Country or Region with the same exactness determin'd by Geography XXXI The Earth in its Primitive State had only an Annual Motion about the Sun But since it has a Diurnal Rotation upon its own Axis also Whereby a vast difference arises in the several States of the World XXXI This has been at large explain'd and prov'dalr eady XXXII Upon the first commencing of this Diurnal Rotation after the Fall its Axis was oblique to the Plain of the Ecliptick as it still is or in other words the present Vicissitudes of Seasons Spring Summer Autumm and Winter arising from the Sun's access to and recess from the Tropicks have been ever since the Fall of Man XXXII This has in some measure been insisted on already in the Hypothesis last mention'd and needs no other direct and positive proof than the present Obliquity of the Earth's Axis It being evident that without a miraculous Power the same Situation or Inclination which it had originally would and must invariably remain for all succeeding Ages CHAP. III. A Solution of the Phaenomena relating to the Antediluvian State of the Earth XXXIII The Inhabitants of the Earth were before the Flood vastly more numerous than the present Earth either actually does or perhaps is capable to maintain and supply XXXIII THIS Proposition will not appear strange if we consider 1. The much greater fertility of the Antediluvian Earth to be presently accounted for whereby it was capable of maintaining a much greater number of Inhabitants than the present even on the same space of Ground 2. The Earth was more equally habitable all over before than since the Deluge For before the acquisition of those heterogeneous mixtures which the Deluge occasion'd and which I take to be the Causes of all our violent and pernicious Heat and Cold in the Torrid and Frigid Zones of our Earth 't is probable the Earth was pretty equally habitable all over by reason of the Vicinage of the Central Heat to the Polar Regions and the more direct Exposition of the middle Regions to that of the Sun I do not mean that the Frigid Zones were equally hot with the Torrid but that the Heat in the one and the Cold in the other were more kindly and the excesses of each much less considerable than at present since the Introduction of the before-mention'd Mixtures and particularly of such Sulphureous and Nitrous Effluvia as are now I believe become Calorifick and Frigorifick Particles in our Air the main occasions of the violence and pernicious Qualities of the Heat and Cold thereof and the most affecting to our Senses of all other So that 't is probable before the Acquisition of these Advensitious Masses the Antediluvian Air was every where sufficiently temperate to permit the comfortable Habitation of Mankind on all parts of the Globe and the Antediluvian Earth was by consequence capable of many more Inhabitants than the present is or can be as every one will readily grant who considers how few Inhabitants in comparison three of the five Zones of our present Earth do maintain 3. The dry Land or habitable Earth it self was by reason of the absence of the intire Ocean full as large and capacious again as the present For the Ocean I think takes up now at the least one half of the intire Globe but then afforded as large spacious and habitable Countries as the other parts of the Earth 4. The Mountains which are now generally bare and barren were before the Deluge so far as they were suppli'd with Water as fruitful as the Plains or Vallies and by reason of a larger Surface were capable of maintaining rather more Animals than the Plains on which they stand would otherwise have been The present defect of a fruitful Soil being owing to the Deluge and there being no good reason that I know of to be assign'd why on a primary Formation and in a calm and still State of the Air the higher Parts of the Earth should not be cover'd with a fruitful Soil or Mold as well as the level or lower adjoyning to them All which Accounts taken together will I think give reasonable Foundation for such vast numbers of Inhabitants as according to the Computation of this Proposition the Antediluvian World was replenish'd withal Corollary 1. Since by very reasonable Computations of the numbers of the Inhabitants of the Earth at the Deluge according to the Hebrew Chronology they appear to have been sufficient abundantly to replenish the intire Globe and as many as in reason the same could sustain The Septuagints addition of near six hundred Years in this Period of the World to the Hebrew Accounts is so far from clearing Difficulties thereto relating that it rather increases the same and enforces the allowance of more Inhabitants at the Deluge than we can well tell where they could live and be maintain'd Coroll 2. Since according to the Hebrew Chronology from the Deluge till the time of Abraham's going into Canaan was the intire space of 427 Years and the Lives of Men during that interval were in a mean three hundred Years long 't is easy on the Grounds proceeded upon in this Phaenomenon's Calculations to prove That there is no need to recede from that Account or introduce the additional Years of the Septuagint in this Period to produce the greatest Numbers of Men which in that or the immediately succeeding Ages any Authentick Histories of those Ancient Times do require us to suppose Coroll 3. The Deluge which destroy'd the whole Race of Mankind those only in the Ark excepted could not possibly be confin'd to one or more certain Regions of the Earth but was without question truly Universal Coroll 4. Seeing it appears That Mankind has a gradual increase and that in somewhat more than four thousand Years our Continent of Europe Asia and Africa has been so entirely Peopled from the Sons of Noah and seeing withal America is much less in extent and I suppose generally speaking was never so full of People In case we suppose that Famines Wars Pestilences and all such sad destroyers of Mankind have equally afflicted the several Continents of the Earth Some light might be afforded to the Peopling of America and about what Age since the Deluge the American's past first from this Continent thither which a more nice enquiry into the Particulars here to be consider'd might assist us in XXXIV The Bruit Animals whether belonging to the Water or Land were proportionably at least more in number before the Flood than they are since XXXIV That part of this Proposition which concerns the Dry-land Animals is sufficiently accounted for by what has been discours'd under the last Head which equally belongs to them as to Mankind And if we extend the other part concerning the Fishes to the Seas then in Being and their comparative Plenitude there will need no additional Solution It being not to be suppos'd that the absolute numbers of Fish before the Deluge should be greater than at
present as the case was of the Dry-land Animals because the latter being universally destroy'd those in the Ark alone excepted were to begin their Propagation anew but the former not being so did but increase their still numerous Individuals and must thereby soon recover and surpass their former Multitude as will easily be allow'd on a little consideration of this Matter Corollary Hence arises a strong Confirmation of what is on other grounds already asserted That there were only smaller Lakes and Seas but no great Ocean before the Deluge For since it appears by this Phaenomenon that the Waters of the Antediluvian Earth were much more replenish'd nay crouded with Fish than now they are and since there was no general Destruction of them as there was of Dry-land Animals at the Deluge had there been as great a Compass or as vast an Ocean for their Reception then as at present there is the numbers now in every part of the Ocean or Seas ought to be vastly greater than they then were an being all the Off-spring of those which every where surviv'd the Deluge and which have propagated themselves for more than four thousand Years since the same which being disagreeable to the Observations referr'd to in this Phaenomenon is little less than a Demonstration of the falshood of that Hypothesis on which 't is built or a full Attestation to our Assertion that there were only smaller Lakes and Seas but no great Ocean before the Deluge XXXV The Antediluvian Earth was much more fruitful than the present and the multitude of its vegetable Productions much greater XXXV Before I come directly to solve this and the following Propositions I must premise that 't is usually unreasonable to ask why such Phaenomena belong'd to the Antediluvian World They being commonly but the natural and regular Properties of an Original Earth newly form'd out of a Chaos such as one should rationally expect in a World newly come out of the Hands of its Creator and fitted for the Convenience and Fruition of noble Creatures such as the generality of our fellow Planets especially our next Neighbour the Moon as far as we can observe appear to have had at first and hitherto retain'd All that can in reason be desir'd is this To give a plain and intelligible Account of those opposite Phaenomena of the Earth which we now are sensible of and by what means the Deluge could occasion the same Which therefore shall be frequently the business of the succeeding Solutions And as to the present case the decrease of the Fertility of the Earth at the Deluge these Causes are assignable 1. The decrease of the Sun's Heat by the greater distance of the Earth from him since than before the Deluge It has been before prov'd that till the Deluge the Earth's Orbit was Circular and the Radius of that Circle very little longer than the nearest distance at the Perihelion now So that when the Heat of the Sun is as the density of his Rays or reciprocally as the Squares of the Earth's distance from him If instead of the present Ellipsis we take for Calculations sake as we ought a Circle in the middle between the nearest and farthest distance we shall find that the Sun's Heat on the Earth in general before the Deluge was to its present Heat as almost a hundred to ninety six or a twenty fifth part of his intire Heat greater before than since the same which is by no means inconsiderable in the Case before us 2. The Heat of the Central Body was considerably damp'd and obstructed both by the Waters of the Deluge themselves acquir'd from abroad and now contain'd in the Pores and Caverns of the Earth under us and by that Sediment of them which now composes that upper Crust of Earth we dwell upon and which being setled and consolidated on the Superficies of the Ancient Earth would prove a great hindrance to the ascending Steams not to be overcome but by degrees and in length of time afterwards From both which Causes very a notable Damp would be put to the Influence of the Central Heat on which as well as on the Sun 's the Fertility of every Soil does in part depend 3. The upper Earth or fruitful Soil it self the main Fund and Promptuary of the vegetable Kingdom is now very inconsiderable in quantity if compar'd with that of the Primitive or Antediluvian Earth For when this last mention'd was the intire product of the Ancient Chaos at the original Formation of the Earth and the first what only was afforded from a small part of such a Chaos the Comet 's Atmosphere and by the Storms born off the Tops of Mountains at the Deluge while the old Soil lies buried under the Sediment or Crust on which we live 't is no wonder that our fertile Stratum is now thinner spread and so the Productions less copious in the present than they were in the Antediluvian State of Things And this tho' we suppose the Soil from the Comet or from the Tops of the Mountains to be as good in it self and to have remain'd as pure and unmix'd with any heterogeneous Matter in this confusion of things at the Deluge as it would at the regular Formation of the Earth at first which yet is by no means supposable and the contrary to which being allow'd for will still farther afford us a reason of the present Assertion So that since the present Soil is both much worse in Quality and much less in Quantity than the old one and since the Heat whether of the Sun or Central Solid is so much lessen'd at the Deluge which things include the main Causes of Fertility 't is no wonder that the present Earth is nothing near so fruitful and luxuriant in her Productions as the Autediluvian was XXXVI The Temperature of the Antediluvian Air was more equable as to its different Climates and its different Seasons without such excessive and sudden Heat and Cold without the scorching of a Torrid Zone and of burning Summers or the freezing of the Frigid Zones and of piercing Winters and without such sudden and violent Changes in the Climates or Seasons from one extreme to another as the present Air to our Sorrow is subject to XXXVI Seeing the primary State here mention'd is but a proper result from the first Formation of the Earth all that need be accounted for is the Alteration at the Deluge 1. The mighty difference of Climates especially of the Torrid and Frigid Zones is I suppose owing not wholly to the Sun's Heat or the Nature of the Air it self but partly to those Calorifick and Frigorifick Mixtures which are uncertainly contain'd therein Meer Heat and Cold are very different things from that Pothery and Sultry that Frosty and Congealing Weather which alternately in Summer and Winter at the Line and the Poles we usually now feel These Effects seem plainly deriv'd from Nitrous or sulphureous or other the like Steams exhaled into mixed with and sustained by
living as I have done While the Earth remaineth seed-time and harvest and cold and heat and Summer and winter and day and night shall not cease And this as to the time past is abundantly confirm'd by all the Ancient History and Geography compar'd with the Modern as is in several particulars well observ'd by Dr. Woodward against the groundless opinions of some others to the contrary CHAP. V. Phaenomena relating to the General Conflagration With Conjectures pertaining to the same and to the succeeding period till the Consummation of all things XC AS the World once perished by Water so it must by Fire at the Conclusion of its present State The heavens and the earth which are now by the word of God are kept in store reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men The heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent heat The earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up In the day of God the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with fervent heat But this is so fully attested by the unanimous consent of Sacred and Prophane Authority that I shall omit other particular Quotations and only refer the Reader where he may have more ample satisfaction SCHOLIUM Having proceeded thus far upon more certain grounds and generally allow'd Testimonies as to the most of the foregoing Phaenomena I might here break off and leave the following Conjectures to the same state of Uncertainty they have hitherto been in But being willing to comply with the Title and take in all the great and general Changes from first to last from the primigenial Chaos to the Consummation of all things Being also loth to desert my Postulatum and omit the account of those things which were most exactly agreeable to the Obvious and Literal sense of Scripture and fully consonant to Reason and Philosophy Being lastly willing however to demonstrate that tho' these most remote and difficult Texts be taken according to the greatest strictness of the Letter yet do they contain nothing but what is possible credible and rationally accountable from the most undoubted Principles of Philosophy On all these accounts I shall venture to enumerate and afterward to account for the following Conjectures In which I do not pretend to be Dogmatical and Positive nay nor to declare any firm belief of the same but shall only propose them as Conjectures and leave them to the free and impartial consideration of the Reader XCI The same Causes which will set the World on Fire will also cause great and dreadful Tides in the Seas and in the Ocean with no less Agitations Concussions and Earthquakes in the Air and Earth The Powers of Heaven shall be shaken The Lord shall roar out of Sion and utter his voice from Jerusalem and the heavens and the earth shall shake The sea and the waves roaring Mens hearts failing them for fear and for looking after those things which are coming on the Earth for the powers of heaven shall be shaken XCII The mtmosphere of the Earth before the Conflagration begin will be oppress'd with Meteors Exhalations and Steams and these in so dreadful a manner in such prodigious quantities and with such wild confused Motions and Agitations That the Sun and Moon will have the most frightful and hideous countenances and their antient splendour will be intirely obscur'd The Stars will seem to fall from Heaven and all manner of Horrid Representations will terrifie the Inhabitants of the Earth I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth blood and fire and pillars of smoke The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and terrible day of the Lord come The sun shall be darkened and the Moon shall not give her light and the stars shall fall from heaven and the powers of heaven shall be shaken There shall be signs in the sun and in the moon and in the stars and upon the Earth distress of Nations with perplexity Mens hearts failing them for fear and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth XCIII The Deluge and Constagration are referr'd by ancient Tradition to great Conjunctions of the Heavenly Bodies as both depending on and happening at the same Thus Seneca expresly Berosus says he who was an Expositor of Belus affirms That these Revolutions depend on the Course of the Stars insomuch that he doubts not to assign the very times of a Conflagration and a Deluge That first mention'd when all the Stars which have now so different Courses shall be in Conjunction in Cancer All of them being so directly situate with respect to one another that the same right line will pass through them all together That last mention'd when the same company of Stars shall be in conjunction in the opposite sign Capricorn XCIV The space between the Deluge and the Conflagration or between the ancient state of the Earth and its Purgation by Fire Renovation and Restitution again is from ancient Tradition defin'd and terminated by a certain great and remarkable year or Annual Revolution of some of the Heavenly Bodies And is in probability what the Ancients so often refer'd to pretended particularly to determine and stil'd The Great or Platonick Year This year is exceeding famous in old Authors and not unreasonably apply'd to this matter by the Theorist Which it will better suit in this than it did in that Hypothesis XCV This general Conflagration is not to extend to the intire dissolution or destruction of the Earth but only to the Alteration Melioration and peculiar disposition thereof into a new state proper to receive those Saints and Martyrs for its Inhabitants who are at the first Resurrection to enter and to live and reign a thousand years upon it till the second Resurrection the general Judgment and the final consummation of all things The Heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with fervent heat Nevertheless we according to his promise look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness Behold I create new heavens and a new earth and the former shall not be remembered nor come into mind Verily I say unto you That ye which followed me in the regeneration when the Son of Man shall sit upon the throne of his glory ye also shall sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel And every one that hath forsaken houses or brethren or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my names sake shall receive an hundred fold now in this time houses and brethren and sisters and mothers and children and lands with his present persecutions and in the world to come eternal life Of old thou hast laid the foundations of the earth and the heavens are the work of
