living as I have done While the Earth remaineth seed-time and harvest and cold and heat and Summer and winter and day and night shall not cease And this as to the time past is abundantly confirm'd by all the Ancient History and Geography compar'd with the Modern as is in several particulars well observ'd by Dr. Woodward against the groundless opinions of some others to the contrary CHAP. V. Phaenomena relating to the General Conflagration With Conjectures pertaining to the same and to the succeeding period till the Consummation of all things XC AS the World once perished by Water so it must by Fire at the Conclusion of its present State The heavens and the earth which are now by the word of God are kept in store reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men The heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent heat The earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up In the day of God the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with fervent heat But this is so fully attested by the unanimous consent of Sacred and Prophane Authority that I shall omit other particular Quotations and only refer the Reader where he may have more ample satisfaction SCHOLIUM Having proceeded thus far upon more certain grounds and generally allow'd Testimonies as to the most of the foregoing Phaenomena I might here break off and leave the following Conjectures to the same state of Uncertainty they have hitherto been in But being willing to comply with the Title and take in all the great and general Changes from first to last from the primigenial Chaos to the Consummation of all things Being also loth to desert my Postulatum and omit the account of those things which were most exactly agreeable to the Obvious and Literal sense of Scripture and fully consonant to Reason and Philosophy Being lastly willing however to demonstrate that tho' these most remote and difficult Texts be taken according to the greatest strictness of the Letter yet do they contain nothing but what is possible credible and rationally accountable from the most undoubted Principles of Philosophy On all these accounts I shall venture to enumerate and afterward to account for the following Conjectures In which I do not pretend to be Dogmatical and Positive nay nor to declare any firm belief of the same but shall only propose them as Conjectures and leave them to the free and impartial consideration of the Reader XCI The same Causes which will set the World on Fire will also cause great and dreadful Tides in the Seas and in the Ocean with no less Agitations Concussions and Earthquakes in the Air and Earth The Powers of Heaven shall be shaken The Lord shall roar out of Sion and utter his voice from Jerusalem and the heavens and the earth shall shake The sea and the waves roaring Mens hearts failing them for fear and for looking after those things which are coming on the Earth for the powers of heaven shall be shaken XCII The mtmosphere of the Earth before the Conflagration begin will be oppress'd with Meteors Exhalations and Steams and these in so dreadful a manner in such prodigious quantities and with such wild confused Motions and Agitations That the Sun and Moon will have the most frightful and hideous countenances and their antient splendour will be intirely obscur'd The Stars will seem to fall from Heaven and all manner of Horrid Representations will terrifie the Inhabitants of the Earth I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth blood and fire and pillars of smoke The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and terrible day of the Lord come The sun shall be darkened and the Moon shall not give her light and the stars shall fall from heaven and the powers of heaven shall be shaken There shall be signs in the sun and in the moon and in the stars and upon the Earth distress of Nations with perplexity Mens hearts failing them for fear and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth XCIII The Deluge and Constagration are referr'd by ancient Tradition to great Conjunctions of the Heavenly Bodies as both depending on and happening at the same Thus Seneca expresly Berosus says he who was an Expositor of Belus affirms That these Revolutions depend on the Course of the Stars insomuch that he doubts not to assign the very times of a Conflagration and a Deluge That first mention'd when all the Stars which have now so different Courses shall be in Conjunction in Cancer All of them being so directly situate with respect to one another that the same right line will pass through them all together That last mention'd when the same company of Stars shall be in conjunction in the opposite sign Capricorn XCIV The space between the Deluge and the Conflagration or between the ancient state of the Earth and its Purgation by Fire Renovation and Restitution again is from ancient Tradition defin'd and terminated by a certain great and remarkable year or Annual Revolution of some of the Heavenly Bodies And is in probability what the Ancients so often refer'd to pretended particularly to determine and stil'd The Great or Platonick Year This year is exceeding famous in old Authors and not unreasonably apply'd to this matter by the Theorist Which it will better suit in this than it did in that Hypothesis XCV This general Conflagration is not to extend to the intire dissolution or destruction of the Earth but only to the Alteration Melioration and peculiar disposition thereof into a new state proper to receive those Saints and Martyrs for its Inhabitants who are at the first Resurrection to enter and to live and reign a thousand years upon it till the second Resurrection the general Judgment and the final consummation of all things The Heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with fervent heat Nevertheless we according to his promise look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness Behold I create new heavens and a new earth and the former shall not be remembered nor come into mind Verily I say unto you That ye which followed me in the regeneration when the Son of Man shall sit upon the throne of his glory ye also shall sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel And every one that hath forsaken houses or brethren or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my names sake shall receive an hundred fold now in this time houses and brethren and sisters and mothers and children and lands with his present persecutions and in the world to come eternal life Of old thou hast laid the foundations of the earth and the heavens are the work of
them I cannot so easily tell Especially if it be consider'd That the Capacities of the Jews to whom Moses peculiarly wrote were very low and mean and their Improvements very small or rather none at all in Philosophick Matters 'T is not to be imagin'd that an intire Account of the Origine of the whole Frame of Nature the noblest and most sublime Theory the highest Philosopher could exercise his thoughts upon should be within the reach of the Jewish Apprehensions We do not find in our Learned and Inquisitive Age such a ready Comprehension and Reception of Truths in Philosophy among the generality of Men and 't is so lately that an easy Proposition of the Earth's Motions diurnal and annual rais'd a mighty Dust and was very difficultly embrac'd by even those who call'd themselves Philosophers that from such an instance we may easily imagine how any natural Notions relating to the Constitution and Original of all the Bodies in the Universe must have been entertain'd among the rude and illiterate Jews newly come from the Egyptian Bondage and destitute of the very first Elements of Natural Knowledge Every one in the History of the Bible may with ease observe That the Abilities and Studies of the Israelites as indeed 't is true of most of them to this day were of another Nature and Size than must here be suppos'd if we bring in all the World into the Mosaick Creation If an indifferent Stander by who had never read the first of Genesis were to judge what a sort of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were to be given to so Ignorant and Unskilful a Nation he could not with common Prudence suppose either that it ought to be perfectly Philosophical or include any more than the Senses and Capacities of the Jews could arrive at the Earth with its Appurtenances and the Heavens so far as they were plainly therewith concern'd Indeed not only the Jews but the generality of Mankind's Apprehensions always were and still are much too narrow for any noble Discoveries relating to Universal Nature and a Chapter about Algebra might almost as suitably to Reason be recommended to them as an Account of the true Origination of all the World Nay de facto it appears That Moses was so far from deeming his People capable of understanding the intire System of Bodies remote and distant that 't is clear he esteem'd it improper to say a word about the internal Constitution and Parts of our own Earth contenting himself with what the Surface afforded and what unavoidably came under the notice of their Senses as is too plain to be deni'd in the History before us And shall we after all this believe or imagine that 't was fit and proper nay or barely possible for Moses to give a full Account of the beginning of all the World And impress a just true and adequate Idea thereof on the Minds of the People I believe 't was so far from it that still after all the Accommodation to the Senses and Capacities of Men which he and the other Holy Writers use on such occasions yet the meer Observation of the Truth of things forc'd them sometimes to speak what the others were not able rightly to comprehend and they seem rather in Natural Truths to have gone too high than descended too low considering the gross Ignorance of their Readers in those Matters Those Expressions of Scripture concerning the roundness of the World the Earth's being founded on the Seas and established on the Floods a Compass or Orb being set on the Face of the Deep the stretching out the Earth above the Waters and its consisting out of the Water and in the Water of most of which we shall take notice hereafter Those Expressions I say are exactly accommodate to the real Constitution of the Earth as will appear in due place but were 't is plain very much mistaken afterward Men generally took the Earth to be round not as a Sphere but a Circle and suppos'd the Abyss on which 't was founded to be the Ocean or Great Sea on whose Surface in their Opinion it swam and which on every side encompass'd it as far as the very Firmament gave leave and the ends of the Heaven would permit That Continent we inhabit was taken for the whole World and its Middle or Center imagin'd by most to be near the place where himself dwelt The Horizon or Sea and the Firmament were believ'd to bound and terminate each other The Sun Moon and Stars were suppos'd at their descending below the Horizon to be immers'd in the Sea and at their ascending above it to emerge out of it again How ridiculous these Conceits are every one will easily judge who has but a small insight into the System of the World and how little they are countenanc'd by the Texts before referr'd to 't were easy to shew but 't is plain They were so apply'd and the particulars pretty handsomely adjusted to Mens own Fancies on these Hypotheses When therefore we observe the Expressions of Scripture about the Constitution of our own Earth to have been so miserably misunderstood and misapply'd we may easily collect what fate any Notions of a sublimer Nature concerning the Heavens and the whole System of Beings must have undergone amongst them If the Apostles in a more Learned Age had began their Preaching with the requiring Mens belief to the Motion of the Earth the being of Antipodes or any other such Paradox in Philosophy nay or given them a true and rational Scheme of the Origin of the Universe in all its Parts we may soon guess at the Reception they would have met with and at the Success of their Ministry This procedure could contribute nothing to their design neither could the People be made to understand and believe such strange Notions And as in this case every one will allow the Absurdity of such a method and never imagine it probable that the Apostles could make use of it so ought we by only changing the Scene to conclude à priori that 't is highly unlikely that Moses would take such a course and that unless the words of the History were too express and plain to be deny'd 't is extremely improbable so great a Lawgiver to go no farther would extend his Cosmogony beyond the ends of his Writing it and the Abilities of those who should read it or in other words 't is extreamly improbable that the Mosaick Creation is of any other Nature or Extent than the Proposition we are upon does assert IX Lastly I prove the Mosaick Creation extends no farther than this Earth and its Appendages because the Deluge and Conflagration whose Boundaries are the same with that of the Mosaick Creation extend no farther I shall here take it for granted That the limits here assign'd to the Deluge and Conflagration are just it being certain as to the former and I think more than probable as to the latter and only quote a place or two to prove the
days Works given an account of in the same chapter In the Beginning God Created the Heaven and the Earth says the Scripture which is as I take it a Preface or Introduction to the following account and may be thus paraphras'd Altho' that History of the Origin of the World which shall now be given you do not extend any farther as will appear presently than that Earth we live upon with those Bodies which peculiarly belong to it and so the rest of the Universe be not at all directly concern'd therein and altho ' the same History will not reach to the Creation of the matter but only Production of the form and disposition of the Earth it self Yet to prevent any misunderstanding and obviate any ill effects of a perfect silence touching these things I am oblig'd by the Divine Command to assure you That the Original of all Beings whatsoever was primarily owing to that same God of Israel whose Works I am going to relate and that not only this Earth and all its Bodies but the vast Frame of Universal Nature was by him at first Created out of Nothing and dispos'd into those several Systems which now are extant and make up what in the largest sense is stil'd Heaven and Earth or the whole Word This sense of the Words is allow'd by our late Excellent Commentatour the Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of Ely whose Sentiments cannot but be justly valued by all who are conversant in his Expositions of the Holy Scriptures and is I think clearly confirm'd by the following words And the Earth was without Form and Void and Darkness was upon the Face of the Deep and the Spirit of God moved on the Face of the Waters Where 't is clear that as soon as the Holy Writer descends to the Description of the Chaos and the commencing of the Six Days Creation he mentions not a word of any Production out of Nothing before suppos'd and asserted to have been past and done In the Beginning he omits and thereby evidently excludes that Heaven or those Superior Systems of the World already spoken of from any place therein and by the whole coherence plainly confines the Narration following to the Earth alone with its dependencies Moses does not say as the common Expositors do That just at the commencing of the Six Days Work the Earth and all the rest of the World was originally produc'd But that When God had formerly created all the World which is usually distinguish'd into the Heaven and the Earth the latter of these the consideration whereof was alone pertinent to the present design at the time preceding the Six Days Work was in a Wild Irregular and Dark condition or such a perfect Chaos as nothing but the Power of God and his Spirit 's moving on and influencing the same could ever have reduc'd into a habitable World This is a very easie and natural account of this matter and I think the most obvious and genuine signification of the words themselves And were not Mens Minds too much prejudic'd with other apprehensions this alone might be sufficient to limit their thoughts and prevent their Enquiries after any Creation of Bodies out of nothing in the Six Days Work and their stretching the same beyond the Earth either to the whole System of things as the most do or indeed to the Solar System with which others are more modestly contented in the case Which two things once granted me the Propoposition we are now upon would soon be establish'd and little farther labour become necessary But that I may give all possible satisfaction and lay this Foundation firm on which my Account of the Mosaick Creation is intirely superstructed I shall more at large prove the same Truths craving the Pardon of those Readers who are already satisfy'd in these matters if I shall seem to them to insist too long on a plain case as perhaps they may and that I think very justly esteem this to be And indeed The prejudices of Men are here so great their fears of a Philosophical Hypothesis so rooted the attempts hitherto made have been so unsuccessful and besides the Honour of God in his Holy Word is so much concern'd and the usual Expositions of this History of the Origin of Things is so poor so jejune so unbecoming the Penman much more the primary Author of the same that a large and full Discourse is but necessary and tho' it should prove somewhat prolix will be 't is hop'd not improper but as well serviceable to Religion as to Philosophy by rescuing this Ancient Venerable and Sacred Account of the Origin of things from such false and unwary Glosses as have been and still are put upon it as have rendred it in the opinion of too many an uncouth and incredible System nay somewhat below some of those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the imperfect Traditions of the Heathen World enabled them to describe To proceed therefore in the arguments before us I affirm II. That the words here us'd of Creating Making or Framing of things on which the main stress is laid in the stile of Scripture are frequently of no larger importance than the Proposition we are upon does allow and signifie no more than the ordering disposing changing or new modelling those Creatures which existed already into a different and sometimes perhaps a better and more useful state than they were in before I do not say this is the utmost or only importance of these words I have already allow'd that Creating in the first words of Genesis includes Producing out of nothing and I add that in our common Creed wherein we profess our Faith in God the Father Almighty Maker of Heaven and Earth the words are agreeably to the extent of the Divine Power and the nature of that profession to be taken in the same large and comprehensive sense and the like is to be said of many other places of the Holy Scripture But then I observe withal that the other more narrow and limited sense is very common and familiar in the Holy Writings and therefore where the subject matter and coherence requires it as I think 't will be evident it does in the present case these words both may and ought to be taken in the same acceptation This signification of the two latter words Make and Frame will I suppose be granted me by all and that the same is as true of the other Create the following Texts will sufficiently evince and from the promiscuous use of them all and others of a like importance might however be very fairly suppos'd If says Moses the Lord make a new thing or Create a Creature and the Earth open her Mouth and swallow them up Where none can imagine any thing produc'd out of nothing but only such an unusual and miraculous disposal of things as would at once demonstrate God's Vengeance against the Wicked and his absolute Command over all Creatures Thus
