because a Monarchy or Kingdom had its Beginning that therefore the People that constituted the Moles of that Kingdom had its Beginning Kingdoms Monarchies and States often change their Governours and the Forms of Government and their Stiles and Denominations as the Silk-worm doth his shape and yet the People in a continued succession the same Rome took its Name from Romulus but the People were a Farrago collected and gathered out of the neighbouring Nations Greece fell into one Monarchy under Alexander yet the People that were the Stuffing as it were and Materials of that Monarchy were existing before in other Forms of Government and under other Governours And though it is by some supposed That the Assyrian Monarchy began in Ninus yet Diodorus out of Ctesias tells us That he made up that great Structure of the Assyrian Monarchy by the Conquest of divers People who thereby were added to it as the Egyptians Phenicians Syria Coelicia Pamphilia Lydia Caria Phrygia Mysia and many more mentioned by him l. 3. cap. 1. England began not to be a People when Alfred reduced it into a Monarchy for the Materials thereof were extant before namely under the Heptarchy So that the finding out of the Head of a Monarchy is not like the finding out the Head of a River in the Fountain or the Head of a Family in one common Parent The ancientest Monarchy might have a Beginning and yet the People that are the material constituent of it might exist long before under other Forms or Vicissitudes of Governments 2. All Nations do not always begin their Histories or the Matter of the same Antiquity with the People touching which they write but some earlier some later according to the variety of their Opportunities Educations and Disciplines The Israelites were certainly the most knowing People of the World began early to record the Memorials of their own Times and of those that anteceded them delivered down by Tradition from the Patriarchs Thus did Moses and the Annals of that People are carried down to the very dissolution of their Government The Phenicians began their Historical Monuments after them the Grecians after them The Pelasgi and Attici were a People long before Homer wrote England was doubtless Inhabited before Caesar came over yet we have few Monuments of Britain more ancient than Caesar gives us and from him except Beda we have few Authentical Histories by any known Historian before the Conquest by King William but they have been all written since or very near his time and many of the things which they have put together touching the Britains Picts Danes yea and the beginning of the Saxons have been collected out of broken Monuments in Monasteries and Tradition and digested into series and order of times by those that have written long since the things done by men that lived since the Normans came in as Henry of Huntington William of Malmsbury Roger Hoveden Matthew Paris and others 3. A third difficulty is this That in those elder times there were not those means of preserving the Monuments of things past as after times afforded for whatever antiquity the World may be supposed to be it is plain that Arts have increased and grown Printing is a new Invention and although Letters and Writing were ancient among the Phenicians and from them derived to the Greeks yet we must suppose they were not so perfect or so common in the elder Ages as in those that succeed them And therefore those that contend for an Eternal succession of Men in the World do suppose that by a kind of circulation or rotation Arts have their successive invention and perfection and traduction from one People to another and consequently though some might be early able to deliver over Historical passages as being better instructed in Letters and Writing and more civilized than others yet others attained it later As the Europeans had their Learning from the Asiaticks so the Americans have it from the Europeans and yet the People of Europe Asia and America may be of equal Antiquity Besides all this there have been many vicissitudes and changes whereby ancient Monuments and Histories have been lost As 1. The Variation of Languages or at least of the Characters wherein they were written many things written in former Ages being scarce legible in after Ages and so neglected 2. Wars and Desolations hapning thereby which obliterate many ancient Monuments If by a kind of common stipulation or pact as it were Monasteries had not had a kind of common Protection in the vicissitudes of the Conquests of England by the Picts Danes Saxons and Normans we had had very little extant of ancient things 3. Transmigrations of People from one Country to another whereby they left their ancient Monuments behind them which were neglected by them that succeeded them 4. Floods and Inundations especially in the parts of Asia which swept away many ancient Monuments These are the Allays that are to be given to this particular touching the Epochae and Original of Monarchies Kingdoms and States and the Monuments and Historical Relations of them or hapning in them and to the weight of those consequences deduced or deducible from them in order to the Argument in question touching the Origination of Mankind CAP. IV. The Third Instance of Fact proving the Origination of Mankind namely the Invention of Arts. I Come to the Third Instance of Fact namely the Discovery and Perfecting of Arts and the new Discoveries that later Ages have made of things that were not formerly known And this Topick consists principally of these parts 1. That there have been such Discoveries of Things and Arts not formerly known 2. That consequently the World especially of Mankind is of a far later Edition than Eternity Touching the former of these it is very evident both by the Tradition of the Ancients and also by our own unquestionable Experience that very great Discoveries have been in several Ages made of Things and Arts that were hidden and unknown unto precedent Ages I shall not trouble my self with those large Catalogues of profitable Inventions which have been successively discovered when before they were not known at least for ought appears to us as the use of Husbandry the making of Wine and Oyl the discovery of the Letters of the Alphabet in successive Ages Musick Military and Civil Discipline Engins of War and Navigation These and infinite more have been by the Industry of former Writers reduced to their several Epochae and Authors of their Discoveries and some of the Authors have had therefore divine Honour given to them by the admiring Heathen These several Inventors and Inventions are registred by Diodorus Siculus in his first six Books by Clemens Alexandrinus in the first Book of his Stromata by Pliny l. 7. cap. 56. and ex professo by Polydore Virgil in his eight Books de Rerum Inventoribus In which and other Collections of that kind although possibly there be many things that are fabulous or grounded
the condition of Greece the Learned Part of the World after their subjugation by the Turks and this possibly may be the condition of China in a few years after the great Irruption and Devastation by the Tartars wherein possibly if an Age or two hence the state of things should be judged according to the present appearance it would be looked upon as if it had never been the habitation of those Curious Arts which some time dwelt there and possibly the setting on foot some of those very Arts that were once well known in those parts would be looked upon as the Natales of those Arts or the first Inchoation of them Wars and Desolations having obliterated the Monuments of their former practices which yet nevertheless would be in truth but the reviving of those Arts which were long before practised though intermitted and interrupted by the vicissitudes of Wars And upon the same account are those alterations that have hapned in the condition and state of People by other accidents as Inundations Epidemical Diseases Corruption of the Air in some Parts and Continents either by some eruption of pernicious Vapours or other Inclemency of the Heavens Plato in his third Book de Legibus in the beginning though he suppose an interminate Beginning of Mankind and that there were successively Cities Laws and Arts yet he supposeth that upon these and the like Occurrences those that escaped these common Calamities betook themselves to the Mountains kept Sheep and preserved the Species of Mankind but most of those Arts and Sciences which formerly were common became disused and forgotten among them But after Mankind multiplying they descended into the Vallies and by degrees mutual conversation the necessity of their condition and the due consideration of things did gradually revive those Arts which Men had formerly lost by long intermission For such is the indoles of the Humane Nature where it is not strangely over-grown with Barbarousness that it will by a kind of Natural Sagacity discover things especially necessary for the use of Humane Life and Society as Husbandry Laws Government Architecture Clothing and the like as Bees or Ants provide for their common habitation and supply Upon all which it may seem that we are over-hasty when we conclude That because Arts or Sciences do perchance discover themselves first to our view in such Places or Ages that therefore this was their first and primitive production or that they were never before For it may very reasonably be that those or the like Arts might have been either in other places and by a kind of migration or circulation be transmitted to those new places either by Armies or Colonies deduced hither or that even among the same People or Nation these Arts were sometimes flourishing though possibly having received some intermission by great Accidents and Occurrences they again do repullulare and revive upon the opportunity of Peace Trade Commerce and Popular Increase Nay many times it comes to pass as is before observed That when People are multiplied so that their places grow strait and narrow and their supplies not proportionable to their number necessity and exigence it gives an edge to their Industry and Invention and produceth new Discoveries of things that were either