else only of the sublunary lower World we may here resolve that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heaven and Host or Elements thereof are litterally the sublunary Aereal Heavens and all that is therein Clouds and Meteors c. Fowls and flying Creatures and so fit to joyn with the Earth and Works that are therein In prosecution of this Proposition and in order to the Proof and Confirmation and likewise the clearing and illustration of it shall 1. Give you what I find concerning the dissolution of the World 1. In the Holy Scripture 2. In Ancient Christian Writers 3. In the Heathen Philosophers and Sages 2. I shall endeavour to give some answer to these seven Questions which are obvious and usually made concerning it 1. Whether there be any thing in Nature which might prove and demonstrate or argue and infer a future Dissolution of the World 2. Whether shall this Dissolution be brought about and effected by Natural or by Extraordinary Means and Instruments and what those Means and Instruments shall be 3. Whether shall the Dissolution be gradual or sudden 4. Whether shall there be any Signs and Fore-runners of it 5. At what Period of Time shall the World be dissolved 6. 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 7. Whether shall the Heavens and Earth be wholly dissipated and destroyed or only refined and purified CHAP. II. The Testimonies of Scripture concerning the Dissolution of the World 1. THen Let us consider what we find delivered in the Holy Scriptures concerning the Dissolution of the World And first of all This place which I have made choice of for my Text is in my opinion the most clear and full as to this particular in the whole Scripture and will give light for the Solution of most of the proposed Questions Vers. 10. The day of the Lord shall come as a thief c. This answers the third Question Whether the Dissolution shall be gradual or sudden Wherein the Heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat the Earth also and all the works that are therein shall be burnt up And again Vers. 12. Wherein the Heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat This answers the second Question What the Means and Instruments of this Dissolution shall be Vers. 13. Nevertheless we according to his promise look for a new Heaven and a new Earth wherein dwelleth righteousness This gives some light towards the anwering of the last Question Whether shall the Heavens and the Earth be wholly burnt up and destroyed or only renewed and purified These Words as clearly as they seem to refer to the Dissolution of the World yet Dr. Hammond doubts not to be understood of the remarkable destruction of Ierusalem and the Iewish State he thus paraphrasing them Verse 10. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night in which the Heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat and the Earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up But this Judgment of Christ so remarkable on the Iews shall now shortly come and that very discernably and the Temple shall suddenly be destroyed the greater part of it burnt and the City and People utterly consumed Verse 11. Seeing then all these things shall be dissolved what manner of Persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness Seeing then this destruction shall thus involve all and now approacheth so near what an engagement doth this lay upon us to live the most pure strict lives that ever Men lived Verse 12. Looking for and hastning unto the coming of the day of God wherein the Heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat Looking for the coming of Christ for our deliverance and by our Christian lives quickning and hastning God to delay it no longer that Coming of his I say which as it signifies great mercy to us so it signifies very sharp destruction to the whole Iewish State Verse 13. Nevertheless we according to his promise look for new Heavens and a new Earth wherein dwelleth righteousness Instead of which we look for a new Christian State wherein all provision is made by Christ for Righteousness to inhabit according to the Promise of Christ concerning the Purity that he should plant in the Evangelical State How he makes out and confirms this Paraphrase see in his Annotations upon this place So confident is he of the Truth of this his Interpretation that he censures the usual one as a great Mistake in his Annotation on verse 10. where he thus writes What is here thus expressed by S. Peter is ordinarily conceived to belong to the end of the World and by others applies to the end of this World and the beginning of the Millennium or thousand years And so as S. Peter here saith verse 16. many other places in S. Paul's Epistles and in the Gospel especially Matthew 24. are mistaken and wrested That it doth not belong to either of those but to this fatal day of the Iews sufficiently appears by the purport of this whole Epistle which is to arm them with Constancy and Perseverance till that day come and particularly in this Chapter to confute them who object against the Truth of Christ's Predictions and resolve it should not come at all Against whom he here opposes the Certainty the Speediness and the Terribleness of its coming That which hath given occasion to those other common Mistakes is especially the hideousness of those Judgments which fell upon the People of the Iews beyond all that ever before are related to have fallen upon them or indeed any other People which made it necessary for the Prophets which were to describe it and who use Tropes and Figures and not plain Expressions to set down their Predictions to express it by these high Phrases of the passing away and dissolving of Heaven and Earth and Elements c. which sounding very tragically are mistaken for the great and final Dissolution of the World So far the Doctor Two things there are in this Chapter which seem to contradict this Interpretation First That the Destruction here spoken of is compared with Noah's Flood and the Heaven and Earth to be dissolved by this made parallel and of equal extent to the World destroyed by that Of this the Doctor was well aware and therefore grants that the seventh Verse But the Heavens and the Earth which are now by the same word are kept in store reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men is to be understood of the general and final destruction of the World by fire but the following Verses to be an Answer to the first part of the Atheists Objection viz.
