of the World or the Golden Age as they call'd it namely Equality of Seasons throughout the Year or a perpetual Equinox We have also taken in all the adjuncts or concomitants of these States as they are mention'd in Scripture The Longevity of the Ante-diluvians and the declension of their age by degrees after the Flood As also that wonderful Phaenomenon the Rainbow which appear'd to Noah for a Sign that the Earth should never undergo a second Deluge And we have shewn wherein the force and propriety of that Sign consisted for confirming Noah's faith in the promise and in the divine veracity Thus far we have explain'd the past Phaenomena of the Natural World The rest are Futurities which still lie hid in their Causes and we cannot properly prove a Theory from effects that are not yet in being But so far as they are foretold in Scripture both as to substance and circumstance in prosecution of the same Principles we have ante-dated their birth and shew'd how they will come to pass We may therefore I think reasonably conclude That this Theory has performed its task and answer'd its title having given an account of all the general changes of the Natural World as far as either Sacred History looks backwards or Sacred Prophecy looks forwards So far as the one tells us what is past in Nature and the other what is to come And if all this be nothing but an appearance of truth 't is a kind of fatality upon us to be deceiv'd SO much for Natural Evidence from the Causes or Effects We now proceed to Scripture which will make the greatest part of this Review The Sacred Basis upon which the whole Theory stands is the doctrine of S. Peter deliver'd in his Second Epistle and Third Chapter concerning the Triple Order and Succession of the Heavens and the Earth That comprehends the whole extent of our Theory which indeed is but a large Commentary upon S. Peter's Text. The Apostle sets out a threefold state of the Heavens and Earth with some general properties of each taken from their different Constitution and different Fate The Theory takes the same threefold state of the Heavens and the Earth and explains more particularly wherein their different Constitution consists and how under the conduct of Providence their different fate depends upon it Let us set down the Apostle's words with the occasion of them and their plain sence according to the most easie and natural explication Ver. 3. Knowing this first that there shall come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lusts 4. And saying Where is the promise of his coming for since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation 5. For this they willingly are ignorant of that by the word of God the heavens were of old and the earth consisting of water and by water 6. Whereby the world that then was being over flowed with water perished 7. But the heavens and the earth that are now by the same word are kept in store reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men 10. The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent heat the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up 13. Nevertheless we according to his promise look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness This is the whole Discourse so far as relates to our Subject S. Peter you see had met with some that scoff'd at the future destruction of the World and the coming of our Saviour and they were men it seems that pretended to Philosophy and Argument and they use this argument for their opinion Seeing there hath been no change in Nature or in the World from the beginning to this time why should we think there will be any change for the future The Apostle answers to this That they willingly forget or are ignorant that there were Heavens of old and an Earth so and so constituted consisting of Water and by Water by reason whereof that World or those Heavens and that Earth perish'd in a Deluge of Water But saith he the Heavens and the Earth that are now are of another constitution fitted and reserved to another fate namely to perish by Fire And after these are perish'd there will be New Heavens and a New Earth according to God's promise This is an easie Paraphrase and the plain and genuine sence of the Apostle's discourse and no body I think would ever look after any other sence if this did not draw them into paths they do not know and to conclusions which they do not fancy This sence you see hits the objection directly or the Cavil which these scoffers made and tells them that they vainly pretend that there hath been no change in the World since the beginning for there was one sort of Heavens and Earth before the Flood and another sort now the first having been destroyed at the Deluge So that the Apostle's argument stands upon this Foundation That there is a diversity betwixt the present Heavens and Earth and the Ante-diluvian Heavens and Earth take away that and you take away all the force of his Answer Then as to his New Heavens and New Earth after the Conflagration they must be material and natural in the same sence and signification with the former Heavens and Earth unless you will offer open violence to the Text. So that this Triplicity of the Heavens and the Earth is the first obvious plain sence of the Apostle's discourse which every one would readily accept if it did not draw after it a long train of Consequences and lead them into other Worlds than they ever thought of before or are willing to enter upon now But we shall have occasion by and by to examine this Text more fully in all its circumstances Give me leave in the mean time to observe that S. Paul also implyes that triple Creation which S. Peter expresses S. Paul I say in the 8th chap. to the Romver 20 21. tell us of a Creation that will be redeem'd from Vanity which are the new Heavens and new Earth to come A Creation in subjection to Vanity which is the present state of the World And a Creation that was subjected to Vanity in hopes of being restor'd which was the first Paradisiacal Creation And these are the three states of the Natural World which make the subject of our Theory To these two places of St. Peter and St. Paul I might add that third in St. John concerning the new Heavens and new Earth with that distinguishing Character that the Earth was without a Sea As this distinguisheth it from the present Earth so being a Restitution or Restauration as we noted before it must be the same with some former Earth and consequently it implies that there was another precedent
Scripture-Testimonies with design chiefly to obviate and disappoint the evasions of such as would beat down solid Texts into thin Metaphors and Allegories The Testimonies of Scripture concerning the Renovation of the World are either express or implicit Those I call express that mention the New Heavens and New Earth And those implicit that signifie the same thing but not in express terms So when our Saviour speaks of a Palingenesia or Regeneration Matt. 19. 28 29. Or St. Peter of an Apocatastasis or Restitution Act. 3. 21. These being words us'd by all Authors prophane or Ecclesiastical for the Renovation of the World ought in reason to be interpreted in the same sence in the holy Writings And in like manner when St. Paul speaks of his Future Earth or an habitable World to come Hebr. 2. 5. or of a Redemption or melioration of the present state of nature Rom. 8. 21 22. These lead us again in other terms to the same Renovation of the World But there are also some places of Scripture that set the New Heavens and New Earth in such a full and open view that we must shut our eyes not to see them St. John says he saw them and observ'd the form of the New Earth Apoc. 21. 1. The Seer Isaish spoke of them in express words many hundred years before And St. Peter marks the time when they are to be introduc'd namely after the Conflagration or after the Dissolution of the present Heavens and Earth 2 Pet. 3. 12 13. These later Texts of Scripture being so express there is but one way left to elude the force of them and that is by turning the Renovation of the World into an Allegory and making the New Heavens and New Earth to be Allegorical Heavens and Earth not real and material as ours are This is a bold attempt of some modern Authors who chuse rather to strain the Word of God than their own notions There are Allegories no doubt in Scripture but we are not to allegorize Scripture without some warrant either from an Apostolical interpretation or from the necessity of the matter and I do not know how they can pretend to either of these in this case However that they may have all fair play we will lay aside at present all the other Texts of Scripture and confine our selves wholly to St. Peter's words to see and examine whether they are or can be turn'd into an Allegory according to the best rules of interpretation St. Peter's words are these Seeing then all these things shall be dissolv'd what manner of persons ought ye to be in holy conversation and godliness Looking for and hasting the coming of the Day of God wherein the Heavens being on fire shall be dissolv'd and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat NEVERTHELESS we according to his promise look for New Heavens and a New Earth wherein Righteousness shall dwell The Question is concerning this last Verse Whether the New Heavens and Earth here promis'd are to be real and material Heavens and Earth or onely figurative and allegorical The words you see are clear And the general rule of interpretation is this That we are not to recede from the letter or the literal sence unless there be a necessity from the subject matter such a necessity as makes a literal interpretation absurd But where is that necessity in this Case Cannot God make new Heavens and a new Earth as easily as he made the Old ones Is his strength decay'd since that time or is Matter grown more disobedient Nay does not Nature offer her self voluntarily to raise a new World from the second Chaos as well as from the first and under the conduct of Providence to make it as convenient an habitation as the Primaeval Earth Therefore no necessity can be pretended of leaving the literal sence upon an incapacity of the subject matter The second rule to determine an Interpretation to be Literal or Allegorical is the use of the same words or phrase in the Context and the signification of them there Let 's then examine our cafe according to this rule St. Peter had us'd the same phrase of Heavens and Earth twice before in the same Chapter The old Heavens and Earth ver 5. The Present Heavens and Earth ver 7. and now he uses it again ver 13. The new Heavens and Earth Have we not then reason to suppose that he takes it here in the same sence that he had done twice before for real and material Heavens and Earth There is no mark set of a new signification nor why we should alter the sence of the words That he us'd them always before for the material Heavens and Earth I think none will question and therefore unless they can give us a sufficient reason why we should change the signification of the words we are bound by this second rule also to understand them in a literal sence Lastly The very form of the words and the manner of their dependence upon the Context leads us to a literal sence and to material Heavens and Earth NEVERTHELESS says the Apostle we expect new Heavens c. Why Nevertheless that is notwithstanding the dissolution of the present Heavens and Earth The Apostle foresaw what he had said might raise a doubt in their minds whether all things would not be at an end Nothing more of Heavens and Earth or of any habitable World after the Conflagration and to obviate this he tells them Notwithstanding that wonderful desolation that I have describ'd we do according to God's promises expect new Heavens and a new Earth to be an Habitation for the Righteous You see then the New Heavens and New Earth which the Apostle speaks of are substituted in the place of those that were destroy'd at the Conflagration and would you substitute Allegorical Heavens and Earth in the place of Material A shadow for a substance What an Equivocation would it be in the Apostle when the doubt was about the material Heavens and Earth to make an answer about Allegorical Lastly the timeing of the thing determines the sence When shall this new World appear after the Conflagration the Apostle says Therefore it cannot be understood of any moral renovation to be made at or in the times of the Gospel as these Allegorists pretend We must therefore upon all accounts conclude that the Apostle intended a literal sence real and material Heavens to succeed these after the Conflagration which was the thing to be prov'd And I know not what Bars the Spirit of God can set to keep us within the Compass of a Literal sence if these be not sufficient Thus much for the Explication of St. Peter's Doctrine concerning the new Heavens and new Earth which secures the second Part of our Theory For the Theory stands upon two Pillars or two pedestals The Ante-diluvian Earth and the Future Earth or in S. Peter's phrase The Old Heavens and Earth and the New Heavens and Earth And it cannot be