not known before or forgotten And even this one thing hath advanced the Dutch to that eminence of Manufacture Industry and Arts that they exceed the rest of the World therein We may have an Instance of this Circulation of Arts even in this Kingdom of England in that which is our great Manufacture namely Woollen Cloth It appears very plainly by those ancient Gilds that were settled in England for this Manufacture as at Lincoln York Oxford and divers other Cities that in the time of H. 2. and R. 1. this Kingdom greatly flourished in that Art but by the troublesom Wars in the time of King John H. 3. and also in the times of E. 1. and E. 2. this Manufacture was wholly lost and all our Trade ran out in Wools Wool-fells and Leather carried out in specie and the Manufacture during those Warly times held its course in France the Netherlands and the Hans Towns but by the Wisdom and peaceable times of E. 3. and his fair treating of forein Artists which he invited and entertained in this Kingdom he regained that Art hither again which for near one hundred Years had been for the most part intermitted which hath hitherto continued to the great Wealth and Benefit of this Kingdom So that we are not to conclude every new appearance of any Art or Science is the first production of it but as they say of the River Tigris and some others they sink into the ground and keep a subterranean course it may be 40 or 50 miles and then break out above ground again which is not so much a new River as the continuation and new appearance of the old So many times it falls out with Arts and Sciences though they have their non-appearances for some Ages and then seem first to discover themselves where before they were not known it is not so much the first production of the Art as a transition or at least a restitution of what possibly was either before in another or in the same Country or People And thus some tell us that Guns and Printing though but lately discovered in Europe yet were of far ancienter use in China So that notwithstanding this Consideration of the late Invention of Arts or Discoveries of things Natural or Artificial Mankind might have had an infinite succession or at least such a continuance as surmounts all those Accounts which the most prodigal Computations have given and that Saying of the Wise Man may be verified Ecclesiast 1.9 The thing that hath been is that which shall be and that which hath been done is that which shall be done and there is no new thing under the Sun Is there any thing whereof it may be said See this is new It hath been already of old time before I shall here add a farther Consideration because it hath a cognation with the Subject of this Chapter There seems to be very probable Conjectures made touching the Origination of Mankind because there seems to be one Radical Language from which all others have their derivation though some carry in them more some less Memorials of their Original as they were more or less remote in their Inception The Languages of the World may be aptly enough divided into the Primo primae the Primo secundae and the Secundo secundae The Language which I call Primo primae must needs be but one if the Original of Mankind were but two common Parents of either Sex as the Holy Scriptures teach us and this one Language they must needs learn either from a conformation of Voices by the Angels such might that vocal Language be between Almighty God by the ministration of Angels and Adam whereof we read in the first and second Chapters of Genesis or it
before they were born and many other Historians for a much longer time and we give them credit and certainly such an Occurrence of such remark as the Universal Flood and the Re-peopling of the World must needs be fresh in memory for such a Period of about 800 Years especially considering that the Peopling of the World was a gradual and successive business that must needs preserve its Memory even upon its own account for it was still current and many were concerned in it in the preservation of the laying the first Foundations of their States and Republicks 3. As the Period or distance of time was not great so if we consider the longevity of Mens Lives in those times the Period was not much longer than three Generations and so the Tradition of things might be preserved fresh and certain unto the time of Moses without any great difficulty For Shem that was an Eye-witness of the Flood was contemporary with Abraham Abraham was contemporary with Jacob Cohath the Son of Levi was contemporary with Jacob and with Amram the Father of Moses and Son of Cohath So that the Tradition of the Flood and all that succeeded might be handed from Shem to Abraham from Abraham to Jacob from Jacob to Cohath from him to Amram and from him to Moses 4. Besides all this without any more Hands in the delivery of it over it appears that Abraham Isaac Jacob were great Men had great Families and Wealth were Men of great Note and Observation for their Learning and Knowledge Men that had great Expectations having a Promise of that Land to be given to their Posterity and although they kept Sheep and Cattel according to the custom of those Eastern Countries yet they were great Princes and Men of excellent Education doubtless Abraham instructed his Son in all the Knowledge that he had received by Tradition from his Ancestors the like did Isaac and after him Jacob. And therefore it might very reasonably be thought that the Traditions of former things were kept fresh and pure in this Line of Men. And though we have no Writings extant ancienter than Moses yet probably in his time there might be Books or at least Monuments and Inscriptions of things done before his time which might preserve the Memory of things past as well as our Books do now For it is not to be doubted but Writing was much ancienter than Moses his time Job speaks of Writing as a thing in use in his time Job 19.23 24. and Josephus tells us of certain Pillars erected by Seth wherein the Monuments of Learning and History were preserved Joseph l. 1. Antiquitat cap. 2. and Moses mentions Books written by others either before or in his time I very well know that Moses had a greater means to know all those things that to a Jew or a Christian are of greater weight than all these namely the Infallible Conduct Revelation and Inspiration of the Divine Spirit But the truth is we are faln into an Age of many Christians in Name and Profession that yet think it below them to believe upon that account without some farther Evidence that may satisfie their Reason I have therefore subjoyned these and the following Considerations to make it appear That upon the bare account of Moral Evidence more is to be said for the truth of the History of Moses than may be said for the truth of any other History of things transacted before the life of the Historiographer 2. Again we usually allow such an Historian to be worthy of belief even in those things whereof we have no other Evidence than the Credit of the Historian if we find many things delivered by him to have so great an Evidence of Truth that they cannot well be doubted by any reasonable Man I will admit that Moses delivers many things that were antecedent to him and can have now no other Evidence than the Credit Prudence and Fidelity of the Historian himself as touching the Derivation of the Nations of the Earth from the several Sons of Noah and though possibly when he wrote there was a vigorous and authentical Tradition or other authentick Evidence of the Truth of them which it may be is now so lost that we have no other Evidence thereof but the bare Relation of Moses this I do for the present admit though in the sequel it will appear that there are other concurrent or collateral Evidences that assert and attest it yet it is plain that the same Moses writes many things that have so undoubted and so solid a Tradition asserting it that no Man can doubt it that will not first deny his own Reason As for instance Can there be any doubt but that the Family of the Israelites were derived from Abraham Isaac and Jacob and the 12 Patriarchs that they were brought out of Egypt under the Conduct of Moses that they lived in the Wilderness forty Years and were there miraculously fed by Quails and Manna since this was written in that very Time and Age that could and would have contradicted it if false Can there be any doubt but the History of his making the Ark and the Tabernacle were true since both continued for many hundred Years after Can there be any doubt of the History of the Fiery Serpents and the Cure of their Biting by the Brazen Serpent which continued in the Wilderness until the time of Hezekiah which was many hundred Years after with an unquestionable Tradition of the reason of its Making Can there be any doubt whether he divided the Land of Canaan in such manner as is set down in his life time namely to the two Tribes and a half on the farther side of Jordan and his Prescripts for the future dividing of the rest since it was enjoyed according to those Prescripts for many hundreds of Years after and part of it until the coming of Christ Can there be any doubt that he gave those Laws Moral Judicial and Ceremonial recorded by him since those very Laws have been for the space of near two thousand Years the very Rule and Model by which the Sacred and Civil Concerns of that People were always ruled and governed and that in contemplation of the same Law that was given by the Hand of Moses and so recorded in his Books of Exodus Leviticus Numbers and Deuteronomy I say we have not greater Evidence that there was such a Man as Alfred Edward the Confessor or William the Conqueror or that there were such Laws of the Confessor such a Survey of England called Doomsday made by William the Conqueror such an Abbey founded by him in Memory of his Victory in Sussex called Abbatia de Bello such Laws made by H. 1. as are transcribed in the Red Book of the Exchequer under that name such a Charter of King John made at Reningmead or such a Charter as Magna Charta made by King H. 3. than we have that there were such Laws such Distributions of the Land of Canaan and such
