CHAP. I.

THE Author here gives an account of the whole Work, of the Extent and general order of it; so that this Chapter being only Intro­ductory, I note only the following Passage.

‘Page 3. He says thus: There is no Sect of Philoso­phers, that I know of, that ever gave an account of the universal Deluge, or discovered from the Contempla­tion of the Earth, that there had been such a thing al­ready in Nature. 'Tis true, they often talk of an Alter­nation, of Deluges and Conflagrations in this Earth, but they speak of them as things to come; at least they give no Proof or Argument of any that have already de­stroy'd the World. And beneath. As to the Conflagra­tion in particular, this has always been reckon'd among [Page 2] the Opinions or Dogmata of the Stoicks, That the World was to be destroyed by Fire, and their Books are full of this Notion: but yet they do not tell us the Causes of the Conflagration, nor what preparations there are in Nature, or will be, toward that great Change. And we may generally observe this of the Ancients, that their Learning or Philosophy consisted more in Conclu­sions than in Demonstrations; they had many Truths among them whereof they did not know themselves the Premises or Proofs; which is an Argument with me, that the knowledg they had was not a thing of their own Invention, or which they came to by fair Reasoning and Observation upon Nature, but was deliver'd to them from others by Tradition and ancient Fame, sometimes more publick, sometimes more secret: these Conclusions they kept in mind, and Communicated to those of their School, or Sect, or Posterity, without knowing, for the most part, the just Grounds and Reasons of them.’

On this Passage I have the following Particulars to offer.

1. We have no reason to expect that the Greeks or Latins should have given any Account of the Deluge in Noah's time, unless we will allow the Deluge of the An­cient Ogyges (which is said to have lasted nine months) to have been the same with that of Noah. for they pre­tend not to have any Records farther than that Ogyges: wherefore all things among the Greeks, which Antiquity had worn out of date, were call'd Ogygia. And if, hap­ly, they had any thing of times before, it came very obscurely to them, whence they call'd the Ante-Ogygian Age [...], and was only what they had by Hearsay of the Egyptians; or other Nations. Those who have made any mention of the universal Deluge under Noah, are, The Sibyl in Lactantius, de Ira Dei, c. 23. Xenophon, de Equivocis. Fabius Pictor, de Aureo Seculo. Cato, de Origini­bus. Archilochus the Greek, who introduces also the Te­stimony of Moses, in his Book, de Temporibus. Josephus in his Jewish Antiquities, from Mnaseas. Hierom of E­gypt, [Page 3] and Berosus the Chaldean. Alexander Polyhistor, and Abydenus in Cyril's first Book against Julian. Plato in his Timaeus. Ovid and others of the Poets confound the De­luge of Noah with that of Deucalion, describing this as general; which, in regard they must have known to have been particular, I judg the scope of their Dis­course chiefly tended to a moral or divine Institution, In Virg. Eccl. 6. the historical Narratson in itself being not true. And Servius tells us, that by a Deluge and Emphytheosis the Ancients un­derstood a Change, and a Melioration of times, and we know Deluges were still introduc'd in the Iron age, after a total corruption of Manners.

2. As to Alterations by Deluges and Conflagrations which the Author intimates the Ancients to have held only by Tradition, without finding by the Earth that any such things had been, and without considering any Causes and Preparations in Nature for them: I find it to be o­therwise.

First, I think it plain enough among the ancient Philo­sophers (tho unobserv'd by the Author) that they dis­cover'd from the Contemplation of the Earth there had been already such a thing as a general Deluge, at least successively; so as the Waters of the Sea had some time or other cover'd the whole face of the Earth. Thus Ovid introduces Pythagoras, saying,

And there you may read much more to the same pur­pose: and all ancient Histories, as well as modern, tell us of such marine Bodies found on Mountains; some urging them as Arguments for such Changes: as there are learn­ed Men now living, who think they can demonstrate from such Bodies, found on Mountains at all distances from the Sea, that there is no part of the Land now ap­pearing, but has sometime been cover'd by the Sea. I could produce much matter on this Argument, were it not that I am unwilling to anticipate here what I have thoughts of setting forth in a particular Tract.

Qu. nat. l. 3. c. 27. & Seq.Again, as for Causes of those Changes, we find that Se­neca, a Master among the Stoicks, describing an universal Deluge, assigns Causes for them. The sum of his Rea­soning is thus: He examines whether an universal Deluge will be caus'd by the overflowing of the Sea, or by con­tinual Rains, or by the eruption of new Fountains, and concludes it will be by all three joyn'd together, and that nothing is difficult to Nature when she hastens to her end: In the rise of things she uses a gentle effort, and carries them on towards their perfection by unperceiva­ble degrees; but when the time of their Dissolution comes, it's done all on a sudden; as he exemplifies in Animals: and so he says Cities are long building, and Woods long growing, but reduc'd to Ashes in a few hours. Therefore when that fatal Day shall come, many Causes will act together: There will be a general Concussion of the Earth, opening new Sources of Waters; continued and violent Rains, whence, at length, the Snows heap'd up on Mountains for many Ages will be dissolv'd; where­by the Rivers greatly swelling, and forc'd by Tempests, will overflow their Channels, and by their rapid course, carry all before them, and many times their courses to the Sea being damn'd up, they will return back and drown whole Countries: mean while the immoderate Rains con­tinuing, [Page 5] the Winter Season encroaching on the Summer, and the Seas being mightily increas'd by the vast dischar­ges of the overflowing Rivers, and being infested with violent Tempests, they will find their Channel too nar­row for them, and overflow the Land, forcing the Rivers back, in a tempestuous manner towards their Sources, and so at length bury the whole Earth in Waters: unless, happily for a time, some of the Mountains may here and there stand as scatter'd Islands, but at last there being a general Effort in the Waters, as at Spring-Tides, the whole will be overflown.

He farther tells us, that as Fires and Waters bear sway o'er earthly things, their rise and ruine being from and by them, it was the Opinion of Berosus, that Deluges and Conflagrations will happen, thro the Courses of the Pla­nets: and that a Conflagration shall happen when all the Planets, which now keep different courses, shall meet in Cancer, being so plac'd, that it shall pass in a direct line through them all; and that a Deluge shall happen, when the said Planets shall so meet in Capricorn; the one ma­king the Summer Solstice, and the other the Winter; Signs of great Power, being the Points for the Changes of the Year. And Seneca receives these Causes also; one Cause being too little for so great a Ruin. He adds, whether the World be an Animal, or a Body, Nature governing it, as Trees and standing Corn: From its be­ginning there was included in it, whatsoever it ought to act, and to undergo to its end; as in the Seed is com­prehended the whole state of the future Man; so that the Child, yet unborn, has the Law of a Beard and grey Hairs, the Lineaments of the whole Body, and of the suc­ceding Age being there, in little, and conceal'd. So he says the Origine of the World contain'd as well the Sun and Moon, and Courses of the Planets, and the Rise of Animals, as those things with which earthly things are chang'd. In these was an Inundation, which happens by the Law of the World, no otherwise than Summer and Winter. And he says all things will help Nature for [Page 6] the performance of her Constitutions; but the Earth it self will afford it the greatest cause to drown it; which will be resolv'd into Moisture, and flow by a continued consumption, the tainted parts, as in Bodies ulcerated, by degrees, bringing the rest to a general Colliquation.

Here we plainly see what the grounds of the Stoicks and others were, for admitting Deluges and Conflagra­tions. They having observed, that particular Bodies on the Earth had a beginning and decay, and were again re­newed by their Seeds, thence by Analogy concluded, that the same Order must pass, as to the whole World: and again, having consider'd that Fires and Waters bore the sway o'er earthly things, and that the one prevail'd in the Summer, the other in the Winter: they thence ima­gin'd, that besides ordinary Summers and Winters, where­by the ordinary Changes are wrought on the Earth, there would happen some great periodical Revolutions in the Heavens, causing so great a Predominancy of Fires and Waters here below, that they would cause general Chan­ges over the whole face of the Earth at once.

De Elem. Philos. Bede, speaking of these Changes, says, it was the opi­nion of all the Philosophers, that earthly things received their Periods sometimes by a Deluge, and sometimes by a Conflagration; because the Waters being plac'd under the Fountain of Heat, it happens, that the Moisture en­creases by degrees, and overpowers the Heat, till being detain'd by no bounds, it diffuses it self over the Earth, and drowns it; which Moisture, at length, being dry'd by the Heat of the Sun, and Drought of the Earth, the Heat encreases in its turn, and over-powers the Moisture, till being diffus'd over the Earth, it burns it. He adds, there are some that say these things happen through the general Elevation and Depression of the Planets; for if all the Planets are elevated together, being remov'd from the Earth more than they ought, they consume less of the Moisture; whence the Moisture encreasing, it diffuses it self o'er the Earth, and causes a Deluge. If but one, two, or three of them are elevated, without the others, [Page 7] the Moisture thereby does not abound; for what increa­ses by their remoteness, is dry'd by the nearness of the others: but if all are depress'd together, they burn the Earth, and cause a Conflagration, doing too much by their nearness, as by their remoteness they did too little.

Many others who write of these Mundane Changes, word themselves much after the same manner: Whence we find the Antients did not barely rely on Tradition for these Changes, but had such grounds as they conceiv'd rational for admitting them. Now if it shall be said, that the Causes they have assign'd, are not competent for such Changes; possibly it may be, because they sought for Causes which were not in Nature to be found: For those Antients, either supposing the Deluge of the antient Ogy­ges, to have been general, or having heard that some other Deluge had been affirmed so to have been, and finding by marine Bodies dug in Mountains, that the Waters of the Sea had been there, they attempted to assign Causes for an universal Change at one effort; whereas those Cau­ses, upon examination, were found, either to have been assign'd gratis, without any solid ground, or to answer only partial Changes.

Hence Aristotle, and the soundest Reasoners, well see­ing the slight Presumptions on which this Opinion was grounded, derided the Stoicks, Epicureans, and others, who maintain'd it. For first, Aristotle knew they had no sound Records for making out that any such Change had happen'd in Nature: And, secondly, he having well weighed the Rotation of the Elements, and what past in particular Bodies, found that what flow'd from the later, receded from them, which must cause a decay; but what­ever flowing there were in the Elements, it still return'd into them, so that nothing was lost or decay'd, as to the whole, nor so much to any chief part, as to cause a to­tal Dissolution. And since no Man, that I know of, has hitherto assign'd a Cause able to work a general Change in the Earth at once, I should be inclin'd, according to natural Principles, to follow his Opinion, a general [Page 8] Change being to be ascribed to Miracle, for ought I know, till some Prophet shall come to help us out.

As for what has been said by the Sibylls and antient Magi among the Gentiles, concerning these Changes (I speak not of what has been prophetically deliver'd of them in Sacred Writ, which I judg refers to a miracu­lous hand) we know they were Persons chiefly concern'd in the Politick Government of their times; and being greatly skill'd in Adept Philosophy (as some of our Pro­phets also transcendently were) they knew how to adapt the great Phaenomena of the Earth to the Microcosm, and moral World, and there is a Mystery in what they intimate, as to these Changes, which I think not fit here to explain; but may note, that those who are seen in the Promethean Arcanum Astrologicum, and have heard the seven-Reed Pipe of Pan, know on what grounds the above-mention'd Astrological Causes for Deluges and Conflagrations were originally introduc'd, and whither they tend. The antient Druids of our Nation, who were the most famous for Adept Philosophy of any Men of these parts of the World (nay, and as Pliny says, the Persian Magi may seem to have had their rise from them) and who govern'd all here; in their Sacrifices, which they thought most acceptable to their Gods, were wont to make a Wicker Image in the form of a Man of a vast proportion; whose inward Cavities they filled with live Men, who were commonly Murtherers, Thieves, Robbers, and other Criminals, but for want of these, often Innocents, and then to set fire to it, and consume them to ashes.

Now, I think Mr. Sammes, in his Britannia, comes short in his guess, concerning the grounds of this Festi­val Solemnity: He conceives the Britains and Gauls, by this solemn Act, in burning these vast Images, with Men in them, express'd their detestation of the Phoenicians; who, he says, were Men of a vast stature, and who for a long time had subdu'd them, and kept them in Slave­ry, from which they were now got free. This interpre­tation, [Page 9] I say, seems not to me to answer the Grandeur of the Act; it being much more probable, that by it, they would present a solemn Type of the general Confla­gration (it being a Point of their Doctrine that such a thing was to be) especially, as it related to Mankind, and the moral World: tho as Boemus tells us, De omn. Gent. Rit. l. 3. c. 23. they were wont also to make such great Images of Rowls of Hay, and therein to inclose Beasts as well as Men, and to set all on fire in like manner: which, nevertheless, may also refer to Mankind; for that in Man there are certain Fomites and Affects of Brutes, which, after they have been a long time habituated in him, Man seems to have pass'd into their Nature, the Pythagorean Transmigration, according to the Sense of all the learned Platonicks, ex­cept Plotinus, importing no more: which Transmigra­tion was a Doctrine so antiently taught by the Druids, that Lipsius says, he knows not whether they learnt it of Pythagoras, or he of them.

3. Concerning the Learning of the Ancients, whether it were in Conclusions, and traditional only, as the Au­thor has intimated, or from a contemplation of Causes, we may consider what Plutarch says in the Case, L. de De­fect. Orac. which is as follows: ‘All Generation proceeding from two Cau­ses, the first and most antient Divines and Poets kept themselves, in a manner, wholly to the first and most excellent Cause; but as for necessary and natural Cau­ses, they meddle not with them: whereas, on the contrary, the modern Philosophers leaving that ex­cellent and divine Principle, ascribe all to Bodies and Affects of Bodies, and I know not what Juttings against each other, Changes and Temperatures: So that both are in a fault; the latter because they either ignore, or omit to tell us by whom; the former after what manner, and by what means each thing is effected.’ Again, as to the antient Philosophy, we know, that not long before the times of Plato and Aristotle, and the other Philosophers, all the Dogmata of Philosophy were not deliver'd openly, but after an obscure and Aenig­matical [Page 10] manner, under certain Veils: which occult way of Philosophizing, being learnt by the Greeks from the Egyptians, they brought it into their Country, and con­tinu'd the same for a time; being unwilling openly to publish, among the vulgar, that admirable Learning, which being ill understood by them, might make them fall from Religion and uprightness of Life; till at length, in succeeding Ages, the whole came to be unravell'd, and Men came to open Reasoning. Hence it may be said, that as our Corpuscularians or other Philosophers at present, will not own themselves ignorant of the first Cause, tho they mention him not in explaining natu­ral Effects: So the Antients knew well enough parti­cular Causes, it being wholly inconsistent with a Phi­losopher to rely barely on Tradition, antient Fame, or a general Cause, as may be imagin'd, tho they thought not fit generally to insist on any but the first Cause in their Writings, more than what was done in a fabulous and aenigmatical way, according to the stately Humour of those most antient times. A Prophet indeed may say, Lingua mea tanquam calamus scribae; but for a Philoso­pher, who pretends to know things, not by divine In­stinct, or traditional Say-so's, but by their adaequate Cau­ses, it's Nonsense so to do. Men of Sense, as those An­tients must be allow'd to have been, have naturally an enquiring and restless Genius, which will not permit them to sit still, till they have either found that a Point is inscrutable in its Nature, or have given themselves some tolerable account from Reason of it. And any Man that considers how many things in the Books of the Old Testament, or only in the Books of Job and Moses (the two most antient authentick Writings, per­haps, of any extant) are said, according to a deep know­ledge in Physiology; and that Moses had his Learning from the Egyptians, cannot think the Antients so igno­rant in that kind, as some may otherwise imagin them to have been. Indeed, it does not appear that the Greeks receiv'd that Philosophy which is demonstrated [Page 11] by Reasons from the Egyptians; what they chiefly re­ceiv'd from them being chiefly what belongs to Ceremonies and the Mathematicks, the grand Theorem amongst them, which they most valu'd, relating thereunto; and hence when it's treated of the Mathematicks and Mysteries, we find the Chaldean and Egyptian Opinions quoted; but for Reasoning in Philosophy, they are not mention'd by Aristotle and Plato: and nevertheless we may conclude, that from what the Egyptians set forth under Veils in their Aenigmatical way, us'd chiefly by them for the sake of their grand Mystery, which never was nor will be made common; the Greeks, by solving it, compos'd their Philosophy: the Egyptians not caring that any Man should be made acquainted in the knowledg of natural Causes, who was not initiated in the foresaid Mystery, the knowledg of Nature being subservient thereunto. And tho it does not fully appear by any thing we have remaining, that the antient Chaldeans and Egyptians were so well seen in Physical things, that they well under­stood what an universal Cause differ'd from particular Causes, or what was the Office of that and these; or what might be the sign of a thing whereof it was not the Cause; yet when we consider the great insight they had in the Properties of natural things, it may be a rational inducement for us to believe, that they had like­wise well consider'd the particular Causes whence they flow'd; and if they did not make them publick, nor the Properties themselves; it was only on that ground mention'd by Aristotle to Alexander, saying, ‘He is a Transgressor of the Divine Law, who discovers the hidden Secrets of Nature, and the Properties of things: because some Men desire, as much as in them lies, to overthrow the Divine Law by those Properties that God has plac'd in Animals, Plants, and Stones:’ Whence to keep the Divine Law in its full vigour, the Antients made it their business, alway to keep the People min­ding the prime Cause, and no others, which, indeed, it concerned them to mind. And it's observ'd, even to [Page 12] this day, in some Countries, that Youth piously educa­ted, with a strong Sense and Zeal of Religion; when they come to pass a Course of Philosophy, and consi­der second Causes, often remit of that earnest Devo­tion which they us'd before. That Saying of the Lord Bacon, in reference to this, being true, viz. ‘That a narrow and slight inspection into Nature, inclines Men of weak Heads to Atheism; tho a more thorow in­sight into the Causes of things, makes them more evi­dently see the necessary dependance of things on the great and wise Creator of them.’

CHAP. II. and III.

IN the Second Chapter the Author gives a general Ac­count of Noah's Flood: proposing also an estimate of what quantity of Waters would be necessary for making it; and endeavours to shew, that the common Opinion and Explication of that Flood is not intelligible. In the Third Chapter he endeavours to answer any Evasions, and to shew that there was no new Creation of Wa­ters at the Deluge: also, that it was not particular and national, but extended throughout the whole Earth; and concludes with a short Prelude to the Account and Ex­plication he intends to give of it.

Now, as the first Chapter was only introductory to the Work, so we find these two Chapters are only pre­paratory to his Hypothesis, by setting forth the Inconsi­stency of other Opinions concerning the Deluge: and in regard it does not concern my Undertaking, to con­sider how validly he has refuted the Opinions of others, but how firmly he has establish'd his own; I shall pass by these two Chapters, to proceed to the Theory he proposes; tho I may have occasion now and then, in what will ensue, to bring some part of their Contents under consideration.

CHAP. IV. and V.

THE Author coming now to establish his Hypothe­sis, undertakes to make out two things; First, how the Earth, from the beginning, rose from a Chaos, and in what form it continu'd, till the time of the De­luge; and Secondly, how a Deluge, at length, happen'd; his Fourth and Fifth Chapters, which are now to be consider'd, are for making out the Composition of his Earth, or how it rose at first from a Chaos, and what its antediluvian State was: As for the Dissolution of it, at the time of the Deluge, he treats of that afterwards.

In the beginning therefore of his Fourth Chapter, before he lays down his Theory, he thinks fit, in the first place, to remove an Opinion concerning the Eternity of the World; which, he says, takes away a Chaos, and any beginning to the Earth, and consequently the Sub­ject of his Discourse, whereupon he writes thus. ‘It has been the general Opinion and Consent of the Lear­ned of all Nations, that the Earth arose from a Chaos. This is attested by History both sacred and profane; only Aristotle, whom so great a part of the Christian World have made their Oracle or Idol, both maintain'd the Eternity of the Earth and the Eternity of Mankind, that the Earth and the World were from everlasting, and in that very form they are in now, with Men and Women, and all living Creatures, Trees and Fruits, Metals and Minerals, and whatsoever is of natural Pro­duction: We say all these things arose, and had their first Existence and Production not six Thousand Years ago; he says, they have subsisted thus for ever, through an infinite Series of past Generations, and shall conti­nue as long without first or last; and if so, there was neither Chaos, nor any other beginning to the Earth, &c.’

[Page 14]Having thus stated this Opinion, he urges first the Scriptures against it, and then many Arguments from na­tural Reason, which would be too tedious here to set down: but however, this point of Beginnings being very nice, and variously disputed amongst the Ancients, and the foundation on which the Author proposes to build his Theory, I must say a little of what I have consider'd on it.

I find then that Aristotle was not the first Introducer of this Opinion of the worlds Eternity, as the Author inti­mates him to have been; and that those who in their Accounts of beginnings describe a Chaos, are not thence forc'd to deny the same Eternity. Aristotle is so far from being the first that held this Opinion, that ev'n his Master Plato, according to the sense of most of his Expositors, as Crantor, Plotinus, Porphyrius, Jamblicus, Proclus, Ma­crobius, Censorinus, that excellent Christian Philosopher Boethius, and many others, who generally maintain'd the same, is concluded to have held that the World was al­ways, and always was from God, and flowed from him; for they say, God always is, but that the World is always a making and flows; and if it be consider'd as to a be­ginning of time, the World may be said not to have had any birth; but if as flowing perpetually from God, its continually brought forth. Nor may the World be said less to depend of God, if it always has depended, and ever shall depend of him, than if at some instant of time it began to depend, and may cease from it: as the light would no less draw its Origine from the Sun, and depend of it, if it had always flow'd from it, and should always so do, than if it began at some instant of time to slow thence.

Those therefore, who maintain this Opinion, will say that God did not at any time bring forth the matter new, but from Eternity, and that likewise with its Orna­ment; altho it be conceiv'd without its Ornament before than with it: for Nature wants its order, which it ex­pects from another; and since each thing is conceiv'd first [Page 15] according to what it is, than according to what it re­ceives; it may properly be conceiv'd first without Or­der, being void of it in itself. So that when these men talk of a Chaos and Changes it underwent before it came to be an habitable World, they understand it only as to the natural order of things, according to our way of con­ceiving.

Amongst the Schoolmen, the Thomists, who generally take upon them to defend Aristotle, say, It cannot be convinc'd by any natural efficacious Reason, that the World was not made from Eternity, but in time, be­cause the thing not implying Contradiction, it depended meerly on the will of God: and that when Aristotle said the World was from Eternity, he said it only, as opining, because nothing certain can be had in this matter, but by the sole light of Revelation and Faith, Heb. 11.3. according to what the Apostle says, By faith we understand that the worlds were fram'd by the word of God. Tho others say, Aristotle affirm'd that God, as being a necessary Agent, made the World from Eternity. Others, that where he endeavours to prove the Eternity of the World, he keeps himself within the Principles of the Science he was treat­ing of, viz. Physiology, and thought himself not there ac­countable for Metaphysical Birth. However this may be, I think it manifest that the Opinion was much more An­cient than Aristotle. Xenophanes, before him asserted the word to be [...]. Philolaus likewise, that famous Pythagorean, whose Books Plato is said to have bought for a great price, of his Relations, and to have compos'd his Timaeus out of them, maintain'd the same. Ecl. Phys. 7.44. Slobaeus recording out of him, that this world was from Eternity and will remain to Eternity. And again, That the world may truly be call'd, the Eternal Energy or effect of God, and of successive generation. Epicharmus also, a Disciple of Pythagoras, held it, and O [...]ellus Lucanus, ac­cording to Philo. Neither need I to mention any that have maintain'd it since Aristotle (the Author being free to own that he has had followers) as Pliny, Dicaearchus, [Page 16] Simplicius, Averrhoes, Salustius, Apuleius, Taurus, Alci­nous, and indeed most of the Platonicks and Peripateticks after Christianity: I say, I may pass by these, the Opinion being much more Ancient than any of those Persons I have nam'd, and indeed so ancient, that its hard to re­trieve the Original: De Omn. Gent. Rit. l. 2. c. 3. for Boemus tells us, collecting I con­ceive from Diodorus; It was a constant Tradition amongst the Chaldean Priests that the World had never any begin­ning, nor should [...]ever have an end: which Tradition pos­sibly, with other corrupt Doctrines, might have been deriv'd to them from times before the Deluge. And how indeed could they hold any other Opinion? when, as Philo tells us, L. de Mi­grat. A­brahami. they held the World itself, or the universal Soul within it to be God, which they consecrated under the name of Fate and Necessity; persuading themselves that there was no other Cause of things, but what is seen; and that both goods and evils were dispenc'd by the Courses of the Sun, Moon, and Stars; conformably to which Lucan introduces Cato, saying,

So again Psellus, in his Exposition of the Dogmata of the Assyrians and Chaldeans, says, that both of them held the World Eternal.

I may add that the Ancient Druids held this Opinion of the Worlds Eternity, their Philosophy being that of Pythagoras and Plato, which is concluded to have been ge­nerally the same (I say not in this particular) with that of Moses; and Pythagoras himself is said to have held it by Censorinus. Myth. l. 2. c. 2. Natalis Comes also tells us, that all the ancient Sages were divided into two Parties, one of them [Page 17] held the World Eternal, the others that it had sometime a beginning; on the one hand were the most excellent Wits of the most famous Men, on the other were divine Persons, and Men divinely instructed. And even the An­cient Cabalists among the Jews, who think themselves the only Persons deep seen in Scripture-knowledge, and to whom Origen seem'd inclin'd, held an Eternity of Worlds, tho indeed they suppos'd renovations of them from Chaos's at certain Periods; concerning which I shall say more in the next Book.

I have deliver'd this Account of the Opinions of Men concerning the Worlds Eternity, not but I wholly ac­quiesce in the Opinion commonly receiv'd among Chri­stians, of the Worlds late Beginning, but only to give the Point its due Latitude, which I judg'd too much li­mited by the Author of the Theory.

And upon the whole, when we consider what is urg'd on both sides; as the Author has brought Arguments of strength, to prove the World's late Beginning; so I conceive there are as weighty Reasons to be brought on the other part, and that many will still say with Scaliger, Exerc. ad Card. 61. § 6. L. de mundo. Solâ Religione mihi persuadetur mundum coepisse, & finem Incendio habiturum; and with Melancthon, Necessaria est diligentia in omnibus doctrinis videre, quae certò adseverari possint, quae non possint, & de quibus rebus humana ratio certam & immobilem doctrinam habeat, de quibus verò ar­canis, positis extra conspectum hominum, erudiat nos vox coe­lestis. Neutrum humana ratio invenire per sese potèst, vi­delicet, fuisse mundum inde, us (que) ab Infinita Eternitate, aut conditum esse recens, ante annos 5507. And beneath. Bre­vitas temporum mundi à Mose tradita Physicis ridicula zi­detur. Not a Man among the Gentiles having dreamt of so late a Beginning of the World, as Moses seems to in­timate.

And hence the learned Father Simon judges it pro­bable, Hist. Crit. c. 4. that the Greek Doctors in the Septuagint Transla­tion, believing that the World was more ancient than appears from the Hebrew Text, have took the liberty of [Page 18] etching out the time; especially upon the belief they had, that when the body of the Canonick Scripture, which we have, was publisht, the people had only given them what was thought necessary for them. So those, who will not allow Plato to have held the World Eter­nal, must at least grant, he suppos'd it to have existed for a vast and unaccountable Succession of Ages. And so we find what Simplicius reply'd to Grammaticus, Simpl. in Arist. Phys. l. 8. who urg'd against him a first Generation and a Beginning of time according to Moses, viz. That Moses's Relation was but a fabulous Tradition, wholly drawn from Egyptian Fables.

Aquinas also seems to me to give an home hint to those who from humane Reason will pretend to assign a time for the Worlds beginning, P. 1. Art. 2. Q. 46. saying, Mundum incepisse est credibile, non autem demonstrabile, aut scibile; & hoc utile est ut consideretur, ne fortè aliquis quod fieri est, demon­strare praesumens, rationes non necessarias inducat quae praebe­ant materiam irridendi infidelibus, L. de mundo. c. 25. existimantibus nos propter hujusmodi rationes credere quae fidei sunt. So again, Picolo­mini. Quoniam principium originis mundi, longè abest à nobis; & ejus creatio superat naturae vires, per cujus opera elevantur Philosophi ad inventionem causarum, ideo mirum non est, si Philosophi, humanâ ducti ratione, facilè in hanc sententiam la­buntur, quòd mundus omni ex parte sit aeternus: reverâ enim per naturam, nec principio, nec fine valet esse praeditus.

Moreover, as to all those learned amongst the Gentils, whose Opinions concerning the Worlds Beginning, the Author applauds before Aristotle's; its manifest they were more absurd than him in what they held; for generally grounding themselves on this Principle, Ex nihilo nihil fit, they either suppos'd Corpuscles from Eternity, rowling without order in an immense Space; or that the said Bodies lay lurking in a confus'd Chaos from Eternity. Now wherein do these men excel Aristotle? Is it, in that they have made a deform'd World from Eternity, which came in time to be adorn'd? Is there less absurdity and re­pugnancy in an infinite multitude of disorderly motions, [Page 19] than of such as succeed in order? and in the Eternity of a deform'd Body, than of a beautiful? Certainly it was better Aristotle's way; who not having foreseen any Im­possibility of eternal Motions and Bodies, had rather have the Face of the World beautiful from Eternity, than at some time to have emerg'd from an eternal De­formity.

Again, whereas the Author, in his second Book, where he treats of the Cosmogonia Mosaica, will have it, that the Creation, according to the six days Works, set forth, Gen. 1. is deliver'd only [...], ad capum usumque Populi; and judges that some of the Antients have deliver'd the Generation of the World more Philosophically. I must confess, if any Tergiversation were to be allow'd from the Text of Moses, I should be more enclin'd to think, that either the World being eternal, as the fore-men­tion'd-Philosophers held; or, at least, that the time of its Rise or Creation, being indefinite, and wholly in­scrutable by Man (as all the Gentiles, who held it not eternal, must have suppos'd it, not a Man of them, as far as I know, having assign'd or substituted any deter­minate time for its beginning), Moses, as a divine Le­gislator, substituted a time for its Creation or Rise, and the Modus of it (whereas the Gentiles substituted only the Modus according to their corrupt Divinity) there­by to carry on a Doctrine for the Good and Salvation of Man; and that his Chronology, according to the Lives of the Patriarchs, may possibly be resolvable by Arithmantical Divinity, according to certain Symbolical Mysteries contain'd in Numbers: or I should more rea­dily follow the Opinion of Austin, than any of those Philosophers; he holding that God created all things in an instant, without any succession of time; which Opi­nion might as well have been consider'd by the Author, as that of the World's Eternity, this equally taking away those gradual Changes, which he represents in the Chaos; setting the World immediately in the State it is. And truly it seems much more rational to me, that all things [Page 20] were set in their perfect State at first, whether it be ta­ken as the Text of Moses literally imports, by a prope­rated Maturation; or instantaneously, after the Opinion of Austin; than to suppose an Earth gradually qualifi'd (as those Philosophers do) for the Production of Plants, and Animals, &c. So that their Earth, as it rose from a Chaos, must have been a long time in a Quagmire con­dition, and not affording a tolerable Habitation for an Irish Bog-trotter; till the Sun, I know not after what Revolution of Ages, had made it tenantable; which ap­pears but a meagre and unsatisfactory Story, of which I may say more elsewhere. Of Austin's Opinion also were the most rational amongst the Jewish Doctors, Rabbi Moses Aegyptius, Philo Judaeus, Abraham Judaeus, and the Schools of Hillel, De Crea­tione. Probl. 1: and Schammai, as Manasseh Ben Israel writes. Procopius Gazaeus also, and Cajetan held the same. I may add, that Hermodorus the Platonick, says that Linus writ the Generation of the World, the Cour­ses of the Sun and Moon, and the Generation of Fruits and Animals; and that in the first Verse of his Work, he affirms all things to have rose together. And so much for this Point, which some, perhaps, may think more than need to have been.

I shall now proceed to state the Author's Theory, for the Composition of his Earth, or how it rose from a Chaos; which runs thus:

First, He supposes that all those that allow the Earth an Origine, agree that it rose from a Chaos (tho I have shewn before, that Austin, and those that are for instan­taneous Creation, could not agree to it, farther than to help out our way of conceiving; because no real successive Changes could then have pass'd in the sup­pos'd Chaos, in order to the Earth's Formation,) and then he lays down two Propositions to be made out by him.

The first is, That the Form of the Antediluvian Earth, or of the Earth that rose from a Chaos, was different from the Form of the present Earth.

[Page 21]The second is, That the Face of the Earth before the Deluge, was smooth, regular, and uniform, without Moun­tains, and without a Sea.

He proves his first Proposition; first, because, he says, he has shewn in his Second Chapter, that if the Earth had been always of the present Form, it would not have been capable of a Deluge.

Secondly, he proves it from a Passage in the second Epistle of S. Peter, Chapter the Third.

Thirdly, He proves it from Reason, and the Contem­plation of the Chaos, from whence the Earth first arose.

To the first Proof, I answer, that as I have intimated be­fore, it does not concern me here to shew how a Deluge was possible, according to the present Form of the Earth, which may still rely on Miracle, till more valid, natural Reasons are assign'd for it, than any, perhaps, have hi­therto been; and all I undertake, is, to shew that the Deluge could not have happen'd according to the Hypo­thesis laid down by the Author, which I conceive I shall make out in its due place.

As to his second Proof from S. Peter, first I have in­timated in my Advertisement to the Reader, prefixt to this Book, that a right reverend Divine has already given some Explanation of the Passages of Scripture, con­tain'd in the Theory; and in this regard I shall not in­termeddle with them, farther than necessity of Argument shall enforce me thereunto. Secondly, as to Scripture Passages, I have this to offer in general, that since the End of the Scriptures is of an higher Nature, than to in­struct us in natural History, and in Sciences grounded on second Causes, to which God has left them, as useless to the Salvation of Men; I think they ought not to be ap­ply'd but in those holy things, of Faith, and Morals, for which they were dictated: and possibly it was on these accounts, that those of the Antients, who are sup­pos'd to have read the Books of Moses, did not quote them in their Writings. Again, since the Author is pleas'd to set by the first Chapter of Genesis, as not Philosophi­cally [Page 22] written, (tho certainly this, if any part of the Scri­ptures is design'd for our instruction, as to the original state of the World, and the beginnings of things) I know not why he should much insist on any part else, unless it be so self-evident, that it is not liable to various Ex­positions, as those Passages he quotes, are by him allow'd to be. Neither to me do they seem cogent; tho I may allow some of them to bear a fair Exposition enough his way, as others seem more natural in another sense: But this I observe generally of Quotations; that, farther than they carry a fair stress of Reasoning with them; what by various Explications, and comparing of Passages, they breed endless Cavillations, which rather nauseate, than satisfie a judicious Reader. And even that Passage of S. Peter, so much insisted on by the Author, tho it seems to intimate to us some other state of the Heavens and Earth before the Flood, than they have since; we find the thing is not so clearly hinted, that any Man since could thence divine what that State should have been: and I shall shew in the sequel, by Arguments drawn from the Nature of the thing, that the Attempt the Author has made for explaining it, has been unsuccessful: and so for his Tehom Rabba, or the great Abysse of Moses, which he has also much urg'd; and for any other Passa­ges he has quoted.

