description of a Chaos And so it is understood by the general consent of Interpreters both Hebrew and Christian. We need not therefore spend any time here to prove that the Origin of the Earth was from a Chaos seeing that is agreed on by all that give it any Origin But we will proceed immediately to examine into what form it first rise when it came out of that Chaos or what was the primaeval form of the Earth that continued till the Deluge and how the Deluge depended upon it and upon its dissolution And that we may proceed in this enquiry by such easie steps as any one may readily follow we will divide it into Three Propositions whereof the first is this in general That the Form of the Antediluvian Earth or of the Earth that rise first from the Chaos was different from the Form of the present Earth I say different in general without specifying yet what its particular form was which shall be exprest in the following Proposition This First Proposition we have in effect prov'd in the Second Chapter where we have shewn that if the Earth had been always in this form it would not have been capable of a Deluge seeing that could not have been effected without such an infinite mass of water as could neither be brought upon the Earth nor afterwards any way removed from it But we will not content our selves with that proof only but will prove it also from the nature of the Chaos and the manifest consequences of it And because this is a leading Proposition we think it not improper to prove it also from Divine Authority there being a pregnant passage to this purpose in the writings of S. Peter Where treating of this very subject the Deluge He manifestly puts a difference between the Ante-diluvian Earth and the present Earth as to their form and constitution The Discourse is in the Second Epistle of S. Peter the Third Chapter where certain Deists as they seem to have been laught at the Prophecy of the day of Judgment and of the Conflagration of the World using this argument against it That since the Fathers fell asleep all things have continued as they were from the beginning All external Nature hath continued the same without any remarkable change or alteration and why should we believe say they there will be any What appearance or what foundation is there of such a revolution that all Nature will be dissolv'd and the Heavens and the Earth consum'd with Fire as your Prophecies pretend So from the permanency and immutability of Nature hitherto they argu'd its permanency and immutability for the future To this the Apostle answers that they are willing to forget that the Heavens and the Earth of old had a particular form and constitution as to Water by reason whereof the World that then was perisht by a Deluge And the Heavens and the Earth that are now or since the Deluge have a particular constitution in reference to Fire by reason whereof they are expos'd to another sort of destruction or dissolution namely by Fire or by an universal Conflagration The words of the Apostle are these For this they are willingly ignorant of that by the Word of God the Heavens were of old and the Earth consisting of Water and by Water or as we render it standing out of the Water and in the Water whereby the World that then was being overslow'd with Water perisht But the Heavens and the Earth that are now by the same Word are kept in store reseru'd unto Fire against the day of Iudgment We shall have occasion it may be hereafter to give a full illustration of these words but at present we shall only take notice of this in general that the Apostle here doth plainly intimate some difference that was between the old World and the present World in their form and constitution or betwixt the Ante-diluvian and the present Earth by reason of which difference that was subject to perish by a Deluge as this is subject to perish by Conflagration And as this is the general Air and Importance of this discourse of he Apostle's which every one at first sight would discover so we may in several particular ways prove from it our first Proposition which now we must return to viz. That the form and constitution of the Ante-diluvian Earth was different from that of the present Earth This may be infer'd from the Apostle's discourse first because he makes an opposition betwixt these two Earths or these two natural Worlds and that not only in respect of their fate the one perishing by Water as the other will perish by Fire but also in respect of their different disposition and constitution leading to this different fate for otherwise his fifth verse is superfluous and his Inference in the sixth ungrounded you see he premiseth in the fifth verse as the ground of his discourse what the constitution of the Ante-diluvian Heavens and Earth was and then infers from it in the sixth verse that they therefore perisht in a Deluge of Water Now if they had been the same with ours there had neither been any ground for making an opposition betwixt them nor any ground of making a contrary inference as to their fate Besides in that he implies that the constitution of the Ante-diluvian Earth was such as made it subject to a Deluge he shews that it was different from the constitution of the present Earth for the form of that is such as makes it rather incapable of a Deluge as we have shewn in the second Chapter Then we are to observe further that when he saith verse 6. that the first World perish'd in a Deluge or was destroy'd by it this is not to be understood of the Animate World only Men and living Creatures but of the Natural World and the frame of it for he had describ'd it before by the Heavens and the Earth which make the Natural World And the objection of the Atheists or Deists rather which he was to answer proceeded upon the Natural World And lastly this perishing of the World in a Deluge is set against or compar'd with the perishing of the World in the Conflagration when the frame of Nature will be dissolv'd We must therefore according to the tenor of the Apostle's arguing suppose that the Natural World was destroy'd or perish'd in the Deluge and seeing it did not perish as to matter and substance it must be as to the form frame and composition of it that it perish'd and consequently the present Earth is of another form and frame from what it had before the Deluge which was the thing to be proved Lastly Let us consider what it is the Apostle tells these Scoffers that they were ignorant of Not that there was a Deluge they could not be ignorant of that nor doth he tell them that they were But he tells them that they were ignorant that the Heavens and the Earth of old were so and so
and not to the Angels In the second chapter to the Hebrews ver 5. he says For unto the Angels hath he not put in subjection the WORLD TO COME So we read it but according to the strictest and plainest Translation it should be The habitable Earth to come Now what Earth is this where our Saviour is absolute Soveraign and where the Government is neither Humane nor Angelical but peculiarly Theocratical In the first place this cannot be the present World or the present Earth because the Apostle calls it Future or the Earth to come Nor can it be understood of the days of the Gospel seeing the Apostle acknowledges ver 8. That this subjection whereof he speaks is not yet made And seeing Antichrist will not finally be destroy'd till the appearance of our Saviour 2 Thess. 2. 8. nor Satan bound while Antichrist is in power during the reign of these two who are the Rulers of the darkness of the World our Saviour cannot properly be said to begin his reign here 'T is true He exercises his Providence over his Church and secures it from being destroy'd He can by a power paramount stop the rage either of Satan or Antichrist Hitherto shall you go and no further As sometimes when he was upon Earth he exerted a Divine Power which yet did not destroy his state of Humiliation so he interposes now when he thinks fit but he does not finally take the power out of the hands of his Enemies nor out of the hands of the Kings of the Earth The Kingdom is not deliver'd up to him and all dominion and power That all Tongues and Nations should serve him For S. Paul can mean no less in this place than that Kingdom in Daniel Seeing he calls it putting all things in subjection under his feet and says that it is not yet done Upon this account also as well as others our Saviour might truly say to Pilate Ioh. 18 36. my kingdom is not of this World And to his Disciples The Son of man came not to be ministred unto but to minister Matt. 20. 28. When he comes to receive his Kingdom he comes in the clouds of Heaven Dan. 7. 13 14. not in the womb of a Virgin He comes with the equipage of a King and Conquer or with thousands and ten thousands of Angels not in the form of a Servant or of a weak Infant as he did at his first coming I allow the phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or in the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The World to come is sometimes us'd in a large sence as comprehending all the days of the Messiah whether at his First or Second Coming for these two Comings are often undistinguish'd in Scripture and respect the Moral World as well as the Natural But the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Orbis habitabilis which S. Paul here uses does primarily signifie the Natural World or the Habitable Earth in the proper use of the word amongst the Greeks and frequently in Scripture Luke 4. 5. and 21. 26. Rom. 10. 18. Heb. 1. 6. Apoc. 3. 10. Neither do we here exclude the Moral World or the Inhabitants of the Earth but rather necessarily include them Both the Natural and Moral World to come will be the seat and subject of our Saviour's Kingdom and Empire in a peculiar manner But when you understand nothing by this phrase but the present moral World it neither answers the proper signification of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the first or second part of the expression And tho such like phrases may be us'd for the Dispensation of the Messiah in opposition to that of the Law yet the height of that distinction or opposition and the fulfilling of the expression depends upon the second coming of our Saviour and upon the Future Earth or habitable World where he shall Reign and which does peculiarly belong to Him and His Saints Neither can this World to come or this Earth to come be understood of the Kingdom of Heaven For the Greek word will not bear that sence nor is it ever us'd in Scripture for Heaven Besides the Kingdom of Heaven when spoken of as future is not properly till the last resurrection and final judgment Whereas This World to come which our Saviour is to govern must be before that time and will then expire For all his Government as to this World expires at the day of Judgment and he will then deliver up the kingdom into the hands of his father that he may be all in all Having reigned first himselfe and put down all rule and all authority and power So that S. Paul in these two places of his Epistles refers plainly to the same time and the same reign of Christ which must be in a future World and before the last day of Iudgment and therefore according to our deductions in the New Heavens and the New Earth CHAP. III. Concerning the Inhabitants of the New Earth That Natural Reason cannot determine this point That according to Scripture The Sons of the first Resurrection or the Heirs of the Millennium are to be the Inhabitants of the New Earth The Testimony of the Philosophers and of the Christian Fathers for the Renovation of the World The first Proposition laid down THUS we have setled the True Notion according to Reason and Scripture of the New Heavens and New Earth But where are the Inhabitants you 'l say You have taken the pains to make us a New World and now that it is made it must stand empty When the first World was destroyed there were Eight Persons preserv'd with a Set of Living Creatures of every Kind as a Seminary or foundation of another World But the Fire it seems is more merciless than the Water for in this destruction of the World it does not appear that there is one living Soul left of any sort upon the face of the Earth No hopes of posterity nor of any continuation of Mankind in the usual way of propagation And Fire is a barren Element that breeds no living Creatures in it nor hath any nourishment proper for their food or sustenance We are perfectly at a loss therefore so far as I see for a new race of Mankind or how to People this new-form'd World The Inhabitants if ever there be any must either come from Heaven or spring from the Earth There are but these two ways But Natural Reason can determine neither of these sees no tract to follow in these unbeaten paths nor can advance one step further Farewel then dear Friend I must take another Guide and leave you here as Moses upon Mount Pisgah only to look into that Land which you cannot enter I acknowledge the good service you have done and what a faithful Companion you have been in a long journey from the beginning of the World to this hour in a tract of time of six thousand years We have travel'd together through the dark