of one Country supplied by another as Canaan was by Egypt 2. It is ordinarily not sudden but gradual and foreseen before felt in the extremity which gives People opportunity of transmigrations 3. Though the ordinary supplies fail yet necessity makes Men ingenious and hardy and if they have but Landroom or Sea-room they find some supplies for their hunger which they did not before think of or use though it be otherwise in a close Siege but that is but a narrow compass and not of moment to be compared to the multitudes abroad 2. Plagues are indeed a sharp and speedy Visitation yet it hath these Allays 1. Many there are that are able to escape it by Flights some by Physick and some by their Age and Complexion 2. It is not ordinarily of long continuance the strength of the Disease seldom continuing longer than a Year 3. Though the Desolation be terrible while it lasts yet it rarely consumes one half of the Inhabitants The late Computation of the Number of the Inhabitants Men Women and Children in the City of London and the 16 and 10 Out-Parishes are estimated at 384000 and about six Millions in the whole Kingdom of England 2. The greatest Plagues in our remembrance have not swept away above 100000 at most in London and the Suburbs Indeed that before mentioned by Walsingham which was in a manner Universal and successively in several places of the World lasted about 15 Years is said to be so great that scarce a tenth part of People survived it yet if it left a tenth part suppose in England it left near a Million of People which in a little time would and did recover and increase considerably as shall be shewn 4. Again suppose the Devastation by Plagues greater than History gives us an Account yet it is for the most part a Disease that reigns in some times and some places it may fall in those places where the numbers are already too small and need an Increase And so taken singly by it self is incompetent and unsuitable to the Excess unless managed by the wise Conduct of Almighty God 3. Touching Wars and Internecions It is true it hath been a great Consumption of Mankind but yet it is not an equal Corrective of the Excess of Generations 1. Though such have happened and frequently yet they seem against the nature and disposition of Mankind ordinarily and in a course of Humane Constitution Naturally Mankind is a sociable Creature and more than Bees as the Philosopher observes and though sometimes Passions Jealousies and Politick ends produce Wars yet naturally Man is not a Creature of prey upon others as Lions and Tigers are 2. Ordinarily though Wars are by one Kingdom or State upon another yet they preserve their own Societies with increase under Forein Wars and therefore Civil Wars as they are more destructive so they are more rare because they are more unnatural and destructive to that which Men usually are careful to preserve namely their own Societies 3. It seems an improper and unsuitable Corrective because Accident and the Wills of Men have so great an Influence in the production of Wars whereby it may fall out that Wars may happen in those Ages Times or Places and consequently Devastations upon them where or when they need not to correct And though it be true that a Plethory or Excess of Numbers of Men sometimes by a kind of Natural or at least Moral Consequence cause Wars yet we have hardly known any produced singly upon that Account though it hath oftentimes occasioned Transmigrations deductions of Colonies and new Plantations and the World hath been never yet so full but a weaker or oppressed Party have sound room to retreat from the violence or insolence of their Oppressors 4. Touching Floods and Conflagrations It is true that Almighty God as he manageth the forementioned Reductives by his Wisdom and Providence so he hath done these especially in that Universal Deluge But as they are instanced in by the Philosophers as Natural or Periodical Events whereby Mankind is reduced to an equability we have no reason to believe them Therefore I say 1. That there doth not appear either in History or in the Observation of Nature any such Periodical Floods or Conflagrations those that we have Relations of happened indeed near together and in the same Country viz. in Greece had they been Periodical or Natural probably either by a continued Circulation or Rotation or else by the interposition of some reasonable intervals the like would have happened before in Persia or some Easterly parts of Asia or since in Italy or Germany or some other Western parts of the World which we have not observed to be And therefore this Supposition of the Hyems magna whereby parts of the Earth should be successively drowned seems to be only an Imagination or at least it cannot be known with any tolerable certainty in as much as the Periods are supposed to be vast and not happening within any competent time to give us an Observation or Proof thereof And therefore although we yearly see a reduction of the numerous increase of Insects by the Winter Frost and Storms yearly happening we have no warrant from thence to imagin that great Winter that must make the like reduction of Men and Brutes for every Year gives us Experience of the one but never any Age gave us any reasonable Observation upon which to build an Hypothesis of the like Periodical Revolution of the other and the same I say touching Conflagrations Indeed there have been accidental and particular Instances of both but not any Periodical Return or Revolutions thereof quasi in quodam ambitu circuitu naturali 2. If such were supposed yet unless they were very sudden and very general they would not be sufficient to make the Correction Men would escape Floods by running up to Mountains and Hills and though some might perish through improvidence or though the suddenness of a Deluge many would escape 3. Natural and Periodical Floods or Conflagrations would not be sutable nor commensurate to the Increase which depending either upon Accidents or the Wills of Men would possibly be more in one place than in another The Country of Palestine would be more peopled than the Sands and Desarts of Arabia Egypt than the Mountains of Ethiopia and fruitful Countries or Countries open to Trade and safe from Incursions and Invasions more populous than barren Countries or such as are out of the way of Trade or subject to Inroads But Natural and Periodical Floods or Conflagrations would probably keep some constant or ordinary Tract or Course either from East to West or from North to South and possibly keeping in such a Climate or Latitude possibly in another whereby possibly these Plagues might be more fierce in those places or Continents where the World wants People and less vehement in those places where there needs a Corrective for their excess If these should be Universal they would destroy the Race
by Wars Oppressions and Internecions Plagues Famines and other Calamities we find the Product of one Nation derived from only two Persons Isaac and Rebecca in the compass of about 5000 Years swoln into incredible numbers of Millions of Persons now existing and known to be of that Linage and Descent and still continuing unquestionably in that Distinction besides those multitudes derived from the Line of Esau and the ten Tribes which are as it were lest and confounded without any distinction among other Nations And thus far of the first Instance concerning the Multiplication of the Nation of the Jews The next Instance that I shall give shall be nearer home the Kingdom of England I shall not give any Instance touching it before the Conquest because those times are dark and besides the Vicissitudes and Successions of various Nations in this Kingdom renders the discovery of the Progress of Generations of Men or the Increases thereof difficult as Britons Romans Picts Saxons and Danes The ancient Inhabitants were the Britons the Body of which People hath been in a great measure shut up and contained within the Country of Wales but what by the transplanting of many of the Welsh into England and by transplanting of the English into Wales it is not possible to say that all the Britons are confined to the Country of Wales or that none but Britons are there and therefore there can be no particular or evident Conclusion made touching their Increase or Multiplication But I shall take a shorter Period or Compass of Time namely the last 600 Years or thereabouts since the Norman Conquest And although it may be true that many Persons of Forein Countries have come into England and planted themselves here so that the whole Increase of this Kingdom cannot be singly attributed to those that were either Natives or such as came in with the Conquerour but many Scotcâ— Irish Dutch but especially French either by Naturalizations or Transmigrations have increased the Inhabitants of this Island yet considering that probably the Migrations of the English into Scotland Holland France and other Countries have made amends for their Migrations hither We may make a reasonable Conjecture that the Descendents from those that inhabited this Kingdom in the time of the Conquerour have increased exceedingly above what they were in that time And the Evidence thereof is this King William the First after his Victory over Herald did in the 16 th Year of his Reign over England caule a Survey to be made of all the Cities Towns Mannors and inhabited Lands in England Northumberland Cumberland Durham and North-Wales This Survey was finished in the 20 th Year of his Reign and the Book it self preserved to this Day among the Records of the Exchequer not only a Transcript or Copy but the very Original Book it self and is called Doomsday In this Book are entred the Names of the Mannors or inhabited Townships Boroughs and Cities and the Owner of them the Number of Plough-Lands that each contains and the Number of the Inhabitants upon them under the several Names appropriate to those Places As for Instance Ibi 12 Burgenses 5 Villani 5 Bordarii 5 Nativi 5 Radiminches 5 Cotterelli and the like according to the quality or condition of the Inhabitants So that this Book in effect gives an Account not only of the Manurable Lands in every Mannor Town or Vill but also of the