Chanels of the other Hemisphere This indeed would in some measure answer the Notion which several of the Ancient Fathers make use of that the Rivers of Paradise were trajected out of the other Hemisphere into this by Subterraneous passages But I confess I could never see it possible how such a trajection could be made nor how they could have any motion being arriv'd in another Hemisphere and therefore I am apt to believe that doctrine amongst the Ancients arose from an intanglement in their principles They suppos'd generally that Paradise was in the other Hemisphere as we shall have occasion to show hereafter and yet they believ'd that Tigris Euphrates Nile and Gunges were the Rivers of Paradise or came out of it and these two opinions they could not reconcile or make out but by supposing that these four Rivers had their Fountain-heads in the other Hemisphere and by some wonderful trajection broke out again here This was the expedient they found out to make their opinions consistent one with another but this is a method to me altogether unconceivable and for my part I do not love to be led our of my depth leaning only upon Antiquity How there could be any such communication either above ground or under-ground betwixt the two Hemispheres does not appear and therefore we must still suppose the Torrid Zone to have been the Barrier betwixt them which nothing could pass either way We have now examin'd and determin'd the state of the Air and of the Waters in the Primitive Earth by the light and consequences of reason and we must not wonder to find them different from the present order of Nature what things are said of them or relating to them in Holy Writ do testifie or imply as much and it will be worth our time to make some reflection upon those passages for our further confirmation Moses tells us that the Rainbow was set in the Clouds after the Deluge those Heavens then that never had a Rain-bow before were certainly of a constitution very different from ours And S. Peter doth formally and expresly tell us that the Old Heavens or the Ante-diluvian Heavens had a different constitution from ours and particularly that they were compos'd or constituted of Water which Philosophy of the Apostle's may be easily understood if we attend to two things first that the Heavens he speaks of were not the Starry Heavens but the Aereal Heavens or the Regions of our Air where the Meteors are Secondly That there were no Meteors in those Regions or in those Heavens till the Deluge but watery Meteors and therefore he says they consisted of Water And this shows the foundation upon which that description is made how coherently the Apostle argues and answers the objection there propos'd how justly also he distinguisheth the first Heavens from the present Heavens or rather opposeth them one to another because as those were constituted of Water and watery Meteors only so the present Heavens he saith have treasures of Fire fiery Exhalations and Meteors and a disposition to become the Executioners of the Divine wrath and decrees in the final Conflagration of the Earth This minds me also of the Celestial Waters or the Waters above the Firmaments which Scripture sometimes mentions and which methinks cannot be explain'd so fitly and emphatically upon any supposition as this of ours Those who place them above the Starry Heavens seem neither to understand Astronomy nor Philosophy and on the other hand if nothing be understood by them but the Clouds and the middle Region of the Air as it is at present methinks that was no such eminent and remarkable thing as to deserve a particular commemoration by Moses in his six days work but if we understand them not as they are now but as they were then the only Source of Waters or the only Source of Waters upon that Earth for they had not one drop of Water but what was Celestial this gives it a new force and Emphasis Besides the whole middle Region having no other sort of Meteors but them That made it still the greater singularity and more worthy commemoration As for the Rivers of Paradise there is nothing said concerning their Source or their issue that is either contrary to this or that is not agreeable to the general account we have given of the Waters and Rivers of the first Earth They are not said to rise from any Mountain but from a great River or a kind of Lake in Eden according to the custom of the Rivers of that Earth And as for their end and issue Moses doth not say that they disburthen'd themselves into this or that Sea as they usually do in the description of great Rivers but rather implies that they spent themselves in compassing and watering certain Countries which falls in again very easily with our Hypothesis But I say this rather to comply with the opinions of others than of my own judgment For I think that suggestion about the Supercoelestial Waters made by Moses was not so much according to the strict nature and speciality of Causes as for the ease and profit of the People in their belief and acknowledgment of Providence for so great a benefit by what Causes soever it was brought to pass But to return to the Rainbow which we mention'd before and is not to be past over so slightly This we say is a Creature of the modern World and was not seen nor known before the Flood Moses Gen. 9. 12 13. plainly intimates as much or rather directly affirms it for he says The Bow was set in the Clouds after the Deluge as a confirmation of the promise or Covenant which God made with Noah that he would drown the World no more with Water And how could it be a sign of this or given as a pledge and confirmation of such a promise if it was in the Clouds before and with no regard to this promise and stood there it may be when the World was going to be drown'd This would have been but cold comfort to Noah to have had such a pledge of the Divine Veracity You 'll say it may be that it was not a sign or pledge that signified naturally but voluntarily only and by Divine Institution I am of opinion I confess that it signifi'd naturally and by connexion with the effect importing thus much that the state of Nature was chang'd from what it was before and so chang'd that the Earth was no more in a condition to perish by Water But however let us grant that it signified only by institution to make it significant in this sence it must be something new otherwise it could not signifie any new thing or be the confirmation of a new promise If God Almighty had said to Noah I make a promise to you and to all living Creatures that the World shall never be destroy'd by Water again and for confirmation of this Behold I set the Sun in the firmament Would this have been any
of this Objection for performing the same effect with a far less quantity of Water 't is both easie to be found and easily remov'd when the work is done When the exteriour Earth was broke and fell into the Abysse a good part of it was cover'd with Water by the meer depth of the Abysse it fell into and those parts of it that were higher than the Abysse was deep and consequently would stand above it in a calm Water were notwithstanding reacht and overtop'd by the waves during the agitation and violent commotion of the Abysse For it is not imaginable what the commotion of the Abysse would be upon this dissolution of the Earth nor to what height its waves would be thrown when those prodigious fragments were tumbled down into it Suppose a stone of ten thousand weight taken up into the Air a mile or two and then let fall into the middle of the Ocean I do not believe but that the dashing of the water upon that impression would rise as high as a Mountain But suppose a mighty Rock or heap of Rocks to fall from that height or a great Island or a Continent these would expel the waters out of their places with such a force and violence as to fling them among the highest Clouds 'T is incredible to what height sometimes great Stones and Cinders will be thrown at the eruptions of fiery Mountains and the pressure of a great mass of Earth falling into the Abysse though it be a force of another kind could not but impel the water with so much strength as would carry it up to a great height in the Air and to the top of any thing that lay in its way any eminency high fragment or new Mountain And then rowling back again it would sweep down with it whatsoever it rusht upon Woods Building living Creatures and carry them all headlong into the great gulph Sometimes a mass of water would be quite struck off and separate from the rest and tost through the Air like a flying River but the common motion of the waves was to climb up the hills or inclin'd fragments and then return into the valleys and deeps again with a perpetual fluctuation going and coming ascending and descending till the violence of them being spent by degrees they setled at last in the places allotted for them where bounds are set that they cannot pass over that they return not again to cover the Earth Neither is it to be wonder'd that the great Tumult of the waters and the extremity of the Deluge lasted for some months for besides that the first shock and commotion of the Abysse was extremely violent from the general fall of the Earth there were ever and anon some secondary ruines or some parts of the great ruine that were not well setled broke again and made new commotions And 't was a considerable time before the great fragments that fell and their lesser dependencies could be so adjusted and fitted as to rest in a firm and immoveable posture For the props and stays whereby they lean'd one upon another or upon the bottom of the Abysse often fail'd either by the incumbent weight or the violent impulses of the water against them and so renew'd or continu'd the disorder and confusion of the Abysse Besides we are to observe that these great fragments falling hollow they inclos'd and bore down with them under their concave surface a great deal of Air and while the water compass'd these fragments and overflow'd them the Air could not readily get out of those prisons but by degrees as the Earth and Water above would give way so as this would also hinder the settlement of the Abysse and the retiring of the Water into those Subterraneous Chanels for some time But at length when this Air had found a vent and left its place to the Water and the ruines both primary and secondary were setled and fix'd then the Waters of the Abysse began to settle too and the dry Land to appear first the tops of the Mountains then the high Grounds then the Plains and the rest of the Earth And this gradual subsidency of the Abysse which Moses also hath particularly noted and discovery of the several parts of the Earth would also take up a considerable time Thus a new World appear'd or the Earth put on its new form and became divided into Sea and Land and the Abysse which from several Ages even from the beginning of the World had lain hid in the womb of the Earth was brought to light and discover'd the greatest part of it constituting our present Ocean and the rest filling the lower cavities of the Earth Upon the Land appear'd the Mountains and the Hills and the Islands in the Sea and the Rocks upon the shore And so the Divine Providence having prepar'd Nature for so great a change at one stroke dissolv'd the frame of the old World and made us a new one out of its ruines which we now inhabit since the Deluge All which things being thus explain'd deduc'd and stated we now add and pronounce our Third and last Proposition That the disruption of the Abysse or dissolution of the primaeval Earth and its fall into the Abysse was the cause of the Universal Deluge and of the destruction of the old World CHAP. VII That the Explication we have given of an Vniversal Deluge is not an Idea only but an account of what really came to pass in this Earth and the true Explication of Noah's Flood as is prov'd by Argument and from History An Examination of Tehom-Rabba or the great Abysse and that by it the Sea cannot be understood nor the Subterraneous Waters as they are at present What the true Notion and Form of it was collected from Moses and other Sacred Writers The frequent allusions in Scripture to the opening and shutting the Abysse and the particular stile of Scripture in its reflections on the Origin And the Formation of the Earth Observations on Deucalion's Deluge WE have now given an account of the first great revolution of Nature and of the Universal Deluge in a way that is intelligible and from causes that answer the greatness of the effect We have suppos'd nothing but what is also prov'd both as to the first form of the Earth and as to the manner of its Dissolution and how far from that would evidently and necessarily arise a general Deluge which was that which put a period to the old World and the first state of things And though all this hath been deduc'd in due order and with connexion and consequence of one thing upon another so far as I know which is the true evidence of a Theory yet it may not be sufficient to command the Assent and Belief of some persons who will allow it may be and acknowledge that this is a fair Idea of a possible Deluge in general and of the destruction of a World by it but this may be only an Idea they 'll say
