A supposed Nitrous Pabulum or Fewel which it receives from the Air. 3. A Sulphureous or unctuous Pabulum which it acts and preys upon passing generally by the Name of Fewel This ' fore-mentioned subtil Body agitating the supposed Nitrous Particles it receives from the Air doth by their help as by Wedges to use that rude similitude penetrate the unctuous Bodies upon which it acts and divide them into their immediate component Particles and at length perchance into their first Principles which Operation is called the Chymical Anatomy of mix'd Bodies So we see Wood for Example divided by Fire into Spirit Oyl Water Salt and Earth That Fire cannot live without those Particles it receives from the Air is manifest in that if you preclude the access of all Air it is extinguished immediately and in that where and when the Air is more charged with them as in cold Countries and cold Weather the Fire rages most That likewise it cannot be continued without an unctuous Pabulum or Fewel I appeal to the Experience of all Men. Now then in the rarified Air in the Torrid Zone the nitrous Particles being proportionably scattered and thin set the Fire that might be kindled there would burn but very languidly and remisly as we said just now And so the Eruptions of Vulcano's if any such happened would not be like to do half the Execution there that they would do in cold Countries And yet I never read of any spreading Conflagration caused by the Eruptions of any Vulcano's either in hot Countries or in cold They usually cast out abundance of thick Smoak like Clouds darkning the Air and likewise Ashes and Stones sometimes of a vast bigness and some of them as Vesuvius Floods of Water others as Aetna Rivers of melted Materials running down many Miles as for the Flames that issue out of their Mouths at such times they are but transient and mounting upwards seldom set any thing on fire But not to insist upon this I do affirm that there hath not as yet been nor for the future can be any such drying or parching of the Earth under the Torrid Zone as some may imagine That there hath not yet been I appeal to Experience the Countries lying under the Course of the Sun being at this day as fertile as ever they were and wanting no more Moisture now than of old they did having as constant and plentiful Rains in their Seasons as they then had That they shall for the future suffer any more Drought than they have heretofore done there is no reason to believe or imagine the Face of the Earth being not altered nor naturally alterable as to the main more at present than it was heretofore I shall now add the Reason why I think there can be no such Exâ—iccation of the Earth in those parts It 's true indeed were there nothing to hinder them the Vapours exhaled by the Sun-beams in those hot Regions would be cast off to the North and to the South a great way and not fall down in Rain there but toward the Poles But the long and continued Ridges or Chains of exceeding high Mountains are so disposed by the great and wise Creator of the World as at least in our Continent to run East and West as Gassendus in the Life of Peireskius well observes such are Atlas Taurus and the Alps to name no more They are I say thus disposed as if it were on purpose to obviate and stop the Evagation of the Vapours Northward and reflect them back again so that they must needs be condensed and fall upon the Countries out of which they were elevated And on the South-side being near the Sea it is likely that the Wind blowing for the most part from thence hinders their excursion that way This I speak by presumption because in our Country for at least three quarters of the Year the Wind blows from the great Atlantick Ocean which was taken notice of by Iulius Caesar in the Fifth of his Commentaries De Bello Gallico Corus ventus qui magnam partem omnis temporis in his locis flare consuevit As for any Desiccation of the Sea I hold that by mere natural Causes to be impossible unless we could suppose a Transmutation of Principles or simple Bodies which for Reasons alledged in a former Discourse I cannot allow I was then and am still of Opinion that God Almighty did at first create a certain and determinate number of Principles or variously figured Corpuscles intransmutable by the force of any natural Agent even Fire itself which can only separate the Parts of heterogeneous Bodies yet not an equal number of each kind of these Principles but of some abundantly more as of Water Earth Air Aether and of others fewer as of Oyl Salt Metals Minerals c. Now that there may be some Bodies indivisible by Fire is I think demonstrable For how doth or can Fire be conceived to divide one can hardly imagine any other way than by its small parts by reason of their violent Agitation insinuating themselves into compound Bodies and separating their parts which allowing yet still there is a term of Magnitude below which it cannot divide viz. it cannot divide a Body into smaller parts than those whereof itself is compounded For taking suppose one least Part of Fire 't is clear that it cannot insinuate itself into a Body as little or less than itself and what is true of one is true of all I say we can imagine no other way than this unless perchance by a violent stroke or shock the parts of the Body to be divided may be put into so impetuous a motion as to fall in sunder of themselves into lesser Particles than those of the impellent Body are which I will not suppose at present Now it is possible that the Principles of some other simple Bodies may be as small as the Particles of Fire But however that be it is enough if the Principles of simple Bodies be by reason of their perfect solidity naturally indivisible Such a simple Body I suppose Water separated from all Heterogeneous Mixtures to be and consequently the same quantity thereof that was at first created doth still remain and will continue always in despight of all natural Agents unless it pleases the Omnipotent Creator to dissolve it And therefore there can be no Desiccation of the Seas unless by turning all its Water into Vapour and suspending it in the Air which to do what an immense and long-continuing Fire would be requisite to the maintenance whereof all the inflammable Materials near the Superficies of the Earth would not afford Fuel enough The Sun we see is so far from doing it that it hath not made one step towards it these four thousand Years there being in all likelihood as great a quantity of Water in the Ocean now as was immediately after the Flood and consequently there would probably remain as much in it should the World last four thousand Years longer This
is at hand We see the Apostle labours to rectifie and for the future to prevent this Mistake so likewise the Apostle Peter in the 8th and 9th Verses of this Chapter And yet this Opinion had taken such deep root in them that it was not easie to be extirpated but continued for some Ages in the Church Indeed there are so many places in the New Testament which speak of the Coming of Christ as very near that if we should have lived in their time and understood them all as they did of his Coming to Judge the World we could hardly have avoided being of the same Opinion But if we apply them as Dr. Hammond doth to his Coming to take Vengeance on his Enemies then they do not hinder but that the Day of Judgment I mean the General Judgment may be far enough off So I leave this Question unresolved concluding that when that Day will come God only knows CHAP. X. How far this Conflagration shall extend 6. A Sixth Question is How far shall this Conflagration extend Whether to the Ethereal Heavens and all the Host of them Sun Moon and Stars or to the Aereal only I Answer If we follow Ancient Tradition not only the Earth but also the Heavens and heavenly Bodies will be involved in one common Fate as appears by those Verses quoted out of Lucretius Ovid Lucan c. Of Christians some exempt the Ethereal Region from this Destruction for the two following Reasons which I shall set down in Reuterus 's words 1. Because in this Chapter the Conflagration is compared to the Deluge in the time of Noah But the Deluge extended not to the upper Regions of the Air much less to the Heavens the Waters arising only fifteen Cubits above the tops of the Mountains if so much Therefore neither shall the Conflagration transcend that term So Beza upon 2 Pet. 3. 6. Tantum ascendet ille ignis quantum aqua altior supra omnes montes That fire shall ascend as high as the Waters stood above the Mountains This passage I do not find in the last Edition of his Notes The ordinary Gloss also upon these words 2 Thess. 1. 2. In flaming fire rendring vengeance saith Christum venturum praecedet ignis in mundo qui tantum ascendet quantum aqua in diluvio There shall a fire go before Christ when he comes which shall reach as high as did the Water in the Deluge And S. Augustine De Civit. Dei lib. 20. cap. 18. Petrus etiam commemorans factum ante diluvium videtur admonuisse quodammodo quatenus in fine hujus seculi istum mundum periturum esse credamus Peter also mentioning the Ancient Deluge seems in a manner to have advised us how far at the consummation of time we are to believe this World shall perish But this Argument is of no force because it is not the Apostle's design in that place to describe the limits of the Conflagration but only against Scoffers to shew that the World should one day perish by fire as it had of old been destroyed by Water 2. The second Reason is Because the Heavenly Bodies are not subject to Passion alteration or corruption They can contract no filth and so need no expurgation by fire To this we answer not in the words of Reuter but our own That it is an idle and ill grounded conceit of the Peripateticks That the Heavenly Bodies are of their own nature incorruptible and unalterable for on the contrary it is demonstrable that many of them are of the same nature with the Earth we live upon and the most pure as the Sun and probably too the fixt Stars suffer Alterations maculoe or opaque Concretions being commonly generated and dissolved in them And Comets frequently and sometimes New Stars appear in the Etherial Regions So that these Arguments are insufficient to exempt the Heavens from Dissolution and on the other side many places there are in Scripture which seem to subject them thereto As Psal. 102. 25 26. recited Hebr. 1. 10. which hath already often been quoted The Heavens are the Works of thy Hands They shall perish Matth. 24. 35. Heaven and Earth shall pass away Isa. 65. 17. 51. 