God himself says I form the light and create darkness I make peace and create evil I the Lord do all these things Where the objects of the Divine Creation being not real and substantial Beings could not be capable of a proper production out of nothing Which also is the case in the verse immediately following Let righteousness spring up together I the Lord have created it Thus also says God by the same Prophet I create new Heavens and a new Earth which tho' the very case before us yet would odly enough be expounded of an annihilation of the World and a reproduction of it again But what comes still more home to our purpose is that in the very History of the Creation it self the word Create as well as Make is us'd in the sense we contend for the very same things being ascrib'd to the Creating and Making Power of God which are also describ'd as the regular offspring of the Earth and Seas God created great Whales and every living Creature that moveth which the waters brought forth abundantly after their kind And God said Let the Earth bring forth the living Creature after his kind Cattel and creeping thing and Beast of the Earth after his kind and it was so And God made the Beast of the Earth after his kind and Cattel after their kind and every thing that creepeth upon the Earth after his kind and God saw that it was good So that when the words made use of in the History of the Creation are there and every where taken promiscuously when some of them are by the confession of all of no larger importance than the Proposition before us will admit and when lastly that word of which the greatest doubt can arise has been prov'd not only in other Texts of Scripture but in the very History of which we are treating to be of no more determinate signification than the rest and alike capable of the sense we here put upon it I think 't is a clear Case that if no Argument can be drawn from such words for yet neither can there justly be any against that Proposition we are now upon III. Those synonymous Phrases The World or the Heavens and the Earth under which the Object of the six days Creation is comprehended every where in Scripture do not always denote the whole System of Beings no nor any great and general Portion of them but are in the Sacred Stile frequently if not mostly to be restrained to the terraqueous Globe with its dependances and consequently both may and if the subject matter require it ought to be understood in such a restrained sense and no other That by these Phrases the Mosaick Creation or six days work is usually understood is evident every where in Scripture as the following Texts will easily evince God who made the World and all things therein The Divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was in the World and the World was made by Him and the World knew Him not Hence those frequent expressions From the Foundation of the World from the Beginning of the World from the Creation of the World and before the World was which tho' capable of including more must yet be allow'd to have generally a peculiar nay sometimes a sole regard to the six days work particularly stil'd by St. Mark The Beginning of the Creation which God created In the same manner and with the like frequency the other Phrase Heaven and Earth denote the same six days work also Thus the Heavens and the Earth were finished and all the Host of them These are the Generations of the Heavens and of the Earth when they were created in the day that the Lord God made the Earth and the Heavens In six days the Lord made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that in them is and rested the seventh day which being so express I shall not need to look out for any other parallel places And that both the World and Heaven and Earth signify the terraqueous Globe alone with its Air or Atmosphere and other Appurtenances without including the whole Universe nay or Solar System also which yet I do not deny sometimes to be comprehended therein the following Texts will sufficiently shew Our Lord says of the Woman who poured the Oyntment on him Wheresoever this Gospel shall be preached in the whole World there shall also this which this Woman hath done be told for a memorial of her His Charge and Commission to his Apostles was Go ye into all the World and preach the Gospel to every Creature The Tempter came to Jesus and shew'd him all the Kingdoms of the World and the Glory of them In all which places no other than the habitable Earth can be understood and 't is still so frequent and natural for Men to use this manner of Speech in the same restrained Sense to this very day that one may the less wonder at the Sacred Stile in this Case But this word the World having not so much difficulty in it nor being so much stood upon as those which follow the Heavens and the Earth I shall no longer insist upon it but proceed And here when the World as a totum integrale is divided into its two contradistinct Parts the Heavens and the Earth it will be said That by such a Phrase or Enumeration of the Parts of the Universe no less can be meant than the whole World in the largest acceptation or however more must be intended than the bare Earth which is but one Member or Branch and so certainly less than that whole of which it is a part In answer whereto I freely confess That the Heavens and the Earth do not seldom denote the intire Universe an instance of which the first words of Genesis have already afforded us but that they always do so I have reason to deny As the Signification of the Earth is known and capable of no Ambiguity so 't is quite otherwise in the word Heaven which in common use and the sacred Authors sometimes refers to the Seat of the Blessed or the third Heaven sometimes to the place of the Sun Moon and Stars and otherwhiles is no farther to be extended than the Clouds or the open Expansum about the Earth where the Air Atmosphere Meteors Clouds and Volatils have their abode Instances of the two former Significations were it pertinent to my present purpose might easily be produc'd but that not being so I shall wave the same and only prove the third and last Signification namely That by the Heavens is frequently understood nothing more than the Atmosphere of the Earth with its appendant or contained Bodies Thus God made the Firmament and divided the Waters which were under the Firmament from the Waters which were above the Firmament and it was so And God called the Firmament Heaven Which place is so express and in the very History it self which we
are now about also that it ought to be of peculiar force in the present case Thus also the Builders of Babel said Go to Let us build us a City and a Tower whose top may reach unto Heaven So mention is made of Cities great and fenced up to Heaven The Clouds pass by the name of the Clouds of Heaven nay they are by the Psalmist agreeably to the Interposition of the Expansum Firmament or Heaven on the second day of the Creation between the superior and inferior Waters made as it were its farthest Boundaries and Limits the Waters contain'd in them being call'd Waters which are above the Heavens The very Fowls which still reside nearer to the Earth are stil'd the Fowls of Heaven and were originally appointed to fly above the Earth in the open Firmament of Heaven By all which places 't is evident That the word Heaven is commonly so far from including the Sun or Planetary Chorus much less the fix'd Stars with all their immense Systems that the Moon our attending and neighbour Planet is not taken in The utmost bounds of our Atmosphere being so of this our Heaven also which was the only Point which remain'd to be clear'd But here before I proceed farther I must take notice of a considerable Objection which threatens to wrest this Argument out of my hands and indeed to subvert the intire Foundation of the Proposition before us and is I freely own the main difficulty in this whole matter and 't is this That such a Sense of the words World and Heaven and Earth as has been pleaded for whatever may be said in other cases will yet by no means fit here nor take in all the extent of the Mosaick Creation because 't is certain that neither the Light by whose Revolution Night and Day are distinguish'd nor the Sun Moon and Stars which are set in our Firmament belong to our Atmosphere or are contain'd within those Boundaries within which we confine the present History and 't is equally certain that both of them belong to the Mosaick Creation and are the first and fourth days works therein and by consequence it may be said the Subject of the six days Creation must be the whole System of the heavenly Bodies or at least that particular one in which the Earth is and is stil'd the Solar System Now this Objection is in part already taken off by the Sense in which the Production and Creation of things has been shewn to be frequently taken in the Holy Scriptures whereby there appears to be no necessity of believing these Bodies to have been then brought into being when they are first mention'd in the Mosaick Creation But because this is not meerly the chief but only considerable Objection against the Proposition we are upon because it seems to have been the principal occasion of men's Mistakes and Prejudices about this whole History and because 't is the single instance wherein this intire Theory as far as I know seems to recede from the obvious Letter of Scripture 't will be but proper to give it a particular review and clear withal not only this but several other like Expressions and Passages in the Holy Scripture Now in order to the giving what satisfaction I can in this Point let it be consider'd That the Light being not said to be created by Moses its Original were without difficulty to be accounted for if the other Point the making of the Heavenly Bodies were once setled which therefore is the sole remaining difficulty in the case before us And that would be no harder if the Translation of the Words of Moses were but amended and the Verses hereto relating read thus And God said Let there be lights in the firmament of the Heaven to divide the day from the night and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years and let them be for lights in the firmament of the Heaven to give light upon the Earth and it was so And God having before made two great lights the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night and having before made the stars also God set them in the firmament of Heaven to give light upon the Earth c. or which is all one And God had before made two great lights the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night he had before made the stars also and God set them in the firmament c. In which rendring 't is only changing the perfectum for the plusquam perfectum and every thing is clear and easy and the Objection vanishes of its own accord the Creation of the heavenly Bodies being hereby assigned to a former time and the Work of the fourth day no other than the placing them in our Firmament according as the account hereafter to be given does require Now to prove this a fair and just Interpretation to omit the Creation of the Heavens and Heavenly Bodies already related before the six days work 't is only necessary to observe that the Hebrew Tongue having no plusquam perfectum must and does express the Sense of it by the perfectum and that accordingly the particular circumstances of each place must alone determine when thereby the time present and when that already past and gone is to be understood How many knots in the Scripture the omission of this Observation has left unsolv'd and which being observ'd would be immediately untied I shall not go about to enumerate there being so many in the very History before us of the Origin of the World that I shall not go one jot farther for instances to confirm the before-mention'd Translation and which on the account of their agreement in place will more forcibly plead for a like agreement in Sense also On the seventh day God had ended his work which he had made and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made He had rested from all his work which God had created and made The Lord God had not caused it to rain on the Earth and there had not been a man to till the Ground but there had gone up a mist from the Earth and had water'd the whole face of the ground and the Lord God had formed man of the dust of the ground and had breathed into his nostrils the breath of life And the Lord God had planted a Garden eastward in Eden And out of the ground had the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food And out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every fowl of the air In all which places the whole Context is so clear'd by this rendring and so many strange Absurdities avoided that there is I think all imaginable reason to acquiesce in it And tho' the fourth days work is among those other
is now well known those affections ought to be ascrib'd to the Earth because every thing as to sensible appearance is in the same condition as from the Annual and Diurnal Motions of the Sun were they real must and would obtain The Sun is said to be turned into Darkness and the Moon into Blood when without any alteration in themselves they appear of a dark or bloody Countenance to the Inhabitants of the Earth Nay which is most of all to our present purpose God is then said to make all things new and to create a new Heaven and a new Earth when he so changes the Constitution and State of our Earth as to render thereby this whole Sublunary World very different from and much excelling that which formerly appear'd In all which and innumerable other instances 't is plain and evident that the Holy Writers do not consider merely how things are in themselves but how they are to us not what is their proper nature but visible appearance in the World But here lest this Doctrine should be abus'd I must interpose this necessary caution That such a liberty is neither by other Authors nor the Sacred Penmen taken on all occasions or in every case but peculiarly when the sublimity of the Matter the capacities of the People the more easie instilling useful principles into Men or some other weighty reason requires such an accommodation 'T is chiefly with regard to the Spiritual Nature and sublime way of operation in God or such Physical and Philosophick Truths as relate to distant invisible or inaccessible bodies the absolute Essence or Affections whereof were not explicable to the vulgar in a plain and natural manner In which cases this Liberty in the Interpretation of Scripture is with the greatest Justice to be allow'd But 't were thence very unreasonable to extend it to all others or indeed to any where the same or as good reasons were not assignable He who should argue that because the Literal sense of Scripture about the Corporeal Members and Humane Passions of the Divine Nature is not to be strictly urg'd that therefore when he is call'd a Spirit and represented as the Rewarder of Good and the Punisher of Bad men those Expressions are no more to be depended on or he who should infer that because the First and Fourth Days Works the Origin of Light and the making of the Heavenly Bodies must not be strictly literal that therefore neither in the Mosaick Creation ought the other four to be any more esteemed so He I say that should thus argue or infer would be very unfair and unreasonable because he would assert that in one case without ground which on peculiar and weighty ones alone was allow'd in another Thus those things that are ascrib'd to God which evidently agree to his Nature and Idea are surely to be literally understood tho' the other which are repugnant thereto be not And in like manner 't is but just to believe that so much of the Mosaick Creation as related directly to the Earth and its appurtenances and so came at once within the comprehension of the History and of the capacities of the Readers ought literally to be Interpreted tho' some things extraneous to the Formation of the Earth and beyond the notice of the People be to be taken in a different acceptation Tho' the common use of Tropes and Figures make our Speech very often not to be literal yet generally we can understand one another very well without danger of deception or of turning plain Sentences into Allegorical Discourses in our Conversation one with another And 't is evident that the Holy Books ought not to be tormented or eluded as to their obvious sense on every occasion under pretence that some particular Texts are to be construed another way That SACRED RULE ought for ever RELIGIOUSLY to be observed That we never forsake the plain obvious easie and natural sense unless where the nature of the thing it self parallel places or evident reason afford a solid and sufficient ground for so doing Now this being presuppos'd I shall leave it to the impartial Reader to judge after the perusal of this whole discourse whether I have not substantial reasons for the present Exposition and whether therefore any one ought to blame my receding from the Letter in this single case or imagine that I give a just handle thereby to others to Allegorize this History of the Creation or any other parts of Scripture And I must here own and profess That tho' I think in case the common Translation be receiv'd there is an absolute necessity of receding from the Letter in the point before us and that this Venerable and Sacred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or history of the Creation is otherwise in the highest degree strange and unaccountable to the free Reason of Mankind yet I am fully of opinion that generally the difficulties occurring in the Sacred Books are to be clear'd not by a greater receding from but a closer adhering to the obvious and most natural Interpretation of the Periods therein contain'd And that the general nature of the Scripture Stile every where duely observ'd and consider'd several great scruples with relation to the Actions and Providence of God and other things contain'd in those Books would be taken away if we might be allow'd to recede a little from the receiv'd opinions of men and Placits of Systematical Authors on no other condition than that for a recompence we keep so much the closer to the Oracles of God and the obvious and literal Interpretation of them and explain the Bible no otherwise than the plain words themselves would appear most naturally to intend to any disinterested and unconcern'd Person Of which many instances might easily be given were this a proper place for it But I must leave this digression and return to what I before propos'd in the 4. Last place viz. To Assign some Reasons why in a History of the Origin of our Earth these remote and distant Bodies come to be taken notice of tho' their own proper formation did not at all belong to it Now tho' many might easily be alledg'd for this procedure yet I shall include the main I intend here to insist on in the two following 1. The Advantage of the Jews or securing them from the Adoration of the Host of Heaven could not otherwise have been provided for Now as the foundation of such Idolatry is taken away by their being included in this History which imply'd them to be such dependent and created Beings as could have no influence of their own but what were deriv'd from God and consequently were subject to his disposal and government which affirm'd them to be by Him plac'd in the Firmament and there subjected to such Motions Rules and Laws by which they became advantageous and serviceable to the World So had they been taken no notice of they would have seem'd exempted Bodies and when all Worship of Terrestrial things
was demonstrated by this account of their Original to be foolish and absurd that of the Celestial Bodies would seem thereby to be permitted at least if not patroniz'd and recommended to ' em For when as we have before observ'd 't was impossible for the Jews to know the real state of the case and to apprehend that they were vastly remote from and so no way belonging to this Earth or its Formation there was no other way to apply a fitting remedy to that prevailing custom of Worshiping the Host of Heaven so particularly caution'd by Moses but to condescend to the Capacities of the People and supposing them Light and Fiery Globes pendulous in the Air and revolving just beyond or among the Clouds to recount their respective as well as the real Formation of the other parts of the visible World and assign them their proper place and distinct period in the Six days work as well as any other more directly concern'd therein The Sun Moon and Stars were such noble and glorious Bodies and so visible so remarkable so useful parts of the World and the Heathen Nations so generally doted on the Worship of them that had they been intirely omitted in this particular account of the Origin of things there would have been the most eminent danger of this kind of Idolatry among the Jews and the seeming approbation of that practice to which they were so prone before from the silence of their great Lawgiver in his Creation of the World might probably have defy'd all dissuasions and been the most fatal encouragement to them to so vile a Worship that were easie to be imagin'd Any particular declaration of the reasons of such omission from the real Distance Magnitude Motions and Designs of the said Bodies and how improperly they could be reduc'd within the said narration the only precaution supposable in the case being more likely to discredit the whole Book than overcome their prejudices than give them a true and just Idea of the matter it self and so obviate their false reasonings and practices thereupon in the foremention'd Idolatry So that 't was absolutely necessary to include the Heavenly Bodies in the Mosaick Creation in order to prevent Idolatry among the Jews which seems to have been a principal aim not only of recording this whole Narration but of the intire Mosaick Dispensation and therefore was in the first place by all means to be consider'd 2. The peculiar Nature and Circumstances of this History of the Creation necessarily require the mention of the Heavenly Bodies as well as of any other parts of the Visible World And 't is this mistake that has hitherto hindred any rational account thereof that men have either suppos'd it a Real and Philosophical relation of the proper Creation of all things or a meer Mythological and Mysterious Reduction of the visible parts of it to six periods or divisions under which mighty Mysteries were suppos'd to be hid and by which the foundation of a seventh-day Sabbath was to be laid among the Jews Now tho' somewhat of truth I believe be contained in each of these different notions yet I think 't is undeniable that they are neither of them to be acquiesced in and by no means give a satisfactory account of the compleat Nature and Kind of this History That alone to which all its particulars exactly answer and which is as Literal and Philosophical as the capacities of the Jews could expect or reach and did require is An Historical Journalor Diary of the Mutations of the Chaos and of the visible Works of each Day such an one as an honest and observing Spectator on the Earth would have made and recorded nay and believ'd to be in all cases the truth and reality of the things themselves Now that this Idea alone fits this Sacred History might easily be made out by the consideration of the particulars related and of those omitted with all the other circumstances thereof by no means corresponding to any other Hypothesis but most exactly to this before us without the least force offer'd to the Nature and System of the World to the Divine Perfections or the Free Reason of Mankind and exactly suitable to the Stile of the Holy Books in the mention of the Phaenomena of the Natural World in other places Which being suppos'd and by that time this Dissertation is consider'd throughout I hope 't will appear no precarious supposition 't is evident that both the appearance of Light and of the Bodies themselves the Sun Moon and Stars the things we are now enquiring about must as certainly come within such a Journal and make as remarkable Turns and Changes in the World as far as this Spectator could judge as any other within the intire six days could possibly do The appearance of Light to him who never before is suppos'd to have seen such a thing and was till then incompass'd with the thickest Darkness and the plain view of the Heavenly Bodies themselves to him who before had no manner of notion of 'em especially when he had no possible means of distinguishing them from Light and Fiery Balls situate with and pertaining to the Clouds must as certainly have inferr'd a new Creation and under such a notion have been recorded in their due place in the Journal before-mention'd as any other whatsoever and their order position and uses would naturally be recounted no otherwise than we now find them in the Mosaick Creation From which consideration I think 't is not at all surprizing that these parts of the Visible World how remote and seperate soever they be from our Earth in themselves are yet included in this History before us and have their distinct periods in the six days work tho' at the same time the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it self do properly relate to the formation of the Sublunary World only IV. I prove that the History before us extends not beyond the Earth and its Appendages because that confused Mass or rude heap of Heterogeneous matter which we call the Chaos whence all the several parts were deriv'd extended no farther It will here I suppose be allow'd me that the ancient Chaos so famous among the old Philosophers and so evidently refer'd to by Moses was the intire and single source or promptuary of the six days productions and that consequently nothing ought to be esteem'd a part of that Creation but what in its Rudiments and Principles was so of the Chaos also and this Postulatum is so agreeable to Moses as well as all the antient accounts of the Chaos and I think so suitable to the sentiments of most men that I shall without farther proof suppose it granted and betake my self immediately to the other branch of the argument and endeavour to evince that the Chaos was so far from comprehending the intire matter of the Universe nay or of the Solar System that it reach'd not so far as the Moon nor indeed any farther than that Terraqueous Globe we
