present as the case was of the Dry-land Animals because the latter being universally destroy'd those in the Ark alone excepted were to begin their Propagation anew but the former not being so did but increase their still numerous Individuals and must thereby soon recover and surpass their former Multitude as will easily be allow'd on a little consideration of this Matter Corollary Hence arises a strong Confirmation of what is on other grounds already asserted That there were only smaller Lakes and Seas but no great Ocean before the Deluge For since it appears by this Phaenomenon that the Waters of the Antediluvian Earth were much more replenish'd nay crouded with Fish than now they are and since there was no general Destruction of them as there was of Dry-land Animals at the Deluge had there been as great a Compass or as vast an Ocean for their Reception then as at present there is the numbers now in every part of the Ocean or Seas ought to be vastly greater than they then were an being all the Off-spring of those which every where surviv'd the Deluge and which have propagated themselves for more than four thousand Years since the same which being disagreeable to the Observations referr'd to in this Phaenomenon is little less than a Demonstration of the falshood of that Hypothesis on which 't is built or a full Attestation to our Assertion that there were only smaller Lakes and Seas but no great Ocean before the Deluge XXXV The Antediluvian Earth was much more fruitful than the present and the multitude of its vegetable Productions much greater XXXV Before I come directly to solve this and the following Propositions I must premise that 't is usually unreasonable to ask why such Phaenomena belong'd to the Antediluvian World They being commonly but the natural and regular Properties of an Original Earth newly form'd out of a Chaos such as one should rationally expect in a World newly come out of the Hands of its Creator and fitted for the Convenience and Fruition of noble Creatures such as the generality of our fellow Planets especially our next Neighbour the Moon as far as we can observe appear to have had at first and hitherto retain'd All that can in reason be desir'd is this To give a plain and intelligible Account of those opposite Phaenomena of the Earth which we now are sensible of and by what means the Deluge could occasion the same Which therefore shall be frequently the business of the succeeding Solutions And as to the present case the decrease of the Fertility of the Earth at the Deluge these Causes are assignable 1. The decrease of the Sun's Heat by the greater distance of the Earth from him since than before the Deluge It has been before prov'd that till the Deluge the Earth's Orbit was Circular and the Radius of that Circle very little longer than the nearest distance at the Perihelion now So that when the Heat of the Sun is as the density of his Rays or reciprocally as the Squares of the Earth's distance from him If instead of the present Ellipsis we take for Calculations sake as we ought a Circle in the middle between the nearest and farthest distance we shall find that the Sun's Heat on the Earth in general before the Deluge was to its present Heat as almost a hundred to ninety six or a twenty fifth part of his intire Heat greater before than since the same which is by no means inconsiderable in the Case before us 2. The Heat of the Central Body was considerably damp'd and obstructed both by the Waters of the Deluge themselves acquir'd from abroad and now contain'd in the Pores and Caverns of the Earth under us and by that Sediment of them which now composes that upper Crust of Earth we dwell upon and which being setled and consolidated on the Superficies of the Ancient Earth would prove a great hindrance to the ascending Steams not to be overcome but by degrees and in length of time afterwards From both which Causes very a notable Damp would be put to the Influence of the Central Heat on which as well as on the Sun 's the Fertility of every Soil does in part depend 3. The upper Earth or fruitful Soil it self the main Fund and Promptuary of the vegetable Kingdom is now very inconsiderable in quantity if compar'd with that of the Primitive or Antediluvian Earth For when this last mention'd was the intire product of the Ancient Chaos at the original Formation of the Earth and the first what only was afforded from a small part of such a Chaos the Comet 's Atmosphere and by the Storms born off the Tops of Mountains at the Deluge while the old Soil lies buried under the Sediment or Crust on which we live 't is no wonder that our fertile Stratum is now thinner spread and so the Productions less copious in the present than they were in the Antediluvian State of Things And this tho' we suppose the Soil from the Comet or from the Tops of the Mountains to be as good in it self and to have remain'd as pure and unmix'd with any heterogeneous Matter in this confusion of things at the Deluge as it would at the regular Formation of the Earth at first which yet is by no means supposable and the contrary to which being allow'd for will still farther afford us a reason of the present Assertion So that since the present Soil is both much worse in Quality and much less in Quantity than the old one and since the Heat whether of the Sun or Central Solid is so much lessen'd at the Deluge which things include the main Causes of Fertility 't is no wonder that the present Earth is nothing near so fruitful and luxuriant in her Productions as the Autediluvian was XXXVI The Temperature of the Antediluvian Air was more equable as to its different Climates and its different Seasons without such excessive and sudden Heat and Cold without the scorching of a Torrid Zone and of burning Summers or the freezing of the Frigid Zones and of piercing Winters and without such sudden and violent Changes in the Climates or Seasons from one extreme to another as the present Air to our Sorrow is subject to XXXVI Seeing the primary State here mention'd is but a proper result from the first Formation of the Earth all that need be accounted for is the Alteration at the Deluge 1. The mighty difference of Climates especially of the Torrid and Frigid Zones is I suppose owing not wholly to the Sun's Heat or the Nature of the Air it self but partly to those Calorifick and Frigorifick Mixtures which are uncertainly contain'd therein Meer Heat and Cold are very different things from that Pothery and Sultry that Frosty and Congealing Weather which alternately in Summer and Winter at the Line and the Poles we usually now feel These Effects seem plainly deriv'd from Nitrous or sulphureous or other the like Steams exhaled into mixed with and sustained by
and compare the States of External Nature before and after the Fall one with another and with those things which the Propositions we are now upon do assert concerning them 'T is evident then from what has been before laid down hereto relating that the Primitive state of things before the Fall was thus The Earth being newly form'd was scarcely as yet intirely consolidated and so pretty uniformly pervious to the warm Steams ascending from beneath It s Figure was perfectly Sphaerical and its Strata or Layers by consequence were even continued and join'd and so the Central Heat being equally distant from all the parts of the Earth's Surface did very equally diffuse it self and equally affect all the Climates of the Globe The Soil or Uppermost Stratum of the Earth was newly moisten'd by the descent of the Waters before they compos'd the Seas on the Third Day of the Creation and by the plenty of Moisture which it still receiv'd every Night The Air was perfectly Clear Homogeneous Transparent and Susceptive of the utmost Power of the Solar Heat The Seasons were equable or gently and gradually distinguish'd from one another by the Rising Setting Descending and Ascending Sun without any quick Interpositions of Day and Night to disturb them The Torrid Zone of the Earth as I may call those Regions near the Solar Course was very much Expos'd to the Sun and very much warm'd withal by its Vicinage to the Central Solid The Moon in twelve Revolutions equally measur'd out the Year and caus'd the most gentle easie and gradual Tides imaginable This with all its natural Consequents was the State of the Primitive World But as soon as Man had sinn'd and render'd that happy State too good for him or indeed rendred himself wholly uncapable thereof And as soon as God Almighty had pronounced a Curse on the Ground and its Productions presently the Earth began a new and strange Motion and revolv'd from West to East on its own Axis A single 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Revolution of Night and Day either immediately or by degrees according as the present Velocity of the Diurnal Rotation was suddenly or gradually acquir'd returned frequently and became no longer than 24 short Hours while the Annual Motion perform'd on a different Axis distinguish'd the Seasons and in Conjunction with the Diurnal describ'd the Equator and the Tropicks and by the access and recess of the Sun from the last named Circles caus'd it to visit the several Regions enclos'd thereby The Face of the Earth was really distinguish'd into Zones by the Tropicks and Polar Circles truly divided from one another with respect whereto the particular Regions of the Earth chang'd their Situation the Equator being that Circle with regard whereto they were now to be determin'd as they had been before with regard to the Ecliptick and so that Paradise which was before at the middle became the Northern boundary of the Torrid Zone The Figure of the Earth which was before truly Sphaerical degenerated into an Oblate Sphaeroid the Torrid Zone rising about 10 Miles upward and the Frigid one subsiding as much downwards The Compages of the Upper Earth and of its Strata became thereby chap'd broken and divided and so carried up the warm Steams from beneath to particular Conceptacles and Volcano's which before serv'd in a more equal and uniform manner to heat and invigorate the intire Earth and its productons The Tides lastly became frequenter and so more sudden and violent than before Which short Summary or Scheme of the States of Nature in our Hypothesis before and after the Fall ought to be all along born in mind and reflected on in order to the passing a right judgment on the accounts of those Phaenomena in the Solution whereof we are now engag'd And which otherwise might seem very odd and unaccountable to the Reader Which being thus dispatch'd I proceed 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 all the necessaries and delights of an innocent and blessed life above the other Regions of the Earth XXIX That all the Primitive Earth could not be equally Paradisiacal and enjoy the same Priviledges and Conveniences beyond the Present is easily prov'd For seeing one of its principal causes of Fertility and other Prerogatives was the greater degree of Heat at the Paradisiacal Regions The Climates near the Solar Course being alone capable of such greater Heat must be alone capable of its Effects also and consequently we are to confine our enquiries for the Garden of Eden to the Countries not very remote from the Ancient Ecliptick Now that some peculiar Spot or Region thereabouts might beyond all the rest be Fertile Pleasant and Paradisiacal 't is not difficult to suppose At the present there is a mighty variety in Countries in the very same Hemisphere Climate and Parallel The particular Prerogatives of one Region beyond another do not intirely depend on the Sun or the Vicinage of the Central Heat But partly on the Nature and Temper of the Soil the kinds of Vegetables and Fossils thereto belonging the number qualities and conflux of Rivers he firmness or looseness of the inferior Strata hindring or freelier permitting the ascent of the Subterraneous Steams Juices and Effluvia From the coincidence of which and of other such things in a peculiar and advantagious manner order'd and dispos'd on purpose by the Divine Providence at the Mosaick Creation the extraordinary pleasantness and felicity of this Earthly Paradise or Garden of Pleasure is I suppose to be deduc'd and which being consider'd will I believe be sufficient to give satisfaction in the Proposition before us XXX The place of Paradise was where the united Rivers Tigris and Euphrates divided themselves into four Streams Pison Gihon Tigris and Euphrates XXX This Situation of Paradise has been already consider'd and need not here be reassum'd Only we may observe That no Scruples would ever have been rais'd about this Matter in case the foremention'd Rivers had still been visible their Course still agreeable to the Mosaick Description and the Metals and Minerals mention'd of the adjoyning Countries had been as evidently there to be found in ours as they appear to have been in those Primitive Times Seeing therefore the following Theory will so clearly assign the Cause of such Diversity that every Reader will be oblig'd to grant it much harder to have accounted for the Phaenomena of Paradise consistently with the other Phaenomena of Nature if all things were now as they were at first than almost any other of the Antediluvian World I may justly hope that this so disputed a Question of the Situation of the Garden of Eden or Primitive Paradise to those who embrace the other parts of the Theory will remain no longer so but be as fix'd and undoubted within at least the limits of that Hypothesis here referr'd to as any other
Country or Region with the same exactness determin'd by Geography 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 XXXI This has been at large explain'd and prov'dalr eady 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 Autumm and Winter arising from the Sun's access to and recess from the Tropicks have been ever since the Fall of Man XXXII This has in some measure been insisted on already in the Hypothesis last mention'd and needs no other direct and positive proof than the present Obliquity of the Earth's Axis It being evident that without a miraculous Power the same Situation or Inclination which it had originally would and must invariably remain for all succeeding Ages CHAP. III. A Solution of the 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 maintain and supply XXXIII THIS Proposition will not appear strange if we consider 1. The much greater fertility of the Antediluvian Earth to be presently accounted for whereby it was capable of maintaining a much greater number of Inhabitants than the present even on the same space of Ground 2. The Earth was more equally habitable all over before than since the Deluge For before the acquisition of those heterogeneous mixtures which the Deluge occasion'd and which I take to be the Causes of all our violent and pernicious Heat and Cold in the Torrid and Frigid Zones of our Earth 't is probable the Earth was pretty equally habitable all over by reason of the Vicinage of the Central Heat to the Polar Regions and the more direct Exposition of the middle Regions to that of the Sun I do not mean that the Frigid Zones were equally hot with the Torrid but that the Heat in the one and the Cold in the other were more kindly and the excesses of each much less considerable than at present since the Introduction of the before-mention'd Mixtures and particularly of such Sulphureous and Nitrous Effluvia as are now I believe become Calorifick and Frigorifick Particles in our Air the main occasions of the violence and pernicious Qualities of the Heat and Cold thereof and the most affecting to our Senses of all other So that 't is probable before the Acquisition of these Advensitious Masses the Antediluvian Air was every where sufficiently temperate to permit the comfortable Habitation of Mankind on all parts of the Globe and the Antediluvian Earth was by consequence capable of many more Inhabitants than the present is or can be as every one will readily grant who considers how few Inhabitants in comparison three of the five Zones of our present Earth do maintain 3. The dry Land or habitable Earth it self was by reason of the absence of the intire Ocean full as large and capacious again as the present For the Ocean I think takes up now at the least one half of the intire Globe but then afforded as large spacious and habitable Countries as the other parts of the Earth 4. The Mountains which are now generally bare and barren were before the Deluge so far as they were suppli'd with Water as fruitful as the Plains or Vallies and by reason of a larger Surface were capable of maintaining rather more Animals than the Plains on which they stand would otherwise have been The present defect of a fruitful Soil being owing to the Deluge and there being no good reason that I know of to be assign'd why on a primary Formation and in a calm and still State of the Air the higher Parts of the Earth should not be cover'd with a fruitful Soil or Mold as well as the level or lower adjoyning to them All which Accounts taken together will I think give reasonable Foundation for such vast numbers of Inhabitants as according to the Computation of this Proposition the Antediluvian World was replenish'd withal Corollary 1. Since by very reasonable Computations of the numbers of the Inhabitants of the Earth at the Deluge according to the Hebrew Chronology they appear to have been sufficient abundantly to replenish the intire Globe and as many as in reason the same could sustain The Septuagints addition of near six hundred Years in this Period of the World to the Hebrew Accounts is so far from clearing Difficulties thereto relating that it rather increases the same and enforces the allowance of more Inhabitants at the Deluge than we can well tell where they could live and be maintain'd Coroll 2. Since according to the Hebrew Chronology from the Deluge till the time of Abraham's going into Canaan was the intire space of 427 Years and the Lives of Men during that interval were in a mean three hundred Years long 't is easy on the Grounds proceeded upon in this Phaenomenon's Calculations to prove That there is no need to recede from that Account or introduce the additional Years of the Septuagint in this Period to produce the greatest Numbers of Men which in that or the immediately succeeding Ages any Authentick Histories of those Ancient Times do require us to suppose Coroll 3. The Deluge which destroy'd the whole Race of Mankind those only in the Ark excepted could not possibly be confin'd to one or more certain Regions of the Earth but was without question truly Universal Coroll 4. Seeing it appears That Mankind has a gradual increase and that in somewhat more than four thousand Years our Continent of Europe Asia and Africa has been so entirely Peopled from the Sons of Noah and seeing withal America is much less in extent and I suppose generally speaking was never so full of People In case we suppose that Famines Wars Pestilences and all such sad destroyers of Mankind have equally afflicted the several Continents of the Earth Some light might be afforded to the Peopling of America and about what Age since the Deluge the American's past first from this Continent thither which a more nice enquiry into the Particulars here to be consider'd might assist us in XXXIV The Bruit Animals whether belonging to the Water or Land were proportionably at least more in number before the Flood than they are since XXXIV That part of this Proposition which concerns the Dry-land Animals is sufficiently accounted for by what has been discours'd under the last Head which equally belongs to them as to Mankind And if we extend the other part concerning the Fishes to the Seas then in Being and their comparative Plenitude there will need no additional Solution It being not to be suppos'd that the absolute numbers of Fish before the Deluge should be greater than at
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
probable also which is I think abundantly sufficient to clear this Matter LXXXIX Since the Deluge there neither has been nor will be any great and general Changes in the State of the World till the time when a Period is to be put to the present Course of Nature LXXXIX Seeing we know no other Natural Causes that can produce any great and general Changes in our Sublunary World but such Bodies as can approach to the Earth or in other Words but Comets and seeing withal the next Approach of the Comet will in probability bring the present State of things to a Conclusion and Burn the World of which presently 'T is evident the Earth is secure enough all the intermediate space And as hitherto we accordingly find it has been so we need not fear but it will be preserv'd till the foremention'd Conflagration CHAP. V. Phaenomena relating to the General Conflagration with Conjectures pertaining to the same and to the succeeding Period till the Consummation of all things XC AS the World once perish'd by Water so it must by Fire at the Conclusion of its present State XC As we have given an Account of the Universal Deluge from the Approach of a Comet in its descent towards the Sun so will it not be difficult to account for the General Conflagration from the like Approach of a Comet in its ascent from the Sun For 't is evident from what has been already explain'd that in case a Comet pass'd behind the Earth tho' it were in its Descent yet if it came near enough and were it self big enough it wou'd so much retard the Earth's annual Motion and oblige it to revolve in an Ellipsis so near to the Sun in its Perihelion that the Sun it self wou'd scorch and burn dissolve and destroy it in the most prodigious degree and this Combustion being renew'd every Revolution wou'd render the Earth a perfect Chaos again and change it from a Planet to a Comet for ever after 'T is evident this is a sufficient cause of a general Conflagration with a Witness and such an one as wou'd intirely ruine the Make of the present and the possibility of a future World On which last account if we allow the following Phaenomena we must not introduce this at this Period however but see whether a Conflagration of a less destructive and more refining Nature be not to be expected and may not be accounted for And here let it be observ'd that the Central Heat of it self seems sufficient to burn up and dissolve the upper Earth as those who with Dr. Woodward know the Power and Vehemence of the same now and its astonishing Force and terrible Effects in Earthquakes Eruptions of Volcano's and other Phaenomena of present Nature ought to allow if these two things were by any means remov'd I mean the Waters of the Seas and Ocean and the Coldness of the Air For 't is the vast quantity of Waters of the Earth and the Coldness of the middle Region of the Air every where and of the whole Air in the Frigid Zones returning the Vapours cold down again which were sent up into 'em never so hot which seems still to prevent the effects of the Subterraneous Heat and to hinder the Conflagration of the Earth If therefore the passing by of a Comet be capable of emptying the Seas and Ocean and of rendring the Air and its contiguous upper Surface of the Earth extreamly hot and inflam'd no more I suppose will be necessary to a general Conflagration Or if any more Assistance be afforded by the Presence of the Comet it will be ex abundanti and only contribute still the more certainly and the more suddenly to kindle such a fatal Fire and so dreadful a Combustion Now that both those requisite conditions for a general Conflagration wou'd be the consequents of this Passage of the ascending Comet is plain and evident For 1. on the Approach of the Comet a vast Tide wou'd arise in the great Abyss and by the new more considerable and more violent Elevations thereof into the Protuberances and the Sphaeroid Surface of the whole the old Fissures and Breaches wou'd be open'd again and not a few new ones generated not only as at the Deluge in the Mountainous or more loose Columns extant above the Surface of the Waters of the Globe but in all Parts and under the Seas and Ocean as well as in other places which Fissures must immediately swallow up the main Mass or Bulk of the Waters upon the Face of the Ground and send 'em to their Fellow-Waters in the Bowels of the Earth which was the first and principal step towards a general Conflagration And then 2. the Vapours acquir'd from the Comet 's Atmosphere which at the Deluge were by reason of their long absence from the Sun in the remote Regions beyond Saturn pretty cool at this time must be suppos'd by reason of their so late and near approach to the Sun about the Perihelion exceeding hot and burning and that to so extraordinary a degree that nothing but the Idea of the Mouth of a Volcano just belching out immense quantities of liquid and burning Streams or Torrents of fiery Matter can in any measure be suitable to the Violence thereof Imagine therefore the Earth to pass through the very middle of this Atmosphere for 7000 or 8000 Miles together and to bear off with it a Cylindrical Column thereof whose Basis were somewhat larger than a great Circle on the Earth and whose Altitude were the Number of Miles just now mention'd and then tell me whether the Air and its adjoining uppermost Region of the Earth will not be sufficiently hot and scorching which was the other Step to the general Conflagration Besides all which what quantities of this fiery Exhalation or Torrent of melted liquid Matter wou'd run down the Fissures into the Bowels of the Earth and by joining with the central hot Steams already there invigorate them and accelerate the direful Inflammation and what piercing and scorching fiery Corpuscles the central Body it self during its vicinity wou'd also send out and what an additional Power wou'd thereby be afforded the prevailing Heat I need not say Upon the whole I may appeal to the Reader if the concurrence of all these external Causes to say nothing here of any internal Dispositions in the Earth it self thereto do not appear abundantly sufficient within a little time to set the World on Fire and bring on that terrible Conflagration which both Sacred and Profane Testimonies conspire to forewarn us of and so whether the Theory of Comets does not afford us almost as commensurate and compleat an Account of the last burning as it already has done of the ancient drowning of the Earth XCI The same Causes which will set the World on Fire will also cause great and dreadful Tides in the Seas and Ocean with no less Agitations Concussions and Earthquakes in the Air and Earth XCI Seeing the Eruption of the central