and Love Friendship and Venus on the other and after a long contest Love got the better of Discord and united the disagreeing principles This is one part of their story Then they make the forming of the World out of the Chaos a kind of Genealogie or Pedigree Chaos was the common Parent of all and from Chaos sprung first Night and Tartarus or Oceanus Night was a teeming Mother and of her were born Aether and the Earth The Earth conceiv'd by the influences of Aether and brought forth Man and all Animals This seems to be a Poetical fiction rather than Philosophy yet when 't is set in a true light and compar'd with our Theory of the Chaos 't will appear a pretty regular account how the World was form'd at first or how the Chaos divided it self successively into several Regions rising one after another and propagated one from another as Children and Posterity from a common Parent We show'd in the first Book Chap. 5. how the Chaos from an uniform mass wrought it self into several Regions or Elements the grossest part sinking to the Center upon this lay the mass of Water and over the Water was a Region of dark impure caliginous Air This impure caliginous Air is that which the Ancients call Night and the mass of Water Oceanus or Tartarus for those two terms with them are often of the like force Tartarus being Oceanus inclos'd and lock'd up Thus we have the first off-spring of the Chaos or its first-born twins Nox and Oceanus Now this turbid Air purifying it self by degrees as the more subtle parts flew upwards and compos'd the Aether so the earthy parts that were mixt with it dropt down upon the surface of the Water or the liquid mass and that mass on the other hand sending up its lighter and more oily parts towards its surface these two incorporate there and by their mixture and union compose a body of Earth quite round the mass of Waters And this was the first habitable Earth which as it was you see the Daughter of Nox and Oceanus so it was the Mother of all other things and all living Creatures which at the beginning of the World sprung out of its fruitful womb This doctrine of the Chaos for the greater pomp of the business the Ancients call'd their Theogonia or the Genealogy of the Gods for they gave their Gods at least their Terrestrial Gods an original and beginning and all the Elements and greater portions of Nature they made Gods and Goddesses or their Deities presided over them in such a manner that the names were us'd promiscuously for one another We also mention'd before some moral principles which they plac'd in the Chaos Eris and Eros Strife discord and disaffection which prevail'd at first and afterward Love kindness and union got the upper hand and in spite of those factious and dividing principles gather'd together the separated Elements and united them into an habitable World This is all easily understood if we do but look upon the Schemes of the rising World as we have set them down in that fifth Chapter for in the first commotion of the Chaos after an intestine struggle of all the parts the Elements separated from one another into so many distinct bodies or masses and in this state and posture things continued a good while which the Ancients after their Poetick or Moral way call'd the Reign of Eris or Contention of hatred flight and disaffection and if things had always continued in that System we should never have had an habitable World But Love and good Nature conquer'd at length Venus rise out of the Sea and receiv'd into her bosom and intangled into her imbraces the falling Aether viz. The parts of lighter earth which were mixt with the Air in that first separation and gave it the name of Night These I say fell down upon the oily parts of the Sea-mass which lay floating upon the surface of it and by that union and conjunction a new Body and a new World was produc'd which was the first habitable Earth This is the interpretation of their mystical Philosophy of the Chaos and the resolution of it into plain natural History Which you may see more fully discuss'd in the Latin Treatise In consequence of this We have already explain'd in several places the Golden Age of the Ancients and laid down such grounds as will enable us to discern what is real and what Poetical in the reports and characters that Antiquity hath given of those first Ages of the World And if there be any thing amongst the Ancients that refers to another Earth as Plato's Atlantis which he says was absorpt by an Earthquake and an inundation as the primaeval Earth was or his Aethereal Earth mention'd in his Phaedo which he opposeth to this broken hollow Earth makes it to have long-liv'd inhabitants and to be without Rains and Storms as that first Earth was also or the pendulous Gardens of Alcinous or such like to which nothing answers in present Nature by reflecting upon the state of the first Earth we find an easie explication of them We have also explain'd what the Antichthon and Antichthones of the Ancients were and what the true ground of that distinction was But nothing seems more remarkable than the inhabitability of the Torrid Zone if we consider what a general fame and belief it had amongst the Ancients and yet in the present form of the Earth we find no such thing nor any foundation for it I cannot believe that this was so universally receiv'd upon a slight presumption only because it lay under the course of the Sun if the Sun had then the same latitude from the Aequator in his course and motion that he hath now and made the same variety of seasons whereby even the hottest parts of the Earth have a Winter or something equivalent to it But if we apply this to the Primaeval Earth whose posture was direct to the Sun standing always fixt in its Equinoctial we shall easily believe that the Torrid Zone was then uninhabitable by extremity of heat there being no difference of seasons nor any change of weather the Sun hanging always over head at the same distance and in the same direction Besides this the descent of the Rivers in that first Earth was such that they could never reach the Equinoctial parts as we have shown before by which means and the want of Rain that Region must necessarily be turn'd into a dry Desart Now this being really the state of the first Earth the fame and general belief that the Torrid Zone was uninhabitable had this true Original and continued still with posterity after the Deluge though the causes then were taken away for they being ignorant of the change that was made in Nature at that time kept up still the same Tradition and opinion currant till observation and experience taught later Ages to correct it As the true miracles that were in the Christian Church at
Concerning miraculous Causes and how far the ministery of Angels may be engaged in this Work WE have given an account in the preceding Chapter of the ordinary preparatious of Nature for a general fire We now are to give an account of the extraordinary or of any new dispositions which towards the End of the World may be superadded to the ordinary state of Nature I do not by these mean things openly miraculous and supernatural but such a change wrought in Nature as shall still have the face of Natural Causes and yet have a greater tendency to the Conflagration As for example suppose a great Drought as we noted before to precede this fate or a general heat and dryness of the Air and of the Earth because this happens sometimes in a course of Nature it will not be lookt upon as prodigious 'T is true some of the Ancients speak of a Drought of Forty Years that will be a forerunner of the Conflagration so that there will not be a watery Cloud nor a Rainbow seen in the Heavens for so long time And this they impute to Elias who at his coming will stop the Rain and shut up the Heavens to make way for the last Fire But these are excessive and ill-grounded suppositions for half forty years drought will bring an universal sterility upon the Earth and thereupon an Universal Famine with innumerable diseases so that all mankind would be destroyed before the Conflagration could overtake them But we will readily admit an extraordinary drought and desiccation of all bodies to usher in this great fatality And therefore whatsoever we read in Natural History concerning former droughts of their drying up Fountains and Rivers parching the Earth and making the outward Turf take fire in several places filling the Air with fiery impressions making the Woods and Forests ready Fewel and sometimes to kindle by the heat of the Sun or a flash of Lightning These and what other effects have come to pass in former droughts may come to pass again and that in an higher measure and so as to be of more general extent And we must also allow that by this means a great degree of inflammability or easiness to be set on Fire will be superinduc'd both into the body of the Earth and of all things that grow upon it The heat of the Sun will pierce deeper into its bowels when it gapes to receive his beams and by chinks and widened pores makes way for their passage to its very heart And on the other hand it is not improbable but that upon this general relaxation and incalescency of the Body of the Earth the General Fire may have a freer efflux and diffuse it self in greater abundance every way so as to affect even these exteriour Regions of the Earth so far as to make them still more catching and more combustible From this external and internal heat acting upon the Body of the Earth all Minerals that have the seeds of fire in them will be open'd and exhale their effluvium's more copiously as Spices when warm'd are more odoriferous and fill the Air with their perfumes so the particles of fire that are shut up in several bodies will easily flie abroad when by a further degree of relaxation you shake off their chains and open the Prison-doors We cannot doubt but there are many sorts of Minerals and many sorts of Fire-stones and of Trees and Vegetables of this nature which will sweat out their oily and sulphureous atomes when by