A REVIEW OF THE THEORY OF THE EARTH And of its PROOFS ESPECIALLY IN REFERENCE TO SCRIPTURE LONDON Printed by R. Norton for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's-Head in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1690. A REVIEW OF THE THEORY OF THE EARTH To take a review of this Theory of the Earth which we have now finish'd We must consider first the extent of it and then the principal parts whereof it consists It reaches as you see from one end of the World to the other From the first Chaos to the last day and the Consummation of all things This probably will run the length of Seven Thousand Years which is a good competent space of time to exercise our thoughts upon and to observe the several Scenes which Nature and Providence bring into View within the compass of so many Ages The matter and principal parts of this Theory are such things as are recorded in Scripture We do not feign a Subject and then descant upon it for diversion but endeavour to give an intelligible and rational account of such matters of Fact past or future as are there specified and declar'd What it hath seem'd good to the Holy Ghost to communicate to us by History or Prophecy concerning the several States and general Changes of this Earth makes the Argument of our Discourse Therefore the Things themselves must be taken for granted in one sence or other seeing besides all other proofs they have the authority of a Revelation and our business is only to give such an explication of them as shall approve it self to the faculties of man and be conformable to Scripture We will therefore first set down the things themselves that make the subject matter of this Theory and remind you of our explication of them Then recollect the general proofs of that explication from reason and nature but more fully and particularly shew how it is grounded upon Scripture The primary Phaenomena whereof we are to give an account are these Five or Six I. The original of the Earth from a Chaos II. The state of Paradise and the Ante-diluvian World III. The Universal Deluge IV. The Universal Conflagration V. The Renovation of the World or the New Heavens and New Earth VI. The Consummation of all things These are unquestionably in Scripture and these all relate as you see to the several forms states and revolutions of this Earth We are therefore oblig'd to give a clear and coherent account of these Phaenomena in that order and consecution wherein they stand to one another There are also in Scripture some other things relating to the same Subjects that may be call'd the secondary ingredients of this Theory and are to be referr'd to their respective primary heads Such are for instance I. The Longevity of the Ante-diluvians II. The Rupture of the Great Abyss at the Deluge III. The appearing of the Rainbow after the Deluge as a sign that there never should be a second Flood These things Scripture hath also left upon record as directions and indications how to understand the Ante-diluvian state and the Deluge it self Whosoever therefore shall undertake to write the Theory of the Earth must think himself bound to give us a just explication of these secondary Phaenomena as well as of the primary and that in such a dependance and connexion as to make them give and receive light from one another This part of the Task is concerning the World behind us Times and Things pass'd that are already come to light The remainder is concerning the World before us Times and Things to come that lie yet in the bosome of Providence and in the seeds of Nature And these are chiefly the Conflagration of the World and the Renovation of it When these are over and expir'd then comes the end as S. Paul says Then the Heavens and the Earth fly away as S. John says Then is the Consummation of all things and the last period of this sublunary World whatsoever it is Thus far the Theorist must go and pursue the motions of Nature till all things are brought to rest and silence And in this latter part of the Theory there is also a collateral Phaenomenon the Millennium or Thousand years Reign of Christ and his Saints upon Earth to be consider'd For this according as it is represented in Scripture does imply a change in the Natural World as well as in the Moral and therefore must be accounted for in the Theory of the Earth At least it must be there determin'd whether that state of the World which is singular and extraordinary will be before or after the Conflagration These are the Principals and Incidents of this Theory of the Earth as to the matter and subject of it which you see is both important and wholly taken out of Scripture As to our explication of these points that is sufficiently known being set down at large in four Books of this Theory Therefore it remains only having seen the matter of the Theory to examine the Form of it and the proofs of it for from these two things it must receive its censure As to the form the characters of a regular Theory seem to be these three Few and easie Postulatums Union of Parts and a Fitness to answer fully and clearly all the Phaenomena to which it is to be apply'd We think our Hypothesis does not want any of these Characters As to the First we take but one single Postulatum for the whole Theory and that an easie one warranted both by Scripture and Antiquity Namely That this Earth rise at first from a Chaos As to the second Union of parts The whole Theory is but one Series of Causes and Effects from that first Chaos Besides you can scarce admit any one part of it first last or intermediate but you must in consequence of that admit all the rest Grant me but that the Deluge is truly explain'd and I 'le desire no more for proof of all the Theory Or if you begin at the other end and grant the New Heavens and New Earth after the Conflagration you will be led back again to the first Heavens and first Earth that were before the Flood For St. John says that New Earth was without a Sea Apoc. 21. 1. And it was a Renovation or Restitution to some former state of things there was therefore some former Earth without a Sea which not being the present Earth it must be the Ante-diluvian Besides both St. John and the Prophet Isaias have represented the New Heavens and New Earth as Paradisiacal According as is prov'd Book the 4th ch 2. And having told us the form of the New-futureEarth that it will have no Sea it is a reasonable inference that there was no Sea in the Paradisiacal Earth However from the form of this Future Earth which St. John represents to us we may at least conclude That an Earth without a Sea is no Chimaera or impossibility but rather a fit seat and habitation for the Just and
the Innocent Thus you see the parts of the Theory link and hold fast one another according to the second character And as to the third of being suited to the Phaenomena we must refer that to the next head of Proofs It may be truly said that bare coherence and union of parts is not a sufficient proof The parts of a Fable or Romance may hang aptly together and yet have no truth in them This is enough indeed to give the title of a just Composition to any work but not of a true one till it appear that the conclusions and explications are grounded upon good natural evidence or upon good Divine authority We must therefore proceed now to the third thing to be consider'd in a Theory What its Proofs are or the grounds upon which it stands whether Sacred or Natural According to Natural evidence things are proved from their Causes or their Effects And we think we have this double order of proofs for the truth of our Hypothesis As to the method of Causes we proceed from what is more simple to what is more compound and build all upon one foundation Go but to the Head of the Theory and you will see the Causes lying in a train before you from first to last And tho' you did not know the Natural history of the World past or future you might by intuition foretell it as to the grand revolutions and successive faces of Nature through a long series of Ages If we have given a true account of the motions of the Chaos we have also truly form'd the first habitable Earth And if that be truly form'd we have thereby given a true account of the state of Paradise and of all that depends upon it And not of that onely but also of the universal Deluge Both these we have shewn in their causes The one from the Form of that Earth and the other from the Fall of it into the Abyss And tho' we had not been made acquainted with these things by Antiquity we might in contemplation of the Causes have truly conceiv'd them as properties or incidents to the First Earth But as to the Deluge I do not say that we might have calculated the Time manner and other circumstances of it These things were regulated by Providence in subordination to the Moral World But that there would be at one time or other a disruption of that Earth or of the Great Abyss and in consequence of it an universal Deluge So far I think the light of a Theory might carry us Furthermore In consequence of this disruption of the Primeval Earth at the Deluge the present Earth was made hollow and cavernous and by that means due preparations being used capable of Combustion or of perishing by an universal Fire Yet to speak ingenuously This is as hard a step to be made in vertue of Natural causes as any in the whole Theory But in recompence of that defect the Conflagration is so plainly and literally taught us in Scripture and avow'd by Antiquity that it can fall under no dispute as to the thing it self And as to a capacity or disposition to it in the present Earth that I think is sufficiently made out Then the Conflagration admitted in that way it is explain'd in the 3d. Book The Earth you see is by that fire reduc'd to a second Chaos A Chaos truly so call'd And from that as from the First arises another Creation or New Heavens and a New Earth By the same causes and in the same form with the Paradisiacal This is the Renovation of the World The Restitution of all things mentioned both by Scripture and Antiquity and by the Prophet Isaiah St. Peter and St. John call'd the New Heavens and New Earth With this as the last period and most glorious Scene of all humane affairs our Theory concludes as to this method of Causes whereof we are now speaking I say here it ends as to the method of Causes For tho' we pursue the Earth still further even to its last Dissolution which is call'd the Consummation of all things yet all that we have superadded upon that occasion is but Problematical and may without prejudice to the Theory be argued and disputed on either hand I do not know but that our conjectures there may be well grounded but however not springing so directly from the same root or at least not by ways so clear and visible I leave that part undecided Especially seeing we pretend to write no more than the Theory of the Earth and therefore as we begin no higher than the Chaos so we are not obliged to go any further than to the last state of a Terrestrial consistency which is that of the New Heavens and the New Earth This is the first natural proof From the order of Causes The second is from the consideration of Effects Namely of such effects as are already in being And therefore this proof can extend onely to that part of the Theory that explains the present and past form and Phaenomena of the Earth What is Future must be left to a further trial when the things come to pass and present themselves to be examin'd and compar'd with the Hypothesis As to the present Form of the Earth we call all Nature to witness for us The Rocks and the Mountains the Hills and the Valleys the deep and wide Sea and the Caverns of the Ground Let these speak and tell their origine How the Body of the Earth came to be thus torn and mangled If this strange and irregular structure was not the effect of a ruine and of such a ruine as was universal over the face of the whole Globe But we have given such a full explication of this in the first part of the Theory from Chapt. the 9th to the end of that Treatise that we dare stand to the judgment of any that reads those four Chapters to determine if the Hypothesis does not answer all those Phaenomena easily and adequately The next Phaenomenon to be consider'd is the Deluge with its adjuncts This also is fully explain'd by our Hypothesis in the 2d 3d. and 6th Chapters of the first Book Where it is shewn that the Mosaical Deluge that is an universal Inundation of the whole Earth above the tops of the highest Mountains made by a breaking open of the Great Abyss for thus far Moses leads us is fully explain'd by this Hypothesis and cannot be conceiv'd in any other method There are no sources or stores of Water sufficient for such an effect that may be drawn upon the Earth and drawn off again but by supposing such an Abyss and such a Disruption of it as the Theory represents Lastly As to the Phaenomena of Paradise and the Ante-diluvian World we have set them down in order in the 2d Book and apply'd to each of them its proper explication from the same Hypothesis We have also given an account of that Character which Antiquity always assign'd to the first age
