God himself says I form the light and create darkness I make peace and create evil I the Lord do all these things Where the objects of the Divine Creation being not real and substantial Beings could not be capable of a proper production out of nothing Which also is the case in the verse immediately following Let righteousness spring up together I the Lord have created it Thus also says God by the same Prophet I create new Heavens and a new Earth which tho' the very case before us yet would odly enough be expounded of an annihilation of the World and a reproduction of it again But what comes still more home to our purpose is that in the very History of the Creation it self the word Create as well as Make is us'd in the sense we contend for the very same things being ascrib'd to the Creating and Making Power of God which are also describ'd as the regular offspring of the Earth and Seas God created great Whales and every living Creature that moveth which the waters brought forth abundantly after their kind And God said Let the Earth bring forth the living Creature after his kind Cattel and creeping thing and Beast of the Earth after his kind and it was so And God made the Beast of the Earth after his kind and Cattel after their kind and every thing that creepeth upon the Earth after his kind and God saw that it was good So that when the words made use of in the History of the Creation are there and every where taken promiscuously when some of them are by the confession of all of no larger importance than the Proposition before us will admit and when lastly that word of which the greatest doubt can arise has been prov'd not only in other Texts of Scripture but in the very History of which we are treating to be of no more determinate signification than the rest and alike capable of the sense we here put upon it I think 't is a clear Case that if no Argument can be drawn from such words for yet neither can there justly be any against that Proposition we are now upon III. Those synonymous Phrases The World or the Heavens and the Earth under which the Object of the six days Creation is comprehended every where in Scripture do not always denote the whole System of Beings no nor any great and general Portion of them but are in the Sacred Stile frequently if not mostly to be restrained to the terraqueous Globe with its dependances and consequently both may and if the subject matter require it ought to be understood in such a restrained sense and no other That by these Phrases the Mosaick Creation or six days work is usually understood is evident every where in Scripture as the following Texts will easily evince God who made the World and all things therein The Divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was in the World and the World was made by Him and the World knew Him not Hence those frequent expressions From the Foundation of the World from the Beginning of the World from the Creation of the World and before the World was which tho' capable of including more must yet be allow'd to have generally a peculiar nay sometimes a sole regard to the six days work particularly stil'd by St. Mark The Beginning of the Creation which God created In the same manner and with the like frequency the other Phrase Heaven and Earth denote the same six days work also Thus the Heavens and the Earth were finished and all the Host of them These are the Generations of the Heavens and of the Earth when they were created in the day that the Lord God made the Earth and the Heavens In six days the Lord made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that in them is and rested the seventh day which being so express I shall not need to look out for any other parallel places And that both the World and Heaven and Earth signify the terraqueous Globe alone with its Air or Atmosphere and other Appurtenances without including the whole Universe nay or Solar System also which yet I do not deny sometimes to be comprehended therein the following Texts will sufficiently shew Our Lord says of the Woman who poured the Oyntment on him Wheresoever this Gospel shall be preached in the whole World there shall also this which this Woman hath done be told for a memorial of her His Charge and Commission to his Apostles was Go ye into all the World and preach the Gospel to every Creature The Tempter came to Jesus and shew'd him all the Kingdoms of the World and the Glory of them In all which places no other than the habitable Earth can be understood and 't is still so frequent and natural for Men to use this manner of Speech in the same restrained Sense to this very day that one may the less wonder at the Sacred Stile in this Case But this word the World having not so much difficulty in it nor being so much stood upon as those which follow the Heavens and the Earth I shall no longer insist upon it but proceed And here when the World as a totum integrale is divided into its two contradistinct Parts the Heavens and the Earth it will be said That by such a Phrase or Enumeration of the Parts of the Universe no less can be meant than the whole World in the largest acceptation or however more must be intended than the bare Earth which is but one Member or Branch and so certainly less than that whole of which it is a part In answer whereto I freely confess That the Heavens and the Earth do not seldom denote the intire Universe an instance of which the first words of Genesis have already afforded us but that they always do so I have reason to deny As the Signification of the Earth is known and capable of no Ambiguity so 't is quite otherwise in the word Heaven which in common use and the sacred Authors sometimes refers to the Seat of the Blessed or the third Heaven sometimes to the place of the Sun Moon and Stars and otherwhiles is no farther to be extended than the Clouds or the open Expansum about the Earth where the Air Atmosphere Meteors Clouds and Volatils have their abode Instances of the two former Significations were it pertinent to my present purpose might easily be produc'd but that not being so I shall wave the same and only prove the third and last Signification namely That by the Heavens is frequently understood nothing more than the Atmosphere of the Earth with its appendant or contained Bodies Thus God made the Firmament and divided the Waters which were under the Firmament from the Waters which were above the Firmament and it was so And God called the Firmament Heaven Which place is so express and in the very History it self which we
are now about also that it ought to be of peculiar force in the present case Thus also the Builders of Babel said Go to Let us build us a City and a Tower whose top may reach unto Heaven So mention is made of Cities great and fenced up to Heaven The Clouds pass by the name of the Clouds of Heaven nay they are by the Psalmist agreeably to the Interposition of the Expansum Firmament or Heaven on the second day of the Creation between the superior and inferior Waters made as it were its farthest Boundaries and Limits the Waters contain'd in them being call'd Waters which are above the Heavens The very Fowls which still reside nearer to the Earth are stil'd the Fowls of Heaven and were originally appointed to fly above the Earth in the open Firmament of Heaven By all which places 't is evident That the word Heaven is commonly so far from including the Sun or Planetary Chorus much less the fix'd Stars with all their immense Systems that the Moon our attending and neighbour Planet is not taken in The utmost bounds of our Atmosphere being so of this our Heaven also which was the only Point which remain'd to be clear'd But here before I proceed farther I must take notice of a considerable Objection which threatens to wrest this Argument out of my hands and indeed to subvert the intire Foundation of the Proposition before us and is I freely own the main difficulty in this whole matter and 't is this That such a Sense of the words World and Heaven and Earth as has been pleaded for whatever may be said in other cases will yet by no means fit here nor take in all the extent of the Mosaick Creation because 't is certain that neither the Light by whose Revolution Night and Day are distinguish'd nor the Sun Moon and Stars which are set in our Firmament belong to our Atmosphere or are contain'd within those Boundaries within which we confine the present History and 't is equally certain that both of them belong to the Mosaick Creation and are the first and fourth days works therein and by consequence it may be said the Subject of the six days Creation must be the whole System of the heavenly Bodies or at least that particular one in which the Earth is and is stil'd the Solar System Now this Objection is in part already taken off by the Sense in which the Production and Creation of things has been shewn to be frequently taken in the Holy Scriptures whereby there appears to be no necessity of believing these Bodies to have been then brought into being when they are first mention'd in the Mosaick Creation But because this is not meerly the chief but only considerable Objection against the Proposition we are upon because it seems to have been the principal occasion of men's Mistakes and Prejudices about this whole History and because 't is the single instance wherein this intire Theory as far as I know seems to recede from the obvious Letter of Scripture 't will be but proper to give it a particular review and clear withal not only this but several other like Expressions and Passages in the Holy Scripture Now in order to the giving what satisfaction I can in this Point let it be consider'd That the Light being not said to be created by Moses its Original were without difficulty to be accounted for if the other Point the making of the Heavenly Bodies were once setled which therefore is the sole remaining difficulty in the case before us And that would be no harder if the Translation of the Words of Moses were but amended and the Verses hereto relating read thus And God said Let there be lights in the firmament of the Heaven to divide the day from the night and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years and let them be for lights in the firmament of the Heaven to give light upon the Earth and it was so And God having before made two great lights the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night and having before made the stars also God set them in the firmament of Heaven to give light upon the Earth c. or which is all one And God had before made two great lights the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night he had before made the stars also and God set them in the firmament c. In which rendring 't is only changing the perfectum for the plusquam perfectum and every thing is clear and easy and the Objection vanishes of its own accord the Creation of the heavenly Bodies being hereby assigned to a former time and the Work of the fourth day no other than the placing them in our Firmament according as the account hereafter to be given does require Now to prove this a fair and just Interpretation to omit the Creation of the Heavens and Heavenly Bodies already related before the six days work 't is only necessary to observe that the Hebrew Tongue having no plusquam perfectum must and does express the Sense of it by the perfectum and that accordingly the particular circumstances of each place must alone determine when thereby the time present and when that already past and gone is to be understood How many knots in the Scripture the omission of this Observation has left unsolv'd and which being observ'd would be immediately untied I shall not go about to enumerate there being so many in the very History before us of the Origin of the World that I shall not go one jot farther for instances to confirm the before-mention'd Translation and which on the account of their agreement in place will more forcibly plead for a like agreement in Sense also On the seventh day God had ended his work which he had made and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made He had rested from all his work which God had created and made The Lord God had not caused it to rain on the Earth and there had not been a man to till the Ground but there had gone up a mist from the Earth and had water'd the whole face of the ground and the Lord God had formed man of the dust of the ground and had breathed into his nostrils the breath of life And the Lord God had planted a Garden eastward in Eden And out of the ground had the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food And out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every fowl of the air In all which places the whole Context is so clear'd by this rendring and so many strange Absurdities avoided that there is I think all imaginable reason to acquiesce in it And tho' the fourth days work is among those other
the six foregoing and his Resting or keeping a Sabbath on this seventh day Which Sabbath was reviv'd or at least its Observation anew enforc'd on the Jews by the Fourth Commandment Thus the Heavens and the Earth were finished and all the host of them and on the seventh day God had ended his work which he had made and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made And God blessed the seventh day and sanctifyed it because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day Six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God in it thou shalt do no manner of work thou nor thy son nor thy daughter nor thy man-servant nor thy maid-servant nor thy cattel nor the stranger which is within thy gates For in six days the Lord made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that in them is and rested the seventh day wherefore the Lord blessed the seventh day and hallowed it XII There is a constant and vigorous heat diffused from the Central towards the Superficiary parts of our Earth Tho' I might bring several Arguments from Ancient Tradition the Opinion of great Philosophers and the present Observations of Nature for this Assertion yet I shall chuse here for brevities sake to depend wholly on the last evidence and refer the inquisitive Reader to what the Learned Dr. Woodward says in the present case which I take to be very satisfactory XIII The Habitable Earth is founded or situate on the Surface of the Waters or of a deep and vast Subterraneous fluid This Constitution of the Earth is a natural result from such a Chaos as we have already assign'd affords foundation for an easie account of the Origin of Mountains renders the Histories of the several states of the Earth and of the Universal Deluge very intelligible is as Philosophical and as agreeable to the common Phaenomena of Nature as any other without this supposition 't will be I believe impossible to explain what Antiquity Sacred and Prophane assures us of relating to the Earth and its great Catastrophes but this being allow'd 't will not be difficult to account for the same to the greatest degree of satisfaction as will appear in the progress of the present Theory And Lastly The same assertion is most exactly consonant to and confirm'd by the Holy Scriptures as the following Texts will fairly evince When the Lord prepared the heavens I was there When he set a compass Circle or Orb on the face of the deep When he established the clouds above when he strengthened the fountains of the deep When he gave to the sea his decree that the waters should not pass his commandment when be appointed the foundations of the earth He hath founded the earth upon the seas and establish'd it upon the floods To him that stretched out the earth above the waters for his mercy endureth for ever This they willingly are ignorant of that by the word of God the heavens were of old and the Earth standing out of the water and in the water whereby the world that then was being overflowed with waters perished The fountains of the great deep were broken up The fountains of the deep were stopped XIV The interior or intire Constitution of the Earth is correspondent to that of an Egg. 'T is very well known that an Egg was the solemn and remarkable Symbol or Representation of the World among the most venerable Antiquity and that nothing was more celebrated than the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the most early Anthors which if extended beyond the Earth to the System of the Heavens is groundless and idle if referr'd to the Figure of the Earth is directly false and so is most reasonably to be understood of the intire and internal Constitution thereof XV. The Primi ive Earth had Seas and Dry-land distinguish'd from each other in great measure as the present and those situate in the same places generally as they still are This is put past doubt by part of the third the intire fifth and part of the sixth Day 's Works One half of the third being spent in distinguishing the Seas from the Dry-land the intire fifth in the Production of Fish and Fowl out of the Waters and in the assigning the Air to the latter sort and the Seas to the former for their respective Elements and on the sixth God bestows on Mankind the Dominion of the Inhabitants as well of the Seas as of the Dry-land All which can leave no doubt of the truth of the former part of this Assertion And that their Disposition was originally much what as it is at present appears both by the Rivers Tigris and Euphrates running then into the same Persian Sea that now they do And by the Observations of Dr. Woodward fully confirming the same XVI The Primitive Earth had Springs Fountains Streams and Rivers in the same manner as the present and usually in or near the same places also This is but a proper consequence of the Distinction of the Earth into Seas and Dry-land the latter being uninhabitable without them and such Vapours as are any way condensed into Water on the higher parts of the Dry-land naturally descending and hollowing themselves Channels till they fall into the Seas However the other direct proofs for both parts of the Assertion are sufficiently evident I was set up from everlasting from the beginning or ever the earth was When there were no depths I was brought forth when there were no fountains abounding with water A river went out of Eden to water the garden and from thence it was parted and became into four heads Pison Gihon Tigris and Euphrates The two latter of which are well-known Rivers to this very day And the same thing is confirm'd by Dr. Woodward's Observations XVII The Primitive Earth was distinguish'd into Mountains Plains and Vallies in the same manner generally speaking and in the same places as the present This is a natural consequent of the two former The Caverns of the Seas with the extant Parts of the Dry-land being in effect great Vallies and Mountains and the Origin and Course of Rivers necessarily supposing the same For tho' the Earth in the Theorist's way were Oval which it is not 't is demonstrable there could be no such descent as the course of Rivers requires However the direct proofs are evident The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way before his works of old I was set up from everlasting from the beginning or ever the Earth was Before the mountains were setled before the Hills was I brought forth While as yet he had not made the earth nor the fields nor the highest part of the dust of the world Art thou the first man that was born or
six Days work to be of the very same and no larger extent than those are and leave the whole to the Judgment of the Reader There shall come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lusts and saying Where is the promise of his coming for since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation For this they willingly are ignorant of that by the word of God the heavens were of old and the earth standing out of the water and in the water whereby the world that then was being overflowed with water perished But the heavens and the earth which are now by the same word are kept in store reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent heat the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up In the day of God the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with fervent heat Nevertheless we according to his promise look for a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness Thou Lord in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth and the heavens are the works of thine hands They shall perish but thou remainest and they all shall wax old as doth a garment and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up and they shall be changed I have now finish'd all those Arguments which to me are fully satisfactory and I think prove beyond rational contradiction That not the vast Universe but the Earth alone with its dependencies are the proper subject of the Six Days Creation And that the Mosaick History is not a Nice Exact and Philosophick account of the several steps and operations of the whole but such an Historical Relation of each Mutation of the Chaos each successive day as the Journal of a Person on the Face of the Earth all that while would naturally have contained The sum of all is this 1. The very Words and Coherence of Moses himself require such a Construction 2. The Words of Creating Making or Framing things here us'd are commonly of no larger importance than this Proposition allows 3. The World or Heaven and Earth the objects of this Creation are alike frequently restrain'd to the sublunary World the Air and Earth 4. The Chaos that known fund and seminary of the Six Days Creation extended no farther 5. On the contrary supposition the time of the Creation of each Body is extremely disproportionate to the work it self 6. On the same supposition there is an intolerable disorder disproportion and confusion in the works themselves 7. The sinal cause of the six days Creation is the advantage of Mankind the Inhabitant of the Earth 8. Neither the intention of the Author nor the capacity of the Readers require or could bear any other account of the origin of things 9. Lastly Neither the Deluge nor Conflagration whose extent appears commensurate to that of this Creation are of any larger compass than is here assign'd Upon this view of the whole matter give me leave to say That to make the Universal Frame of Nature concern'd in the particular Fates and Revolutions of our Earth is at this time of day to demonstrate either very mean thoughts of the Ends of the Divine Workmanship and of the Essects thereof in the World or else very proud and extravagant conceits of our own worth and dignity and at best argues a narrow ignoble and unphilosophical Soul 'T is much such another Wise and Rational Notion as it would be to suppose that the whole Terraqueous Globe with all its parts and dependencies all its furniture and productions was alike concern'd in the Fates and Revolutions pardon the expressions of one single Fly or Worm belonging to it And we may e'en as fairly allow the intire dependence of this sublunary World on the fortune of such a single animalculum That on its peeping into the World the whole Earth must arise out of nothing to afford it a resting place while it was growing and continued in its prime all things below must spring and flourish rejoyce and look gay on its decay all things must put on a mournful countenance and on its destruction Universal Nature here beneath must expire together and return to its primitive nothing This representation will I imagine seem bold and extravagant But 't will be hard to prove it so And I may appeal to Astronomy whether the Earth can be shewn to bear as considerable a proportion to the Universe as such a poor animalculum does certainly bear to it I would not by this or any thing else I have heretofore said in this Discourse be so far mistaken as to be believ'd prone to depretiate and and debase Mankind or to put a slight on all those Works of Nature and Providence which are subservient to it Neither do I deny that in some sense all the Visible World Heaven and Earth are ordain'd for our use and advantage I fully believe that we are the Creatures of God of whom he has a tender regard and over whom he exercises a constant a special Care and Providence As I look upon the Souls of Men in their proper and primitive perfection when they came out of their Maker's Hands to be Noble to be Glorious to be Exalted Beings and perhaps in capacities or faculties in dignity or happiness not inferior to some of the Angelick Orders so I also most undoubtedly believe what our Saviour affirms of good mens state hereafter that they shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equal to the Angels and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Children of God himself While I am perswaded that the Creation of Man was not effected without the concurrence and joint consultation of the Blessed Trinity Nor his Redemption without the Acceptance of the Father the Sacrifice and Death of the Son in his Humane Nature and the Sanctification and Operation of the Holy Spirit While I am perswaded that the Divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 has ever since the Fall of Adam been sollicitous about our Reconciliation to God and made it his constant business even before as well as since his Incarnation to mediate for us and take care of our eternal happiness While I believe that by the new Covenant Good Men even in this Imperfect state are esteem'd Heirs of God joint-Heirs with Christ and denominated the Brethren and Friends of their Glorious Redeemer While I do not doubt but our Humane Nature is now in the Person of our Blessed Saviour in Heaven and there on account of the Hypostatical Union with the Eternal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and as a reward of that Obedience and Suffering it underwent for us on Earth advanc'd above the most exalted Intellectual Orders at the Right Hand of the Majesty on High
positive evidence for the Proposition before us yet setting aside prepossession I had an equal right and pretence to Truth with the Common Expositors I keeping equally close to the Letter of the Sacred History 2. This Hypothesis gives a rational account of the Scripture stile wherein a Day even in after Ages very frequently denotes a Year as is commonly taken notice of by Expositors Thus by Moses himself the Word Day is not only in the very recapitulation of the Creation us'd for the intire Six These are the Generations of the Heavens and of the Earth when they were Created in the Day that the Lord God made the Earth and the Heavens and every Plant of the Field before it was in the Earth and every Herb of the Field before it grew But in other places as it seems for the just space of a Year And at the end of Days or after some Years it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord. The days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years and he died And so of the rest of the Genealogies in that Chapter Thus in others of the Holy Writers I will give thee ten shekels of Silver by the days i. e. per annâ—s by the years or every year Thus what in one place is Joshuah waxed Old and came into Days is in another Joshuah was old and stricken in years The like phrases we have of David the number of Days that David was King in Hebron over the house of Judah was seven Years and six months The Days that David reigned over Israel were forty years So what was in the Law Bring your Tyths after three Years is in the Prophet Bring your Tyths after three Days Which ways of speaking with others that follow may seem alluded to and explain'd by these two tho' themselves somewhat of a different nature Your children says God to the Israelites shall wander in the Wilderness forty Years after the number of the Days in which ye searched the land even forty Days each Day for a Year shall you bear your iniquities even forty Years Lye thou says God to the Prophet Ezekiel on thy left side and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it according to the number of the Days that thou shalt lye upon it thou shalt bear their iniquity For I have laid upon thee the Years of their iniquity according to the Number of the Days three hundred and ninety Days so shalt thou bear the iniquity of the house of Israel And when thou hast accomplish'd 'em lye again on thy right side and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty Days I have appointed thee a Day for a Year But what I mainly and principally intend here is that known frequent and solemn way in the Prophetick Writings of determining Years by Days the instances of which are very obvious some whereof I shall here barely quote for the Reader 's satisfaction and more in a case so notorious and remarkable need not be done How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice and the transgression of desolation to give both the Sanctuary and the Host to be trodden under foot And he said unto me Unto two thousand three hundred Days then shall the Sanctuary be cleansed From the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away and the abomination that maketh desolate be set up there shall be one thousand two hundred and ninety Days Blessed is he that waiteth and cometh to the one thousand three hundred five and thirty days But go thou thy way till the end be for thou shalt rest and stand in thy Lot at the end of the days I will give power unto my two witnesses and they shall prophecy one thousand two hundred and sixty days cloathed in sack-cloth The Woman fled into the Wilderness where she hath a place prepared her of God that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days Agreeably whereto a Week consisting of seven days denotes seven years and a Month consisting of thirty days denotes thirty years in the same Prophetick Writings Thus in that most famous of all Prophecies concerning the death of the Messias Seventy Weeks are determin'd upon the people and upon thy holy city to finish the transgression and to make an end of sins and to make reconciliation for iniquity and to bring in everlasting rightcousness and to seal up the vision and prophecy and to anoint the most Holy Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks and sixty and two weeks the street shall be built again and the wall even in a straight of times And after the sixty and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off but not for himself The Holy City shall they tread undersoot forty and two months Power was given to the Beast to continue forty and two months All which expressions with others of the same nature are not accountable I mean there is no satisfactory reason can be given why a Day should so frequently denote a Year in the Sacred Writings on any other Hypothesis We usually indeed content our selves in these cases with the bare knowing the meaning of Scripture expressions as if they were chosen at a venture and so for instance finding a Day to represent a Year in the same Books we rest satisfi'd without enquiring why a Day rather than an Hour a Week or Month the two latter of which terms are yet us'd by these Authors were pitch'd upon to signifie the before-mention d space to us or why if the word Day must be made use of it must mean a determinate just Year rather than a Week a Month or a Thousand Years for which last it yet seems sometimes to be taken so frequently in the Sacred especially the Prophetick Writings But 't is very supposable that 't is our Ignorance or Unskilfulness in the Stile of Scripture and those things therein deliver'd not the Inaccuracy of the Writers themselves which occasions our so laxe and general Interpretations It will sure at least be allow'd me that wherever not only the Meaning of Phrases but the Original and Foundation of such their Meaning is naturally and easily assignable an account thereof is readily to be embrac'd And certainly the Primitive Years of the World being once suppos'd to have been Days also and call'd by that name in the History of the Creation this matter will be very easie the succeeding Stile of Scripture will appear only a continuation of the Primitive and fitted to hint to us a time wherein a Day and a Year were really the same And this without any diminution of the true designs
at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away They go up by the mountains they go down by the vallies unto the place which thou hast appointed for them LVII This Deluge of Waters was universal in its extent and effect reaching to all the parts of the Earth and destroying all the Land-animals on the intire Surface thereof those only excepted which were with Noah in the Ark. The following Texts especially if compar'd with the thirty third foregoing Phaenomenon and added to Dr. Woodward's Observations attesting the same thing will put this Assertion beyond rational Exception God looked upon the earth and behold it was corrupt for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth And God said unto Noah The end of all flesh is come before me Behold I even I do bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destory all flesh wherein is the breath of life from under heaven and every thing that is in the earth shall dye Every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth All the high hills that were under the whole heaven were covered And all flesh died that moved upon the earth both of fowl and of cattel and of beast and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth and every man All in whose nostrils was the breath of life all that was in the dry land died And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground both man and cattel and the creeping thing and the fowl of the heaven and they were destroyed from the earth and Noah only remain'd alive and they that were with him in the Ark. LVIII The Waters at their utmost height were fifteen Cubits above the highest Mountains or three Miles at the least perpendicular above the common Surface of the Plains and Seas All the high hills under the whole heaven were cover'd Fifteen cubits upwards did the waters prevail and the mountains were cover'd LIX Whatever be the height of the Mountain Caucasus whereon the Ark rested Now it was at that time the highest in the whole World This is evident from what has been already observ'd That tho' the utmost height of the Waters were fifteen Cubits above the highest Mountains and so many hundreds nay thousands above the most of them yet did the Ark rest on the very first day on which the Waters began to diminish more than two Months before the emerging of the tops of the other Mountains As is evident from the Texts following The waters prevailed upon the earth from the seventeenth day of the second to the seventeenth day of the seventh month an hundred and fifty days And God remembred Noah and all the cattel that was with him in the Ark and God made a wind to pass over the earth and the waters asswaged The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped and the rain from heaven was restrained And the waters returned from off the earth continually and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated And the Ark rested in the seventh month on the seventeenth day of the month upon the mountains of Ararat And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month in the tenth month on the first day of the month were the tops of the mountains seen LX. As the Fountains of the great Deep were broken up at the very same time that the first Rains began so were they stopp'd the very same time that the last Rains ended on the seventeenth day of the seventh Month. The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped and the rain from heaven was restrained LXI The abatement and decrease of the Waters of the Deluge was first by a Wind which dried up some And secondly by their descent through those Fissures Chaps and Breaches at which part of them had before ascended into the Bowels of the Earth which received the rest To which latter also the Wind by hurrying the Waters up and down and so promoting their lighting into the beforemention'd Fissures was very much subservient God made a wind to pass over the earth and the waters asswaged The waters returned from off the earth continually or going and returning Who shut up the sea with doors when it brake forth as if it had issued out of the womb When I brake up for it my decreed place and set bars and doors and said Hitherto shalt thou come but no further and here shall thy proud waves be stayed Thou coveredst the earth with the deep as with a garment the waters stood above the mountains At thy rebuke they fled at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away They went up by the mountains they went down by the vallies unto the place which thow hadst appointed for them Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass that they turn not again to cover the earth LXII The dry Land or habitable Part of the Globe is since the Deluge divided into two vast Continents almost opposite to one another and separated by a great Ocean interpos'd between them This every Map of the Earth is a sufficient proof of LXIII One of these Continents is considerably larger than the other This is evident the same way with the former LXIV The larger Continent lies most part on the North-side of the Equator and the smaller most part on the South This if we take South-America the most considerable and intire Branch of the whole for the Continent here referr'd to as 't is reasonable to do is also evident the same way with the former LXV The Middle or Center of the North-Continent is about sixteen or eighteen degrees of Northern Latitude and that of the South about sixteen or eighteen degrees of Southern Latitude This may soon be found by measuring the Boundaries of the several Continents on a Globe or Map and observing the Position of their Centers LXVI The distance between the Continents measuring from the larger or Northern South-Eastward is greater than that the contrary way or South-Westward This is evident by the like means with the former It being farther from China or the East-Indies to America going forward South-East than from Europe or Africa going thither South-West LXVII Neither of the Continents is terminated by a round or even circular Circumference but mighty Creeks Bays and Seas running into them and as mighty Peninsula's Promontories and Rocks jetting out from them render the whole very unequal and irregular This none who ever saw a Globe or Map of the World can be ignorant of LXVIII The depth of that Ocean which separates these two Continents is usually greatest farthest from and least nearest to either of the same Continents there being a gradual descent from the Continents to the middle of the Ocean which is the deepest of all This is a Proposition very well-known in Navigation and in
as Rains constantly now are but from some other Superior and Coelestial Original XLVI This is already evident from what has been just now said The source of all these Rains being one of those Superior or Coelestial Bodies which we call Comets or more peculiarly the Atmosphere and Tail thereof XLVII This vast Fall of Waters or forty Days Rain began on the fifth day of the Week or Thursday the twenty seventh day of November being the seventeenth day of the second Month from the Autumnal Equinox corresponding this Year 1696. to the twenty eighth day of October XLVII This has been already explain'd in effect in the Hypothesis hereto relating where it was prov'd that a Comet on that very day here nam'd pass'd by the Earth and by consequence began those Rains which for the succeeding forty days space continued without any Interruption XLVIII The other main cause of the Deluge was the breaking up the Fountains of the great Abyss or causing such Chaps and Fissures in the upper Earth as might permit the Waters contain'd in the Bowels of it when violently press'd and squeez'd upwards to ascend and so add to the quantity of those which the Rains produced XLVIII This has in part been explain'd in the Lemmata hereto relating and will be more fully understood from the Figure there also refer'd to For Let adbc represent the Earth moving along the Ecliptick GH from G towards H. 'T is evident that the Figure of the Earth before the approach of the Comet as far as 't is here concern'd was Sphaerical But now let us suppose the Comet bi Dh as it was descending towards its Perihelion along its Trajectory EF from E towards F to approach very near and arrive at the nearest Position represented in the Figure 'T is evident that this presence of the Comet would cause a double Tide as well in the Seas above as in the Abyss below the former of which being less considerable in it self and not to our present purpose need not be taken any farther notice of But the latter would be vastly great suppose seven or eight Miles high above its former Position would produce mighty Effects on the Orb above it and so deserves a nicer consideration in this place As soon therefore as the Comet came pretty near as suppose within the Moon 's distance this double Tide would begin to rise and increase all the time of its approach till the Comet was nearest of all as in the Figure And then these Tides or double Protuberances of the Abyss would be at their utmost height So that the Surface of the Abyss and of its incumbent Orb of Earth would put on that Elliptick or rather truly and exactly Oval Figure under which 't is here represented Now 't is certain that this Sphoeroid Surface of the Abyss is larger than its former Sphoerical one 't is also certain that the Orb of Earth which rested on this Abyss must be oblig'd to follow its Figure and accommodate it self to this large Oval which being impossible for it to do while it remain'd Solid continued and conjoyn'd it must of necessity enlarge it self and by the violent force of the encreasing Surface of the Abyss be stretch'd crack'd broken and have innumerable Fissures made quite through it from the upper to the under Surface thereof nearly perpendicular to the same Surfaces So that this Orb of Earth which originally in its primary formation was Sphaerical its inward Compages or Strata even conjoin'd and continual which had afterward at the commencing of the Diurnal Rotation been chang'd into an Oblate Sphoeroid and at the same time been thereby broken chap'd and disjointed by that time its wounds had been well healed and it was in some measure setled and fix'd in such a condition receiv'd this new Disruption at the Deluge It s old Fissures were open'd and the Fountains of the Abyss most Naturally and Emphatically so stil'd according to Dr. Woodward's Account of the Origin of Fountains broken up and sufficient Gaps made for a Communication between the Abyss below and the Surface of the Earth above the same if any occasion should be given for the Ascent of the former or Descent of any thing from the latter And here 't is to be noted that these Chaps and Fissures tho' they were never so many or so open could not of themselves raise any Subterraneous Waters nor contribute one jot to the drowning of the Earth The Upper Orb was long ago setled and sunk as far into the Abyss as the Law of Hydrostaticks requir'd and whether 't were intire or broken would cause no new pressure and no more than maintain its prior situation on the Face of the Deep These Fissures had been at least as open and extended in their Original Generation when the Diurnal Rotation began as at this time and yet was there no danger of a Deluge So that tho' this breaking up of the Fountains of the Deep was a prerequisite condition and absolutely necessary to the Ascent of the Subterraneous Waters yet was it not the proper and direct cause or efficient thereof That is to be deriv'd from another original and is as follows As soon as the presence of the Comet had produc'd those vast Tides or double elevation and depression of the Abyss and thereby disjointed the Earth and caus'd the before-mentiond patent holes or breaches quite through the Body of it the Fall of Waters began and quickly cover'd the Earth and crouded the Air with vast quantities there of Which Waters being adventitious or additional ones and of a prodigious weight withal must press downward with a mighty force and endeavour to sink the Orb of Earth deeper into the Abyss according as the intire weight of each column of Earth and its incumbent Waters together agreeably to the Law of Hydrostaticks did now require And had the Earth as it was in its first subsiding into the Abyss been loose separate and unfix'd so as to admit the Abyss between its parts and suffer a gentle subsidence of the Columns of Earth in the requisite proportion we could scarce have expected any Elevation of the Subterraneous Waters But the Strata of the Earth were long ago setled fastened and consolidated together and so could not admit of such a farther immersion into the fluid On which account the new and vast pressure of the Orb of Earth upon the Abyss would certainly force it upward or any way wheresoever there were a passage for it To which therefore the Breaches Holes and Fissures so newly generated or rather open'd afresh by the violence of the Tides in the Abyss beneath would be very ready and natural Outlets through which it would Ascend with a mighty force and carry up before it whatever was in its way whether Fluid or Solid whether 't were Earth or Water And seeing as we before saw the Lower Regions of the Earth were full of Water pervading and replenishing the Pores
very first ceasing of the Rains from above and of the Waters from the Abyss beneath which permitted the least subsiding and diminution of the Deluge the Ark must immediately rest upon the ground and thereby secure it self from the impending Storms And that accordingly it did so at the time assign'd on the conclusion of the 150 days or the very same individual day when the Wind began is particularly and expresly observ'd and affirm'd by Moses Which being a very remarkable coincidence exactly agreeable to the present Hypothesis as well as to the Sacred History and of very considerable Importance I shall set down the words at large as follows The waters prevailed upon the Earth an hundred and fifty days viz. from the seventeenth of thesecond to the seventeenth of the seventh Month And God remembred Noah and every living thing and all the Cattel that was with him in the Ark And God made a wind to pass over the earth and the waters asswaged The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped and the rain from heaven was restrained And the waters returned from off the earth continually and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated And the ark rested in the seventh month on the seventeenth day of the month upon the mountains of Ararat Corollary Hence 't is obvious to remark the wonderful Providence of God for the Preservation of the Ark and the sole Remains of the old World therein contain'd in ordering all circumstances so that it was afloat just all the calm Season of the Deluge but as soon as ever any tempestuous Weather arose was safe landed on the top of Caucasus LVII This Deluge of Waters was universal in its extent and effect reaching to all the parts of the Earth and destroying all the Land-Animals on the intire Surface thereof those only excepted which were with Noah in the Ark. LVII This might justly have been made a Corollary of the next Proposition for if the Waters in any one Region much more a compleat Hemisphere exceeded the tops of the highest Mountains it would certainly diffuse it self and overflow the other also But being capable in the present Hypothesis of a separate Proof deserves a distinct Consideration Now of the several Causes of the Deluge those Vapours which were deriv'd from the Comet 's Tail both at the first and second passage of the Earth through the entire Column thereof by reason of the Earth's Mora or abiding therein about 12 hours or a semi-revolution and the fall of the Vapours on an entire Hemisphere at the same time would affect the whole Earth and though not exactly equally yet pretty universally make a Deluge in all the Regions of the Globe The subterraneous Waters being the proper effect of the weight of the other would also be as universal as they and that every where generally speaking in the same proportion 'T is true the Waters which were derived from the Atmosphere of the Comet the principal Source of the 40 days Rain were not wholly so universal as the former at first by reason of the shorter Mora or abiding of the Earth therein though even much above half of the Earth's entire surface would hence be immediately affected But if we consider the Velocity of the Earth's Diurnal Rotation and that the Mass of newly acquir'd Vapours was not at first partaker of the same but by degrees to receive the impression thereof we shall with ease apprehend that a few of the first Rotations would wind or wrap these as well as the other Vapours quite round the Earth and thereby cause a very equal distribution of them all in the Atmosphere and at last render the Rains very evenly Universal To which uniform distribution the Nature of the Air it self as at present it I suppose does might contribute Such an Elastical Fluid as the Air scarce suffering a lasting Density or Croud of Vapours in one Region without communicating some part to the others adjoining that so a kind of Equilibrium in the weight crassitude and density of its several Columns may be preserv'd through the whole So that at last the Deluge must have been Universal because every one of the Causes thereof appear to have been truly so LVIII The Waters at their utmost height were fifteen Cubits above the highest Mountains or three Miles at the least perpendicular above the common Surface of the Plains and Seas LVIII In order to make some estimate of the quantity of Water which this Hypothesis affords us let us suppose that the one half came from the Comet or the Rains and the other half from the Subterraneous Water Tho' 't is not impossible that much the greater part might arise from the latter Let us also suppose that the tenth part of the rest arose from the Tail of the Comet at both the times of its enclosing the Earth and the other nine from its Atmosphere tho' 't is possible that a much less proportion ought to be deriv'd from the former 'T is evident from the Velocity of Comets at the distance from the Sun here to be consider'd and the usual Crassitude or Diameter of the Tails thereof that the Earth would be near half a day or 12 hours each time within the limits thereof and by consequence that it would intercept and receive upon it self a Cylindrical Column of Vapour whose Basis were equal to that of a great Circle on the Earth and whose Altitude were about 750000 Miles If we therefore did but know the proper density of the Vapour compesing the Tail of the Comet or what proportion it bears to that of Water 't were easie to reduce this matter to Calculation and very nearly to determine the quantity enquired after That the Tail of a Comet especially at any considerable distance from the Comet it self is exceeding rare is evident by the vastness of its extent and the distinct appearance of the sixt Stars quite through the immense Crassitude of its entire Column Let us for computation's sake suppose that the Density of Water to that of this Expanded Column of Vapour is as 3400000 to one or which is all one since Water is to our Air in Density as 850 to one that the Density of our Air is to the Density of this Coulmn of Vapour as 4000 to one which degree of rareness if it be not enough at a great distance from the Comet as at the second passage yet I suppose may be more than sufficient at the very Region adjoining thereto as at the first passage and so upon the whole no unreasonable Hypothesis So that if we divide the Altitude of this Cylindrical Column of 750000 Miles or 3750000000 Feet by 3400000 37500 by 34 we shall have a Column of Water equal thereto By which Calculation the quantity of Water acquir'd at each time of the passage through the Tail would equal a Cylinder whose Basis were a great Circle on the Earth as above and whose
