impossible for the Ark to have liv'd upon the raging Abyss or for Noah and his Family to have been preserv'd if there had not been a miraculous hand of Providence to take care of them But 't is hard to separate and distinguish an ordinary and extraordinary Providence in all cases and to mark just how far one goes and where the other begins And writing a Theory of the Deluge here as we do we were to exhibit a Series of causes whereby it might be made intelligible or to shew the proximate Natural Causes of it wherein we follow the example both of Moses and S. Peter and with the same veneration of the Divine Power and Wisdom in the government of Nature by a constant ordinary Providence and an occasional extraordinary So much for the Theory of the Deluge and the second Section of this Discourse CHAP. IX The Second Part of this Discourse proving the same Theory from the Effects and present form of the Earth First by a general Scheme of what is most remarkable in this Globe and then by a more particular Induction beginning with an Account of Subterraneous Cavities and Subterraneous Waters WE have now finisht our explication of the Universal Deluge and given an account not only of the possibility of it but so far as our knowledge can reach of its Causes and of that form and structure of the Earth whereby the Old World was subject to that sort of Fate We have not beg'd any Principles or Suppositions for the proof of this but taking that common ground which both Moses and all Antiquity presents to us viz. That this Earth rose from a Chaos We have from that deduc'd by an easie train of consequences what the first Form of it would be and from that Form as from a nearer ground we have by a second train of consequences made it appear that at some time or other that first Earth would be subject to a dissolution and by that dissolution to a Deluge And thus far we have proceeded only by the intuition of Causes as is most proper to a Theory but for the satisfaction of those that require more sensible arguments and to compleat our proofs on either hand we will now argue from the Effects and from the present state of Nature and the present form of the Earth prove that it hath been broken and undergone such a dissolution as we have already describ'd and made the immediate occasion of the Deluge And that we may do this more perspicuously and distinctly we will lay down this Proposition to be prov'd viz. That the present form and structure of the Earth both as to the surface and as to the Interiour parts of it so far as they are known and accessible to us doth exactly answer to our Theory concerning the form and dissolution of the first Earth and cannot be explain'd upon any other Hypothesis yet known Oratours and Philosophers treat Nature after a very different manner Those represent her with all her graces and ornaments and if there be any thing that is not capable of that they dissemble it or pass it over slightly But Philosophers view Nature with a more impartial eye and without favour or prejudice give a just and free account how they find all the parts of the Universe some more some less perfect And as to this Earth in particular if I was to describe it as an Oratour I would suppose it a beautiful and regular Globe and not only so but that the whole Universe was made for its sake that it was the darling and favourite of Heaven that the Sun shin'd only to give it light to ripen its Fruit and make fresh its Flowers and that the great Concave of the Firmament and all the Stars in their several Orbs were design'd only for a spangled Cabinet to keep this Jewel in This Idea I would give of it as an Oratour But a Philosopher that overheard me would either think me in jest or very injudicious if I took the Earth for a body so regular in it self or so considerable if compar'd with the rest of the Universe This he would say is to make the great World like one of the Heathen Temples a beautiful and magnificent structure and of the richest materials yet built only for a little brute Idol a Dog or a Crocodile or some deformed Creature plac'd in a corner of it We must therefore be impartial where the Truth requires it and describe the Earth as it is really in it self and though it be handsome and regular enough to the eye in certain parts of it single tracts and single Regions yet if we consider the whole surface of it or the whole Exteriour Region 't is as a broken and confus'd heap of bodies plac'd in no order to one another nor with any correspondency or regularity of parts And such a body as the Moon appears to us when 't is look'd upon with a good Glass rude and ragged as it is also represented in the modern Maps of the Moon such a thing would the Earth appear if it was seen from the Moon They are both in my judgment the image or picture of a great Ruine and have the true aspect of a World lying in its rubbish Our Earth is first divided into Sea and Land without any regularity in the portions either of the one or the other In the Sea lie the Islands scatter'd like limbs torn from the rest of the body great Rocks stand rear'd up in the waters The Promontories and Capes shoot into the Sea and the Sinus's and Creeks on the other hand run as much into the Land and these without any order or uniformity Upon the other part of our Globe stand great heaps of Earth or stone which we call Mountains and if these were all plac'd together they would take up a very considerable part of the dry Land In the rest of it are lesser Hills Valleys Plains Lakes and Marishes Sands and Desarts c. and these also without any regular disposition Then the inside of the Earth or inward parts of it are generally broken or hollow especially about the Mountains and high Lands as also towards the shores of the Sea and among the Rocks How many Holes and Caverns and strange Subterraneous passages do we see in many Countries and how many more may we easily imagine that are unknown and unaccessible to us This is the pourtraicture of our Earth drawn without flattery and as oddly as it looks it will not be at all surprising to one that hath consider'd the foregoing Theory For 't is manifest enough that upon the dissolution of the first Earth and its fall into the Abyss this very face and posture of things which we have now describ'd or something extremely like it would immediately result The Sea would be open'd and the face of the Globe would be divided into Land and Water And according as the fragments fell some would make Islands or Rocks in the Sea others would
World that this Abysse was open'd or that the frame of the Earth broke and fell down into the Great Abysse At this one stroke all Nature would be chang'd and this single action would have two great and visible Effects The one Transient and the other permanent First an universal Deluge would overflow all the parts and Regions of the broken Earth during the great commotion and agitation of the Abysse by the violent fall of the Earth into it This would be the first and unquestionable effect of this dissolution and all that World would be destroyed Then when the agitation of the Abysse was asswag'd and the Waters by degrees were retir'd into their Chanels and the dry land appear'd you would see the true image of the present Earth in the ruines of the first The surface of the Globe would be divided into Land and Sea the Land would consist of Plains and Valleys and Mountains according as the pieces of this ruine were plac'd and dispos'd Upon the banks of the Sea would stand the Rocks and near the shoar would be Islands or lesse fragments of Earth compass'd round by Water Then as to Subterraneous Waters and all Subterraneous Caverns and hollownesses upon this supposition those things could not be otherwise for the parts would fall hollow in many places in this as in all other ruines And seeing the Earth fell into this Abysse the Waters at a certain height would flow into all those hollow places and cavities and would also sink and insinuate into many parts of the solid Earth And though these Subterraneous Vaults or holes whether dry or full of Water would be more or less in all places where the parts fell hollow yet they would be found especially about the roots of the Mountains and the higher parts of the Earth for there the sides bearing up one against the other they could not lie so close at the bottoms but many vacuities would be intercepted Nor are there any other inequalities or irregularities observable in the present form of the Earth whether in the surface of it or interiour construction whereof this hypothesis doth not give a ready fair and intelligible account and doth at one view represent them all to us with their causes as in a glass And whether that Glass be true and the Image answer to the Original if you doubt of it we will hereafter examine them piece by piece But in the first place we must consider the General Deluge how easily and truly this supposition represents and explains it and answers all the properties and conditions of it I think it will be easily allow'd that such a dissolution of the Earth as we have propos'd and fall of it into the Abysse would certainly make an Universal Deluge and effectually destroy the old World which perish'd in it But we have not yet particularly prov'd this dissolution and in what manner the Deluge follow'd upon it And to assert things in gross never makes that firm impression upon our understandings and upon our belief as to see them deduc'd with their causes and circumstances And therefore we must endeavour to shew what preparations there were in Nature for this great dissolution and after what manner it came to pass and the Deluge in consequence of it We have noted before that Moses imputed the Deluge to the disruption of the Abyss and S. Peter to the particular constitution of that Earth which made it obnoxious to be absorpt in Water so that our explication so far is justifi'd But it was below the dignity of those Sacred Pen-men or the Spirit of God that directed them to shew us the causes of this disruption or of this absorption this is left to the enquiries of men For it was never the design of Providence to give such particular explications of Natural things as should make us idle or the use of Reason unnecessary but on the contrary by delivering great conclusions to us to excite our curiosity and inquisitiveness after the methods by which such things were brought to pass And it may be there is no greater trial or instance of Natural Wisdom than to find out the Chanel in which these great revolutions of Nature which we treat on flow and succeed one another Let us therefore resume that System of the Ante-diluvian Earth which we have deduc'd from the Chaos and which we find to answer S. Peter's description and Moses his account of the Deluge This Earth could not be obnoxious to a Deluge as the Apostle supposeth it to have been but by a dissolution for the Abysse was enclos'd within its bowels And Moses doth in effect tell us there was such a dissolution when he saith The fountains of the great Abysse were borken open For Fountains are broken open no otherwise than by breaking up the ground that covers them We must therefore here inquire in what order and from what causes the frame of this exteriour Earth was dissolv'd and then we shall soon see how upon that dissolution the Deluge immediately prevail'd and overflow'd all the parts of it I do not think it in the power of humane wit to determine how long this frame would stand how many Years or how many Ages but one would soon imagine that this kind of structure would not be perpetual nor last indeed many thousands of Years if one consider the effect that the heat of the Sun would have upon it and the Waters under it drying and parching the one and raresying the other into vapours For we must consider that the course of the Sun at that time or the posture of the Earth to the Sun was such that there was no diversity or alternation of seasons in the Year as there is now by reason of which alternation our Earth is kept in an equality of temper the contrary seasons balancing one another so as what moisture the heat of the Summer sucks out of the Earth 't is repaid in the Rains of the next Winter and what chaps were made in it are fill'd up again and the Earth reduc'd to its former constitution But if we should imagine a continual Summer the Earth would proceed in driness still more and more and the cracks would be wider and pierce deeper into the substance of it And such a continual Summer there was at least an equality of seasons in the Ante-diluvian Earth as shall be prov'd in the follwing Book concerning Paradise In the mean time this being suppos'd let us consider what effect it would have upon this Arch of the exteriour Earth and the Waters under it We cannot believe but that the heat of the Sun within the space of some hundreds of years would have reduc'd this Earth to a considerable degree of driness in certain parts and also have much raresi'd and exhal'd the Waters beneath it And considering the structure of that Globe the exteriour crust and the Waters lying round under it both expos'd to the Sun we may fitly compare it to an Aeolipile or
