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 The Testimonies for this are so numerous and so express both in the Mosaick History it self in the other parts of Scripture relating thereto and in all Antiquity that I may refer the Reader to almost every place where this matter is spoken of without quoting here any particulars He who is at all acquainted with the Primitive Histories of this rising World whether Sacred or Prophane can have no reason to make any doubt of it III. The Days of the Creation and that of Rest had their beginning in the Evening The Evening and the Morning were the first Day And so of the rest afterward IV. At the time immediately preceding the six days Creation the face of the Abyss or superior Regions of the Chaos were involv'd in a thick Darkness Darkness was upon the face of the Deep To which Testimony the Prophane Traditions do fully agree as may be seen in the Authors before refer'd to V. The visible part of the first days Work was the Production of Light or its successive appearance to all the Parts of the Earth with the consequent distinction of Darkness and Light Night and Day upon the face of it God said Let there be Light and there was Light And God saw the Light that it was good and God divided the light from the darkness And God called the light Day and the darkness he called Night And the Evening and the Morning was the first day VI. The visible part of the Second Days Work was the elevation of the Air with all it s contained Vapours the spreading it for an Expansum above the Earth and the distinction thence arising of Superior and Inferior Waters The former consisting of those Vapours rais'd and sustain'd by the Air the latter of such as either were enclosed in the Pores Interstices and Bowels of the Earth or lay upon the Surface thereof God said Let there be a firmament or Expansum in the midst of the waters and let it divide the waters from the waters And 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 And the Evening and the Morning were the second day VII The visible parts of the Third Day 's Works were two the former the Collection of the inferior Waters or such as were now under the Heaven into the Seas with the consequent appearance of the dry Land the latter the production of Vegetables out of that Ground so lately become dry God said Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together unto one place and let the dry land appear and it was so And God called the dry land Earth and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas And God saw that it was good And God said Let the Earth bring forth grass the herb yielding seed and the fruit-tree yielding fruit after his kind whose seed is in it self upon the earth and it was so And the earth brought forth grass and herb yielding seed after his kind and the tree yielding fruit whose seed was in it self after his kind and God saw that it was good And the Evening and the Morning were the third day VIII The Fourth Day 's Work was the Placing the Heavenly Bodies Sun Moon and Stars in the Expansum or Firmament i. e. The rendring them Visible and Conspicuous on the Face of the Earth Together with their several Assignations to their respective Offices there God said Let there be lights in the Expansum or firmament of heaven to divide the day from the night and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years and let them be for lights in the firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth and it was so And God made two great lights the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night he made the stars also And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth and to rule over the day and over the night and to divide the light from the darkness and God saw that it was good And the Evening and the Morning were the fourth day IX The Fifth Day 's Work was the Production of the Fish and Fowl out of the Waters with the Benediction bestow'd on them in order to their Propagation God said Let the Waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven And God created great Whales and every living creature that moveth which the waters brought forth abundantly after their kind and every winged fowl after his kind and God saw that it was good And God blessed them saying Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the Seas and let fowl multiply in the earth And the Evening and the Morning were the fifth day X. The Sixth Day 's Work was the Production of all the Terrestrial or Dry-land Animals and that in a different manner For the Bruit Beasts were produc'd out of the Earth as the Fish and Fowl had been before out of the Waters But after that the Body of Adam was form'd of the Dust of the Ground who by the Breath of Life breath'd into him in a peculiar manner became a Living Soul Some time after which on the same day he was cast into a deep Sleep and Eve was form'd of a Rib taken from his side Together with several other things of which a more particular account has been already given on another occasion 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 And God said Let us make man in Our Image after Our likeness and let them have dominion over the Fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over the cattel and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth So God created Man in his own image in the image of God created he him Male and Female created he them c. Vid. ver 28 29 30 31. and Cap. 2. 7 15 c. XI God having thus finish'd the Works of Creation Rested on the Seventh day from the same and Sanctified or set that day apart for a Sabbath or day of Rest to be then and afterward observ'd as a Memorial of his Creation of the World in
this extraordinary acceleration of natural causes to be tho' not impossible nor were there any intimation or necessity of its interposition from the Sacred History very improbable neither yet in the present case groundless unnecessary perplexing of the cause and by no means a sufficient solution in the present Affair Which being therefore thus answer'd the Argument remains in full force and the length of the days assign'd by the vulgar Hypothesis appears wholly disproportionate to the Works done therein of which farther notice will be taken hereafter 2. When the Works of each of the other Days are single distinct and of a sort the third Day has two quite different nay incompatible ones assigned to it This is plain from the History where the division of the Waters from the Earth or the distinction of the Terraqueous Globe into Seas and dry Land the first work on this Day is succeeded by that of the production of the intire Vegetable Kingdom contrary to the perpetual Tenor of the other periods of the Creation How this comes about or is accountable in the vulgar Scheme I know not and I believe the reason thereof is very little enquir'd into and less understood But because this whole difficulty will be urg'd against the shortness of days in the Vulgar Hypothesis and clear'd in Ours at their proper places hereafter I shall wave the farther insisting upon it here and proceed 3. But principally the Earth with its Furniture how inconsiderable a body soever it is takes up four intire days at least of those six which were allotted to the whole Creation when the Sun Moon and Stars those vastly greater and more considerable Bodies are crowded into one single day together Now in order to our passing a rational judgment in this matter I shall take leave to represent to the Reader 's view a short comparison or parallel between the Earth on one side and the rest of the World on the other and see what resemblance correspondence and proportion there is between the former and the latter either in its several parts or the whole taken together and this shall be done on such certain and undoubted grounds and principles as the late vast advancement of Natural Knowledge has afforded us and will be more at large explain'd in the following Pages This Earth then on which we live though it be in diameter more than 8000 miles and so a vast Globe if compar'd with those Bodies we daily see imagine and converse withal is yet one of the lesser of the primary Planets and with Jupiter Mars and the other her fellows revolves round the great Center of our System the Sun in a years time 'T is an Opake and Dark Body as they all are and in common with them borrows its light and heat from that glorious Body which we just now observ'd to obtain the center of their Orbits without which it as well as the intire Chorus of the other Planets must be soon reduc'd all to one dark heap of matter far beyond the description of the old caliginous and unprofitable Chaos and in no capacity of ever emerging out of that horrid and frightful state In dignity i four Earth expect not to come the last yet is she so exceeded in all things that might seem Characters thereof by several of the rest that there can be no manner of claim to the first Place If she have a secondary Planet the Moon for her attendant tho in truth she is at least as serviceable to that Planet as that Planet is to her Jupiter has certainly four and some good Glasses have discover'd five about Saturn who however is not wholly destitute as all Astronomers confess The density and place of the Earth is pretty near the middle of the Planets and as she exceeds and is higher than some so is she exceeded by and lower than others in those respects Her own Secondary Planet the Moon has an Air much more homogeneous pure and transparent than she at present enjoys and in all probability free from Winds Clouds Storms Tempests Thunder Lightning and such other irregular and pernicious Effects which render our Atmosphere so contagious and pestilent to the Inhabitants of the Earth In which circumstances the generality of the other Planets imitate the Moon and render our miserable Condition the more remarkable and sensible as appearing thereby almost singular Our days and nights are longer than those of some and shorter than those of others of the Planets The figure of the Earth is nearly sphaerical as is that also of the other Heavenly Bodies its surface unequal with Mountains and Valleys as well as that of the rest especially the Moon 's appears to be Only 't is observable that the last though much less in bigness has her Mountains higher than we on Earth The Sea and Land Mountains and Valleys and other such corresponding Phaenomena of the Moon shew that that small Planet is not nearer our Earth in place than in quality and disposition also If we compute the true magnitude or quantity of matter in the Earth it will appear that she is not the 60th part so big as Jupiter nor the 30th as Saturn nor the 60000th as the Sun So that she is very inconsiderable if compar'd with the rest of the Solar Vortex only but if with the intire Universe or Systems of the fixt Stars in the elegancy of the Prophetick Expressions as a drop of a Bucket as the small dust of the Balance yea less than nothing and vanity Insomuch that to all those remote Systems of the Heavenly Bodies this Earth with all its fellow Planets are no more visible than those which 't is probable revolve about any of them are to us in these our Planetary Regions And as we usually little think of those invisible Globes so any of their Inhabitants never once imagine that there is such a Planet as ours about which we make such a mighty stir in the whole World As to the main use of this Earth 't is to afford habitation to a sinful and lapsed Race of Creatures of small Abilities or Capacities at present but of great Vices and Wickedness and is esteemed as far as appears in its present constitution so peculiarly and solely sit for them that when they are gone or their Dispositions and Faculties reform'd and improv'd a better scence of Nature a new Heaven and a new Earth is to be introduc'd for such better and more noble Creatures The Old one which now obtains being it seems only a sort of Prison or Confinement which is to be our Lot whilst we are sinful and miserable but no longer And is this the only Darling of Nature the prime Object of the Creation and Providence of God Can such a Globe's original nay of the external and visible Parts of it only claim four parts of six of that entire space which the Wisdom of God allotted for the Formation of all things in the whole World while the Origin
of the Prophetick numbers I mean the involving their Predictions in so much and no more obscurity as might conceal their meaning till their completion or till such time at least as the Divine Wisdom thought most proper for their manifestation in succeeding Ages So that this Argument demonstrates the present Exposition to afford a natural foundation of accounting for such ways of speaking in 〈◊〉 Holy Scriptures which otherwise are as t 〈…〉 casion and Original unaccountable and consequently proves it to be as truly agreeable to the Stile as the former did to the Letter thereof 3. The six Days of Creation and the seventh of Rest were by Divine Command to be in after Ages commemorated by Years as well as by Days and so in reason answered alike to both those denominations 'T is evident that the Works of the Creation were compleated in six Evenings and Mornings or six Revolutions of the Sun call'd Days and that the seventh was immediately set apart and sanctified as a Day of Rest and Memorial of the Creation just before compleated and 't is evident that this Sanctification of the seventh as well as the operations of the six foregoing belong'd to the Primitive state of the World before the Fall Now that we may know what sort of Days these were 't will be proper to enquire into the ensuing times and observe after the distinction of Days and Years undoubtedly obtain'd what constant Revolutions of six for Work and a seventh for Rest there appear or in what manner and by what spaces these Original ones were commemorated which will go a great way to clear the Point we are upon And here 't is evident that when God gave Laws to the Israelites he allow'd them six ordinary Days of Work and ordain'd the seventh for a Day of Rest or Sabbath in Imitation and Memory of His Working the first six and Resting or keeping a Sabbath on the Seventh Day at the Creation of the World This the Fourth Commandment so expresly asserts that 't is past possibility of question 'T is moreover evident that God upon the Children of Israels coming into the Land of Canaan ordained with reference as 't is reasonable to suppose to the same Primitive State of the World the six Days of Creation and the Sabbath That six Years they should Sow their Fields and six Years they should Prune their Vineyard and gather in the Fruits thereof But in the seventh Year should be a Sabbath of Rest unto the Land a Sabbath for the Lord They were neither to Sow their Field nor Prune their Vineyard Then was the Land to keep a Sabbath unto the Lord. So that if we can justly presume that the primary spaces of the World here refer'd to were proper Evenings and Mornings or Natural Days because they were represented and commemorated by six Proper and Natural Days of Work and the seventh of Rest I think 't is not unreasonable to conclude they were Proper and Natural Years also considering they appear to have been among the same People by the same Divine Appointment represented and commemorated by these six Proper and Natural Years of Work and the seventh of Rest also Nay if there be any advantage on the side of Natural Days from the expressness of the reference they had to the Primitive ones which the Fourth Commandment forces us to acknowledge there will appear in what follows somewhat that may justly be esteem'd favourable on the side of Years Besides the six Days for Work and the seventh for Rest the Jews were commanded on the same account as we may justly suppose to number from the Passover seven times seven Days or seven Weeks of Days and at the conclusion of them to observe a solemn Feast call'd the Feast of Weeks or of Sabbaths once every year In like manner besides the Yearly Sabbath as I may call it or the seventh Year of Rest and Release after the six Years of Work the Jews were commanded on the same account as we may justly suppose to number seven Sabbaths of Years seven times seven Years and at the conclusion thereof to celebrate the great Sabbatical Year the Year of Jubilee They were neither to Sow nor Reap nor Gather in the Grapes but esteem it Holy and suffer every one to return to his Possession again Where that which is remarkable is this that when the Sabbatical Days and Sabbatical Years equally return'd by perpetual revolutions immediately succeeding one another yet the case was not the same as to the Feast of Weeks at the end of seven times seven Days that following the Passover and not returning till the next Passover again and so was but once a Year Whereas its corresponding Solemnities the Jubilees or great Sabbatical Years at the end of seven times seven Years did as the former return by perpetual revolutions immediately succeeding one another for all future Generations All which duely consider'd I think upon the whole 't is but reasonable to conclude That seeing the Primitive spaces or periods of Work and Rest appear by Divine Appointment to have been commemorated among the Jews by Years as well as by Days the same Primitive spaces or periods were equally Days and Years also 4. The Works of the Creation by the Sacred History concurring with Ancient Tradition appear to have been leisurely regular and gradual without any precipitancy or acceleration by a Miraculous hand on every occasion Which is impossible to be suppos'd in those Days of twenty four short hours only but if they were as long as the present Hypothesis supposes they were truly agreeable and proportionable to the same productions Which consequence will be so easily allow'd me that I may venture to say That as certain as is the regular and gentle the natural and leisurely procedure of the Works of the Creation of which I know no good Reason from any Warrant sacred or prophane to make any question so certain is the Proposition we are now upon or so certainly the Primitive Days and Years were all one 5. Two such Works are by Moses ascrib'd to the third Day which if that were not longer than one of ours now are inconceiveable and incompatible On the former part of this Day the Waters of the Globe were to be drain'd off all the dry Lands into the Seas and on the same Day afterward all the Plants and Vegetables were to spring out of the Earth Now the Velocity of running Waters is not so great as in a part of one of our short Days to descend from the middle Regions of the dry Land into the Seas adjoyning to them nor if it were could the Land be dry enough in an instant for the Production of all those Plants and Vegetables which yet we are assur'd appear'd the same Day upon the face of it which Difficulties vanish if we allow the primitive Days to have been Years also as will more fully be made appear in due place 6. Whatever might possibly be
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
wast thou made before the hills Lord thou hast been our dwelling place from one generation to another Before the mountains were brought forth or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God And indeed these three last Phaenomena are in their own Natures so linked together they so depend on and infer one another mutually that the proofs of each of them singly may justly be esteemed under the same Character to both the other and all of them are thereby establish'd past all rational Contradiction Of which whole matter Dr. Woodward's Observations are a sufficient Attestation also XVIII The Waters of the Seas in the Primitive Earth were Salt and those of the Rivers Fresh as they are at present and each as now were then stor'd with great plenty of Fish This appears from the difference of the Species and Natures of Fishes some being produc'd and nourish'd by Salt Water others by Fresh and yet all created on the fifth Day And this in all its parts is confirm'd by Dr. Woodward's Observations XIX The Seas were agitated with a like Tide or Flux and Reflux as they are at present There is in it self no reason to doubt of this and 't is moreover attested by Dr. Woodward's Observations XX. The Productions of the Primitive Earth as far as we can guess by the remainders of them at the Deluge differ'd little or nothing from those of the present either in Figure Magnitude Texture of Parts or any other correspondent respect This is prov'd by Dr. Woodward's Observations XXI The Primitive Earth had such Metals and Minerals in it as the Present has In the land of Havilah there was gold and the gold of that land was good there was bdellium and the onyx-stone Tubal-cain was an instructer of every artificer in brass and iron Which is withal attested by Dr. Woodward's Observation XXII Arts and Sciences were invented and improv'd in the first Ages of the World as well as they since have been Abel was a keeper of sheep but Cain was a tiller of the ground Cain builded a city and called it after the name of his son Enoch Jabal was the father of such as dwell in tents and of such as have cattel Jubal was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ Tubal-cain was an instructer of every artificer in brass and iron See also the Right Reverend Bishop Patrick on Gen. iv 20 21 22 25. and v. 18. CHAP. II. Phaenomena relating to the Primitive State of the Earth XXIII THE Primitive State of the Earth admitted of the primary Production of Animals out of the Waters and dry Ground which the subsequent States otherwise than in the ordinary method of Generation have been incapable of This appears from the History of the Creation compar'd with that of Nature ever since By the former of which agreeing with the oldest Traditions 't is evident That the Fishes and Fowls were the immediate Productions or Off-spring of the Waters and the Terrestrial Animals of the Dry-land in the Primitive State of the Earth And by the latter 't is equally so that neither of those Elements have assorded the like ever since XXIV The Constitution of Man in his Primitive State was very different from that ever since the Fall not only as to the Temper and Perfections of his Soul but as to the Nature and Disposition of his Body also This the whole Drift and Series of the Sacred History of this Primitive State supposes in which these two Particulars may here be taken notice of 1. Nakedness was no shame and so no sense of any need to cover it does appear Those Inclinations which provide for the Propagation of Mankind were it seems so regular and so intirely under the command of Reason that not so much as an Apron was esteem'd necessary to hide those Parts which all the World have since thought proper to do 2. The Temper of the Humane Body was more soft pliable and alterable than now it is Some sorts of Fruits and Food were capable of causing a mighty change therein either to fix and adapt it to its present Condition or discompose and disorder it i. e. in other words either to render it Permanent and Immortal on the one hand or to devolve upon it Diseases Corruption and Mortality on the other What concerns the Soul or its moral Perfections is without the compass of this Theory and not here to be consider'd XXV The Female was then very different from what she is now particularly she was in a state of greater equality with the Male and little more subject to Sorrow in the Propagation of Posterity than he 1. Her Names were as much as possible the very same with his The Husband was call'd Adam the Wife Adamah the Husband Issch the Wife Isschah God called their Name Adam in the day that they were created She shall be called Isschah because she was taken out of Issch. 2. We find little to infer any Inequality or Subjection till after the Fall Adam said This is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife and they shall be one flesh Unto the woman God said after the Fall thy desire shall be subject to thine husband and he shall rule over thee 3. Her pains in Conception and Childbirth were inconsiderable in comparison of what they since have been Unto the woman God said after the Fall I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children XXVI The other Terrestrial Animals were in a state of greater Capacities and Operations nearer approaching to reason and discourse and partakers of higher degrees of Perfection and Happiness than they have been ever since This appears 1. From the necessity or occasion of a particular view and distinct consideration of each Species of Animals before Adam was satisfied that none of them were a Help meet for him or suitable to his Faculties and Condition 2. From the Serpent's discourse with the Woman In which tho' the Old Serpent the Devil was also concern'd yet the particular Subtilty of the Serpent is taken notice of as a means of her Deception and a Curse denounced and inflicted on the same Beast upon account thereof Now the Serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made c. I fear lest by any means as the Serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty The Lord God said unto the serpent Because thou hast done this thou art cursed above all cattel and above every beast of the field upon thy belly shalt thou go and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life 3. From St. Paul's Discourse in the Eighth Chapter to the Romans For the earnest expectation of the