time of Constantine's Empire But however the Fathers of that Council are themselves our witnesses in this point For in their Ecclesiastical Forms or Constitutions in the chapter about the Providence of God and about the World They speak thus The World was made meaner or less perfect providentially for God foresee that man would sin Wherefore we expect New Heavens and a New Earth according to the Holy Scriptures at the appearance and Kingdom of the great God and our Saviour Iesus Christ. And then as Daniel says ch 7. 18. The Saints of the most High shall take the Kingdom And the Earth shall be Pure Holy the Land of the Living not of the dead Which David foreseeing by the eye of Faith cryes out Ps. 27. 13. I believe to see the good things of the Lord in the Land of the Living Our Saviour says Happy are the meek for they shall inherit the Earth Matt. 5. 5. and the Prophet Isaiuh says chap. 26. 6. the feet of the meek and lowly shall tread upon it So you see according to the judgment of these Fathers there will be a Kingdom of Christ upon Earth and moreover that it will be in the New Heavens and the New Earth And in both these points they cite the Prophets and our Saviour in confirmation of them Thus we have discharg'd our promise and given you an account of the doctrine of the Millennium or future Kingdom of Christ throughout the Three First Ages of the Church before any considerable corruptions were crept into the Christian Religion And those Authorities of single and successive Fathers we have seal'd up all together with the declaration of the Nicene Fathers in a Body Those that think Tradition a Rule of Faith or a considerable motive to it will find it hard to turn off the force of these Testimonies And those that do not go so far but yet have a reverence for Antiquity and the Primitive Church will not easily produce better Authorities more early more numerous or more uncontradicted for any Article that is not Fundamental Yet these are but Seconds to the Prophets and Apostles who are truly the Principals in this Cause I will leave them altogether to be examin'd and weigh'd by the Impartial Reader And because they seem to me to make a full and undeniable proof I will now at the foot of the account set down our second Proposition which is this That there is a Millennial State or a Future Kingdom of Christ and his Saints Prophesied of and Promised in the Old and New Testament and receiv'd by the Primitive Church as a Christian and Catholick Doctrine HAVING dispatch'd this main point To conclude the Chapter and this Head of our Discourse it will be some satisfaction possibly to see How a Doctrine so generally receiv'd and approv'd came to decay and almost wear out of the Church in following Ages The Christian Millenary Doctrine was not call'd into question so far as appears from History before the middle of the third Century when Dionysius Alexandrinus writ against Nepos an Aegyptian Bishop who had declar'd himself upon that subject But we do not find that this Book had any great effect for the declaration or constitution of the Nicene Fathers was after and in S. Ierome's time who writ towards the end of the fourth Century this Doctrine had so much Credit that He who was its greatest adversary yet durst not condemn it as he says himself Quae licet non sequamur tamen damnare non possumus quià multi Ecclesiasticorum virorum Martyres ista dixerunt Which things or doctrines speaking of the Millennium tho' we do not follow yet we cannot condemn Because many of our Church-men and Martyrs have affirmed these things And when Apollinarius replyed to that Book of Dionysius S. Ierome says that not only those of his own Sect but a great multitude of other Christians did agree with Apollinarius in that particular Ut praesagâ mente jam cernam quantorum in me rabies concitanda sit That I now foresee how many will be enrag'd against me for what I have spoken against the Millenary Doctrine We may therefore conclude that in S. Ierome's time the Millenaries made the greater party in the Church for a little matter would not have frighted him from censuring their opinion S. Ierome was a rough and rugged Saint and an unfair adversary that usually run down with heat and violence what stood in his way As to his unfairness he shews it sufficiently in this very cause for he generally represents the Millenary Doctrine after a Judaical rather than a Christian manner And in reckoning up the chief Patrons of it he always skips Iustin Martyr Who was not a Man so obscure as to be overâ—look'd and he was a Man that had declar'd himself sufficiently upon this point for he says both himself and all the Orthodox of his time were of that judgment and applyes both the Apocalypse of S. Iohn and the 65th chap. of Isaiah for the proof of it As we noted before As S. Ierome was an open enemy to this Doctrine so Eusebius was a back friend to it and represented every thing to its disadvantage so far as was tolerably consistent with the fairness of an Historian He gives a slight character of Papias without any authority for it and brings in one Gaius that makes Cerinthus to be the Author of the Apocalypse and of the Millennium and calls the Visions there monstrous stories He himself is willing to shuffle off that Book from Iohn the Evangelist to another Iohn a Presbyter and to shew his skill in the interpretation of it he makes the New Ierusalem in the 21th chap. to be Constantine's Ierusalem when he turn'd the Heathen Temples there into Christian. A wonderful invention As S. Ierome by his flouts so Eusebius by sinister insinuations endeavour'd to lessen the reputation of this Doctrine and the Art they both us'd was to misrepresentâ—â—â— as Iudaical But we must not cast off every doctrine which the Jews believ'd only for that reason for we have the same Oracles which they had and the same Prophets and they have collected from them same general doctrine that we have namely that There will be an happy and pacifick state of the Church in future times But as to the circumstances of this state we differ very much They suppose the Mosaical Law will be restor'd with all its pomp rites and ceremonies whereas we suppose the Christian Worship or something more perfect will then take place Yet S. Ierome has the confidence even there where he speaks of the many Christian Clergy and Martyrs that held this doctrine has the confidence I say to represent it as if they held that Circumcision Sacrifices and all the Judaical rites should then be restor'd Which seems to me to be a great slander and a great instance how far mens passions will carry them in misrepresenting an opinion which they have a mind to
with the Hypothesis As to the present Form of the Earth we call all Nature to witness for us The Rocks and the Mountains the Hills and the Valleys the deep and wide Sea and the Caverns of the Ground Let these speak and tell their origine How the Body of the Earth came to be thus torn and mangled If this strange and irregular structure was not the effect of a ruine and of such a ruine as was universal over the face of the whole Globe But we have given such a full explication of this in the first part of the Theory from Chapt. the 9th to the end of that Treatise that we dare stand to the judgment of any that reads those four Chapters to determine if the Hypothesis does not answer all those Phaenomena easily and adequately The next Phaenomenon to be consider'd is the Deluge with its adjuncts This also is fully explain'd by our Hypothesis in the 2d 3d. and 6th Chapters of the first Book Where it is shewn that the Mosaical Deluge that is an universal Inundation of the whole Earth above the tops of the highest Mountains made by a breaking open of the Great Abyss for thus far Moses leads us is fully explain'd by this Hypothesis and cannot be conceiv'd in any other method hitherto propos'd There are no sources or stores of Water sufficient for such an effect that may be drawn upon the Earth and drawn off again but by supposing such an Abyss and such a Disruption of it as the Theory represents Lastly As to the Phaenomena of Paradise and the Ante-diluvian World we have set them down in order in the 2d Book and apply'd to each of them its proper explication from the same Hypothesis We have also given an account of that Character which Antiquity always assign'd to the first age of the World or the Golden Age as they call'd it namely Equality of Seasons throughout the Year or a perpetual Equinox We have also taken in all the adjuncts or concomitants of these States as they are mention'd in Scripture The Longevity of the Ante-diluvians and the declension of their age by degrees after the Flood As also that wonderful Phaenomenon the Rainbow which appear'd to Noah for a Sign that the Earth should never undergo a second Deluge And we have shewn wherein the force and propriety of that Sign consisted for confirming Noah's faith in the promise and in the divine veracity Thus far we have explain'd the past Phaenomena of the Natural World The rest are Futurities which still lie hid in their Causes and we cannot properly prove a Theory from effects that are not yet in being But so far as they are foretold in Scripture both as to substance and circumstance in prosecution of the same Principles we have ante dated their birth and shew'd how they will come to pass We may therefore I think reasonably conclude That this Theory has performed its task and answer'd its title having given an account of all the general changes of the Natural World as far as either Sacred History looks backwards or Sacred Prophecy looks forwards So far as the one tells us what is past in Nature and the other what is to come And if all this be nothing but an appearance of truth 't is a kind of fatality upon us to be deceiv'd SO much for Natural Evidence from the Causes or Effects We now proceed to Scripture which will make the greatest part of this Review The Sacred Basis upon which the whole Theory stands is the doctrine of S. Peter deliver'd in his Second Epistle and Third Chapter concerning the Triple Order and Succession of the Heavens and the Earth That comprehends the whole extent of our Theory which indeed is but a large Commentary upon S. Peter's Text. The Apostle sets out a threefold state of the Heavens and Earth with some general properties of each taken from their different Constitution and different Fate The Theory takes the same threefold state of the Heavens and the Earth and explains more partâ—cularly wherein their different Constitution consists and how under the conduct of Providence their different fate depends upon it Let us set down the Apostle's words with the occasion of them and their plain sence according to the most easie and natural explication Ver. 3. Knowing this first that there shall come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lusts 4. And saying Where is the promise of his coming for since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation 5. For this they willingly are ignorant of that by the word of God the heavens were of old and the earth consisting of water and by water 6. Whereby the world that then was being overflowed with water perished 7. But the heavens and the earth that are now by the sâ—me word are kept in store reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men 10. The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent heat the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up 13. Nevertheless we according to his promise look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness This is the whole Discourse so far as relates to our Subject S Peter you see had met with some that scoff'd at the future destruction of the World and the coming of our Saviour and they were men it seems that pretended to Philosophy and Argument and they use this argument for their opinion Seeing there hath been no change in Nature or in the World from the beginning to this time why should we think there will be any change for the future The Apostle answers to this That they willingly forget or are ignorant that there were Heavens of old and an Earth so and so constituted consisting of Water and by Water by reason whereof that World or those Heavens and that Earth perish'd in a Deluge of Water But saith he the Heavens and the Earth that are now are of another constitution fitted and reserved to another fate namely to perish by Fire And after these are perish'd there will be New Heavens and a New Earth according to God's promise This is an easie Paraphrase and the plain and genuine sence of the Apostle's discourse and no body I think would ever look after any other sence if this did not carry them out of their usual road and point to conclusions which they did not fancy This sence you see hits the objections directly or the Cavil which these scoffers made and tells them that they vainly pretend that there hath been no change in the World since the beginning for there was one sort of Heavens and Earth before the Flood and another sort now the first having been destroy'd at the Deluge So that the Apostle's argument stands upon this Foundation That there