To come to the Author's third Proof, which is from Reason and the Contemplation of the Chaos, whence the Earth rose: this Proof, in effect, is not only for making out, that the Earth, as it rose from a Chaos, in its first state, was of a different Form from the present Earth, according to the Authors first Proposition; but, withall, is partly for shewing that the Face of the first Earth was smooth, regular, and uniform, without Mountains and a Sea, as he has set forth in his second Proposition; where­fore the scope of it being connected with the Motions, Progress, and Separations, which he supposes to have pass'd in the Chaos, for forming the first Earth, I shall briefly state them both together, as he has represented them.

[Page 23]He supposes then the Chaos as a fluid Masse, or a Masse of all sorts of little Parts or Particles of the Matter of which the World was made, mixt together, and floating in confusion, one with another: Hence he says, there follows an impossibility that this Masse should be of such a Form and Figure, as the Surface of our present Earth is: Or that any Concretion, or consistent State, which this Mass could flow into immediately, or first settle in, could be of the said Figure. He proves the first of these Assertions, because a fluid Mass always casts it self into a smooth and spherical Surface: He proves the second Assertion; because, when any fluid Body comes to settle in a consistent and firm State, that Concretion, in its first State of Consistence, must be of the same Form, that the Surface was when it was liquid; as when Water congeals, the Surface of the Ice is smooth, and level, as the Water was before: And hence, when he has con­sider'd the broken condition of the present Earth, both as to its Surface and inward Parts, he concludes, that the Form of it now cannot be the same, with that it had originally; which must have been smooth, regular, and uniform, according to his Second Proposition. And to make this clear, he sets forth the Motions and Progress which he supposes must have pass'd in the Chaos, and how it settled it self in the said Form, when it became an habitable World.

1. First therefore, he presents us with a Scheme, which represents the Chaos, as is before express'd, viz. as a sphe­rical and fluid Masse, containing the Particles of all the Matter of which the World is compos'd, mixt together, and floating in confusion in it.

2. The first Change which he conceives must happen in this Masse, must be, that the heaviest and grossest parts would subside towards the middle of it, and there harden by degrees, and constitute the interior Parts of the Earth; while the rest of the Masse, swimming above, would be also divided by the same Principles of Gravi­ty, into two orders of Bodies, the one like Water, the [Page 24] other volatile like Air; and that the watery part would settle in a Masse together under the Air, upon the Body of the Earth, composing not only a Water, strictly so call'd, but the whole Masse of Liquors, or liquid Bo­dies, belonging to the Earth, and these Separations in the Body of the Chaos are represented to us in a second Scheme.

3. The liquid Masse, he says, incircling the Earth be­ing not the mere Element of Water, but a Collection of all Liquors belonging to the Earth; some of them must be fat, oily, and light; others lean and more earthy, like common Water. Now these two kinds mixt toge­ther, and left to themselves, and the general action of Nature, separate one from another, when they come to settle (which these must be concluded to have done) the more oily and thin parts of the Masse getting above the other, and swimming there, as he represents in a third Figure.

4. Next, he considers, that the Masses of the Air and Waters were both, at first, very muddy and impure, so that they must both have their Sediments; and there be­ing abundance of little terrestrial Particles in the Air, after the grossest were sunk down; these lesser also, and lighter remaining, would sink too, tho more slowly, and in a longer time; so as in their descent, they would meet with that oily Liquor on the watery Masse, which would entangle and stop them from passing farther, whence mixing there with the unctious substance, they compos'd a certain Slime, or Fat, soft and light Earth, spread on the Face of the Waters, as he shews in a fourth Figure.

5. He says that when the Air was fully purg'd of its little earthy Particles; upon their general descent, they became wholly incorporate with the oily Liquor, ma­king both one Substance, which was the first Concre­tion, or firm, and consistent Substance, which rose upon the Face of the Chaos; and fit to be made, and really constituted an habitable Earth; which he sets before us in a fifth Figure, and which I have also subjoyn'd; [Page 25] where A is the first Sediment of the Chaos; B the Orb of Water, or the Orb of the Abysse; C the Orb which made the first habitable Earth.

[figure]

6. Having thus represented the Rise of the Earth from the Chaos, he adds, that whereas the Antients generally resemble the Earth to an Egg, he thinks the Analogy holds as to those inward Envolvings represented in the Figure of the Earth, and that the outward Figure of the first Earth was likewise oval, it being a little extended to­ward the Poles, which he represents to us in a sixth Figure, and which I also here insert; where, as the two inmost Regions A B represent the Yolk, and the Membrane that lies next above it; so the exterior Region of the Earth ( D) is as the Shell of the Egg, and the Abysse C under it, as the White that lies under the Shell.

[figure]

[Page 26]This is the Author's Theory of the Earth, in refe­rence to the Composition of it, as it settled from the Chaos, in its first State; which he says he has all along set forth according to the Laws of Gravity: And this must now be consider'd by me.

First then, If I should allow that the first Earth was form'd from a Chaos, according to those Separations the Author has represented, it would no way answer his chief End, for which he gave it this Construction, viz. The Capacity of causing a Deluge, as I shall make appear in my Considerations on the next Chapter. But tho I might be free to allow it, as for any Deluge to be thence caus'd; yet in other respects, I must not do it, because I take upon me to maintain, that the World, from its first Existence, had Mountains, a Sea, and the like, as it has now. And both in reference to the Author's Argu­ment from Reason, viz. That all fluid Bodies, and any first Concretion on them, must keep to a sperical Figure; whence he concludes, the Earth, on its first Concretion from the Chaos, to have taken it; and so as to the Sepa­rations he supposes to have pass'd in the Chaos, I have many things to say.

Not to stand therefore with the Author for allowing a Chaos, and that it was a fluid Masse, and of a circular Fi­gure (tho I know no reason why a Man should admit a Postulatum, which if the Authority of Moses may be set by, as the Author does, I see no ground for, unless it be to serve a turn, for trying whether a natural Explication may be given of a Deluge, which I judg miraculous) and to reason with those, who seem to have held gradual suc­cessive Changes to have pass'd in the Chaos, in order to the forming of the World; The main Error, as I con­ceive, on which the Author has grounded his whole Theory for the Composition of his Earth, as it rose from a Chaos, is, that he has here consider'd the Chaos, not as a strongly fermented Masse, which it must necessarily have been from the infinite variety of seminal Principles of a contrary Nature therein contained (as all Antiquity has [Page 27] represented it) and from this fundamental Error has concluded, that in the Separations and Settlements of the Chaos, all things pass'd according to the common Laws of Gravity, observ'd in the subsiding of unfermented Bo­dies; no respect being had to those Effects, which must necessarily have been produc'd by the said Ferments. Can any Man cast his Eye on the Contrariety of Na­tures which appears betwixt Superiors and Inferiors, and what we find in the Animal, Vegitable, and Mineral Kingdoms, which every where occur to us, and not pre­sently thence conclude from the consideration of a Chaos, where all these are suppos'd to have been confusedly mixt, that the same Contrariety must have been there, and that turbulent and violent Commotions were thence rais'd in it? To go no further than Ovid, who has re­presented the Nature of a Chaos, as well as any of the An­tients: where he speaks of it, he says,

And beneath,

Indeed as he affirms, the World to have risen from the Chaos, he immediately subjoyns,

But how far this jarring Discord was taken away, according to what we may reason from second Causes, [Page 28] and what Effects must have been produc'd by them upon the framing of a World, must be consider'd by us.

It must not then be thought, that when the Chaos came to be separated in order to the framing of a World, all the homogenious Bodies, or pure Elements, were rang'd by themselves; a pure Element being a pure Chimaera, no such thing in Nature. Indeed if such a Separation had been made; whereas there was a Mu­tiny before in the Chaos, this would have establish'd a Peace, but such a Peace, that no habitable World, nor any Animal, Vegitable, or Mineral Productions could then have been. The Elements then, upon the separa­tion of the Chaos, must have been mixt and blended to­gether, according to such Proportions as to be able to produce such Effects, as the prime Author design'd them for; therefore when we consider his design was a World should be produc'd, qualifi'd for the Production, Sup­port, and Propagation of those varieties of Species we find in Nature, and withal reflect what the Quantities and Qualities of those Elements were, and are, which chiefly concern us in this Discourse, viz. The Earth and Waters, we shall soon find how this habitable Earth and the Sea thence arose.

All the Water which the Author does account for in Nature (as I shall have occasion to set forth in the se­quel) does not amount to enough to make an Orb of Water, to cover the Earth, as it lies in an even Conve­xity with the Sea, a quarter of a Mile deep; and what is this to the vast Body of the other Element the Earth? Not comparably so much as a Sheet of the thinnest Pa­per laid on a Globe of three foot diameter, adds in thickness to that Globe. Indeed, notwithstanding this disproportion, if the Earth, when it first settled from the Chaos, had been an homogenious Body, without any Principle of Motion in it, arising from Ferments, through the Contrariety of Natures therein contein'd, the Wa­ters must have cover'd it, as Moses seems to intimate it did; Gen. 1. but when those Ferments, quickned by the [Page 29] ordinary concourse of the first Cause (not to insist here on a miraculous fiat) came to exert their Force, can we think that less Effects could be wrought, than the pro­duction of Mountains, and a Sea Channel, such inconsi­derable Nothings to the Body which produces them? the greatest Mountains on the Earth being no more in proportion to the Earth, than the slightest Dust on a Globe of three foot diameter, is in proportion to that Globe; as the ingenious French Author of a late Book entituled, De L'Origine des Fountaines, has well made ap­pear; where he has likewise shewn, that the little Pro­tuberances on an Orange, which are usually compar'd to the Mountains of the Earth, are each of them a thou­sand times greater in proportion to that Fruit, than any Mountain on the Earth is in proportion to that Globe. We find that many very small vegetable Seeds contain a protrusive Principle in them, able to raise Bodies by degrees, containing many Tuns weight, and can we doubt but the primigenial Earth, fermented with the Seeds of all things in it, had a force able to produce the Effects mention'd? And tho the Author seems to smile at those, who have held that Mountains have been cast up as Mole-hills, or produc'd as Wens on the Bo­dy of Man; I know not whether it may be so easie to shew a Disparity, and why the one is not as possible, and as probable as the other; for if the vastness of the Body will afford it, and there be a proportional mover, neither of which, I think, any Man has reason to que­stion in the Earth, I know not why the Earth may not be judg'd better able to produce the one, than the Mole, or Man's Body the others.

I well know, that all Antiquity (I mean it of those who held the World had a gradual beginning from a Chaos) abets this Theory, as I have stated it; and the feign'd Story of the Gyant Typhoëus (if it contains any natural deduction) relates here: Typhoëus being that Enormontick Spirit (if I may so call it) or that protru­sive Impetus, still reigning in the Chaos, through Fer­ments, [Page 30] Winds and Inflamations, and causing the present Unevenesses in the Earth, and the retiring of the Wa­ters into a Sea-Channel, till at length all things being set in their apt State; Jupiter, or a meet temperies of the World, compos'd these turbulent Commotions, and put a stop to their exorbitant Efforts. And this seems to me a more apt Explication of the original Formation of the World, than that the Author would introduce.

I may farther here note, that tho I think the origi­nal Formation of the World may be accounted for this way; yet I am of opinion there is no Mountain on the Earth now, that is an original Mountain, or that exi­sted when the World first rose, and conclude with Ari­stotle, that the Sea and Land have chang'd places, and continue so to do; and I think it not possible for any Man fairly to solve the Phaenomenon of marine Bodies, found in Mountains, by any other Principle; especially by a Deluge caus'd as the Author has propos'd. But it being not my business here to set fort a Theory of the Earth, but only to shew the Inconsistency of the Author's Hypothesis, I shall not enlarge at present in making out these things; but refer them to a particular Tract, I de­sign to publish with what convenient speed I may; the Demonstrations whereof will refer to certain Cuts, ta­ken from a Collection of Fossil's, I have by me; where I hope to satisfie the Author in some tolerable way con­cerning the Rise of Mountains, Islands, &c. and to solve all the Objections he has made against their Rise any other way, but what he has propos'd.

CHAP. VI.

WE are now come to the main drift of the Author's Undertaking, viz. How the Deluge was caus'd: And in this Chapter he proposes to shew, that it hap­pen'd upon the Dissolution of the first Earth, and that [Page 31] the Form of the present Earth, then rose from the Ru­ins of the first.

First then, he here presents us with a Figure of the Earth all smooth on the Convex part (as he conceivs it must necessarily have been as it rose from a Chaos) the great Abysse suppos'd to be spread under it. And next he supposes, that at a time appointed by Provi­dence, this great Abysse was open'd; or that the Frame of the Earth broke, and it fell down into it: And this, he says, would first cause an universal Deluge, by the great Commotion and Agitation of the Abysse, on the violent Fall of the Earth into it: Then after the Agi­tation of the Abysse was asswag'd, and the Waters, by degrees, were retir'd into their Channels, and the dry Land appear'd, we should see the true Image of the pre­sent Earth in the Ruins of the first. The Surface of the Globe, he says, would be thence divided into Sea and Land; the Land would consist of Plains, Valleys, Moun­tains, with Caverns containing subterraneous Waters, &c. The Sea would have Islands in it, and Banks, and shelfy Rocks on its Shoar, &c. And these things, in the fol­lowing parts of his Work, he examins piece-meal: but first here he considers the general Deluge, and how aptly this Supposition represents it.

Supposing therefore it will be easily allow'd, that such a Dissolution of the Earth would make an univer­sal Deluge, he enquires in what order, and from what Causes the Frame of this exterior Earth was dissolv'd.

The great Cause he assigns for producing this great Ef­fect, is, the continued Heat of the Sun, which he sup­poses in the Antidiluvian World, to have always mov'd in the Equinox, there being then no Colds nor Rains, nor Change of Seasons; so that what by its▪ parching Heat, sucking out the Moisture of the Earth, which was the Cement of its Parts; and so drying it immoderately, and causing it to cleave in sundry places; and what by rarifying the Waters under the Earth into Vapours, which would thence force a way for their Dilatation and Eru­ption, [Page 32] he concludes the Dissolution followed. He exem­plifies his Doctrine first, by an Aeolipile, or an hollow Sphere with water in it; which, if the mouth of it be stopt, which gives the vent, the water when rarified by the heat of the fire, will burst the Vessel with its force. Secondly in an Egg, which being heated before the fire, the moisture and air within being rarified, will burst the shell: and he is the more free to instance this Compari­son, because he says, when the Ancients speak of the Doctrine of the Mundane Egg; they say that after a cer­tain period of time, it was broken. Thirdly, In Earth­quakes, which generally he says arise from the like Causes, and often end in a like effect: viz. a partial De­luge, or innundation of the place or Country, where they happen, which may naturally lead us to conceive that a general one has so come to pass.

Lastly, He says the main difficulty propos'd, was, to find Waters sufficient to make an universal Deluge, and that after sometime it should so return into its Channels, that the Earth should become again habitable: for according to the common Opinion, he says, it was impossible, that such a quantity of waters should be any where found or be brought upon the Earth; and then if it were brought, that it should be again removed: whereas this explication performs the same effect, with a far less quan­tity of water; which is easie to be found, and easily re­mov'd when the work is done; for he says, when the Earth broke and fell into the Abyss, a good part of it was cover'd by the meer depth of it: and those parts of it that were higher than the Abyss was deep, and conse­quently would stand above it in a calm water, were reacht and overtopt by the Waves, during the agitation and violent commotions of the Abyss; and to represent this commotion to us, he supposes a stone of ten thousand weight, taken up into the Air a mile or two, and then let fall into the middle of the Ocean; and believes that the dashing of the water upon that impression, would rise as high as a Mountain. But if a mighty Rock, or heap of [Page 25] Rocks, a great Island, or a Continent fall from that height, the dashing must rise even to the highest Clouds; and he thinks it is not to be wondred that the great tumult of the waters, and the extremity of the Deluge lasted for some months: because, besides that the first shock and commoti­on of the Abyss was extremely violent, here were ever and anon some secondary ruins, which made new Commotions lasting the time suppos'd, till the waters by degrees were retreated; the greatest part of them constituting our pre­sent Ocean, and the rest filling the lower cavities of the Earth. And from things thus explain'd, he concludes, that this third and last Proposition is made out, viz. That the disruption of the Abyss or Dissolution of the primeval Earth, and its fall into the Abyss, was the cause of the uni­versal Deluge, and of the destruction of the old World.

I have been the more particular in stating this part of the Theory, because the main point under debate is here contain'd; which I must now examine.

The Causes assign'd by the Author for such a dissolu­tion of the Earth as is mention'd, do not seem to me so competent as would be expected for such a Work. The Sun doubtless, supposing (as the Author does) that in the Antedilunian World, it always kept in the Aequinox, there being no Rains, Cold, nor changes of Seasons; would heat, dry and cleave the Earth in some parts, especially in the Torrid Zone considerably: but withal it must be consider'd how far the action of the Sun could penetrate for producing the effect propos'd: its known that if a Wall be heated red hot on one side, it still conti­nues cold on the other: Its also a known Experiment, that a good Thermometer, plac'd in a subterraneous Grotto of an ordinary depth, scarce varies perceivably in the hottest day of Summer and the coldest day of Winter: how then shall the Sun penetrate three miles and three quarters deep into the Earth (for so deep the Author seems to suppose his Orb of Earth to have been, as I shall by and by shew) and heat an Abyss of waters ly­ing under it, so as to rarifie it into vapours,

And indeed, Heat being not essentially in the Sun, but an effect of the light by whose beams its imparted to us; where Light is excluded, Heat also must of course. The Grotto, where no operation of the Suns Heat is found, has an open passage into it, for the Suns operation, if it could there exert it; whereas the Author supposes the Antediluvian Earth to have been one continued sub­stance without so much as a Cavern in it. Again, we must consider of what nature the Torrid Zone must have been: and the Author, in his second Book, concludes it a sandy Desart: if so, Sand is not inclinable to cleave, but soon fills up any Cleft made in it; as I believe may be observ'd in all the sandy Desarts now extant: and if Rocks are suppos'd under the Sands; certainly horizon­dal beds of Rocks, as all must have then have been, are not liable to the Suns penetration, at least by any per­ceivable Heat: and indeed let the nature of it be what it might, it comes much to the same thing, and every Man who has us'd himself underground knows how little the Sun has to do with its Heat there. Now tho the conti­nued Equinox Heat, then suppos'd, may seem to aggra­vate the matter, there must have been, at least, a vicissi­tude of days and nights, and those still of equal length, so that the Earth would be always cool'd in the night, as well as heated in the day.

Moreover, tho the Author supposes his Antediluvian Rivers to terminate as they came to the parts, on each side the Torrid Zone, being partly exhal'd by the Sun, and partly absorpt in the Sands; yet their waters must necessarily have pass'd in the Sands under Ground, through the parts of the Torrid Zone, which would soon fill up any clefts there made by the Sun. I say the Waters [Page 27] must have pass'd so, because his Antediluvian Earth must have been porous, to percolate waters to all parts, other­wise its impossible the Inhabitants in the temperate Zones should have been supply'd with waters to serve their necessary uses, by Wells; for no Man can indulge Fancy so far as to think the Antediluvian Rivers could have been so thick, and near enough each other, to afford a convenient supply for the Inhabitants of all the parts of the habitable Earth. Men think it now very burthensom to fetch water a mile or two, as in some places they are forc'd to do by their Situation remote from Waters, and I hope it will not be said that the Ri­vers were then within a mile, or two, or ten, or hun­dreds sometimes of each other.

As to the Comparisons brought in by the Author of the Aeolipile, and the Egg, which are broken, when the moi­sture within them is rarified, and turn'd into vapours by the heat of the fire. I answer, that when it shall appear to us, that the Sun could cause an Heat in the waters of the Abyss, proportional to what the others have when broken, we may consider more of it; mean while, such an effect is so far from falling within my Concep­tion, that I look upon it in Nature impossible. And as to the Doctrine of the Ancients concerning the Mundane Egg's breaking, I shall consider it in the second Book; tho I may so far take notice of it here, that whereas the Author here intimates as tho the Ancients by mention­ing the Mundane Egg's breaking, referr'd to a Deluge, its being caus'd that way; the contrary is manifest to us; for we know it was a general Opinion amongst the An­cients, that the World had been renewed by many De­luges and Conflagrations, whereas if one Deluge had been caus'd by such a disruption of the Earth, any second, or third Deluge had been impossible.

But, what is most urg'd, is, that the generality of Earthquakes arise from like Causes, and often end in a like effect; viz. a partial Deluge or Inundation of the Place or Country where they happen. To this I answer, [Page 28] that tho some Philosophers assign the Causes of Earth­quakes after this manner, viz. That the strugling of Va­pours rais'd and rarify'd by the Sun, in the Earth, some­times cause a Disruption, the Earth thereupon subsiding into Caverns, whence Waters flow forth, &c. yet it would be hard to expect that Men should generally so far acquiesce in this Cause, as to allow it a fair ground to build an Hypothesis of this weighl upon: When as a great, if not the greatest, part of Philosophers, assign other Causes for Earthquakes, and those, perhaps, more probable. Some will have Earthquakes to be caus'd on­ly by certain Conjunctions of the Planets, some by the Motion of Comets near the Earth, others by subterra­neous Fires or Ferments; which truly produce Heats and Vapors within the Earth; the Sun having nothing to do in it, more than by a remote and general Causality; others will have them produc'd by the Motion of subterraneous Waters, others again by certain Moulderings or Foun­derings in certain Caverns of the Earth, and other Cau­ses are assign'd for them.

Lastly, When the Author comes to the main Difficulty, (as he calls it) viz. The finding of Waters sufficient to make an universal Deluge, which after some time should so return into its Channels, that the Earth should be­come again habitable; both which, he says, are as easi­ly effected, according to his Explication (set down be­fore by me) as they are impossible any other way: I confess, I greatly admire at this his Assertion, and the Explanation he gives for those Effects.

The first thing we should have expected from the Au­thor in reference to this Point, is, that he should have signified to us, of what Depth he supposes his Abysse to have been, and what Thickness he allows to his Orb of Earth; for unless we will reason by rote, it must be upon a due consideration of these things, that we must conclude of what Effects could follow, upon the sup­pos'd disruption, in reference to a Deluge, and the for­ming of the present Earth (as he will have it) thence: [Page 29] and indeed, if any Person proposes a Theory, or an Hy­pothesis, and the Propositions he advances to build his Doctrine upon, be not either self-evident, or demon­strated by him; the first thing he ought to do, is to lay down his Postulata, that a Man may clearly see how he adjusts his Reasonings upon them. But to talk of a Bo­dy to be drown'd, and not to give us the Dimensions of the Body, and of the Water to effect it, seems to me to have neither top nor bottom in it; and no more than to say, such a thing must be done, but God Almighty knows how. We find the Author has been diligent enough, in shewing what Quantities of Waters would be required to make a Deluge, where he writes against the Opinions of others: and it seems but Justice, that he should have been as careful in setting down what Quantities would be requisit, according to his own: He saw there was no proper way to refute their Opi­nion, but by a particular Examination of what Quanti­ties of Waters would be requisite to make a Deluge, according as they fancy'd it; and then to shew, that if such a Quantity of Waters were once brought on the Earth, it would be impossible for the Earth to get rid of them again, so as to make an habitable World: And if he would help us to conceive how a Deluge should happen, and the present Phoenomena of the Earth be solv'd consequentially to it, I see not why he should be backward to assign us some possible Proportions of his Orbs of Earth and Waters in order to it; unless (which I cannot think) he had rather involve Men in erroneous Thoughts, by offering only unlimited Generals, and make them fancy a possibility where there is none.

It's the business of Philosophy to possess us with clear and explicit Notions of things; and not to imbroil us in such as are confus'd and obscure. I may allow what the Author says in his Answer to Mr. Warren, Cap. 3. That when the Nature of a thing admits a Latitude, the original Quantity is left to be determin'd by the Effects; and the Hypothesis stands good, if neither any thing ante­cedent, [Page 30] nor any present Phoenomena can be alledg'd against it: But I cannot see that the Nature of this thing ad­mits of a Latitude, so that the present Phoenomena of the Earth may not be alledg'd against it: And I believe, if Cartes had suppos'd a Deluge to have been caus'd (as the Author does) on the Disruption of his Earth (where­as he supposes only the Rise of Mountains, a Sea, and the like by it, the Conceptions of which may admit of a Latitude in some more tolerable way) but all Men would have justly expected he should have assign'd Pro­portions to his Orbs; and I am so far from thinking that any Latitude assignable to Proportions of such Orbs can be here admitted, that I am of opinion, when any Man shall assign any Proportion whatsoever to an Abysse Orb for causing a Deluge (as the Author proposes) I shall always be ready to shew him, either his Abysse Orb to be so shallow, that the Hypothesis cannot swim in it, or so deep, that it must drown in it.

Now tho the Author has not assign'd particular Pro­portions to his Orbs, as it might have been wisht, yet he has offer'd some Suggestions, by which we may guess what he would be at concerning them. What therefore I have gather'd from him, in disperst Notions, in his Work, in reference to those Proportions, is as follows.

First, He tells us in his first Book, p. 77. and p. 84. and again, p. 127. That all the Waters, which were con­tained in the great Abysse, are now contained in the Sea Channel, and the Caverns of the Earth.

Secondly, In this same Book, p. 10. he computes the Sea to cover half the Globe of the Earth, and that ta­king one part of the Sea with another, it makes a quar­ter of a Mile depth throughout.

Thirdly, In this same Book, p. 15. he says, that if the Earth should disgorge all the Waters it has in its Bowels, it would not amount to above half an Ocean.

From these three Assertions we find, that the great Abysse, which he supposes for causing a Deluge, must have contain'd only an Orb of Waters, not a quarter of [Page 31] a Mile depth, as it was couch'd on the Face of the first ediment of the Chaos; which is suppos'd by him to be of a ponderous compact Substance, and not containing Waters within it. And so much for the Proportion of his Abysse.

As to the Thickness he allows to his Orb of Earth, I gather it from him as follows.

First, In his Second Book, p. 273. he says, that the whole primaeval Earth, in which the Seat of Paradise was, was really seated much higher than the present Earth, and may be reasonably suppos'd to have been as much elevated as the tops of our Mountains are now.

Secondly, He has suppos'd in this First Book, p. 11. that some of the Mediterranean Mountains, taken with the general Acclivity of the Earth, from the level of the Sea, make two Miles in height above the said level: or, at least he does not there except against this Computa­tion, as he has occasion to mention it (tho for his satis­faction, I shall state also other Proportions to his Earth beneath, to see what will follow upon it), and I believe all learned Men will allow this Proportion. To this I must add, that tho he has not nam'd what depth he al­lows to the Sea, I must conclude that he allows it two Miles deep, as learned Men generally judg it to be; where he supposes his Abysse to end; part of the first Sediment of the Chaos, receiving the Waters of the Sea upon it. And thus we find from the top of the highest Mountains, to the bottom of the suppos'd Abysse, in the deepest parts of the Sea, we have four Miles (as we may say) in view; or, at least, agreed to by our Author, and all learned Men, and that whereas he allows near a quarter of a Mile to the depth of his Abysse (as I have shewn before) so his Orb of Earth must have been at least three Miles and three quarters in thickness.

All these things being thus establish'd, let us now con­sider how a Deluge could be hence made, according to the Description of Moses. If I should but present a Scheme here, according to those Proportions, allowing [Page 32] a quarter of a Mile to the Abysse Orb, and three Miles and three quarters to the Orb of Earth; I believe any Man, at first looking on it (as to any Deluge to be thence caus'd) must cry out, Impossibility! The Abysse Orb be­ing but the twelfth part of the other, without coun­ting what must additionally accrue to the Orb of Earth from its much larger Circumference, as being the upper Orb. The Author ascribes the cause of the Deluge to the Violence of the Commotion of the Abysse, upon the fall of the Earth into it; and to represent to us what this Commotion must be, he supposes a Stone of a vast weight, carried up a Mile or two in the Air, and let fall; and tells us to what a vast height Waters must then be conceiv'd to fly. But I cannot allow this Instance to be fairly brought in: If a Painter be to draw a Ceiling-Piece in a Room of an high roof, we may allow him to draw the Picture (of a Man there, suppose) much big­ger than the natural, that it might deceive our Eye, to its advantage, when viewing it at that distance, it takes it in a proportion to the Life. But to suppose a Rock, an Island, or a Continent (as he says) two Miles high, in the Air, and to conceive how high Waters would be thrown, upon their fall into the Sea; why shall this be done, to deceive our Reason? When the Antediluvian Earth is suppos'd before, not to have been suspended in the Air, but couch'd close on the Face of the Abysse, as is represented by him in his Scheme of the disruption of the Earth, Fig. I. p. 135. it being quite a different thing for a Body, couch'd on the Face of Waters, to sub­side in them, and for it to fall into them from an height.

Again, when part of the Orb of Earth subsided into the Abysse, there was no room for the Waters of the Abysse to diverge; whereas when any Weight is thrown into a River, or the open Sea, the Waters may fly off every way. And, indeed, I think it manifest enough, that upon the subsiding of any part, of such an Orb of Earth, in a manner all the Waters, that could rise there­upon, [Page 41] upon, must have been contain'd either in the Chasms, or hollow places of its broken parts; and that never any could come to make a Deluge on the higher parts of the Earth. Besides, it's absolutely contrary to Moses's Narration, to make a Deluge by such flights of Water in the Air; Moses telling us how the Waters rose and fell gradually, and that they exceeded the highest Mountains fifteen Cubits; the Author's Explication of it being so forc'd and unnatural, that, perhaps, in so plain a Text, it was not fit to be put upon so great a Prophet.

But to put the matter beyond dispute, supposing the Proportions before laid down, to the Orbs of the Abysse, and the Earth; we find a Mile and three quarters of the Orb of Earth missing; for if the Sea be allow'd but two Miles in depth, as learned Men generally judg it to be; and that the Abysse there ends on the first Sediment of the Chaos (as the Author supposes) we have then in Na­ture but as much Earth as will make an Orb of two Miles in thickness, as I shall shew beneath: and what then is become of the other Mile and three quarters Earth?

The next thing we have to consider, is this notwith­standing all the Suppositions of the Author, before set down; when we come to view the Schemes he has gi­ven in his Book; we find that contrary to his said Sup­positions, in all of them, he has represented his Abysse-Orb, thicker than his Orb of Earth, so that counting the more large extent of the Orb of Earth, as being the upper Orb, and the thickness of the Abysse Orb, which lies under it, we may judg them to be of equal con­tents in their Dimensions, as you may see in the Scheme before given you. And I believe, a Reader, who should peruse his Book cursorily, not finding the Proportions of his two Orbs clearly stated; and perhaps, not minding the Suppositions, before set down; which the Author was forct, by the necessity of the Argument; to make on several occasions; when he came to view this Scheme of his or the others; would have concluded that the Author really suppos'd his two Orbs of the Propor­tions [Page 42] he here represents; as indeed it is but a blind Put upon our Eye, as well as our Reason, if he did not.

Now, tho I must declare, I cannot comprehend how this can stand with the Author's Suppositions (as I con­ceive they are) before set down, I am content to sup­pose, as all his Schemes seem to import; that the Orbs of the Earth, and of the Abysse, were, in their Con­tents of equal Dimensions; and we shall examin what thereupon could follow, in order to a Deluge.

I suppose then, that the Antediluvian Earth contain'd an Orb of two Miles deep, or as much as would make two Miles deep if it were coucht on the bottom of the Abysse, as it then was on the surface of it: and that the Orb of the Abysse, contain'd two Miles in depth likewise; for I suppose here, with the Author, as before, that the two Orbs together made four Miles in height.

This being suppos'd; when the Earth broke, and made a Deluge, I ask what became of the two Miles Water? The Author tells us that the Sea contains a quarter of a Mile depth in Water, over half the Globe of the Earth: and says, that if the Earth should disgorge all the Wa­ters it has besides in its Bowels, it would not make half an Ocean: and he tells us again and again, that all the Waters of the Abysse are contain'd in the Sea, and in the Caverns of the Earth: What then is become of the other Mile and three quaters Water?

Having thus demonstratively refuted (as I conceive) the Author's whole Hypothesis, both according to the Proportions he seems to have given to his Orbs, in his Schemes; or to have otherwise intimated them to have been in his Work; I shall urge the matter a little farther, and plainly shew it impossible, either for the Author, or any Man else to assign any Proportions whatsoever to such Orbs; that a Deluge, and the Form of the present Earth should be thence caus'd; supposing only (as the Learned generally do) that the Sea is two Miles deep in its deepest part; where the Author will have his A­bysse to end, on the first Sediment of the Chaos. For [Page 43] then, I say; first, I conceive, Men will generally agree with what the Author has before laid down, viz. That there is in Nature but Water enough to make an Orb of a quarter of a Mile depth, on the first Sediment of the Chaos. And secondly, As to the Proportion, which must be allow'd to the Orb of Earth, it's manifest to us, that since it's two Miles from the level of the Sea to the dee­pest part of it, and since it's all Earth, in all parts of the Globe to that depth, except what the Waters in the Sea, and in the Caverns of the Earth do amount to; which is but enough to make an Orb but of a quarter of a Mile depth, round the Earth; a good part of which Orb will also be countervail'd by that part of the Earth, which is above the level of the Sea; it must follow, that no Proportion can be assign'd to an Orb of Earth, but about two Miles in depth. Now, we find, according to these Proportions; which are the only Proportions assigna­ble to the two Orbs; that the Abysse-Orb is but a ninth part of the other; a Proportion no way answering such an Effect, as a Deluge, and the forming of the present Earth, which could not possibly thence ensue.

Thus I have been forc't to apply Arguments several ways, and to make a large Discourse on a Point; which, if the Hypothesis had been clearly stated, I might have answered in a few Lines. And now I think, no more need be said, the whole Contents of the Book falling of course; only as the Author has said in some part of his Work, That he conceives what he has advanc'd may, at least, serve to open the Inventions of some other Men; so, possibly, some part of what I shall deliver in the se­quel, may conduce to the same end.

