Pamphlets which give a greater Demonstration of the Gradual Increase of Mankind upon the face of the Earth than a hundred notional Arguments can either evince or confute and therefore I think them worthy of being mentioned to this purpose Upon all which and much more that might be said it is evident That according to the ordinary course of Nature though those common and usual Accidents of common Sicknesses ordinary Casualties and common Events are incident to Humane Nature the number of Mankind doth and must necessarily increase in the World and the Natural Supplies of Mankind are greater and more numerous than the Decays thereof I now therefore come to the Second Consideration namely The Examination of the extraordinary or more universal Correctives of the Multiplication of Mankind which because it will be large I shall allow unto it a distinct Chapter CAP. IX Concerning those Correctives of the Excess of Mankind which may be thought to be sufficient to reduce it to a greater Equability I Come now to the Second premised Consideration and Inquiry viz. Whether there may not be found some extraordinary Occurrences and Correctives that may reduce that otherwise Natural and ordinary Increase of Mankind to an Equability And I call them Extraordinary not simply in respect of themselves but in opposition to those daily and ordinary Casualties which happen to Humane Nature and in respect of those great Distances and Periods whether certain or casual wherein they may be supposed to happen And I shall improve this Objection against the Increase de facto of Mankind with the greatest impartiality and advantage that may be It is certain that the Increase of Brutes and other Animals which are perfect and univocally generated is very great in the World Aristotle that inquisitive Searcher into Nature in his 4 th Book of the History of Animals hath given us an Account touching most Animals of the length of their Lives times of their Breeding intervals of their Birth wherein though possibly there may be variation in several Climates yet his Account may give a near estimate proportionable also to other places For Instance the Cow breeds in the second Year brings forth the tenth Month lives 15 or 20 Years the Mare breeds the third Year brings forth in the twelfth Month lives 25 30 and sometimes 40 Years the Sheep and Goat bear in the second Year bring forth in the beginning of the sixth Month sometimes two ordinarily but one lives 10 12 or 13 Years Sows breed in the second Year bring forth after four Months their Young numerous Bitches breed in the latter end of the first or beginning of the second Year bring forth after threescore Days or in the ninth Week their Young many 5 6 or sometimes 12 they live 10 or 12 sometimes 15 or 20 Years Wolves breed and bring forth as Dogs only their number fewer sometimes 2 sometimes 3 sometimes 4 the Doe brings forth after eight Months complete but one and sometimes two and live long the Fox breeds 4 the Cat 5 or 6 and lives 6 Years many times more the speedy and numerous increase of Mice is prodigious Aristotle mentions 120 produced of one Female in a very little time Pliny in his 11 th Book Cap. 63. hath in effect transcribed Aristotle herein By this it appears That the Natural Increase of these Animals is much greater than of Men yet their numbers have not arrived to that great excess because those that are for food have their reduction by their application for that purpose those that are domestical and not for food as Cats and Dogs are kept within compass by drowning or destroying their Young and those that are noxious as Wolves and Foxes are reduced by that common destruction that Men pursue them with Touching Birds their Increase seems to be much greater than of Men or Brutes but they have those reductions that bring them to a fair equability unless it be in those Islands and Rocks in the Sea unaccessible by Men where Sea-Fowls breed First their number is reduced by Man for food 2. For destruction as in Birds that are noxious 3. By the natural shortness of the Lives of many that are yet numerous breeders 4. By the mutual destruction of the weaker by Birds of prey whereof more particularly hereafter 5. By the Winter cold which starves very many either for want of heat or food and of this more hereafter Fishes are infinitely more numerous or increasing than Beasts or Birds as appears by the numerous Spawn of any one Fish though ordinarily they breed but once a Year and if all these should come ro maturity even the Ocean it self would have been long since over-stored with Fish Now the Correctives and Reductions of these are very many 1. Aristotle observes in his 6 th de Historia Animalium cap. 13. Those Eggs that are not sprinkled aspergine seminis genitalis maris prove unfruitful a great part are devoured by the Male and much more by other Fish some of their Eggs are buried in the slime and corrupted 2. Many are taken by Men and employed for food 3. As among Birds and Beasts they are Beasts and Birds of prey which are less numerous than others so especially among Fish And though the Wisdom of Providence hath given certain Expedients to Animals especially Fishes of the weaker nature to escape the voracious as swiftness to some smalness to others whereby they escape to Shallows and Shoars unaccessible to the greater and to those that are not able to move or at least not to move swiftly the protection of Shells as Oysters Escalops Crabs Lobsters and other Shell-fish yet a very great number are devoured by the voracious kind I do remember that a Friend of mine having stored a very great Pond of 3 or 4 Acres of ground with Carps Tench and divers other Pond-fish of a very great number and only put in two very little small Pikes at 7 Years end upon the draught of his Pond not one Fish was left but the two Pikes grown to an excessive bigness and all the rest together with their millions of Fry devoured by those pair of Tyrants 4. Birds also of prey as Storks Herons Cormorants and other Fowl of that kind destroy many both in the Sea Rivers Ponds and Lakes 5. Extreme Frost especially in Ponds and Lakes make a great destruction of Fish partly by freezing them partly by the exclusion of the ambient Air which insinuates it self into the Water and is necessary for the preservation of the Lives of those watry Inhabitants 6. By great Heats and Droughts not only drying up Lakes Ponds and Rivers but also tainting the Water with excessive heat and though these two do not so much concern sea-Sea-fish who have more scope and room yet they have a great influx upon Rivers Ponds and Lakes Again to say something of Insects whether aiery terrestrial or watry they seem to be more numerous than the common sorts of univocal Animals who have
this time it is apparent there were no Clouds neither had it rained upon the Earth Gen. 2.6 It seems therefore that this Expansum rendred here Firmament is nothing else but that limit or boundary between the more refined liquid nature which we usually call Air and Aether and the grosser or fluid Element properly called Water So the Firmament was nothing else but that Expansum of Air and Aether that are contiguous to the Superficies of the Water The Reasons that induce me so to think which also explicate the Notion of the Supposition are these 1. Because frequently both in the Language of the Holy Scripture and of divers of the ancient Heathen Authors the whole Diaphanum of the Air and Aether is in one common appellation called Heaven which is the denomination here given to this Expansum God called the Firmament or Expansum Heaven thus we have frequent mention of the Fowls of the Heavens the Clouds of Heaven which yet are situated in that part of Heaven which is the Aiery Region And again here Vers 14. the Sun and Moon are said to be great Lights placed in the Firmament of the Heaven which are yet placed in a Region of the Aether though above the Atmosphere and the region of the common Air yet are far below that liquid region of the Aether wherein the Stars move and Vers 20. the Fowls habitation is said to be in the open Firmament of Heaven which yet fly no higher than the lower region of the Air. So that the Heaven and the Expansum here called the Heaven seems to be that great Expansum of the Diaphanum including the more sublime and pure part thereof called the Aether and the grosser and lower part thereof called the Air and the Waters above the Firmament were that refined rarified liquid Matter which was Aether and Air and the 〈◊〉 Waters below the Firmament were those gross and fluid parts of Nature called ordinarily Water 2. Because it appears Vers 9. that the Waters which were gathered together in the Constitution of the Air were the Waters under the Heavens Waters that were next contiguous to that common Expansum consisting of Air and Aether called Heaven there was nothing interposed between that fluid Water which constituted the Sea and that common Expansum called Heaven consisting of Air and Aether 3. It seems that the great Moles Chaotica was in its appearance and external consistency of a waterish nature for it is said that the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the Waters which though it contained the confused Mass of all things as well those that grew into a more solid consistence as the more reformed or subtil Matter yet in its first deformed exhibition of its appearance it had the shape of Water and therefore Plutarch de placitis Philosophorum lib. 1. cap. 3. tells us that Thales Milesius held that Water was the common Principle of all things which Position he learned partly by the Analogy that he found therewith in things existing whose first Rudiments and last Resolution seems to be a watry or fluid substance and partly by Tradition from the Egyptians or rather from the Hebrews whose first habitation was in that Country And the manner of the resolution of this Aqueous appearance into Aether and Air seems to be this This great aqueous Chaotical Mass contained in it Particles of various natures some more feculent and gross as the Earthy Particles which floated up and down in it till they were driven down by the Fire and Heat or otherwise by some disposition 〈◊〉 or agitation of that Incubation of the Spirit of God were disposed and subsided in the middle of this Aqueous substance which became in time the Moles terrestris Other parts less feculent than these resided in a Region or Circle next to that grosser and more feculent Sediment but by virtue of the Divine Disposal the Incubation of the Spirit and the Energy and Efficacy of that great circulating Fiery Nature which was maintained in a continued rotation about the Massa Chaotica called Light and that internal hot and fiery Nature that still resided within the Body of the Massa Chaotica the more subtil and pure particles of this Watrish Matter were separated divided and exhaled from it and constituted that Consistency that is called the Air and Aether here called Heaven And this diaphanous Body of the Air and Aether thus extracted from the Water varied in degrees of Subtilty or Rarity according to the degrees of its elevation the more high and elevated parts being more pure according to the degrees of their ascent and the lower more feculent and thick and filled with more gross Exhalations and Vapours arising from the contiguously subjected parts and therefore it is said Gen. 2.6 There went up a mist from the earth and watered the face of the ground And I am farther induced to think that those Waters above the Firmament or Expansum were no other than this Aether and Air raised and separated from the Massa Chaotica upon these Reasons 1. Because there seems to be a great congruity between the Water and the Air in their quality of liquidity or moisture 2. Because there seems to be a more connatural Transmutation of either into other the Air and for ought I know the Aether which is but a purer sublimated Air by condensation easily re-assuming the nature of Water and the Water by heat and rarefaction easily assuming the nature of Air and by the continuance and constancy of that heat containing it self in that consistency And from hence it is that the Waters were the common material Principle of both the Fishes and Fowls And if we may conjecture that great Inundation Gen. 7.1 was not by a new Creation of Water but by the wonderful and powerful Condensation of the Region of the Air which seems to be that opening of the Windows of Heaven whereby great portions of the Aerial and Etherial Matter discovered themselves to be Water 3. Because we have no other part of Holy History that gives us an account of the production of that vast Continent of the Air and Aether out of the Chaotick Mass but this place And here we must observe once for all That there was no Creation of Matter after the Beginning it was all created in that moment of Beginning 2. That from that Creation till the first Day wherein Light was produced there was that continued preparation impregnation disposition and agitation of Matter by the Spirit of God 3. That all the Productions of the Six Days except the Creation of the Soul of Man and Angels were not by any new Creation but by separation of the parts of that pre-existing Matter formation of them and composition and effection of Beings out of the first created disposed and ordered Matter by the Power of Almighty God and the influencing them with those active Principles which we usually call Forms Energies and Active Qualities 3. The Third great Integral of this lower