no Winds to collect them where the Climates preserv'd their own proper temperature no Storms must have hurried the Air from colder to hotter or from hotter to colder Regions where was no Rainbow there must have been no driving together the separate Vapours into larger Globules or round drops of Rain the immediate requisite thereto This is also highly probable by reason of the perpetual tranquility of the Air for the first five intire Months of the Deluge as will be prov'd anon which is scarce supposable if Storms and Tempests were usual before XL. The Antediluvian Air had no Rainbow as the present so frequently has God said after the Deluge This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you for perpetual generations I do set my bow in the cloud and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth And it shall come to pass when I bring a cloud over the earth that the bow shall be seen in the cloud And I will remember my covenant which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh And the bow shall be in the cloud and I will look upon it that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth And God said unto Noah this is the token of the covenant which I have establish'd between me and all flesh that is upon the earth XLI The Antediluvians might only Eat Vegetables but the Use of Flesh after the Flood was freely allow'd also God said to our first Parents in Paradise Behold I have given you every herb bearing seed which is upon the face of all the earth and every tree in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed to you it shall be for meat and to every beast of the earth and to every fowl of the air and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth wherein there is life I have given every green herb for meat And it was so God blessed Noah and his sons after the flood and said unto them Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every fowl of the air upon all that moveth upon the earth and upon all the fishes of the sea into your hand are they delivered Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you even as the green herb have I given you all things To which when the Prince of Latin Poets so exactly agrees let us for once hear him in the present case Ante etiam sceptrum Dictaei Regis antè Impia quà m caesis gens est epulata juvencis Aureus in terris hanc vitam Saturnus agebat XLII The Lives of the Antediluvians were more universally equal and vastly longer than ours now are Men before the Flood frequently approaching near to a thousand which almost none now do to a hundred years of Age. This is both fully attested by the most ancient Remainders of prophane Antiquity and will be put past doubt hereafter by a Table of the Ages of the Antediluvians out of the fifth Chapter of Genesis Semotique priùs tarda necessitas Leti corripuit gradum XLIII Tho' the Antediluvian Earth was not destitute of lesser Seas and Lakes every where disper'd on the Surface thereof yet had it no Ocean or large receptacle of Waters separating one Continent from another and covering so large a portion of it as the present Earth has This is evident Because 1. the number of the Antediluvians before assign'd must have been too numerous for the Continents alone to maintain 2. The Ark appears to have been the first Pattern and Instance for Navigation which had there been an Ocean must have been very perfect long before and this seems probable from the constant silence concerning Navigation in the Golden Age from the common Opinion of all Authors and from the necessity of the most minute and particular Directions from God himself to the Fabrick of it in the Mosaick History 3. That famous Tradition among the Ancients of the drowning a certain vast Continent call'd Atlantis bigger than Africa and Asia seems to be a plain Relique of the Generation of the Ocean at the Deluge and consequently of that Antediluvian State where the greatest part of what the Ocean now possesses was Dry-land and inhabited as well as the rest of the Globe 4. The Generation of the Ocean with the Situation of the present great Continents of the Earth will be so naturally and exactly accounted for at the Deluge that when that is understood there will remain to those who are satissied with the other Conclusions small reason to doubt of the truth of this before us 5. The Testimony of Josephus if the Theorist hit upon his true Sense is agreeable who says At the Deluge God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 chang'd the Continent into Sea CHAP. IV. Phaenomena relating to the Universal Deluge and its Effects upon the Earth XLIV IN the Seventeenth Century from the Creation there happen'd a most extraordinary and prodigious Deluge of Waters upon the Earth This general Assertion is not only attested by a large and special Account of it in the Sacred Writings but by the universal Consent of the most ancient Records of all Nations besides as may be seen in the Authors quoted in the Margin and is put moreover past doubt by Dr. Woodward's Natural Observations XLV This prodigious Deluge of Waters was mainly occasion'd by a most extraordinary and violent Rain for the space of forty Days and as many Nights without intermission Yet seven days and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights The windows of heaven were opened and the rain was upon the Earth forty days and forty nights And the flood was forty days upon the earth XLVI This vast quantity of Waters was not deriv'd from the Earth or Seas as Rains constantly now are but from some other Superior and Coelestial Original This is evident Because 1. the Antediluvian Air as was before prov'd never retain'd great quantities of Vapours or sustained any Clouds capable of producing such considerable and so lasting Rains as this most certainly was 2. The quantity of Waters on the Antediluvian Earth where there was no Ocean as we saw just now was very small in comparison of that at present and so could contribute very little towards the Deluge 3. If the quantity of Waters on the Face of the Earth had then been as great as now and had all been elevated into Vapours and descended on the Dry-land alone it were much too small to cause such a Deluge as this was 4. But because if the
at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away They go up by the mountains they go down by the vallies unto the place which thou hast appointed for them LVII This Deluge of Waters was universal in its extent and effect reaching to all the parts of the Earth and destroying all the Land-animals on the intire Surface thereof those only excepted which were with Noah in the Ark. The following Texts especially if compar'd with the thirty third foregoing Phaenomenon and added to Dr. Woodward's Observations attesting the same thing will put this Assertion beyond rational Exception God looked upon the earth and behold it was corrupt for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth And God said unto Noah The end of all flesh is come before me Behold I even I do bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destory all flesh wherein is the breath of life from under heaven and every thing that is in the earth shall dye Every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth All the high hills that were under the whole heaven were covered And all flesh died that moved upon the earth both of fowl and of cattel and of beast and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth and every man All in whose nostrils was the breath of life all that was in the dry land died And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground both man and cattel and the creeping thing and the fowl of the heaven and they were destroyed from the earth and Noah only remain'd alive and they that were with him in the Ark. LVIII The Waters at their utmost height were fifteen Cubits above the highest Mountains or three Miles at the least perpendicular above the common Surface of the Plains and Seas All the high hills under the whole heaven were cover'd Fifteen cubits upwards did the waters prevail and the mountains were cover'd LIX Whatever be the height of the Mountain Caucasus whereon the Ark rested Now it was at that time the highest in the whole World This is evident from what has been already observ'd That tho' the utmost height of the Waters were fifteen Cubits above the highest Mountains and so many hundreds nay thousands above the most of them yet did the Ark rest on the very first day on which the Waters began to diminish more than two Months before the emerging of the tops of the other Mountains As is evident from the Texts following The waters prevailed upon the earth from the seventeenth day of the second to the seventeenth day of the seventh month an hundred and fifty days And God remembred Noah and all the cattel that was with him in the Ark and God made a wind to pass over the earth and the waters asswaged The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped and the rain from heaven was restrained And the waters returned from off the earth continually and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated And the Ark rested in the seventh month on the seventeenth day of the month upon the mountains of Ararat And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month in the tenth month on the first day of the month were the tops of the mountains seen LX. As the Fountains of the great Deep were broken up at the very same time that the first Rains began so were they stopp'd the very same time that the last Rains ended on the seventeenth day of the seventh Month. The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped and the rain from heaven was restrained LXI The abatement and decrease of the Waters of the Deluge was first by a Wind which dried up some And secondly by their descent through those Fissures Chaps and Breaches at which part of them had before ascended into the Bowels of the Earth which received the rest To which latter also the Wind by hurrying the Waters up and down and so promoting their lighting into the beforemention'd Fissures was very much subservient God made a wind to pass over the earth and the waters asswaged The waters returned from off the earth continually or going and returning Who shut up the sea with doors when it brake forth as if it had issued out of the womb When I brake up for it my decreed place and set bars and doors and said Hitherto shalt thou come but no further and here shall thy proud waves be stayed Thou coveredst the earth with the deep as with a garment the waters stood above the mountains At thy rebuke they fled at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away They went up by the mountains they went down by the vallies unto the place which thow hadst appointed for them Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass that they turn not again to cover the earth LXII The dry Land or habitable Part of the Globe is since the Deluge divided into two vast Continents almost opposite to one another and separated by a great Ocean interpos'd between them This every Map of the Earth is a sufficient proof of LXIII One of these Continents is considerably larger than the other This is evident the same way with the former LXIV The larger Continent lies most part on the North-side of the Equator and the smaller most part on the South This if we take South-America the most considerable and intire Branch of the whole for the Continent here referr'd to as 't is reasonable to do is also evident the same way with the former LXV The Middle or Center of the North-Continent is about sixteen or eighteen degrees of Northern Latitude and that of the South about sixteen or eighteen degrees of Southern Latitude This may soon be found by measuring the Boundaries of the several Continents on a Globe or Map and observing the Position of their Centers LXVI The distance between the Continents measuring from the larger or Northern South-Eastward is greater than that the contrary way or South-Westward This is evident by the like means with the former It being farther from China or the East-Indies to America going forward South-East than from Europe or Africa going thither South-West LXVII Neither of the Continents is terminated by a round or even circular Circumference but mighty Creeks Bays and Seas running into them and as mighty Peninsula's Promontories and Rocks jetting out from them render the whole very unequal and irregular This none who ever saw a Globe or Map of the World can be ignorant of LXVIII The depth of that Ocean which separates these two Continents is usually greatest farthest from and least nearest to either of the same Continents there being a gradual descent from the Continents to the middle of the Ocean which is the deepest of all This is a Proposition very well-known in Navigation and in
several Sea Charts relating thereto may easily be observ'd LXIX The greatest part of the Islands of the Globe are situate at small distances from the Edges of the great Continents very few appearing near the middle of the main Ocean This the bare Inspection into a Map or Globe of the World will soon give satisfaction in LXX The Ages of Men decreas'd about one half presently after the Deluge and in the succeeding eight hundred or nine hundred Years were gradually reduced to that standard at which they have stood ever since This the following Tables will easily evince Ages of the Antediluvians in their Years Ages of the Postdiluvians in the present Years Adam 930 Noah 950 Seth 912 Sem 600 Enos 905 Arphaxad 438 Cainan 910 Salah 433 Mahalaleel 895 Heber 464 Jared 962 Phaleg 239 Enoch translated 365 Reu 239 Methuselah 969 Serug 230 Lamech 777 Nahor 148 Noah 950 Terah 205 Sem 600 Abraham 175   Isaac 180   Jacob 147   Joseph 110 The days of our years are threescore years and ten and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years yet is their strength labour and sorrow for it is soon cut off and we fly away In the Days of Moses LXXI Our upper Earth for a considerable depth even as far as we commonly penetrate into it is Factitious or newly acquir'd at the Deluge The ancient one having been covered by fresh Strata or Layers of Earth at that time and thereby spoil'd or destroy'd as to the use and advantage of Mankind I will destroy them with the Earth Neither shall there any more be a flood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to destroy corrupt or spoil the Earth This is moreover evident by the vast numbers of the Shells of Fish Bones of Animals Intire or Partial Vegetables buried at the Deluge and Inclosed in the Bowels of the present Earth and of its most solid and compacted Bodies to be commonly seen at this day Whose truth is attested not only by very many occasional remarks of others but more especially by the careful and numerous Observations of an Eye-witness the Learned Dr. Woodward 'T is true this excellent Author was forc'd to imagine and accordingly to assert That the Ancient Earth was dissolv'd at the Deluge and all its parts separated from one another and so the whole thus dissolv'd and separate taken up into the Waters which then cover'd the Earth till at last they together setled downward and with the fore-mentioned Shells Bones and Vegetables inclosed among the rest of the Mass compos'd again that Earth on which we now live But this Hypothesis is so strange and so miraculous in all its parts 't is so wholly different from the natural Series of the Mosaick History of the Deluge takes so little notice of the forty days rain the principal cause thereof is so contrary to the Universal Law of mutual Attraction and the specifick gravities of Bodies accounts for so few of the before-mention'd Phaenomena of the Deluge fixes the time of the year for its commencing so different from the truth implies such a sort of new Formation or Creation of the Earth at the Deluge without warrant for the same is in some things so little consistent with the Mosaick Relation and the Phaenomena of nature and upon the whole is so much more than his Observations require that I cannot but dissent from this particular Hypothesis tho' I so justly honour the Author and so highly esteem and frequently refer to the Work it self All that I shall say farther is this That the Phaenomena of the interior Earth by this Author so exactly observ'd are on the common grounds or notions of the Deluge which suppose the Waters to have been pure without any other mixtures so unaccountable and yet so remarkable and evident that if no other rational solution could be offer'd 't were but just and necessary to admit whatever is asserted by this Author rather than deny the reality of those Phaenomena or ascribe the plainest remains of the Animal and Vegetable Kingdom to the sportings of Nature or any such odd and Chimaerical occasions as some persons are inclinable to do But withal I must be allow'd to say and the Author himself will not disagree That his Hypothesis includes things so strange wonderful and surprizing that nothing but the utmost necessity and the perfect unaccountableness of the Phaenomena without it ought to be esteem'd sufficient to justifie the belief and introduction of it Which straits that account of the Deluge we are now upon not forcing me into as will appear hereafter I have I think but just reasons for my disbelief thereof and as just or rather the same reason to embrace that Assertion we are now upon That this upper Earth as far as any Shells Bones or Vegetables are found therein was adventitious and newly acquir'd at the Deluge and not only the old one dissolv'd and resetled in its ancient place again LXXII This Factitious Crust is universal upon the Tops of the generality of Mountains as well as in the Plains and Valleys and that in all the known Climates and Regions of the World This is fully attested by the Observations of the same Author and those which he procur'd from all parts of the World conspiring together 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 This is proved by the same Author's Observations LXXIV All this Heterogeneous 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 This is prov'd by the same Observations 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 This is prov'd by the same Observations 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 several 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 This is prov'd by the same Observations 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 This is prov'd by the same Observations LXXVIII These Strata
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
Dust would be the lowest and the Water swim uppermost on the surface of the other without mingling therewith yet will the latter immediately sink downwards and so throughly drench and satiate the said Mass before any will remain on the top that its proportion to that of the Solid parts will be very considerable Which being apply'd to the point before us will take away all imaginable difficulty in the case It being evident without this comparison that such Watery Particles as were already intermix'd with the others would remain where they were and with this equally so that the rest which were above the same upon the first subsidence of the Earthy Strata would penetrate pervade and saturate the same So that on this first Day or Year of the Creation the Earthy and Denser parts would take their places lowest on the surface of the great Abyss would settle in part into the same and compose an Orb of Earth and in its Interstices and little Cavities all such Watery Particles as were already in this Region or descended upon it before its consolidation would be enclos'd and that as far above the surface of the Abyss to which they would be contiguous as their quantity could enable them to reach On this first Day or Year also the upper Regions of the Chaos being now in some measure freed from those Earthy and Opake Masses which before excluded the same and caused the before-mention'd thick Darkness would in some degree admit the Rays of the Sun Now therefore that glorious Emanation Light the visible part of this days Work would begin to appear on the face of the Earth Now would It by the Annual Motion successively illuminate the several parts of it And now would it consequently cause that natural Distinction between Darkness and Light Night and Day round the whole Globe which was to be accounted for in this Proposition Which progress of the Chaos and state of Nature is well enough exhibited by the Theorist's third Figure which therefore is here delineated Corollary Hence we may observe the Justness of the Mosaick Creation and how fitly it begins at the Production of Light without taking notice of such prior conditions and such preparations of the Chaos which have been before explain'd and were in order of Nature previous to this days Work For this account reaching only to the Visible World and the Visible Effects in it and keeping still within the bounds of sense and of common observation could not better be accommodated to the truth of things and the capacities of all than by such a Procedure The Ancient condition of the Chaos in former Ages was no way here concern'd and so was intirely to be omitted The State of Darkness which immediately preceded the Six Days Work and which with relation thereto was necessary to be mention'd made a very proper introduction and so very fitly was to be hinted at by way of Preface thereto Both which cases are accordingly by Moses taken care of And so the first Period was the Production of Light the Admission of the Rays of the Sun and the Origin of Day and Night depending thereon as the Method and Decorum of things with the apprehensions of the People did both very naturally require For since in this Sacred History of the Origin of things not only the Visible World and the Visible parts of it were singly concern'd But principally the Effects to be enumerated were such as requir'd the Light and Heat of the Sun the one to be View'd the other to be Produced by and without the latter could no more have Been at all than been Conspicuous without the former 'T was very suitable and very natural in the first place to introduce the Cause or Instrument and afterwards in the succeeding Periods to recount the Effects thereof in the World First to acquaint us that the Light and Heat of the Sun were in some measure admitted into the upper Regions of the Chaos and then to relate those remarkable consequences thereof which the succeeding Periods of the Creation exhibited on the face of the Earth Which Order of Nature and Succession of Things is accordingly very prudently and fitly observ'd and kept pace with in this Sacred History VI. The visible part of the Second Day 's Work was the Elevation of the Air with all it s contained Vapours the spreading it for an Expansum above the Earth and the distinction thence arising of Superior and Inferior Waters The formet consisting of those Vapours rais'd and sustain'd by the Air The latter of such as either were inclos'd in the Pores Interstices and Bowels of the Earth or lay upon the Surface thereof VI. When at the Conclusion of the former Day the Heat of the Sun began considerably to penetrate the Superior Regions of the Chaos and the two different Orbs the Solider Earthy and the Fluider Aery Masses began to be pretty well distinguished the same things would proceed still on this succeeding Day The Lower Earthy Strata would be settling somewhat closer together the Watery parts would subside and saturate their inward Pores and Vacuities and the Atmosphere would free it self more and more from the heaviest and most Opake Corpuscles and thereby become in a greater degree tenuious pure and clear than before Whereupon by that time the Night or first half of this Second Day or Year was over and the Sun arose The Light and Heat of that Luminary would more freely and deeply penetrate the Atmosphere and become very sensible in these Upper or Aery Regions Which being suppos'd the proper Effect which were to be next expected must be that vast quantities of Vapours would be elevated into and there sustained by the now better purified Air while in the mean time all the Earthy Corpuscles which were uncapable of rarefaction and with them all such Watery Particles as were so near the Earth that the Sun's Power could not sufficiently reach them were still sinking downwards and increasing the crassitude and bulk of the Solid Earth and of its included Waters From all which 't is easie to account for the Particulars of this Day 's Work The Expansum or Firmament which was this day spread out above the Earth was plainly the Air now truly so called as being freed from most of its Earthy mixtures The Superior Waters All those which in the form of Vapour a half years heat of the Sun with the continual assistance of the Central Heat could elevate and the Air sustain The Inferior Waters those which were not elevated but remain'd below all that fell down with were enclosed in sunk into and if you will lay upon the Orb of Earth beneath And when it is particularly said by Moses that 't was this Expansum or Firmament which was to divide the Superior from the Inferior Waters that is exactly agreeable to the nature of things and suitable to this account It being the Air which truly and properly sustain'd all those Vapours as now it
