that 't would have fallen far short of it have wanted a very noble and large share of the Creation which we enjoy been deprived of a most excellent and wholsome Fare and very many delicious Dishes that we have the use and benefit of But the Case was really much otherwise and we have as good proof as could be wish'd that there were not any of all these wanting The things many of them yet extant speak aloud for themselves and are back'd with an early and general Tradition For Moses is so far from being singular in thus relating that the Sea is of as old a Date and Standing as the Earth it self is that he hath all even the first and remotest Antiquity of his side the Gentil Account of the Creation making the Ocean to arise out of the Chaos almost as soon as any thing besides But we have in store a yet further Testimony that will be granted to be beyond all Exception 'T is from the mouth of God himself being part of the Law promulgated by him in a most solemn and extraordinary manner Exod. 20.11 In six days the Lord made Heaven and Earth the SEA and all that in them is 'T is very hard to think the Theorist should not know this and as hard that knowing it he should so openly dissent from it Then for the Dimensions of the Sea that it was as large and of as great extent as now it is may be inferr'd from the vast Multitudes of those Marine Bodies which are still found in all Parts of the known World Had these been found in only one or two places or did we meet with but some few Species of them and such as are the Products of one Climate or Country it might have been suspected that the Sea was then what the Caspian is only a great Pond or Lake and confined to one part of the Globe But seeing they are dug up at Land almost every where 〈◊〉 at least as great variety and plenty as they are observed at Sea since likewise the fossil Shells are many of them of the same kinds with those that now appear upon the neighbouring Shores and the rest such as may well be presumed to be living at the bottom or in the interiour and deeper Parts of the adjacent Seas but never any that are peculiar to remoter Seas or to the Shores of distant Countries we may reasonably conclude not only that the Sea was of the same bigness and capacity before the Deluge but that it was of much the same form also and interwoven with the Earth in like manner as at this time that there was Sea in or near the very same places or Parts of the Globe that each Sea had its peculiar Shells and those of the same Kinds that now it hath that there was the same diversity of Climates here warmer and more agreeable to the Southern Shells there colder and better suited to the Northern ones the same variation of Soils this Tract affording such a Terrestrial Matter as is proper for the Formation and Nourishment of one sort of Shell-fish that of another in few words much the same Appearance of Nature and Face of Things that we behold in the present Earth But of this more by and by That the Water of the Sea was salt as now it is may be made out likewise from those Shells and other the Productions of it they being of the same constitution and consisting of the same sort of Matter that do the Shells at this day found upon our Shores Now the Salt wherewith the Sea-water is saturated is part of the Food of the Shell-fish residing therein and a main Ingredient in the Make of their Bodies they living upon this and upon the Mud and other Earthy Matter there And that the Sea Ebbed and Flowed before the Deluge may be inferr'd not so moch from the Necessity of that Motion and the many and great Uses of it in the Natural World as from certain Effects that it had upon the Shells and other like Bodies yet preserved 'T is known that the Sea by this Access and Recess shuffling the empty Shells or whatever else lies exposed upon the Shores and bearing them along with it backward and forward upon the Sand there frets and wears them away by little and little in tract of time reducing those that are concave and gibbose to a flat and at length grinding them away almost to nothing And there are not uncommonly found Shells so worn enclosed amongst others in Stone As the Sea-shells afford us a sure Argument of a Sea so do the River-ones of Rivers in the Antediluvian Earth And if there were Rivers there must needs also have been Mountains for they will not flow unless upon a Declivity and their Sources be raised above the Earth's ordinary Surface so that they may run upon a Descent the Swiftness of their Current and the Quantity of Water refunded by them being proportioned generally to the height of their Sources and the Bigness of the Mountains out of which they arise Mountains being proved nothing need be said concerning Valleys they necessarily following from that Proof as being nothing but the Intervalls betwixt the Mountains But let us see what Moses hath on this Subject And the Waters he is treating of the Deluge prevailed exceedingly upon the Earth and all the HIGH HILLS that were under the whole Heaven were covered Fifteen Cubits upwards did the Waters prevail and the MOVNTAINS were covered And all flesh dyed all in whose Nostrils was the breath of Life The Theorist averrs that there were no Mountains in the first Earth I am not willing to suppose that he charges a Falshood or Mistake upon the Passage but rather that he would have this to be understood of those Mountains which were raised afterwards Which yet cannot be for the Historian here plainly makes these Mountains the Standards and Measures of the Rise of the Water which they could never have been had they not been standing when it did so rise and overpour the Earth His Intention in the whole is to acquaint us that all Land-Creatures whatever both Men Quadrupeds Birds and Insects perish'd and were destroyed by the Water Noah only excepted and they that were with him in the Ark. And at the same time to let us see the Truth and Probability of the Thing to convince us that there was no way for any to escape and particularly that none could save themselves by climbing up to the tops of the Mountains that then were he assures us that they even the highest of them were all covered and buried under Water Now to say that there were then no Mountains and that this is meant of Mountains that were not formed till afterwards makes it not intelligible and indeed hardly common Sense The extreme Fertility of both Sea and Land before the Deluge appears sufficiently from the vast and almost incredible Numbers of their Productions yet extant not
Imprimatur Ian. 3. 1694 5. Iohn Hoskyns V.P.R.S. An ESSAY toward a Natural history OF THE EARTH AND Terrestrial Bodies Especially MINERALS As also of the Sea Rivers and Springs With an Account of the UNIVERSAL DELUGE And of the Effects that it had upon the EARTH By Iohn Woodward M.D. Professor of Physick in Gresham-College and Fellow of the Royal Society LONDON Printed for Ric. Wilkin at the Kings-Head in St. Paul's Church-yard 1695. To the Honourable Sir Robert Southwell Knight President of the Royal Society SIR THE Subject of these following Papers being Philosophical and so not foreign to the Conversations you frequent I could not direct them better than to the Person whom the Royal Society have so often made choice of to fill their Chair For tho' your Business hath been much in the open World yet am I well assured that Things of this Nature have always been your Recreation and Delight The Truth is your Attention to hear me discourse of my Travels under Ground and the Uses I proposed of what there I found gave me no small Encouragement to expose my Observations to the publick View And 't is my Hope that those Things may find Pardon from others which have had Approbation with you I am very truly SIR Your most humble Servant I. WOODWARD PREFACE HAving in the Essay it self given some Intimation both of the Design of it and the Reasons which induced me to make it publick I shall not here keep the Reader in suspense much longer than only while I acquaint him that proposing to draw a considerable number of Materials into so narrow a Compass that they might all be contained in this small Volume I was obliged to be very brief and concise And therefore as Pieces of Miniature Sculpture or other Workmanship in little must be allowed a closer Inspection so this â—reatise will require some Care and Application in the Perusal Not but that I have endeavoured as far as was practicable in so little room so to dispose and order things by interweaving with the Assertions some of the Proofs whereon they depend and occasionally scattering several of the more important Observations throughout the Work that it will be no very hard Task for any one to discover the main Grounds whereon all that I here advance is founded That this may be the more clearly apprehended I shall beg leave to illustrate it by one or two Instances It will perhaps at first sight seem very strange and almost shock an ordinary Reader to find me asserting as I do that the whole Terrestrial Globe was taken all to pieces and dissolved at the Deluge the Particles of Stone Marble and all other solid Fossils dissevered taken up into the Water and there sustained together with Sea-shells and other Animal and Vegetable Bodies and that the present Earth consists and was formed out of that promiscuous Mass of Sand Earth Shells and the rest falling down again and subsiding from the Water But whoever shall duely attend to what I elsewhere lay down viz. that there are vast Multitudes of Shells and other Marine Bodies found at this day incorporated with and lodged in all sorts of Stone in Marble in Chalk and to be short in all the other ordinary Matter of the Globe which is close and compact enough to preserve them that these are found thus reposited amongst this Terrestrial Matter from near the Surface of the Earth downwards to the greatest Depth we ever dig or lay it open and this in all Parts of it quite round the Globe that the said terrestrial Matter is disposed