CHAP. I.
Testimonies of the Ancient Heathen Wri­ters concerning the Chaos, and what they meant by it.

IT was an ancient Tradition among the Heathen, that the World was created out of a Chaos.

First of all the ancient Greek Poet Hesi­od, who may contend for Antiquity with Homer himself, makes mention of it in his Theogonia, not far from the beginning, in these words. ‘ [...].’ First of all there was a Chaos. And a few Verses after, speaking of the immediate Production or Off-spring of the Chaos, he saith, ‘ [...].’ [Page 3] From Chaos proceeded Hell, and Night [or Darkness] which seems to have its founda­tion or occasion from the second Verse of the first Chapter of Genesis; And the Earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. Of this testimo­ny of Hesiod, Lactantius takes notice, and censures it, in the first Book of his Instituti­ons [...] Hesiodus non à Deo conditore, su­mens exordium, sed à Chao, quod est rudis inor­dinat á que materiae confusae congeries. Hesiod not taking his beginning from God the Creator of all things, but from the Chaos, which is a rude and inordinate heap of con­fused matter. And so Ovid describes it in the beginning of his Metamorphosis;

That is,

Others of the Ancients have also made mention of the Chaos, as Aristophanes in Avi­bus. [Page 4] ‘ [...], &c.’ And Lucan in the beginning of his first Book ‘Antiquum repetent iterum Chaos omnia, &c.’ Of the formation of all the Parts of the World out of this Chaos, Ovid in the place fore-quoted, gives us a full and particular description: and Euripides before him a brief one,

The Heaven and Earth were at first of one form; but after they were separated, the Earth brought forth Trees, Birds, Beasts, Fishes and Mankind.

The like account also the ancient Philoso­pher Anaxagoras gives of the Creation of the World, beginning his Philosophy thus, [...]: that is, All things (at first) were together, or mingled and confused, then Mind supervening disposed them in a beautiful or­der.

That which I chiefly dislike in this Opi­nion [Page 5] of theirs is, that they make no mention of the Creation of this Chaos, but seem to look upon it as self-existent and improdu­ced.

CHAP. II.
That the Creation of the World out of a Chaos is not repugnant to the Holy Scripture.

THis Opinion of a Chaos, if soberly un­derstood, not as self-existent and im­produced, but in the first place created by God, and preceding other Beings, which were made out of it, is not, so far as I can discern, any way repugnant to the Holy Scripture, but on the contrary rather con­sonant and agreeable thereto. For Moses in the History and Description of the Creation in the first Chapter of Genesis, saith not that God created all things in an instant in their full state and perfection, but that he pro­ceeded gradually and in order, from more imperfect to more perfect Beings, first be­ginning with the Earth, that is, the Terra­queous Globe, which was made tohu vabohu, without form and void, the Waters cover­ing [Page 6] the face of the Land, which were after­wards separated from the Land, and gather­ed together into one place. Then he crea­ted out of the Land and Water first Plants, and then Animals, Fishes, Birds, Beasts, in Order, and last of all formed the Body of Man of the Dust of the Earth.

And whereas there is no particular men­tion made of the Creation of Metals, Mine­rass and other Fossils, they must be compre­hended in the word Earth, as the Water it self also is in the second Verse of this first Chapter.

It seems therefore to me consonant to the Scripture, That God Almighty did at first create the Earth or Terraqueous Globe, con­taining in its self the Principles of all simple inanimate Bodies, or the minute and natu­rally indivisible Particles of which they were compounded, of various but a determinate number of Figures, and perchance of diffe­rent magnitudes; and these variously and confusedly commixed, as though they had been carelesly shaken and shuffled together; yet not so, but that there was order obser­ved by the most Wise Creator in the disposi­tion of them. And not only so, but that the same Omnipotent Deity did create also the Seeds or Seminal Principles of all Animate Bodies, both Vegetative and Sensitive; and [Page 7] disperst them, at least the Vegetative, all o­ver the superficial part of the Earth and Wa­ter. And the Notion of such an Earth as this is, the Primitive Patriarchs of the World delivered to their Posterity, who, by degrees annexing something of sabulous to it, im­posed upon it the name of Chaos.

The next work of the Divine Power and Wisdom was the separation of the Water from the dry Land, and raising up of the Mountains, of which I shall treat more par­ticularly in the next Chapter.

To which follows the giving to both Ele­ments a power of hatching, as I may so say, or quickening and bringing to perfection the Seeds they contained; first the more imper­fect, as Herbs and Trees; then the more perfect, Fish, Fowl, Four-footed Beasts, and creeping Things or Infects. Which may be the meaning of those Commands of God, which were operative and effectual, com­municating to the Earth and Water a power to produce what he commanded them, Gen. 1. 11. Let the Earth bring forth Grass, &c. and v. 20. Let the waters bring forth abun­dantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the Earth, &c. And v. 24. Let the Earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattel and creeping thing, and beast of the Earth after his kind.

[Page 8] So the Earth was at first cloathed with all sorts of Herbs and Trees; and both Earth and Water furnished with Inhabitants. And this the Ancients understood by their [...].

But whether out of prae-existing Seeds, as I suppose, or not, certain it is that God at that time did give an extraordinary and mi­raculous power to the Land and Water of producing Vegetables and Animals: and af­ter there were as many of every kind brought forth as there were Seeds created at first; or as many as it seemed good to the Divine Creator to produce without Seed; there remained no further ability in those Elements to bring forth any more; but all the succeeding owe their original to Seed; God having given to every Species a power to generate or propagate its like.

CHAP. III.
Of the separating the Land and Water, and raising up the Mountains.

SUpposing that God Almighty did at first create the Terrestrial Globe, partly of so­lid and more ponderous, partly of fluid and [Page 9] lighter parts; the solid and ponderous must needs naturally subside, the fluid and lighter get above. Now that there were such dif­ferent parts created, is clear, and therefore it is reasonable to think that the Waters at first should stand above and cover the Earth: and that they did so, seems evident to me from the testimony of the Scripture. For in the History of the Creation in the first Chapter of Genesis, verse 2. it is said, That the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, intimating that the Waters were up­permost. And God said, verse 9. let the wa­ters under the Heaven be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear. Whence, I think, it is manifest to any un­prejudiced Reader, That before that time the Land was covered with water. Especially if we add the testimony of the holy Psalmist, Psalm 104. vers. 6. & 9. which is as it were a comment upon this place of Genesis, where speaking of the Earth at the Creation, he saith, Thou coveredst it with the deep as with a garment; the waters stood above the Moun­tains ... and ver. 9. That they turn not a­gain to cover the Earth. And that this ga­thering together of waters was not into any subterraneous Abyss, seems likewise clear from the Text. For it is said, That God called this Collection of waters Seas, as if it [Page 10] been on purpose to prevent such a mistake.

Whether this separation of the Land and Water, and gathering the waters together into one place, were done by the immediate application and agency of God's Almighty Power, or by the intervention and instru­mentality of second Causes, I cannot deter­mine. It might possibly be effected by the same Causes that Earthquakes are, viz. sub­terraneous Fires and Flatuses. We see what incredible effects the Accension of Gunpow­der hath: it rends Rocks, and blows up the most ponderous and solid Walls, Towers and Edifices, so that its force is almost irresisti­ble. Why then might not such a propor­tionable quantity of such Materials set on fire together raise up the Mountains them­selves, how great and ponderous soever they be, yea the whole Superficies of the dry Land (for it must all be elevated) above the Wa­ters? And truly to me the Psalmist seems to intimate this Cause, Psalm 104. 7. For after he had said, The waters stood above the moun­tains; he adds, At thy rebuke they fled, at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away. Now we know that an Earthquake is but a subterraneous Thunder, and then immedi­ately follows, The mountains ascend, the val­leys descend, &c. If there might be a high Hill raised up near the City Troezen, out of [Page 11] a plain Field, by the force of a subterraneous Fire or Flatus, as Ovid tells us.

A parallel Instance hereto we have of later date, of a Hill not far from Puzzuolo [Puteoli] [Page 12] beside the Gulph of Baiae, which I my self have view'd and been upon. It is by the Natives called Monte di cenere, and was raised by an Earthquake Sept. 29. 1538. of about one hundred foot perpendicular altitude; though some make it much higher: accord­ing to Stephanus Pighius it is a Mile ascent to the top, and four Miles round at the foot: We indeed judged it not near so great. The People say it bears nothing; nothing of a­ny use or profit I suppose they mean: else I am sure there grows Heath, Myrtle, Mastick­tree, and other Shrubs upon it. It is a spungy kind of Earth, and makes a great sound under a Man's feet that stamps upon it. The same Earthquake threw up so much Earth. Stones and Ashes as quite filled up the lacus Lucrinus, so that there is nothing left of it now, but a fenny Meadow. If such Hills, I say, as these may be, and have been elevated by subterraneous Wild-fire, Flatus or Earthquakes, Si parvis liceat componere magna, if we may compare great things with small, why might not the greatest and high­est Mountains in the World be raised up in like manner by a subterraneous Flatus or Wild-fire, of quantity and force sufficient to work such an effect, that is, that bears as great a proportion to the superincumbent weight and bulk to be elevated, as those [Page 13] under these smaller Hills did to theirs?

But we cannot doubt this may be done, when we are well assured that the like hath been done. For the greatest and highest Ridge of Mountains in the World, the Andes of Peru, have been for some hundreds of Leagues in length violently shaken, and ma­ny alterations made therein by an Earth­quake that happened in the year 1646. men­tioned by Kircher in his Arca Noae, from the Letters of the Jesuits. And Pliny tells us of his own knowledge, that the Alps and Ap­pennine have often been shaken with Earth­quakes: Exploratum est mihi Alpes Apenni­numque saepius tremuisse, lib. 2. cap 80. Nay more then all this, we read that in the time of the Emperour Valentinian the first, there was an Earthquake that shook all the known World. Whilst this Innovator, [that is Pro­copius] was yet alive (saith Amm. Marcelli­nus lib. 26. cap. 14.) Horrendi tremores per omnem orbis ambitum grassati sunt subitò, qua­les nec fabulae, nec veridicae nobis antiquitates exponunt. Paulò enim post lucis exortum denfitate praevia fulgurum acriùs vibratorum tremefacta concutitur omnis terreni stabilitas ponderis, maréque dispulsum retrò fluctibus e­volutis abscessit, ut retecta voragine profundo­dorum species natantium multiformes limo cer­nerentur haerentes, valliúmque vastitates & [Page 14] montium, ut opinari dabatur, suspicerent radi­os solis quos primigenia rerum sub immensis gurgitibus amandavit, &c. that is, Horrid Earthquakes suddenly raged all the World o­ver, the like whereto neither Fables nor true Antiquities ever acquaint us with, or make mention of. For soon after break of day re­doubled smart and violent flashes of Light­ning preceding, the stable and ponderous mass of the whole Earth was shaken and made to tremble; and the Sea with revolved waves was driven backwards, and forced so far to recede, that the bottom of the great Deeps and Gulfs being discovered, multiform Species of Fishes forsaken by the water were seen lying on the Mud: and those vast Val­leys and Mountains which the primigenial Nature had sunk deep and concealed under immense waters (as we had reason to think) saw the Sun beams. Wherefore many Ships resting upon the dry ground, the Mariners wandring carelesly up and down through the small reliques of the waters, that they might gather up Fishes and other things with their hands; The Sea-waves, being as it were grieved with their repulse, rise up a­gain, and making their way backward through the fervid Shallows, violently dash­ing against the Islands and extended Shores of the Continents, threw down and levelled [Page 15] numerable Edifices in Cities and where else they were found. Where see more of the effects of it. Of this Earthquake we find mention also in Zosimus and Orosius.

If this story be true, as certainly it is, we have no reason to doubt of the possibility of the Dry land being thus raised at first by subterraneous Fire. And with us agrees the learned Thomas Lydyat in his Philosophi­cal Disquisition concerning the origine of Fountains, &c. being of opinion not only that it might be so, but that it was so. I shall give you his own words, Vbi aliud quoque summae admirationis plenum Terrae mo­tûs atque Ignis subterranei effectum notandum venit, montium sci. generatio. And then ha­ving mentioned the raising up Islands in the Sea by subterraneous Fires, he proceeds thus, Quomodo etiam omnes montes qui uspi­am sunt, unà cum ipsis terris Continentibus (quae nihil aliud sunt quàm sparsi in Oceano majores montes sive insulae) in mundi primor­diis, (quando nimirum ignis quo de loquimur, in terrae visceribus à potentissimo mundi Con­ditore accensus est) extitisse maximè fit veri­simile, mari in cava loca recedente, & ter­restribus Animalibus (ejusdem Divini numinis sapientissimo consilio) habitandi locum relin­quente. That is, After which manner also all the Mountains in the World, together with [Page 16] the Continents themselves, (which are nothing else but great Mountains or Islands scattered in the Ocean) in the beginning of the World, when the fire of which we speak was first kind­led in the bowels of the Earth by the Al­mighty Creator, were (as it is most highly probable) originally raised up: the Sea re­ceding into the cavities and depressed places, and by the most wise counsel of the supreme Deity leaving room for terrestrial Animals to inhabit. Then which nothing can be said more consonant to what we have written: And I was highly pleased and satisfied to find such Philosophy in so learned and judi­cious a Writer.

And in confirmation of this Doctrine, Strabo himself, though he had not, nor could have any knowledge at all of the prodigious effects of Gunpowder, yet makes no diffi­culty to affirm the possibility of raising up as well the Continents and Mountains as the Islands by Earthquakes and subterraneous Fires; toward the latter end of the first Book of his Geography discoursing thus: [...] And a little after, [...]. [Page 17] That is, For Earthquakes and Eruptions of Flatus [Blasts] or sudden tu­mors of the submarine Earth, or bottom of the Sea, may swell and elevate the Sea; so that not only small lumps or masses of matter, but even Islands may be raised up in the midst of it. Neither if small Islands can be raised, may not great ones too; neither may Islands be heaved up, and not Continents as well. And Sicily may as well be thought to have been thrown up out of the Deep by the force of the Aetnaean fire, and sticking together to have continued above water, as to have been a piece broken off from Italy. And the like may be said of the Islands of Lipara and Pithecusae.

Of the possibity of doing it we need not doubt, when we have sufficient proof of the thing done in lesser Islands thus heaved up in the midst of the Sea, by submarine fires. Strabo lib. 1. [...]. That is, Between Thera and Therasia flames issuing out of the Sea for four days, (so that the whole Sea boil'd and burned) blew up by little and little, as if it had been raised by Machines, [Page 18] and composed of great lumps or masses, an I­sland of twelve furlongs circumference.

And Pliny tells us, that the Island Hiera near Italy, in the time of the Social War, together with the Sea it self, did burn for several days. His words are, In medio Mari Hiera insula juxta Italiam cum ipso Mari ar­sit per aliquot dies.

And Strabo lib. 1. reports, That about Methone in the Bay of Hermione, there was Earth raised, and as it were blown up to the height of seven Furlongs by a fiery breath or exhalation, which by day time was unac­cessible by reason of heat and sulphureous slench, but smelling sweet by night, and shining so as to be seen asar off, likewise cast­ing such a heat, as to cause the Sea to boil for five Furlongs, and to render it troubled for the space of twenty; raising up therein a Baich or Bank of Stones as big as Towers.

These Instances I alledge principally be­cause they seem to demonstrate a possibility of the accension of fire in the Earth when it was wholly covered with Water, and had no entercourse or communion with the supe­riour or external Air: which is the main and most material Objection against the elevati­on of the dry Land at the beginning by sub­terraneous fires.

[Page 19] You will say, If the Mountains be thus heaved up by subterraneous fires, the Earth must needs be hollow all underneath them, and there must be vast Dens and Caverns disperst throughout them.

I answer, 'Tis true indeed, so there are; as may undeniably be proved by instances. For the new Mountain we mentioned at Pu­teoli, that was thus raised, being of a Mile steep ascent, and four Miles round at the foot, a proportionable Cavity must be left in the Earth underneath: And the Mountain Aetna at the last Eructation alone having disgorged out of its bowels so great a flood of melted Materials, as if spread at the depth and breadth of three foot, might reach four times round the whole Circuit of the Terraqueous Globe, there must likewise an answerable Vault be left within. You will demand, How then comes it to pass, that they stand so firm, and do not founder and fall in after so many Ages. I answer, that they may stand, appears by the foresaid new-raised Mountain. For notwithstanding the Cavity in and under it, it hath stood firm and staunch, without the least sinking or subsi­dency, for above an hundred and fifty years: neither is there any great sinking or falling in at Aetna it self; at least in no degree an­swerable to its ejected matter. This asser­tion [Page 20] is confirmed by the unanimous vote and testimony of all Writers, Ancient and Mo­dern, who have handled this Subject. But Alphonsus Borellus supposes them not to have duly considered the matter, and calculated the quantity of the ejected materials and the bulk of the Mountain, and compared them together; but to have been carried away by the prejudices and perswasions of the People, who looking upon the top of the Mountain at a distance, think it but a small thing in comparison of the ejected Sand and Ashes that covered whole Countries; and those vast Rivers of liquid stones and other ingre­dients, that ran down so many miles, where­as he by a moderate computation found out that the total of what the Mountain dis­gorged at the last eruption amounted not (as I remember) to the fourteen thousandth part of the Solidity of the whole Mountain. The reason is the strength and firmness of their Vaulture and Pillars, sufficient to sup­port the superincumbent weight. And yet in some places there are sinkings and fallings in, which have afterwards become Valleys or Pools of Water. But as for the Cavities that are lower than the Superficies of the O­cean, the Water, where it could insinuate and make its way, hath filled them up to that height. I say where it could make its [Page 21] way, for that there are many empty Cavi­ties even under the Sea it self, appears by the shaking and heating too of the very Water of the Sea in some places in Earthquakes, and raising up the borders or skirts of it, so as to drive the Water a great way back; and the raising up new Islands in the middle of the Sea; as Delos and Rhodes, and Anaphe, and Nea, and Alone, and Hiera, and Thera mentioned by Pliny, Hist lib. 2. c. 87. and Thia in his own time; and Therasia in the Aegean in Senaca's time, which was heaved up in the sight of many Mariners then present and looking on.

I am not ignorant, that the learned Man I lately quoted, I mean Alph. Borellus, in his Book De Incendiis Aetnae, is of opinion, that the middle part, or as he calls it, the kernel of that Mountain is firm and solid, without any great caverns or vacuities, and that all those vaults and cavities in which the fire rages are near the superficial or cortical part: And derides those who fancy that Aetna, the Ae­olian Islands, Lipara, Strongyle, &c. and Ve­suvius do communicate by subterraneous channels and passages running under the bottom of the Sea. But saving the respect due to him for his learning and ingenuity, there is good Authority on their side; and our ratiocinations against the possibility of [Page 22] such a thing must give place to the clear proof of matter of fact. Iulius Ethnicus an ancient Writer, quoted by Ludovicus Vi­ves in his Annotations upon S. Augustine, De Civitate Dei, gives us this Relation, Marco Aemilio, Lucio Aurelio Consulibus, Aetna mons terrae motu ignes super verticem latè dif­fudit, & ad Insulam Liparam mare efferbuit, & quibusdam adustis navibus vapore plerósque navaleis exanimavit: Piscium vim magnam exanimem dispersit, quos Liparenses avidiùs epulis adpetenteis contaminatione ventris con­sumpti sunt, ita ut novâ pestilentià vast aren­tur insulae. That is, Marcus Aemilius and Lucius Aurelius being Consuls, Mount Aetna being shaken by an Earthquake, cast forth and scattered fire from its top far and wide. At which time the Sea at the Island of Lipara was boyling hot, and some Ships being burnt most of the Seamen were stifled with the va­pour: besides it dispersed abroad a power of dead fish, which the Liparensians greedily ga­ [...]ering up and eating, were consumed with a contagious disease in their bellies: so that the Islands were wasted with a new sort of pesti­i [...]ce. And Father Kircher the Jesuite, in the Preface to his Mundus Subterraneus giving a Relation of an Earthquake which shook a great part of Calabria, and made notable devastations there, which himself saw, and [Page 23] was in, Anno 1638. clearly demonstrates that Aetna, Stromboli, and the Mountains of Ca­labria, do communicate by vaults and ca­verns passing under the bottom of the Sea. I shall insert but one passage out of him, re­ferring the Reader to the fore-quoted Pre­face for the rest. Hisce calamitatibus (saith he) dum jactamur, ego curiosiùs intuitus Strongylum, 60 ferè milliarium intercapedi­ne dissitum, illum insolito modo furere notavi, &c. i.e. While we were tost with these cala­mities, I beholding curiously the Island Strom­boli about 60 miles distant, observed it to rage after an unusual manner, for it appeared all filled with fire in such plenty, that it seem­ed to cast forth mountains of flame: a spectacle horrid to behold and formidable to the most undaunted Spirit. In the mean time there was a certain sound perceived as it were of Thunder, but by reason of the great distance from whence it came somewhat obscure, which by degrees, proceeding forward in the subter­raneous conduits, grew greater and greater, till it came to the place just underneath us, [they were at Lopez by the Sea] where it shook the Earth with such a roaring or mur­mure and fury, that being not able to stand a­ny longer upon our Legs, we were forced, to support our selves, to catch hold upon any shrub or twig that was near us, lest our limbs [Page 24] should be put out of joynt by too much shaking and concussion. At which time happened a thing worthy of immortal and eternal memory, viz. the subversion of the famous Town of S. Eusemia; which he goes about to relate. As for Vesuvius, if that be not hollow down to the very roots and foundations of it, how comes it to pass that at the times of its de­flagrations it should vomit out such stoods of boiling Waters? as if we had not read of them in Histories, and been told so by our Guide when we ascended that Mountain, we must needs have perceived our selves by the mighty guls and channels in the sides thereof, it being of it self near the top so spungy and dry, that it is more likely to im­bibe then to cast off much rain in the Win­ter time. And again, what causes the Sea to recede at those times, and that to so great a distance, that the Galleys have been laid dry in the very Haven of Naples?

Howbeit, I cannot positively assert the Mountains thus to have been raised. But yet whether without means, or by whatso­ever means it were, a Receptacle for the Wa­ters was prepared, and the dry Land and Mountains elevated, so as to cast off the Waters, on the third day, and which is won­derful, the Cavities made to receive the Waters, and the whole terra firma, or dry [Page 25] Land with its Mountains were so proporti­oned one to the other, as that the one was as much depressed below the Shores, as the other was elevated above them. And, as if the one had been taken out of the other, the Sea with all its Creeks, and Bays, and Inlets, and other Appendants was made, and is very near equal to the whole dry Land with its Promontories and Mountains, if not in Superficies, yet in bulk or dimensions, though some think in both. Which equali­ty is still constantly maintained, notwith­standing all Inundations of Land, and Atte­rations of Sea; because one of these doth al­ways nearly ballance the other, according to the vulgar Proverb we have before men­tion'd, What the Sea loses in one place, it gains in another. If any shall demand, How the Sea comes to be gradually depressed, and deepest about the middle part; whereas the bottom of it was in all likelihood equal while the Waters covered the whole Earth? I answer, the same Cause that raised up the Earth, whether a subterraneous fire or status, raised up also the skirts of the Sea, the ascent gradually decreasing to the middle part, where, by reason of the solidity of the Earth, or gravity of the incumbent Water, the bot­tom was not elevated at all. For the en­closed fire in those parts where its first ac­cension [Page 26] or greatest strength was, raised up the Earth first, and cast off the Waters, and thence spreading by degrees, still elevated the Land, and drove the Waters further and further; till at length the weight of them was too great to be raised, and then the fire brake forth at the tops of the Mountains, where it found least resistance, and disperst it self in the open Air. The Waters also, where they found the bottom sandy, or yield­ing, made their way into all those Cavities the fire had made and left, filling them up as high as the level of the Ocean. Neither let any man imagine, that the Earth under the Water, was too soft and muddy to be in this manner raised by subterraneous fire; for I have shewn before, that the bottom of the Sea is so saddened and hardened by the weight of the incumbent Water, that the High-ways, beaten continually by Horses and Carriages, are not more firm and solid. But omitting this (which is only a conjecture) I shall discourse a little more concerning the Equality of Sea and Land.

It hath been observed by some, That where there are high Cliffs or Downs along the Shore, there the Sea adjoyning is deep; and where there are low and level Grounds, it is shallow: the depth of the Sea answering to the Elevation of the Earth above it: and as the [Page 27] Earth from the Shores is gradually higher and higher, to the middle and parts most re­mote from the Sea, as is evident by the de­scents of the Rivers, they requiring a con­stant declivity to carry them down; so the Sea likewise is proportionably deeper and deeper from the Shores to the middle. So that the rising of the Earth from the Shores to the Mid-land is answerable to the descent or declivity of the bottom of the Sea from the same shores to the Mid-Sea. This rising of the Earth from the Shores gradually to the Mid-land, is so considerable, that it is very likely the Altitude of the Earth in those Mid-land parts above the Superficies of the Sea, is greater than that of the Mountains above the leve of the adjacent Lands. To the height of the Hills above the common Superficies of the Earth do answer in Brere­wood's Opinion the extraordinary Dephts or Whirl-pools that are found in the Sea, de­scending beneath the ordinary bottom of the Sea, as the Hills ascend above the ordinary face of the Land. But this is but a conje­cture of his, and to me it seems not very probable, because it is not likely there should be in the Sea extraordinary Depths of that vast length and extension, as those huge Ridges of Mountains that run almost quite through the Continents. And because I have [Page 28] observed the Waters of Rivers that slow gent­ly, but especially of the Sea to level the bottoms of their Channels and Receptacles, as may be seen in those parts of the Sea whose bottoms are uncovered at Low-water; and in dry Lands that have been deserted by the Sea, as the Fens in the Isle of Ely, and the Craux in Provence in France, &c. which ap­pear to be a perfect Level, as far as one can ken. Though possibly the motion of the Sea may not descend down so low as those Depths, and so may not level the bottoms of them.

But against what I have said concerning the levelling of the bottom of the Sea, it may be objected, That Mariners and Divers find no such thing, but the quite contrary, viz. That the bottom of the Sea is as une­qual as the Land, sometimes ten or twelve Fathoms on one side of the Ship, and One hundred on the other, as Mr. Boyl tells us in his Relations about the bottom of the Sea, consonant whereto are the Accounts of Di­vers. And I have (saith my worthy Friend Dr. Ta [...]c. Robinson in one of his Letters to me) read in Voyages, of vast Rocks of Salt observ'd in some places under the Sea.

To which I answer, That I should indeed have excepted such places as are rocky, which bear a very little proportion to the Latitude [Page 29] and Extent of the Sea, and are for the most part not far off the Land. I my self have seen so much of the bottom of the Sea, round a­bout the Coasts of England, and a good part of the Low-Countreys, of Italy and Sicily, that I think I may boldly pronounce in ge­neral, That where the bottom of the Sea is not rocky, but Earth, Owze or Sand, (and that is incomparably the greatest part of it) it is by the motion of the Waters, so far as the reciprocation of the Sea extends to the bottom, brought to a level; and if it should be now unequal, would in time be levelled again. By level I do not mean so as to have no declivity (for the reciprocation preserves that, the floud hindring in good measure the constant carrying down of the bottom) but only to have an equal, uniform and easie de­scent from the Shores to the Deeps. Now all those Reports of Divers and Navigators refer for the most part to rocky places. For Mariners seldom sound but in such places, and in shallows; and Urinators have no rea­son to dive where the bottom is level and sandy. And that the motion of the Waters descends to a good depth, I prove from those Plants that grow deepest in the Sea, because they all generally grow flat in manner of a Fan, and not with Branches on all sides like Trees; which is so contrived by the Provi­dence [Page 30] of Nature, because the edges of them do in that posture with most ease cut the Water flowing to and fro: And should the flat side be objected to the Stream, it would be turned edgewise by the force of it; because in that site it doth least resist the motion of the Water: whereas did the Branches of those Plants grow round as in Trees, they would be thrown down backward and forward every Tide. Nay not only the her­baceous and woody submarine Plants, but e­ven the Lithophyta themselves affect this manner of growing, if they be any thing ramose and rise to a considerable height, as I have observed in various kinds of Corals and Pori. Hence I suspect those Relations of Trees growing at the bottom of the Sea, and bringing forth Fruit there. As for the Maldiva Nut, till better information. I ad­here to Garcias his Opinion, That the Trees that bare those Nuts were of old time, toge­ther with the Land on which they grew, over­whelmed by the inundations of the Sea, and there hardned in the Earth, and afterwards cast up by the working of the Sea again. Which thing is very probable; for to this day some of those Maldiva Islands are now and then drowned and swallowed up by the Sea. Further I do believe, that in the great depths of the Sea there grow no Plants at [Page 31] all, the bottom being too remote from the external Air; which though it may pierce the Water so low, yet I doubt whether in quantity sufficient for the vegetation of Plants. Nay, we are told, that in those deep and bottomless Seas there are no Fish neither: yet not because there are no Plants or Insects to feed them; for that they can live upon Water alone, Rondeletius his Expe­riment about keeping them in a Glass, doth undeniably prove; but because their Spawn would be lost in those Seas, the bottom be­ing too cold for it to quicken there. This Answer and Discourse, though it be inserted into another Treatise, yet properly belongs to this place, to which I have therefore re­stored it, begging the Readers excuse for this repetition. I now proceed.

That it is consonant to the best Observa­tions of the height of the Earth and its Mountains above the Superficies of the Sea; and of the depth of the Sea; that the one is answerable to the other. Varenius in his Geogr. witnesseth, p. 152. Caeterùm ex obser­vata hactenus in plerisque locis profunditate Oceani manifestum est, eam fere aequalem alti­tudini sive elevationi montium & locorum Me­diterraneorum supra littora, nimirum quantum hoec elevantur & extant supra littorum hori­zontem, tantum alvei maris infra eum depri­muntur; [Page 32] sive quantum assurgit terra à littori­bus versùs mediterranea loca, tuntundem pau­latim magis magìsque deprimitur usque ad me­dii Oceani loca, ubi plerumque maxima est profunditas. That is, From the depth of the Ocean, as far as hath been hitherto observed in most places, it is manifest that that [pro­fundity] is near equal to the altitude or ele­vation of the Mediterraneous places above the Shores; that is to say, as much as these are e­levated, and stand up above the Horizon of the Shores; so much are the Channels of the Seas depressed below it: or, as much as the Earth riseth from the Shores towards the Me­diterraneous places; so much is it by little and little more and more depressed to the middle parts of the Ocean, where the greatest depth for the most part is.

And Brerewood in his Enquiries pertinent­ly to our purpose, supposeth the depth of the Sea to be a great deal more than the height of the Hills above the common surface of the Earth.—For that in making estimation of the depth of the Sea, we are not to reckon and con­sider only the height of the Hills above the common Superficies of the Earth, but the advantage or height of all the dry Land above the Superficies of the Sea: Because the whole mass of the Earth, that now appeareth above the Waters, being taken, as it were, [Page 33] out of the place which the Waters now possess, must be equal to the place out of which it was taken; and consequently it seemeth, that the height or elevation of the one should answer to the depth or descending of the other. And therefore, as I said, in estimating the deep­ness of the Sea, we are not to consider only the erection of the Hills above the ordinary Land, but the advantage of all the dry Land above the Sea. Which latter, I mean the height of the ordinary Main Land, is in my opinion more in large Continents above the Sea, than that of the Hills is above the Land. For that the plain and common face of the dry Land, is not level or equally distant from the Center, but hath great declivity and descent towards the Sea, and acclivity or rising toward the Mid-land part, al­though it appear not so to the common view of the Eye, is to reason notwithstanding ma­nifest. Because, as it is found in that part of the Earth which the Sea covereth, that it descendeth lower and lower toward the midst of the Sea; (for the Sea which touching the upper face of it is known to be level by na­ture, and evenly distant from the Center, is withal observed to wax deeper and deeper the further one saileth from the Shore to­wards the Main) Even so in that part which is uncovered the coursings and stream­ings [Page 34] of Rivers on all sides from the Mid-land parts towards the Sea (whose property we know is to slide from the higher to the low­er) evidently declare so much.De fide Orthod. l. 2. c. 10. This Au­thor with Damascen supposes, that the un­evenness and irregularity, which is now seen in the Superficies of the Earth, was caused either by taking some parts out of the upper face of the Earth in sundry places to make it more hollow, and laying them in other places to make it more convex: or else (which in effect is equivalent to that) by raising up some, and depressing others to make room and receipt for the Sea: that Mutation being wrought by the Power of that Word, Let the waters be gathered into one place that the dry land may appear. This proportioning of the Cavities appointed to receive the Seas, to the protuberancy of the dry Land above the common Superficies of the Ocean, is to me a sufficient Argument, to prove, that the gathering together of the Waters into one place, was a work of coun­sel and design; and if not effected by the im­mediate Finger of God, yet at least governed and directed by him. So the Scripture af­firms the place to receive the Sea, to have been prepared by God, Psalm 104. 8. Now in things of this nature, to the giving an ac­count whereof whatever Hypothesis we can [Page 35] possibly invent, can be but meerly conjectu­ral, those are to be most approved that come nearest to the Letter of Scripture, and those that [...] with it to be rejected, how trim or consistent soever with themselves they may seem to be: this being as much, as when God tells us how he did make the World, for as to tell him how he should have made it.

But here it may be objected, That the present Earth looks like a heap of Rubbish and Ruines; And that there are no greater examples of confusion in Nature than Moun­tains singly or jointly considered; and that there appear not the least footsteps of any Art or Counsel either in the Figure and Shape, or Order and Disposition of Mountains and Rocks. Wherefore it is not likely they came so out of God's hands; who by the Ancient Philosophers is said [...], and to make all things in number, weight and measure.

To which I answer, That the present face of the Earth, with all its Mountains and Hills, its Promontories and Rocks, as rude and deformed as they appear, seems to me a ve­ry beautiful and pleasant object, and with all that variety of Hills, and Valleys, and Ine­qualities far more grateful to behold, than a perfectly level Country without any rising [Page 36] or protuberancy, to terminate the sight: As any one that hath on the one hand seen the Isle of Ely, or any the like Countrey exact­ly level, and extending on all sides further then one can ken, or that hath been far out at Sea, where nothing is to be seen but Sky and Water: and on the other, from the Downs of Sussex enjoyed that spatious and ravishing prospect of the Countrey on one hand, and the Sea on the other, comparing both objects, must necessarily confess.

2. They are useful to Mankind in afford­ing them convenient places for habitation, and situations of Houses and Villages; ser­ving as Skreens to keep off the cold and nip­ping blasts of the Northern and Easterly Winds, and reflecting the benign and che­rishing Sun-beams, and so rendring their ha­bitations both more comfortable and chear­ly in Winter; and promoting the growth of Herbs and Fruit-trees, and the maturation of their Fruits in Summer. B [...]sides, casting off the Waters they lay the Gardens, Yards and Avenues to the Houses dry and clean, and so as well more salutary as more elegant. Where­as Houses built in Plains, unless shaded with Trees, stand bleak and exposed to wind and weather; and all Winter are apt to be grie­vously annoyed with mire and dirt.

[Page 37] 3. A Land so distinguished into Moun­tains, Valleys and Plains is also most conve­nient for the entertainment of the various sorts of Animals, which God hath created, some whereof delight in cold, some in hot, some moist and watery, some in dry and upland places, and some of them could nei­ther find nor gather their proper food in dif­ferent Regions. Some Beasts and Birds we find live upon the highest tops of the Alps, and that all the Winter too, while they are constantly covered with Snow, as the Ibex, and Rupicapra or Chamois among Quadru­peds, and Lagopus among Birds.

4. The Mountains are most proper for the putting forth of Plants; yielding the great­est variety, and the most luxuriant sorts of Vegetables, for the maintenance of the Ani­mals proper to those places, and for Medi­cinal Uses, partly also for the exercise and delight of such ingenious persons as are ad­dicted to search out and collect those Rari­ties, to contemplate and consider their Forms and Natures, and to admire and celebrate the Wisdom of their Creator.

5. All manner of Metals, Minerals and Fossils if they could be generated in a level Earth, of which there is some question, yet should they be dug or mined for, the Delfs must necessarily be so flown with Water, [Page 38] (which to derive and rid away no Adits or Soughs could be made, and I much doubt whether Gins would suffice) that it would be extremely difficult and chargeable, if pos­sible to work them at all.

6. Neither are the very tops of the high­est Mountains barren of Grass for the feed­ing and fattening of Beasts. For on the Ridges of the high Mountains of Iura and Saleve near Geneva, and tho [...]e of Rhoetia or the Grisons Countrey, which are the highest of all the Alps, excepting the Vallesian and Sabaudian, there are multitudes of Kine fed in Summer time, as I my self can witness, having in my Simpling Voyages on those of Iura and Saleve observed Herds of Cattel there, and many Dairy-houses built, where I have been more than once refreshed by their Milk and Milk-Meats. Nay there are but very few, and those of the highest Summits of the Alps that keep Snow all Summer: and I was told by the Inhabitants, that one time or other, in seven or eight years space, for the most part there came a Summer that melted all the Snow that lay on them too.

7. Another great use and necessity of the Mountains and Hills is for the Generation and Maintenance of Rivers and Fountains, which (in our Hypothesis, that all proceed [Page 39] from Rain-water) could not be without them, or but rarely. So we should have only Torrents, which would fail in Summer time, or any dry Season, and nothing to trust to, but stagnating Water reserved in Pools and Cisterns. Which how great an Inconveni­ence it would be, I need not take pains to shew. I say that Fountains and Rivers would be but rare were there no Moun­tains. For upon serious consideration I find that I was too hasty inObservat. Physical, &c. conclnding, because I had observed no Fountains springing up in Plains, therefore there were, or could be ab­solutely none; and do now grant that there is reason to believe the Relations made of such. For the whole dry Land being but one continued Mountain, and ascending all along from the Sea to the Mid-land, as is undeniably proved by the Descent of Ri­vers even in plain Countries; the Water sinking into the Earth, may run under ground, and according as the Vein leads it, break out in the side of this Mountain, though the place as to outward appearance be a Plain.

I shall now add, That though it be possi­ble that without Mountains there may be Springs, if there should be Rains, (which it is somewhat questionable were there no Mountains, whether there could be or no, at [Page 40] least in hot Countreys) yet is it probable, that most of those Springs we find in Plains or depressed places distant from Mountains may come along in subterraneous Channels from the next Mountains, and there break out. Monsieur Blundel related to the Pari­sian Academy, what device the inhabitants of the lower Austria, which is encompas­sed with the Mountains of Stiria, are wont to use to fill their Wells with Water; They dig in the Earth to the depth of twenty or five and twenty feet, till they come to an argilla [clammy earth] then they bore a hole in the midst of a stone about five or six in­ches broad, and through it bo [...]e the argilla so deep till the Waters breaks forcibly out; which Water it's probable comes from the neighbouring Moun [...]ains in subterraneous Channels. And Cassinus observed, That in many places of the Territory of Modena and Bologna in Italy, they make themselves Wells of springing Water by the like artifice. They dig in the Earth till they come to the Water (which stagnates in common Wells) which they draw quite out. Then within this new digged Well they make two cylindrical Walls, concentrical one to another; the space or interstice between them they fill and ramm close with well wrought Argilla or Clay, to keep out the ambient Water; [Page 41] which done, they sink the Well deeper into the ground, and continue the inner Wall so low till the Earth underneath seems to swell by the force of the Water rising up: And lastly, they bore this Earth or Soil with a long Wimble; whereupon the Water breaks forth through the hole with a great force, so that it doth not only fill the Well, but o­verflows and waters the neighbouring fields with a constant stream: By this means the same Seigneur Cassini made a Fountain at the Castle of Vrbin, that cast up the water five foot high above the level of the ground. It is very probable that these waters descend by subterraneous passages from the Appen­nine Mountains, which are about ten miles distant. If such things may be done by Art, why may they not also by Nature? Nay, that the like are done we find by experi­ence in the Lacus Lugeus, or Zirchnitzer-Sea in Carniola, which after it is empty of water running out at holes or pits in the bottom, (which it doth yearly in the Sum­mer time, in the Months of May, Iune, or Iuly) in the Autumn when it rains mode­rately, the water spouts out of some of the forementioned pits two or three fathoms perpendicularly, but when it rains very hard and long together, especially with Thunder, then the water breaks forth with great force, [Page 42] not only from the foresaid pits, but likewise at a thousand other Caves and Holes, spirt­ing several fathoms high, from some perpen­dicularly, from others obliquely, so that there is not a pleasanter sight then this; and in a short time fills the lake. A full descrip­tion and an account of all the Phoenomena of this admirable Lake see in Philosoph Transact. Numb. 191. p. 411. &c. So we see water may be brought down from the Mountains and raised up naturally in strait Channels with that force, and to that height, as to exceed all the artificial jets in the World, if not in the altitude of the spout, yet in the bigness of the stream abundantly.

This end and use of Mountains I find as­signed by Mr. Halley in his Discourse con­cerning the original of Springs and Rivers, in these words: This, if we may allow final causes (and why may we not? what needs this hesitancy and dubitation in a thing that is clear?) seems to be the design of the Hills that their ridges being placed through the midst of the Continents, might serve as it were A­lembicks to distil fresh water for the use of Man and Beast, and their heights to give a descent to those streams to run gently like so many veins of the Macrocosm, to be the more beneficial to the Creation.