Number and Natures of their several Inhabitants To make a Calculation of the Number of Plough-Lands and Inhabitants through all England as they are recorded and to make therewith a Comparison unto the present State and Number of Inhabitants at this Day throughout England is a laborious piece of work but it is not difficult to be done in any one County I have tryed the Comparison in the County of Gloucester through some great Boroughs as Gloucester it self Thornbury Tetbury and other places and in effect through the whole County and I do find 1. That there are very many more Vills and Hamlets now than there were then and very few Villages Towns or Parishes then which continue not to this Day but now there are as many as then and many more The 5 th of March 9 E. 2. there issued Writs to the Sheriffs of the several Counties to return the Names of the several Vills and Land-Owners in their several Bayliwicks which was accordingly done and remains of Record in the Exchequer under the stile of Nomina Villarum and the Sum of the Vills of Gloucestershire together with the five Boroughs of Gloucester Bristol Berkley Dursly and Newenham amounted to 234 which I take it are more than are in Doomsday and yet not so many as are at this day and those that continue to this day are far more populous than they were at the taking of either of those Surveys 2. That there is much more Tillage and more Plough-Lands now than there were then which happens by the reduction of many great Wasts and Commons into Tillage or Meadow or Pasture which then were only Wasts and therefore not particularly surveyed because of no considerable Value and not taken notice of in that Survey 3. That the number of Inhabitants now are above twenty times more than they were at that time as well in particular Towns Boroughs and Mannors as in the general extent of the County and yet that Survey even as to the number and quality of those that resided in those Towns or Mannors at least as Housholders is very precise and particular I have not yet made an exact particular Calculation of the Number recorded in that Book through the whole County but I will give a few Instances of particular Towns which may give an estimate touching the whole Gloucester is now a very great and populous City formerly before the time of H. 8. a Borough In the Survey of Doomsday it is surveyed distinct from the Bertun of Glouc ' the gross of the Borough is surveyed together in the beginning of the County but there are some other particular Burgages thereof mentioned under the Titles of particular Mens Possessions as Terra Rogeri de Lacy Terra Elnuffi de Hesding c. The whole concretion of the City of Gloucester consists partly of what was the ancient Borough partly of accessions from the Mannors or Villages adjacent as Barton and some others I shall therefore cast up the whole Number of all that were in Gloc ' or Barton In the Survey of Gloucester there are reckoned 23 Burgages and Houses 16 that were demolished for the building of the Castle 14 that were wasted and some that belonged to Osbertus Episcopus not numbred but yielded the yearly Rent of 10 Shillings which according to the usual rate of the Houses in Gloucester at that time which was at 5 d or 6 d a House might produce 20 Houses in toto 73. Besides these there are surveyed under the Titles of several Owners of Lands sparsim through the Book as under the Title
Terra S. Dionysii Ecclesia S. Martini and others according to my best Computation and Observation 82. Besides these under the Title of the Poffessions of S t Peter of Glouc ' there are reckoned up as many Burgenses as yielded the Abbot anciently the Rent of 19 s and 5 d and 16 Salmons but at that time 16 Salmons and 50 s Rent without any certain number of Burgesses but if we allow 6 d for a Burgess we may suppose them to 100. The Total 255. The Mannor of Barton or the Barton of Glouc ' some part whereof hath been taken into the Suburbs of Glouc ' was of two Owners part was the King's Lands part belonged to the Abbey of S t Peters but the whole number of the Housholders inhabiting the whole Barton with its members Tuffly Barnwood c. were as followeth Villani 56 Bordarii 39 Servi 19 Molini 04 Liberi homines 10 In toto 128 And the Total of the whole Account of the City of Glouc ' the Barton with its members Brewere Upton Merwin Barnwood Tuffly Norwent amounted then only to 383. And the single City of Gloucester within the Walls contains at this day near 1000 Houses and Housholds Again the Borough and Mannor of Barclay with the members thereof enumerated in Doomsday viz. Alkington Hinton Cam Gosington Dersiloge Cowly Ewly Nimsfield Wotton Simondshall Kingscote Beverscote Oselword Almondsbury part of Cromhall Harefell Weston Elberton Cromale Erlingham Escelword are surveyed to contain in the whole to 590 Families whereas at this time there are near 5000 Families in this Precinct the Parish of Wotton yielding upon the point of 2000 Comunicants and that of Dersilege above 500 at this day Again Tetbury and the Hamlet of Upton belonging to it the Survey of Doomsday gives us an Account of about 73 Families of all kinds belonging to it But now I believe there are little less than 1500 Communicants in that Parish Sodbury the Survey gives us an Account of about 46 Families of all sorts they are now near twenty times so many Thornbury with the Hamlets thereunto belonging the Account of Doomsday is of 105 Families of all sores there is now near six times so many Aderly a little Village at the time of making of that Survey consisting not of above 17 Families of all sorts now above twice as many The like Instances might be produced with the like evidence of very great Increases in the Towns of Cirencester Minchin Hampton Teuxbury Campden Winchcomb Avening Westbury near Bristol and generally through the whole County of Gloucester which I do not without just reason suppose hath more than twenty times the Inhabitants which it had at the time of the coming in of William the First which is not now above 604 Years since And if we should institute a later Comparison viz. between the present time and the beginning of Queen Elizabeth which is not above 112 Years since and compare the numbers of Trained Souldiers then and now the number of Subsidy-men then and now they will easily give us an Account of a very great Increase and Multiplication of People within this Kingdom even to admiration And let any man but consider the Increase of London within the compass of 40 or 50 Years we shall according to the Observations framed to my hands find That the In-Parishes until the late Fire in that time have increased from 9 to 10 or a 10 th part and that the 16 Out-Parishes have in that time increased from 7 to 12 and yet without any decrement or decay of the rest of the Kingdom By which and infinite undeniable Instances that might be given it is apparent that within the compass of the last 600 Years this Kingdom hath increased mightily in its number of Native Inhabitants And yet it is most apparent that it hath had as great Allays and Abatements of the Multiplication of Mankind in it as any Kingdom in the World For Instance 1. In respect of the nature of its Situation which is all Maritim and consists much in Navigation which exhausts abundance of People by Diseases and Casualties at Sea 2. It hath been as often visited with sore Pestilences Epidemical Diseases and Mortality by reason thereof as any Country the experience of the last 60 Years gives us abundance of Instances thereof and former Ages were as frequently visited in this kind as later 3. Forein Wars both at Sea and Land have devoured great multitudes of our Inhabitants as those formerly with Scotland France Spain and lately with the Netherlands and French 4. No Kingdom in Europe hath had greater Experience of Civil Wars nor greater Consumption of Men thereby than England hath had since the time of William the First For not to instance in our Wars with the Welsh and Irish let any man read but the Histories of the Wars here in England between King Stephen and H. 1. and his Mother King John and his Nobles King H. 3. and the Nobility between King E. 2. and the Earls of Lancaster and Mortimer the Wars between the two Houses of York and Lancaster and their Partizans from the time of H. 4. unto the beginning of H. 7. in one Battel between H. 6. and E. 4. killed of one side 30000 the Rebellions in the times of H. 7. and others the Kings and Queens that succeeded him and the loss of many lives that happened by the suppression thereof the late cruel Wars within these 30 Years last past in England there cannot be Instances given in any one Kingdom of greater Abatements of the Increase by Wars and Internecions than may be given in England 5. Let us also consider the vast Evacuations of Men that England hath had by Forein Assistances lent to Forein Kingdoms and States by Volunteers and Auxiliaries as to Scotland in the late Queens time to France to the Netherlands to Germany 6. To these also add the vast numbers of Men that have transplanted themselves not only into France Holland and our neighbour Nations but also to Virginia Maryland New England Barbadoes Bermudas to Amboyna and other places in the East India and lastly into Jamaica we shall find upon these and other Accounts that England hath had as great Correctives of the Excesses of their Generations within these last 600 Years as any People in the World Add to these the great Famines and Pestilences which have happened within the compass of 600 Years recorded in History and obvious to our own Experience And therefore if notwithstanding all these Correctives the number of Men have continually increased and that in so vast and observable a degree above their decrease we have as much reason to conclude a parity in the rest of Mankind and possibly were we as well acquainted with the Concerns of other Kingdoms or States especially of the Netherlands and France the Instances of this Increase would he as much and possibly more conspicuous than among us Upon the whole matter therefore I conclude That as the Correctives instanced in the