now Inhabit with such Bodies as are immediately contiguous and appertaining thereto Which I think the following arguments will sufficiently demonstrate 1. If we Appeal to External Nature and enquire what confused Masses or Chaos's either at present are or ever within the Annals of Time were extant in the Visible World we shall discover no footsteps of any such thing excepting what the Atmosphere of a Comet affords us If therefore without the allowance of precarious and fanciful Hypotheses relying on no known Phaenomena of Nature a Comet 's Atmosphere be the sole pretender if moreover the same Atmosphere gives a Just Adequate Primitive and Scriptural Idea of that ancient Chaos if it answers its particular Phnooemena recounted by Sacred or Prophane History if it prove a peculiarly fit Foundation of such an Earth as ours is and is extraordinarily adapted to suit and account for its present and past Phaenomena all which shall be prov'd hereafter I think we may cease our farther enquiries and with the highest reason and justice conclude That a Comet or more peculiarly the Atmosphere thereof was that very Chaos from whence that World arose whose Original is related in the Mosaick History And with equal reason and justice be satisfi'd which is but a certain consequent thereof that not the innumerable Systems of the fixt Stars not the narrower System of the Sun nay nor the Moon her self but our Earth alone was the proper subject of the Mosaick Creation Which conclusion will be farther establish'd by the coincidence of the several days works recounted by Moses with those Natural and Orderly Mutations which in the Digestion and Formation of a Planet from a Comet 's Atmosphere would Mechanically proceed as hereafter will appear 2. The Chaos mention'd by Moses is by him expresly call'd The Earth in contradistinction to The Heavens or the other Systems of the Universe and all its parts taken notice of in the Sacred History appear by the following Series of the Scriptures to belong to our Earth and no other The words of Moses are In the Beginning God created the heaven and the earth and the earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters Where I think 't is plain as has been already observ'd that when the Author comes to the Chaos or Foundation of the six days work he excludes the Heavens from any share therein and calls the Chaos it self An Earth without form and void with Darkness upon the Face of its Abyss and this all ought to grant these being the very Words from which 't is concluded that the Heathen Chaos was no other than what Moses deriv'd the World from And that the Chaos is here confin'd to the Earth will be sure put past doubt by the latter part of this Argument which observes no other parts to be mention'd belonging thereto than such as the succeeding Series of the Holy Scriptures shews to have afterward belong'd to our Earth and no other viz. An Abyss or Deep and Waters Both of them frequently mention'd in the Holy Books and now actual parts of the present Globe as will appear hereafter So that when Moses calls his Chaos expresly the Earth when by the coherence of his discourse he excludes the Heavens taken in a large and proper sense from the same when lastly he mentions no other parts of this Chaos than such as afterward and at this day are parts of our Earth 'T is somewhat unaccountable and like a kind of fate upon Commentators that they should unanimously resolve to make this Chaos of so extravagant a compass as they too incongruously do and that they should agree in it so universally tho' without any warrant from nay contrary to the obvious sense of the Text it self and the plain drift coherence and description of Moses therein I know it will be said the First and Fourth days works the Origin of Light and of the Sun Moon and Stars necessitated such a supposition and gave just cause for the common Exposition Which as I believe to have been the true occasions of all such mistaken Glosses so I think them far from just and necessary ones and if what has been already said has clear'd those difficulties there can be no reason to reject the Cogency of the present Argument but a great deal to rest satisfi'd in it and to confess it no less unscriptural than 't is absurd to expect from this single Chaos a Sun Moon and Systems of fix'd Stars as hitherto the World has commonly done 3. The Mosaick and ancient Chaos could not include the Sun or fix'd Stars because just before the extraction of Light from it as 't is usually explain'd it was Dark and Caliginous which on such a supposition is not conceivable A strange Darkness this where more than ninety nine parts of an hundred whether we take in the intire System of the World or the Solar System only appear to be fiery Corpuscles and the very same from whence all the fix'd Stars or at least the Sun were constituted and are now the Fountain of all that Light and Heat which the World has ever since enjoy'd Let every unbiass'd person judge how Dark that Chaos could be where the Opake and Obscure parts were so perfectly inconsiderable in comparison of the Light the Active and the Fiery ones So that on this Hypothesis The state of the Chaos must have been exceeding Light Hot and Fiery before the first days work when it was on the contrary according to all Antiquity Sacred and Profane Dark and Caliginous 'T is true upon the separation of the particles of Light the business in this Hypothesis of the First Day the Chaos would become Obscure and Dark enough at the same time that the Sun or fix'd Stars were collecting their Masses so lately extracted and were growing Splendid and Glorious But this is to contradict the History according to which the Light on the First Day is consider'd with relation to the Chaos and its distinguishing Night and Day There not as it was collecting into Bodies of Light without it which rather must belong to the Fourth Days Work when by this account 't is evident that this day is the peculiar time for the most pitchy Darkness possible For when all the Light was just separated from the Chaos the most Caliginous Night must certainly ensue So that unless we can change the Order in Moses and prove that the Chaos before the First Days Work was all over Light and on the First Day cover'd with the Thickest Darkness we in vain pretend to justifie the vulgar opinion and include the Sun or fix'd Stars among the other Matter of the Chaos Besides when Heat is the main Instrument of Nature in all its separations of Parts and Productions of Bodies 't is sure a very improper season just then to extract the Light and Fiery Corpuscles out of the Chaos when
of the Sun Moon and numberless Systems of Stars has only a poor single part allotted to it Must the expanding the Air between the Earth and the Clouds be thought to equal the disposal of all those Coelestial Bodies into their several Regions and the producing a few Fish and Fowl be a weightier concern and require more time than the replenishing all the other habitable Worlds with Beings suitable to their several Constitutions Will a wise Builder bestow twice as much time in decking and adorning of one Bycloset of inferior use and that only to some of the meanest Servants too as of the Royal Palace with all its stately Rooms and Apartments intended for the King himself and his Courtiers Should we hear of such strange Actions and disproportionate Procedure among Men we should not be able to induce our selves to give credit thereto But it seems Suppositions ten thousand times more disproportionate and unaccountable when ascrib'd to God Almighty are easily believ'd So far can Ignorance Prejudice and a misunderstanding of the Sacred Volumes carry the Faith nay the Zeal of Men and to such a mean Opinion of the most glorious and perfect of Beings are we thereby reduc'd that as if we were not content to think him such a one as our selves but intended to depress him below the very meanest of us we venture with confidence and eagerness to ascribe to him that disproportionate unequal and unaccountable disposal of the Works of Creation which the simplest Artificer could not bear the Imputation of It must here be confess'd That such Notions of the Mosaick Creation as I now oppose having begun or at least been chiefly establish'd and propagated when the Aristotelean Philosophy and Ptolomaick Astronomy were believ'd those who have embrac'd them till this Age were less absurd and nearer to some tolerable degree of probability For so long as the Earth with its adjoyning Elements was suppos'd the Center and Basis of all the World while the distance of the Heavenly Bodies was believ'd to be comparatively to what we now find very small and inconsiderable and all their Motions perform'd about us their proper and immovable Center while the whole Series of Spheres above tho' the several distinct ones mov'd the contrary way by their own peculiar Motions was in twenty four hours constantly hurried from East to West by the Primum Mobile on purpose to cause Day and Night to us below while Comets were esteem'd Exhalations from the Stars and sent only at certain Seasons to affright Mankind with their fiery Tails and then to be dissipated and vanish into Vapours again while the Sun and Stars in the Opinion of the Philosophers themselves were nourish'd by the Steams from our Earth and while the last named were either stuck in one Spherical Superficies as the fix'd Stars or fastned in their Solid Orbs like a Nail in a Cartwheel as the Planets and no other use imagin'd but to twinkle to us in Winter Evenings and by their Aspects to forebode what little Changes of Weather or other Accidents were to be expected below while no other habitable World was dream'd of than this Globe of Earth no other Animals once conjectur'd at besides those on the face thereof while Mankind was look'd on as the sole Lord of the Creation and Him for whose sake all other Creatures in the World were made and while 't was commonly granted that as all things the visible Heavens and Earth with their intire Furniture began with him so at the Conclusion of his Succession or the period of Humane Generations here must they for ever cease and be annihilated While all this I say was the current Philosophy 't is not very surprizing that the Mosaick History we are now upon was understood in the Vulgar Sense and seem'd not wholly disagreeable to the presumed Frame of Nature and 't was not hard to believe that this Earth and its Inhabitants in the Opinion of the World the main and principal concern of all and that to whose uses every thing else intirely serv'd had the principal care bestow'd upon it both in its Original Creation and its subsequent Changes and Revolutions But tho' such a Scheme and such an Apprehension were passable enough in the days of our Forefathers 't is by no means so now Those greater degrees of Knowledge which the Providence of God has in this Age afforded us make such Opinions intolerable in the present which were not so in the past Centuries 'T is now evident That every one of the Planets as well as that on which we live must have a right in its proportion to share in the care of Heaven and had therefore in all probability a suitable space or number of Days allow'd to its proper Formation much what the same Separations of Parts Digestions and Collections being no doubt to be suppos'd in the Original Formation of any other as in that particular Planet with which Moses was concern'd And if one or two on account of their smallness might be finish'd in less the rest on account of their bigness from a parity of Reason would take up much more than that six days time which was spent in our Earth's Formation And let the Reader judge if it be so impossible to reduce the Planets alone within the fourth days Work how much more so it will be in case we allow degrees of impossibilities to reduce thither that vast noble and useful Body the Fountain of our Light and Heat the Sun and still in a prodigious degree more so to include the immense and numberless Systems of the fixt Stars among whom when the Sun is but one and perhaps no bigger than the rest and consequently to have in reason but an equal portion of time with them allotted for its Origination It must tho' above Sixty thousand times as big as the Earth while the Earth takes up four intire ones be thrust into the Corner of a single Day Corner did I say rather Minute nay Moment of a Day and 't is uncertain whether even that pittance of time can fairly and separately be allow'd to it So that one need not fear to assert That he who should affirm the Divine Power to have spent four entire Days in the Formation of a Fly or Worm nay of a single Plant or Herb and but one in the Formation of the Terraqueous Globe with all its Parts Regions and Furniture would be less unreasonable than some Expositors now are and more observe Decorum Fitness Agreement and Proportion than they do in the Vulgar Interpretations of the Mosaick Creation And I need not be afraid to call all that Astronomy and Philosophy are Masters of to attest the fairness of such a Comparison And can any one who is sensible of this and entertains no other than great and worthy Thoughts of his Alwise Creator embrace so fond and so strange an Opinion And if the Reader will pardon a short Digression and give me leave to speak a great Truth
six Days work to be of the very same and no larger extent than those are and leave the whole to the Judgment of the Reader There shall come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lusts and saying Where is the promise of his coming for since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation For this they willingly are ignorant of that by the word of God the heavens were of old and the earth standing out of the water and in the water whereby the world that then was being overflowed with water perished But the heavens and the earth which are now by the same word are kept in store reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent heat the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up In the day of God the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with fervent heat Nevertheless we according to his promise look for a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness Thou Lord in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth and the heavens are the works of thine hands They shall perish but thou remainest and they all shall wax old as doth a garment and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up and they shall be changed I have now finish'd all those Arguments which to me are fully satisfactory and I think prove beyond rational contradiction That not the vast Universe but the Earth alone with its dependencies are the proper subject of the Six Days Creation And that the Mosaick History is not a Nice Exact and Philosophick account of the several steps and operations of the whole but such an Historical Relation of each Mutation of the Chaos each successive day as the Journal of a Person on the Face of the Earth all that while would naturally have contained The sum of all is this 1. The very Words and Coherence of Moses himself require such a Construction 2. The Words of Creating Making or Framing things here us'd are commonly of no larger importance than this Proposition allows 3. The World or Heaven and Earth the objects of this Creation are alike frequently restrain'd to the sublunary World the Air and Earth 4. The Chaos that known fund and seminary of the Six Days Creation extended no farther 5. On the contrary supposition the time of the Creation of each Body is extremely disproportionate to the work it self 6. On the same supposition there is an intolerable disorder disproportion and confusion in the works themselves 7. The sinal cause of the six days Creation is the advantage of Mankind the Inhabitant of the Earth 8. Neither the intention of the Author nor the capacity of the Readers require or could bear any other account of the origin of things 9. Lastly Neither the Deluge nor Conflagration whose extent appears commensurate to that of this Creation are of any larger compass than is here assign'd Upon this view of the whole matter give me leave to say That to make the Universal Frame of Nature concern'd in the particular Fates and Revolutions of our Earth is at this time of day to demonstrate either very mean thoughts of the Ends of the Divine Workmanship and of the Essects thereof in the World or else very proud and extravagant conceits of our own worth and dignity and at best argues a narrow ignoble and unphilosophical Soul 'T is much such another Wise and Rational Notion as it would be to suppose that the whole Terraqueous Globe with all its parts and dependencies all its furniture and productions was alike concern'd in the Fates and Revolutions pardon the expressions of one single Fly or Worm belonging to it And we may e'en as fairly allow the intire dependence of this sublunary World on the fortune of such a single animalculum That on its peeping into the World the whole Earth must arise out of nothing to afford it a resting place while it was growing and continued in its prime all things below must spring and flourish rejoyce and look gay on its decay all things must put on a mournful countenance and on its destruction Universal Nature here beneath must expire together and return to its primitive nothing This representation will I imagine seem bold and extravagant But 't will be hard to prove it so And I may appeal to Astronomy whether the Earth can be shewn to bear as considerable a proportion to the Universe as such a poor animalculum does certainly bear to it I would not by this or any thing else I have heretofore said in this Discourse be so far mistaken as to be believ'd prone to depretiate and and debase Mankind or to put a slight on all those Works of Nature and Providence which are subservient to it Neither do I deny that in some sense all the Visible World Heaven and Earth are ordain'd for our use and advantage I fully believe that we are the Creatures of God of whom he has a tender regard and over whom he exercises a constant a special Care and Providence As I look upon the Souls of Men in their proper and primitive perfection when they came out of their Maker's Hands to be Noble to be Glorious to be Exalted Beings and perhaps in capacities or faculties in dignity or happiness not inferior to some of the Angelick Orders so I also most undoubtedly believe what our Saviour affirms of good mens state hereafter that they shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equal to the Angels and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Children of God himself While I am perswaded that the Creation of Man was not effected without the concurrence and joint consultation of the Blessed Trinity Nor his Redemption without the Acceptance of the Father the Sacrifice and Death of the Son in his Humane Nature and the Sanctification and Operation of the Holy Spirit While I am perswaded that the Divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 has ever since the Fall of Adam been sollicitous about our Reconciliation to God and made it his constant business even before as well as since his Incarnation to mediate for us and take care of our eternal happiness While I believe that by the new Covenant Good Men even in this Imperfect state are esteem'd Heirs of God joint-Heirs with Christ and denominated the Brethren and Friends of their Glorious Redeemer While I do not doubt but our Humane Nature is now in the Person of our Blessed Saviour in Heaven and there on account of the Hypostatical Union with the Eternal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and as a reward of that Obedience and Suffering it underwent for us on Earth advanc'd above the most exalted Intellectual Orders at the Right Hand of the Majesty on High
