to the chargeableness or perpetuity of the World But Ancient Learning is like Ancient Medals more esteemed for their rarity than their real use unless the Authority of a Prince make them currant So neither will these Testimonies be of any great effect unless they be made good and valuable by the Authority of Scripture We must therefore add the Testimonies of the Prophets and Apostles to these of the Greeks and Barbarians that the evidence may be full and undeniable That the Heavens and the Earth will perish or be chang'd into another form is sometimes plainly exprest sometimes suppos'd and alluded to in Scripture The Prophet David's testimony is express both for the beginning and ending of the World in the 102. Psalm Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the Earth and the heavens are the work of thy hands They shall perish but thou shalt endure yea all of them shall wax old like a garment as a vesture shalt thou change them and they shall be changed But thou art the same and thy Years shall have no end The Prophet Esay's testimony is no less express to the same purpose Lift up your Eyes to the heavens and look upon the Earth beneath for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke and the Earth shall was old like a garment and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner These Texts are plain and explicite and in allusion to this day of the Lord and this destruction of the World the same Prophet often useth phrases that relate to it As the Concussion of the Heavens and the Earth The shaking of the foundations of the World The dissolution of the Host of Heaven And our Sacred Writers have expressions of the like force and relating to the same effect As the Hills melting like wax at the presence of the Lord Psal. 97. 5. Shattering once more all the parts of the Creation Hagg. 2. 6. Overturning the mountains and making the pillars of the Earth to tremble Job 9. 5 6. If you reflect upon the explication given of the Deluge in the first part of this Theory and attend to the manner of the Conflagration as it will be explain'd in the sequel of this Discourse you will see the justness and fitness of these expressions That they are not Poetical Hyperboles or random expressions of great and terrible things in general but a true account of what hath been or will be at that great day of the Lord. 'T is true the Prophets sometimes use such-like expressions figuratively for commotions in States and Kingdoms but that is only by way of Metaphor and accommodation the true basis they stand upon is that ruine overthrow and dissolution of the Natural World which was once at the Deluge and will be again after another manner at the general Conflagration As to the New Testament our Saviour says Heaven and Earth shall pass away but his words shall not pass away Matth. 24. 35. S. Paul says the Scheme of this World the fashion form and composition of it passeth away 1 Cor. 7. 31. And when mention is made of New Heavens and a New Earth which both the Prophet Isaiah and the Apostles S. Peter and S. Iohn mention 't is plainly imply'd that the old ones will be dissolv'd The same thing is also imply'd when our Saviour speaks of a Renascency or Regeneration Matt. 19. 28. and S. Peter of a Restitution of all things Act. 3. 21. For what is now must be abolish'd before any former order of things can be restor'd or reduc'd In a word If there was nothing in Scripture concerning this subject but that discourse of S. Peter's in his 2d Epistle and 3d. Chapter concerning the triple order and succession of the Heavens and the Earth past present and to come that alone wou'd be a conviction and demonstration to me that this present World will be dissolv'd You will say it may be in the last place we want still the testimony of Natural Reason and Philosophy to make the evidence compleat I answer 't is enough if They be silent and have nothing to say to the contrary Here are witnesses Humane and Divine and if none appear against them we have no reason to refuse their testimony or to distrust it Philosophy will very readily yield to this Doctrine that All material compositions are dissolvable and she will not wonder to see that die which she had seen born I mean this Terrestrial World She stood upon the Chaos and see it rowâ— it self with difficulty and after many struglings into the form of an habitable Earth And that form she see broken down again at the Deluge and can as little hope or expect now as then that it should be everlasting and immutable There would be nothing great or considerable in this Inferiour World if there were not such revolutions of Nature The Seasons of the Year and the fresh Productions of the Spring are pretty in their way But when the Great Year comes about with a new order of all things in the Heavens and on the Earth and a new dress of Nature throughout all her Regions far more goodly and beautiful than the fairest Spring This gives a new Life to the Creation and shows the greatness of its Author Besides These Fatal Catastrophes are always a punishment to degenerate Mankind that are overwhelm'd in the ruines of these perishing Worlds And to make Nature her self execute the Divine Vengeance against Rebellious Creatures argues both the Power and Wisdom of that Providence that governs all things here below These things Reason and Philosophy approve of but if you further require that they should shew a Necessity of this future destruction of the World from Natural Causes with the time and all other circumstances of this effect your demands are unreasonable seeing these things do not depend solely upon Nature But if you will content your self to know what dispositions there are in Nature towards such a change how it may begin proceed and be consummate under the conduct of Providence be pleased to read the following Discourse for your further satisfaction CHAP. III. That the World will be destroy'd by Fire is the doctrine of the Ancients especially of the Stoicks That the same doctrine is more ancient than the Greeks and deriv'd from the Barbarick Philosophy and That probably from Noah the Father of all Traditionary Learning The same doctrine expresly authoriz'd by Revelation and inroll'd into the Sacred Canon THAT the present World or the present frame of Nature will be destroy'd we have already shewn In what manner this destruction will be by what force or what kind of fate must be our next enquiry The Philosophers have always spoken of Fire and Water those two unruly Elements as the only Causes that can destroy the World and work our ruine and accordingly they say all the great and fatal Revolutions of Nature either past or to come depend upon the violence of these Two when
nothing that I know of in Antiquity Sacred or prophane that gives a joynt testimony with it And those that set up these Pillars do not seem to me to have understood the Nature of the Deluge or Conflagration if they thought a Pillar either of Brick or Stone would be secure in those great dissolutions of the Earth But we have pursued this doctrine high enough without the help of these ante-diluvian Antiquities Namely to the earliest people and the first appearances of Wisdom after the Flood So that I think we may justly look upon it as the doctrine of Noah and of his immediate posterity And as that is the highest source of learning to the present World so we should endeavour to carry our Philosophical Traditions to that Original for I cannot perswade my self but that they had amongst them even in those early days the main strokes or conclusions of the best Philosophy or if I may so say a form of sound doctrine concerning Nature and Providence Of which matter if you will allow me a short digression I will speak my thoughts in a few words In those First Ages of the World after the Flood when Noah and his Children peopled the Earth again as he gave them Precepts of Morality and Piety for the conduct of their Manners which are usually call'd Praecepta Noachidarum the Precepts of Noah frequently mention'd both by the Jews and Christians So also he deliver'd to them at least if we judge aright certain Maxims or Conclusions about Providence the state of Nature and the fate of the World And these in proportion may be call'd Dogmata Noachidarum the Doctrines of Noah and his Children Which made a System of Philosophy or secret knowledge amongst them deliver'd by Tradition from Father to Son but especially preserv'd amongst their Priests and Sacred Persons or such others as were addicted to Contemplation This I take to be more ancient than Moses himself or the Iewish Nation But it would lead me too far out of my way to set down in this place the reasons of my judgment Let it be sufficient to have pointed only at this Fountain head of knowledge and so return to our Argument We have heard as it were a Cry of Fire throughout all Antiquity and throughout all the People of the Earth But those alarums are sometimes false or make a greater noise than the thing deserves For my part I never trust Antiquity barely upon its own account but always require a second witness either from Nature or from Scripture What the voice of Nature is we shall hear all along in the following Treatise Let us then examine at present what testimony the Prophets and Apostles give to this ancient doctrine of the Conflagration of the World The Prophets see the World a-fire at a distance and more imperfectly as a brightness in the Heavens rather than a burning flame but S. Peter describes it as if he had been standing by and seen the Heavens and Earth in a red fire heard the cracking flames and the tumbling Mountains 2 Pet. 3. 10. In the day of the Lord 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 Then after a pious Ejaculation he adds Ver. 12. Looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God wherein the Heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat This is as lively as a Man could express it if he had the dreadful spectacle before his Eyes S. Peter had before taught the same doctrine ver 5 6 7. but in a more Philosophick way describing the double fate of the World by Water and Fire with relation to the Nature and Constitution of either World past or present The Heavens and the Earth were of old consisting of water and by water whereby the World that then was being overflow'd with water perish'd But the Heavens and the Earth which are now by the same Word are kept in store reserved unto fire against the day of Iudgment and perdition of ungodly or Atheistical men This testimony of S. Peter being full direct and explicit will give light and strength to several other passages of Scripture where the same thing is exprest obscurely or by allusion As when S. Paul says The fire shall try every man's work in that day And our Saviour says The tares shall be burnt in the fire at the end of the World Accordingly it is said both by the Apostles and Prophets that God will come to judgment in Fire S. Paul to the Thessalonians promiseth the persecuted Righteous rest and ease When the Lord shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God c. And so to the Hebrews S. Paul says that for wilful Apostates there remaineth no more Sacrifice for sin but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries or enemies of God And in the 12th Chapter he alludes to the same thing when after he had spoken of shaking the Heavens and the Earth once more he exhorteth as S. Peter does upon the same occasion to reverence and godly fear For our God is a consuming Fire In like manner the Prophets when they speak of destroying the wicked and the Enemies of God and Christ at the end of the World represent it as a destruction by Fire Psalm the 11th 6. Upon the wicked the Lord shall rain coals fire and brimstone and a burning tempest This shall be the portion of their Cup. And Psal. 50. 3. Our God shall come and will not be slow A fire shall devour before him and it shall be very tempestuous round about him And in the beginning of those two triumphal Psalms the sixty-eighth and ninety-seventh we see plain allusions to this coming of the Lord in fire The other Prophets speak in the same style of a fiery indignation against the wicked in the day of the Lord As in Isaiah 66. 15. For behold the Lord will come with fire and with his Chariots like a whirl-wind to render his anger with fury and his rebuke with flames of fire And in Daniel c. 7. 9 10. The Ancient of days is plac'd upon his Seat of Judgment cover'd in flames I beheld till the Thrones were set and the Ancient of days did sit whose garment was white as snow and the hair of his head like the pure wool His Throne was like the fiery flame his wheels as burning fire A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him Thousand thousands ministred unto him and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him The judgment was set and the Books were opened The Prophet Malachy c. 4. 1. describes the Day of the Lord to the same effect and in like colours Behold the Day cometh that shall burn as an Oven and all
the proud yea and all that do wickedly shall be as stubble and the day that cometh shall burn them up saith the Lord of Hosts that it shall leave them neither root nor branch And that nature her self and the Earth shall suffer in that fire the Prophet Zephany tells us c. 3. 8. All the Earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousie Lastly This consumption of the Earth by fire even to the foundations of it is exprest livelily by Moses in his Song Deut. 32. 22. A fire is kindled in my anger and shall burn unto the lowest Hell and shall consume the Earth with her increase and set on fire the foundations of the Mountains If we reflect upon these Witnesses and especially the first and last Moses and S. Peter at what a great distance of time they writ their Prophecies and yet how well they agree we must needs conclude that they were acted by the same Spirit and a Spirit that see thorough all the Ages of the World from the beginning to the end These Sacred Writers were so remote in time from one another that they could not confer together nor conspire either in a false testimony or to make the same prediction But being under one common influence and inspiration which is always consistent with it self they have dictated the same things tho' at two thousand years distance sometimes from one another This besides many other considerations makes their authority incontestable And upon the whole account you see that the doctrine of the future Conflagration of the World having run through all Ages and Nations is by the joynt consent of the Prophets and Apostles adopted into the Christian Faith CHAP. IV. Concerning the time of the Conflagration and the end of the World What the Astronomers say upon this Subject and upon what they ground their Calculations The true notion of the Great Year or of the Platonick Year stated and explained HAVING in this First Section laid a sure foundation as to the Subject of our Discourse the truth and certainty of the Conflagration whereof we are to treat we will now proceed to enquire after the Time Causes and Manner of it We are naturally more inquisitive after the End of the World and the Time of that Fatal Revolution than after the Causes of it For these we know are irresistible whensoever they come and therefore we are only sollicitous that they should not overtake us or our near posterity The Romans thought they had the fates of their Empire in the Books of the Sibyls which were kept by the Magistrates as a Sacred Treasure We have also our Prophetical Books more sacred and more infallible than theirs which contain the fate of all the Kingdoms of the Earth and of that glorious Kingdom that is to succeed And of all futurities there is none can be of such importance to be enquired after as this last scene and close of all humane affairs If I thought it possible to determine the time of the Conflagration from the bare intuition of Natural Causes I would not treat of it in this place but reserve it to the last after we had brought into view all those Causes weigh'd their force and examin'd how and when they would concur to produce this great effect But I am satisfied that the excitation and concourse of those Causes does not depend upon Nature only and tho' the Causes may be sufficient when all united yet the union of them at such a time and in such a manner I look upon as the effect of a particular Providence and therefore no foresight of ours or inspection into Nature can discover to us the time of this conjuncture This method therefore of Prediction from Natural Causes being laid aside as impracticable all other methods may be treated of in this place as being independent upon any thing that is to follow in the Treatise and it will be an ease to the Argument to discharge it of this part and clear the way by degrees to the principal point which is the Causes and Manner of the Conflagration Some have thought it a kind of impiety in a Christian to enquire after the End of the World because of that check which our Saviour gave his Disciples when after his Resurrection enquiring of him about the time of his Kingdom He answer'd It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father hath put in his own power And before his death when he was discoursing of the Consummation of all things He told them expresly that tho' there should be such and such previous Signs as he had mention'd yet Of that day and hour knoweth no man No not the Angels that are in Heaven but my Father only Be it so that the Disciples deserv'd a reprimand for desiring to know by a particular revelation from our Saviour the state of future times when many other things were more necessary for their instruction and for their ministery Be it also admitted that the Angels at that distance of time could not see thorow all events to the End of the World it does not at all follow from thence that they do not know it now when in the course of Sixteen Hundred Years many things are come to pass that may be marks and directions to them to make a judgment of what remains and of the last period of all things However there will be no danger in our enquiries about this matter seeing they are not so much to discover the certainty as the uncertainty of that period as to humane knowledge Let us therefore consider what methods have been used by those that have been curious and busie to measure the duration of the World The Stoicks tell us When the Sun and the Stars have drunk up the Sea then the Earth shall be burnt A very fair Prophecy but how long will they be a drinking For unless we can determine that we cannot determine when this combustion will begin Many of the Ancients thought that the Stars were nourish'd by the vapours of the Ocean and of the moist Earth and when that nourishment was spent being of a fiery nature they would prey upon the Body of the Earth it self and consume that after they had consum'd the Water This is old-fashion'd Philosophy and now that the nature of those Bodies is better known will scarce pass for currant 'T is true we must expect some dispositions towards the combustion of the World from a great drought and desiccation of the Earth But this helps us nothing on our way for the question still returns When will this immoderate drought or dryness happen and that 's us ill to resolve as the former Therefore as I said before I have no hopes of deciding the question by Physiology or Natural Causes let us then look up from the Earth to the Heavens To the Astronomers and the Prophets These think they can define the age and duration of the World The one
Water had formerly This is according to St. Peter's doctrine for he makes the same parts of the Universe to be the subject of both namely the inferiour Heavens and the Earth The Heavens and the Earth which were then perish'd in a Deluge of Water But the Heavens and the Earth that are now are reserv'd to fire The present Heavens and Earth are substituted in the place of those that perish'd at the Deluge and these are to be over-run and destroy'd by fire as those were by water So that the Apostle takes the same Regions and the same space and compass for the one as for the other and makes their fate different according to their different constitution and the different order of Providence This is the sence St. Austin gives us of the Apostle's words and these are the bounds he sets to the last Fire whereof a modern Commentator is so well assur'd that he says They neither understand Divinity nor Philosophy that would make the Conflagration reach above the Elementary Heavens Let these be then its limits upwards the Clouds Air and Atmosphere of the Earth But the question seems more doubtful How far it will extend downwards into the bowels of the Earth I answer still to the same depth that the Waters of the Deluge reach'd To the lowest Abysses and the deepest Caverns within the ground And seeing no Caverns are deeper or lower at least according to our Theory than the bottom of the great Ocean to that depth I suppose the rage of this fire will peneâ—rate and devour all before it And therefore we must not imagine that only the outward turf and habitable surface of the Earth will be put into a flame and laid wast the whole exteriour region of the Earth to the depth of the deepest part of the Sea will suffer in this Fire and suffer to that degree as to be melted down and the frame of it dissolv'd For we are not to conceive that the Earth will be only scorcht or charkt in the last Fire there will be a sort of liquefaction and dissolution it will become a molten Sea mingled with fire according to the expression of Scripture And this dissolution may reasonably be suppos'd to reach as low as the Earth hath any hollownesses or can give 〈◊〉 to smoke and flame Wherefore taking these for the bounds and limits of the last great Fire the next thing to be enquir'd into are the Natural Causes of it How this strange fate will seize upon the Sublunary World and with an irresistible fury subdue all things to it self But when I say Natural Causes I would not be so understood as if I thought the Conflagration was a pure Natural Fatality as the Stoicks seem to do No 't is a mixt Fatality The Causes indeed are Natural but the administration of them is from an higher hand Fire is the Instrument or the executive power and hath no more force given it than what it hath naturally but the concurrence of these Causes or of these fiery powers at such a time and in such a manner and the conduct of them to carry on and compleat the whole work without cessation or interruption that I look upon as more than what material Nature could effect of it self or than could be brought to pass by such a government of matter as is the bare result of its own laws and determinations When a Ship fails gently before the Wind the Mariners may stand idle but to guide her in a storm all hands must be at work There are rules and measures to be observ'd even in these tumults and desolations of Nature in destroying a World as well as in making one and therefore in both it is reasonable to suppose a more than ordinary Providence to superintend the work Let us not therefore be too positive or presumptuous in our conjectures about these things for if there be an invisible hand Divine or Angelical that touches the Springs and Wheels it will not be easie for us to determine with certainty the order of their motions However 't is our duty to search into the ways and works of God as far as we can And we may without offence look into the Magazines of Nature see what provisions are made and what preparations for this great Day and in what method 't is most likely the design will be executed But before we proceed to mark out Materials for this Fire give me leave to observe one condition or property in the Form of this present Earth that makes it capable of Inflammation 'T is the manner of its construction in an hollow eavernous form By reason whereof containing much Air in its cavities and having many inlets and outlets 't is in most places capable of ventilation pervious and passable to the Winds and consequently to the Fire Those that have read the former part of this Theory know how the Earth came into this hollow and broken form from what causes and at what time namely at the Universal Deluge when there was a disruption of the exteriour Earth that fell into the Abyss and so for a time was overflow'd with Water These Ruines recover'd from the Water we inhabit and these Ruines only will be burnt up For being not only unequal in their Surface but also hollow loose and incompact within as ruines use to be they are made thereâ— by capable of a second fate by inflammation Thereby I say they are made combustible for if the exteriour Regions of this Earth were as close and compact in all their parts as we have reason to believe the interiour Regions of it to be the Fire could have little power over it nor ever reduce it to such a state as is requir'd in a compleat Conflagration such as ours is to be This being admitted that the Exteriour Region of the Earth stands hollow as a well set Fire to receive Air freely into its parts and hath issues for smoke and flame It remains to enquire what fewel or Materials Nature hath fitted to kindle this Pile and to continue it on Fire till it be consum'd or in plain words What are the Natural Causes and preparatives for a Conflagration The first and most obvious preparations that we see in Nature for this effect are the Burning Mountains or Volcano's of the Earth These are lesser Essays or preludes to the general Fire set on purpose by Providence to keep us awake and to mind us continually and forewarn us of what we are to expect at last The Earth you see is already kindled blow but the Coal and propagate the Fire and the work will go on Tophet is prepar'd of old and when the Day of Doom is come and the Date of the World expir'd the breath of the Lord shall make it burn But besides these Burning Mountains there are Lakes of pitch and brimstone and oily Liquors disperst in several parts of the Earth These are in enrage the Fire as it goes and to fortifie
in true and lively colours we should scarce be able to attend to any thing else or ever divert our imagination from these two objects For what can more affect us than the greatest Glory that ever was visible upon Earth and at the same time the greatest Terror A God descending in the Head of an Army of Angels and a Burning World under his feet These are things truly above expression and not only so but so different and remote from our ordinary thoughts and conceptions that he that comes nearest to a true description of them shall be look'd upon as the most extravagant 'T is our unhappiness to be so much used to little trifling things in this life that when any thing great is represented to us it appears phantastical An Idea made by some contemplative or melancholy person I will not venture therefore without premising some grounds out of Scripture to say any thing concerning This Glorious Appearance As to the Burning of the World I think we have already laid a foundation sufficient to support the highest description that can be made of it But the coming of our Saviour being wholly out of the way of Natural Causes it is reasonable we should take all directions we can from Scripture that we may give a more fitting and just account of that Sacred Pomp. I need not mention those places of Scripture that prove the second coming of our Saviour in general or his return to the Earth again at the end of the World no Christian can doubt of this 't is so often repeated in those Sacred Writings But the manner and circumstances of this Coming or of this Appearance are the things we now enquire into And in the first place we may observe that Scripture tells us our Saviour will come in Flaming Fire and with an Host of mighty Angels so says S. Paul to the Thessalonians The Lord Iesus shall be revealed from Heaven with mighty Angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Iesus Christ. In the second place our Saviour says himself The Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his Angels From which two places we may learn first that the appearance of our Saviour will be with flames of Fire Secondly With an Host of Angels Thirdly In the glory of his Father By which Glory of the Father I think is understood that Throne of Glory represented by Daniel for the Ancient of Days For our Saviour speaks here to the Iews and probably in a way intelligible to them And the Glory of the Father which they were most likely to understand would be either the Glory wherein God appeared at Mount Sinai upon the◠giving of the Law whereof the Apostle speaks largely to the Hebrews or that which Daniel represents Him in at the day of Judgment And this latter being more proper to the subject of our Saviour's discourse 't is more likely this expression refers to it Give me leave therefore to set down that description of the Glory of the Father upon his Throne from the Prophet Daniel ch 7. 9. And I beheld 〈◊〉 the Thrones were set and the Ancient of days did sit whose garment was white as snow and the hair of his head like the pure wool His Throne was like the fiery flame and his wheels as burning fire A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him thousand thousands ministred unto him and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him With this Throne of the Glory of the Father let us if you please compare the Throne of the Son of God as it was seen by S. Iohn in the Apocalypse ch 4. 2 c. And immediately I was in the Spirit and behold a throne was set in heaven and one sat on the Throne And he that fat was to look upon like a Iasper and a Sardine Stone and there was a Rain-bow round about the Throne in appearance like unto an Emerald And out of the Throne proceeded Lightnings and Thunderings and Voices c. and before the Throne was a Sea of glass like unto Crystal In those representations you have some beams of the Glory of the Father and of the Son which may be partly a direction to us in conceiving the 〈◊〉 of our Saviour's appearance Let us further observe if you please how external Nature will be affected at the sight of God or of this approaching Glory The Scripture often takes notice of this and in terms very high and eloquent The Psalmist seems to have lov'd that subject above others to set out the greatness of the day of the Lord and the consternation of all Nature at that time He throws about his thunder and lightning makes the Hills to melt like wax at the presence of the Lord and the very foundations of the Earth to tremble as you may see in the 18th Psalm and the 97. and the 104. and several others which are too long to be here inserted So the Prophet Habakkuk in his Prophetick Prayer Chap. 3d. hath many Ejaculations to the like purpose And the Prophet Nahum says The mountains quake at him and the hills melt and the Earth is burnt at his presence yea the world and all that dwell therein But more particularly as to the face of Nature just before the coming of our Saviour that may be best collected from the signs of his coming mention'd in the precedent Chapter Those all meeting together help to prepare and make ready a Theater fit for an angry God to come down upon The countenance of the Heavens will be dark and gloomy and a Veil drawn over the face of the Sun The Earth in a disposition every where to break into open flames The tops of the Mountains smoaking the Rivers dry Earthquakes in several places the Sea sunk and retir'd into its deepest Chanel and roaring as against some mighty storm These things will make the day dead and melancholy but the Night-Scenes will have more of horrour in them When the Blazing Stars appear like so many Furies with their lighted Torches threatning to set all on fire For I do not doubt but the Comets will bear a part in this Tragedy and have something extraordinary in them at that time either as to number or bigness or nearness to the Earth Besides the Air will be full of flaming Meteors of unusual forms and magnitudes Balls of fire rowling in the Skie and pointed lightnings darted against the Earth mixt with claps of thunder and unusual noises from the Clouds The Moon and the Stars will be confus'd and irregular both in their light and motions as if the whole frame of the Heavens was out of order and all the laws of Nature were broken or expir'd When all things are in this languishing or dying posture and the Inhabitants of the Earth under the fears of their last end The Heavens will open on a sudden and the Glory of
with the Hypothesis As to the present Form of the Earth we call all Nature to witness for us The Rocks and the Mountains the Hills and the Valleys the deep and wide Sea and the Caverns of the Ground Let these speak and tell their origine How the Body of the Earth came to be thus torn and mangled If this strange and irregular structure was not the effect of a ruine and of such a ruine as was universal over the face of the whole Globe But we have given such a full explication of this in the first part of the Theory from Chapt. the 9th to the end of that Treatise that we dare stand to the judgment of any that reads those four Chapters to determine if the Hypothesis does not answer all those Phaenomena easily and adequately The next Phaenomenon to be consider'd is the Deluge with its adjuncts This also is fully explain'd by our Hypothesis in the 2d 3d. and 6th Chapters of the first Book Where it is shewn that the Mosaical Deluge that is an universal Inundation of the whole Earth above the tops of the highest Mountains made by a breaking open of the Great Abyss for thus far Moses leads us is fully explain'd by this Hypothesis and cannot be conceiv'd in any other method hitherto propos'd There are no sources or stores of Water sufficient for such an effect that may be drawn upon the Earth and drawn off again but by supposing such an Abyss and such a Disruption of it as the Theory represents Lastly As to the Phaenomena of Paradise and the Ante-diluvian World we have set them down in order in the 2d Book and apply'd to each of them its proper explication from the same Hypothesis We have also given an account of that Character which Antiquity always assign'd to the first age of the World or the Golden Age as they call'd it namely Equality of Seasons throughout the Year or a perpetual Equinox We have also taken in all the adjuncts or concomitants of these States as they are mention'd in Scripture The Longevity of the Ante-diluvians and the declension of their age by degrees after the Flood As also that wonderful Phaenomenon the Rainbow which appear'd to Noah for a Sign that the Earth should never undergo a second Deluge And we have shewn wherein the force and propriety of that Sign consisted for confirming Noah's faith in the promise and in the divine veracity Thus far we have explain'd the past Phaenomena of the Natural World The rest are Futurities which still lie hid in their Causes and we cannot properly prove a Theory from effects that are not yet in being But so far as they are foretold in Scripture both as to substance and circumstance in prosecution of the same Principles we have ante dated their birth and shew'd how they will come to pass We may therefore I think reasonably conclude That this Theory has performed its task and answer'd its title having given an account of all the general changes of the Natural World as far as either Sacred History looks backwards or Sacred Prophecy looks forwards So far as the one tells us what is past in Nature and the other what is to come And if all this be nothing but an appearance of truth 't is a kind of fatality upon us to be deceiv'd SO much for Natural Evidence from the Causes or Effects We now proceed to Scripture which will make the greatest part of this Review The Sacred Basis upon which the whole Theory stands is the doctrine of S. Peter deliver'd in his Second Epistle and Third Chapter concerning the Triple Order and Succession of the Heavens and the Earth That comprehends the whole extent of our Theory which indeed is but a large Commentary upon S. Peter's Text. The Apostle sets out a threefold state of the Heavens and Earth with some general properties of each taken from their different Constitution and different Fate The Theory takes the same threefold state of the Heavens and the Earth and explains more partâ—cularly wherein their different Constitution consists and how under the conduct of Providence their different fate depends upon it Let us set down the Apostle's words with the occasion of them and their plain sence according to the most easie and natural explication Ver. 3. Knowing this first that there shall come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lusts 4. And saying Where is the promise of his coming for since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation 5. For this they willingly are ignorant of that by the word of God the heavens were of old and the earth consisting of water and by water 6. Whereby the world that then was being overflowed with water perished 7. But the heavens and the earth that are now by the sâ—me word are kept in store reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men 10. The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent heat the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up 13. Nevertheless we according to his promise look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness This is the whole Discourse so far as relates to our Subject S Peter you see had met with some that scoff'd at the future destruction of the World and the coming of our Saviour and they were men it seems that pretended to Philosophy and Argument and they use this argument for their opinion Seeing there hath been no change in Nature or in the World from the beginning to this time why should we think there will be any change for the future The Apostle answers to this That they willingly forget or are ignorant that there were Heavens of old and an Earth so and so constituted consisting of Water and by Water by reason whereof that World or those Heavens and that Earth perish'd in a Deluge of Water But saith he the Heavens and the Earth that are now are of another constitution fitted and reserved to another fate namely to perish by Fire And after these are perish'd there will be New Heavens and a New Earth according to God's promise This is an easie Paraphrase and the plain and genuine sence of the Apostle's discourse and no body I think would ever look after any other sence if this did not carry them out of their usual road and point to conclusions which they did not fancy This sence you see hits the objections directly or the Cavil which these scoffers made and tells them that they vainly pretend that there hath been no change in the World since the beginning for there was one sort of Heavens and Earth before the Flood and another sort now the first having been destroy'd at the Deluge So that the Apostle's argument stands upon this Foundation That there
