of what has been said on these three last Arguments we cannot but observe into what Erroneous Extremes Good Men have been betray'd with relation to several main difficulties occurring in the Sacred Writings While from a profound respect to the revealed Word of God the most were willing to lay aside the use of their own Reason and others from a no less veneration for the Divine Attributes and regard to those common notions which God had implanted in their Souls were willing to indulge too great a liberty in the Interpretation of Scripture The former being generally Pious and Devout Souls but little vers'd in contemplation or the improvements of natural knowledge were dispos'd to receive all that a Vulgar and Religious tho' less Wary and Prudent Exposition should recommend to their Assent The latter having added to their Piety and Vertue a careful enquiry into Nature and a freer exercise of their Humane Faculties and observing how heavy imputations some common Interpretations laid on the Divine Majesty how disagreeable they were to External Nature as well as the Reason of Mankind were carried too far on the other hand and when the latter were secur'd were not proportionably solicitous about the former I mean so that nothing but what Reason the Attributes of God and the System of the World allow'd were admitted these did not take a proportionable care that the natural sense of Scripture were equally provided for What I would here further observe is the equal Condition and Deserts but the unequal Reputation and Fate these two sorts of Men have generally met with in the Christian World Their Characters to me seem so correspondent and their contrary Mistakes so equally wide from Truth equally derogatory to the Honour of God and yet equally proceeding from a Religious Principle a desire to secure the Interest of Divine Revelation that to me they seem to deserve the same Respect and Commendation for their sincere Endeavours and pious Intentions the same Pity and Pardon for their Errors and Mistakes But it has happen'd much otherwise for by reason of the little Leisure and Abilities of the generality of Teachers to cultivate their own Reason or make any successful enquiries into the Natural World the former sort being in themselves most numerous and as must needs happen having the most part of Christian People on their side did with Zeal and Earnestness decry the latter and tho' themselves on one side did as highly Dishonour the Sacred Oracles as the other on the opposite yet they vehemently laid that Imputation on the latter and decry'd them as secret Underminers of that Word of God they pretended more rationally to explain 'T were easy to give Examples in this case but I shall content my self with one concerning those very Histories of the Creation and Deluge which I am to explain in the following Theory 'T is well known what great and hitherto insuperable Difficulties these Histories have involv'd in them to the general view of Mankind and how much still greater and still more insuperable those Difficulties appear'd to Philosophick Enquirer's who came more nicely to consider them and compare what was asserted in the Holy Scriptures with the true Frame and System of External Nature The consideration of these things so affected a great and good Man that he resolv'd on a noble Attempt and undertook to clear those Points and shew that the temporary Origin of the World from a Chaos and a Universal Deluge were rational and accountable Theorems and thereby take away that Blot and Obstacle which the seeming impossibility of these things laid in the way of ill-disposed Persons In which matters he employ'd his utmost skill in the best System of Philosophy then known in the World his most diligent researches into the sacred and prophane Accounts relating to those anciently more known Phaenomena of Nature together with such other helps as his own excellent Abilities could afford him and that as to several main and principal strokes to very great Satisfaction and to the very remarkable Illustration of the Holy Scriptures But in the Prosecution of this Scheme being so vast so noble so uniform so coherent and withal so new and surprizing it at last appear'd that such his Theory would not in several Particulars accord with the letter of Scripture This unhappy dissonancy the Theorist was soon sensible of and no doubt not a little concern'd about In which streight seeing no possible way of securing the main Points without so unpleasing a Concession instead of resolving to rest satisfied in the natural Sense of Scripture and acquiescing in the Divine Revelation till farther means of clearing the whole should offer themselves which I think is a good Man's Duty in such cases he ventur'd to suppose that the Sacred Books were not always to be so literally and naturally understood as was generally believ'd hitherto He alledg'd That considering the mean Capacities of the Jews which were not capable of such Points of Philosophick Truths considering the most ancient way of conveying or rather of concealing sublime Theorems by Parables Fables and Hieroglyphicks considering the Scripture Stile in some other cases very much different from the present plain and explicit way of Discourse and nearer a-kin to that most ancient Method considering the main end of the Holy Writings the benefit of the Moral World seem'd not to require a strict adherence to truth in every circumstance relating to the Natural nay rather enforc'd a receeding from it in some cases considering lastly That all Ages had in vain endeavoured to clear these Points according to the strictness of the most obvious Sense and that the greater Improvements in Philosophy seem'd but to render them still more unaccountable considering I say all these things He suppos'd that the Holy Writers only secur'd the Fundamental and General Verities involving the rest under and explaining the whole by a way of speaking which was Mystical and Mythological rather popular than true and fitted more to the needs of Men than to the reality of Things This is I think a fair and full Account of the Opinion and a genuine Explication of the occasion of this unhappy Slip of our late Excellent Theorist and such an one I acknowledge 't is as in it self has no solid or necessary Foundation is of ill consequence to the Authority of the Holy Scriptures and dishonourable both to their Penmen and chiefly to their Principal Inditer the Blessed Spirit of God In which Censure if the Learned Author think me too free or too severe he will I hope see reason to excuse and not to be displeas'd with me when I have own'd as I must ingenuously do That in accusing him I condemn my self for I my self in great measure have thought the same things For I cannot but with the Theorist confess That the Difficulties in the Vulgar Expositions were so great such absurd Incongruities ascrib'd to God by them the true System of the World did so disagree and increase
had not afforded so much Light as that they cou'd ootherwise satisfie themselves in the Credibility of them till the new Improvements in Philosophy And this is but just and reasonable for sure the Ignorance or Incapacity of the Creature does by no means afford sufficient Ground for Incredulity or justifie Men in their rejecting Divine Revelation and impeaching the Veracity or Providence of the Creator VII Seeing the Natural and the Moral World are alike subject to the Divine Providence and that the same Author has indited those Writings which relate to both the Discovery of the Verity of the Holy Scriptures in the most difficult Points relating to the one ought to make us entirely secure of the like Verity of the same Scriptures relating to the other notwithstanding any Difficulties still remaining about 'em As the wise proportionate and Harmonious Order and Regularity of the Natural World where no Freedom of the Creature Interposes and gives any occasion for Disorder justly obliges us to believe the most wise and equal Methods of Providence to be equally exercis'd about the Moral one also although the Intricacies arising from the abuse of the Liberty of Will in Rational Creatures render them hitherto more obscure to us in the latter Case than in the former So certainly the Establishment of the Verity of the Scriptures in the most harsh and difficult Assertions touching the Natural World the proper Case in which the Improvement of Philosophy was likely to afford means for our Determination ought to assure us of the like Verity of the same Scriptures in the other Points more peculiarly the Subjects of Divine Revelation less capable of affording any other means of Satisfaction and yet more directly the Design Scope and Drift of the Sacred Writers and the Concern of Divine Providence than the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 AMHN. A POSTSCRIPT SINCE the finishing of the fore-going Theory I met a few Days since with a very good Book just publish'd call'd A Conference with a Theist By the Reverend and Learned Dr. Nichols wherein I found him making considerable use of an Essay of Sir William Petty's concerning the Multiplication of Mankind and the Growth of the City of London and perceiving thence that Learned Gentleman to have there made use of 360 Years as the Mean or equal Standard for the doubling of Mankind in the present Age when I had by Mistake pitch'd upon 280 from a Book which 't is suppos'd the same Author was concern'd in before I hereupon procur'd this latter Book it self and set my self to the consideration thereof and particularly as to what more immediately concern'd my self and those Calculations I had superstructed upon a somewhat different Hypothesis By which means I found that this last and therefore more Authentick Essay had not only on very good Grounds fixt 360 Years for the ordinary middle late of the doubling Mankind with us atpresent but had withal remark'd such very different Extreams on either hand sometimes observ'd and still more different ones very possible to be observ'd in the World as gave great Light to several things contain'd in the Holy Scriptures and particularly to some insisted on in the foregoing Theory and so was very well worthy of a careful Consideration Thus it has seem'd very strange to some that in 215 Years the 70 Persons descended of Jacob shou'd amount to so many as by the Calculation above has been made appear they really did But now if we consider what Sir William Petty proves that the increase of Mankind has been actually from 120 to 1200 Years in doubling and may fairly be from 10 to 1200 according to the present Observations and withal consider that the Lives of Men then generally speaking were more than six times as long as the middle duration of ours now and so on account of more numerous Posterity and Coexistence there is to be about eighteen times as many as the same Number at the same Rate of Propagation wou'd produce with us If I say we consider these things we shall be soon satisfy'd with the Sacred History in this otherwise surprizing Narration and not at all think it strange that the Children of Israel doubl'd themselves in fourteen Years till the Exodus out of AEgypt or the After-Reduction of the Period of Human Life to the present Standard before their Entrance into the Land of Canaan seeing 't is not so incredible as the doubling of any Family or Nation in twenty Years now with us wou'd appear to be which no one can say to be otherwise than very reasonable and what does not unfrequently happen in these latter Ages of the World for many Generations together But what is more to my present purpose and the main Occasion of this Postscript besides the rectifying my own mistakes and that small difference which it has occasion'd in my Calculations which the Candid Reader will easily pardon and amend is an Observation I have made on occasion of my lighting upon this last Essay of Sir William Petty whereby at once this Matter of the Multiplication of Mankind in the past Ages may be in good measure determin'd and Sir William's mistake touching the different Proportions thereof in the different Periods of the World since Moses's time may be corrected to the great Illustration of the Sacred as well as Prophane Accounts of the ancient Ages of the World And the Observation is this That Mankind as far as we have means of enquiry have generally speaking increased in one and the same given Proportion and doubled themselves in 360 Years in all the past Ages of the World since the fixing of the present Period of Humane Life The truth of which Observation I thus prove 'T is evident that the most ancient Age of the World capable of being compar'd with the present was that of Moses when the Lives of Men were reduc'd to Seventy or Eighty Years their present Standard and that therefore the succeding Period of Four hundred and seventy nine Years from the Exodus out of Egypt till the building of Solomon's Temple was the first considerable enough for our present purpose 'T is also evident That the History of the Jews or the Sacred History is the only one ancient enough and certain enough to be introduc'd and depended on in the present case Nay indeed 't is evident that the Jews from their Union together and their Distinction from the neighbour Nations as well as the accuracy of their Genealogies and Numbers frequently recorded in Scripture are alone capable of affording any full and uncontested instances of this Matter 'T is lastly evident in particular That the numbers of the Children of Israel were exactly taken and are as exactly recorded at the beginning and a little before the end of the foremention'd Period as we shall see presently So that we have here the fairest opportunity possible of clearing this matter and of comparing the most ancient with the latest increase of Mankind