probable also which is I think abundantly sufficient to clear this Matter LXXXIX Since the Deluge there neither has been nor will be any great and general Changes in the State of the World till the time when a Period is to be put to the present Course of Nature LXXXIX Seeing we know no other Natural Causes that can produce any great and general Changes in our Sublunary World but such Bodies as can approach to the Earth or in other Words but Comets and seeing withal the next Approach of the Comet will in probability bring the present State of things to a Conclusion and Burn the World of which presently 'T is evident the Earth is secure enough all the intermediate space And as hitherto we accordingly find it has been so we need not fear but it will be preserv'd till the foremention'd Conflagration CHAP. V. Phaenomena relating to the General Conflagration with Conjectures pertaining to the same and to the succeeding Period till the Consummation of all things XC AS the World once perish'd by Water so it must by Fire at the Conclusion of its present State XC As we have given an Account of the Universal Deluge from the Approach of a Comet in its descent towards the Sun so will it not be difficult to account for the General Conflagration from the like Approach of a Comet in its ascent from the Sun For 't is evident from what has been already explain'd that in case a Comet pass'd behind the Earth tho' it were in its Descent yet if it came near enough and were it self big enough it wou'd so much retard the Earth's annual Motion and oblige it to revolve in an Ellipsis so near to the Sun in its Perihelion that the Sun it self wou'd scorch and burn dissolve and destroy it in the most prodigious degree and this Combustion being renew'd every Revolution wou'd render the Earth a perfect Chaos again and change it from a Planet to a Comet for ever after 'T is evident this is a sufficient cause of a general Conflagration with a Witness and such an one as wou'd intirely ruine the Make of the present and the possibility of a future World On which last account if we allow the following Phaenomena we must not introduce this at this Period however but see whether a Conflagration of a less destructive and more refining Nature be not to be expected and may not be accounted for And here let it be observ'd that the Central Heat of it self seems sufficient to burn up and dissolve the upper Earth as those who with Dr. Woodward know the Power and Vehemence of the same now and its astonishing Force and terrible Effects in Earthquakes Eruptions of Volcano's and other Phaenomena of present Nature ought to allow if these two things were by any means remov'd I mean the Waters of the Seas and Ocean and the Coldness of the Air For 't is the vast quantity of Waters of the Earth and the Coldness of the middle Region of the Air every where and of the whole Air in the Frigid Zones returning the Vapours cold down again which were sent up into 'em never so hot which seems still to prevent the effects of the Subterraneous Heat and to hinder the Conflagration of the Earth If therefore the passing by of a Comet be capable of emptying the Seas and Ocean and of rendring the Air and its contiguous upper Surface of the Earth extreamly hot and inflam'd no more I suppose will be necessary to a general Conflagration Or if any more Assistance be afforded by the Presence of the Comet it will be ex abundanti and only contribute still the more certainly and the more suddenly to kindle such a fatal Fire and so dreadful a Combustion Now that both those requisite conditions for a general Conflagration wou'd be the consequents of this Passage of the ascending Comet is plain and evident For 1. on the Approach of the Comet a vast Tide wou'd arise in the great Abyss and by the new more considerable and more violent Elevations thereof into the Protuberances and the Sphaeroid Surface of the whole the old Fissures and Breaches wou'd be open'd again and not a few new ones generated not only as at the Deluge in the Mountainous or more loose Columns extant above the Surface of the Waters of the Globe but in all Parts and under the Seas and Ocean as well as in other places which Fissures must immediately swallow up the main Mass or Bulk of the Waters upon the Face of the Ground and send 'em to their Fellow-Waters in the Bowels of the Earth which was the first and principal step towards a general Conflagration And then 2. the Vapours acquir'd from the Comet 's Atmosphere which at the Deluge were by reason of their long absence from the Sun in the remote Regions beyond Saturn pretty cool at this time must be suppos'd by reason of their so late and near approach to the Sun about the Perihelion exceeding hot and burning and that to so extraordinary a degree that nothing but the Idea of the Mouth of a Volcano just belching out immense quantities of liquid and burning Streams or Torrents of fiery Matter can in any measure be suitable to the Violence thereof Imagine therefore the Earth to pass through the very middle of this Atmosphere for 7000 or 8000 Miles together and to bear off with it a Cylindrical Column thereof whose Basis were somewhat larger than a great Circle on the Earth and whose Altitude were the Number of Miles just now mention'd and then tell me whether the Air and its adjoining uppermost Region of the Earth will not be sufficiently hot and scorching which was the other Step to the general Conflagration Besides all which what quantities of this fiery Exhalation or Torrent of melted liquid Matter wou'd run down the Fissures into the Bowels of the Earth and by joining with the central hot Steams already there invigorate them and accelerate the direful Inflammation and what piercing and scorching fiery Corpuscles the central Body it self during its vicinity wou'd also send out and what an additional Power wou'd thereby be afforded the prevailing Heat I need not say Upon the whole I may appeal to the Reader if the concurrence of all these external Causes to say nothing here of any internal Dispositions in the Earth it self thereto do not appear abundantly sufficient within a little time to set the World on Fire and bring on that terrible Conflagration which both Sacred and Profane Testimonies conspire to forewarn us of and so whether the Theory of Comets does not afford us almost as commensurate and compleat an Account of the last burning as it already has done of the ancient drowning of the Earth XCI The same Causes which will set the World on Fire will also cause great and dreadful Tides in the Seas and Ocean with no less Agitations Concussions and Earthquakes in the Air and Earth XCI Seeing the Eruption of the central
Heat the cause 't is probable of all our Earthquakes the presence of a Comet the cause once already of the most prodigious Tides that ever were and the enflam'd Chaos or scorch'd Atmosphere of the Comet a smaller part of which occasion'd all our Tempests our Meteors our Thunder and Lightning ever since the Deluge will all concur at once and with joint Forces conspire together nothing in the World can be suppos'd more terrible nor more exactly correspondent to the Phaenomenon before us XCII The Atmosphere of the Earth before the Conflagration begin will be oppress'd with Meteors Exhalations and Steams and these in so dreadful a manner in such prodigious quantities and with such wild confus'd Motions and Agitations that the Sun and Moon will have the most frightful and hideous Countenances and their ancient Splendor will be intirely obscur'd The Stars will seem to fall from Heaven and all manner of horrid Representations will terrifie the Inhabitants of the Earth XCII Those who consider how a Comet 's Atmosphere appears to us after its Perihelion and what large quantities of its newly scorch'd Masses our Air must be clog'd and burthen'd withal will expect no other effects than those here mention'd and will easily believe that all such horrible Appearances wou'd ensue and that in the most amazing Degree and extravagant Instances possible The Theorist's Representation of this Matter will be generally speaking but a fair and just Idea thereof XCIII The Deluge and Conflagration are referr'd by ancient Tradition to great Conjunctions of the Heavenly Bodies as both depending on and happening at the same XCIII In our Accounts of the Deluge and Conflagration there is a notable conjunction of the Heavenly Bodies indeed not such an Imaginary one as the Astrologers so ridiculously make a stir about the bare Position of two or more of the Celestial Bodies in or near the same streight Line from the Eye of the Spectator while they are at the most remote Distances from one another which is a poor jejune thing indeed But a real one with a Witness when three of the Heavenly Bodies the Earth the Moon and the Comet not only are in an Astrological Heliocentrick Conjunction or only seem to an Eye in the Sun to be conjoyn'd together but are really so near as to have the mightyest effects and Influences on one another possible which we have sufficiently shewn in the present Theory and which does peculiarly correspond to the Phenomenon before us Corollary 'T is not improbable but the ancient Tradition that the Deluge and Conflagration some way depended on certain remarkable Conjunctions of the Heavenly Bodies mis-understood and afterward precariously and widely mis-apply'd might give occasion and rise to Astrology or that mighty quoil and pother so many in all Ages have made about the Conjunctions Oppositions and Aspects of the Heavenly Bodies and the Judiciary Fredictions therefrom which even the Improvements of solid Philosophy in our Age have not been able yet to banish wholly from among us the occasion whereof is otherwise exceeding dark and unaccountable XCIV The space between the Deluge and the Conflagration or between the ancient State of the Earth and its Purgation by Fire Renovation and Restitution again is from ancient Tradition defin'd and terminated by a certain great and remarkable Year or Annual Revolution of some of the Heavenly Bodies and is in probability what the Ancients so often referr'd to pretended particularly to determine and stil'd the Great or Platonick Year XCIV If we allow as we ought that in all probability the same Comet that brought on the Deluge will bring on the Conflagration and that the same Comet has not return'd nor is to return till the Conflagration this matter is easie and the correspondence accurate and remarkable For this single Revolution is truly an Annual one and as proper a Year with regard to the Comet as that of our Earth is with respect to us and so may most fitly and naturally suit the Great or Platonick Year taken notice of in the Proposition before us XCV This general Conflagration is not to extend to the intire Dissolution or Destruction of the Earth but only to the Alteration Melioration and peculiar Disposition thereof into a new State proper to receive those Saints and Martyrs for its Inhabitants who are at the first Resurrection to enter and to live and reign a thousand Years upon it till the second Resurrection the general Judgment and the final Consummation of all things XCV Seeing the Abyss consists of a dense and compact Fluid not capable of any Rarefaction or Dissolution by the most violent Heat imaginable 't is evident that the causes here assign'd can only extend to the upper Orb or habitable Earth without any farther Progress So that the effect of this Conflagration will be the reduction of this upper Earth and its Atmosphere into a confus'd mixt and Chaotick State much such an one as was before observ'd to have preceded the Original Formation of it So that as the Heat decreases 't is but reasonable to expect a kind of Reiteration of the Mosaick six Days Creation or a Renovation of the Primitive State of the Earth to the Description of which therefore I must refer the Reader XCVI The State of Nature during this Millennium will be very different from that at present and more agreeable to the Antediluvian Primitive and Paradisiacal ones XCVI This is apparent from the conclusion of the former Solution XCVII The Earth in the Millennium will be without a Sea or any large Receptacle fill'd with mighty Collections and Quantities of Water XCVII The Primitive Seas depended on two things the former the concurrence of the Central and Solar Heat for an intire half Year together in the Elevation of sufficient quantities of Vapours The latter the Earth's considerable solidity attain'd before the descent of the same Vapours which were to compose the Seas of which we are speaking So that if either of these be wanting in this reiterated Formation of the Earth t is evident the Effect must fail and the Globe be no longer a Terraqueous one after the Conflagration Now the next Proposition but one asserting the probability of the intire absence of the Sun must infer an equal probability of the entire Absence of Seas also according as this Proposition asserts XCVIII The Earth in the Millennium will have no Succession of Light and Darkness Day and Night but a perpetual Day XCVIII In case the Earth's Diurnal Rotation upon which these Vicissitudes depend was retarded so as to be only exactly equal and commensurate to its Annual Motion as the case in the Moon 's Diurnal and Menstrual Revolutions is at present as we have before observ'd the Earth wou'd constantly expose the same Hemisphere to the Sun as the Moon does now to the Earth and all succession of Day and Night for ever cease the one half of the Globe enjoying a perpetual Day while the other
was involv'd in Darkness or excluded all advantages from him and thereby enduring a continual Night so far as natural Causes are here to be consider'd And that this Retardation of the Earth's Diurnal Rotation even without a recurring to the miraculous Power of its first Author is accountable from that passing by of a Comet which we assign for the occasision of the Conflagration is very easie and obvious For in case its Ascent and Passage by be on the East side or before the Earth and in case it approach so near as to rub against it 't is evident such an Impulse is contrary to the course of the Diurnal Rotation and is therefore capable the Proportions of every thing being adjusted by-Divine Providence of putting such a stop to the same as is necessary to the present Phaenomenon and so may put a Period to that constant Succession of Light and Darkness Day and Night which has obtain'd ever since the Fall of Man and withal distinguish the Surface of the Earth into two quite different and contrary Hemispheres near the Vertex of one of which the Sun it self and near that of the other its opposite Point in the Heavens will be always situate Corollary Seeing such a rub of the Comet wou'd affect the Annual Motion of the Earth as well as the Diurnal 't is possible it might retard the former as well as the latter and reduce the Elliptical Course and Orbit of the Earth to its ancient Circular one again XCIX The State of the Millennium will not stand in need of and so probably will be without the Light and Presence of the Sun and Moon XCIX Seeing the Earth wou'd be on the foregoing Supposition distinguish'd into two quite different Hemispheres the one of which wou'd be wholly destitute of the Light and presence of the Sun and as far as appears by St. John supply'd by a Supernatural Light fixt and permanent above its Horizon 't is clear that the first Branch of this Proposition is accountable thereby as far as this Physical Theory is concern'd therein And as to the Moon seeing 't was only a signal and peculiar Providence that caus'd her equal acceleration and consequent accompanying the Earth at the former passing by of the Comet and that no such Providence is again to be expected 't is evident that that Rub or Stoppage of the Earth's Annual Motion which retards the same and does not retard the Moon 's also will separate these Planets and procure their Orbits Courses and Periods to be quite different from one another's ever after according to the greatest rigour of the present Proposition C. At the Conclusion of the Millennium the Final Judgment and the Consummation of all things the Earth will desert its present Seat and Station in the World and be no longer found among the Planetary Chorus C. If any Comet instead of passing by or gently rubbing the Earth hit directly against it in its Course either towards or from the Sun it must desert its ancient Station and move in a quite different Elliptick Orbit and so of a Planet become again a Comet for the future Ages of the World COROLLARIES FROM THE WHOLE I. SEing the new and solid Improvements of Philosophy do all along give so rational Accounts of those Ancient Theorems which have been propagated down from the eldest Ages without being then either understood or intelligible to their Propagators 't is reasonable to trust and rely on such Ancient Traditions not only Sacred but prophane also in these or any other paralled Cases they being in all probability the most valuable Remains and most venerable Truths which the primitive Parents of the World deliver'd down to their Posterity in succeeding Generations II. Seeing most of these Ancient Theorems are very much beyond the distinct Knowledge of those who deliver them contrary to the common Opinion of Mankind judging usually by sensible Appearances and in themselves considering the low State of Natural Knowledge at the same times were highly improbable if not utterly incredible to inquisitive Minds and indeed several of them relating to the Chaos the Creation the primary Constitution and State of the World and the Deluge it self impossible to be discover'd without Supernatural Revelation and yet seeing after all they do now appear as agreeable to Reason and the most solid Mechanical Philosophy as any new Discoveries built on the exactest Observations of present Nature whatsoever 'T is apparent that these Ancient Accounts especially those contain'd in the Holy Scriptures were not originally deriv'd from the Natural Skill and Observation of the first Authors or any other meerly Humane Means but from the immediate and Supernatural Revelation of God Almighty who was therefore much more conversant with Mankind in the first than he has been in these last Ages of the World as the Old Testament-History assures us III. The Measure of our present Knowledge ought not to be esteem'd the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Test of Truth or to be oppos'd to the Accounts receiv'd from Profane Antiquity much less to the inspir'd Writings For notwithstanding that several Particulars relating to the Eldest Condition of the World and its great Catastrophe's examin'd and compar'd with so much Philosophy as was till lately known were plainly unaccountable and naturally speaking impossible yet we see now Nature is more fully more certainly and more substantially understood that the same things approve themselves to be plain easie and rational IV. 'T is therefore Folly in the highest degree to reject the Truth or Divine Authority of the Holy Scriptures because we cannot give our Minds particular Satisfaction as to the manner nay or even possibility of some things therein asserted Since we have seen so many of those things which seem'd the most incredible in the whole Bible and gave the greatest Scruple and Scandal to Philosophick Minds so fully and particularly attested and next to demonstrated from certain Principles of Astronomy and Natural Knowledge 't is but reasonable to expect in due time a like Solution of the other Difficulties 'T is but just sure to depend upon the Veracity of those Holy Writers in other Assertions whose Fidelity is so intirely establish'd in these hitherto equally unaccountable ones V. The Obvious Plain or Literal Sense of the Sacred Scriptures ought not without great Reason to be eluded or laid aside Several of those very Places which seem'd very much to require the same hitherto appearing now to the minutest Circumstances true and rational according to the strictest and most Literal Interpretations of them VI. We may be under an Obligation to believe such things on the Authority of the Holy Scriptures as are properly Mysteries that is though not really Contradictory yet plainly Unaccountable to our present degree of Knowledge and Reason Thus the Sacred Histories of the Original Constitution and great Catastrophe's of the World have been in the past Ages the Objects of the Faith of Jews and Christians though the Divine Providence
