disagrace But as we have reason to blame the partiality of those that opposed this doctrine so on the other hand we cannot excuse the Patrons of it from all indiscretions I believe they might partly themselves make it obnoxious by mixing some things with it from pretended Traditions or the Books of the Sibylls or other private Authorities that had so sufficient warrant from Scripture and things sometimes that Nature would not easily bear Besides in later ages they seem to have dropt one half of the doctrine namely the Renovation of Nature which Irenaeus Iustin Martyr and the Ancients joyn inseparably with the Millennium And by this omission the doctrine hath been made less intelligible and one part of it inconsistent with another And when their pretensions were to reign upon this present Earth and in this present state of Nature it gave a jealousie to Temporal Princes and gave occasion likewise to many of Eanatical Spirits under the notion of Saints to aspire to dominion after a violent and tumultuary manner This I reckon as one great cause that brought the doctrine into discredit But I hope by reducing of it to the true state we shall cure this and other abuses for the future Lastly It never pleas'd the Church of Rome and so far as the influence and authority of that would go you may be sure it would be deprest and discountenanc'd I never yet met with a Popish Doctor that held the Millennium and Baron us would have it pass for an Heresie and Papias for the Inventor of it whereas if Irenaeus may be credited it was receiv'd from S. Iohn and by him from the mouth of our Saviour And neither S. Ierome nor his friend Pope Damasus durst ever condemnoit for an heresie It was always indeed uneasie and gave offence to the Church of Rome because it does not suit to that Scheme of Christianity which they have drawn They suppose Christ reigns already by his Vicar the Pope and treads upon the Necks of Emperors and Kings And if they could but suppress the Northern Heresie as they call it they do not know what a Millennium would signifie or how the Church could be in an happier condition than she is The Apocalypse of St. Iohn does suppose the true Church under hardship and persecution more or less for the greatest part of the Christian Ages namely for 1260 years while the Witnesses are in Sack cloth But the Church of Rome hath been in prosperity and greatness and the commanding Church in Christendom for so long or longer and hath rul'd the Nations with a Rod of Iron so as that mark of the true Church does not favour her at all And the Millennium being properly a reward and triumph for those that come out of Persecution such as have liv'd always in pomp and prosperity can pretend to no share in it or benefit by it This has made the Church of Rome have always an ill eye upon this Doctrine because it seem'd to have an ill eye upon her And as she grew in splendor and greatness she eclips'd and obscur'd it more and more so that it would have been lost out of the World as an obsolete errour if it had not been reviv'd by some of the Reformation CHAP. VII The true state of the Millennium according to Characters taken from Scripture some mistakes concerning it examin'd WE have made sufficient proof of a Millennial state from Scripture and Antiquity and upon that firm Basis have setled our second Proposition We should now determine the Time and Place of this future Kingdom of Christ Not whether it is to be in Heaven or upon Earth for that we suppose determin'd already but whether it is to be in the present Earth and under the present constitution of Nature or in the New Heavens and New Earth which are promis'd after the Conflagration This is to make our Third Proposition and I should have proceeded immediately to the examination of it but that I imagine it will give us some light in this affair if we enquire further into the true state of the Millennium before we determine its Time and Place We have already noted some moral Characters of the Millennial state And the great Natural Character of it is this in general That it will be Paradisiacal Free from all inconveniences either of external Nature or of our own Bodies For my part I do not understand how there can be any considerable degree of happiness without Indolency nor how there can be Indolency while we have such Bodies as we have now and such an external constitution of Nature And as there must be Indolency where there is happiness so there must not be Indigency or want of any due comforts of life For where there is Indigency there is sollicitude and distraction and uneasiness and fear Passions that do as naturally disquiet the Soul as pain does the Body Therefore Indolency and Plenty seem to be two essential Ingredients of every happy state and these two in conjunction make that state we call Paradisiacal Now the Scripture seems plainly to exempt the Sons of the New Ierusalem or of the Millennium from all pain or want in those words Apoc. 21. 4. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes And there shall be no more death neither sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more pain for the former things are passed away And the Lord of that Kingdom He that sate upon the Throne said Behold I make all things new ver 5. This Renovation is a restauration to some former state and I hope not to that state of indigency and misery and diseasedness which we languish under at present But to that pristine Paradisiacal state which was the blessing of the first Heavens and the first Earth As Health and Plenty are the Blessings of Nature so in Civil affairs Peace is the greatest blessing And this is inseparably annext to the Millennium an indelible character of the Kingdom of Christ. And by Peace we understand not onely freedom from Persecution upon religious accounts but that Nation shall not rise up against Nation upon any account whatsoever That bloody Monster War that hath devour'd so many Millions of the Sons of Adam is now at length to be chain'd up and the Furies that run throughout the Earth with their Snakes and Torches shall be thrown into the Abyss to sting and prey upon one another All evil and mischievous passions shall be extinguish'd and that not in men onely but even in Brute creatures according to the Prophets The Lamb and the Lyon shall lie down together and the sucking Child shall play with the Basilisk Happy days when not onely the Temple of Ianus shall be shut up for a thousand years and the Nations shall beat their swords into plow-shares but all enmities and antipathies shall cease all acts of hostility throughout all nature And this Universal Peace is a demonstration also of the former character Universal Plenty for where