into Strata or Layers placed one upon another in like manner as any earthy Sediment setling down from a Fluid in great quantity will naturally be that these Marine Bodies are now found lodged in those Strata according to the Order of their Gravity those which are heaviest lying deepest in the Earth and the lighter sorts when there are any such in the same place shallower or nearer to the Surface and both those and these amongst terrestrial Matter which is of the same specifick Gravity that they are the heavier Shells in Stone the lighter in Chalk and so of the rest I say whoever shall but rightly weigh all this he 'll have no need to go further for Proof that the Earth was actually so dissolved and afterwards framed a-new in such manner as I have set forth And if to this he shall think fit to add the other Arguments of the same Thing which he will meet with in their Place they also will I hope not fail of doing their Part in convincing him still more of the Truth and Certainty of this Matter The other Instance I make choice of shall be of the Universality of the Deluge which is another Proposition that I insist upon And for this let but the Reader please to consider what I deliver from authentick Relations that the marine Bodies aforesaid are found in all Parts of the known World as well in Europe Africa and America as in Asia and this even to the very tops of the highest Mountains and then I think he cannot reasonably doubt of the Proposition but more especially if hereunto he shall joyn what I offer concerning the Great Abyss and thence learns that there is at this day resident in that huge Conceptacle Water enough to effect such a Deluge to drown the whole Globe and lay all even the highest Mountains under Water But if he should be at a loss to know how I got such Notice of that subterranean Reservatory as to enable me to make a Computation of the Quantity of Water now conceal'd therein if he carefully peruse the Propositions concerning Earthquakes and some others in the Third Part he cannot but discover at least some of the ways whereby I got light thereinto and at the same time find why it is that I am so particular in relating the Phaenomena of Earthquakes and dwell so long upon that Subject in this shorter Work These I intend for Example and Direction to the Reader how he may satisfie himself in any of the other Heads 'T is impossible for me to foresee the Difficulties and Haesitations of every one they will be more or fewer according to the Capacity of each Peruser and as his Penetration and Insight into Nature is greater or less They who have Attention enough to take in the intire Platform as here laid down who see the Chain which runs through the whole and can pick up and bear in mind the Observations and Proofs here and there as they lie and then confer them with the Propositions will discern in great measure how these Propositions flow from them but they who cannot so easily do this must be intreated to have a little patience untill the Thing be further unfolded and more amply and plainly made out A few Advances there are in the following Papers tending to assert the Superintendence and Agency of Providence in the Natural World as also to evince
Numbers of them the several kinds that are thus lodged in the substance of the Stone the Order and Manner of their position in it the several Depths at which they are found the Matter which they contain in them and wherewith their Cavities are usually filled These Observations about Stone are succeeded by others of like nature concerning Marble Cole and Chalk their Fissures the Situation of their Strata the Shells and other heterogeneous Bodies lodged therein In the next place those which concern Marle Clay the several kinds of Earth Sand Gravel and some other Fossils the Shells and other like Bodies lodged in their Strata the Position of those Strata their Order their Distinctions from each other by the difference of the Matter of each and by its different Consistence and Colour the Strata of these laxer kinds of Matter being not ordinarily divided from each other by interposition of horizontal Fissures as those of Stone and such other solid Matter constantly are And lastly those which relate to the upper or outmost Stratum of all I mean that blackish Layer of Earth or Mould which is called by some Garden-Earth by others Vnder-turf Earth wherewith the Terrestrial Globe is almost every where invested unless it be disturbed or flung off by rains digging plowing or some other external force insomuch that whatsoever lies deeper or underneath whether Stone Marble Chalk Gravel or whatever else this Stratum is still expanded at top of all serving as it were for a common Integument to the rest and being as shall be shewn in due place the Seminary or Promptuary that furnisheth forth Matter for the formation and increment of Animal and Vegetable Bodies and into which all of them successively are again finally returned The Observations being thus dispatch'd my next step should have been to have proposed the Deductions from them to have determined how these Sea-shells were brought to Land and how they became interr'd in the bowels of the Earth in the manner described in those Observations But before I could proceed any farther towards that I found my self necessarily obliged to take off a difficulty not long since started ' by some learned Men who suspect that these Shells are not real that they were never bred at Sea but are all of Terrestial Original being meer Stones though they bear a resemblance of Shells and formed in the places where they are now found by a kind of Lusus of Nature in imitation of Shells How nearly I am concerned to remove this Obstacle before I pass on any farther to the prosecution of my Design any one may presently see For to go about to enquire at what time and by what means these Shells were conveyed out of the Sea to dry Land when a Doubt hath been moved whether they are Shells or not or ever belonged to the Sea without first clearing this Matter and putting it quite out of doubt would be senseless and absurd In order therefore unto this I premise A Dissertation concerning Shells and other marine Bodies found at Land Proving that they were originally generated and formed at Sea that they are the real spoils of once living Animals and not Stones or natural Fossils as some late Learned Men have thought I Shall be the more brief and sparing in my Extract of this Dissertation in regard that coming on thus in order before the other Parts of this Work it will it self of course see the Light somewhat sooner than they any of them will For which reason I shall at present only say thus much of it in general that therein I first fairly lay before the Reader the Arguments that have been urged by these Gentlemen to perswade us that these Bodies are mere Mineral Substances and having detected the insufficiency of them by evincing from the most plain and simple Reason how far they are from being conclusive and how much they fall short of proving what they are alledged for I then proceed to lay down my own and offer those Reasons which have induced me to believe that these are the very Exuviae of Animals and all owing to the Sea I would not be thought to insinuate that the Opinion of these Gentlemen carries no shew of Truth nor umbrage of Reason of its side 'T is not to be supposed that Persons of their Learning and Abilities would ever have espoused it were it not in some measure plausible and had not at least a fair appearance of probability The very finding these Bodies included in Stone and lodged in the Earth together with Minerals was alone enough to move a Suspicion that these were Minerals too the finding them even to the very bottom of Quarries and Mines in the most retired and inward Parts of the most firm and solid Rocks in the deepest bowels of the Earth as well as upon the surface of it upon the tops of even the highest Hills and Mountains as well as in the Valleys and Plains and this not in this or that Province only not only in one or two Fields but almost every-where in all Countries and Quarters of the Globe wherever there is any digging for Marble for Stone for Chalk or any other Terrestrial Matter that is so compact as to fence off external Injuries and shield them from Decay and Rottenness This together with their being lodged in company of the Belemnites Selenites Marchasits Flints and other like Bodies which were incontestibly natural Fossils and as they supposed in the place of their formation was enough to stagger a Spectator and make him ready to entertain a belief that these were so too 'T is a Phoenomenon so surprizing and extraordinary that 't is not strange that a Man should scarcely credit his very Senses in the case that he should more readily incline to believe that they were Minerals as the Belemnites and the others recited are or indeed almost any thing else rather than Sea-shells especially in such Multitudes and in places so unlikely so deep in the Earth and far from the Sea as these are commonly found Nor was this as indeed they tell us the only difficulty these worthy Persons had to surmount They found together with these certain Bodies that bore the shape and resemblance of Cockles Muscles and other Shells which yet were not really such but consisted intirely some of them of Sand-stone others of Flint and others of Spar or some other kind of Mineral Matter Nay they met with some That were in all appearance Shells that were of the same bigness figure and texture with the common Echini Scallops and Perewinkles but had notwithstanding Flint Native-Vitriol Spar Iron-Ore or other Metallick or Mineral Matter either adhering firmly in lumps to the outsides of them or insinuated into their substance into their pores and inner parts so as to disguise them very much and give them a face and mien extremely unlike to that of those Shells which are at this day found at Sea They observed also that amongst the Shells that were