does the Clouds above the Earth and was thereby the means of separating them from their Fellows in the Bowels or on the surface thereof Which state of the Chaos or Progress of the Creation is well represented in the Theorist's fourth Figure which here follows Corollary I. Hence appears a sufficient Reason why in this Six Days Creation one intire Day is allow'd to the Formation of the Air and the distinguishing the Vapours in the same from those beneath which has hitherto seem'd somewhat strange and disproportionate 'T is certain this Work requir'd as long a time and was of as great importance as any other whatsoever All that Water which the Earth was to have in its Air or upon its Surface till the Deluge being 't is probable intirely owing to this day's elevation of them For had they not been thus buoy'd up and sustain'd on high they must have sunk downward and so been inclosed in the Bowels of the Earth without possibility of redemption and have rendred the Antediluvian World more like to a dry and barren Wilderness than what it was to exceed a juicy fruitful and habitable Canaan Coroll 2. Hence arises a new confirmation that the Days of the Creation were Years also For seeing the quantity of Water which was preserv'd above ground and fill'd all the Seas before the Deluge was no greater than was this Second Day elevated into Vapour had this Day been no longer than one of ours at present the foremention'd quantity would have been so far from saturing the Earth supplying the Rivers and filling all the Seas that every day it would be wholly exhal'd afterwards and suffer the intire Vegetable and Animal Kingdoms to perish for want of moisture All which in the Hypothesis we here take is wholly avoided and a very fit and suitable proportion of Waters preserv'd above for all the necessities of the Earth with its Productions and Inhabitants And this consideration affords one very good reason why the commencing of the Diurnal Rotation was defer'd till after the Formation of the Earth was over there being an evident necessity thereof in order to the providing Water sufficient for the needs of those Creatures for whose sake the whole Creation was ordain'd and perform'd In which procedure plain tokens of the Divine Wisdom cannot but be very conspicuous and observable to us VII The visible parts of the Third Day 's Works were two the former the Collection of the inferior Waters or such as were now under the Heaven into the Seas with the consequent appearance of the dry Land the latter the production of Vegetables out of that Ground so lately become dry VII In order to the Apprehending of the double operation of this Day we must call to mind what state the Orb of Earth was in by this time We have seen already that it had been setling together and fixing it self on the surface of the Abyss from the very beginning of the Creation and we ought to suppose that in the space of two years it was not only become wholly distinct from the Abyss below and the Atmosphere above it but that it was settled and consolidated together and its Strata grown firm and compacted We must farther observe that by reason of its Columns different Density and Specifick Gravity attested to à priori from the Chaos's and à posteriori from the internal Earth's Phaenomena it was setled into the Abyss in different degrees and thereby became of an unequal surface distinguish'd into Mountains Plains and Valleys Which things being suppos'd and consider'd the two Works of this Day or Year of the Creation which are of themselves very different will be easily understood and reconcil'd For when at Sun-set or the conclusion of the last Day we left the Air by half a Years Power of the Sun crowded with Vapours to a prodigious degree upon the coming on of this Third Day and in its Night or former half the said vast quantities of Vapours must needs descend and so by degrees must leave the Air pretty free and take their places on the Surface of the Earth altering thereby their own denomination and becoming of Upper or Coelestial Lower or Terrestrial Waters Indeed if we do but allow the effect to be in any measure answerable to the time we shall grant that in the half year of Night which is the former part of this Third Period of the Creation the main Body of the Vapours must have not only descended down upon the Earth but by reason of the inequality of its Surface and the Solidity withal have run down from the higher and more extant parts by the Declivities and Hollows into the lowest Valleys and most depressed Regions of all must in these places have compos'd Seas and Lakes every where throughout the Surface of the Earth and so by that time the light appear'd and the Sun 's rising began the latter part of this Day the intire face of the Globe which was just before cover'd as it were with the descending Waters must be distinguish'd into overflow'd Valleys and extant Continents into Seas and Dry-land that very Work of this Day we were in the first place to enquire about The waters under the heavens were now gathered together into their respective and distinct places and the dry land appear'd and became fit for the Production of the Vegetable Kingdom Which therefore most naturally leads us to the second branch of this Day 's Work For when this part hitherto was compleated on the Night or former half of this Day which the Absence of the Sun so long together rendred peculiarly and solely fit to permit and procure the descent of the Vapours and when at the same time the Dry Land was now distinguish'd from the Seas and just become in the utmost degree moist and juicy upon the Sun Rising or coming on of the Day-time 't was of all other the most fit and convenient Season for the Germination of the Seeds of Vegetables and the growth of Trees Shrubs Plants and Herbs out of the Earth The Soil Satur'd and Fatned by the foregoing half Year's descent of Vapours was now like the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that fruitful Seminary of the Vegetable and Animal productions of Primitive Nature so much celebrated by all Antiquity An intire half year of the Sun's presence together was a time as proper and as natural for such a purpose as could possibly be desir'd And when there was this half Year of Day to spare in this Period of the Creation after one Work was compleated and the same was so very fitly prepar'd and dispos'd for the production of Vegetables 't is no wonder that this above all the other Divisions has a double Task and that the Seas and Dry Land were distinguish'd and the Vegetables produc'd on the same Day or Year of the Creation according as from the Mosaick History the present Proposition asserts And if we allow for the defect of the inequalities of the
outward Surface too small to be therein consider'd and suppose the Atmosphere somewhat clearer than before the former figure will still serve well enough and represent the progress and state of the Earth at the conclusion of this Third Day Corollary 1. When according to our present accounts of these matters this is the only day of the Creation to which a double work and that the one quite different from the other ought to be ascrib'd and is ascrib'd by Moses The Night being peculiarly fit for the former and the Day for the latter operation which could happen on none of the other Periods This exactness of correspondence ought to be esteem'd an Evidence of the literal sense of the Writer and of his accommodation to the nature of things and a very considerable confirmation of those Hypotheses on which it so naturally depends Coroll 2. Hence arises a Confirmation of what was before asserted that the Antediluvian Earth had only lesser Lakes and Seas not a vast Ocean For when the quantity of Waters belonging to the Earth and Air at first was no more than was elevated in one half year and at once sust ain'd by the Air no one will imagine it sufficient to fill the intire Ocean alone if there had been neither lesser Seas nor Rivers to be supply'd therewith And so vice versa It having been prov'd by other Arguments that there was no Ocean but only lesser Seas before the Flood This Account which affords sufficient quantity of Water for the latter but not for the former is thereby not a little confirm'd Coroll 3. Tho' the Heat and Influence of the Sun was on this Third Day very great yet was his Body not yet Visible For since at his Rising the Earth and lowest Regions of the Air were very full of moisture while the higher Regions were very clear and bright the force of his heat would be so great as to elevate considerable quantities of Vapours on a sudden and thereby e're the lowest Air had deposited its Vapours and rendred it self transparent the Sun would anew hide himself in a thick Mist and so prevent his own becoming conspicuous which otherwise 't is not improbable he might this Day have been VIII The Fourth Day 's Work was the Placing the Heavenly Bodies Sun Moon and Stars in the Expansam or Firmament i. e. The rendring them Visible and Conspicuous on the Face of the Earth Together with their several Assignations to their respective Offices there VIII Altho' the Light of the Sun penetrated the Atmosphere in some sort the first Day and in the succeeding ones had very considerable influence upon it yet is it by no means to be suppos'd that his Body was Visible all that while Tho' we every day enjoy much more Light and Heat from the Sun than the Primitive Earth could for a considerable space be suppos'd to have done yet 't is but sometimes that the Air is so clear as to render his Body discernible by us A very few Clouds or Vapours gather'd together in our Air are able we see to hinder such a prospect for Weeks if not Months together while yet at the same time we are sufficiently sensible of his Force and Influence in the constant productions of Nature Which things being duly consider'd and the vastness and density of the Upper Chaos allow'd for 't will be but reasonable to afford a great space even after the first penetration of Light for the intire clearing of the Atmosphere and the distinct view of the Sun's Body by a Spectator on the Surface of the Earth I suppose no one will think the two first Days or Years of the' Creation too long for such a work or if any one does the particular work and state of the Atmosphere on the second Day will prevent the most probable part of such a surmise and shew the impossibility of the Sun's Appearance at that time And the same reason will in a sufficient tho a less degree prevent any just Expectations on the third Day as was observ'd in the last Corollary But now upon the coming on of this fourth Day and the Sun's descent and abode below the Horizon for an intire half year those Vapours which were rais'd the day before must fall downwards and so before the approach of the Morning leave the Air in the greatest clearness and purity imaginable and permit the Moon first then the Stars and afterward upon the coming on of the Day the Sun himself most plainly to appear and be conspicuous on the Face of the Earth This fourth Day is therefore the very time when acording to this Account and the Sacred History both these Heavenly Bodies which were in being before but so as to be wholly Strangers to a Spectator on Earth were rendred visible and expos'd to the view of all who should be suppos'd to be there at the same time They now were in the Sacred Stile placed in the Firmament of Heaven gave Light upon the Earth began to rule plainly and visibly over the Day and over the Night and to divide the Light from the Darkness as ever since they have continued to do And now the inanimate World or the Earth Air Seas and all their Vegetable Productions are compleat and the Tradition of those Chineses who inhabit Formosa and other Islands appears well-grounded and exactly true who hold That the World when first created was without Form or Shape but by one of their Deities was brought to its full Perfection in four Years Which Progress of the Creation and State of Nature is exactly represented by the Theorist's fifth and last Figure which therefore here follows IX The fifth Day 's Work was the Production of the Fish and Fowl out of the Waters with the Benediction bestow'd on them in order to their Propagation IX The Terraqueous Globe being now become habitable both to the swimming and volatil Animals and the Air clear and so penetrable by that compleat Heat of the Sun which was requisite to the Generation of such Creatures 't is a very proper time for their Introduction Which was accordingly done upon this fifth Day or Year of the Creation Those Seeds or little Bodies of Fish and Fowl which were contain'd in the Water or moist fruitful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of kin to it were now expos'd to the kindly warmth of the Sun and the constant supply of a most gentle and equal Heat from beneath they were neither disturbed by the sudden alteration of the Temperature of the Air from the violence of Winds or by the Agitations of the Tide which was both very small in these small Seas and by reason of the absence of the Diurnal Rotation imperceptibly easy gentle and gradual these Seeds I say when invigorated with the Divine Benediction became now prolifick and in this fifth Day 's time a numerous Off-spring of the swimming and volatil Kinds arose whereby the two fluid Elements Water and Air became
Consolidation of the Strata and before the Flood 't is evident that the Diurnal Motion did not commence till after the Annual nay till after the Formation and Consolidation of the Earth And so what on other grounds was before rendred highly probable will appear nearer to certainty on This For 't is plain If the present Diurnal Motion commenc'd either with the Annual or indeed any time before the Formation of the Earth the Figure of the Chaos and so of the Abyss and Upper Earth would originally be that of an Oblate Sphaeroid as it is now the Strata would be all coherent united and continued without any Cracks or Perpendicular Fissures at all and the Origin of Springs on the Doctor 's Grounds must in a natural way be plainly impossible Since therefore the Diurnal Rotations commencing after the Consolidation of the Strata gives a Mechanical and Natural Account of the Chaps and perpendicular Fissures since without the same in the present Case no natural Cause of them is by any assigned since withal 't is unquestionable that there were Springs and Rivers before the Flood and since lastly it appears that such Fissures were necessary to the being of those Springs and Rivers 't is very reasonable nay necessary to suppose that the Diurnal Rotation did not commence till after the Formation and Consolidation of the Earth was over or which is almost all one till the Fall of Man as we formerly asserted 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 XVII This has been sufficiently explain'd already and need not here be reassum'd And that each of these Seas Springs with their Rivers and Mountains were generally the same and in the same places as the present there is no reason to doubt they being usually the very same individuals then and now and so unquestionably cannot have chang'd their primary Situations XVIII The Waters of the Seas in the Primitive Earth were Salt and those of the Rivers Fresh as they are at present and each as now were then stor'd with great plenty of Fish XVIII This has no difficulty in it seeing our present Seas and Rivers are the very same or of the same nature and their several Inhabitants the Spawn or Off-spring of those primitive ones XIX The Seas were agitated with a like Tide or Flux and Reflux as they are at present XIX The presence of the Moon and Sun being the cause of the Tides and those Bodies by consequence being equally dispos'd before as since the Deluge to produce them this Proposition can have no manner of difficulty Only we may take notice of these two things 1. That in the State of Innocence before the Diurnal Revolution began the frequency of the Tide must depend on the Lunar Period and happen but twice in each Month as now it does in somewhat above a days time with us On which account the increase and decrease of the Waters would be extreamly gentle leisurely and gradual without any imaginable Violence or Precipitation 2. That in the whole Antediluvian State the Tides were lesser than since by reason of the smallness of the Seas then in comparison of the great Ocean from whence now the most considerable ones are deriv'd All which yet hinders not but they might be sensible enough in some Creeks Bays and Mouths of Rivers The peculiar circumstances of those places in that as well as in the present State rendring the Tides the Elevations and Depressions of the Waters there most considerable and violent of all others XX. The Productions of the Primitive Earth as far as we can guess by the remainders of them at the Deluge differ'd little or nothing from those of the present either in Figure Magnitude Texture of Parts or any other correspondent respect XX. These things seem to depend on two Particulars viz. partly on the primary Bigness Figure and Constitution of the constituent insensible Parts or Elements of Bodies and partly on the quantity of Heat made use of in their Production or Coalition Which being suppos'd the Proposition will easily be establish'd For as to the first I suppose they remain invariably the same in all Ages and are by any natural Power unalterable And as to the last whatever be to be said of the State of Innocence or the first Ages succeeding on some peculiar accounts which I believe might be warmer than at present yet as to the times here referr'd to there is no need to suppose any great difference of Heat either from the Sun or the Central Body And indeed all the difference on any accounts to be suppos'd between the Heat before and since the Deluge must be too inconsiderable to be taken notice of in any such sensible Effects as this Proposition does refer to For the Sun's heat was not above a twenty fifth part greater than 't is now and the space of four or five thousand Years makes but a small difference in that of the Central Solid if at first it were heated any whit near the degree mention'd in the Calculation referr'd to in the Margin And tho' its real Heat were decreas'd yet in case its facility of Penetration were increas'd in the same Proportion the heat on the Face of the Earth would still be equal and invariable And so by these accounts the Productions of Nature in all Ages must be pretty equal and agreeable as this Proposition requires Corollary Tho' the Lives of the Antediluvians were so much longer than ours at present yet were they not generally of a more Gygantick Stature than the past or present Generations since have been In all which Ages notwithstanding there have been some of an extraordinary Bigness and Stature and will be still no doubt in the future Ages to the end of the World XXI The Primitive Earth had such Metals and Minerals in it as the present has XXI This is easily accounted for For since the Antidiluvian and the present Earth are either the very same as the lower Regions or at least of the same nature the Off-spring of a Comets Atmosphere as even that acquir'd Crust at the Deluge was 't is no wonder if each of them contain the same Species of Bodies within it XXII Arts and Sciences were invented and improved in the first Ages of the World as well as they since have been XXII There is little need of giving particular Reasons for this All I shall observe is That seeing the Ignorance and Barbarity of the Ages after the Deluge is the greatest Objection against this Proposition 't is avoided in our Hypothesis The insensible tho' prodigious Change of the State of Nature and the perishing of all the Monuments of the old Learning or Arts at the Flood with the want of correspondence in the latter Years to the former Tradition reducing the few remainders of the former State wholly to seek for their