confused fluid mass or congeries of heterogeneous Bodies suppose it were a Comets Atmosphere or any other such like irregular compositum of mingled corpuscles in its formation were subject only to an Annual motion about the Sun without any Diurnal Rotation about an Axis of its own the Figure thereof would be that of a perfect Sphere as from the uniform force of Gravity and consequent equilibration of parts on all sides is easily demonstrable But if during its Formation it had a Diurnal Rotation about an Axis of its own the Figure thereof by reason of the great velocity and consequent conatus recedendi à centro motus diminishing the force of Gravity at the Equatorial parts would be that of an oblate Sphaeroid such as an Ellipsis revolving about its lesser Axis would generate LXVIII If a Planet consisted in great measure of an Abyss or Dense Internal Fluid and a Crust or Shell of Earth plac'd on its Surface tho' the Diurnal Rotation were not begun at the Formation thereof from a Chaos and so its original figure were Sphaerical yet upon the commencing of the said Diurnal Rotation it would degenerate immediately into that of an oblate Sphaeroid and retain it afterward as well as if it had put on the same at its primary formation Corollary When therefore the greater quickness of the vibrations of the same Pendulum and the greater gravitation of Bodies near the Poles than the Equator consequent thereupon demonstrate the former Regions of the Earth to be nearer its Center than the latter and that consequently the Figure is that of an Oblate Sphaeroid 't is evident that either the Diurnal Motion commenc'd before the Orginal of its present constitution or that its internal parts are in some degree Fluid and so were pliable and alterable on the after commencing of such Diurnal Rotation And this Corollary extends equally if not more to Jupiter whose Diurnal Rotation is quicker than our Earth's and by consequence its Figure farther from Sphaerical Thus by Mr. Newton's Calculation the Diameter of the Equator of the Earth is to the Axis thereof only as 692 to 689. But in Jupiter according to the same Mr. Newton's Calculation Corrected as about 8 to 7. Which is very considerable and sensible and accordingly attested to by the concurrent observstions of Cassini and Mr. Flamsteed LXIX If such an Upper Crust or Shell of Earth on the face of the Abyss were Fix'd and Consolidated before the Diurnal Rotation thereof commenc'd it would remain intire continued and united all the time of its Sphaerical Figure or all the time it had no other than an Annual revolution But by the beginning of the Diurnal Rotation which would make the surface of the Abyss and its sustained Orb of Earth put on the Figure of the Oblate Sphaeroid before-mention'd that Upper Orb must be stretch'd chap'd and crack'd and its parts divided by perpendicular Fissures For the Periphery of an Ellipsis being larger than that of a Circle where the Area is equal and the Superficies of a Sphaeroid generated by its circumvolution consequently larger than that of a Sphere generated by the like circumvolution of the Circle which is the present case that Orb of Earth 't is plain which exactly fitted and every way enclos'd the Abyss while it was a Sphere would be too little and straight for it when it after became a Sphaeroid and must therefore suffer such Breaches and Fissures as are here express'd LXX The state of Nature in a Planet constituted as above while it had only an Annual revolution would be as follows 1. By reason of the same face of the Planet's respecting continually the same Plaga of the Heavens or the same fixt Stars and its continual parallellism to it self all the apparent revolution of the Sun must depend on the Annual Motion and a Day and a Year be all one This is evident because as a Year is truly that space in which the Sun seemingly and the Earth really performs a single revolution round the Ecliptick so a Day is truly that space in which the Sun passes or appears to pass from any certain Semi-Meridian to the same again once Which spaces of time are here the very same and so the appellations themselves Year and Day may indifferently and promiscuously be appli'd thereto 2. The course of the Sun and Planets for the fixt Stars were then Fixt indeed having neither a Real nor Seeming motion must be contrary to what it has appear'd since Their Rising being then in the West and their Setting in the East Which from the way of the present Diurnal Rotation has since as all know been quite different 3. There must be a perpetual Equinox or equality of Day and Night through the whole Planet by reason of the Sun 's describing each revolution a great Circle about the same on which alone such an equality depends 4. The Ecliptick must supply the place of an Equator also and the Torrid Temperate and Frigid Zones be almost alike dispos'd with regard to that Circle as with us they are with regard to the real Equator 5. To such as liv'd under or near the said Ecliptick the Poles of the World or Ecliptick the only ones then in Being would be at the Horizon and so not elevated or depress'd to the Inhabitants there But upon the commencing of a quicker Diurnal Rotation the same way with the Annual The case would be in all these particulars quite different For 1. By reason of the quickness of the new Diurnal in comparison of the Ancient and Continued Annual Revolution Days and Years would be intirely distinct spaces of time The Sun returning to the same Semi-Meridian very often while from one Tropick to another and so to the same again he appear'd to have compleated his longer Annual period 2. By the Diurnal Rotation of the Planet from West to East the revolution of the Sun of the other Planets and of all the Heavenly Bodies would be from East to West and they would all Rise at the former and Set at the latter part of the Horizon 3. The perpetual Equinox would be confin'd to the Equatorial parts of the Planet and all other Countries would have longer Days in Summer and shorter in Winter as now obtains in the World When only March 10 and September 12 have Day and Night equal to each other through the whole Earth 4. The Ecliptick and Equator would be intirely different the latter a Real Circle or Line on the Planet equally distant from its own proper Poles The former confin'd to the Heavens and not with respect to the Planet easily to be taken notice of The Torrid Temperate and Frigid Zones would regard the new Equator and be from it distinguish'd and dispos'd almost in the same manner as before they were from the Ecliptick and that with greater niceness and more exact boundaries 5. The Poles of the World which before were to the Inhabitants at or near the ancient Ecliptick
positive evidence for the Proposition before us yet setting aside prepossession I had an equal right and pretence to Truth with the Common Expositors I keeping equally close to the Letter of the Sacred History 2. This Hypothesis gives a rational account of the Scripture stile wherein a Day even in after Ages very frequently denotes a Year as is commonly taken notice of by Expositors Thus by Moses himself the Word Day is not only in the very recapitulation of the Creation us'd for the intire Six These are the Generations of the Heavens and of the Earth when they were Created in the Day that the Lord God made the Earth and the Heavens and every Plant of the Field before it was in the Earth and every Herb of the Field before it grew But in other places as it seems for the just space of a Year And at the end of Days or after some Years it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord. The days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years and he died And so of the rest of the Genealogies in that Chapter Thus in others of the Holy Writers I will give thee ten shekels of Silver by the days i. e. per annâ—s by the years or every year Thus what in one place is Joshuah waxed Old and came into Days is in another Joshuah was old and stricken in years The like phrases we have of David the number of Days that David was King in Hebron over the house of Judah was seven Years and six months The Days that David reigned over Israel were forty years So what was in the Law Bring your Tyths after three Years is in the Prophet Bring your Tyths after three Days Which ways of speaking with others that follow may seem alluded to and explain'd by these two tho' themselves somewhat of a different nature Your children says God to the Israelites shall wander in the Wilderness forty Years after the number of the Days in which ye searched the land even forty Days each Day for a Year shall you bear your iniquities even forty Years Lye thou says God to the Prophet Ezekiel on thy left side and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it according to the number of the Days that thou shalt lye upon it thou shalt bear their iniquity For I have laid upon thee the Years of their iniquity according to the Number of the Days three hundred and ninety Days so shalt thou bear the iniquity of the house of Israel And when thou hast accomplish'd 'em lye again on thy right side and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty Days I have appointed thee a Day for a Year But what I mainly and principally intend here is that known frequent and solemn way in the Prophetick Writings of determining Years by Days the instances of which are very obvious some whereof I shall here barely quote for the Reader 's satisfaction and more in a case so notorious and remarkable need not be done How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice and the transgression of desolation to give both the Sanctuary and the Host to be trodden under foot And he said unto me Unto two thousand three hundred Days then shall the Sanctuary be cleansed From the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away and the abomination that maketh desolate be set up there shall be one thousand two hundred and ninety Days Blessed is he that waiteth and cometh to the one thousand three hundred five and thirty days But go thou thy way till the end be for thou shalt rest and stand in thy Lot at the end of the days I will give power unto my two witnesses and they shall prophecy one thousand two hundred and sixty days cloathed in sack-cloth The Woman fled into the Wilderness where she hath a place prepared her of God that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days Agreeably whereto a Week consisting of seven days denotes seven years and a Month consisting of thirty days denotes thirty years in the same Prophetick Writings Thus in that most famous of all Prophecies concerning the death of the Messias Seventy Weeks are determin'd upon the people and upon thy holy city to finish the transgression and to make an end of sins and to make reconciliation for iniquity and to bring in everlasting rightcousness and to seal up the vision and prophecy and to anoint the most Holy Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks and sixty and two weeks the street shall be built again and the wall even in a straight of times And after the sixty and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off but not for himself The Holy City shall they tread undersoot forty and two months Power was given to the Beast to continue forty and two months All which expressions with others of the same nature are not accountable I mean there is no satisfactory reason can be given why a Day should so frequently denote a Year in the Sacred Writings on any other Hypothesis We usually indeed content our selves in these cases with the bare knowing the meaning of Scripture expressions as if they were chosen at a venture and so for instance finding a Day to represent a Year in the same Books we rest satisfi'd without enquiring why a Day rather than an Hour a Week or Month the two latter of which terms are yet us'd by these Authors were pitch'd upon to signifie the before-mention d space to us or why if the word Day must be made use of it must mean a determinate just Year rather than a Week a Month or a Thousand Years for which last it yet seems sometimes to be taken so frequently in the Sacred especially the Prophetick Writings But 't is very supposable that 't is our Ignorance or Unskilfulness in the Stile of Scripture and those things therein deliver'd not the Inaccuracy of the Writers themselves which occasions our so laxe and general Interpretations It will sure at least be allow'd me that wherever not only the Meaning of Phrases but the Original and Foundation of such their Meaning is naturally and easily assignable an account thereof is readily to be embrac'd And certainly the Primitive Years of the World being once suppos'd to have been Days also and call'd by that name in the History of the Creation this matter will be very easie the succeeding Stile of Scripture will appear only a continuation of the Primitive and fitted to hint to us a time wherein a Day and a Year were really the same And this without any diminution of the true designs
said of the other Days works by recurring to the Divine miraculous Power which yet is here not only unnecessarily and without warrant from the Sacred History it self but sometimes very indecently done yet the numerous Works ascrib'd to the sixth Day plainly shew That a space much longer than we now call a Day must have been referr'd to in the Sacred History The business of the sixth Day includes evidently these following particulars 1. The Production of all the bruit dry-land Animals 2. The Consultation about and the actual Creation of the Body and Infusion of the Soul of Adam 3. The Charter or Donation of Dominion over all Creatures bestow'd on Adam 4. The Exercise of Part of that Dominion or the giving Names to all the dry-land Animals which sure suppos'd some acquir'd knowledge in Adam some Consideration of the Nature of each Species some skill in Language and the use of Words andwithal some proportionable Time for the gathering so great a number of Creatures together and for the distinct naming of every one 5. When on this review it appear'd that among all these Creatures there was not a Meet-help or suitable Companion for him God then cast him into a deep Sleep which 't is probable lasted more than a few minutes to deserve that Appellation took out one of his Ribs closed up the Flesh instead thereof and out of that Rib made the Woman 6. After this God brings this Woman to Adam he owns her Original gives her an agreeable Name takes her to Wife and they together receive that Benediction Increase and Multiply 7. God appoints them and their Fellow-Animals the Vegetables for Food and Sustenance All which to omit the Jews Tradition of the Fall of Man this sixth Day and such things presuppos'd thereto which must belong to it even by the Mosaick History it self put together is vastly more than is conceivable in the short space of one single Day in the vulgar Sense of it 'T is true God Almighty can do all things in what portions of Time he pleases But 't is also true as Bishop Patrick well observes in a like case that Man cannot He must have time allotted him in proportion to the business to be done or else 't is not to be expected of him And 't is plain That Adam and Eve were mainly concern'd in the latter Actions of this Day so that by a just and necessary consequence That Day in which they went through so many and different Scenes and perform'd so many Actions requiring at least no small part of a Year and that after themselves and all the dry-land Animals had been on the same Day produc'd was certainly such a Day as might be proportionate to such Operations and not shorter than a Year which the present Hypothesis allows in the case 7. If the History of the Fall of Man be either included in the sixth Day according to the Ancient Tradition of the Jews which I confess to be very improbable or belong to the seventh as might by coming as near as possible to such old Tradition more probably be allow'd On either of these Suppositions there is the greatest necessity imaginable of supposing such a Day much longer than is commonly done Which I think is of it self so plain that I need not aggravate the matter but leave it to the free Consideration of the Reader All which Arguments to me appear very satisfactory and evince that the first distinguishing and peculiar Character of such a primitive State of Nature as was before-mention'd did really belong to our Earth before the Fall and that then a Day and a Year were exactly one and the same space of Time 2. In the primitive State of the World the Sun and Planets rose in the West and set in the East contrary to what they have done ever since This may seem to have been the foundation of that Story in Herodotus who tells us That the Sun in the space of 10340 Years four times inverted his Course and rose in the West But what I mainly depend on is that Discourse in Plato who relating some very ancient Traditions about the primitive State of things and what a mighty and remarkable Change was effected by a certain mighty and remarkable Alteration in the Heavenly Motions which Alteration in general deserves also to be taken notice of as agreeing so well with the present Hypothesis the most surprizing and of the greatest consequence of all others and the cause of suitably surprizing and considerable Effects in the present State of Nature makes it to be this change of the Way or Course of the Heavenly Bodies which is the consequence of the present Assertion For this grand thing of which he had spoken so highly is this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Motion of the Universe sometimes revolves the same way that it does now and sometimes the contrary way Which Testimony is very plain and full to our present purpose 3. In the primitive State of Nature there was a perpetual Equinox or Equality of Day and Night through the World This Phaenomenon or such Effects as in part suppose it is usually by the Christian Fathers applied to the Paradisiacal State and by the Ancient Heathens to the Golden Age or the Reign of Saturn coincident 't is probable at least in part thereto For they all with one consent deny that the Sun's Course was oblique from one Tropick to another or that the difference and inequality of Seasons which must have followed therefrom did belong to that first and most happy State of the World as may at large be seen the places quoted in the Margin too long here to Transcribe to which therefore I refer the Reader and proceed 4. In the primitive State of the World there was no Equator distinct from the Ecliptick all Motions were perform'd about one invariable Axis that of the latter for the Plains of the Planet's Orbits I consider as nearly coincident with that of the Ecliptick without the Obliquity of one Circle or Motion to another Tho' this be somewhat related to the former particular yet I shall distinctly quote a Testimony or two directly belonging hereto and not so properly reducible to the other The first is that of Anaxagoras who says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the Stars in their primitive State revolv'd in a Tholiform manner insomuch that the Pole appear'd perpetually at the Vertex of the Earth Whose meaning tho' somewhat obscure seems to be That the Motion of the Heavens was originally about one Center or Axis that of the Ecliptick whose Pole was continually over against the same Point of the Earth which on the Hypothesis before us is true but in the present Frame of Nature impossible The next Author whom I shall produce is Plato who in the foremention'd Discourse about the Ancient and Modern States of the World says That in the former of them the Motion
Country and is suitable withal both to what the Jewish and Arabian Tradition before-mention'd assert and what the next Hypothesis requires V. The Primitive Ecliptick or its correspondent Circle on the Earth intersected the Present Tropick of Cancer at Paradise or at least at its Meridian When from the last Hypothesis but one it appears that the Primitive Ecliptick was a fixed Circle on the Earth as well as in the Heavens and must both equally divide the present Equator and touch the present Tropicks 't is proper to fix if possible the Point of Intersection with the Northern Tropick whereby the intire Circle may be still describ'd and its Original Situation determin'd Which is the attempt of this Hypothesis we are now upon and which I thus prove 1. Without this Hypothesis the before-mention'd Jewish and Arabian Tradition of the situation of Paradise under the Primitive Equinoctial is unaccountable and impossible to be true For Paradise being at the most southern Position supposable but just under the Tropick of Cancer it could no where be under the ancient Equinoctial or Ecliptick but at their mutual Intersection which must therefore have been as this Proposition asserts 2. The Production of Animals out of the Earth and Waters at or near Paradise seems to have requir'd all the heat possible in any part of the Earth which being to be found only under the Equinoctial confirms the last mention'd Argument and pleads for that situation of Paradise which is here assigned to it 3. And Principally This situation is determin'd by the coincidence of the Autumnal Equinox and the beginning of the Night or Sun-set at the Meridian of Paradise 'T is known that at Paradise or the place of the Creation of Man the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Natural Day commenc'd with the Sun-setting Six a Clock or coming on of the Night 'T is granted also that the beginning of the most Ancient Year which shall presently be prov'd to have been at the Autumnal Equinox was coincident with the beginning of the World or of the Mosaick Creation Which things compar'd together do determine the question we are upon It being impossible on the grounds here suppos'd that Sun-set and the Autumnal Equinox should be coincident to any but those in the Northern Hemisphere at the Point of Intersection of the Ancient Ecliptick and the present Tropick of Cancer or such as were under the same Meridian with them as any ordinary Astronomer will soon confess Which Argument is Decretory and fixes the place of Paradise to the greatest exactness and satisfaction Corollary 1. Hence a plain reason is given of the Days of Creation commencing at Evening which otherwise is a little strange It being but a necessary result of the time of the Year and Region of the Earth when and where the Creation began Coroll 2. As also why the Jewish Days especially their Sabbath-Days began at the same time ever since The Memory of the Days of Creation being thereby exactly preserv'd Coroll 3. As also why their Civil Years but especially their Sabbatical Years and Years of Jubilee even after their Months were reckon'd from the Vernal began at the Autumnal Equinox The memory of the Years of the Creation being thereby alike exactly preserv'd VI. The Patriarchal or most ancient Year mention'd in the Scripture began at the Autumnal Equinox The Reasons of this Assertion are these ensuing 1. The principal Head or Beginning of the Jewish Year in all Ages was the first Day of their Autumnal Month Tiâ—ri and was accordingly honour'd with an extraordinary Festival the Feast of Trumpets When the Head or Beginning of their Sacred Year the first of Nisan had no such solemnity annex'd to it As is known and confess'd by all 2. When God commanded the Jews on their coming out of Egypt to esteem the Month Nisan the First in their Year it seems plainly to imply that till then it had not been so esteemed by them The words are these The Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in the Land of Egypt saying This Month shall be unto you the beginning of Months it shall be the first Month of the Year to you And this is strengthened by considering that tho' we here find an Original of the Sacred Year in the Spring yet we no where do of the Civil in Autumn Which therefore 't is very probable was the immemorial beginning of the Ancient Year long before the times of Moses 3. Whatever beginning of the Jewish Year there might be on other accounts 'T is confess'd by all That the beginning of the Sabbatical Years and Years of Jubilee by which in all probability the Primary Years of the World were commemorated and preserv'd was at the Autumnal Equinox Which is a very good Argument that those Ancient Years so commemorated and preserv'd began at the same time also 4. The Feast of Ingathering or of Tabernacles which was soon after the Autumnal Equinox is said to be in the End or after the Revolution of the Year Which is a peculiar confirmation of the Assertion we are now upon 5. Unless that Year at the Deluge commenc'd at the Autumnal Equinox we must says the Learned Lightfoot in his Scheme thereof suppose one Miracle more than either Scripture or Reason give us ground to think of and that is that the Waters should increase and lie at their height all the Heat of Summer and abate and decrease all the cold of Winter Which without Reason he supposes is not to be allow'd 6. What was alledg'd under the last Proposition is here to be consider'd That on this Hypothesis a clear Reason is given of the Nights preceding the Day in the History of the Creation and ever since among the Jews which otherwise is not so easily to be accounted for 7. The testimony of the Chaldee Paraphrast to which Josephus does fully agree is as express as possible upon 1 Kings 8. 2. where the words are In the Month Ethanim which is the seventh Month viz. as all confess from the Vernal Equinox upon which the Paraphrase is They call'd it of Old the First Month but now it is the Seventh Month Which may well counterpoise all that from some later Authors can be produc'd to the contrary So that upon the whole I may fairly conclude notwithstanding some small Objections which either lose their force on such Principles as are here laid down or will on other occasions be taken off That the most Ancient or Patriarchal Year began at the Autumnal Equinox VII The Original Orbits of the Planets and particularly of the Earth before the Deluge were perfect Circles This is in it self so easie and natural an Hypothesis that I might very justly take it for granted and make it a Postulatum And in case I could prove every thing to agree to and receive Light from the same and withal account for the present Eccentricity no man could fairly charge it with being a precarious or unreasonable