have divided it in two parts an Interiour and an Exteriour and in that Exteriour part was Paradise Such allowances must often be made for Geographical mistakes in examining and understanding the writings of the Ancients The rest of the Syrian Fathers as well as Ephrem and Bar Cepha incline to the same doctrine of Paradise and seem to have retain'd more of the ancient notions concerning it than the Greek and Latin Fathers have and yet there is in all some fragments of this doctrine and but fragments in the best We might add in the last place that as the most ancient Treatises concerning Paradise are lost so also the ancient Glosses and Catenae upon Scripture where we might have found the Traditions and Opinions of the Ancients upon this subject are many of them either lost or unpublisht And upon this consideration we did not think it improper to cite some Authors of small Antiquity but such as have transcrib'd several things out of ancient Manuscript-glosses into their Commentaries They living however before Printing was invented or Learning well restor'd and before the Reformation I add that also before the Reformation for since that time the Protestant Authors having lessen'd the Authority of Traditions the Pontificial Doctors content themselves to insist only upon such as they thought were useful or necessary lest by multiplying others that were but matter of curiosity they should bring the first into question and render the whole doctrine of Traditions more dubious and exceptionable And upon this account there are some Authors that writ an Age or two before the Reformation that have with more freedom told us the Tenets and Traditions of the Ancients in these Speculations that are but collateral to Religion than any have done since And I must confess I am apt to think that what remains concerning the doctrine of Paradise and the Primaeval Earth is in a good measure Traditional for one may observe that those that treat upon these subjects quote the true Opinions and tell you some of the Ancients held so and so as That Paradise was in another Earth or higher than this Earth That there were no Mountains before the Flood nor any Rain and such like yet they do not name those ancient Authors that held these Opinions which makes me apt to believe either that they were convey'd by a Traditional communication from one to another or that there were other Books extant upon those subjects or other Glosses than what are now known Finally To conclude this Discourse concerning the Seat of Paradise we must mind you again upon what Basis it stands We declar'd freely that we could not by our Theory alone determine the particular place of it only by that we are assur'd that it was in the Primaeval Earth and not in the present but in what Region or in whether Hemisphere of that Earth it was seated we cannot define from Speculation only 'T is true if we hold fast to that Scripture-conclusion That all Mankind rise from one Head and from one and the same Stock and Lineage which doth not seem to be according to the sentiments of the Heathens we must suppose they were born in one Hemisphere and after some time translated into the other or a Colony of them But this still doth not determine in whether of the two they begun and were first seated before their translation and I am apt to think that depended rather as we noted before upon the Divine Pleasure and the train of affairs that was to succeed than upon Natural causes and differences Some of the Ancients I know made both the Soil and the Stars more noble in the Southern Hemisphere than in ours but I do not see any proof or warrant for it wherefore laying aside all natural Topicks we are willing in this particular to refer our selves wholly to the report and majority of Votes amongst the Ancients who yet do not seem to me to lay much stress upon the notion of a particular and Topical Paradise and therefore use general and remote expressions concerning it And finding no place for it in this Continent they are willing to quit their hands of it by placing it in a Region some-where far off and inaccessible This together with the old Tradition that Paradise was in another Earth seems to me to give an account of most of their Opinions concerning the Seat of Paradise and that they were generally very uncertain where to fix it CHAP. VIII The uses of this Theory for the illustration of Antiquity The ancient Chaos explain'd The inhabitability of the Torrid Zone The change of the Poles of the World The doctrine of the Mundane Egg How America was first peopled How Paradise within the Circle of the Moon WE have now dispatch'd the Theory of the Primaeval Earth and reviv'd a forgotten World 'T is pity the first and fairest works of Nature should be lost out of the memory of Man and that we should so much dote upon the Ruines as never to think upon the Original Structure As the modern Artists from some broken pieces of an ancient Statue make out all the other parts and proportions so from the broken and scatter'd limbs of the first World we have shown you how to raise the whole Fabrick again and renew the prospect of those pleasant Scenes that first see the light and first entertain'd Man when he came to act upon this new-erected Stage We have drawn this Theory chiefly to give an account of the Universal Deluge and of Paradise but as when one lights a Candle to look for one or two things which they want the light will not confine it self to those two objects but shows all the other in the room so methinks we have unexpectedly cast a light upon all Antiquity in seeking after these two things or in retrieving the Notion and Doctrine of the Primaeval Earth upon which they depended For in ancient Learning there are many Discourses and many Conclusions deliver'd to us that are so obscure and confus'd and so remote from the present state of things that one cannot well distinguish whether they are fictions or realities and there is no way to distinguish with certainty but by a clear Theory upon the same subjects which showing us the truth directly and independently upon them shows us also by reflection how far they are true or false and in what sence they are to be interpreted and understood And the present Theory being of great extent we shall find it serviceable in many things for the illustration of such dubious and obscure doctrines in Antiquity To begin with their Ancient CHAOS what a dark story have they made of it both their Philosophers and Poets and how fabulous in appearance 'T is deliver'd as confus'dly as the Mass it self could be and hath not been reduc'd to order nor indeed made intelligible by any They tell us of moral principles in the Chaos instead of natural of strife and discord and division on the one hand
