THE THEORY OF THE EARTH. BOOK I. Concerning the Deluge, and the Dissolution of the Earth.

CHAP. I. The Introduction.

An Account of the whole Work; of the Extent and general Order of it.

Since I was first inclin’d to the Contemplation of Nature, and took Pleasure to trace out the Causes of Effects, and the Dependance of one thing upon another in the visible Creation, I 2had always, methought, a particular Curiosity to look back into the Sources and Original of Things; and to view in my Mind, so far as I was able, the Beginning and Progress of a Rising World.

And after some Essays of this Nature, and as I thought, not unsuccessful, I carried on my Enquiries further, to try whether this Rising World, when form’d and finish’d, would continue always the same; in the same Form, Structure, and Consistency; or what Changes it would successively undergo, by the continued Action of the same Causes that first produc’d it; and, lastly, what would be its final Period and Consummation. This whole Series and Compass of Things taken together, I call’d a Course of Nature, or, a System of Natural Providence; and thought there was nothing belonging to the external World more fit, or more worthy our Study and Meditation, nor any thing that would conduce more to discover the Ways of Divine Providence, and to shew us the Grounds of all true Knowledge concerning Nature. And therefore, to clear up the several Parts of this Theory, I was willing to lay aside a great many other Speculations, and all those dry Subtilties with which the Schools and the Books of Philosophers are usually fill’d.

But when we speak of a Rising World, and the Contemplation of it, we do not mean this, of the Great Universe; for who can describe the Original of that vast Frame? But we speak 3of the Sublunary World, this Earth, and its Dependencies, which rose out of a Chaos about Six Thousand Years ago. And seeing it hath fallen to our Lot to act upon this Stage, to have our present Home and Residence here, it seems most reasonable, and the Place design’d by Providence, where we should first employ our Thoughts, to understand the Works of God and Nature. We have accordingly therefore design’d in this Work to give an Account of the Original of the Earth, and of all the great and general Changes that it hath already undergone, or is hence forwards to undergo, till the Consummation of all things. For if from those Principles we have here taken, and that Theory we have begun in these two first Books, we can deduce with Success and Clearness the Origin of the Earth, and those States of it that are already past; following the same Thread, and by the Conduct of the same Theory, we will pursue its Fate and History thro’ future Ages, and mark all the great Changes and Conversions that attend it while Day and Night shall last; that is, so long as it continues an Earth.

By the States of the Earth that are already past, we understand chiefly Paradise and the Deluge; Names well known, and as little known in their Nature. By the future States we understand the Conflagration, and what new Order of Nature may follow upon that, ’till the whole Circle of Time and Providence be compleated. As to the first and past States of the Earth, we shall have little help from the Ancients, 4or from any of the Philosophers, for the Discovery or Description of them: We must often tread unbeaten Paths, and make a Way where we do not find one; but it shall be always with a Light in our Hand, that we may see our Steps, and that those that follow us may not follow us blindly. There is no Sect of Philosophers that I know of, that ever gave an Account of the Universal Deluge, or discover’d, from the Contemplation of the Earth, that there had been such a Thing already in Nature. ’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 hath already destroyed the World. As to Paradise, it seems to be represented to us by the Golden Age; whereof the Ancients tell many Stories, sometimes very luxuriant, and sometimes very defective: For they did not so well understand the Difference betwixt the new-made Earth and the present, as to see what were the just Grounds of the Golden Age, or of Paradise; though they had many broken Notions concerning those Things, as to the Conflagration in particular. This hath always been reckon’d one amongst 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, towards that great Change. And we may generally observe this of the Ancients, 5that 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 the Proofs: Which is an Argument to me, that the Knowledge they had, was not a Thing of their own Invention, or which they came to by fair Reasoning and Observations upon Nature, but was delivered to them from others by Tradition and ancient Fame, sometimes more publick, sometimes more secret: These Conclusions they kept in Mind, and communicated to those of their School, or Sect, or Posterity, without knowing, for the most part, the just Grounds and Reasons of them.

’Tis the Sacred Writings of Scripture that are the best Monuments of Antiquity, and to those we are chiefly beholden for the History of the first Ages, whether Natural History or Civil. ’Tis true, the Poets, who were the most ancient Writers among the Greeks, and serv’d them both for Historians, Divines, and Philosophers, have delivered some Things concerning the first Ages of the World, that have a fair resemblance of Truth, and some Affinity with those Accounts that are given of the same Things by Sacred Authors, and these may be of Use in due Time and Place; but yet, lest any thing fabulous should be mix’d with them, as commonly there is, we will never depend wholly upon their Credit, nor assert any Thing upon the Authority of the Ancients which is not first prov’d by natural Reason, or warranted by Scripture.

6It seems to me very reasonable to believe that besides the Precepts of Religion, which are the principal Subject and Design of the Books of Holy Scripture, there may be providentially conserved in them the Memory of Things and Times so remote, as could not be retrieved, either by History, or by the Light of Nature; and yet were of great Importance to be known, both for their own Excellency, and also to rectify the Knowledge of Men in other Things consequential to them: Such Points may be, Our great Epocha, or the Age of the Earth, The Origination of Mankind, The First and Paradisiacal State, The Destruction of the old World by an Universal Deluge, The Longevity of its Inhabitants, The manner of their Preservation, and of their Peopling the second Earth; and lastly, The Fate and Changes it is to undergo. These I always look’d upon as the Seeds of great Knowledge, or Heads of Theories fix’d on Purpose to give us Aim and Direction how to pursue the rest that depend upon them. But these Heads, you see, are of a mix’d Order, and we propose to our selves in this Work only such as belong to the natural World, upon which I believe the Trains of Providence are generally laid; and we must first consider, how God hath order’d Nature, and then, how the Occonomy of the Intellectual World is adapted to it; for of these two Parts consist the full System of Providence. In the mean Time, what Subject can be more worthy the Thoughts of any serious Person, than to view and consider the 7Rise and Fall, and all the Revolutions, not of a Monarchy or an Empire, of the Grecian or Roman State, but of an entire World?

The Obscurity of these Things, and their Remoteness from common Knowledge, will be made an Argument by some, why we should not undertake them; and by others, it may be, the very same Thing will be made an Argument why we should. For my Part I think There is nothing so secret that shall not be brought to Light, within the Compass of our World; for we are not to understand that of the whole Universe, nor of all Eternity, our Capacities do not extend so far; but whatsoever concerns this Sublunary World in the whole Extent of its Duration, from the Chaos to the last Period, this I believe Providence hath made us capable to understand, and will in its due Time make it known. All I say, betwixt the first Chaos and the last Completion of Time and all Things temporary, this was given to the Disquisitions of Men: On either Hand is Eternity, before the World and after, which is without our reach: But that little spot of Ground that lies betwixt those two great Oceans, this we are to cultivate, this we are Masters of, herein we are to exercise our Thoughts, to understand and lay open the Treasures of the Divine Wisdom and Goodness hid in this part of Nature and of Providence.

As for the Difficulty or Obscurity of an Argument, that does but add to the Pleasure of contesting with it, when there are Hopes of Victory; and Success does more than recompense 8all the Pains. For there is no sort of Joy more grateful to the Mind of Man, than that which ariseth from the Invention of Truth; especially when ’tis hard to come by. Every Man hath a Delight suited to his Genius, and as there is Pleasure in the right Exercise of any Faculty, so especially in that of Right-Reasoning; which is still the greater, by how much the Consequences are more clear, and the Chains of them more long: There is no Chace so pleasant, methinks, as to drive a Thought, by good Conduct, from one end of the World to the other; and never to lose Sight of it till it fall into Eternity, where all things are lost, as to our Knowledge.

This Theory being chiefly Philosophical, Reason is to be our first Guide; and where that falls short, or any other just Occasion offers it self, we may receive further Light and Confirmation from the Sacred Writings. Both these are to be look’d upon as of Divine Original, God is the Author of both; he that made the Scripture made also our Faculties, and ’twere a Reflection upon the Divine Veracity for the one or the other to be false when rightly used. We must therefore be careful and tender of opposing these to one another, because that is, in effect, to oppose God to himself. As for Antiquity and the Testimonies of the Ancients, we only make general Reflections upon them, for Illustration rather than Proof of what we propose; not thinking it proper for an English Treatise to multiply Citations out of Greek or Latin Authors.

9I am very sensible it will be much our Interest, that the Reader of this Theory should be of an ingenuous and unprejudiced Temper, neither does it so much require Book-learning and Scholarship, as good natural Sense to distinguish True and False, and to discern what is well prov’d, and what is not. It often happens that Scholastick Education, like a Trade, does so fix a Man in a particular Way, that he is not fit to judge of any thing that lies out of that Way; and so his Learning becomes a Clog to his natural Parts, and makes him more indocile, and more incapable of new Thoughts and new Improvements, than those that have only the Talents of Nature. As Matters of Exercise had rather take a Scholar that never learn’d before, than one that hath had a bad Master; so generally one would rather chuse a Reader without Art, than one ill instructed with Learning, but opinionative, and without Judgment; yet it is not necessary they should want either, and Learning well plac’d strengthens all the Powers of the Mind. To conclude, just Reasoning and a generous Love of Truth, whether with or without Erudition, is that which makes us most competent Judges what is true. And further than this, in the Perusal and Examination of this Work, as to the Author, as much Candor as you please; but as to the Theory, we require nothing but Attention and Impartiality.