If the Author does suppose, that at the time of the Disruption of his Orb of Earth, there was an Orb of Air, or Vapours betwixt it, and his Abysse-Orb; rais'd there by the constant Action of the Sun on the Abysse in the later Ages of the Antediluvian World, as in some places of his Works he seems to intimate: I think he ought to have represented such an Air-Orb, in his Scheme of the [Page 44] Disruption of his Orb of Earth, p. 135. which he has not done: and therefore my preceding Arguments have not related to any such Air-orb. But if he pleases to be plain in the matter, and fairly tells us (if he supposes any such Air-orb) how thick he supposes it, and what thick­ness he allows to his other Orbs; I do here assure him I shall always be ready, either to shew him the impossi­bility of a Deluge its being caus'd that way, so that the Earth should be afterwards habitable; or freely to own that he has represented the Possibility of a thing to me, which upon long thinking hitherto, I cannot conceive so to have been.

CHAP. VII. and VIII.

IN the seventh Chapter the Author endeavours to make out by Argument, and from History, and particularly by some passages in the Scriptures, that the Explication he has given of an universal Deluge, is not an Idea only: but an account of what really came to pass in this Earth, and the true Explication of Noah's Flood. And in the 8th Chapter, he endeavours particularly to explain Noah's Flood, in the material parts and circumstances of it, ac­cording to his preceding Theory: and concludes this Chapter with a Discourse, how far the Deluge may be look'd upon as an effect of an ordinary Providence, and how far of an extraordinary.

I think it plain enough, by what I have set forth in the foregoing Chapter, that nothing contain'd in these Chapters, can be of any force; wherefore I shall pass them by; only taking notice of what the Author says concerning an Ordinary or Extraordinary Providence in reference to the Deluge; for performing which, he will not have the Waters to have been created, or otherwise miraculously brought on the Earth: but allows, as there was an extraordinary Providence in the Formation, or [Page 45] Composition of the first Earth, so there was also in the dissolution of it: and thinks it had been impossible for the Ark to have subsisted on the raging Abyss, for the preservation of Noah and his Family, without a miracu­lous hand of Providence to take care of them. And con­cludes, that writing a Theory of the Deluge, as he does; he is to exhibit a series of Causes, whereby it may be made intelligible, or to shew the proxim natural Causes of it.

Now as for any natural Causes to be found for the Deluge, the learned Johannes Picus, falling foul with A­strologers, says thus:

Astrologers ascribe Noah's Flood, as well as all other Miracles, mention'd in the Scriptures, to their Constella­tions; in which thing doubtless they are madder than those, who deny any such things to have been; because they believe them, as they are related, and nevertheless effected by natural Causes; when no greater madness can be imagin'd, than to think that any thing is done by Na­tures power, above Nature it self; this being demon­strably so; because nothing is more repugnant to Nature, than that it should attempt its own destruction: where­fore it would never bring that Injury on its self, that it could not free it self from by its Power. And if it could not be according to the course of Nature, that the Waters exceeding the Mountains tops fifteen Cubits, Noah with his Cargo in the Ark should be free from Ship­wrack twelve months; so it was not Natures purpose to drown the whole Earth with an Inundation of Waters, to the destruction of all living Creatures. He adds also particularly against Astrologers (who will have the Stars to be Signs, at least, if not the causes of such effects) as follows. The course of natural things is so limited by God, according to the Order he has establisht; and so disjoyn'd from those things which are preternaturally done, by the divine Power and Will; that if all these were taken away, there would be nothing wanting nor nothing abounding in Nature. Wherefore as by the Or­der [Page 46] establisht by God, natural things are signified by na­tural Signs, and miraculous things by antecedent Mi­racles; so Noah, being divinely inspir'd, and to be pre­serv'd by the divine Power, signified to the World that an universal Deluge was to come by a Miracle of the di­vine Justice, and he exemplifies the usual proceedings of Providence in other instances of the same kind.

And indeed, we have reason to think, that if there had been any natural Causes for the Deluge, some of the learned Persons then in being, at least upon Noah's warn­ing, would have perceiv'd some growing dispositions in the Heavens and Earth toward such an effect, and not have suffer'd themselves to have been all surpriz'd when it came, as the Scriptures represent to us they were.

Again, since the ten Plagues of Egypt were miracu­lous; which were to teach only one obdurate King that there was a God, who commanded all things: certainly when that God pleas'd to execute his vengeance on a World consummate in sin; he would do it in an extra­ordinary and supernatural manner; that Posterity should have no Tergiversation, but be forc'd to own that Divine controling Power, being certified of this act, surpas­sing all natural Causes whatsoever. And whereas the Author says, that he writing a Theory of the De­luge, is to shew the proxim natural Causes of it: It will be answered, that when an effect is thus miraculously wrought, by an arbitrary determination of the most re­mote Cause, we must not look after proxim Causes in Nature for it; Effects being only accountable from any second or proxim natural Causes, when things are left to Gods ordinary Concourse. Not but God often uses second Causes in working Miracles, but then he raises that na­tural Power, otherwise belonging to them to an height far transcending Nature; so that the common Laws of motion and gravity, by which the Author pretends to establish his Hypothesis, have no place here.

[Page 47]I may add, that it's the general Opinion of Divines, that nothing of those things which God has made by him­self, and without the concurrence of any other Cause, will ever have an end, or total dissolution (as the Author intimates this dissolution of the Earth to be) for want of Principles in them sufficient for their eternal support; tho God, by his meer will may put an end to them, or dissolve them as he pleases; and therefore as the Earth and other Elements were made by God in the Begin­ning; so according to their natures they will remain for ever without any destruction or dissolution, as to the whole, tho they may undergo some partial Changes. And in reference to this, the learned Vallesius, on that pas­sage of Esdras, Considera ergo & tu, L. 4. c. 5. quoniam minori sta­turâ estis, prae his, qui ante vos, & qui post vos minori quam vos, quasi jam senescentes creaturae, & fortitudinem juventutis praetereuntes. Says, but neither is that fourth Book of Esdras receiv'd by Divines, nor could that Opi­nion ever down with me: for the World has Ages ac­cording to divine Ordinations, and the account of Times which God has with himself, but not according to Na­ture; since neither its rise was from Nature, nor will its destruction so happen. Indeed, it may be that this or that little part of the Earth, drain'd by long culture and sowing may decay, but not the whole Earth; neither does any little part of it ever so decay, as things which really grow old; so that it can never after resume its strength, and, as it were, wax young again; but all things pass away and return in a certain Circle, according to all and each of their parts, according to all, by vicissitudes, some being decay'd, others render'd more fertile; accord­ing to each, each of them being alternately decay'd and restor'd. And indeed, the Learned Dr. Hakewill, in his Apology, has so well clear'd the Point against a general decay in the World, that I think it past time of Day now to have it brought in question: so that such a dissolu­tion in the Earth, tending to its general decay, as the Au­thor intimates, may not be admitted.

[Page 48]I shall conclude this Chapter by observing, that be­sides the miraculous Providence, which the Author al­lows in the saving of the Ark, his Hypothesis forces him to introduce two or three Miracles more; as I shall shew in the Second Book: Whence we shall find, that what he has endeavour'd to save in one great Miracle, he has been forc't to make out in little ones.

CHAP. IX.

NOW the Author comes to prove his Theory from the Effects, and present Form of the Earth; and in this Ninth Chapter, after having observ'd that the most considerable and remarkable things, that occur in the Fabrick of this present Earth, are; First, subter­raneous Cavities, and subterraneous Waters: Secondly, the Channel of the great Ocean: Thirdly, Mountains and Rocks. He proceeds to give an account of these according to his Hypothesis: Beginning with subterra­neous Cavities and Waters: Saying that those Cavities were made, upon the general Dissolution of the Earth, according as the broken Fragments variously fell into hol­low and broken Postures: and that the subterraneous Waters are parts of the Abysse, the Pillars and Founda­tions of the present Earth standing immerst in it.

Now, I have shewn before, that such an Orb of Earth, and Dissolution of it on the Face of the Abysse, for causing Noah's Deluge (as the Author has suppos'd) was impossible, and consequently his Explanation here of subterraneous Cavities and Waters cannot hold. I might add some things here for shewing the necessity of subterraneous Caverns in the Antediluvian Earth, which the Author denies to have been: But because in the following Chapters, I shall shew the necessity of a Sea and Mountains, in those times; the Uses of which may be more conspicuous; I shall pass by the Cavities at present.

CHAP. X.

HEre the Author treats concerning the Sea-Channel, and the Original of it, the Causes of its irregular Form and unequal Depths: as also of the Original of Islands, their Situation and Properties.

He exaggerates much in the Description of the Sea-Chanel; where amongst other things he says thus, p. 128. ‘When I present this great Gulph to my Imagination, emptied of all its Waters, naked, and gaping at the Sun, stretching its Jaws from one end of the Earth to another, it appears to me the most ghastly thing in Na­ture.’ And again, p. 131. ‘If we should suppose the Ocean dry, and if we look't down from the top of some high Cloud, upon the empty Shell; how horridly and barbarously would it look? And with what Amaze­ment should we see it under us, like an open Hell, or a wide bottomless Pit: So deep and hollow and vast; so broken and confus'd, so every way deform'd and monstrous, &c.’

To this I must say, as far as I can conceive of the Sea-Channel, if it were empty, and had a Sword upon it, and Trees, as the Land has; I can fancy no other Pro­spect could be there, than what the Earth now affords us: We have Mountains now that appear as high to us, as perhaps any would, if we then stood in any part of the Sea-Channel; and so for any other suppos'd Uneven­nesses. Indeed to look upon many places of it naked, without a Sword on them, might not seem so well; so draw off the Skin from the most beautious Creature on the Earth, and see how it will look: as for other Gha­stliness, I fancy none; for when all is said, it is but a Veil spread over half the Earth, allow'd to afford a quar­ter of a Mile depth to the Sea, taking one place with another thorowout, and not being above two Miles deep [Page 50] at the deepest part; and what is this in a Philosophi­cal Consideration, when compar'd with the vast Body it lies upon? It's a place fit to receive such a poor Lake as the Sea, otherwise not worth naming, being not com­parably so much to the Body of the Earth, as the thick­ness of a Leaf of the thinnest Paper, drawn from one half part of a Globe of three feet Diameter, takes from the bulk of that Globe.

Next the Author tells us, there are three things par­ticularly to be consider'd concerning the Sea-Channel, viz. Its general Irregularity, the vast Hollowness of its Cavity, and the Declivity of its sides, which lie shelving, tho with some Unevenness, from top to bottom. And these he thinks may be aptly explain'd according to his Hypothesis, by the fall of the Earth, and are not ex­plainable any other way; and he gives us two Figures, for representing the Fall of the Earth to effect these things: The like he says for the Rise of original Islands; which he counter-distinguishes from such as are factitious; these being made either by the Aggestion of Sands, or the Sea's leaving the tops of some shallow places that lie high, or by a Divulsion from some Continent, or a Protrusion from the bottom of the Sea. And he gives us also one Figure to represent the Rise of those original Islands, ac­cording to his said Hypothesis.

To this I answer, That the Causes he has given for these Phaenomena relating to the Sea Channel, are well as­sign'd consequentially to his Hypothesis: but, as I have already shewn a failure in his Hypothesis, those causes cannot be true, neither shall I be more particular on them. But as the Author has excluded a Sea from his Antedi­luvian Earth. I shall set down a few Reasons, to shew the necessity of a Sea from the beginning of the World.

First then, we find a necessity of admitting a Sea, from the beginning, for the support of Sea-Animals and Ve­getables; which we cannot judg but to have been from the beginning: For, supposing that the Authority of Moses, who tells us of a Sea, and great Whales, &c. from [Page 51] the beginning should be evaded: I would ask whether all Sea-Animals and Vegetables were created de novo af­ter the Deluge, or whether they were kept in the An­tediluvian Rivers, or in the Abysse? First to say they were then created de novo, or that their Seeds had been preserv'd in the Antediluvian World, till they exerted their Powers at the Deluge, it would no way be admit­ted: For this were in effect to exclude, in a manner, half the Creation, in reference to Plants and Animals from the Antediluvian Earth; the Sea being the most fertile of all the parts of the World, the generative Faculty being no where so luxuriant, as there. Secondly, they could not live in the suppos'd Antediluvian Rivers, which in all probability must have been all fresh, and without any Saltness in them, as I shall shew in the next Chapter: And again, when we consider the various Genius's of Fishes, we find it inconsistent for them to have liv'd in those Rivers: For, as Philo says, Lib. de Mundi Opif. all marine Animals re­ceive not their Being in all places; some love a moorish and shallow Sea, some Ditches and Ports, neither passing up into the Land, nor swimming far from the Sea shoar; some living in the deep Seas, shun Islands, Rocks, and Promontories, running out into the Sea; and others are delighted in calm and quiet Seas, others in tempestuous, so that being exercis'd with continual tossings, and stri­ving against the Surges, they become stronger and fat­ter, &c. Now how all these Dispositions and a multi­tude of others could be answer'd in the Antediluvian Rivers, or the Abysse, I see not. The like may be said of all Birds living always on the Sea Coasts, and feeding on Sea Animals; and the like of Vegetables, which grow no where, but in, or by the Sea. Thirdly, as to the Abysse, certainly the Birds could not be preserv'd there; if it be said that the Fishes or Sea-Plants could, I desire one Instance in natural History, where any Animal or Vegetable, has been found living twenty Fathoms deep in the Earth, where there has not been a Communica­tion to the day: I well know there are some Fishes (I [Page 52] cannot say Vegetables) living in some subterraneous Rivers and Lakes, which have such a Communication, a I speak of, but none otherwise.

To conclude, the Author, in his Answer to Mr. Warren, finding himself urg'd, Cap. 11. against the living of Fishes in the Abysse, through its closeness; instances that a Child can live many Months, shut up in the Mothers Belly, where, he says, there is Closeness and Darkness in the highest degree; and thinks it likely that the Fishes were less active and agile in the Abysse than they are now; and that their Life was more sluggish then, and their Motions more slow, as being still in the Womb of Na­ture, that was broke up at the Deluge; and that they had Air enough for their imperfect way of breathing in that state; and that possibly they might have some Passages in their Bodies open'd, at the Disruption of the Abysse, when they were born into the free Air, which were not open'd before, &c.

To this I reply, that it's one thing what a Man is forc't to say consequentially to an Hypothesis, which he pro­poses to introduce; and another, what Reason dictates to him, upon free Thought: And I believe, if the Au­thor's Hypothesis would permit him to be open and can­did, he must own that such an Abysse could be no pro­bable, nor possible Habitation for Fishes. As for the Instance of the Child in the Mothers Belly; where the Author says there is Closeness and Darkness in the high­est degree; we know it to be otherwise; the Mother being a living and breathing Animal, and having a Body freely perspirable; the Envelopings also with which the Infant is encompast, being very thin; nor can the Child subsist if the Mother dies. Now what Analogy with this has an Orb of dead Earth a Mile or two thick, with which the Abysse is suppos'd to be invested, where the Fishes are said to live? Again, how unnatural is it for the Author to make the Fishes, in the Antediluvian Paradisiacal times, to be in an embrionate imperfect state; so that the Whale could not sport himself, by spouting [Page 53] up Waters, nor the Nautili sayl before the Wind, nor any Fishes divert themselves, according to their Genius, and what they enjoy in this pitiful degenerate World: So that at a time, when all things on the Earth are sup­pos'd to have flourisht in a degree far transcending the present; the poor Fishes (which least deserv'd it) lay under a double Curse; being wholly pent up in a dark Dungeon, impervious to the Light and Air, as great Bles­sings, as the World affords; and having no Food, but by preying on each other; whereas now, besides Vege­tables, growing in the Seas, they have good Supplies by what the Rivers bring them, besides other good Contin­gencies from the Shoars. I must confess that I know no­thing forct and unnatural in an Hypothesis, if this be not so.

Next, we must consider the Necessity of a Sea in re­ference to its Use, as to the Earth; and to pass by its Use for Navigation, which is generally suppos'd not to have been practis'd in the Antediluvian times; we find that the Antients unanimously plac'd the Sea all along the tor­rid Zone; many of them saying that the Body of the Sun, and other Planets and Stars were refresht and nou­risht by the Moisture thence drawn: But however we may look upon this Opinion, we must still say with the Poet, ‘Sed rapidus Titan ponto sua lumina pascens.’ And that one of the chiefest Actions of the Sun's Rayes on this inferior Globe, is, to raise Waters from the Seas, to be pass'd thence by the Winds on all the parts of the Earth, to qualifie the Air, for the Promo­tion, Refreshment, and Support of Vegetable and Animal Productions: and hence as Plutarch says, Homer, in the Battle, opposes Neptune to Apollo; and hence Juno is said to have been born and brought up in the Island Samos, and to have been educated by Oceanus and Tethys, or by the O­ceanine Nymphs; the Air being chiefly fed by the Sea-Wa­ters rarify'd. And indeed it seems much more natural to me, that the great Magazine of waters, for supplying all the parts [Page 54] of the Earth, should, in good measure, be plac't on that part of it, where the strongest Action of the Sun is; than to make it near the Poles, where its Rays have lit­tle or no Effect; or in places remote from the said part. It's true, the Author may say, the Waters are brought round again, from the Poles to the Parts near the torrid Zone, by the Rivers; and that the Rivers terminating there, these parts were all plashy and moorish; whence the Sun might as well raise Waters to supply the Earth, as from the Sea. But still I say it's unnatural not to place Waters where the strongest Action of the Sun is; and again, I cannot think those other Waters would serve the turn, they being all fresh, whereby (notwithstanding their flowing) a general Corruption must have follow'd in them, as also in regard they were not refresht by Rains, and frequent, Fountains passing into them, at certain di­stances, as now: Neither do I conceive they could have aptly maintain'd a Vegetation and Propagation of Spe­cies in Plants and Animals. And I make no doubt, but if the Uses of the Sea were duly inspected and stated, its Waters, as now qualifi'd with an highly fermented Brackishness, would be found of as necessary use in car­rying on the Oeconomy of the Macrocosm; as the bilous, pancreatick, splenetick, and other Juyces are for per­forming the like Office in the Body of Man; or indeed, as the learned Palaeopolitanus says, to take the Sea from the Earth, Div. Dial. 2. were the same as to drein an Animal of his Heart Blood.

To this we may add, that if the concurrent Vote of all the Men of Sense of Antiquity signifies any thing, they are unanimous in the Assertion of a Sea from the beginning; so as a Commentator on Aristotle has truly ob­serv'd, that all those who have held the World Eternal, held the Sea so too; and all those that held the World to have had a beginning, held the Sea to have existed to­gether with it. And we know that Neptune was always held an Antediluvian God; and so we know the famous Division of the World betwixt the three Brothers: Ju­piter [Page 55] commanding the Air, Neptune the Sea, and Dis or Pluto the inward Regions of the Earth. And indeed, we find the Ancients so fond of a Sea, that scarce any of them describe a terrestrial Paradise, but mention the Sea with it.

CHAP. XI.

THIS Chapter treats concerning the Mountains of the Earth, their greatness and irregular Form; their Situation, Causes and Origine.

First then, the Author here gives us an Eloge on Moun­tains, expressing himself thus:

‘The greatest objects of Nature are, methinks, the most pleasing to behold; and next to the great Concave of the Heav'ns, and those boundless Regions where the Stars inhabit, there is nothing that I look upon with more pleasure than the wide Sea, and the Mountains of the Earth. There is something august and stately in the air of these things, that inspires the Mind with great Thoughts and Passions. We do naturally upon such oc­casions, think of God and his Greatness, and whatsoever has but the shadow and appearance of Infinite, as all things have, that are too big for our Comprehension, they fill and overbear the Mind with their excess, and cast it into a pleasing kind of stupor and admiration.’ But at last he concludes, that these Mountains, so specious as they seem, are nought but great Ruins; and then expa­tiates much in setting forth their Greatness, irregular Form and Situation, and lastly, assigns their Causes and Origine.

Now, as to the Causes and Origine of Mountains, and the accidents belonging to them; since I have already shewn that the Account which the Author has rendred of them, upon the breaking of the Earth at the Deluge, is erroneous; I shall not here say more to them: especially having intimated already in the fifth Chapter, how I [Page 56] conceive Mountains, a Sea, &c. may be accounted for more rationally another way; but shall offer some things concerning the necessity, and use of Mountains from the beginning of the World, as I have already shewn the ne­cessity of a Sea.

When a man considers the fair Encomium the Author has made on Mountains, tho at last, concluding them to be but a Ruin, and excluding them his Antediluvian Earth; he would be apt to say, it's pity that Earth suppos'd far to exceed the present, should be without such noble Ruins, and ev'n Paradise it self: and indeed as the An­cients (according to what I have intimated before) scarce ever describ'd a Paradise without mentioning a Sea, so they seldom did it without naming Mountains. I know not how all Mankind may stand affected; but I know a great part will agree with me, that a level Coun­try can never be so pleasant, as a Country diversified in Site and Ornament, with Mountains, Valleys, Chases, Plains, Woods, cataractical Falls, and Serpentine Courses of Rivers, with a Prospect of the Sea, &c. What is a dull Le­vel to this? Where the sight is terminated at the next Hedge; and if you raise Towers to overlook it, it can never equal, or come near the Charming variety of the other. Nor does the Authors Instance, in his Answer to Mr. Warren, c. 7. seem to me to clear the Point, where he says, we are pleas'd with the looking upon the Ruins of a Roman Amphitheater, or a Triumphal Arch, tho time has defac'd its beauty. For the question will still lie, whether a Roman Amphitheater, or Triumphal Arch, in its Glory, were not more beautiful and pleasing to be­hold, than the Ruins of them: and I shall still be of Opi­nion, that the present Earth, on the accounts before ex­prest, has a more delightful and Charming prospect, than its Antediluvian state, as by the Author represented, could have afforded, but let us consider the use of Moun­tains.

We find the Ancients call'd the Earth [...] our Mo­ther Earth; for as Plato says, the Earth does not imi­tate [Page 57] a Woman, but a Woman the Earth: and they com­par'd the Mountains on the Earth, to the breasts of a Wo­man: and indeed if the thing be duly consider'd, we shall find that the Mountains are no less ornamental, and of necessary use to the Earth, for affording continual streams of fresh Waters to suckle all her Productions; than the protuberant Breasts of a Woman are, both for beau­tifying her Person, and yielding sweet streams of Milk for the nourishment of her Children. Hence also they call'd Nature [...], multimamma, and ador'd it by that name, under the figure of an Hermaphrodite; this Hermaphroditical Figure of Nature was to denote its double Power; because the Ancients, and among others of them, Orpheus, Trismegistus and Soranus said, Nature was both male and female, and hence with the Greeks it's said, [...]. And Orpheus stil'd Nature [...], Deum Naturam; and the ancient Latins us'd Naturus as well as Natura, they gave it therefore an Hermaphroditical Fi­gure, but still with many Breasts, the Types of Mountains.

Secondly, The very learned Joannes Reuchlin tells us, L. 1. de verb. mi­rif. that the whole Ornament of Nature, is from the admi­rable variety of things found in it. And D. Hakewill tells us, he ever conceiv'd that Variety and Disparity in that Variety, serving for Ornament, Use and Delight, Apol. l. 5., might thereby serve to set forth the Wisdom, Power and Goodness of the Creator, no less than his greatest and most glorious Works. We shall therefore consider of what use Mountains are for promoting that Variety: of which we are sufficiently put in mind by the learned D. Brown, in his judicious Account of his Travels, p. 89. where he says thus:

‘Tho Austria be more Northern than Stiria, or Carin­thia, the Heats are there much greater; for there may be as much difference, as to the temperature of air, and as to heat and cold, in one Mile, as in ten degrees of Lati­titude; and he that would cool and refresh himself in the Summer, had better go up to the top of the next Hill, than remove into a far more Northern Country. [Page 58] And beneath. In the hot Country of Arabia Travel­lers complain much of the Cold they suffer in passing the Hills. The Mountains of Italy and Spain are cover'd with Snow and Ice all the Summer, so is Mount Atlas; when in Great Britain there is no such thing.’ Hence it's easie to find of what Importance the Elevations of Mountains are for diversifying Effects on the Earth: for it's mani­fest that the Sun, that Father of Generation, joining with the central or seminal Mover in the Earth; does not only diversifie Effects here, by his gradual Ap­proaches, according to the Rectitude of his Rayes, on either side the Aequator: But does it rather in a grea­ter measure, according to the various Reflexions of his Rayes, through the various Sites and Elevations of the Earth; whence the Atmosphere must be greatly varied in deep Valleys, on the tops of Mountains, and in their various Acctivities, according as they regard several Fa­ces of the Heavens, Earth, and Seas. And since in re­spect of Elevations (as I have quoted from Dr. Brown) there may be as much difference, as to the Temperature of the Air, in one Mile of height, as in ten Degrees of Latitude; I wonder the Antediluvian Earth is suppos'd without this Advantage: the Beauty of Nature consisting in diversify'd Effects, and it being evident, that nothing can diversifie so much, as such Varieties of Elevations.

Is it that the suppos'd Richness of the Antediluvian Soil could have supply'd all this? We answer, that such a rich and fertile Soil is no way proper for many of Nature's Productions, which delight rather in such Soils as are generally most barren. The learned Poet knew this when he said,

We know that many Herbs, set in a fat and moist Soil, lose their Nature and Vertue; because they love Drought. And Hippocrates tells us, that Mountain Plants are of a more smart and vehement operation than others: And here a learned Botanist has a large Field to expa­tiate, in setting forth the variety of Plants, according to the various Sites and Elevations of the Earth.

The like may be said of Animals; how many Species of them are there, which seem to be made for Moun­tains, and Mountains for them? Of which a Man might say, as Virgil does of his Goats,

Goats, and such other Animals delighting in such course Food, which unless eaten by them, would fall to no­thing. And as Dr. Hakewill tells us, Apol. l. 5. It's observ'd that the Inhabitants of Mountains, by reason of the Clearness of the Air, the Dryness of the Soil, and a more tempe­rate Dyet thereby occasion'd, are, for the most part, stronger of Limb, healthier of Body, quicker of Sense, longer of Life, stouter of Courage, and of Wit sharper than the Inhabitants of the Valley: And Mountains seem appointed by Providence to guard the lower Countries from the violence of blasting and fierce Winds, to bridle the Fury of the enrag'd Sea, to mark out the Bounds and Borders of Nations, to stop the sudden Invasions of Ene­mies, and to preserve Hay, Corn, Cattel, Houses, and Men from the danger of Land Floods, which overflow the Plains by the rising of Rivers. And hence, Gen. dier. l. 5. as Ale­xander ab Alexandro acquaints us, many of the Antients paid a Veneration to Mountains, extended on the Sea-Coast, [Page 60] as to a Deity, the Sea being thereby kept from over-flowing the Land.

Again, the Author having excluded Mountains from his Antediluvian Earth, he excludes Metals and Minerals of course; for no Mountains, no Mines nor Minerals: And it will be hard to give an Instance in natural History, of any Mines in level Countries, unless some Fragments of Metalline Ores are carry'd thither by a Torrent from some adjacent Mountain. For Metalline-Ores lie not in Hori­zontal Beds, as they are all in level Countries; but in Beds either standing perpendicular to, or some degree rais'd above, the Horizon; the Reasons of which I may set forth in some other Tract. The Author spea­king of these Mineral Productions, in the Sixth Chapter of his Second Book, says thus,

‘As for subterraneous things, Metals and Minerals, I believe the Antediluvians had none, and the happier they; no Gold, nor Silver, nor courser Mettals; the Use of these is either imaginary, or in such Works, as by the Constitution of their World, they had little oc­casion for: And Minerals are either for Medicine, which they had no need of farther than Herbs, or for Mate­rials to certain Arts, which were not then in use, or were supply'd by other ways. These subterraneous things, Metals, and metalick Minerals are factitious, not original Bodies, coaeval with the Earth, but are made in process of time, after long Operations and Conco­ctions by the Action of the Sun within the Bowels of the Earth. And if the Stamina or Principles of them rose from the lower Regions that lye under the Abysse, as I am apt to think they do, it does not seem proba­ble, that they could be drawn through such a Masse of Waters, or that the Heat of the Sun could on a sud­den, penetrate so deep, and be able to loosen, and raise them into the exterior Earth.’

I have intimated before, that the Author, upon his ex­clusion of Mountains, was forc't to exclude Minerals from his Antediluvian Earth; tho it be with this hard Circumstance, [Page 61] that there is a plain Text of the Scriptures against him, Gen. 4. where Tubalcain is said to have wrought in Brass and Iron, long before the Flood, which seems to me unanswerable. So again, Gen. 2. it's said that the Ri­ver Pison encompass'd the Land of Havilah, where there was Gold. And if we give credit to the Book of Henoch, L. 4. de Antiqu. Biblioth. quoted by Tertullian L. de Idololat. Tubalcain wrought also in the other Metals, as Gold, Silver, &c. of which afterwards Idols were made. Moreover the Author al­lowing the Hebrew Chronology, that supposes but 292 Years from the Flood to Abraham: now as Ralegh says, Lib. 2. cap. 1. §. 7. in Abraham's time Aegypt had many magnificent Cities, and so had Palestine, and all the bordering Countries; yea all that part of the World besides as far as India; and those not built with Sticks, but with hewn Stones, and defended with Walls and Rampires; and how all these Cities should be built with hewn Stones without Iron, is not so easily imaginable: And to say that the In­vention of it was after the Flood, and all these things done with it in so short a time, will not pass easily with me, whatever it may with others.

And that Gold and Silver were plenty in the time of Abraham, it's evident, Gen. 13. where Abraham is said to have been very rich in Gold and Silver; and again, Ch. 20. Abimelech says to Sarah, Behold, I have given thy brother a thousand pieces of silver: and Ch. 33. Abraham says to E­phron, I will give thee money for thy Field: Ephron an­swers, The field is worth four hundred sheckles of silver: which when Abraham had heard, he weighed to him the Sum he had nam'd, in current Money. Again, it's recorded in Hi­story, that the first Man that stamp't Money in Italy, was Janus; whom Berosus will have to be the Patriarch Noah: which Opinion also the Author abets, both in his Theory, and in his Answer to Mr. Warren. I could add many other Instances relating hereunto, but I think these sufficient.

Now, it's true the Author, in his Answer to Mr. Warren, Chap. 10, as to the Passage of Tubalcain, replies, That he [Page 62] does not believe Iron or Brass to be once mention'd in all his Theory: Neither do I observe that they are there par­ticularly nam'd; but, I believe, if any Man please to read that Paragraph of the Authors, before set down, and du­ly weighs it, he will soon find (the whole Context of it consider'd) what it naturally imports; and that there is a difference betwixt an Evasion, and a satisfactory An­swer. However I think it reason, that every Man should be allow'd to be his own Expositor. And if the Au­thor does take upon him to maintain, that Brass and Iron were before the Flood, but no other Metals; I conceive what I have urg'd for the others Coexistence with them, carries some weight; and if this will not be allow'd: I would ask what should hinder the Generation of the other Metals, if those were then generated: For the main Dif­ficulty still returns, No Mountains, no Mines; and I would gladly see an Instance or two, in natural History (if there are any) where Metals are generated without Moun­tains; and have some colourable Reasons assign'd, why, if any of the Metals were generated before the Flood, others should not; since it's generally observ'd, that in the same Tracts of Lands, where one sort of Metal is ge­nerated, several others accompany it. The Author in the later part of the said Paragraph, intimates himself of Cartes's Opinion, viz. That the Stamina, or Principles of Metals rose from the lower Regions, that lye under the Abysse; and thinks it probable, that they could not be drawn through such a Masse of Waters: Now, tho this be a good Argument against him, Ad hominem, to shew that he excludes all Metals before the Flood; yet I shall not insist upon it; because I could never acquiesce in Cartes's Hypothesis; and were he still living, I should be free to shew him the ground of my dislike. Cartes con­sequentially to his Hypothesis, supposes Metals to be al­together generated at the feet of Mountains; whereas, by Experience, we find them as often, if not oftner, in Plains and Valleys on the tops of Mountains; and those of a very considerable height, as in the sides and at the [Page 63] feet of them. But this is no place to refute Cartes's Hy­pothesis. To conclude, whoever goes about to exclude Metals from the Antediluvian Earth, I believe that the Passage of Tubatcain will never admit of a fair Solution; for if any Passages, in the Scriptures, are so self-evident, that they will not bear various Interpretations, I look up­on that to be one; and it not seeming to contain Mystery, which may require to be allegorically resolv'd: And again, as for the Nature of the thing, I believe no Man will be able thence to draw any Argument to convince us of their Non-existence before the Flood: Nor have we reason to admit of any precarious Hypothesis tending thereunto.

Moreover, when the Author excludes Minerals from his Antediluvian Earth, we should know how far the Word extends; for among other Minerals, Salt is one; and indeed the Sea and Mountains being excluded, which are the two Magazines for Salt, I know not how the World could have been well supply'd: It's true, Men being generally suppos'd then to have eaten no Flesh, it would be the less wanted: But whatever they eat, Salt is still a good Seasoner; besides the Uses it has in the World for maintaining Vegetation, and other ways, es­pecially in Marine Plants; which cannot be supported by the ordinary Saltness, drawn from the Earth.

Whereas the Author says that Metals and Metalick Minerals are factitious, not original Bodies, coaeval with the Earth, &c. I cannot allow this to be so, at least as to their Non-existence before the Flood; for if he sup­poses those Rocks, which are found on Mountains, with Metalline Ores betwixt them, to have been primaeval, and to have fallen at the Deluge, those Ores must have been so too; for it's evident to him that views Rocks con­taining Ores betwixt them, that the Rocks and Ores were form'd together, as I may demonstrate in some other Work. And the Author allows the Rocks in Mountains to have been Antediluvian, and to have fallen at the Flood; being free to own, that the great naked Rocks he saw in [Page 64] the Alpes, were some of the chief Motives, which prom­pted him to this Hypothesis.

CHAP. XII.

IN this Chapter the Author gives a review of what has been already treated; he sets forth the several Faces and Schemes, under which the Earth would appear to a Stranger that should view it; first at a distance, and then more closely: he examines and endeavours to refute all Methods offer'd by others for the Explanation of the Earth's Form: and lastly adds a Conjecture concerning the other Planets, their natural Form and State compa­red with ours.

There being little new in this Chapter, I have the less to consider in it; neither will it concern me here to mind whether others have duly explain'd the Form of the Earth, or not. I shall therefore only take notice of one Passage here, because it relates to what I have elsewhere urg'd, where the Author argues against some Divines; who say that God Almighty made the Mountains and Sea-Channel immediately when he made the World; which Point he states as follows.