least give plain marks of a Terrestrial state Wherefore the only question that remains is this Whether these happy Days are past already or to come Whether this blessed state of the Church is behind us or before us whether our Predecessors have enjoy'd it or our posterity is to expect it For we are very sure that it is not present The World is full of Wars and rumours of Wars of Vice and Knavery of Oppression and Persecution and these are things directly contrary to the genius and characters of the state which we look after And if we look for it in times past we can go no further back than the beginning of Christianity For S. Iohn the last of the Apostles Prophesied of these times as to come and plac'd them at the end of his systeme of Prophecies whereby one might conclude that they are not only within the compass of the Christian ages but far advanc'd into them But however not to insist upon that at present where will you find a thousand years from the birth of Christianity to this present age that deserves the name or answers to the characters of this Pure and Pacifick state of the Church The first ages of Christianity as they were the most pure so likewise were they the least peaceable Continually more or less under the Persecution of the Heathen Emperours and so far from being the Reign and Empire of Christ and his Saints over the Nations that Christians were then every where in subjection or slavery A poor feeble helpless people thrust into Prisons or thrown to the Lyons at the pleasure of their Princes or Rulers 'T is true when the Empire became Christian under Constantine in the fourth Century there was for a time peace and prosperity in the Church and a good degree of Purity and Piety But that peace was soon disturb'd and that piety soon corrupted The growing pride and ambition of the Ecclesiasticks and their easiness to admit or introduce Superstitious Practices destroy'd the purity of the Church And as to the peace of it Their contests about Opinions and Doctrines tore the Christians themselves into pieces and soon after an inundation of Barbarous People fell into Christendom and put it all into flames and confusion After this Eruption of the Northern Nations Mahometanism rose in the East and swarms of Saracens like armies of Locusts invaded conquer'd and planted their Religion in several parts of the Roman Empire and of the Christianiz'd World And can we call such times the Reign of Christ or the imprisonment of Satan In the following ages the Turks over-run the Eastern Empire and the Greek Church and still hold that miserable people in slavery Providence seems to have so order'd affairs that the Christian World should never be without a WOE upon it lest it should fansie it self already in those happy days of Peace and Prosperity which are reserv'd for future times Lastly whosoever is sensible of the corruptions and persecutions of the Church of Rome since she came to her greatness whosoever allows her to be mystical Babylon which must fall before the Kingdom of Christ comes on will think that Kingdom duly plac'd by S. Iohn at the end of his Prophecies concerning the Christian Church and that there still remains according to the words of St. Paul Hebr. 4. 9. a Sabbatism to the people of God CHAP. VI. The sence and testimony of the Primitive Church concerning the Millennium or future Kingdom of Christ from the times of the Apostles to the Nicene Council The second Proposition laid down When by what means and for what reasons that doctrine was afterwards neglected or discountenanc'd YOU have heard the voice of the Prophets and Apostles declaring the future Kingdom of Christ. Next to these the Primitive Fathers are accounted of good authority Let us therefore now enquire into their Sence concerning this Doctrine that we may give satisfaction to all parties And both those that are guided by Scripture alone and those that have a Veneration for Antiquity may find proofs suitable â—o their inclinations and judgment And to make few words of it we will lay down this Conclusion That the Millennial Kingdom of Christ was the general Doctrine of the Primitive Church from the times of the Apostles to the Nicene Council inclusively S. Iohn out-liv'd all the rest of the Apostles and towards the latter end of his life being banish'd into the Isle of Pathmos he writ his Apocalypse wherein he hath given us a more full and distinct account of the Millennial Kingdom of Christ than any of the Prophets or Apostles before him Papias Bishop of Hierapolis and Martyr one of S. Iâ—hn's Auditoâ—s as Irenaeus testifies taught the same Doctrine after S. Iohn He was the familiar friend of Polycarp another of S. Iohn's Disciples and either from him or immediately from S. Iohn's mouth he might receive this Doctrine That he taught it in the Church is agreed on by all hands both by those that are his followers as Irenaeus and those that are not well-wishers to this Doctrine as Eâ—sebius and Ierome There is also another chanel wherein this Doctrine is Traditionally deriv'd from S. Iohn namely by the Clergy of Asia as Irenaeus tells us in the same Chapter For arguing the point he shows that the Blessing promis'd to Iacob from his Father Isaac was not made good to him in this life and therefore he says without doubt those words had a further aim and prospect upon the times of the Kingdom so they us'd to call the Millennial state when the Iust rising from the dead shall reign and when Nature renew'd and set at liberty shall yield plenty and abundance of all things being blest with the dew of Heaven and a great fertility of the Earth According as has been related by those Ecclesiasticks or Clergy who sce. St. John the Disciple of Christ and heard of him WHAT OUR LORD HAD TAUGHT CONCERNING THOSE TIMES This you see goes to the Fountain-head The Christian Clergy receive it from St. Iohn and St. Iohn relates it from the mouth of our Saviour So much for the Original authority of this Doctrine as a Tradition that it was from St. Iohn and by him from Christ. And as to the propagation and prevailing of it in the Primitive Church we can bring a witness beyond all exception Iustin Martyr Contemporary with Irenaeus and his Senior He says that himself and all the Orthodox Christians of his time did acknowledge the Resurrection of the flesh suppose the first Resurrection and a thousand years reign in Ierusalem restor'd or in the New Jerusalem According as the Prophets Ezekiel and Isaiah and Others attest with common consent As St. Peter had said before Act. 3. 21. That all the Prophets had spoken of it Then he quotes the 65th Chapter of Isaiah which is a bulwark for this Doctrine that never can be broken And to shew the Iew with whom he had this discourse that it was the sence
