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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
city_n	country_n	great_a	time_n	6,961	4	3.2259	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A58173	Miscellaneous discourses concerning the dissolution and changes of the world wherein the primitive chaos and creation, the general deluge, fountains, formed stones, sea-shells found in the earth, subterraneous trees, mountains, earthquakes, vulcanoes, the universal conflagration and future state, are largely discussed and examined / by John Ray ...	Ray, John, 1627-1705.	1692 (1692)	Wing R397; ESTC R14542	116,553	292

The Sun shall be turned into darkness and the Moon into blood before that great and terrible day of the Lord comes Malachi 4.1 Behold the day cometh that shall burn like an Oven c. Deut 32 22. For a fire is kindled in my anger and shall burn to the lowest Hell and shall consume the Earth with her encrease and set on fire the foundations of the Mountains I must confess that the Prophetick Books are full of figurative Expressions being written in a Poetick Style and according to the strain of the Oriental Rhetorick which is much different from the Euporean affecting lofty and turned Metaphors and excessive Hyperbola's and Aggravations which would either sound harsh to our Ears or import a great deal more to us than they did to them This is obvious to any one that reads their Books and may clearly be demonstrated from the Titles that their Kings assumed to themselves as well Anciently as lately viz. Sons of the Sun Brethren of the Sun and Moon Partners of the Stars Lions Crowned in the Throne of the World Endued with the strength of the whole Heaven and Virtue of the Firmament Now we cannot possibly imagine them so vain as to think themselves literally to be such no sure all they meant by these Expressions was that they were great and honourable and powerful Now the Prophetick Books of the Old Testament being written in a Style somewhat conformable to the Oratory of those Countreys are not I humbly conceive in every tittle to be so exactly scanned and literally expounded but so to be interpreted as a Jew or an Asiatick would then have understood them And this I rather think because there be divers passages in the Prophets which cannot be verified in strict literal sense As in the place before quoted Esay 34.9 It is said of the streams of Idumaea that should be turned into Pitch and the dust thereof into Brimstone and the Land thereof should become burning Pitch and should not be quenched night nor day but the smoke thereof should go up for ever And of the City of Tyre it is said Ezek. 26.14 It shall be built no more And verse 19. When I shall make thee a desolate City like the Cities that are not inhabited when I shall bring up the Deep upon thee and great waters shall cover thee And verse 21. which is thrice repeated I will make thee a terror and thou shalt be no more though thou be sought for thou shalt never be found again saith the Lord God And yet we see that the City of Tyre though it was indeed wholly dispeopled at that time the Inhabitants transferring themselves into Africa when it was besieged by Nebuchadnezzar yet was it afterward peopled again and continues a City inhabited to this day And of Babylon it is said that there should none remain in it neither man nor beast but that it should be desolate for ever Jer. 51.62 Esay 13.20 and of the Land of Babylon Verse 29. that it should be a desolation without an Inhabitant And though indeed this Prophesy was I think as to the City at last verified in the Letter yet did Babylon long continue a great City after this Paraphrase And the Land of Babylon is now inhabited there being at this day a great City not far from the place where Babylon stood So that these places import no more then that there should be a very great Destruction and Devastation of those Cities and Countries As for those places in the Old and New Testament wherein mention is made of the last Days and the last Times it is clear that they are to be understood of the Age of the Messiah all the time from the Exibition of the Messiah to the end of the World Esay 2.1 And it shall come to pass in the last days that the Mountain of the Lords house shall be established in the top of the Mountains and shall be exalted above the Hills and all Nations shall flow to it which very words we have repeated Michah 4.1 So that Prophesie of Joel 2.28 quoted Acts 2.17 And it shall come to pass in the last days saith God I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh c. is to be understood Hence the last Days have among the Jews proverbially signified the days of the Messiah as Doctor Hammon in his Annotations upon this place tells us who also Notes that in that place of Joel the last days do literally signifie the last days of the Jews immediately preceding their destruction called there the Great and terrible Day of the Lord. So Heb. 1.2 by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in these last days is meant the days of the Messias So 1 Pe● 1.20 2 Pet. 3.3 1 Tim. 4.1 2 Tim. 3.1 mention is made of the last days in this sense In like manner the end of the World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 9.26 But now onc● in the end of the World hath he appeared t● put away sin by the Sacrifice of himself An● 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Ends of the World i● 1 Cor. 10.11 Vpon whom the ends of th● World are come signifie the Age of the Messias though indeed the former seems mor● peculiarly to denote the shutting up of th● Jewish Age or Oeconomy CHAP. III. The Testimonies of the Ancient Fathers and Doctors of the Church concerning the Dissolution of the World 2. I Proceed now to what the Ancient Fathers of the Church and Christian Writers have delivered concerning the Dissolution of the World That there shall be a Dissolution of this World and that it shall be by Fire is so certain and clear among them that it would be superfluous to cite Particulars to prove ●t nay so general and unanimous is the consent of all Christians in this Point that as Origen observes in his third 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the learned Doctor Hakewill after him whereas there can hardly be named any Article of our Faith which some Hereticks have not presumed to I●pugne or call in Question yet not any to be met with who questions this but herein all agree being compelled saith Origen by the Authority of the Scriptures As for the time of this Dissolution the Ancient Christians held it to be at hand as might easily be proved by many Testimonies were it not granted on all ●ands And here it may be worth the observing that the longer the World stood the further off generally have Christians set the day of Judgment and end of it Many of the Ancients did conceive that the Dissolution should be at the end of six thousand years As for Example Justin Martyr in Quoest Resp ad Orthodoxos if he be the Author of that Piece where this Question When the end of the World should be being put the Answer is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. We may rationally conjecture and conclude from many Scripture Expressions that they are in the right who say that the World will last six thousan●