where no such alteration need be made in which therefore it may seem hard to allow of a single instance against the use in the precedent and subsequent Context in the first Chapter yet the circumstances of that day being peculiar the like mixture of the persectum and plusquam perfectum being in the second Chapter and in other places of Scripture to be observed and a distinct work being still hereby preserv'd to that day the placing the Sun Moon and Stars in our Firmament which otherwise is after a sort double do all in good measure take away the force of such Reasoning and conspire to allow us that Interpretation before given and thereby to secure the Proposition before us from that grand Objection which seemed capable of causing so great an obstruction in our course But if any should be dissatisfied with this Answer I shall for their sakes enter deeper into this matter and without any assistance from what has been already said endeavour to establish the Proposition before us and take away the foundation of the present difficulty And here I observe That the Scripture all along accommodates its self to the vulgar Apprehensions of Men with relation to such Points of Natural Philosophy as they were not able to comprehend and in particular with relation to the Site Distance Magnitude Use and Motions of the Heavenly Bodies Tho' these be really very distinct as well as distant from the Earth with all its dependances yet are they rarely if ever so consider'd in the Holy Scriptures They are all along there represented as fiery Luminaries plac'd in our Atmosphere and as much belonging to and depending on the Earth as the Clouds Meteors or other Aerial Phaenomena And so 't is no wonder that in the History before us they are included among the rest of their Fellows and come within the verge of the Mosaick Creation notwithstanding its limits be no larger than we here assign thereto In order to the accounting for which things I shall 1. Shew the truth of the Observation in several instances from the Holy Scriptures 2. Shew the rational Original and Occasion of such ways of speaking 3. Explain what according to my Notion must be meant by the Creation or Production of these Heavenly Bodies in the Mosaick History before us and demonstrate such a Construction to be agreeable to the Sacred Stile in other places 4. Assign some Reasons why in a History of the Origin of our Earth these remote and distant Bodies come to be taken notice of tho' their own proper Formation did not at all belong to it 1. I shall shew the truth of the Observation in several instances from the Holy Scriptures namely that the Heavenly Bodies are no otherwise there described than with relation to our Earth and as Members and Appurtenances of our Atmosphere And this Observation is confirm'd by the first mention that is made of them in this very History we are upon all the Circumstances whereof fully attest the truth of what is here affirm'd of them When the Light first display'd it self notwithstanding those numberless advantages accruing to the whole World therefrom none are taken notice of but such as respect our Sublunary World 'T was intirely with regard to our Light and Darkness our Day and Night that all was done as far as can be collected from the words of Moses Thus as soon as the Heavenly Bodies are made tho' they be universally useful they are plac'd in the Firmament of Heaven a Phrase us'd in this History for our Air only to divide our day from night to be to us for signs and seasons for days and years to be for lights in the firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth to rule over our day and night to divide our light from darkness And as to the order of their Introduction 't is not that of their proper Greatness or Dignity but that of their respective Appearance and Uses here below All which is far from a full account of the real Original universal Intentions and true Places of these Glorious Bodies but on the Supposition here made use of exactly easy and natural Agreeably whereto when our Air is clogg'd with gross Vapours so as to hide or disfigure their Faces to us The Sun is said to be turn'd into darkness the Moon into blood and when some Aerial Meteors call'd by their Names and for a moment resembling them shoot and drop down in the Air the Stars are said to fall from Heaven The Sun and Moon as if they were two Globes of Fire and Light pendulous in our Air and hanging over certain places are order'd to stand still the one upon Gibeon the other in the Valley of Aijalon The Sun is represented as set in a Tabernacle rejoycing as a Gyant to run his race His going forth is said to be from the end of Heaven or the Horizon and his circuit unto the ends of it All which Expressions with many others through the whole Bible plainly shew That the Scripture did not intend to teach men Philosophy or accommodate it self to the true and Pythagorick System of the World The Holy Writers did not consider the Heavenly Bodies absolutely as they are Great and Noble in themselves main and glorious Parts of the Universe very distinct from our Earth plac'd at various and immense Distances from it and from one another design'd for and subservient to many wise and comprehensive Ends and Methods of the Divine Providence dispos'd in a regular order in proportionate and harmonious Periods and Revolutions and finally endued with mighty Powers and Influences with respect to numerous and vast Systems of Beings Under such a consideration we might have expected another sort of Representation of the Heavenly Bodies their Original Designs Courses and Circumstances than the foregoing Texts or their parallels every where afford us But if we look on them under the Notion of Neighbour-Luminaries which are situate at the utmost bounds of our Atmosphere and belong as well as the Clouds to our Earth which are appointed to be our peculiar Attendants and a part of our Retinue serve our single Necessities and every day rise and set on purpose to provide for our Advantage and Convenience If I say we thus look upon them as all Men not otherwise taught by Philosophy do and must the Texts above-cited and the whole current of the Holy Books will easily accord and correspond to such a System And I dare appeal to any impartial and competent Judge to which of the foremention'd Schemes the most obvious and easy Sense of the Expressions of Scripture hereto relating are adapted and whether it does not usually speak as an honest and inquisitive Countryman who no more doubted of the Heavenly Bodies than of the Clouds appertaining to the Earth rather than as a new Astronomer who knew them to be vastly distant from and to have nothing in a peculiar manner to do with the
same Which will be less wondred at when we consider in the next place 2. The Reason and Occasion of such ways of speaking And here I shall not content my self in general to observe that the design of Divine Revelation was of quite another nature than requir'd a nice Adjustment and Philosophick Explication of the Natural World that the Capacities of the People could not bear any such things that the Prophets and Holy Penmen themselves unless over-rul'd by that Spirit which spake by them being seldom or never Philosophers were not capable of representing these things otherwise than they with the Vulgar understood them That even still those who believe the true System of the World are forc'd among the Vulgar and in common Conversation to speak as they do and accommodate their Expressions to the Notions and Apprehensions of the generality of Mankind I shall not I say content my self with such Observations most of which are usually and with good reason insisted on in the present case but rather attempt to find out the true Origin and Source of such Notions and Expressions made use of as by most other Writers so especially by the Sacred Ones in the Holy Bible God has so fram'd the Eyes of Men that when the distance of Bodies and their proper Magnitude is very great they shall both be imperceptible to us There is every way from our Eye a spherical Distance or Superficies which terminates our distinct Perception of Objects and beyond which all Distances and Magnitudes absolutely considered are not by us distinguishable The Clouds tho' lying parallel to the Horizon they are so far as comes at once within our view almost in the same Plain yet to us they seem bent into a concave Figure or kind of Hemispherical Superficies equidistant almost on every side from its Center the Eye of the Spectator and so seem every way to touch the Ground at a Mile or two's distance from him And this happens by reason of the Imperfection of our Sight which distinguishing remote Objects but to a certain distance beyond which the Clouds are can have no other Idea of their Situation than small and like Objects at that Spherical Superficies would excite On which Principle 't is certain that till Geometrick and Philosophick Principles rectify mens Notions all Bodies whatsoever beyond the Clouds such as the Coelestial are must needs be esteem'd at the same equidistant Superficies with the Clouds and appear among them and by consequence 't would be on this account as possible for the Vulgar to be persuaded that the Clouds were vastly remote from and bear no relation to this Earth as that the Sun Moon and Stars were so and to them as strange to have found no account of the Formation of them with that of the other visible World as the omission of the Clouds would have been It being impossible that the Sun for instance tho' so many thousands of Miles distant should to us appear above one or two from us and alike impossible that his bigness tho' so many thousand Miles in Diameter should appear to be as many Feet to us on Earth As all who have any skill in Opticks very well know So that when these Heavenly Bodies are and must needs be to our Sight and Imagination at the same distance with the Clouds and consequently as to us are with them plac'd in our own Air when their visible Magnitude Situation Motion and Habitudes are all one with respect to us as if they really were light and fiery Balls rowling upon or among the Clouds when their apparent Changes Figures Colour Countenance Effects and Influences would be as far as Sense and vulgar Observation could determine on this Earth and to its Inhabitants the very same as were to be expected from such light and fiery Balls revolving at the presumed distance when all wise Men especially the Sacred Penmen in their Writings design'd for the Advantage and Instruction of all condescend still to the Apprehensions and Capacities of Men and speak of the Being of things as they constantly Appear of which the Bible is full of instances All these things consider'd 't is not to be wonder'd at that the Heavenly Bodies are accounted Appendages of our Earth and agreeably thereto made mention of in the Mosaick Creation 3. I shall explain what according to my Notion must be meant by the Creation or Production of these Heavenly Bodies in the History before us and demonstrate such a Construction to be agreeable to the Sacred Stile in other places Now 't is easy to tell what is meant by their Creation in the case before us when it has appear'd that their Production out of nothing was precedaneous to the six days Work and that they are wholly consider'd as belonging to our Earth and plac'd in our Air viz. their primary being so plac'd their first becoming visible to Men on Earth or in other words their original appearing to be there I mean in plain English Light is said then first to Be for it being an effect of the Heavenly Bodies not a distinct thing from them is not by Moses said to be made or created when the superior Regions of the Chaos were become so far clear and defecate that the Rays of the Sun in some degree could penetrate the same enough to render a sensible Distinction between Night and Day or that space the Sun was above and that it was beneath the Horizon And agreeably The Sun Moon and Stars are then said first to Be or to be made when afterwards the Air was rendred so very clear and transparent that those Luminaries became conspicuous and their Bodies distinctly visible as in a clear Day or Night they now appear to us That this Exposition is agreeable to the Scripture Stile is evident by this Observation That several things are there assirm'd to Be in any certain manner when only those effects we feel are such as they would be were they so indeed and 't is not unusual to assert the Being of any Cause when all those consequences are no otherwise in the World and with regard to Men than they must and would be upon its real Existence without any exacter niceness as to the truth of the same Thus God is said several times to repent of somewhat he has before done when his future Actions are the very same as would in Humane as well as Divine Affairs be the certain consequents of a proper Repentance Thus also God is said to be pleas'd or angry with Men and that in a very passionate and sensible manner when he confers such great Mercies or inflicts such great Judgments as were he really so he must naturally do Thus also Eyes and Ears are frequently suppos'd of God because he as certainly is conscious of all the Actions and Speeches of Men as if he really saw and heard the same In a different instance The Sun is said to stand still or move tho' in propriety of Speech as
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
of the Sun Moon and numberless Systems of Stars has only a poor single part allotted to it Must the expanding the Air between the Earth and the Clouds be thought to equal the disposal of all those Coelestial Bodies into their several Regions and the producing a few Fish and Fowl be a weightier concern and require more time than the replenishing all the other habitable Worlds with Beings suitable to their several Constitutions Will a wise Builder bestow twice as much time in decking and adorning of one Bycloset of inferior use and that only to some of the meanest Servants too as of the Royal Palace with all its stately Rooms and Apartments intended for the King himself and his Courtiers Should we hear of such strange Actions and disproportionate Procedure among Men we should not be able to induce our selves to give credit thereto But it seems Suppositions ten thousand times more disproportionate and unaccountable when ascrib'd to God Almighty are easily believ'd So far can Ignorance Prejudice and a misunderstanding of the Sacred Volumes carry the Faith nay the Zeal of Men and to such a mean Opinion of the most glorious and perfect of Beings are we thereby reduc'd that as if we were not content to think him such a one as our selves but intended to depress him below the very meanest of us we venture with confidence and eagerness to ascribe to him that disproportionate unequal and unaccountable disposal of the Works of Creation which the simplest Artificer could not bear the Imputation of It must here be confess'd That such Notions of the Mosaick Creation as I now oppose having begun or at least been chiefly establish'd and propagated when the Aristotelean Philosophy and Ptolomaick Astronomy were believ'd those who have embrac'd them till this Age were less absurd and nearer to some tolerable degree of probability For so long as the Earth with its adjoyning Elements was suppos'd the Center and Basis of all the World while the distance of the Heavenly Bodies was believ'd to be comparatively to what we now find very small and inconsiderable and all their Motions perform'd about us their proper and immovable Center while the whole Series of Spheres above tho' the several distinct ones mov'd the contrary way by their own peculiar Motions was in twenty four hours constantly hurried from East to West by the Primum Mobile on purpose to cause Day and Night to us below while Comets were esteem'd Exhalations from the Stars and sent only at certain Seasons to affright Mankind with their fiery Tails and then to be dissipated and vanish into Vapours again while the Sun and Stars in the Opinion of the Philosophers themselves were nourish'd by the Steams from our Earth and while the last named were either stuck in one Spherical Superficies as the fix'd Stars or fastned in their Solid Orbs like a Nail in a Cartwheel as the Planets and no other use imagin'd but to twinkle to us in Winter Evenings and by their Aspects to forebode what little Changes of Weather or other Accidents were to be expected below while no other habitable World was dream'd of than this Globe of Earth no other Animals once conjectur'd at besides those on the face thereof while Mankind was look'd on as the sole Lord of the Creation and Him for whose sake all other Creatures in the World were made and while 't was commonly granted that as all things the visible Heavens and Earth with their intire Furniture began with him so at the Conclusion of his Succession or the period of Humane Generations here must they for ever cease and be annihilated While all this I say was the current Philosophy 't is not very surprizing that the Mosaick History we are now upon was understood in the Vulgar Sense and seem'd not wholly disagreeable to the presumed Frame of Nature and 't was not hard to believe that this Earth and its Inhabitants in the Opinion of the World the main and principal concern of all and that to whose uses every thing else intirely serv'd had the principal care bestow'd upon it both in its Original Creation and its subsequent Changes and Revolutions But tho' such a Scheme and such an Apprehension were passable enough in the days of our Forefathers 't is by no means so now Those greater degrees of Knowledge which the Providence of God has in this Age afforded us make such Opinions intolerable in the present which were not so in the past Centuries 'T is now evident That every one of the Planets as well as that on which we live must have a right in its proportion to share in the care of Heaven and had therefore in all probability a suitable space or number of Days allow'd to its proper Formation much what the same Separations of Parts Digestions and Collections being no doubt to be suppos'd in the Original Formation of any other as in that particular Planet with which Moses was concern'd And if one or two on account of their smallness might be finish'd in less the rest on account of their bigness from a parity of Reason would take up much more than that six days time which was spent in our Earth's Formation And let the Reader judge if it be so impossible to reduce the Planets alone within the fourth days Work how much more so it will be in case we allow degrees of impossibilities to reduce thither that vast noble and useful Body the Fountain of our Light and Heat the Sun and still in a prodigious degree more so to include the immense and numberless Systems of the fixt Stars among whom when the Sun is but one and perhaps no bigger than the rest and consequently to have in reason but an equal portion of time with them allotted for its Origination It must tho' above Sixty thousand times as big as the Earth while the Earth takes up four intire ones be thrust into the Corner of a single Day Corner did I say rather Minute nay Moment of a Day and 't is uncertain whether even that pittance of time can fairly and separately be allow'd to it So that one need not fear to assert That he who should affirm the Divine Power to have spent four entire Days in the Formation of a Fly or Worm nay of a single Plant or Herb and but one in the Formation of the Terraqueous Globe with all its Parts Regions and Furniture would be less unreasonable than some Expositors now are and more observe Decorum Fitness Agreement and Proportion than they do in the Vulgar Interpretations of the Mosaick Creation And I need not be afraid to call all that Astronomy and Philosophy are Masters of to attest the fairness of such a Comparison And can any one who is sensible of this and entertains no other than great and worthy Thoughts of his Alwise Creator embrace so fond and so strange an Opinion And if the Reader will pardon a short Digression and give me leave to speak a great Truth