of that very Scripture which this Man in Complement at least seems to venerate might have remembred That the Tradition of the Universal Flood hath obtained in all places even among the Americans themselves and that the Race of Mankind was thereby destroyed except some few that were preserved That the most severe and observing Sect of the Philosophers namely the Stoicks have constantly held vicissitudes of Destructions of Mankind by successive Deluges and Conflagrations and a new Peopling of the World successively by the Power of God That Aristotle himself insinuates those great Vicissitudes especially of Deluges in those Periodical great Winters which he supposeth to have hapned and for the future to happen in this lower World But of this hereafter And although this Author in his 8 th Chapter of his 4 th Book gives us a computation of a declivity of 600 Perches from the Fountain of Danubius until its fall into the Pontus Euxinus and supposeth the highest Mountains of Armenia whereof Ararat where the Ark rested was the highest doth not exceed the perpendicular height of one Mile above the plain of the Earth and therefore that an excess of 15 Cubits above Ararat would not reach the Head of Danubius or at least the upper Plains of the Upper Asia yet he might have remembred That though it were admitted that usually the heights of most Mountains do not exceed a Mile in perpendicular height above their Basis yet many Mountains are situate in the more elevated parts of the Earth and have the advantage thereby of the height of their Basis and possibly it will be found that the Basis of the Mountains of Armenia is situate in higher ground than the Fountain of Danubius or Euphrates So that an excess of 15 Cubits above their height must in all probability cover the Plain of the Upper Asia Again he might have remembred that Egypt that from the Authority of the Fable of the Egyptian Priest is favoured by him with an immunity from Inundation lyes much lower than the Plains of Palestine yea than the Superficies of the Red Sea it self And therefore the Water that naturally keeps its level neither without a Miracle can lose it which overflowed the whole Continent of Palestine even to 15 Cubits above its highest Mountains must of necessity overflow Egypt which Aristotle by impregnable Evidences concludes to be one of the lowest Countries in the World and the very Production and Accretion of the Slime of Nilus so that if the Flood covered Palestine nothing but a Miracle could protect Egypt from it The Author of the Dissertation De Aetate Mundi cap. 12. though he reprehend the Praeadamitae and confutes the extravagancy of their Opinion yet he seems to mince the Universality of the Flood Nullum itaque relinquitur dubium quin unum tantum fuerit diluvium idque universale cujus apud omnes penè gentes extat memoria Verùm hîc minime probo eorum sententiam qui totum terrae globum it a aquis tectum fuisse existimant ut nulla prorsus extaret ejus portio ad hoc efficiendum multa debuissent concurrere miracula Cum enim universae orbis aquae non sufficiant ad obruendam tam altè terram etiamsi omnia maria siccentur debuissent vel plures aquae creari vel dicendum cum aliquibus istam aquarum molem ex aliis coeli orbibus decidisse demum finito diluvio ad sedes suas revolasse Verùm hoc est piè nugari Deus non facit miracula sine causa Quid opus erat mergere terras ubi nec olim fuere homines ac ne nunc quidem sunt Stultum est putare ante diluvium adeò multiplicatum fuisse genius hominum ut omnes terrae angulos pervaserit c. Ut verò diluvii inundationem ultra orbis habitati termines producamus nulla jubet ratio imo prorsus absurdum est dicere ubi nulla hominum sedes illic etiam viguisse effectus poenae solis hominibus inflictae This indeed salves the necessity of drowning America and the greatest part of the New habitable World when it extends the Flood no farther than there were Mankind inhabiting and confines those Habitations possibly within the Circle of Syria and Mesopotamia And so all the Brutes that possibly in their first Creation were produced sparsim through all the parts of the habitable World as well in America as Asia or Europe were safe and untouched and all those Birds and Fowl that were within 40 or 50 Miles of the Circulus diluvii might easily preserve themselves by flight out of the extent of it yea and the Brutes and Birds which were out of that supposed narrow extent of Syria and Mesopotamia where the Flood prevailed might easily refurnish the same Continent after the subsiding of the Flood without the wonderful and difficult including of their kinds within the Ark for their preservation which if this Supposition hold seems a needless Institution and Miracle by the wise God Gen. 7.1 Therefore I confess I am no way satisfied with this Gratification of that Author to the Prae-Adamitae For first although I take this Flood to be somewhat more than Natural and a thing instituted by the Will of God yet do I not esteem it a thing purely Supernatural or Miraculous neither do I suppose those Waters created de novo nor sent out of the Orbs of Heaven to drown the Earth I do not think the Face of the Earth and Waters were altogether the same before the Universal Deluge and after but possibly the Face of the Earth was more even than now it is the Seas possibly more dilate and extended and not so deep as now the Waters possibly more than now and in those respects more capable of diffusion over the dry Land For though there be many great variations in process of time in the Sea and Land yet it seems that ad plurimum the Seas grow deeper and eat lower into the Earth and consequently more dry Land is daily acquired and the Seas grow narrower and deeper Now to deliver this Supposition of an Universal Deluge from those difficulties and that necessity of multiplication of Miracles which that Author hath substituted we are to consider 1. That we are not to make our estimate of the quantity of Waters meerly by the Superficies of the Sea but by its vast depth which in some places is unfathomable and by those vast subterraneous Receptacles of Water which pour themselves out in several great Ebullitions and Marine Springs Neither is it altogether improbable that the Waters of the Sea naturally tending downward and being of a fluid searching consistency might in process of time have worked themselves even almost to the Center of the Earth and there residing in great and vast quantities and possibly have in a manner undermined much of the appearing Continent of the Earth so that that which the Prophet speaketh may be true literally Psal 24.2 He hath founded it upon
Sheep Goats Deer Apes Monkies Peacocks Parrots c. of which America is furnished there is as little difficulty but they might be transported by shipping either for use or commerce especially by the Africans who had store of them and even Peacocks and Apes were an ancient part of commerce 2 Chron. 9.21 and Acosta lib. 4. cap. 33. tells us that the Dogs and Cattel transported not much above 20 Years before his coming thither from Spain were in that space so exceedingly multiplied in S t Domingo and other Islands possessed by the Spaniards where there were none formerly that they became wild and filled all the Country that they were forced to use what means they could for the destruction of the Dogs and killed infinite numbers of Cows meerly for their Skins 4. The only difficulty that seems to remain is touching those ferine noxious and untamable Beasts as Lions Tigers Wolves Bears and Foxes with which that Continent abounds for it is not probable that these should be transported by shipping no Men would probably be at that charge and hazard with such Beasts that would do more harm than good And although possibly the frozen Northern Seas might be a Bridge for their passage yet that seems unlikely in respect of the great Snows that accompany such Frosts and the impossibility of a supply of food in so great and troublesom a Journey And as to Swimming though it hath been observed that Bears have swimmed into Islands many Leagues from the Continent to prey upon Fowls and to return again and though the Seas between Tartary and Cathay and some parts of America be not so wide as the Atlantick or Pacifick Ocean yet they are too large to afford a passage by Sea especially for Tigers and Lions which are not so apt to take the Water And it is not yet certainly discovered though conjectured that there is any Neck of Ground or passage by Land from any part of Europe or Asia into any part of the Continent of America There remains therefore nothing that I can reasonably conjecture to accommodate the difficulty but to suppose what I have formerly intimated That although it should be granted that there is now no such Land-passage extant yet within the compass of 4000 Years elapsed since the Flood there have been some such Junctures or Land-passages between the Northern parts of Asia or Europe and some Northern parts of the Continent of America or between the South-east parts of China or the Philippine Islands and the Southern Continent though lately there be discovered an interposition of Sea between the Island del Fuogo and that Southern Continent whereby either from Asia to Groenland in the North or from China to Terra australis incognita on the South a Land-passage might be from Asia to America for Men and Brutes though for some Ages past either by the violence of the Water or by Floods or Earthquakes which hath made great alterations in the Globe of the Earth and Seas that Bridge or Line of Communication be now broken and obliterated And truly he that observes the infinite company of Islands lying between the Continent of China and Nova Guinea almost contiguous to each other hath probable reason to believe that these were all formerly one Continent joyning China and Nova Guinea together though now by the irruption of the Sea crumbled into many small Islands CAP. VIII The Seventh Evidence of Fact proving the Origination of Man namely The Gradual Increase of Mankind I Come to the Seventh Evidence of Fact which seems with much strength and clearness to evince the Origination of Mankind and that within such a Period of Time as the Sacred Scriptures propound namely The Gradual Increase of Mankind upon the Earth And because I mean throughly to examin this Consideration I shall propound to my Enquiry these ensuing Particulars 1. Whether according to the ordinary course and procedure of Nature in the Generations of Mankind there be not a gradual and considerable Increase of Mankind upon the face of the Earth unless some collateral Emergency or Occurrence interrupt or correct that Increase 2. What Correctives there may be supposed that may check and restrain that Increase of Mankind that otherwise according to the ordinary course of Nature would have obtained in the World 3. Whether those Correctives or collateral Occurrences which have been or may be supposed to have been in the World have so far prevailed as totally to stop that Increase of Mankind which upon a Natural account without the intervention of such Correctives would have obtained 4. Whether notwithstanding all these Correctives of the Increase or Excesses of Generations yet if still the numbers of Mankind have increased it be not a sufficient Argument to satisfie a reasonable Man that Mankind had an Inception and that within such a period or compass of Duration as is not of a vast or prodigious Excess I shall begin with the first of these and I shall suppose and I think clearly evidence That without the intervention of some accidental or collateral Corrective Mankind must needs increase upon the Earth and that the Generations and Productions of Men and Woman in an ordinary regular and constant course of Nature do very much exceed the Decays of Mankind by Natural course of Mortality allowing into the Account those common Decays of Mankind by ordinary usual and common Diseases incident to Individuals The Laws especially of the Romans and others have determined the Legal Ages of Matrimonial Conjunction of a Man to be 14 of a Woman to be 12 Prudential Considerations have protracted it longer Plato in his Third De Legibus allows and determins the Age of the Woman should be between 16 and 20 of the Man to be between 30 and 35 we will suppose the medium to be for the Man 26 for the Woman 20. Aristotle determins the extreme time for Generation in the Man to be 70 for the Woman 50 the medium to be 65 for the former 45 for the latter we will take a shorter medium for both and suppose the extreme term for Procreation for Man to be 55 for the Woman to be 40 Years upon this account the terminus or periodus procreativa to be 20 Years And although within that Period there is a possibility of procreation of 20 Children yet considering that all Pairs are not of that fertility we will take the medium to be less than a third part viz. 6. And because upon a due Observation of the Sexes of Mankind especially by such as have curiously observed the Registers and Calculations of Births and Burials there is some though not very considerable excess of Males above Females viz. as 14 to 13 or in some places as 16 to 15 an evidence of the wise Providence of God to bring the number of each Sex to so near a parity yet allowing a redundance to the Males to supply those many Casualties whereunto Males are subject by Wars Navigations and other Occurrences that more