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 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
〈◊〉 Luke 18. 17. I tell you he will avenge them speedily All these places the forementioned Dr. Hammond still applies to that famous Period of the destruction of the City Temple and Polity of the Iews only in his Note upon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that everlasting destruction mentioned 2 Thess. 1. 9. he hath some qualification saying thus Mean while not excluding the eternal torments of hell-Hell-fire which expect all impenitent sinners that thus fall but looking particularly on the visible destruction and vengeance which seizeth on whole Nations or Multitudes at once in this life And in conclusion hath left us but one place in the N. Testament to prove the general Conâ—lagration of the World viz. 2 Pet. 7. 7. Now because some have been offended at these Interpretations of his others have spoken very slightingly of them I shall briefly sum up what hath been alledged in defence of them by this great Man 1. That the Prophets use to set down their Predictions in Tropes and Figures and not in plain Expressions their Style being Poetical And therefore in describing those hideous Judgments which fell upon that People of the Iews beyond all that ever before fell upon them or indeed any other People they â—ound it necessary to employ those High and Tragical Phrases of the passing away and dissolving Heaven and Earth and Elements And that this was the manner of the Prophets may be proved because we find the destruction of other places described in as high Strains as lofty and tragical Expressions as this of Ierusalem For example that of Idumaea Isai. 34. 9. The streams thereof shall be turned into pitch and the dust thereof into brimstone and the land thereof shall become burning pitch It shall not be quenched night nor day the smoke thereof shall go up for ever And in the fourth Verse he seems but to Preface to this Destruction in these words And all the host of Heaven shall be dissolved and the Heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll and all their hosts shall fall down as the leaf falleth off from the Vine and as a falling Fig from the Fig-tree for my Sword shall be bathed in Heaven Behold it shall come down upon Idumaea And in the Burden of Babylon Chap. 13. 8 9. we have these words Behold the day of the Lord cometh cruel both with wrath and fierce anger to lay the Land desolate For the Stars of Heaven and the Constellations thereof shall not give their light The Sun shall be darkened in his going forth and the Moon shall not cause her Light to shine 2. All the Predictions in that famous place Matth. 24. to which all other places in the New Testament relating to this matter are parallel are by our Saviour himself restrained to the destruction of Ierusalem and the full completion of them limited to the duration of that Age Verse 34. Verily I say unto you This generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled What reason then can we have to extend them further 3. In most of the places where this coming of Christ is mentioned it is spoken of as near and at hand as in the places last cited Now saith the Learned Doctor in his Note upon Luke 18. 7. I tell you he will avenge them speedily All which if when it is said to approach and to be at the door it belonged to the Day of Judgment now after so many hundred years not yet come what a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were this what a delaying of his coming and consequently what an Objection against the truth of the Christian Religion As Mahomet having promised after his death he would presently return to life and having not performed his Promise in a thousand years is by us justly condemned as an Impostor 4. That this place of S. Peter out of which I have taken my Text doth not belong to the end of the World sufficiently appears saith he by the purport of this whole Epistle which is to arm them with constancy and perseverance till that Day come and particularly in this Chapter to confute them who object against the truth of Christ's Predictions and resolve it should not come at all against whom he here opposes the certainty the speediness and the terribleness of its coming And for that other famous place 2 Thess. 1. 8 9. that it belongs to the same Period see how he makes it out in his Annotations I shall now superadd some places out of the Old Testament which seem to speak of the Dissolution of the World Iob 14. 12. Man lieth down and riseth not till the Heavens be no more Psal. 102. 5 6. quoted Hebr. 1. 10 11. Of old hast thou laid the foundations of the Earth and the Heavens are the works of thy hands They shall perish but thou remainest and they all shall wax old as doth a garment and as a vesture shalt thou change them and they shall be changed Isai. 34. 4. And all the host of Heaven shall be dissolved and the Heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll and all their host shall fall down as a leaf falleth from the Vine c. Isai. 51. 6. The Heavens shall vanish away like smoke and the Earth shall wax old like a garment Joel 2. 31. The Sun shall be turned into darkness and the Moon into blood before that great and terrible day of the Lord comes Malachi 4. 1. Behold the day cometh that shall burn like an Oven c. Deut. 32. 22. For a fire is kindled in my anger and shall burn to the lowest Hell and shall consume the Earth with her encrease and set on fire the foundations of the Mountains I must confess that the Prophetick Books are full of figurative Expressions being written in a Poetick Style and according to the strain of the Oriental Rhetorick which is much different from the European aâ—â—ecting lofty and tumid Metaphors and excessive Hyperbola's and Aggravations which would either sound harsh to our Ears or import a great deal more to us than they did to them This is obvious to any one that reads their Books and may clearly be demonstrated from the Tiâ—lâ—â— that their Kings assumed to themselves as well anciently as lately viz. Sons of the Sun Brethren of the Sun and Moon Partners of the Stars Lions crowned in the Throne of the World Endued with the strength of the whole Heaven and Virtue of the Firmament Now we cannot possibly imagine them so vain as to think themselves litterally to be such no sure all they meant by these Expressions was that they were great and honourable and powerful Now the Prophetick Books of the Old Testament being written in a Style somewhat conformable to the Oratory of those Countreys are not I humbly conceive in every title to be so exactly scanned and litterally expounded but so to be interpreted as a Iew or an Asiatick would then have understood them And this I rather think because there be divers passages