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Chap. II.

A general Account of Noah’s Flood; a Computation what Quantity of Water would be necessary for the making of it; that the common Opinion and Explication of that Flood is not intelligible.

’Tis now more than five Thousand Years since our World was made, and tho’ it would be a great Pleasure to the Mind, to recollect and view at this Distance those first Scenes of Nature; what the Face of the Earth was, when fresh and new, and how Things differ’d from the State we now find them in, the Speculation is so remote, that it seems to be hopeless, and beyond the reach of human Wit. We are almost the last Posterity of the first Men, and fallen into the dying Age of the Worlds; by what Footsteps, or by what Guide can we trace back our Way to those first Ages, and the first Order of Things? And yet, methinks, it is reasonable to believe, that Divine Providence, which sees at once throughout all the Ages and Orders of the World, should not be willing to keep Mankind finally and fatally ignorant of that part of Nature, and of the Universe, which is properly their Task and Province to manage and understand. We are the Inhabitants of the Earth, the Lords and Masters of it; and we are endow’d with Reason and Understanding; doth it not then properly belong 11to us to examine and unfold the Works of God in this part of the Universe, which is fallen to our Lot, which is our Heritage and Habitation? And it will be found, it may be, upon a stricter Enquiry, that in the present Form and Constitution of the Earth, there are certain Marks and Indications of its first State; with which if we compare those Things that are recorded in Sacred History, concerning the first Chaos, Paradise, and an Universal Deluge, we may discover, by the help of those Lights, what the Earth was in its first Original, and what Changes have since succeeded in it.

And tho’ we shall give a full Account of the Origin of the Earth in this Treatise, yet that which we have propos’d particularly for the Title and Subject of it, is to give an Account of the primæval Paradise, and of the Universal Deluge, those being the two most important things that are explained by the Theory we propose. And I must beg leave in treating of these two, to change the Order, and treat first of the Deluge, and then of Paradise: For though the State of Paradise doth precede that of the Flood in Sacred History, and in the Nature of the Thing, yet the Explication of both will be more sensible and more effectual, if we begin with the Deluge; there being more Observations and Effects, and those better known to us that may be referr’d to this, than to the other; and the Deluge being once truly explain’d, we shall from thence know the Form and Quality of the Ante-diluvian Earth. Let 12us then proceed to the Explication of that great and fatal Inundation, whose History is well known; and according to Moses, the best of Historians, in a few Words is this——

Sixteen Hundred and odd Years after the Earth was made, and inhabited, it was over-flowed and destroyed in a Deluge of Water. Not a Deluge that was National only, or over-run some particular Country or Region, as Judea or Greece, or any other, but it over-spread the Face of the Whole Earth, from Pole to Pole, and from East to West, and that in such Excess, that the Floods over-reacht the tops of the highest Mountains; the Rains descending after an unusual Manner, and the Fountains of the Great Deep being broke open; so as a general Destruction and Devastation was brought upon the Earth, and all Things in it, Mankind and other living Creatures; excepting only Noah and his Family, who by a special Providence of God was preserved in a certain Ark, or Vessel made like a Ship, and such kinds of living Creatures as he took in to him. After these Waters had rag’d for some time on the Earth, they began to lessen and shrink, and the great Waves and Fluctuations of this Deep or Abyss being quieted by degrees, the Waters retir’d into their Channels and Caverns within the Earth; and the Mountains and Fields began to appear, and the whole habitable Earth in that Form and Shape wherein we now see it. Then the World began again, and from that little Remnant preserv’d in the 13Ark, the present Race of Mankind, and of Animals, in the known Parts of the Earth, were propagated. Thus perish’d the Old World, and the present arose from the Ruins and Remains of it.

This is a short Story of the greatest Thing that ever yet hap’ned in the World, the greatest Revolution and the greatest Change in Nature; and if we come to reflect seriously upon it, we shall find it extreamly difficult, if not impossible, to give an Account of the Waters that compos’d this Deluge, whence they came, or whither they went. If it had been only the Inundation of a Country, or of a Province, or of the greatest part of a Continent, some proportionable Causes perhaps might have been found out; but a Deluge overflowing the whole Earth, the whole Circuit and whole Extent of it, burying all in Water, even the greatest Mountains in any known Parts of the Universe, to find Water sufficient for this Effect, as it is generally explained and understood, I think is impossible. And that we may the better judge of the whole matter, let us first compute, how much Water would be requisite for such a Deluge; or to lay the Earth, consider’d in its present Form, and the highest Mountains, under Water. Then let us consider whether such a Quantity of Water can be had out of all the Stores that we know in Nature: And from these two, we will take our Ground and Rise, and begin to reflect, whether the World hath not been hitherto mistaken in the common Opinion and Explication of the general Deluge.

To discover how much Water would be requisite 14to make this Deluge, we must first suppose enough to cover the plain Surface of the Earth, the Fields and lower Grounds; then we must heap up so much more upon this, as will reach above the tops of the highest Mountains; so as drawing a Circle over the tops of the highest Mountains quite round the Earth, suppose from Pole to Pole, and another to meet it round the middle of the Earth, all that Space, or Capacity, contain’d within these Circles, is to be fill’d up with Water. This I confess will make a prodigious Mass of Water, and it looks frightfully to the Imagination; ’tis huge and great, but ’tis extravagantly so, as a great Monster: It doth not look like the Work of God or Nature: However let’s compute a little more particularly how much this will amount to, or how many Oceans of Water would be necessary to compose this great Ocean rowling in the Air, without Bounds or Banks.

If all the Mountains were pared off the Earth, and so the Surface of it lay even, or in an equal Convexity every where, with the Surface of the Sea, from this Surface of the Sea, let us suppose that the height of the Mountains may be a Mile and a half; or that we may not seem at all to favour our own Opinion or Calculation, let us take a Mile only for the perpendicular height of the Mountains. Let us on the other side suppose the Sea to cover half the Earth, as ’tis generally believ’d to do; and the common Depth of it, taking one Place with another, to be about a quarter of a Mile, or 250 Paces. I say, taking one 15Place with another, for though the middle Channel of the great Ocean be far deeper, we may observe, that there is commonly a Descent or Declivity from the Shore to the middle Part of the Channel, so that one comes by Degrees into the Depth of it; and those shory Parts are generally but some Fathoms deep. Besides, in Arms of the Sea, in Straits and among Islands, there is commonly no great Depth, and some Places are plain Shallows. So as upon a moderate Computation, one Place compar’d with another, we may take a quarter of a Mile, or about an hundred Fathoms, for the common Measure of the Depth of the Sea, if we were cast into a Channel of an equal Depth every where. This being suppos’d, there would need four Oceans to lie upon this Ocean, to raise it up to the top of the Mountains, or so high as the Waters of the Deluge rise; then four Oceans more to lie upon the Land, that the Water there might swell to the same height; which together make eight Oceans for the Proportion of the Water requir’d in the Deluge.

’Tis true, there would not be altogether so much Water required for the Land as for the Sea, to raise them to an equal height; because Mountains and Hills would fill up part of that Space upon the Land, and so make less Water requisite. But to compensate this, and confirm our Computation, we must consider in the first Place, that we have taken a much less height of the Mountains than is requisite, if we respect the Mediterraneous Mountains, or 16those that are at a great distance from the Sea; for their Height above the Surface of the Sea, computing the Declivity of the Land all along from the Mountains to the Sea-side (and that there is such a Declivity is manifest from the Course and Descent of the Rivers) is far greater than the Proportion we have taken: The height of Mountains is usually taken from the Foot of them, or from the next Plain, which if it be far from the Sea, we may reasonably allow as much for the Declension of the Land from that place to the Sea, as for the immediate Height of the Mountain: So, for Instance, the Mountains of the Moon in Africa, whence the Nile flows, and after a long Course falls into the Mediterranean Sea by Egypt, are so much higher than the Surface of that Sea, first, as the Ascent of the Land is from the Sea to the Foot of the Mountains, and then as the Height of the Mountains is from the bottom to the top: For both these are to be computed when you measure the Height of a Mountain, or of a mountainous Land, in respect of the Sea: And the Height of Mountains to the Sea being thus computed, there would be need of six or eight Oceans to raise the Sea alone as high as the highest Inland Mountains: And this is more than enough to compensate the less Quantity of Water that would be requisite upon the Land. Besides, we must consider the Regions of the Air upwards to be more capacious than a Region of the same Thickness in or near the Earth, so as if an Ocean pour’d upon 17the Surface of the dry Land, supposing it were all smooth, would rise to the Height of half a quarter of a Mile every where; the like Quantity of Water pour’d again at the Height of the Mountains would not have altogether the same effect, or would not there raise the Mass half a quarter of a Mile higher; for the Surfaces of a Globe, the farther they are from their Center, are the greater; and so accordingly the Regions that belong to them. And, lastly, we must consider, that there are some Countries or Valleys very low, and also many Caverns or Cavities within the Earth, all which in this Case were to be first fill’d with Water. These Things being compar’d and estimated, we shall find, that notwithstanding the Room that Hills and Mountains take up on the dry Land, there would be at least eight Oceans required, or a Quantity of Water eight times as great as the Ocean, to bring an Universal Deluge upon the Earth, as that Deluge is ordinarily understood and explained.

