of one Country supplied by another as Canaan was by Egypt 2. It is ordinarily not sudden but gradual and foreseen before felt in the extremity which gives People opportunity of transmigrations 3. Though the ordinary supplies fail yet necessity makes Men ingenious and hardy and if they have but Landroom or Sea-room they find some supplies for their hunger which they did not before think of or use though it be otherwise in a close Siege but that is but a narrow compass and not of moment to be compared to the multitudes abroad 2. Plagues are indeed a sharp and speedy Visitation yet it hath these Allays 1. Many there are that are able to escape it by Flights some by Physick and some by their Age and Complexion 2. It is not ordinarily of long continuance the strength of the Disease seldom continuing longer than a Year 3. Though the Desolation be terrible while it lasts yet it rarely consumes one half of the Inhabitants The late Computation of the Number of the Inhabitants Men Women and Children in the City of London and the 16 and 10 Out-Parishes are estimated at 384000 and about six Millions in the whole Kingdom of England 2. The greatest Plagues in our remembrance have not swept away above 100000 at most in London and the Suburbs Indeed that before mentioned by Walsingham which was in a manner Universal and successively in several places of the World lasted about 15 Years is said to be so great that scarce a tenth part of People survived it yet if it left a tenth part suppose in England it left near a Million of People which in a little time would and did recover and increase considerably as shall be shewn 4. Again suppose the Devastation by Plagues greater than History gives us an Account yet it is for the most part a Disease that reigns in some times and some places it may fall in those places where the numbers are already too small and need an Increase And so taken singly by it self is incompetent and unsuitable to the Excess unless managed by the wise Conduct of Almighty God 3. Touching Wars and Internecions It is true it hath been a great Consumption of Mankind but yet it is not an equal Corrective of the Excess of Generations 1. Though such have happened and frequently yet they seem against the nature and disposition of Mankind ordinarily and in a course of Humane Constitution Naturally Mankind is a sociable Creature and more than Bees as the Philosopher observes and though sometimes Passions Jealousies and Politick ends produce Wars yet naturally Man is not a Creature of prey upon others as Lions and Tigers are 2. Ordinarily though Wars are by one Kingdom or State upon another yet they preserve their own Societies with increase under Forein Wars and therefore Civil Wars as they are more destructive so they are more rare because they are more unnatural and destructive to that which Men usually are careful to preserve namely their own Societies 3. It seems an improper and unsuitable Corrective because Accident and the Wills of Men have so great an Influence in the production of Wars whereby it may fall out that Wars may happen in those Ages Times or Places and consequently Devastations upon them where or when they need not to correct And though it be true that a Plethory or Excess of Numbers of Men sometimes by a kind of Natural or at least Moral Consequence cause Wars yet we have hardly known any produced singly upon that Account though it hath oftentimes occasioned Transmigrations deductions of Colonies and new Plantations and the World hath been never yet so full but a weaker or oppressed Party have sound room to retreat from the violence or insolence of their Oppressors 4. Touching Floods and Conflagrations It is true that Almighty God as he manageth the forementioned Reductives by his Wisdom and Providence so he hath done these especially in that Universal Deluge But as they are instanced in by the Philosophers as Natural or Periodical Events whereby Mankind is reduced to an equability we have no reason to believe them Therefore I say 1. That there doth not appear either in History or in the Observation of Nature any such Periodical Floods or Conflagrations those that we have Relations of happened indeed near together and in the same Country viz. in Greece had they been Periodical or Natural probably either by a continued Circulation or Rotation or else by the interposition of some reasonable intervals the like would have happened before in Persia or some Easterly parts of Asia or since in Italy or Germany or some other Western parts of the World which we have not observed to be And therefore this Supposition of the Hyems magna whereby parts of the Earth should be successively drowned seems to be only an Imagination or at least it cannot be known with any tolerable certainty in as much as the Periods are supposed to be vast and not happening within any competent time to give us an Observation or Proof thereof And therefore although we yearly see a reduction of the numerous increase of Insects by the Winter Frost and Storms yearly happening we have no warrant from thence to imagin that great Winter that must make the like reduction of Men and Brutes for every Year gives us Experience of the one but never any Age gave us any reasonable Observation upon which to build an Hypothesis of the like Periodical Revolution of the other and the same I say touching Conflagrations Indeed there have been accidental and particular Instances of both but not any Periodical Return or Revolutions thereof quasi in quodam ambitu circuitu naturali 2. If such were supposed yet unless they were very sudden and very general they would not be sufficient to make the Correction Men would escape Floods by running up to Mountains and Hills and though some might perish through improvidence or though the suddenness of a Deluge many would escape 3. Natural and Periodical Floods or Conflagrations would not be sutable nor