useth the same Argument with Irenâ—cus Ergo quoniam sex diebus cuncta Dei opera perfecta sunt per secula sex id est sex annorum millia manere in hac statu mundum necesse est Dies enim magnus Dei mille annorum circulo terminatur sicut indicat Propheta qui dicit Ante oculos tuos Domine mille anni tanquam dies unus c. Therefore because all the works of God were perfected or 〈◊〉 in six days it is necessary or necessarily follows that the World shall continue in this state six Ages that is six thousand years For the great Day of God is terminated in a Circle of six thousand years as the Prophet intimates who saith A thousand years in thy sight O Lord are but as one day S. Augustine l. 20. de Civitate Dei S. Hieronymus Comment â—in Mich. cap. 4 Most clear and full to this purpose is Eustath in his Comment in Hexa meron 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. We reckon saith he that the Creation shall continue till the end of the sixth Chiliad because God also consummated the Vniverse in six days and I suppose that the Deity doth account days of a thousand years long for that it is said A thousand years are in the sight of the Lord as one day Hoâ—beit the most of them did not propose this Opinion as an undoubted Truth but only as a modest Conjâ—cture And S. Austine is very angry with them who would peremptordy conclude from so flight an Argumentation This Conceit is already confuted and the World hath long outlasted this 〈◊〉 according to their Computation who followed the Septuagint or Greek account and reckoned that Phaleg lived about the Three thousandth year of the World and had his Name from his living in the division of Time there being to come after him Three thousand years that is just so many as were past before him As concerning the future Condition of the World after the Conflagration I find it the general and received Opinion of the ancient Christians that this World shall not be annihilated or destroyed but only renewed and purified So Eusebius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The World shall not be wholly destroyed but renewed Divers other passages I 〈◊〉 produce out of him to the same purpose Cyril of Ierusalem Catech. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He folds up the 〈◊〉 not that he might destroy them but that he might rear them up again more beautiful Again Cyril upon this place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. He acutely or ingeniously calls 〈◊〉 death of the Elements their change into letter So that this Renovation in respect of the Creation shall be such a kind of thing as the Resurrection in reference to Man's Body Oecumenius upon this place He saith new Heavens and a new Earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet not different in matter And again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They shall not be destroyed or annihilated but only renewed and purified And upon Revel 21. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This he saith not denoting the Non-existence of the Creation but the Renewing In this manner he expounds Psalm 102. 5 6. and proceeding saith We may here take notice that the Apostle doth not use the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if the Heaven and Earth were annihilated and brought to nothing but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they passed away or removed or changed state Saint Hierome upon the Psalms Psalm 102. saith Ex quo ostenditur perditionem coelorum non interitum sonare sed mutationem in melius From which words as a Vesture shalt thou change them may be shewn and made out that the Dissolution of the Heavens doth not signifie their utter destruction or annihilation but only their change into a better state I might add abundance more Testimonies but these I think may suffice CHAP. IV. The Opinions of the Ancient Heathen Philosophers and other Writers concerning the Dissolution 3. IT follows now that I give you an account what the ancient Philosophers and Sages among the Heathens thought and delivered concerning this Point Two of the four principal Sects of Philosophers held a future Dissolution of the World viz. The Epicureans and Stoicks As for the Epicureans They held that as the World was at first composed by the fortuitous concourse of Atomes so it should at last fall in pieces again by their fortuitous Separation as Lucretius hath it lib. 5. Principio maria ac terras coelúmque tuere Horum naturum triplicem tria corpora Memmi Tres species tam dissimiles tria talia texta Vna dies dabit exitio multósque per annos Sustentata ruet moles machina mundi But now to prove all this first cast an Eye And look on all below on all on high The solid Earth the Seas and arched Sky One fatal hour must ruine all This glorious Frame that stood so long must fall This Opinion of theirs is consonant enough to their wild Principles save only in that point of its suddenness Vna dies dabit exitio c. one day shall destroy or make an end of it The Stoicks were also of Opinion that the World must be dissolved as we may learn from the Seventh Book of Laertius in the Life of Zeno 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. They hold that the World is corruptible for these Reasons 1. Because it was generated and had a beginning 2. Because That is corruptible in the whole whose parts are corruptible But the parts of the World are corruptible being daily transmuted one into another 3. That which is capable of Mutation from better to worse is corruptible But such is the World sometimes being afflicted with long Heats and Droughts sometimes with continued Showers and Inundations To those we may add 4. according to some of their Opinions Because the Sun and Stars being fed with Vapours exhaled from the Earth all the moisture will at length be drawn out and the World fly on fire They were afraid Nè humore omni consumpto totus mundus ignesceret The Poet Lucan who seems to be of the Stoick Sect in the beginning of his first Book describing the Dissolution of the World makes it to be a falling in pieces of the whole Frame of Heaven and Earth and a jumbling and confounding of all their parts together Sic cùm compage soluta Secula tot mundi suprema coegerit hora Antiquum repetent iterum Chaos omnia mistis Sydera syderibus concurrent ignea Pontum Astra petent tellus extendere litora nolet Excutietque fretum fratri contraria Phoebâ— Ibit obliquum bigas agitare per orbem Indignata diem poscet sibi tot áque discors Machina divulsi turbabit foedera mundi So when the last hour shall So many Ages end and this disjointed All To Chaos back return then all the Stars shall be Blended together then those burning Lights on high In Sea shall drench Earth then her shores shall not extend
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.
Fixedness and Intransmutability of Principles secures the Universe from Dissolution by the prevailing of one Element over another and turning it into its own Nature which otherwise it would be in continual danger of It secures likewise the perpetuity of all the Species in the World many of which if their Principles were transmutable might by such a change be quite lost And lastly bars the Production or Creation of any new Species as in the forementioned Treatise I have shewn CHAP. IV. Containing an Answer to the Second Question Whether shall this Dissolution be effected by natural or by extraordinary Means and what they shall be 2. AS to the Second Question Whether shall this Dissolution be brought about and effected by natural or by extraordinary Means and Instruments and what those Means and Instruments shall be I answer in brief that the Instrumental Efficient of this Dissolution shall be natural For it is clear both by Scripture and Tradition and agreed on all hands that it shall be that Catholick Dissolvent Fire Now to the being and maintenance of Fire there are four things requisite I. The active Principle or Aether 2. Air or a Nitrous Pabulum received from it These two being commixt together are every-where at hand 3. Fuel which considering the abundance of combustible Materials which are to be found in all places upon or under the Surface of the Earth can no where be wanting 4. The Accension and the sudden and equal Diffusion of this Fire all the World over And this must be the Work of God extraordinary and miraculous Such a Dissolution of the World might indeed be effected by that natural Accident mentioned in the Answer to the Precedent Question viz. The Eruption of the Central Fire But because it is doubtful whether there be any such Fire in the middle of the Earth or no and if there ever were it is hard to give an account how it could be maintained in that infernal Dungeon for want of Air and Fuel And because if it should break forth in the Consistency of a thin Flame it would in all likelihood speedily like Lightning mount up to Heaven and quite vanish away unless we could suppose Floods nay Seas of melted Materials or liquid Fire enough to overflow the whole Earth to be poured forth of those Caverns For these Reasons I reject that Opinion and do rather think that the Conflagration shall be effected by a superficial Fire Tho' I must confess we read in Tacitus Annal. 