The Proportion of Water for the Deluge being thus stated, the next thing to be done, is to enquire where this Water is to be found; if any part of the Sublunary World will afford us so much: Eight Oceans floating in the Air make a great Bulk of Water, I do not know what possible Sources to draw it from. There are the Clouds above and the Deeps below, and in the Bowels of the Earth; and these are all the Stores we have for Water; and Moses directs us to no other for the Causes of the Deluge. The Fountains (he saith) of the 18great Abyss were broken up, or burst asunder, and the Rain descended for Forty Days, the Cataracts, or Floodgates of Heaven being opened. And in these two, no doubt, are contain’d the Causes of the great Deluge, as according to Moses, so also according to Reason and Necessity; for our World affords no other Treasures of Water. Let us therefore consider, how much this Rain of Forty Days might amount to, and how much might flow out of the Abyss, that so we may judge whether these two in conjunction would make up the eight Oceans which we want.

As for the Rains, they would not afford us one Ocean, nor half an Ocean, nor the tenth part of an Ocean, if we may trust to the Observations made by others concerning the Quantity of Water that falls in Rain. Mersennus gives us this Account of it, Cog. Phys. Mech. p. 221. “It appears by our Observations, that a Cubical Vessel of Brass, whereof we made use, is fill’d an Inch and an half in half an Hour’s Time; but because that sucks up nothing of the Moisture as the Earth doth, let us take an Inch for half an Hour’s Rain; whence it follows, that in the Space of Forty Days and Nights Rain, the Waters in the Deluge wou’d rise, at four Feet in 24 Hours, 160 Feet, if the Rains were constant and equal to ours, and that it rain’d at once throughout the Face of the whole Earth.” But the Rain of the Deluge, saith he, should have been 90 times greater than this, to cover, for Instance, the Mountains 19of Armenia, or to reach 15 Cubits above them. So that according to his Computation, the Forty Days Rain would supply little more than the hundredth Part of the Water requisite to make the Deluge. ’Tis true, he makes the Height of the Mountains higher than we do; but, however, if you temper the Calculation on all Sides as much as you please, the Water that came by this Rain would be a very inconsiderable part of what was necessary for a Deluge. If it rain’d Forty Days and Forty Nights throughout the Face of the whole Earth, in the Northern and Southern Hemisphere all at once, it might be sufficient to lay all the lower Grounds under Water, but it would signify very little as to the overflowing of the Mountains. Whence another Author upon the same Occasion hath this Passage, Auct. cat. in Gen. 7. 4. “If the Deluge had been made by Rains only, there would not have needed Forty Days, but Forty Years Rain to have brought it to pass.” And if we should suppose the whole middle Region condens’d into Water, it would not at all have been sufficient for this Effect, according to that Proportion some make betwixt Air and Water; for they say, Air turn’d into Water takes up a hundred times less Room than it did before. The Truth is, we may reasonably suppose, that all the Vapours of the middle Region were turn’d into Water in this Forty Days and Forty Nights Rain, if we admit, that this Rain was throughout the whole Earth at once, in either Hemisphere, in every Zone, in 20every Climate, in every Country, in every Province, in every Field; and yet we see what a small Proportion all this would amount to.

Having done then with these superior Regions, we are next to examine the inferior, and the Treasures of Water that may be had there. Moses tells us, that the Fountains of the great Abyss were broke open, or clove asunder, as the Word there us’d doth imply; and no doubt in this lay the great Mystery of the Deluge, as will appear when it comes to be rightly understood and explained; but we are here to consider what is generally understood by the great Abyss, in the common Explication of the Deluge; and ’tis commonly interpreted either to be the Sea, or subterraneous Waters hid in the Bowels of the Earth: These, they say, broke forth and rais’d the Waters, caus’d by the Rain, to such an Height, that together they over-flowed the highest Mountains. But whether, or how this could be deserves to be a little examined.

And in the first Place, the Sea is not higher than the Land, as some have formerly imagin’d, fancying the Sea stood, as it were, upon a heap, higher than the Shore; and at the Deluge a Relaxation being made, it overflow’d the Land. But this Conceit is so gross, and so much against Reason and Experience, that none I think of late have ventured to make use of it. And yet on the other Hand, if the Sea lie in an equal Convexity with the Land, or lower generally than the Shore, and much more than the Midland, as 21it is certainly known to do, what could the Sea contribute to the Deluge? It would keep its Channel, as it doth now, and take up the same Place: And so also the subterraneous Waters would lie quiet in their Cells. Whatsoever Fountains or Passages you suppose, these would not issue out upon the Earth, for Water doth not ascend, unless by Force. But let’s imagine then that Force us’d and apply’d, and the Waters both of the Sea and Caverns under Ground drawn out upon the Surface of the Earth, we shall not be any whit the nearer for this; for if you take these Waters out of their Places, those Places must be fill’d again with other Waters in the Deluge; so as this turns to no Account upon the whole. If you have two Vessels to fill, and you empty one to fill the other, you gain nothing by that, there still remains one Vessel empty, you cannot have these Waters both in the Sea and on the Land, both above Ground and under; nor can you suppose the Channel of the Sea would stand gaping without Water, when all the Earth was overflow’d, and the tops of the Mountains cover’d. And so for subterraneous Cavities, if you suppose the Water pumpt out, they would suck it in again when the Earth came to be laid under Water; so that upon the whole, if you thus understand the Abyss, or great Deep, and the breaking open its Fountains in this manner, it doth us no Service as to the Deluge, and where we expected greatest Supply, there we find none at all.

What shall we do then? Whither shall we 22go to find more than seven Oceans of Water that we still want? We have been above and below; we have drained the whole middle Region, and we have examined the Deeps of the Earth; they must want for themselves, they say, if they give us any; and, besides, if the Earth should disgorge all the Water that it hath in its Bowels, it would not amount to above half an Ocean, which would not at all answer our Occasions. Must we not then conclude, that the common Explication of the Deluge makes it impossible? There being no such Quantity of Water in Nature as they make requisite for an universal Deluge. Yet to give them all fair Play, having examined the Waters above the Earth or in the Air, the Waters upon the Earth, and the Waters under the Earth; let us also consider if there be not Waters above the Heavens, and if those might not be drawn down for the Deluge. Moses speaks of Waters above the Firmament, which though it be generally understood of the middle Region of the Air, yet some have thought those to be Waters plac’d above the highest Heavens, or Super-celestial Waters; and have been willing to make use of them for a Supply, when they could not find Materials enough under the Heavens to make up the great Mass of the Deluge. But the Heavens, above, where these Waters lay, are either solid or fluid; if solid, as Glass or Crystal, how could the Waters get through them to descend upon the Earth? If fluid, as the Air or Æther, how could the Waters rest upon them, 23for Water is heavier than Air or Æther? So that I am afraid, those pure Regions will prove no fit Place for that Element, upon any Account. But supposing these Waters there, how imaginary soever, and that they were brought down to drown the World in that vast Quantity that would be necessary, what became of them, when the Deluge ceased? Seven or eight Oceans of Water, with the Earth wrapt up in the middle of them, how did it ever get quit of them? How could they be dispos’d of when the Earth was to be dry’d, and the World renew’d? It would be a hard Task to lift them up again among the Spheres, and we have no Room for them here below. The Truth is, I mention this Opinion of the Heavenly Waters, because I would omit none that had ever been made use of, to make good the common Explication of the Deluge; but otherwise, I think, since the System of the World hath been better known, and the Nature of the Heavens, there are none that would seriously assert these Super-celestial Waters, or, at least, make use of them so extravagantly, as to bring them down hither for Causes of the Deluge.

We have now employ’d our last and utmost Endeavours to find out Waters for the vulgar Deluge, or for the Deluge as commonly understood; and you see with how little Success; we have left no Corner unsought, where there was any Appearance or Report of Water to be found, and yet we have not been able to collect the eighth part of what was necessary 24upon a moderate Account. May we not then with Assurance conclude, that the World hath taken wrong Measures hitherto, in their Notion and Explication of the general Deluge? They make it impossible and unintelligible upon a double Account, both in requiring more Water than can be found, and more than can be dispos’d of if it was found; or could any way be withdrawn from the Earth when the Deluge should cease. For if the Earth was encompass’d with eight Oceans of Water heapt one upon another, how these should retire into any Channels, or be drain’d off, or the Earth any way disengag’d from them, is not intelligible; and that in so short a time as some Months: For the Violence of the Deluge lasted but four or five Months, and in as many Months after the Earth was dry and habitable. So as upon the whole Enquiry, we can neither find Source nor Issue, Beginning nor Ending, for such an excessive Mass of Waters as the vulgar Deluge required; neither where to have them, nor if we had them, how to get quit of them. And I think Men cannot do a greater Injury or Injustice to Sacred History, than to give such Representations of things recorded there, as make them unintelligible and incredible; and on the other Hand, we cannot deserve better of Religion and Providence, than by giving such fair Accounts of all things proposed by them, or belonging to them, as may silence the Cavils of Atheists, satisfy the Inquisitive, and recommend them to the Belief and Acceptance of all reasonable Persons.

