Systema Solare A NEW THEORY OF THE EARTH From its ORIGINAL to the CONSUMMATION of all Things WHEREIN The CREATION of the World in Six Days The Universal DELUGE And the General CONFLAGRATION As laid down in the Holy Scriptures Are shewn to be perfectly agreeable to REASON and PHILOSOPHY With a large Introductory Discourse concerning the Genuine Nature Stile and Extent of the Mosaick History of the CREATION By WILLIAM WHISTON M. A. Chaplain to the Right Reverend Father in God JOHN Lord Bishop of NORWICH and Fellow of Clare-Hall in Cambridge LONDON Printed by R. Roberts for Benj. Tooke at the Middle-Temple-Gate in Fleet-street MDCXCVI Summo Viro ISAACO NEWTON Apud Londinenses Societatis Regalis Apud Cantabrigienses suos Collegij S. S. Trinitatis Socio Dignissimo Mathesews Professori Lucasrano longè Celeberrimo necnon Regio Nummorum Cusorum Praefecto Reipublicae quoquò patet Literariae Ornamento Seculi Gentis Academiae egregio Decori Orbis Philosophici Delicijs Quirem praesertim Mathematicam eousque Excoluit Adauxit Dilatavit ut ipsam Physicam intra pomoeria sua complecti Mundi Systema conatu inaudito ditioni suae subjicere tandem aliquando audeat Quem Morum Candor Modestia Quem Sagax animus penetrans Quem assidui Labores indefessae Vigiliae Industria incredibilis promovendis verae ac solidae Sapientiae studijs unicè dicata Quem Rerum Divinarum Humanarumque hoc est Universae Philosophiae peritia planè singularis Quem demum PHILOSOPHIAE NATURALIS PRINCIPIA MATHEMATICA auro contrà aestimanda mortalibus vix aut ne vix propalanda temerè Ultimae posteritati aeternùm Commendabunt Exiguum hocce Tentaminis Philosophici Spicilegium è Messe NEWTONIANA primitùs sublectum Subsidijs Consilijs Auspicijs potissimùm NEWTONIANIS acceptum uti par est referendum ratus Totum hoc qualecunque sit NEWTONI nomini in omne aevum perennaturo Nuncupandum in Grati Animi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Consecrandum censuit Gulielmus Whiston 17. Kal. Jun. A. D. 1696. A DISCOURSE Concerning the Nature Stile and Extent OF THE MOSAICK HISTORY OF THE CREATION IT being no inconsiderable part of the ensuing Theory to account for the Creation of the World agreeable to the description thereof in the Book of Genesis it cannot but be very necessaryin this place to discourse of the nature of that Sacred History the Stile in which it is Writ and how far it is to be Extended The misunderstanding of which points has been I think the principal occasion of those perplexities and contrarieties into which Men have run with relation to it while some have adher'd to the common and vulgar tho' less rational Exposition without any consideration of Nature Reason Philosophy or just Decorum in the several parts of it And others on the contrary have been so sensible of the wildness and unreasonableness of That that they have ventur'd to exclude it from any just sense at all asserting it to be a meer Popular Parabolick or Mythological relation in which the plain Letter is no more to be accounted for or believ'd than the fabulous representations of AEsop or at best than the mystical Parables of our Saviour Of what mischievous consequence this latter is commonly esteem'd I need not say a late excellent Author who thought it absolutely necessary to be introducd having felt reflections sufficiently severe and seen effects sufficiently mischievous of such an Interpretation And how unworthy of God how incoherent and absurd the former Exposition is in it self and must be esteem'd by free and inquisitive Thinkers 't is not difficult to make appear to any impartial Man and shall in this Discourse be particularly attempted Indeed I cannot but imagine that as those who plead for the Mythological sense do it only because they suppose it impossible to give a commodious and rational scheme of it on any other Hypothesis and therefore will easily and readily embrace any more literal Interpretation which shall agree to the Divine Attributes the Reason of their own Minds and the true System of the World so I think those who notwithstanding its apparent incongruities adhere to the vulgar Exposition will have great reason to encourage and rest satisfy'd in such an account as shall at once keep sufficiently close to the Letter of Moses and yet be far from allowing what contradicts the Divine Wisdom Common Reason or Philosophick Deductions to both which therefore I persuade my self this new attempt ought not to be unacceptable But because the principal difficulty is likely to arise from the prejudices and prepossessions of the latter and from the vulgar and common notions already fix'd in the Minds of most Men relating to this Mosaick Creation I shall in this place chiefly have a respect to them and endeavour to evince That the notions they have entertain'd of the Nature Stile and Extent of the Creation of the World in six days are false precarious and no less contrary to the Holy Scriptures themselves than to sound Reason and true Philosophy The Proposition therefore which shall be the subject of this Dissertation and includes the whole point before us shall be this The Mosaick Creation is not a Nice and Philosophical account of the Origin of All Things but an Historical and True Representation of the formation of our single Earth out of a confused Chaos and of the successive and visible changes thereof each day till it became the habitation of Mankind That this Proposition is exactly agreeable to that Account which in the following Theory is given of this Creation will be evident upon the perusal thereof and that the same Proposition is alike agreeable to the Design and Stile of the Sacred Penman in the first Chapter of Genesis is what I am now to make appear and that I shall endeavour to do by the following Arguments which tho' they might have been distinguish'd and suited to the several branches of this Assertion yet for ease I shall wave that niceness and set them down indifferently in that order they were put into by my own thoughts before I intended to adapt them to the just form of the foregoing Proposition Strength of Reasoning more than Exactness of Composure being the aim of the Author in this whole Theory And if he be found to go upon solid grounds he hopes the Reader will never the less embrace the Conclusions because of the inaccuracy of the Stile or harshness of the Periods which wholly to have avoided he freely owns would to him have been more tedious and operose than the Work it self and so he hopes 't will not be expected from him by the Inquisitive Reader Which Apology once for all he desires may be accepted and call'd to mind whenever as too frequently it will there shall be occasion in the following Pages 1. The very first words of Moses plainly imply that the Production of all the World out of nothing which we usually stile Creation was precedaneous to the Six
of the Prophetick numbers I mean the involving their Predictions in so much and no more obscurity as might conceal their meaning till their completion or till such time at least as the Divine Wisdom thought most proper for their manifestation in succeeding Ages So that this Argument demonstrates the present Exposition to afford a natural foundation of accounting for such ways of speaking in 〈◊〉 Holy Scriptures which otherwise are as t 〈…〉 casion and Original unaccountable and consequently proves it to be as truly agreeable to the Stile as the former did to the Letter thereof 3. The six Days of Creation and the seventh of Rest were by Divine Command to be in after Ages commemorated by Years as well as by Days and so in reason answered alike to both those denominations 'T is evident that the Works of the Creation were compleated in six Evenings and Mornings or six Revolutions of the Sun call'd Days and that the seventh was immediately set apart and sanctified as a Day of Rest and Memorial of the Creation just before compleated and 't is evident that this Sanctification of the seventh as well as the operations of the six foregoing belong'd to the Primitive state of the World before the Fall Now that we may know what sort of Days these were 't will be proper to enquire into the ensuing times and observe after the distinction of Days and Years undoubtedly obtain'd what constant Revolutions of six for Work and a seventh for Rest there appear or in what manner and by what spaces these Original ones were commemorated which will go a great way to clear the Point we are upon And here 't is evident that when God gave Laws to the Israelites he allow'd them six ordinary Days of Work and ordain'd the seventh for a Day of Rest or Sabbath in Imitation and Memory of His Working the first six and Resting or keeping a Sabbath on the Seventh Day at the Creation of the World This the Fourth Commandment so expresly asserts that 't is past possibility of question 'T is moreover evident that God upon the Children of Israels coming into the Land of Canaan ordained with reference as 't is reasonable to suppose to the same Primitive State of the World the six Days of Creation and the Sabbath That six Years they should Sow their Fields and six Years they should Prune their Vineyard and gather in the Fruits thereof But in the seventh Year should be a Sabbath of Rest unto the Land a Sabbath for the Lord They were neither to Sow their Field nor Prune their Vineyard Then was the Land to keep a Sabbath unto the Lord. So that if we can justly presume that the primary spaces of the World here refer'd to were proper Evenings and Mornings or Natural Days because they were represented and commemorated by six Proper and Natural Days of Work and the seventh of Rest I think 't is not unreasonable to conclude they were Proper and Natural Years also considering they appear to have been among the same People by the same Divine Appointment represented and commemorated by these six Proper and Natural Years of Work and the seventh of Rest also Nay if there be any advantage on the side of Natural Days from the expressness of the reference they had to the Primitive ones which the Fourth Commandment forces us to acknowledge there will appear in what follows somewhat that may justly be esteem'd favourable on the side of Years Besides the six Days for Work and the seventh for Rest the Jews were commanded on the same account as we may justly suppose to number from the Passover seven times seven Days or seven Weeks of Days and at the conclusion of them to observe a solemn Feast call'd the Feast of Weeks or of Sabbaths once every year In like manner besides the Yearly Sabbath as I may call it or the seventh Year of Rest and Release after the six Years of Work the Jews were commanded on the same account as we may justly suppose to number seven Sabbaths of Years seven times seven Years and at the conclusion thereof to celebrate the great Sabbatical Year the Year of Jubilee They were neither to Sow nor Reap nor Gather in the Grapes but esteem it Holy and suffer every one to return to his Possession again Where that which is remarkable is this that when the Sabbatical Days and Sabbatical Years equally return'd by perpetual revolutions immediately succeeding one another yet the case was not the same as to the Feast of Weeks at the end of seven times seven Days that following the Passover and not returning till the next Passover again and so was but once a Year Whereas its corresponding Solemnities the Jubilees or great Sabbatical Years at the end of seven times seven Years did as the former return by perpetual revolutions immediately succeeding one another for all future Generations All which duely consider'd I think upon the whole 't is but reasonable to conclude That seeing the Primitive spaces or periods of Work and Rest appear by Divine Appointment to have been commemorated among the Jews by Years as well as by Days the same Primitive spaces or periods were equally Days and Years also 4. The Works of the Creation by the Sacred History concurring with Ancient Tradition appear to have been leisurely regular and gradual without any precipitancy or acceleration by a Miraculous hand on every occasion Which is impossible to be suppos'd in those Days of twenty four short hours only but if they were as long as the present Hypothesis supposes they were truly agreeable and proportionable to the same productions Which consequence will be so easily allow'd me that I may venture to say That as certain as is the regular and gentle the natural and leisurely procedure of the Works of the Creation of which I know no good Reason from any Warrant sacred or prophane to make any question so certain is the Proposition we are now upon or so certainly the Primitive Days and Years were all one 5. Two such Works are by Moses ascrib'd to the third Day which if that were not longer than one of ours now are inconceiveable and incompatible On the former part of this Day the Waters of the Globe were to be drain'd off all the dry Lands into the Seas and on the same Day afterward all the Plants and Vegetables were to spring out of the Earth Now the Velocity of running Waters is not so great as in a part of one of our short Days to descend from the middle Regions of the dry Land into the Seas adjoyning to them nor if it were could the Land be dry enough in an instant for the Production of all those Plants and Vegetables which yet we are assur'd appear'd the same Day upon the face of it which Difficulties vanish if we allow the primitive Days to have been Years also as will more fully be made appear in due place 6. Whatever might possibly be
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
this extraordinary acceleration of natural causes to be tho' not impossible nor were there any intimation or necessity of its interposition from the Sacred History very improbable neither yet in the present case groundless unnecessary perplexing of the cause and by no means a sufficient solution in the present Affair Which being therefore thus answer'd the Argument remains in full force and the length of the days assign'd by the vulgar Hypothesis appears wholly disproportionate to the Works done therein of which farther notice will be taken hereafter 2. When the Works of each of the other Days are single distinct and of a sort the third Day has two quite different nay incompatible ones assigned to it This is plain from the History where the division of the Waters from the Earth or the distinction of the Terraqueous Globe into Seas and dry Land the first work on this Day is succeeded by that of the production of the intire Vegetable Kingdom contrary to the perpetual Tenor of the other periods of the Creation How this comes about or is accountable in the vulgar Scheme I know not and I believe the reason thereof is very little enquir'd into and less understood But because this whole difficulty will be urg'd against the shortness of days in the Vulgar Hypothesis and clear'd in Ours at their proper places hereafter I shall wave the farther insisting upon it here and proceed 3. But principally the Earth with its Furniture how inconsiderable a body soever it is takes up four intire days at least of those six which were allotted to the whole Creation when the Sun Moon and Stars those vastly greater and more considerable Bodies are crowded into one single day together Now in order to our passing a rational judgment in this matter I shall take leave to represent to the Reader 's view a short comparison or parallel between the Earth on one side and the rest of the World on the other and see what resemblance correspondence and proportion there is between the former and the latter either in its several parts or the whole taken together and this shall be done on such certain and undoubted grounds and principles as the late vast advancement of Natural Knowledge has afforded us and will be more at large explain'd in the following Pages This Earth then on which we live though it be in diameter more than 8000 miles and so a vast Globe if compar'd with those Bodies we daily see imagine and converse withal is yet one of the lesser of the primary Planets and with Jupiter Mars and the other her fellows revolves round the great Center of our System the Sun in a years time 'T is an Opake and Dark Body as they all are and in common with them borrows its light and heat from that glorious Body which we just now observ'd to obtain the center of their Orbits without which it as well as the intire Chorus of the other Planets must be soon reduc'd all to one dark heap of matter far beyond the description of the old caliginous and unprofitable Chaos and in no capacity of ever emerging out of that horrid and frightful state In dignity i four Earth expect not to come the last yet is she so exceeded in all things that might seem Characters thereof by several of the