all Arithmetical Calculation So that it should seem there needed no other Reductive of the Numbers of Men to an Equability than the Wars that have happened in the World And although Wars are in a great measure accidental or at least proceed in a great measure from the Wills of Men their Pride Ambition impatience of Injuries affectation of Dominion mutual Jealousies and Fears of the Potency of each other and oftentimes accidental Emergencies and Occurrences yet it seems that abstracting from all these Occasions Wars seem to be in a manner a Natural Consequence of the over-plenitude and redundancy of the Number of Men in the World And so by a kind of congruity and consequence morally necessary when the World grows too full of Inhabitants that there is not room one by another or that the common Supplies which the World should afford to Mankind begin to be too few too strait or too narrow for the Numbers of Men that natural propension of Self-love and natural principle of Self-preservation will necessarily break out into Wars and Internecions to make room for those that find themselves straitned or inconvenienced So that as when the Channel of a River is over-charged with Water more than it can deliver it necessarily breaks over the Banks to make it self room or when the very Brutes or Animals find themselves oppressed and straitned in their provisions and supplies by the redundance of their numbers one necessarily preys upon another or destroys another to preserve it self So Wars among Mankind are a kind of necessary Consequence of Redundance of Mankind and will by a kind of Natural necessity make it self room and give it self ease by the destruction of others if it can get power and opportunity to do it And consequently there seems to be no fear of the surcharge of the World with Mankind because there is this natural and necessary Remedy at hand the very Redundance it self of Mankind seeming by a natural consecution to yield and subminister this Remedy for its Reduction and Equation As in a redundance of Humors in the Body the most lively and active do naturally thrust out those that are weaker or noxious to make room for themselves or as Bees swarm to get new habitations when they are so increased that their Hives will not hold them 4. Concerning the Fourth and also inclusively the Fifth Corrective of the Excess of Mankind namely Inundations and Conflagrations Those that have been Observers of things in Nature and Histories of former times have given us Instances of two kinds of Mutations in this Terrestrial Globe of Earth and Waters some that are more ordinary and of less moment and of such various have been in the World such are those mentioned especially by Pliny in his Natural History lib. 2. cap. 85. seqq some places severed from the Continent by the interruption of the Sea thus he tells us that Sicily was divided from Italy Cyprus from Syria Euboea from Boeotia Atlantis and Macris from Euboea Bosticum from Bythinia and some have thought though perhaps upon very small evidence that England and France were sometimes one Continent and divided by the interruption of the Sea and Spain from Africa Again some Cities and Countries swallowed up by the Sea as Pirrha and Antissa Elis and Buta half the City of Tyndaris in Sicily and 30 Miles of the Island Cea with a great destruction of Men and Cattel some Countries wholly swallowed up and drowned in the Sea as Acarnania Achaia part of Europe and Asia in Propontis but above all that great Island of Atlantis supposed by Plato in his Timaeus to be greater than Lybia and Asia swallowed up in the Atlantick Ocean to which it gives its denomination but Plato is oftentimes so Poetical that we can hardly tell where he means in earnest But on the other side many times the Sea by a certain recompence makes new room for the Inhabitants of the World sometimes by producing notable Islands thus the same Pliny tells us that Delos Rhodes Anaphe Nea Thera and Teresia Hiera Automate Thia were produced Again the Sea hath deserted vast Tracts of Ground in divers places and left them dry Land as is related by Aristotle in the second of his Meteors Cap. 14. and by Pliny in a great measure out of him and Herodotus Thus considerable quantities of Land were left by the Sea at Ephesus at Ambracia and other Parts and that a very great part of Egypt namely that called Delta is but the accretion of Nilus and was sometime covered with Water and according to the conjecture of Herodotus the Sea possessed Memphis and a great part of Egypt to the Mountains of Ethiopia But these are but Conjectures of the Historian of what might be in some thousand Years before he was born Aristotle indeed supposeth that the City Thebes and the adjacent Parts were all that were habitable in Egypt in the time of Homer because he makes no mention of Memphis But these smaller Vicissitudes and mutual borrowings and payments between the Earth and Sea are not those Mutations which so much contribute to the Reduction of Mankind partly because they are gradual and give Men opportunity to escape and partly because they are not such Devastations as may be pares huic negotio unless we believe that wonderful swallowing up of the vast Island or rather Continent of Atlantis and partly because the Sea which commonly gives in one place what it takes in another and so makes room for the Inhabitants of the World in compensation of what it takes 2. Therefore I come to those greater supposed Correctives namely 1. Floods and Inundations 2. Incendia Burnings and again both or either of those are also varied according to the Opinions of some of the Ancients 1. They are either such as were all at one time and did wholly overwhelm and confound this lower World or 2. They are such as did not wholly dissolve the lower Word or put a period to all things living therein Again the former Opinion that held these Cataclysms and Empyroses universal was such as either held that it put a total Consummation unto things in this lower World especially that of Conflagration Or else such as though it quite for the present confounded the Face of things especially in this inferior World yet it was but preparative to a new Formation of things wherein all things would be put into better Order till in process of time they again degenerate and so were to receive another Purgation by Fire or Water according to the fatal Vicissitudes to which the World is subject And they suppose that these successive unmaking and making again of the World not unlike the Suppositions of Anaxagoras or Empedocles were Eternal and should eternally continue in this Vicissitude that the last Destruction of the World was by Water and that which is to succeed is by Fire And this was for the most part the Opinion of the Stoicks whereof Lipsius in his second Book
and uses For although the Almighty Wisdom and Power could have made all this Fabrick of the World in its full complement and perfection in one moment and although he produced and perfected Vegetables Brutes and Man in one moment without the gradual procedures through those several stations and degrees which Nature now observeth and so he could have done in the production of all other the Integrals of the Universe yet he seems in some parts of this Processus formativus of the Universe to use sometimes such Methods Means and Instruments and such Times Periods and Orders as might seem to bear in some measure a congruity to a Natural Procedure thus he used that Motion or Agitation of the Spirit for the ripening and influencing of the vast Mass he first begins with the production of those more simple constituent Particles of Matter which might yield Matter suited and prepared to Mixt Natures And it is not unreasonable for us to think that this great flaming Light in the first three days of the Creation was used as a most suitable Instrument for the Rarefaction Digestion Separation and Distribution of the remaining part of the Chaotical Matter in those greater Agitations that it had in the production of the Aether the separation of the Water and the arefaction of the Earth which Processes required a more severe and violent active Instrument than was necessary or indeed suitable to those smaller Mutations which were after made and probably if that piercing and great Lucid Nature had continued its Revolutions about the World it would have been too strong and violent either to the production or conservation of those Animals and Mankind that were now to be produced And so the diffused Light that circulated about the Universe is now this fourth day distributed into these several Heavenly Bodies 1. Because now its use in that former state and method of its existence ceased 2. It was now for the use of the Universe to have it distributed and ordered into those several Vessels the Sun and Stars that might with a gentler and better regulated Heat and Motion influence the World 3. It was now more for the Beauty Order and Ornament of the Universe for the Glory and Honour of the Divine Wisdom Power and Goodness to distribute this Light into several Vessels and according to various measures and proportions and accommodated with several Motions than to keep it in one vast and terrible Body circulating the Universe which unrefracted might have been too penetrating and violent to the other parts of Nature And this seems to be the Method of the Origination of the Heavenly Bodies For though the firt Verse tells us that In the beginning God made the heavens and the earth we have no reason to suppose that the Etherial Bodies and the Heavenly Luminaries were completed in the moment of Time whatever may be conjectured touching the Coelum Empyraeum for it is evident that Light the first-born of the Universe was not made till the first day the Expansum or Aether till the second day nor the Heavenly Host the Planetary and Fixed Stars till the fourth day I shall not here contend much touching the System of the Universe whether the Earth be the Center thereof or the Sun whether it consist of so many several Systems or Vortices whether every Fixed Star hath its Vortex and the Sun the Center of the Planetary Vortex only thus much I shall say 1. That this Diving Hypothesis delivered to us by the hand of Moses seems wholly to contradict the Supposition of Solid Orbs and strongly concludes that the Heavenly Bodies are moved in liquido Aethere 2. It seems rather to countenance that System of the Universe that supposeth the Earth to be the common Center thereof than 〈◊〉 the imaginary Hypothesis of Copernicus Galileus Kepler or Des Cartes 3. That it utterly contradicts the Hypothesis of Aristotle and Ocellus and the Pythagoreans touching the Eternity of the World or of the Heavens and likewise the Fiction of Democritus and Epicurus of the casual Coalition of the Universe by the motion or interfering of Atoms 3. I come to consider of the Fifth Days Work touching the production of Fish and Fowls Vers 20. And 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 its kind and God saw that it was good The great Engin of the Heavenly Bodies being now constituted in that excellent state and order for the use and conservation of animal Life God Almighty proceedeth in a most exquisite order for the production of Animals and because the Waters were in themselves a more ductile and possibly a more fertil Body than the Earth and also because caeteris paribus the Fowls and Fishes are not of an equal perfection in their natures to the Brutes or Terrestrial Animals for these have certainly a more digested constitution greater variety and curiosity in their bodily texture and a higher Spirit and Soul of nobler Instincts and more capable of Discipline than the Fowl or Fishes Therefore as the production of Vegetables anteceded the production of Animals so the production of Animals aquatil and volatil preceded the production of terrestrial Animals What may else be said in relation to this Days Work I shall deliver in the Consideration of the next first Part of the sixth Days Work Therefore 4. The first Part of the sixth Days Work comprized the production of Terrestrial Animals Vers 24. And God said Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind and cattel and every creeping thing and beast of the earth after his kind and it was so The Reasons why Terrestrial Animals had their production after the Fowls and Fishes have been partly before intimated and shall be here somewhat farther considered And they are these 1. Although Almighty God be not bound or straitned in his Operation to the sequaciousness of the Matter yet it is not improper for us to suppose that he may pursue the Laws of his own making where it consists with his design and intention The production of Vegetables by the Earth was indeed earlier but then the energy of his Instrument the Light perchance was stronger than after the distribution thereof into the Receptacles of the Heavenly Luminaries 2. Ad plurimum the nature of Terrestrial Animals was a more refined nature than that of Fowls and Fishes and therefore as the Matter might reasonably expect a longer mora for its Concoction so the Method of Creation caeteris paribus proceeded from the less elaborate Integrals of Mixt Bodies to the more elaborate concluding with Man And this preference of the Brutes above Fowls and Fishes appears 1. In the manner of their natural procreation the Brutes being ad plurimum vivipara the