6. The Heavens shall vanish away like smoke Yet am I not of opinion that the last Fire shall reach the Heavens They are too far distant from us to suffer by it nor indeed doth the Scripture affirm it but where it mentions the Dissolution of the Heavens it expresseth it by such Phrases as seem rather to intimate that it shall come to pass by a consenescency and decay than be effected by any sudden and violent means Psal. 102. 25 26. They all shall wax old as doth a Garment c. Though I confess nothing of Certainty can be gathered from such Expressions for we find the same used concerning the Earth Isa. 51. 6. The Heavens shall vanish away like smoke and the Earth shall wax old as doth a garment The heavenly Bodies are none of them uncorruptible and eternal but may in like manner as the Earth be consumed and destroyed at what times and by what means whether Fire or some other Element the Almighty hath decreed and ordered CHAP. XI Whether shall the Whole World be consumed and annihilated or only refined and purified THere remains now only the Seventh Question to be resolved Whether shall the World be wholly consumed burnt up and destroyed or annihilated or only refined purified or renewed To this I answer That the latter part seems to me more probable viz. That it shall not be destroyed and annihilated but only refined and purified I know what potent Adversaries I have in this case I need name no more than Gerard in his Common Places and Dr. Hakewil â—n his Apology and the Defence of it who contend earnestly for the Abolition or Annihâ—lation But yet upon the whole matter the Renovation or Restitution seems to me most probable as being most consonant to Scripture Reason and Antiquity The Scripture speaks of an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Restitution Acts 3. 21. Whom the Heavens must contain until the time of the restitution of all things Speaking of our Saviour and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Regeneration of the World the very word the Stoicks and Pythagoreans use in this case Mat. 19. 28 29. Verily I say unto you That ye which have followed me in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit on the Throne of his glory ye also shall sit upon twelve Thrones c. Psal. 102. 26. As a vesture shalt thou change them and they shall be changed Which words are again taken up and repeated Heb. 1. 12. Now it is one thing to be changed another to be annihilated and destroyed 1 Cor. 7. 31. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The fashion of this world passeth away As if he had said It shall be transfigured or its outward form changed not its matter or substance destroyed Isa. 65. 17. Behold I create new Heavens and
of the Sea may swell and elevate the Sea so that not only small lumps or masses of matter but even Islands may be raised up in the midst of it Neither if small Islands can be raised may not great ones too neither may Islands be heaved up and not Continents as well And Sicily may as well be thought to have been thrown up out of the Deep by the force of the Aetnaean fire and sticking together to have continued above water as to have been a piece broken off from Italy And the like may be said of the Islands of Lipara and Pithecusae Of the possibity of doing it we need not doubt when we have sufficient proof of the thing done in lesser Islands thus heaved up in the midst of the Sea by submarine fires Strabo lib. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is Between Thera and Therasia flames issuing out of the Sea for four days so that the whole Sea boil'd and burned blew up by little and little as if it had been raised by Machines and composed of great lumps or masses an Island of twelve furlongs circumference And Pliny tells us that the Island Hiera near Italy in the time of the Social War together with the Sea it self did burn for several days His words are In medio Mari Hiera insula juxta Italiam cum ipso Mari arsit per aliquot dies And Strabo lib. 1. reports That about Methone in the Bay of Hermione there was Earth raised and as it were blown up to the height of seven Furlongs by a fiery breath or exhalation which by day time was unaccessible by reason of heat and sulphureous slench but smelling sweet by night and shining so as to be seen asar off likewise casting such a heat as to cause the Sea to boil for five Furlongs and to render it troubled for the space of twenty raising up therein a Baich or Bank of Stones as big as Towers These Instances I alledge principally because they seem to demonstrate a possibility of the accension of fire in the Earth when it was wholly covered with Water and had no entercourse or communion with the superiour or external Air which is the main and most material Objection against the elevation of the dry Land at the beginning by subterraneous fires You will say If the Mountains be thus heaved up by subterraneous fires the Earth must needs be hollow all underneath them and there must be vast Dens and Caverns disperst throughout them I answer 'T is true indeed so there are as may undeniably be proved by instances For the new Mountain we mentioned at Puteoli that was thus raised being of a Mile steep ascent and four Miles round at the foot a proportionable Cavity must be left in the Earth underneath And the Mountain Aetna at the last Eructation alone having disgorged out of its bowels so great a flood of melted Materials as if spread at the depth and breadth of three foot might reach four times round the whole Circuit of the Terraqueous Globe there must likewise an answerable Vault be left within You will demand How then comes it to pass that they stand so firm and do not founder and fall in after so many Ages I answer that they may stand appears by the foresaid new-raised Mountain For notwithstanding the Cavity in and under it it hath stood firm and staunch without the least sinking or subsidency for above an hundred and fifty years neither is there any great sinking or falling in at Aetna it self at least in no degree answerable to it s ejected matter This assertion is confirmed by the unanimous vote and testimony of all Writers Ancient and Modern who have handled this Subject But Alphonsus Borellus supposes them not to have duly considered the matter and calculated the quantity of the ejected materials and the bulk of the Mountain and compared them together but to have been carried away by the prejudices and perswasions of the People who looking upon the top of the Mountain at a distance think it but a small thing in comparison of the ejected Sand and Ashes that covered whole Countries and those vast Rivers of liquid stones and other ingredients that ran down so many miles whereas he by a moderate computation found out that the total of what the Mountain disgorged at the last eruption amounted not as I remember to the fourteen thousandth part of the Solidity of the whole Mountain The reason is the strength and firmness of their Vaulture and Pillars sufficient to support the superincumbent weight And yet in some places there are sinkings and fallings in which have afterwards become Valleys or Pools of Water But as for the Cavities that are lower than the Superficies of the Ocean the Water where it could insinuate and make its way hath filled them up to that height I say where it could make its way for that there are many empty Cavities even under the Sea it self appears by the shaking and heating too of the very Water of the Sea in some places in Earthquakes and raising up the borders or skirts of it so as to drive the Water a great way back and the raising up new Islands in the middle of the Sea as Delos and Rhodes and Anaphe and Nea and Alone and Hiera and Thera mentioned by Pliny Hist lib. 2. c. 87. and Thia in his own time and Therasia in the Aegean in Senaca's time which was heaved up in the sight of many Mariners then present and looking on I am not ignorant that the learned Man I lately quoted I mean Alph. Borellus in his Book De Incendiis Aetnae is of opinion that the middle part or as he calls it the kernel of that Mountain is firm and solid without any great caverns or vacuities and that all those vaults and cavities in which the fire rages are near the superficial or cortical part And derides those who fancy that Aetna the Aeolian Islands Lipara Strongyle c. and Vesuvius do communicate by subterraneous channels and passages running under the bottom of the Sea But saving the respect due to him for his learning and ingenuity there is good Authority on their side and our ratiocinations against the possibility of such a thing must give place to the clear proof of matter of fact Iulius Ethnicus an ancient Writer quoted by Ludovicus Vives in his Annotations upon S. Augustine De Civitate Dei gives us this Relation Marco Aemilio Lucio Aurelio Consulibus Aetna mons terrae motu ignes super verticem latè diffudit ad Insulam Liparam mare efferbuit quibusdam adustis navibus vapore plerósque navaleis exanimavit Piscium vim magnam exanimem dispersit quos Liparenses avidiùs epulis adpetenteis contaminatione ventris consumpti sunt ita ut novâ pestilentià vast arentur insulae That is Marcus Aemilius and Lucius Aurelius being Consuls Mount Aetna being shaken by an Earthquake cast forth and scattered fire from its top far and wide At which time