as I remember that in Rome it self in process of time the Latin Language was so altered that the Priests could not readily understand the Hymns composed for their Idol-Service by the ancient Priests of Rome 4. As succession of Ages so variety of places in the same Country and Nation gives such variety of Dialects in the same Language that one side of a Kingdom scarce understands the other witness the four Dialects of the Greek Language and the several Pronunciations of the French in several parts of France and the various Dialects of the English in the North and West that render their Expressions many times unintelligible to the other and both scarce intelligible to the Midland various Provinces of the same Kingdom and that at first used the same Language in process of time use various manners of Pronunciation which in time also alter the structure of the Words as they are spoken or written which in farther process of time alters the Language into several Dialects as it did in Greece and other places 5. Every Nation hath a certain humour or disposition appropriate to it which by a kind of Natural necessity frames the very Air of Words Speech and Accents accommodate and similar to that Natural humour or inclination Graiis dedit ore rotundo Musa loqui In the very frame of the Speech of the Spaniard Italian French Dutch Welsh English we may find a kind of Image of their Complexions and Tempers suiting and framing their Speech Accents Tone Pronunciation Vowels conform thereunto no less than in their Gate and Gesture and this very Account would in a little time diversifie one and the same Language in the Mouths of several Nations so that in a little space they would not be the same 6. Commerce and Trade with forein Nations gives great alterations in Languages each Country borrowing some Words Accents or Expressions from the other whereby in a little time it is quite altered and becomes a mixt confused Language made up of the Ingredients of several Languages 7. As in Clothes so in Words Phrases and Expressions there commonly grow new Fashions whereby it comes to pass that the same Words and Phrases that were not used or scarce understood in former Ages become in Fashion Reputation and Vogue in another Age and this obtains sometims from the Courts of Princes wherein a Word a little in request soon grows in fashion with the Gentry and from them at the third hand passeth over to the Tradesman or Countryman 8. Many times the Literati and Scholares coyn new Words and sometimes in common Speech or Writing in their Native Language give Terminations and Idiotisms sutable to their Native Language unto Words newly invented or translated out of other Languages which is sometimes done out of Affectation sometimes out of Necessity by reason of the want of sufficient significancy in their own Language and when such Phrases or Words come abroad in printed Books in Sermons or Orations they become more general and incorporate into the Native Language 9. Many Languages of Countries are greatly altered and mingled and sometimes totally eradicated and lost by Invasions and Victories or by transmission of Colonies by Forein Princes of a different Language Thus by the chacing the Britons out of England into Wales their Language was wholly exterminated from hence with them and by the successive Incursions and Invasions of the Saxons Danes and Normans the English Language grew a kind of mixture of them all which yet in process of time hath been so much varied that the English that was written in the time of H. 1. is not now intelligible It is true that those Languages that are not now Native though sometimes they were but are preserved in Writing or Rules or Canons have long kept their simplicity as the Hebrew Greek and Latin which have been indeed preserved from being lost by vulgar use but when a Language once becomes of vulgar use it soon loseth its integrity thus the Latin degenerated into the Italian and the very Hebrew and Greek more barbarous by much where they are popularly used than in the ancient Writings wherein they have been preserved and kept to their ancient integrity Considering therefore the great instability of Languages the great variations and changes to which they are subject the great alterations that they have had the great difficulty of finding any Language which upon grounds barely of Reason without Divine Revelation we can safely call Original and the great difficulty of deducing other Languages entirely from it It is hard for us singly to lay any weight upon this Instance to prove the Origination of Man upon a meer Moral Account or Topical Ratiocination thereof CAP. V. The Fourth Instance of Fact seeming to evince the Novity of Mankind namely the Inceptions of the Religions and Deities of the Heathens and the deficiency of this Instance REligion seems to be as connatural to Humane Nature as Reason and possibly a more distinguishing property of Humane Nature than it For almost in all sensible Creatures especially those of the more perfect kind a certain Image or weak Adumbration of something like Reason appears yet we find in no Creatures below Mankind any thing like Religion or Veneration of a Deity And those faint Conjectures touching something analogical to Religion observed in Elephants are too weak to give any reasonable admission thereof in them Religion therefore seems as ancient as Humanity it self at least of some kind of dress or fashion or other therefore if we can arrive at the Inception of Religion Veneration of a Deity and those Rites Adorations and Services that result from thence we have reason to conjecture that the Inception of Mankind was not long before And because the Inception of Mankind is not doubted by Jews or Christians who acknowledge the Truth and Divine Authority of the Scriptures that reveal and discover the Origination both of Mankind and the World but the doubt only resteth among those of the Gentile World it hath been thought a reasonable Argument to convince the Heathen World of the Origination of Mankind by discovering the Origination not only of the Religious Worship of the Heathens but even of those very Deities which they celebrated and venerated and paid that Religious Worship unto And this Discovery of the Origination of their Heathenish Deities hath been endeavoured by two Methods First by following the ancient Histories of the Phenicians Egyptians Grecians and Romans by which means they have traced up most if not all their Heathenish Deities to their Original and their first Inauguration into Deities whereas they were in their original for the most part but Men of great Note and Merit or Power in the Ancient World or such who outgoing the ordinary rate of Mankind by some signal Excellence Learning or Industry were by the admiring inferior sort of Men translated into the Opinion and Veneration of Gods and then there wanted not Poets and Priests to derive from them a
the Continent of Asia about Japan or Cathay so that a Land-passage might be out of Asia into Groenland and thence into America But this is only conjectured and not fully discovered to be so But however the Case now stands with the three known Parts of the World in relation to its contiguity with the Continent of America it is not impossible but in that long tract of 4000 Years at least which hath hapned since the Universal Deluge there hath been great alterations in the situations of the Sea and Earth possibly there might be anciently Necks of Land that maintained passage and communication by Land between the two Continents Many Instances of this kind are remembred by Pliny not only of the great Atlantick Island mentioned by the Egyptian Priest in Plato's Timaeus of a great bigness almost contiguous to the Western parts of Spain and Africa yet wholly swallowed up by that Ocean to which it hath given its Name of the Atlantick Ocean which if true might for ought we know afford a Passage from Africa to America by Land before that Submersion but also many more Instances of the like Variations thus he reports that Sicily was anciently divided from Italy Cyprus from Syria Euboea from Boetia Vide Plin. l. 2. cap. 88 89 90 91. Strabo also in his first Book seems to referr the Straits or Apertures of the Euxin and Mediterranean Seas to the like separations made by the force of the Sea and attributes those great Floods and Inundations to the elevation and subsiding of the Moles terrestris in these words Restat ut causam adscribamus solo sive quod mari subest sive quod inundatur potius tamen ei quod mari subest hoc enim multo est mobilius quod ob humiditatem celerius mutari possit Spiritus enim hujusmodi omnium rerum causa ibi est copiosior Sed sicuti dixi causa horum efficiens accidentium est quod eadem sola alias attolluntur alias subsidunt and he resembles the ordinary Elevations and Depressions whereby the ordinary Fluxes and Refluxes are made to the Exspiration and Respiration of Animals but those greater and extraordinary Elevations and Depressions of the Earth to the greater Accidents Nam diluvia terraemotus eruptiones flatuum tumores subiti terrae in mari latentis mare quoque extollunt subsidentésque in se eaedem terrae faciunt ut mare dimittatur And it is no new or feigned Observation That as the Volcans in the Land as Aetna and Vesuvius raise up those great Protuberances which seem Natural Mountains so the like Volcans or Fiery Eruptions happen sometimes in the Land subjected to the Sea whereby great quantities of Earth together with Fire are thrown up and grow into Islands De quibus videsis Strabonem Plinium in locis citatis And if we may give credit to the Conjectures of Verstegan the Countries of England and France were formerly conjoyned and after separated by the Irruption of the Sea between Dover and Calais And therefore although it may be that at this day there is no Land-passage from this Elder World unto that of America yet within the tract of 4000 Years such there might have been whereby both Men and Beasts especially from about Tartary or China might pass or between Norway or Finland and the Northern part of the American Continent But we need not go so far from home nor resort to the Ages of ancient times for the evincing the great Changes that have been between the Sea and Lands sometimes by tempestuous Winds sometimes by Earthquakes sometimes and that most commonly by the working of the Sea by casting up Silt and Sand and by exaggerations thereby wrought elegantly described by Ovid 15. Metamorph. Vidi ego quod fuerat quondam solidissima tellus Esse fretum vidi factas ex aequore terras Et procul à pelago conchae jacuere marinae Et vetus inventa est in montibus anchora summis Quódque fuit campus vallem decursus aquarum Fecit eluvie mons est deductus in aequor Eque paludosa siccis humus aret arenis The Instances of latter Discoveries which make evident this various state of the Globe of Earth and Water thus described by the Poet are among others those that follow 1. Some Towns that were anciently Havens and Ports where Ships did ride are now by exaggeration of Sand between those Towns and the Sea converted into firm Land 2 3 4 Miles distant from the Sea such was S t Omer in Flanders Old Rumney in Kent Rye in Suffolk vide Mr. Dugdale his History of Draining pag. 173. and the Authors there cited by him 2. some whole Countries as well as the Egyptian Delta recovered to be dry Land partly by the exaggeration of Sand by the Sea or the out-falls of great Rivers thus the whole Country of Holland seems to be an Accretion partly by the Sea partly by the River Rhine Dugdale ibid. p. 12. 