whether it was only to dry the Land as fast as it appear'd or might have both effects I do not know But as nothing can be perpetual this is violent so this commotion of the Abyss abated after a certain time and the great force that impell'd the waters decreasing their natural gravity began to take effect and to reduce them into the lowest places at an equal height and in an even surface and level one part with another That is in short the Abyss became our Sea fixt within its Chanel and bounded by Rocks and Mountains Then was the decreed place establisht for it and Bars and Doors were set then was it said hitherto shalt thou come and no further and here shall thy proud waves be stopt And the Deluge being thus ended and the waters setled in their Chanels the Earth took such a broken Figure as is represented in those larger Schemes p. 100. And this will be the form and state of it till its great change comes in the Conflagration when we expect a New Heaven and a New Earth But to pursue this prospect of things a little further we may easily imagine that for many years after the Deluge ceast the face of the Earth was very different from what it is now and the Sea had other bounds than it hath at present I do not doubt but the Sea reacht much further in-land and climb'd higher upon the sides of the Mountains And I have observ'd in many places a ridge of Mountains some distance from the Sea and a Plain from their roots to the shore which Plain no doubt was formerly cover'd by the Sea bounded against those Hills as its first and natural Ramparts or as the ledges or lips of its Vessel And it seems probable that the Sea doth still grow narrower from Age to Age and sinks more within its Chanel and the bowels of the Earth according as it can make its way into all those Subterraneous Cavities and crowd the Air out of them We see whole Countries of Land gain'd from it and by several indications as ancient Sea-ports left dry and useless old Sea-marks far within the Land pieces of Ships Anchors c. left at a great distance from the present shores from these signs and such like we may conclude that the Sea reach'd many places formerly that now are dry Land and at first I believe was generally bound in on either side with a chain of Mountains So I should easily imagine the Mediterranean Sea for instance to have been bounded by the continuation of the Alps through Dauphiné and Languedock to the Pyreneans and at the other end by the Darmatick Mountains almost to the Black Sea Then Atlas major which runs along with the Mediterranean from Aegypt to the Atlantick Ocean and now parts Barbary and Numidia may possibly have been the Ancient Barriere on the Africk side And in our own Island I could easily figure to my self in many parts of it other Sea-bounds than what it hath at present and the like may be observ'd in other Countries And as the Sea had much larger bounds for some time after the Deluge so the Land had a different face in many respects to what it hath now for we suppose the Valleys and lower grounds where the descent and derivation of the water was not so easie to have been full of Lakes and Pools for a long time and those were often converted into Fens and Bogs where the ground being spongy suckt up the water and the loosen'd Earth swell'd into a soft and pappy substance which would still continue so if there was any course of water sensible or insensible above or within the ground that fed this moist place But if the water stood in a more firm Basin or on a soil which for its heaviness or any other reason would not mix with it it made a Lake or clear Pool And we may easily imagine there were innumerable such Lakes and Bogs and fastnesses for many years after the Deluge till the World begun to be pretty well stockt with people and humane industry cleans'd and drain'd those unfruitful and unhabitable places And those Countries that have been later cultivated or by a lazier people retain still in proportion to their situation and soil a greater number of them Neither is it at all incongruous or inconvenient to suppose that the face of the Earth stood in this manner for many years after the Deluge for while Mankind was small and few they needed but a little ground for their seats or sustenance and as they grew more numerous the Earth proportionably grew more dry and more parts of it fit for habitation I easily believe that Plato's observation or tradition is true that Men at first after the Flood liv'd in the Up-lands and sides of the mountains and by degrees sunk into the Plains and lower Countries when Nature had prepar'd them for their use and their numbers requir'd more room The History of Moses tells us that sometime after the Deluge Noah and his posterity his Sons and his Grand-children chang'd their quarters and fell down into the Plains of Shiner from the sides of the Hills where the Ark had rested and in this Plain was the last general rendezvous of Mankind so long they seem to have kept in a body and from thence they were divided and broken into companies and disperst first into the neighbouring Countries and then by degrees throughout the whole Earth the several successive Generations like the waves of the Sea when it flows over-reaching one another and striking out further and further upon the face of the Land Not that the whole Earth was peopled by an uniform propagation of Mankind every way from one place as a common center like the swelling of a Lake upon a Plain for sometimes they shot out in length like Rivers and sometimes they shew into remote Countreys in Colonies like swarms from the Hive and setled there leaving many places uninhabited betwixt them and their first home Sea-shores and Islands were generally the last places inhabited for while the memory or story of the Deluge was fresh amongst them they did not care for coming so near their late Enemy or at least to be enclos'd and surrounded by his forces And this may be sufficient to have discours'd concerning all the parts of the Deluge and the restitution of the Earth to an habitable form for the further union of our Theory with the History of Moses There rests only one thing in that History to be taken notice of which may be thought possibly not to agree so well with our account of the Deluge namely that Moses seems to shut up the Abysse again at the end of the Deluge which our Explication supposeth to continue open But besides that half the Abysse is still really cover'd Moses saith the same thing of the windows of Heaven that they were shut up too and he seemeth in both to express only the cessation of the Effect
expected in a ruine As to the depths and soundings of the Sea they are under no rule nor equality any more than the figures of the Shores Shallows in some places and Gulphs in others beds of Sands sometimes and sometimes Rocks under water as Navigators have learn'd by a long and dangerous experience And though we that are upon dry Land are not much concern'd how the Rocks and the Shelves lie in the Sea yet a poor shipwreckt Mariner when he hath run his Vessel upon a Rock in the middle of the Chanel expostulates bitterly with Nature who it was that plac'd that Rock there and to what purpose Was there not room enough saith he upon the Land or the Shore to lay your great stones but they must be thrown into the middle of the Sea as it were in spite to Navigation The best Apology that can be made for Nature in this case so far as I know is to confess that the whole business of the Sea-chanel is but a ruine and in a ruine things tumble uncertainly and commonly lie in confusion Though to speak the truth it seldom happens unless in narrow Seas that Rocks or Banks or Islands lie in the middle of them or very far from the Shores Having view'd the more visible parts of the Chanel of the Sea we must now descend to the bottom of it and see the form and contrivance of that but who shall guide us in our journey while we walk as Iob saith in the search of the deep Or who can make a description of that which none hath seen It is reasonable to believe that the bottom of the Sea is much more rugged broken and irregular than the face of the Land There are Mountains and Valleys and Rocks and ridges of Rocks and all the common inequalities we see upon Land besides these 't is very likely there are Caves under water and hollow passages into the bowels of the Earth by which the Seas circulate and communicate one with another and with Subterraneous waters Those great Eddees and infamous Syrtes and Whirlpools that are in some Seas as the Baltick and the Mediterranean that suck into them and overwhelm whatever comes within their reach show that there is something below that sucks from them in proportion and that drinks up the Sea as the Sea drinks up the Rivers We ought also to imagine the Shores within the water to go inclin'd and sloping but with great inequality there are many Shelves in the way and Chambers and sharp Angles and many broken Rocks and great stones lie rolled down to the bottom 'T is true these things affect us little because they are not expos'd to our senses and we seldom give our selves the trouble to collect from reason what the form of the invisible and inaccessible parts of the Earth is or if we do sometimes those Idea's are faint and weak and make no lasting impression upon our imagination and passions but if we should suppose the Ocean dry and that we lookt down from the top of some high Cloud upon the empty Shell how horridly and barbarously would it look And with what amazement should we see it under us like an open Hell or a wide bottomless pit So deep and hollow and vast so broken and confus'd so every way deform'd and monstrous This would effectually waken our imagination and make us enquire and wonder how such a thing came in Nature from what causes by what force or engines could the Earth be torn in this prodigious manner did they dig the Sea with Spades and carry out the molds in hand-baskets Where are