the Scruples the main Histories themselves appear'd so impossible to be any other way secur'd Several of the Accounts given by the Theorist were in the main so ingenious so probable and so agreeable to Ancient Tradition upon a cursory Consideration and the Arguments before-mention'd seem'd to me so considerable that 't was not easy for me to deny all Assent to that very Conclusion which yet on farther Enquiries and Discoveries I think not unworthy of the foregoing Censure And I should esteem it a very signal happiness if as that Theory was so instrumental in drawing me into the foremention'd Mistake so this might be fortunate enough to perswade the Author of that of the opposite Verity in which the Discoveries it contains have fully settled my own Mind and are I think sufficient in themselves to settle the minds of others But to wave these too ambitious Expectations I cannot but say so much in behalf of that Learned Theorist That as he justly deserves the highest Commendations for so generous and worthy an Attempt for the great Illustration he has given those Histories from the most Ancient Traditionary Learning and the Light afforded to the Holy Scriptures in several and those very considerable Points So he has I think reason to expect an easy Pardon where he was not able to do the same especially when not only Pardon but the freest Praises are bestowed on those who as I before observ'd equally have expos'd the Honour of God and equally derogated from the Reputation of the Sacred Writings by their unwary and unskilful Interpretations A good Man who to the highest Veneration for the Perfections of the Divine Nature has joyn'd a careful Enquiry into the Frame of the World and a free but modest use of those Faculties God has given him and has withal exactly consider'd the undoubted evidence for the Divine Authority of the Scripture ought to be and will be as tender of believing a Sense which is contrary to his innate Notions to the Perfections of God and the certain Observations of Nature as of that which puts a force upon the Words themselves and renders them meerly Popular and Mythological And by consequence either those who so frequently and zealously do the former are to be condemn'd which yet the Christian World has been far from doing or those who have been forc'd upon the latter ought to escape any greater Severity For my own part as in such difficult Cases I easily pass over the Mistakes and value the Truths discover'd by any well-dispos'd Persons which is but a due Debt owing from one fallible Creature to another So I humbly bless God the Author and Giver of all good things for that Light he has afforded me and which by the Divine Blessing I hope the following Pages will afford the Reader in these matters by which I am convinc'd of the no-necessity of opposing the literal to the true the Obvious and Natural to the Rational and Philosophick Interpretations of the Holy Scriptures and shall chearfully wait for that happy time when all Doubts being remov'd and all Objections prevented by the Improvement of our Knowledge and the Conduct of the Divine Providence Reason and Revelation shall reciprocally bear Witness to and embrace each other when no one shall be able to pretend to the one but he who is equally acquainted and satisfied with the other and the whole reasonable Creation shall unite their Hearts and Tongues in Hymns to God All thy Commandments are faithful Thy Statutes are right rejoicing the heart Thy Judgments O Lord are true and righteous altogether Righteous art thou O Lord and just are thy judgments Great and marvellous are thy works O Lord God Almighty Just and true are thy ways O King of Saints But to return from this Digression and to proceed VIII I prove the Mosaick Creation extends no farther then our Earth and is of no other Nature than is assign'd here because neither the Intentions of the Author require nor the Capacities of the People could bear either a strictly Philosophical or a truly Universal Account of the Origin of things The designs of Moses the inspired Penman or rather of that Blessed Spirit which inspir'd him in this History of the Creation were not the gratifying the Curiosity or satisfying the Philosophick Enquiries of a few elevated Minds but of a more general and useful Nature namely To inform the Jews and the rest of the World that all the visible Frame of Heaven and Earth was neither existent from all Eternity nor the result of blind Chance fatal Necessity nor unaccountable Accidents but the Workmanship of God Almighty To make them sensible that every Being they had any knowledge of was deriv'd from and subject to that Jehovah whom they worshipp'd and that in him themselves with all their fellow Creatures in the open Air on the wide Earth or in the deep Seas liv'd mov'd and had their Being who therefore must needs be the Governor and Ruler of them all To affect their Minds by this means with the awfullest Veneration for the God of Israel and inspire them with a just Gratitude to him for all their Enjoyments who had not only created this Earth for Mankind and furnish'd it with various Creatures for their use but beside these Terrestrial had made the very Celestial Bodies subservient to their Necessities To demonstrate the Original Goodness and Perfection of things and that therefore whatever was Evil must have been the consequent of Man's Fall and not of God's primary Introduction and thereby to teach men Humility and raise their abhorrence of Sin the cause of all their Miseries To shew them the unreasonableness of all sorts of Idolatry or of the Worship of any visible Beings tho' never so useful or glorious by assuring them they were all in common the Creatures of God and all their Influences of what kind soever intirely deriv'd from him and under his disposal In short the main design was to secure Obedience to those Laws he was about to deliver from God to them by giving them the greatest and justest Idea's of their Legislator the Almighty Maker of Heaven and Earth These were I suppose the principal Reasons of thus recording the Creation of the World and these Reasons made a particular Account of the visible Parts of this Earth with all its Furniture that was observable and expos'd to their daily view necessary and expedient nay they enforc'd some kind of mention of the Heavenly Bodies so far as they were concern'd with us below and so far as to shew that God originally created them as well as the more ordinary Bodies on the Face of the Earth All this was but proper and necessary in order to the foremention'd purposes But why a Natural and Philosophical Account of the primary Formation of such remote and different Systems of Bodies whose real Bigness Distances Natures and Uses abstractedly consider'd never came into Mens thoughts nor were once imagin'd by
six Days work to be of the very same and no larger extent than those are and leave the whole to the Judgment of the Reader There shall come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lusts and saying Where is the promise of his coming for since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation For this they willingly are ignorant of that by the word of God the heavens were of old and the earth standing out of the water and in the water whereby the world that then was being overflowed with water perished But the heavens and the earth which are now by the same word are kept in store reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent heat the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up In the day of God the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with fervent heat Nevertheless we according to his promise look for a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness Thou Lord in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth and the heavens are the works of thine hands They shall perish but thou remainest and they all shall wax old as doth a garment and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up and they shall be changed I have now finish'd all those Arguments which to me are fully satisfactory and I think prove beyond rational contradiction That not the vast Universe but the Earth alone with its dependencies are the proper subject of the Six Days Creation And that the Mosaick History is not a Nice Exact and Philosophick account of the several steps and operations of the whole but such an Historical Relation of each Mutation of the Chaos each successive day as the Journal of a Person on the Face of the Earth all that while would naturally have contained The sum of all is this 1. The very Words and Coherence of Moses himself require such a Construction 2. The Words of Creating Making or Framing things here us'd are commonly of no larger importance than this Proposition allows 3. The World or Heaven and Earth the objects of this Creation are alike frequently restrain'd to the sublunary World the Air and Earth 4. The Chaos that known fund and seminary of the Six Days Creation extended no farther 5. On the contrary supposition the time of the Creation of each Body is extremely disproportionate to the work it self 6. On the same supposition there is an intolerable disorder disproportion and confusion in the works themselves 7. The sinal cause of the six days Creation is the advantage of Mankind the Inhabitant of the Earth 8. Neither the intention of the Author nor the capacity of the Readers require or could bear any other account of the origin of things 9. Lastly Neither the Deluge nor Conflagration whose extent appears commensurate to that of this Creation are of any larger compass than is here assign'd Upon this view of the whole matter give me leave to say That to make the Universal Frame of Nature concern'd in the particular Fates and Revolutions of our Earth is at this time of day to demonstrate either very mean thoughts of the Ends of the Divine Workmanship and of the Essects thereof in the World or else very proud and extravagant conceits of our own worth and dignity and at best argues a narrow ignoble and unphilosophical Soul 'T is much such another Wise and Rational Notion as it would be to suppose that the whole Terraqueous Globe with all its parts and dependencies all its furniture and productions was alike concern'd in the Fates and Revolutions pardon the expressions of one single Fly or Worm belonging to it And we may e'en as fairly allow the intire dependence of this sublunary World on the fortune of such a single animalculum That on its peeping into the World the whole Earth must arise out of nothing to afford it a resting place while it was growing and continued in its prime all things below must spring and flourish rejoyce and look gay on its decay all things must put on a mournful countenance and on its destruction Universal Nature here beneath must expire together and return to its primitive nothing This representation will I imagine seem bold and extravagant But 't will be hard to prove it so And I may appeal to Astronomy whether the Earth can be shewn to bear as considerable a proportion to the Universe as such a poor animalculum does certainly bear to it I would not by this or any thing else I have heretofore said in this Discourse be so far mistaken as to be believ'd prone to depretiate and and debase Mankind or to put a slight on all those Works of Nature and Providence which are subservient to it Neither do I deny that in some sense all the Visible World Heaven and Earth are ordain'd for our use and advantage I fully believe that we are the Creatures of God of whom he has a tender regard and over whom he exercises a constant a special Care and Providence As I look upon the Souls of Men in their proper and primitive perfection when they came out of their Maker's Hands to be Noble to be Glorious to be Exalted Beings and perhaps in capacities or faculties in dignity or happiness not inferior to some of the Angelick Orders so I also most undoubtedly believe what our Saviour affirms of good mens state hereafter that they shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equal to the Angels and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Children of God himself While I am perswaded that the Creation of Man was not effected without the concurrence and joint consultation of the Blessed Trinity Nor his Redemption without the Acceptance of the Father the Sacrifice and Death of the Son in his Humane Nature and the Sanctification and Operation of the Holy Spirit While I am perswaded that the Divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 has ever since the Fall of Adam been sollicitous about our Reconciliation to God and made it his constant business even before as well as since his Incarnation to mediate for us and take care of our eternal happiness While I believe that by the new Covenant Good Men even in this Imperfect state are esteem'd Heirs of God joint-Heirs with Christ and denominated the Brethren and Friends of their Glorious Redeemer While I do not doubt but our Humane Nature is now in the Person of our Blessed Saviour in Heaven and there on account of the Hypostatical Union with the Eternal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and as a reward of that Obedience and Suffering it underwent for us on Earth advanc'd above the most exalted Intellectual Orders at the Right Hand of the Majesty on High
in the World can stand in Competition or so much as pretend to the same Character which it so agreeably corresponds to Which will be the design of and shall be compriz'd under the following Arguments 1. The Names of these two Bodies or Systems of Bodies are exactly the same and equally agreeable to the Nature of each of them The Original Chaos by the Ancient Tradition of the Phaenicians was stil'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in English A dark and stormy Atmosphere Which Appellation the constant Character of that Mass encompassing the Body of a Comet and at the same time of the old Chaos if we suppose it to have been as fitly by Antiquity appli'd to the latter as certainly Observation being judge it is to the former is as proper a one for our present purpose as could possibly be desir'd 2. The main bulk of the ancient Chaos and of the Atmosphere of a Comet is a Fluid or System of Fluids As to the former 't is both necessary to be presuppos'd in order to the succeeding Separation and regular Disposition of the Parts and is confirm'd by all the Accounts of it But Moses himself being express I shall content my self with his single Testimony who not only calls it an Abyss but gives it the stile of Waters Darkness was upon the face of the deep and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters Now that the main part of a Comet 's Atmosphere is also a Fluid appears both by its Pellucidness a thing unusual in Bodies but such as are or once were in a fluid Condition and by those perpetual Changes and Agitation of Parts within the Regions of it which in any other than a Fluid are plainly impossible and which indeed withal have hitherto seem'd so visible and remarkable that thence men were ready to imagine the whole Mass to be nothing else but a Congeries of Vapours or Clouds uncertainly jumbled together and as uncertainly dissipated again 3. The Chaos is describ'd to have been very stormy and tempestuous of which some of the Ancient Writers take particular notice To which those frequent and violent Agitations and Changes those strange uncertain Hurries of Opake Masses hither and thither which the Phaenomena of Comets Atmospheres present us with most exactly agree 4. The Chaos was a mixed Compound of all sorts of Corpuscles in a most uncertain confus'd and disorderly State heavy and light dense and rare fluid and solid Particles were in a great measure as it were at a venture mingled and jumbled together The Atoms or small constituent Parts of Air Water and Earth to which together with Fire the name of Element has been peculiarly appli'd every one were in every place and all in a wild and disturbed Confasion This is the very Essence and enters the Definition of a Chaos in which therefore all both do and must agree And if any one carefully consider the perpetually various Visage of a Comet 's Atmosphere its vast Extent the no manner of Order or Method of its several Appearances and remember that in some Comets it has in its near approach to the Sun been scorch'd and burn'd by a degree of heat many hundred times as Intense as the Sun 's is with us in the midst of Summer he will not wonder that I assert the Parts of this Atmosphere to be in a perfectly confus'd and Chaotick Condition One might indeed as well and as reasonably expect Order and Method in the ruinous Reliques of a City burnt to Ashes or in the Smoke proceeding from the same as in several at least of those Atmospheres we are speaking of 5. The ancient Chaos just before the beginning of the six days Creation was very dark and caliginous Darkness was upon the face of the deep says the Sacred and the very same say the prophane Writers Now when we every Year see how far that small Company of collected Vapours of which a Cloud consists can go towards causing darkness on the Face of the Earth we may easily guess how thick the Darkness of the Comet 's Atmosphere must needs be when all those earthy and watery Corpuscles which flying up and down in the vast Regions thereof do now so often and so much obscure the Comet 's central Body and are here so very sensible when all these I say shall rise up and make a confus'd cloudy Orb on the more confin'd Surface of the Atmosphere of some scores if not hundreds of Miles thick as must happen in the beginning of its Formation If this be not sufficient to account for this thick Darkness on the Face of the Abyss 't will I imagine be difficult to solve it better 6. Our upper Earth the Product of the ancient Chaos being in all probability founded on a dense Fluid or Abyss as will appear in the Sequel the main part of the Fluid of that ancient Chaos by consequence must have been such a dense and heavy one as is here mention'd And indeed 't is in it self but very reasonable if not necessary to allow the inferior Parts of a fluid Chaos to have been compos'd of much denser and heavier Masses than the superior or than Water the main visible Fluid of our Globe For if we consider the matter in any sort according to the Law of specifick Gravity all heavy Fluids must at least as certainly be near the Center as like heavy Solids and 't is but mechanical to allow that in a confused Fluid in some measure as well as exactly in a digested one the Fluids contain'd in the inner Regions must be much heavier than those at or near the outer Surface thereof But besides 't will be hard to account for the confus'd moving state of the earthy Parts or which is much the same the fluidity of the intire Chaos without allowing a much greater quantity of Fluids in it than what we now see with us the Waters of our present Earth and those of a Density and Gravity fit to retain their Posts as well nearer the Central as the superficiary Parts And that on this account of the Comet 's Atmosphere's fixed and dense Fluid 't is peculiarly adapted to the foresaid Description of the Chaos is evident by what has been already observ'd of the same to which I refer the Reader for satisfaction 7. Whereas very many and very considerable Phaenomena of Nature which Dr. Woodward has excellenty observ'd as well as ancient Tradition require and suppose a Central Fire or internal Heat diffusing warm and vigorous Steams every way from the Center to the Circumference of the Earth and whereas 't is very difficult on the common Hypotheses or indeed on any hitherto taken notice of to give a Mechanical and Philosophical Soultion of the same If we will but allow the Proposition we are now upon and that the Earth in its Chaotick State was a Comet a most easy and Mechanical Account thereof is hereby given and
allow'd to be if not lighter yet at least not heavier than others at the same distance from the Center So that by a just tho' a little surprizing way of reasoning from the greater weight of some parts of the Mountainous Columns the less weight of the whole is infer'd 3. Mountains are the principal Source and Origin of Springs and Fountains Now Dr. Woodward from his own observations asserts That these are neither deriv'd from Vapours condens'd in the Air at the Tops of Mountains nor from meer Rains or fall of Moisture as several have differently asserted but from the Waters in the Bowels of the Earth and that 't is a Steam or Vapour rais'd by the Subterraneous Heat which affords the main part of their Waters to them On which Hypothesis which I take to be the truest and most rational of all others the Vapours appear to have a more free and open vent or current up the Mountainous Columns than the neighbouring ones and consequently They are more rare laxe and porous or less dense and weighty than the others 4. All Volcano's or subterraneous Fires are in the Bowels of some Mountain to which a Plain or a Valley was never known to be liable Which observation affords a double Argument for such a levity and rareness as we are now contending for The One from the temper of an inflammable Earth Sulphureous and Bituminous which being in part made up of Oily Particles the lightest Fluid we have must in likelihood be the lightest of all Strata whatsoever The other from the free admission of Air into the Bowels of these Mountains without which no Fire or Flame can be preserv'd Which also infers such a porosity and laxeness as we are now concern'd to prove 5. Mountainous Countries are chiefly subject to Earthquakes and consequently are as well Sulphreous and Inflammable as Hollow and Cavernous Loose and Spungy in their inward parts without which properties the Phaenomena of Earthquakes were difficultly accountable Especially according to Dr. Woodward's Hypothesis of them who deriving them from steams of Subterraneous heat ascending from the Central parts and collected in great quantities together must by consequence own that the Bowels of Mountains so commonly subject to Earthquakes are most Pervious Porous and Cavernous of all other All which Arguments especially taken together with some other coincidences hereafter observable will I hope be esteem'd no inconsiderable evidence of the Truth of the Proposition we are now upon III. Tho' the Annual Motion of the Earth commenc'd at the beginning of the Mosaick Creation yet it s Diurnal Rotation did not till after the Fall of Man Tho' I cannot but expect that this will appear the greatest Paradox and most extravagant Assertion of all other to not a few Readers yet I hope to give so great evidence for the same from Sacred as well as Prophane Authority that competent and impartial Judges shall see reason to say that if it be not sufficient to force their assent yet 't is such as they did not expect in so surprizing remote and difficult a case the Records relating to which the Sacred Ones excepted are so few so dubious and so ancient and the constant opinion of the World within the Memory of History so fixt and setled on the contrary side Let it only be by way of Preparation remark'd That the Annual and Diurnal Motions are in themselves wholly independent on each other as was before taken notice and consequently that 't is as rational to suppose the former without the latter if there be evidence for the same in the Original State of Nature as 't is to believe them capable of being conjoin'd from the known Phaenomena of the World in the present state Let it also be observ'd that there is yet no evidence that either the Central Bodies of any of the Comets or that even several of the Planets who undoubtedly have an Annual Motion about the Sun have yet any Diurnal Rotation about Axes of their own And let it lastly be consider'd that when the Diurnal Rotation must have an Original a time when it began that time may as rationally and naturally be suppos'd after the Fall as before the Creation or Six days Work and which was the true and real one must be determin'd by the Testimonies of Antiquity or other Collateral Arguments to be from thence or from the Phaenomena of Nature Ancient or Modern deriv'd and infer'd Which things beings suppos'd I thus attempt to prove the present Assertion If the Primitive State of Nature before the Fall had those peculiar Phaenomena or Characters which certainly belong to a Planet before its Diurnal Rotation began and are as certainly impossible in the present state of the Earth revolving about its own Axis 't is plain the Assertion before us is true and real But that those peculiar Phaenomena or Characters did belong to that Primitive State the Testimonies of Sacred and Profane Antiquity to be presently produc'd do make appear and by consequence the Assertion before us is true and real The Phaenomena or Peculiar distinguishing Characters here intended have been already mention'd and are these five 1. A Day and a Year are all one 2. The Sun and Planets Rose in the West and Set in the East 3. There was through the whole Earth a perpetual Equinox 4. The Ecliptick and Equator were all one or rather the latter was not in Being but all the Heavenly Motions were perform'd about the same invariable Axis that of the former 5. To such as liv'd under the Ecliptick the Poles of the same or of the World they being then not different were neither elevated nor deprest but at the Horizon These are the certain and undeniable Characters of such a state And that they belong'd to the Primitive State of our Earth before the Fall I am now to prove 1. In the Primitive state of the World Days and Years were all one Which Assertion I endeavour to Evince by the following Arguments 1. On this Hypothesis the Letter of Moses is as exactly followed as in the contrary one 'T is agreed that Moses calls the several Revolutions of the Sun in which the Creation was Perfected Days every where in that History Now as a Year is properly the succession of the four several Seasons Spring Summer Autumn and Winter arising from one single Revolution of the Earth about the Sun so a Day is the succession of Light and Darkness once or the space of one single apparent Revolution of the Sun from any certain Semimeridian above or below the Horizon till its return thither again Now in the case before us both these Periods are exactly coincident and both are perform'd in the same space of time Which space therefore in equal propriety of speech belongs to either or both those names indifferently and by consequence may with the exactest Truth and Propriety be stil'd a Day or a Year Which thing duly consider'd if I had no