worthy our study and meditation nor any thing that would conduce more to discover the ways of Divine Providence and to shew us the grounds of all true knowledge concerning Nature And therefore to clear up the several parts of this Theory I was wiling to lay aside a great many other Speculations and all those dry subtleties with which the Schools and the Books of Philosophers are usually fill'd But when we speak of a Rising World and the Contemplation of it we do not mean this of the Great Universe for who can describe the Original of that vast Frame But we speak of the Sublundry World This Earth and its dependencies which rose out of a Chaos about six thousand years ago And seeing it hath faln to our lot to act upon this Stage to have our present home and residence here its seems most reasonable and the place design'd by Providence where we should first imploy our thoughts to understand the works of God and Nature We have accordingly therefore design'd in this Work to give an account of the Original of the Earth and of all the great and General Changes that it hath already undergone or is hence forwards to undergo till the Consummation of all Things For if from those Principles we have here taken and that Theory we have begun in these Two First Books we can deduce with success and clearness the Origin of the Earth and those States of it that are already past Following the same Thred and by the conduct of the same Theory we will pursue its Fate and History through future Ages and mark all the great Changes and Conversions that attend it while Day and Night shall last that is so long as it continues an Earth By the States of the Earth that are already past we understand chiefly Paradise and the Deluge Names well known and as little known in their Nature By the Future States we undâ—rstand the Conslagration and what new Order of Nature may follow upon that till the whole Circle of Time and Providence be compleated As to the first and past States of the Earth we shall have little help from the Ancients or from any of the Philosophers for the discovery or description of them We must often tread unbeaten paths and make a way where we do not find one but it shall be always with a Light in our hand that we may see our steps and that those that follow us may not follow us blindly There is no Sect of Philosophers that I know of that ever gave an account of the Universal Deluge or discover'd from the Contemplation of the Earth that there had been such a thing already in Nature 'T is true they often talk of an alternation of Deluges and Conflagrations in this Earth but they speak of them as things to come at least they give no proof or argument of day that hath already destroyed the World As to Paradise it seems to be represented to us by the Golden Age whereof the Ancients tell many stories sometimes very luxuriant and sometimes very defective For they did not so well understand the difference betwixt the New-made Earth and the Present as to see what were the just grounds of the Golden Age or of Paradise Tho' they had many broken Notions concerning those things As to the Conslagration in particular This hath always been reckon'd One amongst the Opinions or Dogmata of the Stoicks That the World was to be destroy'd by Fire and their Books are full of this Notion but yet they do not tell us the Causes of the Conflagration nor what preparations there are in Nature or will be towards that great Change And we may generally observe this of the Ancients that their Learning or Philosophy consisted more in Conclusions than in Demonstrations They had many Truths among them whereof they did not know themselves the Premisses or the Proofs Which is an argument to me that the knowledge they had was not a thing of their own invention or which they came to by fair Reasoning and observations upon Nature but was delivered to them from others by Tradition and Ancient Fame sometimes more publick sometimes more secret These Conclusions they kept in Mind and communicated to those of their School or Sect or Posterity without knowing for the most part the just grounds and reasons of them 'T is the Sacred Writings of Scripture that are the best Monuments of Antiquity and to those we are chiefly beholden for the History of the First Ages whether Natural History or Civil 'T is true the Poets who were the most Ancient Writers amongst the Greeks and serv'd them both for Historians Divines and Philosophers have deliver'd some things concerning the first Ages of the World that have a fair resemblance of Truth and some affinity with those accounts that are given of the same things by Sacred Authors and these may be of use in due time and place but yet lest any thing fabulous should be mixt with them as commonly there is we will never depend wholly upon their credit nor assert any thing upon the authority of the Ancients which is not first prov'd by Natural Reason or warranted by Scripture It seems to me very reasonable to believe that besides the Precepts of Religion which are the principal subject and design of the Books of Holy Scripture there may be providentially conserv'd in them the memory of things and times so remote as could not be retriev'd either by History or by the light of Nature and yet were of great importance to be known both for their own excellency and also to rectifie the knowledge of men in other things consequential to them Such points may be Our great Epocha or the Age of the Earth The Origination of Mankind The First and Paradisiacal State The destruction of the Old World by an Universal Deluge The Longevity of its Inhabitants The manner of their preservation and of their Peopling the Second Earth and lastly The Fate and Changes it is to undergo These I always lookt upon as the Seeds of great knowledge or heads of Theories fixt on purpose to give us aim and direction how to pursue the rest that depend upon them But these heads you see are of a mixt order and we propose to our selves in this Work only such as belong to the Natural World upon which I believe the trains of Providence are generally laid And we must first consider how God hath order'd Nature and then how the Oeconomy of the Intellectual World is adapted to it for of these two parts consist the full System of Providence In the mean time what subject can be more worthy the thoughts of any serious person than to view and consider the Rise and Fall and all the Revolutions not of a Monarchy or an Empire of the Grecian or Roman State but of an intire World The obscurity of these things and their remoteness from common knowledge will be made an argument by some why we should not undertake
immediate height of the Mountain So for instance the Mountains of the Moon in Africa whence the Nile flows and after a long course falls into the Mediterranean Sea by Egypt are so much higher than the surface of that Sea first as the Ascent of the Land is from the Sea to the foot of the Mountains and then as the height of the Mountains is from the bottom to the top For both these are to be computed when you measure the height of a Mountain or of a mountainous Land in respect of the Sea And the height of Mountains to the Sea being thus computed there would be need of six or eight Oceans to raise the Sea alone as high as the highest In-land Mountains And this is more than enough to compensate the less quantity of Water that would be requisite upon the Land Besides we must consider the Regions of the Air upwards to be more capacious than a Region of the same thickness in or near the Earth so as if an Ocean pour'd upon the surface of the dry Land supposing it were all smooth would rise to the height of half a quarter of a mile every where the like quantity of Water pour'd again at the height of the Mountains would not have altogether the same effect or would not there raise the mass half a quarter of a mile higher for the surfaces of a Globe the farther they are from their Center are the greater and so accordingly the Regions that belong to them And lastly we must consider that there are some Countries or Valleys very low and also many Caverns or Cavities within the Earth all which in this case were to be first fill'd with Water These things being compar'd and estimated we shall find that notwithstanding the room that Hills and Mountains take up on the dry Land there would be at least eight Oceans requir'd or a quantity of Water eight times as great as the Ocean to bring an Universal Deluge upon the Earth as that Deluge is ordinarily understood and explained The proportion of Water for the Deluge being thus stated the next thing to be done is to enquire where this Water is to be found if any part of the Sublunary World will afford us so much Eight Oceans floating in the Air make a great bulk of Water I do not know what possible Sources to draw it from There are the Clouds above and the Deeps below and in the bowels of the Earth and these are all the stores we have for Water and Moses directs us to no other for the Causes of the Deluge The Fountains he saith of the great Abysse were broken up or burst asunder and the Rain descended for forty days the Cataracts or Floodgates of Heaven being open'd And in these two no doubt are contain'd the causes of the great Deluge as according to Moses so also according to reason and necessity for our World affords no other treasures of Water Let us therefore consider how much this Rain of Forty Days might amount to and how much might flow out of the Abysse that so we may judge whether these two in conjunction would make up the Eight Oceans which we want As for the Rains they would not afford us one Ocean nor half an Ocean nor the tenth part of an Ocean if we may trust to the Observations made by others concerning the quantity of Water that falls in Rain Mersennus gives us this account of it It appears by our Observations that a Cubical Vessel of Brass whereof we made use is fill'd an inch and an half in half an hours time but because that sucks up noâ—hing of the moisture as the Earth doth let us take an inch for half an hours Rain whence it follows that in the space of 40 days and nights Rain the Waters in the Deluge would rise 160 feet if the Rains were constant and equal to ours and that it rain'd at once throughout the face of the whole Earth But the Rain of the Deluge saith he should have been 90 times greater than this to cover for instance the Mountains of Armenia or to reach 15 Cubits above them So that according to his computation the 40 days Rain would supply little more than the hundredth part of the Water requisite to make the Deluge 'T is true he makes the heighth of the Mountains higher than we do but however if you temper the Calculation on all sides as much as you please the water that came by this Rain would be a very inconsiderable part of what was necessary for a Deluge If it rain'd 40 days and 40 nights throughout the face of the whole Earth in the Northern and Southern Hemisphere all at once it might be sufficient to lay all the lower grounds under water but it would signifie very little as to the over-flowing of the Mountains Whence another Author upon the same occasion hath this passage If the Deluge had been made by Rains only there would not have needed 40 days but 40 years Rain to have brought it to pass And if we should suppose the whole middle Region condens'd into water it would not at all have been sufficient for this effect according to that proportion some make betwixt Air and Water for they say Air turn'd into Water takes up a hundred times less room than it did before The truth is we may reasonably suppose that all the vapours of the middle Region were turn'd into water in this 40 days and 40 nights Rain if we admit that this Rain was throughout the whole Earth at once in either Hemisphere in every Zone in every Climate in every Country in every Province in every Field and yet we see what a small proportion all this would amount to Having done then with these Superiour Regions we are next to examine the Inferiour and the treasures of water that may be had there Moses tells us that the Fountains of the great Abysse were broke open or clove asunder as the word there us'd doth imply and no doubt in this lay the great mystery of the Deluge as will appear when it comes to be rightly understood and explain'd but we are here to consider what is generally understood by the great Abysse in the common explication of the Deluge and 't is commonly interpreted either to be the Sea or Subterraneous waters hid in the bowels of the Earth These they say broke forth and rais'd the waters caus'd by the Rain to such an height that together they overflowed the highest Mountains But whether or how this could be deserves to be a little examin'd And in the first place the Sea is not higher than the Land as some have formerly imagin'd fansying the Sea stood as it were upon a heap higher than the shore and at the Deluge a relaxation being made it overflow'd the Land But this conceit is so gross and so much against reason and experience that none I think of late have ventur'd to make use of it And yet on the
the whole matter intelligible we will proceed no further till that be consider'd being very willing to examine whatsoever may be offer'd in that or any other way for resolving that great difficulty which we have propos'd concerning the quantity of water requisite for such a Deluge And to this they say in short that God Almighty created waters on purpose to make the Deluge and then annihilated them again when the Deluge was to cease And this in a few words is the whole account of the business This is to out the knot when we cannot loose it They shew us the naked arm of Omnipotency such Arguments as these come like lightning one doth not know what Armour to put on against them for they pierce the more the more they are resisted We will not therefore oppose any thing to them that is hard and stubborn but by a soft answer deaden their force by degrees And I desire to mind those persons in the first place of what S. Austin hath said upon a like occasion speaking concerning those that disprov'd the opinion of waters above the Heavens which we mention'd before by natural Reasons We are not saith he to refute those persons by saying that according to the Omnipotence of God to whom all things are possible we ought to believe there are waters there as heavy as we know and feel them here below for our business is now to enquire according to his Scripture how God hath constituted the Nature of things and not what he could do or work in these things by a miracle of Omnipotency I desire them to apply this to the present argument for the first answer Secondly let them consider that Moses hath assign'd causes of the Deluge Forty days Rain and the disruption of the Abysse and speaks nothing of a new creation of water upon that occasion Those were causes in Nature which Providence had then dispos'd for this extraordinary effect and those the Divine Historian refers us to and not to any productions out of nothing Besides Moses makes the Deluge increase by degrees with the Rain and accordingly makes it cease by degrees and that the waters going and returning as the waves and great commotions of the Sea use to do retir'd leisurely from the face of the Earth and settled at length in their Chanels Now this manner of the beginning or ceasing of the Deluge doth not at all agree with the instantaneous actions of Creation and Annihilation Thirdly let them consider that S. Peter hath also assign'd Causes of the Deluge namely the particular constitution of the Earth and Heavens before the Flood by reason whereof he saith the World that was then perisht in a Deluge of water And not by reason of a new creation of water His words are these The Heavens and the Earth were of old consisting of water and by water whereby or by reason whereof the World that then was being overflowed with water perished Fourthly they are to consider that as we are not rashly to have recourse to the Divine Omnipotence upon any account so especially not for new Creations and least of all for the creation of new matter The matter of the Universe was created many Ages before the Flood and the Universe being full if any more was created then there must be as much annihilated at the same time to make room for it for Bodies cannot penetrate one anothers dimensions nor be two or more within one and the same space Then on the other hand when the Deluge ceas'd and these waters were annihilated so much other matter must be created again to take up their places And methinks they make very bold with the Deity when they make him do and undo go forward and backwards by such countermarches and retractions as we do not willingly impute to the wisdom of God Almighty Lastly I shall not think my labour lost if it be but acknowledg'd that we have so far clear'd the way in this controversie as to have brought it to this issue That either there must be new waters created on purpose to make a Deluge or there could be no Deluge as 't is vulgarly explain'd there not being water sufficient in Nature to make a Deluge of that kind This I say is a great step and I think will satisfie all parties at least all that are considerable for those that have recourse to a New Creation of waters are of two sorts either such as do it out of laziness and ignorance or such as do it out of necessity seeing they cannot be had otherwise as for the first they are not to be valu'd or gratifi'd and as for the second I shall do a thing very acceptable to them if I free them and the argument from that necessity and show a way of making the Deluge fairly intelligible and accountable without the creation of new waters which is the design of this Treatise For we do not tye this knot with an Intention to puzzle and perplex the Argument finally with it but the harder it is ty'd we shall feel the pleasure more sensibly when come to loose it It may be when they are beaten from this new Creation of water they will say the Element of Air was chang'd into water and that was the great store-house for the Deluge Forty days Rain we allow as Moses does but if they suppose any other transelementation it neither agrees with Moses's Philosophy nor S. Peter's for then the opening of the Abysse was needless and the form and constitution of the Antediluvian Heavens and Earth which S. Peter refers the Deluge to bore no part in the work it might have been made in that way indifferently under any Heavens or Earth Besides they offend against S. Austin's rule in this method too for I look upon it as no less a miracle to turn Air into Water than to turn Water into Wine Air I say for Vapours indeed are but water made volatile but pure Air is a body of another Species and cannot by any compression or condensation so far as is yet known be chang'd into water And lastly if the whole Atmosphere was turn'd into water 't is very probable it would make no more than 34 foot or thereabouts for so much Air or Vapours as is of the same weight with any certain quantity of water 't is likely if it was chang'd into water would also be of the same bulk with it or not much more Now according to the doctrine of the Gravitation of the Atmosphere 't is found that 34 foot of water does counterbalance a proportionable Cylinder of Air reaching to the top of the Atmosphere and consequently if the whole Atmosphere was converted into water it would make no more than eleven or twelve yards water about the Earth which the cavities of the Earth would be able in a good measure to suck up at least this is very inconsiderable as to our eight Oceans And if you would change the higher Regions into water too
attested or admit an effect whereof they cannot see any possible causes And so having stated and propos'd the whole difficulty and try'd all ways offer'd by others and found them ineffectual let us now apply our selves by degrees to unty the knot The excessive quantity of water is the great difficulty and the removal of it afterwards Those eight Oceans lay heavy upon my thoughts and I cast about every way to find an expedient or to find some way whereby the same effect might be brought to pass with less Water and in such a manner that that Water might afterwards conveniently be discharg'd The first thought that came into my mind upon that occasion was concerning the form of the Earth which I imagin'd might possibly at that time be different from what it is at present and come nearer to plainness and equality in the surface of it and so might the more easily be overflow'd and the Deluge perform'd with less water This opinion concerning the plainness of the first Earth I also found in Antiquity mention'd and refer'd to by several Interpreters in their Commentaries upon Genesis either upon occasion of the Deluge or of that Fountain which is said Gen. 2. 6. to have watered the face of the whole Earth And a late eminent person the honour of his profession for Integrity and Learning in his discourse concerning the Origination of mankind hath made a like judgment of the State of the Earth before the Deluge that the face of it was more smooth and regular than it is now But yet upon second thoughts I easily see that this alone would not be sufficient to explain the Deluge nor to give an account of the present from of the Earth unequal and Mountainous as it is 'T is true this would give a great advantage to the waters and the Rains that fell for forty days together would have a great power over the Earth being plain and smooth but how would these waters be dispos'd of when the Deluge ceas'd or how could it ever cease Besides what means the disruption of the great Deep or the great Abysse or what answers to it upon this supposition This was assuredly of no less consideration than the Rains nay I believe the Rains were but preparatory in some measure and that the violence and consummation of the Deluge depended upon the disruption of the great Abysse Therefore I saw it necessary to my first thought concerning the smoothness and plainness of the Ante-diluvian Earth to add a second concerning the disruption and dissolution of it for as it often happens in Earthquakes when the exteriour Earth is burst asunder and a great Flood of waters issues out according to the quantity and force of them an Inundation is made in those parts more or less so I thought if that Abysse lay under ground and round the Earth and we should suppose the Earth in this manner to be broken in several places at once and as it were a general dissolution made we might suppose that to make a general Deluge as well as a particular dissolution often makes a particular But I will not anticipate here the explication we intend to give of the universal Deluge in the following Chapters only by this previous intimation we may gather some hopes it may be that the matter is not so desperate as the former representation might possibly make us fansie it Give me leave to add farther in this place that it hath been observ'd by several from the contemplation of Mountains and Rocks and Precipices of the Chanel of the Sea and of Islands and of Subterraneous Caverns that the surface of the Earth or the exteriour Region which we inhabit hath been broke and the parts of it dislocated And one might instance more particularly in several parcels of Nature that retain still the evident marks of fraction and ruine and by their present form and posture show that they have been once in another state and situation one to another We shall have occasion hereafter to give an account of these Phaenomena from which several have rightly argu'd and concluded some general rupture or ruine in the superficial parts of the Earth But this ruine it is true they have imagin'd and explain'd several ways some thinking that it was made the third day after the foundation of the Earth when they suppose the Chanel of the Sea to have been form'd and Mountains and Caverns at the same time by a violent depression of some parts of the Earth and an extrusion and elevation of others to make them room Others suppose it to have come not all at once but by degrees at several times and in several Ages from particular and accidental causes as the Earth falling in upon Fires under ground or water eating away the lower parts or Vapours and Exhalations breaking out and tearing the Earth 'T is true I am not of their opinion in either of these Explications and we shall show at large hereafter when we have propos'd and stated our own Theory how incompetent such causes are to bring the Earth into that form and condition we now find it in But in the mean time we may so far make use of these Opinions in general as not to be startled at this Doctrine concerning the breaking or dissolution of the exteriour Earth for in all Ages the face of Nature hath provok'd men to think of and observe such a thing And who can do otherwise to see the Elements displac'd and disorder'd as they seem to lie at present the heaviest and grossest bodies in the highest places and the liquid and volatile kept below an huge mass of Stone or Rock rear'd into the Air and the water creeping at its feet whereas this is the more light and active body and by the law of Nature should take place of Rocks and Stones So we see by the like disorder the Air thrown down into Dungeons of the Earth and the Earth got up among the Clouds for there are the tops of the Mountains and under their roots in Holes and Caverns the Air is often detain'd By what regular action of Nature can we suppose things first produc'd in this posture and form not to mention how broke and torn the inward substance of the Earth is which of it self is an uniform mass close and compact but in the condition we see it it lies hollow in many places with great vacuities intercepted betwixt the portions of it a thing which we see happens in all ruines more or less especially when the parts of the ruines are great and inflexible Then what can have more the figure and meen of a ruine than Crags and Rocks and Cliffs whether upon the Sea shore or upon the sides of Mountains what can be more apparently broke than they are and those lesser Rocks or great bulky Stones that lie often scatter'd near the feet of the other whether in the Sea or upon the Land are they not manifest fragments and pieces of those greater
length come to an equality and the Waters that lie in the lower parts and in the Chanels those Chanels and Valleys being fill'd up with Earth would be thrust out and rise every where upon the surface of the Earth Which new post when they had once seiz'd on they would never quit it nor would any thing be able to dispossess them for 't is their natural place and situation which they always tend to and from which there is no progress nor regress in a course of Nature So that the Earth would have been both now and from innumerable Generations before this all under water and uninhabitable if it had stood from everlasting and this form of it had been its first original form Nor can he doubt of this argumentation that considers the coherence of it and will allow time enough for the effect I do not say the Earth would be reduc'd to this uninhabitable form in ten thousand years time though I believe it would but take twenty if you please take an hundred thousand take a million 't is all one for you may take the one as easily as the other out of Eternity and they make both equally against their supposition Nor is it any matter how little you suppose the Mountains to decrease 't is but taking more time and the same effect still follows Let them but waste as much as a grain of Mustardseed every day or a foot in an Age this would be more than enough in ten thousand Ages to consume the tallest Mountain upon Earth The Air alone and the little drops of Rain have defac'd the strongest and the proudest monuments of the Greeks and Romans and allow them but time enough and they will of themselves beat down the Rocks into the Sea and the Hills into the Valleys But if we add to these all those other foremention'd causes that work with more violence and the weight of the Mountains themselves which upon any occasion offer'd is ready to sink them lower we shall shorten the time and make the effect more sure We need add no more here in particular Against this Aristotelian Doctrine that makes the present form of the Earth to have been from Eternity for the truth is this whole Book is one continued argument against that Opinion shewing that it hath de facto chang'd its form both in that we have prov'd that it was not capable of an universal Deluge in this form and consequently was once under another and also in that we shall prove at large hereafter throughout the Third and Fourth Sections that it hath been broken and dissolv'd We might also add one consideration more that if it had stood always under this form it would have been under Fire if it had not been under Water and the Conflagration which it is to undergo would have overtaken it long ere this For S. Peter saith the Heavens and the Earth that are now as oppos'd to the Ante-diluvian and considered in their present form and constitution are fitted to be consum'd by Fire And whosoever understands the progress and revolutions of Nature will see that neither the present form of the Earth nor its first form were permanent and immutable forms but transient and temporary by their own frame and constitution which the Author of Nature after certain periods of time had design'd for change and for destruction Thus much for the body of the Earth that it could not have been from Eternity as Aristotle pretended in the form it hath Now let 's consider the Origination of Mankind and that we shall find could much less be Eternal than the other for whatsoever destroy'd the form of the Earth would also destroy Mankind and besidâ—s there are many particular marks and arguments that the Generations of Men have not been from Everlasting All History and all monuments of Antiquity of what kind soever are but of a few thousand of years date we have still the memory of the golden Age of the first state of Nature and how mortals liv'd then in innocency and simplicity The invention of Arts even those that are necessary or useful to humane life hath been within the knowledge of Men How imperfect was the Geography of the Ancients how imperfect their knowledge of the Earth how imperfect their Navigation Can we imagine if there had been Men from Everlasting a Sea as now and all materials for Shipping as much as we have that men could have been so ignorant both of the Land and of the Sea as 't is manifest they have been till of late Ages They had very different fancies concerning the figure of the Earth They knew no Land beyond our Continent and that very imperfectly too and the Torrid Zone they thought utterly uninhabitable We think it strange taking that short date of the World which we give it that Men should not have made more progress in the knowledge of these things But how impossible is it then if you suppose them to have been from Everlasting They had the same wit and passions that we have the same motives that we have can we then imagine that neither the ambition of Princes nor interest or gain in private Persons nor curiosity and the desire of Knowledge nor the glory of discoveries nor any other passion or consideration could ever move them in that endless time to try their fortunes upon the Sea and know something more of the World they inhabited Though you should suppose them generally stupid which there is no reason to do yet in a course of infinite Generations there would be some great Genio's some extraordinary persons that would attempt things above the rest We have done more within the compass of our little World which we can but count as to this from the general Deluge than those Eternal Men had done in their innumerable Ages foregoing You will say it may be they had not the advantages and opportunities for Navigation as we have and for discoveries because the use of the Loadstone and the Mariners Needle was not then known But that 's the wonder that either that invention or any other should not be brought to light till t'other day if the World had stood from Eternity I say this or any other practical invention for such things when they are once found out and known are not easily lost again because they are of daily use And 't is in most other practical Arts as in Navigation we generally know their Original and History who the Inventors and by what degrees improv'd and how few of them brought to any perfection till of late Ages All the Artificial and Mechanical World is in a manner new and what you may call the Civil World too is in a great measure so What relates to Government and Laws to Wars and Discipline we can trace these things to their Origin or very near it The use of Money and of Coins nay the use of the very Elements for they tell us of the first invention of Fire