days Works given an account of in the same chapter In the Beginning God Created the Heaven and the Earth says the Scripture which is as I take it a Preface or Introduction to the following account and may be thus paraphras'd Altho' that History of the Origin of the World which shall now be given you do not extend any farther as will appear presently than that Earth we live upon with those Bodies which peculiarly belong to it and so the rest of the Universe be not at all directly concern'd therein and altho ' the same History will not reach to the Creation of the matter but only Production of the form and disposition of the Earth it self Yet to prevent any misunderstanding and obviate any ill effects of a perfect silence touching these things I am oblig'd by the Divine Command to assure you That the Original of all Beings whatsoever was primarily owing to that same God of Israel whose Works I am going to relate and that not only this Earth and all its Bodies but the vast Frame of Universal Nature was by him at first Created out of Nothing and dispos'd into those several Systems which now are extant and make up what in the largest sense is stil'd Heaven and Earth or the whole Word This sense of the Words is allow'd by our late Excellent Commentatour the Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of Ely whose Sentiments cannot but be justly valued by all who are conversant in his Expositions of the Holy Scriptures and is I think clearly confirm'd by the following words And the Earth was without Form and Void and Darkness was upon the Face of the Deep and the Spirit of God moved on the Face of the Waters Where 't is clear that as soon as the Holy Writer descends to the Description of the Chaos and the commencing of the Six Days Creation he mentions not a word of any Production out of Nothing before suppos'd and asserted to have been past and done In the Beginning he omits and thereby evidently excludes that Heaven or those Superior Systems of the World already spoken of from any place therein and by the whole coherence plainly confines the Narration following to the Earth alone with its dependencies Moses does not say as the common Expositors do That just at the commencing of the Six Days Work the Earth and all the rest of the World was originally produc'd But that When God had formerly created all the World which is usually distinguish'd into the Heaven and the Earth the latter of these the consideration whereof was alone pertinent to the present design at the time preceding the Six Days Work was in a Wild Irregular and Dark condition or such a perfect Chaos as nothing but the Power of God and his Spirit 's moving on and influencing the same could ever have reduc'd into a habitable World This is a very easie and natural account of this matter and I think the most obvious and genuine signification of the words themselves And were not Mens Minds too much prejudic'd with other apprehensions this alone might be sufficient to limit their thoughts and prevent their Enquiries after any Creation of Bodies out of nothing in the Six Days Work and their stretching the same beyond the Earth either to the whole System of things as the most do or indeed to the Solar System with which others are more modestly contented in the case Which two things once granted me the Propoposition we are now upon would soon be establish'd and little farther labour become necessary But that I may give all possible satisfaction and lay this Foundation firm on which my Account of the Mosaick Creation is intirely superstructed I shall more at large prove the same Truths craving the Pardon of those Readers who are already satisfy'd in these matters if I shall seem to them to insist too long on a plain case as perhaps they may and that I think very justly esteem this to be And indeed The prejudices of Men are here so great their fears of a Philosophical Hypothesis so rooted the attempts hitherto made have been so unsuccessful and besides the Honour of God in his Holy Word is so much concern'd and the usual Expositions of this History of the Origin of Things is so poor so jejune so unbecoming the Penman much more the primary Author of the same that a large and full Discourse is but necessary and tho' it should prove somewhat prolix will be 't is hop'd not improper but as well serviceable to Religion as to Philosophy by rescuing this Ancient Venerable and Sacred Account of the Origin of things from such false and unwary Glosses as have been and still are put upon it as have rendred it in the opinion of too many an uncouth and incredible System nay somewhat below some of those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the imperfect Traditions of the Heathen World enabled them to describe To proceed therefore in the arguments before us I affirm II. That the words here us'd of Creating Making or Framing of things on which the main stress is laid in the stile of Scripture are frequently of no larger importance than the Proposition we are upon does allow and signifie no more than the ordering disposing changing or new modelling those Creatures which existed already into a different and sometimes perhaps a better and more useful state than they were in before I do not say this is the utmost or only importance of these words I have already allow'd that Creating in the first words of Genesis includes Producing out of nothing and I add that in our common Creed wherein we profess our Faith in God the Father Almighty Maker of Heaven and Earth the words are agreeably to the extent of the Divine Power and the nature of that profession to be taken in the same large and comprehensive sense and the like is to be said of many other places of the Holy Scripture But then I observe withal that the other more narrow and limited sense is very common and familiar in the Holy Writings and therefore where the subject matter and coherence requires it as I think 't will be evident it does in the present case these words both may and ought to be taken in the same acceptation This signification of the two latter words Make and Frame will I suppose be granted me by all and that the same is as true of the other Create the following Texts will sufficiently evince and from the promiscuous use of them all and others of a like importance might however be very fairly suppos'd If says Moses the Lord make a new thing or Create a Creature and the Earth open her Mouth and swallow them up Where none can imagine any thing produc'd out of nothing but only such an unusual and miraculous disposal of things as would at once demonstrate God's Vengeance against the Wicked and his absolute Command over all Creatures Thus
where no such alteration need be made in which therefore it may seem hard to allow of a single instance against the use in the precedent and subsequent Context in the first Chapter yet the circumstances of that day being peculiar the like mixture of the persectum and plusquam perfectum being in the second Chapter and in other places of Scripture to be observed and a distinct work being still hereby preserv'd to that day the placing the Sun Moon and Stars in our Firmament which otherwise is after a sort double do all in good measure take away the force of such Reasoning and conspire to allow us that Interpretation before given and thereby to secure the Proposition before us from that grand Objection which seemed capable of causing so great an obstruction in our course But if any should be dissatisfied with this Answer I shall for their sakes enter deeper into this matter and without any assistance from what has been already said endeavour to establish the Proposition before us and take away the foundation of the present difficulty And here I observe That the Scripture all along accommodates its self to the vulgar Apprehensions of Men with relation to such Points of Natural Philosophy as they were not able to comprehend and in particular with relation to the Site Distance Magnitude Use and Motions of the Heavenly Bodies Tho' these be really very distinct as well as distant from the Earth with all its dependances yet are they rarely if ever so consider'd in the Holy Scriptures They are all along there represented as fiery Luminaries plac'd in our Atmosphere and as much belonging to and depending on the Earth as the Clouds Meteors or other Aerial Phaenomena And so 't is no wonder that in the History before us they are included among the rest of their Fellows and come within the verge of the Mosaick Creation notwithstanding its limits be no larger than we here assign thereto In order to the accounting for which things I shall 1. Shew the truth of the Observation in several instances from the Holy Scriptures 2. Shew the rational Original and Occasion of such ways of speaking 3. Explain what according to my Notion must be meant by the Creation or Production of these Heavenly Bodies in the Mosaick History before us and demonstrate such a Construction to be agreeable to the Sacred Stile in other places 4. Assign some Reasons why in a History of the Origin of our Earth these remote and distant Bodies come to be taken notice of tho' their own proper Formation did not at all belong to it 1. I shall shew the truth of the Observation in several instances from the Holy Scriptures namely that the Heavenly Bodies are no otherwise there described than with relation to our Earth and as Members and Appurtenances of our Atmosphere And this Observation is confirm'd by the first mention that is made of them in this very History we are upon all the Circumstances whereof fully attest the truth of what is here affirm'd of them When the Light first display'd it self notwithstanding those numberless advantages accruing to the whole World therefrom none are taken notice of but such as respect our Sublunary World 'T was intirely with regard to our Light and Darkness our Day and Night that all was done as far as can be collected from the words of Moses Thus as soon as the Heavenly Bodies are made tho' they be universally useful they are plac'd in the Firmament of Heaven a Phrase us'd in this History for our Air only to divide our day from night to be to us for signs and seasons for days and years to be for lights in the firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth to rule over our day and night to divide our light from darkness And as to the order of their Introduction 't is not that of their proper Greatness or Dignity but that of their respective Appearance and Uses here below All which is far from a full account of the real Original universal Intentions and true Places of these Glorious Bodies but on the Supposition here made use of exactly easy and natural Agreeably whereto when our Air is clogg'd with gross Vapours so as to hide or disfigure their Faces to us The Sun is said to be turn'd into darkness the Moon into blood and when some Aerial Meteors call'd by their Names and for a moment resembling them shoot and drop down in the Air the Stars are said to fall from Heaven The Sun and Moon as if they were two Globes of Fire and Light pendulous in our Air and hanging over certain places are order'd to stand still the one upon Gibeon the other in the Valley of Aijalon The Sun is represented as set in a Tabernacle rejoycing as a Gyant to run his race His going forth is said to be from the end of Heaven or the Horizon and his circuit unto the ends of it All which Expressions with many others through the whole Bible plainly shew That the Scripture did not intend to teach men Philosophy or accommodate it self to the true and Pythagorick System of the World The Holy Writers did not consider the Heavenly Bodies absolutely as they are Great and Noble in themselves main and glorious Parts of the Universe very distinct from our Earth plac'd at various and immense Distances from it and from one another design'd for and subservient to many wise and comprehensive Ends and Methods of the Divine Providence dispos'd in a regular order in proportionate and harmonious Periods and Revolutions and finally endued with mighty Powers and Influences with respect to numerous and vast Systems of Beings Under such a consideration we might have expected another sort of Representation of the Heavenly Bodies their Original Designs Courses and Circumstances than the foregoing Texts or their parallels every where afford us But if we look on them under the Notion of Neighbour-Luminaries which are situate at the utmost bounds of our Atmosphere and belong as well as the Clouds to our Earth which are appointed to be our peculiar Attendants and a part of our Retinue serve our single Necessities and every day rise and set on purpose to provide for our Advantage and Convenience If I say we thus look upon them as all Men not otherwise taught by Philosophy do and must the Texts above-cited and the whole current of the Holy Books will easily accord and correspond to such a System And I dare appeal to any impartial and competent Judge to which of the foremention'd Schemes the most obvious and easy Sense of the Expressions of Scripture hereto relating are adapted and whether it does not usually speak as an honest and inquisitive Countryman who no more doubted of the Heavenly Bodies than of the Clouds appertaining to the Earth rather than as a new Astronomer who knew them to be vastly distant from and to have nothing in a peculiar manner to do with the
same Which will be less wondred at when we consider in the next place 2. The Reason and Occasion of such ways of speaking And here I shall not content my self in general to observe that the design of Divine Revelation was of quite another nature than requir'd a nice Adjustment and Philosophick Explication of the Natural World that the Capacities of the People could not bear any such things that the Prophets and Holy Penmen themselves unless over-rul'd by that Spirit which spake by them being seldom or never Philosophers were not capable of representing these things otherwise than they with the Vulgar understood them That even still those who believe the true System of the World are forc'd among the Vulgar and in common Conversation to speak as they do and accommodate their Expressions to the Notions and Apprehensions of the generality of Mankind I shall not I say content my self with such Observations most of which are usually and with good reason insisted on in the present case but rather attempt to find out the true Origin and Source of such Notions and Expressions made use of as by most other Writers so especially by the Sacred Ones in the Holy Bible God has so fram'd the Eyes of Men that when the distance of Bodies and their proper Magnitude is very great they shall both be imperceptible to us There is every way from our Eye a spherical Distance or Superficies which terminates our distinct Perception of Objects and beyond which all Distances and Magnitudes absolutely considered are not by us distinguishable The Clouds tho' lying parallel to the Horizon they are so far as comes at once within our view almost in the same Plain yet to us they seem bent into a concave Figure or kind of Hemispherical Superficies equidistant almost on every side from its Center the Eye of the Spectator and so seem every way to touch the Ground at a Mile or two's distance from him And this happens by reason of the Imperfection of our Sight which distinguishing remote Objects but to a certain distance beyond which the Clouds are can have no other Idea of their Situation than small and like Objects at that Spherical Superficies would excite On which Principle 't is certain that till Geometrick and Philosophick Principles rectify mens Notions all Bodies whatsoever beyond the Clouds such as the Coelestial are must needs be esteem'd at the same equidistant Superficies with the Clouds and appear among them and by consequence 't would be on this account as possible for the Vulgar to be persuaded that the Clouds were vastly remote from and bear no relation to this Earth as that the Sun Moon and Stars were so and to them as strange to have found no account of the Formation of them with that of the other visible World as the omission of the Clouds would have been It being impossible that the Sun for instance tho' so many thousands of Miles distant should to us appear above one or two from us and alike impossible that his bigness tho' so many thousand Miles in Diameter should appear to be as many Feet to us on Earth As all who have any skill in Opticks very well know So that when these Heavenly Bodies are and must needs be to our Sight and Imagination at the same distance with the Clouds and consequently as to us are with them plac'd in our own Air when their visible Magnitude Situation Motion and Habitudes are all one with respect to us as if they really were light and fiery Balls rowling upon or among the Clouds when their apparent Changes Figures Colour Countenance Effects and Influences would be as far as Sense and vulgar Observation could determine on this Earth and to its Inhabitants the very same as were to be expected from such light and fiery Balls revolving at the presumed distance when all wise Men especially the Sacred Penmen in their Writings design'd for the Advantage and Instruction of all condescend still to the Apprehensions and Capacities of Men and speak of the Being of things as they constantly Appear of which the Bible is full of instances All these things consider'd 't is not to be wonder'd at that the Heavenly Bodies are accounted Appendages of our Earth and agreeably thereto made mention of in the Mosaick Creation 3. I shall explain what according to my Notion must be meant by the Creation or Production of these Heavenly Bodies in the History before us and demonstrate such a Construction to be agreeable to the Sacred Stile in other places Now 't is easy to tell what is meant by their Creation in the case before us when it has appear'd that their Production out of nothing was precedaneous to the six days Work and that they are wholly consider'd as belonging to our Earth and plac'd in our Air viz. their primary being so plac'd their first becoming visible to Men on Earth or in other words their original appearing to be there I mean in plain English Light is said then first to Be for it being an effect of the Heavenly Bodies not a distinct thing from them is not by Moses said to be made or created when the superior Regions of the Chaos were become so far clear and defecate that the Rays of the Sun in some degree could penetrate the same enough to render a sensible Distinction between Night and Day or that space the Sun was above and that it was beneath the Horizon And agreeably The Sun Moon and Stars are then said first to Be or to be made when afterwards the Air was rendred so very clear and transparent that those Luminaries became conspicuous and their Bodies distinctly visible as in a clear Day or Night they now appear to us That this Exposition is agreeable to the Scripture Stile is evident by this Observation That several things are there assirm'd to Be in any certain manner when only those effects we feel are such as they would be were they so indeed and 't is not unusual to assert the Being of any Cause when all those consequences are no otherwise in the World and with regard to Men than they must and would be upon its real Existence without any exacter niceness as to the truth of the same Thus God is said several times to repent of somewhat he has before done when his future Actions are the very same as would in Humane as well as Divine Affairs be the certain consequents of a proper Repentance Thus also God is said to be pleas'd or angry with Men and that in a very passionate and sensible manner when he confers such great Mercies or inflicts such great Judgments as were he really so he must naturally do Thus also Eyes and Ears are frequently suppos'd of God because he as certainly is conscious of all the Actions and Speeches of Men as if he really saw and heard the same In a different instance The Sun is said to stand still or move tho' in propriety of Speech as
was demonstrated by this account of their Original to be foolish and absurd that of the Celestial Bodies would seem thereby to be permitted at least if not patroniz'd and recommended to ' em For when as we have before observ'd 't was impossible for the Jews to know the real state of the case and to apprehend that they were vastly remote from and so no way belonging to this Earth or its Formation there was no other way to apply a fitting remedy to that prevailing custom of Worshiping the Host of Heaven so particularly caution'd by Moses but to condescend to the Capacities of the People and supposing them Light and Fiery Globes pendulous in the Air and revolving just beyond or among the Clouds to recount their respective as well as the real Formation of the other parts of the visible World and assign them their proper place and distinct period in the Six days work as well as any other more directly concern'd therein The Sun Moon and Stars were such noble and glorious Bodies and so visible so remarkable so useful parts of the World and the Heathen Nations so generally doted on the Worship of them that had they been intirely omitted in this particular account of the Origin of things there would have been the most eminent danger of this kind of Idolatry among the Jews and the seeming approbation of that practice to which they were so prone before from the silence of their great Lawgiver in his Creation of the World might probably have defy'd all dissuasions and been the most fatal encouragement to them to so vile a Worship that were easie to be imagin'd Any particular declaration of the reasons of such omission from the real Distance Magnitude Motions and Designs of the said Bodies and how improperly they could be reduc'd within the said narration the only precaution supposable in the case being more likely to discredit the whole Book than overcome their prejudices than give them a true and just Idea of the matter it self and so obviate their false reasonings and practices thereupon in the foremention'd Idolatry So that 't was absolutely necessary to include the Heavenly Bodies in the Mosaick Creation in order to prevent Idolatry among the Jews which seems to have been a principal aim not only of recording this whole Narration but of the intire Mosaick Dispensation and therefore was in the first place by all means to be consider'd 2. The peculiar Nature and Circumstances of this History of the Creation necessarily require the mention of the Heavenly Bodies as well as of any other parts of the Visible World And 't is this mistake that has hitherto hindred any rational account thereof that men have either suppos'd it a Real and Philosophical relation of the proper Creation of all things or a meer Mythological and Mysterious Reduction of the visible parts of it to six periods or divisions under which mighty Mysteries were suppos'd to be hid and by which the foundation of a seventh-day Sabbath was to be laid among the Jews Now tho' somewhat of truth I believe be contained in each of these different notions yet I think 't is undeniable that they are neither of them to be acquiesced in and by no means give a satisfactory account of the compleat Nature and Kind of this History That alone to which all its particulars exactly answer and which is as Literal and Philosophical as the capacities of the Jews could expect or reach and did require is An Historical Journalor Diary of the Mutations of the Chaos and of the visible Works of each Day such an one as an honest and observing Spectator on the Earth would have made and recorded nay and believ'd to be in all cases the truth and reality of the things themselves Now that this Idea alone fits this Sacred History might easily be made out by the consideration of the particulars related and of those omitted with all the other circumstances thereof by no means corresponding to any other Hypothesis but most exactly to this before us without the least force offer'd to the Nature and System of the World to the Divine Perfections or the Free Reason of Mankind and exactly suitable to the Stile of the Holy Books in the mention of the Phaenomena of the Natural World in other places Which being suppos'd and by that time this Dissertation is consider'd throughout I hope 't will appear no precarious supposition 't is evident that both the appearance of Light and of the Bodies themselves the Sun Moon and Stars the things we are now enquiring about must as certainly come within such a Journal and make as remarkable Turns and Changes in the World as far as this Spectator could judge as any other within the intire six days could possibly do The appearance of Light to him who never before is suppos'd to have seen such a thing and was till then incompass'd with the thickest Darkness and the plain view of the Heavenly Bodies themselves to him who before had no manner of notion of 'em especially when he had no possible means of distinguishing them from Light and Fiery Balls situate with and pertaining to the Clouds must as certainly have inferr'd a new Creation and under such a notion have been recorded in their due place in the Journal before-mention'd as any other whatsoever and their order position and uses would naturally be recounted no otherwise than we now find them in the Mosaick Creation From which consideration I think 't is not at all surprizing that these parts of the Visible World how remote and seperate soever they be from our Earth in themselves are yet included in this History before us and have their distinct periods in the six days work tho' at the same time the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it self do properly relate to the formation of the Sublunary World only IV. I prove that the History before us extends not beyond the Earth and its Appendages because that confused Mass or rude heap of Heterogeneous matter which we call the Chaos whence all the several parts were deriv'd extended no farther It will here I suppose be allow'd me that the ancient Chaos so famous among the old Philosophers and so evidently refer'd to by Moses was the intire and single source or promptuary of the six days productions and that consequently nothing ought to be esteem'd a part of that Creation but what in its Rudiments and Principles was so of the Chaos also and this Postulatum is so agreeable to Moses as well as all the antient accounts of the Chaos and I think so suitable to the sentiments of most men that I shall without farther proof suppose it granted and betake my self immediately to the other branch of the argument and endeavour to evince that the Chaos was so far from comprehending the intire matter of the Universe nay or of the Solar System that it reach'd not so far as the Moon nor indeed any farther than that Terraqueous Globe we
now Inhabit with such Bodies as are immediately contiguous and appertaining thereto Which I think the following arguments will sufficiently demonstrate 1. If we Appeal to External Nature and enquire what confused Masses or Chaos's either at present are or ever within the Annals of Time were extant in the Visible World we shall discover no footsteps of any such thing excepting what the Atmosphere of a Comet affords us If therefore without the allowance of precarious and fanciful Hypotheses relying on no known Phaenomena of Nature a Comet 's Atmosphere be the sole pretender if moreover the same Atmosphere gives a Just Adequate Primitive and Scriptural Idea of that ancient Chaos if it answers its particular Phnooemena recounted by Sacred or Prophane History if it prove a peculiarly fit Foundation of such an Earth as ours is and is extraordinarily adapted to suit and account for its present and past Phaenomena all which shall be prov'd hereafter I think we may cease our farther enquiries and with the highest reason and justice conclude That a Comet or more peculiarly the Atmosphere thereof was that very Chaos from whence that World arose whose Original is related in the Mosaick History And with equal reason and justice be satisfi'd which is but a certain consequent thereof that not the innumerable Systems of the fixt Stars not the narrower System of the Sun nay nor the Moon her self but our Earth alone was the proper subject of the Mosaick Creation Which conclusion will be farther establish'd by the coincidence of the several days works recounted by Moses with those Natural and Orderly Mutations which in the Digestion and Formation of a Planet from a Comet 's Atmosphere would Mechanically proceed as hereafter will appear 2. The Chaos mention'd by Moses is by him expresly call'd The Earth in contradistinction to The Heavens or the other Systems of the Universe and all its parts taken notice of in the Sacred History appear by the following Series of the Scriptures to belong to our Earth and no other The words of Moses are In the Beginning God created the heaven and the earth and the earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters Where I think 't is plain as has been already observ'd that when the Author comes to the Chaos or Foundation of the six days work he excludes the Heavens from any share therein and calls the Chaos it self An Earth without form and void with Darkness upon the Face of its Abyss and this all ought to grant these being the very Words from which 't is concluded that the Heathen Chaos was no other than what Moses deriv'd the World from And that the Chaos is here confin'd to the Earth will be sure put past doubt by the latter part of this Argument which observes no other parts to be mention'd belonging thereto than such as the succeeding Series of the Holy Scriptures shews to have afterward belong'd to our Earth and no other viz. An Abyss or Deep and Waters Both of them frequently mention'd in the Holy Books and now actual parts of the present Globe as will appear hereafter So that when Moses calls his Chaos expresly the Earth when by the coherence of his discourse he excludes the Heavens taken in a large and proper sense from the same when lastly he mentions no other parts of this Chaos than such as afterward and at this day are parts of our Earth 'T is somewhat unaccountable and like a kind of fate upon Commentators that they should unanimously resolve to make this Chaos of so extravagant a compass as they too incongruously do and that they should agree in it so universally tho' without any warrant from nay contrary to the obvious sense of the Text it self and the plain drift coherence and description of Moses therein I know it will be said the First and Fourth days works the Origin of Light and of the Sun Moon and Stars necessitated such a supposition and gave just cause for the common Exposition Which as I believe to have been the true occasions of all such mistaken Glosses so I think them far from just and necessary ones and if what has been already said has clear'd those difficulties there can be no reason to reject the Cogency of the present Argument but a great deal to rest satisfi'd in it and to confess it no less unscriptural than 't is absurd to expect from this single Chaos a Sun Moon and Systems of fix'd Stars as hitherto the World has commonly done 3. The Mosaick and ancient Chaos could not include the Sun or fix'd Stars because just before the extraction of Light from it as 't is usually explain'd it was Dark and Caliginous which on such a supposition is not conceivable A strange Darkness this where more than ninety nine parts of an hundred whether we take in the intire System of the World or the Solar System only appear to be fiery Corpuscles and the very same from whence all the fix'd Stars or at least the Sun were constituted and are now the Fountain of all that Light and Heat which the World has ever since enjoy'd Let every unbiass'd person judge how Dark that Chaos could be where the Opake and Obscure parts were so perfectly inconsiderable in comparison of the Light the Active and the Fiery ones So that on this Hypothesis The state of the Chaos must have been exceeding Light Hot and Fiery before the first days work when it was on the contrary according to all Antiquity Sacred and Profane Dark and Caliginous 'T is true upon the separation of the particles of Light the business in this Hypothesis of the First Day the Chaos would become Obscure and Dark enough at the same time that the Sun or fix'd Stars were collecting their Masses so lately extracted and were growing Splendid and Glorious But this is to contradict the History according to which the Light on the First Day is consider'd with relation to the Chaos and its distinguishing Night and Day There not as it was collecting into Bodies of Light without it which rather must belong to the Fourth Days Work when by this account 't is evident that this day is the peculiar time for the most pitchy Darkness possible For when all the Light was just separated from the Chaos the most Caliginous Night must certainly ensue So that unless we can change the Order in Moses and prove that the Chaos before the First Days Work was all over Light and on the First Day cover'd with the Thickest Darkness we in vain pretend to justifie the vulgar opinion and include the Sun or fix'd Stars among the other Matter of the Chaos Besides when Heat is the main Instrument of Nature in all its separations of Parts and Productions of Bodies 't is sure a very improper season just then to extract the Light and Fiery Corpuscles out of the Chaos when
also be own'd if it were supposable a sign or effect of a like Imperfection in God Thus for instance we certainly gather that God cannot be properly pleas'd or delighted in the misery and torment of his Creatures where yet the Justice and Wisdom of his Government require him severely to punish 'em Because we cannot but esteem it an odious Vice and base Imperfection in a Judge on Earth in like cases to be so affected and whether we will or no we look upon it as an instance of cruelty and barbarity of disposition to rellish and taste a sweetness in the Cries and Groans of condemned and dying Malefactors In like manner we justly conclude God cannot Impose on Innocent Creatures no not by such Wiles Stratagems or other methods of Collusion wherein yet direct and downright Falsehood were avoided because we find a spontaneous aversion and indignation arises in our minds when such Tricks and Shams are discovered among Men. And by the same way and equal force of reasoning may we collect that God cannot in the formation or disposition of things no more than in other cases act absurdly or disagreeably to Reason disproportionately or unsuitably to the nature of things immethodically without rule and order or foolishly without drift and design according as an impartial and considering Man who were duly acquainted with the System of Nature would judge and determine in the case And consequently 'T is a dishonourable reflection on God to ascribe to him those things which to the free Faculties of Mankind would amongst us be look'd on as marks of unskilfulness imprudence or folly in parallel cases and for which meer Men could not escape the most severe and indecorous imputations Put the case that I should chance to observe a certain Master-builder in his parcelling out the several distinct Tasks of the Under-workmen and apportioning the time he would allow to the finishing of the whole and that I perceiv'd 9 parts of 10 were to be done in one day but the other single part had a month's space assigned to it and yet 9 parts of 10 of the intire number of Workmen were to club together for that Work to be done in the month while only every tenth man were permitted to assist at the days task Were it possible to suppose such a case on Earth I need not inform you what opinion the Spectator would have of the Abilities or Prudence of the Architect Or Put the case that an ordinary Husbandman who had two Plots of Ground the one of a score feet in circumference not very promising or capable of Cultivation above others the other of a thousand Acres of good Land and very fit for Tillage or Improvement should spend four or five days every Week about his little spot of Indifferent Ground and allot no more than the remaining one or two for the Care and Management of the other spacious Field 'T is easie to imagine under what Notion and Character the Plowman would pass in the World Or lastly Suppose one should light upon an Historian who undertook to give a compleat and full Account of some large and spacious Country with the many Noble Kingdoms Principalities Lordships and Governments therein contain'd and upon perusal nothing was to be found mention'd in any particular manner but a certain little and remote Island so inconsiderable that the generality of the Inhabitants of the Main Land never heard so much as its name which indeed was describ'd carefully and its several circumstances diligently accounted for But as to the rest there appear'd no more than at the conclusion of a Chapter two or three names of its principal Divisions and some advantages which one or two of their Maritime Towns afforded this small Island and then all was concluded Now he that should take this for a just and adequate History of the whole and earnestly contend for the Compleatness and Perfection of the Work would be certainly taken for a strange person or rather would be thought in Jest and to design the real exposing of the folly and ridiculousness of the Publisher thereof These familiar instances amongst Men shew what unbrib'd and untainted Nature instantaneously pronounces in such cases and thereby directs us what we ought to judge in parallel ones in which God himself is directly interested Where the change of the Person is so far from altering that it exceedingly confirms these dictates of Right Reason and makes those suppositions which were harsh and incredible with regard to Men to become intolerable and impious when apply'd to the Deity Whatsoever bears the characters of Truth Justice Order Wisdom and Contrivance which I cannot but expect from good and skilful Men I undoubtedly require and believe of the Divine Majesty without the least hesitation in the highest degree and supreamest measure imaginable But whatsoever looks like Falseness Injustice Confusion Folly and a Wild Disproportion or Precipitancy among Men and which I am difficultly induc'd to imagine of a frail and imperfect Creature like my self I am much more hardly persuaded or rather find it impossible to believe of God Those very faculties by which I am enabled to distinguish and pass a Sentence in these matters are deriv'd from God and a part of the Divine Image on the Soul of Man and shall I so odly make use of them that what I could not be brought to credit of any one of my Neighbours it were so uncouth absurd and preposterous I freely admit and contend for when ascrib'd to my Creator The Mind of Man if it have leave to reflect freely can no more acquiesce in any Scheme of the Works of God where nothing of Forecast Order Decorum and Wisdom is conspicuous where every period appears puzling immethodical disproportionate and ill dispos'd such is that of the vulgar Idea of the Mosaick Creation as will be prov'd presently than it can believe contradictions or that God is an Infinitely Wise and Perfect Being indeed but yet at the same time acting what in the common sense of Mankind argues the greatest folly and imperfection which intirely and with plenary satisfaction to do is certainly impossible There is somewhat in the Humane Soul that has too quick a sense of the decency and fitness of things and withal too deep a veneration for the Adorable Majesty of God to be easie under tho' it may be overborn with such Notions It cannot be willing to believe that of its Wise and Glorious Creator which for another to believe of it self would be esteem'd as an high indignity 'T is true there is so great a difference between the compass of the Divine and the streightness of Humane Knowledge between the State of Creatures and of the Creator Blessed for evermore there may be such an incapacity in us to reach or unfathomable yet wise reasons for God to hide some things from us not to insist on the Divine Prerogative which frees him from the obligation of giving an account of every thing to any
of those Beings he has made That we ought to be very wary of Arguing from Man to God without due allowance for these considerations and consequently mighty cautious of affirming or denying whatever is ascrib'd to him from such a comparison In particular wherever a clear Revelation interposes we are bound to quit our fallible reasonings and fully to acquiesce in such a decision It being impossible for God to Lye but by no means so that we may be mistaken But then this necessary prudence and wariness is chiefly if not only concern'd in sublime and mysterious points concerning the incomprehensible Nature or unsearchable Providences of God which Doctrines sometimes are so much above the present Scene of things so remote from the notions and affairs of this World relate to and depend on such other Systems of Beings or circumstances of the Invisible World that we ought not rashly to pass our Judgment of them but wait till our Souls become so improv'd and our Understandings enlightened in a future state till our means of information and opportunities of looking through the whole Chain and System be so many more than now they are that we may justly be suppos'd more competent Judges and equal Arbitrators than at present the imperfection of our condition will permit us in reason to pretend to But this being again precaution'd to prevent any misconstruction or abuse of this reasoning I cannot but say that since 't will be hard to prove the case before us to be of so exalted a nature as to transcend our faculties and perhaps still harder to prove the plainness of the revelation on the side of the common exposition I am fully persuaded that while the Perfections of God are as to our assent deduc'd from their effects they may in good measure within certain bounds as was before discours'd be judg'd of by what is observable among Men. And as whatsoever is worthy good and valuable among our selves is rightly own'd as an efflux and gift of God so whatsoever is preposterous absurd or disorderly whatsoever is unworthy base or despicable in humane affairs cannot without great indignity be believed of him and where we have no other ways of determining such reasonings ought to be persuasive and decretory Now therefore all this being said by way of Introduction to this and some following Arguments let us apply it to the case before us and supposing which yet I need not allow that the matter were indifferent on all other considerations let us speak freely whether such a method such time and such proportion of the several parts as the Ordinary Scheme of the Creation sets before us be in any degree so well contriv'd and suitably dispos'd as I say not a Divine but a meer Humane Architect may be suppos'd the Author of I need not here give a particular account of the vulgar exposition of the first Chapter of Genesis 'T is sufficiently known as to the main parts of it But the disproportions I would take notice of in it under this Head are these three 1. The length of the Day usually assign'd is wholly disproportionate to the business done upon it 2. When the Works of each of the other Days are single distinct and of a sort the Third Day has two quite different nay incompatible Works assigned to it 3. And Principally the Earth with its furniture how inconsiderable a Body soever it is takes up four intire days at least of those six which were allotted to the whole Creation when the Sun Moon and Stars those vastly greater and more considerable bodies are crowded into one single day together 1. The Length of the Day usually assign'd of Twenty four Hours is wholly disproportionate to the business done upon it This plainly appears by the History it self where to omit other instances the whole train in the generation or first production of Animals has no longer a space afforded to it when yet all experience shews that a much longer is necessarily requir'd and has obtain'd in all the subsequent Ages Now I do not question but it will be confess'd by all that according to the constant process of Nature this time is utterly insufficient for this purpose But what will be said is that a Divine Power immediately interpos'd and either form'd every thing in its grown and mature state or at least accelerated and hasten'd the course of Nature so as to enable her to perfect each Creature in so short a space and that consequently no straitness of time ought to be alledg'd on this account In answer whereto I freely grant that God can produce all things in their most perfect state in a moment and if that could be prov'd to have been the method here this exception were of no validity But as on such a supposition 't is strange that six intire and successive days should be requisite to or pitch'd upon by an Infinite and Unlimited Agent when the instantaneous Creation of the whole appears more agreeable to the Dignity and Power of the Creator so I am pretty secure that this Hypothesis how common soever is repugnant to the Mosaick History The Sacred Penman does there ascribe indeed the Origin of every thing to the Divine Power yet no otherwise than the like would be and is done by the Holy Writers afterwards nay by every body at this day when yet the constant method of Generation is exactly observ'd If any of us were ask'd who made us We should soon answer God without the least imagination that we were excused from that nine months abode and gradual growth in our Mothers Womb which every one by the general Rule and Method of Nature is oblig'd to undergo Which appears in the present case to be the intention of the Holy Writer because he makes these very Animals productions of the Water and Earth as well as the proper effects of the Divine Power as has been observ'd already on another occasion And those who deny this gradual Generation according to the course of Nature must without reason recede from the Letter of Moses and that when by so doing they render this Sacred History more difficult and unintelligible than it really is But if instead of immediate Creation it be said that 't was only a supernatural acceleration of natural causes without any other alteration of the process which is I think the only probable evasion and the fairest supposition of all other I reply That this is gratis dictum without any foundation in the Scripture and so as easily denied as asserted it is introduc'd only to salve the shortness of time mention'd in the History which will be prov'd hereafter to stand in no need of it and it overthrows all attempts of accounting for this six days Creation in a rational and natural way for if a miraculous power be allow'd in a needless case we shall be ever at a loss how far to extend it and where mechanical causes ought to take place On which considerations I take