Let us consider the Earth in that transient in complete Form, which it had when the Abysse encompass'd the whole Body of it: We both agree that the Earth was once in this state; and they say it came immediately out of this State into its present Form; there being made by a supernatural Power, a great Channel or Ditch in one part of it, which drew off the Waters from the rest, and the Soil which was squeez'd and forc'd out of this Ditch, made the Mountains: Against this he urges as fol­lows.

If the Mountains were taken out of the Channel of the Sea, then they are equal to it, and would fill it up, if they were thrown in again: But these Proportions, [Page 65] upon examination will not agree: for tho the Mountains of the Earth are very great, yet they do not equal by much the great Ocean: the Ocean extends to half the sur­face of the Earth; and if you suppose the greatest depth of the Ocean to answer the height of the greatest Moun­tains, and the middle depth to the middle sort of Moun­tains, the Mountains ought to cover all the dry Land, to make them answer to all the capacity of the Ocean: whereas we suppos'd them upon a reasonable Computation, to cover but the tenth part of the dry Land; and conse­quently, neither they nor the Sea-channel could have been produc'd in this manner, because of their great dispro­portion to one another: And the same thing appears if we compare the Mountains with the Abysse, which cover'd the Earth before this Channel was made; for this Channel being made great enough to contain all the Abysse, the Mountains taken out of it, must also be equal to all the Abysse; but the aggregate of the Mountains will not an­swer this by many degrees; for suppose the Abysse was but half as deep as the Ocean, to make this Calculus An­swer, all the dry Land ought to be cover'd with Moun­tains, and with Mountains as high as the Ocean is deep, or doubly high to the depth of the Abysse, because they are but upon one half of the Globe.

Now, whatever may be said of that Opinion of the Divines; which I do not take upon me here to maintain: the Reasoning which the Author here urges against them is no way conclusive, but contrary to his own Assertions and suppositions; If he will be just to the Divines in al­lowing the whole Acclivity of the Earth, with the Moun­tains to have been then taken out of the Sea Channel, and plac'd where they are. For then, I say, he has suppos'd that the Sea covers half the Globe of the Earth, and al­lows it, as I conceive, two Miles deep in the deepest part (as it is esteem'd in the computation of the most Judi­cious) and that there is a general declivity from all Shoars to the bottom of the Sea, in all its parts, tho that decli­vity be not every where even, but sometimes interrupt­ed, [Page 66] and the depth of the bottom of it be various. So again, He has suppos'd in the second Chapter, that the whole Earth being, as it were a Mountain above the Sea; there is a general Acclivity in it, from the Sea­shores to its Mediterranean Mountains, and that this ge­neral Acclivity makes a Mile in height to the foot of the said Mountains, and that some of those Mountains are raised a Mile or more from the foot of them to their Summit: which makes an height proportional to the Deepest parts of the Sea. Hence, I say, according to the Authors own suppositions; if all the rise of the Earth a­bove the level of the Sea, taking both the general accli­vity of it with the Mountains were par'd off, and turn'd upside down into the Sea-Channel, they must of ne­cessity fill it: the highest Mountains answering to the deepest parts of the Sea, and the general acclivity of the Earth with the other Mountains, to the general declivity, and other deeper parts of it. Or it may be represented briefly thus:

The Author supposes the Sea to cover half the Globe, and that taking one part with another of it, it makes a quarter of a Mile depth throughout: Now I believe the Author and all Men will agree, that if all the Moun­tains, taken with the general acclivity of the Earth, were cast into a level, they would make an Area over the o­ther half part of the Globe, a quarter of a Mile in height above the level of the Sea; and consequently according to his own Hypothesis, it must be able to fill the Channel of the Sea, if empty.

For a Conclusion to this Book the Author considers the other Planets, which he conceives to be of the same Fa­brick, and to have undergone the like fate and forms with our Earth. Particularly as to Venus, he says, 'tis a re­markable passage that St. Austin has preserv'd out of Varro, which is as follows:

That about the time of the great Deluge, there was a wonderful alteration or Catastrophe happen'd to the Planet Venus, and that she chang'd her colour, form, figure and [Page 67] magnitude. This the Author says is a great Presumption, that she suffer'd her Dissolution about the same time that our Earth did.

Now, First, the Author seems not to have quoted Au­stin's Passage right, saying that the Planet Venus chang'd her colour, form, figure and magnitude; De Civ. Dei. l. 21. c. 8. Austin's words being, ut mutaret colorem, magnitudinem, figuram & cursum.

Secondly, This Passage, I conceive has been answer'd aptly enough long since by Ralegh, L. 1. c. 7. § 2. tho no great Philo­sopher; where he says, ‘It is not improbable that the Flood of Ogyges, being so great as Histories have report­ed it, was accompany'd with much alteration of the Air, sensibly discover'd in those parts, and some unu­sual face of the Skies. Varro, in his Book de gente Po­puli Romani (as cited by St. Austin) reports out of Ca­stor, that so great a Miracle happen'd in the Star of Venus, as never was seen before, nor in after times: for the Co­lour, the Greatness, the Figure, and the Course of it, were chang'd: This fell out as Adrastus Cyzicenus, and Dion Neapolites, famous Mathematicians, affirm'd, in the time of Ogyges.’

‘Now, Concerning the Course of that, or any other Planet, I do not remember that I have any where read of so good Astrologers flourishing among the Greeks, or elsewhere in those days, as were likely to make any Cal­culation of the Revolutions of the Planets so exact, that it should need no Reformation. Of the Colour and Mag­nitude I see no reason why the difference found in the Star of Venus, should be held miraculous; considering that lesser Mists and Fogs, than those which cover'd Greece with so long darkness, do familiarly present our Senses with as great alterations in the Sun and Moon. That the Figure should vary, questionless was very strange; yet I cannot hold it any Prodigy; for it stands well with good reason, that the side of Venus which the Sun beholds, being enlightn'd by him, the opposite half should remain shadowed; whereby that Planet would [Page 68] unto our Eyes, descrying only that part whereon the Light falls, appear to be horn'd, as the Moon seems, if distance (as in other things) did not hinder the apprehension of our Senses.’

‘A worthy Astrologer, now living, who by the help of Perspectives has found in the Stars many things un­known to the Ancients, affirms so much to have been dis­cover'd in Venus, by his late observations; Whether some watery disposition of the Air might present as much to them that liv'd with Ogyges, as Galilaeus has seen with his Instrument, I cannot tell: sure I am that the discovery of a Truth formerly unknown, rather convinces men of Ignorance than Nature of Errour.’ So far Ralegh. Neither shall I add more here concerning the other Pla­nets, being willing first to see whether we can establish any thing certain concerning this Planet we inhabit; concerning which we have much more hopes to arrive at some solid Knowledge, than of Bodies so remote from us; and I little pleasing my self in opining concerning things undeterminable by Man.

I shall conclude this Book by considering one thing, which the Author greatly insists on in several parts of it: viz. That the first order of things is regular and simple; and that the deformity of this present Earth, as it appears all broken, and its incommodiousness shew, that the present state of it was not original, nor dispos'd according to the Laws and order of Gravity; and he intimates, that in the primigenious Mass, the Earth must have held the lower place, and the other Elements their proper Seats, according to the said Order, and as he represents in his Hypothesis.

Now, the true Doctrine (as I conceive) of the Site and Figure of the Earth, and other Elements runs thus. Al­tho the Earth be a terminated Body, and seems to have a certain Figure; yet the Elements have no proper and natural Figure, 3. De caelo. as Aristotle has truly said; because if they had a natural Form they would be corrupted if they lost it. But beside this Reason of Aristotle, there is another: viz. That to each similar Body any Figure agrees, it ha­ving [Page 69] none proper to it; nor does this hold only in the four Elements, but in all similar Bodies; and it therefore agrees to the Elements, because they are similar; and the reason why similar Bodies have no proper Figure, is, because a Figure was not necessary to them; a Figure being constituted by Nature for actions; as an Arm has such a Figure, because by the benefit of that Figure the Arm exercises its actions: and by this Figure the Arm is an Arm, and such a Figure being lost, it is no longer an Arm: so in artificial things, an Hatchet is therefore an Hatchet, because it has such a Figure, which being lost, the Hatchet is no longer an Hatchet, but only Iron and Matter; because the action of the Hatchet flows from the Figure, which is to cut. A Figure is therefore ne­cessary in compounded things, but not in similar; be­cause the use of Similars is not any Operation, but only this, that they be the matter of others. Now tho the Elements have not a proper Figure, yet of necessity their place must be circular, and of a spherical Figure, as Ari­stotle says, by reason of the extreme evenness of all their parts; so that an Element, being all ev'n, it has not where­by Angles should be made. And this must be under­stood of pure Elements, or such as continue fluid: but our Earth, of which Mountains are made, is not pure Ele­mentary Earth, or a simple Body, but is a certain Com­pound and aggregate of many Bodies: and when a Man considers the infinite variety of Soils and Fossils, of which it consists, and their differing degrees of Gravity, he cannot imagine that an even Surface could be thence made, ev'n in that respect, without considering any pro­trusive force of an inward Mover. And whatsoever even rotundity the Earth were to have, according to its natural Constitution; since it agrees most to the advantage of things, that certain parts of the Earth should be high rais'd, others lying lower; it was fit they should have such a Site, that so through the differing Complexion of divers parts of the Earth, the diversities of Minerals, Plants and Animals might arise. And since things were first in­stituted [Page 70] by God, not only for having a Being in themselves, but that they might be the Principles of others, therefore they were produc'd in a perfect State, in which they might be the Principles of others: And therefore, as Philo says, L. de mund. Opif. the World was created in its Perfection, and not left crude, and all Plants in their first Rise were laden with their Fruits, otherwise than now; for now all things are generated in their seasons, and not all together. So Macrobius says, Saturn. l. 7. c. 16. If we grant particular things to have had a Beginning, Nature first form'd all Animals perfect, and then gave them a perpetual Law, that they should con­tinue a sucession by Propagation. And so Plutarch says, Its probable that the first Generation was entire, and ac­complisht from the Earth by the vertue and perfection of the Maker, without having need of those Instruments and Vessels, which Nature has since invented and made in Females, which bear and ingender, by reason of its impotence and imbecility.

If we consider Animals, in which Nature is much more polite than in forming this Compost of the Earth; we see how little the common Laws of Gravity and even'ness in Figure are observ'd in them. What Mountain seems so enormous in the body of the Earth, as the Bunch on a Camels back in that Quadrupede, or the Bill of a Bill bird, in that Bird, or the head of a Rana piscatrioc in that Fish? If it be said that these are organical Bodies, and that those parts are form'd so for certain uses: I think it as easie to shew Analagous uses in the various Site and parts of the Earth. And so, as to Gravity in Animals, why is the upper Jaw plac'd above the lower? Or, why in Man are the Heart, Liver and Spleen plac'd above the Pan­creas, Reins and Bladder? Is it that they are lighter? And why is the Soul it self in the Body? The Globe of the Earth therefore, as well as the particular Bodies in it, have been set in order by an Understanding Principle, and have every where a rational distribution of parts for their proper Uses: for otherwise, as Plutarch says, If each thing were left to itself, all would return into a Chaodical Confusion.

[Page 71]And I think Gassendus, as he reflects on D. Flud, Flud. Phi­los. Exa­men. has aptly enough exprest himself to his Friend Mersennus, in reference to those, who take upon them to correct the Order observ'd in Nature, saying; Why, think you, are there Men that fancy Plants in Mountains, and the Stars in Heav'n might have been set in a far better order than they are, but because they judge no order apt, but that which the mind of Man so discerns? These are Men, who, if humane sagacity has excogitated certain artificial Contextures, which seem pleasing, presently, by a narrowness of mind, strive to transfer them to the na­ture of things, and think Natures works must then aptly consist, when they are according to an Imitation of Art; as tho besides the mind of Man, there were not another mind, to whom other harmoniacal Laws may be more pleasing. And beneath he adds, If Hypotheses are propos'd as learned Inventions, which may exercise the Wit of Man by their subtlety, and by a certain shadowy Analogy to things themselves seem not ungrateful, I freely allow them as so: but for Men to urge them, as tho the nature of things must consist as they have fancy'd, I see no rea­son we have so to receive them.

CHAP. I. and II.

THE first Chapter is an Introduction, setting forth the Contents of the second Book. The general state of the Primaeval Earth, and of Pa­radise. And its thus: In the first Book, he says, He shew'd the Primaeval Earth to have been without a Sea, Mountains, Rocks, or broken Caves; and that it was one continued and regular Masse, smooth, simple, and complete, as the first works of Nature use to be; but here he must shew the other Properties of it; how the Heavens were, how the Elements, what accommoda­tion for humane Life, why more proper to be the Seat of Paradise than the present Earth.

Concerning Paradise, he notes first two Opinions to be avoided, as two extreams: One placing Paradise in the [Page 74] Extra-mundane Regions, as in the Air, or in the Moon; the other confining it to a little spot of ground in Meso­potamia, or some other Country of Asia, the Earth being now as it was then. For, he says, It is not any single Region of the Earth, that can be Paradisiacal, unless all Nature conspire, and a certain order of things proper and peculiar to that State; so that both must be found out, viz. the peculiar order of things, and the particular Seat of Paradise.

As to the peculiar Order of things; he says, It's cer­tain there were some Qualities and Conditions of Para­dise, that were not meerly Topical, but common to all the rest of the Earth at that time; and that the things that have been taken notice of as extraordinary and peculiar to the first Ages of the World, and to Paradise; and which neither do, nor can obtain on the present Earth, were first a perpetual Spring and Equinox. Secondly, The Longaevity of Animals. Thirdly, Their Produ­ction out of the Earth, and the great Fertility of the Soil in all other things. The Ancients, he says, have taken notice of all these in the first Ages of the World; or in their golden Age; and what they have ascrib'd to to this Age, was more remarkably true of Paradise: tho not so peculiar to it, but that it did, in a good measure, extend to other parts of the Earth at that time. And he says, 'Tis manifest, their Golden Age was contem­porary with our Paradise, they making it to begin imme­diately after the Production and Inhabitation of the Earth (which they, as well as Moses, raise from the Chaos) and to degenerate by degrees till the Deluge. And as the Author avers the whole Earth to have been in some sense Paradisiacal in the first Ages of the World, and that there was besides some portion of it that was pecu­liarly so, and bore the denomination of Paradise; so the Ancients besides their golden Age, which was com­mon to all the Earth, noted some parts of it, which did more particularly answer to Paradise; as the Elysian Fields, Fortunate Islands, Gardens of Hesperides, Alci­nous, &c,

[Page 75]The first Character then of Antiquity, concerning the first and Paradisiacal state of things, was a perpetual Spring, and constant serenity of the Air: for this he quotes Virgil, Ovid, and other Poets of the Gentils, and Chri­stian Authors for the same: and adds, that Jewish Au­thors have spoken of Paradise in the same manner; say­ing, that the days there were always of the same length thorowout the whole Year, which made them fancy Para­dise to lie under the Equinoxial.

The second Character was the Longaevity of Men (and he thinks it probable of all other Animals in proportion) and this he says is well attested, and beyond all Excep­tion; having the joynt Consent of sacred and prophane History.

The third Character was the Fertility of the Soil, and the Production of Animals out of the new made Earth: Hence also he says, all Antiquity speaks of the Plenty of the golden Age, and of their Paradises, whether Chri­stian or Heathen; and so of the spontaneous Origine of living Creatures out of the first Earth.

Now, as to the time of Duration: He says, It is to be noted, that these three Phoenomena of the first World did not last alike. The Longaevrity of Men and the Temper of the Heav'ns lasted to the Deluge: but that Fertility of the Soil, and the simple and inoffensive way of living fail'd by degrees from the first Ages.

In the second Chapter, the Author, upon a more di­stinct Consideration of the three Characters before men­tion'd, represents the great Change (as he supposes) of the World since the Flood; intimating it as well in the Civil World, as the natural; and endeavours to shew that the Earth, under its present form, could not be Para­disiacal, nor any part of it.

I thought it necessary to state the Contents of these two Chapters here; that the Reader might clearly pos­sess himself of the Authors Doctrine introductory to this Book; tho I shall offer nothing against them at present, but refer what I have to say thereon to my considera­tions [Page 76] on the next, and some following Chapters, where the Contents of these two will come more properly un­der Examination.

CHAP. III.

HERE the Author sets forth th' Original differences of the first Earth from the present, or Post-dilu­vian. He proposes to find the Characters of Paradise, and the Golden Age in the Primitive Earth, and gives a particular Explication of each Character.

The Differences of the Primaeval Earth from the Pre­sent, He says, were chiefly three, viz. The Regularity of its Surface, it being smooth and even: the Situation or Po­sture of its Body to the Sun, which he affirms to have been direct, and not as it is at present, inclin'd, and oblique; and the Figure of it, which was more apparently and regularly oval than it is now. From these Differences, he says, flow'd a great many more inferiour and subordinate, and which had a considerable influence on the moral World at that time, as well as the Natural; but he takes upon him to observe only here their more immediate effects; and that in reference to those three general Characters, or Properties of the Golden Age, and of Paradise, before exprest.

The most fundamental of the three Differences men­tion'd, he says, was that of the Right Situation and Po­sture of the Earth to the Sun; for from this immediately followed a perpetual Equinox, all the Earth over, or, if you will, a perpetual Spring; and that was the great thing that made it Paradisiacal, or capable of being so: the other two Properties, of Longaevity, and of sponta­neous and vital Fertility, being thence also easily ex­plain'd.

Now the Right Situation of the first Earth to the Sun, he says, needs no proof besides its own evidence; it be­ing [Page 77] th' immediate result, and common effect of Gravity or Libration, that a Body freely left to itself in a fluid medium, should settle in such a posture as best answers to its Gravitation; and this Earth whereof we speak, being uniform, and every way equally ballanc'd, there was no reason why it should incline at one end more than at the other toward the Sun. Wherefore, he says, the Earth at the Deluge was so broken and disorder'd, that it lost its equal Poise, and thereupon the Center of its Gravity changing, one Pole became more inclin'd toward the Sun, and the other more remov'd from it, and so its right and parallel Situation, which it had before to the Axis of the Ecliptick was chang'd into an Oblique, in which skue posture it has stood ever since, and is likely so to do for some Ages. And from this Change and Obliquity of the Earth's Posture, he intimates the change of the form of the Year to have happened, it bringing in the ine­quality of Seasons.

The Right Situation of the first Earth to the Sun being therefore suppos'd by the Author, making a perpetual Equinox, or Spring to all the World, answering to the first and fundamental Character of the Golden Age and Paradise; which Character, he says, had hitherto been accounted fabulous, as it was given them by the ancient Gentils, and Hyperbolical as by the ancient Christians; He comes to explain the other two Characters, viz. the spon­taneous fertility of the Earth, and its Production of Ani­mals at that time; which he will have to proceed partly from the Richness of the Primigenial Soil, as he has set it forth in his first Book, and partly from this constant Spring, and the benignity of the Heav'ns; and concludes, that what makes Husbandry and humane Arts so neces­sary now for the Fruits and Productions of the Earth, is, partly the decay of the Soil, but chiefly the diversity of the Seasons, whereby they perish if care be not taken of them. And for Animals, he supposes their Eggs, as well as the seeds of Plants (there being a great Analogy be­tween them) to have been in the first Earth, and made [Page 78] fruitful equally with them, by the Heav'ns or AEther, sup­plying the Influence of the Male, and imbibing nourish­able Juices from the well temper'd Earth, for carrying on their growth to Perfection.

The third Character, viz. Longaevity, he says, sprung from the same root with the other, because taking a per­petual Equinox and fixing the Heavens, we fix also the life of Man; the Course of Nature being then more steady and uniform, whence followed a stability in all things here below. The Change and the contrariety of Qualities we have now, being the fountain of Cor­ruption, suffering nothing to be much in quiet, either by Intestine motions and fermentations excited within, or outward Impressions.

This is the substance of what the Author has deliver'd in this third Chapter, against which I shall now proceed in order; considering first the three Differences he as­signs to his Primaeval Earth from the present; and then the three Characters or Properties he ascribes to it, as rising from them.

The first Difference of the Primaeval Earth from the present, assign'd by the Author, is, The Regularity of its Surface, it being all smooth and even, without Moun­tains, a Sea, &c. Now, as for this difference, I have re­futed it in my first Book, there shewing his Hypothesis, as to the rise of Mountains, a Sea, &c. to be erroneous and null; and having propos'd a way more probable, (as I conceive) for their Production from the beginning of the World.

The second difference he has assign'd, is, The Situati­on or Posture of the Earth's Body to the Sun; which, he affirms to have been direct, and not, as it is at pre­sent, inclin'd and oblique; and subjoyns the reason which I have before set down for it, viz. That the first Earth being uniform and every way equally ballanc'd, there was no reason why it should incline at one end, more than at the other toward the Sun, till at the Deluge, be­ing broken, it lost its equal Poise.

[Page 79]To this I answer first, as is intimated just before, I have shewn in my first Book, that the Author has fail'd in making out by his Hypothesis the Antediluvian Earth to have been more uniform, or otherwise equally bal­lanc'd, than it is now; and consequently his Reason here has no place. I have also shewn in the said Book, that common Gravitation rules not all in the distribution of the parts of the World (as he supposes it does) but rather, that there is a rational distribution of them in order to certain Uses: and when a Man considers the present Posture of the Earth to the Sun, where one Body so successively enlight'ns the whole, that in an annual Revolution, one time consider'd with another, it bal­lances light and darkness in every part of it; and where­by the Earth in all its parts is rendred as habitable as it may be, can this be lookt upon as a forc'd, unnatural, Contingent, or unprovidential Situation of it, as the Author intimates it to be, happening only upon a Ruin. And if the World in its present Posture carries the face of Eternity: and there has been no decay in it from the beginning, nor will ever be, according to the ordinary course of Nature, as I think Dr. Hakewill has learnedly made out, it looks odd to me that this Posture should be call'd Forc't and Ʋnnatural; since nothing is more con­trary to Reason, than that Bodies should be held in an Eternal violent State; nothing being more certain with Philosophers than that nothing violent can be Eter­nal. And indeed Dr. Hakewill's Apology of the Power and Providence of God in the Government of the World, is one continued Argument against th' Author's Hypothesis; which had he perus'd with attention, I believe it might have caus'd him to have sav'd his pains in compo­sing it.

Again, The Author seems to have greatly fail'd here, in not considering the Vastness of the Earth's Globe, and that no conceivable, or possible Change, happening upon any Dissolution of such a pitiful Epidermical cover­ing of it, as he intimates his Orb of Earth to have been, [Page 80] could have made it change from a direct to an oblique or inclin'd Posture, through a fancy'd loss of its equal Poise; and this, whether the frame of the Earth be sup­pos'd (as vulgarly) to consist by an Equilibration of parts to the Center of Gravity; or (according to the soundest Philosophy) by a Magnetick Vigour strongly binding its parts together. For suppose his Orb of Earth, a Mile or two thick, C. 6. as he says it was in his Book of the Confla­gration; this can be no more to the whole Globe of the Earth, than the thickness of a sheet or two of Paper is to a Globe of three foot Dameter, as I have set forth in my first Book: Now suppose a Globe of three foot Dia­meter, suspended as the Earth is by Libration, or Mag­netism; what conceivable alteration, in as much on the surface of it as comes to about the thickness of a sheet or two of Paper, could cause any Change in its Libra­tion? Or what alteration in such a proportion of a Magnetick Terrella three foot Diameter, could make it decline from its wonted Points of bearing? When the Author pleases to explain these things to me, I may think more of it; mean while, I must conclude the bare Pro­proposal of this matter to be a plain Refutation of his Hypothesis. Nay, Let him suppose his Orb of Earth, ten Miles thick if he pleases, or more, I desire him to shew us some possible way, how upon its disruption, such a proportion of either Hemisphere should be brought on the other, as to be able to make it change the Positi­on it had before. Besides, if any such disruption of an Orb of Earth, as the Author supposes, caus'd the Earth to change its Posture; it must have inclin'd to the North, and not to the South, as he says it did; because from what appears to us on the Globe of the Earth, it's mani­fest that we have much more Earth in the Northern He­misphere, than there is in South; and consequently its inclination must have been this way.

But because the Author lays a great force on this Site of the first Earth to the Sun, insisting on it, as the most fundamental of the three Differences in the first Earth [Page 81] from the present, and establishing it as the Ground for making out the three great Characters, Properties, or Phaenomena of the Golden Age of the Ancients, and of Pa­radise; I shall be a little mone full in this Point, and set down a few Reasons against this Doctrine, leaving it to Philosophical Heads to consider how far it can bear. Nei­ther has it been unconsider'd by many learned Men al­ready, what the Consequences must be, if the Sun should constantly hold this Equinox Root, or the Earth had al­ways a right Posture to the Sun; which makes me some­what the more admire how this Doctrine should now be offer'd at.

We read of a King of Arragon, who was wont to say, that if he had been with th' Almighty when he made the World: he would have given him Councels, as to Heats, Colds, and other Particulars, as to the frame of it, that it should have been in a better state than it now is: and this may pass among the extravagant Fancies of an inconsiderate Man. But when we come Philosophically to assert a thing, it would require a more than ordinary Consideration, before we go about to unhinge a Frame of Providence, as thinking to put it in a better state, than an Infinite Wisdom has done. And so distinct is the Relation, and so artificial the Habitude of this inferi­our Globe to the Superiour, and ev'n of one thing in each unto the other, that the more we consider them, the more we may admire them, and I think, the more de­spair of ever contriving them in a better, or more advan­tageous Site than they are in. And tho all the advan­tages of the Suns present Course, or of the Earths Situa­tion to it, may not be known by Man; yet I believe whoever shall go about to alter it, let him frame his Hy­pothesis as finely as he please, he shall never be able to in­volve humane Reason so far, but it may ever be made appear to him from what is known, that he has been guilty of no less a mistake than that of Phaëton, in not car­rying an ev'n hand as to Heats, Colds, Light and Dark­ness, &c. and that it cannot consist with the general be­nefit [Page 82] of the Earth. And hence Theodoret, in his first Ser­mon concerning Providence, sharply taxes those who would be finding fault with the Seasons: Sed exurget for­tasse ingratus quispiam, qui ea quoque quae bene & pulchre facta sunt, simul (que) sapienter & commodè administrantur, repre­hendere vel culpare volens, dicat: Cur sodes istae anni con­versiones fiunt? & quaenam ex hisce anni partium succes­sionibus ad nos utilitas redit? &c. And tho according to the scantling of our Reason, we might fansie some posture of the Heav'ns more commodious to the Earth than the present, yet thence presently to conclude that such a thing must really have been; we having no solid historical Ground for it; I cannot see but it renders us liable to that reprehension of Austin; Tam stulti sunt homines ut apud artificem hominem non audeant vituperare quae ignorant, sed cum ea viderint credunt esse necessaria, ut propter usus aliquos instituta; in hoc autem mundo, cu­jus conditor & administrator praedicatur Deus, audent multa reprehendere, quorum causas non vident, & in ope­ribus atque instrumentis omnipotentis artificis volunt se vi­deri scire quod nesciunt, l. 1. de Gen. contra Manich. c. 16. But to proceed in Reasoning.

First then, The Author making the Sun in the Ante­diluvian times to hold constantly the Equinox Root, or giving the Earth a right Posture to it, burns the middle Zone, making it wholly uninhabitable, and unpassible (as he owns himself) so that in the Antediluvian Earth there was no possible Communication, betwixt the Men, or o­ther Animals inhabiting the two Temperate Zones; which is followed with these Absurdities (especally with the Author, who seems very thrifty of Miracles) that, first, when God turn'd Adam out of Paradise (which he sup­poses to have been in the South Temperate Zone, and the Torrid Zone to be the Flaming Sword) he must have wrought a Miracle to have thence convey'd him and Eve into this Temperate Zone. Secondly, after Adam had got Children here, the Author owning the other Tem­perate Zone to have been inhabited before the Flood, [Page 85] God must have wrought another Miracle, to have con­vey'd some of Adam's Children thither to people it. Thirdly, at the time of the Deluge, he must have wrought a third Miracle, to have brought of every Species of Animals in the other Temperate Zone, into this, to have been receiv'd into the Ark; unless the Author will say, that the Earth here produc'd all the same Species of Ani­mals, that were in the other Zone; which a Philosopher, considering that diffus'd Variety Nature delights in, may be content to smile at, but will never allow; or unless he can make out some other way the Conservation of those Species besides the Ark, which will be consider'd by us in the sequel.

Secondly, By this Doctrine the Author drowns the two Polar Zones, supposing it to have then rain'd continually there; and that all the Rivers that supply'd the Earth, thence arose; no Rains falling in the Torrid, or either of the Temperate Zones. But in reference to the State of the two Polar Zones, L. 6. c. 5. in case the Sun always kept the Aequinox Root, we must consider what the Learned Dr. Browne says in his Vulgar Errors, where he has a Digression con­cerning the Wisdom of God in the Site and Motion of the Sun: It is as follows; If the Sun mov'd in the Aequator, unto a parallel Sphere, or to such as have the Pole for their Zenith, it would have made neither perfect Day, nor perfect Night: For being in the Aequator, it would intersect their Horizon, and be half above, and half be­neath: Or rather, it would have made perpetual Night to both; for tho in regard of the rational Horizon, which bissects the Globe into equal parts, the Sun in the Aequator would intersect the Horizon, yet in respect of the sensible Horizon (which is defin'd by the Eye) the Sun would be visible unto neither: For if, as ocular Witnesses report, and some also do write, by reason of the Convexity of the Earth, the Eye of Man, under the Aequator, cannot discover both the Poles, neither would the Eye, under the Poles, discover the Sun in the Aequa­tor. Hence we find, that contrary to what the Author [Page 84] has urg'd in his Answer to Mr. Warren, C. 5. If the Sun mov'd in the Aequator, there would be a total absence, or in a manner as good, of the Sun in the Polar Parts; whence vehement and continual Frosts must be there caus'd, which would render them impossible Sources for his sup­pos'd Rivers.

Thirdly, we may consider whether the Sun, keeping always in the Aequator, so as to make a continual Spring, without a variety of Seasons, would make better, for the Rise, Support, and Propagation of the Earth's Produ­ctions, even in the Temperate Zones, than by its present Course. L. de E­lem. Phi­los. Bede, considering it, says, that if the Sun kept it self always at an equal distance from us in the Aequa­tor, this great Evil would thence ensue, that the Earth would never conceive within, which it does in the Winter, nor would Fruits, if any then grew, come to a matu­rity, without which Animals cannot live. And indeed, how the Sun, always keeping in the Aequator, and ma­king still equal Days and Nights in all parts of the Tem­perate Zones, should carry on Vegetation in the remote parts of them, is not to me intelligible: For now, when the Sun is in the Aequinox, we find its Heats but faint to us, and were it not that we are holpen out, by its approach to us toward the Tropick, and thereby ren­dring our Days much longer than the Nights, we have reason to doubt how our Fruits would be brought to a maturity; much more those who live in the more nor­therly parts, where the Vegetation wholly depends, on their continued Days, in the Summer, with little or no intermission of Night. And hence the Diversity of Sea­sons has been always lookt upon as necessary, of which Cicero says, De Rep. l. 4. ‘In Autumn the Earth is opened to conceive Fruits; in the Winter it's comprest to digest them; in the Spring it's open'd to bring them forth; in the Sum­mer, being brought to a maturity, they are either mellow'd or dry'd.’ In the Summer the Bodies and Branches of Vegetables are increast; in Winter the Roots are strengthned, and what is rais'd in the Summer is con­solidated. [Page 85] We see generally in Plants and Animals how Nature pleases it self in moving by interchangeable starts, they require a time of rest as well as a time of labour: One while, upon the Sun's access, they bring forth their Fruits, another while, upon its retreat they resume their Strengths: Some Fruit-trees, indeed, in some Parts, bear all the Year, but to conclude thence that all may do so every where, is more than their Natures will bear; a Vicissitude of Seasons being necessary for them: which Vicissitude seems to me plainly intimated in the Scri­ptures to have been from the beginning: For when at the Cessation of the Deluge God says to Noah, Gen. 8.22. That he will no more curse the earth for the sake of man, and that thence forward all the days of the earth, seed-time and har­vest, heat and cold, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease. This plainly denotes that such things had past before, which having been interrupted during the De­luge, should now return in their common course; for otherwise those words Summer and Winter, Seed time and Harvest, had not been intelligible to Noah, as never ha­ving seen or heard of such Seasons before. And Pererius, on the foresaid Passage, says, it plainly appears to be fa­bulous, and full of Vanity and Ignorance, what Ovid had said, Met. 1. That this Inequality of Seasons was not in the Golden-Age of Saturn, but that then there was a constant Spring, and that afterward the Age degenera­ting, this alternate Succession by Changes was brought on the World.

So again, when it's said, Gen. 1. Let lights be made in the firmament of heaven, and let them divide day and night, and let them be for signs and seasons, and days and years: All expound those Seasons for the four Seasons of the Year. And here I may add, that by this alter­ing the Sun's Course, and making but one Season, it subverts all antient Astronomy, which, if any Learning, is concluded to have been derived to us from times be­fore the Deluge.

[Page 86]And this Argument alone is convincing with me, I cannot say it will with all Men, that since all agree, Clavem Magiae naturalis esse clavem Astrologicam, and since the former Science has certainly been convey'd down to us from Antediluvian Times, the Clavis to it must of course; now that Clavis is known to be according to the present Disposition of the Heavens to the Earth; whence I absolutely conclude that the same has ever been. And we know, that among the Priestly Orna­ments of Aaron, which carried the Types of the whole Universe, the Brest-plate was one of the chief, in which the twelve pretious Stones, among other Significations, typifi'd the twelve Signs of the Zodiack, and their be­ing rang'd in four Ternaries, denoted the four Seasons of the Year; which I believe had never been, unless those Seasons had been according to the most perfect state of the World. And that the Antediluvian Patri­archs, as well as the Postdiluvian, were in their respe­ctive times, the most absolute Masters of the foresaid Science, of any Men on the Earth, and that from them, it has been convey'd down in its Pureness to us, is what I know not how to disbelieve.