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Chap. III.

All Evasions answered; That there was no new Creation of Waters at the Deluge: And that it was not Particular or National, but extended throughout the whole Earth. A Prelude and Preparation to the true Account and Explication of it: The Method of the first Book.

Though in the preceding Chapter we may seem to have given a fair Trial to the common Opinion concerning the State of the Deluge, and might now proceed to Sentence of Condemnation: Yet having heard of another Plea, which some have us’d in its Behalf, and another way found out by recourse to the Supream Power, to supply all Defects, and to make the whole matter intelligible, we will proceed no farther ’till that be consider’d; being very willing to examine whatsoever may be offer’d, in that or any other way, for resolving that great Difficulty which we have proposed, concerning the Quantity of Water requisite for such a Deluge. And to this they say in short, that God Almighty created Waters on purpose to make the Deluge, and then annihilated them again when the Deluge was to cease; and this, in a few Words, is the whole account of the Business. This is to cut the Knot when we cannot loose it; they shew us the naked Arm of Omnipotency; such Arguments as these come like Lightning, one doth not know what Armour to put on against them, for they pierce the more, the more they are 26resisted: We will not therefore oppose any thing to them that is hard and stubborn, but by a soft Answer deaden their Force by degrees.

And I desire to mind those Persons, in the first Place, of what St. Austin hath said upon a like Occasion, speaking concerning those that disproved the Opinion of Waters above the Heavens (which we mention’d before) by natural Reasons. “We are not, saith he, to refute those Persons, by saying, that according to the Omnipotence of God, to whom all things, are possible, we ought to believe there are Waters there, as heavy as we know and feel them here below; for our Business is now to enquire according to his Scripture, how God hath constituted the Nature of Things, and not what he could do or work in these Things by a Miracle of Omnipotency.” I desire them to apply this to the present Argument for the first Answer.

Secondly, Let them consider, that Moses hath assign’d Causes of the Deluge; Forty Days Rain, and the Disruption of the Abyss; and speaks nothing of a new Creation of Water upon that Occasion. Those were Causes in Nature which Providence had then dispos’d for this extraordinary Effect, and those the Divine Historian refers us to, and not to any Productions out of nothing. Besides, Moses makes the Deluge increase by degrees with the Rain, and accordingly makes it cease by degrees, and that the Waters going and returning as the Waves and great Commotions of the 27Sea use to do, retir’d leisurely from the Face of the Earth, and settled at length in their Channels. Now this manner of the Beginning or Ceasing of the Deluge doth not at all agree with the instantaneous Actions of Creation and Annihilation.

Thirdly, Let them consider, that Saint Peter hath also assign’d Causes of the Deluge, 2 Pet. 3. 6. namely the particular Constitution of the Earth and Heavens before the Flood; by reason whereof, he saith, the World that was then perish’d in a Deluge of Water; and not by reason of a new Creation of Water. His Words are these: “The Heavens and the Earth were of old, consisting of Water, and by Water; whereby, or by reason whereof, the World that then was, being overflowed with Water, perished.”

Fourthly, They are to consider, that as we are not rashly to have recourse to the Divine Omnipotence upon any Account, so especially not for new Creations; and least of all for the Creation of new Matter. The Matter of the Universe was created many Ages before the Flood, and the Universe being full, if any more was created, then there must be as much annihilated at the same time to make Room for it; for Bodies cannot penetrate one another’s Dimensions, nor be two or more within one and the same Space. Then, on the other Hand, when the Deluge ceas’d, and these Waters were annihilated, so much other Matter must be created again to take up their Places. And methinks they make very bold with the Deity, when they make him 28do and undo, go forward and backwards by such countermarches and retractions, as we do not willingly impute to the Wisdom of God Almighty.

Lastly, I shall not think my Labour lost, if it be but acknowledg’d, that we have so far clear’d the Way in this Controversy, as to have brought it to this Issue; that either there must be new Waters created on purpose to make a Deluge, or there could be no Deluge as it is vulgarly explained; there not being Water sufficient in Nature to make a Deluge of that kind. This, I say, is a great step, and, I think, will satisfy all Parties, at least, all that are considerable; for those that have recourse to a new Creation of Waters, are of two sorts, either such as do it out of Laziness, and Ignorance, or such as do it out of Necessity, seeing they cannot be had otherwise; as for the first, they are not to be valued or gratified; and as for the second, I shall do a thing very acceptable to them, if I free them and the Argument from that Necessity; and shew a way of making the Deluge fairly intelligible, and accountable without the Creation of new Waters; which is the Design of this Treatise. For we do not tie this Knot with an Intention to puzzle and perplex the Argument finally with it; but the harder it is ty’d, we shall feel the Pleasure more sensibly when we come to loose it.

It may be, when they are beaten from this new Creation of Water, they will say, the Element of Air was chang’d into Water, and that was the great Store-house for the Deluge. Forty Days Rain we allow, as Moses does, but 29if they suppose any other Transelementation, it neither agrees with Moses’s Philosophy, nor St. Peter’s; for then the Opening of the Abyss was needless, and the Form and Constitution of the Antediluvian Heavens and Earth, which St. Peter refers the Deluge to, bore no part in the Work; it might have been made, in that way, indifferently under any Heavens, or Earth. Besides, they offend against St. Austin’s Rule in this Method too; for I look upon it as no less a Miracle to turn Air into Water, than to turn Water into Wine. Air, I say: For Vapours indeed are but Water made volatile; but pure Air is a Body of another Species, and cannot by any Compression or Condensation, so far as is yet known, be chang’d into Water. And lastly, if the whole Atmosphere was turn’d into Water, ’tis very probable it would make no more than 34 Foot or thereabouts; for so much Air or Vapours as is of the same weight with any certain Quantity of Water, ’tis likely, if it was chang’d into Water, would also be of the same Bulk with it, or not much more: Now according to the Doctrine of the Gravitation of the Atmosphere, ’tis found, that 34 Foot of Water does counterballance a proportionable Cylinder of Air reaching to the top of the Atmosphere; and consequently, if the whole Atmosphere was converted into Water, it would make no more than eleven or twelve Yards Water about the Earth; which the Cavities of the Earth would be able in a good measure to suck up, at least this is very inconsiderable as 30to our eight Oceans. And if you would change the higher Regions into Water too, what must supply the Place of that Air which you transform into Water, and bring down upon the Earth? There would be little left but Fire and Æther betwixt us and the Moon, and I am afraid it would endanger to suck down the Moon too after it. In a Word, such an Explication as this is both purely imaginary, and also very operose, and would affect a great part of the Universe; and after all, they would be as hard put to it to get rid of this Water, when the Deluge was to cease, as they were at first to procure it.

Having now examin’d and answered all the Pleas, from first to last, for the vulgar Deluge, or the old way of explaining it, we should proceed immediately to propose another Method, and another Ground for an universal Deluge, were it not that an Opinion hath been started by some of late, that would in effect supplant both these Methods, old and new, and take away in a great measure the Subject of the Question. Some Modern Authors observing what straits they have been put to in all Ages, to find out Water enough for Noah’s Flood, have ventur’d upon an Expedient more brisk and bold than any of the Ancients durst venture upon: They say, Noah’s Flood was not Universal, but a National Inundation, confin’d to Judea, and those Countries thereabouts; and consequently, there would not be so much Water necessary for the Cause of it, as we have prov’d to be necessary for an Universal Deluge of that kind. Their Inference 31is very true, they have avoided that Rock, but they run upon another no less dangerous; to avoid an Objection from Reason, they deny matter of Fact, and such matter of Fact as is well attested by History, both Sacred and Prophane. I believe the Authors that set up this Opinion were not themselves satisfy’d with it; but seeing insuperable Difficulties in the old Way, they are the more excusable in chusing, as they thought, of two Evils the less.

