of a multitude of different Species of Bodies Mettals Minerals Stones and other Fossils Sand Clay Marle Chalk c. which do all agree in that they are consistent and solid more or less and are in that respect contradistinguished to Water and together compound one Mass which we call Earth Whether the interior parts of the Earth be made up of so great a variety of differenâ— Bodies is to us altogether unknown For tho it be observed by Colliers that the Beds of Coals lie one way and do always dip towards the East let them go never so deep so that would it quit cost and were it noâ— for the Water they say they might pursue the Bed of Coals to the very Center of the Earth the Coals never failing or coming to an end that way yet that is but a rash and ungrounded Conjecture For what is the depth of the profoundest Mines were they a Mile deep to the Semidiameter of the Earth not as one to four thousand Comparing this Observation of Dipping with my Notes about other Mines I find that the Veins or Beds of all generally run East and West and dip towards the East Of which what Account or Reason can we give but the motion of the Earth from West to East I know some say that the Veins for Example of Tin and Silver dip to the North tho they confess they run East and West which is I confess a thing I cannot understand the Veins of those Metals being narrow things Sr Tho. Willoughby in his forementioned Letter writes thus I have talked with some of my Colliers about the lying of the Coal and find that generally the Basset end as they call it lyes West and runs deeper toward the East allowing about twenty yards in length to gain one in depth but sometimes they decline a little from this Posture for mine lie almost South-West and North-East They always sink to the East more or less There may therefore for for ought we know be Fire about the Center of the Earth as well as any other Body if it can find a Pabulum or Fewel there to maintain it And why may it not since the Fires in those subterraneous Caverns of Aetna Vesuvius Stromboli Hecla and other burning Mountains or Vulcano's have found wherewith to feed them for thousands of years And as there are at some tho uncertain periods of time violent Eruptions of Fire from the Craters of those Mountains and mighty Streams of melted Materials poured forth from thence so why may not this Central Fire in the Earth if any such there be receiving accidentally extraordinary Supplies of convenient Fewel either from some inflammable Matter within or from without rend the thick exterior Cortex which imprisons it or finding some Vents and Issues break forth and overflow the whole Superficies of the Earth and burn up all things This is not impossible and we have seen some Phaenomena in nature which bid fair towards a Probability of it For what should be the reason of new Stars appearing and disappearing again as that noted one in Cassiopeia which at first shone with as great a lustre as Venus and then by degrees diminishing after some two years vanish'd quite away but that by great Supplies of combustible matter the internal Fire suddenly increasing in quantity and force either found or made its way through the Cracks or Vents of the maculae which inclosed it and in an instant as it were overflowed the whole Surface of the Star whence proceeded that illustrious Light which afterwards again gradually decayed its Supply failing Whereas other newly appearing Stars which either have a constant Supply of Matter or where the Fire hath quite dissolved the Maculae and made them comply with its motion have endured for a long time as that which now shines in the Neck of Cygnus which appears and disappears at certain Intervals But because it is not demonstrable that there is any such Central Fire in the Earth I propose the eruption thereof rather as a possible than probable means of a Conflagration and proceed to the last means whereby it may naturally be effected and that is SECT 4. The Fourth Natural Cause of the World's Dissolution the Earth's Dryness and Inflammability 4. The Dryness and Inflammability of the Earth under the Torrid Zone with the Eruption of the Vulcano's to set it on fire Those that hold the Inclination of the Equator to the Ecliptick daily to diminish so that after the Revolutions of some Ages they will â—ump and consent tell us that the Sun-beams lying perpendicularly and constantly on the parts under the Equator the Ground thereabout must needs be extremely parch'd and rendred apt for Inflammation But for my part I own no such Decrement of Inclination And the best Mathematicians of our Age deny that there hath been any since the eldest Observations that are come down to us For tho indeed Ptolomy and Hipparchus do make it more than we find it by above twenty minutes yet that Difference is not so considerable but that it may well be imputed to the Difference of Instruments or Observations in point of Exactness So that not having decreased for eighteen hundred years past there is not the least ground for Conjecture that it will alter in eighteen hundred years to come should the World last so long And yet if there were such a Diminution it would not conduce much so far as I can see to the bringing on of a Conflagration For tho the Earth would be extremely dried and perchance thereby rendred more inflammable yet the Air being by the same Heat as much rarified would contain but few nitrous Particles and so be inept to maintain the Fire which we see cannot live without them It being much deaded by the Sun shining upon it and burning very remisly in Summer time and hot Weather For thiâ—â—eason in Southern Countries in extraordinary hot Seasons the Air scarce sufficeth for Respiration To the clearing up of this let us a little consider what Fire is It seems to consist of three different sorts of parts 1. An extremely thin and subtil Body whose Particles are in a very vehement and rapid motion 2. A supposed nitrous Pabulum or Fewel which it receives from the Air. 3. A Sulphureous or unctuous Pabulum which it acts and preys upon passing generally by the Name of Fewel This forementioned subtil Body agitating the supposed nitrous Particles it receives from the Air doth by their help as by Wedges to use that rude similitude penetrate the unctuous Bodies upon which it acts and divide them into â—heir immediate component Particles and at length perchance into their first Principles which Operation is called the Chymical Anatomy of mix'd Bodies So we see Wood for Example divided by Fire into Spirit Oil Water Salt and Earth That Fire cannot live without those Particles it receives from the Air is manifest in that if you preclude the Access of all Air it is extinguished immediately
and in that where and when the Air is more charged with them as in cold Countries and cold Weather the Fire rages most That likewise it cannot be continued without an unctuous Pabulum or Fewel I appeal to the experience of all Men. Now then in the rarified Air in the Torrid Zone the nitrous Particles being proportionably scattered and thin set the Fire that might be kindled there would burn but very languidly and remissly as we said just now and so the Eruptions of Vulcano's if any such happened would not be like to do half the Execution there that they would do in cold Countries And yet I never read of any spreading Conflagration caused by the Eruptions of any Vulcano's either in hot Countries or in cold They usually cast out abundance of thick Smoak like Clouds darkening the Air and likewise Ashes and Stones sometimes of a vast Bigness and some of them as Vesuvius Floods of Water others as Aetna Rivers of melted Materials running down many Miles as for the Flames that issue out of their Mouths at such times they are but transient and mounting upwards seldom set any thing on Fire But not to insist upon this I do affirm that there hath not as yet been nor for the future can be any such drying or parching of the Earth under the Torrid Zone as some may imagine That there hath not yet been I appeal to Experience the Countries lying under the Course of the Sun being at this day as fertile as ever they were and wanting no more Moisture now than of old they did having as constant and plentiful Rains in their Seasons as they then had That they shall for the future suffer any more Drought than they have heretofore done there is no reason to believe or imagine the Face of the Earth being not altered nor naturally alterable as to the main more at present than it was heretofore I shall now add the Reason why I think there can be no such Exsiccation of the Earth in those parts It 's true indeed were there nothing to hinder them the Vapours exhaled by the Sun-beams in those hot Regions would be cast off to the North and to the South a great way and not fall down in Rain there but toward the Poles But the long and continued Ridges or Chains of exceeding high Mountains are so disposed by the great and wise Creator of the World as at least in our Continent to run East and West as Gassendus in the life of Peireskius well observes such are Atlas Taurus and the Alps to name no more They are I say thus disposed as if it were on purpose to obviate and stop the Evagation of the Vapours Northward and reflect them back again so that they must needs be condensed and fall upon the Countries out of which they were elevated And on the South Side being near the Sea it is likely that the Wind blowing for the most part from thence hinders their excursion that way This I speak by presumption because in our Countrey for at least three quarters of the year the Wind blows from the great Atlantick Ocean which was taken notice of by Julius Caesar in the fifth of his Commentaries De Bello Gallico Corus veâ—tus qui magnam partem omnis temporis in his locis flare consuevit As for any Desiccation of the Sea I hold that by mere natural Causes to be impossible unless we could suppose a Transmutation of Principles or simple Bodies which for Reasons alledged in a former Discourse I cannot allow I was then and am still of opinion that God Almighty did at first create a certain and determinate number of Principles or variously figured Corpuscles intransmutable by the force of any natural Agent even Fire it self which can only separate the parts of heterogeneous Bodies yet not an equal number of each kind of these Principles but of some abundantly more as of Water Earth Air Ether and of others fewer as of Oil Salt Metals Minerals c. Now that there may be some Bodies indivisible by Fire is I think demonstrable For how doth or can Fire be conceived to divide one can hardly imagine any other way than by its small parts by reason of their violent Agitation insinuating themselves into compound Bodies and separating their parts which allowing yet still there is a term of Magnitude below which it cannot divide viz. it cannot divide a Body into smaller parts than those whereof it self is compounded For taking suppose one least Part of Fire 't is clear that it cannot insinuate it self into a Body as little or less than it self and what is true of one is true of all I say we can imagine no other way than this unless perchance by a violent Stroke or Shock the parts of the Body to be divided may be put into so impetuous a motion as to fall in sunder of themselves into lesser Particles than those of the impellent Body are which I will not suppose at present Now it is possible that the Principles of some other simple Bodies may be as small as the Particles of Fire But however that be it is enough if the Principles of simple Bodies be by reason of their perfect Solidity naturally indivisible Such a simple Body I suppose Water separated from all Heterogeneous Mixtures to be and consequently the same quantity thereof that was at first created doth still remain and will continue always in despight of all natural Agents unless it pleases the Omnipotent Creator to dissolve it And therefore there can be no Desiccation of the Seas unless by turning all its Water into Vapour and suspending it in the Air which to do what an immense and long-continuing Fire would be requisite to the maintenance whereof all the inflammable Materials near the Superficies of the Earth would not afford Fewel enough The Sun we see is so far from doing it that it hath not made one step towards it these four thousand years there being in all likelyhood as great a quantity of Water in the Ocean now as was immediately after the Flood and consequently there would probably remain as much in it should the World last four thousand years longer This Fixedness and Intransmutability of Principles secures the Universe from Dissolution by the prevailing of one Element over another and turning it into its own Nature which otherwise it would be in continual danger of It secures likewise the perpetuity of all the Species in the World many of which if their Principles were transmutable might by such a change be quite lost And lastly bars the Production or Creation of any new Species as in the forementioned Treatise I have shewn The Mention of these Principles or Primitive Simple Bodies gives me a fair opportunity of making a second Digression to Discourse a little concerning the Primaeve Chaos and Creation of the World A Digression concerning the Primitive Chaos and Creation of the World WHich yet I should not have done had I not been
as the Ibex and Rupicapra or Chamois among Quadrupeds and Lagopus among Birds 3. The Mountains are most proper for the putting forth of Plants yielding the greatest variety and the most luxuriant sort of Vegetables for the maintenance of the Animals proper to those places and for Medicinal Uses partly also for the Exercise and delight of such ingenious persons as are addicted to search out and collect those Rarities to contemplate and consider their Forms and Natures and to admire and celebrate the Wisdom of their Creator 4. All manner of Metals Minerals and Fossils if they could be generated in a level Earth of which there is some question yet should they be dug or mined for the Delfs must necessarily be so flown with Water which to drive and rid away no Adits or Soughs could be made and I much doubt whether Gins would suffice that it would â—e extremely difficult and chargeable if posâ—ible to work them at all 5. Neither are the very tops of the highâ—st Mountains barren of Grass for the feedâ—ng and fattening of Beasts For on the â—idges of the high Mountains of Jura and â—aleve near Geneva and those of Rhoetia or â—he Grisons Countrey which are the highest â—f all the Alps excepting the Vallesian and â—baudian there are Multitudes of Kine fed 〈◊〉 Summer time as I my self can witness â—aving in my Simpling Voyages on those of â—ra and Saleve observed Herds of Cattel here and many Dairy Houses built where I have been more than once refreshed by their Milk and Milk-Meats Nay there are but very few and those of the highest Summits of the Alps that keep Snow all Summer and I was told by the Inhabitants that one time or other in seven or eight years space for the most part there came a Summer that melted all the Snow that lay on them too 6. Anorher great use and necessity of Mountains and Hills is for the Generation and Maintenance of Rivers and Fountains which in our Hypothesis that all proceed from Rain-Water could not be without them or but rarely So we should have only Torrents which would fail in Summer-time or any dry Season and nothing to trust to but stagnating Water reserved in Pools and Cisterns Which how great an Inconvenience it would be I need not take pains to shew I say that Fountains and Rivers would be but rare were there no Mountains For upon serious consideration I find that I was too hasty in concluding because I had observed no Fountains springing up in Plains therefore there were oâ— could be absolutely none and do now granâ— that there is reason to believe the Relations made of such For the whole dry Land being but one continued Mountain and ascending all along from the Sea to the Midland as is undeniably proved by the Descent of Rivers even in plain Countries the Water sinking into the Earth may run under ground and according as the Vein leads it break out in the side of this Mountain tho the place as to outward appearance be a Plain But some may say Granting there be some use and benefit of moderate Hills and Risings what necessity is there of such extended Ridges of vast and towring Mountains hiding their Heads among the Clouds and seeming for Altitude to contend with the Skies I answer there is very great use of them for repelling the Vapours exhaled by the Sun-beams in the hot Regions and hindring their Evagations Northward as we have already shewn and shall not repeat I might add hereto 7. Those long Series and Chains of Mountains are of great use for Boundaries and Limits to the Territories of Princes or Commonwealths to secure them on those parts from sudden Incursions of Enemies As for the rudeness and confusion of Mountains their cragged and broken Rocks and Cliffs and whatever other Disorder there may be among them it may be accounted for from the manner of their first Generation and those other mutations they have been since obnoxious to by Earth-quakes Eruptions of Vulcano's foundering and falling in of their Props and Foundations and by time and weather too by which not only the Earth is washed away or blown off from the Stones but the very Stones and Rocks themselves corroded and dissolved as might easily be proved by Instances could I spare time to do it I should proceed now to say something concerning the rest of the Works of the Creation but that would be too great a Task and swell this Digression into a Volume I shall only add that to me it seems That the Almighty Creator did not only at first make the various Principles of all simple inanimate Bodies and scattered them throughout the upper Region of the Earth but also the Seminal Principles of Animate Ones too and disperst them also all over the Earth and Water and of these were the first Plants and Animals created by the Virtue of his Omnipotent Word and after all these were spent there remained no more Ability in those Elements to produce any Individuals but all since them owe their their Original to Generation God having given each Species power to procreate their like CHAP. VI. Containing an Answer to the Second Question Whether shall this Dissolution be effected by natural or by extraordinary means and what they shall be 2. AS to the Second Question Whether shall this Dissolution be brought about and effected by natural or by extraordinary means and Instruments and what those Means and Instruments shall be I answer in brief that the Instrumental Efficient of this Dissolution shall be natural For it is clear both by Scripture and Tradiâ—ion and agreed on all Hands that it shall be that Catholick Dissolvent Fire Now to the being and maintenance of Fire there are four things requisite 1. The active Prinâ—iple or Aether 2. Air or a nitrous Paâ—ulum received from it These two being â—ommixt together are every where at hand â— Fewel which considering the abundance of combustible Materials which are to be â—ound in all places upon or under the Surface of the Earth can no where be wanting 4. The Accension and the sudden and equal Diffusion of this Fire all the World over And this must be the Work of God extraordinary and miraculous Such a Dissolution of the World might indeed be effected by that natural Accident mentioned in the Answer to the precedent Question viz. The Eruption of the Central Fire But because it is doubtful whether there be any such Fire in the middle of the Earth or no and if there ever were it is hard to give an account how it could be maintained in that infernal Dungeon for want of Air and Fewel And because if it should break forth in the Consistency of a thin Flame it would in all likelyhood speedily like Lightening mount up to Heaven and quite vanish away unless we could suppose Floods nay Seas of melted Materials or liquid Fire enough to overflow the whole Earth to be poured forth of those Caverns For these