of Life and Health such a Change must have on the Person before-mention'd 't is not difficult to imagine And as easie on a like comparison of the Antediluvian AEther and the present Atmosphere to account for the Proposition before us and shew as well why men dye at all uncertain Periods of Years and have while they live a Precarious State of Health with frequent sicknesses as why none reach any whit near the long Ages of those that before the Deluge continued in Health and Security for near a thousand Years XLIII Tho' the Antediluvian Earth was not destitute of lesser Seas and Lakes every where dispers'd on the Surface thereof yet had it no Ocean or large receptacle of Waters separating one Continent from another and covering so large a portion of it as the present Earth has XLIII From the Original Formation of the Earth above describ'd and its unequal subsidence into the Abyss beneath while in the mean time vast quantities of Vapours were sustain'd above and afterwards let fall upon the Earth its Surface would be unequal its lowest Valleys fill'd with Water and a truly Terraqueous Globe would arise But these two plain Reasons may be assigned why any great Ocean were not to be expected at the same time 1. So Vast and Deep a Valley as the Ocean implies is not in reason to be deriv'd from such a regular formation of the Earth from a Chaos as we have above describ'd No good reason being assignable why in such a confused mixture as we call a Chaos the parts should be so strangely dispos'd that on one side all the Upper Orb for some scores of Degrees and some thousands of Miles together should be Denser and Heavier than the rest and by its sinking deepest into the Abyss produce the vast Channel of the Ocean while on another side the same Orb for as many Degrees and Miles should be universally Rare and Light enough to be very much extant and compose a mighty Continent as the case is in our present Earth Tho' the Atmosphere of a Comet be so truly Heterogeneous and it s Opake or Earthy Masses so unequally scatter'd abroad on the different sides thereof as even setting aside the inequality of the Density and Specifick Gravity of the several Columns might compose an Orb of different Thickness or Crassitude and so cause an unequal Orb on the Face of the Abyss like that we before suppos'd it originally to have been Yet so mighty an inequality as the present Division of the Earth into an Ocean and Continents must suppose is by no means to be allow'd in the Primitive Chaos nor would I suppose by any be asserted if the Generation of those grand Divisions of our Globe were otherwise accountable which on our Principles being so easily done as will soon appear no reason can plead here for their Primitive Introduction And sure those Agitation and Motions of Parts visible in some sort now in Comets Atmospheres and to be however granted in the digestion of its parts at first must sure mix and jumble the parts together to a degree sufficient to prevent so strange an inequality as the Original Existence of the Ocean and Continents must needs imply However 2. The quantity of Water preserv'd above ground was little or nothing more as we have shew'd than the Heat of the Sun and Central Solid was able to elevate and the Air at once to sustain during half a years space the day time of the second Period of the Creation Which how insufficient it must have been to the filling of the great Ocean is easily understood Which things consider'd the Absence of the Ocean as well as the Existence of Seas is very easily accountable in the Antediluvian World CHAP. IV. A Solution of the Phaenomena relating to the Universal Deluge and its Effects upon the Earth XLIV In the Seventeenth Century from the Creation there happen'd a most extraordinary and prodigious Deluge of Waters upon the Earth XLIV WHatever difficulties may hitherto have rendred this most Noted Catastrophe of the Old World that it was destroy'd by Waters very hard if not wholly inexplicable without an Omnipotent Power and Miraculous Interposition since the Theory of Comets with their Atmospheres and Tails is discover'd they must vanish of their own accord For if we consider that a Comet is no other than a Chaos including the very same Bodies and Parts of which our own Earth is compos'd that the outward Regions of its Atmosphere are plain Vapours or such a sort of Mist as we frequently see with us and the Tail a column of the same Vapours rarified and expanded to a greater degree as the Vapours which in the clearest Days or Nights our Air contains at present are and that withal such a Comet is capable of passing so close by the Body of the Earth as to involve it in its Atmosphere and Tail a considerable time and leave prodigious quantities of the same Condensed and Expanded Vapours upon its Surface we shall easily see that a Deluge of Waters is by no means an impossible thing and in particular that such an individual Deluge as to the Time Quantity and Circumstances which Moses describes is no more so but fully accountable that it might be nay almost demonstrable that it really was All which the Solutions following will I think give an easie and mechanical account of XLV This prodigious Deluge of Waters was mainly occasion'd by a most extraordinary and violent Rain for the space of forty Days and as many Nights without intermission XLV When the Earth passed clear through the Atmosphere and Tail of the Comet in which it would remain for about 10 or 12 hours as from the Velocity of the Earth and the Crassitude of the said Tail on Calculation does appear it must acquire from the violence of the Column of Vapours descend towards the Sun impeded by the Earth's Interposition and Reception of the same and from the Attractive Power of the Earth it self withal enforcing more to descend it must I say acquire upon its Surface immense quantities of the Vapours before mention'd A great part of which being in a very Rare and Expanded condition after their Primary Fall would be immediately mounted upward into the Air and afterward descend in violent and outragious Rains upon the Face of the Earth All those Vapours which were rarer and lighter than that Air which is immediately contiguous to the Earth must certainly ascend to such a height therein where its Density and Specifick Gravity were correspondent as far as that Croud of their fellow Vapours with which the Air was oppress'd would give leave And so afterwards as they cool'd thicken'd and collected together like our present Vapours must descend in most prodigious Showers of Rain for a long time afterwards and very naturally occasion that forty Days and forty Nights Rain mention'd in the Proposition before us XLVI This vast quantity of Waters was not deriv'd from the Earth or Seas
Altitude were 1103 Feet Which quantity being twice acquir'd must be doubled and then will amount to a Cylinder whose Basis were the same as above and whose Altitude were double the others or 2206 Feet Now Archimedes has demonstrated that the intire Superficies of a Sphere or Globe is four times as large as the Area of one of its great Circles And by consequence the Column of Vapour before-mention'd when converted into Rain Water and spread upon the Face of the Earth would cover the Globe intirely round had there been no Dryland or Mountains extant above the Surface of the Plains and Seas a quarter of the height last assign'd or 5411 2 Feet every way Which being suppos'd and what was at the first Postulated of the Atmosphere's quota the whole Water afforded by the Comet-will cover the Earth intirely to the perpendicular height of the 541c1 2 Feet To which add by the Original Postulatum the equal quantity ascending from the Bowels of the Earth the Total amounts to 10821 Feet or above two Miles perpendicular Altitude Which when allowance is made for those large spaces taken up by the extant Dry Land and Mountains will approach very near that three Miles perpendicular height requir'd by the present Phaenomenon Corollary If the several particulars requisite to the nice adjustment of these Computations were more exactly enquir'd into some light on the present Hypothesis might be afforded to the Density of the Atmospheres and Tails of Comets which is hitherto undetermin'd the consideration of which matter must be refer'd to Astronomers LIX Whatever be the height of the Mountain Caucasus whereon the Ark rested now it was at that time the highest in the whole World LIX If we consult the Figure here refer'd to we shall easily apprehend the Reason of this otherwise strange Phicnomenon For seeing this Mountain was the highest in Asia or the middle Regions of our Continent and seeing withal that intire Continent and chiefly the middle Regions thereof were elevated by the greatest protuberance of the Abyss dbc above any other correspondent parts of the whole Globe the absolute or intire height of this Mountain arises not only from its proper Altitude above the neighbouring Plains but also from the Elevation of the whole Continent or peculiarly of its middle Regions above the Ancient Surface of the Seas so that by this advantage of situation it was at the time here concern'd higher not only than its Neighbours which its own Elevation was sufficient for but than any other on the Face of the whole Earth Some of which otherwise it could I believe by no means have pretended to match much less to out-do in Altitude Now altho' the presence of the Comet which produc'd these Tides in the Abyss and elevated the intire Continents above their ancient level did not remain after the Disruption of the Fountains of the Deep on the first day of the Deluge yet the Effect thereof the Elevation of the Continents above their ancient Level would not so soon nay would scarce ever intirely cease We know by common observation that if a Solid or Setled Mass of Bodies be torn or pull'd in pieces 't is not easie to put every thing into its place and reduce the whole to the same fixed Position and within the same fixed limits it had before If a solid compacted mound of Earth were once shatter'd and divided were levell'd and remov'd tho' afterward every individual Dust of the former Earth were laid together again upon the very same Plot and Compass yet would individual Dust of the former Earth were laid together again upon the very same Plot and Compass yet would it not be immediately confin'd within its ancient dimensions its height would be at first considerably greater than before and tho' that in length of time would be by degrees diminish'd by the gradual setling and crouding together of the parts and so some approaches would be made thereby towards its ancient density and lesser elevation yet neither would be intirely attain'd in any moderate space of time at least And this is the very case before us That Oval Figure which the Orb of Earth was stretch'd to at the Deluge would remain for a considerable time and be many years in setling so close together that it might afterward remain fixt and firm for the following generations before which time 't is evident that the Regions near the Center of our Northern or Larger Continent were the highest and those at 90 degrees distance every where the lowest and by consequence at the time of the Arks resting the Mountain Caucasus near the Center of the Northern Continent was elevated above the rest and particularly above the Pike of Teneriff which seems to be at present the highest of all others And thus that terrible Phaenomenon is solv'd which the Reverend Mr. Warren was so puzzled with that even on the allowance of so much Miracle as the creation of the Waters of the Deluge and Annihilation of the same afterward yet could he not account for the Letter of Moses without a forc'd and ungrounded Supposition to the same purpose with the Proposition before us As you will find him and not without reason very emphatically expressing himself on this occasion Corollary 1. Here is a visible instance of the Divine Providence for the preservation of the Remains of the Old World by ordering the building of the Ark near that which would be the highest Mountain in the World that so upon the very first ceasing of the Rains and the beginning of the Winds and Storms it might immediately be safe on the top thereof Coroll 2. The same careful and wise providence is conspicuous in the so accurately adjusting all the circumstances of the Deluge that tho' it should be high enough to destroy the whole stock of the Dry-land Animals and yet but just so much above the Mountain Caucasus as permitted the Ark to rest at the very first decrease of the Waters and the commencing perturbations of the Air and the Waves necessarily ensuing which otherwise must still have destroy'd it notwithstanding the advantage of its situation before observ'd Coroll 3. Supposing the Truth of our first Postulatum of the Verity of the Letter of the Mosaick History as certain as is the greater height of the Pike of Teneriff or of any other Mountain in the World above that of Caucasus Now of which I suppose no body makes any question so certain is it bating unknown causes and a miraculous Power as is always in such cases to be suppos'd that a Comet was the cause of the Mosaick Deluge For 't is certain by the plainest deduction from the express words of Scripture that the Mountain on which the Ark rested was at that time the highest in the World 'T is therefore certain that the Continent or Basis on which Mount Caucasus stand was elevated higher at the Deluge than 't is at present and 't is also certain that no Body or Mass
of Bodies in the whole World can elevate or depress a Continent of the Earth but such as are capable of approaching the same or in other words but Comets and consequently a Comet did approach near the Earth at the time assigned and was the cause of the Deluge Which Chain or Connexion I take to be so strong that I believe 't will not be possible to evade its force and so what on other arguments has been already establish'd is fully confirm'd by this Coroll 4. 'T is equally dcmonstrable that the Upper Orb or Habitable Earth is founded on a Subterraneous Fluid denser and heavier than it self This circumstance being absolutely necessary to account for the Phaenomenon we are now upon For if the internal Regions of the Globe were firm and solid as is commonly suppos'd tho' wholly gratis and without ground Tho' the Comet had pass'd by yet there could have been no elevation of any Continent and the Proposition before us must still have remain'd Insoluble LX. As the Fountains of the great Deep were broken up at the very same time that the first Rains began so were they stopp'd the very same time that the last Rains ended on the seventeenth day of the seventh Month. LX. Tho' I cannot say that the Account of the Deluge now given can determine to a Day the time of the Subterraneous Waters ceasing to spout forth this stoppage of the Fountains of the Deep in Moses yet 't is evident that the time defin'd by the History is very agreeable to that which from the consideration of the thing it self one should naturally pitch upon For since the Ascent of the Subterraneous Waters depended on the Waters produc'd by the Rains as on the beginning of those Rains it began to ascend on the continuance thereof continued to do the like so at the ceasing probably enough might it cease also as this Proposition assures us it really did LXI The abatement and decrease of the Waters of the Deluge was first by a Wind which dried up some And secondly by their descent through those Fissures Chaps and Breaches at which part of them had before ascended into the Bowels of the Earth which received the rest To which latter also the Wind by hurrying the Waters up and down and so promoting their lighting into the before-mention'd Fissures was very much subservient LXI In order to the giving a satisfactory account of this Proposition and of the draining the Waters of the Deluge off the Surface of the Earth which to some has seem'd almost as difficult to solve as their first Introduction It must first be granted that the Air could receive and sustain but very inconsiderable quantities in comparison of the intire Mass which lay upon the Earth yet some it might and would naturally do which accordingly both the Wind here mentioned and the Sun also took away and turn'd into Vapour immediately after the ceasing of the latter Rains But as to all the rest there is no imaginable place for their Reception or whither their natural Gravity oblig'd them to retreat to excepting the Bowels of the Earth which must therefore be distinctly consider'd in this place Now we may remember from what has been formerly said that the quantity of Solids or earthy Parts in the upper Orbs primary Formation was very much greater than that of Fluids or watery Parts and consequently that the inward Regions of the Earth being generally dry and porous were capable of receiving mighty quantities of Waters without any swelling without any alteration of the external Figure or visible Bulk And indeed if we allow as we ought any considerable Crassitude to this upper Orb its interior Regions might easily contain a much greater quantity of Waters than what was upon the Earth at the Deluge especially when so great a part of them was before there and would only fill up their old places again So that all the difficulty is now reduc'd to this By what Pipes Canals or Passages these Waters could be convey'd into the Bowels of the Earth Which in truth can admit of no dispute nothing sure being to be conceiv'd more natural Inlets to these Waters than those very perpendicular Fissures which were the Outlets to so great a part of them before As soon therefore as the Waters ceas'd to ascend upwards through those Breaches they must to be sure descend downward's by the same and this descent is more natural than the prior ascent could be esteem'd to be which was a force upon them compelling them against their Natures to arise upwards when this retreat into the same Interstices is no other than their own proper Gravity requir'd and inclin'd them to The case here is in part like that of a Sive first by force press'd down into a Vessel of Water till it were fill'd therewith and then suffer'd to emerge again where through the very same Holes at which the Waters ascended into they afterward descended out of the Sive again and retreated into their own Element as before All that in particular deserves here to be farther noted is the Interest of the Wind or of the Agitations of the Waters goings and returnings in the Hebrew Phrase made mention of in this Proposition And these Commotions are in truth very useful and very necessary assistants to the draining of the Waters from off the Earth For when the most part of the Fissures were in the Mountains 't would have been a difficult thing to clear the Vallies and lower Grounds had there been a perfect Calm and every Collection of Waters remain'd quietly in its own place But when the Waters were so violently agitated and hurried from one place to another they would thereby very frequently light into the Fissures and Breaches and so descend as well as the rest into the heart of the Earth very agreeable to the Assertion of this Proposition Corollary 1. Seeing the most of the Fissures were in the Mountains the decrease and going off of the Waters would be greatest at first while the generality of the Mountains were under water and less and gentler afterwards Coroll 2. Several low Countries now bordering on the Seas might for many Years after the Deluge be under Water which by the descent of more of the Waters into the Bowels of the Earth might become Dry-land afterward and by their smoothness and equability shew their once having lain under and been made so plain by the Waters Instances of which are now very observable in the World In particular those parts of Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire which border on the German Ocean appear very evidently to have originally been in the same case as any careful Observer will easily pronounce LXII The dry Land or habitable Part of the Globe is since the Deluge divided into two vast Continents almost opposite to one another and separated by a great Ocean interpos'd between them LXII The Figure in which the Comet left the Earth and which it would in some measure retain
ever after was as may be seen in the Figure an Oval or Oblong Sphaeroid whose longer Axis ab would determine the highest extant Parts of the Earth and whose shorter Axis cd by a Revolution about the Center perpendicularly to the longer Axis would alike determine the lowest or most depress'd Parts thereof When therefore as many Waters were run down into the Earth as the Apertures could receive all that remain'd excepting the ancient lesser Seas somewhat augmented every where must be found in the lowest Vallies or near the shorter Axis's Revolution all round the Globe composing a mighty Ocean while the two elevated Regions near the two ends of the longer Axis were extant above the Waters and compos'd those two opposite Continents of the Earth made mention of in this Proposition Corollary 1. 'T is probable that America is intirely separated from our Continent by the interpos'd Ocean without any Neck of Land by which it has been by many imagin'd to communicate with Tartary Coroll 2. America was peopled from this Continent some Ages after the Deluge by Navigation For seeing there is no Communication between us and them by Land seeing also the Ancient Inhabitants of it perish'd intirely at the Deluge as the Testimony of the Sacred Scriptures the consideration of their lesser Numbers and the impossibility of any Preservation of Men by an Ark any where but at the Mountain Caucasus the highest Hill near the Center of the highest Continent in the World appearing from what has been said do conspire to demonstrate 'T is evident they must have been repeopled by Sea from this Continent Coroll 3. Navigation tho' it was not before the Flood or till then very inconsiderable yet is not so wholly new and late in the World as some imagine Which Observation is very agreeable with the Sacred Records which intimate no less than three Years Voyages in the days of Solomon and with Herodotus who mentions a Voyage through the Red-Sea round Africa and so through the Straights of Gibraltar into the Mediterranean in the days of Neco LXIII One of these Continents is considerably larger than the other LXIII Since in all Tides and so in those Protuberances which occasion'd the present Continents that which respects the Body producing the same is larger than its opposite one 't is evident so it ought to be here and the Continent situate about the Point b considerably larger than the opposite one about a agreeably to this Proposition Corollary In this posture of the Abyss and its incumbent Orb the Earth is correspondent to the Egg its ancient Symbol and Representative not only in its inward and intire Constitution but in some measure in its external Figure also the resemblance between them becoming by this means in a manner Universal LXIV The larger Continent lies most part on the North-side of the Equator and the smaller most part on the South LXIV The Position of the Continents depended mainly on the time of the year when the Comet passed by For since the Comet descended in the Plain of the Ecliptick from the Regions almost opposite to the Sun and came to its nearest distance about 130 degrees onward from the Point in the Ecliptick opposite to the Sun before which and yet scarce till after the Comet were past 90 degrees or the Periphery of the Ecliptick would the Tides be great enough to burst the Orb of Earth and fix the Centers of the Continents By considering the place of the Earth in the Ecliptick and counting about 100 degrees onward one may determine the Latitude of the Point on the Earth directly expos'd to the Comet 's Body and by consequence of its opposite Point also about which Points the two Continents lay Now the Earth being about the middle of Taurus to an eye at the Sun which I always in such cases suppose at the time of the passing by of the Comet about the middle of the second Month from the Autumnal Equinox the latter part of Leo being 100 degrees onward from the Point opposite to the Sun will nearly determine the Latitude of the larger Continent d b c as by consequence will the latter part of Aquarius that of the smaller d a c On which accounts 'tis evident that the larger must be mostly on the North and the smaller mostly on the South-side of the Equator LXV The Middle or Center of the North Continent is about sixteen or eighteen degrees of Northern Latitude and that of the South about sixteen or eighteen degrees of Southern Latitude LXV This Proposition which more nicely determines that Position of the Continents which the last more generally asserted is thus demonstrated Each Continent must retain that Position which it had when its Compages was burst by the Elevation of the Abyss Now the bursting of the Orb is to be suppos'd before the Comets nearest distance and by consequence the Centers of the two Continents a and b ought to have the Latitude of the Points about 90 or rather nearer an 100 degrees onward beyond that opposite to the Sun or beyond the Sun it self So that the Center of the Northern Continent near the South-East point of Arabia and of the Southern near the Source of the vast River De la Plata ought to be about the same Latitude with the 20 th degree of Leo and of Aquarius or near 16 degrees the former of Northern the latter of Southern Latitude as this Proposition asserts them really to be Corollary 1. If therefore we were to determine the time of the Year of the Comet 's passing by the Earth or the commencing of the Deluge from the Position of the Centers of our two opposite Continents which depend thereon we ought to assign it near the middle of the second Month from the Autumnal Equinox agreeably to the time already fixt both from the Sacred History and the Calculations of Astronomy at the tenth Hypothesis foregoing Coroll 2. Hence all those Corollaries to the third and fourth Argument of the said tenth Hypothesis are mightily confirm'd To which I refer the Reader for their second perusal the importance of their Subject well-deserving the same at his hands Coroll 3. Hence perhaps we may derive the occasion of that ancient current and much insisted-on Tradition concerning the high or elevated situation of Paradise which is so very much attested to by Antiquity and yet so very strange and obscure in it self For since Paradise as has been already prov'd was very near that point where the Center of our Continent is the East or Southeast Border of Arabia And since withal as we have shewn the same Regions were by the Comet at the Deluge elevated more than any others on the intire Globe and since lastly it would for a long time retain in good measure such its most rais'd situation and continue higher than any other correspondent parts of the Earth this appears a rational Occasion or Foundation of that celebrated Tradition here refer'd