answer that imaginary Obligation or Necessity of his nature to do good ad ultimum posse for still it might have been made before any hora signata 3. Consequently the time of the Creation of the World if it were on this side an eternal period could neither be determined by his want of Power nor by his necessitated Benignity agere ad ultimum posse for in that indefinite time within the limits of Eternity no time can be assigned before which he could not have made the World though it be admitted it could not be eternal 4. Consequently there could be nothing that could determin the time or period wherein the World was to have been made but the absolute Divinum beneplacitum there could be nothing without him to determin it for nothing was till he made it nor any thing but his own Will within him that could determin it for his power and goodness were undetermined to do it sooner or later since no time could be assigned for the doing of it but it might be done sooner And when all is done his Beneficence nor the good which the created Beings might receive from that Beneficence had had no imaginable advance or enlargement if the World had been created millions of millions of years before it was and that upon these plain evident Reasons 1. Because though the World had indeed been at this hour ancienter and lasted longer if it had been created a million of years sooner yet the future Eternity or Sempiternity of the World being of all hands admitted though the Eternity à parte ante be denied there will be a future infinity for the emanation of the Divine Goodness and Beneficence to his Creatures 2. Considering the nature of the Beings themselves that partake of the Divine Beneficence there is no advance at all to them by receiving it sooner or later If Plato had been a million of years before he in truth was and had lived his proportion of eighty years he had tasted no more of the Divine Beneficence than if he had lived as he did about two thousand years since 3. Neither is there any difference in respect of the ever-glorious God for he received no access of happiness by the Creation of the World nor stood at all in need of it And if he might be imagined to have received any contentment in it yet he had an eternal prospect of all things as if they had been really made eternally And besides if the World had been myriads of millions of years sooner than it was yet it was still infinitely short of an eternal duration Almighty God had been an infinite duration before without that World which had it been made millions of years before it was yet had not held any proportion to that infinite duration that preceded And whatsoever hath been formerly said against the Eternity of this World doth equally conclude against an eternal being of any World antecedent to this much more against an eternal succession of infinite Worlds either of which can have no certainty nor have any evidence or probability so that as there cannot be attributed an eternal duration à parte ante to any one such supposed pre-existing World so much less to a succession of Worlds The very same Arguments that conclude against the possibility of eternal Motion or the eternal successions of Generation and Corruption or of successive Individuals of Mankind do as effectually conclude against an eternal succession of infinite Worlds and therefore I shall spare the repetition of them The Arguments which I have before used are such as though at the first view they seem intricate yet they have strength of evidence in them and such as are accommodate to the nature of the thing which requires Arguments of such a nature and those Arguments that are more experimental and obvious to sense though they are more easie to be apprehended yet are more easie to be evaded by the Assertors of the Eternity of the World In the before-mentioned Book De Aetate Mundi two experimental Arguments are brought against the Eternity of the World upon which the Author lays some weight 1. That if the World were eternal by the continual fall and wearing of Waters all the protuberances of the Earth would infinite Ages since have been levelled and the Superficies of the Earth rendred plain no Mountains no Vallies no inequalities would be therein but the Superficies thereof would have been as level as the Superficies of the Water 2. That if this World had been eternal there would have been no Rocks appearing in the Seas above the Water whereof there are very many visible for the motion and agitation of the Water doth wear and eat off gradually the roots and other parts thereof as is visible to our observation some whereof have their roots so corroded by the Water that they are ready to fall and others have apparently by that means been either wasted or decayed that now they are not extant which in some mens memory have been standing and if the bredth of a Barley-corn had been consumed in a million of years there had been nothing of them left That these things are true in fact and that the reason why many of these effects are apparent to us to be as they are is because that these Rocks and these Protuberances have not been eternal may bp well attributed to that novitas essendi that finite period wherein they have continued is very probable and evident to him that is satisfied otherwise that the World had a beginning I easily grant But he that asserts the Eternity of the World will find out easie evasions of these sensible Arguments They will tell us and with truth enough that in a great tract even of a finite duration the Earth must have and hath had great mutations That by the eruption of Bituminous and Sulphureous Vapours and the firing thereof these protuberances of Mountains and Hills may be made and have been made in many parts That as Warts or Wenns growing in our Hands are thrust up by the humors ministred by the extremity of the orifice of some Capillary Vein and increase so in the great Body of the Earth such protuberances may be thrust out and gradually increased though not so easily perceptible in one Age and by this means there may be a continued supply of what is successively abraded from them by decursion of Waters That Matter is never lost or annihilated That what is decayed by that decursion of Waters is in some measure supplied by the terrene faeces which that Water brings with it That by continued vicissitudes the Earth is repaired by the insensible descent of Atoms of Matter raised in others places the Atmosphere being evermore filled with little particles and concretes of Matter which are uncessantly discharged upon the Earth and as uncessantly again supplied in the Air by the more gross and terrestrial parts of those Vapours that are raised principally from the Sea and watrish
places by means whereof the Water justly pays in process of time what is borrowed from the Earth by a perpetual circulation And that hence it comes to pass that in process of time even to our view Channels that were deep and broad yet by a little time of dryness grow narrow and shallow that those Mountains whose chief substance is Rock become cloathed with a superficial Mantle of Earth and Mould that those places which were formerly filled with Wood have buried the fallen Trees three four or five foot deep in the ground by an accretion or cover of Earth derived to them sometimes by Alluvions or Floods sometimes and most ordinarily by the descent of those Terrestrial Particles that are drawn up together with watry Vapours and either together with those Waters or after arefaction thereof in the Air discharged upon the Earth which doth reparare deperditum And as to those Rocks in the Sea they will also tell us that the vicissitudes of the Sea and Land in a long process of time much more in an eternal duration are very many and various Sometimes that becomes Land which was once Sea as appears in that part of Egypt thorough which Nilus runs long since observed by Aristotle and before him by Herodotus and even in our memory great quantities of Land are now firm and habitable where Ships anciently rode and on the other side many parts are become Sea which were once firm Land They instance in that traditional vast Island in the Atlantick Ocean which is drowned and hath left no Remains of it self but those Islands called the Canary Islands but whether that tradition be true or not it is very probable that by particular Inundations the Face and State of the Terrestrial Globe by great vicissitudes is much changed And therefore though they suppose the Terrestrial Globe Eternal yet the Earth and Water hath not eternally kept the same position or site that now it hath And therefore the Sea so often at least in an Eternal Period shifting its Channel hath not eternally washed the same Rocks that now it doth but after an indeterminate and vast uncertain Period it may be of ten or twenty thousand years leaves that Channel which before it had and gives those Rocks that it wasted opportunity to recruit again and then perchance after a like vast Period of Time visits the same Channel again and therefore though the World might be Eternal the alluvion of the Sea upon those Rocks might not be eternally continued but interpolated And though the Earth be not animated with a Sensible Soul yet it is possible that it may be a great Immortal Vegetable which may reproduce or increase Rocks or Mountains in various vicissitudes of vast Periods of Duration And this they think very probably to be collected by the observation of things and yet if it be not to be proved to be thus yet thus possibly it may be which is sufficient to elude the force of those sensible Arguments And the truth is these Solutions do evade the edge and concludency of those Physical Arguments and therefore much weight is not be laid upon them but upon those of another nature whereof in the foregoing part of this Chapter And there is no way to encounter the Solutions that these Men do or may give of these two last Arguments but to have recourse to what hath been before said namely that since the Solutions are grounded upon a Supposition of Eternal successive Motions whereby by vicissitudes of long uncertain Periods of the Decays and Reparations of the inferior World and by eternal vicissitudes of the translation of the Earth and Seas to several sites either by interpolated or successive Motions And since by what hath been before proved there is an utter impossibility in Reason and Nature of any Eternity à parte ante of continued or interpolated Motion there is likewise an impossibility in Nature that there should be this eternal vicissitude of decays and repairs of the Earth or shifting of stations between the Earth and the Sea And thus we are at last driven to resort to those though more obscure yet more concludent Arguments against the Eternity of the World which are mentioned in the beginning of this Chapter or such as are of the like nature some whereof will be hereafter farther considered Averroes who was a strong Assertor of the Eternity of the World insisteth upon a Reason which is witty but upon a mistake of the nature of eternal duration viz. That if the World were not eternal but created in some certain Epocha or Period it could never have been at all because an eternal duration must necessarily have anteceded the first production of the World and that Supposition excludeth the possibility of such its production and is contradictory to that supposed novitas essendi of the World for infinitum non potest pertransiri an infinite duration pre-existing to the Worlds production could never be passed through so no possible accession to the first existence of the World through the vast compass of a pre-existing infinite duration But this reasoning of his is insufficient because it takes in but a portion of Eternity which is à parte ante whereas that Maxim is to be applied to the full and entire compass of Eternity or Infinitude For if that Argument should hold neither Averroes nor Plato nor any man else could have been born in the World but must have had an eternal existence upon the very same reason that Infinitum non potest pertransiri for it is certain that as well an infinite duration anteceded the Birth of Plato or Averroes as it must do the production of the World if admitted to have novitas essendi And thus much touching this preparatory Disquisition concerning the Eternity of the World in general CAP. IV. Concerning the Origination of Mankind and whether the same were Eternal or had a Beginning IF the World it self were not eternal this Disquisition touching the Eternity of Mankind were needless because decided in that decision Therefore our Inquiry touching the Origination of Mankind and whether it had or had not a Beginning is in this place by way of Supposition or Admission namely Whether admitting the great Integrals at least of the Universe the Heavens and Heavenly Bodies the Elementary World were or at least might be eternal whether yet Mankind were or might be eternal And the Question possibly will be much of the same kind with relation to other at least perfect Animals and Vegetables yea and all mixed or compound Bodies for we shall easily find that admitting those greater Integrals of the World were eternal yet whatsoever is said against the Eternity of Mankind will bear as hard against the Eternity of perfect Animals and almost of all compound Bodies And although for the more orderly discussion of this Enquiry concerning the Original of Mankind I must gratia argumenti and according to the Method proposed admit the Eternity of the great