opening the Abyss in a natural sence I cannot but particularly take notice of that in Iob Chap. 12. ver 14 15. God breaketh down and it cannot be built again he shutteth up man and there can be no opening Behold he withholdeth the waters and they dry up also he sendeth them out and they overturn the Earth Though these things be true of God in lesser and common instances yet to me it is plain that they principally refer to the Deluge the opening and shutting the Abyss with the dissoluâ—ion or subversion of the Earth thereupon and accordingly they are made the great effects of the Divine Power and Wisdom in the foregoing Verse With God is wisdom and strength he hath counsel and understanding Behold he breaketh down c. And also in the conclusion 't is repeated again With him is strength and wisdom which solemnity would scarce have been us'd for common instances of his power When God is said to build or pull down and no body can build again 't is not to be understood of an House or a Town God builds and unbuilds Worlds and who shall build up that Arch that was broke down at the Deluge Where shall they lay the Foundation or how shall the Mountains be rear'd up again to make part of the Roof This is the Fabrick which when God breaketh down none can build up again He withholdeth the waters and they dry up As we shew'd the Earth to have been immoderately chapt and parcht before its dissolution He sendeth them forth and they overturn the Earth What can more properly express the breaking out of the waters at the disruption of the Abyss and the subversion or dissolution of the Earth in consequence of it 'T is true this last passage may be applied to the breaking out of waters in an ordinary Earthquake and the subversion of some part of the Earth which often follows upon it but it must be acknowledg'd that the sence is more weighty if it be refer'd to the great Deluge and the great Earthquake which laid the World in ruines and in water And Philosophical descriptions in Sacred Writings like Prophecies have often a lesser and a greater accomplishment and interpretation I could not pass by this place without giving this short Explication of it We proceed now to the second Observation which is concerning the stile of Scripture in most of those places we have cited and others upon the same subject The reflections that are made in several parts of the Divine Writings upon the Origin of the World and the formation of the Earth seem to me to be writ in a stile-something approaching to the nature of a Prophetical stile and to have more of a Divine Enthusiasm and Elocution in them than the ordinary text of Scripture the expressions are lofty and sometimes abrupt and often figurative and disguis'd as may be observ'd in most of those places we have made use of and particularly in that speech of Wisdom Prov. 8. where the 26. verse is so obscure that no two Versions that I have yet met with whether Ancient or Modern agree in the Translation of that Verse And therefore though I fully believe that the construction of the first Earth is really intended in those words yet seeing it could not be made out clear without a long and critical discussion of them I did not think that proper to be insisted upon here We may also observe that whereas there is a double form or composition of the Earth that which it had at first or till the Deluge and that which it hath since sometimes the one and sometimes the other may be glanc'd upon in these Scripture phrases and descriptions and so there may be in the same discourse an intermixture of both And it commonly happens so in an Enthusiastick or Prophetick stile that by reason of the eagerness and trembling of the Fancy it doth not always regularly follow the same even thread of discourse but strikes many times upon some other thing that hath relation to it or lies under or near the same view Of this we have frequent examples in the Apocalypse and in that Prophecy of our Saviour's Matth. 24. concerning the destruction of Ierusalem and of the World But notwithstanding any such unevenness or indistinctness in the stile of those places which we have cited concerning the Origin and form of the Earth we may at least make this remark that if there never was any other form of the Earth but the present nor any other state of the Abysse than what it is in now 't is not imaginable what should give occasion to all those expressions and passages that we have cited which being so strange in themselves and paradoxical should yet so much favour and so fairly comply with our suppositions What I have observ'd in another place in treating of Paradise that the expressions of the Ancient Fathers were very extravagant if Paradise was nothing but a little plot of ground in Mesopotamia as many of late have fansied may in like manner be observ'd concerning the ancient Earth and Abysse if they were in no other form nor other state than what they are under now the expressions of the Sacred Writers concerning them are very strange and inaccountable without any sufficient ground that we know or any just occasion for such uncouth representations If there was nothing intended or refer'd to in those descriptions but the present form and state of the Earth that is so well known that in describing of it there would be nothing dark or mysterious nor any occasion for obscurity in the stile or expression whereof we find so much in those So as all things consider'd what might otherwise be made an exception to some of these Texts alledg'd by us viz. that they are too obscure becomes an argument for us as implying that there is something more intended by them than the present and known form of the Earth And we having propos'd another form and structure of the Earth to which those characters suit and answer more easily as this opens and gives light to those difficult places so it may be reasonably concluded to be the very sence and notion intended by the holy Writers And thus much I think is sufficient to have observ'd out of Scripture to verifie our Explication of the Deluge and our Application of it to Noah's Flood both according to the Mosaical History of the Flood and according to many occasional reflections and discourses dispers'd in other places of Scripture concerning the same Flood or concerning the Abysse and the first form of the Earth And though there may be some other passages of a different aspect they will be of no force to disprove our conclusions because they respect the present form of the Earth and Sea and also because expressions that deviate more from the common opinion are more remarkable and more proving in that there is nothing could give occasion to such but
an intention to express the very truth So for instance if there was one place of Scripture that said the Earth was mov'd and several that seem'd to imply that the Sun was mov'd we should have more regard to that one place for the motion of the Earth than to all the other that made against it because those others might be spoken and understood according to common opinion and common belief but that which affirm'd the motion of the Earth could not be spoke upon any other ground but only for truth and instruction sake I leave this to be appli'd to the present subject Thus much for the Sacred Writings As to the History of the ancient Heathens we cannot expect an account or Narration of Noah's Flood under that name and notion but it may be of use to observe two things out of that History First that the Inundations recorded there came generally to pass in the manner we have describ'd the Universal Deluge namely by Earthquakes and an eruption of Subterraneous waters the Earth being broken and falling in and of this we shall else-where give a full account out of their Authors Secondly that Deucalion's Deluge in particular which is suppos'd by most of the Ancient Fathers to represent Noah's Flood is said to have been accompained with a gaping or disruption of the Earth Apollodorus saith that the Mountains of Thessaly were divided asunder or separate one from another at that time And Lucian de deâ Syriâ tells a very remarkable story to this purpose concerning Deucalion's Deluge and a ceremony observ'd in the Temple of Hieropolis in commemoration of it which ceremony seems to have been of that nature as impli'd that there was an opening of the Earth at the time of the Deluge and that the waters subsided into that again when the Deluge ceas'd He saith that this Temple at Hieropolis was built upon a kind of Abysse or had a bottomless pit or gaping of the Earth in one part of it and the people of Arabia and Syria and the Countries the eabouts twice a year repair'd to this Temple and brought with them every one a vessel of water which they pour'd out upon the floor of the Temple and made a kind of an Inundation there in memory of Deucalion's Deluge and this water sunk by degrees into a Chasm or opening of a Rock which the Temple stood upon and so left the floor dry again And this was a rite solemnly and religiously perform'd both by the Priests and by the People If Moses had left such a Religious rite among the Iews I should not have doubted to have interpreted it concerning his Abysse and the retiring of the waters into it but the actual disruption of the Abysse could not well be represented by any ceremony And thus much concerning the present question and the true application of our Theory to Noah's Flood CHAP. VIII The particular History of Noah's Flood is explain'd in all the material parts and circumstances of it according to the preceding Theory Any seeming difficulties removed and the whole Section concluded with a Discourse how far the Deluge may be lookt upon as the effect of an ordinary Providence and how far of an extraordinary WE have now proved our Explication of the Deluge to be more than an Idea or to be a true piece of Natural History and it may be the greatest and most remarkable that hath yet been since the beginning of the World We have shown it to be the real account of Noah's Flood according to Authority both Divine and Humane and I would willingly proceed one step further and declare my thoughts concerning the manner and order wherein Noah's Flood came to pass in what method all those things happen'd and succeeded one another that make up the History of it as causes or effects or other parts or circumstances As how the Ark was born upon the waters what effect the Rains had at what time the Earth broke and the Abysse was open'd and what the condition of the Earth was upon the ending of the Flood and such like But I desire to propose my thoughts concerning these things only as conjectures which I will ground as near as I can upon Scripture and Reason and am very willing they should be rectifi'd where they happen to be amiss I know how subject we are to mistakes in these great and remote things when we descend to particulars but I am willing to expose the Theory to a full trial and to shew the way for any to examine it provided they do it with equity and sincerity I have no other design than to contribute my endeavours to find out the truth in a subject of so great importance and wherein the World hath hitherto had so little satisfaction And he that in an obscure argument proposeth an Hypothesis that reacheth from end to end though it be not exact in every particular 't is not without a good effect for it gives aim to others to take their measures better and opens their invention in a matter which otherwise it may be would have been impenetrable to them As he that makes the first way through a thick Forest though it be not the streightest and shortest deserves better and hath done more than he that makes it streighter and smoother afterwards Providence that ruleth all things and all Ages after the Earth had stood above sixteen hundred Years thought fit to put a period to that World and accordingly it was reveal'd to Noah that for the wickedness and degeneracy of men God would destroy mankind with the Earth Gen. 6. 13. in a Deluge of water whereupon he was commanded in order to the preserving of Himself and Family as a stock for the new World to build a great Vessel or Ark to float upon the waters and had instructions given him for the building of it both as to the matter and as to the form Noah believed the word of God though against his senses and all external appearances and set himself to work to build an Ark according to the directions given which after many years labour was finish'd whilst the incredulous World secure enough as they thought against a Deluge continu'd still in their excesses and insolencies and laught at the admonition of Noah and at the folly of his design of building an extravagant Machine a floating house to save himself from an imaginary Inundation for they thought it no less seeing it was to be in an Earth where there was no Sea nor any Rain neither in those parts according to the ordinary course of Nature as shall be shown in the second Book of this Treatise But when the appointed time was come the Heavens began to melt and the Rains to fall and these were the first surprizing causes and preparatives to the Deluge They fell we suppose tho we do not know how that could proceed from natural causes throughout the face of the whole Earth which could not but have a considerable effect on
another World out of curiosity to see our Earth the first discovery or observation he would make would be this that it was a Terraqueous Globe Thus much he might observe at a great distance when he came but near the borders of our World This we discern in the Moon and most of the Planets that they are divided into Sea and Land and how this division came would be his first remark and inquiry concerning our Earth and how also those subdivisions of Islands or little Earths which lie in the Water how these were form'd and that great Chanel that contains them both The second form that the Earth appears under is that of an uneven and Mountainous Globe When our Traveller had got below tho Circle of the Moon he would discern the bald tops of our Mountains and the long ranges of them upon our Continents We cannot from the Earth discern Mountains and Valleys in the Moon directly but from the motion of the light and shadows which we see there we easily collect that there are such inequalities And accordingly we suppose that our Mountains would appear at a great distance and the shady Valleys lying under them and that this curious person that came to view our Earth would make that his second Enquiry how those Mountains were form'd and how our Globe came to be so rude and irregular for we may justly demand how any irregularity came into Nature seeing all her first motions and her first forms are regular and whatsoever is not so is but secondary and the consequence of some degeneracy or of some decay The Third visible form of our Earth is that of a broken Globe and broken throughout but in the outward parts and Regions of it This it may be you will say is not a visible form it doth not appear to the eye without reasoning that the surface of the Earth is so broken Suppose our new Visitant had now pass'd the middle Region of the Air and was alighted upon the top of Pick Teneriffe for his first resting place and that sitting there he took a view of the great Rocks the wide Sea and of the shores of Africk and Europe for we 'll suppose his piercing Eye to reach so far I will not say that at first sight he would pronounce that the surface of this Globe was broken unless he knew it to be so by comparison with some other Planet like to it but the broken form and figure of many parts of the Rocks and the posture in which they lay or great portions of them some inclin'd some prostrate some erected would naturally lead him to that thought that they were a ruine He would see also the Islands tore from the Continents and both the shores of the Continents and their inland parts in the same disorder and irregular situation Besides he had this great advantage