3. Some great Continents and Tracts of Ground were anciently firm Land and full of great Woods that could not have less time than 500 Years continuance and yet were afterwards reduced again into the Dominion of the Ocean and after all that re-reduced into firm Land leaving the infallible Signatures of these several Changes though the precise times thereof exceed the Memory of any Men alive Instances whereof are as follow In the great Level near Thorny several Trees of Oak and Firr some severed from their Roots others joyned to their Roots which stand in firm Earth below the Moor and in all probability have lain there hundreds of Years till covered by the inundation of the fresh and salt Waters and the Silt and Moorish Earth exaggerated upon them and the like monuments of great Trees buried in great quantities in the Isle of Axholm about 3 Foot and some 5 Foot under ground whereof there are multitudes some Oaks of 5 Yards in compass Firr-Trees of 30 Foot long Vide Dugd. ubi supra pag. 141 171. Mr. Ray in his Ingenious Observations upon his Travels in the Netherlands c. pag. 6. gives us the like account of great quantities of subterraneous Woods lying 10 and 20 Ells below the Superficies of the Ground prostrate towards the East which are supposed to be anciently thrown down by the irruption of the Sea and strong Western Winds which yet now and for all the time of the Memory of Man or History extant are firm Land namely Bruges in Flanders But that one Instance is instar omnium remembred by Mr. Dugdale ubi supra pag. 172 but of known and notorious truth the Sceleton of a great Sea-fish above 20 Foot long found in the Downs or Uplands of Cammington in Huntingdonshire very far distant from the Sea which is an unquestionable Evidence that the Sea was sometime Master of that Tract of Ground 4. Touching the Conchae marinae of several sorts it is most unquestionable I referr my self herein to the Relation of Mr.
Francis Bacon in the latter end of his Natural History will find such Changes by the strength of Imagination as are very remarkable It is probable that in the great plenty of Birds and Fowls in uninhabited Woods of the Western World even the several aspects of their Figure and Colour in their seasons of Copulation may make various Configurations and Colours in their Broods 5. But that which is more to my purpose and of greater evidence is this Variety of Soils and Climates makes admirable and almost specifical Variations even of the same Species of Vegetables Animals and Men In Vegetables a fruitful Soil or Climate improves in Beauty Bigness and Virtue a barren Soil or Climate impairs them among Animals the Indian Elephants are larger than the African the English Mastiff degenerates in his courage and fierceness at least in the first succession by generation when brought into France the Barbary Horse is of a finer Spirit and Make than the Flanders Horse yet degenerates in a great measure in the first or second generation when removed from Barbary Nay let us look upon Men in several Climates though in the same Continent we shall see a strange variety among them in Colour Figure Stature Complexion Humor and all arising from the difference of the Climate though the Continent be but one as to point of Access and mutual Intercourse and possibility of Intermigrations The Ethiopian black flat-nosed and crisp-haired the Moors tawny the Spaniards swarthy little haughty deliberate the French spritely sudden the Northern people large fair-complexioned strong sinewy couragious nay we may see in more conterminous Climates even in those of ours great variety in the People thereof the Up-lands in England yield strong sinewy hardy Men the Marsh-lands especially about Somersetshire Men of large and high stature the Welsh that inhabit the Mountains commonly sharp-visaged And there is no less difference in the Humors and Dispositions of People inhabiting several Climates than there is in their Statures and Complexions And it is an evidence that this ariseth from the Climate because long continuance in these various Climates assimilate those that are of a Forein extraction to the Complexions and Constitutions of the Natives after the succession of a few Generations And upon this account there may be great variety in the Colour Figure and Make of divers Birds and Animals in America from those in the Eastern World and yet both have the same original extraction for there is no less variety in the Brutes and Birds of Africa from those of Europe or Asia and yet nothing impedes their mutual commigrations being the same Continent though differing Climates And therefore although Acosta and others tell us of Brutes and Birds in America that are not found in Europe or Asia it doth not at all enervate the Sacred History it is possible there may be the like in Africa or some Parts of Asia which yet Acosta never travelled 2. But if not they might arise by an anomalous Mixture of Species 3. Possibly they may be of the same Species with the Primitives but received some accidental Variations in process of time as the various kinds of Dogs here in England Mastiffs Spaniels Hounds Greyhounds c. might in their Primitives be of one Species the like may be said of various kinds of Apes Baboons Monkies of Elks Buffalo's and Cows the like of several sorts of Parrots which primitively might be but one Species and receive accidental Variations in process of generations by some of the means above mentioned and thus Crows Daws Rooks might be but a bastard kind of Raven the Royston Crow and the Cornish Daw though they have accidental differences from those among us seem yet to be of the same kind with ours and so possibly might the Sheep of Peru called by Acosta Pacos and Guanacos be primitively Sheep but differenced by their long abode in successive generations in Peru the Auza's and Poulasses mentioned by Acosta lib. 4. cap. 37. may be but a Species of Ravens though by the Climate accidentally altered in bigness and shape These things I mention that it may appear That even in the same Continent wherein a mutual transition may be without difficulty yet the very Climate may as it were appropriate some Brutes to certain Countries which yet might without any great difficulty be at first Creation of them contained within nearer bounds and might upon the occasion of the Common Deluge be drawn together into the Ark and afterwards by their wandring farther and inuring themselves to a certain Continent or part thereof be accidentally changed and as it were appropriate to it And also to shew That Animals even of the same Original Extraction and Species be diversified by accustomable residence in one Climate from what they are in another Therefore possibly as little Consequence may be drawn against the common Original of the Capita specierum Animalium in Asia and America as may be drawn from the diversity of some kind of Animals inhabiting in divers parts of Europe Asia or Africa which notwithstanding is one common Continent I do therefore conclude That the variety of the Brutes and Birds in America from those in Asia where the Ark was made is no Argument against their Original from those that were preserved in the Ark Because that it doth not yet appear that those that are now known in this World do differ any more than accidentally from those in the Western World viz. either by the Couplings and Mixtures of Animals of several Species or by reason of the Variety of the Climate or Temperament thereof which Variations might be acquired by a dispersion of them as well into America as other parts of Europe Africa or Asia after the Universal Deluge As to the Second namely The difficulty of the first Migration of Brutes and Birds from Asia where the Capita specierum were first created and after in the Ark preserved I shall first deliver my self from the lesser difficulties of the Objection and afterwards consider the greater 1. It seems but little difficulty touching the translation of Birds from hence thither for although without the supposition of Plato's Atlantis or some number of smaller Islands in a convenient distance in the Atlantick Ocean it is hardly possible to suppose that any Fowls could maintain a flight from Spain or Africa cross the Atlantick Ocean into America yet there are other Seas between some parts of Europe and Asia and the Northern parts of America where Fowls by flight might pass from hence thither as the Fretum Anian and the Sea bordering upon Norway and Finland 2. As to the Water-Fowls the difficulty is less for they can and do supply the weariness of a long flight by taking Water and infinite numbers of them are found in Islands far remote from any Continent and even in the main Ocean 3. As to Domestick-Fowl as Hens Geese Turkies c. and tame Animals for use delight or food as Horses Dogs Hogs