this Earth or the Change of that Chaos into an habitable World was not a meer result from any necessary Laws of Mechanism independently on the Divine Power but was the proper effect of the Influence and Interposition and all along under the peculiar Care and Providence of God The Testimonies for this are so numerous and so express both in the Mosaick History it self in the other parts of Scripture relating thereto and in all Antiquity that I may refer the Reader to almost every place where this matter is spoken of without quoting here any particulars He who is at all acquainted with the Primitive Histories of this rising World whether Sacred or Prophane can have no reason to make any doubt of it III. The Days of the Creation and that of Rest had their beginning in the Evening The Evening and the Morning were the first Day And so of the rest afterward IV. At the time immediately preceding the six days Creation the face of the Abyss or superior Regions of the Chaos were involv'd in a thick Darkness Darkness was upon the face of the Deep To which Testimony the Prophane Traditions do fully agree as may be seen in the Authors before refer'd to V. The visible part of the first days Work was the Production of Light or its successive appearance to all the Parts of the Earth with the consequent distinction of Darkness and Light Night and Day upon the face of it God said Let there be Light and there was Light And God saw the Light that it was good and God divided the light from the darkness And God called the light Day and the darkness he called Night And the Evening and the Morning was the first day VI. The visible part of the Second Days Work was the elevation of the Air with all it s contained Vapours the spreading it for an Expansum above the Earth and the distinction thence arising of Superior and Inferior Waters The former consisting of those Vapours rais'd and sustain'd by the Air the latter of such as either were enclosed in the Pores Interstices and Bowels of the Earth or lay upon the Surface thereof God said Let there be a firmament or Expansum in the midst of the waters and let it divide the waters from the waters And God made the firmament and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament And it was so and God called the firmament Heaven And the Evening and the Morning were the second day VII The visible parts of the Third Day 's Works were two the former the Collection of the inferior Waters or such as were now under the Heaven into the Seas with the consequent appearance of the dry Land the latter the production of Vegetables out of that Ground so lately become dry God said Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together unto one place and let the dry land appear and it was so And God called the dry land Earth and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas And God saw that it was good And God said Let the Earth bring forth grass the herb yielding seed and the fruit-tree yielding fruit after his kind whose seed is in it self upon the earth and it was so And the earth brought forth grass and herb yielding seed after his kind and the tree yielding fruit whose seed was in it self after his kind and God saw that it was good And the Evening and the Morning were the third day VIII The Fourth Day 's Work was the Placing the Heavenly Bodies Sun Moon and Stars in the Expansum or Firmament i. e. The rendring them Visible and Conspicuous on the Face of the Earth Together with their several Assignations to their respective Offices there God said Let there be lights in the Expansum or firmament of heaven to divide the day from the night and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years and let them be for lights in the firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth and it was so And God made two great lights the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night he made the stars also And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth and to rule over the day and over the night and to divide the light from the darkness and God saw that it was good And the Evening and the Morning were the fourth day IX The Fifth Day 's Work was the Production of the Fish and Fowl out of the Waters with the Benediction bestow'd on them in order to their Propagation God said Let the Waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven And God created great Whales and every living creature that moveth which the waters brought forth abundantly after their kind and every winged fowl after his kind and God saw that it was good And God blessed them saying Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the Seas and let fowl multiply in the earth And the Evening and the Morning were the fifth day X. The Sixth Day 's Work was the Production of all the Terrestrial or Dry-land Animals and that in a different manner For the Bruit Beasts were produc'd out of the Earth as the Fish and Fowl had been before out of the Waters But after that the Body of Adam was form'd of the Dust of the Ground who by the Breath of Life breath'd into him in a peculiar manner became a Living Soul Some time after which on the same day he was cast into a deep Sleep and Eve was form'd of a Rib taken from his side Together with several other things of which a more particular account has been already given on another occasion God said Let the Earth bring forth the living creature after his kind cattel and creeping thing and beast of the Earth after his kind and it was so And God made the beast of the earth after his kind and cattel after their kind and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind and God saw that it was good And God said Let us make man in Our Image after Our likeness and let them have dominion over the Fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over the cattel and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth So God created Man in his own image in the image of God created he him Male and Female created he them c. Vid. ver 28 29 30 31. and Cap. 2. 7 15 c. XI God having thus finish'd the Works of Creation Rested on the Seventh day from the same and Sanctified or set that day apart for a Sabbath or day of Rest to be then and afterward observ'd as a Memorial of his Creation of the World in
the six foregoing and his Resting or keeping a Sabbath on this seventh day Which Sabbath was reviv'd or at least its Observation anew enforc'd on the Jews by the Fourth Commandment Thus the Heavens and the Earth were finished and all the host of them and on the seventh day God had ended his work which he had made and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made And God blessed the seventh day and sanctifyed it because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day Six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God in it thou shalt do no manner of work thou nor thy son nor thy daughter nor thy man-servant nor thy maid-servant nor thy cattel nor the stranger which is within thy gates For in six days the Lord made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that in them is and rested the seventh day wherefore the Lord blessed the seventh day and hallowed it XII There is a constant and vigorous heat diffused from the Central towards the Superficiary parts of our Earth Tho' I might bring several Arguments from Ancient Tradition the Opinion of great Philosophers and the present Observations of Nature for this Assertion yet I shall chuse here for brevities sake to depend wholly on the last evidence and refer the inquisitive Reader to what the Learned Dr. Woodward says in the present case which I take to be very satisfactory XIII The Habitable Earth is founded or situate on the Surface of the Waters or of a deep and vast Subterraneous fluid This Constitution of the Earth is a natural result from such a Chaos as we have already assign'd affords foundation for an easie account of the Origin of Mountains renders the Histories of the several states of the Earth and of the Universal Deluge very intelligible is as Philosophical and as agreeable to the common Phaenomena of Nature as any other without this supposition 't will be I believe impossible to explain what Antiquity Sacred and Prophane assures us of relating to the Earth and its great Catastrophes but this being allow'd 't will not be difficult to account for the same to the greatest degree of satisfaction as will appear in the progress of the present Theory And Lastly The same assertion is most exactly consonant to and confirm'd by the Holy Scriptures as the following Texts will fairly evince When the Lord prepared the heavens I was there When he set a compass Circle or Orb on the face of the deep When he established the clouds above when he strengthened the fountains of the deep When he gave to the sea his decree that the waters should not pass his commandment when be appointed the foundations of the earth He hath founded the earth upon the seas and establish'd it upon the floods To him that stretched out the earth above the waters for his mercy endureth for ever This they willingly are ignorant of that by the word of God the heavens were of old and the Earth standing out of the water and in the water whereby the world that then was being overflowed with waters perished The fountains of the great deep were broken up The fountains of the deep were stopped XIV The interior or intire Constitution of the Earth is correspondent to that of an Egg. 'T is very well known that an Egg was the solemn and remarkable Symbol or Representation of the World among the most venerable Antiquity and that nothing was more celebrated than the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the most early Anthors which if extended beyond the Earth to the System of the Heavens is groundless and idle if referr'd to the Figure of the Earth is directly false and so is most reasonably to be understood of the intire and internal Constitution thereof XV. The Primi ive Earth had Seas and Dry-land distinguish'd from each other in great measure as the present and those situate in the same places generally as they still are This is put past doubt by part of the third the intire fifth and part of the sixth Day 's Works One half of the third being spent in distinguishing the Seas from the Dry-land the intire fifth in the Production of Fish and Fowl out of the Waters and in the assigning the Air to the latter sort and the Seas to the former for their respective Elements and on the sixth God bestows on Mankind the Dominion of the Inhabitants as well of the Seas as of the Dry-land All which can leave no doubt of the truth of the former part of this Assertion And that their Disposition was originally much what as it is at present appears both by the Rivers Tigris and Euphrates running then into the same Persian Sea that now they do And by the Observations of Dr. Woodward fully confirming the same XVI The Primitive Earth had Springs Fountains Streams and Rivers in the same manner as the present and usually in or near the same places also This is but a proper consequence of the Distinction of the Earth into Seas and Dry-land the latter being uninhabitable without them and such Vapours as are any way condensed into Water on the higher parts of the Dry-land naturally descending and hollowing themselves Channels till they fall into the Seas However the other direct proofs for both parts of the Assertion are sufficiently evident I was set up from everlasting from the beginning or ever the earth was When there were no depths I was brought forth when there were no fountains abounding with water A river went out of Eden to water the garden and from thence it was parted and became into four heads Pison Gihon Tigris and Euphrates The two latter of which are well-known Rivers to this very day And the same thing is confirm'd by Dr. Woodward's Observations XVII The Primitive Earth was distinguish'd into Mountains Plains and Vallies in the same manner generally speaking and in the same places as the present This is a natural consequent of the two former The Caverns of the Seas with the extant Parts of the Dry-land being in effect great Vallies and Mountains and the Origin and Course of Rivers necessarily supposing the same For tho' the Earth in the Theorist's way were Oval which it is not 't is demonstrable there could be no such descent as the course of Rivers requires However the direct proofs are evident The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way before his works of old I was set up from everlasting from the beginning or ever the Earth was Before the mountains were setled before the Hills was I brought forth While as yet he had not made the earth nor the fields nor the highest part of the dust of the world Art thou the first man that was born or
no Winds to collect them where the Climates preserv'd their own proper temperature no Storms must have hurried the Air from colder to hotter or from hotter to colder Regions where was no Rainbow there must have been no driving together the separate Vapours into larger Globules or round drops of Rain the immediate requisite thereto This is also highly probable by reason of the perpetual tranquility of the Air for the first five intire Months of the Deluge as will be prov'd anon which is scarce supposable if Storms and Tempests were usual before XL. The Antediluvian Air had no Rainbow as the present so frequently has God said after the Deluge This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you for perpetual generations I do set my bow in the cloud and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth And it shall come to pass when I bring a cloud over the earth that the bow shall be seen in the cloud And I will remember my covenant which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh And the bow shall be in the cloud and I will look upon it that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth And God said unto Noah this is the token of the covenant which I have establish'd between me and all flesh that is upon the earth XLI The Antediluvians might only Eat Vegetables but the Use of Flesh after the Flood was freely allow'd also God said to our first Parents in Paradise Behold I have given you every herb bearing seed which is upon the face of all the earth and every tree in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed to you it shall be for meat and to every beast of the earth and to every fowl of the air and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth wherein there is life I have given every green herb for meat And it was so God blessed Noah and his sons after the flood and said unto them Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every fowl of the air upon all that moveth upon the earth and upon all the fishes of the sea into your hand are they delivered Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you even as the green herb have I given you all things To which when the Prince of Latin Poets so exactly agrees let us for once hear him in the present case Ante etiam sceptrum Dictaei Regis antè Impia quà m caesis gens est epulata juvencis Aureus in terris hanc vitam Saturnus agebat XLII The Lives of the Antediluvians were more universally equal and vastly longer than ours now are Men before the Flood frequently approaching near to a thousand which almost none now do to a hundred years of Age. This is both fully attested by the most ancient Remainders of prophane Antiquity and will be put past doubt hereafter by a Table of the Ages of the Antediluvians out of the fifth Chapter of Genesis Semotique priùs tarda necessitas Leti corripuit gradum XLIII Tho' the Antediluvian Earth was not destitute of lesser Seas and Lakes every where disper'd on the Surface thereof yet had it no Ocean or large receptacle of Waters separating one Continent from another and covering so large a portion of it as the present Earth has This is evident Because 1. the number of the Antediluvians before assign'd must have been too numerous for the Continents alone to maintain 2. The Ark appears to have been the first Pattern and Instance for Navigation which had there been an Ocean must have been very perfect long before and this seems probable from the constant silence concerning Navigation in the Golden Age from the common Opinion of all Authors and from the necessity of the most minute and particular Directions from God himself to the Fabrick of it in the Mosaick History 3. That famous Tradition among the Ancients of the drowning a certain vast Continent call'd Atlantis bigger than Africa and Asia seems to be a plain Relique of the Generation of the Ocean at the Deluge and consequently of that Antediluvian State where the greatest part of what the Ocean now possesses was Dry-land and inhabited as well as the rest of the Globe 4. The Generation of the Ocean with the Situation of the present great Continents of the Earth will be so naturally and exactly accounted for at the Deluge that when that is understood there will remain to those who are satissied with the other Conclusions small reason to doubt of the truth of this before us 5. The Testimony of Josephus if the Theorist hit upon his true Sense is agreeable who says At the Deluge God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 chang'd the Continent into Sea CHAP. IV. Phaenomena relating to the Universal Deluge and its Effects upon the Earth XLIV IN the Seventeenth Century from the Creation there happen'd a most extraordinary and prodigious Deluge of Waters upon the Earth This general Assertion is not only attested by a large and special Account of it in the Sacred Writings but by the universal Consent of the most ancient Records of all Nations besides as may be seen in the Authors quoted in the Margin and is put moreover past doubt by Dr. Woodward's Natural Observations XLV This prodigious Deluge of Waters was mainly occasion'd by a most extraordinary and violent Rain for the space of forty Days and as many Nights without intermission Yet seven days and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights The windows of heaven were opened and the rain was upon the Earth forty days and forty nights And the flood was forty days upon the earth XLVI This vast quantity of Waters was not deriv'd from the Earth or Seas as Rains constantly now are but from some other Superior and Coelestial Original This is evident Because 1. the Antediluvian Air as was before prov'd never retain'd great quantities of Vapours or sustained any Clouds capable of producing such considerable and so lasting Rains as this most certainly was 2. The quantity of Waters on the Antediluvian Earth where there was no Ocean as we saw just now was very small in comparison of that at present and so could contribute very little towards the Deluge 3. If the quantity of Waters on the Face of the Earth had then been as great as now and had all been elevated into Vapours and descended on the Dry-land alone it were much too small to cause such a Deluge as this was 4. But because if the
Waters were all rais'd into Vapours and descended in Rain they must either fall upon or run down into the Ocean the Seas and those Declivities they were in before they could only take up and possess their old places and so could not contribute a jot to that standing and permanent Mass of Waters which cover'd the Earth at the Deluge 5. The Expression us'd by the Sacred Historian that the Windows Flood-gates or Cataracts of Heaven were open'd at the fall and shut at the ceasing of these Waters very naturally agrees to this Superior and Coelestial Original XLVII This vast fall of Waters or forty Days rain began on the fifth day of the Week or Thursday the twenty seventh day of November being the seventeenth day of the second Month from the Autumnal Equinox corresponding this Year 1696. to the twenty eighth day of October In the six hundredth year of Noah's life in the second month the seventeenth day of the month the windows of heaven were opened and the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights Thus Abydenus and Berosus say it began on the fifteenth day of Daesius the second Month from the Vernal Equinox which if the mistake arising 't is probable from the ignorance of the change in the beginning of the Year at the Exodus out of Egypt be but corrected is within a day or two agreeable to the Narration of Moses and so exceedingly confirms the same XLVIII The other main cause of the Deluge was the breaking up the Fountains of the great Abyss or the causing such Chaps and Fissures in the upper Earth as might permit the Waters contain'd in the Bowels of it when violently press'd and squeez'd upwards to ascend and so add to the quantity of those which the Rains produced All the fountains of the great deep were broken up The sea brake forth as if it had issued out of the womb XLIX All these Fountains of the great Deep were broken up on the very first day of the Deluge or the very first day when the Rains began In the six hundredth year of Noah's life in the second month the seventeenth day of the month the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up and the windows of heaven were opened L. Yet the very same day Noah his Family and all the Animals entred into the Ark. In the self-same day last mention'd entred Noah and Shem and Ham and Japheth the sons of Noah and Noah's wife and the three wives of his sons with them into the ark They and every beast after his kind and all the cattel after their kind and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind and every fowl after his kind every bird of every sort LI. Tho' the first and most violent Rains continued without intermission but forty days yet after some time the Rains began again and ceased not till the seventeenth day of the seventh Month or a hundred and fifty days after the Deluge began This is very probably gather'd from the mighty increase of the Waters even after the first forty days Rain were over and from the express fixing of the stoppage of the Rains to the last day here assigned The Waters prevailed and were increased greatly And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the Earth The waters prevailed or were increased upon the Earth an hundred and fifty days And God remembred Noah and every living thing and all the Cattel that was him in the Ark And God made a wind to pass over the Earth and the waters asswaged The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped and the rain from heaven was restrained LII This second and less remarkable Rain was deriv'd from such a cause as the former was This Proposition is 1. Very fair and probable in it self 2. Gives an account of the augmentation of the Waters by their fall when had they been only exhaled and let fall again as our Rains now are they would have added nothing thereto 3. Is exactly agreeable to the expressions in Moses who says the Windows of Heaven which were open'd at the beginning of the first were not shut or stopped till the end of this second Rain thereby plainly deriving this latter as well as the former from a Superiour and Celestial original The fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped and the rain from heaven was restrained LIII Tho' the fountains of the great deep were broken up and the forty days Rain began at the same time yet is there a very observable mention of a threefold growth or distinct augmentation of the Waters as if it were on three several accounts and at three several times The flood was forty days upon the earth and the waters increased and bare up the ark and it was lift up above the earth And the waters prevailed and were increased greatly and the ark went upon the face of the waters And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth and all the high hills that were under the whole heaven were cover'd LIV. The Waters of the Deluge increas'd by degrees till their utmost height and then decreas'd by degrees till they were clearly gone off the face of the earth This is evident from the intire series and course of the Mosaick History in the seventh and eighth chapters of Genesis LV. The Waters of the Deluge were Still Calm free from Commotions Storms Winds and Tempests of all sorts during the whole time in which the Ark was afloat upon them This is evident from the impossibility of the Ark's abiding a Stormy Sea considering the vast bulk and particular figure of it For since it was three hundred Cubits long fifty Cubits broad and thirty Cubits high Which is according to the most accurate determination of the Cubits length by the Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of Peterborough above five hundred and forty seven English feet long above ninety one feet broad and near fifty five feet high And since withal it appears to have been of the figure of a Chest without such a peculiar bottom and proportion of parts as our great Ships are contrived with 't is evident and will be allow'd by Persons skill'd in Navigation that 't was not capable of enduring a Stormy Sea It must whenever either the Ridges or Hollows of vast Waves were so situate that it lay over-cross the one or the other have had its back broken and it self must have been shatter'd to pieces which having not happen'd 't is a certain evidence of a calm Sea during the whole time it was afloat LVI Yet during the Deluge there were both Winds and Storms of all sorts in a very violent manner God made a wind to pass over the earth and the waters asswaged Thou coveredst the earth with the deep as with a garment the waters stood above the mountains At thy rebuke they fled