[Page 43] But some may say, Granting there be some use and benefit of moderate Hills and Ri­sings; what necessity is there of such ex­tended Ridges of vast and towring Moun­tains, hiding their Heads among the Clouds, and seeming for Altitude to contend with the Skies? I answer there is very great use of them for repelling the Vapours exhaled by the Sun-beams in the hot Regions, and hin­dring their Evagations Northward, as we have already shewn, and shall not repeat. I might add hereto,

8. Those long Series and Chains of Moun­tains are of great use for Boundaries and Limits to the Territories of Princes or Com­monwealths, to secure them on those parts from sudden Incursions of Enemies. As for the rudeness and confusion of Mountains, their cragged and broken Rocks and Cliffs, and whatever other Disorder there may be among them, it may be accounted for, from the manner of their first Generation, and those other mutations they have been since obnoxious to, by Earthquakes, Eruptions of Vulcano's, foundering and falling in of their Props and Foundations, and by time and weather too, by which not only the Earth is washed away, or blown off from the Stones, but the very Stones and Rocks them­selves corroded and dissolved, as might ea­sily [Page 44] be proved by Instances, could I spare time to do it.

To sum up all relating to the Division and Disposition of the Water and Earth in brief.

1. I say, the Water being the lighter Ele­ment doth naturally occupy the upper place, and stand above the Earth, and so at first it did. But now we see it doth not so; the Earth being contrary to its nature forcibly elevated above it; being (as the Psalmist phraseth it) founded above the Seas, and e­stablished above the Floods: and this because it was best it should be so, as I shall clearly prove and deduce in particulars in another Discourse.

2. The dry Land is not elevated only upon one side of the Globe; for then had it had high Mountains in the middle of it, with such vast empty Cavities within, as must be equal to the whole Bulk raised up, the Center of Magnitude must needs have been considerably distant from the Center of Gravity: which would have caused a very great and inconvenient inequality in the Motion of the parts of the Earth: but the Continents and Islands are so equally di­sperst all the Globe over as to counterbal­lance one another, so that the Centers of Magnitude and Gravity concur in one.

[Page 45] 3. The Continents are not of exactly e­qual and level Superficies or Convexity. For then the Parts subject to the Course of the Sun, called the Torrid Zone, would have been, as the Ancients fancied them, unha­bitable for Heat and Drought. But there are huge Ridges and extended Chains of lofty Mountains, directed for the most part to run East and West; by which means they give free admittance and passage to the Va­pours brought in by the Winds from the Atlantick and Pacifick Oceans; but stop and inhibit their Excursions to the North and South, either condensing them upon their sides into water, by a kind of external De­stillation; or by streightening and constipa­ting of them compelling them to gather into Drops, and descend down in Rain.

These are great things, and worthy the Care, Direction, and Disposal of the Great and Wise Creator and Governour of all things: And we see they are accordingly excellently ordered and provided by him.

CHAP. IV.
Of the Creation of Animals; some Questions resolved.

AS to the first Creation of Animals I have already proposed two Opinions, both consonant or reconcileable to the Scrip­tures.

1. That God Almighty did at first create the Seeds of all Animals, (that is, the Ani­mals themselves in little) and disperst them over the superficial part of the Land and water, giving power to those Elements to hatch and bring them forth; which when they had done, and all the Animals of these created Seeds were produced and perfected, there remained no more ability in them to bring forth any more; but all the succeeding owe their Original to Generation.

2. Because some will not admit that God at first created any thing imperfect, we did propose that he might by his Almighty Power, out of the Water and Earth, make the first set of Animals in their full state and perfection, (as it is generally believed he did Adam) and give to each Species a power by [Page 47] generation to propagate their like. For his commanding the Waters and Earth to pro­duce such and such living Creatures, signi­fies that he did himself efficaciously form them out of the Earth and Water; as when he saith, Let there be light, &c. the mean­ing is not that he did permit or command something else besides himself to produce light; but that he did by his own Almighty power effectually create it. Indeed the Scripture doth in this manner interpret it self: For whereas it is said verses 20. and 24. Let the waters bring forth, &c. and Let the earth bring forth the living creature, &c. in the next verses it follows, And God created great whales and every living creature that moveth, &c. And God made the beast of teh earth,&c. But now there may a further Question or two be moved concerning the Creation of Animals.

1. Whether God created at first a great number of every kind of Animal all the Earth over, in their proper Places and Cli­mates; or only two of each Species, a Male and a Female, from which all the rest pro­ceeded by generation? This latter opinion I find embraced by some modern Philoso­phers, and it may be made probable by se­veral Arguments.

[Page 48] First from the Analogy to Mankind. There being at first only one Man and one Woman created, it is very likely, there were no more of any other Creatures, two being sufficient in a short time to stock the World.

Secondly, Because at the time of the Ge­neral Deluge there were only two of each kind (of unclean Beasts) preserved in the Ark; and if two might then suffice, why not as well at the first Creation? And if there were no need of creating more, what like­lyhood that there were more created?

But the first Opinion, That there were many at first created, seems more consonant to Scripture, which in the mention of the Creation of Aquatic Creatures useth the word Abundantly, Gen. 1. 20. And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of hea­ven. And in the next verse it is said▪ That the waters did bring them forth abundantly. So that at least of Birds and Fishes there were many individuals at first created. As for Plants, certain it is that they were created dispersedly all the world over; they having no locomotive power, but being fixt to a place, and the Seeds of many of them being ponderous, and not portable by winds or [Page 49] any other means, and yet those of the same Species to be found in far distant places, and on the tops of high Mountains as remote from each other, as the Helvetick and Au­strian Alps.

2. Concerning the Creation of Animals there may yet a further Question be moved, viz. Whether all Animals that already have been, or hereafter shall be, were at first a­ctually created by God? or whether hath he given to each kind of Animal such a power of generation, as to prepare matter and produce new individuals in their own bo­dies? Some are of opinion that God did himself at first actually create all the indi­vidual Animals that ever were or ever shall be, and that there is no such thing as any production of new ones. For, say they, what were that but a creation of such indi­viduals? And what did God at the first Creation more then, if this be true, we see every day done, that is, produce a new A­nimal out of matter, which it self prepares: All the difference is the doing that in an in­stant which the Creature must take time to do. For as for the preparation of matter, that must be made fit, be the Agent never so Omnipotent.

[Page 50] Besides, the Animal-parent cannot be the Agent or Efficient in the generation or form­ing and nourishing of the foetus. Because that is a work of Art and Reason, which brute Creatures are not endued withal, nor indeed doth Man himself understand any thing of the process of generation in him­self, neither is conscious of what is done in the Womb, so far is he from being the doer of it.

Again, it is most probable, if not certain, that most Animals have in them from the beginning the Seeds or Eggs of all the young they shall afterward bring forth, which when they were spent and exhaust the Crea­ture becomes barren or e [...]ete. So we see all the female foetus of viviparous Quadru­peds are brought forth with their Testes or Ovaria in them, which are esteemed parts of their bodies; and all Birds have in them from their first formation their Ovary or Egg-cluster, containing the Seeds of all the Eggs they shall ever lay. Now had the Creature a power of producing new ones, what need was there that there should be so many at first formed in them? and why might they not breed them as well after­wards, as at the beginning?

[Page 51] Hereupon these Philosophers argue thus: Suppose we that God did at first create two Animals, a Male and a Female: The Female must be created with its Ovaries or Testes, which (as we said) contained so many Seeds or Eggs as the Creature should ever bring forth young. So it is clear that not only the first pair, but the first generation of Animals were actually created. Again, this first generation from their first appearance had each of them (the Females I mean) its Ovaria or Clusters of Eggs, every one where­of had in like manner its Animalcule in it; so that this second generation was also crea­ted in the first. The same may be demon­strated of the third and fourth, and so on of all the generations that shall be as long as the World lasts.

Against this Doctrine it may be objected, First, That it seems impossible that the O­varies of one Female should actually include and contain the innumerable myriads of A­nimals that may proceed from it in so ma­ny Generations as have been and shall be during the continuance of the World. Who can conceive such a small portion of matter to be capable of such division, and to con­tain such an infinity of parts?

[Page 52] But to this it may be answered, That our sight doth not give us the just magnitude of things, but only their proportion, and what appears to the Eye as a Point, may be magnified so, even by Glasses, as to disco­ver an incredible multitude of parts; nay, some Animals there are so small, that if a grain of Sand were broken into 8000000 of equal parts, one of these would not ex­ceed the bigness of one of those Creatures, as Mr. Lewenhoek affirms. And Mr. Hook proceeds further, and says, that he had dis­covered some so exceeding small, that Mil­lions of Millions might be contained in one drop of water. If these whole Creatures be so incredibly little, what shall we think of their parts containing and contained, their Entrails and Muscles, their Ovaries and Eggs? But for a sensible demonstration of the un­conceivable, I had almost said infinite, divi­sibility of matter, I might refer the Reader to the Honourable Mr. Boyl of famous me­mory his Discourse concerning the strange subtlety of e [...]luviums. I shall mention one or two Experiments. He dissolved one grain of filed Copper in Spirit of Salt­armoniack, and upon this Solution he poured so much distilled water by degrees, as till the fair and deep blew colour grew some­what pale without being too dilute to be [Page 53] manifest. And then carefully weighing the Vessel and the Water, and subducting the weight of that out of this, he found the weight of the Liquor alone, when reduced to grains, to amount to 28534, so that a grain of Copper communicated a tincture to 28534 times its weight. Now consider­ing that the weight of Copper to the weight of Water of the same bulk is proximè as 9 to 1, a grain-weight of Copper is in big­ness but the ninth part of as much Water as weighs a grain; and so the formerly men­tioned number of grains of Water must be multiplied by 9, to give us the proportion between the tinging Body and tinged Liquor; whence it will follow, that a single grain of Copper gave a blewness to above 256806 parts of limped Water, each of them as big as it. And to prosecute this Experiment further, he mixt together equal parts of di­stilled colourless Water, and of the said tincted Liquor, and found, that though the colour were very faint and dilute, yet an attentive Eye could easily discern it to be blewish: whereby it appears that one grain of Copper was able to impart a colour to double the quantity of Water above-menti­oned, that is to 513612 grains of Water.

[Page 54] Other Experiments there are in the same Discourse made in odorate Bodies: Having, saith he, for curiosity sake suspended in a pair of exact Scales, that would turn with a very small part of a grain, a piece of Amber-greece bigger then a Walnut, and weighing betwixt an hundred and sixscore grains, I cou [...]d not in three days and an half that I had opportunity to make the trial, discover even upon that balance, any decrement of weight in the Amber-greece, though so rich a Perfume lying in the open Air was like in that time to have parted with good store of odoriferous steams. And a while after su­spending a lump of Asa [...]oetida 5 days and a half, I found it not to have sustained any discernible loss of weight, though, in spite of the unfa­vourable cold weather it had about it a neigh­bouring Atmosphere replenished with foetid ex­ha [...]ations, &c.

But what can be imagined more small and subtile then the minute parts of the s [...]eams of Animals? The same Author in [...] Tract tells us, That a good Setting [...] way of ranging the Fields, and [...] other motions especially of his head, would not only intimate the kinds of Game, whose scent he chanced to light upon, but would discover where Partridges had been (though perhaps without staying in that [Page 55] place) several hours before. He further tells us, That a very sober Gentleman of his acquaintance, who had often occasion to em­ploy Blood-hounds, assured him, that if a Man had but passed over the Field, the s [...]ent would lye, so as to be perceptible enough to a good Dog of that sort for several hours after. And an ingenious Hunter likewise assured him, That he had observed, that the scent of a flying and hunted Deer will some­times continue upon the ground from one day to the next following. He proceeds further, And now we may consider these three things; First, That the substance left upon the ground by the transient tread of a Partridge, Hare or other Animal, that doth but pass along his way, does probably com­municate to the grass or ground but some of those effluxions that transpire out of his feet, which being small enough to escape the eye, may probably not amount to one grain in weight, or perhaps not to the tenth part of it. Next, That the parts of fluid Bodies, as such, are perpetually in motion, and so are the invisible Particles that swim in them, as may appear by the dissolution of Salt or Sugar in Water, and the wandring of aque­ous Vapours through the Air, even when the eye perceives them not. And thirdly, that though the Atmosphere of one of these small [Page 56] parcels of the exhaling matter we are speaking of may oftentimes be exceeding vast in comparison of the emittent body, as may be guessed by the distance at which some Setters or Bloodhounds will find the scent of a Partridge or Deer; yet in places exposed to the free Air or Wind, 'tis very likely that these steams are assiduously carri­ed away from their fountain to maintain the forementioned Atmosphere for six, eight or more hours, that is as long as the scent hath been observed to lye, there will be requisite a continual recruit of steams succeeding one another. And that so very small a portion of matter, as that which we were saying the [...]omes of these s [...]eams may be [...]udged to be, being sens [...]bly to impregnate an Atmosphere in comparably greater than its self, and sup­ply it with almost continual recruits, we cannot but think, that the steams it parts with, must be of extreme and scarce con­ceivable minuteness. So far the Author. To which I shall add, That by the steams, I suppose, he means the minute Particles of which the steams are compounded. Now these minute Particles themselves must be compound Bodies, because they affect the sence in a particular manner, so that a saga­cious Creature can distinguish by them, not only Species but Individuals; as a good Dog [Page 57] by the foot will find out his Master, though not only several other Creatures, but seve­ral Men have passed that way. Unless we will groundlesly affirm, that those Particles are the minima naturalia, and that the Crea­ture discerns them by their figure, or their disserent manner of motion.

A second Objection of Brunnerus (as I find him quoted in Peyerus his Merycologia) is this, Si cuncta Animalium membra jam formata ex­istant in ovo, &c. If all the Members of A­nimals already formed do exist in the Egg, though for their smalness they escape our sight; I cannot conceive, how by the force of imagination alone in a pregnant Woman, can be produced sometimes Calves heads or feet, sometimes a Dog's face, or other mon­strous Members; these productions being a certain and experimental proof, that the parts and members of Animals are formed and de­lineated originally in the Womb or Egg.

To this Peyerus replies, who then forms, who delineates such monsters? Shall we ac­cuse God the Creator? But he is just, and doth not make enormous things: or will you blame Nature? That is the constant or­der and will of God, which never is defici­ent. Will you lay the fault upon the Pla­stick vertue or power residing in the Womb or Seed, and acting those things? But that [Page 58] is a Chimaera, it is nothing, it is an Idol. There remain two things to which the cause may justly be imputed, The imagination of the Mother, which may and doth often­times effect wonderful things in the Body of the tender Embryon; and the Devil. If you refuse to admit the former, you are obliged to accept the latter. And truly the Devil may, God so permitting, many ways abuse Men, and transfigure the young in the Womb, to punish the wicked and nefarious actions of degenerate Mankind indulging themselves in obscene imaginations, or preposterous and unnatural impurities and pollutions. But do these errours and enormities take away the order of Nature? by no means, for from what is rare and extraordinary and seldom happens, there is no consequence to be drawn. For though Monsters are some­times born, nothing hinders but that we may still think, that the Idea's of the seve­veral Foetus may be prae-existent and latent in the Eggs; and the event may teach us, that those Idea's or Embryo's may by a vio­lent cause be marred and deformed in the Womb; as Wax, though it be already figu­red, while it is soft is easily altered, and ca­pable of receiving new impressions.

[Page 59] But against this Answer we may thus plead in defence of Brunnerus; As to what is said of the Devil, it seems to be but a shift or refuge to have recourse to when we are at a loss, and pinch't with an Argument; as in the ancient Stage-plays, when they were put to a plunge, they were forced to bring in some [...] to help them out. And as for the imagination of the Mother, strange it is, that that should have any influence at all upon the formation of the Foetus; the Mother not knowing a­ny thing that's done in the Womb; nor be­ing conscious to her self of any power to form or act any thing there; the Foetus be­ing an external thing to her, and no more a part of her, then an Egg is of the Hen that sits upon it, affording nothing to it but warmth and nourishment. And we see Eggs may be hatched by the artificial heat of an Oven, without the incubation of a Hen. But granting that the imagination of the Mo­ther may transform the Foetus, why may it not as well originally form it out of prepa­red matter; and then what need of an Idea or minute Animalcule in the Seed? But whatever may be said of Men, how come Monsters in Brutes, which according to Pey­erus are meer Machines, and have no ima­gination or perception at all?

[Page 60] But not to lead the Reader into a Maze or Labyrinth, and leave him there, for my own part I must confess, that the Argument for the praexistence of the Faetus's, or their creation from the beginning, taken from the due number of Eggs that are in every Female from her first formation, and her being eff [...]te after they are spent, weighs ve­ry much with me, as I know not how to quit my self of it. And on the other hand, if those stories concerning Dogs and Ser­pents, &c. found in the wombs of Women be true (which are well attested) I acknow­ledge it very difficult, to give an Account how those Animals came to [...] or form­ed there. But I had [...] my ig­norance of the manner [...] of such praeternatural and extraordinary things, then to permit it to have such influence up­on me, as to remove me from so well­grounded an Opinion concerning the ordi­nary production of Animals in a natural way.

The being of a Plastick Nature subordinate to God, notwithstanding Peyerus makes an Idol of it, and charges those with Idolatry who do believe it, I am not afraid to admit: my Reasons for which I have given in another Wisdom of God in the Creati­on. Discourse, and shall not here repeat.

The new Opinion of Mr. Lewenhoek, that [Page 61] all Animals proceed from an Insect or Ani­malcule in the Male-sperm, among other Reasons, I am less inclinable to, because of the necessary loss of a multitude, I might say infinity, of them, which seems not a­greeable to the Wisdom and Providence of Nature. For supposing every Male hath in him all the Animalcules that he shall or may eject; they may, for ought I know, amount to millions of millions, and so the greatest part of them must needs be lost. Nay, if we take but one Coit, there must, in unipa­rous Creatures at least, abundance be lost. But if we suppose the Foetus to be originally in the Egg, it is not so. For the Eggs of all sorts of Creatures are so proportioned to the nature of the Animals, the time that they live, the time and number of their ge­stations, and the number they bring forth at all times, that they will much about suffice for the time the Creatures are fit to breed and nourish their young: so that they may, if need be, be all brought forth and come to perfection.

CHAP. I.
Testimonies of Ancient Heathen Wri­ters concerning the Deluge.

FIrst then, I shall produce some Testi­monies of Ancient Heathen Writers con­cerning the Deluge.

The first shall be that of Berosus, record­ed by Iosephus, in the fifth Chapter of his first Book of Iewish Antiquities, [...], &c. That is, Berosus the Chaldaean relating the Story of the Deluge writes thus. It is reported, that there is some part of the Vessel [the Ark] still re­maining at the Mountain of the Gordyaeans; and that certain Persons scraping off the Bitumen or Pitch, carry it away; and that men make use of it for Amulets, to drive away Diseases.

A second Testimony the same Iosephus affords us in the same place, and that is, of Nicolaus Damascenus; who, saith he, gives us the History of the [Ark and Deluge] in these words; About Minyas in Armenia there [Page 64] is a great Mountain called Baris; to which it is reported, that many flying in the time of the Deluge were saved, and that a cer­tain person was carried thither in an Ark, which rested on the top of it; the reliques of the Timber whereof were preserved there a long time. Besides these, Iosephus tells us in the same place, that Hieronymus the Egyptian, who wrote the Phoenician An­tiquities, and Mnaseas, and many others, whose words he alledges not, make mention of the Flood.

Eusebius superadds two Testimonies more. The one of Melon to this effect. There de­parted from Armenia at the time of the De­luge, a certain man, who together with his Sons had been saved; who being cast out of his House and Possessions, was driven away by the Natives. This man passing over the intermediate Region, came into the moun­tainous part of Syria, that was then deso­late. This Testimony makes the Deluge Topical, and not to have reached Armenia.

The other is of Abydenus an ancient Wri­ter, set down by Eusebius, Praepar▪ Evangel. lib. 9. cap. 4. [...], &c. After whom others reigned, and then Si [...]i­thrus, (so he calls Noah.) To whom Saturn [Page 65] foretold, that there should be a great Flood of Waters upon the fifteenth Day of the Month Desius; and commanded him to hide all Writings [or whatever was committed to writing] in Heliopolis of the Sypparians. Which so soon as Sisithrus had performed, he presently sailed away to Armenia, where what God had predicted to him, immedi­ately came to pass [or came upon him]. The third day, after the Waters ceased, he sent forth Birds, that he might try whether they could espy any Land uncovered of Wa­ter. But they finding nothing but Sea, and not knowing whither to betake themselves, returned back to Sisithrus. In like manner, after some days he sent out others with like success. But being sent out the third time, they returned with their feet fouled with Mud. Then the Gods caught up Sisithrus from among Men: but the Ship remained in Armenia, and its Wood afforded the Inha­bitants Am [...]lets to chase away many Di­seases. These Histories accord with the Scripture as to the main, of the being of a [...] Noah escaping out of it; only [...] the Truth, by the admixture [...] [...]abulous stuff.

[...] first Book against Iulian, to [...] Deluge, alledges a passage out of Alexander Polyhistor▪ Plato himself (saith [Page 66] he) gives us an obscure intimation of the Deluge, in his Timaeus, bringing in a certain Egyptian Priest, who related to Solon out of the Sacred Books of the Egyptians, that before the particular Deluges known and celebrated by the Grecians, there was of old an ex­ceeding great Inundation of Waters, and de­vastation of the Earth; which seems to be no other than Noah's Flood.

Plutarch in his Book De Solertia Anima­lium [...]tells us, That those who have written of Deucalion's Flood, report, that there was a Dove sent out of the Ark by Deucalion, which returning again into the Ark, was a sign of the continuance of the Flood, but flying quite away, and not returning any more, was a sign of Serenity, and that the Earth was drained.

Indeed Ovid and other Mythologists make Deucalion's Flood to have been univer­sal: and it's clear, by the Description Ovid gives of it, that he▪ meant the general De­luge in the days of Noah. And that by Deu­calion, the Ancients together with Ovid, un­derstood Noah; Kircher in hisL. 2. c. 6. Arca Noae doth well make out. First, For that the Poet Apollonius makes him the Son of Prome­theus in his third Book, [Page 67]

Where Prometheus the Son of Iapetus begat the Renowned Deucalion. 2. Berosus affirms Noah to have been a Scythian. And Lucian in his Book De Dea Syria tells us, that ma­ny make Deucalion to have been so too. 3. The Scripture testifies, that Men were generally very corrupt and wicked in the days of Noah. And Andro Teius a very an­cient Writer testifies, that in Deucalion's time there was a great abundance of wicked Men, which made it necessary for God to destroy Mankind. 4. The Scripture saith, that Noah was a Just Man, and Perfect in his Generation. And Ovid saith of Deucalion, that

And a little after, ‘Innocuos ambos, cultores numinis ambos.’

5. Apollonius saith of Deucalion, [...], He first ruled over Men. Which may very well be attributed to Noah [Page 68] the Father and Restorer of Mankind, whose right the Kingdom was. 6. The sending out of a Dove, to try whether the Waters were abated, and the Flood gone off, is (we have seen) by Plutarch attributed to Deucalion. 7. Lucian in his Timon, and in his Book De Dea Syria, sets forth the Particulars of Deu­calion's, after the Example of Noah's Flood. [...], &c. Deucalion was the only Man that was left for a second Generation, for his Prudence and Piety sake: And he was saved in this manner. He made a great Ark, and got a­board it, with his Wife and Children: And to him came Swine, and Horses, and Lions, and Serpents, and all other living Creatures, which the Earth maintains, according to their kinds by pairs; and he received them all, and they hurt him not; for there was by Divine Instinct a great friendship among them; and they sail­ed together in the Ark, so long as the Waters prevailed. And in his Timon he saith, That Noah laid up in the Ark plenty of all Provi­sions for their sustenance.

By all this it appears, that the notion of a general Flood was every where current a­mong the People, especially in those Coun­treys where the Ark rested, and where Noah afterward lived. And hence it was, that the [Page] [Page]

[Page 69] Apameans, whether of Mesopotamia, or Syria, or Bythinia, (for there were three Cities of that Name) coined Moneys in honour of the Emperours Septimius Severus, and Phi­lippus Arabs, having on the Reverse the Fi­gure of an Ark, with a Man and a Woman standing before it; and a Man and a Woman looking out of it; and two Doves above it, one flying with a Branch of a Tree in its Mouth, another resting upon it. The Figures whereof, and a learned Discourse thereupon out of Falconerius, may be seen in Kircher's l. 2. c. 6. Arca Noae. Which Moneys though they were coined long after our Saviour's time, and the divulgation of the Scriptures; yet being done by Ethnicks, do shew that the Story of the Deluge was known, and famous, and generally credited among them, as being near the place where Noah lived and con­versed after the Flood.

Howbeit I do not deny, that there was such a particular Flood in Thessaly, as they call Deucalion's, which happened Seven Hun­dred and Seventy Years or thereabouts after the general Deluge. I acknowiedge also a more ancient Flood in Attica in the time of Ogyges, about Two hundred and thirty years before Deucalion's, by which the Countrey was so marred, that it lay waste and uncultivated without Inhabitants for almost Two hundred years.

CHAP. II.
Of the Causes of the Deluge.

WHat were the instrumental Causes or Means of the Flood? Whether was it effected by natural or supernatural Means only? Whether was God no further concerned in it, than in so ordering second Causes at first, as of themselves necessarily to bring it in at such a time?

First, Those that hold this Deluge was altogether miraculous, and that God Al­mighty created Waters on purpose to serve this occasion, and when they had done their work destroyed them again, dispatcht the Business, and loose or cut the Knot in a few words. And yet this Hypothesis is not so absurd and precarious, as at first sight it may seem to be. For the World being already full, there needed not, nor indeed could be any Creation of Water out of nothing, but only a Transmutation of some other Body into Water. Now if we grant all Natural Bodies, even the Elements themselves, to be mutually transmutable, as few Men doubt, and some think they can demonstrate; why [Page 71] might not the Divine Power and Providence bring together at that time such: natural A­gents, as might change the Air or Aether, or both together into Water; and so supply what was wanting in Rains, and extraordi­nary Eruptions of Springs. To them that argue the Improbability of such a change, from the great quantity of Air requisite to the making of a little Water; it may be an­swered, That if Air, and all Bodies commixt with it, were together changed into Water, they must needs make a bulk of Water of equal quantity with themselves, unless we will grant a Peripatetical Condensation and Rarefaction; and hold that the same Matter may have sometimes a greater, sometimes a lesser quantity or extension.

This Cause [the conversion of Air into Water] the Learned Jesuite Athanasius Kir­cher, in his Book De Arca Noae, alledges as the undoubted instrumental Cause or Means of the Deluge in these words, Dico totum il­lud aereum spatium usque ad supremam regio­nem aeris, praepotentis Dei virtute, in aquas, per inexplicabilem nubium coacervatarum mul­titudinem, quâ replebatur, conversam esse; cujus ubertas tanta fuit, ut Aer supremus cum inferiori in Oceanum commutatus videri potuerit, non naturae viribus, sed illius cujus voluntati & imperio cuncta subsunt. That is, [Page 72] I affirm, That all that Aereal space that reaches up to the supreme Region of the Air, was, by the power of the Omnipolent God, and instrumentality of an inexplicable multitude of Clouds amassed together, wherewith it was filled, changed into Water, so that the upper and lower Air might seem to be [...] into an Ocean, not by the strength of Na [...]e, but of him to whose Will and [...] all things are subject. And he is so confidentArcae Noae l. 2. c. 4 that this Deluge, in which the [...] raised fifteen Cubits above the highest by Mountains, was not, nor could be effected by natural Causes; but by the right hand of the most High God only; that he saith, No Man can deny it, but he who doth not penetrate how far the power of Nature can extend, and where it is limited. To conclude, this Hypothesis hath the Suffrages of most Learn­ed Men. But because the Scripture assign­ing the Causes or Means of the Inundation, makes no mention of any conversion of Air into Water, but only of the breaking up the Fountains of the Great Deep, and the open­ing of the Windows of Heaven, I suppose those Causes may be sufficient to work the Effect, and that we need not have recourse to such an Assistance.

[Page 73] As for those that make the Deluge Topi­cal, and restrain it to a narrow compass of Land; their Opinion is, I think, sufficiently confuted by a late ingeniousDr. Bur­net. Author, to whom therefore I refer the Reader.

I shall not undertake the Defence or Con­futation of those or any other Hypothesis: only tell you which at present seems to me most probable, and that is theirs, who for a partial cause of the Deluge, assign either a change of the Center of the Earth, or a vio­lent depression of the Surface of the Ocean, and a forcing the Waters up from the subter­raneous Abyss through the Channels of the Fountains that were then broken up and o­pened.

First then, let us consider what Causes the Scripture assigns of the Flood; and they are two: 1. The breaking up the Fountains of the great Deep: 2. The opening of the Windows of Heaven. I shall first treat of this last. By the opening of the Windows of Heaven, is (I suppose) to be understood the causing of all the Water that was su­spended in the Air to descend down in Rain upon the Earth; the effect hereof here men­tioned being a long continuing Rain of For­ty days. And that these Treasuries of the Air will afford no small quantity of Water, may be made appear, both by Scripture and [Page 74] Reason. 1. By Scripture, which opposes the Waters that are above the Heavens or Firmament, to those that are under them; which if they were not [...], and in some measure equal, it would never do. Gen. 1. 6. God is said to make a Firmament in the midst of the Waters, and to divide the Waters which were under the Firmament, from the Waters which were above the Firmament. And this was the work of a whole day, and consequently no inconsiderable thing. By the Heavens or Firmament in this place, is to be understood the inferiour Region of the Air, wherein the Fowls fly: who Gen. 1. 20. are said to fly above the Earth, in the open Firmament of Heaven; though elsewhere it be taken for the Celestial Regions, wherein the Sun, and Moon, and Stars are pla­ced.

2. The same may be made appear, by Reason grounded upon Experience. I my self have observed a Thunder-Cloud in pas­sage, to have in less than two hours space powred down so much Water upon the Earth, as besides what sunk into the parch­ed and thirsty ground, and filled all Ditches and Ponds, caused a considerable Flood in the Rivers, setting all the Meadows on flote. [And Dr. Wittie in his Scarborough Spaw tells us, of great Spouts of Rain that ordinarily [Page 75] fall every year some time or other in Sum­mer, that set the whole Countrey in a Flood.] Now had this Cloud, which might for ought I know, have moved Forty miles forward, stood still and emptied all its Wa­ter upon the same spot of Ground it first hung over, what a sudden and incredible Deluge would it have made there? and yet what depth or thickness of Vapours might remain uncondensed in the Air above this Cloud, who knows? Now it is to be consi­dered, that not only the Air upon the dry Land, but also all that covers the whole O­cean, is charged with Vapours, which are nothing else but diffused Water: all which was brought together by Winds, or what others Means seem'd good to God, and cau­sed to destil down in Rain upon the Earth. And you may easily guess that it was no small quantity of Water that was supplyed this way, in that it sufficed for a Rain that lasted Forty natural days. And that no or­dinary Rain neither, but Catarracts or Spouts of Water; for so the Septuagint interprets the words, [...], And the Catarracts or Spouts of Hea­ven were opened.

I return now to the first Cause or Means of the Deluge assigned by the Scripture, and that is the breaking up of all the Fountains [Page 76] of the great Deep. By the great Deep in this place, I suppose, is to be understood the Sub­terraneous Waters, which do and must ne­cessarily communicate with the Sea. For we see that the Caspian and some other Seas, receive into themselves many great Rivers, and yet have no visible Outlets: and there­fore by Subterraneous Passages, must needs discharge their Waters into the Abyss of Waters under the Earth, and by its interven­tion into the Ocean again.

That the Mediterranean Sea doth not (as I sometimes thought) communicate with the Ocean by any subterraneous Passages, nor thereby impart any Water to it, or receive any from it, may be demonstrated, from that the Superficies of it is lower than the Superficies of the Ocean, as appears from the Waters running in at the Streights of Gibraltar; for if there were any such Com­munications, the Water keeping its Level, the Mediterranean, being the lowest, must by those Passages receive Waters from the Ocean; and not the Ocean, which is (as we have proved) the highest, from the Medi­terranean. But that it doth not receive a­ny by Subterraneous Passages is most likely, because it receives so much above Ground. Hence it necessarily follows, that the Medi­terranean spends more in Vapour than it re­ceives [Page 77] from the Rivers; which is Mr. Hal­ley's Conclusion; though in some of his Pre­mises or Hypotheses he is, I think, mistaken, as 1. In that he numbers the Tyber amongst his nine great Rivers, each of which may yield ten times as much Water as the Thames; whereas I question whether that yields once so much; and whereas he passes by all the rest of the Rivers as smaller than it; there are two that I have seen in Italy it self, whereof the one, viz. the Arnus, on which Florence and Pisa stand, seemed to me not inferiour in bigness to the Tiber; and the other, viz. the Athesis on which Verona stands, I could not guess to be less than twice as big. 2. In that he thinks himself too li­beral in allowing these nine Rivers to carry down each of them ten times so much Wa­ter as the Thames doth. Whereas one of those nine, and that none of the biggest nei­ther, viz. the River Po, if Ricciolus his Hy­potheses and Calculations be good, affords more Water in an hour, than Mr. Halley sup­poses the Thames to do in a day; the hour­ly Effusions of the Po being rated at eigh­teen millions of Cubical Paces by Ricciolus; whereas the daily ones of the Thames are computed to be no more than twenty five millions three hundred forty four thousand Cubical yards of Water by Mr. Halley: but [Page 78] a Geometrical Pace contains five Feet, i. e. 1^•• of a Yard. Now if the Po pours so much Water hourly into the Sea, what then must the Danow and the Nile do? each of which cannot (I guess) be less than troble of the Po. Tanais, Borysthenes and Rhodanus may equal, if not exceed it. Howbeit, I cannot approve Ricciolus his Hypotheses, judging them to be too excessive, but do believe that as to the whole Mr. Halley comes nearer the truth. Sure enough it is, that in the Me­diterranean, the Receipts from the Rivers fall short of the Expence in Vapour: though in part of it, that is, the Euxine, the Receipts exceed, as appears from that there is a con­stant Current sets outward from thence through the Thracian Bosphorus, and Helle­spont.

But though the Mediterranean doth in­deed evaporate more than it receives from the Rivers, yet I believe, the Case is not the same with the Caspian Sea; the Superficies whereof seems to me not to bear any great­er proportion to the Waters of the Rivers that run into it, than that of the Euxine doth to its: which we have observed not to spend the whole Receipt in Vapour.

You'l say, Why then do not great Floods raise the Seas? I answer, as to the Caspian, if it communicates with the Ocean, whether [Page 79] the Rivers bring down more or less, its all one; if more, then the Water keeping its Level, the Caspian raiseth the Ocean; if less, then the Ocean communicates to the Caspian, and raises that. But as to the Mediterra­nean, we may say, that when it receives more on the one side, it receives less on the other, the Floods and Ebbs of the Nilus and the other Rivers counterbalancing one ano­ther; Besides by reason of the Snows lying upon the Mountains all Winter, the greatest Floods of those great Rivers in Europe do not happen when the Mediterranean evapo­rates leàst in the Winter time; but in the Spring.

You'l demand further, if the Mediterra­nean evaporates so much, what becomes of all this Vapour? I answer, It is cast off upon the Mountains, and on their sides and tops is condensed into Water, and so returned a­gain by the Rivers unto the Sea.

If you proceed to ask what becomes of the Surplusage of the Water, which the Me­diterranean receives from the Ocean, and spends in vapour; I answer, It seems to me that it must be cast further off over the tops of the Mountains, and supply in part Rain to these Northern Countries: for we know that the South-wind brings Rain, with us and and all Europe over.

[Page 80] As to the great Ocean, I do not believe that it evaporates so much as the Mediterra­nean; both 1. Because the whole Mediter­ranean, excepting the Euxine, lies in a hot Climate, and a great part of it as it were in a Valley, Ridges of high Mountains, At­las on one side, and the Alps and Apennine, &c. on the other running along it. And 2. Because the Surface of the whole Ocean bears a greater proportion to the Waters it receives from the Rivers of at least this Con­tinent, than that of the Mediterranean doth to its. And therefore I think also that Mr. Halley exceeds in his Estimate of the Heat of the Superficies of the Sea-water. I can­not perswade my self, that were it all com­mixt, I mean the hotter part with the cooler all the Surface over to such a thickness, it would equal the heat of our Air in the hottest time of Summer. But I leave that to fur­ther Trial and Enquiry.

Here give me leave to suggest, that we are not to think, that all the Vapours that sup­ply our Rains and Dews proceed from the Sea; no, a great part of them, viz. all that, when condensed, waters the Earth, and serves for the Nutrition of Plants and Animals, (if not the same individual Water, at least so much) was exhaled out of the Earth before, and returned again in Showers and Dews up­on [Page 81] it. So that we receive no more from the Sea, than what the Rivers carry back, and pour into it again. But supposing Mr. Halley's Hypotheses to be good, and that the Ocean doth evaporate, and cast off to the dry Land 1¹² of an Inch thickness daily, and this suffices for the Supply of all the Rivers; how intolerably extravagant must their Hypothe­ses be, who suppose the Rivers of all the World together to yield half an Ocean of water daily? Though I must confess my self to be at a loss as to those vast Rivers of America of ninety Miles broad; for if they should run with any thing a swift Current, it is in­deed inestimable what a quantity of water they may pour forth. All therefore that I have to say of them is, That we want a true History and Account of their Phoenomena from their Fountains to their Out lets.

But in contradiction to what I have said concerning the water keeping its level, and flowing in only at the Straits mouth, I un­derstand that it is the concurrent and unani­mous Vote and Suffrage of Mariners, Voy­agers and Philosophers, that there is an under­current at the Straits of Gibraltar, the Thra­cian Bosphorus, and the Baltick Sound. Par­ticularly M. Marsilly affirms, That the low­er water in the Channel of the Thracian Bosphorus is driven Northward into the [Page 82] Euxine Sea, whilst the upper flows constant­ly from the Euxine Southward. And that that which flows from the South is salter and heavier; which he found by letting down of a Vessel close shut up, fitted with a Valve to open at pleasure, and let in the low­er water, which being brought up and weigh­ed, was observed to be ten Grains heavier than the upper. That the upper and lower flow contrary ways, he found by the Fisher­mens Nets, which being let down deep from Vessels that were fixed, were always by the observation of the Fishermen, by the force of the Current driven towards the Black Sea: and by the letting down of a Plummet; for if it were stop't and detained at about five or six foot depth, it did always decline to­wards the Marmora or Propontis, but if it descended lower, it was driven to the con­trary part, that is, the Euxine. But I think these Experiments are not sufficient to esta­blish and demonstrate such an under-current, because possibly there might be some mistake in them: and Mr. Smith mentions no such thing as any under-current there. But yet the same Mr. Smith endeavours to prove an under-current by two Experiments: The first is the running Tide and Half-tide in the Offing between the North-Foreland and South-Foreland. Now where it flows Tide and [Page 83] Half-tide, though the Tide of Flood runs a­loft, yet the Tide of Ebb runs under-foot, that is, close by the Ground. See Philoso­phical Transactions, Numb. 158. p. 564.

The second is, an Experiment made in the Baltick Sound: In one of the King's Fregats they went with their Pinnace into the mid­dle Stream, and were carried violently by the Current: soon after they sunk a Bucket with a large Cannon Bullet to a certain depth of water, which gave check to the Boats motion, and sinking it still lower and lower, the Boat was driven a head to Wind­ward against the upper Current, the Current aloft being not above four or five Fathom deep; and the lower the Bucket was let fall, they found the under-current the stronger.

To all this I reply; That I do not under­stand how waters can run backward and for­ward in the same Channel at the same time. For there being but one declivity, this is as much to affirm, as that a heavy Body should ascend. It is a crossing of Proverbs, [...], making Rivers ascend to their Fountains, affirming that to be done, which all the World hitherto hath look't upon as absurd and impossible. And therefore the Matter of Fact had need be well attested: which when to me it shall be, I must then manus dare, yield up the Bucklers, and stu­dy [Page 84] some means to solve the Phaenomenon.

Suppose we that the Mediterranean emp­ties it self into the Ocean by an under-cur­rent, there must be a declivity to carry it down, and consequently the upper-Superfi­cies of this under-current must have its de­clivity too, and likewise the contiguous Su­perficies of the upper-current, and so the upper current must needs ascend in its course inwards. If you say it's forc'd in by the motion of the Ocean, that seems unlikely, because it runs in constantly, as well Ebb as Flood. And therefore there seems to be no better account of it than the Superficies of the Ocean being higher than that of the Medi­terranean.

By the breaking up of the Fountains of the Great Deep, is I conceive meant, the making great Issues and Apertures for these Sub­terraneous waters to rush out. You will say, how could that be, sith the water keeps its level, and cannot ascend to a greater height above the common Center, than the Super­ficies of the Sea is, much less force its way, remove Obstacles, and break open Passa­ges?

I answer, According to them that hold that all Rivers come from the Sea by Sub­terraneous Passages, it is no more than daily happens. For they must needs grant, that [Page 85] the water in the Subterraneous Channels, is raised as far above the level of the Ocean, as are the Heads and Fountains of great Ri­vers. Which considering the height of their first springs up the Mountains, the length of their Courses, and the swiftness of their Streams for a great part of the way, is very considerable, a constant declivity being ne­cessary to their descent. And therefore I can by no means assent to the Learned Do­ctor Plot, (if I understand him aright) Hist. Nat. Stafford, p. 79. That the Valleys are as much below the Sur­face of the Sea, as Mountains are above it. For how then could Rivers descend down to the Sea through those Valleys; the Sea would rather run into them, and make Sinuses; or else, if they were enclosed, the water would stagnate there, and make Pools.

If this be done by way of Filtration (which seems to be the most likely Means of raising the water) I do not see, but these Filters may suck up the whole Ocean; and if Apertures and Outlets large enough were made, pour it out upon the Earth in no long time. But I cannot be fully reconciled to this Opinion, though it hath great Advocates, especially the fore-mentioned very Learned and Inge­nious Person Dr. Robert Plot. I acknow­ledge Subterraneous waters: I grant a Con­fluence and Communication of Seas by under­ground [Page 86] Channels and Passages: I believe that wherever one shall dig as deep as the level of the Sea, he shall seldom fail of wa­ter; the water making its way through Sand and Gravel and Stones. In like manner as it is observed of the River Seine, that in Floud-times all the neighbouring Wells and Cellars are filled with water, and when the River decreases and sinks again, those waters also of the Wells and Cellars diminish, and by de­grees fall back into the River, so that there are scarce any Wells or Fountains in the Plains near the River, but their waters keep the level of the Rivers, rising and falling with it.