commensurate to the Increase which depending either upon Accidents or the Wills of Men would possibly be more in one place than in another The Country of Palestine would be more peopled than the Sands and Desarts of Arabia Egypt than the Mountains of Ethiopia and fruitful Countries or Countries open to Trade and safe from Incursions and Invasions more populous than barren Countries or such as are out of the way of Trade or subject to Inroads But Natural and Periodical Floods or Conflagrations would probably keep some constant or ordinary Tract or Course either from East to West or from North to South and possibly keeping in such a Climate or Latitude possibly in another whereby possibly these Plagues might be more fierce in those places or Continents where the World wants People and less vehement in those places where there needs a Corrective for their excess If these should be Universal they would destroy the Race
the Continent of Asia about Japan or Cathay so that a Land-passage might be out of Asia into Groenland and thence into America But this is only conjectured and not fully discovered to be so But however the Case now stands with the three known Parts of the World in relation to its contiguity with the Continent of America it is not impossible but in that long tract of 4000 Years at least which hath hapned since the Universal Deluge there hath been great alterations in the situations of the Sea and Earth possibly there might be anciently Necks of Land that maintained passage and communication by Land between the two Continents Many Instances of this kind are remembred by Pliny not only of the great Atlantick Island mentioned by the Egyptian Priest in Plato's Timaeus of a great bigness almost contiguous to the Western parts of Spain and Africa yet wholly swallowed up by that Ocean to which it hath given its Name of the Atlantick Ocean which if true might for ought we know afford a Passage from Africa to America by Land before that Submersion but also many more Instances of the like Variations thus he reports that Sicily was anciently divided from Italy Cyprus from Syria Euboea from Boetia Vide Plin. l. 2. cap. 88 89 90 91. Strabo also in his first Book seems to referr the Straits or Apertures of the Euxin and Mediterranean Seas to the like separations made by the force of the Sea and attributes those great Floods and Inundations to the elevation and subsiding of the Moles terrestris in these words Restat ut causam adscribamus solo sive quod mari subest sive quod inundatur potius tamen ei quod mari subest hoc enim multo est mobilius quod ob humiditatem celerius mutari possit Spiritus enim hujusmodi omnium rerum causa ibi est copiosior Sed sicuti dixi causa horum efficiens accidentium est quod eadem sola alias attolluntur alias subsidunt and he resembles the ordinary Elevations and Depressions whereby the ordinary Fluxes and Refluxes are made to the Exspiration and Respiration of Animals but those greater and extraordinary Elevations and Depressions of the Earth to the greater Accidents Nam diluvia terraemotus eruptiones flatuum tumores subiti terrae in mari latentis mare quoque extollunt subsidentésque in se eaedem terrae faciunt ut mare dimittatur And it is no new or feigned Observation That as the Volcans in the Land as Aetna and Vesuvius raise up those great Protuberances which seem Natural Mountains so the like Volcans or Fiery Eruptions happen sometimes in the Land subjected to the Sea whereby great quantities of Earth together with Fire are thrown up and grow into Islands De quibus videsis Strabonem Plinium in locis citatis And if we may give credit to the Conjectures of Verstegan the Countries of England and France were formerly conjoyned and after separated by the Irruption of the Sea between Dover and Calais And therefore although it may be that at this day there is no Land-passage from this Elder World unto that of America yet within the tract of 4000 Years such there might have been whereby both Men and Beasts especially from about Tartary or China might pass or between Norway or Finland and the Northern part of the American Continent But we need not go so far from home nor resort to the Ages of ancient times for the evincing the great Changes that have been between the Sea and Lands sometimes by tempestuous Winds sometimes by Earthquakes sometimes and that most commonly by the working of the Sea by casting up Silt and Sand and by exaggerations thereby wrought elegantly described by Ovid 15. Metamorph. Vidi ego quod fuerat quondam solidissima tellus Esse fretum vidi factas ex aequore terras Et procul à pelago conchae jacuere marinae Et vetus inventa est in montibus anchora summis Quódque fuit campus vallem decursus aquarum Fecit eluvie mons est deductus in aequor Eque paludosa siccis humus aret arenis The Instances of latter Discoveries which make evident this various state of the Globe of Earth and Water thus described by the Poet are among others those that follow 1. Some Towns that were anciently Havens and Ports where Ships did ride are now by exaggeration of Sand between those Towns and the Sea converted into firm Land 2 3 4 Miles distant from the Sea such was S t Omer in Flanders Old Rumney in Kent Rye in Suffolk vide Mr. Dugdale his History of Draining pag. 173. and the Authors there cited by him 2. some whole Countries as well as the Egyptian Delta recovered to be dry Land partly by the exaggeration of Sand by the Sea or the out-falls of great Rivers thus the whole Country of Holland seems to be an Accretion partly by the Sea partly by the River Rhine Dugdale ibid. p. 12. 