13. at the end of a sort of Fire that was not so apt to disperse and vanish The City of the Inhonians in Germany saith he confederate with us was afflicted with a sudden Disaster for Fires issuing out of the Earth burned Towns Fields Villages every-where and spread even to the Walls of a Colony newly built and could not be extinguished neither by Rain nor River-water nor any other Liquor that could be employed until for want of Remedy or Anger of such a Distraction certain Peasants cast Stones afar off into it then the Flame somewhat slacking drawing near they put it out with Blows of Clubs and other like as if it had been a wild Beast last of all they threw in Cloaths from their Backs which the more worn and fouler they were the better they quenched the Fire I use Dr. Hakewil's Translation CHAP. VII The Third Question answered Whether shall this Dissolution be Gradual and Successive or Momentaneous and Sudden 3. THE Third Question is Whether shall this Dissolution be gradual and successive or momentaneous and sudden I answer The Scripture resolves for the latter The day of the Lord shall come as a thief in the night a similitude we have often repeated in Scripture as in the tenth Verse of this Chapter in 1 Thess. 15. 2. Rev. 3. 3. and 16. 15. And the Resurrection and Change of Things it is said shall be in a moment in the twinkling of an eye 1 Cor. 15. 52. Consonant whereto both the Epicureans and Stoicks held their Dissolutions of the World should be sudden and brief as Lucretius and Seneca in the place ' fore-mentioned tell us And it is suitable to the nature of Fire to make a quick dispatch of things suddenly to consume and destroy And as it shall be sudden so also shall it be unexpected being compared to the coming of the Flood in the Days of Noah Mat. 24. 37 38 39. But as the days of Noah were so shall also the coming of the Son of man be For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking marrying and giving in marriage until the day that Noah entred into the ark And knew not until the flood came and took them all away so shall also the coming of the Son of man be And the raining of Fire and Brimstone upon Sodom Luke 17. Thessal 5. 3. For when they shall say peace and safety then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child Now if it shall be thus sudden and unexpected it is not likely there should be in Nature any manifest Tendency to it or remarkable Signs and Forerunners of it for such must needs startle and awaken the World into an expectation and dread of it That there is at present no such Tendency to Corruption but that the World continues still in as good state and condition as it was two thousand Years ago without the least impairment or decay hath been as we before noted without any possibility of contradiction clearly made out and demonstrated by Dr. Hakewill in his Apology and therefore arguing from the past to the vangelist had told us That there shall be Signs in the Sun and in the Moon and in the Stars the Sea and the Waves roaring he adds as a Consequent thereof Verse 26. Mens hearts failing them for fear and for looking after those things that are coming on the Earth And indeed how could any Man possibly be buried in so profound a Lethargy of Senslessness and Security as by such stupendious Prodigies not to be rowsed and awakened to an expectation of some dismal and tremendous Event How could he sing a Requiem to his Soul and say Peace and Safety when the World so manifestly threatens Ruin about his Ears For the reconcilâ—ng of these Expressions to this sudden coming of our Saviour to Judgment it were most convenient to accept them in the Figurative and Metaphorical Sense For if we understand them of the Ruin and Devastations of Cities and Countries and Changes of Governments the Subversions of Kingdoms and Commonwealths the Falls and Deposings of Princes Nobles and Great Men these happening more or less in every Age though the serious and inquisitive Christian who searches and understands the Scriptures may discern them to be the Signs of the World's Catastrophe yet the careless and inconsiderate the vicious and voluptuous are not like to be at all startled or moved at them but may notwithstanding looking upon them as
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
that this is no idle and unnecessary Discourse but very momentous and important and this Subject as mean as it seems worthy the most serious consideration of Christian Philosophers and Divines concerning which though I have spent many thoughts yet can I not fully satisfie my self much less then am I likely to satisfie others But I promise my self and them more full satisfaction shortly from the Labours of those who are more conversant and better acquainted with these Bodies than I who have been more industrious in searching them out and happy in discovering them who have been more curious and diligent in considering and comparing them more critical and exact in observing and noting their nature texture figure parts places differences and other accidents than my self and particularly that learned and ingenious Person before remembred The following Tables containing some Species of the most different Genera of these Bodies viz. Shark's Teeth Wolf-fish's Teeth Cockles or Concha Periwinkles or Turbens Cornua Ammonis or Serpent stones Sea-urchins and their Prickles Vertebres and other Bones of Fishes entire Fishes Petrifi'd and of those some singly some represented as they lye in Beds and Quarries under Ground for the information of those who are less acquainted with such Bodie were thought fit to be added to this Edition TAB II. Pag. 162. FIG 1 2. Several Fragments and Lumps of petrify'd Shells as they lie in Quarries and Beds under ground on many of these Petrifactions there still remain some Laminae or Plates of the Original Shells which prove them not to be Stones primarily so figur'd Fig 3. The Cornu Ammonis lying in Rocks with other petrify'd Bodies TAB III. Pag. 162. FIG 1 2. Two petrify'd Fishes lying in Stone with their Seales and Bones Fig. 3. A Sea-Urchin petrify'd with its prickles broken off which are a sort of Lapis Iudaicus or Iew-Stones their Insertions on the Studs or Protuberances of the Shell are here shewn See their History and Manner of Lying in Stone and Beds in Agostino Scilla 4. Napoli TAB IV. Pag. 162. FIG 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14. Several petrify'd Teeth of Dog-Fishes Sharks and other Fishes Fig. 15 16. The same lying in a Tophaceous Bed and also in a Jaw-Bone Fig. 17. The petrify'd Teeth of a Wolf-Fish in a piece of the Jaw the Round Ones or Grinders are sold in Maltha for petrify'd Eyes of Serpents and by our Jewellers and Goldsmiths for Toad-stones commonly put in Rings Fig. 18 19 20. Other petrify'd Bones of Fishes especially Joynts or Vertebra's of Back-bones one with two stony Spines issuing out f. 20. See them more at large in the Draughts of that curious Sicilian Painter Agostino Scilla Place this before Tab. II. p. 162. The CONTENTS DISCOURSE I. Of the Primitive CHAOS and Creation of the WORLD CHAP. I. Testimonies of the Ancient Heathen Writers Hesiod Ovid Aristophanes Lucan Euripides concerning the Chaos and what they meant by it Chap. II. That the Creation of