rest that there can be no manner of claim to the first Place If she have a secondary Planet the Moon for her attendant tho in truth she is at least as serviceable to that Planet as that Planet is to her Jupiter has certainly four and some good Glasses have discover'd five about Saturn who however is not wholly destitute as all Astronomers confess The density and place of the Earth is pretty near the middle of the Planets and as she exceeds and is higher than some so is she exceeded by and lower than others in those respects Her own Secondary Planet the Moon has an Air much more homogeneous pure and transparent than she at present enjoys and in all probability free from Winds Clouds Storms Tempests Thunder Lightning and such other irregular and pernicious Effects which render our Atmosphere so contagious and pestilent to the Inhabitants of the Earth In which circumstances the generality of the other Planets imitate the Moon and render our miserable Condition the more remarkable and sensible as appearing thereby almost singular Our days and nights are longer than those of some and shorter than those of others of the Planets The figure of the Earth is nearly sphaerical as is that also of the other Heavenly Bodies its surface unequal with Mountains and Valleys as well as that of the rest especially the Moon 's appears to be Only 't is observable that the last though much less in bigness has her Mountains higher than we on Earth The Sea and Land Mountains and Valleys and other such corresponding Phaenomena of the Moon shew that that small Planet is not nearer our Earth in place than in quality and disposition also If we compute the true magnitude or quantity of matter in the Earth it will appear that she is not the 60th part so big as Jupiter nor the 30th as Saturn nor the 60000th as the Sun So that she is very inconsiderable if compar'd with the rest of the Solar Vortex only but if with the intire Universe or Systems of the fixt Stars in the elegancy of the Prophetick Expressions as a drop of a Bucket as the small dust of the Balance yea less than nothing and vanity Insomuch that to all those remote Systems of the Heavenly Bodies this Earth with all its fellow Planets are no more visible than those which 't is probable revolve about any of them are to us in these our Planetary Regions And as we usually little think of those invisible Globes so any of their Inhabitants never once imagine that there is such a Planet as ours about which we make such a mighty stir in the whole World As to the main use of this Earth 't is to afford habitation to a sinful and lapsed Race of Creatures of small Abilities or Capacities at present but of great Vices and Wickedness and is esteemed as far as appears in its present constitution so peculiarly and solely sit for them that when they are gone or their Dispositions and Faculties reform'd and improv'd a better scence of Nature a new Heaven and a new Earth is to be introduc'd for such better and more noble Creatures The Old one which now obtains being it seems only a sort of Prison or Confinement which is to be our Lot whilst we are sinful and miserable but no longer And is this the only Darling of Nature the prime Object of the Creation and Providence of God Can such a Globe's original nay of the external and visible Parts of it only claim four parts of six of that entire space which the Wisdom of God allotted for the Formation of all things in the whole World while the Origin
the 11 th day of October 'T is evident from the Astronomical Tables of the Anticipation of the Equinox that in 4044 years the time since the beforemention'd Year the Equinoxes have anticipated 30 Days 9 Hours 'T is also evident That this Year 1696. the Vernal Equinox is on the 9 th of March and the Autumnal on the 12 th of September 't is farther evident That whereas now the Space from the Vernal to the Autumnal Equinox is eight or nine Days longer than from the Autumnal to the Vernal by reason of the Position of the Perihelion of the Earth's Orbit near the Winter Solstice at the time beforemention'd it was not above five or six Days so By the Anticipation therefore of the Equinoxes alone if the Position of the Perihelion had been always the same the Equinoxes at the time assigned had been on the 9 th of April in the Morning and on the 12 th of October in the Evening and the equaller Division of the Year allow'd for the Vernal Equinox was on the 10 th of April and the Autumnal on the 11 th of October as was to be prov'd XLII Comets are a Species of Planets or Bodies revolving about the Sun in Elliptical Orbits whose periodical Times and Motions are as constant certain and regular as those of the Planets tho' till very lately wholly unknown to the World XLIII These Elliptical Orbits of Comets are so very Oblong and Eccentrical that while they come within our Observation they are but little different from Parabola's and may accordingly be consider'd as such XLIV The Plains in which various Comets move are themselves exceeding various and at all imaginable Angles of Inclination with one another and with that of the Ecliptick XLV The course of Comets in their Orbits is not determin'd one way as is that of the Planets from West to East but indifferently some of them move one way and some another Corollary 1. From these two last Lemmata 't is evident that Comets move sometimes from East to West other times from West to East sometimes from North to South other times from South to North or obliquely between any of these ways according as the Situation of the Plains of their Orbits and the Directions of their Courses together determine them Coroll 2. Hence 't is certain That the heavenly Motions are not perform'd in corporeal Vortices when the Comets exactly observe the same Laws and Velocity of Motion whether they revolve with or against or cross to the Planets and the suppos'd stuid Matter of the Vortices XLVI Comets in their descent to and ascent from the Sun pass quite through the Planetary System as may be seen in the Frontispiece Corollary Hence we may observe a new possible Cause of vast Changes in the Planetary World by the access and approach of these vast and hitherto little known Bodies to any of the Planets XLVII If a Comet in its descent to or ascent from the Sun approach near to a Planet as it passes by and its Plain be different from that in which the Planets move by its attractive Power it will agreeably to the universal Law of Gravitation of Bodies draw it from the Plain in which it before mov'd and so cause it afterward to move in a new one inclin'd to the former but passing through the Sun as the former did Corollary Hence 't is supposable That tho' the Planets originally revolv'd in the same common Plain yet by the subsequent Attraction of Comets their Plains may now be inclin'd to one another and different as 't is certain de facto they now are SCHOLIUM When the Law of Gravitation is universal and mutual 't is evident The Planet would draw the Comet from its Plain as well as the Comet would draw the Planet and so generally what effects soever the Comets could have on the Planets the latter would have correspondent ones on the former But as this Indication once given for all there is no necessity of taking notice of the changes in the Comets so accordingly in what follows I shall wholly omit the same and confine my self to such things as will be immediately useful in the following Theory XLVIII If a Comet revolving in the same Plain with a Planet whose Orbit is a perfect Circle as it passes by approach near it by accelerating or retarding the Velocity of the Planet it would render its Orbit Elliptical Thus if B were a Planet revolving about the Sun at the Center A in the circular Orbit Be Eb and a Comet either in its descent towards or ascent from the Sun should pass near it it would agreeably to the universal Law of Gravitation of Bodies accelerate it if concurring with or retard ing it if contradicting the Planet's own annual Motion along the Periphery of its Circle Whereupon the concentrical Orbit would become excentrical and the Planet would afterward revolve in an Ellipsis which on an Acceleration would be bigger and on a Retardation less than the Circle which it had till then describ'd the former represented by BHFG the latter by BKLI For when the original Velocity of B was exactly adjusted to the Sun's Power of Attraction and its Orbit thereupon a perfect Circle this new Acceleration or Retardation must render it afterward incommensurate and too great or too little for the same and accordingly the Orbit to be afterward agreeably to what has been formerly explain'd describ'd by the Planet must be an Ellipsis and bigger or less than the former Circle as the force was directed for or against the Planet's own Motion Corollary 1. In this Case the Sun would no longer be in the Center of the Figure but in one of the Foci viz. in the nearer Focus of the larger and the farther of the smaller Ellipsis Coroll 2. If B were the Earth moving circularly about the Sun from West to East i. e. from B by e Eb to B again and a Comet h in its descent towards the Sun should pass by before it or on the Eastside the annual Motion of the Earth would be accelerated and its circular Orbit degenerate into the larger Ellipsis BHFG about the Sun in its nearer Focus A. XLIX If a Comet in passing by as before accelerate the Planets Motion and so enlarge the Orbit the Planets periodical Time of revolving will be enlarg'd and become longer thereby In like manner if the Comet retard the Planets Motion and so diminish the Orbit the periodical Time of revolving will be lessen'd and become shorter And still the more considerable the Acceleration or Retardation is compar'd with the original Velocity of the Planet the greater will be the eccentricity and the greater difference between the former and latter Orbits and the former and latter periodical Times of revolving also Corollary 1. If in the foregoing Case the Semidiater of the ancient Circle with the middle Distance in the Ellipsis afterward describ'd be given as also the periodical Time of revolving in the latter
present Elliptick Orbit be the effect of the Passing by of a Comet the time of such passing by must have been about three days after the New or Full Moon Let og represent a Section of the Eccliptick Periphery in which the Earth a is performing its annual course from West to East or from o towards g Let c be the Moon performing in like manner besides her menstrual revolution the same way from t by c towards s about the Earth her annual course with the same Velocity as the Earth from u towards w along her Periphery u w equidistant from the Eccliptick o g Let n m represent the trajectory of the Comet intersecting the Line passing through the Sun I i in the Angle m b i of 12 14 or 16 degrees more or less Let b be the Comet descending from n towards m in its approach towards it Perihelion From the Earth's Center from d and x the Line a x being drawn parallel to the Comets Trajectory n m let fall perpendiculars to the Trajectory a f d e x y. Now if while the Comet were passing from f to y the Moon stood still and did not proceed in her annual course along her Periphery u w she must have been at that Point x or not above one day past the new at t and so the nearest distances a f x y being equal the Attractions of the Earth by the Comet at f and of the Moon by the Comet at y would have been equal also and by consequence this position would have secur'd the future agreement and company of these two Planets and the time of the passing by of the Comet fix'd to a single day after the New Moon But by reason of the Moons progressive annual motion along her Periphery u w while the Comet descends from t towards y she must have been in that Point of her Menstrual Orbit c where c d is to cq or d a as her Velocity to the Comets or as 7 to 10 that so the Comet descending from its nearest distance to the Earth at f to its nearest distance to the Moon at e and the Moon arriving at the same time by her annual motion at the Point d the nearest distances a f d e may still be equal and the acceleration of the Earth and the Moon may still be the same Now this being the case the place of the Moon c must be about 41 43 or 45 degrees more or less past the Point t in its Menstrual Orbit or the Conjunction with the Sun or three days past the New Moon And the like will be demonstrated of three days past the Full Moon by the same figure and reasoning if we do but shift the Scene and let c represent the Earth and u w the Ecliptick Periphery a the Moon and o g its Periphery For all the rest remaining as above the Angle δ c a which the Moon a must have pass'd after the full at ζ being equal to the alternate c a t would require equal time to be describ'd and so the time proper for the situation of the Earth and Moon which is equally necessary in this as in the former case as the Figure represents it will be three days after the Full as this Corollary asserts Coroll If therefore in a given year a Comet in its descent towards the Sun Accelerated the Earth and Moon 's annual motions and thereby chang'd their Orbit from a Circle to an Ellipsis when the day of the year from the place of the Perihelion were pretty nearly determined by this last Lemma the very day is determined also from the Astronomical Tables of the Conjunctions of the Sun and Moon LVI If our Earth once revolv'd about the Sun in a circular Orbit whose Semidiameter were equal to the Earth's original distance from the Sun six degrees past its Perihelion the annual period was exactly equal to 12 Synodical or 13 Periodical Months 'T is evident that 12 Synodical or 13 Periodical Months equal to each other in the present case are 355 days 4 hours 19 minutes 'T is also evident that the Eccentricity of the Earth's or the distance between the Focus and Center of its Ellipsis was according to the ancient Astronomers Hipparchus and Ptolomy 21 1000 of the intire middle distance By the Moderns 't is found somewhat less and those who know Mr. Newton's Philosophy will easily allow of some diversity in different ages by Tycho 't was determin'd to be near 18 1000 by Cassini since 17 1000 and last of all by our most accurate Observer Mr. Flamsteed as he was pleas'd by Letter with great freedom to assure me 1692 100000 or near 17 1000 as Cassini had before determin'd All which consider'd we may very justly take the middle between the Ancient and the Modern Eccentricity 19 1000 for the true original one and about 185 10000 or more nicely 1816 100000 for the difference between the ancient Semidiameter of the circular Orbit and the middle distance in the present Elliptick one the point of acceleration being about 6 degrees past the Perihelion not just at it as is before prov'd Then by the Golden Rule as the Cube of 100000 the middle distance in the Ellipsis to the Cube of 98154 the Semidiameter of the Ancient Circle so is the square of 525949 the number of minutes in our present Solar year to the square of the number of Minutes in the ancient Solar year whose Root being 511459 minutes or 355 days 4 hours 19 minutes appears to be exactly and surprizingly equal to the Lunar year before mention'd Coroll Upon this Hypothesis the Ancient Solar and Lunar year were exactly commensurate and equal and 10 days 1 hour 30 minutes shorter than the present Solar year Which last number tho' it be not equal to the Lunar Epact at present is yet rightly assign'd each Synodical moth being by the quicker angular revolution of the Earth then so much longer as upon the whole adjusted the periods as is above stated which on calculation will easily appear LVII As Comets agree with Planets in a regular Motion about the Sun the common Center or Focus of our System so do they as to their bulk and magnitude being generally speaking about the bigness of Planets as the observations of Astronomers demonstrate LVIII Besides the Bodies of the Comets themselves which are solid compact and durable there is round about the same a vastly large thin pellucid Fluid containing withal great quantities of Opake or Earthy Particles constituting together a confused irregular unequally dispos'd and uncertainly agitated Mass of Bodies whose Diameter is 10 if not 15 times as long as that of the Body it self and this Mass is call'd the Atmosphere thereof LIX By reason of the mutual access and recess of the Comets to and from the Sun their Atmospheres are uncapable of attaining or at least least of long retaining any regular and orderly situation and disposition of parts according to the Law of Specifick Gravity
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