the Sea at the Island of Lipara was boyling hot and some Ships being burnt most of the Seamen were stifled with the vapour besides it dispersed abroad a power of dead fish which the Liparensians greedily gaâ—â—ering up and eating were consumed with a contagious disease in their bellies so that the Islands were wasted with a new sort of pestiiâ—â—ce And Father Kircher the Jesuite in the Preface to his Mundus Subterraneus giving a Relation of an Earthquake which shook a great part of Calabria and made notable devastations there which himself saw and was in Anno 1638. clearly demonstrates that Aetna Stromboli and the Mountains of Calabria do communicate by vaults and caverns passing under the bottom of the Sea I shall insert but one passage out of him referring the Reader to the fore-quoted Preface for the rest Hisce calamitatibus saith he dum jactamur ego curiosiùs intuitus Strongylum 60 ferè milliarium intercapedine dissitum illum insolito modo furere notavi c. i.e. While we were tost with these calamities I beholding curiously the Island Stromboli about 60 miles distant observed it to rage after an unusual manner for it appeared all filled with fire in such plenty that it seemed to cast forth mountains of flame a spectacle horrid to behold and formidable to the most undaunted Spirit In the mean time there was a certain sound perceived as it were of Thunder but by reason of the great distance from whence it came somewhat obscure which by degrees proceeding forward in the subterraneous conduits grew greater and greater till it came to the place just underneath us they were at Lopez by the Sea where it shook the Earth with such a roaring or murmure and fury that being not able to stand any longer upon our Legs we were forced to support our selves to catch hold upon any shrub or twig that was near us lest our limbs should be put out of joynt by too much shaking and concussion At which time happened a thing worthy of immortal and eternal memory viz. the subversion of the famous Town of S. Eusemia which he goes about to relate As for Vesuvius if that be not hollow down to the very roots and foundations of it how comes it to pass that at the times of its deflagrations it should vomit out such stoods of boiling Waters as if we had not read of them in Histories and been told so by our Guide when we ascended that Mountain we must needs have perceived our selves by the mighty guls and channels in the sides thereof it being of it self near the top so spungy and dry that it is more likely to imbibe then to cast off much rain in the Winter time And again what causes the Sea to recede at those times and that to so great a distance that the Galleys have been laid dry in the very Haven of Naples Howbeit I cannot positively assert the Mountains thus to have been raised But yet whether without means or by whatsoever means it were a Receptacle for the Waters was prepared and the dry Land and Mountains elevated so as to cast off the Waters on the third day and which is wonderful the Cavities made to receive the Waters and the whole terra firma or dry Land with its Mountains were so proportioned one to the other as that the one was as much depressed below the Shores as the other was elevated above them And as if the one had been taken out of the other the Sea with all its Creeks and Bays and Inlets and other Appendants was made and is very near equal to the whole dry Land with its Promontories and Mountains if not in Superficies yet in bulk or dimensions though some think in both Which equality is still constantly maintained notwithstanding all Inundations of Land and Atterations of Sea because one of these doth always nearly ballance the other according to the vulgar Proverb we have before mention'd What the Sea loses in one place it gains in another If any shall demand How the Sea comes to be gradually depressed and deepest about the middle part whereas the bottom of it was in all likelihood equal while the Waters covered the whole Earth I answer the same Cause that raised up the Earth whether a subterraneous fire or status raised up also the skirts of the Sea the ascent gradually decreasing to the middle part where by reason of the solidity of the Earth or gravity of the incumbent Water the bottom was not elevated at all For the enclosed fire in those parts where its first accension or greatest strength was raised up the Earth first and cast off the Waters and thence spreading by degrees still elevated the Land and drove the Waters further and further till at length the weight of them was too great to be raised and then the fire brake forth at the tops of the Mountains where it found least resistance and disperst it self in the open Air. The Waters also where they found the bottom sandy or yielding made their way into all those Cavities the fire had made and left filling them up as high as the level of the Ocean Neither let any man imagine that the Earth under the Water was too soft and muddy to be in this manner raised by subterraneous fire for I have shewn before that the bottom of the Sea is so saddened and hardened by the weight of the incumbent Water that the High-ways beaten continually by Horses and Carriages are not more firm and solid But omitting this which is only a conjecture I shall discourse a little more concerning the Equality of Sea and Land It hath been observed by some That where there are high Cliffs or Downs along the Shore there the Sea adjoyning is deep and where there are low and level Grounds it is shallow the depth of the Sea answering to the Elevation of the Earth above it and as the Earth from the Shores is gradually higher and higher to the middle and parts most remote from the Sea as is evident by the descents of the Rivers they requiring a constant declivity to carry them down so the Sea likewise is proportionably deeper and deeper from the Shores to the middle So that the rising of the Earth from the Shores to the Mid-land is answerable to the descent or declivity of the bottom of the Sea from the same shores to the Mid-Sea This rising of the Earth from the Shores gradually to the Mid-land is so considerable that it is very likely the Altitude of the Earth in those Mid-land parts above the Superficies of the Sea is greater than that of the Mountains above the leve of the adjacent Lands To the height of the Hills above the common Superficies of the Earth do answer in Brerewood's Opinion the extraordinary Dephts or Whirl-pools that are found in the Sea descending beneath the ordinary bottom of the Sea as the Hills ascend above the ordinary face of the Land But this is but a conjecture of
and catch bold of the flame lengthning it to two or three handfuls By these Descriptions this Damp should seem to be but Gunpowder in a vapour and to partake the Sulphur Nitre and Bitumen as the Learned Dr. Plot well proves in his Natural History of Staffordshire C. 3. § 47. to which I refer the Reader But for the accension of it whether it ever takes fire of it self I am in some doubt Mr. Iessop deâ—ies it of those of Hasleberg and Wingersworth and how far those Relators that affirm it are to be credited I know not If in this particular I were satisfied I should readily accord with the Doctor That our Earthquakes in England and any others that have but one single Pulse owe their Original to the kindling and explosion of Fire-damps You will say That fire is the cause of Thunder we readily grant because we see it plentifully discharged out of the Clouds but what reason have we to think so of this sort of Earthquakes where we see no lightning or eruption of fire at all What becomes of the inclosed flame In answer hereto I demand what becomes of it in the open Air It diffuses it self through the Caverns of the Earth till the deflagration be made and is there dissipated and dissolved into Fume and Ashes It breaks not forth I conceive because by reason of the depth of the Caverns wherein it is lodged it is not able to overcome the resistance of the incumbent Earth but is forced Quà data porta ruere to make its way where it finds easiest passage through the strait Cuniculi of the Earth as in a Gun the inflamed Powder though if it were at liberty and found equal resistance on every side it would spread equally every way yet by reason of the strength and firmness of the Mettal it cannot tear the Barrel in pieces and so break out but is compelled to fly out at the muzzel where it finds an open though strait passage For the force of flame though very great is not infinite It may be further objected We hear not of any eruption of fire at Port-Royal or elsewhere in this Island and yet the Earth open'd and the roofs of the Caverns fell in therefore fire could not be the cause of this Earthquake for if it had at those apertures and rifts of the ground it must needs have issued forth and appeared abroad To which I answer That the Vaults and Cavities wherein the inflamed Matter was imprisoned and the explosion made lay deep in the Earth and were covered with a thick and impenetrable Coat of hard stone or other solid matter which the fire could not tear but that above this coat there were other superficial hollows in a more loose and crumbling Earth which being not able to sustain the shock and hold out against the impetuous agitations of the Earthquake the roofs might yield open and subside as we hear they did and give way to the Sea to rush in and surmount them You will reply This may be a tolerable account of our English Earthquakes which are finished at one explosion but what shall we say to those of Iamaica which like a Tempest of Thunder and Lightning in the Clouds have as we learn by this Relation several Paroxysms or Explosions and yet no discharging of fire To which I answer That I conceive the Caverns of the Earth wherein the inflamed Damps are contained are much larger there then ours in England and the force of the fire joyned with the elatery of the Air being exceeding great may of a sudden heave up the Earth yet not so far as to rend it in â—under and make its way out but is forced to seek passage where it finds least resistance through the lateral Cuniculi So the main Cavern being in a great measure emptied and the exteriour parts of the extended matter within cooling and shrinking the Earth may subside again and reduce the Cavern to its former dimensions Yet possibly there may not be a perfect defiagration and extinction of the fire and so new Damps ascending out of the Earth and by degrees filling the Cavern there may succeed a second inflamation and explosion and so a third and fourth till the steams be quite burnt up and consumed But in this I confess I do not satisfie my self They who have a more comprehensive knowledge of all the Phoenomena may give a better account But as for those Earthquakes that are occasioned by the burnings of Vulcano's they are I conceive of a different nature For in them the fire burns continually and is never totally extinct only after the great eruptions in which besides smoke and fire there is an ejection of abundance of Ashes Sand Earth Stones and in some floods of melted Materials the raging is for a time qualified but the fire still continuing and by degrees increasing in the combustible matter it finds in the hollows of the Mountains at last swells to that excess that it melts down Metals and Minerals where it meets with them causing them to boil with great fury and extending it self beyond the dimensions of the Cavities wherein it is contained causes great succussions and tremblings of the Earth and huge eruptions of smoke and casts out such quantities of Ashes Sand and Stones as we just now mentioned and after much thunder and roaring by the allision and repercussion of the flame against and from the sides of the Caverns and the ebullition and volutation of the melted Materials it forces out that boiling matter either at the old mouths or at new ones which it opens where the incumbent Earth is more thin and yielding And if any water enters those Caverns it mightily encreaseth the raging of the Mountain For the fire suddenly dissolving the water into vapour expands it to a vast dimension and by the help thereof throws up Earth Sand Stâ—nes and whatever it meets with How great the force of water converted into vapour is I have sometimes experimented by inadvertently casting a Bullet in a wet mold the melted Lead being no sooner poured in but it was cast out again with violence by the particles of water adhering to the mold suddenly converted into vapour by the heat of the Metal Secondly The People of this Plantation being generally so ungodly and debauched in their lives this Earthquake may well be esteemed by this Gentleman the Minister of Port-Royal a Judgment of God upon them For though it may be a servile complaint and popular mistake that the former imes were better than these and that the World doth daily degenerate and grow worse and worse Aet as parentum pejor avis tulit hos nequiores mox daturos Progeniem vitiosiorem For had this been true Vice would long before this time have come to the height and greatest possible excess and this Complaint hath been made as well in the best as worst of times Though I say this be partly an errour yet I do verily believe that there