of the Heavens was uniform which thing was the cause and original of the Golden Age and of all that happiness which therein Mankind enjoy'd or external Nature partook of which how well it suits the present Hpothesis I need not say All that exceeding happy State of Nature which innocent Man enjoy'd beyond what he does since the Fall being therein owing to such a Constitution of the World as this Author intimates and I am now proving Which in the last place shall be confirm'd from Baptista Mantuanus who says relating the Opinion of the old Astonomers All the Coelestial Spheres were in the beginning of the World concentrical and uniform in their Motion and the Zodiack of the Primum Mobile and that of the Planets the Equator and Ecliptick were united and coincident by which means all sublunary Bodies were more vivid and vigorous at that time than in the present Ages of the World as the Theorist sums up the force of his Testimony very agreeably to the Hypothesis before us of the Astronomy in the primitive State of the Heavens 5. To the first Inhabitants of the Earth dwelling at the Intersection of the ancient Ecliptick with the present Northern Tropick of which hereafter the Poles of the World were neither elevated nor depress'd but at the Horizon But sometime after the Formation of things they suddenly chang'd their Situation the Northern Pole appear'd to be elevated above and the Southern depress'd below the Horizon and the Course of the Heavens seem'd bent or inclin'd to the Southern Parts of the World or in plain words there was a new Diurnal Rotation began about the present Axis of the Earth which I take to be the true and easy Exposition of the same Phaenomena This Matter is much insisted on by the Ancients and being so will fully confirm our Assertion and give light and strength to some of the former Testimonies Plutarch has a Chapter entituled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of the Inclination of the Earth in which he thus recites the Opinion of Leucippus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the Earth fell or was enclin'd towards the Southern Regions by reason of the rareness of those Parts The Northern Regions being grown rigid and compact while the Southern were scorch'd or on fire Whose Opinion is also recited by Laertius in almost the same words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By reason of the failure in the Sun and Moon the Earth was bent or inclin'd towards the South But the Northern Regions grew rigid and inflexible by the snowy and cold Weather which ensued thereon To the same purpose is the Opinion of Democritus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That by reason of the Southern Ambient Air 's imbecillity or smaller Pressure the Earth in those Parts increas'd in bulk and so sunk and bent that way For the Northern Regions were ill temper'd but the Southern very well whereby the latter becoming fruitful waxed greater and by an over-weight preponderated and inclin'd the whole that way As express to the full is the Testimony of Empedocles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The North by reason of the Air 's yielding to the Sun's force was bent from its former Position whereupon the Northern Regions were elevated and the Southern depress'd as together with them was the whole World To which agrees Anaxagoras in these words which immediately follow those just before quoted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But afterward the Pole receiv'd a turn or inclination These so many and so pregnant Testimonies of Antiquity as to the matters of fact foregoing for as to the several Reasons assign'd by them they being I suppose but the single Conjectures of the Authors must be uncertain and need not be farther consider'd or insisted on in the present case seem to me so weighty that I cannot but build and rely very much upon them How should such strange and surprizing Paradoxes run so universally through the eldest Antiquity if there were not some ground or foundation in earnest for them 'T would be hard wholly to reject what were so unanimously vouched by the old Sages of Learning and Philosophy even tho' there were no other evidence or reason for our belief But when all these Authors the only competent Witnesses in the Case do but confirm what on other Accounts as we have seen and shall farther see there is so good reason to believe and when so great light is thereby afforded to the primitive Constitution of Nature and the Sacred History of the State of Innocency their Attestations are the more credible and the more valuable and in the highest degree worthy of our serious Consideration What I can foresee of Objection deserving our notice against what has been advanc'd from the Testimonies of the old Philosophers is this That they seem to favour the perpetual Equinox before the Flood by the right Position of the present Axis of the Earth parallel to that of the Ecliptick as the Theorist imagines and its Inclination or oblique Position acquir'd at the Deluge as the same Author supposes rather than the original Absence and subsequent commencing of the Diurnal Rotation after the Fall of Man as I here apply them I answer I. The Parallelism of the Axis of a Diurnal to that of an Annual Revolution is as far as I find a perfect stranger to the System of the World there being I think not one of the Heavenly Bodies Sun or Planet but has its own Axis oblique to the Orbit in which it moves 2. It will be farther evinc'd hereafter That de facto before the Flood the Axis of the Earth was Oblique to its Annual Orbit the Plain of the Ecliptick and the Year distinguish'd into the present Seasons Spring Summer Autumn and Winter 3. That equable and healthful Temper of the Air which the Theorist chiefly relied upon as necessary to the Longevity of the Antediluvians and fully prov'd by Antiquity shall be accounted for without such an Hypothesis 4. The Testimonies before alledg'd do not if rightly consider'd suit this Hypothesis nay in truth they fully confute it Of the five Characters before-mention'd under which we have reduc'd the main Testimonies there are two which are common to this and to the Theorist's Hypothesis viz. 1. The perpetual and universal Equinox 2. The coincidence of the Equator and Ecliptick tho' in somewhat a different manner So that the Testimonies for these two can neither establish the one nor the other as equally suiting them both The other three are peculiar to that Hypothesis we have been proving and by consequence at the same time establish that and confute the Theorist's Hypothesis And these three are 1. The Equality of a Day and a Year 2. The Sun and Planet's rising in the West and setting in the East 3. The Position of the Poles at the Horizon with the after Elevation of the Northern the Depression of the Southern Pole and the inclination or bending of the Heavenly Bodies Courses towards the South
'T is evident at first view That the two former of these three last mention'd Phaenomena are inconsistent with the Theorist's Hypothesis and on a little Consideration 't will be so of the last also For while the Poles of the Earth or World remain in being the same as depending on the same proper Axis of the Earth's own Diurnal Revolution 't is plain the Latitude of Places on the Earth or the Elevation of the Pole equal thereto remains invariable and so that Pole which to the Inhabitants of Paradise was elevated at the least 231 2 degrees could not be at the Horizon whatever right Position the Axis of the Earth might have with respect to the Ecliptick On the same account there could even in the Theorist's own Hypothesis be no new Elevation of the one or Depression of the other Pole at the Deluge nor inclination of the Courses of the Sun and Planets towards the South All that could on the Theorist's Principles be effected besides the Earth's Equator and Poles pointing to different fix'd Stars and its Consequences was only this that whereas before the Sun was always in the Equator or middle distance from any Climate it afterwards by turns came nearer to them as we commonly tho' carelessly express it in Summer and went farther from them in Winter than before which upon the whole was no more a bent or inclination to one part of the Heavens than to the other and so of the Planets also And the case is the same as to the Poles of the Ecliptick the Northern one being as much elevated above that of the World at one hour of the Day as depress'd beneath it at another All which is I think sufficient to shew That the Testimonies of Antiquity alledg'd by the Theorist for the peopetual Equinox or the right Position of the Earth's Axis till the Deluge and the oblique Position and different Seasons then acquir'd are sufficient of themselves alone to confute his and establish the present Hypothesis 5. All things consider'd such a Position as the Theorist contends for was more likely to incommode than be useful to Mankind Taking the Matter wholly as the Theorist puts it it would prevent the Peopling of the Southern Hemisphere by the scorching heat just under the Equator without the least Intermission at any time of the Year It would render the Earth utterly unserviceable both under the Equator and Poles and in the Climates adjoyning and so streighten the Capacity of the Earth in maintaining its numerous Inhabitants which were the whole inhabitable will appear but just sufficient to contain them It would by the Perpetuation of one and the same Season continually hinder the variety of Fruits and Vegetables of every Country and many other ways spoil the setled Course of Nature and be pernicious to Mankind 6. No mechanical and rational Cause of the Mutation of the Earth's Axis either has been or I believe can be afsign'd on the Theorist's Hypothesis or any others which should embrace the same Conclusion 7. Lastly to name no more Arguments The Testimonies of Diogenes and Anaxagoras are as express almost to the Time as to this Change it self The words being exceeding remarkable are these as Plutarch himself relates them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 'T was the Doctrine both of Diogenes and Anaxagoras That after the Creation or primary Constitution of the World and the Production of Animals out of the Earth the World as it were of its own accord was bent or inclin'd towards the South And truly 't is probable this Inclination was the Effect of Providence on purpose that some Parts of the World might become habitable and others uninhabitable by reason of the difference of the frigid torrid and temperate Climates thereof Which observable and most valuable Fragment of Antiquity ought to have been before mention'd but was on purpose reserv'd for this place where it not only fully attests the matter of fact the Inclination of the Heavens towards the South not only assigns the final Cause truly enough considering the uninhabitableness of the Torrid as well as of the Frigid Zones in the Opinion of those Ages the Distribution of the Earth into certain and fix'd Zones Torrid Temperate and Frigid but so accurately and nicely specifies the time also That succeeding the Creation agreeably to the present Hypothesis that were I to wish or chuse for a Testimony fully to my mind I could scarcely have desir'd or pitch'd upon a better To these five foregoing Arguments for the proof of my main Conclusion I shall by way of supernumerary ones or Appendages add one or two more and so leave the whole to the Consideration of the Impartial Reader 6. The State of Mankind without question and perhaps that of other Animals was before the Fall vastly different from the present and consequently requir'd a proportionably different State of external Nature of which without the Hypothesis before us no Account can be given or at least has not yet by any been attempted The World as to other things seems to have been at first in great measure put into the same Condition which we still enjoy and yet Reason as well as Scripture assures us That so different a condition of things in the Animal Rational and Moral must be suited with an agreeably different one in the Natural and Corporeal World Which being consider'd and that at the same time no remarkable difference has been or perhaps can be assign'd but what the Hypothesis before us and its consequences afford us and that withal a satisfactory account of the several Particulars is deducible from the same as I hope to make appear hereafter upon the whole I think this a very considerable Attestation to what has been before insisted on 'T is indeed possible that what I look on as an advantage to others may imagine to be a prejudice against the present Hypothesis as inferring among other things a half year of Night as well as a half year of Day which may be suppos'd too disproportionate to the State and Condition of Mankind and especially too inconvenient for so happy and easy a Life as that of Mankind in Paradise undoubtedly was without any consideration of the other Creatures But it ought to be consider'd as has been already remark'd that our judging of one Scheme or System of Nature by another is very fallacious and very unreasonable Almighty God adapts each particular State to such rational and animal Beings as are on purpose design'd for the same but by no means thereby confines his Power and Providence which can with the same ease adapt other Beings or the same in other Circumstances to a very different and clean contrary Condition The Days in Jupiter are not ten hours long those in the Moon near Seventy two times as long as they or a Month yet any one who should thence conclude that either Jupiter or the Moon if not both were uncapable
this Earth or the Change of that Chaos into an habitable World was not a meer result from any necessary Laws of Mechanism independently on the Divine Power but was the proper effect of the Influence and Interposition and all along under the peculiar Care and Providence of God The Testimonies for this are so numerous and so express both in the Mosaick History it self in the other parts of Scripture relating thereto and in all Antiquity that I may refer the Reader to almost every place where this matter is spoken of without quoting here any particulars He who is at all acquainted with the Primitive Histories of this rising World whether Sacred or Prophane can have no reason to make any doubt of it III. The Days of the Creation and that of Rest had their beginning in the Evening The Evening and the Morning were the first Day And so of the rest afterward IV. At the time immediately preceding the six days Creation the face of the Abyss or superior Regions of the Chaos were involv'd in a thick Darkness Darkness was upon the face of the Deep To which Testimony the Prophane Traditions do fully agree as may be seen in the Authors before refer'd to V. The visible part of the first days Work was the Production of Light or its successive appearance to all the Parts of the Earth with the consequent distinction of Darkness and Light Night and Day upon the face of it God said Let there be Light and there was Light And God saw the Light that it was good and God divided the light from the darkness And God called the light Day and the darkness he called Night And the Evening and the Morning was the first day VI. The visible part of the Second Days Work was the elevation of the Air with all it s contained Vapours the spreading it for an Expansum above the Earth and the distinction thence arising of Superior and Inferior Waters The former consisting of those Vapours rais'd and sustain'd by the Air the latter of such as either were enclosed in the Pores Interstices and Bowels of the Earth or lay upon the Surface thereof God said Let there be a firmament or Expansum in the midst of the waters and let it divide the waters from the waters And God made the firmament and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament And it was so and God called the firmament Heaven And the Evening and the Morning were the second day VII The visible parts of the Third Day 's Works were two the former the Collection of the inferior Waters or such as were now under the Heaven into the Seas with the consequent appearance of the dry Land the latter the production of Vegetables out of that Ground so lately become dry God said Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together unto one place and let the dry land appear and it was so And God called the dry land Earth and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas And God saw that it was good And God said Let the Earth bring forth grass the herb yielding seed and the fruit-tree yielding fruit after his kind whose seed is in it self upon the earth and it was so And the earth brought forth grass and herb yielding seed after his kind and the tree yielding fruit whose seed was in it self after his kind and God saw that it was good And the Evening and the Morning were the third day VIII The Fourth Day 's Work was the Placing the Heavenly Bodies Sun Moon and Stars in the Expansum or Firmament i. e. The rendring them Visible and Conspicuous on the Face of the Earth Together with their several Assignations to their respective Offices there God said Let there be lights in the Expansum or firmament of heaven to divide the day from the night and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years and let them be for lights in the firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth and it was so And God made two great lights the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night he made the stars also And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth and to rule over the day and over the night and to divide the light from the darkness and God saw that it was good And the Evening and the Morning were the fourth day IX The Fifth Day 's Work was the Production of the Fish and Fowl out of the Waters with the Benediction bestow'd on them in order to their Propagation God said Let the Waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven And God created great Whales and every living creature that moveth which the waters brought forth abundantly after their kind and every winged fowl after his kind and God saw that it was good And God blessed them saying Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the Seas and let fowl multiply in the earth And the Evening and the Morning were the fifth day X. The Sixth Day 's Work was the Production of all the Terrestrial or Dry-land Animals and that in a different manner For the Bruit Beasts were produc'd out of the Earth as the Fish and Fowl had been before out of the Waters But after that the Body of Adam was form'd of the Dust of the Ground who by the Breath of Life breath'd into him in a peculiar manner became a Living Soul Some time after which on the same day he was cast into a deep Sleep and Eve was form'd of a Rib taken from his side Together with several other things of which a more particular account has been already given on another occasion God said Let the Earth bring forth the living creature after his kind cattel and creeping thing and beast of the Earth after his kind and it was so And God made the beast of the earth after his kind and cattel after their kind and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind and God saw that it was good And God said Let us make man in Our Image after Our likeness and let them have dominion over the Fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over the cattel and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth So God created Man in his own image in the image of God created he him Male and Female created he them c. Vid. ver 28 29 30 31. and Cap. 2. 7 15 c. XI God having thus finish'd the Works of Creation Rested on the Seventh day from the same and Sanctified or set that day apart for a Sabbath or day of Rest to be then and afterward observ'd as a Memorial of his Creation of the World in
confirm'd by what I shall propose in the 3. Place and which must by all be allow'd very fair and reasonable namely That tho' Mankind Caeteris Paribus increas'd but in the same proportion before as they have done since the Deluge we shall find upon a due allowance for the two things before-mention'd Coexistence and more numerous Posterity that the number last assign'd is rather too small than too great and the numbers of the Inhabitants of the Earth were more than the present Earth does or can maintain many years before the approach of the Deluge For if the number of years before had been the same as that since the Flood the Inhabitants tho' they had been no longer livers than we now are would have been as numerous as the present But because the number of years before the Deluge wanted about two thousand four hundred of that since we must allow or abate the increase which has arisen in the last two thousand and four hundred years Which since in these latter ages it has been double in two hundred and eighty years and so in two thousand and four hundred years about three hundred times as great as before the Antediluvians if their lives had been no longer than ours since must have been but the three hundredth part so many as the Earth now contains upon it But when on the two foremention'd accounts the number is to be eight hundred times as great and on this only three hundred times as small the excess is on the side of the Antediluvians and their number five hundred times as great as that of the present Inhabitants of the Earth So that on this last Hypothesis which I suppose none can justly except against tho' the present Earth be allow'd capable of maintaining five times as many People as are now by computation upon it yet will it appear that the Antediluvian Earth maintain'd an hundred times as many Which I imagin not to be wide from probability and being so near the calculation before may be allow'd as reasonable in the present case XXXIV The Bruit Animals whether belonging to the Water or Land were proportionably at least more in number before the Flood than they are since This is I think generally look'd upon as no other than a reasonable deduction from the last Proposition and is very fully attested by Dr. Woodward's Observations as far as the remains of those Ages afford any means of knowing the same And so ought in reason to be universally allow'd XXXV The Antediluvian Earth was much more fruitful than the present and the multitude of its vegetable productions much greater This is both necessary to be allow'd by reason of the multitude of its Inhabitants rational and irrational maintained by them of which before And abundantly confirm'd also by Dr. Woodward's Observations XXXVI The Temperature of the Antediluvian Air was more equable as to its different Climates and its different Seasons without such excessive and sudden heat and cold without the scorching of a Torrid Zone and of burning Summers or the freezing of the Frigid Zones and of piercing Winters and without such sudden and violent changes in the Climates or Seasons from one extreme to another as the present Air to our sorrow is subject to These Characters are extremely agreeable to and attested by the ancient Accounts of the Golden Age. The gentleness of the Torrid and Frigid Zones is necessary to be suppos'd in order to the easie Peopling of the World with the dispertion and maintenance of those numerous Inhabitants we before prov'd it to have contain'd Which if they were as now they are would be very difficultly accountable The gentleness of Summer and Winter with the easie and gradual coming on and going off of the same Seasons are but necessary in order to the very long lives of the Antediluvians which else 't were not so easie to account for And indeed the most of those Testimonies which have been suppos'd favourable to a perpetual Equinox before the Deluge are resolv'd into this Proposition and if it can be separately establish'd need not be extended any farther 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 Lightening Contagions and Pestilential Infections in our present Air and have so very pernicious and fatal tho' almost insensible effects in the World since the Deluge This is the natural consequent or rather original of the before-mention'd equability and uniformity of the Antediluvian Air This must be suppos'd on the account of the Longaevity of the Inhabitants And this is very agreeable to the last cited descriptions of the Golden Age. The contrary Heterogeneous and Gross Atmosphere which now encompasses the Earth is disagreeable to a regular state which an original formation from the Chaos supposes as containing such Dense and Bulky Exhalations and Masses which at first must have obtain'd a lower situation and were not to be sustain'd by the Primitive Thin and Subtile Air or AEther Such mixtures as this Proposition takes notice of or those effects of them therein mention'd have no Footsteps in Sacred or Prophane Antiquity relating to the first Ages of the World there is no appearance of them in the Serene and Pellucid Air of the Moon or of the generality of the Heavenly Bodies and so there can be no manner of reason to ascribe them to the Antediluvian state 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 This Assertion is but a proper consequent of such a Pure Thin Rare AEther as originally encompass'd the Earth 'T is very agreeable to the descriptions of the Golden Age and to the present Phaenomena of most of the Planets especially of the Moon whose face tho' so near us is never obscur'd or clouded from us 'T is necessary to be suppos'd in an Air without a Rainbow as the Antediluvian was of which presently and is indeed no other than the words of the Sacred History inform us of The Lord God had not caused it to Rain upon the Earth But there went up a Mist from the Earth and watered the whole face of the ground XXXIX The Antediluvian Air was free from violent Winds Storms and Agitations with all their effects on the Earth or Seas which we cannot now but be sufficiently sensible of This the foregoing Phaenomena enforce So Homogeneous Pure and Unmix'd a Fluid as that Air has been describ'd to have been by no means seeming capable of exciting in it self or undergoing any such disorderly commotions or fermentations Where no Vapours were collected into Clouds there must have been