the former pretty well agreed upon among the latest Chronologers and capable of a much more satisfactory Proof than from so great Differences before thereto relating one would be ready to imagine as upon a little enquiry I easily found Indeed the Archbishop has made the matter so plain that one cannot but wonder how former Chronologers came so strangely to be mistaken and 't is perhaps one of the most difficult things to give a good account of that is readily to be pitch'd upon I once intended to have here not only given the Canon of the several Periods but confirm'd the same from the Scripture and answer'd the principal Objections made against any parts thereof as well from the said Archbishop's incomparable tho' imperfect Chronologia Sacra as from such other Observations as having been since made especially by the very Learned Sir John Marsham who has intirely and evidently clear'd what the Archbishop principally labour'd at without success the Chronology in the Book of Judges give farther light and strength to the same Accounts But this would perhaps be too much like a Digression and somewhat foreign to my main Design so I forbear and only set down the Chronological Canon according to which I reckon from the Creation to the present time as follows I. From the beginning of the Mosaick Creation till the Creation of Adam 291 2 Days to a Month till the Deluge Y. M. D. 0005 06 11 II. From the Creation of Adam till the day when the Earth began to be clear of the Waters or the Autumnal Equinox in the Year of the Deluge 1656 05 14 III. From the Autumnal Equinox in the Year of the Deluge till the departure of Abraham out of Haran 301 2 Days to a Month since the Deluge 0426 06 15 IV. From Abraham's departure out of Haran till the Exodus of the Children of Israel out of Egypt 0430 00 00 V. From the Exodus of the Children of Israel out of Egypt till the Foundation of Solomon's Temple 0479 00 17 VI. From the Foundation of Solomon's Temple till its Conflagration 0424 03 08 VII From the Conflagration of Solomon's Temple till the Kalends of January which began the Christian AEra 0587 04 25 VIII From the beginning of the Christian AEra till this Autumnal Equinox Anno Domini 1696. 1695 08 26 Sum of all 5705 00 00 From the first day of the Deluge till the 28 th of October in this same Year 1696. 4044 00 00 This Canon agrees with the Archbishop's in every thing but that for exactness I make use of Tropical or natural Solar Years instead of Julian ones to which accordingly I proportion the Months and Days I add those five Months fourteen Days which his Hypothesis forc'd him without ground to omit between the Creation and the Deluge and I give the primitive Years of the Creation their place which having been taken for short Days of twenty four Hours long were not hitherto suppos'd to deserve the same All which being observ'd I refer the Reader who desires farther satisfaction to the Archbishop himself where he may find the particulars of the several Periods clear'd to him X. A Comet descending in the Plain of the Ecliptick towards its Perihelion on the first Day of the Deluge past just before the Body of our Earth That such a Position of a Comet 's Orbit and such a passing by as is here suppos'd are in themselves possible and agreeable to the Phaenomena of Nature All competent Judges who are acquainted with the new and wonderful Discoveries in Astronomy according to the Lemmata hereto relating must freely grant But that it really did so at the time here specified is what I am now to prove 'T is true when upon a meer Supposition of such a passing by of a Comet I had in my own mind observ'd the Phaenomena relating to the Deluge to answer to admiration I was not a little surpriz'd and pleas'd at such a Discovery It gave me no small Satisfaction to see that upon a possible and easy Hypothesis I could give so clear an Account of those things which had hitherto prov'd so hard not to say inexplicable and could shew the exact coincidence of the particulars with the Sacred History and the Phaenomena of Nature I thought to be able to proceed so far was not only more than had been yet done more than was generally expected ever would be done but abundantly sufficient to the best of purposes to clear the Holy Scriptures from the Imputations of ill-disposed Men and demonstrate the Account of the Deluge to be in every part neither impossible nor unphilosophical But proceeding in some farther Thoughts and Calculations on the said Hypothesis I to my exceeding great Content and Admiration found all things to correspond so strangely and the time of the Year by several concurring ways so exactly fix'd agreeably to the Sacred History thereby that as I saw abundant Reason my self to rest satisfi'd of the reality as well as probability of what I before barely suppos'd so I thought the producing the Particulars I had discover'd might afford evidence to the minds of others and go a great way to the intire establishing the certainty of that of whose great probability the Correspondence of the several Phaenomena of the Deluge had before afforded sufficient satisfaction But before I come to the Arguments to be here made use of themselves give me leave by way of Preparation to shew what sort of evidence such Assertions as this before us when good and valid are capable of and how great or satisfactory it may be in any other and so may be expected to be in the present Case 'T is evident That all Truths are not capable of the same degree of evidence or manner of Probation First Notions are known by Intuition or so quick and clear a Perception that we scarce observe any Deduction or Ratiocination at all in our Assent to them Some principal Metaphysical Truths have so near a Connexion with these that the manner of reasoning or inferring is scarce to be trac'd or describ'd a few obvious and quick Reflections enforcing our hearty acquiescence Among which the best of Metaphysicians Mr. Lock in his Essay of Humane Understanding very rightly placesthe Being of God Purely Mathematical Propositions are demonstrated by a chain of deductions each of which is certain and unquestionable So that on a clear view of the truth and connexion of each Link or Member of the intire Argumentation the Evidence may still be look'd on as infallible Propositions in mixt Mathematicks as in Opticks Geography and Astronomy depending partly on abstract Mathematick Demonstrations and partly on the Observations of the Phaenomena of Nature tho' not arriving to the strict infallibility of the evidence with the former sort are yet justly in most cases allow'd to be truly certain and indubitable History is all that we commonly can have for matters of fact past and gone and where 't is agreed upon
by all and uncontroulable 't is esteemed fully satisfactory tho' not absolutely certain in common Cases And Lastly To come closer to the Point the knowledge of Causes is deduc'd from their Effects Thus all Natural Philosophy i. e. the knowledge of the Causes of the several visible Phaenomena of the World is solely deriv'd from those Effects or Phaenomena themselves their accurate Correspondence to and necessary dependance on certain supposed Causes and their insolubility on any other Hypotheses with the coincidence of the particular Calculations of the Quantities of Motion Velocity Periods and Species of Figures to be every where accounted for On the Universal Conspiration and Correspondence of which with the impossibility of producing an instance to the contrary depends what may be truly stil'd a Physical Demonstration I mean Then and only Then is a Physical Cause to be esteem'd Demonstrated when all the Phaenomena of the World may be certainly shewn to be just so and no otherwise as they necessarily would and must be on supposition thereof This last method is that which our best of Philosophers has taken in his Demonstration of the Universal Affection or Property of Bodies which he calls Mutual Attraction or Gravitation and which accordingly he has establish'd beyond possibility of Contradiction and this is the sole way of bringing natural Knowledge to perfection and extricating it from the little Hypotheses which in defect of true Science the World has till lately been forc'd to be contented with In the Point before us there are only three possible ways of proving the truth of the Assertion here laid down The first that of Propositions in mixt Mathematicks by Calculation of the Motion of some Comet as we do of Planets from the Astronomical Tables and thence demonstrating the certainty thereof But besides the improbability of this Comet 's having ever return'd since the Deluge 't is plain the defect of old Observations and the so late discovery of the Laws and Orbits of their Motions do render such a way of Probation at least at present impossible The second way of Probation is that of Historical Relation that at the Deluge a Comet did so pass by of which there is directly none in the present Case Nor seeing the possibility of the same was not known nor the thing visible to the Inhabitants that out-liv'd the Flood as will hereafter appear is this kind of Evidence to be at all expected But the third and last way possible is the Being of such plain and sensible Effects as must be undoubted consequents of such an Assertion and without the supposal thereof were perfectly unaccountable which is the very method of Probation I shall here use and do wholly depend upon There are several degrees of evidence and kinds of proofs very different from those made use of in the Mathematicks which yet are little less satisfactory to the minds of wise Men and leave little more room for doubting than they Several sorts of Propositions must be evinc'd by several sorts of Arguments and whatever possible and easy Assertion has all the proofs which its nature requires or could justly be expected upon supposal of its real Existence ought to be admitted for true and evident Thus in that sort of things we are now upon if a certain Cause be assign'd which being suppos'd would necessarily infer several plain and visible Effects and occasion several sensible Phaenomena 't is plain if those Effects and Phaenomena be upon Examination found to be correspondent and as they must and would be on the real being of such a Cause the existence of that Cause is prov'd And as where the Effects are few ordinary otherwise accountable and incapable of Reduction to Calculation or accuracy of correspondence in the just Quantity and Proportion necessary the proof is weak and only probable and as where several of the consequents of that Cause agree well enough yet some others disagree the disagreement of one or two is a stronger Objection against than the coincidence of the rest an evidence for the same and the proof none at all So on the other side where a Cause is assigned whose certain consequent Effects must be very many very surprizing otherwise unaccountable correspondent on the greatest niceness of Calculation in the particular Quantity and Proportion of every Effect and where withal no disagreeing Phaenomenon can be urg'd to the contrary the evidence hence deriv'd of the reality of the assigned Cause tho' of a different nature and if you will degree too from Demonstration is yet little less satisfactory to the minds of wise and considering Men than what is esteem'd more strictly so Thus for instance Astronomers at this day find little more Inclination or Reason to doubt of the Annual and Diurnal Motions of the Earth than of any strictly demonstrated Proposition and as much in a manner take it for granted in all their Reasonings as they do the Propositions in Euclid tho' the evidence for the same be in its kind different from and inferior to the other And thus as I have before observ'd Mr. Newton has given sufficient evidence of the Universal Law of Mutual Attraction and Gravitation of Bodies which accordingly there is no more occasion to doubt of than of those common matters of Fact or History of which no wise Man ever made any question And thus it is that I hope to evince the truth and reality of that Cause assigned in this Proposition viz. by proving that those visible Effects or Phaenomena relating to the Universal Deluge which are very many very surprizing hitherto unaccountable several of which are capable of Calculation as to the particular Time Quantity and Proportion of the respective particulars are every one so and no otherwise as on supposal of the assigned Cause they either certainly must or at least probably would have been And as upon a Demonstration of the disagreement of any one Phaenomenon which were a necessary consequence of the same I must own the falseness of the Proposition before us so I hope if the universality of Correspondence even to the exactness of Calculation in proper cases be establish'd and no contradictory instance can be produc'd it will be allow'd that I have sufficiently evinc'd the reality and in a proper Sense certainty of the same Assertion This then being premis'd 't is plain that every one of the particular Phaenomena of the Deluge afterward accounted for is a proper Argument of this Proposition and might justly claim a place here on that account But because such an Enumeration of them before-hand would prevent their own more peculiar place hereafter and disturb the propos'd method of the ensuing Theory I shall leave them to their proper places tho' with this Premonition That several of them do singly so exactly sit the otherwise unaccountable Phaenomena of Nature and of the Deluge and determine the time and circumstances of the latter so nicely that their separate evidence is considerable but when taken
conjointly with the rest as satisfactory as I think the Nature of the thing is capable of But besides these particular correspondent Phaenomena of the Deluge and after the discovery of the most of them I found proofs of somewhat another nature which not only confirmed all that I had before observ'd but enabled me to determine the time when the Flood began to the greatest exactness possible which therefore I shall alone produce here reserving those other for their own places hereafter Now on the Hypothesis that a Comet pass'd by the Earth till then revolving circularly about the Sun at the time and in the manner assign'd by the Proposition the necessary Effects or Consequents of it are these Five 1. The circular Orbit of the Earth would be chang'd into that of an Ellipsis and the Sun which was before in the Center of the Circle would be afterward in that Focus of the Ellipsis which were nearest the place at which the Attraction of the Comet happen'd 2. The Year after such a passing by of the Comet would be increased ten Days one Hour thirty Minutes 3. The time of the passing by of the Comet or the beginning of the Deluge to be determin'd by the place of the Perihelion must be coincident with that assigned in the Mosaick History 4. The very day of the Comet 's passing by or of the beginning of the Deluge to be determin'd from the Astronomical Tables of the Conjunctions of the Sun and Moon must be conincident with the time determin'd by the said place of the Perihelion and with the very day assign'd in the Mosaick History 5. The quantity of Acceleration to be determin'd à Priori from the force of the Comet 's Attraction must correspond with that which the present Elliptick Orbit does require All which that they are de facto true and real I shall now prove 1. The Orbit of the Earth is now Elliptical and the Sun is in that Focus thereof which was nearest the place of the Earth when the Deluge began This Proposition is sufficiently known to Astronomers as to the former part of it And if it be consider'd That the Earth when the Deluge began was but just past that degree of the Ecliptick where the Perihelion was afterward as will presently appear the latter part will be equally evident with the former 2. The Year before the Flood was ten days or more nicely ten days one hour and thirty minutes shorter than the present In order to the proof of which I shall shew first in general that the Antediluvian Year was different from nay shorter than the present Year and afterwards determine the particular length thereof more exactly and shall comprise what reasons I have for these Assertions in the following Arguments 1. The true length of the Solar Year was so long unknown after the Deluge that there must have happen'd some mighty change and lengthening thereof at the Deluge or else no rational account can be assign'd of such gross and so lasting an ignorance 'T is not to be question'd but the Antediluvian Patriarchs were perfectly acquainted with the Antediluvian Year every one of those mention'd in Scripture having seen so many Summers and Winters or natural Solar Years that himself were able to ascertain their length and correct any