Water and likewise the seminal Principles of Animate Bodies too giving the Water and Earth power to hatch or bring them forth p. 152 170. By what Means the Waters were gathered together into one place and the dry Land made to appear p. 153. That subterraneous Fires and Flatus's might be sufficient for such an effect proved from the Effects of Gunpowder and the raising up of new Mountains p. 153 154 155 c. A Discourse concerning the Equality of Sea and Land both as to the extent of each and the height of one to the depth of the other taken from the Shores p. 160 161 c. A Discourse concerning the Vse of the Mountains p. 165 166 to p. 170 Chap. 6. An Answer to the Second Question Whether shall this Dissolution be effected by natural or by extraordinary Means and what they shall be p. 171 c. Chap. 7. The Third Question answered whether shall the Dissolution be gradual and successive or momentaneous and sudden p. 174 175 Chap. 8. The Fourth Question resolved Whether shall there be any Signs or Forerunners of the Dissolution of the World p. 177 178 179 Chap. 9. The Fifth Question At what period of time shall the World be Dissolved and particularly whether at the end of six thousand years p. 181 182 c. Chap. 10. How far shall this Dissolution or Conflagration extend Whether to the Ethereal Heavens and all the Host of them Sun Moon and Stars or to the Aereal only p. 187 188 c. Chap. 11. Containing an Answer to the Seventh Question Whether shall the whole World be consumed and annihilated or only refined and purified p. 191 192. The Restitution of the World proved by the Testimonies of Scripture and Antiquity and also by Reason p. 192 193 194 c The Arguments for the Abolition and Annihilation answered p. 198 199 200 Chap. 12. The Inference the Apostle makes from the precedent Doctrine Of Rewards punishment and future State From p. 203 to the End Several Additions and Amendments From p. 242 to p 259 Several Books Written by Mr. John Ray Fellow of the Royal Society and Sold by Samuel Smith at the Prince's Arms in S. Paul's Church-Yard CAtalogus Plantarum circa Cantabrigiam nascentium Octavo Cantab. 1660. Catalogus Plantarum Angliae Insularum adjacentium Oct. Lond. 1670 1677. A Collection of English and other Proverbs Cambridge Octavo 1672. and 1678. Observations made in a Journey through most parts of Europe Octavo 1673. Catalogus Stirpium in exteris Regionibus à nobis Observatarum Londini Octavo 1673. Dictionariolum Trilingue secundum locos communes Londini Octavo 1672 1689. A Collection of unusual English Words with an Account of preparing our English Minerals Lond. Duod 1674. and 1691. Francisci Willoughbeii Ornithologia cum Figuris Recognovit digessit supplevit Joannes Raius Londini Fol. 1676. The same Ornithology much Enlarged in English London 1678. Methodus Plantarum nova cum Tabulis Londini Octavo 1682. Francisci Willughbeii Historia Piscium cum Figuris Recognovit digessit supplevit J. Raius Oxoniae Fol. 1686. Historia Plantarum Generalis Vol. 2. Londini Fol. 1686 1688. Fasciculus Stirpium Britannicarum Londini Octavo 1688. Synopsis Methodica Plantarum Britannicarum cum Virium Epitome Londini Octavo 1690. The Wisdom of God manifested in the Works of the Creation London Oct. 1691. The same much augmented 1692. Miscellaneous Discourses concerning the Dissolution and Changes of the World c. London Octavo 1692. ERRATA PAge 19. lin 1. for turned read tumid lin 30. insert a. p. 20. l. 3. After that insert they p. 21. l. 3. r. Prophecy p. 22. l. 8. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 24. l. 17 r. testatur p. â—6 l. 18. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 27. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 27. l. 7. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 45. l. 13. r. Silt. p. 46. l. 21. r. Camarg p. 61. l. 7. r. He. p. 81. l. 3. After the insert year p. 62. l. 15. After of insert that p. 79. l. 28. deâ—e out of p. 88. l. 12. After Alps insert For passing over a Mountain on the very Ridge of them p. 98. l. 21. For not r. at p. 123. l. 18. dele in p. 129. l. 16. r. lenticular p. 185 l. 19. After be insert but. p. 197. 16. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 OF THE DISSOLUTION OF THE WORLD THE INTRODUCTION THERE is implanted in the Nature of Man a great desire and curiosity of fore knowing future Events what shall befal themselves their Relations or Dependents in time to come the Fates of Kingdoms and Common-wealths especially the Periodical Mutations and final catastrophe of the World Hence in ancient times Divination was made a Science or Mystery and many Nations had their Colleges or Societies of Wisemen Magicians Astrologers and Sooth-sayers as for example the Egyptians Babylonians and Romans Hence the vulgar are very prone to consult Diviners and Fortune-tellers To gratifie in some measure this Curiosity and that his people might not in any privilege be inferiour to the Nations about them it pleased God besides the standing Oracle of Vrim not only upon special occasions to raise up among the Jews extraordinary Prophets by immediate Mission but also to settle a constant Order and Succession of them for the maintenance and upholding whereof there were Colleges and Seminaries instituted for the educating and fitting young men for the Prophetick Function These were the Sons of the Prophets of whom we find so frequent mention in Scripture Moreover it pleased God so far to condescend to the weakness of the Jews that in the infancy of their State he permitted them to consult his Prophets concerning ordinary accidents of life and affairs of small moment As we see Saul did Samuel about the loss of his Fathers Asses which it 's not likely he would have done had it not been usual and customary so to do In the latter times of that State we read of no consulting of Prophets upon such occasions At last also by their own confession the Spirit of Prophecy was quite taken away and nothing left them but a Vocal Oracle which they called Bath col i. e. the Daughter of a Voice or the Daughter of Thunder a Voice out of a Voice This Dr. Lightfoot thinks to have been a meer Fancy or Imposture In the primitive Churches of Christians planted by the Apostles there was also an Order of Prophets 1 Cor. 12.28 God hath set some in the Church first Apostles secondarily Prophets c. This Spirit of Prophecy was an extraordinary and temporary Gift as were the Gifts of Healing and Speaking with Tongues continuing not long after the death of the Apostles and Consignation of the Canon of Scripture So that now we have no means left us of coming to the knowledge of future Events but the Prophecies contained in the Writings of the Holy Pen-men of Scripture which we must search diligently consider attentively and
humore omni consumpto totus mundus ignesceret This Dissolution of the World they held should be by Water and by Fire alternately at certain periods but especially by Fire which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Stoicks say that the cause of the destruction of the World is the irresistible force of Fire that is in things which in lonâ— periods of time consumes and dissolves alâ— things into itself Euseb Praep. lib. 19 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The moâ—â— ancient of that Sect held That at certain vâ—â— Periods of time all things were rarified intâ— Air being resolved into an Ethereal Fire This 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Stoicks we find mentioned by many both Christian and Heâ—then Writers as besides the fore-quoted Mâ—nutius Felix Justine Martyr Clemens Alexandrinus in 5 Strom. Plutarch Seneca anâ— others The time of this Conflagration Seneca determins not but saith only it shalâ— be when God pleases 3 Quaest nat capâ— 20.8 Cùm Deo visum vetera finire ordiâ—meliora When it shall seem good to God 〈◊〉 put an end to old things and to begin better Some there be who tell us of the Annus Platonicus or magnus by which they understand such a period of time as in which all the heavenly Bodies shall be restored to the same Site and distance they were once in in respect of one another As supposing that all the Seven Planets were at the moment of Creation in the first degree of Aries till they come all to be in the same degree again all that space of time is called the Great Year Annus magnus In this Year they tell us that the height of Summer is the Conflagration and the depth of Winter the Inundation and some Astrologers have been so vain as to assign the time both of the Inundation and Conflagration Seneca 3. Quaest Nat. cap. 20. Berosus qui Belum interpretatus est dicit cursu ista syderum fieri adeò quidem affirmat ut conflagrationi atque diluvio tempus assignat Arsura enim terrena contendit quando omnia sydera in Cancro convenerint inundationem futuram quando eadem syderum turba in Capricorno convenerit Berosus who interpreted Belus saith that those things come to pass according to the course of the Stars and he so confidently affirms it that he assigns the time both for the Conflagration and Inundation For that all Earthly Bodies will be burnt up when all the Stars shall meet in Cancer and the Inundation will fall out when the same shall be in conjunction in Capricorn Concerning the manner of this Conflagration they held it should be sudden Senec. Natura subitò ad ruinam toto impetu ruit licet ad originem parcè utatur viribus dispensétque se incrementis fallacibus Momento fit cinis diu sylva c. Nature doth suddenly and with all its force rush on to Ruin though to the rise and formation of things it useth its strength sparingly dispensing its influence and causing them to grow by insensible degrees a Wood is long in growing up but reduced to ashes almost in a moment And some of them were so absurd as to think that the Stars should justle and be dashed one against another Senec. lib. de consolatione ad Marciam Cùm tempus advenerit quo se mundus revocaturus extinguat viribus ista se suis caedent sydera syderibus incurrent omni flagrante materia uno igne quicquid nunc ex disposito lucet ardebit Here by the way we may with Doctor More Souls Immortality lib. 3. cap. 18. take notice how Coursly not to say Ridiculously the Stoicks Philosophize when they are turned out of their Road-way of Moral Sentences and pretend to give an account of the Nature of Things For what Errours can be more gross than they entertain of God of the Soul and oâ— the Stars they making the two former Corporeal Substances and feeding the latter with the vapours of the Earth affirming that the Sun sups up the Water of the great Ocean to quench his Thirst but that the Moon drinks off the lesser Rivers and Brooks which is as true as that the Asse drank up the Moon Such Conceits are more fit for Anacreon in a drunken Fit to stumble upon who to invite his Companions to Tiple composed that Catch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then to be either found out or owned by a serious Philosopher And yet Seneca mightily triumphs in this Notion of foddering the Stars with the thick Fogs of the Earth and declares his Opinion with no mean Strains of Eloquence c. As for the extent of this Conflagration they Held that not only the Heavens should be burnt but that the Gods themselves should not escape Scot-free So Seneca Resoluto mundo Diis in unum consusis And again Atque omnes pariter Deos Perdet nox aliqua Chaos Is not this wise Philosophy If their Morality were no better than their Physicks their Wise man they boast of might be so denominated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they of Gotham But let us look a little further and we shall find that the Stoicks were not the first Authors of this Opinion of the Conflagration but that it was of far greater Antiquity than that Sect. Others of the more ancient Philosophers having entertained it viz. Empedocles as Clemens Alexandrinus testifies in his 5 Strom. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. Heraclitus as the same Clemens shews at large out of him in the same place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 amp c. And Laertius in the Life of Heraclitus He taught 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That there is but one World and that it was generated out of Fire and again burnt up or turned into Fire at certain periods alternately throughout all Ages I might add to these the Ancient Greek Poets Sophocles and Diphilus as we find them quoted by Justine Martyr and Clemens Alexandrinus Neither yet were these the first Inventers and Broachers of this Opinion but they recieved it by Tradition from their Forefathers and look'd upon it as an Oracle and Decree of Fate Ovid speaks of it as such in the first of his Metamorphosis Esse quoque in fatis reminiscitur affore tempus Quo mare quo tellus correptáque regia coeli Ardeat mundi moles operosa laboret Besides by Doom Of certain Fate he knew the time should come When Sea Earth ravisht Heaven the curious Frame Of this Worlds Mass should shrink in purging Flame And Lucan Hos Caesar populos si nunc non usserit ignis Vret cum terris uret cum gurgite ponti Communis mundo superest rogus ossibus Astra Misturus If now these Bodies want their Fire and Urn At last with the whole Globe they 'll surely burn The World expects one general Fire and Thou Must go where these poor Souls are wandring now Now through some are of an Opinion that by Fata here are
Constitution of the Bodies â— the Antediluvians was more firm and dâ—rable than that of their Posterity after thâ— Flood and that this Change of the Term of Life was not wholly to be attributed to Miracle may both be demonstrated from the gradual decrease of the Age of the Postdiluvians For had it been miraculous why should not the Age of the very first Generation after the Flood have been reduced to that Term And what account can we give of their holding out for some Generations against the inconveniencies of the Air or deteriority of Diet but the strength and firmness of their Constitutions which yet was originally owing to the Temperature of the Air or Quality of their Diet or both seeing a Change in these for there was no other visible Cause did by degrees prevail against and impair it What influence the lying so long of the Water upon the Earth might have upon the Air and Earth in changing them for the worse and rendring them more unfit for the maintenance and continuation of Humane Life I will not now dispute But whatever might be the Cause of the Longaevity of the Antediluvians and the contracting of the Age of the Postdiluvians it is manifest that the Age of these did at the last settle as I said at or about the Term of Threescore and Ten and hath there continued for Three Thousand Years without any diminution I proceed now to the Accidents which might possibly in process of Time infer a Dissolution of the World 1. The possibility of the Water in process of Time again overflowing and covering oâ— the Earth For First of all The Rains continually washing down and carrying away Earth from the Mountains it is necessary that as welâ— the height as the bulk of them should answerably decrease and that they do so iâ— evident in Experience For as I have else where noted I have been informed by a Gentleman of good Credit that whereas thâ— Steeple of Craich in the Peak of Derbyshire in the memory of some Old Men then living 1672. could not have been seeâ— from a certain Hill lying between Hopton anâ— Wirksworth now not only the Steeple buâ— a great part of the Body of the Church mayâ— from thence be seen which comes to pasâ— by the sinking of a Hill between the Church and place of view a parallel example where to the Learned Dr. Plot gives us in a Hill between Sibbertoft and Hasleby in Northamptonshire Hist Nat. Stafford p. 113. And thuâ— will they continue to do so long as there fallâ— any Rains and as they retain any declivity that is till they be levelled with the Plains 2. By reason of the abundance of Earth thus washed off the Mountains by Shots of Rain and carried down with the Floods to the Sea about the out-lets of the Rivers where the violent Motion of the Water ceases settling to the bottom and raising it up by degrees above the Surface of the Water the Land continually gains upon and drives back the Sea The Egyptian Pharos or Light-house of Old Time stood in an Island a good distance from Land which is now joyned to the Continent the interjacent Fretum having been filled up by the Sill brought down by the River Nilus in the time of the Flood subsiding there Indeed the Ancient Historians do truly make the whole Land of Egypt to have been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Gift of the River and by this means gained from the Sea Seneca in the Sixth Book of his Nat. Quest chap. 26. gives this account Egyptus ex â—imo tota concrevit Tantum enim si Homero fides aberat à continenti Pharos quantum navis diurno cursu metiri plenis lata velis potest Sed continenti admota est Turbidus enim defluens Nilus multúmque secum limum trahens eum subinde apponens prioribus terris Aegyptum annuo incremento semper ultra tulit Inde pinguis limosi soli est nec ulla intervalla in se habet sed crevit in solidum arescente limo quo pressa erat cedens structura c. That is All Egypt is but a Concretion of Mud. For if Homer may be believed the Pharos was as far distanâ— from the Continent as a Ship with full saiâ— could run in a days time but now it is joyneâ— to it For Nilus flowing with troubled Waters brings down a great deal of mud and Silt and adding to it the old land carries oâ— Egypt further and further still by an annuaâ— increase Hence it is of a fat and muddâ— soil and hath no pores or cavities in it Aâ— this reason he gives why it is not troubled witâ— Earthquakes Thus by reason of the greâ— Rivers Po Athesis Brenta and others whicâ— empty themselves into the Lagune or Shaâ—lows about Venice in Italy and in times oâ— floods bring down thither great store â— earth those Lagune are in danger to be iâ— time atterrated and with the City situate iâ— the midst of them added to the firm Lanâ— Thus in the Carnarg or Isle that the Riveâ— Rhosne makes near Arles in Provence theâ— hath been so much lately gained from thâ— Sea that the Watch tower had in the memory of some Men been removed forwarâ— three times as we were there informed And it seems to me probable that the whoâ— Low Countreys were thus gained from thâ— Seâ— For Varenius in his Geography tel us That sinking a Well at Amsterdam aâ— near an hundred foot depth they met with a bed or floor of Sand and Cockle-shells whence it is evident one would think that of old time the bottom of the Sea lay so deep and that that hundred foot thickness of Earth above the Sand arose from the Sediments of the Waters of those great Rivers the Rhine Scheld Maes c. which thereabouts emptied themselves into the Sea and in times of Floods brought down with them abundance of Earth from the upper grounds The same Original doubtless had that great Level of the Fens running through the Isle of Ely Holland in Lincolnshire and Marshland in Norfolk That there hath been no small quantity of Earth thus brought down appears also in that along the Channels of most great Rivers as for example the Thames and Trent in England especially near their Mouths or Out-lets between the Mountains and higher grounds on each side there are large Levels and Plains which seem to have been originally part of the Sea raised up and atterrated by Earth and Silt brought down by those Rivers in great Floods Now the Rain thus continually washing away and carrying down Earth from the Mountains and higher Grounds and raising up the Vallies near the Sea as long as there is any descent for the Rivers so long will they continue to run carry forward the low ground and streighten the Sea which also by its working by reason of the declivity easily carries down the Earth towards the lower and middle part of its Channel alveus and by degrees