no Winds to collect them where the Climates preserv'd their own proper temperature no Storms must have hurried the Air from colder to hotter or from hotter to colder Regions where was no Rainbow there must have been no driving together the separate Vapours into larger Globules or round drops of Rain the immediate requisite thereto This is also highly probable by reason of the perpetual tranquility of the Air for the first five intire Months of the Deluge as will be prov'd anon which is scarce supposable if Storms and Tempests were usual before XL. The Antediluvian Air had no Rainbow as the present so frequently has God said after the Deluge This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you for perpetual generations I do set my bow in the cloud and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth And it shall come to pass when I bring a cloud over the earth that the bow shall be seen in the cloud And I will remember my covenant which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh And the bow shall be in the cloud and I will look upon it that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth And God said unto Noah this is the token of the covenant which I have establish'd between me and all flesh that is upon the earth XLI The Antediluvians might only Eat Vegetables but the Use of Flesh after the Flood was freely allow'd also God said to our first Parents in Paradise Behold I have given you every herb bearing seed which is upon the face of all the earth and every tree in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed to you it shall be for meat and to every beast of the earth and to every fowl of the air and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth wherein there is life I have given every green herb for meat And it was so God blessed Noah and his sons after the flood and said unto them Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every fowl of the air upon all that moveth upon the earth and upon all the fishes of the sea into your hand are they delivered Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you even as the green herb have I given you all things To which when the Prince of Latin Poets so exactly agrees let us for once hear him in the present case Ante etiam sceptrum Dictaei Regis antè Impia quà m caesis gens est epulata juvencis Aureus in terris hanc vitam Saturnus agebat XLII The Lives of the Antediluvians were more universally equal and vastly longer than ours now are Men before the Flood frequently approaching near to a thousand which almost none now do to a hundred years of Age. This is both fully attested by the most ancient Remainders of prophane Antiquity and will be put past doubt hereafter by a Table of the Ages of the Antediluvians out of the fifth Chapter of Genesis Semotique priùs tarda necessitas Leti corripuit gradum XLIII Tho' the Antediluvian Earth was not destitute of lesser Seas and Lakes every where disper'd on the Surface thereof yet had it no Ocean or large receptacle of Waters separating one Continent from another and covering so large a portion of it as the present Earth has This is evident Because 1. the number of the Antediluvians before assign'd must have been too numerous for the Continents alone to maintain 2. The Ark appears to have been the first Pattern and Instance for Navigation which had there been an Ocean must have been very perfect long before and this seems probable from the constant silence concerning Navigation in the Golden Age from the common Opinion of all Authors and from the necessity of the most minute and particular Directions from God himself to the Fabrick of it in the Mosaick History 3. That famous Tradition among the Ancients of the drowning a certain vast Continent call'd Atlantis bigger than Africa and Asia seems to be a plain Relique of the Generation of the Ocean at the Deluge and consequently of that Antediluvian State where the greatest part of what the Ocean now possesses was Dry-land and inhabited as well as the rest of the Globe 4. The Generation of the Ocean with the Situation of the present great Continents of the Earth will be so naturally and exactly accounted for at the Deluge that when that is understood there will remain to those who are satissied with the other Conclusions small reason to doubt of the truth of this before us 5. The Testimony of Josephus if the Theorist hit upon his true Sense is agreeable who says At the Deluge God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 chang'd the Continent into Sea CHAP. IV. Phaenomena relating to the Universal Deluge and its Effects upon the Earth XLIV IN the Seventeenth Century from the Creation there happen'd a most extraordinary and prodigious Deluge of Waters upon the Earth This general Assertion is not only attested by a large and special Account of it in the Sacred Writings but by the universal Consent of the most ancient Records of all Nations besides as may be seen in the Authors quoted in the Margin and is put moreover past doubt by Dr. Woodward's Natural Observations XLV This prodigious Deluge of Waters was mainly occasion'd by a most extraordinary and violent Rain for the space of forty Days and as many Nights without intermission Yet seven days and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights The windows of heaven were opened and the rain was upon the Earth forty days and forty nights And the flood was forty days upon the earth XLVI This vast quantity of Waters was not deriv'd from the Earth or Seas as Rains constantly now are but from some other Superior and Coelestial Original This is evident Because 1. the Antediluvian Air as was before prov'd never retain'd great quantities of Vapours or sustained any Clouds capable of producing such considerable and so lasting Rains as this most certainly was 2. The quantity of Waters on the Antediluvian Earth where there was no Ocean as we saw just now was very small in comparison of that at present and so could contribute very little towards the Deluge 3. If the quantity of Waters on the Face of the Earth had then been as great as now and had all been elevated into Vapours and descended on the Dry-land alone it were much too small to cause such a Deluge as this was 4. But because if the
of Stone of Chalk of Cole of Earth or whatever matter they consisted of lying thus each upon other appear now as if they had at first been parallel continued and not interrupted But as if after some time they had been dislocated and broken on all sides of the Globe had been elevated in some and depress'd in other places from whence the fissures and breaches the Caverns and Grotto's with many other irregularities within and upon our present Earth seem to be deriv'd This is prov'd by the same Observations LXXIX Great numbers of Trees and of other Vegetables were also at this subsidence of the Mass aforesaid buried in the Bowels of the Earth And such very often as will not grow in the places where they are lodg'd Many of which are pretty intire and perfect and to be distinctly seen and consider'd to this very day This is prov'd by the same Observations LXXX It appears from all the tokens and circumstances which are still observable about them That all these Vegetables were torn away from their ancient Seats in the Spring time in or about the Month of May. This is prov'd by the same Observations LXXXI All the Metals and Minerals among the Strata of our upper Earth owe their present frame and order to the Deluge being reposed therein during the time of the Waters covering the Earth or during the subsidence of the before-mention'd Mass. This is prov'd by the same Observations LXXXII These Metals and Minerals appear differently in the Earth according to the different manner of their first lodgment For sometimes they are in loose and small Particles uncertainly inclos'd among such Masses as they chanc'd to fall down withal At other times some of their Corpuscles happening to occur and meet together affix'd to each other and several convening uniting and combining into one Mass form'd those Metallick and Mineral Balls or Nodules which are now found in the Earth And according as the Corpuscles chanc'd to be all of a kind or otherwise so the Masses were more or less simple pure and homogeneous And according as other Bodies Bones Teeth Shells of Fish or the like happen'd to come in their way these Metallick and Mineral Corpuscles affix'd to and became conjoin'd with them either within where it was possible in their hollows and interstices or without on their surface and outsides filling the one or covering the other And all this in different degrees and proportions according to the different circumstances of each individual case All this is prov'd by the same Observations LXXXIII The inward parts of the present Earth are very irregular and confused One Region is chiefly Stony another Sandy a third Gravelly One Country contains some certain kinds of Metals or Minerals another quite different ones Nay the same lump or mass of Earth not seldom contains the Corpuscles of several Metals or Minerals confusedly intermix'd with one another and with its own Earthy parts All which irregularities with several others that might be observ'd even contrary to the Law of Specifick Gravity in the placing of the different Strata of the Earth demonstrate the Original Fund or Promptuary of all this upper Factitious Earth to have been in a very Wild Confus'd and Chaotick condition All this the fore-mention'd and all other Observations of the like nature fully prove LXXXIV The Uppermost and Lightest Stratum of Soil or Garden Mold as 't is call'd which is the proper Seminary of the Vegetable Kingdom is since the Deluge very thick spread usually in the Valleys and Plains but very thin on the Ridges or Tops of Mountains Which last for want thereof are frequently Stony Rocky Bare and Barren This easie Observations of the surface of the Earth in different places will quickly satisfie us of LXXXV Of the four Ancient Rivers of Paradise two still remain in some measure but the other two do not or at least are so chang'd that the Mosaick Description does not agree to them at present This the multitude of unsatisfactory attempts to discover all these Rivers and their courses with an impartial comparison of the Sacred History with the best Geographical descriptions of the Regions about Babylon will easily convince an unbyass'd Person of LXXXVI Those Metals and Minerals which the Mosaick description of Paradise and its bordering Regions takes such particular notice of and the Prophets so emphatically refer to are not now met with so plentifully therein This must be allow'd on the same grounds with the former LXXXVII This Deluge of Waters was a signal Instance of the Divine Vengeance on a Wicked World and was the effect of the Peculiar and Extraordinary Providence of God God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the Earth and it grieved him at his heart And the Lord said I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth both man and beast and the creeping thing and the fowls of the air for it repenteth me that I have made them The earth was corrupt before God and the earth was filled with violence and God looked upon the earth and behold it was corrupt for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the Earth And God said unto Noah the end of all flesh is come before me for the earth is filled with violence through them and behold I will destroy them with the earth Behold I even I do bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh wherein is the breath of life from under heaven and every thing that is in the earth shall dye God spared not the old world but saved Noah the eighth person a preacher of righteousness bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly LXXXVIII Tho' the Moon might perhaps undergo some such changes at the Deluge as the Earth did yet that Face or Hemisphere which is towards the Earth and which is alone expos'd to our view has not acquir'd any such gross Atmosphere or Clouds as our Earth has now about it and which are here suppos'd to have been acquir'd at the Deluge This the present figure and large divisions of Sea and Land visible in the Moon with her continued and uninterrupted brightness and the appearance of the same Spots without the interposition of Clouds or Exhalations perpetually do sufficiently evince LXXXIX Since the Deluge there neither has been nor will be any great and general Changes in the state of the World till that time when a Period is to be put to the present Course of Nature The Lord smelled a sweet savour and the Lord said in his heart I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake for or altho' the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth Neither will I again smite any more every thing
living as I have done While the Earth remaineth seed-time and harvest and cold and heat and Summer and winter and day and night shall not cease And this as to the time past is abundantly confirm'd by all the Ancient History and Geography compar'd with the Modern as is in several particulars well observ'd by Dr. Woodward against the groundless opinions of some others to the contrary CHAP. V. Phaenomena relating to the General Conflagration With Conjectures pertaining to the same and to the succeeding period till the Consummation of all things XC AS the World once perished by Water so it must by Fire at the Conclusion of its present State The heavens and the earth which are now by the word of God are kept in store reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men The heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent heat The earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up In the day of God the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with fervent heat But this is so fully attested by the unanimous consent of Sacred and Prophane Authority that I shall omit other particular Quotations and only refer the Reader where he may have more ample satisfaction SCHOLIUM Having proceeded thus far upon more certain grounds and generally allow'd Testimonies as to the most of the foregoing Phaenomena I might here break off and leave the following Conjectures to the same state of Uncertainty they have hitherto been in But being willing to comply with the Title and take in all the great and general Changes from first to last from the primigenial Chaos to the Consummation of all things Being also loth to desert my Postulatum and omit the account of those things which were most exactly agreeable to the Obvious and Literal sense of Scripture and fully consonant to Reason and Philosophy Being lastly willing however to demonstrate that tho' these most remote and difficult Texts be taken according to the greatest strictness of the Letter yet do they contain nothing but what is possible credible and rationally accountable from the most undoubted Principles of Philosophy On all these accounts I shall venture to enumerate and afterward to account for the following Conjectures In which I do not pretend to be Dogmatical and Positive nay nor to declare any firm belief of the same but shall only propose them as Conjectures and leave them to the free and impartial consideration of the Reader XCI The same Causes which will set the World on Fire will also cause great and dreadful Tides in the Seas and in the Ocean with no less Agitations Concussions and Earthquakes in the Air and Earth The Powers of Heaven shall be shaken The Lord shall roar out of Sion and utter his voice from Jerusalem and the heavens and the earth shall shake The sea and the waves roaring Mens hearts failing them for fear and for looking after those things which are coming on the Earth for the powers of heaven shall be shaken XCII The mtmosphere of the Earth before the Conflagration begin will be oppress'd with Meteors Exhalations and Steams and these in so dreadful a manner in such prodigious quantities and with such wild confused Motions and Agitations That the Sun and Moon will have the most frightful and hideous countenances and their antient splendour will be intirely obscur'd The Stars will seem to fall from Heaven and all manner of Horrid Representations will terrifie the Inhabitants of the Earth I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth blood and fire and pillars of smoke The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and terrible day of the Lord come The sun shall be darkened and the Moon shall not give her light and the stars shall fall from heaven and the powers of heaven shall be shaken There shall be signs in the sun and in the moon and in the stars and upon the Earth distress of Nations with perplexity Mens hearts failing them for fear and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth XCIII The Deluge and Constagration are referr'd by ancient Tradition to great Conjunctions of the Heavenly Bodies as both depending on and happening at the same Thus Seneca expresly Berosus says he who was an Expositor of Belus affirms That these Revolutions depend on the Course of the Stars insomuch that he doubts not to assign the very times of a Conflagration and a Deluge That first mention'd when all the Stars which have now so different Courses shall be in Conjunction in Cancer All of them being so directly situate with respect to one another that the same right line will pass through them all together That last mention'd when the same company of Stars shall be in conjunction in the opposite sign Capricorn XCIV The space between the Deluge and the Conflagration or between the ancient state of the Earth and its Purgation by Fire Renovation and Restitution again is from ancient Tradition defin'd and terminated by a certain great and remarkable year or Annual Revolution of some of the Heavenly Bodies And is in probability what the Ancients so often refer'd to pretended particularly to determine and stil'd The Great or Platonick Year This year is exceeding famous in old Authors and not unreasonably apply'd to this matter by the Theorist Which it will better suit in this than it did in that Hypothesis XCV This general Conflagration is not to extend to the intire dissolution or destruction of the Earth but only to the Alteration Melioration and peculiar disposition thereof into a new state proper to receive those Saints and Martyrs for its Inhabitants who are at the first Resurrection to enter and to live and reign a thousand years upon it till the second Resurrection the general Judgment and the final consummation of all things The Heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with fervent heat Nevertheless we according to his promise look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness Behold I create new heavens and a new earth and the former shall not be remembered nor come into mind Verily I say unto you That ye which followed me in the regeneration when the Son of Man shall sit upon the throne of his glory ye also shall sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel And every one that hath forsaken houses or brethren or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my names sake shall receive an hundred fold now in this time houses and brethren and sisters and mothers and children and lands with his present persecutions and in the world to come eternal life Of old thou hast laid the foundations of the earth and the heavens are the work of
distinct Regions The lower and larger whereof would be a collection or system of dense and heavy Fluids or a vast Abyss immediately encompassing the central solid Body The higher and lesser would be a collection or system of earthy watery and aery Parts confusedly mix'd together and encompassing the said Abyss in the same manner as that did the central Solid And this I take to be the state of Darkness which the Proposition we are upon mentions And that the Chaos particularly the Face or upper Regions of it were at this time in such a dark and caliginous Condition will easily appear For all those Opake or Earthy Corpuscles which before rov'd about the immense Regions of the Atmosphere and frequently even then obscur'd the Central Solid to any external Spectator were now crouded nearer together and instead of flying up and down in or possessing an Orb of 40000 or 50000 Miles in thickness were reduced to a narrower Sphere and confin'd within a space not perhaps in Diameter above the thousandth part of the former and must by consequence exclude the Rays of the Sun in anotherguess manner than before We cannot but observe in our present Air That the very same Vapours which when dissipated and scatter'd through the Atmosphere whose extent yet is not great freely admit the Rays of the Sun and afford us clear and lightsome days when they are collected into Clouds become opake Masses and are capable of obscuring the Sky and rendring it considerably dark to us In the same manner 't is easy to suppose that those Opake and Earthy Masses which in those vaster Regions would but in a less degree and in some places exclude the Beams of the Sun must when collected and crowded closer together on the surface of the Abyss exclude them in a degree vastly surpassing the former must occasion an entire darkness in all its Regions and particularly in those upper ones over which they were immediately collected And if from the former comparison we estimate how few Vapours collected into a Cloud with us will cause no inconsiderable degree of darkness and allow as is but reasonable a proportionably greater degree of darkness to a proportionably greater number of Earthy and Opake Corpuscles crowded to gether we shall not doubt but all manner of communication with the Heavenly Bodies and the External World must be intirely interrupted and the least imaginable Ray or Beam of Light from the Sun excluded not only from the lowest but even all excepting the very highest Regions of this superior Chaos Which state of Nature belonging to this time immediately preceding the Hexameron is not amiss represented by the Theorist's Second Figure which is accordingly here delineated V. The Visible part of the First Day 's Work was the Production of Light or its successive Appearance to all the parts of the Earth with the consequent distinction of Darkness and Light Night and Day upon the face of it V. If we remember in what state we left the Chaos in the last Proposition and suffer our thoughts to run naturally along with its succeeding mutations we shall find that the next thing to be here consider'd for the Subterraneous System of dense Fluids or the great Abyss not coming directly within the Design of Moses is not here to be particularly prosecuted any farther is the Separation of this Upper and Elementary Chaos or Congeries of Earthy Watery and Aery Corpusoles into two somewhat different Regions the one a Solid Orb of Earth with great quantities of Water in its Pores the other an Atmosphere in a peculiar sense or Mass of the lightest Earthy with the rest of the Watery and the Aery Particles still somewhat confusedly mixt together For since this Upper Chaos tho' in general much lighter than the Abyss beneath consisted of parts very Heterogeneous and of different specifick gravities the Earthy being heavier than the Watery and those yet heavier than the Aery Particles 't is evident that in the same manner as this whole mixed Mass was separated from the heavier Abyss beneath must it again separate and divide it self into two such general Orbs as were just now mention'd The former consisting of the denser and solider parts such as the Earthy Claiy Sandy Gravelly Stony Strata of the present Earth with so many of the Watery Particles as either being already in those Regions must be inclosed therein or could descend from above and have admittance into the Pores thereof The latter of the less Solid Lighter and Earthy with the rest of the Watery and the Aery Particles not yet sufficiently distinguish'd from each other This process will I suppose easily be allow'd excepting what relates to the enclosing of the Watery parts within the Earth with relation to which 't is commonly suppos'd that because Water is specifically lighter than Earth it must in the regular digestions of a Chaos take the Upper situation and cover that highest Orb as that would others of greater gravity than it self 'T is also commonly imagin'd that the Mosaick Cosmogony favours such an Hypothesis and supposes the Waters to have encompass'd the Globe and cover'd its surface till on the third day they were deriv'd into the Seas Now as I by no means apprehend any necessity of understanding the Mosaick Creation in this sense so I am very sure 't is contrary to a Philosophick account of the Formation of the Chaos unless one of these two things were certain Either that the quantity of Water were so much greater than that of Earth that all the Pores and Interstices of the latter could not contain it or else that it was generally elevated into the Air in the form of Vapour and sustained there while the Earth setled and consolidated together and did not till then descend and take its own proper place The former of which is neither reconcilable to the Mosaick Creation nor will be asserted by any who knows even since the Deluge how small the quantity of Fluids in comparison to that of the Solids is in the Earth on which we live And the latter is too much to be granted in the present case by any considering person who knows that a Comet 's Vapours constitute the main part of that Tail or Mist which is sometimes equal to a Cylinder whose Basis is 1000000 Miles in Diameter and its Altitude as far as from the Sun to the Earth or 54000000 Miles as it was in the last famous Comet in 1681. represented in Mr. Newton's own Scheme Let the rarity of the same be suppos'd as great as any Phaenomena shall require For to clear this matter by a familiar Instance or Experiment Take Sand or Dust and let them fall gently into a Vessel till it be near full Take afterwards some Water and pour it alike gently into the same Vessel And it will soon appear that notwithstanding the greater specifick gravity of the Dry and Earthy than of the Moist and Watery parts whence one might imagine that the Sand or