But this inferiour constant Circulation and perpetual motion of water, seems to me not yet sufficiently proved and made out. I think that the Patrons and Abbettors of this Opi­nion, have not satisfactorily demonstrated, how it is, or can be performed. To what is offered concerning the Center of Gravity being nearer to our Continent, by reason of the Preponderancy of the Earth, and the Waters lying as it were on an heap in the o­ther Hemisphere, I answer, 1. That in the present terraqueous Globe, the New World which lyes between the two great Seas, and almost opposite to our Continent, doth in [...]ome measure counterpoise the Old, and take [Page 87] off a great part of the advantage, which by reason of its Preponderancy, it might other­wise have. Moreover, I am of Mr. Brier­wood's Opinion, that there may be, and is a vast Continent toward the Southern Pole opposite to Europe and Asia, to counterpoise them on that side; nay, I do verily believe, that the Continents and Islands are so pro­portionably scattered and disposed all the World over, as if not perfectly and exactly, yet very nearly to counter-ballance one ano­ther; so that the Globe cannot walter or reel towards any side: and that the Center of the convex Superficies of the Sea, is the true Center of the whole Terrestrial Sphere, both of Motion and of Gravity. I add also of Magnitude: which is exceedingly con­venient, as well for the facility as the equa­bility of the Earths diurnal Motion. This Hypothesis of the Continents being disperst equally on all sides of the Globe, makes these Centers concur in one point, whatever cause we assign of the raising up the dry Land at first. Whereas if we should suppose the dry Land to have been raised up by Earth-quakes only on one side of the Globe, and to have cast off the water to the other, and also that the water could find no way into the Ca­verns that were left within; then the watery side must needs Preponderate the Land-side, [Page 88] and bring the Center of Gravity nearer to its own Superficies, and so raise the Land still a great deal higher, and make a consi­derable distance between the Centers of Mag­nitude and of Gravity. In our Hypothesis of the equal dispersion of the Continents and Islands no such thing would happen: but each Continent taking it with all its internal Caverns, whether lighter or heavier than its bulk in water; that is, whether the water did make its way into the Caverns thereof, or did not, (for in the first case it would be heavier, (in the second lighter) would have its counterpoise on the opposite side; so that the Centers would still concur. The case would be the same if the dry Land were discovered, and the Mountains raised by the immediate application of the Divine Power. 2. The Sea being no where above a German Mile deep (for which we have good Au­thority) in most places not half so much, taking then as a middle term half a Mile. Suppose it every where half a Mile deep, (the Earth below the Sea, we have no rea­son to suppose of different Gravity) what proportion hath this half Miles thickness of water to the whole Terraqueous Globe, whose Semidiameter is by the account of Mathe­maticians Three thousand four hundred and forty Italian Miles. What little advantage [Page 89] then can it have of the Earth opposite to it, in point of Preponderancy? 3. Granting the Center of Gravity should be nearer our Continent: The Center being the lowest place, and the Water a fluid Body, unless stopped, (which it might indeed be, if it were encompassed round with high Shores, as high as the Mountains, without any Breaks or Outlets in them) where it found declivity, it would descend as near as it could to it, without any regard of the Earths Preponde­rancy. And though we should grant, that the driness of the Shores might stop it, and cause it to lye on a heap, yet would it run up the Channels of Rivers, till it came as near as possible to the Center of Gravity. Indeed the Rivers themselves could not descend, but must run towards the middle of the Conti­nent. All this I think will follow from this Hypothesis by as good consequence, as the waters being forced through the Subterra­neous Channels out at the Springs. Again, I do not peremptorily affirm, that all Foun­tains do proceed from Rain; only I contend, that Rain may suffice to feed them, and that probably it doth feed ordinary Springs. This the Ingenious French Author doth well de­monstrate in the River Seine, and I believe it is demonstrable in most other Rivers.

[Page 90] The little Brook that runs near my Dwel­ing, and hath its Head or Source not above four or five Miles off, where there is no ex­traordinary eruption of water, all along its Course receives small Rivulets on both sides; which though they make a considerable Stream at five miles distance from the Foun­tain-head, yet singly are so small, that they may very well be conceived to drain down from the higher Grounds that lye about them. And taking the whole together, it is a very considerable length and breadth of Land, that contributes to the maintenance of this little River. So that it may easily be believed, that all its water owes its original to Rain: Especially if it be considered fur­ther, that in Winter-time after the Rains are fallen, the Ground sated, and the Ditches full, the Stream of this River during the whole Winter following, is for the most part, unless in Frosts, double of what it was in Summer. Which Excess can proceed from nothing but Rain and Mists; at least it would be rashness to assign any o­ther Cause, when there is so obvious and manifest an one. Moreover, that Rain af­fords no small quantity of water, is clear al­so from great Floods, wherein it might be proved, that in few days there descends more water than would supply the ordinary [Page 91] Stream for a good part of Summer. Now to compare great things with small; I have seen many of the biggest Rivers in Europe, the Danow, Rhine, Rhosne and Po; and when I consider the length of their Courses, the multitude of considerable Rivers and Brooks they receive; and all these from their first rise, made up by degrees of little Rivulets and Gills, like my neighbouring Brook; the huge Mountains and vast extent of higher Grounds they drain. To me it seems (and I have seen all their Streams near their Out-lets, except the Danows, and it's after four hundred Miles descent) that they do not bear any greater proportion to the Rivers and Rivulets they receive, and the immense Tracts of Land that [...]eed them, than my Brook doth to its smalls Rills and compass of Ground.

But in this, I confess, I do not descend to the niceness of Measuring and Calculation, but satisfie my self with rude Conjectures, taking my Measures, as the Cestrians say, by the Scale of the Eye.

It will here be objected, That the Rain never sinks above ten Foot deep at most into the Earth, and therefore cannot supply the Springs.

[Page 92] Answ. This indeed, if it were true, would much enervate, nay, quite overthrow our Opinion: And therefore we must forti­fie this Point, and effectually demonstrate beyond all possibility of denial or contra­diction, That Rain-water doth sink down, and make its way into the Earth, I do not say Ten, or Twenty, nor Forty, but an Hun­dred, nay, Two or three hundred Foot or more.

First then, in Pool-hole in the Peak of Darbyshire, there are in some places constant droppings and destillations of water from the Roof: under each of which (to note that by the by) rises up a Stone Pillar, the water precipitating some of those stony Particles, which it had washed off the Rocks in passing through their Chinks. These droppings continue all the Summer long. Now it seems clear to me, that the Rain-water ma­king its way through the Veins and Chinks of the Rocks above it, and yet but slowly, by reason of the thickness of the Mountain, and straitness of the Passages, supplies that dropping all the year round; at least, this is much more rational than any different Hy­pothesis. If the water distills down faster in Winter time and wet Weather, than it doth in Summer (which I forgot to ask) the Ex­periment would infallibly prove our Asser­tion. [Page 93] In confirmation of this Argument, Albertus Magnus (as I find him quoted in Dr. Wittie's Scarborough Spaw) tells us, That at the bottom of a solid Rock one hundred and thirty Fathoms deep, he saw drops of water distilling from it in a rainy season.

Secondly, It is well known, and attested to me by the People at Buxton when I was there, that out of the mouth of the same Pool hole, after great and long continuing Rains, a great stream of water did usually issue forth. And I am sure it must make its way through a good thickness of Earth or Rocks, before it could come in there.

Thirdly, What becomes of all the water that falls on Newmarket-Heath and Gogmagog Hills, I presume also Salisbury-Plain, and the like Spungy Grounds all Winter long, where we see very little run off any way? It must needs sink into the Ground more than Ten Foot deep.

Fourthly, Many Wells, whose Springs lye at least Twenty Foot deep, we find by experience, do often fail in great Droughts in Summer time.

Fifthly, In Coal Delfs and other Mines, in wet Weather the Miners are many times drown'd out, (as they phrase it) though no water runs down into the Mouths of their Pits or Sha [...]ts. Nay, Dr. Wittie tells us in [Page 94] his Description of the Vertues of the Scar­borow Spaw, pag. 105. That after great Inun­dations of Rain, the Miners find the water frequently distilling through the solid Earth upon their Heads; whereas in Summer or dry Seasons, they find no interruption from thence at all.

Further, to confirm this Particular, I wrote to my Honoured Friend Sir Thomas Willughby Baronet, desiring him to examine his Colliers concerning it, and send me word what report they make; and from him re­ceived this account. If there be Springs lye before you come at the Coal, they carry the Water away; but if there be none, it falls in­to the Works in greater or less quantity ac­cording as the Rains fall. Which Answer is so much the more considerable, in that it gives me a further clear Proof, that Springs are fed by Rain water, and not by any com­munications from the Sea; their original be­ing above the Beds of Coal, they receiving the Rain-water into their Veins, and deriving it all along to their Fountains or Eruptions, above the Coals.

I might add out of him, [Dr. Witty] Fifth­ly, pag. 85. That the Scarborow Spaw, not­withstanding it breaks out of Ground within Three or four yards off the foot of the Cliff, which is near Forty yards high, and within a [Page 95] quarter of a mile there is another Hill, that is more than as high again as the Cliff, and a descent all the way to the Cliff, so as the Rain­water cannot lye long upon the Ground, yet it is observable, that after a long Rain, the wa­ter of the Spaw is altered in its taste, and lessened in its operation; whereas a rainy day or two will not sensibly hurt it. And now I am transcribing out of this Author, give me leave to add an Observation or two in con­firmation of Rains being the Original of Springs. The first is (pag. 97▪) this;

In England, in the years 1654, 55. and 56. when our Climate was drier than ever it had been mentioned to be in any Stories, so as we had very little Rain in Summer, or Snow in Winter, most of our Springs were dried up, such as in the memory of the eldest Men li­ving had never wanted water, but were of those Springs we call Fontes perennes, or at least were esteemed so. He instances also a Parallel Story out of Heylin's Geography, in the Description of Cyprus, where the Au­thor relates; That in the days of Constantine the Great, there was an exceeding long drought there, so as in Thirty six years they had no Rain, insomuch as all the Springs and Tor­rents, or Rivers, were dried up; so that the Inhabitants were forced to forsake the Island, and to seek for new Habitations for want of fresh water.

[Page 96] The second is, p. 84. That in the Wolds or Downs of Yorkshire they have many Springs break out after great Rains, which they call Gypsies, which jet and spout up a great height.

Neither is this Eruption of Springs after long Rains, proper and peculiar only to the Wolds of Yorkshire, but common to other Countreys also, as Dr. Britannia Baconica. Childrey witnesseth in these words: Sometimes there breaks out water in the manner of a sudden Land-flood, out of certain Stones, that are like Rocks standing aloft in open Fields, near the rising of the River Kynet [in Kent] which is repu­ted by the Common People a fore-runner of Dearth. That the sudden eruption of Springs in places where they use not always to run, should be a sign of Dearth is no wonder. For these unusual Eruptions, (which in Kent we call Nailbourns) are caused by extream gluts of Rain, or lasting wet Weather, and never hap­pen but in wet years; witness the year 1648. when there were many of them:—and to our purpose very remarkable it was, that in the year 1654. several Springs and Rivulets were quite dried up, by reason of the precedent Drought, which raged most in 1651, 1652, and 1653. As the Head of the Stour, that rises near Elham in Kent, and runs through Canterbury, was dry for some Miles space: [Page 97] and the like happened to the Stream that cros­seth the Road-way between Sittingburn and Canterbury at Ospring near Feversham, which at other times ran with a plentiful Cur­rent, but then wholly failed. So we see that it is not infrequent for new Springs to break out in wet years; and for old ones to fail in great Droughts. And Strabo in his first Book out of Xanthus the Lydian tells us, That in the time of Artaxerxes there was so great a Drought, that Rivers, and Lakes, and Wells of water failed, and were dried up.

I cannot here also forbear to add, the pro­bable account he [Dr. Witty] gives of the Supply of the Spring-well on the Castle-hill at Scarborough; at which, I confess, I was somewhat puzzled. This Well, saith he, though it be upon the top of the Rock, not many yards deep, and also upon the edge of the Cliff, is doubtless supplied by secret Channels within the Ground, that convey the Rain and Showers into it, being placed on a dependent part of the Rock, near unto which there are also Cel­lars under an old ruinated Chappel, which after a great Rain are full of Water, but are dried up in a long Drought.

As for what is said concerning the River Volgas pouring out so much water into the Caspian Sea, as in a years time would make up a mass of water equal to the Globe of [Page 98] the Earth; and of the hourly effusions of the River Po in Italy, which Ricciolus hath computed to amount to 18000000 cubical Paces of water. Whence a late learned Wri­ter hath probably inferred, that all the Ri­vers in the World together, do daily dis­charge half an Ocean of waters into the Sea, I must confess my self to be unsatisfied there­with. I will not question their Calculations, but I suspect they are out in their Hypothe­ses.

The Opinion of Mr. Edmund Halley, that Springs and Rivers owe their Original to Vapours condensed on the sides of Moun­tains, rather than unto Rains, I acknowledge to be very ingenious, grounded upon good Observations, and worthy of its Author; and I will not deny it to be in part true in those hot Countreys in the Torrid Zone, and near it; where, by reason of the great Heats, the Vapours are more copiously exhaled out of the Earth, and its likely carried up high in the [...]rm of Vapours. The inferiour A [...]r at least is so charged with them, and by that means so very moist, that in some places their Knives rust even in their Pockets; and in the Night, so very fresh and cold, partly also by reason of the length of the Nights; that exposing the Body to it, causes Colds and Catarrhs, and is very dangerous: Whence [Page 99] also their Dews are so great, as in good mea­sure to recompence the want of Rain, and serve for the nourishment of Plants; as they do even in Spain it self.

I shall first of all propose this Opinion in the Words of the Author, and then discourse a little upon it. After he had enumerated many of the high Ridges and Tracts of Mountains in the four Quarters of the World, he thus proceeds: Each of which far surpass the usual height to which the Aqueous Vapours of themselves ascend, and on the tops of which the Air is so cold and rarified, as to retain but a small part of those Vapours that shall be brought thither by the Winds. Those Vapours therefore that are raised copiously in the Sea, and by the Winds are carried over the low Lands to those Ridges of Mountains, are there compelled by the stream of the Air to mount up with it to the tops of the Mountains, where the water presently precipitates gleeting down by the Crannies of the Stone; and part of the Vapour entring into the Cavities of the Hills, the water thereof gathers, as in an Alembick, into the Basons of Stone it finds; which be­ing once filled, all the overp [...]us of water that comes thither, runs over by the lowest place, and breaking out by the sides of the Hills forms single Springs. Many of these running down by the Valleys or Guts between the Ridges [Page 100] of the Hills, and coming to unite, form little Rivulets or Brooks. Many of these again meeting in one common Valley, and gaining the plain ground, being grown less rapid, be­come a River: and many of these being uni­ted in one common Channel, make such Streams, as the Rhine, the Rhosne, and the Danube, which latter one would hardly think the Col­lection of Water condensed out of Vapour, un­less we consider how vast a Tract of Ground that River drains, and that it is the sum of all those Springs, which break out on the South side of the Carpathian Mountains, and on the North side of the immense Ridge of the Alps, which is one continued Chain of Mountains from Switzerland to the Black Sea. And it may almost pass for a Rule, that the magni­tude of a River, or the quantity of water it evacuates, is proportionable to the length and height of the Ridges, from whence its Foun­tains arise. Now this Theory of Springs is not a bare Hypothesis, but founded on Expe­rience, which it was my luck to gain in my a­bode at St. Helena; where, in the night time on the tops of the Hills, about Eight hundred yards above the Sea, there was so strange a condensation, or rather precipitation of the Vapours, that it was a great impediment to my Celestial Observations; for in the clear Sky the Dew would [...]all [...]o [...]ait, as to cover [Page 101] each half quarter of an hour my Glasses with little drops, so that I was necessitated to wipe them off so often; and my Paper, on which I wrote my Observations, would immediately be so wet with the Dew, that it would not bear Ink: by which it may be supposed, how fast the water gathers in those mighty high Ridges I but now named.—At last he concludes: And I doubt not but this Hypothesis is more reasonable, than that of those who derive all Springs from the Rain waters, which yet are perpetual, and without diminution, even when no Rain falls for a long space of time.

This may, for ought I as yet see or know, be a good account of the Original of Springs in those fervid Regions, though even there, I doubt, but partial; but in Europe, and the more temperate Countries, I believe the Vapours in this manner condensed, have but little interest in the production of them, though I will not wholly exclude them. For,

First, The Tops of the Alps above the Fountains of four of the greatest Rivers in Europe, the Rhine, the Rhosne, the Danow, and the Po, are for about Six Months in the year constantly covered with Snow, to a great thickness; so that there are no Va­pours all that while that can touch those Mountains, and be by them condensed into [Page 102] water; there falls nothing there but Snow, and that continuing all that while on the ground without Dissolution, hinders all ac­cess of Vapours to the Earth; if any rose, or were by Winds carried so high in that form, as I am confident there are not. And yet for all that, do not those Springs fail, but con­tinue to run all Winter; and it is likely too, without diminution; which is a longer time than Droughts usually last; especially if we consider that this want of supply, is con­stant and annual; whereas Droughts are but rare and accidental. So that we need not wonder any more, that Springs should con­tinue to run, and without diminution too, in times of Drought. True it is, that those Rivers run low all Winter, so far as the Snow extends, and to a good distance from their Heads; but that is for want of their acciden­tal supplies from showers. Nay, I believe, that even in Summer, the Vapours are but rarely raised so high in a liquid form in the free Air, remote from the Mountains, but are frozen into Snow, before they arrive at that height. For the Middle Region of the Air, where the Walk of the Clouds is, at least the superiour part of it, is so cold as to freez the Vapours that ascend so high, even in Summer time. For we see that in the height and heat of Summer, in great Thun­der [Page 103] storms, for the most part it hails: nay, in such Tempests I have seen mighty show­ers of great Hail-stones fall, some as big as Nutmegs or Pigeons Eggs; and in some pla­ces such heaps of them, as would load Dung Carts, and have not been dissolved in a day or two. At the same Seasons I have obser­ved, in some showers Hail-stones fall of ir­regular Figures, and throughout pellucid, like great pieces of Ice, with several snags or [...]angs issuing out of them: which how they could be supported in the Air till they amounted to that bulk and weight, is a thing worthy to be more curiously considered. For either they must fall from an incredible height, the Vapours, they encountred by the way, condensing and as it were crystallizing upon them into Ice, and in time augmenting them to that bulk; or else there must be some strange and unknown faculty in the Air to sustain them. That the superiour Air doth support heavy Bodies better then the inferiour, the flight of Birds seems to be a clear demonstration. For when they are mounted up on high, they fly with less fa­tigue, and move forward with greater faci­lity, and are able to continue longer upon the wing without delassation then in the lower Air they could possibly do. And there­fore when they are to make great flights, [Page 104] they soar aloft in the Air, at a great height above the Earth. So have I often seen a a [...]lock of Wild-g [...]se mounted so high, that though their flight be swift, they seemed to make but little way in a long time, and to proceed on their journey with ease and very leisurely by reason of their distance. And yet one would think this were contrary to [...]ason, that the l [...]ghter Air, such as is the susperiour, should better support a weighty Body than the heavier, that is, the inferiour. Some imagine that this comes to pass by [...]eason of the Wind which is constantly mo­ving in the upper Air, which supports any Body that moves contrary to it. So we see that those Paper-kites which Boys make, are [...] in the Air by running with them con­trary to the Wind: and when they are ad­vanced [...]o a great height, do but stick down [...] end of the Line to which they are [...] into the ground, they will be conti­nued by [...] Wind at the same height they [...]ere, so long as it lasts and abides in the [...]. In like manner the Birds fly­ [...] contrary the Wind, it supports and [...] them up. But if this were the only season, methinks it should not be so easie, [...] very laborious for Birds to fly [...] the Wind so as to make any conside­rable progress in the superiour Air, as we [Page 105] see they do. And therefore possibly they may be nearer the right, who suppose that the Gravity of Bodies decreases proportion­ably to their distance from the Earth: and that a Body may be advanced so high as quite to lose its gravity and inclination or tendency to the Center: of which I do not see how it is possible to make experiment: for to what is said by some to have been tri­ed, that a bullet shot perpendicularly up­ward out of a great Gun, never descended again, I give no credit at all.

But to leave that, it is certain, that the Vapours after they are mounted up to a considerable height in the Air, are congeal­ed and turned into the immediate component Principles of Snow, in which form I con­ceive they acquire a lightness, and are apt to ascend higher than they could do, should they retain the form of a humid Vapour; as, we see, Ice is lighter than Water, out of which it is frozen. But whether this be the reason of their ascent or not, I am sure of the matter of Fact, that these Snow-Clouds do ascend far above the highest Tops of the Alps; For passing over a Mountain in the Grisons Country, on the very ridge, of them, in the beginning of the Spring, it [...]nowed very fast during my whole passage or six hours; and yet the Clouds seemed to [Page 106] be as far above my head, as they do here in England; and a great height they must be, for the Snow to gather into so great flakes, and to continue so long falling; nay, it may be three times so long. Moreover, we see, that the highest Pikes and Summits of those Mountains are covered with Snow. And I am assured, that all the Winter long at in­tervals, it Snows upon the Tops of the Alps.

2. In the Spring time, when the Snow dissolves, some of these Rivers that flow down from the Alpine Mountains, run with a full stream, and overflow their Banks, in clear Sun-shine weather, though no Rain falls, as I my self can witness; and there­fore I presume, that all the rest do so too, as the Inabitants affirmed. But in the Summer time after the Snow hath been some time melted, their Streams decay again, notwith­standing any Vapours condensed upon them, proportionable to the Droughts; neither are there any Floods, but upon falls of Rain.

3. That the Snow dissolved and soaking into the Earth, is the Original of the Alpine Springs; a probable Argument may be ta­ken from the colour of the Water of those Rivers which descend from the Alps, at least on this Northern side, which I observed to be of a Sea-green, even to a great distance [Page 107] from their Heads; which whence can it pro­ceed, unless from the Nitrous Particles of the Snow water, of which they consist? Another also from the Bronchocele, orSwoln Throats. gutturine tu­mour, an Endemial Disease of the Natives of those parts, which Physicians and Natura­lists attribute to the water they drink, not without good reason; because, say they, it consists of melted Snow, which gives it that malignant quality.De Sub­tilit. Exerc. 60. Sect. [...]. Scaliger speaking of this Disease, Saith, Id ab aqua fit è nivi­bus liquefactis, quae multum terrestris & cru­di continet. But because Iulius Palmarius may possibly be in the right, who imputes this Disease to the steams of the Minerals, especially Mercurial, wherewith these Moun­tains abound, which insect the waters, and render them noxious to the nervous parts; I shall not insist upon this particular.

In confirmation of what I have said con­cerning the Original of the Alpine Springs, I shall add the Opinion of the Learned Al­phonsus Borellus concerning the Fountains springing up or issuing out of the sides of Mount Aetna in Sicily, They are probably (saith he) either generated, or at least en­creased, from the melting of the Snow, which doth perpetually occupy the top of the Moun­tain. And this is manifest, in that they are not dimished nor decrease in Summer, as alse­where [Page 108] it happens, but often flow more plenti­fully. Lib. De incendiis Aetnae.

What Mr. Halley saith of Springs, that they are perpetual and without diminution, even when no Rain falls for a long space of time. If he understands it generally of all Springs, I add, that are accounted quick ones too, I deny his assertion: that some there may be of that nature, I grant: a rea­son whereof may be given, viz. that the Out-let is too small to empty the water of all the Veins and Earth that lye above it in a long time. In our Native Country of Eng­land there are living and lasting Springs ri­sing at the feet of our small Hills and Hil­locks, to which I am sure the Vapours con­tribute very little; which is so obvious to e­very man, that I think I need not spend time to prove it.

Yet must I not dissemble or deny, that in the Summer time the Vapours do ascend, or are carried up in that form by the sides of the Mountains to their highest tops, and a­bove them; for there falls no Snow there in the heat of Summer; and that which lies there, is for the most part dissolved. But that Rain falls plentifully there, I my self can witness; having been on the two highest Tops of the Mount Iura, (which keeps the Snow all Winter) on the one called Thuiri [Page 109] in a Thunder shower; and on the other, cal­led la Dolaz, in a smart and continuing Rain: So that I will not deny, but in Summer time the Vapours may contribute somewhat to the Springs; as I have elsewhere intimated: Clouds almost continually hanging upon the tops of the Mountains, and the Sun having there but little power.

And now that I am discoursing of these things, give me leave to set down an Obser­vation I made in the last great Frost, the sharpest that was ever known in the memo­ry of Man, which I had before met with in Books, but did not give firm credit to, that is, that notwithstanding the violence of the Frost, all the Springs about us, brake out and ran more plentifully than usually they did at any other time: which I knew not what to impute to, unless perchance the close stop­ping the Pores of the Earth, and keeping in that part, which at other times was wont to vapour away; which Account, I neither then could, nor can yet fully acquiesce in.

To this I will here add an Abstract of a Letter written by my honoured Friend Dr. Tancred Robinson.

Since the receipt of this Letter, an Expe­riment (give me leave so to call it) occur­red to me, which much confirmed me in the belief and perswasion of the Truth of those Histories and Relations which Writers and Travellers have delivered to us concerning dropping Trees in Ferro, S. Thome, Guiny, &c. of which before I was somewhat diffident; and likewise in the approbation of the Hypo­thesis of my Learned Friend Dr. Tancred Robinson for the solving of that Phaenomenon. The same also induces me to believe, that Va­pours may have a greater interest in the production of Springs even in temperate and cold Regions, than I had before thought. The Experiment or Observation is this,

About the beginning of December 1691. there happened to be a Mist, and that no very thick one, which continued all day: the Vapour whereof, notwithstanding the Trees were wholly devested of Leaves, con­densed so fast upon their naked Branches and Twigs, that they dropped all day at such a rate, that I believe the water distilling from [Page 114] a large Tree in twenty four hours had it been all received and reserved in a Vessel, might have amounted to a Hogshead. What then may we rationally conjecture, would have dropped from such a Tree; had it been covered with Leaves of a dense Texture, and smooth Superficies, apt to collect the Parti­cles of the Vapour, and unite them into Drops?

It is clear by this effect, that Trees do distil water apace when Clouds or Mists hang about them; which they are reported by Benzo constantly to do about the Foun­tain Tree in Ferro; except when the Sun shines hot upon it. And others tell us, that that Tree grows upon a Mountain too: So that it is no wonder, that it should drop a­bundance of water. What do I speak of that Tree? all the Trees of that kind grow on the sides of vast Mountains, as Dr. Robin­son hath noted, yet he thinks that now and then many Trees may run and distil in Plains and Valleys, when the Weather has been fair, but then this Phaenomenon happens very rarely; whereas in the other 'tis regu­lar and constant. Besides that in hot Regi­ons Trees may in the Night time distil wa­ter, though the Air be clear, and there be no Mist about them, seems necessarily to follow, from Mr. Halley's Experiment.

[Page 115] Now if there be in Mists thus much Va­pour condensed upon Trees, doubtless also there is in proportion as much upon the Sur­face of the Earth and the Grass: And con­sequently, upon the Tops and Ridges of high Mountains, which are frequently covered with Clouds or Mists much more; so much as must needs have a great interest in the production and supply of Springs, even in temperate Countries.

But that invisible Vapours, when the Sky is clear, do at any time condense so fast up­on the Trees, as to make them drop▪ I ne­ver observed in England or elsewhere, no not in the Night season; though I do not deny, but upon the Appennine and Southern side of the Alps, and elsewhere in the hotter parts of Europe in Summer Nights they may. However, considering the Penetrancy of such Vapours, that in moist Weather they will insinuate themselves deeply into the Pores of dry Wood, so that Doors will then hardly shut, and Chinks and Crannies in Boards and Floors be closed up, I know not but that they may likewise strike deep into the Ground, and together with Mists contribute to the seeding and maintenance of Springs, in Winter-time, when the Sun exhales but little; it being an Observation of the Learn­ed [...]. Fromondus, Quod hyeme nec nivah, nec [Page 116] imbrifera fontes tamen aquam largiùs quàm aejlate (nisi valdè pluvia sit) vomant. That in Winters neither snowy nor rainy, yet foun­tains pour forth more water than in Summer, unless it happen to be a very wet season. Yet are their Contributions inconsiderable, if compared with the supplies that are a [...]orded by Rains. And one reason why in Winter Fountains flow more plentifully, may be, be­cause then the Sun defrauds them not, nor exhales any thing out of the Earth, as in Sum­mer time he doth.

Therefore whenever in this Work I have assigned Rain to be a sufficient or only cause of Springs and Rivers, I would not be under­stood to exclude, but to comprehend there­in Mists and Vapours; which I grant to have some interest in the production of them, even in temperate and cold Regions; and a very considerable one in Hot. Though I cannot be perswaded, that even there they are the sole Cause of Springs, for that there fall such plentiful and long continuing Rains, both in the East and West-Indies in the Sum­mer Months: which must needs contribute something to their Original.

But to return from whence we digressed, that is, to the consideration of that Hypothe­sis or Opinion, That all the Rivers of the Earth discharge into the Sea half an Ocean of waters daily.

[Page 117] I have read of some Philosophers, who i­magined the Earth to be a great Animal, and that the Ebbing and Flowing of the Sea was the respiration of it. And now methinks, if this Doctrine be true, we have a further Ar­gument to confirm their Opinion: For this perpetual Motion of the water answers ve­ry well to the Circulation of the Blood; the water moving faster in proportion to its bulk through the Veins of this round Animal, then the Blood doth through those of other living Creatures. To which we may add further, that to maintain this constant Cir­culation there is also probably about the Cen­ter of the Earth a perpetual Fire, answering to the Biolychnium in the heart: but if not about the Center, yet certainly in profound Caverns, and even under the very bottoms of the Seas; to which some, and no mean Philosophers, have attributed the Ebbing and flowing of its waters.

Let us then suppose that the Rivers do daily carry down to the Sea half an Ocean of water, and that the Rain supplies all that, as our Opinion is, and see what we can infer from thence: I think it will be granted that ordinarily (communibus annis) the Rain that falls in a whole year amounts not to above one quarters continual Rain. Now if this suffices for a daily e [...]usion of half an Ocean, [Page 118] [...], that if it should rain without any [...] all the year round, the Rivers would [...] out two Oceans into the Sea [...] And so in forty days continual Rain [...] would distil down upon the Earth [...] of Water. A prodigious quan­tity [...] and [...]arce credible, which if the [...] as fast as it comes on, [...] a quantity of water [...] twice in twenty four [...] then that so much water [...] upon the [...]arth, I argue thus, [...] upon the Earth must have [...] down to the Sea, and ac­cording [...]o the small declivity of the [...] the Mountains pared off and [...] a considerable one too [...] it actually hath, so that the Floods [...] some days after the [...] upon the higher grounds. And [...] the general Deluge [...] down to the Sea as fast [...] the Earth would permit, [...] the Fountains of the [...] Clouds [...] could than they run down [...] the Earth, it deserves [...] whether by the end of [...] Mountains fif­teen [Page 119] Cubits high. And yet the Scripture doth not in plain terms say, that ever the waters of the Flood arose fifteen Cubits above the tops of the highest Mountains, as Mr. Warren well observes.

Besides, we are further to consider, that this forty days Rain at the time of the De­luge, was no ordinary one, such as those that usually distil down leisurely and gently in Winter time, but like our Thunder-storms and violent Showers, Catarracts, and Spouts, which pour forth more water in an hour then they do in four and twenty. So that in forty natural days the Clouds would emp­ty out upon the Earth not eighty Oceans of water, but above twenty times that quan­tity. If by the Windows of Heaven are meant Catarracts, as the Septuagint inter­pret the word. And so we need not be to seek for water for a Floud; for the Rain a­lone falling at that rate we have mentioned, would if the Opinion of those men (who hold that the Rivers discharge into the Sea half an Ocean daily) were true, in the space of for­ty natural days afford water enough, suppo­sing it run off no faster than usually it doth, to cover the Earth, Mountains and all. Nei­ther yet did the Mountains help, but rather hinder the descent of the waters down to the Sea, straitning it into Channels, obstructing [Page 120] its passage, and forcing it to take Circuits, till it got above the Ridges and Tops of them.

As to this Argumentation and Inference the case is the same if we hold that the Wa­ter circulates through the [...] of the Earth. For supposing the Rivers pour [...] half an Ocean daily, and granting that in times of Floods their streams are but double of their usual Currents (though I verily believe they are more than quadruple) and that the e [...]fu­sions of the Fountains be in like measure aug­mented, it will follow that the daily dis­charge of the Rivers will amount to two Oceans. Now at the time of the general Deluge both these Causes concurred. For there being a constant Rain of forty days, there must on that account be a continual Flood, and the Fountains of the great Deep [...]eing broken up, they must in all likely­hood afford as much Water as the Rain: which whether it would not suffice in forty natural days to produce a Flood as big as that of Noah, notwit [...]standing the continual descent and going off of the Waters, I pro­pose to the consideration of the Ingenious. Especially if we allow, as is not unreasonable [...] suppose, that the Divine Providence [...] at first cause a contrary Wind to stop [...] [...]nhibit the descent of the Waters, as af­terwards [Page 121] he raised an assisting one to carry them off.

I have but one thing more to add upon this Subject, that is, that I do not see how their Opinion can be true, who hold that some Seas are lower than others; as for Ex­ample, the Red Sea than the Mediterranean. For it being true that the Water keeps its level, that is, holds its Superficies every where equidistant from the Center of Gra­vity; or if by accident one part be lower, the rest by reason of their fluidity will spee­dily reduce the Superficies again to an e­quality. The Waters of all Seas communi­cating either above, or under ground, or both ways, one Sea cannot be higher or lower than another: but supposing any accident should elevate or depress any, by reason of this con­fluence or communication it would soon be reduced to a level again, as might demon­stratively be proved.

But I return, to tell the Reader what I think the most probable of all the Causes I have heard assigned of the Deluge, which is, the Center of the Earth being at that time changed, and set nearer to the Center or middle of our Continent, whereupon the Atlantick and Pacifick Oceans must needs press upon the Subterraneous Abyss, and so by mediation thereof, force the Water up­ward, [Page 122] and at last compel it to run out at those wide Mouths and Apertures made by the Divine Power breaking up the Foun­tains of the great Deep. And we may sup­pose this to have been only a gentle and gradual Emotion, no faster than that the Waters running out at the bottom of the Sea, might accordingly lowre the Superfi­cies thereof sufficiently, so that none needed run over the Shores. These Waters thus poured out from the Orifices of the Foun­tains upon the Earth, the declivity being changed by the removal of the Center, could not flow down to the Sea again, but must needs stagnate upon the Earth, and overflow it; and afterwards the Earth re­turning to its old Center, return also to their former Receptacles.

If any shall object against this Hypothesis, because by it the Flood will be render'd To­pical, and restrained only to the Continent we live in: though I might plead the Un­necessariness of drowning America, it being in all probability unpeopled at that time; yet because the Scripture useth general expres­sions concerning the extent of the Flood, saying, Gen. 1. 19. And all the high hills that were under the whole Heaven were covered; and again, verse 22. All in whose nostrils was the breath of lìfe, of all that was in the [Page 123] dry land died. And because the Americans also are said to have some ancient Memorial Tradition of a Deluge; and the Ingenious Author of the Theory of the Earth hath by a moderate Computation, demonstrated, that there must be then more People upon the Earth, than now: I will propose another way of solving this Phaenomenon, and that is, by supposing that the Divine Power might at that time, by the instrumentality of some natural Agent, to us at present un­known, so depress the Surface of the Ocean, as to force the Waters of the Abyss through the forementioned Channels and Apertures, and so make them a partial and concurrent Cause of the Deluge.

That there are at some times in the course of Nature extraordinary pressures upon the Surface of the Sea, which force the Water outwards upon the Shores to a great height is evident. We had upon our Coasts the last Year an extraordinary Tide, wherein the Water rose so high, as to overflow all the Sea-Banks, drown multitudes of Cattel, and fill the lower Rooms of the Houses of many Villages that stood near the Sea, so that the Inhabitants, to save themselves, were [...]orced to get up into the upper Rooms and Garrets of their Houses. Now how this could be effected, but by an unusual pres­sure [Page 124] upon the Superficies of the Ocean, I cannot well conceive. In like manner that the Divine Providence might at the time of the Deluge so order and dispose second Cau­ses, as to make so strong a pressure upon the face of the Waters, as to force them up to a height sufficient to overflow the Earth, is no way unreasonable to believe.

These Hypotheses I propose, as seeming to me at present most facile and consonant to Scripture, without any concern for either of them; and therefore am not solicitous to gather together, and heap up Arguments to confirm them, or to answer Objections that may be made against them, being as ready to relinquish them upon better information, as I was to admit and entertain them.

CHAP. III.
Of the Effects of the Deluge.

I Come now to the Third Particular pro­posed, that is, To Enquire concerning the Consequents of the Deluge, What con­siderable Effects it had upon the Earth and and its Inhabitants.

It had doubtless very great, in changing the Superficies of the dry Land: In some places adding to the Sea; in some taking from it; making Islands of Peninsulae, and joining others to the Continent; altering the Beds of Rivers, throwing up lesser Hills, and washing away others, &c. The most re­markable Effects it's likely were in the skirts of the Continents; because the Motion of the Water was there most violent. Athana­sius Kircher De Arc [...] Noae. p. 192 gives us a Map and Descripti­on of the World after the Flood, shewing what Changes were made therein by it, or upon occasion of it afterward, as he fansies or conjectures. But because I do not love to trouble the Reader with uncertain Conje­ctures, I shall content my self to have said [Page 126] in general, that it may rationally be suppo­sed, there were then great Mutations and Alterations made in the superficial part of the Earth: but what they were, though we may guess, yet can we have no certain knowledge of: and for Particulars, refer the Curious to him.

One malignant effect it had upon Man­kind, and probably upon other Animals too, in shortning their Age, or the duration of their lives; which I have touched before, and shewn, that this diminution of Age, is to be attributed either to the change of the Temperature of the Air, as to Salubrity, or Equality, (sudden and frequent changes of Weather having a very bad influence upon the Age of Man in abbreviating of it, as I could easily prove) or else to the deteriority of the Diet; or to both these Causes. But how the Flood should induce or occasion such a change in the Air and productions of the Earth, I do not comprehend.

CHAP. IV.
Of formed Stones, Sea-shells, and other Marine-like Bodies found at great distances from the Shores, supposed to have been brought in by the De­luge.

ANother supposed Effect of the Flood, was a bringing up out of the Sea, and scattering all the Earth over an innumerable multitude of Shells and Shell-fish; there be­ing of these shell-like Bodies, not only on lower Grounds and Hillocks, but upon the highest Mountains, the Appennine and Alps themselves. A supposed Effect, I say, be­cause it is not yet agreed among the Learn­ed, whether these Bodies, formerly called petrified Shells, but now a-days passing by the name of formed Stones, be original Pro­ductions of Nature, formed in imitation of the Shells of Fishes; or the real Shells them­selves, either remaining still entire and un­corrupt, or petrified and turned into Stone, [Page 128] or at least, Stones cast in some Animal Mold. Both parts have strong Arguments and Pa­trons. I shall not balance Authorities, but only consider and weigh Arguments.

Those for the latter part, wherewith I shall begin, are,

First, Because it seems contrary to that great Wisdom of Nature, which is observa­ble in all its Works and Productions, to de­sign every thing to a determinate end, and for the attaining that end, make use of such ways, as are most aggreeable to Man's reason, that these prettily shaped Bodies, should have all those curious Figures and Contrivances (which many of them are formed and a­dorned with) generated or wrought by a Plastic Vertue, for no higher end, than only to exhibite such a form. This is Mr. Hook's Argumentation. To which Dr. Plot an­swers, That the end of such Productions, is, to beautifie the World with those Varieties; and that this is no more repugnant to the Pru­dence of Nature, than is the production of most Flowers, Tulips, Anemones, &c. of which we know as little use of, as of formed Stones. But hereto we may reply, That Flowers are for the Ornament of a Body, that hath some degree of life in it: a Vege­ta [...]ive Soul, whereby it performs the actions of Nutrition, Auction and Generation; which [Page 129] it is reasonable should be so beautified. And, Secondly, Flowers serve to embrace and cherish the Fruit, while it is yet tender; and to desend it from the injuries of Sun and Weather; especially for the protection and security of the Apices, which are no idle or useless part, but contain the Masculine Sperm, and serve to give fecundity to the Seed. Thirdly, Though formed Stones may be useful to Man in Medicine, yet Flow­ers afford us abundantly more uses, both in Meat and Medicine.

Yet I must not dissemble, that there is a Phaenomenon in Nature, which doth some­what puzzle me to reconcile, with the pru­dence observable in all its works; and seems strongly to prove, that Nature doth some­times ludere, and delineate Figures, for no other end, but for the Ornament of some Stones, and to entertain and gratifie our Cu­riosity, or exercise our Wits. That is, those elegant Impressions of the Leaves of Plants upon Cole-state, the knowledge whereof, I must confess my self to owe to my Learned and Ingenious Friend Mr. Edward Lloyd of Oxford, who observed of it in some Cole-pits in the way from Wychester in Glocester­shire to Bristol; and afterwards communi­cated to me a Sample of it. That which he found, was marked with the Leaves of two [Page 130] or three kinds of Ferns and of Harts-tongue. He told me also, that Mr. Woodward a Lon­doner, shewed him very good Draughts of the common female Fern, naturally formed in Cole, which himself found in Mendip Hills; and added, That he had found in the same Pits, Draughts of the common Cinquefoil, Clover-grass and Strawberries. But these Fi­gures are more diligently to be observed and considered.