a general heat and driness their parts are loosen'd and agitated We have no experience that will reach so far as to give us a full account what the state of Nature will be at that time I mean after this drought towards the end of the world But we may help our imagination by comparing it with other seasons and temperaments of the Air. As therefore in the Spring the Earth is fragrant and the Fields and Gardens are fill'd with the sweet breathings of Herbs and Flowers especially after a gentle rain when their Bodies are softned and the warmth of the Sun makes them evaporate more freely So a greater degree of heat acting upon all the bodies of the Earth like a stronger fire in the Alembick will extract another sort of parts or particles more deeply incorporated and more difficult to be disintangled I mean oily parts and such undiscover'd parcels of fire as lie fix'd and imprison'd in hard bodies These I imagine will be in a great measure set a float on drawn out into the Air which will abound with hot and dry Exhalations more than with vapours and moisture in a wet season and by this means all Elements and elementary Bodies will stand ready and in a proximate disposition to be inflam'd Thus much concerning the last drought and the general effects of it In the next place we must consider the Earthquakes that will precede the Conflagration and the consequences of them I noted before that the cavernous and broken construction of the present Earth was that which made it obnoxious to be destroy'd by fire as its former construction over the Abyss made it obnoxious to be destroy'd with Water This hollowness of the Earth is most sensible in mountainous and hilly Countreys which therefore I look upon as most subject to burning but the plain Countreys may also be made hollow and hilly by Earth-quakes when the vapours not finding an easie vent raise the ground and make a forcible eruption as at the springing of a Mine And tho' plain Countreys are not so subject to Earthquakes as Mountainous because they have not so many cavities and subterraneous Vaults to lodge the vapours in yet every Region hath more or less of them And after this drought the vacuities of the Earth being every where enlarg'd the quantity of exhalations much encreas'd and the motion of them more strong and violent they will have their effects in many places where they never had any before Yet I do not suppose that this will raise new ridges of Mountains like the Alpes or Pyreneans in those Countreys that are now plain but that they will break and loosen the ground make greater inequalities in the surface and greater cavities within than what are at present in those places And by this means the fire will creep under them and find a passage thorow them with more ease than if they were compact and every where continued and unbroken But you will say it may be how does it appear that there will be more frequent Earth-quakes towards the end of the World If this precedent drought be admitted 't is plain that fiery exhalations will abound every where within the Earth and will have a greater agitation than ordinary and these being the causes of Earth-quakes when they are rarified or inflam'd 't is reasonable to suppose that in such a state of Nature they will more frequently happen than at other times Besides Earth-quakes are taken notice of in Scripture as signs
an hollow Sphere with Water in it which the heat of the Fire rarefies and turns into Vapours and Wind. The Sun here is as the Fire and the exteriour Earth is as the Shell of the Aeolipile and the Abysse as the Water within it now when the heat of the Sun had pierced through the Shell and reach'd the Waters it began to rarefie them and raise them into Vapours which rarefaction made them require more space and room than they needed before while they lay close and quiet And finding themselves pen'd in by the exteriour Earth they press'd with violence against that Arch to make it yield and give way to their dilatation and eruption So we see all Vapours and Exhalations enclos'd within the Earth and agitated there strive to break out and often shake the ground with their attempts to get loose And in the comparison we us'd of an Aeolipile if the mouth of it be stopt that gives the vent the Water raresi'd will burst the Vessel with its force And the resemblance of the Earth to an Egg which we us'd before holds also in this respect for when it heats before the Fire the moisture and Air within being rarefi'd makes it often burst the Shell And I do the more willingly mention this last comparison because I observe that some of the Ancients when they speak of the doctrine of the Mundane Egg say that after a certain period of time it was broken But there is yet another thing to be consider'd in this case for as the heat of the Sun gave force to these Vapours more and more and made them more strong and violent so on the other hand it also weaken'd more and more the Arch of the Earth that was to resist them sucking out the moisture that was the cement of its parts drying it immoderately and chapping it in sundry places And there being no Winter then to close up and unite its parts and restore the Earth to its former strength and compactness it grew more and more dispos'd to a dissolution And at length these preparations in Nature being made on either side the force of the Vapours increas'd and the walls weaken'd which should have kept them in when the appointed time was come that All-wise Providence had design'd for the punishment of a sinful World the whole fabrick brake and the frame of the Earth was torn in pieces as by an Earthquake and those great portions or fragments into which it was divided fell down into the Abysse some in one posture and some in another This is a short and general account how we may conceive the dissolution of the first Earth and an universal Deluge arising upon it And this manner of dissolution hath so many examples in Nature every Age that we need not insist farther upon the Explication of it The generality of Earthquakes arise from like causes and often end in a like effect a partial Deluge or Inundation of the place or Country where they happen and of these we have seen some instances even in our own times But whensoever it so happens that the Vapours and Exhalations shut up in the caverns of the Earth by rarefaction or compression come to be straitned they strive every way to set themselves at liberty and often break their prison or the cover of the Earth that kept them in which Earth upon that disruption falls into the Subterraneous Caverns that lie under it And if it so happens that those Caverns are full of Water as generally they are if they be great or deep that City or tract of Land is drown'd And also the fall of such a mass of Earth with its weight and bulk doth often force out the Water so impetuously as to throw it upon all the Country round about There are innumerable examples in History whereof we shall mention some hereafter of Cities and Countires thus swallow'd up or overflow'd by an Earthquake and an Inundation arising upon it And according to the manner of their fall or ruine they either remain'd wholly under water and perpetually drown'd as Sodom and Plato's Atlantis Bura and Helice and other Cities and Regions in Greece and Asia or they partly emerg'd and became dry Land again when their situation being pretty high the Waters after their violent agitation was abated retir'd into the lower places and into their Chanels Now if we compare these partial dissolutions of the Earth with an universal dissolution we may as easily conceive an Universal Deluge from an Universal Dissolution as a partial Deluge from a partial If we can conceive a City a Country an Island a Continent thus absorpt and overflown if we do but enlarge our thought and imagination a little we may conceive it as well of the whole Earth And it seems strange to me that none of the Ancients should hit upon this way of explaining the Universal Deluge there being such frequent instances in all Ages and Countries of Inundations made in this manner and never of any great Inundation made otherwise unless in maritime Countries by the irruption of the Sea into grounds that lie low 'T is true they would not so easily imagine this Dissolution because they did not understand the true from of the Ante-diluvian Earth but methinks the examination of the Deluge should have led them to the discovery of that For observing the difficulty or impossibility of an Universal Deluge without the Dissolution of the Earth as also frequent instances of these Dissolutions accompany'd with Deluges where the ground was hollow and had Subterraneous Waters this methinks should have prompted them to imagine that those Subterraneous Waters were universal at that time or extended quite round the Earth so as a dissolution of the exteriour Earth could not be made any where but it would fall into Waters and be more or less overflow'd And when they had once reacht this thought they might conclude both what the form of the Ante-diluvian Earth was and that the Deluge came to pass by the dissolution of it But we reason with ease about the finding out of things when they are once found out and there is but a thin paper-wall sometimes between the great discoveries and a perfect ignorance of them Let us proceed now to consider whether this supposition will answer all the conditions of an Universal Deluge and supply all the defects which we found in other Explications The great difficulty propos'd was to find Water sufficient to make an Universal Deluge reaching to the tops of the Mountains and yet that this Water should be transient and after some time should so return into its Chanels that the dry Land would appear and the Earth become again habitable There was that double impossibility in the common opinion that the quantity of Water necessary for such a Deluge was no where to be found or could no way be brought upon the Earth and then if it was brought could no way be remov'd again Our explication quite takes off the edge