three feet deep made up only of little flakes or pieces of Ice which falling from the middle Region of the Air and meeting with the Earth in their descent are there stopt and heapt up one upon another But if we should suppose little particles of Earth to shower down not only from the middle Region but from the whole capacity and extent of those vast spaces that are betwixt us and the Moon we could not imagine but these would constitute an Orb of Earth some thousands of times deeper than the greatest Snow which being increas'd and swoln by that oily liquor it fell into and incorporated with it would be thick strong and great enough in all respects to render it an habitable Earth We cannot doubt therefore but such a body as this would be form'd and would be sufficient in quantity for an habitable Earth Then for the quality of it it will answer all the purposes of a Rising World What can be a more proper Seminary for Plants and Animals than a soil of this temper and composition A finer and lighter sort of Earth mixt with a benign Juice easie and obedient to the action of the Sun or of what other causes were employ'd by the Author of Nature for the production of things in the new-made Earth What sort or disposition of matter could be more fit and ready to catch life from Heaven and to be drawn into all forms that the rudiments of life or the bodies of living Creatures would require What soil more proper for vegetation than this warm moisture which could have no fault unless it was too fertile and luxuriant And that is no fault neither at the beginning of a World This I am sure of that the learned amongst the Ancients both Greeks Egyptians Phoenicians and others have describ'd the primigenial soil or the temper of the Earth that was the first subject for the Generation and Origin of Plants and Animals after such a manner as is truly express'd and I think with advantage by this draught of the primigenial Earth Thus much concerning the matter of the first Earth Let us reflect a little upon the form of it also whether External or Internal both whereof do manifestly shew themselves from the manner of its production or formation As to the External form you see it is according to the Proposition we were to prove smooth regular and uniform without Mountains and without a Sea And the proof we have given of it is very easie The Globe of the Earth could not possibly rise immediately from a Chaos into the irregular form in which it is at present The Chaos being a fluid mass which we know doth necessarily fall into a Spherical surface whose parts are equi-distant from the Center and consequently in an equal and even convexity one with another And seeing upon the distinction of a Chaos and separation into several Elementary masses the Water would naturally have a superiour place to the Earth 't is manifest that there could be no habitable Earth form'd out of the Chaos unless by some concretion upon the face of the Water Then lastly seeing this concrete Orb of Earth upon the face of the Water would be of the same form with the surface of the Water it was spread upon there being no causes that we know of to make any inequality in it we must conclude it equal and uniform and without Mountains as also without a Sea for the Sea and all the mass of Waters was enclos'd within this exteriour Earth which had no other basis or foundation to rest upon The contemplation of these things and of this posture of the Earth upon the Waters doth so strongly bring to mind certain passages of Scripture which will recur in another place that we cannot without injury to truth pass them by here in silence Passages that have such a manifest resemblance and agreement to this form and situation of the Earth that they seem visibly to point at it such are those expressions of the Psalmist God hath founded the Earth upon the Seas And in another Psalm speaking of the wisdom and power of God in the Creation he saith To him who alone doth great wonders to him that by wisdom made the Heavens to him that extended or stretched out the Earth above the Waters What can be more plain or proper to denote that form of the Earth that we have describ'd and to express particularly the inclosure of the Waters within the Earth as we have represented them He saith in another place By the Word of the Lord were the Heavens made he shut up the Waters of the Sea as in Bags for so the word is to be render'd and is render'd by all except the English and laid up the Abysse as in store-houses This you see is very conformable to that System of the Earth and Sea which we have propos'd here Yet there is something more express than all this in that remarkable place in the Proverbs of Solomon where Wisdom declaring her Antiquity and Existence before the foundation of the Earth amongst other things saith When he prepared the Heavens I was there When he drew an Orb over the surface of the Abysse or when he set an Orb upon the face of the Abysse We render it in the English a Compass or Circle but 't is more truly rendred an Orb or Sphere and what Orb or Spherical Body was this which at the formation of the Earth was built and plac'd round about the Abyss but that wonderful Arch whose form and production we have describ'd encompassing the mass of Waters which in Scripture is often call'd the Abysse or Deep Lastly This Scheme of the first Earth gives light to that place we mention'd before of S. Peter's where the first Earth is said to consist of Water and by Water and by reason thereof was obnoxious to a Deluge The first part of this character is plain from the description now given and the second will appear in the following Chapter In the mean time concerning these passages of Scripture which we have cited we may truly and modestly say that though they would not it may be without a Theory premis'd have been taken or interpreted in this sence yet this Theory being premis'd I dare appeal to any unprejudic'd person if they have not a fairer and easier a more full and more emphatical sence when apply'd to that form of the Earth and Sea we are now speaking of than to their present form or to any other we can imagine Thus much concerning the external form of the first Earth Let us now reflect a little upon the Internal form of it which consists of several Regions involving one another like Orbs about the same Center or of the several Elements cast circularly about each other as it appears in the Fourth and Fifth Figure And as we have noted the External form of this primaeâ—al Earth to have been markt and celebrated in the Sacred Writings so
of this Objection for performing the same effect with a far less quantity of Water 't is both easie to be found and easily remov'd when the work is done When the exteriour Earth was broke and fell into the Abysse a good part of it was cover'd with Water by the meer depth of the Abysse it fell into and those parts of it that were higher than the Abysse was deep and consequently would stand above it in a calm Water were notwithstanding reacht and overtop'd by the waves during the agitation and violent commotion of the Abysse For it is not imaginable what the commotion of the Abysse would be upon this dissolution of the Earth nor to what height its waves would be thrown when those prodigious fragments were tumbled down into it Suppose a stone of ten thousand weight taken up into the Air a mile or two and then let fall into the middle of the Ocean I do not believe but that the dashing of the water upon that impression would rise as high as a Mountain But suppose a mighty Rock or heap of Rocks to fall from that height or a great Island or a Continent these would expel the waters out of their places with such a force and violence as to fling them among the highest Clouds 'T is incredible to what height sometimes great Stones and Cinders will be thrown at the eruptions of fiery Mountains and the pressure of a great mass of Earth falling into the Abysse though it be a force of another kind could not but impel the water with so much strength as would carry it up to a great height in the Air and to the top of any thing that lay in its way any eminency high fragment or new Mountain And then rowling back again it would sweep down with it whatsoever it rusht upon Woods Building living Creatures and carry them all headlong into the great gulph Sometimes a mass of water would be quite struck off and separate from the rest and tost through the Air like a flying River but the common motion of the waves was to climb up the hills or inclin'd fragments and then return into the valleys and deeps again with a perpetual fluctuation going and coming ascending and descending till the violence of them being spent by degrees they setled at last in the places allotted for them where bounds are set that they cannot pass over that they return not again to cover the Earth Neither is it to be wonder'd that the great Tumult of the waters and the extremity of the Deluge lasted for some months for besides that the first shock and commotion of the Abysse was extremely violent from the general fall of the Earth there were ever and anon some secondary ruines or some parts of the great ruine that were not well setled broke again and made new commotions And 't was a considerable time before the great fragments that fell and their lesser dependencies could be so adjusted and fitted as to rest in a firm and immoveable posture For the props and stays whereby they lean'd one upon another or upon the bottom of the Abysse often fail'd either by the incumbent weight or the violent impulses of the water against them and so renew'd or continu'd the disorder and confusion of the Abysse Besides we are to observe that these great fragments falling hollow they inclos'd and bore down with them under their concave surface a great deal of Air and while the water compass'd these fragments and overflow'd them the Air could not readily get out of those prisons but by degrees as the Earth and Water above would give way so as this would also hinder the settlement of the Abysse and the retiring of the Water into those Subterraneous Chanels for some time But at length when this Air had found a vent and left its place to the Water and the ruines both primary and secondary were setled and fix'd then the Waters of the Abysse began to settle too and the dry Land to appear first the tops of the Mountains then the high Grounds then the Plains and the rest of the Earth And this gradual subsidency of the Abysse which Moses also hath particularly noted and discovery of the several parts of the Earth would also take up a considerable time Thus a new World appear'd or the Earth put on its new form and became divided into Sea and Land and the Abysse which from several Ages even from the beginning of the World had lain hid in the womb of the Earth was brought to light and discover'd the greatest part of it constituting our present Ocean and the rest filling the lower cavities of the Earth Upon the Land appear'd the Mountains and the Hills and the Islands in the Sea and the Rocks upon the shore And so the Divine Providence having prepar'd Nature for so great a change at one stroke dissolv'd the frame of the old World and made us a new one out of its ruines which we now inhabit since the Deluge All which things being thus explain'd deduc'd and stated we now add and pronounce our Third and last Proposition That the disruption of the Abysse or dissolution of the primaeval Earth and its fall into the Abysse was the cause of the Universal Deluge and of the destruction of the old World CHAP. VII That the Explication we have given of an Vniversal Deluge is not an Idea only but an account of what really came to pass in this Earth and the true Explication of Noah's Flood as is prov'd by Argument and from History An Examination of Tehom-Rabba or the great Abysse and that by it the Sea cannot be understood nor the Subterraneous Waters as they are at present What the true Notion and Form of it was collected from Moses and other Sacred Writers The frequent allusions in Scripture to the opening and shutting the Abysse and the particular stile of Scripture in its reflections on the Origin And the Formation of the Earth Observations on Deucalion's Deluge WE have now given an account of the first great revolution of Nature and of the Universal Deluge in a way that is intelligible and from causes that answer the greatness of the effect We have suppos'd nothing but what is also prov'd both as to the first form of the Earth and as to the manner of its Dissolution and how far from that would evidently and necessarily arise a general Deluge which was that which put a period to the old World and the first state of things And though all this hath been deduc'd in due order and with connexion and consequence of one thing upon another so far as I know which is the true evidence of a Theory yet it may not be sufficient to command the Assent and Belief of some persons who will allow it may be and acknowledge that this is a fair Idea of a possible Deluge in general and of the destruction of a World by it but this may be only an Idea they 'll say
that Earth being even and smooth without Hills and eminencies and might lay it all under water to some depth so as the Ark if it could not float upon those Rain-waters at least taking the advantage of a River or a Dock or Cistern made to receive them it might be a float before the Abysse was broken open For I do not suppose the Abysse broken open before any Rain fell And when the opening of the Abysse and of the Flood-gates of Heaven are mention'd together I am apt to think those Flood-gates were distinct from the common Rain and were something more violent and impetuous So that there might be preparatory Rains before the disruption of the Abysse and I do not know but those Rains so covering up and enclosing the Earth on every side might providentially contribute to the disruption of it not only by softning and weakning the Arch of the Earth in the bottom of those cracks and Chasms which were made by the Sun and which the Rain would first run into but especially by stopping on a sudden all the pores of the Earth and all evaporation which would make the vapors within struggle more violently as we get a Fever by a Cold and it may be in that struggle the Doors and the Bars were broke and the great Abysse gusht out as out of a womb However when the Rains were faln we may suppose the face of the Earth cover'd over with water and whether it was these waters that S. Peter refers to or that of the Abysse afterwards I cannot tell when he saith in his first Epistle Chap. 3. 20. Noah and his Family were sav'd by water so as the water which destroy'd the rest of the World was an instrument of their conservation in as much as it bore up the Ark and kept it from that impetuous shock which it would have had if either it had stood upon dry land when the Earth fell or if the Earth had been dissolv'd without any water on it or under it However things being thus prepar'd let us suppose the great frame of the exteriour Earth to have broke at this time or the Fountains of the great Abyss as Moses saith to have been then open'd from thence would issue upon the fall of the Earth with an unspeakable violence such a Flood of waters as would over-run and overwhelm for a time all those fragments which the Earth broke into and bury in one common Grave all Mankind and all the Inhabitants of the Earth Besides if the Flood-gates of Heaven were any thing distinct from the Forty days Rain their effusion 't is likely was at this same time when the Abyss was broken open for the sinking of the Earth would make an extraordinary convulsion of the Regions of the Air and that crack and noise that must be in the falling World and in the collision of the Earth and the Abyss would make a great and universal Concussion above which things together must needs so shake or so squeeze the Atmosphere as to bring down all the remaining Vapours But the force of these motions not being equal throughout the whole Air but drawing or pressing more in some places than in other where the Center of the Convulsion was there would be the chiefest collection and there would fall not showers of Rain or single drops but great spouts or caskades of water and this is that which Moses seems to call not improperly the Gataracts of Heaven or the Windows of Heaven being set open Thus the Flood came to its height and 't is not easie to represent to our selves this strange Scene of things when the Deluge was in its fury and extremity when the Earth was broken and swallow'd up in the Abyss whose raging waters rise higher than the Mountains and fill'd the Air with broken waves with an universal mist and with thick darkness so as Nature seem'd to be in a second Chaos and upon this Chaos rid the distrest Ark that bore the small remains of Mankind No Sea was ever so tumultuous as this nor is there any thing in present Nature to be compar'd with the disorder of these waters All the Poetry and all the Hyperboles that are us'd in the description of Storms and raging Seas were literally true in this if not beneath it The Ark was really carry'd to the tops of the highest Mountains and into the places of the Clouds and thrown down again into the deepest Gulfs and to this very state of the Deluge and of the Ark which was a Type of the Church in this World David seems to have alluded in the name of the Church Psal. 42. 7. Abysse calls upon Abysse at the noise of thy Cataracts or water-spouts all thy waves and billows have gone over me It was no doubt an extraordinary and miraculous Providence that could make a Vessel so ill man'd live upon such a Sea that kept it from being dasht against the Hills or overwhelm'd in the Deeps That Abyss which had devour'd and swallow'd up whole Forests of Woods Cities and Provinces nay the whole Earth when it had conquer'd all and triumph'd over all could not destroy this single Ship I remember in the story of the Argonauticks when Iason set out to fetch the Golden Fleece the Poet saith all the Gods that day look'd down from Heaven to view the Ship and the Nymphs stood upon the Mountain-tops to see the noble Youth of Thessaly pulling at the Oars We may with more reason suppose the good Angels to have look'd down upon this Ship of Noah's and that not out of couriosity as idle spectators but with a passionate concern for its safety and deliverance A Ship whose Cargo was no less than a whole World that carry'd the fortune and hopes of all posterity and if this had perish'd the Earth for any thing we know had been nothing but a Desart a great ruine a dead heap of Rubbish from the Deluge to the Conflagration But Death and Hell the Grave and Destruction have their bounds We may entertain our selves with the consideration of the face of the Deluge and of the broken and drown'd Earth in this Scheme with the floating Ark and the guardian Angels pag. 68. Thus much for the beginning and progress of the Deluge It now remains only that we consider it in its decrease and the state of the Earth after the waters were retir'd into their Chanels which makes the present state of it Moses saith God brought a wind upon the waters and the tops of the Hills became bare and then the lower grounds and Plains by degrees the waters being sunk into the Chanels of the Sea and the hollowness of the Earth and the whole Globe appearing in the form it is now under There needs nothing be added for explication of this 't is the genuine consequence of the Theory we have given of the Deluge and whether this wind was a descending wind to depress and keep down the swellings and inequalities of the Abyss or
whether it was only to dry the Land as fast as it appear'd or might have both effects I do not know But as nothing can be perpetual this is violent so this commotion of the Abyss abated after a certain time and the great force that impell'd the waters decreasing their natural gravity began to take effect and to reduce them into the lowest places at an equal height and in an even surface and level one part with another That is in short the Abyss became our Sea fixt within its Chanel and bounded by Rocks and Mountains Then was the decreed place establisht for it and Bars and Doors were set then was it said hitherto shalt thou come and no further and here shall thy proud waves be stopt And the Deluge being thus ended and the waters setled in their Chanels the Earth took such a broken Figure as is represented in those larger Schemes p. 100. And this will be the form and state of it till its great change comes in the Conflagration when we expect a New Heaven and a New Earth But to pursue this prospect of things a little further we may easily imagine that for many years after the Deluge ceast the face of the Earth was very different from what it is now and the Sea had other bounds than it hath at present I do not doubt but the Sea reacht much further in-land and climb'd higher upon the sides of the Mountains And I have observ'd in many places a ridge of Mountains some distance from the Sea and a Plain from their roots to the shore which Plain no doubt was formerly cover'd by the Sea bounded against those Hills as its first and natural Ramparts or as the ledges or lips of its Vessel And it seems probable that the Sea doth still grow narrower from Age to Age and sinks more within its Chanel and the bowels of the Earth according as it can make its way into all those Subterraneous Cavities and crowd the Air out of them We see whole Countries of Land gain'd from it and by several indications as ancient Sea-ports left dry and useless old Sea-marks far within the Land pieces of Ships Anchors c. left at a great distance from the present shores from these signs and such like we may conclude that the Sea reach'd many places formerly that now are dry Land and at first I believe was generally bound in on either side with a chain of Mountains So I should easily imagine the Mediterranean Sea for instance to have been bounded by the continuation of the Alps through Dauphiné and Languedock to the Pyreneans and at the other end by the Darmatick Mountains almost to the Black Sea Then Atlas major which runs along with the Mediterranean from Aegypt to the Atlantick Ocean and now parts Barbary and Numidia may possibly have been the Ancient Barriere on the Africk side And in our own Island I could easily figure to my self in many parts of it other Sea-bounds than what it hath at present and the like may be observ'd in other Countries And as the Sea had much larger bounds for some time after the Deluge so the Land had a different face in many respects to what it hath now for we suppose the Valleys and lower grounds where the descent and derivation of the water was not so easie to have been full of Lakes and Pools for a long time and those were often converted into Fens and Bogs where the ground being spongy suckt up the water and the loosen'd Earth swell'd into a soft and pappy substance which would still continue so if there was any course of water sensible or insensible above or within the ground that fed this moist place But if the water stood in a more firm Basin or on a soil which for its heaviness or any other reason would not mix with it it made a Lake or clear Pool And we may easily imagine there were innumerable such Lakes and Bogs and fastnesses for many years after the Deluge till the World begun to be pretty well stockt with people and humane industry cleans'd and drain'd those unfruitful and unhabitable places And those Countries that have been later cultivated or by a lazier people retain still in proportion to their situation and soil a greater number of them Neither is it at all incongruous or inconvenient to suppose that the face of the Earth stood in this manner for many years after the Deluge for while Mankind was small and few they needed but a little ground for their seats or sustenance and as they grew more numerous the Earth proportionably grew more dry and more parts of it fit for habitation I easily believe that Plato's observation or tradition is true that Men at first after the Flood liv'd in the Up-lands and sides of the mountains and by degrees sunk into the Plains and lower Countries when Nature had prepar'd them for their use and their numbers requir'd more room The History of Moses tells us that sometime after the Deluge Noah and his posterity his Sons and his Grand-children chang'd their quarters and fell down into the Plains of Shiner from the sides of the Hills where the Ark had rested and in this Plain was the last general rendezvous of Mankind so long they seem to have kept in a body and from thence they were divided and broken into companies and disperst first into the neighbouring Countries and then by degrees throughout the whole Earth the several successive Generations like the waves of the Sea when it flows over-reaching one another and striking out further and further upon the face of the Land Not that the whole Earth was peopled by an uniform propagation of Mankind every way from one place as a common center like the swelling of a Lake upon a Plain for sometimes they shot out in length like Rivers and sometimes they shew into remote Countreys in Colonies like swarms from the Hive and setled there leaving many places uninhabited betwixt them and their first home Sea-shores and Islands were generally the last places inhabited for while the memory or story of the Deluge was fresh amongst them they did not care for coming so near their late Enemy or at least to be enclos'd and surrounded by his forces And this may be sufficient to have discours'd concerning all the parts of the Deluge and the restitution of the Earth to an habitable form for the further union of our Theory with the History of Moses There rests only one thing in that History to be taken notice of which may be thought possibly not to agree so well with our account of the Deluge namely that Moses seems to shut up the Abysse again at the end of the Deluge which our Explication supposeth to continue open But besides that half the Abysse is still really cover'd Moses saith the same thing of the windows of Heaven that they were shut up too and he seemeth in both to express only the cessation of the Effect
of things would arise and a new Deluge for that part of the Earth Such removes and interchanges I believe would often happen in the first Ages after the Flood as we see in all other ruines there happen lesser and secondary ruines after the first till the parts be so well pois'd and setled that without some violence they scarce change their posture any more But to return to our Earthquakes and to give an instance or two of their extent and violence Pliny mentions one in the Reign of Tiberius Caesar that struck down Twelve Cities of Asia in one night And Fournier gives us an account of one in Peru that reacht three hundred leagues along the Sea-shore and seventy leagues inland and level'd the Mountains all along as it went threw down the Cities turn'd the Rivers out of their Chanels and made an universal havock and confusion And all this he saith was done within the space of seven or eight minutes There must be dreadful Vaults and Mines under that Continent that gave passage to the Vapours and liberty to play for nine hundred miles in length and above two hundred in breadth Asia also hath been very subject to these desolations by Earthquakes and many parts in Europe as Greece Italy and others The truth is our Cities are built upon ruines and our Fields and Countries stand upon broken Arches and Vaults and so does the greatest part of the outward frame of the Earth and therefore it is no wonder if it be often shaken there being quantities of Exhalations within these Mines or Cavernous passages that are capable of rarefaction and inflammation and upon such occasions requiring more room they shake or break the ground that covers them And thus much concerning Earthquakes A second observation that argues the hollowness of the Earth is the communication of the Seas and Lakes under ground The Caspian and Mediterranean Seas and several Lakes receive into them great Rivers and yet have no visible out let These must have Subterraneous out-lets by which they empty themselves otherwise they would redound and overflow the brims of their Vessel The Mediterranean is most remarkable in this kind because 't is observ'd that at one end the great Ocean flows into it through the straits of Gibralter with a sensible current and towards the other end about Constantinople the Pontus flows down into it with a stream so strong that Vessels have much ado to stem it and yet it neither hath any visible evacuation or out-let nor over-flows its banks And besides that it is thus fed at either end it is sed by the navel too as I may so say it sucks in by their Chanels several Rivers into its belly whereof the Nile is one very great and considerable These things have made it a great Problem What becomes of the water of the Mediterranean Sea And for my part I think the solution is very easie namely that it is discharg'd by Subterraneous passages or convey'd by Chanels under the ground into the Ocean And this manner of discharge or conveyance is not peculiar to the Mediterranean but is common to it with the Caspian Sea and other Seas and Lakes that receive great Rivers into them and have no visible issue I know there have been propos'd several other ways to answer this difficulty concerning the eâ—flux or consumption of the waters of the Mediterranean some have suppos'd a double current in the strait of Gibralter one that carry'd the water in and another that brought it out like the Arteries and Veins in our Body the one exporting our bloud from the heart and the other re-importing it So they suppos'd one current upon the surface which carry'd the water into the Mediterranean and under it at a certain depth a counter-current which brought the water back into the Ocean But this hath neither proof nor foundation for unless it was included in pipes as our bloud is or consisted of liquors very different these cross currents would mingle and destroy one another Others are of opinion that all the water that flows into the Mediterranean or a quantity equal to it is consum'd in Exhalations every day This seems to be a bolder supposition than the other for if so much be consum'd in Vapours and Exhalations every day as flows into this Sea what if this Sea had an out-let and discharg'd by that every day as much as it receiv'd in a few days the Vapours would have consum'd all the rest and yet we see many Lakes that have as free an out-let as an in-let and are not consum'd or sensibly diminisht by the Vapours Besides This Reason is a Summer-reason and would pass very ill in Winter when the heat of the Sun is much less powerful At least there would be a very sensible difference betwixt the height of the waters in Summer and Winter if so much was consum'd every day as this Explication supposeth And the truth is this want of a visible out-let is not a property belonging only to the Mediterranean Sea as we noted before but is also in other Seas and great Lakes some lying in one Climate and some in another where there is no reason to suppose such excessive Exhalations and though 't is true some Rivers in Africk and in others parts of the Earth are thus exhal'd and dry'd up without ever flowing into the Sea as were all the Rivers in the first Earth yet this is where the sands and parch'd ground suck up a great part of them the heat of the Climate being excessively strong and the Chanel of the River growing shallower by degrees and it may be divided into lesser branches and rivulets which are causes that take no place here And therefore we must return to our first reason which is universal for all seasons of the Year and all Climates and seeing we are assur'd that there are Subterraneous Chanels and passages for Rivers often fall into the ground and sometimes rise again and sometimes never return why should we doubt to ascribe this effect to so obvious a cause Nay I believe the very Ocean doth evacuate it self by Subterraneous out-lets for considering what a prodigious mass of water falls into it every day from the wide mouths of all the Rivers of the Earth it must have out-lets proportionable and those Syrtes or great Whirlpools that are constant in certain parts or Sinus's of the Sea as upon the Coast of Norway and of Italy arise probably from Subterraneous out-lets in those places whereby the water sinks and turns and draws into it whatsoever comes within such a compass and if there was no issue at the bottom though it might by contrary currents turn things round within in its Sphere yet there is no reason from that why it should suck them down to the bottom Neither does it seem improbable that the currents of the Sea are from these in-draughts and that there is always a submarine in-let in some part of them to make a circulation of
another World out of curiosity to see our Earth the first discovery or observation he would make would be this that it was a Terraqueous Globe Thus much he might observe at a great distance when he came but near the borders of our World This we discern in the Moon and most of the Planets that they are divided into Sea and Land and how this division came would be his first remark and inquiry concerning our Earth and how also those subdivisions of Islands or little Earths which lie in the Water how these were form'd and that great Chanel that contains them both The second form that the Earth appears under is that of an uneven and Mountainous Globe When our Traveller had got below tho Circle of the Moon he would discern the bald tops of our Mountains and the long ranges of them upon our Continents We cannot from the Earth discern Mountains and Valleys in the Moon directly but from the motion of the light and shadows which we see there we easily collect that there are such inequalities And accordingly we suppose that our Mountains would appear at a great distance and the shady Valleys lying under them and that this curious person that came to view our Earth would make that his second Enquiry how those Mountains were form'd and how our Globe came to be so rude and irregular for we may justly demand how any irregularity came into Nature seeing all her first motions and her first forms are regular and whatsoever is not so is but secondary and the consequence of some degeneracy or of some decay The Third visible form of our Earth is that of a broken Globe and broken throughout but in the outward parts and Regions of it This it may be you will say is not a visible form it doth not appear to the eye without reasoning that the surface of the Earth is so broken Suppose our new Visitant had now pass'd the middle Region of the Air and was alighted upon the top of Pick Teneriffe for his first resting place and that sitting there he took a view of the great Rocks the wide Sea and of the shores of Africk and Europe for we 'll suppose his piercing Eye to reach so far I will not say that at first sight he would pronounce that the surface of this Globe was broken unless he knew it to be so by comparison with some other Planet like to it but the broken form and figure of many parts of the Rocks and the posture in which they lay or great portions of them some inclin'd some prostrate some erected would naturally lead him to that thought that they were a ruine He would see also the Islands tore from the Continents and both the shores of the Continents and their inland parts in the same disorder and irregular situation Besides he had this great advantage in viewing the Earth at a distance that he could see a whole Hemisphere together which as he made his approaches through the Air would have much what the same aspect and countenance as 't is represented with in the great Scheme And if any man should accidentally hit upon that Scheme not knowing or thinking that it was the Earth I believe his first thought of it would be that it was some great broken body or ruin'd frame of matter and the original I am sure is more manifestly so But we 'll leave our Strange Philosopher to his own observations and wish him good Guides and Interpreters in his Survey of the Earth and that he would make a favourable report at his return home of our little dirty Planet In the mean time let us pursue in our own way this Third Idea of the Earth a little further as it is a broken Globe Nature I know hath dissembled and cover'd this form as much as may be and time hath helpt to repair some of the old breaches or fill them up besides the changes that have been made by Art and Humane industry by Agriculture Planting and Building Towns hath made the face of the Earth quite another thing from what it was in its naked rudeness As mankind is much alter'd from its Pristine state from what it was four thousand years ago or towards the first Ages after the Flood when the Nations liv'd in simplicity or barbarousness so is the Earth too and both so disguis'd and transform'd that if one of those Primitive Fathers should rise from the dead he would scarce know this to be the same World which he liv'd in before But to discern the true form of the Earth whether intire or broken regular or disorder'd we must in the first place take away all those ornaments or additions made by Art or Nature and view the bare carcass of the Earth as it hath nothing on it but Rocks and Mountains Desarts and Fields and hollow Valleys and a wide Sea Then secondly We must in our imagination empty this Chanel of the Sea take out all the Waters that hinder the sight of it and look upon the dry Ditch measure the depth and breadth of it in our mind and observe the manner of its construction and in what a wild posture all the parts of it lie according as it hath been formerly represented And lastly We must take off the cover of all Subterraneous places and deep Caverns to see the inside of the Earth and lay bare the roots of Mountains to look into those holes and Vaults that are under them fill'd sometimes with Fire sometimes with Water and sometimes with thick Air and Vapours The object being thus prepar'd we are then to look fix'dly upon it and to pronounce what we think of this disfigur'd mass whether this Exteriour frame doth not seem to be shatter'd and whether it doth more aptly resemble a new-made World or the ruines of one broken I confess when this Idea of the Earth is present to my thoughts I can no more believe that this was the form wherein it was first produc'd than if I had seen the Temple of Ierusalem in its ruines when defac'd and sack'd by the Babylonians I could have perswaded my self that it had never been in any other posture and that Solomon had given orders for building it so So much for the form of the Earth It remains now that we examine what causes have been assign'd by others of these irregularities in the form of the Earth which we explain by the dissolution of it what accounts any of the Ancients have given or attempted to give how the Earth swell'd into Mountains in certain places and in others was depress'd into low Valleys how the body of it was so broken and how the Chanel of the Sea was made The Elements naturally lie in regular forms one above another and now we find them mixt confounded and transpos'd how comes this disturbance and disordination in Nature The Explications of these things that have been given by others may be reduc'd to two general sorts Philosophical or