Town who retired thither perished there with many other persons there remaining only one Abby and about fifty Houses and those so shattered that they fell one after another There were about six hundred of the Inhabitants drown'd the rest being abroad in the Field gathering their silk fled to the Mountains where they suffered very much for want of Provisions The Goods Trees Stone Sand and other Rubbish which the Waters carried away were in so great abundance that they made a bank above the Water two Miles in length near the mouth of the River where before the Sea was very deep This Town is situate in that part of Sicily called the Valley of Demona on the side of the River Tortorica about five and Twenty Miles from the Tuscan Sea The Towns of Randazzo and Francaville and several others have likewise been destroyed by this great Flood It is added that Mount Aetna casts out such abundance of Water that all the neighbouring Country is drowned Which if it be true as I see no reason to doubt it this is a further proof against Borellius that the Caverns of Aetna are more then superficial and reach down to the very Roots and Foundations of that Mountain communicating with the Subterraneous Abyss and the Sea its self from whence in all likelyhood these Waters were derived as is evident in those poured out by Vesuvius Many other Floods we read of in Histories whether caused by Rains or Inundations of the Sea is uncertain and therefore I shall not spend time in setting them down The effect of all which relating to the Earth in general is the wasting and washing away of Mountains and high Grounds the raising of the Valleys and Bottoms and consequently levelling of the Earth and landing up of the Sea Thirdly The last thing I shall mention which hath effected considerable Changes in the Earth is boisterous and outragious Winds and Hurricanes of which I need not give Instances they every year almost happening These I conceive have a great Interest in the Inundations of the Sea we have before mentioned These raise up those great Hills or Downs of Sand we see all along the Coasts of the Low-Countreys and the Western-shores of England and the like places These sometimes blow up so much Sand and drive it so far as to cover the adjacent Countreys and to mar whole Fields yea to bury Towns and Villages They are also a concurrent cause of those huge Banks and Shelves of Sand that are so dangerous to Mariners and bar up Havens and ruin Port-Towns of which many Instances might be given I find in Dr. Hakewil's Apology a story or two shewing the great force and strength of Winds the one taken out of Bellarmine's Book De ascensu mentis in Deum per scal creat grad 2. Vidi ego saith the Cardinal quod nisi vidissem non crederem à vehementissimo vento effossam ingentem terrae molem eámque delatam super pagum quendam ut fovea altissima conspiceretur unde terra eruta fuerat pagus totus coopertus quasi sepultus manserit ad quem terra illa devenerat i. e. I my self have seen which if I had not seen I should not have believed a very great quantity of Earth digged out and taken up by the force of a strong Wind and carried up a Village thereby so that there remained to be seen a great empty hollowness in the place from whence it was lifted and the Village upon which it lighted was in a manner all covered over and buried in it The other out of Stow who reports That in the Year 1095. during the Reign of King William Rufus there happened in London an outragious Wind which bore down in that City alone six hundred Houses and blew off the Roof of Bow-Church with which the Beams were born into the Air a great height six whereof being 27 foot long with their fall were driven 23 foot deep into the ground the streets of the City lying then unpaved Now then to sum up what we have said The Changes and Alterations that have been made in the Superficial Part of the Terraqueous Globe have been effected chiefly by Water Fire and Wind. Those by Water have been either by the Motions of the Sea or by Rains and both either ordinary or extraordinary The ordinary Tides and Spring-tides of the Sea do wash away the shores and change Sand-banks and the like The extraordinary and tempestuous motions of the Sea raised by raging and impetuous Winds subterraneous Fires or some other hidden causes overwhelm Islands open Fretum's throw up huge beds and banks of Sand nay vast baiches of Stone extending some Miles and drown whole Countreys The ordinary Rains contribute something to the daily diminution of the Mountains filling up of the Valleys and atterrating the skirts of the Seas The extraordinary Rains causing great Floods and Deluges have more visible and remarkable influences upon such mutations doing that in a few days which the ordinary Weather could not effect it may be in an hundred years In all these Changes the Winds have a great interest the motion of the Clouds being wholly owing to them and in a great measure also the overflowings and inundations of the Sea Whatever Changes have been wrought by Earthquakes Thunders and Eruptions of Vulcano's are the effects of Fire All these Causes co-operate toward the lowring of the Mountains levelling of the Earth straitning and landing up of the Sea and in fine compelling the Waters to return upon the dry Land and cover the whole Surface of it as at the first How to obviate this in a natural way I know not unless by a transmutation of the two Elements of Water and Earth one into another which I can by no means grant 'T is true indeed the rocky parts of the Mountains may be so hard and impenetrable as to resist and hold out against all the Assaults of the Water and utmost rage of the Sea but then all the Earth and Sand being washed from them nothing but as it were their Skeletons will remain extant above the Waters and the Earth be in effect drowned But though I cannot imagine or think upon any natural means to prevent and put a stop to this effect yet do I not deny that there may be some and I am the rather inclinable so to think because the World doth not in any degree proceed so fast towards this Period as the force and agency of all these Causes together seem to require For as I said before the Oracle predicting the carrying on the shore of Cilicia as far as Cyprus by the Earth and Mud that the turbid River Pyramus should bring down and let fall in the interjacent strait is so far from being filled up that there hath not any considerable progress been made towards it so far as I have heard or read in these 2000 years And we find by experience that the longer the World lasts the fewer Concussions and
upon it as an Oracle and Decree of Fate Ovid speaks of it as such in the first of his Metamorphosis Esse quoque in fati reminiscitur affore tempus Quo mare quo tellus correptáque regia coeli Ardeat mundi moles operosa laboret Besides by Doom Of certain Fate he knew the time should come When Sea Earth ravisht Heaven the curious Frame Of this Worlds Mass should shrink in purging Flame And Lucan Hos Caesar populos si nunc non usserit ignis Vret cum terris uret cum gurgite ponti Communis mundo superest rogus ossibus Astra Misturus If now these Bodies want their Fire and Urn At last with the whole Globe they 'll surely burn The World expects one general Fire and Thou Must go where these poor Souls are wandring now Now though some are of Opinion that by Fata here are to be understood the Sibylline Oracles and to that purpose do alledge some Verses out of those extant under that Title as Lactantius in his Book De ir a Dei cap. 2. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And it shall sometime be that God not any more mitigating his Anger but aggravating it shall destroy the whole Race of Mankind consuming it by a conflagration And in another place there is mention made of a River of Fire that shall descend from Heaven and burn up both Earth and Sea Tunc ardens fluvius coelo manabit ab alto Igneus at que locos consumet funditus omnes Terrámque Oceanúmque ingentem caerula ponti Stagnáque tum fluvios fontes Ditémque severum Coelestâ—mque polum coeli quoque lumina in unum Haxa ruent â—ormâ deletâ prorsus eorum Aâ—tra cadent etenim de coelo cunâ—a revulsa Then shall a burning Flood flow from the Heavens on high And with its fiery Streams all places utterly Destroy Earth Ocean Lakes Rivers Fountains Hell And heavenly Poles the Lights in Firmament that dwell Losing their beauteous Form shall be obscur'd and all Raught from their places down from Heaven to Earth shall fall Now because the Verses now extant under the Name of Sibylline Oracles are all suspected to be false and Pseudepigrapha and many of them may be demonstrated to be of no greater Antiquity than the Emperour Antoninus Pius his Reign and because it cannot be proved that there was any such thing in the Ancient genuine Sibylline Oracles I rather think as I said before that it was a Doctrine of ancient Tradition handed down from the first Fathers and Patriarchs of the World Iosephus in his Antiquities runs it up as high as Adam from whom Seth his Son received it his Father saith he soretelling him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there should be a destruction of the Universe once by the violence of Fire and again by the force and abundance of Water in consequence whereof he erected two Pillars one of Brick which might endure the Fire and another of Stone which would resist the Water and upon them engraved his Astronomical Observations that so they might remain to Posterity And one of these Pillars he saith continued in Syria until his days Whether this Relation be true or not it may be thence collected that this was an Universal Opinion received by Tradition both among Iews and Gentiles That the World should one day be consumed by Fire It may