the entrails laid and how did they cleave the Rocks asunder If as many Pioneers as the Army of Xerxes had been at work ever since the beginning of the World they could not have made a ditch of this greatness Nor is it the greatness only but that wild and multifarious confusion which we see in the parts and fashion of it that makes it strange and inaccountable 't is another Chaos in its kind who can paint the Scenes of it Gulfs and Precipices and Cataracts Pits within Pits and Rocks under Rocks broken Mountains and ragged Islands that look as if they had been Countries pull'd up by the roots and planted in the Sea If we could make true and full representations of these things to our selves I think we should not be so bold as to make them the immediate product of Divine Omnipotence being destitute of all appearance of Art or Counsel The first orders of things are more perfect and regular and this Decorum seems to be observ'd that Nature doth not fall into disorder till Mankind be first degenerate and leads the way Monsters have been often made an argument against Providence if a Calf have two heads or five legs streight there must not be a God in Heaven or at least not upon Earth and yet this is but a chance that happens once in many years and is of no consequence at all to the rest of the World But if we make the standing frame of Nature monstrous or deform'd and disproportion'd and to have been so not by corruption and degeneracy but immediately by Divine Creation or Formation it would not be so easie to answer that objection against Providence Let us therefore prevent this imputation and supposing according to our Theory that these things were not originally thus let us now explain more distinctly how they came to pass at the Deluge or upon the dissolution of the first Earth And we will not content our selves with a general answer to these observations concerning the Sea-chanel as if it was a sufficient account of them to say they were the effects of a ruine there are other things to be consider'd and explain'd besides this irregularity as the vast hollowness of this Cavity bigger incomparably than any other belonging to the Earth and also the declivity of the sides of it which lie shelving from top to bottom For notwithstanding all the inequalities we have taken notice of in the Chanel of the Sea it hath one general form which may though under many differences be observ'd throughout and that is that the shores and sides within the water lie inclin'd and you descend by degrees to the deepest part which is towards the middle This I know admits of many exceptions for sometimes upon a rocky shore or among rocky Islands the Sea is very deep close to the Rocks and the deeper commonly the higher and sleeper the Rocks are Also where the descent is more leisurely 't is often after a different manner in some coasts more equal and uniform in others more broken and interrupted but still there is a descent to the Chanel or deepest part and this in the deep Ocean is fathomless And such a deep Ocean and such a deep Chanel there is always between Continents This I think is a property as determinate as any we can pitch upon in the Chanel of the Sea and with those other two
mention'd its vast Cavity and universal irregularity is all one can desire an account of as to the form of it we will therefore from this ground take our rise and first measures for the Explication of the Sea-chanel Let us suppose then in the dissolution of the Earth when it began to fall that it was divided only into three or four fragments according to the number of our Continents but those fragments being vastly great could not descend at their full breadth and expansion or at least could not descend so fast in the middle as towards the extremities because the Air about the edges would yield and give place easily not having far to go to get out of the way but the Air that was under the middle of the fragment could not without a very swift motion get from under the concave of it and consequently its descent there would be more resisted and suspended but the sides in the mean time would continually descend bending the fragment with their weight and so making it of a lesser compass and expansion than it was before And by this means there would be an interval and distance made between the two falling fragments and a good part of the Abyss after their descent would lie uncover'd in the middle betwixt them as may be seen in this Figure where the fragments A. B. bending downwards in their extremities separate as they go and after they are faln leave a good space in the Abyss betwixt them altogether uncover'd This space is the main Chanel of the great Ocean lying betwixt two Continents and the inclining sides shew the declivity of the Shores This we have represented here only in a Ring or Circle of the Earth in the first Figure but it may be better represented in a broader surface as in the second Figure where the two fragments A. B. that are to make the two opposite Continents fall in like double Doors opening downwards the Hinges being towards the Land on either side so as at the bottom they leave in the middle betwixt them a deep Chanel of water a. a. a. such as is betwixt all Continents and the water reaching a good height upon the Land on either side makes Sea there too but shallower and by degrees you descend into the deepest Chanel fig. 1. page 92. fig. 2. fig. 3. We must in the first place distinguish between Original Islands and Factitious Islands Those I call factitious that are not of the same date and Antiquity with the Sea but have been made some at one time some at another by accidental causes as the aggestion of Sands and Sand-beds or the Sea leaving the tops of some shallow places that lie high and yet flowing about the lower skirts of them These make sandy and plain Islands that have no high Land in them and are but mock-Islands in effect others are made by divulsion from some Continent when an Isthmus or the neck of a Promontory running into the Sea sinks or falls in by an Earthquake or otherwise and the Sea entring in at the gap passeth through and makes that Promontory or Country become an Island Thus the Island Sicily is suppos'd to have been made and all Africa might be an Island if the Isthmus between the Mediterranean and the red Sea should sink down And these Islands may have Rocks and Mountains in them if the Land had so before Lastly There are Islands that have been said to rise from the bottom of the Sea History mentions such in both the Archipelago's Aegaean and Indian and this seems to argue that there are great fragments or tracts of Earth that lie loose at the bottom of the Sea or that are not incorporated with the ground which agrees very well with our Explication of the Sea-chanel But besides these Islands and the several sorts of them there are others which I call Original because they could not be produc'd in any of the forementioned ways but are of the same Origin and Antiquity with the Chanel of the Sea and such are the generality of our Islands They were not made of heaps of Sands nor torn from any Continent but are as ancient as the Continents themselves namely ever since the Deluge the common Parent of them both Nor is there any difficulty to understand how Islands were made at the dissolution of the Earth any more than how Continents were made for Islands are but lesser Continents or Continents greater Islands and according as Continents were made of greater masses of Earth or greater fragments standing above the Water so Islands were made of less but so big always and in such a posture as to bear their tops above the Water Yet though they agree thus far there is a particular difference to be taken notice of as to their Origin for the Continents were made of those three or four primary masses into which the falling Orb of the Earth was divided but the Islands were made of the fractures of these and broken off by the fall from the skirts and extremities of the Continents We noted before that when those great masses and primary fragments came to dash upon the Abyss in their fall the sudden stop of the motion and the weighty bulk of the descending fragment broke off all the edges and extremities of it which edges and extemities broken off made the Islands and accordingly we see that they generally lie scatter'd along the sides of the Continents and are but splinters as it were of those greater bodies 'T is ture besides these there were an infinite number of other pieces broke off that do not appear some making Rocks under water some shallows and banks in the Sea but the greatest of them when they fell either one upon another or in such a posture as to prop up one another their heads and higher parts would stand out of the water and make Islands Thus I conceive the Islands of the Sea were at first produc'd we cannot wonder therefore that they should be so numerous or far more numerous than the Continents These are the Parents and those are the Children Nor can we wonder to see along the sides of the Continents several Islands or sets of Islands sown as it were by handfuls or laid in trains for the manner of their generation would lead us to think they would be so plac'd So the American Islands lie scatter'd upon the Coast of that Continent the Maldivian and Philippine upon the East-Indian shore and the Hesperides upon the Africk and there seldom happen to be any towards the middle of the Ocean though by an accident that also might come to pass Lastly It suits very well with our Explication that there should be Mountains and Rocks sometimes in clusters sometimes in long chains in all Islands as we find there are in all that are true and Original for 't is that makes them high enough to appear above the water and strong enough to continue and preserve themselves in that high situation And