power of the Omnipotent God and instrumentality of an inexplicable multitude of Clouds amassed together wherewith it was filled changed into Water so that the upper and lower Air might seem to be transmuted into an Ocean not by the strength of Nature but of him to whose Will and Power all things are subject And he is so confident that this Deluge in which the Water was raised fifteen Cubits above the highest Mountains was not nor could be effected by natural Causes but by the right hand of the Most High God only that he saith No man can deny it but he who doth not penetrate how far the power of Nature can extend and where it is limited To conclude this Hypothesis hath the Suffrages of most Learned Men. But because the Scripture assigning the Causes or Means of the Inundation makes no mention of any conversion of Air into Water but only of the breaking up the Fountains of the Great Deep and the opening of the Windows of Heaven I suppose those Causes may be sufficient to work the Effect and that we need not have recourse to such an Assistance As for those that make the Deluge Topical and restrain it to a narrow compass of Land their Opinion is I think sufficiently confuted by the fore-mentioned ingenious Author to whom therefore I refer the Reader I shall not undertake the Defence or Confutation of any other Hypothesis only tell you which at present seems to me most probable and that is theirs who for a partial cause of the Deluge assign either a change of the Center of the Earth or a violent depression of the Surface of the Ocean and a forcing the Waters up from the subterraneous Abysse through the Channels of the Fountains that were then broken up and opened First then let us consider what Causes the Scripture assigns of the Flood and they are two 1. The breaking up the Fountains of the great Deep 2. The opening of the Windows of Heaven I shall first treat of this last By the opening of the Windows of Heaven is I suppose to be understood the causing of all the Water that was suspended in the Air to descend down in Rain upon the Earth the effect hereof here mentioned being a long continuing Rain of Forty nay perchance One Hundred and Fifty Days And that these Treasuries of the Air will afford no small quantity of Water may be made appear both by Scripture and Reason 1. By Scripture which opposes the Waters that are above the Heavens or Firmament to those that are under them which if they were not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in some measure equal it would never do Gen. 1.6 God is said to make a Firmament in the midst of the Waters and to divide the Waters which were under the Firmament from the Waters which were above the Firmament And this was the work of a whole day and consequently no inconsiderable thing By the Heavens or Firmament in this place is to be understood the inferiour Region of the Air wherein the Fowls fly who Gen. 1.20 are said to fly above the Earth in the open Firmament of Heaven though elsewhere it be taken for the Celestial Regions wherein the Sun and Moon and Stars are placed 2. The same may be made appear by Reason grounded upon Experience I my self have observed a Thunder-Cloud in passage to have in less than two hours space powred down so much Water upon the Earth as besides what sunk into the parched and thirsty ground and filled all Ditches and Ponds caused a considerable Flood in the Rivers setting all the Meadows on flote And Dr. Wittie in his Scarborough Spaâ— tells us of great Spouts of Rain that ordinarily fall every year some time or other in Summer that set the whole Countrey in a Flood Now had this Cloud which might for ought I know have moved Forty Miles forward stood still and emptied all its Water upon the same spot of ground it first hung over what a sudden and incredible Deluge would it have made there and yet what depth or thickness of Vapours might remain uncondensed in the Air above this Cloud who knows Now it is to be considered that not only the Air above the Dry Land but also all that covers the whole Ocean is charged with Vapours which are nothing else but diffused Water all which was brought together by Winds or what other Means seem'd good to God and caused to distil down in Rain upon the Earth And you may easily guess that it was no small quantity of Water that was supplyed this way in that it sufficed for a Rain that lasted more than Forty Days as I shall afterwards shew if I understand the Text a right And that no ordinary Rain neither but Catarracts or Spouts of Water for so the Septuagint interprets the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the Catarracts or Spouts of Heaven were opened I return now to the first Cause or Means of the Deluge assigned by the Scripture and that is the breaking up of all the fountains of the great Deep By the great Deep in this place I suppose is to be understood the Subterraneous Waters which do and must necessarily communicate with the Sea For we see that the Caspian and Mediterranean Seas to mention no others receive into themselves many and great Rivers and yet have no visible Out-lets nay this latter receives also abundance of Waters from the great Ocean running in at the Streights of Gibraltar and therefore by Subterraneous Passages must needs discharge their Waters into the Abyss of Waters under the Earth and by its intervention into the Ocean again By the breaking up of the Fountains of the Great Deep is I conceive meant the making great Issues and Apertures for these Subterraneous Waters to rush out You will say how could that be sith the Water keeps its level and cannot ascend to a greater height above the common Center than the Superficies of the Sea is much less force its way remove Obstacles and break open Passages I answer According to them that hold that all Rivers come from the Sea by Subterraneous Passages it is no more than daily happens For they must needs grant thaâ— the Water in the Subterraneous Channels is raised as far above the level of the Ocean as are the Heads and Fountains of great Rivers Which considering the height of their first Springs up the Mountains the length of their Courses and swiftness of their Streams for a great part of the way is very considerable a constant declivity being necessary to their descent And therefore 〈◊〉 can by no means assent to the Learned Doctor Plot if I understand him alright That the Valleys are as much below the Surface of the Sea as Mountains are above it For how then could Rivers descend down to the Sea through those Valleys the Sea would rather run into them and make Siâ—uses or else if they were enclosed the Water would stagnate there and make Pools
either above or under ground or both ways one Sea cannot be higher or lower than another but supposing any accident should elevate or depress any by reason of this confluence or communication it would soon be reduced to a level again as might demonstratively be proved But I return to tell the Reader what I think the most probable of all the Causes I have heard assigned of the Deluge which is the Center of the Earth being at that time changed and set nearer to the Centeâ— or middle of our Continent whereupon the Atlantick Pacifick Oceans must needs press upon the Subterraneous Abyss and so by mediation thereof force the Water upward and at last compell it to run out at those wide mouths and apertures made by the Divine Power breaking up the Fountains of the great Deep And we may suppose this to have been only a gentle and gradual Emotion no faster than that the Waters running out at the bottom of the Sea might accordingly lowre the Superficies thereof sufficiently so that none needed run over the Shores These Waters thus powred out from the Orifices of the Fountains upon the Earth the declivity being changed by the removal of the Center could not flow down to the Sea again but must needs stagnate upon the Earth and overflow it and afterwards the Earth returning to its old Center return also to their former Receptacles If any shall object against this Hypothesis because by it the Flood will be rendr'd Topical and restrained only to the Continent we live in though I might plead the Unnecessariness of drowning America it being in all probability unpeopled at that time yet because the Scripture useth general expressions concerning the extent of the Flood saying Gen. 1.19 And all the high hills that were under the whole heaven were covered and again Ver. 22. All in whose nostrils was the breath of life of all that was in the dry land dyed And because the Americans also are said to have some ancient Memorial Tradition of a Deluge and the Ingenious Author of the Theory of the Earth hath by a moderate Computation demonstrated thaâ— there must be then more people upon the Earth than now I will propose anotheâ— way of solving this Phaenomenon and that is by supposing that the Divine Power might at that time by the instrumentality of some natural Agent to us at present unknown so depress the Surface of the Ocean as to force the Waters of the Abyss through the forementioned Channels and Apertures and so make them a partial and concurrent Cause of the Deluge That there are at some times in the course of Nature extraordinary pressures upon the Surface of the Sea which force the Water outwards upon the Shores to a great height is evident We had upon our Coasts the last year an extraordinary Tide wherein the Water rose so high as to overflow all the Sea-banks drown multitudes of Cattel and fill the lower Rooms of the Houses of many Villages that stood near the Sea so that the Inhabitants to save themselves were forced to get up into the upper Rooms and Garrets of their Houses Now how this could be effected but by an unusual pressure upon the Superficies of the Ocean I cannot well conceive In like manner that the Divine Providence might at the time of the Deluge so order and dispose second Causes as to make so strong a pressure upon the face of the Waters as to force them up to a height sufficient to overflow the Earth is no way unreasonable to believe These Hypotheses I propose as seeming to me at present most facile and consonant to Scripture without any concern for either of them and therefore am not folicitous to gather together and heap up Arguments to confirm them or to answer Objections that may be made against them being as ready to relinquish them upon better information as I was to admit and entertain them Of the Effects of the Deluge I Come now to the Third Particular proposed that is To enquire concerning the Consequents of the Deluge What considerable effects it had upon the Earth and its Inhabitants It had doubtless very great in changing the Superficies of the dry Land In some places adding to the Sea in some taking from it making Islands of Peninsulae and joining others to the Continent altering the Beds of Rivers throwing up lesser Hills and washing away others c. The most remarkable effects it 's likely were in the skirts of the Continents because the Motion of the Water was there most violent Athanasius Kircher gives us a Map and Description of the World after the Flood shewing what Changes were made therein by it or upon occasion of it afterward as he fansies or conjectures But because I do not love to trouble the Reader with uncertain Conjectures I shall content my self to have said in general that it may rationally be suppoâ—ed there were then great Mutations and Alterations made in the superficial part of the Earth but what they were though we may guess yet can we have no certain knowledge of and for particulars refer the curious to him One malignant effect it had upon Mankind and probably upon other Animals too in shortning their Age or the duration of their lives which I have touched before and shewn that this diminution of Age is to be attributed either to the change of the Temperature of the Air as to Salubrity or Equality sudden and frequent changes of Weather having a very bad influence upon the Age of Man in abbreviating of it as I could easily prove or else to the deteriority of the Diet or to both these Causes But how the Flood should induce or occasion such a change in the Air and productions of the Earth I do not comprehend Of formed Stones Sea-shells and othâ— Marine-like Bodies found at great dâ—stances from the Shores ANother supposed Effect of the Flooâ— was a bringing up out of the Sea aâ—â— scattering all the Earth over an innumerablâ— multitude of Shells and Shell-fish there bâ—ing of these shell-like Bodies not only oâ— lower Grounds and Hillocks but upon tâ— highest Mountains the Appeunine and Alpâ— themselves A supposed Effect I say because it is not yet agreed among the Learned whâ—ther these Bodies formerly called petrifâ— Shells but now a-days passing by the namâ— of formed Stones be original Productions of Nature formed in imitation of the Shells of Fishes or the real Shells themselves either remaining still entire and uncorrupt or petrified and turned into Stone or at least Stones cast in some Animal Mold Both parts have strong Arguments and Patrons I shall not ballance Authorities but only consider and weigh Arguments Those for the latter Part wherewith I shall begin are First Because it seems contrary to that great Wisdom of Nature which is observable in all its Works and Productions to design every thing to a determinate end and for the attaining that end make use of such ways as are most agreeable to
thereto requested The mention of these Principles I say gives me an opportunity of making such a Digression because I take them to have been the Effects of the first Creation spoken of in the first and second Verses of Genesis In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth And the earth was without form and void and comprehended in the word Earth By the word Chaos the Ancients understood a huge Mass of Heterogeneous Bodies or the Principles and Seeds of natural Bodies confusedly and disorderly mingled together in one lump for so Ovid describes it in the beginning of the first of his Metamorphosis Quem dixere Chaos rudis indigestáque moles Nec quicquam nisi pondus inors congestáque côdem Non bene junctarum discordia semina rerum I suppose therefore that God Almighty did at first create this terrestrial Globe containing the Seeds and Principles of all natural visible sublunary Bodies variously and confusedly commixt together which the Ancients called by the name of Chaos partly of solid and more ponderous partly of fluid and lighter parts the solid and more ponderous naturally subsided the fluid and watry as being more light got above them That the Waters did at first cover the Earth seems to me clear from the testimony of the Scripture For in the History of the Creation in the first Chapter of Genesis Vers 2. It is said Darkness was upon the face of the deep and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters intimating that the Waters were uppermost And in Ver. 9. And God said Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together into one place and let the dry land appear Whence I think it is manifest that before that time the Land was covered with Water And that this gathering together of Waters was not into any subterraneous Abyss is likewise clear from the Text For it is said that God called this Collection of Waters Seas as if it had been on purpose to prevent such a Mistake So Psalm 104.6 It is said of the Earth at the Creation Thou coveredst it with the deep as with a garment the waters stood above the mountains And again Ver. 9. That they turn not again to cover the earth The more solid and ponderous parts tho they were of various Figures and perhaps Magnitudes were all called by the common name of Earth and the fluid by the name of Water This solid part of the Earth was made up of the Principles of many simple Bodies variously commix'd and irregularly disperst one among another yet tho they seem to be thus disorderly mingled as tho they had been carelesly shaken and shuffled together yet I do believe there was some Order observed by the most wise Creator in the Disposition of them The fluid part of this Globe as we said and as of its own nature it must needs do covered the solid till it pleased God to separate them and by providing great Receptacles for the Waters to gather them together into one place Whether this were done by the immediate Application and Agency of his Almighty Power or by the Intervention and Instrumentality of second Causes I cannot determine It might possibly be effected by the same Causes that Earthquakes are viz. Subterraneous Fires and Flatuses We â—e what incredible effects the Accension of Gunpowder hath It rends Rocks and blows up the most ponderous and solid Walls Towers and Edifices so that its force is almost irresistible Why then might not such a proportionable quantity of such Materials set on fire together raise up the Mountains themselves how great and ponderous soever they be yea the whole Superficies of the dry Land for it must all be elevated above the Waters And truly to me the Psalmist seems to intimate this Cause Psalm 104.7 For after he had said The waters stood above the mountains he adds At thy rebuke they fled at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away Now we know that an Earthquake is but a subterraneous Thunder and then immediately follows The mountains ascend the valleys descend c. If there might be a high Hill raised up near the City Troezen out of a plain Field by the force of a subterraneous Fire or Flatus as Ovid tells us Est prope Pitthaeam tumulus Troezena sine ullis Arduus arboribus quondam planissima campi Area nunc tumulus nam res horrenda relatu Vis fera ventorum coecis inclusa caverniâ— Expirare aliqua cupiens luctatáque frustra Liberiore frui coelo cum carcere rima Nulla fuit toto nec pervia flatibus esset Extentam tumescit humum ceu spiritus oris Tendere vesicam solet aut derepta bicorâ—â— Terga capri tumor ille loci permansit alti Collis habet speciem longóque induruit aâ—â— A Hill by Pitthaean Traezen mounts uncrown'd With Sylvan Shades which once was level ground For furious Winds a story to admire Pent in blind Caverns strugling to expire And vainly seeking to enjoy th' Extent Of freer Air the Prison wanting vent Puffs up the hollow Earth extended so As when with swelling Breath we Bladders blow The humour of the place remained still In time grown solid like a lofty Hill A parallel Instance hereto we have of later date of a Hill not far from Puzzuolo Puteoli beside the Gulph of Baiae which I my self have view'd and been upon It is by the Natives called Monte di cenere and was raised by an Earthquake Sept. 29. 1538. of about one hundred foot perpendicular altitude though some make it much higher according to Stephanus Pighius it is a Mile Ascent to the top and four Miles round at the foot We indeed judged it not near so great The People say it bears nothing nothing of any use or profit I suppose they mean else I am sure there grows Heath Myrtle Mastick tree and other Shrubs upon it It is a spungy kind of Earth and makes a great sound under a Mans feet that stamps upon it The same Earthquake threw up so much Earth Stones and Ashes as quite filled up the lacus Lucrinus so that there is nothing left of it now but a fenny Meadow If such Hills I say as these may be and have been elevated by subterraneous Wild-fire flatus or Earthquakes Si parvis liceat componere magna if we may compare great things with small why might not the greatest and highest Mountains in the World be raised up in like manner by a subterraneous Flatus or Wild-fire of quantity and force sufficient to work such an effect that is that bears as great a proportion to the superincumbent weight and bulk to be elevated as those under these smaller Hills did to theirs But we cannot doubt this mâ—y be done when we are well assured that the like hath been done For the greatest and highest Ridge of Mountains in the World the Andes of Peru have been for some hundreds of Leagues in length violently shaken and many alterations made therein