the Seas and established it upon the Floods So that there are greater Store-houses of Water than appear visible to the World If we could suppose that the incumbent Superficies of the Earth should subside and press upon those Store-houses of Water within its bowels it might afford a competent store to drown the Earth without a new Creation 2. Again we may easily compute that the quantity or extension of the Body of the Air even that which is commonly called the Atmosphere which at the lowest account extends seven Miles in height might by condensation into Water afford a competent store for the drowning of the World and yet be again rarified into the same dimension and consistence which before it obtained for there is that vicinity of Nature between those two Elements that we daily see considerable proportions of the one by condensation changed into the other 3. When we consider those immense Inundations that are Annually and with some constant equality occasioned by great Rains as for Instance in the River Nilus which by the Annual Rains in Ethiopia is raised almost every Year twenty Cubits and overflows a considerable part of Egypt yearly between the Months of June and October and the like Inundations yearly hapning by Periodical Showers in the great River of America called Orenoque between May and September whereby it riseth upright above 30 Foot so that many of the Islands and Plains at other times inhabited are 20 Foot yearly at that time under Water And when we see that even the Ocean it self in its daily Tides especially those that happen about the Equinoxes caused as the Copernicans say by the Intersections of the Annual and Diurnal Motions of the Earth we need not have recourse to a new Creation of Waters to perform this Office of the Divine Providence and Justice He might by a stronger elevation of Vapours or by an extraordinary motion of the Seas perform his purpose which though probably it might not at the same time drown Asia and America yet by the successive peragration of these Waters they might drown the whole Earth as the Inundation of Nilus by the Showers of Ethiopia make the Flood there a Month sooner than it happens in Egypt 2. As to the Second Objection I do confess it to be most true that the Universal Deluge was a Judgment upon the Old World for their intolerable degeneration from their Duty to God But I do not think that was the only Reason thereof for the Infinite Power of God might have destroyed those Evil Men by a Pestilence as well as by a Flood without detriment to the harmless Brutes or Birds But as God Almighty is of Infinite Wisdom so it is the high Prerogative of that Wisdom to have variety of Excellent Ends in the same Action I do really think that this Universal Deluge was not only an act of his Vengeance upon Evil Men but possibly an act of Goodness and Bounty to the very Constitution of this Inferior World though the particulars thereof be hid from us And if as some would have it it should be coextended only to the places that were then inhabited and so the Flood particular yet most certain it would be even in such a particular Flood many great Spots of Ground would be necessarily drowned where never any Men were or inhabited 3. And it seems it is too hastily concluded That in the Period of 1656 or as the Septuagint whom he follows 2256 Years between the Creation and the Flood that only Palestine Syria or Mesopotamia were inhabited For considering the longevity of Mens Lives in that Period a small skill in Arithmetical Calculation will render the Number of coexisting Inhabitants of the Earth more than six times as many as would have hapned in 5000 Years when Mens Ages were abridged to that ordinary dimension which now they have and the strait bounds of Syria and Mesopotamia would not have held one fortieth part of the Inhabitants all Europe Asia and Africa were not more than sufficient for them So that as the World grew full of Sin so it grew full of Men and Beasts and stood in need of a Deluge to make room for its future Inhabitants And this is as much as I shall say in this place for the Vindication of the Possibility and Reasonableness of the Universality of that Deluge recorded by Moses And if any shall doubt of the Capacity of the Ark of Noah for the Reception of Brutes Birds and the Family of Noah with the necessary Provisions of Livelihood for them let him but consult Mr. Poole's Synopsis and he will find that which may reasonably satisfie him touching it And now I shall briefly consider the Method and Means and Manner of the Peopling of America and storing that vast Countrey with Men and Beasts and Birds so far forth as we may reasonably conjecture And herein I must confess that I only make an Abstract or brief Collection of what hath been done to my hands by those that had better Opportunities and Abilities to do it as namely Grotius Laetius Breerwood Hornius Josephus Acosta Mr. John Webb Martinius and others who have professedly written De origine gentium Americanarum First therefore I shall consider the Manner of Traduction of Men into America Secondly The Manner of Traduction of Brutes into America Touching the Traduction of Mankind into America I do suppose these things following 1. That the Origination of the common Parents of the Humane Nature hapned in some part of Asia 2. That though the Origination of the common Parents of Mankind were in Asia yet some of their Descendents did come into America 3. That such Migration into America by the Descendents from Adam was not only possibly but fairly probable notwithstanding all the objected Difficulties 4. That the Migrations of the Descendents of Adam and Noah into America was successive and interpolated 5. That although we cannot certainly define the Time or Manner of all these Migrations yet many of them were long since or as we may reasonably conjecture some Thousands of Years since but yet after the Universal Deluge The Means of Transmigration of the Children or Descendents of Adam and Noah from Asia into America must be either by Land or by Sea or by both and if by Sea then it must be designed and ex proposito or casually I think it probable it may be all of these ways but especially by Sea Touching the Transmigration by Land it seems very difficult because though it may be possible that there may be some junctures between the North Continent of America and some part of Tartary Russia or Muscovy yet none are known unless the Frozen Seas in those Parts might be a means to transport Men thither which is difficult to suppose those Parts being unpassable by reason of the great Snows that happen so far Northward though some have thought that Groenland is one Continent with America and that in its farthest North-east extent it is joyned to
the Continent of Asia about Japan or Cathay so that a Land-passage might be out of Asia into Groenland and thence into America But this is only conjectured and not fully discovered to be so But however the Case now stands with the three known Parts of the World in relation to its contiguity with the Continent of America it is not impossible but in that long tract of 4000 Years at least which hath hapned since the Universal Deluge there hath been great alterations in the situations of the Sea and Earth possibly there might be anciently Necks of Land that maintained passage and communication by Land between the two Continents Many Instances of this kind are remembred by Pliny not only of the great Atlantick Island mentioned by the Egyptian Priest in Plato's Timaeus of a great bigness almost contiguous to the Western parts of Spain and Africa yet wholly swallowed up by that Ocean to which it hath given its Name of the Atlantick Ocean which if true might for ought we know afford a Passage from Africa to America by Land before that Submersion but also many more Instances of the like Variations thus he reports that Sicily was anciently divided from Italy Cyprus from Syria Euboea from Boetia Vide Plin. l. 2. cap. 88 89 90 91. Strabo also in his first Book seems to referr the Straits or Apertures of the Euxin and Mediterranean Seas to the like separations made by the force of the Sea and attributes those great Floods and Inundations to the elevation and subsiding of the Moles terrestris in these words Restat ut causam adscribamus solo sive quod mari subest sive quod inundatur potius tamen ei quod mari subest hoc enim multo est mobilius quod ob humiditatem celerius mutari possit Spiritus enim hujusmodi omnium rerum causa ibi est copiosior Sed sicuti dixi causa horum efficiens accidentium est quod eadem sola alias attolluntur alias subsidunt and he resembles the ordinary Elevations and Depressions whereby the ordinary Fluxes and Refluxes are made to the Exspiration and Respiration of Animals but those greater and extraordinary Elevations and Depressions of the Earth to the greater Accidents Nam diluvia terraemotus eruptiones flatuum tumores subiti terrae in mari latentis mare quoque extollunt subsidentésque in se eaedem terrae faciunt ut mare dimittatur And it is no new or feigned Observation That as the Volcans in the Land as Aetna and Vesuvius raise up those great Protuberances which seem Natural Mountains so the like Volcans or Fiery Eruptions happen sometimes in the Land subjected to the Sea whereby great quantities of Earth together with Fire are thrown up and grow into Islands De quibus videsis Strabonem Plinium in locis citatis And if we may give credit to the Conjectures of Verstegan the Countries of England and France were formerly conjoyned and after separated by the Irruption of the Sea between Dover and Calais And therefore although it may be that at this day there is no Land-passage from this Elder World unto that of America yet within the tract of 4000 Years such there might have been whereby both Men and Beasts especially from about Tartary or China might pass or between Norway or Finland and the Northern part of the American Continent But we need not go so far from home nor resort to the Ages of ancient times for the evincing the great Changes that have been between the Sea and Lands sometimes by tempestuous Winds sometimes by Earthquakes sometimes and that most commonly by the working of the Sea by casting up Silt and Sand and by exaggerations thereby wrought elegantly described by Ovid 15. Metamorph. Vidi ego quod fuerat quondam solidissima tellus Esse fretum vidi factas ex aequore terras Et procul à pelago conchae jacuere marinae Et vetus inventa est in montibus anchora summis Quódque fuit campus vallem decursus aquarum Fecit eluvie mons est deductus in aequor Eque paludosa siccis humus aret arenis The Instances of latter Discoveries which make evident this various state of the Globe of Earth and Water thus described by the Poet are among others those that follow 1. Some Towns that were anciently Havens and Ports where Ships did ride are now by exaggeration of Sand between those Towns and the Sea converted into firm Land 2 3 4 Miles distant from the Sea such was S t Omer in Flanders Old Rumney in Kent Rye in Suffolk vide Mr. Dugdale his History of Draining pag. 173. and the Authors there cited by him 2. some whole Countries as well as the Egyptian Delta recovered to be dry Land partly by the exaggeration of Sand by the Sea or the out-falls of great Rivers thus the whole Country of Holland seems to be an Accretion partly by the Sea partly by the River Rhine Dugdale ibid. p. 12. 3. Some great Continents and Tracts of Ground were anciently firm Land and full of great Woods that could not have less time than 500 Years continuance and yet were afterwards reduced again into the Dominion of the Ocean and after all that re-reduced into firm Land leaving the infallible Signatures of these several Changes though the precise times thereof exceed the Memory of any Men alive Instances whereof are as follow In the great Level near Thorny several Trees of Oak and Firr some severed from their Roots others joyned to their Roots which stand in firm Earth below the Moor and in all probability have lain there hundreds of Years till covered by the inundation of the fresh and salt Waters and the Silt and Moorish Earth exaggerated upon them and the like monuments of great Trees buried in great quantities in the Isle of Axholm about 3 Foot and some 5 Foot under ground whereof there are multitudes some Oaks of 5 Yards in compass Firr-Trees of 30 Foot long Vide Dugd. ubi supra pag. 141 171. Mr. Ray in his Ingenious Observations upon his Travels in the Netherlands c. pag. 6. gives us the like account of great quantities of subterraneous Woods lying 10 and 20 Ells below the Superficies of the Ground prostrate towards the East which are supposed to be anciently thrown down by the irruption of the Sea and strong Western Winds which yet now and for all the time of the Memory of Man or History extant are firm Land namely Bruges in Flanders But that one Instance is instar omnium remembred by Mr. Dugdale ubi supra pag. 172 but of known and notorious truth the Sceleton of a great Sea-fish above 20 Foot long found in the Downs or Uplands of Cammington in Huntingdonshire very far distant from the Sea which is an unquestionable Evidence that the Sea was sometime Master of that Tract of Ground 4. Touching the Conchae marinae of several sorts it is most unquestionable I referr my self herein to the Relation of Mr.