Dust would be the lowest and the Water swim uppermost on the surface of the other without mingling therewith yet will the latter immediately sink downwards and so throughly drench and satiate the said Mass before any will remain on the top that its proportion to that of the Solid parts will be very considerable Which being apply'd to the point before us will take away all imaginable difficulty in the case It being evident without this comparison that such Watery Particles as were already intermix'd with the others would remain where they were and with this equally so that the rest which were above the same upon the first subsidence of the Earthy Strata would penetrate pervade and saturate the same So that on this first Day or Year of the Creation the Earthy and Denser parts would take their places lowest on the surface of the great Abyss would settle in part into the same and compose an Orb of Earth and in its Interstices and little Cavities all such Watery Particles as were already in this Region or descended upon it before its consolidation would be enclos'd and that as far above the surface of the Abyss to which they would be contiguous as their quantity could enable them to reach On this first Day or Year also the upper Regions of the Chaos being now in some measure freed from those Earthy and Opake Masses which before excluded the same and caused the before-mention'd thick Darkness would in some degree admit the Rays of the Sun Now therefore that glorious Emanation Light the visible part of this days Work would begin to appear on the face of the Earth Now would It by the Annual Motion successively illuminate the several parts of it And now would it consequently cause that natural Distinction between Darkness and Light Night and Day round the whole Globe which was to be accounted for in this Proposition Which progress of the Chaos and state of Nature is well enough exhibited by the Theorist's third Figure which therefore is here delineated Corollary Hence we may observe the Justness of the Mosaick Creation and how fitly it begins at the Production of Light without taking notice of such prior conditions and such preparations of the Chaos which have been before explain'd and were in order of Nature previous to this days Work For this account reaching only to the Visible World and the Visible Effects in it and keeping still within the bounds of sense and of common observation could not better be accommodated to the truth of things and the capacities of all than by such a Procedure The Ancient condition of the Chaos in former Ages was no way here concern'd and so was intirely to be omitted The State of Darkness which immediately preceded the Six Days Work and which with relation thereto was necessary to be mention'd made a very proper introduction and so very fitly was to be hinted at by way of Preface thereto Both which cases are accordingly by Moses taken care of And so the first Period was the Production of Light the Admission of the Rays of the Sun and the Origin of Day and Night depending thereon as the Method and Decorum of things with the apprehensions of the People did both very naturally require For since in this Sacred History of the Origin of things not only the Visible World and the Visible parts of it were singly concern'd But principally the Effects to be enumerated were such as requir'd the Light and Heat of the Sun the one to be View'd the other to be Produced by and without the latter could no more have Been at all than been Conspicuous without the former 'T was very suitable and very natural in the first place to introduce the Cause or Instrument and afterwards in the succeeding Periods to recount the Effects thereof in the World First to acquaint us that the Light and Heat of the Sun were in some measure admitted into the upper Regions of the Chaos and then to relate those remarkable consequences thereof which the succeeding Periods of the Creation exhibited on the face of the Earth Which Order of Nature and Succession of Things is accordingly very prudently and fitly observ'd and kept pace with in this Sacred History VI. The visible part of the Second Day 's Work was the Elevation of the Air with all it s contained Vapours the spreading it for an Expansum above the Earth and the distinction thence arising of Superior and Inferior Waters The formet consisting of those Vapours rais'd and sustain'd by the Air The latter of such as either were inclos'd in the Pores Interstices and Bowels of the Earth or lay upon the Surface thereof VI. When at the Conclusion of the former Day the Heat of the Sun began considerably to penetrate the Superior Regions of the Chaos and the two different Orbs the Solider Earthy and the Fluider Aery Masses began to be pretty well distinguished the same things would proceed still on this succeeding Day The Lower Earthy Strata would be settling somewhat closer together the Watery parts would subside and saturate their inward Pores and Vacuities and the Atmosphere would free it self more and more from the heaviest and most Opake Corpuscles and thereby become in a greater degree tenuious pure and clear than before Whereupon by that time the Night or first half of this Second Day or Year was over and the Sun arose The Light and Heat of that Luminary would more freely and deeply penetrate the Atmosphere and become very sensible in these Upper or Aery Regions Which being suppos'd the proper Effect which were to be next expected must be that vast quantities of Vapours would be elevated into and there sustained by the now better purified Air while in the mean time all the Earthy Corpuscles which were uncapable of rarefaction and with them all such Watery Particles as were so near the Earth that the Sun's Power could not sufficiently reach them were still sinking downwards and increasing the crassitude and bulk of the Solid Earth and of its included Waters From all which 't is easie to account for the Particulars of this Day 's Work The Expansum or Firmament which was this day spread out above the Earth was plainly the Air now truly so called as being freed from most of its Earthy mixtures The Superior Waters All those which in the form of Vapour a half years heat of the Sun with the continual assistance of the Central Heat could elevate and the Air sustain The Inferior Waters those which were not elevated but remain'd below all that fell down with were enclosed in sunk into and if you will lay upon the Orb of Earth beneath And when it is particularly said by Moses that 't was this Expansum or Firmament which was to divide the Superior from the Inferior Waters that is exactly agreeable to the nature of things and suitable to this account It being the Air which truly and properly sustain'd all those Vapours as now it
does the Clouds above the Earth and was thereby the means of separating them from their Fellows in the Bowels or on the surface thereof Which state of the Chaos or Progress of the Creation is well represented in the Theorist's fourth Figure which here follows Corollary I. Hence appears a sufficient Reason why in this Six Days Creation one intire Day is allow'd to the Formation of the Air and the distinguishing the Vapours in the same from those beneath which has hitherto seem'd somewhat strange and disproportionate 'T is certain this Work requir'd as long a time and was of as great importance as any other whatsoever All that Water which the Earth was to have in its Air or upon its Surface till the Deluge being 't is probable intirely owing to this day's elevation of them For had they not been thus buoy'd up and sustain'd on high they must have sunk downward and so been inclosed in the Bowels of the Earth without possibility of redemption and have rendred the Antediluvian World more like to a dry and barren Wilderness than what it was to exceed a juicy fruitful and habitable Canaan Coroll 2. Hence arises a new confirmation that the Days of the Creation were Years also For seeing the quantity of Water which was preserv'd above ground and fill'd all the Seas before the Deluge was no greater than was this Second Day elevated into Vapour had this Day been no longer than one of ours at present the foremention'd quantity would have been so far from saturing the Earth supplying the Rivers and filling all the Seas that every day it would be wholly exhal'd afterwards and suffer the intire Vegetable and Animal Kingdoms to perish for want of moisture All which in the Hypothesis we here take is wholly avoided and a very fit and suitable proportion of Waters preserv'd above for all the necessities of the Earth with its Productions and Inhabitants And this consideration affords one very good reason why the commencing of the Diurnal Rotation was defer'd till after the Formation of the Earth was over there being an evident necessity thereof in order to the providing Water sufficient for the needs of those Creatures for whose sake the whole Creation was ordain'd and perform'd In which procedure plain tokens of the Divine Wisdom cannot but be very conspicuous and observable to us VII The visible parts of the Third Day 's Works were two the former the Collection of the inferior Waters or such as were now under the Heaven into the Seas with the consequent appearance of the dry Land the latter the production of Vegetables out of that Ground so lately become dry VII In order to the Apprehending of the double operation of this Day we must call to mind what state the Orb of Earth was in by this time We have seen already that it had been setling together and fixing it self on the surface of the Abyss from the very beginning of the Creation and we ought to suppose that in the space of two years it was not only become wholly distinct from the Abyss below and the Atmosphere above it but that it was settled and consolidated together and its Strata grown firm and compacted We must farther observe that by reason of its Columns different Density and Specifick Gravity attested to à priori from the Chaos's and à posteriori from the internal Earth's Phaenomena it was setled into the Abyss in different degrees and thereby became of an unequal surface distinguish'd into Mountains Plains and Valleys Which things being suppos'd and consider'd the two Works of this Day or Year of the Creation which are of themselves very different will be easily understood and reconcil'd For when at Sun-set or the conclusion of the last Day we left the Air by half a Years Power of the Sun crowded with Vapours to a prodigious degree upon the coming on of this Third Day and in its Night or former half the said vast quantities of Vapours must needs descend and so by degrees must leave the Air pretty free and take their places on the Surface of the Earth altering thereby their own denomination and becoming of Upper or Coelestial Lower or Terrestrial Waters Indeed if we do but allow the effect to be in any measure answerable to the time we shall grant that in the half year of Night which is the former part of this Third Period of the Creation the main Body of the Vapours must have not only descended down upon the Earth but by reason of the inequality of its Surface and the Solidity withal have run down from the higher and more extant parts by the Declivities and Hollows into the lowest Valleys and most depressed Regions of all must in these places have compos'd Seas and Lakes every where throughout the Surface of the Earth and so by that time the light appear'd and the Sun 's rising began the latter part of this Day the intire face of the Globe which was just before cover'd as it were with the descending Waters must be distinguish'd into overflow'd Valleys and extant Continents into Seas and Dry-land that very Work of this Day we were in the first place to enquire about The waters under the heavens were now gathered together into their respective and distinct places and the dry land appear'd and became fit for the Production of the Vegetable Kingdom Which therefore most naturally leads us to the second branch of this Day 's Work For when this part hitherto was compleated on the Night or former half of this Day which the Absence of the Sun so long together rendred peculiarly and solely fit to permit and procure the descent of the Vapours and when at the same time the Dry Land was now distinguish'd from the Seas and just become in the utmost degree moist and juicy upon the Sun Rising or coming on of the Day-time 't was of all other the most fit and convenient Season for the Germination of the Seeds of Vegetables and the growth of Trees Shrubs Plants and Herbs out of the Earth The Soil Satur'd and Fatned by the foregoing half Year's descent of Vapours was now like the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that fruitful Seminary of the Vegetable and Animal productions of Primitive Nature so much celebrated by all Antiquity An intire half year of the Sun's presence together was a time as proper and as natural for such a purpose as could possibly be desir'd And when there was this half Year of Day to spare in this Period of the Creation after one Work was compleated and the same was so very fitly prepar'd and dispos'd for the production of Vegetables 't is no wonder that this above all the other Divisions has a double Task and that the Seas and Dry Land were distinguish'd and the Vegetables produc'd on the same Day or Year of the Creation according as from the Mosaick History the present Proposition asserts And if we allow for the defect of the inequalities of the
outward Surface too small to be therein consider'd and suppose the Atmosphere somewhat clearer than before the former figure will still serve well enough and represent the progress and state of the Earth at the conclusion of this Third Day Corollary 1. When according to our present accounts of these matters this is the only day of the Creation to which a double work and that the one quite different from the other ought to be ascrib'd and is ascrib'd by Moses The Night being peculiarly fit for the former and the Day for the latter operation which could happen on none of the other Periods This exactness of correspondence ought to be esteem'd an Evidence of the literal sense of the Writer and of his accommodation to the nature of things and a very considerable confirmation of those Hypotheses on which it so naturally depends Coroll 2. Hence arises a Confirmation of what was before asserted that the Antediluvian Earth had only lesser Lakes and Seas not a vast Ocean For when the quantity of Waters belonging to the Earth and Air at first was no more than was elevated in one half year and at once sust ain'd by the Air no one will imagine it sufficient to fill the intire Ocean alone if there had been neither lesser Seas nor Rivers to be supply'd therewith And so vice versa It having been prov'd by other Arguments that there was no Ocean but only lesser Seas before the Flood This Account which affords sufficient quantity of Water for the latter but not for the former is thereby not a little confirm'd Coroll 3. Tho' the Heat and Influence of the Sun was on this Third Day very great yet was his Body not yet Visible For since at his Rising the Earth and lowest Regions of the Air were very full of moisture while the higher Regions were very clear and bright the force of his heat would be so great as to elevate considerable quantities of Vapours on a sudden and thereby e're the lowest Air had deposited its Vapours and rendred it self transparent the Sun would anew hide himself in a thick Mist and so prevent his own becoming conspicuous which otherwise 't is not improbable he might this Day have been VIII The Fourth Day 's Work was the Placing the Heavenly Bodies Sun Moon and Stars in the Expansam or Firmament i. e. The rendring them Visible and Conspicuous on the Face of the Earth Together with their several Assignations to their respective Offices there VIII Altho' the Light of the Sun penetrated the Atmosphere in some sort the first Day and in the succeeding ones had very considerable influence upon it yet is it by no means to be suppos'd that his Body was Visible all that while Tho' we every day enjoy much more Light and Heat from the Sun than the Primitive Earth could for a considerable space be suppos'd to have done yet 't is but sometimes that the Air is so clear as to render his Body discernible by us A very few Clouds or Vapours gather'd together in our Air are able we see to hinder such a prospect for Weeks if not Months together while yet at the same time we are sufficiently sensible of his Force and Influence in the constant productions of Nature Which things being duly consider'd and the vastness and density of the Upper Chaos allow'd for 't will be but reasonable to afford a great space even after the first penetration of Light for the intire clearing of the Atmosphere and the distinct view of the Sun's Body by a Spectator on the Surface of the Earth I suppose no one will think the two first Days or Years of the' Creation too long for such a work or if any one does the particular work and state of the Atmosphere on the second Day will prevent the most probable part of such a surmise and shew the impossibility of the Sun's Appearance at that time And the same reason will in a sufficient tho a less degree prevent any just Expectations on the third Day as was observ'd in the last Corollary But now upon the coming on of this fourth Day and the Sun's descent and abode below the Horizon for an intire half year those Vapours which were rais'd the day before must fall downwards and so before the approach of the Morning leave the Air in the greatest clearness and purity imaginable and permit the Moon first then the Stars and afterward upon the coming on of the Day the Sun himself most plainly to appear and be conspicuous on the Face of the Earth This fourth Day is therefore the very time when acording to this Account and the Sacred History both these Heavenly Bodies which were in being before but so as to be wholly Strangers to a Spectator on Earth were rendred visible and expos'd to the view of all who should be suppos'd to be there at the same time They now were in the Sacred Stile placed in the Firmament of Heaven gave Light upon the Earth began to rule plainly and visibly over the Day and over the Night and to divide the Light from the Darkness as ever since they have continued to do And now the inanimate World or the Earth Air Seas and all their Vegetable Productions are compleat and the Tradition of those Chineses who inhabit Formosa and other Islands appears well-grounded and exactly true who hold That the World when first created was without Form or Shape but by one of their Deities was brought to its full Perfection in four Years Which Progress of the Creation and State of Nature is exactly represented by the Theorist's fifth and last Figure which therefore here follows IX The fifth Day 's Work was the Production of the Fish and Fowl out of the Waters with the Benediction bestow'd on them in order to their Propagation IX The Terraqueous Globe being now become habitable both to the swimming and volatil Animals and the Air clear and so penetrable by that compleat Heat of the Sun which was requisite to the Generation of such Creatures 't is a very proper time for their Introduction Which was accordingly done upon this fifth Day or Year of the Creation Those Seeds or little Bodies of Fish and Fowl which were contain'd in the Water or moist fruitful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of kin to it were now expos'd to the kindly warmth of the Sun and the constant supply of a most gentle and equal Heat from beneath they were neither disturbed by the sudden alteration of the Temperature of the Air from the violence of Winds or by the Agitations of the Tide which was both very small in these small Seas and by reason of the absence of the Diurnal Rotation imperceptibly easy gentle and gradual these Seeds I say when invigorated with the Divine Benediction became now prolifick and in this fifth Day 's time a numerous Off-spring of the swimming and volatil Kinds arose whereby the two fluid Elements Water and Air became
replenish'd with those first Pairs which by the Benediction they straightway receiv'd were enabled to become the original of all of the same Kinds which ever were to be the Inhabitants of those Regions afterwards Which time and procedure is no less agreeable to the State of the World in our Hypothesis than 't is to the express Affirmations of Moses who makes Fish and Fowl the sole Product of the fifth Day or Year of the Creation X. The Sixth Day 's Work was the Production of all the Terrestrial or Dry-land Animals and that in a different manner For the Brute Beasts were produc'd out of the Earth as the Fish and Fowl had been before out of the Waters but after that the Body of Adam was form'd of the Dust of the Ground who by the Breath of Life breath'd into him in a peculiar manner became a Living Soul Some time after which on the same day he was cast into a deep Sleep and Eve was form'd out of a Rib taken from his side Together with several other things of which a more particular account has been already given on another occasion X. The Earth being now grown more Solid Compact and Dry its Surface distinguish'd into Sea and Dry-land each of which were stor'd in some sort with Inhabitants and Vegetables the Air being fully clear and fit for Respiration and the other Dispositions of External Nature being equally subservient to this as well as it had been before to the last day's Productions 't was a proper Season for the Generation of the Dry-land Animals and the Introduction of the noblest of them Man which accordingly were the first Works on this sixth Day or Year of the Creation Any more particular account of which or of the following Works is not so directly the design of this Theory and so shall not be here farther insisted on We may only take notice of two things the one is the peculiar Manner the other the peculiar Time for the Creation of Man As to the former Tho' 't is granted that all the other Day 's Works mention'd by Moses were brought to pass in a natural way by proper and suitable Instruments and a mechanical Process as we have seen through the whole Series of the foregoing Creation yet 't is evident as has been already observ'd That an immediate and miraculous Power was exercis'd in the formation of the Body and Infusion of the Soul of Man as well as in some other particular Cases belonging to this Origin of Things In plain terms I take it to be evident That that same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our Blessed Mediator who was afterward very frequently conversant on Earth appear'd in a humane Form to the Patriarchs gave the Law in a visible Glory and with an audible Voice on Mount Sinai guided the Israelites personally in a Pillar of Fire and of a Cloud through the Wilderness inhabited between the Cherubins in the Holy of Holies and took the peculiar Stile Titles Attributes Adoration and incommunicable Name of the God of Israel and at last was Incarnate liv'd a true Man amongst us died for us and ascended into Heaven makes still Intercession for us with the Father and will come to Judge the World in Righteousness at the last Day That this very same Divine Person was actually and visibly in a humane Shape conversant on Earth and was truly and really employ'd in this Creation of the World and particularly in this peculiar Formation of Man so frequently ascribed to him in the Holy Scriptures It being both unfit and impossible for the Divine Nature it self or at least that of the Father to be so much and in such a manner concern'd with the Corporeal World and the sinful Race of Mankind as we find here and every where this Divine Person our Blessed Mediator to have been as the Texts quoted a little above compar'd together do I think fully prove Seeing therefore our Saviour Christ God-man was personally present and actually employ'd in this Primitive Creation of the World Seeing Man was to be a Creature intirely different from all the rest a Being compounded of a Spiritual and Immortal Soul and of a Material and Corruptible Body Seeing in both these he was to be made in the likeness of that Divine Person who created him and be constituted his Deputy and Vicegerent among the Creatures here below 't was but reasonable there should be as great a distinction in his Original as was to be in his Nature and Faculties his Office and Dignity his Capacities and Happiness from the other parts of the visible Creation and by consequence that peculiar Interposition of God himself in the Formation of the Body and Infusion of the Soul of our first Parents so particularly observable in the Mosaick History is both very agreeable to the Nature of things very suitable to the Wisdom of God and very reconcilable to the most Philosophick Accounts of this Origin of the World and withal a remarkable token of the Dignity of Human Nature of the distinction between his Soul and Body and of the great Condescension and Love of God towards us and so the most highly worthy of our consideration Neither is the other circumstance the peculiar Time of the Creation of Man to be pass'd over without a proper Reflection on it 'T were easy to shew That none of the preceding Days were in any degree so fit for nay most of them not capable of this Creation and Introduction of Man But upon this sixth Period when every thing which could be subservient to him and advance his felicity was compleated he who was to be the Lord of All and for whose sake the whole was fram'd was brought into the World When the Light had been penetrating into and clarifying this dark and thick Atmosphere for more than five compleat Years together when the Air was freed from its numberless Vapours and become pure clear and fit for his Respiration when the Waters as well superior as interior were so dispos'd as to minister to his necessities by Mists and Dews from the Heavens and by Springs and Rivers from the Earth when the Surface of the Earth was become dry and solid for his support and was cover'd over with Trees Shrubs Plants Herbs Grass and Flowers for his Sustenance and Delight when the glorious Firmament of Heaven and the beautiful System of the Sun Moon and Stars were visible and conspicuous to him the Objects of his Contemplation the Distinguishers of his Seasons by whose powerful Influences the Earth was invigorated and the World rendred a fruitful and useful a lightsome and pleasant Habitation to him when lastly all sorts of Animals in the Seas in the Air or on the Earth were so dispos'd as to attend benefit and please him one way or other when I say all these things were by the Care Beneficence and Providence of God prepar'd for the entertainment of this principal Guest then