this extraordinary acceleration of natural causes to be tho' not impossible nor were there any intimation or necessity of its interposition from the Sacred History very improbable neither yet in the present case groundless unnecessary perplexing of the cause and by no means a sufficient solution in the present Affair Which being therefore thus answer'd the Argument remains in full force and the length of the days assign'd by the vulgar Hypothesis appears wholly disproportionate to the Works done therein of which farther notice will be taken hereafter 2. When the Works of each of the other Days are single distinct and of a sort the third Day has two quite different nay incompatible ones assigned to it This is plain from the History where the division of the Waters from the Earth or the distinction of the Terraqueous Globe into Seas and dry Land the first work on this Day is succeeded by that of the production of the intire Vegetable Kingdom contrary to the perpetual Tenor of the other periods of the Creation How this comes about or is accountable in the vulgar Scheme I know not and I believe the reason thereof is very little enquir'd into and less understood But because this whole difficulty will be urg'd against the shortness of days in the Vulgar Hypothesis and clear'd in Ours at their proper places hereafter I shall wave the farther insisting upon it here and proceed 3. But principally the Earth with its Furniture how inconsiderable a body soever it is takes up four intire days at least of those six which were allotted to the whole Creation when the Sun Moon and Stars those vastly greater and more considerable Bodies are crowded into one single day together Now in order to our passing a rational judgment in this matter I shall take leave to represent to the Reader 's view a short comparison or parallel between the Earth on one side and the rest of the World on the other and see what resemblance correspondence and proportion there is between the former and the latter either in its several parts or the whole taken together and this shall be done on such certain and undoubted grounds and principles as the late vast advancement of Natural Knowledge has afforded us and will be more at large explain'd in the following Pages This Earth then on which we live though it be in diameter more than 8000 miles and so a vast Globe if compar'd with those Bodies we daily see imagine and converse withal is yet one of the lesser of the primary Planets and with Jupiter Mars and the other her fellows revolves round the great Center of our System the Sun in a years time 'T is an Opake and Dark Body as they all are and in common with them borrows its light and heat from that glorious Body which we just now observ'd to obtain the center of their Orbits without which it as well as the intire Chorus of the other Planets must be soon reduc'd all to one dark heap of matter far beyond the description of the old caliginous and unprofitable Chaos and in no capacity of ever emerging out of that horrid and frightful state In dignity i four Earth expect not to come the last yet is she so exceeded in all things that might seem Characters thereof by several of the rest that there can be no manner of claim to the first Place If she have a secondary Planet the Moon for her attendant tho in truth she is at least as serviceable to that Planet as that Planet is to her Jupiter has certainly four and some good Glasses have discover'd five about Saturn who however is not wholly destitute as all Astronomers confess The density and place of the Earth is pretty near the middle of the Planets and as she exceeds and is higher than some so is she exceeded by and lower than others in those respects Her own Secondary Planet the Moon has an Air much more homogeneous pure and transparent than she at present enjoys and in all probability free from Winds Clouds Storms Tempests Thunder Lightning and such other irregular and pernicious Effects which render our Atmosphere so contagious and pestilent to the Inhabitants of the Earth In which circumstances the generality of the other Planets imitate the Moon and render our miserable Condition the more remarkable and sensible as appearing thereby almost singular Our days and nights are longer than those of some and shorter than those of others of the Planets The figure of the Earth is nearly sphaerical as is that also of the other Heavenly Bodies its surface unequal with Mountains and Valleys as well as that of the rest especially the Moon 's appears to be Only 't is observable that the last though much less in bigness has her Mountains higher than we on Earth The Sea and Land Mountains and Valleys and other such corresponding Phaenomena of the Moon shew that that small Planet is not nearer our Earth in place than in quality and disposition also If we compute the true magnitude or quantity of matter in the Earth it will appear that she is not the 60th part so big as Jupiter nor the 30th as Saturn nor the 60000th as the Sun So that she is very inconsiderable if compar'd with the rest of the Solar Vortex only but if with the intire Universe or Systems of the fixt Stars in the elegancy of the Prophetick Expressions as a drop of a Bucket as the small dust of the Balance yea less than nothing and vanity Insomuch that to all those remote Systems of the Heavenly Bodies this Earth with all its fellow Planets are no more visible than those which 't is probable revolve about any of them are to us in these our Planetary Regions And as we usually little think of those invisible Globes so any of their Inhabitants never once imagine that there is such a Planet as ours about which we make such a mighty stir in the whole World As to the main use of this Earth 't is to afford habitation to a sinful and lapsed Race of Creatures of small Abilities or Capacities at present but of great Vices and Wickedness and is esteemed as far as appears in its present constitution so peculiarly and solely sit for them that when they are gone or their Dispositions and Faculties reform'd and improv'd a better scence of Nature a new Heaven and a new Earth is to be introduc'd for such better and more noble Creatures The Old one which now obtains being it seems only a sort of Prison or Confinement which is to be our Lot whilst we are sinful and miserable but no longer And is this the only Darling of Nature the prime Object of the Creation and Providence of God Can such a Globe's original nay of the external and visible Parts of it only claim four parts of six of that entire space which the Wisdom of God allotted for the Formation of all things in the whole World while the Origin
of the Sun Moon and numberless Systems of Stars has only a poor single part allotted to it Must the expanding the Air between the Earth and the Clouds be thought to equal the disposal of all those Coelestial Bodies into their several Regions and the producing a few Fish and Fowl be a weightier concern and require more time than the replenishing all the other habitable Worlds with Beings suitable to their several Constitutions Will a wise Builder bestow twice as much time in decking and adorning of one Bycloset of inferior use and that only to some of the meanest Servants too as of the Royal Palace with all its stately Rooms and Apartments intended for the King himself and his Courtiers Should we hear of such strange Actions and disproportionate Procedure among Men we should not be able to induce our selves to give credit thereto But it seems Suppositions ten thousand times more disproportionate and unaccountable when ascrib'd to God Almighty are easily believ'd So far can Ignorance Prejudice and a misunderstanding of the Sacred Volumes carry the Faith nay the Zeal of Men and to such a mean Opinion of the most glorious and perfect of Beings are we thereby reduc'd that as if we were not content to think him such a one as our selves but intended to depress him below the very meanest of us we venture with confidence and eagerness to ascribe to him that disproportionate unequal and unaccountable disposal of the Works of Creation which the simplest Artificer could not bear the Imputation of It must here be confess'd That such Notions of the Mosaick Creation as I now oppose having begun or at least been chiefly establish'd and propagated when the Aristotelean Philosophy and Ptolomaick Astronomy were believ'd those who have embrac'd them till this Age were less absurd and nearer to some tolerable degree of probability For so long as the Earth with its adjoyning Elements was suppos'd the Center and Basis of all the World while the distance of the Heavenly Bodies was believ'd to be comparatively to what we now find very small and inconsiderable and all their Motions perform'd about us their proper and immovable Center while the whole Series of Spheres above tho' the several distinct ones mov'd the contrary way by their own peculiar Motions was in twenty four hours constantly hurried from East to West by the Primum Mobile on purpose to cause Day and Night to us below while Comets were esteem'd Exhalations from the Stars and sent only at certain Seasons to affright Mankind with their fiery Tails and then to be dissipated and vanish into Vapours again while the Sun and Stars in the Opinion of the Philosophers themselves were nourish'd by the Steams from our Earth and while the last named were either stuck in one Spherical Superficies as the fix'd Stars or fastned in their Solid Orbs like a Nail in a Cartwheel as the Planets and no other use imagin'd but to twinkle to us in Winter Evenings and by their Aspects to forebode what little Changes of Weather or other Accidents were to be expected below while no other habitable World was dream'd of than this Globe of Earth no other Animals once conjectur'd at besides those on the face thereof while Mankind was look'd on as the sole Lord of the Creation and Him for whose sake all other Creatures in the World were made and while 't was commonly granted that as all things the visible Heavens and Earth with their intire Furniture began with him so at the Conclusion of his Succession or the period of Humane Generations here must they for ever cease and be annihilated While all this I say was the current Philosophy 't is not very surprizing that the Mosaick History we are now upon was understood in the Vulgar Sense and seem'd not wholly disagreeable to the presumed Frame of Nature and 't was not hard to believe that this Earth and its Inhabitants in the Opinion of the World the main and principal concern of all and that to whose uses every thing else intirely serv'd had the principal care bestow'd upon it both in its Original Creation and its subsequent Changes and Revolutions But tho' such a Scheme and such an Apprehension were passable enough in the days of our Forefathers 't is by no means so now Those greater degrees of Knowledge which the Providence of God has in this Age afforded us make such Opinions intolerable in the present which were not so in the past Centuries 'T is now evident That every one of the Planets as well as that on which we live must have a right in its proportion to share in the care of Heaven and had therefore in all probability a suitable space or number of Days allow'd to its proper Formation much what the same Separations of Parts Digestions and Collections being no doubt to be suppos'd in the Original Formation of any other as in that particular Planet with which Moses was concern'd And if one or two on account of their smallness might be finish'd in less the rest on account of their bigness from a parity of Reason would take up much more than that six days time which was spent in our Earth's Formation And let the Reader judge if it be so impossible to reduce the Planets alone within the fourth days Work how much more so it will be in case we allow degrees of impossibilities to reduce thither that vast noble and useful Body the Fountain of our Light and Heat the Sun and still in a prodigious degree more so to include the immense and numberless Systems of the fixt Stars among whom when the Sun is but one and perhaps no bigger than the rest and consequently to have in reason but an equal portion of time with them allotted for its Origination It must tho' above Sixty thousand times as big as the Earth while the Earth takes up four intire ones be thrust into the Corner of a single Day Corner did I say rather Minute nay Moment of a Day and 't is uncertain whether even that pittance of time can fairly and separately be allow'd to it So that one need not fear to assert That he who should affirm the Divine Power to have spent four entire Days in the Formation of a Fly or Worm nay of a single Plant or Herb and but one in the Formation of the Terraqueous Globe with all its Parts Regions and Furniture would be less unreasonable than some Expositors now are and more observe Decorum Fitness Agreement and Proportion than they do in the Vulgar Interpretations of the Mosaick Creation And I need not be afraid to call all that Astronomy and Philosophy are Masters of to attest the fairness of such a Comparison And can any one who is sensible of this and entertains no other than great and worthy Thoughts of his Alwise Creator embrace so fond and so strange an Opinion And if the Reader will pardon a short Digression and give me leave to speak a great Truth
Original 2. Bodies Unlike in Nature have a like Original 3. Bodies most considerable in themselves have the most inconsiderable accounts given of them 4. No Bodies but the Earth have either time for or particulars of the formation of the several parts assign'd 5. The Light appears before its Cause and Fountain the Sun was made 6. The Excavation of the Channel of the Ocean and the Elevation of the Mountains is unnatural and indecent Of each of which I shall say but a word or two and then as briefly argue from them 1. Bodies Alike in nature have an unlike Original Our Earth is one of the Planets and in all reason belonging to their formation yet is she the Subject of the Second Third Fifth and Sixth days works while the rest are included in the Fourth Day 2. Bodies Unlike in nature have a like Original The Sun a glorious Body of Light with his Fellows the fixt Stars are join'd in the fourth day with the Opake and Dark Globes of the Planets 3. Bodies most considerable in themselves have the most inconsiderable accounts given of them This is very obvious in that mighty adoe about our poor Earth while the vastly greater and nobler Bodies of the Sun and Stars are scarce taken any notice of And how disproportionate such a procedure is the comparison already made of the Earth on one side with the rest of the World on the other does more than sufficiently demonstrate 4. No Bodies but the Earth have either time for or particulars of the formation of the several parts assign'd For when four days are wholly taken up with the particulars relating to our Earth the division of its Aerial from its Earthly Waters the distinguishing the latter from the dry Land and draining 'em into the Channels of the Seas the growth of Plants generation of Fish Fowl and Terrestrial Animals and at last the Creation of Man with several circumstances relating to him and the other Creatures not a syllable as to the particulars of the rest of the World Light is only commanded to shine on the First Day and the Heavenly Bodies made on the Fourth and there 's all as to themselves which occurs here 5. The Light appears before the Creation of the Sun from whence it is deriv'd That being the Work of the First This of the Fourth Day Which how Philosophical and Accountable 't is let the Reader judge 6. The Excavation of the Channel of the Ocean and the Elevation of the Mountains is unnatural and indecent For when the Earth was at first even and cover'd with Waters Expositors imagine that God as it were digg'd a vast Channel for the Ocean and heav'd away the Earth and plac'd it on all parts of the Globe to make the Mountains Which how indecent it is I had rather leave to the judgment of the Reader than stand here to exaggerate especially where the naked representation of the thing it self is a sufficient exposing thereof to free Thinkers These obvious Remarks on the vulgar Scheme of the Mosaick Creation to omit the passing by of the intire invisible World whether within or without the surface of the Earth whether corporeal or spiritual are I think sufficient demonstrations that 't is a very distant one from the true nature of things and such as is both unworthy of the Writer and Author of the Sacred History Whoever will take the pains carefully to consider the System of Nature and compare it with these Remarks and the common Opinion of the proper Creation of all things in the six Days Works will not I believe be at a loss for Arguments to over-turn the old and to prove that a new Theory is to be enquir'd after and a narrower World to be expected in the First Chapter of Genesis than has generally been But Before I conclude this Head I must here observe that the consideration of these matters has had so great influence on our late most Excellent Commentator on Genesis that tho' he keep more strictly to the letter of Moses than others yet he finds occasion and room for these four great Concessions no less contrary to the vulgar than approaching to the present Account of the History of the Creation 1. He is willing to allow that Moses meddles not with the intire Universe but with the Planetary System only 2. He allows the Creation of the World to have been over before the six Days Work begins 3. He grants the same six Days Works to be the regular and orderly reduction of a confused Chaos into a habitable World without any strange Miracles in every part 4. He supposes that for a considerable time before the six Days Work began there were such preparatory agitations fermentations and separations or conjunctions of parts as disposed the whole to fall ino the succeeding method and introduce the six Days Productions following Which Concessions of so great a Man and excellent a Commentator as they argue his sense of the necessity of receding from the vulgar Hypothesis so they I confess lessen and diminish the difficulties in this History Lessen I say and diminish not take them away For besides the want of any foundation in Scripture as far as I see for the distinction between the fixt Stars and Planets the Arguments I have all along urged reach and are fram'd with regard to this limited Hypothesis also and with those yet to come are I think more than sufficient to my purpose still and will demonstrate the unaccountableness of the History of the Creation even on this tho' much more on the common Interpretation VII The Mosaick Creation does not extend beyond this Earth because the alone final cause of all therein contained is the advantage of Mankind the Inhabitant thereof Now that the final cause of all the particulars mention'd in the History before us is here rightly assign'd is not only visible in almost every verse of it and in the places of Scripture afterwards referring to the same thing but commonly acknowledg'd nay contended for by the Patrons of the vulgar account So that I shall here take it for granted But then as to the consequence that therefore the Creation is no farther to be extended or at least not so far as here it must otherwise be to the Sun and Planets nay with the most to the innumerable Systems of the fix'd Stars 't is to me so natural and necessary that methinks 't is perfectly needless to go about the proof of it That so vast and noble a System consisting of so many so remote so different and so glorious Bodies should be made only for the use of Man is so wild a Fancy that it deserves any other treatment sooner than a serious confutation And one may better think silently with ones self than with due deference and decency speak what naturally arises in ones Mind on this occasion If 't is an instance of or consistent with the Divine Wisdom to make thousands of glorious Bodies for the
Times of revolving being to each other as the Cubes of their middle distances from him 't is hence certain That as before the force of their Attraction or Impulse towards the Sun is in a duplicate Proportion of their distances reciprocally Coroll 4. The Case being the same as to the Circumjovials about Jupiter and the Circumsaturnals about Saturn this last Corollary belongs equally to them also But the Moon being a single Planet revolving about the Earth is incapable of giving evidence in her Case Coroll 5. As before the Law of Gravitation being demonstrated from the Planets revolving in Ellipses about the central Bodies in one of the Foci the Proportion between the periodical Times compar'd with the distances from the central Bodies was deducible à priori so vice versâ the periodical Times compar'd with the distances demonstrating the Law of Gravitation thence the necessily of the Planets Revolution in Ellipses about the central Bodies in one of the Foci is à priori demonstrated also Coroll 6. 'T is certain That the Annual Motion belongs to the Earth about the Sun not to the Sun about the Earth For when from the Moon 's Orbit and the Planet's Orbits and periodical Times 't is certain That the Law of Gravitation towards the Earth and towards the Sun is the same and by consequence all the periodical Times of Bodies revolving about each of them in the same Proportion to one another compar'd with their several Distances from each of them On Which Hypothesis this Proportion suits the Phaenomena of Nature the same must be the true one and to be fully acquiesc'd in Now 't is known That on the Hypothesis of the Earth's Annual Motion her periodical Time exactly suits and is so between that of Venus and Mars as the Proportion observ'd through the whole System and demonstrable à priori withal exactly requires but on the other Hypothesis 't is enormously different For when the Moon undoubtedly and on this Hypothesis the Sun also revolves about our Earth and when the distance of the Sun is to that of the Moon as about 10000 to 46 and the Moon 's periodical Time less than 28 days the periodical Time of the Sun is by the Rule of Three discoverable thus As the Cube of the Moon 's distance 46 equal to 97336 to the Cube of the Sun 's 10000 equal to 1000000000000. or almost as 1 to 10000000 so must the Square of the Moon 's periodical Time 28 Days equal to 784. be to the Square of the Sun 's periodical Time 7840000000 whose square Root 88204 are Days also equal to 242 Years So that on the Hypothesis of the Sun's Revolution about the Earth its periodical Time must undoubtedly be 242 Years which all Experience attests to be but a single one So that at length the Controversy between the Ptolemaick and Pythagorean Systems of the World is to a Demonstration determin'd and the Earth's Annual Motion for ever unquestionably establish'd Coroll 7. 'T is certain those Opake Masses which sometimes appear at the Sun are not Planets revolving at any the least distance from him but Spots or Maculae adhering to him for whereas they revolve but once in about twenty six Days on Calculation it will appear that a Planet near the Sun's Surface as these must be cannot have three hours allow'd for its periodical Revolution which being so different from the foremention'd space of twenty six days quite decides that Controversy and demonstrates those Masses to be real Maculae adhering to the Body of the Sun as is here asserted XXIV If a Planet describe an Ellipsis about its central Body in the Focus thereof it will move fastest when 't is nearest to and slowest when 't is farthest from the said central Body or Focus and agreeably in the intermediate places For seeing wheresoever the revolving Body is the Area is still proportionable to the time as was before shew'd and so in equal times always equal 't is evident by how much the Distance is less and the Line from the Focus is shorter by so much must the Bodies motion be the swifter to compensate the same and vice versâ by how much the former is longer by so much must the latter be slower to allow for it XXV If the Planet B describe an Ellipsis about the central Body in the Focus H as the Area describ'd by the Line B H will be exactly uniform and proportional to the time of Description so the Angular Motion or Velocity of the Line from the other Focus B I will be proportional to the time and uniform also tho' not so Exactly and Geometrically XXVI The Law of Gravitation already explain'd being suppos'd if one Planet describe an Ellipsis about the central Body in the Focus H and another describe a Circle about the same in its Center If the Semidiameter of the Circle be equal to H E the middle distance in the Ellipsis from the same Center or Focus their periodical Times of revolving will be the same and when the Distances are equal their Velocity will be so too Corollary Tho' therefore the Planets revolve in Ellipses of several Species yet their periodical Times may be as well compar'd with one another and with their distances from the central Bodies as if they all revolv'd in compleat Circles as was above done XXVII If a Body revolve about a central Body as about A in a Circle as B e E b and another revolve about the same in the Focus of its Ellipsis B H F G so that the Semediameter of the Circle were equal to the nearest distance in the Ellipsis AB the Velocity of the Body at the nearest Point of the Ellipsis will be greater than the Velocity of the Body in the Circle and will be to it in half the Proportion of the Latus rectum of the Ellipsis pq to the Diameter of the Circle eb or as that Line p q to a middle proportional between it self and e b. XXVIII If one Body revolve round a central Body in a Circle and another about the same in its Focus describe so very Eccentrical an Ellipsis that it may pass for a Parabola the Velocity of the Body moving along the Ellipsis will be to that of the Body moving in the Circle the Point in the Ellipsis being as far from the central Body as the Circumference of the Circle very nearly as ten to seven XXIX If a central Body have many Bodies revolving about it 't is perfectly indifferent in it self and with regard to the central Body in what Plains soever or which way in those Plains soever they all or any of them move Corollary Hence arises a convincing Argument of the Interposition of Council and Providence in the Constitution of our System in which all the Planets revolve the same way from West to East and that in Plains almost coincident with one another and with that of the Ecliptick as Mr. Bentley hath also observ'd XXX The
Order of the Heavenly Bodies in the Solar System is as follows First of all The vast and glorious Body of the Sun is plac'd in the middle very near the Center of Gravity of the intire System in the common Focus of every one of the Planetary Orbits Next to him Mercury describes his Ellipsis and that so near that we on Earth rarely obtain a distinct view of him Next to Mercury is the Elliptick Orbit of Venus our glorious Morning and Evening Star Next to Venus our Earth with its attendant the Moon perform a joint Course and Measure out the Annual Period Next to the Earth the fiery Star Mars alone without any visible Guard accompanying him revolves about the same Center Next to Mars tho' at a mighty distance from him the largest of the Planets Jupiter with his four remarkable Satellits and lastly Saturn with his five little Moons about him describe the farthest and most remote Orbits and compleat the intire Planetary Chorus as the Frontispiece of the Book represents them to the Contemplation of the Reader SCHOLIUM Besides the Planets whose Orbits are not very different from Circles there are another Species of Bodies revolving about the Sun in such Ellipses as may pass for Parabola's they are so exceeding Eccentrical but as regularly retaining their several Periods and Orbits as the Planets now mention'd But because these Bodies will be more distinctly consider'd hereafter I shall wave their farther Consideration at present and proceed XXXI The periodical Times of each Planet's Revolution about the Sun are as follow   Y. D. H. Mercury revolves about the Sun in the space of 00 088 00 Venus 00 224 18 The Earth 00 365 06 Mars 01 315 00 Jupiter 12 000 00 Saturn 30 000 00 XXXII The middle distances of the Planets from the Sun are as follow Mercury is distant from the Sun 020952000 Statute Miles each 5000 Paris Feet Venus 039096000 The Earth 054000000 Mars 082242000 Jupiter 280582000 Saturn 513540000 SCHOLIUM The Proportions of these Numbers are unquestionable But the Numbers themselves only within about a fourth part under or over The Reason of such uncertainty is That the Sun's Parallax or Angle which the Diameter of the Earth would subtend to an eye at the Sun on which the whole depends is not yet accurately determined by Astronomers so that between 24 and 40 Seconds no number can be certainly pitch'd upon till farther Observations put an end to our Doubts On which Account I have endeavour'd to come as near to Probability as possible and have suppos'd the Sun's Parallax 32 in a middle between the two foremention'd Extreams and from this Hypothesis made these and the following Calculations which therefore cannot well be above a fourth part under or over the truth but very probably are much nearer it XXXIII The quantity of Matter in such of the Heavenly Bodies as afford us means of determining the same is in the Proportions following The Sun 's 66690. Jupiter's 000601 2. Saturn's 000281 4. The Earth's 00001. The Moon 's 000001 26. SCHOLIUM Because the Solidity or Quantity of Matter in Bodies is in a triplicate Proportion of their Diameters that small uncertainty in the Sun's Parallax beforemention'd imports a great deal in the present Calculation I shall therefore give the Reader the Proportions of the Quantity of Matter in the Heavenly Bodies on the two extream Hypotheses as well as I have done on the middle one only informing him that the Hypothesis of 24 seems nearer the truth than the opposite extream of 40 as being nearest the accurate Observations of our great Astronomer Mr. Flamsteed The quantities of Matter therefore are as follow The Sun's 28700 If the Sun's Parallax be 40 The Sun's 136560 If the Sun's Parallax be 24 Jupiter's 000261 11 Jupiter's 0001241 7 Saturn 's 000121 6 Saturn 's 0000579 10 The Earth's 00001 The Earth's 000001 The Moon 's 000001 26 The Moon 's 0000001 26 Corollary The weight of Bodies at equal distances from the Sun and Planets being in the same Proportion with the Quantity of their Matter as has been Lem. 7 already said the same Numbers assign'd in the last priùs Lemma which explain the latter serve equally to explain the former also XXXIV The Diameters of the Sun and Planets are as follows The Sun's 494100 Statute Miles each 5000 Paris Feet Saturn's 043925 Jupiter's 052522 Mar's 002816 The Earth's 008202 The Moon 's 002223 Venus's 004941 Mercury's 002717 XXXV The weight of Bodies on the Surface of the Sun and those Planets mention'd in the 33 d Lemma before is as follows On the Surface of The Sun 10000. The Earth 012581 2 Jupiter 008041 2. The Moon 00630. Saturn 00536. XXXVI The Densities of the same whatever be the Sun's Parallax is as follows The Moon 's 700. The Earth's 387. The Sun 's 100. Jupiter's 076. Saturn's 060. XXXVII As the weight of Bodies without the Superficies of the Heavenly Bodies increases in a duplicate Proportion of their nearness to their Centers so within the same Superficies does it decrease in a simple Proportion thereof and is consequently greatest upon the Superficies themselves Thus a Body at 10000 Miles distance from the Earth's Center is four times so heavy as it would be at 20000. But within the Earth if a Body were twice as near its Center as 't is on the Surface it would be but half so heavy as 't is here if thrice as near it would be but a third part so heavy if four times as near it would be but a quarter so heavy and so for ever proportionably Gravity therefore is most considerable on the Surface decreasing both ways upward in a duplicate Proportion of the reciprocal Distance and downward in a simple direct Proportion thereof XXXVIII If the central Regions of a Globe contain a sphaerical Cavity within the same Bodies plac'd therein from the equality of Attraction on every side will not tend any way or gravitate at all but be as perfectly at liberty as if they were not affected by any such Law of Attraction or Gravitation XXXIX The Moon revolves about the Earth from West to East in 27 Days 7 Hours 43 Minutes and in the very same space of Time by a strange Correspondence and Harmony of the two Motions revolves the same way about its own Axis whereby one Motion as much converting it to as the other turns it from the Earth the same side is always expos'd to our sight XL. The Librations of the Moon 's Body which cause not exactly the same Hemisphere thereof to be perpetually expos'd to our sight arise from the Eccentricity of the Moon 's Orbit from the Perturbations by the Sun's Attraction and from the Obliquity of the Axis of the Diurnal Rotation to the Moon 's own Orbit without the knowledge of which Circumstances her Phoenomena were inexplicable but by the consideration of them are very demonstrable XLI In the 2365 th year of the Julian Period the Autumnal Equinox was on
the 11 th day of October 'T is evident from the Astronomical Tables of the Anticipation of the Equinox that in 4044 years the time since the beforemention'd Year the Equinoxes have anticipated 30 Days 9 Hours 'T is also evident That this Year 1696. the Vernal Equinox is on the 9 th of March and the Autumnal on the 12 th of September 't is farther evident That whereas now the Space from the Vernal to the Autumnal Equinox is eight or nine Days longer than from the Autumnal to the Vernal by reason of the Position of the Perihelion of the Earth's Orbit near the Winter Solstice at the time beforemention'd it was not above five or six Days so By the Anticipation therefore of the Equinoxes alone if the Position of the Perihelion had been always the same the Equinoxes at the time assigned had been on the 9 th of April in the Morning and on the 12 th of October in the Evening and the equaller Division of the Year allow'd for the Vernal Equinox was on the 10 th of April and the Autumnal on the 11 th of October as was to be prov'd XLII Comets are a Species of Planets or Bodies revolving about the Sun in Elliptical Orbits whose periodical Times and Motions are as constant certain and regular as those of the Planets tho' till very lately wholly unknown to the World XLIII These Elliptical Orbits of Comets are so very Oblong and Eccentrical that while they come within our Observation they are but little different from Parabola's and may accordingly be consider'd as such XLIV The Plains in which various Comets move are themselves exceeding various and at all imaginable Angles of Inclination with one another and with that of the Ecliptick XLV The course of Comets in their Orbits is not determin'd one way as is that of the Planets from West to East but indifferently some of them move one way and some another Corollary 1. From these two last Lemmata 't is evident that Comets move sometimes from East to West other times from West to East sometimes from North to South other times from South to North or obliquely between any of these ways according as the Situation of the Plains of their Orbits and the Directions of their Courses together determine them Coroll 2. Hence 't is certain That the heavenly Motions are not perform'd in corporeal Vortices when the Comets exactly observe the same Laws and Velocity of Motion whether they revolve with or against or cross to the Planets and the suppos'd stuid Matter of the Vortices XLVI Comets in their descent to and ascent from the Sun pass quite through the Planetary System as may be seen in the Frontispiece Corollary Hence we may observe a new possible Cause of vast Changes in the Planetary World by the access and approach of these vast and hitherto little known Bodies to any of the Planets XLVII If a Comet in its descent to or ascent from the Sun approach near to a Planet as it passes by and its Plain be different from that in which the Planets move by its attractive Power it will agreeably to the universal Law of Gravitation of Bodies draw it from the Plain in which it before mov'd and so cause it afterward to move in a new one inclin'd to the former but passing through the Sun as the former did Corollary Hence 't is supposable That tho' the Planets originally revolv'd in the same common Plain yet by the subsequent Attraction of Comets their Plains may now be inclin'd to one another and different as 't is certain de facto they now are SCHOLIUM When the Law of Gravitation is universal and mutual 't is evident The Planet would draw the Comet from its Plain as well as the Comet would draw the Planet and so generally what effects soever the Comets could have on the Planets the latter would have correspondent ones on the former But as this Indication once given for all there is no necessity of taking notice of the changes in the Comets so accordingly in what follows I shall wholly omit the same and confine my self to such things as will be immediately useful in the following Theory XLVIII If a Comet revolving in the same Plain with a Planet whose Orbit is a perfect Circle as it passes by approach near it by accelerating or retarding the Velocity of the Planet it would render its Orbit Elliptical Thus if B were a Planet revolving about the Sun at the Center A in the circular Orbit Be Eb and a Comet either in its descent towards or ascent from the Sun should pass near it it would agreeably to the universal Law of Gravitation of Bodies accelerate it if concurring with or retard ing it if contradicting the Planet's own annual Motion along the Periphery of its Circle Whereupon the concentrical Orbit would become excentrical and the Planet would afterward revolve in an Ellipsis which on an Acceleration would be bigger and on a Retardation less than the Circle which it had till then describ'd the former represented by BHFG the latter by BKLI For when the original Velocity of B was exactly adjusted to the Sun's Power of Attraction and its Orbit thereupon a perfect Circle this new Acceleration or Retardation must render it afterward incommensurate and too great or too little for the same and accordingly the Orbit to be afterward agreeably to what has been formerly explain'd describ'd by the Planet must be an Ellipsis and bigger or less than the former Circle as the force was directed for or against the Planet's own Motion Corollary 1. In this Case the Sun would no longer be in the Center of the Figure but in one of the Foci viz. in the nearer Focus of the larger and the farther of the smaller Ellipsis Coroll 2. If B were the Earth moving circularly about the Sun from West to East i. e. from B by e Eb to B again and a Comet h in its descent towards the Sun should pass by before it or on the Eastside the annual Motion of the Earth would be accelerated and its circular Orbit degenerate into the larger Ellipsis BHFG about the Sun in its nearer Focus A. XLIX If a Comet in passing by as before accelerate the Planets Motion and so enlarge the Orbit the Planets periodical Time of revolving will be enlarg'd and become longer thereby In like manner if the Comet retard the Planets Motion and so diminish the Orbit the periodical Time of revolving will be lessen'd and become shorter And still the more considerable the Acceleration or Retardation is compar'd with the original Velocity of the Planet the greater will be the eccentricity and the greater difference between the former and latter Orbits and the former and latter periodical Times of revolving also Corollary 1. If in the foregoing Case the Semidiater of the ancient Circle with the middle Distance in the Ellipsis afterward describ'd be given as also the periodical Time of revolving in the latter
present Elliptick Orbit be the effect of the Passing by of a Comet the time of such passing by must have been about three days after the New or Full Moon Let og represent a Section of the Eccliptick Periphery in which the Earth a is performing its annual course from West to East or from o towards g Let c be the Moon performing in like manner besides her menstrual revolution the same way from t by c towards s about the Earth her annual course with the same Velocity as the Earth from u towards w along her Periphery u w equidistant from the Eccliptick o g Let n m represent the trajectory of the Comet intersecting the Line passing through the Sun I i in the Angle m b i of 12 14 or 16 degrees more or less Let b be the Comet descending from n towards m in its approach towards it Perihelion From the Earth's Center from d and x the Line a x being drawn parallel to the Comets Trajectory n m let fall perpendiculars to the Trajectory a f d e x y. Now if while the Comet were passing from f to y the Moon stood still and did not proceed in her annual course along her Periphery u w she must have been at that Point x or not above one day past the new at t and so the nearest distances a f x y being equal the Attractions of the Earth by the Comet at f and of the Moon by the Comet at y would have been equal also and by consequence this position would have secur'd the future agreement and company of these two Planets and the time of the passing by of the Comet fix'd to a single day after the New Moon But by reason of the Moons progressive annual motion along her Periphery u w while the Comet descends from t towards y she must have been in that Point of her Menstrual Orbit c where c d is to cq or d a as her Velocity to the Comets or as 7 to 10 that so the Comet descending from its nearest distance to the Earth at f to its nearest distance to the Moon at e and the Moon arriving at the same time by her annual motion at the Point d the nearest distances a f d e may still be equal and the acceleration of the Earth and the Moon may still be the same Now this being the case the place of the Moon c must be about 41 43 or 45 degrees more or less past the Point t in its Menstrual Orbit or the Conjunction with the Sun or three days past the New Moon And the like will be demonstrated of three days past the Full Moon by the same figure and reasoning if we do but shift the Scene and let c represent the Earth and u w the Ecliptick Periphery a the Moon and o g its Periphery For all the rest remaining as above the Angle δ c a which the Moon a must have pass'd after the full at ζ being equal to the alternate c a t would require equal time to be describ'd and so the time proper for the situation of the Earth and Moon which is equally necessary in this as in the former case as the Figure represents it will be three days after the Full as this Corollary asserts Coroll If therefore in a given year a Comet in its descent towards the Sun Accelerated the Earth and Moon 's annual motions and thereby chang'd their Orbit from a Circle to an Ellipsis when the day of the year from the place of the Perihelion were pretty nearly determined by this last Lemma the very day is determined also from the Astronomical Tables of the Conjunctions of the Sun and Moon LVI If our Earth once revolv'd about the Sun in a circular Orbit whose Semidiameter were equal to the Earth's original distance from the Sun six degrees past its Perihelion the annual period was exactly equal to 12 Synodical or 13 Periodical Months 'T is evident that 12 Synodical or 13 Periodical Months equal to each other in the present case are 355 days 4 hours 19 minutes 'T is also evident that the Eccentricity of the Earth's or the distance between the Focus and Center of its Ellipsis was according to the ancient Astronomers Hipparchus and Ptolomy 21 1000 of the intire middle distance By the Moderns 't is found somewhat less and those who know Mr. Newton's Philosophy will easily allow of some diversity in different ages by Tycho 't was determin'd to be near 18 1000 by Cassini since 17 1000 and last of all by our most accurate Observer Mr. Flamsteed as he was pleas'd by Letter with great freedom to assure me 1692 100000 or near 17 1000 as Cassini had before determin'd All which consider'd we may very justly take the middle between the Ancient and the Modern Eccentricity 19 1000 for the true original one and about 185 10000 or more nicely 1816 100000 for the difference between the ancient Semidiameter of the circular Orbit and the middle distance in the present Elliptick one the point of acceleration being about 6 degrees past the Perihelion not just at it as is before prov'd Then by the Golden Rule as the Cube of 100000 the middle distance in the Ellipsis to the Cube of 98154 the Semidiameter of the Ancient Circle so is the square of 525949 the number of minutes in our present Solar year to the square of the number of Minutes in the ancient Solar year whose Root being 511459 minutes or 355 days 4 hours 19 minutes appears to be exactly and surprizingly equal to the Lunar year before mention'd Coroll Upon this Hypothesis the Ancient Solar and Lunar year were exactly commensurate and equal and 10 days 1 hour 30 minutes shorter than the present Solar year Which last number tho' it be not equal to the Lunar Epact at present is yet rightly assign'd each Synodical moth being by the quicker angular revolution of the Earth then so much longer as upon the whole adjusted the periods as is above stated which on calculation will easily appear LVII As Comets agree with Planets in a regular Motion about the Sun the common Center or Focus of our System so do they as to their bulk and magnitude being generally speaking about the bigness of Planets as the observations of Astronomers demonstrate LVIII Besides the Bodies of the Comets themselves which are solid compact and durable there is round about the same a vastly large thin pellucid Fluid containing withal great quantities of Opake or Earthy Particles constituting together a confused irregular unequally dispos'd and uncertainly agitated Mass of Bodies whose Diameter is 10 if not 15 times as long as that of the Body it self and this Mass is call'd the Atmosphere thereof LIX By reason of the mutual access and recess of the Comets to and from the Sun their Atmospheres are uncapable of attaining or at least least of long retaining any regular and orderly situation and disposition of parts according to the Law of Specifick Gravity