state of the natural World to which this is a Restitution These three places I alledge as comprehending and confirming the Theory in its full extent But we do not suppose them all of the same force and clearness St. Peter leads the way and gives light and strength to the other two When a Point is prov'd by one clear Text we allow others as auxiliaries that are not of the same clearness But being open'd receive light from the primary Text and reflect it upon the Argument So much for the Theory in general We will now take one or two principal heads of it which vertually contain all the rest and examine them more strictly and particularly in reference to their agreement with Scripture The two Heads we pitch upon shall be our Explication of the Deluge and our Explication of the new Heavens and new Earth We told you before these two were as the Hinges upon which all the Theory moves and which hold the parts of it in firm union one with another As to the Deluge if I have explain'd that aright by the Disruption of the Great Abyss and the Dissolution of the Earth that cover'd it all the rest follows in such a chain of consequences as cannot be broken Wherefore in order to the proof of that explication and of all that depends upon it I will make bold to lay down this Proposition That our Hypothesis concerning the universal Deluge is not onely more agreeable to Reason and Philosophy than any other yet propos'd to the World but is also more agreeable to Scripture Namely to such places of Scripture as reflect upon the Deluge the Abyss and the form of the first Earth And particularly to the History of Noah's Flood as recorded by Moses If I can make this good it will doubtless give satisfaction to all intelligent Persons And I desire their patience if I proceed slowly We will divide our task into parts and examine them separately First by Scripture in general and then by Moses his history and description of the Flood Our Hypothesis of the Deluge consists of three principal Heads or differs remarkably in three things from the common explication First in that we suppose the Antediluvian Earth to have been of another Form and constitution from the present Earth with the Abyss placed under it Secondly in that we suppose the Deluge to have been made not by any inundation of the Sea or overflowing of Fountains and Rivers nor principally by any excess of rains but by a real dissolution of the exteriour Earth and disruption of the Abyss which it cover'd These are the two principal points to which may be added as a Corollary Thirdly that the Deluge was not in the nature of a standing Pool the Waters lying every where level of an equal depth and with an uniform Surface but was made by a fluctuation and commotion of the Abyss upon the disruption which commotion being over the Waters retired into their Chanels and let the dry Land appear These are the most material and fundamental parts of our Hypothesis and these being prov'd consonant to Scripture there can be no doubt of the rest We begin with the first That the Ante-diluvian Earth was of another form and constitution from the present Earth with the Abyss placed under it This is confirm'd in Scripture both by such places as assert a diversity in general and by other places that intimate to us wherein that diversity consisted and what was the form of the first Earth That discourse of St. Peter's which we have set before you concerning the past present and future Heavens and Earth is so full a proof of this diversity in general that you must either allow it or make the Apostle's argumentation of no effect He speaks plainly of the natural World The Heavens and the Earth And he makes a plain distinction or rather opposition betwixt those before and after the Flood so that the least we can conclude from his words is a diversity betwixt them In answer to that Identity or immutability of Nature which the Scoffers pretended to have been ever since the beginning But tho' the Apostle to me speaks plainly of the Natural World and distinguishes that which was before the Flood from the present Yet there are some that will allow neither of these to be contain'd in St. Peter's words and by that means would make this whole Discourse of little or no effect as to our purpose And seeing we on the contrary have made it the chief Scripture-basis of the whole Theory of the Earth we are oblig'd to free it from those false glosses or mis-interpretations that lessen the force of its testimony or make it wholly ineffectual These Interpreters say that St. Peter meant no more than to mind these Scoffers that the World was once destroy'd by a Deluge of Water meaning the Animate World Mankind and living Creatures And that it shall be destroy'd again by another Element namely by Fire So as there is no opposition or diversity betwixt the two Natural Worlds taught or intended by the Apostle but onely in reference to their different fate or manner of perishing and not of their different nature or constitution Here are two main points you see wherein our interpretations of this discourse of the Apostles differ First in that they make the Apostle in that sixth verse to understand onely the World Animate or men and brute Creatures That these were indeed destroy'd but not the Natural World or the form and constitution of the then Earth and Heavens Secondly that there is no diversity or opposition made by St. Peter betwixt the ancient Heavens and Earth and the present as to their form and constitution We pretend that these are mis-apprehensions or mis-representations of the sence of the Apostle in both respects and offer these reasons to prove them to be so For the first point That the Apostle speaks here of the natural World particularly in the 6th Verse and that it perish'd as well as the animate these Considerations seem to prove First because the argument or ground these Scoffers went upon was taken from the natural World its constancy and permanency in the same state from the beginning therefore if the Apostle answers ad idem and takes away their argument he must understand the same natural World and show that it hath been chang'd or hath perish'd You will say it may be the Apostle doth not deny nor take away the ground they went upon but denies the consequence they made from it that therefore there would be no change because there had been none No neither doth he do this if by the World in the 6th Verse he understands Mankind onely for their ground was this there hath been no change in the natural World Their consequence this therefore there will be none nor any Conflagration Now the Apostle's answer according to you is this you forget that Mankind hath been destroyed in a Deluge And what then what
built upon it and at first was sustain'd by it And when such a Key as this is put into our hands that does so easily unlock this hard passage and makes it intelligible according to the just force of the words why should we pertinaciously adhere to an interpretation that neither agrees with the words nor makes any sence that is considerable Thirdly If the Apostle had made the ante-diluvian Heavens and Earth the same with the present his apodosis in the 7th Verse should not have been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. I say it should not have been by way of antithesis but of identity or continuation And the same Heavens and Earth are kept in store reserv'd unto fire c. Accordingly we see the Apostle speaks thus as to the Logos or the Word of God Verse 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the same Word of God where the thing is the same he expresseth it as the same And if it had been the same Heavens and Earth as well as the same Word of God Why should he use a mark of opposition for the one and of identity for the other to this I do not see what can be fairly answer'd Fourthly the ante-diluvian Heavens and Earth were different from the present because as the Apostle intimates they were such and so constituted as made them obnoxious to a Deluge whereas ours are of such a form as makes them incapable of a Deluge and obnoxious to a Conflagration the just contrary fate If you say there was nothing of natural tendency or disposition in either World to their respective fate but the first might as well have perish'd by fire as water and this by water as by fire you unhinge all Nature and natural providence in that method and contradict one main scope of the Apostle in this discourse His first scope is to assert and mind them of that diversity there was betwixt the ancient Heavens and Earth and the present and from that to prove against those Scoffers that there had been a change and revolution in Nature And his second scope seems to be this to show that diversity to be such as under the Divine conduct leads to a different fate and expos'd that World to a Deluge for when he had describ'd the constitution of the first Heavens and Earth he subjoyns 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quià talis erat saith Grotius qualem diximus constitutio Terrae Coeli W H E R E B Y the then World perish'd in a Flood of Water This whereby notes some kind of causal dependance and must relate to some means or conditions precedent It cannot relate to Logos or the Word of God Grammar will not permit that therefore it must relate to the state of the ante-diluvian Heavens and Earth immediately premis'd And to what purpose indeed should he premise the description of those Heavens and Earth if it was not to lay a ground for this inference Having given these Reasons for the necessity of this Interpretation in the last place let 's consider St. Austin's judgment and his sence upon this place as to the point in question As also the reflections that some other of the Ancients have made upon this doctrine of St. Peter's Didymus Alexandrinus who was for some time St. Jerome's Master made such a severe reflection upon it that he said this Epistle was corrupted and should not be admitted into the Canon because it taught the doctrine of a Triple or Triform World in this third Chapter As you may see in his Enarr in Epist. Canonicas Now this threefold World is first that in the 6th Verse The World that then was In the 7th Verse The Heavens and the Earth that are now And in the 13th Verse We expect new Heavens and a new Earth according to his promise This seems to be a fair account that St. Peter taught the doctrine of a triple World And I quote this testimony to show what St. Peter's words do naturally import even in the judgment of one that was not of his mind And a Man is not prone to make an exposition against his own Opinion unless he think the words very pregnant and express But St. Austin owns the authority of this Epistle and of this doctrine as deriv'd from it taking notice of this Text of St. Peter's in several Parts of his Works We have noted three or four places already to this purpose and we may further take notice of several passages in his Treatise de Civ Dei which confirm our exposition In his 20th Book ch 24. he disputes against Porphyry who had the same Principles with these Aeternalists in the Text or if I may so call them Incorruptarians and thought the World never had nor ever would undergo any change especially as to the Heavens St. Austin could not urge Porphyry with the authority of St. Peter for he had no veneration for the Christian Oracles but it seems he had some for the Jewish and arguing against him upon that Text in the Psalms Coeli peribunt he shows upon occasion how he understands St. Peter's destruction of the Old World Legitur Coelum Terra transibunt Mundus transit sed puto quod proeterit transit transibunt aliquantò mitiùs dicta sunt quà m peribunt In Epistolà quoque Petri Apostoli ubi aquâ inundatus qui tum erat periisse dictus est Mundus satis clarum est quae pars mundi à toto significata est quatenùs periisse dicta sit qui coeli repositi igni reservandi This he explains more fully afterwards by subjoyning a caution which we cited before that we must not understand this passage of St. Peter's concerning the destruction of the ante diluvian World to take in the whole Universe and the highest Heavens but onely the aerial Heavens and the sublunary World In Apostolicâ illâ Epistolâ à toto pars accipitur quod Diluvio periisse dictus est mundus quamvis sola ejus cum suis coelis pars ima perierit In that Apostolical Epistle a part is signified by the whole when the World is said to have perish'd in the Deluge although the lower part of it onely with the Heavens belonging to it perished that is the Earth with the regions of the Air that belong to it And consonant to this in his exposition of that hundred and first Psalm upon those words The Heavens are the work of thy hands They shall perish but thou shalt endure This perishing of the Heavens he says S. Peter tells us hath been once done already namely at the Deluge Apertè dixit hoc Apostolus Petrus Coeli erant olim Terra de aquâ per aquam constituti Dei verbo per quod qui factus est mundus aquâ inundatus deperiit Terra autem coeli qui nunc sunt igni reservantur Jam ergo dixit periisse coelos per Diluvium These places shew us that