now Inhabit with such Bodies as are immediately contiguous and appertaining thereto Which I think the following arguments will sufficiently demonstrate 1. If we Appeal to External Nature and enquire what confused Masses or Chaos's either at present are or ever within the Annals of Time were extant in the Visible World we shall discover no footsteps of any such thing excepting what the Atmosphere of a Comet affords us If therefore without the allowance of precarious and fanciful Hypotheses relying on no known Phaenomena of Nature a Comet 's Atmosphere be the sole pretender if moreover the same Atmosphere gives a Just Adequate Primitive and Scriptural Idea of that ancient Chaos if it answers its particular Phnooemena recounted by Sacred or Prophane History if it prove a peculiarly fit Foundation of such an Earth as ours is and is extraordinarily adapted to suit and account for its present and past Phaenomena all which shall be prov'd hereafter I think we may cease our farther enquiries and with the highest reason and justice conclude That a Comet or more peculiarly the Atmosphere thereof was that very Chaos from whence that World arose whose Original is related in the Mosaick History And with equal reason and justice be satisfi'd which is but a certain consequent thereof that not the innumerable Systems of the fixt Stars not the narrower System of the Sun nay nor the Moon her self but our Earth alone was the proper subject of the Mosaick Creation Which conclusion will be farther establish'd by the coincidence of the several days works recounted by Moses with those Natural and Orderly Mutations which in the Digestion and Formation of a Planet from a Comet 's Atmosphere would Mechanically proceed as hereafter will appear 2. The Chaos mention'd by Moses is by him expresly call'd The Earth in contradistinction to The Heavens or the other Systems of the Universe and all its parts taken notice of in the Sacred History appear by the following Series of the Scriptures to belong to our Earth and no other The words of Moses are In the Beginning God created the heaven and the earth and the earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters Where I think 't is plain as has been already observ'd that when the Author comes to the Chaos or Foundation of the six days work he excludes the Heavens from any share therein and calls the Chaos it self An Earth without form and void with Darkness upon the Face of its Abyss and this all ought to grant these being the very Words from which 't is concluded that the Heathen Chaos was no other than what Moses deriv'd the World from And that the Chaos is here confin'd to the Earth will be sure put past doubt by the latter part of this Argument which observes no other parts to be mention'd belonging thereto than such as the succeeding Series of the Holy Scriptures shews to have afterward belong'd to our Earth and no other viz. An Abyss or Deep and Waters Both of them frequently mention'd in the Holy Books and now actual parts of the present Globe as will appear hereafter So that when Moses calls his Chaos expresly the Earth when by the coherence of his discourse he excludes the Heavens taken in a large and proper sense from the same when lastly he mentions no other parts of this Chaos than such as afterward and at this day are parts of our Earth 'T is somewhat unaccountable and like a kind of fate upon Commentators that they should unanimously resolve to make this Chaos of so extravagant a compass as they too incongruously do and that they should agree in it so universally tho' without any warrant from nay contrary to the obvious sense of the Text it self and the plain drift coherence and description of Moses therein I know it will be said the First and Fourth days works the Origin of Light and of the Sun Moon and Stars necessitated such a supposition and gave just cause for the common Exposition Which as I believe to have been the true occasions of all such mistaken Glosses so I think them far from just and necessary ones and if what has been already said has clear'd those difficulties there can be no reason to reject the Cogency of the present Argument but a great deal to rest satisfi'd in it and to confess it no less unscriptural than 't is absurd to expect from this single Chaos a Sun Moon and Systems of fix'd Stars as hitherto the World has commonly done 3. The Mosaick and ancient Chaos could not include the Sun or fix'd Stars because just before the extraction of Light from it as 't is usually explain'd it was Dark and Caliginous which on such a supposition is not conceivable A strange Darkness this where more than ninety nine parts of an hundred whether we take in the intire System of the World or the Solar System only appear to be fiery Corpuscles and the very same from whence all the fix'd Stars or at least the Sun were constituted and are now the Fountain of all that Light and Heat which the World has ever since enjoy'd Let every unbiass'd person judge how Dark that Chaos could be where the Opake and Obscure parts were so perfectly inconsiderable in comparison of the Light the Active and the Fiery ones So that on this Hypothesis The state of the Chaos must have been exceeding Light Hot and Fiery before the first days work when it was on the contrary according to all Antiquity Sacred and Profane Dark and Caliginous 'T is true upon the separation of the particles of Light the business in this Hypothesis of the First Day the Chaos would become Obscure and Dark enough at the same time that the Sun or fix'd Stars were collecting their Masses so lately extracted and were growing Splendid and Glorious But this is to contradict the History according to which the Light on the First Day is consider'd with relation to the Chaos and its distinguishing Night and Day There not as it was collecting into Bodies of Light without it which rather must belong to the Fourth Days Work when by this account 't is evident that this day is the peculiar time for the most pitchy Darkness possible For when all the Light was just separated from the Chaos the most Caliginous Night must certainly ensue So that unless we can change the Order in Moses and prove that the Chaos before the First Days Work was all over Light and on the First Day cover'd with the Thickest Darkness we in vain pretend to justifie the vulgar opinion and include the Sun or fix'd Stars among the other Matter of the Chaos Besides when Heat is the main Instrument of Nature in all its separations of Parts and Productions of Bodies 't is sure a very improper season just then to extract the Light and Fiery Corpuscles out of the Chaos when
While I expect the same Person in the Glory of the Father coming to Judge the World in Righteousness and Mankind after that final doom to be partaker of everlasting Joy or Misery according to their behaviour here on Earth While I say I believe all this as I most sincerely do I can be under no temptation of looking with contempt upon or of entertaining a mean opinion of Mankind or of those Systems of Nature and Providence relating to it Yet all this notwithstanding I think that Opinion I am now exposing deserves no other Character than I have before given of it Tho' I look upon Mankind as one Species of very Noble and Glorious Creatures yet I suppose it but One and that there may be Millions of others at the least not inferior to him Tho' I believe Humane Nature when Innocent and Perfect at that height of Purity and Felicity which it once had and by the Christian Dispensation may be again advanc'd to as so considerable and exalted a Species of Beings yet withal I look upon it at present as under a very different Character We are all now in a deprav'd a sinful and so in a low a miserable state We have by our own wilful Rebellion and Disobedience made it necessary for God to place us in a short a vicious in an uneasie and vexatious World where at present we are under a sort of confinement in a place of Trial and Probation and through a doleful Wilderness must make our way to the Land of Canaan Quisque suos patimur manes We here feel the sad effects and punishments of former Sins We are left to struggle with great difficulties abide many assaults and undergo severe Agonies e're we must expect to recover our native dignity to retrieve our ancient felicity again Exinde per amplum Mittimur Elysium reduces laeta arva tenemus As flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God so that Kingdom is not of this World I see no reason to esteem the present condition of Mortality as at all considerable in it self tho' in its consequences it extremely be so in comparison of the past and future periods of our Beings and therefore without believing the Earth one of the greatest or noblest Globes in the World I can suppose it a very proper and suitable habitation for us at present Most wisely contriv'd as it certainly is and its Funiture peculiarly and wonderfully adapted to our needs capacities and operations I acknowledge that Providence has so constituted our Earth that we receive some advantages from all and very great ones from some other parts of the external and visible World All which were in the Original Creation of things both foreseen and foredesign'd by God and so may not improperly be so far said to have been made for our use and appointed to serve our necessities I do not think that those Systems of the Universe we here speak of are ever a whit the less useful to us or the benefits we reap from them ever the less in themselves or less worthy of our notice and observation our admiration and gratitude to God because they also are subservient to other noble purposes and are by Divine Providence made use of in several great designs over and above those advantages we are able to take notice of or can our selves enjoy from them I cannot imagine that God is peculiarly fond of any particular parts of the Material Creation or any more a Respecter of some inanimate Bodies than of Persons He no doubt equally makes use of them all according to their several kinds and capacities in the service of the various species of Intelligent Creatures and in the bringing about the great Periods of Nature and the Decrees of Heaven which as they are in great measure unknown to us so may they regard Rational Beings very different and remote from us and our concerns If we duly reflect on the Infinite Nature and unlimited Perfections of the Divine Being the Creator and Original of all things as well as on the number vastness and glory of those his works which are within our view we shall see reason to confess there may be millions of Nobler Intellectual Beings interposed between Man and God And the whole World might be more reasonably suppos'd made at the Creation and for the sole use of any one species of those than of Mankind If therefore we be unwilling to be our selves excluded from a share in the intentions and designs of Heaven let us not exclude any other rational Creatures from the same but be willing to suppose as this Earth was form'd in six days for the sake of Man so were the rest of the Heavenly Bodies form'd at other proper times for the sake of other of God's Creatures for whom Providence ought to be allow'd to have taken a proportionable Care and made a suitable provision as we our selves find has been done with regard to us and our affairs Let us learn humble and modest sentiments of our selves from the contemplation of the immensity of the Works of God in the World Which useful Lesson the Holy Psalmist would by his own example teach us With whose Natural and Pious Reflection in this very case I shall conclude this whole discourse When I consider thy Heavens the work of thy fingers the Moon and the Stars which thou hast ordained Lord what is Man that thou art mindful of him And the Son of Man that thou visitest him O Lord our Lord How excellent is thy name in all the Earth POSTULATA 1. THE Obvious or Literal Sense of Scripture is the True and Real one where no evident Reason can be given to the contrary II. That which is clearly accountable in a natural way is not without reason to be ascrib'd to a Miraculous Power III. What Ancient Tradition asserts of the constitution of Nature or of the Origin and Primitive States of the World is to be allow'd for True where 't is fully agreeable to Scripture Reason and Philosophy A NEW THEORY OF THE EARTH BOOK I. LEMMATA I. ALL Bodies will persevere for ever in that state whether of Rest or Motion in which they once are if no other force or impediment act upon them or suffer by them II. All Motion is of it self rectilinear and with the same constant uniform Celerity if no other external Cause disturb it Corollary 1. 'T is evident from these two Propositions that Matter is intirely a passive Substance Coroll 2. No Spontaneous Motion or Action can be the effect of meer Matter Coroll 3. The Soul of Man whose least Power seems to be that of Spontaneous Motion is incorporeal which is also a necessary consequence of the first Corollary for if Matter be perfectly a passive Thing the Soul which is so active a Being cannot be material Coroll 4. The Bruit Creatures giving all possible Demonstrations of Spontaneous Motion and of a principle of Action cannot reasonably be suppos'd
present Elliptick Orbit be the effect of the Passing by of a Comet the time of such passing by must have been about three days after the New or Full Moon Let og represent a Section of the Eccliptick Periphery in which the Earth a is performing its annual course from West to East or from o towards g Let c be the Moon performing in like manner besides her menstrual revolution the same way from t by c towards s about the Earth her annual course with the same Velocity as the Earth from u towards w along her Periphery u w equidistant from the Eccliptick o g Let n m represent the trajectory of the Comet intersecting the Line passing through the Sun I i in the Angle m b i of 12 14 or 16 degrees more or less Let b be the Comet descending from n towards m in its approach towards it Perihelion From the Earth's Center from d and x the Line a x being drawn parallel to the Comets Trajectory n m let fall perpendiculars to the Trajectory a f d e x y. Now if while the Comet were passing from f to y the Moon stood still and did not proceed in her annual course along her Periphery u w she must have been at that Point x or not above one day past the new at t and so the nearest distances a f x y being equal the Attractions of the Earth by the Comet at f and of the Moon by the Comet at y would have been equal also and by consequence this position would have secur'd the future agreement and company of these two Planets and the time of the passing by of the Comet fix'd to a single day after the New Moon But by reason of the Moons progressive annual motion along her Periphery u w while the Comet descends from t towards y she must have been in that Point of her Menstrual Orbit c where c d is to cq or d a as her Velocity to the Comets or as 7 to 10 that so the Comet descending from its nearest distance to the Earth at f to its nearest distance to the Moon at e and the Moon arriving at the same time by her annual motion at the Point d the nearest distances a f d e may still be equal and the acceleration of the Earth and the Moon may still be the same Now this being the case the place of the Moon c must be about 41 43 or 45 degrees more or less past the Point t in its Menstrual Orbit or the Conjunction with the Sun or three days past the New Moon And the like will be demonstrated of three days past the Full Moon by the same figure and reasoning if we do but shift the Scene and let c represent the Earth and u w the Ecliptick Periphery a the Moon and o g its Periphery For all the rest remaining as above the Angle δ c a which the Moon a must have pass'd after the full at ζ being equal to the alternate c a t would require equal time to be describ'd and so the time proper for the situation of the Earth and Moon which is equally necessary in this as in the former case as the Figure represents it will be three days after the Full as this Corollary asserts Coroll If therefore in a given year a Comet in its descent towards the Sun Accelerated the Earth and Moon 's annual motions and thereby chang'd their Orbit from a Circle to an Ellipsis when the day of the year from the place of the Perihelion were pretty nearly determined by this last Lemma the very day is determined also from the Astronomical Tables of the Conjunctions of the Sun and Moon LVI If our Earth once revolv'd about the Sun in a circular Orbit whose Semidiameter were equal to the Earth's original distance from the Sun six degrees past its Perihelion the annual period was exactly equal to 12 Synodical or 13 Periodical Months 'T is evident that 12 Synodical or 13 Periodical Months equal to each other in the present case are 355 days 4 hours 19 minutes 'T is also evident that the Eccentricity of the Earth's or the distance between the Focus and Center of its Ellipsis was according to the ancient Astronomers Hipparchus and Ptolomy 21 1000 of the intire middle distance By the Moderns 't is found somewhat less and those who know Mr. Newton's Philosophy will easily allow of some diversity in different ages by Tycho 't was determin'd to be near 18 1000 by Cassini since 17 1000 and last of all by our most accurate Observer Mr. Flamsteed as he was pleas'd by Letter with great freedom to assure me 1692 100000 or near 17 1000 as Cassini had before determin'd All which consider'd we may very justly take the middle between the Ancient and the Modern Eccentricity 19 1000 for the true original one and about 185 10000 or more nicely 1816 100000 for the difference between the ancient Semidiameter of the circular Orbit and the middle distance in the present Elliptick one the point of acceleration being about 6 degrees past the Perihelion not just at it as is before prov'd Then by the Golden Rule as the Cube of 100000 the middle distance in the Ellipsis to the Cube of 98154 the Semidiameter of the Ancient Circle so is the square of 525949 the number of minutes in our present Solar year to the square of the number of Minutes in the ancient Solar year whose Root being 511459 minutes or 355 days 4 hours 19 minutes appears to be exactly and surprizingly equal to the Lunar year before mention'd Coroll Upon this Hypothesis the Ancient Solar and Lunar year were exactly commensurate and equal and 10 days 1 hour 30 minutes shorter than the present Solar year Which last number tho' it be not equal to the Lunar Epact at present is yet rightly assign'd each Synodical moth being by the quicker angular revolution of the Earth then so much longer as upon the whole adjusted the periods as is above stated which on calculation will easily appear LVII As Comets agree with Planets in a regular Motion about the Sun the common Center or Focus of our System so do they as to their bulk and magnitude being generally speaking about the bigness of Planets as the observations of Astronomers demonstrate LVIII Besides the Bodies of the Comets themselves which are solid compact and durable there is round about the same a vastly large thin pellucid Fluid containing withal great quantities of Opake or Earthy Particles constituting together a confused irregular unequally dispos'd and uncertainly agitated Mass of Bodies whose Diameter is 10 if not 15 times as long as that of the Body it self and this Mass is call'd the Atmosphere thereof LIX By reason of the mutual access and recess of the Comets to and from the Sun their Atmospheres are uncapable of attaining or at least least of long retaining any regular and orderly situation and disposition of parts according to the Law of Specifick Gravity