confused fluid mass or congeries of heterogeneous Bodies suppose it were a Comets Atmosphere or any other such like irregular compositum of mingled corpuscles in its formation were subject only to an Annual motion about the Sun without any Diurnal Rotation about an Axis of its own the Figure thereof would be that of a perfect Sphere as from the uniform force of Gravity and consequent equilibration of parts on all sides is easily demonstrable But if during its Formation it had a Diurnal Rotation about an Axis of its own the Figure thereof by reason of the great velocity and consequent conatus recedendi à centro motus diminishing the force of Gravity at the Equatorial parts would be that of an oblate Sphaeroid such as an Ellipsis revolving about its lesser Axis would generate LXVIII If a Planet consisted in great measure of an Abyss or Dense Internal Fluid and a Crust or Shell of Earth plac'd on its Surface tho' the Diurnal Rotation were not begun at the Formation thereof from a Chaos and so its original figure were Sphaerical yet upon the commencing of the said Diurnal Rotation it would degenerate immediately into that of an oblate Sphaeroid and retain it afterward as well as if it had put on the same at its primary formation Corollary When therefore the greater quickness of the vibrations of the same Pendulum and the greater gravitation of Bodies near the Poles than the Equator consequent thereupon demonstrate the former Regions of the Earth to be nearer its Center than the latter and that consequently the Figure is that of an Oblate Sphaeroid 't is evident that either the Diurnal Motion commenc'd before the Orginal of its present constitution or that its internal parts are in some degree Fluid and so were pliable and alterable on the after commencing of such Diurnal Rotation And this Corollary extends equally if not more to Jupiter whose Diurnal Rotation is quicker than our Earth's and by consequence its Figure farther from Sphaerical Thus by Mr. Newton's Calculation the Diameter of the Equator of the Earth is to the Axis thereof only as 692 to 689. But in Jupiter according to the same Mr. Newton's Calculation Corrected as about 8 to 7. Which is very considerable and sensible and accordingly attested to by the concurrent observstions of Cassini and Mr. Flamsteed LXIX If such an Upper Crust or Shell of Earth on the face of the Abyss were Fix'd and Consolidated before the Diurnal Rotation thereof commenc'd it would remain intire continued and united all the time of its Sphaerical Figure or all the time it had no other than an Annual revolution But by the beginning of the Diurnal Rotation which would make the surface of the Abyss and its sustained Orb of Earth put on the Figure of the Oblate Sphaeroid before-mention'd that Upper Orb must be stretch'd chap'd and crack'd and its parts divided by perpendicular Fissures For the Periphery of an Ellipsis being larger than that of a Circle where the Area is equal and the Superficies of a Sphaeroid generated by its circumvolution consequently larger than that of a Sphere generated by the like circumvolution of the Circle which is the present case that Orb of Earth 't is plain which exactly fitted and every way enclos'd the Abyss while it was a Sphere would be too little and straight for it when it after became a Sphaeroid and must therefore suffer such Breaches and Fissures as are here express'd LXX The state of Nature in a Planet constituted as above while it had only an Annual revolution would be as follows 1. By reason of the same face of the Planet's respecting continually the same Plaga of the Heavens or the same fixt Stars and its continual parallellism to it self all the apparent revolution of the Sun must depend on the Annual Motion and a Day and a Year be all one This is evident because as a Year is truly that space in which the Sun seemingly and the Earth really performs a single revolution round the Ecliptick so a Day is truly that space in which the Sun passes or appears to pass from any certain Semi-Meridian to the same again once Which spaces of time are here the very same and so the appellations themselves Year and Day may indifferently and promiscuously be appli'd thereto 2. The course of the Sun and Planets for the fixt Stars were then Fixt indeed having neither a Real nor Seeming motion must be contrary to what it has appear'd since Their Rising being then in the West and their Setting in the East Which from the way of the present Diurnal Rotation has since as all know been quite different 3. There must be a perpetual Equinox or equality of Day and Night through the whole Planet by reason of the Sun 's describing each revolution a great Circle about the same on which alone such an equality depends 4. The Ecliptick must supply the place of an Equator also and the Torrid Temperate and Frigid Zones be almost alike dispos'd with regard to that Circle as with us they are with regard to the real Equator 5. To such as liv'd under or near the said Ecliptick the Poles of the World or Ecliptick the only ones then in Being would be at the Horizon and so not elevated or depress'd to the Inhabitants there But upon the commencing of a quicker Diurnal Rotation the same way with the Annual The case would be in all these particulars quite different For 1. By reason of the quickness of the new Diurnal in comparison of the Ancient and Continued Annual Revolution Days and Years would be intirely distinct spaces of time The Sun returning to the same Semi-Meridian very often while from one Tropick to another and so to the same again he appear'd to have compleated his longer Annual period 2. By the Diurnal Rotation of the Planet from West to East the revolution of the Sun of the other Planets and of all the Heavenly Bodies would be from East to West and they would all Rise at the former and Set at the latter part of the Horizon 3. The perpetual Equinox would be confin'd to the Equatorial parts of the Planet and all other Countries would have longer Days in Summer and shorter in Winter as now obtains in the World When only March 10 and September 12 have Day and Night equal to each other through the whole Earth 4. The Ecliptick and Equator would be intirely different the latter a Real Circle or Line on the Planet equally distant from its own proper Poles The former confin'd to the Heavens and not with respect to the Planet easily to be taken notice of The Torrid Temperate and Frigid Zones would regard the new Equator and be from it distinguish'd and dispos'd almost in the same manner as before they were from the Ecliptick and that with greater niceness and more exact boundaries 5. The Poles of the World which before were to the Inhabitants at or near the ancient Ecliptick
allow'd to be if not lighter yet at least not heavier than others at the same distance from the Center So that by a just tho' a little surprizing way of reasoning from the greater weight of some parts of the Mountainous Columns the less weight of the whole is infer'd 3. Mountains are the principal Source and Origin of Springs and Fountains Now Dr. Woodward from his own observations asserts That these are neither deriv'd from Vapours condens'd in the Air at the Tops of Mountains nor from meer Rains or fall of Moisture as several have differently asserted but from the Waters in the Bowels of the Earth and that 't is a Steam or Vapour rais'd by the Subterraneous Heat which affords the main part of their Waters to them On which Hypothesis which I take to be the truest and most rational of all others the Vapours appear to have a more free and open vent or current up the Mountainous Columns than the neighbouring ones and consequently They are more rare laxe and porous or less dense and weighty than the others 4. All Volcano's or subterraneous Fires are in the Bowels of some Mountain to which a Plain or a Valley was never known to be liable Which observation affords a double Argument for such a levity and rareness as we are now contending for The One from the temper of an inflammable Earth Sulphureous and Bituminous which being in part made up of Oily Particles the lightest Fluid we have must in likelihood be the lightest of all Strata whatsoever The other from the free admission of Air into the Bowels of these Mountains without which no Fire or Flame can be preserv'd Which also infers such a porosity and laxeness as we are now concern'd to prove 5. Mountainous Countries are chiefly subject to Earthquakes and consequently are as well Sulphreous and Inflammable as Hollow and Cavernous Loose and Spungy in their inward parts without which properties the Phaenomena of Earthquakes were difficultly accountable Especially according to Dr. Woodward's Hypothesis of them who deriving them from steams of Subterraneous heat ascending from the Central parts and collected in great quantities together must by consequence own that the Bowels of Mountains so commonly subject to Earthquakes are most Pervious Porous and Cavernous of all other All which Arguments especially taken together with some other coincidences hereafter observable will I hope be esteem'd no inconsiderable evidence of the Truth of the Proposition we are now upon III. Tho' the Annual Motion of the Earth commenc'd at the beginning of the Mosaick Creation yet it s Diurnal Rotation did not till after the Fall of Man Tho' I cannot but expect that this will appear the greatest Paradox and most extravagant Assertion of all other to not a few Readers yet I hope to give so great evidence for the same from Sacred as well as Prophane Authority that competent and impartial Judges shall see reason to say that if it be not sufficient to force their assent yet 't is such as they did not expect in so surprizing remote and difficult a case the Records relating to which the Sacred Ones excepted are so few so dubious and so ancient and the constant opinion of the World within the Memory of History so fixt and setled on the contrary side Let it only be by way of Preparation remark'd That the Annual and Diurnal Motions are in themselves wholly independent on each other as was before taken notice and consequently that 't is as rational to suppose the former without the latter if there be evidence for the same in the Original State of Nature as 't is to believe them capable of being conjoin'd from the known Phaenomena of the World in the present state Let it also be observ'd that there is yet no evidence that either the Central Bodies of any of the Comets or that even several of the Planets who undoubtedly have an Annual Motion about the Sun have yet any Diurnal Rotation about Axes of their own And let it lastly be consider'd that when the Diurnal Rotation must have an Original a time when it began that time may as rationally and naturally be suppos'd after the Fall as before the Creation or Six days Work and which was the true and real one must be determin'd by the Testimonies of Antiquity or other Collateral Arguments to be from thence or from the Phaenomena of Nature Ancient or Modern deriv'd and infer'd Which things beings suppos'd I thus attempt to prove the present Assertion If the Primitive State of Nature before the Fall had those peculiar Phaenomena or Characters which certainly belong to a Planet before its Diurnal Rotation began and are as certainly impossible in the present state of the Earth revolving about its own Axis 't is plain the Assertion before us is true and real But that those peculiar Phaenomena or Characters did belong to that Primitive State the Testimonies of Sacred and Profane Antiquity to be presently produc'd do make appear and by consequence the Assertion before us is true and real The Phaenomena or Peculiar distinguishing Characters here intended have been already mention'd and are these five 1. A Day and a Year are all one 2. The Sun and Planets Rose in the West and Set in the East 3. There was through the whole Earth a perpetual Equinox 4. The Ecliptick and Equator were all one or rather the latter was not in Being but all the Heavenly Motions were perform'd about the same invariable Axis that of the former 5. To such as liv'd under the Ecliptick the Poles of the same or of the World they being then not different were neither elevated nor deprest but at the Horizon These are the certain and undeniable Characters of such a state And that they belong'd to the Primitive State of our Earth before the Fall I am now to prove 1. In the Primitive state of the World Days and Years were all one Which Assertion I endeavour to Evince by the following Arguments 1. On this Hypothesis the Letter of Moses is as exactly followed as in the contrary one 'T is agreed that Moses calls the several Revolutions of the Sun in which the Creation was Perfected Days every where in that History Now as a Year is properly the succession of the four several Seasons Spring Summer Autumn and Winter arising from one single Revolution of the Earth about the Sun so a Day is the succession of Light and Darkness once or the space of one single apparent Revolution of the Sun from any certain Semimeridian above or below the Horizon till its return thither again Now in the case before us both these Periods are exactly coincident and both are perform'd in the same space of time Which space therefore in equal propriety of speech belongs to either or both those names indifferently and by consequence may with the exactest Truth and Propriety be stil'd a Day or a Year Which thing duly consider'd if I had no
of the Prophetick numbers I mean the involving their Predictions in so much and no more obscurity as might conceal their meaning till their completion or till such time at least as the Divine Wisdom thought most proper for their manifestation in succeeding Ages So that this Argument demonstrates the present Exposition to afford a natural foundation of accounting for such ways of speaking in 〈◊〉 Holy Scriptures which otherwise are as t 〈…〉 casion and Original unaccountable and consequently proves it to be as truly agreeable to the Stile as the former did to the Letter thereof 3. The six Days of Creation and the seventh of Rest were by Divine Command to be in after Ages commemorated by Years as well as by Days and so in reason answered alike to both those denominations 'T is evident that the Works of the Creation were compleated in six Evenings and Mornings or six Revolutions of the Sun call'd Days and that the seventh was immediately set apart and sanctified as a Day of Rest and Memorial of the Creation just before compleated and 't is evident that this Sanctification of the seventh as well as the operations of the six foregoing belong'd to the Primitive state of the World before the Fall Now that we may know what sort of Days these were 't will be proper to enquire into the ensuing times and observe after the distinction of Days and Years undoubtedly obtain'd what constant Revolutions of six for Work and a seventh for Rest there appear or in what manner and by what spaces these Original ones were commemorated which will go a great way to clear the Point we are upon And here 't is evident that when God gave Laws to the Israelites he allow'd them six ordinary Days of Work and ordain'd the seventh for a Day of Rest or Sabbath in Imitation and Memory of His Working the first six and Resting or keeping a Sabbath on the Seventh Day at the Creation of the World This the Fourth Commandment so expresly asserts that 't is past possibility of question 'T is moreover evident that God upon the Children of Israels coming into the Land of Canaan ordained with reference as 't is reasonable to suppose to the same Primitive State of the World the six Days of Creation and the Sabbath That six Years they should Sow their Fields and six Years they should Prune their Vineyard and gather in the Fruits thereof But in the seventh Year should be a Sabbath of Rest unto the Land a Sabbath for the Lord They were neither to Sow their Field nor Prune their Vineyard Then was the Land to keep a Sabbath unto the Lord. So that if we can justly presume that the primary spaces of the World here refer'd to were proper Evenings and Mornings or Natural Days because they were represented and commemorated by six Proper and Natural Days of Work and the seventh of Rest I think 't is not unreasonable to conclude they were Proper and Natural Years also considering they appear to have been among the same People by the same Divine Appointment represented and commemorated by these six Proper and Natural Years of Work and the seventh of Rest also Nay if there be any advantage on the side of Natural Days from the expressness of the reference they had to the Primitive ones which the Fourth Commandment forces us to acknowledge there will appear in what follows somewhat that may justly be esteem'd favourable on the side of Years Besides the six Days for Work and the seventh for Rest the Jews were commanded on the same account as we may justly suppose to number from the Passover seven times seven Days or seven Weeks of Days and at the conclusion of them to observe a solemn Feast call'd the Feast of Weeks or of Sabbaths once every year In like manner besides the Yearly Sabbath as I may call it or the seventh Year of Rest and Release after the six Years of Work the Jews were commanded on the same account as we may justly suppose to number seven Sabbaths of Years seven times seven Years and at the conclusion thereof to celebrate the great Sabbatical Year the Year of Jubilee They were neither to Sow nor Reap nor Gather in the Grapes but esteem it Holy and suffer every one to return to his Possession again Where that which is remarkable is this that when the Sabbatical Days and Sabbatical Years equally return'd by perpetual revolutions immediately succeeding one another yet the case was not the same as to the Feast of Weeks at the end of seven times seven Days that following the Passover and not returning till the next Passover again and so was but once a Year Whereas its corresponding Solemnities the Jubilees or great Sabbatical Years at the end of seven times seven Years did as the former return by perpetual revolutions immediately succeeding one another for all future Generations All which duely consider'd I think upon the whole 't is but reasonable to conclude That seeing the Primitive spaces or periods of Work and Rest appear by Divine Appointment to have been commemorated among the Jews by Years as well as by Days the same Primitive spaces or periods were equally Days and Years also 4. The Works of the Creation by the Sacred History concurring with Ancient Tradition appear to have been leisurely regular and gradual without any precipitancy or acceleration by a Miraculous hand on every occasion Which is impossible to be suppos'd in those Days of twenty four short hours only but if they were as long as the present Hypothesis supposes they were truly agreeable and proportionable to the same productions Which consequence will be so easily allow'd me that I may venture to say That as certain as is the regular and gentle the natural and leisurely procedure of the Works of the Creation of which I know no good Reason from any Warrant sacred or prophane to make any question so certain is the Proposition we are now upon or so certainly the Primitive Days and Years were all one 5. Two such Works are by Moses ascrib'd to the third Day which if that were not longer than one of ours now are inconceiveable and incompatible On the former part of this Day the Waters of the Globe were to be drain'd off all the dry Lands into the Seas and on the same Day afterward all the Plants and Vegetables were to spring out of the Earth Now the Velocity of running Waters is not so great as in a part of one of our short Days to descend from the middle Regions of the dry Land into the Seas adjoyning to them nor if it were could the Land be dry enough in an instant for the Production of all those Plants and Vegetables which yet we are assur'd appear'd the same Day upon the face of it which Difficulties vanish if we allow the primitive Days to have been Years also as will more fully be made appear in due place 6. Whatever might possibly be
'T is evident at first view That the two former of these three last mention'd Phaenomena are inconsistent with the Theorist's Hypothesis and on a little Consideration 't will be so of the last also For while the Poles of the Earth or World remain in being the same as depending on the same proper Axis of the Earth's own Diurnal Revolution 't is plain the Latitude of Places on the Earth or the Elevation of the Pole equal thereto remains invariable and so that Pole which to the Inhabitants of Paradise was elevated at the least 231 2 degrees could not be at the Horizon whatever right Position the Axis of the Earth might have with respect to the Ecliptick On the same account there could even in the Theorist's own Hypothesis be no new Elevation of the one or Depression of the other Pole at the Deluge nor inclination of the Courses of the Sun and Planets towards the South All that could on the Theorist's Principles be effected besides the Earth's Equator and Poles pointing to different fix'd Stars and its Consequences was only this that whereas before the Sun was always in the Equator or middle distance from any Climate it afterwards by turns came nearer to them as we commonly tho' carelessly express it in Summer and went farther from them in Winter than before which upon the whole was no more a bent or inclination to one part of the Heavens than to the other and so of the Planets also And the case is the same as to the Poles of the Ecliptick the Northern one being as much elevated above that of the World at one hour of the Day as depress'd beneath it at another All which is I think sufficient to shew That the Testimonies of Antiquity alledg'd by the Theorist for the peopetual Equinox or the right Position of the Earth's Axis till the Deluge and the oblique Position and different Seasons then acquir'd are sufficient of themselves alone to confute his and establish the present Hypothesis 5. All things consider'd such a Position as the Theorist contends for was more likely to incommode than be useful to Mankind Taking the Matter wholly as the Theorist puts it it would prevent the Peopling of the Southern Hemisphere by the scorching heat just under the Equator without the least Intermission at any time of the Year It would render the Earth utterly unserviceable both under the Equator and Poles and in the Climates adjoyning and so streighten the Capacity of the Earth in maintaining its numerous Inhabitants which were the whole inhabitable will appear but just sufficient to contain them It would by the Perpetuation of one and the same Season continually hinder the variety of Fruits and Vegetables of every Country and many other ways spoil the setled Course of Nature and be pernicious to Mankind 6. No mechanical and rational Cause of the Mutation of the Earth's Axis either has been or I believe can be afsign'd on the Theorist's Hypothesis or any others which should embrace the same Conclusion 7. Lastly to name no more Arguments The Testimonies of Diogenes and Anaxagoras are as express almost to the Time as to this Change it self The words being exceeding remarkable are these as Plutarch himself relates them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 'T was the Doctrine both of Diogenes and Anaxagoras That after the Creation or primary Constitution of the World and the Production of Animals out of the Earth the World as it were of its own accord was bent or inclin'd towards the South And truly 't is probable this Inclination was the Effect of Providence on purpose that some Parts of the World might become habitable and others uninhabitable by reason of the difference of the frigid torrid and temperate Climates thereof Which observable and most valuable Fragment of Antiquity ought to have been before mention'd but was on purpose reserv'd for this place where it not only fully attests the matter of fact the Inclination of the Heavens towards the South not only assigns the final Cause truly enough considering the uninhabitableness of the Torrid as well as of the Frigid Zones in the Opinion of those Ages the Distribution of the Earth into certain and fix'd Zones Torrid Temperate and Frigid but so accurately and nicely specifies the time also That succeeding the Creation agreeably to the present Hypothesis that were I to wish or chuse for a Testimony fully to my mind I could scarcely have desir'd or pitch'd upon a better To these five foregoing Arguments for the proof of my main Conclusion I shall by way of supernumerary ones or Appendages add one or two more and so leave the whole to the Consideration of the Impartial Reader 6. The State of Mankind without question and perhaps that of other Animals was before the Fall vastly different from the present and consequently requir'd a proportionably different State of external Nature of which without the Hypothesis before us no Account can be given or at least has not yet by any been attempted The World as to other things seems to have been at first in great measure put into the same Condition which we still enjoy and yet Reason as well as Scripture assures us That so different a condition of things in the Animal Rational and Moral must be suited with an agreeably different one in the Natural and Corporeal World Which being consider'd and that at the same time no remarkable difference has been or perhaps can be assign'd but what the Hypothesis before us and its consequences afford us and that withal a satisfactory account of the several Particulars is deducible from the same as I hope to make appear hereafter upon the whole I think this a very considerable Attestation to what has been before insisted on 'T is indeed possible that what I look on as an advantage to others may imagine to be a prejudice against the present Hypothesis as inferring among other things a half year of Night as well as a half year of Day which may be suppos'd too disproportionate to the State and Condition of Mankind and especially too inconvenient for so happy and easy a Life as that of Mankind in Paradise undoubtedly was without any consideration of the other Creatures But it ought to be consider'd as has been already remark'd that our judging of one Scheme or System of Nature by another is very fallacious and very unreasonable Almighty God adapts each particular State to such rational and animal Beings as are on purpose design'd for the same but by no means thereby confines his Power and Providence which can with the same ease adapt other Beings or the same in other Circumstances to a very different and clean contrary Condition The Days in Jupiter are not ten hours long those in the Moon near Seventy two times as long as they or a Month yet any one who should thence conclude that either Jupiter or the Moon if not both were uncapable
Country and is suitable withal both to what the Jewish and Arabian Tradition before-mention'd assert and what the next Hypothesis requires V. The Primitive Ecliptick or its correspondent Circle on the Earth intersected the Present Tropick of Cancer at Paradise or at least at its Meridian When from the last Hypothesis but one it appears that the Primitive Ecliptick was a fixed Circle on the Earth as well as in the Heavens and must both equally divide the present Equator and touch the present Tropicks 't is proper to fix if possible the Point of Intersection with the Northern Tropick whereby the intire Circle may be still describ'd and its Original Situation determin'd Which is the attempt of this Hypothesis we are now upon and which I thus prove 1. Without this Hypothesis the before-mention'd Jewish and Arabian Tradition of the situation of Paradise under the Primitive Equinoctial is unaccountable and impossible to be true For Paradise being at the most southern Position supposable but just under the Tropick of Cancer it could no where be under the ancient Equinoctial or Ecliptick but at their mutual Intersection which must therefore have been as this Proposition asserts 2. The Production of Animals out of the Earth and Waters at or near Paradise seems to have requir'd all the heat possible in any part of the Earth which being to be found only under the Equinoctial confirms the last mention'd Argument and pleads for that situation of Paradise which is here assigned to it 3. And Principally This situation is determin'd by the coincidence of the Autumnal Equinox and the beginning of the Night or Sun-set at the Meridian of Paradise 'T is known that at Paradise or the place of the Creation of Man the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Natural Day commenc'd with the Sun-setting Six a Clock or coming on of the Night 'T is granted also that the beginning of the most Ancient Year which shall presently be prov'd to have been at the Autumnal Equinox was coincident with the beginning of the World or of the Mosaick Creation Which things compar'd together do determine the question we are upon It being impossible on the grounds here suppos'd that Sun-set and the Autumnal Equinox should be coincident to any but those in the Northern Hemisphere at the Point of Intersection of the Ancient Ecliptick and the present Tropick of Cancer or such as were under the same Meridian with them as any ordinary Astronomer will soon confess Which Argument is Decretory and fixes the place of Paradise to the greatest exactness and satisfaction Corollary 1. Hence a plain reason is given of the Days of Creation commencing at Evening which otherwise is a little strange It being but a necessary result of the time of the Year and Region of the Earth when and where the Creation began Coroll 2. As also why the Jewish Days especially their Sabbath-Days began at the same time ever since The Memory of the Days of Creation being thereby exactly preserv'd Coroll 3. As also why their Civil Years but especially their Sabbatical Years and Years of Jubilee even after their Months were reckon'd from the Vernal began at the Autumnal Equinox The memory of the Years of the Creation being thereby alike exactly preserv'd VI. The Patriarchal or most ancient Year mention'd in the Scripture began at the Autumnal Equinox The Reasons of this Assertion are these ensuing 1. The principal Head or Beginning of the Jewish Year in all Ages was the first Day of their Autumnal Month Tiâ—ri and was accordingly honour'd with an extraordinary Festival the Feast of Trumpets When the Head or Beginning of their Sacred Year the first of Nisan had no such solemnity annex'd to it As is known and confess'd by all 2. When God commanded the Jews on their coming out of Egypt to esteem the Month Nisan the First in their Year it seems plainly to imply that till then it had not been so esteemed by them The words are these The Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in the Land of Egypt saying This Month shall be unto you the beginning of Months it shall be the first Month of the Year to you And this is strengthened by considering that tho' we here find an Original of the Sacred Year in the Spring yet we no where do of the Civil in Autumn Which therefore 't is very probable was the immemorial beginning of the Ancient Year long before the times of Moses 3. Whatever beginning of the Jewish Year there might be on other accounts 'T is confess'd by all That the beginning of the Sabbatical Years and Years of Jubilee by which in all probability the Primary Years of the World were commemorated and preserv'd was at the Autumnal Equinox Which is a very good Argument that those Ancient Years so commemorated and preserv'd began at the same time also 4. The Feast of Ingathering or of Tabernacles which was soon after the Autumnal Equinox is said to be in the End or after the Revolution of the Year Which is a peculiar confirmation of the Assertion we are now upon 5. Unless that Year at the Deluge commenc'd at the Autumnal Equinox we must says the Learned Lightfoot in his Scheme thereof suppose one Miracle more than either Scripture or Reason give us ground to think of and that is that the Waters should increase and lie at their height all the Heat of Summer and abate and decrease all the cold of Winter Which without Reason he supposes is not to be allow'd 6. What was alledg'd under the last Proposition is here to be consider'd That on this Hypothesis a clear Reason is given of the Nights preceding the Day in the History of the Creation and ever since among the Jews which otherwise is not so easily to be accounted for 7. The testimony of the Chaldee Paraphrast to which Josephus does fully agree is as express as possible upon 1 Kings 8. 2. where the words are In the Month Ethanim which is the seventh Month viz. as all confess from the Vernal Equinox upon which the Paraphrase is They call'd it of Old the First Month but now it is the Seventh Month Which may well counterpoise all that from some later Authors can be produc'd to the contrary So that upon the whole I may fairly conclude notwithstanding some small Objections which either lose their force on such Principles as are here laid down or will on other occasions be taken off That the most Ancient or Patriarchal Year began at the Autumnal Equinox VII The Original Orbits of the Planets and particularly of the Earth before the Deluge were perfect Circles This is in it self so easie and natural an Hypothesis that I might very justly take it for granted and make it a Postulatum And in case I could prove every thing to agree to and receive Light from the same and withal account for the present Eccentricity no man could fairly charge it with being a precarious or unreasonable
a plain in the land of Shinar and they dwelt there and accordingly there they built the Tower of Babel as you find in the following History Now Armenia on one of whose Mountains the Ark is commonly suppos'd to have rested is so far from the Eastern Point from Babylon that 't is somewhat towards the West as any Map of those Countries will easily shew But the Mountain here pitch'd upon Caucasus or Paropamisus being situate near to the East Point from Babylon is on that account peculiarly agreeable to the History of Moses of the Habitation of the first Fathers after the Flood and so to the Seat of the Ark thence to be determin'd 2. Notwithstanding we meet with few or no Colonies sent Eastward after the confusion of Tongues as we do into other quarters yet the Eastern Nations appear in the most Ancient Prophane Histories of the World to have been then the most numerous of all others On which account those Countries must have been first Peopled before the Descent of the Sons of Men to Babylon which the remoteness of Armenia is uncapable of but the Neighbourhood of Caucasus permits and naturally supposes It being probable that if the Sons of Noah for the first Century after the Flood dwelt upon or near that Mountain they would first send Colonies or leave a Company thereabouts which should stock those Eastern Countries adjoining before they spred themselves into the remoter parts of Asia Europe and Africa and vice versâ seeing they appear to have first Peopled those Regions 't is equally probable that they originally were situate at or near the same Regions i. e. at or near the Mountain here determin'd 3. The Testimony of Porcius Cato is express in the Point who affirms That two hundred and fifty years before Ninus the Earth was overflown with Waters and that In Scythiâ Sagâ renatum mortale Genus Mankind was renew'd or restor'd in that part of Scythia which is call'd Saga which Country says Sir Walter Raleigh is undoubtedly under the Mountain Paropamisus 4. The same Assertion is confirm'd by the Tradition of the Inhabitants who says Dr. Heylin aver That a large Vineyard in Margiana near the Foot of Mount Caucasus was of Noah's Plantation which may justly be set against any pretended Reliques or Tradition for Armenia and agreeing with the place determin'd by the other Arguments deserves justly to be preferr'd before them These are the Arguments which from Goropius Becanus Sir Walter Raleigh and Dr. Heylin make use of in the Case and which I think are very satisfactory But I shall add one more which they take no notice of but which I esteem so clear that it might almost alter the Denomination of the Proposition and give it a claim to a place among the foregoing Lemmata which I propose as certain not these Propositions which whatever degree of evidence they or any of them may have I yet chuse to propose under a softer Name and call them Hypotheses And the Argument is this 5. The Ark rested upon the highest Hill in all Asia nay at that time the highest Hill in the World but Paropamisus the true and most famous Caucasus in the old Authors is the highest Hill in all Asia nay was then of the whole World and is by consequence the very same on which the Ark rested Now in this Argument I suppose it will be allow'd me That Caucasus is the highest Mountain in Asia Sir Walter Raleigh says 't is undoubtedly so that it was the highest in the World also at that time will from the same Assertion be hereafter prov'd whatever pretence the Pike of Teneriff or any other may at present make All that therefore I am here to make out is That the Ark must have rested on the highest Mountain in the World which is easily done For the Waters covering the Tops of all the highest Hills on the Face of the Earth fifteen Cubits and yet the Ark resting the very first day of the abatement of the Waters above two Months before the Tops of other Mountains were seen as will be proved hereafter 'T is evident That not only the lower Hills of Armenia but all other in the World besides Caucasus were uncapable of receiving the Ark at the time assigned for its resting in the Sacred History and by consequence That and That only was the Mountain on which it rested If it be here objected That Ararat where the Ark rested is in Scripture taken for Armenia and by consequence it must be an Armenian Mountain which we are enquiring for In Answer I grant that Ararat is in Scripture taken for Armenia but I deny that all the Mountains of Ararat are included in that Country 'T is possible the Alps or Pyrenees might give or receive their Names to or from some small Country at which they rose or through which they passed but it would not from thence follow that all the Alps or Pyrenees belong'd to and were contain'd in such a Country 'T is usual for vast and long Ridges of Mountains to be call'd by one Name tho' they pass through and thereby belong to many and distant Regions which I take to be the present Case and that the intire Ridge of Mountains running West and East from Armenia to the Fountains of the Rivers Oxus and Indus call'd since by the general Name of Mount Taurus were anciently stil'd Ararat or the Mountains of Ararat To which the Mosaick History does well agree by using the plural number The Ark rested on the Mountains of Ararat i. e. on one of those Mountains or of that ridge or aggregate of Mountains going by the general Name it has at its Western rise and stil'd Ararat This is I think a fair and satisfactory Interpretation of the Mountains of Ararat and such an one as Bishop Patrick embraces tho' he be by no means partial to that Opinion I here defend thereby But if any be not yet satisfied of the truth of the Proposition we are upon they may consult the Authors abovemention'd who have more at large insisted on it and alledg'd other Arguments on the same account to which I shall therefore refer the Reader IX The Deluge began on the 17 th Day of the second Month from the Autumnal Equinox or on the 27 th Day of November in the Julian Stile extended backward in the 2365 th year of the Julian Period and in the 2349 th year before the Christian AEra In this account of the number of Years from the Deluge I follow the most Reverend and Learned Archbishop Usher's Chronology deriv'd from the Hebrew Verity without taking notice of what Years the Samaritan and Septuagint have added thereto they being as will hereafter appear added without reason and not at all to be consider'd Now that the number of Years assign'd by Archbishop Usher is rightly deduc'd from the Hebrew is I think notwithstanding the wide and manifold Mistakes of
the former pretty well agreed upon among the latest Chronologers and capable of a much more satisfactory Proof than from so great Differences before thereto relating one would be ready to imagine as upon a little enquiry I easily found Indeed the Archbishop has made the matter so plain that one cannot but wonder how former Chronologers came so strangely to be mistaken and 't is perhaps one of the most difficult things to give a good account of that is readily to be pitch'd upon I once intended to have here not only given the Canon of the several Periods but confirm'd the same from the Scripture and answer'd the principal Objections made against any parts thereof as well from the said Archbishop's incomparable tho' imperfect Chronologia Sacra as from such other Observations as having been since made especially by the very Learned Sir John Marsham who has intirely and evidently clear'd what the Archbishop principally labour'd at without success the Chronology in the Book of Judges give farther light and strength to the same Accounts But this would perhaps be too much like a Digression and somewhat foreign to my main Design so I forbear and only set down the Chronological Canon according to which I reckon from the Creation to the present time as follows I. From the beginning of the Mosaick Creation till the Creation of Adam 291 2 Days to a Month till the Deluge Y. M. D. 0005 06 11 II. From the Creation of Adam till the day when the Earth began to be clear of the Waters or the Autumnal Equinox in the Year of the Deluge 1656 05 14 III. From the Autumnal Equinox in the Year of the Deluge till the departure of Abraham out of Haran 301 2 Days to a Month since the Deluge 0426 06 15 IV. From Abraham's departure out of Haran till the Exodus of the Children of Israel out of Egypt 0430 00 00 V. From the Exodus of the Children of Israel out of Egypt till the Foundation of Solomon's Temple 0479 00 17 VI. From the Foundation of Solomon's Temple till its Conflagration 0424 03 08 VII From the Conflagration of Solomon's Temple till the Kalends of January which began the Christian AEra 0587 04 25 VIII From the beginning of the Christian AEra till this Autumnal Equinox Anno Domini 1696. 1695 08 26 Sum of all 5705 00 00 From the first day of the Deluge till the 28 th of October in this same Year 1696. 4044 00 00 This Canon agrees with the Archbishop's in every thing but that for exactness I make use of Tropical or natural Solar Years instead of Julian ones to which accordingly I proportion the Months and Days I add those five Months fourteen Days which his Hypothesis forc'd him without ground to omit between the Creation and the Deluge and I give the primitive Years of the Creation their place which having been taken for short Days of twenty four Hours long were not hitherto suppos'd to deserve the same All which being observ'd I refer the Reader who desires farther satisfaction to the Archbishop himself where he may find the particulars of the several Periods clear'd to him X. A Comet descending in the Plain of the Ecliptick towards its Perihelion on the first Day of the Deluge past just before the Body of our Earth That such a Position of a Comet 's Orbit and such a passing by as is here suppos'd are in themselves possible and agreeable to the Phaenomena of Nature All competent Judges who are acquainted with the new and wonderful Discoveries in Astronomy according to the Lemmata hereto relating must freely grant But that it really did so at the time here specified is what I am now to prove 'T is true when upon a meer Supposition of such a passing by of a Comet I had in my own mind observ'd the Phaenomena relating to the Deluge to answer to admiration I was not a little surpriz'd and pleas'd at such a Discovery It gave me no small Satisfaction to see that upon a possible and easy Hypothesis I could give so clear an Account of those things which had hitherto prov'd so hard not to say inexplicable and could shew the exact coincidence of the particulars with the Sacred History and the Phaenomena of Nature I thought to be able to proceed so far was not only more than had been yet done more than was generally expected ever would be done but abundantly sufficient to the best of purposes to clear the Holy Scriptures from the Imputations of ill-disposed Men and demonstrate the Account of the Deluge to be in every part neither impossible nor unphilosophical But proceeding in some farther Thoughts and Calculations on the said Hypothesis I to my exceeding great Content and Admiration found all things to correspond so strangely and the time of the Year by several concurring ways so exactly fix'd agreeably to the Sacred History thereby that as I saw abundant Reason my self to rest satisfi'd of the reality as well as probability of what I before barely suppos'd so I thought the producing the Particulars I had discover'd might afford evidence to the minds of others and go a great way to the intire establishing the certainty of that of whose great probability the Correspondence of the several Phaenomena of the Deluge had before afforded sufficient satisfaction But before I come to the Arguments to be here made use of themselves give me leave by way of Preparation to shew what sort of evidence such Assertions as this before us when good and valid are capable of and how great or satisfactory it may be in any other and so may be expected to be in the present Case 'T is evident That all Truths are not capable of the same degree of evidence or manner of Probation First Notions are known by Intuition or so quick and clear a Perception that we scarce observe any Deduction or Ratiocination at all in our Assent to them Some principal Metaphysical Truths have so near a Connexion with these that the manner of reasoning or inferring is scarce to be trac'd or describ'd a few obvious and quick Reflections enforcing our hearty acquiescence Among which the best of Metaphysicians Mr. Lock in his Essay of Humane Understanding very rightly placesthe Being of God Purely Mathematical Propositions are demonstrated by a chain of deductions each of which is certain and unquestionable So that on a clear view of the truth and connexion of each Link or Member of the intire Argumentation the Evidence may still be look'd on as infallible Propositions in mixt Mathematicks as in Opticks Geography and Astronomy depending partly on abstract Mathematick Demonstrations and partly on the Observations of the Phaenomena of Nature tho' not arriving to the strict infallibility of the evidence with the former sort are yet justly in most cases allow'd to be truly certain and indubitable History is all that we commonly can have for matters of fact past and gone and where 't is agreed upon
by all and uncontroulable 't is esteemed fully satisfactory tho' not absolutely certain in common Cases And Lastly To come closer to the Point the knowledge of Causes is deduc'd from their Effects Thus all Natural Philosophy i. e. the knowledge of the Causes of the several visible Phaenomena of the World is solely deriv'd from those Effects or Phaenomena themselves their accurate Correspondence to and necessary dependance on certain supposed Causes and their insolubility on any other Hypotheses with the coincidence of the particular Calculations of the Quantities of Motion Velocity Periods and Species of Figures to be every where accounted for On the Universal Conspiration and Correspondence of which with the impossibility of producing an instance to the contrary depends what may be truly stil'd a Physical Demonstration I mean Then and only Then is a Physical Cause to be esteem'd Demonstrated when all the Phaenomena of the World may be certainly shewn to be just so and no otherwise as they necessarily would and must be on supposition thereof This last method is that which our best of Philosophers has taken in his Demonstration of the Universal Affection or Property of Bodies which he calls Mutual Attraction or Gravitation and which accordingly he has establish'd beyond possibility of Contradiction and this is the sole way of bringing natural Knowledge to perfection and extricating it from the little Hypotheses which in defect of true Science the World has till lately been forc'd to be contented with In the Point before us there are only three possible ways of proving the truth of the Assertion here laid down The first that of Propositions in mixt Mathematicks by Calculation of the Motion of some Comet as we do of Planets from the Astronomical Tables and thence demonstrating the certainty thereof But besides the improbability of this Comet 's having ever return'd since the Deluge 't is plain the defect of old Observations and the so late discovery of the Laws and Orbits of their Motions do render such a way of Probation at least at present impossible The second way of Probation is that of Historical Relation that at the Deluge a Comet did so pass by of which there is directly none in the present Case Nor seeing the possibility of the same was not known nor the thing visible to the Inhabitants that out-liv'd the Flood as will hereafter appear is this kind of Evidence to be at all expected But the third and last way possible is the Being of such plain and sensible Effects as must be undoubted consequents of such an Assertion and without the supposal thereof were perfectly unaccountable which is the very method of Probation I shall here use and do wholly depend upon There are several degrees of evidence and kinds of proofs very different from those made use of in the Mathematicks which yet are little less satisfactory to the minds of wise Men and leave little more room for doubting than they Several sorts of Propositions must be evinc'd by several sorts of Arguments and whatever possible and easy Assertion has all the proofs which its nature requires or could justly be expected upon supposal of its real Existence ought to be admitted for true and evident Thus in that sort of things we are now upon if a certain Cause be assign'd which being suppos'd would necessarily infer several plain and visible Effects and occasion several sensible Phaenomena 't is plain if those Effects and Phaenomena be upon Examination found to be correspondent and as they must and would be on the real being of such a Cause the existence of that Cause is prov'd And as where the Effects are few ordinary otherwise accountable and incapable of Reduction to Calculation or accuracy of correspondence in the just Quantity and Proportion necessary the proof is weak and only probable and as where several of the consequents of that Cause agree well enough yet some others disagree the disagreement of one or two is a stronger Objection against than the coincidence of the rest an evidence for the same and the proof none at all So on the other side where a Cause is assigned whose certain consequent Effects must be very many very surprizing otherwise unaccountable correspondent on the greatest niceness of Calculation in the particular Quantity and Proportion of every Effect and where withal no disagreeing Phaenomenon can be urg'd to the contrary the evidence hence deriv'd of the reality of the assigned Cause tho' of a different nature and if you will degree too from Demonstration is yet little less satisfactory to the minds of wise and considering Men than what is esteem'd more strictly so Thus for instance Astronomers at this day find little more Inclination or Reason to doubt of the Annual and Diurnal Motions of the Earth than of any strictly demonstrated Proposition and as much in a manner take it for granted in all their Reasonings as they do the Propositions in Euclid tho' the evidence for the same be in its kind different from and inferior to the other And thus as I have before observ'd Mr. Newton has given sufficient evidence of the Universal Law of Mutual Attraction and Gravitation of Bodies which accordingly there is no more occasion to doubt of than of those common matters of Fact or History of which no wise Man ever made any question And thus it is that I hope to evince the truth and reality of that Cause assigned in this Proposition viz. by proving that those visible Effects or Phaenomena relating to the Universal Deluge which are very many very surprizing hitherto unaccountable several of which are capable of Calculation as to the particular Time Quantity and Proportion of the respective particulars are every one so and no otherwise as on supposal of the assigned Cause they either certainly must or at least probably would have been And as upon a Demonstration of the disagreement of any one Phaenomenon which were a necessary consequence of the same I must own the falseness of the Proposition before us so I hope if the universality of Correspondence even to the exactness of Calculation in proper cases be establish'd and no contradictory instance can be produc'd it will be allow'd that I have sufficiently evinc'd the reality and in a proper Sense certainty of the same Assertion This then being premis'd 't is plain that every one of the particular Phaenomena of the Deluge afterward accounted for is a proper Argument of this Proposition and might justly claim a place here on that account But because such an Enumeration of them before-hand would prevent their own more peculiar place hereafter and disturb the propos'd method of the ensuing Theory I shall leave them to their proper places tho' with this Premonition That several of them do singly so exactly sit the otherwise unaccountable Phaenomena of Nature and of the Deluge and determine the time and circumstances of the latter so nicely that their separate evidence is considerable but when taken