and the other lighter sorts of Shells it being extreamly unusual to meet with so much as one single Shell of any of all the heavier kinds amongst Chalk but for the said Echini and other the lighter sorts of Shells they are very numerous and frequent in all the Chalk-pits of Kent Surrey Essex Hartfordshire Barkshire Oxfordshire and all others that I have search'd being found indifferently in the beds of Chalk from the top quite down to the bottom of the Pit I having my self commonly observed them to the very bottom of all in Pits that were an hundred foot deep and in Wells much deeper To conclude those Shells and other Bodies that were still lighter than these and consequently lighter than Stone Chalk and the other common Matter of the Earth such as the Shells of Lobsters which are but as 1 ⅓ to 1 of Crabs 1 ¾ to 1 and the rest of the Crustaneous kind the Teeth and Bones of the cartilaginous and squammose Fishes and many other Bodies would subside last of all and so falling above the rest be lodged near if not upon the Surface where being continually exposed to Weather and other Injuries they must in tract of time needs decay and rot and at last quite vanish and disappear and 't is not to me any great wonder that at this distance of four thousand years we find so very few of them remaining So that I think I may now safely appeal to any ingenuous and impartial Looker on whether this That we find all those kinds of Shells now extant upon our Shores which have nearly the same Gravity with Stone and the other ordinary Matter of our Earth that is so tight and compact as to preserve them enclosed in great plenty therein and only those the rest which are lighter being so very rarely found can reasonably be supposed to have happened by meer chance with this Constancy and Certainty and that in so many and distant Places as also whether this be any Objection against my Hypothesis or rather be not the strongest accessary Confirmation of it that could well be expected or even desired To this Dissertation I shall subjoyn an Appendix which will consist of several Sections touching the Bodies called Vnicorn◠Fossile Lapis Iudaicus Entrochus Asteria or the Star-stone-Columns with some farther Reflections upon the Bufonites Glossopetra and Cornu Ammonis proving that these and several more which have been for many Ages reputed Gemms and meer Stones are really nothing else but the Teeth Bones and other parts of Sea-Animals and as the rest were left behind by the Universal Deluge PART I. An Examination of the Opinions of former Writers on this Subject The Means whereby they thought these Marine Bodies brought out upon the Earth Of certain Changes of Sea and Land and other Alterations in the Terraqueous Globe which they suppose to have happened THIS so considerable a point being thus gained the Legitimacy or Reality of these Marine Bodies vindicated and asserted and my Way so far effectually cleared by the foregoing Dissertation I now re-assume my original Design and pass on to enquire by what means they were hurried out of the Ocean the place of their native Abode to dry Land and even to Countries very remote from any Seas And this is a Question of great Antiquity and which hath for many Ages given no small Fatigue to Learned Men. Nor hath the present been less inquisitive into this Affair than the former Ages were We have seen several hands employed herein and many of them very excellent ones too The great number of the Undertakers the Worth of some of them and their Zeal to bring the Matter to a Decision are sure Arguments of the Dignity and Importance of it and that it is not hitherto decided is as certain a proof of its difficulty Some were of Opinion that these Shells were fetch'd from Sea by the ancient Inhabitants of those Countries where they are now found who after they had used the included Fishes for Food flinging forth the Shells many of them became petrified as they speak being thereby preserved down to our times and are the same which we at this day find in our Fields and Quarries Others rather thought that they were only Reliques of some former great Inundations of the Sea which furiously rushing forth and overflowing the adjacent Territories bore these Bodies out upon the Earth along with it but returning at length more leisurely and calmly back again it left them all behind Many were of Opinion that the Sea frequently flitted and changed its place that several parts of the Globe which are now dry Land and habitable lay heretofore at the bottom of the Sea and were covered by it that particularly the very Countries which present us with these Spoils of it were anciently in its possession being then an Habitation of Sharks and other Fishes of Oysters Cockles and the like but the Sea in tract of time retreating thence and betaking it self into new Quarters gaining as much ground on the opposite Coasts as it lost upon those left these Shells there as Marks of its ancient bounds and seat Amongst the rest there were indeed some who believed these to be Remains of the General Deluge and so many Monuments of that calamitous and fatal Irruption These last assuredly were in the right but the far greater part of them rather asserted than proved this rather deliver'd it as their Opinion than offered any rational Arguments to induce others to the same Belief And for the rest who did offer any so unhappy were they in the Choice and unsuccessful in the Management of them by reason of the shortness of their Observations and their not having duely informed themselves of the state of these Things that none of the other Partizans appeared with less Applause none less strenuously maintained their ground than these did The Truth is as Matters were ordered amongst them no Man could receive much Light or Satisfaction from what was advanced by any of them They little more than clashed with one another each could demolish the others Work with ease enough but not a Man of them tolerably defend his own which was sure never to outstand the first Assault that was made Yea upon so equal Terms did they all stand that no one could well lay claim to a larger share of Truth for his side no one had a fairer pretence of right than the rest and it being impossible to imagine that all could be in the right some Learned Men began to suspect that none of them were so These thereupon laid out on all hands for some new Expedient to solve and put an end to the perplexity and 't was this last Effort that brought forth the Opinion that these Bodies are not what they seem to be that they are no Shells but meer Sportings of active Nature in this subterraneous Kingdom and only Semblances or Imitations of Shells they imagining that this shortned the Difficulty because it spared them
in Chalk but of the heavier kinds scarcely one ever appears these subsiding sooner and so settling deeper and beneath the Strata of Chalk That Humane Bodies the Bodies of Quadrupeds and other Land-Animals of Birds of Fishes both of the Cartilaginous Squamose and Crustaceous kinds the Bones Teeth Horns and other parts of Beasts and of Fishes the Shells of Land-Snails and the Shells of those River and Sea Shell-Fish that were lighter than Chalk c. Trees Shrubs and all other Vegetables and the Seeds of them and that peculiar Terrestrial Matter whereof these consist and out of which they are all formed I say all these except some Mineral or Metallick Matter happened to have been affix'd to any of them whilst they were sustained together in the Water so as to augment the weight of them being bulk for bulk lighter than Sand Marl Chalk or the other ordinary Matter of the Globe were not precipitated till the last and so lay above all the former constituting the supreme or outmost Stratum of the Globe That â—hese being thus lodged upon the rest and consequently more nearly exposed to the Air Weather and other Injuries the Bodies of the Animals would suddenly corrupt and rot the Bones Teeth and Shells would likewise all rot in time except those which were secured by the extraordinary Strength and Firmness of their Parts or which happened to be lodged in such places where there was great plenty of bituminous or other like Matter to preserve and as it were embalm them that the Trees would in time also decay and rot unless such as chanced to be reposed in and secured by the same kind of Matter that the other more tender Vegetables Shrubs and Herbs would rot likewise and decay But the Seeds of all kinds of Vegetables being by this means reposed and as it were planted near the Surface of the Earth in a convenient and natural Soil amongst Matter proper for the Formation of Vegetables would germinate grow up and replenish the face of the Earth And that vegetative terrestrial Matter that fell along with these into this uppermost Stratum and of which principally it consists hath been ever since and will continue to be the standing fund and promptuary out of which is derived the Matter of all Animal and Vegetable Bodies and whereinto at the Dissolution of those Bodies that Matter is restored back again successively for the Constitution and Formation of others That the Strata of Marble of Stone and of all other solid Matter attained their Solidity as soon as the Sand or other Matter whereof they consist was arrived at the bottom and well settled there And that all those Strata which are solid at this day have been so ever since that time That the said Strata whether of Stone of Chalk of Cole of Earth or whatever other Matter they consisted of lying thus each upon other were all originally parallel that they were plain eaven and regular and the Surface of the Earth likewise eaven and spherical that they were continuous and not interrupted or broken and that the whole Mass of the Water lay then above them all and constituted a fluid Sphere environing the Globe That after some time the Strata were broken on all sides of the Globe that they were dislocated and their Situation varied being elevated