though I believe to ingenuous persons that are not prejudic'd by the forms and opinions of the Schools against every thing that looks like a novelty or invention thus much might be sufficient yet for the satisfaction of all we will as a farther proof of our Theory or that part of it which concerns the dissolution of the Earth descend to particular explication of three or four of the most considerable and remarkable things that occur in the fabrick of this present Earth namely The great Chanel of the Ocean Subterraneous Cavities and Subterraneous Waters and lastly Mountains and Rocks These are the wonders of the Earth as to the visible frame of it and who would not be pleas'd to see a rational account of these of their Origin and of their properties Or who would not approve of an Hypothesis when they see that Nature in her greatest and strangest works may easily be understood by it and is in no other way that we know of intelligible We will speak first of Subterraneous Cavities and Waters because they will be of easier dispatch and an introduction to the rest That the inside of the Earth is hollow and broken in many places and is not one firm and united mass we have both the Testimony of Sence and of easie Observations to prove How many Caves and Dens and hollow passages into the ground do we see in many Countries especially amongst Mountains and Rocks and some of them endless and bottomless so far as can be discover'd We have many of these in our own Island in Derbishire Somersetshire Wales and other Counties and in every Continent or Island they abound more or less These hollownesses of the Earth the Ancients made prisons or storehouses for the Winds and set a God over them to confine them or let them loose at his pleasure For some Ages after the Flood as all Antiquity tells us These were the first houses men had at least in some parts of the Earth here rude mortals shelter'd themselves as well as they could from the injuries of the Air till they were beaten out by wild beasts that took possession of them The Ancient Oracles also us'd to be given out of these Vaults and recesses under ground the Sibyls had their Caves and the Delphick Oracle and their Temples sometimes were built upon an hollow Rock Places that are strange and solemn strike an awe into us and incline us to a kind of superstitious timidity and veneration and therefore they thought them fit for the seats and residences of their Deities They fansied also that steams rise sometimes or a sort of Vapour in those hollow places that gave a kind of Divine fury or inspiration But all these uses and employments are now in a great measure worn out we know no use of them but to make the places talkt on where they are to be the wonders of the Countrey to please our curiosity to gaze upon and admire but we know not how they came nor to what purpose they were made at first It would be very pleasant to read good descriptions of these Subterraneous places and of all the strange works of Nature there how she furnisheth these dark neglected Grottoes they have often a little Brook runs murmuring through them and the roof is commonly a kind of petrefied Earth or Icy fret-work proper enough for such rooms But I should be pleas'd especially to view the Sea-caves or those hollow Rocks that lie upon the Sea where the waves Roll in a great way under ground and wear the hard Rock into as many odd shapes and figures as we see in the Clouds 'T is pleasant also to see a River in the middle of its course throw itself into the mouth of a Cave or an opening of the Earth and run under ground sometimes many miles still pursuing its way through the dark pipes of the Earth till at last it find an out-let There are many of these Rivers taken notice of in History in the several parts of the Earth as the Rhone in France Guadiana in Spain and several in Greece Alpheus Lycus and Erasinus then Niger in Africa Tigris in Asia c. And I believe if we could turn Derwent or any other River into one of the holes of the Peak it would groap its way till it found an issue it may be in some other Country These Subterraneous Rivers that emerge again shew us that the holes of the Earth are longer and reach farther than we imagine and if we could see into the ground as we ride or walk we should be affrighted to see so often Waters or Caverns under us But to return to our dry Caves these commonly stand high and are sometimes of a prodigious greatness Strabo mentions some in the Mountains towards Arabia that are capable to receive four thousand men at once The Cave of Engedi hid David and six hundred men so as Saul when he was in the mouth of it did not perceive them In the Mountains of the Traconites there are many of these vast dens and recesses and the people of that Country defended themselves a long time in those strong Holds against Herod and his Army They are plac'd among such craggy Rocks and Precipices that as Iosephus tells us Herod was forc'd to make a sort of open chests and in those by chains of Iron he let down his Souldiers from the top of the Mountains to go fight them in their dens I need add no more instances of this kind In the Natural History of all Countries or the Geographical descriptions of them you find such places taken notice of more or less yet if there was a good collection made of the chief of them in several parts it might be of use and would make us more sensible how broken and torn the body of the Earth is There are Subterraneous Cavities of another nature and more remarkable which they call Volcano's or fiery Mountains that belch out flames and smoke and ashes and sometimes great stones and broken Rocks and lumps of Earth or some metallick mixture and throw them to an incredible distance by the force of the eruption These argue great vacuities in the bowels of the Earth and magazines of combustible matter treasur'd up in them And as the Exhalations within these places must be copious so they must lie in long Mines or Trains to do so great execution and to last so long 'T is scarce credible what is reported concerning some eruptions of Vesuvius and Aetna The Eruptions of Vesuvius seem to be more frequent and less violent of late The flame and smoke break out at the top of the Mountain where they have eaten away the ground and made a great hollow so as it looks at the top when you stand upon the brimes of it like an Amphitheater or like a great Caldron about a mile in circumference and the burning Furnace lies under it The outsides of the Mountain is all spread with Ashes but the inside
to the third and last Character The extraordinary fertility of the Soil and the production of Animals out of the new-made Earth The first part of this Character is unquestionable All Antiquity speaks of the plenty of the Golden Age and of their Paradises whether Christian or Heathen The fruits of the Earth at first were spontaneous and the ground without being torn and tormented satisfied the wants or desires of Man When Nature was fresh and full all things flow'd from her more easily and more pure like the first running of the Grape or the Hony-comb but now she must be prest and squeez'd and her productions taste more of the Earth and of bitterness The Ancient Poets have often pleas'd themselves in making descriptions of this happy state and in admiring the riches and liberality of Nature at that time but we need not transcribe their Poetry here seeing this point is not I think contested by any The second part of this Character concerning the spontaneous Origin of living Creatures out of that first Earth is not so unquestionable and as to Man Moses plainly implies that there was a particular action or ministery of Providence in the formation of his Body but as to other Animals He seems to suppose that the Earth brought them forth as it did Herbs and Plants Gen. 1. 24. compar'd with the 11. Vers. And the truth is there is no such great difference betwixt Vegetable and Animal Eggs or betwixt the Seeds out of which Plants rise and the Eggs out of which all Animals rise but that we may conceive the one as well as the other in the first Earth And as some warmth and influence from the Sun is requir'd for the Vegetation of Seeds so that influence or impregnation which is necessary to make Animal Eggs fruitful was imputed by the Ancients to the Aether or to an active and pure Element which had the same effect upon our great Mother the Earth as the irradiation of the Male hath upon the Females Eggs. Tum Pater Omnipotens foecundis imbribus Aether Conjugis in gremium laetae descendit In fruitful show'rs of Aether Jove did glide Into the bosom of his joyful Bride 'T is true this opinion of the spontaneous Origin of Animals in the first Earth hath lain under some Odium because it was commonly reckon'd to be Epicuruâ—'s opinion peculiarly and he extended it not only to all brute Creatures but to Mankind also whom he suppos'd to grow out of the Earth in great numbers in several Parts and Countries like other Animals which is a notion contrary to the Sacred Writings for they declare that all Mankind though diffus'd now through the several parts and Regions of the Earth rise at first from one Head or single Man and Woman which is a Conclusion of great importance and that could not I think by the Light of Nature have ever been discover'd And this makes the Epicurean opinion the more improbable for why should two rise only if they sprung from the Earth or how could they rise in their full growth and perfection as Adam and Eve did But as for the opinion of Animals rising out of the Earth at first that was not at all peculiar to Epicurus The Stoicks were of the same mind and the Pythagoreans and the Aegyptians and I think all that suppos'd the Earth to rise from a Chaos Neither do I know any harm in that opinion if duly limited and stated for what inconvenience is it or what diminution of Providence that there should be the principles of Life as well as the principles of Vegetation in the new Earth And unless you suppose all the first Animals as well as the first Man to have been made at one stroke in their full growth and perfection which we have neither reason nor authority sufficient to believe if they were made young little and weak as they come now into the World there seems to be no way for their production more proper and decorous than that they should spring from their great Mother the Earth Lastly considering the innumerable little Creatures that are upon the Earth Insects and Creeping things and that these were not created out of nothing but form'd out of the ground I think that an office most proper for Nature that can set so many hands to work at once and that hath hands fit for all those little operations or manufactures how small soever that would less become the dignity of Superiour Agents Thus much for the Preliminaries or three general Characters of Paradise which were common to it with the rest of the Primaeval Earth and were the chief ingredients of the Golden Age so much celebrated by the Ancients I know there were several other differences betwixt that Earth and this but these are the original and such as are not necessary to be premis'd for the general Explication of Paradise we reserve for another place We may in the mean time observe how preposterously they go to work that set themselves immediately to find out some pleasant place of the Earth to six Paradise in before they have consider'd or laid any grounds to explain the general conditions of it wheresoever it was These must be first known and determin'd and we must take our aim and directions from these how to proceed further in our enquiries after it otherwise we fail without a Compass or seek a Port and know not which way it lies And as we should think him a very unskilful Pilot that sought a place in the New World or America that really was in the Old so they commit no less an error that seek Paradise in the present Earth as now constituted which could only belong to the former and to the state of the first World As will appear more plainly in the following Chapter CHAP. II. The great Change of the World since the Flood from what it was in the first Ages The Earth under its present form could not be Paradisiacal nor any part of it THE Scheme of this World passeth away saith an holy Author The mode and form both of the Natural and Civil World changeth continually more or less but most remarkably at certain Periods when all Nature puts on another face as it will do at the Conflagration and hath done already from the time of the Deluge We may imagine how different a prospect the first World would make from what we see now in the present state of things if we consider only those generals by which we have describ'd it in the foregoing Chapter and what their influence would be upon Mankind and the rest of Nature For every new state of Nature doth introduce a new Civil Order and a new face and Oeconomy of Humane affairs And I am apt to think that some two Planets that are under the same state or Period do not so much differ from one another as the same Planet doth from it self in different periods of its duration We do not seem to inhabit the