Secondly, There are found in the Earth at great distance from the Sea, real Shells unpetrified and uncorrupted, of the exact Figure and Consistency of the present natu­ral Sea-shells, and in all their parts like them, and that not only in the lower Grounds and Hillocks near the Sea, but in Mountains of a considerable height, and distant from the Sea. Christianus Mentzelius in his Discourse concerning the Bononian Phosphorus, gives us a Relation of many Beds of them found mingled with Sand in the upper part of a high Mountain not far from Bologna in Italy. His words are these, Non procul monte Pater­no dicto, lapidis Bononiensis patria, unico forte milliari Italico distanti (loci nomen excidit memoriâ) ingens mons imminet praeruptus à violentia torrentium aquarum▪ quas imbres fre­quentes ex vici [...]is montibus confluentes effici­unt, atque insignes terrarum moles ab isto [Page 131] monte prosternunt ac dejiciunt. In hac mon­tis raina, superiore in parte visuntur multae strages seriésve, ex testis conchyliorum omnis generis, plurimâ arenâ interjectâ, instar strati super stratum (ut chymicorum vulgus loquitur.) Est enim inter hasce testarum conchyliorum strages seriésve arena ad crassitiem ulnae & ul­tra interposita. Erant autem testae variorum [...]chyliorum, omnes ab invicem distinctae, nec [...] lapidi impactae, adeò ut separatim [...] manibus tractari & dignosci potuerint. [...] hoc arena pura, nullo limo lutóve inter mix [...]a▪ quae conc [...]hyli [...]rum testas conserva­verat [...] multa secula integras. Interea ve­rò diuturnitate temporis omn [...]s istae testae erant in albissim [...]m calcem facilè resolubiles. Not far from the Mountain called [...]aterno, where the Bononian Sto [...]e is gotten, about an Italian Mile distant (the name or the place is slipt out of my memory) is a huge hanging Mountain, broken by the violence of the Torrents, caused by the confluence of Wa­ters descending from the Neighbouring Mountains after frequent showers, throwing down great heaps of Earth from it. In the upper part of this broken Mountain are seen many Beds or Floors of all kind of Sea-shells, much Sand interposing between Bed and Bed, after the manner of stratum super stratum, or Layer upon Layer, as the Chymists phrase [Page 132] it. The Beds of Sand interceding between these Rows of Shells were a yard thick or more. These Shells were all distinct or se­parate one from another, and not stuck in any one stone, or cemented together, so that they might be singly and separately viewed and handled with ones Hands. The Cause whereof was their being lodged in a pure Sand not intermixt with any Mud or Clay, which kept the Shells entire for many Ages. Yet were all these Shells, by reason of the length of time they had lain there, easily resoluble into a purely white▪ Calx or Ash. Fabius Columna also observes, that in the tophaceous Hills and Cliffs about Andria in Apulia, there are found various sorts of Sea-shells, both broken and whole, uncorrupt, and that have undergone no change. And Ovid in Metam. lib. 15. ‘Et procul à pelago Conchae jacuere marinae.’ I am also informed by my learned and wor­thy Friend Dr. Tancred Robinson, That Sig­nior Settali shewed him in his Museum at Milan, many Turbens, Echini, Pearl shells, (one with a Pearl in it) Pectunculi, and se­veral other perfect shells, which he himself found in the Mountains near Genoa; and af­terwards my said Friend took notice also of [Page 133] several Beds of them himself, as he passed o­ver Mount Cenis, above fifty Leagues di­stant from the Sea; he assures me that ma­ny of the great Stones about the Buildings of London are full of shells, and pieces of them. Moreover, my fore-mentioned Friend Mr. Lloyd sent me perfect Escallop and Sea-Urchin shells, exactly resembling the like Sea-shells, both for figure, colour, weight and consistency; which he himself gathered up near Oxford. And hath lately sent me word, That he found at a place cal­led Rungewell-Hill in Surrey, at a Village called Hedley, three Miles South of Epsham, at least Twenty Miles distant from the Sea, some fossil Oysters, which by the confession of Dr. Lyster himself, were indeed true Oy­ster-shells not petrified nor much decayed: Nay, so like they were to Oysters newly taken out of the Sea, that a certain Person seeing of them, mistook them for such, and opened one of them, expecting to find a li­ving fish therein. Now that Nature should form real shells, without any design of co­vering an Animal, is indeed so contrary to that innate Prolepsis we have of the Prudence of Nature, (that is, the Author of Nature) that without doing some Violence to our Faculties, we can hardly prevail with our selves to believe it: and gives great coun­tenance [Page 134] to the Atheists Assertion, That things were made or did exist by chance, without counsel or direction to any end.

Add hereto Thirdly, That there are other Bodies besides shells found in the Earth, re­sembling the Teeth and Bones of some Fish­es, which are so manifestly the very things they are thought only to resemble, that it might be esteemed obstinacy in any Man that hath viewed and considered them to de­ny it. Such are the Glossopetrae dag up in Malta in such abundance, that you may buy them by measure, and not by tale: and also the Vertebres of Thornbacks and other Car­tilagineous Fishes there found, and sold for Stones among the Glossopetrae, which have no greater dissimilitude to the Teeth of a living Shark, and Vertebres of a Thoruback, then lying so long in the Earth, as they must needs have done, will necessarily induce. Mr. Doody has in his custody a petrify'd lump of Fishes, on some of which the Scales themselves still remain. And if the very in­spection of these Bodies, is not enough to convince any Man, that they are no Stones, but real Teeth and Bones, Fabius Columna proves it by several strong Arguments. [...]. Those things which have a woody, bony or fleshy nature, by burning are changed first into a Coal, before they go into a Calx [Page 135] or Ashes: but those which are of a topha­ceous or stony substance, go not first into a Coal, but burn immediately into a Calx or Lime, unless by some vitreous or metallick mixture they be melted. Now these Teeth being burnt, pass presently into a Coal, but the tophous substance adhering to them, doth not so; whence it is clear, that they are of an osseous, and no stony nature.

Next he shews, That they do not shoot into this form after the manner of Salts or Crystal, which I shall have occasion further to treat of by and by. Then he proves it from the Axiom, Natura nihil facit frustra; Nature makes nothing in vain. But these Teeth, were they thus formed in the Earth, would be in vain; for they could not have any use of Teeth; as neither the Bones of supporting any Animal. Nature never made Teeth without a Jaw, nor shells without an Animal Inhabitant, nor single Bones, no not in their own proper Element, much less in a strange one. Further he argues, from the difficulty or impossibility of the Generation of Glossopetrae in such places; because, among Tophi and Stones in those dry places, there could not be found matter sit for to make them of. But granting that, he queries whether they were generated at first all of a sudden, or grew by little and little from [Page 136] small to great, as Animals Teeth, whose sorm they imitate, do. If the first be said, he de­mands, Whether the Tophus, out of which they were extracted, were generated before or after the Teeth were p [...]riected? If it be said before, he asks, Whether there were a place in it of the figure and magnitude of the Tooth, or did the Tooth make it [...]ell a place? If the Tophus were concrete before, and with­out a cavity, the vegetative power of the Stone now in b [...]th, could not by [...]orce make it self a place in the hard and solid Tophus; or if it could and did, the Tophus must needs be rent. Against the production of these Bodies in a compact Earth or Stone, Nic. Steno argues thus; Things that grow, ex­panding themselves l [...]isurely or slowly, may indeed lift up great weights, and dilate the [...]hinks and veins of Stones, as we see the Roots of Trees sometimes do; but yet while they do thus make room for them­selves, they cannot but be often hindred by the resistance of some hard obstacle they meet with, as it happens to the Roots of Plants, which in hard Earth, being a thou­sand ways writhen and compressed, recede from the figure, which otherwise in soft Land they are wont to retain: whereas these Bo­ [...]ies, whereof we are new discoursing, are [...]ll like one mother, whether they be dug [Page 137] out of soft Earth, or cut out of Stones, or pluckt off Animals. Wherefore they seem not to be at this day produced in those pla­ces where they are found, because (as we have said) those things which grow in com­pact places are found strangely mishapen and irregular, which these are not: nor was the Earth compacted when they were there pro­duced for the same reason. Columna pro­ceeds, If there were a place before ready made in the Tophus, then was not that fi­gure excavated in the Tophus by the vegeta­tive nature of the Tooth it self; but the To­phus by its own nature and precedent cavity, gave the form to the Tooth. If the latter part be chosen, and it be said, that the Stone by its vegetative power grew by degrees; it may be answered as before, that could not be; because the hardness of the Tophus could not have yielded to the vegetative force of the Tooth, but would rather have been rent or divided by it; or rather the Tophus it self must have vegetated, containing a cavi­ty or uterus of the shape of the Tooth, into which an osseous humour, penetrating through the Pores, and filling the cavity of the Vterus, must there have co [...]gulated, and taken the form thereof, as is observed in Stones that have their original from a Fluor. That both Tooth and Case might vegetate [Page 138] together he denies, because in all the Teeth which he had seen, the Basis or Root was found broken, and that not with an uniform fracture, but different in every one. Which Argument is not to be slighted, for that it shews or proves, that there was no vegeta­tion in the case; because in all other figured Fossils it is observed, that they are never found mutilous, broken or imperfect. Nei­ther can it reasonably be said or believed, that these Roots or Teeth were by some chance broken within the Tophi, but rather, that when they were casually overwhelmed and buried in that tophous Earth, they were broken off from the Jaws of the Animal in those volutations, and so in that manner mu­tilated. Against the generation of these and the like Bodies in any hard Earth or Stone, N. Steno argues thus, That they are not at present produced in hard Earth, one may thence conjecture, that in all the parts of such Earth or Stone throughout, they are all found of the same consistence, and encom­passed round on all sides with that hard mat­ter. For if there were some of them pro­duced anew at this present day, the con­taining or ambient Bodies ought to give way to them while they are growing, which they cannot; and the Bodies themselves that are now produced, would without doubt disco­ver [Page 139] something wherein they differed from those that were generated of old. Another Argument to prove them to be true Teeth and no Stones, he brings from their various parts and figures, which must else have been so wrought and formed in vain. The Tooth being not one homogeneous Body, but com­pounded of parts of a different constitution, there must in the formation of it be made a va­rious election of humors, one for the root, one for the inner part, one for the Superficies of it. Then for the Figures, Magnitude, Situation or Posture, and sitting of them; some are great, and broad, and almost triangular; others narrower and smaller, others very small and narrow, of a pyramidal figure, some streight, some crooked, bending downwards, or to­ward the neither side; some inclining to­ward the left, others toward the right side: some serrate with small Teeth, others with great Indentures (which is observed in the lesser triangular ones) some smooth without any Teeth, as the narrow pyramidal ones. All which things are observed in Shark's Teeth, not only by the Learned Naturalists, but also by Fisher-men and Mariners. The first row of Teeth in these Animals hanging out of the Mouth, bend forward and down­ward; the second row are streight, especial­ly toward the sides of the Mouth, where [Page 140] they are triangular and broad, the other rows bend downward toward the inner part of the Mouth. Thus farDissert. De Glosso­petra. Columna.

Fourthly, If these formed Stones be in­deed original Productions of Nature, in imi­tations of Shells and Bones, how comes it to pass, that there should be none found, that resemble any other natural Body, but the Shells and Bones of Fishes only? Why should not Nature as well imitate the Horns, Hoofs, Teeth, or Bones of Land Animals, or the Fruits, Nuts, and Seed of Plants? Now my learned Friend Mr. Edward Lloyd above men­tioned, who hath been most diligent in col­lecting, and curious in observing these Bo­dies of any Man I know, or ever heard of, tells me, That he never found himself, or had seen in any Cabinet, or Collection, any one stone that he could compare to any part of a Land Animal. As for such that do not resemble any part of a Fish, they are either Rock Plants, as the Astroites, Asteriae tro­chites, &c. or do shoot into that form, after the manner of Salts and Fluors, as the Be­lemnites and Selenites.

Fifthly, Those that deny these Bodies to have been the Shells and Bones of Fishes, have given us no satisfactory account of the manner of their Production. For that they do not shoot into that form after the man­ner [Page 141] of Salts, may be proved by many Ar­guments. First, All Salts that shoot, their Crystals or Concretions are of one uniform substance, and their Figures are more simple, and may be owing to the Figure of the Prin­ciples whereof they are compounded. In other Bodies that shoot, as the Pyrites and Belemnites, one may observe streight Radii or Fibres proceeding from one Center. Se­condly, Did those Bodies shoot into these Figures after the manner of Salts, it seems strange to me, that two shells should be so adapted together at the heel, as to shoot out to the same extension round, and the upper and nether Valve be of different Figure, as in natural shells. Thirdly, Were these Bo­dies produced in the manner of saline Con­cretions, it's strange there should be such varieties of them, and their shapes so regu­lar, and exactly circumscribed: so great a diversity of Figures, arguing a greater va­riety of Salts, or of their modifications and mixtures, than are likely to be found in Na­ture; and the Concretions of Salts never, that I have yet seen, appearing in that re­gularity of Figure and due Circumscription, as in these Bodies. This Argument Steno in his Discourse concerning these Bodies, im­proves and urges thus; Who can deny, that the hexaedrical Figure of Crystal, the Cubes [Page 142] of Marcasites, and the Crystals of Salts in Chymical Operations, and infinite other Bo­dies coagulating and crystallizing in a fluid, have Figures much more ordinate than are those of Scallops, Cockles, and other Bivalves, and also Periwinckles and Turbens? yet we see in these simple Bodies sometimes the top of a solid Angle cut off; sometimes many of them without any order sticking one to ano­ther; sometimes their Planes differing among themselves in magnitude and situation; and many other ways receding from their usual Figure? Which being so, how much greater and more notable defects must there needs have been in Bodies that have a far more compound Figure, such as are those which unitate the forms of Animals, if they were in like manner generated? Seeing therefore in these Bodies, which are very much com­pounded, these defects do seldom occur, which in those other most simple Bodies are very frequent; seeing there are no defects observed in these compound Bodies, the like whereto are not in like manner seen in the Bodies of Animals. And seeing that where­soever they are found they are exceeding like both among themselves, and to the parts of Animals, it is very unlikely they should shoot into those Figures after the mannor of Salts; but on the contrary, highly probable [Page 143] that they were originally the parts of Ani­mals; the similitude of conformation in their Pores, Striae, Hinges, Teeth, Prominences, Threds, &c. almost necessarily inferring a similitude of Original: which is an Argument of the Government of some Principle, su­periour to Matter figured and moved, in their Formations.

Fourthly, Were these Bodies nothing but Concretions of Salts, or saline mixtures, it seems no less strange, that so many Liquors impregnated with all sorts of Salts and Mi­neral Juices, in all proportions, having been at one time or other industriously or acci­dentally exposed to crystallize, and let stand long in Vessels, there should never have been found in them any such Concretions. For if any had happened, we should doubt­less have heard of them, and the Observers would have improved such an Experiment to the Production of the like Bodies at their pleasure. So I have finished what I have to alledge in defence of the latter part, That these formed Stones were sometimes the real Shells or Bones of Fishes, I mean the figured part of them.

I proceed now to set down, what may be objected against this Opinion, or offered in assertion of the contrary, viz. That these Bodies are primitive Productions of Na­ture, [Page 144] in imitation of the Shells and Bones of Fishes.

Against the former Opinion we have been pleading for, it may be objected, That there follow such strange and seemingly absurd Consequences from it, as are hardly recon­cileable to Scripture, or indeed to sober Rea­son: as,

First, That the Waters must have covered the whole Earth, even the highest Moun­tains, and that for a long time, there being found of these Shells, not only in the most mountainous parts of our Country, but in the highest Mountains in Europe, the Appen­nine and Alps themselves, and that not only scattered, but amassed in great lumps, and lying thick in Beds of Sand, as we have be­fore shewn. Now this could hardly be the effect of a short Deluge, which if it had carried any Shell-fish so high, would in all likelyhood have scattered them very thin. These Beds and Lumps of them necessarily inferring, that they must have bred there, which is a work of time.

Now the general Deluge lasted in the whole, but ten Months; and it's not likely the Tops of the Mountains were covered half that time. Neither is it less repugnant to Reason than Scripture; for if the Waters stood so high above the Earth, for so long a [Page 145] time, they must by reason of their Conflu­ence, be raised as high above the Sea too. But what is now become of this huge Mass of Waters, equal to six or seven Oceans? May not the Stoicks here set in, and help us out at a dead lift? The Sun and Moon, say they, might possibly sup it all up. Yea, but we cannot allow time enough for that; for according to the moderate Draughts they take now a-days, one Ocean would suffice to water them many Ages, unless perchance when they were young and hot, they might need more drink. But to be serious, I have no way to answer this Objection, but by de­nying, that there are any Beds or great Lumps and Masses of these formed Stones to be found near the Tops of the Alps, or other high Mountains; but yet there might be some particular Shells scattered there by the general Deluge. Unless we should say, that those Mountains where such Shells are found were anciently depressed places, and after­ward raised up by Earthquakes. Another thing there is as difficult to give an account of, as of the Shells getting up to the Tops of Mountains: that is, of those several Beds or Floors of Earth and Sand, &c. one above another, which are observed in broken Moun­tains. For one cannot easily imagine whence these Floor or Beds in the manner of strata [Page 146] super strata (as the Chymists speak) should come, but from the Sediments of great Floods, which how or whence, they could bring so great a quantity of Earth down, when there was but little Land above the Sea, I cannot see. And one would likewise be apt to think, that such a Bed of Sands, with plenty of Cockle-shells intermixt, as we men­tioned before in the Mountain near Bononia in Italy, must have been sometimes the bot­tom of the Sea. But before one can give a right judgment of these things, one must view the Mountains where such Layers and Beds of Earth and Shells are [...]ound: for per­chance they may not be elevated so high a­bove the present Surface of the Sea, as one would judge by the descriptions of them. 'Tis true (says my worthy Friend Dr. Tan­cred Robinson) that some Shells might have been scatter'd up and down the Earth by in­campments of Armies, by the inhabitants of Cities and Towns, whereof there are now no remains. Mounsteur Loubere, the late French Envoy to Siam, affirms that the Monkeys and Apes at the Cape of Good Hope, are almost continually carrying Shells and other Marine Bodies from the Sea-side up to the Mountains; yet this will not solve the matter, nor give a­ny satisfactory account, why these perfect shells are disperst up and down the Earth, in all Cli­mates [Page 147] and Regions, in the deep Bowels of vast Mountains where they lye as regularly in Beds as they do at the bottom of the Sea.

secondly, It would hence follow, That many [...]pecies of Shell fis [...] are lost out of the World, [...] Philosophers hitherto have been unwilling to admit, esteeming the de­struction of any one Species a dismembring of the Universe, and rendring it imperfect: whereas they think the Divine Providence is especially concerned to secure and preserve the Works of the Creation: and that it is so, appears, in that it was so careful to lodge all Land-Animals in the Ark at the time of the general Deluge. The Consequence is proved in that, among these petrified Shells, there are many sorts observed, which are not at this day, that we know of, any where to be found. Such are a whole gentis of Cornua Ammonis, which some have supposed to be Nautili, though to me they do not seem so to be, but a different Genus by themselves, of which there have not any been seen either cast ashore, or raked out of the Sea, at any time, that ever I heard of. Nay, my very Learned and Honoured Friend Dr. Lister proceeds further, and saith, That when he particularly examined some of our English shores for Shells, and also the fresh Waters and the Fields, that he did never meet with [Page 148] any one of those Species of Shells found at Adderton in Yorkshire, Wansford-Bridge in Northamptonshire, and about Gunthorp and Beavoir Castle, &c. any where else, but in their respective Quarries. What can we say to this? Why it is possible that many sorts of Shell-fish may be lodged so deep in the Seas, or on Rocks so remote from the shores, that they may never come to our sight.

Thirdly, It follows also, That there have been Shell-fish in these cold Northern Seas of greater bulk and dimensions, than any now living; I do not say in these, but in the most Southernly and Indian; viz. Cornua Am­monis of two foot diameter, and of thickness answerable.

To this I answer, That there are no pe­trified Shells that do in bigness much exceed those of the natural Shell-fish found in our Seas, save the Cornua Ammonis only, which I suspect to have never been, nor had any relation to any shells of Fishes: or to imi­tate or resemble them, at least some of them. Against this Assertion it may be objected, That there are found in England may Pecti­nites bigger than any Shell-fish of that kind which our Seas now afford. And that there are no Nautili, or other testaccous Fishes with us, comparable in bigness to that Nau­tilus-sto [...]e of twenty eight pound found by [Page 149] Mr. Waller at Keinsham. To which I an­swer, That there may be Shell-fish in our Seas, that do not at all, or very seldom ap­pear, greater than we are aware of. I my self, in company with Mr. Willughby, in the Streight between the Isle and Calf of Man, took up among the tall Fuci growing thick upon the Rocks there, two or three of those large Echini Marini or Sea-Vrchins, as big as a Man's two fists, the shells whereof we ne­ver found cast up upon the shores of England, nor ever heard that any Man else did. So that I question not but there are lodged a­mong the Rocks, and in the deeper places of the Sea, remote from the shores, many different sorts of Shell-fish, and excelling in magnitude those that are commonly found or known. And like enough it is, that af­ter the Flood there were many places de­serted, and thrown up by the Sea, and be­come dry Land, which had been Sea before; which must needs be replete with these Bo­dies. As for the Nautili, they are much different from these Cornua Ammonis. For the Nautili, at least all the Species of them known to us, are (as Dr. Plot well observes) extravagantly broad at the mouth, and have not more than two other small turns at the most, whereas the turns of the Ophiomor­phites are proportionable one to another; [Page 150] and in number many times four or five, and sometimes six, if we may believe Aldrovand. And there are Nautili lapidei, which do as nearly resemble the Nautilus shells as any other Cochlites do their respective Proto­types, as Mr. Lloyd assures me he had ob­served many in Museums. And the Learned and Ingenious Mr. Richard Waller then Se­cretary to the Royal Society, in a Letter to me dated Febr. 4. 87. w [...]es, That he had been lately at Keinsham in Somerset shire, and making a search after the Coruua Ammonis, [...]ound one of the true Nautilus shape, cover­ed in some places with a shelly Incrustation with the Diaphragms to be seen to the Cen­ter of the Volutae, and in each Diaphragm, the hole by which they communicate one with another, by a string or gut in the Fish. This was of a very hard Stone and large size, weighing at least twenty eight pound, though some part was broken off. Another Argument that they have no relation to the common Nautili, is, that they break into pieces somewhat resembling Vertebres, as I was first advised by the fore-remembred Mr. Lloyd, and have since noted my self. I also received from that very Ingenious and In­quisitive Gentleman, happy in making na­tural Discoveries, Mr. William Cole of Bri­stol, such an account of a sort or two of these [Page 151] Ophiomorphous Bodies, as is enough to stagger any Man's belief, if not utterly to overthrow his Opinion of their owing their original to any Sea-shell; which take in his words. A­mong others of this kind of Bodies which I have observed, I shall instance in one, which can be reduced to none but the Ophiomor­phites, which I found growing between the thin Plates of a kind of brittle blew Slate in large Rocks, some a furlong within the full Sea-mark, and in some where the Water comes not at highest Tides, only in great Storms, when the Waves break, it is dasht sometimes against them, being forced up by the Winds; which being broken with a convenient Tool, will shiver all into very thin Plates; between which I have found in abundance of those Stones, but as brittle as the Slate in which they grew, and of the same consistence; but so thin, that the broadest, being about four Inches, are not so thick as a Half-Crown Piece, some not half an Inch broad, were as thin as a Groat, and so proportionably up to the largest, covered with a Superficies as thin, and exactly of the colour of Silver foil: and where the Sea-water wash­eth them, and they are exposed to the Sun and Wind when the Tide is gone, they are tarnish­ed, and appear of a Gold, Purple, Blew and Red; as any thing on which Silver foil is laid, being exposed a considerable time to the Sun, [Page 152] Wind and Weather, will do. These have the same spiral Figures, and as regular as the o­ther Serpent-stones, and being taken off with a Knife, leave the same Impressions on both sides of the Slate.

In some such Rocks of Slate, but much har­der, I found some of those Stones of another kind, thick in proportion to their breadth, from an Inch to twenty eight Inches broad; the broadest one was at the great end (on which some Authors have fabulously reported the Head to grow) six Inches thick: all of them covered over with a white scale, which will be taken off, one coat under another, as Pearls or the shells of some Fishes. I saw some impressions as big as the Fore-wheel of a Chariot, &c. What shall we say to this? Were there ever any Shell-fish in ours, or other Seas, as broad as a Coach-wheel? o­thers as thin as a Groat? What is become of all this kind of Ophiomorphite Shell-fish? And yet (which is strange) both these kinds by Mr. Cole's description, seem to have been covered with shells.

By what I have said concerning these O­phiomorphous stones not to have been Nau­tili, I would not be thought to reflect upon, o [...] detract from the Veracity or Exactness of the Observations of Mr. Robert Hook, whom for his Learning and deep Insight into the [Page 153] Mysteries of Nature, I deservedly honour. I question not, but he found in the Keinsham Ophiomorphites perfect Diaphragms of a ve­ry distinct substance from that which filled the Cavities, and exactly of that kind which covered the out-side, being for the most part Whitish, or Mother of Pearl coloured. Mr. Waller fore-mentioned, attests the same, writing in his Letter to me of Febr. 4. 1687. that in the ordinary Snake stones there, the shelly Diaphragms were very visible. In this respect they do resemble Nautili; though for their Figure they are much different, and of a distinct Genus. I never broke any of the Keinsham stones; but of those found about Whitby in Yorkshire many; but could not observe in them any shell-like Diaphragms, only they broke into such pieces as I men­tioned before. And my dear and much honoured Friend Dr. Tancred Robinson writes me, That he had broken several Cornua Am­monis, but could never find any Diaphragms or Valves in them, though he confesseth Mr. Woodward shew'd him one with such in his curious Collection of Petrifactions. So that these Diaphragms are not to be found in all the sorts of them. But if they be found in some, it is a strong presumption, that they were at first in all, however they came to disappear.

[Page 154] In fine, these Ophiomorphous Stones do more puzzle and confound me, than any other of the formed Stones whatsoever, be­cause by Mr. Hook's Description of those of Keinsham, they seem to have been, or to owe their original to shells; and yet there is nothing like them appears at this day in our or any other Seas, as far as I have seen, heard, or read.

Thirdly, A second Argument to prove these formed Stones never to have been Shells, Dr.Hist. Nat. Oxs p. 117. Plot affords us, Because that e­ven those Shells, which so exactly represent some sorts of Shell-fish, that there can be no exception upon the account of Figure, but that they might formerly have been Shells indeed, at some places are found only with one shell and not the other. Thus in Cowley Common [in Oxfordshire] we meet only with the gibbous, non the [...]lat shell of the petri­fied Oyster, and so of the Escallop-stones in the Quarries near Shotover: which if they had once been the shells of Oysters and Escal­lops, had scarce been thus parted. To this I answer, That this Argument is not neces­sarily conclusive; because there may possi­bly be some reason of it, though we know it not, nor can easily imagine any. The like Answer may be returned to his next Ar­gument.

[Page 155] Thirdly, Because (saith the Doctor) I can by no means satisfie my self, how it should come to pass, that in case these Bo­dies had once been moulded in Shells, some of the same kind should be found in Beds, as the Conchites at Langley, Charlton, Adderbu­ry; and others scattered, as at Glympton, and Teynton, and so the Ostracites at Shotover and Cowley. Nor how it should fall out, that some of these Bivalves should always be [...]ound with their shells separate, as the Ostra­cites and Pectines: and others always closed together, as the Conchites in all places I have yet seen.

Fourthly, Because many of these formed Stones seem now to be in fieri, (which is the Doctor's next Argument) as the Selenites at Shotover and Hampton-gay, the Conchites of Glympton and Cornwell, many of which were of a perfect Clay, and others of Stone, &c. As for the Selenites, I grant them to have been in fieri, because they are formed after the manner of Salts by shooting or crystalli­zation; but concerning the Clay Cockles, I say with the Civilians, ampliandum. Since the publishing of this Treatise, happening to read Dr. Nicol Steno's Discourse concern­ing these Bodies, in his Description of a Sharks­head, I met with a very plausible Solution of this Argument or Objection. First he gives [Page 156] us the History of these Bodies, or his Obser­vations concerning them; of which these following are two, 1. That in Argilla, which some english Potters Earth, and we may ren­der a Fat Clay, he had taken notice that there were plenty of them on the Superficies of the Earth, but within the Earth but a few. 2. That in the same Argilla the deeper you descend downward, the more tender those Bodies are, so that some of them at any the least touch fall into Powder: and they also that were on the Superficies, almost all of them were without much ado reduced into a white Powder. Now (saith he) seeing in such kind of Earth, by how much deeper those Bodies lye, by so much the softer they are, and do less bear the touch, the Earth is so far from producing them, that it doth ra­ther destroy them. Neither is there any reason to think, that they are therefore soft­er, because they are not yet arrived at their perfection, or come to maturity: for those things that are soft upon that account, while they are in generating, have their parts uni­ted to one another as it were by a kind of Glue (as is seen in the tender shels of Pine-Nuts and Almonds) but these Bodies, being depri­ved and destitute of all Glue, easily moulder to Dust. Nor is it any Objection against our Opinion, that on the surface of the Earth [Page 157] their number seems to encrease, for that is owing to Rains washing away the interme­diate Earth: but rather their consistence when they are on the Superficies, being ten­der and easily crumbled into Dust, doth de­monstrate, that their destruction begun in the Earth, was interrupted by the interven­tion of the Rain. But to give these Argu­ments their due, though they be not demon­strative proofs, yet they infer a great degree of probability, and shrewdly urge and shake the contrary Opinion.

The other Arguments, the Doctor alledges, admit a plausible solution, excepting such as we have already touched, and given as good an answer to, as either the matter will ad­mit, or we were able to give.

To the first, That there are found Stones resembling Shell-fish that stick to Rocks: I answer, That many of them might by acci­dent be rub'd off the Rocks they stick to, or thrust off by Birds insinuating their Bills be­tween the Shell and Rock, to feed upon their meat; but by what means soever it be, that they are sometimes broken off, the matter of fact is certain; for we find many patellae cast upon the shores by the working of the Sea; Why then might they not be brought up by the Flood?

[Page 158] To the second, Why might not the Bones of Whales, Sea-horses, all squamose Fishes, the great shells of the Buccina, Murices, Con­chae Veneris, and Solenes, and almost▪ all the crustaceous kind, as Crabs and Lobsters, &c. as well have been brought up and left be­hind by the Flood, and afterward petrified, as any of the testaceous kind? I answer, Of the great Buccina, Murices and Conchae Vene­ris, there are very [...]ew or none found in our Seas: It may be there are of them in the Mountains and Quarries of the Indies, were any Man so curious as to search them out: Though it's likely but few, because being great things, easie to be seen, and that part of the World having been fully peopled soon after the Flood, their beauty might invite the Inhabitants to search them out, and ga­ther them up. But secondly, Those other kinds may possibly be less durable, and more apt to be wrought upon, to moulder, decay, and be dissolved in time by the Weather, Rains and Moisture of the Earth, or were not so susceptive of petrifying Juices.

The Third Argument is already answered in the precedent Discourse.

To the Fourth Argument as to what con­cerns the Selenites, Astroites and Belemnites, we have answered already. That the Spe­cies of Brontiae cannot be the petrified Shells [Page 159] of Echini Spatagi the Arguments the Doctor alledges out of Aristotle and Rondeletius do not evin [...]e. For though in some Seas they may be [...], yet in others are they plentiful enough. In our own Seas at Llandwyn in the Isse of Anglesey, we may reasonably conjecture, they are more plen­tiful than the common Echini any where with us; because we found more of their Shells cast up there on the shore, than of the Echini in any shore about England: nay, so common are they there, that even the Vul­gar have taken notice of them, and imposed a Name upon them, calling them Mermayds Heads. And though their Bristles or Prickles were but small, yet were they not few or thin set, as Rondeletius saith.

How the Snake-stones about Huntly-nab and Whithy in Yorkshire came to be included in Globular or Lenticular Stones, is not dif­ficult to make out: for the Cliffs thereabout being Allum-stone or Mine, wherein these Snake-stones lye; the Sea in Spring-tides and Tempestuous Weather undermines and throws down part of the Shore or Cliffs, which by the fall break in pieces, and the Ophiomorphus stone being harder than the rest of the Cli [...], is broken off from it by the fall, or its volutation in the Sea afterward, with some part of the Cliff or Allum-stone [Page 160] slicking to each side of it where it is concave, and by reason of its Figure and Striae, cannot easily part from it.

Lastly, To dissemble nothing, I have my self observed some Cockle-stones to have seemingly different impressions or Striae up­on the same Superficies; which Phaenomenon it is very hard to give an account of. I have also observed a large Stone almost as hard as Marble, that was so marked every where throughout with the impressions of Cockles and their Striae, so crossing one another in every part of it, that if it were nothing but shells amassed together by a stony Cement; those shells must have before their Concre­tion been broken into infinite small pieces or fragments, scarce any remaining entire; which I do not see how any Floods or Work­ing of the Sea, could possibly effect.

So I have finished what I had to say con­cerning this supposed Effect of the Deluge, the bringing in of Shells, and scattering them all over the dry Land. But yet I must not dismiss this Particular, till I have said some­thing to an Objection that presently occurs to any one who considers this matter. The Waters of the Flood having been supplied partly by Rains, partly by the breaking up of the Fountains of the great Deep, and not by an Irruption or Inundation of the Sea, [Page 161] how could any Sea-shells at all be brought in by it?

To this I answer, That the great Deep communicates with the Sea; and the Waters rising up out of the subterraneous Abyss, the Sea must needs succeed, else would there have been an empty space left in the middle of the Earth; so that the Shell-fish might as well come in this way from the bottom of the Sea, as by an Inundation: in like manner as the fish in the Lake of Carniola, called the Zirchnitzer Sea, do descend annually under ground through many great holes in the bot­tom, and return again by the same holes. To all this I might add, that into the Lands near the skirts of the Sea, and lower Hills, these shells might in part be brought by particular Floods, of which many we read of, and more possibly than are recorded in any History may have happened since the general Deluge. Hence the chief Champions of the Opinion of Mock-shells are not difficult to grant, that in some Countries, and particularly along the shore of the Mediterranean Sea, there may all manner of shells be found promiscuously included in the Rocks or Earth, and at good distances too from the Sea. Which are the words of Dr. Lister, repeated and approved by Dr. Plot. But this will not serve their turn; for we have before proved, that in the [Page 162] middle part, and near the Center of our own Country, at a great distance from the Sea, viz. in Oxfordshire, there are found not only shell-like Stones, but real Shells, or Mock­shells (as some esteem them) for Figure, Co­lour, Weight, Consistency, or any other Ac­cident not to be distinguished from true shells; and that not such as have been accidentally scattered there, but dig'd out of the Ground in plenty, and of Fishes that are rarely found in our Seas: Patterns whereof were sent me by my Ingenious Friend Mr. Lloyd, who, I hope, will ere long gratifie the Curious, by publishing a general Catalogue of all the formed Stones found in England, and his Re­marks upon them.

And I have likewise proved by good Au­thority, that beyond the Seas, in high Moun­tains, and many Leagues distant from the Sea too, there have been Beds of real shells. I might have added Sharks-teeth or Glossope­trae, as both Goropius Becanus and Georgius Agricola testifie; if not in Beds, yet plentifully disperst in the Earth. There are several Me­dical Histories extant (as Dr. Tancred Robin­son informs me) of perfect shells found in A­nimal Bodies, in whose Glands they were o­riginally formed, which is a considerable Objection, not easily to be removed.

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CHAP. V.
That there have been great Charges made in the Superficial Part of the Earth since the General Deluge, and by what Means.

I Shall now Discourse a little concerning such Changes as have been made in the Superficial part of the Earth since the Uni­versal Deluge, and of their Causes.

That there have been such I think no so­ber and intelligent Person can deny, there be­ing so good Authority and Reason to prove it. Plato in his Timaeus tells us, That the Egyptian Priests related to Solon the Atheni­an Law-giver, who lived about 600 years before our Saviour, that there was of old time without the Straits of Gibraltar a vast Island, bigger then Africa and Asia together, called Atlantis, which was afterward by a violent Earthquake and mighty Flood, and Inunda­tion of Water, in one day and night wholly overwhelmed and drown'd in the Sea. Whence it may be conjectured, that the Old [Page 164] and New World were at first continuous, or by the Intervention of that Island not very far remote from each other.

That the Island of Sicily was of old bro­ken off from Italy by the irruption or insi­nuation of the Sea is generally believed, and there is some memorial thereof retained in the very name of the City Rhegium, stand­ing upon the Fretum that separates Italy and Sicily, which signifies breaking off.

In like manner the Island called Euboea now Negroponte, was of old joyned to Greece, and broken off by the working of the Sea.

Moreover, the Inhabitants of Ceylon re­port that their Island was anciently joyned to the Main-land of India, and separated from it by the force of the Sea.

It is also thought, and there is good ground for it, that the Island of Sumatra was anciently continuous with Malacca, and called the Golden Chersonese: for being be­held from afar, it seems to be united to Ma­lacca.

And to come nearer home, Verstegan af­firms, and not without good reason, that our [Page 165] Island of Great Britain, was anciently Con­tinent to Gaule, and so no Island but a Penin­sula, and to have been broken off from the Continent, but by what means it is in his judgment altogether uncertain: whether by some great Earthquake, whereby the Sea first breaking through might afterward by little and little enlarge her passage; or whe­ther it were cut by the labour of Man in re­gard of commodity by that passage: or whe­ther the Inhabitants of one side, or the other, by occasion of War did cut it, thereby to be sequestred and freed from their Enemies.

His Arguments to prove that it was for­merly united to France, are, 1. The Cliffs on either side the Sea, lying just opposite the one to the other, that is, those of Dover to those lying between Callice and Bouloin, (for from Dover to Callice is not the nearest Land) being both of one Substance, that is, of Chalk and Flint. 2. The sides of both to­wards the Sea plainly appearing to have been broken off from some more of the same stuff or matter, that it hath sometime by Nature been fastned to. 3. The length of the said Cliffs along the Sea-shore being on one side answerable in effect to the length of the very like on the other side, that is, about six Miles. And 4. the nearness of Land be­tween England and France in that place; the [Page 166] distance between both, as some skilful Sailers report. not exceeding 24. English Miles.

Some of the Ancients, as Strato, quoted by Strabo in the first Book of his Geography, say, That the Fretum Gaditanum or Strait of Gibraltar, was forcibly broken open by the Sea. The same they affirm of the Thra­cian Bosphorus and Hellespont, that the Ri­vers filling up the Euxine Sea, forced a pas­sage that way, where there was none before. And in confirmation hereof, Diodorus Si­culus in his Fifth Book gives us an Ancient Story current among the Samothracians, viz. That before any other Floods recorded in Hi­stories, there was a very great Deluge that overflowed a good part of the Coast of Asia, and the lower Grounds of their Island, when the Euxine Sea first brake open the Thracian Bosphorus and Hellespont, and drowned all the adjacent Countries.

This Traditional Story I look upon as very considerable for its Antiquity and Pro­bability, it seeming to contain something of truth. For it's not unlikely that the Euxine Sea, being over-charged with Waters by ex­traordinary Floods, or driven with violent storms of Wind, might make its way through the Bosphorus and Hellespent. But it will be objected, That the Euxine Sea doth emp­ty it self continually by the Bosphorus and [Page 167] Hellespont into the Mediterranean, and that if it had not this way of discharge (the Ri­vers bringing in more than is spent by va­pour) it would soon overflow all its shores, and drown the circumjacent Countreys; and so it must have done soon after the Flood; and therefore it is not probable that Samo­thrace should have been inhabited before that irruption, if any such there were.

To which I answer, 1. That Monsieur Marsilly thinks he hath demonstrated an un­der-current in the Thracian Bosphorus, by means of which the Euxine may receive as much Water from the Mediterranean as it pours forth into it. But because I have al­ready declared my self not to be satisfied of the being and possibility of these under­currents, I answer, 2. The Annual receipts from the Rivers running into the Euxine, not very much exceeding what is spent in vapour, who knows but that from the time of the General Deluge till the Irruption whereof we are discoursing, the Euxine might yearly enlarge its Bason, and encroach upon the Neighbouring Countreys?

Natural Historians give us an account of new Islands raised up in the Sea: Plin. Hist. Nat. lib. 2. cap. 87. enumerates. Delos and Rhodes Islands of note; and of less account and later emersion Anaphe beyond Melos, [Page 168] and Nea between Lemnos and the Hellespont: Alone between Lebedos and Teos, and among the Cyclades, Thera and Therasia, Olymp. 135. An. 4. [which last, or one of the same name, Seneca saith was raised, himself beholding it, nobis spectantibus enata:] Among the same after 130 years Hiera, and two Furlongs distant in his own time, when Iunius Syllanus and L. Balbus were Consuls, Thia. But the most considerable and remarkable mutations that have been made in the Earth have been on the Sea-coasts, either by carrying on the Land into the Lea, and atterrating the bot­tom of the Sea; or by drowning the Lands near the Sea, by Irruptions and Inundations thereof, or undermining or washing away the shores.