3. Some great Continents and Tracts of Ground were anciently firm Land and full of great Woods that could not have less time than 500 Years continuance and yet were afterwards reduced again into the Dominion of the Ocean and after all that re-reduced into firm Land leaving the infallible Signatures of these several Changes though the precise times thereof exceed the Memory of any Men alive Instances whereof are as follow In the great Level near Thorny several Trees of Oak and Firr some severed from their Roots others joyned to their Roots which stand in firm Earth below the Moor and in all probability have lain there hundreds of Years till covered by the inundation of the fresh and salt Waters and the Silt and Moorish Earth exaggerated upon them and the like monuments of great Trees buried in great quantities in the Isle of Axholm about 3 Foot and some 5 Foot under ground whereof there are multitudes some Oaks of 5 Yards in compass Firr-Trees of 30 Foot long Vide Dugd. ubi supra pag. 141 171. Mr. Ray in his Ingenious Observations upon his Travels in the Netherlands c. pag. 6. gives us the like account of great quantities of subterraneous Woods lying 10 and 20 Ells below the Superficies of the Ground prostrate towards the East which are supposed to be anciently thrown down by the irruption of the Sea and strong Western Winds which yet now and for all the time of the Memory of Man or History extant are firm Land namely Bruges in Flanders But that one Instance is instar omnium remembred by Mr. Dugdale ubi supra pag. 172 but of known and notorious truth the Sceleton of a great Sea-fish above 20 Foot long found in the Downs or Uplands of Cammington in Huntingdonshire very far distant from the Sea which is an unquestionable Evidence that the Sea was sometime Master of that Tract of Ground 4. Touching the Conchae marinae of several sorts it is most unquestionable I referr my self herein to the Relation of Mr.
Terra S. Dionysii Ecclesia S. Martini and others according to my best Computation and Observation 82. Besides these under the Title of the Poffessions of S t Peter of Glouc ' there are reckoned up as many Burgenses as yielded the Abbot anciently the Rent of 19 s and 5 d and 16 Salmons but at that time 16 Salmons and 50 s Rent without any certain number of Burgesses but if we allow 6 d for a Burgess we may suppose them to 100. The Total 255. The Mannor of Barton or the Barton of Glouc ' some part whereof hath been taken into the Suburbs of Glouc ' was of two Owners part was the King's Lands part belonged to the Abbey of S t Peters but the whole number of the Housholders inhabiting the whole Barton with its members Tuffly Barnwood c. were as followeth Villani 56 Bordarii 39 Servi 19 Molini 04 Liberi homines 10 In toto 128 And the Total of the whole Account of the City of Glouc ' the Barton with its members Brewere Upton Merwin Barnwood Tuffly Norwent amounted then only to 383. And the single City of Gloucester within the Walls contains at this day near 1000 Houses and Housholds Again the Borough and Mannor of Barclay with the members thereof enumerated in Doomsday viz. Alkington Hinton Cam Gosington Dersiloge Cowly Ewly Nimsfield Wotton Simondshall Kingscote Beverscote Oselword Almondsbury part of Cromhall Harefell Weston Elberton Cromale Erlingham Escelword are surveyed to contain in the whole to 590 Families whereas at this time there are near 5000 Families in this Precinct the Parish of Wotton yielding upon the point of 2000 Comunicants and that of Dersilege above 500 at this day Again Tetbury and the Hamlet of Upton belonging to it the Survey of Doomsday gives us an Account of about 73 Families of all kinds belonging to it But now I believe there are little less than 1500 Communicants in that Parish Sodbury the Survey gives us an Account of about 46 Families of all sorts they are now near twenty times so many Thornbury with the Hamlets thereunto belonging the Account of Doomsday is of 105 Families of all sores there is now near six times so many Aderly a little Village at the time of making of that Survey consisting not of above 17 Families of all sorts now above twice as many The like Instances might be produced with the like evidence of very great Increases in the Towns of Cirencester Minchin Hampton Teuxbury Campden Winchcomb Avening Westbury near Bristol and generally through the whole County of Gloucester which I do not without just reason suppose hath more than twenty times the Inhabitants which it had at the time of the coming in of William the First which is not now above 604 Years since And if we should institute a later Comparison viz. between the present time and the beginning of Queen Elizabeth which is not above 112 Years since and compare the numbers of Trained Souldiers then and now the number of Subsidy-men then and now they will easily give us an Account of a very great Increase and Multiplication of People within this Kingdom even to admiration And let any man but consider the Increase of London within the compass of 40 or 50 Years we shall according to the Observations framed to my hands find That the In-Parishes until the late Fire in that time have increased from 9 to 10 or a 10 th part and that the 16 Out-Parishes have in that time increased from 7 to 12 and yet without any decrement or decay of the rest of the Kingdom By which and infinite undeniable Instances that might be given it is apparent that within the compass of the last 600 Years this Kingdom hath increased mightily in its number of Native Inhabitants And yet it is most apparent that it hath had as great Allays and Abatements of the Multiplication of Mankind in it as any Kingdom in the World For Instance 1. In respect of the nature of its Situation which is all Maritim and consists much in Navigation which exhausts abundance of People by Diseases and Casualties at Sea 2. It hath been as often visited with sore Pestilences Epidemical Diseases and Mortality by reason thereof as any Country the experience of the last 60 Years gives us abundance of Instances thereof and former Ages were as frequently visited in this kind as later 3. Forein Wars both at Sea and Land have devoured great multitudes of our Inhabitants as those formerly