Ray ubi supra pag. 114. seqq wherein he gives us an account of these Petrified Shells found in great quantities within Continents at a vast distance from the Sea and some Shells that are found in the Continent which are strangers in the Ports of the Sea conterminous to those Continents There are two Opinions concerning the Origination of these Petrified Shells 1. Of those that have thought and with great probability that these were left in those places by the Sea either by the Universal Deluge or that really the Sea did possess those places where it left these Relicks and Memorials of it self upon its recess to a more setled Channel And certainly if this be so we must needs suppose anciently another Face of the Sea and Earth than what now is possibly many of these Vallies and lower grounds might be entirely Sea and the Hills and Mountains and other Prominences of the Earth where these Petrified Shells are often found being the Shoars of that great Ocean in those elder times those Shells were there cast up as they are at this day upon the Shoars The second Opinion is of those that think that these Conchae or Petrified Shells were no other than the Lusus naturae the Effects of the Plastick power of the Earth 1. Because they are found at such great distances from the Sea 2. Because they are many times of such a kind of Fabrick as are not to be found in those parts of the Sea that is conterminous to those Continents where they are found some are found in the middle of Germany 200 Miles distant from the Sea at the nearest Scallop-shells are found in the Ditches of Antwerp and yet they are rarely to be gotten on the Sea or Sea-shoar nearer than Gallicia in Spain 3. Because these Shells are ordinarily filled with Stone suitable to the Stone of those places where they are found These and the like Reasons though not evidently concludent against the former Supposition yet have induced many Learned Men to attribute these Phaenomena to the Plastick power of the Earth For my own part I have seen such apparent Evidences in and near the place where I live of things of this nature that I am satisfied that many of them are but the Relicks of Fish-shells left by the Sea and there in length of time actually Petrified and the Instance of the great Fish-sceleton found at Cammington seems an undeniable Evidence thereof And I remember in my youth in the Lisne of a Rock at Kingscote in Glocestershire I found at least a Bushel of Petrified Cockles actually distinct one from another each near as big as my Fist and at Adderly mentioned by Mr. Cambden about 40 or 50 Years since those Configurations of great Shells in Stones were frequently found and for their curiosity as many as could be found were taken up by several persons and carried away since which time for above 20 Years last past there are none or very few found which nevertheless if they had been the Product of the Plastick power of the Earth would have been Annually re-produced And yet I do think that all these Petrifications are not always necessarily the Monuments of the Sea possessing those places as its constant or usual Seat but that many of those Shells arise de novo not barely from the Plastick power of the Earth as some Insects and Vegetables arise spontaneously but from certain Seminal Ferments brought thither which are as it were the Seminium of their production And these Seminal Ferments were first in the Sea and sea-Sea-Waters and might by many means by brought into those new parts of firm Land 1. By the Universal Deluge 2. By the various mutable stations of the Land and fluxes of the Sea 3. By elevation of those Seminal Ferments from the Sea or some desiccated places thereof by the heat of the Sun and discharging them by Rain upon several parts of the dry Land and where possibly those Seminal Ferments might be digested and ripened gradually into these Configurations But touching these kinds of Seminal Ferments and their Energy more will be said hereafter By this digression I mean but thus much namely That we can by no means reasonably suppose the Face Figure Position and Disposition of the Sea and dry Land to be the same anciently as now but there might then be Sea where there is now dry Land and dry Land where there is now Sea and that there might have been in former times Necks of Land whereby communication between the parts of the Earth and mutual passage and re-passage for Men and Animals might have been which in long process of time within a Period of 4000 Years may have been since altered That those parts of Asia and America which are now dis-joyned by the interluency of the Sea might have been formerly in some Age of the World contiguous to each other and those Spots of Ground namely the Philippine Islands and others that are now crumbled into small Islands might anciently have been one entire Continent And if in places that have been long inhabited and observed by Men these mutations have happened as are apparent to our very Senses yet the precise Times Manner and Circumstances thereof are wholly lost to us as in divers parts of Europe is apparent much more the like Changes may happen in those remote and vast Marine Tracts which have been long unknown and unobserved and scarce possible to be observed by Mankind as in the Scythian Atlantick Pacifick and other Northern and Southern parts of the Seas Touching the Second Means namely the Passage by Sea It seems very probable that the greatest and readiest means of the migration of Colonies or Plantations into the Western World from the Eastern was by Sea and the help of Navigation whereof much might be casual by Tempests or contrary Winds but some and the more principal might be ex instituto industria Navigation and the use of Ships is of that great Antiquity that it is difficult to assign when it began to be in use It seems probable that it was not unknown to the Old World before the Flood and yet not in that perfection that it was after their Vessels being not reduced to that perfection as to endure a wide Sea such as the Universal Deluge was neither were they probably fitted with such Stores as might be requisite for so long and unexpected a Navigation as the Flood lasted But the Ark of Noah was certainly a most exact piece of Architecture and might give a Pattern or Instruction for Vessels of great burthen and very probably since that time the skill of Making and Navigating of Ships was much ripened and improved If we consult the Heathenish Histories we shall find Navigation very ancient among the Grecians but especially among the Phenicians Tyrians and Carthaginians Polydore Virgil de Inventione Rerum l. 3. cap. 15. and before him Pliny in his Natural History lib. 5. cap. 57. gives us an Account of
Antiquity of the Peopling of China which if we believe M r Webb was the first peopled after the Universal Deluge that the Ark there first rested upon that tract of Mountains that environ a great part of China that Sem the Son of Noah first setled there that it is the most Ancient and Primitive Language that by means of the Antiquity and Setledness of this Monarchy having continued in its entireness ever since the Universal Deluge it is most probable that the Western Continent was peopled from thence 2. Because they were the greatest Masters of Shipping and best skilled in Navigation of any part of the World that the Pixis Nautica was there known and used long before the knowledge thereof in Europe 3. The many Islands on the South-east and South part of China as Borneo Java Gilolo Celebes and others near the Equator are dis-joyned but by very narrow Seas not much broader than those between England and France from the Neck of Land called Terra des Papos or Nova Guinea and Nova Hollandia which is now discovered to be at least in some parts disjoyned from the more Southern Continent by a great Sea but thought to have been anciently part of the Southern Continent and possibly so it may continue in some parts thereof Upon these and the like probabilities it may seem reasonable to conclude 1. That the Americans had their Original from the Inhabitants of Europe Asia and Africa that transmigrated into that Continent either intentionally or casually or both 2. That those Migrations were not of any one single Nation or People but from many or divers Nations 3. That these Migrations were not altogether or at one time but successively in several Ages some earlier some later 4. That therefore it is impossible to determin the Time or first Epocha of such Migrations but only that they were all since the Universal Deluge which is now above 4000 Years since Some Migrations might be within two three or four hundred Years after the Flood some later according to various Accidents but it is no way probable that the earliest Migration thither was less distant than 1000 Years from this time 5. That if we should admit that the first Migration thither were above 2000 Years since of an hundred Pairs they might easily propagate a number competent enough to people all that vast Continent 6. That it seems that since the last of these ancient Migrations suppose that of Madoc and his Britons until our late Migrations by the Spaniards French English Dutch and Scotcâ— there probably interceded an interval of at least four or five hundred Years in all which interval the Commerce and Communication between Europe or Asia and America hath as it were slept and been forgotten both by them and us 7. That in that interval of 500 Years or thereabouts in all Parts but in some Parts far greater there must in all probability happen a great forgetfulness of their Original a great degeneration from the Primitive Civility Religion and Customs of those places from whence they were first derived a ferine and necessitous kind of Life a conversation with those that having been long there were faln into a more barbarous habit of Life and Manners would easily assimilate at least the next Generation to Barbarism and Ferineness It is true where a Colony comes and keeps it self in a Body as the Roman Colonies anciently and our Plantations in Virginia and New England do and the new Accessions incorporate and joyn themselves unto that Body Customs both Religious and Civil and the Original Language are long kept entire But where the Accessions are but thin and sparing and scattered among the Natives of the Country where they come and are driven to conform themselves unto their Customs for their very subsistence safety and entertainment it falls out that the very first Planters do soon degenerate in their Habits Customs and Religion as a little Wine poured into a great vessel of Water loseth it self But if they escape a total Assimulation to the Country where they thus are mingled yet the next Generation in such a mixture is quickly assimulated to the corrupt Manners and Customs of the People among whom they are thus planted So that it is no wonder if in such kind of small Accessions successively from one and the same or several Countries the third Generation forget their Ancestors and the Customs Religion and Languages of those People from whom they were first derived and assume various temperaments in their Language and Customs according as the places of their Habitation and the Company among whom they live obtain And if any man consider but the strange contemperation and production of our English Language out of the combinations and mixtures of the Danish Saxon British French Dutch and other Countries he may easily perswade himself that out of the Mixtures of People there may arise as great diversities of Language Rites and Customs as there may Temperaments of Qualities by the various combinations and mixtures of the prime Qualities or varieties of Words by the various appositions of the 24 Letters in the Alphabet and even these Customs and Languages subject to infinite successive alterations and variations according to the variety of Forein Mixtures Commerce Victories Wars Credit and Opinion of Factions or Parties And thus far touching the Peopling of America with Mankind I shall subjoyn something touching the storing of it with Brutes and Birds It seems in the original Creation of things that Vegetables and Insects especially those that by their nature may sponte oriri or by equivocal Generation had as large and universal production as the habitable parts of the Earth or dry Land as Fishes for the most part had their first created production as universal and sparsim in the whole extent of the Seas or Waters But whether the primitive production of the more perfect Animals both Brutes and Birds that have ever since had their production by univocal Generation were diffusively created over the habitable or dry Ground as Vegetables were or whether there were only certain Capita specierum perfectarum utriusque sexus created in a certain determinate districtus near to the place of the first Origination of Mankind viz. in or near the Garden of Eden and that the whole Progeny of such Brutes and Birds were propagated after successively through the whole World from these Capita specierum seems an Inquiry of more difficulty to determin Some Observations seem to favour the former Conjecture especially considering that many Species of Brutes and Birds are as it were appropriate to their several Countries as Elephants Camels Lions and divers other Brutes Parrots Ostriches and other Fowls which are not found in other Countries But especially the same Opinion is inferred from the Beasts and Birds which are found in America which have not the like in the other parts of the World Acosta in his 36 th Chap. of his 4 th Book saith that besides the Beasts called