at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away They go up by the mountains they go down by the vallies unto the place which thou hast appointed for them LVII This Deluge of Waters was universal in its extent and effect reaching to all the parts of the Earth and destroying all the Land-animals on the intire Surface thereof those only excepted which were with Noah in the Ark. The following Texts especially if compar'd with the thirty third foregoing Phaenomenon and added to Dr. Woodward's Observations attesting the same thing will put this Assertion beyond rational Exception God looked upon the earth and behold it was corrupt for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth And God said unto Noah The end of all flesh is come before me Behold I even I do bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destory all flesh wherein is the breath of life from under heaven and every thing that is in the earth shall dye Every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth All the high hills that were under the whole heaven were covered And all flesh died that moved upon the earth both of fowl and of cattel and of beast and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth and every man All in whose nostrils was the breath of life all that was in the dry land died And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground both man and cattel and the creeping thing and the fowl of the heaven and they were destroyed from the earth and Noah only remain'd alive and they that were with him in the Ark. LVIII The Waters at their utmost height were fifteen Cubits above the highest Mountains or three Miles at the least perpendicular above the common Surface of the Plains and Seas All the high hills under the whole heaven were cover'd Fifteen cubits upwards did the waters prevail and the mountains were cover'd LIX Whatever be the height of the Mountain Caucasus whereon the Ark rested Now it was at that time the highest in the whole World This is evident from what has been already observ'd That tho' the utmost height of the Waters were fifteen Cubits above the highest Mountains and so many hundreds nay thousands above the most of them yet did the Ark rest on the very first day on which the Waters began to diminish more than two Months before the emerging of the tops of the other Mountains As is evident from the Texts following The waters prevailed upon the earth from the seventeenth day of the second to the seventeenth day of the seventh month an hundred and fifty days And God remembred Noah and all the cattel that was with him in the Ark and God made a wind to pass over the earth and the waters asswaged The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped and the rain from heaven was restrained And the waters returned from off the earth continually and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated And the Ark rested in the seventh month on the seventeenth day of the month upon the mountains of Ararat And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month in the tenth month on the first day of the month were the tops of the mountains seen LX. As the Fountains of the great Deep were broken up at the very same time that the first Rains began so were they stopp'd the very same time that the last Rains ended on the seventeenth day of the seventh Month. The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped and the rain from heaven was restrained LXI The abatement and decrease of the Waters of the Deluge was first by a Wind which dried up some And secondly by their descent through those Fissures Chaps and Breaches at which part of them had before ascended into the Bowels of the Earth which received the rest To which latter also the Wind by hurrying the Waters up and down and so promoting their lighting into the beforemention'd Fissures was very much subservient God made a wind to pass over the earth and the waters asswaged The waters returned from off the earth continually or going and returning Who shut up the sea with doors when it brake forth as if it had issued out of the womb When I brake up for it my decreed place and set bars and doors and said Hitherto shalt thou come but no further and here shall thy proud waves be stayed Thou coveredst the earth with the deep as with a garment the waters stood above the mountains At thy rebuke they fled at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away They went up by the mountains they went down by the vallies unto the place which thow hadst appointed for them Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass that they turn not again to cover the earth LXII The dry Land or habitable Part of the Globe is since the Deluge divided into two vast Continents almost opposite to one another and separated by a great Ocean interpos'd between them This every Map of the Earth is a sufficient proof of LXIII One of these Continents is considerably larger than the other This is evident the same way with the former LXIV The larger Continent lies most part on the North-side of the Equator and the smaller most part on the South This if we take South-America the most considerable and intire Branch of the whole for the Continent here referr'd to as 't is reasonable to do is also evident the same way with the former LXV The Middle or Center of the North-Continent is about sixteen or eighteen degrees of Northern Latitude and that of the South about sixteen or eighteen degrees of Southern Latitude This may soon be found by measuring the Boundaries of the several Continents on a Globe or Map and observing the Position of their Centers LXVI The distance between the Continents measuring from the larger or Northern South-Eastward is greater than that the contrary way or South-Westward This is evident by the like means with the former It being farther from China or the East-Indies to America going forward South-East than from Europe or Africa going thither South-West LXVII Neither of the Continents is terminated by a round or even circular Circumference but mighty Creeks Bays and Seas running into them and as mighty Peninsula's Promontories and Rocks jetting out from them render the whole very unequal and irregular This none who ever saw a Globe or Map of the World can be ignorant of LXVIII The depth of that Ocean which separates these two Continents is usually greatest farthest from and least nearest to either of the same Continents there being a gradual descent from the Continents to the middle of the Ocean which is the deepest of all This is a Proposition very well-known in Navigation and in
of Stone of Chalk of Cole of Earth or whatever matter they consisted of lying thus each upon other appear now as if they had at first been parallel continued and not interrupted But as if after some time they had been dislocated and broken on all sides of the Globe had been elevated in some and depress'd in other places from whence the fissures and breaches the Caverns and Grotto's with many other irregularities within and upon our present Earth seem to be deriv'd This is prov'd by the same Observations LXXIX Great numbers of Trees and of other Vegetables were also at this subsidence of the Mass aforesaid buried in the Bowels of the Earth And such very often as will not grow in the places where they are lodg'd Many of which are pretty intire and perfect and to be distinctly seen and consider'd to this very day This is prov'd by the same Observations LXXX It appears from all the tokens and circumstances which are still observable about them That all these Vegetables were torn away from their ancient Seats in the Spring time in or about the Month of May. This is prov'd by the same Observations LXXXI All the Metals and Minerals among the Strata of our upper Earth owe their present frame and order to the Deluge being reposed therein during the time of the Waters covering the Earth or during the subsidence of the before-mention'd Mass. This is prov'd by the same Observations LXXXII These Metals and Minerals appear differently in the Earth according to the different manner of their first lodgment For sometimes they are in loose and small Particles uncertainly inclos'd among such Masses as they chanc'd to fall down withal At other times some of their Corpuscles happening to occur and meet together affix'd to each other and several convening uniting and combining into one Mass form'd those Metallick and Mineral Balls or Nodules which are now found in the Earth And according as the Corpuscles chanc'd to be all of a kind or otherwise so the Masses were more or less simple pure and homogeneous And according as other Bodies Bones Teeth Shells of Fish or the like happen'd to come in their way these Metallick and Mineral Corpuscles affix'd to and became conjoin'd with them either within where it was possible in their hollows and interstices or without on their surface and outsides filling the one or covering the other And all this in different degrees and proportions according to the different circumstances of each individual case All this is prov'd by the same Observations LXXXIII The inward parts of the present Earth are very irregular and confused One Region is chiefly Stony another Sandy a third Gravelly One Country contains some certain kinds of Metals or Minerals another quite different ones Nay the same lump or mass of Earth not seldom contains the Corpuscles of several Metals or Minerals confusedly intermix'd with one another and with its own Earthy parts All which irregularities with several others that might be observ'd even contrary to the Law of Specifick Gravity in the placing of the different Strata of the Earth demonstrate the Original Fund or Promptuary of all this upper Factitious Earth to have been in a very Wild Confus'd and Chaotick condition All this the fore-mention'd and all other Observations of the like nature fully prove LXXXIV The Uppermost and Lightest Stratum of Soil or Garden Mold as 't is call'd which is the proper Seminary of the Vegetable Kingdom is since the Deluge very thick spread usually in the Valleys and Plains but very thin on the Ridges or Tops of Mountains Which last for want thereof are frequently Stony Rocky Bare and Barren This easie Observations of the surface of the Earth in different places will quickly satisfie us of LXXXV Of the four Ancient Rivers of Paradise two still remain in some measure but the other two do not or at least are so chang'd that the Mosaick Description does not agree to them at present This the multitude of unsatisfactory attempts to discover all these Rivers and their courses with an impartial comparison of the Sacred History with the best Geographical descriptions of the Regions about Babylon will easily convince an unbyass'd Person of LXXXVI Those Metals and Minerals which the Mosaick description of Paradise and its bordering Regions takes such particular notice of and the Prophets so emphatically refer to are not now met with so plentifully therein This must be allow'd on the same grounds with the former LXXXVII This Deluge of Waters was a signal Instance of the Divine Vengeance on a Wicked World and was the effect of the Peculiar and Extraordinary Providence of God God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the Earth and it grieved him at his heart And the Lord said I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth both man and beast and the creeping thing and the fowls of the air for it repenteth me that I have made them The earth was corrupt before God and the earth was filled with violence and God looked upon the earth and behold it was corrupt for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the Earth And God said unto Noah the end of all flesh is come before me for the earth is filled with violence through them and behold I will destroy them with the earth Behold I even I do bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh wherein is the breath of life from under heaven and every thing that is in the earth shall dye God spared not the old world but saved Noah the eighth person a preacher of righteousness bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly LXXXVIII Tho' the Moon might perhaps undergo some such changes at the Deluge as the Earth did yet that Face or Hemisphere which is towards the Earth and which is alone expos'd to our view has not acquir'd any such gross Atmosphere or Clouds as our Earth has now about it and which are here suppos'd to have been acquir'd at the Deluge This the present figure and large divisions of Sea and Land visible in the Moon with her continued and uninterrupted brightness and the appearance of the same Spots without the interposition of Clouds or Exhalations perpetually do sufficiently evince LXXXIX Since the Deluge there neither has been nor will be any great and general Changes in the state of the World till that time when a Period is to be put to the present Course of Nature The Lord smelled a sweet savour and the Lord said in his heart I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake for or altho' the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth Neither will I again smite any more every thing
thy hand They shall perish but thou shalt endure yea all of them shall wax old like a garment as a vesture shalt thou change them and they shall be changed I saw thrones and they sat upon them and judgment was given unto them And I saw the Souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus and for the word of God and which had not worshipped the beast neither his image neither had received his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished This is the first resurrection Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection on such the second death hath no power But they shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with him a thousand years c. But so much has been said on this head to omit others by the Theorist that I shall refer the Reader thither for the other Testimonies of the Holy Scriptures and the unanimous consent of the most Primitive Fathers Both which he at large and to excellent purpose some particulars excepted has insisted on XCVI The state of Nature during the Millennium will be very different from that at present and more agreeable to the Antediluvian Primitive and Paradisiacal ones Whom the heavens must receive until the time of the restitution of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy Prophets since the world began See more in the Theory Book 4. Chap. 9. and in the proofs of the former Proposition XCVII The Earth in the Millennium will be without a Sea or any large receptacle fill'd with mighty collections and quantities of Waters I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away and there was no more sea XCVIII The Earth in the Millennium will have no succession of Light and Darkness Day and Night but a perpetual Day The gates of the new Jerusalem shall not be shut at all by day for there shall be no night there And there shall be no night there XCIX The state of the Millennium will not stand in need of and so probably will be without the light and presence of the Sun and Moon And the City had no need of the Sun neither of the Moon to shine in it And they need no candle neither light of the sun C. At the conclusion of the Millennium the Final Judgment and Consummation of all things The Earth will desert its present Seat and Station in the World and be no longer found among the Planetary Chrous I saw a great white throne and him that sat on it from whose face the earth and the heavens fled away and there was found no place for them BOOK IV. SOLUTIONS OR An Account of the foregoing Phaenomena from the Principles of Philosophy already laid down CHAP. 1. A Solution of the Phaenomena relating to the Mosaick Creation and the original Constitution of the Earth I. All those particular small Bodies of which our habitable Earth is now compos'd were originally in a mixed confused fluid and uncertain Condition without any order or regularilty It was an Earth without form and void had darkness spread over the face of its Abyss and in reality was what it has been ever stil'd A perfect Chaos I. THIS has been already sufficiently accounted for and need not be here again insisted on II. The Formation of this Earth or the Change of that Chaos into an habitable World was not a meer result from any necessary Laws of Mechanism independently on the Divine Power but was the proper effect of the Influence and Interposition and all along under the peculiar Care and Providence of God II. 'T is not very easy I confess in such mighty Turns and Changes of the World exactly to determine how far and in what particulars a supernatural or miraculous Interposition of the Divine Power is concern'd and how far the Laws of Nature or Mechanical Powers ought to be extended Nay indeed 't is difficult enough in several instances to determine what is the effect of a natural and ordinary and what of a supernatural and extraordinary Providence 'T is now evident That Gravity the most mechanical Affection of Bodies and which seems most natural depends entirely on the constant and efficacious and if you will the supernatural and miraculous Influence of Almighty God And I do not know whether the falling of a Stone to the Earth ought not more truly to be esteem'd a supernatural Effect or a Miracle than what we with the greatest surprize should so stile its remaining pendulous in the open Air since the former requires an active Influence in the first Cause while the latter supposes Non-annihilation only But besides this Tho' we were able exactly to distinguish in general the ordinary Concurrence of God from his extraordinary yet would the task before us be still sufciently difficult For those Events or Actions are in Holy Scripture attributed immediately to the Power and Providence of God which yet were to all outward appearance according to the constant course of things and would abstractedly from such Affirmations of the Holy Books have been esteem'd no more miraculous than the other common Effects of Nature or usual Accidents of Humane Affairs as those who have carefully consider'd these matters especially the Historical and Prophetical Parts of the Old Testament must be oblig'd to confess Neither is it unreasonable that all things should in that manner be ascribed to the Supream Being on several accounts 'T is from him every thing is ultimately deriv'd He conserves the Natures and continues the Powers of every Creature He not only at first produc'd but perpetually disposes and makes use of the whole Creation and every part thereof as the Instruments of his Providence He foresaw and foreadapted the intire Frame He determin'd his Co-operation or Permission to every Action He so order'd and appointed the whole System with every individual Branch of it as to Time Place Proportion and all other Circumstances that nothing should happen unseasonably unfitly disproportionately or otherwise than the Junctures of Affairs the demerits of his reasonable Creatures and the wise Intentions of his Providence did require In fine he so previously adjusted and contemper'd the Moral and Natural World to one another that the Marks and Tokens of his Providence should be in all Ages legible and conspicuous whatsoever the visible secondary Causes or Occasions might be Seeing then this is the true state of the Case and that consequently Almighty God has so constituted the World that no Body can tell wherein it differs from one where all were solely brought to pass by a miraculous Power 't is by no means untrue or improper in the Holy Books to refer all those things which bare Humane Authors would derive from