by an Earthquake that happened in the year 1646. mentioned by Kircher in his Arca Noae from the Letters of the Jesuits You will say If the Mountains be thus heaved up by subterraneous Fires the Earth must needs be hollow all underneath them and there must be vast Dens and Caverns disperst throughout them I answer 'T is true indeed so there are as may undeniably be proved by instances For the new Mountain we mentioned at Puteâ—li that was thus raised being of a Mile steep ascent and four Miles round at the foot a proportionable Cavity must be left in the Earth underneath And the Mountain Aetna at the last Eructation alone having disgorged out of its bowels so great a flood of melted Materials as if spread at the depth and breadth of three foot might reach four times round the whole Circuit of the Terraqueous Globe there must likewise an answerable Vault be left within You will demand How then comes it pass that they stand so firm and do not founder and fall in after so many Ages I answer that they may stand appears by the foresaid new-raised Mountain For notwithstanding the Cavity in and under it it hath stood firm and staunch without the least sinking or subsidency for above an hundred and fifty years neither is there any great sinking or falling in at Aetna it self at least in no degree answerable to it s ejected matter The reason is the strength and firmness of their Vaulture and Pillars sufficient to support the superincumbent weight And yet in some places there are sinkings and fallings in which have afterwards become Valleys or Pools of Water But as for the Cavities that are lower than the Superficies of the Ocean the Water where it could insinuate and make its way hath filled them up to that height I say where it could make its way for that there are many empty Cavities even under the Sea it self appears by the shaking and heating too of the very Water of the Sea in some places in Earthquakes and raising up the borders or skirts of it so as to drive the Water a great way back and the raising up new Islands in the middle of the Sea as Delos of old and Therasia in the Aegean in Seneca's time which was heaved up in the sight of many Mariners then present and looking on Howbeit I cannot positively assert the Mountains thus to have been raised But yet whether without means or by whatsoever means it were a Receptacle for the Waters was prepared and the dry Land and Mountains elevated so as to cast off the Waters on the third day and which is wonderful the Cavities made to receive the Waters and the whole terra firma or dry Land with its Mountains were so proportioned one to the other as that the one was as much depressed below the Shores as the other was elevated above them And as if the one had been taken out of the other The Sea with all its Creeks and Bays and In-lets and other Appendants was made and is very near equal to the whole dry Land with its Promontories and Mountains if not in Superficies yet in bulk or dimensions though some think in both Which equality is still constantly maintained notwithstanding all Inundations of Land and Atterations of Sea because one of these doth always nearly ballance the other according to the Vulgar Proverb we have before mention'd What the Sea loses in one place it gains in another If any shall demand How the Sea comes to be gradually depressed and deepest about the middle part whereas the bottom of it was in all likelihood equal while the Waters covered the whole Earth I answer the same Cause that raised up the Earth whether a subterraneous Fire or flatus raised up also the skirts of the Sea the ascent gradually decreasing to the middle part where by reason of the solidity of the Earth or gravity of the incumbent Water the bottom was not elevated at all For the enclosed Fire in those parts where its first accension or greatest strength was raised up the Earth first and cast off the Waters and thence spreading by degrees still elevated the Land and drove the Waters further and further till at length the weight of them was too great to be raised and then the Fire brake forth at the tops of the Mountains where it found least resistance and disperst it self in the open Air. The Waters also where they found the bottom sandy or yielding made their way into all those Cavities the Fire had made and left filling them up as high as the level of the Ocean Neither let any man imagine that the Earth under the Water was too soft and muddy to be in this manner raised by subterraneous Fire for I have shewn before that the bottom of the Sea is so saddened and hardened by the weight of the incumbent Water that the High-ways beaten continually by Horses and Carriages are not more firm and solid But omitting this which is only a conjecture I shall discourse a little more concerning the Equality of Sea and Land It hath been observed by some That where there are high Cliffs or Downs along the Shore there the Sea adjoining is deep and where there are low and level Grounds it is shallow the depth of the Sea answering to the Elevation of the Earth above it and as the Earth from the Shores is gradually higher and higher to the middle and parts most remote from the Sea as is evident by the descents of the Rivers they requiring a constant declivity to carry them down so the Sea likewise is proportionably deeper and deeper from the Shores to the Middle So that the rising of the Earth from the Shores to the Mid-land is answerable to the descent or declivity of the bottom of the Sea from the same Shores to the Mid-Sea This rising of the Earth from the Shores gradually to the Midland is so considerable that it is very likely the Altitude of the Earth in those Mid land parts above the Superficies of the Sea is greater than that of the Mountains above the level of the adjacent Lands To the height of the Hills above the common Superficies of the Earth do answer in Brerewood's Opinion the extraordinary Depths or Whirl-pools that are found in the Sea descending beneath the ordinary bottom of the Sea as the Hills ascend above the ordinary face of the Land But this is but a conjecture of his and to me it seems not very probable because it is not likely there should be in the Sea extraordinary Depths of that vast length and extension as those huge Ridges of Mountains that run almost quite through the Continents And because I have observed the Waters of Rivers that flow gently but especially of the Sea to level the bottoms of their Channels and Receptacles as may be seen in those parts of the Sea whose bottoms are uncovered at Low-water and in Dry-lands that have been deserted by the Sea as
Tancred Robinson for the solving of that Phoenomenon The same also induces me to believe that Vapours may have a greater interest in the production of Springs even in temperate and cold Regions than I had before thought The Experiment or Observation is this About the beginning of December 1691. there happened to be a Mist and that no very thick one which continued all day the Vapour whereof notwithstanding the Trees were wholly divested of Leaves condensed so fast upon their naked Branches and Twigs that they dropped all day at such a rate that I believe the Water destilling from a large Tree in twenty four hours had it been all received and reserved in a Vessel might have amounted to a Hoggs-head What then may we rationally conjecture would have dropped from such a Tree had it been covered with Leaves of a dense Texture and smooth Superficies apt to collect the Particles of the Vapour and unite them into Drops It is clear by this effect that Trees do destil Water a pace when Clouds or Mists hang about them which they are reported by Benzo constantly to do about the Fountain tree in Ferro except when the Sun shines hot upon it And others tell us that that Tree grows upon a Mountain too So that it is no wonder that it should drop abundance of Water What do I speak of that Tree all the Trees of that kind grow on the sides of vast Mountains as Dr. Robinson hath noted Besides that in hot Regions Trees may in the night time destil Water though the Air be clear and there be no Mist about them seems necessarily to follow from Mr. Halley's Experiment Now if there be in Mists thus much Vapour condensed upon Trees doubtless also there is in proportion as much upon the Surface of the Earth and the Grass And consequently upon the Tops and Ridges of high Mountains which are frequently covered with Clouds or Mists much more so much as must needs have a great interest in the production and supply of Springs even in temperate Countries But that invisible Vapours when the Sky is clear do at any time condense so fast upon the Trees as to make them drop I never observed in England or elsewhere no not in the Night-season though I do not deny but upon the Appennine and Southern side of the Alps and elsewhere in the hotter parts of Europe in Summer Nights they may However considering the Penetrancy of such Vapours that in moist Wether they will insinuate themselves deeply into the Pores of dry Wood so that Doors will then hardly shut and Chinks and Crannies in Boards and Floors be closed up I know not but that they may likewise strike deep into the Ground and together with Mists contribute to the feeding and maintenance of Springs in Winter-time when the Sun exhales but little it being an Observation of the Learned Fromondus Quod hyeme nec nivali nec imbrifera fontes tamen aquam largiùs quà m aestate nisi valdè pluvia sit vomant That in Winters neither snowy nor rainy yet fountains powre forth more Water than in Summer unless it happen to be a very wet season Yet are their Contributions inconsiderable if compared with the supplies that are afforded by Rains And one reason why in Winter Fountains flow more plentifully may be because then the Sun defrauds them not nor exhales any thing out of the Earth as in Summer time he doth Therefore whenever in this Work I have assigned Rain to be a sufficient or only cause of Springs and Rivers I would not be understood to exclude but to comprehend therein Mists and Vapours which I grant to have some interest in the production of them even in Temperate and Cold Regions and a very considerable one in Hot. Though I cannot be persuaded that even there they are the sole Cause of Springs for that there fall such plentiful and long continuing Rains both in the East and West Indies in the Summer Months which must needs contribute something to their Original Pag. 169. lin 19. add This end and use of Mountains I find assigned by Mr. Halley in his Discourse concerning the Original of Springs and Rivers in these words This if we may allow Final Causes and why may we not What needs this hesitancy and dubitation in a thing that is clear seems to be the Design of the Hills That their Ridges being placed through the midst of the Continents might serve as it were Alembicks to distil fresh Water for the use of Man and Beast and their heights to give a descent to those Streams to run gently like so many Veins of the Macrocosm to be the more beneficial to the Creation Pag. 170. lin 10. add To summ up all relating to the Division and Disposition of the Water and Earth in brief 1. I say the Water being the lighter Element doth naturally occupy the upper place and stand above the Earth and so at first it did But now we see it doth not so the Earth being contrary to its nature forcibly elevated above it being as the Psalmist phraseth it founded above the Seas and established above the Floods and this because it was best it should be so as I shall clearly prove and deduce in particulars in another Discourse 2. The Dry Land is not elevated only upon one side of the Globe for then had it had high Mountains in the middle of it with such vast empty Cavities within as must be equal to the whole Bulk raised up the Center of Magnitude must needs have been considerably distant from the Center of Gravity which would have caused a very great and inconvenient inequality in the Motion of the parts of the Earth but the Continents and Islands are so equally disperst all the Globe over as to counterballance one another so that the Centers of Magnitude and Gravity concur in one 3. The Continents are not of exactly equal and level Superficies or Convexity For then the Parts subject to the Course of the Sun called the Torrid Zone would have been as the Ancients fancied them unhabitable for Heat and Drought But there are huge Ridges and extended Chains of lofty Mountains directed for the most part to run East and West by which Means they give free Admittance and Passage to the Vapours brought in by the Winds from the Atlantick and Pacifick Oceans but stop and inhibit their Excursions to the North and South either condensing them upon their sides into the Water by a kind of external Destillation or by streightening and constipating of them compelling them to gather into Drops and descend down in Rain These are great things and worthy the Care Direction and Disposal of the Great and Wise Creator and Governor of all things And we see they are accordingly excellently ordered and provided by him Some Greek and Latin Quotations Englished Pag. 25. Lin. 7. THose Words of Lactantius Ergo quoniam sex dierum c. signifie in English Therefore because all the
said the Waters prevailed so long upon the Earth that is as I understand it increased I now grant that it lasted but forty natural days because those words of God to Noah predicting the Continuance of the Rain Gen. 7.4 For yet seven days and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights c. seem to limit it to that term So that we must seek some other reason for the prevailing of the Water for one hundred and fifty days which probably might be the Continuance of the Emotion of the Center of the Earth for so long time THE CONTENTS THE Introduction concerning Prophecy Chap. 1. The Division of the Words 2 Peter 3.11 and Doctrine contained in them viz. I. Testimonies concerning the future Dissolution of the World 1. Of the Holy Scriptures 2. Of ancient Christian Writers 3. Of Heathen Philosophers and Sages II. Seven Quotations concerning the Dissolution proposed pag. 1.2 3 Chap. 2. The Testimonies of Scripture concerning the Dissolution Dr. Hammond's Expositions referring the most of them to the Destruction of the City and Temple of Jerusalem and the Period of the Jewish State and Polity considered and pleaded for p. 5 6 c. to 22 Chap. 3. Some Testimonies of the Ancient Fathers and Doctors of the Church concerning the Dissolution of the World p. 22 23 c. to 28. Chap. 4. The Testimonies of some Heathen Philosophers and other Writers concerning the Dissolution the Epicureans p. 28. The Stoicks who held certain Periods of Deluges and Conflagrations p. 29 to 34. That this Opinion of a future Conflagration was of far greater Antiquity than that Sect proved p. 34 35.36 The Antiquity and Vniversality of it argue it to have been derived from Noah and his Sons p. 37 38 Chap. 5. The first Question concerning the World's Dissolution Whether there be any thing in nature that may probably cause or argue a future Dissolution Three possible means propounded and discussed p. 39 Sect. 1. The first is the possibility of the Waters again naturally overflowing and covering the Earth p. 39.44 45 c. to 51 The old Argument for the World's Dissolution viz. it s daily Consenescency and Decay rejected p. 40 41 From the continual straitening of the Sea and lowring the Mountains and high Grounds by Floods washing away and carrying down Earth and from the Seas encroaching upon the Shores such an Overflowing shewn to be possible p. 44 45 c. to p. 50. An Objection against the Diminution and Depression of the Land answered p. 51 52 c. A Digression concerning the general Deluge in the Days of Noah p. 56 57 c. Testimonies of Heathen Writers and ancient Coins verifying the Scripture-History of the Deluge p. 56 57 c. to 63. That the Ancient Poets and Mythologists by Deucalion understood Noah and by Deucalion's Flood the general Deluge p. 60 61. That there have been other particular Deluges p. 63 The Opinion of those who held that the Deluge was caused by a miraculous Transmutation of the Element of Air into Water p. 64 65. That the Means assigned by the Scripture viz. A continual Rain of forty natural Days and the emptying the Subterraneous Abyss may suffice so that we need not have recourse to such an assistance p. 66. That all the Vapours suspended in the Air might contribute much towards the Flood proved p 67 68. Concerning the raising up the Waters out of the great Deep p. 69 70. An Occasional Discourse concerning the Original of Fountains p. 70 71 c. The Subterraneous Circulation and perpetual motion of the Water to the Author improbable p. 71. That the Preponderancy of the Earth and the Water lying upon an heap in the opposite Hemisphere cannot be the Cause of the Waters Ascent in Springs proved p 72 73. That Rains may suffice to feed the Springs and do feed the ordinary ones proved p. 74 75. That the Rain-Water sinks down and makes its way into the Earth more than ten or twenty or forty or an hundred foot proved by many Arguments and Experiments p. 76 77 c. to p. 82. Mr. Halley's Opinion that Springs and Rivers owe their Original to Vapours condensed on the sides of the Mountains propounded and approved as to hot and fervid Regions but disallowed as to the more temperate and cold ones yet the Vapours there not wholly excluded p. 82 83 c. to 91. Observations communicated by Dr. Robinson concerning the Original of Fountains dropping Trees c. p. 92 93. The Question further discussed and proved that Vapours are a partial Cause of Springs even in temperate and cold Regions Addit 251 252 Inferences upon the Supposition of the Rivers pouring into the Sea half an Ocean of Waters daily p. 95 96. The most probable Causes of the Deluge viz. The Emotion of the Center of the Earth or an extraordinary Depression of the Superficies of the Sea p. 99 100. The Effects of the Deluge 1. As. to the Superficial Parts of the Earth p. 102 103. 