thousand times as many as the said number deducible from the present rate of the Increase of Mankind So that 't is evident That the Antediluvian Fruitfulness and numerous Stock of Inhabitants which are also themselves hereby fully establish'd must have prevail'd servata proportione among the Primitive Postdiluvians for some Centuries or else no Account were to be given of the present numbers of Men upon the Face of the Earth whereby the Verity of this Proposition the Veracity of Moses therein the great importance thereof and the necessity of the present Solution and of that Theory on which it is built are mightily confirm'd Coroll 2. Hence we may nearly determine the Ages of Men for the first eight or nine hundred Years after the Deluge from the length of their Lives given Thus Job who appears to have liv'd at the least between two and three hundred Years must have been contemporary with some of the Patriarchs between Heber and Abraham to whom that Duration of Humane Life belong'd and thus we may examine and determine the Ages of the most Ancient King 's mention'd in Prophane Histories from the like Duration of their Lives or Reigns as the following Corollary will more particularly observe Coroll 3. Neither the Egyptian Dynasties nor the Assyrian Monarchy could be coeval with the first seven or eight hundred Years after the Deluge none of their Kings Reigns set down by Chronologers reaching that number of Years which the length of Humane Life at that time requir'd nay nor any other than Kings now may and do arrive at in these latter Ages of the World Coroll 4. The Antediluvian and Postdiluvian Years mention'd in Scripture were true Years of twelve not fictitious ones of one Month apiece as some that they might reduce the Age of the first Patriarchs to the short term of Life since usually attain'd to have been willing to surmise This fancy is strangely absurd and contrary to the Sacred History and in particular irreconcilable with this Proposition For had the ancient Years been Lunar of one Month and the latter Solar of a twelve by which the same Duration of Humane Life had been differently measur'd the numbers of Years which Men liv'd must have alter'd in the Proportion of twelve to one of a sudden at such a change in the Year referr'd to and not gradually and gently as 't is here evident they did LXXI Our upper Earth for a considerable depth even as far as we commonly penetrate into it is Factitious or newly acquir'd at the Deluge The ancient one being covered by fresh Strata or Layers of Earth at that time and thereby spoil'd or destroy'd as tothe use and advantage of Mankind LXXI 'T is not to be suppos'd that the Waters of the Deluge were merely the pure Element of Water sincere and unmix'd What came from the Comet 's Atmosphere must partake of its earthly heterogeneous Mixtures and what was squeez'd up from beneath must carry up much Dirt and earthy Matter along with it Besides which as soon as the stormy Weather began the soak'd and loosen'd Tops of Mountains would easily by the Winds and Waves together be wash'd off or carried away into the Mass of Waters and increase the impurity and earthy mixtures thereof On all which accounts the Waters of the Deluge would be a very impure thick and muddy Fluid and afford such a quantity of earthy Matter as would bear some considerable Proportion to that of the Water it self Now this earthy Matter being heavier than the Water would by degrees settle downwards and compose first a mighty thick dirty muddy Fluid in the lower Regions of the Waters and at last a plain earthy Sediment at the bottom of them which would at once spoil and bury the old Surface of the Ground and become a new Cruft or Cover on the face thereof Now that we may see whether this Sediment or Crust could be so thick and considerable as this Phoenomenon requires lot us suppose as before the perpendicular height of the Waters of the Deluge to have been three Miles above the common Surface of the Plains and Seas and the thirtieth part only of the intire Fluid on the Face of the Earth to have been earthy Parts sit to compose the Sediment or Crust beforemention'd Let us also remember what has been already-observ'd from Mr. Newton That Earth is at least three times as dense and heavy as Water so that the thirtieth part in quantity of Matter would only take up the ninetieth part of the whole space either in the Waters or when 't was setled down by it self and became a new Crust or Orb upon the Earth If we then divide 15000 the number of Feet in the whole height of the Waters not here to allow for the spaces posses'd by the extant Parts of the Earth by 90 1500 by 9 the quotient will shew the the Crassitude or Thickness of this Sediment or Crust covering the Face of the Earth viz. 166 2 3 Feet one place taken with another indifferently Which quantity fully accounts for the Proposition we are upon and agrees with the Observations made in the Bowels of our present Earth to as great accuracy as one could desire or expect Corollary 1. Hence it appears That the Earth was generally uninhabitable for several years after the Flood This new factitious Sediment of the Waters requiring no little space of time ere it would be fully setled its Strata consolidated its Surface become hard and dry and its Vegetables sprung out of it before which time 't were uninhabitable by Man and the other Dry-land Animals Coroll 2. Hence we may see the Care and Wisdom of Divine Providence for the Preservation and Maintenance of Noah and of all the Creatures in the Ark after their coming out of the same again by ordering all things so that the Ark should rest on the highest Mountain in the World and that the Waters should so little surpass the same that the Sediment thereof could neither spoil the Fruits of the Ground nor render the Surface uninhabitable as it did on the other Regions of the Earth For since the quantity of the Sediment would generally be proportionable every where to the perpendicular height of the Waters over the Surface of the Ground below tho' it would cover all the other Regions of the whole Earth yet on this highest of all Mountains cover'd but a few Days or perhaps Hours with any Waters and they never above fifteen Cubits perpendicular height the quantity of the Sediment would here be perfectly inconsiderable and the Earth would not be at all alter'd from what it was before nor its Vegetables hurt by this Universal Deluge So that this and this only was the spot of Ground capable of receiving the Ark and of sustaining the Creatures therein till afterwards the rest of the Earth became fit for their Descent and Habitation To this spot therefore by such a wonderful adjustment of all the requisite Circumstances of
compos'd in great part of the Earthy Corpuscles or Masses of a Chaos as well as the Primitive Earth was at the Mosaick Creation The very same reasons assignable for the coalescence and consolidation of the former are equally to be suppos'd in the present case and render it equally reasonable with the other And if the Dense Fluid or any parts or steams from that were instrumental to the Original Union of parts at the Primary Formation of the Earth 't is probable there was no want of it at the Deluge The Atmosphere of the Comet and the Fountains of the Deep being both capable of supplying sufficient quantities among the larger plenty of their Watery and Earthy Masses as is plain from what has been already said Neither in case some of it were acquir'd by the means aforemention'd is it to be expected that we ought to see it still on the Face of the Earth as we do the Ocean For seeing this Dense Fluid is much heavier than Water or Earth it would be at the very bottom of all and so either be inclosed in the Pores and Caverns at the bottom of the Sediment or transform'd into a different Body by its composition with the Earthy parts it was enclos'd withal and did consolidate LXXVIII These Strata of Stone of Chalk of Cole of Earth or whatever matter they consisted of lying thus each upon other appear now as if they had at first been parallel continued and not interrupted But as if after some time they had been dislocated and broken on all sides of the Globe had been elevated in some and depress'd in other places from whence the Fissures and Breaches the Caverns and Grotto's with many other irregularities within and upon our present Earth seem to be deriv'd LXXVIII When the Sediment setled down gradually upon the Surface of the Ancient Earth it would compose Strata or Layers as even continued and parallel as one could desire and as the said Surface did permit And had the said Surface been fix'd and unalterable this evenness and parallellism this uniformity and continuity of the Strata would have remain'd unalterable also to this day But since as we have formerly shewn the intire Orb of Earth was at the beginning of the Deluge crack'd chap'd and broken and for many years afterwards would by degrees settle and compose it self towards its former figure and rotundity again tho' the Series and Connexion of the Strata might before they were consolidated be as regular as you can imagine yet when the Basis or Foundation on which they rested and the Surface on which they were spread fail'd by degrees in several places and proportions by the rising of some Columns upwards and the setling of others downwards this Upper Orb or Crust where the Strata were not become intirely Solid like Stone and Marble must follow in great part the fate of the other and be dislocated elevated or depress'd in correspondence to that whereon it rested And have thereby a Set of Chaps and Fissures directly over-against those which were before in the Ancient Earth But as for such places where the new Strata were become Stony or Solid and incapable of a compliance with the under Earth by the settling downward or elevation of its immediate Basis the Primitive Earth those Caverns and Grotto's those Caves and Hollows which appear within the Earth or its Mountains would naturally arise while the Solid Strata like Beams or Arches sustain'd the impending Columns notwithstanding the sinking and failure of their immediate Foundations by which Causes the Surface and Upper Regions of the Earth would become very uneven and full of small irregularities such as the present Phaenomenon assures us of Corollary 1. Hence we see a plain Reason why Mountainous and Stony Countries are only or principally Hollow and Cavernous Some lesser Mountains being perhaps occasion'd by the subsidence of the neighbouring Columns and the Caverns they enclose thereby produc'd and the Solidity of the Strata being the proper Cause of such Caverns in other Cases Of which the softer more loose and pliable Earth was accordingly incapable Corollary 2. Tho' the Ancient Earth were setled and become uneven in the same degree and in the same places as the present is and that before the consolidation of the new Sediment yet the Series of the several Strata one under another on each side of any Fissure would in some measure correspond to one another as if the consimilar Strata had once been united and had afterwards been broken and sunk down unequally as is manifest from the consimilar situation and subsidence of the consimular Corpuscles whereby the like order and crassitude of each Stratum might be still preserv'd tho' not so exactly as if the sustaining Surface had been even and smooth when the Sediment compos'd those Strata and the Fissures had afterward been made through both Orbs at once and caus'd such inequality Coroll 3. Hence would arise mighty and numerous Receptacles of Water within the Earth especially in the Mountainous parts thereof For usually where a solid Stratum sustain'd the Earth above while the parts beneath sunk lower and thereby produc'd a Cavern the Waters would ouze and flow into it from all quarters and cause a conflux or inclosed Sea of Waters in the Bowels of the Earth Which Cavities might sometimes communicate with one another or with the Ocean and sometimes contain Restagnant Waters without any outlet All which are very agreeable to the present Phaenomena of the Earth Coroll 4. Hence appears the Reason of the raging of Earthquakes in Mountainous Countreys and of the bursting forth and continuation of Volcano's there For these Caverns which we have observ'd the Mountainous Countreys to be mainly liable to are fit to receive and contain together Nitrous and Explosive Sulphureous and Inflammable steams in great quantities and withal to admit the Air to fan and assist that Explosion or Inflammation which seems to be the occasion of those dreadful Phaenomena in our present Earth Coroll 5. If therefore there be no other Caverns than these accounted for just now and taking date from the Deluge 't is very probable there were few or no Volcano's or Earthquakes so much depending on them before the Flood Coroll 6. In case what has been or might farther be said be not found sufficient to account for some observations made concerning the inward parts of our Earth but Dr. Woodward's Hypothesis of the Disruption of the before united Strata by a general Earthquake or the explosive force of the Steams of Heat ascending from the Central parts be found necessary such a supposition will by no means disagree with the present Theory For when the Subterraneous ascending Steams were every way stop'd and their ordinary course from the Central to the Superficiary Parts obstructed by the new Sediment or Crust growing fast and setled and in some places Stony and Impenetrable they would be every where preternaturally assembled especially in the cracks breaches and fissures of
probable also which is I think abundantly sufficient to clear this Matter LXXXIX Since the Deluge there neither has been nor will be any great and general Changes in the State of the World till the time when a Period is to be put to the present Course of Nature LXXXIX Seeing we know no other Natural Causes that can produce any great and general Changes in our Sublunary World but such Bodies as can approach to the Earth or in other Words but Comets and seeing withal the next Approach of the Comet will in probability bring the present State of things to a Conclusion and Burn the World of which presently 'T is evident the Earth is secure enough all the intermediate space And as hitherto we accordingly find it has been so we need not fear but it will be preserv'd till the foremention'd Conflagration 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 perish'd by Water so it must by Fire at the Conclusion of its present State XC As we have given an Account of the Universal Deluge from the Approach of a Comet in its descent towards the Sun so will it not be difficult to account for the General Conflagration from the like Approach of a Comet in its ascent from the Sun For 't is evident from what has been already explain'd that in case a Comet pass'd behind the Earth tho' it were in its Descent yet if it came near enough and were it self big enough it wou'd so much retard the Earth's annual Motion and oblige it to revolve in an Ellipsis so near to the Sun in its Perihelion that the Sun it self wou'd scorch and burn dissolve and destroy it in the most prodigious degree and this Combustion being renew'd every Revolution wou'd render the Earth a perfect Chaos again and change it from a Planet to a Comet for ever after 'T is evident this is a sufficient cause of a general Conflagration with a Witness and such an one as wou'd intirely ruine the Make of the present and the possibility of a future World On which last account if we allow the following Phaenomena we must not introduce this at this Period however but see whether a Conflagration of a less destructive and more refining Nature be not to be expected and may not be accounted for And here let it be observ'd that the Central Heat of it self seems sufficient to burn up and dissolve the upper Earth as those who with Dr. Woodward know the Power and Vehemence of the same now and its astonishing Force and terrible Effects in Earthquakes Eruptions of Volcano's and other Phaenomena of present Nature ought to allow if these two things were by any means remov'd I mean the Waters of the Seas and Ocean and the Coldness of the Air For 't is the vast quantity of Waters of the Earth and the Coldness of the middle Region of the Air every where and of the whole Air in the Frigid Zones returning the Vapours cold down again which were sent up into 'em never so hot which seems still to prevent the effects of the Subterraneous Heat and to hinder the Conflagration of the Earth If therefore the passing by of a Comet be capable of emptying the Seas and Ocean and of rendring the Air and its contiguous upper Surface of the Earth extreamly hot and inflam'd no more I suppose will be necessary to a general Conflagration Or if any more Assistance be afforded by the Presence of the Comet it will be ex abundanti and only contribute still the more certainly and the more suddenly to kindle such a fatal Fire and so dreadful a Combustion Now that both those requisite conditions for a general Conflagration wou'd be the consequents of this Passage of the ascending Comet is plain and evident For 1. on the Approach of the Comet a vast Tide wou'd arise in the great Abyss and by the new more considerable and more violent Elevations thereof into the Protuberances and the Sphaeroid Surface of the whole the old Fissures and Breaches wou'd be open'd again and not a few new ones generated not only as at the Deluge in the Mountainous or more loose Columns extant above the Surface of the Waters of the Globe but in all Parts and under the Seas and Ocean as well as in other places which Fissures must immediately swallow up the main Mass or Bulk of the Waters upon the Face of the Ground and send 'em to their fellow-Fellow-Waters in the Bowels of the Earth which was the first and principal step towards a general Conflagration And then 2. the Vapours acquir'd from the Comet 's Atmosphere which at the Deluge were by reason of their long absence from the Sun in the remote Regions beyond Saturn pretty cool at this time must be suppos'd by reason of their so late and near approach to the Sun about the Perihelion exceeding hot and burning and that to so extraordinary a degree that nothing but the Idea of the Mouth of a Volcano just belching out immense quantities of liquid and burning Streams or Torrents of fiery Matter can in any measure be suitable to the Violence thereof Imagine therefore the Earth to pass through the very middle of this Atmosphere for 7000 or 8000 Miles together and to bear off with it a Cylindrical Column thereof whose Basis were somewhat larger than a great Circle on the Earth and whose Altitude were the Number of Miles just now mention'd and then tell me whether the Air and its adjoining uppermost Region of the Earth will not be sufficiently hot and scorching which was the other Step to the general Conflagration Besides all which what quantities of this fiery Exhalation or Torrent of melted liquid Matter wou'd run down the Fissures into the Bowels of the Earth and by joining with the central hot Steams already there invigorate them and accelerate the direful Inflammation and what piercing and scorching fiery Corpuscles the central Body it self during its vicinity wou'd also send out and what an additional Power wou'd thereby be afforded the prevailing Heat I need not say Upon the whole I may appeal to the Reader if the concurrence of all these external Causes to say nothing here of any internal Dispositions in the Earth it self thereto do not appear abundantly sufficient within a little time to set the World on Fire and bring on that terrible Conflagration which both Sacred and Profane Testimonies conspire to forewarn us of and so whether the Theory of Comets does not afford us almost as commensurate and compleat an Account of the last burning as it already has done of the ancient drowning of the Earth XCI The same Causes which will set the World on Fire will also cause great and dreadful Tides in the Seas and Ocean with no less Agitations Concussions and Earthquakes in the Air and Earth XCI Seeing the Eruption of the central