some other Country of Asia the Earth being now as it was then This offends as much in the defect as the other in the excess For it is not any single Region of the Earth that can be Paradisiacal unless all Nature conspire and a certain Order of things proper and peculiar for that state Nor is it of less importance to find out this peculiar Order of things than to find out the particular seat of Paradise but rather pre-requisite to it We will endeavour therefore to discover and determine both so far as a Theory can go beginning with that which is more general 'T is certain there were some qualities and conditions of Paradise that were not meerly Topical but common to all the rest of the Earth at that time and these we must consider in the first place examine what they were and upon what they depended History both Sacred and Profane must tell us what they were and our Theory must shew us upon what causes they depended I had once I confess propos'd to my self another method independent upon History or Effects I thought to have continued the description of the Primitive or Ante-diluvian Earth from the contemplation of its causes only and then left it to the judgment of others to determine whether that was not the Earth where the Golden Age was past and where Paradise stood For I had observ'd three conditions or characters of it which I thought were sufficient to answer all that we knew concerning that first state of things viz. The regularity of its surface The situation or posture of its Body to the Sun and the Figure of it From these three general causes I thought might be deducâ—d all the chief differences of that Earth from the present and particularly those that made it more capable of being Paradisiacal But upon second thoughts I judg'd it more useful and expedient to lay aside the Causes at present and begin with the Effects that we might have some sensible matter to work upon Bare Idea's of things are lookt upon as Romantick till Effects be propos'd whereof they are to give an account 'T is that makes us value the Causes when necessity puts us upon enquiry after them and the reasons of things are very acceptable when they ease the mind anxious and at a loss how to understand Nature without their help We will therefore without more ado premise those things that have been taken notice of as extraordinary and peculiar to the first Ages of the World and to Paradise and which neither do nor can obtain in the present Earth whereof the first is a perpetual Spring or Equinox The second the Long aevity of Animals and the third Their production out of the Earth and the great fertility of the soil in all other things These difficulties guard the way to Paradise like the flaming Sword and must be remov'd before we can enter these are general Preliminaries which we must explain before we proceed to enquire after the particular place of this Garden of Pleasure The Ancients have taken notice of all these in the first Ages of the World or in their Golden Age as they call it and I do not doubt but what they ascrib'd to the Golden Age was more remarkably true of Paradise yet was not so peculiar to it but that it did in a good measure extend to other parts of the Earth at that time And 't is manifest that their Golden Age was contemporary with our Paradise for they make it begin immediately after the production and inhabitation of the Earth which They as well as Moses raise from the Chaos and to degenerate by degrees till the Deluge when the World ended and begun again That this parallel may the better appear we may observe that as we say that the whole Earth was in some sence Paradisiacal in the first Ages of the World and that there was besides one Region or Portion of it that was peculiarly so and bore the denomination of Paradise So the Ancients besides their Golden Age which was common to all the Earth noted some parts of it that were more Golden if I may so say than the rest and which did more particularly answer to Paradise as their Elysian Fields Fortunate Islands Gardens of Hesperides Alcinous c. these had a double portion of pleasantness and besides the advantages which they had common with the rest of the Earth at that time had something proper and singular which gave them a distinct consideration and character from the rest Having made this observation let us proceed and see what Antiquity saith concerning that first and Paradisiacal state of things upon those three Heads forementioned First That there was a perpetual Spring and constant serenity of the Air This is often repeated by the Ancient Poets in their description of the Golden Age Non alios primâ crescentis origine mundi Illuxisse dies aliumve habuisse tenorem Crediderim Ver illud erat Ver magnus agebat Orbis hybernis parcebant flatibus Euri. Such days the new-born Earth enjoy'd of old And the calm Heavens in this same tenour rowl'd All the great World had then one constant Spring No cold East-winds such as our Winters bring For I interpret this in the same sence with Ovid's Verses of the Golden Age Ver erat Aeternum placidÃque tepentibus auris Mulcebant Zephyri natos sine semine flores The Spring was constant and soft Winds that blew Rais'd without Seed Flow'rs always sweet and new And then upon the expiration of the Golden Age He says Iupiter antiqui contraxit tempora Veris c. When Jove begun to reign he chang'd the Year And for one Spring four Seasons made appear The Ancients suppos'd that in the reign of Saturn who was an Ante-diluvian God as I may so call him Time flow'd with a more even motion and there was no diversity of Seasons in the Year but Iupiter they say first introduc'd that when he came to manage affairs This is exprest after their way who seldom give any severe and Philosophical accounts of the changes of Nature And as they suppos'd this perpetual Spring in the Golden Age so they did also in their particular Elysiums as I could shew largely from their Authors if it would not multiply Citations too much 'T is true their Elysiums respected the New Heavens and New Earth to come rather than the past but they are both fram'd upon the same model and have common properties The Christian Authors have no less celebrated the perpetual Spring and Serenity of the Heavens in Paradise such expressions or descriptions you will find in Iustin Martyr S. Basil Damascen Isidore Hispalensis and others insomuch that Bellarmine I remember reflecting upon those Characters of Paradise which many of the Fathers have given in these respects saith Such things could not be unless the Sun had then another course from what he hath now or which is more easie the Earth another situation
Which conjecture will hereafter appear to have been well-grounded In the mean time let us see the Christian Poetry upon this subject as we have seen the Roman upon the other Alcimus Avitus hath thus describ'd Paradise in his Notes upon Genesis Non hîc alterni succedit temporis unquam Bruma nec aestivi redeunt post frigora Soles Hîc Ver assiduum Coeli clementia servat Turbidus Auster abest sempérque sub aere sudo Nubila diffugiunt jugi cessura sereno Nec poscit Natura loci quos non habet imbres Sed contenta suo dotantur germina rore Perpetuò viret omne solum terraeque benignae Blanda nitet facies Stant semper collibus herbae Arboribúsque comae c. No change of Seasons or excess was there No Winter chill'd nor Summer scorch'd the Air But with a constant Spring Nature was fresh and fair Rough Winds or Rains that Region never knew Water'd with Rivers and the morning Dew The Heav'ns still clear the Fields still green and gay No Clouds above nor on the Earth decay Trees kept their leaves and verdure all the Year And Fruits were never out of Season there And as the Christian Authors so likewise the Iewish have spoken of Paradise in the same manner they tell us also that the days there were always of the same length throughout the whole Year and that made them fancy Paradise to lie under the Aequinoctial as we shall see in its due place 'T is true we do not find these things mention'd expresly in the Sacred Writings but the Effects that flow'd from them are recorded there and we may reasonably suppose providence to have foreseen that when those Effects came to be scan'd and narrowly lookt into they would lead us to a diâ—covery of the Causes and particularly of this great and general Cause that perpetual Aequinox and unity of seasons in the Year till the Deluge The Longaevity of the Ante-diluvians cannot be explain'd upon any other supposition as we shall have occasion to show hereafter and that you know is recorded carefully in Scripture As also that there was no Rainbow before the Flood which goes upon the same ground that there was no variety of Seasons nor any Rain And this by many is thought to be understood by Moses his words Gen. 2. 5 6. which he speaks of the first and Paradisiacal Earth Lastly Seeing the Earth then brought forth the principles of life and all living Creatures Man excepted according to Moses Gen. 1. 24. we must suppose that the state of the Heavens was such as favour'd these Conceptions and Births which could not possibly be brought to perfection as the Seasons of the Year are at present The first time that we have mention made in Scripture of Summer and Winter and the differences of Seasons is at the ending of the Deluge Gen. 8. 22. Hence forward all the days of the Earth Seed-time and Harvest Heat and Cold Summer and Winter Day and Night shall not cease 'T is true these words are so lax that they may be understood either of a new course of Nature then instituted or of an old one restor'd but seeing it doth appear from other arguments and considerations that there was at that time a new course of Nature constituted it is more reasonable to interpret the words in that sence which as it is agreeable to truth according to Reason and Antiquity so it renders that remark of Moses of far greater importance if it be understood as an indication of a new order then setled in Nature which should continue thenceforwards so long as the Earth endur'd Nor do I at all wonder that such things should not be expresly and positively declar'd in Scripture for Natural Mysteries in the Holy Writings as well as Prophetical are many times on set purpose incompleatly deliver'd so as to awaken and excite our thoughts rather than fully resolve them This being often more suitable to the designs of Providence in the government of the World But thus much for this first common or general Character of the Golden Age and of Paradise a perpetual Serenity and perpetual Aequinox The second Character is the Longaevity of Men and as is probable of all other Animals in proportion This methinks is as strange and surprising as the other and I know no difference betwixt the Ante-diluvian World and the present so apt to affect us if we reflect upon it as this wonderful disproportion in the Ages of Men Our fore-fathers and their Posterity They liv'd seven eight nine hundred Years and upwards and 't is a wonder now if a Man live to one hundred Our Oakes do not last so long as their Bodies did Stone and Iron would scarce out-wear them And this property of the first Ages or their Inhabitants how strange soever is well attested and beyond all exception having the joynt consent of Sacred and Profane History The Scripture sets down the precise Age of a sâ—ries of Ante diluvian Patriarchs and by that measures the time from the beginning of the World to the Deluge so as all Sacred Chronology stand upon that bottom Yet I know some have thought this so improbable and incongruous a thing that to save the credit of Moses and the Sacred History they interpret these years of Lunar years or months and so the Ages of these Patriarchs are reduc'd to much what the same measure with the common life of man at this time It may be observ'd in this as in many other instances that for want of a Theory to make things credible and intelligibile men of wit and parts have often deprest the sence of Scripture and that not out of any ill will to Scripture or Religion but because they could not otherwise upon the stock of their notions give themselves a rational account of things recorded there But I hope when we come to explain the Causes of this Longaevity we shall shew that it is altogethâ—r us strange a thing that Men should have such short lives as they have now as that they had such long lives in the first Ages of the World In the mean time there are a great many collateral reasons to assure us that Lunar years cannot be here understood by Moses for all Antiquity gives the same account of those first Ages of the World and of the first Men that they were extremely long-liv'd We meet with it generally in the description of the Golden Age and not only so but in their Topical Paradises also they always suppos'd a great vivacity or longaevity in those that enjoy'd them And Iosephus speaking upon this subject saith the Authors of all the learned Nations Greeks or Barbarians bear witness to Moses's doctrine in this particular And in the Mosaical History it self there are several circumstances and marks that discover plainly that the years of the Patriarchs cannot be understood of Lunar years as we shall have occasion to show in another place We proceed in the mean time
that is now the same vicissitude of seasons and the same inequality of heat and cold I do not think it at all possible that they could be so form'd or being new-form'd preserv'd and nourish'd 'T is true some little Creatures that are of short dispatch in their formation and find nourishment enough wheresoever they are brâ—d might be produc'd and brought to perfection in this way notwithstanding any inequality of Seasons because they are made all at a heat as I may so say begun and ended within the compass of one Season But the great question is concerning the more perfect kinds of Animals that require a long stay in the womb to make them capable to sustain and nourish themselves when they first come into the World Such Animals being big and strong must have a pretty hardness in their bones and force and firmness in their Muscles and Joynts before they can bear their own weight and exercise the common motions of their body And accordingly we see Nature hath ordain'd for these a longer time of gestation that their limbs and members might have time to acquire strength and solidity Besides the young ones of these Animals have commonly the milk of the Dam to nourish them after they are brought forth which is a very proper nourishment and like to that which they had before in the womb and by this means their stomachs are prepar'd by degrees for courser food Whereas our Terrigenous Animals must have been wean'd as soon as they were born or as soon as they were separated from their Mother the Earth and therefore must be allow'd a longer time of continuing there These things being consider'd we cannot in reason but suppose that these Terrigenous Animals were as long or longer a perfecting than our Viviparous and were not separated from the body of the Earth for ten twelve eighteen or more months according as their Nature was and seeing in this space of time they must have sufferâ—d upon the common Hypothesis all vicissitudes and variety of seasons and great excesses of heat and cold which are things incompatible with the tender principles of life and the formation of living Creatures as we have shown before we may reasonably and safely conclude that Nature had not when the World began the same course she hath now or that the Earth was not then in its present posture and constitution Seeing I say these first spontaneous Births which both the Holy Writ Reason and Antiquity seem to allow could not be finish'd and brought to maturity nor afterwards preserv'd and nourisht upon any other supposition Longaeviâ—y is the last Character to be consider'd and as inconsistent with the present state of the Earth as any other There are many things in the story of the first Ages that seem strange but nothing so prodigy-like as the long lives of those Men that their houses of Clay should stand eight or nine hundred years and upwards and those we build of the hardest Stone or Marble will not now last so long This hath excited the curiosity of ingenious and learned men in all Ages to enquire after the possible Causes of that longaveity and if it had been always in conjunction with innocency of life and manners and expir'd when that expir'd we might have thought it some peculiar blessing or reward attending that but 't was common to good and bad and lasted till the Deluge whereas mankind was degenerate long before Amongst Natural Causes some have imputed it to the sobriety and simplicity of their diet and manner of living in those days that they eat no flesh and had not all those provocations to gluttony which Wit and Vice have since invented This might have some effect but not possibly to that degree and measure that we speak of There are many Monastical persons now that live abstemiously all their lives and yet they think an hundred years a very great age amongst them Others have imputed it to the excellency of their Fruits and some unknown vertue in their Herbs and Plants in those days But they may as well say nothing as say that which can neither be prov'd nor understood It could not be either the quantity or quality of their food that was the cause of their long lives for the Earth was said to be curst long before the Deluge and probably by that time was more barren and juiceless for the generality than ours is now yet we do not see that their longaevity decreast at all from the beginning of the World to the Flood Methusalah was Noah's Grandfather but one intire remove from the Deluge and he liv'd longer than any of his Fore-fathers That food that will nourish the parts and keep us in health is also capable to keep us in long life if there be no impediments otherwise for to continue health is to continue life as that fewel that is fit to raise and nourish a flame will preserve it as long as you please if you add fresh fewel and no external causes hinder Neither do we observe that in those parts of the present Earth where people live longer than in others that there is any thing extraordinary in their food but that the difference is chiefly from the Air and the temperateness of the Heavens And if the Ante-diluvians had not enjoy'd that advantage in a peculiar manner and differently from what any parts of the Earth do now they would never have seen seven eight or nine hundred years go over their heads though they had been nourish'd with Nectar and Ambrosia Others have thought that the long lives of those Men of the old World proceeded from the strength of their Stamina or first principles of their bodies which if they were now as strong in us they think we should still live as long as they did This could not be the sole and adaequate cause of their longaevity as will appear both from History and Reason Shem who was born before the Flood and had in his body all the vertue of the Ante-diluvian Stamina and constitution fell three hundred years short of the age of his fore-fathers because the greatest part of his life was past after the Flood That their Stamina were stronger than ours are I am very ready to believe and that their bodies were greater and any race of strong Men living long in health would have children of a proportionably strong constitution with themselves but then the question is How was this interrupted We that are their posterity why do not we inherit their long lives how was this constitution broken at the Deluge and how did the Stamina fail so fast when that came why was there so great a Crisis then and turn of life or why was that the period of their strength We see this longaevity sunk half in half immediately after the Flood and after that it sunk by gentler degrees but was still in motion and declension till it was â—ixt at length before David's time in that which hath
Chanels of the other Hemisphere This indeed would in some measure answer the Notion which several of the Ancient Fathers make use of that the Rivers of Paradise were trajected out of the other Hemisphere into this by Subterraneous passages But I confess I could never see it possible how such a trajection could be made nor how they could have any motion being arriv'd in another Hemisphere and therefore I am apt to believe that doctrine amongst the Ancients arose from an intanglement in their principles They suppos'd generally that Paradise was in the other Hemisphere as we shall have occasion to show hereafter and yet they believ'd that Tigris Euphrates Nile and Gunges were the Rivers of Paradise or came out of it and these two opinions they could not reconcile or make out but by supposing that these four Rivers had their Fountain-heads in the other Hemisphere and by some wonderful trajection broke out again here This was the expedient they found out to make their opinions consistent one with another but this is a method to me altogether unconceivable and for my part I do not love to be led our of my depth leaning only upon Antiquity How there could be any such communication either above ground or under-ground betwixt the two Hemispheres does not appear and therefore we must still suppose the Torrid Zone to have been the Barrier betwixt them which nothing could pass either way We have now examin'd and determin'd the state of the Air and of the Waters in the Primitive Earth by the light and consequences of reason and we must not wonder to find them different from the present order of Nature what things are said of them or relating to them in Holy Writ do testifie or imply as much and it will be worth our time to make some reflection upon those passages for our further confirmation Moses tells us that the Rainbow was set in the Clouds after the Deluge those Heavens then that never had a Rain-bow before were certainly of a constitution very different from ours And S. Peter doth formally and expresly tell us that the Old Heavens or the Ante-diluvian Heavens had a different constitution from ours and particularly that they were compos'd or constituted of Water which Philosophy of the Apostle's may be easily understood if we attend to two things first that the Heavens he speaks of were not the Starry Heavens but the Aereal Heavens or the Regions of our Air where the Meteors are Secondly That there were no Meteors in those Regions or in those Heavens till the Deluge but watery Meteors and therefore he says they consisted of Water And this shows the foundation upon which that description is made how coherently the Apostle argues and answers the objection there propos'd how justly also he distinguisheth the first Heavens from the present Heavens or rather opposeth them one to another because as those were constituted of Water and watery Meteors only so the present Heavens he saith have treasures of Fire fiery Exhalations and Meteors and a disposition to become the Executioners of the Divine wrath and decrees in the final Conflagration of the Earth This minds me also of the Celestial Waters or the Waters above the Firmaments which Scripture sometimes mentions and which methinks cannot be explain'd so fitly and emphatically upon any supposition as this of ours Those who place them above the Starry Heavens seem neither to understand Astronomy nor Philosophy and on the other hand if nothing be understood by them but the Clouds and the middle Region of the Air as it is at present methinks that was no such eminent and remarkable thing as to deserve a particular commemoration by Moses in his six days work but if we understand them not as they are now but as they were then the only Source of Waters or the only Source of Waters upon that Earth for they had not one drop of Water but what was Celestial this gives it a new force and Emphasis Besides the whole middle Region having no other sort of Meteors but them That made it still the greater singularity and more worthy commemoration As for the Rivers of Paradise there is nothing said concerning their Source or their issue that is either contrary to this or that is not agreeable to the general account we have given of the Waters and Rivers of the first Earth They are not said to rise from any Mountain but from a great River or a kind of Lake in Eden according to the custom of the Rivers of that Earth And as for their end and issue Moses doth not say that they disburthen'd themselves into this or that Sea as they usually do in the description of great Rivers but rather implies that they spent themselves in compassing and watering certain Countries which falls in again very easily with our Hypothesis But I say this rather to comply with the opinions of others than of my own judgment For I think that suggestion about the Supercoelestial Waters made by Moses was not so much according to the strict nature and speciality of Causes as for the ease and profit of the People in their belief and acknowledgment of Providence for so great a benefit by what Causes soever it was brought to pass But to return to the Rainbow which we mention'd before and is not to be past over so slightly This we say is a Creature of the modern World and was not seen nor known before the Flood Moses Gen. 9. 12 13. plainly intimates as much or rather directly affirms it for he says The Bow was set in the Clouds after the Deluge as a confirmation of the promise or Covenant which God made with Noah that he would drown the World no more with Water And how could it be a sign of this or given as a pledge and confirmation of such a promise if it was in the Clouds before and with no regard to this promise and stood there it may be when the World was going to be drown'd This would have been but cold comfort to Noah to have had such a pledge of the Divine Veracity You 'll say it may be that it was not a sign or pledge that signified naturally but voluntarily only and by Divine Institution I am of opinion I confess that it signifi'd naturally and by connexion with the effect importing thus much that the state of Nature was chang'd from what it was before and so chang'd that the Earth was no more in a condition to perish by Water But however let us grant that it signified only by institution to make it significant in this sence it must be something new otherwise it could not signifie any new thing or be the confirmation of a new promise If God Almighty had said to Noah I make a promise to you and to all living Creatures that the World shall never be destroy'd by Water again and for confirmation of this Behold I set the Sun in the firmament Would this have been any
down to their own Philosophy and Notions As we have a great instance in that discourse of S. Peter's concerning the Deluge and the Ante-diluvian Heavens and Earth which for want of a Theory they have been scarce able to make sence of for they have forc'dly appli'd to the present Earth or the present form of the Earth what plainly respected another A like instance we have in the Mosaical Abyss or Tehom-Rabba by whose disruption the Deluge was made this they knew not well what to make of and so have generally interpreted it of the Sea or of our Subterraneous Waters without any propriety either as to the word or as to the sence A third instance is this of the Rainbow where their Philosophy hath misguided them again for to give them their due they do not alledge nor pretend to alledge any thing from the Text that should make them interpret thus or think the Rainbow was before the Flood but they pretend to go by certain reasons as that the Clouds were before the Flood therefore the Rainbow and if the Rainbow was not before the Flood then all things were not made within the six days Creation To whom these reasons are convictive they must be led into the same belief with them but not by any thing in the Text nor in the true Theory at least if ours be so for by that you see that the Vapours were never condens'd into drops nor into Rain in the temperate and inhabited Climates of that Earth and consequently there could never be the production or appearance of this Bow in the Clouds Thus much concerning the Rainbow To recollect our selves and conclude this Chapter and the whole disquisition concerning the Waters of the Primitive Earth we seem to have so well satisfied the difficulties propos'd in the beginning of the Chapter that they have rather given us an advantage a better discovery and such a new prospect of that Earth as makes it not only habitable but more fit to be Paradisical The pleasantness of the site of Paradise is made to consist chiefly in two things its Waters and its Trees Gen. 2. and Chap. 13. 10. Ezek. 31. 8. and considering the richness of that first soil in the Primitive Earth it could not but abound in Trees as it did in Rivers and Rivulets and be wooded like a Grove uss it was water'd like a Garden in the temperate Climates of it so as it would not be methinks so difficult to find one Paradise there as not to find more than one CHAP. VI. A Recollection and Review of what hath been said concerning the Primitive Earth with a more full Survey of the State of the first World Natural and Civil and the comparison of it with the present World WE have now in a good measure finish'd our description of the first and Ante-diluvian Earth And as Travellers when they see strange Countries make it part of their pleasure and improvement to compare them with their own to observe the differences and wherein they excel or come short of one another So it will not be unpleasant nor unuseful it may be having made a discovery not of a new Countrey but of a new World and travell'd it over in our thoughts and fancy now to sit down and compare it with our own and 't will be no hard task from the general differences which we have taken notice of already to observe what lesser would arise and what the whole face of Nature would be 'T is also one fruit of travelling that by seeing variety of places and people of humours fashions and forms of living it frees us by degrees from that pedantry and littleness of Spirit whereby we are apt to censure every thing for absurd and ridiculous that is not according to our own way and the mode of our own Country But if instead of crossing the Seas we could waft our selves over to our neighbouring Planets we should meet with such varieties there both in Nature and Mankind as would very much enlarge our thoughts and Souls and help to cure those diseases of little minds that make them troublesome to others as well as uneasie to themselves But seeing our heavy Bodies are not made for such Voyages the best and greatest thing we can do in this kind is to make a Survey and reflection upon the Ante-diluvian Earth which in some sence was another World from this and it may be as different as some two Planets are from one another We have declar'd already the general grounds upon which we must proceed and must now trace the consequences of them and drive them down into particulars which will shew us in most things wherein that Earth or that World differ'd from the present The form of that Earth and its situation to the Sun were two of its most fundamental differences from ours As to the form of it 't was all one smooth Continent one continued surface of Earth without any Sea any Mountains or Rocks any Holes Dens or Caverns And the situation of it to the Sun was such as made a perpetual Aequinox These two joyn'd together lay the foundation of a new Astronomy Meteorology Hydrography and Geography such as were proper and peculiar to that World The Earth by this means having its Axis parallel to the Axis of the Ecliptick the Heavens would appear in another posture and their diurnal motion which is imputed to the Primum Mobile and suppos'd to be upon the Poles of the Aequator would then be upon the same Poles with the second and Periodical motions of the Orbs and Planets namely upon the Poles of the Ecliptick by which means the Phaenomena of the Heavens would be more simple and regular and much of that intangledness and perplexity which we find now in Astronomy would be taken away Whether the Sun and Moon would suffer any Eclipses then cannot well be determin'd unless one knew what the course of the Moon was at that time or whether she was then come into our neighbourhood Her presence seems to have been less needful when there were no long Winter-nights nor the great Pool of the Sea to move or govern As for the Regions of the Air and the Meteors we have in the preceding Chapter set down what the state of them would be and in how much a better order and more peaceable that Kingdom was till the Earth was broken and displac'd and the course of Nature chang'd Nothing violent nothing frightful nothing troublesome or incommodious to Mankind came from above but the countenance of the Heavens was always smooth and serene I have often thought it a very desirable piece of power if a Man could but command a fair day when he had occasion for it for himself or for his friends 't is more than the greatest Prince or Potentate upon Earth can do yet they never wanted one in that World nor ever see a foul one Besides they had constant breezes from the motion of the Earth and the