2. Particularly as to the bringing in of formed Stones or the Shells and Bones of some Sea-fishes dispersed all over the face of the Earth p. 104 c. A Discourse concerning the Nature and Original of those Bodies whether they were originally the real Shells and Bones of Fishes or Stones cast in such Molds or whether they be primitive Productions of Nature in imitation only of such Shells and Bones not owing their Figure to them The Arguments on both sides proposed and weighed p. 106 107 c. to 132 Sect. 2. The second possible Cause of the World's Destruction in a natural way the Extinction of the Sun p 133 Sect. 3. The third possible Cause of the World's Destruction the Eruption of the Central Fire p. 135. That the being of such a Fire is no way oppugnant either to Scripture or Reason p. 137 138 c. Sect. 4. The fourth possible Cause of the World's Destruction the Earths Dryness and Inflammability in the Torrid Zone and the Eruption of the Vulcano's p. 141. That the Inclination of the Ecliptick to the Equator doth not diminish p. 142. That tho there were such a drying and parching of the Earth in the Torrid Zone it would not probably infer a Conflagration p. 142 143 144. That there hath not yet been nor in the ordinary Course of Nature can be any such drying or parching of the Earth under the Torrid Zone p. 44 45 46. The possibility of the Desiccation of the Sea by natural Means denied p. 146 147. The Fixedness and Intransmutability of Principles secures the Vniverse from Dissolution Destruction of any present Species and Production of any new p. 148 149 A Second Digression concerning the Primitive Chaos and Creation of the World p. 150 What the Ancients understood by it ibid. 151. That probably God did at first create a certain number of Principles or simple Bodies naturally intransmutable and mingle them variously in the Earth and
years For in one place it saith in these lasâ— days and in another Upon whom the ends of the World are come and in a third Wheâ— the fulness of time was come Now it iâ— evident that these things were spoken in thâ— sixth Millenary Irenoeus adv haeres lib. 5. cap. ult Whâ— gathers so much from tâ—â— Similitude of thâ— six days Creation after which six days waâ— the Sabbath that is the day of Rest Hâ—autem saith he est praeteritorum narrâ—tio futurorum prophetia Dies enim â—nus mille annos significabat sicut Scriptura testantur Mille anni ante Dominum sicâ— Dies unus ergo sicut consummatus fuit mundus in sui creatione intra sex dierum spatium postea quies sic in sui fine consummabitur intra spatium sex millium annorum deinde vera perpetua quies subsequeturâ— This is both a Narration or History of what is past and a Prophesie of things to come For one day signified a thousand years as the Scriptures testifie A thousand years in the sight of God are but as one day Therefore as the World at the first Creation was consummated in the space of six days and afterwards followed the Sabbath or Rest so in the end its duration shall be conâ—ummated within the space of six thousand â—ears and then shall follow the true and â—erpetual Rest To these I might add Lactantius in his Seâ—enth Book of Institut Cap. 14. who useth he same Argumentation with Irenoeus Ergo uoniam sex diebus cuncta Dei opera perfecta â—unt per secula sex id est sex annorum milâ—ia manere in hoc statu mundum necesse est Dies enim magnus Dei mille annorum circulo erminatur sicut indicat Propheta qui dicit Ante oculos tuos Domine mille anni tanuam dies unus c. S. Augustine l. 20. De Civitate Dei S. Hieronymus Comment in Mich. cap. 4. Most clear and full to this purâ—ose is Eustath in his Comment in Hexaëâ—eron 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. We reckon saith he that the Creation shall â—ontinue till the end of the sixth Chiliad beâ—ause God also consummated the Vniverse in six days and I suppose that the Deity â—oth account days of a thousand years long For that it is said A thousand years are in â—he sight of the Lord as one day Howbeit â—he most of them did not propose this Opinion as an undoubted Truth but only as a Modest Conjecture And S. Austine is very angry with them who would peremptorily conclude from so slight an Argumentation This Conceit is already confuted anâ— the World hath long outlasted this terâ— according to their Computation who followed the Septuagint or Greek account and recâ—ned that Phaleg lived about the three thoâ—sandth year of the World and had his Naâ— from his living in the division of Time theâ— being to come after him three thousaâ—â— years that is just so many as were past bâ—fore him As concerning the future Condition of tâ— World after the Conflagration I find it tâ— general and received Opinion of the Ancieâ— Christians that this World shall not be aâ—nihilated or destroyed but only reneweâ— and purified So Eusebius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The World shall not be wholly â—stroyed but renewed Divers passages I migâ— produce out of him to the same purpose Cyril of Jerusalem Catech. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He folds up the Heaven not that he might destroy them but thâ— he might rear them up again more beautâ—ful Again Cyril upon this place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. So that this Renovation iâ— respect of the Creation shall be such a kinâ— of thing as the Resurrection in reference tâ— Mans Body Oecumenius upon this place He saith new Heavens and a new Earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet not different in matter And again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They shall not be destroyed or annihilated but only renewed and purified And upon Revel 21.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This he saith not denoting the Non-existence of the Creation but the Renewing In this manner he expounds Psalm 102.5 6. and proceeding saith We may here take notice that the Apostle doth not use the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if the Heaven and Earth were annihilated and brought to nothing but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they passed away or removed or changed State Saint Hierome upon the Psalms Psalm 102. saith Ex quo ostenditur perditionem coelorum non interitum sonare sed mutationem in melius From which words as a Vesture shalt thou change them may be shewn and made out that the Dissolution of the Heavens doth not signifie their utter destruction or annihilation but only their change into a better State I might add abundance more Testimonies but these I think may suffice CHAP. IV. The Opinions of the Ancient Heathen Philosophers and other Writers concerning the Dissolution 3. IT follows now than I give you an account what the Ancient Philosopher and Sages among the Heathen thought anâ— delivered concerning this Point Two oâ— the four principal Sects of Philosophers helâ— a future Dissolution of the World viz. Thâ— Epicureans and Stoicks As for the Epicureans they held that aâ— the World was at first composed by thâ— fortuitous concourse of Atomes so it should at last fall in pieces again by their fortuitouâ— Separation as Lucretius hath it lib. 5. Principio maria ac terras coelúmque tuere Horum naturam triplicem tria corpora Memmi Tres species tam dissimiles tria talia texta Vna dies dabit exitio multósque per annos Sustentata ruet moles machina mundi But now to prove all this first cast an Eye And look on all below on all on high The solid Earth the Seas and arched Sky One fatal Hour must ruine all This glorious Frame that stood so long must fall This Opinion of theirs is consonant enough to their wild Principles save only in that point of its suddenness Vna dies dabit exitio c. one day shall destroy or make an end of it The Stoicks were also of Opinion that the World must be dissolved as we may learn from the Seventh Book of Laertius in the Life of Zeno. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. They hold that the World is corruptible for these Reasons 1. Because it was generated and had a beginning 2. Because That is corruptible in the whole whose parts are corruptible But the parts of the World are corruptible being daily transmuted one into another 3. That which is capable of Mutation from better to worse is corruptible But such is the World sometimes being afflicted with long Heats and Droughts â—ometimes with continued Showers and Inâ—ndations To those we may add 4. according to some of their Opinions Because the Sun and Stars being fed with Vapours exhaled from the Earth all the moisture will at length be drawn out and the World â—ly on fire They were afraid nè
may fill it up Moreover the Clouds still pouring down Rain upon the Earth it will descend as far as there is any declivity and where that fails it will stagnate and joyning with Sea cover first the skirts of the Earth and so by degrees higher and higher till the Whole be covered To this we may add that some assistance toward the levelling of the Mountains may be contributed by the Courses and Catarracts of subterraneous Rivers washing away the Earth continually and weakning their foundations so by degrees causing them to founder subside and fall in That the Mountains do daily diminish and many of them sink that the Vallies are raised that the Skirts of the Sea are atterrated no man can deny That these things must needs in process of time have a very considerable and great effect is as evident which what else can it be then that we have mentioned Varenius in his Geography putting the Question Whether the Ocean may again come to cover all the Earth and make an Universal Deluge answers That we may conceive a way how this may naturally come to pass The manner thus Supposing that the Sea by its continual working doth undermine and wash away the Shores and Cliffs that are not rocky and carry the Earth thereof down towards the middle or deepest parts of its Channel and so by degrees fill it up By doing this perpetually it may in a long succession of Time carry all away and it self cover the whole Earth That it doth thus subvert and wash away the Shores in many places is in experience true About Dort in Holland and Dullart in Friesland and in Zealand many Villages some say Three Hundred have been drown'd by the encroachments of the Sea as some of their Towers and Steeples still extant above the Waters do testifie On the Tuscan Shore Kircher tell us that not far from Ligorn he himself had observed a whole City under Water that had been in former times drown'd by the Inundation of the Sea And over against Puteoli in the Sinus of Baia he tells us that in the bottom of the Sea there are not only Houses but the traces and footsteps of the Streets of some City manifestly discernable And in the County of Suffolk almost the whole Town of Donewick with the adjacent Lands hath been undermined and devoured by the Sea This washing away of the Shores is I conceive in great measure to be attributed to the fore-mentioned streightning and cutting short of the Sea by the Earth and Silt that in the times of Floods are brought down into it by the Rivers For the Vulgar have a Proverbial Tradition That what the Sea loses in one place it gains in another And both together do very handsomly make out and explain how the Earth in a Natural way may be reduced to its primitive state in the Creation when the Waters covered the Land But this according to the leisurely proceedings of Nature would not come to pass in many Ages I might say in Ages of Ages Nay some think that those vast Ridges and Chains of Mountains which run through the middle of the Continents are by reason of their great height weight and solidity too great a Morsel ever to be devoured by the Jaws of the Sea But whether they be or not I need not dispute though I incline to the Negative because this is not the dissolution the Apostle here speaks of which must be by Fire But I must not here dissemble an Objection I see may be made and that is That the Superficies of the Earth is so far from being depressed that it is continually elevated For in ancient Buildings we see the Earth raised high above the foot of them So the Pantheon at Rome which was at first ascended up to by many eight Steps is now descended down to by as many The Basis and whole Pedestal of Trajan's Pillar there was buryed in the Earth Dr. Tancred Robinson in the year 1683. observ'd in some places the Walls of old Rome to lye Thirty and Forty Foot under ground so that he thinks the greatest part of the Remains of that Famous Ancient City is still buried and undiscovered the prodigious heaps of Ruines and Rubbish inclosed within the Vineyards and Gardens being not half dig'd up or search't as they might be the tops of Pillars peeping up and down And in our own Country we find many Ancient Roman Pavements at some depth under ground My Learned and Ingenious Friend Mr. Edward Lloyd not long since inform'd of one that himself had seen buried deep in the Church-yard at Wychester in Glocestershire Nay the Earth in time will grow over and bury the Bodies of great Timber Trees that have been fallen and lye long upon it To which I answer As to Buildings 1. The Ruines and Rubbish of the Cities wherein in they stood might be conceived to bury them as deep as they now lye under ground And by this means it's likely the Roman Pavements we find might come to be covered to that height we mentioned For that the places where they occur were anciently Roman Towns subverted and ruined may easily be proved as particularly in this we mention'd from the Termination Chester whatever Town or Village hath that addition to its Name having been anciently a Roman Town or Camp Chester seeming to be nothing but Castra 2. It is to be consider'd That weighty Buildings do in time overcome the resistance of the foundation unless it be a solid Rock and sink into the ground Nay the very soft Water lying long upon the bottoms of the Sea or Pools doth so compress and sadden them by its weight that the very Roads that are continually beaten with Horses and Carriages are not so firm and sad And in the Sea the nearer you dig to the Low Water Mark still the sadder and firmer it is and it 's probable still the further the sadder which seems to be confirmed by the strong fixing of Anchors This firmness of the Sand by the weight of the incumbent Water the people inhabiting near the Sea are so sensible of that I have seen them boldly ride through the Water cross a Channel three Miles broad before the Tide was out when in some places it reacht to the Horses Belly A semblance whereof we have in Ponds which being newly dig'd the Water that runs into them sinks soon into the Earth and they become dry again till after some time by often filling the Earth becomes so solid through the weight of the Water that they leak no more but hold Water up to the brink Wittie Scarborough Spaw p. 86. What force a gentle if continual pressure hath we may understand also by the Roots of Trees which we see will sometimes pierce through the Chinks of Stone Walls and in time make great Cracks and Rifts in them nay will get under their very foundations The tender Roots of Herbs overcome the resistance of the ground and make their way through Clay