Original 2. Bodies Unlike in Nature have a like Original 3. Bodies most considerable in themselves have the most inconsiderable accounts given of them 4. No Bodies but the Earth have either time for or particulars of the formation of the several parts assign'd 5. The Light appears before its Cause and Fountain the Sun was made 6. The Excavation of the Channel of the Ocean and the Elevation of the Mountains is unnatural and indecent Of each of which I shall say but a word or two and then as briefly argue from them 1. Bodies Alike in nature have an unlike Original Our Earth is one of the Planets and in all reason belonging to their formation yet is she the Subject of the Second Third Fifth and Sixth days works while the rest are included in the Fourth Day 2. Bodies Unlike in nature have a like Original The Sun a glorious Body of Light with his Fellows the fixt Stars are join'd in the fourth day with the Opake and Dark Globes of the Planets 3. Bodies most considerable in themselves have the most inconsiderable accounts given of them This is very obvious in that mighty adoe about our poor Earth while the vastly greater and nobler Bodies of the Sun and Stars are scarce taken any notice of And how disproportionate such a procedure is the comparison already made of the Earth on one side with the rest of the World on the other does more than sufficiently demonstrate 4. No Bodies but the Earth have either time for or particulars of the formation of the several parts assign'd For when four days are wholly taken up with the particulars relating to our Earth the division of its Aerial from its Earthly Waters the distinguishing the latter from the dry Land and draining 'em into the Channels of the Seas the growth of Plants generation of Fish Fowl and Terrestrial Animals and at last the Creation of Man with several circumstances relating to him and the other Creatures not a syllable as to the particulars of the rest of the World Light is only commanded to shine on the First Day and the Heavenly Bodies made on the Fourth and there 's all as to themselves which occurs here 5. The Light appears before the Creation of the Sun from whence it is deriv'd That being the Work of the First This of the Fourth Day Which how Philosophical and Accountable 't is let the Reader judge 6. The Excavation of the Channel of the Ocean and the Elevation of the Mountains is unnatural and indecent For when the Earth was at first even and cover'd with Waters Expositors imagine that God as it were digg'd a vast Channel for the Ocean and heav'd away the Earth and plac'd it on all parts of the Globe to make the Mountains Which how indecent it is I had rather leave to the judgment of the Reader than stand here to exaggerate especially where the naked representation of the thing it self is a sufficient exposing thereof to free Thinkers These obvious Remarks on the vulgar Scheme of the Mosaick Creation to omit the passing by of the intire invisible World whether within or without the surface of the Earth whether corporeal or spiritual are I think sufficient demonstrations that 't is a very distant one from the true nature of things and such as is both unworthy of the Writer and Author of the Sacred History Whoever will take the pains carefully to consider the System of Nature and compare it with these Remarks and the common Opinion of the proper Creation of all things in the six Days Works will not I believe be at a loss for Arguments to over-turn the old and to prove that a new Theory is to be enquir'd after and a narrower World to be expected in the First Chapter of Genesis than has generally been But Before I conclude this Head I must here observe that the consideration of these matters has had so great influence on our late most Excellent Commentator on Genesis that tho' he keep more strictly to the letter of Moses than others yet he finds occasion and room for these four great Concessions no less contrary to the vulgar than approaching to the present Account of the History of the Creation 1. He is willing to allow that Moses meddles not with the intire Universe but with the Planetary System only 2. He allows the Creation of the World to have been over before the six Days Work begins 3. He grants the same six Days Works to be the regular and orderly reduction of a confused Chaos into a habitable World without any strange Miracles in every part 4. He supposes that for a considerable time before the six Days Work began there were such preparatory agitations fermentations and separations or conjunctions of parts as disposed the whole to fall ino the succeeding method and introduce the six Days Productions following Which Concessions of so great a Man and excellent a Commentator as they argue his sense of the necessity of receding from the vulgar Hypothesis so they I confess lessen and diminish the difficulties in this History Lessen I say and diminish not take them away For besides the want of any foundation in Scripture as far as I see for the distinction between the fixt Stars and Planets the Arguments I have all along urged reach and are fram'd with regard to this limited Hypothesis also and with those yet to come are I think more than sufficient to my purpose still and will demonstrate the unaccountableness of the History of the Creation even on this tho' much more on the common Interpretation VII The Mosaick Creation does not extend beyond this Earth because the alone final cause of all therein contained is the advantage of Mankind the Inhabitant thereof Now that the final cause of all the particulars mention'd in the History before us is here rightly assign'd is not only visible in almost every verse of it and in the places of Scripture afterwards referring to the same thing but commonly acknowledg'd nay contended for by the Patrons of the vulgar account So that I shall here take it for granted But then as to the consequence that therefore the Creation is no farther to be extended or at least not so far as here it must otherwise be to the Sun and Planets nay with the most to the innumerable Systems of the fix'd Stars 't is to me so natural and necessary that methinks 't is perfectly needless to go about the proof of it That so vast and noble a System consisting of so many so remote so different and so glorious Bodies should be made only for the use of Man is so wild a Fancy that it deserves any other treatment sooner than a serious confutation And one may better think silently with ones self than with due deference and decency speak what naturally arises in ones Mind on this occasion If 't is an instance of or consistent with the Divine Wisdom to make thousands of glorious Bodies for the
the Scruples the main Histories themselves appear'd so impossible to be any other way secur'd Several of the Accounts given by the Theorist were in the main so ingenious so probable and so agreeable to Ancient Tradition upon a cursory Consideration and the Arguments before-mention'd seem'd to me so considerable that 't was not easy for me to deny all Assent to that very Conclusion which yet on farther Enquiries and Discoveries I think not unworthy of the foregoing Censure And I should esteem it a very signal happiness if as that Theory was so instrumental in drawing me into the foremention'd Mistake so this might be fortunate enough to perswade the Author of that of the opposite Verity in which the Discoveries it contains have fully settled my own Mind and are I think sufficient in themselves to settle the minds of others But to wave these too ambitious Expectations I cannot but say so much in behalf of that Learned Theorist That as he justly deserves the highest Commendations for so generous and worthy an Attempt for the great Illustration he has given those Histories from the most Ancient Traditionary Learning and the Light afforded to the Holy Scriptures in several and those very considerable Points So he has I think reason to expect an easy Pardon where he was not able to do the same especially when not only Pardon but the freest Praises are bestowed on those who as I before observ'd equally have expos'd the Honour of God and equally derogated from the Reputation of the Sacred Writings by their unwary and unskilful Interpretations A good Man who to the highest Veneration for the Perfections of the Divine Nature has joyn'd a careful Enquiry into the Frame of the World and a free but modest use of those Faculties God has given him and has withal exactly consider'd the undoubted evidence for the Divine Authority of the Scripture ought to be and will be as tender of believing a Sense which is contrary to his innate Notions to the Perfections of God and the certain Observations of Nature as of that which puts a force upon the Words themselves and renders them meerly Popular and Mythological And by consequence either those who so frequently and zealously do the former are to be condemn'd which yet the Christian World has been far from doing or those who have been forc'd upon the latter ought to escape any greater Severity For my own part as in such difficult Cases I easily pass over the Mistakes and value the Truths discover'd by any well-dispos'd Persons which is but a due Debt owing from one fallible Creature to another So I humbly bless God the Author and Giver of all good things for that Light he has afforded me and which by the Divine Blessing I hope the following Pages will afford the Reader in these matters by which I am convinc'd of the no-necessity of opposing the literal to the true the Obvious and Natural to the Rational and Philosophick Interpretations of the Holy Scriptures and shall chearfully wait for that happy time when all Doubts being remov'd and all Objections prevented by the Improvement of our Knowledge and the Conduct of the Divine Providence Reason and Revelation shall reciprocally bear Witness to and embrace each other when no one shall be able to pretend to the one but he who is equally acquainted and satisfied with the other and the whole reasonable Creation shall unite their Hearts and Tongues in Hymns to God All thy Commandments are faithful Thy Statutes are right rejoicing the heart Thy Judgments O Lord are true and righteous altogether Righteous art thou O Lord and just are thy judgments Great and marvellous are thy works O Lord God Almighty Just and true are thy ways O King of Saints But to return from this Digression and to proceed VIII I prove the Mosaick Creation extends no farther then our Earth and is of no other Nature than is assign'd here because neither the Intentions of the Author require nor the Capacities of the People could bear either a strictly Philosophical or a truly Universal Account of the Origin of things The designs of Moses the inspired Penman or rather of that Blessed Spirit which inspir'd him in this History of the Creation were not the gratifying the Curiosity or satisfying the Philosophick Enquiries of a few elevated Minds but of a more general and useful Nature namely To inform the Jews and the rest of the World that all the visible Frame of Heaven and Earth was neither existent from all Eternity nor the result of blind Chance fatal Necessity nor unaccountable Accidents but the Workmanship of God Almighty To make them sensible that every Being they had any knowledge of was deriv'd from and subject to that Jehovah whom they worshipp'd and that in him themselves with all their fellow Creatures in the open Air on the wide Earth or in the deep Seas liv'd mov'd and had their Being who therefore must needs be the Governor and Ruler of them all To affect their Minds by this means with the awfullest Veneration for the God of Israel and inspire them with a just Gratitude to him for all their Enjoyments who had not only created this Earth for Mankind and furnish'd it with various Creatures for their use but beside these Terrestrial had made the very Celestial Bodies subservient to their Necessities To demonstrate the Original Goodness and Perfection of things and that therefore whatever was Evil must have been the consequent of Man's Fall and not of God's primary Introduction and thereby to teach men Humility and raise their abhorrence of Sin the cause of all their Miseries To shew them the unreasonableness of all sorts of Idolatry or of the Worship of any visible Beings tho' never so useful or glorious by assuring them they were all in common the Creatures of God and all their Influences of what kind soever intirely deriv'd from him and under his disposal In short the main design was to secure Obedience to those Laws he was about to deliver from God to them by giving them the greatest and justest Idea's of their Legislator the Almighty Maker of Heaven and Earth These were I suppose the principal Reasons of thus recording the Creation of the World and these Reasons made a particular Account of the visible Parts of this Earth with all its Furniture that was observable and expos'd to their daily view necessary and expedient nay they enforc'd some kind of mention of the Heavenly Bodies so far as they were concern'd with us below and so far as to shew that God originally created them as well as the more ordinary Bodies on the Face of the Earth All this was but proper and necessary in order to the foremention'd purposes But why a Natural and Philosophical Account of the primary Formation of such remote and different Systems of Bodies whose real Bigness Distances Natures and Uses abstractedly consider'd never came into Mens thoughts nor were once imagin'd by