be in whether of these Hemispheres was the Seat of Paradise To answer this only according to our Theory I confess I see no natural reason or occasion to place it in one Hemisphere more than in another I see no ground of difference or pre-eminence that one had above the other and I am apt to think that depended rather upon the will of God and the Series of Providence that was to follow in this Earth than upon any natural incapacity in one of these two Regions more than in the other for planting in it the Garden of God Neither doth Scripture determine with any certainty either Hemisphere for the place of it for when 't is said to be in Eden or to be the Garden of Eden 't is no more than the Garden of pleasure or delight as the word signifies And even the Septuagint who render this word Eden as a proper name twice Gen. 2. ver 8 10. do in the same story render it twice as a common name signifying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pleasure Chap. 2. 15. and Chap. 3. 24. and so they do accordingly render it in Ezekiel Chap. 31. 9. 16 18. where this Garden of Eden is spoken of again Some have thought that the word Mekiddim Gen. 2. 8. was to be render'd in the East or Eastward as we read it and therefore determin'd the site of Paradise but 't is only the Septuagint Translate it so all the other Greek Versions and S. Ierome the Vulgate the Chaldee Paraphrase and the Syriack render it from the beginning or in the beginning or to that effect And we that do not believe the Septuagint to have been infallible or inspir'd have no reason to prefer their single authority above all the rest Some also think the place of Paradise may be determin'd by the four Rivers that are named as belonging to it and the Countries they ran thorough but the names of those Rivers are to me uncertain and two of them altogether unintelligible Where are there four Rivers in our Continent that come from one Head as these are said to have done either at the entrance or issue of the Garden 'T is true if you admit our Hypothesis concerning the fraction and disruption of the Earth at the Deluge then we cannot expect to find Rivers now as they were before the general Source is chang'd and their Chanels are all broke up but if you do not admit such a dissolution of the Earth but suppose the Deluge to have been only like a standing Pool after it had once cover'd the surface of the Earth I do not see why it should make any great haveck or confusion in it and they that go that way are therefore the more oblig'd to show us still the Rivers of Paradise Several of the Ancients as we shall show hereafter suppos'd these four Rivers to have their Heads in the other Hemisphere and if so the Seat of Paradise might be there too But let them first agree amongst themselves concerning these Rivers and the Countries they run thorough and we will undertake to show that there cannot be any such in this Continent Seeing then neither the Theory doth determine nor Scripture where the place of Paradise was nor in whether Hemisphere we must appeal to Antiquity or the opinions of the Ancients for I know no other Guide but one of these three Scripture Reason and Ancient Tradition and where the two former are silent it seems very reasonable to consult the third And that our Inquiries may be comprehensive enough we will consider what the Iews what the Heathens and what the Christian Fathers have said or determin'd concerning the Seat of Paradise The Iews and Hebrew Doctors place it in neither Hemisphere but betwixt both under the Aequinoctial as you may see plainly in Abravanel Manasses Ben-Israel Maimonides Aben Ezra and others But the reason why they carried it no further than the Line is because they suppos'd it certain as Aben Ezra tells us that the days and nights were always equal in Paradise and they did not know how that could be unless it stood under the Aequinoctial But we have shown another method wherein that perpetual Aequinox came to pass and how it was common to all the parts and Climates of that Earth which if they had been aware of and that the Torrid Zone at that time was utterly uninhabitable having remov'd their Paradise thus far from home they would probably have remov'd it a little further into the temperate Climates of the other Hemisphere The Ancient Heathens Poets and Philosophers had the notion of Paradise or rather of several Paradises in the Earth and 't is remarkable that they plac'd them generally if not all of them out of this Continent in the Ocean or beyond it or in another Orb or Hemisphere The Garden of the Hesperides the Fortunate Islands the Elysian Fields Ogygia and Toprabane as it is describ'd by Diodorus Siculus with others such like which as they were all characteriz'd like so many Paradises so they were all feared out of our Continent by their Geography and descriptions of them Thus far Antiquity seems to incline to the other Hemisphere or to some place beyond the bounds of our Continent for the Seat of Paradise But that which we are most to depend upon in this affair is Christian Antiquity the Judgment and Tradition of the Fathers upon this Argument And we may safely say in the first place negatively that none of the Christian Fathers Latin or Greek ever plac'd Paradise in Mesopotamia that is a conceit and invention of some Modern Authors which hath been much encouraged of late because it gave Men ease and rest as to further inquiries in an argument they could not well manage Secondly We may affirm that none of the Christian Fathers have plac'd Paradise in any determinate Region of our Continent Asia Africk or Europe I have read of one or two Authors I think that fansied Paradise to have been at Ierusalem but 't was a meer fansie that no body regarded or pursu'd The controversie amongst the Fathers concerning Paradise was quite another thing from what it is now of late They disputed and controverted whether Paradise was Corporeal or Intellectual only and Allegorical This was the grand point amongst them Then of those that thought it Corporeal some plac'd it high in the Air some inaccessible by Desarts or Mountains and many beyond the Ocean or in another World And in these chiefly consisted the differences and diversity of opinions amongst them nor do we find that they nam'd any particular place or Country in the known parts of the Earth for the Seat of Paradise or that one contested for one spot of ground and another for another which is the vain temerity of modern Authors as if they could tell to an Acre of Land where Paradise stood or could set their foot upon the Centre of the Garden These have corrupted and misrepresented the notion of our Paradise just as
and of these no doubt there is great variety and great differences not only of Primary and Secondary or of the principal Planet and its Moons or Attendants but also amongst Planets of the same rank for they may differ both in their original constitution and according to the from and state they are under at present of which sort of differences we have noted some amongst our Planets though they seem to be all of much-what the same original constitution Besides according to external circumstances their distance manner of motion and posture to the Sun which is the Heart of the whole System they become different in many things And we may observe that those leading differences though they seem little draw after them innumerable others and so make a distinct face of Nature and a distinct World which still shows the riches and fecundity of Divine Providence and gives new matter of contemplation to those that take pleasure in studying the works and ways of God But leaving all other Planets or Planetary Systems to our meditations only we must particularly consider our own Having therefore made this general Survey of the great Universe run thorough the boundless Regions of it and with much ado found our way home to that little Planet where our concerns lie This Earth or Sublunary World we must rest here as at the end of our course And having undertaken to give the general Theory of this Earth to conclude the present Treatise we 'll reflect upon the whole work and observe what progress we have hitherto made in this Theory and what remains to be treated of hereafter This Earth though it be a small part or particle of the Universe hath a distinct System of Providence belonging to it or an Order establisht by the Author of Nature for all its Phaenomena Natural or Moral throughout the whole Period of its duration and every interval of it for as there is nothing so great as to be above the Divine care so neither is there any thing so little as to be below it All the Changes of our World are fixt How or how often to be destroy'd and how renew'd What different faces of Nature and what of Mankind in every part of its Course What new Scenes to adorn the Stage and what new parts to be acted What the Entrance and what the Consummation of all Neither is there any sort of knowledge more proper or of more importance to us that are the Inhabitants of this Earth than to understand this its Natural and Sacred History as I may so call it both as to what is past and what is to come And as those greater Volumes and Compositions of the Universe are proportion'd to the understanding of Angels and Superiour Beings so these little Systems are Compendium's of the Divine Wisdom more fitted to our capacity and comprehension The Providence of the Earth as of all other Systems consists of two parts Natural and Sacred or Theological I call that Sacred or Theological that respects Religion and the dispensations of it the government of the Rational World or of Mankind whether under the Light of Nature only or of a Revelation the method and terms of their happiness and unhappiness in a Future Life The State Oeconomy and Conduct of this with all the Mysteries contain'd in it we call Theological Providence in the head whereof stands the Soul of the Blessed Messiah who is Lord of both Worlds Intellectual and Material When we call the other part of Providence Natural we use that word in a restrain'd sence as respecting only the Material World and accordingly this part of Providence others and superintends the state of the Earth the great Vicissitudes and Mutations of it for we must not imagine but that these are under the Eye of Providence as well as Humane Affairs or any revolutions of States and Empires Now seeing both in the Intellectual and Corporeal World there are certain Periods Fulnesses of Time and fixt Seasons either for some great Catastrophe or some great Instauration 'T is Providence that makes a due harmony or Synchronism betwixt these two and measures out the concurrent fates of both Worlds so as Nature may be always a faithful minister of the Divine Pleasure whether for rewards or punishments according as the state of Mankind may require But Theological Providence not being the subject of this work we shall only observe as we said before what account we have hitherto given of the Natural state of the Earth and what remains to be handled in another Treatise and so conclude I did not think it necessary to carry the story and original of the Earth higher than the Chaos as Zoroaster and Orpheus seem to have done but taking that for our Foundation which Antiquity Sacred and Profane doth suppose and Natural Reason approve and confirm we have form'd the Earth from it But when we say the Earth rise from a Fluid Mass it is not to be so crudely understood as if a rock of Marble suppose was fluid immediately before it became Marble no Things had a gradual progression from one form to another and came at length to those more permanent forms they are now setled in Stone was once Earth and Earth was once Mud and Mud was once sluid And so other things may have another kind of progression from fluidity but all was once fluid at least all the exteriour Regions of this Earth And even those Stones and Rocks of Marble which we speak of seem to confess they were once soft or liquid by those mixtures we find in them of Heterogeneous Bodies and those spots and Veins disperst thorough their substance for these things could not happen to them after they were hard and impenetrable in the form of Stone or Marble And if we can soften Rocks and Stones and run them down into their first Liquors as these observations seem to do we may easily believe that other Bodies also that compose the Earth were once in a Fluid Mass which is that we call a Chaos We therefore watch'd the motions of that Chaos and the several transformations of it while it continued Fluid and we found at length what its first Concretion would be and how it setled into the form of an habitable Earth But that form was very different from the present form of the Earth which is not immediately deducible from a Chaos by any known Laws of Nature or by any Wit of Man as every one that will have patience to examine it may easily be satisfied That First Earth was of a smooth regular surface as the Concretions of Liquors are before they are disturb'd or broken under that surface lay the Great Abyss which was ready to swallow up the World that hung over it and about it whensoever God should give the command and the Vault should break and this constitution of the Primaeval Earth gave occasion to the first Catastrophe of this World when it perisht in a Deluge of Water For
that Vault did break as we have shown at large and by the dissolution and fall of it the Great Deep was thrown out of its bed forc'd upwards into the Air and overflow'd in that impetuous Commotion the highest tops of the Fragments of the ruin'd Earth which now we call its Mountains And as this was the first great and fatal Period of Nature so upon the issue of this and the return of the Waters into their Chanels the second face of Nature appear'd or the present broken form of the Earth as it is Terraqueous Mountainous and Cavernous These things we have explain'd fully in the First Book and have thereby setled two great Points given a rational account of the Universal Deluge and shown the Causes of the irregular form of the present or Post-diluvian Earth This being done we have apply'd our selves in the Second Book to the description of the Primaeval Earth and the examination of its properties and this hath led us by an easie tract to the discovery of Paradise and of the true Notion and Mystery of it which is not so much a spot of ground where a fine Garden stood as a course of Nature or a peculiar state of the Earth Paradisiacal in many parts but especially in one Region of it which place or Region we have also endeavour'd to determine though not so much from the Theory as from the suffrages of Antiquity if you will take their judgment THUS much is finisht and this contains the Natural Theory of the Earth till this present time for since the Deluge all things have continued in the same state or without any remarkable change We are next to enter upon new Matter and new Thoughts and not only so but upon a Series of Things and Times to come which is to make the Second Part of this Theory Dividing the duration of the World into two parts Past and Future we have dispatch'd the first and far greater part and come better half of our way And if we make a stand here and look both ways backwards to the Chaos and the beginning of the World and forwards to the End and Consummation of all Things though the first be a longer prospect yet there are as many general Changes and Revolutions of Nature in the remaining part as have already happen'd and in the Evening of this long Day the Scenes will change faster and be more bright and illustrious From the Creation to this Age the Earth hath undergone but one Catastrophe and Nature hath had two different faces The next Catastrophe is the CONFLAGRATION to which a new face of Nature will accordingly succeed New Heavens and a New Earth Paradise renew'd and so it is call'd the Restitution of things or Regeneration of the World And that Period of Nature and Providence being expir'd then follows the Consummation of all things or the General Apotheosts when Death and Hell shall be swallowed up in victory When the great Circle of Time and Fate is run or according to the language of Scripture When the Heavens and the Earth shall pass away and Time shall be no more MAY we in the mean time by a true Love of God above all things and a contempt of this Vain World which passeth away By a careful use of the Gifts of God and Nature the Light of Reason and Revelation prepare our selves and the state of things for the great Coming of our Saviour To whom be Praise and Honour for evermore FINIS THE THEORY OF THE EARTH Containing an Account OF THE Original of the Earth AND OF ALL THE GENERAL CHANGES Which it hath already undergone OR IS TO UNDERGO Till the CONSUMMATION of all Things THE TWO LAST BOOKS Concerning the BURNING of the WORLD AND Concerning the NEW HEAVENS and NEW EARTH LONDON Printed by R. N. for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's-Head in S. Paul's Church-Yard 1697. TO THE QUEEN'S MOST Excellent Majesty MADAM HAVING had the honour to present the first part of this Theory to Your ROYAL UNCLE I presume to offer the Second to Your Majesty This part of the Subject I hope will be no less acceptable for certainly 't is of no less importance They both indeed agree in this That there is a WORLD made and destroy'd in either Treatise But we are more concern'd in what is to come than what is past And as the former Books represented to us the Rise and Fall of the First World so These give an account of the present Frame of Nature labouring under the last Flames and of the Resurrection of it in the New Heavens and New Earth which according to the Divine Promises we are to expect Cities that are burnt are commonly rebuilt more beautiful and regular than they were before And when this World is demolish'd by the last Fire He that undertakes to rear it up again will supply the defects if there were any of the former Fabrick This Theory supposes the present Earth to be little better than an Heap of Ruines where yet there is room enough for Sea and Land for Islands and Continents for several Countries and Dominions But when these are all melted down and refin'd in the general Fire they will be cast into a better mould and the Form and Qualities of the Earth will become Paradisiâ—cal But I fear it may be thought no very proper address to shew Your Majesty a World laid in ashes where You have so great an interest Your Self and Such fair Dominions and then to recompence the loss by giving a Reversion in a Future Earth But if that future Earth be a second Paradise to be enjoyed for a Thousand Years with Peace Innocency and constant health An Inheritance there will be an happy exchange for the best Crown in this World I confess I could never perswade my self that the Kingdom of Christ and of his Saints which the Scripture speaks of so frequently was design'd to be upon this present Earth But however upon all suppositions They that have done some eminent Good in this Life will be sharers in the happiness of that State To humble the Oppressors and rescue the Oppressed is a work of Generosity and Charity that cannot want its reward Yet MADAM They are the greatest Benefactors to Mankind that dispose the World to become Vertuous and by their example Influence and Authority retrieve that TRUTH and JUSTICE that have been lost amongst men for many Ages The School-Divines tell us Those that act or suffer great things for the Publick Good are distinguish'd in Heaven by a Circle of Gold about their Heads One would not willingly vouch for that but one may safely for what the Prophet says which is far greater namely that They shall shine like Stars in the Firmament that turn many to Righteousness Which is not to be understood so much of the Conversion of single Souls as of the turning of Nations and People the turning of the World to Righteousness They that lead on that great and happy Work
II. The Birth of the New Heavens and the New Earth from the second Chaos or the remains of the Old World The form order and qualities of the New Earth according to Reason and Scripture CHAP. III. Concerning the Inhabitants of the New Earth That natural reason cannot determine this point That according to Scripture The Sons of the first Resurrection or the heirs of the Millennium are to be the Inhabitants of the New Earth The Testimony of the Philosophers and of the Christian Fathers for the Renovation of the World The first Proposition laid down CHAP. IV. The Proof of a Millennium or of a blessed Age to come from Scripture A view of the Apocalypse and of the Prophecies of Daniel in reference to this Kingdom of Christ and of his Saints CHAP. V. A view of other places of Scripture concerning the Millennium or future Kingdom of Christ. In what sence all the Prophets have born Testimony concerning it CHAP. VI. The sence and testimony of the Primitive Church concerning the Millennium or future Kingdom of Christ from the times of the Apostles to the Nicene Council The second Proposition laid down When by what means and for what reasons that doctrine was afterwards neglected or discountenanc'd CHAP. VII The true state of the Millennium according to Characters taken from Scripture Some mistakes concerning it rectified CHAP. VIII The Third Proposition laid down concerning the Time and Place of the Millennium Several arguments us'd to prove that it cannot be till after the Conflagration and that the New Heavens and New Earth are the true Seat of the Blessed Millennium CHAP. IX The chief employment of the Millennium DEVOTION and CONTEMPLATION CHAP. X. Objections against the Millenniâ—m answer'd With some conjectures concerning the state of things after the Millennium and what will be the final Consummation of this World The Review of the whole Theory THE THEORY OF THE EARTH BOOK III. Concerning the Conflagration CHAP. I. The Introduction With the Contents and Order of this Work SEEING Providence hath planted in all Men a natural desire and curiosity of knowing things to come and such things especially as concern our particular Happiness or the general Fate of Mankind This Treatise may in both respects hope for a favourable reception amongst inquisitive persons seeing the design of it is to give an account of the greatest revolutions of Nature that are expected in future Ages and in the first place of the Conflagration of the World In which Universal Calamity when all Nature suffers every Man 's particular concern must needs be involv'd We see with what eagerness Men pry into the Stars to see if they can read there the Death of a King or the fall of an Empire 'T is not the fate of any single Prince or Potentate that we Calculate but of all Mankind Nor of this or that particular Kingdom or Empire but of the whole Earth Our enquiries must reach to that great period of Nature when all things are to be dissolv'd both humane affairs and the Stage whereon they are acted When the Heavens and the Earth will pass away and the Elements melt with fervent heat We desire if possible to know what will be the face of that Day that great and terrible Day when the Regions of the Air will be nothing but mingled Flame and Smoak and the habitable Earth turn'd into a Sea of molten Fire But we must not leave the World in this disorder and confusion without examining what will be the Issue and consequences of it Whether this will be the End of all Things and Nature by a sad fate lie eternally dissolv'd and desolate in this manner or whether we may hope for a Restauration New Heavens and a New Earth which the Holy Writings make mention of more pure and perfect than the former As if this was but as a Refiner's fire to purge out the dross and courser parts and then cast the Mass again into a new and better Mould These things with God's assistance shall be mattâ—r of our preâ—ent enquiry These make the genâ—ral â—â—bject of thiâ— Treatise and of the remaining parts of this Theory of â—he Earth Which now you see begins to be a kind of Prophecy or Prognostication of things to come as it hath been hitherto an History of things pass'd of such states and changes as Nature hath already undergone And if that account which we have given of the Origin of the Earth its first and Paradisiacal form and the dissolution of it at the Universal Deluge appear fair and reasonable The second dissolution by Fire and the renovation of it out of a Second Chaos I hope will be deduc'd from as clear grounds and suppositions And Scripture it self will be a more visible Guide to us in these following parts of the Theory than it was in the former In the mean time I take occasion to declare here again as I have done heretofore that neither this nor any other great revolutions of Nature are brought to pass by Causes purely Natural without the conduct of a particular Providence And 't is the Sacred Books of Scripture that are the records of this Providence both as to times past and times to come as to all the signal Changes either of the Natural World or of Mankind and the different Oeconomies of Religion In which respects these Books tho' they did not contain a Moral Law would notwithstanding be as the most mystical so also the most valuable Books in the World This Treatise you see will consist of Two Parts The former whereof is to give an account of the Conflagration and the latter of the New Heavens and New Earth following upon it together with the state of Mankind in those New Habitations As to the Conflagration we first enquire what the Antients thought concerning the present frame of this World whether it was to perish or no whether to be destroyed or to stand eternally in this posture Then in what manner they thought it would be destroy'd by what force or violence whether by Fire or other ways And with these opinions of the Antients we will compare the doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles to discover and confirm the truth of them In the second place We will examine what Calculations or Conjectures have been made concerning the time of this great Catastrophe or of the end of this World Whether that period be defineable or no and whether by Natural Arguments or by Prophecies Thirdly We will consider the Signs of the approaching Conflagration Whether such as will be in Nature or in the state of Humane Affairs but especially such as are taken notice of and recorded in Scripture Fourthly Which is the principal point and yet that wherein the Ancients have been most silent What Causes there are in Nature what preparations for this Conflagration Where are the Seeds of this Universal Fire or fewel sufficient for the nourishing of it Lastly In what order and by what degrees the Conflagration will
rais'd up amongst them for that purpose may convince them that he is the true Messiah and convert them to the Christian Faith which will be no more strange than was the first Conversion of the Gentile World But if we be content with a Conversion of the Iews without their restoration and of those Two Tribes only which are now disperst throughout the Christian World and other known parts of the Earth That these should be Converted to the Christian Faith and incorporated into the Christian Commonwealth losing their national character and distinction If this I say will satisfie the Prophecies it is not a thing very difficult to be conceived For when the World is reduc'd to a better and purer state of Christianity and that Idolatry in a great measure remov'd which gave the greatest scandal to the Iews they will begin to have better thoughts of our Religion and be dispos'd to a more ingenuous and unprejudic'd examination of their Prophecies concerning the Messiah God raising up men amongst them of divine and enlarged Spirits Lovers of Truth more than of any particular Sect or Opinion with light to discern it and courage to profess it Lastly it will be a cogent argument upon them to see the Age of the World so far spent and no appearance yet of their long expected Messiah So far spent I say that there is no room left upon any computation whatsoever for the Oeconomy of a Messiah yet to come This will make them reflect more carefully and impartially upon him whom the Christians propose Iesus of Nazareth whom their Fathers Crucified at Ierusalem Upon the Miracles he wrought in his life and after his death and upon the wonderful propagation of his Doctrine throughout the World after his Ascension And lastly upon the desolation of Ierusalem upon their own scatter'd and forlorn condition foretold by that Prophet as a judgment of God upon an ungrateful and wicked People This I have said to state the case of the Conversion of the Iews which will be a sign of the approaching reign of Christ. But alas what appearance is there of this Conversion in our days or what judgment can we make from a sign that is not yet come to pass 'T is ineffectual as to us but may be of use to posterity Yet even to them it will not determine at what distance they are from the end of the World but be a mark only that they are not far from it There will be Signs also in those last days in the Heavens and in the Earth and in the Sea forerunners of the Conflagration as the obscuration of the Sun and Moon Earth-quakes roarings of the troubled Sea and such like disorders in the natural World 'T is true but these are the very pangs of death and the strugglings of Nature just before her dissolution and it will be too late then to be aware of our ruine when it is at the door Yet these being Signs or Prodigies taken notice of by Scripture we intend God willing after we have explained the causes and manner of the Conflagration to give an account also whence these unnatural commotions will proceed that are the beginnings or immediate introductions to the last Fire Thus we have gone through the Prophecies and Signs that concern the last day and the last fate of the World And how little have we learned from them as to the time of that great revolution Prophecies rise sometimes with an even gradual light as the day riseth upon the Horizon and sometimes break out suddenly like a fire and we are not aware of their approach till we see them accomplish'd Those that concern the end of the World are of this latter sort to unobserving men but even to the most observing there will still be a latitude We must not expect to calculate the coming of our Saviour like an Eclipse to minutes and half-minutes There are Times and Seasons which the Father hath put in his own power If it was designed to keep these things secret we must not think to out-wit Providence and from the Prophecies that are given us pick out a discovery that was not intended we should ever make It is determin'd in the Councils of Heaven just how far we shall know these events before hand and with what degree of certainty and with this we must be content whatsoever it is The Apocalypse of S. Iohn is the last Prophetical declaration of the Will of God and contains the fate of the Christian Religion to the end of the World its purity degeneracy and reviviscency The head of this degeneracy is call'd The Beast the false Prophet the Whore of Babylon in Prophetical terms and in an Ecclesiastical term is commonly call'd Antichrist Those that bear Testimony against this degeneracy are call'd the Witnesses who after they have been a long time in a mean and persecuted condition are to have their Resurrection and Ascension that is be advanc'd to power and Authority And this Resurrection of the Witnesses and depression of Antichrist is that which will make the great turn of the World to righteousness and the great Crisis whereby we may judge of its drawing to an end 'T is true there are other marks as the passing away of the Second Woe which is commonly thought to be the Ottoman Empire and the Effusion of the Vials The first of these will be indeed a very conspicuous mark if it follow upon the Resurrection of the Witnesses as by the Prophecy it seems to do But as to the Vials tho' they do plainly reach in a Series to the end of the World I am not satisfied with any exposition I have yet met with concerning their precise time on contents In a word ' Tho the sum and general contents of a Prophecy be very intelligible yet the application of it to Time and Persons may be very lubricous There must be obscurity in a Prophecy as well as shadow in a Picture All its lines must not stand in a full light For if Prophecies were open and bare-fac'd as to all their parts and circumstances they would check and obstruct the course of humane affairs and hinder if it was possible their own accomplishment Modesty and Sobriety are in all things commendable but in nothing more than in the explication of these Sacred Mysteries and we have seen so many miscarry by a too close and particular application of them that we ought to dread the Rock about which we see so many shipwrecks He that does not err above a Century in calculation the last period of Time from what evidence we have at present hath in my opinion cast up his accounts very well But the Scenes will change fast towards the Evening of this long day and when the Sun is near setting they will more easily compute how far he hath to run CHAP. VI. Concerning the Causes of the Conflagration The difficulty of conceiving how this Earth can be set on fire With a general