But the Choice, methinks, is as bad on this Hand, if all things be considered; Moses represents the Flood of Noah as an Overthrow and Destruction of the whole Earth; and who can imagine, that in sixteen or seventeen hundred Years time, (taking the lower Chronology) that the Earth had then stood, Mankind should be propagated no farther than Judea, or some neighbouring Countries thereabouts? After the Flood, when the World was renew’d again by eight Persons, they had made a far greater Progress in Asia, Europe, and Africa, within the same space of Years, and yet ’tis likely they were more fruitful in the first Ages of the World, than after the Flood; and they liv’d six, seven, eight, nine hundred Years a Piece, getting Sons and Daughters. Which Longevity of the first Inhabitants of the Earth seems to have been providentially design’d for the quicker Multiplication and Propagation of Mankind; and Mankind thereby would become so numerous within sixteen hundred Years, that there seems to me to be a greater Difficulty from the Multitude 32of the People that would be before the Flood, than from the want of People: For if we allow the first Couple at the End of one hundred Years, or of the first Century, to have left ten Pair of Breeders, which is no hard Supposition, there would arise from these, in fifteen hundred Years, a greater Number than the Earth was capable of; allowing every Pair to multiply in the same decuple Proportion the first Pair did. But because this would rise far beyond the Capacities of this Earth, let us suppose them to increase, in the following Centuries, in a quintuple Proportion only, or, if you will, only in a quadruple; and then the Table of the Multiplication of Mankind, from the Creation to the Flood, would stand thus;

Century

1— 10

2— 40

3— 160

4— 640

5— 2560

6— 10240

7— 40960

8— 163840

9— 655360

10— 2621440

11— 10485760

12— 41943040

13— 167772160

14— 671088640

15— 2684354560

16— 10737418240

This Product is too excessive high, if compar’d with the present number of Men upon the Face of the Earth, which, I think, is commonly estimated to be betwixt three and four hundred Millions; and yet this Proportion of their Increase seems to be low enough, if we take one Proportion for all the Centuries; for, in reality, 33the same Measure cannot run equally through all the Ages, but we have taken this as moderate and reasonable betwixt the highest and the lowest; but if we had taken only a tripple Proportion, it would have been sufficient (all things consider’d) for the Purpose. There are several other ways of computing this Number, and some more particular and exact than this is, but which way soever you try, you shall find the Product great enough for the Extent of this Earth; and if you follow the Septuagint Chronology, it will still be far higher. I have met with three or four different Calculations, in several Authors, of the Number of Mankind before the Flood, and never met with any yet, but what exceeded the Number of the People that are at present upon the Face of the Earth. So as it seems to me a very groundless and forc’d Conceit to imagine, that Judea only, and some Parts about it in Asia, were stor’d with People when the Deluge was brought upon the old World. Besides, if the Deluge was confin’d to those Countries, I do not see but the Borderers might have escap’d, shifting a little into the adjoining Places where the Deluge did not reach. But especially what needed so much ado to build an Ark to save Noah and his Family, if he might have sav’d himself and them, only by retiring into some neighbouring Country; as Lot and his Family sav’d themselves, by withdrawing from Sodom, when the City was to be destroyed? Had not this been a far easier thing, and more compendious, than the great Preparations he made of a 34large Vessel, with Rooms, for the Reception and Accommodation of Beasts and Birds? And now I mention Birds, why could not they at least have flown into the next dry Country? They might have pearch’d upon the Trees, and the tops of the Mountains by the way to have rested themselves if they were weary, for the Waters did not all of a sudden rise to the Mountains tops.

I cannot but look upon the Deluge as a much more considerable thing than these Authors wou’d represent it, and as a kind of Dissolution of Nature; Moses calls it a destroying of the Earth, as well as of Mankind, Gen. 6. 13. And the Bow was set in the Cloud to seal the Covenant, that he would destroy the Earth no more, Gen. 9. 11. or that there would be no more a Flood to destroy the Earth. And ’tis said, Verse 13. That the Covenant was made between God and the Earth, or this Frame of Nature, that it should perish no more by Water. And the Rain-Bow, which was a Token and Pledge of this Covenant, appears not only in Judea, or some other Asiatick Provinces, but to all the Regions of the Earth, who had an equal Share and Concern in it. Moses saith also, the Fountains of the great Abyss were burst asunder to make the Deluge; and what means this Abyss, and the bursting of it, if restrain’d to Judea, or some adjacent Countries? What Appearance is there of this Disruption there, more than in other Places? Furthermore, St. Peter plainly implies, 2 Epist. c. 5. 6. That the Antediluvian Heavens and Earth perished in the Deluge; 35and opposeth the present Earth and Heavens to them, as different and of another Constitution; and saith, that these shall perish by Fire, as the other perished by Water. So he 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, and but two or three Countries burnt in that last Fire, as to say, that the Deluge was so. I confess that Discourse of St. Peter, concerning the several States of the World, would sufficiently convince me, if there was nothing else, That the Deluge was not a particular, or national Inundation, but a mundane Change, that extended to the whole Earth, and both to the (lower) Heavens and Earth.

All Antiquity, we know, hath spoke of these mundane Revolutions or Periods, that the World should be successively destroyed by Water and Fire; and I do not doubt, but that this Deluge of Noah’s, which Moses describes, was the first and leading Instance of this kind; and accordingly we see that after this Period, and after the Flood, the Blessing for Multiplication, and for replenishing the Earth with Inhabitants, was as solemnly pronounc’d by God Almighty, as at the first Creation of Man, Gen. 9. 1. with Gen. 1. 28. These Considerations, I think, might be sufficient to give us Assurance from Divine Writ of the Universality of the Deluge; and yet Moses affords us another Argument as demonstrative as any, when in the History of the Deluge, he saith, Gen. 7. 19. The Waters exceedingly prevail’d 36upon the Earth, and all the high Hills that were under the whole Heavens were covered. All the high Hills, he saith, under the whole Heavens, then quite round the Earth; and if the Mountains were covered quite round the Earth, sure the Plains could not scape. But to argue with them upon their own Grounds: Let us suppose only the Asiatick and Armenian Mountains covered with these Waters, this they cannot deny; then unless there was a Miracle to keep these Waters upon Heaps, they would flow throughout the Earth; for these Mountains are high enough to make them fall every way, and make them join with our Seas that environ the Continent. We cannot imagine Hills and Mountains of Water to have hung about Judea, as if they were congeal’d, or a Mass of Water to have stood upon the middle of the Earth like one great Drop, or a trembling Jelly, and all the Places about it dry and untouch’d. All liquid Bodies are diffusive; for their Parts being in Motion have no Tie or Connexion one with another, but glide and fall off any way, as Gravity and the Air presseth them; so the Surface of Water doth always conform into a Spherical Convexity with the rest of the Globe of the Earth, and every part of it falls as near to the Center as it can; wherefore when these Waters began to rise at first, long before they cou’d swell to the height of the Mountains, they would diffuse themselves every way, and thereupon all the Valleys and Plains, and lower Parts of the Earth would be filled throughout the 37whole Earth, before they cou’d rise to the Tops of the Mountains in any Part of it: And the Sea would be all raised to a considerable height before the Mountains could be covered. For let us suppose, as they do, that this Water fell not throughout the whole Earth, but in some particular Country, and there made first a great Lake; this Lake when it begun to swell would every way discharge it self by any Descents or Declivities of the Ground, and these Issues and Derivations being once made and supply’d with new Waters pushing them forwards, would continue their Course ’till they arrived at the Sea, just as other Rivers do; for these would be but so many Rivers rising out of this Lake, and would not be considerably deeper and higher at the Fountain than in their Progress or at the Sea, We may as well then expect that the Leman Lake, for instance, out of which the Rhone runs, should swell to the Tops of the Alps on the one Hand, and the Mountains of Switzerland and Burgundy on the other, and then stop, without overflowing the plainer Countries that lie beyond them; as to suppose that this Diluvian Lake should rise to the Mountains Tops in one Place, and not diffuse it self equally into all Countries about, and upon the Surface of the Sea; in Proportion to its Height and Depth in the Place where it first fell or stood.

Thus much for Sacred History. The Universality of the Deluge is also attested by Profane History; for the Fame of it is gone thro’ the Earth, 38and there are Records or Traditions concerning it, in all Parts of this and the new-found World. The Americans do acknowledge and speak of it in their Continent, as Acosta witnesseth, and Laet in their Histories of them. Mart. The Chineses have the Tradition of it, which is the farthest part of our Continent; and the nearer and Western part of Asia is acknowledg’d the proper Seat of it. Not to mention Deucalion’s Deluge in the European Parts, which seems to be the same under a disguise: So as you may trace the Deluge quite round the Globe in profane History; and, which is remarkable, every one of these People have a Tale to tell, some one way, some another, concerning the Restauration of Mankind; which is an Argument that they thought all Mankind destroy’d by that Deluge. In the old Dispute between the Scythians and the Ægyptians for Antiquity, which Justin mentions, they refer to a former Destruction of the World by Water or Fire, and argue, whether Nation first rose again, and was original to the other. So the Babylonians, Assyrians, Phœnicians and others, mention the Deluge in their Stories. And we cannot without offering Violence to all Records and Authority, Divine and Human, deny, that there hath been an universal Deluge upon the Earth; and if there was an universal Deluge, no question it was that of Noah’s, and that which Moses describ’d, and that which we treat of at present.