the six foregoing and his Resting or keeping a Sabbath on this seventh day Which Sabbath was reviv'd or at least its Observation anew enforc'd on the Jews by the Fourth Commandment Thus the Heavens and the Earth were finished and all the host of them and on the seventh day God had ended his work which he had made and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made And God blessed the seventh day and sanctifyed it because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day Six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God in it thou shalt do no manner of work thou nor thy son nor thy daughter nor thy man-servant nor thy maid-servant nor thy cattel nor the stranger which is within thy gates For in six days the Lord made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that in them is and rested the seventh day wherefore the Lord blessed the seventh day and hallowed it XII There is a constant and vigorous heat diffused from the Central towards the Superficiary parts of our Earth Tho' I might bring several Arguments from Ancient Tradition the Opinion of great Philosophers and the present Observations of Nature for this Assertion yet I shall chuse here for brevities sake to depend wholly on the last evidence and refer the inquisitive Reader to what the Learned Dr. Woodward says in the present case which I take to be very satisfactory XIII The Habitable Earth is founded or situate on the Surface of the Waters or of a deep and vast Subterraneous fluid This Constitution of the Earth is a natural result from such a Chaos as we have already assign'd affords foundation for an easie account of the Origin of Mountains renders the Histories of the several states of the Earth and of the Universal Deluge very intelligible is as Philosophical and as agreeable to the common Phaenomena of Nature as any other without this supposition 't will be I believe impossible to explain what Antiquity Sacred and Prophane assures us of relating to the Earth and its great Catastrophes but this being allow'd 't will not be difficult to account for the same to the greatest degree of satisfaction as will appear in the progress of the present Theory And Lastly The same assertion is most exactly consonant to and confirm'd by the Holy Scriptures as the following Texts will fairly evince When the Lord prepared the heavens I was there When he set a compass Circle or Orb on the face of the deep When he established the clouds above when he strengthened the fountains of the deep When he gave to the sea his decree that the waters should not pass his commandment when be appointed the foundations of the earth He hath founded the earth upon the seas and establish'd it upon the floods To him that stretched out the earth above the waters for his mercy endureth for ever This they willingly are ignorant of that by the word of God the heavens were of old and the Earth standing out of the water and in the water whereby the world that then was being overflowed with waters perished The fountains of the great deep were broken up The fountains of the deep were stopped XIV The interior or intire Constitution of the Earth is correspondent to that of an Egg. 'T is very well known that an Egg was the solemn and remarkable Symbol or Representation of the World among the most venerable Antiquity and that nothing was more celebrated than the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the most early Anthors which if extended beyond the Earth to the System of the Heavens is groundless and idle if referr'd to the Figure of the Earth is directly false and so is most reasonably to be understood of the intire and internal Constitution thereof XV. The Primi ive Earth had Seas and Dry-land distinguish'd from each other in great measure as the present and those situate in the same places generally as they still are This is put past doubt by part of the third the intire fifth and part of the sixth Day 's Works One half of the third being spent in distinguishing the Seas from the Dry-land the intire fifth in the Production of Fish and Fowl out of the Waters and in the assigning the Air to the latter sort and the Seas to the former for their respective Elements and on the sixth God bestows on Mankind the Dominion of the Inhabitants as well of the Seas as of the Dry-land All which can leave no doubt of the truth of the former part of this Assertion And that their Disposition was originally much what as it is at present appears both by the Rivers Tigris and Euphrates running then into the same Persian Sea that now they do And by the Observations of Dr. Woodward fully confirming the same XVI The Primitive Earth had Springs Fountains Streams and Rivers in the same manner as the present and usually in or near the same places also This is but a proper consequence of the Distinction of the Earth into Seas and Dry-land the latter being uninhabitable without them and such Vapours as are any way condensed into Water on the higher parts of the Dry-land naturally descending and hollowing themselves Channels till they fall into the Seas However the other direct proofs for both parts of the Assertion are sufficiently evident I was set up from everlasting from the beginning or ever the earth was When there were no depths I was brought forth when there were no fountains abounding with water A river went out of Eden to water the garden and from thence it was parted and became into four heads Pison Gihon Tigris and Euphrates The two latter of which are well-known Rivers to this very day And the same thing is confirm'd by Dr. Woodward's Observations XVII The Primitive Earth was distinguish'd into Mountains Plains and Vallies in the same manner generally speaking and in the same places as the present This is a natural consequent of the two former The Caverns of the Seas with the extant Parts of the Dry-land being in effect great Vallies and Mountains and the Origin and Course of Rivers necessarily supposing the same For tho' the Earth in the Theorist's way were Oval which it is not 't is demonstrable there could be no such descent as the course of Rivers requires However the direct proofs are evident The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way before his works of old I was set up from everlasting from the beginning or ever the Earth was Before the mountains were setled before the Hills was I brought forth While as yet he had not made the earth nor the fields nor the highest part of the dust of the world Art thou the first man that was born or
thy hand They shall perish but thou shalt endure yea all of them shall wax old like a garment as a vesture shalt thou change them and they shall be changed I saw thrones and they sat upon them and judgment was given unto them And I saw the Souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus and for the word of God and which had not worshipped the beast neither his image neither had received his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished This is the first resurrection Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection on such the second death hath no power But they shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with him a thousand years c. But so much has been said on this head to omit others by the Theorist that I shall refer the Reader thither for the other Testimonies of the Holy Scriptures and the unanimous consent of the most Primitive Fathers Both which he at large and to excellent purpose some particulars excepted has insisted on XCVI The state of Nature during the Millennium will be very different from that at present and more agreeable to the Antediluvian Primitive and Paradisiacal ones Whom the heavens must receive until the time of the restitution of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy Prophets since the world began See more in the Theory Book 4. Chap. 9. and in the proofs of the former Proposition XCVII The Earth in the Millennium will be without a Sea or any large receptacle fill'd with mighty collections and quantities of Waters I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away and there was no more sea XCVIII The Earth in the Millennium will have no succession of Light and Darkness Day and Night but a perpetual Day The gates of the new Jerusalem shall not be shut at all by day for there shall be no night there And there shall be no night there XCIX The state of the Millennium will not stand in need of and so probably will be without the light and presence of the Sun and Moon And the City had no need of the Sun neither of the Moon to shine in it And they need no candle neither light of the sun C. At the conclusion of the Millennium the Final Judgment and Consummation of all things The Earth will desert its present Seat and Station in the World and be no longer found among the Planetary Chrous I saw a great white throne and him that sat on it from whose face the earth and the heavens fled away and there was found no place for them BOOK IV. SOLUTIONS OR An Account of the foregoing Phaenomena from the Principles of Philosophy already laid down CHAP. 1. A Solution of the Phaenomena relating to the Mosaick Creation and the original Constitution of the Earth I. All those particular small Bodies of which our habitable Earth is now compos'd were originally in a mixed confused fluid and uncertain Condition without any order or regularilty It was an Earth without form and void had darkness spread over the face of its Abyss and in reality was what it has been ever stil'd A perfect Chaos I. THIS has been already sufficiently accounted for and need not be here again insisted on II. The Formation of this Earth or the Change of that Chaos into an habitable World was not a meer result from any necessary Laws of Mechanism independently on the Divine Power but was the proper effect of the Influence and Interposition and all along under the peculiar Care and Providence of God II. 'T is not very easy I confess in such mighty Turns and Changes of the World exactly to determine how far and in what particulars a supernatural or miraculous Interposition of the Divine Power is concern'd and how far the Laws of Nature or Mechanical Powers ought to be extended Nay indeed 't is difficult enough in several instances to determine what is the effect of a natural and ordinary and what of a supernatural and extraordinary Providence 'T is now evident That Gravity the most mechanical Affection of Bodies and which seems most natural depends entirely on the constant and efficacious and if you will the supernatural and miraculous Influence of Almighty God And I do not know whether the falling of a Stone to the Earth ought not more truly to be esteem'd a supernatural Effect or a Miracle than what we with the greatest surprize should so stile its remaining pendulous in the open Air since the former requires an active Influence in the first Cause while the latter supposes Non-annihilation only But besides this Tho' we were able exactly to distinguish in general the ordinary Concurrence of God from his extraordinary yet would the task before us be still sufciently difficult For those Events or Actions are in Holy Scripture attributed immediately to the Power and Providence of God which yet were to all outward appearance according to the constant course of things and would abstractedly from such Affirmations of the Holy Books have been esteem'd no more miraculous than the other common Effects of Nature or usual Accidents of Humane Affairs as those who have carefully consider'd these matters especially the Historical and Prophetical Parts of the Old Testament must be oblig'd to confess Neither is it unreasonable that all things should in that manner be ascribed to the Supream Being on several accounts 'T is from him every thing is ultimately deriv'd He conserves the Natures and continues the Powers of every Creature He not only at first produc'd but perpetually disposes and makes use of the whole Creation and every part thereof as the Instruments of his Providence He foresaw and foreadapted the intire Frame He determin'd his Co-operation or Permission to every Action He so order'd and appointed the whole System with every individual Branch of it as to Time Place Proportion and all other Circumstances that nothing should happen unseasonably unfitly disproportionately or otherwise than the Junctures of Affairs the demerits of his reasonable Creatures and the wise Intentions of his Providence did require In fine he so previously adjusted and contemper'd the Moral and Natural World to one another that the Marks and Tokens of his Providence should be in all Ages legible and conspicuous whatsoever the visible secondary Causes or Occasions might be Seeing then this is the true state of the Case and that consequently Almighty God has so constituted the World that no Body can tell wherein it differs from one where all were solely brought to pass by a miraculous Power 't is by no means untrue or improper in the Holy Books to refer all those things which bare Humane Authors would derive from