answer to that difficulty Two suppos'd causes of the Conflagration by the Sun 's drawing nearer to the Earth or the Earth's throwing out the central fire examin'd and rejected WE have now made our way clear to the principal point The Causes of the Conflagration How the Heavens and the Earth will be set on fire what materials are prepar'd or what train of Causes for that purpose The Ancients who have kept us company pretty well thus far here quite desert us They deal more in Conclusions than Causes as is usual in all Traditional Learning And the Stoicks themselves who inculcate so much the doctrine of the Conflagration and make the strength of it such as to dissolve the Earth into a fiery Chaos are yet very short and superficial in their explications how this shall come to pass The latent seeds of fire they say shall every where be let loose and the Element will prevail over all the rest and transform every thing into its own nature But these are general things that give little satisfaction to inquisitive Persons Neither do the modern Authors that treat of the same subject relieve us in this particular They are willing to suppose the Conflagration a superficial effect that so they may excuse themselves the trouble of enquiring after causes 'T is no doubt in a sort supernatural and so the Deluge was yet Moses sets down the Causes of the Deluge the rains from above and the disruption of the Abyss So there must be treasures of fire provided against that day by whose eruption this second Deluge will be brought upon the Earth To state the case fairly we must first represent the difficulty of setting the Earth on Fire Tie the knot before we loose it that so we may the better judge whether the Causes that shall be brought into view may be sufficient to overcome so great opposition The difficulty no doubt will be chiefly from the great quantity of Water that is about our Globe whereby Nature seems to have made provision against any invasion by Fire and secur'd us from that enemy more than any other We see half of the Surface of the Earth cover'd with the Seas whose Chanel is of a vast depth and capacity Besides innumerable Rivers great and small that water the face of the dry Land and drench it with perpetual moisture Then within the bowels of the Earth there are Store-houses of subterraneous Waters which are as a reserve in case the Ocean and the Rivers should be overcome Neither is Water our only security for the hard Rocks and stony Mountains which no Fire can bite upon are set in long ranges upon the Continents and Islands and must needs give a stop to the progress of that furious Enemy in case he should attack us Lastly The Earth it self is not combustible in all its parts 'T is not every Soyl that is fit fewel for the Fire Clay and Mire and such like Soyls will rather choak and stifle it than help it on its way By these means one would think the Body of the Earth secur'd and tho' there may be partial fires or inuâ—â—lations of fire here and there in particular regions yet there cannot be an Universal Fire throughout the Earth At least one would hope for a safe retreat towards the Poles where there is nothing but Snow and Ice and bitter cold These regions sure are in no danger to be burnt whatsoever becomes of the other climates of the Earth This being the state and condition of the present Earth one would not imagine by these preparations 't was ever intended that it should perish by an Universal Fire But such is often the method of Providence that the exteriour face of things looks one way and the design lies another till at length touching a Spring as it were at a certain time all those affairs change posture and aspect and shew us which way Providence inclines We must therefore suppose before the Conflagration begins there will be dispositions and preparatives suitable to so great a work and all antiquity sacred and prophane does so far concur with us as to admit and suppose that a great drought will precede and an extraordinary heat and driness of the Air to usher in this fiery doom And these being things which often happen in a course of Nature we cannot disallow such easie preparations when Providence intends so great a consequence The Heavens will be shut up and the Clouds yield no rain and by this with an immoderate heat in the Air the Springs of Water will become dry the Earth chap'd and parch'd and the Woods and Trees made ready fewel for the Fire We have instances in History that there have been droughts and heats of this Nature to that degree that the Woods and Forests have taken fire and the outward Turf and Surface of the Earth without any other cause than the driness of the Season and the vehemency of the Sun And which is more considerable the Springs and Fountains being dry'd up the greater Rivers have been sensibly lessen'd and the lesser quite emptied and exhal'd These things which happen frequently in particular Countreys and Climates may at an appointed time by the disposition of Providence be more universal throughout the Earth and have the same effects every where that we see by experience they have had in certain places And by this means we may conceive it as feisible to set the whole Earth on fire in some little space of time as to burn up this or that Countrey after a great drought But I mean this with exception still to the main Body of the Sea which will indeed receive a greater diminution from these Causes than we easily imagine but the final consumption of it will depend upon other reasons whereof we must give an account in the following Chapters As to the Mountains and Rocks their lofty heads will sink when the Earthquakes begin to roar at the beginning of the Conflagration as we shall see hereafter And as to the Earth it self 't is true there are several sorts of Earth that are not proper fewel for fire but those Soils that are not so immediately as clayey Soils and such like may by the strength of Fire be converted into Brick or Stone or Earthen Metal and so melted down and vitrified For in conclusion there is no Terrestrial Body that does not finally yield to the force of Fire and may either be converted into flame incorporated fire or into a liquor more ardent than either of them Lastly As to the Polar Regions which you think will be a safe retreat and inaccessible to the fire 'T is true unless Providence hath laid subterraneous treasures of fire there unknown to us those parts of the Earth will be the last consum'd But it is to be observ'd that the cold of those regions proceeds from the length of their Winter and their distance from the Sun when he is beyond the Aequator and both these causes will be
remov'd at the Conflagration For we suppose the Earth will then return to its primitive situation which we have explain'd in the 2d Book of this Theory and will have the Sun always in its Aequator whereby the several Climates of the Earth will have a perpetual Equinox and those under the Poles a perpetual day And therefore all the excess of cold and all the consequences of it will soon be abated However the Earth will not be burnt in one day and those parts of the Earth being uninhabited there is no inconvenience that they should be more slowly consum'd than the rest This is a general answer to the difficulty propos'd about the possibility of the Conflagration and being general only the parts of it must be more fully explain'd and confirm'd in the sequel of this discourse We should now proceed directly to the causes of the Conflagration and show in what manner they do this great execution upon Nature But to be just and impartial in this enquiry we ought first to separate the spurious and pretended Causes from those that are real and genuine to make no false musters nor any show of being stronger than we are and if we can do our work with less force it will be more to our credit as a Victory is more honourable that is gain'd with fewer Men. There are two grand capital Causes which some Authors make use of as the chief Agents in this work the Sun and the Central Fire These two great Incendiaries they say will be let loose upon us at the Conflagration The one drawing nearer to the Earth and the other breaking out of its bowels into these upper regions These are potent Causes indeed more than enough to destroy this Earth if it was a thousand times bigger than it is But for that very reason I suspect they are not the true Causes for God and Nature do not use to employ unnecessary means to bring about their designs Disproportion and over-sufficiency is one sort of false measures and 't is a sign we do not thoroughly understand our work when we put more strength to it than the thing requires Men are forward to call in extraordinary powers to rid their hands of a troublesome argument and so make a short dispatch to save themselves the pains of further enquiries but such methods as they commonly have no proof so they give little satisfaction to an inquisitive mind This supposition of burning the Earth by the Sun drawing nearer and nearer to it seems to be made in imitation of the story of Phaeton who driving the Chariot of the Sun with an unsteddy hand came so near the Earth that he set it on fire But however we will not reject any pretensions without a fair trial Let us examine therefore what grounds they can have for either of these suppositions of the Approximation of the Sun to the Earth or the Eruption of the Central Fire As to the Sun I desire first to be satisfied in present matter of Fact whether by any instrument or observation it hath or can be discover'd that the Sun is nearer to the Earth now than he was in former ages or if by any reasoning or comparing calculations such a conclusion can be made If not this is but an imaginary cause and as easily deny'd as propos'd Astronomers do very little agree in their opinions about the distance of the Sun Ptolomy Albategnius Copernious Ticho Kepler and others more modern differ all in their calculations but not in such a manner or proportion as should make us believe that the Sun comes nearer to the Earth but rather goes further from it For the more modern of them make the distance greater than the more ancient do Kepler says the distance of the Sun from the Earth lies betwixt 700 and 2000 semidiameters of the Earth but Ricciolus makes it betwixt 700 and 7000. And Gottefrid Wendeline hath taken 14656. semidiameters for a middle proportion of the Sun's distance to which Kepler himself came very near in his later years So that you see how groundless our fears are from the approaches of an enemy that rather flies from us if he change posture at all And we have more reason to believe the report of the modern Astronomers than of the ancient in this matter both because the nature of the Heavens and of the celestial Bodies is now better known and also because they have found out better instruments and better methods to make their observations If the Sun and Earth were come nearer to one another either the circle of the Suns diurnal arch would be less and so the day shorter or the Orbit of the Earths annual course would be less and so the Year shorâ—er Neither of which we have any experience of And those that suppose us in the centre of the World need not be afraid till they see Mercury and Venus in a combustion for they lie betwixt us and danger and the Sun cannot come so readily at us with his fiery darts as at them who stand in his way Lastly this languishing death by the gradual approaches of the Sun and that irreparable ruine of the Earth which at last must follow from it do neither of them agree with that Idea of the Conflagration which the Scripture hath given us for it is to come suddenly and unexpectedly and take us off like a violent Feaver not as a lingring Consumption And the Earth is also so to be destroyed by Fire as not to take away all hopes of a Resurrection or Renovation For we are assur'd by Scripture that there will be new Heavens and a new Earth after these are burnt up But if the Sun should come so near us as to make the heavens pass away with a noise and melt the Elements with fervent heat and destroy the form and all the works of the Earth what hopes or possibility would there be of a Renovation while the Sun continued in this posture He would more and more consume and prey upon the Carcass of the Earth and convert it at length either into an heap of Ashes or a lump of vitrified metal So much for the Sun As to the Central Fire I am very well satisfied it is no imaginary thing All Antiquity hath preserv'd some sacred Monument of it The Vestal fire of the Romans which was so religiously attended The Prytoneia of the Greeks were to the same purpose and dedicated to Vesta and the Pyretheia of the Persians where fire was kept continually by the Magi. These all in my opinion had the same origine and the same signification And tho' I do not know any particular observation that does directly prove or demonstrate that there is such a mass of fire in the middle of the Earth yet the best accounts we have of the generation of a Planet do suppose it and 't is agreeable to the whole Oeconomy of Nature as a fire in the heart which gives life to her motions and productions But however the
Fiery Mountains burst out and discharge themselves in flames of fire tear up the roots of the Earth throw hot burning stones send out streams of flowing Metals and Minerals and all other sorts of ardent matter which Nature hath lodg'd in those Treasuries If all these Engines I say were to play at once the Heavens and the Earth would seem to be in a flame and the World in an universal combustion But we may reasonably presume that against that great Day of vengeance and execution not only all these will be employ'd but also new Volcano's will be open'd and new Mountains in every Region will break out into smoke and flame just as at the Deluge the Abyss broke out from the Womb of the Earth and from those hidden stores sent an immense quantity of water which it may be the Inhabitants of that World never thought of before So we must expect new Eruptions and also new sulphureous Lakes and Fountains of Oyl to boyl out of the ground And these all united with that Fewel that naturally grows upon the Surface of the Earth will be sufficient to give the first onset and to lay wast all the habitable World and the Furniture of it But we suppose the Conflagration will go lower pierce under-ground and dissolve the substance of the Earth to some considerable depth therefore besides these outward and visible preparations we must consider all the hidden invisible Materials within the Veins of the Earth Such are all Minerals or Mineral juices and concretions that are igniferous or capable of inflammation And these cannot easily be reckon'd up or estimated Some of the most common are Sulphur and all sulphureous bodies and Earths impregnated with Sulphur Bitumen and bituminous concretions inflammable Salts Coal and other fossiles that are ardent with innumerable mixtures and compositions of these kinds which being open'd by heat are unctuous and inflammable or by attrition discover the latent seeds of fire But besides consistent Bodies there is also much volatile fire within the Earth in fumes steams and exudations which will all contribute to this effect From these stores under-ground all Plants and Vegetables are fed and supply'd as to their oily and sulphureous parts And all hot Waters in Baths or Fountains must have their original from some of these some mixture or participation of them And as to the British Soyl there is so much Coal incorporated with it that when the Earth shall burn we have reason to apprehend no small danger from that subterraneous Enemy These dispositions and this Fewel we find in and upon the Earth towards the last Fire The third sort of Provision is in the Air All fiery Meteors and Exhalations engender'd and form'd in those Regions above and discharg'd upon the Earth in several ways I believe there were no fiery Meteors in the ante-diluvian Heavens which therefore St. Peter says were constituted of water had nothing in them but what was watery But he says the Heavens that are now have treasures of fire or are reserv'd for fire as things laid up in a store house for that purpose We have thunder and lightning and fiery tempests and there is nothing more vehement impetuous and irresistible where their force is directed It seems to me very remarkable that the Holy Writers describe the coming of the Lord and the destruction of the wicked in the nature of a tempest or a storm of fire Upon the wicked the Lord shall rain coals fire and brimstone and a burning tempest this shall be the portion of their cup. And in the lofty Song of David Psal. 18. which in my judgment respects both the past Deluge and the future Conflagration 't is said The Lord also thundred in the heavens and the Highest gave his voice hailstones and coals of fire Yea he sent forth his arrows and scattered them and he shot out lightnings and discomfited them Then the Chanels of waters were seen and the foundations of the World were discover'd at thy rebuke O Lord at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils And a like fiery coming is describ'd in the ninety seventh Psalm as also by Isaiah Daniel and S. Paul And lastly in the Apocalypse when the World draws to a conclusion as in the seventh Trumpet ch 11. 19. and the seventh Vial ch 16. 18. we have still mention made of this Fiery Tempest of Lightnings and Thunderings We may therefore reasonably suppose that before the Conflagration the Air will be surcharg'd every where by a precedent drought with hot and fiery exhalations And as against the Deluge those regions were burthened with water and moist vapours which were pour'd upon the Earth not in gentle showres but like rivers and cataracts from Heaven so they will now be fill'd with hot fumes and sulphureous clouds which will sometimes flow in streams and fiery impressions throgh the Air sometimes make Thunder and Lightnings and sometimes fall down upon the Earth in flouds of Fire In general there is a great analogy to be observed betwixt the two Deluges of Water and of Fire not only as to the bounds of them which were noted before but as to the general causes and sources upon which they depend from above and from below At the Floud the Windows of Heaven were opened above and the Abyss was opened below and the Waters of these two joyn'd together to overflow the World In like manner at the Conflagration God will rain down Fire from Heaven as he did once upon Sodom and at the same time the subterraneous store-houses of Fire will be broken open which answers to the disruption of the Abyss And these two meeting and mingling together will involve all the Heaven and Earth in flames This is a short account of the ordinary stores of Nature and the ordinary preparations for a general Fire And in contemplation of these Pliny the Naturalist said boldly It was one of the greatest wonders of the World that the World was not every day set on fire We will conclude this Chapter with his words in the second Book of his Natural History having given an account of some fiery Mountains and other parts of the Earth that are the seats and sources of Fire He makes this reflection Seeing this Element is so fruitful that it brings forth it self and multiplies and encreases from the least sparks what are we to expect from so many fires already kindled on the Earth How does nature feed and satisfie so devouring an Element and such a great voracity throughout all the World without loss or diminution of her self Add to these fires we have mentioned the Stars and the Great Sun then all the fires made for humane uses fire in stones in wood in the clouds and in thunder IT EXCEEDS ALL MIRACLES IN MY OPINION THAT ONE DAY SHOULD PASS WITHOUT SETTING THE WORLD ALL ON FIRE CHAP. VIII Some new dispositions towards the Conflagration as to the matter form and situation of the Earth
This may be encreas'd and strengthned and its effects convey'd throughout the whole Body of the Earth But if an augmentation is to be made of Terrestrial Fire or of such terrestrial principles as contain it most as Sulphur Oyl and such like I am apt to believe these will encrease of their own accord upon a general drought and desiccation of the Earth For I am far from the opinion of some Chymists that think these principles immutable and incapable of diminution or augmentation I willingly admit that all such particles may be broken and disfigur'd and thereby lose their proper and specifick virtue and new ones may be generated to supply the places of the former Which supplies or new productions being made in a less or greater measure according to the general dispositions of Nature when Nature is heightned into a kind of Feaver and Ebullition of all her juices and humours as she will be at that time we must expect that more parts than ordinary should be made inflammable and those that are inflam'd should become more violent Under these circumstances when all Causes lean that way a little help from a superior power will have a great effect and make a great change in the state of the World And as to the power of Angels I am of opinion that it is very great as to the Changes and Modifications of Natural Bodies that they can dissolve a Marble as easily as we can crumble Earth and Moulds or fix any liquor in a moment into a substance as hard as Crystal That they can either make flames more vehement and irresistible to all sorts of Bodies or as harmless as Lambent Fires and as soft as Oyl We see an instance of this last in Nebuchadnezzar's fiery Furnace where the three Children walk'd unconcern'd in the midst of the Flames under the charge and protection of an Angel And the same Angel if he had pleas'd could have made the same Furnace seven times hotter than the wrath of the Tyrant had made it We will therefore leave it to their ministery to manage this great Furnace when the Heavens and the Earth are on Fire To conserve encrease direct or temper the flames according to instructions given them as they are to be Tutelary or Destroying Neither let any body think it a diminution of Providence to put things into the hands of Angels 'T is the true rule and method of it For to employ an Almighty power where it is not necessary is to debase 〈◊〉 and give it a task fit for lower Beings Some think it devotion and piety to have recourse immediately to the arm of God to salve all things This may be done sometimes with a good intention but commonly with little judgment God is as jealous of the glory of his Wisdom as of his Power and Wisdom consists in the conduct and subordination of several causes to bring our purposes to effect but what is dispatched by an immediate Supreme Power leaves no room for the exercise of Wisdom To conclude this point which I have touch'd upon more than once We must not be partial to any of God's Attributes and Providence being a complexion of many Power Wisdom Justice and Goodness when we give due place and honour to all these then we most honour DIVINE PROVIDENCE CHAP. IX How the Sea will be diminish'd and consum'd How the Rocks and Mountains will be thrown down and melted and the whole exteriour frame of the Earth dissolv'd into a Deluge of Fire WE have now taken a view of the Causes of the Conflagration both ordinary and extraordinary It remains to consider the manner of it How these Causes will operate and bring to pass an effect so great and so prodigious We took notice before that the grand obstruction would be from the Sea and from the Mountains we must therefore take these to task in the first place and if we can remove them out of our way or overcome what resistance and opposition they are capable to make the rest of the work will not be uneasie to us The Ocean indeed is a vast Body of Waters and we must use all our art and skill to dry it up or consume it in a good measure before we can compass our design I remember the advice a Philosopher gave Amasis King of Egypt when he had a command sent him from the King of Aethiopia That he should drink up the Sea Amasis being very anxious and sollicitous what answer he should make to this strange command the Philosopher Bias advis'd him to make this round answer to the King That he was ready to perform his command and to drink up the Sea provided he would stop the rivers from flowing into his cup while he was drinking This answer baffled the King for he could not stop the rivers but this we must do or we shall never be able to drink up the Sea or burn up the Earth Neither will this be so impossible as it seems at first sight if we reflect upon those preparations we have made towards it by a general drought all over the Earth This we suppose will precede â—he Conflagration and by drying up the Fountains and Rivers which daily feed the Sea will by degrees starve that Monster or reduce it to such a degree of weakness that it shall not be able to make any great resistance More than half an Ocean of Water flows into the Sea every day from the Rivers of the Earth if you take them all together This I speak upon a moderate computation Aristotle says the Rivers carry more water into the Sea in the space of a year thâ—n would equal in bulk the whole Globe of the Earth Nay some have ventur'd to affirm this of one single River The Volga that runs into the Caspian Sea 'T is a great River indeed and hath seventy mouths and so it had need have to disgorge a mass of Water equal to the Body of the Earth in a years time But we need not take such high measures There are at least an hundred great Rivers that flow into the Sea from several parts of the Earth Islands and Continents besides several thousands of lesser ones Let us suppose these all together to pour as much water into the Sea-chanel every day as is equal to half the Ocean And we shall be easily convinc'd of the reasonableness of this supposition if we do but examine the daily expence of one River and by that make an estimate of the rest This we find calculated to our hands in the River Po in Italy a River of much what the same bigness with our Thames and disburthens it self into the Gulph of Venice Baptista Riccioli hath computed how much water this River discharges in an hour viz. 18000000. cubical paces of Water and consequently 432000000. in a day which is scarce credible to those that do not distinctly compute it Suppose then an hundred Rivers as great as this or greater to fall into the Sea from
the Land besides thousands of lesser that pay their tribute at the same time into the great Receit of the Ocean These all taken together are capable to renew the Sea every twice four and twenty hours VVhich suppositions being admitted if by a great and lasting drought these Rivers were dried up or the Fountains from whence they flow what would then become of that vast Ocean that before was so formidable to us 'T is likely you will say These great Rivers cannot be dry'd up tho' the little ones may and therefore we must not suppose such an Universal stop of waters or that they will all fail by any drought whatsoever But great Rivers being made up of little ones if these fail those must be diminish'd if not quite drain'd and exhausted It may be all Fountains and Springs do not proceed from the same causes or the same original and some are much more copious than others for such differences we will allow what is due but still the driness of the Air and of the Earth continuing and all the sources and supplies of moisture both from above and from below being lessen'd or wholly discontinued a general decay of all Fountains and Rivers must necessarily follow and consequently of the Sea and of its fulness that depends upon them And that 's enough for our present purpose The first step therefore towards the Consumption of the Ocean will be the diminution or suspension of the Rivers that run into it The next will be an Evacuation by Subterraneous passages and the last by Eruptions of Fires in the very Chanel of it and in the midst of the Waters As for Subterraneous Evacutions we cannot doubt but that the Sea hath out-lets at the bottom of it whereby it discharges that vast quantity of Water that flows into it every day and that could not be discharg'd so fast as it comes from the wide mouths of the Rivers by percolation or straining thorough the Sands Seas also communicate with one another by these internal passages as is manifest from those particular Seas that have no external out-let or issue tho' they receive into them many great Rivers and sometimes the influx of other Seas So the Caspian Sea receives not only Volga which we mention'd before but several other Rivers and yet hath no visible issue for its Waters The Mediterranean Sea besides all the Rivers it receives hath a current flowing into it at either end from other Seas from the Atlantick Ocean at the streights of Gibralter and from the Black Sea above Constantinople and yet there is no passage above-ground or visible derivation of the Mediterranean waters out of their Chanel which seeing they do not overfil nor overflow the Banks 't is certain they must have some secret conveyances into the bowels of the Earth or subterraneous communication with other Seas Lastly From the Whirl-pools of the Sea that suck in Bodies that come within their reach it seems plainly to appear by that attraction and absorption that there is a descent of waters in those places Wherefore when the current of the Rivers into the Sea is stopt or in a great measure diminish'd The Sea continuing to empty it self by these subterraneous passages and having little or none of those supplies that it us'd to have from the Land it must needs be sensibly lessen'd and both contract its Chanel into a narrower compass and also have less depth in the waters that remain And in the last place we must expect fiery eruptions in several parts of the Sea-chanel which will help to suck up or evaporate the remaining Waters In the present state of Nature there have been several instances of such eruptions of Fire from the bottom of the Sea and in that last state of Nature when all things are in a tendency to inflammation and when Earth-quakes and Eruptions will be more frequent every where we must expect them also more frequently by Sea as well as by Land 'T is true neither Earth-quakes nor Eruptions can happen in the middle of the Great Ocean or in the deepest Abyss because there are no cavities or mines below it for the vapours and exhalations to lodge in But 't is not much of the Sea-chanel that is so deep and in other parts especially in streights and near Islands such Eruptions like Sea-Volcano's have frequently happen'd and new Islands have been made by such fiery matter thrown up from the bottom of the Sea Thus they say those Islands in the Mediterranean call'd the Vulcanian Islands had their original being matter cast up from the bottom of the Sea by the force of Fire as new Mountains sometimes are rais'd upon the Earth Another Island in the Archipelago had the same original whereof Strabo gives an account The flames he says sprung up through the waters four days togethâ—r so as the whole Sea was hot and burning and they rais'd by degrees as with Engines a mass of Earth which made a new Island twelve furlongs in compass And in the same Archipelago flames and smoke have several times particularly in the year 1650. rise out of the Sea and fill'd the Air with sulphureous scents and vapours In like manner in the Island of S. Michel one of the Tercera's there have been of later years such eructations of fire and flames so strong and violent that at the depth of an hundred and sixty fathoms they forc'd their way through the midst of the Waters from the bottom of the Sea into the open Air. As has been related by those that were eye-witnesses In these three ways I conceive the great force of the Sea will be broken and the mighty Ocean reduc'd to a standing Pool of putrid waters without vent and without recruits But there will still remain in the midst of the Chanel a great mass of troubled liquors like dregs in the bottom of the vessel which will not be drunk up till the Earth be all on fire and torrents of melted and sulphureous matter flow from the Land and mingle with this Dead Sea But let us now leave the Sea in this humble posture and go on to attack the Rocks and Mountains which stand next in our way See how scornfully they look down upon us and bid defiance to all the Elements They have born the Thunder and Lightning of Heaven and all the Artillery of the Skies for innumerable Ages and do not fear the crackling of thorns and of shrubs that burn at their feet Let the Towns and Cities of the Earth say they be laid in ashes Let the Woods and Forests blaze away and the fat Soyl of the Earth fry in its own greafe These things will not affect us We can stand naked in the midst of a Sea of Fire with our roots as deep as the foundations of the Earth and our heads above the Clouds of the Air. Thus they proudly defie Nature and it must be confest that these being as it were the Bones of the Earth when the Body
The Chanel of the Sea fill'd with a mass of fluid fire and the same fire overflowing all the Globe and covering the whole Earth as the Deluge or the first Abyss Then will the Triumphal Songs and Hallelujah's be sung for the Victories of the Lamb over all his Enemies and over Nature it self Great and marvellous are thy works Lord God Almighty Iust and true are thy ways thou King of Saints Who shall not fear thee O Lord and glorisie thy name for thou only art holy for all nations shall come and worship before thee for thy judgments are made manifest CHAP. XI An account of those extraordinary Phaenomena and Wonders in Nature that according to Scripture will precede the coming of Christ and the Conflagration of the World IF we reflect upon the History of Burning Mountains we cannot but observe that before their Eruptions there are usually some changes in the Earth or in the Air in the Sea or in the Sun it self as signs and forerunners of the ensuing storm We may then easily conclude that when the last great Storm is a coming and all the Volcano's of the Earth ready to burst and the frame of the World to be dissolv'd there will be prevlous signs in the Heavens and on the Earth to introduce this Tragical fate Nature cannot come to that extremity without some symptomes of her illness nor die silently without pangs or complaint But we are naturally heavy of belief as to Futurities and can scarce fancy any other Scenes or other state of Nature than what is present and continually before our eyes we will therefore to cure our unbelief take Scripture for our guide and keep within the limits of its Predictions The Scripture plainly tells us of Signs or Prodigies that will precede the coming of our Saviour and the end of the World both in the Heavens and on the Earth The Sun Moon and Stars will be disturb'd in their motion or aspect The Earth and the Sea will roar and tremble and the Mountains fall at his Presence These things both the Prophets and Evangelists have told us But what we do not understand we are flow to believe and therefore those that cannot apprehend how such Changes should come to pass in the Natural World chuse rather to allegorize all these expressions of Scripture and to make them signifie no more than political changes of Governments and Empires and the great confusions that will be amongst the People and Princes of the Earth towards the end of the World So that darkning of the Sun shaking of the Earth and such like phrases of Scripture according to these Interpreters are to be understood only in a moral sence And they think they have a warrant for this interpretation from the Prophetick style of the Old Testament where the destruction of Cities and Empires and great Princes is often describ'd by such Figures taken from the Natural World So much is true indeed as to the phrase of the old Prophets in some places but I take the true reason and design of that to be a typical adumbration of what was intended should literally come to pass in the great and universal destruction of the World whereof these partial destructions were only shadows and prefigurations But to determine this case Let us take the known and approved rule for interpreting Scripture Not to recede from the literal sence without necessity or where the nature of the subject will admit of a literal interpretation Now as to those cases in the Old Testament History and matter of fact do show that they did not come to pass literally therefore must not be so understood But as for those that concern the end of the World as they cannot be determin'd in that way seeing they are yet future So neither is there any Natural repugnancy or improbability that they should come literally to pass On the contrary from the intuition of that state of Nature one would rather conclude the probability or necessity of them That there may and must be such disorders in the external World before the general dissolution Besides If we admit Prodigies in any case or Providential indications of God's judgments to come there can be no case suppos'd wherein it will be more reasonable or proper to admit them than when they are to be the Messengers of an universal Vengeance and Destruction Let us therefore consider what signs Scripture hath taken notice of as destin'd to appear at that time to publish as it were and proclaim the approaching end of the World and how far they will admit of a natural explication according to those grounds we have already given in explaining the causes and manner of the Conflagration These Signs are chiefly Earth-quakes and extraordinary commotions of the Seas Then the darkness or bloudy colour of the Sun and Moon The shaking of the Powers of Heaven the fulgurations of the Air and the falling of Stars As to Earth-quakes we have upon several occasions shown that these will necessarily be multiplied towards the end of the World when by an excess of drought and heat exhalations will more abound within the Earth and from the same causes their inflammation also will be more frequent than in the ordinary state of Nature And as all Bodies when dry'd become more porous and full of Vacuities so the Body of the Earth will be at that time And the Mines or Cavities wherein the fumes and exhalations lodge will accordingly be of greater extent open into one another and continued through long tracts and regions By which means when an Earth-quake comes as the shock will be more strong and violent so it may reach to a vast compass of ground and whole Islands or Continents be shaken at once when these trains have taken fire The effects also of such concussions will not only affect Mankind but all the Elements and the Inhabitants of them I do not wonder therefore that frequent and great Earth-quakes should be made a sign of an approaching Conflagration and the highest expressions of the Prophets concerning the Day of the Lord may be understood in a literal sence if they be finally referr'd to the general destruction of the World and not terminated solely upon those particular Countries or People to whom they are at first directed Hear what Ezekiel says upon this subject For in my Iealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken surely in that Day there shall be a great shaking in the Land of Israel So that the Fishes of the Sea and the Fowls of the Heaven and the Beasts of the Field and all creeping things that creep upon the Earth and all the Men that are upon the face of the Earth shall shake at my presence and the Mountains shall be thrown down and the sâ—eep places shall fall and every wall shaâ—l fall to the ground And I will rain an over-flowing rain and great hail-stones fire and brimstone The Prophet Isaias describes these judgments in terms