with Scotland France Spain and lately with the Netherlands and French 4. No Kingdom in Europe hath had greater Experience of Civil Wars nor greater Consumption of Men thereby than England hath had since the time of William the First For not to instance in our Wars with the Welsh and Irish let any man read but the Histories of the Wars here in England between King Stephen and H. 1. and his Mother King John and his Nobles King H. 3. and the Nobility between King E. 2. and the Earls of Lancaster and Mortimer the Wars between the two Houses of York and Lancaster and their Partizans from the time of H. 4. unto the beginning of H. 7. in one Battel between H. 6. and E. 4. killed of one side 30000 the Rebellions in the times of H. 7. and others the Kings and Queens that succeeded him and the loss of many lives that happened by the suppression thereof the late cruel Wars within these 30 Years last past in England there cannot be Instances given in any one Kingdom of greater Abatements of the Increase by Wars and Internecions than may be given in England 5. Let us also consider the vast Evacuations of Men that England hath had by Forein Assistances lent to Forein Kingdoms and States by Volunteers and Auxiliaries as to Scotland in the late Queens time to France to the Netherlands to Germany 6. To these also add the vast numbers of Men that have transplanted themselves not only into France Holland and our neighbour Nations but also to Virginia Maryland New England Barbadoes Bermudas to Amboyna and other places in the East India and lastly into Jamaica we shall find upon these and other Accounts that England hath had as great Correctives of the Excesses of their Generations within these last 600 Years as any People in the World Add to these the great Famines and Pestilences which have happened within the compass of 600 Years recorded in History and obvious to our own Experience And therefore if notwithstanding all these Correctives the number of Men have continually increased and that in so vast and observable a degree above their decrease we have as much reason to conclude a parity in the rest of Mankind and possibly were we as well acquainted with the Concerns of other Kingdoms or States especially of the Netherlands and France the Instances of this Increase would he as much and possibly more conspicuous than among us Upon the whole matter therefore I conclude That as the Correctives instanced in the
thereof to be the Rule and Guide of his Sentiments though he be drawn by the necessity of Reason to grant and conclude that Man must needs have an Origination and that in another way than now he hath namely ex non genitis yet it is not reasonable for him to conclude that he had this Origination upon a bare natural account as the Insects and sponte orta have because it quite thwarts and crosses all the appearances of Nature and is wholly incongruous to the nature of things as they now stand And a Man that makes such a Conclusion must needs offer violence to his own Reason and Experience and depart from those Laws and Rules of Nature which he makes his Guide and the Compass by which he steers his Judgment touching things and suppose that natural which is wholly different from what it seems And consequently if the reason and nature of things compel a Man to assert that Mankind had their Origination another way than that in which it now is the same reason and nature of things duly and impartially considered must needs evince that it had not its Origination from any either casual or meer natural course of things But by the Power and Will of a most wise intelligent bountiful free and powerful Being who according to his Wisdom and Goodness first gave being to Man yea and all other things secundùm intentionem beneplacitum suae voluntatis And since it is apparently necessary for any Man that will admit the first production of Mankind to be totally in another Method than now and since they that will suppose a natural production of Man at first must necessarily suppose a different production from that which now obtains And since no more is asserted by those that suppose its Origination by the Will Power and Institution of Almighty God this latter Supposition is much more reasonable and explicable than theirs that suppose the first Origination natural yet totally different from what now it is which is the great thing I intend in this long process touching the Origination of Man CAP. VII Touching the Matter of Fact it self whether de facto there hath been any such Origination of Mankind or of any perfect Animal either Natural or Casual THis I propounded as a distinct Inquiry at the first namely Whether or how far forth we have any Evidence of Fact touching any such casual or natural production of perfect Animals but especially of Man But the truth is that this is but an Appendix to the former Chapter for if there be any credible Instance of any such Production all or any reasoning against the possibility thereof is but vain for what hath been naturally or casually may be again But on the other side if in all the Successions of the Ages of the World there hath not been any Experience or credible Instance of any such Production but contrarywise since Mankind was first upon the Earth both Mankind and all perfect Animals have had their being by natural Procreation and Generation by conjunction of Sexes it is a frenzy for any Man that pretends to Reason to suppose a natural possibility of that to be either from a casual or meer natural Cause which never had any Instance of its being or existence in such a manner The World hath now upon the shortest Account lasted above 5600 Years and within the compass of these Ages of the World there have been in many Nations especially among the Egyptians and Grecians Men of great Wisdom and Understanding and singular Industry to search into the History of Nature and many of them have had great opportunities to know very much therein and since their times especially the generality of the wiser and more inquisitive sort of Men being allarmed by the Writings of those that went before them have made it their business to search yet farther and the Learned in all Ages have left the Essays of their Learning Reason and Observation to succeeding Ages and if any Prodigy or considerable Production hath happened in their times they have sent us the News of it But never in all the Ages of the World since those 5600 Years hath there been any credible Relation either of the casual or natural production of a Horse or a Dog much less of a Man or a Woman happening within the compass of that time abating some Poetical Fictions and Fables that have no colour of any Authentick History or Authority And therefore Scaliger well saith Exercit. 