These Considerations, I think, are abundantly sufficient to silence that Opinion, concerning 39the Limitation and Restriction of the Deluge to a particular Country or Countries. It ought rather to be look’d upon as an Evasion indeed, than Opinion, seeing the Authors do not offer any positive Argument for the Proof of it, but depend only upon that negative Argument, That an universal Deluge is a Thing unintelligible. This Stumbling-stone we hope to take away for the future, and that Men shall not be put to that unhappy Choice, either to deny Matter of Fact well attested, or admit an Effect, whereof they cannot see any possible Causes. And so having stated and proposed the whole Difficulty, and try’d all ways offered by others, and found them ineffectual, let us now apply our selves by degrees, to untie the Knot.

The excessive Quantity of Water is the great Difficulty, and the Removal of it afterwards. Those eight Oceans lay heavy upon my thoughts, and I cast about every way, to find an Expedient, or to find some way, whereby the same Effect might be brought to pass with less Water, and in such a manner that that Water might afterwards conveniently be discharg’d. The first Thought that came into my Mind upon that Occasion, was concerning the Form of the Earth, which I imagin’d might possibly at that Time be different from what it is at present, and come nearer to Plainness and Equallity in the Surface of it, and so might the more easily be overflow’d, and the Deluge perform’d with less Water. This Opinion concerning the Plainness of the first Earth, I also found in Antiquity, 40mention’d and refer’d to by several Interpreters in their Commentaries upon Genesis, either upon Occasion of the Deluge, or of that Fountain which is said, Gen. 2. 6. to have watered the Face of the whole Earth: And a late eminent Person, the Honour of his Profession for Integrity and Learning, in his Discourse concerning the Origination of Mankind, hath made a like Judgment of the State of the Earth before the Deluge, that the Face of it was more smooth and regular than it is now. But yet upon second Thoughts, I easily see that this alone wou’d not be sufficient to explain the Deluge, nor to give an Account of the present Form of the Earth, unequal and mountainous as it is. ’Tis true this would give a great Advantage to the Waters, and the Rains that fell for Forty Days together would have a great Power over the Earth, being plain and smooth; but how would these Waters be dispos’d of when the Deluge ceas’d? Or how could it ever cease? Besides, what means the Disruption of the great Deep, or the great Abyss, or what answers to it upon this Supposition? This was assuredly of no less Consideration than the Rains; nay, I believe, the Rains were but preparatory in some measure, and that the Violence and Consummation of the Deluge depended upon the Disruption of the great Abyss. Therefore I saw it necessary, to my first Thought, concerning the Smoothness and Plainness of the Antediluvian Earth, to add a second, concerning the Disruption and Dissolution of it; for, as it often happens 41in Earthquakes, when the exterior Earth is burst asunder, and a great Flood of Waters issues out, according to the Quantity and Force of them, an Inundation is made in those Parts, more or less; so I thought, if that Abyss lay under Ground and round the Earth, and we should suppose the Earth in this manner to be broken in several Places at once, and as it were a general Dissolution made, we might suppose that to make a general Deluge, as well as a particular Dissolution often makes a particular. But I will not anticipate here the Explication we intend to give of the Universal Deluge in the following Chapters; only by this previous Intimation we may gather some Hopes, it may be, that the Matter is not so desperate as the former Representation might possibly make us fancy it.

Give me leave to add farther in this Place, that it hath been observ’d by several, from the Contemplation of Mountains and Rocks and Precipices, of the Channel of the Sea, and of Islands, and of Subterraneous Caverns, that the Surface of the Earth, or the exterior Region which we inhabit, hath been broke, and the parts of it dislocated: And one might instance more particularly in several Parcels of Nature, that retain still the evident Marks of Fraction and Ruin, and by their present Form and Posture shew, that they have been once in another State and Situation one to another. We shall have occasion hereafter to give an Account of these Phænomena, from which several have rightly argu’d, and concluded some general Rupture or Ruin in the 42superficial Parts of the Earth. But this Ruin, it is true, they have imagin’d and explain’d several ways, some thinking that it was made the third Day after the Foundation of the Earth; when they suppose the Channel of the Sea to have been form’d, and Mountains and Caverns at the same time, by a violent Depression of some Parts of the Earth, and an Extrusion and Elevation of others to make them Room. Others suppose it to have come not all at once, but by Degrees, at several Times, and in several Ages, from particular and accidental Causes, as the Earth falling in upon Fires under Ground, or Water eating away the lower parts, or Vapours and Exhalations breaking out and tearing the Earth. ’Tis true, I am not of their Opinion in either of these Explications; and we shall shew at large hereafter, when we have propos’d and stated our own Theory, how incompetent such Causes are, to bring the Earth into that Form and Condition we now find it in. But in the mean time, we may so far make use of these Opinions in general, as not to be startled at this Doctrine, concerning the Breaking or Dissolution of the Exterior Earth; for in all Ages the Face of Nature hath provok’d Men to think of and observe such a Thing. And who can do otherwise, to see the Elements displac’d and disorder’d, as they seem to lie at present; the heaviest and grossest Bodies in the highest Places, and the liquid and volatile kept below; an huge Mass of Stone or Rock rear’d into the Air, and the Water creeping 43at its Feet; whereas this is the more light and active Body, and by the Law of Nature should take Place of Rocks and Stones? So we see, by the like Disorder, the Air thrown down into Dungeons of the Earth, and the Earth got up among the Clouds; for there are the tops of the Mountains, and under their Roots in Holes and Caverns the Air is often detained. By what regular Action of Nature can we suppose things first produc’d in this Posture and Form? Not to mention how broke and torn the inward Substance of the Earth is, which of it self is an uniform Mass, close and compact; but in the Condition we see it, it lies hollow in many places, with great Vacuities intercepted betwixt the Portions of it; a Thing which we see happens in all Ruins more or less, especially when the Parts of the Ruins are great and inflexible. Then what can have more the Figure and Mien of a Ruin, than Crags, and Rocks, and Cliffs, whether upon the Sea-shore, or upon the Sides of Mountains? What can be more apparently broke, than they are? And those lesser Rocks, or great bulky Stones that lie often scatter’d near the Feet of the other, whether in the Sea, or upon the Land, are they not manifest Fragments and pieces of these greater Masses? Besides, the Posture of these Rocks, which is often leaning or recumbent, or prostrate, shews to the Eye, that they have had a Fall, or some kind of Dislocation from their natural Site. And the same thing may be observed in the Tracks and Regions of the Earth, 44which very seldom for ten Miles together have any regular Surface or Continuity one with another, but lie high and low, and are variously inclin’d sometimes one way, sometimes another, without any Rule or Order. Whereas I see no Reason but the Surface of the Land should be as regular as that of the Water in the first Production of it; and the Strata or Beds within lie as even. This I am sure of, that this Disposition of the Elements, and the Parts of the Earth, outward and inward, hath something irregular and unnatural in it, and manifestly shews us the Marks, or Footsteps of some kind of Ruin and Dissolution; which we shall shew you, in its due Place, happen’d in such a way, that at the same time a general Flood of Waters wou’d necessarily over-run the Face of the whole Earth. And by the same fatal Blow, the Earth fell out of that regular Form, wherein it was produc’d at first, into all these Irregularities which we see in its present Form and Composition; so that we shall give thereby a double Satisfaction to the Mind, both to shew it a fair and intelligible Account of the general Deluge, how the Waters came upon the Earth, and how they return’d into their Channels again, and left the Earth habitable; and likewise to shew it how the Mountains were brought forth, and the Channel of the Sea discover’d: How all those Inequalities came in the Body or Face of the Earth, and those empty Vaults and Caverns in its Bowels; which things are no less matter of Admiration than the Flood it self.

45But I must beg leave to draw a Curtain before the Work for a while, and to keep your Patience a little in suspence, till Materials are prepar’d, and all things ready to represent and explain what we have propos’d. Yet I hope, in the mean time, to entertain the Mind with Scenes no less pleasing, tho’ of quite another Face and Order; for we must now return to the Beginning of the World, and look upon the first Rudiments of Nature, and that dark but fruitful Womb, out of which all things sprang, I mean the Chaos: For this is the Matter which we must next work upon, and it will be no unpleasing thing to observe, how that rude Mass will shoot it self into several Forms one after another, ’till it comes at length to make an habitable World. The steady Hand of Providence, which keeps all things in Weight and Measure, being the invisible Guide of all its Motions. These Motions we must examine from first to last, to find out what was the Form of the Earth, and what was the Place or Situation of the Ocean, or the great Abyss, in that first State of Nature: Which two things being determined, we shall be able to make a certain Judgment, what kind of Dissolution that Earth was capable of, and whether from that Dissolution an Universal Deluge would follow, with all the Consequences of it.