as high and relating to the Natural World The Windows from on high are open and the foundations of the Earth do shake The Earth is utterly broken down the Earth is clean dissolv'd the Earth is moved exceedingly The Earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard and shall be removed like a Cottage and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it and it shall fall and not rise again To restrain all these things to Iudaea as their adequate and final object is to force both the words and the sence Here are manifest allusions and foot-steps of the destruction of the World and the dissolution of the Earth partly as it was in the Deluge and partly as it will be in its last ruine torn broken aâ—d shatter'd But most Men have fallen into that errour To fancy both the destructions of the World by Water and by Fire quiet noiseless things executed without any ruines or ruptures in Nature That the Deluge was but a great Pool of still Waters made by the rains and inundation of the Sea and the Conflagration will be only a superficial scorching of the Earth with a running fire These are false Idea's and unsuitable to Scripture for as the Deluge is there represented a Disruption of the Abyss and consequently of the then habitable Earth so the future combustion of it according to the representations of Scripture is to be usher'd in and accompanied with all sorts of violent impressions upon Nature and the chief instrument of these violences will be Earth-quakes These will tear the Body of the Earth and shake its foundations rend the Rocks and pull down the tall Mountains sometimes overturn and sometimes swallow up Towns and Cities disturb and disorder the Elements and make a general confusion in Nature Next to Earth-quakes we may consider the roarings of a troubled Sea This is another sign of a dying World S. Luke hath set down a great many of them together Let us hear his words And there shall be signs in the Sun and in the Moon and in the Stars and upon the Earth distress of Nations with perplexity The Sea and the Waves roaring Mens hearts failing them for fear and for looking after those things which are coming on the Earth for the powers of Heaven shall be shaken And then shall they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory c. As some would allegorize these Signs which we noted before so others would confine them to the destruction of Ierusalem But 't is plain by this coming of the Son of man in the clouds and the redemption of the faithful and at the same time the sound of the last trumpet which all relate to the end of the World that something further is intended than the destruction of Ierusalem And though there were Prodigies at the destruction of that City and State yet not of this force nor with these circumstances 'T is true those partial destructions and calamities as we observ'd before of Babylon Ierusalem and the Roman Empire being types of an universal and final destruction of all Godâ—s Enemies have in the pictures of them some of the same strokes to show they are all from the same hand decreed by the same wisdom foretold by the same Spirit and the same power and Providence that have already wrought the one will also work the other in due time the former being still pledges as well as prefigurations of the latter Let us then proceed in our explication of this sign The roaring of the Sea and the Waves applying it to the end of the World I do not look upon this ominous noise of the Sea as the effect of a tempest for then it would not strike such a terror into the Inhabitants of the Earth nor make them apprehensive of some great evil coming upon the World as this will do what proceeds from visible causes and such as may happen in a common course of Nature does not so much amaze us nor affright us Therefore 't is more likely these disturbances of the Sea proceed from below partly by sympathy and revulsions from the Land by Earth-quakes there and exhausting the subterraneous cavities of Waters which will draw again from the Seas what supplies they can And partly by Earth-quakes in the very Sea it self with exhalations and fiery Eruptions from the bottom of it Things indeed that happen at other times more or less but at this conjuncture all causes conspiring they will break out with more violence and put the whole Body of the Waters into a tumultuary motion I do not see any occasion at this time for high Winds neither can think a superficial agitation of the Waves would answer this Phaenomenon but 't is rather from Contorsions in the bowels of the Ocean which make it roar as it were for pain Some Causes impelling the Waters one way and some another make intestine struglings and contrary motions from whence proceed unusual noises and such a troubled state of the Waters as does not only make the Sea innavigable but also strikes terror into all the Maritime Inhabitants that live within the view or sound of it So much for the Earth and the Sea The face of the Heavens also will be chang'd in divers respects The Sun and the Moon darkned or of a bloudy or pale countenance The Celestial Powers shaken and the Stars unsetled in their Orbs. As to the Sun and Moon their obscuration or change of colour is no more than what happens commonly before the Eruption of a fiery Mountain Dion Cassius you see hath taken notice of it in that Eruption of Aetna which he describes and others upon the like occasions in Vesuvius And 't is a thing of easie explication for according as the Atmosphere is more or less clear or turbid the Luminaries are more or less conspicuous and according to the nature of those fumes or exhalations that swim in the Air the face of the Sun is discolour'd sometimes one way sometimes another You see in an ordinary Experiment when we look upon one another through the fumes of Sulphur we appear pale like so many Ghosts and in some foggy days the Sun hangs in the Firmament as a lump of Bloud And botlâ— the Sun and Moon at their rising when their light comes to us through the thick vapours of the Earth are red and fiery These are not changes wrought in the substance of the Luminaries but in the modifications of their light as it flows to us For colours are but Light in a sort of disguise as it passes through Mediums of diffâ—rent qualities it takes different forms but the matter is still the same and returns to its simplicity when it comes again into a pure air Now the air may be changed and corrupted to a great degree tho' there appear no visible change to our eye This is manifest from infectious airs and the changes of the air before storms and rains which we feel
This is a small part of the disorders of that day But 't is not possible from any station to have a full prospect of this last Scene of the Earth for 't is a mixture of fire and darkness This New Temple is fill'd with smoak while it is consecrating and none can enter into it But I am apt to think if we could look down upon this burning World from above the Clouds and have a full view of it in all its parts we should think it a lively representation of Hell it self For Fire and darkness are the two chief things by which that state or that place uses to be describ'd and they are both here mingled together with all other ingredients that make that Tophet that is prepar'd of old Here are Lakes of fire and brimstone Rivers of melted glowing matter Ten thousand Volcano's vomiting flames all at once Thick darkness and Pillars of smoak twisted about with wreaths of flame like fiery Snakes Mountains of Earth thrown up into the Air and the Heavens dropping down in lumps of fire These things will all be literally true concerning that day and that state of the Earth And if we suppose Beelzebub and his Apostate crew in the midst of this fiery furnace and I know not where they can be else It will be hard to find any part of the Universe or any state of things that answers to so many of the properties and characters of Hell as this which is now before us But if we suppose the storm over and that the fire hath got an entire victory over all other bodies and subdued every thing to it self the Conflagration will end in a Deluge of fire Or in a Sea of fire covering the whole Globe of the Earth For when the exterior region of the Earth is melted into a fluor like molten glass or running metal it will according to the nature of other Fluids fill all vacuities and depressions and fall into a regular surface at an equal distance every where from its center This Sea of fire like the first Abyss will cover the face of the whole Earth make a kind of second Chaos and leave a capacity for another World to rise from it But that is not our present business Let us only if you please to take leave of this subject reflect upon this occasion on the transient and 〈◊〉 glory of all this habitable World How by the force of one Element breaking loose upon the rest all the Varieties of Nature all the works of Art all the labours of Men are reduc'd to nothing All that we admir'd and ador'd before as great and magnificent is obliterated or vanish'd And another form and face of things plain simple and every where the same overspreads the whole Earth Where are now the great Empires of the World and their great Imperial Cities Their Pillars Tropheâ—s and Monuments of glory Show me where they stood read the Inscription tell me the Victorâ—s name What remains what impressions what difference or distinction do you see in this mass of fire Rome it self Eternal Rome the Great City the Empress of the World whose domination and superstition ancient and modern make a great part of the History of this Earth What is become of her now She laid her foundations deep and her Palaces were strong and sumptuous She glorified her self and liv'd deliciously and said in her heart I sit a Queen and shall see no sorrow But her hour is come she is wip'd away from the face of the Earth and buried in perpetual oblivion But 't is not Cities only and works of Men's hands but the everlasting Hills the Mountains and Rocks of the Earth are melted as Wax before the Sun and their place is no where found Here stood the Alpes a prodigious range of Stone the Load of the Earth that cover'd many Countries and reach'd their arms from the Ocean to the Black Sea This huge mass of Stone is soften'd and dissolv'd as a tender Cloud into rain Here stood the African Mountains and Atlas with his top above the Clouds There was frozen Caucasus and Taurus and Imaus and the Mountains of Asia And yonder towards the North stood the Riphaean Hills cloath'd in Ice and Snow All these are vanish'd dropt away as the Snow upon their heads and swallowed up in a red Sea of fire Great and marvellous are thy Works Lord God Almighty Iust and true are thy ways Thou King of Saints Hallelujah The CONCLVSION IF the Conflagration of the World be a reality as both by Scripture and Antiquity we are assur'd it is If we be fully perswaded and convinc'd of this 'T is a thing of that nature that we cannot keep it long in our thoughts without making some moral reflections upon it 'T is both great in it self and of universal concern to all Mankind Who can look upon such an Object A World in Flames without thinking with himself Whether shall I be in the midst of these â—lames or no What is my security that I shall not fall under this fiery vengeance which is the wrath of an angry God St. Peter when he had deliver'd the doctrine of the Conflagration makes this pious reflection upon it Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolv'd what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conversation and godliness The strength of his argument depends chiefly upon what he had said before in the 7th Verse where he told us that the present Heavens and Earth were reserv'd unto fire against the Day of Iudgment and the perdition of irreligious men We must avoid the crime then if we would escape the punishment But this expression of irreligious or ungodly men is still very general St. Paul when he speaks of this fiery indignation and the Persons it is to fall upon is more distinct in their characters He seems to mark out for this destruction three sorts of men chiefly The Atheists Infidels and the Tribe of Antichrist These are his words When the Lord Iesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Iesus Christ. Then as for Antichrist and his adherents he says in the 2d Chapt. and 8th Verse The Lord shall consume that Wicked one with the Spirit of his mouth and shall destroy him with the brightness of his coming or of his Presence These you see all refer to the same time with St. Peter namely to the coming of our Saviour at the Conflagration and three sorts of Persons are characteriz'd as his Enemies and set out for destruction at that time First those that know not God that is that acknowledge not God that will not own the Deity Secondly those that hearken not to the Gospel that is that reject the Gospel and Christian Religion when they are preach'd and made known to them For you must not think that it is the poor barbarous and
Heaven with power and great glory and that will be to judge the World When the Son of Man shall come in his glory and all the holy Angels with him then shall he sit upon the Throne of his glory And before him shall be gather'd all Nations and he will separate the good from the bad and to the wicked and unbelievers he will say Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels This is the same Coming and the same Fire with that which we mention'd before out of S. Paul As you will plainly see if you compare S. Matthew's words with S. Paul's which are these When the Lord Iesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty Angels In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that hearken not to the Gospel of our Lord Iesus Christ. Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from or by the presence of the Lord and the glory of his power This me thinks should be an awakening thought that there is such a threatning upon record by one who never yet fail'd in his word against those that do not believe his Testimony Those that reject him now as a Dupe or an Impostor run a hazard of seeing him hereafter coming in the Clouds to be their Judge And it will be too late then to correct their errour when the bright Armies of Angels fill the Air and the Earth begins to melt at the Presence of the Lord. Thus much concerning those three ranks of Men whom the Apostle S. Paul seems to point at principally and condemn to the flames But as I said before the rest of sinners and vitious Persons amongst the Professors of Christianity tho' they are not so directly the Enemies of God as these are yet being transgressors of his Law they must expect to be brought to Justice In every well-govern'd State not only Traitors and Rebels that offend more immediately against the Person of the Prince but all others that notoriously violate the Laws are brought to condign punishment according to the nature and degree of their crime So in this case The fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is 'T is therefore the concern of every man to reflect often upon that Day and to consider what his fate and sentence is likely to be at that last Trial. The Iews have a Tradition that Elias sits in Heaven and keeps a Register of all Mens actions good or bad He hath his Under Secretaries for the several Nations of the World that take minutes of all that passes and so hath the History of every Man's life before him ready to be produc'd at the Day of Judgment I will not vouch for the literal truth of this but it is true in effect Every Man's fate shall be determin'd that Day according to the history of his Life according to the works done in the flesh whether good or bad And therefore it ought to have as much influence upon us as if every single action was formally register'd in Heaven If Men would learn to contemn this World it would cure a great many Vices at once And methinks S. Peter's argument from the approaching dissolution of all things should put us out of conceit with such perishing vanities Lust and Ambition are the two reigning Vices of great Men and those little fires might be soon extinguish'd if they would frequently and seriously meditate on this last and Universal Fire which will put an end to all Passions and all Contentions As to Ambition the Heathens themselves made use of this argument to abate and repress the vain affectation of glory and greatness in this World I told you before the lesson that was given to Scipio Africanus by his Uncle's Ghost upon this Subject And upon a like occasion and consideration Caesar hath a lesson given him by Lucan after the Battle of Pharsalia where Pompey lost the day and Rome its liberty The Poet says Caesar took pleasure in looking upon the dead Bodies and would not suffer them to be buried or which was their manner of burying to be burnt Whereupon he speaks to him in these words Hos Caesar populos si nunc non usserit Ignis Uret cum Terris uret cum gurgite Ponti Communis mundo superest Rogus Ossibus astra Misturus Quocunque Tuam Fortuna vocabit Hae quoque eunt Animae non altiùs ibis in auras Non meliore loco Stygiâ sub nocte jacebis Libera fortuna Mors est Capit omnia Tellus Quae genuit Coelo tegitur Qui non habet urnam Caesar If now these Bodies want their pile and urn At last with the whole Globe they 're sure to burn The World expects one general Fire and Thou Must go where these poor Sculs are wand'ring now Thou'l reach no higher in th' Ethereal Plain Nor 'mongst the Shades a better place obtain Death levels all And He that has not room To make a Grave Heaven's Vault shall be his Tomb. These are mortifying thoughts to ambitious Spirits And surely our own Mortality and the Mortality of the World it self may be enough to convince all considering Men That Vanity of Vanities all is vanity under the Sun any otherwise than as they relate to a better Life FINIS THE THEORY OF THE EARTH Containing an Account OF THE Original of the Earth AND OF ALL THE GENERAL CHANGES Which it hath already undergone OR IS TO UNDERGO Till the CONSUMMATION of all Things THE FOURTH BOOK Concerning the NEW HEAVENS and NEW EARTH AND Concerning the CONSUMMATION of all Things LONDON Printed by R. N. for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's-Head in S. Paul's Church-Yard 1697. PREFACE TO THE READER YOU see it is still my lot to travel into New Worlds having never found any great satisfaction in this As an active people leaves their habitations in a barren soil to try if they can make their fortune better elsewhere I first lookt backwards and waded through the Deluge into the Primaeval World to see how they liv'd there and how Nature stood in that original constitution Now I am going forwards to view the New Heavens and New Earth that will be after the Conflagration But Gentle Reader let me not take you any further if you be weary I do not love a querulous Companion Unless your Genius therefore press you forwards chuse rather to rest here and be content with that part of the Theory which you have seen already Is it not fair to have followed Nature so far as to have seen her twice in her ruins Why should we still pursue her even after death and dissolution into dark and remote Futurities To whom therefore such disquisitions seem needless or over-curious let them rest here and leave the remainder of this Work which is a kind of PROPHECY concerning the STATE of things after the Conflagration to those that are of a disposition suited to such studies and enquiries Not that any part of this Theory
they be turn'd out of Being for our faults The whole material Universe will not be Annihilated at this bout for we are to have Bodies after the Resurrection and to live in Heaven How much of the Universe then will you leave standing or how shall it subsist with this great Vacuum in the heart of it This shell of a World is but the fiction of an empty Brain For God and Nature in their works never admit of such gaping vacuities and emptinesses If we consult Scripture again we shall find that that makes mention of a Restitution and Reviviscency of all things At the End of the World or at the Coming of our Saviour S. Peter whose doctrine we have hitherto followed in his Sermon to the Iews after our Saviour's Ascension tells them that He will come again and that there will be then a Restitution of all things such as was promised by the Prophets The Heavens says he must receive him until the time of Restitution of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of his holy Prophets since the world began If we compare this passage of S. Peter's with that which we alledged before out of his second Epistle it can scarce be doubted but that he refers to the same Promises in both places and what he there calls a New Heaven and a New Earth he calls here a Restitution of all things For the Heavens and the Earth comprehend all and both these are but different phrases for the Renovation of the World This gives us also light how to understand what our Saviour calls the Regeneration or Reviviscency when he shall sit upon his Throne of Glory and will reward his followers an hundred fold for all their Losses in this World Besides Everlasting Life as the Crown of all I know in our English Translation we separate the Regeneration from sitting upon his Throne but without any warrant from the Original And seeing our Saviour speaks here of Bodily goods and seems to distinguish them from everlasting life which is to be the final reward of his Followers This Regeneration seems to belong to his Second Coming when the World shall be renew'd or regenerated and the Righteous shall possess the Earth Other places of Scripture that foretel the fate of this Material World represent it always as a Change not as an Annihilation S. Paul says The Figure of this World passes away 1 Cor. 7. 31. The form fashion and disposition of its parts But the substance still remains As a Body that is melted down and dissolv'd the Form perishes but the Matter is not destroy'd And the Psalmist says The Heavens and the Earth shall be chang'd which answers to this Transformation we speak of The same Apostle in the Eighth Chapter to the Romans shows also that this change shall be and shall be for the better and calls it a Deliverance of the Creation from vanity and corruption and a participation of the glorious liberty of the Children of God Being a sort of Redemption as they have a Redemption of their Bodies But seeing the Renovation of the World is a Doctrine generally receiv'd both by ancient and modern Authors as we shall have occasion to show hereafter We need add no more in this place for confirmation of it Some Men are willing to throw all things into a state of Nothing at the Conflagration and bury them there that they may not be oblig'd to give an account of that state of things that is to succeed it Those who think themselves bound in honour to know every thing in Theology that is knowable and find it uneasie to answer such questions and speculations as would arise upon their admitting a New World think it more adviseable to stifle it in the birth and so to bound all knowledge at the Conflagration But surely so far as Reason or Scripture lead us we may and ought to follow otherwise we should be ungrateful to Providence that sent us those Guides Provided we be always duly sensible of our own weakness and according to the difficulty of the subject and the measure of light that falls upon it proceed with that modesty and ingenuity that becomes such fallible enquirers after Truth as we are And this rule I desire to prescribe to my self as in all other Writings so especially in this where tho' I look upon the principal Conclusions as fully prov'd there are several particulars that are rather propos'd to examination than positively asserted CHAP. II. The Birth of the new Heavens and the new Earth from the second Chaos or the remains of the old World The form order and qualities of the new Earth according to Reason and Scripture HAving prov'd from Scripture that we are to expect New Heavens and a New Earth after the Conflagration it would be some pleasure and satisfaction to see how this new Frame will arise and what foundation there is in Nature for the accomplishment of these promises For tho' the Divine Power be not bound to all the Laws of Nature but may dispence with them when there is a necessity yet it is an ease to us in our belief when we see them both conspire in the same effect And in order to this we must consider in what posture we left the demolish'd World what hopes there is of a Restauration And we are not to be discourag'd because we see things at present wrapt up in a confus'd Mass for according to the methods of Nature and Providence in that dark Womb usually are the seeds and rudiments of an Embryo World Now as to the lower of these two regions the region of melted matter A. A. we shall have little occasion to take notice of it seeing it will contribute nothing to the formation of the new World But the upper region or all above that Orb of fire is the true draught of a Chaos or a mixture and confusion of all the Elements without order or distinction Here are particles of Earth and of Air and of Water all promiscuously jumbled together by the force and agitation of the fire But when that force ceases and every one is left to its own inclination they will according to their different degrees of gravity separate and sort themselves after this manner First the heaviest and grossest parts of the Earth will subside then the watery parts will follow then a lighter sort of Earth which will stop and rest upon the Surface of the Water and compose there a thin film or membrane this membrane or tender Orb is the first rudiment or foundation of a new habitable Earth For according as terrestrial parts fall upon it from all the regions and heighths of the Atmosphere or of the Chaos this Orb will grow more firm strong and immoveable able to support it self and Inhabitants too And having in it all the Principles of a fruitful Soil whether for the production of Plants or of Animals it will want no property or character of an
and not to the Angels In the second chapter to the Hebrews ver 5. he says For unto the Angels hath he not put in subjection the WORLD TO COME So we read it but according to the strictest and plainest Translation it should be The habitable Earth to come Now what Earth is this where our Saviour is absolute Soveraign and where the Government is neither Humane nor Angelical but peculiarly Theocratical In the first place this cannot be the present World or the present Earth because the Apostle calls it Future or the Earth to come Nor can it be understood of the days of the Gospel seeing the Apostle acknowledges ver 8. That this subjection whereof he speaks is not yet made And seeing Antichrist will not finally be destroy'd till the appearance of our Saviour 2 Thess. 2. 8. nor Satan bound while Antichrist is in power during the reign of these two who are the Rulers of the darkness of the World our Saviour cannot properly be said to begin his reign here 'T is true He exercises his Providence over his Church and secures it from being destroy'd He can by a power paramount stop the rage either of Satan or Antichrist Hitherto shall you go and no further As sometimes when he was upon Earth he exerted a Divine Power which yet did not destroy his state of Humiliation so he interposes now when he thinks fit but he does not finally take the power out of the hands of his Enemies nor out of the hands of the Kings of the Earth The Kingdom is not deliver'd up to him and all dominion and power That all Tongues and Nations should serve him For S. Paul can mean no less in this place than that Kingdom in Daniel Seeing he calls it putting all things in subjection under his feet and says that it is not yet done Upon this account also as well as others our Saviour might truly say to Pilate Ioh. 18 36. my kingdom is not of this World And to his Disciples The Son of man came not to be ministred unto but to minister Matt. 20. 28. When he comes to receive his Kingdom he comes in the clouds of Heaven Dan. 7. 13 14. not in the womb of a Virgin He comes with the equipage of a King and Conquer or with thousands and ten thousands of Angels not in the form of a Servant or of a weak Infant as he did at his first coming I allow the phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or in the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The World to come is sometimes us'd in a large sence as comprehending all the days of the Messiah whether at his First or Second Coming for these two Comings are often undistinguish'd in Scripture and respect the Moral World as well as the Natural But the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Orbis habitabilis which S. Paul here uses does primarily signifie the Natural World or the Habitable Earth in the proper use of the word amongst the Greeks and frequently in Scripture Luke 4. 5. and 21. 26. Rom. 10. 18. Heb. 1. 6. Apoc. 3. 10. Neither do we here exclude the Moral World or the Inhabitants of the Earth but rather necessarily include them Both the Natural and Moral World to come will be the seat and subject of our Saviour's Kingdom and Empire in a peculiar manner But when you understand nothing by this phrase but the present moral World it neither answers the proper signification of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the first or second part of the expression And tho such like phrases may be us'd for the Dispensation of the Messiah in opposition to that of the Law yet the height of that distinction or opposition and the fulfilling of the expression depends upon the second coming of our Saviour and upon the Future Earth or habitable World where he shall Reign and which does peculiarly belong to Him and His Saints Neither can this World to come or this Earth to come be understood of the Kingdom of Heaven For the Greek word will not bear that sence nor is it ever us'd in Scripture for Heaven Besides the Kingdom of Heaven when spoken of as future is not properly till the last resurrection and final judgment Whereas This World to come which our Saviour is to govern must be before that time and will then expire For all his Government as to this World expires at the day of Judgment and he will then deliver up the kingdom into the hands of his father that he may be all in all Having reigned first himselfe and put down all rule and all authority and power So that S. Paul in these two places of his Epistles refers plainly to the same time and the same reign of Christ which must be in a future World and before the last day of Iudgment and therefore according to our deductions in the New Heavens and the New Earth CHAP. III. Concerning the Inhabitants of the New Earth That Natural Reason cannot determine this point That according to Scripture The Sons of the first Resurrection or the Heirs of the Millennium are to be the Inhabitants of the New Earth The Testimony of the Philosophers and of the Christian Fathers for the Renovation of the World The first Proposition laid down THUS we have setled the True Notion according to Reason and Scripture of the New Heavens and New Earth But where are the Inhabitants you 'l say You have taken the pains to make us a New World and now that it is made it must stand empty When the first World was destroyed there were Eight Persons preserv'd with a Set of Living Creatures of every Kind as a Seminary or foundation of another World But the Fire it seems is more merciless than the Water for in this destruction of the World it does not appear that there is one living Soul left of any sort upon the face of the Earth No hopes of posterity nor of any continuation of Mankind in the usual way of propagation And Fire is a barren Element that breeds no living Creatures in it nor hath any nourishment proper for their food or sustenance We are perfectly at a loss therefore so far as I see for a new race of Mankind or how to People this new-form'd World The Inhabitants if ever there be any must either come from Heaven or spring from the Earth There are but these two ways But Natural Reason can determine neither of these sees no tract to follow in these unbeaten paths nor can advance one step further Farewel then dear Friend I must take another Guide and leave you here as Moses upon Mount Pisgah only to look into that Land which you cannot enter I acknowledge the good service you have done and what a faithful Companion you have been in a long journey from the beginning of the World to this hour in a tract of time of six thousand years We have travel'd together through the dark
21. 2. Lastly to the Church of Laodicea is said To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my Throne And that is the usual phrase to express the dignity of those that reign with Christ in his Millennial Kingdom as you may see Apoc. 20. 4. Mat. 19. 28. Dan. 7. 9 13 14. So all these promises to the Churches aim at one and the same thing and terminate upon the same point 'T is the same reward express'd in different ways and seeing 't is still fixt upon a victory and appropriated to those that overcome it does the more easily carry our thoughts to the Millennium which is the proper reward of Victors that is of Martyrs and Confessors Thus you see how this notion and mystery of the Millennial Kingdom of Christ does both begin and end the Apocalypse and run thorough all its parts As the Soul of that Body of Prophecies A Spirit or ferment that actuates the whole mass And if we could thoroughly understand that illustrious Scene at the opening of this Apocalyptical Theatre in the 4th and 5th Chap. I do not doubt but we should find it a Representation of the Majesty of our Saviour in the Glory of his future Kingdom But I dare not venture upon the explication of it there are so many things of difficult and dubious interpretation coucht under those Schemes Wherefore having made these observations upon the Prophecies of St. Iohn we will now add to them some reflections upon the Prophecies of Daniel That by the agreement and concurrence of these two great Witnesses the Conclusion we pretend to prove may be fully established In the Prophecies of Daniel there are two grand Visions that of the Statue or Image Chap. 2. and that of the four Beats Chap. 7. And both these Visions terminate upon the Millennium or the Kingdom of Christ. In the Vision of the Statue representing to us the four great Monarchies of the World successively whereof by the general consent of Interpreters The Roman is the fourth and last after the dissolution of the last of them a fifth Monarchy the Kingdom of Christ is openly introduc'd in these words And in the days of these kingdoms shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroy'd and the kingdom shall be left to other people but it shall break in pieces and consume all those kingdoms and it shall stand for ever This may be verified in some measure by the first coming of our Saviour in the days of the 4th Kingdom when his Religion from small beginnings in a short time overspread the greatest part of the known World As the stone cut out without hands became a great mountain and filled the whole Earth But the full and final accomplishment of this Prophecy cannot be till the second coming of our Saviour For not till then will he break in pieces and consume all those kingdoms and that in such a manner that they shall become like the chaff of the Summer threshing floor carried away by the wind so as no place shall be found for them This I say will not be done nor an everlasting Kingdom erected in their place over all the Nations of the Earth till his Second Coming and his Millennial Reign But this Reign is declared more expresly in the Vision of the four Beasts Chap. 7. For after the destruction of the fourth Beast the Prophet says I saw in the night Visions and behold one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven and came to the Ancient of days and they brought him near before him And there was given him dominion and glory and a kingdom that all people nations and languages should serve him His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away and his kingdom that which shall not be destroy'd Accordingly he says ver 21 22. The last Beast and the little Horn made war against the Saints until the Ancient of days came and judgment was given to the Saints of the most High and the time came that the Saints possessed the kingdom And lastly in pursuit still of the same argument he concludes to the same effect in fuller words ver 26 27. But the Iudgment shall sit and they shall take away his dominion to consume and to destroy it unto the end And the kingdom and dominion and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the Saints of the most High whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and all dominions shall serve and obey him Here is the end of the matter says the Prophet Here is the upshot and result of all Here terminate both the Prophecies of Daniel and St. Iohn and all the affairs of the Terrestrial World Daniel brings in this kingdom of Christ in the conclusion of two or three Visions but St. Iohn hath interwoven it every where with his Prophecies from first to last And you may as well open a Lock without a Key as interpret the Apocalypse without the Millennium But after these two great Witnesses the one for the Old Testament the other for the New we must look into the rest of the Sacred Writers for tho' every single Author there is an Oracle yet the concurrence of Oracles is still a further demonstration and takes away all remains of doubt or incredulity CHAP. V. A View of other places of Scripture concerning the Millennium or future Kingdom of Christ. In what sence all the Prophets have born Testimony concerning it THE Wife of Zebedee came to our Saviour and begg'd of him like a fond Mother that her two Sons might sit one at his right hand th' other at his left when he came into his Kingdom Our Saviour does not deny the supposition or general ground of her request that he was to have a Kingdom but tells her The honours of that Kingdom were not then in his disposal He had not drunk his Cup nor been baptiz'd with his last Baptism which were conditions both to him and others of entring into that Kingdom Yet in another place our Saviour is so well assur'd of his interest and authority there by the good will of his Father that he promises to his Disciples and followers that for the losses they should sustain here upon his account and for the sake of his Gospel they should receive there an hundred fold and sit upon Thrones with him judging the Tribes of Israel The words are these And Iesus said unto them verily I say unto you that ye which have followed me in the Regeneration or Renovation when the Son of man shall sit in the Throne of his glory ye also shall sit upon twelve Thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel These Thrones in all reason must be understood to be the same with those which we mention'd in the foregoing Chapter out of Daniel and the Apocalypse and therefore mark the same time and the same