the World out of a Chaos is not repugnant to the Holy Scripture if soberly understood p 5 6 7 8. Chap. III. Of the separating the Land and Water and raising up the Mountains p. 9 c. By what means the Waters were gathered together into one place and the dry Land made to appear p. 10. That subterraneous Fires and Flatus's might be of power sufficient to produce such an effect proved from the force and effects of Gunpowder and the raising up of new Mountains p. 11 12 13. The shaking of the whole known World by an Earthquake p. 13 14. That the Mountains Islands and whole Continents were probably at first raised up by subterraneous Fires proved by the Authority of Lydiate and Strabo p. 15 16 17. Of subterraneous Caverns passing under the bottom of the Sea p. 19 20 21 c. A Discourse concerning the Equality of the Sea and Land both as to the extent of each and the height of one to the depth of the other taken from the Shores p. 25 26 27 31 32 33. That the motion of the Water levels the bottom of the Sea p. 28 29 30. A Discourse concerning the Use of the Mountains 35 36 37 c. The Sum of what hath been said of the Division and Disposition of the Water and Earth p. 44. Chap. IV. Of the Creation of Animals some Questions concerning them resolved p. 46. That God Almighty did at first create either the Seeds of all Animate Bodies and dispersed them all the Earth over or else the first Sett of Animals themselves in their full state and perfection giving each Species a power by Generation to propagate their like p. 46 47. Whether God at first created a great number of each Species or only two a Male and a Female p. 47 48. Whether all individual Animals which already have been and hereafter shall be were at first actually created by God or only the first Sett of each Species the rest proceeding from them by way of Generation and being a new produced p. 49 50 51 c. Objections against the first part answered 1. That it seems impossible that the Ovaries of the first Animals should actually include the innumerable Myriads of those that may proceed from them in so many Generations as have been and shall be to the end of the World This shewn not to be so incredible from the multitude of parts into which Matter may be and is divided in many Experiments p. 51 52 53 54. c. 2. If all the Members of Animals already formed do pre exist in the Egg how can the Imagination of the Mother change the shape and that so notoriously sometimes as to produce a Calve's-head or Dog's-face or the like monstrous Members Several Answers to thus Objection offered p. 57 58 59 DISCOURSE II. Of the General DELUGE in the Days of Noah its Causes and Effects p. 62. CHAP. I. Testimonies of Ancient Heathen Writers and some Ancient Coyns or Medals verifying the Scripture-History of the Deluge p. 63 64 65 66. That the Ancient Poets and Mythologists by Deucalion understood Noah and by Deucalion's Flood the General Deluge proved 66 67 68 69. Chap. II. Of the Causes of the General Deluge 70 1. A miraculous transmutation of Air into Water rejected 70 71 72. That Noah's Flood was not Topical 73. 2 3. The emotion of the Center of the Earth or a violent depression of the Surface of the Ocean the most probable partial Causes of the Deluge but the immediate Causes assigned by the Scripture are the breaking up of the Fountains of the Great Deep and the opening of the Windows of Heaven 73. That those Causes are sufficient to produce a Deluge granting a change of the Centre of the Earth to prevent the Waters running off 73 74 75. That all the Vapours suspended in the Air might contribute much towards a Flood ibid. Concerning the Expence of the Sea by Vapour 76 77 78 c. Of the Waters keeping its Level An
some stop be put proved From the continual streightning of the Sea and lâ—wering the Mountains and high Grounds by Rains Floods and Rivers washing away and carrying down the Earth and from the Seas encroaching upon the Shares 283 to 296. A large Quâ—tation out of Josephus Blancanus demonstâ—ating the same thing by many Arguments 296. Sect. 2. The second probable Means or Cause of the World's Destruction in a Natural way viz. the extinction of the Sun 314. Sect. 3. The third possible Cause of the World's Destruction The eruption of the Central Fire 316. That the being of such a Fire is no way repugnant either to Scripture or Reason 318 320. Sect. 4. The fourth possible Cause of the World's Dissolution The Earth's Dryness and Inflammability in the Torrid Zâ—ne and the concurrent eruptions of Vâ—lâ—aneâ—â— 323. That the inclination of the Ecliptick to the Aequator doth not diminish 323. That tho' there were such a drying and parching of the Earth in the Torrid Zone it would not probably infer a Conflagration 324 325. That there hath not yet been nor in the ordinary Course of Nature can be any such drying or parching of the Earth in the Torrid Zone 326. The possibility of the desicâ—ation of the Sea by natural means denied 328 329. The fixedness and intransmutability of Principles secures the Universe from Dissolution Destruction of any present Species or by Production of any new 330. Chap. VI. Containing an Answer to the second Question Whether shall this Dissolution be effected by natural or extraordinary means and what they shall be 331. Chap. VII The third Question answered Whether shall the Dissolution be gradual and successive or momentanouns and sudden 334. Chap. VIII The fourth Question resolved Whether shall there be any Signs or Fore-runners of the Dissolution of the World 337. Chap. IX The fifth Question debated At what Period of time shall the World be dissolved and particularly Whether at the end of Six thousand Years 342. Chap. X. How far shall this Dissolution or Conflagration extend Whether to the Aetherial Heavens and all the Host of them Sun Moon and Stars or to the Aerial only 349. Chap. XI The seventh and last Question Whether shall the whole World be consumed and destroyed or annihilated or only refined and purified 353. The Restitution and Continuance of the World proved by the Testimonies of Scripture and Antiquity and also by Reason 358. The Arguments for the Abolition and Annihilation answer'd 360 362. Chap. XII The Inference the Apostle makes from the precedent Doctrine Of future Rewards and Punishments The Eternity of future Punishments proved from the Authority of Scripture and Antiquity How the Eternity of Punishments can consist with the Iustice and Goodness of God from p. 364. to the end of the Book DISCOURSE I. Of the Primitive CHAOS and Creation of the World IN the former Edition of this Treatise this Discourse concerning the Primitive Chaos and Creation of the World and that other concerning the Destruction thereof by the Waters of the General Deluge in the days of Noah were brought in by way of Digression because I designed not at first to treat of them but only of the Conflagration or Dissolution of the World by Fire but was afterwards when I had made a considerable progress in the Dissolution at the instance of some Friends because of their Relation to my Subject prevailed upon to say something of them But now that I am at liberty so to do I shall not handle them any more by the by but make them substantial Parts of my Book and dispose them as is most natural accordding to their priority and posteriority in order of time beginning with the Chaos and Creation CHAP. I. Testimonies of the Ancient Heathen Writers concerning the Chaos and what they meant by it IT was an ancient Tradition among the Heathen that the World was created out of a Chaos First of all the ancient Greek Poet Hesiod who may contend for Antiquity with Homer himself makes mention of it in his Theogonia not far from the beginning in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 First of