God himself says I form the light and create darkness I make peace and create evil I the Lord do all these things Where the objects of the Divine Creation being not real and substantial Beings could not be capable of a proper production out of nothing Which also is the case in the verse immediately following Let righteousness spring up together I the Lord have created it Thus also says God by the same Prophet I create new Heavens and a new Earth which tho' the very case before us yet would odly enough be expounded of an annihilation of the World and a reproduction of it again But what comes still more home to our purpose is that in the very History of the Creation it self the word Create as well as Make is us'd in the sense we contend for the very same things being ascrib'd to the Creating and Making Power of God which are also describ'd as the regular offspring of the Earth and Seas God created great Whales and every living Creature that moveth which the waters brought forth abundantly after their kind And God said Let the Earth bring forth the living Creature after his kind Cattel and creeping thing and Beast of the Earth after his kind and it was so And God made the Beast of the Earth after his kind and Cattel after their kind and every thing that creepeth upon the Earth after his kind and God saw that it was good So that when the words made use of in the History of the Creation are there and every where taken promiscuously when some of them are by the confession of all of no larger importance than the Proposition before us will admit and when lastly that word of which the greatest doubt can arise has been prov'd not only in other Texts of Scripture but in the very History of which we are treating to be of no more determinate signification than the rest and alike capable of the sense we here put upon it I think 't is a clear Case that if no Argument can be drawn from such words for yet neither can there justly be any against that Proposition we are now upon III. Those synonymous Phrases The World or the Heavens and the Earth under which the Object of the six days Creation is comprehended every where in Scripture do not always denote the whole System of Beings no nor any great and general Portion of them but are in the Sacred Stile frequently if not mostly to be restrained to the terraqueous Globe with its dependances and consequently both may and if the subject matter require it ought to be understood in such a restrained sense and no other That by these Phrases the Mosaick Creation or six days work is usually understood is evident every where in Scripture as the following Texts will easily evince God who made the World and all things therein The Divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was in the World and the World was made by Him and the World knew Him not Hence those frequent expressions From the Foundation of the World from the Beginning of the World from the Creation of the World and before the World was which tho' capable of including more must yet be allow'd to have generally a peculiar nay sometimes a sole regard to the six days work particularly stil'd by St. Mark The Beginning of the Creation which God created In the same manner and with the like frequency the other Phrase Heaven and Earth denote the same six days work also Thus the Heavens and the Earth were finished and all the Host of them These are the Generations of the Heavens and of the Earth when they were created in the day that the Lord God made the Earth and the Heavens In six days the Lord made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that in them is and rested the seventh day which being so express I shall not need to look out for any other parallel places And that both the World and Heaven and Earth signify the terraqueous Globe alone with its Air or Atmosphere and other Appurtenances without including the whole Universe nay or Solar System also which yet I do not deny sometimes to be comprehended therein the following Texts will sufficiently shew Our Lord says of the Woman who poured the Oyntment on him Wheresoever this Gospel shall be preached in the whole World there shall also this which this Woman hath done be told for a memorial of her His Charge and Commission to his Apostles was Go ye into all the World and preach the Gospel to every Creature The Tempter came to Jesus and shew'd him all the Kingdoms of the World and the Glory of them In all which places no other than the habitable Earth can be understood and 't is still so frequent and natural for Men to use this manner of Speech in the same restrained Sense to this very day that one may the less wonder at the Sacred Stile in this Case But this word the World having not so much difficulty in it nor being so much stood upon as those which follow the Heavens and the Earth I shall no longer insist upon it but proceed And here when the World as a totum integrale is divided into its two contradistinct Parts the Heavens and the Earth it will be said That by such a Phrase or Enumeration of the Parts of the Universe no less can be meant than the whole World in the largest acceptation or however more must be intended than the bare Earth which is but one Member or Branch and so certainly less than that whole of which it is a part In answer whereto I freely confess That the Heavens and the Earth do not seldom denote the intire Universe an instance of which the first words of Genesis have already afforded us but that they always do so I have reason to deny As the Signification of the Earth is known and capable of no Ambiguity so 't is quite otherwise in the word Heaven which in common use and the sacred Authors sometimes refers to the Seat of the Blessed or the third Heaven sometimes to the place of the Sun Moon and Stars and otherwhiles is no farther to be extended than the Clouds or the open Expansum about the Earth where the Air Atmosphere Meteors Clouds and Volatils have their abode Instances of the two former Significations were it pertinent to my present purpose might easily be produc'd but that not being so I shall wave the same and only prove the third and last Signification namely That by the Heavens is frequently understood nothing more than the Atmosphere of the Earth with its appendant or contained Bodies Thus God made the Firmament and divided the Waters which were under the Firmament from the Waters which were above the Firmament and it was so And God called the Firmament Heaven Which place is so express and in the very History it self which we
is now well known those affections ought to be ascrib'd to the Earth because every thing as to sensible appearance is in the same condition as from the Annual and Diurnal Motions of the Sun were they real must and would obtain The Sun is said to be turned into Darkness and the Moon into Blood when without any alteration in themselves they appear of a dark or bloody Countenance to the Inhabitants of the Earth Nay which is most of all to our present purpose God is then said to make all things new and to create a new Heaven and a new Earth when he so changes the Constitution and State of our Earth as to render thereby this whole Sublunary World very different from and much excelling that which formerly appear'd In all which and innumerable other instances 't is plain and evident that the Holy Writers do not consider merely how things are in themselves but how they are to us not what is their proper nature but visible appearance in the World But here lest this Doctrine should be abus'd I must interpose this necessary caution That such a liberty is neither by other Authors nor the Sacred Penmen taken on all occasions or in every case but peculiarly when the sublimity of the Matter the capacities of the People the more easie instilling useful principles into Men or some other weighty reason requires such an accommodation 'T is chiefly with regard to the Spiritual Nature and sublime way of operation in God or such Physical and Philosophick Truths as relate to distant invisible or inaccessible bodies the absolute Essence or Affections whereof were not explicable to the vulgar in a plain and natural manner In which cases this Liberty in the Interpretation of Scripture is with the greatest Justice to be allow'd But 't were thence very unreasonable to extend it to all others or indeed to any where the same or as good reasons were not assignable He who should argue that because the Literal sense of Scripture about the Corporeal Members and Humane Passions of the Divine Nature is not to be strictly urg'd that therefore when he is call'd a Spirit and represented as the Rewarder of Good and the Punisher of Bad men those Expressions are no more to be depended on or he who should infer that because the First and Fourth Days Works the Origin of Light and the making of the Heavenly Bodies must not be strictly literal that therefore neither in the Mosaick Creation ought the other four to be any more esteemed so He I say that should thus argue or infer would be very unfair and unreasonable because he would assert that in one case without ground which on peculiar and weighty ones alone was allow'd in another Thus those things that are ascrib'd to God which evidently agree to his Nature and Idea are surely to be literally understood tho' the other which are repugnant thereto be not And in like manner 't is but just to believe that so much of the Mosaick Creation as related directly to the Earth and its appurtenances and so came at once within the comprehension of the History and of the capacities of the Readers ought literally to be Interpreted tho' some things extraneous to the Formation of the Earth and beyond the notice of the People be to be taken in a different acceptation Tho' the common use of Tropes and Figures make our Speech very often not to be literal yet generally we can understand one another very well without danger of deception or of turning plain Sentences into Allegorical Discourses in our Conversation one with another And 't is evident that the Holy Books ought not to be tormented or eluded as to their obvious sense on every occasion under pretence that some particular Texts are to be construed another way That SACRED RULE ought for ever RELIGIOUSLY to be observed That we never forsake the plain obvious easie and natural sense unless where the nature of the thing it self parallel places or evident reason afford a solid and sufficient ground for so doing Now this being presuppos'd I shall leave it to the impartial Reader to judge after the perusal of this whole discourse whether I have not substantial reasons for the present Exposition and whether therefore any one ought to blame my receding from the Letter in this single case or imagine that I give a just handle thereby to others to Allegorize this History of the Creation or any other parts of Scripture And I must here own and profess That tho' I think in case the common Translation be receiv'd there is an absolute necessity of receding from the Letter in the point before us and that this Venerable and Sacred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or history of the Creation is otherwise in the highest degree strange and unaccountable to the free Reason of Mankind yet I am fully of opinion that generally the difficulties occurring in the Sacred Books are to be clear'd not by a greater receding from but a closer adhering to the obvious and most natural Interpretation of the Periods therein contain'd And that the general nature of the Scripture Stile every where duely observ'd and consider'd several great scruples with relation to the Actions and Providence of God and other things contain'd in those Books would be taken away if we might be allow'd to recede a little from the receiv'd opinions of men and Placits of Systematical Authors on no other condition than that for a recompence we keep so much the closer to the Oracles of God and the obvious and literal Interpretation of them and explain the Bible no otherwise than the plain words themselves would appear most naturally to intend to any disinterested and unconcern'd Person Of which many instances might easily be given were this a proper place for it But I must leave this digression and return to what I before propos'd in the 4. Last place viz. To Assign some Reasons why in a History of the Origin of our Earth these remote and distant Bodies come to be taken notice of tho' their own proper formation did not at all belong to it Now tho' many might easily be alledg'd for this procedure yet I shall include the main I intend here to insist on in the two following 1. The Advantage of the Jews or securing them from the Adoration of the Host of Heaven could not otherwise have been provided for Now as the foundation of such Idolatry is taken away by their being included in this History which imply'd them to be such dependent and created Beings as could have no influence of their own but what were deriv'd from God and consequently were subject to his disposal and government which affirm'd them to be by Him plac'd in the Firmament and there subjected to such Motions Rules and Laws by which they became advantageous and serviceable to the World So had they been taken no notice of they would have seem'd exempted Bodies and when all Worship of Terrestrial things