193. Si bos aliquando ex putri ortus cur post hominum memoriam ex ejusmodi procreatione nullus extitit and therefore Aristotle the wisest Pagan Philosopher that ever wrote and the strictest observer and searcher into Nature even upon the account of Experience and Reason tells us Lib. 3. de Gen. Animal cap. ult that there never hath been nor can be according to the Rules of Nature any such Production though by way of Supposition that it some times had been he gives us that Hypothesis of it that seemed to him most likely And upon this very account and partly because he was not acquainted with the Truths of God or at least because he was not willing to acknowledge any other Original of things but by Nature he took up the Opinion of his Predecessor Ocellus touching the Eternity of the World and of Mankind in it and so absolved the difficulty of the Manner of the Origination of Mankind by denying it And therefore we have no reason to believe any such thing since we find nothing in any Authentick History of any Man or perfect Animal since the first Being of Man upon the Earth hath been thus produced abating the Fables of Poets touching the production of Men and Women out of Stones by Deucalion and Pyrrha cast over their heads the Serpents Teeth sowed by Cadmus the production of Castor and Pollux out of an Egg and those forlorn Fables of Beregardus of the Green Man found in England in the Den of a Wolf 500 years since the Blew and Red Men of Rabbi Elcha that came out of the Mountains of Armenia And therefore for want of any credible or particular Instances of any such production Caesalpinus supposeth that they are in some unknown Mountains between the Tropicks where the Heat of the Sun is more constant fervent and equable than in Climates remoter from the Equinoctial though he neither doth nor can give any Instance of such a production there or elsewhere To excuse this unexperienced Notion and the difficulty of assigning any Instance thereof they allude these ensuing Apologies 1. That these Productions cannot be but under some notable Conjunction or Position of the Heavenly Bodies which may be accommodate to such Productions which Positions or Conjunctions not happening but after vast and distant Revolutions the Experiment it self can rarely happen and by length of time before the like Revolution return it is forgotten 2. That those Productions could not be but in Matter excellently prepared
that is analogal to the state of the Elementary and mixed Inanimate Bodies that there are some more active and vigorous Qualities that seem continually to exercise a Sovereignty and Tyranny over the more passive and weak Natures and prey upon them Thus Heat and also in some degree Cold are always persecuting and foyning at the weaker and more unactive parts of Nature So among Brutes Birds Fishes Insects there is a continual invading and prevalence of the more powerful active and lively over the more weak flegmatick and unactive Creatures the Bear Lion Wolf Dog Fox c. pursue the Sheep Oxen Hare Coney c. and prey upon them the like is evident among Birds and Fishes and generally Insects being the weaker and more inconsiderable parts of Nature 2. That the vicissitudes of Generation and Corruption are by a kind of standing Law in Nature fixed in things and the Notions and Qualities of Natural things are so ordered to keep always that great Wheel in circulation and therein the Accesses and Recesses of the Sun the Influxes of the Heat thereof and of the other Heavenly Bodies and the mutual and restless Agitation of those two great Engins in Nature Heat and Cold are the great Instruments of keeping on foot the Rotation and Circle of Generations and Corruptions especially of Animals and Vegetables of all sorts 3. That yet these Motions of Generations and Corruptions and of the conducibles thereunto are so wisely and admirably ordered and contemperated and so continually managed and ordered by the wise Providence of the Rector of all things that things are kept in a certain due stay and equability and though the Motions of Generations and Corruptions and the Instruments and Engins thereof are in a continual course neither the excess of Generations doth oppress and over-charge the World nor the defect thereof or prevalence of Corruptions doth put a Period to the Species of things nor work a total Dissolution in Nature And upon this seemingly impertinent Diversion touching the Reductions and Correctives of these inferior Animals there may seem to be collected reasonably an analogical Inference of the like means of the Correctives of the Generations of Mankind and that although in an ordinary course of Humane Productions the Increase surmounts the Decay yet there may be reasonably supposed such Periodical Corrections as might fairly keep the state of Mankind in a mediocrity and equability although it should be supposed the Generations of Mankind had been Eternal And although these Correctives may not happen every Day or every Year in the ordinary course of things and therefore may be called extraordinary