If this be done by way of Filtration which seems to be the most likely Means of raising the Water I do not see but these Filtres may suck up the whole Ocean and â—f Apertures and Out-lets large enough were made powre it out upon the Earth in no â—ong time But I cannot be fully reconciled â—o this Opinion though it hath great Advocates especially the fore-mentioned very Learned and Ingenious Person Doctor Robert Plot. I acknowledge Subterraneous Waters I grant a Confluence and Communication of Seas by under-ground Channels and Passages But this inferiour constant Circulation and perpetual Motion of Water seems to me not yet sufficiently proved and made out I think that the Patrons and Abettors of this Opinion have not satisfactorily demonstrated how it is or can be performed To what is offered concerning the Center of Gravity being nearer to our Continent by reason of the Preponderancy of the Earth and the Waters lying as it were on an heap in the other Hemisphere I answer 1. That though Earth be indeâ— specifically heavier than Water yet considering that Water is a close imporous Body I understand greater Pores but the Earthâ— every where full of great and small Pores and Cavities I know not but taking a bulk thereof equal to the Ocean the Water may be as heavy as it 2. In the present terraqueous Globe the New World which lyeâ— between the two great Seas and almost opposite to our Continent doth in some measure counterpoise the Old and take off a great part of the advantage which by reason of its Preponderancy it might otherwise have Moreover I am of Mr. Brierwoodâ— Opinion that there may be and is a vaâ— Continent toward the Southern Pole opposite to Europe and Asia to counterpoise theâ— on that side nay I do verily believe thaâ— the Continents and Islands are so proportionably scattered and disposed all the Worlâ— over as if not perfectly and exactly yet very nearly to counterballance one another sâ— that the Globe cannot walter or reel towardâ— any side and that the Center of the conveâ— Superficies of the Sea is the true Center oâ— the whole Terrestrial Sphere both of Motioâ— and of Gravity 3. The Sea being no wherâ— above a German Mile deep for which wâ— have good Authority in most places noâ— â—alf so much taking then as a middle term â—alf a Mile Suppose it every where half â— Mile deep the Earth below the Sea we â—ave no reason to suppose of different Graâ—ity What proportion hath this two Miles â—hickness of Water to the whole Terraqueâ—us Globe whose Semidiameter is by the â—ccount of Mathematicians Three Thousand Four Hundred and Forty Italian Miles What â—ittle advantage then can it have of the Earth opposite to it in point of Prepondeâ—ancy 4. Granting the Center of Gravity should be nearer our Continent The Cenâ—er being the lowest place and the Water â— fluid Body unless stopped where it found â—declivity it would descend as near as it could to it without any regard of the Earths Preponderancy And though we should grant that the driness of the Shoars might stop it and cause it to lye on a heap yet would it run up the Channels of Rivers â—till it came as near as possible to the Center of Gravity Indeed the Rivers themselves could not descend but must run towards the middle of the Continent All this I think will follow from this Hypothesis by as good consequence as the Waters being forced through the Subterraneous Channels out at the Springs Again I do not peremptorily affirm that all Fountains do proceed from Rain only I contend thâ— Rain may suffice to feed them and that prâ—bably it doth feed ordinary Springs Thâ— the Ingenious French Author doth well dâ—monstrate in the River Seine and I believe is demonstrable in most other Rivers The little Brook that runs near my Dweâ—ling and hath its Head or Source not aboâ— Four or Five Miles off where there is â— extraordinary Eruption of Water all aloâ— its Course receives small Rivulets on boâ— sides which though they make a considâ—rable Stream at Five Miles distance from tâ— Fountain-head yet singly are so small thâ— they may very well be conceived to draâ— down from the higher Grounds that lyâ— about them And taking the whole togâ—ther it is a very considerable length aâ— breadth of Land that contributes to the maiâ—tenance of this little River So that it maâ— easily be believed that all its Water owâ— its original to Rain Especially if it be conâ—dered further that in Winter-time after tâ— Rains are fallen the Ground sated and thâ— Ditches full the Stream of this River durinâ— the whole Winter following is for the moâ— part unless in Frosts double of what it waâ— in Summer Which Excess can proceeâ— from nothing but Rain at least it woulâ— be rashness to assign any other Cause wheâ— there is so obvious and manifest an one Moreover that Rain affords no small quantity of Water is clear also from great Floods wherein it might be proved that in few days there descends more Water than would supply the ordinary Stream for a good part of Summer Now to compare great things with small I have seen many of the biggest Rivers in Europe the Danow Rhine Rhosne and Po and when I consider the length of their courses the multitude of considerable Rivers and Brooks they receive and all these from their first rise made up by degrees by little Rivulets and Gills like my neighbouring Brook the huge Mountains and vast extent of higher Grounds they drain To me it seems and I have seen all their Streams near their Out-lets except the Danows and it 's after Four Hundred Miles descent that they do not bear any greater proportion to the Rivers and Rivulets they receive and the immense Tracts of Land that feed them than my Brook doth to its small Rills and compass of Ground But in this I confess I do not descend to the niceness of Measuring and Calculation but satisfie my self with rude conjectures taking my measures as the Cestrians say by the Scale of the Eye It will here be objected That the Rain never sinks above Ten Foot deep at most into the Earth and therefore cannot supply the Springs Answ This indeed if it were true would much enervate nay quite overthrow our Opinion And therefore we must fortifie this Point and effectually demonstrate beyond all possibility of denyal or contradiction That rain-Rain-water doth sink down and make its way into the Earth I do not say Ten or Twenty nor Forty but an Hundred nay Two or Three Hundred Foot or more First then in Pool-hole in the Peak of Darbyshire there are in some places constanâ— droppings and destillations of Water from the Roof under each of which to note that by the by rises up a Stone Pillar the Wateâ— precipitating some of those stony Particles which it had washed off the Rocks in passing through their Chinks These droppings continue all the Summer long
Now iâ— seems clear to me that the Rain-water making its way through the Veins and Chinkâ— of the Rocks above it and yet but slowly by reason of the thickness of the Mountain and straitness of the passages supplieâ— that dropping all the year round at least this is much more rational than any different Hypothesis If the Water distills down faster in Winter-time and wet Weather than it doth in Summer which I forgot to ask the experiment would infallibly prove our Assertion In confirmation of this Argument Albertus Magnus as I find him quoted in Dr. Wittie's Scarborough Spaw tells us That at the bottom of a solid Rock One Hundred and Thirty Fathoms deep he saw drops of Water distilling from it in a rainy season Secondly It is well known and attested to me by the people at Buxton when I was there that out of the Mouth of the same Poole-hole after great and long continuing Rains a great Stream of Water did usually issue forth And I am sure it must make its way through a good thickness of Earth or Rocks before it could come in there Thirdly What becomes of all the Water that falls on Newmarket Heath and Gogmagog Hills I presume also Salisbury-Plain and the like Spungy Grounds all Winter long where we see very little run off any way It must needs sink into the Ground more than Ten Foot deep Fourthly Many Wells whose Springs lye at least Twenty Foot deep we find by experience do often fail in great Droughts in Summer time Fifthly In Coal Delfs and other Mines in wet Weather the Miners are many times drown'd out as they phrase it though no Water runs down into the Mouths of their Pits or Shafts Nay Dr. Wittie tells us in his Description of the Vertues of the Scarborough Spaw pag. 105. That after great Inundations of Rain the Miners find the Water frequently distilling through the solid Earth upon their Heads whereas iâ— Summer or dry Seasons they find no interruption from thence at all Further to confirm this Particular wrote to my Honoured Friend Sr. Thomâ—â— Willughby Baronet desiring him to examinâ— his Colliers concerning it and send me woâ— what report they make and from him received this account If there be Springs lyâ— before you come at the Coal they carry the Water away but if there be none it falls into the Works in greater or less quantity according as the Rains fall Which answer is so much the more considerable in that it gives me a further clear proof that Springs are fed by Rain water and not by any communications from the Sea their original being above the Beds of Coal they receiving the Rain-water into their Veins and deriving it all along to their Fountains or Eruptions above the Coals I might add out of him Fifthly pag. 85. That the Scarborough Spaw notwithstanding it breaks out of Ground within Three or Four Yards off the Foot of the Cliff which is near Forty Yards high and within a quarter of a Mile there is another Hill that is more than as high again as the Cliff and a descent all the way to the Cliff so as the Rain-water cannot lye long upon the Ground yet it is observable that after a long Rain the Water of the Spaw is altered in its taste and lessened in its operation whereas a rainy day or two will not sensibly hurt it And now I am transcribing out of this Author give me leave to add an Observation or two in confirmation of Rains being the Original of Springs The first is pag. 97. this In England in the years 1654 55 and 56. when our Climate was dryer than ever it had been mentioned to be in any Stories so as we had very little Rain in Summer or Snow in Winter most of our Springs were dried up such as in the Memory of the eldest men living had never wanted Water but were of those Springs we call fontes perennes or at least were esteemed so He instances also out of a parallel Story out of Heylin's Geography in the Description of Cyprus where the Author relates That in the days of Constantine the Great there was an exceeding long drought there so as in Thirty Six Years they had no Rain in so much as all the Springs and Torrents or Rivers were dried up so that the Inhabitants were forced to forsake the Island and to seek for new Habitations for want of fresh Water The Second is pag. 84. That in the Wolds or Downs of Yorkshire they have many Springs break out after great Rains which they call Gypsies Neither is this Eruption of Springs after long Rains proper and peculiar only to the Wolds of Yorkshire but common to otheâ— Countreys also as Dr Childrey witnessetâ— in these words Sometimes there breaks out Water in the manner of a sudden Land-flood out of certain Stones that are like Rocks standing aloft in open Fields near the rising of the River Kynet in Kent which is reputed by the Common people a fore-runner of Dearth That the suddeâ— eruption of Springs in places where they use not always to run should be a sign oâ— Dearth is no wonder For these unusuaâ— Eruptions which in Kent we call Nailbourns are caused by extreme gluts oâ— Rain or lasting wet weather and never happen but in wet years witness the year 1648. when there were many of them and to our purpose very remarkable it was that in the 1654. several Springs and Rivulets were quite dryed up by reason of the precedent Drought which raged most in 1651 1652 and 1653. As the Head of the Stour that rises near Elham in Kent and runs through Canterbury was dry for some Miles space and the like happened to the Stream that crosseth the Road-way between Sittingburn and Canterbury at Ospring near Feversham which at other times ran with a plentiful current but then wholly failed So we see that it is not infrequent for new Springs to break out in wet years and for old ones to fail in great Droughts I cannot also here forbear to add the probable account he gives of the Supply of the Spring-well on the Castle-hill at Scarborough at which I confess I was somewhat puzzled This Well saith he though it be upon the top of the Rock not many Yards deep and also upon the edge of the Cliff is doubtless supplied by secret Channels within the ground that convey the Rain and Showers into it being placed on a dependent part of the Rock near unto which there are also Cellars under an old ruinated Chappel which after a great Rain are full of Water but are dryed up in a long Drought As for what is said concerning the River Volgas pouring out so much Water into the Caspian Sea as in a years time would make up a mass of Water equal to the Globe of the Earth and of the hourly effusions of the River Po in Italy which Ricciolus hath computed to amount to 18000000. Cubical Paces of Water Whence a late Learned
Ice with several â—nags or Fangs issuing out of them which â—ow they could be supported in the Air till â—hey amounted to that bulk and weight is a â—hing worthy to be more curiously consiâ—ered For either they must fall from an â—ncredible height the Vapours they encounâ—red by the way condensing and as it were â—rystallizing upon them into Ice and in time â—ugmenting them to that bulk or else there must be some strange and unknown faculty â—n the Air to sustain them But to leave â—hem it is certain that the Vapours after they are mounted up to a considerable height in the Air are congealed and turneâ— into the immediate component Principles â— Snow in which form I conceive they acquiâ— a lightness and are apt to ascend highâ— than they could do should they retain tâ— form of a humid Vapour as we see Ice iâ— lighter than Water out of which it is frozâ— But whether this be the reason of thâ— ascent or not I am sure of the matter of faâ— that these Snow-Clouds do ascend far aboâ— the highest Tops of the Alps in the Grisâ— Countrey in the beginning of the Sprinâ— it snowed very fast during my whole passaâ— for six hours and yet the Clouds seemed â— be as far above my head as they do here iâ— England and a great height they must bâ— for the Snow to gather into so great flake and to continue so long falling nay it maâ— be three times so long Moreover we sâ— that the highest Pikes and Summits of the Mountains are covered with Snow 2. In the Spring-time when the Snow disolves some of these Rivers that flow doâ— from the Alpine Mountains run with a fâ— Stream and overflow their Banks in cleâ— Sun-shine Weather though no Rain falls â— I my self can witness and therefore I prâ—sume that all the rest do so too as the Iâ—habitants affirmed But in the Summer timâ— after the Snow hath been some time melted their Streams decay again notwithstanding any Vapours condensed upon them proportionably to the Droughts neither are there any Floods but upon falls of Rain 3. That the Snow dissolved and soaking into the Earth is the Original of the Alpine Springs a probable Argument may be taken from the colour of the Water of those Rivers which descend from the Alps at least on this Northern side which I observed to be of a Sea-green even to a great distance from their Heads which whence can it proceed unless from the Nitrous Particles of the Snow-water of which they consist Another also from the Bronchocele or gutturine tumour an Endemial Disease of the Natives of those parts which Physicians and Naturalists atrribute to the Water they drink not without good reason because say they it consists of melted Snow which gives it that malignant quality Scaliger speaking of this Disease saith Id ab aqua fit è nivibus liquefactis quae multum terrestris crudi continet But because Julius Palmarius may possibly be in the right who imputes this Disease to the Steams of the Minerals especially Mercurial wherewith these Mountains abound which infect the Waters and render them noxious to the nervous part I shall not insist upon this particular What Mr. Halley saith of Springs thâ— they are perpetual and without dimiâ—â—tion even when no Rain falls for a lonâ— space of time If he understands it generaâ—ly of all Springs I add that are accounteâ— quick ones too I deny his assertion thâ— some there may be of that nature I granâ— a reason whereof may be given viz. thâ— the out-let is too small to empty the Waâ— of all the Veins and Earth that lye above in a long time In our Native Countrâ— of England there are living and lastiâ— Springs rising at the feet of our small Hâ— and Hillocks to which I am sure the Vâ—pours contribute very little which is so oâ—vious to every man that I think I need 〈◊〉 spend time to prove it Yet must I not dissemble or deny that the Summer-time the Vapours do ascenâ— or are carried up in that form by the sidâ— of the Mountains to their highest tops aâ— above them for there falls no Snow theâ— in the heat of Summer and that which lye there is for the most part dissolved Bâ— that Rain falls plentifully there I my sâ— can witness having been on the two higheâ— Tops of the Mount Jura which keeps thâ— Snow all Winter on the one called Thuiri â—n a Thunder Shower and on the other calâ—ed la Dolaz in a smart and continuing Rain So that I will not deny but in Summer-â—ime the Vapours may contribute somewhat â—o the Springs as I have elsewhere intimated And now that I am discoursing of these â—hings give me leave to set down an Observation I made in the last Great Frost the biggest that was ever known in the memory of Man which I had before met with in Books but did not give firm credit to that â—s that notwithstanding the violence of the Frost all the Springs about us brake out â—nd ran more plentifully than usually they did at any other time which I knew not what to impute to unless perchance the close â—topping the Pores of the Earth and keepâ—ng in that part which at other times was â—ont to vapour away which Account I neither then could nor can yet fully acâ—uiesce in To this I will here add an Abstract of â— Letter written by my Honoured Friend Dr. Tancred Robinson YOV may peradventure meet with somâ— opposition against your Hypothesis 〈◊〉 Fountains tho indeed I am more and more coâ—firm'd in your Opinion of them and the â— of the Mountains Father Tachart in his Second Voyage to Siam says when he went up the Top of the Table Mountain at the Capâ— of Good Hope the Rocks and Shrubs we perpetually dropping and feeding the Spriâ— and Rills below there being generally Cloâ— hanging on the sides near the Top. The sâ— observation hath been frequently made by â— English Merchants in the Madera and Canâ— Islands especially in their Journies up to â— Pike of Teneriff in which at such and sâ— heights they were always wet to the skin the droppings of the great Stones yet no Râ— over head the same I have felt in paâ— over some of the Alps. The Trees which the Islands of Ferro and St. Thomas are sâ— to furnish the Inhabitants with most of tâ— Water stand on the sides of vast Mountaiâ— Vossius in his Notes on Pomponius Mela firms them to be Arborescent Ferula's I â—lieve there is something in the many Relatiâ— of Travellers and Voyagers concerning thâ— Trees but then I fancy they are all mistakâ— when they say the Water issues out of â— Trees The Vapors stop't by the Mountains condense and distil down by the Boughs There being no Mountains in Aegypt may be one reason why there is little or no Rain in that Countrey and consequently no fresh Springs therefore in their Caravans they carry all their Water with them in great