by an Earthquake JugÃque unius diei noctis illuvione Afterwards Timaeus begins and proceeds with his Narrative touching the Production of the Universe and therein particularly of Mankind which I shall have occasion hereafter to mention Thus this great Master seems to countenance the Supposition of the vicissitudes of Conflagrations and Floods especially of the latter certis temporum curriculis and thereby the excessive multiplication of Mankind corrected and the vicissitudes of Arts and Laws interrupted lost restored and repaired Only he supposeth Egypt free from those Floods and Conflagrations though it seems necessary that if Inundations prevailed in Greece and those upper Countries Egypt that seems to lye much lower could not easily escape them though they have no Rain that might occasion them But the Priest mingles some strange and improbable Stories with his Supposition of those Vicissitudes Aristotle the Scholar of Plato differed much from his Master 1. In his manner of writing which was much more steady and severe than the Writings of Plato who mingled Poetical Fancies with the things he delivered and seems very uncertain and unresolved in most things of great importance 2. In his Position for Plato seems not to hold at least the Elementary World Eternal though very Ancient But Aristotle following rather the Opinion of Ocellus Lucanus and not being able to digest those many difficulties he found in the Hypotheses of the Inception of the World supposeth it Eternal and an eternal consistency in the state it now stands but not without some partial successive and periodical Changes in the Elementary World And therefore in this Supposition of the successive partial Floods or Inundations and Conflagrations whereby great Changes happen and a fair Corrective and Reduction of the Excess of Mankind he much agrees with Plato And he gives us a large and learned Account of his Judgment herein Lib. 1. Meteor cap. 14. in these Words Eadem terrae loca neque semper fluida neque semper arida sunt sed pro fluminum ortu aut defectu faciem mutant suam Quamobrem diversitas inter Mare Continentem existit nec perpetuo alia pro Continenti alia pro Mari habentur sed ubi terra aliquando patuit mare superfunditur ubi nunc mare terra exaggerabatur SuspicarÃque debemus haec omnia ita fieri ordine quodam ambitu horum autem principium causáque existit quod interiores quoque telluris partes perinde atque animantium plantarúmque corpora juventutem atque senectutem habeant Verum istis haec per partem subire nequaquam contingit sed simul totum javenescat aut senescat necesse est Terrae particulatim hoc idem ob frigus calorem accidit haec igitur accrescere simul ac decrescere propter Solis calorem conversionémque assolent Then he proceeds to shew how that successively some parts of the Earth grow moorish or watrish others dry where it becomes barren Fountains and Rivers decay and sometimes break out in other places that this makes Changes in the Sea and Land At quia omnis quae circa terram fit generatio non nisi successione tempore respectu vitae nostrae quam longo fieri solet ista nobis haudquaquam advertentibus fiunt Atque prius universae gentes intereunt pereúntque quà m horum mutatio ab initio ad finem usque memoriâ teneri queat Maximas itaque celerrimásque clades praelia advehunt alias morbi nonnullas sterilitates hae quasdam statim magnas quasdam lentas adeò ut talium quoque gentium transmigrationes nos lateant propterea quod alii regionem deserant alii eo usque sustinent quoad nullam amplius multitudinem alere regio queat Inter primam igitur novissimámque loci derelictionem tempora interveniant adeò longa par est ut nemo meminisse possit imò incolumibus etiamnum hisoe qui remanserint longi temporis injuriâ oblivio irrepserit Eodem autem modo latere existimandum est quando primùm singuli populi quae permutata essent arida à palustribus aquosÃsve facta inhabitare coeperint Then he gives Instance in Egypt Etenim locus ille totáque regio quae fluminis tantum invectu nata est semper aridior fieri videtur That all the Ostia Nili except one were made by Art and not by the River That anciently Egypt was no more but the City of Thebes which he proves out of Homer shews that in the time of Troy that part of Greece inhabited by the Argivi was Marish and had but few Inhabitants but now become fruitful and populous That part of Greece inhabited by the Miceni was fruitful and populous now become barren Quod igitur in isto loco qui parvus accidit hoc idem etiam circa loca magna accidere censeamus oportet That there is no cause to conceive the Sea less than formerly for though some places sometimes covered with Water are added to the Continent yet in other places the Sea hath gained upon the Land Attamen hujusce rei causa ad mundi generationem haudquaquam referenda ridiculum enim foret ob parvas brevésque mutationes Universum moveri asserere Porrò Terrae moles atque magnitudo ad totum Coelum nihil profectò est Verum horum omnium causam existimemus oportet quod ut elapsis certis temporum spatiis inter anni tempora hyems ita magno quodam circuitu hyems magna imbrium excessu sieri solet at hic non semper eisdem in locis efficitur sed perinde ut vocatum dilivium quod tempore Dencalionis accidit etenim hoc circa Graeciam maximè eam potissimam partem quam antiquam Hellada vocitant factum est c. Cum autem necesse sit quandam mutationem esse Universi non tamen ortum interitum siquidem ipsum maneat necesse est non semper eadem loca mari aut amnibus humectari atque siccescere quod reipsa quae fieri solet liquidò constat And concludes That Egypt Cujus homines antiquissimos esse diximus is nothing but a Production of the River Nilus that is lower than the Red Sea and therefore that Sesostris and Darius gave over that Attempt of cutting the Neck of Land between the Red Sea and Egypt for fear of drowning that Country That the Lake Moeotis is shallower and not able to bear Ships of that burthen as it did 60 Years before by reason of the Slime carried thither which will in time dry it up That Lakes grow by the exaggeration of Sand by the Sea which Lakes in time grow dry That Tanais or Nilus and all other Rivers were sometime dry Land and did not run where now they do At verò si amnes habent ortum occasum nec semper eadem terrae loca scatent aquis ipsum quoque mare simili modo mutari oportet quod cum assiduè alia deserat alia invadat patet universae
Origination of Mankind upon the Reasons first given in the beginning of this Tract and I have only subjoyned those Reasons of Fact that might probably bear testimony to the truth of the Supposition and I have endeavoured to shew where the strength and where the deficiencies of those Evidences of Fact do rest and which are most concludent and which not I have concluded all these Evidences of Fact with this concerning the common or general consent of the greatest and learnedst part of Mankind therein and I have concluded with this Evidence of Fact not as if this were entertained by all for 1. It is not without Opposers as Aristotle Ocellus Lucanus and the Pythagoreans and 2. Common Opinion or Perswasion of Mankind especially touching Matter of Fact is very fallible and unstable 3. In this very Matter in question there are by common perswasion of many of these Men superadded certain fabulous incredible and untrue Surmises touching the Manner and the Methods of this Origination appearing in some of the Opinions delivered in the former Chapter But the reason why I conclude with that Instance touching the Opinions of Men is because it lets me into that which is the Second principal Part of this Discourse namely The various Hypotheses of those that supposed admitted or believed this Origination which are in effect all contained in the former Chapter which I intend in the following Discourse to examin Therefore having thus partly out of the common Perswasion of Mankind but principally by the other foregoing Reasons made my Conclusion That Mankind had a Beginning now as I think delivered what may be said for the proof of this Proposition That Mankind had their Original ex non genitis and in some good measure established that Supposition I now proceed to examin the truth or probability of those several Suppositions which are before delivered touching the Means Method or Manner of this Origination And not to examin every particular Adjunct or Explication of these several Methods I shall divide these general Suppositions of the Ancients touching the Origination of Mankind into these three 1. The Opinion That the production of Mankind was ex non genitis was fortuitous or casual such was the Opinion of Democritus Epicurus and some others the manner of the Explication thereof I shall hereafter consider 1. The Opinion That the production of Mankind was ex non genitis was natural and was founded upon a natural concourse of Causes especially the disposition of the Earth and Water and the Influx of the Heaven This was the Opinion of some of the Antients but much improved by some later Philosophers 3. The Opinion That the production of Mankind ex non genitis was by the immediate Power Wisdom and Providence of Almighty God and his meer Beneplacitum This was the Opinion of the Stoicks and differs but very little from the Divine Truth touching Man's Creation as it is delivered by Moses And that which is said either for or against these Methods of the production of Mankind will be also applicable to the production of the perfect Animals that have their ordinary production ex conjunctione maris faeminae and not otherwise though what is said concerning those Animals will be more evident touching Man which is a far more perfect nature than other Animals First therefore I begin with the Opinion of the Epicureans which was in substance this That there were eternally an infinite number of small imperceptible Bodies that floated up and down in a vast infinite Inane and these were the Principia of all other Beings beneath Almighty God these they call Atoms That those Atoms were eternally and casually moved in this infinite Vacuum and by their mutual percussions the great Systems of the Heavenly and Elementary Bodies were framed and concreted That besides that concourse of Atoms that constituted the greater Integrals of the World there was a certain coalition of Atoms that constituted certain Semina or Seminal Bodies for the storing and furnishing the greater Integrals of the Universe especially the Earth and Seas That though the coalition of those Semina were casual and by an accidental or fortuitous aggregation of some Atoms yet these were the immediate primitive productive Principles of Men Animals Birds and Fishes and that determined them in their several Species That those Primordial Seeds thus fortuitously coagulated out of the Prima principia or Atoms were scattered by their Motion into the Earth and Seas That by reason of the strength of the newly coagulated Bodies of the Earth and Water and the heat of the Sun these Semina did bring forth Man and Brutes and Birds and Fishes but that by the decay of the strength of the Earth and Waters that Method of production of Men and perfect Animals is ceased and their production now delegated ordinarily to Propagation though in some places and at some times especially between the Tropicks such a Pullulation of Men and Beasts may be supposed to be That yet to this day the spontaneous production of some sort of Vegetables and Insects continues still in force the Earth and Waters being furnished with a sufficient store of such Semina either of old or daily production and with a sufficient strength by the help of the Solar or Ethereal Heat to perfect their productions That the first spontaneous production of Men and the perfect Animals was in certain Folliculi or Bladders excrescent from the Earth and the growth of these Men and Animals gradual being first Embryones then grown ripe for Birth then breaking out of those Folliculi and furnished with nourishment from the Earth instar lactis till they were able to shift for themselves Touching this Supposition although it contain in it that Truth that I have hitherto contended for namely That Mankind had an Original ex non genitis or That the Generations of Mankind in that order which now it holds was not Eternal yet the Manner or Method of this Epicurean Origination of the World and particularly of the perfect Animals but especially of Mankind is meerly fictitious untrue and impossible 1. The Principia or Atoms of infinite number floating in Vacuo infinito is a thing meerly invented and hath neither truth nor evidence nor probability in it 2. The Motion of these Atoms in this great Vacuum unless first excited or put into Motion by some intelligent active Principle is fabulous and incredible 3. The Coalition of these Atoms by fortuitous strokes or motions and their Coalition into that admirable Order and Constitution which we see in the Universe or greater Integrals of this Mundus aspectabilis is utterly incredible and indeed impossible But these things being beside my present purpose and deserving a large prosecution I shall dismiss 4. Touching these Semina and the Coagulation of them by the fortuitous coalition of Atoms they were driven to this Supposition because they found themselves at a loss if they should have supposed that per saltum their Atoms had
World especially in the Work of the third day was the dividing of the Earth and Waters Vers 9. And God said Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together and let the dry land appear and it was so and God called the dry land earth and the gathering together of the waters he called seas The Divine Historian herein brings us to the Formation of this lower Globe of Water and Earth and the distinction thereof This portion of the lower World seems to be the whole residue of the visible Chaotical Mass which by the former Rectification was reduced to a small portion like the Caput mortuum after Distillation for out of it had been before drawn those two mighty and large portions of Matter namely the Fiery and Flammeous and Lucid Nature imbodied in a Vehicle sufficient to contain and receive it in the Work of the first day and secondly the Expansum the vast Body of the Air and Aether in the Work of the second Day So that this Elementary portion of Earth and Water seems to be as it were the sediment and relique of the Massa Chaotica And those other two vast Extractions being drawn from it it seems this lower Region of Nature consisting of an aggregation of Water and Earth by the Divine Disposition of things either immediately or partly by the instrumentality either of the ambient Fire or by the implanted tendency of the grosser Particles to one common Center of this residue of a Chaotick Mass the gross Terrestrial parts subsided into the middle of the Water and though it was in bulk far greater than the Water yet it had there two concomitants with it 1. The Water by reason of its fluidity and penetration mingled it self as far as it could at least with the superficies of the Terrestrial Sediment to some considerable depth into it so far as it could pierce until it were excluded by the denser coagulation of the Earth 2. The Water did encompass the whole Terrestrial Globe to some proportionable depth or thickness though not equal to the quantity of the Earth So that as the circular Scales of a Pearl incompass one another so did the several extâ—racted great Integrals cover one another The first extracted Nature was the Light the Fiery or Luminous Body which must needs be uppermost because first drawn off from the Chaotick Mass The second the Aether and Air drawn off encompassing the remaining part of the Chaotick Mass The third the Watry Consistence left in a circular subsistence by the subsiding of the Ball of Earth into the common Center of the Universe And by this means the Earth was not at all conspicuous but involved in an involucrum of Water so that it must necessarily be 1. That hereby the whole Superficies of the Earth was covered with Water 2. That the upper part of it must needs be a moist muddy substance fluid and lubricous like Slime or Mud. The appearance therefore of the dry Land was by the excavation of certain Sinus and Tracts of the Earth and exaggerating or lifting up other parts of the Terrestrial Matter and by this means the Water subsided into those Caverns and Valleys prepared for its reception Whether this excavation of the Terrestrial Body or elevation of other parts thereof whereby the Water subsided were immediately by the immediate Power of God or whether he did it by the instrumentality of the Water working room for it self in the more soft and penetrable part of the Earth and exaggerating and raising Islands and Continents in other parts by such exaggeration as we see is done at this day by the Ocean producing Islands and enlarging Continents Or whether by the instrumentality of the Fire either subterraneous or ambient raising up the Earth or what other immediate way it was done most certainly it was done by the Will Direction and Regiment of the Divine Wisdom and Power so that it is truly said Job 38.10 He brake up for it its decreed place Prov. 8.28 He gave the sea its decree that the waters should not pass his commandment Hitherto the Divine History hath given us an account 1. Of the Materia prima of all Corporeal Beings the Massa Chaotica 2. The Materia proxima or secunda of all other Corporeal Beings being the simple Elements and the next Matter of all Mixtions or Composition 3. The Natura ignea calefactive lucid and penetrating the Elementary Matter 4. The Natura aetherea and aerea the Expansum 5. The Natura aquea or the Water 6. The Natura terrestris or the Earth And then he proceeds to those mixed or compounded Natures drawn out of those or some of those simpler Existences the Furniture of the Earth and Heaven I shall therefore now proceed to his Description of the Production of Mixt Natures and Vegetables in part of the third day Celestial Bodies in the fourth day Fish and Fowls in the fifth day Brutes and Man in the sixth day 1. Therefore touching the production of Vegetables Vers 11. And God said Let the earth bring forth grass the herb yielding seed and the fruit-tree yielding fruit after her kind whose seed is in it self upon the earth and it was so Here we have the beginning of the Vegetable Nature and mark what I say concerning this will be applicable with some variation to the Brutes and Fish We have three sorts of Vegetables here described 1. Some that seem to be of the lowest rank and such as we do find oftentimes sponte orta the Grass 2. Those Herbs that are of a more perfect nature which as they bear Seed so they do not usually arise but by it 3. Trees bearing Fruit and Seed being the nobler sort of Trees but this includes all kind of Vegetables as well Trees that bear not Fruit or Seed as those which do In the production of these Vegetables these things are observable 1. The Supreme Efficient the Word of Command of the Divine Will was that which was the Supreme productive Efficient 2. The subordinate Instrument germinet terra wherein we have these two great Truths delivered 1. That the Earth yielded the Matter of Vegetables 2. That the Earth was now impregnated to be an active Instrument to this production and concurred therein at least instrumentally with the Supreme Efficient and that Activity that was in the Earth did not arise meerly from the Matter for that in the beginning was purely passive but 1. by the Fecundating Principle the Spirit of God moving upon the Face of the Chaotick Matter 2. by the powerful Energy of the Fiery and Luminous Principle that partly resided in the Earth partly incompassed it 3. but principally by the Efficacy of the Word of the Divine Command which was no other but the determination of His Efficacious Will 3. But though the more solid Matter of these Vegetable Productions was the Earth yet it was the Earth conjoined with that vigorous Fire which was mingled with that active Air or Aether that was