Learning notwithstanding it might have been cultivated and improv'd to great degree before the Deluge as therefore in all probability it was CHAP. II. A Solution of the 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 uncapable of XXIII 'T IS not to be expected that I should here be able to give a full and methodical account of the growth of the Primitive Pairs of Animals and of the several dispositions of the Primigenial state of Nature subservient or contributary thereto The method of the Generation of Animals is it self in gèneral so little known and the History of this first stage of the World as well so short in the Sacred Writings as so difficult to be in all its circumstances now otherwise understood that such an Attempt might justly be look'd upon as too rash a presumption All that ought to be expected and all that I shall endeavour is this To shew that as far as is known of that Original Earth its properties were as peculiarly fit for as those opposite ones of the succeeding are incapable of such a production of Animals at first as this Proposition takes notice of Which the five following particulars shall include 1. The long and continued spaces of Day and Night in the Primitive state did capacitate it for such productions which the quick returns of the same afterward prohibited 'T will be easily granted that in the Generation of Animals there must be a pretty constant and continual warmth without the frequent interposition of Cold during the most part of the process Now this the long days of half a year afforded these Primary Embrio's which the short ones of only twelve small hours and the sudden and frequent returns of equal Nights has utterly deni'd to any such ever since 2. The Primitive Earth was moist and juicy enough to supply nourishment all the time of the Generation of the Foetus which after it was once become perfectly Dry and Solid was not again to be expected It was before observ'd that upon the descent of the vast quantities of Vapours on the Third Day the ground was so tender soft and full of juices as very naturally answered to what all Antiquity made the fund and promptuary of the rising Plants and Animals the famous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And as that was but a necessary qualification of a Soil which was to produce Animals so the want of it ever since takes away all hopes of a like Propagation 3. The Primitive state of the Earth and Air where the Animals were produc'd had heat sufficient for that purpose which the subsequent has not 'T is evident that a greater heat than the present Earth or Ambient Air can afford is requisite to and made use of in the present Generation of Animals which the Incubation in the Oviparous and the still warmer Position of the Faetus in the Viviparous Animals assure us of On which account the present Earth must needs be incapable of their production But that the Heat in the Primitive Earth and particularly where the Animals were produc'd was much greater will thus appear As to the Heat from the Central Body while the Earth was somewhat loose and pretty freely admitted the ascending steams that would be considerably greater than after its more intire consolidation when these steams were thereby so much confin'd within or diverted to some particular conceptacles Besides The Production of Animals was near Paradise and I suppose no where else Now those middle Regions of which Eden the Country of Paradise was one being situate under the ancient Ecliptick and present Tropick of which before enjoy'd also a greater Heat from the same Central Body by reason of their greater nearness thereto than since they or the corresponding parts of the Torrid Zone do or can partake of For when the Earth was then perfectly Sphaerical the middle and their neighbouring parts were about 10 miles nearer the Central Solid than the same Regions now are They being in that proportion Elevated and the circumpolar depress'd at the commencing of the Diurnal Rotation Which greater Vieinity of the Central Heat must certainly have a suitable effect and cause somewhat warmer Regions thereabouts than they have been ever since Moreover If the real proper heat of the Central Solid be in any considerable proportion diminish'd in near 6000 years time as in some proportion it must be That degree of Heat which it had at first was still the most powerful of all other ever since But then as to the Solar Heat to take no notice of the greater nearness of the Sun's Body before the Deluge than since as not directly reaching the present case 'T is evident that Paradise situate under or near the very Ecliptick it self must receive the utmost power of the same heat which any part of the Globe were capable of which by lying under the Tropick afterward it would not do On all which accounts joyn'd together 't is evident that the heat in the Primitive State was much more considerable and so much more adapted to the Generation of Animals than that in the subsequent ever was or can possibly be 4. The Primitive state was perfectly still and calm free from all such winds storms violent tides or any the like hurries and disorders as at present wholly render the production of Animals impossible Which quiet condition if in some respects it endur'd till the Deluge yet as even in those the Paradisiacal state might have the preheminence so in others particularly the gentleness of the Tides it had still the most peculiar advantage as was before observed 5. The Equability of Seasons and the greater uniformity of the Air 's temperature which in part remain'd till the Deluge but might be more signal in the Paradisiacal state rendred that Earth as proper as the contrary sudden uncertain and violent extreams of heat and cold drought and moisture sultry and frosty Weather now wholly indispose it for such a production of Animals Which Prerogatives of the Primitive Earth and Air will certainly demonstrate if not its intire fitness yet sure it s less unfitness for such an original Generation as was here to be accounted for and is all as was before observ'd that can justly be requir'd and expected in the present case Corollary When it has been before allow'd that all Generation is but Nutrition and that all Seeds as well of Animals as of Plants are the immediate workmanship of God 'T is evident that this Supposition of the Original Production of Animals out of the Waters and Earth according to the plainest letter of the Mosaick History does by no means derogate from the Divine Efficiency and the wonderful Art and Skill in the Structure of their Bodies nor
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 XXVI Since the Primitive state of External Nature was so exceeding different from the present as has been already prov'd the other Terrestrial Animals as well as Man ought to be suppos'd of a somewhat proportionably different Temper Abilities and Actions Besides The Divine Providence is concern'd to suit one Being to Another and to accommodate still the subordinate to the Superior rank of Creatures in the World On which account 't is not strange that the Bruit Animals were in their Primitive Constitution very much distinguish'd from and advanc'd above such as are now upon the Earth the Diversity with Relation to Mankind to whom in each Period they were to be subservient being so very remarkable For since Mankind upon the Fall degenerated into a Sensual and Bruitish way of Living the Bruit Creatures themselves would very unwillingly have paid their due homage and submission had not they in some degree degenerated from their Primitive Dignity at the same time Which degeneracy suppos'd a former greater degree of Abilities Operations and Happiness is at the same time suppos'd also And to strengthen this conjecture I may venture to Appeal to Anatomy whether the present Bodies of Bruits do not appear capable as far as can be discover'd of nobler operations than we ever now observe from them The advantage of even Mankind in this respect seeming not very considerable over the Bruits that perish XXVII The temper of the Air where our first Parents liv'd was warmer and the Heat greater before the Fall than since XXVII This has been already accounted for in the twenty third Proposition before 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 XXVIII That we may account for this Proposition and that Curse which was inflicted on the ground at the Fall in good measure included therein we must observe that the growth of Plants and Vegetables depends on a degree of Heat proportionate to the peculiar temper and exigence of each Species and by consequence that let the number of Seeds in any Soil be never so many or their kinds never so diverse yet the Surface of the Earth must remain bare and barren until the peculiar Heat of the Season and Climate be adapted to them Now seeing different kinds of Seeds require different degrees of Heat 't is only such certain kinds of the same that will at once shew themselves or spring out of the Earth the rest to which the Heat is not adjusted lying all the while as Dormant and Dead as if they did not really Exist in Nature Thus we have several distinct Crops of Vegetables in the several Seasons of the Year Those Seeds which the small Heat of February and March is not able to raise lye still in the Earth till the greater force of the Sun in April and May excite them In like manner several others which are too crass and unpliable for the moderate warmth of the Spring are by the yet greater intenseness of the Heat in June July and August rais'd from their Seats and oblig'd to shoot forth and display themselves Nay when in the Months of September and October the Sun's Power is diminish'd and its Heat but about equivalent to that of March and April it again suits the Plants which were then in Season so that they many of them spring up afresh in these Months and flourish over anew as before they did in those as Dr. Woodward very well discourses upon this occasion In like manner we may also consider this matter with relation to the different Climates and Zones of the Earth and their quite different Crops of Plants according to those different degrees of Heat made use of in their Vegetation When therefore we observe in the same Country a various Crop and Order of Vegetables every Year according to the various Power of Heat in each Season a different Face of the Earth being gradually visible from February till July in proportion to the gradual increase of Heat all that space we cannot tell in case the Heat increas'd still to a greater intenseness afterward but a new and unseen Face of things might appear and many unheard-of kinds of Vegetables might put forth and expose themselves to our Observation even in the present State and Age of the World But as to the Primitive World wherein all the Seeds of those Vegetables which God Originally Created were fresh and vegetous and wherein there was a much greater Heat than since has been to invigorate and produce them 't is very reasonable and very agreeable to Nature to suppose that many sorts of Trees Plants Herbs and Flowers which the colder temper of the subsequent Earth were unable to excite and produce were then every Year rais'd and became the principal Recreation and Sustenance of our first Parents in the state of Innocency 'T is very probable they might never see such a Poor Jejune and Degenerate State of the Vegetable Kingdom as we since have done till their unhappy Fall occasion'd the Introduction of that miserable condition of all things which has ever since continued among us Thus as one Country or Climate because of its greater Coldness is now the Seminary of several Vegetables which the warmer Regions are either perfect Strangers to or advance to a greater degree of perfection So upon the degeneracy of the Primeval State into the present and the mighty Abatement of the Ancient Heat taken together with the worse Juices and other effects of that Abatement contributary perhaps to the same thing 't is natural to allow that several such Vegetables suppose Thorns and Thistles which were before either perfect strangers to or had been advanc'd to a greater degree of Perfection by the Juices and Warmth of Paradise became the constant and troublesome Heir-looms there to the no little regret of our first Parents who till then had only seen and enjoy'd the better Set of the Primigenial Vegetables And if we consider withal that a main intention of the Toil Tillage and Manure of the Husbandman seems to be design'd to Enspirit and Envigorate the too Cold and Unactive Soil with Warm and Active Particles we shall not be unwilling to grant that those Labours of the Husbandman on this as well as on several other accounts which might be mention'd must have been in the Primitive state very facile and easie in comparison of those which are necessary in the present state SCHOLIUM 'T will be here I imagin not improper to remind the Reader once for all of the Nature and Effects of that extraordinary Change which the Fall of Man and the Consequent Curse of God brought upon the Earth That he may with the greater ease of his own accord view
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
of Life and Health such a Change must have on the Person before-mention'd 't is not difficult to imagine And as easie on a like comparison of the Antediluvian AEther and the present Atmosphere to account for the Proposition before us and shew as well why men dye at all uncertain Periods of Years and have while they live a Precarious State of Health with frequent sicknesses as why none reach any whit near the long Ages of those that before the Deluge continued in Health and Security for near a thousand Years XLIII Tho' the Antediluvian Earth was not destitute of lesser Seas and Lakes every where dispers'd on the Surface thereof yet had it no Ocean or large receptacle of Waters separating one Continent from another and covering so large a portion of it as the present Earth has XLIII From the Original Formation of the Earth above describ'd and its unequal subsidence into the Abyss beneath while in the mean time vast quantities of Vapours were sustain'd above and afterwards let fall upon the Earth its Surface would be unequal its lowest Valleys fill'd with Water and a truly Terraqueous Globe would arise But these two plain Reasons may be assigned why any great Ocean were not to be expected at the same time 1. So Vast and Deep a Valley as the Ocean implies is not in reason to be deriv'd from such a regular formation of the Earth from a Chaos as we have above describ'd No good reason being assignable why in such a confused mixture as we call a Chaos the parts should be so strangely dispos'd that on one side all the Upper Orb for some scores of Degrees and some thousands of Miles together should be Denser and Heavier than the rest and by its sinking deepest into the Abyss produce the vast Channel of the Ocean while on another side the same Orb for as many Degrees and Miles should be universally Rare and Light enough to be very much extant and compose a mighty Continent as the case is in our present Earth Tho' the Atmosphere of a Comet be so truly Heterogeneous and it s Opake or Earthy Masses so unequally scatter'd abroad on the different sides thereof as even setting aside the inequality of the Density and Specifick Gravity of the several Columns might compose an Orb of different Thickness or Crassitude and so cause an unequal Orb on the Face of the Abyss like that we before suppos'd it originally to have been Yet so mighty an inequality as the present Division of the Earth into an Ocean and Continents must suppose is by no means to be allow'd in the Primitive Chaos nor would I suppose by any be asserted if the Generation of those grand Divisions of our Globe were otherwise accountable which on our Principles being so easily done as will soon appear no reason can plead here for their Primitive Introduction And sure those Agitation and Motions of Parts visible in some sort now in Comets Atmospheres and to be however granted in the digestion of its parts at first must sure mix and jumble the parts together to a degree sufficient to prevent so strange an inequality as the Original Existence of the Ocean and Continents must needs imply However 2. The quantity of Water preserv'd above ground was little or nothing more as we have shew'd than the Heat of the Sun and Central Solid was able to elevate and the Air at once to sustain during half a years space the day time of the second Period of the Creation Which how insufficient it must have been to the filling of the great Ocean is easily understood Which things consider'd the Absence of the Ocean as well as the Existence of Seas is very easily accountable in the Antediluvian World CHAP. IV. A Solution of the Phaenomena relating to the Universal Deluge and its Effects upon the Earth XLIV In the Seventeenth Century from the Creation there happen'd a most extraordinary and prodigious Deluge of Waters upon the Earth XLIV WHatever difficulties may hitherto have rendred this most Noted Catastrophe of the Old World that it was destroy'd by Waters very hard if not wholly inexplicable without an Omnipotent Power and Miraculous Interposition since the Theory of Comets with their Atmospheres and Tails is discover'd they must vanish of their own accord For if we consider that a Comet is no other than a Chaos including the very same Bodies and Parts of which our own Earth is compos'd that the outward Regions of its Atmosphere are plain Vapours or such a sort of Mist as we frequently see with us and the Tail a column of the same Vapours rarified and expanded to a greater degree as the Vapours which in the clearest Days or Nights our Air contains at present are and that withal such a Comet is capable of passing so close by the Body of the Earth as to involve it in its Atmosphere and Tail a considerable time and leave prodigious quantities of the same Condensed and Expanded Vapours upon its Surface we shall easily see that a Deluge of Waters is by no means an impossible thing and in particular that such an individual Deluge as to the Time Quantity and Circumstances which Moses describes is no more so but fully accountable that it might be nay almost demonstrable that it really was All which the Solutions following will I think give an easie and mechanical account of XLV This prodigious Deluge of Waters was mainly occasion'd by a most extraordinary and violent Rain for the space of forty Days and as many Nights without intermission XLV When the Earth passed clear through the Atmosphere and Tail of the Comet in which it would remain for about 10 or 12 hours as from the Velocity of the Earth and the Crassitude of the said Tail on Calculation does appear it must acquire from the violence of the Column of Vapours descend towards the Sun impeded by the Earth's Interposition and Reception of the same and from the Attractive Power of the Earth it self withal enforcing more to descend it must I say acquire upon its Surface immense quantities of the Vapours before mention'd A great part of which being in a very Rare and Expanded condition after their Primary Fall would be immediately mounted upward into the Air and afterward descend in violent and outragious Rains upon the Face of the Earth All those Vapours which were rarer and lighter than that Air which is immediately contiguous to the Earth must certainly ascend to such a height therein where its Density and Specifick Gravity were correspondent as far as that Croud of their fellow Vapours with which the Air was oppress'd would give leave And so afterwards as they cool'd thicken'd and collected together like our present Vapours must descend in most prodigious Showers of Rain for a long time afterwards and very naturally occasion that forty Days and forty Nights Rain mention'd in the Proposition before us XLVI This vast quantity of Waters was not deriv'd from the Earth or Seas