of the Messiah to contemplate its glory to sing praises to its King and triumph over his Enemies Psal. 68. Let God arise let his enemies be scattered Let them also that hate him flie before him As Smoke is driven away so drive them away as wax melteth before the fire so let the wicked perish at the presence of God But let the Righteous be glad c. The plain ground he goes upon in this Psalm is the Deliverance out of Aegypt and bringing the Israelites unto the Land of Canaan But when he is once upon the wing he soars to an higher pitch from the type to the Antitype To the days of the Messiah the Ascension of our Saviour and at length to his Kingdom and Dominion over all the Earth The 45th Psalm is an Epithalamium to Christ and the Church or to the Lamb and his Spouse And when that will be and in what state we may learn from S. Iohn Apoc. 19. 7 8. and ch 21. 2 9. Namely after the destruction of Babylon in the New Ierusalem glory The words and matter of the two Prophets answer to one another Here in this Psalm there is a Fight and Victory celebrated as well as a Marriage and so there is in that 19th Chapter of S. Iohn Here the Prophet says Gâ—rd thy sword upon thy thigh O most Mighty with thy glory and thy Majesty And in thy Majesty ride prosperously because of truth and meekness and righteousness and thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things Thy Throne O God is for ever and ever The Scepter of thy Kingdom is a right Scepter c. There S. Iohn says having describ'd a Conquerour on a white Horse Out of his mouth goeth a sharp Sword that with it he should smite the Nations and he shall rule them with a rod of Iron and he treadeth the Wine-press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a Name written KING of KINGS and LORD of LORDS This is the same glorious Conqueror and Bridegroom in both places and this Victory is not gain'd nor these Nuptials compleated till the second coming of our Saviour In many other Psalms there are reflections upon this happy Kingdom and the triumph of Christ over his Enemies as Psal. 2. Psal. 9. Psal. 21. and 24. and 47. and 85. and 110. and others In these and such like Psalms there are lineaments and colours of a fairer state than any we have yet seen upon Earth Not but that in their first instanâ—es and grounds they may sometimes respect the state of Israel or the Evangelical state but the eye of the Prophet goes further this does not terminate his sight His Divine Enthusiasm reaches into another World A World of Peace and Iustice and Holiness of Joy and Victory and Trumph over all the wicked and consequently such a World as neither we nor our Fathers have yet seen This is an account of Two Prophets David and Isaiah and of what they have more openly declar'd concerning the future Kingdom of Christ. But to verifie S. Peter's words in that foremention'd place Act. 3. 21. viz. That all the Holy Prophets since the World began have spoken of the Restauration of all things at the second coming of Christ. I say to verifie this assertion of S. Peter's we must suppose that where the Prophets speak of the Restauration and future glory of Iudah and Ierusalem they do under those Types represent to us the glory and happiness of the Church in the future Kingdom of Christ. And most of the Prophets in this sence and under these forms have spoken of this Kingdom In foretelling the Restauration of Ierusalem and Sion and happy days peace plenty and prosperity to the People of Israel Most of the Prophets I say from Moses to Malachy have spoken of this Restauration Moses in the 30th of Deut. ver 4 5 9. David in many of those Psalms we have cited Isaiah besides the places foremention'd treats amply of this subject Chap. 51. and in several other places So likewise the Prophet Ezekiel Daniel Hosea Ioel Amos Obadiah Micab Zephany Haggai Zachary Malachy All these have either expresly or under the Types of Ierusalem and Sion foretold happy days and a glorious triumph to the Church of God And seeing in the New Testament and in the Prophecies of St. Iohn the Christian Church is still represented as under persecution and distress till the fall of Antichrist and the Millennial Kingdom 'T is then and not till then that we must expect the full accomplishment of these Prophecies The Restauration that St. Peter says was spoken of by all the Prophets and the mystery which St. Iohn says Apoc. 10. 7. was declared by his Servants the Prophets and would be finish'd under the Seventh Trumpet which ushers in the Kingdom of Christ. It would be too long to examine all these places in the Prophets which you may consult at leisure However it cannot seem strange that Ierusalem should be us'd in a typical or allegorical sence seeing we often find such applications of it in the New Testament as Gal. 4. 26. Heb. 12. 22. Apoc. 3. 12. And 't is very natural that Ierusalem restor'd should signifie the same thing as New Ierusalem and therefore that S. Iohn by his New Ierusalem intended the same thing or the same state that the ancient Prophets did by their Restauration of Ierusalem And if neither can be understood in a literal sence which I believe you will not contend for they must both be interpreted of the future happiness and glory of the Church in the Kingdom of Christ. But to conclude this point wholly as to Scripture If we make reflection upon all the passages alledg'd in this and the foregoing Chapter whether out of the Old or New Testament we must at least acknowledge thus much That there are happy days at one time or other Days of Peace and Righteousness of Joy and Triumph of external Prosperity and internal Sanctity when Vertue and Innocency shall be in the Throne and Vice and vitious Men out of power or credit That there are such happy days Prophesied of in Scripture and promised to the Church of God Whether you call this the Reign of Christ and of his Saints or by any other name it is not material at present to determine let the title be what you will as to the substance it cannot be denied to be a general Doctrine of Prophetical Scripture And we must not imagine that the Prophets writ like the Poets feigned an Idea of a Romantick state that never was nor ever will be only to please their own fancies or the credulous people Neither is it the state of Heaven and eternal life that is here meant or intended For besides that they had little or no light concerning those Notions in the Old Testament The Prophets generally in their description of this happiness either express the Earth or at
they are to be reduc'd it does not certainly appear This mixture of these two Races whatsoever they were gave it seems so great offence to God that he destroy'd that World upon it in a Deluge of Water It hath been matter of great difficulty to determine who these Sons of God were that fell in love with and married the daughters of men There are two conjectures that prevail most One that they were Angels and another that they were of the Posterity of Seth and distinguish'd from the rest by their Piety and the worship of the true God so that it was a great crime for them to mingle with the rest of mankind who are suppos'd to have been Idolaters Neither of these opinions is to me satisfactory For as to Angels Good Angels neither marry nor are given in marriage Matt. 22. 30. and bad Angels are not call'd the Sons of God Besides if Angels were capable of those mean pleasures we ought in reason to suppose that there are female Angels as well as male for surely those capacities are not in vain through a whole Species of Beings And if there be female Angels we cannot imagine but that they must be of a far more charming beauty than the dowdy daughters of men Then as to the line of Seth It does not appear that there was any such distinction of Idolaters and true Worshippers before the Flood or that there was any such thing as Idolatry at that time nor for some Ages after Besides it is not said that the Sons of God fell in love with the Daughters of Cain or of any degenerate race but with the Daughters of Adam which may be the Daughters of Seth as well as of any other These conjectures therefore seem to be shallow and ill-grounded But what the distinction was of those two orders remains yet very uncertain St. Paul to the Galatians Chap. 4. 21 22 c. makes a distinction also of a double Progeny that of Sarah and that of Hagar One was born according to the flesh after a natural manner and the other by the divine power or in vertue of the divine promise This distinction of a natural and supernatural origine and of a double progeny the one born to servitude the other to liberty represents very well either the manner of our present birth and of our future at the Resurrection Or that double progeny and double manner of birth which we suppose in the Future Earth 'T is true St. Paul applies this to the Law and the Gospel but Typical things you know have different aspects and completions which are not exclusive of one another and so it may be here But however this double race of Mankind in the Future Earth to explain the Doctrine of Gog and Magog is but a conjecture and does not pretend to be otherwise consider'd The last thing that remains to be consider'd and accounted for is the upshot and conclusion of all namely what will become of the Earth after the thousand years expir'd Or after the Day of Judgment past and the Saints translated into Heaven what will be the face of things here below There being nothing expresly reveal'd concerning this we must not expect a positive resolution of it And the difficulty is not peculiar to our hypothesis for though the Millennium and the final Judgment were concluded in the present Earth the Quaere would still remain What would become of this Earth after the Last Day So that all parties are equally concern'd and equally free to give their opinion What will be the last state and Consummation of this Earth Scripture I told you hath not defin'd this point and the Philosophers say very little concerning it The Stoicks indeed speak of the final resolution of all things into Fire or into Aether which is the purest and subtlest sort of fire So that the whole Globe or Mass of the Earth and all particular bodies will according to them be at last dissolv'd into a liquid flame Neither was this Doctrine first invented by the Stoicks Heraclitus taught it long before them and I take it to be as ancient as Orpheus himself who was the first Philosopher amongst the Greeks And he deriving his notions from the Barbarick Philosophers or the Sages of the East that School of Wisdom may be look'd upon as the true seminary of this Doctrine as it was of most other natural knowledge But this dissolution of the Earth into Fire may be understood two ways either that it will be dissolv'd into a loose name and so dissipated and lost as Lightning in the Air and vanish into nothing or that it will be dissolv'd into a fixt flame such as the Sun is or a fixt Star And I am of opinion that the Earth after the last Day of Judgment will be chang'd into the nature of a Sun or of a fixt Star and shine like them in the Firmament Being all melted down into a mass of Aethereal matter and enlightning a Sphere or Orb round about it I have no direct and demonstrative proof of this I confess But if Planets were once fixt Stars as I believe they were their revolution to the same state again in a great Circle of Time seems to be according to the methods of Providence which loves to recover what was lost or decay'd after certain periods and what was originally good and happy to make it so again All Nature at last being transform'd into a like glory with the Sons of God I will not tell you what foundation there is in Nature for this change or transformation from the interiour constitution of the Earth and the instances we have seen of new Stars appearing in the Heavens I should lead the English Reader too far out of his way to discourse of these things But if there be any passages or expressions in Scripture that countenance such a state of things after the day of Judgment it will not be improper to take notice of them That radiant and illustrious Ierusalem describ'd by St. Iohn Apoc. 21. ver 10 11 12 c. compos'd all of Gemms and bright materials clear and sparkling as a Star in the Firmament Who can give an account what that is Its foundations walls gates streets all the Body of it resplendent as light or fire What is there in Nature or in this Universe that bears any resemblance with such a Phaenomenon as this unless it be a Sun or a fixt Star Especially if we add and consider what follows That the City had no need of the Sun non of the Moon to shine in it And that there was no night there This can be no Terrestrial Body it must be a substance luminous in it self and a fountain of light as a fixt Star And upon such a change of the Earth or transformation as this would be brought to pass the saying that is written DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP IN VICTORY Which indeed S. Paul seems to apply to our Bodies in particular 1
Cor. 15. 54. But in the Eighth Chapter to the Romans He extends it to all Nature The Creation it self also shall be deliver'd from the bondage of Corruption into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God And accordingly S. Iohn speaking of the same time with St. Paul in that place to the Corinthians namely of the general Resurrection and day of Judgment says Death and Hades which we render Hell were cast into the lake of fire This is their being swallowed up in victory which S. Paul speaks of when Death and Hades that is all the Region of mortality The Earth and all its dependances are absorpt into a mass of Fire and converted by a glorious Victory over the powers of darkness into a Luminous Body and a region of Light This great Issue and Period of the Earth and of all humane affairs tho' it seem to be founded in nature and supported by several expressions of Scripture yet we cannot for want of full instruction propose it otherwise than as a fair Conjecture The Heavens and the Earth shall flie away at the day of Judgment says the Text Apoc. 20. 11. And their place shall not be found This must be understood of our Heavens and our Earth And their flying away must be their removing to some other part of the Universe so as their place or residence shall not be found any more here below This is the easie and natural sence of the Words and this translation of the Earth will not be without some change preceding that makes it leave its place and with a lofty flight take its seat amongst the Stars There we leave it Having conducted it for the space of Seven Thousand Years through various changes from a dark Chaos to a bright Star FINIS A REVIEW OF THE THEORY OF THE EARTH And of its PROOFS ESPECIALLY IN REFERENCE TO SCRIPTURE LONDON Printed by R. N. for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's-Head in S. Paul's Church-Yard 1697. A REVIEW OF THE THEORY OF THE EARTH TO take a review of this Theory of the Earth which we have now finish'd We must consider first the extent of it and then the principal parts whereof it consists It reaches as you see from one end of the World to the other From the first Chaos to the last day and the Consummation of all things This probably will run the length of Seven Thousand Years which is a good competent space of time to exercise our Thoughts upon and to observe the several Scenes which Nature and Providence bring into View within the compass of so many Ages The matter and principal parts of this Theory are such things as are recorded in Scripture We do not feign a Subject and then descant upon it for diversion but endeavour to give an intelligible and rational account of such matters of Fact past or future as are there specifi'd and declar'd What it hath seem'd good to the Holy Ghost to communicate to us by History or Prophecy concerning the several States and general Changes of this Earth makes the Argument of our Discourse Therefore the things themselves must be taken for granted in one sence or other seeing besides all other proofs they have the Authority of a Revelation and our business is only to give such an explication of them as shall approve it self to the faculties of Man and be conformable to Scripture We will therefore first set down the things themselves that make the subject matter of this Theory and remind you of our explication of them Then recollect the general proofs of that explication from Reason and Nature but more fully and particularly shew how it is grounded upon Scripture The primary Phaenomena whereof we are to give an account are these Five or Six I. The Original of the Earth from a Chaos II. The state of Paradise and the Ante-diluvian World III. The Universal Deluge IV. The Universal Conflagration V. The Renovation of the World or the New Heavens and New Earth VI. The Consummation of all things These are unquestionably in Scripture and these all relate as you see to the several forms sâ—â—tes and revolutions of this Earth We are therefore oblig'd to give a clear and coherent account of these Phaeâ—oâ—ena in that orâ—er and consecution wherein tâ—ey stand to 〈◊〉 another There are also in Scripture some other things relating to the same Subjects that may be call'd the Secondary Ingredients of this Theory and are to be referr'd to their respective primary heads Such are for instance I. The Longevity of the Ante-diluvians II. The Rupture of the Great Abyss at the Deluge III. The appearing of the Rainbow after the Deluge as a sign that there neveâ—â—hould be a second Flood â—hese â—hings Scripâ—ure hath alâ—â— left upon â—â—cord as directions and indications how to understand the Ante-diluvian state and the Deluge it self Whosoever therefore shall undertake to write the Theory of the Earth must think himself bound to give us a just explication of these secondary Phaenomena as well as of the primary and that in such a dependance and connexion as to make them give and receive light from one another The former part of the Task is concerning the World behind us Times and Things past that are already come to light The later is concerning the World before us Times and Things to come That lie yet in the bosom of Providence and in the â—eeds of Nature And these are chiefly the Conflagration of the World and the Renovation of it When these are over and expir'd then comes the end as S. Paul says Then the Heavens and the Earth fly away as S. Iohn says Then is the Consummation of all things and the last period of this sublunary World whatsoever it is Thus â—ar the Theorist must go and pursue the motions of Nature till all things are brought to rest and silence And in this latter part of the Theory there is also a collateral Phaenomenon the Millennium or Thousand Years Reign of Christ and his Saints upon Earth to be consider'd For this according as it is represented in Scripture does imply a change in the Natural World as well as in the Moral and therefore must be accounted for in the Theory of the Earth At least it must be there determin'd whether that state of the World which is singular and extraordinary will be before or after the Confâ—agration These are the Principals and Incidents of this Theory of the Earth as to the Matter and Subject of it which you see is both impâ—rtant and wholly taken out of Scripture As to our explication of these points that is sufficiently known being set down at large in four Books of this Theory Therefore it remains only having seen the Matter of the Theory to examine the Form of it and the proofs of it for from these two things it must receive its censure As to the form the characters of a Regular Theory seem to be these three Few and easie Postulatums Union
am bound to make good I said at first that our Hypothesis concerning the Deluge was more agreeable not only to Scripture in general but also to the particular History of the Flood left us by Moses I say more agreeable to it than any other Hypothesis that hath yet been propos'd This may be made good in a few words For in Moses's History of the Deluge there are two principal points The extent of the Deluge and the Causes of it and in both these we do fully agree with that sacred Author As to the extent of it He makes the Deluge universal All the high hills under the whole heaven were cover'd fifteen cubits upwards We also make it universal over the face of the whole Earth and in such a manner as must needs raise the waters above the top of the highest Hills every where As to the canses of it Moses makes them to be the disruption of the Abyss and the Rains and no more and in this also we exactly agree with him we know no other causes nor pretend to any other but those two Distinguishing therefore Moses his narration as to the substance and circumstances of it it must be allowed that these two points make the substance of it and that an Hypothesis that differs from it in either of these two differs from it more than Ours which at the worst can but differ in matter of circumstance Now seeing the great difficulty about the Deluge is the quantity of Water required for it there have been two explications proposed besides ours to remove or satisfie this difficulty One whereof makes the Deluge not to have been universal or to have reacht only Iudea and some neighbouring Countries and therefore less water would suffice The other owning the Deluge to be universal supplies it self with Water from the Divine Omnipotenty and says new Waters were created then for the nonce and again annihilated when the Deluge was to cease Both these explications you see and I know no more of note that are not obnoxious to the same exceptions differ from Moses in the substance or in one of the two substantial points and consequently more than ours doth The first changeth the Flood into a kind of national inundation and the second assigns other causes of it than Moses had assigned And as they both differ apparently from the Mosaical History so you may see them refuted upon other grounds also in the third Chapter of the First Book of the Theory This may be sufficient as to the History of the Flood by Moses But possibly it may be said the principal objection will arise from Moses his six-Six-days Creation in the first Chapter of Genesis where another sort of Earth than what we have form'd from the Chaos is represented to us namely a Terraqueous Globe such as our Earth is at present 'T is indeed very apparent that Moses hath accommodated his Six days Creation to the present form of the Earth or to that which was before the eyes of the people when he writ But it is a great question whether that was ever intended for a true Physical account of the origine of the Earth or whether Moses did either Philosophize or Astronomize in that description The ancient Fathers when they answer the Heathens and the adversaries of Christianity do generally deny it as I am ready to make good upon another occasion And the thing it self bears in it evident marks of an accommodation and condescention to the vulgar notions concerning the form of the World Those that think otherwise and would make it literally and physically true in all the parts of it I desire them without entring upon the strict merits of the cause to determine these Preliminaries First whether the whole universe rise from a Terrestrial Chaos Secondly what Systeme of the World this six-Six-days Creation proceeds upon whether it supposes the Earth or the Sun for the Center Thirdly Whether the Sun and Fixt Stars are of a later date and a later birth than this Globe of Earth And lastly Where is the Region of the Super-celestial Waters When they have determin'd these Fundamentals we will proceed to other observations upon the Six-days work which will further assure us that 't is a narration suited to the capacity of the people and not to the strict and physical nature of things Besides we are to remember that Moses must be so interpreted in the first Chapter of Genesis as not to interfere with himself in other parts of his History nor to interfere with S. Peter or the Prophet David or any other Sacred Authors when they treat of the same matter Nor lastly so as to be repugnant to clear and uncontested Science For in things that concern the natural World that must always be consulted With these precautions let them try if they can reduce that narrative of the Origine of the World to physical truth so as to be consistent both with Nature and with Divine Revelation every where It is easily reconcileable to both if we suppose it writ in a Vulgar style and to the conceptions of the People And we cannot deny that a Vulgar style is often made use of in the holy Writings How freely and unconcernedly does Scripture speak of God Almighty according to the opinions of the vulgar of his passions local motions parts and members of his body Which all are things that do not belong or are not compatible with the Divine Nature according to truth and Science And if this liberty be taken as to God himself much more may it be taken as to his works And accordingly we see what motion the Scripture gives to the Sun what figure to the Earth what figure to the Heavens All according to the appearance of sence and popular credulity without any remorse for having transgressed the rules of intellectual truth This vulgar style of Scripture in describing the natures of things hath been often mistaken for the real sence and so become a stumbling-block in the way of truth Thus the Anthropomorphites of old contended for the humane shape of God from the Letter of Scripture and brought many express Texts for their purpose but sound reason at length got the upper hand of Literal authority Then several of the Christian Fathers contended that there were no Antipodes and made that doctrine irreconcileable to Scripture But this also after a while went off and yielded to reason and experience Then the Motion of the Earth must by no means be allow'd as being contrary to Scripture for so it is indeed according to the Letter and Vulgar style But all intelligent Persons see thorough this Argument and depend upon it no more in this case than in the former Lastly The original of the Earth from a Chaos drawn according to the rules of Physiology will not be admitted because it does not agree with the Scheme of the Six-days Creation But why may not this be writ in a Vulgar style as well as the rest Certainly
there can be nothing more like a Vulgar style than to set God to work by the day and in Six-days to finish his task as he is there represented We may therefore probably hope that all these disguises of truth will at length fall off and that we shall see God and his Works in a pure and naked Light Thus I have finish'd what I had to say in confirmation of this Theory from Scripture I mean of the former part of it which depends chiefly upon the Deluge and the Ante-diluvian Earth When you have collated the places of Scripture on either side and laid them in the balance to be weigh'd one against another If you do but find them equal or near to an equal poise you know in whether Scale the Natural Reasons are to be laid and of what weight they ought to be in an argument of this kind There is a great difference betwixt Scripture with Philosophy on its side and Scripture with Philosophy against it when the question is concerning the Natural World And this is our Case which I leave now to the consideration of the unprejudic'd Reader and proceed to the Proof of the Second Part of the Theory THE later Part consists of the Conflagration of the World and the New Heavens and New Earth And seeing there is no dispute concerning the former of these two our task will now lie in a little compass Being only this To prove that there will be New Heavens and a New Earth after the Conflagration This to my mind is sufficiently done already in the first second and third Chapters of the 4th Book both from Scripture and Antiquity whether Sacred or Prophane and therefore at present we will only make a short and easie review of Scripture-Testimonies with design chiefly to obviate and disappoint the Evasions of such as would beat down solid Texts into thin Metaphors and Allegories The Testimonies Scripture concerning the Renovation of the World are either express â—implicit Those I call express that mention the New Heavens and â—ew Earth And those implicit that signifie the same thing but râ—â— express terms So when our Saviour speaks of a Palingenesia 〈◊〉 Regeneration Matt. 19. 28 29. Or S. Peter of an Apocatastasâ— or Restitution Act. 3. 21. These being words us'd by all Authâ—rs Prophane or Ecclesiastical for the Renovation of the World â—â—ght in reason to be interpreted in the same sence in the Holy Wâ—â—tings And in like manner when S. Paul speaks of his Future Eaâ—â—h or an habitable World to come Hebr. 2. 5. or of a Redemption or â—â—lioration of the present state of Nature Rom. 8. 21 22. These lead 〈◊〉 again in other terms to the same Renovation of the World â—â—t there are also some places of Scripture that set the Heavensâ—â—d â—â—d New Earth in such a full and open view that we must shut ourâ—â—yes not to see them S. Iohn says he saw them and observ'd the fâ—â—m of the New Earth Apoc. 21. 1. The Seer Isaiah spoke of thenâ— in express words many hundred years before And S. Peter marâ—â— the time when they are to be introduc'd namely after the Coâ—â—lagration or after the Dissolution of the present Heavens and Eaâ—â—h 2 Pet. 3. 12 13. These latâ—â—r Texts of Scripture being so express there is but one way left to â—â—lude the force of them and that is by turning the Renovation 〈◊〉 the World into an Allegory and making the New Heavens and â—ew Earth to be Allegorical Heavens and Earth not real and mateâ—â—al as ours are This is a bold attempt of some modern Authors â—ho chuse rather to strain the Word of God than their own Noâ—â—ons There are Allegories no doubt in Scripture but we are not 〈◊〉 allegorize Scripture without some warrant either from an Apoâ—olical Interpretation or from the necessity of the matter and I dâ— not know how they can pretend to either of these in this case â—owever That they may have all fair play we will lay aside at presâ—nt all the other Texts of Scripture and confine our selves wholly to S. Peter's words to see and examine whether they are or can â—e turn'd into an Allegory according to the best rules of Interpreâ—ation S. â—eter's words are these Seeing then all these things shall be dissolv'd what manner of persons ought ye to be in holy conversation and godliâ—â—ss Looking for and hasting the coming of the Day of God wherâ—in the Heavens being on fire shall be dissolv'd and the Elements shall melt with servent heat NEVERTHELESS we according 〈◊〉 his promise look for New Heavens and a New Earth wherein Rigâ—â—eousness shall dwell The Question is concerning this last Verse Wheâ—her the New Heavens and Earth here promis'd are to be real and maâ—â—rial Heavens and Earth or only figurative and allegorical The woâ—ds you see are clear and the general rule of Interpretation is thiâ— That we are not to recede from the letter or the literal sence unâ—ess there be a necessity from the subject matter such a necessity as makes a literal Interpretation absurd But where is that necessity in this Case Cannot God make New Heavens and a New Earth as â—easily as he made the Old ones Is his strength decay'd since that Time or is Matter grown more disobedient 〈◊〉 does not Nature offer her self voluntarily to raise a New Worâ—â— from the Second Chaos as well as from the First and under thâ— conduct of Providence to make it as convenient an habitation as 〈◊〉 Primaeval Earth Therefore no necessity can be pretended of leavinâ— the literal sence upon an incapacity of the subject matter The Second Rule to determine an Interpretatioâ— to be Literal or Allegorical is The use of the same words or phraâ—â— in the Context and the signification of them there Let 's then exaâ—ine our case according to this rule S. Peter had us'd the same pâ—ase of Heavens and Earth twice before in the same Chapter The 〈◊〉 Heavens and Earth ver 5. The Present Heavens and Earth ver 7. and now he uses it again ver 13. The New Heavens and Earth Have we not then reason to suppose that he takes it here in the sâ—me sence that he had done twice before for real and material Heaâ—â—ns and Earth There is no mark set of a new signification nor whâ— we should alter the sence of the words That he us'd them alwâ—ys before for the material Heavens and Earth I think none will â—uestion and therefore unless they can give us a sufficient reason wâ—y we should change the signification of the words we are bound 〈◊〉 this second rule also to understand them in a literal sence Lastly The very form of the Words and the manneâ— of their dependance upon the Context leads us to a literal sence â—nd to material Heavens and Earth NEVERTHELESS says â—he Apostle we expect New Heavens c. Why Nevertheless that is noâ—â—ithstanding the dissolution of the present Heavens and Earth Tâ—e Apostle foresaw what he had