S. Austin understood S. Peter's discourse to aim at the natural World and his periit or periisse verse 6. to be of the same force as peribunt in the Psalms when 't is said the Heavens shall perish and consequently that the Heavens and the Earth in this Father's opinion were as really chang'd and transform'd at the time of the Flood as they will be at the Conflagration But we must not expect from S. Austin or any of the Ancients a distinct account of this Apostolical doctrine as if they knew and acknowledg'd the Theory of the first World that does not at all appear but what they said was either from broken Tradition or extorted from them by the force of the Apostle's words and their own sincerity There are yet other places in S. Austin worthy our consideration upon this subject especially his exposition of this 3d chap. of S. Peter as we find it in that same Treatise de Civ Dei There he compares again the destruction of the World at the Deluge with that which shall be at the Conflagration and supposeth both the Heavens and Earth to have perish'd Apostolus commemorans factum ante Diluvium videtur admonuisse quodammodò quatenùs in fine hujus secult mundum istum periturum esse credamus Nam illo tempore periisse dixit qui tunc erat mundum nec solum orbem terrae verùm etiam coelos Then giving his usual caution That the Stars and starry heavens should not be comprehended in that mundane destruction He goes on Atque hoc modo penè totus aer cum terra perierat cujus Terrae utique prior facies nempe ante-diluviana fuerat deleta Diluvio Qui autem nunc sunt coeli terra eodem verbo repositi sunt igni reservandi Proinde qui coeli quae Terra id est qui mundus pro eo mundo qui Diluvio periit ex eâdem aquâ repositus est ipse igni novissimo reservatur Here you see S. Austin's sence upon the whole matter which is this That the natural World the Earth with the Heavens about it was destroyed and chang'd at the Deluge into the present Heavens and Earth which shall again in like manner be destroyed and chang'd by the last fire Accordingly in another place to add no more he saith the figure of the sublunary world shall be chang'd at the Conflagration as it was chang'd at the Deluge Tunc figura hujus mundi c. cap. 16. Thus you see we have S. Austin on our side in both parts of our interpretation that S. Peter's discourse is to be referr'd to the natural inanimate World and that the present natural World is distinct and different from that which was before the Deluge And S. Austin having applyed this expresly to S. Peter's doctrine by way of Commentary it will free us from any crime or affectation of singularity in the exposition we have given of that place Venerable Bede hath followed S. Austin's footsteps in this doctrine for interpreting S. Peter's Original World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Pet. 2. 5. he refers both that and this chap. 3.6 to the natural inanimate World which he supposeth to have undergone a change at the Deluge His words are these idem ipse mundus est nempe quoad materiam in quo nunc humanum genus habitat quem inhabitaverunt hi qui ante diluvium fuerunt sed tamen rectè Originalis Mundus quasi alius dicitur quia sicut in consequentibus hujus Epistolae scriptum continetur Ille tunc mundus aquâ inundatus periit Coelis videlicet qui erant priùs id est cunctis aeris hujus turbulenti spaciis aquarum accrescentium altitudine consumptis ac Terrâ in alteram faciem excedentibus aquis immutatâ Nam etsi montes aliqui atque convalles ab initio facti creduntur non tamen tanti quanti nunc in orbe cernuntur universo 'T is the same World namely as to the matter and substance of it which mankind lives in now and did live in before the Flood but yet that is truly call'd the ORIGINAL WORLD being as it were another from the present For 't is said in the sequel of this Epistle that the World that was then perish'd in the Deluge namely the regions of the air were consumed by the height and excess of the waters and by the same waters the Earth was chang'd into another form or face For although some Mountains and Valleys are thought to have been made from the beginning yet not such great ones as now we see throughout the whole Earth You see this Author does not only own a change made at the Deluge but offers at a further explication wherein that change consisted viz. that the Mountains and inequalities of the Earth were made greater than they were before the Flood and so he makes the change or the difference betwixt the two Worlds gradual rather than specifical if I may so term it But we cannot wonder at that if he had no principles to carry it further or to make any other sort of change intelligible to him Bede also pursues the same sence and notion in his interpretation of that fountain Gen. 2. 5. that watered the face of the Earth before the Flood And many other transcribers of Antiquity have recorded this Tradition concerning a difference gradual or specifical both in the Ante-diluvian heavens Gloss. Ordin Gen. 9. de Iride Lyran. ibid. Hist. Scholast c. 35. Rab. Maurus Gloss. Inter. Gen. 2. 5 6. Alcuin Quaest. in Gen. inter 135. and in the Ante-diluvian Earth as the same Authors witness in other places As Hist. Schol. c. 34. Gloss. Ord. in Gen. 7. Al. cuin Inter. 118 c. Not to instance in those that tell us the properties of the Ante-diluvian World under the name and notion of Paradise Thus much concerning this remarkable place in S. Peter and the true exposition of it which I have the more largely insisted upon because I look upon this place as the chief repository of that great natural mystery which in Scripture is communicated to us concerning the Triple state or revolution of the World And of those men that are so scrupulous to admit the Theory we have propos'd I would willingly know whether they believe the Apostle in what he says concerning the New Heavens and the New Earth to come ver 13. and if they do why they should not believe him as much concerning the Old Heavens and the Old Earth past ver 5 6. which he mentions as formally and describes more distinctly than the other But if they believe neither past nor to come in a natural sence but an unchangeable state of Nature from the Creation to its annihilation I leave them then to their Fellow Eternalists in the Text and to the character or censure the Apostle gives them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 men that go by their own private humour and passions and prefer that to all other evidence
They deserve this censure I am sure if they do not only disbelieve but also scoff at this Prophetick and Apostolick doctrine concerning the Vicissitudes of Nature and a triple World The Apostle in this discourse does formally distinguish three Worlds for 't is well known that the Hebrews have no word to signifie the natural World but use that Periphrasis The Heavens and the Earth and upon each of them engraves a name and title that bears a note of distinction in it He calls them the Old Heavens and Earth the Present Heavens and Earth and the New Heavens and Earth 'T is true these three are one as to matter and substance but they must differ as to form and properties otherwise what is the ground of this distinction and of these three different appellations Suppose the Jews had expected Ezekiel's Temple for the Third and last and most perfect and that in the time of the second Temple they had spoke of them with this distinction or under these different names The Old Temple the Present Temple and the New Temple we expect Would any have understood those three of one and the same Temple never demolish'd never chang'd never rebuilt always the same both as to materials and form no doubtless but of three several Temples succeeding one another And have we not the same reason to understand this Temple of the World whereof S. Peter speaks to be threefold in succession seeing he does as plainly distinguish it into the Old heavens and earth the Present heavens and earth and the New heavens and earth And I do the more willingly use this comparison of the Temple because it hath been thought an Emblem of the outward World I know we are naturally averse to entertain any thing that is inconsistent with the general frame and texture of our own thoughts That 's to begin the World again and we often reject such things without examination Neither do I wonder that the generality of Interpreters beat down the Apostle's words and sence to their own notions They had no other grounds to go upon and Men are not willing especially in natural and comprehensible things to put such a meaning upon Scripture as is unintelligible to themselves They rather venture to offer a little violence to the words that they may pitch the sence at such a convenient height as their Principles will reach to And therefore though some of our modern Interpreters whom I mention'd before have been sensible of the natural tendency of this discourse of St. Peter's and have much ado to bear off the force of the words so as not to acknowledge that they import a real diversity betwixt the two worlds spoken of yet having no Principles to guide or support them in following that Tract they are forc'd to stop or divert another way 'T is like entering into the mouth of a Cave we are not willing to venture further than the light goes Nor are they much to blame for this the fault is onely in those Persons that continue wilfully in their darkness and when they cannot otherwise resist the light shut their eyes against it or turn their head another way but I am afraid I have staid too long upon this argument not for my own sake but to satisfie others You may please to remember that all that I have said hitherto belongs onely to the first Head To prove a Diversity in general betwixt the Ante-diluvian Heavens and Earth and the present not expressing what their particular form was And this general diversity may be argued also by observations taken from Moses his history of the World before and after the Flood From the Longevity of the Antediluvians The Rain-bow appearing after the Deluge and the breaking open an Abyss capable to overflow the Earth The Heavens that had no Rainbow and under whose benign and steddy influence Men liv'd seven eight nine hundred years and upwards must have been of a different aspect and constitution from the present Heavens And that Earth that had such an Abyss that the disruption of it made an universal Deluge must have been of another form than the present Earth And those that will not admit a diversity in the two worlds are bound to give us an intelligible account of these Phaenomena How they could possibly be in Heavens and Earth like the present Or if they were there once why they do not continue so still if Nature be the same We need say no more as to the Ante-diluvian Heavens but as to the Earth we must now according to the second Part of the first Head enquire If that Particular Form which we have assign'd it before the Flood be agreeable to Scripture You know how we have describ'd the Form and situation of that Earth namely that it was built over the Abyss as a regular Orb covering and incompassing the waters round about and founded as it were upon them There are many passages of Scripture that favour this description Some more expresly others upon a due explication To this purpose there are two express Texts in the Psalms as Psal. 24. 1 2. The Earth is the Lords and the fulness thereof The habitable World and they that dwell therein FOR he has founded it upon the Seas and establish'd it upon the Floods An Earth founded upon the Seas and establish'd upon the Waters is not this the Earth we have describ'd the first Earth as it came from the hands of its Maker Where can we now find in Nature such an Earth as has the Seas and the Water for its foundation Neither is this Text without a second as a fellow-witness to confirm the same truth For in the 136. Psalm ver 4 5 6. we read to the same effect in these words To him who alone does great wonders To him that by wisdom made the Heavens To him that stretched out the Earth above the Waters We can hardly express that form of the Ante-diluvian Earth in words more determinate than these are Let us then in the same simplicity of heart follow the words of Scripture seeing this literal sence is not repugnant to Nature but on the contrary agreeable to it upon the strictest examination And we cannot without some violence turn the words to any other sence What tolerable interpretation can these admit of if we do not allow the Earth once to have encompass'd and overspread the face of the Waters To be founded upon the waters to be establish'd upon the waters to be extended upon the waters what rational or satisfactory account can be given of these phrases and expressions from any thing we find in the present situation of the Earth or how can they be verified concerning it Consult Interpreters ancient or modern upon these two places see if they answer your expectation or answer the natural importance of the words unless they acknowledge another form of the Earth than the present Because a Rock hangs its nose over the Sea must the body of the