all there was a Chaos And a few Verses after speaking of the immediate Production or Off-spring of the Chaos he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 From Chaos proceeded Hell and Night or Darkness which seems to have its foundation or occasion from the second Verse of the first Chapter of Genesis And the Earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep Of this testimony of Hesiod Lactantius takes notice and censures it in the first Book of his Institutions 〈…〉 Hesiodus non à Deo conditore sumens exordium sed à Chao quod est rudis inordinat á que materiae confusae congeries Hesiod not taking his beginning from God the Creator of all things but from the Chaos which is a rude and inordinate heap of confused matter And so Ovid describes it in the beginning of his Metamorphosis Quem dixere Chaos rudis indigestáque moles Nec quicquam nisi pondus iners congestáque eôdem Non bene junctarum discordia semina rerum That is One face had Nature which they Chaos nam'd An undigested lump a barren load Where jarring Seeds of things ill joyn'd aboad Others of the Ancients have also made mention of the Chaos as Aristophanes in Avibus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. And Lucan in the beginning of his first Book Antiquum repetent iterum Chaos omnia c. Of the formation of all the Parts of the World out of this Chaos Ovid in the place fore-quoted gives us a full and particular description and Euripides before him a brief one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The Heaven and Earth were at first of one form but after they were separated the Earth brought forth Trees Birds Beasts Fishes and Mankind The like account also the ancient Philosopher Anaxagoras gives of the Creation of the World beginning his Philosophy thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is All things at first were together or mingled and confused then Mind supervening disposed them in a beautiful order That which I chiefly dislike in this Opinion of theirs is that they make no mention of the Creation of this Chaos but seem to look upon it as self-existent and improduced CHAP. II. That the Creation of the World out of a Chaos is not repugnant to the Holy Scripture THis Opinion of a Chaos if soberly understood not as self-existent and improduced but in the first place created by God and preceding other Beings which were made out of it is not so far as I can discern any way repugnant to the Holy Scripture but on the contrary rather consonant and agreeable thereto For Moses in the History and Description of the Creation in the first Chapter of Genesis saith not that God created all things in an instant in their full state and perfection but that he proceeded gradually and in order
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
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
Mutations are made in the upper or superficial Region of the Earth the parts thereof seeming to tend to a greater quiet and settlement Besides the Superficies of the Sea notwithstanding the overwhelming and submersion of Islands and the straitning of it about the Outlets of Rivers and the Earth it washes from the shores subsiding and elevating the bottom seems not to be raised higher nor spread further or bear any greater proportion to that of the Land then it did a thousand years ago So have I finished my second Discourse concerning the Deluge and its Effects and the Mutations that have been since made in the Earth and their Causes DISCOURSE III. OF THE DISSOLUTION OF THE WORLD THE INTRODUCTION TO THE Third Discourse THERE is implanted in the Nature of Man a great desire and curiosity of fore-knowing future Events and what shall befal themselves their Relations and Dependents in time to come the Fates of Kingdoms and Commonwealths especially the Periodical Mutations and final Catastrophe of the World Hence in ancient times Divination was made a Science or Mystery and many Nations had their Colledges or Societies of Wise-men Magicians Astrologers and Sooth-sayers as for example the Egyptians Babylonians and Romans Hence the Vulgar are very prone to consult Diviners and Fortune-tellers To gratifie in some measure this Curiosity and that his People might not in any Priviledge be inferiour to the Nations about them it pleased God besides the standing Oracle of Vrim not only upon special occasions to raise up among the Iews extraordinary Prophets by immediate Mission but also to settle a constant Order and Succession of them for the maintenance and upholding whereof there were Colledges and Seminaries instituted for the educating and fitting young Men for the Prophetick Function These were the Sons of the Prophets of whom we find so frequent mention in Scripture Moreover it pleased God so far to condescend to the weakness of the Iews that in the Infancy of their State he permitted them to consult his Prophets concerning ordinary accidents of life and affairs of small moment As we see Saul did Samuel about the loss of his Fathers Asses which it 's not likely he would have done had it not been usual and customary so to do In the latter times of that State we read of no consulting of Prophets upon such occasions At last also by their own confession the Spirit of Prophecy was quite taken away and nothing left them but a Vocal Oracle which they called Bath col i. e. the Daughter of a Voice or the Daughter of Thunder a Voice out of a Voice This Dr. Light foot thinks to have been a meer Fancy or Imposture Quae de Bath Kol referunt Iudaei ignoscant illi mihi si ego partim pro fabulis habeam Iuduicis partim pro praestigis Diabolicis What the Iews report concerning Bath Kol I beg their pardon if I esteem them no other then either Jewish Fables or Diabolical Illusions It is a Tradition among them that after the death of the last Prophets Haggai Zachary and Malachy the Holy Spirit departed from Israel But why I beseech you was Prophecy withdrawn if Coelestial Oracles were to be continued Why was Vrim and Thummim taken away or rather not restored by their own confession after the Babylonish Captivity It were strange indeed that God taking away his ordinary Oracles from a People should bestow upon them one more or equally noble and that after they were extremely degenerated and fallen into all manner of Impiety Superstition and Heresy c. And a little after if I may freely speak what I think those innumerable Stories which every where occur in the Jewish Writings concerning Bath Kol are to be reduced to two Heads viz. 1. The most of them are meer Fables invented in honour of this or that Rabbin or to gain credit to some History 2. The rest meer Magical and Diabolical Illusions c. In the Primitive Churches of Christians planted by the Apostles there was also an Order of Prophets 1 Cor. 12. 