interpreted is the same thing that we call the Position of the Heavens or the right situation of the Sun and the Earth from whence came a perpetual Aequinox And if we consider the present Earth I know no place where they live longer than in that little Island of the Bermudas where according to the proportion of time they hold out there after they are arriv'd from other parts one may reasonably suppose that the Natives would live two hundred Years And there 's nothing appears in that Island that should give long life above other places but the extraordinary steddiness of the Weather and of the temper of the Air throughout the whole Year so as there is scarce any considerable difference of Seasons But because it would take up too much time to show in this place the full and just reasons why and how these long periods of life depend upon the stability of the Heavens and how on the contrary from their inconstancy and mutability these periods are shorten'd as in the present order of Nature we will set apart the next Chapter to treat upon that subject yet by way of digression only so as those that have a mind may pass to the following where the thred of this discourse is continued In the mean time you see we have prepar'd an Earth for Paradise and given a fair and intelligible account of those three general Characters which according to the rules of method must be determin'd before any further progress can be made in this Argument For in the doctrine of Paradise there are two things to be consider'd the state of it and the place of it And as it is first in order of Nature so it is much more material to find out the state of it than the Region where it stood We need not follow the Windings of Rivers and the interpretation of hard names to discover this we take more faithful Guides The unanimous reports of Antiquity Sacred and Profane supported by a regular Theory Upon these grounds we go and have thus far proceeded on our way which we hope will grow more easie and pleasant the nearer we come to our journeys end CHAP. IV. A digression concerning the Natural Causes of Longaevity That the Machine of an Animal consists of Springs and which are the two principal The Age of the Ante-diluvians to be computed by Solar not Lunar Years TO confirm our opinion concerning the reasons of Longaevity in the first Inhabitants of the World it will not be amiss to deduce more at large the Natural Causes of long or short periods of life And when we speak of long or short periods of life we do not mean those little differences of ten twenty or forty Years which we see amongst Men now adays according as they are of stronger or weaker constitutions and govern themselves better or worse but those grand and famous differences of several hundreds of Years which we have examples of in the different Ages of the World and particularly in those that liv'd before and since the Flood Neither do we think it peculiar to this Earth to have such an inequality in the lives of Men but the other Planets if they be inhabited have the same property and the same difference in their different periods All Planets that are in their Ante-diluvian state and in their first and regular situation to the Sun have long-liv'd Inhabitants and those that are in an oblique situation have short-liv'd unless there be some counter-causes that hinder this general rule of Nature from taking place We are now so us'd to a short life and to drop away after threescore or fourscore years that when we compare our lives with those of the Ante-diluvians we think the wonder lies wholly on their side why they liv'd so long and so it doth popularly speaking but if we speak Philosophically the wonder lies rather on our side why we live so little or so short a time For seeing our Bodies are such Machines as have a faculty of nourishing themselves that is of repairing their lost or decay'd parts so long as they have good nourishment to make use of why should they not continue in good plight and always the same as a flame does so long as it is supplied with fewel And that we may the better see on whether side the wonder lies and from what causes it proceeds we will propose this Problem to be examin'd Why the frame or Machine of an humane Body or of another Animal having that construction of parts and those faculties which it hath lasts so short a time And though it fall into no disease nor have any unnatural accident within the space of eighty years more or less fatally and inevitably decays dies and perisheth That the state and difficulty of this question may the better appear let us consider a Man in the prime and vigour of his life at the age of twenty or twenty four years of an healthful constitution and all his Vitals sound let him be nourish'd with good food use due exercise and govern himself with moderation in all other things The Question is Why this Body should not continue in the same plight and in the same strength for some Ages or at least why it should decay so soon and so fast as we see it does We do not wonder at things that happen daily though the causes of them be never so hard to find out We contract a certain familâ—arity with common events and fancy we know as much of them as can be known though in reality we know nothing of them but matter of fact which the vulgar knows as well as the Wise or the Learned We see daily instances of the shortness of man's life how soon his race is run and we do not wonder at it because 't is common yet if we examine the composition of the Body it will be very hard to find any good reasons why the frame of it should decay so soon I know 't is easie to give general and superficial answers and accounts of these things but they are such as being strictly examin'd give no satisfaction to an inquisitive mind You would say it may be that the Interiour parts and Organs of the Body wear and decay by degrees so as not performing so well their several offices and functions for the digestion and distribution of the food and its juices all the other parts suffer by it and draws on insensibly a decay upon the whole frame of the Body This is all true but why and how comes this to pass from what causes where is the first failure and what are the consequences of it The inward parts do not destroy themselves and we suppose that there is no want of good food nor any disease and we take the Body in its full strength and vigour why doth it not continue thus as a Lamp does if you supply it with Oil The causes being the same why doth not the same effect still follow why
be very irregular and diffuse till the Chanels were a little worn and hollowed and though that Earth was smooth and uniform yet 't is impossible upon an inclining surface but that Waters should find a way of creeping downwards as we see upon a smooth Table or a flagg'd Pavement if there be the least inclination Water will flow from the higher to the lower parts of it either directly or winding to and fro So the smoothness of that Earth would be no hindrance to the course of the Rivers provided there was a general declivity in the site and libration of it as 't is plain there was from the Poles towards the Aequator The Current indeed would be easie and gentle all along and if it chanc'd in some places to rest or be stopt it would spread it self into a pleasant Lake till by fresh supplies it had rais'd its Waters so high as to overflow and break loose again then it would pursue its way with many other Rivers its companions through all the temperate Climates as far as the Torrid Zone But you 'll say When they were got thither what would become of them then How would they end or finish their course This is the third difficulty concerning the ending of the Rivers in that Earth what issue could they have when they were come to the middle parts of it whether it seems they all tended There was no Sea to lose themselves in as our Rivers do nor any Subterraneous passages to throw themselves into how would they die what would be their fate at last I answer The greater Rivers when they were come towards those parts of the Earth would be divided into many branches or a multitude of Rivulets and those would be partly exhal'd by the heat of the Sun and partly drunk up by the dry and sandy Earth But how and in what manner this came to pass requires a little further Explication We must therefore observe in the first place that those Rivers as they drew nearer to the Aequinoctial parts would find a less declivity or descent of ground than in the beginning or former part of their course that is evident from the Oval Figure of the Earth for near the middle parts of an Oval the Semidiameters as I may call them are very little shorter one than another and for this reason the Rivers when they were advanc'd towards the middle parts of the Earth would begin to flow more slowly and by that weakness of their Current suffer themselves easily to be divided and distracted into several lesser streams and Rivulets or else having no force to wear a Chanel would lie shallow upon the ground like a plash of Water and in both cases their Waters would be much more expos'd to the action of the Sun than if they had kept together in a deeper Chanel as they were before Secondly We must observe that seeing these Waters could not reach to the middle of the Torrid Zone for want of descent that part of the Earth having the Sun always perpendicular over it and being refresht by no Rivers would become extremely dry and parch'd and be converted at length into a kind of sandy Desart so as all the Waters that were carried thus far and were not exhal'd and consum'd by the Sun would be suckt up as in a Spunge by these Sands of the Torrid Zone This was the common Grave wherein the Rivers of the first Earth were buried and this is nothing but what happens still in several parts of the present Earth especially in Africk where many Rivers never flow into the Sea but expire after the same manner as these did drunk up by the Sun and the Sands And one arm of Euphrates dies as I remember amongst the Sands of Arabia after the manner of the Rivers of the first Earth Thus we have conquer'd the greatest difficulty in my apprehension in this whole Theory To find out the state of the Rivers in the Primitive and Ante-diluvian Earth their origin course and period We have been forc'd to win our ground by Inches and have divided the difficulty into parts that we might encounter them single with more ease The Rivers of that Earth you see were in most respects different and in some contrary to ours and if you could turn our Rivers backwards to run from the Sea towards their Fountain-heads they would more resemble the course of those Ante-diluvian Rivers for they were greatest at their first setting out and the Current afterwards when it was more weak and the Chanel more shallow was divided into many branches and little Rivers like the Arteries in our Body that carry the Blood they are greatest at first and the further they go from the Heart their Source the less they grow and divide into a multitude of little branches which lose themselves insensibly in the habit of the flesh as these little Floods did in the Sands of the Earth Book 2d. fig. 3. p. 158. Because it pleaseth more and makes a greater impression upon us to see things represented to the Eye than to read their description in words we have ventur'd to give a model of the Primaeval Earth with its Zones or greater Climates and the general order and tracts of its Rivers Not that we believe things to have been in the very same form as here exhibited but this may serve as a general Idea of that Earth which may be wrought into more exactness according as we are able to enlarge or correct our thoughts hereafter And as the Zones here represented resemble the Belts or Eusciae of Iupiter so we suppose them to proceed from like causes if that Planet be in an Ante-diluvian state as the Earth we here represent As for the Polar parts in that first Earth I can say very little of them they would make a Scene by themselves and a very particular one The Sun would be perpetually in their Horizon which makes me think the Rains would not fall so much there as in the other parts of the Frigid Zones where accordingly we have made their chief seat and receptacle That they flow'd from thence in such a like manner as is hero represented we have already prov'd And sometimes in their passage swelling into Lakes and towards the end of their course parting into several streams and branches they would water those parts of the Earth like a Garden We have before compar'd the branchings of these Rivers towards the end of their course to the ramifications of the Arteries in the Body when they are far from the Heart near the extream parts and some it may be looking upon this Scheme would carry the comparison further and suppose that as in the Body the Bloud is not lost in the habit of the flesh but strain'd thorough it and taken up again by the little branches of the Veins so in that Earth the Waters were not lost in those Sands of the Torrid Zone but strain'd or percolated thorough them and receiv'd into the