Month as even the Septuagint by their way of reckoning were oblig'd to express it nor the Seventeenth day of the same Month as the Hebrew Verity and Samaritan Pentateuch do rightly determine it but rather the Fifth of the same Month contrary to the Faith and Agreement of all Copies and Translations in the World So that upon the whole the intire force of this Reasoning and the conjoint Influence of the several ways by which this Hypothesis fixes the day of the Deluge so nicely conspires to confirm and give undoubted Attestation to the Hebrew Verity and consequently to destroy the Authority of the Samaritan and Septuagint so far as they contradict the same in the matters herein concern'd Coroll 7. Hence the Chronology of the Bible is establish'd and all the pretended immense numbers of Years which the Annals of some Nations recount are confuted For as the Year of the Deluge from the Hebrew Chronology given the Day of the beginning of the Deluge therein assign'd is fully attested to and determin'd on our Hypothesis from Astronomy so vice versâ the Day of the beginning of the Deluge from the same Sacred History given and within a Day or two confirm'd from Abydenus and Berosus corrected the number of Years thereby assign'd is at the same time establish'd also The Methods before-mention'd of fixing that Day not permitting the Addition or Subtraction of a few hundreds much less many thousands of Years to or from those Four thousand and forty four which the Holy Scriptures require us to account since that time Which therefore ought to be fully acquiesced in and all other wild and extravagant Numbers be utterly rejected Coroll 8. Hence upon supposition that the Comet was of any given Magnitude the height of the Tide or elevation of the Abyss with its incumbent Orb may be reduc'd to Calculation and its Quantity consider'd and compar'd with the Phaenomena depending on it Thus for instance if the Comet were half as big as the Earth which will hereafter appear not far from truth and consequently approach'd eight times as near as the Moon or Thirty thousand Miles off us at its nearest distance the elevation of the Abyss or the height of the Tide above its former Position must have been near eight Miles For the Moon elevates the Ocean about six Feet above its moderate State a Comet at the same distance half as big as the Earth which is Thirteen times as big as the Moon would elevate the same Thirteen times as high or Seventy eight Feet and at an eighth part of its distance Five hundred and twelve times as high as the last or Thirty nine thousand nine hundred and thirty six Feet which is very near the before-mentioned height of eight Miles Which Elevation of the Abyss seems very agreeable to the Phaenomena afterwards to be observ'd and so within a due Latitude establishes the foregoing Hypotheses of the nearness of the Comets approach and the consequent bigness of the Comet it self before-mention'd SCHOLIUM Having thus establish'd this main Proposition 't will here be proper to describe as near as the Phaenomena of Comets and of the Deluge afford us any guidance the particular Trajectory of the Comet or that part of it which could be concern'd with us and our lower Planetary Regions which accordingly in a mean between such as approach exceeding near to and such as remain at somewhat remoter distances from the Sun in their Perihelia and agreeably to that Historical Trajectory of the last famous Comet delineated by Mr. Newton I shall here attempt For tho' 't were folly to think of delineating the very same in which the Comet revolv'd yet we may easily come pretty near it we may give the Reader a clear and distinct Idea of the whole matter and enable him to judge of any particular consequences occasionally to be drawn therefrom Now verbal Descriptions in such cases being of small advantage compar'd to Schemes and Graphical Delineations I shall wave more words about it and exhibit an intire Figure of the whole to the view and consideration of the Reader From the careful Observation whereof the following inferences may be easily drawn Corollary 1. The Earth would twice pass quite through the Tail of the Comet the first time at the beginning of the Deluge and the second about Fifty three or fifty four Days after Their several Motions then bringing them to the Situation describ'd in the Figure Coroll 2. At the second passing by of the Comet before its cutting the Ecliptick in its Ascent from the Sun about Sixty two Days after the former passage the Moon which at the first was three Days past the New at this last time must have been within a day or two of its Quadrature past the like Conjunction Coroll 3. If at the first passing by of the Comet the Moon was a small matter nearer the Comet than the Earth had been just before she would be accelerated somewhat more than the Earth and by her Position at the second passage she would be a little more retarded than the Earth and upon the whole might afterward retain an equal Velocity with it as 't is certain she still does Coroll 4. That former superabundant Velocity would in the intermediate space cast the Moon farther off the Sun and thereby make it approach nearer the Earth at the Conjunction or New and recede farther from it at the Opposition or Full than it did before Which things being so it may deserve consideration whether the present Eccentricity of the Moon 's Orbit about the Earth might not without any change in its periodical Revolution be hence deriv'd And so Whether the Menstrual Course were not as truly circular before the Deluge as we have already shew'd the Annual to have been Especially when the Situation of the Moon 's Apogaeon was from the present Astronomical Tables somewhat near that place which according to such an Hypothesis and such a Trajectory of the Comet it ought to have been I mean the latter degrees of Cancer or the former of Leo. Coroll 5. 'T was almost the New Moon when the Comet 's Tail involv'd the Earth and the Moon the second time as the Position of the Earth in the Figure with the consideration of the place of the Moon then will easily shew BOOK III. PHAENOMENA CHAP. 1. Phaenomena relating to the Mosaick Creation and the Original Constitution of the Earth I. ALL those particular small Bodies of which our habitable Earth is now compos'd were originally in a mixed confused fluid and uncertain Condition without any order or regularity It was an Earth without form and void had darkness spread over the face of its Abyss and in reality was what it has been ever stil'd a perfect Chaos The Testimonies for this are so numerous and the Consent of all Authors Sacred and Prophane so unanimous that I need only refer the Reader to them for the undoubted Attestation of it II. The Formation of
this Earth or the Change of that Chaos into an habitable World was not a meer result from any necessary Laws of Mechanism independently on the Divine Power but was the proper effect of the Influence and Interposition and all along under the peculiar Care and Providence of God The Testimonies for this are so numerous and so express both in the Mosaick History it self in the other parts of Scripture relating thereto and in all Antiquity that I may refer the Reader to almost every place where this matter is spoken of without quoting here any particulars He who is at all acquainted with the Primitive Histories of this rising World whether Sacred or Prophane can have no reason to make any doubt of it III. The Days of the Creation and that of Rest had their beginning in the Evening The Evening and the Morning were the first Day And so of the rest afterward IV. At the time immediately preceding the six days Creation the face of the Abyss or superior Regions of the Chaos were involv'd in a thick Darkness Darkness was upon the face of the Deep To which Testimony the Prophane Traditions do fully agree as may be seen in the Authors before refer'd to V. The visible part of the first days Work was the Production of Light or its successive appearance to all the Parts of the Earth with the consequent distinction of Darkness and Light Night and Day upon the face of it God said Let there be Light and there was Light And God saw the Light that it was good and God divided the light from the darkness And God called the light Day and the darkness he called Night And the Evening and the Morning was the first day VI. The visible part of the Second Days Work was the elevation of the Air with all it s contained Vapours the spreading it for an Expansum above the Earth and the distinction thence arising of Superior and Inferior Waters The former consisting of those Vapours rais'd and sustain'd by the Air the latter of such as either were enclosed in the Pores Interstices and Bowels of the Earth or lay upon the Surface thereof God said Let there be a firmament or Expansum in the midst of the waters and let it divide the waters from the waters And God made the firmament and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament And it was so and God called the firmament Heaven And the Evening and the Morning were the second day VII The visible parts of the Third Day 's Works were two the former the Collection of the inferior Waters or such as were now under the Heaven into the Seas with the consequent appearance of the dry Land the latter the production of Vegetables out of that Ground so lately become dry God said Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together unto one place and let the dry land appear and it was so And God called the dry land Earth and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas And God saw that it was good And God said Let the Earth bring forth grass the herb yielding seed and the fruit-tree yielding fruit after his kind whose seed is in it self upon the earth and it was so And the earth brought forth grass and herb yielding seed after his kind and the tree yielding fruit whose seed was in it self after his kind and God saw that it was good And the Evening and the Morning were the third day VIII The Fourth Day 's Work was the Placing the Heavenly Bodies Sun Moon and Stars in the Expansum or Firmament i. e. The rendring them Visible and Conspicuous on the Face of the Earth Together with their several Assignations to their respective Offices there God said Let there be lights in the Expansum or firmament of heaven to divide the day from the night and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years and let them be for lights in the firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth and it was so And God made two great lights the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night he made the stars also And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth and to rule over the day and over the night and to divide the light from the darkness and God saw that it was good And the Evening and the Morning were the fourth day IX The Fifth Day 's Work was the Production of the Fish and Fowl out of the Waters with the Benediction bestow'd on them in order to their Propagation God said Let the Waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven And God created great Whales and every living creature that moveth which the waters brought forth abundantly after their kind and every winged fowl after his kind and God saw that it was good And God blessed them saying Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the Seas and let fowl multiply in the earth And the Evening and the Morning were the fifth day X. The Sixth Day 's Work was the Production of all the Terrestrial or Dry-land Animals and that in a different manner For the Bruit Beasts were produc'd out of the Earth as the Fish and Fowl had been before out of the Waters But after that the Body of Adam was form'd of the Dust of the Ground who by the Breath of Life breath'd into him in a peculiar manner became a Living Soul Some time after which on the same day he was cast into a deep Sleep and Eve was form'd of a Rib taken from his side Together with several other things of which a more particular account has been already given on another occasion God said Let the Earth bring forth the living creature after his kind cattel and creeping thing and beast of the Earth after his kind and it was so And God made the beast of the earth after his kind and cattel after their kind and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind and God saw that it was good And God said Let us make man in Our Image after Our likeness and let them have dominion over the Fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over the cattel and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth So God created Man in his own image in the image of God created he him Male and Female created he them c. Vid. ver 28 29 30 31. and Cap. 2. 7 15 c. XI God having thus finish'd the Works of Creation Rested on the Seventh day from the same and Sanctified or set that day apart for a Sabbath or day of Rest to be then and afterward observ'd as a Memorial of his Creation of the World in
creature waiteth for the manifestation of the Sons of God For the creature was made subject to vanity not willingly but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope Because the creature it self also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travelleth in pain together until now XXVII The temper of the Air where our first Parents liv'd was warmer and the heat greater before the Fall than since This appears 1. From the heat requisite to the Production of Animals which must have been greater than we are since sensible of Of which the hot Wombs in which the Foetus in viviparous Animals do lye and the warm brooding of the Oviparous with the hatching of Eggs in Ovens are good evidence 2. From the nakedness of our first Parents 3. From that peculiarly warm cloathing they immediately stood in need of afterwards the Skins of Animals Unto Adam also after the Fall and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins and cloathed them XXVIII Those Regions of the Earth where our first Parents were plac'd were productive of better and more useful Vegetables with less Labour and Tillage than since they have been The Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it before the Fall The Lord God said unto Adam after the Fall Cursed is the ground for thy sake in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee and thou shalt eat the herb of the field In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return unto the ground for out of it wast thou made XXIX The Primitive Earth was not equally Paradisiacal all over The Garden of Eden or Paradise being a peculiarly fruitful and happy soil and particularly furnish'd with the necessaries and delights of an innocent and blessed life above the other Regions of the Earth The Lord God planted a Garden Eastward in Eden and there he put the man whom he had formed And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food the tree of life also in the midst of the garden and the tree of knowledge of good and evil The Lord God sent the Man forth from the garden of Eden to till the ground from whence he was taken So he drove out the man XXX The place of Paradise was where the united Rivers Tigris and Euphrates divided themselves into four streams Pison Gibon Tigris and Euphrates Of this see the fourth Hypothesis before laid down XXXI The Earth in its Primitive State had only an Annual Motion about the Sun But since it has a Diurnal Rotation upon its own Axis also Whereby a vast difference arises in the several States of the World Of this with all its consequents see the third Hypothesis before laid down XXXII Upon the first commencing of this Diurnal Rotation after the Fall its Axis was oblique to the plain of the Ecliptick as it still is Or in other words the present vicissitudes of Seasons Spring Summer Autumn and Winter arising from the Sun's access to and recess from the Tropicks have been ever since the Fall of Man God said on the fourth Day Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night which was their proper office till the Fall And let them be ever after for signs and for seasons and for days and years After the Flood While the Earth remaineth Seed-time and Harvest and Cold and Heat and Summer and Winter and Day and Night shall not cease Implying that tho' the Seasons as well as Night and Day had been during the Deluge scarcely distinguishable from one another yet the former as well as the latter distinction had been in nature before And surely the Spring Summer Autumn and Winter with their varieties of Cold and Heat Seed-time and Harvest were no more originally begun after the Deluge than the succession of Day and Night mention'd here together with them is by any suppos'd to have been But of this we have at large discours'd under the third Hypothesis foregoing already to which the Reader is farther referr'd for satisfaction CHAP. III. Phaenomena relating to the Antediluvian State of the Earth XXXIII THE Inhabitants of the Earth were before the Flood vastly more numerous than the present Earth either actually does or perhaps is capable to contain and supply In order to the proof of this Assertion I observe 1. That the Posterity of every one of the Antediluvians is to be suppos'd so much more numerous than of any since as their lives were longer This is but agreeable to the Sacred History in which we find two at sixty five and one at seventy years of Age to have begotten Children While the three Sons of Noah were not begotten till after their Father's five hundredth year When yet at the same time the several Children of the same Father appear to have succeeded as quickly one after another as they usually do at this day For as to Cain and Abel they appear to have been pretty near of an Age the World being at the death of the latter not without considerable numbers of People tho' their Father Adam was not then an hundred and thirty years old and so in probability contain'd many of the Posterity of both of them Which by the way fully establishes the early begetting of Children just now observ'd in the Antediluvian Patriarchs and if rightly consider'd overturns a main Argument for the Septuagint's Addition of so many Centenaries in the Generations Before and After the Deluge And as to the three Sons of Noah born after the five hundredth year of their Father's Life 't is evident that two of them at the least Japhet and Sem were born within two years one after another All which makes it highly reasonable to suppose that in the same proportion that the Lives of the Antediluvians were longer was their Posterity more numerous than that of the Postdiluvians 2. The Lives of the Antediluvians being pretty evenly prolong'd without that mighty inequality in the periods of humane Life which we now experience the proportion between the Lives of the Antediluvians and those of the Postdiluvians is to be taken as about nine hundred the middle period of their Lives to twenty two the middle period of ours Which is full forty to one And accordingly in any long space the Antediluvians must have forty times as numerous a Posterity as we usually allow with us for the same space on account thereof 3. On account of the Coexistence of so many of such Generations as are but successive with us we must allow the Antediluvian number of present Inhabitants to have been in half an
confirm'd by what I shall propose in the 3. Place and which must by all be allow'd very fair and reasonable namely That tho' Mankind Caeteris Paribus increas'd but in the same proportion before as they have done since the Deluge we shall find upon a due allowance for the two things before-mention'd Coexistence and more numerous Posterity that the number last assign'd is rather too small than too great and the numbers of the Inhabitants of the Earth were more than the present Earth does or can maintain many years before the approach of the Deluge For if the number of years before had been the same as that since the Flood the Inhabitants tho' they had been no longer livers than we now are would have been as numerous as the present But because the number of years before the Deluge wanted about two thousand four hundred of that since we must allow or abate the increase which has arisen in the last two thousand and four hundred years Which since in these latter ages it has been double in two hundred and eighty years and so in two thousand and four hundred years about three hundred times as great as before the Antediluvians if their lives had been no longer than ours since must have been but the three hundredth part so many as the Earth now contains upon it But when on the two foremention'd accounts the number is to be eight hundred times as great and on this only three hundred times as small the excess is on the side of the Antediluvians and their number five hundred times as great as that of the present Inhabitants of the Earth So that on this last Hypothesis which I suppose none can justly except against tho' the present Earth be allow'd capable of maintaining five times as many People as are now by computation upon it yet will it appear that the Antediluvian Earth maintain'd an hundred times as many Which I imagin not to be wide from probability and being so near the calculation before may be allow'd as reasonable in the present case XXXIV The Bruit Animals whether belonging to the Water or Land were proportionably at least more in number before the Flood than they are since This is I think generally look'd upon as no other than a reasonable deduction from the last Proposition and is very fully attested by Dr. Woodward's Observations as far as the remains of those Ages afford any means of knowing the same And so ought in reason to be universally allow'd XXXV The Antediluvian Earth was much more fruitful than the present and the multitude of its vegetable productions much greater This is both necessary to be allow'd by reason of the multitude of its Inhabitants rational and irrational maintained by them of which before And abundantly confirm'd also by Dr. Woodward's Observations XXXVI The Temperature of the Antediluvian Air was more equable as to its different Climates and its different Seasons without such excessive and sudden heat and cold without the scorching of a Torrid Zone and of burning Summers or the freezing of the Frigid Zones and of piercing Winters and without such sudden and violent changes in the Climates or Seasons from one extreme to another as the present Air to our sorrow is subject to These Characters are extremely agreeable to and attested by the ancient Accounts of the Golden Age. The gentleness of the Torrid and Frigid Zones is necessary to be suppos'd in order to the easie Peopling of the World with the dispertion and maintenance of those numerous Inhabitants we before prov'd it to have contain'd Which if they were as now they are would be very difficultly accountable The gentleness of Summer and Winter with the easie and gradual coming on and going off of the same Seasons are but necessary in order to the very long lives of the Antediluvians which else 't were not so easie to account for And indeed the most of those Testimonies which have been suppos'd favourable to a perpetual Equinox before the Deluge are resolv'd into this Proposition and if it can be separately establish'd need not be extended any farther XXXVII The Constitution of the Antediluvian Air was Thin Pure Subtile and Homogeneous without such gross Steams Exhalations Nitrosulphureous or other Heterogeneous mixtures as occasion Coruscations Meteors Thunder Lightening Contagions and Pestilential Infections in our present Air and have so very pernicious and fatal tho' almost insensible effects in the World since the Deluge This is the natural consequent or rather original of the before-mention'd equability and uniformity of the Antediluvian Air This must be suppos'd on the account of the Longaevity of the Inhabitants And this is very agreeable to the last cited descriptions of the Golden Age. The contrary Heterogeneous and Gross Atmosphere which now encompasses the Earth is disagreeable to a regular state which an original formation from the Chaos supposes as containing such Dense and Bulky Exhalations and Masses which at first must have obtain'd a lower situation and were not to be sustain'd by the Primitive Thin and Subtile Air or AEther Such mixtures as this Proposition takes notice of or those effects of them therein mention'd have no Footsteps in Sacred or Prophane Antiquity relating to the first Ages of the World there is no appearance of them in the Serene and Pellucid Air of the Moon or of the generality of the Heavenly Bodies and so there can be no manner of reason to ascribe them to the Antediluvian state XXXVIII The Antediluvian Air had no large gross Masses of Vapours or Clouds hanging for long seasons in the same It had no great round drops of Rain descending in multitudes together which we call Showers But the Ground was watered by gentle Mists or Vapours ascending in the Day and descending in great measure again in the succeeding Night This Assertion is but a proper consequent of such a Pure Thin Rare AEther as originally encompass'd the Earth 'T is very agreeable to the descriptions of the Golden Age and to the present Phaenomena of most of the Planets especially of the Moon whose face tho' so near us is never obscur'd or clouded from us 'T is necessary to be suppos'd in an Air without a Rainbow as the Antediluvian was of which presently and is indeed no other than the words of the Sacred History inform us of The Lord God had not caused it to Rain upon the Earth But there went up a Mist from the Earth and watered the whole face of the ground XXXIX The Antediluvian Air was free from violent Winds Storms and Agitations with all their effects on the Earth or Seas which we cannot now but be sufficiently sensible of This the foregoing Phaenomena enforce So Homogeneous Pure and Unmix'd a Fluid as that Air has been describ'd to have been by no means seeming capable of exciting in it self or undergoing any such disorderly commotions or fermentations Where no Vapours were collected into Clouds there must have been
no Winds to collect them where the Climates preserv'd their own proper temperature no Storms must have hurried the Air from colder to hotter or from hotter to colder Regions where was no Rainbow there must have been no driving together the separate Vapours into larger Globules or round drops of Rain the immediate requisite thereto This is also highly probable by reason of the perpetual tranquility of the Air for the first five intire Months of the Deluge as will be prov'd anon which is scarce supposable if Storms and Tempests were usual before XL. The Antediluvian Air had no Rainbow as the present so frequently has God said after the Deluge This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you for perpetual generations I do set my bow in the cloud and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth And it shall come to pass when I bring a cloud over the earth that the bow shall be seen in the cloud And I will remember my covenant which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh And the bow shall be in the cloud and I will look upon it that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth And God said unto Noah this is the token of the covenant which I have establish'd between me and all flesh that is upon the earth XLI The Antediluvians might only Eat Vegetables but the Use of Flesh after the Flood was freely allow'd also God said to our first Parents in Paradise Behold I have given you every herb bearing seed which is upon the face of all the earth and every tree in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed to you it shall be for meat and to every beast of the earth and to every fowl of the air and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth wherein there is life I have given every green herb for meat And it was so God blessed Noah and his sons after the flood and said unto them Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every fowl of the air upon all that moveth upon the earth and upon all the fishes of the sea into your hand are they delivered Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you even as the green herb have I given you all things To which when the Prince of Latin Poets so exactly agrees let us for once hear him in the present case Ante etiam sceptrum Dictaei Regis antè Impia quà m caesis gens est epulata juvencis Aureus in terris hanc vitam Saturnus agebat XLII The Lives of the Antediluvians were more universally equal and vastly longer than ours now are Men before the Flood frequently approaching near to a thousand which almost none now do to a hundred years of Age. This is both fully attested by the most ancient Remainders of prophane Antiquity and will be put past doubt hereafter by a Table of the Ages of the Antediluvians out of the fifth Chapter of Genesis Semotique priùs tarda necessitas Leti corripuit gradum XLIII Tho' the Antediluvian Earth was not destitute of lesser Seas and Lakes every where disper'd on the Surface thereof yet had it no Ocean or large receptacle of Waters separating one Continent from another and covering so large a portion of it as the present Earth has This is evident Because 1. the number of the Antediluvians before assign'd must have been too numerous for the Continents alone to maintain 2. The Ark appears to have been the first Pattern and Instance for Navigation which had there been an Ocean must have been very perfect long before and this seems probable from the constant silence concerning Navigation in the Golden Age from the common Opinion of all Authors and from the necessity of the most minute and particular Directions from God himself to the Fabrick of it in the Mosaick History 3. That famous Tradition among the Ancients of the drowning a certain vast Continent call'd Atlantis bigger than Africa and Asia seems to be a plain Relique of the Generation of the Ocean at the Deluge and consequently of that Antediluvian State where the greatest part of what the Ocean now possesses was Dry-land and inhabited as well as the rest of the Globe 4. The Generation of the Ocean with the Situation of the present great Continents of the Earth will be so naturally and exactly accounted for at the Deluge that when that is understood there will remain to those who are satissied with the other Conclusions small reason to doubt of the truth of this before us 5. The Testimony of Josephus if the Theorist hit upon his true Sense is agreeable who says At the Deluge God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 chang'd the Continent into Sea CHAP. IV. Phaenomena relating to the Universal Deluge and its Effects upon the Earth XLIV IN the Seventeenth Century from the Creation there happen'd a most extraordinary and prodigious Deluge of Waters upon the Earth This general Assertion is not only attested by a large and special Account of it in the Sacred Writings but by the universal Consent of the most ancient Records of all Nations besides as may be seen in the Authors quoted in the Margin and is put moreover past doubt by Dr. Woodward's Natural Observations XLV This prodigious Deluge of Waters was mainly occasion'd by a most extraordinary and violent Rain for the space of forty Days and as many Nights without intermission Yet seven days and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights The windows of heaven were opened and the rain was upon the Earth forty days and forty nights And the flood was forty days upon the earth XLVI This vast quantity of Waters was not deriv'd from the Earth or Seas as Rains constantly now are but from some other Superior and Coelestial Original This is evident Because 1. the Antediluvian Air as was before prov'd never retain'd great quantities of Vapours or sustained any Clouds capable of producing such considerable and so lasting Rains as this most certainly was 2. The quantity of Waters on the Antediluvian Earth where there was no Ocean as we saw just now was very small in comparison of that at present and so could contribute very little towards the Deluge 3. If the quantity of Waters on the Face of the Earth had then been as great as now and had all been elevated into Vapours and descended on the Dry-land alone it were much too small to cause such a Deluge as this was 4. But because if the
Waters were all rais'd into Vapours and descended in Rain they must either fall upon or run down into the Ocean the Seas and those Declivities they were in before they could only take up and possess their old places and so could not contribute a jot to that standing and permanent Mass of Waters which cover'd the Earth at the Deluge 5. The Expression us'd by the Sacred Historian that the Windows Flood-gates or Cataracts of Heaven were open'd at the fall and shut at the ceasing of these Waters very naturally agrees to this Superior and Coelestial Original XLVII This vast fall of Waters or forty Days rain began on the fifth day of the Week or Thursday the twenty seventh day of November being the seventeenth day of the second Month from the Autumnal Equinox corresponding this Year 1696. to the twenty eighth day of October In the six hundredth year of Noah's life in the second month the seventeenth day of the month the windows of heaven were opened and the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights Thus Abydenus and Berosus say it began on the fifteenth day of Daesius the second Month from the Vernal Equinox which if the mistake arising 't is probable from the ignorance of the change in the beginning of the Year at the Exodus out of Egypt be but corrected is within a day or two agreeable to the Narration of Moses and so exceedingly confirms the same XLVIII The other main cause of the Deluge was the breaking up the Fountains of the great Abyss or the causing such Chaps and Fissures in the upper Earth as might permit the Waters contain'd in the Bowels of it when violently press'd and squeez'd upwards to ascend and so add to the quantity of those which the Rains produced All the fountains of the great deep were broken up The sea brake forth as if it had issued out of the womb XLIX All these Fountains of the great Deep were broken up on the very first day of the Deluge or the very first day when the Rains began In the six hundredth year of Noah's life in the second month the seventeenth day of the month the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up and the windows of heaven were opened L. Yet the very same day Noah his Family and all the Animals entred into the Ark. In the self-same day last mention'd entred Noah and Shem and Ham and Japheth the sons of Noah and Noah's wife and the three wives of his sons with them into the ark They and every beast after his kind and all the cattel after their kind and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind and every fowl after his kind every bird of every sort LI. Tho' the first and most violent Rains continued without intermission but forty days yet after some time the Rains began again and ceased not till the seventeenth day of the seventh Month or a hundred and fifty days after the Deluge began This is very probably gather'd from the mighty increase of the Waters even after the first forty days Rain were over and from the express fixing of the stoppage of the Rains to the last day here assigned The Waters prevailed and were increased greatly And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the Earth The waters prevailed or were increased upon the Earth an hundred and fifty days And God remembred Noah and every living thing and all the Cattel that was him in the Ark And God made a wind to pass over the Earth and the waters asswaged The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped and the rain from heaven was restrained LII This second and less remarkable Rain was deriv'd from such a cause as the former was This Proposition is 1. Very fair and probable in it self 2. Gives an account of the augmentation of the Waters by their fall when had they been only exhaled and let fall again as our Rains now are they would have added nothing thereto 3. Is exactly agreeable to the expressions in Moses who says the Windows of Heaven which were open'd at the beginning of the first were not shut or stopped till the end of this second Rain thereby plainly deriving this latter as well as the former from a Superiour and Celestial original The fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped and the rain from heaven was restrained LIII Tho' the fountains of the great deep were broken up and the forty days Rain began at the same time yet is there a very observable mention of a threefold growth or distinct augmentation of the Waters as if it were on three several accounts and at three several times The flood was forty days upon the earth and the waters increased and bare up the ark and it was lift up above the earth And the waters prevailed and were increased greatly and the ark went upon the face of the waters And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth and all the high hills that were under the whole heaven were cover'd LIV. The Waters of the Deluge increas'd by degrees till their utmost height and then decreas'd by degrees till they were clearly gone off the face of the earth This is evident from the intire series and course of the Mosaick History in the seventh and eighth chapters of Genesis LV. The Waters of the Deluge were Still Calm free from Commotions Storms Winds and Tempests of all sorts during the whole time in which the Ark was afloat upon them This is evident from the impossibility of the Ark's abiding a Stormy Sea considering the vast bulk and particular figure of it For since it was three hundred Cubits long fifty Cubits broad and thirty Cubits high Which is according to the most accurate determination of the Cubits length by the Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of Peterborough above five hundred and forty seven English feet long above ninety one feet broad and near fifty five feet high And since withal it appears to have been of the figure of a Chest without such a peculiar bottom and proportion of parts as our great Ships are contrived with 't is evident and will be allow'd by Persons skill'd in Navigation that 't was not capable of enduring a Stormy Sea It must whenever either the Ridges or Hollows of vast Waves were so situate that it lay over-cross the one or the other have had its back broken and it self must have been shatter'd to pieces which having not happen'd 't is a certain evidence of a calm Sea during the whole time it was afloat LVI Yet during the Deluge there were both Winds and Storms of all sorts in a very violent manner God made a wind to pass over the earth and the waters asswaged Thou coveredst the earth with the deep as with a garment the waters stood above the mountains At thy rebuke they fled
several Sea Charts relating thereto may easily be observ'd LXIX The greatest part of the Islands of the Globe are situate at small distances from the Edges of the great Continents very few appearing near the middle of the main Ocean This the bare Inspection into a Map or Globe of the World will soon give satisfaction in LXX The Ages of Men decreas'd about one half presently after the Deluge and in the succeeding eight hundred or nine hundred Years were gradually reduced to that standard at which they have stood ever since This the following Tables will easily evince Ages of the Antediluvians in their Years Ages of the Postdiluvians in the present Years Adam 930 Noah 950 Seth 912 Sem 600 Enos 905 Arphaxad 438 Cainan 910 Salah 433 Mahalaleel 895 Heber 464 Jared 962 Phaleg 239 Enoch translated 365 Reu 239 Methuselah 969 Serug 230 Lamech 777 Nahor 148 Noah 950 Terah 205 Sem 600 Abraham 175   Isaac 180   Jacob 147   Joseph 110 The days of our years are threescore years and ten and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years yet is their strength labour and sorrow for it is soon cut off and we fly away In the Days of Moses LXXI Our upper Earth for a considerable depth even as far as we commonly penetrate into it is Factitious or newly acquir'd at the Deluge The ancient one having been covered by fresh Strata or Layers of Earth at that time and thereby spoil'd or destroy'd as to the use and advantage of Mankind I will destroy them with the Earth Neither shall there any more be a flood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to destroy corrupt or spoil the Earth This is moreover evident by the vast numbers of the Shells of Fish Bones of Animals Intire or Partial Vegetables buried at the Deluge and Inclosed in the Bowels of the present Earth and of its most solid and compacted Bodies to be commonly seen at this day Whose truth is attested not only by very many occasional remarks of others but more especially by the careful and numerous Observations of an Eye-witness the Learned Dr. Woodward 'T is true this excellent Author was forc'd to imagine and accordingly to assert That the Ancient Earth was dissolv'd at the Deluge and all its parts separated from one another and so the whole thus dissolv'd and separate taken up into the Waters which then cover'd the Earth till at last they together setled downward and with the fore-mentioned Shells Bones and Vegetables inclosed among the rest of the Mass compos'd again that Earth on which we now live But this Hypothesis is so strange and so miraculous in all its parts 't is so wholly different from the natural Series of the Mosaick History of the Deluge takes so little notice of the forty days rain the principal cause thereof is so contrary to the Universal Law of mutual Attraction and the specifick gravities of Bodies accounts for so few of the before-mention'd Phaenomena of the Deluge fixes the time of the year for its commencing so different from the truth implies such a sort of new Formation or Creation of the Earth at the Deluge without warrant for the same is in some things so little consistent with the Mosaick Relation and the Phaenomena of nature and upon the whole is so much more than his Observations require that I cannot but dissent from this particular Hypothesis tho' I so justly honour the Author and so highly esteem and frequently refer to the Work it self All that I shall say farther is this That the Phaenomena of the interior Earth by this Author so exactly observ'd are on the common grounds or notions of the Deluge which suppose the Waters to have been pure without any other mixtures so unaccountable and yet so remarkable and evident that if no other rational solution could be offer'd 't were but just and necessary to admit whatever is asserted by this Author rather than deny the reality of those Phaenomena or ascribe the plainest remains of the Animal and Vegetable Kingdom to the sportings of Nature or any such odd and Chimaerical occasions as some persons are inclinable to do But withal I must be allow'd to say and the Author himself will not disagree That his Hypothesis includes things so strange wonderful and surprizing that nothing but the utmost necessity and the perfect unaccountableness of the Phaenomena without it ought to be esteem'd sufficient to justifie the belief and introduction of it Which straits that account of the Deluge we are now upon not forcing me into as will appear hereafter I have I think but just reasons for my disbelief thereof and as just or rather the same reason to embrace that Assertion we are now upon That this upper Earth as far as any Shells Bones or Vegetables are found therein was adventitious and newly acquir'd at the Deluge and not only the old one dissolv'd and resetled in its ancient place again LXXII This Factitious Crust is universal upon the Tops of the generality of Mountains as well as in the Plains and Valleys and that in all the known Climates and Regions of the World This is fully attested by the Observations of the same Author and those which he procur'd from all parts of the World conspiring together LXXIII The Parts of the present upper Strata were at the time of the Waters covering the Earth loose separate divided and floated in the Waters among one another uncertainly This is proved by the same Author's Observations LXXIV All this Heterogeneous Mass thus floating in the Waters by degrees descended downwards and subsided to the bottom pretty nearly according to the Law of Specifick Gravity and there compos'd those several Strata or Layers of which our present upper Earth does consist This is prov'd by the same Observations LXXV Vast multitudes of Fishes belonging both to the Seas and Rivers perish'd at the Deluge and their Shells were buried among the other Bodies or Masses which subsided down and compos'd the Layers of our upper Earth This is prov'd by the same Observations LXXVI The same Law of Specifick Gravity which was observ'd in the rest of the Mass was also observ'd in the subsidence of the Shells of Fishes they then sinking together with and accordingly being now found enclos'd among those Strata or Bodies which are nearly of their own several Specifick Gravities The heavier Shells being consequently still enclos'd among the heavier Strata and the lighter Shells among the lighter Strata in the Bowels of our present Earth This is prov'd by the same Observations LXXVII The Strata of Marble of Stone and of all other solid Bodies attained their solidity as soon as the Sand or other matter whereof they consist was arriv'd at the bottom and well setled there And all those Strata which are solid at this day have been so ever since that time This is prov'd by the same Observations LXXVIII These Strata