Rotation of the Earth from West to East will shift continually from East to West and cause that Elevation and Depression of the Ocean twice each Revolution which we so wonder at and take so much notice of amongst us Corollary 1. When therefore the Vicinity of the Moon and the Vastness of the Sun's Body make their force considerable with regard to the Fluids of our Earth their several Attractions must produce two several double Protuberances Tides or Elevations of the Ocean and Atmosphere thereof whence must arise very remarkable Phaenomena relating thereto of which in the following Corollaries Coroll 2. The sensible Elevation or Tide would be only double as if it arose from one of the Luminaries but such as from the Composition of their attractive Power were to be expected Coroll 3. When therefore the Sun and Moon 's Forces unite or when they are situate in or near the same Line through the Center of the Earth which happens only at the New and Full Moon the Tides must be the greatest and when their Forces contradict each other or when they are situate in the middle between the New and Full at the Quadratures the Tides must be the least In the former case the visible Flux and Reflux arises from the Summe and in the latter from the Difference of their Attractions and so the Spring-Tides after the New and Full are the result of the Elevation and Depression of both the Sun and Moon conjoyntly but the Nepe-Tides after the Quadratures the result only of the prevailing Elevation and Depression of the Moon above those of the Sun and by consequence exactly agreeable to experience much less than the other Coroll 4. As if the Luminaries were situate in the Axis of the Earth the Diurnal Revolution would not more expose any places to their force one time than another and no Reciprocation of Flux and Reflux would arise so the nearer they are to such a Position the less must such a Reciprocation be and the farther from such a Position the greater On which account The Elevation or Tide must be greater after the Equinoxial New and Full Moon than after the Solstitial and the highest Spring-Tides be those about March 10. and September 12. as all Experience atlests them to be and the Situation of the Luminaries near the Equator of the Earth and farthest from the Poles does require Coroll 5. When by the Vicinity of the Moon the visible Tides follow her Influence and when withal our Earth in about 243 4 Hours recovers the same Situation with regard to her 't is evident That in the said space each Part of the Ocean must have twice been elevated and twice depress'd or had a double Flux and double Reflux of its Waters as all Observation assures us it really has LXXX The Elevations or Tides caused by two different Bodies at the same distance are always proportionable to the Quantity of Matter in the same attractive Bodies as from the force of Gravitation in general proportionable to the attracting Body will easily be understood Thus if a Comet or Planet whose Quantity of Matter were ten or twelve times as much as the Moon 's were at an equal distance with her from the Center of the Earth the Tides whether of the internal Abyss if such there be or external Air and Water would be ten or twelve times as high as those she is the cause of with us LXXXI The Elevations or Tides caused by the same or an equal Body at various distances are reciprocally in a triplicate Proportion of such distances Thus if the Moon should approach as near again to the Earth's Center as now she is the Tides would be eight times as high if thrice as near twenty seven times as high if four times as near sixty four times as high as those she at her present distance produces Corollary 1. Hence appears which Mr. Bentley has in part also observ'd a signal Instance of the Divine Providence respecting the Constitution of the World in placing the Heavenly Bodies at so vast a distance from each other and the greatest at the greatest distance that when we consider it we cannot but be amazed at it For had they been situate any whit near to one another they would have caus'd prodigious Disorders and in particular such destructive Tides whenever there was vast quantities of Fluids or a great Ocean that neither Plant nor Animal could have avoided its force or sustain'd its fury which by the wise placing the Heavenly Bodies at so vast a distance is intirely prevented Coroll 2. The same careful Providence is alike and on the like accounts conspicuous in the smallness of the secondary Planets whose nearness otherwise being so great must have been attended by the foremention'd Inconveniences but is now perfectly secure from them Thus for instance our secondary Planet the Moon which is so near to us is withal so small but the 26 th part so big as the Earth not the 700 th part so big as Saturn nor the 1400 th as Jupiter nor near the millioneth as the Sun that the Tides so caused are but of some few Feet in height very moderate not at all incommodicus nay in truth very advantagious to us which in the other secondary Planets is also no less true and no less remarkable LXXXII Of the two Protuberances produc'd by the presence of a Comet or other Coelestial Body that which is directly towards that Body as dbc is larger and higher than the opposite one dac This is à priori demonstrable and found agreeable to experience also LXXXIII If such a double Tide were very great and should on a sudden be produc'd in a subterraneous Abyss on whose Surface an Orb of Earth fix'd and consolidated together were situate it would raise or depress the Regions of that Orb as it self was rais'd or depress'd and by putting on the Figure of an Oblong Sphaeroid such as an Ellipsis revolving about its longer Axis would generate and thereby increasing its Surface so much that the Orb of Earth could not fit and enclose it Uniformly as before would strain and stretch the said Orb of Earth would crack and chap it and cause Fissures and Breaches quite through the same All which is easily understood from what has been already said of a Case very agreeable to this we are now upon and so can stand in need of no farther Explication here BOOK II. HYPOTHESES I. THE Ancient Chaos the Origin of our Earth was the Atmosphere of a Comet This Proposition however new and surprizing will I hope appear not improbable when I shall have shewn That the Atmosphere of a Comet has those several Properties which are recorded of the Ancient Chaos That it has such peculiar Properties besides as lay a rational Foundation for some of those Phaenomena of our Earth which can scarce otherwise be Philosophically explain'd and that no other Body or Mass of Bodies now known or ever heard of
in the World can stand in Competition or so much as pretend to the same Character which it so agreeably corresponds to Which will be the design of and shall be compriz'd under the following Arguments 1. The Names of these two Bodies or Systems of Bodies are exactly the same and equally agreeable to the Nature of each of them The Original Chaos by the Ancient Tradition of the Phaenicians was stil'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in English A dark and stormy Atmosphere Which Appellation the constant Character of that Mass encompassing the Body of a Comet and at the same time of the old Chaos if we suppose it to have been as fitly by Antiquity appli'd to the latter as certainly Observation being judge it is to the former is as proper a one for our present purpose as could possibly be desir'd 2. The main bulk of the ancient Chaos and of the Atmosphere of a Comet is a Fluid or System of Fluids As to the former 't is both necessary to be presuppos'd in order to the succeeding Separation and regular Disposition of the Parts and is confirm'd by all the Accounts of it But Moses himself being express I shall content my self with his single Testimony who not only calls it an Abyss but gives it the stile of Waters Darkness was upon the face of the deep and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters Now that the main part of a Comet 's Atmosphere is also a Fluid appears both by its Pellucidness a thing unusual in Bodies but such as are or once were in a fluid Condition and by those perpetual Changes and Agitation of Parts within the Regions of it which in any other than a Fluid are plainly impossible and which indeed withal have hitherto seem'd so visible and remarkable that thence men were ready to imagine the whole Mass to be nothing else but a Congeries of Vapours or Clouds uncertainly jumbled together and as uncertainly dissipated again 3. The Chaos is describ'd to have been very stormy and tempestuous of which some of the Ancient Writers take particular notice To which those frequent and violent Agitations and Changes those strange uncertain Hurries of Opake Masses hither and thither which the Phaenomena of Comets Atmospheres present us with most exactly agree 4. The Chaos was a mixed Compound of all sorts of Corpuscles in a most uncertain confus'd and disorderly State heavy and light dense and rare fluid and solid Particles were in a great measure as it were at a venture mingled and jumbled together The Atoms or small constituent Parts of Air Water and Earth to which together with Fire the name of Element has been peculiarly appli'd every one were in every place and all in a wild and disturbed Confasion This is the very Essence and enters the Definition of a Chaos in which therefore all both do and must agree And if any one carefully consider the perpetually various Visage of a Comet 's Atmosphere its vast Extent the no manner of Order or Method of its several Appearances and remember that in some Comets it has in its near approach to the Sun been scorch'd and burn'd by a degree of heat many hundred times as Intense as the Sun 's is with us in the midst of Summer he will not wonder that I assert the Parts of this Atmosphere to be in a perfectly confus'd and Chaotick Condition One might indeed as well and as reasonably expect Order and Method in the ruinous Reliques of a City burnt to Ashes or in the Smoke proceeding from the same as in several at least of those Atmospheres we are speaking of 5. The ancient Chaos just before the beginning of the six days Creation was very dark and caliginous Darkness was upon the face of the deep says the Sacred and the very same say the prophane Writers Now when we every Year see how far that small Company of collected Vapours of which a Cloud consists can go towards causing darkness on the Face of the Earth we may easily guess how thick the Darkness of the Comet 's Atmosphere must needs be when all those earthy and watery Corpuscles which flying up and down in the vast Regions thereof do now so often and so much obscure the Comet 's central Body and are here so very sensible when all these I say shall rise up and make a confus'd cloudy Orb on the more confin'd Surface of the Atmosphere of some scores if not hundreds of Miles thick as must happen in the beginning of its Formation If this be not sufficient to account for this thick Darkness on the Face of the Abyss 't will I imagine be difficult to solve it better 6. Our upper Earth the Product of the ancient Chaos being in all probability founded on a dense Fluid or Abyss as will appear in the Sequel the main part of the Fluid of that ancient Chaos by consequence must have been such a dense and heavy one as is here mention'd And indeed 't is in it self but very reasonable if not necessary to allow the inferior Parts of a fluid Chaos to have been compos'd of much denser and heavier Masses than the superior or than Water the main visible Fluid of our Globe For if we consider the matter in any sort according to the Law of specifick Gravity all heavy Fluids must at least as certainly be near the Center as like heavy Solids and 't is but mechanical to allow that in a confused Fluid in some measure as well as exactly in a digested one the Fluids contain'd in the inner Regions must be much heavier than those at or near the outer Surface thereof But besides 't will be hard to account for the confus'd moving state of the earthy Parts or which is much the same the fluidity of the intire Chaos without allowing a much greater quantity of Fluids in it than what we now see with us the Waters of our present Earth and those of a Density and Gravity fit to retain their Posts as well nearer the Central as the superficiary Parts And that on this account of the Comet 's Atmosphere's fixed and dense Fluid 't is peculiarly adapted to the foresaid Description of the Chaos is evident by what has been already observ'd of the same to which I refer the Reader for satisfaction 7. Whereas very many and very considerable Phaenomena of Nature which Dr. Woodward has excellenty observ'd as well as ancient Tradition require and suppose a Central Fire or internal Heat diffusing warm and vigorous Steams every way from the Center to the Circumference of the Earth and whereas 't is very difficult on the common Hypotheses or indeed on any hitherto taken notice of to give a Mechanical and Philosophical Soultion of the same If we will but allow the Proposition we are now upon and that the Earth in its Chaotick State was a Comet a most easy and Mechanical Account thereof is hereby given and
'T is evident at first view That the two former of these three last mention'd Phaenomena are inconsistent with the Theorist's Hypothesis and on a little Consideration 't will be so of the last also For while the Poles of the Earth or World remain in being the same as depending on the same proper Axis of the Earth's own Diurnal Revolution 't is plain the Latitude of Places on the Earth or the Elevation of the Pole equal thereto remains invariable and so that Pole which to the Inhabitants of Paradise was elevated at the least 231 2 degrees could not be at the Horizon whatever right Position the Axis of the Earth might have with respect to the Ecliptick On the same account there could even in the Theorist's own Hypothesis be no new Elevation of the one or Depression of the other Pole at the Deluge nor inclination of the Courses of the Sun and Planets towards the South All that could on the Theorist's Principles be effected besides the Earth's Equator and Poles pointing to different fix'd Stars and its Consequences was only this that whereas before the Sun was always in the Equator or middle distance from any Climate it afterwards by turns came nearer to them as we commonly tho' carelessly express it in Summer and went farther from them in Winter than before which upon the whole was no more a bent or inclination to one part of the Heavens than to the other and so of the Planets also And the case is the same as to the Poles of the Ecliptick the Northern one being as much elevated above that of the World at one hour of the Day as depress'd beneath it at another All which is I think sufficient to shew That the Testimonies of Antiquity alledg'd by the Theorist for the peopetual Equinox or the right Position of the Earth's Axis till the Deluge and the oblique Position and different Seasons then acquir'd are sufficient of themselves alone to confute his and establish the present Hypothesis 5. All things consider'd such a Position as the Theorist contends for was more likely to incommode than be useful to Mankind Taking the Matter wholly as the Theorist puts it it would prevent the Peopling of the Southern Hemisphere by the scorching heat just under the Equator without the least Intermission at any time of the Year It would render the Earth utterly unserviceable both under the Equator and Poles and in the Climates adjoyning and so streighten the Capacity of the Earth in maintaining its numerous Inhabitants which were the whole inhabitable will appear but just sufficient to contain them It would by the Perpetuation of one and the same Season continually hinder the variety of Fruits and Vegetables of every Country and many other ways spoil the setled Course of Nature and be pernicious to Mankind 6. No mechanical and rational Cause of the Mutation of the Earth's Axis either has been or I believe can be afsign'd on the Theorist's Hypothesis or any others which should embrace the same Conclusion 7. Lastly to name no more Arguments The Testimonies of Diogenes and Anaxagoras are as express almost to the Time as to this Change it self The words being exceeding remarkable are these as Plutarch himself relates them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 'T was the Doctrine both of Diogenes and Anaxagoras That after the Creation or primary Constitution of the World and the Production of Animals out of the Earth the World as it were of its own accord was bent or inclin'd towards the South And truly 't is probable this Inclination was the Effect of Providence on purpose that some Parts of the World might become habitable and others uninhabitable by reason of the difference of the frigid torrid and temperate Climates thereof Which observable and most valuable Fragment of Antiquity ought to have been before mention'd but was on purpose reserv'd for this place where it not only fully attests the matter of fact the Inclination of the Heavens towards the South not only assigns the final Cause truly enough considering the uninhabitableness of the Torrid as well as of the Frigid Zones in the Opinion of those Ages the Distribution of the Earth into certain and fix'd Zones Torrid Temperate and Frigid but so accurately and nicely specifies the time also That succeeding the Creation agreeably to the present Hypothesis that were I to wish or chuse for a Testimony fully to my mind I could scarcely have desir'd or pitch'd upon a better To these five foregoing Arguments for the proof of my main Conclusion I shall by way of supernumerary ones or Appendages add one or two more and so leave the whole to the Consideration of the Impartial Reader 6. The State of Mankind without question and perhaps that of other Animals was before the Fall vastly different from the present and consequently requir'd a proportionably different State of external Nature of which without the Hypothesis before us no Account can be given or at least has not yet by any been attempted The World as to other things seems to have been at first in great measure put into the same Condition which we still enjoy and yet Reason as well as Scripture assures us That so different a condition of things in the Animal Rational and Moral must be suited with an agreeably different one in the Natural and Corporeal World Which being consider'd and that at the same time no remarkable difference has been or perhaps can be assign'd but what the Hypothesis before us and its consequences afford us and that withal a satisfactory account of the several Particulars is deducible from the same as I hope to make appear hereafter upon the whole I think this a very considerable Attestation to what has been before insisted on 'T is indeed possible that what I look on as an advantage to others may imagine to be a prejudice against the present Hypothesis as inferring among other things a half year of Night as well as a half year of Day which may be suppos'd too disproportionate to the State and Condition of Mankind and especially too inconvenient for so happy and easy a Life as that of Mankind in Paradise undoubtedly was without any consideration of the other Creatures But it ought to be consider'd as has been already remark'd that our judging of one Scheme or System of Nature by another is very fallacious and very unreasonable Almighty God adapts each particular State to such rational and animal Beings as are on purpose design'd for the same but by no means thereby confines his Power and Providence which can with the same ease adapt other Beings or the same in other Circumstances to a very different and clean contrary Condition The Days in Jupiter are not ten hours long those in the Moon near Seventy two times as long as they or a Month yet any one who should thence conclude that either Jupiter or the Moon if not both were uncapable
Country and is suitable withal both to what the Jewish and Arabian Tradition before-mention'd assert and what the next Hypothesis requires V. The Primitive Ecliptick or its correspondent Circle on the Earth intersected the Present Tropick of Cancer at Paradise or at least at its Meridian When from the last Hypothesis but one it appears that the Primitive Ecliptick was a fixed Circle on the Earth as well as in the Heavens and must both equally divide the present Equator and touch the present Tropicks 't is proper to fix if possible the Point of Intersection with the Northern Tropick whereby the intire Circle may be still describ'd and its Original Situation determin'd Which is the attempt of this Hypothesis we are now upon and which I thus prove 1. Without this Hypothesis the before-mention'd Jewish and Arabian Tradition of the situation of Paradise under the Primitive Equinoctial is unaccountable and impossible to be true For Paradise being at the most southern Position supposable but just under the Tropick of Cancer it could no where be under the ancient Equinoctial or Ecliptick but at their mutual Intersection which must therefore have been as this Proposition asserts 2. The Production of Animals out of the Earth and Waters at or near Paradise seems to have requir'd all the heat possible in any part of the Earth which being to be found only under the Equinoctial confirms the last mention'd Argument and pleads for that situation of Paradise which is here assigned to it 3. And Principally This situation is determin'd by the coincidence of the Autumnal Equinox and the beginning of the Night or Sun-set at the Meridian of Paradise 'T is known that at Paradise or the place of the Creation of Man the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Natural Day commenc'd with the Sun-setting Six a Clock or coming on of the Night 'T is granted also that the beginning of the most Ancient Year which shall presently be prov'd to have been at the Autumnal Equinox was coincident with the beginning of the World or of the Mosaick Creation Which things compar'd together do determine the question we are upon It being impossible on the grounds here suppos'd that Sun-set and the Autumnal Equinox should be coincident to any but those in the Northern Hemisphere at the Point of Intersection of the Ancient Ecliptick and the present Tropick of Cancer or such as were under the same Meridian with them as any ordinary Astronomer will soon confess Which Argument is Decretory and fixes the place of Paradise to the greatest exactness and satisfaction Corollary 1. Hence a plain reason is given of the Days of Creation commencing at Evening which otherwise is a little strange It being but a necessary result of the time of the Year and Region of the Earth when and where the Creation began Coroll 2. As also why the Jewish Days especially their Sabbath-Days began at the same time ever since The Memory of the Days of Creation being thereby exactly preserv'd Coroll 3. As also why their Civil Years but especially their Sabbatical Years and Years of Jubilee even after their Months were reckon'd from the Vernal began at the Autumnal Equinox The memory of the Years of the Creation being thereby alike exactly preserv'd VI. The Patriarchal or most ancient Year mention'd in the Scripture began at the Autumnal Equinox The Reasons of this Assertion are these ensuing 1. The principal Head or Beginning of the Jewish Year in all Ages was the first Day of their Autumnal Month Tiâ—ri and was accordingly honour'd with an extraordinary Festival the Feast of Trumpets When the Head or Beginning of their Sacred Year the first of Nisan had no such solemnity annex'd to it As is known and confess'd by all 2. When God commanded the Jews on their coming out of Egypt to esteem the Month Nisan the First in their Year it seems plainly to imply that till then it had not been so esteemed by them The words are these The Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in the Land of Egypt saying This Month shall be unto you the beginning of Months it shall be the first Month of the Year to you And this is strengthened by considering that tho' we here find an Original of the Sacred Year in the Spring yet we no where do of the Civil in Autumn Which therefore 't is very probable was the immemorial beginning of the Ancient Year long before the times of Moses 3. Whatever beginning of the Jewish Year there might be on other accounts 'T is confess'd by all That the beginning of the Sabbatical Years and Years of Jubilee by which in all probability the Primary Years of the World were commemorated and preserv'd was at the Autumnal Equinox Which is a very good Argument that those Ancient Years so commemorated and preserv'd began at the same time also 4. The Feast of Ingathering or of Tabernacles which was soon after the Autumnal Equinox is said to be in the End or after the Revolution of the Year Which is a peculiar confirmation of the Assertion we are now upon 5. Unless that Year at the Deluge commenc'd at the Autumnal Equinox we must says the Learned Lightfoot in his Scheme thereof suppose one Miracle more than either Scripture or Reason give us ground to think of and that is that the Waters should increase and lie at their height all the Heat of Summer and abate and decrease all the cold of Winter Which without Reason he supposes is not to be allow'd 6. What was alledg'd under the last Proposition is here to be consider'd That on this Hypothesis a clear Reason is given of the Nights preceding the Day in the History of the Creation and ever since among the Jews which otherwise is not so easily to be accounted for 7. The testimony of the Chaldee Paraphrast to which Josephus does fully agree is as express as possible upon 1 Kings 8. 2. where the words are In the Month Ethanim which is the seventh Month viz. as all confess from the Vernal Equinox upon which the Paraphrase is They call'd it of Old the First Month but now it is the Seventh Month Which may well counterpoise all that from some later Authors can be produc'd to the contrary So that upon the whole I may fairly conclude notwithstanding some small Objections which either lose their force on such Principles as are here laid down or will on other occasions be taken off That the most Ancient or Patriarchal Year began at the Autumnal Equinox VII The Original Orbits of the Planets and particularly of the Earth before the Deluge were perfect Circles This is in it self so easie and natural an Hypothesis that I might very justly take it for granted and make it a Postulatum And in case I could prove every thing to agree to and receive Light from the same and withal account for the present Eccentricity no man could fairly charge it with being a precarious or unreasonable