that is analogal to the state of the Elementary and mixed Inanimate Bodies that there are some more active and vigorous Qualities that seem continually to exercise a Sovereignty and Tyranny over the more passive and weak Natures and prey upon them Thus Heat and also in some degree Cold are always persecuting and foyning at the weaker and more unactive parts of Nature So among Brutes Birds Fishes Insects there is a continual invading and prevalence of the more powerful active and lively over the more weak flegmatick and unactive Creatures the Bear Lion Wolf Dog Fox c. pursue the Sheep Oxen Hare Coney c. and prey upon them the like is evident among Birds and Fishes and generally Insects being the weaker and more inconsiderable parts of Nature 2. That the vicissitudes of Generation and Corruption are by a kind of standing Law in Nature fixed in things and the Notions and Qualities of Natural things are so ordered to keep always that great Wheel in circulation and therein the Accesses and Recesses of the Sun the Influxes of the Heat thereof and of the other Heavenly Bodies and the mutual and restless Agitation of those two great Engins in Nature Heat and Cold are the great Instruments of keeping on foot the Rotation and Circle of Generations and Corruptions especially of Animals and Vegetables of all sorts 3. That yet these Motions of Generations and Corruptions and of the conducibles thereunto are so wisely and admirably ordered and contemperated and so continually managed and ordered by the wise Providence of the Rector of all things that things are kept in a certain due stay and equability and though the Motions of Generations and Corruptions and the Instruments and Engins thereof are in a continual course neither the excess of Generations doth oppress and over-charge the World nor the defect thereof or prevalence of Corruptions doth put a Period to the Species of things nor work a total Dissolution in Nature And upon this seemingly impertinent Diversion touching the Reductions and Correctives of these inferior Animals there may seem to be collected reasonably an analogical Inference of the like means of the Correctives of the Generations of Mankind and that although in an ordinary course of Humane Productions the Increase surmounts the Decay yet there may be reasonably supposed such Periodical Corrections as might fairly keep the state of Mankind in a mediocrity and equability although it should be supposed the Generations of Mankind had been Eternal And although these Correctives may not happen every Day or every Year in the ordinary course of things and therefore may be called extraordinary because they are less ordinary than the common Casualties of Mankind as Sickness or Accident that happens to this or that individual Person promiscuously yet they are in truth no more extraordinary than a cold Winter is extraordinary which although it is not every Day nor doth it happen every Year possibly in an equal Degree yet it is no extraordinary thing in Nature if it happens once in 5 or 10 or 20 Years Having therefore considered these Correctives in the inferior Animal Nature I shall now search out what may be those Correctives that may be applicable to the Reductions of the Generations of Mankind to an Equability or at least to keep it within such bounds as may keep it from surcharging the World whereby if in the Period of 2 or 3 or 4000 Years it may grow too luxuriant yet it may in probability be so far abated as may allow it an Increase of the like number of Years to attain its former proportion So that by these Prunings there may be a consistency of the Numbers of Mankind with an eternal succession of Individuals Those Reductions that may be supposed effectual for these Ends and such as the course of Mankind seem to have had great Experiences of are 1. Plagues and Epidemical Diseases 2. Famines 3. Wars and Internecions 4. Floods and Inundations 5. Conflagrations 1. Concerning Plagues and Epidemical Diseases the Histories of all times give us Accounts of the great Devastations that they have made in many places and sometimes it hath been it is true only in some particular Regions or Cities but at other times it hath been more universal and although at the same time in some Seasons it hath not universally prevailed yet it hath gradually and successively moved from place to place The ancient Plagues of former Ages in Forein Parts have been very terrible and cut off multitudes of People See a Collection of some of them by D r Hakewill lib. 2. sect 3. as namely That Plague in Ethiopia and also in most parts of the Roman Empire in the Year of Christ 250 which continued 15 Years and left not so many People in Alexandria as there were formerly aged Men that under Justinian in Constantinople and the parts adjacent wherein there dyed 10000 in a Day that in Africa whereby according to Procopius in the Country of Numidia there dyed 800000 Persons that in Greece under Michael Duca which so prevailed that the living were not sufficient to bury the dead and that in Italy in the Year 1359 whereby there were not left ten of a thousand this possibly may be the same mentioned by Walsingham but referred to the Year of Christ 1349 that prevailed over the World beginning in the Northern and Southern parts that the living were not able to bury the dead Existimabatur à pluribus quod vix decima pars hominum fuisset relicta ad vitam and presently after followed a great Murrain of Cattel so that he concludes Tanta ex his malis miseria secuta est quod mundus ad pristinum statum redeundi nunquam postea habuit facultatem Vide Lipsium de Constantia lib. 2. cap. 23. And if we look upon our own Country besides those great Plagues that have been in a manner universal there have been very many such in England sometimes more general sometimes more circumscribed to particular Cities or places As that Plague in the North parts of England mentioned by Walsingham in the beginning of R. 2. that in a manner depopulated those Parts that mentioned by the same Author Anno 7 H. 4. whereby there dyed in one Year 30000 in London which was considerable then considering the narrowness of the City in those days comparatively to what it now is besides the great desolation it made in the Country If we come to latter Years both in England and in Forein Parts the Observator of the Bills of Mortality before mentioned hath given us the best Account of the Number that late Plagues have swept away for Instance In London Anno Dom. 1592 of the Plague 11503 Anno Dom. 1593 10662 Anno Dom. 1603 30562 Anno Dom. 1625 35400 Anno Dom. 1636 10400 Anno Dom. 1665 68596 We have also Accounts of the great Devastations made by the Plague in late Years in Forein Parts In Amsterdam between 1622 and 1664 84564 And in the Year 1664
last Chapter are not in themselves likely to be sufficient and sutable to the Reduction of the Increase of Mankind to an Equability especially in an infinite succession of Eternal Generations So by plain Experience it is apparent and sensible that de facto they have not done it in a finite limit of Ages but Mankind have notwithstanding them increased every Age and the multitude of them that are born and live over-ballance the number of them that dye communibus annis or being taken upon a medium though possibly some one Year gave the advantage of Number to the Descendents yet it is not common nor ordinary but more than two or three Years for one give the advantage of Number to them that are born and live CAP. XI The Consequence and Illation upon the Premisses against the Eternity of Mankind THe great Assertors of the Eternity of the World and of Mankind have certainly gathered their Opinion principally from this That they find that Mankind is propagated by ordinary course of Generation and this they see by Experience And as they do so now so they did a hundred or a thousand Years since and as far as those Histories they credit give them account it was so in those times and in the times before them as far as Tradition could instruct them And although those various Occurrences of Wars Pestilences Migrations Floods Changes of Religion and Languages have obscured the Histories Relations and Traditions of former times before those Histories that are extant yet they think it becomes them as reasonable Men to believe that things have been always so as now they are and that it were a fondness to suppose or believe things to be otherwise than they have appeared in the tract of all Times or Ages And upon the same ground that these Men assert the Eternity of the World the Instance and Argument now produced of the plain and experienced Increase of the numbers of Men upon the face of the Earth seems much more forcibly to conclude against that supposed Eternity of Mankind For it is plain and evident to Sense that the World grows every day fuller than formerly notwithstanding all those Correctives and Reductives thereof And we have reason to think it is so in all places at least one with another and in all Ages and among all People as we find it in England for these 600 Years or among the People of the Jews for above 2000 Years For among these People and in these Periods of Time there have been as many and as great Diminutions and Abatements as ever were in such Periods of Time and yet though perchance in one Age they have diminished yet they have not been so diminished but that in the compass of four or five hundred Years their Increase above what they were before such Diminution is upon a medium always exceeding their Decay And since we have reason to believe what we see namely the Excess of Generations above their Decays we have reason to believe it was so always and if it were so always it is not possible the Generations of Mankind could be eternal For if we should suppose the Eternity of the World an Increase of but one Man in the Period of Millions of Years would have filled more space than all the Earth or the Concave of Heaven could receive For in as much as in a Duration that never had a Beginning there must needs be infinite Millions of Years the Increase of one Man in every Million above what was before must needs produce an infinite coexisting