In the mean time, for the Ease and Satisfaction of the Reader, we will here mark the Order and Distribution of the first Book, which we divide into three Sections; whereof the first is these three Chapters past: In the second Section 46we will shew, that the Earth before the Deluge was of a different Frame and Form from the present Earth; and particularly of such a form as made it subject to a Dissolution and to such a Dissolution, as did necessarily expose it to an Universal Deluge. And in this Place we shall apply our Discourse particularly to the Explication of Noah’s Flood, and that under all its Conditions, of the Height of the Waters, of their Universality, of the Destruction of the World by them, and of their retiring afterwards from the Earth; and this Section will consist of the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Chapters. In the Third Section we prove the same Dissolution from the Effects and Consequences of it, or from the Contemplation of the present Face of the Earth: And here an Account is given of the Origin of Mountains, of subterraneous Waters and Caverns, of the great Channel of the Sea, and of the first Production of Islands; and those things are the Contents of the Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh Chapters. Then, in the last Chapter, we make a general Review of the whole Work, and a general Review of Nature; that by comparing them together, their full Agreement and Correspondency may appear. Here several collateral Arguments are given for Confirmation of the preceding Theory, and some Reflections are made upon the State of the other Planets compar’d with the Earth. And lastly, what Accounts soever have been given by others of the present Form and Irregularities 47of the Earth, are examin’d and shew’d insufficient. And this seemeth to be all that is requisite upon this Subject.

Chap. IV.

That the Earth and Mankind had an Original, and were not from Eternity: Prov’d against Aristotle. The first Proposition of our Theory laid down, viz. That the Antediluvian Earth was of a different Form and Construction from the present. This is prov’d by Divine Authority, and from the Nature and Form of the Chaos, out of which the Earth was made.

We are now to enquire into the Original of the Earth, and in what Form it was built at first, that we may lay our Foundation for the following Theory deep and sure. It hath been the general Opinion and Content 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, hath 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 Fruit, Metals and Minerals, and whatsoever is of natural Production. We say all these Things arose and 48had their first Existence or Production not six thousand Years ago: He saith, 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. This takes away the Subject of our Discourse, and therefore we must first remove this Stone out of the way, and prove that the Earth had an Original, and that from a Chaos, before we shew how it arose from a Chaos, and what was the first habitable Form that it settled into.

We are assur’d by Divine Authority, that the Earth and Mankind had a beginning: Moses saith, In the Beginning God made the Heavens and the Earth. Speaking it as of a certain Period or Term, from whence he counts the Age of the World. And the same Moses tells us, that Adam was the first Man, and Eve the first Woman, from whom sprung the Race of Mankind; and this within the Compass of Six Thousand Years. We are also assur’d from the Prophets, and our Christian Records, that the World shall have an End, and that by a general Conflagration, when all Mankind shall be destroyed, with the Form, and all the Furniture of the Earth. And as this proves the second Part of Aristotle’s Doctrine to be false immediately, so doth it the first, by a true Consequence; for what hath an End had a Beginning, what is not Immortal, was not Eternal: That which exists by the Strength of its own Nature at first, the same Nature will enable to exist for ever; and indeed 49what exists of it self, exists necessarily; and what exists necessarily, exists eternally.

Having this infallible Assurance of the Origin of the Earth and of Mankind from Scripture, we proceed to refute the same Doctrine of Aristotle’s by natural Reason. And we will first consider the Form of the Earth, and then Mankind; and shew, from plain Evidence and Observation, neither of them to have been Eternal. ’Tis natural to the Mind of Man to consider that which is compound, as having been once more simple; whether that Composition be a Mixture of many Ingredients, as most Terrestrial Bodies are, or whether it be Organical; but especially if it be Organical: For a Thing that consists of a multitude of Pieces aptly join’d, we cannot but conceive to have had those Pieces, at one time or another, put together. ’Twere hard to conceive an eternal Watch, whose Pieces were never separate one from another, nor ever in any other Form than that of a Watch. Or an eternal House, whose Materials were never asunder, but always in the Form of an House. And ’tis as hard to conceive an Eternal Earth, or an Eternal World: These are made up of more various Substances, more Ingredients, and into a far greater Composition; and the living Part of the World, Plants and Animals, have much more Variety of Parts and multifarious Construction, than any House, or any other artificial Thing: So that we are led as much by Nature and Necessity, to conceive this great Machine of the World, or of the Earth, to have been once in 50a State of greater Simplicity than now it is, as to conceive a Watch, an House, or any other Structure, to have been once in its first and simple Materials. This I speak without Reference to immediate Creation, for Aristotle did not own any such thing, and therefore the Argument stands good against him, upon those Grounds and Notions that he goes; yet I guess what Answer would be made by him or his Followers to this Argumentation: They would say, there is not the same Reason for Natural things, as for Artificial, though equally compounded. Artificial Things could not be from Eternity, because they suppose Man, by whose Art they were made, pre-existent to them; the Workman must be before the Work, and whatsoever hath any thing before it, is not Eternal. But may not the same thing be said of Natural things? Do not most of them require the Action of the Sun, and the Influence of the Heavens for their Production, and longer Preparations than any Artificial things do? Some Years or Ages would be necessary for the Concoction and Maturation of Metals and Minerals; Stones themselves, at least some sorts of them, were once Liquors, or fluid Masses; and all Vegetable Productions require the Heat of the Sun, to predispose and excite the Earth and the Seeds. Nay, according to Aristotle, ’tis not Man by himself that begets a Man, but the Sun is his Coadjutor. You see then ’twas as necessary that the Sun, that great Workman of Nature, should pre-exist to Natural things, produc’d in, or upon the Earth, as that Man should pre-exist 51to Artificial. So that the Earth, under that Form and Constitution it now hath, could no more be Eternal, than a Statue or Temple, or any Work of Art.

Besides, that Form, which the Earth is under at present, is in some sort preternatural, like a Statue made and broken again; and so hath still the less Appearance or Pretence of being Eternal. If the Elements had lain in that Order to one another, as Aristotle hath dispos’d them, and as seems to be their first Disposition; the Earth altogether in a Mass in the middle, or towards the Centre; then the Water in a Spherical Mass about that; the Air above the Water, and then a Sphere of Fire, as he fancied, in the highest Circle of the Air: If they had lain, I say, in this Posture, there might have been some Pretence that they had been Eternally so; because that might seem to be their Original Posture, in which Nature had first plac’d them. But the Form and Posture we find them in at present is very different, and according to his Doctrine must be look’d upon as unnatural and violent; and no violent State, by his own Maxim, can be perpetual, or can have been so.

But there is still a more pressing Consideration against this Opinion. If this present State and Form of the Earth had been from Eternity, it would have long ere this destroy’d itself, and chang’d itself: The Mountains sinking by degrees into the Valleys, and into the Sea, and the Waters rising above the Earth; which Form it would certainly have come into, sooner or later, and in 52it continu’d drowned and uninhabitable, for all succeeding Generations. For ’tis certain, that the Mountains and higher Parts of the Earth grow lesser and lesser from Age to Age; and that from many Causes, sometimes the Roots of them are weaken’d, and eaten by subterraneous Fires, and sometimes they are torn and tumbled down by Earthquakes, and fall into those Caverns that are under them; and tho’ those violent Causes are not constant, or universal, yet if the Earth had stood from Eternity, there is not a Mountain would have escaped this Fate in one Age or other. The Course of these Exhalations or Fires would have reach’d them all sooner or later, if thro’ infinite Ages they had stood exposed to them. But there are also other causes that consume them insensibly, and make them sink by degrees; and those are chiefly the Winds, Rains, and Storms, and Heat of the Sun without; and within, the soaking of Water and Springs, with Streams and Currents in their Veins and Crannies. These two sorts of Causes would certainly reduce all the Mountains of the Earth, in tract of Time, to Equality; or rather lay them all under Water: For whatsoever moulders, or is wash’d away from them, is carried down into the lower Grounds, and into the Sea, and nothing is ever brought back again by any Circulation: Their Losses are not repair’d, nor any proportionable Recruits made from any other parts of Nature. So as the higher parts of the Earth being continually spending, and the lower continually gaining, they must of necessity at length come to an Equality; 53and the Waters that lie in the lower parts and in the Channels, those Channels and Valleys being fill’d up with Earth, would be thrust out and rise every where upon the Surface of the Earth; which new Post, when they had once seiz’d on it, they would never quit nor would any thing be able to dispossess them; for ’tis their natural Place and Situation which they always tend to, and from which there is no Progress nor Regress in a Course of Nature. So that the Earth would have been, both now, and from innumerable Generations before this, all under Water and uninhabitable; if it had stood from Everlasting, and this Form of it had been its first Original Form.

Nor can he doubt of this Argumentation, that considers the Coherence of it, and will allow time enough for the Effect. I do not say the Earth would be reduc’d to this uninhabitable Form in ten thousand Years time, tho’ I believe it would: But take twenty, if you please, take an hundred thousand, take a million, ’tis all one, for you may take the one as easily as the other out of Eternity; and they make both equally against their Supposition. Nor is it any matter how little you suppose the mountains to decrease ’tis but taking more time, and the same Effect still follows. Let them but waste as much as a Grain of Mustard-Seed every Day, or a Foot in an Age, this would be more than enough in ten thousand Ages to consume the tallest Mountain upon Earth. The Air alone, and the little drops of Rain have defac’d the strongest and the proudest Monuments of the Greeks and Romans; and 54allow them but time enough, and they will of themselves beat down the Rocks into the Sea, and the Hills into the Valleys. But if we add to these all those other foremention’d Causes that work with more Violence, and the Weight of the Mountains themselves, which, upon any occasion offer’d, is ready to sink them lower, we shall shorten the Time and make the Effect more sure.