living as I have done While the Earth remaineth seed-time and harvest and cold and heat and Summer and winter and day and night shall not cease And this as to the time past is abundantly confirm'd by all the Ancient History and Geography compar'd with the Modern as is in several particulars well observ'd by Dr. Woodward against the groundless opinions of some others to the contrary CHAP. V. Phaenomena relating to the General Conflagration With Conjectures pertaining to the same and to the succeeding period till the Consummation of all things XC AS the World once perished by Water so it must by Fire at the Conclusion of its present State The heavens and the earth which are now by the word of God are kept in store reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men The heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent heat The earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up In the day of God the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with fervent heat But this is so fully attested by the unanimous consent of Sacred and Prophane Authority that I shall omit other particular Quotations and only refer the Reader where he may have more ample satisfaction SCHOLIUM Having proceeded thus far upon more certain grounds and generally allow'd Testimonies as to the most of the foregoing Phaenomena I might here break off and leave the following Conjectures to the same state of Uncertainty they have hitherto been in But being willing to comply with the Title and take in all the great and general Changes from first to last from the primigenial Chaos to the Consummation of all things Being also loth to desert my Postulatum and omit the account of those things which were most exactly agreeable to the Obvious and Literal sense of Scripture and fully consonant to Reason and Philosophy Being lastly willing however to demonstrate that tho' these most remote and difficult Texts be taken according to the greatest strictness of the Letter yet do they contain nothing but what is possible credible and rationally accountable from the most undoubted Principles of Philosophy On all these accounts I shall venture to enumerate and afterward to account for the following Conjectures In which I do not pretend to be Dogmatical and Positive nay nor to declare any firm belief of the same but shall only propose them as Conjectures and leave them to the free and impartial consideration of the Reader XCI The same Causes which will set the World on Fire will also cause great and dreadful Tides in the Seas and in the Ocean with no less Agitations Concussions and Earthquakes in the Air and Earth The Powers of Heaven shall be shaken The Lord shall roar out of Sion and utter his voice from Jerusalem and the heavens and the earth shall shake The sea and the waves roaring Mens hearts failing them for fear and for looking after those things which are coming on the Earth for the powers of heaven shall be shaken XCII The mtmosphere of the Earth before the Conflagration begin will be oppress'd with Meteors Exhalations and Steams and these in so dreadful a manner in such prodigious quantities and with such wild confused Motions and Agitations That the Sun and Moon will have the most frightful and hideous countenances and their antient splendour will be intirely obscur'd The Stars will seem to fall from Heaven and all manner of Horrid Representations will terrifie the Inhabitants of the Earth I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth blood and fire and pillars of smoke The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and terrible day of the Lord come The sun shall be darkened and the Moon shall not give her light and the stars shall fall from heaven and the powers of heaven shall be shaken There shall be signs in the sun and in the moon and in the stars and upon the Earth distress of Nations with perplexity Mens hearts failing them for fear and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth XCIII The Deluge and Constagration are referr'd by ancient Tradition to great Conjunctions of the Heavenly Bodies as both depending on and happening at the same Thus Seneca expresly Berosus says he who was an Expositor of Belus affirms That these Revolutions depend on the Course of the Stars insomuch that he doubts not to assign the very times of a Conflagration and a Deluge That first mention'd when all the Stars which have now so different Courses shall be in Conjunction in Cancer All of them being so directly situate with respect to one another that the same right line will pass through them all together That last mention'd when the same company of Stars shall be in conjunction in the opposite sign Capricorn XCIV The space between the Deluge and the Conflagration or between the ancient state of the Earth and its Purgation by Fire Renovation and Restitution again is from ancient Tradition defin'd and terminated by a certain great and remarkable year or Annual Revolution of some of the Heavenly Bodies And is in probability what the Ancients so often refer'd to pretended particularly to determine and stil'd The Great or Platonick Year This year is exceeding famous in old Authors and not unreasonably apply'd to this matter by the Theorist Which it will better suit in this than it did in that Hypothesis XCV This general Conflagration is not to extend to the intire dissolution or destruction of the Earth but only to the Alteration Melioration and peculiar disposition thereof into a new state proper to receive those Saints and Martyrs for its Inhabitants who are at the first Resurrection to enter and to live and reign a thousand years upon it till the second Resurrection the general Judgment and the final consummation of all things The Heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with fervent heat Nevertheless we according to his promise look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness Behold I create new heavens and a new earth and the former shall not be remembered nor come into mind Verily I say unto you That ye which followed me in the regeneration when the Son of Man shall sit upon the throne of his glory ye also shall sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel And every one that hath forsaken houses or brethren or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my names sake shall receive an hundred fold now in this time houses and brethren and sisters and mothers and children and lands with his present persecutions and in the world to come eternal life Of old thou hast laid the foundations of the earth and the heavens are the work of
distinct Regions The lower and larger whereof would be a collection or system of dense and heavy Fluids or a vast Abyss immediately encompassing the central solid Body The higher and lesser would be a collection or system of earthy watery and aery Parts confusedly mix'd together and encompassing the said Abyss in the same manner as that did the central Solid And this I take to be the state of Darkness which the Proposition we are upon mentions And that the Chaos particularly the Face or upper Regions of it were at this time in such a dark and caliginous Condition will easily appear For all those Opake or Earthy Corpuscles which before rov'd about the immense Regions of the Atmosphere and frequently even then obscur'd the Central Solid to any external Spectator were now crouded nearer together and instead of flying up and down in or possessing an Orb of 40000 or 50000 Miles in thickness were reduced to a narrower Sphere and confin'd within a space not perhaps in Diameter above the thousandth part of the former and must by consequence exclude the Rays of the Sun in anotherguess manner than before We cannot but observe in our present Air That the very same Vapours which when dissipated and scatter'd through the Atmosphere whose extent yet is not great freely admit the Rays of the Sun and afford us clear and lightsome days when they are collected into Clouds become opake Masses and are capable of obscuring the Sky and rendring it considerably dark to us In the same manner 't is easy to suppose that those Opake and Earthy Masses which in those vaster Regions would but in a less degree and in some places exclude the Beams of the Sun must when collected and crowded closer together on the surface of the Abyss exclude them in a degree vastly surpassing the former must occasion an entire darkness in all its Regions and particularly in those upper ones over which they were immediately collected And if from the former comparison we estimate how few Vapours collected into a Cloud with us will cause no inconsiderable degree of darkness and allow as is but reasonable a proportionably greater degree of darkness to a proportionably greater number of Earthy and Opake Corpuscles crowded to gether we shall not doubt but all manner of communication with the Heavenly Bodies and the External World must be intirely interrupted and the least imaginable Ray or Beam of Light from the Sun excluded not only from the lowest but even all excepting the very highest Regions of this superior Chaos Which state of Nature belonging to this time immediately preceding the Hexameron is not amiss represented by the Theorist's Second Figure which is accordingly here delineated V. The Visible part of the First Day 's Work was the Production of Light or its successive Appearance to all the parts of the Earth with the consequent distinction of Darkness and Light Night and Day upon the face of it V. If we remember in what state we left the Chaos in the last Proposition and suffer our thoughts to run naturally along with its succeeding mutations we shall find that the next thing to be here consider'd for the Subterraneous System of dense Fluids or the great Abyss not coming directly within the Design of Moses is not here to be particularly prosecuted any farther is the Separation of this Upper and Elementary Chaos or Congeries of Earthy Watery and Aery Corpusoles into two somewhat different Regions the one a Solid Orb of Earth with great quantities of Water in its Pores the other an Atmosphere in a peculiar sense or Mass of the lightest Earthy with the rest of the Watery and the Aery Particles still somewhat confusedly mixt together For since this Upper Chaos tho' in general much lighter than the Abyss beneath consisted of parts very Heterogeneous and of different specifick gravities the Earthy being heavier than the Watery and those yet heavier than the Aery Particles 't is evident that in the same manner as this whole mixed Mass was separated from the heavier Abyss beneath must it again separate and divide it self into two such general Orbs as were just now mention'd The former consisting of the denser and solider parts such as the Earthy Claiy Sandy Gravelly Stony Strata of the present Earth with so many of the Watery Particles as either being already in those Regions must be inclosed therein or could descend from above and have admittance into the Pores thereof The latter of the less Solid Lighter and Earthy with the rest of the Watery and the Aery Particles not yet sufficiently distinguish'd from each other This process will I suppose easily be allow'd excepting what relates to the enclosing of the Watery parts within the Earth with relation to which 't is commonly suppos'd that because Water is specifically lighter than Earth it must in the regular digestions of a Chaos take the Upper situation and cover that highest Orb as that would others of greater gravity than it self 'T is also commonly imagin'd that the Mosaick Cosmogony favours such an Hypothesis and supposes the Waters to have encompass'd the Globe and cover'd its surface till on the third day they were deriv'd into the Seas Now as I by no means apprehend any necessity of understanding the Mosaick Creation in this sense so I am very sure 't is contrary to a Philosophick account of the Formation of the Chaos unless one of these two things were certain Either that the quantity of Water were so much greater than that of Earth that all the Pores and Interstices of the latter could not contain it or else that it was generally elevated into the Air in the form of Vapour and sustained there while the Earth setled and consolidated together and did not till then descend and take its own proper place The former of which is neither reconcilable to the Mosaick Creation nor will be asserted by any who knows even since the Deluge how small the quantity of Fluids in comparison to that of the Solids is in the Earth on which we live And the latter is too much to be granted in the present case by any considering person who knows that a Comet 's Vapours constitute the main part of that Tail or Mist which is sometimes equal to a Cylinder whose Basis is 1000000 Miles in Diameter and its Altitude as far as from the Sun to the Earth or 54000000 Miles as it was in the last famous Comet in 1681. represented in Mr. Newton's own Scheme Let the rarity of the same be suppos'd as great as any Phaenomena shall require For to clear this matter by a familiar Instance or Experiment Take Sand or Dust and let them fall gently into a Vessel till it be near full Take afterwards some Water and pour it alike gently into the same Vessel And it will soon appear that notwithstanding the greater specifick gravity of the Dry and Earthy than of the Moist and Watery parts whence one might imagine that the Sand or
Dust would be the lowest and the Water swim uppermost on the surface of the other without mingling therewith yet will the latter immediately sink downwards and so throughly drench and satiate the said Mass before any will remain on the top that its proportion to that of the Solid parts will be very considerable Which being apply'd to the point before us will take away all imaginable difficulty in the case It being evident without this comparison that such Watery Particles as were already intermix'd with the others would remain where they were and with this equally so that the rest which were above the same upon the first subsidence of the Earthy Strata would penetrate pervade and saturate the same So that on this first Day or Year of the Creation the Earthy and Denser parts would take their places lowest on the surface of the great Abyss would settle in part into the same and compose an Orb of Earth and in its Interstices and little Cavities all such Watery Particles as were already in this Region or descended upon it before its consolidation would be enclos'd and that as far above the surface of the Abyss to which they would be contiguous as their quantity could enable them to reach On this first Day or Year also the upper Regions of the Chaos being now in some measure freed from those Earthy and Opake Masses which before excluded the same and caused the before-mention'd thick Darkness would in some degree admit the Rays of the Sun Now therefore that glorious Emanation Light the visible part of this days Work would begin to appear on the face of the Earth Now would It by the Annual Motion successively illuminate the several parts of it And now would it consequently cause that natural Distinction between Darkness and Light Night and Day round the whole Globe which was to be accounted for in this Proposition Which progress of the Chaos and state of Nature is well enough exhibited by the Theorist's third Figure which therefore is here delineated Corollary Hence we may observe the Justness of the Mosaick Creation and how fitly it begins at the Production of Light without taking notice of such prior conditions and such preparations of the Chaos which have been before explain'd and were in order of Nature previous to this days Work For this account reaching only to the Visible World and the Visible Effects in it and keeping still within the bounds of sense and of common observation could not better be accommodated to the truth of things and the capacities of all than by such a Procedure The Ancient condition of the Chaos in former Ages was no way here concern'd and so was intirely to be omitted The State of Darkness which immediately preceded the Six Days Work and which with relation thereto was necessary to be mention'd made a very proper introduction and so very fitly was to be hinted at by way of Preface thereto Both which cases are accordingly by Moses taken care of And so the first Period was the Production of Light the Admission of the Rays of the Sun and the Origin of Day and Night depending thereon as the Method and Decorum of things with the apprehensions of the People did both very naturally require For since in this Sacred History of the Origin of things not only the Visible World and the Visible parts of it were singly concern'd But principally the Effects to be enumerated were such as requir'd the Light and Heat of the Sun the one to be View'd the other to be Produced by and without the latter could no more have Been at all than been Conspicuous without the former 'T was very suitable and very natural in the first place to introduce the Cause or Instrument and afterwards in the succeeding Periods to recount the Effects thereof in the World First to acquaint us that the Light and Heat of the Sun were in some measure admitted into the upper Regions of the Chaos and then to relate those remarkable consequences thereof which the succeeding Periods of the Creation exhibited on the face of the Earth Which Order of Nature and Succession of Things is accordingly very prudently and fitly observ'd and kept pace with in this Sacred History VI. The visible part of the Second Day 's Work was the Elevation of the Air with all it s contained Vapours the spreading it for an Expansum above the Earth and the distinction thence arising of Superior and Inferior Waters The formet consisting of those Vapours rais'd and sustain'd by the Air The latter of such as either were inclos'd in the Pores Interstices and Bowels of the Earth or lay upon the Surface thereof VI. When at the Conclusion of the former Day the Heat of the Sun began considerably to penetrate the Superior Regions of the Chaos and the two different Orbs the Solider Earthy and the Fluider Aery Masses began to be pretty well distinguished the same things would proceed still on this succeeding Day The Lower Earthy Strata would be settling somewhat closer together the Watery parts would subside and saturate their inward Pores and Vacuities and the Atmosphere would free it self more and more from the heaviest and most Opake Corpuscles and thereby become in a greater degree tenuious pure and clear than before Whereupon by that time the Night or first half of this Second Day or Year was over and the Sun arose The Light and Heat of that Luminary would more freely and deeply penetrate the Atmosphere and become very sensible in these Upper or Aery Regions Which being suppos'd the proper Effect which were to be next expected must be that vast quantities of Vapours would be elevated into and there sustained by the now better purified Air while in the mean time all the Earthy Corpuscles which were uncapable of rarefaction and with them all such Watery Particles as were so near the Earth that the Sun's Power could not sufficiently reach them were still sinking downwards and increasing the crassitude and bulk of the Solid Earth and of its included Waters From all which 't is easie to account for the Particulars of this Day 's Work The Expansum or Firmament which was this day spread out above the Earth was plainly the Air now truly so called as being freed from most of its Earthy mixtures The Superior Waters All those which in the form of Vapour a half years heat of the Sun with the continual assistance of the Central Heat could elevate and the Air sustain The Inferior Waters those which were not elevated but remain'd below all that fell down with were enclosed in sunk into and if you will lay upon the Orb of Earth beneath And when it is particularly said by Moses that 't was this Expansum or Firmament which was to divide the Superior from the Inferior Waters that is exactly agreeable to the nature of things and suitable to this account It being the Air which truly and properly sustain'd all those Vapours as now it
does the Clouds above the Earth and was thereby the means of separating them from their Fellows in the Bowels or on the surface thereof Which state of the Chaos or Progress of the Creation is well represented in the Theorist's fourth Figure which here follows Corollary I. Hence appears a sufficient Reason why in this Six Days Creation one intire Day is allow'd to the Formation of the Air and the distinguishing the Vapours in the same from those beneath which has hitherto seem'd somewhat strange and disproportionate 'T is certain this Work requir'd as long a time and was of as great importance as any other whatsoever All that Water which the Earth was to have in its Air or upon its Surface till the Deluge being 't is probable intirely owing to this day's elevation of them For had they not been thus buoy'd up and sustain'd on high they must have sunk downward and so been inclosed in the Bowels of the Earth without possibility of redemption and have rendred the Antediluvian World more like to a dry and barren Wilderness than what it was to exceed a juicy fruitful and habitable Canaan Coroll 2. Hence arises a new confirmation that the Days of the Creation were Years also For seeing the quantity of Water which was preserv'd above ground and fill'd all the Seas before the Deluge was no greater than was this Second Day elevated into Vapour had this Day been no longer than one of ours at present the foremention'd quantity would have been so far from saturing the Earth supplying the Rivers and filling all the Seas that every day it would be wholly exhal'd afterwards and suffer the intire Vegetable and Animal Kingdoms to perish for want of moisture All which in the Hypothesis we here take is wholly avoided and a very fit and suitable proportion of Waters preserv'd above for all the necessities of the Earth with its Productions and Inhabitants And this consideration affords one very good reason why the commencing of the Diurnal Rotation was defer'd till after the Formation of the Earth was over there being an evident necessity thereof in order to the providing Water sufficient for the needs of those Creatures for whose sake the whole Creation was ordain'd and perform'd In which procedure plain tokens of the Divine Wisdom cannot but be very conspicuous and observable to us VII The visible parts of the Third Day 's Works were two the former the Collection of the inferior Waters or such as were now under the Heaven into the Seas with the consequent appearance of the dry Land the latter the production of Vegetables out of that Ground so lately become dry VII In order to the Apprehending of the double operation of this Day we must call to mind what state the Orb of Earth was in by this time We have seen already that it had been setling together and fixing it self on the surface of the Abyss from the very beginning of the Creation and we ought to suppose that in the space of two years it was not only become wholly distinct from the Abyss below and the Atmosphere above it but that it was settled and consolidated together and its Strata grown firm and compacted We must farther observe that by reason of its Columns different Density and Specifick Gravity attested to à priori from the Chaos's and à posteriori from the internal Earth's Phaenomena it was setled into the Abyss in different degrees and thereby became of an unequal surface distinguish'd into Mountains Plains and Valleys Which things being suppos'd and consider'd the two Works of this Day or Year of the Creation which are of themselves very different will be easily understood and reconcil'd For when at Sun-set or the conclusion of the last Day we left the Air by half a Years Power of the Sun crowded with Vapours to a prodigious degree upon the coming on of this Third Day and in its Night or former half the said vast quantities of Vapours must needs descend and so by degrees must leave the Air pretty free and take their places on the Surface of the Earth altering thereby their own denomination and becoming of Upper or Coelestial Lower or Terrestrial Waters Indeed if we do but allow the effect to be in any measure answerable to the time we shall grant that in the half year of Night which is the former part of this Third Period of the Creation the main Body of the Vapours must have not only descended down upon the Earth but by reason of the inequality of its Surface and the Solidity withal have run down from the higher and more extant parts by the Declivities and Hollows into the lowest Valleys and most depressed Regions of all must in these places have compos'd Seas and Lakes every where throughout the Surface of the Earth and so by that time the light appear'd and the Sun 's rising began the latter part of this Day the intire face of the Globe which was just before cover'd as it were with the descending Waters must be distinguish'd into overflow'd Valleys and extant Continents into Seas and Dry-land that very Work of this Day we were in the first place to enquire about The waters under the heavens were now gathered together into their respective and distinct places and the dry land appear'd and became fit for the Production of the Vegetable Kingdom Which therefore most naturally leads us to the second branch of this Day 's Work For when this part hitherto was compleated on the Night or former half of this Day which the Absence of the Sun so long together rendred peculiarly and solely fit to permit and procure the descent of the Vapours and when at the same time the Dry Land was now distinguish'd from the Seas and just become in the utmost degree moist and juicy upon the Sun Rising or coming on of the Day-time 't was of all other the most fit and convenient Season for the Germination of the Seeds of Vegetables and the growth of Trees Shrubs Plants and Herbs out of the Earth The Soil Satur'd and Fatned by the foregoing half Year's descent of Vapours was now like the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that fruitful Seminary of the Vegetable and Animal productions of Primitive Nature so much celebrated by all Antiquity An intire half year of the Sun's presence together was a time as proper and as natural for such a purpose as could possibly be desir'd And when there was this half Year of Day to spare in this Period of the Creation after one Work was compleated and the same was so very fitly prepar'd and dispos'd for the production of Vegetables 't is no wonder that this above all the other Divisions has a double Task and that the Seas and Dry Land were distinguish'd and the Vegetables produc'd on the same Day or Year of the Creation according as from the Mosaick History the present Proposition asserts And if we allow for the defect of the inequalities of the
outward Surface too small to be therein consider'd and suppose the Atmosphere somewhat clearer than before the former figure will still serve well enough and represent the progress and state of the Earth at the conclusion of this Third Day Corollary 1. When according to our present accounts of these matters this is the only day of the Creation to which a double work and that the one quite different from the other ought to be ascrib'd and is ascrib'd by Moses The Night being peculiarly fit for the former and the Day for the latter operation which could happen on none of the other Periods This exactness of correspondence ought to be esteem'd an Evidence of the literal sense of the Writer and of his accommodation to the nature of things and a very considerable confirmation of those Hypotheses on which it so naturally depends Coroll 2. Hence arises a Confirmation of what was before asserted that the Antediluvian Earth had only lesser Lakes and Seas not a vast Ocean For when the quantity of Waters belonging to the Earth and Air at first was no more than was elevated in one half year and at once sust ain'd by the Air no one will imagine it sufficient to fill the intire Ocean alone if there had been neither lesser Seas nor Rivers to be supply'd therewith And so vice versa It having been prov'd by other Arguments that there was no Ocean but only lesser Seas before the Flood This Account which affords sufficient quantity of Water for the latter but not for the former is thereby not a little confirm'd Coroll 3. Tho' the Heat and Influence of the Sun was on this Third Day very great yet was his Body not yet Visible For since at his Rising the Earth and lowest Regions of the Air were very full of moisture while the higher Regions were very clear and bright the force of his heat would be so great as to elevate considerable quantities of Vapours on a sudden and thereby e're the lowest Air had deposited its Vapours and rendred it self transparent the Sun would anew hide himself in a thick Mist and so prevent his own becoming conspicuous which otherwise 't is not improbable he might this Day have been VIII The Fourth Day 's Work was the Placing the Heavenly Bodies Sun Moon and Stars in the Expansam or Firmament i. e. The rendring them Visible and Conspicuous on the Face of the Earth Together with their several Assignations to their respective Offices there VIII Altho' the Light of the Sun penetrated the Atmosphere in some sort the first Day and in the succeeding ones had very considerable influence upon it yet is it by no means to be suppos'd that his Body was Visible all that while Tho' we every day enjoy much more Light and Heat from the Sun than the Primitive Earth could for a considerable space be suppos'd to have done yet 't is but sometimes that the Air is so clear as to render his Body discernible by us A very few Clouds or Vapours gather'd together in our Air are able we see to hinder such a prospect for Weeks if not Months together while yet at the same time we are sufficiently sensible of his Force and Influence in the constant productions of Nature Which things being duly consider'd and the vastness and density of the Upper Chaos allow'd for 't will be but reasonable to afford a great space even after the first penetration of Light for the intire clearing of the Atmosphere and the distinct view of the Sun's Body by a Spectator on the Surface of the Earth I suppose no one will think the two first Days or Years of the' Creation too long for such a work or if any one does the particular work and state of the Atmosphere on the second Day will prevent the most probable part of such a surmise and shew the impossibility of the Sun's Appearance at that time And the same reason will in a sufficient tho a less degree prevent any just Expectations on the third Day as was observ'd in the last Corollary But now upon the coming on of this fourth Day and the Sun's descent and abode below the Horizon for an intire half year those Vapours which were rais'd the day before must fall downwards and so before the approach of the Morning leave the Air in the greatest clearness and purity imaginable and permit the Moon first then the Stars and afterward upon the coming on of the Day the Sun himself most plainly to appear and be conspicuous on the Face of the Earth This fourth Day is therefore the very time when acording to this Account and the Sacred History both these Heavenly Bodies which were in being before but so as to be wholly Strangers to a Spectator on Earth were rendred visible and expos'd to the view of all who should be suppos'd to be there at the same time They now were in the Sacred Stile placed in the Firmament of Heaven gave Light upon the Earth began to rule plainly and visibly over the Day and over the Night and to divide the Light from the Darkness as ever since they have continued to do And now the inanimate World or the Earth Air Seas and all their Vegetable Productions are compleat and the Tradition of those Chineses who inhabit Formosa and other Islands appears well-grounded and exactly true who hold That the World when first created was without Form or Shape but by one of their Deities was brought to its full Perfection in four Years Which Progress of the Creation and State of Nature is exactly represented by the Theorist's fifth and last Figure which therefore here follows IX The fifth Day 's Work was the Production of the Fish and Fowl out of the Waters with the Benediction bestow'd on them in order to their Propagation IX The Terraqueous Globe being now become habitable both to the swimming and volatil Animals and the Air clear and so penetrable by that compleat Heat of the Sun which was requisite to the Generation of such Creatures 't is a very proper time for their Introduction Which was accordingly done upon this fifth Day or Year of the Creation Those Seeds or little Bodies of Fish and Fowl which were contain'd in the Water or moist fruitful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of kin to it were now expos'd to the kindly warmth of the Sun and the constant supply of a most gentle and equal Heat from beneath they were neither disturbed by the sudden alteration of the Temperature of the Air from the violence of Winds or by the Agitations of the Tide which was both very small in these small Seas and by reason of the absence of the Diurnal Rotation imperceptibly easy gentle and gradual these Seeds I say when invigorated with the Divine Benediction became now prolifick and in this fifth Day 's time a numerous Off-spring of the swimming and volatil Kinds arose whereby the two fluid Elements Water and Air became
replenish'd with those first Pairs which by the Benediction they straightway receiv'd were enabled to become the original of all of the same Kinds which ever were to be the Inhabitants of those Regions afterwards Which time and procedure is no less agreeable to the State of the World in our Hypothesis than 't is to the express Affirmations of Moses who makes Fish and Fowl the sole Product of the fifth Day or Year of the Creation X. The Sixth Day 's Work was the Production of all the Terrestrial or Dry-land Animals and that in a different manner For the Brute Beasts were produc'd out of the Earth as the Fish and Fowl had been before out of the Waters but after that the Body of Adam was form'd of the Dust of the Ground who by the Breath of Life breath'd into him in a peculiar manner became a Living Soul Some time after which on the same day he was cast into a deep Sleep and Eve was form'd out of a Rib taken from his side Together with several other things of which a more particular account has been already given on another occasion X. The Earth being now grown more Solid Compact and Dry its Surface distinguish'd into Sea and Dry-land each of which were stor'd in some sort with Inhabitants and Vegetables the Air being fully clear and fit for Respiration and the other Dispositions of External Nature being equally subservient to this as well as it had been before to the last day's Productions 't was a proper Season for the Generation of the Dry-land Animals and the Introduction of the noblest of them Man which accordingly were the first Works on this sixth Day or Year of the Creation Any more particular account of which or of the following Works is not so directly the design of this Theory and so shall not be here farther insisted on We may only take notice of two things the one is the peculiar Manner the other the peculiar Time for the Creation of Man As to the former Tho' 't is granted that all the other Day 's Works mention'd by Moses were brought to pass in a natural way by proper and suitable Instruments and a mechanical Process as we have seen through the whole Series of the foregoing Creation yet 't is evident as has been already observ'd That an immediate and miraculous Power was exercis'd in the formation of the Body and Infusion of the Soul of Man as well as in some other particular Cases belonging to this Origin of Things In plain terms I take it to be evident That that same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our Blessed Mediator who was afterward very frequently conversant on Earth appear'd in a humane Form to the Patriarchs gave the Law in a visible Glory and with an audible Voice on Mount Sinai guided the Israelites personally in a Pillar of Fire and of a Cloud through the Wilderness inhabited between the Cherubins in the Holy of Holies and took the peculiar Stile Titles Attributes Adoration and incommunicable Name of the God of Israel and at last was Incarnate liv'd a true Man amongst us died for us and ascended into Heaven makes still Intercession for us with the Father and will come to Judge the World in Righteousness at the last Day That this very same Divine Person was actually and visibly in a humane Shape conversant on Earth and was truly and really employ'd in this Creation of the World and particularly in this peculiar Formation of Man so frequently ascribed to him in the Holy Scriptures It being both unfit and impossible for the Divine Nature it self or at least that of the Father to be so much and in such a manner concern'd with the Corporeal World and the sinful Race of Mankind as we find here and every where this Divine Person our Blessed Mediator to have been as the Texts quoted a little above compar'd together do I think fully prove Seeing therefore our Saviour Christ God-man was personally present and actually employ'd in this Primitive Creation of the World Seeing Man was to be a Creature intirely different from all the rest a Being compounded of a Spiritual and Immortal Soul and of a Material and Corruptible Body Seeing in both these he was to be made in the likeness of that Divine Person who created him and be constituted his Deputy and Vicegerent among the Creatures here below 't was but reasonable there should be as great a distinction in his Original as was to be in his Nature and Faculties his Office and Dignity his Capacities and Happiness from the other parts of the visible Creation and by consequence that peculiar Interposition of God himself in the Formation of the Body and Infusion of the Soul of our first Parents so particularly observable in the Mosaick History is both very agreeable to the Nature of things very suitable to the Wisdom of God and very reconcilable to the most Philosophick Accounts of this Origin of the World and withal a remarkable token of the Dignity of Human Nature of the distinction between his Soul and Body and of the great Condescension and Love of God towards us and so the most highly worthy of our consideration Neither is the other circumstance the peculiar Time of the Creation of Man to be pass'd over without a proper Reflection on it 'T were easy to shew That none of the preceding Days were in any degree so fit for nay most of them not capable of this Creation and Introduction of Man But upon this sixth Period when every thing which could be subservient to him and advance his felicity was compleated he who was to be the Lord of All and for whose sake the whole was fram'd was brought into the World When the Light had been penetrating into and clarifying this dark and thick Atmosphere for more than five compleat Years together when the Air was freed from its numberless Vapours and become pure clear and fit for his Respiration when the Waters as well superior as interior were so dispos'd as to minister to his necessities by Mists and Dews from the Heavens and by Springs and Rivers from the Earth when the Surface of the Earth was become dry and solid for his support and was cover'd over with Trees Shrubs Plants Herbs Grass and Flowers for his Sustenance and Delight when the glorious Firmament of Heaven and the beautiful System of the Sun Moon and Stars were visible and conspicuous to him the Objects of his Contemplation the Distinguishers of his Seasons by whose powerful Influences the Earth was invigorated and the World rendred a fruitful and useful a lightsome and pleasant Habitation to him when lastly all sorts of Animals in the Seas in the Air or on the Earth were so dispos'd as to attend benefit and please him one way or other when I say all these things were by the Care Beneficence and Providence of God prepar'd for the entertainment of this principal Guest then
and not till then was Man created and introduc'd into the World Then and not before was He constituted the Lord and Governor of the whole and all things put in subjection under his feet In which intire procedure the Wisdom and Goodness of the Creator and the Dignity and Honour of his principal Creature here below are equally consulted and the greatest occasion imaginable given to our first Parents and all their Posterity of adoring and celebrating the Divine Bounty to them in the present and succeeding Ages Which naturally leads us to the next Proposition XI God having thus finish'd the Works of Creation Rested on the Seventh day from the same and Sanctified or set that Day apart for a Sabbath or Day of Rest to be then and afterward obsrev'd as a Memorial of his Creation of the World in the six foregoing and his resting or keeping a Sabbath on this Seventh day Which Sabbath was reviv'd or at least its Observation anew enforc'd on the Jews by the Fourth Commandment XI Nothing sure could be more sit and proper at this time than the praising and worshipping of that Powerful and Munificent Creator who in the foregoing six Days Productions had so operously and so liberally provided for the well-being and happiness of Mankind And seeing this intire Fabrick was design'd for the use and advantage of all succeeding Generations as well as the present it could not but be reasonable to perpetuate the Memory of this Creation and devote one Period in seven to the peculiar Worship and Service of that God who was both the Author of the Works themselves and of this Institution of the Sabbath to perpetuate the memory of such his six Days of Work and of this seventh of Rest to all future Generations What relates to the Fall of Adam and the intire Moral State of the World comes not within the compass of this Physical Theory and so notwithstanding it naturally enough belongs to this Day and might I imagine be shewn not to be so difficult as for want of a right understanding thereof 't is usually imagin'd to be and that without receding from the literal obvious and usual Sense of Scripture must be wholly omitted in this place XII There is a constant and vigorous Heat diffused from the Central towards the superficiary Parts of our Earth XII This has been already accounted for and need not here be resum'd Corollary From the consideration of the very long time that the Heat of a Comet 's central Solid may endure 't is easy to account for that otherwise strange Phaenomenon of some of those Bodies viz. That tho' the Tails of the Comets appear to be no other than Steams of Vapours rarified by the prodigious Heat acquir'd in their approaches to the Sun yet some at least of these Comets have no inconsiderable ones as they are descending towards the Sun long before they approach near enough to acquire new ones by a fresh Rarefaction of their Vapours in his Vicinity For since the prodigious Heat acquir'd at the last Perihelion must remain for so many thousands of Years tho' the Tail which the Sun 's own Heat rais'd at that time must have been either dispersed through the Ether or by its Gravitation return'd to its old place in the Atmosphere yet will there still remain a Tail and its Position will be no other than if the Sun 's own Heat had elevated the same For by what Heat soever the Vapours in a Comet 's Atmosphere become rarer than the Parts of the Solar Atmosphere in which they are or subject to the Power and Velocity of the Sun's Rays elevating the same a Tail must be as certainly produc'd as if the Sun 's own Heat were the occasion of it Which Observation rightly consider'd will afford light to the foremention'd Phaenomenon and will deserve the consideration of Astronomers to whom it is submitted XIII The habitable Earth is founded or situate on the Surface of the Waters or of a deep and vast Subterraneous Fluid XIII This has been sufficiently explain'd already and is observable in the foregoing Figures of the four latter periods of the Mosaick Creation XIV The interior or intire Constitution of the Earth is correspoudent to that of an Egg. XIV This is also very easily observable in the same Figures Where 1. the Central Solid is answerable to the Yolk which by its fiery Colour great Quantity and innermost Situation exactly represents the same Where 2. the great Abyss is analogous to the White whose Density Viscosity moderate Fluidity and middle Positition excellently express the like Qualities of the other Where 3. the upper Orb or habitable Earth corresponds to the Shell whose Lightness Tenuity Solidity little inequalities of Surface and uppermost Situation admirably agree to the same 'T is indeed possible to suppose that the Quantities specifick Gravities and Crassitudes of each Orb to instance in nothing else here may be in the Earth proportionable to their Analogous ones in an Egg but because the Similitude is so very obvious and full in the foregoing more certain respects and more than sufficient on those accounts to solve the present Phaenomenon and because a bare possibility or fancied probability cannot deserve any more nice consideration I forbear and look upon the Coincidences already observ'd not a little surprizing and remarkable XV. The Primitive Earth had Seas and Dry land distinguish'd from each other in great measure as the present and those situate in the same places generally as they still are XV. The former part of this has been already sufficiently explain'd and of the latter part there can then be no reason to make any question since the same Earth that was made at first does still as to its main parts remain as it was to this Day XVI The Primitive Earth had Springs Fountains Streams and Rivers in the same manner as the present and usually in or near the same places also XVI The Origin of Fountains and Rivers is undoubtedly either from Vapours descending from without the Surface of the Earth or from Steams elevated by the heat within And which way soever we chuse to solve the present 't will also serve to solve the Primitive Phaenomena here mention'd 'T is only to be observ'd That before the upper Earth was chap'd and broken at the commencing of the Diurnal Rotation and indeed before the Strata became so firmly consolidated as they afterward were the subterraneous Steams would arise and pass through the same more uniformly and more easily and so more equally dispense their Waters over every Part and Region of the Earth than afterward Corollary If therefore Dr. Woodward be right in asserting That the Cracks and Fissures which he calls perpendicular ones since the intire Consolidation of the Strata of the Earth are necessary to the Origin of Springs and I believe he may have good grounds for his Opinion from the Being of such Springs and Fountains after the