Heat the cause 't is probable of all our Earthquakes the presence of a Comet the cause once already of the most prodigious Tides that ever were and the enflam'd Chaos or scorch'd Atmosphere of the Comet a smaller part of which occasion'd all our Tempests our Meteors our Thunder and Lightning ever since the Deluge will all concur at once and with joint Forces conspire together nothing in the World can be suppos'd more terrible nor more exactly correspondent to the Phaenomenon before us XCII The Atmosphere 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 confus'd Motions and Agitations that the Sun and Moon will have the most frightful and hideous Countenances and their ancient Splendor 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 XCII Those who consider how a Comet 's Atmosphere appears to us after its Perihelion and what large quantities of its newly scorch'd Masses our Air must be clog'd and burthen'd withal will expect no other effects than those here mention'd and will easily believe that all such horrible Appearances wou'd ensue and that in the most amazing Degree and extravagant Instances possible The Theorist's Representation of this Matter will be generally speaking but a fair and just Idea thereof XCIII The Deluge and Conflagration are referr'd by ancient Tradition to great Conjunctions of the Heavenly Bodies as both depending on and happening at the same XCIII In our Accounts of the Deluge and Conflagration there is a notable conjunction of the Heavenly Bodies indeed not such an Imaginary one as the Astrologers so ridiculously make a stir about the bare Position of two or more of the Celestial Bodies in or near the same streight Line from the Eye of the Spectator while they are at the most remote Distances from one another which is a poor jejune thing indeed But a real one with a Witness when three of the Heavenly Bodies the Earth the Moon and the Comet not only are in an Astrological Heliocentrick Conjunction or only seem to an Eye in the Sun to be conjoyn'd together but are really so near as to have the mightyest effects and Influences on one another possible which we have sufficiently shewn in the present Theory and which does peculiarly correspond to the Phenomenon before us Corollary 'T is not improbable but the ancient Tradition that the Deluge and Conflagration some way depended on certain remarkable Conjunctions of the Heavenly Bodies mis-understood and afterward precariously and widely mis-apply'd might give occasion and rise to Astrology or that mighty quoil and pother so many in all Ages have made about the Conjunctions Oppositions and Aspects of the Heavenly Bodies and the Judiciary Fredictions therefrom which even the Improvements of solid Philosophy in our Age have not been able yet to banish wholly from among us the occasion whereof is otherwise exceeding dark and unaccountable 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 referr'd to pretended particularly to determine and stil'd the Great or Platonick Year XCIV If we allow as we ought that in all probability the same Comet that brought on the Deluge will bring on the Conflagration and that the same Comet has not return'd nor is to return till the Conflagration this matter is easie and the correspondence accurate and remarkable For this single Revolution is truly an Annual one and as proper a Year with regard to the Comet as that of our Earth is with respect to us and so may most fitly and naturally suit the Great or Platonick Year taken notice of in the Proposition before us 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 XCV Seeing the Abyss consists of a dense and compact Fluid not capable of any Rarefaction or Dissolution by the most violent Heat imaginable 't is evident that the causes here assign'd can only extend to the upper Orb or habitable Earth without any farther Progress So that the effect of this Conflagration will be the reduction of this upper Earth and its Atmosphere into a confus'd mixt and Chaotick State much such an one as was before observ'd to have preceded the Original Formation of it So that as the Heat decreases 't is but reasonable to expect a kind of Reiteration of the Mosaick six Days Creation or a Renovation of the Primitive State of the Earth to the Description of which therefore I must refer the Reader XCVI The State of Nature during this Millennium will be very different from that at present and more agreeable to the Antediluvian Primitive and Paradisiacal ones XCVI This is apparent from the conclusion of the former Solution XCVII The Earth in the Millennium will be without a Sea or any large Receptacle fill'd with mighty Collections and Quantities of Water XCVII The Primitive Seas depended on two things the former the concurrence of the Central and Solar Heat for an intire half Year together in the Elevation of sufficient quantities of Vapours The latter the Earth's considerable solidity attain'd before the descent of the same Vapours which were to compose the Seas of which we are speaking So that if either of these be wanting in this reiterated Formation of the Earth t is evident the Effect must fail and the Globe be no longer a Terraqueous one after the Conflagration Now the next Proposition but one asserting the probability of the intire absence of the Sun must infer an equal probability of the entire Absence of Seas also according as this Proposition asserts XCVIII The Earth in the Millennium will have no Succession of Light and Darkness Day and Night but a perpetual Day XCVIII In case the Earth's Diurnal Rotation upon which these Vicissitudes depend was retarded so as to be only exactly equal and commensurate to its Annual Motion as the case in the Moon 's Diurnal and Menstrual Revolutions is at present as we have before observ'd the Earth wou'd constantly expose the same Hemisphere to the Sun as the Moon does now to the Earth and all succession of Day and Night for ever cease the one half of the Globe enjoying a perpetual Day while the other
are now about also that it ought to be of peculiar force in the present case Thus also the Builders of Babel said Go to Let us build us a City and a Tower whose top may reach unto Heaven So mention is made of Cities great and fenced up to Heaven The Clouds pass by the name of the Clouds of Heaven nay they are by the Psalmist agreeably to the Interposition of the Expansum Firmament or Heaven on the second day of the Creation between the superior and inferior Waters made as it were its farthest Boundaries and Limits the Waters contain'd in them being call'd Waters which are above the Heavens The very Fowls which still reside nearer to the Earth are stil'd the Fowls of Heaven and were originally appointed to fly above the Earth in the open Firmament of Heaven By all which places 't is evident That the word Heaven is commonly so far from including the Sun or Planetary Chorus much less the fix'd Stars with all their immense Systems that the Moon our attending and neighbour Planet is not taken in The utmost bounds of our Atmosphere being so of this our Heaven also which was the only Point which remain'd to be clear'd But here before I proceed farther I must take notice of a considerable Objection which threatens to wrest this Argument out of my hands and indeed to subvert the intire Foundation of the Proposition before us and is I freely own the main difficulty in this whole matter and 't is this That such a Sense of the words World and Heaven and Earth as has been pleaded for whatever may be said in other cases will yet by no means fit here nor take in all the extent of the Mosaick Creation because 't is certain that neither the Light by whose Revolution Night and Day are distinguish'd nor the Sun Moon and Stars which are set in our Firmament belong to our Atmosphere or are contain'd within those Boundaries within which we confine the present History and 't is equally certain that both of them belong to the Mosaick Creation and are the first and fourth days works therein and by consequence it may be said the Subject of the six days Creation must be the whole System of the heavenly Bodies or at least that particular one in which the Earth is and is stil'd the Solar System Now this Objection is in part already taken off by the Sense in which the Production and Creation of things has been shewn to be frequently taken in the Holy Scriptures whereby there appears to be no necessity of believing these Bodies to have been then brought into being when they are first mention'd in the Mosaick Creation But because this is not meerly the chief but only considerable Objection against the Proposition we are upon because it seems to have been the principal occasion of men's Mistakes and Prejudices about this whole History and because 't is the single instance wherein this intire Theory as far as I know seems to recede from the obvious Letter of Scripture 't will be but proper to give it a particular review and clear withal not only this but several other like Expressions and Passages in the Holy Scripture Now in order to the giving what satisfaction I can in this Point let it be consider'd That the Light being not said to be created by Moses its Original were without difficulty to be accounted for if the other Point the making of the Heavenly Bodies were once setled which therefore is the sole remaining difficulty in the case before us And that would be no harder if the Translation of the Words of Moses were but amended and the Verses hereto relating read thus And God said Let there be lights in the firmament of the Heaven to divide the day from the night and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years and let them be for lights in the firmament of the Heaven to give light upon the Earth and it was so And God having before made two great lights the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night and having before made the stars also God set them in the firmament of Heaven to give light upon the Earth c. or which is all one And God had before made two great lights the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night he had before made the stars also and God set them in the firmament c. In which rendring 't is only changing the perfectum for the plusquam perfectum and every thing is clear and easy and the Objection vanishes of its own accord the Creation of the heavenly Bodies being hereby assigned to a former time and the Work of the fourth day no other than the placing them in our Firmament according as the account hereafter to be given does require Now to prove this a fair and just Interpretation to omit the Creation of the Heavens and Heavenly Bodies already related before the six days work 't is only necessary to observe that the Hebrew Tongue having no plusquam perfectum must and does express the Sense of it by the perfectum and that accordingly the particular circumstances of each place must alone determine when thereby the time present and when that already past and gone is to be understood How many knots in the Scripture the omission of this Observation has left unsolv'd and which being observ'd would be immediately untied I shall not go about to enumerate there being so many in the very History before us of the Origin of the World that I shall not go one jot farther for instances to confirm the before-mention'd Translation and which on the account of their agreement in place will more forcibly plead for a like agreement in Sense also 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 He had rested from all his work which God had created and made The Lord God had not caused it to rain on the Earth and there had not been a man to till the Ground but there had gone up a mist from the Earth and had water'd the whole face of the ground and the Lord God had formed man of the dust of the ground and had breathed into his nostrils the breath of life And the Lord God had planted a Garden eastward in Eden And out of the ground had the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food And out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every fowl of the air In all which places the whole Context is so clear'd by this rendring and so many strange Absurdities avoided that there is I think all imaginable reason to acquiesce in it And tho' the fourth days work is among those other
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
in the World can stand in Competition or so much as pretend to the same Character which it so agreeably corresponds to Which will be the design of and shall be compriz'd under the following Arguments 1. The Names of these two Bodies or Systems of Bodies are exactly the same and equally agreeable to the Nature of each of them The Original Chaos by the Ancient Tradition of the Phaenicians was stil'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in English A dark and stormy Atmosphere Which Appellation the constant Character of that Mass encompassing the Body of a Comet and at the same time of the old Chaos if we suppose it to have been as fitly by Antiquity appli'd to the latter as certainly Observation being judge it is to the former is as proper a one for our present purpose as could possibly be desir'd 2. The main bulk of the ancient Chaos and of the Atmosphere of a Comet is a Fluid or System of Fluids As to the former 't is both necessary to be presuppos'd in order to the succeeding Separation and regular Disposition of the Parts and is confirm'd by all the Accounts of it But Moses himself being express I shall content my self with his single Testimony who not only calls it an Abyss but gives it the stile of Waters Darkness was upon the face of the deep and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters Now that the main part of a Comet 's Atmosphere is also a Fluid appears both by its Pellucidness a thing unusual in Bodies but such as are or once were in a fluid Condition and by those perpetual Changes and Agitation of Parts within the Regions of it which in any other than a Fluid are plainly impossible and which indeed withal have hitherto seem'd so visible and remarkable that thence men were ready to imagine the whole Mass to be nothing else but a Congeries of Vapours or Clouds uncertainly jumbled together and as uncertainly dissipated again 3. The Chaos is describ'd to have been very stormy and tempestuous of which some of the Ancient Writers take particular notice To which those frequent and violent Agitations and Changes those strange uncertain Hurries of Opake Masses hither and thither which the Phaenomena of Comets Atmospheres present us with most exactly agree 4. The Chaos was a mixed Compound of all sorts of Corpuscles in a most uncertain confus'd and disorderly State heavy and light dense and rare fluid and solid Particles were in a great measure as it were at a venture mingled and jumbled together The Atoms or small constituent Parts of Air Water and Earth to which together with Fire the name of Element has been peculiarly appli'd every one were in every place and all in a wild and disturbed Confasion This is the very Essence and enters the Definition of a Chaos in which therefore all both do and must agree And if any one carefully consider the perpetually various Visage of a Comet 's Atmosphere its vast Extent the no manner of Order or Method of its several Appearances and remember that in some Comets it has in its near approach to the Sun been scorch'd and burn'd by a degree of heat many hundred times as Intense as the Sun 's is with us in the midst of Summer he will not wonder that I assert the Parts of this Atmosphere to be in a perfectly confus'd and Chaotick Condition One might indeed as well and as reasonably expect Order and Method in the ruinous Reliques of a City burnt to Ashes or in the Smoke proceeding from the same as in several at least of those Atmospheres we are speaking of 5. The ancient Chaos just before the beginning of the six days Creation was very dark and caliginous Darkness was upon the face of the deep says the Sacred and the very same say the prophane Writers Now when we every Year see how far that small Company of collected Vapours of which a Cloud consists can go towards causing darkness on the Face of the Earth we may easily guess how thick the Darkness of the Comet 's Atmosphere must needs be when all those earthy and watery Corpuscles which flying up and down in the vast Regions thereof do now so often and so much obscure the Comet 's central Body and are here so very sensible when all these I say shall rise up and make a confus'd cloudy Orb on the more confin'd Surface of the Atmosphere of some scores if not hundreds of Miles thick as must happen in the beginning of its Formation If this be not sufficient to account for this thick Darkness on the Face of the Abyss 't will I imagine be difficult to solve it better 6. Our upper Earth the Product of the ancient Chaos being in all probability founded on a dense Fluid or Abyss as will appear in the Sequel the main part of the Fluid of that ancient Chaos by consequence must have been such a dense and heavy one as is here mention'd And indeed 't is in it self but very reasonable if not necessary to allow the inferior Parts of a fluid Chaos to have been compos'd of much denser and heavier Masses than the superior or than Water the main visible Fluid of our Globe For if we consider the matter in any sort according to the Law of specifick Gravity all heavy Fluids must at least as certainly be near the Center as like heavy Solids and 't is but mechanical to allow that in a confused Fluid in some measure as well as exactly in a digested one the Fluids contain'd in the inner Regions must be much heavier than those at or near the outer Surface thereof But besides 't will be hard to account for the confus'd moving state of the earthy Parts or which is much the same the fluidity of the intire Chaos without allowing a much greater quantity of Fluids in it than what we now see with us the Waters of our present Earth and those of a Density and Gravity fit to retain their Posts as well nearer the Central as the superficiary Parts And that on this account of the Comet 's Atmosphere's fixed and dense Fluid 't is peculiarly adapted to the foresaid Description of the Chaos is evident by what has been already observ'd of the same to which I refer the Reader for satisfaction 7. Whereas very many and very considerable Phaenomena of Nature which Dr. Woodward has excellenty observ'd as well as ancient Tradition require and suppose a Central Fire or internal Heat diffusing warm and vigorous Steams every way from the Center to the Circumference of the Earth and whereas 't is very difficult on the common Hypotheses or indeed on any hitherto taken notice of to give a Mechanical and Philosophical Soultion of the same If we will but allow the Proposition we are now upon and that the Earth in its Chaotick State was a Comet a most easy and Mechanical Account thereof is hereby given and
of Inhabitants he would I think be very rash not to say presumptuous in so doing 'T is true he might justly conclude That such Creatures as dwell on this Earth in their present Circumstances could not or at least could not with conveniency inhabit either of them But the necessary consequence of that is only this That as the State of external Nature appears to be in Jupiter and the Moon very different from ours on Earth now so most probably are the State and Circumstances the Capacitities and Operations of their several Inhabitants equally different from those of Mankind at present upon it which is what I fully allow and plead for in the Case before us and which when rightly consider'd may save me the labour of returning any other Answer to the particular difficulty here mention'd and of enlarging upon several other things which might be said to great satisfaction on the present occasion which in prospect thereof shall therefore be no further prosecuted in this place 7. Lastly The present Hypothesis gives an easy Account of the vast change in the Natural on the change in the Moral World and of the sad Effects of the Divine Malediction upon the Earth after the Fall of Man which till now has not that I know of been so much as attempted by any Several have been endeavouring to account for that change which the Deluge made in the World But they are silent as to the natural causes or occasions of a Change which Antiquity Sacred or Prophane being judge was in all respects vastly more remarkable The State of Innocency and that of Sin being sure on all accounts more different from and contradictory to each other than the Antediluvian and Postdiluvian either in reason can be suppos'd or in fact be prov'd to be Now as to the particulars of this Change and the causes of them and how well on the Hypothesis we are upon they correspond to one another I must leave that to the Judgment of the Reader when I come to treat of 'em in their own place hereafter In the mean time this may fairly be said that This being the first attempt at an Intire Theory or such an one as takes in All the great Mutations of the Earth As it will on that account claim the Candor of the Reader and his unbiass'd Resolution of embracing the Truth however new or unusual the Assertions may seem when sufficiently evidenc'd to him So the coincidence of things from first to last through so many stages and periods of Nature and the solution of all the main Phaenomena of every such different stage and period from the Creation to the consummation of all things if they be found just mechanical and natural will it self deserve to be esteemed one of the most convincing and satisfactory Arguments for any single particular of this Theory that were to be desir'd and shew that not any great Labour or Study of the Author but the happy Advantage of falling into true and real Causes and Principles is under the Divine Providence to be own'd the occasion of the Discoveries therein contain'd In all which may these my poor Endeavours prove as satisfactory to the minds of others as they have been to my own and give them the same assurance of the Verity and Divine Authority of those Holy Books where the several Periods are recorded and the Phaenomena chiefly preserv'd which the discovery of these things has afforded my self and I am sure that my Labours will not be in vain IV. The ancient Paradise or Garden of Eden the Seat of our first Parents in the State of Innocence was at the joynt Course of the Rivers Tigris and Euphrates either before they fall into the Persian Gulf where they now unite together and separate again or rather where they anciently divided themselves below the Island Ormus where the Persian Gulf under the Tropick of Cancer falls into the Persian Sea That somewhere hereabouts on the Southern Regions of Mesopotamia between Arabia and Persia was the place of the ancient Paradise 't is past reasonable doubt from two of its Rivers Tigris and Euphrates occuring in the Description of its Situation by Moses And when the following Theory is understood perhaps there will appear reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the place where more nicely it may be supposâ—d to have been to that other here conjectur'd I say When the following Theory is understood for tho' the particular place assign'd be now under Water and a Branch or Bay of the great Ocean yet in probability it might not be so then as will hereafter appear My reasons for this Situation of Paradise are these 1. The Ancient Tradition of the Jews and Arabians was that Paradise was seated under the Primitive Equinoctial which is impossible unless it were as far South as the Tropick of Cancer Under which therefore it ought to be and accordingly is by this Hypothesis plac'd and determin'd 2. 'T will be easie on this Hypothesis for every one to suppose that the other two Rivers or Branches of these Pison and Gihon which have been in vain hitherto sought for must be now lost in the Persian Sea and therefore not to be discover'd nor their discovery to be expected since the Deluge 3. The Countries encompass'd by and bordering on these four Streams or Rivers being alike in part under Water the difficulties arising from the common mistaken Suppositions relating thereto will cease and Light be afforded to the Mosaick Description on the particular consideration thereof 4. The most literal and obvious sense of the Words of the Sacred Historian concerning the situation of Eden and its Garden or Paradise will be accountable and exactly suitable to the state of these Countries according to the present Geography The words of Moses are And the Lord God planted a Garden eastward in Eden and there he put the man whom he had formed And a River went out of Eden to water the garden and from thence it was parted and became into four heads To which the present Hypothesis is correspondent to the greatest niceness if we suppose that Tigris and Euphrates being united as they are now in Babylonia ran in one Stream quite through that Valley which is now cover'd with Water and call'd the Gulf of Persia I suppose the Country of Eden then upon the Exit of which beyond Ormus the said United Streams divided themselves as Nile into seven into four separate branches and by them as by four Mouths discharged it self into the Persian Sea Two of which Streams retain'd the Names of the Original ones Tigris and Euphrates and the other two acquir'd new ones and were call'd Pison and Gihon just before or about which Division that Country stil'd Paradise or the Garden of Eden was I imagine accordingly situate This I take to be the most probable account of this Point and such an one as takes away the perplexities of this matter agrees to the Letter of Moses and the Geography of the