Sister Earth ought to be deduc'd from a distinct Chaos of its own as well as that particular one which Providence has allotted for the Seat of Mankind And 't is not to be question'd were we as well acquainted with the Nature Constitution and Uses of the other Planets with their various Inhabitants and the several methods of Divine Providence relating to 'em all we should not be backward to allow 'em every one a proportionable share in the care of Heaven and a like conduct in their Origins and Periods as the Earth on which we dwell can boast of We should 't is probable soon understand that bating the stupendious and miraculous dispensation of the Gospel by the Messias 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as well the Moral as the Natural Histories of these Worlds those of their first rise out of Chao's of their several Changes Revolutions and Catastrophes with regard to the inanimate the animate and Reasonable Beings both as to the dignity of the things themselves and their newness to us would equally deserve the view and consideration of Inquisitive Minds with any like Accounts relating to our own Earth and we should easily satisfy our selves that the single Chaos the Seminary of our present Earth was so far from extending it self to the Sun or fixt Stars that not the least secondary Planet in the Solar System could be contain'd therein V. The Mosaick Creation is confin'd to our Earth with its Appurtenances because otherwise the time of the Creation of each Body was so extreamly disproportionate to the Work it self as is perfectly irreconcileable to the Divine Wisdom of its Creator and the accounts of the Works themselves as they are set down by Moses In order to the Reader 's perceiving and admitting the force of this and some following Arguments I must premise some things touching the nature of such Reasonings and how far they may be made use of without any just Imputation of Boldness Irreverence or an audacious Stinting and Determining the Divine Actions And here I freely confess That 't is not necessary in all Cases that we should comprehend the reasons of the Divine Actions or Providence before we can be under an Obligation to believe them They may be hid from us on several accounts tho' the things themselves be plain in Scripture Under which circumstances I heartily own the strictest Obligation to yield our unfeigned Assent to what God has clearly reveal'd notwithstanding we cannot see the intire accountableness thereof to our imperfect Understandings But then 't is one thing to be above and another to be repugnant to our Reason 't is one thing to be beyond the comprehension of and another directly contradictory to our Humane Faculties Besides the clearness or obscurity of the Revelation is here very considerable the former case resolves our Assent into the Divine Veracity but the latter may only be the mistakes of Humane Deductions and by consequence tho' our fallible reasonings be superseded by the first yet there is room for them in the second I believe for instance and am oblig'd so to do that our Saviour Christ is truly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God and Man because I find it every where plain and evident that the Stile Titles Attributes Actions and incommunicable Name of the Eternal Deity the God of Israel are at least as frequently ascrib'd to him the Son as to the Father himself through the whole Bible notwithstanding any inability of comprehending the Nature of God and thence of judging of the Unity or Plurality of Persons in the Divine Essence But I do not think my self equally oblig'd to believe the Doctrine of absolute and uncondition'd Reprobation because the Proofs alledg'd for it are far from being clear and because 't is not so properly above as contradictory to the most evident Reason And this comes nearest to the present case in which neither can any one justly assert the plainness of the Revelation on the side of the common Scheme nor alledge the sublimity of the Subject on account whereof it might be fairly suppos'd above the reach of our finite Capacities The Scripture as I take it is evidently for at least must be own'd not evidently against this restrained Sense of the Mosaick History before us and the Subject it self is finite and limited and so within our ken and capable of our comprehension On which accounts such Arguments as follow ought to have their place and if considerable their force and influence on our Faith also and go a great way to determine such a Dispute as we are now upon And 't is sure not impossible within certain bounds for a considering man to determine what is rational wise and prudent what is consonant to the nature of things what is suitable to forecast and contrivance what is in most cases proper decent and becoming even with relation to the Divine Operations in the World We naturally in the reflecting on the System of External Nature observe many Marks and Tokens of the Wisdom and Art the Skill and Artifice of the Great Creator which supposes that we are competent Judges in such matters And indeed 't is but changing the Scene and considering what we naturally pronounce to be rational and orderly fit and proportionable among Men what will become a Wise General or Statesman a Skilful Builder and Architect nay an ordinary Workman or Artificer in usual and obvious cases What on the one hand are the Tokens of Foresight and Prudence and on the other of Heedlesness and Folly in the common Affairs of Life and we shall not wholly be to seek what to think of several analogous Actions relating to God himself Due allowance being every where made for that infinite distance and different state and management of the Supream Governour of the World from those of all finite Beings depending on and subject to him Thus we collect our Idea's of the Divine Attributes by considering what is good great valued and esteemed lovely and venerable among Men and ascribing every such thing to the Divine Nature who being the Origin of them all must contain 'em within himself in a higher and more eminent manner By accumulating all things that appear Perfections in Men or other Creatures and removing all Imperfections necessarily adhering to them we arrive at the Notion of an Infinitely Perfect Being which is but another name for God and whom on that account we justly think the proper Object of our Worship and Adoration When therefore our very Idea's of the Divine Properties are owing to and depend on our consideration of those lesser degrees of the same which we observe in Men and when the reason why the contrary Properties are not by us ascribed to him is because we find that in Men they argue imperfection what is a sign or effect of some degree of Perfection in Men must also be acknowledg'd sign or effect of a like Perfection in God And what is a sign or effect of Imperfection in Men must
on this occasion I cannot but observe That 't is not the genuine Contents of the Holy Books themselves but such unwary Interpretations of them as these which have mainly contributed to their contempt and been but too Instrumental to make 'em appear Absurd and Irrational to the Free Reason of Mankind For when Men found that the Scriptures according to the Universal Sense of Expositors ascribed such things to God as their plainest reason could not think compatible to a Wise Man much less to the All-wise God they were under a shrewd Temptation of thinking very meanly of the Bible it self and by degrees of rejecting it and therewith all Divine Revelation to the Sons of Men. How fatally this Malady hath spread of late especially I need not say and tho' I fully believe the main stroke or step as to the generality be Vicious Dispositions and a Debauched Temper yet how far such Ill-contriv'd Unskilful and Unphilosophical Interpretations or rather Misrepresentations of Scripture particularly relating to the Material World of which we are now speaking may have contributed to so fatal and pernicious an effect deserves the most serious and sober consideration This Mischief is not to be remedied nor the Veneration due to the Sacred Volumes retriev'd by an obstinate maintaining such strange opinions as those here refer'd to by patronizing the same with Divine Authority and then making vehement Invectives against such as many unskilful yet good men are ready to do whose only fault is this that they can no more be induc'd to believe what is plainly unworthy of and unsuitable to the Divine Perfections than what is evidently contradictory to Divine Revelation Wise Men would rather set themselves carefully to compare Nature with Scripture and make a free Enquiry into the certain Phaenomena of the one and the genuin Sense of the other which if Expositors would do 't were not hard to demonstrate in several such cases that the latter is so far from opposing the truths deducible from the former or the common notions of Mankind that 't is in the greatest harmony therewith and in those cases where the thing mention'd is within the sphere of human Knowledge no less accountable to the reason than enforc'd on the belief of Mankind And I persuade my self if there were a careful collection made of the Ancient knots and difficulties in the several parts of the Bible with relation to such points as we are upon or any others of a different nature and how very many of them as preludes and pledges of the rest are now intirely clear'd or might easily be so it would more contribute to the recovery of the Ancient Honour and due Esteem of the Sacred Scriptures than all the most Zealous and general Harangues from some popular Topicks either for them or against their Contemners the loose Deists and pretended Socinians of this Age. For my own part I cannot but profess that tho' I be very nice and tender in the reasonableness of my Faith and desirous to admit nothing but what agrees to the Divine Attributes the common notions of our Souls and the Phaenomena of Nature yet upon an Impartial Enquiry into some of the most perplexing difficulties occurring there I have obtain'd so great a Measure of satisfaction about them that my scruples now intirely cease and I cannot doubt either of the Truth or Divine Authority of the Scriptures I do not mean that all the difficulties are in particular vanish'd and perfectly clear'd to me That is what is scarce to be hop'd for in this World But I have so frequently met with fewer difficulties in the consideration of the Books themselves than in the common Interpretations and those very Comments which ought to assoil 'em And in so many and those most remarkable Points of all have met with such clear and plenary tho' unexpected satisfaction that I have all imaginable reason to believe the rest equally capable of the same and to remain constant in this assurance That 't is the ignorant or foolish Expositions of Men not the natural and genuine Sense of the Words themselves that makes us imagine Scripture Reason and the Nature of Things irreconcileable or contradictory to one another And I hope the instances he will meet with in the following Theory will go a great way to persuade the unbyass'd Reader of the same Truth and to convince him that greater satisfaction is to be look'd for from the view of God's own Books of Nature and Scripture than those of any Men whatsoever Whatever incompetent Judges may say nothing will so much tend to the vindication and honour of reveal'd Religion as free enquiries into and a solid acquaintance with not ingenious and precarious Hypotheses but true and demonstrable principles of Philosophy with the History of Nature and with such ancient Traditions as in all probability were deriv'd from Noab and by him from the more Ancient Fathers of the World From which mediums what surprizing and unhop'd for light may be given to some famous portions of the Holy Scriptures the following Pages will 't is hop'd afford some convincing Instances and prove sufficient to take away mens ungrounded Fears and Apprehensions in such matters And by the Divine Blessing appear a seasonable Attestation to the Certainty and Authority of those Lively Oracles on which our Happiness in this and the next World does so vastly depend But I must leave this digression and proceed VI. The Vulgar Scheme of the Mosaick Creation besides the disproportion as to time represents all things from first to last so disorderly confusedly and unphilosophically that 't is intirely disagreeable to the Wisdom and Perfection of God And here I might justly Appeal to the Conscience of every careful Reader even tho' his Knowledge of the true System of the World were not great whether the vulgar account has not ever seem'd strange and surprizing to him But if he were one Philosophically dispos'd and allow'd himself a free consideration of it whether it has not ever been the most perplexing thing to his thoughts that could be imagin'd 'T is well known how far this matter has been carried by Wise and Good Men even to the taking away the literal and the resolving the whole into a Popular Moral or Parabolick sense And under what notion this History on the same account has appear'd to others of no less free but less Religious Dispositions and Thoughts I need not say What is indeed matter of doubt and perplexity to pious men being unquestionably to the Loose and Profane the Subject of Mirth and Drollery and the sure encouragement to Atheism and Impiety But I shall not content my self with this general reflection but instead of prosecuting such a Discourse any father shall assign such particular instances of the irregular and unbecoming procedure in the vulgar Scheme of the Creation as are plainly disagreeable to the Divine Wisdom and unsuitable to the nature of things 1. Bodies Alike in Nature have here an unlike