no Winds to collect them where the Climates preserv'd their own proper temperature no Storms must have hurried the Air from colder to hotter or from hotter to colder Regions where was no Rainbow there must have been no driving together the separate Vapours into larger Globules or round drops of Rain the immediate requisite thereto This is also highly probable by reason of the perpetual tranquility of the Air for the first five intire Months of the Deluge as will be prov'd anon which is scarce supposable if Storms and Tempests were usual before XL. The Antediluvian Air had no Rainbow as the present so frequently has God said after the Deluge This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you for perpetual generations I do set my bow in the cloud and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth And it shall come to pass when I bring a cloud over the earth that the bow shall be seen in the cloud And I will remember my covenant which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh And the bow shall be in the cloud and I will look upon it that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth And God said unto Noah this is the token of the covenant which I have establish'd between me and all flesh that is upon the earth XLI The Antediluvians might only Eat Vegetables but the Use of Flesh after the Flood was freely allow'd also God said to our first Parents in Paradise Behold I have given you every herb bearing seed which is upon the face of all the earth and every tree in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed to you it shall be for meat and to every beast of the earth and to every fowl of the air and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth wherein there is life I have given every green herb for meat And it was so God blessed Noah and his sons after the flood and said unto them Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every fowl of the air upon all that moveth upon the earth and upon all the fishes of the sea into your hand are they delivered Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you even as the green herb have I given you all things To which when the Prince of Latin Poets so exactly agrees let us for once hear him in the present case Ante etiam sceptrum Dictaei Regis antè Impia quà m caesis gens est epulata juvencis Aureus in terris hanc vitam Saturnus agebat XLII The Lives of the Antediluvians were more universally equal and vastly longer than ours now are Men before the Flood frequently approaching near to a thousand which almost none now do to a hundred years of Age. This is both fully attested by the most ancient Remainders of prophane Antiquity and will be put past doubt hereafter by a Table of the Ages of the Antediluvians out of the fifth Chapter of Genesis Semotique priùs tarda necessitas Leti corripuit gradum XLIII Tho' the Antediluvian Earth was not destitute of lesser Seas and Lakes every where disper'd on the Surface thereof yet had it no Ocean or large receptacle of Waters separating one Continent from another and covering so large a portion of it as the present Earth has This is evident Because 1. the number of the Antediluvians before assign'd must have been too numerous for the Continents alone to maintain 2. The Ark appears to have been the first Pattern and Instance for Navigation which had there been an Ocean must have been very perfect long before and this seems probable from the constant silence concerning Navigation in the Golden Age from the common Opinion of all Authors and from the necessity of the most minute and particular Directions from God himself to the Fabrick of it in the Mosaick History 3. That famous Tradition among the Ancients of the drowning a certain vast Continent call'd Atlantis bigger than Africa and Asia seems to be a plain Relique of the Generation of the Ocean at the Deluge and consequently of that Antediluvian State where the greatest part of what the Ocean now possesses was Dry-land and inhabited as well as the rest of the Globe 4. The Generation of the Ocean with the Situation of the present great Continents of the Earth will be so naturally and exactly accounted for at the Deluge that when that is understood there will remain to those who are satissied with the other Conclusions small reason to doubt of the truth of this before us 5. The Testimony of Josephus if the Theorist hit upon his true Sense is agreeable who says At the Deluge God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 chang'd the Continent into Sea CHAP. IV. Phaenomena relating to the Universal Deluge and its Effects upon the Earth XLIV IN the Seventeenth Century from the Creation there happen'd a most extraordinary and prodigious Deluge of Waters upon the Earth This general Assertion is not only attested by a large and special Account of it in the Sacred Writings but by the universal Consent of the most ancient Records of all Nations besides as may be seen in the Authors quoted in the Margin and is put moreover past doubt by Dr. Woodward's Natural Observations XLV This prodigious Deluge of Waters was mainly occasion'd by a most extraordinary and violent Rain for the space of forty Days and as many Nights without intermission Yet seven days and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights The windows of heaven were opened and the rain was upon the Earth forty days and forty nights And the flood was forty days upon the earth XLVI This vast quantity of Waters was not deriv'd from the Earth or Seas as Rains constantly now are but from some other Superior and Coelestial Original This is evident Because 1. the Antediluvian Air as was before prov'd never retain'd great quantities of Vapours or sustained any Clouds capable of producing such considerable and so lasting Rains as this most certainly was 2. The quantity of Waters on the Antediluvian Earth where there was no Ocean as we saw just now was very small in comparison of that at present and so could contribute very little towards the Deluge 3. If the quantity of Waters on the Face of the Earth had then been as great as now and had all been elevated into Vapours and descended on the Dry-land alone it were much too small to cause such a Deluge as this was 4. But because if the
several Sea Charts relating thereto may easily be observ'd LXIX The greatest part of the Islands of the Globe are situate at small distances from the Edges of the great Continents very few appearing near the middle of the main Ocean This the bare Inspection into a Map or Globe of the World will soon give satisfaction in LXX The Ages of Men decreas'd about one half presently after the Deluge and in the succeeding eight hundred or nine hundred Years were gradually reduced to that standard at which they have stood ever since This the following Tables will easily evince Ages of the Antediluvians in their Years Ages of the Postdiluvians in the present Years Adam 930 Noah 950 Seth 912 Sem 600 Enos 905 Arphaxad 438 Cainan 910 Salah 433 Mahalaleel 895 Heber 464 Jared 962 Phaleg 239 Enoch translated 365 Reu 239 Methuselah 969 Serug 230 Lamech 777 Nahor 148 Noah 950 Terah 205 Sem 600 Abraham 175   Isaac 180   Jacob 147   Joseph 110 The days of our years are threescore years and ten and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years yet is their strength labour and sorrow for it is soon cut off and we fly away In the Days of Moses LXXI Our upper Earth for a considerable depth even as far as we commonly penetrate into it is Factitious or newly acquir'd at the Deluge The ancient one having been covered by fresh Strata or Layers of Earth at that time and thereby spoil'd or destroy'd as to the use and advantage of Mankind I will destroy them with the Earth Neither shall there any more be a flood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to destroy corrupt or spoil the Earth This is moreover evident by the vast numbers of the Shells of Fish Bones of Animals Intire or Partial Vegetables buried at the Deluge and Inclosed in the Bowels of the present Earth and of its most solid and compacted Bodies to be commonly seen at this day Whose truth is attested not only by very many occasional remarks of others but more especially by the careful and numerous Observations of an Eye-witness the Learned Dr. Woodward 'T is true this excellent Author was forc'd to imagine and accordingly to assert That the Ancient Earth was dissolv'd at the Deluge and all its parts separated from one another and so the whole thus dissolv'd and separate taken up into the Waters which then cover'd the Earth till at last they together setled downward and with the fore-mentioned Shells Bones and Vegetables inclosed among the rest of the Mass compos'd again that Earth on which we now live But this Hypothesis is so strange and so miraculous in all its parts 't is so wholly different from the natural Series of the Mosaick History of the Deluge takes so little notice of the forty days rain the principal cause thereof is so contrary to the Universal Law of mutual Attraction and the specifick gravities of Bodies accounts for so few of the before-mention'd Phaenomena of the Deluge fixes the time of the year for its commencing so different from the truth implies such a sort of new Formation or Creation of the Earth at the Deluge without warrant for the same is in some things so little consistent with the Mosaick Relation and the Phaenomena of nature and upon the whole is so much more than his Observations require that I cannot but dissent from this particular Hypothesis tho' I so justly honour the Author and so highly esteem and frequently refer to the Work it self All that I shall say farther is this That the Phaenomena of the interior Earth by this Author so exactly observ'd are on the common grounds or notions of the Deluge which suppose the Waters to have been pure without any other mixtures so unaccountable and yet so remarkable and evident that if no other rational solution could be offer'd 't were but just and necessary to admit whatever is asserted by this Author rather than deny the reality of those Phaenomena or ascribe the plainest remains of the Animal and Vegetable Kingdom to the sportings of Nature or any such odd and Chimaerical occasions as some persons are inclinable to do But withal I must be allow'd to say and the Author himself will not disagree That his Hypothesis includes things so strange wonderful and surprizing that nothing but the utmost necessity and the perfect unaccountableness of the Phaenomena without it ought to be esteem'd sufficient to justifie the belief and introduction of it Which straits that account of the Deluge we are now upon not forcing me into as will appear hereafter I have I think but just reasons for my disbelief thereof and as just or rather the same reason to embrace that Assertion we are now upon That this upper Earth as far as any Shells Bones or Vegetables are found therein was adventitious and newly acquir'd at the Deluge and not only the old one dissolv'd and resetled in its ancient place again LXXII This Factitious Crust is universal upon the Tops of the generality of Mountains as well as in the Plains and Valleys and that in all the known Climates and Regions of the World This is fully attested by the Observations of the same Author and those which he procur'd from all parts of the World conspiring together LXXIII The Parts of the present upper Strata were at the time of the Waters covering the Earth loose separate divided and floated in the Waters among one another uncertainly This is proved by the same Author's Observations LXXIV All this Heterogeneous Mass thus floating in the Waters by degrees descended downwards and subsided to the bottom pretty nearly according to the Law of Specifick Gravity and there compos'd those several Strata or Layers of which our present upper Earth does consist This is prov'd by the same Observations LXXV Vast multitudes of Fishes belonging both to the Seas and Rivers perish'd at the Deluge and their Shells were buried among the other Bodies or Masses which subsided down and compos'd the Layers of our upper Earth This is prov'd by the same Observations LXXVI The same Law of Specifick Gravity which was observ'd in the rest of the Mass was also observ'd in the subsidence of the Shells of Fishes they then sinking together with and accordingly being now found enclos'd among those Strata or Bodies which are nearly of their own several Specifick Gravities The heavier Shells being consequently still enclos'd among the heavier Strata and the lighter Shells among the lighter Strata in the Bowels of our present Earth This is prov'd by the same Observations LXXVII The Strata of Marble of Stone and of all other solid Bodies attained their solidity as soon as the Sand or other matter whereof they consist was arriv'd at the bottom and well setled there And all those Strata which are solid at this day have been so ever since that time This is prov'd by the same Observations LXXVIII These Strata
of Stone of Chalk of Cole of Earth or whatever matter they consisted of lying thus each upon other appear now as if they had at first been parallel continued and not interrupted But as if after some time they had been dislocated and broken on all sides of the Globe had been elevated in some and depress'd in other places from whence the fissures and breaches the Caverns and Grotto's with many other irregularities within and upon our present Earth seem to be deriv'd This is prov'd by the same Observations LXXIX Great numbers of Trees and of other Vegetables were also at this subsidence of the Mass aforesaid buried in the Bowels of the Earth And such very often as will not grow in the places where they are lodg'd Many of which are pretty intire and perfect and to be distinctly seen and consider'd to this very day This is prov'd by the same Observations LXXX It appears from all the tokens and circumstances which are still observable about them That all these Vegetables were torn away from their ancient Seats in the Spring time in or about the Month of May. This is prov'd by the same Observations LXXXI All the Metals and Minerals among the Strata of our upper Earth owe their present frame and order to the Deluge being reposed therein during the time of the Waters covering the Earth or during the subsidence of the before-mention'd Mass. This is prov'd by the same Observations LXXXII These Metals and Minerals appear differently in the Earth according to the different manner of their first lodgment For sometimes they are in loose and small Particles uncertainly inclos'd among such Masses as they chanc'd to fall down withal At other times some of their Corpuscles happening to occur and meet together affix'd to each other and several convening uniting and combining into one Mass form'd those Metallick and Mineral Balls or Nodules which are now found in the Earth And according as the Corpuscles chanc'd to be all of a kind or otherwise so the Masses were more or less simple pure and homogeneous And according as other Bodies Bones Teeth Shells of Fish or the like happen'd to come in their way these Metallick and Mineral Corpuscles affix'd to and became conjoin'd with them either within where it was possible in their hollows and interstices or without on their surface and outsides filling the one or covering the other And all this in different degrees and proportions according to the different circumstances of each individual case All this is prov'd by the same Observations LXXXIII The inward parts of the present Earth are very irregular and confused One Region is chiefly Stony another Sandy a third Gravelly One Country contains some certain kinds of Metals or Minerals another quite different ones Nay the same lump or mass of Earth not seldom contains the Corpuscles of several Metals or Minerals confusedly intermix'd with one another and with its own Earthy parts All which irregularities with several others that might be observ'd even contrary to the Law of Specifick Gravity in the placing of the different Strata of the Earth demonstrate the Original Fund or Promptuary of all this upper Factitious Earth to have been in a very Wild Confus'd and Chaotick condition All this the fore-mention'd and all other Observations of the like nature fully prove LXXXIV The Uppermost and Lightest Stratum of Soil or Garden Mold as 't is call'd which is the proper Seminary of the Vegetable Kingdom is since the Deluge very thick spread usually in the Valleys and Plains but very thin on the Ridges or Tops of Mountains Which last for want thereof are frequently Stony Rocky Bare and Barren This easie Observations of the surface of the Earth in different places will quickly satisfie us of LXXXV Of the four Ancient Rivers of Paradise two still remain in some measure but the other two do not or at least are so chang'd that the Mosaick Description does not agree to them at present This the multitude of unsatisfactory attempts to discover all these Rivers and their courses with an impartial comparison of the Sacred History with the best Geographical descriptions of the Regions about Babylon will easily convince an unbyass'd Person of LXXXVI Those Metals and Minerals which the Mosaick description of Paradise and its bordering Regions takes such particular notice of and the Prophets so emphatically refer to are not now met with so plentifully therein This must be allow'd on the same grounds with the former LXXXVII This Deluge of Waters was a signal Instance of the Divine Vengeance on a Wicked World and was the effect of the Peculiar and Extraordinary Providence of God God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the Earth and it grieved him at his heart And the Lord said I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth both man and beast and the creeping thing and the fowls of the air for it repenteth me that I have made them The earth was corrupt before God and the earth was filled with violence and God looked upon the earth and behold it was corrupt for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the Earth And God said unto Noah the end of all flesh is come before me for the earth is filled with violence through them and behold I will destroy them with the earth Behold I even I do bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh wherein is the breath of life from under heaven and every thing that is in the earth shall dye God spared not the old world but saved Noah the eighth person a preacher of righteousness bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly LXXXVIII Tho' the Moon might perhaps undergo some such changes at the Deluge as the Earth did yet that Face or Hemisphere which is towards the Earth and which is alone expos'd to our view has not acquir'd any such gross Atmosphere or Clouds as our Earth has now about it and which are here suppos'd to have been acquir'd at the Deluge This the present figure and large divisions of Sea and Land visible in the Moon with her continued and uninterrupted brightness and the appearance of the same Spots without the interposition of Clouds or Exhalations perpetually do sufficiently evince LXXXIX Since the Deluge there neither has been nor will be any great and general Changes in the state of the World till that time when a Period is to be put to the present Course of Nature The Lord smelled a sweet savour and the Lord said in his heart I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake for or altho' the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth Neither will I again smite any more every thing