mistake about them 'T is also not to be doubted but the Postdiluvians would have retain'd the same Year and determin'd it by the same number of Days as their Fore-fathers had they found it to agree with the Course of the Sun then as it did formerly But 't is evident from the Ancientest Authors that 't was many hundreds of Years after the Deluge e're the most Learned Nations rectifi'd their Year to the Sun's Course or arriv'd at more than three hundred and sixty Days in their Accounts Which number accordingly was the Standard of a Year for many Ages The full proof of which and the clearing thereby of several Prophetick Periods that famous one of Daniel's Seventy Weeks especially is what we impatiently expect from a most Learned Prelate of our Church till Astronomical Observations forc'd Men to correct the same Now all this on the present Hypothesis is easie and natural That when the Antediluvian Year was but a few hours above three hundred and fifty five Days and at the Deluge was insensibly become some odd hours above three hundred and sixty five Days without the least knowledge or suspicion of any change therein 'T is I say very easie and natural in this case to suppose that upon their observing the seasons to be protracted and return still later every Year than other as on the retaining the Antediluvian Year must needs happen and consequently their Ancient Standard of three hundred and fifty five days to be too short for the Sun's Revolution that they should lengthen their accounts to thirty Days in every Month and the even number three hundred and sixty Days in the whole Year Which convenient and remarkable number three hundred and sixty being probably fixt at the time when Astronomy began to be improv'd or at least reviv'd after the Deluge and so become the division of the Ecliptick and of every Circle of the Sphere was not quickly chang'd but measur'd the Ancient Year among not a few Nations and that not a few Ages together As being also less observably different from the Sun's course and correspondent both to the degrees of a Circle and twelve even Months of thirty Days a-piece And indeed this adjustment of the Year and Months with the degrees of a Circle and of each Sign in the Ecliptick was found so easie ready and useful on all accounts that even when the odd five days were added afterward they were not inserted into the Months nor perhaps esteem'd part of the Year but look'd upon as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 adventitious or odd days of a quite different denomination and character from all the rest However 't is still agreeable to the present Hypothesis that on the farther observation of the protraction of the Seasons and on the improvement of Astronomy still higher as the Year had been increas'd before from three hundred and fifty five to three hundred and sixty so afterward it should be increas'd from three hundred and sixty to three hundred and sixty five days and at last the Observations of the more Learned Astronomers enforcing it from three hundred sixty five to 3651 4 or the Julian Year which with us is retain'd to this very day All this is I think easie and natural in the present case upon that Hypothesis which is here defended but without it 't is very strange and unaccountable 'T is I say very strange and unaccountable either how the Antediluvian Patriarchs should not know the length of their own Year or that none of their Posterity who were destitute of Divine Revelation should retain the same afterwards but be forc'd to make use of one
passing by of the Comet or of the beginning of the Flood determin'd by the place of the Perihelion is exactly agreeable to that mention'd in the Mosaick History 'T is certain That the place of the Perihelion of the Earth's Orbit is now in the beginning of the eighth degree of Cancer And by Mr. Flamsteed's Astronomical Table of its Motion it goes forward in 4044 Years full 56 Degrees So that by going back to the time following the Deluge the Perihelion must then have been at the beginning of the 12 th Degree of Taurus It has also been before proved that the place of the Comets passing by must have been a few Degrees as five six or seven past the Perihelion that is on or near the 18 th Degree of Taurus Which in the Ancient Year beginning at the Autumnal Equinox will fall upon or near the 17 th Day of the Second Month On which very Day by the express Testimony of the Sacred Historian agreeing within a Day or two with the Corrected Testimonies of Abidenus and Berosus the Deluge began Which exactness of coincidence I look upon as so remarkable and surprizing that nothing can be more so and I need not fear to appeal to the Considering Reader if this be not the most peculiar and convincing Attestation to our Hypothesis which could easily be desir'd or in the least wish'd for That from it not only the several Phaenomena of the Deluge but the time of its commencing is so precisely determin'd also and that in the greatest Correspondence and Harmony with the Sacred History of the same thing imaginable 4. The very day of the Comets passing by or of the beginning of the Deluge determin'd from the Astronomical Tables of the Conjunctions of the Sun and Moon is exactly coincident with that before nearly determin'd by the place of the Perihelion and exactly by the Mosaick History It has been before prov'd that seeing the Moon still accompanies the Earth it must needs have been three Days past the New or Full at the passing by of the Comet It has also been before prov'd that the Flood began in the Year of the Julian Period 2365 or the 2349 th before the Christian AEra Now it appears by the Astronomical Tables of the Conjunctions of the Sun and Moon that the mean New Moon happen'd at the Meridian of Babylon just before Eleven a Clock in the Forenoon on the 24 th day of November in the Julian Year and so at Eleven a Clock on the 27 th of November 't was three days after the New Which being the 17 th day of the Second Month from the Autumnal Equinox is the very same pitched upon from the place of the Perihelion and expresly mention'd in the Sacred History And by so wonderfully corresponding therewith gives the highest Attestation to our Hypothesis that could for the completion and consummation of the foregoing Evidence be reasonably desir'd 5. The Quantity of Acceleration determin'd à priori from the force of the Comets Attraction does very well correspond with that which the present Elliptick Orbit does require Upon Calculation according to the Lemma quoted in the Margin the Velocity acquir'd by the Earth on its first change from a Circular to an Elliptick Orbit appears to have been about 1248 131250 of the intire Velocity or such as would carry it in three hours and a half 's time 1248 Miles 'T is also upon calculation evident from what has been already observ'd that in case the Comets nearest distance were a quarter of the Moons or sixty thousand Miles and it self of much the same bigness with the Earth two very probable and easie Hypotheses the time of the Comets Attraction to be solely consider'd is three hours and a half and the quantity of Velocity therein produc'd is the requisite quantity 1248 131250 of the intire Velocity or so much as carries a body 1248 Miles in the fore-mention'd space of three hours and a half And in case the Comets nearest distance were less if the Comet withal be supposed in the same proportion less also the effect will be the same and the fore-mention'd Velocity equal to what the former Calculation assign'd and the Elliptick Orbit of the Earth does exactly require Which accuracy of correspondence in the due quantity of Velocity added to the former Arguments cannot but be esteem'd a mighty Evidence for the reality of our Hypotheses All whose consequents are so surprizingly true and so fully bear Witness to one another Corollary 1. From what has been said under this Proposition we may pretty nearly determine the Constitution of the Antediluvian Year For when it consisted of three hundred and fifty five Days four Hours and nineteen Minutes and had for at least five Months together from the second to the sixth thirty Days to a Month or one hundred and fifty to five Months as we have seen it must in all probability have consisted of twelve Months The first seven whereof had thirty and the last five only twenty nine days apiece Or rather the first eleven Months had thirty and the twelfth only twenty five Days That as in the famous Egyptian Year or that of Nabonassar after the Deluge every Month had thirty Days a piece and the supernumerary five were added by themselves and stil'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so before the Deluge all the Months as near as possible had thirty days apiece also and the five deficient ones were taken from the last and might be denominated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And possibly might give occasion to that method of the before-mention'd Year in the following Ages How often the odd Hours and Minutes were intercalated and came to just even Days before the Deluge 't is not for a certain reason not here to be mention'd easie very exactly to determine nor perhaps of consequence that it should be so determined Only in general every sixth year at least one with another must be Leap-Year and have three hundred and fifty six days as every fourth is Leap-Year and has three hundred and sixty six days now among us Coroll 2 Every Antediluvian Year and Season Spring Summer Autumn and Winter began at Sunset following the Solar ingress into a Cardinal Point and the Full Moon It appears as has been before prov'd that the Autumnal Equinox preceding the Deluge happen'd on the 11 th day of October It also appears by the Astronomical Tables of the Conjunctions of the Sun and Moon that 't was Full Moon the same Day The Night succeeding which Day began the First Day of Autumn and the First Day of the Year also Which being suppos'd and that as we have prov'd the Solar Year was exactly coincident with twelve Synodical Months or the Lunar Year it must necessarily have been ever so And not only the other particular seasons but the Year it self began at the most remarkable time possible The Astronomers had a double coincidence to observe at the
conclusion of one and the commencing another year viz. The Autumnal Equinox and the Full Moon Which must for ever fix and establish the constancy of their Annual space And even the Countryman had somewhat easily observable to fix his Account and Characterize his Year the Full Moon Rising when the Sun set as the same common period of the Old and introducer of the New Year So that in so regular and truly natural Solar and Lunar Years as then obtain'd no Observations of Astronomers were necessary to adjust or calculate their measures of Time Nature or rather Divine Providence having so fitted the Heavenly Revolutions that nothing more than the easie observation of a Full Moon was necessary to determine their Seasons and their Years and to retain them at a constant setting out with the Equinoctial and Solstitial Points in the Heavens Than which Disposition nothing of such a nature could more clearly demonstate the Wise Provision of the great Creator or more usefully be subservient to Mankind Coroll 3. Hence we easily understand the primary occasion of the confusions in Astronomy and Chronclogy after the Flood notwithstanding they might have been well understood before it While the Solar and Lunar Years were equal and every one of them began both at the Equinox and at the Full Moon this latter observable by all fixing the former observable but by a few 'T were next to impossible to suppose any difference in Years or in the Accounts of Time depending thereon But upon an imperceptible change of the Year at the Deluge and the consequent incommensurate duration of the Solar and Lunar Periods 'T is natural to suppose great diversity of Years and perplexity of Accounts Some might long retain their Ancient Year and suffer its Head to wander through all Seasons Others might retain their Ancient Year as far as it agreed with the twelve Lunations or Months afterward and make use of a Lunar-year Whose Head they might either as the former suffer to wander through all Seasons or fix as well as they could by the intercalation of a Month as oft as they found so much deficiency from the Solar Year And as the former sort having a regular Cycle or constant method for the finding the Head of their Months and Years needed no other Observations so the latter must always remark the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Moon and begin their Months or Years or both at some observable Point of an entire Lunation as at the Full or New Moon or so soon as any decrease or increase of its Light became sensible Some might strive to find cut the number of Days necessary to be added to their old Year and so to reduce the same to the true Solar Revolution and accordingly might first make every Month thirty Days and the Year three hundred and sixty till that appearing too little five more Days and at last the odd six Hours were by degrees added and the Civil become almost equal to the Natural Year While others were intent upon the Adjustment of the Solar and Lunar Periods and inventing Cycles for the correspondence of those several Accounts which were respectively followed by several Nations All which variety of reckoning with its natural consequences must cause strange Confusion in the accounts of Time and create mightly Difficulties in the Ancient Chronology very agreeably to what every one knows to have been really the case who searches into such Matters to what our Hypothesis lays a rational Occasion and Foundation for and to what without such a supposed change at the Deluge is by no means accountable Coroll 4. When the number Three hundred and sixty is not only a middle proportional between the Days in an Antediluvian and Post diluvian Year and nearly between the present Solar and Lunar Year is not only the number of Degrees in the Ecliptick and in every Circle or Orbit but was the just number of Days in a Year among so many Nations for so many Ages The reason of that Prophetick Stile in which a Day or Year thereby meant does plainly signify Three hundred and sixty Days and no more is clear and evident What Difficulties the want of this Observation that Daniel's Prophetick Year consisted of Three hundred and sixty Days has left unsolv'd and what light may be afforded to some places of the highest importance thereby I had rather the Reader should be left to his own Observations and that Work so impatiently expected of which I made mention before than prepossess him with any more particular instances thereof in this place Coroll 5. When the very day of the beginning of the Deluge nearly determin'd by the place of the Perihelion and exactly by the Astronomical Tables of the Conjunctions of the Sun and Moon is the very same individual Day with that mention'd by the Sacred Writer hence arises a very surprizing and unexpected Confirmation of the Verity of the Scripture History Here is a great and signal instance of the wonderful Providence of God indeed and of his care for the Credit and Establishment of the Holy Books that he has left us means sufficient after above Four thousand Years of examining and ascertaining the Veracity of the most Ancient of its Writers and in one of the most scrupled and exceptionable Points of his Narration that of the Universal Deluge and that from unexceptionable Principles the Astronomical Tables of the Coelestial Motions To how great a degree this thing will deserve the most serious Consideration of every one especially in this our Sceptical Age I need not determine The importance of the concern and the greatness of the Evidence hence afforded sufficiently enforcing this Point without any farther Application Coroll 6. The years added in the Samaritan Pentateuch and Septuagint to the accounts of Time from the Hebrew Verity since the Deluge are added without reason and are contrary to the Truth and to the Sacred Writings together For whereas by the Hebrew Verity and the Astronomical Tables of the place of the Perihelion and of the Conjunctions of the Sun and Moon not to mention the Testimonies of Abidenus and Berosus here the Deluge's biginning is fix'd to the Seventeenth day of the Second Month from the Autumnal Equinox or to the 27 th of November in the Year of the Julian Period 2365 and the 2349 th before the Christian AEra by reason of the just number of 4044 Years since past and elapsed In case those Eight hundred or Nine hundred Years which the Samaritan and Septuagint have added are to be allowed for all is put thereby into confusion The Situation of the Moon necessary to this matter is lost and no reasonable Account to be given of her still accompanying the Earth The place of the Perihelion and Day of the beginning of the Deluge thence nearly determin'd must have been about twelve Degrees and as many Days socner and the Day which Noah entred into the Ark must have been not the Twenty seventh of the Second