That the Earth rise at first from a Chaos for besides Reason and Antiquity Scripture it self doth assure us of that and that one point being granted we have deduc'd from it all the rest by a direct chain of consequences which I think cannot be broken easily in any part or link of it Besides the great hinge of this Theory upon which all the rest turns is the distinction we make of the Ante diluvian Earth and Heavens from the Post-diluvian as to their form and constitution And it will never be beaten out of my head but that S. Peter hath made the same distinction sixteen hundred years since and to the very same purpose so that we have sure footing here again and the Theory riseth above the character of a bare Hypothesis And whereas an Hypothesis that is clear and proportion'd to Nature in every respect is accounted morally certain we must in equity give more than a moral certitude to this Theory But I mean this only as to the general parts of it for as to particularities I look upon them only as problematical and accordingly I affirm nothing therein but with a power of revocation and a liberty to change my opinion when I shall be better inform'd Neither do I know any Author that hath treated a matter new remote and consisting of a multitude of particulars who would not have had occasion if he had liv'd to have seen his Hypothesis fully examin'd to have chang'd his mind and manner of explaining things in many material instances To conclude both this Chapter and this Section we have here added a Map or Draught of the Earth according to the Natural face of it as it would appear from the Moon if we were a little nearer to her or as it was at first after the Deluge before Cities were built distinctions of Countries made or any alteâ—ations by humane industry 'T is chiefly to expose more to view the Mountains of the Earth and the proportions of Sea and Land to shew it as it lies in it self and as a Naturalist ought to conceive and consider it 'T is true there are far more Mountains upon the Earth than what are here represented for more could not conveniently be plac'd in this narrow Scheme But the best and most effectual way of representing the body of the Earth as it is by Nature would be not in plain Tables but by a rough Globe expressing all the considerable inequalities that are upon the Earth The smooth Globes that we use do but nourish in us the conceit of the Earth's regularity and though they may be convenient enough for Geographical purposes they are not so proper for Natural Science nothing would be more useful in this respect than a rough Globe of the largest dimensions wherein the Chanel of the Sea should be really hollow as it is in Nature with all its unequal depths according to the best soundings and the shores exprest both according to matter and form little Rocks standing where there are Rocks and Sands and Beaches in the places where they are found and all the Islands planted in the Sea-chanel in a due form and in their solid dimensions Then upon the Land should stand all the ranges of Mountains in the same order or disorder that Nature hath set them there And the in-land Seas and great Lakes or rather the beds they lie in should be duly represented as also the vast desarts of Sand as they lie upon the Earth And this being done with care and due Art would be a true Epitome or true model of our Earth Where we should see besides other instructions what a rude Lump our World is which we are so apt to dote upon CHAP. XII A short review of what hath been already treated of and in what manner The several Faces and Schemes under which the Earth would appear to a Stranger that should view it first at a distance and then more closely and the Application of them to our subject All methods whether Philosophical or Theological that have been offer'd by others for the Explication of the Form of the Earth are examin'd and disprov'd A conjecture concerning the other Planets their Natural Form and State compared with ours WE have finish'd the Three Sections of this Book and in this last Chapter we will make a short review and reflection upon what hath been hitherto treated of and add some further confirmations of it The Explication of the Universal Deluge was the first proposal and design of this Discourse to make that a thing credible and intelligible to the mind of Man And the full Explication of this drew in the whole Theory of the Earth Whose original we have deduc'd from its first Source and shew'd both what was its primaeval Form and how it came into its present Form The summ of our Hypothesis concerning the Universal Deluge was this That it came not to pass as was vulgarly believ'd by any excess of Rains or any Inundation of the Sea nor could ever be effected by a meer abundance of Waters unless we suppose some dissolution of the Earth at the same time namely when the Great Abyss was broken open And accordingly we shewed that without such a dissolution or if the Earth had been always in the same form it is in now no mass of water any where to be found in the World could have equall'd the height of the Mountains or made such an Universal Deluge Secondly We shewed that the form of the Earth at first and till the Deluge was such as made it capable and subject to a Dissolution And thirdly That such a dissolution being suppos'd the Doctrine of the Universal Deluge is very reasonable and intelligible And not only the Doctrine of the Deluge but the same supposition is a Key to all Nature besides shewing us how our Globe became Terraqueous what was the original of Mountains of the Sea-chanel of Islands of subterraneous Cavities Things which without this supposition are as unintelligible as the universal Flood it self And these things reciprocally confirming one another our Hypothesis of the Deluge is arm'd both breast and back by the causes and by the effects It remains now that as to confirm our Explication of the Deluge we shew'd all other accounts that had been given of it to be ineffectual or impossible so to confirm our doctrine concerning the dissolution of the Earth and concerning the Original of Mountains Seas and all inequalities upon it or within it we must examine what causes have been assign'd by others or what accounts given of these things That seeing their defectiveness we may have the more assurance and satisfaction in our own method And in order to this let us observe first the general forms under which the Earth may be consider'd or under which it doth appear accordingly as we view it more nearly or remotely And the first of these and the most general is that of a Terraqueous Globe If a Philosopher should come out of
the Land besides thousands of lesser that pay their tribute at the same time into the great Receit of the Ocean These all taken together are capable to renew the Sea every twice four and twenty hours VVhich suppositions being admitted if by a great and lasting drought these Rivers were dried up or the Fountains from whence they flow what would then become of that vast Ocean that before was so formidable to us 'T is likely you will say These great Rivers cannot be dry'd up tho' the little ones may and therefore we must not suppose such an Universal stop of waters or that they will all fail by any drought whatsoever But great Rivers being made up of little ones if these fail those must be diminish'd if not quite drain'd and exhausted It may be all Fountains and Springs do not proceed from the same causes or the same original and some are much more copious than others for such differences we will allow what is due but still the driness of the Air and of the Earth continuing and all the sources and supplies of moisture both from above and from below being lessen'd or wholly discontinued a general decay of all Fountains and Rivers must necessarily follow and consequently of the Sea and of its fulness that depends upon them And that 's enough for our present purpose The first step therefore towards the Consumption of the Ocean will be the diminution or suspension of the Rivers that run into it The next will be an Evacuation by Subterraneous passages and the last by Eruptions of Fires in the very Chanel of it and in the midst of the Waters As for Subterraneous Evacutions we cannot doubt but that the Sea hath out-lets at the bottom of it whereby it discharges that vast quantity of Water that flows into it every day and that could not be discharg'd so fast as it comes from the wide mouths of the Rivers by percolation or straining thorough the Sands Seas also communicate with one another by these internal passages as is manifest from those particular Seas that have no external out-let or issue tho' they receive into them many great Rivers and sometimes the influx of other Seas So the Caspian Sea receives not only Volga which we mention'd before but several other Rivers and yet hath no visible issue for its Waters The Mediterranean Sea besides all the Rivers it receives hath a current flowing into it at either end from other Seas from the Atlantick Ocean at the streights of Gibralter and from the Black Sea above Constantinople and yet there is no passage above-ground or visible derivation of the Mediterranean waters out of their Chanel which seeing they do not overfil nor overflow the Banks 't is certain they must have some secret conveyances into the bowels of the Earth or subterraneous communication with other Seas Lastly From the Whirl-pools of the Sea that suck in Bodies that come within their reach it seems plainly to appear by that attraction and absorption that there is a descent of waters in those places Wherefore when the current of the Rivers into the Sea is stopt or in a great measure diminish'd The Sea continuing to empty it self by these subterraneous passages and having little or none of those supplies that it us'd to have from the Land it must needs be sensibly lessen'd and both contract its Chanel into a narrower compass and also have less depth in the waters that remain And in the last place we must expect fiery eruptions in several parts of the Sea-chanel which will help to suck up or evaporate the remaining Waters In the present state of Nature there have been several instances of such eruptions of Fire from the bottom of the Sea and in that last state of Nature when all things are in a tendency to inflammation and when Earth-quakes and Eruptions will be more frequent every where we must expect them also more frequently by Sea as well as by Land 'T is true neither Earth-quakes nor Eruptions can happen in the middle of the Great Ocean or in the deepest Abyss because there are no cavities or mines below it for the vapours and exhalations to lodge in But 't is not much of the Sea-chanel that is so deep and in other parts especially in streights and near Islands such Eruptions like Sea-Volcano's have frequently happen'd and new Islands have been made by such fiery matter thrown up from the bottom of the Sea Thus they say those Islands in the Mediterranean call'd the Vulcanian Islands had their original being matter cast up from the bottom of the Sea by the force of Fire as new Mountains sometimes are rais'd upon the Earth Another Island in the Archipelago had the same original whereof Strabo gives an account The flames he says sprung up through the waters four days togethâ—r so as the whole Sea was hot and burning and they rais'd by degrees as with Engines a mass of Earth which made a new Island twelve furlongs in compass And in the same Archipelago flames and smoke have several times particularly in the year 1650. rise out of the Sea and fill'd the Air with sulphureous scents and vapours In like manner in the Island of S. Michel one of the Tercera's there have been of later years such eructations of fire and flames so strong and violent that at the depth of an hundred and sixty fathoms they forc'd their way through the midst of the Waters from the bottom of the Sea into the open Air. As has been related by those that were eye-witnesses In these three ways I conceive the great force of the Sea will be broken and the mighty Ocean reduc'd to a standing Pool of putrid waters without vent and without recruits But there will still remain in the midst of the Chanel a great mass of troubled liquors like dregs in the bottom of the vessel which will not be drunk up till the Earth be all on fire and torrents of melted and sulphureous matter flow from the Land and mingle with this Dead Sea But let us now leave the Sea in this humble posture and go on to attack the Rocks and Mountains which stand next in our way See how scornfully they look down upon us and bid defiance to all the Elements They have born the Thunder and Lightning of Heaven and all the Artillery of the Skies for innumerable Ages and do not fear the crackling of thorns and of shrubs that burn at their feet Let the Towns and Cities of the Earth say they be laid in ashes Let the Woods and Forests blaze away and the fat Soyl of the Earth fry in its own greafe These things will not affect us We can stand naked in the midst of a Sea of Fire with our roots as deep as the foundations of the Earth and our heads above the Clouds of the Air. Thus they proudly defie Nature and it must be confest that these being as it were the Bones of the Earth when the Body