Learning notwithstanding it might have been cultivated and improv'd to great degree before the Deluge as therefore in all probability it was CHAP. II. A Solution of the Phaenomena relating to the Primitive State of the Earth XXIII The Primitive state of the Earth admitted of the primary production of Animals out of the Waters and Dry Ground which the subsequent states otherwise than in the ordinary method of Generation have been uncapable of XXIII 'T IS not to be expected that I should here be able to give a full and methodical account of the growth of the Primitive Pairs of Animals and of the several dispositions of the Primigenial state of Nature subservient or contributary thereto The method of the Generation of Animals is it self in gèneral so little known and the History of this first stage of the World as well so short in the Sacred Writings as so difficult to be in all its circumstances now otherwise understood that such an Attempt might justly be look'd upon as too rash a presumption All that ought to be expected and all that I shall endeavour is this To shew that as far as is known of that Original Earth its properties were as peculiarly fit for as those opposite ones of the succeeding are incapable of such a production of Animals at first as this Proposition takes notice of Which the five following particulars shall include 1. The long and continued spaces of Day and Night in the Primitive state did capacitate it for such productions which the quick returns of the same afterward prohibited 'T will be easily granted that in the Generation of Animals there must be a pretty constant and continual warmth without the frequent interposition of Cold during the most part of the process Now this the long days of half a year afforded these Primary Embrio's which the short ones of only twelve small hours and the sudden and frequent returns of equal Nights has utterly deni'd to any such ever since 2. The Primitive Earth was moist and juicy enough to supply nourishment all the time of the Generation of the Foetus which after it was once become perfectly Dry and Solid was not again to be expected It was before observ'd that upon the descent of the vast quantities of Vapours on the Third Day the ground was so tender soft and full of juices as very naturally answered to what all Antiquity made the fund and promptuary of the rising Plants and Animals the famous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And as that was but a necessary qualification of a Soil which was to produce Animals so the want of it ever since takes away all hopes of a like Propagation 3. The Primitive state of the Earth and Air where the Animals were produc'd had heat sufficient for that purpose which the subsequent has not 'T is evident that a greater heat than the present Earth or Ambient Air can afford is requisite to and made use of in the present Generation of Animals which the Incubation in the Oviparous and the still warmer Position of the Faetus in the Viviparous Animals assure us of On which account the present Earth must needs be incapable of their production But that the Heat in the Primitive Earth and particularly where the Animals were produc'd was much greater will thus appear As to the Heat from the Central Body while the Earth was somewhat loose and pretty freely admitted the ascending steams that would be considerably greater than after its more intire consolidation when these steams were thereby so much confin'd within or diverted to some particular conceptacles Besides The Production of Animals was near Paradise and I suppose no where else Now those middle Regions of which Eden the Country of Paradise was one being situate under the ancient Ecliptick and present Tropick of which before enjoy'd also a greater Heat from the same Central Body by reason of their greater nearness thereto than since they or the corresponding parts of the Torrid Zone do or can partake of For when the Earth was then perfectly Sphaerical the middle and their neighbouring parts were about 10 miles nearer the Central Solid than the same Regions now are They being in that proportion Elevated and the circumpolar depress'd at the commencing of the Diurnal Rotation Which greater Vieinity of the Central Heat must certainly have a suitable effect and cause somewhat warmer Regions thereabouts than they have been ever since Moreover If the real proper heat of the Central Solid be in any considerable proportion diminish'd in near 6000 years time as in some proportion it must be That degree of Heat which it had at first was still the most powerful of all other ever since But then as to the Solar Heat to take no notice of the greater nearness of the Sun's Body before the Deluge than since as not directly reaching the present case 'T is evident that Paradise situate under or near the very Ecliptick it self must receive the utmost power of the same heat which any part of the Globe were capable of which by lying under the Tropick afterward it would not do On all which accounts joyn'd together 't is evident that the heat in the Primitive State was much more considerable and so much more adapted to the Generation of Animals than that in the subsequent ever was or can possibly be 4. The Primitive state was perfectly still and calm free from all such winds storms violent tides or any the like hurries and disorders as at present wholly render the production of Animals impossible Which quiet condition if in some respects it endur'd till the Deluge yet as even in those the Paradisiacal state might have the preheminence so in others particularly the gentleness of the Tides it had still the most peculiar advantage as was before observed 5. The Equability of Seasons and the greater uniformity of the Air 's temperature which in part remain'd till the Deluge but might be more signal in the Paradisiacal state rendred that Earth as proper as the contrary sudden uncertain and violent extreams of heat and cold drought and moisture sultry and frosty Weather now wholly indispose it for such a production of Animals Which Prerogatives of the Primitive Earth and Air will certainly demonstrate if not its intire fitness yet sure it s less unfitness for such an original Generation as was here to be accounted for and is all as was before observ'd that can justly be requir'd and expected in the present case Corollary When it has been before allow'd that all Generation is but Nutrition and that all Seeds as well of Animals as of Plants are the immediate workmanship of God 'T is evident that this Supposition of the Original Production of Animals out of the Waters and Earth according to the plainest letter of the Mosaick History does by no means derogate from the Divine Efficiency and the wonderful Art and Skill in the Structure of their Bodies nor
and compare the States of External Nature before and after the Fall one with another and with those things which the Propositions we are now upon do assert concerning them 'T is evident then from what has been before laid down hereto relating that the Primitive state of things before the Fall was thus The Earth being newly form'd was scarcely as yet intirely consolidated and so pretty uniformly pervious to the warm Steams ascending from beneath It s Figure was perfectly Sphaerical and its Strata or Layers by consequence were even continued and join'd and so the Central Heat being equally distant from all the parts of the Earth's Surface did very equally diffuse it self and equally affect all the Climates of the Globe The Soil or Uppermost Stratum of the Earth was newly moisten'd by the descent of the Waters before they compos'd the Seas on the Third Day of the Creation and by the plenty of Moisture which it still receiv'd every Night The Air was perfectly Clear Homogeneous Transparent and Susceptive of the utmost Power of the Solar Heat The Seasons were equable or gently and gradually distinguish'd from one another by the Rising Setting Descending and Ascending Sun without any quick Interpositions of Day and Night to disturb them The Torrid Zone of the Earth as I may call those Regions near the Solar Course was very much Expos'd to the Sun and very much warm'd withal by its Vicinage to the Central Solid The Moon in twelve Revolutions equally measur'd out the Year and caus'd the most gentle easie and gradual Tides imaginable This with all its natural Consequents was the State of the Primitive World But as soon as Man had sinn'd and render'd that happy State too good for him or indeed rendred himself wholly uncapable thereof And as soon as God Almighty had pronounced a Curse on the Ground and its Productions presently the Earth began a new and strange Motion and revolv'd from West to East on its own Axis A single 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Revolution of Night and Day either immediately or by degrees according as the present Velocity of the Diurnal Rotation was suddenly or gradually acquir'd returned frequently and became no longer than 24 short Hours while the Annual Motion perform'd on a different Axis distinguish'd the Seasons and in Conjunction with the Diurnal describ'd the Equator and the Tropicks and by the access and recess of the Sun from the last named Circles caus'd it to visit the several Regions enclos'd thereby The Face of the Earth was really distinguish'd into Zones by the Tropicks and Polar Circles truly divided from one another with respect whereto the particular Regions of the Earth chang'd their Situation the Equator being that Circle with regard whereto they were now to be determin'd as they had been before with regard to the Ecliptick and so that Paradise which was before at the middle became the Northern boundary of the Torrid Zone The Figure of the Earth which was before truly Sphaerical degenerated into an Oblate Sphaeroid the Torrid Zone rising about 10 Miles upward and the Frigid one subsiding as much downwards The Compages of the Upper Earth and of its Strata became thereby chap'd broken and divided and so carried up the warm Steams from beneath to particular Conceptacles and Volcano's which before serv'd in a more equal and uniform manner to heat and invigorate the intire Earth and its productons The Tides lastly became frequenter and so more sudden and violent than before Which short Summary or Scheme of the States of Nature in our Hypothesis before and after the Fall ought to be all along born in mind and reflected on in order to the passing a right judgment on the accounts of those Phaenomena in the Solution whereof we are now engag'd And which otherwise might seem very odd and unaccountable to the Reader Which being thus dispatch'd I proceed XXIX The Primitive Earth was not equally Paradisiacal all over The Garden of Eden or Paradise being a peculiarly fruitful and happy soil and particularly furnish'd with all the necessaries and delights of an innocent and blessed life above the other Regions of the Earth XXIX That all the Primitive Earth could not be equally Paradisiacal and enjoy the same Priviledges and Conveniences beyond the Present is easily prov'd For seeing one of its principal causes of Fertility and other Prerogatives was the greater degree of Heat at the Paradisiacal Regions The Climates near the Solar Course being alone capable of such greater Heat must be alone capable of its Effects also and consequently we are to confine our enquiries for the Garden of Eden to the Countries not very remote from the Ancient Ecliptick Now that some peculiar Spot or Region thereabouts might beyond all the rest be Fertile Pleasant and Paradisiacal 't is not difficult to suppose At the present there is a mighty variety in Countries in the very same Hemisphere Climate and Parallel The particular Prerogatives of one Region beyond another do not intirely depend on the Sun or the Vicinage of the Central Heat But partly on the Nature and Temper of the Soil the kinds of Vegetables and Fossils thereto belonging the number qualities and conflux of Rivers he firmness or looseness of the inferior Strata hindring or freelier permitting the ascent of the Subterraneous Steams Juices and Effluvia From the coincidence of which and of other such things in a peculiar and advantagious manner order'd and dispos'd on purpose by the Divine Providence at the Mosaick Creation the extraordinary pleasantness and felicity of this Earthly Paradise or Garden of Pleasure is I suppose to be deduc'd and which being consider'd will I believe be sufficient to give satisfaction in the Proposition before us XXX The place of Paradise was where the united Rivers Tigris and Euphrates divided themselves into four Streams Pison Gihon Tigris and Euphrates XXX This Situation of Paradise has been already consider'd and need not here be reassum'd Only we may observe That no Scruples would ever have been rais'd about this Matter in case the foremention'd Rivers had still been visible their Course still agreeable to the Mosaick Description and the Metals and Minerals mention'd of the adjoyning Countries had been as evidently there to be found in ours as they appear to have been in those Primitive Times Seeing therefore the following Theory will so clearly assign the Cause of such Diversity that every Reader will be oblig'd to grant it much harder to have accounted for the Phaenomena of Paradise consistently with the other Phaenomena of Nature if all things were now as they were at first than almost any other of the Antediluvian World I may justly hope that this so disputed a Question of the Situation of the Garden of Eden or Primitive Paradise to those who embrace the other parts of the Theory will remain no longer so but be as fix'd and undoubted within at least the limits of that Hypothesis here referr'd to as any other
that thick and gross Atmosphere which now encompasses the Earth All which I mean as well the gross Atmosphere it self as those its Heterogeneous Mixtures are a very natural Off-spring of the Deluge according to the present Account thereof For seeing we at that time pass'd clear through the Chaotick Atmosphere of a Comet and through the Tail deriv'd from it we must needs bear off and acquire vast quantities of such heterogeneous and indigested Masses as our Air now contains in it whence those Effects here mention'd would naturally proceed 'T is probable the original Air was too pure rare and thin to sustain any gross and earthy Particles tho' they had been left in it at the first and so its Heat both for kind and degree was no other than the proper Place and Influence of the Sun could require And 't was then sure more uniform through the several Climates of the Earth than now it is when our Air in the Torrid Zone being full of Sulphureous and Sultry and in the Frigid ones of Nitrous and Freezing Effluvia or Exhalations the violence of an unkindly in Heat the one and of the like unkindly Cold in the other are so sensible and so pernicious as all experience attests them now to be 2. The uncertainty of our Seasons with the sudden and unexpected changes in the Temper of our Air are on the same accounts equally visible with the former For the Temper of the Air since the Deluge especially with regard to our Sensations not resulting from the external Heat only but from the Kinds and Quantities of its heterogeneous and adventitious Mixtures will not now depend on the Season of the Year alone but on the veering of the Wind and its uncertain removal of the Air and its Steams from one Region to another Thus if in Summer the North Wind chance to blow any long time together 't will bring along with the Air so great quantities of the Cold Freezing Nitrous Steams as may quite overcome the Sun's Heat and cause a very cold Season of a sudden if the South Wind do the like in the Winter the contrary Effect will follow and we shall have a warm Season when Frost and Snow were more naturally to be expected Thus accordingly frequent experience shews the Sun to be so little master of the Seasons of the Year that sometimes January and July for several Days are hardly distinguishable It sometimes happens that we have this Day a Frost the next proves so warm that the former Cold is forgotten till perhaps the succeeding Night puts us more affectingly in mind of it again Nay in a very few Hours space a sultry and a freezing Air not seldom do succeed each other to the great harm and misery of Mankind and of all their fellow Animals in our present State from which therefore we have good reason to believe our happier Progenitors before the Deluge were intirely free 3. That our Seasons are so extream in their several Kinds is easy to be hence accounted for also For were there no sulphureous or calorifick Steams in the Air all pothery and sultry Weather and such sort of Heat as chiefly affects our Bodies would be quite avoided and the great increase thereof after the Summer Solstice which arises 't is probable in part from the Airs retention of one days Heat till the next augments it again would in good measure cease among us And the like is to be said of the Cold in Winter in all the respects before-mention'd The original of all which Effects being so easily deducible from the present Account of the Deluge 't is no question but the Antediluvians might to their comfort be wholly Strangers to them Their Climates were not of so very different Temper their Seasons leisurely and gradual intirely following the Solar Course And their Summers and Winters not so mighty different at the most in the single Proportion of the Sun's Presence or Absence Direct or Oblique Situation In this equable State the Polar Inhabitants might with little danger cut the Line and the Ethiopians visit the Frigid Zones In this condition of the World the peculiar Air of every Country went not far from home to disturb that of others A few Days never made any sensible Alteration in the temperature of the Air and all that an intire Spring or Autumn could do would still leave the same pretty equable to be sure very tolerable On all which and several other consequential Accounts we have but too much reason to envy the Ancient Happiness of our Forefathers and to be sensible of that fatal and destructive Catastrophe which the wickedness of Mankind brought upon themselves and all their Posterity to this very Day at the Deluge we are now speaking of XXXVII The Constitution of the Antediluvian Air was Thin Pure Subtile and Homogeneous without such gross Steams Exhalations Nitrosulphureous or other Heterogeneous Mixtures as occasion Coruscations Meteors Thunder Lightning with Contagious and Pestilential Infections in our present Air and have so very pernicious and fatal tho' almost insensible Effects in the World since the Deluge XXXVII The consideration of the foregoing Solution is sufficient to clear the present Phaenomenon also to which therefore the Reader is referr'd XXXVIII The Antediluvian Air had no large gross Masses of Vapours or Clouds hanging for long seasons in the same It had no great round drops of Rain descending in multitudes together which we call Showers But the Ground was watered by gentle Mists or Vapours ascending in the Day and descending in great measure again in the succeeding Night XXXVIII This is also easily understood from what has been already said So rare thin pure and subtile an Air as the Antediluvian was would scarce sustain such gross and heavy Masses as the Clouds are It would not precipitate the superior Vapours upon the inferior in such quantities and with such violence as is necessary to the Production of great round sensible Drops of Rain It had no gross Steams to retain Heat after the cause of it was gone and the Sun set and so the Vapours which were rais'd in the Day would descend again in the Night with the greatest regularity and gentleness In all which respects the different Nature Crassitude and irregular Composition of our present gross Atmosphere acquir'd at the Deluge from the Comet 's in which such Opake Masses as the Clouds are frequently to be observ'd must naturally admit and require those contrary Effects which the present Proposition takes notice of and were to be here accounted for XXXIX The Antediluvian Air was free from violent Winds Storms and Agitations with all their Effects on the Earth and Seas which we cannot but now be sufficiently sensible of XXXIX These Phaenomena are such proper consequents of a Primitive Formation and the original of those opposite ones ever since the Deluge so naturally thence to be deriv'd that there is no reason to imagine them to have been before A Comet 's Atmosphere is