worthy our study and meditation nor any thing that would conduce more to discover the ways of Divine Providence and to shew us the grounds of all true knowledge concerning Nature And therefore to clear up the several parts of this Theory I was wiling to lay aside a great many other Speculations and all those dry subtleties with which the Schools and the Books of Philosophers are usually fill'd But when we speak of a Rising World and the Contemplation of it we do not mean this of the Great Universe for who can describe the Original of that vast Frame But we speak of the Sublundry World This Earth and its dependencies which rose out of a Chaos about six thousand years ago And seeing it hath faln to our lot to act upon this Stage to have our present home and residence here its seems most reasonable and the place design'd by Providence where we should first imploy our thoughts to understand the works of God and Nature We have accordingly therefore design'd in this Work to give an account of the Original of the Earth and of all the great and General Changes that it hath already undergone or is hence forwards to undergo till the Consummation of all Things For if from those Principles we have here taken and that Theory we have begun in these Two First Books we can deduce with success and clearness the Origin of the Earth and those States of it that are already past Following the same Thred and by the conduct of the same Theory we will pursue its Fate and History through future Ages and mark all the great Changes and Conversions that attend it while Day and Night shall last that is so long as it continues an Earth By the States of the Earth that are already past we understand chiefly Paradise and the Deluge Names well known and as little known in their Nature By the Future States we undâ—rstand the Conslagration and what new Order of Nature may follow upon that till the whole Circle of Time and Providence be compleated As to the first and past States of the Earth we shall have little help from the Ancients or from any of the Philosophers for the discovery or description of them We must often tread unbeaten paths and make a way where we do not find one but it shall be always with a Light in our hand that we may see our steps and that those that follow us may not follow us blindly There is no Sect of Philosophers that I know of that ever gave an account of the Universal Deluge or discover'd from the Contemplation of the Earth that there had been such a thing already in Nature 'T is true they often talk of an alternation of Deluges and Conflagrations in this Earth but they speak of them as things to come at least they give no proof or argument of day that hath already destroyed the World As to Paradise it seems to be represented to us by the Golden Age whereof the Ancients tell many stories sometimes very luxuriant and sometimes very defective For they did not so well understand the difference betwixt the New-made Earth and the Present as to see what were the just grounds of the Golden Age or of Paradise Tho' they had many broken Notions concerning those things As to the Conslagration in particular This hath always been reckon'd One amongst the Opinions or Dogmata of the Stoicks That the World was to be destroy'd by Fire and their Books are full of this Notion but yet they do not tell us the Causes of the Conflagration nor what preparations there are in Nature or will be towards that great Change And we may generally observe this of the Ancients that their Learning or Philosophy consisted more in Conclusions than in Demonstrations They had many Truths among them whereof they did not know themselves the Premisses or the Proofs Which is an argument to me that the knowledge they had was not a thing of their own invention or which they came to by fair Reasoning and observations upon Nature but was delivered to them from others by Tradition and Ancient Fame sometimes more publick sometimes more secret These Conclusions they kept in Mind and communicated to those of their School or Sect or Posterity without knowing for the most part the just grounds and reasons of them 'T is the Sacred Writings of Scripture that are the best Monuments of Antiquity and to those we are chiefly beholden for the History of the First Ages whether Natural History or Civil 'T is true the Poets who were the most Ancient Writers amongst the Greeks and serv'd them both for Historians Divines and Philosophers have deliver'd some things concerning the first Ages of the World that have a fair resemblance of Truth and some affinity with those accounts that are given of the same things by Sacred Authors and these may be of use in due time and place but yet lest any thing fabulous should be mixt with them as commonly there is we will never depend wholly upon their credit nor assert any thing upon the authority of the Ancients which is not first prov'd by Natural Reason or warranted by Scripture It seems to me very reasonable to believe that besides the Precepts of Religion which are the principal subject and design of the Books of Holy Scripture there may be providentially conserv'd in them the memory of things and times so remote as could not be retriev'd either by History or by the light of Nature and yet were of great importance to be known both for their own excellency and also to rectifie the knowledge of men in other things consequential to them Such points may be Our great Epocha or the Age of the Earth The Origination of Mankind The First and Paradisiacal State The destruction of the Old World by an Universal Deluge The Longevity of its Inhabitants The manner of their preservation and of their Peopling the Second Earth and lastly The Fate and Changes it is to undergo These I always lookt upon as the Seeds of great knowledge or heads of Theories fixt on purpose to give us aim and direction how to pursue the rest that depend upon them But these heads you see are of a mixt order and we propose to our selves in this Work only such as belong to the Natural World upon which I believe the trains of Providence are generally laid And we must first consider how God hath order'd Nature and then how the Oeconomy of the Intellectual World is adapted to it for of these two parts consist the full System of Providence In the mean time what subject can be more worthy the thoughts of any serious person than to view and consider the Rise and Fall and all the Revolutions not of a Monarchy or an Empire of the Grecian or Roman State but of an intire World The obscurity of these things and their remoteness from common knowledge will be made an argument by some why we should not undertake