owning the Deluge to be universal supplies it self with Water from the Divine Omnipotency and says new Waters were created then for the nonce and again annihilated when the Deluge was to cease Both these explications you see and I know no more of note that are not obnoxious to the same exceptions differ from Moses in the substance or in one of the two substantial points and consequently more than ours doth The first changeth the Flood into a kind of national innundation and the second assigns other causes of it than Moses had assigned And as they both differ apparently from the Mosaical history so you may see them refuted upon other grounds also in the third Chapter of the First Book of the Theory This may be sufficient as to the History of the Flood by Moses But possibly it may be said the principal objection will arise from Moses his Six-days Creation in the first Chapter of Genesis where another sort of Earth than what we have form'd from the Chaos is represented to us namely a Terraqueous Globe such as our Earth is at present 'T is indeed very apparent that Moses hath accommodated his Six-days Creation to the present form of the Earth or to that which was before the eyes of the people when he writ But it is a great question whether that was ever intended for a true Physical account of the origine of the Earth or whether Moses did either Philosophize or Astronomize in that description The ancient Fathers when they answer the Heathens and the adversaries of Christianity do generally deny it as I am ready to make good upon another occafion And the thing it self bears in it evident marks of an accommodation and condescention to the vulgar notions concerning the form of the World Those that think otherwise and would make it literally and physically true in all the parts of it I desire them without entring upon the strict merits of the cause to determine these Preliminaries First whether the whole universe rise from a Terrestrial Chaos Secondly what Systeme of the World this Six-days Creation proceeds upon whether it supposes the Earth or the Sun for the Center Thirdly Whether the Sun and Fixt Stars are of a later date and a later birth than this Globe of Earth And lastly Where is the Region of the Super-celestial Waters When they have determin'd these Fundamentals we will proceed to other observations upon the Six-days work which will further assure us that 't is a narration suited to the capacity of the people and not to the strict and physical nature of things Besides we are to remember that Moses must be so interpreted in the first Chapter of Genesis as not to interfere with himself in other parts of his History nor to interfere with S. Peter or the Prophet David or any other Sacred Authors when they treat of the same matter Nor lastly so as to be repugnant to clear and uncontested Science For in things that concern the natural World that must always be consulted With these precautions let them try if they can reduce that narrative of the Origine of the World to physical truth so as to be consistent both with Nature and with Divine Revelation every where It is easily reconcileable to both if we suppose it writ in a Vulgar style and to the conceptions of the People And we cannot deny that a Vulgar style is often made use of in the holy Writings How freely and unconcernedly does Scripture speak of God Allmighty according to the opinions of the vulgar of his passions local motions parts and members of his body Which all are things that do not belong or are not compatible with the Divine nature according to truth and Science And if this liberty be taken as to God himself much more may it be taken as to his works And accordingly we see what motion the Scripture gives to the Sun what figure to the Earth what figure to the Heavens All according to the appearance of sence and popular credulity without any remorse for having transgressed the rules of intellectual truth This vulgar style of Scripture in describing the natures of things hath been often mistaken for the real sence and so become a stumbling block in the way of truth Thus the Anthropomorphites of old contended for the humane shape of God from the Letter of Scripture and brought many express Texts for their purpose but sound reason at length got the upper hand of Literal authority Then several of the Christian Fathers contended that there were no Antipodes and made that doctrine irreconcileable to Scripture But this also after a while went off and yielded to reason and experience Then the Motion of the Earth must by no means be allow'd as being contrary to Scripture for so it is indeed according to the Letter and Vulgar style But all intelligent Persons see thorough this argument and depend upon it no more in this case than in the former Lastly The original of the Earth from a Chaos drawn according to the rules of Physiology will not be admitted because it does not agree with the Scheme of the Six-days Creation But why may not this be writ in a Vulgar style as well as the rest Certainly there can be nothing more like a Vulgar style than to set God to work by the day and in Six-days to finish his task as he is there represented We may therefore probably hope that all these disguises of truth will at length fall off and that we shall see God and his Works in a pure and naked Light Thus I have finish'd what I had to say in confirmation of this Theory from Scripture I mean of the former part of it which depends chiefly upon the Deluge and the Antediluvian Earth When you have collated the places of Scripture on either side and laid them in the balance to be weigh'd one against another If you do but find them equal or near to an equal poise you know in whether Scale the Natural Reasons are to be laid and of what weight they ought to be in an argument of this kind There is a great difference betwixt Scripture with Philosophy on its side and Scripture with Philosophy against it when the question is concerning the Natural World And this is our Case which I leave now to the consideration of the unprejudic'd Reader and proceed to the Proof of the Second Part of the Theory THE later Part consists of the Conflagration of the World and the New Heavens and New Earth And seeing there is no dispute concerning the former of these two our task will now lie in a little compass Being onely this To prove that there will be New Heavens and a New Earth after the Conflagration This to my mind is sufficiently done already in the first second and third Chapters of the 4th Book both from Scripture and Antiquity whether Sacred or prophane and therefore at present we will onely make a short and easie review of
's this to the natural World whereof they were speaking this takes away neither antecedent nor consequent neither ground nor inference nor any way toucheth their argument which proceeded from the natural World to the natural World Therefore you must either suppose that the Apostle takes away their ground or he takes away nothing Secondly what is it that the Apostle tells these Scoffers they were ignorant of that there was a Deluge that destroyed Mankind They could not be ignorant of that nor pretend to be so It was therefore the constitution of those old Heavens and Earth and the change or destruction of them at the Deluge that they were ignorant of or did not attend to and of this the Apostle minds them These Scoffers appear to have been Jews by the phrase they use since the Fathers fell asleep which in both parts of it is a Judaical expression And does St. Peter tell the Jews that had Moses read to them every Sabbath that they were ignorant that Mankind was once destroyed with a Deluge in the Days of Noah or could they pretend to be ignorant of that without making themselves ridiculous both to Jews and Christians Besides these do not seem to have been of the vulgar amongst them for they bring a Philosophical argument for their opinion and also in their very argument they refer to the History of the Old Testament in saying Since the Fathers fell asleep amongst which Fathers Noah was one of the most remarkable Thirdly the design of the Apostle is to prove to them or to dispose them to the belief of the Conflagration or future destruction of the World which I suppose you will not deny to be a destruction of the natural World therefore to prove or perswade this he must use an argument taken from a precedent destruction of the natural World for to give an instance of the perishing of Mankind onely would not reach home to his purpose And you are to observe here that the Apostle does not proceed against them barely by authority for what would that have booted If these Scoffers would have submitted to authority they had already the authority of the Prophets and Apostles in this point but he deals with them at their own weapon and opposes reasons to reasons What hath been done may be done and if the natural World hath been once destroyed 't is not hard nor unreasonable to suppose those Prophecies to be true that say it shall be destroyed again Fourthly unless we understand here the natural World we make the Apostle both redundant in his discourse and also very obscure in an easie argument If his design was onely to tell them that Mankind was once destroy'd in a Deluge what 's that to the Heavens and the Earth the 5th Verse would be superfluous which yet he seems to make the foundation of his discourse He might have told them how Mankind had perish'd before with a Deluge and aggravated that destruction as much as he pleas'd without telling them how the Heavens and the Earth were constituted then what was that to the purpose if it had no dependance or connection with the other In the precedent Chapter Verse 5th when he speaks onely of the Floods destroying Mankind he mentions nothing of the Heavens or the Earth and if you make him to intend no more here what he says more is superfluous I also add that you make the Apostle very obscure and operose in a very easie argument How easie had it been for him without this Apparatus to have told them as he did before that God brought a Flood upon the World of the ungodly and not given us so much difficulty to understand his sence or such a suspicion and appearance that he intended something more for that there is at least a great appearance and tendency to a further sence I think none can deny And St. Austin Didymus Alex. Bede as we shall see hereafter understood it plainly of the natural World Also modern Expositors and Criticks as Cajetan Estius Drusius Heinsius have extended it to the natural World more or less tho' they had no Theory to mislead them nor so much as an hypothesis to support them but attended onely to the tenor of the Apostle's discourse which constrain'd them to that sence in whole or in part Fifthly the opposition carries it upon the natural World The opposition lies betwixt the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Heavens that were of old and the Earth and the present Heavens and Earth or the two natural Worlds And if they will not allow them to be oppos'd in their natures which yet we shall prove by and by at least they must be oppos'd in their date and as This is to perish by fire so That perish'd by water And if it perish'd by water it perish'd which is all we contend for at present Lastly if we would be as easily govern'd in the exposition of this place as we are of other places of Scripture it would be enough to suggest that in reason and fairness of interpretation the same World is destroy'd in the 6th verse that was describ'd in the foregoing verse but it is the Natural World that is describ'd there the Heavens and the Earth so and so constituted and therefore in fairness of interpretation they ought to be understood here that World being the subject that went immediately before and there being nothing in the words that restrains them to the animate World or to Mankind In the 2d ch ver 5. the Apostle does restrain the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by adding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the World of the ungodly but here 't is not only illimited but according to the context both preceding and following to be extended to the Natural World I say by the following context too for so it answers to the World that is to perish by Fire which will reach the frame of Nature as well as Mankind For a conclusion of this first point I will set down S. Austin's judgment in this case who in several parts of his works hath interpreted this place of S. Peter of the natural world As to the heavens he hath these words in his Exposition upon Genesis Hos etiam aerios calos quondam periisse Diluvio in quâdam earum quae Canonica appellantur Epistolâ legimus We read in one of the Epistles called Canonical meaning this of S. Peter's that the aerial heavens perish'd in the Deluge And he concerns himself there to let you know that it was not the starry heavens that were destroy'd the waters could not reach so high but the regions of our air Then afterwards he hath these words Faciliùs eos coelos secundum illius Epistolae authoritatem credimus periisse alios sicut ibi scribitur repositos We do more easily believe according to the authority of that Epistle those heavens to have perish'd and others as it is there written substituted in their place In