28. God hath set some in the Church first Apostles secondarily Prophets c. This Spirit of Prophecy was an extraordinary and temporary Gift as were the Gifts of Healing and Speaking with Tongues continuing not long after the Death of the Apostles and Consignation of the Canon of Scripture So that now we have no means left us of coming to the knowledge of future Events but the Prophecies contained in the Writings of the Holy Penmen of Scripture which we must search diligently consider attentively and compare together if we desire to understand any thing of what shall befal the Christian Church or State in time to come This Text which I have made choice of for my Subject is part of a Prophecy concerning the greatest of all Events the Dissolution of the World 2 PETER iii. 11. Seeing then all these things shall be dissolved what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness CHAP. 1. The Division of the Words and Doctrine contained in them with the Heads of the following Discourse THESE Words contain in them two Parts 1. An Antecedent or Doctrine All these things shall be dissolved 2. A Consequent or Inference thereupon What manner of persons ought we to be The Doctrine here only briefly hinted or summarily proposed is laid down more fully in the precedent Verse But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night in which the Heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat the Earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up These words are by the generality of Interpreters Ancient and Modern understood of the final destruction or dissolution of Heaven and Earth in which sense I shall choose rather to accept them at present than with the Reverend and Learned Dr. Hammond and some few others to stem the Tide of Expositors and apply them to the destruction of Ierusalem and the Jewish Polity I say then That this World and all things therein contained shall one day be dissolved and destroyed by Fire By World in this Proposition We and by Heaven and Earth in this place the most rational Interpreters of Scripture do understand only the whole Compages of this sublunary World and all the Creatures that are in it all that was destroyed by the Flood in the days of Noah and now secured from perishing so again that I may borrow Dr. Hammond's words in his Annotations on this place And again the word Heavens saith he being an Equivocal word is used either for the superiour Heavens whether Empyreal or Ethereal or for the sublunary Heavens the Air as the word World is either the whole Compages of the superiour and inferiour World as the Author of the Book De Mundo ascribed falsly to Aristotle defines 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Systeme or Compages of Heaven and Earth and the Beings therein contained or
But to the Waves give way the Moon her Course shall bend Cross to her Brothers and disdaining still to drive Her Chariot wheel athwart the heavenly Oâ—b shall strive To rule the day this Frame to discord bent The Worlds Peace shall disturb and all in sunder rent This Dissolution of the World they held should be by Water and by Fire alternately at certain periods but especially by Fire which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Stoicks say that the cause of the destruction of the World is the irresistible force of Fire that is in things which in long periods of time consumes and dissolves all things into it self Euseb. Praep. l. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The most ancient of that Sect held That at certain vast Periods of time all things were rarified into Air being resolved into an Ethereal Fire This 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Stoicks we find mentioned by many both Christian and Heathen Writers as besides the fore-quoted Minutius Felix Iustin Martyr Clemens Alexandrinus in 5. Strom. Plutarch Seneca and others The time of this Conflagration Seneca determines not but saith only it shall be when God pleases 3 Quaest. nat cap. 20. 8. Cùm Deo visum vetera finire ordiri meliora When it shall seem good to God to put an end to old things and to begin better Some there be who tell us of the Annus Platonicus or magnus by which they understand such a period of time as in which all the heavenly Bodies shall be restored to the same site and distance they were once in in respect of one another As supposing that all the Seven Planets were at the moment of Creation in the first degree of Aries till they come all to â—e in the same degree again all that space of 〈◊〉 is called the Great Year Annus magnus In this Year they tell us that the height of Summer is the Conflagration and the depth of Winter the Inundation and some Astrologers have been so 〈◊〉 as to assign the time both of the Inundation and Conflagration Seneca 3 Quest. Nat. cap. 20. Berosus qui Belum interpretaius est dicit cursu ista syderum fieri adeo quidem assirmat ut conflagrationi atque diluvio tempus asâ—ignet Arsura â—nim terrena contendit quando omnia sydera in Cancro convenerint inundationem futuram quando eadem syderum turba in Capricorno convenerit Berosus who interpreted Belus saith That those things come to pass according to the course of the Stars and he so confidently affirms it that he assigns the time both for the Conflagration and Inundation For that all earthly Bodies will be burnt up when all the Stars shall meet in Cancer and the Inundation will fall out when the same shall be in conjunction in Capricorn Concerning the manner of this Conflagration they held it should be sudden Senec. Natura subitò ad ruinam toto impeturuit licet ad originem parcè utatur viribus dispensetque se incrementis fallacibus Momento fit cinis diu sylva c. Nature doth suddenly and with all its force rush on to ruin though to the rise and formation of things it useth its strength sparingly dispensing its influence and causing them to grow by insensible degrees a Wood is long in growing up but reduced to Ashes almost in a moment And some of them were so absurd as to think that the Stars should justle and be dashed one against another Senec. lib. de consolatione ad Marciam Cùm tempus advenerit quo se mundus revoâ—aturus extinguat viribus ista se suis caedent sydeâ—â—â—yderilus incurrent omni flagrante materia uno igne quicquid nunc ex disposito lucet ardebit When the time shall come that the World again to restore and renew it self shall perish these things shall batter and mall themselves by their own strength the Stars shall run or fall foul upon one another and all the matter flaming whatsoever now according to its settled order and disposition shines shall then burn in one fire Here by the way we may with Dr. More Souls Immortality lib. 3. cap. 18. take notice how coursly not to say ridiculously the Stoicks Philosophize when they are turned out of their Road-way of Moral Sentences and pretend to give an account of the Nature of Things For what Errours can be more gross than they entertain of God of the Soul and of the Stars they making the two former Corporeal Substances and feeding the latter with the vapours of the Earth affirming that the Sun sups the Water of the great Ocean to quench his Thirst but that the Moon drinks off the lesser Rivers and Brooks which is as true as that the Ass drank up the Moon Such conceits are more sit for Anacreon in a drunken Fit to stumble upon who to invite his Companions to Tiple composed that Catch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Sea drinks up the Vapours And the Sun the Sea then to be either found out or owned by a serious Philosopher And yet Seneca mightily triumphs in this Notion of foddering the Stars with the thick Fogs of the Earth and declares his Opinion with no mean Strains of Eloquence c. As for the extent of this Conflagration they held that not only the Heavens should be burnt but that the Gods themselves should not escape Scot-free So Seneca Resoluto mundo Diis in unum confusis When the World shall be dissolved and the Gods confounded and blended together into one And again Atque omnes pariter Deos Perdet nox aliqua Chaos And in like manner a certain Night and Chaos shall destroy all the Gods Is not this wise Philosophy If their Morality were no better than their Physicks their Wise man they boast of might be so denominated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they of Gotham But let us look a little further and we shall find that the Stoicks were not the first Authors of this Opinion of the Conflagration but that it was of far greater Antiquity than that Sect. Others of the more ancient Philosophers having entertained it viz. Empedocles as Clemens Alexandrinus testifies in his 5 Strom. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That there shall sometime be a change of the World into the nature or substance of Fire 2. Heraclitus as the same Clemens shews at large out of him in the same place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. And Laertius in the Life of Heraclitus He taught 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That there is but one World and that it was generated out of Fire and again burnt up or turned into Fire at certain periods alternately throughout all Ages I might add to these the Ancient Greek Poets Sophocles and Diphilus as we find them quoâ—ed by Iustin Martyr and Clemens Alexandrinus Neither yet were these the first Inventers and Broachers of this Opinion but they received it by Tradition from their Forefathers and look'd