in viewing the Earth at a distance that he could see a whole Hemisphere together which as he made his approaches through the Air would have much what the same aspect and countenance as 't is represented with in the great Scheme And if any man should accidentally hit upon that Scheme not knowing or thinking that it was the Earth I believe his first thought of it would be that it was some great broken body or ruin'd frame of matter and the original I am sure is more manifestly so But we 'll leave our Strange Philosopher to his own observations and wish him good Guides and Interpreters in his Survey of the Earth and that he would make a favourable report at his return home of our little dirty Planet In the mean time let us pursue in our own way this Third Idea of the Earth a little further as it is a broken Globe Nature I know hath dissembled and cover'd this form as much as may be and time hath helpt to repair some of the old breaches or fill them up besides the changes that have been made by Art and Humane industry by Agriculture Planting and Building Towns hath made the face of the Earth quite another thing from what it was in its naked rudeness As mankind is much alter'd from its Pristine state from what it was four thousand years ago or towards the first Ages after the Flood when the Nations liv'd in simplicity or barbarousness so is the Earth too and both so disguis'd and transform'd that if one of those Primitive Fathers should rise from the dead he would scarce know this to be the same World which he liv'd in before But to discern the true form of the Earth whether intire or broken regular or disorder'd we must in the first place take away all those ornaments or additions made by Art or Nature and view the bare carcass of the Earth as it hath nothing on it but Rocks and Mountains Desarts and Fields and hollow Valleys and a wide Sea Then secondly We must in our imagination empty this Chanel of the Sea take out all the Waters that hinder the sight of it and look upon the dry Ditch measure the depth and breadth of it in our mind and observe the manner of its construction and in what a wild posture all the parts of it lie according as it hath been formerly represented And lastly We must take off the cover of all Subterraneous places and deep Caverns to see the inside of the Earth and lay bare the roots of Mountains to look into those holes and Vaults that are under them fill'd sometimes with Fire sometimes with Water and sometimes with thick Air and Vapours The object being thus prepar'd we are then to look fix'dly upon it and to pronounce what we think of this disfigur'd mass whether this Exteriour frame doth not seem to be shatter'd and whether it doth more aptly resemble a new-made World or the ruines of one broken I confess when this Idea of the Earth is present to my thoughts I can no more believe that this was the form wherein it was first produc'd than if I had seen the Temple of Ierusalem in its ruines when defac'd and sack'd by the Babylonians I could have perswaded my self that it had never been in any other posture and that Solomon had given orders for building it so So much for the form of the Earth It remains now that we examine what causes have been assign'd by others of these irregularities in the form of the Earth which we explain by the dissolution of it what accounts any of the Ancients have given or attempted to give how the Earth swell'd into Mountains in certain places and in others was depress'd into low Valleys how the body of it was so broken and how the Chanel of the Sea was made The Elements naturally lie in regular forms one above another and now we find them mixt confounded and transpos'd how comes this disturbance and disordination in Nature The Explications of these things that have been given by others may be reduc'd to two general sorts Philosophical or
some other Country of Asia the Earth being now as it was then This offends as much in the defect as the other in the excess For it is not any single Region of the Earth that can be Paradisiacal unless all Nature conspire and a certain Order of things proper and peculiar for that state Nor is it of less importance to find out this peculiar Order of things than to find out the particular seat of Paradise but rather pre-requisite to it We will endeavour therefore to discover and determine both so far as a Theory can go beginning with that which is more general 'T is certain there were some qualities and conditions of Paradise that were not meerly Topical but common to all the rest of the Earth at that time and these we must consider in the first place examine what they were and upon what they depended History both Sacred and Profane must tell us what they were and our Theory must shew us upon what causes they depended I had once I confess propos'd to my self another method independent upon History or Effects I thought to have continued the description of the Primitive or Ante-diluvian Earth from the contemplation of its causes only and then left it to the judgment of others to determine whether that was not the Earth where the Golden Age was past and where Paradise stood For I had observ'd three conditions or characters of it which I thought were sufficient to answer all that we knew concerning that first state of things viz. The regularity of its surface The situation or posture of its Body to the Sun and the Figure of it From these three general causes I thought might be deducâ—d all the chief differences of that Earth from the present and particularly those that made it more capable of being Paradisiacal But upon second thoughts I judg'd it more useful and expedient to lay aside the Causes at present and begin with the Effects that we might have some sensible matter to work upon Bare Idea's of things are lookt upon as Romantick till Effects be propos'd whereof they are to give an account 'T is that makes us value the Causes when necessity puts us upon enquiry after them and the reasons of things are very acceptable when they ease the mind anxious and at a loss how to understand Nature without their help We will therefore without more ado premise those things that have been taken notice of as extraordinary and peculiar to the first Ages of the World and to Paradise and which neither do nor can obtain in the present Earth whereof the first is a perpetual Spring or Equinox The second the Long aevity of Animals and the third Their production out of the Earth and the great fertility of the soil in all other things These difficulties guard the way to Paradise like the flaming Sword and must be remov'd before we can enter these are general Preliminaries which we must explain before we proceed to enquire after the particular place of this Garden of Pleasure The Ancients have taken notice of all these in the first Ages of the World or in their Golden Age as they call it and I do not doubt but what they ascrib'd to the Golden Age was more remarkably true of Paradise yet was not so peculiar to it but that it did in a good measure extend to other parts of the Earth at that time And 't is manifest that their Golden Age was contemporary with our Paradise for they make it begin immediately after the production and inhabitation of the Earth which They as well as Moses raise from the Chaos and to degenerate by degrees till the Deluge when the World ended and begun again That this parallel may the better appear we may observe that as we say that the whole Earth was in some sence Paradisiacal in the first Ages of the World and that there was besides one Region or Portion of it that was peculiarly so and bore the denomination of Paradise So the Ancients besides their Golden Age which was common to all the Earth noted some parts of it that were more Golden if I may so say than the rest and which did more particularly answer to Paradise as their Elysian Fields Fortunate Islands Gardens of Hesperides Alcinous c. these had a double portion of pleasantness and besides the advantages which they had common with the rest of the Earth at that time had something proper and singular which gave them a distinct consideration and character from the rest Having made this observation let us proceed and see what Antiquity saith concerning that first and Paradisiacal state of things upon those three Heads forementioned First That there was a perpetual Spring and constant serenity of the Air This is often repeated by the Ancient Poets in their description of the Golden Age Non alios primâ crescentis origine mundi Illuxisse dies aliumve habuisse tenorem Crediderim Ver illud erat Ver magnus agebat Orbis hybernis parcebant flatibus Euri. Such days the new-born Earth enjoy'd of old And the calm Heavens in this same tenour rowl'd All the great World had then one constant Spring No cold East-winds such as our Winters bring For I interpret this in the same sence with Ovid's Verses of the Golden Age Ver erat Aeternum placidÃque tepentibus auris Mulcebant Zephyri natos sine semine flores The Spring was constant and soft Winds that blew Rais'd without Seed Flow'rs always sweet and new And then upon the expiration of the Golden Age He says Iupiter antiqui contraxit tempora Veris c. When Jove begun to reign he chang'd the Year And for one Spring four Seasons made appear The Ancients suppos'd that in the reign of Saturn who was an Ante-diluvian God as I may so call him Time flow'd with a more even motion and there was no diversity of Seasons in the Year but Iupiter they say first introduc'd that when he came to manage affairs This is exprest after their way who seldom give any severe and Philosophical accounts of the changes of Nature And as they suppos'd this perpetual Spring in the Golden Age so they did also in their particular Elysiums as I could shew largely from their Authors if it would not multiply Citations too much 'T is true their Elysiums respected the New Heavens and New Earth to come rather than the past but they are both fram'd upon the same model and have common properties The Christian Authors have no less celebrated the perpetual Spring and Serenity of the Heavens in Paradise such expressions or descriptions you will find in Iustin Martyr S. Basil Damascen Isidore Hispalensis and others insomuch that Bellarmine I remember reflecting upon those Characters of Paradise which many of the Fathers have given in these respects saith Such things could not be unless the Sun had then another course from what he hath now or which is more easie the Earth another situation
been the common standard of Man's Age ever since As when some excellent fruit is transplanted into a worse Climate and Soil it degenerates continually till it comes to such a degree of meanness as suits that Air and Soil and then it stands That the Age of Man did not fall all on a sudden from the Antediluvian measure to the present I impute it to the remaining Stamina of those first Ages and the strength of that pristine constitution which could not wear off but by degrees We see the Blacks do not quit their complexion immediately by removing into another Climate but their posterity changeth by little and little and after some generations they become altogether like the people of the Country where they are Thus by the change of Nature that happened at the Flood the unhappy influence of the Air and unequal Seasons weaken'd by degrees the innate strength of their bodies and the vigour of their parts which would have been capable to have lasted several more hundreds of years if the Heavens had continued their course as formerly or the Earth its position To conclude this particular If any think that the Ante-diluvian longaevity proceeded only from the Stamina or the meer strength of their bodies and would have been so under any constitution of the Heavens let them resolve themselves these Questions first Why these Stamina or this strength of constitution fail'd Secondly Why did it fail so much and so remarkably at the Deluge Thirdly Why in such proportions as it hath done since the Deluge And lastly Why it hath stood so long immovable and without any further diminution Within the compass of five hundred years they sunk from nine hundred to ninety and in the compass of more than three thousand years since they have not sunk ten years or scarce any thing at all Who considers the reasons of these things and the true resolution of these questions will be satisfi'd that to understand the causes of that longaevity something more must be consider'd than the make and strength of their bodies which though they had been made as strong as the Behemoth or Leviathan could not have lasted so many Ages if there had not been a particular concurrence of external causes such as the present state of Nature doth not admit of By this short review of the three general Characters of Paradise and the Golden Age we may conclude how little consistent they are with the present from and order of the Earth Who can pretend to assign any place or Region in this Terraqueous Globe Island or Continent that is capable of these conditions or that agrees either with the descriptions given by the ancient Heathens of their Paradise or by the Christian Fathers of Scripture Paradise But where then will you say must we look for it if not upon this Earth This puts us more into despair of finding it than ever 't is not above nor below in the Air or in the subterraneous Regions no doubtless 't was upon the surface of the Earth but of the Primitive Earth whose form and properties as they were different from this so they were such as made it capable of being truly Paradisiacal both according to the forementioned Characters and all other qualities and privileges reasonably ascrib'd to Paradise CHAP. III. The Original differences of the Primitive Earth from the present or Post-diluvian The three Characters of Paradise and the Golden Age found in the Primitive Earth A particular Explication of each Character WE have hitherto only perplext the Argument and our selves by showing how inexplicable the state of Paradise is according to the present order of things and the present condition