wast thou made before the hills Lord thou hast been our dwelling place from one generation to another Before the mountains were brought forth or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God And indeed these three last Phaenomena are in their own Natures so linked together they so depend on and infer one another mutually that the proofs of each of them singly may justly be esteemed under the same Character to both the other and all of them are thereby establish'd past all rational Contradiction Of which whole matter Dr. Woodward's Observations are a sufficient Attestation also XVIII The Waters of the Seas in the Primitive Earth were Salt and those of the Rivers Fresh as they are at present and each as now were then stor'd with great plenty of Fish This appears from the difference of the Species and Natures of Fishes some being produc'd and nourish'd by Salt Water others by Fresh and yet all created on the fifth Day And this in all its parts is confirm'd by Dr. Woodward's Observations XIX The Seas were agitated with a like Tide or Flux and Reflux as they are at present There is in it self no reason to doubt of this and 't is moreover attested by Dr. Woodward's Observations XX. The Productions of the Primitive Earth as far as we can guess by the remainders of them at the Deluge differ'd little or nothing from those of the present either in Figure Magnitude Texture of Parts or any other correspondent respect This is prov'd by Dr. Woodward's Observations XXI The Primitive Earth had such Metals and Minerals in it as the Present has In the land of Havilah there was gold and the gold of that land was good there was bdellium and the onyx-stone Tubal-cain was an instructer of every artificer in brass and iron Which is withal attested by Dr. Woodward's Observation XXII Arts and Sciences were invented and improv'd in the first Ages of the World as well as they since have been Abel was a keeper of sheep but Cain was a tiller of the ground Cain builded a city and called it after the name of his son Enoch Jabal was the father of such as dwell in tents and of such as have cattel Jubal was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ Tubal-cain was an instructer of every artificer in brass and iron See also the Right Reverend Bishop Patrick on Gen. iv 20 21 22 25. and v. 18. CHAP. II. Phaenomena relating to the Primitive State of the Earth XXIII THE Primitive State of the Earth admitted of the primary Production of Animals out of the Waters and dry Ground which the subsequent States otherwise than in the ordinary method of Generation have been incapable of This appears from the History of the Creation compar'd with that of Nature ever since By the former of which agreeing with the oldest Traditions 't is evident That the Fishes and Fowls were the immediate Productions or Off-spring of the Waters and the Terrestrial Animals of the Dry-land in the Primitive State of the Earth And by the latter 't is equally so that neither of those Elements have assorded the like ever since XXIV The Constitution of Man in his Primitive State was very different from that ever since the Fall not only as to the Temper and Perfections of his Soul but as to the Nature and Disposition of his Body also This the whole Drift and Series of the Sacred History of this Primitive State supposes in which these two Particulars may here be taken notice of 1. Nakedness was no shame and so no sense of any need to cover it does appear Those Inclinations which provide for the Propagation of Mankind were it seems so regular and so intirely under the command of Reason that not so much as an Apron was esteem'd necessary to hide those Parts which all the World have since thought proper to do 2. The Temper of the Humane Body was more soft pliable and alterable than now it is Some sorts of Fruits and Food were capable of causing a mighty change therein either to fix and adapt it to its present Condition or discompose and disorder it i. e. in other words either to render it Permanent and Immortal on the one hand or to devolve upon it Diseases Corruption and Mortality on the other What concerns the Soul or its moral Perfections is without the compass of this Theory and not here to be consider'd XXV The Female was then very different from what she is now particularly she was in a state of greater equality with the Male and little more subject to Sorrow in the Propagation of Posterity than he 1. Her Names were as much as possible the very same with his The Husband was call'd Adam the Wife Adamah the Husband Issch the Wife Isschah God called their Name Adam in the day that they were created She shall be called Isschah because she was taken out of Issch. 2. We find little to infer any Inequality or Subjection till after the Fall Adam said This is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife and they shall be one flesh Unto the woman God said after the Fall thy desire shall be subject to thine husband and he shall rule over thee 3. Her pains in Conception and Childbirth were inconsiderable in comparison of what they since have been Unto the woman God said after the Fall I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children XXVI The other Terrestrial Animals were in a state of greater Capacities and Operations nearer approaching to reason and discourse and partakers of higher degrees of Perfection and Happiness than they have been ever since This appears 1. From the necessity or occasion of a particular view and distinct consideration of each Species of Animals before Adam was satisfied that none of them were a Help meet for him or suitable to his Faculties and Condition 2. From the Serpent's discourse with the Woman In which tho' the Old Serpent the Devil was also concern'd yet the particular Subtilty of the Serpent is taken notice of as a means of her Deception and a Curse denounced and inflicted on the same Beast upon account thereof Now the Serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made c. I fear lest by any means as the Serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty The Lord God said unto the serpent Because thou hast done this thou art cursed above all cattel and above every beast of the field upon thy belly shalt thou go and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life 3. From St. Paul's Discourse in the Eighth Chapter to the Romans For the earnest expectation of the
several Sea Charts relating thereto may easily be observ'd LXIX The greatest part of the Islands of the Globe are situate at small distances from the Edges of the great Continents very few appearing near the middle of the main Ocean This the bare Inspection into a Map or Globe of the World will soon give satisfaction in LXX The Ages of Men decreas'd about one half presently after the Deluge and in the succeeding eight hundred or nine hundred Years were gradually reduced to that standard at which they have stood ever since This the following Tables will easily evince Ages of the Antediluvians in their Years Ages of the Postdiluvians in the present Years Adam 930 Noah 950 Seth 912 Sem 600 Enos 905 Arphaxad 438 Cainan 910 Salah 433 Mahalaleel 895 Heber 464 Jared 962 Phaleg 239 Enoch translated 365 Reu 239 Methuselah 969 Serug 230 Lamech 777 Nahor 148 Noah 950 Terah 205 Sem 600 Abraham 175   Isaac 180   Jacob 147   Joseph 110 The days of our years are threescore years and ten and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years yet is their strength labour and sorrow for it is soon cut off and we fly away In the Days of Moses LXXI Our upper Earth for a considerable depth even as far as we commonly penetrate into it is Factitious or newly acquir'd at the Deluge The ancient one having been covered by fresh Strata or Layers of Earth at that time and thereby spoil'd or destroy'd as to the use and advantage of Mankind I will destroy them with the Earth Neither shall there any more be a flood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to destroy corrupt or spoil the Earth This is moreover evident by the vast numbers of the Shells of Fish Bones of Animals Intire or Partial Vegetables buried at the Deluge and Inclosed in the Bowels of the present Earth and of its most solid and compacted Bodies to be commonly seen at this day Whose truth is attested not only by very many occasional remarks of others but more especially by the careful and numerous Observations of an Eye-witness the Learned Dr. Woodward 'T is true this excellent Author was forc'd to imagine and accordingly to assert That the Ancient Earth was dissolv'd at the Deluge and all its parts separated from one another and so the whole thus dissolv'd and separate taken up into the Waters which then cover'd the Earth till at last they together setled downward and with the fore-mentioned Shells Bones and Vegetables inclosed among the rest of the Mass compos'd again that Earth on which we now live But this Hypothesis is so strange and so miraculous in all its parts 't is so wholly different from the natural Series of the Mosaick History of the Deluge takes so little notice of the forty days rain the principal cause thereof is so contrary to the Universal Law of mutual Attraction and the specifick gravities of Bodies accounts for so few of the before-mention'd Phaenomena of the Deluge fixes the time of the year for its commencing so different from the truth implies such a sort of new Formation or Creation of the Earth at the Deluge without warrant for the same is in some things so little consistent with the Mosaick Relation and the Phaenomena of nature and upon the whole is so much more than his Observations require that I cannot but dissent from this particular Hypothesis tho' I so justly honour the Author and so highly esteem and frequently refer to the Work it self All that I shall say farther is this That the Phaenomena of the interior Earth by this Author so exactly observ'd are on the common grounds or notions of the Deluge which suppose the Waters to have been pure without any other mixtures so unaccountable and yet so remarkable and evident that if no other rational solution could be offer'd 't were but just and necessary to admit whatever is asserted by this Author rather than deny the reality of those Phaenomena or ascribe the plainest remains of the Animal and Vegetable Kingdom to the sportings of Nature or any such odd and Chimaerical occasions as some persons are inclinable to do But withal I must be allow'd to say and the Author himself will not disagree That his Hypothesis includes things so strange wonderful and surprizing that nothing but the utmost necessity and the perfect unaccountableness of the Phaenomena without it ought to be esteem'd sufficient to justifie the belief and introduction of it Which straits that account of the Deluge we are now upon not forcing me into as will appear hereafter I have I think but just reasons for my disbelief thereof and as just or rather the same reason to embrace that Assertion we are now upon That this upper Earth as far as any Shells Bones or Vegetables are found therein was adventitious and newly acquir'd at the Deluge and not only the old one dissolv'd and resetled in its ancient place again LXXII This Factitious Crust is universal upon the Tops of the generality of Mountains as well as in the Plains and Valleys and that in all the known Climates and Regions of the World This is fully attested by the Observations of the same Author and those which he procur'd from all parts of the World conspiring together LXXIII The Parts of the present upper Strata were at the time of the Waters covering the Earth loose separate divided and floated in the Waters among one another uncertainly This is proved by the same Author's Observations LXXIV All this Heterogeneous Mass thus floating in the Waters by degrees descended downwards and subsided to the bottom pretty nearly according to the Law of Specifick Gravity and there compos'd those several Strata or Layers of which our present upper Earth does consist This is prov'd by the same Observations LXXV Vast multitudes of Fishes belonging both to the Seas and Rivers perish'd at the Deluge and their Shells were buried among the other Bodies or Masses which subsided down and compos'd the Layers of our upper Earth This is prov'd by the same Observations LXXVI The same Law of Specifick Gravity which was observ'd in the rest of the Mass was also observ'd in the subsidence of the Shells of Fishes they then sinking together with and accordingly being now found enclos'd among those Strata or Bodies which are nearly of their own several Specifick Gravities The heavier Shells being consequently still enclos'd among the heavier Strata and the lighter Shells among the lighter Strata in the Bowels of our present Earth This is prov'd by the same Observations LXXVII The Strata of Marble of Stone and of all other solid Bodies attained their solidity as soon as the Sand or other matter whereof they consist was arriv'd at the bottom and well setled there And all those Strata which are solid at this day have been so ever since that time This is prov'd by the same Observations LXXVIII These Strata
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
Consolidation of the Strata and before the Flood 't is evident that the Diurnal Motion did not commence till after the Annual nay till after the Formation and Consolidation of the Earth And so what on other grounds was before rendred highly probable will appear nearer to certainty on This For 't is plain If the present Diurnal Motion commenc'd either with the Annual or indeed any time before the Formation of the Earth the Figure of the Chaos and so of the Abyss and Upper Earth would originally be that of an Oblate Sphaeroid as it is now the Strata would be all coherent united and continued without any Cracks or Perpendicular Fissures at all and the Origin of Springs on the Doctor 's Grounds must in a natural way be plainly impossible Since therefore the Diurnal Rotations commencing after the Consolidation of the Strata gives a Mechanical and Natural Account of the Chaps and perpendicular Fissures since without the same in the present Case no natural Cause of them is by any assigned since withal 't is unquestionable that there were Springs and Rivers before the Flood and since lastly it appears that such Fissures were necessary to the being of those Springs and Rivers 't is very reasonable nay necessary to suppose that the Diurnal Rotation did not commence till after the Formation and Consolidation of the Earth was over or which is almost all one till the Fall of Man as we formerly asserted 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 XVII This has been sufficiently explain'd already and need not here be reassum'd And that each of these Seas Springs with their Rivers and Mountains were generally the same and in the same places as the present there is no reason to doubt they being usually the very same individuals then and now and so unquestionably cannot have chang'd their primary Situations XVIII The Waters of the Seas in the Primitive Earth were Salt and those of the Rivers Fresh as they are at present and each as now were then stor'd with great plenty of Fish XVIII This has no difficulty in it seeing our present Seas and Rivers are the very same or of the same nature and their several Inhabitants the Spawn or Off-spring of those primitive ones XIX The Seas were agitated with a like Tide or Flux and Reflux as they are at present XIX The presence of the Moon and Sun being the cause of the Tides and those Bodies by consequence being equally dispos'd before as since the Deluge to produce them this Proposition can have no manner of difficulty Only we may take notice of these two things 1. That in the State of Innocence before the Diurnal Revolution began the frequency of the Tide must depend on the Lunar Period and happen but twice in each Month as now it does in somewhat above a days time with us On which account the increase and decrease of the Waters would be extreamly gentle leisurely and gradual without any imaginable Violence or Precipitation 2. That in the whole Antediluvian State the Tides were lesser than since by reason of the smallness of the Seas then in comparison of the great Ocean from whence now the most considerable ones are deriv'd All which yet hinders not but they might be sensible enough in some Creeks Bays and Mouths of Rivers The