in some places and depressed in others That the Agent or force which effected this Disruption and Dislocation of the Strata was seated within the Earth That all the Irregularities and Inequalities of the Terrestrial Globe were caused by this means date their Original from this Disruption and are all entirely owing unto it That the natural Grotto's in Rocks and those Intervals of the Strata which in my Observations I call the Perpendicular Fissures are nothing but these Interruptions or Breaches of the Strata That the more eminent Parts of the Earth Mountains and Rocks are only the Elevations of the Strata these wherever they were solid rearing against and supporting each other in the posture whereinto they were put by the bursting or breaking up of the Sphere of Earth and not falling down again nor returning to their former and more level site as did the Strata of Earth and other Matter that was not solid and had no Strata of Stone or other consistent Matter interposed amongst their Strata underneath to uphold them in the posture they were then raised into For which reason'tis that Countries which abound with Stone Marble or other solid Matter are uneaven and mountainous and that those which afford none of these but consist of Clay Gravel and the like without any Stone c. interposed are more champaign plain and level That the lower parts of the Earth Vallies the Chanel of the Sea and the rest are nothing but Depressions of the Strata That Islands were formed and distinguished by the Depression or sinking down of the Strata lying betwixt each of them and betwixt them and the Continent In one word that the whole terraqueous Globe was by this means at the time of the Deluge put into the Condition that we now behold Here was we see a mighty Revolution and that attended with Accidents very strange and amazing the most horrible and portentous Catastrophe that Nature ever yet saw an elegant orderly and habitable Earth quite unhinged shattered all to pieces and turned into an heap of ruins Convulsions so exorbitant and unruly a Change so exceeding great and violent that the very Representation alone is enough to startle and shock a Man In truth the thing at first appeared so wonderful and surprizing to me that I must confess I was for some time at a stand nor could I bring over my Reason to assent untill by a deliberate and careful Examination of all Circumstances of these Marine Bodies I was abundantly convinced that they could not have come into those Circumstances by any other means than such a Dissolution of the Earth and Confusion of things And were it not that the Observations made in so many and those so distant places and repeated so often with the most scrupulous and diffident Circumspection did so establish and ascertain the thing as not to leave any room for Contest or Doubt I could scarcely ever have credited it And though the whole Series of this extraordinary Turn may seem at first view to exhibit nothing but Tumult and Disorder nothing but hurry jarring and distraction of things though it may carry along with it some slight shew that 't was managed blindly and at random yet if we draw somewhat nearer and take a closer prospect of it if we look into its retired Movements and more secret and latent Springs we may there trace out a steady Hand producing good out of evil the most consummate and absolute Order and Beauty out of the highest Confusion and Deformity acting with the most exquisite Contrivance and Wisdom attending vigilantly throughout the whole Course of this grand Affair and directing all the several Steps
and Periods of it to an End and that a most noble and excellent one no less than the Happiness of the whole race of Mankind the Benefit and universal Good of all the many Generations of Men which were to come after which were to inhabit this Earth thus moduled anew thus suited to their present Condition and Necessities But the Presidence of that mighty Power in this Revolution its particular Agency and Concern therein and its Purpose and Design in the several Accidents of it will more evidently appear when I shall have proved That altho' one Intention of the Deluge was to inflict a deserved Punishment upon that Race of Men yet it was not solely levelled against Mankind but principally against the Earth that then was with design to destroy and alter that Constitution of it which was apparently calculated and contrived for a state of Innocence to fashion it afresh and give it a Constitution more nearly accommodated to the present Frailties of its Inhabitants That the said Earth though not indifferently and alike fertil in all parts of it was yet generally much more fertil than ours is That the exteriour Stratum or Surface of it consisted entirely of a kind of terrestrial Matter proper for the Nourishment and Formation of Plants and this in great Plenty and Purity being little or not at all entangled with an Intermixture of meer Mineral Matter that was unfit for Vegetation That its Soil was more luxuriant and teemed forth its Productions in far greater plenty and abundance than the present Earth does That the Plough was then of no use and not invented till after the Deluge that Earth requiring little or no Care or Culture but yeilding its encrease freely and without any considerable Labour and Toil or assistance of Humane Industry by this means allowing Mankind that time which must otherwise have been spent in Agriculture Plowing Sowing and the like to far more divine and noble Uses to Purposes more agreeable to the Design of their Creation there being no hazard whilst they continued in that state of Perfection of their abusing this Plenty or perverting it to any other end than the sustenance of Nature and the necessary support of Life That when Man was fallen and had abandoned his primitive Innocence the Cafe was much altered and a far different Scene of Things presented that generous Vertue masculine Bravery and prudent Circumspection which he was before Master of now deserted him together with that Innocence which was the Basis and Support of all and a strange imbecility immediately seized and laid hold of him he became pusillanimous and was easily ruffled with every little Passion within supine and as openly exposed to any Temptation or Assault from without And now these exuberant Productions of the Earth became a continual Decoy and Snare unto him they only excited and fomented his Lusts and ministred plentiful Fewel to his Vices and Luxury and the Earth requiring little or no Tillage there was little occasion for Labour so that almost his whole time lay upon his hands and gave him leisure to contrive and full swing to pursue his Follies by which means he was laid open to all manner of Pravity Corruption and Enormity and we need not be much surprized to hear That the wickedness of Man was great in the Earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually noâ— more that that Generation of Men was more particularly addicted to Intemperance Sensuality and Unchastity that they spent their time in Gluttony in Eating and Drinking in Lust and Wantonness or as the sacred Writer cleanly and modestly expresses it in marrying and giving in marriage and this without Discretion or Decency without regard to Age or Affinity but promiscuously and with no better a Guide than the Impulses of a brutal Appetite They took them Wives of all which they chose Plenty and Abundance Idleness and Ease so naturally cherishing and promoting those particular Vices nor lastly that the Apostacy was so great the Infection so universal that the Earth was filled with violence and that all flesh had corrupted his way the Cause of this Corruption the Fertility of that Earth being so universal so diffusive and epidemical And indeed 't would be very hard to assign any other single Cause besides this that could ever possibly have had so spreading and general an Effect as this had The Pravity of humane Nature is not I fear less than it was then The Passions of Men are yet as exorbitant and their Inclinations as vicious Men have been wicked since the Deluge they are so still and will be so but not universally there are now bounds set to the Contagion and 't is restrained by removing the main cause of it but there the Venom manifested it self on all hands spread far and near and scarcely stop'd till 't was insinuated into the whole mass of Mankind and the World was little better than a common fold of Phrenticks and Bedlams That to reclaim and retrieve the World out of this wretched and forlorn state the common Father and Benefactor of Mankind seasonably interposed his hand and rescued miserable Man out of the gross Stupidity and Sensuality whereinto he was thus unfortunately plunged And this he did partly by tying up his hands and shortning the power of sinning checking him in the Career of his Follies by Diseases and Pains and setting Death the King of Terrors which before stood aloof off and at the long distance of eight or nine hundred Years now much nearer to his view ordaining that his days shall be but an hundred and twenty years and partly by removing the Temptation and cause of the Sin by destroying that Earth which had furnish'd forth Maintenance in such store unto it by changing that Constitution of it and rendring it more agreeable to the laps'd and frail state of Mankind That this Change was not wrought by altering either the form of the Earth or its Position in respect of the Sun as was not long ago surmised by a very Learned Man but by dissolving it by reducing all the Matter of it to its first constituent Principles by mingling and confounding them the Vegetative with mineral Matter and the different kinds of mineral Matter with each other and by retrenching a considerable quantity of the vegetable Matter which lay in such plenty and purity at the Surface of the Antediluvian Earth and rendred it so exuberantly fruitful and precipitating it at the time of the subsidence of the general Mass of Earth and other Bodies which were before raised up into the Water to such a depth as to bury it leaving only so much of it near the Surface as might just sufficiently satisfie the Wants of humane Nature but little or no more and even that not pure not free from the inter-mixture of meer steril mineral Matter and such as is in no wise fit for the