upon it as an Oracle and Decree of Fate Ovid speaks of it as such in the first of his Metamorphosis Esse quoque in 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
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
a new Earth and the former shall not be remembred nor come into mind Isa. 66. 22. As the new Heavens and new Earth which I shall make shall remain before me To which places the Apostle Peter seems to refer in those words 2 Pet. 3. 13. Nevertheless we according to his promise look for new Heavens and a new Earth wherein dwelleth righteousness This new Heaven and new Earth we have also mentioned Rev. 12. 1. And I saw a new Heaven and a new Earth for the first Heaven and the first Earth were passed away and there was no more Sea These places I confess may admit of an Answer or Solution by those who are of a contrary Opinion and are answered by Doctor Hakewil yet all together especially being back'd by ancient Tradition amount to a high degree of probability I omit that place Rom. 8. 21 22. The creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the sons of God tho' it be accounted the strongest proof of our Opinion because of the obscurity and ambiguity thereof 2. For Antiquity I have already given many Testimonies of the ancient Fathers and Doctors of the Church and could if need were produce many more the whole stream of them running this way And tho' Dr. Hakewill saith That if we look back to higher times before S. Hierome we shall not easily find any one who maintained the World's Renovation yet hath he but two Testimonies to alledge for its Abolition the one out of Hilary upon the Psalms and the other out of Clemens his Recognitions To this Restitution of the World after the Conflagration many also of the Heathen Philosophers bear witness whose Testimonies Mr. Burnet hath exhibited in his Theory of the Earth lib. 4. cap. 5. Of the Stoicks Chrysippus de Providentia speaking of the Renovation of the World saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We after death certain Periods of time being come about shall be restored to the form we now have To Chrysippus Stobaeus adds Zeno and Cleanthes and comprehends together with Men all natural things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Zeno and Cleanthes and Chrysippus were of Opinion That the Nature or Substance of Things changes into Fire as it were into a Seed and out of this again such a World or Frame of Things is effected as was before This Revolution of Nature â—ntoninus in his Meditations often calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Periodical Regeneration of all things And Origen against Celsus â—aith of the Stoicks in general 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Stoicks say That at certain Periods of time there is a Conflagration of the Vniverse and after that a Restitution thereof having exactly the same Disposition and Furniture the former World had More to the like purpose concerning the Stoicks we have in Eusebius out of Numenius Nature faith he returns 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the Resurrection which makes the Great Year wherein there is again a restitution made from it self alone to it self For returning according to the order wherein it began first to frame and dispose things as reason would it again observes the same Oeconomy or Administration the like Periods returning etâ—rnally without ceasing He that desires more Authorities of the Heathen Philosophers and Poets in consirmation of the World's Restitution after the Conflagration may consult the same Mr. Burnet in the place forequoted where he also shews that this Doctrine of the Mundane Periods was received by the Grecians from the Nations they call barbarous Pythagoras saith Porphyry brought it first into Greece and Origen witnesseth of the Egyptian Wise Men that it was delivered by them Laertius out of Theopompus relates That the Persian Magi had the same Tradition and Berosus saith that the Chaldeans also In fine among all the barbarous Nations who had among them any Person or Sect and Order of Men noted for Wisdom or Philosophy this Tradition was current The Reader may consult the Book we refer to where is a notable passage taken out of Plutarch's Tractate Di Iside Osiride concerning a War between Oromazes and Arimanius somewhat parallel to that mentioned in the Revelation between Michael and the Dragon 3. The Restitution of the World seems more consonant to Reason than its Abolition For if the World were to be annihilated what needed a Conflagration Fire doth not destroy or bring things to nothing but only separate their parts The World cannot be abolished by it and therefore had better been annihilated without it Wherefore the Scripture mentioning no other Dissolution than is to be effected by the Instrumentality of Fire its clear we are not to understand any utter Abolition or Annihilation of the World but only a Mutation and Renovation by those phrases of perishing passing away dissolving â—eing no more c. They are to be no more in that state and condition they are now in 2. There must be a material Heaven and a material Hell left A place for the glorified Bodies of the Blessed to inhabit and converse in and a place for the Bodies of the Damned a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Prison for them to be shut up in Now if the place of the Blessed be an Empyreal Heaven far above these visible Heavens as Divines generally hold and the place of the Damned be beneath about the middle of the Earth as is the Opinion of the School-men and the Church of Rome and as the name Inferi imports and as the ancient Heathen described their Tartarus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Then when all the intermediate Bodies shall be annihilated what a strange Universe shall we have Consisting of an immense Ring of Matter having in the middle a vast vacuity or space void of all Body save only one small point for an infernal Dungeon Those that are of this Opinion have too narrow and mean thoughts of the Greatness I had almost said Immensity of the Universe the glorious and magnisick Products of the Creator's Almighty Power and are too partial to themselves to think the whole World was created for no other end but to be serviceable to Mankind But of this I have said somewhat in a former Discourse and therefore shall not at present enlarge upon it But let us hear what they have to say for the Abolition Their first and most weighty Argument is taken from the End of the World's Creation which was partly and chieâ—ly the Glory of the Creater and partly the use of Man the Lord Depâ—ty as it were or Viceroy thereof Now for the Glory of the Creator it being by the admirable Frame of the World manifested unto Man Man being removed out of the World and no Creature being capable of such a Manifestation besides him we cannot imagine to what purpose the Frame itself should be left and restored to a more perfect Estate The other End being for Man's Vse either to supply his