Borracio's This may be the cause that the vast Ridge and Chain of Mountains in Peru are continually water'd when the great Plains in that Countrey are all dry'd up and parch't This Hypothesis concerning the Original of Springs from Vapours may hold better in those hot Regions within and near the Tropicks where the Exhalations from the Sea are most plentiful most rarify'd and Rain scarce than in the Temperate and Frigid ones where it rains and snows generally on the Vertices of the Mountains yet even in our European Climates I have often observ'd the Firs Pines and other Vegetables near the Summits of the Alps and Appennines to drop and run with Water when it did not rain above some Trees more than others according to the density and smoothness of their Leaves and Superficies whereby they stop and condense the Vapours more or less The Beams of the Sun having little force on the high parts of Mountains the interrupted Vapours must continually moisten them and as in the head of an Alembick condense and trickle down so that we owe part of our Rain Springs Rivers and conveniencies of Life to the operation of distillation and Circulation by the Sun the Sea and the Hills without even the last of which the Earth would scarce be habitable This present year in Kent they have had no Rain since March last therefore most of their Springs are dry at this very day aâ— I am assur'd from good hands The high spouting of Water even to three Fathoms perpendiculâ— out of innumerable holes on the Lake Zirkniâ— in Carniola after Rains on the adjacent Hills exceeds the spirting Gips or natural Jet d'eaâ— we have in England Novemb. 12. 1691. Tancred Robinson I have read of some Philosophers whâ— imagined the Earth to be a great Animal anâ— that the ebbing and flowing of the Sea wâ— the respiration of it and now methinks iâ— this Doctrine be true we have found onâ— the Circulation of its Blood or somethinâ— like it For the Water must upon this supposition move in proportion to its bulâ— faster through the Veins of this round Anâ—mal than the blood doth through those â— other living Creatures But let us suppose that the Rivers â— daily carry down to the Sea half an Oceaâ— of Water and that the Rain supplies all thaâ— as our Opinion is and see what we can iâ—fer from thence I think it will be granted that ordinarily communibus annis the Rain that falls in a whole year amounts not to above one quarters continual Rain Now if this suffices for a daily effusion of half an Ocean it is clear that if it should rain without any intermission all the year round the Rivers would pour out two Oceans into the Sea daily And so in forty days continual Rain there would distil down upon the Earth eighty Oceans of Water A prodigious quantity indeed and scarce credible which if the Water be carried off as fast as it comes on infers a Circulation of a quantity of Water equal to the whole Ocean twice in twenty four hours Supposing then thar so much Water daily descends upon the Earth I argue thus The Water falling upon the Earth must have some time to run down to the Sea and according to the small declivity of the Continent suppose the Mountains pared off and the Land levelled a considerable one too and we see it actually hath so that the Floods in great Rivers follow some days after the falls of Rain upon the higher grounds And so tho at the time of the general Deluge the Waters hastned down to the Sea as fast as the declivity of the Earth would permit yet they breaking out of the Fountains of the Abyss and falling down from the Clouds abundantly faster than they could run down the gentle declivity of the Earth it deserves to be considered whether by the end of forty days there might not have been water enough amassed to cover the Mountains fifteen Cubits high And yet rhe Scripture doth not in plain terms say that ever the waters of the Flood arose fifteen Câ—bits above the tops of the highest Mountains as Mr. Warren well observes Moreover to me it doth not seem clearly to limit the time of the Rains descent to forty days but it may import that the Rain had continued so long before the Ark was lifted up above the Earth and that it ceased not till one hundred and fifty days were over for so long the Waters are said to have prevailed upon the Earth Gen. 7.24 that is continued and increased whereas had the Rain ceased and the Fountains been stopped at forty dayâ— end the declivity of the Land would in aâ— likelihood have sunk the Waters much by the end of one hundred and fifty days which it was so far from doing that notwithstanding the help of the Wind the topâ— of the Mountains were not seen till the beginning of the tenth Month that is till twâ— hundred and seventy days were past Neither yet did the Mountains help but ratheâ— hinder the descent of the Waters down to the Sea straitning it into Channels obstructing its passage and forcing it to take Circuits till it got above the Ridges and tops of them As to this Argumentation and Inference the case is the same if we hold that the Water circulates through the Veins of the Earth For supposing the Rivers pour forth half an Ocean daily and granting that in times of Floods their Streams are but double of their usual Currents though I verily believe they are more than quadruple and that the effusions of the Fountains be in like measure augmented it will follow that the daily discharge of the Rivers will amount to two Oceans Now at the time of the general Deluge both these Causes concurred For there being a constant Rain of forty eight days there must on that account be a continual Flood and the Fountains of the great Deep being broken up they must in all likelihood afford as much Water as the Rain which whither it would not suffice in forty natural days to produce a Flood as big as that of Noah notwithstanding the continual descent and going off of the Waters I propose to the consideration of the Ingenious Especially if we allow as is not unreasonable to suppose that the Divine Providence might not first cause a contrary Wind to stop and inhibit the descent of the Waters as afterwards he raised an assisting one to carry them off I have but one thing more to add upon this Subject that is that I do not see how their Opinion can be true who hold that some Seas are lower than others as for Example the Red Sea than the Mediterranean For it being true that the Water keeps its level that is holds its superfices every where equidistant from the Center of Gravity or if by accident one part be lower the rest by reason of their fluidity will speedily reduce the superficies again to an equality The waters of all Seas communicating
that so many Liquors impregnated with all sorts of Salts and Mineral Juices in all proportions having been at one time or other industriously or accidentally exposed to crystallize and let stand long in Vessels there should never have been found in them any such Concretions For if any had happened we should doubtless have heard of them and the Observers would have improved such an Experiment to the Production of the like Bodies at their pleasure So I have finished what I have to alledge in defence of the latter part That these formed Stones were sometimes the real Shells or Bones of Fishes I mean the figured part of them I proceed now to set down what may be objected against this Opinion or offered in assertion of the contrary viz. That these Bodies are primitive Productions of Nature in imitation of the Shells and Bones of Fishes Against the former Opinion we have been pleading for it may be objected That there follow such strange and seemingly absurd Consequences from it as are hardly reconcileable to Scripture or indeed to sober Reason as First That the Waters must have covered the whole Earth even the highest Mountains and that for a long time there being found of these Shells not only in the most mountainous parts of our Countrey but in the highest Mountains in Europe the Appennine and Alps themselves and that not only scattered but amassed in great lumps and lying thick in Beds of Sand as we have before shewn Now this could hardly be the effect of a short Deluge which if it had carried any Shell fish so high would in all likelihood have scattered them very thin These Beds and Lumps of them necessarily inferring that they must have bred there which is a work of time Now the general Deluge lasted in the whole but ten Months and it 's not likely the Tops of the Mountains were covered half that time Neither is it less repugnant to Reason than Scripture for if the Waters stood so high above the Earth for so long a time they must by reason of their Confluence be raised as high above the Sea too But what is now become of this huge Mass of Waters equal to six or seven Oceans May not the Stoicks here set in and help us out at a dead lift The Sun and Moon say they might possibly sup it all up Yea but we cannot allow time enough for that for according to the moderate Draughts they take now a-days one Ocean would suffice to water them many Ages unless perchance when they were young and hot they might need more drink But to be serious I have no way to answer this Objection but by denying that there are any Beds or great Lumps and Masses of these formed Stones to be found near the Tops of the Alps or other high Mountains but yet there might be some particular Shells scattered there by the general Deluge Another thing there is as difficult to give an account off as of the Shells getting up to the Tops of Mountains that is of those several Beds or Floors of Earth and Sand c. one above another which are observed in broken Mountains For one cannot easily imagine whence these Floors oâ— Beds in the manner of Strata super strata as the Chymists speak should come but from the Sediments of great Floods which how or whence they could bring so great a quantity of Earth down when there was but little Land above the Sea I cannot see And one would likewise be apt to think that such a Bed of Sands with plenty of Cockle-shells intermixt as we mentioned before in the Mountain near Bononia in Italy must have been sometimes the Bottom of the Sea But before one can give a right judgment of these things one must view the Mountains where such Layers and Beds of Earth and Shells are found for perchance they may not be elevated so high above the present Surface of the Sea as one would judge by the descriptions of them Secondly It would hence follow that many Species of Shell-fish are lost out of the World which Philosophers hitherto have been unwilling to admit esteeming the destruction of any one Species a dismembring of the Universe and rendring it imperfect whereas they think the Divine Providence is especially concerned to secure and preserve the Works of the Creation and that it is so appears in that it was so careful to lodge all Land-Animals in the Ark at the time of the general Deluge The Consequence is proved in that Among these petrified Shells there are many sorts observed which are not at this day that we know of any where to be found Such are a whole genus of Cornua Ammonis which some have supposed to be Nautili though to me they do not seem so to be but a different Genus by themselves of which there have not any been seen either cast a shore or raked out of the Sea at any time that ever I heard of Nay my very Learned and Honoured Friend Dr. Lister proceeds further and saith That when he particularly examined some of our English Shores for Shells as also the Fresh Waters and the Fields that he did never meet with any one of those Species of Shells found at Adderton in Yorkshire Wansford bridge in Northamptonshire and about Gunthorp and Beauvoir-Castle c. any where else but in their respective Quarries What can we say to this Why it is possible that many sorts of Shell-Fish may be lodged so deep in the Seas or on Rocks so remote from the Shores that they may never come to our sight Thirdly It follows also that there have been Shell fish in these cold Northern Seas of greater bulk and dimensions than any now living I do not say in these but in the most Southernly and Indian viz. Cornua Ammonis of two foot diameter and of thickness answerable To this I answer That there are no petrified Shells that do in bigness much exceed those of the natural Shell fish found in our Seas save the Cornua Ammonis only which I suspect to have never been nor had any relation to any Shells of Fishes or to imitate or resemble them at least some of them As for the Nautili they are much different from them For the Nautili at least all the Species of them known to us are as Dr. Plot well observes extravagantly broad at the mouth and have not more than two other small turns at the most whereas the turns of the Ophiomorphites are proportionable one to another and in number many times four or five and sometimes six if we may believe Aldrovand And there are Nautili lapidei which do as nearly resemble the Nautilus Shells as any other Cochlites do their respective prototypes As Mr. Lloyd assures me he had observed many in Museums And the Learned and Ingenious Mr. Richard Waller then Secretary to the Royal Society in a Letter to me dated Feb. 4. 87. writes That he had been lately at Keinsham in Sommersetshire
high Mountains and many Leagues distant from the Sea too there have been Beds of real Shells I might have added Sharks-teeth or Glossepetrae as both Goropius Becanus and Georgius Agricola testifie if not in Beds yet plentifully disperst in the Earth There are several Medical Histories extant as Dr. Tancred Robinson informs me of perfect Shells found in Animal Bodies in whose Glands they were originally formed which is a considerable Objection not easily to be removed SECT 2. The Second possible Cause of the Worlds Destruction in a Natural Way the Extinction of the Sun 2. The possibility of the Suns extinction Of which Accident I shall give an Account in Dr. More 's words in the last Chapter of his Treatise of the Immortality of the Soul This saith he though it may seem a Panick fear at first sight yet if the matter be throughly examined there will appear no contemptible Reasons that may induce men to suspect that it may at last fall out there having been at certain times such near offers in Nature towards this sad Accident already Pliny speaks of it as a thing not unfrequent that there should be Prodigiosi longiores Solis defectus qualis occiso Dictatore Caesare Antoniano bello totius anni pallore continuo Hist Nat. lib. 2. cap. 30. The like happened in Justinian's time as Cedrenus writes when for a whole year together the the Sun was of a very dim and duskish Hue as if he had been in a perpetual Eclipse And in the time of Irene the Empress it was so dark for seventeen days together that the Ships lost their way in the Sea and were ready to run one against another as Theophanes reports But the late accurate Discovery of the Spots of the Sun by Scheiner and the appearing and disappearing of Fixt Stars and Comets and the excursions of these last do argue it more than possible that after some vast Periods of Time the Sun may be so inextricably inveloped by the macule that he may quite lose his light and then you may easily guess what would become of the Inhabitants of the Earth For without his vivifick heat neither could the Earth put forth any Vegetables for their sustenance neither if it could would they be able to bear the extremity of the Cold which must needs be more rigorous and that perpetually than it is now under the Poles in Winter time But this Accident though it would indeed extinguish all life yet being quite contrary to a Dissolution by Fire of which the Apostle speaks I shall pass it over without further consideration and proceed to a Third SECT 3. The Third possible Cause of the Worlds Destruction The Eruption of the Central Fire 3. The Possibility of the Eruption of the Central Fire if any such there be inclosed in the Earth It is the Hypothesis of Monsieur des Cartes that the Earth was originally a Star or great Globe of Fire like the Sun or one of the fixt Stars situate in the Center of a Vortex continually whirling round with it That by degrees it was covered over or incrustated with maculae arising on its Surface like the scumm on a boiling Pot which still increasing and growing thicker and thicker the Star losing its light and activity and consequently the motion of the Celestial Vortex about it growing more weak languid and unable to resist the vigorous incroachments of the neighbouring Vortex of the Sun it was at last drawn in and wholly absorpt by it and forced to comply with its motion and make one in the Quire of the Suns Satellites This whole Hypothesis I do utterly disallow and reject Neither did the Author himself if we may believe him think it true that the Earth was thus generated For he saith Quinimo ad res natural es meliùs explicandas earum causas altiùs hic repetam quà m ipsas unquam extitisse existimem Non enim dubium est quin mundus ab initio fuerit creatus cuâ— omni sua perfectione ità ut in eo Sol Terra Luna Stellae extiterint ...... Hoc fides Christiana nos docet hócque etiam ratio naturalis planè persuadet Attendendâ— enim ad immensam Dei potentiam non possâ—mus existimare illum unquam quidquam fecisse quod non omnibus suis numeris fuerit absolutum That is Moreover for the better explicating of Natural Things I shall bring them from higher or more remote Causes than I think they ever had For there is no doubt but the World was originally created in its full perfection so that in it were conteined both Sun and Moon and Earth and Stars c. For this the Christian Faith teacheth us and this also Natural Reason doth plainly persuade for attending to the immense power of God we cannot think that he ever made any thing that was not complete in all points But tho he did not believe that the Earth was generated or formed according to his Hypothesis yet surely he was of opinion that it is at present such a Body as he represented it after its perfect Formation viz. with a Fire in the middle and so many several Crusts or Coats inclosing it else would he have given us a mere Figment or Romance instead of a Body of Philosophy But tho I do reject the Hypothesis yet the being of a Central Fire in the Earth is not so far as I understand any way repugnant to Reason or Scripture For first of all the Scripture represents Hell as a Lake of Fire Mark 9.43 44 c. Revel 20.10 14 15. and likewise as a low place beneath the Earth So Psalm 86.13 and Deut. 32.22 it is called the nethermost hell Prov. 15.24 The way of life is above to the wise that he may depart from hell beneath 2. Many of the Ancients understand that Article of the Creed He descended into Hell of our Saviours Descent into that local Hell beneath the Earth where he triumphed over the Devil and all the Powers of Darkness And particularly Irenaeus interprets that Saying of our Saviour that the son of man should be three days in the heart of the earth of his being three days in the middle of the Earth which could not be meant saith he of the Sepulchre because that was hewen out of a Rock in its Superficies 3. It is a received Opinion among the Divines of the Church of Rome that Hell is about the Center of the Earth insomuch as some of them have been solicitous to demonstrate that there is room enough to receive all the Damned by giving us the Dimensions thereof Neither is it repugnant to the History â— the Creation in Genesis For tho indeed Moses doth mention only Water and Earth aâ— the component parts of this Body yet doth he not assert that the Earth is a simple uniform homogeneous Body as neither do we when we say upon the face of the earth or the like For the Earth we see is a Mass made up