because they are less ordinary than the common Casualties of Mankind as Sickness or Accident that happens to this or that individual Person promiscuously yet they are in truth no more extraordinary than a cold Winter is extraordinary which although it is not every Day nor doth it happen every Year possibly in an equal Degree yet it is no extraordinary thing in Nature if it happens once in 5 or 10 or 20 Years Having therefore considered these Correctives in the inferior Animal Nature I shall now search out what may be those Correctives that may be applicable to the Reductions of the Generations of Mankind to an Equability or at least to keep it within such bounds as may keep it from surcharging the World whereby if in the Period of 2 or 3 or 4000 Years it may grow too luxuriant yet it may in probability be so far abated as may allow it an Increase of the like number of Years to attain its former proportion So that by these Prunings there may be a consistency of the Numbers of Mankind with an eternal succession of Individuals Those Reductions that may be supposed effectual for these Ends and such as the course of Mankind seem to have had great Experiences of are 1. Plagues and Epidemical Diseases 2. Famines 3. Wars and Internecions 4. Floods and Inundations 5. Conflagrations 1. Concerning Plagues and Epidemical Diseases the Histories of all times give us Accounts of the great Devastations that they have made in many places and sometimes it hath been it is true only in some particular Regions or Cities but at other times it hath been more universal and although at the same time in some Seasons it hath not universally prevailed yet it hath gradually and successively moved from place to place The ancient Plagues of former Ages in Forein Parts have been very terrible and cut off multitudes of People See a Collection of some of them by D r Hakewill lib. 2. sect 3. as namely That Plague in Ethiopia and also in most parts of the Roman Empire in the Year of Christ 250 which continued 15 Years and left not so many People in Alexandria as there were formerly aged Men that under Justinian in Constantinople and the parts adjacent wherein there dyed 10000 in a Day that in Africa whereby according to Procopius in the Country of Numidia there dyed 800000 Persons that in Greece under Michael Duca which so prevailed that the living were not sufficient to bury the dead and that in Italy in the Year 1359 whereby there were not left ten of a thousand this possibly may be the same mentioned by Walsingham but referred to the Year of Christ 1349 that prevailed over the World beginning in the Northern and Southern parts that the living were not able to bury the dead Existimabatur à pluribus quod vix decima pars hominum fuisset relicta ad vitam and presently after followed a great Murrain of Cattel so that he concludes Tanta ex his malis miseria secuta est quod mundus ad pristinum statum redeundi nunquam postea habuit facultatem Vide Lipsium de Constantia lib. 2. cap. 23. And if we look upon our own Country besides those great Plagues that have been in a manner universal there have been very many such in England sometimes more general sometimes more circumscribed to particular Cities or places As that Plague in the North parts of England mentioned by Walsingham in the beginning of R. 2. that in a manner depopulated those Parts that mentioned by the same Author Anno 7 H. 4. whereby there dyed in one Year 30000 in London which was considerable then considering the narrowness of the City in those days comparatively to what it now is besides the great desolation it made in the Country If we come to latter Years both in England and in Forein Parts the Observator of the Bills of Mortality before mentioned hath given us the best Account of the Number that late Plagues have swept away for Instance In London Anno Dom. 1592 of the Plague 11503 Anno Dom. 1593 10662 Anno Dom. 1603 30562 Anno Dom. 1625 35400 Anno Dom. 1636 10400 Anno Dom. 1665 68596 We have also Accounts of the great Devastations made by the Plague in late Years in Forein Parts In Amsterdam between 1622 and 1664 84564 And in the Year 1664
by Wars Oppressions and Internecions Plagues Famines and other Calamities we find the Product of one Nation derived from only two Persons Isaac and Rebecca in the compass of about 5000 Years swoln into incredible numbers of Millions of Persons now existing and known to be of that Linage and Descent and still continuing unquestionably in that Distinction besides those multitudes derived from the Line of Esau and the ten Tribes which are as it were lest and confounded without any distinction among other Nations And thus far of the first Instance concerning the Multiplication of the Nation of the Jews The next Instance that I shall give shall be nearer home the Kingdom of England I shall not give any Instance touching it before the Conquest because those times are dark and besides the Vicissitudes and Successions of various Nations in this Kingdom renders the discovery of the Progress of Generations of Men or the Increases thereof difficult as Britons Romans Picts Saxons and Danes The ancient Inhabitants were the Britons the Body of which People hath been in a great measure shut up and contained within the Country of Wales but what by the transplanting of many of the Welsh into England and by transplanting of the English into Wales it is not possible to say that all the Britons are confined to the Country of Wales or that none but Britons are there and therefore there can be no particular or evident Conclusion made touching their Increase or Multiplication But I shall take a shorter Period or Compass of Time namely the last 600 Years or thereabouts since the Norman Conquest And although it may be true that many Persons of Forein Countries have come into England and planted themselves here so that the whole Increase of this Kingdom cannot be