'T is evident at first view That the two former of these three last mention'd Phaenomena are inconsistent with the Theorist's Hypothesis and on a little Consideration 't will be so of the last also For while the Poles of the Earth or World remain in being the same as depending on the same proper Axis of the Earth's own Diurnal Revolution 't is plain the Latitude of Places on the Earth or the Elevation of the Pole equal thereto remains invariable and so that Pole which to the Inhabitants of Paradise was elevated at the least 231 2 degrees could not be at the Horizon whatever right Position the Axis of the Earth might have with respect to the Ecliptick On the same account there could even in the Theorist's own Hypothesis be no new Elevation of the one or Depression of the other Pole at the Deluge nor inclination of the Courses of the Sun and Planets towards the South All that could on the Theorist's Principles be effected besides the Earth's Equator and Poles pointing to different fix'd Stars and its Consequences was only this that whereas before the Sun was always in the Equator or middle distance from any Climate it afterwards by turns came nearer to them as we commonly tho' carelessly express it in Summer and went farther from them in Winter than before which upon the whole was no more a bent or inclination to one part of the Heavens than to the other and so of the Planets also And the case is the same as to the Poles of the Ecliptick the Northern one being as much elevated above that of the World at one hour of the Day as depress'd beneath it at another All which is I think sufficient to shew That the Testimonies of Antiquity alledg'd by the Theorist for the peopetual Equinox or the right Position of the Earth's Axis till the Deluge and the oblique Position and different Seasons then acquir'd are sufficient of themselves alone to confute his and establish the present Hypothesis 5. All things consider'd such a Position as the Theorist contends for was more likely to incommode than be useful to Mankind Taking the Matter wholly as the Theorist puts it it would prevent the Peopling of the Southern Hemisphere by the scorching heat just under the Equator without the least Intermission at any time of the Year It would render the Earth utterly unserviceable both under the Equator and Poles and in the Climates adjoyning and so streighten the Capacity of the Earth in maintaining its numerous Inhabitants which were the whole inhabitable will appear but just sufficient to contain them It would by the Perpetuation of one and the same Season continually hinder the variety of Fruits and Vegetables of every Country and many other ways spoil the setled Course of Nature and be pernicious to Mankind 6. No mechanical and rational Cause of the Mutation of the Earth's Axis either has been or I believe can be afsign'd on the Theorist's Hypothesis or any others which should embrace the same Conclusion 7. Lastly to name no more Arguments The Testimonies of Diogenes and Anaxagoras are as express almost to the Time as to this Change it self The words being exceeding remarkable are these as Plutarch himself relates them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 'T was the Doctrine both of Diogenes and Anaxagoras That after the Creation or primary Constitution of the World and the Production of Animals out of the Earth the World as it were of its own accord was bent or inclin'd towards the South And truly 't is probable this Inclination was the Effect of Providence on purpose that some Parts of the World might become habitable and others uninhabitable by reason of the difference of the frigid torrid and temperate Climates thereof Which observable and most valuable Fragment of Antiquity ought to have been before mention'd but was on purpose reserv'd for this place where it not only fully attests the matter of fact the Inclination of the Heavens towards the South not only assigns the final Cause truly enough considering the uninhabitableness of the Torrid as well as of the Frigid Zones in the Opinion of those Ages the Distribution of the Earth into certain and fix'd Zones Torrid Temperate and Frigid but so accurately and nicely specifies the time also That succeeding the Creation agreeably to the present Hypothesis that were I to wish or chuse for a Testimony fully to my mind I could scarcely have desir'd or pitch'd upon a better To these five foregoing Arguments for the proof of my main Conclusion I shall by way of supernumerary ones or Appendages add one or two more and so leave the whole to the Consideration of the Impartial Reader 6. The State of Mankind without question and perhaps that of other Animals was before the Fall vastly different from the present and consequently requir'd a proportionably different State of external Nature of which without the Hypothesis before us no Account can be given or at least has not yet by any been attempted The World as to other things seems to have been at first in great measure put into the same Condition which we still enjoy and yet Reason as well as Scripture assures us That so different a condition of things in the Animal Rational and Moral must be suited with an agreeably different one in the Natural and Corporeal World Which being consider'd and that at the same time no remarkable difference has been or perhaps can be assign'd but what the Hypothesis before us and its consequences afford us and that withal a satisfactory account of the several Particulars is deducible from the same as I hope to make appear hereafter upon the whole I think this a very considerable Attestation to what has been before insisted on 'T is indeed possible that what I look on as an advantage to others may imagine to be a prejudice against the present Hypothesis as inferring among other things a half year of Night as well as a half year of Day which may be suppos'd too disproportionate to the State and Condition of Mankind and especially too inconvenient for so happy and easy a Life as that of Mankind in Paradise undoubtedly was without any consideration of the other Creatures But it ought to be consider'd as has been already remark'd that our judging of one Scheme or System of Nature by another is very fallacious and very unreasonable Almighty God adapts each particular State to such rational and animal Beings as are on purpose design'd for the same but by no means thereby confines his Power and Providence which can with the same ease adapt other Beings or the same in other Circumstances to a very different and clean contrary Condition The Days in Jupiter are not ten hours long those in the Moon near Seventy two times as long as they or a Month yet any one who should thence conclude that either Jupiter or the Moon if not both were uncapable
conjointly with the rest as satisfactory as I think the Nature of the thing is capable of But besides these particular correspondent Phaenomena of the Deluge and after the discovery of the most of them I found proofs of somewhat another nature which not only confirmed all that I had before observ'd but enabled me to determine the time when the Flood began to the greatest exactness possible which therefore I shall alone produce here reserving those other for their own places hereafter Now on the Hypothesis that a Comet pass'd by the Earth till then revolving circularly about the Sun at the time and in the manner assign'd by the Proposition the necessary Effects or Consequents of it are these Five 1. The circular Orbit of the Earth would be chang'd into that of an Ellipsis and the Sun which was before in the Center of the Circle would be afterward in that Focus of the Ellipsis which were nearest the place at which the Attraction of the Comet happen'd 2. The Year after such a passing by of the Comet would be increased ten Days one Hour thirty Minutes 3. The time of the passing by of the Comet or the beginning of the Deluge to be determin'd by the place of the Perihelion must be coincident with that assigned in the Mosaick History 4. The very day of the Comet 's passing by or of the beginning of the Deluge to be determin'd from the Astronomical Tables of the Conjunctions of the Sun and Moon must be conincident with the time determin'd by the said place of the Perihelion and with the very day assign'd in the Mosaick History 5. The quantity of Acceleration to be determin'd à Priori from the force of the Comet 's Attraction must correspond with that which the present Elliptick Orbit does require All which that they are de facto true and real I shall now prove 1. The Orbit of the Earth is now Elliptical and the Sun is in that Focus thereof which was nearest the place of the Earth when the Deluge began This Proposition is sufficiently known to Astronomers as to the former part of it And if it be consider'd That the Earth when the Deluge began was but just past that degree of the Ecliptick where the Perihelion was afterward as will presently appear the latter part will be equally evident with the former 2. The Year before the Flood was ten days or more nicely ten days one hour and thirty minutes shorter than the present In order to the proof of which I shall shew first in general that the Antediluvian Year was different from nay shorter than the present Year and afterwards determine the particular length thereof more exactly and shall comprise what reasons I have for these Assertions in the following Arguments 1. The true length of the Solar Year was so long unknown after the Deluge that there must have happen'd some mighty change and lengthening thereof at the Deluge or else no rational account can be assign'd of such gross and so lasting an ignorance 'T is not to be question'd but the Antediluvian Patriarchs were perfectly acquainted with the Antediluvian Year every one of those mention'd in Scripture having seen so many Summers and Winters or natural Solar Years that himself were able to ascertain their length and correct any mistake about them 'T is also not to be doubted but the Postdiluvians would have retain'd the same Year and determin'd it by the same number of Days as their Fore-fathers had they found it to agree with the Course of the Sun then as it did formerly But 't is evident from the Ancientest Authors that 't was many hundreds of Years after the Deluge e're the most Learned Nations rectifi'd their Year to the Sun's Course or arriv'd at more than three hundred and sixty Days in their Accounts Which number accordingly was the Standard of a Year for many Ages The full proof of which and the clearing thereby of several Prophetick Periods that famous one of Daniel's Seventy Weeks especially is what we impatiently expect from a most Learned Prelate of our Church till Astronomical Observations forc'd Men to correct the same Now all this on the present Hypothesis is easie and natural That when the Antediluvian Year was but a few hours above three hundred and fifty five Days and at the Deluge was insensibly become some odd hours above three hundred and sixty five Days without the least knowledge or suspicion of any change therein 'T is I say very easie and natural in this case to suppose that upon their observing the seasons to be protracted and return still later every Year than other as on the retaining the Antediluvian Year must needs happen and consequently their Ancient Standard of three hundred and fifty five days to be too short for the Sun's Revolution that they should lengthen their accounts to thirty Days in every Month and the even number three hundred and sixty Days in the whole Year Which convenient and remarkable number three hundred and sixty being probably fixt at the time when Astronomy began to be improv'd or at least reviv'd after the Deluge and so become the division of the Ecliptick and of every Circle of the Sphere was not quickly chang'd but measur'd the Ancient Year among not a few Nations and that not a few Ages together As being also less observably different from the Sun's course and correspondent both to the degrees of a Circle and twelve even Months of thirty Days a-piece And indeed this adjustment of the Year and Months with the degrees of a Circle and of each Sign in the Ecliptick was found so easie ready and useful on all accounts that even when the odd five days were added afterward they were not inserted into the Months nor perhaps esteem'd part of the Year but look'd upon as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 adventitious or odd days of a quite different denomination and character from all the rest However 't is still agreeable to the present Hypothesis that on the farther observation of the protraction of the Seasons and on the improvement of Astronomy still higher as the Year had been increas'd before from three hundred and fifty five to three hundred and sixty so afterward it should be increas'd from three hundred and sixty to three hundred and sixty five days and at last the Observations of the more Learned Astronomers enforcing it from three hundred sixty five to 3651 4 or the Julian Year which with us is retain'd to this very day All this is I think easie and natural in the present case upon that Hypothesis which is here defended but without it 't is very strange and unaccountable 'T is I say very strange and unaccountable either how the Antediluvian Patriarchs should not know the length of their own Year or that none of their Posterity who were destitute of Divine Revelation should retain the same afterwards but be forc'd to make use of one