Fourthly, The Diversity of Nature's Productions be­ing consider'd, the Diversity of Seasons will be found absolutely necessary for them. For tho the Sun, keep­ing always in the Aequator, there would be a Diversity of Climates, according to the different Latitudes from it: Yet no Man can think that this alone would so much diversifie Effects, as withal the Sun's Access and Recess, according to the Latitude of the Zodiack, in the Eclip­tick; the Sun being the chief universal Cause in Nature's Productions; and tho general Causes do not specifie alone, yet particular, or proxim Causes cannot exert their Power, L. 2. de Gen. & Cor. Text. 56. without these gradual Approachments and Retirements of the Sun. Aristotle is plain in this Matter, viz. That the Sun, by its oblique Motion, and not by its direct, diversifies Effects: Because the Sun being in an unequal distance, its Motion must be unequal, when the [Page] variety of Effects is caus'd. Or we may say thus, if the Sun causes things by its Heat and Motion, and gives a differing Impulse by its Motion, according to the Re­ctitude of its Rayes, it cannot but diversifie upon such gradual Accesses and Recesses.

To conclude, the four Seasons of the Year seem so natural, as nothing more, if we consider their Analogy with the four Elements, the four Humors in Man's Bo­dy, the four Quarters of the World, the Ages, the parts of the Days and Nights, &c. And every Season is tem­pered or season'd by another, and all Fruits receive their Temperament in the Seasons from Heat, Cold, Rain, &c. so that they are call'd Seasons from their Seasoning, and have a mutual Connexion and Dependence on each other for the general benefit of the Earth: and as the Learned Dr. More says, consulting with our own Faculties, Antid. against Atheism, l. 2. c. 2. we observe that an orderly Vicissitude of things is most plea­sant to us, and much more gratifies the contemplative Property in Man; so that on all accounts I must con­clude the four Seasons to have been from all Ages. And hence the Learned Vives says, De Verit. Fid. l. 1. c. 9. Non semper est idem habi­tus Coeli & Soli, quum nihil ordinatius cogitari possit, aut descriptius, mutantur enim rerum perpetuarum & immuta­bilium actiones, prout expedit iis ad quae referuntur. And I believe that all Men considering the State of Nature as it is, will say with Maximus Tyrius, Natura est perfectis­sima harmonia.

Now, if the Reasons which I have given against the suppos'd Site of the Sun, or Earth to it, before the Flood, have any Weight; as some of them seem to me to carry a demonstrative Force, in shewing the Nullity of the Au­thor's Hypothesis in this Point; then the three general Characters or Properties, which he ascribes to the Gol­den Age and to Paradise, viz. The perpetual Spring, (against which I have also particularly urg'd some Rea­sons) the spontaneous Fertility of the Earth, and the Lon­gaevity of Animals and Vegetables; all being chiefly grounded by him on the suppos'd Site of the Sun, or [Page 88] Earth to it, must fall of course, unless other Reasons are assign'd for them, than this he has urg'd.

There still remains the third Difference, which he assigns to the Primaeval Earth from the present, viz. That the Figure of it was more apparently and regularly oval, than it is now; which Difference I shall refute in my Considerations on the Fifth Chapter of this Book, where he treats particularly of this oval Figure of the Earth.

Now, as to the Longaevity before mention'd, besides what the Author has said of it in this Chapter, he has added another Chapter particularly concerning it, the Contents of which I shall first set down, and then offer what I have to say upon it.

CHAP. IV.

HEre the Author, by way of Digression, treats con­cerning the natural Causes of Longaevity: He sets forth that the Machine of an Animal consists of Springs, and which are the two principal; and endeavours to make out, that the Age of the Antediluvians is to be compu­ted by Solar, not Lunar Years.

He says therefore that in our Bodies, we may consi­der three several Qualities or Dispositions, according to each whereof they suffer Decay. First their Continuity: Secondly, that Disposition whereby they are capable of receiving Nourishment, which we call Nutribility: and Thirdly the Tone or tonical Disposition of the Organs, whereby they perform their several Functions. In all these respects they would decay in any state of Nature, but far sooner and faster in the present state, than in the primaeval.

As for their Continuity, he says all consistent Bodies must be less durable now, than under the first order of the World, because of the unequal and contrary Motions of the Elements, or of the Air, and AEther that pene­trate, [Page 89] and pervade them. But it is not the gross and visible Continuity of the parts of our Body that first de­cays, there are finer Textures that are spoyl'd insensibly, and draw on the Decay of the rest, such as are; Se­condly that Disposition and Temper of the Parts, where­by they are fit to receive their full Nourishment; and especially that Construction, and Texture of the Organs, that are preparatory to this Nutrition. These being al­so wrought upon by external Nature, whose Course, while it was even and steady, and the ambient Air mild and balmy preserved the Body much longer in a fresh and fit temper to receive its full Nourishment, and conse­quently gave longer bounds both to our Growth and Life.

But the third thing, he says is the most considerable; the Decay of the organick Parts, and especially of the Organs preparatory to Nutrition.

To explain this Point, he says, that all the Organs of the Body are in the nature of Springs, and that their A­ction is tonical, for that no Matter that is not fluid, has any Motion or Action in it, but in vertue of some Tone: If Matter be fluid, its Parts are actually in motion, and consequently may impel, or give Motion to other Bodies: But if it be solid, or consistent, the Parts are not separa­ted, or separately mov'd from one another; and therefore cannot impel, or give Motion to any other, but in virtue of this Tone, they having no other Motion of themselves.

This being observ'd, he considers upon which of the Organs of the Body Life depends more immediately, and the Prolongation of it: He says then, that in the Body of Man there being several Setts of Parts, the Animal and Genital System have no Influence upon long Life, being Parts nourished, not nourishing: Wherefore laying these aside, there remain two Compages more, the Natural and Vital, which consist of the Heart and Sto­mach, with their Appendances. These are the Sources of Life, and all that is necessary to the Constitution of a living Creature. Wherefore we consider only these first Principles and Fountains of Life, and the Causes of their natural and necessary Decay.

[Page 90]Now, he says, Whatsoever Weakens the Tone or Spring of these two Organs, shortens the natural du­ration of Life; and therefore in the primitive Earth, the Course of Nature being even, steady, and un­changeable, without different Seasons, it must have permitted Bodies to have continued longer in their Strength and Vigour, than they can possibly do, un­der these Changes of the Air.

For a Conclusion to this Chapter, he argues against those who say, the Age of the Antediluvian Patriarchs is to be computed by Lunar Years, or Months, and not by Solar or common Years, and he refutes that Opinion.

Now, it appears from what I have urg'd against the last Chapter, That the Sun could not be suppos'd with any ground, to have still mov'd in the Aequinox in the Antediluvian World: So that tho the Reasons the Author here gives for Longaevity, may be plausible enough, if apply'd and consider'd according to the order of things we now find establisht in the World, and which we have reason to conclude, must have been so from the beginning; we must not go about to alter the Frame of the World to gratifie them. Yet since he urges that the Antediluvian long Life ought to be ascrib'd to the Aequinox Course of the Sun, making always one Season; we shall consider, first, whether one even and continu'd Season, such as that Course must cause, would make most for the Prolongation of Life, or such a Change of Seasons as we have now; and Secondly, what other plau­sible Reasons may be assign'd for the Antediluvian Lon­gaevity, besides this Course of the Sun, which the Au­thor urges for.

The Learned Weindrichius, in his Problems, treats this for one; Whether it were not better that Nature had insti­tuted only one Constitution of the Year, as that of the Spring, or to Change it into four different Seasons, and why neces­sarily there have been four. And concludes, it was far better that Nature has constituted these notable Changes [Page 91] of the Air, than otherwise it would be. The effect of his Reasoning runs thus: If any Man shall say, that an even Season, which holds a mean, is more proper for those Bodies which are duly tempered, as being apt to pre­serve them in that Temper, which a Change by exceed­ing Qualities would be apt to corrupt: we also confess that those Corpora Quadrata, such as describ'd by Galen, require such a Conservation; but because it's extreamly rare that such compleatly sound Bodies are to be found, L. 2. de Sanit-Tuend. as Galen says; therefore Bodies could not be preserv'd in that temper, which they had not. For almost all Bodies exceed in some Quality, which must also have held in the Antediluvians, tho we may allow them to have been ge­nerally of a sounder Constitution than Bodies are at pre­sent) and if at any time there be a Body of an exact temper, it's so, only for an instant: and therefore since Bodies could not be conserv'd by one Season always alike, Nature foresaw, that if there were one Season, in which Cold and Moisture reign'd, as the Winter, then old People, and all those who were of a cold and moist Tem­perament would die, because the Distemper would be more encreast: wherefore it made a notable Change, in which an exceeding Heat should sway, which Season is call'd Summer: during which that notable Moisture remits, and is diminisht, and by this means such as are moist become Temperate, th'Errour committed in the Winter and Spring, by reason of their Humidity being thereby corrected. Again, Young People, and those that have hot and dry Bodies must necessarily die if it were alway Summer, because they would be wholly dryed by its Heat; therefore Nature to prevent this made a Winter, cold and moist, to correct the Errour committed in the Summer. And in fine, since all Bodies have some excess of Quality, there ought to be different Seasons, that some may live more commodiously in this Season, others in another. For by this means, all Bodies suc­ceed in Life, and so th' Order of th' Universe is con­serv'd.

[Page 92] In 13. Aph. 1. Weindrichius adds. But what shall we say to the Autho­rity of Hippocrates, saying, The Changes of Seasons bring forth Diseases. For instance an hot Season, as the Spring, stirs up store of matter which is gathered together in Bodies in the Winter, by its cold Constitution, which being stirr'd and mov'd it brings forth Diseases, whence many Diseases in the Spring are engendred. But Hippo­crates says, this is not done through the fault of the Spring it self, that it generates Diseases; of it self, it be­ing the healthiest part of the Year; but by reason of a multitude of ill Humours gather'd together in the Win­ter: whence we see that those who are free from ill Hu­mours, live very healthy in the Spring. This Season therefore is said to generate Diseases, because the Hu­mours lurking in the Body before, and which were not mov'd, are stirr'd now, and being thus agitated, stir up Diseases: for Hippocrates says, they bring forth, because they do not make, but stir up the Humours which after­wards are the Cause of Diseases: nay, the Changes of Seasons are so far from ingendring Diseases, that they solve them, In 8. Apr. p. 3. as Galen also says, and this we see very often done: for if a Quartan, rising in Autumn, be not solv'd in the Winter, L. de di­eb. decret. it's solv'd as the Spring comes on, as Galen likewise says, and if it be not solv'd in the Spring, it's afterwards solv'd in the approaching Summer.

Wherefore it's better that Nature has distinguisht the Year by these four Changes: because tho perhaps one Individuum might enjoy its Health more in one Sea­son than in another, because it would more agree with it: yet since Nature has not made Seasons in respect of this or that Individuum, but of all together, or of a whole Species and Species's: therefore that the Order of the U­niverse might be preserv'd by a certain heavenly and di­vine distributive Justice, whereby it has form'd diffe­rent Bodies as to their Temperatures, it would also di­stinguish the Seasons of the Year, and make them diffe­rent, and not of one kind, that these should live well in the Summer, those in the Winter; and that the Diseases [Page 93] engendred in preceding Seasons should be solv'd in the following. And we conclude that those Seasons then especially agree with living Creatures, when they keep in their proper Nature, as the Summer hot, the Winter cold, &c. So far Weindrichius, concerning this Point.

As for Causes assign'd by Authors, or that may be as­sign'd for the Antediluvian Longaevity, beside that of the Suns still moving in the Equinox, urg'd by the Author, I di­vide them into three kinds: they are either Divine, Coele­stial, or Sublunary. By Divine, I mean such as are from a par­ticular Providence, as Austin, Rabbi, Leui and others say, those Antediluvian Fathers had long Life granted them by a particular Providence, that the first World, by a few, might be peopled in a short time, it being not to last long; and that they might more conveniently learn things by a long experience. So Josephus tells us, Antiq. Iud. l. 1. that God gave long Life to those Fathers that they might teach Vertue, and practise with conveniency those things which they had invented in Astronomy and Geometry: the Demonstrations whereof they had never attain'd, unless they had liv'd at least six hundred years, the great Year being accomplisht by that Revolution.

As for Coelestial Causes, the boldest Assertor I find, is Petrus Apponensis, who says, we must by no means envy those of the first Age for having liv'd a longer Series of years than us; the disposition of the Heav'ns being by Nature more benign and propitious to them: for then there were two Animal Circles together co-operating, one in the ninth Sphere, and the other in the eighth, where the Firmament is; being so dispos'd that Aries answered diametrically to Aries, Taurus to Taurus, Ge­mini to Gemini, &c. They so fortifying the Celestial In­fluences, that Herbs, Roots, standing Corn and Fruits grew then much more wholesom than since, that Society through a long motion being dissolv'd; whence the whole Inferiour World began to grow diseas'd and decay.

[Page 94]For Sublunary Causes, first we may allow, as the Au­thor does, that the Stamina, or Principles of Life of the Antediluvians were much stronger than Men have at present, by which they had a more vigorous natural Constitution. Secondly we may allow them to have been better circumstantiated and regulated, as to the Six Non-Natural things: as first, that their Atmosphere being throwly impregnated with balsamick Particles, arising from that pure primigenial Soil, the Celestial In­fluences had a more kindly Co-operation with them, forming an Air far transcending ours now in the heal­thiest part of the Earth, for prolonging Life; and in this the Author is free to expatiate as he pleases. Se­condly, as to their Dyet, it's conceiv'd that the Ante­diluvian Soil being excellently temper'd, brought forth better and more wholsome Fruits than are since the Deluge, that it has been tainted with the Saltness of the Sea; and that the Fountain Waters were also then more wholsom, and that those Fathers were endued with a greater Knowledg to discern what was good and bad for them, and observ'd a greater Temperance than is now us'd. Thirdly, it's conceiv'd, that if Man had not so many extrinsical Causes; as Pleasures: domestick and publick Cares, and other Troubles to discompose him, he might live a much longer Age; in which it's thought the Antients were not so much concern'd, leading a more sedate and calm Life. And so, as to the other Non-Natural things, they may be conceiv'd to have go­vern'd themselves better in them than Men do now. And upon the whole it may be said, that tho we may not ascribe the Antediluvian Longaevity to any one of these sublunary Causes singly, yet taken altogether, they may be lookt upon as competent Causes for it: But to go about to alter the Sun's Course, or the Earth's Posture to it to make it out, I believe it's what will never pass among learned Men.

[Page 95]Having assign'd such Causes, as, perhaps, by some, may be thought tolerably plausible for the Antediluvian Longae­vity: in the last place I shall give my opinion of the matter, which is, that I look upon the long Lives of the Patriarchs to have been from a particular Providence. I cannot say it was for the reason assign'd by Austin, that the first World, by a few, might be peopl'd in a short time; for on that account long Life seems as ne­cessary to others, as to the Patriarchs; besides that, each of the Patriarchs, as far as we find by Scripture, spent many Years, as Adam above an Hundred, others above an Hundred and Eighty before they got Children, whereas before that time they might have got Children enough to have peopled many Countries: tho, as Rabbi Gedalia says, according to the opinion of many Jewish Doctors, the Patriarchs did not live so long before they had Children, as the Scripture speaks of, but that it makes mention of those only from whom they receiv'd the Tradition, not taking notice of many others, whom there was no necessity of medling withal. But I am of the opinion of that Adept Philosopher, Lib. de Quint. Es­sentiâ Phi­los. circa finem. who in his late Answer to the learned Dr. Dickinson, affirms long Life to have been granted the Patriarchs from a particular Providence, that they might the better learn and propa­gate Arts and Sciences, and convey down with more Certainty the Tradition of the Creation, the Fall of Man, God's Judgment upon him, and the Hope of his Redemption, &c. and I know not why we should make a Difficulty of admitting a particular Providence, when such particular Designs of Providence are to be carried on by it.

I reject therefore Lunar Years with the Author, tho as to the Testimony he quotes from Josephus, saying, that the Historians of all Nations, both Greeks and Bar­barians, ascribe Longaevity to the first Inhabitants of the Earth; many of the Authors, whom he names, averring them to have liv'd a Thousand Years: I value it not; and much doubt whether the Author himself gives credit [Page 96] to those Histories: For either they relate to Antedilu­vian or Postdiluvian Times; if to the former, I know no colour of Reason we have for relying on any thing as Authentick, deliver'd by Greeks or Barbarians con­cerning those times: If to the latter, I cannot think the Author believes any Man to have liv'd a Thousand Years since the Deluge. So we find that Pliny considering what many of the Greeks and others had writ concer­ning the length of some Mens Lives, plainly says, they have writ Fables instead of true Histories, through their Ignorance of the various acceptation of Years and Ages; an Age signifying with some, Thirty Years, with others only One Year, and with others an Hundred Years. And the space of a Year being determin'd by some, by one Revolution of the Moon, by others it's made Tri­mestrial, Hist. Crit. l. 2. c. 4. and by others to consist of Six Months. And Father Simon tells us, It's certain that even the antient Jews, not finding in their Histories Genealogies enough to fill up the time, made one single Person to live ma­ny Ages, whence there is nothing more common in their Histories than these long liv'd Men: so that we ought not over easily to give belief to Jewish Histories, which make their Doctors survive, till such a time as they can find another to joyn him. Nay, a great many of the Jewish Doctors, who have so great a Veneration for the Scriptures, are so far from acquiescing in what Josephus urges from the Greek and Barbarian Tradition, that they have affirm'd, Ibid. as Father Simon tells us, the Patriarchs to have liv'd no longer than other Men, and that the Holy Scripture makes only mention of the Head of a Family, to whom it immediately joyns the last of the same Fa­mily, without taking notice of those who have been be­twixt both; those Doctors believing that when any Head of a Family had ordain'd certain Laws, and Methods of living to the Family, he was made to live till the last of the Family, who had observ'd those Laws were dead; so that he is suppos'd to have liv'd all this while in his Family. And I doubt that all Men who are not con­tent [Page 97] to have recourse to a particular Providence, for upholding the Ante and Postdiluvian Longaevity, will be forc'd to relapse here, for any thing that can be made out from Authentick History or Reason in the Case: Not but we have several Instances of late date, of Per­sons, who have liv'd two or three Hundred Years and upwards: But this has not been successively, as in the Patriarchs; and there is odds betwixt three or four Hun­dred Years, and near a Thousand. And whereas the Author urges for a general Longaevity among the An­tediluvians, as well as for some time after the Flood, we do not find it authoriz'd by Scripture. And that it was granted only to the Patriarchs and some few others by a particular Providence, and this through the means of a certain Panacaea, well known to the Mystae, I am satisfi'd, according to what is written of it, by the foremention'd Adept Philosopher: But leest instead of open reasoning, I seem to obtrude Mystery on the World, which by some may be interpreted vain Ostentation: I refer the Rea­der to the Book it self, where he may read, at least, what is written, and if hapily he does not fully appre­hend what is said, he may believe or reject what he thinks good.

CHAP. V.

IN this Chapter the Author treats concerning the Wa­ters of the Primitive Earth: what the state of the Regions of the Air was then, and how all Waters pro­ceeded from them. How the Rivers arose, what was their Course, and how they ended: He applies also se­veral places in Sacred Writ to confirm this Hydrography of the Earth, especially the Origin of the Rainbow.

He says then, that the Air being always calm and e­qual before the Flood, there could be no violent Me­teors there, nor any that proceeded from extremity of [Page 98] Cold, as Ice, Snow and Hail; nor Thunder neither: nor could the Winds be either impetuous or irregular in that smooth Earth, there being one ev'n Season, and no une­qual action of the Sun: But as for watery Meteors, or those that rise from watery Vapours more immediately, as Dews and Rains; there could not but be plenty of those in some parts or other of the Earth; the action of the Sun being strong and constant in raising them, and the Earth being at first moist and soft; and ac­cording as it grew more dry the Rays of the Sun would pierce more deep into it, and reach at length the Great Abysse, which lay under the Earth, and was an unex­hausted storehouse of new Vapours. He adds, but the same Heat which extracted these Vapours so copi­ously would also hinder them from condensing into Clouds or Rains in the warmer parts of the Earth; and there being no Mountains at that time, nor contrary Winds, nor any such Causes to stay them, or compress them, we must consider how they would be dispos'd off.

To this, he says, as the heat of the Sun was chiefly to­wards the middle part of the Earth, so the copious Vapours rais'd there, being once in the open Air, their Course would be that way where they found least resistance to their motion, which would be towards the Poles and the colder Regions of the Earth: for East and West they would meet with as warm an Air, and Vapours as much agitated as themselves, which therefore would not yield to their progress that way. So that the regular and con­stant Course of the Vapours of the Earth would be to­wards the extreme parts of it; which when arriv'd in those cooler Climates, would be there condenst into Dews or Rains continually.

This Difficulty, he says, for finding a Source for the Waters in the Primaeval Earth, was the greatest he met with in the Theory; which being thus clear'd, he finds a second Difficulty, viz. how those Waters should flow upon the even surface of the Earth, or form themselves [Page 99] into Rivers; there being no descent or declivity for their Course. And he has no way to explain this, but by giving an oval Figure to that Earth, in which the Polar Parts, he says, must have been higher than the Aequino­ctial, that is more remote from the Center; by which means, the Waters that fell about the extreme parts of the Earth would have a continual descent toward the middle parts of it: and by vertue of this Descent, would by degrees form Channels, for Rivers to pass in through the temperate Climates, as far as the Torrid Zone.

And here he meets a third Difficulty, viz. What Issue the Rivers could have, when they were come thither? To this, says he, when they were come towards those parts of the Earth, they would be divided into many Branches, or a multitude of Rivulets: and those would be partly exhal'd by the heat of the Sun, and partly drunk up by the dry sandy Earth. For he concludes, as those Rivers drew nearer to the Equinoctal parts, they would find a less declivity or descent of Ground than in the beginning or former part of their Course: for that in his suppos'd oval Figure of the Earth, near the middle part of it, the Semidiameters, he says, are much shorter one than another; and for this reason the Rivers when they came thither, would begin to flow more slowly, and by that weakness of their Current suffer themselves easily to be divided and distracted into several lesser streams and Rivulets; or else having no force to wear a Channel, would lie shallow on the ground, like a plash of Water.

As for the Polar parts of the Earth, he says, they would make a particular Scene by themselves: the Sun would be perpetually in their Horizon; which makes him think the Rains would not fall so much there, as in other parts of the Frigid Zones, where he makes their chief Seat and Receptacle: whence sometimes as they flowed, they would swell into Lakes, and toward the end of their Course, parting into several streams and Branches, they would wa­ter those parts of the Earth like a Garden.

[Page 100]Having examin'd and determin'd of the state of the Air and Waters in the Primitive Earth, he considers some Passages in Holy Writ, which he conceives represent them of a different Form from the present order of Na­ture, and agreeing with what he has set forth. First he tells us, that the Rainbow, mention'd by Moses to have been set in the Clouds after the Deluge, makes out that those Hea­vens were of a different Constitution from ours: Ep. 2. c. 3. And secondly, that St. Peter says, the Antediluvian Heav'ns had a different Constitution from ours, and that they were compos'd or constituted of Waters, &c. He urges con­cerning the Rainbow, that it was set in the Clouds after the Deluge as a Confirmation of the Promise or Cove­nant, which God made with Noah, that he would drown the World no more: that it could not be a Sign of this, or given as a Pledge or Confirmation of such a Promise, if it were in the Clouds before, and with no relation to this Promise: He adds much more concerning the Na­ture of Signs, giv'n by God, mention'd in the Scrip­tures, which I think too tedious and needless here to insert.

Now concerning the first Difficulty, which the Author has endeavoured here to explain, in reference to the Source and Origine of the Antediluvian Waters, I have this to offer.

He supposes that copious Vapours were continually rais'd from the Torrid Zone, and the parts of the Tem­perate Zones next it, and that they were hindred by the heat of the Sun from condensing into Clouds or Rains, there being then no Mountains or other Cause to stay and compress them, till having past through the Tempe­rate Zones, they came towards the extreme parts of the Earth, or the Poles, where they were continually con­denst into Clouds, Rains, and Dews.

Now this, I conceive, is what no Meteorologist can allow: for first, though I should grant there were no Mountains before the Deluge (for the existence of which from the Beginning, I have already argued) at least there must have been other Causes no less powerful [Page 101] to stop and compress the Vapours then arising, notwith­standing the Author either has not taken notice of them, or has here forgot them. Certainly there were Woods before the Flood, and those in a great plenty, which (to use the common Expression) are known to attract Vapours as freely as Mountains; and the Author allows the Trees then to have been of an imcomparably more vast and lofty growth than now; the largest of our Trees being but shrubs to the Trees then: and would not these attract Vapours in a plentiful measure, whence Clouds and Rains would be produc'd to serve all the parts of the Earth? It's known that in several parts of the West-Indies, wont to be much infested with Rains and Tempests, after the Woods were there cut down, those effects ceast. Georg. Agricola tells us of a Valley in a Mountainous Tract in Germany, In Ber­manno. which in Autumn and Winter was wont to be continually invested with thick Fogs, hindring the sight of the Sun; but at length, the Woods being there cut down, and some Adits driven in Mines for the Waters to pass, those Fogs ceast. I know also some Woods in England standing much on a Level, which always cast forth a great smoak, and have a Cloud over them against Rain, the Country people thence ta­king their Prediction of it; We know that in the Isle of Ferro, there being not Fountains to supply the Inha­bitants with fresh Water, there grows a Tree, over which a Cloud settles itself every Morning, and resolves into Water, which streams down from the Branches, and is receiv'd in Vessels underneath for use. And can we think but some of those stately Antediluvian Trees, in case there had been no Rains, would have perform'd this good natur'd Office to Man? as indeed they had been bound to do it to Beasts: for Men possibly might have then been supply'd with fresh Water in all the parts of the Earth by the means of Wells, but how should the Beasts be supply'd, remote from Rivers.

These Instances from natural History, I think, are suf­ficient to shew that Woods, as well as Mountains at­tract [Page 102] Vapours, and cause Rains, and must have done it in the Antediluvian Earth.

Secondly, to pass by Mountains and Woods, and to consider the Quality of the Primaeval Earth, which the Author supposes to have been at first soft and boggy; can it be imagin'd that Vapours rais'd from it in the Torrid Zone, and in the parts of the Temperate Zones next it, should be convey'd to the Polar Zones for a Series of Ages, without being condens'd into Clouds and Rains by the way; when at the same time the Days and Nights are suppos'd to have been constantly of an equal length; and when the Weakness of the Sun's Action, arising from the Obliqueness of its Rayes in a good part of the intermediate Distance, is duly consider'd.

C. de Ven­ris. Cartes, in his Meteors, has well demonstrated, as I conceive, the Courses observ'd by the Vapours, rais'd from the Earth by the Sun's Action, in order to Clouds and Rains: and he represents it thus. Let the Earth be

[figure]

EB FD, the Poles EF, where the Earth being not much hea­ted by the Sun, it must be much cover'd by Mists and Clouds, and at B, where the Sun sends on it direct and perpendicular Rayes, many Vapors are rais'd, which being agitated by the Action of the Light they swiftly get aloft, till they come so far, that being prest by their Weight, they readily fly off to the sides, and hold their Course towards I and M, above the Clouds G and K, rather than ascend farther upwards, and where­as the Clouds G and K are also heated, and rarify'd by the Sun, the Vapors going thence rather goe freely to H, and from K to L, than either to E or to F, because the gross Air which is under Poles, more strongly re­sists them, than the Vapours rising from the Earth to­ward the South, in regard these being strongly agitated, [Page 103] and ready for Motion every way, easily yield them place.

Now, this plainly shews, that the Vapours rais'd by the Sun in the torrid and temperate Zones, could ne­ver reach near the Poles, before they were condens'd in­to Clouds and Rains, even tho the Earth were all smooth, and the Sun always kept the Aequinox Root, as the Au­thor supposes the state of things then was.

Thirdly, how should Vegetation have been maintain'd for sixteen Hundred Years, without Rains to refresh the Plants? It's true, there are some parts now which have little Rain, but either they lye near the Seas, where they are plentifully supply'd with Vapours, or have some an­nual Inundations, as Aegypt, &c. which could not have held in the Antediluvian Earth. Indeed the Earth be­ing suppos'd soft at first, it might possibly have supply'd Moisture for some Ages; but after five Hundred or a Thousand Years, what Moisture could that Earth have afforded? And to talk of the Sun's pumping up Waters from the Abysse, lying two or three Miles deep in the Earth, to supply Waters for the Rivers to run, when the other Moisture was spent, it seems to me too incon­sistent to deserve naming.

Again, it's known that Rains are no less necessary now and then, for purging the Air, than a Dose of Physick may be for the Body of Man: And tho it may be said that the Air then could not have been infested with evil Vapours, as now, the Quality of that Soil not affording them: Yet, as Purges are sometimes pre­scrib'd, not only to evacuate the Body of evil Humours, but in Cases of mere Plenitude, when the Humours are not peccant: so the Atmosphere then could not but be sometimes troubled with an Hazyness and Stagnation, through the great plenty of Particles rais'd by the Sun's constant Action: and unless it were now and then purg'd by Rains, Winds, and fiery Meteors, which are all de­ny'd, it could not have been duly qualifi'd for the sup­port of Animals and Vegetables: to which I may add, [Page 104] that were it not for Rains many times, all the Fruits of Countries would be destroy'd by Insects devouring them in their first tender growth.

Lastly, whereas the Author says, that when the Va­pours were arriv'd in the frigid Zones, they would con­tinually be there condens'd into Clouds, Rains, and Dews; I reply, if that holds true, which I have suggested from Dr. Brown, that the Sun keeping in the Aequator, it would be always Night or Twilight in a more consider­able part of the frigid Zones, the Sun never rising above the Horizon: and since the Author supposes those Zones to have been continually invested with Clouds, which at least, must have caus'd a Cimmerian Darkness there, whe­ther we can conceive any thing but continu'd Frosts and Snows to have been there, which must have made them incapable of being Sources for those Waters he has sup­pos'd.

As to the second Difficulty the Author meets with here, viz. for making the Waters flow on the even Surface of the Antediluvian Earth, to explain which he has sup­pos'd that Earth to have been of an oval Figure, in which the Polar Parts were higher than the Aequino­ctial, to afford a Descent to the Waters, to form Chan­nels to the extreme Parts of the Temperate Zones, next the Torrid; there are many things here to oppose.

First, the Author's main Reason for the oval Figure of the Earth, seems not to me to hold good, where he says, L. 2. c. 8. in his Latin Copy, since the Bulk of Waters in the first Formation of the Earth, when it was yet an aqueous Globe, was much more agitated under the Ae­quator, than the Water towards the Poles, where it made less Circles, those Parts, so greatly agitated, endea­vouring to recede from the Centre of their Motion, since they could not wholly spring up and fly away, by reason of the Air every where pressing on them; nor much flow back, without the Resistance of the said Air, they could not otherwise disingage themselves, than by flowing off to the sides, and so making the aqueous Globe [Page 105] somewhat oval. This, I say, is contrary to Experiment; for the more rapid any Course of Waters is, the more it draws all neighbouring Waters to joyn with them in their Course, and forces them not to recede from them into calmer Parts, where the rapidness of their Course is check'd by a slower Motion; and if this should be done to some distance, can it be imagin'd but their na­tive Gravity, when rais'd considerably above their level, long ere they reacht the Polar Parts, would make them fall back again to the lower Aequinoctial Current: And the native Nitency of the Waters in both Hemispheres, on each side the Torrid Zone, would much more strongly repel any Waters there rais'd above their level, than the Rapidness of the Aequinoctial Current could force them off.

Again, since the Earth, consider'd as a Spherical Body, is allow'd to be above 7000 Miles Diameter; and since to enlarge a Circle into a moderate oval Figure, its Area must be made a quarter as big again at least, one way of its Diameter, as it was before (as Mr. Warren has de­monstrated) it follows that the Antediluvian Earth, C. 5. at each Pole, must have been near 900 Miles extent in the suppos'd oval State, more than if it had been exactly round. And since this Earth inclos'd an Orb of Waters within it; I desire to know how many Miles Depth of the 900 Miles the Author allows to his Orb of Waters; he must allow it Miles enough to make an oval Orb, for so his Water was suppos'd to be, before the Orb of Earth was form'd upon it: and consequen­tially to what is said, he cannot allow his Orb of Wa­ters to be less than 450 Miles deep at each Pole, to make any thing of an oval. Now, to say that any De­trusion of Waters toward the Poles, by the resistence of of the superambient Air, could form a Mountain of Wa­ters, at each of the said Poles, about 450 Miles in Height, above their Spherical Convexity, seems to me a strange and unaccountable Paradox in Hydrography, especially the Orb under the Abysse being suppos'd Sphe­rical, as the Author has represented it in all his Schemes, [Page 106] so that there was nothing to bear on the Detrusion of the Waters.

It's true, as the Author says in his Answer to Mr. Warren, we see the Waters flowing towards and upon the Shoars by the Pressure of the Air under the Moon, tho it be an Ascent both upon the Land and into the Rivers; but I answer, this flowing is only to the Height of some few Fathoms, and besides, it's maintain'd by a bulk of Waters then swoln in the Sea, near as high, as any protruded on the Land, and carrying a Pondus able to support them: But what Force shall be able to support a Body of Waters in a violent State, carried 450 Miles in height, above their natural tendency, as they all are when past the spherical Convexity. For the Author owns the Demonstration of Archimedes, concerning the spherical Figure of Water to be true; and says that a fluid Body, be it Water or any other Liquor, always casts it self into a smooth and spherical Surface, and if any parts by chance, or by some agitation become higher than the rest, they do not continue so long, but glide down every way into the lower places, till they all come to make a Surface of the same height, and of the same distance every where from the Center. By what agitation or resist­ence then of the superambient Air can Waters be driven on and held together for 450 Miles ascent in the open Air, so as not to diverge, and fall off by their natural tendency.

Besides, if according to what I have said before, the Author allows his Abyss Orb to be 450 Miles deep at the Poles, he must allow it of a depth proportional to its oval Figure in its other parts, and so for his Orb of Earth, and how this can stand with the proportion he seems to assign to his Orbs, according to what I have set forth l. 1. c. 6. and how a Deluge according to these proportions could be caus'd, and the Waters go off, so as to make an habitable World, may require his consideration.