of the Earth We must now therefore bring into view that Original and Ante-diluvian Earth where we pretend its seat was and show it capable of all those privileges which we have deny'd to the present in vertue of which privileges and of the order of Nature establisht there that primitive Earth might be truly Paradisiacal as in the Golden Age and some Region of it might be peculiarly so according to the receiv'd Idea of Paradise And this I think is all the knowledge and satisfaction that we can expect or that Providence hath allow'd us in this Argument The Primigenial Earth which in the first Book Chap. 5. we rais'd from a Chaos and set up in an habitable form we must now survey again with more care to observe its principal differences from the present Earth and what influence they will have upon the question in hand These differences as we have said before were chiefly three The form of it which was smooth even and regular The posture and situation of it to the Sun which was direct and not as it is at present inclin'd and oblique And the Figure of it which was more apparently and regularly Oval than it is now From these three differences flow'd a great many more inferiour and subordinate and which had a considerable influence upon the moral World at that time as well as the natural But we will only observe here their more immediate effects and that in reference to those general Characters or properties of the Golden Age and of Paradise which we have instanc'd in and whereof we are bound to give an account by our Hypothesis And in this respect the most fundamental of those three differences we mention'd was that of the right posture and situation of the Earth to the Sun for from this immediately follow'd a perpetual Aequinox all the Earth over or if you will a perpetual Spring and that was the great thing we found a wanting in the present Earth to make it Paradisiacal or capable of being so Wherefore this being now found and establisht in the Primitive Earth the other two properties of Longaevity and of Spontaneous and Vital fertility will be of more easie explication In the mean time let us view a little the reasons and causes of that regular situation in the first Earth The truth is one cannot so well require a reason of the regular situation the Earth had then for that was most simple and natural as of the irregular situation it hath now standing oblique and inclin'd to the Sun or the Ecliptick Whereby the course of the year is become unequal and we are cast into a great diversity of Seasons But however stating the first aright with its circumstances we shall have a better prospect upon the second and see from what causes and in what manner it came to pass Let us therefore suppose the Earth with the rest of its fellow Planets to be carried about the Sun in the Ecliptick by the motion of the liquid Heavens and being at that time perfectly uniform and regular having the same Center of its magnitude and gravity it would by the equality of its libration necessarily have its Axis parallel to the Axis of the same Ecliptick both its Poles being equally inclin'd to the Sun And this posture I call a right
infer and conclude that the Civil World then as well as the Natural had a very different face and aspect from what it hath now for of these Heads Food and Cloathing Building and Traffick with that train of Arts Trades and Manufactures that attend them the Civil Order of things is in a great measure constituted and compounded These make the business of life the several occupations of Men the noise and hurry of the World These fill our Cities and our Fairs and our Havens and Ports yet all these fine things are but the effects of indigency and necessitousness and were for the most part needless and unknown in that first state of Nature The Ancients have told us the same things in effect but telling us them without their grounds which they themselves did not know they lookt like Poetical stories and pleasant fictions and with most Men past for no better We have shewn them in another light with their Reasons and Causes deduc'd from the state of the Natural World which is the Basis upon which they stand and this doth not only give them a just and full credibility but also lays a foundation for after-thoughts and further deductions when they meet with minds dispos'd to pursue Speculations of this Nature As for Laws Government natural Religion Military and Judicial affaiâ—â— with all their Equipage which make an higher order of things in the Civil and Moral World to calculate these upon the grounds given would be more difficult and more uncertain neither do they at all belong to the present Theory But from what we have already observ'd we may be able to make a better judgment of those Traditional accounts which the Ancients have left us concerning these things in the early Ages of the World and the Primitive state of Nature No doubt in these as in all other particulars there was a great easiness and simplicity in comparison of what is now we are in a more pompous forc'd and artificial method which partly the change of Nature and partly the Vices and Vanities of Men have introduc'd and establisht But these things with many more ought to be the subject of a Philosophick History of the World which we mention'd before This is a short and general Scheme of the Primaeval World compar'd with the Modern yet these things did not equally run through all the parts and Ages of it there was a declension and degeneracy both Natural and Moral by degrees and especially towards the latter end but the principal form of Nature remaining till the Deluge and the dissolution of that Heavens and Earth till then also this Civil frame of things would stand in a great measure And though such a state of Nature and of Mankind when 't is propos'd crudely and without its grounds appear fabulous or imaginary yet 't is really in it self a state not only possible but more easie and natural than what the World is in at present And if one of the old Ante-diluvian Patriarchs should rise from the dead he would be more surpris'd to see our World in that posture it is than we can be by the story and description of his As an Indian hath more reason to wonder at the European modes than we have to wonder at their plain manner of living 'T is we that have left the tract of Nature that are wrought and screw'd up into artifices that have disguis'd our selves and 't is in our World that the Scenes are chang'd and become more strange and Fantastical I will conclude this Discourse with an easie remark and without any particular Application of it 'T is a strange power that custom hath upon weak and little Spirits whose thoughts reach no further than their Senses and what they have seen and been us'd to they make the Standard and Measure of Nature of Reason and of all Decorum Neither are there any sort of Men more positive and tenacicus of their petty opinions than they are nor more censorious even to bitterness and malice And 't is generally so that those that have the least evidence for the truth of their beloved opinions are most peevish and impatient in the defence of them This sort of Men are the last that will be made Wise Men if ever they be for they have the worst of diseases that accompany ignorance and do not so much as know themselves to be sick CHAP. VII The place of Paradise cannot be determin'd from the Theory only nor from Scripture only What the sence of Antiquity was concerning it both as to the Iews and Heathens and especially as to the Christian Fathers That they generally plac'd it out of this Continent in the Southern Hemisphere WE have now prepar'd our work for the last finishing stroaks describ'd the first Earth and compar'd it with the present and not only the two Earths but in a good measure the whole State and Oeconomy of those two Worlds It remains only to determine the place of Paradise in that Primaeval Earth I say in that Primaeval Earth for we have driven the point so far already that the seat of it could not be in the present Earth whose Form Site and Air are so dispos'd as could not consist with the first and most indispensable properties of Paradise And accordingly we see with what ill success our modern Authors have rang'd over the Earth to find a fit spot of ground to plant Paradise in some would set it on the top of an high Mountain that it might have good Air and fair weather as being above the Clouds and the middle Region but then they were at a loss for Water which made a great part of the pleasure and beauty of that place Others therefore would seat it in a Plain or in a River-Island that they might have Water enough but then it would be subject to the injuries of the Air and foul weather at the seasons of the Year from which both Reason and all Authority have exempted Paradise 'T is like seeking a perfect beauty in a mortal Body there are so many things requir'd to it as to complexion Features Proportions and Air that they never meet all together in one person neither can all the properties of a Terrestrial Paradise ever meet together in one place though never so well chosen in this present Earth But in the Primaeval Earth which we have describ'd 't is easie to find a Seat that had all those beauties and conveniences We have every where through the temperate Climates a clear and constant Air a fruitful Soil pleasant Waters and all the general characters of Paradise so that the trouble will be rather in that competition what part of Region to pitch upon in particular But to come as near it as we can we must remember in the first place how that Earth was divided into two Hemispheres distant and separated from one another not by an imaginary line but by a real boundary that could not be past so as the first inquiry will
was compriz'd and signified in their ancient doctrine of the Mundane Egg which hath been propagated through all the Learned Nations And lastly As to the situation of that Earth and the change of its posture since that the memory of that has been kept up we have brought several testimonies and indications from the Greek Philosophers And these were the three great and fundamental properties of the Primitive Earth upon which all the other depend and all its differences from the present Order of Nature You see then though Providence hath suffer'd the ancient Heathen Learning and their Monuments in a great part to perish yet we are not left wholly without witnesses amongst them in a speculation of this great importance You will say it may be though this account as to the Books and Learning of the Heathen may be lookt upon as reasonable yet we might expect however from the Iewish and Christian Authors a more full and satisfactory account of that Primitive Earth and of the Old World First as to the Iews 't is well known that they have no ancient Learning unless by way of Tradition amongst them There is not a Book extant in their Language excepting the Canon of the Old Testament that hath not been writ since our Saviour's time They are very bad Masters of Antiquity and they may in some measure be excus'd because of their several captivities dispersions and desolations In the Babylonish captivity their Temple was ransack'd and they did not preserve as is thought so much as the Autograph or original Manuscript of the Law nor the Books of those of their Prophets that were then extant and kept in the Temple And at their return from the Captivity after seventy years they seem to have had forgot their Native Language so much that the Law was to be interpreted to them in Chaldee after it was read in Hebrew for so I understand that interpretation in Nehâ—miah 'T was a great Providence methinks that they should any way preserve their Law and other Books of Scripture in the Captivity for so long a time for 't is likely they had not the liberty of using them in any publick worship seeing they return'd so ignorant of their own Language and as 't is thought of their Alphabet and Character too And if their Sacred Books were hardly preserv'd we may easily Believe all others perisht in that publick desolation Yet there was another destruction of that Nation and their Temple greater than this by the Romans and if there were any remains of Learning preserv'd in the former ruine or any recruits made since that time this second desolation would sweep them all away And accordingly we see they have nothing left in their Tongue besides the Bible so ancient as the destruction of Ierusalem These and other publick calamities of the Iewish Nation may reasonably be thought to have wasted their Records of ancient Learning if they had any for to speak truth the Iews are a people of little curiosity as to Sciences and Philosophical enquiries They were very tenacious of their own customs and careful of those Traditions that did respect them but were not remarkable that I know of or thought great Proficients in any other sort of Learning There has been a great fame 't is true of the Iewish Gabala and of great mysteries contain'd in it and I believe there was once a Traditional doctrine amongst some of them that had extraordinary Notions and Conclusions But where is this now to be found The Essenes were the likeliest Sect one would think to retain such doctrines but 't is probable they are now so mixt with things fabulous and fantastical that what one should alledge from thence would be of little or no authority One Head in this Cabala was the doctrine of the Sephiroth and though the explication of them be uncertain the Inferiour Sephiroth in the Corporeal World cannot so well be appli'd to any thing as to those several Orbs and Regions infolding one another whereof the Primigenial Earth was compos'd Yet such conjectures and applications I know are of no validity but in consort with better Arguments I have often thought also that their first and second Temple represented the first and second Earth or World and that of Ezekiel's which is the third is still to be erected the most beautiful of all when this second Temple of the World shall be burnt down If the Prophecies of Enoch had