Water which covered the Earth at the Deluge the Terrestrial Matter which first subsided as in Consect 3. supra did not fill the said Cavity and descend quite down to the Center but stop'd at that distance from it forming an arched Expansum or rather a Sphere around it which is now the lowest Stratum and Boundary of that vast Conceptacle of Water As also how this Water was raised at the Deluge by what Issues or Outlets it came forth what succeeded into the room of it whilst absent and which way it returned back again By what means the Strata of Stone and Marble acquired such a Solidity as soon as the Matter whereof they consist had subsided and was well settled to the bottom as in Consect 4. of this Part. What was the immediate Agent which effected that Disruption of the Strata and their Dislocation afterwards whereof in Consect 6. of this Part. And because there have been some Conjectures formerly started by Learned Men about the Formation of Sand-Stone the Origin of Mountains and of Islands that are repugnant to what I have here advanc'd upon those Subjects I am obliged to look a little into the Reasons of them and that they may not remain as Obstacles to those who are less skilfull in these things I shall weigh their Arguments detect the Invalidity of them and prove against them That the Sand-Stone now in being is not as old as the Earth it self nor hath it been consolidated ever since the Creation of the World as some Authors have believed That Sand-Stone does not now grow by Iuxtaposition as they speak that is by continual Addition of new Matter in like manner as the Bodies of Animals and of Vegetables grow and are augmented as others were of Opinion That Sand-Stone does not still consolidate i.e. that Matter which was a few Years ago lax incoherent and in form of Earth or of Sand does not become daily more hard and consistent and by little and little acquire a perfect Solidity and so turn to Stone as others have asserted That the Mountains of our Earth have not had being ever since the Creation and stood as long as the Earth it self as some Writers have thought That the said Mountains were not raised successively and at several times being flung up or elevated by Earthquakes some at one time and some at another as those Earthquakes happened That these are so far from raising Mountains that they overturn and fling down some of those which were before standing and undermine others sinking them into the Abyss underneath That of all the Mountains of the whole Globe which are very numerous and many of them extremely large and consequently cannot be supposed to have been all thus raised without the Notice of Mankind yet there is not any authentick Instance in all History of so much as one single Mountain that was heaved up by an Earthquake That the new Mountain in the Lucrine Lake not far from Pozzuolo in Italy called Monte di Cinere which is alledged by the Fautors of this Opinion as an instance in behalf of it was not raised thus the Relators of that Accident as well those who were then living as they who wrote since unanimously agreeing that this Tumulus or Hill is no other than an huge heap of Stones Cinders Earth and Ashes which were spued up out of the bowels of the Earth by the Eruption of a Volcano which happened there in the Year 1538. And though this Eruption was preceded by several Earthquakes the Country all round having been frequently shaken for almost the space of two years before as those of AEtna Vesuvius and Hecla usually are yet this Hill was not elevated or heaved up by any of those Earthquakes but the Matter whereof 't is compiled discharged out of the Volcano as afâ—â—â—said in like manner as AEtna Vesuvius and the rest fling forth Stones Cinders c. upon any extraordinary Eruption of them That there have not been any Islands of note or considerable extent torn and cast off from the Continent by Earthquakes or severed from it by the boisterous Allision of the Sea That Sicily Cyprus the Negropont and many more which have been supposed by some to be only dismembered parcels of the Main-land and anciently parted from it by one or other of these means yet really never were so but have been Islands ever since the time of the Noetick Deluge Unto this Second Part I shall annex A Discourse concerning the Trees which are commonly called Subterranean Trees or Fossil Wood and which are found in great plenty buried amongst other Vegetable Bodies in Mosses Fens or Bogs not only in several Parts of England but likewise in many Foreign Countries wherein I shall shew from Observations made upon the Places where these Trees are digg'd up upon the Trees themselves their Position in the Earth and other Circumstances that they were lodged thus by the Deluge and have lain here ever since That there are found great numbers of these Trees and many of them very large so buried in several Islands where no Trees at all do or will now grow the Winds being so fierce and the Weather so severe as not to suffer any thing to prosper or thrive beyond the height of a Shrub in any of all those Islands unless it be protected by Walls as in Gardens or other like Coverture That the said Trees are in some places found enclosed in the Stone of Quarries and of Rocks buried amongst Marle and other kinds of Earth as well as in this Peat or Mossâ—Earth That they were originally lodged indifferently amongst all sorts of Earth or other Matter which lay near the Surface of the Earth and that they are at this day found very seldom unless in this peat-Peat-Earth is meerly accidental this Earth being of a bituminous and mild Nature so that the Trees lay all this while as it were embalmed in it and were by that means preserved down to our times whilst those which chanced to be lodged in other Earth that was more lax and pervious decayed in tract of time and rotted at length and therefore do not now appear at all when we dig and search into those Earths or if any thing of them do appear 't is only the Ruins or some slight Remains of them there being very rarely found any Trunks of Trees in these laxer Earths that are intire or tolerably firm and sound To conclude from several of the aforesaid Circumstances I shall evince that these Trees could never possibly have been reposed thus by any other means than the Deluge neither by Men nor by Inundations nor by Deterations nor by violent and impetuous Winds nor by Earthquakes which are the several ways whereby Learned Men have thought they were thus buried PART III. Concerning the Fluids of the Globe SECT I. Of the great Abyss Of the Ocean Concerning the Origine of Springs and Rivers Of Vapours and of Rain HAving thus done with the more
by this means collected they are kept in store for the use of Mankind That though there had been both solid Strata to have condens'd the ascending Vapour and those so broken too as to have given free Vent and Issue to the Water so condensed yet had not the said Strata been dislocated likewise some of them elevated and others depress'd there would have been no Cavity or Chanel to give Reception to the Water of the Sea no Rocks Mountains or other Inequalities in the Globe and without these the Water which now arises out of it must have all stagnated at the Surface and could never possibly have been refunded forth upon the Earth nor would there have been any Rivers or running Streams upon the face of the whole Globe had not the Strata been thus raised up and the Hills exalted above the neighbouring Valleys and Plains whereby the Heads and Sources of Rivers which are in those Hills were also borne up above the ordinary Level of the Earth so as that they may flow upon a Descent or an inclining Plane without which they could not flow at all That this Affair was not transacted unadvisedly casually or at random but with due Conduct and just Measures That the quantity of Matter consolidated the Number Capacity and Distances of the Fissures the Situation Magnitude and Number of the Hills for the condensing and discharging forth the Water and in a word all other things were so ordered as that they might best conduce to the End whereunto they were designed and ordained and such provision made that a Country should not want so many Springs and Rivers as were convenient and requisite for it nor on the other hand be over-run with them and afford little or nothing else but a Supply every where ready suitable to the Necessities and Expences of each Climate and Region of the Globe For example those Countries which lye in the Torrid Zone and under or near the Line where the Heat is very great are furnished with Mountains answerable Mountains which both for Bigness and Number surpass those of colder Countries as much as the Heat there surpasses that of those Countries Witness the Andeâ— that prodigious Chain of Mountains in South America Atlas in Africa Taurus in Asia the Alpes and Pyrenees of Europe to mention no more By these is collected and dispensed forth a quantity of Water proportionable to the Heat of those Parts so that although by reason of the Excess of this Heat there the Evaporations from the Springs and Rivers are very great yet they being by these larger Supplies continually stock'd with an Excess of Water as great yeild a Mass of it for the use of Mankind the Inhabitants of those Parts of the other Animals and of Vegetables not much if at all inferiour to the Springs and Rivers of colder Climates That besides this the Waters thus evaporated and mounted up into the Air thicken and cool it and by their Interposition betwixt the Earth and the Sun skreen and fence off the ardent Heat of it which would be otherwise unsupportable and are