singly attributed to those that were either Natives or such as came in with the Conquerour but many Scotcâ— Irish Dutch but especially French either by Naturalizations or Transmigrations have increased the Inhabitants of this Island yet considering that probably the Migrations of the English into Scotland Holland France and other Countries have made amends for their Migrations hither We may make a reasonable Conjecture that the Descendents from those that inhabited this Kingdom in the time of the Conquerour have increased exceedingly above what they were in that time And the Evidence thereof is this King William the First after his Victory over Herald did in the 16 th Year of his Reign over England caule a Survey to be made of all the Cities Towns Mannors and inhabited Lands in England Northumberland Cumberland Durham and North-Wales This Survey was finished in the 20 th Year of his Reign and the Book it self preserved to this Day among the Records of the Exchequer not only a Transcript or Copy but the very Original Book it self and is called Doomsday In this Book are entred the Names of the Mannors or inhabited Townships Boroughs and Cities and the Owner of them the Number of Plough-Lands that each contains and the Number of the Inhabitants upon them under the several Names appropriate to those Places As for Instance Ibi 12 Burgenses 5 Villani 5 Bordarii 5 Nativi 5 Radiminches 5 Cotterelli and the like according to the quality or condition of the Inhabitants So that this Book in effect gives an Account not only of the Manurable Lands in every Mannor Town or Vill but also of the Number and Natures of their several Inhabitants To make a Calculation of the Number of Plough-Lands and Inhabitants through all England as they are recorded and to make therewith a Comparison unto the present State and Number of Inhabitants at this Day throughout England is a laborious piece of work but it is not difficult to be done in any one County I have tryed the Comparison in the County of Gloucester through some great Boroughs as Gloucester it self Thornbury Tetbury and other places and in effect through the whole County and I do find 1. That there are very many more Vills and Hamlets now than there were then and very few Villages Towns or Parishes then which continue not to this Day but now there are as many as then and many more The 5 th of March 9 E. 2. there issued Writs to the Sheriffs of the several Counties to return the Names of the several Vills and Land-Owners in their several Bayliwicks which was accordingly done and remains of Record in the Exchequer under the stile of Nomina Villarum and the Sum of the Vills of Gloucestershire together with the five Boroughs of Gloucester Bristol Berkley Dursly and Newenham amounted to 234 which I take it are more than are in Doomsday and yet not so many as are at this day and those that continue to this day are far more populous than they were at the taking of either of those Surveys 2. That there is much more Tillage and more Plough-Lands now than there were then which happens by the reduction of many great Wasts and Commons into Tillage or Meadow or Pasture which then were only Wasts and therefore not particularly surveyed because of no considerable Value and not taken notice of in that Survey 3. That the number of Inhabitants now are above twenty times more than they were at that time as well in particular Towns Boroughs and Mannors as in the general extent of the County and yet that Survey even as to the number and quality of those that resided in those Towns or Mannors at least as Housholders is very precise and particular I have not yet made an exact particular Calculation of the Number recorded in that Book through the whole County but I will give a few Instances of particular Towns which may give an estimate touching the whole Gloucester is now a very great and populous City formerly before the time of H. 8. a Borough In the Survey of Doomsday it is surveyed distinct from the Bertun of Glouc ' the gross of the Borough is surveyed together in the beginning of the County but there are some other particular Burgages thereof mentioned under the Titles of particular Mens Possessions as Terra Rogeri de Lacy Terra Elnuffi de Hesding c. The whole concretion of the City of Gloucester consists partly of what was the ancient Borough partly of accessions from the Mannors or Villages adjacent as Barton and some others I shall therefore cast up the whole Number of all that were in Gloc ' or Barton In the Survey of Gloucester there are reckoned 23 Burgages and Houses 16 that were demolished for the building of the Castle 14 that were wasted and some that belonged to Osbertus Episcopus not numbred but yielded the yearly Rent of 10 Shillings which according to the usual rate of the Houses in Gloucester at that time which was at 5 d or 6 d a House might produce 20 Houses in toto 73. Besides these there are surveyed under the Titles of several Owners of Lands sparsim through the Book as under the Title
last Chapter are not in themselves likely to be sufficient and sutable to the Reduction of the Increase of Mankind to an Equability especially in an infinite succession of Eternal Generations So by plain Experience it is apparent and sensible that de facto they have not done it in a finite limit of Ages but Mankind have notwithstanding them increased every Age and the multitude of them that are born and live over-ballance the number of them that dye communibus annis or being taken upon a medium though possibly some one Year gave the advantage of Number to the Descendents yet it is not common nor ordinary but more than two or three Years for one give the advantage of Number to them that are born and live CAP. XI The Consequence and Illation upon the Premisses against the Eternity of Mankind THe great Assertors of the Eternity of the World and of Mankind have certainly gathered their Opinion