living as I have done While the Earth remaineth seed-time and harvest and cold and heat and Summer and winter and day and night shall not cease And this as to the time past is abundantly confirm'd by all the Ancient History and Geography compar'd with the Modern as is in several particulars well observ'd by Dr. Woodward against the groundless opinions of some others to the contrary CHAP. V. Phaenomena relating to the General Conflagration With Conjectures pertaining to the same and to the succeeding period till the Consummation of all things XC AS the World once perished by Water so it must by Fire at the Conclusion of its present State The heavens and the earth which are now by the word of God are kept in store reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men The heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent heat The earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up In the day of God the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with fervent heat But this is so fully attested by the unanimous consent of Sacred and Prophane Authority that I shall omit other particular Quotations and only refer the Reader where he may have more ample satisfaction SCHOLIUM Having proceeded thus far upon more certain grounds and generally allow'd Testimonies as to the most of the foregoing Phaenomena I might here break off and leave the following Conjectures to the same state of Uncertainty they have hitherto been in But being willing to comply with the Title and take in all the great and general Changes from first to last from the primigenial Chaos to the Consummation of all things Being also loth to desert my Postulatum and omit the account of those things which were most exactly agreeable to the Obvious and Literal sense of Scripture and fully consonant to Reason and Philosophy Being lastly willing however to demonstrate that tho' these most remote and difficult Texts be taken according to the greatest strictness of the Letter yet do they contain nothing but what is possible credible and rationally accountable from the most undoubted Principles of Philosophy On all these accounts I shall venture to enumerate and afterward to account for the following Conjectures In which I do not pretend to be Dogmatical and Positive nay nor to declare any firm belief of the same but shall only propose them as Conjectures and leave them to the free and impartial consideration of the Reader XCI The same Causes which will set the World on Fire will also cause great and dreadful Tides in the Seas and in the Ocean with no less Agitations Concussions and Earthquakes in the Air and Earth The Powers of Heaven shall be shaken The Lord shall roar out of Sion and utter his voice from Jerusalem and the heavens and the earth shall shake The sea and the waves roaring Mens hearts failing them for fear and for looking after those things which are coming on the Earth for the powers of heaven shall be shaken XCII The mtmosphere of the Earth before the Conflagration begin will be oppress'd with Meteors Exhalations and Steams and these in so dreadful a manner in such prodigious quantities and with such wild confused Motions and Agitations That the Sun and Moon will have the most frightful and hideous countenances and their antient splendour will be intirely obscur'd The Stars will seem to fall from Heaven and all manner of Horrid Representations will terrifie the Inhabitants of the Earth I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth blood and fire and pillars of smoke The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and terrible day of the Lord come The sun shall be darkened and the Moon shall not give her light and the stars shall fall from heaven and the powers of heaven shall be shaken There shall be signs in the sun and in the moon and in the stars and upon the Earth distress of Nations with perplexity Mens hearts failing them for fear and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth XCIII The Deluge and Constagration are referr'd by ancient Tradition to great Conjunctions of the Heavenly Bodies as both depending on and happening at the same Thus Seneca expresly Berosus says he who was an Expositor of Belus affirms That these Revolutions depend on the Course of the Stars insomuch that he doubts not to assign the very times of a Conflagration and a Deluge That first mention'd when all the Stars which have now so different Courses shall be in Conjunction in Cancer All of them being so directly situate with respect to one another that the same right line will pass through them all together That last mention'd when the same company of Stars shall be in conjunction in the opposite sign Capricorn XCIV The space between the Deluge and the Conflagration or between the ancient state of the Earth and its Purgation by Fire Renovation and Restitution again is from ancient Tradition defin'd and terminated by a certain great and remarkable year or Annual Revolution of some of the Heavenly Bodies And is in probability what the Ancients so often refer'd to pretended particularly to determine and stil'd The Great or Platonick Year This year is exceeding famous in old Authors and not unreasonably apply'd to this matter by the Theorist Which it will better suit in this than it did in that Hypothesis XCV This general Conflagration is not to extend to the intire dissolution or destruction of the Earth but only to the Alteration Melioration and peculiar disposition thereof into a new state proper to receive those Saints and Martyrs for its Inhabitants who are at the first Resurrection to enter and to live and reign a thousand years upon it till the second Resurrection the general Judgment and the final consummation of all things The Heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with fervent heat Nevertheless we according to his promise look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness Behold I create new heavens and a new earth and the former shall not be remembered nor come into mind Verily I say unto you That ye which followed me in the regeneration when the Son of Man shall sit upon the throne of his glory ye also shall sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel And every one that hath forsaken houses or brethren or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my names sake shall receive an hundred fold now in this time houses and brethren and sisters and mothers and children and lands with his present persecutions and in the world to come eternal life Of old thou hast laid the foundations of the earth and the heavens are the work of
second Causes the constant Course of Nature and the Circumstances of Humane Affairs to the first Cause the ultimate Spring and Original of all and to call Mens Thoughts which are too apt to terminate there from the apparent occasions to the invisible God the Creator Governor and Disposer of the whole and the sole Object of their Regard and Adoration This is I say a very proper and reasonable procedure this is usually observ'd by the Sacred Penmen who are thereby peculiarly distinguish'd from Prophane Authors and this is of the highest advantage in Morality But then it must be withal acknowledg'd That this creates great difficulties in the present Case and makes it very hard in a Philosophick Attempt of this nature to distinguish between those parts of the Mosaick Creation which are Mechanically to be accounted for and those in which the miraculous Energy of God Almighty interpos'd it self which yet if ever is certainly to be allow'd in this case where a new World was to be form'd and a wild Chaos reduc'd into a regular beautiful and permanent System This being said in general to bespeak the Reader 's Candor in the present Case and to forewarn him not to fear the most Mechanical and Philosophick Account of this Creation as if thereby the Holy Scriptures were superseded or the Divine Power and Providence excluded I come directly to the Point before us and shall endeavour to determine what are the Instances of the extraordinary Power and Interposition of God in this whole Affair That as we shall presently see how Orderly Methodical and Regular this Formation was so we may before-hand be duly sensible how Supernatural Providential and Divine it was also and so as well like Christians contemplate and adore the Omnipotent Creator in his Miraculous as we like Philosophers shall attempt to consider and remark his Vicegerent Nature in her Mechanical Operations therein For notwithstanding what has been above insisted on touching the frequency and propriety of ascribing the Effects of Nature to the Divine Power the former being indeed nothing but the latter acting according to fixt and certain Laws yet because more has been commonly and may justly be suppos'd the importance of the Texts of Scripture hereto relating because the Finger of God or his supernatural Efficiency is if ever to be reasonably expected in the Origin of Things and that in a peculiar and remarkable manner because some things done in this Creation are beyond the power of Philosophy and Mechanism and no otherwise accountable but by the Infinite Power of God himself because the days of Creation are signally distinguish'd from those following in which God is said to have rested when yet his ordinary Concurrence and the Course of Nature was continued without Interruption and must therefore be reckon'd such on which he truly exerted a Power different from the other On all these accounts I freely and in earnest allow and believe That there was a peculiar Power and extraordinary Providence exercis'd by the great Creator of all in this Primitive Origin of the Sublunary World or Formation of the Earth which we are going to account for The particular instances I shall give of the same without presuming to exclude all others are these following 1. The Creation of the matter of the Universe and particularly of that of the Earth out of nothing was without doubt originally the alone and immediate Work of God Almighty Nature let what will be meant by that Name could have no hand in this from whence at the utmost she can but date her own Birth The production of a real Being out of nothing or to speak more properly the primary bringing any real thing into Being is in the Opinion of all Men the Effect of no less than an Infinite and Omnipotent Deity I have already owned this to be the import of the first words of this Creation we are now upon In the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth And I think 't is here no improper place to declare my Opinion That considering the Idea and Nature of God includes Active Power Infinite Perfection with Necessity and so Eternity of Existence when the Idea and Nature of matter supposes intire Inactivity no positive Perfection and a bare Possibility or Capacity of Existence 't is as absurd and unreasonable to attribute Eternity and Necessity of Existence to the latter as 't is rational and natural to ascribe those Perfections with a Power of Creation to the former The very Being and Nature as well as the Properties and Powers of Matter being most justly and most philosophically to be referr'd to the Author of all the Almighty Creator And altho' our imagination a poor finite limited and imperfect Faculty be unable to have a positive Idea of the manner of the Production of a real Being at first as indeed 't were sufficiently strange if so confin'd a Power of so imperfect a Creature should adequately reach the highest point of Omnipotence it self yet seeing the Absurdities following the Eternity and Self-subsistence of Matter on the other side are so enormous and the certainty of the proper Creation of Spiritual Beings nobler than Matter such as the Souls of Men are as great as 't is utterly incredible they should have been ab aeterno too for I take it to be demonstrable that Souls are immaterial I think 't is far more reasonable to rest satisfied with our former Assertion That God did truly bring Matter into being at first than its Eternity suppos'd to make only the Modification and Management thereof the Province of the Almighty And consequently the first instance of a Divine Efficiency with relation to the Subject we are now upon and the highest of all other was the original Production of the Matter of which the Earth was to consist or the proper Creation of those inferior Heavens and of that Earth which were to be the sole Object of the Divine Operations in the six days Work This particular I confess does not so properly belong to our present business the Formation of the Chaos into a habitable World but could not well be omitted either consider'd in it self as it bears so peculiar a Relation to our present purpose or with respect to that misconstruction I might with some Readers have otherwise been liable to But I proceed 2. The changing of the Course and Orbit of the Chaos into that of a Planet to omit the former Annual and subsequent Diurnal Revolutions which tho' equally from God yet do not so fully belong to this place or the placing of the Earth in its primitive Circular Orbit at its proper distance therein to revolve about the Sun was either an instance of the immediate Power or at least of the peculiar Providence of God For if we should suppose as 't is possible to do that God did not by a miraculous Operation remove the Chaos or Comet from its very Eccentrick Ellipsis to that Circle in which it now