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
be in whether of these Hemispheres was the Seat of Paradise To answer this only according to our Theory I confess I see no natural reason or occasion to place it in one Hemisphere more than in another I see no ground of difference or pre-eminence that one had above the other and I am apt to think that depended rather upon the will of God and the Series of Providence that was to follow in this Earth than upon any natural incapacity in one of these two Regions more than in the other for planting in it the Garden of God Neither doth Scripture determine with any certainty either Hemisphere for the place of it for when 't is said to be in Eden or to be the Garden of Eden 't is no more than the Garden of pleasure or delight as the word signifies And even the Septuagint who render this word Eden as a proper name twice Gen. 2. ver 8 10. do in the same story render it twice as a common name signifying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pleasure Chap. 2. 15. and Chap. 3. 24. and so they do accordingly render it in Ezekiel Chap. 31. 9. 16 18. where this Garden of Eden is spoken of again Some have thought that the word Mekiddim Gen. 2. 8. was to be render'd in the East or Eastward as we read it and therefore determin'd the site of Paradise but 't is only the Septuagint Translate it so all the other Greek Versions and S. Ierome the Vulgate the Chaldee Paraphrase and the Syriack render it from the beginning or in the beginning or to that effect And we that do not believe the Septuagint to have been infallible or inspir'd have no reason to prefer their single authority above all the rest Some also think the place of Paradise may be determin'd by the four Rivers that are named as belonging to it and the Countries they ran thorough but the names of those Rivers are to me uncertain and two of them altogether unintelligible Where are there four Rivers in our Continent that come from one Head as these are said to have done either at the entrance or issue of the Garden 'T is true if you admit our Hypothesis concerning the fraction and disruption of the Earth at the Deluge then we cannot expect to find Rivers now as they were before the general Source is chang'd and their Chanels are all broke up but if you do not admit such a dissolution of the Earth but suppose the Deluge to have been only like a standing Pool after it had once cover'd the surface of the Earth I do not see why it should make any great haveck or confusion in it and they that go that way are therefore the more oblig'd to show us still the Rivers of Paradise Several of the Ancients as we shall show hereafter suppos'd these four Rivers to have their Heads in the other Hemisphere and if so the Seat of Paradise might be there too But let them first agree amongst themselves concerning these Rivers and the Countries they run thorough and we will undertake to show that there cannot be any such in this Continent Seeing then neither the Theory doth determine nor Scripture where the place of Paradise was nor in whether Hemisphere we must appeal to Antiquity or the opinions of the Ancients for I know no other Guide but one of these three Scripture Reason and Ancient Tradition and where the two former are silent it seems very reasonable to consult the third And that our Inquiries may be comprehensive enough we will consider what the Iews what the Heathens and what the Christian Fathers have said or determin'd concerning the Seat of Paradise The Iews and Hebrew Doctors place it in neither Hemisphere but betwixt both under the Aequinoctial as you may see plainly in Abravanel Manasses Ben-Israel Maimonides Aben Ezra and others But the reason why they carried it no further than the Line is because they suppos'd it certain as Aben Ezra tells us that the days and nights were always equal in Paradise and they did not know how that could be unless it stood under the Aequinoctial But we have shown another method wherein that perpetual Aequinox came to pass and how it was common to all the parts and Climates of that Earth which if they had been aware of and that the Torrid Zone at that time was utterly uninhabitable having remov'd their Paradise thus far from home they would probably have remov'd it a little further into the temperate Climates of the other Hemisphere The Ancient Heathens Poets and Philosophers had the notion of Paradise or rather of several Paradises in the Earth and 't is remarkable that they plac'd them generally if not all of them out of this Continent in the Ocean or beyond it or in another Orb or Hemisphere The Garden of the Hesperides the Fortunate Islands the Elysian Fields Ogygia and Toprabane as it is describ'd by Diodorus Siculus with others such like which as they were all characteriz'd like so many Paradises so they were all feared out of our Continent by their Geography and descriptions of them Thus far Antiquity seems to incline to the other Hemisphere or to some place beyond the bounds of our Continent for the Seat of Paradise But that which we are most to depend upon in this affair is Christian Antiquity the Judgment and Tradition of the Fathers upon this Argument And we may safely say in the first place negatively that none of the Christian Fathers Latin or Greek ever plac'd Paradise in Mesopotamia that is a conceit and invention of some Modern Authors which hath been much encouraged of late because it gave Men ease and rest as to further inquiries in an argument they could not well manage Secondly We may affirm that none of the Christian Fathers have plac'd Paradise in any determinate Region of our Continent Asia Africk or Europe I have read of one or two Authors I think that fansied Paradise to have been at Ierusalem but 't was a meer fansie that no body regarded or pursu'd The controversie amongst the Fathers concerning Paradise was quite another thing from what it is now of late They disputed and controverted whether Paradise was Corporeal or Intellectual only and Allegorical This was the grand point amongst them Then of those that thought it Corporeal some plac'd it high in the Air some inaccessible by Desarts or Mountains and many beyond the Ocean or in another World And in these chiefly consisted the differences and diversity of opinions amongst them nor do we find that they nam'd any particular place or Country in the known parts of the Earth for the Seat of Paradise or that one contested for one spot of ground and another for another which is the vain temerity of modern Authors as if they could tell to an Acre of Land where Paradise stood or could set their foot upon the Centre of the Garden These have corrupted and misrepresented the notion of our Paradise just as
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
as having nothing Sacred in them more than other good Histories that is truth in matter of fact we cannot doubt but there have been Miracles in the World That Moses and the Prophets our Saviour and his Apostles wrought Miracles I can no more question than that Caesar and Alexander fought Battles and took Cities So also that there were true Prophecies and Inspirations we know from Scripture only consider'd as a true History But as for other supernatural effects that are not recorded there we have reason to examine them more strictly before we receive them at least as to particular instances for I am apt to think they are like Lotteries where there are ten or twenty Blanks for one Prize but yet if there were no Prizes at all the Lottery would not have credit to subsist and would be cry'd down as a perfect Cheat So if amongst those many stories of Prodigies Apparitions and Witchcrafts there were not some true the very fame and thought of them would die from amongst Men and the first broachers of them would be hooted at as Cheats As a false Religion that hath nothing true and solid mixt with it can scarce be fixt upon Mankind but where there is a mixture of true and false the strength of the one supports the weakness of the other As for Sorcery the instances and examples of it are undeniable not so much those few scatter'd instances that happen now and then amongst us but such as are more constant and in a manner National in some Countries and amongst barbarous people Besides the Oracles and the Magick that was so frequent amongst the Ancients show us that there have been always some Powers more than Humane tampering with the affairs of Mankind But this Topick from effects Extraordinary and Supernatural being in a great measure Historical and respecting evil Spirits as well as the Author of Nature is not so proper for this place There is a third Sett or Head of Arguments that to some tempers are more cogent and convictive than any of these namely Arguments abstract and Metaphysical And these do not only lead us to an Author of Nature in general but show us more of his properties and perfections represent him to us as a supream Deity infinitely perfect the fountain of all Being and the steddy Center of all things But reasons of this order being of a finer thred require more attention and some preparation of Mind to make us discern them well and be duly sensible of them When a Man hath withdrawn himself from the noise of this busie World lock'd up his Senses and his Passions and every thing that would unite him with it commanded a general silence in the Soul and suffers not a Thought to stir but what looks inwards Let him then reflect seriously and ask himself What am I and How came I into Being If I was Author and Original to my self surely I ought to feel that mighty Power and enjoy the pleasure of it but alas I am conscious of no such force or Vertue nor of any thing in my Nature that should give me necessary existence It hath no connexion with any part of me nor any faculty in me that I can discern And now that I do exist from what Causes soever Can I secure my self in Being now that I am in possession am I sure to keep it am I certain that three minutes hence I shall still exist I may or I may not for ought I see Either seems possible in it self and either is contingent as to me I find nothing in my Nature that can warrant