be proved by good Authority that the ancient Gaules Chaldaeans and Indians had this Tradition among them which they could not receive from the Greek Philosophers or Poets with whom they had no entercourse but it must in all probability be derived down to both from the same Fountain and Original that is from the first Restorers of Mankind Noah and his Sons I now proceed to the Third Particular proposed in the beginning that is to give answer to the several Questions concerning the Dissolution of the World CHAP. V. The first Question concerning the World's Dissolution Whether there be any thing in Nature that may probably cause or argue a future Dissolution Three probable Means propounded and discussed SECT I. The Waters again naturally overflowing and covering the Earth THE First Question is Whether there be any thing in Nature which may prove and demonstrate or probably argue and infer a future Dissolution To which I answer That I think there is nothing in Nature which doth necessarily demonstrate a future Dissolution but that Position of the Peripatetick Schools may for ought I know be true Philosophy Posito ordinario Dei concursu mundus posset durare in aeternum Supposing the ordinary concourse of God with second Causes the World might endure for ever But though a future Dissolution by Natural Causes be not demonstrable yet some possible if not probable Accidents there are which if they should happen might infer such a dissolution Those are Four The possibility of 1. The Waters again overflowing and covering the Earth 2. The Extinction of the Sun 3. The Eruption of the Central Fire enclosed in the Earth 4. The Driness and Inflammability of the Earth under the Torrid Zone and the Eruption of all the Vulcano's at once But before I treat of these it will not be amiss a little to consider the old Argument for the Worlds Dissolution and that is its daily Consenescence and Decay which if it can be proved will in process of time necessarily infer a Dissolution For as the Apostle saith in another case That which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away Hebr. 8. 13. That which continually wastes will at last be quite consumed that which daily grows weaker and weaker will in time lose all its force So the Age and Stature and Strength of Man and all other Animals every Generation decreasing they will in the end come to nothing And that all these and all other things do successively diminish and decay in all Natural Perfections and Qualities as well as Moral hath been the received Opinion not only of the Vulgar but even of Philosophers themselves from Antiquity down to our times Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 7. c. 16. In plenum autem cuncto mortalium generi minorem indies mensuram staturae propemodum observatur rarosque patribus proceriores consumente ubertatem seminum exustione in cujus vices nunc vergat aevum In sum It is observed that the measure of the stature of all Mankind decreases and grows less daily and that there are few taller then their Parents the burning to which the Age inclines consuming the Luxury of the Seeds Terra malos homines nunc educ aâ— que pusillos Juvenal Sat. The Earth now breeds Men bad and small And Gellius Noct. Att. lib. 3. c. 10. Et nunc quasi jam mundo senescente rerum atque hominum decrementa sunt And now as if the World waxed old there is a decrement or decay both of Things and Men I might accumulate places out of the Ancients and Moderns to this
Church to St. Ives and above two Miles distant from the Sea almost covered with the Sand little being extant above it but the Steeple and Ridge of the Roof Nay a great part of St. Ives itself lies buâ—ied in the Sand and I was told there that in one Night there had been a whole Street of Houses so covered with Sand that in the Morning they were fain to dig their way out of their Houses through it All along the Western Shoar of Wales there are great Hills of Sand thus blown up by the Wind. We observed also upon the Coast of Flanders and Holland the like sandy Hills or Downs from which Westerly Winds drive the Sand a great way into the Country But there are not many places liable to this Accident viz. where the bottom of the Sea is sandy and where the Wind most frequently blows from off the Sea where the Wind sets from the Land toward the Sea this happens not where it is indifferent it must in reason carry off as much as it brings on unless other Causes hinder SECT II. The Second possible Cause of the World's Destruction in a Natural Way the Extinction of the Sun II. THE possibility of the Sun's extinction Of which Accident I shall give an Account in Dr. More 's words in the last Chapter of his Treatise of the Immortality of the Soul This saith he though it may seem a Panick Fear at first sight yet if the matter be throughly examined there will appear no contemptible Reasons that may induce Men to suspect that it may at last fall out there having been at certain times such near Offers in Nature towards this sad Accident already Pliny speaks of it as a thing not unfrequent that there should be Prodigiosi longiores Solis defectus qualis occiso Dictatore Caesare Antoniano bello totius anni pollore continuo Hist. Nat. lib. 2. cap. 30. Prodigious and lasting defects of the Sun such as happened when Caesar the Dictator was slain and in the War with Anthony when it was continually pale and gloomy for a whole Year The like happened in Iustinian's time as Cedrenus writes when for a whole Year together the Sun was of a very dim and duskish Hue as if he had been in a perpetual Eclipse And in the time of Irene the Empress it was so dark for seventeen days together that the Ships lost their way in the Sea and were ready to run one against another as Theophanes reports But the late accurate Discovery of the Spots of the Sun by Scheiner and the appearing and disappearing of Fixt Stars and Comets and the excursions of these last do argue it more than possible that after some vast Periods of Time the Sun may be so inextricably inveloped by the Maculae that he may quite lose his Light and then you may easily guess what would become of the Inhabitants of the Earth For without his vivisick heat neither could the Earth put forth any Vegetables for their sustenance neither if it could would they be able to bear the extremity of the Cold which must needs be more rigorous and that perpetually than it is now under the Poles in Winter time But this accident tho' it would indeed extinguish all Life yet being quite contrary to a Dissolution by Fire of which the Apostle speaks I shall pass it over without further consideration and proceed to a Third SECT III. The Third possible Cause of the World's Destruction The Eruption of the Central Fire III. THE Possibility of the Eruption of the Central Fire if any such there be inclosed in the Earth It is the Hypothesis of Monsieur des Cartes that the Earth was originally a Star or great Globe of Fire like the Sun or one of the Fixt Stars situate in the Center of a Vortex continually whirling round with it That by degrees it was covered over or incrustated with Maculae arising on its Surface like the Scum on a boyling Pot which still increasing and growing thicker and thicker the Star losing its light and activity and consequently the motion of the Celestial Vortex about it growing more weak languid and unable to resist the vigorous incroaehments of the neighbouring Vortex of the Sun it was at last drawn in and wholly absorpt by it and forced to comply with its motion and make one in the Quire of the Sun's Satellites This whole Hypothesis I do utterly disallow and reject Neither did the Author himself if we may believe him think it ture that the Earth was thus generated For he saith Quinimo ad res naturales meliùs explicandas earum causas altiùs hic repetam quà m ipsas unquam extitisse existimem Non enim dubium est quin mundus ab initio fuerit creatus cum omni sua perfectione ità ut in eo Sol Terra Luna Stellae extiterint Hoc fides Christiana nos docet hócque etiam ratio naturalis planè persuadet Attendendo enim ad immensam Dei potentiam non possumus existimare illum unquam quidquam fecisse quod non omnibus suis numeris fuerit absolutum That is Moreover for the better explicating of Natural Things I shall bring them from higher or more remote Causes than I think they ever had For there is no doubt but the World was originally created in its full perfection so that in it were contained both Sun and Moon and Earth and Stars c. For this the Christian Faith teacheth us and this also Natural Reason doth plainly persuade for attending to the immense Power of God we cannot think that he ever made any thing that was not complete in all points But thô he did not believe that the Earth was generated or formed according to his Hypothesis yet surely he was of Opinion that it is at present such a Body as he represented it after its perfect Formation viz. with a Fire in the middle and so many several Crusts or Coats inclosing it else would he have given us a mere Figment or Romance instead of a Body of Philosophy But tho' I do reject the Hypothesis yet the being of a Central Fire in the Earth is not so far as I understand any way repugnant to Reason or Scripture For first of all the Scripture represents Hell as a Lake of Fire Mark 9. 43 44 c. Revel 20. 10 14 15. and likewise as a low place beneath the Earth So Pslam 86. 13. and Deut. 32. 22. it is called the nethermost hell Prov. 15. 24. The way of life is above to the wise that he may depart from hell beneath 2. Many of the Ancients understand that Article of the Creed He descended into Hell of our Saviour's Descent into that local Hell beneath the Earth where he trimphed over the Devil and all the Powers of Darkness And particularly Irenaeus interprets that saying of our Saviour That the Son of man should be three days in the heart of the earth of his being three days in