Romanus whom we cited before S. Austin also speaks upon the same supposition when he would confute the doctrine of the Antipodes or Antichthâ—nes and Macrobius I remember makes it an argument of Providence that the Sun and the Planets in what part of their course soever they are betwixt the two Tropicks have still the Ocean under them that they may be cool'd and nourisht by its moisture They thought the Sea like a Girdle went round the Earth and the temperate Zones on either side were the habitable Regions whereof this was call'd the Oicouméne and the other Antichthon This being observ'd 't is not material whether their Notion was true or false it shews us what their meaning was and what part of the Earth they design'd when they spoke of any thing beyond the Ocean namely that they meant beyond the Line in the other Hemisphere or in the Antichthon and accordingly when they say Paradise or the Fountains of its Rivers were beyond the Ocean they say the same thing in other terms with the rest of those Authors we have cited In Moses Bar Cepha above mention'd we find a Chapter upon this subject Qucmodo trajecerint Mortales inde ex Paradisi terrâ in hanc Terram How Mankind past out of that Earth or Coâ—tinent where Paradise was into that where we are Namely how they past the Ocean that lay betwixt them as the answer there given explains it And so Ephrem Syrus is cited often in that Treatise placing Paradise beyond the Ocean The Essenes also who were the most Philosophick Sect of the Iews plac'd Paradise according to Iosephus beyond the Ocean under a perfect temperature of Air. And that passage in Eusebius in the Oration of Constantine being corrected and restor'd to the true reading represents Paradise in like manner as in another Continent from whence Adam was brought after his transgression into this And lastly there are some Authors whose testimony and authority may deserve to be consider'd not for their own Antiquity but because they are profess'dly transcribers of Antiquity and Traditions such as Strabus Comestor and the like who are known to give this account or report of Paradise from the Ancients that it was interposito Oceano ab Orbe nostro vel à Zonâ nostrâ habitabili secretus Separated from our Orb or Hemisphere by the interposition of the Ocean It is also observable that many of the Ancients that took Tigris Euphrates Nile and Ganges for the Rivers of Paradise said that those Heads or Fountains of them which we have in our Continent are but their Capita secunda their second Sources and that their first Sources were in another Orb where Paradise was and thus Hugo de Sancto Victore says Sanctos communiter sensisse That the Holy Men of old were generally of that opinion To this sence also Moses Bar Cepha often expresseth himself as also Epiphanius Procopius Gazaeus and Severianus in Catenâ Which notion amongst the Ancients concerning the trajection or passage of the Paradisiacal Rivers under-ground or under-Sea from one Continent into another is to me I confess unintelligible either in the first or second Earth but however it discovers their sence and opinion of the Seat of Paradise that it was not to be sought for in Asia or in Africk where those Rivers rise to us but in some remoter parts of the World where they suppos'd their first Sources to be This is a short account of what the Christian Fathers have left us concerning the Seat of Paradise and the truth is 't is but a short and broken account yet 't is no wonder it should be so if we consider as we noted before that several of them did not believe Paradise to be Local and Corporeal Others that did believe it so yet did not offer to determine the place of it but left that matter wholly untoucht and undecided and the rest that did speak to that point did it commonly both in general terms and in expressions that were disguis'd and needed interpretation but all these differences and obscurities of expression you see when duly stated and expounded may signifie one and the same thing and terminate all in this common Conclusion That Paradise was without our Continent accordâ—ng to the general opinion and Tradition of Antiquity And I do not doubt but the Tradition would have been both more express and more universal if the Ancients had understood Geography better for those of the Ancients that did not admit or believe that there were Antipodes or Antichthones as Lactantius S. Austin and some others these could not joyn in the common opinion about the place of Paradise because they thought there was no Land nor any thing habitable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or besides this Continent And yet S. Austin was so cautious that as he was bounded on the one hand by his false Idea of the Earth that he could not joyn with Antiquity as to the place of Paradise so on the other hand he had that respect for it that he would not say any thing to the contrary therefore being to give his opinion he says only Terrestrem esse Paradisum locum ejus ab hominum cognitione esse remotissimum That it is somewhere upon the Earth but the place of it very remote from the knowledge of Men. And as their ignorance of the Globe of the Earth was one reason why the doctrine of Paradise was so broken and obscure so another reason why it is much more so at present is because the chief ancient Books writ upon that subiect are lost Ephrem Syrus who liv'd in the Fourth Century writ a Commentary in Genesin five de Ortu rerum concerning the Origin of the Earth and by those remains that are cited from it we have reason to believe that it contain'd many things remarkable concerning the first Earth and concerning Paradise Tertullian also writ a Book de Paradiso which is wholly lost and we see to what effect it would have been by his making the Torrid Zone to be the Flaming Sword and the partition betwixt this Earth and Paradise which two Earths he more than once distinguisheth as very different from one another The most ancient Author that I know upon this subject at least of those that writ of it literally is Moses Bar Cepha a Syrian Bishop who liv'd about seven hundred years since and his Book is translated into Latin by that Learned and Judicious Man Andreas Masius Bar Cepha writes upon the same Views of Paradise that we have here presented that it was beyond the Ocean in another tract of Land or another Continent from that which we inhabit As appears from the very Titles of his Eighth Tenth and Fourteenth Chapters But we must allow him for his mistaken Notions about the form of the Earth for he seems to have sansied the Earth plain not only as oppos'd to rough and Mountainous for so it was plain but as oppos'd to Spherical and the Ocean to