Waters were all rais'd into Vapours and descended in Rain they must either fall upon or run down into the Ocean the Seas and those Declivities they were in before they could only take up and possess their old places and so could not contribute a jot to that standing and permanent Mass of Waters which cover'd the Earth at the Deluge 5. The Expression us'd by the Sacred Historian that the Windows Flood-gates or Cataracts of Heaven were open'd at the fall and shut at the ceasing of these Waters very naturally agrees to this Superior and Coelestial Original XLVII This vast fall of Waters or forty Days rain began on the fifth day of the Week or Thursday the twenty seventh day of November being the seventeenth day of the second Month from the Autumnal Equinox corresponding this Year 1696. to the twenty eighth day of October In the six hundredth year of Noah's life in the second month the seventeenth day of the month the windows of heaven were opened and the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights Thus Abydenus and Berosus say it began on the fifteenth day of Daesius the second Month from the Vernal Equinox which if the mistake arising 't is probable from the ignorance of the change in the beginning of the Year at the Exodus out of Egypt be but corrected is within a day or two agreeable to the Narration of Moses and so exceedingly confirms the same XLVIII The other main cause of the Deluge was the breaking up the Fountains of the great Abyss or the causing such Chaps and Fissures in the upper Earth as might permit the Waters contain'd in the Bowels of it when violently press'd and squeez'd upwards to ascend and so add to the quantity of those which the Rains produced All the fountains of the great deep were broken up The sea brake forth as if it had issued out of the womb XLIX All these Fountains of the great Deep were broken up on the very first day of the Deluge or the very first day when the Rains began In the six hundredth year of Noah's life in the second month the seventeenth day of the month the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up and the windows of heaven were opened L. Yet the very same day Noah his Family and all the Animals entred into the Ark. In the self-same day last mention'd entred Noah and Shem and Ham and Japheth the sons of Noah and Noah's wife and the three wives of his sons with them into the ark They and every beast after his kind and all the cattel after their kind and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind and every fowl after his kind every bird of every sort LI. Tho' the first and most violent Rains continued without intermission but forty days yet after some time the Rains began again and ceased not till the seventeenth day of the seventh Month or a hundred and fifty days after the Deluge began This is very probably gather'd from the mighty increase of the Waters even after the first forty days Rain were over and from the express fixing of the stoppage of the Rains to the last day here assigned The Waters prevailed and were increased greatly And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the Earth The waters prevailed or were increased upon the Earth an hundred and fifty days And God remembred Noah and every living thing and all the Cattel that was him in the Ark And God made a wind to pass over the Earth and the waters asswaged The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped and the rain from heaven was restrained LII This second and less remarkable Rain was deriv'd from such a cause as the former was This Proposition is 1. Very fair and probable in it self 2. Gives an account of the augmentation of the Waters by their fall when had they been only exhaled and let fall again as our Rains now are they would have added nothing thereto 3. Is exactly agreeable to the expressions in Moses who says the Windows of Heaven which were open'd at the beginning of the first were not shut or stopped till the end of this second Rain thereby plainly deriving this latter as well as the former from a Superiour and Celestial original The fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped and the rain from heaven was restrained LIII Tho' the fountains of the great deep were broken up and the forty days Rain began at the same time yet is there a very observable mention of a threefold growth or distinct augmentation of the Waters as if it were on three several accounts and at three several times The flood was forty days upon the earth and the waters increased and bare up the ark and it was lift up above the earth And the waters prevailed and were increased greatly and the ark went upon the face of the waters And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth and all the high hills that were under the whole heaven were cover'd LIV. The Waters of the Deluge increas'd by degrees till their utmost height and then decreas'd by degrees till they were clearly gone off the face of the earth This is evident from the intire series and course of the Mosaick History in the seventh and eighth chapters of Genesis LV. The Waters of the Deluge were Still Calm free from Commotions Storms Winds and Tempests of all sorts during the whole time in which the Ark was afloat upon them This is evident from the impossibility of the Ark's abiding a Stormy Sea considering the vast bulk and particular figure of it For since it was three hundred Cubits long fifty Cubits broad and thirty Cubits high Which is according to the most accurate determination of the Cubits length by the Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of Peterborough above five hundred and forty seven English feet long above ninety one feet broad and near fifty five feet high And since withal it appears to have been of the figure of a Chest without such a peculiar bottom and proportion of parts as our great Ships are contrived with 't is evident and will be allow'd by Persons skill'd in Navigation that 't was not capable of enduring a Stormy Sea It must whenever either the Ridges or Hollows of vast Waves were so situate that it lay over-cross the one or the other have had its back broken and it self must have been shatter'd to pieces which having not happen'd 't is a certain evidence of a calm Sea during the whole time it was afloat LVI Yet during the Deluge there were both Winds and Storms of all sorts in a very violent manner God made a wind to pass over the earth and the waters asswaged Thou coveredst the earth with the deep as with a garment the waters stood above the mountains At thy rebuke they fled
distinct Regions The lower and larger whereof would be a collection or system of dense and heavy Fluids or a vast Abyss immediately encompassing the central solid Body The higher and lesser would be a collection or system of earthy watery and aery Parts confusedly mix'd together and encompassing the said Abyss in the same manner as that did the central Solid And this I take to be the state of Darkness which the Proposition we are upon mentions And that the Chaos particularly the Face or upper Regions of it were at this time in such a dark and caliginous Condition will easily appear For all those Opake or Earthy Corpuscles which before rov'd about the immense Regions of the Atmosphere and frequently even then obscur'd the Central Solid to any external Spectator were now crouded nearer together and instead of flying up and down in or possessing an Orb of 40000 or 50000 Miles in thickness were reduced to a narrower Sphere and confin'd within a space not perhaps in Diameter above the thousandth part of the former and must by consequence exclude the Rays of the Sun in anotherguess manner than before We cannot but observe in our present Air That the very same Vapours which when dissipated and scatter'd through the Atmosphere whose extent yet is not great freely admit the Rays of the Sun and afford us clear and lightsome days when they are collected into Clouds become opake Masses and are capable of obscuring the Sky and rendring it considerably dark to us In the same manner 't is easy to suppose that those Opake and Earthy Masses which in those vaster Regions would but in a less degree and in some places exclude the Beams of the Sun must when collected and crowded closer together on the surface of the Abyss exclude them in a degree vastly surpassing the former must occasion an entire darkness in all its Regions and particularly in those upper ones over which they were immediately collected And if from the former comparison we estimate how few Vapours collected into a Cloud with us will cause no inconsiderable degree of darkness and allow as is but reasonable a proportionably greater degree of darkness to a proportionably greater number of Earthy and Opake Corpuscles crowded to gether we shall not doubt but all manner of communication with the Heavenly Bodies and the External World must be intirely interrupted and the least imaginable Ray or Beam of Light from the Sun excluded not only from the lowest but even all excepting the very highest Regions of this superior Chaos Which state of Nature belonging to this time immediately preceding the Hexameron is not amiss represented by the Theorist's Second Figure which is accordingly here delineated V. The Visible part of the First Day 's Work was the Production of Light or its successive Appearance to all the parts of the Earth with the consequent distinction of Darkness and Light Night and Day upon the face of it V. If we remember in what state we left the Chaos in the last Proposition and suffer our thoughts to run naturally along with its succeeding mutations we shall find that the next thing to be here consider'd for the Subterraneous System of dense Fluids or the great Abyss not coming directly within the Design of Moses is not here to be particularly prosecuted any farther is the Separation of this Upper and Elementary Chaos or Congeries of Earthy Watery and Aery Corpusoles into two somewhat different Regions the one a Solid Orb of Earth with great quantities of Water in its Pores the other an Atmosphere in a peculiar sense or Mass of the lightest Earthy with the rest of the Watery and the Aery Particles still somewhat confusedly mixt together For since this Upper Chaos tho' in general much lighter than the Abyss beneath consisted of parts very Heterogeneous and of different specifick gravities the Earthy being heavier than the Watery and those yet heavier than the Aery Particles 't is evident that in the same manner as this whole mixed Mass was separated from the heavier Abyss beneath must it again separate and divide it self into two such general Orbs as were just now mention'd The former consisting of the denser and solider parts such as the Earthy Claiy Sandy Gravelly Stony Strata of the present Earth with so many of the Watery Particles as either being already in those Regions must be inclosed therein or could descend from above and have admittance into the Pores thereof The latter of the less Solid Lighter and Earthy with the rest of the Watery and the Aery Particles not yet sufficiently distinguish'd from each other This process will I suppose easily be allow'd excepting what relates to the enclosing of the Watery parts within the Earth with relation to which 't is commonly suppos'd that because Water is specifically lighter than Earth it must in the regular digestions of a Chaos take the Upper situation and cover that highest Orb as that would others of greater gravity than it self 'T is also commonly imagin'd that the Mosaick Cosmogony favours such an Hypothesis and supposes the Waters to have encompass'd the Globe and cover'd its surface till on the third day they were deriv'd into the Seas Now as I by no means apprehend any necessity of understanding the Mosaick Creation in this sense so I am very sure 't is contrary to a Philosophick account of the Formation of the Chaos unless one of these two things were certain Either that the quantity of Water were so much greater than that of Earth that all the Pores and Interstices of the latter could not contain it or else that it was generally elevated into the Air in the form of Vapour and sustained there while the Earth setled and consolidated together and did not till then descend and take its own proper place The former of which is neither reconcilable to the Mosaick Creation nor will be asserted by any who knows even since the Deluge how small the quantity of Fluids in comparison to that of the Solids is in the Earth on which we live And the latter is too much to be granted in the present case by any considering person who knows that a Comet 's Vapours constitute the main part of that Tail or Mist which is sometimes equal to a Cylinder whose Basis is 1000000 Miles in Diameter and its Altitude as far as from the Sun to the Earth or 54000000 Miles as it was in the last famous Comet in 1681. represented in Mr. Newton's own Scheme Let the rarity of the same be suppos'd as great as any Phaenomena shall require For to clear this matter by a familiar Instance or Experiment Take Sand or Dust and let them fall gently into a Vessel till it be near full Take afterwards some Water and pour it alike gently into the same Vessel And it will soon appear that notwithstanding the greater specifick gravity of the Dry and Earthy than of the Moist and Watery parts whence one might imagine that the Sand or
and compare the States of External Nature before and after the Fall one with another and with those things which the Propositions we are now upon do assert concerning them 'T is evident then from what has been before laid down hereto relating that the Primitive state of things before the Fall was thus The Earth being newly form'd was scarcely as yet intirely consolidated and so pretty uniformly pervious to the warm Steams ascending from beneath It s Figure was perfectly Sphaerical and its Strata or Layers by consequence were even continued and join'd and so the Central Heat being equally distant from all the parts of the Earth's Surface did very equally diffuse it self and equally affect all the Climates of the Globe The Soil or Uppermost Stratum of the Earth was newly moisten'd by the descent of the Waters before they compos'd the Seas on the Third Day of the Creation and by the plenty of Moisture which it still receiv'd every Night The Air was perfectly Clear Homogeneous Transparent and Susceptive of the utmost Power of the Solar Heat The Seasons were equable or gently and gradually distinguish'd from one another by the Rising Setting Descending and Ascending Sun without any quick Interpositions of Day and Night to disturb them The Torrid Zone of the Earth as I may call those Regions near the Solar Course was very much Expos'd to the Sun and very much warm'd withal by its Vicinage to the Central Solid The Moon in twelve Revolutions equally measur'd out the Year and caus'd the most gentle easie and gradual Tides imaginable This with all its natural Consequents was the State of the Primitive World But as soon as Man had sinn'd and render'd that happy State too good for him or indeed rendred himself wholly uncapable thereof And as soon as God Almighty had pronounced a Curse on the Ground and its Productions presently the Earth began a new and strange Motion and revolv'd from West to East on its own Axis A single 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Revolution of Night and Day either immediately or by degrees according as the present Velocity of the Diurnal Rotation was suddenly or gradually acquir'd returned frequently and became no longer than 24 short Hours while the Annual Motion perform'd on a different Axis distinguish'd the Seasons and in Conjunction with the Diurnal describ'd the Equator and the Tropicks and by the access and recess of the Sun from the last named Circles caus'd it to visit the several Regions enclos'd thereby The Face of the Earth was really distinguish'd into Zones by the Tropicks and Polar Circles truly divided from one another with respect whereto the particular Regions of the Earth chang'd their Situation the Equator being that Circle with regard whereto they were now to be determin'd as they had been before with regard to the Ecliptick and so that Paradise which was before at the middle became the Northern boundary of the Torrid Zone The Figure of the Earth which was before truly Sphaerical degenerated into an Oblate Sphaeroid the Torrid Zone rising about 10 Miles upward and the Frigid one subsiding as much downwards The Compages of the Upper Earth and of its Strata became thereby chap'd broken and divided and so carried up the warm Steams from beneath to particular Conceptacles and Volcano's which before serv'd in a more equal and uniform manner to heat and invigorate the intire Earth and its productons The Tides lastly became frequenter and so more sudden and violent than before Which short Summary or Scheme of the States of Nature in our Hypothesis before and after the Fall ought to be all along born in mind and reflected on in order to the passing a right judgment on the accounts of those Phaenomena in the Solution whereof we are now engag'd And which otherwise might seem very odd and unaccountable to the Reader Which being thus dispatch'd I proceed XXIX The Primitive Earth was not equally Paradisiacal all over The Garden of Eden or Paradise being a peculiarly fruitful and happy soil and particularly furnish'd with all the necessaries and delights of an innocent and blessed life above the other Regions of the Earth XXIX That all the Primitive Earth could not be equally Paradisiacal and enjoy the same Priviledges and Conveniences beyond the Present is easily prov'd For seeing one of its principal causes of Fertility and other Prerogatives was the greater degree of Heat at the Paradisiacal Regions The Climates near the Solar Course being alone capable of such greater Heat must be alone capable of its Effects also and consequently we are to confine our enquiries for the Garden of Eden to the Countries not very remote from the Ancient Ecliptick Now that some peculiar Spot or Region thereabouts might beyond all the rest be Fertile Pleasant and Paradisiacal 't is not difficult to suppose At the present there is a mighty variety in Countries in the very same Hemisphere Climate and Parallel The particular Prerogatives of one Region beyond another do not intirely depend on the Sun or the Vicinage of the Central Heat But partly on the Nature and Temper of the Soil the kinds of Vegetables and Fossils thereto belonging the number qualities and conflux of Rivers he firmness or looseness of the inferior Strata hindring or freelier permitting the ascent of the Subterraneous Steams Juices and Effluvia From the coincidence of which and of other such things in a peculiar and advantagious manner order'd and dispos'd on purpose by the Divine Providence at the Mosaick Creation the extraordinary pleasantness and felicity of this Earthly Paradise or Garden of Pleasure is I suppose to be deduc'd and which being consider'd will I believe be sufficient to give satisfaction in the Proposition before us XXX The place of Paradise was where the united Rivers Tigris and Euphrates divided themselves into four Streams Pison Gihon Tigris and Euphrates XXX This Situation of Paradise has been already consider'd and need not here be reassum'd Only we may observe That no Scruples would ever have been rais'd about this Matter in case the foremention'd Rivers had still been visible their Course still agreeable to the Mosaick Description and the Metals and Minerals mention'd of the adjoyning Countries had been as evidently there to be found in ours as they appear to have been in those Primitive Times Seeing therefore the following Theory will so clearly assign the Cause of such Diversity that every Reader will be oblig'd to grant it much harder to have accounted for the Phaenomena of Paradise consistently with the other Phaenomena of Nature if all things were now as they were at first than almost any other of the Antediluvian World I may justly hope that this so disputed a Question of the Situation of the Garden of Eden or Primitive Paradise to those who embrace the other parts of the Theory will remain no longer so but be as fix'd and undoubted within at least the limits of that Hypothesis here referr'd to as any other