the middle of the Earth which could not be meant saith he of the Sepulchre because that was hewen out of a Rock in its Superficies 3. It is a received Opinion among the Divines of the Church of Rome that Hell is about the Center of the Earth insomuch as some of them have been solicitous to demonstrate that there is room enough to receive all the Damned by giving us the Dimensions thereof Neither is it repugnant to the History of the Creation in Genesis For tho' indeed Moses doth mention only Water and Earth as the component parts of this Body yet doth he not assert that the Earth is a simple uniform homogeneous Body as neither do we when we say Vpon the face of the earth or the like For the Earth we see is a Mass made up of a multitude of different Species of Bodies Metals Minerals Stones and other Fossils Sand Clay Marle Chalk c. which do all agree in that they are consistent and solid more or less and are in that respect contradistinguished to Water and together compound one Mass which we call Earth Whether the interior parts of the Earth be made up of so great a variety of different Bodies is to us altogether unknown For tho' it be observed by Colliers that the Beds of Coals lie one way and do always dip towards the East let them go never so deep so that would it quit cost and were it not for the Water they say they might pursue the Bed of Coals to the very Center of the Earth the Coals never failing or coming to an end that way yet that is but a rash and ungrounded Conjecture For what is the depth of the profoundest Mines were they a Mile deep to the Semidiameter of the Earth not as one to four thousand Comparing this Observation of Dipping with my Notes about other Mines I find that the Veins or Beds of all generally run East and West and dip towards the East Of which what Account or Reason can we give but the motion of the Earth from West to East I know some say that the Veins for Example of Tin and Silver dip to the North tho' they confess they run East and West which is a thing I cannot understand the Veins of those Metals being narrow things Sir Tho. Willoughby in his fore-mentioned Letter writes thus I have talked with some of my Colliers about the lying of the Coal and find that generally the Basset end as they call it lies West and runs deeper toward the East allowing about twenty Yards in length to gain one in depth but sometimes they decline a little from this posture for mine lie almost South-West and North-East They always sink to the East more or less There may therefore for ought we know be Fire about the Center of the Earth as well as any other Body if it can find a Pabulum or Fuel there to maintain it And why may it not since the Fires in those subterraneous Caverns of Aetna Vesuvius Stromboli Hecla and other burning Mountains or Vulcano's have found wherewith to feed them for Thousands of Years And as there are at some tho' uncertain Periods of Time violent Eruptions of Fire from the Craters of those Mountains and mighty Streams of melted Materials poured forth from thence so why may not this Central Fire in the Earth if any such there be receiving accidentally extraordinary supplies of convenient Fuel either from some inflammable Matter within or from without rend the thick exterior Cortex which imprisons it or finding some Vents and Issues break forth and overflow the whole Superficies of the Earth and burn up all things This is not impossible and we have seen some Phaenomena in Nature which bid fair towards a Probability of it For what should be the reason of new Stars appearing and disappearing again as that noted one in Cassiopeia which at first shone with as great a lustre as Venus and then by degrees diminishing after some two Years vanish'd quite away but that by great supplies of combustible Matter the internal Fire suddenly increasing in quantity and force either found or made its way through the Cracks or Vents of the Maculae which inclosed it and in an instant as it were overflowed the whole surface of the Star whence proceeded that illustrious Light which afterwards again gradually decayed its supply failing Whereas other newly appearing Stars which either have a constant supply of Matter or where the Fire hath quite dissolved the Maculae and made them comply with its motion have endured for a long time as that which now shines in the Neck of Cygnus which appears and disappears at certain Intervals But because it is not demonstrable that there is any such Central Fire in the Earth I propose the eruption thereof rather as a possible than probable means of a Conflagration and proceed to the last means whereby it may naturally be effected and that is SECT IV. The Fourth Natural Cause of the World's Dissolution the Earth's Dryness and Inflammability IV. THE Dryness and Inflammability of the Earth under the Torrid Zone with the eruption of the Vulcano's to set it on fire Those that hold the Inclination of the Equator to the Ecliptick daily to diminish so that after the Revolutions of some Ages they will jump and consent tell us that the Sun-beams lying perpendicularly and constantly on the parts under the Equator the Ground thereabout must needs be extremely parch'd and rendred apt for Inflammation But for my part I own no such Decrement of Inclination And the best Mathematicians of our Age deny that there hath been any since the eldest Observations that are come down to us For tho' indeed Ptolomy and Hipparchus do make it more than we find it by above twenty Minutes yet that Difference is not so considerable but that it may well be imputed to the Difference of Instruments or Observations in point of Exactness So that not having decreased for Eighteen hundred Years past there is not the least ground for Conjecture that it will alter in Eighteen hundred Years to come should the World last so long And yet if there were such a Diminution it would not conduce much so far as I can see to the bringing on of a Conflagration For tho' the Earth would be extremely dried and perchance thereby rendred more inflammable yet the Air being by the same Heat as much rarified would contain but few nitrous Particles and so be inept to maintain the Fire which we see cannot live without them It being much deaded by the Sun shining upon it and burning very remisly in Summer time and hot Weather For this reason in Southern Countries in extraordinary hot Seasons the Air scarce sufficeth for Respiration To the clearing up of this let us a little consider what Fire is It seems to consist of three different sorts of parts 1. An extremely thin and subtil Body whose Particles are in a very vehement and rapid motion 2.
from more imperfect to more perfect Beings first beginning with the Earth that is the Terraqueous Globe which was made tohu vabohu without form and void the Waters covering the face of the Land which were afterwards separated from the Land and gathered together into one place Then he created out of the Land and Water first Plants and then Animals Fishes Birds Beasts in Order and last of all formed the Body of Man of the Dust of the Earth And whereas there is no particular mention made of the Creation of Metals Minerass and other Fossils they must be comprehended in the word Earth as the Water it self also is in the second Verse of this first Chapter It seems therefore to me consonant to the Scripture That God Almighty did at first create the Earth or Terraqueous Globe containing in its self the Principles of all simple inanimate Bodies or the minute and naturally indivisible Particles of which they were compounded of various but a determinate number of Figures and perchance of different magnitudes and these variously and confusedly commixed as though they had been carelesly shaken and shuffled together yet not so but that there was order observed by the most Wise Creator in the disposition of them And not only so but that the same Omnipotent Deity did create also the Seeds or Seminal Principles of all Animate Bodies both Vegetative and Sensitive and disperst them at least the Vegetative all over the superficial part of the Earth and Water And the Notion of such an Earth as this is the Primitive Patriarchs of the World delivered to their Posterity who by degrees annexing something of sabulous to it imposed upon it the name of Chaos The next work of the Divine Power and Wisdom was the separation of the Water from the dry Land and raising up of the Mountains of which I shall treat more particularly in the next Chapter To which follows the giving to both Elements a power of hatching as I may so say or quickening and bringing to perfection the Seeds they contained first the more imperfect as Herbs and Trees then the more perfect Fish Fowl Four-footed Beasts and creeping Things or Infects Which may be the meaning of those Commands of God which were operative and effectual communicating to the Earth and Water a power to produce what he commanded them Gen. 1. 11. Let the Earth bring forth Grass c. and v. 20. Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life and fowl that may fly above the Earth c. And v. 24. Let the Earth bring forth the living creature after his kind cattel and creeping thing and beast of the Earth after his kind So the Earth was at first cloathed with all sorts of Herbs and Trees and both Earth and Water furnished with Inhabitants And this the Ancients understood by their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But whether out of prae-existing Seeds as I suppose or not certain it is that God at that time did give an extraordinary and miraculous power to the Land and Water of producing Vegetables and Animals and after there were as many of every kind brought forth as there were Seeds created at first or as many as it seemed good to the Divine Creator to produce without Seed there remained no further ability in those Elements to bring forth any more but all the succeeding owe their original to Seed God having given to every Species a power to generate or propagate its like CHAP. III. Of the separating the Land and Water and raising up the Mountains SUpposing that God Almighty did at first create the Terrestrial Globe partly of solid and more ponderous partly of fluid and lighter parts the solid and ponderous must needs naturally subside the fluid and lighter get above Now that there were such different parts created is clear and therefore it is reasonable to think that the Waters at first should stand above and cover the Earth and that they did so seems evident to me from the testimony of the Scripture For in the History of the Creation in the first Chapter of Genesis verse 2. it is said That the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters intimating that the Waters were uppermost And God said verse 9. let the waters under the Heaven be gathered together into one place and let the dry land appear Whence I think it is manifest to any unprejudiced Reader That before that time the Land was covered with water Especially if we add the testimony of the holy Psalmist Psalm 104. vers 6. 