like manner and to the same sence he hath these words upon Psal. 101. Aerii utique coeli perierunt ut propinqui Terris secundum quod dicuntur volucres coeli sunt autem coeli coelorum superiores in Firmamento sed utrùm ipfi perituri sint igni an hi soli qui etiam diluvio perierunt disceptatio est aliquanto scrupulosior inter doctos And in his Book de Civ Dei he hath several passages to the same purpose Quemadmodum in Apostolicâ illâ Epistolâ à toto pars accipitur quod diluvio periisse dictus est mandus quamvis sola ejus cum suis coelis pars ima perierit These being to the same effect with the first citation I need not make them English and this last place refers to the Earth as well as the Heavens as several other places in S. Austin do whereof we shall give you an account when we come to shew his judgment concerning the second point the diversity of the ante-diluvian and post-diluvian World This being but a foretaste of his good will and inclinations towards this doctrine These considerations alledg'd so far as I can judge are full and unanswerable proofs that this discourse of the Apostle's comprehends and refers to the Natural World and consequently they warrant our interpretation in this particular and destroy the contrary We have but one step more to make good That there was a change made in this natural world at the Deluge according to the Apostle and this is to confute the second part of their interpretation which supposeth that S. Peter makes no distinction or opposition betwixt the antediluvian Heavens and Earth and the present Heavens and Earth in that respect This second difference betwixt us methinks is still harsher than the first and contrary to the very form as well as to the matter of the Apostle's discourse For there is a plain antithesis or opposition made betwixt the Heavens and the Earth of old ver the 5th and the Heavens and the Earth that are now verse the 7th 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the adversative particle but you see marks the opposition so that it is full and plain according to Grammar and Logick And that the parts or members of this opposition differ in nature from one another is certain from this because otherwise the Apostle's argument or discourse is of no effect concludes nothing to the purpose he makes no answer to the objection nor proves any thing against the Scoffers unless you admit that diversity For they said All things had been the same from the beginning in the Natural World and unless he say as he manifestly does that there hath been a change in Nature and that the Heavens and Earth that are now are different from the ancient Heavens and Earth which perish'd at the Flood he says nothing to destroy their argument nor to confirm the Prophetical doctrine of the future destruction of the Natural World This I think would be enough to satisfie any clear and free mind concerning the meaning of the Apostle but because I desire to give as full a light to this place as I can and to put the sence of it out of controversie if possible for the future I will make some further remarks to confirm this exposition And we may observe that several of those reasons which we have given to prove That the Natural World is understood by S. Peter are double reasons and do also prove the other point in question a diversity betwixt the two Natural Worlds the Anti-diluvian and the present As for instance unless you admit this diversity betwixt the two natural Worlds you make the 5th verse in this Chapter superfluous and useless and you must suppose the Apostle to make an inference here without premises In the 6th verse he makes an inference Whereby the World that then was perish'd in a Deluge what does this whereby relate to by reason of what sure of the particular constitution of the Heavens and the Earth immediately before describ'd Neither would it have signified any thing to the Scoffers for the Apostle to have told them how the Ante-diluvian Heavens and Earth were constituted if they were constituted just in the same manner as the present Besides what is it as I ask'd before that the Apostle tells these Scoffers they were ignorant of does he not say formally and expresly ver 5. that they were ignorant that the Heavens and the Earth were constituted so and so before the Flood but if they were constituted as these present Heavens and Earth are they were not ignorant of their constitution nor did pretend to be ignorant for their own mistaken argument supposeth it But before we proceed any further give me leave to note the impropriety of our Translation in the 5th Verse or latter part of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This we translate standing in the water and out of the water which is done manifestly in compliance with the present form of the Earth and the notions of the Translators and not according to the natural force and sence of the Greek words If one met with this sentence in a Greek Author who would ever render it standing in the water and out of the water nor do I know any Latin Translator that hath ventur'd to render them in that sence nor any Latin Father St. Austin and St. Jerome I 'me sure do not but Consistens ex aquâ or de aquâ per aquam for that later phrase also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does not with so good propriety signifie to stand in the water as to consist or subsist by water or by the help of water Tanquam per causam sustinentem as St. Austin and Jerome render it Neither does that instance they give from 1 Pet. 3. 20. prove any thing to the contrary for the Ark was sustain'd by the waters and the English does render it accordingly The Translation being thus rectified you see the ante-diluvian Heavens and Earth consisted of Water and by water which makes way for a second observation to prove our sence of the Text for if you admit no diversity betwixt those Heavens and Earth and the present shew us 'pray how the present Heavens and Earth consist of water and by water What watery constitution have they The Apostle implies rather that The now Heavens and Earth have a fiery constitution We have now Meteors of all sorts in the air winds hail snow lightning thunder and all things engender'd of fiery exhalations as well as we have rain but according to our Theory the ante-diluvian Heavens of all these Meteors had none but dews and rain or watery Meteors onely and therefore might very aptly be said by the Apostle to be constituted of water or to have a watery 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Then the Earth was said to consist by water because it was
Earth be said to be stretched over the waters Or because there are waters in some subterraneous cavities is the Earth therefore founded upon the Seas Yet such lame explications as these you will meet with and while we have no better light we must content our selves with them but when an explication is offer'd that answers the propriety force and extent of the words to reject it onely because it is not fitted to our former opinions or because we did not first think of it is to take an ill method in expounding Scripture This Foundation or Establishment of the Earth upon the Seas this Extension of it above the waters relates plainly to the body or whole circuit of the Earth not to parcels and particles of it as appears from the occasion and its being joyn'd with the Heavens the other part of the World Besides David is speaking of the Origin of the World and of the Divine power and wisdom in the construction and situation of our Earth and these attributes do not appear from the holes of the Earth and broken Rocks which have rather the face of a ruine than of wisdom but in that wonderful libration and expansion of the first Earth over the face of the waters sustained by its own proportions and the hand of his Providence These two places in the Psalms being duly consider'd we shall more easily understand a third place to the same effect in the Proverbs delivered by WISDOM concerning the Origin of the World and the form of the first Earth in these words Chap. 8. 27. When he prepared the Heavens I was there when HE SET an Orb or Sphere upon the face of the Abyss We render it when we set a Compass upon the face of the Abyss but if we have rightly interpreted the Prophet David 't is plain enough what compass is here to be understood not an imaginary circle for why should that be thought one of the wonderful works of God but that exterior Orb of the Earth that was set upon the waters That was the Master-piece of the Divine art in framing of the first Earth and therefore very fit to be taken notice of by Wisdom And upon this occasion I desire you to reflect upon St. Peter's expression concerning the first Earth and to compare it with Solomon's to see if they do not answer one another St. Peter calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An Earth consisting standing or sustained by the waters And Solomon calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An Orb drawn upon the face of the Abyss And St. Peter says that was done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the wisdom of God which is the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or wisdom that here declares her self to have been present at this work Add now to these two places the two foremention'd out of the Psalmist An Earth founded upon the Seas Psal. 24. 2. and an Earth stretched out above the waters Psal. 136. 6. Can any body doubt or question but all these four Texts refer to the same thing And seeing St. Peter's description refers certainly to the Ante-diluvian Earth they must all refer to it and do all as certainly and evidently agree with our Theory concerning the form and situation of it The pendulous form and posture of that first Earth being prov'd from these four places 't is more easie and emphatical to interpret in this sence that passage in Job ch 26. 7. He stretcheth out the North over the Tohu for so it is in the original and hangeth the Earth upon nothing And this strange foundation or no foundation of the exteriour Earth seems to be the ground of those noble questions propos'd to Job by God Almighty ch 38. Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the Earth Declare if thou hast understanding Whereupon are the foundatâ—ons thereof fastned and who laid the corner stone There was neither foundation nor corner stone in that piece of Architecture and that was it which made the art and wonder of it But I have spoken more largely to these places in the Theory it self And if the four Texts before-mentioned be consider'd without prejudice I think there are few matters of natural Speculation that can be so well prov'd out of Scripture as the Form which we have given to the Ante-diluvian Earth But yet it may be thought a just if not a necessary appendix to this discourse concerning the form of the ante-diluvian Earth to give an account also of the ante-diluvian Abyss and the situation of it according to Scripture for the relation which these two have to one another will be a further means to discover if we have rightly determin'd the form of that Earth The Abyss or Tehom-Rabbah is a Scripture notion and the word is not us'd that I know of in that distinct and peculiar sence in Heathen Authors 'T is plain that in Scripture it is not always taken for the Sea as Gen. 1. 2. 7. 11. 49. 25. Deut. 33. 13. Job 28. 14. 38. 16. Ps. 33. 7. 71. 20. 78. 15. 135. 6. Apoc. 20. 1. 3. but for some other mass of waters or subterraneous storehouse And this being observ'd we may easily discover the nature and set down the history of the Scripture-Abyss The Mother-Abyss is no doubt that in the beginning of Genesis ver 2. which had nothing but darkness upon the face of it or a thick caliginous air The next news we hear of this Abyss is at the Deluge Gen. 7.11 where 't is said to be broke open and the waters of it to have drowned the World It seems then this Abyss was clos'd up some time betwixt the Creation and the Deluge and had got another cover than that of darkness And if we will believe Wisdom Prov. 8. 27. who was there present at the formation of the Earth an Orb was set upon the face of the Abyss at the beginning of the World That these three places refer to the same Abyss I think cannot be questioned by any that will compare them and consider them That of the Deluge Moses calls there Tehom-Rabbah the Great Abyss and can there be any greater than the forementioned Mother-Abvss And WISDOME in that place in the Proverbs useth the same phrase and words with Moses Gen. 1. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon the face of the Deep or of the Abyss changing darkness for that Orb of the exteriour Earth which was made afterwards to inclose it And in this vault it lay and under this cover when the Psalmist speaks of it in these words Ps. 33. 7. He gathereth the waters of the Sea as in a bag he layeth up the Abyss in storehouses Lastly we may observe that 't was this Mother-Abyss whose womb was burst at the Deluge when the Sea was born and broke forth as if it had issued out of a womb as God expresseth it to Job ch 38. 8. in which place the Chaldee Paraphrase reads it when it broke forth