my subsistence for one day for one hour for one moment longer I am nothing but Thoughts fleeting Thoughts that chase and extinguish one another and my Being for ought I know is successive and as dying as they are and renew'd to me every moment This I am sure of that so far as I know my self and am conscious what I am there is no principle of immutability or of necessary and indefectible existence in my Nature and therefore I ought in reason to believe that I stand or fall at the mercy of other Causes and not by my own will or my own sufficiency Besides I am very sensible and in this I cannot be mistaken that my Nature is in several respects weak and imperfect both as to Will and Understanding I Will many things in vain and without effect and I Wish often what I have no ability to execute or obtain And as to my Understanding how defective is it how little or nothing do I know in comparison of what I am ignorant of Almost all the Intellectual World is shut up to me and the far greatest part of the Corporeal And in those things that fall under my cognizance how often am I mistaken I am confin'd to a narrow sphere and yet within that sphere I often erre my conceptions of things are obscure and confus'd my reason short-sighted I am forc'd often to correct my self to acknowledge that I have judg'd false and consented to an errour In summ all my powers I find are limited and I can easily conceive the same kind of perfections in higher degrees than I possess them and consequently there are Beings or may be greater and more excellent than my self and more able to subsist by their own power Why should I not therefore believe that my Original is from those Beings rather than from my self For every Nature the more great and perfect it is the nearer it approacheth to necessity of existence and to a power of producing other things Yet the truth is it must be acknowledg'd that so long as the perfections of those other Beings are limited and finite though they be far superiour to us there is no necessity ariseth from their Nature that they should exist and the same Arguments that we have us'd against our selves they may in proportion use against themselves and therefore we must still advance higher to find a self originated Being whose existence must flâ—w immediately from his essence or have a necessary connextion with it And indeed all these different degrees of higher and higher perfections lead us directly to an highest or Supream degree which is infinite and unlimited Perfection As subordinate causes lead to the first so Natures more perfect one than another lead us to a Nature infinitely perfect which is the Fountain of them all Thither we must go if we will follow the course of Reason which cannot stop at one more than another till it arrive there And being arriv'd there at that Soveraign and Original Perfection it finds a firm and immoveable ground to stand upon the steddy Center of all Being wherein the Mind rests and is satisfied All the scruples or objections that we mov'd against our selves or other Creatures take no place here This Being is conscious of an All-sufficiency in it self and of immutability as to any thing else including in it all the causes of existence or to
speak more properly all necessity of existence Besides that we exist our selves notwithstanding the imperfection and insufficiency of our Nature is a just collateral proof of the existence of this Supream Being for such an effect as this cannot be without its Cause and it can have no other competent Cause but that we mention And as this Being is its own Origin so it must needs be capable of producing all Creatures for whatsoever is possible must be possible to it and that Creatures or finite Beings are possible we both see by experience and may also discern by Reason for those several degrees of perfection or limitations of it which we mention'd before are all consistent Notions and consequently make consistent Natures and such as may exist but contingently indeed and in dependance upon the first Cause Thus we are come at length to a fair resolution of that great Question Whence we are and how we continue in Being And this hath led us by an easie ascent to the Supreme Author of Nature and the â—irst Cause of all things and presents us also with such a Scheme and Draught of the Universe as is clear and rational every thing in its order and in its place according to the dignity of its Nature and the strength of its principles When the Mind hath rais'd it self into this view of a Being infinitely perfect 't is in a Region of Light hath a free prospect every way and sees all things from top to bottom as pervious and transparent Whereas without God and a First Cause there is nothing but darkness and confusion in the Mind and in Nature broken views of things short interrupted glimpses of Light nothing certain or demonstrative no Basis of Truth no extent of Thought no Science no Contemplation You will say it may be 'T is true something must be Eternal and of necessary existence but why may not Matter be this Eternal necessary Being Then our Souls and all other Intellectual things must be parts and parcels of Matter and what pretensions can Matter have to those properties and perfections that we find in our Souls how limited soever much less to necessary existence and those perfections that are the foundation of it What exists Eternally and from it self its existence must flow immediately from its essence as its cause reason or ground for as Existence hath always something antecedent to it in order of Nature so that which is antecedent to it must infer it by a necessary connexion and so may be call'd the cause ground or reason of it And nothing can be such a ground but what is a perfection nor every perfection neither it must be Sovereign and Infinite perfection for from what else can necessary existence flow or be inferr'd Besides if that Being was not infinitely perfect there might be another Being more powerful than it and consequently able to oppose and hinder its Existence and what may be hinder'd is contingent and arbitrary Now Matter is so far from being a Nature infinitely perfect that it hath no perfection at all but that of bare substance neither Life Sense Will or Understanding nor so much as Motion from it self as we have show'd before And therefore this brute inactive mass which is but as it were the Drudge of Nature can have no right or title to that Sovereign prerogative of Self existence We noted before as a thing agreed upon That something or other must needs be Eternal For if ever there was a time or state when there was no Being there never could be any Seeing Nothing could not produce Something Therefore 't is undeniably true on all hands That there was some Being from Eternity Now according to our understandings Truth is Eternal therefore say we some intellect or Intelligent Being So also the reasons of Goodness and Iustice appear to us Eternal and therefore some Good and Just Being is Eternal Thus much is plain that these perfections which bear the signatures of Eternity upon them are things that have no relation to Matter but relate immediately to an Intellectual Being therefore some such Being to whom they originally belong must be that Eternal Besides We cannot possibly but judge such a Being more perfect than Matter Now every Nature the more perfect it is the more remote it is from Nothing and the more remote it is from Nothing the more it approaches to necessity of existence and consequently to Eternal Existence Thus we have made a short Survey so far as the bounds of a Chapter would permit of those evidences and assurances which we have from abstract Reason and the External World that there is an Author of Nature and That a Being infinitely perfect which we call God We may add to these in the last place that universal consent of Mankind or natural instinct of Religion which we see more or less throughout all Nations Barbarous or Civil For though this Argument 't is true be more disputable than the rest yet having set down just grounds already from whence this Natural Judgment or perswasion might spring we have more reason to impute it to some of those and their insensible influence upon the Mind than to the artifices of Men or to make it a weakness prejudice or errour of our Nature That there is such a propension in Humane Nature seems to be very plain at least so far as to move us to implore and have recourse to invisible Powers in our extremities Prayer is natural in certain cases and we do at the meer motion of our natural Spirit and indeliberately invoke God and Heaven either in case of extreme danger to help and assist us or in case of injustice and oppression to relieve or avenge us or in case of false accusation to vindicate our innocency and generally in all cases desperate and remediless as to Humane Power we seem to appeal and address our selves to something higher And this we do by a sudden impulse of Nature without reflexion or deliberation Besides as witnesses of our Faith and Veracity we use to invoke the Gods or Superiour Powers by way of imprecation upon our selves if we be false and perjur'd and this hath been us'd in most Nations and Ages if not in all These things also argue that there is a Natural Conscience in Man and a distinction of moral Good and Evil and that we look upon those invisible Powers as the Guardians of Vertue and Honesty There are also few or no People upon the Earth but have something of External Religion true or false and either of them is an argument of this natural anticipation or that they have an opinion that there is something above them and above visible Nature though what that something was they seldom were able to make a good judgment But to pursue this Argument particularly would require an Historical deduction of Times and Places which is not suitable to our present design To conclude this Chapter and this Subject If we set Religion apart