been preserv'd and taken into the Canon by Eâ—ra after their return from Babylon when the Collection of their Sacred Books is suppos'd to have been made we might probably have had a considerable account there both of times past and to come of Antiquities and futuritions for those Prophecies are generally supposâ—d to have containâ—d both the first and second fate of this Earth and all the periods of it But as this Book is lost to us so I look upon all others that pretend to be Ante-Mosaical or Patriarchal as Spurious and Fabulous Thus much concerning the Iews As for Christian Authors their knowledge must be from some of these foremention'd Iews or Heathens or else by Apostolical Tradition For the Christian Fathers were not very speculative so as to raise a Theory from their own thoughts and contemplations concerning the Origin of the Earth We have instanc'd in the last Chapter in a Christian Tradition concerning Paradise and the high situation of it which is fully consonant to the site of the Primitive Earth where Paradise stood and doth seem plainly to refer to it being unintelligible upon any other supposition And 't was I believe this elevation of Paradise and the pensile structure of that Paradisiacal Earth that gave occasion to Celsus as we see by Origen's answer to say that the Christian Paradise was taken from the pensile Gardens of Alcinous But we may see now what was the ground of such expressions or Traditions amongst the Ancients which Providence left to keep mens minds awake not fully to instruct them but to confirm them in the truth when it should come to be made known in other methods We have noted also above that the ancient Books and Authors amongst the Christians that were most likely to inform us in this Argument have perisht and are lost out of the World such as Ephrem Syrus de ortu rerum and Tertulâ—ian de Paradiso and that piece which is extant of Cepha's upon this subject receives more light from our Hypothesis than from any other I know for correcting some mistakes about the Figure of the Earth which the Ancients were often guilty of the obscurity or confusion of that Discourse in other things may be easily rectifi'd if compar'd with this Theory Of this nature also is that Tradition that is common both to Iews and Christians and which we have often mention'd before that there was a perpetual serenity and perpetual Equinox in Paradise which cannot be upon this Earth not so much as under the
Equinoctial for they have a sort of Winter and Summer there a course of Rains at certain times of the Year and great inequalities of the Air as to heat and cold moisture and drought They had also Traditions amongst them That there was no Rain from the beginning of the World till the Deluge and that there were no Mountains till the Flood and such like These you see point directly at such an Earth as we have describ'd And I call these Traditions because we cannot find the Original Authors of them The ancient ordinary Gloss upon Genesis which some make Eight hundred years old mentions both these Opinions so does Historia Scholastica Alcuinus Rabanus Maurus Lyranus and such Collectors of Antiquity Bede also relates that of the plainness or smoothness of the Antediluvian Earth Yet these are reported Traditionally as it were naming no Authors or Books from whence they were taken Nor can it be imagin'd that they feign'd them themselves to what end or purpose it serv'd no interest or upon what ground Seeing they had no Theory that could lead them to such Notions as these or that could be strengthen'd and confirm'd by them Those opinions also of the Fathers which we recited in the seventh Chapter placing Paradise beyond the Torrid Zone and making it therefore inaccessible suit very well to the form qualities and bipartition of the Primaeval Earth and seem to be grounded upon them Thus much may serve for a short Survey of the ancient Learning to give us a reasonable account why the memory and knowledge of the Primitive Earth should be so much lost out of the World and what we retain of it still which would be far more I do not doubt if all Manuscripts were brought to light that are yet extant in publick or private Libraries The Truth is one cannot judge with certainty neither what things have been recorded and preserv'd in the monuments of Learning nor what are still not what have been because so many of those Monuments are lost The Alexandrian Library which we spoke of before seems to have been the greatest Collection that ever was made before Christianity and the Constantinopolitan begun by Constantine and destroy'd in the Fifth Century when it was rais'd to the number as is said of one hundred twenty thousand Volumes the most valuable that was ever since and both these have been permitted by Providence to perish in the merciless Flames Besides those devastations of Books and Libraries that have been made in Christendom by the Northern barbarous Nations overflowing Europe and the Saracens and Turks great parts of Asia and Africk It is hard therefore to pronounce what knowledge hath been in the World or what accounts of Antiquity Neither can we well judge what remain or of what things the memory may be still latently conserv'd for besides those Manuscripts that are yet unexamin'd in these parts of Christendom there are many doubtless of good value in other parts Besides those that lie hid in the unchristianiz'd dominions The Library of Fez is said to contain thirty two thousand Volumes in Arabick and though the Arabick Learning was mostwhat Western and therefore of less account yet they did deal in Eastern Learning too for Avicenna writ a Book with that Title Philosophia Orientalis There may be also in the East thousands of Manuscripts unknown to us of greater value than most Books we have And as to those subjects we are treating of I should promise my self more light and confirmation from the Syriack Authors than from any others These things being consider'd we can make but a very imperfect estimate what evidences are left us and what accounts of the Primitive Earth and if these deductions and defalcations be made both for what Books are wholly lost and for what lie asleep or dead in Libraries we have reason to be satisfied in a Theory of this nature to â—nd so good attestations as we have produc'd for the several parts of it which we purpose to enlarge upon considerably at another time and occasion But to carry this Objection as far as may be let us suppose it to be urgâ—d still in the last place that though these Humane Writings have perisht or be imperfect yet in the Divine Writings at least we might expect that the memory of the Old World and of the Primitive Earth should have been preserv'd To this I answer in short That we could not expect in the Scriptures any Natural Theory of that Earth nor any account of it but what was general and this we have both by the Tehom-Rabba of Moses and the description of the same Abyss in other places of Scripture as we have shown at large in the First Book Chap. 7. And also by the description which S. Peter hath given of the Ante-diluvian Heavens and Earth and their different constitution from the present which is also prov'd by the Rainbow not seen in the first World You will say it may be that that place of S. Peter is capable of another interpretation so are most places of Scripture if you speak of a bare capacity they are capable of more than one interpretation but that which is most natural proper and congruous and suitable to the words suitable to the Argument and suitable to the Context wherein is nothing superfluous or impertinent That we prefer and accept of as the most reasonable interpretation Besides in such Texts as relate to the Natural World if of two interpretations propos'd one agrees better with the Theory of Nature than the other caeteris paribus that ought to be prefer'd And by these two rules we are willing to be try'd in the exposition of that remarkable Discourse of S. Peter's and to stand to that sence which is found most agreeable to them Give me leave to conclude the whole Discourse with this general Consideration 'T is reasonable to suppose that there is a Providence in the conduct of Knowledge as well as of other affairs on the Earth and that it was not design'd that all the mysteries of Nature and Providence should be plainly and clearly understood throughout all the Ages of the World but that there is an Order establisht for this as for other things and certain Periods and Seasons And what was made known to the Ancients only by broken Conclusions and Traditions will be known in the latter Ages of the World in a more perfect way by Principles and Theories The increase of Knowledge being that which changeth so much the face of the World and the state of Humane affairs I do not doubt but there is a particular care and superintendency for the conduct of it by what steps and degrees it should come to light at what Seasons and in what Ages what evidence should be left either in Scripture Reason or Tradition for the grounds of it how clear or obscure how disperst or united all these things were weigh'd and consider'd and such measures taken as best suit the
state And seeing in those places they plainly signified the Millennial state or the Kingdom of Christ and of his Saints they must here signifie the same in this promise of our Saviour to his suffering Followers And as to the word Palingenesia which is here translated Regeneration 't is very well known that both the Greek Philosophers and Greek Fathers use that very word for the Renovation of the World Which is to be as we shall hereafter make appear at or before the Millennial state Our Saviour also in his Divine Sermon upon the Mount makes this one of his Beatitudes Blessed are the Meek for they shall inherit the Earth But how I pray or where or when do the Meek inherit the Earth neither at present I am sure nor in any past Ages 'T is the Great Ones of the World ambitious Princes and Tyrants that slice the Barth amongst them and those that can flatter them best or serve them in their interests or pleasures have the next best shares But a meek modest and humble Spirit is the most unqualified Person that can be for a Court or a Camp to scramble for Preferment or Plundâ—r Both He and his self-denying notions are ridicul'd as things of no use and proceeding from meanness and poorness of Spirit David who was a Person of an admirable devotion but of an unequal Spirit subject to great dejections as well as elevations of mind was so much affected with the prosperity of the wicked in this World that he could scarce forbear charging Providence with injustice You may see several touches of a repining Spirit in his Psalms and in the Seventy-third Psalm compos'd upon that Subject you have both the wound and the cure Now this Beaâ—itâ—de pronounc'd here by our Saviour was spoken before by David psal 37. 11. The same David that was always so sensible of the hard usage of the Just in this life Our Saviour also and his Apostles preach the Doctrine of the Cross every where and foretell the sufferings that shall attend the Righteous in this World Therefore neither David nor our Saviour could understand this inheritance of the Earth otherwise than of some future state or of a state yet to come But as it must be a future state so it must be a Terrestrial state for it could not be call'd the inheritance of the Earth if it was not so And 't is to be a state of peace as well as plenty according to the words of the Psalmist But the meek shall inherit the Earth and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace It follows therefore from these premisses that both our Saviour and David must understand some future state of the Earth wherein the Meek will enjoy both peace and plenty And this will appear to be the future Kingdom of Christ when upon a fuller description we shall have given you the marks and characters of it In the mean time why should we not suppose this Earth which the Meek are to inherit to be that habitable Earth to come which St. Paul mentions Hebr. 2. 6. and represents as subject to our Saviour in a pecuilar manner at his disposal and under his Government as his Kingdom Why should not that Earth be the subject of this Beatitude The promis'd Land the Lot of the Righâ—eous This I am sure of that both this Text and the former deserve our serious thoughts and tho' they do not expresly and in terms prove the future Kingdom of our Saviour yet upon the fairest interpretations they imply such a state And it will be very uneasie to give a satisfactory account either of the Regeneration or Renovation when our Saviour and his Disciples shall sit upon Thrones Or of that Earth which the Meek shall inherit Or lastly of that Habitable World which is peculiarly subject to the dominion of Jesus Christ without supposing on this side Heaven some other reign of Christ and his Saints than what we see or what they enjoy at present But to proceed in this argument It will be necessary as I told you to set down some notes and characters of this Reign of Christ and of his Saints whereby it may be distinguish'd from the present state and present Kingdoms of the World And these characters are chiefly three Iustice Peace and Divine Presence or Conduct which uses to be called Theocrasie By these characters it is sufficiently distinguish'd from the Kingdoms of this World which are generally unjust in their titles or exercise stain'd with bloud and so far from being under a particular Divine Conduct that humane passions and humane vices are the Springs that commonly give motion to their greatest designs But more particularly and restrainedly the Government of Christ is opposed to the Kingdom and Government of Antichrist whose characters are diametrically opposite to these being Injustice cruelty and humane or diabolical artifices Upon this short view of the Kingdom of Christ let us make enquiry after it amongst the Prophets of the Old Testament And we shall find upon examination that there is scarce any of them greater or lesser but take notice of this mystical kingdom either expresly or under the types of Israel Sion Ierusalem and such like And therefore I am apt to think that when S. Peter in his Sermon to the Iews Act. 3. says All the holy Prophets spoke of The Restitution of all things he does not mean the Renovation of the World separately from the Kingdome of Christ but complexly as it may imply both For there are not many of the old Prophets that have spoken of the Renovation of the Natural World but a great many have spoken of the Renovation of the Moral in the Kingdom of Christ. These are S. Peter's words Act. 3. 19 20 21. Repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. And he shall send Iesus Christ which before was preached unto ye whom the heavens must receive until the times of RESTITUTION OF ALL THINGS The Apostle here mentions three things The Times of refreshing The Second Coming of our Saviour And the Times of Restitution of all things And to the last of these he immediately subjoyns which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy Prophets since the world began This Restitution of all things I say must not be understood abstractly from the reign of Christ but as in conjunction with it and in that sence and no other it is the general subject of the Prophets To enter therefore into the Schools of the Prophets and enquire their sence concerning this Mystery let us first address our selves to the Prophet Isaiah and the Royal Prophet David who seem to have had many noble thoughts or inspirations upon this subject Isaiah in the 65th chap. from the 17th ver to the end treats upon this argument and joyns together the Renovation of the Natural and Moral World as S. Peter in the