coming out of the Abyss Which disruption at the Deluge seems also to be alluded to Job 12. 14 15 and more plainly Prov. 3.20 by his knowledge the Abysses are broken up Thus you have already a threefold state of the Abyss which makes a short History of it first Open at the beginning then covered till the Deluge Then broke open again as it is at present And we pursue the History of it no further but we are told Apoc. 20. 3. That it shall be shut up again and the great Dragon in it for a Thousand years In the mean time we may observe from this form and posture of the Ante-diluvian Abyss how suitable it is and coherent with that form of the Ante-diluvian Earth which S. Peter and the Psalmist had describ'd sustain'd by the waters founded upon the waters stretcht above the waters for if it was the cover of this Abyss and it had some cover that was broke at the Deluge it was spread as a Crust or Ice upon the face of those waters and so made an orbis Terrarum an habitable sphere of Earth about the Abyss So much for the form of the Ante-diluvian Earth and Abyss which as they aptly correspond to one another so you see our Theory answers and is adjusted to both and I think so fitly that we have no reason hitherto to be displeas'd with the success we have had in the examination of it according to Scripture We have dispatch'd the two main points in question first to prove a diversity in general betwixt the two natural Worlds or betwixt the Heavens and the Earth before and after the Flood Secondly to prove wherein this diversity consisted or that the particular form of the Ante-diluvian Heavens and Earth was such according to Scripture as we have describ'd it in the Theory You 'l say then the work is done what needs more all the rest follows of course for if the Ante-diluvian Earth had such a form as we have propos'd and prov'd it to have had there could be no Deluge in it but by a dissolution of its parts and exteriour frame And a Deluge so made would not be in the nature of a standing Pool but of a violent agitation and commotion of the waters This is true These parts of the Theory are so cemented that you must grant all if you grant any However we will try if even these two particulars also may be prov'd out of Scripture That is if there be any marks or memorandums left there by the Spirit of God of such a fraction or dissolution of the Earth at the Deluge And also such characters of the Deluge it self as show it to have been by a fluctuation and impetuous commotion of the waters To proceed then That there was a Fraction or Dissolution of the Earth at the Deluge the history of it by Moses gives us the first account seeing he tells us as the principal cause of the Flood that the Fountains of the Great Abyss were cloven or burst asunder and upon this disruption the waters gush'd out from the bowels of the Earth as from the widen'd mouths of so many Fountains I do not take Fountains there to signifie any more than Sources or Stores of Water noting also this manner of their eruption from below or out of the ground as Fountains do Accordingly in the Proverbs chap. 3.20 't is onely said the Abysses were broken open I do not doubt but this refers to the Deluge as Bede and others understand it the very word being us'd here both in the Hebrew and Septuagint that express'd the disruption of the Abyss at the Deluge And this breaking up of the Earth at that time is elegantly exprest in Job by the bursting of the Womb of Nature when the Sea was first brought to light when after many pangs and throes and dilacerations of her body Nature was deliverd of a burthen which she had born in her Womb Sixteen Hundred Years These three places I take to be memorials and proofs of the disruption of the Earth or of the Abyss at the universal Deluge And to these we may add more out of the Prophets Job and the Psalms by way of allusion commonly to the state of Nature at that time The Prophet Isaiah in describing the future destruction of the World chap. 24. 18 19. seems plainly to allude and have respect to the past destruction of it at the Deluge as appears by that leading expression the windows from an high are open 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taken manifestly from Gen. 7. 11. Then see how the description goes on the windows from an high are open and the foundations of the Earth do shake The Earth is utterly broken down the Earth is quite dissolv'd the Earth is exceedingly moved Here are Concussions and Fractions and Dissolutions as there were in the Mundane Earth-quake and Deluge which we had exprest before only by breaking open the Abyss By the Foundations of the Earth here and elsewhere I perceive many understand the Centre so by moving or shaking the foundations or putting them out of course must be understood a displacing of the Centre which was really done at the Deluge as we have shewn in its proper place If we therefore remember that there was both a dislocation as I may so say and a fraction in the body of the Earth by that great fall a dislocation as to the centre and a fraction as to the surface and exterior region it will truly answer to all those expressions in the Prophet that seem so strange and extraordinary 'T is true this place of the Prophet respects also and foretells the future destruction of the World but that being by Fire when the Elements shall melt with servent heat and the Earth with the works therein shall be burnt up these expressions of fractions and concussions seem to be taken originally from the manner of the World's first destruction and to be transferr'd by way of application to represent and signifie the second destruction of it though it may be not with the same exactness and propriety There are several other places that refer to the dissolution and subversion of the Earth at the Deluge Amos 9. 5 6. The Lord of Hosts is he that toucheth the Earth and it shall melt or be dissolv'd and it shall rise up wholly like a Flood and shall be drowned as by the Flood of Aegypt By this and by the next Verse the Prophet seems to allude to the Deluge and to the dissolution of the Earth that was then This in Job seems to be call'd breaking down the Earth and overturning the Earth Chap. 12. 14 15. Behold he breaketh down and it cannot be built again He shutteth upon man and there can be no opening Behold he withholdeth the waters and they dry up also he sendeth them out and they overturn the Earth Which place you may see paraphras'd Theor. Book 1. p. 91 92. We have already cited and shall hereafter
cite other places out of Job And as that Ancient Author who is thought to have liv'd before the Judaical Oeconomy and nearer to Noah than Moses seems to have had the praecepta Noachidarum so also he seems to have had the Dogmata Noachidarum which were deliver'd by Noah to his Children and Posterity concerning the mysteries of natural Providence the origine and fate of the World the Deluge and Ante-diluvian state c. and accordingly we find many strictures of these doctrines in the Book of Job Lastly in the Psalms there are Texts that mention the Shaking of the Earth and the foundations of the World in reference to the Flood if we judge aright whereof we will speak under the next Head concerning the raging of the Waters in the Deluge These places of Scripture may be noted as lest us to be remembrancers of that general ruine and disruption of the Earth at the time of the Deluge But I know it will be said of them that they are not strict proofs but allusions onely Be it so yet what is the ground of those allusions something must be alluded to and something that hath past in nature and that is recorded in Sacred History And what is that unless it be the universal Deluge and that change and disturbance that was then in all nature If others say that these and such like places are to be understood morally and allegorically I do not envy them their interpretation but when nature and reason will bear a literal sence the rule is that we should not recede from the letter But I leave these things to every one's thoughts which the more calm they are and the more impartial the more easily they will feel the impressions of truth In the mean time I proceed to the last particular mention'd The form of the Deluge it self This we suppose to have been not in the way of a standing Pool the Waters making an equal Surface and an equal heighth every where but that the extreme heighth of the Waters was made by the extreme agitation of them caus'd by the weight and force of great Masses or Regions of Earth falling at once into the Abyss by which means as the waters in some places were prest out and thrown at an excessive height into the air so they would also in certain places gape and lay bare even the bottom of the Abyss which would look as an open Grave ready to swallow up the Earth and all it bore Whilst the Ark in the mean time falling and rising by these gulphs and precipices sometimes above water and sometimes under was a true Type of the state of the Church in this World And to this time and state David alludes in the name of the Church Psal. 42. 7. Abyss calls unto Abyss at the noise of thy Cataracts or Water-spouts All thy waves and billows have gone over me And again Psal. 46. 2 3. in the name of the Church Therefore will not we fear tho' the Earth be removed and tho' the mountains be carried into the midst of the Seas The waters thereof roar and are troubled the mountains shake with the swelling thereof But there is no description more remarkable or more eloquent than of that Scene of things represented Psal. 18. 7 8 9 c. which still alludes in my opinion to the Deluge-scene and in the name of the Church We will ser down the words at large Ver. 6. In my distress I called upon the Lord and cried unto my God He heard my voice out of his Temple and my cry came before him into his ears 7. Then the Earth sbook and trembled the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken because he was wroth 8. There went up a smoke from his nostrils and sire out of his mouth devoured Coals were kindled by it 9. He bowed the Heavens also and came down and darkness was under his feet 10. And he rode upon a Cherub and did flie he did flie upon the wings of the wind 11. He made darkness his secret place his pavilion round about him was dark waters and thick clouds of the skie 12. At the brightness before him the thick clouds passed bail and coals of fire 13. The Lord also thunder'd in the Heavens and the Highest gave his voice hail and coals of fire 14. Yea he sent out his arrows and scatter'd them and he shot out lightnings and discomfited them 15. Then the Chanels of waters were seen and the foundations of the World were discovered at thy rebuke O Lord at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils He sent from above he took me he drew me out of great waters This I think is a rough * draught of the face of the Heavens and the Earth at the Deluge as the last Verses do intimate and 't is apply'd to express the dangers and deliverances of the Church The Expressions are far too high to be apply'd to David in his Person and to his deliverance from Saul no such agonies or disorders of nature as are here instanc'd iâ— were made in David's time or upon his account but 't is a scheme of the Church and of her fate particularly as represented by the Ark in that dismal distress when all nature was in confusion And though there may be some things here intermixt to make up the Scene that are not so close to the subject as the rest or that may be referr'd to the future destruction of the world yet that is not unusual nor amiss in such descriptions if the great strokes be fit and rightly plac'd That there was smoke and fire and water and thunder and darkness and winds and Earth-quakes at the Deluge we cannot doubt if we consider the circumstances of it Waters dash'd and broken make a smoke and darkness and no Hurricano could be so violent as the motions of the Air at that time Then the Earth was torn in pieces and its Foundations shaken And as to thunder and lightning the encounters and collisions of the mighty Waves and the cracks of a falling World would make flashes and noises far greater and more terrible than any that can come from vapors and clouds There was an universal Tempest a conflict and clashing of all the Elements and David seems to have represented it so with God Allmighty in the midst of it ruling them all But I am apt to think some will say all this is Poetical in the Prophet and these are hyperbolical and figurate expressions from which we cannot make any inference as to the Deluge and the natural World 'T is true those that have no Idea of the Deluge that will answer to such a Scene of things as is here represented must give such a slight account of this Psalm But on the other hand if we have already an Idea of the Deluge that is rational and also consonant to Scripture upon other proofs and the description here made by the Prophet answer to that Idea whether then is