Altitude were 1103 Feet Which quantity being twice acquir'd must be doubled and then will amount to a Cylinder whose Basis were the same as above and whose Altitude were double the others or 2206 Feet Now Archimedes has demonstrated that the intire Superficies of a Sphere or Globe is four times as large as the Area of one of its great Circles And by consequence the Column of Vapour before-mention'd when converted into Rain Water and spread upon the Face of the Earth would cover the Globe intirely round had there been no Dryland or Mountains extant above the Surface of the Plains and Seas a quarter of the height last assign'd or 5411 2 Feet every way Which being suppos'd and what was at the first Postulated of the Atmosphere's quota the whole Water afforded by the Comet-will cover the Earth intirely to the perpendicular height of the 541c1 2 Feet To which add by the Original Postulatum the equal quantity ascending from the Bowels of the Earth the Total amounts to 10821 Feet or above two Miles perpendicular Altitude Which when allowance is made for those large spaces taken up by the extant Dry Land and Mountains will approach very near that three Miles perpendicular height requir'd by the present Phaenomenon Corollary If the several particulars requisite to the nice adjustment of these Computations were more exactly enquir'd into some light on the present Hypothesis might be afforded to the Density of the Atmospheres and Tails of Comets which is hitherto undetermin'd the consideration of which matter must be refer'd to Astronomers LIX Whatever be the height of the Mountain Caucasus whereon the Ark rested now it was at that time the highest in the whole World LIX If we consult the Figure here refer'd to we shall easily apprehend the Reason of this otherwise strange Phicnomenon For seeing this Mountain was the highest in Asia or the middle Regions of our Continent and seeing withal that intire Continent and chiefly the middle Regions thereof were elevated by the greatest protuberance of the Abyss dbc above any other correspondent parts of the whole Globe the absolute or intire height of this Mountain arises not only from its proper Altitude above the neighbouring Plains but also from the Elevation of the whole Continent or peculiarly of its middle Regions above the Ancient Surface of the Seas so that by this advantage of situation it was at the time here concern'd higher not only than its Neighbours which its own Elevation was sufficient for but than any other on the Face of the whole Earth Some of which otherwise it could I believe by no means have pretended to match much less to out-do in Altitude Now altho' the presence of the Comet which produc'd these Tides in the Abyss and elevated the intire Continents above their ancient level did not remain after the Disruption of the Fountains of the Deep on the first day of the Deluge yet the Effect thereof the Elevation of the Continents above their ancient Level would not so soon nay would scarce ever intirely cease We know by common observation that if a Solid or Setled Mass of Bodies be torn or pull'd in pieces 't is not easie to put every thing into its place and reduce the whole to the same fixed Position and within the same fixed limits it had before If a solid compacted mound of Earth were once shatter'd and divided were levell'd and remov'd tho' afterward every individual Dust of the former Earth were laid together again upon the very same Plot and Compass yet would individual Dust of the former Earth were laid together again upon the very same Plot and Compass yet would it not be immediately confin'd within its ancient dimensions its height would be at first considerably greater than before and tho' that in length of time would be by degrees diminish'd by the gradual setling and crouding together of the parts and so some approaches would be made thereby towards its ancient density and lesser elevation yet neither would be intirely attain'd in any moderate space of time at least And this is the very case before us That Oval Figure which the Orb of Earth was stretch'd to at the Deluge would remain for a considerable time and be many years in setling so close together that it might afterward remain fixt and firm for the following generations before which time 't is evident that the Regions near the Center of our Northern or Larger Continent were the highest and those at 90 degrees distance every where the lowest and by consequence at the time of the Arks resting the Mountain Caucasus near the Center of the Northern Continent was elevated above the rest and particularly above the Pike of Teneriff which seems to be at present the highest of all others And thus that terrible Phaenomenon is solv'd which the Reverend Mr. Warren was so puzzled with that even on the allowance of so much Miracle as the creation of the Waters of the Deluge and Annihilation of the same afterward yet could he not account for the Letter of Moses without a forc'd and ungrounded Supposition to the same purpose with the Proposition before us As you will find him and not without reason very emphatically expressing himself on this occasion Corollary 1. Here is a visible instance of the Divine Providence for the preservation of the Remains of the Old World by ordering the building of the Ark near that which would be the highest Mountain in the World that so upon the very first ceasing of the Rains and the beginning of the Winds and Storms it might immediately be safe on the top thereof Coroll 2. The same careful and wise providence is conspicuous in the so accurately adjusting all the circumstances of the Deluge that tho' it should be high enough to destroy the whole stock of the Dry-land Animals and yet but just so much above the Mountain Caucasus as permitted the Ark to rest at the very first decrease of the Waters and the commencing perturbations of the Air and the Waves necessarily ensuing which otherwise must still have destroy'd it notwithstanding the advantage of its situation before observ'd Coroll 3. Supposing the Truth of our first Postulatum of the Verity of the Letter of the Mosaick History as certain as is the greater height of the Pike of Teneriff or of any other Mountain in the World above that of Caucasus Now of which I suppose no body makes any question so certain is it bating unknown causes and a miraculous Power as is always in such cases to be suppos'd that a Comet was the cause of the Mosaick Deluge For 't is certain by the plainest deduction from the express words of Scripture that the Mountain on which the Ark rested was at that time the highest in the World 'T is therefore certain that the Continent or Basis on which Mount Caucasus stand was elevated higher at the Deluge than 't is at present and 't is also certain that no Body or Mass
to Which otherwise how to give any tolerable account of upon any solid Principles I confess I am and have always been wholly to seek LXVI The distance between the Continents measuring from the larger or Northern South-Eastward is greater than that the contrary way or South-Westward LXVI Seeing the Motion of the Comet about its nearest Position was much more considerable than the Diurnal one of the Earth and seeing withal the greater and higher protuberance would arrive at a sufficient force to burst its incumbent Orb or Continent somewhat sooner than the lesser and lower it will follow that the Point b would not be just opposite to the Point a but nearer the place q in the Figure By which means the distance from q by c to a would be greater than from the same q by d to a or from the Center of the greater Continent to that of the lesser South-eastward than South-westward Exactly as this Proposition requires LXVII Neither of the Continents is terminated by a round or even circular Circumference but mighty Creeks Bays and Seas running into them and as mighty Peninsula's Promontories and Rocks jetting out from them render the whole very unequal and irregular LXVII If the Surface of the Earth before the Deluge had been even and smooth without Mountains and Valleys and their Consequents Seas and Dry Land the passing by of the Comet must indeed as before have certainly caus'd a distinction of the two Continents and must have interpos'd an Ocean between them but then these two circumstances would have obtain'd also first that all the Waters of the intire Globe would have left the Continents and solely compos'd an Ocean and secondly That the Termination or Boundaries of the Ocean and the Continents would have been circular round and even on every side But since the Surface of the Earth was uneven irregular and distinguish'd every where into Mountains Plains and Valleys into Seas and Dry Land the present Terraqueous Globe with those inequalities of the Termination of each Continent mention'd in this Proposition is a most easie and natural nay plainly necessary result of this great Mutation at the Deluge Coroll 1. Hence 't is farther evident that the Surface of the Antediluvian Earth was not plain and even but had those distinctions of Mountains and Valleys Seas and Dry Land which from other Arguments has been before establish'd Coroll 2. Hence therefore it appears what should have been before observ'd that all the Earth might be Planted and Peopled before the Deluge tho' Navigation were then either not at all or not considerably known There being no Ocean or separate Continents and scarce any such thing as an Island or Country but what with ease might be gone to by Land LXVIII The depth of that Ocean which separates these two Continents is usually greatest farthest from and least nearest to either of the same Continents there being a gradual descent from the Continents to the middle of the Ocean which is the deepest of all LXVIII The reason of this gradual declivity towards the middle of the Ocean is very plain from the Figure hereto belonging For since the Earth's Surface became in some degree an Oval or oblong Sphaeroid 't is necessary that there should be as far as the other irregularities of the Globe would permit a descent from the ends of the longer Axis b and a to those of the shorter c and d in their intire circumvolution which gives a most obvious account of the present Phaenomenon LXIX The greatest part of the Islands of the Globe are situate at small distances from the Edges of the great Continents very few appearing near the middle of the Main Ocean LXIX Since Islands are only such high Regions as would be extant above the Surface of the Waters tho' they cover'd the Neighbouring parts and since the Ocean as we have now shewn was deepest in the middle between the two Continents 't is plain that Caeteris paribus the higher Regions would more frequently be extant near the Continents than about the middle of the said Ocean as this Proposition asserts LXX The Ages of Men decreas'd about one half presently after the Deluge and in the succeeding eight hundred or nine hundred Years were gradually reduced to that standard at which they have stood ever since LXX The first part of this is already sufficiently accounted for in that Proposition where the causes of the change in the duration of Mens lives at the Flood were in general enquir'd into But the reasons of the gradual Decay in the succeeding Ages are here to be assign d. Now here 't is not impossible that the considerably long lives of the first Postdiluvian Patriarchs might in part depend on the vigorous Constitution of their Fathers not to be immediately impair'd to the utmost or destroy'd in their Posterity till by degrees and in length of time it was effected But besides 't is to be consider'd which I take to be the principal thing that seeing the corrupted Atmosphere with the pernicious Steams arising from the newly acquir'd Chaotick Crust or Sediment of the Waters and their unhappy Effects on the Fruits as well as living Creatures upon the Earth must be allow'd the occasion and cause of the shortning of Humane Life such Regions as were freest from or most elevated above the said Sediment or Chaotick Atmosphere must have chiefly continued as they were before and so the ancient Longevity would chiefly be preserv'd therein Which being suppos'd and what has been already advanc'd withal consider'd this Proposition will be easy plain and natural and a peculiar Attestation of the present Hypothesis For seeing Noah and the Ark were landed on Caucasus the most elevated Region of the Earth and freest from the Sediment of the Waters as well as the grossness of the Chaotick Atmosphere below that place would scarce differ for a good while from the Antediluvian State of things and the lives of Animals would retain very near their ancient Duration which accordingly we find was really done Noah survived the Deluge no less than 350 Years and compleated 950 in the whole somewhat beyond the moderate proportion of the Antediluvians themselves as the Table will easily shew But then by reason both of the descent of his Posterity into the Plains and lower Grounds and principally by the gradual subsidence of those Regions themselves into the gross Atmosphere below they became gradually liable to those Diseases and that shortness of Life which we before shew'd to have been the sad Effects thereof and to which all Mankind has since been subject Corollary 1. Mankind increased vastly more soon after the Deluge than in these latter Ages of the World For whereas a Country is 280 Years now in doubling its Inhabitants had the same rate held ever since the Deluge Mankind at this day would not have reach'd the number of two hundred thousand Souls which yet is esteem'd to be between three and four hundred Millions or near two
thousand times as many as the said number deducible from the present rate of the Increase of Mankind So that 't is evident That the Antediluvian Fruitfulness and numerous Stock of Inhabitants which are also themselves hereby fully establish'd must have prevail'd servata proportione among the Primitive Postdiluvians for some Centuries or else no Account were to be given of the present numbers of Men upon the Face of the Earth whereby the Verity of this Proposition the Veracity of Moses therein the great importance thereof and the necessity of the present Solution and of that Theory on which it is built are mightily confirm'd Coroll 2. Hence we may nearly determine the Ages of Men for the first eight or nine hundred Years after the Deluge from the length of their Lives given Thus Job who appears to have liv'd at the least between two and three hundred Years must have been contemporary with some of the Patriarchs between Heber and Abraham to whom that Duration of Humane Life belong'd and thus we may examine and determine the Ages of the most Ancient King 's mention'd in Prophane Histories from the like Duration of their Lives or Reigns as the following Corollary will more particularly observe Coroll 3. Neither the Egyptian Dynasties nor the Assyrian Monarchy could be coeval with the first seven or eight hundred Years after the Deluge none of their Kings Reigns set down by Chronologers reaching that number of Years which the length of Humane Life at that time requir'd nay nor any other than Kings now may and do arrive at in these latter Ages of the World Coroll 4. The Antediluvian and Postdiluvian Years mention'd in Scripture were true Years of twelve not fictitious ones of one Month apiece as some that they might reduce the Age of the first Patriarchs to the short term of Life since usually attain'd to have been willing to surmise This fancy is strangely absurd and contrary to the Sacred History and in particular irreconcilable with this Proposition For had the ancient Years been Lunar of one Month and the latter Solar of a twelve by which the same Duration of Humane Life had been differently measur'd the numbers of Years which Men liv'd must have alter'd in the Proportion of twelve to one of a sudden at such a change in the Year referr'd to and not gradually and gently as 't is here evident they did LXXI Our upper Earth for a considerable depth even as far as we commonly penetrate into it is Factitious or newly acquir'd at the Deluge The ancient one being covered by fresh Strata or Layers of Earth at that time and thereby spoil'd or destroy'd as tothe use and advantage of Mankind LXXI 'T is not to be suppos'd that the Waters of the Deluge were merely the pure Element of Water sincere and unmix'd What came from the Comet 's Atmosphere must partake of its earthly heterogeneous Mixtures and what was squeez'd up from beneath must carry up much Dirt and earthy Matter along with it Besides which as soon as the stormy Weather began the soak'd and loosen'd Tops of Mountains would easily by the Winds and Waves together be wash'd off or carried away into the Mass of Waters and increase the impurity and earthy mixtures thereof On all which accounts the Waters of the Deluge would be a very impure thick and muddy Fluid and afford such a quantity of earthy Matter as would bear some considerable Proportion to that of the Water it self Now this earthy Matter being heavier than the Water would by degrees settle downwards and compose first a mighty thick dirty muddy Fluid in the lower Regions of the Waters and at last a plain earthy Sediment at the bottom of them which would at once spoil and bury the old Surface of the Ground and become a new Cruft or Cover on the face thereof Now that we may see whether this Sediment or Crust could be so thick and considerable as this Phoenomenon requires lot us suppose as before the perpendicular height of the Waters of the Deluge to have been three Miles above the common Surface of the Plains and Seas and the thirtieth part only of the intire Fluid on the Face of the Earth to have been earthy Parts sit to compose the Sediment or Crust beforemention'd Let us also remember what has been already-observ'd from Mr. Newton That Earth is at least three times as dense and heavy as Water so that the thirtieth part in quantity of Matter would only take up the ninetieth part of the whole space either in the Waters or when 't was setled down by it self and became a new Crust or Orb upon the Earth If we then divide 15000 the number of Feet in the whole height of the Waters not here to allow for the spaces posses'd by the extant Parts of the Earth by 90 1500 by 9 the quotient will shew the the Crassitude or Thickness of this Sediment or Crust covering the Face of the Earth viz. 166 2 3 Feet one place taken with another indifferently Which quantity fully accounts for the Proposition we are upon and agrees with the Observations made in the Bowels of our present Earth to as great accuracy as one could desire or expect Corollary 1. Hence it appears That the Earth was generally uninhabitable for several years after the Flood This new factitious Sediment of the Waters requiring no little space of time ere it would be fully setled its Strata consolidated its Surface become hard and dry and its Vegetables sprung out of it before which time 't were uninhabitable by Man and the other Dry-land Animals Coroll 2. Hence we may see the Care and Wisdom of Divine Providence for the Preservation and Maintenance of Noah and of all the Creatures in the Ark after their coming out of the same again by ordering all things so that the Ark should rest on the highest Mountain in the World and that the Waters should so little surpass the same that the Sediment thereof could neither spoil the Fruits of the Ground nor render the Surface uninhabitable as it did on the other Regions of the Earth For since the quantity of the Sediment would generally be proportionable every where to the perpendicular height of the Waters over the Surface of the Ground below tho' it would cover all the other Regions of the whole Earth yet on this highest of all Mountains cover'd but a few Days or perhaps Hours with any Waters and they never above fifteen Cubits perpendicular height the quantity of the Sediment would here be perfectly inconsiderable and the Earth would not be at all alter'd from what it was before nor its Vegetables hurt by this Universal Deluge So that this and this only was the spot of Ground capable of receiving the Ark and of sustaining the Creatures therein till afterwards the rest of the Earth became fit for their Descent and Habitation To this spot therefore by such a wonderful adjustment of all the requisite Circumstances of