second Causes the constant Course of Nature and the Circumstances of Humane Affairs to the first Cause the ultimate Spring and Original of all and to call Mens Thoughts which are too apt to terminate there from the apparent occasions to the invisible God the Creator Governor and Disposer of the whole and the sole Object of their Regard and Adoration This is I say a very proper and reasonable procedure this is usually observ'd by the Sacred Penmen who are thereby peculiarly distinguish'd from Prophane Authors and this is of the highest advantage in Morality But then it must be withal acknowledg'd That this creates great difficulties in the present Case and makes it very hard in a Philosophick Attempt of this nature to distinguish between those parts of the Mosaick Creation which are Mechanically to be accounted for and those in which the miraculous Energy of God Almighty interpos'd it self which yet if ever is certainly to be allow'd in this case where a new World was to be form'd and a wild Chaos reduc'd into a regular beautiful and permanent System This being said in general to bespeak the Reader 's Candor in the present Case and to forewarn him not to fear the most Mechanical and Philosophick Account of this Creation as if thereby the Holy Scriptures were superseded or the Divine Power and Providence excluded I come directly to the Point before us and shall endeavour to determine what are the Instances of the extraordinary Power and Interposition of God in this whole Affair That as we shall presently see how Orderly Methodical and Regular this Formation was so we may before-hand be duly sensible how Supernatural Providential and Divine it was also and so as well like Christians contemplate and adore the Omnipotent Creator in his Miraculous as we like Philosophers shall attempt to consider and remark his Vicegerent Nature in her Mechanical Operations therein For notwithstanding what has been above insisted on touching the frequency and propriety of ascribing the Effects of Nature to the Divine Power the former being indeed nothing but the latter acting according to fixt and certain Laws yet because more has been commonly and may justly be suppos'd the importance of the Texts of Scripture hereto relating because the Finger of God or his supernatural Efficiency is if ever to be reasonably expected in the Origin of Things and that in a peculiar and remarkable manner because some things done in this Creation are beyond the power of Philosophy and Mechanism and no otherwise accountable but by the Infinite Power of God himself because the days of Creation are signally distinguish'd from those following in which God is said to have rested when yet his ordinary Concurrence and the Course of Nature was continued without Interruption and must therefore be reckon'd such on which he truly exerted a Power different from the other On all these accounts I freely and in earnest allow and believe That there was a peculiar Power and extraordinary Providence exercis'd by the great Creator of all in this Primitive Origin of the Sublunary World or Formation of the Earth which we are going to account for The particular instances I shall give of the same without presuming to exclude all others are these following 1. The Creation of the matter of the Universe and particularly of that of the Earth out of nothing was without doubt originally the alone and immediate Work of God Almighty Nature let what will be meant by that Name could have no hand in this from whence at the utmost she can but date her own Birth The production of a real Being out of nothing or to speak more properly the primary bringing any real thing into Being is in the Opinion of all Men the Effect of no less than an Infinite and Omnipotent Deity I have already owned this to be the import of the first words of this Creation we are now upon In the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth And I think 't is here no improper place to declare my Opinion That considering the Idea and Nature of God includes Active Power Infinite Perfection with Necessity and so Eternity of Existence when the Idea and Nature of matter supposes intire Inactivity no positive Perfection and a bare Possibility or Capacity of Existence 't is as absurd and unreasonable to attribute Eternity and Necessity of Existence to the latter as 't is rational and natural to ascribe those Perfections with a Power of Creation to the former The very Being and Nature as well as the Properties and Powers of Matter being most justly and most philosophically to be referr'd to the Author of all the Almighty Creator And altho' our imagination a poor finite limited and imperfect Faculty be unable to have a positive Idea of the manner of the Production of a real Being at first as indeed 't were sufficiently strange if so confin'd a Power of so imperfect a Creature should adequately reach the highest point of Omnipotence it self yet seeing the Absurdities following the Eternity and Self-subsistence of Matter on the other side are so enormous and the certainty of the proper Creation of Spiritual Beings nobler than Matter such as the Souls of Men are as great as 't is utterly incredible they should have been ab aeterno too for I take it to be demonstrable that Souls are immaterial I think 't is far more reasonable to rest satisfied with our former Assertion That God did truly bring Matter into being at first than its Eternity suppos'd to make only the Modification and Management thereof the Province of the Almighty And consequently the first instance of a Divine Efficiency with relation to the Subject we are now upon and the highest of all other was the original Production of the Matter of which the Earth was to consist or the proper Creation of those inferior Heavens and of that Earth which were to be the sole Object of the Divine Operations in the six days Work This particular I confess does not so properly belong to our present business the Formation of the Chaos into a habitable World but could not well be omitted either consider'd in it self as it bears so peculiar a Relation to our present purpose or with respect to that misconstruction I might with some Readers have otherwise been liable to But I proceed 2. The changing of the Course and Orbit of the Chaos into that of a Planet to omit the former Annual and subsequent Diurnal Revolutions which tho' equally from God yet do not so fully belong to this place or the placing of the Earth in its primitive Circular Orbit at its proper distance therein to revolve about the Sun was either an instance of the immediate Power or at least of the peculiar Providence of God For if we should suppose as 't is possible to do that God did not by a miraculous Operation remove the Chaos or Comet from its very Eccentrick Ellipsis to that Circle in which it now
outward Surface too small to be therein consider'd and suppose the Atmosphere somewhat clearer than before the former figure will still serve well enough and represent the progress and state of the Earth at the conclusion of this Third Day Corollary 1. When according to our present accounts of these matters this is the only day of the Creation to which a double work and that the one quite different from the other ought to be ascrib'd and is ascrib'd by Moses The Night being peculiarly fit for the former and the Day for the latter operation which could happen on none of the other Periods This exactness of correspondence ought to be esteem'd an Evidence of the literal sense of the Writer and of his accommodation to the nature of things and a very considerable confirmation of those Hypotheses on which it so naturally depends Coroll 2. Hence arises a Confirmation of what was before asserted that the Antediluvian Earth had only lesser Lakes and Seas not a vast Ocean For when the quantity of Waters belonging to the Earth and Air at first was no more than was elevated in one half year and at once sust ain'd by the Air no one will imagine it sufficient to fill the intire Ocean alone if there had been neither lesser Seas nor Rivers to be supply'd therewith And so vice versa It having been prov'd by other Arguments that there was no Ocean but only lesser Seas before the Flood This Account which affords sufficient quantity of Water for the latter but not for the former is thereby not a little confirm'd Coroll 3. Tho' the Heat and Influence of the Sun was on this Third Day very great yet was his Body not yet Visible For since at his Rising the Earth and lowest Regions of the Air were very full of moisture while the higher Regions were very clear and bright the force of his heat would be so great as to elevate considerable quantities of Vapours on a sudden and thereby e're the lowest Air had deposited its Vapours and rendred it self transparent the Sun would anew hide himself in a thick Mist and so prevent his own becoming conspicuous which otherwise 't is not improbable he might this Day have been VIII The Fourth Day 's Work was the Placing the Heavenly Bodies Sun Moon and Stars in the Expansam or Firmament i. e. The rendring them Visible and Conspicuous on the Face of the Earth Together with their several Assignations to their respective Offices there VIII Altho' the Light of the Sun penetrated the Atmosphere in some sort the first Day and in the succeeding ones had very considerable influence upon it yet is it by no means to be suppos'd that his Body was Visible all that while Tho' we every day enjoy much more Light and Heat from the Sun than the Primitive Earth could for a considerable space be suppos'd to have done yet 't is but sometimes that the Air is so clear as to render his Body discernible by us A very few Clouds or Vapours gather'd together in our Air are able we see to hinder such a prospect for Weeks if not Months together while yet at the same time we are sufficiently sensible of his Force and Influence in the constant productions of Nature Which things being duly consider'd and the vastness and density of the Upper Chaos allow'd for 't will be but reasonable to afford a great space even after the first penetration of Light for the intire clearing of the Atmosphere and the distinct view of the Sun's Body by a Spectator on the Surface of the Earth I suppose no one will think the two first Days or Years of the' Creation too long for such a work or if any one does the particular work and state of the Atmosphere on the second Day will prevent the most probable part of such a surmise and shew the impossibility of the Sun's Appearance at that time And the same reason will in a sufficient tho a less degree prevent any just Expectations on the third Day as was observ'd in the last Corollary But now upon the coming on of this fourth Day and the Sun's descent and abode below the Horizon for an intire half year those Vapours which were rais'd the day before must fall downwards and so before the approach of the Morning leave the Air in the greatest clearness and purity imaginable and permit the Moon first then the Stars and afterward upon the coming on of the Day the Sun himself most plainly to appear and be conspicuous on the Face of the Earth This fourth Day is therefore the very time when acording to this Account and the Sacred History both these Heavenly Bodies which were in being before but so as to be wholly Strangers to a Spectator on Earth were rendred visible and expos'd to the view of all who should be suppos'd to be there at the same time They now were in the Sacred Stile placed in the Firmament of Heaven gave Light upon the Earth began to rule plainly and visibly over the Day and over the Night and to divide the Light from the Darkness as ever since they have continued to do And now the inanimate World or the Earth Air Seas and all their Vegetable Productions are compleat and the Tradition of those Chineses who inhabit Formosa and other Islands appears well-grounded and exactly true who hold That the World when first created was without Form or Shape but by one of their Deities was brought to its full Perfection in four Years Which Progress of the Creation and State of Nature is exactly represented by the Theorist's fifth and last Figure which therefore here follows IX The fifth Day 's Work was the Production of the Fish and Fowl out of the Waters with the Benediction bestow'd on them in order to their Propagation IX The Terraqueous Globe being now become habitable both to the swimming and volatil Animals and the Air clear and so penetrable by that compleat Heat of the Sun which was requisite to the Generation of such Creatures 't is a very proper time for their Introduction Which was accordingly done upon this fifth Day or Year of the Creation Those Seeds or little Bodies of Fish and Fowl which were contain'd in the Water or moist fruitful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of kin to it were now expos'd to the kindly warmth of the Sun and the constant supply of a most gentle and equal Heat from beneath they were neither disturbed by the sudden alteration of the Temperature of the Air from the violence of Winds or by the Agitations of the Tide which was both very small in these small Seas and by reason of the absence of the Diurnal Rotation imperceptibly easy gentle and gradual these Seeds I say when invigorated with the Divine Benediction became now prolifick and in this fifth Day 's time a numerous Off-spring of the swimming and volatil Kinds arose whereby the two fluid Elements Water and Air became
replenish'd with those first Pairs which by the Benediction they straightway receiv'd were enabled to become the original of all of the same Kinds which ever were to be the Inhabitants of those Regions afterwards Which time and procedure is no less agreeable to the State of the World in our Hypothesis than 't is to the express Affirmations of Moses who makes Fish and Fowl the sole Product of the fifth Day or Year of the Creation X. The Sixth Day 's Work was the Production of all the Terrestrial or Dry-land Animals and that in a different manner For the Brute Beasts were produc'd out of the Earth as the Fish and Fowl had been before out of the Waters but after that the Body of Adam was form'd of the Dust of the Ground who by the Breath of Life breath'd into him in a peculiar manner became a Living Soul Some time after which on the same day he was cast into a deep Sleep and Eve was form'd out of a Rib taken from his side Together with several other things of which a more particular account has been already given on another occasion X. The Earth being now grown more Solid Compact and Dry its Surface distinguish'd into Sea and Dry-land each of which were stor'd in some sort with Inhabitants and Vegetables the Air being fully clear and fit for Respiration and the other Dispositions of External Nature being equally subservient to this as well as it had been before to the last day's Productions 't was a proper Season for the Generation of the Dry-land Animals and the Introduction of the noblest of them Man which accordingly were the first Works on this sixth Day or Year of the Creation Any more particular account of which or of the following Works is not so directly the design of this Theory and so shall not be here farther insisted on We may only take notice of two things the one is the peculiar Manner the other the peculiar Time for the Creation of Man As to the former Tho' 't is granted that all the other Day 's Works mention'd by Moses were brought to pass in a natural way by proper and suitable Instruments and a mechanical Process as we have seen through the whole Series of the foregoing Creation yet 't is evident as has been already observ'd That an immediate and miraculous Power was exercis'd in the formation of the Body and Infusion of the Soul of Man as well as in some other particular Cases belonging to this Origin of Things In plain terms I take it to be evident That that same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our Blessed Mediator who was afterward very frequently conversant on Earth appear'd in a humane Form to the Patriarchs gave the Law in a visible Glory and with an audible Voice on Mount Sinai guided the Israelites personally in a Pillar of Fire and of a Cloud through the Wilderness inhabited between the Cherubins in the Holy of Holies and took the peculiar Stile Titles Attributes Adoration and incommunicable Name of the God of Israel and at last was Incarnate liv'd a true Man amongst us died for us and ascended into Heaven makes still Intercession for us with the Father and will come to Judge the World in Righteousness at the last Day That this very same Divine Person was actually and visibly in a humane Shape conversant on Earth and was truly and really employ'd in this Creation of the World and particularly in this peculiar Formation of Man so frequently ascribed to him in the Holy Scriptures It being both unfit and impossible for the Divine Nature it self or at least that of the Father to be so much and in such a manner concern'd with the Corporeal World and the sinful Race of Mankind as we find here and every where this Divine Person our Blessed Mediator to have been as the Texts quoted a little above compar'd together do I think fully prove Seeing therefore our Saviour Christ God-man was personally present and actually employ'd in this Primitive Creation of the World Seeing Man was to be a Creature intirely different from all the rest a Being compounded of a Spiritual and Immortal Soul and of a Material and Corruptible Body Seeing in both these he was to be made in the likeness of that Divine Person who created him and be constituted his Deputy and Vicegerent among the Creatures here below 't was but reasonable there should be as great a distinction in his Original as was to be in his Nature and Faculties his Office and Dignity his Capacities and Happiness from the other parts of the visible Creation and by consequence that peculiar Interposition of God himself in the Formation of the Body and Infusion of the Soul of our first Parents so particularly observable in the Mosaick History is both very agreeable to the Nature of things very suitable to the Wisdom of God and very reconcilable to the most Philosophick Accounts of this Origin of the World and withal a remarkable token of the Dignity of Human Nature of the distinction between his Soul and Body and of the great Condescension and Love of God towards us and so the most highly worthy of our consideration Neither is the other circumstance the peculiar Time of the Creation of Man to be pass'd over without a proper Reflection on it 'T were easy to shew That none of the preceding Days were in any degree so fit for nay most of them not capable of this Creation and Introduction of Man But upon this sixth Period when every thing which could be subservient to him and advance his felicity was compleated he who was to be the Lord of All and for whose sake the whole was fram'd was brought into the World When the Light had been penetrating into and clarifying this dark and thick Atmosphere for more than five compleat Years together when the Air was freed from its numberless Vapours and become pure clear and fit for his Respiration when the Waters as well superior as interior were so dispos'd as to minister to his necessities by Mists and Dews from the Heavens and by Springs and Rivers from the Earth when the Surface of the Earth was become dry and solid for his support and was cover'd over with Trees Shrubs Plants Herbs Grass and Flowers for his Sustenance and Delight when the glorious Firmament of Heaven and the beautiful System of the Sun Moon and Stars were visible and conspicuous to him the Objects of his Contemplation the Distinguishers of his Seasons by whose powerful Influences the Earth was invigorated and the World rendred a fruitful and useful a lightsome and pleasant Habitation to him when lastly all sorts of Animals in the Seas in the Air or on the Earth were so dispos'd as to attend benefit and please him one way or other when I say all these things were by the Care Beneficence and Providence of God prepar'd for the entertainment of this principal Guest then
very first ceasing of the Rains from above and of the Waters from the Abyss beneath which permitted the least subsiding and diminution of the Deluge the Ark must immediately rest upon the ground and thereby secure it self from the impending Storms And that accordingly it did so at the time assign'd on the conclusion of the 150 days or the very same individual day when the Wind began is particularly and expresly observ'd and affirm'd by Moses Which being a very remarkable coincidence exactly agreeable to the present Hypothesis as well as to the Sacred History and of very considerable Importance I shall set down the words at large as follows The waters prevailed upon the Earth an hundred and fifty days viz. from the seventeenth of thesecond to the seventeenth of the seventh Month And God remembred Noah and every living thing and all the Cattel that was with him in the Ark And God made a wind to pass over the earth and the waters asswaged The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped and the rain from heaven was restrained And the waters returned from off the earth continually and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated And the ark rested in the seventh month on the seventeenth day of the month upon the mountains of Ararat Corollary Hence 't is obvious to remark the wonderful Providence of God for the Preservation of the Ark and the sole Remains of the old World therein contain'd in ordering all circumstances so that it was afloat just all the calm Season of the Deluge but as soon as ever any tempestuous Weather arose was safe landed on the top of Caucasus LVII This Deluge of Waters was universal in its extent and effect reaching to all the parts of the Earth and destroying all the Land-Animals on the intire Surface thereof those only excepted which were with Noah in the Ark. LVII This might justly have been made a Corollary of the next Proposition for if the Waters in any one Region much more a compleat Hemisphere exceeded the tops of the highest Mountains it would certainly diffuse it self and overflow the other also But being capable in the present Hypothesis of a separate Proof deserves a distinct Consideration Now of the several Causes of the Deluge those Vapours which were deriv'd from the Comet 's Tail both at the first and second passage of the Earth through the entire Column thereof by reason of the Earth's Mora or abiding therein about 12 hours or a semi-revolution and the fall of the Vapours on an entire Hemisphere at the same time would affect the whole Earth and though not exactly equally yet pretty universally make a Deluge in all the Regions of the Globe The subterraneous Waters being the proper effect of the weight of the other would also be as universal as they and that every where generally speaking in the same proportion 'T is true the Waters which were derived from the Atmosphere of the Comet the principal Source of the 40 days Rain were not wholly so universal as the former at first by reason of the shorter Mora or abiding of the Earth therein though even much above half of the Earth's entire surface would hence be immediately affected But if we consider the Velocity of the Earth's Diurnal Rotation and that the Mass of newly acquir'd Vapours was not at first partaker of the same but by degrees to receive the impression thereof we shall with ease apprehend that a few of the first Rotations would wind or wrap these as well as the other Vapours quite round the Earth and thereby cause a very equal distribution of them all in the Atmosphere and at last render the Rains very evenly Universal To which uniform distribution the Nature of the Air it self as at present it I suppose does might contribute Such an Elastical Fluid as the Air scarce suffering a lasting Density or Croud of Vapours in one Region without communicating some part to the others adjoining that so a kind of Equilibrium in the weight crassitude and density of its several Columns may be preserv'd through the whole So that at last the Deluge must have been Universal because every one of the Causes thereof appear to have been truly so LVIII The Waters at their utmost height were fifteen Cubits above the highest Mountains or three Miles at the least perpendicular above the common Surface of the Plains and Seas LVIII In order to make some estimate of the quantity of Water which this Hypothesis affords us let us suppose that the one half came from the Comet or the Rains and the other half from the Subterraneous Water Tho' 't is not impossible that much the greater part might arise from the latter Let us also suppose that the tenth part of the rest arose from the Tail of the Comet at both the times of its enclosing the Earth and the other nine from its Atmosphere tho' 't is possible that a much less proportion ought to be deriv'd from the former 'T is evident from the Velocity of Comets at the distance from the Sun here to be consider'd and the usual Crassitude or Diameter of the Tails thereof that the Earth would be near half a day or 12 hours each time within the limits thereof and by consequence that it would intercept and receive upon it self a Cylindrical Column of Vapour whose Basis were equal to that of a great Circle on the Earth and whose Altitude were about 750000 Miles If we therefore did but know the proper density of the Vapour compesing the Tail of the Comet or what proportion it bears to that of Water 't were easie to reduce this matter to Calculation and very nearly to determine the quantity enquired after That the Tail of a Comet especially at any considerable distance from the Comet it self is exceeding rare is evident by the vastness of its extent and the distinct appearance of the sixt Stars quite through the immense Crassitude of its entire Column Let us for computation's sake suppose that the Density of Water to that of this Expanded Column of Vapour is as 3400000 to one or which is all one since Water is to our Air in Density as 850 to one that the Density of our Air is to the Density of this Coulmn of Vapour as 4000 to one which degree of rareness if it be not enough at a great distance from the Comet as at the second passage yet I suppose may be more than sufficient at the very Region adjoining thereto as at the first passage and so upon the whole no unreasonable Hypothesis So that if we divide the Altitude of this Cylindrical Column of 750000 Miles or 3750000000 Feet by 3400000 37500 by 34 we shall have a Column of Water equal thereto By which Calculation the quantity of Water acquir'd at each time of the passage through the Tail would equal a Cylinder whose Basis were a great Circle on the Earth as above and whose