as Rains constantly now are but from some other Superior and Coelestial Original XLVI This is already evident from what has been just now said The source of all these Rains being one of those Superior or Coelestial Bodies which we call Comets or more peculiarly the Atmosphere and Tail thereof XLVII This vast Fall of Waters or forty Days Rain began on the fifth day of the Week or Thursday the twenty seventh day of November being the seventeenth day of the second Month from the Autumnal Equinox corresponding this Year 1696. to the twenty eighth day of October XLVII This has been already explain'd in effect in the Hypothesis hereto relating where it was prov'd that a Comet on that very day here nam'd pass'd by the Earth and by consequence began those Rains which for the succeeding forty days space continued without any Interruption XLVIII The other main cause of the Deluge was the breaking up the Fountains of the great Abyss or causing such Chaps and Fissures in the upper Earth as might permit the Waters contain'd in the Bowels of it when violently press'd and squeez'd upwards to ascend and so add to the quantity of those which the Rains produced XLVIII This has in part been explain'd in the Lemmata hereto relating and will be more fully understood from the Figure there also refer'd to For Let adbc represent the Earth moving along the Ecliptick GH from G towards H. 'T is evident that the Figure of the Earth before the approach of the Comet as far as 't is here concern'd was Sphaerical But now let us suppose the Comet bi Dh as it was descending towards its Perihelion along its Trajectory EF from E towards F to approach very near and arrive at the nearest Position represented in the Figure 'T is evident that this presence of the Comet would cause a double Tide as well in the Seas above as in the Abyss below the former of which being less considerable in it self and not to our present purpose need not be taken any farther notice of But the latter would be vastly great suppose seven or eight Miles high above its former Position would produce mighty Effects on the Orb above it and so deserves a nicer consideration in this place As soon therefore as the Comet came pretty near as suppose within the Moon 's distance this double Tide would begin to rise and increase all the time of its approach till the Comet was nearest of all as in the Figure And then these Tides or double Protuberances of the Abyss would be at their utmost height So that the Surface of the Abyss and of its incumbent Orb of Earth would put on that Elliptick or rather truly and exactly Oval Figure under which 't is here represented Now 't is certain that this Sphoeroid Surface of the Abyss is larger than its former Sphoerical one 't is also certain that the Orb of Earth which rested on this Abyss must be oblig'd to follow its Figure and accommodate it self to this large Oval which being impossible for it to do while it remain'd Solid continued and conjoyn'd it must of necessity enlarge it self and by the violent force of the encreasing Surface of the Abyss be stretch'd crack'd broken and have innumerable Fissures made quite through it from the upper to the under Surface thereof nearly perpendicular to the same Surfaces So that this Orb of Earth which originally in its primary formation was Sphaerical its inward Compages or Strata even conjoin'd and continual which had afterward at the commencing of the Diurnal Rotation been chang'd into an Oblate Sphoeroid and at the same time been thereby broken chap'd and disjointed by that time its wounds had been well healed and it was in some measure setled and fix'd in such a condition receiv'd this new Disruption at the Deluge It s old Fissures were open'd and the Fountains of the Abyss most Naturally and Emphatically so stil'd according to Dr. Woodward's Account of the Origin of Fountains broken up and sufficient Gaps made for a Communication between the Abyss below and the Surface of the Earth above the same if any occasion should be given for the Ascent of the former or Descent of any thing from the latter And here 't is to be noted that these Chaps and Fissures tho' they were never so many or so open could not of themselves raise any Subterraneous Waters nor contribute one jot to the drowning of the Earth The Upper Orb was long ago setled and sunk as far into the Abyss as the Law of Hydrostaticks requir'd and whether 't were intire or broken would cause no new pressure and no more than maintain its prior situation on the Face of the Deep These Fissures had been at least as open and extended in their Original Generation when the Diurnal Rotation began as at this time and yet was there no danger of a Deluge So that tho' this breaking up of the Fountains of the Deep was a prerequisite condition and absolutely necessary to the Ascent of the Subterraneous Waters yet was it not the proper and direct cause or efficient thereof That is to be deriv'd from another original and is as follows As soon as the presence of the Comet had produc'd those vast Tides or double elevation and depression of the Abyss and thereby disjointed the Earth and caus'd the before-mentiond patent holes or breaches quite through the Body of it the Fall of Waters began and quickly cover'd the Earth and crouded the Air with vast quantities there of Which Waters being adventitious or additional ones and of a prodigious weight withal must press downward with a mighty force and endeavour to sink the Orb of Earth deeper into the Abyss according as the intire weight of each column of Earth and its incumbent Waters together agreeably to the Law of Hydrostaticks did now require And had the Earth as it was in its first subsiding into the Abyss been loose separate and unfix'd so as to admit the Abyss between its parts and suffer a gentle subsidence of the Columns of Earth in the requisite proportion we could scarce have expected any Elevation of the Subterraneous Waters But the Strata of the Earth were long ago setled fastened and consolidated together and so could not admit of such a farther immersion into the fluid On which account the new and vast pressure of the Orb of Earth upon the Abyss would certainly force it upward or any way wheresoever there were a passage for it To which therefore the Breaches Holes and Fissures so newly generated or rather open'd afresh by the violence of the Tides in the Abyss beneath would be very ready and natural Outlets through which it would Ascend with a mighty force and carry up before it whatever was in its way whether Fluid or Solid whether 't were Earth or Water And seeing as we before saw the Lower Regions of the Earth were full of Water pervading and replenishing the Pores
from the same that is as will hereafter appear pretty near the Point b or somewhat below it towards c Which Mountain Caucasus was directly expos'd therefore to the Comet at its nearest distance represented in the Figure When the Comet therefore was moving from E to F so soon as the Earth came within its Atmosphere and Tail a Cylindrical Column of Vapours would be intercepted and bore off by the Earth in its passage whose Basis were somewhat larger than a great Circle on the Earth and whose Direction or Axis from the compound Motion of the Comet and of the Earth were at about 45 degrees of Inclination with the Ecliptick or parallel to cd the lesser Axis of the Earth That is the first fall of the Vapours would affect one Hemisphere of the Earth at a time that namely which were properly expos'd to their descent and the other would be not at all affected therewith till the Earth's Diurnal Rotation by degrees expos'd the other parts in like manner and brought every one at last within the verge of that Hemisphere on which was the first and most violent descent of the Vapours Now this Hemisphere would be represented in the Figure by a d b and the opposite one which intirely escap'd at the same time by a c b. So that seeing the Ark or Mount Caucasus was below the Point b and by the Diurnal Rotation quickly got farther within the fair Hemisphere it would remain in the same during all the time of this first violent Fall of the Waters and have a calm and quiet day for the entry into the Ark while the other Regions of the Globe were subject to so violent a Storm and such fury of descending Vapours as no Age past or future had been or were to be exposed to This place could only be capable of some falling Vapours three or four hours after Sun-set in case the Earth were not at that time got clear of the Tail of the Comet in which it had been all the preceding day And consequently Noah had as fair and calm a time of entring into the Ark with all his Family and the other Animals as could be desir'd when no other parts of the Globe but those agreeing in such a peculiar situation with him could have permitted the same Which is I think not a meer Satisfactory but a very Surprizing account of the present Proposition Corollary 1. Hence the time of the breaking open of the Fountains of the Deep and of the beginning of the Rains very nearly coincident therewith is determin'd and that agreeably to the Mosaick History much nearer than to a Day with which exactness we have hitherto contented our selves in the case And indeed almost to an Hour For seeing all the Fountains of the great Deep were broken up on this day seeing the forty days Rain began on the same day seeing Noah with all his Family and all the other Creatures entred on this self-same day into the Ark all which certainly require very near an intire day and yet seem very incompatible there is no other way but to assert that tho' the breaking up of the Fountains of the Great Deep and the Fall of the Waters were coincident and upon the same day with the Entry into the Ark as the Text most expresly asserts yet the place where the Ark was escap'd the effects of the same till the Evening and while the rest of the Earth was abiding the fury of the same enjoy'd so calm fair and undisturb'd a day as permitted their regular and orderly going into the Ark before the Waters overtook them So that the Deluge must according to the Sacred History have commenc'd in the Morning and yet not reach'd the particular place where Noah was till the Evening or the coming on of the ensuing Night Which how exactly the present Hypothesis is correspondent to I shall leave the Reader to judge from what has been said under this last Proposition according to which 't is plain that the Comet pass'd by the Earth broke up the Fountains of the Deep and began the forty days Rains after Sun-rising about Eight or Nine a Clock in the Morning from which time till Eight or Nine a Clock at Night and long after Sun-set tho' the Waters fell with the greatest violence on the Earth yet they affected a single Hemisphere at a time only into which the Diurnal Rotation did not all that while convert the Regions near the Ark and this most nicely and wonderfully corresponds to the greatest accuracy of the present case and of the Mosaick History So that now we may agreeably both to the Sacred History and the Calculations from the present Hypothesis assert that the Deluge began at the Meridian of Mount Caucasus on Thursday the twenty seventh day of November in the year of the Julian Period 2365 between Eight and Nine a Clock in the Morning Which exactness of Solution wherein not only the Day but almost Hour assign'd from the Mosaick History is correspondent to the present Hypothesis how remarkable an Attestation it is to the same and how full a confirmation of the most accurate Verity of the Mosaick History I need not remark Such reflections when Just being very Natural with every careful Reader Corollary 2. Here is an instance of the peculiar Providence of God in the Preservation of the Ark by ordering the Situation so as to escape the Violence of the thick Vapours in their first precipitate fall which otherwise must probably have dash'd it to pieces For considering their Velocity of Motion which indeed was incredible no less than eight hundred Miles in the space of a Minute 't is not easy to suppose that any Building could sustain and preserve it self under the violence thereof which we see the Ark by the peculiar place of its Situation twenty or twenty five degrees North-East from the Center of our Northern Continent was wonderfully secured from while the other Regions of the Earth were exposed thereto and in great measure 't is probable destroy'd thereby Coroll 3. Hence 't is evident That the place of the Ark before assign'd at Mount Caucasus was its true one and not any Mountain in or near Armenia For had it been there seated it had been expos'd to the violence of the falling Vapours and instead of a quiet entry into the Ark on this first day of the Deluge the Ark it self with all the Creatures that were to be preserv'd in it would have utterly perish'd in the very beginning thereof Coroll 4. Hence the reason may easily be given why the History of the Deluge takes no notice of this passing by of the Comet viz. because none of those who surviv'd the Deluge could see or perceive the same For at the time of the approach of the Comet at first both the latter end of the Night-season when all were asleep and the Mists which according to the Nature of the Antediluvian Air were probably then upon the Earth and obscur'd
the Face of the Heavens hindred any prospect of this dreadful Body And soon after the Morning came they were actually involv'd in the Atmosphere of the Comet and so in its Tail presently after which would only appear a strange and unusual Mist or Cloud at a distance wholly depriving them of the distinct view of the Comet it self and leaving them utterly ignorant of the true occasion of the following Catastrophe unless any intimation should have been given them thereof by a Divine Revelation LI. Tho' the first and most violent Rains continued without intermission but forty Days yet after some time the Rains began again and ceased not till the seventeenth Day of the seventh Month or a hundred and fifty Days after the Deluge began LI. It has been already abserv'd That the Comet would involve the Earth in its Tail a second time about fifty four or fifty five Days after its first passing by as well as it did before as 't is also represented in the Figure Which being suppos'd the Earth must receive a new stock of Vapours as before and the Rains which had intermitted for fourteen or fifteen Days must begin again The differences between the former and latter Rains would be 1. These latter Vapours proceeding from the Tail whereas the former did principally from the much denser Atmosphere of the Comet would be less copious and less violent than the other and cause a gentler Rain 2. These Vapours being newly rarified by the prodigious Heat at the Perihelion and rais'd thereby to a mighty height in the Tail from their greater rarity and lightness higher ascent in our Air consequent thereupon and longer time thence necessary to their cooling and descent in Rains upon the Earth would be much longer in falling and produce a continual Rain of many more days than the former did Both which are exactly agreeable to the Mosaick History whence it appears that the first Rains had the principal stroke in the Deluge and that if this secondary Rain commenc'd at the time here assign'd it must have continued 95 or 96 days which is considerably more than double the number of those 40 within which the former Rains were confin'd LII This second and less remarkable Rain was deriv'd from such a cause as the former was LII This is sufficiently evident already since the same Comet afforded the matter for both Rains equally LIII Tho' the Fountains of the great Deep were broken up and the forty days Rain began at the same time yet is there a very observable mention of a threefold growth or distinct augmentation of the Waters as if it were on three several accounts and at three several times LIII This is particularly correspondent to the present Hypothesis wherein 1. The principal Rain of 40 days 2. The Eruption and Ascent of the Subterraneous Waters occasion'd by their weight and pressure 3. The lesser Rain of 95 or 96 days were both different in themselves and in their time of commencing and caus'd a distinct augmentation of the Waters agreeably to the greatest nicety of this Proposition LIV. The Waters of the Deluge increas'd by degrees till their utmost height and then decreas'd by degrees till they were clearly gone off the Face of the Earth LIV. This is evident as to the increase of the Deluge by what has been already said and will equally be so of its decrease when we come to it hereafter LV. The Waters of the Deluge were Still Calm free from Commotions Storms Winds and Tempests of all sorts during the whole time in which the Ark was afloat upon them LV. It has already appear'd that there were no Storms Tempests or other violent Commotions in the Antediluvian Air till the Deluge and that during the space here referr'd to none would arise 't is but reasonable to allow For as to the first and principal Rain it was so constant so downright and so uninterrupted that no little commotion in the Air could have place or if it had could disturb it which is commonly the case of long and setled Rains with us at this day As to the Subterraneous Waters ascending with some violence they were confin'd to several particular places and not universal and though they might cause some commotions at the bottom of the Waters yet might the surface of the same and the Air be sufficiently calm and undisturb'd But as to the third Cause of the Deluge It must be granted agreeably to what has been before observ'd That the descending Vapours would not be merely such but mix'd with many heterogenerous Particles of all sorts Sulphur Brimstone Niter Coal Mineral Effluvia Metallick Steams and the like which the prodigious heat at the Perihelion had dissolv'd and elevated into the Tail of the Comet From the confused mixture irregular fermentations and disagreeing motions of all which 't is probable the preternatural and violent commotions in the Atmosphere then and since are mainly to be deduc'd So that assoon as the latter 94 or 95 days Rains were almost over assoon as these rarified Corpuscles were descended into the lower and narrower Regions of the Air and being crouded closer were by the greater heat there predominant put into such irregular fermentations as they were already disposed for 'T is natural to suppose that Winds and Storms of all sorts and those in a very extraordinary manner would arise and cause the most sensible and extream perturbations of the Waters now covering to a vast depth the face of the whole Earth that could easily be conceiv'd Of which the following Proposition will give farther occasion to discourse LVI Yet during the Deluge there were both Winds and Storms of all sorts in a very violent manner LVI Seeing as we just now saw that at the end of the latter Rains the greatest Storms possible were to be expected and seeing yet the Ark which had been afloat so long and was so still the Waters being now at the very highest was incapable of abiding a stormy Sea as we prov'd under the former Phaenomenon there at first view appears the greatest danger imaginable of its perishing in the future immoderate and extraordinary Commotions And this danger is increased by this Reflection That as probably it had been afloat during the most part of the 150 days while the Waters were gradually and gently augmenting so one would imagine ought it to be for at least as many days during the at least as gentle and gradual decrease of the same afterwards i. e. The Ark ought to have been as long afloat in the stormy as it had been in the calm part of the Deluge But this difficulty which is to appearance so entirely insoluble will soon vanish if we consider that the Ark rested upon Caucasus the then highest Mountain in the world For seeing the Waters prevailed above the same Mountain 15 Cubits only a great part of which depth of Water would be drawn by the Ark it self upon the
of Bodies in the whole World can elevate or depress a Continent of the Earth but such as are capable of approaching the same or in other words but Comets and consequently a Comet did approach near the Earth at the time assigned and was the cause of the Deluge Which Chain or Connexion I take to be so strong that I believe 't will not be possible to evade its force and so what on other arguments has been already establish'd is fully confirm'd by this Coroll 4. 'T is equally dcmonstrable that the Upper Orb or Habitable Earth is founded on a Subterraneous Fluid denser and heavier than it self This circumstance being absolutely necessary to account for the Phaenomenon we are now upon For if the internal Regions of the Globe were firm and solid as is commonly suppos'd tho' wholly gratis and without ground Tho' the Comet had pass'd by yet there could have been no elevation of any Continent and the Proposition before us must still have remain'd Insoluble LX. As the Fountains of the great Deep were broken up at the very same time that the first Rains began so were they stopp'd the very same time that the last Rains ended on the seventeenth day of the seventh Month. LX. Tho' I cannot say that the Account of the Deluge now given can determine to a Day the time of the Subterraneous Waters ceasing to spout forth this stoppage of the Fountains of the Deep in Moses yet 't is evident that the time defin'd by the History is very agreeable to that which from the consideration of the thing it self one should naturally pitch upon For since the Ascent of the Subterraneous Waters depended on the Waters produc'd by the Rains as on the beginning of those Rains it began to ascend on the continuance thereof continued to do the like so at the ceasing probably enough might it cease also as this Proposition assures us it really did LXI The abatement and decrease of the Waters of the Deluge was first by a Wind which dried up some And secondly by their descent through those Fissures Chaps and Breaches at which part of them had before ascended into the Bowels of the Earth which received the rest To which latter also the Wind by hurrying the Waters up and down and so promoting their lighting into the before-mention'd Fissures was very much subservient LXI In order to the giving a satisfactory account of this Proposition and of the draining the Waters of the Deluge off the Surface of the Earth which to some has seem'd almost as difficult to solve as their first Introduction It must first be granted that the Air could receive and sustain but very inconsiderable quantities in comparison of the intire Mass which lay upon the Earth yet some it might and would naturally do which accordingly both the Wind here mentioned and the Sun also took away and turn'd into Vapour immediately after the ceasing of the latter Rains But as to all the rest there is no imaginable place for their Reception or whither their natural Gravity oblig'd them to retreat to excepting the Bowels of the Earth which must therefore be distinctly consider'd in this place Now we may remember from what has been formerly said that the quantity of Solids or earthy Parts in the upper Orbs primary Formation was very much greater than that of Fluids or watery Parts and consequently that the inward Regions of the Earth being generally dry and porous were capable of receiving mighty quantities of Waters without any swelling without any alteration of the external Figure or visible Bulk And indeed if we allow as we ought any considerable Crassitude to this upper Orb its interior Regions might easily contain a much greater quantity of Waters than what was upon the Earth at the Deluge especially when so great a part of them was before there and would only fill up their old places again So that all the difficulty is now reduc'd to this By what Pipes Canals or Passages these Waters could be convey'd into the Bowels of the Earth Which in truth can admit of no dispute nothing sure being to be conceiv'd more natural Inlets to these Waters than those very perpendicular Fissures which were the Outlets to so great a part of them before As soon therefore as the Waters ceas'd to ascend upwards through those Breaches they must to be sure descend downward's by the same and this descent is more natural than the prior ascent could be esteem'd to be which was a force upon them compelling them against their Natures to arise upwards when this retreat into the same Interstices is no other than their own proper Gravity requir'd and inclin'd them to The case here is in part like that of a Sive first by force press'd down into a Vessel of Water till it were fill'd therewith and then suffer'd to emerge again where through the very same Holes at which the Waters ascended into they afterward descended out of the Sive again and retreated into their own Element as before All that in particular deserves here to be farther noted is the Interest of the Wind or of the Agitations of the Waters goings and returnings in the Hebrew Phrase made mention of in this Proposition And these Commotions are in truth very useful and very necessary assistants to the draining of the Waters from off the Earth For when the most part of the Fissures were in the Mountains 't would have been a difficult thing to clear the Vallies and lower Grounds had there been a perfect Calm and every Collection of Waters remain'd quietly in its own place But when the Waters were so violently agitated and hurried from one place to another they would thereby very frequently light into the Fissures and Breaches and so descend as well as the rest into the heart of the Earth very agreeable to the Assertion of this Proposition Corollary 1. Seeing the most of the Fissures were in the Mountains the decrease and going off of the Waters would be greatest at first while the generality of the Mountains were under water and less and gentler afterwards Coroll 2. Several low Countries now bordering on the Seas might for many Years after the Deluge be under Water which by the descent of more of the Waters into the Bowels of the Earth might become Dry-land afterward and by their smoothness and equability shew their once having lain under and been made so plain by the Waters Instances of which are now very observable in the World In particular those parts of Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire which border on the German Ocean appear very evidently to have originally been in the same case as any careful Observer will easily pronounce LXII The dry Land or habitable Part of the Globe is since the Deluge divided into two vast Continents almost opposite to one another and separated by a great Ocean interpos'd between them LXII The Figure in which the Comet left the Earth and which it would in some measure retain
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