about empty and useless in the wild Air. If you will not make it the seat and habitation of the Just in the blessed Millennium what will you make it How will it turn to account What hath Providence design'd it for We must not suppose New Worlds made without counsel or design And as on the one hand you cannot tell what to do with this New Creation if it be not thus employ'd so on the other hand it is every way fitted and suited to be an happy and Paradisiacal habitation and answers all the natural Characters of the Millennial state which is a great presumption that it is design'd for it But to argue this more closely upon Scripture-grounds S. Peter says the Righteous shall inhabit the New Heavens and the New Earth 2. Pet. 3. 13. Nevertheless according to his promise we look for New Heavens and New Earth WHEREIN DWELLETH RIGHTEOUSNESS that is a Righteous People as we have shewn before But who are these Righteous People That 's the great question If you compare S. Peter's New Heavens and New Earth with S. Iohn's Apoc. 21. 1 2. it will go far towards the resolution of this question For S. Iohn seems plainly to make the Inhabitants of the New Ierusalem to be in this New Earth I saw says he New Heavens and a New Earth and the New Ierusalem descending from God out of Heaven therefore descending into this New Earth which he had mention'd immediately before And there the Tabernacle of God was with men ver 3. and there He that sat upon the Throne said Behold I make all things New Referring still to this New Heavens and New Earth as the Theatre where all these things are acted or all these Scenes exhibited from the first Verse to the eighth Now the New Jerusalem state being the same with the Millennial if the one be in the New Heavens and New Earth the other is there also And this interpretation of S. Iohn's word is confirm'd and fully assur'd to us by the Prophet Isaiah who also placeth the joy and rejoycing of the New Ierusalem in the New Heavens and New Earth Chap. 65. 17 18. For behold I create new Heavens and a new Earth and the former shall not be remembred but be you glad and rejoyce for ever in that which I create for behold I create Ierusalem a rejoycing and her people a joy Namely in that New Heavens and New Earth Which answers to S. Iohn's Vision of the New Ierusalem being let down upon the New Earth To these Reasons and deductions from Scripture we might add the testimony of several of the Fathers I mean of those that were Millenaries For we are speaking now to such as believe the Millennium but place it in the present Earth before the Renovation whereas the ancient Millenaries suppos'd the regeneration and renovation of the World before the Kingdom of Christ came As you may see in Irenaeus Iustin Martyr Tertullian Lactantius and the Author ad Orthodoxos And the neglect of this I look upon as one reason as we noted before that brought that doctrine into discredit and decay For when they plac'd the Kingdom of the Saints upon this Earth it becâ—me more capable of being abus'd by fanatical spirits to the disturbance of the World and the invasion of the rights of the Magistrate Civil or Ecclesiastical under that notion of Saints And made them also dream of sensual pleasures such as they see in this life Or at least gave an occasion and opportunity to those that had a mind to make the doctrine odious of charging it with these consequences All these abuses are cut off and these scandals prevented by placing the Millennium aright Namely not in this present Life or on this present Earth but in the New Creation where Peace and Righteousness will dwell And this is our first Argument why we place the Millennium in the New Heavens and New Earth and 't is taken partly you see from the reason of the thing it self the difficulty of assigning any other use of the New Earth and its fitness for this and partly from Scripture-evidence and partly from Antiquity The second argument for our opinion is this The present constitution of Nature will not bear that happiness that is promis'd in the Millennium or is not consistent with it The diseases of our Bodies the disorders of our Passions the incommodiousness of external Nature Indigency servility and the unpeaceableness of the World These are things inconsistent with the happiness that is promis'd in the Kingdom of Christ. But these are constant attendants upon this Life and inseparable from the present state of Nature Suppose the Millennium was to begin Nine or Ten Years hence as some pretend it will How shall this World all on a sudden be metamorphos'd into that happy state No more sorrow nor crying nor pain nor death says S. Iohn All former things are past away But how past away Shall we not have the same Bodies and the same external Nature and the same corruptions of the Air and the same excesses and intemperature of Seasons Will there not be the same baâ—â—enness of the ground the same number of People to be fed and must they not get their living by the sweat of their brows with servile labour and drudgery How then are all former evils past away And as to publick affairs while there are the same necessities of humane Life and a distinction of Nations those Nations sometimes will have contrary interests will clash and interfere one with another whence differences and contests and Wars will arise and the Thousand Years Truce I am afraid will be often broken We might add also that if our Bodies be not chang'd we shall be subject to the same appetites and the same passions and upon those vices will grow as bad fruit upon a bad Tree To conclude so long as our Bodies are the same external Nature the same The necessities of humane Life the same which things are the roots of evil you may call it a Millennium or what you please but there will be still diseases vices wars tears and cries pain and sorrow in this Millenuium and if so 't is a Millennium of your own making for that which the Prophets describe is quite another thing Furthermore if you suppose the Millennium will be upon this Earth and begin it may be ten or twenty years hence How will it be introduc'd how shall we know when we are in it or when we enter upon it If we continue the same and all Nature continue the same we shall not discern when we slip into the Millennium And as to the Moral state of it shall we all on a sudden become Kings and Priests to God wherein will that change consist and how will it be wrought St. Iohn makes the First Resurrection introduce the Millennium and that 's a conspicuous mark and boundary But as to the modern or vulgar Millennium I know
a state as any Terrestrial state can be For besides Health and Plenty Peace Truth and Righteousness will flourish there and all the evils of this Life stand excluded There will be no Ambitious Princes studying mischief one against another or contriving methods to bring their own Subjects into slavery No mercenary Statesmen to assist and intrigue with them No oppression from the Powerful no snares or traps laid for the Innocent No treacherous Friends no malicious Enemies No Knaves Cheats Hypocrites the Vermin of this Earth that swarm every where There will be nothing but Truth Candor Sincerity and Ingenuity as in a Society or Commonwealth of Saints and Philosophers In a word 't will be Paradise restor'd both as to Innocency of Temper and the Beauties of Nature I believe you will be apt to say If this be not True 't is pity but that it should be True For 't is a very desirable state where all good People would find themselves mightily at ease What is it that hinders it then It must be some ill Genius For Nature tends to such a Renovation as we suppose and Scripture speaks loudly of an happy state to be some time or other on this side Heaven And what is there pray in this present World Natural or Moral if I may ask with reverence that could make it worth the while for God to create it if it never was better nor ever will be better Is there not more Misery than Happiness Is there not more Vice than Virtue in this World as if it had been made by a Manichean God The Earth barren the Heavens inconstant Men wicked and God offended This is the posture of our Affairs such hath our World been hitherto with Wâ—rs and Bloudshed Sickness and Diseases Poverty servitude and perpetual Drudgery for the necessaries of a Mortal Life We may therefore reasonably hope from a God infinitely good and powerful for better Times and a better State before the last period and consummation of all things But it will be objected it may be that according to Scripture the vices and wickedness of Men will continue to the end of the World and so there will be no room for such an happy state as we hope for Our Saviour says When the son of man cometh shall he find faith upon the Earth They shall eat and drink and play as before the destruction of the old World or of Sodom Luk. 17. 26 c. and the wickedness of those Men you know continued to the last This objection may pinch those that suppose the Millennium to be in the present Earth and a thousand years before the coming of our Saviour for his words seem to imply that the World will be in a state of wickedness even till his coming Accordingty Antichrist or the Man of Sin is not said to be destroy'd till the coming of our Saviour 2 Thess. 2. 8. and till he be destroy'd we cannot hope for a Millennium Lastly The coming of our Saviour is always represented in Scripture as sudden surprising and unexpected As Lightning breaking suddenly out of the clouds Luk. 17. 24. and ch 21. 34 35 or as a thief in the night 1 Thess. 5. 2 3 4. 2 Pet. 3. 10. Apoc. 16. 15. But if there be such a forerunner of it as the Millennial state whose bounds we know according as that expires and draws to an end Men will be certainly advertis'd of the approaching of our Saviour But this objection as I told you does not affect our Hypothesis for we suppose the Millennium will not be till after the coming of our Saviour and the Conflagration And also that his coming will be sudden and surprising and that Antichrist will continue in being tho' not in the same degree of power till that time So that they that place the Millennium in the present Earth are chiefly concern'd to answer this first objection But you will object it may be in the second place That this Millennium wheresoever it is would degenerate at length into sensuality and a Mahometan Paradise For where there are earthly pleasures and earthly appetites they will not be kept always in order without any excess or luxuriancy especially as to the senses of Touch and Taste I am apt to think this is true if the Soul have no more power over the Body than she hath at present and our Senses Passions and Appetites be as strong as they are now But according to our explication of the Millennium we have great reason to hope that the Soul will have a greater dominion over the Resurrection-body than she hath over this And you know we suppose that none will truly inherit the Millennium but those that rise from the Dead Nor do we admit any propagation there nor the trouble or weakness of Infants But that all rise in a perfect age and never die being translated at the final judgment to meet our Saviour in the clouds and to be with him for ever Thus we easily avoid the force of this objection But those that place the Millennium in this Life and to be enjoy'd in these Bodies must find out some new preservatives against vice otherwise they will be continually subject to degeneracy Another objection may be taken from the personal Reign of Christ upon Earth which is a thing incongruous and yet asserted by many modern Millenaries That Christ should leave that right hand of his Father to come and pass a thousand years here below living upon Earth in an heavenly Body This I confess is a thing I never could digest and therefore I am not concern'd in this objection not thinking it necessary that Christ should be personally present and resident upon Earth in the Millennium I am apt to believe that there will be then a Celestial Presence or Christ or a Shekinah as we noted before As the Sun is present to the Earth yet never leaves its place in the Firmament so Christ may be visibly conspicuous in his Heavenly Throne as he was to S. Stephen and yet never leave the right hand of his Father And this would be a more glorious and illustrious presence than if he should descend and converse amongst Men in a personal shape But these things not being distinctly reveal'd to us we ought not to determine any thing concerning them but with modesty and submission We have thus far pretty well escap'd and kept our selves out of the reach of the ordinary objections against the Millennium But there remains one concerning a double Resurrection which must fall upon every Hypothesis and 't is this The Scripture they say speaks but of one Resurrection whereas the doctrine of the Millennium supposes two one at the beginning of the Millennium for the Martyrs and those that enjoy that happy state and the other at the end of it which is universal and final in the last day of judgment 'T is true Scripture generally speaks of the Resurrection in gross without distinguishing first and second