Of the first sort of Change by Atterration, or making the Sea dry Land, we have an eminent Instance in the Dutch Netherlands, which, I easily consent with Verstegan, so far as they are even and plain without any Hills, have undoutedly heretofore in time long past, been Sea; as appears 1. From the lowness of their situation, some of the more Maritime Parts of them, as Zealand and Holland, and part of Flanders, being so low, that by breach or cutting of the Sand Banks or Downs, which the Sea by little and little hath cast up, and the labour of Man here [Page 169] and there supplied, might easily be drown­ed and converted into Sea again: and of the great harms that these Parts have here­tofore by the Irruption of the Sea sustained. But now not only those low Places that ad­joyn upon the Sea, as Holland and Zealand, but the greater part of Flanders and Bra­bant, though they lye not so low as they, but of such height as no Inundation of the Sea can any whit annoy them, though the Sand-Banks and Downs on the Sea-side were never so much broken or cut through, yet are they as even and level as even Holland and Zealand themselves, which is a suffici­ent demonstration, that they were once co­vered with Water. For that Water will thus level Ground, it often runs over, is clear from Meadows, and from the bottom of the Sea discovered at Low-water; and we have Experience of no other Cause that doth or can effect it. And therefore Lewis Guicciar­dine erroneously argues Hubert Thomas Se­cretary to Count Frederick Palatine of the Rhine of a Mistake, for saying in his De­scription of the Country of Liege, that the Sea hath come up even to Tongres Walls, now well nigh an hundred English Miles from the Sea: among other good Reasons, alledging for the proof thereof, that the great Iron-rings are there yet remaining, un­to [Page 170] which the Ships that there sometimes ar­rived were fastned. I say erroneously, seeing all the Countreys between that and the Sea are level, and of an equal Superficies, with­out any Hills or Risings. 2. This appears not only from the great plainness and even­ness of the Ground, but in that the Soil ge­nerally both in Flanders and Brabant is san­dy; whence it seems naturally to follow, that those Countreys were anciently the Flats, Sands, or shores of the Sea. 3. In that digging about two Fathom more or less deep in the Earth innumerable shells of Sea-fish are found, and that commonly in all places both of Field and Town; and in many pla­ces the great Bones of Fishes.

Further (saith Verstegan) it is to be no­ted, that albeit digging deep in the Earth in Brabant and Flanders, great abundance of shels and bones of Fishes are to be found; yet digging in the Earth in Holland and Zea­land, none at all are perceived; howbeit on the Sands on the Sea-shore there are very many. The reason whereof may be because those parts have been in time long past part of the depth of the Sea: and the parts a­foresaid of Brabant and Flanders the flats or shore; and on the flats, and not in the depths, such kind of Shell-fish are naturally nourished. This is a very plausible account. [Page 171] But yet it hath been by experience found, that if you dig deep enough, even in Hol­land it self, after many floors of several sorts of Earth, you will at last come to Beds of shells. For Varenius tells us, that sinking a Well in Amsterdam, after many beds or lay­ers of Earth, Sand, Turf, &c. at an hun­dred foot depth they came to a bed of Sea­sand mixt with Cockle-shells of four foot thickness, which doubtless was of old time the bottom of the Sea, and all the other beds above it were brought down partly by Floods subsiding and settling there, partly by the working of the Sea spreading beds of Sand upon the layers of the Earth, and so interchangeably. But from this Experiment it doth appear, that however deep the Sea were thereabouts, yet it was not too deep to breed or harbour shell-fish.

Another great instance of Change made in the Superficies of the Earth by atterration is in our own Country, the great level of the Fens running through Holland in Lin­colnshire, the Isle of Ely in Cambridgeshire, and Marshland in Norfolk. Which that it was sometime part of the Sea, and atterra­ted by Land brought down by Floods from the upper Grounds, seems to me evident, in that it is near the Sea, and in that there is thereabout a concurrence of many great Ri­vers [Page 172] which in Flood-times by the abundance of mud and silt they bring down there sub­siding, have by degrees raised it up: and thirdly in that the whole Country is exactly level, like the bottom of the Sea; it being (as I have already said) the nature of the Wa­ter flowing over the Earth in time to level and bring to a plain all places that are soft and yielding, and not rocky, as is seen in Meadows, and in the bottom of the Sea discovered at Low-water.

A third Instance is the Craux in Provence in France, anciently called Campus Lapideus, of which Pliny saith it was Herculis praelio­rum memoria; and Strabo out of Aeschylus gives us a Poetical Fable, that the stones were rained down by Iupiter in favour of Hercules when he wanted Darts, that he might cast them at the Ligurian Army, and thereby break and scatter it. Posidonius thinks it was once a Lake, which by fluctu­ation dried up; and so the stones came to be equally dispersed over the bottom of it. That it was a very ancient thing, is clear, having its original in the fabulous times be­fore any Memoirs of true History: it con­tinues to this day such a kind of place as it was in Strabo's time. It appears so evident­ly to any one who hath viewed and consi­dered it, to have been once part of the Sea, [Page 173] from its being exactly level, and strowed all over with stones, as I have observed the bottom of the Sea in many places to be, that there is not the least reason to doubt of it.

The River Arnus in Tuscany now falleth into the Sea six Miles below Pisa: whereby it appeareth, (saith Dr. Hakewil) that the Land hath gained much upon the Sea in that Coast, for that Strabo in his time reporteth, it was but twenty Furlongs (that is, but two Miles and an half) distant from the Sea.

I might to these add many other Instances of Atterrations out of Strabo in his first Book; as about the Outlets of Ister the places cal­led Stethe and the Deserts of Scythia: about those of Phasis the Sea-coast of Colchis, which is sandy, and low and soft. About Thermodon and Iris all Themiscyra, the plain of the Amazons, and the most part of Si­dene.

To omit the whole Land of Egypt, which probably was covered originally with the Sea, and raised up by the mud and silt brought down by the Nile in its Annual Floods subsiding there, as I shall have occa­sion to shew afterwards.

Moreover, Varenius rationally conjectures that all China, or a great part of it, was ori­ginally thus raised up and atterrated, having been anciently covered with the Sea: for that [Page 174] that great and impetuous River, called the Yellow or Saffron River, coming out of Tar­tary, and very often, though not at anniver­sary seasons, overflowing the Countrey of China, is said to contain in it so much Earth and Sand, as make up a third part of its Wa­ters. The evenness and level Superficies of this whole Country of China render this Conjecture the more probable.

In fine, the like Atterrations appear to have been made about the Mouths of Indus and Ganges in the East-Indies, and the River de la Plata in America: and the Rhodanus in France; and doubtless most other great Rivers throughout the whole World.

To all which if we add the spatious Plains that are on each side most great Rivers from their Mouths many Miles up their Channels, as may be observed in the Thames and Trent in England, which probably were at first Si­nuses of the Sea, landed up by Earth brought down from the Mountains and upper Grounds in times of Floods; it will appear that in this respect there hath been a very great Change made in the Terraqueous Globe, the dry Land much enlarged, and the Sea straitned and cut short.

[Page 175] But you will say, Hath there been no compensation made for all this: Hath not the Sea other-where gained as much as it hath lost about the Mouths of the Rivers? If not, then the Sea will in time be so far landed up, or straitned till it be compelled to return a­gain, and overflow the whole Earth.

To which I answer, That where the shores are Earthy or Argillaceous, or Gravelly, or made of any crumbling and friable matter, the Sea doth undermine and subvert them, and gain upon the Land; which I could prove by many Instances, some of which I shall afterward touch. But whether the Sea doth in these places gain proportionably to what it loses in the fore-mentioned, accord­ing to the Vulgar Proverb, is to me some what questionable.

To proceed now to discourse a little con­cerning the Changes that have been made by the Irruptions and Inundations of the Sea, or by its undermining and washing away the shores.

That there have been of old great Floods, and much Land laid under Water by Inun­dations of the Sea, is clear, many such be­ing recorded in History.

The most ancient of all, next to the ge­neral Deluge in the days of Noah, viz. that of Ogyges King of Boetia, or rather Attica, [Page 176] seems to have been of this nature: So doth that of a great part of Achaia in Peloponne­sus, wherein the Cities of Bura and Helice were overwhelmed and laid under Wa­ter.

Cambden out of Gyraldus reports, That anciently a great part of Pembrokeshire ran out in the form of a Promontory towards Ireland; as appears by that Speech of King William Rufus, That he could easily with his Ships make a Bridge over the Sea, so that he might pass on foot from thence to Ireland. This Tract of Ground being all buried in deep Sands during the Reign of King Henry the Second, was by the violence of a migh­ty storm so far uncovered, that many stumps of great Trees appeared fastned in the Earth: Ictúsque securium tanquam hesterni (saith Gi­raldus) and the strokes of the Axes in them, as if they had been cut but yesterday; ut non littus jam, sed lucus esse videretur, mirandis rerum mutationibus; so that now it made shew of a Wood rather than of a Strand; such is the wonderful Change of all things.

In the time of King Henry the First of England there happened a mighty Inundati­on in Flanders, whereby a great part of the Country was irrecoverably lost, and many of the poor distressed People, being bereft of their Habitation, came into England; where [Page 177] the King in compassion of their Condition, and also considering that they might be be­neficial to his Subjects, by instructing them in the Art of Clothing, first placed them a­bout Carlisle in the North, and after remo­ved them into South-Wales, where their Po­sterity hath ever since remained.

In the Year 1446. there perished 10000 People by the breaking in of the Sea at Dor­drecht in Holland, and thereabouts; and about Dullart in Friesland, and in Zealand, above 100000 were lost, and two or three hun­dred Villages drowned, some of their Stee­ples and Towers, when the Tide is out, still appearing above water.

Mr. Carew of Antony in his Survey of Cornwal, affirmeth, That the Sea hath ra­vened from that Shire the whole County of Lioness. And that such a County there was he very sufficiently proves by many strong Reasons. Camden in his Britannia reports out of ancient Records, That upon the Ken­tish Coast, not far from Thanet, is a sandy dangerous place, (which the Inhabitants call Goodwyns Sands) where an Island (being the Patrimony of Earl Goodwyn) was swallowed up in the Year 1097.

But the greatest Change of this kind that ever was made (if it be true) was the sub­mersion of the vast Island o [...] Atlantis, where­of we have already spoken.

[Page 178] As for the Changes that have been made by undermining and washing away the shores, they have been partly the diminish­ing of the Land, and partly the raising up of several Islands not far from the shores. So the Baltick Sea hath invaded the shores of Pomerania, and destroyed a famous Mart­town called Vineta. So the ancient Borough of Donewich in Suffolk is almost quite eaten away and ruined by the Encroachments of the Sea. And it is said that the Ocean hath cut off twenty Miles from the North part of the Island of Ceylan in India; so that it is much less at this day than formerly it was. And many the like Examples there are. And for the raising up of Islands near the shore, very likely it is that the Sea continually preying upon the shore, and washing away abundance of Earth from thence, cannot car­ry it far to any great distance from the shores, but lets it fall by little and little in their Neighbourhood: which subsiding or settling continually for some Ages, at last the heaps ascend up to the very Superficies of the Water, and become Islands. Hence in the middle of the Ocean, there are no Islands, or but a very few, because those parts are too remote from the shores for any Earth washed from thence to be carried thi­ther; and if it were, yet the Sea thereabout [Page 179] is too deep to have any heap raised in it so high: besides, the motions of the Water in those depths, were there Earth enough, would overthrow any heap before it could be ad­vanced any thing near the top. But all I­slands in general, a very few excepted, are about the shores, or not far from the shores of the great Continents. Which thing is especially to be remarked in all the great heaps or swarms of numerous Islands, they being all near to the Continents; those of the Aegean Sea to Europe and Asia; the He­sperides to Africa; and the Maldivae, (which are thought to amount to eleven thousand) to India: only the Flandricae or Azores seem to be situate in the middle of the Ocean, be­tween the Old and New World.

Besides these Changes about the Sea­coasts, by the prevailing of the Land upon the Sea, in some places, and the Sea upon the Land in others, the whole Continents seem to suffer a considerable mutation by the diminution, and depression or sinking of the Mountains, as I shall have occasion to shew afterward in the third Discourse.

Aelian in his eighth Book, cap. 11. telleth us, that not only the Mountain Aetna, but Parnassus and Olympus did appear to be less and less to such as sailed at Sea, the height thereof sinking. Of this lowring and dimi­nution [Page 180] of the Mountains I shall not say much in this place, but taking it for granted at present; only in brief intimate the Causes of it, assigned by that learned Mathematician Iosephus Bla [...]canus, which are partly Rain­water, and partly Rivers, which by conti­nual fretting by little and little, wash away and [...]at out both the tops and sides and feet of Mountains, and fill up the lower places of the Valleys, making the one to encrease, and the other to decrease; whereby it appears (saith Dr. Hakewil) that what the Mountain loseth the Valley gains; and consequently, that in the whole Globe of the Earth nothing is lost, but only removed from one place to another; so that in process of time the high­est Mountains may be humbled into Val­leys: and again (which yet I will not al­low him) the lowest Valleys exa [...]ed into Mountains. He proceeds, Anaxagoras (as Diogenes Laertius reports in his Life) being demanded what he thought, Whether the Mountains called Lapsaceni would in time be covered with Sea? answered Yes, unless time it self fail; which answer of his seems to confirm the opinion of Blancanus De Mun­di fabrica, cap. 4. where he maintains, That if the World should last long enough, by reason of this continual decrease of the Moun­tains, and the levelling of the Valleys, the [Page 181] Earth would again be overslown with Wa­ters, as at first it was.

Beside these more eminent and remarka­ble Changes, which in process of time, after a long succession of many Ages, threaten some great effect; indeed no less then a re­duction of the World to its primitive state before the separation of the Land and Water. There have been many other lesser mutati­ons made either by Earthquakes and Eructa­tions of burning Mountains, or by great Floods and Shots of Rain, or by violent or tempestuous Winds and Hurricans, some whereof are mentioned by Naturalists and Historians, Strabo, Pliny, Seneca, Ovid, and others.

For Earthquakes, Posidonius, quoted by Strabo, in his first Book, writes, That there was a City in Phoenicia, situate above Sidon, swallowed up by an Earthquake, and that almost two thirds of Sidon it self fell there­in, though not suddenly and all at once, so that there was no great destructiō or slaugh­ter of men happened. The same extended almost over all Syria, though not violently, and reached as far as some of the Cyclades Islands; and Euboea, where the Fountains of Arethusa in Chalcis were stopped up by it, and after many days broke forth again at another source: neither did it cease to shake [Page 182] the Island by parts, till the Earth opening in the Field Lelantus vomited out of a River of fiery Clay.

The same Strabo tells us, That Democles mentions huge Earthquakes of old in Lydia and Ionia, extending as far as Troas, by which many Villages were swallowed up, and Sipy­lus overthrown when Tantalus reigned, and great Lakes made of Fens.

And that Duris saith, That the Rhagades Islands by Media were so called from the Lands about the Caspiae Portae being torn and broken by Earthquakes, so that many Cities and Villages were overthrown, and several Rivers received alterations.

And Demetrius Calatianus relating the Earthquakes that happened throughout Greece, writes, That a great part of the Li­chades Islands and Cenaeus had been drowned thereby; and that the hot Baths at Aedep­sus and in Thermophylae, having been stopt for three days, slowed again, and those of Aedepsus from new Sources. That the Wall of Oreus on the Sea-side, and seven hundred Houses, were thrown down; and a great part of Echinus and Heraclea Trachinia; but the whole building of Phalarnus was over­turned from the very Soil or Plain of it; the like happened to the Larians and Laris­s [...]aus; and that Scarphia was utterly de­molished [Page 183] and subverted from the very foun­dations, and not fewer then 1700 Persons over-whelmed and buried; and more then half that number of the Thronii.

Pliny in his first Book, chap. 84. tell us, that in the Reign of Tiberius Caesar, there hap­pened an Earthquake (the greatest that ever was in the memory of Man) wherein twelve Cities of Asia were prostrated in one night.

But what is that to what St. Augustine writes [Lib. 2. De Miraculis SS. cap. 3.] if that Book he his, In famoso quodam terroe motu centum Libyae Vrbes corruisse: That in a famous Earthquake an hundred Cities of Libya were demolished.

The City of Antioch, where the Disciples of Christ were first called Christians, with a great part of Asia bordering upon it, was almost wholly subverted and swallowed up by an Earthquake in Trajan's time, as Dion Cassius writes; Trajan himself then winter­ing there.

The same City of Antioch, in the time of Iustinian, in the Year of our Lord 528. was again shaken with a terrible Earthquake, wherein were overwhelmed and buried in the ruins of the Houses above 40000 of the [...]itizens.

And lastly, in the 61 Year after the last mentioned Earthquake, being again shaken [Page 184] by a new one, it lost 60000 of its Inhabi­tants: Gregory the then Bishop, being by the Divine Favour, and in a manner miraculous­ly preserved, the House wherein he abode falling down presently after his going out of it.

Eusebius and Spartianus make mention of an Earthquake in the Emperour Adrian's time, wherein Nicomedia and Nicaea of Bi­thynia, and Nicopolis and Caesarea, Cities of Palaestina were thrown down and ruined.

In the Year 1182. when Saladin set him­self to overthrow the Kingdom of Ierusalem, there happened an Earthquake, in which Antiochia, Laodicea, Alapia, Caesarea, Emissa, Tripolis, and other famous Cities, were al­most wholly thrown down and destroy­ed.

To omit many that are recorded in anci­ent Histories and to come near to our times;

Aeneas Sylvius, afterwards Pope by the Name of [...]ius the Second, in a Letter of his to the Emperour Frederick, thus pitifully describes an Earthquake that fell out in his time; Audies ex latore praesentium quàm mi­rabilia & incredibilia damna fecerit Terrae­motus in Reguo Apuliae, nam multa oppida funditus corruerunt, alia magna ex parte col­lapsa sunt. Neapoli omnes fere Ecclesiae & maxima Palatia ceciderunt, plusquam trigin­ta [Page 185] millia corpora oppressa ruinis traduntur, populus omnis habitat in tentoriis: i. e. You shall understand by the Bearer of these Pre­sents, what wonderful and incredible losses an Earthquake hath wrought in the King­dom of Apulia; for many Towns are utter­ly ruined, others for the greatest part fall'n: In Naples almost all their Churches and sair Palaces are overthrown; more then 30000 Persons are said to have been slain, all the Inhabitants dwell in Tents.

This Kingdom of Naples, especially Apu­lia and Calabria, hath, I think, been oftner shaken, and suffered more by Earthquakes than any other part of Europe. For Cluve­rius tells us, That in the Year 1629. there were dreadful Earthquakes in Apulia, by which 17000 Men are said to have perish­ed.

And Athanasius Kircher the Jesuite, in the Preface to his Mundus Subterraneus, gives us a sad Narrative of a dismal Earthquake in Calabria, in the Year 1638. wherein him­self was, and out of which he hardly escaped with his Life: Nothing to be [...]en in the whole Country he passed by for two hun­dred Miles in length, but the Carcasses of Cities, and the horrible ruins of Villages, the Inhabitants wandring about in the open Fields being half dead with fear and expecta­tion [Page 186] of what might follow. But most re­markable was the subversion of the noted Town of S. Eufemia, which was quite lost out of their sight and absorpt, and instead thereof, nothing left but a stinking Lake. But for a full account thereof I refer the Reader to the said Preface.

Not many years ago the famous City of Ragusa was almost wholly subverted and de­stroyed by a terrible Earthquake; and Smyr­na has lately been demolished by one. From the West-Indies we hear frequently of great Damages done in our Plantations by Earth­quakes. The printed Transactions and Jour­nals are full of these great Concussions and Subversions.

This present Year 1692. on the Seventh day of Iune there happened a dreadful Earth­quake in the Island of Iamaica which made great Ruins and Devastations throughout the whole Country, but especially in the Capital Town of Port Royal, which was almost swallow'd up and overflow'd, by the sinking of the Earth, and irruption of the Sea: a full Account whereof contained in two Letters, sent from the Minister of the Place, the one dated Iune the 22d, the other the 28th of the same Month, 1692. from aboard the Granada in Port-Royal Harbour, to a Friend of his England, and published by [Page 187] Authority, I shall give the Reader, with some Remarks.

1. He tells us in general, That this Earth­quake threw down almost all the Houses, Churches, Sugar-works, Mills and Bridges throughout the whole Island: That it tore the Rocks and Mountains [others tell us, that it levelled some Mountains, and reduced them to Plains] that it destroyed some whole Plantations, and threw them into the Sea; but that Port-Royal had much the greatest share in this terrible Judgment.

2. Then he acquaints us, what for to save the Reputation of the People, and to avoid the laying a perpetual blot upon them, I should rather suppress and conceal, but for the vindication of the Divine Providence and Justice, and to deter others from the like Enormities, I think necessary to publish, That the Inhabitants of that Place were a most ungodly and debauched People, and so desperately wicked, that he was even afraid to continue among them: for that very day this terrible Earthquake was, as soon as night came on, a company of lewd Rogues, whom they call Privateers, fell to breaking open Warehouses and Houses deserted, to rob and ri [...]e their Neighbours, whilst the Earth trembled under them, and some of the Houses [...]ell upon them in the Act. [The [Page 188] like Robbers and Plunderers we were told wandered up and down the Country, even in the very smoke, during the last great [...]urning and eruption of Aetna in Sicily.] And those audacious Whores that remained still upon the Place, were as impudent and drunken as ever; and that since the Earth­quake, when he was on shore to pray with the brui [...]ed and dying People, and to Chri­sten Children, he met with too many drunk and swearing. And in his second Letter, he saith positively, That there was not a more [...]godly People on the Face of the Earth.

[...] The Account he gives of the Motions and [...] of the Earthquake is as follow­ [...] [...] when this Calamity be [...]el the [...] very clear, affording [...] evil. [This [...] Earthquakes, and [...] in England. the [...] being clear and calm. But [...], about half in [...] Morning, [...] Town in all the English [...] might he call it so, [...] place of his Letter, [...] the Wharf were [...] those in [...] and Mart or [...] in Riches [Page 189] and abounding in all good things, was sha­ken and shattered to pieces, and covered for the greatest part by the Sea. The Wharf was entirely [...]wallowed by the Sea, and two whole Streets beyond it. Himself, with the President of the Council, being in a House near where the Merchants meet, hearing the Church and Tower fall, ran to save them­selves: He having lost the President, made toward Morgan's Fort, because being a wide open place, he thought to be there [...]ecurest from the falling Houses, but as he was go­ing he saw the Earth open, and swallow up a multitude of People, and the Sea mount­ing in upon them over the Fortifications: Moreover he tells us, That their large and famous Burying place, called the Pallisado's, was destroyed by the Earthquake; and that the Sea washed away the Carcasses of those that were buried out of their Graves, their Tombs being dashed to pieces by the moti­on and concussion. That the whole Har­bour, one of the fairest and goodliest that ever he saw, was covered with the dead Bo­dies of People of all Conditions floating up and down without burial. That in the o­pening of the Earth, the Houses and Inha­bitants sinking down together, some of these were driven up again by the Sea which a­rose in those Breaches, and wonderfully esca­ped: [Page 190] Some were swallowed up to the neck, and then the Earth shut upon them, and squeezed them to death; and in that manner several were left buried with their Heads above ground, only some Heads the Dogs have eaten, others are covered with Dust and Earth by the People which yet re­main in the place, to avoid the stench. So that they conjecture, that by the falling of the Houses, the opening of the Earth, and the inundation of the Waters, there are lost Fifteen hundred persons, and many of good note, as Attorney General Musgrove, Pro­vost Marshal Reeves, Lord Secretary Reeves, &c.

Further he tells us, That after he was e­scaped into a Ship, he could not sleep all night for the returns of the Earthquake al­most every hour, which made all the Guns in the Ship to jar and rattle. And he suppo­ses that the whole Town of Port-Royal will in a short time be wholly swallowed by the Sea: for few of those Houses that yet stand are left whole, and that they heard them fall every day, and that the Sea daily en­croached upon them. That they had Ac­counts from several parts of those Islands of Misch [...]e [...]s done by the Earthquake. From St. Anns they heard of above 1000 Acres of Woodland changed into Sea, carrying with [Page 191] it whole Plantations. And lastly, That he was told by some, that they still heard bel­lowings and noises in the Mountains, which made them very apprehensive of an erup­tion of Fire; which if so, he feared might be more destructive then the Earthquake. [But I think causlesly, (for I never heard or read of any great destruction of Men made by any eruptions of Fire, even out of burning Mountains.]

4. The Account he gives of his own unex­pected and strange preservation, take his own words: After I had been at Church reading Prayers, (which I did every day since I was Rector of the Place, to keep up some shew of Religion) and was gone to a place hard by the Church, where the Merchants meet, and where the President of the Council was; who came into my Company, and engaged me to take a Glass of Wormwood Wine as a whet before din­ner; he being my very great Friend, I staid with him; upon which he lighted a Pipe of Tobacco, which he was pretty long in taking; and not being willing to leave him before it was out, this detained me from going to din­ner to one Captain Ruden's, whither I was in­vited; whose House upon the first concussion sunk first into the Earth, and then into the Sea, with his Wife and Family, and some that were come to dine with him: Had I been [Page 192] there I had been lost. But to return to the President, and his Pipe of Tobacco; before that was out I found the ground rowling and moving under my feet, upon which I said to him, Lord! Sir, what is this? He replyed very composedly, being a very grave Man, It is an Earthquake, be not afraid, it will soon be over: but it increased, &c. Then he re­lates how he went to his own Lodging, and found all things in order there, nothing stir­red out of its place, and going into his Bal­cony to view the Street, he saw never a House down there, nor the ground so much a crackt: And that after he had prayed [...] People at their earnest request, and [...] them some serious Exhortations to Re­p [...]ntance, in which Exercises he spent near an hour and half, there came some Mer­chants of the place to him, desiring him to go aboard some Ship in the Harbour and re­fresh himself, telling him that they had got­ten a Boat to carry him off. Whom he ac­compan [...]ed, and passing over the tops of some Houses, which lay levelled with the Surface of the Water, got first into a Canoe, and then into a [...]ong Boat, which put him­on board a Ship.

5. The last thing I shall take notice of in these Letters, shall be the influence and effect this Judgment had upon the Remainder of [Page 193] the People, to bring them to a sence of their Sins and Repentance for them, and to re­solve upon and begin a Reformation and A­mendment of their Lives. It is a true say­ing, Vexatio dat intellectum: In their affli­ction they will seek me early. The pious in­clination of the People appeared in that they were so glad to see their Minister in the midst of this Disaster, and so earnest with him to come down and pray with them when they saw him in the Balcony before­mentioned; and that when he came down into the Street, every one laid hold on his Cloaths and embraced him, so that with their fear and kindness he was almost stifled. And that not only at the instant of the Di­stress, but afterwards when he went a-shore to bury the Dead, and pray with the Sick, and baptize the Children, and preach among them, the People were over-joyed to see him, and wept bitterly when he preached to them. Fear is a more powerful Passion then Love: and whatever creates terrour is a more effectual Curb to restrain and rule Men as well as Children, then any Favours or Benefits the most powerful Motives of Love and Affection: For though the Bonds of Love are called the Cords of a Man, and are indeed very strong ones to rational and ingenuous Persons, yet the greatest part of [Page 194] Mankind are so far degenerated, that they have broken these bonds, and cast these cords from them; and upon trial, one shall find little of Gratitude or Ingenuity among them.

I shall add one or two Remarks upon the precedent Paper.

First, It is very remarkable that the day, when all this befel Port-Royal and the whole Island of Iamaica, was very clear, not af­fording the least suspicion of any evil: so that the Inhabitants had no warning at all of it, but were surprised of a sudden, without time sufficient to escape and save themselves. For in the short space of three Minutes the Town was shaken and shattered to pieces, and sunk into, and covered for the greatest part by the Sea. In which respect this Judg­ment resembled those on the Old World and on Sodom, which, the Scripture tells us, were to the People involved in them sudden and unexpected; as also the second coming of Christ, and future Dissolution of the World by Fire is predicted to be.

That the Cause of Earthquakes is the same with that of Thunder, I doubt not, and most learned Men are agreed; that is, Exhalati­ons or Steams set on fire, the one in the Clouds, the other in the Caverns of the Earth; which is sufficiently proved from the great [Page 195] deflagrations and [...]ruptions of Vulcano's or burning Mountains; they being always ei­ther preceded or attended by Earthquakes; and Earthquakes, even here in England, be­ing, as far as I can understand, for the most part accompanied with a noise. But now of what nature this steam is that is thus in­flamed, and what causes the accension, I must confess my self not to be yet fully sa­tisfied. That it is at least partly Sulphure­ous is certain, and well proved by Dr.Philosoph▪ Transact. N. 15 [...]. Li­ster from the Sulphureous stink of waters smelt before, and of the very Air it self after them: That it conceives fire of its self, and is not kindled after the manner of Gunpow­der by the touch of fire, is as clear, there being no fire praeexisting in the Clouds; but how it should kindle, unless by a col­luctation of parts after the manner of fermen­tations, I cannot conceive. And if so, then the steam must be a dissimilar Body com­posed of parts of different Natures; else would there be no colluctation, and conse­quently no accension, the parts friendly conspiring and agreeing in the same moti­on.

I am not ignorant that water, either in the gross body, or in vapour, may and doth so far work upon some solid Bodies, as for example, Quicklime, Hay in a Mow, the [Page 196] Pyrites or Firestone, &c. as to cause an in­calescency and even an accension; but still this is by the discord or contrariety of the parts of water or vapour, and those of the forementioned Bodies meeting and strugling together. So in Tempests of Thunder and Lightning, the fume contain'd in the Clouds, which my honoured Friend Dr. Martin Ly­ster supposes and proves to be no other then the breath of the Pyrites, encountering with the vapour of water, there may very likely by the concourse and conflict of these two be produced first a great heat, and afterwards an actual fire.

As for Thunder, after the steams inclosed in the Cloud are once inflamed, I conceive the fire goes not out till the end of the Tem­pest, but when the inflamed matter is so much dilated that the cavity of the Cloud cannot contain it, it rends the Cloud and forces its way through where it is most yielding, so much of the fire escaping at the breach, till the Cloud overcomes the resi­stance of the remainder, and closes it self a­gain; and continues shut, till there be so much of the Sulphu [...]eous steam anew infla­med as to have strength enough to tear it, and break out the second time, which pro­cess is repeated, till the whole steam be burnt and consumed, and the fire go out; or till [Page 197] the Cloud be quite condensed and faln down in rain. That this vapour or steam in the Clouds heats gradually before it comes to ac­cension, I think probable, because before a­ny considerable Tempest the Air beneath is [...]ultry (as we call it) that is, suffocatingly hot.

So likewise in the Caverns of the Earth it is not unlikely that the steams or damps that cause Earthquakes before ignition, may be gradually heated by a colluctation of parts; but their accension seems to be very sudden, and in manner of explosion, like that of Gunpowder; the succussion coming unexpectedly without any notice-giving, and being also very transient, and of short conti­nuance. I mean Earthquakes where there are no eructations of fire, such as ours in England are.

There is a sort of Damp which some call a Fire-damp or Fulminating-damp, of which I had the first notice from my honoured Friend Francis Iessop Esq An. 1668. whereof I find a Relation since communicated by him in a Letter to Dr. Lister, published in the Philo­sophical Transactions, Numb. 117. and a fur­ther Account from him in Answer to some Queries proposed by the Honourable Mr. Boyl in the Philosophical Transactions, Numb. 119. wherein he writes, That this sort of [Page 198] Damp presently takes fire at the touch of a lighted Candle, or other flaming Matter, and flies out of the mouth of the bink or shaft with a crack like a Gun. He instances in three Persons that had been hurt by it; one in the Coal-mines in Hasleberg Hills, who had his Arms and Legs broken, and his Body strangely distorted by it. A second in those at Wingersworth, who going into a bink, where this kind of Damp was, to fetch some of his Tools, with a Candle in his hand, found himself on a sudden environ'd with flames, so that his face, hands, hair, and a great part of his Clothes were very much burnt. He heard very little noise, but one who was working at the same time in ano­ther bink, and those that were above ground heard a very great one, like a clap of Thun­der, wherewith the Earth shook; which hearing, they ran in a great amazement to see what the matter was, with their Candles in their hands, which were twice extinguished, but held upon the third Lighting. They saw nothing, but met with an intolerable stench of Brimstone, and an heat as scald­ing as an Oven half-heated, which made them glad speedily to quit the place. A third at the same place met with the same accident: and he fore-mention'd person happening then to stand at the mouth of the fired bink, [Page 199] was shot forth about two or three yards, and had his head broken and boyd bruised against the further side; the same also a third time incurred the like disaster. That it shot off the Turn at the mouth of the Pit to a con­siderable height. That they could perceive no smell before the fire, but afterwards a very strong one of Brimstone. That the Damp hung about the top of the bink, and therefore they were for [...]'d to go with their Candles very low, else it would have taken fire. That the flame would continue in the Vault two or three Minutes, sometimes more after the crack. That he could never hear of any Damps that kindled of themselves. That from the breaking of these Fulmina­ting-damps proceeded a black smoke of the smell and colour of that from Gunpower fired.

This sort of Fire-damp Mr. Beaumont tells us, they have also in some Coal-works bor­dering on Mendip Hills. See Philosoph. Col­lect. 1. And Mr. George Sinclair in a Land called Werdy, west of Leith, which even in the day-time is sometimes seen in Coal-works in little holes, shining like kindled Sulphur. But the most strange Fire-damp was that which happen'd at Mostyn in Flintshire at the same time with that at Wingersworth [1675.] which as soon as the Colliers were scanted [Page 200] of Air appeared in the crevisses or slits of the Coal, where water had been before, in a small blewish flame, flashing and darting like Sword-blades from side to side of the Pit: and being kindled, had the same and more violent effects than those of Hasleberg or Wingersworth, leaving a foul ill-sented smoke behind it. In the last there mention'd [phi­losoph. [...] Numb. 136.] firing of it by one who can indiscreetly with his Candle o­ver the Eye of the damp Pit, it flew to and fro over all the hollows of the work with a great wind and mighty roaring, tore the Mens clothes from their backs, findging and [...] as also their hair and skins, [...] of them 1 [...] or 16 yards from [...], beating them against the [...] Coal and the Posts. As it drew [...], it caught one that was [...] along with it, and up it comes [...] out of the mouth of the [...] a terrible crack, not unlike, but [...] then a Cannon, so that it was [...] fi [...]teen miles off. The Man's Body, [...] things from the Pit, were seen in [...] above the tops of the highest Trees [...] grew on the [...]row of the Hill (eigh­teen yards above the Pit) more then 100 [...] The barrel of an Horse Engine for [...] up the Rope of above 1000 pound [Page 201] weight, though fastned to the frame with Locks and Bolts of Iron, together with the Buckets and Rope was thrown up, and car­ried a good way from the Pit, and pieces torn off from it scattered about the Woods. And lastly the whole frame of the Engine moved out of its place. The whole Relati­on deserves well to be read.

That which seems to me most strange and Romantick is the motion of the Damp, that as if it had been a living thing, it should fly up with a long sharp flame to lighed Can­dles set over the Eye of the Pit, and put them out: And yet Mr. Iessop also mentions a like motion in that of Wingersworth; For of, saith he, in the bink where it was, they held their Candles any higher then ordinary, they could see the Damp, which lay near the Roof, to descend like a black Mist, and catch bold of the flame, lengthning it to two or three handfuls.

By these Descriptions, this Damp should seem to be but Gunpowder in a vapour, and to partake the Sulphur, Nitre, and Bitumen, as the Learned Dr. Plot well proves in his Natural History of Staffordshire, C. 3. § 47. to which I refer the Reader. But for the accension of it, whether it ever takes fire of it self, I am in some doubt. Mr. Iessop de­ [...]ies it of those of Hasleberg and Wingers­worth; [Page 202] and how far those Relators that af­firm it are to be credited, I know not.

If in this particular I were satisfied, I should readily accord with the Doctor, That our Earthquakes in England, and any others that have but one single Pulse, owe their O­riginal to the kindling and explosion of Fire­damps.

You will say, That fire is the cause of Thunder we readily grant, because we see it plentifully discharged out of the Clouds: but what reason have we to think so of this sort of Earthquakes, where we see no lightning or eruption of fire at all? What becomes of the inclosed flame?

In answer hereto, I demand, what be­comes of it in the open Air? It diffuses it self through the Caverns of the Earth, till the deflagration be made, and is there dissipated and dissolved into Fume and Ashes. It breaks not forth, I conceive, because by reason of the depth of the Caverns wherein it is lodg­ed, it is not able to overcome the resistance of the incumbent Earth, but is forced Quà data porta ruere, to make its way where it finds easiest passage through the strait Cuni­culi of the Earth: as in a Gun the inflamed Powder, though if it were at liberty, and found equal resistance on every side, it would spread equally every way; yet by reason of [Page 203] the strength and firmness of the Mettal, it cannot tear the Barrel in pieces, and so break out; but is compelled to fly out at the muzzel, where it finds an open, though strait passage. For the force of flame, though very great, is not infinite.

It may be further objected, We hear not of any eruption of fire at Port-Royal, or else­where in this Island, and yet the Earth o­pen'd, and the roofs of the Caverns fell in, therefore fire could not be the cause of this Earthquake; for if it had, at those apertures and rifts of the ground, it must needs have issued forth and appeared abroad.

To which I answer, That the Vaults and Cavities wherein the inflamed Matter was imprisoned and the explosion made, lay deep in the Earth, and were covered with a thick and impenetrable Coat of hard stone, or other solid matter which the fire could not tear, but that above this coat there were other superficial hollows in a more loose and crumbling Earth, which being not able to sustain the shock, and hold out against the impetuous agitations of the Earthquake, the roofs might yield, open, and subside, as we hear they did, and give way to the Sea to rush in and surmount them.

[Page 204] You will reply, This may be a tolerable account of our English Earthquakes, which are finished at one explosion, but what shall we say to those of Iamaica, which like a Tempest of Thunder and Lightning in the Clouds, have (as we learn by this Relation) several Paroxysms or Explosions, and yet no discharging of fire?

To which I answer, That I conceive the Caverns of the Earth wherein the inflamed Damps are contained, are much larger there then ours in England; and the force of the fire joyned with the elatery of the Air be­ing exceeding great, may of a sudden heave up the Earth, yet not so far as to rend it in [...]under, and make its way out, but is forced to seek passage where it finds least resistance through the lateral Cuniculi. So the main Cavern being in a great measure emptied, and the exteriour parts of the extended matter within cooling and shrinking, the Earth may subside again, and reduce the Cavern to its former dimensions. Yet possibly there may not be a perfect defiagration and extin­ction of the fire, and so new Damps ascend­ing out of the Earth, and by degrees filling the Cavern, there may succeed a second in­flamation and explosion, and so a third, and fourth, till the steams be quite burnt up and consumed. But in this, I confess, I do not [Page 205] satisfie my self. They who have a more comprehensive knowledge of all the Phoe­nomena, may give a better account.

But as for those Earthquakes that are oc­casioned by the burnings of Vulcano's, they are, I conceive, of a different nature. For in them the fire burns continually, and is never totally extinct, only after the great e­ruptions, in which, besides smoke and fire, there is an ejection of abundance of Ashes, Sand, Earth, Stones, and in some floods of melted Materials, the raging is for a time qualified; but the fire still continuing, and by degrees increasing in the combustible matter it finds in the hollows of the Moun­tains, at last swells to that excess, that it melts down Metals and Minerals where it meets with them, causing them to boil with great fury, and extending it self beyond the dimensions of the Cavities wherein it is con­tained, causes great succussions and trem­blings of the Earth, and huge eruptions of smoke, and casts out such quantities of Ash­es, Sand and Stones as we just now mention­ed: and after much thunder and roaring by the allision and repercussion of the flame a­gainst and from the sides of the Caverns, and the ebullition and volutation of the melt­ed Materials, it forces out that boiling mat­ter either at the old mouths, or at new ones, [Page 206] which it opens where the incumbent Earth is more thin and yielding. And if any wa­ter enters those Caverns, it mightily encrea­seth the raging of the Mountain. For the fire suddenly dissolving the water into va­pour, expands it to a vast dimension, and by the help thereof throws up Earth, Sand, St [...]nes, and whatever it meets with. How great the force of water converted into va­pour is, I have sometimes experimented by inadvertently casting a Bullet in a wet mold, the melted Lead being no sooner poured in, but it was cast out again with violence by the particles of water adhering to the mold suddenly converted into vapour by the heat of the Metal.

Secondly, The People of this Plantation being generally so ungodly and debauched in their lives, this Earthquake may well be e­steemed by this Gentleman, the Minister of Port-Royal, a Judgment of God upon them.

For though it may be a servile complaint, and popular mistake, that the former imes were better than these, and that the World doth daily degenerate, and grow worse and worse. Aet as parentum pejor avis tulit hos nequiores, mox daturos Progeniem vitiosiorem. For had this been true, Vice would long be­fore this time have come to the height and [Page 207] greatest possible excess: and this Complaint hath been made as well in the best as worst of times. Though I say this be partly an errour, yet I do verily believe, that there are certain times when Iniquity doth abound, and Wickedness overflow in a Nation or City; and that long Peace and Prosperity, and great Riches, are apt to create Pride and Luxury, and introduce a general Corruption of Manners: And that at such times God u­sually sends some sweeping Judgment, either utterly destroying such a People who have filled up the measure of their iniquity, or at least grievously afflicts and diminishes them. So when in the old World the wickedness of man was great upon the earth, and every i­magination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually, Gen. 6. 5. And the earth was corrupt before God, and filled with violence, all flesh having corrupted their ways, vers. 11. & 12. God brought in the Flood, and drowned them all. The like ven­geance we find executed on the Cities of Sodom and Gomorrha after such a monstrous height of wickedness as the Inhabitants were generally arrived at. And we shall find it noted by Historians, That before any great publick Calamity or utter Excision of a Na­tion, the People were become universally vi­cious and corrupt in their Manners, and with­out [Page 208] all fear of God or sence of Goodness. For God doth not stand by as an idle and unconcerned Spectator, and suffer things to run at random; but his Providence many times interposes, and stops the usual course and current of Natural Causes: Nay, I be­lieve and affirm, That in all great and nota­ble Revolutions and Mutations he hath the greatest hand and interest; himself ordering and governing them by his special Super­intendence and influence. So though the Instruments and Materials wherewith this de­vastation in Iamaica was made, as a subter­raneous fire and inflamable materials, were before in the Earth, yet that they should at this time break forth and work, when there was such an inundation of wickedness there, and particularly and especially at Port-Royal, this we may confidently say, was the finger of God, and effected perchance by the mi­nistery of an Angel.