number and an infinite moles of Mankind much more if the Increase were in any measure proportionable to what our daily Experiences give us Instances of Whereby we find that although it be possible that several Families may be wholly extinct in a Kingdom in the Period of 5 or 600 Years and though possibly in some one Age there may be a diminution of the People of a Kingdom from what they were in the Age before yet in the succession of a very few Ages they again increase beyond the diminution and neither successively decrease nor hold an equality which we may reasonably suppose to be the common condition of the World And as to that Supposition That even upon a Natural account when the World grows too full of Inhabitants they must break the Bonds of Society and Peace and so diminish each other by Internecions and Wars As Air compressed or expanded beyond the measure of the Vessel containing it breaks the Vessel wherein it is compressed to give it self room I shall only say that although the Pride and Ambition and Insolence of neighbouring Princes or People or the sense of too much Oppression and Hardship hath many times raised Wars yet we never knew Wars to grow meerly upon the account of the Fulness of any Country indeed that Plethory hath many times occasioned Emigrations and Transplantations and Navigation and increase of Trade or Manufactures and other industrious Employments but Wars have always grown upon other Occasions though as I before observe the great wise and intellectual Governour of the World hath by his over-ruling Conduct of the Passions of Men brought about ends for the convenience and benefit of Mankind in this respect also as well as to punish their Excesses and Enormities CAP. XII The Eighth Evidence of Fact proving the Origination of Mankind namely the Consent of Mankind I Come now to the Eighth and last Evidence of Fact proving the Origination of Mankind namely The general Consent of Mankind in that Perswasion wherein I shall pursue this Order First to consider the more Popular or Vulgar Opinion of Nations in all or most Places and Ages of the World agreeing in this Sentiment or Perswasion and what may be reasonably concluded of the truth or at least great probability of the truth of that Supposition of the Origination of Mankind upon the Supposition of such a Consent Secondly to consider the more restrained Perswasion of the Learned and more considerate sort of Men that guided themselves in their Sentiments not barely upon Popular or Vulgar Opinions but searched deeper into the Reasons and Evidences of things namely the learneder Tribe of Men Physiologists and Philosophers And then I shall also consider the several Suppositions of those that agreed in that Perswasion touching the several Manners and Methods of such Originations and wherein their several Suppositions seem to be deficient insufficient or untrue First touching the National or Popular Opinions touching the Origination of Mankind There hath prevailed among the generality of Mankind a common Perswasion that Mankind had an Original ex non genitis and those Nations that pretend to the greatest Antiquity suppose themselves to be Terrigenae or at least by some other Method than the ordinary course of Generation Kircherus in his Oedipus Aegyptiacus Syntagm 3. Cap. 1. out of Maimonides gives us an Account of the Zabei descended from Cush and inhabiting the Coast of the Red
of the Earth These are procured every Year whether there be any need of them or not and possibly sometimes in greater numbers than is convenient for this inferior World And although it be true that the Divine Power doth intend or remit or manage these Productions secundùm regimen consilium voluntatis yet it is most evident these Productions are ordinary animal and natural without choice or design in inanimate Nature If therefore these Productions be natural and periodical every Year why should there not be as well productions of Men or perfect Brutes if it were purely natural as well as Frogs and Flies since the former may be of more use especially in many desolate places than always the latter How many great and vast Islands and Continents are there especially in Armenia which have no considerable number of Inhabitants if any at all to people them In Ireland there are great store of Wolves and so there were anciently in England till they were destroyed by the Industry of the Inhabitants in Ireland their increase is by propagation without any new production in England they cannot increase by propagation because here are none How comes it to pass that Nature doth not produce new Wolves in England as well as Frogs Adders Hornets and Wasps If it be said that Nature neglects it because they are noxious as this is to make Nature an intelligent Agent so it answers not the difficulty For why doth she then not destroy the Species in Ireland upon the same account But this is but a vanity Nature as well intends the existence of a Wolf as of a Sheep where the means of its production is equal though Mankind prefer the latter as more useful to him If any thing therefore of this deliberative nature be to be found in the voluntary and intentional Regiments of things of this kind it is to be attributed to the great and supreme Rector of the World who doth work according to Counsel Wisdom and Will Upon the whole matter therefore I conclude That as well by the reason of the thing and upon true natural congruity as also de facto and upon experimental Observations Mankind no nor the perfect Animals are not produced nor producible by any meer natural Cause as at this day or in any Age or Time since their first Creation otherwise than by a natural production which is the Truth asserted by the Great Verulam in his 9 th Century in fine As for the Heathen Opinion which was That upon great Mutations of the World perfect Creatures were first ingendred of Concretion as well as Frogs Worms and Flies and such like we know it to be vain but if any such thing should be admitted discoursing according to Sense it cannot be except you admit a Chaos first and a commixture of Heaven and Earth for the Frame of the World once in order cannot effect it by any Excess or Casualty And as thus neither Casualty nor bare Nature cannot originate Mankind or any perfect Animal ex putri so much less can Art The Chymists tell us that by re-union of separate Principles of Vegetables they will in a Glass revive a Vegetable of the same species at least in figure and effigies this hath been pretended but I could never hear any Man speak it that saw it done But never was any so mad except Paracelsus that could ever pretend to make up a Sensible Being much less the Humane Nature Paracelsus vainly and falsly pretended to the raising of an Homunculus but yet not without the help of those Naturales geniturae utriusque sexus wherein notwithstanding he lyed as he did in many things else which he never could effect notwithstanding his vain boasting of his Skill Upon the whole Matter therefore I conclude That the Origination of Mankind or of the inferior perfect Animals neither was nor could be the Effect of Humane Art or Skill as Paracelsus nor of Chance or Casualty as Epicurus nor of Nature as Cardanus Caesalpinus and some other Recreants in Religion and Philosophy But it was the free powerful and wonderful Work of the God of Nature who made all things by his Power and Wisdom and having made them lodged in them and for them that pre-ordained Law of their Creation and Existence which we commonly call Nature That Nature indeed is the Law or Rule instituted and implanted by the wise and glorious God in things when made but in the first Effection of Mankind God Almighty not Nature was the Author As in my Watch the Law and Rule of its Motion is the Constitution and Position of its Parts by the Hand and Mind of the skilful Artist but the Author or Efficient of my Watch is the Artist himself and not that Motion that is as it were the Law or Rule of the Engin. SECT IV. CAP. I. Concerning the last Opinion attributing the Origination of Mankind to the immediate Power and Will of Almighty God IN the foregoing Section and Chapters I have performed these things 1. I have removed the Supposition of an Eternal Existence of the Humane Species as altogether incredible and indeed impossible 2. I have established consequently this Truth That the Species humana had a beginning and this I have done principally upon natural Evidence of the incompossibility of an Eternal Existence of successive Generations 3. I have considered those Evidences of Fact or Moral Evidences of the Inception of Mankind and removed such as seem more fallible and less concludent and subjoined such as seem to be of greater weight 4. Among these of the latter sort I have considered the general Tradition thereof both of the unlearned and learned part of Mankind wherein among others I have considered the Opinion of those Famous Sects of Philosophers the Platonists Epicureans Peripateticks and Stoicks 5. Though I have made use of their common Suffrage in order to the Proof of the Origination of Mankind yet I have not allowed all their several Notions or Hypothesis touching the Method or Manner of their admitted Origination of the Humane Nature And therefore 6. I having thus established the Thesis in general I have descended to the Examination of the particular Hypotheses taken up by various Philosophers touching the same Origination And those I have distributed into these three Ranks 1. Those that suppose an accidental or casual Production of Mankind which was principally the Opinion of the Epicureans This Opinion I have examined and rejected as vain 2. Those that suppose this Production to be Natural or by the bare Concurrence of Natural Causes as Avicen Cardan and some others which I have likewise examined and rejected as utterly inevident and false 3. There remains therefore the third Opinion that attributes the Origination of Mankind to the immediate Power and Beneplacitum of the Supreme Intellectual Being namely Almighty God and this was the Opinion of divers of the Platonists and Stoicks This Opinion is in the general true and agreeth not only with the Divine