the Sea and establish'd it upon the Floods An Earth founded upon the Seas and establish'd upon the Waters is not this the Earth we have describ'd the first Earth as it came from the hands of its Maker Where can we now find in Nature such an Earth as has the Seas and the Water for its foundation Neither is this Text without a second as a fellow-witness to confirm the same truth For in the 136. Psal. ver 4 5 6. we read to the same effect in these words To him who alone does great wonders To him that by wisdom made the Heavens's To him that stretchèd out the Earth above the Waters We can hardly express that form of the Ante-diluvian Earth in words more determinate than these are Let us then in the same simplicity of heart follow the words of Scripture seeing this literal sence is not repugnant to Nature but on the contrary agreeable to it upon the strictest examination And we cannot without some violence turn the words to any other sence What tolerable interpretation can these admit of if we do not allow the Earth ones to have encompass'd and overspread the face of the Waters To be founded upon the waters to be establish'd upon the waters to be extended upon the waters what rational or satisfactory account can be given of these phrases and expressions from any thing we find in the present situation of the Earth or how can they be verified concerning it Consult Interpreters ancient or modern upon these two places see if they answer your expectation or answer the natural importance of the words unless they acknowledge another form of the Earth than the present Because a Rock hangs its â—ose over the Sea must the body of the Earth be said to be stretched over the wà ters Or because there are waters in some subterraneous cavities is the Earth therefore founded upon the Seas Yet such lame explications as these you will meet with and while we have no better light we must content our selves with them but when an explication is offer'd that answers the propriety force and extent of the words to reject it onely because it is not fitted to our former opinions or because we did not first think of it is to take an ill method in expounding Scripture This Foundation or Establishment of the Earth upon the Seas this Extension of it above the waters relates plainly to the body or whole circuit of the Earth not to parcels and particles of it as appears from the occasion and its being joyn'd with the Heavens the other part of the World Besides David is speaking of the Origin of the World and of the Divine power and wisdom in the construction and situation of our Earth and these attributes do not appear from the holes of the Earth and broken Rocks which have rather the face of a ruin than of wisdom but in that wonderful libration and expansion of the first Earth over the face of the waters sustained by its own proportions and the hand of his Providence These two places in the Psalms being duly consider'd we shall more easily understand a third place to the same effect in the Proverbs delivered by WISDOM concerning the Origin of the World and the form of the first Earth in these words Chap. 8. 27. When he prepared the Heavens I was there when HE SET an Orb or Sphere upon the face of the Abyss We render it when we set a Compass upon the face of the Abyss but if we have rightly interpreted the Prophet David 't is plain enough what compass is here to be understood not an imaginary circle for why should that be thought one of the wonderful works of God but that exterior Orb of the Earth that was set upon the waters That was the Master-piece of the Divine art in framing of the first Earth and therefore very fit to be taken notice of by Wisdom And upon this occasion I desire you to reflect upon St. Peter's expression concerning the first Earth and to compare it with Solomon's to see if they do not answer one another St. Peter calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An Earth consisting standing or sustained by the waters And Solomon calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An Orb drawn upon the face of the Abyss And St. Peter says that was done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the wisdom of God which is the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or wisdom that here declares her self to have been present at this work Add now to these two places the two foremention'd out of the Psalmist An Earth founded upon the Seas Psal. 24. 2. and an Earth stretched out above the waters Psal. 136. 6. Can any body doubt or question but all these four Texts refer to the same thing And seeing St. Peter's description refers â—â—rtainly to the Ante-diluvian Earth they must all refer to it and do all as certainly and evidently agree with our Theory concerning the form and situation of it The pendulous form and posture of that first Earth being prov'd from these four places 't is more easie and emphatical to interpret in this sence that passage in Iob ch 26. 7. He stretcheth â—ut the North over the Tohu for so it is in the original and hangeth the Earth upon nothing And this strange foundation or no foundation of the exteriour Earth seems to be the ground of those noble questions propos'd to Iob by God Almighty Ch. 38. Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the Earth Declare if thou hast understanding Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastned and who laid the corner-stone There was neither foundation nor corner-stone in that piece of Architecture and that was it which made the art and wonder of it But I have spoken more largely to these places in the Theory it self And if the four Texts before-mentioned be consider'd without prejudice I think there are few matters of natural Speculation that can be so well prov'd out of Scripture as the Form which we have given to the Ante-diluvian Earth But yet it may be thought a just if not a necessary appendix to this discourse concerning the form of the Ante-diluvian Earth to give an account also of the Ante-diluvian Abyss and the situation of it according to Scripture for the relation which these two have to one another will be a further means to discover if we have rightly determin'd the form of that Earth The Abyss or Tehom-Rabbah is a Scripture notion and the word is not us'd that I know of in that distinct and peculiar sence in Heathen Authors 'T is plain that in Scripture it is not always taken for the Sea as Gen. 1. 2. 7. 11. 49. 25. Deut. 33. 13. Iob 28. 14. 38. 16. Psal. 33. 7. 71. 20 78. 15. 135. 6. Apoc. 20. 1. 3. but for some other mass of waters or subterraneous store-house And this being observ'd we may easily discover the nature and set down the History
am bound to make good I said at first that our Hypothesis concerning the Deluge was more agreeable not only to Scripture in general but also to the particular History of the Flood left us by Moses I say more agreeable to it than any other Hypothesis that hath yet been propos'd This may be made good in a few words For in Moses's History of the Deluge there are two principal points The extent of the Deluge and the Causes of it and in both these we do fully agree with that sacred Author As to the extent of it He makes the Deluge universal All the high hills under the whole heaven were cover'd fifteen cubits upwards We also make it universal over the face of the whole Earth and in such a manner as must needs raise the waters above the top of the highest Hills every where As to the canses of it Moses makes them to be the disruption of the Abyss and the Rains and no more and in this also we exactly agree with him we know no other causes nor pretend to any other but those two Distinguishing therefore Moses his narration as to the substance and circumstances of it it must be allowed that these two points make the substance of it and that an Hypothesis that differs from it in either of these two differs from it more than Ours which at the worst can but differ in matter of circumstance Now seeing the great difficulty about the Deluge is the quantity of Water required for it there have been two explications proposed besides ours to remove or satisfie this difficulty One whereof makes the Deluge not to have been universal or to have reacht only Iudea and some neighbouring Countries and therefore less water would suffice The other owning the Deluge to be universal supplies it self with Water from the Divine Omnipotenty and says new Waters were created then for the nonce and again annihilated when the Deluge was to cease Both these explications you see and I know no more of note that are not obnoxious to the same exceptions differ from Moses in the substance or in one of the two substantial points and consequently more than ours doth The first changeth the Flood into a kind of national inundation and the second assigns other causes of it than Moses had assigned And as they both differ apparently from the Mosaical History so you may see them refuted upon other grounds also in the third Chapter of the First Book of the Theory This may be sufficient as to the History of the Flood by Moses But possibly it may be said the principal objection will arise from Moses his Six-days Creation in the first Chapter of Genesis where another sort of Earth than what we have form'd from the Chaos is represented to us namely a Terraqueous Globe such as our Earth is at present 'T is indeed very apparent that Moses hath accommodated his Six days Creation to the present form of the Earth or to that which was before the eyes of the people when he writ But it is a great question whether that was ever intended for a true Physical account of the origine of the Earth or whether Moses did either Philosophize or Astronomize in that description The ancient Fathers when they answer the Heathens and the adversaries of Christianity do generally deny it as I am ready to make good upon another occasion And the thing it self bears in it evident marks of an accommodation and condescention to the vulgar notions concerning the form of the World Those that think otherwise and would make it literally and physically true in all the parts of it I desire them without entring upon the strict merits of the cause to determine these Preliminaries First whether the whole universe rise from a Terrestrial Chaos Secondly what Systeme of the World this Six-days Creation proceeds upon whether it supposes the Earth or the Sun for the Center Thirdly Whether the Sun and Fixt Stars are of a later date and a later birth than this Globe of Earth And lastly Where is the Region of the Super-celestial Waters When they have determin'd these Fundamentals we will proceed to other observations upon the Six-days work which will further assure us that 't is a narration suited to the capacity of the people and not to the strict and physical nature of things Besides we are to remember that Moses must be so interpreted in the first Chapter of Genesis as not to interfere with himself in other parts of his History nor to interfere with S. Peter or the Prophet David or any other Sacred Authors when they treat of the same matter Nor lastly so as to be repugnant to clear and uncontested Science For in things that concern the natural World that must always be consulted With these precautions let them try if they can reduce that narrative of the Origine of the World to physical truth so as to be consistent both with Nature and with Divine Revelation every where It is easily reconcileable to both if we suppose it writ in a Vulgar style and to the conceptions of the People And we cannot deny that a Vulgar style is often made use of in the holy Writings How freely and unconcernedly does Scripture speak of God Almighty according to the opinions of the vulgar of his passions local motions parts and members of his body Which all are things that do not belong or are not compatible with the Divine Nature according to truth and Science And if this liberty be taken as to God himself much more may it be taken as to his works And accordingly we see what motion the Scripture gives to the Sun what figure to the Earth what figure to the Heavens All according to the appearance of sence and popular credulity without any remorse for having transgressed the rules of intellectual truth This vulgar style of Scripture in describing the natures of things hath been often mistaken for the real sence and so become a stumbling-block in the way of truth Thus the Anthropomorphites of old contended for the humane shape of God from the Letter of Scripture and brought many express Texts for their purpose but sound reason at length got the upper hand of Literal authority Then several of the Christian Fathers contended that there were no Antipodes and made that doctrine irreconcileable to Scripture But this also after a while went off and yielded to reason and experience Then the Motion of the Earth must by no means be allow'd as being contrary to Scripture for so it is indeed according to the Letter and Vulgar style But all intelligent Persons see thorough this Argument and depend upon it no more in this case than in the former Lastly The original of the Earth from a Chaos drawn according to the rules of Physiology will not be admitted because it does not agree with the Scheme of the Six-days Creation But why may not this be writ in a Vulgar style as well as the rest Certainly