was involv'd in Darkness or excluded all advantages from him and thereby enduring a continual Night so far as natural Causes are here to be consider'd And that this Retardation of the Earth's Diurnal Rotation even without a recurring to the miraculous Power of its first Author is accountable from that passing by of a Comet which we assign for the occasision of the Conflagration is very easie and obvious For in case its Ascent and Passage by be on the East side or before the Earth and in case it approach so near as to rub against it 't is evident such an Impulse is contrary to the course of the Diurnal Rotation and is therefore capable the Proportions of every thing being adjusted by-Divine Providence of putting such a stop to the same as is necessary to the present Phaenomenon and so may put a Period to that constant Succession of Light and Darkness Day and Night which has obtain'd ever since the Fall of Man and withal distinguish the Surface of the Earth into two quite different and contrary Hemispheres near the Vertex of one of which the Sun it self and near that of the other its opposite Point in the Heavens will be always situate Corollary Seeing such a rub of the Comet wou'd affect the Annual Motion of the Earth as well as the Diurnal 't is possible it might retard the former as well as the latter and reduce the Elliptical Course and Orbit of the Earth to its ancient Circular one again XCIX The State of the Millennium will not stand in need of and so probably will be without the Light and Presence of the Sun and Moon XCIX Seeing the Earth wou'd be on the foregoing Supposition distinguish'd into two quite different Hemispheres the one of which wou'd be wholly destitute of the Light and presence of the Sun and as far as appears by St. John supply'd by a Supernatural Light fixt and permanent above its Horizon 't is clear that the first Branch of this Proposition is accountable thereby as far as this Physical Theory is concern'd therein And as to the Moon seeing 't was only a signal and peculiar Providence that caus'd her equal acceleration and consequent accompanying the Earth at the former passing by of the Comet and that no such Providence is again to be expected 't is evident that that Rub or Stoppage of the Earth's Annual Motion which retards the same and does not retard the Moon 's also will separate these Planets and procure their Orbits Courses and Periods to be quite different from one another's ever after according to the greatest rigour of the present Proposition C. At the Conclusion of the Millennium the Final Judgment and the Consummation of all things the Earth will desert its present Seat and Station in the World and be no longer found among the Planetary Chorus C. If any Comet instead of passing by or gently rubbing the Earth hit directly against it in its Course either towards or from the Sun it must desert its ancient Station and move in a quite different Elliptick Orbit and so of a Planet become again a Comet for the future Ages of the World COROLLARIES FROM THE WHOLE I. SEing the new and solid Improvements of Philosophy do all along give so rational Accounts of those Ancient Theorems which have been propagated down from the eldest Ages without being then either understood or intelligible to their Propagators 't is reasonable to trust and rely on such Ancient Traditions not only Sacred but prophane also in these or any other paralled Cases they being in all probability the most valuable Remains and most venerable Truths which the primitive Parents of the World deliver'd down to their Posterity in succeeding Generations II. Seeing most of these Ancient Theorems are very much beyond the distinct Knowledge of those who deliver them contrary to the common Opinion of Mankind judging usually by sensible Appearances and in themselves considering the low State of Natural Knowledge at the same times were highly improbable if not utterly incredible to inquisitive Minds and indeed several of them relating to the Chaos the Creation the primary Constitution and State of the World and the Deluge it self impossible to be discover'd without Supernatural Revelation and yet seeing after all they do now appear as agreeable to Reason and the most solid Mechanical Philosophy as any new Discoveries built on the exactest Observations of present Nature whatsoever 'T is apparent that these Ancient Accounts especially those contain'd in the Holy Scriptures were not originally deriv'd from the Natural Skill and Observation of the first Authors or any other meerly Humane Means but from the immediate and Supernatural Revelation of God Almighty who was therefore much more conversant with Mankind in the first than he has been in these last Ages of the World as the Old Testament-History assures us III. The Measure of our present Knowledge ought not to be esteem'd the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Test of Truth or to be oppos'd to the Accounts receiv'd from Profane Antiquity much less to the inspir'd Writings For notwithstanding that several Particulars relating to the Eldest Condition of the World and its great Catastrophe's examin'd and compar'd with so much Philosophy as was till lately known were plainly unaccountable and naturally speaking impossible yet we see now Nature is more fully more certainly and more substantially understood that the same things approve themselves to be plain easie and rational IV. 'T is therefore Folly in the highest degree to reject the Truth or Divine Authority of the Holy Scriptures because we cannot give our Minds particular Satisfaction as to the manner nay or even possibility of some things therein asserted Since we have seen so many of those things which seem'd the most incredible in the whole Bible and gave the greatest Scruple and Scandal to Philosophick Minds so fully and particularly attested and next to demonstrated from certain Principles of Astronomy and Natural Knowledge 't is but reasonable to expect in due time a like Solution of the other Difficulties 'T is but just sure to depend upon the Veracity of those Holy Writers in other Assertions whose Fidelity is so intirely establish'd in these hitherto equally unaccountable ones V. The Obvious Plain or Literal Sense of the Sacred Scriptures ought not without great Reason to be eluded or laid aside Several of those very Places which seem'd very much to require the same hitherto appearing now to the minutest Circumstances true and rational according to the strictest and most Literal Interpretations of them VI. We may be under an Obligation to believe such things on the Authority of the Holy Scriptures as are properly Mysteries that is though not really Contradictory yet plainly Unaccountable to our present degree of Knowledge and Reason Thus the Sacred Histories of the Original Constitution and great Catastrophe's of the World have been in the past Ages the Objects of the Faith of Jews and Christians though the Divine Providence
from the same that is as will hereafter appear pretty near the Point b or somewhat below it towards c Which Mountain Caucasus was directly expos'd therefore to the Comet at its nearest distance represented in the Figure When the Comet therefore was moving from E to F so soon as the Earth came within its Atmosphere and Tail a Cylindrical Column of Vapours would be intercepted and bore off by the Earth in its passage whose Basis were somewhat larger than a great Circle on the Earth and whose Direction or Axis from the compound Motion of the Comet and of the Earth were at about 45 degrees of Inclination with the Ecliptick or parallel to cd the lesser Axis of the Earth That is the first fall of the Vapours would affect one Hemisphere of the Earth at a time that namely which were properly expos'd to their descent and the other would be not at all affected therewith till the Earth's Diurnal Rotation by degrees expos'd the other parts in like manner and brought every one at last within the verge of that Hemisphere on which was the first and most violent descent of the Vapours Now this Hemisphere would be represented in the Figure by a d b and the opposite one which intirely escap'd at the same time by a c b. So that seeing the Ark or Mount Caucasus was below the Point b and by the Diurnal Rotation quickly got farther within the fair Hemisphere it would remain in the same during all the time of this first violent Fall of the Waters and have a calm and quiet day for the entry into the Ark while the other Regions of the Globe were subject to so violent a Storm and such fury of descending Vapours as no Age past or future had been or were to be exposed to This place could only be capable of some falling Vapours three or four hours after Sun-set in case the Earth were not at that time got clear of the Tail of the Comet in which it had been all the preceding day And consequently Noah had as fair and calm a time of entring into the Ark with all his Family and the other Animals as could be desir'd when no other parts of the Globe but those agreeing in such a peculiar situation with him could have permitted the same Which is I think not a meer Satisfactory but a very Surprizing account of the present Proposition Corollary 1. Hence the time of the breaking open of the Fountains of the Deep and of the beginning of the Rains very nearly coincident therewith is determin'd and that agreeably to the Mosaick History much nearer than to a Day with which exactness we have hitherto contented our selves in the case And indeed almost to an Hour For seeing all the Fountains of the great Deep were broken up on this day seeing the forty days Rain began on the same day seeing Noah with all his Family and all the other Creatures entred on this self-same day into the Ark all which certainly require very near an intire day and yet seem very incompatible there is no other way but to assert that tho' the breaking up of the Fountains of the Great Deep and the Fall of the Waters were coincident and upon the same day with the Entry into the Ark as the Text most expresly asserts yet the place where the Ark was escap'd the effects of the same till the Evening and while the rest of the Earth was abiding the fury of the same enjoy'd so calm fair and undisturb'd a day as permitted their regular and orderly going into the Ark before the Waters overtook them So that the Deluge must according to the Sacred History have commenc'd in the Morning and yet not reach'd the particular place where Noah was till the Evening or the coming on of the ensuing Night Which how exactly the present Hypothesis is correspondent to I shall leave the Reader to judge from what has been said under this last Proposition according to which 't is plain that the Comet pass'd by the Earth broke up the Fountains of the Deep and began the forty days Rains after Sun-rising about Eight or Nine a Clock in the Morning from which time till Eight or Nine a Clock at Night and long after Sun-set tho' the Waters fell with the greatest violence on the Earth yet they affected a single Hemisphere at a time only into which the Diurnal Rotation did not all that while convert the Regions near the Ark and this most nicely and wonderfully corresponds to the greatest accuracy of the present case and of the Mosaick History So that now we may agreeably both to the Sacred History and the Calculations from the present Hypothesis assert that the Deluge began at the Meridian of Mount Caucasus on Thursday the twenty seventh day of November in the year of the Julian Period 2365 between Eight and Nine a Clock in the Morning Which exactness of Solution wherein not only the Day but almost Hour assign'd from the Mosaick History is correspondent to the present Hypothesis how remarkable an Attestation it is to the same and how full a confirmation of the most accurate Verity of the Mosaick History I need not remark Such reflections when Just being very Natural with every careful Reader Corollary 2. Here is an instance of the peculiar Providence of God in the Preservation of the Ark by ordering the Situation so as to escape the Violence of the thick Vapours in their first precipitate fall which otherwise must probably have dash'd it to pieces For considering their Velocity of Motion which indeed was incredible no less than eight hundred Miles in the space of a Minute 't is not easy to suppose that any Building could sustain and preserve it self under the violence thereof which we see the Ark by the peculiar place of its Situation twenty or twenty five degrees North-East from the Center of our Northern Continent was wonderfully secured from while the other Regions of the Earth were exposed thereto and in great measure 't is probable destroy'd thereby Coroll 3. Hence 't is evident That the place of the Ark before assign'd at Mount Caucasus was its true one and not any Mountain in or near Armenia For had it been there seated it had been expos'd to the violence of the falling Vapours and instead of a quiet entry into the Ark on this first day of the Deluge the Ark it self with all the Creatures that were to be preserv'd in it would have utterly perish'd in the very beginning thereof Coroll 4. Hence the reason may easily be given why the History of the Deluge takes no notice of this passing by of the Comet viz. because none of those who surviv'd the Deluge could see or perceive the same For at the time of the approach of the Comet at first both the latter end of the Night-season when all were asleep and the Mists which according to the Nature of the Antediluvian Air were probably then upon the Earth and obscur'd
the Face of the Heavens hindred any prospect of this dreadful Body And soon after the Morning came they were actually involv'd in the Atmosphere of the Comet and so in its Tail presently after which would only appear a strange and unusual Mist or Cloud at a distance wholly depriving them of the distinct view of the Comet it self and leaving them utterly ignorant of the true occasion of the following Catastrophe unless any intimation should have been given them thereof by a Divine Revelation LI. Tho' the first and most violent Rains continued without intermission but forty Days yet after some time the Rains began again and ceased not till the seventeenth Day of the seventh Month or a hundred and fifty Days after the Deluge began LI. It has been already abserv'd That the Comet would involve the Earth in its Tail a second time about fifty four or fifty five Days after its first passing by as well as it did before as 't is also represented in the Figure Which being suppos'd the Earth must receive a new stock of Vapours as before and the Rains which had intermitted for fourteen or fifteen Days must begin again The differences between the former and latter Rains would be 1. These latter Vapours proceeding from the Tail whereas the former did principally from the much denser Atmosphere of the Comet would be less copious and less violent than the other and cause a gentler Rain 2. These Vapours being newly rarified by the prodigious Heat at the Perihelion and rais'd thereby to a mighty height in the Tail from their greater rarity and lightness higher ascent in our Air consequent thereupon and longer time thence necessary to their cooling and descent in Rains upon the Earth would be much longer in falling and produce a continual Rain of many more days than the former did Both which are exactly agreeable to the Mosaick History whence it appears that the first Rains had the principal stroke in the Deluge and that if this secondary Rain commenc'd at the time here assign'd it must have continued 95 or 96 days which is considerably more than double the number of those 40 within which the former Rains were confin'd LII This second and less remarkable Rain was deriv'd from such a cause as the former was LII This is sufficiently evident already since the same Comet afforded the matter for both Rains equally LIII Tho' the Fountains of the great Deep were broken up and the forty days Rain began at the same time yet is there a very observable mention of a threefold growth or distinct augmentation of the Waters as if it were on three several accounts and at three several times LIII This is particularly correspondent to the present Hypothesis wherein 1. The principal Rain of 40 days 2. The Eruption and Ascent of the Subterraneous Waters occasion'd by their weight and pressure 3. The lesser Rain of 95 or 96 days were both different in themselves and in their time of commencing and caus'd a distinct augmentation of the Waters agreeably to the greatest nicety of this Proposition LIV. The Waters of the Deluge increas'd by degrees till their utmost height and then decreas'd by degrees till they were clearly gone off the Face of the Earth LIV. This is evident as to the increase of the Deluge by what has been already said and will equally be so of its decrease when we come to it hereafter LV. The Waters of the Deluge were Still Calm free from Commotions Storms Winds and Tempests of all sorts during the whole time in which the Ark was afloat upon them LV. It has already appear'd that there were no Storms Tempests or other violent Commotions in the Antediluvian Air till the Deluge and that during the space here referr'd to none would arise 't is but reasonable to allow For as to the first and principal Rain it was so constant so downright and so uninterrupted that no little commotion in the Air could have place or if it had could disturb it which is commonly the case of long and setled Rains with us at this day As to the Subterraneous Waters ascending with some violence they were confin'd to several particular places and not universal and though they might cause some commotions at the bottom of the Waters yet might the surface of the same and the Air be sufficiently calm and undisturb'd But as to the third Cause of the Deluge It must be granted agreeably to what has been before observ'd That the descending Vapours would not be merely such but mix'd with many heterogenerous Particles of all sorts Sulphur Brimstone Niter Coal Mineral Effluvia Metallick Steams and the like which the prodigious heat at the Perihelion had dissolv'd and elevated into the Tail of the Comet From the confused mixture irregular fermentations and disagreeing motions of all which 't is probable the preternatural and violent commotions in the Atmosphere then and since are mainly to be deduc'd So that assoon as the latter 94 or 95 days Rains were almost over assoon as these rarified Corpuscles were descended into the lower and narrower Regions of the Air and being crouded closer were by the greater heat there predominant put into such irregular fermentations as they were already disposed for 'T is natural to suppose that Winds and Storms of all sorts and those in a very extraordinary manner would arise and cause the most sensible and extream perturbations of the Waters now covering to a vast depth the face of the whole Earth that could easily be conceiv'd Of which the following Proposition will give farther occasion to discourse LVI Yet during the Deluge there were both Winds and Storms of all sorts in a very violent manner LVI Seeing as we just now saw that at the end of the latter Rains the greatest Storms possible were to be expected and seeing yet the Ark which had been afloat so long and was so still the Waters being now at the very highest was incapable of abiding a stormy Sea as we prov'd under the former Phaenomenon there at first view appears the greatest danger imaginable of its perishing in the future immoderate and extraordinary Commotions And this danger is increased by this Reflection That as probably it had been afloat during the most part of the 150 days while the Waters were gradually and gently augmenting so one would imagine ought it to be for at least as many days during the at least as gentle and gradual decrease of the same afterwards i. e. The Ark ought to have been as long afloat in the stormy as it had been in the calm part of the Deluge But this difficulty which is to appearance so entirely insoluble will soon vanish if we consider that the Ark rested upon Caucasus the then highest Mountain in the world For seeing the Waters prevailed above the same Mountain 15 Cubits only a great part of which depth of Water would be drawn by the Ark it self upon the