the Deluge preserv'd and distinguish'd from all the rest of the World the Divine Providence did conduct the Ark and on this was laid the Foundation of the present Race of Mankind and of all those Terrestrial Animals which are now on the Face of the whole Earth which otherwise had perish'd at their Exit out of the Ark notwithstanding their wonderful Preservation therein during the Rage of the Deluge Coroll 3. Hence we may easily understand whence the Olive-branch was brought by the Dove to Noah For when the Trees adjoyning to the Ark or on the neighbouring Tops of the Hills had suffer'd small damage by the Flood and had since the clearing of the Waters enjoy'd almost the whole Spring and half the Summer they must be as flourishing and full of as many new and tender Sprouts as ever one of which might therefore be easily broken off by the Dove and brought to Noah in her Mouth which new dry and frim Sprout or Branch being a clear evidence that the Waters were not only gone and the Ground dry a great while before but that the Earth was still as formerly fit for the Production of its wonted Trees and Fruits must exceedingly tend to the Satisfaction of Noah and the Confirmation of his Faith and Hope in an entire Deliverance and in the future Renovation of the World LXXII This Factitious Crust is universal upon the Tops of the generality of the Mountains as well as in the Plains and Vallies and that in all the known Climates and Regions of the World LXXII This is a necessary consequent from the Universality of the Deluge already accounted for And tho' the generality of the Mountains would usully have a thinner Sediment or Crust than the Plains or Vallies in proportion to the lesser height of the Waters over each of them respectively yet they being at the Deluge much inferior to the height of Caucasus must be generally cover'd with the same Crust unless the Storms and Waves wash'd it down again after its first setling upon any of them as the Observations shew they really now are Corollary 1. 'T is hence evident even abstractedly from the Sacred History that there has formerly been an Universal Deluge much higher than the generality of the Mountains So that hereafter since the so useful Observations of Naturalists and principally of Dr. Woodward hereto relating we need not endeavour to secure the Credit and Veracity of the Mosaick History of the Deluge by Ancient Records and the universal Attestation of Antiquity which Testimonies yet are too evident and numerous to be denied but may from our own Eyes at the neighbouring Mines and Coal-Pits satisfy our selves of the exact truth of this part of the Sacred Volume which has been so much excepted against by ill-disposed Persons So wonderful is the Method of the Divine Wisdom in its seasonable Attestations afforded to the Sacred Scriptures That not only the Very Day as we have seen when the Flood began assign'd by Moses may still after more than four thousand years be prov'd from Astronomy to have been the true one which the Learned are chiefly capable of judging of and being primarily influenc'd by But the Reality and Universality of the Deluge it self is demonstrable from such common and easie Observations in all parts of the World at the Neighbouring Mines or Coal-pits that the Vulgar and Most Illiterate may be Eye-witnesses of the certain Effects of it and so fully convinc'd of the fidelity of the Sacred Historian therein Coroll 2. 'T is no wonder that none of the Antediluvian Cities Towns Buildings or other Remains are any where to be met with since the Deluge They being all generally buried perhaps above two hundred foot deep in the Earth by the Sediment of the Waters LXXIII The Parts of the present upper Strata were at the time of the Waters covering the Earth loose separate divided and floated in the Waters among one another uncertainly LXXIII This Proposition needs no farther Explication being already plain in what has been already said LXXIV All this Heterogenous Mass thus floating in the Waters by degrees descended downwards and subsided to the Bottom pretty nearly according to the Law of Specifick Gravity and there compos'd those several Strata or Layers of which our present upper Earth does consist LXXIV This Proposition is as easie as the former and included in what has been already said LXXV Vast multitudes of Fishes belonging both to the Seas and Rivers perish'd at the Deluge and their Shells were buried among the other Bodies or Masses which subsided down and compos'd the Layers of our upper Earth LXXV Where so Heterogeneous a Mass of Corpuscles were dispers'd every where through the Waters and towards the bottom especially at the latter end of their subsidence render'd the same very thick and muddy 't is natural to suppose that multitudes of Fishes partly stisled with the Spissitude and grossness of the Fluid scarce there deserving that name and partly poison'd with the kinds of some of those Corpuscles which they took in together with their Nourishment therein would be destroy'd and perish in the Waters Which being granted the rest so easily follows as not to need any farther Explication LXXVI The same Law of Specifick Gravity which was observ'd in the rest of the Mass was also observ'd in the subsidence of the Shells of Fishes they then sinking together with and accordingly being now found enclos'd among those Strata or Bodies which are nearly of their own Specifick Gravities The heavier Shells being consequently still enclos'd among the heavier Strata and the lighter Shells among the lighter Strata in the Bowels of our present Earth LXXVI This Phaeuomenon is so natural and necessary considering the gradual increase of the thickness of the gross Sediment downward and the equal subjection of Shells to the Law of Specifick Gravity with all other Bodies that I shall not insist any farther upon it Corollary This single Phaenomenon of the Shells of Fish inclos'd in the most Solid Bodies as Stone and Marble and that all over the World according to their several Specifick Gravities at great depths within the Bowels of the Earth which is so strange in it self so surprizing to the Spectators and so unaccountable without the most unusual and precarious Miracles be introduc'd on any other principles and yet so easily and naturally solv'd in the Hypothesis before us is a strong I had almost said an Invincible Argument for the verity thereof and as undeniable as a Physical assertion is capable of That is 'T is as far as we can in reason pronounce without a Miracle certainly true LXXVII The Strata of Marble of Stone and of all other solid Bodies attained their solidity as soon as the Sand or other matter whereof they consist was arriv'd at the bottom and well setled there And all those Strata which are solid at this day have been so ever since that time LXXVII Seeing this upper Crust or Sediment was
was involv'd in Darkness or excluded all advantages from him and thereby enduring a continual Night so far as natural Causes are here to be consider'd And that this Retardation of the Earth's Diurnal Rotation even without a recurring to the miraculous Power of its first Author is accountable from that passing by of a Comet which we assign for the occasision of the Conflagration is very easie and obvious For in case its Ascent and Passage by be on the East side or before the Earth and in case it approach so near as to rub against it 't is evident such an Impulse is contrary to the course of the Diurnal Rotation and is therefore capable the Proportions of every thing being adjusted by-Divine Providence of putting such a stop to the same as is necessary to the present Phaenomenon and so may put a Period to that constant Succession of Light and Darkness Day and Night which has obtain'd ever since the Fall of Man and withal distinguish the Surface of the Earth into two quite different and contrary Hemispheres near the Vertex of one of which the Sun it self and near that of the other its opposite Point in the Heavens will be always situate Corollary Seeing such a rub of the Comet wou'd affect the Annual Motion of the Earth as well as the Diurnal 't is possible it might retard the former as well as the latter and reduce the Elliptical Course and Orbit of the Earth to its ancient Circular one again XCIX The State of the Millennium will not stand in need of and so probably will be without the Light and Presence of the Sun and Moon XCIX Seeing the Earth wou'd be on the foregoing Supposition distinguish'd into two quite different Hemispheres the one of which wou'd be wholly destitute of the Light and presence of the Sun and as far as appears by St. John supply'd by a Supernatural Light fixt and permanent above its Horizon 't is clear that the first Branch of this Proposition is accountable thereby as far as this Physical Theory is concern'd therein And as to the Moon seeing 't was only a signal and peculiar Providence that caus'd her equal acceleration and consequent accompanying the Earth at the former passing by of the Comet and that no such Providence is again to be expected 't is evident that that Rub or Stoppage of the Earth's Annual Motion which retards the same and does not retard the Moon 's also will separate these Planets and procure their Orbits Courses and Periods to be quite different from one another's ever after according to the greatest rigour of the present Proposition C. At the Conclusion of the Millennium the Final Judgment and the Consummation of all things the Earth will desert its present Seat and Station in the World and be no longer found among the Planetary Chorus C. If any Comet instead of passing by or gently rubbing the Earth hit directly against it in its Course either towards or from the Sun it must desert its ancient Station and move in a quite different Elliptick Orbit and so of a Planet become again a Comet for the future Ages of the World COROLLARIES FROM THE WHOLE I. SEing the new and solid Improvements of Philosophy do all along give so rational Accounts of those Ancient Theorems which have been propagated down from the eldest Ages without being then either understood or intelligible to their Propagators 't is reasonable to trust and rely on such Ancient Traditions not only Sacred but prophane also in these or any other paralled Cases they being in all probability the most valuable Remains and most venerable Truths which the primitive Parents of the World deliver'd down to their Posterity in succeeding Generations II. Seeing most of these Ancient Theorems are very much beyond the distinct Knowledge of those who deliver them contrary to the common Opinion of Mankind judging usually by sensible Appearances and in themselves considering the low State of Natural Knowledge at the same times were highly improbable if not utterly incredible to inquisitive Minds and indeed several of them relating to the Chaos the Creation the primary Constitution and State of the World and the Deluge it self impossible to be discover'd without Supernatural Revelation and yet seeing after all they do now appear as agreeable to Reason and the most solid Mechanical Philosophy as any new Discoveries built on the exactest Observations of present Nature whatsoever 'T is apparent that these Ancient Accounts especially those contain'd in the Holy Scriptures were not originally deriv'd from the Natural Skill and Observation of the first Authors or any other meerly Humane Means but from the immediate and Supernatural Revelation of God Almighty who was therefore much more conversant with Mankind in the first than he has been in these last Ages of the World as the Old Testament-History assures us III. The Measure of our present Knowledge ought not to be esteem'd the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Test of Truth or to be oppos'd to the Accounts receiv'd from Profane Antiquity much less to the inspir'd Writings For notwithstanding that several Particulars relating to the Eldest Condition of the World and its great Catastrophe's examin'd and compar'd with so much Philosophy as was till lately known were plainly unaccountable and naturally speaking impossible yet we see now Nature is more fully more certainly and more substantially understood that the same things approve themselves to be plain easie and rational IV. 'T is therefore Folly in the highest degree to reject the Truth or Divine Authority of the Holy Scriptures because we cannot give our Minds particular Satisfaction as to the manner nay or even possibility of some things therein asserted Since we have seen so many of those things which seem'd the most incredible in the whole Bible and gave the greatest Scruple and Scandal to Philosophick Minds so fully and particularly attested and next to demonstrated from certain Principles of Astronomy and Natural Knowledge 't is but reasonable to expect in due time a like Solution of the other Difficulties 'T is but just sure to depend upon the Veracity of those Holy Writers in other Assertions whose Fidelity is so intirely establish'd in these hitherto equally unaccountable ones V. The Obvious Plain or Literal Sense of the Sacred Scriptures ought not without great Reason to be eluded or laid aside Several of those very Places which seem'd very much to require the same hitherto appearing now to the minutest Circumstances true and rational according to the strictest and most Literal Interpretations of them VI. We may be under an Obligation to believe such things on the Authority of the Holy Scriptures as are properly Mysteries that is though not really Contradictory yet plainly Unaccountable to our present degree of Knowledge and Reason Thus the Sacred Histories of the Original Constitution and great Catastrophe's of the World have been in the past Ages the Objects of the Faith of Jews and Christians though the Divine Providence