Perfection but seeing they have not determin'd in any definite numbers what the length of every Age will be nor given us the summ of all we cannot draw any conclusion from this account as to the point in question before us But must proceed to the Jewish and Christian Oracles The Iews have a remarkable Prophecy which expresseth both the whole and the parts of the World's duration The World they say will stand Six Thousand Years Two Thousand before the Law Two Thousand under the Law and Two Thousand under the Messiah This Prophecy they derive from Elias but there were two of the Name Elias the Thesbite and Elias the Rabbin or Cabbalist and 't is suppos'd to belong immediately to the latter of these Yet this does not hinder in my opinion but that it might come originally from the former Elias and was preserv'd in the School of this Elias the Rabbin and first made publick by him Or he added it may be that division of the time into three parts and so got a Title to the whole I cannot easily imagine that a Doctor that liv'd two hundred years or thereabouts before Christ when Prophecy had ceas'd for some Ages amongst the Iews should take upon him to dictate a Prophecy about the duration of the World unless he had been supported by some antecedent Cabbalistical Tradition which being kept more secret before he took the liberty to make publick and so was reputed the Author of the Prophecy As many Philosophers amongst the Greeks were the reputed Authors of such doctrines as were much more ancient than themselves But they were the publishers of them in their Country or the revivers of them after a long silence and so by forgetful posterity got the honour of the first invention You will think it may be the time is too long and the distance too great betwixt Elias the Thesbite and this Elias the Rabbin for a Tradition to subsist all the while or be preserv'd with any competent integrity But it appears from S. Iude's Epistle that the Prophecies of Enoch who liv'd before the Floud relating to the day of judgment and the end of the World were extant in his time either in Writing or by Tradition And the distance betwixt Enoch and S. Iude was vastly greater than betwixt the two Elias's Nor was any fitter to be inspir'd with that knowledge or to tell the first news of that fatal period than the old Prophet Elias who is to come again and bring the alarum of the approaching Conflagration But however this conjecture may prove as to the original Author of this Prophecy the Prophecy it self concerning the Sexmillennial duration of the World is very much insisted upon by the Christian Fathers Which yet I believe is not so much for the bare Authority of the Tradition as because they thought it was founded in the History of the Six days Creation and the Sabbath succeeding as also in some other Typical precepts and usages in the Law of Moses But before we speak of that give me leave to name some of those Fathers to you that were of this judgment and supposed the great Sabbatism would succeed after the World had stood Six Thousand Years Of this opinion was S. Barnabas in his Catholick Epistle ch 15. Where he argues that the Creation will be ended in Six Thousand Years as it was finish'd in Six Days Every day according to the Sacred and mystical account being a Thousand Years Of the same judgment is S. Irenaeus both as to the conclusion and the reason of it He saith the History of the Creation in six days is a narration as to what is past and a Prophecy of what is to come As the Work was said to be consummated in six days and the Sabbath to be the seventh So the consummation of all things will be in Six Thousand Years and then the great Sabbatism to come on in the blessed reign of Christ. Hippolitus Martyr disciple of Irenaeus is of the same judgment as you may see in Photius ch 202. Lactantius in his Divine Institutions l. 7. c. 14. gives the very same account of the state and continuance of the World and the same proofs for it And so does S. Cyprian in his Exhortation to Martyrdom ch 11. S Ierome more than once declares himself of the same opinion and S. Austin tho' he wavers and was doubtful as to the Millennium or Reign of Christ upon Earth yet he receives this computation without hesitancy and upon the foremention'd grounds So Iohannes Damascenus de fide Orthodoxâ takes seven Millennaries for the entire space of the World from the Creation to the general Resurrection the Sabbatism being included And that this was a received and approv'd opinion in early times we may collect from the Author of the Questions and answers ad Orthodoxos in Iustin Martyr Who giving an answer to that enquiry about the six thousand-years term of the World says We may conjecture from many places of Scripture that those are in the right that say six thousand years is the time prefixt for the duration of this present frame of the World These Authors I have examin'd my self but there are many others brought in confirmation of this opinion as S. Hilary Anastasius Sinaita Sanctus Gaudentius Q. Iulius Hilarion Iunilius Africanus Isidorus Hispalensis Cassiodorus Gregorius Magnus and others which I leave to be examin'd by those that have curiosity and leisure to do it In the mean time it must be confest that many of these Fathers were under a mistake in one respect in that they generally thought the World was near an end in their time An errour which we need not take pains to confute now seeing we who live twelve hundred or fourteen hundred years after them find the World still in being and likely to continue so for some considerable time But it is easie to discern whence their mistake proceeded not from this Prophecy alone but because they reckon'd this Prophecy according to the Chronology of the Septuagint which setting back the beginning of the World many Ages beyond the Hebrew these six thousand years were very near expir'd in the time of those Fathers and that made them conclude that the World was very near an end We will make no reflections in this place upon that Chronology of the Septuagint lest it should too much interrupt the thred of our discourse But it is necessary to shew how the Fathers grounded this computation of Six Thousand Years upon Scripture 'T was chiefly as we suggested before upon the Hexameron or the Creation finish'd in Six Days and the Sabbath ensuing The Sabbath they said was a type of the Sabbatism that was to follow at the end of the World according to S. Paul to the Hebrews and then by analogy and consequence the six days preceding the Sabbath must note the space and duration of the World If therefore 〈◊〉 could discover how much a Day is reckon'd for in this mystical