or in the execution in the preparation to them or in the finishing of them Wherefore in my judgment if any be of this perswasion it cannot be so much the effect of their understanding as of their disposition and inclination and in moral things mens opinions do as often spring from the one as from the other For my part I do generally distinguish of two sorts of opinions in all men Inclination-opinions and Reason'd-opinions Opinions that grow upon Mens Complexions and Opinions that are the results of their Reason and I meet with very few that are of a temperament so equal or a constitution so even pois'd but that they incline to one sett of Opinions rather than another antecedently to all proofs of Reason And when they have espous'd their opinions from that secret sympathy then they find out as good Reasons as they can to maintain them and say nay think sometimes that 't was for the sake of those Reasons that they first imbrac'd them We may commonly distinguish these Inclination-opinions from the Rational because we find them accompanied with more Heat than Light a great deal of eagerness and impatience in defending of them and but slender arguments One might give instances of this both in Sects of Religion and Philosophy in Platonists Stoicks and Epicureans that are so by their temper more than their reason but to our purpose it will be sufficient to instance in one hearty Epicurean Lucretius who is manifestly such more from his inclination and the bent of his Spirit than from the force of Argument For though his suppositions be very precarious and his reasonings all along very slight he will many times strut and triumph as if he had wrested the Thunder out of Iove's right hand and a Mathematician is not more confident of his demonstration than he seems to be of the truth of his shallow Philosophy From such a principle of natural Complexion as this I allow a man may be Atheistical but never from the calm dictate of his Reason yet he may be as confident and as tenacious of his Conclusion as if he had a clear and distinct evidence for it For I take it to be a true Maxim in Humane Nature that A strong inclination with a little evidence is equivalent to a strong evidence And therefore we are not to be surprisâ—d if we find Men confident in their opinions many times far beyond the degree of their evidence seeing there are other things besides evidence that incline the Will to one Conclusion rather than another And as I have instanc'd in Natural Complexion so Interest hath the same effect upon Humane Nature because it always begets an inclination to those opinions that favour our interest and a disinclination to the contrary And this principle may be another ingredient and secret perswasive to Atheism for when men have run themselves so deep into Vice and Immorality that they expect no benefit from a God 't is in a manner necessary to their quiet and the ease of their mind that they should fansie there is none for they are afraid if there be a God that he will not stand neuter and let them alone in another World This I say is necessary to the quiet of their mind unless they can attain that great Art which many labour after of non-reflection or an unthinking faculty as to God and a World to come but to return to our Argument after this short digression And as that regular diversity which we see in the forms of Nature and especially in the Bodies of Animals could not be from any blind principle either of Necessity or of Chance So in the last place that Subordination which we see in the parts of Nature and subserviency to one another the less Noble to the more Noble the Inanimate to the Animate and all things upon Earth unto Man must needs have been the effect of some Being higher than Matter that did wisely dispose all things so at first and doth still conserve them in the same order If Man had been born into the World and a numerous host of Creatures without any provision or accommodation made for their subsistence and conveniences we might have suspected that they had come by Chance and therefore were so ill provided for but which of them can complain through their various Kinds and Orders what is there awanting They are all fitted to their several Elements and their ways of living Birds Beasts and Fishes both by the form and shape of their Bodies the manner of their covering and the quality of their food Besides They are instructed in little Arts and Instincts for their conservation and not only for their proper conservation but also to find a way to make and bring up young ones and leave behind them a Posterity And all this in so fit a method and by such a pretty train of actions as is really admirable Man is the Master of all and of him a double care is taken that he should neither want what Nature can afford nor what Art can supply He could not be provided of all conveniences by Nature only especially to secure him against the inâ—uries of the Air but in recompence Nature hath provided materials for all those Arts which she see would be needful in Humane Life as Building Cloathing Navigation Agriculture c. That so Mankind might have both wherewithal to answer their occasions and also to imploy their time and exercise their ingenuity This Oeconomy of Nature as I may call it or well ordering of the great Family of living Creatures is an argument both of Goodness and of Wisdom and is every way far above the powers of brute Matter All regular administration we ascribe to conduct and judgment If an Army of Men be well provided for in things necessary both for Food Cloaths Arms Lodging Security and Defence so as nothing is awanting in so great a multitude we suppose it the effect of care and forecast in those persons that had the charge of it they took their measures at first computed and proportion'd one thing to another made good regulations and gave orders for convenient supplies And can we suppose the great Army of Creatures upon Earth manag'd and provided for with less fore-thought and Providence nay with none at all by meer Chance This is to recede from all rules and analogy of Reason only to serve a turn and gratifie an unreasonable humour To conclude this Argument There are two general Heads of things if I recollect aright which we make the marks and characters of Wisdom and Reason Works of Art and the Conduct of affairs or direction of means to an end and wheresoever we meet either with regular material works or a regular ordination of affairs we think we have a good title and warrant to derive them from an intelligent Author Now these two being found in the Natural World and that in an eminent degree the one in the Frame of it and the other in the
Oeconomy of it we have all the evidence and ground that can be in arguing from things visible to things invisible that there is an Author of Nature Superiour both to Humane Power and Humane Wisdom Before we proceed to give any further proofs or discoveries of the Author of Nature let us reflect a little upon those we have already insisted upon which have been taken wholly from the Material World and from the common course of Nature The very existence of Matter is a proof of a Deity for the Idea of it hath no connexion with existence as we shall show hereafter however we will take leave now to set it down with the rest in order as they follow one another 1. The existence of Matter 2. The Motion of Matter 3. The just quantity and degree of that Motion 4. The first form of the Universe upon Motion imprest both as to the Divisions of Matter and the Leading Motions 5. The Laws for communication and regulation of that Motion 6. The regular effects of it especially in the Animate World 7. The Oeconomy of Nature and fit Subordination of one part of the World to another The five first of these Heads are prerequisites and preparatives to the formation of a World and the two last are as the image and character of its Maker of his Power Goodness and Wisdom imprest upon it Every one of them might well deserve a Chapter to it self if the subject was to be treated on at large but this is only an occasional dissertation to state the Powers of Matter lest they should be thought boundless and the Author of Nature unnecessary as the Epicuraeans pretend but notwithstanding their vain confidence and credulity I defie them or any man else to make sence of the Material World without placing a God at the Center of it To these considerations taken wholly from the Corporeal World give me leave to add one of a mixt nature concerning the Union of our Soul and Body This strange effect if rightly understood doth as truly discover the Author of Nature as many Effects that are accounted more Supernatural The Incarnation as I may so say of a Spiritual Substance is to me a kind of standing miracle That there should be such an union and connexion reciprocally betwixt the motions of the Body and the actions and passions of the Soul betwixt a substance Intellectual and a parcel of organiz'd Matter can be no effect of either of those substances being wholly distinct in themselves and remote in their natures from one another For instance When my Finger is cut or when 't is burnt that my Soul thereupon should feel such a smart and violent pain is no consequence of Nature or does not follow from any connexion there is betwixt the Motion or Division of that piece of Matter I call my Finger and the passion of that Spirit I call my Soul for these are two distinct Essences and in themselves independent upon one another as much as the Sun and my Body are independent and there is no more reason in strict Nature or in the essential chain of Causes and Effects that my Soul should suffer or be affected with this Motion in the Finger than that the Sun should be affected with it nay there is less reason if less can be for the Sun being Corporeal as the finger is there is some remote possibility that there might be communication of Motion betwixt them but Motion cannot beget a thought or a passion by its own force Motion can beget nothing but Motion and if it should produce a thought the Effect would be more noble than the Cause Wherefore this Union is not by any necessity of Nature but only from a positive Institution or Decree establisht by the Author of Nature that there should be such a communication betwixt these two substances for a time viz. during the Vitality of the Body 'T is true indeed if Thought Apprehension and Reason was nothing but Corporeal Motion this Argument would be of no force but to suppose this is to admit an absurdity to cure a difficulty to make a Thought out of a local Motion is like making a God out of a Stock or a Stone for these two are as remote in their Nature and have as different Idea's in the Mind as any two disparate things we can propose or conceive Number and Colour a Triangle and Vertue Free-will and a Pyramid are not more unlike more distant or of more different forms than Thought and local Motion Motion is nothing but a Bodies changing its place and situation amongst other Bodies and what affinity or resemblance hath that to a Thought How is that like to Pain or to a doubt of the Mind to Hope or to Desire to the Idea of God to any act of the Will or Understanding as judging consenting reasoning remembring or any other These are things of several orders that have no similitude nor any mixture of one another And as this is the nature of Motion so on the other hand in a Thought there are two things Consciousness and a â—epresentation Consciousness is in all Thoughts indifferently whether distinct or confus'd for no Man thinks but he is conscious that he thinks nor perceives any thing but he is conscious that he perceives it there is also in a Thought especially if it be distinct a representation 't is the image of that we think upon and makes its Object present to the Mind Now what hath local Motion to do with either of these two Consciousness or Representativeness How doth it include either of them or hold them any way affixt to its Nature I think one may with as good sence and reason ask of what colour a Thought is green or scarlet as what sort of Motion it is for Motion of what sort soever can never be conscious not represent things as our Thoughts do I have noted thus much in general only to show the different nature of Motion and Cogitation that we may be the more sensible that they have no mutual connexion in us nor in any other Creature from their essence or essential properties but by a supervenient power from the Author of Nature who hath thus united the Soul and the Body in their operations We have hitherto only consider'd the ordinary course of Nature and what indications and proofs of its Author that affords us There is another remarkable Head of Arguments from effects extraordinary and supernatural such as Miracles Prophecies Inspirations Prodigies Apparitions Witchcraft Sorceries c. These at one step lead us to something above Nature and this is the shortest way and the most popular several Arguments are suited to several tempers and God hath not left himself without a proper witness to every temper that is not wilfully blind Of these witnesses we now speak of the most considerable are Miracles and the most considerable Records of them are the Books of Scripture which if we consider only as an History and