Moreover, This Relator's being called a­side, and stopped from going to a place, whi­ther if he had then gone he had certainly perished, we have good reason to think an effect of Providence, designing thereby his preservation; as Gregory the Bishop of An­tioch his going out of the House wherein he abode immediately before it fell down, was rationally thought to be in respect of him.

[Page 209] But to proceed; I should now have done concerning Earthquakes, it being my design only to take notice of such as have made considerable mutations in the superficial part of the Earth, passing by those, which after a short trembling and succussion have left the Earth as they found it, making no alterati­on at all therein. But at the very time this she [...]t of Earthquakes was Composing, there happening a notable one, though of this latter kind, in our own Country, I was part­ly by the coincidence of it, with the compo­sure before-mentioned, partly at the request of the Bookseller, induced to make some mention of it, and add what I knew or could learn of its History; which is indeed very little and inconsiderable, we having as yet but a very lame and imperfect account of the Accidents of it.

As for the time when it happened, it was the 8th of September 1692. about 4 Minutes past Two of the Clock in the Afternoon, as was observed at London; hereabouts I can hear of no body that was so critical in no­ting the time, only they agree that it was a­bout Two of the Clock. Had we a punctu­al and exact notice of the very Minute that it happened in far distant places, we might thence gather something concerning the mo­tion and progress of it. However it is re­markable [Page 210] that it happened in the Autumn, one of the Seasons in which Aristotle tells us such effects are most frequent, the other be­ing the Spring; and likewise in the Month of September; in the which that about Ox­ford in the Year 1683. fell out: and more­over in a wet Season, as that also did; though the Forenoon of the day was clear and fair, yet in the Afternoon, when the Earthquake was past it rained hard till Night, the whole precedent Summer (to this I mean) having been cold and wet: which what influence it can have toward the pro­duction of an Earthquake, unless by stop­ping the Pores of the Earth, and hindring the evaporation of those sulphureous steams, which are the efficients of it, I know not, The same Night succeeded some strokes of Thunder and Flashes of Lightning both here and at London, and since then we have had great storms of Wind. I might have taken notice, that for some Mornings before we had smart Frosts for the time of the Year.

Since this was written and sent away in order to printing, I am advis'd by Letter from my honoured Friend Dr. Tancred Robinson, that this Earthquake was not confin'd to some Counties of England, as Middlesex, Essex, Kent, Sussex, Hampshire, &c. but spread far into Foreign Parts; an Account whereof I [Page 211] shall give you in the Doctor's own words. The Concussion or Vibration of our late Earth­quake was felt in most parts of the Dutch and Spanish Netherlands, as also in Germany and France: It affected places most upon the Sea-Coasts, and near the great Rivers as Zealand, Cologn, Mentz, and the Bridge of London. It went not beyond 52 Degrees and 40 Mi­nutes of Northern Latitude; how far it reach'd to the South and East, is not yet cer­tainly known for want of good Intelligence, we have already traced it beyond Paris to the 48 degree of N. Latitude, and beyond the Rhine on the East to Francfort; so that we know at present of 260 Miles square shaken by it. The motions of some Machines were very sensibly stop't or retarded by the Choc, especi­ally Pendulums; and there were some altera­tions in the Air (as to its smell, spring, and gravity) both before and after. The time of its happening here in England, and beyond the Seas, seems to vary some Minutes, but that may easily be accounted for by the difference of Meridians. Thus far the Doctor. Dat. Septemb. 22.

The duration or continuance of it (as I am informed by some curious and attentive Observers) about London was about Two Minutes; here not so long.

[Page 212] The manner of the motion, as I am as­sured by my Learned and Ingenious Friend and Neighbour Mr. Allen, Physitian in Brain­tree, who had it from several intelligent and observant Persons hereabouts, and that lived in distant places, was first a manifest heav­ing upwards, and after that a trembling, or vibration, or agitation to and fro. So that in the first respect, its motion seemed to re­semble that of the Blood in an Artery stretching the Channel as it passed.

The motion of it was most considerable upon Hills and in Valleys.

The effect it had upon those who were sensible of it was a swimming or dizziness in their Heads, and this was general upon all. In some it affected their Stomacks, and crea­ted a loathing and inclination to vomit: Some of the tenderer Sex found in them­selves such a disposition as they have had be­fore a swooning fit. All which must be the effects either of the heaving or tremulous motion, or both; and yet no motion of Boat or Coach doth so suddenly affect and disturb the Head or Stomack.

Lastly, It was attended with a noise, as our Earthquakes generally in England are, as is observed by Mr. Pigot in that of Oxford in the Year 1683. and by my self when I lived in Sutton [...]field, in [...] that happen'd there [Page 213] in the Winter time as I remember in the Year 1677 and extended at least 40 Miles in length into Worcestershire. The noise I heard seem'd to be in the Air. This noise hereabouts was heard but in few places, and by few persons, but yet I am well assured by some, and those of the Vulgar and Ignorant sort, who reported it of themselves, having no reason to seign it, and who had never heard that any such thing accompanied Earthquakes.

From many of the fore-mentioned parti­culars it may be collected, That the Ca­verns in which the inflamed Damp causing this Earthquake was contained, lye deep in the Earth, else could it not have shook such a vast extent of Ground, both Hills and Val­leys, passing under the Channels of great Ri­vers, and even Creeks of the Sea, and not being stop't by them; and if it had not lain deep, it would in all likelyhood some where or other have rent the Earth, and broken forth. And yet notwithstanding the depth, it should seem it found so much vent as to affect the external Air, and create a sound: for if the Caverns wherein the Damp was had been close shut up with such a thick Coat of Earth, I doubt whether the trem­bling and vibration of the soft Earth alone would have produced such a noise abroad in [Page 214] the Air; and the vapour of it also made a shift to struggle through the Pores of the Earth into the open Air, in such quantity as to affect the sence; a sulphurous scent having been observed in the Air both before and af­ter the Concussion.

It is moreover very remarkable, That there were some particular spots which were not at all stirred in those Countreys where the pla­ces not far distant round about were shaken; as Sturbridge-Fair before remembred, and that where my Dwelling is; neither my self, nor any of my Family, though they were above stairs, nor any of our near Neigh­bours being sensible of the least motion or impression of it, and yet those living with­in less then half a mile had their Houses con­siderably shaken by it.

It is also worth the noting, That both this, and all other Earthquakes I have heard or read of in England, have been very short, and finished at one explosion; which is an argument that the Cavities and Cuniculi, wherein the enflamed matter is contained and moves, are very strait and of small di­mensions. Explosion I call it, because by the quickness of the motion it seems rather to resemble that of Powder in a Gun, then that of a Squib running in a Train of Powder. Though others I have read of whose motion [Page 215] was very slow; as that observed by the Honourable Mr. Boyl, and described in the Philosophical Transactions, Numb. 11. Had we certain knowledge where the greatest force of this Earthquake was, we might thence learn where its first accension was, and which way it spread it self. But I have not time to enlarge further concerning it, or to give an account of all its Phoenomena, lest I injure the Printer by stopping the Press: neither indeed would it be prudence to at­tempt it, till we have a more particular and perfect History of it.

Since this was written and sent away to the Printer, intelligence is come from be­yond the Seas, that Flanders and all Hol­land, part of France and Germany, were shaken by this Earthquake, and consequent­ly the interjacent Provinces, which is a clear demonstration of our Opinion, That the inflamed Damp, which caused it, was lodged deep in the Earth, the Cuniculi or Caverns which contained it passing under the very bottom of the Sea. It is also a great confirmation of what we have delivered con­cerning the Mountains of Aetna, Stromboli, and Vesuvius communicating by Submarine passages. Add hereto, that Gassendus in the Life of Peireskius reports, That at the Moun­tain Semo in Aethiopia, there happened a [Page 216] burning at the same time with that of Vesuvius in Campania, viz. in the Year 1633. So that not only Vesuvius communi­cates with Aetna by subterraneous Vaults, but also (as he rationally infers) Aetna with the Mountains of Syria, the Tunnels run­ning under the depths of the Mediterranean Sea, and those with the Arabian, and lastly the Arabian with Mount Semo in Aethio­pia.

That an inflamed Damp or subterraneous Fire is the cause of all Earthquakes in gene­ral, and not only such as precede the erup­tions of Vulcano's, may be proved by an e­minent instance of an Earthquake happen­ing May 12. 1682. which shook the greatest part of France and Switzerland, and reach't as far as Collen in Germany: an Account whereof we have in the Iournal des Scavans set forth Iune 1. 1682. inserted in the Week­ly Memorials printed for Mr. Faithorne, Numb. 23. In which they write, That it was perceived in Lionnois, (which was wont [...] pass for a place exempt from such Acci­dents) in P [...]phiny and Beaujolois, though very [...], and without any ill consequence. That at Mets in Lorrain the Watch-place of a Bulwark was thrown down into the [...], with the Soldier that stood Sentinel [...]

[Page 217] That at Tonnerre the Houses and Church­es were so terribly shaken, as if several Coach­es with six Horses had driven along full speed through the Streets; and that it threw down several Rocks on the side of Bourbi­rant. They tell also that it stop't a Foun­tain at Raviere hard by (which at fifty pa­ces from its head turns a Mill) for half an hour.

That it was perceived in Provence by the shaking of Windows and Beds, and opening of Doors, and that it had two several moti­ons or pulses, as ours also was by some ob­served to have: and that the Domestick A­nimals, as Sheep, Cows, Horses, and Poul­try did discover their fear by unusual mo­tions and cries. And the Sheep at Dijon in Burgundy could not be stopt from getting into their Stalls at four of the Clock in the Afternoon, which were not then wont to betake themselves thither till Sun-set.

That the Cities of Orleans, Troyes, Sens, Chalons, Ioinville, Reims, Soissons, Laon, Mascon, Dole, Strasbourg, &c. felt the Ef­fects of it.

But at Remiremont upon the Moselle, where it exerted its greatest force, throw­ing down several Houses, insomuch that the Inhabitants were forced to betake them­selves into the Fields for six weeks time; [Page 218] there was a noise heard like Thunder, and flames frequently broke out of the Earth of a noisome scent, but not Sulphureous, and which burnt nothing, yet was there no rift or chap in the ground, save only in one place, the depth whereof was in vain search't, and which afterwards closed up. And before this Earthquake also flames ap­peared for 4 days upon a Mountain near Geneva.

It is very strange and remarkable that the flames that issued out were of the nature of an Ignis fatuus, and burnt nothing; and that (as Monsieur Colbert writes) the Earth­quake raged every Night, and never in the Day-time.

Concerning Earthquakes, I shall only add two Observations.

1. That it is not likely that they spend all their strength upon Cities, but do indifferent­ly shake, break in sunder, and throw down Mountains and Rocks; and seeing few Ci­ties there are but have been shaken, and many ruined and subverted by them, and levelled with the Ground; there is good reason to think, that few Rocks or Mountains have escaped their Fury, but have suffered the like Concussions and Alterations.

[Page 219] 2. That the Changes that have hitherto happened in the Earth by Earthquakes have not been so considerable as to threaten a dis­solution of the present System of the Ter­raqueous Globe, should there be a like suc­cession of them to Eternity. Unless we will except that unparall'd universal one, which happened in the days of Valentinian the first (which we have already mention'd) by which the whole known World, both Land and Sea, and its like the then unknown too, were violently shaken; which might seem to be a Prelude to the future Conslagration or Destruction of the whole by such a confusion and dashing in pieces of all the parts of it one against another, as the Stoicks speak of.

Of the Effects of burning Mountains or Vulcanos, I have already said something, and shall afterwards, have occasion to say more. In brief, 1. They cast forth out of their Mouths, and scatter all over the Country, sometimes to a very great distance, abun­dance of Sand and Ashes. Dion Cassius re­ports, that in that noted deflagration of Ve­suvius in the time of Titus the Emperour, there was so much Cinders and Ashes vomi­ted out of its flaming Tunnel, and with that Fury and Violence, that they were trans­ported over Sea into Africa, Syria and Egypt; [Page 220] and on the other side were carried as far as Rome, where they darkned the very Air, and intercepted the Sun-beams. At which time, by the fury of this burning and tempest, the whole Mountain and Earth thereabouts was so shaken, that two adjoyning Cities Her­culanium and Pompeii, were destroyed with the People sitting in the Theater. And the famous Natural Historian Pliny the Elder, then Admiral of the Roman Navy, out of a curiosity of searching out the Causes and Nature of the Deflagration approaching too near the Mountain, and staying too long there, was suffocated with the sulphureous smoke and stench thereof.

Of another eruption of the same Vesuvi­us we read, in the time of Leo the Emperour, wherein the Ashes thereof transported in the Air obscured all Europe, being carried as far as Constantinople; and that the Constant ino­politans being wonderfully affrighted there­with (insomuch as the Emperour forsook the City) in memory of the same, did year­ly celebrate the Twelfth of November.

2. They also pour out huge Floods of melted Minerals, Stones, and other Materials, run­ning down like Rivers for many Miles toge­ther; as did the Mountain Aetna in that last and most famous Eructation, disgorging such mighty streams of fiery running matter, as [Page 221] flowed down to Catana, above twenty Miles distant, and advanced a considerable way into the very Sea it self.

Secondly, The next thing I shall mention is the extraordinary Floods caused by long continuing showers, or violent and tempe­stuous storms and shots of rain.

The most ancient and memorable of this kind is that of Deucalion, of which we have already discoursed sufficiently. S. Hierome in the Life of Hilarion (as I find him quo­ted by Dr. Hakewill) speaks of a Flood and Inundation after the Death of Iulian, in which Naves ad praerupta montium delatae pependerunt, the Ships being landed upon the tops of the Mountains, there stuck. Which whether it proceeded from Rain, or from an Irruption of the Sea, or from both Causes together, he doth not say: but if it were literally true, and not hyperbolically exaggerated, then may some credit be given to what Sabin in his Commentaries upon O­vid's Metamorphosis, reports, Ex Annalium monumentis constat Anno 1460. in Alpibus in­ventam esse Navim cum anchoris in cu [...]iculo per quem metalla effodiuntur: It appears by the Monuments of History, that in the Year 1460. in a Mine of the Alps was found a Ship with its Anchors; in confirmation of what that Poet writes,

In the Year of our Redemption 590. in the Month of October, Gregory being then Bishop of Rome, there happened a marvel­lous overflowing in Italy, and especially in the Venetian Territory and in Liguria, ac­companied with a most fearful storm of Thunder and Lightning, after which follow­ed the great Plague at Rome, by reason of the many dead Serpents cast up and left up­on the Land after the Waters decreased and returned.

Strozius Sigog in his Magia omnifaria, telleth of an Inundation in Italy in the time of Pope Damasus, in which also many Cities of Sicily were swallowed: another in the time of Alexander the Sixth: also in the Year 1515. Maximilian being Emperour. He also remembers a perillous overflowing in Polonia about Cracovia, by which many People perished.

Likewise Vignier a French Historian, speak­eth of a great Flood in the South part of Languedoc, which fell in the Year of our Lord 1557. with so dreadful a Tempest, that all the People attended therein the very end of the World and Judgment-day; saying, [Page 223] that by the violent descent of the Waters a­bout Nismes, there were removed divers old heaps and mountures of Ground, and many other Places torn up and rent; by which accident there was found both Coin of Silver and Gold, and divers pieces of Plate, and Vessels of other Metal, supposed to be hid­den at such time as the Goths invaded that Province. These stories related in the three last Paragraphs, I have borrowed of Sir Wal­ter Ralegh his History of the World.

To which I shall add one of late date happening in Sicily, a Narrative whereof communicated in a Letter from Palermo, dated Iune the 25th, 1682. I met with in the London Gazette, Numb. 1742. in the following words: We have an Account from the Town of Tortorica, That on the sixth Instant, about seven a Clock in the Evening, after so great a darkness that no object could be distinguished at the distance of four pa­ces, there arose such a great storm of Rain, Lightning and Thunder, which lasted six and thirty hours, that about One a Clock the next morning, great Torrents of Water, caused by these Rains, fell down from the neighbouring Mountains with so great rapi­dity, that they carried with them Trees of an extraordinary bigness, which threw down the Walls and Houses of the Town they hap­pened [Page 224] to beat against. The Waters were so violent that they overthrew the Church of St. Nicholas; and the Arch-Deacon of the Town, who retired thither, perished there with many other persons: there remaining only one Abby, and about fifty Houses, and those so shattered, that they fell one after another. There were about six hundred of the Inhabitants drown'd, the rest being a­broad in the Field gathering their silk, fled to the Mountains, where they suffered very much for want of Provisions. The Goods, Trees, Stone, Sand and other Rubbish which the Waters carried away, were in so great abundance, that they made a bank above the Water two Miles in length near the mouth of the River, where before the Sea was very deep. This Town is situate in that part of Sicily called the Valley of Demona, on the side of the River Tortorica, about five and Twenty Miles from the Tuscan Sea. The Towns of Randazzo and Francaville, and several others, have likewise been de­stroyed by this great Flood. It is added that Mount Aetna casts out such abundance of Water, that all the neighbouring Country is drowned. Which if it be true, (as I see no reason to doubt it) this is a further proof, against Borellius, that the Caverns of Aet­na are more then superficial, and reach [Page 225] down to the very Roots and Foundations of that Mountain, communicating with the Subterraneous Abyss, and the Sea its self, from whence in all likelyhood these Waters were derived, as is evident in those poured out by Vesuvius.

Many other Floods we read of in Histories, whether caused by Rains or Inundations of the Sea, is uncertain, and therefore I shall not spend time in setting them down. The effect of all which relating to the Earth in general is, the wasting and washing away of Mountains and high Grounds, the raising of the Valleys and Bottoms, and consequently levelling of the Earth, and landing up of the Sea.

Thirdly, The last thing I shall mention, which hath effected considerable Changes in the Earth, is boisterous and outragious Winds and Hurricanes, of which I need not give Instances, they every year almost happening. These I conceive have a great Interest in the Inundations of the Sea we have before men­tioned. These raise up those great Hills or Downs of Sand we see all along the Coasts of the Low-Countreys, and the Western-shores of England, and the like places. These some­times blow up so much Sand, and drive it so far as to cover the adjacent Countreys, and to mar whole Fields, yea to bury Towns [Page 226] and Villages. They are also a concurrent cause of those huge Banks and Shelves of Sand that are so dangerous to Mariners, and bar up Havens, and ruin Port-Towns; of which many Instances might be given.

I find in Dr. Hakewil's Apology, a story or two shewing the great force and strength of Winds; the one taken out of Bellarmine's Book De ascensu mentis in Deum per scal. creat. grad. 2. Vidi ego (saith the Cardinal) quod nisi vidissem non crederem, à vehementissimo vento effossam ingentem terrae molem, eámque delatam super pagum quendam ut fovea altis­sima conspiceretur, unde terra eruta fuerat, & pagus totus coopertus, & quasi sepultus man­serit, ad quem terra illa devenerat: i. e. I my self have seen, which if I had not seen, I should not have believed, a very great quantity of Earth, digged out and taken up by the force of a strong Wind, and carried up a Village thereby, so that there remain­ed to be seen a great empty hollowness in the place from whence it was lifted, and the Village upon which it lighted was in a manner all covered over and buried in it.

The other out of Stow, who reports, That in the Year 1095. during the Reign of King William Rufus, there happened in London an outragious Wind, which bore down [Page 227] in that City alone six hundred Houses, and blew off the Roof of Bow-Church, with which the Beams were born into the Air a great height, six whereof being 27 foot long, with their fall were driven 23 foot deep into the ground, the streets of the City lying then unpaved.

Now then to sum up what we have said, The Changes and Alterations that have been made in the Superficial Part of the Terra­queous Globe have been effected chiefly by Water, Fire, and Wind. Those by Water have been either by the Motions of the Sea, or by Rains; and both either ordinary or ex­traordinary: The ordinary Tides and Spring­tides of the Sea do wash away the shores, and change Sand-banks, and the like. The extraordinary and tempestuous motions of the Sea, raised by raging and impetuous Winds, subterraneous Fires, or some other hidden causes, overwhelm Islands, open Fre­tum's, throw up huge beds and banks of Sand, nay vast baiches of Stone, extending some Miles, and drown whole Countreys. The ordinary Rains contribute something to the daily diminution of the Mountains, fil­ling up of the Valleys, and atterrating the skirts of the Seas. The extraordinary Rains causing great Floods and Deluges, have more visible and remarkable influences upon such [Page 228] mutations, doing that in a few days, which the ordinary Weather could not effect, it may be, in an hundred years.

In all these Changes the Winds have a great interest; the motion of the Clouds being wholly owing to them, and in a great measure also the overflowings and inundati­ons of the Sea.

Whatever Changes have been wrought by Earthquakes, Thunders, and Eruptions of Vulcano's, are the effects of Fire.

All these Causes co-operate toward the lowring of the Mountains, levelling of the Earth, straitning and landing up of the Sea, and in fine compelling the Waters to return upon the dry Land, and cover the whole Surface of it, as at the first. How to ob­viate this in a natural way, I know not, un­less by a transmutation of the two Elements of Water and Earth one into another, which I can by no means grant. 'Tis true indeed, the rocky parts of the Mountains may be so hard and impenetrable, as to resist and hold out against all the Assaults of the Water, and utmost rage of the Sea; but then all the Earth and Sand being washed from them, nothing, but as it were their Skeletons, will re­main extant above the Waters, and the Earth be in effect drowned.

[Page 229] But though I cannot imagine or think up­on any natural means to prevent and put a stop to this effect, yet do I not deny that there may be some; and I am the rather in­clinable so to think, because the World doth not in any degree proceed so fast towards this Period, as the force and agency of all these Causes together seem to require. For, as I said before, the Oracle predicting the carrying on the shore of Cilicia as far as Cyprus by the Earth and Mud that the turbid River Pyramus should bring down, and let fall in the interjacent strait, is so far from being filled up, that there hath not any con­siderable progress been made towards it, so far as I have heard or read, in these 2000 years. And we find by experience, that the longer the World lasts, the fewer Concussi­ons and Mutations are made in the upper or superficial Region of the Earth; the parts thereof seeming to tend to a greater quiet and settlement.

Besides the Superficies of the Sea, notwith­standing the overwhelming and submersion of Islands, and the straitning of it about the Outlets of Rivers; and the Earth it washes from the shores subsiding, and eleva­ting the bottom, seems not to be raised higher, nor spread further, or bear any greater pro­portion [Page 230] to that of the Land then it did a thousand years ago.

So have I finished my second Discourse concerning the Deluge and its Effects; and the Mutations that have been since made in the Earth, and their Causes.

CHAP. 1.
The Division of the Words and Do­ctrine contained in them, with the Heads of the following Discourse.

THESE Words contain in them two Parts; 1. An Antecedent or Doctrine, All these things shall be dissolved. 2. A Consequent, or Inference thereupon, What manner of persons ought we to be?

[Page 237] The Doctrine, here only briefly hinted, or summarily proposed, is laid down more fully in the precedent Verse; But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the Heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the Elements shall melt with fer­vent heat, the Earth also, and the works that are therein shall be burnt up.

These words are by the generality of In­terpreters, Ancient and Modern, understood of the final destruction or dissolution of Hea­ven and Earth: in which sense I shall choose rather to accept them at present, than with the Reverend and Learned Dr. Hammond, and some few others, to stem the Tide of Expositors, and apply them to the destru­ction of Ierusalem and the Jewish Polity. I say then, ‘That this World,Doctr. and all things therein contained, shall one day be dissolved and destroyed by Fire.’

By World in this Proposition We, and by Heaven and Earth in this place, the most rational Interpreters of Scripture, do under­stand only the whole Compages of this sub­lunary World, and all the Creatures that are in it; all that was destroyed by the Flood in the days of Noah, and now secured from [Page 238] perishing so again, that I may borrow Dr. Hammond's words, in his Annotations on this place. And again, the word Heavens (saith he) being an Equivocal word, is used either for the superiour Heavens, whether Empyreal or Ethereal, or for the sublunary Heavens, the Air (as the word World is ei­ther the whole Compages of the superiour and inferiour World, as the Author of the Book De Mundo, ascribed falsly to Aristotle, defines [...], The Sy­steme or Compages of Heaven and Earth, and the Beings therein contained: or else only of the sublunary lower World) we may here resolve, that the [...] and [...], Hea­ven and Host, or Elements thereof, are lit­terally the sublunary Aereal Heavens, and all that is therein, Clouds and Meteors, &c. Fowls and flying Creatures, and so, fit to joyn with the Earth and Works that are there­in.

In prosecution of this Proposition, and in order to the Proof and Confirmation, and likewise the clearing and illustration of it, shall, (1.) Give you what I find concerning the dissolution of the World; 1. In the Ho­ly Scripture. 2. In Ancient Christian Wri­ters. 3. In the Heathen Philosophers and Sages.

[Page 239] (2.) I shall endeavour to give some answer to these seven Questions, which are obvious and usually made concerning it.

1. Whether there be any thing in Nature, which might prove and demonstrate; or ar­gue and infer a future Dissolution of the World?

2. Whether shall this Dissolution be brought about and effected by Natural, or by Extra­ordinary Means and Instruments; and what those Means and Instruments shall be?

3. Whether shall the Dissolution be gra­dual or sudden?

4. Whether shall there be any Signs and Fore-runners of it.

5. At what Period of Time shall the World be dissolved?

6. How far shall this Conflagration extend? Whether to the Ethereal Heavens, and all the Host of them, Sun, Moon and Stars, or to the Aereal only.

7. Whether shall the Heavens and Earth be wholly dissipated and destroyed, or only refined and purified?

CHAP. II.
The Testimonies of Scripture concerning the Dissolution of the World.

1. THen, Let us consider what we find delivered in the Holy Scriptures, concerning the Dissolution of the World. And first of all, This place, which I have made choice of for my Text, is in my opi­nion the most clear and full, as to this par­ticular, in the whole Scripture; and will give light for the Solution of most of the proposed Questions. Vers. 10. The day of the Lord shall come as a thief, &c. This an­swers the third Question, Whether the Dis­solution shall be gradual or sudden? Where­in the Heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the Elements shall melt with fer­vent heat, the Earth also, and all the works that are therein shall be burnt up. And a­gain, Vers. 12. Wherein the Heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat. This answers the second Question, What the Means and [Page 241] Instruments of this Dissolution shall be? Vers. 13. Nevertheless we according to his promise, look for a new Heaven and a new Earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. This gives some light towards the anwering of the last Question, Whether shall the Heavens and the Earth be wholly burnt up and de­stroyed, or only renewed and purified? These Words as clearly as they seem to refer to the Dissolution of the World, yet Dr. Hammond doubts not to be understood of the remarkable destruction of Ierusalem and the Iewish State, he thus paraphrasing them.

But this Judgment of Christ, so remark­able on the Iews, shall now shortly come, and that very discernably; and the Temple shall suddenly be destroyed, the greater part of it burnt, and the City and People utterly consumed.

Seeing then this destruction shall thus in­volve all, and now approacheth so near, what an engagement doth this lay upon us to live the most pure strict lives that ever Men lived?

Looking for the coming of Christ, for our deliverance, and by our Christian lives quickning and hastning God to delay it no longer; that Coming of his, I say, which as it signifies great mercy to us, so it signi­fies very sharp destruction to the whole Iew­ish State.

[Page 243] Instead of which we look for a new Chri­stian State, wherein all provision is made by Christ for Righteousness to inhabit, according to the Promise of Christ concerning the Pu­rity that he should plant in the Evangelical State.

How he makes out and confirms this Pa­raphrase, see in his Annotations upon this place. So confident is he of the Truth of this his Interpretation, that he censures the usual one as a great Mistake, in his Annota­tion on verse 10. where he thus writes; What is here thus expressed by S. Peter, is ordina­rily conceived to belong to the end of the World, and by others applies to the end of this World, and the beginning of the Millen­nium, or thousand years. And so, as S. Peter here saith, verse 16. many other places in S. Paul's Epistles, and in the Gospel, especi­ally Matthew 24. are mistaken and wrested. That it doth not belong to either of those, but to this fatal day of the Iews, sufficient­ly appears by the purport of this whole E­pistle, which is, to arm them with Constan­cy and Perseverance till that day come; and particularly, in this Chapter, to confute them who object against the Truth of Christ's Predictions, and resolve it should not come at all: Against whom he here opposes the Certainty, the Speediness, and the Terrible­ness [Page 244] of its coming. That which hath given occasion to those other common Mistakes, is especially the hideousness of those Judg­ments which fell upon the People of the Iews, beyond all that ever before are rela­ted to have fallen upon them, or indeed a­ny other People, which made it necessary for the Prophets, which were to describe it (and who use Tropes and Figures, and not plain Expressions, to set down their Predicti­ons) to express it by these high Phrases, of the passing away and dissolving of Heaven and Earth and Elements, &c. which sounding very tragically, are mistaken for the great and final Dissolution of the World. So far the Doctor. Two things there are in this Chapter which seem to contradict this In­terpretation; First, That the Destruction here spoken of, is compared with Noah's Flood; and the Heaven and Earth to be dis­solved by this, made parallel, and of equal extent to the World destroyed by that. Of this the Doctor was well aware, and there­fore grants that the seventh Verse, But the Heavens and the Earth which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment, and perdition of ungodly men, is to be understood of the gene­ral and final destruction of the World by fire, but the following Verses to be an An­swer [Page 245] to the first part of the Atheists Obje­ction, viz. Where is the promise of his coming? To me it seems, that all refer to the same matter. The second thing which seems to contradict the Doctor's Interpretation, is, the Apostles citing for the instruction and con­firmation of the Believers, and in Answer to the Atheists Objection (Where is the promise of his coming?) that place of the Psalmist, Psal. 90. 4. That one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. For the Apostle seems to suppose, that the time of Christ's coming, might possibly be a thousand years off; and that they were not to think much, or distruct the Promise, if it were so: for though it were predicted as a thing shortly to come, yet they were to consider, that a thousand years in God's sight is but a very short time; so that it might be foretold as shortly to come, though it were a thousand years off. Whereas it might seem improper to mention a thousand years to support them in expectation of an Event that was not twenty years to come.

Another place where mention is made of Christ's coming to Judgment, and the Disso­lution of the World, is Matth. 24. to which may be added as parallel Mark 13. and Luke 21. In which places you have considerable, [Page 246] 1. The Suddenness of Christ's coming, verse 27. As the lightning comes out of the East, and shineth even unto the West, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be. 2. The Signs of his coming, verse 29. Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the Sun be darkned, and the Moon shall not give her light, and the Stars shall fall from Heaven, and the powers of Heaven shall be shaken. 3. The manner of his coming, verse 30. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in Heaven; and then shall all the Tribes of the Earth mourn, when they shall see the Son of Man coming in the Clouds of Heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his Angels with a great sound of a Trumpet, and they shall gather together his Elect from the four Winds, from one end of Heaven to the other. 4. The uncertainty of the time of his coming, and this dissolution as to us, But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no not the Angels in Heaven: and Mark adds, neither the Son, but the Father only.

All this Prophecy Dr. Hammond under­stands of the destruction of the City and Temple of Ierusalem, and whole Nation of the Iews; as may be seen in his Paraphrase and Annotations upon this place. And in­deed our Saviour himself seems to limit it to this, saying, verse 24. Verily I say un­to [Page 247] you, this generation shall not pass away, till all these things be fulfilled. For if these Pro­phecies look further than the destruction of Ierusalem, even to Christ's coming to Judg­ment, how could it be true, that that genera­tion should not pass away till all those things were fulfilled? Whereas we see that that ge­neration is long since passed away, and yet the end is not come? And indeed, Exposi­tors that understand them of the end of the World, and Christ's second coming to Judg­ment, are hard put to it to answer this Ob­jection. S. Chrysostom will have this word [...] to be understood not of the Generati­on of Men then living, but of the Generati­on of the Faithful, which should not fail till the end of the World. [...] (saith he) [...], &c. He de­nominates a Generation not only from living together in the same time, but from having the same form and manner of religious Wor­ship and Polity; as in that place, This is the generation of them that seek thee, that seek thy face, O Jacob. Beza understands [...] of the present Age, and will have it to be of the same valor with [...] in Hebrew, and [...] to refer not to all particulars mentioned in this Chapter, but only to those [Page 248] which are spoken of the destruction of the City and Nation of the Iews: But (saith he) if any one urgeth the universal Particle, Vertere licebit, Fiant omnia, viz quae ultimam illam diem pra [...]cessura dixit. Nam ab illo tempore coeperunt fieri, & adhuc perseverant ill signa, suo demum tempore Filio hominis venturo.

But on the other side, 1. Some passages there are in this Chapter, which are hardly applicable to the destruction of Ierusalem, and the Dissolution of the Iewish Common­wealth; as the appearing of the Sign of the Son of Man in Heaven, and the Tribes seeing the Son of Man coming in the Clouds of Hea­ven, with power and great glory. And his send­ing his Angels with a great sound of a Trum­pet. 2. The coming of Christ is in like manner described in places which undoubt­edly speak of his coming to Judgment at the end of the World. As in 1 Cor. 15. 52. men­tion is made of the Trumpets sounding at the time of the Christ's coming: and 1 Thess. 4. 16. it is said, The Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God: and verse 17. We that are alive shall be caught up together with them [that are risen] in the Clouds to meet the Lord in the Air. All which places are perfectly parallel, and seem manifestly to al­lude [Page 249] to the fore-mentioned words Matth. 24. 30, 31. I am apt to think that these Pro­phecies may have a double respect; one to the City, Temple, and Nation of the Iews: another to the whole World at the great Day of Doom: and that the former is in­deed typical of the latter: and so they have a double completion; the first in the destru­ction of Ierusalem and the Iewish Polity: In reference to which it is truly said, This Ge­neration shall not pass away till all these things be fulfilled. The second in the final Dissolution of the World, which is yet to come.

But to proceed; Another place which is usually understood of the Dissolution of the World by fire, is 2 Thess. 1. 7, 8. When the Lord Iesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire, &c. Other parallel places may be seen, Rev. 6. 12. 13, 14. Rev. 10. 6. Rev. 21. 1. And I saw a new Heaven and a new Earth, for the first Heaven and the first Earth were passed away, and there was no more Sea, Hebr. 12. 26, 27. These places speak more directly of the Dissolution of the World, and the coming of Christ to Judgment. Others there are that speak only concerning the time of it, 1 Pet. 4. 7. But the end of all things is at hand. James 5. 9. Behold the Iudge standeth [Page 250] before the door. 1 John 2. 18. Little Chil­dren it is the last time; or as some translate it, the last hour, [...]. Hebr. 10. 37. Yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. [...]. Luke 18. 17. I tell you he will avenge them speedily. All these places the forementioned Dr. Hammond still applies to that famous Pe­riod of the destruction of the City, Temple and Polity of the Iews; only in his Note upon [...], that everlasting de­struction mentioned 2 Thess. 1. 9. he hath some qualification, saying thus, Mean while not excluding the eternal torments of Hell-fire, which expect all impenitent sinners that thus fall, but looking particularly on the vi­sible destruction and vengeance which seizeth on whole Nations or Multitudes at once in this life. And in conclusion hath left us but one place in the N. Testament, to prove the gene­ral Con [...]lagration of the World, viz. 2 Pet. 7. 7.

Now because some have been offended at these Interpretations of his, others have spo­ken very slightingly of them: I shall briefly sum up what hath been alledged in defence of them by this great Man.

1. That the Prophets use to set down their Predictions in Tropes and Figures, and not in plain Expressions, (their Style being Poetical.) And therefore in describing those hideous [Page 251] Judgments which fell upon that People of the Iews, beyond all that ever before fell upon them, or indeed any other People, they [...]ound it necessary to employ those High and Tragical Phrases of the passing away and dissolving Heaven, and Earth, and Elements. And that this was the manner of the Pro­phets, may be proved; because we find the destruction of other places described in as high Strains, as lofty and tragical Expres­sions as this of Ierusalem. For example, that of Idumaea, Isai. 34. 9. The streams there­of shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch. It shall not be quenched night nor day, the smoke thereof shall go up for ever. And in the fourth Verse he seems but to Preface to this Destru­ction in these words, And all the host of Heaven shall be dissolved, and the Heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their hosts shall fall down as the leaf falleth off from the Vine, and as a falling Fig from the Fig-tree; for my Sword shall be bathed in Heaven: Behold it shall come down upon I­dumaea. And in the Burden of Babylon, Chap. 13. 8, 9. we have these words, Behold the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger to lay the Land deso­late: For the Stars of Heaven and the Con­stellations [Page 252] thereof shall not give their light: The Sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the Moon shall not cause her Light to shine.

2. All the Predictions in that famous place, Matth. 24. to which all other places in the New Testament relating to this matter are parallel, are by our Saviour himself restrain­ed to the destruction of Ierusalem, and the full completion of them limited to the dura­tion of that Age: Verse 34. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled. What reason then can we have to extend them fur­ther.

3. In most of the places where this com­ing of Christ is mentioned, it is spoken of as near, and at hand; as in the places last cited. Now, (saith the Learned Doctor) in his Note upon Luke 18. 7. I tell you he will avenge them speedily. All which, if (when it is said to approach and to be at the door) it belonged to the Day of Judgment (now after so many hundred years not yet come) what a [...] were this? what a de­laying of his coming? and consequently, what an Objection against the truth of the Christian Religion? As Mahomet having promised after his death he would presently return to life, and having not performed his [Page 253] Promise in a thousand years is by us justly condemned as an Impostor.

4. That this place of S. Peter, out of which I have taken my Text, doth not be­long to the end of the World, sufficiently ap­pears (saith he) by the purport of this whole Epistle, which is to arm them with constancy and perseverance till that Day come, and particularly in this Chapter to confute them who object against the truth of Christ's Predictions, and resolve it should not come at all; against whom he here op­poses the certainty, the speediness, and the terribleness of its coming. And for that other famous place, 2 Thess. 1. 8, 9. that it belongs to the same Period; see how he makes it out in his Annotations.

I shall now superadd some places out of the Old Testament, which seem to speak of the Dissolution of the World, Iob 14. 12. Man lieth down and riseth not till the Heavens be no more. Psal. 102. 5, 6. quoted Hebr. 1. 10, 11. Of old hast thou laid the foundations of the Earth, and the Heavens are the works of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou re­mainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment, and as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed, Isai. 34. 4. And all the host of Heaven shall be dissolved, and the Heavens shall be rolled together as [Page 254] a scroll, and all their host shall fall down as a leaf falleth from the Vine, &c. Isai. 51. 6. The Heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the Earth shall wax old like a garment, Joel 2. 31. The Sun shall be turned into darkness, and the Moon into blood, before that great and terri­ble day of the Lord comes. Malachi 4. 1. Be­hold the day cometh that shall burn like an Oven, &c. Deut. 32. 22. For a fire is kind­led in my anger, and shall burn to the lowest Hell, and shall consume the Earth with her encrease, and set on fire the foundations of the Mountains. I must confess that the Prophetick Books are full of figurative Ex­pressions, being written in a Poetick Style, and according to the strain of the Oriental Rhetorick, which is much different from the European, a [...]ecting lofty and tumid Me­taphors and excessive Hyperbola's and Ag­gravations, which would either sound harsh to our Ears, or import a great deal more to us than they did to them. This is ob­vious to any one that reads their Books; and may clearly be demonstrated from the Ti­ [...]l [...] that their Kings assumed to themselves as well anciently as lately, viz. Sons of the Sun, Brethren of the Sun and Moon▪ Part­ners of the Stars, Lions crowned in the Throne of the World, Endued with the strength of the whole Heaven, and Virtue of the Firmament. [Page 255] Now we cannot possibly imagine them so vain as to think themselves litterally to be such: no sure, all they meant by these Ex­pressions was that they were great, and ho­nourable, and powerful. Now the Prophe­tick Books of the Old Testament being writ­ten in a Style somewhat conformable to the Oratory of those Countreys, are not (I hum­bly conceive) in every title to be so exactly scanned and litterally expounded, but so to be interpreted as a Iew or an Asiatick would then have understood them. And this I ra­ther think, because there be divers passages in the Prophets, which cannot be verified in a strict literal sense; as in the place before quoted, Isa. 34. 9. It is said of the streams of Idumaea that they should be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone; and the Land thereof should become burning pitch, and should not be quenched night nor day; but the smoke thereof should go up for ever. And of the City of Tyre it is said, Ezek. 26. 14. It shall be built no more. And verse 19. When I shall make thee a desolate City, like the Cities that are not inhabited, when I shall bring up the Deep upon thee, and great waters shall cover thee. And verse 21. which is thrice repeated, I will make thee a terror, and thou shalt be no more: though thou be sought for, thou shalt never be found [Page 256] again, saith the Lord God. And yet we see that the City of Tyre, though it was indeed wholly dis-peopled at that time, the Inhabi­tants transferring themselves into Africa, when it was besieged by Nebuchadnezzar; yet was it afterward peopled again, and continues a City inhabited to this day. And of Babylon▪ it is said that there should none remain in it, neither man nor beast, but that it should be desolate for ever, Jer. 51. 62. Isai. 13. 20. and of the Land of Babylon, Vers. 29. that it should be a desolation without an In­habitant. And though indeed this Prophesy was, I think, as to the City, at last verified in the Letter; yet did Babylon long continue a great City after this Prophesy: And the Land of Babylon is now inhabited, there be­ing at this day a great City not far from the place where Babylon stood. So that these places import no more, then that there should be a very great Destruction and Devastation of those Cities and Countries. As for those places in the Old and New Testament, where­in mention is made of the last Days and the last Times, it is clear that they are to be understood of the Age of the Messiah, all the time from the Exhibition of the Messiah to the end of the World. Isaiah 2. 1. And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the Mountain of the Lords House shall be esta­blished [Page 257] in the top of the Mountains, and shall be exalted above the Hills, and all Nations shall flow to it; which very words we have repeated Michah 4. 1. So in that Prophe­sie of Ioel 2. 28. quoted Acts 2. 17. And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh, &c. it is clear the last days are to be understood. The Apostle Peter interpreting the Prophe­sie, (verse 16.) of the gift of Tongues bestow­ed upon the Disciples at that time. Hence the last Days have among the Iews prover­bially signified the days of the Messiah, as Doctor Hammond in his Annotations upon this place tells us; who also notes, that in that place of Ioel the last days do literally signifie the last days of the Iews, immedi­ately preceding their destruction, called there the great and terrible day of the Lord. So Hebr. 1. 2. by [...], in these last days is meant the days of the Messias. So 1 Pet. 1. 20. 2 Pet. 3. 3. 1 Tim. 4. 1. 2 Tim. 3. 1. mention is made of the last days in this sense. In like manner the end of the World, [...]. Hebr. [...]. 20. Bu [...] now once in the end of the world [...]th he appeared to put away sin by the Sacrifice of himself▪ [...] [...] the Ends of the Wo [...]d▪ [...] 1 Cor. 1. 11. Vpon whom the Ends of the World are come, sig­nifie [Page 258] the Age of the Messias, though indeed the former seems more peculiarly to denote the shutting up of the Jewish Age or Oeco­nomy.