others arising ad plurimum ex ovo 2. In the great variety of their bodily composure the texture of the Bodies of Brutes being far more curious and fuller of variety than others 3. Ad plurimum the animal Faculties of the brutal Soul are far more perfect than those of others their Phantasies and Memories refined they have greater and more lively Images of Reason and more capable of Discipline than either Fowls or Fishes Now touching the production of Animals whether Terrestrial Aquatil or Volatil we may observe that they are in the ordinary course of Nature of two kinds Some which arise among us no otherwise nor in any other manner than ex semine which we usually call perfect Animals and arising by univocal generation others there are that be imperfect arising spontaneously in the Earth Air and Water as Worms Flies and some sort of small Fishes and watry Insects This being premised I shall now set down some Suppositions which seem to me truly to explicate the production of these Animals which are these that follow 1. Although the predominat Matter in the constitution of Fowls and Fishes were Water and in the constitution of Terrestrial Animals were Earth yet that Water nor that Earth were not simply such but were mixed and impregnated with the other Elementary Principles 2. That all the Species of perfect Animals of all kinds were constituted in their several Sexes in the fifth and sixth day of the Creation but yet we must not think that all those kinds which we now see were at first created but only those primitive and radical Species How many sorts of Animals do we now see that yet possibly are not of the same Species but have accidental diversifications as we may observe in the several Shapes and Bodies of Dogs Sheep Pyes Parots which possibly at first were not so diversified some variation of the same Species happen by mixt Coition some by diversity of Climates and other accidents 3. That the first Individuals in their distinction of Sexes were not produced according to those Methods of Nature which they now hold nor ex aliquo praeexistente semine but by the immediate efficiency of Almighty God out of the Matter prepared or designed for their Constitution 4. That they were made in the first instant of their Constitution in the full perfection and complement and stature of their individual and specifical nature and did not gradually increase according to the procedure of animal augmentation at this day and the reason is because those gradual augmentations arise from the Seminal Principle which gradually expands it self to the full growth but here they arose not from any such Seminal Principle but the Hen was before the Egg. 5. There was no mean portion of Time between their Formation and Animation but both were together they were living Beings and living Souls and living Creatures as soon as they were formed 6. That consequently the Formation of the Body of these Animals was not as now it is by the Formative Power of the Soul which must needs be gradual and successive as we see it is and must be at this day in all natural Generations but the Formation and Information of them was by virtue of the immediate Fiat Determination or Ordination of the Divine Will 7. That in their Origination the Species of these Animals were determined neither from the Matter nor from the universal Cause the Celestial Heat but by the Divine Intention and Ordination 8. That by the same Divine Ordination and Intention the Faculties specifically belonging to every Individual were annexed and alligated to it especially the power conficiendi semen prolificum speciei propagandae ex mutua utriusque fexus conjunctione 9. That although by the Divine Power and Ordination all these perfect Animals did arise from the Earth yet that Prolifick Power of propagating of them was never delegated or committed to the Earth or any 〈◊〉 other Casual or Natural Cause but only to the Seminal Nature derived from their Individuals and disposed according to that Law of propagation of their kind alligated as before to their specifical and individual nature And therefore it its perfectly impossible that any of these perfect Animals can be casually or naturally or accidentally produced by any Preparation of Matter or by any Influence of the Heavens without the miraculous interposition of Almighty Power because the Earth or those Influences have not this power concredited to them but their production is irresistibly alligated to the Semen innatum and conjunction of Sexes the Earth can as naturally produce a Sun or a Star as it can a Man or a perfect Animal 10. Whether those imperfect or equivocal Animals were created or no it is not altogether clear possibly some might be then produced whose kinds were likewise producible spontaneously after but it seems beyond contradiction that all were not 11. As by virtue of that general Commission or intrinsick Prolifick Power given to the Earth to produce spontaneous Herbs as Grass c. it doth naturally produce such Herbs so by virtue of that common Commission given by Almighty God to the Earth and Water and to that Spirit of Nature diffused in it it doth naturally produce those equivocal insect Animals which arise out of them The same Law of the Creator that hath eternally excluded or rather not committed to the Earth or Water the power of producing perfect Animals hath given and committed to them by concurrence of that Vital Heat of the Sun and the common Spirit of Nature residing in them a Productive Power of some equivocal insect Animals in Matter fitly prepared Touching therefore the Origination of Insects I shall declare my thoughts as followeth 1. That by virtue of the Divine Fiat the Earth at first did produce some Individuals of several kinds which is imported under the words Every creeping thing after its kind 2. That as I have before shewn the greatest part of the Insects that are commonly produced and seem to be spontaneous productions are yet the univocal and seminal productions of Insects of the same kind 3. That yet it is a certain Truth that some Insects are and have an Origination since the first Creation without any formal univocal seminal production some out of Putrefaction some out of Vegetables some by very strength and fracedo of the Earth and Waters quickned by the vigorous Heat of the Sun which infuseth into some Particles of Matter well prepared and digested a kind of Vital and Seminal Principle Some have thought the very Sun and Earth are endued with a Vital yea and with a kind of Sensitive Nature and thereby enabled as it were to spin some prepared Matter into vital and sentient Semina for those insect Animals But we shall not need to trouble our selves with that incertain Speculation we are sure that the greatest part of the Superficies of the Earth being daily and hourly impregnated with the corrupted and dissolved Particles of Vegetables and Animals is
will they suppose it a Norma Rule or Law of a most excellent frame and order and indeed in so conceiving they conceive truly that Nature is such a Law or Rule but still this doth not explicate the Phaenomena of Nature without supposing somewhat more A Law or Rule is not in it self effective or active neither can it subsist or exist without an Agent that either gave it or works by or according to it The Laws of a State are the Rules of its Government but this Law must be given by some Power and some Power there must be that must act according to it otherwise a Law is a stupid dead unactive and unconceivable thing And therefore a Law or Rule singly explicates not any the Phaenomena of Nature without a Being that gives this Law to things or acts or makes things act according to it and then we are in a great measure where Moses brings us only with this difference the Law by which this great World was made was no other but the Determination and Beneplacitum of the Divine Will determined or qualified if we may use that improper word with the highest and most sovereign Wisdom and Power And the Law by which things thus made were for the future to be governed was that instituted Rule and Order which this Sovereign Lord contrived and placed in created Beings and thus indeed Opus naturae est opus intelligentiae Nature therefore may have these various acceptations viz. 1. As it signifies that Principium activum that gave every thing its Being and thus it imports no other than Almighty God that Supreme Intelligent Being though improperly called Nature viz. Natura narans 2. As it imports the Things or Effects principated or effected by this intelligent active Principle or the Effects or Creatures of God or Natura naturata and this hath a double import viz. i. For the first and immediate Productions of that Principle namely not only created Matter which was the Productum primo primum but also the things first produced in their several kinds or natures or Producta secundo prima as the first Vegetable Animal and Humane Individuals or 2. For those Mixtions and Productions which afterwards had their productions in the World by successive mixtions and generations which include all Productions which though in relation to their dependence and first production of their kind are still the Creatures of God yet in relation to their immediate Causes are productions of second Causes 3. As it imports the Law and Rule and Method and Order of the production and government and process of created Beings and this of two kinds 1. The Law and Rule of the first Creation or Production of Beings as the production of the first Individuals of Animals Vegetables and Men and herein though Almighty God proceeds with admirable Wisdom and Order yet he used no other Law or Rule than the immediate Determination of his own most wise and perfect Will suitable to the Business he had in hand wherein there was necessary and fit another kind of Regiment and Order than was afterwards instituted 2. The Laws or Rules instituted and appointed by the same most wise God to things already constituted this is the common and ordinary and regular Law of instituted Nature and these two Laws or Rules were different and necessary that they should be so In the first Constitutions of Beings God Almighty proceeded by a Law suitable to that Work namely according to the wise Counsel of his own Will that was best and fittest for that Work he proceeded more suddenly and by the immediate interposition of his own Power the Vegetables constituted in a moment or very speedily and within the compass of a Day came to their full and perfect maturation and growth so also did the Fowls and Fishes and Brutes and Man without any considerable mora between their first formation and complement or individual perfection But the Law instituted for things already formed and setled was of another kind Vegetables Animals and Men are in the Laws of their future existence to pass through those gradations and steps and methods which we see now in use for the formation production increase and perfection thereof Again in the first production of things though sometimes the wise God used in some measure the order of second or instrumental or effective Causes yet he bound not himself to that Rule though as we have formerly observed the instrumentality of Heat might be used in separating the Expansum and the arefaction of the Earth and the production of Vegetables and though the instrumentality of the perfected Celestial Bodies might be some way instrumental towards the maturation of Nature towards the production of Animals and though he used the Matter which he had created to be the substratum of the Corporeal Natures even of Man himself yet the great Energy and Power whereby he compleated all things was above and beyond the activity of second Causes yea when he used the instrumentality of second Causes his own Powerful and Omnipotent Hand was engaged in the advancing of the efficacy of the second Causes which he used beyond their natural strength and efficacy there was much that was supernatural and miraculous as well in the first separation distribution and formation of things as in the first Creation of the Corporeal Matter out of nothing But in the succeeding process and procedure of created Nature he fixed and established certain powers and activities in things and a certain order and connexion between them and their effects and governed and regulated the motions and productions of things according to those implanted powers and connexions and this we call the instituted Law of Nature namely the activities and powers placed in created Beings and the mutual connexions and concatenations of things to such activities and powers which Law was at first instituted by the God of Nature to be the common and standing ordinary Rule for things setled and fixed in their created station And therefore we are far from denying a Law of Nature or Calling in the immediate efficiency of the great God or a miraculous interposition in all the ordinary procedures of things already fully setled and statuminated by the first Divine Efficiency That which we only say in relation to Nature already setled is but this that 1. The primitive and fundamental powers and activities of things were placed in them by the immediate Will and Efficiency of God it is this that gives the power to Heat and Fire to dissolve dissipate rarifie and consume to Cold to condense to heavy Bodies to descend to all the Celestial Bodies their Motions Influences and Positions that gave the Generative Faculty to Men to Brutes to Fishes the Productive Faculty to the Earth and Waters the Receptivity to Semen and Intellection c. 2. That he by a continuing Influx doth support and preserve all things in their being order and activity 3. That this which we call the Law of