may fill it up Moreover the Clouds still pouring down Rain upon the Earth it will descend as far as there is any declivity and where that fails it will stagnate and joyning with Sea cover first the skirts of the Earth and so by degrees higher and higher till the Whole be covered To this we may add that some assistance toward the levelling of the Mountains may be contributed by the Courses and Catarracts of subterraneous Rivers washing away the Earth continually and weakning their foundations so by degrees causing them to founder subside and fall in That the Mountains do daily diminish and many of them sink that the Vallies are raised that the Skirts of the Sea are atterrated no man can deny That these things must needs in process of time have a very considerable and great effect is as evident which what else can it be then that we have mentioned Varenius in his Geography putting the Question Whether the Ocean may again come to cover all the Earth and make an Universal Deluge answers That we may conceive a way how this may naturally come to pass The manner thus Supposing that the Sea by its continual working doth undermine and wash away the Shores and Cliffs that are not rocky and carry the Earth thereof down towards the middle or deepest parts of its Channel and so by degrees fill it up By doing this perpetually it may in a long succession of Time carry all away and it self cover the whole Earth That it doth thus subvert and wash away the Shores in many places is in experience true About Dort in Holland and Dullart in Friesland and in Zealand many Villages some say Three Hundred have been drown'd by the encroachments of the Sea as some of their Towers and Steeples still extant above the Waters do testifie On the Tuscan Shore Kircher tell us that not far from Ligorn he himself had observed a whole City under Water that had been in former times drown'd by the Inundation of the Sea And over against Puteoli in the Sinus of Baia he tells us that in the bottom of the Sea there are not only Houses but the traces and footsteps of the Streets of some City manifestly discernable And in the County of Suffolk almost the whole Town of Donewick with the adjacent Lands hath been undermined and devoured by the Sea This washing away of the Shores is I conceive in great measure to be attributed to the fore-mentioned streightning and cutting short of the Sea by the Earth and Silt that in the times of Floods are brought down into it by the Rivers For the Vulgar have a Proverbial Tradition That what the Sea loses in one place it gains in another And both together do very handsomly make out and explain how the Earth in a Natural way may be reduced to its primitive state in the Creation when the Waters covered the Land But this according to the leisurely proceedings of Nature would not come to pass in many Ages I might say in Ages of Ages Nay some think that those vast Ridges and Chains of Mountains which run through the middle of the Continents are by reason of their great height weight and solidity too great a Morsel ever to be devoured by the Jaws of the Sea But whether they be or not I need not dispute though I incline to the Negative because this is not the dissolution the Apostle here speaks of which must be by Fire But I must not here dissemble an Objection I see may be made and that is That the Superficies of the Earth is so far from being depressed that it is continually elevated For in ancient Buildings we see the Earth raised high above the foot of them So the Pantheon at Rome which was at first ascended up to by many eight Steps is now descended down to by as many The Basis and whole Pedestal of Trajan's Pillar there was buryed in the Earth Dr. Tancred Robinson in the year 1683. observ'd in some places the Walls of old Rome to lye Thirty and Forty Foot under ground so that he thinks the greatest part of the Remains of that Famous Ancient City is still buried and undiscovered the prodigious heaps of Ruines and Rubbish inclosed within the Vineyards and Gardens being not half dig'd up or search't as they might be the tops of Pillars peeping up and down And in our own Country we find many Ancient Roman Pavements at some depth under ground My Learned and Ingenious Friend Mr. Edward Lloyd not long since inform'd of one that himself had seen buried deep in the Church-yard at Wychester in Glocestershire Nay the Earth in time will grow over and bury the Bodies of great Timber Trees that have been fallen and lye long upon it To which I answer As to Buildings 1. The Ruines and Rubbish of the Cities wherein in they stood might be conceived to bury them as deep as they now lye under ground And by this means it's likely the Roman Pavements we find might come to be covered to that height we mentioned For that the places where they occur were anciently Roman Towns subverted and ruined may easily be proved as particularly in this we mention'd from the Termination Chester whatever Town or Village hath that addition to its Name having been anciently a Roman Town or Camp Chester seeming to be nothing but Castra 2. It is to be consider'd That weighty Buildings do in time overcome the resistance of the foundation unless it be a solid Rock and sink into the ground Nay the very soft Water lying long upon the bottoms of the Sea or Pools doth so compress and sadden them by its weight that the very Roads that are continually beaten with Horses and Carriages are not so firm and sad And in the Sea the nearer you dig to the Low Water Mark still the sadder and firmer it is and it 's probable still the further the sadder which seems to be confirmed by the strong fixing of Anchors This firmness of the Sand by the weight of the incumbent Water the people inhabiting near the Sea are so sensible of that I have seen them boldly ride through the Water cross a Channel three Miles broad before the Tide was out when in some places it reacht to the Horses Belly A semblance whereof we have in Ponds which being newly dig'd the Water that runs into them sinks soon into the Earth and they become dry again till after some time by often filling the Earth becomes so solid through the weight of the Water that they leak no more but hold Water up to the brink Wittie Scarborough Spaw p. 86. What force a gentle if continual pressure hath we may understand also by the Roots of Trees which we see will sometimes pierce through the Chinks of Stone Walls and in time make great Cracks and Rifts in them nay will get under their very foundations The tender Roots of Herbs overcome the resistance of the ground and make their way through Clay