CHAP. III.
The Testimonies of the Ancient Fathers and Doctors of the Church, concern­ing the Dissolution of the World.

2. I Proceed now to what the Ancient Fa­thers of the Church and Christian Writers have delivered concerning the Dis­solution of the World.

That there should be a Dissolution of this World, and that it shall be by Fire, is so cer­tain and clear among them, that it would be superfluous to cite Particulars to prove it: nay, so general and unanimous is the consent of all Christians in this Point, that, as Ori­gen observes in his third [...], and the Learned Doctor Hakewill after him, whereas there can hardly be named any Ar­ticle of our Faith, which some Hereticks have not presumed to Impugne or call in [Page 259] Question, yet not any to be met with who question this; but herein all agree, being compelled (saith Origen) by the Authority of the Scriptures. As for the time of this Dis­solution the ancient Christians held it to be at hand, as might easily be proved by many Testimonies, were it not granted on all hands. And here it may be worth the ob­serving, that the longer the World stood, the further off generally have Christians set the Day of Judgment, and end of it. Many of the Ancients did conceive, that the Dissolu­tion should be at the end of six thousand years. As for Example, Iustin Martyr in Quaest. & Resp. ad Orthodoxos, if he be the Author of that Piece, where this Question (When the end of the World should be?) be­ing put, the Answer is, [...], &c. We may rational­ly conjecture and conclude from many Scripture Expression, that they are in the right who say that the World will last six thousand years. For in one place it saith, In these last days; and in another, Upon whom the Ends of the World are come; and in a third, When the fulness of time was come. Now it is evident that these things were spoken in the sixth Mil­lenary.

[Page 260] Irenaeus adv. haeres. lib. 5. cap. ult. Who gathers so much from the Similitude of the six days Creation, after which six days was the Sabbath, that is, the day of Rest; Hoc autem (saith he) est & praeteritorum narra­tio, & futurcrum prophetia. Dies enim unus mille annos signi [...]icabat, sicut Scriptura testa­tur; [...] Pet 3.Mille anni ante Dominum sicut Dies unus: ergo sicut consummatus fuit mundus in sui creatione intra sex dierum spatium, & po­slea quies; sic in sui fiue consummabitur intra spatium sex milli [...]m annorum, deinde vera & perpetua quies subsequetur. This is both a Narration or History of what is past, and a Prophesie of things to come. For one day signified a thousand years, as the Scriptures testifie, A thousand years in the sight of God are but as one day. Therefore as the World at the first C [...]eation was consummated in the space of six days, and afterwards followed the Sabbath or Rest; so in the end its dura­tion shall be consummated within the space of six thousand years▪ and then shall follow the true and perpetual Rest.

To these I might add Lactantius, in his [...]e­venth Book of Institur. cap. 14. who useth the same Argument with Iren [...]cus, Ergo quo­niam sex diebus cuncta Dei opera perfecta sunt: per secula sex, id est, sex annorum mil­lia manere in hac statu mundum necesse est. [Page 261] Dies enim magnus Dei mille annorum circulo terminatur, sicut indicat Propheta, qui dicit, Ante oculos tuos, Domine, mille anni tanquam dies unus, &c. Therefore because all the works of God were perfected or [...]) in six days, it is necessary (or necessarily follows) that the World shall continue in this state six Ages, that is six thousand years. For the great Day of God is terminated in a Circle of six thou­sand years; as the Prophet intimates, who saith, A thousand years in thy sight, O Lord, are but as one day. S. Augustine l. 20. de Ci­vitate Dei. S. Hieronymus Comment [...]in Mich. cap. 4 Most clear and full to this purpose is Eustath. in his Comment in Hexa meron [...], &c. We reckon (saith he) that the Creation shall con­tinue till the end of the sixth Chiliad, because God also consummated the Vniverse in six days; and I suppose that the Deity doth account days of a thousand years long; for that it is said, A thousand years are in the sight of the Lord as one day. Ho [...]beit the most of them did not propose this Opinion as an undoubted Truth, but only as a modest Conj [...]cture. And S. Austine is very angry with them, who would peremptordy conclude from so flight an Argumentation.

This Conceit is already confuted, and the World hath long outlasted this [...], accord­ing [Page 262] to their Computation who followed the Septuagint or Greek account, and reckoned that Phaleg lived about the Three thou­sandth year of the World, and had his Name from his living in the division of Time, there being to come after him Three thousand years, that is, just so many as were past be­fore him.

As concerning the future Condition of the World after the Conflagration, I find it the general and received Opinion of the ancient Christians, that this World shall not be an­nihilated or destroyed, but only renewed and purified. So Eusebius, [...]. The World shall not be wholly de­stroyed, but renewed. Divers other passages I [...] produce out of him to the same purpose: Cyril of Ierusalem Catech. 15. [...]. He folds up the [...], not that he might destroy them, but that he might rear them up again more beautiful. Again, Cyril upon this place, [...], &c. He acutely or in­geniously calls [...] death of the Elements their change into letter. So that this Renovation in respect of the Creation shall be such a kind of thing as the Resurrection in reference to [Page 263] Man's Body. Oecumenius upon this place, He saith, new Heavens and a new Earth, [...], yet not different in matter. And again, [...]. They shall not be destroyed or annihilated, but only renewed and purified. And upon Revel. 21. 2. [...]. This he saith, not denoting the Non-existence of the Creation, but the Renewing. In this manner he ex­pounds Psalm 102. 5, 6. and proceeding, saith, We may here take notice, that the Apostle doth not use the word [...], as if the Heaven and Earth were annihilated and brought to nothing, but [...], they passed away or removed, or changed state. Saint Hierome upon the Psalms, Psalm 102. saith, Ex quo ostenditur perditionem coelorum non in­teritum sonare, sed mutationem in melius. From which words [as a Vesture shalt thou change them] may be shewn and made out, that the Dissolution of the Heavens doth not signifie their utter destruction or annihilation, but only their change into a better state. I might add abundance more Testimonies, but these I think may suffice.

CHAP. IV.
The Opinions of the Ancient Heathen Philosophers, and other Writers concerning the Dissolution.

3. IT follows now that I give you an ac­count what the ancient Philosophers and Sages among the Heathens thought and delivered concerning this Point. Two of the four principal Sects of Philosophers held a future Dissolution of the World, viz. The Epicureans and Stoicks.

As for the Epicureans, They held that as the World was at first composed by the for­tuitous concourse of Atomes, so it should at last fall in pieces again by their fortuitous Separation, as Lucretius hath it, lib. 5.

This Opinion of theirs is consonant enough to their wild Principles, save only in that point of its suddenness, Vna dies dabit exi­tio, &c. one day shall destroy or make an end of it.

The Stoicks were also of Opinion that the World must be dissolved, as we may learn from the Seventh Book of Laertius in the Life of Zeno, [...], &c. They hold that the World is corruptible for these Reasons; 1. Because it was generated, and had a beginning. 2. Because That is cor­ruptible in the whole, whose parts are cor­ruptible: But the parts of the World are corruptible, being daily transmuted one in­to another. 3. That which is capable of Mutation from better to worse is corruptible. But such is the World; sometimes being af­flicted with long Heats and Droughts, some­times with continued Showers and Inundati­ons. To those we may add 4. according to some of their Opinions, Because the Sun and [Page 266] Stars being fed with Vapours exhaled from the Earth, all the moisture will at length be drawn out, and the World fly on fire. They were afraidMlnut. Fellx. Nè humore omni consumpto totus mundus ignesceret. The Poet Lucan, who seems to be of the Stoick Sect, in the begin­ning of his first Book, describing the Disso­lution of the World, makes it to be a falling in pieces of the whole Frame of Heaven and Earth, and a jumbling and confounding of all their parts together.

This Dissolution of the World they held should be by Water and by Fire alternately at certain periods, but especially by Fire, which they call [...]. Philo, [...]. The Stoicks say that the cause of the destruction of the World is the irre­sistible force of Fire that is in things, which in long periods of time consumes and dis­solves all things into it self. Euseb. Praep. l. 15. [...]. The most ancient of that Sect held, That at certain vast Periods of time all things were rarified into Air, being resolved into an Ethereal Fire. [Page 268] This [...] of the Stoicks we find men­tioned by many, both Christian and Heathen Writers, as besides the fore-quoted Minutius Felix, Iustin Martyr, Clemens Alexandrinus in 5. Strom. Plutarch, Seneca, and others. The time of this Conflagration Seneca determines not, but saith only, it shall be when God pleases. 3 Quaest. nat. cap. 20. 8. Cùm Deo visum, vetera finire, ordiri meliora; When it shall seem good to God to put an end to old things and to begin better. Some there be who tell us of the Annus Platonicus or mag­nus, by which they understand such a peri­od of time, as in which all the heavenly Bo­dies shall be restored to the same site and di­stance they were once in, in respect of one another: As supposing that all the Seven Pla­nets were at the moment of Creation in the first degree of Aries, till they come all to [...]e in the same degree again, all that space of [...] is called the Great Year, Annus magnus: In this Year they tell us that the height of Summer is the Conflagration, and the depth of Winter the Inundation; and some Astro­logers have been so [...] as to assign the time both of the Inundation and Conflagration, Seneca 3 Quest. Nat. cap. 20. Berosus, qui Be­lum interpretaius est, dicit, cursu ista syderum fieri, & adeo quidem assirmat, ut conflagratio­ni atque diluvio tempus as [...]ignet. Arsura [...] ­nim [Page 269] terrena contendit, quando omnia sydera in Cancro convenerint: inundationem futuram, quando eadem syderum turba in Capricorno convenerit. Berosus, who interpreted Belus, saith, That those things come to pass according to the course of the Stars: and he so confident­ly affirms it, that he assigns the time both for the Conflagration and Inundation. For that all earthly Bodies will be burnt up, when all the Stars shall meet in Cancer; and the Inun­dation will fall out, when the same shall be in conjunction in Capricorn. Concerning the manner of this Conflagration, they held it should be sudden. Senec. Natura subitò ad ruinam, & toto impeturuit; licet ad originem parcè utatur viribus, dispensetque se incre­mentis fallacibus. Momento fit cinis, diu sylva, &c. Nature doth suddenly and with all its force rush on to ruin, though to the rise and formation of things it useth its strength spa­ringly, dispensing its influence, and causing them to grow by insensible degrees; a Wood is long in growing up, but reduced to Ashes almost in a moment. And some of them were so absurd as to think, that the Stars should justle and be dashed one against another Senec. lib. de consolatione ad Marciam: Cùm tempus advenerit: quo se mundus revo [...]aturus extinguat, viribus ista se suis caedent; & syde­ [...] [...]yderilus incurrent; & omni flagrante ma­teria, [Page 270] uno igne, quicquid nunc ex disposito lu­cet ardebit. When the time shall come that the World, again to restore and renew it self, shall perish, these things shall batter and mall themselves by their own strength, the Stars shall run or fall foul upon one another, and all the matter flaming whatsoever now according to its settled order and disposition shines, shall then burn in one fire. Here by the way we may with Dr. More [Souls Immortality, lib. 3. cap. 18.] take notice how coursly, not to say ridiculously, the Stoicks Philosophize,

As for the extent of this Conflagration, they held that not only the Heavens should be burnt, but that the Gods themselves should not escape Scot-free. So Seneca, Re­soluto mundo, & Diis in unum confusis. When the World shall be dissolved, and the Gods confounded and blended together into one. And again, Atque omnes pariter Deos Perdet nox aliqua & Chaos. And in like manner a certain Night and Chaos shall destroy all the Gods. Is not this wise Philosophy? If their Morali­ty were no better than their Physicks, their Wise man they boast of might be so denomi­nated [...], as they of Gotham.

But let us look a little further, and we shall find that the Stoicks were not the first Authors of this Opinion of the Conflagrati­on; [Page 272] but that it was of far greater Antiquity than that Sect. Others of the more ancient Philosophers having entertained it, viz. Em­pedocles, as Clemens Alexandrinus testifies in his 5 Strom. [...]. That there shall sometime be a change of the World into the nature or sub­stance of Fire. 2. Heraclitus, as the same Clemens shews at large out of him in the same place, [...], &c. And Laertius in the Life of Heraclitus, He taught [...]. That there is but one World, and that it was generated out of Fire, and again burnt up or turned into Fire at certain periods alternate­ly throughout all Ages. I might add to these the Ancient Greek Poets, Sophocles and Di­philus, as we find them quo [...]ed by Iustin Martyr and Clemens Alexandrinus. Neither yet were these the first Inventers and Broach­ers of this Opinion, but they received it by Tradition from their Forefathers, and look'd upon it as an Oracle and Decree of Fate. Ovid speaks of it as such in the first of his Metamorphosis; [Page 273]

And Lucan Lib. 7.;

Now though some are of Opinion that by [Page 274] Fata here are to be understood the Sibylline Oracles, and to that purpose do alledge some Verses out of those extant under that Title, as Lactantius in his Book De ir a Dei, cap. 2. 3.

And it shall sometime be, that God not any more mitigating his Anger, but aggravating it, shall destroy the whole Race of Mankind, consuming it by a conflagration.

And in another place there is mention made, of a River of Fire that shall descend from Heaven, and burn up both Earth and Sea.

Now because the Verses now extant under the Name of Sibylline Oracles are all suspect­ed to be false and Pseudepigrapha; and many of them may be demonstrated to be of no greater Antiquity than the Emperour Anto­ninus Pius his Reign: and because it cannot be proved, that there was any such thing in the Ancient genuine Sibylline Oracles; I ra­ther think, (as I said before) that it was a Doctrine of ancient Tradition, handed down from the first Fathers and Patriarchs of the World. Iosephus in his Antiquities runs it up as high as Adam; from whom Seth his Son received it; his Father, saith he, soretelling him, [...]. [...] there should be a destruction of the U­niverse, [Page 276] once by the violence of Fire, and a­gain by the force and abundance of Water; in consequence whereof he erected two Pil­lars, one of Brick, which might endure the Fire, and another of Stone, which would resist the Water; and upon them engraved his Astronomical Observations, that so they might remain to Posterity: And one of these Pillars, he saith, continued in Syria until his days. Whether this Relation be true or not, it may be thence collected, that this was an Universal Opinion, received by Tradition, both among Iews and Gentiles. That the World should one day be consumed by Fire. It may be proved by good Authority, that the ancient Gaules, Chaldaeans and Indians had this Tradition among them: which they could not receive from the Greek Philosophers or Poets, with whom they had no entercourse; but it must in all probability be derived down to both from the same Fountain and Original; that is, from the first Restorers of Mankind, Noah and his Sons.

I now proceed to the Third Particular proposed in the beginning; that is, to give answer to the several Questions concerning the Dissolution of the World.

CHAP. V.
The first Question concerning the World's Dissolution, Whether there be any thing in Nature that may probably cause or argue a future Dissolution? Three probable Means propounded and discussed.

CHAP. IV.
Containing an Answer to the Second Question, Whether shall this Disso­lution be effected by natural or by extraordinary Means, and what they shall be?

2. AS to the Second Question, Whether shall this Dissolution be brought a­bout and effected by natural or by extraor­dinary Means and Instruments, and what those Means and Instruments shall be? I answer in brief, that the Instrumental Ef­ficient of this Dissolution shall be natural. For it is clear both by Scripture and Tradi­tion, and agreed on all hands, that it shall be that Catholick Dissolvent, Fire. Now to the being and maintenance of Fire, there are four things requisite. I. The active Princi­ple or Aether. 2. Air, or a Nitrous Pabu­lum received from it: These two being com­mixt together, are every-where at hand. 3. Fuel, which considering the abundance [Page 332] of combustible Materials, which are to be found in all places upon or under the Surface of the Earth, can no where be wanting. 4. The Accension and the sudden and equal Diffusion of this Fire all the World over. And this must be the Work of God, extraor­dinary and miraculous.

Such a Dissolution of the World might indeed be effected by that natural Accident mentioned in the Answer to the Precedent Question, viz. The Eruption of the Central Fire. But because it is doubtful, whether there be any such Fire in the middle of the Earth or no: and if there ever were, it is hard to give an account, how it could be maintained in that infernal Dungeon for want of Air and Fuel. And because, if it should break forth in the Consistency of a thin Flame, it would in all likelihood speedily like Lightning mount up to Heaven, and quite vanish away; unless we could suppose Floods, nay Seas of melted Materials, or liquid Fire, enough to overflow the whole Earth, to be poured forth of those Caverns. For these Reasons I reject that Opinion, and do rather think that the Conflagration shall be effected by a superficial Fire. Tho' I must confess we read in Tacitus, Annal. 13. at the end, of a sort of Fire that was not so apt to disperse and vanish. "—The City of [Page 333] the Inhonians in Germany (saith he) confe­derate with us was afflicted with a sudden Disaster: for Fires issuing out of the Earth, burned Towns, Fields, Villages every-where, and spread even to the Walls of a Colony newly built, and could not be extinguished neither by Rain, nor River-water, nor any other Liquor that could be employed, until for want of Remedy, or Anger of such a Distraction, certain Peasants cast Stones afar off into it; then the Flame somewhat slacking, drawing near, they put it out with Blows of Clubs, and other like, as if it had been a wild Beast; last of all, they threw in Cloaths from their Backs, which the more worn and fouler they were, the better they quenched the Fire. I use Dr. Hakewil's Translation.

CHAP. VII.
The Third Question answered. Whether shall this Dissolution be Gradual and Successive, or Momentaneous and Sudden?

3. THE Third Question is, Whether shall this Dissolution be gradual and successive, or momentaneous and sudden?

I answer, The Scripture resolves for the latter, The day of the Lord shall come as a thief in the night: a similitude we have often re­peated in Scripture, as in the tenth Verse of this Chapter, in 1 Thess. 15. 2. Rev. 3. 3. and 16. 15. And the Resurrection and Change of Things, it is said shall be in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, 1 Cor. 15. 52. Consonant whereto both the Epicureans and Stoicks held their Dissolutions of the World should be sud­den and brief, as Lucretius and Seneca in the place 'fore-mentioned tell us. And it is suitable to the nature of Fire to make a quick dispatch of things, suddenly to consume and destroy.

[Page 335] And as it shall be sudden, so also shall it be unexpected, being compared to the com­ing of the Flood in the Days of Noah, Mat. 24. 37, 38, 39. But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entred into the ark: And knew not until the flood came and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. And the raining of Fire and Brimstone upon Sodom. Luke 17. Thessal. 5. 3. For when they shall say peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child. Now if it shall be thus sudden and unexpected, it is not likely there should be in Nature any manifest Tendency to it, or remarkable Signs and Forerunners of it: for such must needs startle and awaken the World into an expectation and dread of it. That there is at present no such Tendency to Corruption, but that the World conti­nues still in as good state and condition as it was two thousand Years ago, without the least impairment or decay, hath been, as we before noted, without any possibility of contradiction clearly made out and demon­strated by Dr. Hakewill in his Apology: and therefore, arguing from the past to the [...] [Page 340] vangelist had told us, That there shall be Signs in the Sun, and in the Moon, and in the Stars—the Sea and the Waves roaring; he adds, as a Consequent there­of, Verse 26. Mens hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things that are coming on the Earth. And in­deed, how could any Man possibly be bu­ried in so profound a Lethargy of Sensless­ness and Security, as by such stupendious Prodigies not to be rowsed and awakened to an expectation of some dismal and tre­mendous Event? How could he sing a Re­quiem to his Soul, and say Peace and Safe­ty, when the World so manifestly threa­tens Ruin about his Ears? For the recon­cil [...]ng of these Expressions to this sudden coming of our Saviour to Judgment, it were most convenient to accept them in the Figurative and Metaphorical Sense. For if we understand them of the Ruin, and Devastations of Cities and Countries, and Changes of Governments, the Sub­versions of Kingdoms and Commonwealths, the Falls and Deposings of Princes, No­bles and Great Men; these happening more or less in every Age, though the serious and inquisitive Christian, who searches and understands the Scriptures, may dis­cern them to be the Signs of the World's [Page 341] Catastrophe; yet the careless and incon­siderate, the vicious and voluptuous are not like to be at all startled or moved at them, but may notwithstanding, looking upon them as ordinary and insignificant Accidents, Dormire in utramque aurem, sleep securely till the last Trump awa­ken them. Or it may be answered, That these Prophecies do belong to the De­struction of Ierusalem only, and so we are not concerned to answer that Obje­ction.

CHAP. IX.
The Fifth Question answered; At what Period of Time shall the World be dissolved?

5. THE Fifth Question is, At what Period of Time shall the World be dissolved? I answer, This is absolutely uncertain and indeterminable. For since this Dissolution shall be effected by the extraordinary Interposition of Providence; it cannot be to any Man known, unless extraordinarily revealed. And our Savi­our tells us, That of that Day and Hour knows no Man, no not the Angels of Heaven, &c. Matth. 24. 36. And again, Acts 1. 17. It is not for us to know the Times and the Seasons, which the Fa­ther hath placed in his own power. And this Dr. Hakewill brings as an Argument that the World decays not, neither tends to Corruption; because if it did, the time of its actual Dissolution might be collect­ed [Page 343] and foretold; which, saith he, the Scripture denies. We may invert this Argumentation, and infer; Because the World doth not decay, therefore the time of its Dissolution cannot be known.

But yet notwithstanding this, many have ventured to foretel the Time of the End of the World, of whom some are alrea­dy confuted, the Term prefixt being past, and the World still standing. Lactantius in his time said, Institut. lib. 7. cap. 15. Omnis expectatio non amplius quàm ducen­torum videtur annorum; The longest expe­ctation extends not further than two hun­dred years. The continuance of the World more than a Thousand years since convinces him of a gross Mistake. Pau­lus Grebnerus a high Pretender to a Spirit of Prophesie, sets it in the Year 1613. induced thereto by a fond Conceit of the Numeral Letters in the Latin Word Iu­dicium. Other Enthusiastical Persons of our own Countrey have placed it in the Years 1646. and 1656. The event shews how ungroundedly and erroneously. O­thers there are, whose Term is not yet expired, and so they remain still to be confuted.Du [...]. As those who conceit that the end of the World shall be when the Pole-Star shall come to touch the Pole of the [Page 344] Equator, which (say they) ever since the time of Hipparchus hath approached nearer and nearer to it. That it doth so I am not satisfied; but if it doth, it is meerly accidental, and hath no Connexi­on with the End of the World. But the most famous Opinion, and which hath found most Patrons and Followers even amongst the Learned and Pious, is that of the Worlds duration for Six thousand years. For the strengthening of which Conceit they tell us, That as the World was created in six days, and then fol­lowed the Sabbath, so shall it remain six thousand years, and then shall succeed the Eternal Sabbath. Hebr. 4. 9. * [...], &c. There remains therefore a Rest or Sabbath to the People of God. Here we see that the Apostle in­stitutes a Comparison between the Hea­venly Rest and the Sabbath. Therefore as God rested upon the Seventh Day, so shall all the World of the Godly rest after the Six Thousandth year. For [...]he that hath entred into his rest, ceaseth from all his, Works as God did from his. Of this Opinion were many of the Ancient Fa [...]ers, as I shewed before, grounding themselves upon this Analogy between the six days of the Creation and the Sab­bath; [Page 345] and the six thousand years of the Worlds duration, and the Eternal Rest: For, saith Irenoeus in the place before quo­ted, Hoc autem, (that is, the History of the six days Creation and succeeding Sab­bath) est & proeteritorum narratio, & fu­turorum prophetia. Dies enim unus mille annos significat, sicut Scriptura testatur: 2 Pet. 3. 8. Psal. 90. 4. the Scriptures rec­koning days of One thousand years long, as in Verse 8. of this Chapter, and in Psal. 90. 4. This is likewise a received Tradi­tion of the Iewish Rabbins, registred in the Talmud, in the Treatise Sanhedrim, deli­vered (as they pretend) by the Prophet Elias the Tishbite to the Son of the Wo­man of Sarepta, whom he raised from the Dead, and by him handed down to Posterity. I rather think with Reuterus, that the Author of it was some Rabbi of that Name. The Tradition is, Sex millia annorum erit mundus: & uno millenario vastatio, i. e. Sabbathum Dei: Duo millia inane: Duo millia Lex: Duo millia dies Messioe. Two thousand years vacuity: Two thousand years of the Law: Two thousand years the days of the Messiah. But they shoot far wide: For according to the least account, there passed a far greater num­ber of years before the Law was given, [Page 346] 2513. saith Reuterus, and on the contrary less time from the Law to the Exhibition of the Messiah. All these Proofs laid to­gether, do scarce suffice to make up a probability. Neither do those Rabbinical Collections from the six Letters in [...] the first word of Genesis, or from the six Alephs in the first Verse of that Book, each signifying a thousand years; or from the six first Patriarchs in the order of the Genealogy to Enoch, who was caught up to Heaven, and found no more, add much weight to this Opinion. S. Austin very modestly concludes, after a Discussion of this Point concerning the Worlds dura­tion, Ego tempora dinumerare non audeo: nec aliquem Prophetam de hac re numerum annorum existimo praefinivisse. Nos ergo quod scire nos Dominus noluit libentèr nesci­amus. I dare not calculate & determine times: neither do I think that concerning this matter, any Prophet hath predicted and defined the number of years. What there­fore the Lord would not have us to know, let us willingly be ignorant of.

But though none but presumptuous per­sons have undertaken peremptorily to de­termine that time, yet was it the common and received Opinion and Perswasion of the Ancient Christians, that that day was [Page 347] not far off? and had they been to limit it, they would hardly have been induced to set the term so forward, and remote from their own Age, as by experience we find it proves to be, but in their own times, or shortly after; and many places of Scripture seem to favour that Opinion, so that some have presumed to say, that the Apostles themselves were at first mistaken in this particular, till after further illumination they were better informed. But though this be too bold a Conceit, yet that the Churches, at least some of them, did at first mistake the Apostles meaning in their Sermons and Epistles concerning this Point, and so understand them, as to think that the End of the World and final Judgment was at hand, appears from 2 Thess. 2. 2. I beseech you, Brethren, that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by Spirit, nor by Word, nor by Letter, as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. We see the Apostle labours to re­ctifie, and for the future to prevent this Mistake: so likewise the Apostle Peter in the 8th and 9th Verses of this Chapter. And yet this Opinion had taken such deep root in them, that it was not easie to be extirpated; but continued for some Ages in the Church. Indeed there are so many [Page 348] places in the New Testament which speak of the Coming of Christ as very near, that if we should have lived in their time, and understood them all as they did, of his Coming to Judge the World, we could hard­ly have avoided being of the same Opini­on. But if we apply them (as Dr. Ham­mond doth) to his Coming to take Venge­ance on his Enemies, then they do not hinder, but that the Day of Judgment, I mean the General Judgment, may be far enough off. So I leave this Question un­resolved, concluding that when that Day will come God only knows.

CHAP. X.
How far this Conflagration shall ex­tend.

6. A Sixth Question is, How far shall this Conflagration extend? Whe­ther to the Ethereal Heavens, and all the Host of them, Sun, Moon and Stars, or to the Aereal only?

I Answer, If we follow Ancient Tradition not only the Earth, but also the Heavens and heavenly Bodies will be involved in one common Fate, as appears by those Verses quoted out of Lucretius, Ovid, Lucan, &c.

Of Christians some exempt the Ethereal Region from this Destruction: for the two following Reasons, which I shall set down in Reuterus's words. 1. Because in this Chap­ter the Conflagration is compared to the De­luge in the time of Noah. But the Deluge extended not to the upper Regions of the Air, much less to the Heavens, the Waters arising only fifteen Cubits above the tops of the Mountains, if so much. Therefore nei­ther [Page 350] shall the Conflagration transcend that term. So Beza upon 2 Pet. 3. 6. Tantum ascendet ille ignis quantum aqua altior supra omnes montes. That fire shall ascend as high as the Waters stood above the Mountains. This passage I do not find in the last Editi­on of his Notes. The ordinary Gloss also upon these words, 2 Thess. 1. 2. In flaming fire rendring vengeance, saith Christum ventu­rum praecedet ignis in mundo, qui tantum as­cendet quantum aqua in diluvio. There shall a fire go before Christ when he comes, which shall reach as high as did the Water in the Deluge. And S. Augustine De Civit. Dei lib. 20. cap. 18. Petrus etiam commemorans fa­ctum ante diluvium, videtur admonuisse quo­dammodo, quatenus in fine hujus seculi istum mundum periturum esse credamus. Peter also mentioning the Ancient Deluge, seems in a manner to have advised us how far at the con­summation of time, we are to believe this World shall perish.

But this Argument is of no force, because it is not the Apostle's design in that place to describe the limits of the Conflagration, but only against Scoffers, to shew, that the World should one day perish by fire, as it had of old been destroyed by Water.

2. The second Reason is, Because the Hea­venly Bodies are not subject to Passion, alte­ration [Page 351] or corruption. They can contract no filth, and so need no expurgation by fire.

To this we answer, not in the words of Reuter, but our own, That it is an idle and ill grounded conceit of the Peripateticks, That the Heavenly Bodies are of their own nature incorruptible and unalterable: for on the contrary it is demonstrable, that many of them are of the same nature with the Earth we live upon, and the most pure, as the Sun, and probably too the fixt Stars, suffer Alterations; maculoe or opaque Con­cretions being commonly generated and dis­solved in them. And Comets frequently, and sometimes New Stars appear in the E­therial Regions. So that these Arguments are insufficient to exempt the Heavens from Dissolution; and on the other side many places there are in Scripture which seem to subject them thereto: As Psal. 102. 25, 26. recited Hebr. 1. 10. which hath already often been quoted, The Heavens are the Works of thy Hands; They shall perish. Matth. 24. 35. Heaven and Earth shall pass away. Isa. 65. 17. & 51. 6. The Heavens shall va­nish away like smoke. Yet am I not of opi­nion, that the last Fire shall reach the Hea­vens; They are too far distant from us to suffer by it: nor indeed doth the Scripture affirm it; but where it mentions the Dissolu­tion [Page 352] of the Heavens, it expresseth it by such Phrases as seem rather to intimate, that it shall come to pass by a consenescency and decay, than be effected by any sudden and violent means. Psal. 102. 25, 26. They all shall wax old as doth a Garment, &c. Though I confess nothing of Certainty can be gather­ed from such Expressions; for we find the same used concerning the Earth; Isa. 51. 6. The Heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the Earth shall wax old as doth a garment. The heavenly Bodies are none of them un­corruptible and eternal; but may in like manner as the Earth be consumed and de­stroyed, at what times and by what means, whether Fire or some other Element, the Almighty hath decreed, and ordered.

CHAP. XI.
Whether shall the Whole World be con­sumed and annihilated, or only refi­ned and purified?

THere remains now only the Seventh Question to be resolved, Whether shall the World be wholly consumed, burnt up and destroyed, or annihilated; or only re­fined, purified, or renewed? To this I an­swer, That the latter part seems to me more probable, viz. That it shall not be destroyed and annihilated, but only refined and puri­fied. I know what potent Adversaries I have in this case. I need name no more than Gerard in his Common Places, and Dr. Hake­wil [...]n his Apology and the Defence of it, who contend earnestly for the Abolition or Annih [...]lation. But yet upon the whole matter, the Renovation or Restitution seems to me most probable, as being most conso­nant to Scripture, Reason, and Antiquity. The Scripture speaks of an [...], or Resti­tution, Acts 3. 21. Whom the Heavens must [Page 354] contain until the time of the restitution of all things. Speaking of our Saviour: and [...], or Regeneration of the World, the very word the Stoicks and Pythagoreans use in this case, Mat. 19. 28, 29. Verily, I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit on the Throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve Thrones, &c. Psal. 102. 26. As a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed. Which words are again taken up and repeated, Heb. 1. 12. Now it is one thing to be changed, another to be annihilated and destroyed. 1 Cor. 7. 31. [...] The fashion of this world passeth away. As if he had said, It shall be transfigured, or its outward form changed, not its matter or substance destroyed. Isa. 65. 17. Behold I create new Heavens and a new Earth, and the former shall not be remembred, nor come into mind. Isa. 66. 22. As the new Heavens and new Earth, which I shall make, shall remain be­fore me. To which places the Apostle Peter seems to refer in those words, 2 Pet. 3. 13. Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new Heavens, and a new Earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. This new Heaven and new Earth we have also mentioned, Rev. 12. 1. And I saw a new Heaven and a new [Page 355] Earth: for the first Heaven and the first Earth were passed away, and there was no more Sea. These places, I confess, may admit of an Answer or Solution by those who are of a contrary Opinion, and are answered by Doctor Hakewil: yet all together, especially being back'd by ancient Tradition, amount to a high degree of probability. I omit that place, Rom. 8. 21, 22. The creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the sons of God: tho' it be accounted the strongest proof of our Opinion, because of the obscu­rity and ambiguity thereof.

2. For Antiquity, I have already given many Testimonies of the ancient Fathers and Doctors of the Church, and could, if need were, produce many more, the whole stream of them running this way. And tho' Dr. Hakewill saith, That if we look back to higher times before S. Hierome, we shall not easily find any one who maintained the World's Renovation: yet hath he but two Testimonies to alledge for its Abolition; the one out of Hilary upon the Psalms, and the other out of Clemens his Recognitions. To this Restitution of the World after the Con­flagration many also of the Heathen Phi­losophers bear witness; whose Testimonies Mr. Burnet hath exhibited in his Theory of [Page 356] the Earth, lib. 4. cap. 5. Of the Stoicks, Chrysippus de Providentia, speaking of the Renovation of the World,A [...]ud [...]a [...]lant. l 7. c. 23. saith, [...]. We after death, certain Periods of time be­ing come about, shall be restored to the form we now have. To Chrysippus Stobaeus adds Zeno and Cleanthes, and comprehends toge­ther with Men all natural things, [...]. Zeno and Clean­thes and Chrysippus were of Opinion, That the Nature or Substance of Things changes in­to Fire, as it were into a Seed; and out of this again▪ such a World or Frame of Things is effected as was before. This Revolution of Nature [...]ntoninus in his Meditations often calls [...], The Perio­dical Regeneration of all things. AndLib. 5. Origen against Celsus [...]aith of the Stoicks in general. [...] The Stoicks say, That at certain Periods of time there is a Conflagration of the Vniverse; and after that a Restitution thereof having exactly the same [Page 357] Disposition and Furniture the former World had. More to the like purpose concerning the Stoicks, we have inPraep. Evang. l. 15. Eusebius out of Numenius. Nature, faith he, returns, [...], to the Resurrection which makes the Great Year, wherein there is again a restitution made from it self alone to it self. For returning according to the order wherein it began first to frame and dispose things, (as reason would) it again observes the same Oeconomy or Administration; the like Periods returning et [...]rnally without ceasing. He that desires more Authorities of the Heathen Philosophers and Poets in consir­mation of the World's Restitution after the Conflagration, may consult the same Mr. Burnet in the place forequoted; where he also shews, that this Doctrine of the Mun­dane Periods was received by the Grecians from the Nations they call barbarous. Py­thagoras, saith Porphyry, brought it first in­to Greece: and Origen witnesseth of the E­gyptian Wise Men that it was delivered by them. Laertius out of Theopompus relates, [Page 358] That the Persian Magi had the same Tra­dition: and Berosus saith, that the Chaldeans also. In fine, among all the barbarous Na­tions, who had among them any Person or Sect, and Order of Men, noted for Wisdom or Philosophy, this Tradition was current. The Reader may consult the Book we refer to, where is a notable passage taken out of Plutarch's Tractate, Di Iside & Osiride, con­cerning a War between Oromazes, and Ari­manius, somewhat parallel to that mentioned in the Revelation between Michael and the Dragon.

3. The Restitution of the World seems more consonant to Reason than its Abolition. For if the World were to be annihilated, what needed a Conflagration? Fire doth not de­stroy or bring things to nothing, but only se­parate their parts. The World cannot be abolished by it, and therefore had better been annihilated without it. Wherefore the Scri­pture mentioning no other Dissolution than is to be effected by the Instrumentality of Fire, its clear, we are not to understand any utter Abolition or Annihilation of the World▪ but only a Mutation and Renovation, by those phrases of perishing, passing away, dissolving, [...]eing no more, &c. They are to be no more in that state and condition they are now in.

[Page 359]2. There must be a material Heaven, and a material Hell left. A place for the glori­fied Bodies of the Blessed to inhabit and con­verse in; and a place for the Bodies of the Damned, a [...], or Prison for them to be shut up in. Now if the place of the Blessed be an Empyreal Heaven far above these visible Heavens, as Divines generally hold; and the place of the Damned be beneath, about the middle of the Earth; as is the O­pinion of the School-men, and the Church of Rome, and as the name Inferi imports, and as the ancient Heathen described their Tartarus,

Then when all the intermediate Bodies shall be annihilated, what a strange Universe shall we have? Consisting of an immense Ring of Matter, having in the middle a vast vacuity, or space void of all Body, save only one small point for an infernal Dungeon. Those that are of this Opinion have too narrow and mean thoughts of the Greatness, I had almost said Immensity of the Universe, the [Page 360] glorious and magnisick Products of the Crea­tor's Almighty Power: and are too partial to themselves, to think the whole World was created for no other end but to be serviceable to Mankind: But of this I have said some­what in a former Discourse, and therefore shall not at present enlarge upon it.

But let us hear what they have to say for the Abolition.

Their first and most weighty Argument is taken from the End of the World's Creation, Hakewil's Apol. l. 4. c. 13. sect. 5. which was partly and chie [...]ly the Glory of the Creater, and partly the use of Man, the Lord Dep [...]ty, as it were, or Viceroy thereof. Now for the Glory of the Creator, it being by the admirable Frame of the World manifest­ed unto Man, Man being removed out of the World, and no Creature being capable of such a Manifestation besides him, we cannot imagine to what purpose the Frame itself should be left, and restored to a more per­fect Estate. The other End, being for Man's Vse, either to supply his Necessity in matter of Diet, of Physick, of Building, of Ap­parel; or for his Instruction, Direction, Re­creation, Comfort and Delight; or lastly, that therein, as in a Looking-glass he might contemplate the Wisdom, the Goodness and Power of God: when he shall attain that blessed Estate, as he shall have no further [Page 361] use of any of these, enjoying perfect Happiness and seeing God as he is, face to face, the second or subordinate End of the World's Being must needs be likewise frustrate. And what other End can be given or conceived for the re­maining or restoring thereof? &c.

To this I answer, there may be an end of the restoring of the World, tho' we are not able to find out or determine what. We are too short-sighted to penetrate the Ends of God. There may be a new Race of ratio­nal Animals brought forth to act their parts upon this Stage, which may give the Crea­tor as much Glory as Man ever did or could. And yet if there should be no material and visible rational Creature made to inhabit the Earth, there are spiritual and intellectual Be­ings, which may be as busie, and as much delighted in searching out, and contempla­ting the Works of God in this new Earth, and rendring him the Praise of his Wisdom and Power as Man could be. These things we may conjecture; but we must leave it to the only wise God to determine what use shall be made of it. It seems to me to be too great presumption, and over-valuing our selves to think that all this World was so made for us, as to have no other end of its Creation; or that God could not be glorified but by us.

[Page 362]This first and principal Argument being answered, the second admits of an easie So­lution. They enquire whether the Vegeta­bles, and Creatures endued with Sense shall all be restored, or some only? namely such as shall be found in being at the Day of Judgment. If all, where shall we find Stowage for them? Surely we may in this case properly apply that which the Evangelist in another useth figuratively, if they should all be restored, even the World itself could not contain the things which should be re­stored. If some only, then would I gladly know, why those some should be vouchsafed this great Honour, and not all, or how those Creatures without a Miracle shall be re­strain'd from propagating and multiplying, and that infinitely in their kinds by a perpe­tual Generation. Or lastly, How the seve­ral Individuals of these kinds, shall contrary to their primitive Natures, live and dure immortally?