Again, since the Sun, according to the Authors Hypo­thesis moving always in the Aequinox, before the Flood, would constantly have held as remote, if not more, [Page 107] from the suppos'd rainy Region, than it is now from us in the depth of Winter; and since we find the Moun­tains now, which are of any considerable height, even in the temperate Zones, are so cold that they are generally cover'd with Snows, notwithstanding the Sun shines more on them than on the Countries lying beneath them, and that, even in the Summer, when the Sun is nearest to them, and the days are much longer than the nights; it follows that the two Polar Mountains, in all respects, must always have had Colds in the greatest excess, both in regard of their great distance from the Sun, and of their being Mountains, and of their having little or no Day; nay if it were constant Day at the Poles themselves, and there were as much Day as Night in the suppos'd rainy Regions, as the Author can pretend to no more there; this could not protect them against continual Frosts and Snows, as appears by what I have said of the Mountains in the temperate Zones. I may add that, C. 5. (as Mr. Warren has observ'd) several Navigators attempting to find out a nearer Course to China, have been frozen to death, tho they sail'd not so far North, as the suppos'd rainy Regions in the oval Earth, and chose the most sea­sonable time for their Enterprize, viz. When the Sun was on this side the Equator, and the days then in those Regions were much longer than the Nights, if they had any Night at all: Besides what experience all other Say­lers have had, of the great Colds, and continued Frosts and Snows in those Countries, notwithstanding the Va­pours of the Sea, or any nearness of the Sun, and length of days, which might help to remit them.

Lastly, Whereas the Author conceivs the present Earth to be also of an oval Figure, we know the general Sense of Men, according to all experience and observation to be contrary, and that whether the Constitution of the Earth be consider'd according to Gravity or Magnetism. Aristotle, who consider'd it according to the former, says, L. 2. de coelo. c. ult. that all the Particles of the Earth have a natural Gravity, which carries them towards the midst or Center, whence [Page 108] a spherical Figure of it must be caus'd, as he explains at large, and concludes that the Figure of the Earth must therefore be Spherical, or naturally Spherical; and that every thing must be said to be such as it uses to be, or is by Nature, and not what it may be by force or preternaturally, and in a violent state. The same may be said of the Earth's Figure, if it be consider'd according to Magnetism; the Experiment of the Terrella, according to the various In­clinations of the Needle to it, shewing the Earth to be Spherical. And whereas the Author says, that Circum­navigation, the appearing and Occultation of Moun­tains and Towers to Saylors, as also the Stars, and the like, prove indeed the Earth not to be plain, but con­vex, but does not plainly prove what that Convexity is, whether Spherical or Oval: In 1 c. sphaerae de Sacro. hosco. We find that Clavius was of a contrary Opinion, he thinking to have well prov'd the Spherical Figure of the Earth, if measur'd either from East to West, or from North to South, by shewing that if a Man keeping the same Meridian, passes from North to South, there is that proportion still observ'd in the decrease of the elevation of the Pole, which can only agree to a spherical Figure: and so if any Man travels from East to West, betwixt two Parallels, he may still observe that to a City fifteen degrees more Easterly than another, the Sun always rises and sets an hour sooner or later, than to the other; which anticipation of the rising and setting of the Sun could not keep the said propor­tion, unless we give the Earth a spherical Figure.

As to the third Difficulty that the Author finds, and the Explanation he endeavours to give of it, viz. What Issue the Rivers would have when they were come to the parts near the Torrid Zone, to which he says, That then they would be divided into many Branches or a multitude of Rivulets, and those would be partly exhal'd by the heat of the Sun, and partly drank up by the dry sandy Earth: This seems not to me fairly to account for the Rivers Issue. It's true, we have now accounts of some Rivers absorpt in the Sands; but the Waters so absorpt, [Page 109] or which any where pass into the Earth, have their Issue again at some other place, either passing into the Sea, or emerging again on the Land: but what became of those Antediluvian Waters, (which must have been in vast quan­tities) absorpt in the Sands? Did the Circumgyration of the Earth carry them back again, under ground, upon an Ascent, toward the Poles? Or did they sink into the Abysse? This must have been full before for many Ages, till the Sun had cloven the Earth, and drawn out great quantities of the Abysse Waters; and the other way of their Issue seems not to me conceivable. But I shall insist no farther on this matter.

The Author, in the last place, urges that the Rainbow set in the Clouds after the Deluge, makes out that the Antediluvian Heav'ns were of a different Constitution from ours, the Rainbow having not been seen in the Clouds before.

Now, concerning the Rainbow mention'd Gen. 9. many have said many things, but the most natural Interpreta­tion of it seems to me to be thus. We find in the fore­going Chapter when Noah and his Family, by Gods Com­mand were come forth of the Ark, and that Noah had rais'd an Altar, and sacrific'd to God; God accepting his Sacrifice, assur'd him that he would no more destroy e­very living Soul as he had done, but that Seed-time and Harvest, Cold and Heat, Summer and Winter, Night and Day should not cease, or should continue. They having been interrupted for a years time before. And in the 9th Chapter, after having bless'd Noah, and his Sons, he made a Covenant with them against any future Deluge, and to comfort them, gave them the Rainbow, as a pre­sent sign of the Air's setling in its wonted way, the Sea­sons which he had mention'd before to Noah being to succeed in Course. And the Rainbow thus appearing af­ter the Deluge, carried somewhat new in it, as the Au­thor says a Sign ought to have done, because it had not been seen for a year before; and in its nature appearing after Rains, it betokens fair Weather, as appearing after fair Weather, it betokens Rains.

[Page 110]Whereas the Author says, he does not look upon the Rainbow as a voluntary Sign, and by divine Institution, but that it signified naturally and by Connection with the effect, importing that the state of Nature was chang'd from what it was before; and so chang'd that the Earth was no more in a condition to perish by Water; This seems to me without any ground. I agree with him so far, that the Rainbow signified naturally, and by Conne­ction with the effect, because appearing after Rains, it be­tokens a remission of the moisture, and consequently fair Weather; and this with Gods Promise to Noah, and his seeing the Waters retir'd from the Earth, I think was suf­ficient for Noahs satisfaction, he having had experience that God was Master of his Word before, when he had reveal'd to him that he would bring a Deluge on the Earth. But to say that the appearance of the Rainbow imported the state of Nature to be so chang'd, that the Earth was no more in a condition to perish by Water, this will not be allow'd; for if the Deluge was miracu­lously caus'd (as I conceive it to have been) what na­tural sign could foreshew its coming, or no return of it? Wherefore in this respect, I look upon it to be only a voluntary Sign and by divine Institution: And we know some have been so far from thinking the Rainbow to denote a change of Air towards a Conflagration, that they plainly say it denotes a Dominion of moisture in the Air, and that on this account it will not appear forty years before the Conflagration happens. Neither do I believe that Noah, or perhaps any Man since him, besides the Author, could find by any natural signality in the Rainbow, that a Deluge should ne'r return.

Indeed (as the Author says) if Noah had never seen a Rainbow before, on its first appearance, it could not but have made a lively Impression upon him, for his as­surance: for its probable it would have rais'd a stupor in him, and he would have lookt upon it as a Miracle wrought by God for his satisfaction: whereas the Rules of Providence are otherwise, God never giving a mira­culous [Page 111] Sign, but of a miraculous Effect, which the preser­vation of the Earth from a second Deluge was not to be, but only the Earth left to itself, with those second Causes that attend it, for its own preservation. And those in­stances of Signs which the Author has quoted from the Scriptures are miraculous Signs of miraculous Effects, and therefore of another nature from this here under Consi­deration.

Again, its well known, that many Institutions in the Law of Moses were made directly in opposition to cer­tain Customs among the Gentils: Now whereas Iris, a­mong the Gentils, was made generally the Messenger of Discord, whence it was call'd Iris quasi [...], why may it not be thought, that in opposition to this, which might have been deriv'd down from the corrupt Antediluvian times, God would have the Rainbow to be his sign of Love and Concord, it signifying in its Nature indifferently Rains and fair Weather, as Pliny says.

As to the existence of the Rainbow before the Flood, certainly all the Gentils were of that Opinion; Juno must have been an Antediluvian Goddess, who was never with­out her Nymph Iris, she being the most diligent Atten­dant she had, alway standing ready at her Elbow, and more officiously serviceable to her than the other thirteen Nymphs that belong'd to her: among other services, she is said to have made Juno's Bed, and was repre­sented with Wings, and a Robe of divers Colours, half tuckt up, to shew her readiness to obey the Commands of her Mistris on all occasions. The two predominant Colours of her Robes were blew and red, denoting the two great destructions of the World, the blew that which happen'd by the Waters at the Deluge, and the Red the general Conflagration to succeed by Fire; so that the Rainbow carries a mixt signality. And indeed the antient Philosophers might properly enough make her the Mes­senger of Discord, she carrying the Types of those two con­trary Elements, Fire and Water; and God might make her his Messenger of Peace, he controuling and directing [Page 112] all natural Powers, and re-establishing a Concord betwixt those two contrary Elements, whereof she carries the Types in those Colours she bears.

Hist. Crit. l. 3. c. 14.I may note in the last place, that Father Simon censures Luther of Ignorance in the style and symbolical sense of the Scriptures, for saying, that there was no Rainbow be­fore the Deluge, and that God created it for those very Reasons set down Gen. 9. But though there may be a known symbolical sense contain'd under the Rainbow, which may far more require our attention than the Sym­bol it self: yet I shall not here take upon me to de­termine how far Luther may stand affected by that Cen­sure.

As for what the Author urges from the Passage of St. Peter, Ep. 2. c. 3.5. viz. That the Antediluvian Heav'ns had a different Constitution from ours; containing only watery Me­teors: I do not find he makes out that there were more of those watry Meteors in the Air then, than there are now, so that a Deluge should be thence particularly caus'd; on which account St. Peter intimates that different Dis­position to have been: and when the Author has said all he can of it, L. 2. c. 5. p. 202. he plainly concludes in his Latin Copy, That he cannot find, or discover by Reason, whence that Glut of Waters rose at that time, or wherefore after fif­teen Ages after the World was made, that Immense Glut of Waters, gather'd together in the Air, discharg'd itself on the Earth, it might have been, he says, from superna­tural Causes. And in his Answer to Mr. Warren, he says, the Rains that made the Flood, were extraordinary, and out of the Course of Nature. And what is this in effect, but to own that the Deluge is not explicable by humane Reason, and that Miracles are to be allow'd in it; but they must be the Authors own way, and not as others have said; which perhaps by many may be interpreted to carry more of Humour than Reason.

CHAP. VI.

THIS Chapter contains only a review of what the Author has said concerning the Primitive Earth, with a more full survey of the state of the first World Natural and Civil, and the Comparison of it with the present World; so that here is little new: wherefore I shall note only the following Passage, where the Author says, I cannot easily imagine, that the sandy Desarts of the Earth were made so at first immediately from the Be­ginning of the World.

To this we may reply, That if the sense of one Man may be oppos'd against that of another, Lucan seems of a contrary Opinion, where he says,

CHAP. VII.

HERE the Author comes to the main Point to be consider'd in this Book, viz. the Seat of Paradise; and says, that its Place cannot be determin'd by the Theory only, nor from Scripture only; and then gives us the sense of Antiquity concerning it as to the Jews, the Hea­thens, and especially the Christian Fathers, shewing, that they generally place it out of this Continent in the Sou­thern Hemisphere.

He declares that considering the two Hemispheres according to his Theory, he sees no Natural Reason [Page 114] or occasion to place it in one Hemisphere more than in the other; and that it must rather have depended on the Will of God, and the series of Providence that was to follow in this Earth, than on any natural incapacity in one of those Regions more than in another, for planting in it that Garden. Neither do the Scriptures determine where the place was. As to Antiquity, he says, the Jews and Hebrew Doctors place it in neither Hemisphere, but under the Equinoctial; because they suppos'd the Days and Nights to have been always equal in Paradise. Among the ancient Heathens, Poets and Philosophers, he finds they had several Paradises on the Earth, which they ge­nerally, if not all of them, place without, or beyond this Continent, in the Ocean, or beyond it, or in another Orb or Hemisphere, as the Gardens of the Hesperides, the for­tunate Islands, the Elysian Fields, Ogygia, Toprabane, as it is describ'd by Diodorus Siculus, and the like.

As to Christian Antiquity, or the Judgment or Tradi­tion of the Fathers in this Argument; he tells us, that the Grand Point disputed amongst them was, Whether Paradise were Corporeal; or Intellectual only, and Alle­gorical. Then of those that thought it Corporeal, some plac'd it high in the Air, some inaccessible by Desarts and Mountains, and many beyond the Ocean, or in ano­ther World, but nam'd no particular Place, or Country in the known parts of the Earth for the Seat of it: and upon the whole he brings it to this Conclusion, that tho their Opinions are differently exprest, they generally con­center in this, that the Southern Hemisphere, beyond the Aequinoctial, was the Seat of Paradise. And this No­tion of another World or Earth beyond the Torrid Zone, he says, he finds among Heathen Authors, as well as Chri­stian, and that those who say Paradise was beyond the Ocean, mean the same, for that they suppos'd the Ocean to lie from East to West betwixt the Tropicks: the Sun and Planets being there cool'd and nourisht by its moi­sture. And having quoted many of the Fathers and o­thers in reference to the Seat of Paradise in the other [Page 115] Hemisphere, he concludes, that in this particular he is willing to refer himself wholly to the report and majo­rity of Votes among the Ancients, whether Christians or others, who seem generally to incline to the South, or South-east Land.

After so large an Apparatus for making out the Place of Paradise, and a new World made for it, a Man would have expected that some Circumstances at least, should have been brought, for pointing it forth, and not barely to sit down, by saying, I wholly refer my self to the major Vote of Antiquity, especially having promis'd us in the first Chapter of this Book a just account of it. Since then there is nothing brought from Scripture or Reason for proving the place of Paradise; I shall only consider the Authority of Antiquity for it, as the Author has done; but withal I must first declare, it is not with­out a sacred dread that I commit Pen to Paper on this Subject, well knowing of what weight it is, and what Dispositions could be requir'd in a Person to treat of it according to its Dignity: a Man ought to have had a due Institution amongst the Mystae (by such, I mean those excel­lent Genii, whose better Stars have so dispos'd their Under­standings, that they have penetrated the Allegories and Aenigma's of the ancient Sages; and are able readily to run through the whole systeme of Nature, every where adapting Superiours to Inferiours according to those Scales of Numbers which a learned Adeptist has set forth) and to have us'd great diligence in Study, undisturb'd by worldly Circumstances; both which I well know to have been wanting in me. A Man ought to be thorowly seen in the Analogies betwixt the Intellectual, Coelestial, and sublunary Worlds, and of the Microcosm to them all; for otherwise he shall never be able to discern what is de­liver'd literally, what figuratively by the Ancients: and for want of Persons being thus qualified, those infinite Tautological Volumes have been written by School-men and others, on this and other Parts of the Scriptures. We know how difficult it is sometimes to discern, even [Page 116] in Heathen Writers, whether they write literally or figu­ratively; as in Plato's Timaeus, the Relation of the War betwixt the Athenians and the Atlantiques, is said by Crantor, Plato's first Interpreter, to be a plain historical Relation; others say it to be a meer Allegory; and o­thers again will have it to be a true Historical Narra­tion, but withal to carry on an Allegory. Certainly the sense of the Scriptures in many Places, and perhaps in this of Paradise, is more difficult to be understood than any part of Plato's Works is: and therefore I should ra­ther have been content to have kept my self within the bounds of natural History, in all my Considerations on this Theory. But since the occasion offers, that I say somewhat concerning the Seat of Paradise, I shall lay down what I conceive the sence of the Ancients to have been in it, humbly standing the Correction of meet Judges.

First then, (to pass by what the Author allows, viz. that the Jews and Hebrew Doctors plac'd Paradise under the Aequinoctial, and not in the Southern Hemisphere; where he, at last concludes it to have been.) As for the several Paradises of the Antient Heathen Poets and Philo­sophers, which he will have us particularly observe to have been generally plac'd by them without, or beyond this Continent, as pointing at the other Hemisphere, I have this to offer concerning them: That I truly look upon it as trifling in any Man to think that any of those Poets or Philosophers judg'd any place on the Earth really Paradisiacal; or meant any place so, describ'd by them.

It seems to me plain enough from them that they alway meant Paradise Coelestial, or Intellectual, as the Allego­rical Fathers did. It's true, many of them took some place on the Earth, noted for Salubrity and Pleasantness, for a ground of their Allegory: it being usual with the antient Mystae, when they had any Doctrine figuratively to set forth, to take some historical Ground, whether Natural or Civil; and those were lookt upon the most ingenious, who in the delivery of such figurative Do­ctrine [Page 117] could make the historical Truth quadrate without addition: but when any important Doctrine was to be deliver'd, where the historical Truth could not hold, then they either wholly feign'd some historical Narra­tion, by Analogy to which that Truth they design'd might be set forth, or to some true historical Ground they took, they added what Flourishes they thought fit, for making it serve to carry on their Allegory, as in the case of Paradise they have proceeded both ways.

To consider particularly the Paradisiacal places they de­scribe, what have the Fortunate Islands, the Gardens of the Hesperides, Alcinous, &c. (being places known to us in this Hemisphere, as literally understood) to do with the other Hemisphere? Some Authors, as Virgil and o­thers, to shew themselves openly Allegorical, plac'd the Elysian Fields in the subterraneous Regions, where they thought no Man in his wits would seek for them: and I think it plain enough to any thing but wilful blind­ness, that those who plac'd Paradise beyond the Ocean, In Phae­done. in the Air, &c. did it on the same account; as we may judge by the pure aetherial Earth describ'd by Plato.

The Author intimates more than once, that the Pen­sile Gardens of Alcinous must be expounded by the Pen­sile structure of his Paradisiacal Earth, as it hung over the Abysse, before the Deluge: whereas it's well known what these Gardens were: they were that Pensile Vault hanging over our Heads.

where should his Gardens of Pleasure, or his Paradise be, but where his Gods were, in the Society of whom he drank Nectar and Ambrosia; or, to express it according to Christian Divinity, in the Love, and Contemplation of whom he was ravisht with Delights? Mythology tells us, that the Gardens of the Hesperides, said to be seated in the West, were no others; the Golden fruits being [Page 118] those Golden globous Bodies, with which the Heavens are adorn'd, and the watchful Dragon being that Dragon at the North Pole (or the Zodiack Circle, according to o­thers) said to be always watchful, because it never sets to this part of the World, which was the only part known to the Antients. It was said to be seated in the West, because as the Sun sets in the West the Stars appear, the light of the Sun hiding them in the day-time. The Gardens of Adonis are the same; Adonis being the Sun, that glorious Leader of the Coelestial Host. And these are the three Paradisiacal Gardens, which (as Pliny tells us) were most celebrated by Antiquity; tho even these must refer higher, I mean to the Intellectual and Archetypal Worlds, till which the Mind of Man can ne­ver rest. Those delightful Gardens of Adonis are said, by some, to have been taken by the Gentils, from the Eden of Moses, that word with the Hebrews signifying Pleasures and Delights, as [...] does with the Greeks, and as the word Pardeis does with the Chaldeans and Persians, whence the Greeks took the word [...], and the Latins Paradisus. These are the Gardens where the never-ceasing Nightingale sings. ‘——Ʋbi suavis cantat Aëdon.’ ( Apollo being famous for his Charms) he foments his Eggs in his Brest, and solaces the waking labour of the tedious Nights with the sweetness of his Songs; retiring in the Winter-time from these parts of the Earth to others then more Pleasant.

Concerning the Elysian Fields, the Author takes an oc­casion to intimate as tho they were in the other Conti­nent, as he reflects on those, who he conceives have mis­represented Paradise, saying, these have corrupted and misrepresented the notion of our Paradise, just as some modern Poets have the notion of the Elysian Fields, which Homer and the Antients plac'd in the extremity of the Earth, and these would make a little green Meadow in Campania Foelix to be the fam'd Elysium.

[Page 119]Considering Homer and others of the Antient Gentils, I see not why they must be interpreted to have plac'd those Fields in the other Hemisphere; as for that Speech of Proteus to Menelaus in Homer,

Strabo interprets this of the Fortunate Islands, L. 3. or the Ca­naries, famous for a salubrity of the Air, and gentle Ze­phires peculiar to that Region lying in the West. Plutarch tells us, that by those extreme parts of the Earth is meant the Moon; where the shadow of the Earth, and these sublunary Regions terminate. Macrobius tells us, that according to Antiquity, those extreme parts of the Earth, where the Elysian Fields are, is the Sphaera [...], where the purest Minds reside. But to pass by these Interpreta­tions, it's well known to the Mystae, what Homer would be at by his extreme parts of the Earth; it implying only a passing from the Flesh into the Spirit, where the Earth truly ends, and where St. Paul found a real Paradise: and there is a Torrid Zone to pass e're we come to it, and passable only by those Qui solis meridiantis fulgidissimum jubar ferre possunt, it being hardcoming near those Coe­stial Fires without being melted by their heat. But I shall say more beneath concerning what some of the An­cient Gentils meant by seeming to place their Paradises in the other Hemisphere.

Virgil, (as I have intimated before) represents the E­lysian Fields, Ae. 5. & 6. as well as the place where the wicked are tormented, in the bowels of the Earth. And Servius tells that those Fields are at the Center, abounding with all Delights, and that ‘—Solemque suum sua sydera norunt.’ Hither it was the Sibyl carried Aenaeas, an Enterprize she had not undertaken, but that she knew him of the [Page 120] Heroes, and some way qualified to attend her in it: for it's an incredible labour, and indeed in a manner insup­portable, to wade through those subterraneous Regions; nor can the difficulty of it sink into the mind of Man without trial. The Poet calls it Insanus Labor, and it is so, a divine Fury attends it; during the transaction the Soul is stimulated, to exert its noblest Instincts, and the Under­standing is consummated, as far as it's capable of so being. Hence Plato says, In Phoe­dro. that humane Wisdom, if compar'd with that which is had from Oracles, and a divine Fury, is as nothing: and hence Virgil thought not Aeneas duly qua­lified for being founder of the Roman Empire, till with his other Endowments, he had this divine Institution of the Sibyl. And I make no doubt but there are Sibyls still in the World, who on certain occasions can and do per­form the like pious Office to Man, though the outward Typical part of Caves and Tripods be left off; the Caves only denoting a deep mental Recess; the Tripod the three successions of Time, all known to Apollo.

Virgil, not only in his sixth Aenead, but elsewhere, sufficiently intimates the dreadful Labour which attends this Transaction, where he disswades Augustus, though a great Emperour, and a Man of noble Endowments of Mind, from ever wishing himself a party concern'd in it, saying,

[Page 121] And perhaps, it might be in view of this difficulty that Christ said, Regnum Coelorum vim patitur, & violenti ra­piunt illud, Mat. 11. and 12. And again, That it was as hard for a rich Man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, as for a Camel to go through the eye of a Needle.

If we consider what the Sibyl requir'd of Aenaeas to perform before he could accompany her in this great Undertaking, it may not be difficult for us to conceive what those Regions are into which he pass'd: the Golden Branch must be gotten, and carried with him to gain his admittance into them, and a dead Man, a Friend of his, slain by Triton, a Sea God, whom he had provok'd, must be buried; the Old Man, the Animal Man, must be slain and buried, without which sacred Necromantick Practise, Christ cannot be form'd nor reign within us, nor can we enter the Kingdom of Bliss. The Poet makes this Man a Trumpeter, the Animal-man being nought but Clamour and Noise; his Funeral-pile must be made of that an­cient over-grown Forest, that Den of wild Beasts with which the golden Bow is all invested. Gold, for that its a pure and incorruptible Metal, and the most ductile and extendible of all Bodies, and in its Colour resembles the glorious Lights of Heaven, it terminating also the desires of Man, was made by the Ancients the sacred Type of the Deity, or of that divine Nature diffus'd tho­row the World; and hence by Divines the whole In­tellectual World is call'd the Cataena Aurea; and hence also are those famous Stories of the Golden Fleece at Colchos, and of the Golden Fruits in the Gardens of the Hesperides, and the Golden Age refers here, and this is that Aurum Ignitum which St. John says, will make a Man Rich. Now the Sibyl truly tells Aenaeas there is no com­ing at this Golden Branch, that divine Spirit, which must be his Passeport to the Elysian fields, till he has cut down the wild Forest with which it is surrounded, and made a Funeral-pile of it, to burn the dead Body of his Friend Misenus, that animal Man: the Forest being nought but that confusion of Vice, in which humane Life is involv'd; [Page 122] and till this be cut down and burnt, igne Sacro, igne Con­scientiae, igne Coelesti, absumente sacrificium Domini, quo & totus mundus uno die periturus est, the Divine Nature cannot be manifested within us, nor can we enter those pure Aetherial Regions, undisturb'd by corporeal Pas­sions and Affects.

We need not therefore go far to find where that Re­gion lies; all may be resolv'd by that Inscription in the Delphick Temple, [...]; for though it was the great wisdom of the Ancients, or rather, of God him­self to bring Men round in Types by a circular fetch of external Nature, they well knew where all must termi­nate; I say not in us as Men, but in that God within us, in whom we live, move, and are, and who sometimes is pleas'd to manifest himself to Man. And this I aver, that whatsoever knowledge of God may ac­crue to Man from a Contemplation of external Nature, he shall never have that sensible feeling of him that way, as when being rais'd in the Spirit, Baptismo flami­nis, he comes to find him within himself. The Poet tells us of two sorts of Persons, both Diis Geniti, not born of flesh and blood, but of God, who may have a free Inter­course to those Aethereal Regions; they must be, ei­ther Quos aequus amavit Jupiter, such, as by a Priviledge of Nature, or a Genethliacal favour of the Heav'ns are gifted for it, that is according to Christian Divinity, such as God is pleas'd to save by his particular Grace; as it may be said of St. John, who in one slumber on the Brest of Christ drew far deeper Mysteries than all the Schools in the World could teach him; and of St. Paul, who by an over-ruling Summons from God was rapt on a sudden to the third Heavens, where a fulness of Knowledge was communicated to him. Or secondly, Quos ardens evexit ad aethera virtus, such as having apply'd the powers of their Soul to the knowledge of that divine Nature which governs the World, are, at length initiated by a certain divine Institution, disposing to the supernatural Act, which God has been pleased to reveal to Man, by which [Page 123] also a Regeneration is truly wrought, and Paradise is open'd to us; though many times the effect of it may prove but transient, through the instability and frailty of Man's na­ture, he soon relapsing into Sin, without a particular Providence to uphold him; as (if I am not mistaken in Mythology) it's plainly set forth in the expedition for the Golden Fleece, where, according to some, Medaea in fa­vour of Jason, by her Enchantments, cast the Dragon which guarded it, into a profound Sleep only; and did not kill him outright, whilst Jason executed his Enterprize, or she for him, the Dragon haply afterward awaking a­gain. And Servius well observes, that Proteus receiv'd Divinity only for a time, otherwise he might have known Aristaeus lying in wait for him. And thus Solomon is known to have receiv'd the Spirit; and as well known it is how notoriously he fell from the Rectitude of it. Nor was David himself, so great a Prophet as he was, without great Lapses, the like may be held of Gedeon and others.

This is that Institution, by which, as the Areopagite says, Socrates ▪ being stirr'd up, and rais'd in his Under­standing, sang forth divine Mysteries, he owning himself before ignorant of Coelestial and sublunary Things.

I know not how far I may have here incurr'd the Cen­sure of some Criticks, for having seem'd to imitate, as though some Mysteries of Christianity had been known among the Gentils: But to pass by the Testimonies of many of the Fathers, by which the knowledge of Christ is allow'd to many of them before his appearing in the Flesh; we know that Virgil, in what he applies to the Son of Pollio in his fourth Eclogue, is judg'd to have prophesied of Christ; and I know not why it may not be thought with as much reason, that being mov'd with the same Spirit in his sixth Aenead, he has prophesied of the Kingdom of Christ in the Soul of Man. And indeed, I look upon it as a Truth, that to sincere Souls, living ac­cording to the light they had, at all times, and in all Na­tions, God has pleas'd in some extraordinary way to [Page 124] communicate the knowledg of Christ, and that the Vertue and Efficacy of his Death and Passion, has been apply'd to them, tho they knew nothing of the History thereof; And that the Doctors of the Gentils have mysteriously deliver'd many things concerning Christ, though not with that soundness of Divinity which Christianity teaches. That true Prophets were not only given by God to his People, but likewise to the Gentils to announce the com­ing of his Son, and teach them many other things; it ap­pears from the Sibyls, who were given to the Greeks and Romans; and from Balaam, who was given to the Ori­ental People.

He that desires to see more concerning what the Ancients thought of a Paradise being without our Continent, or in another Hemisphere, may read what Bishop Ʋsher has learnedly set forth concerning it in his Tract of Limbus Patrum, where in the end he plainly makes out both by sacred and profane Wri­ters, that though some of the Ancients would personate a Scene of Ades, for the reception of Souls in the other Hemisphere, beyond the Ocean, (which they suppos'd then uninhabited) to gratifie vulgar Fancy; yet that the Translation of Souls thither, in reality signify'd only their Translation from that which is visible, to that which is invisible, no Topical Paradise being ever there dreamt of: and if I should grant that some of the ancient Gen­tils fancied the Elysian Fields, as some pleasant place of Habitation in the other Hemisphere, I see not how this could relate to Adam's Paradise, the Seat of which was to be made out by the Author, according to the Opini­ons of the Ancients: for these Fields were for the recep­tion of the Soul separate from the Body, and might an­swer to the Coelestial Paradise, and the state of the Church Triumphant, but not to any Terrestrial Habitation, and the state of the Church Militant, and I know nothing but the Golden Age of the Ancients that could answer to Adams Paradise; concerning which I shall say somewhat beneath: but so much at present concerning the Paradises of the Gentils.

[Page 125]Now, in the second place, when a Man considers the Fathers on this Point of Paradise, he may be apt to say what Cicero said on a greater occasion. De Nat. Deor. l. 1. Truly so great a Dissention of the most learned Men, in so weighty a matter, may make even those doubt, who think they have somewhat certain. For some of the greatest Writers amongst them are so invectively opposite, in their Assertions con­cerning Paradise, that Philo and Origen, Pursuers of the Allegory, and follow'd by others, censure those as mad Men or Idiots, who go about to establish a corporeal Paradise; they concluding that the Scriptures, in what is deliver'd in them concerning Paradise, so manifestly present us an occasion to adhere to the Allegory, that we cannot but embrace it: Whereas on the contrary, Hierom and others censure those as Triflers and Dreamers, who so addict themselves to the Allegory, that they will not withal allow a plain Historical Sense in that Narra­tion; they grounding themselves on this, That unless an Historical Truth be held in those things, which are de­liver'd in the Scriptures, by way of an Historical Narra­tion, nothing would be certain in them.

Whereas the Author says we may observe, that tho the Fathers Opinions be differently express'd, they ge­nerally concenter in this, that the Southern Hemisphere was the Seat of Paradise, and that this seems manifestly to be the Sense of Christian Antiquity and Tradition, so far as there is any thing definitive, in the Remains we have upon that Subject; I find not that this is made out by him; for doing which, he distributes the Chri­stian Authors and Fathers that have deliver'd their Opi­nion concerning the Place of Paradise into three or four Ranks or Orders, and endeavours to shew, that tho they express'd themselves differently, yet duly examin'd, that all conspire and concur in the foremention'd Conclusion,

In the first place he reckons those who have set Pa­radise in another World, or in another Earth, which he concludes must have been beyond the Torrid Zone, in the other Hemisphere. In this number he places Ephrem [Page 126] Syrus, Moses Barcephas, Tatianus, and of later date, Ja­cobus de Valentia. To these he adds, such as say, that Adam, when he was turn'd out of Paradise, was brought into our Earth, or into our Region of the Earth; for this he says, is tantamount with the former, and this seems to be the sense of S. Hierom, and of Constantine in his Oration in Eusebius, and is positively asserted by Sul­pitius Severus. And again, those Authors that repre­sent Paradise, as remote from our World, and inacces­sible, as S. Austin, Procopius Gazaeus, Beda, Strabus Fuldensis, Historia Scholastica; for what is remote from our World, he says is to be understood to be that An­ticthon, or Antihemisphere, which the Antients oppos'd to ours.

I must confess, I have not many of the Authors here quoted by me, my poor Country Study not affording them: But on a Consideration of what the Author has quoted from them, and what I find quoted from them by others, we may discern how far they concur in that Doctrine, which he here ascribes to them: and to pro­ceed in order as the Author has set them down, I find the Opinion of Ephrem quoted by Ralegh from Barce­phus thus: Ephrem dicit Paradisum ambire terram, atque ultra oceanum ita positum esse, ut totum terrarum orbem ab omni circumdet regione, non aliter atque lunae orbis lu­nam cingit. In Phaedo­ne. Now he that can make Sense of this may; unless he will expound it according to Plato's Fable of his Aethereal Earth. The Author, in his Latin Copy, quotes also this Passage, tho exprest in somewhat dif­ferent terms, and explains it thus, That in the Paradi­siacal Earth, the Ocean compass'd about the Body of the Earth, and the Paradisiacal Earth compass'd about the whole Ocean, as the Orb of the Moon does the Moon; so that he judges that Form of the Earth to be here intimated, which he has before given it; where the Abysse compass'd about the Body of the Earth, and the Paradisiacal Earth the Abysse, or the Ocean. Now if this were so, it's manifest that Ephrem, in that Passage, [Page 127] could not relate to one Hemisphere more than to the other, which was the only thing the Author had to make out.

But, to be more plain in this matter, the Book which Barcephas ascribes to Ephrem (and that falsly, as I con­ceive) and whence he quotes his Opinion, is call'd Par­va Genesis, or De Ortu Rerum; the foregoing Passage well suiting with others, quoted from a Book of that Title, which I guess to be the same; and if so, I should have the worse Opinion of Barcephas, for quoting so fri­volous, and I think I may say, so impious a Pamphlet. Ralegh derides that Parva Genesis, for the miserable Stuff, L. 2. c. 26. §. 5. thence often quoted by Cedrenus; and a Man may be as well satisfi'd of it, by what we find thence quoted in Glycas, who in the first part of his Annals says, Cap. de de­sertore si­ve Diabolo. But that little Book, De Ortu Rerum, tells us, that Adam took of the Tree of Knowledg, and eat, without Circumspection, no way urg'd thereto by the Words of Eve, but that he found a certain Disquiet in his Mind from Tiredness and Hunger. But it's best to bury these things in silence, since they de­serve an eternal silence: And there he cites several other ridiculous Passages from him, and concludes, that every Man that understands the Scriptures, looks upon them as so. And again, he quotes this Parva Genesis in the third Part of his Annals, and rejects it in like manner, saying, that he knows not who was the Author of it: whereas, when on occasion he quotes Ephrem, he does it with much reverence. I have given a Character of this Book, because the Author instances it in several pla­ces, lamenting its loss; and seems chiefly to rely on it, in the Point under debate.