peculiar circumstances of those places in that as well as in the present State rendring the Tides the Elevations and Depressions of the Waters there most considerable and violent of all others XX. The Productions of the Primitive Earth as far as we can guess by the remainders of them at the Deluge differ'd little or nothing from those of the present either in Figure Magnitude Texture of Parts or any other correspondent respect XX. These things seem to depend on two Particulars viz. partly on the primary Bigness Figure and Constitution of the constituent insensible Parts or Elements of Bodies and partly on the quantity of Heat made use of in their Production or Coalition Which being suppos'd the Proposition will easily be establish'd For as to the first I suppose they remain invariably the same in all Ages and are by any natural Power unalterable And as to the last whatever be to be said of the State of Innocence or the first Ages succeeding on some peculiar accounts which I believe might be warmer than at present yet as to the times here referr'd to there is no need to suppose any great difference of Heat either from the Sun or the Central Body And indeed all the difference on any accounts to be suppos'd between the Heat before and since the Deluge must be too inconsiderable to be taken notice of in any such sensible Effects as this Proposition does refer to For the Sun's heat was not above a twenty fifth part greater than 't is now and the space of four or five thousand Years makes but a small difference in that of the Central Solid if at first it were heated any whit near the degree mention'd in the Calculation referr'd to in the Margin And tho' its real Heat were decreas'd yet in case its facility of Penetration were increas'd in the same Proportion the heat on the Face of the Earth would still be equal and invariable And so by these accounts the Productions of Nature in all Ages must be pretty equal and agreeable as this Proposition requires Corollary Tho' the Lives of the Antediluvians were so much longer than ours at present yet were they not generally of a more Gygantick Stature than the past or present Generations since have been In all which Ages notwithstanding there have been some of an extraordinary Bigness and Stature and will be still no doubt in the future Ages to the end of the World XXI The Primitive Earth had such Metals and Minerals in it as the present has XXI This is easily accounted for For since the Antidiluvian and the present Earth are either the very same as the lower Regions or at least of the same nature the Off-spring of a Comets Atmosphere as even that acquir'd Crust at the Deluge was 't is no wonder if each of them contain the same Species of Bodies within it XXII Arts and Sciences were invented and improved in the first Ages of the World as well as they since have been XXII There is little need of giving particular Reasons for this All I shall observe is That seeing the Ignorance and Barbarity of the Ages after the Deluge is the greatest Objection against this Proposition 't is avoided in our Hypothesis The insensible tho' prodigious Change of the State of Nature and the perishing of all the Monuments of the old Learning or Arts at the Flood with the want of correspondence in the latter Years to the former Tradition reducing the few remainders of the former State wholly to seek for their
that thick and gross Atmosphere which now encompasses the Earth All which I mean as well the gross Atmosphere it self as those its Heterogeneous Mixtures are a very natural Off-spring of the Deluge according to the present Account thereof For seeing we at that time pass'd clear through the Chaotick Atmosphere of a Comet and through the Tail deriv'd from it we must needs bear off and acquire vast quantities of such heterogeneous and indigested Masses as our Air now contains in it whence those Effects here mention'd would naturally proceed 'T is probable the original Air was too pure rare and thin to sustain any gross and earthy Particles tho' they had been left in it at the first and so its Heat both for kind and degree was no other than the proper Place and Influence of the Sun could require And 't was then sure more uniform through the several Climates of the Earth than now it is when our Air in the Torrid Zone being full of Sulphureous and Sultry and in the Frigid ones of Nitrous and Freezing Effluvia or Exhalations the violence of an unkindly in Heat the one and of the like unkindly Cold in the other are so sensible and so pernicious as all experience attests them now to be 2. The uncertainty of our Seasons with the sudden and unexpected changes in the Temper of our Air are on the same accounts equally visible with the former For the Temper of the Air since the Deluge especially with regard to our Sensations not resulting from the external Heat only but from the Kinds and Quantities of its heterogeneous and adventitious Mixtures will not now depend on the Season of the Year alone but on the veering of the Wind and its uncertain removal of the Air and its Steams from one Region to another Thus if in Summer the North Wind chance to blow any long time together 't will bring along with the Air so great quantities of the Cold Freezing Nitrous Steams as may quite overcome the Sun's Heat and cause a very cold Season of a sudden if the South Wind do the like in the Winter the contrary Effect will follow and we shall have a warm Season when Frost and Snow were more naturally to be expected Thus accordingly frequent experience shews the Sun to be so little master of the Seasons of the Year that sometimes January and July for several Days are hardly distinguishable It sometimes happens that we have this Day a Frost the next proves so warm that the former Cold is forgotten till perhaps the succeeding Night puts us more affectingly in mind of it again Nay in a very few Hours space a sultry and a freezing Air not seldom do succeed each other to the great harm and misery of Mankind and of all their fellow Animals in our present State from which therefore we have good reason to believe our happier Progenitors before the Deluge were intirely free 3. That our Seasons are so extream in their several Kinds is easy to be hence accounted for also For were there no sulphureous or calorifick Steams in the Air all pothery and sultry Weather and such sort of Heat as chiefly affects our Bodies would be quite avoided and the great increase thereof after the Summer Solstice which arises 't is probable in part from the Airs retention of one days Heat till the next augments it again would in good measure cease among us And the like is to be said of the Cold in Winter in all the respects before-mention'd The original of all which Effects being so easily deducible from the present Account of the Deluge 't is no question but the Antediluvians might to their comfort be wholly Strangers to them Their Climates were not of so very different Temper their Seasons leisurely and gradual intirely following the Solar Course And their Summers and Winters not so mighty different at the most in the single Proportion of the Sun's Presence or Absence Direct or Oblique Situation In this equable State the Polar Inhabitants might with little danger cut the Line and the Ethiopians visit the Frigid Zones In this condition of the World the peculiar Air of every Country went not far from home to disturb that of others A few Days never made any sensible Alteration in the temperature of the Air and all that an intire Spring or Autumn could do would still leave the same pretty equable to be sure very tolerable On all which and several other consequential Accounts we have but too much reason to envy the Ancient Happiness of our Forefathers and to be sensible of that fatal and destructive Catastrophe which the wickedness of Mankind brought upon themselves and all their Posterity to this very Day at the Deluge we are now speaking of XXXVII The Constitution of the Antediluvian Air was Thin Pure Subtile and Homogeneous without such gross Steams Exhalations Nitrosulphureous or other Heterogeneous Mixtures as occasion Coruscations Meteors Thunder Lightning with Contagious and Pestilential Infections in our present Air and have so very pernicious and fatal tho' almost insensible Effects in the World since the Deluge XXXVII The consideration of the foregoing Solution is sufficient to clear the present Phaenomenon also to which therefore the Reader is referr'd XXXVIII The Antediluvian Air had no large gross Masses of Vapours or Clouds hanging for long seasons in the same It had no great round drops of Rain descending in multitudes together which we call Showers But the Ground was watered by gentle Mists or Vapours ascending in the Day and descending in great measure again in the succeeding Night XXXVIII This is also easily understood from what has been already said So rare thin pure and subtile an Air as the Antediluvian was would scarce sustain such gross and heavy Masses as the Clouds are It would not precipitate the superior Vapours upon the inferior in such quantities and with such violence as is necessary to the Production of great round sensible Drops of Rain It had no gross Steams to retain Heat after the cause of it was gone and the Sun set and so the Vapours which were rais'd in the Day would descend again in the Night with the greatest regularity and gentleness In all which respects the different Nature Crassitude and irregular Composition of our present gross Atmosphere acquir'd at the Deluge from the Comet 's in which such Opake Masses as the Clouds are frequently to be observ'd must naturally admit and require those contrary Effects which the present Proposition takes notice of and were to be here accounted for XXXIX The Antediluvian Air was free from violent Winds Storms and Agitations with all their Effects on the Earth and Seas which we cannot but now be sufficiently sensible of XXXIX These Phaenomena are such proper consequents of a Primitive Formation and the original of those opposite ones ever since the Deluge so naturally thence to be deriv'd that there is no reason to imagine them to have been before A Comet 's Atmosphere is
a very stormy Fluid wherein Masses of Opake Matter are continually hurried about all manner of ways in a very uncertain and violent manner Seeing therefore we acquir'd at the Deluge so great a quantity of the same Atmosphere of which ours is now in part compos'd 't is impossible to expect any other State of things than such as this Phaenomenon mentions and was to be here accounted for Corollary Hence it appears That the Wind of the Day of which Moses makes mention at the Fall of Man was not a constant Phaenomenon of the Earth but peculiar to that time And this is very agreeable to the Hypothesis before laid down of the commencement of the Diurnal Rotation at the very Day here mention'd according to which a Wind must necessarily arise at that point of Time tho' there were none before or after till the Deluge On that beginning of the Diurnal Rotation 1. The Equatorial Regions would be elevated the Polar depress'd the Orb of Earth would be chap'd and broken and warm Steams burst out at the Fissures thereby produc'd all which could scarce happen without some Agitation of the Air. But 2. What is more certain and more considerable when the Terraqueous Globe began on a sudden to revolve from West to East the Air could not presently accompany it and so must cause a Wind from East to West till receiving by degrees the Impression it kept at last equal pace therewith and resting respectively caused a constant Calm afterwards Which Wind being therefore from the Earth's Velocity there greatest towards the Equator and Tropicks near the latter of which was the place of Paradise would be considerable enough especially in a state otherwise still and calm to be taken notice of by the Sacred History and be a kind of Relick or Footstep of the then Commencement of that Diurnal Rotation which is so necessary to account for it and has been from other Arguments already prov'd in its proper place XL. The Autediluvian Air had no Rain-bow as the present so frequently has XL. This is easily accountable from what has been already said For 1. The descent of the Vapours necessary to it was usually if not only in the Night when the absence of the Sun rendred its appearance impossible 2. The descending Vapours compos'd only a gentle Mist not sensible round Drops of Rain as we have before seen on which yet the Rain-bow entirely depends as those who understand the Nature and Generation thereof will easily confess So that tho' the Sun were above the Horizon at the fall of the Vapours the appearance of the Rainbow was not to be expected 3. Were the Vapours that fell compos'd of sensible round Drops and fell in the day-time and this in sufficient Quantities yet for want of a Wind which might drive them together on one side and thereby clear the Air on the other for the free admission of the Rays of Light a Rain-bow were seldom or never to be suppos'd before the Deluge all which circumstances being now quite otherwise give us clear reasons for the present frequent appearance of that beautiful and remarkable Phaenomenon tho' till the Deluge it was a perfect Stranger to the World XLI The Antediluvians might only eat Vegetables but the Use of Flesh after the Flood was freely allow'd also XLI That a State of Nature as to the Air Earth Fruits and other circumstances so very different from ours at present should require a suitable difference in the Food and Sustenance of Mankind is very reasonable to believe But besides 1. When the Lives of Animals were naturally so long as in correspondence to Mankind is fairly to be suppos'd before the Deluge 't is not improbable that God Almighty would not permit them to be taken away on any other occasion than that of Sacrifice or Oblation to himself 2. Perhaps in the tender and even Condition of the Antediluvians the eating of Flesh would have spoil'd their Tempers and shortened their Lives such Food being I suppose fitter for our gross and short-liv'd State since the Flood than that refin'd and lasting one before it 3. Perhaps the Antediluvian Vegetables were more juicy nourishing and wholsome not only than Flesh but than themselves have since been which the better and more fertile Soil out of which they grew then gives some reason to conjecture And whether they had not then some Vegetables which we have not now may deserve the consideration of such as search after their remains in the Bowels of the Earth The same care of the Vegetable as of the Animal-Kingdom not appearing in the Sacred History relating to the Deluge However 4. If we observe that even at this day the warm Seasons and Countries are less dispos'd to the eating of Flesh than the cold ones and remember that the Antediluvian Air was in some degree warmer than the present we shall not be wholly to seek for a particular reason of this Phoenomenon 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. XLII Tho' several other things might here deserve to be consider'd yet I shall only insist upon the difference between the Antediluvian Air and that since the Flood to give an account of this Proposition The consideration of the Pure Unmixed Equable and Gentle Constitution of the former compar'd with the Gross Thick Hetorogeneous Mutable and Violent Condition of the latter of it self affording a sufficient Solution of this difficulty That Air which is drawn in every breath whose included Particles 't is probable insinuate themselves continually into our Blood and the other Fluids of our Bodies and on which all experience shews humane Life and Health exceedingly to depend being at the Deluge chang'd from a Rare and Thin to a Thick and Gross Consistence from an equability or gradual and gentle warmth and coolness of Temperature to extremity of Heat and Cold and that with the most sudden and irregular steps from one to another from True and Pure Air or an Homogeneous Elastical Fluid to a mix'd and confused Compositum or Atmosphere wherein all sorts of Effluvia Sulphureous Nitrous Mineral and Metallick c. are contain'd Which circumstances if there were no other will I imagine give a satisfactory account of the mighty difference as to the point of Longaevity between the Antediluvians and those which ever since have dwelt on the Face of the Earth We may obtain some small and partial resemblance of it in a person who had liv'd many years upon the top of a high Mountain above the Clouds and Steams of our Earth and whose temperament of Body was peculiarly dispos'd for so Pure Thin and Undisturb'd an AEther as there he enjoy'd and afterward were confin'd to the most Foggy Marshy and Stinking part of the Hundreds in Essex or of the Boggs in Ireland What Effect in Point