principally from this That they find that Mankind is propagated by ordinary course of Generation and this they see by Experience And as they do so now so they did a hundred or a thousand Years since and as far as those Histories they credit give them account it was so in those times and in the times before them as far as Tradition could instruct them And although those various Occurrences of Wars Pestilences Migrations Floods Changes of Religion and Languages have obscured the Histories Relations and Traditions of former times before those Histories that are extant yet they think it becomes them as reasonable Men to believe that things have been always so as now they are and that it were a fondness to suppose or believe things to be otherwise than they have appeared in the tract of all Times or Ages And upon the same ground that these Men assert the Eternity of the World the Instance and Argument now produced of the plain and experienced Increase of the numbers of Men upon the face of the Earth seems much more forcibly to conclude against that supposed Eternity of Mankind For it is plain and evident to Sense that the World grows every day fuller than formerly notwithstanding all those Correctives and Reductives thereof And we have reason to think it is so in all places at least one with another and in all Ages and among all People as we find it in England for these 600 Years or among the People of the Jews for above 2000 Years For among these People and in these Periods of Time there have been as many and as great Diminutions and Abatements as ever were in such Periods of Time and yet though perchance in one Age they have diminished yet they have not been so diminished but that in the compass of four or five hundred Years their Increase above what they were before such Diminution is upon a medium always exceeding their Decay And since we have reason to believe what we see namely the Excess of Generations above their Decays we have reason to believe it was so always and if it were so always it is not possible the Generations of Mankind could be eternal For if we should suppose the Eternity of the World an Increase of but one Man in the Period of Millions of Years would have filled more space than all the Earth or the Concave of Heaven could receive For in as much as in a Duration that never had a Beginning there must needs be infinite Millions of Years the Increase of one Man in every Million above what was before must needs produce an infinite coexisting number and an infinite moles of Mankind much more if the Increase were in any measure proportionable to what our daily Experiences give us Instances of Whereby we find that although it be possible that several Families may be wholly extinct in a Kingdom in the Period of 5 or 600 Years and though possibly in some one Age there may be a diminution of the People of a Kingdom from what they were in the Age before yet in the succession of a very few Ages they again increase beyond the diminution and neither successively decrease nor hold an equality which we may reasonably suppose to be the common condition of the World And as to that Supposition That even upon a Natural account when the World grows too full of Inhabitants they must break the Bonds of Society and Peace and so diminish each other by Internecions and Wars As Air compressed or expanded beyond the measure of the Vessel containing it breaks the Vessel wherein it is compressed to give it self room I shall only say that although the Pride and Ambition and Insolence of neighbouring Princes or People or the sense of too much Oppression and Hardship hath many times raised Wars yet we never knew Wars to grow meerly upon the account of the Fulness of any Country indeed that Plethory hath many times occasioned Emigrations and Transplantations and Navigation and increase of Trade or Manufactures and other industrious Employments but Wars have always grown upon other Occasions though as I before observe the great wise and intellectual Governour of the World hath by his over-ruling Conduct of the Passions of Men brought about ends for the convenience and benefit of Mankind in this respect also as well as to punish their Excesses and Enormities CAP. XII The Eighth Evidence of Fact proving the Origination of Mankind namely the Consent of Mankind I Come now to the Eighth and last Evidence of Fact proving the Origination of Mankind namely The general Consent of Mankind in that Perswasion wherein I shall pursue this Order First to consider the more Popular or Vulgar Opinion of Nations in all or most Places and Ages of the World agreeing in this Sentiment or Perswasion and what may be reasonably concluded of the truth or at least great probability of the truth of that Supposition of the Origination of Mankind upon the Supposition of such a Consent Secondly to consider the more restrained Perswasion of the Learned and more considerate sort of Men that guided themselves in their Sentiments not barely upon Popular or Vulgar Opinions but searched deeper into the Reasons and Evidences of things namely the learneder Tribe of Men Physiologists and Philosophers And then I shall also consider the several Suppositions of those that agreed in that Perswasion touching the several Manners and Methods of such Originations and wherein their several Suppositions seem to be deficient insufficient or untrue First touching the National or Popular Opinions touching the Origination of Mankind There hath prevailed among the generality of Mankind a common Perswasion that Mankind had an Original ex non genitis and those Nations that pretend to the greatest Antiquity suppose themselves to be Terrigenae or at least by some other Method than the ordinary course of Generation Kircherus in his Oedipus Aegyptiacus Syntagm 3. Cap. 1. out of Maimonides gives us an Account of the Zabei descended from Cush and inhabiting the Coast of the Red