immediate height of the Mountain So for instance the Mountains of the Moon in Africa whence the Nile flows and after a long course falls into the Mediterranean Sea by Egypt are so much higher than the surface of that Sea first as the Ascent of the Land is from the Sea to the foot of the Mountains and then as the height of the Mountains is from the bottom to the top For both these are to be computed when you measure the height of a Mountain or of a mountainous Land in respect of the Sea And the height of Mountains to the Sea being thus computed there would be need of six or eight Oceans to raise the Sea alone as high as the highest In-land Mountains And this is more than enough to compensate the less quantity of Water that would be requisite upon the Land Besides we must consider the Regions of the Air upwards to be more capacious than a Region of the same thickness in or near the Earth so as if an Ocean pour'd upon the surface of the dry Land supposing it were all smooth would rise to the height of half a quarter of a mile every where the like quantity of Water pour'd again at the height of the Mountains would not have altogether the same effect or would not there raise the mass half a quarter of a mile higher for the surfaces of a Globe the farther they are from their Center are the greater and so accordingly the Regions that belong to them And lastly we must consider that there are some Countries or Valleys very low and also many Caverns or Cavities within the Earth all which in this case were to be first fill'd with Water These things being compar'd and estimated we shall find that notwithstanding the room that Hills and Mountains take up on the dry Land there would be at least eight Oceans requir'd or a quantity of Water eight times as great as the Ocean to bring an Universal Deluge upon the Earth as that Deluge is ordinarily understood and explained The proportion of Water for the Deluge being thus stated the next thing to be done is to enquire where this Water is to be found if any part of the Sublunary World will afford us so much Eight Oceans floating in the Air make a great bulk of Water I do not know what possible Sources to draw it from There are the Clouds above and the Deeps below and in the bowels of the Earth and these are all the stores we have for Water and Moses directs us to no other for the Causes of the Deluge The Fountains he saith of the great Abysse were broken up or burst asunder and the Rain descended for forty days the Cataracts or Floodgates of Heaven being open'd And in these two no doubt are contain'd the causes of the great Deluge as according to Moses so also according to reason and necessity for our World affords no other treasures of Water Let us therefore consider how much this Rain of Forty Days might amount to and how much might flow out of the Abysse that so we may judge whether these two in conjunction would make up the Eight Oceans which we want As for the Rains they would not afford us one Ocean nor half an Ocean nor the tenth part of an Ocean if we may trust to the Observations made by others concerning the quantity of Water that falls in Rain Mersennus gives us this account of it It appears by our Observations that a Cubical Vessel of Brass whereof we made use is fill'd an inch and an half in half an hours time but because that sucks up noâ—hing of the moisture as the Earth doth let us take an inch for half an hours Rain whence it follows that in the space of 40 days and nights Rain the Waters in the Deluge would rise 160 feet if the Rains were constant and equal to ours and that it rain'd at once throughout the face of the whole Earth But the Rain of the Deluge saith he should have been 90 times greater than this to cover for instance the Mountains of Armenia or to reach 15 Cubits above them So that according to his computation the 40 days Rain would supply little more than the hundredth part of the Water requisite to make the Deluge 'T is true he makes the heighth of the Mountains higher than we do but however if you temper the Calculation on all sides as much as you please the water that came by this Rain would be a very inconsiderable part of what was necessary for a Deluge If it rain'd 40 days and 40 nights throughout the face of the whole Earth in the Northern and Southern Hemisphere all at once it might be sufficient to lay all the lower grounds under water but it would signifie very little as to the over-flowing of the Mountains Whence another Author upon the same occasion hath this passage If the Deluge had been made by Rains only there would not have needed 40 days but 40 years Rain to have brought it to pass And if we should suppose the whole middle Region condens'd into water it would not at all have been sufficient for this effect according to that proportion some make betwixt Air and Water for they say Air turn'd into Water takes up a hundred times less room than it did before The truth is we may reasonably suppose that all the vapours of the middle Region were turn'd into water in this 40 days and 40 nights Rain if we admit that this Rain was throughout the whole Earth at once in either Hemisphere in every Zone in every Climate in every Country in every Province in every Field and yet we see what a small proportion all this would amount to Having done then with these Superiour Regions we are next to examine the Inferiour and the treasures of water that may be had there Moses tells us that the Fountains of the great Abysse were broke open or clove asunder as the word there us'd doth imply and no doubt in this lay the great mystery of the Deluge as will appear when it comes to be rightly understood and explain'd but we are here to consider what is generally understood by the great Abysse in the common explication of the Deluge and 't is commonly interpreted either to be the Sea or Subterraneous waters hid in the bowels of the Earth These they say broke forth and rais'd the waters caus'd by the Rain to such an height that together they overflowed the highest Mountains But whether or how this could be deserves to be a little examin'd And in the first place the Sea is not higher than the Land as some have formerly imagin'd fansying the Sea stood as it were upon a heap higher than the shore and at the Deluge a relaxation being made it overflow'd the Land But this conceit is so gross and so much against reason and experience that none I think of late have ventur'd to make use of it And yet on the
make Mountains or Plains upon the Land and the Earth would generally be full of Caverns and hollownesse especially in the Mountainous parts of it And we see the resemblance and imitation of this in lesser ruines when a Mountain sinks and falls into Subterraneous water or which is more obvious when the Arch of a Bridge is broken and falls into the water if the water under it be not so deep as to overflow and cover all its parts you may see there the image of all these things in little Continents and Islands and Rocks under water And in the parts that stand above the water you see Mountains and Precipices and Plains and most of the varieties that we see and admire in the parts of the Earth What need we then seek any further for the Explication of these things Let us suppose this Arch of the Bridge as the great Arch of the Earth which once it had and the water under it as the Abyss and the parts of this ruine to represent the parts of the Earth There will be scarce any difference but of lesser and greater the same things appearing in both But we have naturally that weakness or prejudice that we think great things are not to be explain'd from easie and familiar instances We think there must be something difficult and operose in the explication of them or else we are not satisfied whether it is that we are asham'd to see our ignorance and admiration to have been so groundless or whether we fancy there must be a proportion between the difficulty of the explication and the greatness of the thing explain'd but that is a very false Judgment for let things be never so great if they be simple their explication must be simple and easie And on the contrary some things that are mean common and ordinary may depend upon causes very difficult to find out for the difficulty of explaining an effect doth not depend upon its greatness or littleness but upon the simplicity or composition of its causes And the effects and Phaenomena we are here to explain though great yet depending upon causes very simple you must not wonder if the Explication when found out be familiar and very intelligible And this is so intelligible and so easily deducible from the forementioned causes that a Man born blind or brought up all his life in a Cave that had never seen the face of the Earth nor ever heard any description of it more than that it was a great Globe having this Theory propos'd to him or being instructed what the form of the first Earth was how it stood over the waters and then how it was broke and fell into them he would easily of his own accord foretel what changes would arise upon this dissolution and what the new form of the Earth would be As in the first place he would tell you that this second Earth would be distinguish'd and checker'd into Land and Water for the Orb which fell being greater than the circumference it fell upon all the fragments could not fall flat and lie drown'd under water and those that stood above would make the dry Land or habitable part of the Earth Then in the second place he would plainly discern that these fragments that made the dry Land could not lie all plain and smooth and equal but some would be higher and some lower some in one posture and some in another and consequently would make Mountains Hills Valleys and Plains and all other varieties we have in the situation of the parts of the Earth And lastly a blind man would easily divine that such a great ruine could not happen but there would be a great many holes and cavities amongst the parts of it a great many intervals and empty places in the rubbish as I may so say for this we see happens in all ruines more or less and where the fragments are great and hard 't is not possible they should be so adjusted in their fall but that they would lie hollow in many places and many unfill'd spaces would be intercepted amongst them some gaping in the surface of the Earth and others hid within so as this would give occasion to all sorts of fractures and cavities either in the skin of the Earth or within its body And these Cavities that I may add that in the last place would be often fill'd with Subterraneous waters at least at such a depth for the foundations of the Earth standing now within the waters so high as those waters reach'd they would more or less propagate themselves every way Thus far our Blind man could tell us what the New World would be or the form of the Earth upon the great dissolution and we find his reasonings and inferences very true these are the chief lineaments and features of our Earth which appear indeed very irregular and very inaccountable when they are lookt upon naked in themselves but if we look upon them through this Theory we see as in a glass all the reasons and causes of them There are different Genius's of Men and different conceptions and every one is to be allow'd their liberty as to things of this nature I confess for my own part when I observe how easily and naturally this Hypothesis doth apply it self to the general face of this Earth hits and falls in so luckily and surprizingly with all the odd postures of iâ—s parts I cannot without violence bear off my mind from fully assenting to it And the more odd and extravagant as I may so say and the more diversify'd the effects and appearances are to which an Hypothesis is to be apply'd if it answers them all and with exactness it comes the nearer to a moral certitude and infallibility As a Lock that consists of a great deal of workmanship many Wards and many odd pieces and contrivances if you find a Key that answers to them all and opens it readily 't is a thousand to one that 't is the true Key and was made for that purpose An eminent Philosopher of this Age Monsteur des Cartes hath made use of the like Hypothesis to explain the irregular form of the present Earth though he never dream'd of the Deluge nor thought that first Orb built over the Abyss to have been any more than a transient crust and not a real habitable World that lasted for more than sixteen hundred years as we suppose it to have been And though he hath in my opinion in the formation of that first Orb and upon the dissolution of it committed some great oversights whereof we have given an account in the Latin Treatise however he saw a necessity of such a thing and of the disruption of it to bring the Earth into that form and posture wherein we now find it Thus far we have spoken in general concerning the agreement and congruity of our supposition with the present face of the Earth and the easie account it gives of the causes of it And