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
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
one But although the main reasons for such a Proposition are I confess to be taken from the consequences thence to be deriv'd and the admirable correspondence of them all to Ancient Tradition to the Phaenomena of the Deluge and to the Scripture Accounts thereto relating as will be visible hereafter yet there being some Arguments of a different nature which may render it probable and prepare the Reader for admitting the same before the consequences thereof come to be fully understood I chuse to place this Assertion here among my Hypotheses tho' I do not pretend that the Arguments here to be made use of ought to put the same so near to certainty as its fellows have I think reason to expect with unprejudic'd Readers But to come to the matter it self The Reasons I would offer are these following 1. The Designs and Uses of Planets seem most properly to require circular Orbits Now in order to give a rational guess at the same Designs and Uses of Planets I know no other way than that from comparison with the Earth And here when we find one of the Planets and that plac'd in the middle among the rest to agree with the others in every thing of which we have any means of enquiry 't is but reasonable to suppose that it does so also in those which 't is impossible for us by any other certain way to be assured of If we observe a certain Engin in one Country and see to what use 't is put and to what end it serves and if afterward we see another tho' in a different Country agreeing to the former in all things as far as we are able to discover Tho' we are not informed of its design and use we yet very naturally and very probably believe that it serves to the same purpose and was intended for the same end with the former Thus it ought sure to be in the case before us and by the same way of reasoning we may fairly conclude to what uses all the Planets serve and on what general designs Providence makes use of them viz. To be the seat or habitation of Animals and the Seminary of such Plants and Vegetables as are necessary or convenient for their support and sustenance Which being therefore probably suppos'd of the rest and certainly known of the Earth I argue That a circular Orbit being the most fit and proper for such purposes may justly be presum'd the original situation of the Planets and the primary work of Providence in ordering their courses Such Creatures Rational Sensitive or Vegetative as are fit and dispos'd for a certain degree of the Sun's heat are very much incommoded by one much greater or much less and by consequence are peculiarly accommodate to a Circular but by no means to an Eccentrical Orbit And tho' the inequality of the Earth's distance from the Sun in the different Points of its Orbit be so inconsiderable that we observe little effect of it yet in some of the other Orbits which are much more Eccentrical it must be very sensible and have a mighty influence on the productions of Nature and the constitution of Animals in Planets revolving therein And what reason can we imagine why the Southern Hemisphere for instance of a Planet by the situation of the Perihelion near its Summers Solstice should be so different from the Northern in the primary contrivance of the Divine Providence This seems not so agreeable to the original regularity and uniformity of Nature nor does it look like the immediate effect of the Divine Power and Wisdom in the first frame of the World when all things just coming out of the Creator's hands must be allow'd to have been perfect in their kind and exceeding good when the rational Creatures being Pure and Innocent the natural state of things was to be suited to them and dispos'd agreeably to reason proportion and the convenience of the same unspotted and sinless Creatures 2. The opposite position and use of the opposite Species of Bodies the Comets seem by the rule of contraries to suppose what we have been contending for If indeed we had found a mixture of Planets and Comets in the same Regions of the Solar System and a confusion of the Orbits and Order of both If we had discover'd all species of Ellipses with all degrees of Eccentricity from the Circle to the Parabola the Proposition I am upon would be more than precarious and but too disagreeable to the frame of Nature But when we find no such thing but the clean contrary namely That all the Comets revolve in Orbits so extremely Eccentrical that such segments of them as come within our observation are almost Parabolical or of an infinite degree of Eccentricity 'T is not unreasonable to conclude That likely enough the contradistinct Species of Bodies the Planets originally revolv'd in Orbits of no degree of Eccentricity that is in perfect Circles The Eccentrical or Elliptick Orbits of the one among other things probably distinguishing them from the other which originally moved in Concentrical or Circular ones 3. This Hypothesis is favour'd by the Ancient Astronomy which so pertinaciously adher'd to the Circular Hypothesis notwithstanding all its Eccentricks Epicycles and strange Wheel-work that it may seem the effect of Ancient Tradition that once the Heavenly Motions were really Circular And This is the more remarkable because not only the true System of the World but the Conick Sections and among them the Elliptick Figure was very anciently known and consider'd By the introduction of which all the fanciful and uncouth figments they were forc'd upon might have been wholly spar'd and an easie and natural Idea of the Planetary Motions obtain'd Which if ever it had been started by its exact agreement to the Phaenomena could scarce ever have been lost and which yet as far as I know never came into the Minds of Astronomers till the Great Kepler's time who first prov'd the Orbits to be Elliptick too plainly to be denied or almost doubted any longer 4. The Quantity of the several Orbits Eccentricity and the Position of their Aphelia are so various different and without any visible design order or method as far as is hitherto discover'd that the Whole looks more like the result of Second Causes in succeeding times than the Primary Contrivance and Workmanship of the Creator himself 'T is indeed possible that there may be Design and Contrivance in these things tho' we cannot discern them yet seeing we have on the common grounds no Reason to affirm such a thing seeing the equidistant situation from the Sun would more clearly shew such Design and Contrivance seeing also the original circular Motion of the Earth granted the Position of the Earth's Aphelion and the quantity of its Orbit's Eccentricity do so remarkably infer the Divine Wisdom and Artifice therein and are wonderfully subservient to the highest purposes By the one the Day of the Year when the Flood began by the other the length
of the Antediluvian Year being nearly determinable of which hereafter 't is I think but fair reasoning to conclude That that Hypothesis which does so certainly argue Art and Contrivance Order and Providence is to be prefer'd to another which seems to infer the clean contrary or at best only leaves room for a possibility thereof as 't is in the present case I do by no means question but these uncertain Eccentricities and various Position of the Aphelia of the Planets with all other such seemingly Anomalous Phaenomena of Nature happen'd by a particular Providence and were all one way or other fitted to the state of each Species of Creatures Inhabiting the several Planets according as their respective Behaviours or Circumstances in their several Generations requir'd of which the succeeding Theory will be a pregnant instance But my meaning is this That before any good or bad actions of Creatures when every thing was just as the Wisdom of God was pleas'd to appoint when each Creature was compleat and perfect in its kind and so suited to the most compleat and perfect state of external Nature 't is highly probable that the outward World or every such state of external Nature was even uniform and regular as was the temper and disposition of each Creature that was to be plac'd therein And as properly suited to all their necessities and conveniences as was possible and reasonable to be expected Such a state 't is natural to believe obtain'd through the Universe till succeeding changes in the Living and Rational requir'd proportionable ones in the Inanimate and Corporeal World 'T is most Philosophical as well as most Pious to ascribe only what appears wise regular uniform and harmonious to the First Cause as the main Phaenomena of the Heavenly Bodies their Places and Motions do to the degree of wonder and surprize but as to such things as may seem of another nature to attribute them intirely to subsequent changes which the mutual actions of Bodies one upon another fore-ordain'd and adjusted by the Divine Providence in various Periods agreeably to the various exigencies of Creatures might bring to pass 5. It being evident that multitudes of Comets have pass'd through the Planetary System that in such their passage they were sometimes capable of causing nay in very long periods must certainly without a Miracle have caused great alterations in the same and that the nature and quantities of the present Eccentricities or Anomalies are no other than what must be expected from such Causes 't is very reasonable to allow these effects to have really happen'd and that consequently all might be as I here contend it was originally orderly uniform and regular and particularly the Planetary Orbits uniform concentrical and circular as I am here concern'd to prove If any one of us should observe that a curious Clock made and kept in order by an excellent Artist was very notably different from the true time of the day and took notice withal of a certain rub or stoppage which was very capable of causing that Error in its Motion he would easily and undoubtedly conclude that such an Error was truly occasion'd by that visible Impediment and never design'd at first or procur'd by the Artist The application of which resemblance is too obvious to need a Comment and naturally enforces what I am now contending for 6. 'T is evident that all the little Planets about Jupiter move in Orbits truly Circular without the least sensible degree of Eccentricity On which account the present Hypothesis appears to be far from contrary to the frame of Nature nay to be no other with regard to the Primary than is de facto true in this Secondary System And from that so remarkable a parallel may the more easily be believ'd to have once been the case of this also 7. 'T is evident that in case the Comets Attractions were the cause of the Eccentricity of the Planets they would usually draw them also from the Plains of their former Orbits and make them inclin'd or oblique to one another So that where the Orbits are Eccentrical 't is probable according to the present Hypothesis the Plains must be different and oblique to each other and where the Orbits are Circular the Plains of the several Orbits must be as they were at first or in probability coincident Now this is really observable in the two Systems last mention'd The Plains of the Circular Orbits about Jupiter being nearly if not exactly coincident and those of the Eccentrical ones about the Sun being oblique to each other Which Observation is no inconsiderable Argument that originally the Planetary Orbits were exactly Circular as well as that at the same time they were every one in the same common Plain or in Plains coincident to one another Which last mention'd Hypothesis to Speak a word or two of that by the way tho' I look upon it as not unlikely and such an one as several of the foregoing Arguments might be apply'd to and do plead for yet I shall not insist farther upon it here Both because the following Theory does not directly depend upon it in any part and because the moving in different Plains does not cause any ill effects or notable inconveniences in the System of Nature as we have shewn the Eccentricity does and so cannot with the same clearness and force be urg'd against its being the Original Workmanship of God as I have above discours'd in the other case Only this I may say That seeing the Planetary Orbits are still almost in the same Plain seeing the Comets Passages are capable of causing such little obliquity nay were they originally in the same Plain in length of time by the fore-mention'd Attraction they must without a Miracle have been drawn from their common Plains and been obliged to revolve in those different from each other as they now do and seeing withal that Eccentricity and Obliquity as uniformity of distance from the Center and coincidence of the Plains go together in the World as has been just before noted this Hypothesis of the Original coincidence of the Planetary Plains is an opinion neither improbable nor unphilosophical and only a little less evident than what this Proposition was to prove viz. That the Primary Orbits of the Planets were perfect Circles but otherwise very much a-kin and exceeding correspondent thereto they at once receiving light from and affording light to one another mutually VIII The Ark did not rest as is commonly suppos'd in Armenia but on the Mountain Caucasus or Paropamisus on the Confines of Tartary Persia and India This Proposition is proved by these following Arguments 1. This Mountain agrees to the place where the First Fathers after the Deluge Inhabited which any part of Armenia does not 'T is evident from Scripture that the first removal of the Fathers after the Flood there mention'd was from the parts on the East of Babylon It came to pass as they journeyed from the East that they found
creature waiteth for the manifestation of the Sons of God For the creature was made subject to vanity not willingly but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope Because the creature it self also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travelleth in pain together until now XXVII The temper of the Air where our first Parents liv'd was warmer and the heat greater before the Fall than since This appears 1. From the heat requisite to the Production of Animals which must have been greater than we are since sensible of Of which the hot Wombs in which the Foetus in viviparous Animals do lye and the warm brooding of the Oviparous with the hatching of Eggs in Ovens are good evidence 2. From the nakedness of our first Parents 3. From that peculiarly warm cloathing they immediately stood in need of afterwards the Skins of Animals Unto Adam also after the Fall and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins and cloathed them XXVIII Those Regions of the Earth where our first Parents were plac'd were productive of better and more useful Vegetables with less Labour and Tillage than since they have been The Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it before the Fall The Lord God said unto Adam after the Fall Cursed is the ground for thy sake in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee and thou shalt eat the herb of the field In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return unto the ground for out of it wast thou made XXIX The Primitive Earth was not equally Paradisiacal all over The Garden of Eden or Paradise being a peculiarly fruitful and happy soil and particularly furnish'd with the necessaries and delights of an innocent and blessed life above the other Regions of the Earth The Lord God planted a Garden Eastward in Eden and there he put the man whom he had formed And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food the tree of life also in the midst of the garden and the tree of knowledge of good and evil The Lord God sent the Man forth from the garden of Eden to till the ground from whence he was taken So he drove out the man XXX The place of Paradise was where the united Rivers Tigris and Euphrates divided themselves into four streams Pison Gibon Tigris and Euphrates Of this see the fourth Hypothesis before laid down XXXI The Earth in its Primitive State had only an Annual Motion about the Sun But since it has a Diurnal Rotation upon its own Axis also Whereby a vast difference arises in the several States of the World Of this with all its consequents see the third Hypothesis before laid down XXXII Upon the first commencing of this Diurnal Rotation after the Fall its Axis was oblique to the plain of the Ecliptick as it still is Or in other words the present vicissitudes of Seasons Spring Summer Autumn and Winter arising from the Sun's access to and recess from the Tropicks have been ever since the Fall of Man God said on