Barcephas indeed, in one Passage which the Author quotes from him, intimates Paradise to have been in the other Hemisphere: But withal he says, that it was be­yond the Ocean, and intimates it to be still in being, so that unless the Author will receive these Traditions from him, I know not why he should urge the other. But I shall say more of Barcephas beneath. As for Ta­tianus, [Page 128] tho he distinguishes the Earth of Paradise from ours, saying that to be of a more excellent make, un­less he had been more particular in pointing forth the place where it lay, I know not why it should be con­cluded that he thought it in the other Hemisphere. When Jacobus de Valentia places Paradise in the other Hemisphere, he says, it's because it lies under more no­ble Stars than ours: Now we know this ground to be notoriously false, C. 12. for that all Astronomers hold the Stars of this Hemisphere more noble than those in the other: And as Mr. Gregory observes in his learned Notes on some Scripture Passages, our Hemisphere is the principal, and far more excellent than the other: we have more Earth, more Men, more Stars, more Day, and which is more than all this, the North Pole is more magnetical than the South, Rid. Of Magne­tick Bo­dies and Motions, c. 6. according to what the learned Ridley says he observ'd, viz. That the Pole of the Magnet, which seats it self North, is always the most vigorous and strong Pole to all intents and purposes. If Hierom opposes Paradise to our Earth, I know not why it should im­ply more than some Excellency of that Soil more than of ours: Neither do the Passages of Sulpitius Severus, or Constantine seem to me to have any force.

As for Austin, and others that held Paradise remote from our World; we know their Opinion relates to a suppos'd high elevated situation of Paradise, and not to any other Hemisphere. Austin, and Hierom, and the an­tient Fathers, generally holding that there was no other Continent but this we inhabit. And tho the Author re­fers the Consideration of this Opinion of the high ele­vated situation of Paradise, to another Chapter, I think fit to examin it here.

We find then that several of the Authors before-men­tion'd, as Barcephas, Strabus Fuldenses, Historia Schola­stica, Beda, Austin, besides many others not nam'd be­fore, as Damascene, Rupertus, Basil, Alchimus Avitus, To­state, and many more gave Paradise a very highly ele­vated situation; some saying it to have been seated as [Page 129] high as the Sphere of the Moon, or within the Lunar Circle. Which Opinion seems to me to have been taken from the Theology of the Gentils, their Divines, Aen. 5. & 6. as Servius tells us, placing Elysium about the Lunar Circle. But this Opinion the Author says, looks very strange and extravagant at first sight, but the Wonder will cease if we understand this, not of Paradise taken a part from the rest of the Earth, but of the whole Primaeval Earth, wherein the Seat of Paradise was: that was really seated much higher than the present Earth, and may be reasona­bly suppos'd to have been as much elevated as the tops of our Mountains are now: and that Phrase of reach­ing to the Sphere of the Moon, signifies no more than these other Expressions, of reaching to Heaven, or reaching above the Clouds: And he believes the An­tients aim'd by this Phrase to express an Height above the middle Region, or above our Atmosphere, that Pa­radise might be serene: And he tells us the Tradition of reaching to the Lunar Circle is deriv'd by Albertus Magnus as high as from S. Thomas the Apostle, &c.

I know some reply to this Opinion, that if Paradise had been as high elevated as those Authors represent it, the Basis or Foundation of it must have taken up, in a manner, the whole Earth, for it to have afforded an ea­sie and gentle Ascent to Men, if the State of Innocency had continued: Whence they say, that when those Fa­thers said that Paradise reacht to the Lunar Circle, or near Heaven, they said it hyperbolically, to shew the Excellency of it by its hyperbolical Height, or to set forth the continual even Temper of the Air there, it re­sembling in this the coelestial Bodies, which are with­out Contrariety.

But to pass by this Answer, the ground on which these Authors went to give Paradise this high elevated Situa­tion, which the Author intimates to have been only for a Sereneness of the Air; I find by a learned School-Divine to have been three-fold: First, for affording a Descent to the four Rivers, which are said to have is­su'd [Page 130] from Paradise to water the whole Earth: Secondly, for a serene and wholsom Air, whence they would place it above the Winds and Vapors of the Earth: Thirdly, that it might be preserv'd at the time of the Deluge, as they all suppos'd it was, being much higher than all the Mountains, said then to have been overflown. We find therefore on what ground Barcephas gave Paradise an high elevated Situation, Lib. de Parad. c. 9. viz. For the Course of the four Rivers, which he plainly signifies thus, Asserimus eam terrum, in quâ est Paradisus, altiorem multò, sublimioremque existere hâc quam nos colimus: Id enim ita se habere in­dicio sunt quatuor illa grandia flumina, quae orta in Pa­radisi terrâ, per hanc nostram ab illâ diversam feruntur. Ralegh also quotes the following Passage from him to this effect. L. 1. c. 3. §. 4. Deinde hoc quoque responsum volumus, Para­disum multò sublimiore positum esse Regione, atque haec no­stra extet terra, eóque fieri, ut illinc per praecipitium dela­bantur fluvii tantò cum impetu, quantum verbis exprimere non possis; eóque impetu impulsi, pressique, sub oceani vado ra­piantur, unde rursus prosiliant, ebulliantque in hoc à nostro culto orbe.

So again, on the other ground, viz. The Preserva­tion of Paradise at the Flood, it was given an high Si­tuation: L. 5. Adv. Heres. c. 5. and as for its Continuance since the Flood, Irenaeus says it was an Apostolical Tradition, that Henoch and Elias now remain in Paradise, and tells us he learnt it from Priests, who were Disciples of the Apostles. The same is taught by Justin Martyr, Athanasius, Austin, Hierom, Aquinas, Theophilus Bishop of Antioch, Malven­da, and many others. Malvenda says that no Divine till Peter Lombard, nor none after him till Eugubinus, said that Paradise was not still in being, or that it perisht by the Deluge. Hence we see, if Christian Tradition shall be stood to, and it be the general Tradition of the Fa­thers, that Paradise is still in being, then must the Au­thor's Hypothesis, concerning the Fall of the Earth at the Flood be void.

[Page 131]Now, whereas the Author says, that the high Situation ascrib'd to Paradise, must not be understood of Paradise taken a part from the rest of the Earth, but of the whole Primaeval Earth wherein the Seat of Paradise was; which may reasonably be suppos'd to have been as high eleva­ted as the tops of our Mountains are now: We find that tho the suppos'd elevated Situation which the Au­thor gives to the Primaeval Earth, and the Course he gives to the Sun in the Antediluvian World, might possibly have afforded a Paradisiacal sereneness of the Air, as he inti­mates, yet his frame of the Primaeval Earth, would ma­nifestly subvert the other two Grounds the Fathers went upon, viz. the Course of the four Rivers, and the preservation of Paradise at the Deluge; and consequent­ly he cannot pretend the least colour of strength given to his Hypothesis, as being backt by the Authority of those Fathers and Authors, who have given Paradise an high Situation.

Next, The Author mentions another set of Authors, that interpret the Flaming Sword that guarded Paradise, to be the Torrid Zone; whereby he says, they plainly in­timate that Paradise, in their Opinion, lay beyond the Torrid Zone, or in the Antihemisphere; and for this O­pinion he quotes Tertullian, Cyprian, Austin, Isidore His­palensis and Aquinas: and in his Latin Copy he much urges for the Torrid Zone's being signified by the Fla­ming Sword.

To this I answer, That if any of those Authors sup­pos'd Paradise beyond the Torrid Zone, and not in it (as Tertullian at least held the later) it's manifest that they never suppos'd any other Hemisphere inhabit­bited there, (tho possibly they might suppose an Island there) for what then should have hindred all those In­habitants from entring into Paradise, they being past the Flaming Sword. And it seems strange that the Au­thor should urge for the Torrid Zone's being signified by the Flaming Sword, he having suppos'd that the other Hemisphere was inhabited before the Flood; whence [Page 132] consequently all the Men there must have had free access to Paradise. These are such Inconsistencies that there is no Man but must see them.

Another form of Expression is instanc'd by the Au­thor, as us'd amongst the Ancients concerning Para­dise, viz. That it was beyond the Ocean, this being of the same Import with the former Head, pointing still at the other Hemisphere. To which it may be answer'd as be­fore, that tho they said Paradise was beyond the Ocean, it's no consequence that they held another Hemisphere inhabited there; though possibly some may have fansied Paradise an Island there, or in the Torrid Zone itself.

De bell. Jud. l. 2. c. 7.As to the Passage of Josephus quoted by the Author con­cerning the Esseens, a Sect among the Jews, relating to this Opinion, Josephus explains the meaning of it well enough, saying thus, The Esseens say, as the Greeks, that the Souls of good men live beyond the Ocean, in a place of Pleasure, where they are never molested with Rains, nor Heat, but have always a sweet and pleasant Air coming out of the Ocean: but the wicked Souls they say go into a place very Tempestuous, where there is alway, as it were, Winter wea­ther, &c. whence it's plain enough they took their Opini­on from the Allegorical Fictions of the Greeks; some of whom said, that Tartarus was a place under the Poles, by reason of the sharpness of the Cold, and lasting Darkness.

After all, the Author concludes that what account we have of the Christian Fathers concerning Paradise, is but a short and broken account; but their obscure Expres­sions terminate all in this common Conclusion, That Pa­radise was without our Continent, according to the gene­ral Opinion and Tradition of Antiquity.

As to its being a short and broken Account, I think it must be so lookt upon by all Men; and as for their seeming to place it without our Continent, I shall see forth beneath what seems to me most probable in the Case: but at present upon the whole foregoing matter, I have only this to offer: Ralegh, as a Civil Historian with Reason says, L. 1. c. 7. §. 10. That he toyld himself in making out [Page 133] the Seat of the terrestrial Paradise, and the place where the Ark, rested, because the true understanding of those places do only and truly teach the Worlds Plantation, and the beginning of Nations before and after the Flood; and all Story, as well general, as particular thereby may be the better understood. And though his performance in that kind, nor no Mans else has been such as to obtain a general Reception; yet since our Guides in Divine matters, in whose Authority we ought to acquiesce, con­clude that there was a Corporeal Paradise, we must be govern'd by them in it, and may well conceive that the Qualities of the Primigenial Soil, Air and Waters far ex­ceeding ours, there might have been some particular part in it, though not known, answering to Moses's de­scription. And for what flourishes, the Fathers or any other Christian or Jewish Authors have added to it; since they have not particulary made out the place; I think we are free to judge as we please of them. And as for Heathen Authors both Greeks and Latins, who had their learning of the Aegyptians; they are all known to have de­riv'd their learning with the Egyptians from Moses, and the Postdiluvian Patriarchs before him, though their streams since have happen'd to have been miserably corrupted: but in their Paradises they seem to me still to have kept to the Intellectual, as the Allegorical Fathers did, their topical Paradises being only feign'd. And as to the pas­sages of the Poets, as that of Virgil concerning the per­petual Spring ascrib'd to the Golden Age, and urg'd by the Author:

Servisn tells us that this is said only according to a Poe­tical freedom, not that a real Truth could be meant in it. The same must be said of Ovid's Verses of the Golden Age, urg'd also by the Author.

Whosoever takes this as a real Truth, I think with as good reason may take the following Verses, as so likewise,

For the one seems as Philosophical to me as the other. And when the Fathers, to whom we owe a greater Re­verence, expatiate themselves, as they often do, after the like manner, we give them no other Interpretation: for when they go about to describe a Paradise, which certain­ly was greatly adorn'd in itself, their business is to pre­sent us under one view, with all that is most specious and excellent in Nature: so that they say it had in it whatsoever was best and most pleasant in every Season of the Year, the sweetness of the Spring, the plenty of the Summer, the chearfulness of Autumn, the rest and ease of Winter. And Fancy is content to indulge all this, as it is set before it, without reflecting on those Incon­sistencies which strict reasoning would soon stumble at. And all those great Wits, who have writ so floridly of the Golden Age, could not but know other things, as they consider'd what according to Natural and Civil History the World could afford in all Ages from the Beginning. From the view of which another face of things must be presented, Meth. hist. c. 5. and we must say with Bodin, Aetas illa quam auream vocant, si ad hanc nostram conferatur, ferrea vide­ri possit: Praef. in l. de omn. gent. Rit. And we shall find, as Boemus says, How po­litely and happily Men live now, and how rudely and crudely the first Mortals liv'd from the Creation to the Deluge, and many Ages after thorowout the Earth. How [Page 135] could Men be conceiv'd to have liv'd in those times, but as they have lately been found to do in the West-Indies? vita cruda, sedes incerta, libido promiscua. So Cicero tells us, Fuit quoddam tempus cum in agris homines passim ho­stiarun more vagabantur, & sibi victu ferino vitam propa­gabant, nec ratione animi quicquam, sed pleraque viribus corporis administrabant. Nondum divinae Religionis, non humani officii ratio colebatur, nemo legitimas viderat nup­tiaes, non certos quisquam inspexerat liberos, non jus aequa­bile quid utilitatis haberet, acceperant. Ralegh says, the World would be a dull thing without Navigation; and Plutarch aggravating the matter, says, That Man would be the most vile, most necessitous, and least re­garded Animal in the World without it: and we have no account of any such thing us'd in the Antediluvian times, nor in many succeeding Ages to any purpose, whereas Men have now so cultivated, and imbellish'd things both by Land and Sea, that the present Earth com­par'd to its ancient wild, and incult state, must be con­cluded another thing from what then it could have been. So Tacitus tells us, that Germany formerly was all Woods and Moors, barren of Fruit-Trees and unimprovable by any Husbandry, that there were Cattle in it, but Dwar­fish; no Gold nor Silver in it, and therefore despis'd by all Men; whereas it's now as pleasant a Counrry almost in all respects as France, Spain, or Italy.

Indeed, in refetence to the Civil or Moral World, it might be said, that by the Golden Age is meant the An­cient simplicity, which the Poets or others would repre­sent in our Forefathers, as leading a quiet and calm Life, free from all Treachery, Voluptuousness, and other burthen­some circumstances to humane Nature; as we find some of the Ancients formerly had so great a hatred and detesta­tion of Pleasures, Superfluities and Voluptuousness, that in the Temple of the Town of Thebes, there was a famous square Pillar erected, on which were engraven Curses and Execrations against King Menis, who was the first that withdrew the Egyptians from a simple and sober [Page 136] Life without Mony and Riches. But it cannot be thought that ever this Humour was general in the World, though it might happen sometimes in one place, and sometimes in another, Myth. l. 2. c. 1. according to the vicissitude of humane Affairs. Or we may say with Natalis Comes, what is the Golden Age but a common liberty of all Men in a City well go­vern'd by Laws, where wild Beasts live freely with do­mestick Animals, Dogs with Hares, Lambs with Wolves, and the like. For in a time of Peace good Men live safe under the protection of the Laws among Cut-throats and Thieves. Some by the Golden Age understand the time when Men were govern'd by the Law of Nature written in their Hearts, before the written Law was in being. And others by the four Ages, will have four sorts of Men to be signified. But to pass from the Moral World to the Natural; though as to the place which God appointed for Paradise, it must be allow'd to have been adorn'd with all advantages and delights from the Beginning; yet as to the rest of the Earth, I know not what warrant we have from the Scriptures or other Hi­story. Or what may be suggested from Reason for any advantagious furniture it had for supplying Men with Necessaries or Pleasures. Indeed, the Scriptures tell us of the Longaevity of the Antediluvian Patriarchs, and we have suggested Conjectures already of what it may be imputed too; but as to the great Fertility ascrib'd to the Primigenial Soil, that of necessity must have added to the inconvenience of Habitation by an overgrowth, with­out Persons to cultivate it; and it seems likely to me that Adam, as soon as he was turn'd out of Paradise, was hardly put to his shifts: L▪ an Ʋ ­sus Carn. sit licit. Plutarch also sufficiently tells us what Conveniencies for the support of humane Life a recent World could afford; so that a Golden Age in any such respect, seems to me to have been represented ra­ther for gratifying the Fancy than the Judgment. And all I can bring it to, is this, that as the Ancients by the Gol­den Age, in the moral World would represent an Ideal state of pure Nature and of Innocency; so by all their [Page 137] Flourishes on the then Course of external Nature, they would personate an Idaeal state of it correspondent to the other.

Having thus far shewn how little the Author's Hypo­thesis is backt by the Sentiments of the Ancients con­cerning Paradise: I shall now briefly set forth, what, as far as my Reading has gone, seems to me most probable in this matter.

The Learned Mr. Gregory, on that passage of Zach. C. 6.12. Behold the man whose name is East; Notes on Scrip. pas. c 18. whom he makes out to be Christ, lays down this as a Ground, That the special Presence of God, as he superintends this World, ever was and is in that part of the Heav'n, or Heav'ns, which answers to the Aequinoctial East of the holy Land.

To make this good, he says, the Ancients always attri­buted to the Gods the Eastern parts, as Porphyry says, Proph. l. de Nymph. Antr. and those parts are called by Varro and Festus, the Seats of the Gods, &c.

He proves it also from Reason, according to Aristotle, Phys. l. 8. Text. 84. thus, The first Mover, viz. God must of necessity be pre­sent either to the Center or Circumference of his Orb, and since Motions are most rapid in the nearest distance to the Impression, and since that part of the Sphere is most rapidly mov'd, which is most remote from the Poles, therefore the movers Place is about the middle Line: and this he thinks is the reason why the Aequinoxes are be­liev'd to be of so sacred an Import and signification in Astrology; for by them (as Ptolomy says) it's judg'd concerning things Divine, and the Service belonging to the House of God.

Now the Philosophers meaning is not as if the Mover presented himself alike unto the whole Circumference, but assisting especially to that part from whence the motion does begin, viz. the East, whence Averrhoes rightly says, L. 2. Text. 3. some Religious worship God that way.

Since therefore the Aequinoctial East passes through the whole Circle, of necessity 'tis to be meant of some cer­tain [Page 138] Position, nor is it possible to mean it but of the horizontal Segment of the then habitable World; the ut­termost bounds whereof from Sun to Sun, they absolute­ly term'd East and West. In the Philosophers time the Circle of this Horizon past through the Pillars of Her­cules in the West, Calpe and Abyla; and the Altars of A­lexander in the East. And at the Pillars of Hercules the Arabians fixt their Great Meridian. Now, this Meridian passes through the tenth degree of Longitude from that of Ptolomy: and the River Hyphasis, on the fur­thest banks of which Alexanders Altars were rais'd, as being the place where his Journeys ended, is plac'd by Ptolomy in 131.35. the difference of Longitude is a­bout 120 degrees; the second part of which is 60. and because the Meridian of Jerusalem is 70 degrees from that of Ptolomy, that is 60 from the Arabian, the Holy City was, as it was anciently term'd, Ʋmbilicus Terrae, being precisely plac'd betwixt the East and West of the habitable World.

Therefore the Aequinoctial East of Jerusalem, is the Aequinoctial East of the whole, and answering to the first movers Receipt, which therefore was said to be in Oriente aequinoctiali.

Now, the Notion of Paradise in the Christian accep­tation, was that part of the Heaven where the Throne of God and the Lamb is, it being, as Zoroaster terms it, in the Chaldean Oracles, the all enlightned recess of Souls. And Irenaeus says, Adv. hae­res. l. 5. c. 5. as he heard from Disciples of the A­postles, the Receipt of just and perfect Men is a certain Paradise in the Eastern part of the third Heaven; and many others of the Fathers agree with him herein. And Pa [...]. 68.32.33. David says, according to the Arabick Translation, Sing unto God ye Kingdoms of the Earth, O sing praises to the Lord, Selah, to him that rides upon the heaven of heavens in the Eastern part. Gen. 2.8. It's said, And the Lord planted a Garden Eastward, or toward the East. In the Apostolical Constitutions it's said, And turning toward the East let them pray unto God, who sits upon the heaven of heavens in the Eastern part. L. 2. c. 61.

[Page 139]Mr. Gregory having thus establisht his Ground, says, that this is the reason why God planted a Garden in Eden Eastward; and that though some say with Merce­rus, That nothing hinders but we may take it generally that Paradise was planted in the Eastern part of the World towards the rising Sun, yet Damascen, and Barcephas say, Barcep. de Parad. l. 31. c. 13. that at the beginning of March the Sun alway rises directly over Paradise; meaning that the Garden of Eden was planted toward the Aequinoctial East of the Holy Land; and the meaning of this is that, the Sanctum Sanctorum of this Mother Church pointed towards that part of Hea­ven where the Sun rises in the month Nisan. For the Sanctuary of Paradise was the recess of the Garden, which was distinguisht and made so by the presence of the Tree of Life: Now this Tree, according as we commonly translate it, was planted in the midst of the Garden; but in truth it stood in the Eastern part of the place. And that not only Adam, but the whole World also worshipt towards the East till Abraham's time, Maimoni in his More, and S. Ephrem, and others in the Arabick Catena testifie.

And it depends from this very same Ground, that the most solemn piece of all the Jewish Service, I mean that Great attonement, but once a Year to be made, by the highest and most holy Man, and in the most holy Place, was perform'd towards the East, contrary to all other manner of addressments in their Devotion. For Lev 16.14, 15. It's commanded, that the high Priest shall do with the blood of the Goat, as with the blood of the Bullock, and sprinkle it with his finger upon the Mercy-seat East­ward. Now its known that the sprinkling of blood, e­specially this, was the Figure of him who by his own blood entred into the holy Place, and obtain'd Eternal Redemption, Heb. 9.12. And hence Isychius Hierosolom, In Lev. c. 16. says, this was done to represent the Man, Cui oriens no­men ejus: and there are many passages in the Scriptures which signifie to us, that Christ came down to us from the East.

[Page 140]And this is one reason why our Saviour is said to be the Man whose Name is the East: in reference to whom the Christians by some have been called Orientales, and the Blessed Virgin is call'd Orientalis porta.

The other reason is according to what was intimated before, viz. that from Adam till Abraham's time the whole World worshipt towards the East. Now this Original, Principal, and (as it ought to have been everlasting) Cere­mony, by an Errour of the Persian and Chaldean worship­pers degenerating into an Idolatry of the Sun; Abraham, (says the Learned Maimoni) by divine Inspiration, ap­pointed the West to his Hebrews: therefore the Taber­nacle and Temple were set towards that side of Heaven. So that they did, and they did not worshipt towards the West. 'Tis true, all the Sacrifices were offer'd up that way, but all this while they worshipt no more towards the West than towards the North. They worship towards the Ark, or towards the place of that, and do so still, and are so to do, because the Sun of Righteousness was to set upon their Horizon, and to them the Man whose Name is th' East, is not yet brought forth.

It's known also that Christs Star appear'd in the East, and the Wise-men came thence, and Christ ascended up in­to the Eastern part of Heaven, as the Psalmist says, Qui ascendit super coelum coeli ad Orientem. And S. Jo. Dama­scen delivers as from the Apostles that he shall come again in like manner, as he was seen to go hence, answerable to what he himself said; For as the lightning comes out of the East, and shines even unto the West, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. We worship him therefore toward the East, as expecting him from thence.

Mr. Gregory concludes with an ancient Profession of the Eastern Church, who say, We pray toward the East, for that our Lord Christ when he ascended into Heaven, went up that way, and there fits in the Heaven of Hea­vens above the East, according to David, Praise the Lord who sits in the Heaven of Heavens in the East: and in truth, we make no doubt but that our Lord Christ, as [Page 141] respecting his humane Nature, has his Seat in the Eastern part of the Heav'n of Heav'ns, and sits with his Face to­wards this World. To pray therefore, or to worship toward the East, is to pray and worship toward our Saviour.

And that all this is to be meant of the Aequinoctial East; L. 1. c. 13. it is made out by Moses Barcephas in his Discourse of Paradise: he says there, that the place toward which they prayed is that over which the Sun rises in the Month Nisan, which is the Vernal Aequinox.

This is what I have briefly collected from Mr. Gre­gory, from which I may draw what follows as a Corollary.

It appears from what is said that the Ancient Jews and Christians plac'd their Terrestrial and Coelestial Para­dises; with reference to the states of the Churches Mi­litant and Triumphant, the one under the Sun on the Earth, the other over it, in the third Heavens, as the Sun was plac'd in the Aequinoctial East of Hierusalem, and consequently of the whole habitable World; and how possibly could the ancient Mystae, who took upon them to bring all things to Time and Place, more aptly perso­nate a particular presence of the divine Logos in Heav'n and Earth than there? Since as he enlightens every Man coming into this World, so the Sun being in that Aequi­noctial East Point, equally diffus'd its light over the whole habitable Earth, and hence we direct our divine Worship that way, and may conclude the Seat of the Terrestrial Paradise there, though perhaps it was miracu­lously founded, or at least for many Ages, L. de Ae­ris & E­pochis. has not been known to Man. And as the foremention'd Mr. Gregory has observ'd, according to the sense of the most know­ing. The Year of the World began, the Sun being in that Vernal Aequinox Point, its Revolutions beginning and ending there, nor can any other good reason be gi­ven why the Astronomers should deduce all their Calcu­lations from the head of Aries.

If the Pains I have bestow'd in composing this long Chapter, may help somewhat to ease the mind of any [Page 142] Man that peruses it concerning the Seat of Paradise, I shall think it well bestow'd: at least, beside my labour for my pains, it seems to give a little ease to my own.

CHAP. VIII.

HERE the Author sets forth the uses of his Theory, for the illustration of Antiquity, and endeavours to explain the Ancients Chaos, the Uninhabitableness of the Torrid Zone, the Changes of the Poles of the World, the Doctrine of the Mundane Egg, and endeavours to shew how America was first Peopled, &c.

First then concerning the Ancients Chaos; he says, they have made a dark, confus'd and unintelligible Story of it, telling us of moral Principles in it instead of Natural; of Strife, Discord and Division on the one hand, and Love and Friendship on the other: and that after a long Contest, Love got the better of Discord, and united the disagreeing Principles. Then they make the forming of the World out of the Chaos a kind of Genealogy or Pe­digree; Chaos was the Common Parent of all, and from Chaos sprung first Night, and Tartarus or Oceanus; of Night were born Aether and the Earth, the Earth con­ceiv'd by the Influences of Aether, and brought forth Man and all Animals.

This, he says, seems a Poetical Fiction rather than Phi­losophy, yet compar'd with his Theory of the Chaos, will appear a pretty regular account, how in the formation of the World the Chaos divided it self successively into several Regions rising from one another, as he has set forth in his first Book, how the Chaos from an uniform Mass wrought in it self successively into several Regions or Ele­ments. The grossest parts sank to the Center, on this lay the mass of Waters, and over the Waters, was a dark, impure caliginous Air, which the Ancients call'd Night, as they call'd the mass of Waters Oceanus or Tartarus, which two terms [Page 143] he finds with them often of the like force. Now this Turbid air, he says, purifying itself by degrees, as the more subtle parts flew upwards, and compos'd th' Aether, so the Earthy parts dropt down on the surface of the Water, and that Mass, on the other hand sending up its lighter and more oily parts towards its Surface, these two incorporate there, and compos'd this habitable Earth, so being the Daughter of Nox and Oceanus, and the Mo­ther of all other things.

This Doctrine of the Chaos, he says, the Ancients call'd the Genealogy of the Gods, and thus from Eris and Eros, Love and Discord, the World arose: for in the first Com­motion of the Chaos, after an intestine struggle of all the parts, the Elements separated from one another into so many different Bodies or Masses; and in this state and posture things continued a good while, which the An­cients after their Poetical or Moral way call'd the Reign of Eris or Contention, Hatred, Flight, and Disaffection, till Love and good Nature conquer'd, Venus rose out of the Sea, &c.

I shall here adjoyn also what the Author says of the Doctrine of the Mundane Egg; because it particularly relates to the rising of the World from the Chaos. He says then, that the Ancients had a Doctrine partly Symboli­cal concerning the Mundane Egg; or their comparing the World to an Egg, and especially in th'Original Compo­sition of it. Now he tells us, 'tis certain that by the World in that Similitude, they did not mean the great U­niverse, for that has neither Figure, nor any determinate form of Composition; and it would be a great vanity and rashness to compare this to an Egg: but this Com­parison is to be understood of the sublunary World, or of the Earth: and for a general Key to Antiquity upon this Argument, he lays down this as a Maxim or Canon, that what the Ancients have said concerning the form and figure of the World, or concerning th' Original of it from a Chaos, or about the Periods or dissolution of it, is never to be understood of the great Universe, but of [Page 144] our Earth, and of this sublunary and Terrestrial World. He intimated somewhat to this purpose in his first Book, saying, that when we speak of a rising World, and the Contemplation of it, C. 1. we do not mean this of the Great Universe, for who can describe the Original of that, but we speak of the sublunary World, this Earth, and its dependancies, which rose out of a Chaos about 6000 Years ago.

Now, he says, he has shewn, that the Figure of the Earth when finisht, was Oval, and th' inner form of it was a frame of four Regions encompassing one another, where that of the Fire lay like the yolk, and a shell of Earth inclos'd them all: and thus the Riddle of the Mun­dane Egg is Expounded.

I think fit for Clearness-sake, to consider this part of the Chapter, before I proceed to the rest.

First then, as to Strife, Discord, or Division, on one hand in the Chaos, and Love and Friendship on the other: it's known on what account these are brought in: for some of the ancient Philosophers made two eternal and infi­nite Principles on this ground; that one natural thing might be derived from many Causes; and the an­cient Philosophers generally affirm the Principles of Na­ture to be contrary, and that one thing cannot be con­trary to itself. And whereas the Author calls these Mo­ral Principles, it's known to the Mystae, that there is a Microcosmical, as well as a Macrocosmical Chaos, and that the Ancients often, under one Tenour of Discourse, car­ried on both Moral and Natural Doctrines, and knew well how to open or unlock the Microcosmical Chaos, and to form thence a Moral World. The Doctrine of Moses and the Prophets are full of this Mystery, and a consum­mation of them was in the Person of our Saviour Christ: the Doctrine also of the Gentils, both Philosophers and Poets, who were the ancient Divines, contain the same Mysteries; but their proceedings in several respects were in a very corrupt way, and are now expell'd the World upon the establishment of a greater Light. Those who [Page 145] are any way initiated in these Mysteries, know how far they may be free to express themselves in them; concern­ing which I have nothing more to offer, than to pray that Love in the Moral World, as well as in the Natural, may still overpower the other perverse and refractory Principle, and beseech God, in his mercy to enlighten every Man in his appointed time.

As to the Chaos out of which the World rose, though the Author thinks he has given a fair Explanation of it according to the sence of the Ancients, and of the Changes it underwent, when it form'd a World, and all Creatures rose from it; yet I think I have shewn before the inconsi­stency of this Explanation, beside what else may be said a­gainst it. And admitting th'application, he has made of his Doctrine, as to what Changes he supposes to have past in the Chaos, when the World was form'd, might quadrate in some tolerable way with what seems to be deliver'd by the Ancients concerning it: yet since we are here gotten into fabulous Philosophy, and since those terms of the Ancients, Night, Tartarus, Oceamus, Aether, &c. have various significations according as they are variously ex­pounded by several Authors, all that any Man can urge in the Case can amount to no more than his Say-so, un­less the determinate sense of those words, as us'd by the Ancients, were better ascertain'd to us than perhaps any Man has yet done: concerning which I should have ex­pected somewhat in a Book, if extant, which the learned Joan. Picus, in his Oration, and other parts of his Works, says he had written, Entituled Theologia Poetica, our Common Mythologists not reaching it; mean while to avoid Cavillations in this kind, I shall only set down briefly what I conceive to have been the sense of the Ancients concerning the Chaos, and the Mundane Egg; and let it bear as far as it may: though withal, to lessen that Reverence which some may have for the Cos­mogonia of the ancient Gentils, I shall first set down the sense of Eusebius concerning it; who says, L: de praep. Evang. That though Plato, out of a seeming compliance with the Laws of his [Page 146] City, pretends to give credit to the Poetick Theogonia, which is the same with their Cosmogonia, as a Tradition deliver'd down from the Sons of the Gods; who must not be suppos'd to have been ignorant of their Parents; yet all the while he does but slily jeer it, plainly inti­mating the fabulosity thereof, when he affirms it to have been introduc'd, not only without necessary Demonstra­tions, but also without so much as Probabilities. This being premis'd, I may set down what my own thoughts may be concerning it, as follows.

The Ancient Philosophers who made it their business to search into the Reasons of Humane and Divine things, could not rest in the Examination, and setting forth of the Causes of particular Effects they found here on the Earth, but attempted the consideration of the whole World, and how all things issued at first from their di­vine or metaphysical Principle. Now the World be­ing anterior to Mankind, after they had contemplated the proceeding of it from God, when they came to set it forth, they could not more plausibly do it, than by simili­tude, or Analogy to those common Generations we have before us (whence came the Doctrine of the Mundane Egg) and by the references, which they conceiv'd were be­twixt the operations of the Ideas in the Divine Mind, and those they observ'd in the mind of Man. They ob­serv'd that Nature and Art proceeded from certain ob­scure and rough Dilineations to a more exact Form; and concluding that as Art imitates Nature, so Nature does the Deity from whence it flowed, they thought that by observing that order which Nature holds, was the only method to find out the way of the Divine Operation.

But as I have intimated in my Considerations on the first Book, I know not how far we may look upon any of the most learned amongst the Gentils to have held any real successive Changes to have pass'd in the Chaos, toward the formation of the World: their design in set­ting forth a Chaos, and Changes it underwent, seeming to have been only to help our way of conceiving, by re­ducing [Page 147] all things mentally to Number and Order, as is­suing at first from one Principle, according to the Py­thagorean Philosophy, deriving all things à monade, or as rising ab ovo Analogically; which amounts to no more than what Jamblicus says of the Egyptians, viz. that they made Mud and Water floating (the Chaos being suppos'd such) their Hieroglyphick of material and corporeal things. And as Austin says, when the Ancients talk of a Begin­ning of the World, intellerunt non esse hoc temporis sed substitutionis initium. De Civ. Dei, l. 10. c. 31.