thus much may suffice for a summary Explication of the causes of the Sea-chanel and Islands according to our Hypothesis CHAP. XI Concerning the Mountains of the Earth their greatness and irregular Form their Situation Causes and Origin WE have been in the hollows of the Earth and the Chambers of the Deep amongst the damps and steams of those lower Regions let us now go air our selves on the tops of the Mountains where we shall have a more free and large Horizon and quite another face of things will present it self to our observation The greatest objects of Nature are methinks the most pleasing to behold and next to the great Concave of the Heavens and those boundless Regions where the Stars inhabit there is nothing that I look upon with more plaesure than the wide Sea and the Mountains of the Earth There is something august and stately in the Air of these things that inspires the mind with great thoughts and passions We do naturally upon such occasions think of God and his greatness and whatsoever hath but the shadow and appearance of INFINITE as all things have that are too big for our comprehension they fill and over-bear the mind with their Excess and cast it into a pleasing kind of stupor and admiration And yet these Mountains we are speaking of to confess the truth are nothing but great ruines but such as show a certain magnificence in Nature as from old Temples and broken Amphitheaters of the Romans we collect the greatness of that people But the grandeur of a Nation is less sensible to those that never see the remains and monuments they have left and those who never see the mountainous parts of the Earth scarce ever reflect upon the causes of them or what power in Nature could be sufficient to produce them The truth is the generality of people have not sence and curiosity enough to raise a question concerning these things or concerning the Original of them You may tell them that Mountains grow out of the Earth like Fuzz-balls or that there are Monsters under ground that throw up Mountains as Moles do Mole-hills they will scarce raise one objection against your doctrine or if you would appear more Learned tell them that the Earth is a great Animal and these are Wens that grow upon its body This would pass current for Philosophy so much is the World drown'd in stupidity and sensual pleasures and so little inquisitive into the works of God and Nature There is nothing doth more awaken our thoughts or excite our minds to enquire into the causes of such things than the actual view of them as I have had experience my self when it was my fortune to cross the Alps and Appennine Mountains for the sight of those wild vast and indigested heaps of Stones and Earth did so deeply strike my fancy that I was not easie till I could give my self some tolerable account how that confusion came in Nature 'T is true the height of Mountains compar'd with the Diameter of the Earth is not considerable but the extent of them and the ground they stand upon bears a considerable proportion to the surface of the Earth and if from Europe we may take our measures for the rest I easily believe that the Mountains do at least take up the tenth part of the dry Land The Geographers are not very careful to describe or note in their Charts the multitude or situation of Mountains They mark the bounds of Countries the site of Cities and Towns and the course of Rivers because these are things of chief use to civil affairs and commerce and that they design to serve and not Philosophy or Natural History But Cluverius in his description of Ancient Germany Switzerland and Italy hath given Maps of those Countries more approaching to the natural face of them and we have drawn at the end of this Chapter such a Map of either Hemisphere without marking Countries or Towns or any such artificial things distinguishing only Land and Sea Islands and Continents Mountains and not Mountains and 't is very useful to imagine the Earth in this manner and to look often upon such bare draughts as shew us Nature undrest for then we are best able to judge what her true shapes and proportions are 'T is certain that we naturally imagine the surface of the Earth much more regular than it is for unless we be in some Mountainous parts there seldom occur any great inequalities within so much compass of ground as we can at once reach with our Eye and to conceive the rest we multiply the same Iden and extend it to those parts of the Earth that we do not see and so fansie the whole Globe much more smooth and uniform than it is But suppose a man was carri'd asleep out of a Plain Country amongst the Alps and left there upon the top of one of the highest Mountains when he wak'd and look'd about him he would think himself in an inchanted Country or carri'd into another World every thing would appear to him so different to what he had ever seen or imagin'd before To see on every hand of him a multitude of vast bodies thrown together in confusion as those Mountains are Rocks standing naked round about him and the hollow Valleys gaping under him and at his feet it may be an heap of frozen Snow in the midst of Summer He would hear the thunder come from below and see the black Clouds hanging beneath him Upon such a prospect it would not be easie to him to perswade himself that he was still upon the same Earth but if he did he would be convinc'd at least that there are some Regions of it strangely rude and ruine-like and very different from what he had ever thought of before But the Inhabitants of these wild places are even with us for those that live amongst the Alps and the great Mountains think that all the rest of the Earth is like their Country all broken into Mountains and Valleys and Precipices They never see other and most people think of nothing but what they have seen at one time or another These Alps we are speaking of are the greatest range of Mountains in Europe and 't is prodigious to see and to consider of what extent these heaps of Stones and Rubbish are one way they overspread Savoy and Dauphiné and reach through France to the Pyrenean Mountains and so to the Ocean The other way they run along the skirts of Germany through Stiria Pannonia and Dalmatia as far as Thrace and the Black Sea Then backwards they cover Switzerland and the parts adjacent and that branch of them which we call the Appennines strikes through Italy and is as it were the back-bone of that Country This must needs be a large space of ground which they stand upon Yet 't is not this part of Europe only that is laden with Mountains the Northern part is as rough and rude in the face of the Country as in
constant Laws of Nature do certainly bring all liquors into that form And a Chaos is not call'd so from any confusion or brokenness in the form of it but from a confusion and mixture of all sorts of ingredients in the composition of it So we have already produc'd in the precedent Chapters a double argument that the Earth was not originally in this form both because it rise from a Châ—os which could not of it self or by any immediate concretion settle into a form of this nature as hath been shown in the Fourth and Fifth Chapters as also because if it had been originally made thus it could never have undergone a Deluge as hath been provâ—d in the Second and Third Chapters If this be then a secondary and succedaneous form the great question is from what causes it arises Some have thought that Mountains and all other irregularities in the Earth have rise from Earthquakes and such like causes others have thought that they came from the universal Deluge yet not from any dissolution of the Earth that was then but only from the great agitation of the waters which broke the ground into this rude and unequal form Both these causes seem to me very incompetent and insufficient Earthquakes seldom make Mountains they often take them away and sink them down into the Caverns that lie under them Besides Earthquakes are not in all Countries and Climates as Mountains are for as we have observ'd more than once there is neither Island that is original nor Continent any where in the Earth in what Latitude soever but hath Mountains and Rocks in it And lastly what probability is there or how is it credible that those vast tracts of Land which we see fill'd with Mountains both in Europe Asia and Africa were rais'd by Earthquakes or any eruptions from below In what Age of the World was this done and why not continu'd As for the Deluge which they alledge as another cause I doubt not but Mountains were made in the time of the general Deluge that great change and transformation of the Earth happen'd then but not from such causes as are pretended that is the bare rolling and agitation of the waters For if the Earth was smooth and plain before the Flood as they seem to suppose as well as we do the waters could have little or no power over a smooth surface to tear it any way in pieces no more than they do a meadow or low ground when they lie upon it for that which makes Torrents and Land-floods violent is their fall from the Mountains and high Lands which our Earth is now full of but if the Rain fell upon even and level ground it would only sadden and compress it there is no possibility how it should raise Mountains in it And if we could imagine an universal Deluge as the Earth is now constituted it would rather throw down the Hills and Mountains than raise new ones or by beating down their tops and loose parts help to fill the Valleys and bring the Earth nearer to evenness and plainness Seeing then there are no hopes of explaining the Origin of Mountains either from particular Earthquakes or from the general Deluge according to the common notion and Explication of it these not being causes answerable to such vast effects Let us try our Hypothesis again which hath made us a Chanel large enough for the Sea and room for all subterraneous Cavities and I think will find us materials enough to raise all the Mountains of the Earth We suppose the great Arch or circumference of the first Earth to have fallen into the Abyss at the Deluge and seeing that was large than the surface it fell upon 't is absolutely