the fourth Day Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night which was their proper office till the Fall And let them be ever after for signs and for seasons and for days and years After the Flood While the Earth remaineth Seed-time and Harvest and Cold and Heat and Summer and Winter and Day and Night shall not cease Implying that tho' the Seasons as well as Night and Day had been during the Deluge scarcely distinguishable from one another yet the former as well as the latter distinction had been in nature before And surely the Spring Summer Autumn and Winter with their varieties of Cold and Heat Seed-time and Harvest were no more originally begun after the Deluge than the succession of Day and Night mention'd here together with them is by any suppos'd to have been But of this we have at large discours'd under the third Hypothesis foregoing already to which the Reader is farther referr'd for satisfaction CHAP. III. Phaenomena relating to the Antediluvian State of the Earth XXXIII THE Inhabitants of the Earth were before the Flood vastly more numerous than the present Earth either actually does or perhaps is capable to contain and supply In order to the proof of this Assertion I observe 1. That the Posterity of every one of the Antediluvians is to be suppos'd so much more numerous than of any since as their lives were longer This is but agreeable to the Sacred History in which we find two at sixty five and one at seventy years of Age to have begotten Children While the three Sons of Noah were not begotten till after their Father's five hundredth year When yet at the same time the several Children of the same Father appear to have succeeded as quickly one after another as they usually do at this day For as to Cain and Abel they appear to have been pretty near of an Age the World being at the death of the latter not without considerable numbers of People tho' their Father Adam was not then an hundred and thirty years old and so in probability contain'd many of the Posterity of both of them Which by the way fully establishes the early begetting of Children just now observ'd in the Antediluvian Patriarchs and if rightly consider'd overturns a main Argument for the Septuagint's Addition of so many Centenaries in the Generations Before and After the Deluge And as to the three Sons of Noah born after the five hundredth year of their Father's Life 't is evident that two of them at the least Japhet and Sem were born within two years one after another All which makes it highly reasonable to suppose that in the same proportion that the Lives of the Antediluvians were longer was their Posterity more numerous than that of the Postdiluvians 2. The Lives of the Antediluvians being pretty evenly prolong'd without that mighty inequality in the periods of humane Life which we now experience the proportion between the Lives of the Antediluvians and those of the Postdiluvians is to be taken as about nine hundred the middle period of their Lives to twenty two the middle period of ours Which is full forty to one And accordingly in any long space the Antediluvians must have forty times as numerous a Posterity as we usually allow with us for the same space on account thereof 3. On account of the Coexistence of so many of such Generations as are but successive with us we must allow the Antediluvian number of present Inhabitants to have been in half an
the Deluge preserv'd and distinguish'd from all the rest of the World the Divine Providence did conduct the Ark and on this was laid the Foundation of the present Race of Mankind and of all those Terrestrial Animals which are now on the Face of the whole Earth which otherwise had perish'd at their Exit out of the Ark notwithstanding their wonderful Preservation therein during the Rage of the Deluge Coroll 3. Hence we may easily understand whence the Olive-branch was brought by the Dove to Noah For when the Trees adjoyning to the Ark or on the neighbouring Tops of the Hills had suffer'd small damage by the Flood and had since the clearing of the Waters enjoy'd almost the whole Spring and half the Summer they must be as flourishing and full of as many new and tender Sprouts as ever one of which might therefore be easily broken off by the Dove and brought to Noah in her Mouth which new dry and frim Sprout or Branch being a clear evidence that the Waters were not only gone and the Ground dry a great while before but that the Earth was still as formerly fit for the Production of its wonted Trees and Fruits must exceedingly tend to the Satisfaction of Noah and the Confirmation of his Faith and Hope in an entire Deliverance and in the future Renovation of the World LXXII This Factitious Crust is universal upon the Tops of the generality of the Mountains as well as in the Plains and Vallies and that in all the known Climates and Regions of the World LXXII This is a necessary consequent from the Universality of the Deluge already accounted for And tho' the generality of the Mountains would usully have a thinner Sediment or Crust than the Plains or Vallies in proportion to the lesser height of the Waters over each of them respectively yet they being at the Deluge much inferior to the height of Caucasus must be generally cover'd with the same Crust unless the Storms and Waves wash'd it down again after its first setling upon any of them as the Observations shew they really now are Corollary 1. 'T is hence evident even abstractedly from the Sacred History that there has formerly been an Universal Deluge much higher than the generality of the Mountains So that hereafter since the so useful Observations of Naturalists and principally of Dr. Woodward hereto relating we need not endeavour to secure the Credit and Veracity of the Mosaick History of the Deluge by Ancient Records and the universal Attestation of Antiquity which Testimonies yet are too evident and numerous to be denied but may from our own Eyes at the neighbouring Mines and Coal-Pits satisfy our selves of the exact truth of this part of the Sacred Volume which has been so much excepted against by ill-disposed Persons So wonderful is the Method of the Divine Wisdom in its seasonable Attestations afforded to the Sacred Scriptures That not only the Very Day as we have seen when the Flood began assign'd by Moses may still after more than four thousand years be prov'd from Astronomy to have been the true one which the Learned are chiefly capable of judging of and being primarily influenc'd by But the Reality and Universality of the Deluge it self is demonstrable from such common and easie Observations in all parts of the World at the Neighbouring Mines or Coal-pits that the Vulgar and Most Illiterate may be Eye-witnesses of the certain Effects of it and so fully convinc'd of the fidelity of the Sacred Historian therein Coroll 2. 'T is no wonder that none of the Antediluvian Cities Towns Buildings or other Remains are any where to be met with since the Deluge They being all generally buried perhaps above two hundred foot deep in the Earth by the Sediment of the Waters LXXIII The Parts of the present upper Strata were at the time of the Waters covering the Earth loose separate divided and floated in the Waters among one another uncertainly LXXIII This Proposition needs no farther Explication being already plain in what has been already said LXXIV All this Heterogenous Mass thus floating in the Waters by degrees descended downwards and subsided to the Bottom pretty nearly according to the Law of Specifick Gravity and there compos'd those several Strata or Layers of which our present upper Earth does consist LXXIV This Proposition is as easie as the former and included in what has been already said LXXV Vast multitudes of Fishes belonging both to the Seas and Rivers perish'd at the Deluge and their Shells were buried among the other Bodies or Masses which subsided down and compos'd the Layers of our upper Earth LXXV Where so Heterogeneous a Mass of Corpuscles were dispers'd every where through the Waters and towards the bottom especially at the latter end of their subsidence render'd the same very thick and muddy 't is natural to suppose that multitudes of Fishes partly stisled with the Spissitude and grossness of the Fluid scarce there deserving that name and partly poison'd with the kinds of some of those Corpuscles which they took in together with their Nourishment therein would be destroy'd and perish in the Waters Which being granted the rest so easily follows as not to need any farther Explication LXXVI The same Law of Specifick Gravity which was observ'd in the rest of the Mass was also observ'd in the subsidence of the Shells of Fishes they then sinking together with and accordingly being now found enclos'd among those Strata or Bodies which are nearly of their own Specifick Gravities The heavier Shells being consequently still enclos'd among the heavier Strata and the lighter Shells among the lighter Strata in the Bowels of our present Earth LXXVI This Phaeuomenon is so natural and necessary considering the gradual increase of the thickness of the gross Sediment downward and the equal subjection of Shells to the Law of Specifick Gravity with all other Bodies that I shall not insist any farther upon it Corollary This single Phaenomenon of the Shells of Fish inclos'd in the most Solid Bodies as Stone and Marble and that all over the World according to their several Specifick Gravities at great depths within the Bowels of the Earth which is so strange in it self so surprizing to the Spectators and so unaccountable without the most unusual and precarious Miracles be introduc'd on any other principles and yet so easily and naturally solv'd in the Hypothesis before us is a strong I had almost said an Invincible Argument for the verity thereof and as undeniable as a Physical assertion is capable of That is 'T is as far as we can in reason pronounce without a Miracle certainly true LXXVII The Strata of Marble of Stone and of all other solid Bodies attained their solidity as soon as the Sand or other matter whereof they consist was arriv'd at the bottom and well setled there And all those Strata which are solid at this day have been so ever since that time LXXVII Seeing this upper Crust or Sediment was
compos'd in great part of the Earthy Corpuscles or Masses of a Chaos as well as the Primitive Earth was at the Mosaick Creation The very same reasons assignable for the coalescence and consolidation of the former are equally to be suppos'd in the present case and render it equally reasonable with the other And if the Dense Fluid or any parts or steams from that were instrumental to the Original Union of parts at the Primary Formation of the Earth 't is probable there was no want of it at the Deluge The Atmosphere of the Comet and the Fountains of the Deep being both capable of supplying sufficient quantities among the larger plenty of their Watery and Earthy Masses as is plain from what has been already said Neither in case some of it were acquir'd by the means aforemention'd is it to be expected that we ought to see it still on the Face of the Earth as we do the Ocean For seeing this Dense Fluid is much heavier than Water or Earth it would be at the very bottom of all and so either be inclosed in the Pores and Caverns at the bottom of the Sediment or transform'd into a different Body by its composition with the Earthy parts it was enclos'd withal and did consolidate LXXVIII These Strata 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 LXXVIII When the Sediment setled down gradually upon the Surface of the Ancient Earth it would compose Strata or Layers as even continued and parallel as one could desire and as the said Surface did permit And had the said Surface been fix'd and unalterable this evenness and parallellism this uniformity and continuity of the Strata would have remain'd unalterable also to this day But since as we have formerly shewn the intire Orb of Earth was at the beginning of the Deluge crack'd chap'd and broken and for many years afterwards would by degrees settle and compose it self towards its former figure and rotundity again tho' the Series and Connexion of the Strata might before they were consolidated be as regular as you can imagine yet when the Basis or Foundation on which they rested and the Surface on which they were spread fail'd by degrees in several places and proportions by the rising of some Columns upwards and the setling of others downwards this Upper Orb or Crust where the Strata were not become intirely Solid like Stone and Marble must follow in great part the fate of the other and be dislocated elevated or depress'd in correspondence to that whereon it rested And have thereby a Set of Chaps and Fissures directly over-against those which were before in the Ancient Earth But as for such places where the new Strata were become Stony or Solid and incapable of a compliance with the under Earth by the settling downward or elevation of its immediate Basis the Primitive Earth those Caverns and Grotto's those Caves and Hollows which appear within the Earth or its Mountains would naturally arise while the Solid Strata like Beams or Arches sustain'd the impending Columns notwithstanding the sinking and failure of their immediate Foundations by which Causes the Surface and Upper Regions of the Earth would become very uneven and full of small irregularities such as the present Phaenomenon assures us of Corollary 1. Hence we see a plain Reason why Mountainous and Stony Countries are only or principally Hollow and Cavernous Some lesser Mountains being perhaps occasion'd by the subsidence of the neighbouring Columns and the Caverns they enclose thereby produc'd and the Solidity of the Strata being the proper Cause of such Caverns in other Cases Of which the softer more loose and pliable Earth was accordingly incapable Corollary 2. Tho' the Ancient Earth were setled and become uneven in the same degree and in the same places as the present is and that before the consolidation of the new Sediment yet the Series of the several Strata one under another on each side of any Fissure would in some measure correspond to one another as if the consimilar Strata had once been united and had afterwards been broken and sunk down unequally as is manifest from the consimilar situation and subsidence of the consimular Corpuscles whereby the like order and crassitude of each Stratum might be still preserv'd tho' not so exactly as if the sustaining Surface had been even and smooth when the Sediment compos'd those Strata and the Fissures had afterward been made through both Orbs at once and caus'd such inequality Coroll 3. Hence would arise mighty and numerous Receptacles of Water within the Earth especially in the Mountainous parts thereof For usually where a solid Stratum sustain'd the Earth above while the parts beneath sunk lower and thereby produc'd a Cavern the Waters would ouze and flow into it from all quarters and cause a conflux or inclosed Sea of Waters in the Bowels of the Earth Which Cavities might sometimes communicate with one another or with the Ocean and sometimes contain Restagnant Waters without any outlet All which are very agreeable to the present Phaenomena of the Earth Coroll 4. Hence appears the Reason of the raging of Earthquakes in Mountainous Countreys and of the bursting forth and continuation of Volcano's there For these Caverns which we have observ'd the Mountainous Countreys to be mainly liable to are fit to receive and contain together Nitrous and Explosive Sulphureous and Inflammable steams in great quantities and withal to admit the Air to fan and assist that Explosion or Inflammation which seems to be the occasion of those dreadful Phaenomena in our present Earth Coroll 5. If therefore there be no other Caverns than these accounted for just now and taking date from the Deluge 't is very probable there were few or no Volcano's or Earthquakes so much depending on them before the Flood Coroll 6. In case what has been or might farther be said be not found sufficient to account for some observations made concerning the inward parts of our Earth but Dr. Woodward's Hypothesis of the Disruption of the before united Strata by a general Earthquake or the explosive force of the Steams of Heat ascending from the Central parts be found necessary such a supposition will by no means disagree with the present Theory For when the Subterraneous ascending Steams were every way stop'd and their ordinary course from the Central to the Superficiary Parts obstructed by the new Sediment or Crust growing fast and setled and in some places Stony and Impenetrable they would be every where preternaturally assembled especially in the cracks breaches and fissures of