beloved City That Camp and that City therefore were upon the Earth And fire came down from Heaven and devoured them If it came down from Heaven it came upon the Earth Furthermore those Persons that are rais'd from the Dead are said to be Priests of God and of Christ and to reign with him a thousand years Now these must be the same Persons with the Priests and Kings mention'd in the Fifth Chapter which are there said expresly to reign upon Earth or that they should reign upon Earth It remains therefore only to determine What Earth this is where the Sons of the first Resurrection will live and reign It cannot be the present Earth in the same state and under the same circumstances it is now For what happiness or priviledge would that be to be call'd back into a mortal life under the necessities and inconveniences of sickly Bodies and an incommodious World such as the present state of mortality is and must continue to be till some change be made in Nature We may be sure therefore that a change will be made in Nature before that time and that the state they are rais'd into and the Earth they are to inhabit will be at least Paradisiacal And consequently can be no other than the New Heavens and New Earth which we are to expect after the Conflagration From these Considerations there is a great fairness to conclude both as to the Characters of the Perons and of the place or state that the Sons of the first Resurrection will be Inhabitants of the New Earth and reign there with Christ a thousand years But seeing this is one of the principal and peculiar Conclusions of this Discourse and bears a great part in this last Book of the Theory of the Earth it will deserve a more full explication and a more ample proof to make it out We must therefore take a greater compass in our discourse and give a full account of that State which is usually call'd the Millennium The Reign of the Saints a thousand years or the Kingdom of Christ upon Earth But before we enter upon this new Subject give me leave to close our present Argument about the Renovation of the World with some Testimonies of the Ancient Philosophers to that purpose 'T is plain to me that there were amongst the Ancients several Traditions or traditionary conclusions which they did not raise themselves by reason and observation but receiv'd them from an unknown Antiquity An instance of this is the Conflagration of the World A Doctrine as ancient for any thing I know as the World it self At least as ancient as we have any Records And yet none of those Ancients that tell us of it give any argument to prove it Neither is it any wonder for they did not invent it themselves but receiv'd it from others without proof by the sole authority of Tradition In like manner the Renovation of the World which we are now speaking of is an ancient Doctrine both amongst the Greeks and Eastern Philosophers But they shew us no method how the World may be renew'd nor make any proof of its future Renovation For it was not a discovery which they first made but receiv'd it with an implicite faith from their Masters and Ancestors And these Traditionary Doctrines were all fore-runners of that Light that was to shine more clearly at the opening of the Christian dispensation to give a more full account of the fate and revolutions of the Natural World as well as of the Moral The Iews 't is well known held the Renovation of the World and a Sabbath after six thousand years according to the Prophecy that was currant amongst them whereof we have given a larger account in the precedent Book ch 5. And that future state they call'd Olam Hava or the World to come which is the very same with St. Paul's Habitable Earth to come Heb. 2. 6. Neither can I easily believe that those constitutions of Moses that proceed so much upon a Septenary or the number Seven and have no ground or reason in the nature of the thing for that particular number I cannot easily believe I say that they are either accidental or humoursome without design or signification But that they are typical or representative of some Septenary state that does eminently deserve and bear that Character Moses in the History of the Creation makes six days work and then a Sabbath Then after six years he makes a Sabbath-year and after a Sabbath of years a year of Jubilee Levit. 25. All these lesser revolutions seem to me to point at the grand Revolution the great Sabbath or Iubilee after six Millenaries which as it answers the type in point of time so likewise in the nature and contents of it Being a state of Rest from all labour and trouble and servitude a state of joy and triumph and a state of Renovation when things are to return to their first condition and pristine order So much for the Iews The Heathen Philosophers both Greeks and Barbarians had the same doctrine of the Renovation of the World currant amongst them And that under several names and phrases as of the Great Year the Restauration the Mundane periods and such like They suppos'd stated and fix'd periods of time upon expiration whereof there would always follow some great revolution of the World and the face of Nature would be renew'd Particularly after the Conflagration the Stoicks always suppos'd a new World to succeed or another frame of Nature to be erected in the room of that which was destroy'd And they use the same words and phrases upon this occasion that Scripture useth Chrysippus calls it Apocatastalis as St. Peter does Act. 3. 21. Marcus Antoninus in his Meditations several times calls it Palingenesia as our Saviour does Mat. 19. 28. And Numenius hath two Scripture-words Resurrection and Restitution to express this renovation of the World Then as to the Platonicks that Revolution of all things hath commonly been call'd the Platonick year as if Plato had been the first author of that opinion But that 's a great mistake he receiv'd it from the Barbarick Philosophers and particularly from the Aegyptian Priests amongst whom he liv'd several years to be instructed in their learning But I do not take Plato neither to be the first that brought this doctrine into Greece for besides that the Sibylls whose antiquity we do not well know sung this Song of oâ—d as we see it copyed from them by Virgil in his fourth Eclogue Pythagoras taught it before Plato and Orpheus before them both And that 's as high as the Greek Philosophy reaches The Barbarick Philosophers were more ancient namely the Aegyptians Persians Chaldeans Indian Brackmans and other Eastern Nations Their Monuments indeed are in a great measure lost yet from the remains of them which the Greeks have transcrib'd and so preserv'd in their writings we see plainly they all had this doctrine of the