at last returned down again in copious and fruitful Showers to the scorched Earth which were it not for this remarkably Providential Contrivance of Things would have been there perfectly uninhabitable laboured under an eternal Drought and have been continually parched and burnt To this former Section I shall add by way of Appendix A Dissertation concerning the Flux and Reflux of the Sea and it s other Natural Motions with an Account of the Gause of those Motions as also of the End and Vse of them and an Enquiry touching the Cause of the Ebbing and Flowing and some other uncommon Phaenomena of certain Springs A Discourse concerning the Saltness of the Sea A Discourse concerning Wind the Origin and Use of it in the Natural World PART III. SECT II. Of the Universality of the Deluge Of the Water which effected it Together with some further Particulars concerning it IN the precedent Section I consider the present and natural State of the Fluids of the Globe I ransack the several Caverns of the Earth and search into the Storehouses of Water and this principally in order to find out where that mighty Mass of Water which overflowed the whole Earth in the days of Noah is now bestowed and concealed as also which way 't is at this time useful to the Earth and its Productions and serviceable to the present Purposes of Almighty Providence Such a Deluge as that which Moses represents whereby All the high Hills that were under the whole Heaven were covered would require a portentous quantity of Water and Men of Curiosity in all Ages have been very much to seek what was become of it or where iâ— could ever find a Reservatory capable of containing it 'T is true there have been several who have gone about to inform them and set them to rights in this Matter but for want of that Knowledge of the present System of Nature and that insight into the Structure and Constitution of the Terraqueous Globe which was necessary for such an Undertaking they have not given the Satisfaction that was expected So far from it that the greatest part of these seeing no where Waâ—er â—nough to effect a General Deluge were forced at last to mince the Matter and make only a Partial one of it restraining it to one single Country to Asia or some lesser portion of Land than which nothing can be more contrary to the Mosaick Narrative For the rest they had recourse to Shifts which were not much better and rather evaded than solved the Difficulty some of them imagining that a quantity of Water sufficient to make such a Deluge was created upon that Occasion and when the business was done all disbanded again and annihilated Others supposed a Conversion of the Air and Atmosphere into Water to serve the turn Many of them were for fetching down I know not what supercoelestial Waters for the purpose Others concluded that the Deluge rose only fifteen Cubits above the Level of the Earth's ordinary Surface covering the Valleys and Plains but not the Mountains all equally wide of Truth and of the Mind of the Sacred Writer One of the last Undertakers of all seeing this began to think the Cause desperate and therefore in effect gives it up For considering how unsuccessful the Attempts of those who were gone before him had proved and having himself also employed his lâ—st and utmost endeavours to find out Waters for the Vulgar Deluge having mustered up all the Forces he could think of and all too little The Clouds above and the Deeps below and in the bowels of the Earth and these says he are all the Stores we have for Water and Moses directs us to no other for the Causes of the Deluge he prepares for a Surrender asserting from a mistaken and defective Computation that all these will not come up to near the quantity requisite and that in any
common Salt and all others are found suspended in the same manner and their Matter conducted out of the Strata to their Fissures by the same means That the Iron-Rhombs Tin-Grains and other Ores of Metalls which are found in these Intervalls naturally formed into Cubick Pyramidal or other Figures as likewise the Minerals which are there shot into the like Figures such as the Mundick-Grains crystallized native Salt Alum Vitriol and Sulphur the Gemms also which are thus figured e. g. Crystal the Pseud-Adamantes the Amethyst Emerauld and the rest I say these and all other natural metallick and mineral Crystallizations were effected by the Water which first brought the Particles whereof each consists out from amongst the Matter of the Strata into these their Intervalls in much the same manner that the common or artificial Crystallizations of Alum Vitriol and the like are now effected in the Water wherein they were before dissolved and as are the Chymical Crystallizations of other Minerals and Metalls in their several Menstrua whereof more in its place That the Corpuscles of Metalls and of Minerals being smaller than those of Sand and of the other common Terrestrial Matter and consequently the Pores of the Strata which consist mainly or at least contain in them a considerable quantity of these being lesser and narrower than those of the Strata of Sand-stone and the like common and crasser Matter the Water which ascends from beneath towards the Surface of the Earth is admitted into them if at all only in lesser quantity passes them slowly and difficultly and therefore hath not Scope and Power sufficient to dislodge the Corpuscles and bear them off with it into the perpendicular Intervalls as it does in those Strata which consist chiefly of Stone and the like grosser Matter where the metallick and mineral Corpuscles lye thinner and so the Pores are more wide and open That for this reason in the Intervalls of those Strata which abound plentifully with Iron Tin Spar common Salt Alum or the like we ordinarily find a lesser quantity of these Metalls and Minerals resident than we do in the Intervalls of some other Strata which now shew little or perhaps nothing in the Bodies of them besides Sand and such like coarser Matter there being so admirable a Contrivance in this Affair that the Water does not disturb and remove that metallick or mineral Matter which lves in the Strata in great plenty and so is there ready collected to the hand of Man but only that which needs such an Agent to collect it that which is so sparingly and dispersedly intermix'd with the common Terrestrial Matter as not to be discoverable by humane Industry or if discoverable so diffused and scattered amongst the crasser and more unprofitable Matter that 't would never be possible to separate and extract it or if 't was it would not defray the Charge and Labour of the Extraction and therefore must needs have been all irretrievably lost and useless to Mankind was it not here by this means collected and brought into one Mass. That therefore the Metalls and Minerals which are lodged in the perpendicular Intervalls of the Strata do still grow to speak in the Mineralists phrase or receive additional Encrease from the Corpuscles which are yet daily born along with the Water into them and have grown so ever since the time of the Deluge in all such places where those Intervalls are not already so filled that they cannot receive any more or where the Stock of metallick and mineral Corpuscles originally lodged in the Strata is not quite exhausted and all borne thither already That yet this Encrease is not now any where very great the Corpuscles which were capable of being stirred and removed being by the continual Passage of the Water for so many Ages in most places exhausted educed forth of the Strata and transmitted into these their Fissures That the metallick and mineral Matter which lyes in the Bodies of the Strata does not now grow nor hath it ever received any Addition since 't was first reposed in those Strata at the time of the Universal Deluge but on the contrary hath been diminished and lessened by so much as hath been conveyed into their perpendicular Intervalls and as hath been brought forth upon the Surface of the Earth by Springs Rivers and Exhalations from the Abyss ever since that time That notwithstanding there have and do still happen Transitions and Removes of it in the solid Strata from one part of the same Stratum to another part of it occasioned by the Motion of the Vapour towards the perpendicular Intervalls of these and in the laxer Strata such as those of Sand Clay and the like from the lower ones to those which lye above them and even to the very Surface of the Earth occasioned by the Motion of the Vapour directly towards the Surface it pervading these looser Strata diametrically But of this I have not room to enlarge more particularly in this place That the Bitumen which is found in Lumps or coagulated Masses in some Springs and which is in others found floating in form of an Oyl upon the Surface of the Water when 't is called by Naturalists Naphtha and Petroleum the Salt wherewith the Salinae or Salt-Springs abound the Vitriol Alum Nitre Sulphur Spar and other Minerals wherewith the Acidulae or Medicinal-Springs are saturated I say all these Minerals were originally lodged in the Strata of Stone Cole Earth or the like that they were educed thence and conveyed into these Springs by the Water pervading those Strata in its passage from the Abyss towards the said Springs That when the Water of Rivers issues out of the Apertures of them with more than ordinary Agitation and Rapidity it usually bears forth along with it such Particles of Spar Argilla or other loose and moveable Matter as it met with in its Passage through the Stone Marble or other solid Strata that it sustains these Particles and carries them on together with it'till such time as its Motion begins to remit and be less rapid than it was at and near its Source when by degrees it lowers them and lets them fall deposing and affixing them upon any thing which occurrs in the way as Stones Shells Sticks or other like Bodies especially those which lye in the Sinus's or Creeks of those Rivers where the Motion of the Water is more sluggish and languid than in the Stream or middle of the Chanel That some Rivers do thus bring forth Spar and other mineral Matter in great quantity so as to cover and incrust the Stones Sticks and other Bodies lying therein to a very considerable Thickness That sometimes the Water of Standing-Springs does the same precipitating the mineral Matter which it brought forth of the Strata upon the Stones at the bottoms and sides of the said Springs and affixing it upon Sticks Straws and other Bodies and upon the Moss or other Plants which happen to