it not more reasonable to think that it stands upon that ground than to think it a meer fancy and Poetical Scene of things This is the true state of the case and that which we must judge of Methinks 't is very harsh to suppose all this a bare fiction grounded upon no matter of fact upon no Sacred story upon no appearance of God in nature If you say it hath a moral signification so let it have we do not destroy that it hath reference no doubt to the dangers and deliverances of the Church but the question is whether the words and natural sence be a fancy onely a bundle of randome hyperboles or whether they relate to the history of the Deluge and the state of the Ark there representing the Church This makes the sence doubly rich historically and morally and grounds it upon Scripture and reason as well as upon fancy That violent eruption of the Sea out of the Womb of the Earth which Job speaks of is in my judgment another description of the Deluge 't is Chap. 38. 8 9 10 11. Who shut up the Sea with doors when it broke forth as if it had issued out of a Womb When I made the cloud the garment thereof and thick darkness a swadling band for it And broke up for it my decreed place hitherto shalt thou come c. Here you see the birth and nativity of the Sea or of Oceanus describ'd how he broke out of the Womb and what his first garment and swadling cloaths were namely clouds and thick darkness This cannot refer to any thing that I know of but to the face of Nature at the Deluge when the Sea was born and wrapt up in clouds and broken waves and a dark impenetrable mist round the body of the Earth And this seems to be the very same that David had exprest in his description of the Deluge Psal. 18. 11. He made darkness his secret place his pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies For this was truly the face of the World in the time of the Flood tho' we little reflect upon it And this dark confusion every where above and below arose from the violent and confus'd motion of the Abyss which was dasht in pieces by the falling Earth and flew into the air in misty drops as dust flies up in a great ruine But I am afraid we have stayed too long upon this particular the form of the Deluge seeing 'tis but a Corollary from the precedent article about the dissolution of the Earth However time is not ill spent about any thing that relates to natural Providence whereof the two most signal instances in our Sacred Writings are the Deluge and the Conflagration And seeing Job and David do often reflect upon the works of God in the external creation and upon the administrations of Providence it cannot be imagin'd that they should never reflect upon the Deluge the most remarkable change of Nature that ever hath been and the most remarkable judgment upon mankind And if they have reflected upon it any where 't is I think in those places and those instances which I have noted and if those places do relate to the Deluge they are not capable in my judgment of any fairer or more natural interpretation than that which we have given them which you see how much it favours and confirms our Theory I have now finisht the heads I undertook to prove that I might shew our Theory to agree with Scripture in these three principal points first in that it supposeth a diversity and difference betwixt the Ante-diluvian Heavens and Earth and the present Heavens and Earth Secondly in assigning the particular form of the Ante-diluvian Earth and Abyss Thirdly in explaining the Deluge by a dissolution of that Earth and an eruption of the Abyss How far I have succeeded in this attempt as to others I cannot tell but I am sure I have convinc'd my self and am satisfied that my thoughts in that Theory have run in the same tract with the holy writings with the true intent and spirit of them There are some persons that are wilfully ignorant in certain things and others that are willing to be ignorant as the Apostle phraseth it speaking of those Eternalists that denyed the doctrine of the change and revolutions of the Natural World And 't is not to be expected but there are many still of the same humour and therefore may be called willingly ignorant that is they will not use that pains and attention that is necessary for the examination of such a doctrine nor impartiality in judging after examination they greedily lay hold on all evidence on one side and willingly forget or slightly pass over all evidence for the other this I think is the character of those that are willingly ignorant for I do not take it to be so deep as a down-right wilful ignorance where they are plainly conscious to themselves of that wilfulness but where an insensible mixture of humane passions inclines them one way and makes them averse to the other and in that method draws on all the consequences of a willing ignorance There remains still as I remember one Proposition that I am bound to make good I said at first that our Hypothesis concerning the Deluge was more agreeable not only to Scripture in general but also to the particular History of the Flood left us by Moses I say more agreeable to it than any other Hypothesis that hath yet been propos'd This may be made good in a few words For in Moses's history of the Deluge there are two principal points The extent of the Deluge and the Causes of it and in both these we do fully agree with that sacred Author As to the extent of it He makes the Deluge universal All the high hills under the whole heaven were cover'd fifteen cubits upwards We also make it universal over the face of the whole Earth and in such a manner as must needs raise the waters above the top of the highest hills every where As to the causes of it Moses makes them to be the disruption of the Abyss and the Rains and no more and in this also we exactly agree with him we know no other causes nor pretend to any other but those two Distinguishing therefore Moses his narration as to the substance and circumstances of it it must be allowed that these two points make the substance of it and that an Hypothesis that differs from it in either of these two differs from it more than Ours which at the worst can but differ in matter of circumstance Now seeing the great difficulty about the Deluge is the quantity of Water required for it there have been two explications proposed besides ours to remove or fatisfie this difficulty One whereof makes the Deluge not to have been universal or to have reacht only Judea and some neighbouring Countreys and therefore less water would suffice The other
shaken so long as these two continue firm and immoveable We might now put an end to this Review but it may be expected possibly that we should say something concerning the Millennium which we have contrary to the general Sentiment of the modern Millenaries plac'd in the Future Earth Our opinion hath this advantage above others that all fanatical pretensions to power and empire in this World are by these means blown away as chaff before the wind Princes need not fear to be dethron'd to make way to the Saints nor Governments unhing'd that They may rule the World with a rod of Iron These are the effects of a wild Enthusiasm seeing the very state which they aim at is not to be upon this Earth But that our sence may not be mistaken or misapprehended in this particular as if we thought the Christian Church would never upon this Earth be in a better and happier posture than it is in at present We must distinguish betwixt a melioration of the World if you will allow that word and a millennium We do not deny a reformation and improvement of the Church both as to Peace Purity and Piety That knowledge may increase mens minds be enlarg'd and Christian Religion better understood That the power of Antichrist shall be diminish'd persecution cease and a greater union and harmony establish'd amongst the Reformed All this may be and I hope will be ere long But the Apocalyptical Millennium or the New Jerusalem is still another matter It differs not in degree only from the present state but is a new order of things both in the Moral World and in the Natural and that cannot be till we come into the New Heavens and New Earth Suppose what Reformation you can in this World there will still remain many things inconsistent with the true Millennial state Antichrist tho' weakned will not be finally destroy'd till the coming of our Saviour nor Satan bound And there will be always poverty wars diseases knaves and hypocrites in this World which are not consistent with the New Jerusalem as S. John describes it Apoc. 21. 2 3 4 c. You see now what our notion is of the Millennium as we deny this Earth to be the Seat of it 'T is the state that succeeds the first Resurrection when Satan is lockt up in the bottomless pit The state when the Martyrs are to return into Life and wherein they are to have the first lot and chief share A state which is to last a thousand years And Blessed and Holy is he that hath a part in it on such the second death hath no power but they shall be Priests of God and Christ and shall reign with him a thousand years If you would see more particular reasons of our judgment in this case why such a Millennium is not to be expected in this World they are set down in the 8th Chap. of the 4th Book and we do not think it necessary that they should be here repeated As to that dissertation that follows the Millennium and reaches to the Consummation of all things seeing it is but problematical we leave it to stand or fall by the evidence already given And should be very glad to see the conjectures of others more lcarned in Speculations so abstruse and remote from common knowledge They cannot surely be thought unworthy or unfit for our Meditations seeing they are suggested to us by Scripture it self And to what end were they propos'd to us there if it was not intended that they should be understood sooner or later I have done with this Review and shall only add one or two reflections upon the whole discourse and so conclude You have seen the state of the Theory of the Earth as to the Matter Form and Proofs of it both Natural and Sacred If any one will substitute a better in its place I shall think my self more obliged to him than if he had shew'd me the Quadrature of the Circle But it is not enough to pick quarrels here and there that may be done by any writing especially when it is of so great extent and comprehension They must build up as well as pull down and give us another Theory instead of this fitted to the same natural History of the Earth according as it is set down in Scripture and then let the World take their choice He that cuts down a Tree is bound in reason to plant two because there is an hazard in their growth and thriving Then as to those that are such rigorous Scripturists as to require plainly demonstrative and irresistible Texts for every thing they entertain or believe They would do well to reflect and consider whether for every article in the three Creeds which have no support from natural reason they can bring such Texts of Scripture as they require of others or a fairer and juster evidence all things consider'd than we have done for the substance of this Theory We have not indeed said all that might be said as to Antiquity that making no part in this Review and being capable still of great additions But as to Scripture and Reason I have no more to add Those that are not satisfied with the proofs already produc'd upon these two heads are under a fate good or bad which is not in my power to overcome FINIS BOOKS Printed for Walter Kettilby H'Enrici Mori Cantabrigiensis Opera omnia tum que Latinè tum que Anglicè scripta sunt nunc vero Latinitate donata Instigatu Impensis Generofissimi Juvenis Johannis Cockshuti Nobilis Angli 3. Vol. Fol. 's Exposition upon Daniel quart 's Exposition upon the Revelations quart 's Answer to several Remarks upon his Expositions upon Daniel and the Revelations quart 's Notes upon Daniel and the Revelations quart 's Paralipomena Prophetica containing several Supplements and Defences of his Expositions quart 's Confutation of Judiciary Astrology against Butler quart 's Brief Discourse of the Real Presence of the Body and Blood of Christ in the Celebration of the Holy Eucharist 40. stitcht 's Reply to the Answer to his Antidote against Idolatry oct 's Remarks upon Judge Hales of Fluid Bodies oct The Theory of the Earth c. the two first Books concerning the Deluge and concerning Paradise Fol. Telluris Theoria Sacra c. Libri duo Priores de Diluvio Paradiso quarto Libri duo Posteriores de Conflagratione Mundi de futuro Rerum Statu quart Dr. Goodal's Royal Colledge of Physicians quart Sydenham Opera Universa Medica oct Ent. de Circuitione Sanguinis oct Charleton de Causis Catameniorum uteri Rheumatismo oct Mr. L'Emery's Course of Chymistry oct An Answer to Harvey's Conclave of Physicians Dr. Scott's Christian Life in 3. Vol. Dr Falkner's Libertas Ecclesiastica oct 's Vindication of Liturgies oct 's Christian Loyalty oct Dr. Fowler 's Libertas Evangelica oct Dr. Kidder's Christian Sufferer oct Mr. W. Allen's Twelve several Tracts in 4. Vol. oct Lately Printed Mr. W. Allen's