We need add no more here in particular against this Aristotelian Doctrine, that makes the present Form of the Earth to have been from Eternity; for the Truth is, this whole Book is one continued Argument against that opinion; shewing that it hath de facto chang’d its Form; both in that we have prov’d that it was not capable of an universal Deluge in this Form, and consequently was once under another; and also in that we shall prove at large hereafter throughout the Third and Fourth Sections, that it hath been broken and dissolv’d. We might also add one Consideration more, that if it had stood always under this Form, it would have been under Fire, if it had not been under Water; and the Conflagration, which it is to undergo, would have overtaken it long ere this. For St. Peter saith, The Heavens and the Earth that are now, as oppos’d to the Antediluvian, and consider’d in their present Form and Constitution, are fitted to be consumed by Fire. And whosoever understands the Progress and Revolutions of Nature, will see that neither the present Form of the Earth, nor its first Form, were permanent and immutable Forms, but transient and temporary by their own 55Frame and Constitution; which the Author of Nature, after certain Periods of Time, had design’d for Change and for Destruction.

Thus much for the Body of the Earth, that it could not have been from Eternity, as Aristotle pretended, in the Form it hath. Now let’s consider the Origination of Mankind; and that we shall find could much less be Eternal than the other; for whatsoever destroy’d the Form of the Earth, would also destroy Mankind; and besides, there are many particular Marks and Arguments, that the Generations of Men have not been from Everlasting. All History, and all Monuments of Antiquity, of what kind soever, are but of a few Thousand of Years date; we have still the Memory of the Golden Age, of the first State of Nature, and how Mortals liv’d then in Innocency and Simplicity. The Invention of Arts, even those that are necessary or useful to Human Life, hath been within the Knowledge of Men: How imperfect was the Geography of the Ancients, how imperfect their Knowledge of the Earth, how imperfect their Navigation? Can we imagine, if there had been Men from Everlasting, a Sea as now, and all materials for shipping as much as we have, that Men could have been so ignorant, both of the Land and of the Sea, as ’tis manifest they have been till of late Ages? They had very different Fancies concerning the Figure of the Earth. They knew no Land beyond our Continent, and that very imperfectly too; and the Torrid Zone they thought utterly uninhabitable. We think it strange, taking that short Date of 56the World, which we give it, that Men should not have made more Progress in the Knowledge of these Things; but how impossible is it then, if you suppose them to have been from Everlasting? They had the same Wit and Passions that we have, the same Motives that we have, can we then imagine, that neither the Ambition of Princes, nor Interest or Gain in private Persons, nor Curiosity and the Desire of Knowledge, nor the Glory of Discoveries, nor any other Passion or Consideration could ever move them in that endless time, to try their Fortunes upon the Sea, and know something more of the World they inhabited? Though you should suppose them generally stupid, which there is no Reason to do, yet in a Course of infinite Generations, there would be some great Genii, some extraordinary Persons that would attempt things above the rest. We have done more within the compass of our little World, which we can but count (as to this) from the general Deluge, than those Eternal Men had done in their innumerable Ages foregoing.

You will say it may be, they had not the Advantages and Opportunities for Navigation as we have, and for Discoveries; because the use of the Loadstone, and the Mariners needle was not then known. But that’s the Wonder, that either that Invention, or any other should not be brought to light till t’other Day, if the World had stood from Eternity. I say this or any other practical Invention; for such Things, when they are once found out and known, are not easily lost again, 57because they are of daily use. And ’tis in most other practical arts, as in Navigation, we generally know their original and History; who the Inventors, and by what degrees improv’d, and how few of them brought to any Perfection till of late Ages. All the Artificial and Mechanical World is in a manner new; and what you may call the Civil World too is in a great measure so. What relates to Government, and Laws; to Wars and Discipline; we can trace these things to their Origin, or very near it. The use of Money and of Coins, nay the Use of the very Elements; for they tell us of the first Invention of fire by Prometheus, and the employing of Wind or Water to turn the Mills, and grind their Corn was scarce known before the Romans, Plin. l. 7. c. 56. And that we may think nothing eternal here, they tell us the Ages and Genealogies of their very Gods. The measures of Time for the common uses of Life, the dividing it into Hours, with the Instruments for those Purposes, are not of an unknown Date: Even the Arts for preparing Food and Cloathing, Medicines and Medicaments, Building, Civil and Military, Letters and Writing, which are the Foundations of the World Civil: These, with all their Retinue of lesser Arts and Trades that belong to them, History and Tradition tell us when they had their Beginning, or were very imperfect; and how many of their Inventors and Inventresses were deify’d. The World hath not stood so long but we can still run it up to those artless Ages, when Mortals liv’d by plain Nature; when there was but 58one Trade in the World, one Calling, to look to their Flocks; and afterwards to till the Ground, when Nature grew less liberal: And may we not reasonably think this the Beginning of Mankind, or very near it? If Man be a Creature, both naturally sagacious to find out its own Conveniencies, and naturally sociable and inclin’d to live in a Community, a little Time would make them find out and furnish themselves with what was necessary in these two kinds, for the Conveniencies of single Life, and the Conveniencies of Societies; they would not have liv’d infinite Ages, unprovided of them. If you say Necessity is the Mother of Arts and Inventions, and there was no Necessity before, and therefore these things were so slowly invented; this is a good Answer upon our Supposition, that the World began but some Ages before these were found out, and was abundant with all Things at first; and Men not very numerous, and therefore were not put so much to the use of their Wits, to find out Ways for living commodiously. But this is no Answer upon their Supposition; for if the World was eternal and Men too, there were no first Ages, no new and fresh Earth; Men were never less numerous, nor the Earth more fruitful; and consequently there was never less Necessity at any time than is now. This also brings to Mind another Argument against this Opinion, (viz.) from the gradual Increase of Mankind. ’Tis certain the World was not so populous one or two thousand Years since, as it is now, seeing ’tis observ’d in particular Nations, 59that within the Space of two or three hundred Years, notwithstanding all Casualties, the Number of Men doubles. If then the Earth had stood from Everlasting, it had been overstock’d long ere this, and would not have been capable to contain its Inhabitants many Ages and Millions of Ages ago. Whereas we find the Earth is not yet sufficiently inhabited, and there is still Room for some Millions. And we must not fly to universal Deluges and Conflagrations to destroy Mankind; for besides that the Earth was not capable of a Deluge in this present Form, nor would have been in this Form after a Conflagration, Aristotle doth not admit of these universal Changes, nor any that hold the Form of the Earth to be eternal. But to return to our Arts and Inventions.

We have spoken of practical Arts and Inventions useful in human Life; then for Theoretical Learning and Sciences, there is nothing yet finish’d or compleat in these; and what is known hath been chiefly the Production of latter Ages. How little hath been discover’d till of late, either of our own Bodies, or of the Body of the Earth, and of the Functions or Motions of Nature in either? What more obvious, one would think, than the Circulation of the Blood? What can more excite our Curiosity than the flowing and ebbing of the Sea? Than the Nature of Metals and Minerals? These are either yet unknown, or were so at least till this last Age; which seems to me, to have made a greater Progress than all Ages before put together, since the beginning of 60the World. How unlikely is it then that these Ages were Eternal? That the Eternal Studies of our Fore-fathers could not effect so much as a few Years have done of late? And the whole Mass of Knowledge in this Earth doth not seem to be so great, but that a few Ages more, with two or three happy Genius’s in them, may bring to light all that we are capable to understand in this State of Mortality.

To these Arguments concerning the Novelty of the Earth, and the Origin of Mankind, I know there are some shuffling Excuses made, but they can have little Effect upon those Instances we have chosen. And I would ask those Eternalists one fair Question, What Mark is there that they could expect or desire of the Novelty of a World, that is not found in this? Or what Mark is there of Eternity that is found in this? If then their Opinion be without any positive Argument, and against all Appearances in Nature, it may be justly rejected as unreasonable upon all Accounts. ’Tis not the bold asserting of a Thing that makes it true, or that makes it credible against Evidence. If one should assert that such an one had liv’d from all Eternity, and I could bring Witnesses that knew him a Sucking-child, and others that remembred him a School-boy, I think it would be a fair Proof, that the Man was not Eternal. So if there be Evidence, either in Reason or History, that it is not very many Ages since Nature was in her Minority, as appears by all those Instances we have given above; some whereof trace her 61down to her very Infancy: This, I think, may be taken for a good Proof that she is not Eternal. And I do not doubt, but if the History of the World was writ Philosophically, giving an Account of the several States of Mankind in several Ages, and by what Steps or Degrees they came from their first Rudeness or Simplicity to that Order of Things, both Intellectual and Civil, which the World is advanc’d to at present, That alone would be a full Conviction, that the Earth and Mankind had a Beginning. As the Story of Rome, how it rose from a mean Original, by what degrees it increas’d, and how it chang’d its Form and Government till it came to its Greatness, doth satisfy us very well, that the Roman Empire was not Eternal.