Learning notwithstanding it might have been cultivated and improv'd to great degree before the Deluge as therefore in all probability it was CHAP. II. A Solution of the Phaenomena relating to the Primitive State of the Earth XXIII The Primitive state of the Earth admitted of the primary production of Animals out of the Waters and Dry Ground which the subsequent states otherwise than in the ordinary method of Generation have been uncapable of XXIII 'T IS not to be expected that I should here be able to give a full and methodical account of the growth of the Primitive Pairs of Animals and of the several dispositions of the Primigenial state of Nature subservient or contributary thereto The method of the Generation of Animals is it self in gèneral so little known and the History of this first stage of the World as well so short in the Sacred Writings as so difficult to be in all its circumstances now otherwise understood that such an Attempt might justly be look'd upon as too rash a presumption All that ought to be expected and all that I shall endeavour is this To shew that as far as is known of that Original Earth its properties were as peculiarly fit for as those opposite ones of the succeeding are incapable of such a production of Animals at first as this Proposition takes notice of Which the five following particulars shall include 1. The long and continued spaces of Day and Night in the Primitive state did capacitate it for such productions which the quick returns of the same afterward prohibited 'T will be easily granted that in the Generation of Animals there must be a pretty constant and continual warmth without the frequent interposition of Cold during the most part of the process Now this the long days of half a year afforded these Primary Embrio's which the short ones of only twelve small hours and the sudden and frequent returns of equal Nights has utterly deni'd to any such ever since 2. The Primitive Earth was moist and juicy enough to supply nourishment all the time of the Generation of the Foetus which after it was once become perfectly Dry and Solid was not again to be expected It was before observ'd that upon the descent of the vast quantities of Vapours on the Third Day the ground was so tender soft and full of juices as very naturally answered to what all Antiquity made the fund and promptuary of the rising Plants and Animals the famous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And as that was but a necessary qualification of a Soil which was to produce Animals so the want of it ever since takes away all hopes of a like Propagation 3. The Primitive state of the Earth and Air where the Animals were produc'd had heat sufficient for that purpose which the subsequent has not 'T is evident that a greater heat than the present Earth or Ambient Air can afford is requisite to and made use of in the present Generation of Animals which the Incubation in the Oviparous and the still warmer Position of the Faetus in the Viviparous Animals assure us of On which account the present Earth must needs be incapable of their production But that the Heat in the Primitive Earth and particularly where the Animals were produc'd was much greater will thus appear As to the Heat from the Central Body while the Earth was somewhat loose and pretty freely admitted the ascending steams that would be considerably greater than after its more intire consolidation when these steams were thereby so much confin'd within or diverted to some particular conceptacles Besides The Production of Animals was near Paradise and I suppose no where else Now those middle Regions of which Eden the Country of Paradise was one being situate under the ancient Ecliptick and present Tropick of which before enjoy'd also a greater Heat from the same Central Body by reason of their greater nearness thereto than since they or the corresponding parts of the Torrid Zone do or can partake of For when the Earth was then perfectly Sphaerical the middle and their neighbouring parts were about 10 miles nearer the Central Solid than the same Regions now are They being in that proportion Elevated and the circumpolar depress'd at the commencing of the Diurnal Rotation Which greater Vieinity of the Central Heat must certainly have a suitable effect and cause somewhat warmer Regions thereabouts than they have been ever since Moreover If the real proper heat of the Central Solid be in any considerable proportion diminish'd in near 6000 years time as in some proportion it must be That degree of Heat which it had at first was still the most powerful of all other ever since But then as to the Solar Heat to take no notice of the greater nearness of the Sun's Body before the Deluge than since as not directly reaching the present case 'T is evident that Paradise situate under or near the very Ecliptick it self must receive the utmost power of the same heat which any part of the Globe were capable of which by lying under the Tropick afterward it would not do On all which accounts joyn'd together 't is evident that the heat in the Primitive State was much more considerable and so much more adapted to the Generation of Animals than that in the subsequent ever was or can possibly be 4. The Primitive state was perfectly still and calm free from all such winds storms violent tides or any the like hurries and disorders as at present wholly render the production of Animals impossible Which quiet condition if in some respects it endur'd till the Deluge yet as even in those the Paradisiacal state might have the preheminence so in others particularly the gentleness of the Tides it had still the most peculiar advantage as was before observed 5. The Equability of Seasons and the greater uniformity of the Air 's temperature which in part remain'd till the Deluge but might be more signal in the Paradisiacal state rendred that Earth as proper as the contrary sudden uncertain and violent extreams of heat and cold drought and moisture sultry and frosty Weather now wholly indispose it for such a production of Animals Which Prerogatives of the Primitive Earth and Air will certainly demonstrate if not its intire fitness yet sure it s less unfitness for such an original Generation as was here to be accounted for and is all as was before observ'd that can justly be requir'd and expected in the present case Corollary When it has been before allow'd that all Generation is but Nutrition and that all Seeds as well of Animals as of Plants are the immediate workmanship of God 'T is evident that this Supposition of the Original Production of Animals out of the Waters and Earth according to the plainest letter of the Mosaick History does by no means derogate from the Divine Efficiency and the wonderful Art and Skill in the Structure of their Bodies nor
and compare the States of External Nature before and after the Fall one with another and with those things which the Propositions we are now upon do assert concerning them 'T is evident then from what has been before laid down hereto relating that the Primitive state of things before the Fall was thus The Earth being newly form'd was scarcely as yet intirely consolidated and so pretty uniformly pervious to the warm Steams ascending from beneath It s Figure was perfectly Sphaerical and its Strata or Layers by consequence were even continued and join'd and so the Central Heat being equally distant from all the parts of the Earth's Surface did very equally diffuse it self and equally affect all the Climates of the Globe The Soil or Uppermost Stratum of the Earth was newly moisten'd by the descent of the Waters before they compos'd the Seas on the Third Day of the Creation and by the plenty of Moisture which it still receiv'd every Night The Air was perfectly Clear Homogeneous Transparent and Susceptive of the utmost Power of the Solar Heat The Seasons were equable or gently and gradually distinguish'd from one another by the Rising Setting Descending and Ascending Sun without any quick Interpositions of Day and Night to disturb them The Torrid Zone of the Earth as I may call those Regions near the Solar Course was very much Expos'd to the Sun and very much warm'd withal by its Vicinage to the Central Solid The Moon in twelve Revolutions equally measur'd out the Year and caus'd the most gentle easie and gradual Tides imaginable This with all its natural Consequents was the State of the Primitive World But as soon as Man had sinn'd and render'd that happy State too good for him or indeed rendred himself wholly uncapable thereof And as soon as God Almighty had pronounced a Curse on the Ground and its Productions presently the Earth began a new and strange Motion and revolv'd from West to East on its own Axis A single 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Revolution of Night and Day either immediately or by degrees according as the present Velocity of the Diurnal Rotation was suddenly or gradually acquir'd returned frequently and became no longer than 24 short Hours while the Annual Motion perform'd on a different Axis distinguish'd the Seasons and in Conjunction with the Diurnal describ'd the Equator and the Tropicks and by the access and recess of the Sun from the last named Circles caus'd it to visit the several Regions enclos'd thereby The Face of the Earth was really distinguish'd into Zones by the Tropicks and Polar Circles truly divided from one another with respect whereto the particular Regions of the Earth chang'd their Situation the Equator being that Circle with regard whereto they were now to be determin'd as they had been before with regard to the Ecliptick and so that Paradise which was before at the middle became the Northern boundary of the Torrid Zone The Figure of the Earth which was before truly Sphaerical degenerated into an Oblate Sphaeroid the Torrid Zone rising about 10 Miles upward and the Frigid one subsiding as much downwards The Compages of the Upper Earth and of its Strata became thereby chap'd broken and divided and so carried up the warm Steams from beneath to particular Conceptacles and Volcano's which before serv'd in a more equal and uniform manner to heat and invigorate the intire Earth and its productons The Tides lastly became frequenter and so more sudden and violent than before Which short Summary or Scheme of the States of Nature in our Hypothesis before and after the Fall ought to be all along born in mind and reflected on in order to the passing a right judgment on the accounts of those Phaenomena in the Solution whereof we are now engag'd And which otherwise might seem very odd and unaccountable to the Reader Which being thus dispatch'd I proceed XXIX The Primitive Earth was not equally Paradisiacal all over The Garden of Eden or Paradise being a peculiarly fruitful and happy soil and particularly furnish'd with all the necessaries and delights of an innocent and blessed life above the other Regions of the Earth XXIX That all the Primitive Earth could not be equally Paradisiacal and enjoy the same Priviledges and Conveniences beyond the Present is easily prov'd For seeing one of its principal causes of Fertility and other Prerogatives was the greater degree of Heat at the Paradisiacal Regions The Climates near the Solar Course being alone capable of such greater Heat must be alone capable of its Effects also and consequently we are to confine our enquiries for the Garden of Eden to the Countries not very remote from the Ancient Ecliptick Now that some peculiar Spot or Region thereabouts might beyond all the rest be Fertile Pleasant and Paradisiacal 't is not difficult to suppose At the present there is a mighty variety in Countries in the very same Hemisphere Climate and Parallel The particular Prerogatives of one Region beyond another do not intirely depend on the Sun or the Vicinage of the Central Heat But partly on the Nature and Temper of the Soil the kinds of Vegetables and Fossils thereto belonging the number qualities and conflux of Rivers he firmness or looseness of the inferior Strata hindring or freelier permitting the ascent of the Subterraneous Steams Juices and Effluvia From the coincidence of which and of other such things in a peculiar and advantagious manner order'd and dispos'd on purpose by the Divine Providence at the Mosaick Creation the extraordinary pleasantness and felicity of this Earthly Paradise or Garden of Pleasure is I suppose to be deduc'd and which being consider'd will I believe be sufficient to give satisfaction in the Proposition before us XXX The place of Paradise was where the united Rivers Tigris and Euphrates divided themselves into four Streams Pison Gihon Tigris and Euphrates XXX This Situation of Paradise has been already consider'd and need not here be reassum'd Only we may observe That no Scruples would ever have been rais'd about this Matter in case the foremention'd Rivers had still been visible their Course still agreeable to the Mosaick Description and the Metals and Minerals mention'd of the adjoyning Countries had been as evidently there to be found in ours as they appear to have been in those Primitive Times Seeing therefore the following Theory will so clearly assign the Cause of such Diversity that every Reader will be oblig'd to grant it much harder to have accounted for the Phaenomena of Paradise consistently with the other Phaenomena of Nature if all things were now as they were at first than almost any other of the Antediluvian World I may justly hope that this so disputed a Question of the Situation of the Garden of Eden or Primitive Paradise to those who embrace the other parts of the Theory will remain no longer so but be as fix'd and undoubted within at least the limits of that Hypothesis here referr'd to as any other
a very stormy Fluid wherein Masses of Opake Matter are continually hurried about all manner of ways in a very uncertain and violent manner Seeing therefore we acquir'd at the Deluge so great a quantity of the same Atmosphere of which ours is now in part compos'd 't is impossible to expect any other State of things than such as this Phaenomenon mentions and was to be here accounted for Corollary Hence it appears That the Wind of the Day of which Moses makes mention at the Fall of Man was not a constant Phaenomenon of the Earth but peculiar to that time And this is very agreeable to the Hypothesis before laid down of the commencement of the Diurnal Rotation at the very Day here mention'd according to which a Wind must necessarily arise at that point of Time tho' there were none before or after till the Deluge On that beginning of the Diurnal Rotation 1. The Equatorial Regions would be elevated the Polar depress'd the Orb of Earth would be chap'd and broken and warm Steams burst out at the Fissures thereby produc'd all which could scarce happen without some Agitation of the Air. But 2. What is more certain and more considerable when the Terraqueous Globe began on a sudden to revolve from West to East the Air could not presently accompany it and so must cause a Wind from East to West till receiving by degrees the Impression it kept at last equal pace therewith and resting respectively caused a constant Calm afterwards Which Wind being therefore from the Earth's Velocity there greatest towards the Equator and Tropicks near the latter of which was the place of Paradise would be considerable enough especially in a state otherwise still and calm to be taken notice of by the Sacred History and be a kind of Relick or Footstep of the then Commencement of that Diurnal Rotation which is so necessary to account for it and has been from other Arguments already prov'd in its proper place XL. The Autediluvian Air had no Rain-bow as the present so frequently has XL. This is easily accountable from what has been already said For 1. The descent of the Vapours necessary to it was usually if not only in the Night when the absence of the Sun rendred its appearance impossible 2. The descending Vapours compos'd only a gentle Mist not sensible round Drops of Rain as we have before seen on which yet the Rain-bow entirely depends as those who understand the Nature and Generation thereof will easily confess So that tho' the Sun were above the Horizon at the fall of the Vapours the appearance of the Rainbow was not to be expected 3. Were the Vapours that fell compos'd of sensible round Drops and fell in the day-time and this in sufficient Quantities yet for want of a Wind which might drive them together on one side and thereby clear the Air on the other for the free admission of the Rays of Light a Rain-bow were seldom or never to be suppos'd before the Deluge all which circumstances being now quite otherwise give us clear reasons for the present frequent appearance of that beautiful and remarkable Phaenomenon tho' till the Deluge it was a perfect Stranger to the World XLI The Antediluvians might only eat Vegetables but the Use of Flesh after the Flood was freely allow'd also XLI That a State of Nature as to the Air Earth Fruits and other circumstances so very different from ours at present should require a suitable difference in the Food and Sustenance of Mankind is very reasonable to believe But besides 1. When the Lives of Animals were naturally so long as in correspondence to Mankind is fairly to be suppos'd before the Deluge 't is not improbable that God Almighty would not permit them to be taken away on any other occasion than that of Sacrifice or Oblation to himself 2. Perhaps in the tender and even Condition of the Antediluvians the eating of Flesh would have spoil'd their Tempers and shortened their Lives such Food being I suppose fitter for our gross and short-liv'd State since the Flood than that refin'd and lasting one before it 3. Perhaps the Antediluvian Vegetables were more juicy nourishing and wholsome not only than Flesh but than themselves have since been which the better and more fertile Soil out of which they grew then gives some reason to conjecture And whether they had not then some Vegetables which we have not now may deserve the consideration of such as search after their remains in the Bowels of the Earth The same care of the Vegetable as of the Animal-Kingdom not appearing in the Sacred History relating to the Deluge However 4. If we observe that even at this day the warm Seasons and Countries are less dispos'd to the eating of Flesh than the cold ones and remember that the Antediluvian Air was in some degree warmer than the present we shall not be wholly to seek for a particular reason of this Phoenomenon XLII The Lives of the Antediluvians were more universally equal and vastly longer than ours now are Men before the Flood frequently approaching near to a thousand which almost none now do to a hundred years of Age. XLII Tho' several other things might here deserve to be consider'd yet I shall only insist upon the difference between the Antediluvian Air and that since the Flood to give an account of this Proposition The consideration of the Pure Unmixed Equable and Gentle Constitution of the former compar'd with the Gross Thick Hetorogeneous Mutable and Violent Condition of the latter of it self affording a sufficient Solution of this difficulty That Air which is drawn in every breath whose included Particles 't is probable insinuate themselves continually into our Blood and the other Fluids of our Bodies and on which all experience shews humane Life and Health exceedingly to depend being at the Deluge chang'd from a Rare and Thin to a Thick and Gross Consistence from an equability or gradual and gentle warmth and coolness of Temperature to extremity of Heat and Cold and that with the most sudden and irregular steps from one to another from True and Pure Air or an Homogeneous Elastical Fluid to a mix'd and confused Compositum or Atmosphere wherein all sorts of Effluvia Sulphureous Nitrous Mineral and Metallick c. are contain'd Which circumstances if there were no other will I imagine give a satisfactory account of the mighty difference as to the point of Longaevity between the Antediluvians and those which ever since have dwelt on the Face of the Earth We may obtain some small and partial resemblance of it in a person who had liv'd many years upon the top of a high Mountain above the Clouds and Steams of our Earth and whose temperament of Body was peculiarly dispos'd for so Pure Thin and Undisturb'd an AEther as there he enjoy'd and afterward were confin'd to the most Foggy Marshy and Stinking part of the Hundreds in Essex or of the Boggs in Ireland What Effect in Point
of Life and Health such a Change must have on the Person before-mention'd 't is not difficult to imagine And as easie on a like comparison of the Antediluvian AEther and the present Atmosphere to account for the Proposition before us and shew as well why men dye at all uncertain Periods of Years and have while they live a Precarious State of Health with frequent sicknesses as why none reach any whit near the long Ages of those that before the Deluge continued in Health and Security for near a thousand Years XLIII Tho' the Antediluvian Earth was not destitute of lesser Seas and Lakes every where dispers'd on the Surface thereof yet had it no Ocean or large receptacle of Waters separating one Continent from another and covering so large a portion of it as the present Earth has XLIII From the Original Formation of the Earth above describ'd and its unequal subsidence into the Abyss beneath while in the mean time vast quantities of Vapours were sustain'd above and afterwards let fall upon the Earth its Surface would be unequal its lowest Valleys fill'd with Water and a truly Terraqueous Globe would arise But these two plain Reasons may be assigned why any great Ocean were not to be expected at the same time 1. So Vast and Deep a Valley as the Ocean implies is not in reason to be deriv'd from such a regular formation of the Earth from a Chaos as we have above describ'd No good reason being assignable why in such a confused mixture as we call a Chaos the parts should be so strangely dispos'd that on one side all the Upper Orb for some scores of Degrees and some thousands of Miles together should be Denser and Heavier than the rest and by its sinking deepest into the Abyss produce the vast Channel of the Ocean while on another side the same Orb for as many Degrees and Miles should be universally Rare and Light enough to be very much extant and compose a mighty Continent as the case is in our present Earth Tho' the Atmosphere of a Comet be so truly Heterogeneous and it s Opake or Earthy Masses so unequally scatter'd abroad on the different sides thereof as even setting aside the inequality of the Density and Specifick Gravity of the several Columns might compose an Orb of different Thickness or Crassitude and so cause an unequal Orb on the Face of the Abyss like that we before suppos'd it originally to have been Yet so mighty an inequality as the present Division of the Earth into an Ocean and Continents must suppose is by no means to be allow'd in the Primitive Chaos nor would I suppose by any be asserted if the Generation of those grand Divisions of our Globe were otherwise accountable which on our Principles being so easily done as will soon appear no reason can plead here for their Primitive Introduction And sure those Agitation and Motions of Parts visible in some sort now in Comets Atmospheres and to be however granted in the digestion of its parts at first must sure mix and jumble the parts together to a degree sufficient to prevent so strange an inequality as the Original Existence of the Ocean and Continents must needs imply However 2. The quantity of Water preserv'd above ground was little or nothing more as we have shew'd than the Heat of the Sun and Central Solid was able to elevate and the Air at once to sustain during half a years space the day time of the second Period of the Creation Which how insufficient it must have been to the filling of the great Ocean is easily understood Which things consider'd the Absence of the Ocean as well as the Existence of Seas is very easily accountable in the Antediluvian World CHAP. IV. A Solution of the Phaenomena relating to the Universal Deluge and its Effects upon the Earth XLIV In the Seventeenth Century from the Creation there happen'd a most extraordinary and prodigious Deluge of Waters upon the Earth XLIV WHatever difficulties may hitherto have rendred this most Noted Catastrophe of the Old World that it was destroy'd by Waters very hard if not wholly inexplicable without an Omnipotent Power and Miraculous Interposition since the Theory of Comets with their Atmospheres and Tails is discover'd they must vanish of their own accord For if we consider that a Comet is no other than a Chaos including the very same Bodies and Parts of which our own Earth is compos'd that the outward Regions of its Atmosphere are plain Vapours or such a sort of Mist as we frequently see with us and the Tail a column of the same Vapours rarified and expanded to a greater degree as the Vapours which in the clearest Days or Nights our Air contains at present are and that withal such a Comet is capable of passing so close by the Body of the Earth as to involve it in its Atmosphere and Tail a considerable time and leave prodigious quantities of the same Condensed and Expanded Vapours upon its Surface we shall easily see that a Deluge of Waters is by no means an impossible thing and in particular that such an individual Deluge as to the Time Quantity and Circumstances which Moses describes is no more so but fully accountable that it might be nay almost demonstrable that it really was All which the Solutions following will I think give an easie and mechanical account of XLV This prodigious Deluge of Waters was mainly occasion'd by a most extraordinary and violent Rain for the space of forty Days and as many Nights without intermission XLV When the Earth passed clear through the Atmosphere and Tail of the Comet in which it would remain for about 10 or 12 hours as from the Velocity of the Earth and the Crassitude of the said Tail on Calculation does appear it must acquire from the violence of the Column of Vapours descend towards the Sun impeded by the Earth's Interposition and Reception of the same and from the Attractive Power of the Earth it self withal enforcing more to descend it must I say acquire upon its Surface immense quantities of the Vapours before mention'd A great part of which being in a very Rare and Expanded condition after their Primary Fall would be immediately mounted upward into the Air and afterward descend in violent and outragious Rains upon the Face of the Earth All those Vapours which were rarer and lighter than that Air which is immediately contiguous to the Earth must certainly ascend to such a height therein where its Density and Specifick Gravity were correspondent as far as that Croud of their fellow Vapours with which the Air was oppress'd would give leave And so afterwards as they cool'd thicken'd and collected together like our present Vapours must descend in most prodigious Showers of Rain for a long time afterwards and very naturally occasion that forty Days and forty Nights Rain mention'd in the Proposition before us XLVI This vast quantity of Waters was not deriv'd from the Earth or Seas
and Interstices thereof which Waters on the opening of the Fissures would from all sides ouze into and fill up the Inferiour parts of the same and rest upon the Face of the Abyss the Dense Fluid of the Abyss in its violent Ascent through the Fissures would carry before it and throw out at the tops of the said Fissures great quantities of the same and if its force were any where sufficient would cast it self also out at the same passages and by both or either ways would mightily add to the quantity of the Waters already on the Face of the Earth and become a fresh and a prodigious augmentation of that Deluge which began already to overwhelm and destroy the Inhabitants thereof For the better apprehension of this matter let us imagine the following Experiment were made Suppose a Cylinder of Stone or Marble fitted so exactly to a hollow Cylindrical Vessel that it may just Ascend or Descend freely within it Let the Cylinder of Stone or Marble have small holes bored quite through it parallel to the Axis thereof Let the Vessel be fill'd half full of Water and the Cylinder as gently as you please be put into the Vessel till it touch the Water Let then each of the holes through the Cylinder be fill'd in part with Oyl or any other Fluid lighter than the Water to Swim upon the Surface thereof Things being thus provided you have the very case of the Deluge before you and what effects you here in a lesser degree will observe are but the representations of those great and remarkable ones of which we are now speaking For as the weight of the Cylinder pressing upon the Surface of the Water would squeeze the Oyl upon its Surface through the holes and cast it out thereat with some violence and cast it self too out at the same passages if the holes were not too high in comparison to the quantity of the intire pressure upon the Surface of the Water just so the Weight of the Columns of Earth augmented by the additional Waters of the Comet would squeeze and press upon the Surface of the Abyss which being a Fluid Mass and incapable of sustaining a pressure in one part without equally communicating it to all the rest any way whatsoever must burst out wherever such pressure was wanting and throw it self up the Fissures carrying up before it and throwing out upon the Earth those Waters which like Oyl on the Water in the Experiment lay upon its Surface and for the altitude perhaps of some Miles cover'd the same and thereby mightily increasing the greatness of the Deluge and having a main stroke in that destruction which it brought upon the Earth All which I think gives us a clear easie and mechanical account of this hitherto inexplicable Secondary Cause of the Deluge the breaking up the Fountains of the Great Deep and thereat the elevating the Subterraneous Waters and bringing them out upon the Face of the Earth Corollary 1. These Chaps or Fissures at the Deluge would commonly be the same with those at the commencing of the Diurnal Rotation It being easier to break the Compages of the Earth where it had once been broken already and was never united well again than in other places where it was intire and continued And those parts which sustain'd the rather greater force at the former Convulsion would at least as well sustain this of which we are now speaking and preserve their former continuity still as they did before the Flood Coroll 2. Hence if these Fissures are the occasion and source of Fountains as Dr. Woodward very probably asserts The Antediluvian and Postdiluvian Springs must be generally the very same as arising from the same Originals so far as the mutations at the Earth's Surface to be afterward explain'd would permit and allow in the case Coroll 3. Since we have before shew'd that the Mountainous Columns of the Earth are the loosest the least compacted and least solid of all others The Earth would be the most subject to the Fissures and Breaches in those parts and the generality of Springs and Rivers would now proceed from thence Unless the peculiar Stony or other firm Compages of the same prevented the Effects here mention'd as sometimes perhaps might happen in the present case Coroll 4. Hence 't is evident that there was no great Ocean but only smaller Lakes and Seas before the Flood For otherwise the Tule or Flux of the Ocean would have been so great and violent as to have superseded almost all the designs of the ensuing Deluge and have withal extremely endanger'd if not certainly destroy'd the Ark and all those Creatures which were entring into it Which the small Tides in the small Lakes and Seas would not at all affect or disturb XLIX All these Fountains of the great Deep were broken up on the very first day of the Deluge or the very first day when the Rains began XLIX This is very easily understood from the space of time that the Comet was near the Earth For the duration of this Disruption or breaking of the Orb of Earth occasion'd by the nearness of the Comet must be commensurate thereto which tho' we should take in all the space it was nearer than the Moon could not possibly as is easie to Calculate amount to Nine Hours which is indeed much more than need be allow'd and is yet sufficiently within that Days space which this Phaenomenon if occasion were could allow us to suppose and so fully satisfies the same L. Yet the very same day Noah his Family and all the Animals entred into the Ark. L. Tho' 't is otherwise not a little strange that the entry into the Ark should be defer'd till this Day yet 't is clear and easie on the present Hypothesis For as to the Fountains of the great Deep which were broken up this Day thereby the Earth and its Contents were only gradually and insensibly elevated but no other disturbance given to Noah in his Entry into the Ark at the same time The Fissures indeed were now made but till the weight of the Waters from the Comet could operate no Water would from thence arise to disturb him And tho' they had yet unless there were some of the great Fissures or Spouts just where he was no interruption could this day be given him therefrom As to the Rains themselves tho' they all fell first upon the Earth nearly within the compass of this Day and so must cause a most prodigious destruction and confusion upon the Earth where they so fell yet the peculiar situation of Mount Caucasus on or near which the Ark was did secure it this day tho' so outragious and destructive a one to the Inhabitants of the other parts of the Globe was yet here fair and calm as at other times Which is thus demonstrated 'T is evident that Mount Caucasus is ficuate pretty near the Center of our Northern Continent or indeed some 20 or 25 degrees Northeast
from the same that is as will hereafter appear pretty near the Point b or somewhat below it towards c Which Mountain Caucasus was directly expos'd therefore to the Comet at its nearest distance represented in the Figure When the Comet therefore was moving from E to F so soon as the Earth came within its Atmosphere and Tail a Cylindrical Column of Vapours would be intercepted and bore off by the Earth in its passage whose Basis were somewhat larger than a great Circle on the Earth and whose Direction or Axis from the compound Motion of the Comet and of the Earth were at about 45 degrees of Inclination with the Ecliptick or parallel to cd the lesser Axis of the Earth That is the first fall of the Vapours would affect one Hemisphere of the Earth at a time that namely which were properly expos'd to their descent and the other would be not at all affected therewith till the Earth's Diurnal Rotation by degrees expos'd the other parts in like manner and brought every one at last within the verge of that Hemisphere on which was the first and most violent descent of the Vapours Now this Hemisphere would be represented in the Figure by a d b and the opposite one which intirely escap'd at the same time by a c b. So that seeing the Ark or Mount Caucasus was below the Point b and by the Diurnal Rotation quickly got farther within the fair Hemisphere it would remain in the same during all the time of this first violent Fall of the Waters and have a calm and quiet day for the entry into the Ark while the other Regions of the Globe were subject to so violent a Storm and such fury of descending Vapours as no Age past or future had been or were to be exposed to This place could only be capable of some falling Vapours three or four hours after Sun-set in case the Earth were not at that time got clear of the Tail of the Comet in which it had been all the preceding day And consequently Noah had as fair and calm a time of entring into the Ark with all his Family and the other Animals as could be desir'd when no other parts of the Globe but those agreeing in such a peculiar situation with him could have permitted the same Which is I think not a meer Satisfactory but a very Surprizing account of the present Proposition Corollary 1. Hence the time of the breaking open of the Fountains of the Deep and of the beginning of the Rains very nearly coincident therewith is determin'd and that agreeably to the Mosaick History much nearer than to a Day with which exactness we have hitherto contented our selves in the case And indeed almost to an Hour For seeing all the Fountains of the great Deep were broken up on this day seeing the forty days Rain began on the same day seeing Noah with all his Family and all the other Creatures entred on this self-same day into the Ark all which certainly require very near an intire day and yet seem very incompatible there is no other way but to assert that tho' the breaking up of the Fountains of the Great Deep and the Fall of the Waters were coincident and upon the same day with the Entry into the Ark as the Text most expresly asserts yet the place where the Ark was escap'd the effects of the same till the Evening and while the rest of the Earth was abiding the fury of the same enjoy'd so calm fair and undisturb'd a day as permitted their regular and orderly going into the Ark before the Waters overtook them So that the Deluge must according to the Sacred History have commenc'd in the Morning and yet not reach'd the particular place where Noah was till the Evening or the coming on of the ensuing Night Which how exactly the present Hypothesis is correspondent to I shall leave the Reader to judge from what has been said under this last Proposition according to which 't is plain that the Comet pass'd by the Earth broke up the Fountains of the Deep and began the forty days Rains after Sun-rising about Eight or Nine a Clock in the Morning from which time till Eight or Nine a Clock at Night and long after Sun-set tho' the Waters fell with the greatest violence on the Earth yet they affected a single Hemisphere at a time only into which the Diurnal Rotation did not all that while convert the Regions near the Ark and this most nicely and wonderfully corresponds to the greatest accuracy of the present case and of the Mosaick History So that now we may agreeably both to the Sacred History and the Calculations from the present Hypothesis assert that the Deluge began at the Meridian of Mount Caucasus on Thursday the twenty seventh day of November in the year of the Julian Period 2365 between Eight and Nine a Clock in the Morning Which exactness of Solution wherein not only the Day but almost Hour assign'd from the Mosaick History is correspondent to the present Hypothesis how remarkable an Attestation it is to the same and how full a confirmation of the most accurate Verity of the Mosaick History I need not remark Such reflections when Just being very Natural with every careful Reader Corollary 2. Here is an instance of the peculiar Providence of God in the Preservation of the Ark by ordering the Situation so as to escape the Violence of the thick Vapours in their first precipitate fall which otherwise must probably have dash'd it to pieces For considering their Velocity of Motion which indeed was incredible no less than eight hundred Miles in the space of a Minute 't is not easy to suppose that any Building could sustain and preserve it self under the violence thereof which we see the Ark by the peculiar place of its Situation twenty or twenty five degrees North-East from the Center of our Northern Continent was wonderfully secured from while the other Regions of the Earth were exposed thereto and in great measure 't is probable destroy'd thereby Coroll 3. Hence 't is evident That the place of the Ark before assign'd at Mount Caucasus was its true one and not any Mountain in or near Armenia For had it been there seated it had been expos'd to the violence of the falling Vapours and instead of a quiet entry into the Ark on this first day of the Deluge the Ark it self with all the Creatures that were to be preserv'd in it would have utterly perish'd in the very beginning thereof Coroll 4. Hence the reason may easily be given why the History of the Deluge takes no notice of this passing by of the Comet viz. because none of those who surviv'd the Deluge could see or perceive the same For at the time of the approach of the Comet at first both the latter end of the Night-season when all were asleep and the Mists which according to the Nature of the Antediluvian Air were probably then upon the Earth and obscur'd
the Face of the Heavens hindred any prospect of this dreadful Body And soon after the Morning came they were actually involv'd in the Atmosphere of the Comet and so in its Tail presently after which would only appear a strange and unusual Mist or Cloud at a distance wholly depriving them of the distinct view of the Comet it self and leaving them utterly ignorant of the true occasion of the following Catastrophe unless any intimation should have been given them thereof by a Divine Revelation LI. Tho' the first and most violent Rains continued without intermission but forty Days yet after some time the Rains began again and ceased not till the seventeenth Day of the seventh Month or a hundred and fifty Days after the Deluge began LI. It has been already abserv'd That the Comet would involve the Earth in its Tail a second time about fifty four or fifty five Days after its first passing by as well as it did before as 't is also represented in the Figure Which being suppos'd the Earth must receive a new stock of Vapours as before and the Rains which had intermitted for fourteen or fifteen Days must begin again The differences between the former and latter Rains would be 1. These latter Vapours proceeding from the Tail whereas the former did principally from the much denser Atmosphere of the Comet would be less copious and less violent than the other and cause a gentler Rain 2. These Vapours being newly rarified by the prodigious Heat at the Perihelion and rais'd thereby to a mighty height in the Tail from their greater rarity and lightness higher ascent in our Air consequent thereupon and longer time thence necessary to their cooling and descent in Rains upon the Earth would be much longer in falling and produce a continual Rain of many more days than the former did Both which are exactly agreeable to the Mosaick History whence it appears that the first Rains had the principal stroke in the Deluge and that if this secondary Rain commenc'd at the time here assign'd it must have continued 95 or 96 days which is considerably more than double the number of those 40 within which the former Rains were confin'd LII This second and less remarkable Rain was deriv'd from such a cause as the former was LII This is sufficiently evident already since the same Comet afforded the matter for both Rains equally LIII Tho' the Fountains of the great Deep were broken up and the forty days Rain began at the same time yet is there a very observable mention of a threefold growth or distinct augmentation of the Waters as if it were on three several accounts and at three several times LIII This is particularly correspondent to the present Hypothesis wherein 1. The principal Rain of 40 days 2. The Eruption and Ascent of the Subterraneous Waters occasion'd by their weight and pressure 3. The lesser Rain of 95 or 96 days were both different in themselves and in their time of commencing and caus'd a distinct augmentation of the Waters agreeably to the greatest nicety of this Proposition LIV. The Waters of the Deluge increas'd by degrees till their utmost height and then decreas'd by degrees till they were clearly gone off the Face of the Earth LIV. This is evident as to the increase of the Deluge by what has been already said and will equally be so of its decrease when we come to it hereafter LV. The Waters of the Deluge were Still Calm free from Commotions Storms Winds and Tempests of all sorts during the whole time in which the Ark was afloat upon them LV. It has already appear'd that there were no Storms Tempests or other violent Commotions in the Antediluvian Air till the Deluge and that during the space here referr'd to none would arise 't is but reasonable to allow For as to the first and principal Rain it was so constant so downright and so uninterrupted that no little commotion in the Air could have place or if it had could disturb it which is commonly the case of long and setled Rains with us at this day As to the Subterraneous Waters ascending with some violence they were confin'd to several particular places and not universal and though they might cause some commotions at the bottom of the Waters yet might the surface of the same and the Air be sufficiently calm and undisturb'd But as to the third Cause of the Deluge It must be granted agreeably to what has been before observ'd That the descending Vapours would not be merely such but mix'd with many heterogenerous Particles of all sorts Sulphur Brimstone Niter Coal Mineral Effluvia Metallick Steams and the like which the prodigious heat at the Perihelion had dissolv'd and elevated into the Tail of the Comet From the confused mixture irregular fermentations and disagreeing motions of all which 't is probable the preternatural and violent commotions in the Atmosphere then and since are mainly to be deduc'd So that assoon as the latter 94 or 95 days Rains were almost over assoon as these rarified Corpuscles were descended into the lower and narrower Regions of the Air and being crouded closer were by the greater heat there predominant put into such irregular fermentations as they were already disposed for 'T is natural to suppose that Winds and Storms of all sorts and those in a very extraordinary manner would arise and cause the most sensible and extream perturbations of the Waters now covering to a vast depth the face of the whole Earth that could easily be conceiv'd Of which the following Proposition will give farther occasion to discourse LVI Yet during the Deluge there were both Winds and Storms of all sorts in a very violent manner LVI Seeing as we just now saw that at the end of the latter Rains the greatest Storms possible were to be expected and seeing yet the Ark which had been afloat so long and was so still the Waters being now at the very highest was incapable of abiding a stormy Sea as we prov'd under the former Phaenomenon there at first view appears the greatest danger imaginable of its perishing in the future immoderate and extraordinary Commotions And this danger is increased by this Reflection That as probably it had been afloat during the most part of the 150 days while the Waters were gradually and gently augmenting so one would imagine ought it to be for at least as many days during the at least as gentle and gradual decrease of the same afterwards i. e. The Ark ought to have been as long afloat in the stormy as it had been in the calm part of the Deluge But this difficulty which is to appearance so entirely insoluble will soon vanish if we consider that the Ark rested upon Caucasus the then highest Mountain in the world For seeing the Waters prevailed above the same Mountain 15 Cubits only a great part of which depth of Water would be drawn by the Ark it self upon the
thousand times as many as the said number deducible from the present rate of the Increase of Mankind So that 't is evident That the Antediluvian Fruitfulness and numerous Stock of Inhabitants which are also themselves hereby fully establish'd must have prevail'd servata proportione among the Primitive Postdiluvians for some Centuries or else no Account were to be given of the present numbers of Men upon the Face of the Earth whereby the Verity of this Proposition the Veracity of Moses therein the great importance thereof and the necessity of the present Solution and of that Theory on which it is built are mightily confirm'd Coroll 2. Hence we may nearly determine the Ages of Men for the first eight or nine hundred Years after the Deluge from the length of their Lives given Thus Job who appears to have liv'd at the least between two and three hundred Years must have been contemporary with some of the Patriarchs between Heber and Abraham to whom that Duration of Humane Life belong'd and thus we may examine and determine the Ages of the most Ancient King 's mention'd in Prophane Histories from the like Duration of their Lives or Reigns as the following Corollary will more particularly observe Coroll 3. Neither the Egyptian Dynasties nor the Assyrian Monarchy could be coeval with the first seven or eight hundred Years after the Deluge none of their Kings Reigns set down by Chronologers reaching that number of Years which the length of Humane Life at that time requir'd nay nor any other than Kings now may and do arrive at in these latter Ages of the World Coroll 4. The Antediluvian and Postdiluvian Years mention'd in Scripture were true Years of twelve not fictitious ones of one Month apiece as some that they might reduce the Age of the first Patriarchs to the short term of Life since usually attain'd to have been willing to surmise This fancy is strangely absurd and contrary to the Sacred History and in particular irreconcilable with this Proposition For had the ancient Years been Lunar of one Month and the latter Solar of a twelve by which the same Duration of Humane Life had been differently measur'd the numbers of Years which Men liv'd must have alter'd in the Proportion of twelve to one of a sudden at such a change in the Year referr'd to and not gradually and gently as 't is here evident they did LXXI Our upper Earth for a considerable depth even as far as we commonly penetrate into it is Factitious or newly acquir'd at the Deluge The ancient one being covered by fresh Strata or Layers of Earth at that time and thereby spoil'd or destroy'd as tothe use and advantage of Mankind LXXI 'T is not to be suppos'd that the Waters of the Deluge were merely the pure Element of Water sincere and unmix'd What came from the Comet 's Atmosphere must partake of its earthly heterogeneous Mixtures and what was squeez'd up from beneath must carry up much Dirt and earthy Matter along with it Besides which as soon as the stormy Weather began the soak'd and loosen'd Tops of Mountains would easily by the Winds and Waves together be wash'd off or carried away into the Mass of Waters and increase the impurity and earthy mixtures thereof On all which accounts the Waters of the Deluge would be a very impure thick and muddy Fluid and afford such a quantity of earthy Matter as would bear some considerable Proportion to that of the Water it self Now this earthy Matter being heavier than the Water would by degrees settle downwards and compose first a mighty thick dirty muddy Fluid in the lower Regions of the Waters and at last a plain earthy Sediment at the bottom of them which would at once spoil and bury the old Surface of the Ground and become a new Cruft or Cover on the face thereof Now that we may see whether this Sediment or Crust could be so thick and considerable as this Phoenomenon requires lot us suppose as before the perpendicular height of the Waters of the Deluge to have been three Miles above the common Surface of the Plains and Seas and the thirtieth part only of the intire Fluid on the Face of the Earth to have been earthy Parts sit to compose the Sediment or Crust beforemention'd Let us also remember what has been already-observ'd from Mr. Newton That Earth is at least three times as dense and heavy as Water so that the thirtieth part in quantity of Matter would only take up the ninetieth part of the whole space either in the Waters or when 't was setled down by it self and became a new Crust or Orb upon the Earth If we then divide 15000 the number of Feet in the whole height of the Waters not here to allow for the spaces posses'd by the extant Parts of the Earth by 90 1500 by 9 the quotient will shew the the Crassitude or Thickness of this Sediment or Crust covering the Face of the Earth viz. 166 2 3 Feet one place taken with another indifferently Which quantity fully accounts for the Proposition we are upon and agrees with the Observations made in the Bowels of our present Earth to as great accuracy as one could desire or expect Corollary 1. Hence it appears That the Earth was generally uninhabitable for several years after the Flood This new factitious Sediment of the Waters requiring no little space of time ere it would be fully setled its Strata consolidated its Surface become hard and dry and its Vegetables sprung out of it before which time 't were uninhabitable by Man and the other Dry-land Animals Coroll 2. Hence we may see the Care and Wisdom of Divine Providence for the Preservation and Maintenance of Noah and of all the Creatures in the Ark after their coming out of the same again by ordering all things so that the Ark should rest on the highest Mountain in the World and that the Waters should so little surpass the same that the Sediment thereof could neither spoil the Fruits of the Ground nor render the Surface uninhabitable as it did on the other Regions of the Earth For since the quantity of the Sediment would generally be proportionable every where to the perpendicular height of the Waters over the Surface of the Ground below tho' it would cover all the other Regions of the whole Earth yet on this highest of all Mountains cover'd but a few Days or perhaps Hours with any Waters and they never above fifteen Cubits perpendicular height the quantity of the Sediment would here be perfectly inconsiderable and the Earth would not be at all alter'd from what it was before nor its Vegetables hurt by this Universal Deluge So that this and this only was the spot of Ground capable of receiving the Ark and of sustaining the Creatures therein till afterwards the rest of the Earth became fit for their Descent and Habitation To this spot therefore by such a wonderful adjustment of all the requisite Circumstances of
