein And as to the Moon seeing 't was only a signal and peculiar Providence that caus'd her equal acceleration and consequent accompanying the Earth at the former passing by of the Comet and that no such Providence is again to be expected 't is evident that that Rub or Stoppage of the Earth's Annual Motion which retards the same and does not retard the Moon 's also will separate these Planets and procure their Orbits Courses and Periods to be quite different from one another's ever after according to the greatest rigour of the present Proposition C. At the Conclusion of the Millennium the Final Judgment and the Consummation of all things the Earth will desert its present Seat and Station in the World and be no longer found among the Planetary Chorus C. If any Comet instead of passing by or gently rubbing the Earth hit directly against it in its Course either towards or from the Sun it must desert its ancient Station and move in a quite different Elliptick Orbit and so of a Planet become again a Comet for the future Ages of the World COROLLARIES FROM THE WHOLE I. SEing the new and solid Improvements of Philosophy do all along give so rational Accounts of those Ancient Theorems which have been propagated down from the eldest Ages without being then either understood or intelligible to their Propagators 't is reasonable to trust and rely on such Ancient Traditions not only Sacred but prophane also in these or any other paralled Cases they being in all probability the most valuable Remains and most venerable Truths which the primitive Parents of the World deliver'd down to their Posterity in succeeding Generations II. Seeing most of these Ancient Theorems are very much beyond the distinct Knowledge of those who deliver them contrary to the common Opinion of Mankind judging usually by sensible Appearances and in themselves considering the low State of Natural Knowledge at the same times were highly improbable if not utterly incredible to inquisitive Minds and indeed several of them relating to the Chaos the Creation the primary Constitution and State of the World and the Deluge it self impossible to be discover'd without Supernatural Revelation and yet seeing after all they do now appear as agreeable to Reason and the most solid Mechanical Philosophy as any new Discoveries built on the exactest Observations of present Nature whatsoever 'T is apparent that these Ancient Accounts especially those contain'd in the Holy Scriptures were not originally deriv'd from the Natural Skill and Observation of the first Authors or any other meerly Humane Means but from the immediate and Supernatural Revelation of God Almighty who was therefore much more conversant with Mankind in the first than he has been in these last Ages of the World as the Old Testament-History assures us III. The Measure of our present Knowledge ought not to be esteem'd the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Test of Truth or to be oppos'd to the Accounts receiv'd from Profane Antiquity much less to the inspir'd Writings For notwithstanding that several Particulars relating to the Eldest Condition of the World and its great Catastrophe's examin'd and compar'd with so much Philosophy as was till lately known were plainly unaccountable and naturally speaking impossible yet we see now Nature is more fully more certainly and more substantially understood that the same things approve themselves to be plain easie and rational IV. 'T is therefore Folly in the highest degree to reject the Truth or Divine Authority of the Holy Scriptures because we cannot give our Minds particular Satisfaction as to the manner nay or even possibility of some things therein asserted Since we have seen so many of those things which seem'd the most incredible in the whole Bible and gave the greatest Scruple and Scandal to Philosophick Minds so fully and particularly attested and next to demonstrated from certain Principles of Astronomy and Natural Knowledge 't is but reasonable to expect in due time a like Solution of the other Difficulties 'T is but just sure to depend upon the Veracity of those Holy Writers in other Assertions whose Fidelity is so intirely establish'd in these hitherto equally unaccountable ones V. The Obvious Plain or Literal Sense of the Sacred Scriptures ought not without great Reason to be eluded or laid aside Several of those very Places which seem'd very much to require the same hitherto appearing now to the minutest Circumstances true and rational according to the strictest and most Literal Interpretations of them VI. We may be under an Obligation to believe such things on the Authority of the Holy Scriptures as are properly Mysteries that is though not really Contradictory yet plainly Unaccountable to our present degree of Knowledge and Reason Thus the Sacred Histories of the Original Constitution and great Catastrophe's of the World have been in the past Ages the Objects of the Faith of Jews and Christians though the Divine Providence