time of Constantine's Empire But however the Fathers of that Council are themselves our witnesses in this point For in their Ecclesiastical Forms or Constitutions in the chapter about the Providence of God and about the World They speak thus The World was made meaner or less perfect providentially for God foresee that man would sin Wherefore we expect New Heavens and a New Earth according to the Holy Scriptures at the appearance and Kingdom of the great God and our Saviour Iesus Christ. And then as Daniel says ch 7. 18. The Saints of the most High shall take the Kingdom And the Earth shall be Pure Holy the Land of the Living not of the dead Which David foreseeing by the eye of Faith cryes out Ps. 27. 13. I believe to see the good things of the Lord in the Land of the Living Our Saviour says Happy are the meek for they shall inherit the Earth Matt. 5. 5. and the Prophet Isaiuh says chap. 26. 6. the feet of the meek and lowly shall tread upon it So you see according to the judgment of these Fathers there will be a Kingdom of Christ upon Earth and moreover that it will be in the New Heavens and the New Earth And in both these points they cite the Prophets and our Saviour in confirmation of them Thus we have discharg'd our promise and given you an account of the doctrine of the Millennium or future Kingdom of Christ throughout the Three First Ages of the Church before any considerable corruptions were crept into the Christian Religion And those Authorities of single and successive Fathers we have seal'd up all together with the declaration of the Nicene Fathers in a Body Those that think Tradition a Rule of Faith or a considerable motive to it will find it hard to turn off the force of these Testimonies And those that do not go so far but yet have a reverence for Antiquity and the Primitive Church will not easily produce better Authorities more early more numerous or more uncontradicted for any Article that is not Fundamental Yet these are but Seconds to the Prophets and Apostles who are truly the Principals in this Cause I will leave them altogether to be examin'd and weigh'd by the Impartial Reader And because they seem to me to make a full and undeniable proof I will now at the foot of the account set down our second Proposition which is this That there is a Millennial State or a Future Kingdom of Christ and his Saints Prophesied of and Promised in the Old and New Testament and receiv'd by the Primitive Church as a Christian and Catholick Doctrine HAVING dispatch'd this main point To conclude the Chapter and this Head of our Discourse it will be some satisfaction possibly to see How a Doctrine so generally receiv'd and approv'd came to decay and almost wear out of the Church in following Ages The Christian Millenary Doctrine was not call'd into question so far as appears from History before the middle of the third Century when Dionysius Alexandrinus writ against Nepos an Aegyptian Bishop who had declar'd himself upon that subject But we do not find that this Book had any great effect for the declaration or constitution of the Nicene Fathers was after and in S. Ierome's time who writ towards the end of the fourth Century this Doctrine had so much Credit that He who was its greatest adversary yet durst not condemn it as he says himself Quae licet non sequamur tamen damnare non possumus quià multi Ecclesiasticorum virorum Martyres ista dixerunt Which things or doctrines speaking of the Millennium tho' we do not follow yet we cannot condemn Because many of our Church-men and Martyrs have affirmed these things And when Apollinarius replyed to that Book of Dionysius S. Ierome says that not only those of his own Sect but a great multitude of other Christians did agree with Apollinarius in that particular Ut praesagâ mente jam cernam quantorum in me rabies concitanda sit That I now foresee how many will be enrag'd against me for what I have spoken against the Millenary Doctrine We may therefore conclude that in S. Ierome's time the Millenaries made the greater party in the Church for a little matter would not have frighted him from censuring their opinion S. Ierome was a rough and rugged Saint and an unfair adversary that usually run down with heat and violence what stood in his way As to his unfairness he shews it sufficiently in this very cause for he generally represents the Millenary Doctrine after a Judaical rather than a Christian manner And in reckoning up the chief Patrons of it he always skips Iustin Martyr Who was not a Man so obscure as to be overâ—look'd and he was a Man that had declar'd himself sufficiently upon this point for he says both himself and all the Orthodox of his time were of that judgment and applyes both the Apocalypse of S. Iohn and the 65th chap. of Isaiah for the proof of it As we noted before As S. Ierome was an open enemy to this Doctrine so Eusebius was a back friend to it and represented every thing to its disadvantage so far as was tolerably consistent with the fairness of an Historian He gives a slight character of Papias without any authority for it and brings in one Gaius that makes Cerinthus to be the Author of the Apocalypse and of the Millennium and calls the Visions there monstrous stories He himself is willing to shuffle off that Book from Iohn the Evangelist to another Iohn a Presbyter and to shew his skill in the interpretation of it he makes the New Ierusalem in the 21th chap. to be Constantine's Ierusalem when he turn'd the Heathen Temples there into Christian. A wonderful invention As S. Ierome by his flouts so Eusebius by sinister insinuations endeavour'd to lessen the reputation of this Doctrine and the Art they both us'd was to misrepresentâ—â—â— as Iudaical But we must not cast off every doctrine which the Jews believ'd only for that reason for we have the same Oracles which they had and the same Prophets and they have collected from them same general doctrine that we have namely that There will be an happy and pacifick state of the Church in future times But as to the circumstances of this state we differ very much They suppose the Mosaical Law will be restor'd with all its pomp rites and ceremonies whereas we suppose the Christian Worship or something more perfect will then take place Yet S. Ierome has the confidence even there where he speaks of the many Christian Clergy and Martyrs that held this doctrine has the confidence I say to represent it as if they held that Circumcision Sacrifices and all the Judaical rites should then be restor'd Which seems to me to be a great slander and a great instance how far mens passions will carry them in misrepresenting an opinion which they have a mind to