Chapter IV: Book I (2)

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; and 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 upon 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 whole 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, and 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 the 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, mention’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 in 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 superficial 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 at 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, which 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.

BUT 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 we 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 of 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 had 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 what 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 a 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 to 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 it 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; and 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 allow 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 Frame 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 the 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, because 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 one 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, that 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 the 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 down 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.

THUS much concerning the Temporal Original of the Earth. We are now to consider the manner of it, and to shew how it rose from a Chaos. I do not remember that any of the Ancients that acknowledge the Earth to have had an Original, did deny that Original to have been from a Chaos. We are assur’d of both from the Authority of _Moses_, who saith, that in the Beginning the Earth was _Tohu Bohu_, without Form and Void; a fluid, dark, confus’d Mass, without Distinction of Elements; and made up of all Variety of Parts, but without Order, or any determinate Form; which is the true Description of a Chaos: And so it is understood by the general Consent of Interpreters both Hebrew and Christian. We need not therefore spend any time here to prove, that the Origin of the Earth was from a Chaos, seeing that it is agreed on by all that give it any Origin. But we will proceed immediately to examine into what Form it first rose when it came out of that Chaos; or what was the primæval Form of the Earth, that continued till the Deluge, and how the Deluge depended upon it, and upon its Dissolution.

And, that we may proceed in this Enquiry by such easy steps as any one may readily follow, we will divide it into Three Propositions, whereof the first is this in general; _that the Form of the Antediluvian Earth, or of the Earth that rose first from the Chaos, was different from the Form of the present Earth_. I say, _different in general_, without specifying yet what its particular Form was, which shall be exprest in the following Proposition.

THIS first Proposition we have in effect prov’d in the second Chapter; where we have shewn, that if the Earth had been always in this Form, it would not have been capable of a Deluge; seeing that could not have been effected without such an infinite Mass of Water as could neither be brought upon the Earth, nor afterward any way removed from it. But we will not content our selves with that Proof only, but will prove it also from the Nature of the Chaos, and the manifest Consequences of it. And because this is a leading Proposition, we think it not improper to prove it also from Divine Authority, there being a pregnant Passage to this Purpose in the Writings of St. _Peter_. Where treating of this very Subject, the Deluge, he manifestly puts a difference between the Antediluvian Earth and the present Earth, as to their Form and Constitution. The Discourse is in the second Epistle of St. _Peter_, the third Chapter, where certain Deists, as they seem to have been, laught at the Prophecy of the Day of Judgment, and of the Conflagration of the World, using this Argument against it, _That since the Fathers fell asleep, all things have continued as they were from the beginning_. All External Nature hath continued the same without any remarkable Change or Alteration, and why should we believe, say they, there will be any? What Appearance, or what Foundation is there of such a Revolution, that all Nature will be dissolved, and the Heavens and the Earth consum’d with Fire, as your Prophecies pretend? So from the Permanency and Immutability of Nature hitherto, they argu’d its Permanency and Immutability for the future. To this the _Apostle_ answers, that they are willing to forget, that the Heavens and the Earth of old had a particular Form and Constitution as to Water, by reason whereof the World, that then was, perish’d by a Deluge. And the Heavens and the Earth that are now, or since the Deluge, have a particular Constitution in reference to Fire, by reason whereof they are expos’d to another sort of Destruction or Dissolution, namely by Fire, or by an universal Conflagration. The Words of the Apostle, _Chap. iii. v. 5, 6, 7._ are these; _For this they are willingly ignorant of, that by the Word of God the Heavens were of old, and the Earth, consisting of Water, and by Water_; or (as we render it) _standing out of the Water, and in the Water; wherein the World that then was, being overflow’d with Water, perish’d. But the Heavens and the Earth that are now, by the same Word are kept in store, reserv’d unto Fire against the Day of Judgment_. We shall have occasion, it may be, hereafter to give a full Illustration of these Words; but at present we shall only take notice of this in general, that the Apostle here doth plainly intimate some difference that was between the old World and the present World, in their Form and Constitution; or betwixt the Antediluvian and the present Earth, by reason of which difference, that was subject to perish by a Deluge, as this is subject to perish by Conflagration. And as this is the general Air and Importance of this Discourse of the Apostle’s, which every one at first sight would discover; so we may in several particular ways prove from it our first Proposition, which now we must return to; (_viz._) _That the Form and Constitution of the Antediluvian Earth was different from that of the present Earth._ This may be inferr’d from the Apostle’s Discourse, first, because he makes an opposition betwixt these two Earths, or these two natural Worlds; and that not only in respect of their Fate, the one perishing by Water, as the other will perish by Fire, but also in respect of their different Disposition and Constitution leading to this different Fate; for otherwise his _fifth Verse_ is superfluous, and his Inference in the _sixth_ ungrounded; you see he premiseth in the _fifth Verse_ as the Ground of his Discourse, what the Constitution of the antediluvian Heavens and Earth was, and then infers from it in the _sixth Verse_, that they therefore perish’d in a Deluge of Water. Now if they had been the same with ours, there had neither been any Ground for making an Opposition betwixt them, nor any Ground of making a contrary Inference as to their Fate. Besides, in that he implies that the Constitution of the antediluvian Earth was such, as made it subject to a Deluge; he shews that it was different from the Constitution of the present Earth; for the Form of that is such, as makes it rather incapable of a Deluge, as we have shewn in the second Chapter. Then we are to observe further, that when he saith (_v. 6._) that the first World perish’d in a Deluge, or was destroy’d by it; this is not to be understood of the animate World only, Men and living Creatures, but of the natural world, and the Frame of it; for he had describ’d it before by the Heavens and the Earth, which make the natural World. And the Objection of the Atheists, or Deists rather, which he was to answer, proceeded upon the natural World. And lastly, this perishing of the world in a Deluge is set against, or compar’d with the perishing of the World in the Conflagration, when the Frame of Nature will be dissolv’d. We must therefore, according to the Tenor of the Apostle’s arguing, suppose, that the natural World was destroy’d or perish’d in the Deluge; and seeing it did not perish as to Matter and Substance, it must be as to the Form, Frame and Composition of it, that it perish’d; and consequently, the present Earth is of another Form and Frame from what it had before the Deluge; which was the thing to be proved.