To all this I answer, That not only all Animals, but all Vegetables too, yea, and their Seeds also, will doubtless be morti­fied and destroyed by the violence of the Conflagration; but that the same should be restored, and endued with eternal life, I know no reason we have to believe; but ra­ther that there should be new ones produced, [Page 363] either of the same with the former, or of different kinds, at the will, and by the power of the Almighty Creator, and for those Ends and Uses for which he shall design them. This Question being answered in this man­ner, all that follows concerning the Earth remaining without any Furniture or Inhabi­tants, &c. falls to the Ground. So I have dispatch'd these Seven Questions concerning the Dissolution of the World, there remains now only the Inference or Use of the prece­dent Doctrine.

CHAP. IX.
The Apostle's Inference from the prece­dent Doctrine.

I Come now to the Inference the Apostle makes from the precedent Doctrine, What manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness? One word here needs a little explication, and that is holy; What is meant by a holy conversation.

Holiness is an Equivocal Term. It is at­tributed either to God, or to the Creature. When it is attributed to God, it signifies ei­ther,

1. The unspotted Purity of his Nature, and the constant and immutable rectitude of his Will. So it is taken, 1 Iohn 3. 3. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself as he is pure: and 1 Pet. 1. 15. As he which called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation: Because it is writ­ten, be ye holy for I am holy. Psal. 145. 17. The Lord is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works.

[Page 365] 2. His Sovereign Majesty and Greatness, appearing in his transcendent Wisdom and Power, in his Supreme and Absolute Domi­nion over all things: in respect whereof, he is called the Holy One of Israel, and his Name is said to be Holy: that is, to be invoked with the greatest reverence. Holy and reve­rend is his Name. Because of this his Great­ness and Excellency he is to be worshipped and adored with the most submissive humi­lity and veneration, with a transcendent and incommunicable Worship and Devotion.

When Holiness is attributed to Creatures, it signifies either an Inherent and Inward, or a Relative or Outward, Holiness.

1. Inherent or Inward Holiness is a Con­formity of Heart and Life to the Will of God: or asBishop Wilkins's Vnivers. Charact. others define it, An habitual Frame of Mind: whereby we are fitted for Vertuous Actions, but more especi­ally for the Duties of Religion: Indeed Ho­liness doth always include a reference to God.

2. Relative or Outward Holiness results from a Separation and setting a-part any thing from a prophane and common, and applying it to a Sacred or Religious Use. For the Majesty of God, who at first created, and continually sustains and governs all things, being so great and inviolable, all Persons, [Page 366] Things, and Times, and Places, and Ceremo­nies separated and appropriated to his Ser­vice and Worship, are by all Nations esteem­ed Sacred, and to have a Character of Holi­ness imprinted on them.

By Holiness in this place, is to be under­stood an inherent Holiness, which is well de­fined by Dr. Outram, De Sacris. l. 1. c. 1. a Conformity of Heart and Life to the Will of God. I shall not dis­course at large concerning a holy Conversati­on, nor instance particulars wherein it con­sists. That would be to write a Body of Pra­ctical Divinity: I shall therefore at present suppose the Reader sufficiently instructed in that. My business shall be to shew the strength of the Apostle's Inference.

It may be said, How doth this Dissolution concern us, who may perchance be dead and rotten a thousand Years before it comes? What have we to do with it?

I answer, It concerns us, 1. Because it's possible it may happen in our times; it may surprize us before we are aware. The pre­cise time thereof is uncertain. And it shall be sudden and unexpected, coming as a Thief in the Night, as we have before shewn; therefore we ought always to be upon our guard, to have our loyns girt about and our lights burning. This use the Scri­pture in many places makes of the uncer­tainty, [Page 367] of the time of Christ's coming, Luke 12. 40. Be ye therefore ready: for the Son of Man cometh at an hour when ye think not, Luke 21. 34, 35. And take heed to your selves, lest at any time your hearts be over-charged with surfeiting and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the whole earth. Parallel whereto are Matth. 24. 42. and Mark 13. 33, 35. That it shall come is certain, when it shall come is uncertain, and it every day draws nearer and nearer, therefore it is not wisdom to remove the evil day far from us: and as in reference to the day of Death, it is an usual and prudent advice, so to live every day, as if it were our last day; or at least, as we would not be afraid to do should it be so: because we are sure, that one day will be our last, and for ought we know, the present may be it: so likewise it is rational Counsel in respect of the End of the World, so to prepare our selves for it by a holy Conversation, that we may get above the terror and dread which will otherwise attend the apprehension of the approach of it: and that we may be provided against the worst that may follow; and be secure come what can come.

[Page 368] Secondly, It concerns us, should it be a thousand Years to come. Because then is the general Resurrection both of the just and un­just, Acts 24. 15. and the general Judgment, When we must all appear before the dreadful tribunal of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. 2. Cor. 5. 10. which, Rom. 2. 5. is called the revelation of the righteous judgment of God. Who will render to every man according to his deeds, &c. Upon this account, I say, it concerns us much how we have our Conver­sation here.

1 First, As we hope to be acquitted at that day, and to enter into those new Heavens, in which dwells righteousness. Holiness is a necessary condition and antecedent to happi­ness. Necessary I say,

1. By God's appointment, Heb. 12. 14. Follow peace with all men, and holiness, with­out which no man shall see the Lord. Rom. 6. 22. Have your fruit unto holiness, and the end eternal life. Psal. 50. ult. To him that ordereth his conversation aright, will I shew the salvation of God. Eternal Life is the Gift of God. He is not obliged to bestow it upon any Man. He may make what Condi­tion he pleases for the obtaining of it. No [Page 369] Man hath any Right to it: No Man can lay any claim to it, but from this Donation, and from the performance of these Conditions. Rev. 22. 14. Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. For without are dogs and whoremongers, and sorcerers, &c. All the Right they have depends upon God's Pro­mise, which is conditionate, and accrues to them by the performance of the Condition, which is the doing of his Command­ments.

2 Necessary, not only by God's appoint­ment, but in the very nature of the thing. Holiness is the very quality and complexion of Heaven. No Man without it is qualified to be a subject of that Kingdom: For there­into nothing that is impure or unclean can enter. Revel. 21. 27. And there shall in no wise enter into it [the New Jerusalem] any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever work­eth abomination. In this new Heaven dwel­leth righteousness. 2 Pet. 3. 15. Therefore 1 John 3. 3. Every man that hath this hope in him, purifieth himself as he is pure. Hea­ven would naturally spue out and eject a wicked Person, as one heterogeneous to it. Heaven and Hell are not more distant in Place, than they are in Nature. There is [Page 370] not more antipathy between fire and water, between light and darkness, between streight and crooked, neither are they more incom­patible, or do more naturally resist and ex­pel one another, than holiness which is the quality of Heaven, and wickedness which is the disposition and temper of Hell. Some do think Heaven to be rather a state, than a place; and that he that is partaker of the Di­vine Nature hath Heaven within him. This is true, but this is not all. The whole Notion of Heaven comprehends both a state and a place. A Man must be in a heavenly state, before the local Heaven can receive him, or he brook it. Heaven without him would be no Heaven to the Man who hath not Hea­ven within him. A wicked Person could find no business or employment in Heaven; nothing to satisfie his corrupt and depraved affections, inclinations, and appetites. He would there meet with no suitable company; no persons whose conversation he could take any delight and complacency in, but rather hate and abhor. For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? or what communion hath light with darkness? 2 Cor. 6. 14. Like naturally loves like, and unites with it, and doth refuse, resist, and hate that which is unlike it. For every thing is made to love itself; and consequently what­soever [Page 371] resembles and comes near it, and is as it were a replication of it; and to hate the contrary. As therefore we would be glad to be Partakers of the blessedness of the local Heaven, so let us endeavour to get into our Minds and Spirits the qualities and con­ditions of Heaven; that so we may be fit Subjects for that Kingdom, sit Companions for that Society. This is the time allotted us to purifie our selves from all filthiness both of flesh and spirit, and to perfect holiness in the fear of God. There is no invention in the Grave whither we are going, Eccles. 9. 10. Vpon this moment depends eternity. As the tree falls so it it lies, Eccles. And as Death leaves, so will Judgment find us. Quando isthinc excessum fuerit, nullus jam locus poeni­tentiae est. Hîc vita aut amittitur, aut tenetur: Hîc saluti aeternae cultu Dei & fructu fidei providetur. Cyprian Serm. de Immortal. Af­ter we shall depart hence there remains no more place for repentance. Eternal life is here, either lost or won. Here provision is made for everlasting salvation by the worship of God, and fruit of faith. We must work while it is day, the night [of death] cometh wherein no man can work, John 9. 4. And therefore the time our Bodies shall rest in the Grave, should it be a thousand Years, will little a­vail us: for if the Soul be mean while awake, [Page 372] the certain and dreadful expectation of the Sentence of Condemnation to an eternal Hell at the Day of Judgment, will be little less afflictive than the Torments thereof themselves. I might add by way of Di­gression, that Sin and Wickedness is natu­rally productive of Hell in the Soul. A wicked Man carries Hell in his Breast. Sin necessarily infers Misery: It is contrary to the nature of the Soul, and whatsoever is so must needs be grievous. Diversion and Non-Attention to his Condition, is the wic­ked Man's only Security: I have heard it often from aDoctor Witchcot. great Divine in his Sermons, That there is but a Thought's distance between a wicked Man and Hell. For do but fix and bind his Thoughts to the Consideration of his Life and Actions, and he will anticipate Hell himself, he shall need no infernal Furies to lash him, he will be his own Tormentor: Such a Man's Pressures will be heavy enough, should the Divine Nemesis superadd no more. The Reason of this I have given in a former Discourse, and therefore shall now omit what else might have been added on this par­ticular.

II Secondly, It much concerns us, upon ac­count of the future Judgment which shall be at the Dissolution of the World, to have our [Page 373] Conversation in all Holiness, as we desire to avoid that Shame and Misery which will then otherwise certainly befal us.

1. As we desire to avoid that Shame which will cover our Faces at that day. If here Shame and Disgrace be more grievous and insupportable than Death itself, what will it be then, when the Soul shall be ren­dred more quick and apprehensive and sen­sible of such Impressions? There is nothing shameful but sin, nothing else hath any na­tural Turpitude in it. Shame follows Sin as the Shadow doth the Body: He that will commit the one cannot avoid the other. Therefore such wicked Persons as have not quite renounced Modesty, and lost all Sence of Shame, especially if guilty of secret Crimes, the Consideration of a future Judgment would be a powerful Curb to restrain them from Sin for the future: because then God will produce and bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and disclose and make ma­nifest the counsels of all hearts. 1 Cor. 4. 5. Then he will judge the secrets of men by Ie­sus Christ, Rom. 2. 16. Then will he bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, Eccles. 12. 14. For would they but consider and ponder what Confusion will overwhelm them when this shall be done in the face of the whole World, and before all [Page 374] that knew them, and they not able to make any denial, or excuse. This, I say, if any thing, would be a powerful Curb to with­hold them from those Enormities to which this shame is appendant. It may be thou madest a great Figure in the World for Piety and Religion, wouldst seem to be Some-body in the Eyes of Men, when thou wert false and unsound, didst harbour and nourish some Viper in thy Bosom, ‘Introrsum turpis, speciosa pelle decorus:’ When thy secret Faults shall be exposed be­fore thy Neighbours, and Friends, and Children, And the shame of thy nakedness shall be made to appear, Revel. 3. 18. How wilt thou then be confounded and astonish­ed, and unable to list up thy Head? What horrour will then seize thee, When thy con­fusion shall be continually before thee, and the shame of thy face shall cover thee? Psalm 44. 15. It concerns thee therefore to look about thee in time, and search thy Consci­ence to the Bottom to remove whatever grates, to cast out whatever offends, though never so customary, never so pleasing to Flesh and Blood: to apply thy self to the Merits and Satisfaction of Christ Iesus for the Expiation of what is past; and for the [Page 375] future to resolve and endeavour the amend­ment of whatsoever hath heretofore been a­miss in thee; and to beg the assistance of the Divine Grace to strengthen in thee every good purpose and resolution of heart, and to enable thee to bring it to issue and effect. And for thy security, I think it good Advice, to resolve so to behave thy self in thy Retire­ments, so to live in the secret of thy Cham­ber and Closet, as though the Doors were thrown open upon thee, and all the Eyes of the World beheld thee; as though thou were't in the Arena of a Publick Theatre, exposed to the view of Men and Angels. I remember the ingenious Writer of Politick Discourses, Boccalini, doth often divert him­self and his Reader, with facetious Reflecti­ons upon the contrivance of a Window into the Breast; which, if I mistake not, be fa­thers upon Lipsius. However he may deride it, I think it would be prudent Counsel to give and take, for every Christian. So to live and carry it in the secret of his Heart, as if there were a Window into his Breast, that every one that passed by, might look in thereat, and see all the thoughts and imagi­nations that passed there, that found any en­tertainment or acceptance with him. For though indeed God searches the hearts and reins, and understandeth our thoughts afar off, [Page 376] Psal. 139. 2. Yet such is the hypocrisie of Mankind, that they do for the most part more reverence the Eyes of Men, than of God: and will venture to do that in his pre­sence, which they would be ashamed the Eyes of Man should see them doing. You will say, Is it not better to be modest, than to be impudent? Is it not better to conceal, than to publish ones shame? Is it not better to re­verence Man, than neither God nor Man? Doth not the Scripture condemn a Whore's Fore-head? Is it not a true Proverb, Past Shame, Past Grace? Was it not good Advice of a Cardinal (as I remember) Si nou castè, tamen cautè? He that hath devoured shame, what Bridle is there left to restrain him from the worst of evils? I answer, That it seems indeed to me, that publick sins of the same nature, are more heinous than s [...]cret; and that impudence in sinning, is an aggravation of sin. For open sins dare God, and bid de­fiance to Heaven, and leave the Sinner unre­claimable, and are of more pernicious influ­ence. I do not now speak of the hypocrisie of seigning holiness to serve our own ends, which is rightly esteemed duplex iniquitas, but that of concealing and hiding vicious actions, to avoid the shame of Men. And yet there is a great obliquity in this too. Be­cause even this is a slighting and undervalu­ing [Page 377] of God, a preferring of Man before him, setting a greater price and esteem upon the praise and commendation of Men, than the praise and approbation of God, Iohn 12. 43. God sees the secretest Actions, yea, the most retired thoughts. They that believe this, and yet make bold to do in his presence, what the fear of Man's Eye would restrain them from, it is clear that they reverence Man more than God, a poor frail, impotent Creature like themselves, more than the most pure and ever blessed Creator. Nay, let the Temptation to any sin be never so strong, and the natural inclination never so vehement, if the knowledge and conscience of Men be a motive and consideration pow­erful enough to enable us to resist and repel them, had we but as firm a belief of the presence and inspection of God, and as great a reverence and dread of him, Why should not these have the same influence and effect upon us? Let us then avoid the hypo [...]risie of desiring to be thought better than we are, by endeavouring to our utmost to be as good as we would be thought to be, and if possi­ble, better. So shall we satisfie our selves that we seek the praise of God, more than the praise of Men.

[Page 378] Here before I proceed, I cannot but ad­mire the Wisdom and Goodness of Almighty God, in implanting such a Passion in the Na­ture of Man as Shame, to no other use or purpose, that I can imagine, than to restrain him from vicious and shameful Actions. A Passion I call it, because the Body, as in o­ther Passions, suffers from it, and that in a peculiar manner; it causing a sudden moti­on of the Blood to the outward parts, espe­cially to the Face, which is called blushing; and a dejection of the Eyes. If you ask me what Shame is, I answer, It is an ungrateful and afflictive sence of Soul proceeding from Dishonour. Now Dishonour is nothing else but Mens ill Opinion of me, or dislike and condemnation of my Actions, some way de­clared and manifested to me; which why I should have such an abhorrence of, and why it should be so grievous and tormenting to me, there seems not to be a sufficient ground and foundation in the nature of the thing, supposing such as have this Opinion, have neither power nor will to hurt my Body: but only in the Ordination of God, who hath so made our Natures, to secure our Innocen­cy, and with hold us from the commission of what is disgraceful and ignominious, as all sinful Actions, and none else are.

[Page 379] And as for secret sins, I think shame may take place there too. It was a precept of the Pythagoreans, [...], Of all Men reverence your self most: be asha­med to do that before your self, which before others you would abhor or blush to do; o­therwise you must suffer dishonour from your self, and condemn your own Actions, which will in all reason be more grievous and affli­ctive than the ill Opinion and Word of other Men. Hence Conscience of sin is esteemed a most painful and tormenting thing, by the generality of all Mankind, tho no other Man be privy to it.

But to return from whence we digressed, thoughDaniel 12. 2. shame and everlasting contempt shall at the general Resurrection be the portion of them who persist and die in their sins, yet a serious and unfeigned Repentance, attested by a holy Conversation for the future, is an effectual means to deliver us from this shame, whatever our forepast sins have been. For they shall not be produced against us, they shall not be objected to us at that day; they shall be buried in eternal silence and oblivion, and be as tho' they had not been. And this Opinion I hold, 1. More agreeable to the Scripture, which in this matter makes use of the Terms of hiding, and covering, and blotting out, and forgetting, Psalm 32. 1. [Page 380] Blessed is the man whose transgression is forgi­ven, and whose sin is covered, Esay 43. 25. I, even I am he, that blotteth out thy trans­gressions, and will not remember thy sins. So Psalm 51. 9. Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. Jerem. 48. 34. I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more. Ezek. 28. 22. All his trans­gressions that he hath committed, they shall not he mentioned unto him, Mich. 7. 19. Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the Sea. And as it is more consonant to the Scripture, so is it, 2. More grateful and con­solatory to the Penitents. For the mere men­tioning and reciting of their sins before such an Assembly, must needs refresh their shame and sorrow, and so diminish their happiness and joy. To which I might add, that it is written, our Saviour at the last Judgment, in pron [...]uncing the Sentence, shall enumerate the Good Works of the Godly to their praise; but not a word said of producing their sins. I say, I hold this Opinion more probable up­on these accounts, than theirs who affirm they shall then be published, for the magnifying and advancing, the declaring and illustrating the Mercy and Grace of God, in pardoning so great and heinous Offences.

[Page 381] And truly, I do not know, but that the sins of the Blessed may be blotted out, even of their own Memories. Some Philosophers who were of Opinion, that Souls prae-exist before their Bodies, thought they were dipt in Lethe, which is a Fountain causing Obli­vion, by means whereof they forgat what­ever they had done before. This I look upon as a dream, or Fancy: but truly I am incli­nable sometimes to imagine, that the Soul of Man can hardly be entirely happy, unless it be as it were thus dipt in Lethe: for every sinful Action having a natural Turpitude in it, and being dishonourable, how can the Memory and thought of it, but beget such an ungrateful Passion as Shame, even to E­ternity? And what do Divines mean by say­ing, that the action [of sinning] suddenly passes away, but the stain and blot of it re­mains; but that a vicious action, even by them to whom it is pardoned, can never be thought of without grief and disturbance, it leaves an indelible scar in the Soul, which can never be perfectly healed and oblitera­ted.

2. It concerns us much to live in all holy Conversation in this World, as we desire to avoid that Pain and Misery, which we shall otherwise most certainly be adjudged to at [Page 382] that day: that indignation and wrath, tribu­lation and anguish, which God shall render to them that do not obey the truth, but obey un­righteousness, Rom. 2. 8. That worm that dieth not, and that fire that is not quenched, Mark 9. 44. and 46, and 48. That outer darkness, where is weeping and wailing, and gnashing of teeth, Matth. 8. 12. and 22. 13. and 25, 30, That furnace of fire, Matth. 13. 42. 50. That lake of fire and brimstone, Re­vel. 20. 10. or of fire burning with brimstone, Revel. 19. 20. Which places, tho' they be not literally to be expounded, yet do they import at least a very sad and deplorable Estate, a high degree of torment and anguish: and all this eternal and without intermission night and day. These shall go into everlast­ing punishment, Mat. 25. 46. The state of the Damned is supposed to be a state of absolute and complete Misery, made up of the loss of the greatest Good, and a constant, fresh, and lively apprehension of it: which Divines call Poena Damni. And, 2. Excess of bodily pain and sufferings, and sad distress and Trouble of Mind, occasioned by all manner of frightful Apprehensious, and vexatious Perturbati­ons and Reflections, which they call Poena Sensus; and this without any intermission or hope of deliverance eternally. Iude 7. it is called the vengeance of eternal fire. Re­vel. [Page 383] 14. 11. The smoke of their torment is said to ascend up for ever and ever. And Revel. 20. 10. it is said of the Beast and false Pro­phet, that they shall be tormented night and day for ever and ever. If this be so, is't not our greatest Wisdom to use our utmost diligence and endeavour to avoid so deplo­rable a Condition, and to secure to our selves an interest in a future estate of everlasting [...] and Happiness when this Life shall be ended?

But here the Epicureans, and sensual Per­sons will be ready to object and argue, Here are Pleasures and Delights in this World, which are very inviting and taking, and do highly gratifie my Senses and Appetites. I hear likewise of future Rewards and Punish­ments for those that deny or fulfil their car­nal Lusts and Desires. These sensual Pleasures I see and taste, and feel, and am sure of, the other I do but only hear of, and therefore they do not, they cannot so strongly affect me: Were Heaven and the Happiness there­of set before my eyes, and did I see it as plainly and clearly as I do these things below, then indeed I should not need many motives to provoke me to endeavour the obtaining of it. But alas, that is far above, out of our sight, the Joys of Heaven are by the Apostle termed things not seen. Again, these outward, and [Page 384] temporal enjoyments are present and easily obtainable; the other at a great distance, future, and besides, very hard to come by; and I love my ease, Vt est ingenium hominum à labore proclive ad libidinem. Should I deny my self Good in this Life, and then perchance cease to be, and so have no Reward for my pains; nay, on the contrary expose my self to the hazard of many afflictions and suffer­ings, which are the portion of the Godly in this Life, how unnecessarily shall I make my self miserable? Miserable I say, because by the Apostle's own confession Christians, If in this life only they had hope, would be of all men the most miserable, 1 Cor. 15. 19 Had I not better make sure of what is before me? Why have I these Appetites within me, and such Objects about me, the one being so suita­ble to the other, is it not more natural and reasonable to fulfil, than deny them? Surely it cannot be Wisdom to lose a certain Good, for an uncertain Hope; and for an unground­ed fear of Hell hereafter, to undergo a Purga­tory here.

To this Argumentation upon the false Foundation of the uncertainty of a Future Estate of endless Happiness or Misery, accor­dingly as we have behaved our selves in this Life, I answer,

[Page 385] That for the futurity of such an estate, we have the best Authority in the World, to wit, the holy Scriptures, and universal Tra­dition.

1. The Holy Scriptures, whose Authority to be more than humane, hath been by ma­ny so clearly and convincingly demonstrated, that I shall take it for granted, and not waste time to prove it. The Testimonies herein contained concerning eternal Happiness and Misery are so clear and full, that it seems to me impossible without manifest distortion to elude or evade the force of them. Some we have already recited, and might produce many more, Isa. 33. 14. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings? Dan. 12. 2. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to ever­lasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. 2. Thess. 1. 9 Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, &c. speaking of them who know not God, and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Isa. 66. 24. For their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched.

The Origenists, and others, that cannot be reconciled to the Catholick Doct [...]ine of the Eternity of the Punishments of the Damned, [Page 386] make the word [...], from which the Latin aevum is derived, to signifie sometimes a de­terminate time, as might (say they) easily be proved by many examples, and so [...] or [...], which we translate for ever, signifies when applied to this matter, a long indeed, but yet a finite time; and [...], which we render for ever and ever, may likewise signifie not an eter­nal duration, but a time to which some term may be set by God, though to us unknown. In the same sense they accept the Adjective [...] for a long, but finite time. But I am of S. Augustine's Opinion, that [...] doth in the New Testament signifie the same with aeternus in Latin, and is appropriated to things that have no end: and that [...], for ever and ever, doth in like manner always denote eternal or endless duration. That the word [...], when ap­plied to the state of the Damned, doth signi­fie eternal. S. Augustine well demonstrates from the Antithesis in that place of Matth. 25. 46. And these shall go away into everlast­ing punishment, but the righteous into life eternal. Where it is in the same sense attri­buted to that Life which is the Reward of the Righteous, and that Fire which is the Punishment of the Damned; there being no reason to believe that the same word in the [Page 387] same Verse, when applied to opposites, should be taken in a different sense. But by the confent of all Christians it is granted, that the Life of the Blessed shall be eternal, therefore so must the Punishment of the Damned be too.

This acception of the word [...] for eternal or endless, when it refers to the state of those miserable Persons, receives a further and strong confirmation from the

Second Particular we proposed, that is, Vniversal Tradition: It being a received O­pinion among the Heathen, which must needs descend down to them by Tradition from the Ancients, that Eternal Punishments a­waited the Wicked after Death.

What more common Notion among the Grecians and Romans, than of an Elysium, and Tartarus? the former to reward good Men, the latter to punish wicked. And those too esteemed to be Eternal States. Of this the Epicurean Poet Lucretius is a suffi­cient and unexceptionable Witness: For he makes the fear of these Punishments to be the cause of all the Miseries of Humane Life, and the Foundation of all Religion,

[Page 388] Now, that he could derive this from no other source but Tradition, is clear; because he lived a good while before our Saviour's time, and the divulgation of the Scripture among the Heathen. And because it may be objected, that Aeternas may signifie only of long continuance, to put the Mat­ter out of all doubt, in another place he saith,

[Page 389] And that this Opinion and Belief generally prevailed among the People before Epicurus his time, the same Lucretius testifies in the beginning of his first Book,

for he makes (as we saw before) the Fear of Eternal Pain and Misery, to be the Founda­tion of all Religion.

[Page 390] 1. Now because these Objectors do repre­sent Religion to themselves and others as a melancholick and disconsolate thing: and think and say, that those that enter into this state, must bid adieu to all the Pleasures of Sence, and tast no sweetness in any worldly Object. I shall endeavour to remove this prejudice. I say therefore, That our graci­ous God doth not envy us any real Good that the Creatures can afford us, and there­fore hath not denied us a moderate use and fruition of any of them. And seeing he hath annexed Pleasure to those Actions that are necessary for the support of life, and continu­ation of kind, as a bait to invite us to the performance of them, it seems to me highly absurd and contradictious to affirm, that he hath forbidden us to partake or taste those Enjoyments which himself has appointed as effectual means for the security of those great Ends; and which are so necessary Conse­quents of those Actions, that we cannot but partake them. Where the Appetite is eager, God hath indulged, I might say, commanded a moderate and regular satisfaction. And we know, nay, the blindness of Atheism cannot deny, that the greatest pleasure results from a moderate and well circumstantiated use of Pleasures. Voluptates commendat rarior usus. [Page 391] Now a Religious Man enjoys all the Pleasures of these worldly and sensible Goods, without any of the pain, which is annexed to the ex­cessive and irregular use, or indeed abuse of them: and besides, his Pleasure is enhansed, in that he beholds and receives them as Bles­sings of God, and Tokens of his Favour and Affection; and is without all fear of a future sad Reckoning for his participation of them. Howbeit a denial of our selves for God's sake and cause in any thing which we might other­wise lawfully enjoy, though it be not com­manded, yet is accepted, and shall be re­warded by him.

Others there are who grant, That these words grammatically signifie as we contend, and that Eternal Punishments are indeed threatned to the wicked; but say they, these Threatnings are intended only, as Terricula­menta, or Bug-bears to Children, to terrifie and keep People in awe, and to preserve the World in some tolerable condition of quietness. And Origen himself, tho' he be of opinion, that these Threatnings signifie only temporary Pains; yet he saith, that such Mysteries are to be sealed up and concealed from the Vulgar, left wicked Men should rush into sin with all fury and licentiousness, if this Bridle were taken off, who by the opinion and fear of eternal and endless Pu­nishments [Page 392] can scarce be deterred and restrain­ed from it.

To this I answer, 1. That it seems to me indecorous and unsuitable to the Person and Majesty of God, to make use of such sorry and weak means to bring about his ends, as grave Men can hardly condescend to. 2. I do not see how it can consist with his Veraci­ty, in plain terms, absolutely to threaten and affirm what he never intends to do.

Indeed it is questionable, Whether it be allowable in Man: it being a best but an officious Lye: for it is a speaking what we do not think, and that with an intention to deceive.

Secondly, I proceed now to a second Ob­jection against the Eternity of the Pains and Sufferings of the Damned, and that is, its in­consistency with the Justice of God. What proportion can there be between a transient and temporary act, and an eternal Punish­ment? The most rigid Justice can exact no more than a Talio, to suffer as I have done. ‘ [...].’ [Page 393] If I have hurt, or grieved, or injured any Man, to be punished with the same, or an equivalent suffering: if I have taken any unreasonable Pleasure, to compensate it with an answerable Pain. Indeed the enormities of my Life cannot well deserve so much, if it be considered, that I have been strongly in­stigated and inclined, and as it were fatally driven upon all the Evils which I have com­mitted, by those Affections and Appetites, which I made not for my self, but found in my self; and have been exposed to strong and almost inexpugnable Temptations from without; beset with Snares, encompassed about with innumerable Evils.

To this I answer First, That every sin, in­jury, or offence is aggravated and enhansed by the dignity or merit of the Person against whom it is committed. So Parricide is e­steemed a greater Crime than ordinary Mur­ther, and by the Laws of all Nations avenged with a sorer Punishment. The like may be said of Laesa Majestas, or Treason. Now God is an infinite Person, and Sin being an injury and affront to him, as being a violation of his Law, an infinite Punishment must be due to it.

This answer Dr. Hammond in his Practical Catechism, lib. 5. sect. 4. accounts a Nicety, [Page 394] and unsatisfactory, as also that other common answer, That if we should live infinitely, we would sin infinitely; and therefore gives us another, which in his Discourse of the Reasonableness of Christian Religion, he thus briefly summs up.

2. That the choice being referred to us to take of the two which we best like, eternal Death set before us on the one hand, to make eternal Life the more infinitely reasonable for us to chuse on the other hand, and the eternal Hell (whensoever we fall into it) being per­fectly our own Act, neither forced on us by any absolute Decree of God, nor irresistible tem­ptation of the Devil, or our own Flesh; but as truly our wish and choice, and mad purchase; nay, much more truly and properly, than eter­nal Heaven is (when our Obedience is first wrought by God's Grace, and yet after that so abundantly rewarded by the Doner) it is cer­tain, if there be any thing irrational, it is in us unkind and perverse Creatures (so obstinate to chuse what God so passionately warns us to take heed of; so wilfully to die, when God swears he wills not our death) and not in him, who hath done all that is imaginable to be done to reasonable Creatures (here in their way or course) to the rescuing or saving of us.

[Page 395] But to this may be replied, If the thing itself be unjust, how can our chusing of it make it just? How can it be just to annex such a Penalty as eternal Hell to a short and transient offence? Suppose a Prince should make a Law, that whosoever did not rise up and bow himself before an Old Man, should be put to Death with Torments; and one of his Subjects knowingly should trans­gress this Law upon some great temptation; would it not be accounted Cruelty in the Prince to execute this Law upon him? Laws may be unjust upon account of disproportio­nate Penalties. Neither doth our Choice much help the Matter, for that is but an ef­fect of our Error or Folly, or, if you will, Madness, which doth as little deserve eternal Death as the Sin committed doth.

If any Man be dissatisfied with the prece­dent Answers, all that I have to add further, is, that before this Sentence adjudging to eternal Death be pronounced against him, and executed upon him, there shall be such a re­velation made, as shall convince and satisfie him of the Righteousness thereof. And this the Apostle seems to intimate, Rom. 2. 5. when he calls the Great Day of Doom, the Day of the Revelation of the righteous Judg­ment of God. Then shall be made appear [Page 396] what now to our dim-sighted Reason is not penetrable; how the Justice of God can con­sist with the Eternal Damnation of the wicked.

As for Man's being as it were fatally de­termined to Evil by the strength of Tempta­tion, and the violence of unruly and head­strong Passions and Appetites: I answer, That there are motives and considerations sufficient to enable a Man to resist and repel, to con­quer and overcome the most alluring and fascinating Temptations, the most urging and importunate Appetites or Affections; such are certain Shame and Disgrace, and that not long to come, eternal Infamy and Dishonour; present Death, strong fear and dread of ap­proaching Death, or sad and intolerable Pains or Calamities. Now the Divine Threatnings are of the greatest and most formidable Evils and Miseries that Humane Nature is capable of suffering; and therefore were they but firmly beheved and apprehended, they would be of force sufficient to stir up in us such strong Passions of Fear and Terror, as would easily chase away all Temptations, and em­bitter all the Baits of Sensual Pleasure.

3. There remains yet a third Objection against an eternal Hell, and that is, that it is inconsistent with the Divine Goodness. For [Page 397] the Unbeliever will say, It's contrary to all the Notions and Ideas I have of God, to conceive him to be so angry and furious a Being. How can it stand with Infinite Goodness to make a Creature that he fore knew would be eter­nally miserable? We Men account it a piece of goodness to pardon offences: And all Pu­nishments are intended either for the refor­mation and amendment of the Offender, or if it be unreclaimable to prevent the Mis­chief which he might otherwise do, or for an Example to others to deter them from the like Enormities: but I do not see for what such end any Man can be eternally torment­ed. So that of such inflictions one may ra­tionally demand, Cui bono? What Good comes of them? How then can they come from God, who by all Mens confession is in­finitely Good?

To which I answer: First, That God is just as well as good. You will say, what is Justice? It is an equal weighing of Actions, and rendring to every one his Right or Due. A setting streight again what was perverted by the sins and extravagancies of Men. Now that the breaking of order and equality in the World, this usurping and encroaching upon others Rights is a great Evil, and ought to be rectified, some may take an Argument [Page 398] from the strong inclination and desire to re­venge Injuries, that is implanted in the Na­ture of Man, and of all Creatures. You'll say, all desire of Revenge is absolutely sinful and unlawful. I answer, I am no Patron of Re­venge. I know the very Heathen by the Light of Nature condemned it.

Revenge is the pleasure of a poor and weak Spirit. Yet let us hear what they have to say. 1. It is hard to affirm, that any innate Appetite or Desire is in itself simply and ab­solutely, and in all Circumstances whatso­ever unlawful, for this seems to reflect upon the Author of Nature.

To which may be answered, that a well circumstantiated Desire of Revenge may not be in itself unlawful, yet for the evil Con­sequents of it, it may be, and is prohibited by a positive Law. 2. Divine Persons have prayed to God to avenge them, as David and the Prophets. And S. Paul himself, 2. Tim. 4. 14. prays God, to reward Alexander the Coppersmith according to his works. To which may be answered, that those Expressions are rather Predictions of what should befal their [Page 399] Enemies, than desires that they might. A­gain, whereas it is said, Revel. 6. 9, 10. That the souls of them under the altar that were slain for the word of God, and the testi­mony which they held, cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our Blood on them that dwell on the earth: Doctor Hammond saith, It signifies no more, than that their Blood cries to God for Vengeance, as Abel's is said to do. 3. The Nature of Forgiveness seems to imply the Lawfulness of some desire of Revenge. For what is Forgiveness but a parting with, and as renouncing the Right I have to be avenged, and therefore before I forgive I do retain at least some will to be revenged. And I am not obliged by our Saviour to forgive absolutely, but upon con­dition of Repentance. Luke 17. 3, 4. If thy brother sin against thee rebuke him, and if he repent forgive him, &c. And in the Lord's Prayer one Petition is, Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us. But God forgives not without Repentance. To which may be answered. That before Repentance, I may retain a will of punishing an Offender for his own Good and Reformation, but with no respect of a­venging what is past. And if his Repen­tance [Page 400] prevents his Punishment, then I am to forgive him, that is, cease to desire his Pu­nishment. But all allow Vengeance to be just in God, whose Actions are not to be scanned by our Measures.

2. If it be just with God to propose to us such a choice as Heaven upon condition of our Obedience to his Law, or Hell in case of Disobedience; as we see some wise Men make no scruple to grant; then it cannot be injustice in him to inflict the Punishments of Hell upon them that make it their choice. Nay, I cannot see how it can consist with his Veracity not to do it; why then should any Argument from his Goodness move us to distrust his Veracity? To which I shall add, That the very being of Sin and Mi­sery in the World is as great an Argument against the Goodness of God, as the eternal Punishment of it; Sith we must needs grant, that God Almighty, Blessed for ever, could, if he had pleased, have prevented it. If any Man shall say, This was not possible with­out changing the very Nature of Man, and taking away the Liberty of his Will. To him I reply, How then can he confirm the Blessed, reserving their Liberty? Or must we say with Oriegn, That they are in a mutable state too, and that Heaven will [Page 401] have an end as well as Hell? If any Man re­main still unsatisfied with what hath been said, I must refer him for full satisfaction to the Revelation of the righteous Judgment of God at that Great Day, of which mention hath been already made.

I am as unwilling as any Man to limit the Mereies of God: but yet I must refer it to him, whether he will be more favourable than he hath threatned or no, whether he will remit something of the Severity of his Comminations. I am also willing to re­strain and consine the sense of these words [...], and [...], as far as the Con­text will permit. But let our Opinions and Hopes of the Mercies of God, and a tem­porary Hell be what they will: a temporary Hell, I say, or rather a Purgatory instead of Hell: For the word Hell, according to the usual acception of it, includes Eternity. I shall propose two things to be considered.

1. That Origen the first Broacher of this Opinion of the Determination of the Pu­nishments of the Damned, doth acknow­ledge that the contrary Doctrine is very use­ful to restrain the common People from Sin: and that this is to be held as a great Secret, and studiously concealed from them. Now if it be of such eminent use to them, why [Page 402] may it not also be to the Learned and No­ble; who, I fear me, may want such a Bridle as well as they?

2. Since God hath threatned eternal Pu­nishments, whether he intends to execute them upon us or no, it is clear, I think, he would have them be believed by us, else they cannot have that end and effect he designed them to; and therefore it must be unbelief and presumption in us to deny or distrust them, tho' upon supposition, that they are irreconcilable with his Goodness; with which yet perhaps they may accord well enough, tho' we cannot at present discern it. All Divine Revelations are to be believed and accepted by us, as well Threatnings as Promises; and if we may distrust the Vera­city of God in them, I know not but we may as well do it in these: if we deny the Eternity of the Torments of Hell, I do not see but that we may upon as good grounds, with Origen, deny the Eternity of the Joys of Heaven.

Let not then the presumption of a tem­porary Hell encourage thee to go on in sin: for, I fear, such a Persuasion may have an ill influence on the Manners of Men. Eter­nity is the very sting of Hell: take that out, and the Sinner will think it tractable enough. [Page 403] The very thought of an eternal Hell inter­vening (and it will often intrude itself) strikes a cold damp to his very Heart in the midst of his Jollities, and will much qualifie and allay all his Pleasures and Enjoyments. Rid him of this fear, and he will be apt to despise Hell and all its Torments, be they never so grievous or lasting. Take off this Bridle, and, as we hinted before, he will rush into Sin, as a Horse rusheth into the battel. He will be ready thereupon thus to argue with himself, What need I take so much pains to strive against Sin? What need I swim against the Stream, and resist the Tide and Eddy of my Passions, my natural Appetites and Inclinations, and the Solicita­tions of Company? What need I maintain such a constant Watch and Ward against my Spiritual Enemies, the Devil, the World, and the Flesh? If I fall into Hell at last, that is no eternal State, it lasteth but for a time, and will come to an end. I'll venture it: I hope I shall make a shift to ru [...] through well enough. Let me ask thee, But how if thou shouldest find thy self mistaken? If the Event frustrate thy Hopes, and fall out contrary to thy Expectation? What a sad case wilt thou be in then? How will the unexpectedness thereof double thy Misery? [Page 404] Improvisa graviùs seriunt. How wilt thou be strucken as it were with a Thunderbolt, when the Almighty Judge shall sulminate against thee a d [...]eadful indeed, but by thee formerly undreaded Sentence, adjudging thee to endless Punishments? How walt thou damn thine own Credulity, who by a groundless Belief of a temporary Hell, hast precipitated thy self into an eternal, which otherwise thou mightest possibly have a­voided?

Well, but suppose there be some shadow of hope of the determination of the Punish­ments of the Damned: It is by all acknow­ledged to be a great piece of folly to leave Matters of the highest moment, and which most nearly concern us, at uncertainties: and a point of Wisdom, to secure the Main Chance, and to be provided against the worst that can come. An eternal Heaven or State of compleat Happiness is the Main Chance, and is not to come into any competition, or so much as to be put into the ballance a­gainst a few short, transient, fordid, loathed, and for the most part upon their own ac­count repented Pleasures: To secure to our selves an Interest in such a State is our greatest Wisdom. And as for being provided against the worst that may or can come. [Page 405] What can be worse than an eternal Hell? which, there is I do not say a possibility, but the greatest probability imaginable, that it will be our portion; if we persist in im­penitency, and dye in our sins. But sup­pose the best should happen that we can hope or conceive, that Hell should last only [...], for Ages of Ages, and at last determine: do we think this a small matter? If we do, it is for want of conside­ration and experience of acute Pains. Should any of us be under the sense and suffering of a raging Paroxysm of the Stone, or Gout, or Colick, I doubt not but rather than endure it for ten thousand Years, he would willingly part with all his expectation of a blessed Estate after that Term were expired, yea, and his Being to boot. But what are any of these Pains to the Torments and Perpessions of Hell? or the duration of ten thousand Years to those Ages of Ages? If thou makest light of all this, and nothing can restrain thee from Sin, but the Eternity of Punishment, thou art bound to thank God, who hath used this only effectual means, threatning an eternal Hell. And it ill becomes thee to complain of his rigour and severity, who wouldest have made so pernicious an use of his lenity and goodness. But thou who hast [Page 406] entertained such an Opinion, and abusest it to encourage thy self to go on in thy sins, though others should escape with a tempo­rary Punishment, surely thou hast no reason to expect any milder Doom, than to be sen­tenced to an eternal.