compos'd in great part of the Earthy Corpuscles or Masses of a Chaos as well as the Primitive Earth was at the Mosaick Creation The very same reasons assignable for the coalescence and consolidation of the former are equally to be suppos'd in the present case and render it equally reasonable with the other And if the Dense Fluid or any parts or steams from that were instrumental to the Original Union of parts at the Primary Formation of the Earth 't is probable there was no want of it at the Deluge The Atmosphere of the Comet and the Fountains of the Deep being both capable of supplying sufficient quantities among the larger plenty of their Watery and Earthy Masses as is plain from what has been already said Neither in case some of it were acquir'd by the means aforemention'd is it to be expected that we ought to see it still on the Face of the Earth as we do the Ocean For seeing this Dense Fluid is much heavier than Water or Earth it would be at the very bottom of all and so either be inclosed in the Pores and Caverns at the bottom of the Sediment or transform'd into a different Body by its composition with the Earthy parts it was enclos'd withal and did consolidate LXXVIII These Strata of Stone of Chalk of Cole of Earth or whatever matter they consisted of lying thus each upon other appear now as if they had at first been parallel continued and not interrupted But as if after some time they had been dislocated and broken on all sides of the Globe had been elevated in some and depress'd in other places from whence the Fissures and Breaches the Caverns and Grotto's with many other irregularities within and upon our present Earth seem to be deriv'd LXXVIII When the Sediment setled down gradually upon the Surface of the Ancient Earth it would compose Strata or Layers as even continued and parallel as one could desire and as the said Surface did permit And had the said Surface been fix'd and unalterable this evenness and parallellism this uniformity and continuity of the Strata would have remain'd unalterable also to this day But since as we have formerly shewn the intire Orb of Earth was at the beginning of the Deluge crack'd chap'd and broken and for many years afterwards would by degrees settle and compose it self towards its former figure and rotundity again tho' the Series and Connexion of the Strata might before they were consolidated be as regular as you can imagine yet when the Basis or Foundation on which they rested and the Surface on which they were spread fail'd by degrees in several places and proportions by the rising of some Columns upwards and the setling of others downwards this Upper Orb or Crust where the Strata were not become intirely Solid like Stone and Marble must follow in great part the fate of the other and be dislocated elevated or depress'd in correspondence to that whereon it rested And have thereby a Set of Chaps and Fissures directly over-against those which were before in the Ancient Earth But as for such places where the new Strata were become Stony or Solid and incapable of a compliance with the under Earth by the settling downward or elevation of its immediate Basis the Primitive Earth those Caverns and Grotto's those Caves and Hollows which appear within the Earth or its Mountains would naturally arise while the Solid Strata like Beams or Arches sustain'd the impending Columns notwithstanding the sinking and failure of their immediate Foundations by which Causes the Surface and Upper Regions of the Earth would become very uneven and full of small irregularities such as the present Phaenomenon assures us of Corollary 1. Hence we see a plain Reason why Mountainous and Stony Countries are only or principally Hollow and Cavernous Some lesser Mountains being perhaps occasion'd by the subsidence of the neighbouring Columns and the Caverns they enclose thereby produc'd and the Solidity of the Strata being the proper Cause of such Caverns in other Cases Of which the softer more loose and pliable Earth was accordingly incapable Corollary 2. Tho' the Ancient Earth were setled and become uneven in the same degree and in the same places as the present is and that before the consolidation of the new Sediment yet the Series of the several Strata one under another on each side of any Fissure would in some measure correspond to one another as if the consimilar Strata had once been united and had afterwards been broken and sunk down unequally as is manifest from the consimilar situation and subsidence of the consimular Corpuscles whereby the like order and crassitude of each Stratum might be still preserv'd tho' not so exactly as if the sustaining Surface had been even and smooth when the Sediment compos'd those Strata and the Fissures had afterward been made through both Orbs at once and caus'd such inequality Coroll 3. Hence would arise mighty and numerous Receptacles of Water within the Earth especially in the Mountainous parts thereof For usually where a solid Stratum sustain'd the Earth above while the parts beneath sunk lower and thereby produc'd a Cavern the Waters would ouze and flow into it from all quarters and cause a conflux or inclosed Sea of Waters in the Bowels of the Earth Which Cavities might sometimes communicate with one another or with the Ocean and sometimes contain Restagnant Waters without any outlet All which are very agreeable to the present Phaenomena of the Earth Coroll 4. Hence appears the Reason of the raging of Earthquakes in Mountainous Countreys and of the bursting forth and continuation of Volcano's there For these Caverns which we have observ'd the Mountainous Countreys to be mainly liable to are fit to receive and contain together Nitrous and Explosive Sulphureous and Inflammable steams in great quantities and withal to admit the Air to fan and assist that Explosion or Inflammation which seems to be the occasion of those dreadful Phaenomena in our present Earth Coroll 5. If therefore there be no other Caverns than these accounted for just now and taking date from the Deluge 't is very probable there were few or no Volcano's or Earthquakes so much depending on them before the Flood Coroll 6. In case what has been or might farther be said be not found sufficient to account for some observations made concerning the inward parts of our Earth but Dr. Woodward's Hypothesis of the Disruption of the before united Strata by a general Earthquake or the explosive force of the Steams of Heat ascending from the Central parts be found necessary such a supposition will by no means disagree with the present Theory For when the Subterraneous ascending Steams were every way stop'd and their ordinary course from the Central to the Superficiary Parts obstructed by the new Sediment or Crust growing fast and setled and in some places Stony and Impenetrable they would be every where preternaturally assembled especially in the cracks breaches and fissures of
the Ancient Earth in greater quantities than usual and so might by a violent Rarefaction or Explosion burst through the Upper Crust and cause all those Fissures little Hills Caverns Grotto's and Inequalities which Dr. Woodwards Observations require and this Proposition takes notice of In this case therefore the particular and distinct consideration of the Phaenomena must determine and arbitrate between the former more natural and gentle and this latter more violent and extraordinary method of accounting for the present face of Nature upon and within the Earth LXXIX Great numbers of Trees and other Vegetables were also at this subsidence of the Mass aforesaid buried in the Bowels of the Earth And such very often as will not grow in the places where they are lodg'd Many of which are pretty intire and perfect and to be distinctly seen and consider'd to this very day LXXIX Seeing the latter part of the Deluge after the seventeenth day of the seventh Month or the twenty seventh day of March with us at present was very Windy Stormy and Tempestuous the most Extant and Mountainous parts of the Earth would be mightily expos'd to the fury both of the Winds and Waves Which consequently would tear up or wash away the loose and unsolid Upper Earth with all its Furniture of Trees and Plants and not seldom carry them great distances from their former Seats Now these Vegetables if no Earthy Metallick or Mineral Masses adher'd to them being bulk for bulk lighter than the Earthy Sediment would settle down last of all and would lye upon the Surface of the Earth and there rot away and disappear But if considerable quantities of the heaviest Strata or of Metallick or Mineral Matter as would sometimes happen adher'd to them they would sink lower and be inclosed in the Bowels of the Earth either near to or far from the place of their own growth according as the Billows and Storms happen'd to dispose of them All which Changes and Dislocations of the Soil and Surface with their Fruits and Plants might leave once Fertile Countries Bare and Barren and lodge such Vegetables in others which of themselves before the new Sediment much more since the same were wholly incapable of such productions according to the exigency of the Proposition before us LXXX It appears from all the tokens and circumstances which are still observable about them That all these Vegetables were torn away from their ancient Seats in the Spring time in or about the Month of May. LXXX When we have already prov'd that the Windy and Stormy Weather which tore up these Vegetables did not begin till the seventeenth day of the seventh Month from the Autumnal Equinox answering to our March the twenty seventh now and when it appears that the higher any Mountain or Continent was the less while and in a less degree would the Waters prevail upon it and so little sometimes as not wholly to destroy the growing Vegetables at this due time of the Year 't is evident that whether the Sediment were newly setled and had enclos'd them or not so many as were torn up from these highest parts of the Earth must be in that forwardness as the Months succeeding the beginning of the Storms April May and June usually bring them to very agreeably to the Proposition before us And that we have rightly suppos'd these Fossil Plants to have been such as grew on the elevated parts of the Earth only how far distant soever the fury of the Waves and Storms may have lodg'd them and so to have been torn up by the Storms in the assigned manner appears both by the heaps in which they are frequently found crouded together and by the kinds of Plants thus buried in the Earth Of which latter tho' his opinion according to his own Hypothesis be that all sorts were originally lodg'd in the Earth tho' some be since perish'd Dr. Woodward's words are in his kind and free Letter in answer to my Queries about them The Fossil Plants are very numerous and various and some of them intire and well preserv'd I have met with many of the same Species with those now growing on our Hills Woods Meadows Heaths c. But none of the Water-Plants I mean such as are peculiar to Lakes Rivers and the Sea Which Testimony is a peculiar Confirmation of the present Hypothesis Corollary Hence the Ancient Years beginning at the Autumnal Equinox and the consequent commencing of the Deluge the seventeenth Day of the second Month from thence and from the Spring is evidenc'd by this very Observation which Dr. Woodward the Author thereof supposes wou'd prove the contrary So that the time of the Deluge's commencing assign'd by our Hypothesis appears at last to be confirm'd both by the Scriptures by the Ancients by Astronomy by Geography and by Natural Observation and is consequently by so very remarkable a Concurrence and Correspondence of 'em all put beyond any reasonable Doubt or Scruple LXXXI All the Metals and Minerals among the Strata of our upper Earth owe their present Frame and Order to the Deluge being repos'd therein during the time of the Waters covering the Earth or during the Subsidence of the before-mention'd Mass. LXXXI This can have no difficulty in it seeing our upper Earth is factitious and compos'd of the foresaid Sediment of the Waters of the Deluge which including the Corpuscles of Metals and Minerals as well as others wou'd alike afford every one those places which they have ever since possess'd LXXXII These Metals and Minerals appear differently in the Earth according to the different manners of their first Lodgment For sometimes they are in loose and small Particles uncertainly inclos'd among such Masses as they chanc'd to fall down withall At other times some of their Corpuscles happening to occur and meet together affix'd to each other and several convening aniting and combining into one Mass form'd those Metallick and Mineral Balls or Nodules which are now found in the Earth And according as the Corpuscles chanc'd to be all of a kind or otherwise so the Masses were more or less simple pure and homogeneous And according as other Bodies Bones Teeth Shells of Fish or the like happen'd to come in their way these Metallick and Mineral Corpuscles assix'd to and became conjoyn'd with 'em either within where it was possible in their Hollows and Interstices or without on their Surface and Outsides filling the one or covering the other And all this in different Degrees and Proportions according to the different Circumstances of each individual Case LXXXII All these things are but proper Effects of such a common Subsidence of all these Masses and Corpuscles together in the Chaotick Sediment as is above-mention'd And no longer or more particular Account is necessary or can be satisfactory till Dr. Woodwards larger Work which we in time hope for affords us the Observations more nicely and particularly than we yet have them To which therefore the Inquisitive Reader must be
refer'd in this and the like Cases LXXXIII The inward parts of the present Earth are very irregular and confus'd One Region is chiefly Stony another Sandy a third Gravelly One Country contains some certain kinds of Metals and Minerals another contains quite different Ones Nay the same Lump or Mass of Earth not seldom contains the Corpuscles of several Metals or Minerals confusedly intermixt one with another and with its own Earthy Parts All which Irregularities with several others that might be observ'd even contrary to the Law of specifick Gravity in the placing of the different Strata of the Earth demonstrates the original Fund or Promptuary of all this upper factitious Earth to have been in a very wild confus'd and Chaotick Condition LXXXIII Seeing the Sediment of the Waters was compos'd of what Earthy Matter was uncertainly brought up out of the inner Earth and of what a true and proper Chaos afforded these Phaenomena are as natural and accountable therefrom as on any other mechanical Hypothesis they must appear strange perplexing and inexplicable to Philosophick Minds LXXXIV The uppermost and lightest Stratum of Soil or Garden-Mold as 't is call'd which is the proper Seminary of the Vegetable Kingdom is since the Deluge very thick spread usually in the Valleys and Plains but very thin on the Ridges and Tops of Mountains Which last for want thereof are frequently stony rocky bare and barren LXXXIV Two plain reasons are to be given for this Phaenomenon 1. The quantity of Water and its Sediment and by consequence of Soil or fertile Earth was less over the Mountains than over the Plains and Valleys 2. After the Subsidence of the Sediment and before its entire Consolidation the Tops of Mountains were most expos'd to the fury of the Winds and Storms which wou'd therefore more easily bear away that lightest and least united Stratum which lay uppermost in those bleak places than in the more retir'd and skreen'd Plains and Valleys and by diminishing the Soil in the former and thereby augmenting it in the latter places most easily make all things correspond in this Proposition LXXXV Of the four ancient Rivers of Paradise two still remain in some measure but the other two do not or at the least are so chang'd that the Masaick Description does not agree to them at present LXXXV That the great Rivers wou'd still retain in great measure their old Courses has been observ'd already and seeing the Fountains and the general inequalities of the Earth on which their Origin and Channels depend were the same generally before as since the Deluge there can be no doubt thereof As to the change with reference to the other two Rivers If the Gulph of Persia were anciently free from Waters and were no other than the very Country of Eden and if the very Entrance of that Gulph into the Persian Sea were the Garden of Eden or Paradise as has been before asserted there can be no difficulty in the case The Channels of these Rivers and indeed of their Fellow-Branches too after their last Partition being now under Water and not to be enquir'd after But tho' we shou'd allow that Paradise was where 't is generally placed near Babylon and upon the Continent yet will there be no wonder at the disappearance of these two Rivers which with their Fellows are bury'd to a sufficient depth under the Sediment we have been speaking so much of before and so no more to be enquir'd after in this than in the former Case LXXXVI Those Metals and Minerals which the Mosaick Description of Paradise and of its bordering Regions takes such particular notice of and the Prophets so emphatically refer to are not now met with so plentifully therein LXXXVI The present upper Earth being as we have seen factitious and a new Crust since the Flood covering over the ancient Surface thereof those Primitive Treasures must lie too deep in the Bowels of the present Earth to be easily approach'd by us and so are entirely lost as to the use or enjoyment of Mankind LXXXVII This Deluge of Waters was a sign alinstance of the Divine Vengoance on a wicked World and was the effect of the peculiar and extraordinary Providence of God LXXXVII Tho' the passing by of a Comet and all those Effects of it in the drowning of the World of which we have so largely discours'd hitherto be not to be stil'd in the common use of the Word Miraculous tho' in no very improper Sense all such Events may have that Appellation of which before yet is there the greatest reason in the World to attribute this mighty Turn and Catastrophe of Nature to the Divine Providence and the immediate voluntary actual interposition of God and that in these ensuing Particulars and on these following Accounts which I shall be the shorter upon as having in the place fore-mention'd explain'd my Mind somewhat largely about things of this Nature 1. The Bodies made use of in this and the like Changes of Nature are originally the Creatures of God and continually preserv'd by Him and so what they are instrumental in ought most justly to be ascrib'd to the principal Cause the great Creator and Conservator of 'em all 2. All those powers of Attraction or Gravitation c. and those Laws of Motion by which these Bodies are capable of producing such Effects are alike owing to the Divine Operation Appointment and Efficacy both in their primitive Impression and continual Energy and so still the Effects themselves are to be ascrib'd to a Divine Original 3. That particular Constitution of the Earth on the Face of the fluid Abyss and other such Dispositions whereby it became subject to a universal Deluge were also the Consequents of the Divine Power and Providence in the formation of the Earth 4. That peculiar Situation or Constitution of the Orbits and Motions of Comets whereby they by reason of their passing thro' the Planetary System each Revolution are fit to cause such great Mutations in it was the Effect of the particualr Order and Disposition of God in the primary frame of the Universe 5. The Coincidence of the Plain of a Comet 's Orbit with that of the Ecliptick can have no other Foundation in Nature than a like design'd and contriv'd Appointment of God 6. The way of the Comet 's Motion from East to West contrary to that of the Planets by which the Particulars of the Deluge were in good Measure provided for cou'd also be nothing but the Effect of the same Design and Providence of God 7. The so nice and exact adjustment of the Motions of both the Comet and the Earth that the former shou'd pass just so near and impart such a certain quantity of Waters and not more or less than wou'd drown the World and just cover the highest Mountain and yet reach no farther in short as wou'd secure the Ark for future Generations and yet not leave one dry-land Animal besides alive this exactness is a most