certain that it could not all fall flat or lie under the water Now as all those parts that stood above the water made dry Land or the present habitable Earth so such parts of the dry Land as stood higher than the rest made Hills and Mountains and this is the first and general account of them and of all the inequalities of the Earth But to consider these things a little more particularly There is a double cause and necessity of Mountains first this now mention'd because the exteriour Orb of the Earth was greater than the interiour which it fell upon and therefore it could not all fall flat and secondly because this exteriour Orb did not fall so flat and large as it might or did not cover all the bottom of the Abyss as it was very capable to do but as we shewed before in explaining the Chanel of the Ocean it left a gaping in the middle or an Abyss-chanel as I should call it and the broader this Abyss-chanel was the more Mountains there would be upon the dry Land for there would be more Earth or more of the falling Orb left and less room to place it in and therefore it must stand more in heaps In what parts of the Earth these heaps would lie and in what particular manner it cannot be expected that we should tell but all that we have hitherto observ'd concerning Mountains how strange soever and otherwise unaccountable may easily be explain'd and deduc'd from this original we shall not wonder at their greatness and vastness seeing they are the ruines of a broken World and they would take up more or less of the dry Land according as the Ocean took up more or less space of our Globe Then as to their figure and form whether External or Internal 't is just such as answers our expectation and no more than what the Hypothesis leads us to For you would easily believe that these heaps would be irregular in all manner of ways whether consider'd apart or in their situation to one another And they would lie commonly in Clusters and in Ridges for those are two of the most general postures of the parts of a ruine when they fall inwards Lastly We cannot wonder that Mountains should be generally hollow For great bodies falling together in confusion or bearing and leaning against one another must needs make a great many hollownesses in them and by their unequal Applications empty spaces will be intercepted We see also from the same reason why mountainous Countries are subject to Earthquakes and why Mountains often sink and fall down into the Caverns that lie under them their joynts and props being decayed and worn they become unable to bear their weight And all these properties you see hang upon one and the same string and are just consequences from our supposition concerning the dissolution of the first Earth And there is no surer mark of a good Hypothesis than when it doth not only hit luckily in one or two particulars but answers all that it is to be apply'd to and is adequate to Nature in her whole extent But to speak the Truth this Theory is something more than a bare Hypothesis because we are assur'd that the general ground that we go upon is true namely
be in whether of these Hemispheres was the Seat of Paradise To answer this only according to our Theory I confess I see no natural reason or occasion to place it in one Hemisphere more than in another I see no ground of difference or pre-eminence that one had above the other and I am apt to think that depended rather upon the will of God and the Series of Providence that was to follow in this Earth than upon any natural incapacity in one of these two Regions more than in the other for planting in it the Garden of God Neither doth Scripture determine with any certainty either Hemisphere for the place of it for when 't is said to be in Eden or to be the Garden of Eden 't is no more than the Garden of pleasure or delight as the word signifies And even the Septuagint who render this word Eden as a proper name twice Gen. 2. ver 8 10. do in the same story render it twice as a common name signifying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pleasure Chap. 2. 15. and Chap. 3. 24. and so they do accordingly render it in Ezekiel Chap. 31. 9. 16 18. where this Garden of Eden is spoken of again Some have thought that the word Mekiddim Gen. 2. 8. was to be render'd in the East or Eastward as we read it and therefore determin'd the site of Paradise but 't is only the Septuagint Translate it so all the other Greek Versions and S. Ierome the Vulgate the Chaldee Paraphrase and the Syriack render it from the beginning or in the beginning or to that effect And we that do not believe the Septuagint to have been infallible or inspir'd have no reason to prefer their single authority above all the rest Some also think the place of Paradise may be determin'd by the four Rivers that are named as belonging to it and the Countries they ran thorough but the names of those Rivers are to me uncertain and two of them altogether unintelligible Where are there four Rivers in our Continent that come from one Head as these are said to have done either at the entrance or issue of the Garden 'T is true if you admit our Hypothesis concerning the fraction and disruption of the Earth at the Deluge then we cannot expect to find Rivers now as they were before the general Source is chang'd and their Chanels are all broke up but if you do not admit such a dissolution of the Earth but suppose the Deluge to have been only like a standing Pool after it had once cover'd the surface of the Earth I do not see why it should make any great haveck or confusion in it and they that go that way are therefore the more oblig'd to show us still the Rivers of Paradise Several of the Ancients as we shall show hereafter suppos'd these four Rivers to have their Heads in the other Hemisphere and if so the Seat of Paradise might be there too But let them first agree amongst themselves concerning these Rivers and the Countries they run thorough and we will undertake to show that there cannot be any such in this Continent Seeing then neither the Theory doth determine nor Scripture where the place of Paradise was nor in whether Hemisphere we must appeal to Antiquity or the opinions of the Ancients for I know no other Guide but one of these three Scripture Reason and Ancient Tradition and where the two former are silent it seems very reasonable to consult the third And that our Inquiries may be comprehensive enough we will consider what the Iews what the Heathens and what the Christian Fathers have said or determin'd concerning the Seat of Paradise The Iews and Hebrew Doctors place it in neither Hemisphere but betwixt both under the Aequinoctial as you may see plainly in Abravanel Manasses Ben-Israel Maimonides Aben Ezra and others But the reason why they carried it no further than the Line is because they suppos'd it certain as Aben Ezra tells us that the days and nights were always equal in Paradise and they did not know how that could be unless it stood under the Aequinoctial But we have shown another method wherein that perpetual Aequinox came to pass and how it was common to all the parts and Climates of that Earth which if they had been aware of and that the Torrid Zone at that time was utterly uninhabitable having remov'd their Paradise thus far from home they would probably have remov'd it a little further into the temperate Climates of the other Hemisphere The Ancient Heathens Poets and Philosophers had the notion of Paradise or rather of several Paradises in the Earth and 't is remarkable that they plac'd them generally if not all of them out of this Continent in the Ocean or beyond it or in another Orb or Hemisphere The Garden of the Hesperides the Fortunate Islands the Elysian Fields Ogygia and Toprabane as it is describ'd by Diodorus Siculus with others such like which as they were all characteriz'd like so many Paradises so they were all feared out of our Continent by their Geography and descriptions of them Thus far Antiquity seems to incline to the other Hemisphere or to some place beyond the bounds of our Continent for the Seat of Paradise But that which we are most to depend upon in this affair is Christian Antiquity the Judgment and Tradition of the Fathers upon this Argument And we may safely say in the first place negatively that none of the Christian Fathers Latin or Greek ever plac'd Paradise in Mesopotamia that is a conceit and invention of some Modern Authors which hath been much encouraged of late because it gave Men ease and rest as to further inquiries in an argument they could not well manage Secondly We may affirm that none of the Christian Fathers have plac'd Paradise in any determinate Region of our Continent Asia Africk or Europe I have read of one or two Authors I think that fansied Paradise to have been at Ierusalem but 't was a meer fansie that no body regarded or pursu'd The controversie amongst the Fathers concerning Paradise was quite another thing from what it is now of late They disputed and controverted whether Paradise was Corporeal or Intellectual only and Allegorical This was the grand point amongst them Then of those that thought it Corporeal some plac'd it high in the Air some inaccessible by Desarts or Mountains and many beyond the Ocean or in another World And in these chiefly consisted the differences and diversity of opinions amongst them nor do we find that they nam'd any particular place or Country in the known parts of the Earth for the Seat of Paradise or that one contested for one spot of ground and another for another which is the vain temerity of modern Authors as if they could tell to an Acre of Land where Paradise stood or could set their foot upon the Centre of the Garden These have corrupted and misrepresented the notion of our Paradise just as
The Chanel of the Sea fill'd with a mass of fluid fire and the same fire overflowing all the Globe and covering the whole Earth as the Deluge or the first Abyss Then will the Triumphal Songs and Hallelujah's be sung for the Victories of the Lamb over all his Enemies and over Nature it self Great and marvellous are thy works Lord God Almighty Iust and true are thy ways thou King of Saints Who shall not fear thee O Lord and glorisie thy name for thou only art holy for all nations shall come and worship before thee for thy judgments are made manifest CHAP. XI An account of those extraordinary Phaenomena and Wonders in Nature that according to Scripture will precede the coming of Christ and the Conflagration of the World IF we reflect upon the History of Burning Mountains we cannot but observe that before their Eruptions there are usually some changes in the Earth or in the Air in the Sea or in the Sun it self as signs and forerunners of the ensuing storm We may then easily conclude that when the last great Storm is a coming and all the Volcano's of the Earth ready to burst and the frame of the World to be dissolv'd there will be prevlous signs in the Heavens and on the Earth to introduce this Tragical fate Nature cannot come to that extremity without some symptomes of her illness nor die silently without pangs or complaint But we are naturally heavy of belief as to Futurities and can scarce fancy any other Scenes or other state of Nature than what is present and continually before our eyes we will therefore to cure our unbelief take Scripture for our guide and keep within the limits of its Predictions The Scripture plainly tells us of Signs or Prodigies that will precede the coming of our Saviour and the end of the World both in the Heavens and on the Earth The Sun Moon and Stars will