height and so farther out of the way And this is indeed much the Case of Foggs particularly of those which we frequently observe after Sun-setting even in our hottest Months These being nothing but a Vapour consisting of Water and of such mineral Matter as this met with in its passage and could well bring up along with it Which Vapour was sent up in greater quantity all the foregoing Day than now in the Evening but the Sun then being above the Horizon taking it at the Surface of the Earth and rapidly mounting it up into the Atmosphere it was not discernible as now it is because the Sun being now gone off the Vapour stagnates at and near the Earth and saturates the Air till 't is so thick as to be easily visible therein And when at length the Heat there is somewhat further spent which is usually about the middle of the Night it falls down again in a Dew alighting upon Herbs and other Vegetables which iâ— cherishes cools and refreshes after the scorching Heat of the foregoing Day But if it happens as sometimes it does that this Vapour bears up along with it any noxious mineral Steams it then blasts Vegetables especially those which are more young and tender blights Corn and Fruits and is sometimes injurious even to Men who chance to be then abroad in the Fields 'T is also the Case of Water at the Surface of the Earth where the Springs and Rivers are very low yea some of them cease to yield any Water at all in the Summer Months because the Sun's Power is then so great as easily and speedily to bear up into the Atmosphere in small and invisible parcels and in form of an extremely fine and thin Vapour a very great part of the Water which is sent up out of the Abyss whereas in the Winter-time the Sun is withdrawn farther off and its power lessened so that it cannot then buoy it up as before for which reason 't is that so much more of it then stands at the Surface of the Earth and stagnates there So likewise for Rain we learn from Experiment that there commonly falls in England in France and some other Countries more Rain in Iune and Iuly than in December and Ianuary but it makes a much greater Shew upon the Earth in these Months than in those because it lyes longer upon it the Sun now wanting power to exhale and bear it up so quickly and plentifully as then it did 'T is also the Case of the Halitus emitted forth of the Lungs of Men and other Animals In a Physiological Treatise which I have by me concerning the Structure and Vse of the Parts of Animals discoursing of the Lungs I shew that they are the grand Emunctory of the Body that the main End of Respiration is continually to discharge and expell an excrementitious Fluid out of the Mass of Blood and prove from several Experiments that there passes out of the Body a greater quantity of Fluid Matter this way I mean upwards and through the Lungs than there does of Urine by the Kidneys downwards Now the Fluid which is thus secreted and expired forth along with the Air goes off with it in insensible parcels in the Summer Season when the ambient Air contains Heat enough to bear it quickly away and so disperse it But in the Winter when the Heat without is less it oftentimes becomes so far condensed as to be visible flowing out of the Mouth in form of a Fume or crasser Vapour and may by proper Vessels set in a strong freezing Mixture the better to condense this Vapour be collected in considerable quantity But to return That 't is not without a very extraordinary Providence that there so constantly happens in the Month of September the time when chiefly these mineral Steams stagnate thus at and near the Surface of the Earth a very nipping and severe Season of Cold far beyond what might from the Sun's height and power be then expected beyond that of October and November and sometimes equal to that of Ianuary and the coldest Months as also that there then so constantly happens very blustering and turbulent Winds the Cold serving to check and put a stop to the Ascent of this mineral Matter and the Wind to dissipate and convey away that which was before raised out of the Earth which was it not thus carried off would be infinitely more fatal and pernicious to Man and other Animals than now it is But I must be contented here to give only short Hints of these as of other Things and to write but obscurely and reservedly untill I have opportunity to express my Sentiments of them with greater Copiousness Freedom and Perspicuity Thus much of the Scheme of my Design in this Part have I run over and lead my Reader a long and tedious Jaunt in tracing out these metallick and mineral Bodies in pursuing them through their several Mazes and Retreats through the Earth the Water and the Air. And yet long as it is we are not got much further than the Borders of the Mineral Kingdom and have done little more yet than settled and adjusted Preliminaries so very ample is this Kingdom so various and manifold its Productions For the foregoing Conclusions relate only to the Origin and Growth of these Bodies the Natural History of each particular Metall and Mineral with the Observations whereon that History is grounded being still to come But I must be forced wholly to wave and supersede the Detail of these for I perceive do what I can this Abstract will swell much beyond the bounds which I at first designed This Fourth Part will be followed by several Treatises serving to confirm and to illustrate some Passages in it whereof I shall at present only mention the four following 1. Rules and Directions for the Discovery of Metalls and Minerals laâ—ent in the Earth with an Enquiry why these lye sometimes so near the Surface and did not because of their greater Gravity at the General Subsidence in the Deluge fall to a much greater depth than we now find them even to such a depth as to have lain quite out of humane reach and so have been all buried and irrecoverably lost 2. An Examination of the Common Doctrine about the Generation of Metalls and Minerals and particularly that of the Chymists with an Appendix relating to the Transmutation of Metalls detecting the Impostures and Elusions of those who have pretended to it and evincing the Impossibility of it from the most plain simple and Physical Reasons proving likewise that there are no such natural Gradations and Conversions of one Metall and Mineral into another in the Earth as many have fancied As also an Account of the Mineral Iuyces in the Earth which some Writers have imagined to be I know not what Seeds of Minerals shewing that they are for the far greatest part nothing but Water strongly impregnated with Mineral Matter which it derives from the Strata as it
Observations which I make use of in the former Parts of this Work give an Account of the said Productions thus preserved I proceed upon those Observations as hitherto and by Inferences which easily clearly and naturally flow from them shew what was the Condition and State of that Earth and wherein it differ'd from this we now inhabit And in regard that from a Theory which how much soever it may relish of Wit and Invention hath no real Foundation either in Nature or History the Author so often mentioned already hath set forth an imaginary and fictitious Earth whose Posture to the Sun he supposes to have been much different from that which the Earth at present obtains and such that there could be no Alteration of Heat and Cold Summer and Winter as now there is but a constant Uniformity of Weather and Equality of Seasons An Earth without any Sea without Mountains or other Inequalities and without either Metalls or Minerals in few words one perfectly unlike what the Antediluvian Earth was in truth and reality and perfectly unlike that which Moses hath represented I shall therefore interpose some Consectaries which would have been otherwise needless and superfluous which are directly levelled against these Mistakes and evince that where-ever he hath receded from the Mosaick Account of that Earth he hath at the same time also receded from Nature and Matter of Fact and this purely from the aforesaid Observations from which I shall prove That the Face of the Earth before the Deluge was not smooth eaven and uniform but unequal and distinguish'd with Mountains Valleys and Plains also with Sea Lakes and Rivers That the Quantity of Water upon the Surface of the Globe was nearly the same as now the Ocean of the same Extent and possest an equal share of the Globe intermixing with the Land so as to checquer it into Earth and Water and to make much the same Diversities of Sea and Land that we behold at present That the Water of the Sea was saturated with Salt in like manner as now it is that it was agitated with Tides or a Flux and Reflux with Storms and other Commotions That the Sea was very abundantly replenished with Fish of all kinds as well of the cartilaginous and squammose as of the testaceous and crustaceous kinds and that the Lakes and Rivers were as plentifully furnish'd with Lake and River-Fish of all sorts That the Earth was very exuberantly beset with Trees Shrubs and Herbs and stock'd with Animals of all sorts Quadrupeds Insects and Fowls and this on all sides and in all parts of it quite round the Globe That the Animal and Vegetable Productions of the Antediluvian Earth did not in any wise differ from those of the present Earth That there were then the very same kinds of Animals and Vegetables and the same subordinate