the Fens in the Isle of Ely and the Craux in Provence in France c. which appear to be a perfect Level as far as one can ken Though possibly the motion of the Sea may not descend down so low as those Depths and so may not level the bottoms of them Again It is consonant to the best Observations of the height of the Earth and its Mountains above the Superficies of the Sea and of the depth of the Sea that the one is answerable to the other So Varenius in his Geogr. p. 152. Caeterùm ex observata hactenus in plerÃsque locis profunditate Oceani manifestum est eam fere aequalem altitudini sive elevationi montium locorum Mediterraneorum supra littora nimirum quantum haec elevantur extant supra littorum horizontem tantum alvei maris infra eum deprimuntur sive quantum assurgit terra à littoribus versùs mediterranea loca tantundem paulatim magis magÃsque deprimitur usque ad medii Oceani loca ubi plerùmque maxima est profunditas That is From the depth of the Ocean as far as hath been hitherto observed in most places it is manifest that that profundity is near equal to the altitude or elevation of the Mediterraneous places above the Shores that is to say as much as these are elevated and stand up above the Horizon of the Shores so much are the Channels of the Seas depressed below it or as much as the Earth riseth from the Shores towards the Mediterraneous places so much is it by little and little more and more depressed to the middle parts of the Ocean where the greatest depth for the most part is And Brerewood in his Enquiries pertinently to our purpose supposeth the depth of the Sea to be a great deal more than the height of the Hills above the common surface of the Earth For that in making estimation of the depth of the Sea we are not to reckon and consider only the height of the Hills above the common Superficies of the Earth but the advantage or height of all the dry Land above the Superficies of the Sea Because the whole Mass of the Earth that now appeareth above the Waters being taken as it were out of the place which the Waters now possess must be equal to the place out of which it was taken and consequently it seemeth that the height or elevation of the one should answer to the depth or descending of the other And therefore as I said in estimating the deepness of the Sea we are not to consider only the erection of the Hills above the ordinary Land but the advantage of all the dry Land above the Sea Which latter I mean the height of the ordinary Main land is in my opinion more in large Continents above the Sea than that of the Hills is above the Land For that the plain and common face of the dry Land is not level or equally distant from the Center but hath great declivity and descent towards the Sea and acclivity or rising toward the Mid-land part although it appear not so to the common view of the Eye is to reason notwitstanding manifest Because as it is found in that part of the Earth which the Sea covereth that it descendeth lower and lower toward the midst of the Sea for the Sea which touching the upper face of it is known to be level by nature and evenly distant from the Center is withal observed to wax deeper and deeper the further one saileth from the Shore towards the Main Even so in that part which is uncovered the coursings and streamings of Rivers on all sides from the Mid-land parts towards the Sea whose property we know is to slide from the higher to the lower evidently declare so much This Author with Damascen supposes that the unevenness and irregularity which is now seen in the Superficies of the Earth was caused either by taking some parts out of the upper face of the Earth in sundry places to make it more hollow laying them in other places to make it more convex or else which in effect is equivalent to that by raising up some and depressing others to make room and receipt for the Sea that Mutation being wrought by the Power of that Word Let the Waters be gathered into one place that the dry land may appear This proportioning of the Cavities appointed to receive the Seas to the protuberancy of the dry Land above the common Superficies of the Ocean is to me a sufficient Argument to prove that the gathering together of the Waters into one place was a work of counsel and design and if not effected by the immediate Finger of God yet at least governed and directed by him So the Scripture affirms the place to receive the Sea to have been prepared by God Psalm 104.8 Now in things of this nature to the giving an account whereof whatever Hypothesis we can possibly invent can be but merely conjectural those are to be most approved that come nearest to the Letter of Scripture and those that clash with it to be rejected how trim or consistent soever with themselves they may seem to be this being as much as when God tells how he did make the World for us to tell him how he should have made it But here it may be objected That the present Earth looks like a heap of Rubbish and Ruines And that there are no greater examples of confusion in Nature than Mountains singly or jointly considered and that there appear not the least footsteps of any Art or Counsel either in the Figure and Shape or Order and Disposition of Mountains and Rocks Wherefore it is not likely they came so out of Gods hands who by the Ancient Philosophers is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to make all things in number weight and measure To which I answer That the present face of the Earth with all its Mountains and Hills its Promontories and Rocks as rude and deformed as they appear seems to me a very beautiful and pleasant object and with all that variety of Hills and Valleys and Inequalities far more grateful to behold than a perfectly level Countrey without any rising or protuberancy to terminate the sight As any one that hath but seen the Isle of Ely or any the like Countrey must needs acknowledge Neither is it only more pleasant to behold but more commodious for habitation which is so plain that I need not spend time to prove it 2. A Land so distinguished into Mountains Valleys and Plains is also most convenient for the entertainment of the various sorts of Animals which God hath created some whereof delight in cold some in hot some moist and watery some in dry and upland places and some of them could neither find nor gather their proper food in different Regions Some Beasts and Birds we find live upon the highest tops of the Alps and that all the Winter too while they are constantly covered with Snow
Thames to do in a day the hourly Effusions of the Po being rated at eighteen millions of Cubical Paces by Ricciolus whereas the daily ones of the Thames are computed to be no more than twenty five millions three hundred forty four thousand Cubical Yards of Water by Mr. Halley but a Geometrical Pace contains five Feet i.e. 1â…” of a Yard Now if the Po pours so much Water hourly into the Sea what then must the Danow and the Nile do each of which cannot I guess be less than treble of the Po. Tanau Borysthenes and Rhodanus may equal if not exceed it Howbeit I cannot approve Ricciolus his Hypotheses judging them to be too excessive but do believe that as to the whole Mr. Halley comes nearer the truth Sure enough it is that in the Mediterranean the Receipts from the Rivers fall short of the Expence in Vapour tho in part of it that is the Euxine the Receipts exceed as appears from that there is a constant Current sets outward from thence through the Thracian Bosphorus and Hellespont But tho the Mediterranean doth indeed evaporate more than it receives from the Rivers yet I believe the Case is not the same with the Caspian Sea the Superficies whereof seems to me not to bear any greater proportion to the Waters of the Rivers that run into it than that of the Euxine doth to it which we have observed not to spend the whole Receipt in Vapour You 'll say Why then do not great Floods raise the Seas I answer As to the Caspian if it communicates with the Ocean whether the Rivers bring down more or less it s all one if more then the Water keeping its Level the Caspian raiseth the Ocean if less then the Ocean communicates to the Caspian and raises that But as to the Mediterranean we may say that when it receives more on the one side it receives less on the other the Floods and Ebbs of the Nilus and the other Rivers counterbalancing one another Besides by reason of the Snows lying upon the Mountains all Winter the greatest Floods of those great Rivers in Europe do not happen when the Mediterranean evaporates least in the Winter-time but in the Spring You 'll demand further if the Mediterrarean evaporates so much what becomes of all this Vapour I answer it is cast off upon the Mountains and on their sides and tops is condensed into Water and so returned again by the Rivers unto the Sea If you proceed to ask what becomes of the Surplusage of the Water which the Mediterranean receives from the Ocean and spends in vapour I answer It seems to me that it must be cast further off over the tops of the Mountains and supply in part Rain to these Northern Countries for we know that the South-Wind brings Rain with us and all Europe over As to the great Ocean I do not believe that it evaporates so much as the Mediterranean both 1. Because the whole Mediterranean excepting the Euxine lies in a hot Climate and a great part of it as it were in a Valley Ridges of high Mountains Atlas on one side and the Alps and Apennine c. on the other running along it And 2. Because the Surface of the whole Ocean bears a greater proportion to the Waters it receives from the Rivers of at least this Continent than that of the Mediterranean doth to its And therefore I think also that Mr. Halley exceeds in his Estimate of the Heat of the Superficies of the Sea Water I cannot persuade my self that were it all commixt I mean the hotter part with the cooler all the Surface over to such a thickness it would equal the heat of our Air in the hottest time of Summer But I leave that to further Trial and Enquiry Here give me leave to suggest that we are not to think that all the Vapours that supply our Rains and Dews proceed from the Sea no a great part of them viz. all that when condensed waters the Earth and serves for the Nutrition of Plants and Animals if not the same individual Water at least so much was exhaled out of the Earth before and returned again in Showers and Dews upon it So that we receive no more from the Sea than what the Rivers carry back and pour into it again But supposing Mr. Halley's Hypotheses to be good and that the Ocean doth evaporate and cast off to the dry Land 1 10 of an inch thickness daily and this suffices for the Supply of all the Rivers how intolerably extravagant must their Hypotheses be who suppose the Rivers of all the World together to yield half an Ocean of Water daily Though I must confess my self to be at a loss as to those vast Rivers of America of ninety Miles broad for if they should run with any thing a swift Current it is indeed inestimable what a quantity of Water they may pour forth All therefore that I have to say of them is that we want a true History and Account of their Phaenomena from their Fountains to their Out-lets Pag. 72. lin 29. and of Gravity I add also of Magnitude which is exceedingly convenient as well for the facility as the equability of the Earths diurnal motion This Hypothesis of the Continents being dispersed equally on all sides of the Globe makes these Centers concur in one Point whatever cause we assign of the raising up of the Dry Land at the first Whereas if we should suppose the Dry Land to have been raised by Earthquakes only on one side of the Globe and to have cast off the Water to the other and also that the Water could find no way into the Caverns that were left within then the watery side must needs preponderate the land-side and bring the Center of Gravity nearer to its Superficies and so raise the land-side still a great deal higher and make a considerable distance between the Centers of Magnitude and of Gravity In our Hypothesis of the equal dispersion of the Continents and Islands no such thing would happen but each Continent taking it with all its internal Caverns whether lighter or heavier than its bulk in Water that is Whether the Water did make its way into the Caverns thereof or did not for in the first Case it would be heavier in the second lighter would have its counterpoise on the opposite side so that the Centers would still concur The Case would be the same if the Dry Land were discovered and the Mountains raised by the immediate application of the Divine Power Pag. 94. after lin 15. add Since the receipt of this Letter an Experiment give me leave so to call it occurred to me which much confirmed me in the belief and persuasion of the truth of those Histories and Relations which Writers and Travellers have delivered to us concerning Dropping Trees in Ferro S. Thome Guiny c. of which before I was somewhat diffident and likewise in the approbation of the Hypothesis of my Learned Friend Dr.
Reasons I reject that Opinion and do rather think that the Conflagration shall be effected by a Superficial Fire Tho I must confess we read in Tacitus Annal. 13. at the end of a sort of Fire that was not so apt to disperse and vanish The City of the Inhonians in Germany saith he confederate with us was afflicted with a sudden Disaster for Fires issueing out of the Earth burned Towns Fields Villages every where and spread even to the Walls of a Colony newly built and could not be extinguished neither by Rain nor River-Water nor any other Liquor that could be employed until for want of Remedy or anger of such a Distraction certain Pesants cast Stones afar off into it then the Flame somewhat slacking drawing near they put it out with Blows of Clubs and other like as if it had been a wild Beast last of all they threw in Cloaths from their Backs which the more worn and fouler they were the better they quenched the Fire I use Dr. Hakewil's Translation CHAP. VII The Third Question Answered Whether shall this Dissolution be Gradual and Successive or Momentaneous and Sudden 3. THE Third Question is Whether shall this Dissolution be gradual and successive or momentaneous and sudden I answer The Scripture resolves for the latter The day of the Lord shall come as a thief in the night a Similitude we have often repeated in Scripture as in the tenth Verse of this Chapter in 1 Thessal 15.2 Revel 3 3. and 16.15 And the Resurrection and Change of Things it is said shall be in a moment in the twinkling of aâ— eye 1 Cor. 15.52 Consonant whereto both the Epicureans and Stoicks held theiâ— Dissolutions of the World should be suddeâ— and brief as Lucretius and Seneca in thâ— places forementioned tell us And it iâ— suitable to the nature of Fire to make a quicâ— dispatch of things suddenly to consume anâ— destroy And as it shall be sudden so also shall it be unexpected being compared to the coming of the Flood in the days of Noah Matth. 24.37 38 39. But as the days of Noah were so shall also the coming of the Son of man be For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking marrying and giving in marriage until the day that Noah entred into the ark And knew not until the flood came and took them all away so shall also the coming of the Son of man be And the raining of Fire and Brimstone upon Sodom Luke 17. Thessal 5.3 For when they shall say peace and safety then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child Now if it shall be thus sudden and unexpected it is not likely there should be in nature any manifest Tendency to it or remarkable Signs and Forerunners of it for such must needs startle and awaken the World into an expectation and dread of it That there is at present no such Tendency to Corruption but that the World continues still in as good state and condition as it was two thousand years ago without the least impairment or decay hath been as we before noted without any possibility of contradiction clearly made out and demonstrated by Dr. Hakewill in his Apology and therefore arguing from the past to the future it will in all likelyhood so continue two thousand years more if it be so long to the Day of Doom and consequently that day as the Scripture predicts will suddenly and unexpectedly come upon the World But if all these Prophecies as Dr. Hammond affirms be to be restrained only to the Destruction of Jerusalem and Jewish Polity without any further respect to the end of the World then indeed from thence we can make no Inferences or Deductions in reference to that final Period CHAP. VIII The Fourth Question Resolved Whether shall there be any Signs or Forerunners of the Dissolution of the World 4. THE Fourth Question is Whether shall there be any Signs or Forerunners of the Dissolution of the World In order to the Answering of this Question we shall distinguish Signs into natural and arbitrarious 1. natural Signs so the Aurora or Dawning of the Day is a Sign of the Sun-rising Now if the Dissolution be effected in the course of Nature and by natural Means there will be some previous natural Signs of it An old House will threaten Ruin before it falls The natural Death of Men and all Animals hath its Harbingers and old Men before their Dissolution feel the Impression of Age and proclaim to the World their approaching Fate by Wrinkles Gray Hairs and Dimness of Sight But we have formerly shewn that there is no Consenescency or Declension in Nature but that the World continues still as firm and staunch as it was three thousand years ago and why hereafter it should founder and decay more than it hath done for so many Ages heretofore what reason can be given It is not therefore likely there should be any natural Signs of the Dissolution of the World and consequently that it shall be effected by natural Means 2. There are arbitrary Signs as a Garland hung out is a Sign of Wine to be sold Now if the Dissolution of the World be effected by supernatural and extraordinary means as is most likely the Signs of it must be arbitrarious For tho they may be natural Effects and Productions yet would they not signifie the Destruction of the World if they were not ordered by providence to happen at that time and predicted as Forerunners of it with which otherwise they have no natural Connexion Such Signs are Matth. 24. The Sun being darkened and the Moon not giving her Light and the Stars falling from Heaven and the Shaking of the Powers of Heaven These and many other Signs of his coming we find mentioned in Scripture but what the meaning of these Expressions may be is not so clear For tho some of them may be taken in a Literal Sense yet it is manifest that others cannot The Sun may indeed be so covered with a Macula as to be quite obscured and thereupon the Moon necessarily lose her Light which she borrows only from the Sun-beams But how the Stars should in a literal Sense fall down from Heaven is inconceivable it being almost demonstratively certain that most of them are bigger than the whole Earth We may therefore keeping as near as we can to the Letter thus interpret them There shall be great Signs in Heaven dismal Eclipses and Obscurations of the Sun and Moon new Stars and Comets shall appear and others disappear and many fiery Meteors be suspended in the Air. The very Foundations of the Earth shall be shaken and the Sea shall roar and make a noise But I must not here dissemble a great Difficulty How can such illustrious Signs and Forerunners be reconciled to the suddenness and unexpectedness of Christ's coming and the end of the World Luke 21.25 After the Evangelist had told us That there shall be signs