9. which is as it were a comment upon this place of Genesis where speaking of the Earth at the Creation he saith Thou coveredst it with the deep as with a garment the waters stood above the Mountains ... and ver 9. That they turn not again to cover the Earth And that this gathering together of waters was not into any subterraneous Abyss seems likewise clear from the Text. For it is said That God called this Collection of waters Seas as if it been on purpose to prevent such a mistake Whether this separation of the Land and Water and gathering the waters together into one place were done by the immediate application and agency of God's Almighty Power or by the intervention and instrumentality of second Causes I cannot determine It might possibly be effected by the same Causes that Earthquakes are viz. subterraneous Fires and Flatuses We see what incredible effects the Accension of Gunpowder hath it rends Rocks and blows up the most ponderous and solid Walls Towers and Edifices so that its force is almost irresistible Why then might not such a proportionable quantity of such Materials set on fire together raise up the Mountains themselves how great and ponderous soever they be yea the whole Superficies of the dry Land for it must all be elevated above the Waters And truly to me the Psalmist seems to intimate this Cause Psalm 104. 7. For after he had said The waters stood above the mountains he adds At thy rebuke they fled at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away Now we know that an Earthquake is but a subterraneous Thunder and then immediately follows The mountains ascend the valleys descend c. If there might be a high Hill raised up near the City Troezen out of a plain Field by the force of a subterraneous Fire or Flatus as Ovid tells us Est prope Pitthaeam tumulus Troezena sine ullis Arduus arboribus quondam planissima campi Area nunc tumulus nam res horrenda relatu Vis fera ventorum caecis inclusa cavernis Expirare aliqua cupiens luctatáque frustra Liberiore frui coelo cum carcere rima Nulla fuit toto nec pervia flatibus esset Extentam tumefecit humum ceu spiritus oris Tendere vesicam solet aut derepta bicornis Terga capri tumor ille loci permansit alti Collis habet speciem longóque induruit aevo A Hill by Pitthaean Traezen
be over-charged with surfeiting and drunkenness and cares of this life and so that day come upon you unawares For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the whole earth Parallel whereto are Matth. 24. 42. and Mark 13. 33 35. That it shall come is certain when it shall come is uncertain and it every day draws nearer and nearer therefore it is not wisdom to remove the evil day far from us and as in reference to the day of Death it is an usual and prudent advice so to live every day as if it were our last day or at least as we would not be afraid to do should it be so because we are sure that one day will be our last and for ought we know the present may be it so likewise it is rational Counsel in respect of the End of the World so to prepare our selves for it by a holy Conversation that we may get above the terror and dread which will otherwise attend the apprehension of the approach of it and that we may be provided against the worst that may follow and be secure come what can come Secondly It concerns us should it be a thousand Years to come Because then is the general Resurrection both of the just and unjust Acts 24. 15. and the general Judgment When we must all appear before the dreadful tribunal of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad 2. Cor. 5. 10. which Rom. 2. 5. is called the revelation of the righteous judgment of God Who will render to every man according to his deeds c. Upon this account I say it concerns us much how we have our Conversation here First As we hope to be acquitted at that day and to enter into those new Heavens in which dwells righteousness Holiness is a necessary condition and antecedent to happiness Necessary I say 1. By God's appointment Heb. 12. 14. Follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. Rom. 6. 22. Have your fruit unto holiness and the end eternal life Psal. 50. ult To him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God Eternal Life is the Gift of God He is not obliged to bestow it upon any Man He may make what Condition he pleases for the obtaining of it No Man hath any Right to it No Man can lay any claim to it but from this Donation and from the performance of these Conditions Rev. 22. 14. Blessed are they that do his commandments that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter in through the gates into the city For without are dogs and whoremongers and sorcerers c. All the Right they have depends upon God's Promise which is conditionate and accrues to them by the performance of the Condition which is the doing of his Commandments 2 Necessary not only by God's appointment but in the very nature of the thing Holiness is the very quality and complexion of Heaven No Man without it is qualified to be a subject of that Kingdom For thereinto nothing that is impure or unclean can enter Revel 21. 27. And there shall in no wise enter into it the New Jerusalem any thing that defileth neither whatsoever worketh abomination In this new Heaven dwelleth righteousness 2 Pet. 3. 15. Therefore 1 John 3. 3. Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself as he is pure Heaven would naturally spue out and eject a wicked Person as one heterogeneous to it Heaven and Hell are not more distant in Place than they are in Nature There is not more antipathy between fire and water between light and darkness between streight and crooked neither are they more incompatible or do more naturally resist and expel one another than holiness which is the quality of Heaven and wickedness which is the disposition and temper of Hell Some do think Heaven to be rather a state than a place and that he that is partaker of the Divine Nature hath Heaven within him This is true but this is not all The whole Notion of Heaven comprehends both a state and a place A Man must be in a heavenly state before the local Heaven can receive him or he brook it Heaven without him would be no Heaven to the Man who hath not Heaven within him A wicked Person could find no business or employment in Heaven nothing to satisfie his corrupt and depraved affections inclinations and appetites He would there meet with no suitable company no persons whose conversation he could take any delight and complacency in but rather hate and abhor For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness or what communion hath light with darkness 2 Cor. 6. 14. Like naturally loves like and unites with it and doth refuse resist and hate that which is unlike it For every thing is made to love itself and consequently whatsoever resembles and comes near it and is as it were a replication of it and to hate the contrary As therefore we would be glad to be Partakers of the blessedness of the local Heaven so let us endeavour to get into our Minds and Spirits the qualities and conditions of Heaven that so we may be fit Subjects for that Kingdom sit Companions for that Society This is the time allotted us to purifie our selves from all filthiness both of flesh and spirit and to perfect holiness in the fear of God There is no invention in the Grave whither we are going Eccles. 9. 10. Vpon this moment depends eternity As the tree falls so it it lies Eccles. And as Death leaves so will Judgment find us Quando isthinc excessum fuerit nullus jam locus poenitentiae est Hîc vita aut amittitur aut tenetur Hîc saluti aeternae cultu Dei fructu fidei providetur Cyprian Serm. de Immortal After we shall depart hence there remains no more place for repentance Eternal life is here either lost or won Here provision is made for everlasting salvation by the worship of God and fruit of faith We must work while it is day the night of death cometh wherein no man can work John 9. 4. And therefore the time our Bodies shall rest in the Grave should it be a thousand Years will little avail us for if the Soul be mean while awake the certain and dreadful expectation of the Sentence of Condemnation to an eternal Hell at the Day of Judgment will be little less afflictive than the Torments thereof themselves I might add by way of Digression that Sin and Wickedness is naturally productive of Hell in the Soul A wicked Man carries Hell in his Breast Sin necessarily infers Misery It is contrary to the nature of the Soul and whatsoever is so must needs be grievous Diversion and Non-Attention to his Condition is the wicked Man's only Security I have heard it often from a great Divine in
and near the Tropicks where the Exhalations from the Sea are most plentiful most rarify'd and Rain scarce than in the Temperate and Frigid ones where it rains and snows generally on the Vertices of the Mountains yet even in our European Climates I have often observ'd the Firs Pines and other Vegetables near the Summits of the Alps and Appennines to drop and run with water when it did not rain above some Trees more than others according to the density and smoothness of their Leaves and Superficies whereby the stop and condense the Vapours more or less The Beams of the Sun having little force on the high parts of Mountains the interrupted Vapours must continually moisten them and as in the head of an Alembick condense and trickle down so that we owe part of our Rain Springs Rivers and Conveniencies of Life to the operation of Distillation and Circulation by the Sun the Sea and the Hills without even the last of which the Earth would scarce be habitable This present year in Kent they have had no Rain since March last therefore most of their Springs are dry at this very day as I am assur'd from good Hands The high spouting of water even to three Fathoms perpendicular out of innumerable holes on the Lake Zirknitz in Carniola after Rains on the adjacent Hills exceeds the spirting Gips or natural Jet d' Eaus we have in England Nouemb. 12. 