Whereas the Author will not allow Moses's Cosmopaeia to be Philosophical; it not passing from one rank of Be­ings to another in a Physical Order and Connection, according to the motions and transformations of the Chaos: Moses making all things to spring from the all­powerful Word of God one after the other, in that or­der which was fittest for furnishing an habitable World according to a popular Decorum: To this I say, first, that many Men already pretend to have shewn, and among others the Learned Vallesius, L. de sacr. phil. c. 1. a due Physical Order and Con­nexion in Moses's Cosmopoeia, and that all things past in it according to a due priority of Nature: And concerning this Cosmopoeia, I could wish to have read a Book writ by Don Isaac Abravanel, a Spanish Jew (mention'd in Father Simon's Catalogue of Jewish Authors, annext to his Critical History) entituled Miphaboth Elohim (Works of God) where the said Rabbin has learnedly treated of the Crea­tion of the World, and withal examin'd whence Moses had what is writ in the Book of Genesis. Secondly, That when the Author shall shew us in a more Philosophical way than Moses has done (let him take it from whom of the Gentils he pleases) how the World at first proceeded from God, we may hearken to him: mean while there is this to observe; first, that the Creation was a Meta­physical act, and the Order of it is incomprehensible to Man farther than it has pleas'd God to reveal it to him by his Prophets. Secondly, That I have already validly re­futed (as I conceive) those separations which the Author [Page 148] has suppos'd to have past in the Chaos at the formation of the World. Thirdly, That if the Author, or any Man else shall attempt to explain what the Ancients have said of a Chaos, and any successive Changes it underwent, when it form'd an habitable World; before they expect us to acquiesce in their Explanation, or to believe that the Ancients meant more in what they said in that kind, than to render our thoughts easie, as to an apprehension of a beginning of things, by their setting it forth by a similitude to common Generations from Eggs, they ought to bring that ancient debated Point to a clear determi­nation, viz. whether the Egg or Chick were first; for those who maintain a Chaos, and real successive Changes to have past in it, must make out the Egg to have been before the Chick; whereas Plutarch, Macrobius, and others who have debated the Point, seem more inclin'd to the other Opinion, holding all things at first to have been set in their perfect state, through the perfection of the first Cause. Met. l. 14. c. 6. Aristotle also tells us, that Pherecydes Syrus, the Magi, and others of the Sages, affirm'd that the first Principle, whence all other things were generated, was the best; or of an absolute perfect Being: so that in the Scale of Nature things did not ascend upwards, from the most imperfect to the more perfect Beings, (as the an­cient Poets represent) but on the contrary, descend downwards from the most perfect to the less perfect, of which Opinion he also declares himself.

Whereas the Author sets down this as a Maxim that what the Antients have said concerning the Original of the World from a Chaos, or about its Periods or Disso­lution, is never to be understood of the great Universe, but of our Earth, or of this sublunary World; and thinks he can demonstrate that Moses's Cosmogonia is so to be under stood; I know not whether it may be so easily done; finding the greatest part of Writers to be of a contrary Opinion. And those that maintain that Opi­nion may do well to tell us (if the Heavens were for I know not what series of Ages before this Earth, and sub­lunary [Page 149] Region) what this place was before the time of the Creation, set forth by Moses; whether it were a Vacuum, or a Spacium imaginarium, for it would seem an odd Hole left by Providence, after the rest of Beings were completed.

But as what Moses has said of the Creation, by most Christian Writers is understood of the whole System of Beings, as well coelestial as terrestrial, so we find when the antient Gentils speak of the Rise of things from a Chaos, they mean the same: Hesiod, and Ovid, and others that write of the Chaos, are plain that the Heavens rose from it as well as the Earth: And we know the Her­metick Philosophers, who are lookt upon by some to be much more antient than Moses, but certainly of great Antiquity, tell us of a Cohabitation there was of Supe­riors and Inferiors in the Chaos: and that upon the Se­paration of it, the Superiors retir'd to their coelestial A­bode. Aristophanes also, whom the Author admires above the rest, plainly says in his Cosmogonia, that the Chaos was before the Earth, the Air, and the Heavens. Moreo­ver when the Author says the Theogonia of the Antients was the same with their Cosmogonia, and their Cosmogo­nia the same with their Geogonia, it would be absurd to understand those Genealogies of the terrestrial Bodies, exclusively to the coelestial: For those Gentils being in­fected with Polytheism, and making the chief Parts and Portions of the World Gods; it's manifest that they did not only make the chief parts of the Earth so; they being known to have ador'd the whole Host of Heaven.

So again, as to the Dissolution of the World by Fire, we find the Antients generally understood it of the Hea­vens as well as of the Earth. Hierom, in his Comment on the 15th. of Isaiah, says, Quae quidem & Philosopho­rum mundi opinio est, omnia quae cernimus igni peritura. Seneca, delivering the Opinion of the Stoicks, says, Sy­dera syderibus incurrent, & omni flagrante materiâ, uno ig­ne, quicquid nunc ex disposito lucet, ardebit. Lucan says,

and he expresses himself to the same purpose elsewhere. Ovid, from the Oracles of the Sibyls, says,

The Sybils Verses are as follows,

So again, it's a common Opinion amongst Christian Di­vines, that the Heavens will be destroy'd by Fire as well as the Earth. L. 4. c. 4. Dr. Hakewill, in his Apology, says, it seems to him the most likely opinion, and most agreeable to Scripture and Reason, that the whole World, with all the parts thereof (only Men, Angels, and Devils, and the third Heavens, the Mansion House of the Saints and Angels, and the Place and Instruments appointed for the tormenting of the Damn'd excepted) shall be totally and finally dissolv'd and annihilated; which he proves by many forcible Arguments, refuting the contrary Opinion, [Page 151] and mentioning many learned Men of his; thinking he has so far evinc'd it, that it is not solidly answerable; to whose Book, for brevity sake, I must remit the Reader. So Salmeron on that passage of S. Peter 2.3. says. Loqui­tur ergo hoc in loco de veris coelis, de quibus David dixit: Initio tu Domine terram fundasti, & Opera manuum tua­rum sunt coeli ipsi peribunt; (nimirum per ignem) ubi osten­dit veros coelos, & veram terram verè peritura. And be­neath. Quòd autem quidam ex patribus interpretabantur non de supremis & veris coelis, sed de aereis & aqueis esse intelligendum; ratione ipsius Textus revincuntur: nam im­primis ostendimus, nunquam coelorum nomine in plurali nu­mero aereos & elementares coelos accipi; deinde post coelos nominatos subdit (elementa verò calore solventur; & infra, elementa ignis ardore tabescent:) quod aerem, & aquam, & sphaeram ignis spectare videtur. Non possunt ergo per coelos accipi illa tria elementa, cum bis coelos ab elementis contra distinguat. Again Esay 34.4. it's said, All the Host of Heaven shall be dissolv'd, and the Heavens shall be roul'd together as a scrole; and all their Host shall fall down, as the Leaf falls from the Vine, and as a falling Fig from a Fig-tree: Which words S. John Apoc. 6.13. seems to have borrowed from the Prophet. In Hist. Evangel. And so I look upon the following Verses of Juvencus to be writ according to a Prophetick Truth.

I shall only add, that those, who by their insight in Symbolical Learning, reach the mystical sense of the Pro­phets, well know that what is symboliz'd by the Heavens will pass away in the day of the mystical Conflagration, as well as what is symboliz'd by the Earth; whence un­less the whole shall be symbolically evacuated, so that [Page 152] the Conflagration shall not concern external nature, I shall ever believe that the one will be concern'd in it, as well as the other: homo cum dormierit, non resurget, dum non erunt Coeli. And not to rest, in mystery where I may be plain, the mystical Conflagration is known to be the Baptism by Fire and the Spirit: (whence, I conceive, some Sects of Christians almost from the first times of Christia­nity, as the Jacobites, Aethiopians, Copts, Isini, &c. in­stead of baptizing with Water, were wont to have their Children burnt by their Priests in the Cheeks or Fore­heads with an Iron, according to that, Matth. 3. He will baptize you with the Holy Ghost and Fire:) Now, when God is pleas'd to send that Baptism, not only Sense, sym­boliz'd by the Earth, but Reason also, symboliz'd by the Heavens, passes away and is absorp'd in the Spirit, and car­ryed above itself; the Spirit being as much exalted above Reason, as Reason is above Sense; and this is a truth own'd by all Divines; though none, I conceive, can ap­prehend how the thing is transacted, but those to whom God has vouchsafed that Baptism, they being brought into that State of mind, which made S. Paul say, Omnia mihi in Aenigmate facta sunt: Nothing being able to per­ceive the ways of the Spirit, but the Spirit; and hence we find after the Apostles receiv'd it, they were censur'd by the People of being intoxicated with Wine; their discourse then being besides the common apprehension of Men; and hence S. Paul also, in the like circumstance, was taxt by Festus, of being grown mad through too much Learning.

In reference to this assertion of the Author, viz. that the Rise of the World from a Chaos, and its periods, must be understood only of our sublunary World; there is one Opinion, which deserves particularly to be noted, viz. that of the Antient Cabalists. These Ancient Jewish Rabins, as Eleasar, Moses Aegyptius, Simon, Ismael, Jo­dan, Nachinan, and others, with whom Origen seems to agree, would never yield precedence in depth of Learn­ing to the Philosophers of the Gentils: and therefore [Page 153] derided their Opinions, who by Astrology and Philosophy pretended to know the Methods taken by providence, in the Rise and Periods of the World; and affirm'd them­selves the only Men, knowing in the Mysteries of that Immense Aeternity; as having drawn a consummate knowledge in reference thereunto, from a Divine Tra­dition, first communicated to Moses by God himself in Mount Sinai, God saying, Esdr. 4. c. 14. v. 5. that he had shewn him the secrets and end of times. These Doctors say, that by the benefit of this Cabala or Tradition, the marrow of the Law of Moses, and the deepest secrets of God are reveal'd to them; and that they thence know, that God has created infinite Worlds in a continued suc­cession, and destroy'd and demolish'd them again, viz. this sublunary Region, every seven thousand years; and the superior Region every forty nine thousand years. They add, that in six of the seven thousand years the Chaos generates and produces all new things, and those being ended, it gathers all things into itself again, and rests the seventh thousand year, and in that millenary of rest, it fits and prepares it self for a new Germination; and so a certain continued succession of Worlds has been hither­to, and will be for the future; and at length this infe­rior World being thus renewed, and as it were reborn seven times, and the course of forty nine thousand years expir'd; in the fifty thousandth year the Heavens will also be dissolv'd, and all things will return into their an­cient Chaos and first matter; and then God taking all the blessed Minds and Spirits to himself, will give rest to the bulk of this Universe; and afterwards, all things being renewed by his Immense Wisdom and Power, he will frame a World much more beautiful and pleasant; and for this reason, no mention is made of the Creation of Angels in the Scriptures, where the Creation of the World is set forth, because they remain'd immortal in the Crea­tion of the precedent Worlds; and hence Solomon in the Book of Wisdom, supposes a confus'd matter before the Creation of this World, and says elsewhere, that there [Page 154] is nothing new under the Sun. They endeavour to con­firm their Opinion from several other Testimonies taken from the Scriptures, which I shall not stand here to re­late.

This Opinion, indeed, if it would bear, might have been a good Salvo for those Men, who in the Council of Nice objected to Spiridio, and the other Bishops there, that it seem'd very absurd, God in his Infinite Eternity should have fram'd this World, so short a time to continue, but about four or five thousand years ago; they asking what he did before, or what he should do after this World ceas'd. But the general stream of Divines is against this Opinion, they holding that God framed only one World from the beginning. And when all is said of that Opinion, the Cabalists being a sort of mystical Writers, I look upon the Scope of what they have said concerning infinite re­novations of Worlds, to be directed in a different way from what the letter seems to import; but in such cases every Man being apt to please himself best with his own thoughts, I shall not take upon me here to be their Ex­positor.

Let us now particularly consider the Doctrine of the Ancients concerning the Mundane Egg; whence some far­ther Light may be given to their Doctrine of the Chaos, and of the Worlds Form or Figure. Now concerning that Doctrine (as I have intimated before) the Author says it was partly symbolical, they comparing the World to an Egg, and especially in the original composition of it; and he adds, it's certain that by the World in that si­militude, they did not mean the great Universe, but the sublunary World only, or the Earth, the Figure of which, when finish'd, he has shewn to have been Oval; and that th' inward form of it was a frame of four Regions encom­passing one another, as in an Egg.

I know not why th' Author should be so positive in setting this down as a general Rule for us to prevent er­ror in reading th' Ancients, that what they have writ a­bout the Form and Figure of the World, as well as of its [Page 155] Origine and Dissolution, must be understood only of the Earth; when himself tells in his first Book, c. 5 in the Latin Copy, that some of th' Antients by the Egg represented the World, others the Earth, and others the Chaos. But he will have those who represented the World and the Chaos by it, to have talkt by rote; or through an ill un­derstanding, or being byass'd by their private Opinions to have wrested the signification of it, from what the wi­sest among th' Ancients thought. This indeed would be an easie way of refuting th' Ancients if it would pass, but when we particularly consider what they have said in this point, we shall not find a Man of them that favours th' Authors particular Opinion; and in my first Book, I think, I have shewn it a notorious error if they had.

There are three ways then of considering the Doctrine of the Ancients concerning the Mundane Egg; first, how the Egg is compar'd, particularly to the Earth or sublunary Region. Secondly, how to the whole Universe consi­sting of the Heavens and the Earth. Thirdly, Problem. l. 2. § 84. how to the Chaos. In reference to the first, Alexander Aphrodiseus says, that an Egg comprehends all the qualities of th' Ele­ments, and plainly shews those four first Principles of things within itself; the crusty shell resembles the Earth, it being cold and dry, the White carries the nature of wa­ter, being cold and moist; the Spirit contained in the White is for air, being hot and moist; and the Yolk repre­sents the Fire, having most of heat, and less of drought, nor is it without the colour of Fire: Briefly he says, that the likeness of the whole Universe, which we call the World, is shewn in an Egg; for it consists of four Elements, and has a kind of sphaerical Figure, and carries within it a Principle of Life. Thus we see he makes the sublunary Region an Egg inverted, resembling the Yolk to the Aether, and the Shell to the Earth, contrary to the Authors Opinion. Secondly, the Egg is resembled to the whole Universe by Varro, the most learned among the Ro­mans, as Probus on Virgil's sixth Eclogue acquaints us saying, that Varro compar'd the Heavens to the Shell of an Egg, [Page 156] and the Earth to the Yolk. Achilles Tatius also, quoted by the Author, when he tells us, that the followers of Orpheus affirm the World to be oval, as an Egg, he says it of the whole Universe, as Varro does, which no way advantages the Authors Opinion, applied particularly to the Earth; and the inward envelopings he supposes it had. c. 15. Ptolomy also, in his compost, says, that the Ele­ments and all things compos'd of them, are inclos'd with­in the first Heaven, or the Heaven of the Moon, as the Yolk of an Egg is within the White.

But the main Doctrine of the Ancients concerning the Egg (as the Author himself owns) was by comparing it to the World in its Origin, or as it rose from a Chaos; they setting forth, that as particular Generations are from Eggs, Sympas. l. 2. c. 3. so the whole World rose from it. Thus Plutarch tells us, it was the Opinion of Orpheus and Pythagoras, that the Egg was the principle and ordinary source of Generation; and that Orpheus held the Egg not only more ancient than the Hen, but to have the Seniority of all things in the World. Now though we have no ground to think that the Ancients were as good Egg Philoso­phers, as the World has now, by the help of late Anato­mical Researches, assisted by our Opticks; yet Plutarch to exemplifie Generations, and the rise of things from Eggs, says thus. The World containing many differing species of Animals, there is not one species of them, but passes by the Generation of the Egg; for the Egg produces vola­tiles, which are Birds; swimming Creatures, which are Fishes, in an infinite number; terrestial Animals, as Li­zards; Amphibious Animals, which live both in the Wa­ters, and on the Earth, as Crocodiles; such as have but two feet, as Poultry; such as have no feet as the Ser­pent; and those that have many as Grashoppers: Whence Plutarch concludes, it is not therefore without great rea­son, that the Egg is consecrated to the sacred Ceremonies of Bacchus, as a representation of the Author of nature, who produces and comprehends in itself all things. Ma­crobius also, Saturn. l. 7. c. 16. who seems in a manner a Transcriber from [Page 157] Plutarch, says, those that are initiated in the sacred Ce­remonies of Liber Pater, pay a veneration to the Egg in this respect; that from its smooth, even, and almost Sphe­rical Figure, shut up in every part, and including life with­in it, it may be call'd a Type of the World, and the World by the consent of all Men is the principle of the Universe; he says further, as the Elements existed at first and then the other bodies were made of the mixture of them; so the seminal reasons which are in an Egg, are to be lookt upon as certain Elements of the Hen. Thus we find the great Doctrine of the Mundane Egg referr'd to the Generation of all things from the Chaos, concerning which the Doctrin of the Ancients runs thus, as I find it stated by a certain Author.

They say the Chaos was before all things, and that in a long series of duration, it settled in itself a Center and a Circumference, gathered together in the form of a vast Egg; upon the breaking of which, a certain kind of Person of a double form arose, being both Male and Female, and call'd Phaneta: out of this came Heaven and Earth, out of Heaven came six Males, which they call Titans; Oceanus, Caeus, Crius, Hyperion, Japetus, Cro­nos or Saturn; from the Earth six Women; Thya, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Thetis, Hebe; of all these, he that was first born of Heaven, took the first Daughter of the Earth to Wife; the second, the second, &c. Saturn there­fore took Rhea, &c.

From this Doctrin, we as plainly see how fairly the Analogy holds betwixt the Generation of the World, upon the disruption of the Chaodical Egg, and the particular Generations and rise of Animals from their respective spe­cifical Eggs; as we may see how forc'd and unnatural it would be to apply this Doctrin only to the Earth, and its disruption at the deluge; for at the disruption of the Mundane Egg, upon the appearance of Phaneta, which Orpheus makes the same with Eros, or Love, the Heavens and Earth, with all their beauteous ornament arose; as upon the disruption of particular Eggs, the Chick with [Page 158] all that admirable Mechanism in the structure of its parts, and the advantage of Animal life comes forth; whereas if this Doctrine shall be apply'd particularly to the Ante­dilunian Earth (as represented by the Author) and it shall be said, that that Earth after sixteen hundred years Incubation of the Sun, upon its disruption produc'd this present World, where is the Analogy with particular Ge­nerations from their respective Eggs? Since upon the dis­ruption of that Earth, the miserable Chick within (ac­cording to the Authors own Hypothesis) was found no way comparable to the Shell it had before; the Antedi­luvian Earth far transcending the present; so that if that Earth must have been an Egg, it was but an addled one.

The Author therefore has given the Earth an oval Fi­gure, only to serve his Hypothesis, for the Course of his Rivers (as I have intimated before) and if the Sectators of Orpheus, or possibly any others of the Ancients gave the Earth itself an oval Figure; not a Man of them gives the least Intimation of any inward envelopings it had answering to those in an Egg, as the Author does; who by over-straining the matter seems to leave a substance by pursuing a Shadow; thereby wholly perverting the Ana­logy betwixt the Egg and the World, which those An­cients endeavour'd to set forth. And whatever formerly has been variously said concerning the Figure of the Earth, whether as oval or else, we know the opinion of its sphe­rical Figure has generally obtain'd, as lookt upon to be demonstrated. And again, if Eggs are commonly of somewhat an oval form, there are particular reasons for it, the directer of Natures Mechanism giving them that Figure, either for the greater ease in Exclusion, according to the structure of the parts, through which they are then to pass; or for the more convenient site of the Animal to be form'd within; besides that when Eggs are form'd, the fluid matter is not free to run into that Figure it would, to the film encompassing them being in some part connected to the Ovarium, and they are also prest upon by other Eggs; whereas neither of these reasons, nor any others, [Page 159] I conceive, are to be found in the Earth; and that the Ancients could not nicely insist upon an Analogy, betwixt the World and an Egg for its oval Figure, it appears from hence, that Eggs generally are only oblong and not pro­perly oval, they being much larger at one end than at the other.

The second point consider'd by the Author in this Chapter, is the uninhabitableness of the Torrid Zone, con­cerning which he says thus. But nothing seems more re­markable than the uninhabitability of the Torrid Zone, if we consider what a general fame and belief it had a­mong the Ancients; and yet in the present form of the Earth, we find no such thing, nor any foundation for it: I cannot believe that this was so universally receiv'd upon a slight presumption, only because it lay under the Course of the Sun, if the Sun had the same Latitude from the Equator in his Course and Motion that he has now, &c. he instances several of the Ancient Philosophers, Astrono­mers, and Geographers, who held that Zone uninhabita­ble; and adds, that some of the Ancient Philosophers whom he also names, held that the Poles of the World did once change their Situation, and were at first in ano­ther posture from what they are now, till that Inclination happen'd, &c. and concludes that these Opinions of the Ancients, must refer to that State of things which he has represented in his Antediluvian World.

To this I answer, that it seems no wonder it should be the common receiv'd Opinion among the Ancients, that the Torrid Zone was uninhabitable; for navigation being not come to its perfection, America undiscover'd, and no trading establish'd by Land to those parts of Africa, that lye under the Torrid Zone, and the great heats found in the neighbouring Climates to it, might naturally induce such a belief in them, so that we may allow it to have past as a negative Tradition among them, for that no Man had attempted a discovery; but to conclude that this was a positive Tradition among them, deriv'd from Antedilu­vian times, on a suppos'd differing position, which the [Page 160] Heavens or Earth then had; it's more than the thing will bear; neither was that Opinion of the uninhabitableness of the Torrid Zone so general in Ancient times, but some Patrons of the Earth, merely upon a stress of reasoning, always said nay to it. De Placit. Phil. l. 3. c. 14. Thus Plutarch tells us, that Pytha­goras (as great a Man as any among the Greeks, and more ancient than any the Author has nam'd for the contrary Opinion) held the Torrid Zone habitable, and a tempe­rate Region, as being in the midst betwixt that of the Summer, and that of the Winter; and certainly Pythago­ras was as likely a Man as any among the Ancients to have known such a Tradition, and to have faithfully convey'd it to posterity if there had been any ground for it, himself and Orpheus being judg'd by many to have been knowing in the Mosaick Cabala, concerning the true System of the World. Ptolomy also says, many contend, In Almag. l. 2. c. 6. that the parts near the Equinoctial are inhabi­ted, as being the most temperate Region; because the Sun neither stays in the vertical points, but makes swift recesses according to Latitude from the Equinoctial points; whence the Summer is rendred temperate; nei­ther in the Solstices is it far from the Vertex, wherefore the Winters must be very mild. L. de Nat. Rerum. Bede quotes this passage and adds, but what those habitations are, we cannot say with any likely ground; for Men have not pass'd thither even to this day; wherefore what is said of it may be lookt upon rather as a conjecture, than a true History. Tertullian also held the Torrid Zone a temperate Re­gion, and plac'd Paradise in it, and so did Nicephoras, according to the Opinion of Theophilus; the like did Bonaventure and Durandus of later years; and Avicenna among the Arabians held that Region temperate. Here also it may be noted that generally those that held the uninha­bitableness of the Torrid Zone, held likewise the two Po­lar Zones uninhabitable through continual frosts there; so that the Tradition of the one ought to be held as well as that of the other, which would destroy the Authors Hypothesis, for the source of his Waters, as I have intimated before.

[Page 161]As to those Philosophers, mention'd by the Author to have held that the Poles of the World once chang'd their Situation, I know no reason we have to follow them in it, more than a multitude of other erroneous Opinions, which we find amongst the ancient Philosophers; Igno­norance in Cosmography being an Epidemical distemper amongst them; De Plut. Phil. l. 2. c. 12. so that Plutarch tells us Pythagoras was said to be the first who bethought him of the Oblique­ness of the Zodiack, Ib. l. 3. c. 11. which Invention some ascribe to Oenopides of Chius. The same tells us Parmenides was the first, who limited the places inhabited on the Earth; to wit, those that are in the two habitable Zones, to the Tropick Circles. What wonder then that the Ancients should lie under great mistakes in things relating to that Knowledge? But the Author urges in his Answer to Mr. Warren, that Diogenes, Anaxagoras, Empedocles, C. 8. Leucippus and Democritus say, there was once a Change of the Poles, therefore it must be lookt upon as a Tradition amongst the Ancients, for which they are good Testimonies: But I would ask the Author whether either of those Philo­sophers deliver their Opinion as a Tradition among the Ancients? Plutarch, whence he quotes their Opinions, entitles his Book The Opinions of the Philosophers, and de­livers this as their particular Opinion, and not as a Tra­dition, and assigns the several Reasons they went upon, which are all found to be erroneous; and to expect that we should receive their Opinion as a Tradition, and ac­quiesce in it without any farther Ground, seems to me altogether as unreasonable as to say, that because Diago­ras, Theodorus Cyreneus, Evemeras, Euripides, mentioned also by Plutarch, and others of the ancient Philosophers, held there was no Deity, therefore this must be lookt up­on as a well-grounded Tradition, and fit for us to re­ceive, that there is no Deity; This is too hard putting upon our Reason. Well, but the Author grants their Reasons are false, but says, it would be as injudicious to ex­clude them from being Witnesses, or fair Testimonies of such a thing, because they do not Philosophise well a­bout [Page 162] that Change; as if we should deny that there was such a War as the Peloponesian War, because the Historian has not assign'd the true Causes and Reasons of it: or to deny that a Comet appear'd in such a Year, because a Person that makes mention of it, has not given a good ac­count of the generation of it, nor of the Causes of its form and motion. I answer, That I do not exclude them from being Witnesses meerly because of the false Reasons they give for what they say; but because that they nei­ther own themselves as Witnesses, neither does it any way appear that what they deliver, is as they are VVit­nesses, but meerly from their own fancy; as it may be said of Diagoras and the rest that held a non-existence of a Deity. And as to the Instances of the Peloponesian War and the Comet, there is a vast disparity betwixt these and the other: for the Peloponesian War and the Comet are notorious Facts convey'd down to us by every Historian and Astronomer nemine contradicente, as they receiv'd it from time to time from unquestionable Hands. But what are those five Philosophers to the whole Body of the Philo­sophers both before and after them, who mention no such thing. Nor do those five affirm the Change of the Poles otherwise than their private Opinion; and the Reasons they assign for it are so frivolous, De sacr. Phil. c. 50. that Vallesius aptly calls them Ineptiae Infantilis illius Philosophiae, and shews the erroneous Ground they went upon. But because the Author does not insist upon the validity of their Rea­sons, I shall not examine them here, but refer the Reader to Vallesius.

The Author adds some other Witnesses for this Change of the Posture of the Earth and Heavens, viz. Plato, the Poets, some Christian Fathers, and Jewish Doctors, who all justifie that in the first Ages there was a constant Spring, so that the Heavens and Earth must have chang'd their Posture since. But I conceive I have sufficiently answer'd all this in my precedent and and some other Chapters: and hope the Author will not go about to put upon us Alle­gorical Fictions for Historical Truths.

[Page 163]Another thing the Author endeavours to give an ac­count of in this Chapter is, how America came to be peo­pled, which he thinks is easily answered according to his Hypothesis, viz. that the Antediluvian Earth being smooth, Men could freely pass before the Flood to all parts of this Continent; and if they could not then pass into the other Hemisphere beyond the Torrid Zone; he says, Providence seems to have made provision for that, in transplanting Adam into this Hemisphere, after he had lain the foundation of a World in the other: and con­cludes, that God foreseeing how many Continents the Earth would be divided into after the ceasing of the Flood, made provision to save a remnant in every Con­tinent, that the Race of Mankind might not be quite ex­tinct in any of them.

As to this Assertion, I shall leave it to the judgment of Divines how far we must be determin'd by the Text of Moses as to a destruction of all Mankind, saving Noah and his Family in the Deluge there describ'd, and shall only offer what follows from common Rea­son.

First, It will concern the Author to consider how his Assertion here can consist with what he has set forth con­cerning the universality of the Deluge in the second Chap­ter of his first Book, where he reasons against those who have endeavoured to represent Noah's Flood, as a partial Deluge, affecting only a particular Countrey, and urges thus:

I cannot but look upon the Deluge as a much more considerable thing than these Authors would represent it, and as a kind of Dissolution of Nature. Moses calls it a destroying of the Earth as well as of Mankind. And beneath, he says, St. Peter compares the Conflagration with the Deluge, as two general dissolutions of Nature: and one may as well say, that the Conflagration shall be only National, as to say that the Deluge was so. And a­gain, we see that after the Flood the Blessing for Multi­plication, and for replenishing the Earth with Inhabi­tants, [Page 164] was as solemnly pronounc'd by God Almighty, as at the first Creation of Man, Gen. 9.1. and Gen. 1.28. These Considerations, he says, he thinks might be suf­ficient to give us assurance from divine Writ, of the uni­versality of the Deluge; and yet that Moses affords ano­nother Argument as demonstrative as any, when in the History of the Deluge he says, Gen. 7.19. The VVaters exceedingly prevailed upon the Earth, and all the highest Hills that were under the whole Heavens were cover'd, all the high Hills that were under the whole Heavens, then quite round the Earth. And in his Latine Copy, he says, Moses's History adds particularly, the thing being as it were measur'd and accurately examin'd, that the Waters overflowed the highest Mountains fifteen Cubits; which Mark, he judges to be added not without Providence, that we might thence gather, by a Testimony not to be gainsaid, that the Deluge did not keep itself within the limits of any one Region whatsoever. And much more the Author urges both in his English and Latin Copies to the same purpose; and how all this can consist with a preservation of some Remnant of Men in every Conti­nent, at the time of the Deluge, I must leave it to him to consider.

Secondly, According to the Authors own Hypothesis, when he says, that the Passages North and South being not free, Men could not go out of one Hemisphere into the other, but Providence seems to have made a Provision for that, in transporting Adam into this Hemisphere, af­ter he had lain a foundation for a World in the other; I hope he does not mean by this, that Adam left any Chil­dren in the other Hemisphere to people it, and be a foundation of a World there. It being a common O­pinion that Adam and Eve were but a few hours in Pa­radise before they were expulst, and that expulsion be­ing suppos'd by the Author to be into this Hemisphere, there were no People to remain in the other. Wherefore (as I have intimated before) if the Author's Hypothesis must stand, C. 3. it must be with these Absurdities: First, that [Page 165] upon the expulsion of Adam and Eve out of Paradise, God must have miraculously convey'd them through the Torrid Zone (which the Author supposes as impassable as a burning Furnace) into this Hemisphere. Secondly, After Adam had Children God must have wrought ano­ther Miracle, to have convey'd some of them into the other Hemisphere to People it; and it would have been a Curiosity to know which of Adam's Children were con­vey'd thither, Cain we find must have been one, because he is said, Gen. 4.16. to have dwelt on the East of Eden, which could not be in this Hemisphere, if Paradise were in the other; and it's much that living so near Para­dise, and being past the flaming Sword he should not get into it, as well as all descended from him to the Flood, though his Crime could hardly deserve that Paradisiacal Continent for his Habitation. Thirdly, God must have wrought a third Miracle to have brought all Animals there of differing Species from those in this Hemisphere, to the Ark at the time of the Deluge, unless another Ark were built in the other Hemisphere; Whereas the Author says in his first Book, C. 6. that Noah's Ark was the the first Ship, or Vessel of bulk that ever was built in the World.

And I would ask, whether the Author thinks that a Man may not give a rational account of the peopling of America, without being clog'd with so many Absur­dities; I think it very easie and natural to imagine, sup­posing the first Plantation in this Hemisphere, and the VVorld always as it is, how without any Miracle, some small Vessels with People in them, might have been dri­ven by some Storm, on the Continent of America from the more Easterly Coasts of the VVorld: such small Ves­sels being a thing of common Notion; so that I think we may reasonably conclude them to have been almost as ancient as Mankind. Moreover, we know that many Jewish Customs were found among the Americans, on their first discovery; and Ralegh tells us, that in Mexico, when first discover'd, there were found written Books [Page 166] after the manner of those Hieroglyphicks, anciently us'd by the Egyptians and Ethiopians: but to require it to be particularly made out when, and by whom, America receiv'd its first Inhabitants, would be an unreasonable ex­pectation.

CHAP. IX.

HERE the Author endeavours to obviate an Ob­jection against his Theory, viz. That if there had been such a Primitive Earth as he pretends, the fame of of it would have sounded throughout all Antiquity; and he sets forth that the most considerable Records of Learn­ing are lost, whence a confirmation of it might have been expected.

This Chapter containing little new, I shall have but little to say against it. The following particulars may be noted.

1. He here confesses, that it has been generally thought or presum'd that the World before the Flood, was of the same Form and Constitution with the present VVorld. Now this seems to make against him, but he will have this imputed to the loss of true Records, which is but a gratis Dictum.

2. Speaking of the Jews and Christians, he says, they had Traditions among them, that there was no Rain from the beginning of the VVorld to the Deluge, and that there were no Mountains till the Flood, and such like. The Ancient ordinary Gloss upon Genesis, which some make 800 Years old, mentions both these Opini­ons, so does Historia Scholastica, Alcuinus, Rabanus Maurus, Lyranus, and such Collectors of Antiquity, &c.

To this I answer, That every trifling ungrounded O­pinion is not to be lookt upon as a Tradition: neither have we reason to be govern'd by what those Authors have said in this Point, unless they had told us from [Page 167] what Authors of Credit they had it: or had urg'd it as a constant Tradition to be relied on. Perhaps they took their Notion from the Author, De mirabilibus Scripturae (by some suppos'd to be St. Austin) who says, that pos­sibly the first Age of the World was without Rains and Storms, and that the Earth was fed with morning and even­ing Dews: and let this go as far as it may.

Lastly, the Author says, but to carry this Objection as far as may be, let us suppose it to be urg'd still in the last place, that though these Humane Writings have perish'd, or are imperfect, yet in the Divine Writings at least, we might expect that the memory of the old World, and of the Primitive Earth, should have been preserv'd.

Now, I confess, I am of this Opinion, notwithstand­ing any thing may be said by the Author to the contra­ry; for tho I agree with Luther in his Chronology, that the Flood, as commonly understood, was the most horrible of all horrible things, excepting the Crucifixion of the Son of God, and what may be expected at the General Conflagration: Considering that not only a World of Re­lations of all kinds, and Friends of Noah must have pe­rish'd; but that even the whole Church of God, as well as that of Cain and the Serpent, were then utterly sub­verted, only eight Souls being sav'd: Yet with all this, if the Earth upon the Deluge had been altered from a General Paradisiacal State, to a State so much inferior to it, as the Author has represented; I cannot believe but Moses, who made it his business to set forth and exagge­rate the Judgments of God on Sinners, would have plain­ly recorded this in his Law; for that it would have been a considerable aggravation to the Judgment, and perhaps more affecting Posterity than the other part of it had done; and consequently ought to have been said, and inculcated to them, to deter them from a relapse into sin.

Th' Author has two Chapters more in this Book, where­of the first treats concerning the Author of Nature; which, besides, that the Argument in its nature does not bear oppo­sition, [Page 168] I must own to be well and foundly reason'd; nei­ther have I any thing to offer against it; and so, as to the last Chapter which treats concerning natural Provi­dence, I have nothing to say to it, unless it be to the latter part of it, where he summs up what he has said of the Form of the Primaeval Earth, the Disruption of it at the Deluge, the Seat of Paradise, &c. of all which he says he professes his full belief, and against all which, I have already offer'd as much as at present I have thought fit.