Species under each kind that now there is That they were of the same stature and size as well as of the same shape their Parts of the same Fabrick Texture Constitution and Colour as are those of the Animals and Vegetables at this day in being That there were both Metalls and Minerals in the Antediluvian Earth That the Terraqueous Globe had the same Site and Position in respect of the Sun that it now hath That its Axis was not parallel to that of the Ecliptick but inclined in like manner as it is at present and that there were the same Successions of Heat and Cold Wet and Dry the same Vicissitudes of Seasons Spring Summer Autumn and Winter that now there is It hath been already noted that these Propositions are founded on Observations made upon the Animal and Vegetable Remains of the Antediluvian Earth From those Remains we may judge what sort of Earth that was and see that it was not much different from this we now inhabit Now though 't is not to be expected that I here formally lay down those Observations that being not the Business of this Tract yet untill I have Opportunity both of doing so and of shewing in what manner the foregoing Propositions flow from them it may be very convenient that I give some short Directions how the Reader for his present Satisfaction may of himself and without my Assistance make out the principal Articles of these Propositions from the Observations already delivered in the several Parts of this Discourse and from one or two more that I shall add upon this Occasion And that he may at one View discover how consonant the Account which Moses hath left us of the Primitive Earth is to this which we have from Nature and how much the late Theory of the Earth differs from both I will set down that Writer's Sense of the Matter under each Head as we pass along To begin therefore with the Sea That there was one before the Deluge there needs not I think any other Proof than the Productions of it yet in being the Shells the Teeth and Bones of Sea-Fishes And for Moses he is not at all averse hereto but as expresly asserts that there was then a Sea as the Theory does that there was none Take it in his own words And God said Let the Waters under the Heaven be gathered together unto one place and let the Dry-land appear and it was so And God called the Dry-land Earth and the gathering together of the Waters called he SEAS and God saw that it was good And though the Theorist flatly denies that there was then any such thing yet he does not go about to dispute the Translation of this Passage but readily owns that Moses hath here used a word that was common and known to signifie the Sea According to him therefore we see the Sea was formed at the beginning of the World and after its Formation approved of as goodâ— that is very necessary and serviceable to the Ends of Providence in the Kingdom of Nature and this indeed it is so many ways that it must needs be granted that that would have been a very wild World had it been without any Sea The separating of the Sea and Land and determining the set Bounds of each is here reckoned part of the Work of the third Day as the stocking of the Sea with Whales and other Fishes is of the fifth And God created great Whales c. and blessed them saying be fruitful and multiply and fill the Waters in the SEAS And when on the sixth Day the finishing Hand was set to the Work and Man created God gives him Dominion over the Fish of the SEA 'T would have been but a scanty and narrow Dominion and Adam a very mean Prince had there then been neither any Fish existent nor Sea to contain them Nay this had been little better than a downright illusion and abusing of him and what is more that World had been so far from excelling â—â—rs in the Abundance of its Productions which is what the Theorist contends for on another Occasion
such a Natural Form of the Year as is that which is at present establish'd he could scarcely ever do it in so few Words again that were so fit and proper so full and express especially if by Signs in this place Months are intended for then we have here first the Year and that subdivided into its usual Parts the four Quarters or Seasons the twelve Signs or Months and Days nay at the same time from the 19th Verse we learn that this Establishment is within four days as old as the World But further Gen. viii 21 22. And the Lord said in his heart I will not again curse the ground neither will I again smite any more every thing living as I have done While the Earth remaineth Seed-time and Harvest and Cold and Heat and Summer and Winter and Day and Night shall not cease This was pronounc'd upon Noah's Sacrificing at his coming forth of the Ark after the Deluge was over and implies that there had indeed then lately been a mighty Confusion of Things for the time an Interruption and Perturbation of the ordinary Course of them and a Cessation and Suspension of the Laws of Nature but withall gives Security and Assurance that there should never be the like any more to the End of the World that for the future they should all run again in their old Chanel and that particularly there should be the same Vicissitudes of Seasons and Alternations of Heat and Cold that were before the Delâ—ge FINIS Books Printed for Richard Wilkin at the King's-Head in S. Paul's Church-Yard LEtters concerning the Love of God between the Author of the Proposal to the Ladies and Mr. Iohn Norris wherein his late Discourse shewing that it ought to be entire and exclusive of all other Loves is farther clear'd and justified Octavo A Proposal to the Ladies for the Advancement of their true and greatest Interest By a Lover of her Sex Twelves The Second Edition A Vindication of the Truth of Christian Religion against the Objections of all Modern Opposers By Iames Abbadie D. D. Octavo A second Part of the Enquiry into several remarkable Texts of the Old and New Testament which contain some Difficulty in them with a probable Resolution of them The second Edition Octavo A Discourse concerning the Authority Style and Perfection of the Books of the Old and New Testament with a continued Illustration of several difficult Texts of Scripture throughout the whole work Both by Iohn Edwards B. D. sometime Fellow of St. Iohn's College in Cambridge Octavo The Glorious Epiphany with the Devout Christians Love to it The Second Edition Octavo Search the Scriptures A Treatise shewing that all Christians ought to read the Holy Books with Directions to them therein A Discourse concerning Prayer especially of frequenting the daily Publick Prayers All three by the Reverend Sim. Patrick D. D. The Old Religion demonstrated in the Principles and described in the Life and Practice thereof By I. Goodman D. D. The Second Edition Twelves ‖ I call those Fissures which distinguish the Stâ—ne into Strata Horizontal ones and those which intersect these Perpendicular not so much with respect to the present site of the Strata which as I shall shew is altered in many places as to its original situation concerning which see Part 2. Consect 5. †Part 4. Consect 2. * Concerning these Conchitae Cochlitae c. see Part 4. Cons. 2. and Part 5. Cons. 5. †Part 4. Conf. 2. * Vid. Part 2. Cons. 2. †Vid. Part 2. Cons. 3. * Part 5. Cons. 1. c. †Part 3. Sect. 1. Cons. 8. * Part 2. and Part 5. * Part 2. * Part 2. Cons. 2. c. * Pag. 29 c. supra and Part 2. Cons. 3. †Cons. pag. 28. and Part 2. Cons. 3. ‖ Part 5. Cons. 4. * Confer Part 3. Sect. 2. Cons. 2 3. * Vid. Part 3. Sect. 1. Consect 1. †Confer p. 29 c. * Part 4. Consâ—ct 2. ‖ Conf. Conf. 5. supra Gâ—n vi 5. ‖ Matth. xxiv 38. * Gen. vi 2. †Gen. vi 11 12. * Confer Part 6. Dis. 3. †Gen. 6.3 * Gen. vi 13 And behold I will DESTROY them with THE EARTH And again at the Covenant made with Noah after the Deluge more distinctly Gen. ix 11 Neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood neither shall there any more be A FLOOD TO DESTROY THE EARTH the latter part whereof is render'd somewhat more expresly by the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. And there shall not be any more a-Deluge of Water to destroy the WHOLE EARTH And the vulg Lat. Neque erit deinceps Diluvium dissipans terram i. e. Neither shall there be hereafter a Deluge to dissipate or dissolve the Earth And of this Dissolution of the Earth there was a Tradition amongst the Ancients both Iews and Gentiles †Dr. Burnet Theory of the Earth ‖ Vid. Cons. 2. supra ** Part 4. Cons. 3. ‖ Vid. Cons. 3. supra * Confen p. 55. seq * Conf. Part 6. †Conf. Part 3. Sect. 2. Conâ— 7. Gen. iii. Gen. iv * Conf. Rom. v. 12. and 1 Cor. xv 21 22. ‖ Gen. ii 17. †Gen. v. 5. * Gen. viii 20 21. * Gen. ix 11. ‖ Gen ix 25 26 27. †Gen. ii 5 * Vid. Part 3. Sect. 1. Consect 1. and Sect. 2. Cons. 2 3 †Confer Part 3. Sect. 1. Cons. 12. * Moss is the Name used all over the North of England instead of Fen. †Conf. Cons. 3. supâ—a * Confer Part 5. Consect 2. †Heat and Fire differ but in degree and Heat is Fire only in lesser quantity Fire I shall shew to be a fluid consisting of Parts extremely small and light and consequently very subtile active and susceptive of Motion An Aggregate of these Parts in such number as to be visible to the Eye is what we call Flame and Fire a lesser thinner and more dispers'd Collection Heat and Warmth †Vid. Cons. 10. infra * Pag. 47. †Conf. pag. 12â— * Confer pag. 125. †Part 2 Cons. 3. * Vid. Cons. 8. Supra * Conser Cons. 10. supra †Vid. Cons. 2. supra ‖ Conf. Consect 13. infra †Vid. Cons. 14. infra * Vid. Part 2. Cons. 8. * It is indâ—eâ— by this very heat that their Water is borne unto them from our the Abyss Vid. Cens. 8. supra †Vid. Cons. 12. and 13. supra ‖ Pag. 96. * Lib. 1. c. 9. to 12. * AsPart 2. Cons. 4. ‖ As Part 2. Cons. 6. * Cons. 8. supra †Part 4. Cons. 5. ‖ Part 2. Cons. 6 7 8. †Conf. Cons. 8. supra †Gen. 7. 19. ‖ Theory of Earth l. 1. c. 2. ‖ Princ. Pbilos 1. 4. * Gen. vii 20. ‖ Conf. Sect. 1. Cons. 12. †Part 2. Cons. 6. * Sect. 1. supra Cons. 2. †Confer Part 6. Sub finem ‖ Theory of the Earth l. 1.c.6.8