be disturb'd in their motion or aspect The Earth and the Sea will roar and tremble and the Mountains fall at his Presence These things both the Prophets and Evangelists have told us But what we do not understand we are flow to believe and therefore those that cannot apprehend how such Changes should come to pass in the Natural World chuse rather to allegorize all these expressions of Scripture and to make them signifie no more than political changes of Governments and Empires and the great confusions that will be amongst the People and Princes of the Earth towards the end of the World So that darkning of the Sun shaking of the Earth and such like phrases of Scripture according to these Interpreters are to be understood only in a moral sence And they think they have a warrant for this interpretation from the Prophetick style of the Old Testament where the destruction of Cities and Empires and great Princes is often describ'd by such Figures taken from the Natural World So much is true indeed as to the phrase of the old Prophets in some places but I take the true reason and design of that to be a typical adumbration of what was intended should literally come to pass in the great and universal destruction of the World whereof these partial destructions were only shadows and prefigurations But to determine this case Let us take the known and approved rule for interpreting Scripture Not to recede from the literal sence without necessity or where the nature of the subject will admit of a literal interpretation Now as to those cases in the Old Testament History and matter of fact do show that they did not come to pass literally therefore must not be so understood But as for those that concern the end of the World as they cannot be determin'd in that way seeing they are yet future So neither is there any Natural repugnancy or improbability that they should come literally to pass On the contrary from the intuition of that state of Nature one would rather conclude the probability or necessity of them That there may and must be such disorders in the external World before the general dissolution Besides If we admit Prodigies in any case or Providential indications of God's judgments to come there can be no case suppos'd wherein it will be more reasonable or proper to admit them than when they are to be the Messengers of an universal Vengeance and Destruction Let us therefore consider what signs Scripture hath taken notice of as destin'd to appear at that time to publish as it were and proclaim the approaching end of the World and how far they will admit of a natural explication according to those grounds we have already given in explaining the causes and manner of the Conflagration These Signs are chiefly Earth-quakes and extraordinary commotions of the Seas Then the darkness or bloudy colour of the Sun and Moon The shaking of the Powers of Heaven the fulgurations of the Air and the falling of Stars As to Earth-quakes we have upon several occasions shown that these will necessarily be multiplied towards the end of the World when by an excess of drought and heat exhalations will more abound within the Earth and from the same causes their inflammation also will be more frequent than in the ordinary state of Nature And as all Bodies when dry'd become more porous and full of Vacuities so the Body of the Earth will be at that time And the Mines or Cavities wherein the fumes and exhalations lodge will accordingly be of greater extent open into one another and continued through long tracts and regions By which means when an Earth-quake comes as the shock will be more strong and violent so it may reach to a vast compass of ground and whole Islands or Continents be shaken at once when these trains have taken fire The effects also of such concussions will not only affect Mankind but all the Elements and the Inhabitants of them I do not wonder therefore that frequent and great Earth-quakes should be made a sign of an approaching Conflagration and the highest expressions of the Prophets concerning the Day of the Lord may be understood in a literal sence if they be finally referr'd to the general destruction of the World and not terminated solely upon those particular Countries or People to whom they are at first directed Hear what Ezekiel says upon this subject For in my Iealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken surely in that Day there shall be a great shaking in the Land of Israel So that the Fishes of the Sea and the Fowls of the Heaven and the Beasts of the Field and all creeping things that creep upon the Earth and all the Men that are upon the face of the Earth shall shake at my presence and the Mountains shall be thrown down and the sâ—eep places shall fall and every wall shaâ—l fall to the ground And I will rain an over-flowing rain and great hail-stones fire and brimstone The Prophet Isaias describes these judgments in terms
time of Constantine's Empire But however the Fathers of that Council are themselves our witnesses in this point For in their Ecclesiastical Forms or Constitutions in the chapter about the Providence of God and about the World They speak thus The World was made meaner or less perfect providentially for God foresee that man would sin Wherefore we expect New Heavens and a New Earth according to the Holy Scriptures at the appearance and Kingdom of the great God and our Saviour Iesus Christ. And then as Daniel says ch 7. 18. The Saints of the most High shall take the Kingdom And the Earth shall be Pure Holy the Land of the Living not of the dead Which David foreseeing by the eye of Faith cryes out Ps. 27. 13. I believe to see the good things of the Lord in the Land of the Living Our Saviour says Happy are the meek for they shall inherit the Earth Matt. 5. 5. and the Prophet Isaiuh says chap. 26. 6. the feet of the meek and lowly shall tread upon it So you see according to the judgment of these Fathers there will be a Kingdom of Christ upon Earth and moreover that it will be in the New Heavens and the New Earth And in both these points they cite the Prophets and our Saviour in confirmation of them Thus we have discharg'd our promise and given you an account of the doctrine of the Millennium or future Kingdom of Christ throughout the Three First Ages of the Church before any considerable corruptions were crept into the Christian Religion And those Authorities of single and successive Fathers we have seal'd up all together with the declaration of the Nicene Fathers in a Body Those that think Tradition a Rule of Faith or a considerable motive to it will find it hard to turn off the force of these Testimonies And those that do not go so far but yet have a reverence for Antiquity and the Primitive Church will not easily produce better Authorities more early more numerous or more uncontradicted for any Article that is not Fundamental Yet these are but Seconds to the Prophets and Apostles who are truly the Principals in this Cause I will leave them altogether to be examin'd and weigh'd by the Impartial Reader And because they seem to me to make a full and undeniable proof I will now at the foot of the account set down our second Proposition which is this That there is a Millennial State or a Future Kingdom of Christ and his Saints Prophesied of and Promised in the Old and New Testament and receiv'd by the Primitive Church as a Christian and Catholick Doctrine HAVING dispatch'd this main point To conclude the Chapter and this Head of our Discourse it will be some satisfaction possibly to see How a Doctrine so generally receiv'd and approv'd came to decay and almost wear out of the Church in following Ages The Christian Millenary Doctrine was not call'd into question so far as appears from History before the middle of the third Century when Dionysius Alexandrinus writ against Nepos an Aegyptian Bishop who had declar'd himself upon that subject But we do not find that this Book had any great effect for the declaration or constitution of the Nicene Fathers was after and in S. Ierome's time who writ towards the end of the fourth Century this Doctrine had so much Credit that He who was its greatest adversary yet durst not condemn it as he says himself Quae licet non sequamur tamen damnare non possumus quià multi Ecclesiasticorum virorum Martyres ista dixerunt Which things or doctrines speaking of the Millennium tho' we do not follow yet we cannot condemn Because many of our Church-men and Martyrs have affirmed these things And when Apollinarius replyed to that Book of Dionysius S. Ierome says that not only those of his own Sect but a great multitude of other Christians did agree with Apollinarius in that particular Ut praesagâ mente jam cernam quantorum in me rabies concitanda sit That I now foresee how many will be enrag'd against me for what I have spoken against the Millenary Doctrine We may therefore conclude that in S. Ierome's time the Millenaries made the greater party in the Church for a little matter would not have frighted him from censuring their opinion S. Ierome was a rough and rugged Saint and an unfair adversary that usually run down with heat and violence what stood in his way As to his unfairness he shews it sufficiently in this very cause for he generally represents the Millenary Doctrine after a Judaical rather than a Christian manner And in reckoning up the chief Patrons of it he always skips Iustin Martyr Who was not a Man so obscure as to be overâ—look'd and he was a Man that had declar'd himself sufficiently upon this point for he says both himself and all the Orthodox of his time were of that judgment and applyes both the Apocalypse of S. Iohn and the 65th chap. of Isaiah for the proof of it As we noted before As S. Ierome was an open enemy to this Doctrine so Eusebius was a back friend to it and represented every thing to its disadvantage so far as was tolerably consistent with the fairness of an Historian He gives a slight character of Papias without any authority for it and brings in one Gaius that makes Cerinthus to be the Author of the Apocalypse and of the Millennium and calls the Visions there monstrous stories He himself is willing to shuffle off that Book from Iohn the Evangelist to another Iohn a Presbyter and to shew his skill in the interpretation of it he makes the New Ierusalem in the 21th chap. to be Constantine's Ierusalem when he turn'd the Heathen Temples there into Christian. A wonderful invention As S. Ierome by his flouts so Eusebius by sinister insinuations endeavour'd to lessen the reputation of this Doctrine and the Art they both us'd was to misrepresentâ—â—â— as Iudaical But we must not cast off every doctrine which the Jews believ'd only for that reason for we have the same Oracles which they had and the same Prophets and they have collected from them same general doctrine that we have namely that There will be an happy and pacifick state of the Church in future times But as to the circumstances of this state we differ very much They suppose the Mosaical Law will be restor'd with all its pomp rites and ceremonies whereas we suppose the Christian Worship or something more perfect will then take place Yet S. Ierome has the confidence even there where he speaks of the many Christian Clergy and Martyrs that held this doctrine has the confidence I say to represent it as if they held that Circumcision Sacrifices and all the Judaical rites should then be restor'd Which seems to me to be a great slander and a great instance how far mens passions will carry them in misrepresenting an opinion which they have a mind to