1691. Tancred Robinson Since the receipt of this Letter an Experiment give me leave so to call it occurred to me which much confirmed me in the belief and perswasion of the Truth of those Histories and Relations which Writers and Travellers have delivered to us concerning dropping Trees in Ferro S. Thome Guiny c. of which before I was somewhat diffident and likewise in the approbation of the Hypothesis of my Learned Friend Dr. Tancred Robinson for the solving of that Phaenomenon The same also induces me to believe that Vapours may have a greater interest in the production of Springs even in temperate and cold Regions than I had before thought The Experiment or Observation is this About the beginning of December 1691. there happened to be a Mist and that no very thick one which continued all day the Vapour whereof notwithstanding the Trees were wholly devested of Leaves condensed so fast upon their naked Branches and Twigs that they dropped all day at such a rate that I believe the water distilling from a large Tree in twenty four hours had it been all received and reserved in a Vessel might have amounted to a Hogshead What then may we rationally conjecture would have dropped from such a Tree had it been covered with Leaves of a dense Texture and smooth Superficies apt to collect the Particles of the Vapour and unite them into Drops It is clear by this effect that Trees do distil water apace when Clouds or Mists hang about them which they are reported by Benzo constantly to do about the Fountain Tree in Ferro except when the Sun shines hot upon it And others tell us that that Tree grows upon a Mountain too So that it is no wonder that it should drop abundance of water What do I speak of that Tree all the Trees of that kind grow on the sides of vast Mountains as Dr. Robinson hath noted yet he thinks that now and then many Trees may run and distil in Plains and Valleys when the Weather has been fair but then this Phaenomenon happens very rarely whereas in the other 't is regular and constant Besides that in hot Regions Trees may in the Night time distil water though the Air be clear and there be no Mist about them seems necessarily to follow from Mr. Halley's Experiment Now if there be in Mists thus much Vapour condensed upon Trees doubtless also there is in proportion as much upon the Surface of the Earth and the Grass And consequently upon the Tops and Ridges of high Mountains which are frequently covered with Clouds or Mists much more so much as must needs have a great interest in the production and supply of Springs even in temperate Countries But that invisible Vapours when the Sky is clear do at any time condense so fast upon the Trees as to make them drop I never observed in England or elsewhere no not in the Night season though I do not deny but upon the Appennine and Southern side of the Alps and elsewhere in the hotter parts of Europe in Summer Nights they may However considering the Penetrancy of such Vapours that in moist Weather they will insinuate themselves deeply into the Pores of dry Wood so that Doors will then hardly shut and Chinks and Crannies in Boards and Floors be closed up I know not but that they may likewise strike deep into the Ground and together with Mists contribute to the seeding and maintenance of Springs in Winter-time when the Sun exhales but little it being an Observation of the Learned Fromondus Quod hyeme nec nivah nec imbrifera fontes tamen aquam largiùs quà m aejlate nisi valdè pluvia sit vomant That in Winters neither snowy nor rainy yet fountains pour forth more water than in Summer unless it happen to be a very wet season Yet are their Contributions inconsiderable if compared with the supplies that are aâ—â—orded by Rains And one reason why in Winter Fountains flow more plentifully may be because then the Sun defrauds them not nor exhales any thing out of the Earth as in Summer time he doth Therefore whenever in this Work I have assigned Rain to be a sufficient or only cause of Springs and Rivers I would not be understood to exclude but to comprehend therein Mists and Vapours which I grant to have some interest in the production of them even in temperate and cold Regions and a very considerable one in Hot. Though I cannot be perswaded that even there they are the sole Cause of Springs for that there fall such plentiful and long continuing Rains both in the East and West-Indies in the Summer Months which must needs contribute something to their Original But to return from whence we digressed that is to the consideration of that Hypothesis or Opinion That all the Rivers of the Earth discharge into the Sea half an Ocean of waters daily I have read of some Philosophers who imagined the Earth to be a great Animal and that the Ebbing and Flowing of the Sea was the respiration of it And now methinks if this Doctrine be true we have a further Argument to confirm their Opinion For this perpetual Motion of the water answers very well to the Circulation of the Blood the water moving faster in proportion to its bulk through the Veins of this round Animal then the Blood doth through those of other living Creatures To which we may add further that to maintain this constant Circulation there is also probably about the Center of the Earth a perpetual Fire answering to the Biolychnium in the heart but
if not about the Center yet certainly in profound Caverns and even under the very bottoms of the Seas to which some and no mean Philosophers have attributed the Ebbing and flowing of its waters Let us then suppose that the Rivers do daily carry down to the Sea half an Ocean of water and that the Rain supplies all that as our Opinion is and see what we can infer from thence I think it will be granted that ordinarily communibus annis the Rain that falls in a whole year amounts not to above one quarters continual Rain Now if this suffices for a daily eâ—â—usion of half an Ocean 〈…〉 that if it should rain without any 〈◊〉 all the year round the Rivers would 〈◊〉 out two Oceans into the Sea 〈◊〉 And so in forty days continual Rain 〈◊〉 would distil down upon the Earth 〈…〉 of Water A prodigious quantity 〈◊〉 and â—â—arce credible which if the 〈…〉 as fast as it comes on 〈…〉 a quantity of water 〈…〉 twice in twenty four 〈…〉 then that so much water 〈…〉 upon the â—arth I argue thus 〈…〉 upon the Earth must have 〈…〉 down to the Sea and according â—o the small declivity of the 〈…〉 the Mountains pared off and 〈…〉 a considerable one too 〈…〉 it actually hath so that the Floods 〈…〉 some days after the 〈…〉 upon the higher grounds And 〈…〉 the general Deluge 〈…〉 down to the Sea as fast 〈…〉 the Earth would permit 〈…〉 the Fountains of the 〈…〉 Clouds 〈…〉 could than they run down 〈…〉 the Earth it deserves 〈…〉 whether by the end of 〈…〉 Mountains fifteen Cubits high And yet the Scripture doth not in plain terms say that ever the waters of the Flood arose fifteen Cubits above the tops of the highest Mountains as Mr. Warren well observes Besides we are further to consider that this forty days Rain at the time of the Deluge was no ordinary one such as those that usually distil down leisurely and gently in Winter time but like our Thunder-storms and violent Showers Catarracts and Spouts which pour forth more water in an hour then they do in four and twenty So that in forty natural days the Clouds would empty out upon the Earth not eighty Oceans of water but above twenty times that quantity If by the Windows of Heaven are meant Catarracts as the Septuagint interpret the word And so we need not be to seek for water for a Floud for the Rain alone falling at that rate we have mentioned would if the Opinion of those men who hold that the Rivers discharge into the Sea half an Ocean daily were true in the space of forty natural days afford water enough supposing it run off no faster than usually it doth to cover the Earth Mountains and all Neither yet did the Mountains help but rather hinder the descent of the waters down to the Sea straitning it into Channels obstructing its passage and forcing it to take Circuits till it got above the Ridges and Tops of them As to this Argumentation and Inference the case is the same if we hold that the Water circulates through the 〈◊〉 of the Earth For supposing the Rivers pour 〈◊〉 half an Ocean daily and granting that in times of Floods their streams are but double of their usual Currents though I verily believe they are more than quadruple and that the eâ—fusions of the Fountains be in like measure augmented it will follow that the daily discharge of the Rivers will amount to two Oceans Now at the time of the general Deluge both these Causes concurred For there being a constant Rain of forty days there must on that account be a continual Flood and the Fountains of the great Deep â—eing broken up they must in all likelyhood afford as much Water as the Rain which whether it would not suffice in forty natural days to produce a Flood as big as that of Noah notwitâ—standing the continual descent and going off of the Waters I propose to the consideration of the Ingenious Especially if we allow as is not unreasonable 〈◊〉 suppose that the Divine Providence 〈◊〉 at first cause a contrary Wind to stop 〈◊〉 â—nhibit the descent of the Waters as afterwards he raised an assisting one to carry them off I have but one thing more to add upon this Subject that is that I do not see how their Opinion can be true who hold that some Seas are lower than others as for Example the Red Sea than the Mediterranean For it being true that the Water keeps its level that is holds its Superficies every where equidistant from the Center of Gravity or if by accident one part be lower the rest by reason of their fluidity will speedily reduce the Superficies again to an equality The Waters of all Seas communicating either above or under ground or both ways one Sea cannot be higher or lower than another but supposing any accident should elevate or depress any by reason of this confluence or communication it would soon be reduced to a level again as might demonstratively be proved But I return to tell the Reader what I think the most probable of all the Causes I have heard assigned of the Deluge which is the Center of the Earth being at that time changed and set nearer to the Center or middle of our Continent whereupon the Atlantick and Pacifick Oceans must needs press upon the Subterraneous Abyss and so by mediation thereof force the Water upward and at last compel it to run out at those wide Mouths and Apertures made by the Divine Power breaking up the Fountains of the great Deep And we may suppose this to have been only a gentle and gradual Emotion no faster than that the Waters running out at the bottom of the Sea might accordingly lowre the Superficies thereof sufficiently so that none needed run over the Shores These Waters thus poured out from the Orifices of the Fountains upon the Earth the declivity being changed by the removal of the Center could not flow down to the Sea again but must needs stagnate upon the Earth and overflow it and afterwards the Earth returning to its old Center return also to their former Receptacles If any shall object against this Hypothesis because by it the Flood will be render'd Topical and restrained only to the Continent we live in though I might plead the Unnecessariness of drowning America it being in all probability unpeopled at that time yet because the Scripture useth general expressions concerning the extent of the Flood saying Gen. 1. 19. And all the high hills that were under the whole Heaven were covered and again verse 22. All in whose nostrils was the breath of lìfe of all that was in the dry land died And because the Americans also are said to have some ancient Memorial Tradition of a Deluge and the Ingenious Author of the Theory of the Earth hath by a moderate Computation demonstrated that there must be then more People upon the Earth than now I will propose another way of