as Rains constantly now are but from some other Superior and Coelestial Original XLVI This is already evident from what has been just now said The source of all these Rains being one of those Superior or Coelestial Bodies which we call Comets or more peculiarly the Atmosphere and Tail thereof XLVII This vast Fall of Waters or forty Days Rain began on the fifth day of the Week or Thursday the twenty seventh day of November being the seventeenth day of the second Month from the Autumnal Equinox corresponding this Year 1696. to the twenty eighth day of October XLVII This has been already explain'd in effect in the Hypothesis hereto relating where it was prov'd that a Comet on that very day here nam'd pass'd by the Earth and by consequence began those Rains which for the succeeding forty days space continued without any Interruption XLVIII The other main cause of the Deluge was the breaking up the Fountains of the great Abyss or causing such Chaps and Fissures in the upper Earth as might permit the Waters contain'd in the Bowels of it when violently press'd and squeez'd upwards to ascend and so add to the quantity of those which the Rains produced XLVIII This has in part been explain'd in the Lemmata hereto relating and will be more fully understood from the Figure there also refer'd to For Let adbc represent the Earth moving along the Ecliptick GH from G towards H. 'T is evident that the Figure of the Earth before the approach of the Comet as far as 't is here concern'd was Sphaerical But now let us suppose the Comet bi Dh as it was descending towards its Perihelion along its Trajectory EF from E towards F to approach very near and arrive at the nearest Position represented in the Figure 'T is evident that this presence of the Comet would cause a double Tide as well in the Seas above as in the Abyss below the former of which being less considerable in it self and not to our present purpose need not be taken any farther notice of But the latter would be vastly great suppose seven or eight Miles high above its former Position would produce mighty Effects on the Orb above it and so deserves a nicer consideration in this place As soon therefore as the Comet came pretty near as suppose within the Moon 's distance this double Tide would begin to rise and increase all the time of its approach till the Comet was nearest of all as in the Figure And then these Tides or double Protuberances of the Abyss would be at their utmost height So that the Surface of the Abyss and of its incumbent Orb of Earth would put on that Elliptick or rather truly and exactly Oval Figure under which 't is here represented Now 't is certain that this Sphoeroid Surface of the Abyss is larger than its former Sphoerical one 't is also certain that the Orb of Earth which rested on this Abyss must be oblig'd to follow its Figure and accommodate it self to this large Oval which being impossible for it to do while it remain'd Solid continued and conjoyn'd it must of necessity enlarge it self and by the violent force of the encreasing Surface of the Abyss be stretch'd crack'd broken and have innumerable Fissures made quite through it from the upper to the under Surface thereof nearly perpendicular to the same Surfaces So that this Orb of Earth which originally in its primary formation was Sphaerical its inward Compages or Strata even conjoin'd and continual which had afterward at the commencing of the Diurnal Rotation been chang'd into an Oblate Sphoeroid and at the same time been thereby broken chap'd and disjointed by that time its wounds had been well healed and it was in some measure setled and fix'd in such a condition receiv'd this new Disruption at the Deluge It s old Fissures were open'd and the Fountains of the Abyss most Naturally and Emphatically so stil'd according to Dr. Woodward's Account of the Origin of Fountains broken up and sufficient Gaps made for a Communication between the Abyss below and the Surface of the Earth above the same if any occasion should be given for the Ascent of the former or Descent of any thing from the latter And here 't is to be noted that these Chaps and Fissures tho' they were never so many or so open could not of themselves raise any Subterraneous Waters nor contribute one jot to the drowning of the Earth The Upper Orb was long ago setled and sunk as far into the Abyss as the Law of Hydrostaticks requir'd and whether 't were intire or broken would cause no new pressure and no more than maintain its prior situation on the Face of the Deep These Fissures had been at least as open and extended in their Original Generation when the Diurnal Rotation began as at this time and yet was there no danger of a Deluge So that tho' this breaking up of the Fountains of the Deep was a prerequisite condition and absolutely necessary to the Ascent of the Subterraneous Waters yet was it not the proper and direct cause or efficient thereof That is to be deriv'd from another original and is as follows As soon as the presence of the Comet had produc'd those vast Tides or double elevation and depression of the Abyss and thereby disjointed the Earth and caus'd the before-mentiond patent holes or breaches quite through the Body of it the Fall of Waters began and quickly cover'd the Earth and crouded the Air with vast quantities there of Which Waters being adventitious or additional ones and of a prodigious weight withal must press downward with a mighty force and endeavour to sink the Orb of Earth deeper into the Abyss according as the intire weight of each column of Earth and its incumbent Waters together agreeably to the Law of Hydrostaticks did now require And had the Earth as it was in its first subsiding into the Abyss been loose separate and unfix'd so as to admit the Abyss between its parts and suffer a gentle subsidence of the Columns of Earth in the requisite proportion we could scarce have expected any Elevation of the Subterraneous Waters But the Strata of the Earth were long ago setled fastened and consolidated together and so could not admit of such a farther immersion into the fluid On which account the new and vast pressure of the Orb of Earth upon the Abyss would certainly force it upward or any way wheresoever there were a passage for it To which therefore the Breaches Holes and Fissures so newly generated or rather open'd afresh by the violence of the Tides in the Abyss beneath would be very ready and natural Outlets through which it would Ascend with a mighty force and carry up before it whatever was in its way whether Fluid or Solid whether 't were Earth or Water And seeing as we before saw the Lower Regions of the Earth were full of Water pervading and replenishing the Pores
the Face of the Heavens hindred any prospect of this dreadful Body And soon after the Morning came they were actually involv'd in the Atmosphere of the Comet and so in its Tail presently after which would only appear a strange and unusual Mist or Cloud at a distance wholly depriving them of the distinct view of the Comet it self and leaving them utterly ignorant of the true occasion of the following Catastrophe unless any intimation should have been given them thereof by a Divine Revelation LI. Tho' the first and most violent Rains continued without intermission but forty Days yet after some time the Rains began again and ceased not till the seventeenth Day of the seventh Month or a hundred and fifty Days after the Deluge began LI. It has been already abserv'd That the Comet would involve the Earth in its Tail a second time about fifty four or fifty five Days after its first passing by as well as it did before as 't is also represented in the Figure Which being suppos'd the Earth must receive a new stock of Vapours as before and the Rains which had intermitted for fourteen or fifteen Days must begin again The differences between the former and latter Rains would be 1. These latter Vapours proceeding from the Tail whereas the former did principally from the much denser Atmosphere of the Comet would be less copious and less violent than the other and cause a gentler Rain 2. These Vapours being newly rarified by the prodigious Heat at the Perihelion and rais'd thereby to a mighty height in the Tail from their greater rarity and lightness higher ascent in our Air consequent thereupon and longer time thence necessary to their cooling and descent in Rains upon the Earth would be much longer in falling and produce a continual Rain of many more days than the former did Both which are exactly agreeable to the Mosaick History whence it appears that the first Rains had the principal stroke in the Deluge and that if this secondary Rain commenc'd at the time here assign'd it must have continued 95 or 96 days which is considerably more than double the number of those 40 within which the former Rains were confin'd LII This second and less remarkable Rain was deriv'd from such a cause as the former was LII This is sufficiently evident already since the same Comet afforded the matter for both Rains equally LIII Tho' the Fountains of the great Deep were broken up and the forty days Rain began at the same time yet is there a very observable mention of a threefold growth or distinct augmentation of the Waters as if it were on three several accounts and at three several times LIII This is particularly correspondent to the present Hypothesis wherein 1. The principal Rain of 40 days 2. The Eruption and Ascent of the Subterraneous Waters occasion'd by their weight and pressure 3. The lesser Rain of 95 or 96 days were both different in themselves and in their time of commencing and caus'd a distinct augmentation of the Waters agreeably to the greatest nicety of this Proposition LIV. The Waters of the Deluge increas'd by degrees till their utmost height and then decreas'd by degrees till they were clearly gone off the Face of the Earth LIV. This is evident as to the increase of the Deluge by what has been already said and will equally be so of its decrease when we come to it hereafter LV. The Waters of the Deluge were Still Calm free from Commotions Storms Winds and Tempests of all sorts during the whole time in which the Ark was afloat upon them LV. It has already appear'd that there were no Storms Tempests or other violent Commotions in the Antediluvian Air till the Deluge and that during the space here referr'd to none would arise 't is but reasonable to allow For as to the first and principal Rain it was so constant so downright and so uninterrupted that no little commotion in the Air could have place or if it had could disturb it which is commonly the case of long and setled Rains with us at this day As to the Subterraneous Waters ascending with some violence they were confin'd to several particular places and not universal and though they might cause some commotions at the bottom of the Waters yet might the surface of the same and the Air be sufficiently calm and undisturb'd But as to the third Cause of the Deluge It must be granted agreeably to what has been before observ'd That the descending Vapours would not be merely such but mix'd with many heterogenerous Particles of all sorts Sulphur Brimstone Niter Coal Mineral Effluvia Metallick Steams and the like which the prodigious heat at the Perihelion had dissolv'd and elevated into the Tail of the Comet From the confused mixture irregular fermentations and disagreeing motions of all which 't is probable the preternatural and violent commotions in the Atmosphere then and since are mainly to be deduc'd So that assoon as the latter 94 or 95 days Rains were almost over assoon as these rarified Corpuscles were descended into the lower and narrower Regions of the Air and being crouded closer were by the greater heat there predominant put into such irregular fermentations as they were already disposed for 'T is natural to suppose that Winds and Storms of all sorts and those in a very extraordinary manner would arise and cause the most sensible and extream perturbations of the Waters now covering to a vast depth the face of the whole Earth that could easily be conceiv'd Of which the following Proposition will give farther occasion to discourse LVI Yet during the Deluge there were both Winds and Storms of all sorts in a very violent manner LVI Seeing as we just now saw that at the end of the latter Rains the greatest Storms possible were to be expected and seeing yet the Ark which had been afloat so long and was so still the Waters being now at the very highest was incapable of abiding a stormy Sea as we prov'd under the former Phaenomenon there at first view appears the greatest danger imaginable of its perishing in the future immoderate and extraordinary Commotions And this danger is increased by this Reflection That as probably it had been afloat during the most part of the 150 days while the Waters were gradually and gently augmenting so one would imagine ought it to be for at least as many days during the at least as gentle and gradual decrease of the same afterwards i. e. The Ark ought to have been as long afloat in the stormy as it had been in the calm part of the Deluge But this difficulty which is to appearance so entirely insoluble will soon vanish if we consider that the Ark rested upon Caucasus the then highest Mountain in the world For seeing the Waters prevailed above the same Mountain 15 Cubits only a great part of which depth of Water would be drawn by the Ark it self upon the
very first ceasing of the Rains from above and of the Waters from the Abyss beneath which permitted the least subsiding and diminution of the Deluge the Ark must immediately rest upon the ground and thereby secure it self from the impending Storms And that accordingly it did so at the time assign'd on the conclusion of the 150 days or the very same individual day when the Wind began is particularly and expresly observ'd and affirm'd by Moses Which being a very remarkable coincidence exactly agreeable to the present Hypothesis as well as to the Sacred History and of very considerable Importance I shall set down the words at large as follows The waters prevailed upon the Earth an hundred and fifty days viz. from the seventeenth of thesecond to the seventeenth of the seventh Month And God remembred Noah and every living thing and all the Cattel that was with him in the Ark And God made a wind to pass over the earth and the waters asswaged The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped and the rain from heaven was restrained And the waters returned from off the earth continually and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated And the ark rested in the seventh month on the seventeenth day of the month upon the mountains of Ararat Corollary Hence 't is obvious to remark the wonderful Providence of God for the Preservation of the Ark and the sole Remains of the old World therein contain'd in ordering all circumstances so that it was afloat just all the calm Season of the Deluge but as soon as ever any tempestuous Weather arose was safe landed on the top of Caucasus LVII This Deluge of Waters was universal in its extent and effect reaching to all the parts of the Earth and destroying all the Land-Animals on the intire Surface thereof those only excepted which were with Noah in the Ark. LVII This might justly have been made a Corollary of the next Proposition for if the Waters in any one Region much more a compleat Hemisphere exceeded the tops of the highest Mountains it would certainly diffuse it self and overflow the other also But being capable in the present Hypothesis of a separate Proof deserves a distinct Consideration Now of the several Causes of the Deluge those Vapours which were deriv'd from the Comet 's Tail both at the first and second passage of the Earth through the entire Column thereof by reason of the Earth's Mora or abiding therein about 12 hours or a semi-revolution and the fall of the Vapours on an entire Hemisphere at the same time would affect the whole Earth and though not exactly equally yet pretty universally make a Deluge in all the Regions of the Globe The subterraneous Waters being the proper effect of the weight of the other would also be as universal as they and that every where generally speaking in the same proportion 'T is true the Waters which were derived from the Atmosphere of the Comet the principal Source of the 40 days Rain were not wholly so universal as the former at first by reason of the shorter Mora or abiding of the Earth therein though even much above half of the Earth's entire surface would hence be immediately affected But if we consider the Velocity of the Earth's Diurnal Rotation and that the Mass of newly acquir'd Vapours was not at first partaker of the same but by degrees to receive the impression thereof we shall with ease apprehend that a few of the first Rotations would wind or wrap these as well as the other Vapours quite round the Earth and thereby cause a very equal distribution of them all in the Atmosphere and at last render the Rains very evenly Universal To which uniform distribution the Nature of the Air it self as at present it I suppose does might contribute Such an Elastical Fluid as the Air scarce suffering a lasting Density or Croud of Vapours in one Region without communicating some part to the others adjoining that so a kind of Equilibrium in the weight crassitude and density of its several Columns may be preserv'd through the whole So that at last the Deluge must have been Universal because every one of the Causes thereof appear to have been truly so LVIII The Waters at their utmost height were fifteen Cubits above the highest Mountains or three Miles at the least perpendicular above the common Surface of the Plains and Seas LVIII In order to make some estimate of the quantity of Water which this Hypothesis affords us let us suppose that the one half came from the Comet or the Rains and the other half from the Subterraneous Water Tho' 't is not impossible that much the greater part might arise from the latter Let us also suppose that the tenth part of the rest arose from the Tail of the Comet at both the times of its enclosing the Earth and the other nine from its Atmosphere tho' 't is possible that a much less proportion ought to be deriv'd from the former 'T is evident from the Velocity of Comets at the distance from the Sun here to be consider'd and the usual Crassitude or Diameter of the Tails thereof that the Earth would be near half a day or 12 hours each time within the limits thereof and by consequence that it would intercept and receive upon it self a Cylindrical Column of Vapour whose Basis were equal to that of a great Circle on the Earth and whose Altitude were about 750000 Miles If we therefore did but know the proper density of the Vapour compesing the Tail of the Comet or what proportion it bears to that of Water 't were easie to reduce this matter to Calculation and very nearly to determine the quantity enquired after That the Tail of a Comet especially at any considerable distance from the Comet it self is exceeding rare is evident by the vastness of its extent and the distinct appearance of the sixt Stars quite through the immense Crassitude of its entire Column Let us for computation's sake suppose that the Density of Water to that of this Expanded Column of Vapour is as 3400000 to one or which is all one since Water is to our Air in Density as 850 to one that the Density of our Air is to the Density of this Coulmn of Vapour as 4000 to one which degree of rareness if it be not enough at a great distance from the Comet as at the second passage yet I suppose may be more than sufficient at the very Region adjoining thereto as at the first passage and so upon the whole no unreasonable Hypothesis So that if we divide the Altitude of this Cylindrical Column of 750000 Miles or 3750000000 Feet by 3400000 37500 by 34 we shall have a Column of Water equal thereto By which Calculation the quantity of Water acquir'd at each time of the passage through the Tail would equal a Cylinder whose Basis were a great Circle on the Earth as above and whose
refer'd in this and the like Cases LXXXIII The inward parts of the present Earth are very irregular and confus'd One Region is chiefly Stony another Sandy a third Gravelly One Country contains some certain kinds of Metals and Minerals another contains quite different Ones Nay the same Lump or Mass of Earth not seldom contains the Corpuscles of several Metals or Minerals confusedly intermixt one with another and with its own Earthy Parts All which Irregularities with several others that might be observ'd even contrary to the Law of specifick Gravity in the placing of the different Strata of the Earth demonstrates the original Fund or Promptuary of all this upper factitious Earth to have been in a very wild confus'd and Chaotick Condition LXXXIII Seeing the Sediment of the Waters was compos'd of what Earthy Matter was uncertainly brought up out of the inner Earth and of what a true and proper Chaos afforded these Phaenomena are as natural and accountable therefrom as on any other mechanical Hypothesis they must appear strange perplexing and inexplicable to Philosophick Minds LXXXIV The uppermost and lightest Stratum of Soil or Garden-Mold as 't is call'd which is the proper Seminary of the Vegetable Kingdom is since the Deluge very thick spread usually in the Valleys and Plains but very thin on the Ridges and Tops of Mountains Which last for want thereof are frequently stony rocky bare and barren LXXXIV Two plain reasons are to be given for this Phaenomenon 1. The quantity of Water and its Sediment and by consequence of Soil or fertile Earth was less over the Mountains than over the Plains and Valleys 2. After the Subsidence of the Sediment and before its entire Consolidation the Tops of Mountains were most expos'd to the fury of the Winds and Storms which wou'd therefore more easily bear away that lightest and least united Stratum which lay uppermost in those bleak places than in the more retir'd and skreen'd Plains and Valleys and by diminishing the Soil in the former and thereby augmenting it in the latter places most easily make all things correspond in this Proposition LXXXV Of the four ancient Rivers of Paradise two still remain in some measure but the other two do not or at the least are so chang'd that the Masaick Description does not agree to them at present LXXXV That the great Rivers wou'd still retain in great measure their old Courses has been observ'd already and seeing the Fountains and the general inequalities of the Earth on which their Origin and Channels depend were the same generally before as since the Deluge there can be no doubt thereof As to the change with reference to the other two Rivers If the Gulph of Persia were anciently free from Waters and were no other than the very Country of Eden and if the very Entrance of that Gulph into the Persian Sea were the Garden of Eden or Paradise as has been before asserted there can be no difficulty in the case The Channels of these Rivers and indeed of their Fellow-Branches too after their last Partition being now under Water and not to be enquir'd after But tho' we shou'd allow that Paradise was where 't is generally placed near Babylon and upon the Continent yet will there be no wonder at the disappearance of these two Rivers which with their Fellows are bury'd to a sufficient depth under the Sediment we have been speaking so much of before and so no more to be enquir'd after in this than in the former Case LXXXVI Those Metals and Minerals which the Mosaick Description of Paradise and of its bordering Regions takes such particular notice of and the Prophets so emphatically refer to are not now met with so plentifully therein LXXXVI The present upper Earth being as we have seen factitious and a new Crust since the Flood covering over the ancient Surface thereof those Primitive Treasures must lie too deep in the Bowels of the present Earth to be easily approach'd by us and so are entirely lost as to the use or enjoyment of Mankind LXXXVII This Deluge of Waters was a sign alinstance of the Divine Vengoance on a wicked World and was the effect of the peculiar and extraordinary Providence of God LXXXVII Tho' the passing by of a Comet and all those Effects of it in the drowning of the World of which we have so largely discours'd hitherto be not to be stil'd in the common use of the Word Miraculous tho' in no very improper Sense all such Events may have that Appellation of which before yet is there the greatest reason in the World to attribute this mighty Turn and Catastrophe of Nature to the Divine Providence and the immediate voluntary actual interposition of God and that in these ensuing Particulars and on these following Accounts which I shall be the shorter upon as having in the place fore-mention'd explain'd my Mind somewhat largely about things of this Nature 1. The Bodies made use of in this and the like Changes of Nature are originally the Creatures of God and continually preserv'd by Him and so what they are instrumental in ought most justly to be ascrib'd to the principal Cause the great Creator and Conservator of 'em all 2. All those powers of Attraction or Gravitation c. and those Laws of Motion by which these Bodies are capable of producing such Effects are alike owing to the Divine Operation Appointment and Efficacy both in their primitive Impression and continual Energy and so still the Effects themselves are to be ascrib'd to a Divine Original 3. That particular Constitution of the Earth on the Face of the fluid Abyss and other such Dispositions whereby it became subject to a universal Deluge were also the Consequents of the Divine Power and Providence in the formation of the Earth 4. That peculiar Situation or Constitution of the Orbits and Motions of Comets whereby they by reason of their passing thro' the Planetary System each Revolution are fit to cause such great Mutations in it was the Effect of the particualr Order and Disposition of God in the primary frame of the Universe 5. The Coincidence of the Plain of a Comet 's Orbit with that of the Ecliptick can have no other Foundation in Nature than a like design'd and contriv'd Appointment of God 6. The way of the Comet 's Motion from East to West contrary to that of the Planets by which the Particulars of the Deluge were in good Measure provided for cou'd also be nothing but the Effect of the same Design and Providence of God 7. The so nice and exact adjustment of the Motions of both the Comet and the Earth that the former shou'd pass just so near and impart such a certain quantity of Waters and not more or less than wou'd drown the World and just cover the highest Mountain and yet reach no farther in short as wou'd secure the Ark for future Generations and yet not leave one dry-land Animal besides alive this exactness is a most