compos'd in great part of the Earthy Corpuscles or Masses of a Chaos as well as the Primitive Earth was at the Mosaick Creation The very same reasons assignable for the coalescence and consolidation of the former are equally to be suppos'd in the present case and render it equally reasonable with the other And if the Dense Fluid or any parts or steams from that were instrumental to the Original Union of parts at the Primary Formation of the Earth 't is probable there was no want of it at the Deluge The Atmosphere of the Comet and the Fountains of the Deep being both capable of supplying sufficient quantities among the larger plenty of their Watery and Earthy Masses as is plain from what has been already said Neither in case some of it were acquir'd by the means aforemention'd is it to be expected that we ought to see it still on the Face of the Earth as we do the Ocean For seeing this Dense Fluid is much heavier than Water or Earth it would be at the very bottom of all and so either be inclosed in the Pores and Caverns at the bottom of the Sediment or transform'd into a different Body by its composition with the Earthy parts it was enclos'd withal and did consolidate LXXVIII These Strata of Stone of Chalk of Cole of Earth or whatever matter they consisted of lying thus each upon other appear now as if they had at first been parallel continued and not interrupted But as if after some time they had been dislocated and broken on all sides of the Globe had been elevated in some and depress'd in other places from whence the Fissures and Breaches the Caverns and Grotto's with many other irregularities within and upon our present Earth seem to be deriv'd LXXVIII When the Sediment setled down gradually upon the Surface of the Ancient Earth it would compose Strata or Layers as even continued and parallel as one could desire and as the said Surface did permit And had the said Surface been fix'd and unalterable this evenness and parallellism this uniformity and continuity of the Strata would have remain'd unalterable also to this day But since as we have formerly shewn the intire Orb of Earth was at the beginning of the Deluge crack'd chap'd and broken and for many years afterwards would by degrees settle and compose it self towards its former figure and rotundity again tho' the Series and Connexion of the Strata might before they were consolidated be as regular as you can imagine yet when the Basis or Foundation on which they rested and the Surface on which they were spread fail'd by degrees in several places and proportions by the rising of some Columns upwards and the setling of others downwards this Upper Orb or Crust where the Strata were not become intirely Solid like Stone and Marble must follow in great part the fate of the other and be dislocated elevated or depress'd in correspondence to that whereon it rested And have thereby a Set of Chaps and Fissures directly over-against those which were before in the Ancient Earth But as for such places where the new Strata were become Stony or Solid and incapable of a compliance with the under Earth by the settling downward or elevation of its immediate Basis the Primitive Earth those Caverns and Grotto's those Caves and Hollows which appear within the Earth or its Mountains would naturally arise while the Solid Strata like Beams or Arches sustain'd the impending Columns notwithstanding the sinking and failure of their immediate Foundations by which Causes the Surface and Upper Regions of the Earth would become very uneven and full of small irregularities such as the present Phaenomenon assures us of Corollary 1. Hence we see a plain Reason why Mountainous and Stony Countries are only or principally Hollow and Cavernous Some lesser Mountains being perhaps occasion'd by the subsidence of the neighbouring Columns and the Caverns they enclose thereby produc'd and the Solidity of the Strata being the proper Cause of such Caverns in other Cases Of which the softer more loose and pliable Earth was accordingly incapable Corollary 2. Tho' the Ancient Earth were setled and become uneven in the same degree and in the same places as the present is and that before the consolidation of the new Sediment yet the Series of the several Strata one under another on each side of any Fissure would in some measure correspond to one another as if the consimilar Strata had once been united and had afterwards been broken and sunk down unequally as is manifest from the consimilar situation and subsidence of the consimular Corpuscles whereby the like order and crassitude of each Stratum might be still preserv'd tho' not so exactly as if the sustaining Surface had been even and smooth when the Sediment compos'd those Strata and the Fissures had afterward been made through both Orbs at once and caus'd such inequality Coroll 3. Hence would arise mighty and numerous Receptacles of Water within the Earth especially in the Mountainous parts thereof For usually where a solid Stratum sustain'd the Earth above while the parts beneath sunk lower and thereby produc'd a Cavern the Waters would ouze and flow into it from all quarters and cause a conflux or inclosed Sea of Waters in the Bowels of the Earth Which Cavities might sometimes communicate with one another or with the Ocean and sometimes contain Restagnant Waters without any outlet All which are very agreeable to the present Phaenomena of the Earth Coroll 4. Hence appears the Reason of the raging of Earthquakes in Mountainous Countreys and of the bursting forth and continuation of Volcano's there For these Caverns which we have observ'd the Mountainous Countreys to be mainly liable to are fit to receive and contain together Nitrous and Explosive Sulphureous and Inflammable steams in great quantities and withal to admit the Air to fan and assist that Explosion or Inflammation which seems to be the occasion of those dreadful Phaenomena in our present Earth Coroll 5. If therefore there be no other Caverns than these accounted for just now and taking date from the Deluge 't is very probable there were few or no Volcano's or Earthquakes so much depending on them before the Flood Coroll 6. In case what has been or might farther be said be not found sufficient to account for some observations made concerning the inward parts of our Earth but Dr. Woodward's Hypothesis of the Disruption of the before united Strata by a general Earthquake or the explosive force of the Steams of Heat ascending from the Central parts be found necessary such a supposition will by no means disagree with the present Theory For when the Subterraneous ascending Steams were every way stop'd and their ordinary course from the Central to the Superficiary Parts obstructed by the new Sediment or Crust growing fast and setled and in some places Stony and Impenetrable they would be every where preternaturally assembled especially in the cracks breaches and fissures of
the Ancient Earth in greater quantities than usual and so might by a violent Rarefaction or Explosion burst through the Upper Crust and cause all those Fissures little Hills Caverns Grotto's and Inequalities which Dr. Woodwards Observations require and this Proposition takes notice of In this case therefore the particular and distinct consideration of the Phaenomena must determine and arbitrate between the former more natural and gentle and this latter more violent and extraordinary method of accounting for the present face of Nature upon and within the Earth LXXIX Great numbers of Trees and other Vegetables were also at this subsidence of the Mass aforesaid buried in the Bowels of the Earth And such very often as will not grow in the places where they are lodg'd Many of which are pretty intire and perfect and to be distinctly seen and consider'd to this very day LXXIX Seeing the latter part of the Deluge after the seventeenth day of the seventh Month or the twenty seventh day of March with us at present was very Windy Stormy and Tempestuous the most Extant and Mountainous parts of the Earth would be mightily expos'd to the fury both of the Winds and Waves Which consequently would tear up or wash away the loose and unsolid Upper Earth with all its Furniture of Trees and Plants and not seldom carry them great distances from their former Seats Now these Vegetables if no Earthy Metallick or Mineral Masses adher'd to them being bulk for bulk lighter than the Earthy Sediment would settle down last of all and would lye upon the Surface of the Earth and there rot away and disappear But if considerable quantities of the heaviest Strata or of Metallick or Mineral Matter as would sometimes happen adher'd to them they would sink lower and be inclosed in the Bowels of the Earth either near to or far from the place of their own growth according as the Billows and Storms happen'd to dispose of them All which Changes and Dislocations of the Soil and Surface with their Fruits and Plants might leave once Fertile Countries Bare and Barren and lodge such Vegetables in others which of themselves before the new Sediment much more since the same were wholly incapable of such productions according to the exigency of the Proposition before us LXXX It appears from all the tokens and circumstances which are still observable about them That all these Vegetables were torn away from their ancient Seats in the Spring time in or about the Month of May. LXXX When we have already prov'd that the Windy and Stormy Weather which tore up these Vegetables did not begin till the seventeenth day of the seventh Month from the Autumnal Equinox answering to our March the twenty seventh now and when it appears that the higher any Mountain or Continent was the less while and in a less degree would the Waters prevail upon it and so little sometimes as not wholly to destroy the growing Vegetables at this due time of the Year 't is evident that whether the Sediment were newly setled and had enclos'd them or not so many as were torn up from these highest parts of the Earth must be in that forwardness as the Months succeeding the beginning of the Storms April May and June usually bring them to very agreeably to the Proposition before us And that we have rightly suppos'd these Fossil Plants to have been such as grew on the elevated parts of the Earth only how far distant soever the fury of the Waves and Storms may have lodg'd them and so to have been torn up by the Storms in the assigned manner appears both by the heaps in which they are frequently found crouded together and by the kinds of Plants thus buried in the Earth Of which latter tho' his opinion according to his own Hypothesis be that all sorts were originally lodg'd in the Earth tho' some be since perish'd Dr. Woodward's words are in his kind and free Letter in answer to my Queries about them The Fossil Plants are very numerous and various and some of them intire and well preserv'd I have met with many of the same Species with those now growing on our Hills Woods Meadows Heaths c. But none of the Water-Plants I mean such as are peculiar to Lakes Rivers and the Sea Which Testimony is a peculiar Confirmation of the present Hypothesis Corollary Hence the Ancient Years beginning at the Autumnal Equinox and the consequent commencing of the Deluge the seventeenth Day of the second Month from thence and from the Spring is evidenc'd by this very Observation which Dr. Woodward the Author thereof supposes wou'd prove the contrary So that the time of the Deluge's commencing assign'd by our Hypothesis appears at last to be confirm'd both by the Scriptures by the Ancients by Astronomy by Geography and by Natural Observation and is consequently by so very remarkable a Concurrence and Correspondence of 'em all put beyond any reasonable Doubt or Scruple LXXXI All the Metals and Minerals among the Strata of our upper Earth owe their present Frame and Order to the Deluge being repos'd therein during the time of the Waters covering the Earth or during the Subsidence of the before-mention'd Mass. LXXXI This can have no difficulty in it seeing our upper Earth is factitious and compos'd of the foresaid Sediment of the Waters of the Deluge which including the Corpuscles of Metals and Minerals as well as others wou'd alike afford every one those places which they have ever since possess'd LXXXII These Metals and Minerals appear differently in the Earth according to the different manners of their first Lodgment For sometimes they are in loose and small Particles uncertainly inclos'd among such Masses as they chanc'd to fall down withall At other times some of their Corpuscles happening to occur and meet together affix'd to each other and several convening aniting and combining into one Mass form'd those Metallick and Mineral Balls or Nodules which are now found in the Earth And according as the Corpuscles chanc'd to be all of a kind or otherwise so the Masses were more or less simple pure and homogeneous And according as other Bodies Bones Teeth Shells of Fish or the like happen'd to come in their way these Metallick and Mineral Corpuscles assix'd to and became conjoyn'd with 'em either within where it was possible in their Hollows and Interstices or without on their Surface and Outsides filling the one or covering the other And all this in different Degrees and Proportions according to the different Circumstances of each individual Case LXXXII All these things are but proper Effects of such a common Subsidence of all these Masses and Corpuscles together in the Chaotick Sediment as is above-mention'd And no longer or more particular Account is necessary or can be satisfactory till Dr. Woodwards larger Work which we in time hope for affords us the Observations more nicely and particularly than we yet have them To which therefore the Inquisitive Reader must be
the more unthinking yet not less religious Man rejected the Consideration of the Manner or the Operation of second Causes and more wisely look'd up only to God and imagin'd him immediately concern'd in every Occurrence and on that Principle doubted not the Effect of his Prayers But 't is methinks evident that neither of these were exactly in the Right and equally so that the due Consideration of what has been above-said would prevent the Dilemma and take away all reasonable Scruple 'T is true that Natural Causes will operate as usual 'T is also true that Miracles are not ordinarily to be expected But withal 't is as true that the same all-wise Creator who appointed that constant Course of Nature foresaw at the same time all those Dispositions of Men and in particular those Devotions of his Worshippers to which suitable Rewards were to be provided and suitable Answers returned and therefore so order'd the Series of Natural Causes as to make that very Provision for the same which otherwise he would have done by the miraculous Interposition of his Providence and which therefore is equally to be asscrib'd to him with the greatest Wonders 'T is true the Frame of Nature is now constant and settled But 't is true also that it was so settled on the Prospect of the moral Behaviour and in Correspondence to the good or bad Actions of Mankind foreseen and praesupposed in the Primitive Constitution of all and by Consequence whataever Benefits or Afflictions the constant Course of Nature and second Causes bring to us are equally capable to be the Matter of our Prayers or Deprecations of our Humiliation or Gratitude before God as the immediate Effects of a miraculous Power and the Divine Providence no less to be acknowledg'd and address'd to in the former than in the latter Case But because our Imperfection is so great that the Consideration of the Priority of the future Actions Men to the Praescience of God in the Order of Nature and the Dependence of the latter on the former is too high for our Comprehension and tho' demonstrable by yet inscrutable to the Reason of Mankind and because we are therefore still ready to conceive what is foreknown by God to be necessary and inevitable let the moral Behaviour of Men be as it will Because I say this Praescience of God is too Divine a thing to be easily penetrated and aply'd by us to all Occasions I confess 't is the most obvious and the most prudent as well as the most Scriptural Way to keep within our Faculties and alway to suppose an immediate Exerting of a new Power in every new Turn in the World and without the troublesome Inquisition into the Nature and Design of the Primitive Constitution of the Material World to refer all things to an immediate Providence Into which every one must ultimately and originally be resolv'd and which has as well and as congruously taken care of all Events as if such a miraculous Efficiency were really concern'd on every individual Occasion Which whole Matter thus explain'd may be of Use to those who through the not understanding the Method of the Divine Providence and its Consistency with an uninterrupted Course of Nature have perplex'd their own Minds and endanger'd their Religion Which pernicious scruples true Philosophy when rightly understood is the only Means of dispelling and preventing Nothing being more true or momentous than this that 'T is as ever our Ignorance or Mistakes only that fully the Providence of God or diminish our Religious Affections to him LXXXVIII Tho' the Moon might perhaps undergo some such Changes at the Deluge as the Earth yet that Face or Hemisphere which is towards the Earth and which is alone expos'd to our View has not acquir'd any such gross Atmosphere or Clouds as our Earth has now about it and which are here suppos'd to have been acquir'd at the Deluge LXXXVIII Seing the Moon appears to be of a Constitution so like that of the Earth and seeing she is so near a Neighbour and constant Companion thereof she seems at first Sight liable to the same Catastrophe with the Earth at the Deluge But that we may consider how far the Comet could affect her we must remember that at the first Passage of the Comet Her Situation seems almost dipos'd to convey her just after the Earth along that large void Cylindrical Space whose Vapours the Earth had intercepted and born away before it as by comparing the 2d and 4th Figures is easie to understand Besides tho' she caught her Share of the Vapours from the Atmosphere and Tail of the Comet yet her Mountains are so much higher compar'd with those on Earth that at the most only an inconsiderable Inundation of Waters on one Hemisphere not an universal Deluge were to be suppos'd For lastly by Reason of the Slowness of her Diurnal Revolution those Vapours which were caught by one Hemisphere and indeed by very little more than one at the utmost would fall near the same Places in Rain which they at first fell upon when Vapour and still affect little more than a single Hemisphere thereof So that the most that can be suppos'd of the Moon 's Deluge is that the lower Grounds on one Hemisphere should be overflow'd especially if we except the second Passage through the Tail of the Comet after its Perihelium For it must be confess'd that those secondary and less principal Rains of about 97 Days Continuance which we before observ'd the Earth to have been liable to must needs be allow'd to have affected the Moon also and seeing from them the Impurities and Commotions of our Atmosphere appear to have been deriv'd it seems at first View necessary that the Moon should have acquir'd such a gross Atmosphere such Clouds and Meteors as we saw the Earth did at the same time which looks very unlike to her Phaenomena or the latter Part of this Proposition we are now upon But this Difficulty which at first sight seems so formidable will intirely vanish if we observe the then Position of the Moon and thence consider which Hemisphere would be affected therewith For as we before in Part observ'd the Moon wanted but two or three Days of the New when she with the Earth pass'd the second time thro' the Tail of the Comet and by Consequence the Vapours ascending from the Sun fell pretty exactly upon that Hemisphere of the Moon which is never expos'd to the Earth without Affecting that which we can observe and with which we are alone concern'd In a Word in this second Passage the Moon ought to have acquir'd a gross Atmosphere on the opposite Hemisphere and its bordering Parts the Limb of her Body while the visible Hemisphere retained its ancient Purity and Clearness The latter Part of which is known to be true and if the Reader consults the Right Reverend and Learned Author quoted in the Margent he may see reason to esteem the other very
Heat the cause 't is probable of all our Earthquakes the presence of a Comet the cause once already of the most prodigious Tides that ever were and the enflam'd Chaos or scorch'd Atmosphere of the Comet a smaller part of which occasion'd all our Tempests our Meteors our Thunder and Lightning ever since the Deluge will all concur at once and with joint Forces conspire together nothing in the World can be suppos'd more terrible nor more exactly correspondent to the Phaenomenon before us XCII The Atmosphere of the Earth before the Conflagration begin will be oppress'd with Meteors Exhalations and Steams and these in so dreadful a manner in such prodigious quantities and with such wild confus'd Motions and Agitations that the Sun and Moon will have the most frightful and hideous Countenances and their ancient Splendor will be intirely obscur'd The Stars will seem to fall from Heaven and all manner of horrid Representations will terrifie the Inhabitants of the Earth XCII Those who consider how a Comet 's Atmosphere appears to us after its Perihelion and what large quantities of its newly scorch'd Masses our Air must be clog'd and burthen'd withal will expect no other effects than those here mention'd and will easily believe that all such horrible Appearances wou'd ensue and that in the most amazing Degree and extravagant Instances possible The Theorist's Representation of this Matter will be generally speaking but a fair and just Idea thereof XCIII The Deluge and Conflagration are referr'd by ancient Tradition to great Conjunctions of the Heavenly Bodies as both depending on and happening at the same XCIII In our Accounts of the Deluge and Conflagration there is a notable conjunction of the Heavenly Bodies indeed not such an Imaginary one as the Astrologers so ridiculously make a stir about the bare Position of two or more of the Celestial Bodies in or near the same streight Line from the Eye of the Spectator while they are at the most remote Distances from one another which is a poor jejune thing indeed But a real one with a Witness when three of the Heavenly Bodies the Earth the Moon and the Comet not only are in an Astrological Heliocentrick Conjunction or only seem to an Eye in the Sun to be conjoyn'd together but are really so near as to have the mightyest effects and Influences on one another possible which we have sufficiently shewn in the present Theory and which does peculiarly correspond to the Phenomenon before us Corollary 'T is not improbable but the ancient Tradition that the Deluge and Conflagration some way depended on certain remarkable Conjunctions of the Heavenly Bodies mis-understood and afterward precariously and widely mis-apply'd might give occasion and rise to Astrology or that mighty quoil and pother so many in all Ages have made about the Conjunctions Oppositions and Aspects of the Heavenly Bodies and the Judiciary Fredictions therefrom which even the Improvements of solid Philosophy in our Age have not been able yet to banish wholly from among us the occasion whereof is otherwise exceeding dark and unaccountable XCIV The space between the Deluge and the Conflagration or between the ancient State of the Earth and its Purgation by Fire Renovation and Restitution again is from ancient Tradition defin'd and terminated by a certain great and remarkable Year or Annual Revolution of some of the Heavenly Bodies and is in probability what the Ancients so often referr'd to pretended particularly to determine and stil'd the Great or Platonick Year XCIV If we allow as we ought that in all probability the same Comet that brought on the Deluge will bring on the Conflagration and that the same Comet has not return'd nor is to return till the Conflagration this matter is easie and the correspondence accurate and remarkable For this single Revolution is truly an Annual one and as proper a Year with regard to the Comet as that of our Earth is with respect to us and so may most fitly and naturally suit the Great or Platonick Year taken notice of in the Proposition before us XCV This general Conflagration is not to extend to the intire Dissolution or Destruction of the Earth but only to the Alteration Melioration and peculiar Disposition thereof into a new State proper to receive those Saints and Martyrs for its Inhabitants who are at the first Resurrection to enter and to live and reign a thousand Years upon it till the second Resurrection the general Judgment and the final Consummation of all things XCV Seeing the Abyss consists of a dense and compact Fluid not capable of any Rarefaction or Dissolution by the most violent Heat imaginable 't is evident that the causes here assign'd can only extend to the upper Orb or habitable Earth without any farther Progress So that the effect of this Conflagration will be the reduction of this upper Earth and its Atmosphere into a confus'd mixt and Chaotick State much such an one as was before observ'd to have preceded the Original Formation of it So that as the Heat decreases 't is but reasonable to expect a kind of Reiteration of the Mosaick six Days Creation or a Renovation of the Primitive State of the Earth to the Description of which therefore I must refer the Reader XCVI The State of Nature during this Millennium will be very different from that at present and more agreeable to the Antediluvian Primitive and Paradisiacal ones XCVI This is apparent from the conclusion of the former Solution XCVII The Earth in the Millennium will be without a Sea or any large Receptacle fill'd with mighty Collections and Quantities of Water XCVII The Primitive Seas depended on two things the former the concurrence of the Central and Solar Heat for an intire half Year together in the Elevation of sufficient quantities of Vapours The latter the Earth's considerable solidity attain'd before the descent of the same Vapours which were to compose the Seas of which we are speaking So that if either of these be wanting in this reiterated Formation of the Earth t is evident the Effect must fail and the Globe be no longer a Terraqueous one after the Conflagration Now the next Proposition but one asserting the probability of the intire absence of the Sun must infer an equal probability of the entire Absence of Seas also according as this Proposition asserts XCVIII The Earth in the Millennium will have no Succession of Light and Darkness Day and Night but a perpetual Day XCVIII In case the Earth's Diurnal Rotation upon which these Vicissitudes depend was retarded so as to be only exactly equal and commensurate to its Annual Motion as the case in the Moon 's Diurnal and Menstrual Revolutions is at present as we have before observ'd the Earth wou'd constantly expose the same Hemisphere to the Sun as the Moon does now to the Earth and all succession of Day and Night for ever cease the one half of the Globe enjoying a perpetual Day while the other
was involv'd in Darkness or excluded all advantages from him and thereby enduring a continual Night so far as natural Causes are here to be consider'd And that this Retardation of the Earth's Diurnal Rotation even without a recurring to the miraculous Power of its first Author is accountable from that passing by of a Comet which we assign for the occasision of the Conflagration is very easie and obvious For in case its Ascent and Passage by be on the East side or before the Earth and in case it approach so near as to rub against it 't is evident such an Impulse is contrary to the course of the Diurnal Rotation and is therefore capable the Proportions of every thing being adjusted by-Divine Providence of putting such a stop to the same as is necessary to the present Phaenomenon and so may put a Period to that constant Succession of Light and Darkness Day and Night which has obtain'd ever since the Fall of Man and withal distinguish the Surface of the Earth into two quite different and contrary Hemispheres near the Vertex of one of which the Sun it self and near that of the other its opposite Point in the Heavens will be always situate Corollary Seeing such a rub of the Comet wou'd affect the Annual Motion of the Earth as well as the Diurnal 't is possible it might retard the former as well as the latter and reduce the Elliptical Course and Orbit of the Earth to its ancient Circular one again XCIX The State of the Millennium will not stand in need of and so probably will be without the Light and Presence of the Sun and Moon XCIX Seeing the Earth wou'd be on the foregoing Supposition distinguish'd into two quite different Hemispheres the one of which wou'd be wholly destitute of the Light and presence of the Sun and as far as appears by St. John supply'd by a Supernatural Light fixt and permanent above its Horizon 't is clear that the first Branch of this Proposition is accountable thereby as far as this Physical Theory is concern'd therein And as to the Moon seeing 't was only a signal and peculiar Providence that caus'd her equal acceleration and consequent accompanying the Earth at the former passing by of the Comet and that no such Providence is again to be expected 't is evident that that Rub or Stoppage of the Earth's Annual Motion which retards the same and does not retard the Moon 's also will separate these Planets and procure their Orbits Courses and Periods to be quite different from one another's ever after according to the greatest rigour of the present Proposition C. At the Conclusion of the Millennium the Final Judgment and the Consummation of all things the Earth will desert its present Seat and Station in the World and be no longer found among the Planetary Chorus C. If any Comet instead of passing by or gently rubbing the Earth hit directly against it in its Course either towards or from the Sun it must desert its ancient Station and move in a quite different Elliptick Orbit and so of a Planet become again a Comet for the future Ages of the World COROLLARIES FROM THE WHOLE I. SEing the new and solid Improvements of Philosophy do all along give so rational Accounts of those Ancient Theorems which have been propagated down from the eldest Ages without being then either understood or intelligible to their Propagators 't is reasonable to trust and rely on such Ancient Traditions not only Sacred but prophane also in these or any other paralled Cases they being in all probability the most valuable Remains and most venerable Truths which the primitive Parents of the World deliver'd down to their Posterity in succeeding Generations II. Seeing most of these Ancient Theorems are very much beyond the distinct Knowledge of those who deliver them contrary to the common Opinion of Mankind judging usually by sensible Appearances and in themselves considering the low State of Natural Knowledge at the same times were highly improbable if not utterly incredible to inquisitive Minds and indeed several of them relating to the Chaos the Creation the primary Constitution and State of the World and the Deluge it self impossible to be discover'd without Supernatural Revelation and yet seeing after all they do now appear as agreeable to Reason and the most solid Mechanical Philosophy as any new Discoveries built on the exactest Observations of present Nature whatsoever 'T is apparent that these Ancient Accounts especially those contain'd in the Holy Scriptures were not originally deriv'd from the Natural Skill and Observation of the first Authors or any other meerly Humane Means but from the immediate and Supernatural Revelation of God Almighty who was therefore much more conversant with Mankind in the first than he has been in these last Ages of the World as the Old Testament-History assures us III. The Measure of our present Knowledge ought not to be esteem'd the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Test of Truth or to be oppos'd to the Accounts receiv'd from Profane Antiquity much less to the inspir'd Writings For notwithstanding that several Particulars relating to the Eldest Condition of the World and its great Catastrophe's examin'd and compar'd with so much Philosophy as was till lately known were plainly unaccountable and naturally speaking impossible yet we see now Nature is more fully more certainly and more substantially understood that the same things approve themselves to be plain easie and rational IV. 'T is therefore Folly in the highest degree to reject the Truth or Divine Authority of the Holy Scriptures because we cannot give our Minds particular Satisfaction as to the manner nay or even possibility of some things therein asserted Since we have seen so many of those things which seem'd the most incredible in the whole Bible and gave the greatest Scruple and Scandal to Philosophick Minds so fully and particularly attested and next to demonstrated from certain Principles of Astronomy and Natural Knowledge 't is but reasonable to expect in due time a like Solution of the other Difficulties 'T is but just sure to depend upon the Veracity of those Holy Writers in other Assertions whose Fidelity is so intirely establish'd in these hitherto equally unaccountable ones V. The Obvious Plain or Literal Sense of the Sacred Scriptures ought not without great Reason to be eluded or laid aside Several of those very Places which seem'd very much to require the same hitherto appearing now to the minutest Circumstances true and rational according to the strictest and most Literal Interpretations of them VI. We may be under an Obligation to believe such things on the Authority of the Holy Scriptures as are properly Mysteries that is though not really Contradictory yet plainly Unaccountable to our present degree of Knowledge and Reason Thus the Sacred Histories of the Original Constitution and great Catastrophe's of the World have been in the past Ages the Objects of the Faith of Jews and Christians though the Divine Providence
of Stone of Chalk of Cole of Earth or whatever matter they consisted of lying thus each upon other appear now as if they had at first been parallel continued and not interrupted But as if after some time they had been dislocated and broken on all sides of the Globe had been elevated in some and depress'd in other places from whence the fissures and breaches the Caverns and Grotto's with many other irregularities within and upon our present Earth seem to be deriv'd This is prov'd by the same Observations LXXIX Great numbers of Trees and of other Vegetables were also at this subsidence of the Mass aforesaid buried in the Bowels of the Earth And such very often as will not grow in the places where they are lodg'd Many of which are pretty intire and perfect and to be distinctly seen and consider'd to this very day This is prov'd by the same Observations LXXX It appears from all the tokens and circumstances which are still observable about them That all these Vegetables were torn away from their ancient Seats in the Spring time in or about the Month of May. This is prov'd by the same Observations LXXXI All the Metals and Minerals among the Strata of our upper Earth owe their present frame and order to the Deluge being reposed therein during the time of the Waters covering the Earth or during the subsidence of the before-mention'd Mass. This is prov'd by the same Observations LXXXII These Metals and Minerals appear differently in the Earth according to the different manner of their first lodgment For sometimes they are in loose and small Particles uncertainly inclos'd among such Masses as they chanc'd to fall down withal At other times some of their Corpuscles happening to occur and meet together affix'd to each other and several convening uniting and combining into one Mass form'd those Metallick and Mineral Balls or Nodules which are now found in the Earth And according as the Corpuscles chanc'd to be all of a kind or otherwise so the Masses were more or less simple pure and homogeneous And according as other Bodies Bones Teeth Shells of Fish or the like happen'd to come in their way these Metallick and Mineral Corpuscles affix'd to and became conjoin'd with them either within where it was possible in their hollows and interstices or without on their surface and outsides filling the one or covering the other And all this in different degrees and proportions according to the different circumstances of each individual case All this is prov'd by the same Observations LXXXIII The inward parts of the present Earth are very irregular and confused One Region is chiefly Stony another Sandy a third Gravelly One Country contains some certain kinds of Metals or Minerals another quite different ones Nay the same lump or mass of Earth not seldom contains the Corpuscles of several Metals or Minerals confusedly intermix'd with one another and with its own Earthy parts All which irregularities with several others that might be observ'd even contrary to the Law of Specifick Gravity in the placing of the different Strata of the Earth demonstrate the Original Fund or Promptuary of all this upper Factitious Earth to have been in a very Wild Confus'd and Chaotick condition All this the fore-mention'd and all other Observations of the like nature fully prove LXXXIV The Uppermost and Lightest Stratum of Soil or Garden Mold as 't is call'd which is the proper Seminary of the Vegetable Kingdom is since the Deluge very thick spread usually in the Valleys and Plains but very thin on the Ridges or Tops of Mountains Which last for want thereof are frequently Stony Rocky Bare and Barren This easie Observations of the surface of the Earth in different places will quickly satisfie us of LXXXV Of the four Ancient Rivers of Paradise two still remain in some measure but the other two do not or at least are so chang'd that the Mosaick Description does not agree to them at present This the multitude of unsatisfactory attempts to discover all these Rivers and their courses with an impartial comparison of the Sacred History with the best Geographical descriptions of the Regions about Babylon will easily convince an unbyass'd Person of LXXXVI Those Metals and Minerals which the Mosaick description of Paradise and its bordering Regions takes such particular notice of and the Prophets so emphatically refer to are not now met with so plentifully therein This must be allow'd on the same grounds with the former LXXXVII This Deluge of Waters was a signal Instance of the Divine Vengeance on a Wicked World and was the effect of the Peculiar and Extraordinary Providence of God God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the Earth and it grieved him at his heart And the Lord said I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth both man and beast and the creeping thing and the fowls of the air for it repenteth me that I have made them The earth was corrupt before God and the earth was filled with violence and God looked upon the earth and behold it was corrupt for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the Earth And God said unto Noah the end of all flesh is come before me for the earth is filled with violence through them and behold I will destroy them with the earth Behold I even I do bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh wherein is the breath of life from under heaven and every thing that is in the earth shall dye God spared not the old world but saved Noah the eighth person a preacher of righteousness bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly LXXXVIII Tho' the Moon might perhaps undergo some such changes at the Deluge as the Earth did yet that Face or Hemisphere which is towards the Earth and which is alone expos'd to our view has not acquir'd any such gross Atmosphere or Clouds as our Earth has now about it and which are here suppos'd to have been acquir'd at the Deluge This the present figure and large divisions of Sea and Land visible in the Moon with her continued and uninterrupted brightness and the appearance of the same Spots without the interposition of Clouds or Exhalations perpetually do sufficiently evince LXXXIX Since the Deluge there neither has been nor will be any great and general Changes in the state of the World till that time when a Period is to be put to the present Course of Nature The Lord smelled a sweet savour and the Lord said in his heart I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake for or altho' the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth Neither will I again smite any more every thing
the Deluge preserv'd and distinguish'd from all the rest of the World the Divine Providence did conduct the Ark and on this was laid the Foundation of the present Race of Mankind and of all those Terrestrial Animals which are now on the Face of the whole Earth which otherwise had perish'd at their Exit out of the Ark notwithstanding their wonderful Preservation therein during the Rage of the Deluge Coroll 3. Hence we may easily understand whence the Olive-branch was brought by the Dove to Noah For when the Trees adjoyning to the Ark or on the neighbouring Tops of the Hills had suffer'd small damage by the Flood and had since the clearing of the Waters enjoy'd almost the whole Spring and half the Summer they must be as flourishing and full of as many new and tender Sprouts as ever one of which might therefore be easily broken off by the Dove and brought to Noah in her Mouth which new dry and frim Sprout or Branch being a clear evidence that the Waters were not only gone and the Ground dry a great while before but that the Earth was still as formerly fit for the Production of its wonted Trees and Fruits must exceedingly tend to the Satisfaction of Noah and the Confirmation of his Faith and Hope in an entire Deliverance and in the future Renovation of the World LXXII This Factitious Crust is universal upon the Tops of the generality of the Mountains as well as in the Plains and Vallies and that in all the known Climates and Regions of the World LXXII This is a necessary consequent from the Universality of the Deluge already accounted for And tho' the generality of the Mountains would usully have a thinner Sediment or Crust than the Plains or Vallies in proportion to the lesser height of the Waters over each of them respectively yet they being at the Deluge much inferior to the height of Caucasus must be generally cover'd with the same Crust unless the Storms and Waves wash'd it down again after its first setling upon any of them as the Observations shew they really now are Corollary 1. 'T is hence evident even abstractedly from the Sacred History that there has formerly been an Universal Deluge much higher than the generality of the Mountains So that hereafter since the so useful Observations of Naturalists and principally of Dr. Woodward hereto relating we need not endeavour to secure the Credit and Veracity of the Mosaick History of the Deluge by Ancient Records and the universal Attestation of Antiquity which Testimonies yet are too evident and numerous to be denied but may from our own Eyes at the neighbouring Mines and Coal-Pits satisfy our selves of the exact truth of this part of the Sacred Volume which has been so much excepted against by ill-disposed Persons So wonderful is the Method of the Divine Wisdom in its seasonable Attestations afforded to the Sacred Scriptures That not only the Very Day as we have seen when the Flood began assign'd by Moses may still after more than four thousand years be prov'd from Astronomy to have been the true one which the Learned are chiefly capable of judging of and being primarily influenc'd by But the Reality and Universality of the Deluge it self is demonstrable from such common and easie Observations in all parts of the World at the Neighbouring Mines or Coal-pits that the Vulgar and Most Illiterate may be Eye-witnesses of the certain Effects of it and so fully convinc'd of the fidelity of the Sacred Historian therein Coroll 2. 'T is no wonder that none of the Antediluvian Cities Towns Buildings or other Remains are any where to be met with since the Deluge They being all generally buried perhaps above two hundred foot deep in the Earth by the Sediment of the Waters LXXIII The Parts of the present upper Strata were at the time of the Waters covering the Earth loose separate divided and floated in the Waters among one another uncertainly LXXIII This Proposition needs no farther Explication being already plain in what has been already said LXXIV All this Heterogenous Mass thus floating in the Waters by degrees descended downwards and subsided to the Bottom pretty nearly according to the Law of Specifick Gravity and there compos'd those several Strata or Layers of which our present upper Earth does consist LXXIV This Proposition is as easie as the former and included in what has been already said LXXV Vast multitudes of Fishes belonging both to the Seas and Rivers perish'd at the Deluge and their Shells were buried among the other Bodies or Masses which subsided down and compos'd the Layers of our upper Earth LXXV Where so Heterogeneous a Mass of Corpuscles were dispers'd every where through the Waters and towards the bottom especially at the latter end of their subsidence render'd the same very thick and muddy 't is natural to suppose that multitudes of Fishes partly stisled with the Spissitude and grossness of the Fluid scarce there deserving that name and partly poison'd with the kinds of some of those Corpuscles which they took in together with their Nourishment therein would be destroy'd and perish in the Waters Which being granted the rest so easily follows as not to need any farther Explication LXXVI The same Law of Specifick Gravity which was observ'd in the rest of the Mass was also observ'd in the subsidence of the Shells of Fishes they then sinking together with and accordingly being now found enclos'd among those Strata or Bodies which are nearly of their own Specifick Gravities The heavier Shells being consequently still enclos'd among the heavier Strata and the lighter Shells among the lighter Strata in the Bowels of our present Earth LXXVI This Phaeuomenon is so natural and necessary considering the gradual increase of the thickness of the gross Sediment downward and the equal subjection of Shells to the Law of Specifick Gravity with all other Bodies that I shall not insist any farther upon it Corollary This single Phaenomenon of the Shells of Fish inclos'd in the most Solid Bodies as Stone and Marble and that all over the World according to their several Specifick Gravities at great depths within the Bowels of the Earth which is so strange in it self so surprizing to the Spectators and so unaccountable without the most unusual and precarious Miracles be introduc'd on any other principles and yet so easily and naturally solv'd in the Hypothesis before us is a strong I had almost said an Invincible Argument for the verity thereof and as undeniable as a Physical assertion is capable of That is 'T is as far as we can in reason pronounce without a Miracle certainly true LXXVII The Strata of Marble of Stone and of all other solid Bodies attained their solidity as soon as the Sand or other matter whereof they consist was arriv'd at the bottom and well setled there And all those Strata which are solid at this day have been so ever since that time LXXVII Seeing this upper Crust or Sediment was